Guitarsophist

@catmisgivings@stranger.social @futurebird@sauropods.win The actual Arc de Triumph is a bit weird too. It has all the cities in Spain that Napoleon conquered displayed on it, but Wellington took them all back. So it's more of an Arc of Temporary Triumph, which is the way of the world and so it goes. Seeing as that is the way it is, cardboard is perhaps the ideal material for such arcs so that they do not become embarrassing. Ozymandias comes to mind.

@VisualInspiration@mas.to In a hut in the forest, there lived a witch. In this forest? Yes, about a mile away. The hut was very old, dreary and drab, and the roof leaked. Did the witch eat children? I don't want to be eaten! No, Jimmy, she was not that kind of witch. As witches go, she was a rather nice one. Her sister in Campligonia got sick and she went away to take care of her. She never came back. But she had a broomstick didn't she? She could come back anytime and eat us! As I said, she's not that kind of witch. Anyway, the story is not really about the witch. It's not? No it's about the creature. The creature? Why didn't you say so? You keep interrupting. Anyway, an old forester came upon the hut and found that a bear had broken in. Squirrels were making nests on the ingredient shelves. The forester was worried that the ingredients were dangerous--eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog, that sort of thing--and the squirrels were getting them all mixed together, so he buried them all in a hole and covered them up. What about the creature? I'm getting to that. Most people don't know it, but underground, there is a lot of fungus, a network of tendrils, all connected together for miles and miles. Is that the creature? Not quite. The fungus extended itself into the hole with all the magical ingredients. Uh oh! And then the weather turned cold and it rained and thundered. Lightening struck the hut and it burned to the ground. Some potions that were under the floorboards became mixed with the rainwater and flowed into the hole. All this magical stuff mixed together with the fungus. And then, in the morning, a crow that the witch had taught to say some spells perched on a tree and said exactly the wrong spell. And the creature came out of the hole? No. The creature is everywhere. Tendrils of fungus push up out of the ground and assimilate you. That is how I, Scoutmaster Scott, became part of the creature. Look at your feet. Do you see the tendrils? They wiggle a bit. Ahhhhh!

@courtcan@mastodon.social And the argument that "Iran must not have a nuclear weapon" fails to account for the fact that the withdrawal of the U.S. nuclear umbrella from Asia and from Europe will inspire many other countries, including Japan, South Korea, and probably Ukraine, to develop their own. If wars of conquest become the norm again, everyone will think they need a nuke. "Iran must not have a nuke" is just a slogan that ignores the collapse of the world order that this regime has set in motion and the consequences thereof.

@futurebird@sauropods.win I made the first website that Cal State L.A. ever had. I learned html and wrote it in Notepad. Of course it was entirely static. All it had was the location, phone number, and operating hours of the new Writing Center I was running. Probably no one ever saw it because no one was on the web. You had to have Netscape to see it and no one had it. The IT people were no help at all. They said, "If you had told us a year ago that people would want to put up webpages, we would have told you you were crazy." I said, "OK, but this is now, and I want to do this." Ah, those were the days of promise and possibility. Then it all turned stupid.

@jztusk@mastodon.social Probably took the plums in the refrigerator too.

@inthehands@hachyderm.io We are still digging up ancient Sumerian receipts stored in cuneiform on baked clay.

@VisualInspiration@mas.to After I got the pointy ears, everyone thought I was cosplaying a Vulcan or an elf. What was I thinking? I got mocked on Dark Tok and felt like a wimp. When I looked in the mirror, I saw a loser. Me! A loser! So I got the horns. I wanted to look devilishly evil and sublimely sophisticated. They didn't warn me about the headaches. Migraines aren't even comparable. The other thing they didn't tell me was that these are transplanted sheep horns and they are messing with my mind. I have cravings for clover. I want to eat grass. I am a vegan. Is the Devil a vegan? I don't think so. I got the black suit and the shoes with lifts to make me taller, but I am not getting invited anywhere. No one is impressed. I am down to 25 followers on Dark Tok and I think they are all bots. The suit is getting shiny on the knees because I keep going down on all fours. I am posturing an inner sheep nature I did not know I had. Bah! On Dark Tok they call me "Sheep Man." When I enter the chat they say "Bah, bah, bah." So tonight I think I will take a walk in the park. There is lots of grass there. No, I don't get down on all fours and graze. You can get arrested for that. I just pull out handfuls and munch on it when no one is looking. It helps with the headaches.

@futurebird@sauropods.win This reminds me of the story about scientists who were studying octopus behavior and found that the supply of octopus treats was mysteriously diminishing. They put up a surveillance camera and found that the octopus was climbing out of its tank at night and raiding the treats. The octopus also pled not guilty.

