Habitually Lost

Looking Glasses Page 160

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Nice job on the brakes there Lancer!

As of this morning I was reluctantly looking for jobs because I love my job and don't want to leave it, but see: $10k raise problem solver.

As of noon today this was no longer an issue, because my boss called me with the news that I was getting a $10K merit raise.

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. This is roughly $200 extra per paycheck. Enough to pay off debt faster, rebuild my savings, and spend a weekend a month in Milwaukee getting obscenely laid. The sex I'm going to have on $200 extra per paycheck. You can't even.

YOU CAN GET THIS ON A SHIRT

Also the Lesbian Lizard shirt I considered:

Above: Fastosarion brazieri, commonly known as the chameleon semi-slug, and an unidentified species of semi-slug from the genus Sheldonia

The term "semi-slug" is used to describe an intermediate stage of evolution that occurs as snails evolve into slugs. Nearly 1,000 different species of semi-slug are currently known to exist, and these bizarre little creatures can be found on at least four continents.

Above: Fastosarion brazieri and Varadia amboliensis

Each species of semi-slug is technically still classified as a snail, but its shell is noticeably reduced, becoming smaller and more internalized as the species evolves. A semi-slug officially becomes a regular-slug once its shell is no longer visible at all.

As this article explains:

If life were simple, there would be snails and slugs. Snails carry their homes on their backs; slugs are naked and embarrassed. But life isn’t simple, so of course there’s secret option #3 – the semi-slug, a bizarre creature that sits exactly between the snail and the slug.

Above: genus Satiella and genus Euaustenia

This article describes the distinction between a snail, a slug, and a semi-slug:

In contrast to snails, which have an external shell large enough to accommodate the body, or slugs, in which the shell is completely internal or absent, semi-slugs have an external shell, but the shell is too small to accommodate the animal’s entire body.

Above: Megaustenia siamensis

The evolutionary process that causes the shell to recede is known as limacization, and it's especially common in moist, low-calcium environments where a snail's shell may be more of a burden than a benefit:

Terrestrial slugs are not a monophyletic group, but a case of convergent evolution in which the slug form evolved from different lineages of land snails that gradually lost their shell through a process called limacization. Limacization resulted in adaptive radiation in land snail lineages, as slugs became adapted to diverse moist and protected spaces, such as crevices in rocks and wood debris. The loss of the shell also allowed for more movement and less calcium dependence, making slugs more successful as pests.

Above: Gaeotis nigrolineata, also known as the Puerto Rican semi-slug, has a neon green shell that is almost completely internalized, but the shell is clearly visible through the semi-slug's translucent body

Some semi-slugs have shells that are still opaque and largely visible, with a patch of flesh covering only the outer edges of the shell, while others have shells that are more significantly reduced, transparent, and/or concealed.

Above: Ibycus rachelae, commonly known as the green-shelled semi-slug, and a species of semi-slug from the genus Durgella

This topic was mentioned in my previous post about Ibycus rachelae, but I wanted to write a more detailed post about semi-slugs, because they're just so fascinating and weird.

Above: a black-and-white semi-slug from subfamily Sheldoniinae

Above: Fastosarion brazieri again, but this one is especially spiky for some reason

Sources & More Info:

Australian Geographic: Meet the Semi-Slug, a Snail without a Home

Carnegie Museum of Natural History: What's So Good about Being a Slug?

Frontiers: Terrestrial Slugs in Neotropical Agroecosystems (PDF)

iNaturalist: Photos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, & 12

The Shell-Makers: Introducing Molluscs: On Becoming Sluggish

Land Snails and Slugs of Sabah and Labuan, Malaysia: Semi-Slugs

Tenna art by @9Aaaalt29 on twt

The short, simple version is this:

There’s a splinter group of ultra conservative (religiously and politically) “Catholics” who have for several decades claimed that the Church has strayed from the true Catholicism since the Vatican II reforms of the mid 20th century. They have been warned about their actions by multiple popes at this point.

The breaking point this week was that they consecrated bishops within their sect after being expressly forbidden to do so by Pope Leo. Essentially this group is denying that the current pope is truly part of the succession of St Peter — more or less they’re saying the pope isn’t Catholic enough.

This may not seem like a huge deal from the outside, but it is essentially treasonous in terms of severity. So they have been kicked out of the Catholic church.

Whereas the SSPX lot's main areas of difference are disagreement with the whole Vatican II reforms of the 1960s. Among other things, these reforms included the Church officially releasing the Jews from any culpability in the death of Jesus and stating persecution of the Jewish people was contrary to church law (I know, what took them so long).

-The Society of St Pius X (SSPX) is founded by, basically, a Nazi. It attracts a whole lot of Nazis who, as fascists do, claim it’s about Tradition and Traditional Values like the Latin Mass and not about being virulently antisemitic.

- SSPX schisms in 1988 by ordaining bishops without permission because Pope John Paul II is too liberal. If they expected to actually start a new church or get the majority of Catholics to come to them, they are disappointed.

- So disappointed in their Holy War that wasn’t, the SSPX bishops that got ordained (and were defacto excommunicated although nothing specific was said by the Vatican about that) asked for permission to return in 2009 and were allowed to.

- The popes in that time had no taste to deal with this mess, so they basically allow the sect to continue while making pleas for unity.

- As part of that unity, in 2017 Pope Francis decreed that marriages and confessionals performed by the SSPX were legal and canonical because otherwise there would be a hot mess.

- Now in 2026, SSPX decides that the time has come to test Pope Leo’s resolve and announces that they’re going to confirm their own bishops without papal permission.

- The Vatican puts out a bunch of announcements that boil down to “No, no, think of unity.”

SSPX: Sounds weak and woke to us. Time for Holy War II, Electric Boogaloo! What do you think of that, Chicago Bob?

Pope Chicago Bob: You pull out a knife, I pull out a gun.

At this point in time, the Vatican has announced that ANYONE who remains in or supports SSPX is excommunicated, right down to & including the laity who go to their churches. No SSPX weddings or confessions taken are blessed by God.

Now, there’s an out for people who just showed up at one of their churches for Easter & Christmas - they can just quietly go elsewhere and that’s cool. And probably laity who were deep in SSPX will do the same and keep their heads low.

But it’s my understanding (via Claire Willett) that if you’re SSPX clergy who want back, you need to find a non-SSPX bishop to vouch for you, essentially be on probation for a while, and send the Pope handwritten letters of repentance and reconciliation.

The SSPX has come back with the usual “You’re so mean, we just really truly CARE about tradition and you were So! Mean! to us, why are you so cruel?” response of a bully facing consequences. If it was supposed to bring people flocking to their side, it hasn’t. If it was supposed to make Pope Leo even dignify it with a response, it didn’t.