royalninja

[royalninja]

are you sure it's always been called the Mandela effect? i swear all my life it was the mandala effect. and you're certain it isn't?

[royalninja]

oh

[royalninja]

Being the only bi cis guy amongst almost exclusively trans friends and peers is wild because in theory its like im living in a horny manga where all of a dudes friends turn into hot babes, but in reality they are hunting me like the last bison on the prairie. 5 years ago I mentioned bionicle and one of them asked when I was starting estrogen.

[royalninja]

I've been thinking... would anybody be interested in a game of sorts? You send me a photo you took, of a tree (or of something else nature-related, plants, rocks etc.) and I draw something based on the photo. No photos from the web, only photos taken by you, things you saw for real ;). Open for everyone.

And big thanks for the interest in my art!

[royalninja]

Give a man a leaf and he will eat it. Teach a man to leaf and he will go away

[royalninja]

[royalninja]

THE GRIFTER LIFE CYCLE:

Grifter Nebula - Grifter is young, plucky, full of Idealogical zeal and original ideas. They understand the modern media landscape, and see a gap. This is Steven Crowder in his "change my mind" era.

Grifter Star - Grifter successfully gathers enough social capital to form a self-sustaining media presence. They no longer need to scrounge for listeners/followers/readers. They've found a niche and they can stick to it, but there's work to be done. They make enough money to be comfortable, but not enough that their decisions are entirely driven by profit. This is 99% of conservative YouTubers. Jordan Peterson is here.

Grifter Giant - A breakthrough. The grifter successfully enters the mainstream. Viral success, a radio show, a pastorship at a church, a memeable interview on FOX has brought a massive, massive audience to the grifter. The grifter now has real social power. The things the grifter says have a real chance of influencing actual political policy. The realm of Andrew Tate, Candice Owens post daily wire, and Alex Jones just post 9/11.

Grifter Planetary Nebula - A rare stage, not every grifter achieves this state. Most skip directly to the break point. Here, the grifter IS the discourse. This is Rush Limbaugh at the height of his career, Elon Musk during his time in the white house, every preacher at the height of the satanic panic. Politicians pray at your altar. They come to YOU, not the other way around. Not just the fringe weirdos either. Actual, respectable people have to factor you in. Ends when the grifter dies of lung cancer at 75.

BREAK POINT - CHOSE A PATH:

Grifter Black Hole - After years of dominating the grifting narrative, copycats emerge. The grifter begins to drown in a media landscape chock full of modern impressions of their schtick. The grifter loses relevance among the sleek, exciting, copycats, and is forced to say increasingly insane shit to stay relevant. Or is frankly seen as an embarrassing relic of a previous age, Associating with the grifter at this point COSTS social capital, and usually isn't worth it. This is Elon Musk post white House, Milo Yianopolus post defending pedophilia.

Grifter White Dwarf - Grifter quietly fades into obscurity. She took everything in the divorce, and your expenses are pretty modest. The grifter can get by on the core audience they built up over the years, slowly drinking themselves to death as they podcast from the Florida suburbs. You are crashing on Andrew Tates couch, but he doesn't put you in videos.

[royalninja]

“Here’s the deal. The human soul doesn’t want to be advised or fixed or saved. It simply wants to be witnessed — to be seen, heard and companioned exactly as it is. When we make that kind of deep bow to the soul of a suffering person, our respect reinforces the soul’s healing resources, the only resources that can help the sufferer make it through. Aye, there’s the rub. Many of us “helper” types are as much or more concerned with being seen as good helpers as we are with serving the soul-deep needs of the person who needs help. Witnessing and companioning take time and patience, which we often lack — especially when we’re in the presence of suffering so painful we can barely stand to be there, as if we were in danger of catching a contagious disease. We want to apply our “fix,” then cut and run, figuring we’ve done the best we can to “save” the other person.”

— The Gift of Presence, The Perils of Advice | On Being

[royalninja]

Danny Elfman at Spooky Empire 2025

[royalninja]

Source

A huge win for NYC! A better world is still possible

Next stop: general election

[royalninja]

I'd seen lots of people describe Night in the Woods as being heavily rooted in the experience of growing up in a dying small town in the American Rust Belt, but somehow nobody told my West Virginian ass that it's so Appalachian that I probably live closer to where Mae's house would be than to the nearest IKEA.

[royalninja]

[royalninja]

Exector (Arc System Works - PSX - 1995)

[royalninja]

[royalninja]

a single dry cough

[royalninja]

In my opinion it's a lot more healthy to be able to own that you dislike someone for petty reasons than to do all kinds of mental gymnastics to make everyone you don't really vibe with out to be a bad person actually

[royalninja]

i googled my favorite XKCD and the front page of google had some RPGnet forum posts you made the week I was born.

I enjoy how this tells me almost nothing about your actual age – you could be anywhere between ten and thirty and this would be a plausible scenario.