Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

A line from a recent HuffPo article:

"The campaign to knock the wind out of Browder’s sails began to draw blowback as the political climate changed."

Wow. That must be some impressively quick climate change, if it knocked the wind of a sailing vessel.

Also, I'm pretty sure the term "blowback" is a reference to fire and/or gunpowder. So no wonder the Russians hate Bill Browder so much! He's motherfucking Blackbeard, apparently.

Sorry, inner editor needed a place to vent.

This all exemplifies one of my strongest beliefs and biggest pet peeves: most people who call themselves "rationalism" have, having discovered there is intimidation power in this term, simply written the word "rational" on a 3"x5" index card and glued it to their forehead.

Reason involves dialectic. It involves making a willing and conscious choice NOT to use tactics like these to dismiss Enemy Thoughts out of hand. And arguing by definition like that? That's flat out.

Wow. Look at this mess of high-end self-delusion I found while debating a conservative furry.

http://newbostonpost.com/2017/11/09/undoing-the-dis-education-of-millennials/

This is a genuinely amazing feat of intellectual sleight-of-hand he's pulling, crusading against "isms" while quietly grandfathering in all the ones he personally finds meaningful.

I don't see the difference between this guy reverently rejecting classism and racism, and some Victorian don insisting no literature post-Shakespeare really matters. *shrug*

Putting on my +2 Robes of Geographical Authority has also dramatically improved my mood. Honestly, I kinda needed to spend a couple hours deciding Who Lives And Who Dies, even if the "who" here is just a bunch of db entries.

"His underwear is federally required to bear the words 'THIS PLACE IS NOT A PLACE OF HONOR.'"

You know what would feel really good right now?

The Supercontext from The Invisibles. Some sort of Queer Magick Nerd Elysium, the big post-credits afterparty where we're all reunited, living or dead, friend or enemy, and get to just... hang out. Like we used to, but without all the damage caused by the orthocosm and our bent-up human neurology in the way.😿​

Of course there is a distinct possibility that our Truest Selves ALSO suck, and it would basically be a No Exit rave. ;p

Heh. Twitter keeps sending me spam for @hladolet22, reminding me I have unread notifications.

Sorry, Birdlords. That identity has been vacated long ago. You're sending mail to an empty helmet and a pair of plastic boots. I think Hladi got "rescued" and is now an accountant in Furry Passaic or something.

And you know? The path that got me here may still have been totally worth it. The failures I committed were not even remotely the failures I expected, and here I am, at least dealing in the aftermath. Everything I thought I loved and was committed to fell apart, REAL fast... but in the grand analysis, I am merely about as screwed as I was 10 years ago. Which is pretty screwed, really, but again... here I am.

It's OK. Life is still very OK, and that's better than Not OK.

Also, had a great visit with @green and got to meet their cats (who gave me a number of useful and practical Catting tips). Tomorrow Peg and I are going to a freakin' water park. My bosses still love me and I'm doing one of them a huge favor today. I'm slated to go back on the podcast I co-founded after a long hiatus.

Oh, and after a shameful 40-year history of scrubdom, I finally feel REALLY GOOD at most of the video games I'm playing. It's 2018; that's a good life. XD

On the other hand, yeah, the bitterness is back at the surface... but that's basically the precipate left behind by getting rid of a whole bunch of sadness. =^___^=

Peg has been five-starring it lately, as a companion and friend. Parallax is coming out fucking GORGEOUS. And the last round of supportive comments finally knocked the idea out of my head that the quiet response is anything but "looks great but we're waiting for things to start happening!"

(Also, consider this my formal plea: if we ever start letting Parallax turn into a Mystery Box story, PLEASE STOP US.)

Oh god, Castle Rock is a JJ Abrams production? And it describes itself as a "mystery box" show?!

Okay, whew. I had been vaguely interested in this one, and this saves me the trouble of watching it. No more of this shit, not after Westworld and Legion.

You tell me a story, motherfucker. And you have ONE SEASON to answer any questions that you raise, before you are allowed to raise any new ones. I am DONE with puzzleboxes that turn out to be empty. (Read that however you like. ;p )

I'll visit. But after that fucking Stranger article about local landlords (and apparently, most of the commenters on /r/SeattleWA) thinking poor people don't "deserve" to live here, I'm increasingly content to shake the dust off my sandals and let Amazon swallow this city whole. I wish the best of luck to those of you sticking around to fight the good fight, and maybe I'll be back someday, in stronger (and hopefully richer) shape, and actually be able to do you some fucking good again.

"I'm still big. It's the social media that's gotten small."

I'm feeling a lot better, actually, after Peggy spent the morning looking at Padmapper. NOLA is a LOT cheaper than I had been led to believe, and if we can figure out a few little orthocosmic things like insurance, we could actually put together a pretty good life there.

I'm gonna miss the locals a lot, but there's still a big reservoir of pain left for me in this city, and if it ain't gonna get drained... might as well move on.

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Bastet comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom
"Chill the lion"

https://codepen.io/Yakudoo/pen/YXxmYR

*250 sad plaintive meows*

"Are you hungry, kitty?"

*rawr* 🐯

"Too sleepy?"

*grumble* 🐯

"Um... did you lose your favorite chewin' ball?"

*huff* 🐯

"Okay, is it too warm in your enclosure? Too cold?"

*rawr* 🐯

"Huh. Are you feeling unwanted by your friends and rejected by your society, and worried you'll spend the rest of your life in a bleak, lonely cycle of subsistence and poor health, as the wealthy muscle you out of society altogether?"

*nodnod* 🐯​

Wow. This self-delusion shit is POWERFUL. To my horror, just thinking that these people are somehow just a hoax genuinely and immediately made me feel better.

This comfort is worrisomely similar to the comfort I felt when I was 12, had recently lost my father, and converted to Christianity. -_- I don't think I will be indulging this theory any further.

But damn, it's tempting. It's so tempting to roll my own delusion and lose myself in it. If you can't beat 'em...

Hahaha, wait! I don't have to sit here depressed, just because it feels like I'm a failure and my city is getting overrun with ruthless objectivists! It's 2018! Reality is whatever I want it to be, and it's CERTAINLY malleable to my own comfort!

So, no, the city isn't really being overrun with rich jerks. There is a *conspiracy* to pack local comment boards with libertarian astroturf. It's fake. Anything that makes me unhappy is either a hoax or a conspiracy.

Solved.

It's like, motherfucker, making a bunch of money off of the houses you own is not a goddamned moral achievement. Stop acting like BEING ON YOUR FUCKING PLANET is some kind of unearned entitlement we're pretending to. And stop acting like there isn't something REAL FUCKING ABNORMAL about the way modern capitalism distributes wealth. All I know is that my mom busted her ass 40 years teaching people's kids and is broke, and Donald Trump is extremely rich. Fuck Terra.