If I had to see this in my head, you have to see it on your dash

Today, one of my second graders was working on shape name recognition, and we got to this picture of a pyramid shape with a wide-ish base. When he saw it, his eyes lit up and he turned to me with a huge grin on his face, pointed at it, and said "When the teacher forgets to assign homework" before bursting out into hysterics, covering his mouth and giggling. I don't understand what happened except this kid CLEARLY knows about the strong comedic and memeable value of mathematical shapes and emotions that I, an old millennial, cannot comprehend I did, however, try to recreate this moment as the meme this child must have seen in his head

maybe he was thinking of the dancing triangle meme??

i have seen this gif with that exact caption before. this is absolutely the one he was thinking of

That kid saw one of the simplest geometric shapes and said that's blorbo from my memes 👍

THE GREAT HERMITCRAFT X EMPIRESSMP CROSSOVER

it took me 6 WHOLE MONTHS to finish this project, im so happy its finally done it has taken WAY TOO LONG but i managed to not gave up !!!

reblogs and compliments are SO APPRECIATED!!! this art has drove me to insanity, my poor ego has been shattered. . . so did my hand but my ego

i feel like 2020-2022 mcyt speedran a 20 year fandom in 2 years

ok so . i think this is in large part due to the pandemic lockdowns. but did the fandom feel fast to anyone else. dsmp specifically but also adjascent smps (osmp, 30smp, etc)

like, you'd watch a crazyinsane lore stream and then log on here or instagram or whatever and artists had already churned out what looked like weeks of work. huge analysis posts would drop practically as soon as the stream ended

there was this constant pressure to be online imo. when people would get cancelled or called out youd see ppl on twitter tagging like 20 people saying "moots u still follow. unfollow within 24hours or im blocking u" or people with "offline for 2 days for finals sorry!!" in their dn and like. constant discourse that u were expecred to immediately have an opinion on without knowing all the facts yet.like if u didnt immediately disavow whoever was being called out this time people would be like "why havent u retweeted this thread! why arent u talking abt this!" (definitely more on twt than here, but still)

also i think part of it was a LOT of mcyt fans at the time were adhd and hyperfixating so once ppls fixations ended they moved on. and also some fandoms (COUGH. DSMP) ppls interest in the servers fizzled out as they were able* to go outside and go places and travel and do things other than play minecraft

(*not that they should have been travelling or meeting up or going to cons. considering we were AND ARE in a pandemic! and very few ccs even wear masks or take tests!)

but with the amount of drama and controversies. hell we even had bnfs, tho no one called them that lol (sad-ist for the whole dsmp fandom, dakota tbhyourelame for dnf/dteam and all of mcyt as well really, derivakat, bio bioloveds for boobers, theres definitely a lot more super well known fans that im blanking on rn). and an insane amount of art was made, 77,000 dsmp fics, 170,000 more fics in the video blogging rpf tag (tho not all of those are mcyt of course), fansongs and animatics and playlists and art and art and more art... thousands and thousands of discourse threads...

as the dsmp (which was as far as i can tell the biggest of all the 2020-2022 smps) was ending people were leaving the fandom, bc it was a lot of people's first fandom and i guess it's not like common knowledge that u can stay after something ends haha. and then the stuff about dream's allegations came out and that made a huge amount of people understandably decide to leave and stop associating with him or the wider dsmp or even mcyt at all

and so the fandom got way smaller really fast. and now it's like. i think "fallen into obscurity" would be dramatic but it's not nearly as popular as it used to be. and a lot of mcyt fandom in general took a big hit once lockdowns ended and people stopped caring abt taking covid precautions though it wasnt to the scale that the dsmp did. hermitcrafters are still doing their thing, there's qsmp, the esmp and llsmp fandoms are definitely still going strong. but compared to what it was, the dsmp fandom feels like a ghost town

idk. i feel like with the level of intensity of people's obsessions, and the drama, and the controversies, and the lore, and the amount of art made, it feels like it shouldve taken years and years to get to that point. but it was really just early 2020 to mid 2022. and after mid 2021 stuff was already fizzing out. idk it's just crazy to me

me saying bye to my trans masc friends as they depart for jupiter to get more stupider

I’m sorry friends, but “just google it” is no longer viable advice. What are we even telling people to do anymore, go try to google useful info and the first three pages are just ads for products that might be the exact opposite of what the person is trying to find but The Algorithm thinks the words are related enough? And if it’s not ads it’s just sponsored websites filled with listicles, just pages and pages of “TOP FIFTEEN [thing you googled] IMAGINED AS DISNEY PRINCESSES” like… what are we even doing anymore, google? I can no longer use you as shorthand for people doing real and actual helpful research on their own.

