dead links are kind of sad, really
all these things happened and the records are all gone and not because of secrecy
(people who i have chatted with: if you want a file full of human-readable logs sometime, let me know)
*nod*
I try to keep chat logs too, but I misjudged how long it takes for MultiplayerSet chat to vanish, so my logs for…*checks* July 4th and September 1st are incomplete. Could I get copies of yours?
Tags:
#reply via reblog
Underwear: Did I pack it?
Like all headlines ending in question marks, the answer is no.
*head desk* *head desk* *head desk*
But wait: There’s more!
I forgot my thrice-damned chargers. Both phone and laptop. If I can’t borrow one tomorrow, I’ll be offline until Friday evening.
*head desk* *head desk* *head desk*
*wordless sympathetic noises*
I’ve been compiling a pre-made general-purpose packing list on my laptop, listing things I’d want to pack for any trip. (I may add sub-sections for different types/seasons of trip, haven’t decided yet.) Maybe you could do something similar to prepare for next time.
(I also keep my phone charger in the same pouch where I keep my phone, thus ensuring it is very difficult to bring my phone and not bring my charger, but that advice might be harder to generalise.)
Tags:
#Brin owns *two* 2010’s computers now #reply via reblog #(the following category tag was added retroactively:) #101 Uses for Infrastructureless Computers
A Hoverfly (Family Syrphidae) and a Cranefly (Family Tipulidae) showcasing their halteres. Halteres are small knobbed structures that were modified from the fly’s back pair of wings. They function like a gryroscope and give the fly stability in flight. When they beat they inform the fly about the rotation of its body allowing the fly to adjust. With their halteres balancing and guiding them flies are able to preform amazing aerial aerobatics. Making them very hard to catch
Video source
Tags:
#bugs #the more you know
so my wife (who was raised catholic) likes it when I get drunk and talk about popes. this is because 1) I am a delightful drunk and 2) i know a confusing amount about the history of the catholic church (especially considering that I am Jewish) and so since I am very tired, which is a bit like being drunk, I will share with you some of my favorite popes. with apologies to all devout catholics in the audience, what are you doing here, turn away now, abandon all hope ye who enter:
Pope Nope: Otherwise known as Pope Celestine V. Pope Nope was the founder of the Celestine Order. Pope Nope lived as a hermit in quiet seclusion and modesty. Pope Nope absolutely did not want to be Pope. After sending an angry letter to the Church saying they should pick a Pope ASAP (they’d been hedging on it for like two years), the Church said, ‘This is it. This is the guy.’ Pope Nope promptly tried to flee the country. The Church sent people to physically drag him to Rome. One of his first edicts was to declare that the Pope was allowed to abdicate. Surprisingly, he abdicated five months later.
Pope Douchebag: Pope Boniface VIII. Came on after Pope Nope. Declared first Catholic Party Times (jubilee) in Rome in 1300 (in an attempt to revitalize Rome in general, and yanno raise money, an ongoing theme in this story). This should’ve made him kinda cool, except he pissed of the King of France and the poet Dante Alighieri, who he sort of let get kicked out of Florence. This resulted in Dante Alighieri writing one of the most beautifully elaborate revenge fics in Western literature. Now, Nope Douchebag (as a modern Dante would surely have called him) wasn’t dead when The Divine Comedy was published, but Dante made sure that in Inferno, the chapter related to hell and all the lovely punishments waiting there, to have a character point to a flaming hole in the ground and say “AND THAT’S WHERE YOU’RE GOING, POPE DOUCHEBAG. THIS HOLE. IT WAS MADE FOR YOU,” so there’s that.
