All you children who love stories...

It's never done that before so I looked it up and turns out Roku TVs have added all sorts of creepy things in the privacy section since I last checked.

One of which being they take screenshots from what you're watching and send them to third parties to identify it.

Fucking hell! Remember when every fucking device in your life wasn't a spy implanted in your home and working against your interests to try and sell your data? Remember how nice that was??

Remember when the TV was just a tool that would play the things you plugged into it?

All round, though, it doesn't look good for Farage. It was a sham one-party election, so he can't play the "See? No one cares about my multimillion pound bribes, they still voted me in" card he was banking on. His only competition was a bin, and the bin actually did well. Meanwhile, as Goats says, he's now subject to the enquiry he tried to avoid.

He played a strategy that was supposed to be win-win, but the other major parties totally hamstrung it. And, credit where credit's due, the idea for the others to not stand this time was an absolutely genius move that, in fact, came from the static TV screen of a brain that belongs to, of all people, Kemi fucking Badenoch. Stopped clocks and that.

It includes a lot of context for Americans, but to summarize the basic gist of the article is this—

“Farage intended for this election to appeal directly to his electorate, framing it as him taking on the establishment: “I’ve decided the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions,” he said when triggering the by-election…. [a lot of context about British politics cut here] ….In this by-election, Farage has only proven his ability to defeat an intergalactic space warrior with an upturned trash can on his head.”

Also he’s cost the British public hundreds of thousands of pounds which as I understand it has also annoyed a lot of people.

Beautiful big almond eye, realistic and full of expression as she gazes gently at you. Elbowed antennae and delicately segmented legs and body. Gorgeous pearlescent sheen like she is glowing. This ant moisturizes. This ant is round and huggable. This ant is a star. 11/10.

Beautifully detailed, lifelike pose but with an unexpected neck and odd antennae, perhaps scared straight. Her eyes suggest she has seen things. Her expression confirms she has seen too much. She is haunted and I want to know more. 7/10.

Floppy antenna, pointy muppet face, oddly posed legs. What is she? She has no waist. May be she is some kind of bee in disguise? I find her unsettling. 3/10.

This ant has an unexplained, double-jointed thorax, and no evidence of a waist. Her four-footed pose suggests that she a centaur rather than an ant. Centaur ants would be cool. I’m not sure what was intended here. 2/10.

Good first impression, kind of bland in the details. This ant has no particular waist to speak of, floppy rather than elbowed antennae, and an inexpressive face. Her color scheme is soft and hazy. I like the sharp angles of her stylishly sophisticated legs. This ant may not know quite were she is going, but she knows how she is getting there. 6/10.

Were you even trying. 0/10

Gasp! This ant is elegant. This ant has a beautiful tapered thorax, a segmented abdomen, alert, elbowed antennae, and a light-footed pose. This ant’s face suggests curiosity and a desire to explore the world. This ant inspires me. I want to be like her. 10/10

3-legged, waistless centaur-ant with strange, limp antennae and a beak. I don’t know what this is? It kind of reminds me of a Hork-Bajir. 1/10, not an ant.

This ant… makes me sad. All of her legs are broken. The MS Paint art style and gradient abuse convey distress. She has a duck beak. Despite this, her expression suggests perseverance and determined cheerfulness. I want this ant to have a better life. I am rooting for her. 3/10

This ant is a bold and challenging mixture of photorealism and caricature. She is broad and low-built and seems very sturdy. She looks like she would help you move. This ant is a dependable friend. 9/10

A picture of an ant from a children’s book.  She is wearing little boots.  This ant is wrong in every way, and yet I can’t stay mad at her.  7/10

An interesting, top-down view of an ant; her legs are positioned with slightly jarring symmetry.  Nevertheless, her overall impression is that of a graceful, stylized design, like a pictograph.  She is suitable for adorning fine garments and jewelry or perhaps gracing the walls of a tiny ant church.  I like this minimalist ant.  8/10.

And honestly—why bother panicking about things being called “she”? It’s not like I need a reason to gender a bug. I do it all the time. It’s fun. It’s humanizing. They don’t care.

problem solving steps

Of course Peter Gallagher knows that "dank" is a weed thing. He also knows that "in heat" is a sex thing and that when aliens "probe" someone it's in the anus.

These are words, not things. Heathcliff is a comic about symbols.

You're never going to get a comic where an alien actually probes someone any more than you're going to get a comic where the Man-Eating Giant eats a man. You're just going to get a dozen comics where aliens like the word "probe".

Heathcliff wears the ham helmet because it's the helmet you wear when you eat a ham. You can tell it's that helmet because it says "ham" on it. The helmet's function is determined not by its form but by its label.

summer = beach = sand = desert = mummy and thus there is the Summer Mummy. Because of symbolic associations that do not otherwise cohere.

Robots don't wear clothes but the mere act of labeling them "nude" makes them nude. And once a painting is a nude painting there has to be a fig leaf because a "nude" without a "figleaf" is "indecent".

(And some author info stuff)

Less than two days until The Scent of the Ideal release day! (Except for Patreon peeps) but I also put out a short announcement-type newsletter on release days for the forgetful, absentminded dragons people out there.

Newsletter link here

It's like once a month most of the time, if that. And occasionally these little short ones.

I babble about what I'm working on, when it's coming out, sales, free stuff, and sometimes I have links to causes or people to support. And lately, I have taken to calling JKR a cunt. Because she is, imo.

Fans of queer romance welcome! Bigots and people who justify supporting bigotry because childhood wizard stories? Not welcome.

And oh if you don't want that, but you do like updates (and links to sales and free stuff), you can also just visit my website.

"Wait a second. Does that Sprout have a Good Boy Cooky puzzle bowl?"

Nom nom nom nom nomnomnommmmmmm .... (Lost in the sauce)

"Where is Jeep's Good Boy Cooky puzzle bowl? He is the Goodest Boy!"

*reluctant sigh*

*scrolls back up*