jesse_the_k: SAGA's Prince Robot IV sitting on toilet (mundane future)
[personal profile] jesse_the_k

Free Toilet – Haunted. Slightly Used. You’ve Been Warned.

Posted 7-Aug-2025 from the north side of Madison

In a dark room, a standard toilet seems to glow white

click for pic )

Do you have guts of steel, a strong back, and a questionable sense of judgment? Then boy, do I have the throne for you.

As Paul Harvey intoned, the rest of the story…

I’m giving away a toilet. Not just any toilet. A porcelain enigma, a mystical butt-bucket, a vessel forged in the deepest depths of a cursed Home Depot clearance aisle.

It flushes with the fury of Poseidon’s trident and occasionally emits sounds that suggest it’s trying to communicate in Morse code. It once screamed. Not like the pipes—like a person.

The backstory? This toilet was installed in my guest bathroom, affectionately known as “The Chamber of Screams.” Three guests used it. Two of them have since moved to Canada without explanation, and the third refuses to make eye contact with me at barbecues.

What you need to know:

Flushes. Sometimes violently.

Bowl glows faintly during thunderstorms.

Came with a bidet. Now it just hisses and sprays randomly like a venomous snake.

Every full moon, the tank fills with glitter. Unclear why.

One Yelp review from a plumber simply said “no.”

I just want it out of my house. You must pick it up yourself and sign a waiver that I am not responsible if it follows you home.

NO SCAMMERS. NO WITCHES. NO EXORCISTS (already tried). Serious inquiries only.

If you’re brave enough to sit upon the throne and live to tell the tale, contact me ASAP.

althea_valara: A cropped image of Feo Ul, a pixie with fiery orange hair, from the Final Fantasy XIV video game. The words "oh my adorable sapling!" are on the left side of the frame. (sapling)
[personal profile] althea_valara
LOOK AT THIS BANNER, ISN'T IT ADORBS?


Join us at [community profile] smallweb for Small Web September!


[community profile] smallweb is a community for folks building personal, small websites. I'll be taking part in Small Web September to spruce up my Final Fantasy Fan Script Fan Site. The goal is to complete porting over the stuff I've previously posted here, at the very least. If I can, I'd like to get FFXI: Chains of Promathia documented as well. And I really should go back to my FFXIV script, too; it's been over a year since I touched it and I'm still mid-Shadowbringers.




[community profile] communal_creators is a community for creative types, and will be starting its next round in mid September. ANY creativity counts! I am definitely going to double-dip and count working on the website, but I also hope to get some fiber arts done. We'll a supportive and chill community, so come join us if you need some cheering on for your creative projects!
brithistorian: (Default)
[personal profile] brithistorian

I just finished reading Cherie Priest's It Was Her House First. It's a really good book and I highly recommend it. It's a haunted house book set in the Seattle area, centered around the ghost of a silent film era actress and her house, now badly in need of restoration. It's got an interesting twist that I've never seen before in a haunted house story, but I can't really say anything else without spoiling it. I hope you give it a shot, and I hope you enjoy it.

The Fermi paradox

Sat, Aug. 30th, 2025 10:29 pm
fayanora: cognitive hazard (cognitive hazard)
[personal profile] fayanora
I've been hearing a lot lately about various complicated solutions to the Fermi paradox, and it's kind of annoying because my solution is very simple: no other planet in the universe is home to anyone insane enough or evil enough to mass murder their own kind and pollute the planet they live on for short-term gains, at least not in enough numbers to be a real threat to the rest of their kind/world. We humans alone are insane / evil to enough of a degree as a species for industrialization and capitalism to exist. Everyone else in the galaxy, and maybe everyone else in the universe, is just chilling out going no further than being holistic, eco-friendly agricultural communities freely sharing their bounty with one another because they're all the same species and they're all sane and rational beings. Unlike humans.

Sure, they'll never get into space that way, but they also won't have to deal with only getting about five to seven thousand years of civilization out of the deal before their planet starts becoming inhospitable to them because of their own stupidity and evil. They won't have to deal with nuking themselves to extinction, or worse. Odds are pretty good most of them will get at least twenty or thirty thousand years, or even millions of years, of civilization before something kills them all off.

