If you follow Selmers to the poetry society meeting in Night In The Woods, this is her poem.
I loved it and the themes of the game, and wanted to use it as practice to see if i can control the way readers ‘hear’ the words through images.
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It's a shame that porn games and sim games don't have a lot of present overlap, because I feel like "horny mechsplo game where you have to actually win the fights to get to the sexy bits and it's one of those hyper-detailed 1990s era mech piloting sims that uses every single key on the keyboard" would do numbers with a very particular audience.
I'm not, but @kitsunestudios evidently is; while that's of course a completely different thing from what I'm describing, I'm not gonna lie, a sex simulator that controls like MechWarrior 2 is a fascinating prospect.
It's a shame that porn games and sim games don't have a lot of present overlap, because I feel like "horny mechsplo game where you have to actually win the fights to get to the sexy bits and it's one of those hyper-detailed 1990s era mech piloting sims that uses every single key on the keyboard" would do numbers with a very particular audience.
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Spying on kids to save kids from spying is very, very stupid
I’m on tour with my new book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI. Catch me TONIGHT (Jun 23) in TORONTO at Osler Records, and TOMORROW (Jun 24) in NYC at The Strand. After that, it’s Philly and Chicago.
The literature on harms to kids from online platforms is complex and nuanced, rife with people citing small, ambiguous studies as iron-clad evidence that kids are being destroyed by the internet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ype6c6DdHQY
It's a weird coalition of anti-Big Tech campaigners (who are rightly angry at the platforms' callous disregard for user welfare) and Heritage Foundation-backed culture warriors (who think that if their kids aren't exposed to LGBTQ content they won't come out as queer). While there's plenty these groups disagree about, they share one consensus: there should be a "minimum age" for certain kinds of internet use.
The problem is, there's no such thing as "age verification" for the internet. What we call "age verification" is actually mass surveillance, so invasive and pervasive that it makes the ad-tech industry's commercial surveillance look like some kind of cypherpunk darknet pirate utopia:
"Age verification" means that everyone who does anything online will have to submit to fine-grained tracking and recording of all their online activities. This nightmare is the surveillance advertising industry's fondest dream, a world where it's literally illegal to avoid their tracking, all in the name of saving kids…from them!
So it's not just a weird alliance of anti-Big Tech crusaders and the conspiratorial right that's pushing for age verification – they are unwitting allies of the very tech industry they think they're fighting. Those tech industry insiders are fully aware that an "age verification" mandate is really a way for the government to teach every child how to use a VPN. They're also fully aware that the next move is to ban VPNs:
Tech bosses are the ones sitting on our shoulders saying, "Go ahead, swallow that fly – it'll be fine. And if you do have to swallow a spider afterward, well, that'll surely be the end of it":
Behind them is a long line of caliper-wielding grifters who claim they can use your phone's camera to distinguish a child who is 17 years, 364 days old from an adult who's just turned 18:
It's beyond farce. After all, whatever harms you believe the internet is inflicting on kids – and there's absolutely some kids who are being harmed by their internet use – those harms all start with surveillance. Your kids can't be targeted by algorithms without the surveillance data that's being used to target them. They can't be funneled into pro-anorexia content or extreme misogyny forums without that funnel being primed by commercial spying.
Why do tech companies spy on your kids? The same reason your dog licks its balls: because they can, and no one stops them:
America hasn't updated its consumer privacy laws since 1988 (when Congress banned the disclosure of your VHS rentals). The EU has the GDPR, but it also has Ireland, the country where all GDPR cases against Big Tech go to die, because any tax haven inevitably becomes a crime haven:
Other countries have privacy laws to varying degrees, but are grossly outmatched by US tech giants, who have fused with the Trump regime, to the extent that Trump will impose penalties on your country if you attempt to regulate his tech companies – he'll even have your top officials cut off from the internet in retaliation:
Any attempt to save kids from online harms should start with saving kids from online surveillance, but that's the opposite of what we're doing today. After decades of failing to pass and enforce privacy controls for the internet, those same governments are breaking all land-speed records to pass "age verification" laws that make privacy illegal:
The fact that these bills have the firm backing of the tech industry's most controlling, most spying companies tells you everything you need to know about them:
Kids are being harmed by online spying, and so are the rest of us. Whether you think that the algorithm made Grampy go Qanon or you're suspicious that online surveillance data was used to deny you a loan, a job, or a lease, you should want privacy:
You can't protect kids from online surveillance by spying on them. You just can't. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to get you to swallow a fly so they can sell you a spider, a bird, a cat, and an ICE chud in a gaiter, Oakleys and plate carrier (beneath which lurks a stick-and-poke Totenkopf tattoo).
