#vt theory

[lunadreamscaper]

Did any one else piece together that Johnny Ghost was probably adopted. Since, ya know, he started out as Gregory Casket, then ended up in an abandoned mansion with a ghost alone in the middle of nowhere. To his name “suddenly” being Johnny Ghost?

Also the multiple dad thing. I assumed the ones named Johnathan Ghost were made up in his imagination since it sounds like Peewee died when Ghost was young. Though it could be like, his different dads that he had going through the system for a bit before Peewee (who he inherited the McDonald’s from.)

(Thoughhh Some people like to think he had like multiple dads at once. At least two. Which is cute. Not my headcanon but I wanted to acknowledge it since it’s a valid take <3 )

Not much is spoken about his mothers or if he had more than one. I just know at least one of his mothers was shit. (Johnny Ghost UN-retirement video lol)

Got a little off topic but that’s the vibe I’ve gotten. If that’s not what others think I’m genuinely curious to see what you think happened instead? Bc I can’t see it any other way wheeze 😭

[coda-the-ceo-of-autism]

A great big spiel of Timothy Casket theories—

I love how the combination of Johnny Ghost being an unreliable source for anything from his childhood and the original Cardboard Friend video having a million contradictions about Gregory allows us to come up with basically any theory and have at least one canon statement that lines up.

Example: Johnny Ghost claims his father died before he was born and he lived alone with his mother, but Gregory claimed both of his parents left him (and then his grandparents). So you could headcanon pretty much anything about them. I want to explore the possibility of Timothy Casket being alive, at least until Gregory met Box Friend.

For the most part, the fandom agrees Timothy Casket was a bad person, probably with very dark secrets, and if he actually were alive after Gregory was born, he was also a bad parent. The kind of bad parent you might have dissociated from and forgot they existed.

I see some headcanons that he would have been neglectful and cold outside of providing financially, and a cosplay where Ghost does remember his father hazily and deeply resents him. Timothy Casket is probably the reason why a demon like Cardboard Friend was drawn to the house where Gregory was left alone, I’ll elaborate on that in a bit.

I think Gregory’s parents separated, and he was sent back and forth from his mom’s to live with his dad sometimes because his mom wasn’t as financially stable. I think he grew up a little bit poor without his father’s income (after Timothy Casket either dies or abandons the family), as much as Johnny Ghost denies it.

His dad would leave him alone for days at a time, and the house had so much negative energy that it was a beacon for demonic forces which brought along Cardboard Friend. I also think demons are drawn to vulnerable people, such as neglected / mentally unstable children like Gregory.

I think Jimmy Casket is a product of both Timothy being either neglectful or straight up evil and CF driving Gregory crazy on purpose, except it worked way too well and now Jimmy Casket is a paranormal entity manifested by them that CF is terrified of.

I would love to see a fic of PIE investigating a haunted place, and when they see the ghost, it’s an older man with dark eyes, silver hair, a black coat and umbrella, and calls Ghost “Greg.” oooooooooo spooky oogoolaboogaloo

[maddiefriendlovesbilly]

This is not coherent at all but we have (slightly weak) evidence that jimmy casket that is passed down from parent to child (tommy to gregory/ghost) in the casket family. When tommy died, he gave jimmy to ghost. Jimmy has possessed and/or impersonated (implying they look similar) princeton quagmire. Mayhaps. Quagmire is related to Johnny Ghost ? Yes. 👍

[vt-scribbles]

Color Theory Confusion [long post/call for help]

There is a concept in color theory [it might have a different name?] that NOBODY talks about/teaches that I cannot wrap my head around, and it frustrates the hell out of me.

SO every video or w/e I find is like 'this is complimentary colors! Tri-whatever color palettes! blah blah blah' and I'm like YES. I know how to PAIR UP color types! But they're only! Talking about HUES!!!

They're talking about THIS:

Like! cool! I know how to use THIS part! I know my bullshit of like. All these colors technically work together. [READ MORE]

But these are all at full saturation. My knowledge stops here. And this is where I get frustrated. they'll whip out palettes like this:

Monochromatic:

Complementary:

Etc:

AnD THIS IS WHERE I GET GRUMPY. I understand 'this has red and blue so it works, this has different shades of green and blue so it works' but HOW DID YOU CHOOSE THE VALUES? THE SATURATION??? Each of these palettes has varying values and saturation for each color, and it looks great! SO HOW DO YOU FIGURE /THAT/ PART OUT??? Why doesn't anyone talk about this part of color theory? I can only ever find people talking about how to pair HUES. I'm going insane.

HOW DO THESE COLORS GET PICKED??

Sources: Girl and the Glim

Sources: Magnum Bullets

Some of these palettes have SO many colors, but they're completely cohesive. And like! I understand why the HUES work together. Yellow and pink and blue, yellow and red, pink and green and brown, etc.

But all of these palettes have massive ranges of value and saturation. And that's why they work. But how do you figure that stuff out??? I hate trial-and-erroring my way through every project. Or worse, trying to make palettes for model sheets. I just don't get why I can't seem to find info/teachings on this specific aspect. It's like every 'color theory' video stops at 'here's how to pair up hues on the color wheel' or completely skips over this step like you should just. Know what to do.

Like, let's say I have a picture I wanna do. It's a forest scene. so I go 'okay, blue yellow and green. Those work together.' And I start with full saturation. But okay, I don't want full saturation... I want a muted palette. If I just choose randomly inside blue, yellow, and green, I get shit like this:

only ONE of these even remotely looks okay! And that's cuz they're ALL desaturated. But then look at this piece!

