smbilodeau
The Quantum Realm
Strange color charm...
4263 posts
Last active 3 hours ago
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
Last Seen Blogs
datecolombianwomen
Date Colombian Women
king-for-a-weekend
Hope is a Prison
marioandretti
records are there to be broken
traulisms
:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ
waterfallprincessmarine
Princess of Waterfalls
Text
The Witches and the Singing Mice' by Jenny Nimmo, illustrated by Angela Barrett
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
April 27th is International Crow and Raven Appreciation Day! My comic Crow time is pretty much stuffed to the brim with crows, so it's a good way to celebrate these goth little dudes.
READ CROW TIME!
OR GET PLUSH GOTH BOI?? WOW!
4K notes
·
View notes
Text
317 notes
·
View notes
Text
Some gods are gods for a lifetime, gods you win or are won by and pledge yourself to with all due devotion, serving at their altars from the cradle to the grave. Other gods are gods of the moment, here to see us through a transformative experience and then leave us on the other side as someone new, someone other than we were before. They are the gods of the first day of school, the first kiss, the first love, the first loss.
Or, in the case of dear Daria, the first flight.
Because she sits astride a broom, many take her for a god of witches, or of charwomen, but neither of these is quite correct, unless those spellcasters or hearth-sweepers are taking to the air for their very maiden voyages. Because she is a god of firsts, and young to the eye, many assume that she must be inexperienced, naïve, an easy god to take advantage of. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Daria isn’t jaded, because she’s worked hard to retain the sense of innocence and wonder that makes it possible for her to truly connect with the people in her keeping, to soothe their nerves and laugh away their worries, but she isn’t new here, either. Daria has been shepherding people through their first flights since the Wright Brothers. Lovely boys. Very sweet, very generous with their time in the brief hours they spent together.
Her time with her faithful is never long, but those who have flown with her once will never forget her again.
Daria is always prepared to take to the skies.
122 notes
·
View notes
Text
I love Apollo 8 because not only was it like a monumental human achievement to orbit the moon but also they took like 800 photos and they’re all absolutely stunning
What a beautiful world we share
400 notes
·
View notes
Text
Y'all, the world is sleeping on what NASA just pulled off with Voyager 1
The probe has been sending gibberish science data back to Earth, and scientists feared it was just the probe finally dying. You know, after working for 50 GODDAMN YEARS and LEAVING THE GODDAMN SOLAR SYSTEM and STILL CHURNING OUT GODDAMN DATA.
So they analyzed the gibberish and realized that in it was a total readout of EVERYTHING ON THE PROBE. Data, the programming, hardware specs and status, everything. They realized that one of the chips was malfunctioning.
So what do you do when your probe is 22 Billion km away and needs a fix? Why, you just REPROGRAM THAT ENTIRE GODDAMN THING. Told it to avoid the bad chip, store the data elsewhere.
Sent the new code on April 18th. Got a response on April 20th - yeah, it's so far away that it took that long just to transmit.
And the probe is working again.
From a programmer's perspective, that may be the most fucking impressive thing I have ever heard.
79K notes
·
View notes
Text
I think we may have accidentally adopted an anteater.
7K notes
·
View notes
Text
Beauty through spite. I love it! And it is really, really beautiful.
87K notes
·
View notes
Text
Adorable Pet Kimonos
Adorable Pet Kimonos by S. M. Bilodeau
Did you know that there’s still a store open down at the old mall?
I’d thought the place had been abandoned years ago, once the government moved all financial dealings online, back in the 2030s. I mean, nobody I know goes down there any more. But, nope, when I wandered by a little while back, I saw some lights on. Having nothing pressing, I stopped in.
Spooky place, the mall was. No lights anywhere besides the store. Everything of value stripped out long ago, including the windows. The wind moved through it, and echoed and re-echoed. Almost a song, singing of old, dead capitalism, and old, dead dreams of beauty and avarice.
But right there by the entrance, there was a store. Lights on. Windows in. Even had a neon (that’s what they call those bright loopy sign lights that aren’t LEDs, isn’t it? Neon?) sign over their doors. Guy Shaw, or something like that. It was kinda cursive-y, which made it hard for me to read.
I was really brave, and went through the doors, which opened automatically before me, and closed again behind me. It was so bright inside! And so filled with colors! Everywhere there were racks and racks and racks of these little robe-y things, in patterns and flowers and colors. So many it was hard to focus on any single robe.
