Born to be Brave

that's not great. but it's not the whole story.

a few things got worse right before the vote too. the language that explicitly protected encryption, saying the bill couldn't be used to force platforms to weaken it, got quietly stripped out on Friday. that safeguard just doesn't exist anymore.

but this isn't over. it heads to the senate next, and the senate is genuinely not on board. blumenthal and cantwell, two of the senators who wrote the original KOSA, are saying they don't want this version near a markup. blackburn, a republican and the other original author, called the missing duty of care provision a red line.

worth being clear here, blackburn isn't on our side. she wants the policy stronger, not gone. but that's still a crack we can use. her opposition means the house version has zero guaranteed path through the senate as written, and a stalled bill is a bill that isn't law yet. use her objection, don't trust her motive.

senate commerce hasn't even scheduled a markup yet. that's the next pressure point. this thing has died or gotten majorly rewritten at this stage before.

contact your senators: find yours here. tell them you don't want the house version anywhere near a vote.

and remember, if you have to, contact your senators scared. anything helps.

We're having our turn in the heat wave and reports from the National Mall are brutal already this week. That screenshot is today's forecast (courtesy of the Capital Weather Gang) and tomorrow and Saturday are confidently going to be worse than this is.

The national Mall has no shade on the grass and you will be exposed to the sun constantly while also experiencing extremely high humidity. You will not be allowed a bag over a certain size to enter the mall and it has to be clear. You cannot have an insulated water bottle, it has to be clear. Reports are that there are two entrances to the area so you'll have to wait in line to even get in. I cannot find a number on how many cooling stations there are, except that it's "few" to "none" depending on what accounts I read online. Vendors are allegedly charging more than the posted prices and seem to be unprepared for actual crowds - these are the official vendors not the scam food trucks that park all around the edges of the mall. And that's the extent of the planning done because it was not a priority to make sure attendees don't pass out.

My local friends and I have reached a consensus that tourists are going to get extremely sick and none of us know what the EMT response or planning is on the mall this year. People are going to die.

There is historically an assumption that attendees will have access to planned amenities. It's not in place this year of all years. There is a very real risk here and I'm trying to warn people, because people simply don't know how awful this is about to be.

In the beginning when Mr. Incredible says, “Go home, Buddy. I work alone.” He’s holding up Bomb Voyage

In Syndrome’s flashback, he’s looking down on him, no bad guy in sight

oh 

In the flashback, it’s a different scenario completely!! The lighting is all focused on Bob as if he’s under a spotlight and it is only the two of them. Bob’s pose here is also ridiculously condescending. He has his hands on his hips like a superhero and is looking down at Buddy with contempt and scorn. In addition, when he turns to leave, he dismissively waves his hand as if saying “Get out of here.”

It’s also interesting to note Buddy’s position here. His arms are extended either in worship or as an expression of all he has to offer in this relationship. He sees himself as a victim because he thinks he gave all of himself to Mr Incredible, just got him to reject him.

It’s also amazing to me how much Buddy’s suit is a reflection of himself. Everything from the black and white color scheme representing his black and white way of thinking, to the huge S because here only thinks of himself.

That makes two things abundantly clear:

Bob doesn’t have an aversion to working with other people. Remember when he runs into Elastigirl earlier in the day? She reminds him not to “forget”, and he promises he won’t. They were standing over a thief they ended up accidentally nabbing together, or so we thought. They bantered back and forth about working alone, yet they nabbed that thief so seamlessly, you’d think they’d done it before. Then you find out later, Elastigirl is the woman at the altar. Making it clear that they had to have worked together, very frequently, enough to end up trusting each other to the point that they revealed their secret identities and had a romantic relationship outside of Super work, culminating in literally marrying each other. Bob is more than fine with a partner because he married his.

The other is that, Bob is trying to protect Helen. She may be more than capable of handling herself, as she flirtatiously reminds Bob on the rooftop just hours before their nuptials. But the one thing that’s priceless to the Supers are their secret identities. With Syndrome following Bob begging to partner with him, it puts Helen in danger. A fanatical fan like that can end up possessive, meaning once Syndrome discovers her, could see her as a direct threat stealing “his” position working with Bob. And because he obviously has a knack for following people undetected (he was right on Bob’s heels all over a huge metropolitan city for literal hours), he could very well stalk Helen, discover her secret identity and expose her in order to eliminate her, putting her directly in danger. Bob isn’t an idiot, he knows working with this kid doesn’t just put this child in danger, but also his own wife and their identities. It’s better to say he works alone and let this kid down as gently as possible, hoping to finally shake him off for good so he can work in safety and peace.