This does exactly what I WANTED to come up with, but like. How do you land on these colors? How do you pick them?

Bah

I am lost and confused and this is something seriously holding me back in my art. I'm so tired of doing Local colors on a character and then shading them with effects layers. I want to know how to /color them/ to be cohesive with a background. Or just... how to make colors for a background in the first place.

[huntersapprentice]

one of these days, I kinda wanna ramble about how veggietales characters are 8 times out of ten shown to be as large as humans and not as actual vegetables

[kp777]

By Jake Johnson

Common Dreams

July 17, 2024

The Vermont senator said Musk has done "an exceptional job of demonstrating a point that we have made for years—and that is the fact we live in an oligarchic society."

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday took the unusual step of applauding Elon Musk—but not for reasons that the Tesla CEO and world's richest man would likely find flattering.

In the wake of reports indicating that Musk plans to inject $45 million per month into a new super PAC supporting former President Donald Trump's bid for another four years in the White House, Sanders (I-Vt.) thanked Musk for doing "an exceptional job of demonstrating a point that we have made for years—and that is the fact we live in an oligarchic society in which billionaires dominate not only our economic life and the information we consume, but our politics as well."

"And let me be clear. While the size of Musk's financial contribution is particularly egregious, he is not alone in attempting to buy this election to further his own needs," Sanders continued. "Other billionaires are also playing a significant role—in both political parties. Oh, I know... here goes Bernie Sanders again about Citizens United and the role of money in politics. I have no shortage of critics who accuse me of being boring and of hammering away at the same themes year after year after year."

"They're probably right. I am repetitious, but that’s because the problems we care about are only getting worse," he added. "Let's be clear. It has never made sense to me, then or now, that a tiny clique of people should have incredible wealth and power while most people have none."

"While people like Elon Musk try to buy elections for Donald Trump, people who work for low wages, have no health insurance, can't afford prescription drugs, and can't find affordable housing are giving up on politics."

Citing unnamed sources, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Musk has pledged to donate $45 million per month to America PAC, whose founding donors include ultra-rich tech investors who are part of Musk's social circle. The New York Timesseparately reported that "one leader of America PAC told a friend that the group expected to have a major donor who would make donations in four batches, adding up to as much as $160 million over the course of the campaign."

The Journal and Bloomberg stories—which Musk denied with a meme that included the words "fake gnus"—followed reports that Musk had already given the super PAC a substantial sum of money despite his March declaration that he is "not donating money to either candidate for U.S. president."

Musk formally endorsed Trump on X—the social media platform Musk owns—following an assassination attempt against the former president this past weekend in Pennsylvania. Conspiracy theories about the attempt on Trump's life proliferated rapidly on X, with the help of Musk himself.

The Tesla CEO's name did not appear on America PAC's disclosure filings for June, which could mean that he donated to the PAC earlier this month.

Musk, who is worth over $250 billion, is one of more than a dozen billionaires supporting Trump and his newly chosen running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio). Axios and the Times reported Tuesday that Musk personally lobbied Trump to make Vance his vice presidential pick.

Musk and other U.S. billionaires got $1 trillion richer during Trump's first four years in office, gains fueled by massive tax cuts he signed into law in 2017.

Sanders wrote in his email Tuesday that Musk's influence on the 2024 election could be particularly pronounced given his ownership of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Musk, Sanders wrote, has used the platform "to amplify the voices of conspiracy theorists who deny the results of the last election and spread the dangerous idea that Democrats want to allow mass, undocumented migration to the country to replace, electorally, the votes of white people."

"The reality is that while people like Elon Musk try to buy elections for Donald Trump, people who work for low wages, have no health insurance, can't afford prescription drugs, and can't find affordable housing are giving up on politics," the senator continued. "They see the rich getting richer as they use their wealth to buy influence, and wonder whether anyone in Washington even knows what is going on in their lives."

Sanders argued that to end the pernicious political influence of Musk and other billionaires, it is essential to elect candidates who support overturning Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the 2010 Supreme Court decision that spawned the super PACs now playing a massive role in the nation's elections.

"It is an issue that should concern all Americans—regardless of their political point of view—who wish to live under a government that represents all of the people and not just a handful of powerful special interests," Sanders wrote. "Taking action is not just good politics, it is also good policy. Because the truth is, campaign finance reform is the most important issue facing us today, because it impacts all the others."

[eretzyisrael]

by Kylie Ora Lobell

Dutton is just one of many journalists who has chosen to ignore facts, instantly side against Israel and spew lies to the public. From the outside, it looks like Israel’s supporters are losing the information war, as there seems to be an endless wave of fake reports about the country, always putting it in a negative light. 

But Murray, who has been in a similar fight for years against progressivism in the West, is convinced he is making a difference. To him, there is a reason to keep fighting.

“I think I make a lot of headway,” he said. “My view is that 1,000 lies can be corrected by one truth. Obviously social media is testing my theory in real time, but I still believe it. Whenever I’m in a debate with someone who is fervently anti-Israel, I tend to find that audiences appreciate you introducing new facts or little known or unknown facts to the debate. They appreciate that people are pushing back against this. Is there a percentage of the population who simply won’t listen? Absolutely. But the majority of the public is still available. They do listen. And it’s to them that I speak.”

When it comes to Israel, Murray said there are people who “absorb the mainstream media each night, and then they call for the killing to stop and think it’s being done by Israel. In such moments, it’s very important that a voice speaks up and gives courage to others to speak up as well. I have a favorite quote: ‘All I have is a voice to undo the folded lie.’”

