Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

If I ever call you "very good and clever" in those exact words, you have probably committed an absolutely woeful act of "well, actually" literal-mindedness, are in a lot of trouble, and should abandon the thread immediately before I figure out exactly how good-naturedly I want to torment you for it. :)

@001zlnv The Dirty 88 are a whole colony that lives in an apartment garage a block away. They are apparently NOTORIOUS among the local trap/rescue community as one of the big stray-breeding red zones in town. We have speculated that our own babies might even be descended from The 88.

(The nickname comes from "Get Fluffy," a cat-perspective martial arts epic in the vein of Kill Bill that we'll probably never get around to, based on the whole saga of Shadow And The Cone Of Shame from last year. It's derived from O-Ren Ishii's "Crazy 88" of course. They were basically planned as a mini-boss battle before the protagonist confronts Fluffy herself, a polydactyl with the secret of 8-Claw Exploding Pounce Style. :) )

The above tweet reads as a little self-congratulatory now and I realized I skipped a major part of the context: I kinda needed to remind myself that I panicked like 10 times worse -- y'all saw it in realtime -- over those kittens, every day for three months. So taking a moment to meditate on that was really therapeutic. Everything turned out VERY okay with Liv and Snowy, S+ best ending, so... yeah. I should really try to convince my brain to let me relax a little.

@chimerror i mean, it's true as a general rule :)

@chimerror *makes popcorn and asks for directions like the shameless voyeur they are* :D

Someone on Twitter was asking for kitten pics so I went through my directory and ran across a bunch of snapshots of Snowy and Liv... and reminded myself we SAVED. THE. FUCK. OUT. OF. those precious kittens. We've saved like five cats from the brink of death. One night of 28 degree weather is not going to stop us from saving more. We have materials, we have plans, we just have to convince ONE shy kitty to snuggle up in the shelter we make and the rest can just come visit. We've got this. We're gonna get GOOD at this. Everything's going to be OK.

In fact, I get a certain amount of volunteer time off from work, and I've been REAL tempted -- once it warms up and COVID stuff improves a little -- to start working for one of the Trap-Neuter-Rescue agencies and REALLY up my cat-saving game.

You hear that, Dirty 88? I hear you all mewling down at that parking garage. You're saying "SNIP ME, PLEASE SNIP ME." And you will be snipped. And every cat on earth will be a tiny bit happier for it.

(Plan B is "buy the cheapest fleece blankets we can find at Goodwill and shove them through the holes the cats use to get into the abandoned basement next door." The Petco cashier said just curling up there wouldn't be enough by itself, but with something to curl up IN they'd probably be all right...)

OK, just got back from Petco armed with:

* a bundle of wood shavings for insulation
* a big fluffy pet bed
* treats
* food
* more treats
* litter
* a bunch of solid advice from an employee who's taking care of four semi-strays of her own

Plan A is to put our big old dog crate on the porch, fill it with insulation and the kitty bed, cover it with a warm blanket and a trash bag for waterproofing, and hope to Bast that Ceejay will accept it as outdoor shelter for the upcoming night of 28 degrees.

For the other five, Plan A is still All-Night Cat Party. I am NOT looking forward to chaperoning 5-6 kitties in a tiny cluttered apartment, but I'm looking forward to it a lot more than leaving the kids out in subfreezing weather.

@Cerulean And honestly? The main reason I let you be scarce is that you seem to prefer to be scarce and I never know the right way to approach unless there's a clear excuse, 'cause I have social anxiety too. I always enjoy interacting with you. <3

@spacewastrel@yiff.life Yeah, I hope I've at least shown that's not what I was doing! ^_^; I really think it's important to look at these works as a whole, enjoy what's good and isolate what's bad. And if it's a *really* problematic creator who you really don't want to have your money... hell, just steal it. O:)

@Leucrotta Nothin' wrong with surfin in itself, just with people insinuating it somehow rescues Mike Judge from being the next Joss Whedon, or somehow proves he's not One Of Those Big Hollywood Phonies.

Although Keanu has also been namechecked as one of those Nice Guy Celebrities who's forced to shoulder WAY more moral weight than even a genuinely decent guy should ever have to...

(Though to be fair, the number of stories of Keanu's generosity and humility are uncountable, and I've never heard anything bad about him whatsoever that wasn't, well, valid criticism of his pre-Matrix acting skills...)

current mood: inordinately proud of the line "What an infinitesimally mild delight, to discover that you still draw breath!"

i love backhanded compliments, they appeal to the cattiest of my cat nature ^____^;

Yeah, I'm calling it. Mike Judge will be the next milkshake duck. Taking all bets.

I'm calling it for him on the Marilyn Manson principle, or if you prefer, the Mel Gibson principle: if the media attaches to a celebrity for being "surprisingly" purehearted, to provide a counterexample against a fallen celebrity and prove there are Still NIce Guys Out There, the chance of that celebrity being the next to fall approaches 100% as the number of fluff articles approach infinity.

Also, I love how "spends all his time hanging out with one of the most famous pro surfers in the world" is somehow supposed to be proof (in the full context of the attached comment, which is of course part of a conversation about Joss) that not only is he not a Rich Hollywood Type, but he has good character and would never, ever turn out to be one of those evil abusive guys.

(I mean, Mike could be a swell guy for real. There have to be SOME out there. Like, if Harvey Guillén ever turns out to be an abusive prick, I might have to be put on watch for a while. o_o;; But surfing instead of going to parties? THAT'S NOT EVIDENCE.)

"Cancel culture doesn't exist. It's just a word conservatives throw around to sow moral panic. Also, unrelatedly, here's today's list of people who have been cancelled and I'd better not catch you saying anything positive about anything they've ever made."

Honestly. I'm feeling gaslit. I am not without sympathy towards those who "cancel" problematic celebrities, but don't lie to my goddamn face and tell me it's not a real thing WHILE YOU ARE DOING IT.

Or if you do, have the fucking decency to put it in a box attached to a geiger counter and a vial of prussic acid, 'cause that's the only way I know of that something can simultaneously exist and not exist. -__-

@monsterblue <3 n.n;

@001zlnv I have no idea if it was ever mandatory, and as you can see in the article (or just guess), there were a LOT of very valid reasons for a franchiser to say fuck no to the Superbar.

@001zlnv Behold the majesty. Behold the glory. Behold the utter nightmare to clean and keep stocked when you could just grill some damn burgers and be done with it.

http://insufficientscotty.com/2012/02/27/whatever-happened-to-the-wendys-superbar/

i have to say i'm quite impressed with the hrwiki's article on the thnikkaman given that this is a man* whose defining trait is that we have no idea what he actually does

*i hear this fan theory that it's actually bubs but i'm not buyin it

I just hope it was all worth it to *somebody* and I did more with the last 20 years than just alienate people and wank off semi-publicly to a bunch of marginal kinks that I tried to frump up into a literary movement.

It just feels like there's not a goddamn thing left, and even the friendships are slowly decaying over distance. And I can deal with that, if fucking SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE is still a little bit happier because of all my dumb postfurry shenanigans. Or... you know... actually read and LIKED 5 Glasses of Absinthe. Or Parallax. Or a conversation with me once.

Or anything, anything at all, 'cause you know that's how depression works -- it's all hidden to me right now, absolutely anything good about any of it.

@kistaro (I do hasten to note, with some pride, that these were NOT pledge-hazing stunts. We had an absolutely strict no hazing policy and damned if we didn't actually stick to it all four years I was there! No, we did not stoop to sully our dumb things with such paltry excuses. We just did them for love of stupid ideas. And because Skyler was REALLY funny when he woke with with a snootful of fries. :D )