Pope Evil: Pope Alexander VI aka the Borgia Pope aka that guy you get into a slapfight with in Assassin’s Creed 2. Alleged crimes include extreme amounts of nepotism, murder, rape, bribery, etc, etc. He probably wasn’t actually necessarily as evil as everyone always says (most of the incest and murder stories were told by his political enemies) but bribery and nepotism was sort of just what you DID when you were Pope back in the day. He probably did not look like Jeremy Irons. He did, however, paint really tacky images of his favorite mistress all over the papal bed chambers which led to…
Pope Badass I: aka Pope Julius II deciding ‘screw this I am NOT sleeping in a former Borgia love nest’ and so he decided to commission the building of Saint Peter’s Basilica aka one of the the biggest loudest holiest of holy ‘oh father in heaven how will we even do this?’ pieces of catholic architecture in the world. Pope Badass did not believe in doing things half way. Pope Badass wanted to be remembered. He commissioned an assortment of remarkable artists at the time. Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, like, a ton of ninja turtles. In the mean time, he also did little things like decide to retake the Papal states, the territory around the city of Rome, which the Church had lost over the last few centuries. How did he decide to do this? By ordering all the cardinals to suit up, get their armor on, go on a road trip, they were going to war. If a local government didn’t do what he wanted fast enough? He excommunicated the whole city. Pope Badass didn’t do anything half way. He originally commissioned Michelangelo to build his future funeral tomb, but forever annoyed the grumpy artist because he kept pulling him away to work on new little side projects
like
yanno
the Sistine Chapel.
Yeah.
Party Pope: Pope Leo X, Medici Pope – yeah, from those Medici. Party Pope was not about to let being a member of the Catholic Church stop him from living the high life of Florentine nobility. Party Pope believed in huge banquets for all his friends and selling lots of indulgences to pay off that big basilica Pope Badass decided to build. Party Pope held a big banquet in which gold plates were thrown in the river. Party Pope had an actual real live pet elephant with red shoes. Party Pope kept conveniently putting off the letters written by a fellow by the name of Martin Luther, who kept writing him to be “uh, hey Party Pope, maybe you are partying a bit too hard, maybe you should like, cut down on that a little….” Party Pope did not stop partying.
Look, we’re not saying the Protestant Reformation was kind of his fault.
But
The Protestant Reformation was kind of his fault.
Pope Buzzkill: Pope Adrian VI. German. Didn’t change his name upon accepting the papacy. Arrived in the massive Roman hangover left by Party Pope. Decided “okay, yes, Catholics, we are partying too hard, let’s do something about that” and proceeded to try and pass a number of very strict laws and measures to try and curb the partying ways of the Church at that time. He was deeply unpopular for this. Because COME ON, Pope Buzzkill, it’s the RENAISSANCE.
He was so unpopular that, after his death, the Catholic Church did not elect another non-Italian Pope for some 500 years. Pope John Paul II. Yeah. As in the guy who was Pope 20 years ago.
They really didn’t like Pope Buzzkill.
Pope Weenie: SO THEY ELECTED ANOTHER MEDICI TO THE PAPACY. YEAH! CLEMENT VII! PARTY POPE II! THINGS WILL BE AWESOME NOW! WE CAN HAVE MISTRESSES AND BRIBE EVERYONE AND GIVE OUR NEPHEWS HIGH POLITICAL POSITIONS AND
wait
France and The Holy Roman Empire are at war right now?
wait, why is Charles V coming over the scenic Italian countryside with all those really angry men
Yes, ladies and gentleman, through a general inability to manage the conflicting pressures from France and and the Holy Roman Empire, Pope Weenie wound up preciding 1527 over the Sack of Rome, in which the Holy Roman Emperor parked his expansive army in that big half constructed basilica that Pope Badass had decided to start building way back when.
Oh, and Pope Weenie didn’t grant Henry VIII that anullment he wanted. We’re not saying that the formation of the Anglican church was his fault. But it was kinda his fault.
