Like Coffee, War Brews

In September 2004, French police discovered a hidden chamber in the catacombs under Paris. It contained a full-sized movie screen, projection equipment, a bar, a pressure cooker for making couscous, a professionally installed electricity system, and at least three phone lines. Movies ranged from 1950s noir classics to recent thrillers.

When the police returned three days later, the phone and power lines had been cut and there was a note on the floor: “Do not try to find us.” (via)

SECRET, MILDLY THREATENING UNDERGROUND COUSCOUS CINEMA

BEYOND THE CRAZY FRONT DESK AND THE MOVIE THEATER, THERE WAS A STOCKED BAR AND TABLES AND CHAIRS, MEANING THAT AFTER CATCHING A FLICK IN AN ILLEGAL PARISIAN CATACOMB THEATER, YOU COULD THEN EAT COUSCOUS AND SIP A COCKTAIL NEXT DOOR. THERE WAS A PROFESSIONAL ELECTRICITY SYSTEM SET UP, AND AT LEAST 3 WORKING PHONE LINES. THIS SHIT WAS LIKE A BOND VILLAIN. 

BETTER YET? IT WAS RUMORED THAT THE PLACE WAS SET UP BY THE UNDERGROUND FRENCH ART GANG UX “Urban eXperiment”, WHO NAVIGATES THROUGH THE PARISIAN UNDERGROUNDS AND ILLEGALLY RESTORES ABANDONED WORKS OF ART, ALONG WITH HOLDING FILM FESTIVALS IN THE BASEMENTS OF GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS. THEY EVEN RELEASED A SHORT FILM ABOUT THEIR WORK RESTORING THE ICONIC PANTHEON CLOCK OVER THE COURSE OF ONE YEAR. NO ONE SUSPECTED THEIR INVOLVEMENT, UNTIL THE CLOCK BEGAN TO WORK AGAIN AFTER 60 YEARS OF RUSTING.

all 495 pieces of content that i had of cowb*ilds cc.

LINKS:

Part one.

Part two.

Part three.

Part four.

Part five.

Part six.

Part seven.

Part eight.

Part nine.

extra cow shit.

share how ever you see fit as idc lol.

August 2022 Set - Morning Kitchen

Hello! This set began when one of my patrons asked me to create a farmhouse kitchen. I wanted to do it, so I went looking for ideas. Then I saw a lot of pictures of minimal retro cute kitchens and I fell in love with them. So here it is. Do you like it? Please let me know what you think.PS. I am going to make a farmhouse kitchen later. Sorry.

❤️ Early access on my patreon Public release Seb 10

Some references

August 2022 Set - Morning Kitchen

Cowbuilds statement on IG

How cute they are coordinating responses. So a few problems with this. As we laid out in Leo’s post, this was alway EAs stance so paywalling sims content and package files prior to July 21st is against TOS.

Second, Cowbuild and alot of her friends repeatedly violates the positive play charter by stealing companies models and that whole doxxing fiasco.

The community can still report her for all those violations.

Third they also will have to be careful how they market their content because they often use sims assets in their photos. If they are now just selling 3d models but using sims assets in their promotion that’s not exactly the best look legally. But I’m sure their lawyer informed them of that. Will they continue to use sims 4 hashtags or say it’s for the sims 4? That remains to be seen.

Not sure if their little work around will matter because it’s very obvious what they are doing and now that it’s crystal clear that EA is not ok with it the optics will be pretty bad. There actions will be interpreted as sketchy even if they try to spin it.

Newsflash Cowbuild, this whole anti paywall dialogue is getting traced back to you. Just take a look at twitter or Reddit every thread is like oh I bet this is because of all the crazy sh*t Cowbuild pulled. Keep it up, see how far it gets you.

CC tumblr’s stop promoting these sketchy people who obviously have no concern for the rules of the community. Same for Youtubers. If either do the community should remind them they do not follow EAs TOS. Moreover they are now 3d modelers they have no business being promoted in our community any longer

Similarly Patreon can’t keep sitting on the fence, now that EA has clarified their stance.

The early access and the rest of the community really needs to take a stand against paywallers who refuse to comply. They are the ones that brought the hammer down it’s important that they are chased out if they refuse to comply, because what’s next? Mods aren’t supported all together? Donations aren’t allowed? How much will we as a community allow them to f*ck up? Seriously? Early access creators hopefully you’re sharpening your pitchforks because these weirdos are to blame for your bag getting taken away.