It was stunning. I mean, literally literally stunning — the visual jostle and the bright lights and some type of ambient music I’d never heard before left me just standing there, entranced.
Finally, tho’, I pulled myself together enough to check if there was a sales clerk? Sales clerk? Is that right? Anyway, someone there responsible for the store, who could tell me what it was all about. There didn’t seem to be. I was the only one there.
I turned to leave, but couldn’t resist running one finger down the nearest robe, a stark white and black thing with a wide belt in red and black. It looked so soft. It was too. And it purred at me, shivering a little under my hand! Like it was alive!
As if the purr were a signal, a wall panel beside the door lit up and began spooling geometric shapes and explosions and quick snaps of Japan, I think it was. Anyway, some place here with trees with pink blossoms and funny buildings with multistory roofs and everyone had dark hair and were wearing what looked like people size versions of the robes all around me. The people moved kinda slowly, and shuffle-y, but that might have been the funny sandals they all seemed to be wearing.
“Welcome to Guyshaw’s!” spilled from the panel’s unseen speakers. “If you’re looking for your very own Adorable Pet Kimono,” (I could hear the capitals) “then you’ve come to the right place! We’ve got a style and a color that will suit everyone! How may we help you?”
“Uh, hi…” I said, a little dazed by the panel’s enthusiasm. “Uhm, I don’t know? Maybe? I don’t know how this works?”
“No problem at all, dear, we’ll be happy to help you choose your very own Adorable Pet Kimono for your very own life companion! An Adorable Pet Kimono requires very little care and comes with a lifetime guarantee! All you have to do is pick one!”
“Pick one? One what? I mean, what are they?”
“Adorable Pet Kimonos are the modern person’s answer to joy! All of the pleasures of having your very own pet with none of the downside!”
“What do I need to feed it? I’ve never had a pet before. Do I need to wash it, or brush it, or anything like that?”
The panel chuckled. “Each and every Adorable Pet Kimono comes with a bottle of SmartFluid to get you, and it, started! A drop a day on the tag in the neck is all it needs, and once the two of you are acclimated, it won’t even need that! It’s self-cleaning so no worries there! All you need to do is take it out into the sunshine on nice days, and it’ll all be as right as rain!”
“Oh. Ah. How much does it cost?”
“For you, dear, nothing! It’s all covered as part of UBI! Personal mental health, don’t you know?!”
“Oh. Well. Uhm. Ah. Okay!” I started to leave, but the doors wouldn’t open. “Oh, hey, panel? Could you pop the doors?” I said, nervously.
“That’s odd! I don’t know what’s wrong with them! Here, let’s try this. Pick an Adorable Pet Kimono, and bring it to the door, and see if that helps!”
It seemed strange, but I went back to the racks, and looked around, and finally found a sky blue one that was just so lovely. It had a spiral of patterns that started at the front hem, and worked its way around the back, up under the right arm, and up to the collar. The spiral was a spectrum of color, red at the bottom, and worked its way through all of ROYGBIV by the end. Starting out as squares and rectangles they slowly transformed until they were flowers at the neck. Its belt was silver white, like clouds against the sky of the robe. I touched it, and it purred, and cuddled slightly against my hand. I was enthralled at its softness and warmth.
I took it back up to the doors, and a small glass cylinder of bright red fluid tipped out of an opening next to the talkative panel. I caught it one-handed as it slipped free, and the doors slid open.
“Ah, there we go!” enthused the panel. “Enjoy your Adorable Pet Kimono!”
“But…” I started to say, attempting to put the robe back and the bottle down, but the doors started to slide shut again, so I stepped through and back out into the mall. The door closed behind me and wouldn’t open again.
So, now I have an Adorable Pet Kimono. Three of them, now, actually. I took my original one home, not quite knowing what to do with it. I followed the panel’s directions, giving it a drop or two of SmartFluid each day, and taking it out into the sunshine when we had it. It was neat — after the first couple of days of sun, it started to hover, and move on its own.
I’d go to sleep at night, and wake up with it cuddled up against me. It’d settle on my lap while I was online, or watching TV. It purred every time I petted it. I really began to enjoy having it around, so warm and soft and cuddly.
It must have been pregnant when I got it, because after a couple of weeks, I found it curled up with two smaller versions of itself, but in different colors. One was all browns and oranges and whites and black, and the other was a lovely ginger red.
