#he is my programmers rubber ducky

[p2ii]

ash Ketchum is now trans

[maxdimo]

drawing dave every day until 3.5 releases, day 43. prolonged weary sigh

description: This actually happened to me today so I wanted to draw out my frustration lmao. I didnt have the energy to make this look cooler and my friends & partner insisted I do a doodle this day so i did. dave relevance: hes a programmer. also rubber ducky of debugging magic bc i feel like hed have one

[just-eyris-things]

Story time: My English Duckie

Ages ago I learned of the programmer duckie - apparently programmers would talk to a rubber duck to find the root of a problem. So, I've also acquired a duckie, although it was an artist duckie, since, yknow, I'm an artist.

Then, when I was still a uni student, there was a lesson dedicated to warm ups. One of them was standing in a circle and throwing an object (a keychain, a key, a marker, it could be anything as long as it was easy to catch). I thought that marker might lose its cover or that key might hurt someone if thrown badly, so when I graduated and became a teacher I started using... a rubber duckie.

My rubber duckie became my brand. I was the Rubber Duckie Teacher. With time, rubber duckie obtained some friends, and together they were known as The Rubber Gang. Even kids as old as 16 enjoyed their company (students would ask for a rubber companion to just put on their desk. They weren't even playing with them, they just put the toys on their desk or held them and that was it).

Now, I teach in kindergarten and 7-10 year olds mostly. For kids this young it's helpful to make a physical sign that will say "NOW WE ONLY SPEAK IN ENGLISH". For my students it's a rubber duckie. When it squeaks - we switch to English. Some kids will eventell me off if I don't squeak it and use English ("why are you talking in English, miss? You didn't press the duckie!").

So, today, I'm about to leave for the day when I meet one of our learners. She comes in and notices my prop box and the duckie in it. She asks if I have more, because her son teacher her english at home and he always makes her say "hello duckie!" even if they don't have a duckie. That's how important the duckie is for the kid.

Turned out she was a mom of one of my kindergarteners. It was nice to hear that my practices are spreading and bring joy to people. Needless to say - I pulled one of my spare duckies and gave it to the woman, so her son can also have a duckie to squeak when he practices English at home.

I love my job. I love "infecting" other people with little joys, such as my English Duckie.

[dark-twist-fairytales]

(Clayton has definitely stood up on a few occasions thinking he's fine only for his body to give out under him)

He's just doing something then he passes out because he hasn't slept properly in months- (Even Shepherds sleep deprived ass would scold him)

But also, him doing this to put 100% effort into anything he's doing, not accepting anything under perfection because if something is perfect then it has to be noticed, right?

But over the years his 100% ends up becoming the bare minimum he feels like he must give, writing until his hands cramp, reading until his eyes sting and the words swim on the page.

Anything for recognition, anything for his family to look his way, give him praise. But they never do.

He does more and more, neglecting his own health because he needs them to notice him and he must have simply "not done well enough".

(Clara would help him out of these perfection spirals before, her death impacting him severly.)

He still feels that if he can't put 100% into something then he's failed at it, but his companions help him with it.

(Molly's smile getting slighty less crooked everytime he makes her a new dress, seeing Lukas' grip relax when he speaks to him. The expedition 2.0 being amased at most things he does.)

Shepherd staring beyond the grave giving the most "what in the actual fuck" look ever to Clayton after another night of an hour and a half of sleep, swearing to the stars and Gherix that you need to sleep, professor-

Oh, yeah, absolutely. He can't accept anything under 100%. No rest, no breaks, it can't be less than what he perceives as perfect. When Emmy and Clara were alive, they were able to easily sway him to resting, eating, doing more than just staring at parchment and ink and his small writing font, dotting each i and crossing each t, each little flourish- He struggles to say 'no' to Clara already, but saying 'no' to Emmy is a crime in his mind.

(When they were alive, Clara 100% used that to her advantage like 'Go get your father', and Emmy knew exactly what that meant in terms of pouting, asking, giving puppy dog eyes. Clayton's heart melts each time and he finally sets the quill down.)

