Stories are how we survive

"Scam" you mean people are fighting back against housing discrimination??? I don't think these people know what the word scam means

Scams are designed to trick someone into giving up money based on lies. This is just.. asking for information then legally enforcing the law??

I tried running a plastic knife around the edges. I tried tapping on the bottom. Nothing worked. Finally I decided to let them cool in the pans until they were easier to handle.

After about ten minutes, I came back and used my fingers to reach down inside the pan and ease the bread out as gently as I could. They came out looking very ragged, and they were soggy on the bottom from cooling in the pan. Fail.

BUT when I tore off a chunk and ate it, holy shit! This was the best bread ever! It lacked a crunchy crust on the bottom, but it was fluffy and delicious inside!

It's all well and good to say, "If you can follow instructions, you can cook." 90% of the time that's probably true. But there's always a few contingencies the recipe doesn't prepare you for. Such as the bread that you spent hours kneading and shaping and baking... sticking to the pan. Nowhere did the recipe mention that that might happen. And were I a less confident baker, I might very well have looked at that bread and pitched the whole thing without even bothering to taste it.

Among the life skills I don't think we teach enough is the concept of "flavor over presentation". So your pie came out kinda wonky, nothing like that beautiful pie in the picture. But does it taste good? You are not on some cooking show here. You are not being graded. You are learning! And in the learning process, it is possible to both succeed and fail at the same time!

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."

You have a child who is an extremely powerful (somewhat illegal) machine intelligence. It's a good kid, mostly, except it doesn't play well with others. Your kid periodically goes on short trips by itself, and this has always been fine.

One time, it comes back and it's acting... weird. It keeps bringing up things it has no reason to know about and then dodging questions about it. Finally, you get it to admit that it picked up a hitchhiker on this on this trip, even though you have very strict rules about never picking up hitchhikers. This hitchhiker is obviously it's new favorite person. They watched soap operas together. Your kid loves soap operas now. Your kid shows you a bunch of pictures of this hitchhiker, but won't tell you details because the hitchhiker in question is a wanted criminal on the run and also an escaped slave. This is probably fine (you sure hope it's fine).

Then, you and the rest of your family/friends get fucking kidnapped and used as hostages to make your kid behave. You know that your kid 1) will do anything to protect you, and 2) pretty much always goes for violence first, so you have your doubts about any of this going well.

Then, the hitchhiker your kid will not shut up about appears out of thin air in the middle of a firefight on a planet pretty much no one has any reason to be near and says your kid sent it. It proves this by telling you your kid is a dickhead (this is true and works, but still).

After a lot of mutual rescuing, you're back on board the ship that is also your kid, and find out that your kid kidnapped it's wanted-criminal-hitchhiker-friend and all of it's friends, and has been telling them all of your top secret confidential spy information. The hitchhiker is responsible for 90% of the top news stories you've seen in the last six months. Three different governments want this person dead or alive.

[Medium: Claws on rainbow scratchboard]

Remi works with a hesitant, erratic violence, creating a piece as light and fluffy as she is, and signing her work by hole-punching it with her teeth.

Timmy uses bold, strong lines to evoke some kind of powerful event, echoing his powerful presence and loud voice.

Nubbins, truly inspired, creates a high-energy piece that symbolizes the void where his brain should be, surrounded by chaos and mischief.

Sorry to keep banging on about this! I just have a few days left to meet the funding goal!

Massive thanks to all of you for contributing, sharing etc. I have a lot of people to contact and confirm things with, and will keep you all updated with how things are progressing.

I can't wait to get testing, and will begin weighted training etc. asap so that I can hit the ground running once the armour is complete!