toreblogallthethings

[toreblogallthethings]

Don’t….. fuckin power wash your roof. Don’t let anyone power wash your roof.

[toreblogallthethings]

Small Vorkosigang

(I have probably messed up someone's uniform's colours but shhhhh)

[toreblogallthethings]

I don’t know whose bright idea it was to invent poetry but I think someone should have put a stop to that stuff a long time ago

[toreblogallthethings]

Frodo Laid a Geas (and other invisible magic)

This was so obvious when I realized it, but I think most people miss it, because we’re so desensitized by D&D-style magic with immediate, visibly, flashy effects, rather than more subtle and invisible forces of magic. When Gollum attacks Frodo on the slopes of Mount Doom, Frodo has the chance to kill him, but he doesn’t. Instead, he says:

Frodo: Go! And if you ever lay hands on me again, you yourself shall be cast into the Fire!

Frodo’s not just talking shit here. He is literally, magically laying a curse. He’s holding the One Ring in his hands as he says it; even Sam, with no magic powers of his own, can sense that some powerful mojo is being laid down. Frodo put a curse on Gollum: if you try to take the Ring again, you’ll be cast into the Fire.

Five pages later, Gollum tries to take the Ring again. And that’s exactly what happens. Frodo’s geas takes effect and Gollum eats lava.

[toreblogallthethings]

Discworld is so delightful because you get lines like "When banks fail, it is seldom bankers who starve" except it's spoken by a 7 foot tall sentient clay statue named Pump 19 and directed to a man whose name is Moist von Lipwig

[toreblogallthethings]

OP: [makes a post]

OP's mutual: #this looks like a 10k note post to me!

OP: No! You can't do this to me!

Me: OP says they don't want notes, so I can ruin them by giving them more notes!

Me: However, a clever poster would CLAIM they don't want more notes because they would know that only a great fool would take them at their word. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose to add more notes to this post!

Me: But OP must have known I was not a great fool; they would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose to scroll past this post!

OP: You've made your decision then?

Me:

[toreblogallthethings]

Was looking for prom outfits at the Savers; this is my prom outfit from the Savers.

[toreblogallthethings]

one of the most useful things for understanding how magic works is understand the Type Of Guy.

The DND conception of wizard, druid, sorcerer, cleric, etc is completely meaning when it comes to learning about history. There is no one taxonomy of magic. You cannot clearly divide "prayers" from "spells". Smarter people have tried.

What there are, is Types of Guys. Every era in history has a type of guy who is often accused of or self identified as a practicioner of magic. But they don't always translate between places and times.

For example. 2000 years ago, the Levant had Jewish Charismatic Holy Men. That was a type of guy. Guys that would go around performing feats and claiming a direct connection to god. Jesus was one, but there were hundreds of others. The Roman government derided them as magicians, but Honi the Circle Maker would never have described himself like that. To him, the Romans and their root cutters and temple priests were the lowly magicians.

Fast forward to Europe in the 1600s. Not s single Charismatic Jewish Holy Man around. You have different Types of Guys. Now, you've got Heretical Clerics Trading Forbidden Texts, Troublemaking Lay-Preachers, and Untrustworthy Alchemists. It would be extremely rare for any of these guys to consider themselves magicians. But in a court of law, you would accuse them of practicing magic. Magic is illegal.

[toreblogallthethings]

three different people on my post about installing a trashcan outside my house have now complained that people SHOULD be holding onto their trash instead of just tossing it in random people's yards ("it's not that hard!"). like... good for you; do you want a fucking prize? we could engrave a nice little "congratulations on missing the point!" placard for it and everything.

meanwhile, my yard continues to not have beer bottles in it anymore.

[toreblogallthethings]

Unexplained Phenomena, Software Programming

[toreblogallthethings]

When The Green Man pub went out of business, not only was it abandoned, it was sealed up underground, where it still lies buried beneath this shopping mall.

It currently lies beneath four retail shops and can only be accessed by a hole under in the commercial center.

The Green Man in Loughborough, UK was a popular local pub decorated like a Medieval castle with large wall murals depicting knights and life in the middle ages. The murals still remain, as well as the benches and the bar complete with dusty beer glasses.

It closed its doors for the last time in 1993 when its entrance was walled up during renovation work on the shopping center.

It still has electricity and this sitting area is intact.

Lovely curved wood bar with a now-rusty foot rail.

One of the Medieval murals.

A former DJ for the pub submitted some old photos to the local paper, taken at the Green Man between ‘87-’88.

This was the entrance as it looked in the mall back then. 

https://www.messynessychic.com/

[toreblogallthethings]

A little bit of knowledge, free for the taking, prompted by something in my entirely offline life:

When a therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, or any other competent mental health practitioner tells you in a mild or observational tone that you are "very good at compartmentalizing" in your first session, that's not actually a good thing.

