in the garden of wind and thunder

I'm not gonna lie when I saw that AI image of trump speaking to Nordic aliens I assumed they were costumed actors involved with professional wrestling and went about my day.

"must be some Broadway thing. Trump loved Broadway."

like, do I think andy "I don't do politics" "socially liberal fiscally conservative" weir was knowingly and deliberately doing queer gender things with eridians? no, and it would feel especially absurd to say that when the contemporary scifi novel scene is so full of authors who are doing queer gender things on purpose. I think what's happening here is that weir is competent enough to make his characters gnc agender intersex gay men by accident as a result of being committed to worldbuilding an alien species that feels genuinely alien in its social and physical norms, which is the opposite tack to the "how do I create a scifi allegorical representation of an already existing human queer experience" approach that a lot of other authors take. and I can't say I don't enjoy the idea of a gay little he/they genderless rock spouse with a tomboy name who according to the movie apparently works in aquatic habitat maintenance.

Im always like "i will not add my two cents. i will not add my two cents" but i cant lie the pennies are getting sweaty in my hand

There's also the additional aspect that if luxuries are what's expensive, you can choose to go without and then you don't have to make so much money. You can choose to work part-time, or seasonally, or one person can provide for a group, if living is cheap and you don't need luxury. But if being alive is expensive, you have no choice but to work a lot, regardless of how frugal your lifestyle is. And then you may as well buy yourself the latest gadget to cheer yourself up after another annoying week at work, because it costs barely anything anyway.

I love emoji reactions so much. Don't know what to say but don't want to ignore whoever texted you? Boom. Lizard reaction 🦎

*turns my attention inwards* mmmmm. no *turns my attention back outwards* oh god