#like... thanks but no thanks mcelroys

[taz-metamals]

Welcome to my TAZ sideblog! I’m working on drawing all the Steeplechase Metamals, and the purpose of this post is to organize and keep track of them.

Here are the Metamals in the order they were first introduced:

- Charles the Giraffesaurus rex

- Chihuahuowls

- Orwell the Armored Gorilladactyl

- Emperor Pumas (one is named Greg)

- Harold the Bulbulgoose

- Clarence the Beaver-eel

- Spider-spider monkey-monkeys

- Skunk-frogs

- Llama-sheep

- Yak-eagles

- Aardvark-coyotes

- Tiger-moles

- Pangolin-falcon

- Lance and Camille the Monkangaroos

- Turtle-lions

- Claude the Jagpanda

- Squieetahs

[eyes-eyes-eyes-eyes-eyes-eyes]

CAREY AND KILLIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT

[boydykedevo]

It’s psychoanalyzing Devo hours folks

[suddenrundown]

OOF “you’re going to have to fight. and.....you’re going to win.”

efknsdklfgndfvndf yeah dude

[kristiliqua]

listening to taz balance soundtrack and i am PISSED . this shit is not allowed to be that fucking good why is it all so fucking good . im so upset . i hate griffin mcelroy so much like what is wrong with you . why do you do this . HOW do you do this . what the fuck even are you .

[confetti-critter]

I've had my casper mattress since 2017 and I never knew it had fucking fiberglass in it......

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

I was given oral herpes by someone who didn't feel the need to disclose that they got cold sores before we had a one-time little dalliance.

I might've gone for it anyways. I'm self destructive. But I guess the lack of being able to choose whether to take the risk, it's left me feeling pretty bitter about the experience.

And I'm left feeling like a biohazard. I haven't really been able to explain to my friends yet why I'm suddenly extremely cagey about sharing my drinks and food. And all my favorite sexual activities are off the table forever. I know, dental dams, condoms, but half the fun of oral sex and making out is, you know, the taste, the heat, the absolute control. I was good at it.

It feels especially embarrassing since I'm ace and the whole reason I hooked up with the person was kind of... I don't know, fear that if I didn't, then we wouldn't be able to hang out anymore.

I'm not sure what I'm asking. Maybe, was it wrong for them not to disclose something like that? Considering how common it is? I feel obligated to disclose myself but maybe I'm just weird for that.

Thanks for doing what you do here.

Kind regards,

Asexual for Ethical Reasons Now I Guess

hi anon,

I don't often apologize for needing time to get to anons, because I really need people to have reasonable expectations about the amount of time I'm willing to commit to my inbox, but I am sorry for not getting to this one sooner. it's a topic that's very important to me, and I can tell you're dealing with a lot of hurt.

first off: I'm very sorry someone wasn't totally honest with you. that's never a good feeling, and especially in the context of sex it's a huge betrayal of trust. it's deeply unfair to you, and I hope you're able to recover from that.

having said that: you are not a biohazard. you're a person with an incredibly common virus. the World Health Organization estimates that somewhere around 80% of people worldwide have herpes (and that's a rough estimate, since they use different age ranges for HSV-1 and HSV-2). skip to the factual part of this tiktok at 00:10 seconds. herpes has been with us since before we were human; there's nothing disgusting or even unusual about having herpes.

herpes is different from most STIs in that it is lifelong, but that doesn't make you an unfuckable pariah. it makes you someone who may sometimes have open sores, and should give partners a heads up about your virus to avoid putting anyone in the same situation you're in. while you're at it, let them know that most people with herpes live asymptomatic and uncomplicated lives. many people never even know they have it!

I understand that spending the rest of your life with a viral buddy doesn't sound super fun right now, but I promise that as viruses go you can do WAY worse.

personally I've always felt the best way to get comfortable with something is to learn more about it. why not let clinical sexologist Dr. Doe talk to you about her own herpes, and how to be conscientious about minimizing the risk of sharing herpes with others?

or listen to writer Ella Dawson talk about learning to cope with the exact stigma you're currently struggling with?

or listen to Dr. Sydnee Smirl McElroy explain why herpes bears such a heavy stigma for such a mild virus in the first place?

you're not a biohazard, and neither is anyone else with an STI. that's a terrible way to think about yourself and others.

you're under no obligation to stop being sexually active if you don't want to be.

please don't feel that you have to have sex with anyone out of a sense of obligation anymore, but also please don't feel that herpes is a punishment. sickness isn't something that happens to people because they're bad or deserve, sickness happens to people because people get sick.

take care 💜

[ethersierra]

thank you Justin McElroy for making a character that several people upon listening to her introduction immediately went oh yeah you will be insane about her. Because they are right

I looove Frankenstein. Like I'm obsessed with it.. such a fuckin good book and a cool concept overall. And Lady Godwin is such a funky character like there are these two conflicting parts of her, literally, being a dainty upperclass fancy woman who now has a body of a fighter... Like the internal conflict with her is so good ! And she has an internalized sexism view of bodies thing going on but it's also extremely homosexual and frankly I'm already obsessed with her.

