Best posts made by surreality

@BetterJudgment said:

[political] If santorum is the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex, then a cruz is the stiff, crusty hand towel you use to wipe it off. [/political]

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

@BetterJudgment When he quoted Cicero and compared Obama to Caesar, I thought about somebody nailing Ted Cruz's severed head and hands to the senate podium and I smiled -- just a little bit.

...but he's so humble, I mean he's even Canadian, what could possibly be wrong with the man? It seems his grasp of history is roughly on par with Michelle Bachman's.

I swear that painting never fails to inspire me to rant. My favorite college course ever was an art history class: 'Myth, Art, and Religion'. It was about tracking the evolution of religious symbolism in art, from the first cave paintings all the way up to more modern propaganda, taught by a dead ringer for Lyle Lovett who wore ties with mythological creatures on them.

What I would not give to set that painting down in front of that man and say, 'You have all the time you need: GO. Here's a bucket in case you need it.'

@A-B I'm neuro-atypical in different ways, so far as we know, actually.

I have no interest in doing you harm.

I see a great many things you are doing that are causing you harm, even when your intentions are good.

I'd really rather not see that happen, not just for your sake, but for the sake of the others around you as well.

Trust me when I say you're reading the 'incendiary' into it. If I want to be incendiary, uh... yeah. I will call someone a goat-fucking braindead syphcock-gobbling shitmonster with all the mental capacity of a freshly-licked rock without skipping a beat, k thx.

And this is exactly what I was hoping to address later: reading nasty intentions into shit where they don't exist is a genuine issue, and a completely understandable one. If (generic) you have problems reading people accurately, this is very common, particularly when you are in a cycle of defensive behavior and anticipating attacks or shady nonsense of some kind.

Instead of insisting <person> is doing <terrible monstrous thing>, you actually need to step back and consider it carefully, because it is very possible it is not an accurate interpretation.

Becoming abusive to others -- which you toe the line on in the post I'm replying to now at best -- because of these interpretations is super not remotely OK.

If I was the person you apparently think I am, I would be tearing holes in you that would sink a battleship. Instead, I'm hoping you consider what's said here and stop the negative behavior that is harmful to us both.

@JinShei And now I'm secretly glad flouf is in the bedroom, or she might get ideas. When I looked up the breed we think she likely is, it mentioned 'they have a sense of humor, but often only they will find it funny.' ACCURATE. This would totally give her ideas.

(I find it so cute VK is still downvoting me.)

Frankly, if people demonstrate the behavior I've specifically listed more than once -- and I don't particularly care where -- in recent years, I would happily tack their IP onto the 'don't even bother' list before the doors open.

That, from my perspective, is a lot more fair than letting even a jackass invest their time -- everybody's matters, even that of shitty human beings -- and then yanking the rug out from under them. There's simply a point at which the pattern is too obvious to NOT shift the scales from "it's more fair to give this person a chance at redeeming themselves" to "it's unfair for the other people here to have to tolerate this person's bad behavior in the name of giving them a twenty-second chance to behave like they were supposed to in the first place".

There's a salient difference between 'annoying' and 'has proven themselves to be consistently unethical in their dealings with others'.

Annoying varies based on tolerance to whatever it is the person does that makes them annoying. "The rules don't apply to me" is another animal entirely.

Jeurg, for instance, didn't make it onto my 'unwelcome' list for his creeperism or mind control panther fetish. He made it onto that list because, on another game, a player clearly informed him they wished to have no contact with him IC or OOC again, anywhere. On another game, he determined who this player was playing, and actively sought them out to interact with them, and later gave them extensive grief for not being nice enough to him, and kept flinging drama in that player's direction. This isn't hearsay or guesswork; he said all of this himself without any prompting or inquiry -- proudly, even. He clearly figured it was perfectly all right to continue doing the things that had made him persona non grata the first time simply due to a change of venue; I somehow doubt the other player in this situation feels the same.

This is precisely the sort of bullshit the hobby does not need, but that's my opinion. No one person dictates that to the hobby at large. You can bet on it, however, that a game I run will operate on that principle, with full disclosure to that end. Enough games have died the death of a thousand papercuts thanks to Geek Social Fallacy #1 already.

@JinShei We're pretty sure this girl is a Turkish Angora. They have a number of unusual traits, and she nails every one. (Stunning since she was found as a stray, I mean, yeesh. Though it was in a very wealthy area where she was found, and the vet's convinced she was owned as a kitten to be so social, so very possible.)

No blanket-covered feets are safe, ever. Her usual 'love me' method of making sure I'm distracted from freaking out is to plunk down on my pillow and wedge me right off of it while chirping for pettings. (A king size pillow, even! She's not a big kitty! Talent.)