Okay, that also reminds me of something that Clayton might do. Before Molly, having some sort of figure on his desk, something that he just always had with him. Being blocked in writing, not knowing what word to put next, how to continue his thoughts- There's many of them, he just needs to get them out in the right order!

After countless times of this, he finally decides to talk to whatever this figure is, to try and collect his thoughts. Just that talking, that little bit, enough to start and realize- Well, that can't go there, that wouldn't make sense! And yes, there leaves suspense, but that helps reveal that!

He got his ease of talking to inanimate objects from that, and it only expanded. To Lukas being a being he summoned, talking even after he's gone, to Molly as someone new, explaining each detail of his thought process and thinking. Even further onwards, and sometimes, he'll pull out those mementos, almost able to hear the voices of his expedition replying back to him with their knowledge on something. Sometimes, he needs quiet and someone to tell him he's too smart in the way of explaining it. Other times, having a jarring reminder that morality is a thing is effective.

The rubber ducky method is basically what I was explaining (I use that, my object is the ring on my finger now, but it used to be an orange rubber duck) used by many professions to explain what the problem is and troubleshoot. I learned it from a programmer and use it with writing, but even chatting with a friend, you'll see signs that you were otherwise overlooking without meaning to.

[rubberduckyrye]

Ultimate rubber duck

The kind that squeaks

QUACK!!!

Fun fact my URL is @tacobellebandit's fault because he was trying to figure out a programming problem and was using me as a "rubber ducky." That's a thing where programmers have rubber duckies on their desks to talk to that helps them problem solve.

[devout-khajiit]

It's morning and I'm more awake, so here's some more stuff. Again, most is mostly for general spirit work, but I still do mostly PCP lol

Make small talk! Not every convo has to be grand or have an end goal. Ask them about their day, how the weather is where they live, how's the wife and kids, whatever. Let the convo mature however it does, and if it becomes something other than small talk, that's fine too.

Do a reading For Them. Like, not with them. For Them. It's a really fun insight into a spirits life and experiences, and great reading practice. I've given advice and insight to my spirits before through all of this, and it also helps build trust for them to you.

Ask for help with the truly mundane. Are you sick? Ask for help with making soup. Are you just frustrated with a task? Ask them to let you work through it verbally with them until you figure out a fix (kinda like the "programmers talk to rubber ducky thing"!) Are you just bored? Ask them to hang out and come over. Just ask for help with the truly mundane things.

Especially if you want to be companions, try and talk to them every day. I write a "daily report" which I imagine gets emailed out to all of my spirit guides (who are the email list), where I talk about my day, what I did, whatever is on my mind, the sorts.

You can also be more direct. As the day winds to an end, just speak to them. Or as you wake. Or when you eat lunch. Whenever works for you.

Make information about them and share it. Not only does it make you learn about them more, pop culture spirits typically love being talked about in my experience. How you do so is up to you, I make quick start guides with a ton of info on my varied blogs, but also run Today's pop culture spirit is... on this blog.

Introduce them to New Sources. I've shown The Elder Scrolls entities such as Arkay shows like The Good Place (he liked it). I think as PCPagans, tons of us get wrapped up into "Just their source..." when we'd never constrict ourselves this way for a non-pop culture spirit. I go ballistic sharing media with Lucifer, so why not with pop culture spirits?

Depending on the spirits comfort, make a plushie of yours devotional to them and then sleep with the plushie and cuddle it when you feel bad. Let them comfort you and soothe you through the actions of the plushie.

Read to them. Just pick a book. Read to them. They are baby now (joke). But seriously, it's such a chill and loving act to read to someone.

Devote common tools or appliances to them. Like, I devote my hand fans to quite a few spirits total. And when I use them, I thank the spirit's aid.

Ask them to ramble to you! Let them engage with you and have fun with you.

When I can't sleep, I ask a spirit guide to ramble to me for me to listen to as I fall asleep. I miss out on some of the rambles and tune out at some point as I drift, but the thought is there and they love the chance.

And finally, some more PCP specific things to try:

Obvious answer is engage with their source. But you can also engage with fan-content of their source and share stuff that you feels captures them well. And source engagement comes in many forms! I love watching Just Background Noise play Morrowind and mod it and do challenges for example.

