Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

You know what all this talk about elements of the trans community turning on otherkin reminds me of?

Once upon a time I read a really good, really gross book by Carl Zimmer named "Parasite Rex," and it made an extended biological metaphor of the Red Queen's Race from Alice Through The Looking Glass, where one must essentially run just to stay still.

He used it to describe the never-ending arms race between parasites and their hosts. A fluke, say, will become hyperspecialized for living in a host species's liver. So that host becomes five degrees colder. So the parasite adapts to live three inches further up. So the host develops a toxin. So the parasite adapts to get along without the receptors that trigger it. So the host just evolves so it has a squeedlyspooge instead of a liver. So the parasite learns to live in a squeedlyspooge.

Yup. That's us. And this process is natural, though when a quasi-Gnostic like me says that, that is emphatically not the same as saying it's good. Barring some truly massive change to human social psychology-- or, bless us, a nice restful extinction-- we're going to be stuck in this dance forever and ever and ever.

I swear to god, someday like 30% of the otherkin talking about this are gonna be saying "OK, but not THOSE otherkin." I'll bet if you look in the right corners, you'll already see it. Someday it'll be people who have had brain mods, or cyber implants. We'll be arguing over whether splicing in real animal DNA is "appropriation of non-human experience" or something. Or whether it's "OK" to slap on the AR goggles and just act like that's the real world. (HINT: IT DOESN'T ACTUALLY MATTER AT ALL WHETHER IT IS OR NOT, AS LONG AS YOU CAN STILL SURVIVE AND BE HEALTHY. And that's only because that's the evolutionary cost of living with material reality as your substrate. Making a moral thing out of it is, IMHO, utterly inane.)

I'm not sure you CAN have a massive social innovation without attracting a bunch of people who see you as a colossal symbolic threat to their world-- and THEY'RE NOT ALWAYS WRONG, relative to their own real and imagined needs... but that's *not* a reason to stop. Not that most of us could if we wanted to. Do YOU think I really wanted all the awkward attention and outright mockery that came with postfurry? Looking back, I did a shit job, but I can't imagine a world in which I could have said no to it.

So at the risk of sounding dismissive, I guess my only advice is relax, enjoy the ride on the nightmare train as well as you can, fight like hell for whatever you think is right, be aware this Red Queen's Race is a thing and be merciful to the losers, and join me in grieving for everything good that gets ground to dust in the process.

@Balina You're the hero we didn't know we needed. <3

@LeDiva Some people, lacking any more interesting cultural options, are basically just determined to become memetic kudzu.

@Leucrotta Yeah, TBH, my 4★ standard for a Waffle House is "ate food; liked it; lived." I still owe them a huge debt of gratitude for basically keeping us alive through @LeDiva's madcap journey through the South years ago...

"Dorable the Explorable"

And oh, good, the one-star Yelp reviews for the local Waffle House pass the Karen Test. (i.e., they're all basically MY GLASS HAD A SMUDGE, THE WAITRESS SEEMED DISTRACTED, AND YOU DIDN'T HAVE FAIR-TRADE MAPLE SYRUP, I WANT TO SPEAK TO A MANAGER)

You know you ain't destined for a long life when you impulse-search "chicken fried steak" in your new neighborhood and get TWENTY results within walking distance...

And here's an entire album by the composer of the "Jazzy Spies" theme...

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

Holy shit. This has always been one of my favorite Sesame Street bits, but I never knew it was freakin' Grace Slick doing the vocals...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5stWhPNyec&feature=youtu.be

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH GO AWAY WEIRD GRAY FLAPPY THING THAT NOBODY WILL TELL ME IF IT'S BENIGN OR NOT

or at least wait until my insurance kicks in if you're gonna do something even creepier

AND KINDLY LEAVE MY GODDAMN RETINA WHERE YOU FOUND IT

thank you i feel better now

oh god

they caught up with me

snl figured out my gender

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BONhk-hbiXk

One of my old supervisors was SO OBSESSED with this old Muppet sketch, seriously quoted it like 2-3 times a week...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCBn5J83Poc

#ELEIF!

Hey gods?! I'm not asking for much from you here. All I want is a handsomely printed, leather-bound, signed book of every bad thing that's going to happen to me and the people I care about for the rest of our lives, dated and indexed.

I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT SPOILERS, you're not ruining anything for me, I *promise*. I don't watch this show for the suspense, yanno. Nobody does. Did you... not know that? >___<

(um if this volume is out of print, i will happily accept a Death Note instead... O:) )

No change in my eye condition, nor despite that (and a bunch of research last night that should probably should be encouraging), my stress level.

Can not shut the fucking anxiety down, even though none of the *nasty* eye symptoms (flashers, blood, etc.) have happened at all. For all I know, this isn't even a real PVD and I'm just stressing out over an ordinary floater I never noticed before. (Unlikely, it's modestly huge and... sorry, this is gross, still seems to be STUCK to something. D: )

TBH... missing legal weed like fucking crazy right now. I miss the Royal Road to sanity. Fortunately, I have Netflix, butter chicken, caffeine, and a cool dragon, and a TON of work that needs doing one way or the other, so I think I'll get by.

In the meantime, I could use a little luck. Come on, kids! If you believe in proper retinal adhesion, stand up and clap your hands! ^______^;;;

@zx3 Yikes, keep up posted! Yeah, I think OHP has earned a break for the week. Focus on recovering! *hug*

@JulieSqveakaroo If you ever need to borrow my elf slicer...

@Austin_Dern I ended up buying components for a homemade crunchwrap. :)

"Utopia is never more than what we are; the people in them will always be just like us." -- Jeremy Adam Smith, "The Ten Stupidest Utopias"

One of the last Quotes of the Day from my cringey old queenofstripes Livejournal. Whoo lordy did I end up living that one.

@kelseyhusky GL, darlin <3