Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

@Phorm @001zlnv Also, huh, I guess now I know what voice mail I'm leaving all the GOP senators on Monday. =^________^=

@Phorm @001zlnv Found one of the clips! I really need to break down and watch the rest of S3, don't I...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir8s6IGq2Hs

#FixYourHeartsOrDie

@Phorm "Fire is coming... fire is coming... fire is coming..."

i let peebles and arthur back in because i am a SUCKER and now they are having the cutest damn swashbuckling fight, leaping from box to box and swatting at each other

Found this today while researching urban legends about phone numbers. This is delightfully creepy and I'll be very disappointed if none of my writer friends ever sneak some of these into a horror novel or something..

https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/audio/harvard.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_sentences

https://gizmodo.com/the-harvard-sentences-secretly-shaped-the-development-1689793568

(tl;dr: it's a carefully formulated series of phonetically balanced phrases for use in testing phones; out of context, most of them are rather creepy in a way that I find... pretty awesome, honestly, this is my kind of horror)

you gotta be a royal asshole, i mean the sort that when you open your mouth people can see the OTHER end of the stick, to think a phrase like "it's regressive'" is a valid reason to hate a song, and by valid, i mean, why should i not hold the tender cartilage of your nose between my clawtips until you howl with pain

fuck fuck fuck FUCK i hate robert christgau

(we would have invited the others but shadow is off doing mysterious cat-empress things, shemp is a little bit too much of a big male butthead to trust around the newbs just yet, and CJ... CJ is the shy one and doesn't like to come in)

mama finally hopped back in the Mother Box and resumed nursing her babies after her little family-and-human-friend-only cat party

peebles is grooming herself on top of my computer bag

arthur is waging brutal but completely ineffectual war against a little chewy toy

and there's still fake birdsong

these cats are still profoundly likely to break our hearts someday but this moment is absolutely blessed

aunt tigress has definitely lost her marbles

@JulieSqveakaroo at the time the photo was taken ALL THREE WERE REALLY BORED

i hope the problems is now clear D: although they're currently snuggling peacefully on the bed together, so i think i may have actually succeeded in alleviating some of sugarfoot's stress and boredom...

@Oneironott i mean i am a tiger so this is _kinda_ up my alley? i just usually go for bigger game, and they don't have a "10 hours of slow wildebeests" or "10 hours of oblivious peacocks looking the other direction" or "10 hours of Terran oil executives" channel afaik 🐯​

the really aggravating thing about keeping sugarfoot happy while she's stuck indoors is that she was so damn jaded to start with -- i couldn't tell before if she was irritated or just, you know, a cat, and this sure ain't helping. but it breaks my heart every time she mews at the door.

she does seem to genuinely be enjoying the birdsong though? i don't know? maybe?

(i think it was a fine dramatic touch that i also looked around the room and went "HEY! DO YOU HEAR THAT? I think there are definitely some birds around here!")

ok you little mooches i am definitely not going to sit here listening to bird sounds for the next three hours just to keep you entertained

(NARRATOR: three hours of birdsong later...)

dammit arthur don't jump right on your sister from the back of the couch though ok yeah it was really funny

Liu Cixin, "Three Body Problem" (2014)

gods, my life would be so much easier if sugarfoot just had e-mail -_-

we think we've settled on a reasonable compromise, though: instead of letting sugarfoot out, we're gonna let her family visit more often. everyone but shemp's met the kittens and seemed to be pretty chill around them...

New source of anxiety: Sugarfoot is frequently sitting in front of the door outside and mewling. She obviously wants to go out and explore very badly, and I don't want to give her any further sources of stress. But I also don't want the kittens to be without mama for very long, and I have nightmare visions of her wandering off for, like, a day (which is admittedly not like her).

I'm thinking of gently withholding her food, just for like part of a day, and then letting her go explore a bit, trusting in the awesome power of the food bag to lure her back. Does this sound horribly irresponsible?

@balinares I'd been trying not to disturb them but I think they're getting old enough that it's not really a problem, I'll try to get some soon!

@mawr This is why clever plushies sew weights into their paws! Otherwise you could end up halfway across town!