Wear merchandise of them if you have any. If you don't, make an amulet or sigil of them and keep it on your person (I like keeping sigils in my phonecase, personally). You can also go a jewelry route with devotional jewelry. But merchandise is always fun if you have it, lol.

Make a colorful aesthetic going by the official colors of their official portrait or art. Moodboard, collage, whatever. Wear these colors, too.

Trash talk the creators of their series. No, really. Especially if they suck. I don't do this with Touhou because ZUN is a stand-up guy and thus we have nothing to trash talk, but Bethesda knows no mercy from me and the Daedric Princes, especially for that fucking plastic bag pre-order fiasco.

Anyways, I think that's truly all I got. If I think of more I'll reblog again with more rambling, but I think I officially tired out all my routes. Hope this helps!

this is kind of a silly thing to ask, being that i've been doing this for a while now. but i wanted to throw this out in case anyone had some fresh ideas that i'd overlooked.

what's your favourite thing to do to help build a bond with a pcp spirit?

for context, i've recently discovered that a spirit has grown attached to me and wants to be companions/a familiar, rather than being worshipped as a deity. i want the same, but i acknowledge we've barely done anything together! i've done things like sit with the spirit's energy, done readings to communicate with it, talked to it, and even spent more time observing it in games and media. but tbh, i want to do more than just the obvious stuff.

i'm just looking for ideas. if anyone has ideas that works for them that they're happy to throw at me that'd be super awesome!

[loverboylostit]

rsd.vent

[mightyoctopus]

Sokka’s Turtle Ducky

In the real world, if a programmer gets stuck on a problem and can’t solve it, they will explain the problem to a rubber ducky. The idea is that verbalizing the problem makes you find the solution.

Imagine Sokka and Zuko sitting together, both quietly working on something.

For Zuko, it’s Fire Lord stuff. For Sokka, it’s an engineering problem, or maybe it is a “computer” problem. (I don’t think it would be out of place for a Difference Engine or other forefather of the computer to exist in the canon timeline.)

Anyway, Sokka gets stuck on a problem and he turns to Zuko and asks, “Would you mind being my turtle duck?”

Zuko is like, “???”

So Sokka explains the concept of the (turtle) ducky to Zuko, and then proceeds to explain his problem. Zuko doesn’t understand a single bit of it and doesn’t think he could offer helpful advice, but in the middle of a sentence Sokka exclaims, “oh yes of course! that was so obvious, why didn’t I spot it sooner?” then goes back to work.

It becomes a bit of a ritual for them to do this.

Zuko doesn’t really understand any of it, but he doesn’t have to. All he has to do is listen to the love of his life being enthusiastic about mathematics, and he loves listening to Sokka being enthusiastic.

And that is the story of how Zuko got nicknamed Turtle Duck.

[perpetual-bad-guy-shipper]

Ok, so you know how programmers have this little rubber ducky that they talk to so they can figure out what went wrong during coding? Yeah, that's ORTET!Belos with baby Hunter

He's out here in his lab speaking some sort of magical technobabble to this three-month-old baby who's on one of these baby swings bouncing happily and paying absolutely no attention to what his uncle is saying

i did not know this was a thing oh my god that's incredible and yes yes yes!!

i 100% have imagined ortet!belos taking hunter into his lab with him for hours and hours at a time and just having him chill out beside him while belos works (spitting on every OSHA rule ever conceived in the process no less, man won't even tie his hair back). to him its a way that he can spend time with his nephew while also being productive. (knowing that he experimented on entire species of monsters, I'm willing to say he probably showed little hunter a basilisk in a cage to get him excited for Lab Time).      

i mentioned in a previous ask that Belos was very nervous to be be around baby hunter and i think being in the presence of his weird magitech machines would ease that. he rattles on and on about his experiments like you said. he’s able to focus on a concrete goal while also enjoying real company for the first time in a really long time. before hunter was born, belos really was alone and i bet he’d try to take every advantage of the fact that he’s not anymore.   

also, i love the idea of this one child being privy to all the Emperor’s darkest secrets and most dangerous experiments but....he doesn’t care because he is literally 12 months old and just wants to nibble his banana. perfect. when Hunter gets older lab time becomes more rare but he still comes in every so often (more when the relatively benign work is being done). the white noise is soothing, as is the proximity to his uncle.

