hypothesis: the rise of people bringing dogs to places where people generally did not bring dogs to in the past is related to the rise of work-from-home during covid. nearly every person who could basically get a dog on a whim basically did starting in mid-2020, but because these are also the kind of people who could work from home this meant that there would be someone at home with the dog 24/7 for two years straight (at minimum--for some people wfh may still be ongoing, so that's four years!). these dogs were likely given limited (if any) interaction with other dogs or with other people apart from their owners and likely limited (if any) training, obedience or otherwise

so now you have a ton of generally poorly- or untrained dogs who you can't leave at home because years straight of being with people has given them separation anxiety and they'll shit on all the rugs and tear up the couch if left alone for fifteen minutes. you can't leave them in the car because of the same separation anxiety but also maybe someone will try to break your passenger-side window because it's 50F outside but that's basically 190F inside the car! so now i gotta bring them in the store while i get the honey nut cheerios. and the last time i put them in the doggie chest carrier they barked at everyone they saw so today i'll grab the stroller instead and put all the shades down

I hate hate hate hate how dog friendly everything is in the city now. Barring medical necessity, there is no reason to bring your dog to a restaurant, there is no reason to bring your dog to the grocery store, there is no reason to bring your dog to the nail salon. Dogs do not need to go everywhere you go why am I being forced to be around dogs all the time

"love arrakis, love the spice trade, 'ate atreides, not racist just don't like 'em"

It's awesome to see these sweet boys sharing a sensitive giggle

hey everyone, hope things are doing alright! just one quick question for our little "what will your job in the post-revolutionary commune be"-style hypothetical: who will be responsible for content moderation?

my guess is that no one is going to volunteer for it, nor will anyone want to be part of a random lottery on getting assigned it. this is, of course, with one exception: the people who absolutely, positively, 100% should never, ever, ever do it

anyway, real good hustle out there, now go hit the showers

Has the tumblr community ever considered... buying tumblr? Like obviously the most recent purchase price would easily be within range of a moderately successful fundraiser, the ongoing operating costs are a mystery but basically replacing staff for dedicated volunteers would probably shave down a lot... as someone who has basically externally replaced native search for this site, would you like a crack at the actual site search? Has this been floated already? Is it a bad idea? Good but bad?

What's the most recent purchase price?

love you chicken parm and chicken and waffles, new york pizza and chicago pizza and greek pizza and yes tomato pie, even you. love you biscuits and gravy and hoagies and buffalo chicken and barbecue, new england clam chowder and po'boys and lobster rolls. love you bourbon and rye and applejack and cocktails even if i say i don't in the morning. love you mennonite bakery between cedar rapids and iowa city (take a left at the porta-shitters) and bagel place in brockton (they make them fresh that day) and donut shop near los angeles (piping hot and cheap)

love you baseball and basketball and getting a 30-rack with some friends before a game of wiffleball. love you american football, friday night lights and saturday night in death valley and waiting all day for sunday night and a monday night party, though i think there are some things we can work on. love you playoffs and single elimination tournaments, refined here even if you came from elsewhere

love you joshua trees and redwood trees and maple trees and petrified trees (do NOT take anything), zion and yellowstone and yosemite, rockies and appalachians and big titt--sorry, "grand tetons"

love you jazz and blues, rap and rock, bluegrass and country, broadway and gospel and motown. love you vaudville and slapstick, erotic thrillers and family dramas. love you 80s action movies with names like "KILL HUNT" that served only to fill shelves at video stores and get cameron mitchell a paycheck

america was founded on the deaths of countless indigenous and enslaved peoples, minorities and the working class ground to dust beneath the boot of capital. anyone who says that america is perfect is selling you a bill of goods, but so is anyone saying that there is nothing worthwhile here, that there is nothing worth saving of the labors of the 330 million alive and the numerous dead. even the french did not destroy versailles

anyways (I say this as someone who is deeply critical of the united states government, military, unchecked capitalism, police, etc) I am SICK of people treating america as if it has no cultural value or positives so….. I love u 85 million acres (bigger than italy) of national parks. I love u harlem renaissance. I love u groundhogs day. I love u sweet tea and fried chicken and jambalaya. I love u apple cider donuts and maizes on crisp autumn days. I love u 95k miles of coastlines and new england fisherman and hand knitted sweaters. I love u halloween where millions of people dress up and give candy to strangers and carve jack o’lanterns. I love u small talk and small towns and potlucks and bringing over casseroles to your struggling neighbors. I love u cowboys and ranch hands and arizonian cactus. I love u appalachian trail and dirtbikes and divebars. I love u sparklers and fireflies. I love u mark twain and toni morrison and emily dickinson and henry david thoreau. I love u rock n roll i love u bluegrass and hippies i love u jimi hendrix and nirvana and CCR and janis joplin. I love u victorian houses and jonny appleseed and john henry and mothman and bigfoot. I love u foggy days in the pacific northwest and neon signs and roadside attractions. I love u baseball and 1950s diners and soft serve. I love u native american art and pop art and poptarts. I love u blue jeans and barbecues and jazz musicians 

and all those beautiful colors combine to form a beautiful rainbow, a brilliant reminder that gay people aren't allowed to participate in the parade #lovewins

All the MBTA lines are getting in on celebrating st. Patty’s day!

