barrel-gremlin

[barrel-gremlin]

source / carved walking cats

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a woman's lot

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does this on your dash

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do not go gentle into that good night

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Chris Fleming's comedy literally gave me a healthier outlook on life. His jokes literally reframed how I talk about myself? "I look ugly," turns into, "I look like a parrot owner." It's way better. Or like, "This is an awkward situation," is, "I'm Sufjan Stevens in a Dropkick Murphy concert." Or, "I'm being awkward," is, "I'm talking like the owner of a wolf sanctuary." Or, "This person is an asshole," becomes, "This person is definitely a member of an all-male acapella group." Literally life changing.

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A short comic I made about my experiences as a seasonal worker, and the way places change you.

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Sent these out in the mail finally so I can post it here now: I made a little recipe zine about talking to my sister on the phone. Enjoy!!

Making and mailing minizines is one of my personal hobbies…things are pretty scary now and it’s one of my favorite ways to make friends and to keep in touch with others offline. 💖✨

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i think the near-extinction of people making fun, deep and/or unique interactive text-based browser games, projects and stories is catastrophic to the internet. i'm talking pre-itch.io era, nothing against it.

there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.

anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.

A Better World - create an alternate history timeline

Alter Ego - abandonware birth-to-death life simulator game

Seedship - text-based game about colonizing a new planet

Sandboxels or ThisIsSand - free-falling sand physics games

Little Alchemy 2 - combine various elements to make new ones

Infinite Craft - kind of the same as Little Alchemy

ZenGM - simulate sports

Tamajoji - browser-based tamagotchi

IFDB - interactive fiction database (text adventure games)

Written Realms - more text adventure games with a user interface

The Cafe & Diner - mystery game

The New Campaign Trail - US presidential campaign game

Money Simulator - simulate financial decisions

Genesis - text-based adventure/fantasy game

Level 13 - text-based science fiction adventure game

Miniconomy - player driven economy game

Checkbox Olympics - games involving clicking checkboxes

BrantSteele.net - game show and Hunger Games simulators

Murder Games - fight to the death simulator by Orteil

Cookie Clicker - different but felt weird not including it. by Orteil.

if you're ever thinking about making a niche project that only a select number of individuals will be nerdy enough to enjoy, keep in mind i've been playing some of these games off and on for 20~ years (Alter Ego, for example). quite literally a lifetime of replayability.

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shopping bag cats

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neptejte se mě na nic, chce to tu trochu víc comeback contentu

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Tak zase příští rok vážení

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“I shall never forget the occasion when I was visiting a school as a writer and the whole place suddenly fell into an uproar because the school tomboy - a most splendid Britomart of a girl - had beaten up the school bully. Everything stopped in the staffroom while the teachers debated what to do. They wanted to give the tomboy a prize, but decided reluctantly that they had better punish her and the bully too. They knew that if, as a child, you do pluck up courage to hit the bully, it is an act of true heroism - as great as that of Beowulf in his old age. I remember passing the tomboy, sitting in her special place of punishment opposite the bully. She was blazing with her deed, as if she had actually been touched by a god. And I thought that this confirmed all my theories: a child in her position is open to any heroic myth I care to use; she is inward with folktales; she would feel the force of any magical or divine intervention.”

— Diana Wynne Jones (via joeyvermeil)

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things you can do as a goblin in the modern age:

treat AI like you would shapeshifters. look out for the warning signs. avoid engaging with them as much as possible. if you can't avoid them, don't trust them

thrift and repurpose whatever and whenever you can

educate yourself on what edible, medicinal and otherwise useful plants you can grow in your habitable space (especially if you've been forced to become an urban dweller)

educate yourself on what tiny little critters are actually positive for your living environment (for example: how to identify non-venomous spiders that actually contribute to pest control, so you don't accidentally kill or disturb them)

treat bureaucracy as you would malevolent fae. learn your loopholes. memorize the wording that will get you off the hook. follow the letter and not the spirit of the law. let them tie themselves into knots with their own rules and procedures

your workplace is the ideal place for mischief; hinder the powerful and support the powerless. learn who is affected by your tricks and plan accordingly

treat ads as you would sirens: don't listen to them and get out of there as fast as possible

claim what little power you have. decorate yourself however you want to. adorn your lair until it feels like home. sleep as much as you can. adjust your diet to feel alive. drink water and listen to music and remember to write by hand. find the magic in the ordinary

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going all-in

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A very quick sketch because I have things to do, but it’s my birthday today and I think I deserve a Ser Pounce-a-lot 🥹