Cold, hard logic... maybe

So are

colostomy bags

Diapers

insulin pumps

Oxygen systems

rollators

hearing aids

compression garments

prosthetics

FREEDOM AIDS

- service animals

- noise cancelling headphones/ear defenders

- wheelchair attachments

- fidgets

IT’S DISABILITY PRIDE MONTH YALL

If so, what are your thoughts on it?

I thought it was great! I'm glad I had something to focus on for those days. The new mechanics were a lot of fun and I was constantly getting surprised. I love how creative and unique each chapter is, you never know what's going to happen.

More spoiler-y stuff below.

 Let’s say you’ve got a city where there’s tame white doves everywhere. They’re not pests, they’re regarded as sacred, holy protectors of the city, and the whole city cares for them and feeds them like they’re pets. They’re so tame because it’s a social taboo to hurt or scare one. Nice pretty doves :)

 Then someone points out that even if they’re not seen as pests, doesn’t having a completely unchecked feral pigeon population - that not only isn’t being culled, but actively fed and cared for - mean that there would be bird shit absolutely all over the place?

 A part of you wants to say no, because these are your nice, pretty doves. To explain that there’s a reason why they’re not shitting all over the place, maybe they’re super-intelligent and specifically bred and trained to not shit all over the place. The logistics of how, exactly, could anyone breed and train a flock of feral birds go unaddressed.

 An even worse solution would be to not have those birds, editing them out of the world. No, they spark joy, you can’t just toss them out!

 Now, consider: Yes, yes they would, but the city also has an extensive public sanitation service that’s occupied 90% of the time by cleaning bird shit off of everything. One of the most common last names in the area actually translates to “one who scrapes off dove shit”, and it’s a highly respected occupation. And thanks to the sheer necessity of constantly regularly cleaning everything, the city enjoys a much higher standard of cleanliness, and less public health issues caused by poor public sanitation.

The Augsburg concept has one big pigeon house every 500m in which wild pigeons are fed, protected from weather and have nesting opportunities. Cities doing that have WAY less uncontrolled populations (since they can take out eggs if they feel they need reduce the population), way less shit AND a healthy population since it’s easier for veterinarians to notice and get to sick animals.

So I’d say one can of course still keep your general idea……but there’s also those MASSIVE palace-like pidgeon houses and only the most worthy are allowed to enter and directly interact with the pigeons (feed them, heal them, clean their lodgings). One big entrance for the human servants (priests??) and millions of small holes for the pigeons.

What If: Captain America Were Revived Today? #44 (April 1983) by Peter B. Gillis and Sal Buscema; Original Image by John Romita Sr.

In this What If? Marvel tale, Captain America is unfrozen in 1983 rather than the 1960s. Without the leadership of Steve Rogers, The Avengers disband. Meanwhile, a Captain America imposter, who calls himself a “real American,” has decided to use his newfound influential media status to publicly support a National Identity Card to “deal with illegal aliens,” to suggest that members of civil rights groups “ought to think seriously as to whether or not their actions contribute to the strengthening of communist enemies,” and declare that if those groups tear the country apart with protests, martial law is justified “for the peace to find a solution.”

Neighborhoods with large black populations (e.g., Harlem) are walled off and forced into poverty, and one character even mentions that Jewish people are being “put back into camps.” The right-wing politicians make sure that things like this aren’t shown on television, keeping the majority of the American public ignorant of the horrors committed with their indifferent support. The public are simultaneously told that with some sacrifices, America can be free once again. The fake Captain America confronts a group of peaceful protestors, and he is shot by a sniper (in what reads like an inside job), allowing the police to have “reason” to attack the protestors. The imposter does not die and instead uses the attack to provide more reason for the violent crackdown against protesting groups.

When the true Captain America is unfrozen, he is horrified to see what America has become, especially with his emblem stamped all over it. He immediately seeks out the resistance forces (who clearly represent the Black Panther Party) and joins their cause, stating that “the wrongs [he’s] seen will take much more than one man to right – but [he’s] got a name to clear, a costume to unsoil– and a country to die for!!”

By the time Steve joins them, the resistance only has one chance left to stop the American downfall: a political convention where the “America First” party will be able to secure its support to sweep the national elections and allow them “to return America to the pure and great nation [the] forefathers envisioned.”

The resistance strikes just as the convention begins. The Captain America imposter is no match in a fight against the true Captain America – especially against a Steve Rogers who’s fucking pissed. (“Get up so I can knock you down!!”)

With the imposter knocked unconscious, Captain America addresses the convention crowd, warning that an America that does not represent all its people does not deserve to exist at all; that liberty can be “as easily snuffed out [in America] as in Nazi Germany” and “as a people, we are no different from them.”

The crowd realizes that the man speaking before them is the true Captain America and cheers. Captain America holds his hand up and silences them, stating that he will not allow them the chance to simply replace one idol with another. He alone can’t undo the horrible damage, and he pleads that there’s still a chance for the people to “find America once again.”

Fascism doesn’t change its tune, just its singers.