Pope Badass II: Common lore says Pope Badass II aka Sixtus V got his start as an illiterate swineheard born to a peasant family in the Papal States. He rose his way up through the ranks through guile, beautiful oratory skills, and a will of iron. Pope Badass II was aware that as Pope, he did not have long on this earth, and he would get shit DONE. When he looked at that unfinished basilica that Pope Badass I had started, Party Pope had sold indulgences to fund, and Pope Weenie had let troops run through, he said “You know what this needs? A finished dome.” He asked his architect how long this would take.
“Five years,” said his architect, trying to be optimistic. It would really take more like ten years, given all the work that still needed to go into and–
“Great,” said Pope Badass II, “Do it in two.”
AND THEN IT HAPPENED.
Pope Badass II also is amazing for his response to the sinking of the Spanish Armada, in which Queen Elizabeth managed to blow up a ton of ships belonging to Spain, which was at that time only, you know, the most powerful catholic nation in Europe. Was Pope Badass II pissed at this defeat against protestant forces? Who knows, but HE ALSO SEEMED TO THINK THIS WAS THE FUNNIEST THING HE’D EVER HEARD AND PRETTY MUCH WENT AHAHAHA THIS WOMAN WHO OWNS HALF AN ISLAND JUST TOTALLY WIPED THE FLOOR WITH THE SPANISH THAT IS AMAZNG HE WOULD TOTALLY MARRY QUEEN ELIZABETH IF HE WEREN’T POPE.
“Imagine what progeny we would have!” <— pretty much the quote. yes, ladies and gentleman, this is the VICAR OF CHRIST declaring that he would totally do Queen Elizabeth I.
Sadly, Pope Badass I also did some things that were not so badass. He was responsible for a lot of the Catholic Church’s harsher stances on birth control and abortion, of which we still see many the effects of today, so perhaps this puts maybe a bit of a damper on the true badassery he could have otherwise attained.
But one cannot deny he had excellent taste in ladies.
And also he got them to finish that dang dome.
And that’s my Pope Rap. Please feel free to add to it if you are a giant nerd like me and have collected random trivia about medieval and renaissance artists and political figures. Perhaps, now that I have written this, my wife will no longer have to hear me talk about this every time I have like, half an appletini.
Perhaps. Perhaps.
But probably not.
okay but like
what about the dueling popes?
so like in 1378 the old pope died and the romans basically rioted because they wanted a roman pope this time, god damn it. only there was no canadate to be found, so the cardinals decided on a dude from naples because apparently that was the next best thing. only, and keep in mind all of the shenanigans above: this pope was too crazy. becoming pope had flipped the crazy switch, and he just like. went nuts. had a terrible temper, mad-eye moody levels of suspicion, and worst of all, a reformast! so most of the cardinals literally ran away to Anagni, and get this – elected another pope. Celement VII.
that’s right. suddenly we had two rival, legitimate popes.
so of course they, the popes, demanded that all the catholic countries take sides. this of course went over quite well, and in no way added to the shit that was the Ferdinand Wars.
during the entire western schism, as it became called, there ended up being eight popes, with at one point three at the same time. Three popes.
it’s too bad that Benedict and Pope Gregory XII both backed out of meeting at the last minute because otherwise we might have gotten the coolest meeting of fight club ever.
Reblogging because The Battle of Three Popes is some important Lord of the Rings business and this must be shared.
All the pope stories! All of them!
…Is it bad that I knew about most of these guys already?
Tags:
#history
Once I was at a plant store and I have this subconscious habit of pulling leaves of plants so I did that and stuck the leaf in my pocket and when I got home I found it and felt bad so I dropped it in a pot with a bromiliad and a few weeks later it had taken root and started growing and that’s the story of how I pirated a plant
you wouldnt DOWNLOAD a PLANT
Here’s the thing about Halloween: all year long if you live in America you’re under a steady assault by this right-wing traditional faux-wholesome pseudo-Christian nuclear patriot family atmosphere, and then all the sudden as the weather cools and the days shorten the country loses its marbles decking everything out in bloody corpses, demon faces, witchcraft and giant rubber bugs. Half the country thinks they’re the Addams Family for 1-3 months while a small chunk of weiners get angry that it’s “pagan” or something.