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
Maybe Facebook at all signing on to this legislation should be a huge red flag for anyone who actually cares.
also, this is a conflation turning “something needs to be done about social media harming children” and “let’s erect a ID verification wall around most of the internet”
Same thing with brexit conflating “something needs to be done or things will keep getting worse” with “let’s break with our coldest trade partners”
and then pundits are suprised that people are sick of whoever is in charge.
So, I haven't said a lot about the The Amazing Digital Circus since the pilot, and the Episode 8 post where my observation of the late-90's aesthetic of the circus was validated. But I DID see The Last Act (I really was not expecting to see it come to Camrose, AB, of all places) and I have thoughts. Mostly positive ones, honestly. Spoilers for The Last Act below the fold.
So, I had a hunch that the characters were brain scans not long after Episode 1, which was only strengthened when Caine made the comment at the end of Episode 2 about "who's a Human and who's an NPC". Mostly because it made thematic sense: in an existential story about the pointlessness of existence, the Circus is an allegory of life, and you don't just "escape" life.
So of course, the big issue is Jax. A big question on everyone's mind was whether Jax could be "redeemed" by the end of TADC, and ultimately, she isn't. Yes, Jax is transfemme, but since refusing to accept that fact is such a major part of her trauma, I'll continue to refer to Jax with male pronouns for the rest of this post.
What Jax's arc reminded me of was a post by Patricia Taxxon (since deleted along with her account on here). To paraphrase: You don't owe anyone your forgiveness, no-one owes you forgiveness, but you HAVE to be able to forgive yourself. If you can't accept you did wrong, or that you are capable of being better than your past actions, you'll just continue to hurt others. If you can't actually move beyond your past actions, it will eat you alive. You have to be able to live with yourself, because the only other option is not living.
Jax cannot forgive himself for what he did to Ribbit. Pushing Ribbit away metaphorically had the same effect as pushing his mother away literally: hurting them both far more than intended. Instead of forgiving himself, he just shuts himself up tighter and tighter, causing more harm to everyone in the process until ultimately, he abstracts.
It's a tragedy, much the way Caine's decent in episode 8 was a tragedy. The whole point of a tragedy is that the audience can see what's coming. While we are powerless to prevent it in the story, perhaps we can recognize when such a thing is happening in our own lives, and take the steps to prevent it.
What's interesting to be is that while Jax might not be redeemed, the human who Jax was based on gets the second chance that Jax didn't. As the members of the circus learn, Leeroy is no longer homeless and has a friend group. Outside the Circus, she has a shot at a better life, a chance to express her true self, and not making the same mistakes Jax did. If the cast eventually finds a way to "undo" abstraction, then not only might Jax have a second chance, but so might Ribbit, Kaufmo, Queenie, Scratch and the rest of the C&A crew.
I think that threaded the needle perfectly: Both Jax and Leeroy are two paths the same life could take. Who we are is not set in stone, and change is always possible, given the right circumstances.
My only real complaint is that Gangle kind of gets the short end of the narrative stick. It's minor, but I still have no idea how she got into the circus?? She worked in fast food and got hit by a truck, but I have no idea what her connection is with C&A otherwise. Not super relevant to the overall story, but I'd love to gear @gooseworx say how she got scanned, now that the series is over.
*Edit: Accidentally referred to Leeroy as "Lonnie" a few times in here. I have NO idea where that name got pulled from :/.
Ay if you Black and make art/music/write/whatever, reblog this post showing it and link your shop/sites/paylinks/etc. so people can buy your stuff or send you money.
If you non-black, reblog this when you see it and if you only see one or two additions on the stack, check comments to see if you can reblog a longer version. Pretty much all my shit is free to read/listen to, so send your money to other Black folks in the reblogs instead and help boost their art.
Writing:
Weaving the Stories, poetry compilation
Chasing Uncertainty, poetry compilation/Transfeminist Womanism theory
General longer-form theory can be found at my site, anons.ee
Audio:
A recorded version of Weaving the Stories can be found on Bandcamp, YouTube, and streaming platforms.
i dont have a paylink site but id just appreciate traction! follow me <3 commission me actually!!!! im gonna link a bluesky account in the near future, stay tuned for that ~
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So, I'm a sucker for furry games and crafting games. I really enjoyed CraftCraft and Potionomics, so I figured I'd love Beastro.