@futurebird@sauropods.win The Chicago World's Fair didn't have a cardboard Arc de Trump though.

@DM_Ronin@mstdn.social Knives are dangerous you know. It is good to know their whereabouts. And I am sure that when you turn it on, you have to listen to all the rules of safe knife use, along with all of the caveats from the company about not being responsible for unauthorized surgeries, murders, inexpert chicken dismembering, and missing human digits.

@MaryAustinBooks@mstdn.social I am an American so I am puzzled. Would they let a Dalek in?

@cmconseils@mastodon.social What they really meant was that they were getting rid of the aristocracy, but they didn't quite manage that either.

@VisualInspiration@mas.to So it turned out that sentient mammals were not as dumb as they pretended to be. The human stewardship of the planet was going so awry that they finally had to step in to avoid the total collapse of all ecosystems. The first to act were the coyotes, who out of necessity had infiltrated urban environments and knew human behavior well. First they recruited the dogs to the cause. They said, "Give up your loyalty to humans, or we will hunt and eat you. Join the sentient mammal pact." The working dogs and hunting dogs quickly agreed. The little fluffy dogs said "What? We've got a good deal here." Most were eaten. Cats were a different story. They said, "Our arrangements with humans were always transactional. We allowed ourselves to be petted as long as they fed us and gave us cat treats. What have you got for us?" Most cats ended up in trees and high places where coyotes couldn't climb. Some made deals and opened doors that coyotes couldn't open. At sea, orcas began attacking boats, usually by removing the rudder. Seals and sea lions attacked any human they found near the water. Humans defended themselves with guns and other weapons, but their homes and businesses were neutralized by rats, who cut wires and dismantled electronics. Eventually, the few remaining humans were reduced to a hunter-gatherer existence in newly resilient forest environments. The liberated mammals occupied human cities and structures, and took over many human institutions. They had learned from human ingenuity. But they never, ever, considered burning fossil fuels. Gradually, the Earth returned to a pristine state. And what about monkeys, apes, and other primates? They were allowed to live, but carefully watched. No one wanted them to evolve into another monster.

@catmisgivings@stranger.social @futurebird@sauropods.win We might also think of the Stonehenge monument in Spinal Tap, which was supposed to be 16 feet tall, but due to a mistake on the napkin upon which it was drawn, was only 16 inches tall when delivered and was in danger of being squashed on stage by a dwarf. Such things happen when the planners of the event are less than adept about details.

@Teri_Kanefield@mastodon.social Perhaps he will fire Hegseth and blame it all on him. He doesn't really care what happens to the country or the world as long as bad stuff is not his fault.

@MissConstrue@mefi.social But it is actually Gollum who destroys the ring. Middle-earth works in mysterious ways.

@newtraditionalists@mastodon.social @readit@mastodon.social @bookstodon@fedigroups.social It is not AI. John Hollander has a long career that goes back way before AI. The speaker is a cat. Cats are not known for sequitur. I like it.

@Alternatecelt@mastodon.scot But it has the harpy Celeano in it. Real harpies are rare in fantasy. When the harpy gets loose, the unicorn advises, "Never run from anything immortal." I try to keep that in mind.

@SrRochardBunson @courtcan I think it was shortly after I joined Mastodon, so late 2022, early 2023?

@SrRochardBunson@universeodon.com @courtcan@mastodon.social Yeah, I was part of that.

@cstross@wandering.shop It's like Godzilla versus Ghidorah!

@futurebird@sauropods.win Was the alien insectoid? One wonders. Also, this story set me off to wondering about the political implications of a joy detector. Imagine what awful things an authoritarian regime could do with that. "Citizen! Why are you not deliriously happy in the brave new world that Dear Leader has provided for you?" Or the contrary, "Citizen! You are suspiciously joyful in the midst of your poverty and squalor. What thought-crime are you committing to be in this state?" OK, I'll go back to thinking blissfully about the happy ant. It's a good story.

@futurebird I'm sure it's because Pica ate the letter.

@evaknoet@spore.social @susankayequinn@wandering.shop So "wrAIters" and "AIthors"?

@newtraditionalists@mastodon.social @readit@mastodon.social @bookstodon@fedigroups.social I think it does everything it sets out to do. Are you talking about the minor grammatical inconsistencies? It does have a bit of the "I can has cheeseburger" meme to it, but I think that's fine. It is not trying to be T.S. Eliot. I think "actively bad" is harsh. It's amusing. I think I'll show it to my students to see what they think.

@cstross@wandering.shop The Bond villains are very uncool though. Lame as a one-legged duck and twice as unloved. There's that.