I don’t know if anyone in any other cultural environment can really understand how that feels. It’s the antithesis of the “love jesus and eagles or GIT OUT” under(over)tone American culture is usually about.
And even though it generates billions of dollars, there’s no pressure, shaming or guilting to spend money on it like there is for certain other holidays. We spend that much on Halloween just because it’s fun and we want to, rather than some unspoken (usually unspoken) rule that you must buy extravagant gifts or you’re a heathen scrooge and you don’t love your family.
and it’s when everything is themed with black and it’s totally acceptable
This is actually one of the original purposes of Halloween.
Halloween, like Mardi Gras, descends from the inversion festival. Inversion festivals were a necessary part of most highly regimented and class-divided ancient cultures, such as Rome. You spent all year keeping rigidly to your class and policing others to do the same, living a life of very public behaviors, worshipping very specifically and obeying societal laws you may not agree with and which may not be to your benefit.
But ah, then the festival time came. The rules were thrown out. Sometimes the classes were literally inverted and the nobility were forced to serve. Nothing was taboo. The macabre, the ugly, the things that violated all laws of polite society were glorified. For a period of time – often longer in proportion to how regimented your society was – you were free to do and be exactly what you wanted. You could wear a costume. You could hide from the world behind a mask. You could make all the noise you wanted and nobody would stop you because it was driving out the evil in the community (the evil often being the stress of living in a very outward-facing, regimented society).
And America, whatever anyone says, is an incredibly regimented and class-oriented society. So our lead-in to Halloween is two months long.
Halloween is one of America’s only true inversion festivals. Christmas has terribly rigid expectations and heaps of stress, Thanksgiving makes you want to kill your whole family, the fourth of July it’s too fuckin’ hot, St. Patrick’s Day is too short and it’s filled with douchebags. Memorial Day is for mourning, Labor Day you’re about to start school again. Mardi Gras is a great, very historic inversion festival, but it’s also fairly localized. Pride comes close, and is a very badly needed form of inversion festival for its participants, but it’s not universal and it also involves aspects of activism and protest which use inversion but are not part of inversion.
Halloween is it. It’s our national cut-loose party. And that’s not accidental. Halloween has been an inversion festival since before it had that name, since ancient people realized the harvest was over, the dark short days were coming, and everyone was gonna have to spend the next four months indoors trying not to murder one another.
Tags:
#Halloween #’whatever anyone says’ #I’ve been increasingly wishing lately that I lived in an explicitly hierarchical society #because as it is I get paranoid and start reading orders into everything #and I’ll never know for sure they weren’t lying when they inevitably insist they didn’t mean those orders #and I’ll never know for sure they weren’t telling the truth #tangents #(I mean don’t get me wrong the post is good too) #(I’m just having Issues about authority) #(and they couldn’t even be *normal* authority issues)
If I wrestled a black bear to protect a moose sanctuary while drinking maple syrup from a bottle made of recycled plastic, maybe then Canada would think I was patriotic enough that they’d let me stay.
Me talkin aboot patriotism, eh.
*Also there should be a Zamboni involved.
(A person I once knew said to me after we watched a Zamboni doing its rounds “You’ve watched a Zamboni clean a rink! Now you’re a real Canadian!”)
Tags:
#anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #reply via reblog #our home and cherished land
Recently I saw my friend’s dog scratching his ear a suspicious amount, and the first thought that came to mind was “~follow for more flea-avoidant speciesism~”
I blame @ilzolende.
Tags:
#oh look an original post
Eye Ring is more than just a ring.
Designed a few years ago by Korean designer Jeong Yong,
it is the concept of a scanner reader for blind people. The idea was to
allow people to read non-Braille books and to avoid the costs of a
normal desktop scanner.More on blind.tech
Tags:
#neat #jewellery
