#Survival Strategies

[sburbian-sage]

howdy, i just got into my third session, and its kinda setting in that I'm stuck in this forever now? fuck. gotta look on the bright side and all that, godly powers are cool. the trauma, not so much.

currently i am a ward of dust, and I haven't been able to find much clear information about what that means so any help would be appreciated. i am a native heir of rage so I shouldn't struggle too much with being a ward right?

~chronicMalady

THIS ISN'T A CLASSPECT POST

You're right on the money with regards to the Ward. As an Heir, you likely went through something of an archetypal "hero's journey", getting schooled by various mentors and your Whispers, learning a lot about what being an Heir of Rage means until it was time for you to step up and assume your rightful place as "big dick MVP hero of the session", right? Being a Ward is a lot like that, except you're not getting schooled all the time now. It's your job to step up, all of your ambition behind you, and seize as much as you can. Straightforward progression, cocksure that everything will go your way, as it will, never settling for the easy road ahead. The upside is that your endeavors will frequently plan out. The downside is that you will still get schooled now and then. And when you do, you'll need to learn to rely on others, as opposed to doing things on behalf of them. Always try to exceed your limits, but be aware of them when you hit them.

As for Dust, it's about investing in things that don't seem impressive now, but could become something in the future. It's the opposite of Coins, which is about assessing the value of things and what they can do for you now. Imagine you want a fast bike. Rage Players will ride any old bike and simply scream at it to go faster. Coin Players will go to the store and discern which bike is the fastest, and how they can acquire it. Dust Players know that their bike might not be the fastest, but it just takes some TLC, maintenance, and modification, and soon enough it'll be faster than both of them. It's about commitment and trying to unlock the true potential in things, while avoiding lost causes. This should be fairly understandable, these are like koans, but your Aspect will guide you a lot more directly as a Ward than it did as an Heir.

The more important advice I think you need is about acclimating to the whole "you play the game forever now" thing. This tends to be harder to cope with than the game itself.

If you meet someone you're genuinely friends with (or want to know after the Session ends), make sure you exchange contact information. Value your comrades, but make sure that it doesn't turn into one or two people stressdumping on the other, otherwise your friendships will become chores.

Find a hobby. Something you can retreat to in order to clear your mind. Running this blog is my version of touching grass. Have some "devoted" hobbies you can reflexively engage with when it's time to decompress, but ensure you have a rotating set so you don't associate (e.g.) watching movies with feeling miserable.

Maintaining a blog is like having a hobby, a journal (diary), and a "centerpoint" for your friend group, all at once.

Internalize a reason to keep going, even if it's petty. "I'll hold out in case I escape" is a bad one that will lead to inevitable disappointment. "I'll be there to hang out with my friends" is a classic, but watch out and make sure you don't lose the will to live if one of them ends up going silent forever one day. For me, I always end a day by checking the archive of pre-SBURBAN media. I personally think there's something significant about booting up a never-before-seen video game or cartoon, even if I know it's ultimately a relic of a bygone era. It kind of reminds me of the Replayernet as a whole. A group of people who should by all means be dying alone and afraid, contributing to a greater continuity of culture that will outlast all of them one day, but be there for the next generations. Even if I'm not so idealistic as to believe that it'll be our foundation for rebuilding those cultures when (if) the door starts working.

[sufficientlyantique]

Controversial take: hope and optimism are the only true survival strategies.

[empyllon]

I know rust is a game about raiding and all.

But I have this itch to live out my feral grandma, build a cottage out in the woods and leave cookies outside the door. No traps, only calling passerbys my grandchildren, asking them if they have come to visit and need something.

[enbycrip]

Yup.

Most species engage in various kinds of sex acts with members of the same and different sexes. Primates are particularly notable for doing this because primates have complex social structures.

It’s also worth noting here that the use of terms like “heterosexual” and “homosexual” are reasonable as technical terms describing specific sexual pairings in non-human species in a way they actually really aren’t when it comes to actual individuals, which unfortunately *is* the way they use “bisexual” in this article.

There is a lot of information out there which paints heteronormative sexual relationships as “natural” and recruits a poor understanding of the natural world as “evidence” for this.