The green line is green, like the Emerald Isle

The orange line is like the color of fine irish hair

The red line is for the blood of the hardworking boston Irish who made this city what it is

And the Blue Line is for every cop who’s going to get away with a racially motivated incident because that’s what America is about 😘

fern and stark present: how to produce quality animation, 120 years of best methods and practices (2024)

not a sandwich, apparently:

Behind The Sandwich

We give you some insight into how we decide what is and what isn’t a sandwich.

Gushers Grilled Cheese - Not a Sandwich by a 2-1 vote.

Hungry Musician - Yes food between bread, if you consider a pile of coloring and sugar food. 

Sandwich Blandwich - Gushers are a candy like snack which makes it fall into the dessert category. Dessert is never a sandwich.

Creatively GF - Gross, it's not a sandwich.

the items on my recent work trip to phoenix that i will be claiming reimbursement for, ranked & reviewed:

two donuts and an iced tea at the donut place across the street from the hotel. the platonic ideal of a donut to me is that they should taste good and you should be able to eat two of them in the morning and be able to go about the rest of your day no problem. dunkin donuts are not this because they do not taste good, and the donuts from artisanal donut places are not this because you eat half of one and need to go down for a nap, and these seem to be the only options around where i live. by contrast, these donuts were light and fluffy, and i was able to maintain attention through boring work meetings without wanting to take a nap for reasons associated with the donuts. the iced tea, flavor-wise, was nothing special (clearly just made from ordinary tea bags) but was strong, which also an unfortunate rarity. in total, like $7, great deal.

hotel stay at the sheraton downtown. got a room with two double beds instead of one king, which is whatever. the comforter was not a comforter, but instead some manner of fitted sheet wrapped around a plastic blanket? it was unclear to me at any point why this was, but was especially unclear when the blanket became unfitted from the sheet, waking me up at 4am while i tried to piece together what happened. also, i dislike the new trend of putting full size toiletries in bathrooms now, i want to steal tiny lotions man, c'mon. food provided for meeting was pretty good and varied (no boxed lunches!). stay overall was okay, but not $700 for two nights okay.

parking at the central parking garage at logan airport. turns out that the central garage at 10am on wednesdays can be full! my car was "valeted" which in practice means they parked it at the next open spot and then the parking attendant gave me my key and told me where it was. also the parking attendant did not have the correct location for my car. $123 but considering that the other option was public transit there an after-midnight uber back i think i'm okay with paying this. the sumner tunnel being closed after 11pm did not affect the placing of this on the list. this whole parking experience was stressful for reasons i will go into later.

the items on my recent work trip to phoenix that are already paid for but i need to include on my reimbursement for record keeping purposes, ranked & reviewed:

flight from boston to phoenix. six hours in the air is a long ass time. they only provided snacks once (the impression i got was that they didn't have many tp give out??), and it was just a packet of two biscoff cookies. read some of a book about coding, wrote some notes about a coding project i'm working on in my spare time, listened to the religion disasters episode of the shutdown fullcast (see below). i do not know how i managed to handle flights this long in the past before i had an adderall prescription. i had a flight from new york to phoenix late last year where my dose wore off midway through and i was unable to take my afternoon pill, and i quickly started feeling like i would do something that would land me on a watchlist or get tackled by an air marshall.

flight from phoenix to boston. somehow i think the flight was only four hours and change (not sure how. jet stream?) but we spent an additional hour and a half at the gate in phoenix while they fixed a computer issue. finished reading "the pigeon tunnel" by john le carre and read some more of a couple of coding books. pulled up to the gate at midnight which is too late to get food pretty much anywhere. i think overall my time on this plane was shorter than the flight out but it was so much worse.

the items on my recent work trip to phoenix that i will not be claiming reimbursement for, ranked & reviewed:

three donuts and an iced tea at the donut place across the street from the hotel. the donuts mentioned above were so good that i went back the next day even though breakfast was being provided. ordered and paid for two donuts and they gave me three instead. $7, and winner of DEAL OF THE TRIP. can't reimburse because a meal was provided.

two tacos, rice, and refried beans from a taco place across from the phoenix suns' arena. good food, not too heavy and didn't make me more tired than i already was. got to peoplewatch the bad bunny fans go to the concert, always neat. i think $15? can't reimburse because i paid cash and forgot to get a receipt like a dope.

two sazeracs from the hotel bar. love a sazerac. was ordering off-menu but checked with the bartender on if they had the stuff to make one and he said yes (even had the absinthe). i feel like hotel bars generally make good, if expensive, drinks. enjoyed these with coworkers and two people who i would with but wouldn't classify as coworkers for reasons i will not get into (mainly we don't work for the same company). $15 or so each, i think. can't reimburse because alcohol

two house margaritas at the taco place mentioned above. for some reason i am a sucker for a cocktail that you get from a tap. good enough, had a bit of a carbonated taste to it but overall enjoyed. stronger than the drinks that i bought at a recent work outing to a local sports bar. $13 each, which is a lot, but it's next to an arena so i'll give it to them. can't reimburse because alcohol.

