Paul Loves Comics

You know, given how C. lupus, C. lupus familiaris, and C. latrans can all create perfectly viable hybrids, and that the proto-dogs that domestic dogs descended from much more resembled coyotes than wolves, it's not really a surprise that some yotes are experimenting with domestication.

Goddamn that lady must be fucking shredded to be able to chase down a coyote through a swamp.

"Don't let wild animals into your house, you are not going to make Dogs 2.0, you're going to get injured and the animal killed." is probably obvious enough advice that I don't need to put it in the tags as a reminder.

...I know more than four people on this site that have poisoned themselves trying out 'foraging guides' they found online, two people IRL who tried to keep raccoons at pets, and have a family member who got hospitalized for Cat Scratch Fever after grabbing a feral cat bare-handed. This is apparently, not obvious enough.

You KNOW classic SF used the limited displays of CRT television and the static of transmitted signals the way theaters use stage makeup and lighting to make inexpensive props look great fine— take advantage of the medium! But it's hard to imagine how it looked if you've only seen Blu-ray HD restorations.

I honestly don't remember how often we realized that the props or whatever were made with recognizable stuff. But here's the more important point, IMO: It didn't matter, because the goal was not assumed to be tricking us into thinking it was real. The goal was to look cool, or to simply get the point across.

The idea that the effects should look "real" didn't take hold until effect technology got a lot more sophisticated. It just wasn't possible before a certain point, so we didn't look for it. The same way that even the most serious music fans weren't looking for double-bass drumming or synthesizers before those things were introduced.

Learning how the effects were done was also fun. Star Wars raised the bar considerably, but what made it so cool was that we knew that those scenes were made with models, lighting, sounds sampled from all over then mixed together, all the clever stuff people did made it impressive.

take up space, read the plaques, get the audioguides. you are just as entitled and right in being there. visit museums, boycott museums, be expressive about your opinions about museums.

a lot of museums are free, or discounted for youth and students. take advantage of that. check your local art museum. check your local history museum. museums are there for you, they are there to educate the public, not to distinguish between class. it isn't a private collection, it's a public exhibit.

“The future is a thing of the past”?

Makes sense, a lot of the best science fiction involved worlds and settings that appear lived in, showing that even in the future people have been around a long time. Implies backstory, and such.

"Its 2027 setting is deliberately unremarkable. There are no technological leaps, no dramatic architectural transformations; rather, the world looks like a rotting version of the 2000s. It looks like an extension of the present — only more corroded.

Surveillance is heavier. Borders are tighter. Infrastructure is decaying. Everything familiar has been pushed one or two notches closer to failure."

That feeling was not common twenty years ago when the movie was made, but it was gaining steam. Now i suspect that a majority of folks recognize it too well. There seems to be not so much progress, but shift. Shift from analog to digital, shift from this platform to that one, shift from one desperate idea that didn't work out to another one that almost certainly won't, either. Even the newest, most high-tech-y products don't promise a better world, just convenience. And even that's not convincing. We know they're just trying to sell us the same thing again in a different shell. It's really jarring when we look at the past century, where there were hopeful changes (Civil Rights movement) and terrifying ones (nukes), but shit changed. Movies might have adapted stories from books and incorporated things from every other visual and dramatic medium that came before, but it was a hell of a lot more inspiring than a slightly different way to write an email or make a spreadsheet, or yet another streaming service that looks and acts like all the others, just with a different logo at the top. The "future" meaning the idea that civilization will progress and change, is shifting from a vision that people expect to come true to a trope that exists in certain kinds of art, but not in our heads or hearts. It's shifting from an active belief to a curious myth of some bygone culture.

Yeah, that's bleak, and I don't think that is a fate with which we are doomed. But it's very real vibe in this moment. A renewed way to envision a better future is a something we really need from art right now. Some are trying, but the spark hasn't turned into a flame yet.

Also, the change that we need most now is not so much technological as it is attitudinal. We have a lot of tech, we have a lot of resources. We know how to develop new tools. Look at how fast the COVID vaccine was developed. When we put our minds to something, we can do amazing shit. The problem is the shit we think are worth putting our minds to: money, power, shoring up the status quo. We need better goals, and that's hard. The current system is winding down, spinning out, thrashing around as it goes away, but the new thing hasn't appeared yet. Maybe the new thing will just be a slight adjustment, a more humane realignment, with bigger change yet to come. There can be stages.

Do I miss some foods I can't eat anymore without getting sick? Sure, but that's not what really bothers me. What bothers me is being excluded from a huge portion of human social life of which food is a crucial component. What bothers me is the stress and social stigma of trying to figure out what I can safely eat. What bothers me is the amount of extra work and cost that is required of me to identify, obtain, and prepare safe foods. What bothers me is people treating my needs like a nuisance, as though I chose to be like this - as though their brief inconvenience to check an ingredients list is unreasonable, when I deal with this every day of my life forever.

I don't miss the food that much. I miss not having to worry about what I eat. I miss freedom. I miss when trying new foods and new restaurants was fun instead of a minefield. I miss not having to plan my entire life around the need for safe foods.

Remember: The "'E" in email stands for evidence.

That cuts both ways. Be careful what you put into an email. It never really goes away and can be used against you.

But can also be a powerful tool for workplace fairness.

Case 1: Your supervisor asks you to do something you know is either illegal or against company policy. A verbal request. If things go wrong, you can count on them denying that they ever told you to do that. You go back to your desk, or wherever and you send them an email: "I just want to make sure that I understood correctly that you want me to do xxxxx" Quite often, once they see it in writing, they will change their mind about having you do it. If not, you have documentation.

Me; That's illegal.

Them: (start italics) three slow, long seconds of staring at me blankly (end italics) Uh...

Me: That's an illegal policy to have. The right to discuss wages is a right protected by the National Labor Relations board. I used to be in a union. I know this.

HR: Oh, this is news to me! I have been working HR for 18 years and I never knew that. Haha. Well try not do do it anyway, it makes people upset, haha.

Me: people are entitled to their opinions about what their work is worth. Bye.

I then left, and sent her several texts and emails saying I would like a copy of their company policy to see where this wage discussion policy was kept. She quickly called me back in to her office.

HR: You know what, there is no policy like that in the handbook! I double check. Sorry about the confusion, my apologies.

Me: You still haven't given me the paper saying that we had this discussion. I am going to need some protection against retaliation.

HR: Oh haha yes here you go.

The woman would then storm back into my office screaming at me for putting the discussion in writing and arguing about pushing back the other project or whatever. At which point I would summarize that conversation in email as well. Which would bring her storming back in, rinse and repeat ad nauseum.

Anyway I cannot imagine how badly that job would have gone if I hadn’t put all her wildly unreasonable demands in writing. Bitch still hated me but she could never hang me for “missing deadlines” because I always had in writing that she’d pushed the project back because she wanted something else done first.

May 24th: Murray Foust found dead in Kentucky, missing since April 27th.

May 18th: Eryka Caldwell murdered in Brooklyn.

May 10th: Juniper Blessing murdered at University of Washington.

May 6th: White House releases "counterterrorism strategy", including "transgender ideology" as a domestic threat.