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Scott McCloud’s incomparable “Understanding Comics”.

I swear you can open this book to any page and it’s amazing.

(ps it’s actually a digital image of a printed copy of a drawing of a painting of a pipe)

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I do actually have a lot of sympathy for people who get up in arms about kink, in the sense that defenses of it are sometimes phrased as none of your business, everything is fine all the time, do whatever you want forever and that’s…pretty obviously an oversimplification at best. Which I don’t blame anybody for pushing back on and/or feeling upset about.

The thing is that so often the pushback comes in the form of trying to sort stuff into clear-cut Good and Bad boxes. And imo that’s also an oversimplification, in ways that are maybe slightly less obvious but just as dangerous. And I get why saying “actually it’s complicated and contextual” makes people feel threatened, and I get that feeling threatened makes it hard for people to listen, but I think it’s important to grasp that actually nothing is okay all the time.

What I mean by that is…people can be and frequently are abused and assaulted without any physical violence whatsoever. A tender kiss on the forehead can be violating, in the right context. Because the violence isn’t in the act - it’s in the context.

What I mean by that is - most people would agree that it’s good to get off on pleasing your partner, and that there’s nothing inherently wrong with getting a nice ego boost in the bargain. But I think a lot of people could also testify that it’s entirely possible for someone to do nominally “generous,” “considerate” sex acts in deeply self-centered and objectifying ways. If someone is pushing you into something just because you’re “supposed” to like it, or getting huffy and resentful because what does it for you isn’t the same as what did it for their previous partner(s) - that isn’t generous or considerate! Because the selfishness/selflessness isn’t in the act, it’s in the context.

I guarantee you there are plenty of conservative christians who think that having anything but god-honoring gender-affirming vanilla man-on-top cishet missionary sex is perverse…and the misogyny and/or homophobia isn’t in the act, it’s in the context.

And yeah, some people get off on cruelty/control/etc for all the wrong reasons and imo you’d be hopelessly naive not to acknowledge that. But also, human libido often operates very much in a realm of symbol and metaphor, and a fair number of people have the sex version of whatever sensation-seeking thing makes the brain go brrrrrr about triple extra hot salsa/horror movies/roller coasters/tragedies that make them cry/other painful or scary or intense sensations experienced in controlled ways. And the violence or lack thereof isn’t in the act, it’s in the context.

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All right security was less bad than I remember. You get little individual bin stations now which does make it less horrible and a guy there to yell at everyone to slow down and prevent bin swarm/encourage people along.

I’m waiting at the gate with 50 minutes to spare woo

#ash adventures

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You know, I generally hate airports. The experience of airports has always been intense and overwhelming for me, but while I shuffle through sea tac I’m finding I am genuinely taking comfort in the little artful touches I see.

There’s this sculpture art of lovely clouds on the bathrooms, glass ornaments and the retail/eating areas are pretty. And we are living in a climate that is increasingly anti-intellectual and anti art. Ohh, these things don’t HAVE to be pretty. So they shouldn’t. For things to pretty is a waste!

But it’s not. Pretty things aren’t a waste. Something that’s pretty is designed by a human person with the hope to please and comfort and even if it’s not strictly speaking NEEDED…things ought to be pretty! We should be allowed to enjoy lovely things in public spaces. Doesn’t the public deserve a nice a welcoming environment?

#I am trying hard to be optimistic #this is one of the longest security lines I’ve ever been on #random domestic flight on a fucking Wednesday #so much in the airport has changed but why is security still so goddamn slow dude #if anything security experience has gotten worse #but at least there are pretty things to break it up #a human touch that SOMEONE put thought and care to if nothing else

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Off to the airport…here we go!

#ash adventures #off to visit family #flying is scary for me wish me luck

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RIP to everyone who got into dunmeshi because they thought it was free of sin or whatever. I got into it because I saw that panel of Laios and the Winged Lion and thought it was so hot I lost control of myself and next thing I knew I had binged the whole manga.

#hard agree #and one of the most refreshing things #is the lack of interest in pedantic moralizing in this text #it’s a very compassionate piece #constantly asking #well what would you have done in that extreme situation?? would I have done any different?