glass of (i think) sauvignon blanc at the hotel bar. did not drink this myself, but bought for a coworker i really appreciate. don't remember how much, but probably $12-15. can't reimburse because alcohol.

taxi ride to the airport from the hotel. the best thing i can say is that we got there in plenty of time. we managed to do that by blowing through two red lights. very cool! $25. can't reimburse because i did not get a receipt and paid cash because the driver could not find his credit card reader thing.

vibes and other miscellaneous that i interacted with on my recent work trip to phoenix that are ineligible for reimbursement by virtue of the fact that they are vibes, ranked & reviewed:

the most recent live episode of the shutdown fullcast (the internet's only college football podcast), which is a combination book release party for jason kirk's book ("hell is a world without you") and a religion disasters episode. fantastic. tremendous. i must have looked crazy to the person sitting next to me trying not to laugh out loud on the flight out. also includes at least one excerpt from the book which was amazing (i believe there were two excerpts but i can't recall at the moment if the second fully-casted read was in the book, but this was very good too), as was the fact that the entire pre-order proceeds ($56,000) went to the trevor project. The whole thing shifted "hell is..." up to next on my reading list once i finished...

the pigeon tunnel, by john le carre. le carre's my favorite author so it shouldn't be a surprise that i enjoyed what would probably be best described as his abridged memoirs. while initially disappointed that it's not a full telling of his life, i do somewhat respect the idea that the life-stories of the assets he ran aren't really his to tell, and that cover remains cover even to the dead (nevermind the fact that most spy stuff is dull). certainly, "a perfect spy" is a more complete biography than we'll receive otherwise. it's not his best work and certainly no tinker, tailor or smiley's people but i'm not sure anything he'd written in the past 15 or so years would be.

the idea of flying six hours one-way to go to a two-day in-person meeting. it was nice to see people i hadn't seen in person for months or years, but i'm not sure that phoenix was the best destination for it. flying out on the day before the meeting instead of the day of (as originally planned) turned out to be a saving grace, and probably would've meant either no real sleep or sleep during the meeting. would've preferred it in DC as originally planned.

"what the hell, there's nothing in here that can even GO rancid" i say aloud in my pantry, before turning my head to the plastic bag that i remember has the last of four onions i bought a month ago

one of the worst irl debuffs is "something in the kitchen smells weird but you cant find it". you have to just do the rituals and hope for the best (taking out the trash, boiling water down the sink, look for lost potatoes etc)

kenmore is also a reminder that there is one constant in this world, no matter our diverging paths:

let's go red sox

clap

clap

clap-clap-clap

Do you also find the way that kenmore splits into muiltple routes but also connects into one for a short while sort of erotic? And they have a bus station!

Kenmore is a metaphor for the different paths people take through life. We are all born the same, equal, but as we make our contact with each other and society we come to be differentiated but never separated as fellow travelers until the moment where we return, absolutely, to the diffuse stage of total release from identity when not even our bones or our name hold meaning.

Also a metaphor for when I get sex-whipped jesus style by a guy in an mbta uniform

first gunnarwolfe fontaine, now the b line not running, bu students stay losing

why is the middle of the green line shutting down again

this is violence against boston university students

The B will start running again when you put the cage on

ROLL DAMN TIDE

“What do you mean the tower is gone? Are you sure you’re in the right place? I actually used more colorful words than that,” Brett Elmore recounted to NBC News. “He said there’s wires all over the ground and the tower is gone.”

only one person taking this class at the university of michigan, owners of the third-largest stadium on the planet, was caught checking espn?

brother even the cs students sing "hail to the victors"

WHO GOT CAUGHT!?

outside of everything else in the replies...

IMAGINE the kind of 60+-year-old who has no issue with living with roommates--not family!--one-third their age. imagine one that would prefer to do so rather than living on their own.

i live in the boston housing market, i know it's nuts, but i have a very tough time imagining that someone can make it to 60 and not manage to be able to afford rent on their own (or with one other person) somewhere within the 95 loop.

You couldn't pay me

that she was initially willing to give up all that for 5 yuan indicates a motivated seller

Paying 5 yuan for hot gossip

English added by me :)

i was feeling whistful a few months ago and realized that i still had my old livejournal active so i took a look to see what my friends and i were posting about in the early/mids-2000s and holy shit. so much fucking personal information. like, streets we lived on, class schedules, pets' names, shit like that! i was more careful than most and i still was shocked at what i was posting. and some of my friends had full names! sexual histories! orientations! voluntarily, in a fuckin infodump! just absolute madness

i need people to understand that if one has your first and last name, your nearest city or large town, and about a hour, it is trivial to find your home address and phone number. it does not need to be your current last name. it does not need to be your current place of residence. trivial.

to know all this, and then have a carrd that lists your traumas and triggers, just...buddy, might as well just hand someone a knife at that point

"Not having a carrd is a red flag!" No a red flag is you thinking you're entitled to a little pamphlet full of someone else's information.