Time to drop some links again.

– https://searchmysite.net/ Search engine for the indie web, personal websites, digital gardens. You can also find them in websites like Neocities, Indieweb, Blogarama, and write.as. There is also a big list of personal websites.

– https://search.marginalia.nu/ Search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and promotes websites that aren’t usually at the top of the list.

– https://www.worldcat.org/ Search engine for items in libraries (books, but also maps, articles, sound recordings, theses, etc.)

– https://scholar.google.com/ Search engine for scientific papers, reviews, etc. It’s still google, but a lot better than the normal search engine counterpart.

– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines A list of search engines sorted by subject, area, and more. If you’re searching on a specific area, it might be worth checking if there is one focused on that area.

– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_databases_and_search_engines A list of academic databases and search engines.

– https://tineye.com/ Reverse image search alternative to Google’s. Also, P.S.: Please stop using Google, and start using more privacy focused search engines, like DuckDuckGo or SearchX (opensource; personally haven’t used it yet, but it looks promising for privacy-focused users)

That Google and Meta can get away with this during an era of intense misinformation and disinformation signals that we cannot rely on large tech companies to provide reliable access to information and news:

in memory of today heres my favorite interaction of all time. i miss you twinsduo

Phil refusing to join the group pole dance on QSMP like he didn’t call himself the number one pole dancer on SMP Earth

reposting a favorite reddit moment of mine since god knows if ill ever see it again

massive q!skeppy lore drop. turns out that while CC!bad was at vidcon, q!bad was allowed to go to the gas station that q!skeppy was trapped in to free him from a bag of chips. does this mean that q!skeppy is now free from his gas station prison entirely, or just the chip bag? we’ll just have to wait and see…

elquackity has literally given q!BBH’s paranoia actual merit . like before when he would worry that someone would set a trap for the eggs it was like “who would actually do that?” and now it’s like . yeah he should be paranoid actually . he’s justified

sorry

Like I know the reason q!philza isn’t present for a good chunk of the current election arc is bc cc!philza is at a con, but I think it’s funnier to imagine that mister anarchist q!philza is just burrito blanketing in his room and having a nice long sulk abt the federation-sanctioned political debates going down on the only government-free chunk of land on the entire planet. He is also still SO salty about the fact that they put the government building on his front lawn. No talk him he angy >:(

charlie: everyone on this server is so cool.. i hope i don’t run them in the wrong way because my characater is… such an ass

the most tragic part abt gegg running for president instead of charlie is that charlie is so so well spoken and I wish he could participate in debates as Himself

One way to be an ally to disabled queer people:

If you want to attend a pride event, ask about their accessibility plans and policies.

Ask about their covid policies. Ask if they are accessible to mobility aid users. Ask if they will have strobe lights, if there will be bathrooms, if there is water. Make the event planners consider who they may have left out, even if the person being left out isn't you. Have your friends ask as well. Help create a demand. Help get conversations started. Help people see where things could be more accessible.

Because when we, the disabled, ask these questions? We're much more likely to get ignored, and much less likely to be heard when we raise hell.

So help us raise hell when we need it. Demand to know why your local Pride event isn't requiring masks, or is charging for water, or doesn't have wheelchair ramps, or whatever other accessibility issue you catch.

Stop leaving us behind. We need your fucking help.

Some other things you could ask about:

- Will there be places to sit? (CFS, limited mobility, long Covid sometimes, many heart conditions…)

- Will the event be kept smokefree and vaporfree? (Asthma, allergies, pregnancy, ppl trying to quit…)

- How loud will it be? (Autism, sensory issues, PTSD…)

- How close is the nearest restroom? And how many are there? For big events, the lines can be long if there’s only one or two! (Crohn’s, overactive bladder…)

These are some things that I notice get overlooked a lot when accessibility planning - but definitely not a complete list!

If we don’t microdose delusion we won’t make it through this reality babe….

So I remember reading about this study in grad school where they have a bunch of clinically depressed people and a bunch of non-clinically-depressed people a game that was partially chance and partially skill, and asked them to estimate how much control they had over the outcome.