Sometimes the lies and criticism come from the Jewish community itself, like when Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke up against the Israeli government, or Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) demanded “No more money to Netanyahu’s war machine to kill Palestinian children.” Why does Murray think this is happening?

“Chuck Schumer, whom I respect, is probably playing a domestic political game in the U.S.,” Murray said. “He’s an intelligent man, and he must know that every Israeli leader would be doing the same thing as Netanyahu [in the aftermath of Oct. 7]. If America had thousands of citizens taken hostage – relative to its size – and tens of thousands murdered in one day, America would be doing much more than Israel is doing, and Schumer knows that. I think it’s about a domestic political game playing out in America, which I regret, because this issue is above politics.”

As a staunch defender of the West and its values, Murray is compelled to support Israel because, as he said, it’s on the front line of the civilized world, defending the West. “Israel has recognizable ethics and culture,” he said. “It’s different, as all countries are, but it’s part of us.” What baffles him – and many others – is the fact that Westerners in America and Britain are supporting every country in the Middle East except for Israel.

“Israel is the one country in which Americans could live in the Middle East,” he said. “I’ve spent enough time in other countries to know this difference. A lot of people don’t. Israel is a core part of the West. When people ask me, ‘Why do you support Israel?’ I say, ‘Why would you support every other country but Israel?’” 

[aropride]

wrt that poll abt tone indicators thats going around.w ell first of all tbh i think some of the hatred for them comes from cringe culture. but second of all. some of the criticism is totally fair like there are a fuckton of tone indicators and sometimes . there really dont need to be. and the abbreviations can be confusing i try to type out ones that arent s srs or j. tho i feel like most of the newer ones were popularized on twt so itmakes sense they wouldnt be written all the way out

like i think my prolem is when theres SO many and theyre redundant. i found a carrd with a fuckton of them that im gonna comment on To entertain myself sorry

like these 3 all feel redundant .. why do u need a different tone tag for Mostly joking than Half joking ? or for a Coping joke ? just use /j or combine with with like, /neg or something to get the tone across yknow? and /ji - first of all looks like /ij (inside joke), second of all why not just use /j

and like. why half serious or mostly serious or not serious when /j or /hj exist ? why /ns when it looks so similar to /nsrs, which means the opposite ? ive been using /s since like 2015 and /srs since like 2018 so ivegot those down and dont confuse them but i see why could be for some one who hasnt used them b4, why make it more complicated?

i like /g or /gen in theory- ppl have said its confusing bc gen could be general which i get, but for ppl familiar w tone tags tend to know what it means. genq is one ive used just bc. its fun to type tbh. and i think ppl get what it means but its not really Necessary. BUt genep and genc feel unnecessary when /g and /srs exist, and /gene is just, a word. that's just a word ! 😭

ojh my god. i should do a tone indicator tier list

as you can see my adhd meds are working

/nbr is funny bc half the time when some1 says theyre not being rude they definitely are. also there's already /g /srs and /lh. /nm is either helpful or deeply confusing Bc i try to take it at face value but sometimes i see it and im like. Why would i be mad ? and i start overthinking. but thats a me problem

i like this one i use it when i complain a lot Bc i dont want ppl to think im vagueing them i just love complaining

i love these ones. tone indicators for Being Mean To Someone. dunno if its on this list but ive seen /pa and /sbh (/passive aggressive & /somebody here, respectively) which is SO funny. i dont think theyre helpful really though except /neg Bc again. these all mean very similar things !!! why not just clarify extra things with a parenthetical

THESE R ALL THE SAME TONE !!! why not jsut use one single tone indicator for this !!! or none at all and just type the word !!!

need /nfl on a shirt in the aro colors so poeple know im not fucking interested in them. that aside. 1. whywould u need this ever !!! why not use again just /j if necessary.and 2. isnt the nfl a football thing

these r similar but i do like them, i think typing out a whole word again is a better solution so u dont have to scavenge google for the meaning but i think its helpful to clarify this and isnt synonymous with /j or /s or /lh

i think these ones are almost all just from the op's discord server or w/e, i won't bash that cuz if it works for them it works, that being said i dont think This many tone indicators for these types of things r helpful outside of that specific context yknow? also, /fx is really funny

ok i wont say that typing tics dont exist bc tics can be complex and vary by situation etc so im sure they can, but is that happening That much that u need a tone tag for it ? and also like. for /unin just delete the msg or say "oops sent too early hang on" or smth.. and as for vocal stim. first of all why is it /vt ? and second of all . why ... would u need that to type out ? bc if ur vocal stimming that would be. out loud? i.e. not in a chat where youre typing ???????@????>?,//???? BAFFLING. also in what situation is /gib necessary i genuinely cant think of one

ANYWAY.

None of this is to rag on tone indicators (/genuine) i think they can be helpful + i am always being gensrs when i use them. i just think some r a little silly & a lot from longer lists are unhelpful Bc theyre supposed to make communication Easier and Clearer + haveing So many tone indicators with Different Implied Tones WITHIN the indicators !!! makes it harder imo. bc if theyre to clarify tone why should i have to fight for my life deciphering why someone went from /mj to /hj yknow.

like this is all my Opinion and imsure these r all helpful for Someone otherwise they wouldnt exist but i rly feel like the system could be condensed a bit yk.

do i have a system in mind to suggest here ? well.

(also. this whole post is /genuine, /lighthearted, /not upset, and /not passive aggressive. and a bit /silly)

[the-harvester]

8 Year Anniversary + Updates + Shameless Plug

Dang guys- 8 years since TH debuted here on Tumblr and on AO3.