[o-wyrmlight]

espresso cookie shows to have a lot of disdain for light magic as he see’s that it’s good for nothing in kingdom. and as a result, he doesn’t have much respect for madeleine (someone who wields light magic) when they first start working together.

how does espresso’s opinions differ in crumbled castles (if they do) and how does that affect his friendship with madeleine? sorry if this is a long ask

It's perfectly okay lol! Sorry if this is a long and rambling answer!

Espresso doesn't really mind light magic too much in my AU. He does still see it as an inadequate form of magic that isn't good for much, but he doesn't have as strong of a vendetta against it as canon Espresso does. Light magic does have its small uses, after all. All magic has its use for a reason. It's just that light magic has been largely invalidated by technology and seems like a waste of time to learn.

This probably comes from Espresso not originating from the Lower City in this AU and therefore having less reason to have contempt in that manner. Espresso instead comes from a dedicated family of researchers who each specialize in certain fields, and Espresso decided to create a whole new form of magic in an attempt to stand out from them. He wanted to create a powerful form of magic that could be more useful than light magic in day-to-day life.

I imagine that coffee magic would be an excellent, cleaner power source as well as a powerful offensive tool, albeit very scientifically particular. Coffee magic requires much more science than other magics do, as instead of the memorization and visualization/adjustment of runes, it instead relies more upon alchemy and precise measurements. I also imagine that magic in Crumbled Castles requires an understanding of mathematics, with the runes representing not only a means of aiding in channeling that magic but also a way of amplifying or decreasing the strength of the spell.

In terms of how this affects Espresso's relationship with Madeleine, this leads to much less disdain and more standoffish dismissal to the use of light magic, which he mostly finds to be outdated and redundant. Madeleine and Espresso have an understanding of each other and are amicable in their different opinions--Madeleine likes the preservation of the Republic's culture being passed down in the teaching of light magic even though Espresso finds it a redundant form of magic. It makes for interesting conversation sometimes.

In spite of their differences, Madeleine is supportive of Espresso's studies in creating a whole new form of magic, even though other cookies in the Republic (including Espresso's own family) perceive that coffee magic as being the re-awakening of dark magic. Madeleine occasionally acts as his eager assistant, and his ability to play dumb often pushes Espresso to re-explain his rambling in much more simplified terms only to figure out what he's missing from that.

Madeleine likes being Espresso's rubber ducky.

...For reference, programmers have rubber duckies that they talk to and yell at and squeak and explain their process to, and that helps them figure out what it is they're missing. Madeleine just likes helping his friend.

[questionablygourmet]

Okay, I said I wasn’t going to write anything else until Chapter 8 happens, but I was implicitly whining about writer’s block to my brother tonight and he gave me a very silly, very specific, and therefore excellent prompt and whoops that’s 450 more words than I’ve written in the previous couple of weeks.

----

“Will hassles Hannibal over finding something unusual in his house... Hannibal has very little idea what's going on but plays it cool, right up until Will finally reveals that he's talking about a rubber ducky “

----

“Ms. Lounds seems convinced there are skeletons in all of each of our closets.”  

“Well, that just goes to show she hasn’t been in any part of your house except the foyer and the dining room.  The really juicy stuff is elsewhere.”

“Whilst your house is, of course, perfectly normal.”

“Of course, doesn’t everyone sleep in their living rooms?  I’m the one who’s obviously weird; that makes me less interesting in the long run.”

“You know my opinion of how interesting you are.”

“And you know my opinion of how interesting you are.”  

“Really, Will?”

“Oh… not really, no.  Not since you left me to my own devices to dig up the really good bourbon that one time.  I’d say I got interested, then.”

Will feels, more than sees, the edged curiosity that suddenly alights upon Hannibal’s frame.  He smiles to himself.  

“Have you been digging in my closets, then?” he asks, with an almost teasing affront, belying the tension in the room.  “What horrors might you think you’ve seen within?”

Will finds himself smiling more.  “Mortal offenses to the concept of plaid, mostly.  No, not your closets.  You’ve probably got a basement for what you’re actually wondering if I saw.  I’m talking about the harpsichord.”

