I have started my Ultra Moon adventure! Upon der Blinkenbean's advice, I am still playing as the female Trainer; I'm reusing my B/B2 nickname of Ilisidi (which is somewhat spoiled by the sans-serif font - it looks like llisidi). My Rowlet is Babsidi ("Lethal"), the first Pokemon I caught (a Grubbin) is Nokhada ("Feisty"), and I've traded over N.queen the NidoranF and FourLights the Lampent from prior games.

i am still mad that there isn't going to be a bicycle or the ability to Fly on my rowlet

My grandmother, Hedwig, died this morning after a long illness. Please keep her and her children in your prayers.

I wish people were complaining about having to have Bill Clinton anywhere near the presidency ever again. I wish people were squabbling over "First Laddie" as a term. I was so hopeful and it all got smashed and I don't know how I'm going to feel right about politics ever again.

2017-02-27

vandroid-helsing:

It used to bother me a little that Star Wars characters talked as if the Empire had been around forever (”before the dark times”, Obi-Wan says, exhausted) when the prequels tell us it’s only been about twenty years.
But since the inauguration, I get it.

Today I learned that George Lucas envisioned Leia as not only being a senator and a princess at 19, but also having gotten her PhD and I'm just so sad all over again.

The Force Awakens is a movie I just... never want to have to rewatch, ever. I mean I'm glad I saw it, and I'm glad I got to go see it in the theater, even if I can't even remember that with enjoyment because of how unhappy mr cheyinka was, when I got home, that I'd been gone so long, but it just... it's not the future I wanted for those characters. I want Leia and Han to have had twins, and I want Mara Jade and Corran Horn to have given Luke shit about how he was handling the training of Jedi while Shmi and Ben were still little kids, and even if Ben was still suborned by Snoke I want Shmi to have brought her twin back to the light side. And I want Corran and Wedge to be hanging out with Poe and teasing him about his crush on General Leia, and I want Han to have wanted to turn his life around as a kid and gotten retinal transplants so he could get a legit ID and start over fresh at the Imperial Academy, and I want him to have thrown that all away to rescue Chewbacca. (I am pre-emptively afraid of the "young Han Solo" movie, you see.)

It's bad enough we'll never get the Leia-focused movie we were supposed to get. It's bad enough that Chewbacca's probably not going to get to avenge Han in any meaningful way. I am very very very much hoping that Rey isn't Luke's kid because if so that's awful and I hate it already and Leia won't be around anyway and... and I'm just sad. I don't like where the new movies have gone.

I wanna see a movie with Bothans, lots and lots of ultra-furry Bothans, grumbling about how they don't get any credit for uncovering the location of the second Death Star but everybody and their mynock knows about Humans stealing the plans for the first one. And that's not going to happen either.

So there I was, right, just chatting online, when I hear this splash-thud-splash-clatter noise. And, as one might, I think, "Oh, okay, dive's plunging the toilet." But it seemed to last an awfully long time, so I got up to see if he needed help, or clean pants, or something.

Der Coffeebean was standing in his diaper (jammies discarded on his bedroom floor), using the bath pitcher to scoop up toilet water and pour it over his head.

found my folder of cds, been listening to them instead of the radio. listening to stone sour; I'm surprised how easily I re-inhabited the angry-teenager brainspace. Also dismayed how well Come Whatever May has aged. 30-30/150 could have been written today, not 11 years ago. The title track could be about Lord Dampnut instead of W.

So I read a very good fic where a famous historical figure (i.e. you'd have heard of her) was secretly Jewish, and... and a Catholic figure in the fic was mentioned only in passing, but as a horrible monster, and I can't help feeling shaken and unsettled. I want to defend him, though he's very long dead and wouldn't have needed my defense even if [famous figure] really had been Jewish.

Actually, never mind the redactions - it was "Anne Boleyn is secretly Jewish and saves her marriage by condemning Cardinal Wolsey for wanting to destroy the Jews of London", and it's Thomas More who's the monster-in-the-background. I'm unredacting, because part of the reason Esther Boleyn is able to save her people is because Cardinal Wolsey has to move against her family secretly because Esther Boleyn has given the king an heir. (Ironically, Cardinal Wolsey was dead before Henry married Anne, in OTL, but Thomas More wasn't!)

The story would have been much different if she'd had a daughter and then three miscarried children, I think; in OTL Henry started courting Jane Seymour more or less immediately thereafter, and I'm sure in that particular AU Henry would have been delighted to have not just a pretext for dissolving his second marriage but an actual reason why it wasn't canonically valid!

This was going to be just me being unhappy about Thomas More being maligned, but honestly, now I'm just unhappy with the fic in general, but I genuinely can't tell: am I unhappy because Elizabeth I was erased in favor of someone Henry VIII would have valued more? or am I pointing to that to explain my unhappiness from before I looked up Anne Boleyn? (I knew she hadn't given Henry living sons, but didn't know if they'd died in infancy or before birth, or simply hadn't been conceived.)

