I have, to be fair, a personal philosophical disagreement with Felix Faust that makes me unable to side with him in the end—where his argument to JEDD is that, if immortality is to upload souls into the network then it defeats distance by default. But it's not a kind of immortality I find appealing. I don't think the ultimate goal of humanity should be to defeat death by defeating the concept of being organic. Now, it's not the kind of immortality Terra Ignota suggests is the most likely to happen in the world it depicts, because that's not how Bridger's potions work at all. But it did get me to think, because in some ways... well, I wouldn't say Terra Ignota sides with me on that, not quite, but.

There is do much space given to the physical expression of people; their stature, their form, their expressions too. Mycroft will wax poetics about a smile or a face, emotions are always so intense and dramatic and overwhelming for those who feel them. There is so much emphasis put on food; whether Mycroft has eaten lately (and, well, what he eats), or A9 feeling grateful everytime someone shares food they like. There is so much emphasis put on sex—the series is so relentlessly horny, even when there is no room left in the plot for full insane sex scenes there is room for having babies off screen, or for admiring a cop's biceps as they stretch next to you. There is so much emphasis put on sadness and tears; a whole plot twist is centered around Dominic being unable to see JEDD cry.

And thrice in the story, four if you count the fake account of Lorelei Cook, the worst thing that happens to characters is being imprisoned into their own skin, with no access to their own senses. When A9 comes out of it they almost cry because Carlyle brought soup. They're holding hands during that whole next scene. JEDD, to make Faust yield, also imposes something similar on themselves: to stop acting, to close themselves off, forcing Faust to reach out.

The one thing that ever goes in a slightly different direction is the conversation Eureka has with Carlyle about their childhood and set-set training—where Eureka defends themselves again the idea that they lost something by not spending afternoons in the sun as a kid. But they also in the same conversation insist on the sensory aspect of their existence, on the fact that their nerves have been reworked to feel new things, that others can't even imagine. And it's interesting because Faust is against the concept of set-sets, when they are in fact the closest thing that exists in that world to the kind of immortality they suggest as a goal: bodies modified to perfectly fit into a virtual environment.

And the fun part is that I think Terra Ignota does that to make me feel the conflict at the core of the Utopian position: distance is excruciating to experience, and it is excruciating because holding hands or sharing food on the couch with your friend feels so good that it warrants the narrator to stop the wartime chronicles to talk about it for a moment. I wouldn't say the books side with me on the fact that Faust's idea of connection is a terrible perspective; I think I'm supposed to empathize with how he sees things. But at the same time, the books are never pretending not to be biased; it's even part of the point that it isn't, that you're not reading an exhaustive historical manual but a madman's emotional rambling about things happening to him and around him. So in fact, this is a celebration of our physicality: yes, we are limited things, little contained universes of our own, and distance settles, inevitably, even between our held hands. And it's good that we have hands—and eyes, ears, voices, tongues—to reach out at everything that's outside ourselves. And to blindly go, etc.

all goofing aside I genuinely don't understand the urge to reimagine Taylor Allison Swift as a secretly queer icon when the pop music scene(TM) is like. literally overflowing with women who actually like women. Gaga and Kesha and Miley and Halsey are right there. Rina Sawayama and Hayley Kiyoko and Rebecca Black and Kehlani and Victoria Monét and Miya Folick if you're willing to get slightly less top 100. Janelle and Demi for them nonbinary takes on liking girls. like what are we doing here. like I'm not even saying you can't enjoy Taylor but why would you hang all your little gay hopes on her.

cars will need to use buttons, dials, or stalks for hazard warning lights, indicators, windscreen wipers, SOS calls, and the horn.

Absolutely insane to me that this isn't already required. Disappointed that it doesn't also apply to climate control and music.

they should make this a legal requirement everywhere

More people should abandon Internet discourse and get into observing/engaging with local politics. I say this not because local politics often offers more meaningful opportunities for effective praxis (although it does), but because local politics often offers just as much highly toxic and entertaining petty drama.

I highly recommend city council meetings. You might make yourself an informed voter and active community member or something. You also might get to watch an ongoing soap opera of old men ready to murder one another over trash collection ordinances, and unlike the Internet, none of them can effectually tell one another to kill themselves no matter how hard and how clearly they are thinking it.

learning that apparently several hundred people have been pronouncing 'miette' as 'mighty' has actively worsened my day

i say this with love: yall will make yourselves feel bad about fucking anything, i swear to god. you feel bad about feeling too much. you feel bad about feeling too little. you feel bad about what makes you feel good. you feel bad about not knowing what you like. you feel bad for not being able to survive easily in a world hostile to you. you feel bad for the tactics that you use to survive. you feel bad for how you identify. you feel bad for being unique. you feel bad for experiences that you share with millions of people. you suspect that every feeling, experience, desire, fear, and question in your brain is somehow evidence that you don't deserve to exist.

i can be so so reassuring about all of these things but ultimately you are the one that's gonna have to make a conscious choice to stop measuring yourself in these ways. there is no authority who gets to determine whether you have the right to exist or not. you already do. there is no body that votes on whether you get to feel, identify, or think as you do. you already do. your existence as it is is non-negotiable. stop trying to justify yourself. you're already here. the world is going to have to deal with it anyway.

#LateStageCapitalism

the very rare phenomenon of a volcano producing vapor rings/volcanic vortex rings. Mount Etna today (April 5, 2024) by Boris Behncke

I wish kinky sex ed wasn't so stigmatized even among left-leaning "sex positive" circles. Everyone's all "uwu I'm a sub I'll do anything you ask" okay mommy wants you to read The New Bottoming Book so you learn how to sub without hurting yourself since your sex ed up to this point is porn and your ex boyfriend Jared who liked to choke you incorrectly

how r u gonna call them love handles and then try to convince ppl thats a bad thing. insane to me

*SIGHS*

Another AO3 app that's pretending to be official when it's not (or at least isn't making it clear its unofficial.) They're using AO3's name and logo, and embedding ads.

There is no official AO3 app

Someone else is gathering your data, potentially your log in information etc and making use of it how they please. (They say they're not but their privacy policy says otherwise)

They are making money from the ads without the fic writer's consent.

They've also rated it Pegi 3 (which is ludicrous)

Please, even if you care about nothing else, for the safety of your data, please don't use this app. Certainly don't give it your AO3 log in details.

I've told AO3 that it's infringing on its copyright. I will be requesting they remove access of my work as I do not consent to my creative content being used to generate ad revenue for them.

I will be reporting it as incorrectly rated.

The only email address I can find is [email protected] which is included in their privacy policy, and [email protected] as their developer.

New Crow Time 🐦‍⬛🦊🌟

I’m having a spirited debate and need a larger sample size

I never know how to say this without sounding condescending but when it comes to social media you can simply choose not to be around people who make you unhappy.