mysticfishphantom

[mysticfishphantom]

“average person eats 3 spiders a year” factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

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For those not in the know, this is one of the Amanita mushrooms referred to as a Destroying Angel. Never, ever, ever, ever forage with an app. Especially for mushrooms.

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Reblog if I can go on your page and write stupid things in your ask box whenever I'd like to.

[mysticfishphantom]

Wore a Roxy cosplay shirt to dinner with my family and my grandma asked me if it was kitty on my chest and I wasnt gonna tell her it was cosplay cuz shed probably think it was a sex thing so i just said yup tis a kitty upon mine chest and she said it was cute

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Years and years ago, I read a book on cryptography that I picked up because it looked interesting--and it was!

But there was a side anecdote in there that stayed with me for more general purposes.

The author was describing a cryptography class that they had taken back in college where the professor was demonstrating the process of "reversibility", which is a principle that most codes depend on. Specifically, it should be easy to encode, and very hard to decode without the key--it is hard to reverse the process.

So he had an example code that he used for his class to demonstrate this, a variation on the Book Code, where the encoded text would be a series of phone numbers.

The key to the code was that phone books are sorted alphabetically, so you could encode the text easily--picking phone numbers from the appropriate alphabetical sections to use ahead of time would be easy. But since phone books were sorted alphabetically, not numerically, it would be nearly impossible to reverse the code without exhaustively searching the phone book for each string of numbers and seeing what name it was tied to.

Nowadays, defeating this would be child's play, given computerized databases, but back in the 80s and 90s, this would have been a good code... at least, until one of the students raised their hand and asked, "Why not just call the phone numbers and ask who lives there?"

The professor apparently was dumbfounded.

He had never considered that question. As a result, his cipher, which seemed to be nearly unbreakable to him, had such an obvious flaw, because he was the sort of person who could never coldcall someone to ask that sort of thing!

In the crypto book, the author went on to use this story as an example of why security systems should not be tested by the designer (because of course the security system is ready for everything they thought of, by definition), but for me, as a writer, it stuck with me for a different reason.

It's worth talking out your story plot with other people just to see if there's a "Why not just call the phone numbers?" obvious plot hole that you've missed, because of your singular perspective as a person. Especially if you're writing the sort of plot where you have people trying to outsmart each other.

[mysticfishphantom]

Hebden Bridge, Calderdale, West Yorkshire (England)

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New puppy, Jameson, freshly picked from the puppy tree. I get to be the one to train him despite not being his primary caregiver. Well my sister in law will help leash train him since she walks doggos as a career choice and I do not.

[mysticfishphantom]

anyway all that to say that if you’re a dropout if you have shit grades if you go to an alt school and are looked down on for it if you’re in your 5th or 6th or whatever year of high school if you’re still getting your GED if you’re taking night classes if you missed out on “universal” high school experiences if you were abused by your peers (because make no mistake, that’s what bullying is) if you were expelled if you were truant every single year if you were homeschooled and got sick of the jokes if you never attended a full week if the whole world treats you like the scum of the earth all because of your high school experience or lackthereof you’re not alone. there’s so many of us that have been beaten down and broken by the school systems we’re subject to and the hostility they breed and the abusive environments they foster. some day we won’t have to be treated like objects of pity or contempt to be swept aside but until then we have each other

[mysticfishphantom]

what if i *remembers that making suicide jokes is not conducive with my goal of improving the wellbeing of myself and everyone around me* transform into an oyster

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The court system is greatly inconveniencing me by not allowing phones in the buidling when you have jury duty

[mysticfishphantom]

My sister accidentally made butter instead of whipped cream

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Do you guys remember how kidnap fantasies were popular on wattpad because young girls and queer teens were both made to feel shame at the thought of their own sexualities, so the fantasy of being kidnapped totally against their will was a way for them to engage with a romantic or sexual fantasy without feeling morally in the wrong for doing so? Added bonus that the fantasy involved being whisked away from repressive environments like home or school, right?

Finding out that Bram Stoker was in a sexless marriage and that scholars believe that he very likely was closeted gay puts the entire book into perspective as to WHY it reads EXACTLY like a self insert wattpad Dracula kidnap fic:

“I TOTALLY love my wife and would never do anything that an upstanding Good Straight Working Man wouldn’t do but oh nooo, big strong man with broad back and strong enough arms to carry me back to bed like a princess trapped me and claimed me as his, completely against my will 👉👈 But he protects me against the bad evil sexual women (who I assure you, I am TOTALLY sexually attracted to, as any straight man with a choice would be) but trust me, I do NOT want ANY of this. What’s that? The Count is not capable of feeling love? Would be a shame if I had the special ability to change tha-”

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is this anything

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Some good news

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i was scrolling through the tags on the 'how many books have you read this year' poll and i just want every 0-5 book reader to know that whether you're dyslexic, you have trouble focusing, you have a job or other full time responsibilities, or perhaps you are just a slow reader by nature, that you're a better reader than this person