TERFs go die in a fucking fire.

Sat, Aug. 30th, 2025 10:02 pm
fayanora: lil girl knife (lil girl knife)
[personal profile] fayanora
I wish Shinigami Eyes worked on the Tumblr app on my phone. I'm getting so fucking tired of accidentally reblogging TERF scum. Especially those claiming to be leftists.

A note for everyone: you cannot be a leftist if you are a TERF. TERF ideology is inherently right-wing. You cannot be antifa and be a TERF. TERF ideology is inherently fascist. If you are a TERF, your ideology is closer to Hitler and Mussolini than to any form of leftism. Even centrist liberals are more progressive than any TERF.

A sports post by YOGAP

Sat, Aug. 30th, 2025 09:23 pm
fayanora: Ye Olde Goldyn Appyl Presse (YOGAP)
[personal profile] fayanora
A post by YOGAP on BlueSky

This is how insipid and stupid most sports sounds to me.

(Image is a post by Ye Olde Goldyn Appyl Presse on BlueSky reading " #YOGAP #Sports news: Arabella Bellacini Rappanucciano Cappucino of #Italy wins 1st place in the international " #Peekaboo " competition, beating 5 time consecutive winner Xiao Xing Song of #Taiwan, who got 2nd place. A. Cappucino, who is paid 1.4 billion #Euros a year, is said to be getting a raise")

New semester first week homework status

Sat, Aug. 30th, 2025 09:24 pm
soc_puppet: A brown hooded rat seen from behind as it is surfing the web at a desktop computer; barely visible on the computer's screen is the Dreamwidth logo (Computer time)
[personal profile] soc_puppet
Reading: One chapter of each textbook: Done!

Two to five page autobiography for Human Services: About half done? It's a little over a page, and I've covered a lot of the material I'm supposed to.
Due date: Sunday night, 11:59pm

Watch video for Social Problems: Done
Take notes on video for Social Problems, including at least three observations on specific time stamps: Not yet
Due date: Sunday night, 11:59pm

I'm going to try and get my autobiography at least another quarter done tonight, and then I might call it quits for the evening.

August slipped away

Sat, Aug. 30th, 2025 06:41 pm
komadori: Kisa from Fruits Basket with the caption "I'll turn my courage into wings." (Default)
[personal profile] komadori
August is nearly over. It was not the fun and exciting month that I thought it would be. Instead, I got some rather crushing news about someone who was very important to me. I fear that I was not nearly as important to him. In fact, it was quite like the Taylor Swift song of the same name--except it never even got that far.

Choir started up again so I have that to look forward to. It's been really hot lately, but I did manage to go out for some yummy hand rolls. I think I've only tried them once before.

Meanwhile I'm really enjoying Sabrina Carpenter's new album! ♥ I've decided that the controversy over the album cover is just ridiculous. Then again, I grew up in and around fandom so it hardly seems kinky to me.

For September, I'd really like to focus on my writing again.

(no subject)

Sat, Aug. 30th, 2025 06:25 pm
jadelennox: She-Ra: Bo and Seahawk best friend squad! (she-ra bo)
[personal profile] jadelennox

Thought process: "Why isn't there a biopic about John Brown? His life was weird and full of adventures and it would be a banger. Wait, maybe there is, let me check wikipedia... oh my goodness these are very different movies."

If anyone's seen any of these and they're worth watching (because good), or hatewatching, or avoiding like the plague, then let me know!

  1. Santa Fe Trail (1940), with Raymond Massey as John Brown, also Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ronald Reagan as General Custer. That's certainly some casting?

    Wikipedia says:

    [The film] depicted Brown completely unsympathetically as a villainous madman and Massey plays him with a constant, wild-eyed stare. The film gave the impression that he did not oppose slavery

    and quotes from the film:

    Mammy: "Well, Old John Brown said he's gonna give us freedom, but shuckins, if this here Kansas is 'freedom', then I got no use for it. No, sir." Then, a black man adds, "Me, neither. I just wants to get back home to Texas and sit till Kingdom Come."

    So this certainly sounds like a gem.

  2. The Good Lord Bird (2020 miniseries), starring Ethan Hawke as John Brown and an large cast including Daveed Diggs, Orlando Jones, and...Killer Mike? Sure, why not.

