#Imaginary beings

[curtismckeighan1957blog]

[a-ninja-magpie]

Sure would be nice if I could have a knowledgeable medical professional to talk to about vague, slightly embarrassing issues without worrying that I would be told a) to lose weight or b) whatever the current euphemism for ‘it’s all in your head’ is

[destinationtoast]

My grandmother is Japanese and really likes to give gifts. Often those gifts are Japanese desserts or other food, but sometimes she just slips me cash, folded up inside a tiny, beautiful envelope. But she likes to pretend she's not giving me money, so when possible, she'll hide it somewhere that I will find later.

Today I spent the afternoon with her doing chores and tech support, and she clearly felt this warranted a significant gift in return (no matter that I enjoyed myself). But she forgot to slip something into my pocket or bag before I left, so instead she rushed outside as I was starting my car, making the old-school "roll down the window" gesture. Once I complied, she was forced to acknowledge she was handing me money, but she also tried to minimize the gesture.

The result was that she said, "Thank you, dear! I just wanted you to be able to... to buy yourself a hamburger," and then handed me a darling little envelope that turned out to contain $100. And all I could think was:

[jamesgraybooksellerworld]

Physics Curiosa. 1667

Gaspar Schott’s Physics Curiosa is a densely illustrated  encyclopedia of  animals some of which exist and others which are reported to exist or had once existed. Of the twelve books half are comprised of miraculous beings, many illustrated and explained by the creations of Angels, Specters, Demons, and un-natural magic. The second half is more marvels of nature, mostly existing exotic animals,…

[onenakedfarmer]

TOVE JANSSON Moominland Midwinter

There are such a lot of things that have no place in summer and autumn and spring. Everything that’s a little shy and a little rum. Some kinds of night animals and people that don’t fit in with others and that nobody really believes in. They keep out of the way all the year. And then when everything’s quiet and white and the nights are long and most people are asleep—then they appear.

[prokopetz]

I mean, treating yaoi as the opposite of yuri just doesn't make sense mathematically: boys are not the inverse of girls. The actual opposite of yuri would somehow have to involve fewer than zero girls, and that's not an easy thing to characterise.

[chipper-smol]

star abducted :3

[pazodetrasalba]

Here be Dragons (or not)

Dear Caroline:

If my calculations are right, you would have been about 18 in 2012? I wonder in what context you were producing those arguments about the existence (or rather, I suspect, the non existence) of God. From your posts, it seems clear that even in your most Trad phase, you were too rational/logical to hold much faith in the supernatural, even if you would have liked to.

Sometimes, our thought patterns work on auto-pilot, and all the more so in stuff we haven't been thinking about recently. It also has this slightly upsetting feel of a ventriloquist act: you are just recovering scraps of past arguments and ideas, self-replicating memes mostly not of your own creation. I think Richard Dawkins studies something like this, but at a higher level, in The Selfish Gene. I also remember some reference somewhere to CFAR'S Anna Salamon always taking some time to think before giving any answer.

I haven't read the Sequences (and doubt I ever will; HPMOR is enough Yudkowsky, I think. There is just too much to be learned and read and time is limited, more so when you are an adult with a job) but if I am not mistaken, the invisible and undetectable dragon in the garage was a Carl Sagan thing. As a side note, I remember as a young teenager being fascinated by Cosmos, a colorful book of his we had in the local library, and each of whose chapters corresponded to the episodes of a TV series I never got to watch. The Library of Alexandria as a repository of ancient science destroyed by barbarism, or the weird possible extraterrestrial lifeforms (globe-like creatures from Jupiter, mathematical beings of light in stars) got engraved and ingrained into my youthful mind, and have dwelt there ever since.

Talking about imaginary beings: some of my acquaintances used to think I had imaginary friends because I have this habit of talking with myself and reasoning/explaining things in a low but audible string of words. My only imaginary friend is my own mind, of course, and my skull is a decently big garage. And an MRI scan should give some evidence of its existence, as opposed to the dragons.