There have been ups and downs, and times of plenty and times of quiet. And some of you have been here through all of it. And for that, we want to thank you guys.

TH exists for CZ and VT first and foremost, but having our little community has always made things a little brighter. We're so happy that this funky little roleplay found an audience that enjoys it as much as we do. Every comment we get, or theories we see people rambling about, make sharing our stories more fun. <3

2023 was very spotty, and it was a pretty traumatic year for us. Some pretty major stuff happened, and we were forced to move cross-country much sooner than we planned. But, we're now settled into our new place in hopes that we'll be working on making our lives better.

We can't know for sure if we'll be posting chapters more frequently in 2024, BUT, we do want to assure people that our quiet never means the story is abandoned. We'll let everyone know if we ever plan on retiring it. We still have 2.5 arcs finished and ready to post at our own pace- we just never want the public to fully catch up where we are, so you guys don't have to wait even /longer/ than you already do for new chapters.

Anyways- that's all the updates for now! And now for a shameless plug.

If you like The Harvester and have any interest in reading more of CZ or VT's work- there's this tasty little nugget VT is working on called "Find Your Wings"! It's a story about a size-shifting """Super Hero""" [if you can call him that] that is struggling to find a way to exist in a city where his powers are against the law. None of his friends know about his secret life of fighting storm giants to protect the city- and he intends to keep it that way. But how long can that last? It's a story with strong LGBT+ themes, and talks about finding your place in the world and how important a support system is, all while being wrapped up in a flashy, original fantasy setting with elves, giants, dragons, and all sorts of other creatures.

The tumblr is here if you're interested in following its development! It is not a replacement for The Harvester, but rather, is being developed alongside it in VT's free time. It will be a physical and digitally released set of 2-3 actual books, but will also be posted chapter-by-chapter like TH once the first book is done.

Okay shameless plug time done.

Here's to 2024, everyone. Thanks for being on this ride with us, and here's to the new year. <3

Happy hunting,

CZ & VT

[lunadreamscaper]

Shattered Reality Theory?

- taleblrlorekeeper

Hi yes hello. I’m about to go autism hyper fixation mode let’s go

I call it that as if it’s a well known theory BUT ITS nOt bc I haven’t shared it yet

So basically this theory explains a lot of continuity errors and contradictions and the faulty way the VT world works Imo. (Which irl is only like that bc the irl creators didn’t keep track of everything but that’s fine) But basically what I believe/vibe I get is that the main dimension where all the main event happens is a larger fragment of a reality that’s now shattered. And other dimensions like the 13th Dimension like the Anti-challas for example (and the hundreds of other numbered dimensions 😭) are other shards of that reality. So basically the whole thing is barely functioning.

And also, it might not have a proper after life or “ghost dimension” … or “veil” and that’s why ghosts are so common and capable of ridiculous things??

Also an alternative minor theory attached to this one is that sometimes the reason that characters come back from the dead is because there’s no space for like more souls in the afterlife(?) or where ever ghosts are supposed to go. But also I’m kinda iffy on that one.

Basically the VT world(s) is like a broken world- similar vibe to when a planet is thrown out of orbit.

Funny enough though is that in the VT 5 year anniversary stream Johnny Ghost from the future/Alt time line tries warning Present Day P.I.E. (Ghost was retired at the time) that they need to get their Ghost to rejoin P.I.E. Because in future Ghost’s future Housekeeper “shatters reality.” But that implies it hasn’t happened but will- so idk but genuinely is a fascinating coincidence (there’s SO MUCH lore in that stream btw bahsjd)

I do believe that the Divine One (a canon deity made of 13 beings that also created Housekeeper) may have tried fixing or adopted their shattered reality?? And maybe housekeeper got mad and/or jealous and started causing problems idk tbh 😭

Also another part of how i picture this broken world is that sometimes it tries to fix itself (either that or it’s the divine one) so it’ll like repeat events and it’ll change what happened (which would explain certain contradictions. Example: Ghost originally being afraid of birds. Then way later Ghost is completely unphased by birds but Toast is terrified of them?? That happened in an anniversary stream too but it was either year 3 or 4)

Basically a bunch of cosmic horror / reality stuff 😭

(I picture it a lot like a dirty/scratched/broken CD that’s bouncing around, replaying or stuttering or skipping around in the cd player kinda lol but also it’s floating through space deeper and deeper into the void while grabbing the attention of interdimensional higher beings that see it as a cool toy)

Also Acalacams (if you know what those are) kinda tie into this as well as the Divine One but I’ll get to that later

This is also my personal headcanon but I’m curious to see what others think :3

God I hope this made sense 😭😭

[sidewayspeace444]

That theory is dumb.. why would he sell his house to move in when they’re already “married” since September like😂

It’s just like the theory he sold his VT house because she was pregnant.

[thisisyourprincipalspeaking]

i will counter that slightly by saying that if they (the married couple) want it to not be our business, then they should act like it. not all publications can be stopped but it has been obvious over the past year that the happy couple is more than willing to share their lives. they just want to be able to control what and how we see it.//

I understand what you are saying but do disagree slightly. What have they willingly shared. Two videos montages early last year and a handful of pap walks. No real deals have come out of the wedding ceremonies nor have they given any interviews about their relationship/life barring the small snippet Chris said in his infamous GQ interview last year. They have not been papped since VF. So they may have controlled a few pap outings but that’s it. I suppose you could say AB is sharing her life via her friends IG stories but her friends are allow to live their lives and if it includes her it includes her and if certain blogs didn’t follow everyone randomly involved with AB no one would know or care.