It’s much more accurate to say that pretty much all species - including humans - use sexual acts as part of a survival strategy for themselves and their genes. This can include sex for reproduction, sex to create or deepen social bonds within all sorts of social relationships, from monogamous pairings to part of a homosocial group pecking order, sex to assert dominance, sex in return for resources from a partner, and many, many more.

[omegaphilosophia]

Why Intelligence is a Powerful Trait in Nature

Intelligence, defined as the ability to learn, understand, and apply knowledge to solve problems and adapt to new situations, is a crucial trait in nature. It is a multifaceted trait that has significantly influenced the evolution and success of various species. Here are some reasons why intelligence is such a powerful trait in nature:

1. Problem-Solving Ability

Intelligence allows organisms to solve complex problems that they encounter in their environment. This problem-solving ability can lead to better survival strategies, such as finding food, avoiding predators, and securing shelter. For example, crows and primates have demonstrated remarkable problem-solving skills, such as using tools to access food.

2. Adaptability

Intelligence contributes to an organism's ability to adapt to changing environments. Intelligent species can learn from their experiences and modify their behavior to cope with new challenges. This adaptability is crucial for survival in dynamic ecosystems where conditions can change rapidly due to factors like climate change, natural disasters, or human activities.

3. Social Cooperation

Many intelligent species exhibit complex social behaviors that enhance their survival and reproductive success. Social cooperation, which includes behaviors like hunting in packs, sharing resources, and collective problem-solving, is often facilitated by higher intelligence. For instance, dolphins and elephants exhibit sophisticated social structures and cooperation that are crucial for their survival.

4. Innovation and Tool Use

The ability to innovate and use tools is a hallmark of intelligence. Tool use can provide significant advantages, such as accessing food that would otherwise be unavailable or creating shelters for protection. Humans are the most notable example of this, but other species, such as chimpanzees and certain bird species, also demonstrate tool use.

5. Communication Skills

Intelligent species often have advanced communication systems that allow them to convey information, warn of dangers, and coordinate group activities. Effective communication can improve the efficiency of social cooperation and enhance survival. For example, bees perform intricate dances to inform their hive-mates about the location of food sources.

6. Learning and Memory

The capacity to learn from past experiences and retain information through memory is a key aspect of intelligence. This allows organisms to avoid past mistakes, remember the locations of resources, and recognize patterns that are important for survival. Memory and learning are evident in a wide range of species, from humans to birds and marine mammals.

7. Strategic Planning

Intelligence enables the ability to plan for the future and engage in strategic thinking. This includes activities like storing food for the winter, migrating to favorable climates, and even long-term planning for reproductive success. Strategic planning can significantly enhance an organism's ability to thrive in its environment.

Intelligence is a powerful trait in nature because it enhances an organism's ability to solve problems, adapt to changes, cooperate socially, innovate, communicate, learn, remember, and plan strategically. These capabilities provide significant survival and reproductive advantages, making intelligence a key factor in the success of many species. As a result, intelligence has been naturally selected for in various forms across the animal kingdom, highlighting its crucial role in the evolutionary process.

[mydango]

Earth's Icy Past: Understanding the History of Ice Ages | Proterozoic Snowball Earth

Understanding the History of Ice Ages

Earth’s Ice Ages are periods in the planet’s history characterized by a significant drop in global temperatures, leading to the expansion of ice sheets and glaciers. These periods can last for thousands or even millions of years, and have occurred periodically throughout the planet’s history. The study of Earth’s Ice Ages provides valuable insights into the causes and consequences of climate…

[chicafinal]

happy jack aubrey and his collection of mean short people (his friends and wife)

[venti-death-watch]

aventurine’s this very interesting combination of incredibly cunning, calculated, & brutal tbh while also having intense self esteem issues. he views every relationship as transactional and has no issue with using people to stay on top. he’s never left survival mode; considering his childhood, maybe he’s always been in it.

