Finally knuckled down last night to book my next training trip to Japan for May and June. About two and a half weeks there, plenty of training time, with a few extra days to explore more and also train some more. Exciting, this will be my third trip (all for budo training).

This is a very specific comment but: GOODBYE CON CRUD

A coyote from memory as my first test drawing after finding out my Wacom connects to my tablet. The faint marks are an issue of the tablet's sensitivity being constantly engaged, so that's where my pen has hovered- but kind of charming and a human touch #coyote

One of the things that personally drives me crazy in the U.S. is how youth sports/athletic activities went from a part of the public good (municipal leagues and fields! rec centers! public parks!) to a privatized, expensive, highly competitive, highly structured pursuit for wealthy kids’ résumés

Lord I have seen what you have done for others and I want that for myself

Under the Blanket. A Metra train rolling under the fog this week in Chicago.

Honestly I could use some basket weavers — I want to get more medieval storage options and baskets are part of that, but good luck finding a decent period-ish basket at a store now. Straw hats too.

Man I can’t disagree with any of the things people say about him, but since my playthrough is taking a polyamorous approach, I think the dumb idiot can fill a role there without having to be all you get. The game doesn’t support polyamory properly but also doesn’t prevent it.

finished aviation YCH for @calicokrbu.bsky.social !!

To paraphrase @trashfuture.bsky.social they’re desperately hoping the can build God before the consequences of their actions catch up to them, and fuck the rest of us in the meantime.

Advanced Tactical Fighter commission for @randomlab.bsky.social

Something like normalcy and lower temperatures can return after the GOP has been burned to ash and used as fertilizer for a better system. Give me a decently left party and let the Democrats be the center right party they would be anywhere else.

if your hobby is touched in any way by electronic components needed by the hyperscalars, AI is coming for it, gaming most of all shortages everywhere as far as the eye can see

You’d think having a cabinet full of felons, abusers, drunks, security liabilities, grifters, half wits AND people who were way too close with Epstein would be more problematic than what people call them collectively. But yeah, Epstein Administration fits.

TIL that before Gov. Abigail Spanberger joined the CIA, she was a Postal Inspector, which I suspect is actually where her impeccable energy comes from. Postal Inspectors are apex predators.

Salty Chicago Sunrise. Another look at Monday's start in the Windy City.

she didn’t throw trans people under the bus and she thinks republicans are the scum of the earth and that’s good enough for me

I was initially not the biggest fan of Spanberger but it turns out she has the heart of a world class hater and that is 100% the kind of energy we need right now

Introducing LOCKING COLLARS! These two handmade leather collars will be dropping in the shop TONIGHT (2/16) at 6pm eastern! shop.cairosteele.com #BSNM #handmade #leather #bondage #bdsm #TransArtist #QueerArtist #furryart #PupPlay #PetPlay #kink

Magical Monday. Sunrise Spectacular this morning in Chicago.

Perfect. I’m down.

There’s a Cuban restaurant on Irving Park Road (Mimi’s Taste of Cuba) on my way to the salle, so I drive by it a lot. I stop occasionally, and so today I stopped again and it was very tasty. Just pleasant to be able to stop in. Plus, I love a cortadito and theirs is very nice.

Didn’t have super high hopes for this, but it got there in the end. Definitely the manage of paying attention to what the dough is telling me.

Really the only complaint I have here is that it doesn’t sound like the best lost any teeth, and that’s a shame.

there’s a longer version here in which our hero follows up by telling him “you can go peacefully fuck yourself” after he claims to be “peacefully standing for my beliefs”

"you're gonna get in trouble for that" *stone-faced* "okay" goddamn son

Nyoom.

Man the discord thing right now is just absolutely shot through with the same sort of misinterpretation panic as like… every minor change in a user agreement. It’s so stupid. I mean… the age verification push from all sides is stupid as fuck, then the reactions are at least as stupid.

You may laugh, but the Macbeths are a much better role model for a marriage than Romeo and Juliet. They discuss their problems (killing the king of Scotland), share their hobbies (killing the king of Scotland), and resolve their conflicts (by killing the king of Scotland).

The ocean is full of things that seem truly alien. How can sketching so delicious be so weird and mysterious, given that it’s been known to be delicious for SO LONG?

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so let's talk about sex. Eel sex! Well...we can't, really. We don't know exactly where, or how, eels get busy. It's a 2000+ year old puzzle. It's not like we haven't tried. But the sex life of eels is a mystery smothered in secret sauce. 1/5 🗃️🧪

Huh, some hellhole. “Leaders also said Choose Chicago secured 65 citywide conventions, up from 49 last year, and a record $2.9 billion in hotel revenue compared to $2.8 billion in 2024.”

It's not enough to criminally prosecute these people when Trump is out of office. We need to be going after their fucking money relentlessly, hounding them and their families and dismantling their financial empires like a resurrected Thomas Dewey from the 1930s.

Although trains are a clear exception. (Not all trains, but definitely many trains.)

“Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.” —Iris Murdoch

Flights terminating at the Mind LAX are very cheap this week I see :D

It really is almost offensive how good a little bit of workout is for the mental state. I snuck out to the climbing gym for a short 25-minute session over lunch and feel way more chill and also focused this afternoon. Stupid brains. Maybe a good way to get some more PT back in my schedule.

bedraggled ice and cbp men shambling across the border to wisconsin having eaten their horses and, in many cases, their boots

However the CSB noted that company managment did not consider Coldplay activites when assigning Hot Work permits, and assumed Hot Work would not overlap with Coldplay. That assumption would end up costing three worker's lives.

That jacket I was eyeing _is_ about the price of three therapy sessions… But no. I have other demands.

Assassins dispatch Musk’s security and enter his bedroom. Elon awakens and, with cat like reflexes, knocks over the tower of half-empty Diet Coke cans on his nightstand, pulls the trench knife from the wall, and rushes his assailants. He slips and stabs himself directly in the testicles.

The avocado toast comes for Gen Z

If j buy this one more steam game… it will fix me. Maybe this bundle.

winter creature

Hey, you, you're finally awake - #darkart #digitalart #illustration #horrorart

See also: the recent raid by France on X's office regarding them taking issue with Grok generating CG-CSAM and CG-NCII (legitimate issue) *and* seeking to interfere with X's recommendation algorithm (complete bullshit state censorship)

(With a side of the EU and UK explicitly doing it out of animus for several specific US companies because of a lot of very complex clashes ranging from genuine issues with the behavior of said companies down to those companies' refusal to cooperate with censorship orders.)

The governments pushing the moral panic the loudest are doing so because it's an excuse to further the destruction of anonymity and privacy and further advance the surveillance state.