[darlinghowl]

i wouldn’t normally thank the mcelroy brothers for a lot in regards to pretty much anything but in taz balance that moment when justin had taako keep up disguise self because he lost beauty and then taking that disguise off in front of kravitz was genuinely so inspired that my bff and i firmly believe mr king of vanity gale of waterdeep himself, love of my life and ultimate malewife, DEFINITELY cast disguise self before he left that tower to make it look like he has a six pack when he does, in fact, have a genuine grade a dad bod. i’m talking full fat full flavor chubby dad bod. it’s the only thing that makes sense

[blindmagdalena]

I thought of you when I watched https://youtu.be/mus69hIUypQ?si=UBV4w9y-L4xXG8l4 (relevant section starts circa 3:50 mark).

Did you know Antony Starr is “obsessed with Walton Goggins” since The Apostle (1997) and is fervently wishing Amazon would allow for the Ghoul to have a cameo on The Boys? 😂

oh my god he’s just like me 😭😂

this is the second time this week my worlds have collided in extremely unexpected ways (the mcelroy brothers started talking about the boys on their video games podcast??) and I don’t know why it catches me SO off guard every single time. as if actors and celebs can’t also watch and enjoy the other shows i do lmao

thank you for sharing i love this and i’m looking forward to the Prime cinematic universe now

[raspberrybluejeans]

for no real reason i was just pondering about which is my favorite PC each mcelroy has played in The Adventure Zone.

I can say immediately with pretty much no contest that Taako is my favorite Justin PC. I think you all know how mentally ill I was about Taako. I love Duck and the Firbolg and all the others but i am insane about Taako.

Also pretty much immediately I can say my favorite of Clint’s is Argo. I think Clint mentioned at some point that he put more work into Argo than any other character (this may have been before Ethersea so idk if it’s still true) but I think it shows so much. He was so interesting and I love him and I loved learning about his background and motivations and stuff.

I was a little more torn about Travis because I do love Magnus a lot, but in the end I decided I like Devo the most. I just wish we had gotten to delve into more details about his background and upbringing and stuff and I hope someday when they make the Ethersea sequel we can learn more about him because he is a very interesting character.

I was the most torn about Griffin because I love almost all of his PCs so much. The two other contenders I was really torn about was Errol and Montrose. I was so devastated he didn’t play Errol again in Dust II because I fucking love Errol. Montrose is also such a good character he’s such a freak. But in the end I decided on Fitzroy. My sweet cheese my rotten soldier. I love that stupid bitch

Thank you for coming to my ted talk

[utilitycaster]

You know, it always frustrates me when people refuse to branch out and try new TTRPGs, stubbornly clinging to things that bring them happiness, so I wanted to provide a little recommendation you might not have considered: D&D.

You might have heard of Dungeons and Dragons, or D&D as it's frequently called, from the 2023 movie, or, if you're a little more tuned in, Stranger Things, but it's been around since the 1970s! And if you haven't given it a go, it's worth checking out.

Obviously you’d be looking for alternatives to Pathfinder given past reports from employees that they had to unionize in order to get the company to follow basic OSHA regulations and repeated accusations of underpaying both staff and freelancers. Fear not! D&D 5e is an intuitive switch - Pathfinder 1e was originally based on an earlier edition of D&D, and the cast of Critical Role actually made this same switch, so it’s been done before! You’ll find most of the same classes, a large homebrew community, and similar combat mechanics - but much more streamlined. If you’ve been rolling your eyes at the near-infinite ability check range in Pathfinder 1e, or the fact that you need to look up twenty factors before assigning a difficulty class, or the need to burn an entire action to maintain spell concentration, D&D simplifies it. With a handful of exceptions for classes with expertise, and not including the possibility of bardic inspiration being used on an already successful roll, most checks will be below 35, and DCs can be created by the DM - which is just one of the many ways D&D prioritizes player agency, a phrase we understand the meaning of and care about deeply.