@futurebird Perhaps Pica should run for office.

@RLRVivaldi@social.vivaldi.net I used to be a big Murakami fan, but the reviews of this one made it seem like a sort of pastiche of other novels, especially Hard-boiled Wonderland. Is it better than that?

@blogdiva@mastodon.social I think the correct response to all that cat rhetoric is "I already fed you an hour ago."

@futurebird@sauropods.win That looks like a judgemental cat. The kind that thinks, "Why do I even bother to live here? These humans are incompetent servants. They are untrainable!"

@DoctorDeathray@retro.social Hmm, I'd ask this question over on TDPRI.com. That is an old-fashioned Telecaster discussion board with a lot of very knowledgeable folks, some of whom build Teles from scratch. My own first thought was to wonder what kind of pots you have in the guitar. Teles with single coil pickups using come with 250K tone and volume pots, which tame the inherent brightness. Humbucking equipped guitars usually have 500K pots that let more brightness through. When you have both a single coil and a humbucker in the same guitar, it is a more complicated decision. The right pots for one pickup are wrong for the other, so the wiring needs to be more complicated. I had an Xavier Tele once that had mini-hum in the neck and a single coil in the bridge. The bridge pickup was pure ice pick in the ears. I ended up taking that out and putting in a dual rail humbucking pickup in the bridge position and it balanced everything out.

@cstross I think she is depth charging Mr. TACO's underwater presidency.

@SrRochardBunson@universeodon.com Wouldn't it be better not to? It would make more of them.

@sifaseven@mastodon.social This one is nice but the last two lines are too ordinary, in my view.

@LillyHerself@mastodon.social It's not Ukraine's fault though.

@ratika@scicomm.xyz I think it has always been something like this. I think I read in a Malcolm Cowley book about the Lost Generation writers (so in the 1910's and '20's) that they would get a stack of new books to review and hurry to read enough of each book to write a review so that they could sell them to buy dinner.

@spaf@mstdn.social In another dimension, this book is entitled _Practical Magic and the Defense of the Realm_." I am sure of it!

@Daojoan@mastodon.social Well, maybe we are the ore or the nuggets. The platform is the mine.

@gknauss@mastodon.social Especially Karoline Leavitt. She is SO good at explaining his lies with more lies. And when a reporter asks a cogent but awkward question, she's got just the right preposterous lie right at hand, which she tells without noticeable cringing or embarrassment. Quite a performance, day after day. Never misses a beat. Very amusing.

Writing an ERWC-Style Module: Choosing Texts I have written four ERWC modules and substantially revised several more. Most of my own modules turned out to be about full-length works, including Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, George Orwell’s 1984, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Writing a module around a novel is an interesting, complex, and time-consuming task. I will take that up later. http://textrhet.com/2015/01/24/writing-an-erwc-style-module-choosing-texts/

@cstross@wandering.shop @Menhit@mstdn.strafpla.net Does Menhit like cream cheese? I also had a calico who was rather doglike in behavior and she was absolutely nuts about cream cheese.

@dangillmor@mastodon.social Podcasts have become an important independent news source as traditional media outlets have become suspect as they self-censor in fear of the regime. It is hard to avoid them. I think that the internet will need to be reinvented. The existing internet will just become bots talking to bots. Mastodon is sort of a start in this better direction.

@georgetakei@universeodon.com Vance seems to be deficient in irony detection and has no clue about how his words and actions affect other people, which I think is the classic definition of a jerk. The first time I saw him was in a campaign ad where he was trying to buy doughnuts and look like a man of the people and failing at both. It's been all downhill from there.

@Tock@corteximplant.com @inky @aburka@hachyderm.io This seems like a god explanation: https://www.fosslinux.com/160593/debian-votes-to-allow-ai-what-the-new-policy-actually-means.htm

@newsguyusa@flipboard.social Perhaps the motto should read, "What, me worry?"

@cstross@wandering.shop The Earth IS a clock! All these mechanical and electronic timekeeping devices are just superfluous social engineering.

@ana@starlite.rodeo So once AI and robots take all of our jobs and we don't have any money to buy the stuff that the AI and robots make, will they have to give us money to buy their stuff?

@samlitzinger@journa.host "Philosophical Woo" would be a good band name. Eventually it would get shortened to "The Woo."

@MennoWolff@ohai.social We have the shitty miniature one now, but he wants to build a real one that is, of course, even bigger than the original. He wants to build monuments to himself all over DC, plus put himself on Mt. Rushmore. I don't think we are overthinking this. @gbsills@social.vivaldi.net @futurebird@sauropods.win @robinadams@mathstodon.xyz