I am still occupied in the processes of trying to make sense of my experiences in Elektraspace and formulating a personal understanding of Aristasia/Chelouranya/the Feminine Universe. However, it seems to me that I should start by discussing my choice of language, as it may take a little while for Outlanders and friendly Filianists to get used to, and any Herthelans from within the Walled Garden who see this may be alarmed at my choice to use terms associated with roleplaying to describe something that they know is real. 

Please rest assured that I will neither invalidate nor even challenge that point of view. ❤

I’ve been down an incredible rabbithole today and I. Have. Questions.

Not to be insensitive to the people who seem to actually follow this, if any of you are still around (idk, it seems like most of them dropped off the earth 2 or 3 years ago) but I’ve gotta know:

Did deanism/filianism originate as the fictional religion of Aristasia? If not, where?

What was the transition process from Aristasia to the current form like? What still holds true between the two?

Were any of you Aristasians? How did you find out about this religion?

You’re serious about this, right? It seems like it’s not an elaborate troll but you can’t trust the internet.

Do you believe in the two feminine sexes thing?

Are y'all still really into anime? What about roleplaying?

What happened to all the Victorian stuff?

Is Sai Sushuri an homage to Sushuri Madonna, an avatar in Second Life who was a prominent figure in that era of Aristasia?

What’s your position on trans folks?

I believe that the specific trend you are interested has a very close link to Aristasia, but it did not grow out of Aristasia. Rather, Aristasia grew from it. The original format of filianism/deanism associated with Aristasia began at Oxford University. I see it as fitting with the trend in the late 20th century which saw several feminine-focused religions and lesbian separatist movements rise. (Another example is Dianic Wicca, which appeared in the 1970’s.) You can find more information HERE and HERE.

What was the transition process from Aristasia to the current form like? What still holds true between the two?

It was not exactly a smooth transition, it just… kind of happened. When I first became interested in Aristasia (I think around late 2006) it had just entered what I think of as its Novaryan phase. The community on Second Life was beginning, and I couldn’t join as I was too young. Within a few years, the Flight of the Silver Vixen was released and the pettes on Heartbook became enamoured with Pretty Cure.

What holds true from when I first became involved to when I fell out of the general community is a completely feminine-centered worldview and a deep level of jargon and obtuseness, which I believe is partially intended to turn away prying media eyes.

Were any of you Aristasians? How did you find out about this religion?

If you mean, did I have an Aristasian persona and did I communicate with Aristasians online, then yes. I was sporadically Aristasian for a long time and was most distressed when I tried to return after a long absence and found that it had become Chelouranya. If you mean, did I travel to meet with other Aristasians and fully immerse myself in an Aristasian lifestyle, then no.

As for how I found it, I think the internet somehow lead me to the main Aristasian webpage when I was trying to learn about lesbians in Britain. What I saw there seemed beautiful and strange. I think I watched “A Weekend at Miss Martindale’s” too, which appealed to me as someone who wished to live a very different life to the one I was living. It all seemed so aspirational and far away, but within a few weeks of my interest developing, the website changed substantially to include more information about Operation Bridgehead. I think a forum with a name like “Blue Rose” appeared around that time too? That forum eventually became Heartbook. It blew my mind that I could join and participate. I was very young, shy and struggled with the lingo, so I made several different personas over the years. I doubt any Chelouranyans would remember me.

You’re serious about this, right? It seems like it’s not an elaborate troll but you can’t trust the internet.

It’s not a troll, it long predates trolls as an internet phenomenon. Who would it be trolling anyway? As far as I am aware, Aristasia doesn’t hurt or target anyone.

I see it as a tiny new religious movement with a very long-lived roleplay scene. Both of these have taken many forms and received different levels of emphasis over the years. Personally, I have always been interested in the roleplay and other-world aspect more than the religion, but the religion has the more interesting history.

Do you believe in the two feminine sexes thing?

That is part of the roleplay, which we referred to as Life Theatre. In my opinion, Aristasians aren’t, or at least weren’t, delusional. Several on Heartbook spoke of their real lives, and several were or had been married and had children. Aristasia Pura isn’t a real place; it’s a transformative space, a romantic daydream, an aspiration that can never truly be fulfilled. To me, it was my ethereal desire to connect with other women given a particular structure and shape. Anyone who has played roleplaying games or been part of a fandom knows that something doesn’t have to be real to be genuinely moving or to add value to your life.

Are y'all still really into anime? What about roleplaying?

I love anime, but the over-emphasis of Anime and the exoticization of Japanese culture was one of the things that drove me away from mainstream Aristasia/Chelouranya for a long time. As someone who actually wears egl fashion everyday, the way it was discussed on Heartbook made me, a Brunette who just saw my frills as clothes rather than a statement about my “pure soul”, quite uncomfortable.