    Did I know about this one? I bet I did—it won a lot of awards—but everyone's brain was oatmeal in 2020 and I am not sure I formed long term memories. Also maybe I heard of it and assumed it was about the Lord God Bird (the ivory billed woodpecker) because who wouldn't assume that?

    Anyway the assessment of this is mostly a lot of awards and a positive rotten tomatoes rating so probably a safer bet watching Daveed Diggs as Frederick Douglass instead of Ronald Reagan as George Custer, yeow.

small delights

Sat, Aug. 30th, 2025 11:54 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett
  1. Went out to get mozzarella to have with lunch. Realised halfway down the hill that we could go all the way down the hill and watch the latest batch of cootlings. DID SO while eating raspberries. Excellent.
  2. Lunch also included home-made Tomatoes and Basils and Bread, and also separately a small baguette with fig jam courtesy of my mother and brie courtesy of Somerset via The Supermarket. V pleasing.
  3. Excellent chapter of book has introduced me to all kinds of things including pain asymbolia.
  4. I have DONE SOME ADMIN: THE LRP PAPERWORK. There is paperwork that is DONE and consequently in the RECYCLING. I have sent SO MANY E-MAILS. I am getting some really lovely responses! And soon there will be FEWER THINGS.
  5. Playing with pens! Continuing to really enjoy playing with pens.

Covid vaccine heads-up

Sat, Aug. 30th, 2025 09:49 am
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird
Because Bobby Brainworm is out to get us:

RFK Jr blocked CDC approval of the updated covid vaccine. There are three states where pharmacists can't legally give a vaccine without CDC approval: Massachusetts (where I live), Nevada, and New Mexico. In another 13 states, pharmacists can give the vaccine but only with a prescription, and CVS isn't shipping the vaccine to pharmacies in any of these 16 states.

Note: the vaccine is legally available in every state, because the relevant FDA committee did approve it, but some of us will have to get it from a doctor's office, which will be more of a hassle even when it’s possible.

P.S. Walgreen’s too, per a comment at Universal Hub.

Those are state laws, so call your state representatives and governor and tell them to change it.

“Massachusetts )
jadelennox: Love and Rockets' Hopey leaving graffiti  (lnr: hopey)
[personal profile] jadelennox

I can't really drink alcohol anymore so there's no point in saving a bottle of something expensive and wonderful for when the day finally comes.

I briefly wondered if I should acquire a vuvuzela so I have it when I need it, but I realized this will be basically a textbook example of a moment for which shofarot are made. I can usually get a good trumpet blast or nine. I'm prepared.

See you all in the streets. Maybe it will happen tomorrow.

more good things

Fri, Aug. 29th, 2025 10:39 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett
  1. BREAD. I have coaxed myself back into giving it vaguely sensible timings, and shockingly it works better when I don't leave it to get sad and lonely.
  2. I slightly tripped and bought myself a writing slope last week? ... I am somehow surprised that it's being useful, specifically for when I'm being a horrible laptop + paperwork goblin on the sofa.
  3. SPEAKING OF WHICH, I am going through a bunch of tragically overdue paperwork for Admin: the LRP purposes (the person it is overdue to is... me) and found the answer to a mystery. (I am somewhat baffled that I apparently got the answer to this mystery at the second event this year and yet had completely forgotten that I'd managed anything of the kind until Just Now, two weeks before E4; I think I'm probably just going to chalk this up as another piece of evidence that my brain just... wasn't... working very well at all in June.)
  4. TOMATOES. Actually this is related to the Good Bread -- I had an excellent bread-and-butter-and-tomatoes-and-parsley lunch, which was delightful. The Purple Ukraine are so good and I like them so much.
  5. Today I have managed non-zero tidying, and the flat is marginally better and more usable for it. Mostly sorting out some of my gardening horrors on the patio; partly Wrangling The Dishwasher and some of the washing up; partly the aforementioned overdue paperwork, a consequence of which is putting a bunch of paper IN THE RECYCLING. Is good.
jesse_the_k: Scrabble triple-value badge reading "triple nerd score" (word nerd)
[personal profile] jesse_the_k

