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Cake day: June 28th, 2023

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  • The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is one of my favorite games of all time. It’s the last isometric Zelda game, and they made it a swan song. The main quest it pretty short, but it’s the sort of cozy game where doing the sidequests just feels right.

    In the game, you shrink down to the size of a mouse to traverse rafters and explore tiny temples and float on lillypads. It’s the sort of thing that would be no big deal in a 3D game, but is wildly ambitious in 2D. Not only do they pull it off, but they fill the environments with lush, lived-in detail that springs to life when you shrink down and look at it up close. The art style still sticks with me after 20 years.

    Also, forget all the “hey, listen” stuff, your sidekick Ezlo just sasses you the entire time. It’s great.


  • a bit melancholic sometimes

    Viewer be advised: If you’ve ever lost someone you took for granted, or hurried through what should have been a formative time in your life instead of slowing down and appreciating it while you had it, then this show knows how to punch you in the tender bits, and it will not stop.

    I cried during every one of the first four episodes.

    10/10




  • Disagree. Every state will characterize the violence it receives differently than the violence it enacts. Even a well-intended egalitarian state can never equivocate acts of violence against its officers with those done by its officers, because if the state fails to produce an immune response against one attack, it will soon find itself overwhelmed by more. The state has to treat vigilante justice and especially attacks against its officers as illegitimate on principle, or else it will cease to be.

    States claim a monopoly on legitimate violence, and I’d even say that’s what makes a state a state. If a given geographic region has a hundred different entities that can enact violence without each others’ permission, you don’t have a state, you have a hundred states.

    You cannot ask officers of the state to equivocate violence by and against the state. That’s not their job. That judgement is our job.

    (You can also argue that the state shouldn’t exist, but that’s a different and far more interesting discussion than the one the article poses.)


  • But we know what it really is all about - selling more cars.

    It isn’t even about selling more cars at this point, it’s about selling securities. Their market cap dwarfs their total sales. Their P/E ratio is 67.67x, meaning they could sell cars for 67 years and still not make as much money as their stocks are worth today.

    The real product is the rising stock price. The factories are just a front.



  • Maybe THIS will get the Dems to ditch the filibuster and pack the court. Of course, that would require the Democratic party as a whole to show some fight, something they refuse to do for some reason.

    To pack the court, Democrats need to secure:

    • A House + Senate majority (something they haven’t had since 2009-2011)
    • A wide enough majority in both that no small caucus could hold the vote hostage for a personal agenda (something they haven’t had since Jimmy Carter)
    • A president with a platform built on disruptive change rather than stability (which they haven’t had since FDR)
    • A plan to keep Republicans out of office permanently so that they can never wield this new power in retaliation (even Lincoln messed up on that one)

    They need more than just a git-r-dun attitude. Remaking the SCOTUS (rather than waiting it out) means throwing the old government away and starting over.








  • Supremacist worldviews are intolerant and do not deserve tolerance. The question at hand is whether or not OP’s assertions of gender-based divinity are tantamount to supremacist ideology, such as when a cult leader claims their followers (or perhaps descendants of an ancient lineage) are inherently superior.

    Also, OP might just be a troll. Remember attack helicopters? Same vibes here.

    Good luck, and I do not envy your responsibility in moderating this thread.


  • There appear to be some logical leaps and conclusion-shopping going on here, so I’m going to try to identify them systematically.

    Capitalization of pronouns in the English language is used to denote divinity or royalty. If I refer to Jehovah with a small-h “he,” I haven’t misgendered him, I have blasphemed. I don’t intentionally misgender people (even fictional ones), but I regularly blaspheme gods. I’m an atheist, it’s what we do.

    Being a man doesn’t make one part of the patriarchy and doesn’t confer superiority. Being divine ipso-facto makes you superior – both socially and inherently. As I reject the notion that some people are inherently superior to all others, I blaspheme cult leaders who claim to be gods, demigods, or incarnations thereof, and I refuse to give reverence to prophets and monarchs who claim proximity to the divine. I believe this makes the world a better, less exploitative place.

    I also see capitalized pronouns used (infrequently) in BDSM. Specifically, it is how some subs refer to their doms when in some extreme forms of 24/7 power exchange relationship. That’s okay, but as with other BDSM activities, power exchange never includes people who didn’t consent to be part of it, and consent is never obligatory. Doms who attempt to extend their authority beyond the confines of a scene are swiftly ridiculed or ostracized for consent violation.

    So for anyone to make the claim that capitalized pronouns should be respected by everyone, they must first make the case that divinity is a gender. Second, they must make the case that associating with the divine does not denote inherent superiority. Third, they must make the case that compulsory use of capitalized pronouns is not compulsory submission that would violate consent.


  • I would describe Denver as fiercely LGBT-friendly.

    Colorado is becoming something of a sanctuary state for people trying to get out of the increasingly LGBT-hostile Midwest and portions of the South (Texas and Florida in particular). Colorado legislators are aware of this and have made laws protecting people who come to the state seeking reproductive or gender-affirming healthcare from external lawsuits or prosecution.

    Local businesses and homes often fly pride flags all year round, and June’s pride events are absolutely massive. While rainbow capitalism is a meme, it’s also a litmus test for what capital owners think consumers and investors want to see. In other words, it would be noteworthy if they stopped.

    Denver has a lot of LGBT culture, though I would describe it as newer and more militant than my limited experience of NYC. There are gay bars, an active drag scene (Alyssa Edwards and Pattie Gonia performed at Pride this year), and tons of outdoor LGBT groups (hiking, climbing, foraging, birdwatching). I recently started dressing as my chosen gender in public, and the responses from acquaintances and random strangers alike have been overwhelmingly positive. Colorado allies are second to none.

    Colorado was not always this liberal. There are still conservative holdouts in places like Pueblo and Colorado Springs. Drag story hours around the state sometimes have hecklers (Proud Boys, judging from the colors), but humiliation ruins the illusion of fascist machismo, and so the efforts of groups like Parasol Patrol have proven very effective at stifling such protests.

    Some rapid-fire semi-relevant notes on general life here:
    • Rent and housing prices are rising, but have plateaued since 2022. Cheaper than NY or CA.
    • The cost of other necessities (utilities, fuel, food) are quite unremarkable and comparable to the Midwest. Restaurant entrees are usually $25, half for fast food.
    • There are a lot of jobs in software, aerospace, green tech, and manufacturing. With wage transparency laws, it’s easy to window shop for jobs. Denver minimum wage is $18.29/hr, and everything within 20 miles of Denver pretty much follows suit.
    • Gentrification is a point of conversation, particularly along Colfax. No telling how that’s going to go.
    • The food’s pretty good. There’s a lot of Thai, Vietnamese, and Nepalese.
    • If you’re worried about smell, avoid Commerce City. The Purina plant and the Suncor refinery are notoriously unpleasant.
    • People in Colorado are friendly, helpful, and pretty talkative. If you go hiking, you’ll probably make friends on the trail. It’s an interesting contrast to the performative politeness of the Midwest.
    • Walkability is good in Denver proper, but it’s nothing like NYC. They’ve been adding bike lanes lately.