I am massively into roleplaying. Always have been, always will be. Even though I am largely happy with my life, it’s just a lot of fun.

What happened to all the Victorian stuff?

The image of Artistasia has often been shaped by its more influential members and what they are interested in. Initially, the image seems to have been more Dianic. Later, it was very 1940’s. For a while, the image of a Victorian girls’ school was favoured due to the setting in Second Life being, well… Exactly that. As Second Life’s popularity waned and anime became a primary influence, egl fashion and other things associated with Novarya rose to the forefront. I am not sure what the current scene looks like.

Is Sai Sushuri an homage to Sushuri Madonna, an avatar in Second Life who was a prominent figure in that era of Aristasia?

I believe Sushuri Madonna took her name from Sai Sushuri, but as Suhuri Madonna was heavily involved in transforming the religious side of Artistasia, who can say for certain? She had many pseudonyms and characters she played, too. I am unsure how many active Aristasians there were at the time and how many of the pettes I spoke with were just her with another hat on. I say this not to criticize, just to express my experience.

What’s your position on trans folks?

As a cis woman, I have no problem whatsoever with trans people. I believe trans pettes should be welcomed. As long as someone is kind and doesn’t hurt others, then I will always treat them with respect. Many of the trans people I have known have been lovely to me. I see no reason to exclude them from anything in particular.

Is there any message you want people to know about your religion?

And the update

I've been collecting the best Jorts tweets and waiting until the moment he showed up on my dash to post them. So here you are, the curated best of the past, oh, day or so:

Is

It is super poisonous

There is a reason we do not use it in make up any more

That orange box is how many moles of dissolved Cu++ Scaife got from sticking malachite in some water that had 0.171 moles NaCl/L (body salinity is about 0.154 moles NaCl/L so this is slightly less salty than people) at 30°C. He’s got no acidity in there, and again the salinity and temperature are slightly lower than people. But this is probably the closest we’re going to get to data on how malachite behaves in vaginas anytime soon, folks. From this we can take away that if you leave malachite alone in a vagina you’ll get AT LEAST 9.12 x 10^-4 moles/L, or 5.8 ppm, of Cu++ at equilibrium.  • Recall from above that most “malachite” isn’t actually pure malachite, it’s a mix of various copper carbonates & oxides. The EPA document elaborates: “[T]raditional ‘eyeball’ identification of malachite by its blue-green color is extremely unreliable, because almost all cupric hydroxysulfates, hydroxycarbonates, hydroxychlorides, and even fresh cupric hydroxide can be some shade of blue-green. … Thus, the uncertainty in the computed copper concentration in equilibrium with malachite is at least about a factor of 2 … until further experimental data focusing on this problem is generated.” In other words, “do your math and then double how much Cu++ you think is going to be in the water, just in case.” So that gives us 11.6ppm Cu++, at equilibrium, with malachite in a (til now!) healthy vagina.  • Next step: do we have any idea what happens to bacteria in acid conditions with copper? OH MY GOD WE TOTALLY DO. Gyawali et al 2011 checked this out in the context of “so what if we rinsed tomatoes with a solution of lactic acid and copper, because that would be a safe & organic way to get rid of E. coli?” So now this post has officially ruined stalactites, vaginas, and tomatoes.

“Replicated food is not as good as real food.”

In a blind taste test, nobody, but nobody, can tell the actual difference between replicated food and “real” food. (Think back to our youth and the New Coke vs. Pepsi taste tests, only worse.) BUT, humans being What We Are, the human Starfleet members insist that “real” food is better than replicated food for reasons including, but certainly not limited to:

1. Hipsters have survived even into the 24th century. “No, you just can’t make good curry from a replicator! You gotta toast the spices yourself right before you cook it or it’s not the same, maaaaaan”

2. All military and para-military members everywhere always grouse and bitch about the food and sigh over What We Get Back Home. It could literally be the same replicator recipe you use at home when someone has to work late or just doesn’t feel like making the effort to cook, but people are people everywhere so they’re going to complain about it.

3. Humans tend to think we’re smarter than we actually are and we can totally tell when something is going on; as a result, human crew members insist they can “taste the difference” because their minds are making shit up, as our brains do.

