Just a Gay Space Nerd

Both can mean an individual person gifted with foresight. A person who is an oracle can prophesize and make a prophecy, but is an oracle a prophet? Why or why not?

Conventional definitions are pretty much the same: both are people gifted with foresight and looked to as the mediums through which divinity communicates with humanity. But would you call the Pythia a prophet? Would you call Moses an oracle?

[points to sign on door that says ‘NO PROPHESIZING’]

You’re not wrong? Oracles def have some degree of control that prophets do NOT. I think it’s a difference in compulsion/duty/domain? Like the difference between a new anchor and a mail carrier. Both bring “the news” but one is just commenting on what IS and the other is bring TO YOU what was sent.

A prophet is a messenger. Fate/Judgment is coming. Better watch out! Maybe you can change it, maybe this is only the kindness of letting you get your affairs in order. But they have come to deliver the Prophecy Mail™ and we all gotta live with that.

ORACLES? Commenting on the weather. Rome will fall. A mountain is gonna explode somewhere. Oh, neat, something called an “airplane” will someday exsist. We eat our bread, sip our tea, and try not to go insane. They get Spoilers. All the time, ALL THE TIME. But, hey! Some times it’s good news!

Stop ASKING them about shit you don’t actually want the answer too.

You keep asking “oh, oracle, how will I die?” And then getting all suprise pikachu face WHEN THEY TELL YOU! You’re NOT GONNA BE ABLE TO AVOID THAT! In fact, you’ll actively MAKE IT WORSE TRYING! They’d warn you if this was one of that “hey, maybe bring an umbrella” moments!

Being an Oracle is sucks. But at least you’re not a prophet!

Like yeah, SOME people get the “your destiny is yo kill your father and marry your mother” but like. Most people aren’t asking about that. The dramatic ones are for stories. Most people are going to be like “my crops haven’t been doing great for a few years how do I secure a good harvest this year?” Or “my son is going to war what can I do to make sure he comes back?” Or if you got an auger there’s “how to win this battle?”

And the Oracle accepts your offerings and asks the question and says “make an offering for this god in this way.” (My autocorrect automatically capitalized god and doesn’t that say something.)

Oracles, like I believe many religions, operate on an exchange. You bring them a question and some thing fir the service and you get advice back.

I could talk at length on dissecting these images and other popular depictions, but in the interest of brevity and staying on message Ill just summarize. In 2016 Orcs are monstrous humans, in 2024 they are buff elves. Ill admit that part of m dislike of the change is just a departure from things I liked growing up. Warcraft II was a big part of my childhood and introduction to Orcs, and Ill always love them that way best. But there is more to it than that. I understand that a lot of this change comes from a place of reimagining Orcs beyond simple evil archetypes, to avoid the potential for unfortunate racial or xenophobic undertones, and so on. I think that's a good and noble thing. Fantasy tropes are modern myths, we can and should shape them and build upon them. But I don't feel like this really does that. What does it say that to make the Orcs less 'problematic' that they need to become elves? Why can't they keep their bestial jaws, their somehow both ape and swine-like features? I remember once, on this very website, seeing someone repost a bunch of art of very elven looking Orcs with a comment to the effect of "Who says Orcs have to be big and buff?" and framed itself as somehow, frankly, woke for the depictions. As though saying "I have made the thing slender and elegant and now its beautiful" was somehow deviant, and not the most mainstream of takes. There also comes with it a kind of strange erasure, a kind of white-washing of Orc lore. I think its because if we want to imagine Orcs in the frame work of modern conceptions of race they definitely aren't "fantasy white" so they must be "fantasy POC" and therefore anything wicked is a big no-no. They can't be demon-blooded marauders, they need to be misunderstood. Ironically, I feel we just reinvent the Noble Savage but green.