- The reason Syndrome found all the other supers first (including Frozone) was because Bob kept getting fired from his jobs, forcing the government to wipe his existence from multiple companies and forcing his family to move each time that happened. He unintentionally saved his family by forcing them to relocate so often.

- Two of the biggest differences between the two versions of “go home, Buddy” is the focus, and length. In Mr Incredible’s version, “Go Home, Buddy” is a midpoint, a random event that just happened to stick because it was weirdly specific, and it was right before the important parts. The attempted suicide, train crash, and wedding are much more important because those were more important to Mr Incredible (since the first two ended the superhero movement, and the last was his wedding). Buddy, on the other hand, only flashes back to “Go home, Buddy”. Which is weird because Buddy almost died later that night from a bomb on his cape, and he almost killed dozens of people on a train by dropping a bomb on them, and because of that, he was indirectly responsible for the death of supers. All three of those things should be much more important to Buddy, but it’s a sign of his psychosis that the one thing he remembers is not Mr Incredible saving his life, or his life being in danger, but instead Mr Incredible rejecting him. Buddy was unstable, and an extremely unreliable narrator who edited out massive chunks of his own story to better justify his hero syndrome.

- Also, on a more sobering note, some have brought up how Incredibles 2 seems a step down from Incredibles 1, and while that’s arguable, there’s some related bits in there I’d like to mention. You know how there were a slew of superhero’s in the movie for when they made superhero-ing legal again?

Notice anything funny about that lineup? Anything at all? Okay, here’s a hint then. How many of these heroes were working before heroes got banned? How many of these new heroes are from Mr Incredible’s era?

Answer: None.

Frozone, Elastigirl, and Mr Incredible are the only ones who were active before the ban, or more specifically, were left from those active before the ban.

Think about it, Elastigirl was on the news basically continuously, there was a UN declaration on supers, any super left who had even been five degrees of separation away from Elastigirl back in their heyday would’ve come up to talk to her and her movement. But when Elastigirl was brought in to meet other supers, she didn’t know any of them.

And it’s not like she and Bob were loners who never interacted with anyone, look at their wedding day, it’s packed to the gills with capes (and possibly some secret identities too):

So…what happened?

Syndrome happened. This isn’t just some serial killer picking people at random, Syndrome systematically wiped out an entire community of people, arguably, an entire generation of supers, since Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack seem to be the only kid-supers in existence.

That’s why Elastigirl is so emotional when she’s introduced to these new supers, she thought her people, barring her family and Frozone, were wiped out by Syndrome. And in a way…they were.

Nobody’s left from her era of superheroics. None of her old friends survived. It’s just her, Bob, and Frozone left out of what was once a thriving, vibrant community. All those bright lights snuffed out because some kid couldn’t handle being rejected but his hero.

- Honestly, this allegory kind of brings to mind the AIDS crisis and the gay community. A “syndrome” almost specifically targeting a subset of the population with a flair for dramatic outfits and superheroics, picking off members one by one until the population is decimated. The members of the community have to intervene themselves to slow/stop this “syndrome” because the government, which was supposed to protect them, is unaware of, or is blatantly ignoring the crisis until it starts hurting the “normal” community. Because of this “syndrome” there’s just this gap in this community, where an entire generation is just…missing…with the few survivors having to counsel the new, untouched generation, and helping them achieve widespread support and acceptance they could only dream of.

- Side note: I just realized something. Take a look at Syndrome’s kill list:

And take a look at that wedding shot again.

Anyone look familiar?

If it’s to hard to tell, at least four of the people Syndrome killed were at Bob’s wedding.

Mr Incredible wasn’t watching supers getting killed, he was watching his friends getting killed. People he trusted enough to share his secret identity with people he trusted enough to share his wife’s secret identity with. Hell, our poor boy Gazerbeam got a front row seat with Edna and their NSA agent that’s usually reserved for family only.

And that’s bad enough, but something else occurred to me, Bob and Helen clearly haven’t been keeping in close contact with their superheroic friends, Bob asks Frozone if he’s been keeping in contact with Gazerbeam, implying they haven’t talked in a while.