Quote:

I ought to call myself an agnostic; but, for all practical purposes, I am an atheist. I do not think the existence of the Christian God any more probable than the existence of the Gods of Olympus or Valhalla. To take another illustration: nobody can prove that there is not between the Earth and Mars a china teapot revolving in an elliptical orbit, but nobody thinks this sufficiently likely to be taken into account in practice. I think the Christian God just as unlikely.

Bertrand Russell

[r0semultiverse]

The code at the end of the credits in the FNAF movie spells "COME FIND ME" btw for those without captions.

[danlous]

You're going to break it off with him, aren't you? Well, it had to happen. Doomed, always doomed.

[lezet]

V.A.-"ROBBY ET LES ROBOTS" is out on Camembert Électrique (France)!!!!

V.A.-"ROBBY ET LES ROBOTS", an impressive compilation of music inspired by robots known and unknown to popular and high culture, is out on Camembert Électrique (France)!

featuring:

Federico Balducci & fourthousandblackbirds  

Mr. Lizards  

Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites

BANGU TELECOM  

FARMACIA  

WHEN DAY CHOKES THE NIGHT  

STEFAN STRASSER  

TOM TEMPÊTE

PETER BECAUSE  

FRATICORNICOS  

HUMANFOBIA  

Wyndham Research Institute

MEAN FLOW  

ODO  

dedgod  

FILMY GHOST  

philippe neau  

Studio112  

μελωφοβία  

ausgesuchtestenohren  

KONEJO  

LEZET

M.NOMIZED

ANTEPOP  

CARLOS DEVIZIA  

SAINT DE L'ABIME  

TÔLE-ACHE  

WILFRIED HANRATH  

Leandro Kalén  

ANASTASIA VRONSKI  

TRISTAN BURFIELD  

INVISIBLE ILLUSION  

PressureWorks  

[OTP]  

DJ_Iterate  

SARAH MEGA-HERTZ  

LA FLORE INTESTINALE  

BLEAK ZENITH  

WXR_JR  

ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES  

evoked response  

DJ Frankenstone  

KR Seward -

fencepost  

IMAGINARY BEINGS  

TETSUO FURUDATE  

THE OWL  

THOMAS PARK  

POTAR  

MC BERRO D'ÁGUA

KHΛOMΛИ  

THE DAY IT RAINED FROGS  

TÔLE-ACHE  

BRINE & GOBLINS  

RDKPL  

TRISTAN BURFIELD  

TERBESCHIKKINGSTELLING  

Gelan 2000  

SEIEI JACK  

NIACINAMIDE  

Processed, Instant God  

POTAR  

James Nathan Powell

https://camembertelectrique.bandcamp.com/album/robby-et-les-robots

[mannerfeind-moving]

game's over go home everybody y'all are fucking unlovable nazi dickriders that deserve nothing aside from a gun between your eyes

[densewentz]

Edwin did not read a little ghost girl for filth in the very beginning of the very first episode for trying to pretend that the age she died at had any bearing whatsoever on her actual current level of maturity and capability just for you guys to turn around and use "he died at 16!!!" to vilify the Cat King and Catwin shippers btw

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

yes i have personal & intimate reasons for my own (lack of) religious/supernatural beliefs, but it's not dishonest to admit: i am also an atheist bc at no point in my life have i, after completing a slightly unpleasant task, been witness to an angel/imp/sprite/devil/entity-of-any-kind manifesting in all their glory to offer me a pat on the head and a little plastic baggy of crackers (by way of encouragement/reward).

call me childish but in my heart of hearts i cannot truly participate in a belief system that tolerates such negligence

[candyheartedchy]

Rooftop Stargazing

[void-damned]

'So long, suckers!'

What do you mean that this isn't how DOTO actually ended?

[A meme redraw done for @uncontrol-freak's belated birthday. Hope you enjoy!]