ive worked in hospitals for a long time, and years ago i saw a patient very frequently. he came in once every month or so, inpatient. one day he told me what he kept coming in for. he had a knee replacement, but it kept rejecting. so the hospital would take it out, keep him, and then put it back in. he told me that he was fighting to just have it amputated. he said he was in his 70s and he just didnt have enough time anymore to spend it all in the hospital. he said that he felt he could live a better and more fulfilling life for the years he had left if they just took the leg off. he could get a prosthetic and just not have to go to the hospital all the time. he said that the doctors were fighting him on it but that was what he wanted. i said that i understood, and that i hoped he could get that amputation

anyway, some time passed, and i saw him again. i asked whats up, he was beaming and said, "i got it done! they took the leg off!" i was like, "hell yeah man, how are you feeling?" and he said "well it hurts right now but im not gonna have to come here all the time anymore." he left the hospital some time later, and i never saw him again, which is all you can hope for when you work in a hospital

he also had an elective surgery, a "voluntary" surgery. he chose to have an amputation because he was suffering with the limb intact. and thats really what we're doing too. yes, transition surgeries are elective, but that doesnt mean that theyre not necessary to improve the quality of our lives

Some friendly comments from Americans replying to the last one, too:

I found photos of the same bag as the one I had:

Also!!! dead serious: red solo cups are an iconic design

Top iconic American cup designs imo:

1. NYC coffee cup "the anthora" designed by Czech Holocaust survivor Leslie Buck:

2. 90's paper Jazz cup (designed by Gina Ekiss) [side note: I incorrectly sometimes call these Dixie cups, but Dixie is a different brand, lol. There are lots of memorable Dixie cup designs, but none as enduring of visually memorable as the 90's Jazz.)

3. Red Solo Cup designed by Robert Leo Hulseman

I think runners up would be a coke cup (the red & white logo paper cup aka a "movie theater cup"), the red clear plastic cup, or the bottle green coke fountain glass) or perhaps a Starbucks or Dunkin design.

However, I would say they're runners up because:

A) they're drink brand specific

and b) the issue with the Starbucks cup is that it has had a lot of small redesigns, and it's almost more iconic as a generic green & white circle to avoid copyright as opposed to the actual cup itself.

Like yes, there are design variants/copies of the genuine anthora cup, and the red solo cup has had some shape updates, but the designs themselves have been very stable and are more iconic as a result.

Hailing the exclusive gathering as an opportunity to usher in an era of peace and goodwill, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hosted a lively meet-and-greet Thursday with a variety of the world’s infectious diseases. “In the spirit of friendship and mutual understanding, the United States is proud to welcome some of the most contagious bacteria and viruses ever to infect the human biome,” said Kennedy, who, following his opening remarks, waded into a reception room at his department’s headquarters and allowed over 10 billion of the invited microbes to spread through his lungs, digestive tract, and brain as a gesture of trust and a symbol of hope for the future.

Femme lesbian moves into a conservative area to befriend trad wives and help them realise their inner queer and ditching their shitbag husbands.

I think what’s delicious about Ilya is his self worth related to these concepts. He thinks he’s lazy, messy, undisciplined. You listen, you don’t soeak. Yes. You need a haircut. Yes, Father. The problem is leadership. Yes, nod, yes. But repeatedly we are shown that Ilya is good. He’s an attentive lover, he’s a good friend. He tries to be a good son to a hard man. He gives his brother whatever he asks for. He inspires his teammates. He worries that Ryan Price’s book will fall on the floor and oh fuck Price is going to lose his place, I will help, oh fuck, I failed.

But his family tells him he’s no good, so it must be true. They have been the loudest voices in his life and that’s literally become his inner monologue. But then here comes Shane “I don’t know that side of you at all” Hollander and soon enough Ilya is monologuing into the phone on the street outside of his father’s funeral about how actually no. He’s given everything to his family. He makes everything perfect. And he couldn’t physically be there for his father all the time but he paid for it all. And yet they despise him. He knows why, or says he does. But I don’t think does, I think in that moment the seed is planted that Ilya is lovable. And he doesn’t have to be perfect, he doesn’t have to drain himself dry. The person who loves him is trying to fill his cup from thousands of miles away.