Cugel the Clever posted:

( I can't understate how much the Christian narrative sets off :siren::siren::siren: in my mind. )

Owlfancier posted:

( I admit the characterization of human maliciousness is a bit odd to me sometimes. )

Senju Kannon posted:

( tbh trying to understand faith through reason alone doesn't work )

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand now for myyyyyyyyyyyyyy answer!

Why don't we use a runoff system for president? Anyone who wants to can run, the first election is on July 4th, second election November Whateverth. That way large states affect who's on the final ballot, then electoral college can do its thing after the November election.

if this were tumblr I'd tag this "genuinely curious".

If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast. If any man be a wise servant, let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord. If any have labored long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense. If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast. If any have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in nowise be deprived thereof. If any have delayed until the ninth hour, let him draw near, fearing nothing. If any have tarried even until the eleventh hour, let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness; for the Lord, who is jealous of his honor, will accept the last even as the first; he gives rest unto him who comes at the eleventh hour, even as unto him who has wrought from the first hour.

And he shows mercy upon the last, and cares for the first; and to the one he gives, and upon the other he bestows gifts. And he both accepts the deeds, and welcomes the intention, and honors the acts and praises the offering. Wherefore, enter you all into the joy of your Lord; and receive your reward, both the first, and likewise the second. You rich and poor together, hold high festival. You sober and you heedless, honor the day. Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast. The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously. The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away.

Enjoy ye all the feast of faith: Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness. Let no one bewail his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions. It was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.

• 4 whole-wheat hotdog buns, a couple days old (the regular kind often has milk ingredients)
• wedge of manchego
• potato peeler
• cookie sheet

Preheat oven to 250F. Open up hotdog buns, arrange open-face on cookie sheet. Peel off strips of cheese with the potato peeler and arrange them on the buns. (You want "is this too much? eh I'll put a couple more pieces on" cheese - whatever your "maybe too much" amount is, go a little bit over.)

Bake for 15 minutes. Serve to picky 5-year-old (he'll eat one and a half, and so will you, probably)

In other news, Cb is down to 3rd percentile from 10th percentile for weight. He will not drink Enfagrow toddler formula. I mean he smells it and just re-fus-es. Sigh. His/Bb's pediatrician isn't worried, because he's always been tiny (he's consistently stayed between 20 and 25th percentile for length), but I'm worried. Toddlers are supposed to like this! It's supposed to taste yummy like milk!

it can be Easter Week? 'eating all meats all days' week?

Sometimes I follow links to news articles and discover they're not recent - some algorithm suggested them, but because they're similar, not because they're new. Recently I have discovered that I can't even bring myself to read political stories - candidate x said this, politician elected in 2014 did that, columnist opines etc - published before election day 2016. It's starting to creep into stories about the US in general that are sufficiently before election day 2016. It's as if that day - even though nothing dreadful had yet happened - was the day that the world went sideways, and the only thing reading about the good universe Before would do is make me sad.

It feels like that creature has been ruining the country for years, but its nomination was still an unlikely joke, a year ago today. (I voted in the Republican primary in my state because I thought there was a chance of denying it the nomination.) Certainly its presidency seems to be ruining my ability, or perhaps just my desire, to read about the past.

what do I do now

I read an essay about doctors needing to be honest about their surgical mistakes, because patient trust is important but, even more importantly, hiding mistakes results in making more mistakes in the future
unfortunately the principal example was a woman's blood hCG not going up and there was no fetal heartbeat detected and an obstetrician then realizing, as he removed the first chunk of what he thought was an already-dead fetus, that he had cut up a living fetus by accident
it has been haunting me for days now, and some shitgibbon whined on Twitter, "how many women do #Catholic hospitals put in danger of dying bc they are sent home to miscarry rather than have safe DNC??" in response to a description of what Texas allows for disposal of fetal remains, and I just... I can't, I can't, I want the person who wrote that tweet to be dismembered alive, and that is an evil, evil thing to want, but I am just... that baby died because eir heartbeat could not be heard. that baby was cut up inside eir own mother's womb, and there was no malice, and everyone was heartbroken, and at least that baby was decently mourned, but if that woman had been "sent home to miscarry" that baby might still be alive.

this makes politics so hard for me; generally Republican politicians have loathsome policies but generally Democratic politicians are okay with killing living fetuses if those fetuses' mothers want them killed

how do I choose between "lol yeah diabetics who can't afford insurance should just have to die, lol" and "if a woman chooses to have her own child killed before that child's birth, that's between her and her doctor". how do I reconcile the same person saying "no child should go to school hungry, no poor person should be turned away from medical care, no visitor to this country should be treated like a criminal" and also "we must respect a woman's right to do whatever she wants with the body of another person if that other person's body is within that woman's body at the time"