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The way you change your immediate reactions to things is that you catch yourself having an uncharitable/bigoted/overly judgmental thought and you catch it and replace it and then you do that a hundred times a day for your whole life and eventually one day like five years later you realize that you think differently now and you’ll always be working on something but that’s how life goes and that’s fine.

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i'm such a big fan of laios using being well fed as proof that he's serious. like there's so many techbros & etc who will use not eating breakfast as proof that they're productive & just in general, the idea of being "too busy to eat" is getting more common (which is exactly what toshiro is doing here!) but laios is like. no. i'm so serious about this i'm thinking about what comes next. i'm so serious about this i'm making sure my body can do everything it can when i need it.

the fact that everyone in the party took care of themselves & carefully planned out their route & when they'd take breaks is what made them so successful. they always made sure to understand their limits

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I am in agony. I was already resisting the temptation to purchase a teacup demon custom from @itsthebeastpeddler since the eclipse (as teacup demons and coffee are the vices I allow myself in this life) but now you can get one with a UNICORN HORN—FUCK ME RUNNING

Anyway if I can’t have one right now, all of you go buy one for yourselves they’re the cutest things ever

#I need one in animus colors #weeps #I need $100 for a teacup demon stat #I’m saving to buy cat things but oh my GOD

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THERE HE IS IT IS CHEWYTEETH MY BELOVED. PLEASE REST ASSURED HE IS SO LOVED AND HAPPY, HERE HE IS WITH THE AIR PLANTS

He’s wearing a scarf because it’s been cold out!

Thinking about old beasts, have a Drawlloween 2019-2020 sampler

#the beast peddler #chewyteeth #teacup demon #teacup demon pup

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Bit telling that for years and years evangelical religious extremists have been allowed on university campuses with their bullhorns and horrific imagery where they harass students into physical altercations and when students complain to the university’s administration they just shrug their shoulders citing freedom of speech but when those same tuition-paying students start protesting against war and genocide they call SWAT

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Join Us For the Live Premiere!

To see the start time in your area, click here!

Today, we are going to time travel through the incarnations of the Doctor to better examine how Russel T. Davies' battles the inevitable with regard to one of the most iconic characteristics of the Doctor: Regeneration.

We also have a Patreon now! If you love our work and would like to support us, head on over here to gain access to behind the scenes goodies and squeakless videos! https://www.patreon.com/IdlescreeProductions

#doctor who #dr who #new who #10th doctor #14th doctor #11th doctor #12th doctor #russel t davies #come and check it out!!!! #idlescree #regeneration

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If you didnt believe Laios was autistic before todays episode i hope it clears that up for you

we were first shown his special interest, a very autistic trait to have. We get to see him indulge in his interest, we get to see him happy.

but this episode contains the scene that makes it clear Laios cannot understand social cues, tone of voice, sarcasm, or subtlety. He actively suffers socially with other humans.

Shuro is pissed Laios didnt pick up on the fact that he hated Laios, because he was being passive aggressive (at best, Shuro bottled up a lot of feelings), and said verbally he was Laios' friend. Laios takes things at face value, if someone says "im your friend" that's what he believes is true.

He hates that Laios "gets to be genuine". I hate the way he says that "gets" as if its a privilege for Laios. It's a privilege for Shuro who is nobility and has his behavior and emotions stifled. Laios doesnt understand that others are NOT genuine. he's not from that world.

that's why Laios asks "why didnt you TELL me?" and Shuro says it should have been obvious.

it was NOT obvious to Laios, not at all.

And also, that was who Laios thought was his FIRST friend on the island. he thought he made a friend, something actively difficult for him to do.

it devastated him to learn that he was wrong the entire time.

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Talen's Birthday, 2024

Somehow this one feels less of a big deal than last year. I dunno, maybe it’s because turning forty has been a big monument in my mind, turning forty-one feels just like turning forty again.

I had a fanciful idea that I could do something with the fact that 41 is a prime age; that I have turned 1, 3, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37 and now 41, and then I thought it’d be interesting to see if I ever turned a prime age in a prime year. Now, if you’re at all good at math you’d be able to point out that by being born in 1983, every year I turn an odd age, the year is even and vice versa, meaning that for roughly half the population at any time, they’re never a prime age on a prime year, since no even number is a prime.

