alithiasigma

[alithiasigma]

I'm fascinated by how the formatting of different social media sites affect how text is read.

For instance, a line break on Tumblr indicates a new idea.

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I forgot to post this Crow Time to tumblr! Here it is!

I love Jellybean Juice so much...

#I was so scared it was gonna be a fucking cuckoo #the counting was happening and i was like noooo little corvid the unusually large egg is dangerous! #I was all oh nooo this comic is going to have them counting down as the other eggs get tossed over the edge #god the fucking RELIEF i felt when it was just a two headed mutant #its eyes are purple and strange and it may not be a bird at all #but it hasn't killed its foster siblings and that's what matters

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I wonder: Do Americans know about american school buses? Not their existence in general, but how they're seen overseas.

Over here, they're one of the symbols of America, on par with the Statue of Liberty, the flag, the Eagle, and well ahead of any chain restaurant you can name. People won't know any US states, but they will know these vehicles.

The thing is, here in Germany, we don't have dedicated school buses. The general idea is that kids go to school on their own. When that's not practical, they're expected to use (and given free tickets for) public transit. Public transit is designed around this requirement; there are many places where there is a bus, and anyone can get on it, but the route and timetable really only makes sense for school children. In case a dedicated school bus is really needed, that's generally subcontracted out, and the lines either use something like a Sprinter Van for smaller routes, or a normal city or interurban bus (often a used one that's a bit older). School trips are normal public transit, or a rented bus, typically a coach or regional bus.

It's not a perfect system, in the past couple of years there's been an epidemic of people bringing their kids to school in their cars instead of letting them walk, which is less than ideal. It is what it is. But building a dedicated network of public transit lines only for students, and building dedicated vehicles only for that, has never occurred to anyone here.

Of course we know about these buses, from movies and such, but they're as foreign here as cacti or pick-up trucks (actually we're seeing more and more of these here) or yellow cabs (all europeans will assume all cabs in the US are yellow until they actually visit).

You do see these buses here at times, because people still generally like the idea of the US, even if they have a lot of issues with a lot of details, and so folks bring them over, along with stretch limos and stuff (also not really a thing here). And of course, if someone goes to all that trouble, they don't do it to haul school kids, they rent it out for city tours or as a party bus or whatever.

So you see these yellow things as a symbol of faraway places, scenic vistas, some vague undefined idea of freedom that doesn't necessarily hold up to any contact with reality, and it's just a huge part of the whole US aesthetic.

And then you go to a student exchange with the US, and you finally get the chance: You yourself get to ride in one of these iconic chrome yellow buses! It looks just like in the movies! You get in, you drive in them a little…

…and you realise they're shit. Just the worst buses in the western world. Terrible suspension. Uncomfortable seats with weirdly high backs (so they don't have to put seatbelts in, they just restrict how far kids can fly in an accident). Everything made out of the cheapest materials. Turns out the reason why the US uses school buses like that instead of normal modern city buses, which the US has, is to save money and because they just hate kids.

And then it hits you why US Americans say "as American as apple pie", a dish that is made and enjoyed literally anywhere in the world, instead of "as American as yellow school buses". Of course the Americans already knew all this. They got tortured by these things forever. It would never occur to them to see this as a symbol of America, it's just a normal part of life for them. It's a symbol of school and school life and sometimes normalcy, and tells us that these actors getting out of it are supposed to be teenagers, nothing more.

But most people in Europe have, of course, never ridden on these buses. So when they see them in movies and TV, that's a giant big yellow signifier that we're not in Hessen or Wallonia or wherever anymore. A symbol of a different world, one that may be at most a once-in-a-lifetime-experience for most people, just like a picture of a tropical beach, Incan Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, or Hildesheim (there's no reason to go there twice). And I think Americans don't know that, and that's fascinating.

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Another by Josh Luna

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remember, folks, if you're itching to do something ill-advised in d&d/similar TTRPGs,

low wisdom: poor impulse control

low intelligence: instructions unclear

high wisdom: a necessary risk

high intelligence: it looked better on paper

low wisdom, high intelligence: forgot to get the plan peer-reviewed

high wisdom, low intelligence: the risk i took was calculated, but man am i bad at math

high wisdom, high intelligence: if someone else in the party did it first, it would've gone so much worse (and you Know they were going to do it)

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Growing up is actually all about realizing people don’t inherently dislike you and it’s a bit odd to assume they do

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Damn-Elon is just another greedy rich man. Fuck Elon

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i honestly cant believe the normal amount of wanting to be another gender is zero. like arent you sick of yours yet lol

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"It's just a sunset.png"

Here. Have some depression art.

This is meant to portray the idea of a sunset to someone without the ability to appreciate the beauty of a sunset. The feeling of trying really hard to see what's so amazing about it and failing to do so.

I wanted to put a lot of effort in it and still make it look ugly and half-assed. I made it with seven layers. I've made better-looking sunsets in single layers on my phone.

I also wanted it to be the most unmarketable sunset painting ever lol. Just this absolutely crude and gormless sunset, stereotypically set in a clear sky over an ocean.

I also think it would be hilarious if those AI art thieves believed this to be *the* most "sunset" sunset, but that would require it to be paired with the word "sunset" multiple times in various places they steal their art from.

It has artistic merit, but like, in the way modern art meant to challenge the definition of art and make people say "does this even count as art?" does.

I was thinking of r/delusionalartists when I painted this sunset.

#bad art #my art #depression art #sunset #do you love the color of the sky #digital art #sunset drawing #sunset art

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when we get into conversations of “liking this fictional thing means you support it IRL/want to do it to real people”, i immediately get a red flag off the person making that argument.

because, like… i write a LOT of stuff i have no interest in doing IRL. scary stuff, kinky stuff, a lot of super mundane stuff, too. my physical sex life doesn’t resemble the smut i write at all, even a little because my boundary between real life and fiction is solid. and it’s not like a “oooh i’m so good at resisting temptation” thing, i mean like, i write a lot of oral sex scenes and have zero interest in sucking a dick IRL. i write a lot of dark subject matter and unhealthy relationships, and i’m living in a happy, pretty boring marriage that i wouldn’t change for anything.

but someone who goes hard on “you like (noncon/incest fic/idk fucking teacher/student storyllines), you must want to (assault someone/fuck your sibling/bone down with your teacher or student)” stuff, it makes me think that person has a shaky boundary and they’re not very safe to be around. i become deeply worried about their impulse control and their ability to contextualize.

i’ve said it before, but i’d honestly rather spend my time with people who write triggery darkfic but have basic respect for others vs. people with a “good and virtuous” media and fanfic diet who can’t shut the fuck up about all those kinks no one is forcing them to read.

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I am once again thinking about digging holes

It's so fucked up that digging a bunch of holes works so well at reversing desertification

I hate that so much discourse into fighting climate change is talking about bioenginerring a special kind of seaweed that removes microplastics or whatever other venture-capital-viable startup idea when we have known for forever about shit like digging crescent shaped holes to catch rainwater and turning barren land hospitable

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Maybe this is the wrong platform to pose this question given the average tumblr user but

Is it just me or did our generation (those of is who are currently 20-30 ish) just not get the opportunity to be young in the 'standard' sense?

Like, everyone I talk to who's over 40 has all their wild stories about their teens and 20s, being young and dumb, and then I talk to my friends and coworkers and classmates, and we just... dont.

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Pros and cons

Pros - Big and tall.

Cons - Big and tall.

#her new haircut looks super cute #she is underestimating the cuteness of her haircut

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Ever notice how any time someone calls you "cringe", 99 times out of 100 what they mean is "you're happy and I don't like it"