The depressed people were far more accurate in estimating how much influence their actions had on the outcome of the game compared to their nondepressed counterparts, who consistently overestimated the effects of their own choices on their chances of winning.

Then I remember this other study (CW animal testing) where they put rats in a bucket of water that they couldn’t get out of, so they’d have to swim. There was a fairly consistent point at which the swimming rat would falter, and stop swimming, fated to drown.

Except that that’s when the researchers would pull the rat out of the bucket, give it a nice rest warmth and a meal.

When those SAME rats who had been rescued before were put in the same situation again, they swam much LONGER than they had before.

Why? The risk was the same either way- drowning. You’d have thought that the fear of drowning would keep them swimming to their maximum length no matter what.

The researchers conclusion was that the rescued rats had something they hadn’t had the first time- they had more hope. A miraculous rescue could come, and that let them swim for longer, just in case.

I think we do microdose delusion because sometimes that little overestimation of our chances, of our luck, keeps us swimming that little bit longer, just in case something good happens. And sometimes, that little margin really does make the difference. 

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

-Terry Pratchett, Hogfather.

hey, don't just leave the quote there! the last line is what MAKES it!

"YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN’T TRUE.  HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?"

“YOU NEED TO BELIEVE

IN THINGS THAT AREN’T TRUE. HOW

ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?”

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

Wild that folks keep saying beekeepers abuse bees as if bees are not both venomous flying animals and fully unionized

Hubris to think you COULD abuse bees

I think that if you see a balrog in an unlocked kitty kennel then you can assume that it wants to be there

Actually, beekeepers take many precautions to keep their bees from leaving.

many clip the wings of the queen, destroy new queen cells, cull queens they don’t like and use bee pheromones to prevent a hive from naturally swarming or absconding. They also try and prevent mating with the African honey bee, which makes them less docile among other things. During artificial insemination of queens, drones are crushed and „spare“ queens are killed.

and commercial beekeepers even cull their hives during winter, or when they are not producing well.

Coupled with the fact that there is evidence that insects do feel pain, this is not great.

(Not to mention that honeybees are an invasive species in most places, competing with native pollinators and spreading disease)

It is so fucking bold of you to link the exact same paywalled book thirteen times in your reblog to throw people off the fact that you’re using one source from 1859.

having gone to the linked source I’m actually very unsure even if you got behind the paywalled source it says what it’s claimed, as among the preview pages are:

“In all our operations with the bees we must use gentleness. All quick sudden jars and motions irritate them. So does breathing on them. Bees are always more gentle and less inclined to sting when they are gathering honey; and at such times hives can be opened with very little danger; whereas when a dearth of honey prevails the inmates of the same hive might show a great spirit of resentment. I have observed that colour exerts some influence on the temper of this insect. I have found that dark shades of clothing, particularly red, are more distasteful to them than white. Hence when working among them I always go in shirt sleeves pr in light coloured clothes.”

The broader page is about how being stung is unpleasant but not the end of the world, and you can easily minimize it…. By being thoughtful and careful and calm. I can’t find reference to clipping wings or culling; there is a mention of removing drone comb but only carefully, and it’s useful to remember that the hive itself literally drives the drones out to die once they’ve served their purpose. There’s no mention I could find of artificial insemination of queens, and I’m VERY sure that in 1859 they did not have reliable access to BEE PHEROMONES xD xD

There is mention of using smoke but dire warnings of oversmoking; and since the first record of Africanized honey bees is from THE NINETEEN FIFTIES, not the eighteen fifties, that poster is DEFINITELY lying about that citation, as unless the Victorian writer of that book was a fucking Time Lord, they can’t have known that cross breeding was a concern.

This is why it’s not enough to merely assume that because someone has REFERENCED a source, this means they have evidence. It is necessary to check that the source says what they claim. In this case that is in many cases literally impossible, and in all other cases unproven.

the other thing is that, like, the hive very much makes decisions in its own collective self-interest with little care for the dignity of individual bees, including the queen. Any framework which treats the individual bees as the primary units of ethical treatment is missing the entire concept of what a beehive is as a eusocial organism. Bees do not meaningfully exist outside of a hive any more than human cells exist outside a human. You need to be looking at what’s good for the hive, not what’s good for individual bees. You know the Borg? The aliens in Star Trek who completely disregard the needs of the individuals and act as a single mind? Yeah, they were very much inspired by bees.

