The world is ending, yet the barbs continue

clicker training but its just a single piano key that makes you sad

Ain’t this what MCR did to a bunch of 2010s emos

Graced by Geckolepis typica from Madagascar. I love that they’re quite round creatures and then they have these dainty little toes. Also, their scales are full bone and both scale and skin come off when they get grabbed, which is…unpleasant. Consequently, catching these geckos for research without damaging them requires special techniques. 19th century researchers used bundles of cotton wool, but I imagine this wasn’t very effective, because cotton still has a lot of friction and the friction would pull the skin and scales off. In my (quite extensive) experience, the best technique is to carefully and quickly flick the geckos from their tree trunk or branch into an open dry plastic bag using a finger or stick.

After I came out as an adult to my childhood best friend, he went back to his family and told them and then when we next spoke he said, ‘we’ve decided this is a good move for you.’

i dont think shipping is antithetical to good media analysis but even in situations when the romantic reading absolutely makes a story worse sometimes you have to go well. we're playing with toys. yes i know this character would not get into a conventional romantic relationship and if they did itd ruin a lot of the themes of the story but fortunately the original story still exists and i have no control over it. im playing in the space and nobody can stop me.

I've reached the point where cynicism is a major turn-off for me. You're not smarter than idealists, and you're not helping.

Funny that the stereotypical cynic is an idealist who aged out of it. In my experience, the reverse is true. I was an extreme cynic as a teenager and then I noticed how profoundly limiting it was, and also that "cynics are cool and smart" was a message that was being constantly reinforced by corporate media for some reason.

I also think that the present era has proven that authoritarian leaders don't actually want a population of wide-eyed idealists, they want a population of jaded assholes who are convinced that everyone is lying, any resistance is either a scam or doomed to failure, and nothing can ever get better.