And now that bears are out of vogue due to their association with hard drugs thanks to Cocaine Bear, you might be looking for alternatives to your Honey Heist game. One of my favorite games is D&D, which has the bonus of being flexible enough for both one-session games, and something ongoing! Pre-created character sheets and modules are available for free, so it can be as low-prep or as involved as you want. If you’re missing the animal aspects, check out the druid class, or you could take a look at the blood hunter class by Matt Mercer (who you may know as Trinket from Trinket’s Honey Heist) if you’re interested in playing a creature who might lose control. The McElroys, known Honey Heist players, have actually run several D&D campaigns if you are looking to onboard. Also, let's be real: Honey Heist is overly simplistic - seriously, only one page? - and has dumb hats, and if you knew about the other options, you'd obviously not be playing it.

Speaking of the McElroys, I bet we have some Blades in the Dark and PbtA fans in the audience! If you find mixed success mechanics frustrating, want to be able to have larger-scale, higher-stakes battles without the risk of dying immediately, or are interested in a less regimented structure that is more setting-agnostic, as well as provides opportunities for the Game Master (called a Dungeon Master in D&D) to fail, D&D is worth a look! It's a fairly combat-heavy game and characters are built to be able to withstand some heavy hits, so a large battle won't bring the narrative to a halt as your characters struggle to find outlets for their unhealthy coping mechanisms in order to recover (though, of course, if you like that, the open RP and general ability check mechanisms make it easy to include)!

What's important, in the end, is to remember that the TTRPG you are currently enjoying is wrong, bad, and stupid. Choose the game I, an internet stranger who has made no effort to learn anything of your personal tastes, interests, and the needs of your table, has decided you should play. And remember: the most important thing is having fun.

[fizzigigsimmer]

To B With Love: The One With The Honey Moon

I had a lot of fun learning about 19th century San Francisco and thought folks might like to see where Steve & Billy spend their bonding retreat.

If that interests you at all, more beneath the cut.

(Cow Hollow 1870)

Bordering the marina district on the bay, Cow Hollow is still a neighborhood that exists in the city today, and parts of it can be seen in The Princess Diaries, which is irrelevant but dear to me.

When the first settlers arrived with the gold rush it was called Spring Valley, known for the numerous freshwater springs that fed into the fertile lagoon, as well as for grassy meadows and sand hills inhabited by wildlife. All those grassy meadows were great for farming, and the area came to be known as Cow Hollow after its many immigrants took to lucrative dairy farming. The price of milk was high in the city at that time and a local farmer could easily support a family on dairy production.

Cow Hollow (Chinese vegetable farm 1883)

Its main thoroughfare, was until the early 20th century an unpaved road which linked the developing city with the Presidio. As San Francisco rapidly expanded the area prospered and became a fashionable district for Prominent San Franciscans. They came and built their fancy houses and shops and businesses followed them. From about the 1860s to the late 1870s there were your standard gentrification tensions between the farmers and the fashionable set, which ended when the city banned cows in the area in the 1880s, effectively ending farming in the area for good.

Cow Hollow (The Attorney General's private estate ensconced by trees)

Perhaps in defiance people continued to call it Cow Hollow, and good on them for that.

This neighborhood makes a lot of sense to me as a place Steve's cousin would have picked to hide him, as it is "comfortable", but not as congested as the city proper as well as close to the bay if a quick retreat is needed by boat.

*Bonus view of the Golden Gate strait from the Crissy field shoreline 1870

The same view in 2015

The house Billy & Steve stay in is described as an octagon shaped cottage, with a cross gabled roof and wrap around porch. Octagon shaped houses were a hot fad for "forward thinking individuals" in the 19th century that started with this doctor who published a bunch of papers, detailing his research into the human body and how the enlightened individual could use their environment to live their best life. Apparently, the flow and function of the octagon shape was superior in his book. Anyway, thanks to him and the trend setters we now have a nice collection of historical houses with this quirky, not all that functional shape. There's a full list online but I'll just include a few that were built around the 1860s

(McElroy House - San Francisco)

(New Jersey: super cute but I can imagine the tiny, weirdly cornered rooms just by looking at it)

(San Francisco: some modern updates obviously but I love the roof work)

(Not sure where these are)

And the one I used a direct reference for Steve & Billy's little retreat.

I love the gables, the porch, just everything. I can picture it on a hill with a view down to the bay, and I loved the idea of them being able to just follow a road to the sea.

That was the first image that came to my mind when I was outlining - the boys hand in hand on their way to the beach. Disheveled, not quite 'done up' all the way but no one to see them if they did. Just being young and starry eyed for each other. Frankly they deserve it after all I put them through lol.