(yes yes I know there are people who read this who think abortion should remain legal; and yes I know that making abortion harder to access results in some children being left in toilets or dumpsters after their birth, and other children killed before birth but at an age where they are more able to suffer, and I know that nobody gets an abortion for fun, but I still want that person on twitter to be dismembered alive)

So I'm doing a gimmick run of Y; not only am I playing it en español, I'm pretending to be a reformed Team Flare Grunt. That's why Grace and her son (I wanted to see what the boy clothes looked like, okay?) moved to Pueblo Boceto (Vaniville Town, Asame Town): to give him a fresh start. Maybe the publicity from being the son of a Rhyhorn racer was part of the problem, who knows? Anyway, so his starter's a Fennekin (fire! familiarity!), who totally coincidentally ended up female - I reset once out of habit and then huh, okay, going with it.

The gimmick comes in in that I traded over my team in eggs, just like I did in Alpha Sapphire, except instead of "hey these guys would be a good team together" I went with something Team Flare could have - i.e. eggs that he liberated before leaving Team Flare. So he has a Zubat (with Inner Focus, not Infiltrator, and man I am already regretting that, but I wanted it to hatch out of a luxury ball...), a Gulpin, a Scraggy, and an Electrike, and for a HM slave he'll have a Kabuto, since Team Flare also steals fossils.

Until I come up with a better idea, I'm naming everything I catch as if it were part of the Imperial Radch, because coming up with names starts to get hard after a while. The Fennekin is Uno Xabi Uno, the Zubat is Uno Xabi Dos, and so on; then the things I catch are starting out as Uno Amaat Uno (the first thing I caught, a Pidgey) and I'll do that in sixes (instead of twenties) for... ehh... a while?

and then today

14:30 < cheyinka> I have an existential dread, help
14:30 < cheyinka> I asked my parish's deacon if he was mentioning the refugee ban in his homily and he said it was a very complicated issue and we had to protect our country first and I said but what about 11-month-old children and he said well children come with their parents, and we don't know if their parents aren't terrorists
14:31 < cheyinka> so I said "an 11-month-old baby?" and he said "it must have been a very hard call to make"
14:31 < cheyinka> >:|
14:31 < cheyinka> >:| >:| >:|

this makes me so exceptionally >:| and then I see this picture on @lasrina's twitter:

17:44 < cheyinka> so I got out the nativity set
17:44 < cheyinka> the sheep, the cow, and the angels are fighting
17:44 < cheyinka> the shepherd has already fallen off the battlefield
17:46 * cheyinka is not doing a good job of instilling a message of peace

18:00 < cheyinka> hahahaha
18:00 < cheyinka> so Bb's hiding all of the figures because Cb is awake
18:01 < cheyinka> and he picks up the Little People robot (because it's a Little People nativity set) and says "Robot, you can come too! I have information about the Baby Jesus!"

crazy idea: Democratic electors get together with Republican electors, propose a bargain: we'll vote for McMullin or Kasich for potus if you vote for Kaine for vpotus. Now what?

obviously never going to happen. Best case scenario at this point probably Pence/Romney. uggggggggggh. Uuuuuuuuuugh. But okay let's pretend. McMullin + Kaine accomplishes both #nevertrump and #neverhillary; it nominally gets both teams parties something they at least kind of want...

Practically speaking it would be a nightmare & that's even without considering the rioting, but would it be better than Pence/anything? yes/yes?

I have a problem. Bb starts kindergarten next year, one way or the other. My choices are homeschool him (LOL NO), the super-duper-expensive private school my psychiatrist recommended (not interested even if it were remotely affordable, which it is not), one of two Catholic schools (there's several in the area; they're not consolidated like the ones where I grew up; I picked the two associated with parishes where I've ever gone to Mass), public charter schools (fuck charter schools), or the local elementary school.

For the sake of minimal redaction we will call these schools Named For A Pope, Named For Mary, and Public School.

I still don't really 'get' acefay-ookbay. Maybe if I had a big family and I kept in touch with them, or if I had kept in touch with high school classmates instead of actively not keeping in touch with them? But it still makes me mad, for reasons I can't figure out, to see Bb and Cb pictures up there, and it's obviously not designed for conversations, and finding out that an acquaintance of mine - old enough to have grandchildren older than the beans - got all her news from Facebook because she didn't trust television news but didn't know how to find trustworthy news online just makes me want to burn the whole platform to the ground.

But then I've been in a very angry mood the past week or so. The farther out from the election we get, the angrier I get that anyone I know voted for the creature who won the greater number of electoral votes, not less angry. The more days that pass, the less resigned I become to the outcome, and the more I hope that every promise that creature made is broken. I mean, obviously the specific, literal promises will be, but it is bad of me to hope that unemployment goes up, it is bad of me to hope that every world leader joins together in public hatred of the creature, but I sure do anyway.

Still here, putting one foot in front of the other. Just realized my breakfast is still sitting on my computer desk uneaten because today was a very bad day.