Hannibal makes the utterly blank expression that means he absolutely does not know how to react to what he’s just heard.  “The harpsichord.”

“The harpsichord,” Will repeats, enjoying himself even though he knows he is absolutely pulling the tiger’s tail and should probably have stopped quite a bit ago.  

“And what, exactly, was so interesting about that?”  Hannibal has relaxed a fraction, but he’s still probably thinking of at least five ways to kill him. 

It’s fucked up that this feels like power, somehow.

He should probably stop stringing him along, though.  “I thought I might be hallucinating, at the time, it was so out of place.  But no, I’m pretty sure that was real.  It wasn’t there the next time I came over for dinner, though.”

The tension releases all at once, and Hannibal smiles that crinkle-eyed, purely happy smile that almost makes Will willing to forget the other things he knows about him, that he can’t say just yet because the moment isn’t right, the trust isn’t right.  “Ah.  The duck.”

“The rubber ducky, Dr. Lecter.”

“I was having a particular difficulty with a composition.  I’m aware of the concept of ‘rubber duck troubleshooting’ amongst computer programmers, and thought it might be worth the effort,” he says, with an enviable amount of dignity.

Will grins.  “Did it help?”

“In fact I found it quite an insightful companion,” Hannibal says, sniffing. 

“Well, good, then,” he says, meaning it, then adds: “Freddie sure won’t be hearing about it from me.”

[lit--bitch]

Current-Reads (20/04/2020 - 26/04/2020) 🍓🐢

(Disclosure: I don’t know anybody I’ve been currently reading this week. 😊)

Adding the preface again here: every Sunday without fail I throw up the freshest literature and photography I’ve read over the week, sometimes it’s a book, sometimes it’s a piece I saw in a magazine or an online zine, sometimes it’s something I saw on social media, etc. Sometimes I add ‘RECOMMEND’ next to a few of the titles, but that’s not to say I don’t recommend all of them, I just love some pieces more than others. Not everything will be everybody’s cup of tea, yanno, c’est la vie. And any titles that you see in bold are hyperlinked so if you click or tap them they’ll direct you straight to the source… or shopping basket. 

This week I’m gonna throw in a red herring and tell you about something I’ve been watching as well as what I’ve been reading, because I think it’s really cool and definitely appropriate for the age we’re living in at the moment. 

So I’ve been reading: Susan Sontag’s As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh (Diaries 1964—1980) which was edited by her son, David. I also read an interview on Granta from March between Rachel Long and Morgan Parker. I’ve also tucked into a couple pieces on Fence, Lexi Welch’s ‘Astroturf’ and Anthony Michael Morena’s ‘The Whale’. I also saw Cecelia Knapp’s poem in Bath Magg Issue Three (but the whole issue is an absolute smacker, it’s great). Last but not least, I’m up to episode 5 of a brand new thing called The Midnight Gospel. It is crazy good. And it’s on Netflix right now. 

***

Cecilia Knapp, ‘I Used To Eat KFC Zingers Without Hating Myself’, Bath Magg Issue #3: I really loved the whole of Issue Three, I guess I was quite struck by this particular poem for its “staccato-ness”. This poem is buttered with present-day references. But they’re not necessarily about creating a familiar environment. Rather the object of familiarity is found within the assemblage of places, snacks and thoughts, all of which compound the grief ‘I’ is experiencing. The ‘I’ ruminates on life’s banality and their personal insecurities in living banality: ‘I need a thigh gap. I use emojis / to avoid conflict. Worry I’m a gentrifier. Watch docs about murdered women’. The vapidity is funny. The pain is not. The insecurities deepen. Your body, your life, continues the ache of day-to-day routine, and finds no resolution in the things which may or may not stand to comfort oneself when ravaged by loss. The poem feels quite loose, and disinterested. It’s a sore poem, but its array of references make it colourful. It sort of reminded me of Édouard Levé’s work a little bit? But if Édouard Levé had been a pop culture fanatic chewing HubbaBubba bubblegum on the London Overground.  Bath Magg is a pretty exciting new magazine, (been around just under a year I think?) and they’ve published a lot of great writers, many of whom are emerging and I’ve spotted some quite established peple in there too. Kudos to their rubber ducky logo. It’s run by Mariah Whelan and Joe Carrick-Varty. 

