Maeve and I went to Marie Antoinette (2006), and there was a small costume contest beforehand, during which it came out that two different attendees consider it a go-to birthday movie. And, like, I guess I get it. The dang thing is just packed with amazing shots of desserts.

By the way: "Vote blue no matter who" is fake, and always has been. Literally not even the Democratic Party actually believes it. All the slogan meant was "vote for right wingers and don't complain about it". Remember this moment:

We have now, by a process something like binary search, finally found where America's "line" is. The culture of the United States will stand up for - Tylenol, but not vaccines (childhood or COVID) - Jimmy Kimmel, but NOT the only black contributor to the Washington Post op-ed page

Okay why the fuck is everyone subskeeting "the rapture" today.

There's this style of meme that's a game or anime screenshot doctored to have a character say something about self-care or anti-capitalism, and usually I'm like, fine, whatever floats your boat. But specifically when it's from Sailor Moon-- and only Sailor Moon-- I get so curmudgeonly about it!

The updated COVID/histamine link thread because people keep tagging me in to explain it and I keep intending to update the post from 2023 (synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/805203.html) and just not having the capacity because of my own health shit so here is a thread I can pin

Fan theory: the Happy Boxes in Mother 3 are playing the World's Fair Challenge video from We're All Going To The World's Fair.

God this is the same day as (I'm not gonna post an image of Trump's social media posts here but it's easy to find) him instructing Attorney General Bondi, in public (and maybe accidentally but maybe not), who to go after for what are explicitly acknowledged as political reasons, huh.

Evergreen skeet.

And now my following count is also higher here than it is on Mastodon! Thanks to... @chicago-seasons.bsky.social, a bot by @maeveynot.bsky.social. As with follower counts, this does still include anyone I who has me blocked. I don't know if there's anyone like that, though, and I'm not gonna check.

Jason Garcia has been in the ICU since September 2 for a perforated appendix and needs funds to cover their hospitalization and recovery. I really can’t overstate how good people Jason is. They always show up for everyone in need with so much care. Now it’s our turn to show up and care for them! ❤️‍🩹

I really enjoyed Adrian Tchaikovsky's Elder Race. It alternates perspectives between a misfit fourth-born princess enlisting an ancient wizard's help and an anthropologist with clinical depression, fresh out of cryosleep, who once broke the Prime-Directive-equivalent for her ancestor. So charming

Authoritarianism is scary and dangerous but so very far from invincible. And if you let yourself be convinced too much of their power, then they've won. Authoritarianism is built on fragile illusions of control and competence. It's hard but brittle and shatters readily under even a little pushback.

In honor of "Talk Like A Pirate-Day" we have this humble spontaneous offering from days of yore. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y79... h/t to TDK.

Okay, to put an even sharper point on this: they are not even 9 months in and they are openly censoring *Jimmy fucking Kimmel* because he poked fun at the president for lack of empathy. These are desperate moves. They are desperate because they are weak and people are naming it.

I avoided letting my browser store form data for so long that I'm still really not used to how half-assed the whole thing is. Like, I get why! Don't explain why to me. But it's still weird how, like, with just one random retailer my library username is suggested as a possible name on my credit card

More Covid booster anecdata (Illinois-specific?): I got mine at Walgreens: the pharmacist asked me if I had a condition that put me at risk, I said yes, and there were no further questions. (Also got the flu shot, so I'll probably feel under the weather tomorrow, but as per always it's worth it.)

Well, I got the invitation to my 25th high school reunion. The things that reach you when you make sure old email addresses still work, I suppose. I... don't think I'll be filling out the survey this time, or following the Facebook page. (Or attending, but I didn't attend the 5th or 10th either.)

Report: You To Be Fired For Reading This Headline About Charlie Kirk

I'm gonna just say this: if you are a trans person, you need to have other trans people in your life that you can co-regulate with and you need to talk to them more than you talk to Bluesky. This app is a firehose of terror and bad news for us and it's going to tie your amygdala in a damn knot.

PS: I feel like the online trans community got really siloed into transfemmes talking only to other transfemmes and transmascs winding up talking only to other transmascs and I want to push back on that. The IRL communities I've been in weren't like that. Yes, this is relevant to my queer porn recs

If you don't already have this book, or if you like buying books twice. (It's what my username is cheekily referencing, if that gives any extra force to my recommendation.)

Good news in the am keeps me resilient. Due to intense backlash, GOP chair of the House foreign affairs committee filed amendment to eliminate a measure from his State Dept. policy provisions act, that would give Rubio powers to revoke US citizens’ passports over allegations of supporting terrorism.

Did any of y'all place a hold on Pierre Chuvin's _A Chronicle Of The Last Pagans_ at the Chicago Public Library after I'd mentioned it? And, if so, did you get a copy with missing pages? They'd meant to take that one out of circulation, but, if they didn't, DM me for photos of the missing pages.