‘gilded’ describes him so well. not only is he still in a birdcage with his fancy clothes and riches covering up that he’s still in a place where he can’t escape, he also uses his persona to hide his perceived worthlessness underneath

[slutforpringles]

Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen on the grid before the Hungarian GP | Sunday | Budapest | DPPI

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Besties at first sight

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[trans-axolotl]

and this is also why i think that any meaningful community building/advocacy/support around madness/neurodivergence/mental illness needs to be founded on principles of liberation and abolition, and that we need to be able to distinguish between people who are allies based on our shared values + goals, and between people who use some of the same language as us, but are fundamentally advocating for separate things.

One example I see a lot of is the idea of "lived experience" professionals, people who have a career in the mental health system and who also have some personal experience with mental illness. These professionals oftentimes will talk about their own negative experiences in the mental health system, and come into their careers with a genuine desire to improve the experience of patients. But their impact is incredibly limited by the system they have chosen to work in: the coercive elements of psychiatry incentivize professionals to buy into the existing power structures instead of disrupting them. And as a whole, many lived experience professionals end up getting exploited and tokenized by their employers and used as an attempt to make carceral psychiatry seem more palatable. Professionals in this dynamic are not working to effectively challenge the structural violence of their profession: they become complicit, even if they do also have good intentions and provide individual support.

(I do know some radical providers who have found innovative ways to fuck up the system and destabilize and shift power in their workplaces, but this is a very small number of providers and is not most of the lived experience providers I've talked with.)

Another example I see a lot in our spaces has to do with the evolution of the neurodiversity paradigm. I feel a very deep connection to the original conceptualization of neurodiversity and neurodivergent as coined by Kassiane Asasumasu, but in recent years I've seen a lot of people using neurodivergent language in a way that feels pretty dramatically different than the foundational principles. This isn't saying that people should stop using ND terminology or that all neurodivergent spaces are like this--rather, I just want to point out some trends I see in certain communities, both online and in my in personal life. Although people will often use neurodivergent language and on the surface, seem allied with concepts of deinstitutionalization, acceptance, etc, the values and structure in these community spaces often rely heavily on ideas of classification based in DSM, and build very prescriptive and rigid models for categorizing different types of neurodivergence in a way that ends up excluding some M/MI/ND people. Certain types of knowledge are valued over other types of knowledge, and certain diagnoses are prioritized as worthy of support over others. There's a lot of value placed on identifying and classifying many types of behaviors, beliefs, thoughts, actions, into specific categories, and a lack of solidarity between different diagnoses or the wider disability community.

Again, this isn't to say that ND terminology is bad or useless--I think it is an incredibly helpful explanatory model/shorthand for finding community and will call myself neurodivergent, and find a lot of value in community identification and sharing of wisdom. I just feel like it's important to realize that not every ND person, organization, or initiative, is actually invested in the project of fighting for our liberation.

when thinking about our activism, as abolitionists, it's important to be very specific about what our goals, values, and tactics are. For example, understanding the concept of non-reformist reforms helps us distinguish what immediate goals are useful, versus what reforms work to increase the carceral power of the psychiatric system. And when building our own value systems and trying to build alternative ways of caring for ourselves and our communities, we need to be able to evaluate what brings us closer to autonomy, freedom, and interdependence. I need people to understand that just because someone is also against psych hospitalization does not mean that they are also allies in the project of letting mad people live free, authentic, meaningful, and supported lives, and that oftentimes people's allyship is conditional on our willingness to conform to their ideas of a "good" mentally ill person.

[uncanny-tranny]

r u chill w non transitioning ppl?

Why wouldn't I be? At one point, every trans person who is transitioning was once someone who wasn't (whether or not that was a choice or their need is a separate discussion).

Hatred of any kind of trans person is not a Righteous or Good Thing - every single trans person has their place, their entitlement to safety, community, and respect of who they are

[legally-allowed-to-slime]

sorry guys but while gem’s snurvival skills are impressive i think a huge factor she was chill the entire session was because she barely budged from her base. she was just hopping around her little area building and things, and it’s a flat open area. of course she’s not going to be under as much threat as like, the 4Gs who were constantly on the move, or the bamboozlers who live on a mountain. this is NOT discrediting her at all i think she’s a fantastic player and definitely in top 3 to win rn but you get what i mean right?

[retroactivebakeries]

[horrorwomen]

From the Survival Manual for Illbleed (Dreamcast, 2001).

[astercontrol]