In Conversation with Morgan Parker and Rachel Long, Granta Magazine: I deeply love Morgan Parker’s work, she’s, in my opinion, the master of titles. I can’t think of anybody who titles their work as well as Morgan Parker does. And I love the depth of honesty and charisma in this interview. Like yeah, it appears to be a generic Q/A but, it genuinely feels like a conversation, and it’s welcoming and unpretentious. Rachel Long asks some penetrating questions, and Morgan’s answers are so detailed and self-aware. Most of the discussion revolves around the action of writing poetry in general and where does that impulse arise from, but they do discuss Morgan’s latest collection Magical Negro which came out February last year. It’s a narrative on black womanhood, on micro-aggressions and reoccuring violence, it’s about breaking down white perceptions of blackness, and dissolving those projections. What I love about Morgan Parker is she’s tackling this fucking idiot thing where (mostly) white people think she’s attempting to represent all black women in her writing, which is, by Morgan’s own admission, impossible. Her work is a duty to herself, to the background she’s lived and lives, and to unpack that discourse in her own way. And if it resonates, then great! I felt all this was inherent in the interview and only adds to my respect for her, and to Rachel for being such an attentive interviewer. BTW Rachel Long has a debut collection coming out this July, My Darling from the Lions.

Anthony Michael Morena, ‘The Whale’, Fence Portal (Streaming) (RECOMMEND): I can’t tell you how much I adored this beautiful mass of whale and word. It’s an essay which references the American Natural History Museum’s Blue Whale model. The writing is thick with feeling and fat with concern. It blends monologue, memoir. It’s non-fiction and documentary. It’s elusive, enigmatic, fragmented. It’s like broken biscuits and blubber. To me it felt like a note on the offences of climate change, the emotional response and grief as we bystand erosion and corrosion, the loss of life, and the urge to merge something back together as it dissolves and fragments before our eyes. It’s as personal as it is public. A gorgeous and complex piece.

Susan Sontag’s As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh (Diaries 1964—1980) (RECOMMEND): I felt so afflicted reading Susan Sontag’s diaries, because y’know, it’s the equivalent of invading an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh’s tomb. Like, leave people alone. At the same like, this woman. These diaries are still shaping me, and each section leaves you with the weirdest aftertaste. Her personality permeates through every detail, every line-break, every reference and articulation of feeling. You learn so much, you gain so much from her perceptions and observations. How do I contain Susan Sontag? How do I describe these diaries? Not at all. Just buy it. 

Lexi Welch’s ‘Astroturf’, Fence Portal (Streaming) (RECOMMEND): My eyes locked onto this piece and just didn’t really stop reading. Lexi’s voice is enamouring and hypnotic. It’s so violent too. You’re lunged into friction burns and sports injuries, time and progression, the tensions between collectivity and individuality, family and sexuality, or as Fence put it, ‘lesbian eros’. This piece felt acidic. At times you can’t tell if the ‘I’ is indifferent or hurting to the point of numbness. It straddles so many different thematics, and breaks down a lot of conventions pertaining to the “ideal experience” of family relationships and team work. The resolution seems to be that in spite of people, our collectivity is defined by our collective solitude. This essay kicked me around a football field. It takes a good few repeated reads to appreciate its kaleidoscopic shifting, but it’s definitely one of my favourites.

The Midnight Gospel, from Pendleton Ward and Duncan Trussell, Netflix: (RECOMMEND) So the other day my friend Ben linked this to me and I had seen the trailer ages back and thought “Oh yeah I really wanna watch that”, but just forgot. After his reminder, I started watching it and ever since I’ve been saying to loads of other friends “Have you watched ‘The Midnight Gospel’ on Netflix?” because I’m d y i n g  to talk about it with everybody. 

I literally can’t categorise this “TV show” to you. It’s like if animation had a baby with a philosophy podcast and then put that baby onto an IV drip of psychedelics. It’s this swarm of different stimuli which you kind have to zone in on and absorb individually and yet somehow collectively. 