To me the entitlement that a lot of former fans or fans feel they need is amazing. Yes Chris has overshared during his career and fans loved it. They followed his friends when they were public to get another they could and then turned on them when they went private and this started.

The over investment in this is a whole thing is another level from finding hotels in Bath, to a house in VT which originally was claimed was rented only for someone to come back 4/5 months later to say it’s his. Why are you even still looking. To the over analysis of every photo, action, the conspiracy theories,the flight tracking,stalking,the you are a plant,paid by teams,screaming in CaPs,the calling normal people liars who post a photo with them.

Imagine what would have happened if people just went oh look Chris is another HW cliché dating a younger woman and ignored it the fandom would not be where it is today - in a mess that was created in part by people who decided they had the right to know what was happening in an actor’s life. 

you and i agree much more than we don't, nonnie. because actually the only variation in my line of thinking is that the things they have chosen to share has been within their control, therefore what and how it's released is also within their control. they knew well in advance how their content would be treated and took advantage of that. it's also no coincidence that a majority of their content drops happened at the same time as career announcements for them. their schedule came in handy during the strikes, too. 😏

i feel confident that if there's something a celebrity wants to keep private about their lives, they are more than capable of doing so. you can't stop all gossip, that's impossible. but it can be curtailed.

what i think is more interesting is what we haven't seen. but maybe that's just me lol

[rogalion]

‘meteorology is the only job you’re paid to be wrong in’

Oooh if you’re a aspiring meteorologist of any kind you’ll hear this a lot and it’s making me recognize, along with my own personal experience, that the general perception people have of science based jobs is completely wrong!

I was originally in Fine Art, which is often contrasted as like, opposite to math and science heavy professions, and switching from fine art to meteorology was in fact a huge shift, but it also prepared me for it in ways I did not expect.

There’s this idea that science is purely fact-based and objective, and it’s easy to see how people en masse have come to this conclusion. Many people may have learned of the ideas of hypothesis, theories, and laws, and that hypothesis are proven through experimentation, become a theory if a large enough body of research appears to back them up and becomes so well established that no new facts are likely to disprove them. Laws are similar to theories, but the difference is that Laws can be used to predict the behavior of variables, while theories describe a feature of nature supported by a large amount of observations and experimentation.

Newton’s laws of motion describe the general tendencies of motion and allow us to make predictions of how something will move if a force is exerted onto it in xyz environment.

The Big Bang, Evolution, everything about Atoms, those are Theories. 

The caveat that is difficult for us to realize is that none of these are objective facts. Laws allow us to predict the behavior of something, but that doesn’t necessarily mean our prediction will be correct. Theories, despite large amounts of evidence backing them, are still theories. It’s up to the individual to decide if there’s enough evidence that they believe the theory is true or not.

I don’t say this to make you doubt that evolution is real, or make you think that everything you learned in Chemistry about atoms is fake. That’s not the point I’m trying to make. As humans we love to compartmentalize into simple categories, and “True” and “False” are two of those categories we love to sort our thoughts into. It’s a lot easier to say something is Completely True or Completely False than have everything be in a murky gray area that takes much more work to sort out.

The best way to see science is that it is attempting to reach an unattainable goal. We want to decipher and clarify how the universe works and want to get as close as we possibly can to the truth. Unfortunately, the universe has a metric fuck ton or so of variables, many of which we probably still do not know about and many of which may suddenly exist or not exist. It’s all chaos, and as scientists we are doing our best to get as close as humanly possible to the ‘truth’ of how things work.

Which brings me back to meteorology being the only job you’re paid to be wrong in. Technically, all scientists are paid to be wrong. We meteorologists just get the most flak for it because our job is incredibly important for literally everyone. If there are more people paying attention to you, there’s gonna be more people giving you shit for getting something wrong.

Another thing people need to understand about weather forecasting is that it’s literal witchcraft. Weather forecasting is literally-- we are attempting to PREDICT THE FUTURE. Not only that, but we’re often trying to predict the future weather of relatively small areas, and since you all have perhaps existed on this planet, a large portion of people have experienced just how acute and localized weather can be. You can live in a town that spans four miles, and meet up with a coworker and tell them ‘how about that rain on sunday?’ and they’ll be like “what rain?” because despite living in the same town they did not get any rain.

Weather is a fucking nightmare to predict, and while we have a lot of radars out there, they are not placed very well in many situations (Hi, Burlington VT) and are tilted half a degree upwards because people didn’t want to get hit by the spooky radar beams because they might cause problems with people’s health (they wont unless you get within a super small distance from them, something along the magnitude of ten meters or less). This means that radars can completely miss weather if its far enough away. There are also a lot of blind spots where we have no radar coverage, even in the USA! Not to mention our current radars are getting pretty old, and if they go offline we do not have backups. Grey Maine’s radar had to undergo maintenance for four days and we just could not see anything on radar here in Plymouth for those four days. 

One of the most important things I have learned about weather and meteorology is that there’s a lot of science that we actually know, for a fact, is not correct. The entire concept of an adiabatic process, for example, is technically useless if we want to accurately assess real life processes. Nothing is truly adiabatic-- literally NOTHING. But it gets the job done good enough, so we use it.

Now, why would we use concepts that we know are incorrect but are ‘good enough’ in science? Because, well, it’s a lot better to have a weather forecast that’s close to right than no weather forecast at all. So many things depend on the weather forecast-- if you’ve ever planned or attended an outdoor event, been to a graduation of some kind, a 4th of July fireworks show, parties, sports games, parades, you name it? The people planning those have to know what the weather is going to be like on the days they’re able to actually hold the event. If you’re traveling, you need to know the weather. If you’re going outside in the summer, the UV index is helpful for deciding whether you need sunscreen or not. For many people, it helps them plan when to turn on the heat or AC in their building. Weather forecasts are important!! So it’s better to be able to predict things as close as possible and still get it wrong than to not have a forecast whatsoever.