If the pettings are not forthcoming, she will do things like 'burrow nose into armpit until you move, and if you don't, you will be sitting there, baffled, wondering, 'WHY YOU NIP MY ARMPIT OF ALL THE THINGS?!''

Sometimes I'm pretty sure cats operate on the principle of 'if you are more confused than angry, I win'.

As Generic White Lady #362 RL, I have played PoC characters in the past and likely would again if I start playing again.

When I do, though, I am constantly anxious that I'm going to do something screwed up out of sheer cluelessness that might offend. I've been lucky thus far to avoid it happening, but even offending out of cluelessness free of any malice doesn't mean offense wouldn't have been justifiably caused if it ever did happen, and I'd really rather not hurt someone like that, ever.

...that is amusingly useful. I mean, maybe not that one specifically, but dang, costumers should be celebrating like whoa.

Because the other thread reminded me... this is the year of blankets, aka 'I will probably end up with carpal tunnel because I love my family'.

In between, to save myself from the monotony, there are various small things and experiments that are probably needlessly complex or tedious or bonkers. (@Scorn knows what I'm talking about here.)

From least insane to most, those are...

The travel/car trip/waiting room spiral:

The proof of concept before I have to dye things that's going to take forever omg (complete with cat hair already! <grumble>

Gradient experiment #1: using four strands of embroidery sewing thread (not floss) to slowly build out gradients based on the colors from the hand-dyed border thread:

Gradient experiment #2: color shift test with 2 strands of the same thread as above, proof I want to go insane or blind, apparently.

Lighter for scale in all of the above. Apparently my pile of handy pennies for scale went and fucked off somewhere.

I don't get the impression people are talking about exploring.

I know I'm not willing to 'challenge myself' as a writing or thought exercise when the cost of failure isn't egg on my face, it's a slap to someone else's.

@JinShei That is amazing! I love the color and fabric choice, too.

Pattern sizing and human beings are just... not sane. Patterns rarely line up with anything you'd find in a store, either. I have the same problem, and even when I was smaller, I'm all different sizes on all the parts, so I feel you on the '?!?!?!?!' factor. So never think this is a just you sort of thing.

Some bits of basic patternmaking are less hellish than one would think, but you'd want help making the core pattern to work from. (It's hard as hell to get your own measurements exact and fit it, which is especially important when it's a tool to make other things from later. Many tailors will happily work up a basic sloper/basic block with you, though, for a very reasonable cost, and you can work from that flat pattern to make TONS of cool things.)

If you ever decide to look into something along those lines, give me a nudge. I may be able to track down one of my old textbooks on it that was SUPER HELPFUL and explained how to manipulate that basic pattern (also one for pants, one for skirts, princess line styles, etc.) pretty well, and I'm betting you could still find a copy out there.

There are also a variety of things being discussed. One of those things is 'how to provide a safe and inclusive play space'. Removing sexism and racism from the game's theme are big here.

That's different from 'how to realistically portray a real world minority in a mostly-realistic modern game world without causing offense to players of that minority RL'.

@Testament Much approve of Die Hard wall art, too.

I mentioned a 'OMG I GOT THE THING I WANTED OMG REALLY?' in things I love, but that particular cool thing was the costume book for Game of Thrones.

It is a gorgeous fucking book and I don't care who anyone reading this is, everyone should own this book. Acquire one if you can. It is fucking glorious.

(Dear costumers in the audience: be very prepared to invent new profanity at all the endless hours of embroidery shown that were never visible on screen. I am not kidding; I cannot overstate this. My dear sweet uberCatholic church lady mother was spluttering 'fuck!' effusively in all manner of creative variants at this book for just that reason.)

@egg I only play women because 1. I'm shit at playing men; 2. it's important to me to play female characters that include some of my experience of being a woman as reference. Therefore, to some extent, I am always going to be playing 'something like me'.

I have zero interest learning to play a dude better. Zero. So far as I know, that isn't some kind of RP sin.

What amazes me is that it isn't even the same 'woman with a gator down her knickers in Florida arrest' story I've seen referenced today.

https://theweek.com/articles/885553/best-headlines-2019

^ There's one in there, too, and... it's not the same story.

File this under 'things my father sends me that are funny for an entirely different reason', I suppose.

@Rinel said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

I mean it to say that if I fuck up on Rinel (and boy have I fucked up), I'm just someone who doesn't understand Oathlands culture. If I fuck up on Marion, I run the risk of being really offensive.

^ This right here.

Never give up your right to argue (barring spaces that disallow it for whatever reason, provided said reason is reasonable, obviously).