So like, “Clancy” is a spacecaster who sets up “spacecasts” (podcasts) with creatures from other simulated worlds and he interviews them. But when Clancy transports himself into these worlds, it’s not like they’re sat down on some cream sofa with two glasses of water like it’s animated Oprah. No, his interviewees are like in the middle of fighting off a zombie apocalypse or meditating on a mountain or trying to find and save their lost lover. And Clancy just joins them on the journey and interviews them about their “specialism”. These are real people that are being interviewed like, the first episode is with Dr. Drew Pinker. And when you’re watching it, you think that the animation is totally separate to the conversation exchange the characters are having, but that’s not true. They have intersections, they have meaning. It only becomes obvious that it has meaning right at the end of each episode, but if you lock on you’ll see it’s all relevant throughout. 

One of my friends was like “Oh I might stick that on tonight and have a joint” and I was like, don’t fucking get high when you’re watching this because it’s already intense enough as it is, like you know that Pendleton Ward and Duncan Trussell have felt some real shit to create this absolute rare jewel. In my opinion, you don’t need cannabis to appreciate these discussions. But if you wanna do it, then hey it’s a “free country”. And it’s not as though there’s a serious, central core plot like there is with Rick & Morty, I mean there is a kind of overarching plot but it’s not always integral. Like ultimately we’re invested in Clancy’s story but also all the stories of all the other people that come his way. There’s multiple plots, there’s multiple dimensions and ways of seeing. It’s a programme which delivers on multiplicity, which manifests itself in everything and everyone we see and know and touch and hear, etc, etc. 

This production articulates some of the revelations that psychedelics can give you. Psychedelics don’t make you see the world literally like these animations do, but the sensations of the animation are reminiscent of an acid trip’s oscillating moods and sensitivities. It’s really cool, and it’s very poignant, and it’s my new favourite show to watch. And what’s so great about it is that, it requires multiple watches in order to really absorb everything in its entirety, so it’s a series you can just keep going back to even after you’ve seen them all. It’s re-watchable. Just fundamental goodness all round. Best way to indulge in it is with ice cream. 🍨

***

So that’s it for this week, next Friday’s review is Annie Ernaux’s A Girl’s Story translated by Alison L. Strayer, published with Fitzcarraldo Editions. 

Stay safe and well as always, my little caramels. 💁🏽

[psychokangaroo]

I compared the programmers rubber ducky to Dickinson's "Hope is the thing with feathers" on my date tonight and literally quoted a few lines of the poem to him (its one of my favorites) Im surprised he hasnt dumped my pretentious self-centered punny self yet.

This boy must like trash because 3rd date and we’re going to the movies tomorrow. The best part of living in the bougiest neighborhood is the movie theaters with the recliner seats made for cuddling. Also if he were a puppy he’d be a golden retriever (to me). A golden retriever who can program super well and is very patient when I get super know it all and insists on analyzing everything. Including the comedy show we went to. (in my defense it was political and utilized the anti-joke format that Hannah Gadsby did in nanette in at least 1 skit).

Also HOLY SHIT I am a know it all with a liberal arts education. Must analyze everything and just cite everything with scientific studies if possible. It’s weird. Also I like talking to other people way more than I give myself credit for? Im not a strict introvert. Im an extrovert with social anxiety. When I learn/familiarize myself with social scripts, talking and getting to know other people becomes easier. I had an hourbling convo with one of the doormen (a social and very nice man with a fascinating job history). Dating has become as much of a personal discovery as meeting and getting to know other people.

[the-big-lubinski]

It takes me approximately .0005 seconds to grow irreversibly attached to my tabletop characters. I made a character for a Fallout tabletop. Her name is “Denise Knuts” (because I have a mature sense of humor) and she’s a programmer and she’s short and busty and in our first session, a Raider pierced her nipples (I will try and convince the DM for extra Charisma when they’re exposed). She’s a very smart character, and she will be buff when I get control over her SPECIAL stats, but she’s a bit dense and is convinced that her teammates are just as nice as she is. Spoilers: they aren’t

For her “you can pick any accessory, not counting glasses” slot, I gave her a rubber ducky keychain. He helps her when she can’t figure out how to hack something