4. One could presume that, generally speaking, a replicator recipe programmed into a starship or base replicator database would come out the same every time. This is perhaps the 24th century equivalent of mass catering. (I won’t try to account for the nuances of replicator tech that might allow for variances, and leave aside for the moment the fact that some people probably tinker with the standard “recipes” to suit their own taste.) The single thing that would be different in this case about “real” food is the variation, since of course the “real” dish will have slight variances every time due to the whims of the cook, the oven temperature fluctuation, freshness of ingredients, etc.. And since we are an easily bored species who really, really hates boredom, I bet people would jump all over that to lament the lack of “real” food when they’re out exploring strange new worlds and new civilizations and whatnot. (This is the only reason I can think of that might hold up to scrutiny.)

The replicator or replicator + holodeck combo can’t recreate the experience of cooking, nor can it recreate the experience of being cooked for. And that experience makes food taste better. 

Cooking is what makes us human. No other species on this wet rock cooks its food–only us. 

First: if you’re making lamb stew, or phở, or mole, or curry goat, you spend hours puttering around the house doing chores in a cozy sweater, periodically petting the cats and playing with the kids, waiting an anticipating the hour in which you get to eat the soup. All the while: your house smells like lamb stew, or phở, or mole, or curry goat. 

You get a tamale from the replicator: it’s pretty good. You wish it came with a green olive with the pit still in like the kind your abuela puts in her tamales. 

You get a tamale from the tamale lady on the way to work on a clear, crisp fall morning. It’s so hot from her steamer that it nearly burns your fingerprints off and it smells divine; you use all of your Spanish to tell her how good it is and how grateful you are that you pass her every day. On a whim, you buy 30 more tamales to share with the office; they’re still warm at lunch and they taste like friendship. 

You get a tamale from your abuela. It’s Christmas Eve, your entire family has spent the last seven hours making them, your tio Juan just busted out his tuba and it is definitely too hot outside for the fake snow  your baby cousins have started throwing at each other in between begging to open just one present and if you don’t hurry up you’re all going to be late for mass. 

The tamale tastes like home. 

You get a tamale from the replicator. Its neural network reviewed your order against every known tamale recipe and variety and decided that your addition of “green olive, pickled, pit in” was a mistake, and omitted it. 

Your tamale tastes like homesickness. You ball-up the corn husk and 

Second: The replicator is probably not accounting for regional variations in ingredients for its base foods. 

The ingredient library may have jalapeno, red; jalapeno, green, jalapeno, (color slider), (heat slider). It probably does not have: jalapeno, Hatch new mexico, USA, earth, sol system; or jalapeno north face Olympus Mons Mars, sol system. Replicator Parmesan is very likely a scan of a Parmesan and doesn’t duplicate regional variations between, say, a Parmesan from Mantua vs a Parmesan from Parma. 

Did your grandmother use san marzano tomatoes that were actually grown in san marzano in her red sauce (, canned, peeled, whole in juice)? Sucks to be you, the replicator scanned a hydroponically grown plum-type tomato which environment was carefully controlled for optimal nutritional value and “pretty good” taste. 

Is the replicator cilantro a kind bred or genetically engineered for maximum palatability across the broadest spectrum of individuals? Is it missing the gene that makes some people taste soap when they eat it? Is that gene the one that makes it taste good to you, so that the replicator chimichurri is always missing something, some particular specific type of freshness, a unique vegetal taste that you can’t put your finger on, and it’s not important enough to track down when you just like the chimichurri you make at home, from cilantro your grew yourself, much better? 

Third: The recipe database is probably sourced from hundreds of thousands of recipes written over centuries’ time – and then averaged using a combination of median and modal averaging to come up with something that’s Pretty OK to most people, but which is going to leave others wanting–no matter how much they tweak it. 

And then you have many, many people in a state of, “yes but I like my/mom’s/spouse’s/grandparent’s/aunt’s/uncle’s/best friends better”. And that’s OK.

I mean, really. Think about this for a minute.

Fourth:

You go to get a cup of tea from the replicator, because everything is terrible. You know in the darkest depths of your soul that everything will still be terrible with a good cuppa in your hands, but it will be terrible and you’ll have tea, which is a marked improvement. 

The replicator gives you a glass of brewed, iced sweet tea. 

It takes you three more tries to get a cup of hot earl grey. You decide you’ve finished pressing your luck with this positively infernal machine today and don’t even bother asking for a lemon wedge. 

Maybe you really wanted that one meal from that one restaurant except the restaurant doesn’t release their recipe so it’s slightly off and always will be.

When I was a child, my mother used to make chili using “Carroll Shelby’s Texas Chili Mix.” It made… okay chili.