I just really REALLY wish I liked it more.
Like, there's a lot to recommend it. The art and design is gorgeous. The puppet theatre recaps of combat are fantastic. The gameplay is solid and the world-building is also interesting.
But the writing is... well. not good.
It's serviceable, but its at that frustrating threshold of "This could be so much better".
I was about 7 hours into the game before I found a character with a distinct personality. Everyone has sort of a generically friendly, helpful lackadaisical attitude to everything. The world is potentially ending? I'm sure we'll be fine. The guardian we believed to be dead for 200 years is back after "failing us all?" Oh hey there, nice to see you again, don't worry about destroying an entire flavour.
This also results in the background NPC characters of the town feeling flat and disconnected. For example, Giya, the potter in town. She's suffering art block at the start of the game, until she decides to make plates for your restaurant. Then there's a short cutscene with the blacksmith encouraging her "Hey, if you don't make something now, the world might end and you'll never make anything again", and boom, plates are unlocked, and she becomes nothing more than a shop to buy plates from.
That's the start of a story, but there could be so much more there. For instance, what is her relationship with Panko at the start of the game? Classmates? Friends? Drinking buddies? Maybe if he store expanded options through the game instead of giving Panko everything from the start, she could have a character arc of being inspired by current events, or a reflection of Panko's own growth as a chef.
That happens all over the place. Panko reacts to Tark the Librarian as if he's reluctant to start a conversation, but that never manifests in the game later. Clyde is implied to be writing sensationalist headlines on the village message board, but outside the headlines, he only exists as a guy to play a mini-game with.
Speaking of, it was odd to learn that Panko was only a sous-chef of the restaurant by day three in-game. We're worried about Travers from the intro, but we don't really learn he's the owner/head chef/your teacher until much later. Too often, we find out plot points only when they become relevant, with little to no setup, and little impact on the rest of the characters outside of the adventuring caretakers. The story feels written to support the gameplay, rather than integrating all the elements of the world into a more cohesive whole.
It's not a deal-breaker; I'm nearing the end of the game already, but it is picking at the creative part of my brain in a way that's driving me a bit bonkers.
Fun facts about immigration in the US you might want to share with friends and relatives for no particular reason
The United States actually had open borders until 1924. There was no cap on immigration, and people were only denied access based on race and disability. (NOTE: Open borders means little to no formal restriction on movement across borders. There was still terrible discrimination.) (x)
The Immigration Act of 1924 had an overall negative impact on the economy (x) (x) and foreign relations with Asia, but Hitler praised it (x), because it was just blatant eugenics (x).
ICE didn't exist until 2003 (x)
Being undocumented is not actually classified as a crime (x). If it was, cases would be handled by the judicial branch, and defendants would receive the benefits of due process. But because it isn't, it is handled by the executive branch, and defendants do not get due process, in clear violation of their rights. That means no lawyers, no jury, and no real judge.
Immigration "judges," who are not required to have nearly as much experience or education in law as real judges (x), face no consequences for wrongful deportation, they are only really evaluated based on how many people they process.
While it's difficult to pin down an exact number, there have been an estimated 4,000 wrongful detention/deportations by 2010 alone (x - this one suggests a possible 20,000) (x - this one confirms over a thousand), with several reported on in mainstream media (Mark Lyttle, Pedro Guzman, Roberto Dominquez, Andres Gonzalez, Esteban Tiznado-Reyna).
In April 2025, there were several more confirmed wrongful deportations, including a 2-year-old citizen deported to Honduras (x) (x), a 10-year-old with brain cancer on her way to a medical appointment (x), and a 7-year-old and her 4-year-old brother with stage 4 cancer (x).
There were more deaths in ICE concentration camps in 2025 than almost any year prior, tying for first place with 2003 (x). If nothing is done about it, that number will increase in 2026.
It’s darkly funny to me that the joke tag has come full circle.
“Dead dove, do not eat” was the most explicit and literal warning in the context of Arrested Development. And now it’s a meta-label with unwritten context.
So the people who use the tag by itself wonder why everyone is asking what flavour of dead dove is inside, while the people who actually filter based on tags just see brown paper bag with the word “no” on the side, and unlike Michael, don’t actually know shat to expect. :/
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