but there actually are some social cues that can be taught. like the obvious one is when someone says “how are you” they usually mean “friendly noise” and are not actually asking how you are, although some people ARE genuinely asking how you are and it’s usually up to the context of your relationship to determine the difference

also that apparently “when you get a chance” usually means “when you take a break from the thing you’re immediately doing” and not “on a list among various other things you are doing today or tomorrow”

and when someone says “i’ll let you get going” they mean “please leave”

oh and you have to learn to weaponize “thank you for your understanding”. which means “there is nothing you can do about this so accept it”

My friend sent me something that I am unashamedly stealing to show you all

Jeppers creppers where'd you get those peppers

Jeppers creppers where'd you get them eyes

literally every problem i've had in my adult life has been solved by open and honest communication. which is fucking stupid, first of all

like i can't even just a little bit solve my problems with wanton violence? for real??

i'm like a caricature in a children's show. "and then Whimsy took a deep breath, made a few polite phonecalls, and everything resolved itself 🥰" fucking hell man when do i get to punch someone hard as fuck in the jaw

"dni if you engage with irredeemable media! dni to kill a mockingbird stans" ok well CLEARLY you have never read to kill a mockingbird if you think it's irredeemable media and also having a book that was published in 1960 on your dni stan list is kinda ridiculous actually

i literally do not think any of you have ever read a book published before the 2000s before in your entire life

#'Dni if you've read to kill a mockingbird' what's is this the Florida banned books list #Who r u Ron DeSantis

#can somwone pleasw provide context to whatever the fuck op is referring to

You really buried the lede by only mentioning To Kill a Mockingbird

WTAF?

Cybertruck with the license plates "Spaaaace" out in the wet dirt lane in front of our camp struggling to pull out with a trailer too big for it, in the mud. On brand.

just pinned a girl to the fourth wall

One year on my birthday when I was struggling with money (earned £6.70 an hour, slept on a mattress on the floor), I had friends visit for a party.

We went to an aldi to get food, and everyone insisted on paying for their own food, buying full bottles of fizzy drink, their own snacks and so on. Some of the friends brought their own baked goods too. Later, one friend covered a Chinese takeaway order for me and everyone ordered lots of food to eat with no hesitation, only to mention that their eyes had been bigger than their stomachs when the food did arrive.

I didn't realise what was happening until the next day, when each person left my flat with the same "oops, bought too much food to take home with me— I'll just leave it with you!" farewell.

I think about it a lot. I don't know if it was planned or not, but they all made sure I didn't need to worry about food for a good few weeks. Back then, I had to freeze loafs of bread to ration them out, and I had an iron deficiency from not being able to afford good food. But alone in my flat, I realised that I suddenly had a kitchen full of reminders that my friends loved me.

Change is happening.

Abdul Al-Sayed beat the billionaires, beat AIPAC, and beat the odds. What a groundbreaking primary win in Michigan.

Phenomenal spare wheel cover I walked past the other day

Is... is that reflector tape?

if so: GENIUS move artistically bc it probably would absolutely blind someone with LED headlights about as much as their headlights are blinding the driver, with that much of it.

Safety-wise, not really sure how bad it would be but it does concern me. Unlike LED headlights, which I already know 1000% are a safety concern based on how often i find myself driving at night and then literally can't see the fuckin road or other traffic due to someone with LED headlights.

my publisher: Good morning! Huh did you advertise for the pre-sale yesterday? Because we launched twelve hours ago and we already made sales!

me: yeah, i posted on tumblr

publisher: .........tumblr?

me: that's where the gays are.

(link to Mrs. Victoria buys a brothel, a sapphic western)

update

publisher: And what is your marketing strategy on... tumblr?

me: idk, i shitpost at 2am?

publisher: .....and it works?

me: depends on what the gays find funny at that point in time.

publisher: Could I have a link to your tumblr?

me: .......absolutely not.

(link to Mrs. Victoria buys a brothel, a sapphic western where 50 year old women kiss and murder)

In an art show in SF.

Made entirely of painted metal.

Tony Matelli.

Link to his gallery

made of

WHAT?

heckin jobs

obviously i think AI is an abomination. i have talked about this for a long time and will continue to do so, but today i was struck with something REALLY COOL that i do not think is discussed enough on the opposite end: the JOY and FULFILLMENT of being able to hire and work with human artists.

obviously not everyone is able to do this, but that is kind of my point. IT IS A GOAL TO BE ABLE TO GIVE, and AI is fundamentally ALL TAKE. when looking at my career i am just so honored to be like 'wow now this is big enough that i get to bring other creators along to join the fun'

we are just now starting the cover journey for my next traditionally published horror novel, and are working with an artist, and i just have so much gratitude in thinking 'how wonderful. i have my job, my editor has their job, my cover artist has their job, and ALL IN THE CREATIVE ARTS. heckin JOBS'

so i guess this morning i am just kind of meditating on the fact that when you reject AI as a creator you are not just bringing things back to the baseline, you are actually PUSHING in the other direction. you are opening space for human joy and creation and even income and that is so cool

I feel like starfish are one of those animals that are treated as very “normal” by people but absolutely shouldn’t be. Like they’re a wheel of repeating heads connected by a central stomach. They walk around using thousands of tiny sticky hydraulically powered tentacles. They have an eye on the end of each arm. Instead of having a mouth they just have an opening where their entire stomach can be pushed out to engulf prey. And they’re just allowed to exist like this. It’s not illegal or anything.

Eldritch horrors come in all sizes

There has got to be an art somewhere of a kaiju-sized starfish walking over a city. You don't know when or where they'll drop their stomach. You can't do anything about it. All you can do is hide inside a building and hope it's sturdy.

okay even assuming your unborn child can hear you fucking. it's like having sex in front of your stuffed animals or your dog, dude. they have absolutely no understand of what is going on. they don't give a shit. at no point is any person who has ever or will ever be born going to go "oooooh man I think hearing my parents fuck while I was in utero really fucked me up actually" that's not how anything works. they're too busy going "mmm yummy amniotic fluid" they do not know or care that sex is happening

I swear this is a consequence of the "life begins at conception" propaganda. Combined with the recurrent moral panic about "protecting children" (from knowledge).

Absolutely rancid combination of Christian morality with Christian morality.

I'm sad to say that the rise of fascism has been visible in my inbox for years as people become increasingly distrustful of their own bodies and pleasure. you see it in people's paranoia around becoming "porn addicts," their need for reassurance that a 24 year old isn't a predator for dating a 22 year old, their fears that they may have unwittingly committed assault by looking at another child's naked body when they were young, their insistence that consensual sex is impossible for anyone who has had a single drink or smoked a whiff of weed. people, especially young people, are doing a tremendous amount of work for fascism in terms of rigorously policing their own bodies and sexual expression, and they often don't even realize it.

After school care pulled me aside about my child dropping an f-bomb “without remorse” and I put on my concerned face and nodded a bunch.

Apparently he was building something with a younger kid “who really looks up to him and is just starting to make friends” and said “Hey, you’re really fucking good at this.” which is, in my estimation, really a parenting victory.

I absolutely failed at doing this: