Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

have i mentioned lately that shemp is an absolute legend?

he didn't particularly do anything, just came in this morning and Shemped at us for a bit and then politely went outside when it was time for us to go out to the cafe

but dammit if that's not enough what more could you possibly want from him? hero in my book. *nod*

@JulieSqveakaroo @Austin_Dern That's it. That's the story. I feel like I could have ginned it up a little more, but... I dunno, I've just always loved the idea of an "antique" Tetris machine and am really sad nobody ever followed through. :D

@JulieSqveakaroo @Austin_Dern The plan was to build an analog version of Tetris, with little electromechanical split-flap displays for the blocks, bolt a brass plaque on it with the instructions in Cyrillic, put it in a wooden cabinet, hand-age the whole thing, and then try to pass it off as a genuine antique Tetris machine from 1933.

@JulieSqveakaroo @Austin_Dern So back in the day, I was on a Discordian mailing list run by a grad student at the University of Monash in Australia. His name was Andrew Bulhak, and his main claim to fame was a Markov-chain based algorithm for generating postmodernist academic papers, which he would then print out and distribute at random classes.

So. One day he proposed a prank.

@JulieSqveakaroo @anthracite Haha, that's exactly the video I'd run across that explained it! :D

@Austin_Dern @JulieSqveakaroo That reminds me... have I ever told either of you fine creatures the story of the Very First Tetris Machine hoax? It never actually got pulled off, but the story is still fun.

or you know i could just come up and beat jason rantz with a tire iron for you

it's not like i'd be there long enough for them to put together an investigation

@DifficultToTame @anthracite That is a fine question and I will ask my friend Liem next time we go to the Audubon. =n.n=

@001zlnv @anthracite Nope! We even have a local possum for comparison, though they've been scarce during the alleged winter. (That was another little lesson in NOT helicopter-parenting the cats, when I finally realized that the cute little buggers are near-zero rabies risk and really just not aggressive.)

I've probably been driving Peg crazy with my high anxiety levels lately, and while she's been EXTREMELY gracious about it for the most part, my self-esteem is in the shitter today and I'm just feeling super, super awkward.

Part of the issue is that I had a whole bunch of minor worries about the cats straight in a row, and I CAN. NOT. TURN. THE. ANXIETY. OFF. where their well-being is involved. I just CAN'T err on the side of calm with them. I am starting to really understand why parents can seem to go completely batshit crazy over child safety issues.

The other day it was hearing what sounded like a wounded animal noise. It didn't even sound catlike, and everybody was accounted for but Shemp-- who I don't think could make that high-pitched of a sound if he tried. But I still found a part of myself nervously keeping a vigil for him all day, even though, as I put it to Peg, "I'd bet a million dollars on Shemp, here." I KNEW he was fine. Didn't matter.

Anyhow, I'd been fretting over Ceejay pretty badly because he has this very prominent FLAP on his belly. And he's had to be treated for parasites in the past, so... yeah. I was getting worried he was in the advanced stage of something.

And then I noticed Artie and Shemp both have kind of a LUMPY FLOPPY BIT on their bellies in the same location. And I was like OH SHIT does the whole family have something nasty?

And then by pure coincidence I ran across a Youtube video about a little thing called the "primordial pouch." Cats apparently have kinda their own little camel hump under their bellies, to store fats and give their innards a little extra combat armor. In part maybe to give @anthracite a little reassurance I'm working on the crazy. <3

Why didn't anybody tell me this? I really need to RTFM one of these days. Anyhow, I just feel a lot better now and wanted to chronicle my little mh journey. :>

@xinjinmeng @anthracite I mean, Shadow does know how to enjoy a good pettin'.

@zx3 Right? It only dawned on me like 2/3rd of the way through the episode -- one of the SCREAMS struck me as very clearly Maria. :)

@Owlor Heh. If you hang around me long enough, you'll probably get sick of hearing me use the phrase "semantic naivete." But that is a great example of the sort of behavior I'm referring to with it.

That part of the SU crowd drove me nuts. Screaming pareidolia and apophenia not just with their "fan theories" (like the "reference to the Diamonds" in Gravity Falls they were SURE was crossover evidence, when... um... what they had ACTUALLY seen was a NFPA 704 fire diamond on an extinguisher at the Mystery Shack), but with "suspicious" political references.

Sigh. It reminds me of the time people were determined that the "30-50 feral hogs within 3-5 minutes" thing was a fascist dog whistle, because 30+50+3+5=88=HH=Heil Hitler.

And it was like, I get it, I had some really smart friends go in for it, and I have seen 4channers go that deep in attempts to sneak alt-right memes in. "Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean..." and all. It's the same logic as people seeing "666" in the old Proctor-Gamble logo. Just because someone can tease meaning out of something doesn't mean it was actually MEANT.

But god, some of the stretches people were going through to make Rebecca seem like a pedophile (for X-rated Zim fanart when SHE was underage!) or a racist (imo valid criticism of Black-coded character tropes taken ad absurdum)... JFC.

The main fallacy, I think, is seeing intentionality where there isn't any-- that notion that every creative work is One Person's Masterful Vision and NOTHING in a show or book happens by accident. Add in a shallow grasp of how signs and symbols work in practice, and... yeah. You get people coming to some really awful conclusions. >_<

oh my god julia

she's even voiced by one of my favorite voice actresses, maria bamford

maria's been super nice to me on twitter a couple of times and is just a great, humble, brilliant woman who's had some REAL ROUGH TIMES due to psych illness (BAD bipolar, like "getting imaginary instructions from the pope" bipolar) and has been a real inspiration in how she's bounced back

haha, i should have recognized her after her very first vocal fry as Psycho Julia XD

naturally the hypnohub.net dregs are just fetishizing her one mind-control scene

but i'm just plain rooting for her

my Mad Raccoon kirsch is thinking of sending her an only-mildly-poisoned cookie bouquet, an only mildly booby-trapped complimentary toaster, and a month's supply of tinfoil as a welcome gift <3 <3 <3

@porsupah Huh. Reading up on this is reinforcing my long-standing suspicion that I had years of a post-viral condition after catching a cytomegalovirus from a college roommate.

And it weirdly gives me a sort of hope, too-- maybe if enough "normal" people show clear signs of a post-viral syndrome, they'll start TAKING THEM SERIOUSLY and ACTUALLY LOOKING FOR THEM, not to mention actually developing some treatments for them.

Too late for me; would love to see no one else ever have to suffer.

@001zlnv yeah the bird guy

hey big j still love ya man, let's do lunch after i'm dead

don't bring your dad

or the creepy guy lol jk

@Soreth That would NOT surprise me at all. Ohio doesn't have a ton of Scandinavians, but we don't have none, and we do get a lot of linguistic influence come down from the north eh... :>

@Phorm Thanks for that, I've been on a huge Aussie comedy tear lately!

@001zlnv you betcha