@etymologynerd on TikTok[youtube.com profile] etymology_nerd on YouTube (note underscore)

My first fandom is language. Let me enthuse about the Etymology Nerd Adam Aleksic. He's a short-form video presenter, essayist, and recently-published author. He started on Reddit, but attained fame on TikTok, and his YouTube is 90% shorts (but not every TikTok has made it to YouTube). It's important that his videos are accurately captioned, cause he speaks faster than an auctioneer on meth. No video description and his hand-held camera means flashing and shaking images. The videos reward multiple views.

six links to short videos, accurately captioned without video description )

Three Essays to Read

If you prefer prose, his Substack newsletter offers RSS at https://etymology.substack.com/feed or luck into one of his maybe-monthly essays here via [syndicated profile] etymologynerd_feed (DW feeds only go back two weeks).

Want more? My first internet #lingcomm crush interviewed Aleksic on Lingthusiasm podcast 105—both audio and transcript there, with insights into best practices in vertical video and why it feels different than old-style horizontals.

Any linguistic communicators making you happy?

What We Do In The Shadows (2019-2024)

Fri, Aug. 29th, 2025 10:24 am
runpunkrun: grey kitten in a green field, with huge text "KITTEN" stamped over it (kitten)
[personal profile] runpunkrun
Last night I finished watching What We Do In The Shadows, and this morning I was sweeping up the kitty litter from the floor, just like I do every morning, and the kitten was there helping me by grabbing the broom, just like he does every morning, and as I raised the broom above his head, explaining that I was trying to sweep, I could hear Guillermo and that tired, flat voice he gets whenever he's trying to explain literally anything to the vampires.

Cats and vampires: Neither of them understands, or cares, what you're saying. And they hiss when they're angry.

… so I’m playing Dark Souls

Fri, Aug. 29th, 2025 05:53 pm
rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
[personal profile] rydra_wong
That is a thing that is happening.

My standard joke here is that any game involving reflexes and coordination is going to be an excruciating experience of innumerable repeated failures for me, so I might as well play one where that's the point. This is only partly a joke.

Necessary context for anyone who has not met me IRL: I am dyspraxic as fuck. I was in my late twenties at least, possibly thirties, before I could catch an object being gently thrown to me across a short distance. My coordination, reflexes and ability to react to multiple inputs in real-time are so bad that I can't drive (or cycle on the road) because it would be OBVIOUSLY WILDLY DANGEROUS for me to even try (people would die). I have to buy special shatterproof crockery because otherwise my plate turnover is so high.

It was only with climbing that I learned that I can actually acquire motor skills, some of them, slowly, if I have unlimited time to practice them on my own terms.

Further necessary context: I'd been looking wistfully at the Soulsbornes for ages -- having seen videos such as Jonny Sims's Bloodborne streams -- as something that I'd probably love if I only had any coordination or ability at all to cope with having to react to multiple rapid inputs in real-time.

One of my climber friends has argued that Soulslike games are basically the same as working on a hard boulder project: you fail and fail and fail and fail and that's the process, each time you try to learn a bit more or try something new, and gradually you make progress, and eventually, hopefully, you don't fail.

And that's a process that I fucking love, and that works very well for my brain. Perverse stubbornness is my jam.

But when I look at something like Bloodborne -- the combat exchange is over before I can even track who's where and what's happened.

So I was thinking grumpily/wistfully and in secret about how what I really wanted was not an "easy mode," but a Soulsborne game that I could adjust the speed on (maybe set it all to 20-30% slower!), just so I could get my foot in the door, just so I could begin to maybe try.

And I watched more videos of other games, and somewhere along the way I watched people figuring out and/or being coached on how to get through the fight with the Asylum Demon at the end of the tutorial* in Dark Souls 1.

(I also read that Dark Souls 1 has the slowest and, in some people's eyes, "clunkiest" combat of the Souls games — not necessarily the easiest, but more tactical, less fast-twitch.)

And I thought, "... huh, I wonder, if I really worked at it, maybe I could beat the Asylum Demon? That would be kind of cool."

To be clear: I bought the game with the goal of seeing if I could beat the tutorial.

Cut for length )

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