Like it's not inherently a bad thing either, to be clear: we generally develop intense compartmentalization skills because we needed them! They have a purpose!

But what they mean is not "gosh, look at you with your high level elite skill that everyone should aspire to, you barely need any help from me at all!"

What they mean is " . . . ah. You . . . have been through a lot of shit. Hmm."

What they mean is that your compartmentalization capacity is obvious even in this very brief first conversation and that means that you are compartmentalized to a point where you probably don't actually know how you feel about things and have entire rooms of Psychological Wounds you not only aren't actually attending to but don't know or admit are there.

I say this as someone who generally gets this, assuming I have not already myself said, "so as a result of bullshit I am great at compartmentalizing myself all the way to a breakdown/ruining my own life!" and thus we have shared the Dark Laughter of Serious Mental Health Work. It's not a bad thing, AS SUCH.

It's just not "look at you and your totally healthy self! A+ in mental health, a thing that is possible to achieve and healthy to want!"

[toreblogallthethings]

[toreblogallthethings]

Spells are a non-renewable resource. One a spell has been cast, it can never be cast again.

But thankfully, what counts as a unique spell is permissive, and very early on in the history of wizardry, wizards found many ways to use the arcane language to specify a similar effect even if the wording was different.

And still, spells were a non-renewable resource.

There are only so many ways to call forth a beam of lancing light, only a limited number of methods of purifying food to make it safe to eat. Soon it became necessary for the wizards to start casting spells that weren't quite what they wanted: a beam of light that arced to the left, a purifying spell that added a bitter taste, some changes cosmetic and others very functional.

And still, spells were a non-renewable resource.

Wizardry was divided into ages by the historiographers. The First Age was the age of plenty, when wizards could make minor tweaks to the spells and cast as much as they liked. The Second Age was the age of modification, when wizards were jumping through hoops and using methods with side effects. But the Third Age was the age of decay, when so many spells had been used that only the oddballs were left. It was impossible to cast anything even remotely resembling a fireball, not even one that hooked to the left and exploded with sharp green shards.