When I was in college I found a book called “Chili Madness” at a local used bookstore, that had the winning recipes from the National Chili Cookoff for the last 30 years. It included Carroll Shelby’s actual recipe. So I made it. (Had to get one of my apartment mates to source beer for me, as I was not of age to purchase it yet.)

Wow. What a difference. Adding the spices at different times rather than as a blob of “spice mix”. Beer instead of water. No masa. So good!

The process of creating it is removed, along with all that entails: this spice left to simmer for the entire cooking time, that fresh leafy thing added in just at the end, a tiny bit heat-wilted.

The quality, not in terms of “is it good” but “what characteristics does it have,” the difference between grass-fed beef and corn-fed, mast-raised pork and commercial feed, how much sunshine did the animal get, what breed is it, how much exercise did it get.

What soil microbes mingled with the roots of that plant and what was planted next to it and how many rainy days did it get and how much sun? You have wine connoisseurs talking about how this or that year was “a good year” because of how the patterns of temperature and sun and rain hit the vines, and everybody has a memory of getting a really good batch of blueberries from the store ONCE and wishing they could all be like that.

When I was a kid we picked strawberries at you-pick fields that don’t seem to be around anymore, and they tasted so much better than anything I’ve ever gotten from a store.

One of the things that screws up my suspension of disbelief in Star Trek is how weirdly specific and intuitive the computers both are and aren’t, at the same time. Picard always has to say “Tea, Earl Grey, hot!” at the replicator so there’s obviously no means of personalization where the replicator knows if it’s Picard asking for tea, he wants it Earl Grey and you can just jump to that unless he specifies otherwise, but also that one time he was able to pull up the musical recording of HMS Pinafore on the working screen of a shuttle by pressing just two buttons, and there weren’t a whole lot of buttons on either screens, so what the fuck?

Anyway there’s probably a shitload of data storage in a Federation starship, but are they really going to fill it up with enough molecular data to store

every extant cultivar

of every food plant

at every stage of edible ripeness

prepared every way it’s commonly prepared

in combination with every other ingredient whose presence or absence affects its taste?

Plus every cut of every food animal

with all the variables of how it might have been raised, and then

with every variable of preparation?

If you bake bread it will taste differently based on how you let it rise, at what temperature, if you put it in the fridge overnight and then let it rise, if you use a starter or a pre-ferment, as well as what yeast you use and how you knead it and what flour and what water and the temperature and shape of the oven and the atmospheric pressure and humidity of the day and the altitude you’re doing your baking at and

that’s

ONE

type

of

food

and you can’t just reduce all that into “bread, artisan, sliced” or whatever

don’t get me started on the butter

or the absolute multitude of things that you could mean when you say you want “chili”

and even if you go into the Settings menu the first time you take a Starfleet posting and spend hours on end going into detail about what varieties of peppers should go into each of your favorite Mexican dishes and how much crispiness is The Correct Amount Of Crispiness in your bacon (and how thick it should be and how it should be smoked and seasoned) and how big and numerous you want the holes in your sandwich bread to be

I have every reason to believe that a lot of disabled people love replicator food, sometimes for the very reasons outlined above.

Are there disabled people who will mourn than specific foods will never taste quite right? Absolutely!

But there are also disabled people who have their preferences memorized down to the last chemical detail and know how to make the replicators dance. There are disabled people who, upon the popularization of food replicators, basically cried, because it meant that there was all but a guarantee that, wherever they went, there would be something they could actually eat.

Sensory issues? I’ll bet there’s a list of standardized replicator recipes that are made 100% the same everywhere, so if you like it one place, you can guarantee you can eat it elsewhere. If even one recipe on that list appeals to you, you’re safe. Sure, you’ll be a little bored, but you’ll be able to eat, and that includes at functions with family and friends.

Allergies and intolerances? Even if replicators have removed all common allergens from their production code, even if the Big Eight (fish, dairy, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, and eggs) are somehow accounted for, you’d be astonished at what some people can be allergic to. I knew someone who had allergic reactions to vanilla beans; not artificial vanilla flavor, but actual vanilla beans. I’ll bet it’s pretty easy to program a replicator to leave out one specific ingredient. On top of that, with how replicator technology works, I’ll bet it’s damn near impossible to cross-contaminate.

Specific vitamin deficiencies? Program the replicator to sneak some more of those vitamins into a meal, within species-safe limits. Going the opposite direction, like ADHD meds that you can’t have a lot of vitamin C with? No problem, you can turn the knob the other way!

Chemicals that interfere with your medications? No longer a problem with the push of a few buttons! Try our new doesn’t-nullify-things grapefruit!