[boydykedevo]

i love him so much

Amber: Well, thanks— thanks for holding back, I guess. Devo: We do need to work on your public speaking, Zoox. Zoox: I guess, yeah. Well, we got you. You don't need— Devo: Yes, but I'm kind of, and I'm realizing now, a bit of a piece of shit. And, uh— Griffin: [wheeze-laughs] Devo: —people seem to like you a lot?

[hackedmotionsensors]

it just baffles me that I'm like the only one I see online with actual problems and I'll tell you what it is with this cookbook.

The people making CONTENT on the books (Julien...that themed cookbook guy) they're having fun bc

1) its a cute book ...as a BOOK

2)people are beholden to stardew valley bc they love the game. I love the game. And the recipes aren't bad per say. They seem fine. I'm going to the store in a bit to maybe buy some stuff for the veggie plates like autumn bounty.

But this isn't my first time at the stupid cook book rodeo. And I've had ACTUAL cookbooks before. I gave a bunch of them away when I moved down here bc I didn't need "how to cook japanese food" when Just One Cookbook exists online lmao

I used to have that thick tome but was also somehow super small of the betty crocker cookbook. And I use blue apron on and off whenever I have the extra cash. So I'm PRETTY FAMILIAR with cookbooks or reading recipe cards and its just....

The book has NO pictures of the food being ACTUALLY cooked. Its either before pages or after pages of like "Here's the rhubarb pie!" like that's cool. You wanna show me HOW I should be cutting the rhubarb? or what the crust looks like?? Or....ANYTHING AT ALL.

They use up valuable space in the book with spot illustrations and yeah there are a LOT of recipes but a lot of these recipes don't need a giant Junimo with a chef hat when the paragraph next to it has like 12 steps per paragraph and NO photo about the cooking process

and thats the main problem and Julien and that other youtuber BOTH said the same thing. There's TOO MUCH TEXT. And thats not inherently bad in a cookbook. But nothing is Bulleted or Numbered. And without photos its really easy to lose your spot.

Compared to both the smap cook book and sanji cookbook the steps are SHORT and precise and not overwhelming.

I even have the max fundrive cookbook and that has very few pictures but bc of the page limit and size of the book and the INTENT of the book (Its intended to be like..your mom or your bud is telling you how to cook something they know from memory). The steps are STILL bulleted(kinda) out even when parts are kind of long. But again bc THAT book is so small you're looking at maybe...three or four steps for NOT complex recipes. The McElroys have spaghetti as their recipe. Thats the kind of recipes you're looking at. Its very beginner friendly so it doesn't NEED a ton of photos.

Where the Stardew Valley cookbook has a lot of fish dishes, desserts (DESSERTS ESPECIALLY~!!!! NEED BULLETED STEPS!!!!), and vegetarian versions of non vegetarian foods (The Survival Burger...which has beans. Yuck)

So my main take away for a cookbook. Is if I, as an average cook, who lives alone, and has very little patience or attention span (thank you adhd).....if I look at your book and go....

I'll just go buy something.

ITS NOT A GOOD COOKBOOK.

Again i think the recipes are FINE as a whole. They're just.....terrible to read or even use practically. And I think that is mostly at fault of the design of the book itself.

Also the number one complaint for the PHOTOS is that the photo of the fucking pizza ISN'T.

COOKED.

The Pineapple Curry is a photo of an empty pineapple, curry powder, and some peppers.

NOT THE FINAL PRODUCT.

The Salmon Dinner is just salmon filets lmao

There's also a few pages in between that are just pictures of ingredients like you'd see on an Applebee's wall. Like??????

[overwatch]

I keep forgetting to make this post (you will chuckle in a second) but I've just recently been diagnosed with ADHD (pause for laughter).

It's really weird but extremely validating to have been diagnosed this late in life. Even now, telling family and friends, I'm hearing a lot of 'you're just forgetful', 'oh that's normal you don't have ADHD' (mickey mouse voice: my family most likely has ADHD too), and my favorite 'you just cry from frustration from being unable to focus on your job because you need to pay better attention'. So it's been a lonely process and I'd love to hear if anyone else has gone through the same thing? I am in the process of searching for medication... and idk how to do that or what that looks like for my future. So any advice would be very appreciated.

Also extra thanks to everyone who makes ADHD posts/jokes here and also Travis McElroy that slowly, but surely, made the topic pop up so much for me that it pushed me to do some research about it and seek a diagnosis.