It’s not a complicated math puzzle here.

Making a birthday post on my birthday doesn’t feel that special now. It’s not a milestone, it’s not important. Comically, because City of Heroes is burned into my brain, I do think of 41 as a level where you used to get access to your first Epic Power Pool choice (except now you get them at level 35, which is cool). It’s good though: This was a good way to fight the anxiety of the birthday. I remember when I turned 35 I had a real horrible moment thinking I was done, that I had wasted my entire life up to that point. I remember part of what made it okay was seeing Adam Savidan on Youtube, playing Magic: The Gathering and saying ‘I’m thirty five or thirty four years old and I don’t need this.’

A thing about Loading Ready Run that makes me feel a tiny bit bad is that it’s this big long project that a bunch of friends have been making and running for twenty years, as an ongoing hobby that became a job and then became an institution managing multiple people creating things. Sometimes I get sad thinking about how what got that big project to happen was, in part, two dudes with supportive parents and supportive school supplies in the late 90s were able to work on a project, together, for long enough to become very good at it.

How do you do something for twenty years?

Well, you start.

You start, and you keep working on it while you work on things.

The internet of today is poisoned. The internet of today demands you create for it, it wants you to produce Content. Your status updates, your pictures, your everyday drama, your existence, they are all things that are being fed into advertising machine to space out the ads in the name of being ‘content.’ It isn’t how it used to be. It used to be people had websites for their special interests, the interest being the primary thing. My first website I can remember was an Animorphs fanfiction space, and I remembered how when I stopped trying to host other people’s fanfiction, and instead just hosted my own, the one author I took down got sad at me. She was probably also like, fourteen like I was.

It used to be that people made things because they wanted to share them. It used to be that people were making websites and stories and web-novels and web-comics and diaries and blogs and vlogs and microgames and RPGs and they were making stuff. It was stuff. It was not for consuming in its own continual sense, it was not being part of a pipe of things that were fed to you, it was not content, it was a lot of different stuff and that difference gave everyone a reason to do things.

But now, it’s Content.

Now, your effort, your creative material, is being pushed into a single tube for four companies who suck and you know they suck and you don’t like them and yet you make things for them anyway. Because that’s where it is. That’s where the habit forms.

Arbor Day - The Lads // Arbor Day

Watch this video on YouTube

I’m fond of this song, Arbor Day by a band that can be politely described as ‘pretty good, for a Church choir.’ The song, very simply, is that hey, do you need a reason to make a change in your life? Well, today is Arbor day, that’s a good enough reason.’ It’s been an idea bubbling around in my head that yeah, Arbor Day is a nearly arbitary reason to make a big change in your life, but that may be all you need. Sometimes you just need something, anything to mark the psychological change between ‘before I tried this’ to ‘after I tried this.’

Here’s my request for you, on my birthday.

There is something you want to make. There is something you care about. There is something you are interested in trying. Today is a day to do that. Today is a day to even just describe a plan, or a hope. Do you want to write a book? Write a description of what that book is about. A series of books? Describe all of them! Do you want to make games? Start, download one of the programs you need to use today.

Don’t waste money on things for this post’s sake, but you know there are steps you can take to make things, and I want you to make them. I believe in a world where people make things because we like making things, I believe in a world of creative people playing with creativity, and I believe that the important thing of online spaces ie being able to share them.

So please, make something, and show it to me.

No matter how small it is, no matter how little progress on it you get to make. Just spend a little time today starting something, continuing something or finishing something.

I’ll be proud of you, no matter what.

I promise.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

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In theory I know rainbow shiners (Notropis chrosomus) exist and yes, they are very pretty. Especially in breeding colours.

But every now and again I’ll come across a video or picture and just catch my breath. I mean, look at them. That’s hardly fair that they look like that and exist on this planet.

I mean… just look at them!

Holy shit!

They’re like little gem-encrusted neon blips of pure whimsy.

Anyway, North American native fish species are criminally unrepresented in the aquarium world and these bad boys are pretty close to the top on my long, long, very long fish wish list.

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what a lot of people don't understand when they say "vibes" is that it's just a fancy way to say inherent biases and inherent biases are wrong sometimes