I gave them all their drops of SmartFluid each day, and took them out for sunning, and it seems to have been good for them, as they’re all getting bigger. I do worry about them not getting enough SmartFluid, as I only have the one bottle, and I haven’t been able to get down to the old mall. And I sometimes wake up from my naps with the two little ones rubbing their tags against my fingers.
Be that as it may, I’m loving my Adorable Pet Kimonos. And the mama one is starting to get much bigger, big enough that it’s nearly my size. I’m wondering if it will let me put it on when it’s big enough? I hope so. It’s so soft and warm and cuddly, and it purrs so very loudly, eagerly, almost hungrily, when it lays against me.
1 note
·
View note
Text
So, you're saying The Talking Cure works? VGER let its analysts know everything that was on its mind, and they were able to redirect its thoughts to stable patterns?
Cool, cool, cool....
Y'all, the world is sleeping on what NASA just pulled off with Voyager 1
The probe has been sending gibberish science data back to Earth, and scientists feared it was just the probe finally dying. You know, after working for 50 GODDAMN YEARS and LEAVING THE GODDAMN SOLAR SYSTEM and STILL CHURNING OUT GODDAMN DATA.
So they analyzed the gibberish and realized that in it was a total readout of EVERYTHING ON THE PROBE. Data, the programming, hardware specs and status, everything. They realized that one of the chips was malfunctioning.
So what do you do when your probe is 22 Billion km away and needs a fix? Why, you just REPROGRAM THAT ENTIRE GODDAMN THING. Told it to avoid the bad chip, store the data elsewhere.
Sent the new code on April 18th. Got a response on April 20th - yeah, it's so far away that it took that long just to transmit.
And the probe is working again.
From a programmer's perspective, that may be the most fucking impressive thing I have ever heard.
79K notes
·
View notes
Text
Midnight Pals: The First Omen
Arkasha Stevenson: submitted for the approval of the midnight society, i call this the tale of the first omen
Stevenson: things about to get real catholic here
William Peter Blatty: yes.. ha ha YES!!
Stevenson: and even more italian
Lovecraft: Lovecraft: oh uh i don't like that
Stevenson: it's about a moribund religious institution forcing a woman to carry a baby against her will set against the political violence of the years of lead
Alex Garland: why you hafta get all political
Garland: why can't people just make nice films anymore
Stevenson: see the thing about my film is
Stevenson: it engages with the moment
Garland: oh but i prefer a film that doesn't engage with the moment
Garland: hey has anyone here seen adam sandler's you don't mess with the zohan? what a tour de force!! [chef's kiss]
Stevenson: so this american woman goes to rome to become a nun
Stevenson: but what she doesn't realize
Stevenson: is how incredibly italian everything will be
Stevenson: and also its the 70s, which is statistically speaking, the MOST italian time period
Stevenson: like things are SO italian
Lovecraft: [sweats] they can't be THAT italian, right? i mean, it's just
Lovecraft: just a little bit italian right??
Lovecraft: right???
Stevenson: it's smoking nuns level italian
Lovecraft: [sweating intensifies]
Stevenson: but even better, so catholic
William Peter Blatty: yes, yes, i like it!
Stevenson: there's gonna be this one irish priest-
Blatty: that's me
Blatty: that guy is me
Stevenson: and his accent is SO thick
Blatty: that's my OC now
Stevenson: you know what the omen really needed, though?
Stevenson: hot hot devil sex
Barker: that is true
Barker: the omen DID have a severe lack of devil sex
Barker: i noticed that when i watched it, kind of a glaring oversight actually
Stevenson: well, don't worry
Stevenson: we rectify that in this version
Stevenson: we're gonna flash the devil's dick
Blatty: whoa you can't flash the devil's dick!
Barker: yeah, that's right, you really need to linger
Barker: we all want a good look at that
Barker: like, how are we supposed to see anything when you flash it so fast?
Frank Belknap Long: oh it's nothing special, it's just a bad dragon model 57a Willowtongue ® the Ent, 2017 Alt-Porn award winner
Barker:
Stevenson: now we are retconning a few things about the omen
Stevenson: for example, this time damien has a mom
Stevenson: instead of being birthed by a dog
Barker: oh but that was dean's favorite part
Dean Koontz: i wish my mom was a dog :(
Barker: kid just really loves dogs
54 notes
·
View notes