Additionally, Bob’s life, and the superhero community’s life, went tits up basically immediately after his wedding night. So if there was any point for them to stop talking with other supers, it’d be then.

So what does that mean?

It means, in all likelihood that when Mr Incredible looked at that list of dead friends and superheroes, he realized with growing horror that, his wedding?

The happiest point of his life?

What do you do when your comfort no longer comforts?

As some of you know, over the last 6 months I have been battling the sudden onset of a new chronic illness. In the space of a month and change I was suddenly newly disabled, being gaslit by doctors, and slowly losing the ability to eat. As if this wasn’t distressing enough, this all was playing out over the backdrop over the holidays and anniversaries of the death of my mother and grandmother.

Worst of all? I found the things I usually do for comfort (cycling, traveling, writing, and engaging in crafts with friends) suddenly off limits. As my life turned into my own personal hell in late 2025, the world outside got bleaker and bleaker. I found myself growing more and more numb, unable to cope or escape in the ways I usually did. My friends started complaining their comfort books weren’t comforting the way they were used to. They were turning to cozier and cozier pieces of media and lashing out when those books weren’t what they were looking for.

The whole situation reminded me vividly of the problem many of us found ourselves with in March and April of 2020: Many of us lost or had to alter our coping mechanisms because of the pandemic. 

(Yes, yes, I know, don’t remind you.)

The pandemic’s effect on mental health was well documented and doesn’t need additional commentary by a little sapphic author. However, as someone who has recently found themself turning to old comforts to get through these trying personal and political times–and has found themselves struggling to find comfort in these once-comforting items– I thought I might share some thoughts on what I’ve been doing to get through.

(And yes, there may be some lessons from the pandemic thrown in there, too.)

Read on Patreon!

Step 1: Realize Comfort Is Transitory

We turn to our comfort medias, items, and tasks because we find regulation in media. We sink into models of the life we want, not the ones we have, but perhaps most importantly, we know what’s coming. There are no surprises in a piece of media you’ve already consumed and found comfort in. Our bodies and brains relax into the routine and muscle memory, etc. This is especially important for folks who are neurodivergent, who often need routine to thrive (whether we like to admit it or not).

However, the problem with life is that it isn’t routine.

Have you ever had an experience where you’ve spoken to someone further along in their life journey, and therefore trivializes your stressors while upselling theirs? Yeah, it’s like that. As we move through our non-routine lives, we react to different stimuli and stressors. Things that made you want to tear your hair out in high school make you go “oh, you sweet summer child” in adulthood. Things that stressed us out in 2016 seem banal to us in 2026.

So how does that apply to suddenly losing the ability to find comfort in your old favorite media piece?

Well, think of it this way: The human body has a million different enzymes and chemicals it releases in reaction to the different things it encounters every day. Enzyme A is meant to signal Cell A to attack Intruder A. Why? Because Cell A is specifically meant to be effective against Intruder A. So when you have been minding you own business and living your regular life, is it really fair to think the media that comforted you during your normal everyday life or when you were going through a break up can suddenly go toe to toe against a global pandemic or life-altering event?

No.

My ability to consume media took a nosedive after I got sick in October 2025.

Step 2: Realize Comfort Items Are Transitory, But Themes Are Not

Yeah, great, Ty, what does that mean? It means that while Comfort Media A might not be comforting anymore, there’s a reason why you liked it. Why it brought you comfort. 

Here’s some examples from my life. 

Example 1: Two of my favorite comfort medias, Pacific Rim and Mad Max: Fury Road, are both set in post-apocalyptic settings. It turns out, though, that when the world around you feels like an apocalypse (i.e. a global pandemic), you no longer find comfort in media set at or near the end of the world. Surprise, surprise, right?

However, both Pacific Rim and Mad Max: Fury Road both have themes where a “band of misfits” come together to save the world. There is cool technology, worldbuilding ripe for expansion, opportunity for deep character exploration, etc. I also love the fight and action scenes and the open, Happy For Now (instead of Happily Ever After) endings.