But back on topic. doing things like re-queening a hive if the queen is unproductive or has bad genetics is, spoiler alert, something the hive will do to itself if necessary. like I cannot emphasize this enough, worker bees will kill an unproductive queen and crown a successor themselves. workers decide collectively when a new queen is pupated, not the prior queen. the queen’s job is simply to lay an egg in the appropriate cells as directed by workers. that is her ONLY purpose. she is the reproductive tract of the hive. if she is not doing her job, SHE WILL BE REPLACED - BY THE HIVE.

conversely, if the existing queen is perfectly fine at her job and she detects another queen in the hive, she will seek it out and kill it - often before it has even emerged. all queens have the innate drive to fight each other to the death, because there can only be one per hive. a new queen represents a threat to both her life individually and her hive collectively, because the presence of two queens is likely to cause a split, pulling half the bees away from the colony as they swarm to follow the new queen as she leaves, and in a small hive this could mean death if the remainder do not have the numbers to stay warm in winter. so the queen will attempt to kill new virgin queens for exactly the same reason beekeepers will cut out queen cups - to protect the hive and keep its population large and strong. not only that, if you’re still really insisting on being “humane” to individual bees over considering the health of the collective and the natural ecology of eusocial organisms, you should know that queen cups can be removed by the beekeeper before there is even a larva in them - the workers build the cups and then the queen lays an egg into them, in that order. A freshly-built cup can be pinched out before an egg is even laid in it if the beekeeper is checking the hive frequently enough. This is in contrast to the queen killing her daughter queens while they are pupas or freshly-emerged adults.

And yeah there are certain beekeeping practices that can be bad for the hive! “Bees-for-hire” schemes where bees are trucked around as mobile pollinators is one example; hives are stationary in nature and moving them can easily spread diseases that they are not equipped to deal with. I’ll be the first to say that’s an unsustainable practice - but if you want to avoid consuming products that result from that, you’ll need to give up almonds and a whole host of other fruits and tree nuts that are ostensibly vegan, because the pollination of orchards is the primary application of doing that - if you just want to produce honey, it’s cheaper to just leave the bees stationary since they tend to live longer and stay healthier like that, and healthy bees means more honey.

Yes, and, quick, minor note, when bees swarm, it’s the older queen that leaves, after laying eggs into queen cells, and whichever of those eggs hatch first kills the other unhatched queens, before becoming the new queen of the remaining old hive.

I only point this out bc I thought the young queens left to go get fertilized, returned maybe, and then left forever to start a new hive, and was surprised to find that the old queen leaves instead, and while the young queen does leave to get fertilized, she returns to her birth hive to continue growing the hive.

I fucking love bees.

All this but also can we acknowledge the active maliciousness in purposefully creating an untrue and completely made up narrative and then attempting to make it look legitimate by adding links to the same url 13 times and then the fucking thing wasn’t even relevant to any of the citations. This is why people don’t fucking trust vegans fr, out here acting like a one man astroturf campaign citing fake sources like you’re Fox News.

Which path should he choose?

The path of the warrior, the path of the scholar, or the path of the artist?

he should wander away and have a picnic while he thinks about what path to choose

Great idea! But where should he have the picnic?

Under the tree, or under the old fort?

By the sea, so he can enjoy the sound of the waves

A lovely choice!

Should he build a sandcastle to pass the time? Or perhaps go fishing?

Perhaps he could collect shells he finds interesting

Sounds fun!

Which shell should he pick up?

This one

That's not a shell, it's a tiny earpiece.

Should he listen to music? Or to the mysterious pre-recorded message?

He should give it back to the crab in the largest shell, they thought they had lost their wave-pod and are grateful he found it!

The crab wants to give a gift in return.

Should he accept the gift of power, or the gift of knowledge?

the gift of friendship :)

Friendship acquired!

Should they celebrate with pizza or ice cream?

The crab friend cannot eat either of those! Let's split a nice seaweed salad instead. :)

So many options!

Should they get tossed salad, wiggly salad, or spiky salad?

Seasar salad

Nothing beats getting it straight from the source

Should they use scissors or claws to cut the seaweed?

What about that sword in the first panel?

The circle is complete.

Through choices, friendship, and salad, he found his way to the path of the warrior. But he won't walk it alone.

Their path is just beginning, but this story is over.

Thank you to everyone who participated!

The watcher's feast