Kiki’s Delivery Service: takes place in the regular world— albeit at some nebulous point in time— but also magic is real and witches are a thing. Witches exist in this world because it’s fun and we like them. It’s fantasy elements in a familiar setting— essentially urban or modern fantasy.

Porco Rosso: takes place in an extremely specific place and time and contains exactly one fantastical element— Marco’s pig head— which is never given an explanation and is never questioned as a biological impossibility. It’s clearly a metaphor and commentary on a real world issue but it’s also very much literal. This dude 100% has a pig head. No other mentions of magic are made. This is magical realism.

Crowley Of The Day: someone requested a sweaty, dirty Crowley from S1. But I don’t remember him being in such a state unless they were talking about the bookshop fire

Thanks! These are some of the things I'm thinking about when making those shapes:

I start with a large blob that has the general movement that I want, then I carve into it and add bits onto it to make it more visually appealing

What I mean by "visually appealing," since that's kind of an abstract statement, is stuff like this:

Our brains like visual contrast and bias. A canvas that's split 70/30 between two colors is more interesting than one that's split 50/50, though there can be a time and a place for the latter.

For finishing touches with light sources like flames and electricity, I usually throw a medium opacity Outer Glow layer effect on it and then add another layer above it where I take a soft brush and put some extra glow in the thicker spots to give it a little variation. And there you have it!

I have fourteen microwaveable heating pads up for sale on my shop! They're soft flannel, and stay warm for quite a while! I know it's warming up here in the northern hemisphere, but they're great for achy joints or cramps too.

you’re in the pocket of Big Ball, I see

there’s no pocket for me to BE in, there’s no LOBBYING involved, there’s no SUPPRESSION campaign because you don’t need one! traditional methods suppress themselves when you make modern pokéballs available. you might as well start accusing AT&T of deliberately suppressing the noble traditional art form of the goddamn semaphore.

not to mention OP demonstrates a total lack of understanding of the market realities of the pokéball industry- Silph and Devon are not monopolies, if they weren’t in constant competition their magic monster domination spheres wouldn’t cost two bucks a pop. the ball spec is a public standard, and Bill Masaki’s storage system based on that standard is an open-source project. they’re only the two largest players because they’re able to leverage economies of scale. you still get smaller operations like the Laverre City Poké Ball Factory, with better regional supply chains and local brand recognition, making room for themselves in the market. 

That notion was, and remains, a tool to limit general access to Pokémon in the interest of maintaining class disparities. I mean, have we already forgotten the Aether Foundation’s pseudo-conservationist nonsense? Their attempt to manipulate natural resources and establish a power base in Alola, while they were modernizing and taking their place on the world stage, was founded on this exact rhetoric of “rescuing” Pokémon from local disenfranchised populations, as if taking Pokémon away from places like Po Town would improve things instead of increasing competition between trainers and decreasing safety.

The release of the $2 pokeball meant that the balance of power shifted to the common citizens. If any child can wield the power of a god, the military and the government and the wealthiest businessmen have no power over them.

More than that, instead of power being determined by the wealth to acquire pokemon, power comes exclusively from the dedication, effort, and empathy required to train them to high levels and to maintain their loyalty. If a person simply buys their pokemon, then those pokemon will either stay at low levels forever, or refuse to obey the human because there is no respect between them; the most powerful people in the world are those who caught a critter at level 2-5 and then devoted their life to raising it into a world power.

I long to destroy the blameless children of blameless Job the way I destroyed his blameless goats...

...which is to not have actually destroyed them at all.

Ephemera: collected and cherished documents or trinkets of everyday life; often paper items, such as cards, notes, tickets, postcards, newspaper & magazine clippings, stickers, bookmarks, etc..

Ephemeral: from ephemera. Meaning: transitory, short-lived.

Ephemera: originally a medical term, from Medieval Latin ephemera (febris) "(fever)* lasting a day," from fem. of ephemerus, from Greek ephemeros "lasting or living only one day, short-lived." Sense extended 17c. to short-lived insects (Modern Latin ephemera musca) and flowers; general sense of "thing of transitory existence" by 1751. Compare Greek ephemeroi: "creatures of a day."

*Fever dream: another name for a nightmare. One of the books by Derek in the bookshop is Fevered Star, when stars = people in Good Omens and Crowley & Aziraphale made some when they first met. "Asa" also gets the shivers, a by-product of both fever and terror, in the brief moment when Professor Crowley turns into an Evil Eye-casting, talon-fingered goblin of sorts on their way into the ephemera room.

The wordplay show making a whole feature wall of ephemera in the world of Derek's Bookshop is a great Clue to how it's not real. It's emphasizing that it's a transitory part of the story.

A whole wall devoted to a beautiful word related to the everyday with an etymological root meaning of "not lasting more than a day"? That is a fun way to emphasize that all of this horrible world is transitory and will fade the moment that Aziraphale wakes up. Shivers fade and fevers break and nightmares are ephemeral experiences, even if the impact of them can last at least as long as all the other memories you collect.