It came to be that few wizards could produce a spell on their first attempt. They would try, only to discover that someone else had already taken their idea and the spell does not work. They would try again, only to discover that their second idea had also been taken. Wizard battles, which had once been glorious light shows, were reduced to two wizards standing in a field trying to be the first one to stumble upon a spell that had never been cast before.

~~~~

Here are some plot hooks:

Wizards jealously guard their knowledge, fearful that someone will learn of a "seam" of untapped spells, but they also write down every spell they know to have been cast, to reduce their search space. Obviously this trove of knowledge is highly valuable.

The existence of spell "seams", which are really just collections of spells that work off the same cluster of discrete variations, mean that wizards tend to be very specialized. The Sheep Wizard knows eight hundred ways of turning someone into a sheep, because he's studied that area of the arcane language extensively, as well as historical precedents that have been ruled out. The natural enemy of a Sheep Wizard is, of course, another Sheep Wizard.

During the Second Age, a group of wizards get together to deliberately reduce the spell-space, largely in the hopes of reducing the capacity of wizard-kind for making war. Their work largely consists of sitting around casting as many fireballs as they can, depleting all options for everyone else.

During the Third Age, a group of wizards gets together and in the spirit of mutual cooperation begins to define "spell blocks", a collection of spells that a single wizard is entitled to and all other wizards agree not to use. When you become a wizard, you're given a thousand spells which are thought to still be valid, and will lose your license to practice wizardry if you cast any spells that are outside your block. This is difficult to enforce, rife with accusations and suspicion, but is thought to be better than nothing.

During the Fourth Age, a group of "wizards" (none of whom have ever actually cast a spell) are working on the arcane language in the hopes of a revival. As the age of hoarded knowledge has mostly passed, they're able to get their hands on many books that weren't previously available. One day, they invent a new form of specification that allows hundreds of thousands of new spells, re-igniting wizardry.

[toreblogallthethings]

These are so fun to make

[toreblogallthethings]

I can't stop thinking about this reddit post on soapmaking dude

I cannot express what an insane recipe that is. No one else could grasp it either

Like beeswax doesn't. It kinda just stays as beeswax in the soap. The lye has nowhere to go with it. That liquid seeping out of the soap? The brown and clear drops?? That's lye. That's straight up lye. This mf made the soap equivalent of the Chernobyl elephants foot.

[toreblogallthethings]

A very useful thread on Bluesky:

(There is a lot more. Rather than give you all the images, I've copied the full text below.)

Meredith Rose‬ ‪@mrose.ink‬ November 8, 2024

This is not going to be a repeat of 2016-2020. It will be better, it will be worse, but most of all it will be different. Here are things I want every single person to keep in mind as we head into round 2 of a Trump admin.

My credentials: I’m a queer female public interest attorney working on tech policy in DC. I’ve been doing this for a decade--longer than some, not as long as others. I had to navigate three different administrations, as well as Congress, regulatory agencies, courts, and the advocacy world.

FIRST: don’t let despair override your media literacy.

The left has grifters, just like every other movement. If you’re able and compelled to donate, give to orgs with established track records. Avoid giving to individuals, especially anyone who emerges overnight with a one-weird-trick “plan.”

The left is not immune to misinformation, and everyone—EVERYONE—falls for it sometimes, present company included. There is no shame in it. When (not if) it happens to you, you should acknowledge it; delete or retract the post to reduce the spread; and move on.

If a source consistently shares half-truths or outright misinformation, it is not trustworthy, no matter how much “their heart is in the right place.” Unfollow and move on.

Prediction, analysis, and reporting are three fundamentally different things. Learn to identify them for what they are. Reject attempts by amateur “analysts” to predict the future. They know as much as you do.

Real subject matter experts know and acknowledge their limits. They’re also (usually) hesitant to try and predict the future. The best frame their predictions in terms of a range of possible outcomes. Subject matter experts may also disagree with one another! It happens!

SECOND: What we know for sure about how the Trump, how he operates, and how that will impact the next four years.

Trump is a narcissist who avoids reading and doesn’t care about details. He cannot be persuaded by argument or logic; he’s moved mostly by flattery, and will agree with the last person who flattered him. He can and will upend his own administration’s work without warning, often by tweet.

As a result, most policy experts—even those "on his side"—dread him taking an interest in their field. Ask any Republican staffer who worked in Congress during the last administration, and most of them will confirm that their greatest fear was Trump tweeting about anything related to their work.

As such, people who are serious about their work will do everything to make it as invisible and boring-seeming as possible. This is the policy equivalent of defensive camouflage. Lots of “normie” work will continue in silence. (The lion’s share of tech policy ends up in this bucket.)

If you have a niche issue that you care about, now is a great time to donate to orgs that work on it. Lots of money will be funneled to big legacy orgs working on headline issues: ACLU, climate change orgs, etc. Consider sending your donations where they matter most: local, niche, established.

Trump runs his cabinet like the Apprentice. He thrives on chaos and making people compete for his approval. Not only does he not reward collaboration between his subordinates, he actively undermines it.

Moreover, everyone who works with him knows that they’re vulnerable to being thrown under the bus at a moment’s notice, for any reason (or for no reason at all). His cabinet is going to be scorpions in a bottle. They will not be able to coordinate, for good or ill.

One scorpion can still do a lot of horrific damage. But large scale inter-agency coordination is unlikely, particularly after the first few months, by which point he will likely (prediction warning!) have gone through a handful of cabinet secretaries already.

FINALLY: The view from inside civil society heading into 2025.

In 2016, Trump was a largely unknown quantity. The left and establishment right alike wasted a lot of time trying to read tea leaves and make sense of this guy, because he was completely outside the realm of what anyone had dealt with. That’s not happening now.

He did us a favor by broadcasting his plans in advance (aka Project 2025). Civil society has spent the last 2.5 years strategizing around it. We’re not starting off flat-footed.

The Biden admin did a good amount to future-proof its own achievements. Folks can speak to their own areas of expertise, but clean energy and CHIPS and Science Act (investing in domestic semiconductor production) have benefitted from huge sunk investments. That money’s not getting clawed back.

OVERALL TAKE-AWAYS:

It's going to suck. But civil society and the political left have some advantages we didn't have last time. We know him, we know his angles, and we know who he's bringing in--none of which we had in 2016.

We'll get through this. It will be grim, but we'll get through it.

John Cutting‬ ‪@johncutting.bsky.social‬

Thanks Meredith. I really valued your analysis over the past few years, and I think this is a reasonable, actionable framework to think about the upcoming storm

Meredith Rose‬ ‪@mrose.ink‬

I really cannot overstate how much time was (necessarily) wasted in 2017 trying to figure out this guy and his influences. The fact that he's not only a known quantity, but ran the most over-studied administration in this nation's recent history, makes this a very different game.

John Cutting‬ ‪@johncutting.bsky.social‬

I bet we can weaponize his narcissism. Let's say some ghoul starts making progress with a mass deportation effort, if we start calling that ghoul that "shadow president" en masse, Trump would fire him in right away and appoint Hulk Hogan or something

‪Meredith Rose‬ ‪@mrose.ink‬

This is exactly why I don't think Musk will last very long. Trump is very clear that he's the only one in the room allowed to have an ego or any kind of brand name.