A Random Pile of Stuff

I went, "What. no. she/her."

"How does that work? With she/her/hers and they/them?"

I stared at her. "What are you talking about?"

"Well you came out as-" and I said, "I'm asexual."

She replied, "Like an amoeba, I know."

"Oh. My god. No. Mom. It doesn't- it's not the asexual you learned about in biology. I didn't come out as a single celled organism."

With heavy relief, she said "Oh, it has a different meaning?"

”Happy anniversary, my dreadful beloved, here’s a statue of me.”

Grym, this beautiful, self-absorbed wyrm, is real now. He’s been in the works with Youtooz for fooorrrever, and finally he’s clawed his way into the physical plane!

He will be around for 4 weeks, after which Youtooz will retire him! So, should you require the company of this glorious beast, here’s the link:

“Boss made a dollar Granddad made a dime But that was a poem From a simpler time.

Boss made a thousand Gave pa a cent But that penny paid the mortgage Or at least it paid the rent

Inuit artist PITALOOSIE SAILA (1942-2021)

I remember how Inuit used to live, thinking of them back then, my relatives. I also recall how the clothing was made; that is what I base my drawings on when I draw people.

-Pitaloosie Saila

(From “Kinngait: Riding Light Into the World; Producer: Site Media; Director: Annette Mangaard)

Pitaloosie was born in 1942 on the southwest coast of Baffin Island near what is now the community of Cape Dorset. She spent her childhood years in various hospitals in Quebec and Ontario for treatment of tuberculosis. She learned

English during this time, and recalls the difficulty she experienced in relearning her native language upon her return to Baffin Island in 1957. She is now one of the few of her generation who speak both English and Inuktitut fluently.

Pitaloosie began drawing in the early 1960’s, and quickly established herself as a versatile and intelligent graphic artist.

Over the years, she has become a familiar presence in the Kinngait Studios, and her work has been included in annual

print collections since 1968.

The giant aoyu鳌鱼 flower-lantern balloon from the National Games opening ceremony also appeared during the Spring Festival. (cr飞略大广东)

The dog robots are supposed to be autonomous, threehalves is explicitly only for being piloted by a human. The giant horns make it difficult for this machine to enter through doorways, and that is the point. Coupled with the built-in weak points, it is very easy to disable this thing, so it can't be used by the police or the military effectively.

No parts of it extended beyond the lines, and the paper ticket was clearly displayed, impaled on a horn.

Bangar yr Wythnos: Stopia Cwyno ("Stop Complaining") gan Sage Todz

Dydd Gwener hapus, gyfeillion! I scheduled this post over a week ago because I am currently balls deep at a festival and have probably dropped my phone in a portaloo by now.

Every week, I bring you a new Welsh-language tune that you might not have heard before, because I believe a huge part of anyone's language-learning journey is immersing themselves in that language's music - and today I'm presenting you with Sage Todz!

Sage Todz grew up in Penygroes, Gwynedd and shot to fame during the 2022 World Cup when the Football Association of Wales commissioned him to remix Dafydd Iwan's "Yma o Hyd". He typically performs billingually, and even though he was at the height of his popularity in 2023, he ended up pulling out of performing on the ultimate national stage - the Eisteddfod - when they requested that he make his bilingual songs fully Welsh. This sparked a huge debate around Welsh identity and artistry, especially around the use of Wenglish - a massive part of many Welsh people’s lexicon, but disregarded as being “impure”.

TV #37 of 2026:

Blake’s 7, season 1

Not mindblowing as yet, but certainly a solid slice of 70s British sci-fi. All I knew about this show going into it was that it was created and written by Terry Nation, better known as the guy who came up with the Daleks on Classic Doctor Who, and I guess I was vaguely expecting something along those lines. As it turns out, however, it’s closer in premise and tone to Farscape (or Firefly, at more of a stretch), featuring the adventures of a ragtag group of criminals who break out of prison, seize an advanced spaceship, and then must evade the ensuing pursuit of their government oppressors.

It’s also surprisingly dark in its initial setup. The titular Blake is a freedom-fighter against his evil totalitarian empire, and in the pilot episode he faces false charges of pedophilia invented by the regime in order to discredit him. But for evidence they brainwash multiple children into honestly believing they’ve been molested by our hero, which is a level of bleak cruelty largely unmatched by the campier stories that follow.

As typical for the era, it’s not a heavily-serialized production, although there’s a fun recurring villain with a personal grudge towards the protagonist. The crew carry out spying and strike missions upon their enemies, but they don’t really have any clear overarching goals driving a sense of forward plot momentum. It’s not obvious what the title is supposed to mean either, especially since it’s never spoken aloud across this first year — I would assume that the name denotes the main cast of characters, but they aren’t all assembled until the end of episode 4, and even then they only number seven if you include both the impersonal shipboard A.I. and Blake himself. Plus I’ve heard that the roster gets reshuffled later on, too.

But it’s a good time overall, roughly comparable to Star Trek: TOS in terms of the random episodic space hijinks that we get to see play out. I’m not hooked on it at this point, but at just four seasons of thirteen episodes apiece, I’m convinced enough to keep watching.

[Content warning for gun violence.]

★★★☆☆