spaceman-kai

[spaceman-kai]

I've been thinking about a Terry Pratchett quote, one that went something like, it's better to, something something, than curse the darkness.

Searching for it online brought up "It's better to light a candle than curse the darkness," from Men at Arms. Yeah, I thought. That must have been it. But why do I remember something about a flamethrower? And why does that quote sound so... Tidy? Sweet? Too nice for a Pratchett novel?

It took me a while to find the time to dig through my copy of the book. But here you are:

'Might as well have a bloody king and have done with it!'

The rest of the Night Watch stood looking at their feet in mute embarrassment. Then Carrot said, 'It's better to light a candle than curse the darkness, Captain. That's what they say.'

Okay. That's it all right. But then it continues, on the top of the next page:

'What?' Vimes's sudden rage was like a thunderclap. 'Who says that? When has that ever been true? It's never been true! It's the kind of thing people without power say to make it all seem less bloody awful, but it's just words, it never makes any difference–'

Well. That's Pratchett, all right.

And because it's all about timing, the actual punchline, as it were, only comes thirty or so pages later:

Nobby kept looking back longingly to the fire machine.

Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.

... Seems apt, today.

[spaceman-kai]

remember when you drew incest?

I'm glad that it was good enough for you to remember

[spaceman-kai]

[spaceman-kai]

follow me for more great posts other people made

[spaceman-kai]

im laughing so hard because no matter what song you listen to 

spiderman dances to the beat

no matter what song ive been testing it and lauing my ass off for an hour

[spaceman-kai]

[spaceman-kai]

MASS EFFECT 2: LEGENDARY EDITION (2021) dev. BioWare ↳ Garrus: Eye for an Eye

[spaceman-kai]

despite everything.

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[spaceman-kai]

It’s wild to me to see transvestigator conspiracy theories online that could be so easily explained by natural human variation. That woman has a deep voice? Yeah, sometimes they do. A woman has broad shoulders?? Maybe she plays rugby or hits the gym a fuckton. There’s a “bulge” in her tight pants?? Maybe her vulva is just fat. All the “markers” of trans woman that transvestigators use to harass any woman aren’t even things unique to trans women.

[spaceman-kai]

I cannot believe my dash did this.

[spaceman-kai]

musk is going to die in a Tesla explosion in 6 months after sticking his nose where it doesn't belong and we will never get a conclusive answer on whether it was a CIA car bomb or just a normal Tesla malfunction

[spaceman-kai]

"don't speak ill of the dead" don't be a piece of shit before you die.

[spaceman-kai]

when dogs are scary smart

over the last several months, we have been implementing a protocol to eliminate karybelle the sheltie’s barking surrounding her mealtimes. we have accomplished this by initially introducing an alternate activity during prep time (stuffed kong) and religiously giving her a time out gated in the yard if she stops that activity to bark, thus delaying her dinner until she’s quiet. this has been extremely successful; she’s gone from barking literally 100+ times during meal prep to barking 0 times, and only occasionally slips up. the behavior she has chosen to replace her meal-prep-screaming (after all, that energy has to go somewhere) is frantically - but silently - running circles around the coffee table to finally slam into a perfect down-stay as her bowl is set down.

this evening as the food was coming out, karybelle seamlessly slipped into her silent circling routine. except after a couple of reps, she abruptly changed course, yeeted herself out the dog door, barked once, and immediately jumped back in to resume her circling.

if that isn’t a demonstration of crystal clear understanding of criteria, i…don’t know what is lmao

[spaceman-kai]

[spaceman-kai]

The chemical name for vitamin C is “ascorbic acid”. I always used to wonder about this one. Is being ascorbic like being acerbic? Is it like being ascetic? Absorbent? Some combination of all of them?

Today I learned that scorbi is just a Latinish way of writing scurvy. So a-scorbi-c acid is “no-scurvy acid”.