Step 3: Search and Apply Comfort Themes 

Once you identify why you liked Comfort A, and you identify why Comfort A no longer comforts like it should, you can then apply that to finding Comfort B (and C, and D, and E, and…) 

Ask yourself the following. For Comfort B, do I want something:

Almost Exactly The Same (Same Themes, Nearly Identical Execution)

Find canon compliant fanfic, podfic, or fanmixes for Comfort A

Check out comp titles for Comfort A

Find a new hobby or task that stimulates the exact same part of brain as Comfort A

Like knitting? Try crochet or needlepoint.

Find a new activity that moves your body in the same way as Comfort A

Like jump rope? Try trampoline.

Similar But Different (Same Themes, Similar Execution)

Read canon divergent fiction (universe alternation instead of alternative universe) for Comfort A

“What If” fics

Check out comp titles for Comfort A (but in an adjacent genre)

Cozy fantasy or romantasy instead of fantasy, 

Find a new hobby or task that stimulates a similar part of the brain as Comfort A

Like crosswords? Try Wordle

Find a new activity that moves your body similarly to Comfort A

Like running? Try soccer.

Similar But Completely Different (Same Themes, Completely Different Execution)

Read or engage with alternative universe fanfic, podfic, fanmixes, etc

Coffee shop AUs, etc

Find new media with similar themes (found family, etc) but in a completely different genre 

Noir or epic fantasy instead of romantasy

Find a new hobby or task that stimulates a similar part of the brain as Comfort A 

Like Wordle or crosswords? Try Sudoku.

Find a new activity that moves your body in similar as Comfort A

Like flag football? Try ultimate frisbee.

Completely Different (New Themes, Completely Different Execution)

Engage in a new fandom

Read crossover fanfiction or engage in fanmake for series you’ve only consumed passively on social media or at conventions

Engage in a brand new genre

Only read sci-fi? Pick up a historical mystery.

Read a lot of fiction? Pick up some nonfiction.

Pick up a brand new hobby.

Like sewing? Try singing or playing an instrument. 

Move your body in a brand new way

Running? Try tai chi or yoga.

Take It Back Now, Y’all (Return To Old Hyperfixations/The Nostalgia Hit)

Reread old fanfics, watch old AMVs, and go find the fan content created by old fandoms

Engage in your favorite childhood, teenager, etc media

Pick up old hobbies gathering dust

Try moving your body in a way you used you love (older joints and current chronic illnesses allowing, of course)

Example 1: I finally determined I wanted something Similar But Completely Different/Completely different to Pacific Rim and Mad Max: Fury Road. I also, eventually, sunk back into old hyperfixations. 

Overall I changed my hobby habits for several months–I watched a lot of TV, which I don’t normally do. (Despite Pacific Rim and Mad Max: Fury Road being two of my favorite comfort medias, I’m not a screen person and rarely watch TV or movies). I also developed a new hyperfixation/fandom (space shuttle!) and fell back into an old one (The Legend of Korra).

Similar But Completely Different (Same Themes, Completely Different Execution)

I mainlined My Hero Academia, Fire Force, and Yowamushi Pedal

Completely Different (New Themes, Completely Different Execution)

I got into The West Wing based on a recommendation from a friend

Watched the entirety of The Repair Shop on Netflix

 I read everything from my library on the space shuttle and NASA’s human spaceflight program. Listened to a bunch of podcasts, too!

Take It Back Now, Y’all (Return To Old Hyperfixations/The Nostalgia Hit)

I got really into The Legend of Korra again and wrote 300,000+ words of Kyalin fanfic in approx. six months

I rewatched Yakitate Japan, and from there watched Food Wars and a bunch of cooking shows on YouTube and Netflix (Tasting History with Max Miller, etc)

Once it was declared safe to go outside again, every evening I walked 5+ miles around my neighborhood playing Pokemon Go and listening to audiobooks/podcasts.

In late 2025, I tracked my health and did a ton of research. It was comforting because I was able to put words to my experiences, find others who were going through what I was, and I was able to start to piece together a picture of what I might expect.

Example 2: My chronic illness physically took away my ability to engage in many of my hobbies that helped me regulate, including cooking, reading physical media, and going on walks/going to the gym. I needed to find new ways to escape and to build routine.

As stated above, I’m not a TV or movie person. I was also really struggling with anything physical or mentally taxing. Standing for more than five minutes at a time was challenging. Even audiobooks and TikTok were too challenging for my brain. Writing, my main form of regulation in 2025, was out of the question. I also didn’t have access to streaming services. What was a butch to do?

