Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

Oh my god.

I dare not speak too soon. I dare not hope.

But we have FINALLY got a hold of our neighbor and might have an actual solution to the Cat Stuck In Attic saga.

Not two hours after I buy a cat mask for Mardi Gras. Praise Bast! #bestkitty

@zx3 Haha, I meant to type giraffe noises, talk about a freudian slip! *BLUSH*

@zx3 "Hey, Zed! How do you know that thing about zebra noises?"😏

@xinjinmeng @Leucrotta Thanks, that's really helpful!

this is the closest i will ever come to knowing godhood

Did I mention Worldle ain't shit? *grooms massive forepaw*

https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/

@JulieSqveakaroo Peg and I were talking yesterday about another interesting factor that nobody talks about: the huge growth of corporate power between Cold War I and now.

My own employers have been pumping out FRANTIC dispatches to our Russian and Ukranian employees reminding them we're All One Big Family.

Paperclip maximizers have a big incentive to NOT LET THE SPECIES THAT MAKES THEIR PAPERCLIPS get destroyed. There are a lot of very powerful transnational entities that would really, really like to see this NOT end in (most unprofitable) omnicide.

Of course, we're also a planet full of deranged primates, so... This could all quite easily go Dr Strangelove. 🤷‍♀️​ But I do kinda wonder if that's not a little added layer of protection, that everyone's already got their hands in someone else's pockets and... killing everybody would wreck a real good scam.

So for any of you who have been worried about the conflict in the Ukraine turning into omnicidal nuclear war, here's a very cold comfort:

Putin's got a real good chance of getting his kindred spirit and toadie into office in 2024. His propaganda war on us is one of the most successful in human history*. Why would he destroy a bunch of perfectly good real estate he's already paid for?

* SOURCE: own arsehole

@Leucrotta I haven't the faintest notion, at this point you might as well be asking Grandpa Simpson I have lost touch with current tech so bad -- i am wide open to suggestions or will do a little research if folks really do wanna do this

@Leucrotta I am in the mood for a good solid cry so I might have a go at another viewing this weekend.

Shit, almost half-tempted to arrange a group viewing? Anybody else out there see this who might be into it?

@Leucrotta (And Ghost Dog does strike me as the sort of film you would really get behind, which is very strongly related to the reasons I like you. <3 )

@Leucrotta Honey, I love Ghost Dog-- and Raymond, and Pearline -- like family. 😔​

@Leucrotta No clue but the clear benefit for the rest of us is in you drawing more because-- I don't tell you this nearly often enough-- you've really gotten quite good.

I also finally connected with our dealer and got a batch of something nice and dreamy. Between this and a few days of tolerance break, I ended up having a really nice introspective session on the trolley ride to the parades.

Mostly, it finally occurred to me that some of the stuff we were doing at Transliminal and its predecessors was the emotional equivalent of cave diving: exhiliarating, rare, stressful, dangerous as shit, and not really a hobby for people interested in getting old-- something I am intensely interested in most days, despite the world's best efforts.

It's amazing I ever went that deep with ANYONE. It was a precious and truly unique time. If there's one thing I learned from Ghost Dog, it's that you should never dwell in the Spirit of an Age longer than you have to. We were fools. We were right to try doing it, but what we were doing was not sustainable at the levels of merely human emotional savvy we were working with. Leave it to less wretched beings, like the gods and plushies.

It's amazing that it ever happened, but it's probably a great and protective mercy that it ended, and the alternate universe where it didn't is probably even sadder. I got a lot of comfort out of this realization. *zen tigress*

Parades were fun but physically and mentally exhausting. My inner changeling gets massive snack value off the crowds and their sense of anticipation, but the parades themselves are actually kinda low technical event count for an ADHD child of the Internet like me. Might let Peg do tomorrow solo and bide my energy for the bigguns Saturday -> Tuesday.

Gave Artie, who is back up in the fucking attic of course, some water. This was shaping up to be only modestly stressful... until Shadow got into the abandoned apartment and hid behind the (rather nice actually) massive old-school porcelain bathtub. She's out, things are fine, whatever. Peebs is around somewhere but I am very uncharacteristically not looking to pet her, because I am so low on energy, especially cat energy.

@mawr "THERE'S YOUR ANSWER, FISHBULB."

@hystericempress WIN

in a cafe uptown, hanging out waiting for parades to get rolling, and i'm overhearing two guys who are bonding over real estate and finance

but they're both very new orleans kinda guys so it's super informal and chummy

it's both creepy and heartwarming, like the Donald Sutherland scream from Invasion of the Body Snatchers ending up in a big chummy wailing podmonster pub crawl

@woozle @dredmorbius Google Trends might not quite be what you meant, but it does show some interesting peaks and valleys for "border"... https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=border

Attic. *sigh*

I'm not too uptight about it. I knew this was gonna happen; one or two good nights wasn't proof we'd broken the cycle.

I got a look up in the attic myself for the first time. It's small and cozy. I see why she likes it. Doesn't look hazardous, either.

I've convinced myself she's mostly safe except for food and water risks. I HATE that we've got no other good plan right now, but I guess we leave her up there for a week with enough food and water to keep her going, and see how she feels about the attic afterwards.

It's gonna be a weird week.