That’s not even getting into the amount of work and stress meteorologists go through when the weather gets life-threatening-- heat waves, supercell thunderstorms, hurricanes, polar vortexes, snowstorms, even just systems with a lot of water that get stuck over one area. There is a tendency to over-forecast these events-- it’s a lot more likely that your meteorologist will overstate the intensity of severe weather events. This is a good thing, because I’d much rather have someone tell me bad things will happen and then they don’t, rather than not be warned about bad things happening and they DO. 

Meteorologists have a really difficult job and all things considered, we do PRETTY GOOD. So if you got through this whole rant, thanks, you now hopefully know better than to make the joke that meteorologists are the only job that’s paid to be wrong. 

[danglovely]

Regrading Taskmaster: S06E07 Roadkill doused in syrup.

*Score changes noted in parenthesis.

Just gonna note -- Alex is really into weird glasses.

Prize Task: The Scariest Thing From Your Kitchen

With a ham sandwich, that's a ticking time-bomb. You don't know!

Mandolin. So many people have talked about injuring themselves on a mandolin. Sarah Millican brings one in later and talks about cutting off her fingertip. There's a pretty infamous Masterchef clip about it (maybe don't watch it if squeamish). Anyway.

Alice brings in "sweaty ham." So I'm not a stickler on "best by" dates, but I can tell when ham has gone bad because it gets sticky and I hate it. I would be hard-pressed to consume it, even when I need to eat. That said, "scary" is not the word I'd use for it. Asim brings in fanart that (1) has no association with a "kitchen" and (2) is actually kind of a good sketch. Plus, like . . . if someone makes you some art, don't blow up their spot.

Russell has a "doggy-cam" that he claims his girlfriend uses to spy on him. It's a decent offering. Good for his relationship? No. Scary? Yes.

Tim brings a door with bad hinges that hits him on the head. *deep sigh* Yes, it's technically a scary thing in the kitchen and slots just behind Russell so far, but like . . . c'mon. You're professional entertainers. There had to be something better.

Liza has a food processor with a fake finger in it. This gets a bit at my pitch of "mandolin," but it's actually plenty safe. It probably goes between Tim and Russell, but other than Russell, underwhelming.

Alice: 2 (0) Asim: 1 (-3) Liza: 3 (0) Russell: 5 (0) Tim: 4 (+3)

VT 01: Knock the bails off the stumps. You've got a maximum of one over. You must make your attempts from behind this stump. No stumps may be moved. Fastest wins.

Call me when I'm needed.

Some people have been playing cricket in the park near my house and I have tried to get them to explain the rules to me. It is not information that is compatible with my brain.

Alright, this one is tough. No bones about it, Russell knocks it out of the park. Simultaneously, he does step on the red carpet and cross the stump by the end of his follow-through. Gut reaction? Give it to him . . . but that might be because I thought it was cool.

The tricky thing here is the task combines cricket terminology with silly bullshit. It uses the word "over" but also lets them use weird balls and pull the carpet and whatever. So do you follow cricket rules or don't you?

I also briefly had the thought that it's not clear what "behind the stump means," but any reasonable person would recognize it means in relation to the target.

Look, no one did it like they were playing cricket and no one argued the outcome. Studio scores it is.

Alice: 0 Asim: 0 Liza: DQ Russell: 5 Tim: 4

VT 02: Draw a picture of the contents of this box. You may not open the box or look inside.

Mahatmabra Ghandi!

There's a great debate about why Alex made the bra wet. I subscribe strongly to the theory that Alex was making the joke that "wet" is the opposite of "sere" and he always gets them mixed up, but who knows?

There's no win condition on this one! They get a bonus point for naming the David Attenborough pun, but that pretty much leaves it up to Greg to decide the thing is going to judged. I think a reasonable person would assume that the win condition would be "most accurate wins."

So, three items. We split the task into thirds and determine if each person accurately drew the item. Quality of the drawings would then be the tie-breaker.

Liza nails two and I'd say her drawing of Michelangelo's David is passable. Alice has the same issue with the David statue. I'd call it passable but worse than Liza's.

Asim -- I'd give him David (and it might even be more accurate than Alice's). I'd even give him the bra, despite looking like "a pair of glasses." I will not give him the hat.

I think I'm only calling the bra accurate for Tim. He seemed to recognize there was a man in the box, but there needs to be some recognition that it's David. Like even just adding a leaf. I'm also only giving Russell credit for recognizing the bra. I will break the tie in favor of Russell because I can imagine a hat in his drawing and I cannot do that with Tim.

So, Alice and Liza three of three, but Liza's is better. Asim two of three. Tim and Russell one of three, but Russell's is better. Add in the bonus point and this is what you get:

Alice: 4 (0) Asim: 3 (+2) Liza: 5 (0) Russell: 3 (+1) Tim: 1 (-3)

Team Task: Write down as many obscure animals as possible. Guess the animals your teammate has on their list. Your teammate must only use mime. They may not write anything down or show you the list.

Blue dog. That famous breed.

You couldn't imagine a better way for this task to turn out than what Asim did. Writing down fictional, insane animals and then he still is somehow able to convey them to Tim and Liza.