Answer: Research my suspected new chronic illness, watch a lot of YouTube shows, and not much else. As I started to get a little better, I was able to listen to more audiobooks and work on my novel in fits and spurts, but I still very much watched a lot of YouTube shows.

Almost Exactly The Same (Same Themes, Nearly Identical Execution)

Oceanliner Designs (one of my hyperfixations is the Titanic and old ocean liners) 

Similar But Different (Same Themes, Similar Execution)

Watching Outdoor Boys, Metal Detecting WWII Battlegrounds, and Time Team, all very soothing shows

I run the Gail Carriger Fan Server Book Club, and a lot of the books we ended up reading during that time period were Similar But Different to books she has written, which was nice

Similar But Completely Different (Same Themes, Completely Different Execution)

Started reading contemporary paranormal romance 

Started reading more “cozy” and less hardcore fantasy/sci-fi (but still with themes of found family, etc)

Completely Different (New Themes, Completely Different Execution)

Researching WTF was wrong with me

When in doubt, PubMed!

And Nature and Research Gate and and…

I started writing blog posts, because that was what my brain could write!

Take It Back Now, Y’all (Return To Old Hyperfixations/The Nostalgia Hit)

I rewatched Agatha All Along

I relistened to several comfort books from my childhood 

As I was able to handle audiobooks and mental stimulation again, I listened to several books on WW2 (a special interest)

Trainer Ty wants to battle!

Step 4: Profit?

It was strange–and frankly a bit distressing– to try and find new comforts while it felt like the world was on fire. It felt a bit like throwing spaghetti at the wall both in 2020 at the beginning of pandemic lockdowns and in 2025 when my health was disintegrating. It was easier in 2020 to find things that filled the void, and harder in 2025 when I was much more limited in what I could and couldn’t do physically and mentally.

However, once I found those items, I was able to find regulation and comfort. A relief for everyone!

In Summary:

Comfort Is Transitory. It’s Okay If Something Stops Comforting You

Identify Why Your Thing Comforts You (And Why It’s Giving You Troubles Now)

Try Something Almost Identical

Try Something Similar But Different

Try Something Old

Try Something New

The most important thing is to go in with an open mind and try not to feel upset or ashamed if something doesn’t work out. People try hobbies all the time and decide it is not for them! Why should comfort media be any different?

Good luck!

There are many scripts online you can follow, many ways to tweak your message to fit your senator (ESPECIALLY if they are up for reelection this year). Whether it's a recording you reach or a real person, be straightforward, don't argue, just let your rep know that you are a constituent and you oppose the KIDS act, etc.

The interesting thing to me about the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (and there is only a trilogy, no other movies, don't at me) always was when these movies are set.

Because these movies are set in around 1740. Which notably is AFTER the end of the "Golden Age of Piracy". The Golden Age of Piracy lasted from about 1650 to 1730. It was a period defined by how a bunch of political and economic factors made piracy a very valid career, for the lack of a better word.

And of course this should come with the asterisk that obviously historical real piracy was mostly acts committed in service of a crown mostly to harm the imperial rivals, and not the big adventure story. But part of the reason that people do love pirates so much is in the end also based in how pirate society in some strange ways was ahead of its time. Pirates had health insurance, retirement funds, gay marriage, democracy, and more. Sure, at times for weird complex societal reasons, but it makes pirates this perfect fantasy. People living outside the oppressive society of their time, on the high seas, which feels adventurous.

And the thing about the Pirates movies that fascinates me so much is how they do interact with this. And how the characters in it relate to it. Because it is something the movies are aware of. Jack Sparrow is more than once called a "dying breed". Because he stands in for all the best and worst aspects of piracy. He is an idealist, but also a selfish asshole. Will is someone trying to proof his worth to polite society, but starts to understand that polite society will never see him as more than a lower class person. While Elizabeth is quite aware that to society she never will be anything but a woman, none of her other traits being acknowledged. And Barbossa as someone who has decided he should just get to do what he wants, because others do as well.

And there is this haunting of colonialism in the background. This is made so clear in Dead Man's Chest and World's End. Cutler Beckett is a personification of the British Empire. Doing horrible things but whenever someone makes him realize how horrible it is, he will just say: "Well, it is good business."