No, really.

Sometimes -- and I think I can say with some confidence that it has happened here a whole hell of a lot, really -- it leads to pointlessly gripey angst.

But even then, it means people are thinking. Brains are working, even if they're wandering far afield of sense now and then. (We're all susceptible; it's part of being human.)

Brains working is good.

It's OK to disagree with people. Most of us were socialized to be pleasers to some extent or another, in some way or another, but those ways tell us 'don't speak up and don't argue or disagree'. Well, fuck that.

If you wanna avoid it because it's causing undue stress in your life, or is otherwise doing you harm? Go for it; always take care of you, y'know?

Just don't do it because someone else tells you 'you should just fall in line', that it's pointless, or similar. Those people are the ones the word 'defenestration' is best used in regard to.

...on my own shit that I originally popped in to post, narrowly missed an ER trip today. Am hoping I can continue to miss it until I can get that damned appointment.

@HelloProject This is a good example re: the furor over clothing. Even the article is full of contradictory opinions, but the attacks if you look at the original link are probably not something most people of any description are likely to want to deal with, ever, to put it mildly.

(FWIW, that's almost identical to a dress I bought in Hong Kong, mine just doesn't have the band of black trim; it's why this sticks out in memory.)

As a fashion and costume and fashion history geek, every single thing about this depresses me. I don't expect you to explain or anything, it's 'if you hadn't seen this, this is an example of what I meant'.

@saosmash This is a real meat mallet.

(This may or may not have been a 'SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!' sort of purchase re: how I know that.)

Mid-murderypaws:

...and the husband's poster in the background almost makes this relevant:

Bannister flouf.

Dark house is dark today, hence the blurry bad lighting. Ah, well.

...so after surgery followup foo yesterday, since my mother had to take me (and we didn't have my eat-machine husband in tow), she insisted on going to The Cheesecake Factory. My father hates it, so she never gets to go, and I had been craving stuffed mushrooms anyway, so I figured I'd wince through it.

I managed to eat a whopping 3 stuffed mushrooms, but she insisted that I order a slice of cheesecake to bring home.

Ohgod. If you have a chance to try the chocolate cherry cheesecake, y'all... (We're calling this 'dinner' and it probably has a whole day's worth of calories in this slice, so... )

I am a totally ridiculous Euromix. For me, that's enough explanation.

For my relatives? It isn't. Now, I won't pretend it isn't a... uh... unusual cluster of people, such that if I listed out what I know of them to someone who knows me (and the way I live, what I do, etc.), they would both laugh and then nod solemnly with a 'that explains it'.

But it gets ridiculous. "I'm half Italian!" "No, you're a quarter Sicilian and a quarter Italian and the Italian quarter was original Spanish high nobility that fled the Inquisition due to a curiously high number of Jewish names appearing in the history for a bunch of supposed Catholics blah blah blah blah blah... " This is about where I am curious, sure, but know there is a level of ridiculousness going on that is intellectually interesting, but I'm certainly never going to be the baroness (spoiler alert: my great uncle was, and he lived in the neighboring mid-middle class subdivision and was as broke as we are, he was just 'that guy who really, really loves that accordion' to us), and my 2 rooms of the family palazzo <cough wheeze choke snerk mutley-snicker> (read: hot mess with no hot water, a ruin of a top floor, and a lower floor that was sold off for a condo before I was ever born) got sold off a few years ago because we didn't want to fix the desperately shitty collapsed roof or keep paying a full share of the $$$$ taxes on a property where other relatives live 24/7/365 and we have no access to.

And you'd think the stupid was condensed there, but no. My mother's side? We know... 3/4. 1/4 was simply deleted from the otherwise painstakingly curated family history my grandmother spent decades researching and compiling for, in her words, 'being filthy Hungarian gypsies'. One whole half of my grandfather's family was simply not allowed to be known; my mother even only met any of them once, in secret, when my grandfather smuggled her over to meet some cousins one holiday season. I don't even know what group/line it is; we just know that a great aunt doing research recently found more info and 'the oldest record of them is from the 17th century' and some reference to Transylvania. (My mother had to pass this along, insisting 'this is why you LARPed, I'm sure of it' and I winced so fucking hard I blame it for my first wrinkles.) And this bothers me -- not just because of my mother's... uh, yeah, she has the sensitivity of a thrown brick -- but because there's a whole branch of the family I will never know or even ever really know about, because my grandmother was such a bigot. You'd think my grandfather only had one parent, and was budded rather than born or something.

Pretty sure all of my grancestors have at some point been at war with literally all of my other grancestors. It is all supremely absurd, but boy howdy does it explain a lot re: internal conflict, I guess.