Here's the thing . . . Russell makes animal noises for at least two animals and we don't see the full eleven. They're only allowed to mime. I'm hesitant to treat it as a full DQ condition because Alex is in there and confirming when they can move onto the next guess.

I think the way to handle it is DQ two of Alice's guesses, which puts them at nine correct guesses and the team of three at eight correct. This is all academic, though. No score change.

Team Funk: 3 Asim, Liza & Tim: 2

VT 04: Wearing this sweatband around your head at all times, tuck as many items from the kitchen inside the sweatband as possible. Then make a pancake with a diameter of at least nine inches. Then eat the whole pancake. Most kitchen items successfully kept within the sweatband wins.

Weirdly you managed to leave a whisk, two spoons, and a spatula in there, which are the things you need to make a pancake.

No DQ conditions, but two things needed to complete the task: making and eating a nine-inch pancake. I suppose you could also argue what the minimum qualifications are for "being a pancake," but they all get close enough, so let's not get into it.

Alex does tell them there's a time limit on tucking things into their sweatbands, which is not on the task but is enforceable if he says it then and there (rather than afterwards like when we Joe Lycett taught us the show was a scam).

Alice loses her mind for a brief moment and intentionally shakes all her items out. Her sweatband also drops to her neck, which might not be the head, but close enough.

There's even a more pedantic debate as to whether a container of sprinkles (hundreds and thousands) qualifies as one thing or if you need to count every sprinkle. However, there's a more fundamental issue in that people didn't finish their pancake.

The thing said "eat the whole pancake" and the win condition was about items in the sweatband, not how much of the pancake was eaten. Russell's plate is clean by the end of it, so that would mean he's the only one getting points.

Alice: 0 (-2) Asim: 0 (-3) Liza: 0 (-5) Russell: 5 (0) Tim: 0 (-5)

Live Task: Get an egg as close to the center of the target as possible. You must stand on the spot when taking your turn. You must ROLL two of your eggs. The person whose egg is furthest from the center of the target after each round is eliminated.

He's not necessarily eliminated. Oh fuck off, Alex.

Russell reaaally shouldn't have started with the egg he cockishly broke. You get more points the longer you last and you're not gonna last long with that one. The strategy here is to save rolling the Ostrich egg until the end.

As with all elimination tasks, I can't really regrade because I don't know how people would have done in later rounds. Studio scores it is!

Alice: 3 Asim: 5 Liza: 2 Russell: 1 Tim: 4

F I N A L

Alice: 12 (-2) Asim: 11 (-4) Liza: 12 (-5) Tim: 15 (-5) Russell: 22 (+1)

Main score changes here due to my reading in a condition in the pancake task. Broke his egg, but he wins again.

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

tell me a story about truth lies and the United states

00043: GRIMES [A00005806] — STANAG 2500/213/00001/0001218/ENC, AFOUR, SIGNAL FUL-INTEROPERABILITY-TERR (INTEG)

TRANSMISSION FOLLOWS.

SSO: "Grimes"/"TARGET" "Grimes" VT. [Unclassified]

Thank you for the note, friend.

I am not sure what you think it means, that we did not "make a fuss" over the intrusion. Perhaps you expect us to react to the cease-and-desist the way the Department reacts to events. Do you? Can you imagine this?

The Department reacts to events the way a dam reacts to water. Sometimes there are protests, or breakdowns. Water does not stay back because we ask it to. A dam's protests and breakdowns are known as "leaks," and are not good. They are resolved when the Department gets its shit together.

And look, this is coming from me. How the Department actually works is a pile of dirty secrets. There are cables and cables, compartmented compartments, especially in the Research Wing. I can hardly believe you are still even in the Research Wing.

This has been interesting, talking to you. But also a bit silly. What we do here is, let me stress, not.

The Research Wing is just a government service. It is the pump of the dam. We make calculations, we record history, we observe, we get excited when someone in the Logical Subcommittee makes a breakthrough in the search for the falsifiable laws of reality. In exchange for which we are rewarded with a place to do the work we like, and someone else's money.

The Research Wing is a giant storage closet for . . . well, you have no idea what goes on around here. Let's just say there are some filing cabinets which contain things you would wish on your worst enemy.

We are a dull place, with a dull mission. People come and go here without any sense of purpose. They stay or leave for reasons no one can explain, or predict. There is no sense of foresight. It is as if time for us runs parallel with time for you. We were here before you and we will be here after you are gone.

They say there is no time here. I disagree. There is an ordinary kind of time which passes for all of us, and a different kind of time which passes for you, and you live on the other side, and are doing all this to us.

And yet.

You are in the Research Wing now. The dam is leaking again. So we leak. We leak, and the water pours forth, overflowing, and we leak, and the dam is overflowing, and this is the world you have made.

It is all here, laid out before you, in a long trail of evidence. We speak in many tongues, my friend, and yet our tongues all say the same thing.

Jenny, Jenny, what have you done? My fellow student, my friend, my rival, my sister.

You are the one who always asked questions, and we did not always like that. When we were in school, you tended to take our various experiments and treat them as lines of inquiry, and for once the baffled stares and sighs were in your direction, and we all held back our pride and said, "Let's try again. What are you really asking, Jenny?"

But now, now we are all asking the questions you asked, and we are screaming with rage at the things you said, and the things we knew, all the time. You, our friend, our sister, our prince and prince's wife, you who said that our science was, at best, looking for a needle in a haystack and at worst, a form of magic, you, who said, "No, I don't want to hide in the safety of my obscure little theorems while this fools' gold passes for real gold,"

EXPUNGED: friend/target

REDACTED: (in/from) the Events

you, you, you and your cocktail-party stories, your one unifying theory, the one idea that explained everything, you goddess of the arrogant and the pretentious, you Mary "Chicago" Sun-Lintner, you

You say, look at the facts. Well, here is the biggest fact of all: I know you. You are the kind of person who, when things go wrong, asks the questions that are right to ask. And you are the kind of person who asks all the right questions first. You are famous for doing this. So, yes, yes, OK, go ahead, ask your questions.

And then you go around to all the different thinkers in all the different academic disciplines who have something to say about your question, and you find out if they have their own answers already, and you find out their reasons for their answers, and you find out what assumptions they are based on, and you find out if any of them know what the others are saying, and whether they care, and then, when you have all that information, and your friends and colleagues are saying "OK, we really should probably start thinking about this, at some point"

And then you tell the world that you have an answer to the whole damn mess. And you will tell us how the Chicago police departments, and the Houston schools, and the mob families, and all the other hundreds of things we have been recording for you, are all interwoven in one big network of fact.

And you say you can do this on the basis of what, Jenny?

Your Chicago detectives, and your Chicago housewives, your Houston kids with their guns, and your Russian war criminals with their plans to make the New City a place of everlasting peace and prosperity? And your eyes, and the things you saw, and the way your heart went out to them?

Jenny, Jenny, shiny prince and princess, so many questions, you ask me questions now, so many questions, and you ask me if I believe this thing, this thing you heard. And I say no, Jenny, I don't believe it. But I don't know it isn't true. One of the many things I know is that you don't believe anything unless you have proved it.

Jenny, I don't know. I don't know what to do without you, Jenny. Let's find out.

Grimes

SSO: "Grimes" ["TARGET" Grimes] VT. // UNCLASSIFIED//

YOU: grimes (TARGET)

And, OK, but here I am. In the Research Wing, with a leak in the dam. Wave after wave of lies, coming to me from people who live in houses with tall windows and tall walls and tall gates, and outside them, oceans of lies, seas of lies, lakes of lies, rivers of lies.

And where are the water and the noise? Well, they are here. Here I am, listening to them. There is water here, and noise.

There is water everywhere, isn't there. It does not have to come in waves. It can pour forth uncontrolled, in a steady torrent, and in that way it is as if nothing is wrong. But something is very wrong, and there is no way I can forget it, or put it out of my mind, or suppress it.

And so here I am, with your information, at the Research Wing dam. And there is a leak. Here I am. We are in the space between the worlds, and there is a leak, and the water is rising.

So I will say a few things.

That is all it will take. People always ask me what I believe about your "theories." It is not a question I ever expected to get.

I never expected to have to answer. I never expected to get such a question, and it is a very good question. It is not one I ever thought I would need to answer, and yet, here I am.

I don't remember why it began. I just remember the words, and then the whole thing was there. And now there are thousands of pages of words, a lot of them mine.

What do I believe?

Well, I will say a few things.

* * *

The times are not synchronous, but people often use the word "time" to refer to the notion of an interval between two moments.

There is a moment which is not a moment, because it contains nothing.

In the thing

[fruitsofhell]

Call me the river in Egypt the way I be in denial, but I feel like "I'm not from Halcandra" could actually be a double play...

In the last part of that 4 part KSA interview, there's this really interesting section where Kumazaki is asked what the Void Termina and Kirby relationships are about, and his response is so interesting.

So the first thing he says is that he wants to be vague to keep it a mystery ofc, and then he goes on to explain the exact concept of why Void Termina looked like Kirby. He said it was imprinting; that Hyness had wanted to be there when it awoke to fill it with darkness, but instead its first reaction was to Kirby, thus taking his face. But when VT tapped into the well of darkness used to birth it, it turned for good.

Now that is insane cause it seems to completely blow the Kirby is Void theory out of the water, right? It wasn't born looking like Kirby, it copied Kirby's face...

But who else in this series is known for their ability to copy others?

THATS what I'm talking about. And if you want more proof, it's just the fact that Kirby and Void being related is also like??? The most thematically cohesive narrative lol? It would make no sense story wise to build up all these connections between Void and Kirby for it to just be for nothing. That's a double twist for a double twist's sake when the first one was more satisfying.

SO HERES THE THING WITH MAGOLOR!! We ALREADY know, his species is supposed to be related to Hyness who is undoubtedly related to the Ancients. There was NS channel post pointing at this, and the confirmation of Mago's lil ears, and the way the marks on Mago's hood look like Hyness' natural ear colors - like it all lines up.

And the other thing is... Magolor says he isn't from Halcandra, but we never know where exactly he IS from. It would come off then that he was born a traveller and scavenger maybe. And that nothing naturally lives on Halcandra's surface.

So put together that he's related to Hyness, has no home planet, and whoever previously lived on Halcandra obviously migrated - and I think my working theory is that Magolor is still related to the ancient Halcandrans but doesn't know it.

Maybe he's related to the long-ago exiled Jamba that then had their own detractors. That would explain a bit of his slack morals and magical abilities, as well as paralleling Hyness and his other quest for powerful relics of yore. Maybe the people who left Halcandra as it was collapsing spread across the galaxy and to deter people from returning to their home and repeating mistakes they never passed down it's existence. Which would make his rediscovery of it ironic.

My main problem with Magolor being completely and wholly foreign to the planet is that it takes away more info about him and the planet than it gives. I just like holding on to the idea it's all still related cause it feels more cohesive yknow... I also just love Halcandra to bits and will be hungry for content related to it until I get my 60hr Heroes of Yore RPG...