An immigration agent shot and killed an unarmed 38-year-old father outside Chicago on Friday—and their initial narrative of events was quickly disproven by videos captured by witnesses. https://bit.ly/3IbeDjf

I see lots of criticism of "AI", which is right and good, and there are so, so many different angles for extremely valid critique. But I don't see this one brought up often enough. And it's important. This is where the "intelligence" that isn't just the amalgamated work of Reddit users comes from.

I've now seen the movie Hackers, and I have questions: #1: In the part where our main character correctly identifies all those books, the Dragon Book really stood out to me. All the others felt appropriate for the time and the sorts of hacking the characters were into, but, a compiler book, really?

After years of seeing SimzArt witches-and-ghost-cats pieces here and there I just love the environmental storytelling in this one.

I know times are tough for everyone, but if any of y'all can help my partner out it would be so appreciated: www.gofundme.com/f/help-cover... He's still in limbo applying for disability. And he's probably going to need knee surgery soon. Meanwhile, every month there are the bills. #TransCrowdFund

I finished Raven Stratagem! That was fun. Now at some point I need to read Revenant Gun, which has only been spoiled for me in as much as I've gotten one character name. So I'm expecting, like, the Spider-Man pointing meme? Or perhaps some sort of giant flytrap?

i understand this is hard to believe and i don't mean to diminish the headwinds we are all facing right now but you have to remember that using shock and awe to make bigotry look more popular than it is is fascism 101. most people did not just forget that trans people are normal in the past 8 months

Making some experimental fusion cuisine tonight: boiling mushroom pierogi and Korean pork-and-leek dumplings in the same pot, then adding hoisin sauce.

LRS: this is kind of a "note to self" thing, as I've switched to using blacksky.community myself. You can use it even if you have a normal "bsky dot social" account. Change the hosting provider to Custom and put your fully qualified account name there too. There's no app, but the mobile site works.

If anyone's migrating off bsky.app to alternate appviews like blacksky.community (or "northsky"?) here's a tip. Install the "redirector" addon: addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefo... And config as below (see alt text) Now URLs you type or paste, or links to bluesky on the web, go to blacksky instead.

I'm finally reading _Raven Stratagem_, and I've been really enjoying its viewpoint characters: - General Whose Submission Buttons Are Being Pushed For The First Time In Years - Ruthless Spymaster Somehow Based On Kaoru Miki ("After The Revolution" Version) - Hey Was There A Third Guy?????????

the sea of your skin breaking the boundary between night and day is a social construct

Alternatively, literally any Uzbek learning source emphasizing spoken language - we have a two/three year old who doesn’t understand English and it’s their first week and they’re scared

I don't mean that I regularly spend time in particularly poor Chicago neighborhoods, though I also don't stick to the well-gentrified (or always-rich) parts of the city. I mean they'd be afraid of stretches of mostly-empty storefronts, or of graffiti under train tracks or overpasses, or of alleys.

It's funny how basically every endonym ultimately means "the people" and basically every exonym ultimately means "guys who don't talk good"

A nice thing to think about is how every boy who called me a fag, who laughed at how I'd flinch at sportsballs, who'd jab me with a fork at lunch or a pencil during class or shove me aside if we passed each other in the halls, has grown into a man who's terrified of parts of Chicago I walk through.

Tyler Robinson's Glorious Ascent From Dead Meat Tranny To Actual Human Boy Deserving Of Life

I know times are tough for everyone, but if any of y'all can help my partner out it would be so appreciated: www.gofundme.com/f/help-cover... He's still in limbo applying for disability. And he's probably going to need knee surgery soon. Meanwhile, every month there are the bills. #TransCrowdFund

There’s a lot of this specific bullshit going on right now.

i think it’s really important that the narrative of this becomes “this man did everything in his power to create the conditions that led to his demise.” he left the physical violence for his surrogates, but he cheered them on at every opportunity and offered material support when he could.

The kind of girl I apparently am these days, apparently. I'll write more about the book eventually. It was a good read, though definitely written for people better educated on those parts of history than I am. I ended up checking Wikipedia a LOT. [Thank you @tabbysable.bsky.social for the record.]

Another instance of "AI" encouraging the atrophy of basic life skills. When I was a teenager we had to provide our own snarky/unhelpful running commentary and make people around us uneasy all on our own, and that's why as adults we've been able to... ...actually, never mind, forget I brought it up

When you see someone on Bluesky has been "suspended". Does that mean they've been flagged as suspended by the "composable moderation" service, or is Bluesky bypassing their claimed open moderation system and blocking people directly from the appview/relay services?

I love these Hello ICE posters from Chicago - we need a Boston version.