My dad was dealing with some mixed feelings so I told him "In therapy when something is too complicated to do a simple 'pro and contra list' we sometimes do an excercise where you imagine all these mixed feelings around a table in some kind of conference, letting each tell their bit and you leading the debate."

and my dad didn't really respond and just stared ahead so I kept preparing lunch. Until a few minutes later when he suddenly piped up: "I am having a bad time at the conference"

I too am having a bad time at the conference

Reblog if you too are having a bad time at the conference

petition to tar and feather all publishers who do not print the series number on the front cover (or AT LEAST THE SIDE) of their books

i feel like we as a digital society have forgotten the important rules of the internet

How an obscure advisory board lets utilities steal $50b/year from ratepayers

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in NYC on WEDNESDAY (26 Feb) with JOHN HODGMAN and at PENN STATE on THURSDAY (Feb 27). More tour dates here. Mail-order signed copies from LA's Diesel Books.

Two figures to ponder.

First: if your local power company is privately owned, you've seen energy rate hikes at 49% above inflation over the last three years.

Second: if your local power company is publicly owned, you've seen energy rates go up at 44% below inflation over the same period.

Power is that much-theorized economic marvel: a "natural monopoly." Once someone has gone to the trouble of bringing a power wire to your house, it's almost impossible to convince anyone else to invest in bringing a competing wire to your electrical service mast. For this reason, most people in the world get their energy from a publicly owned utility, and the rates reflect social priorities as well as cost-recovery. For example, basic power to run lights and a refrigerator might be steeply discounted, while energy-gobbling McMansions pay a substantial premium for the extra power to heat and cool their ostentatious lawyer-foyers and "great rooms."

But in America, we believe in the miracle of the market, even where no market could possibly exist because of natural monopolies. That's why about 70% of Americans get their power from shareholder-owned companies, whose managers' prime directive is extracting profit, not serving their communities. To check this impulse, these private utilities are overseen by various flavors of public bodies, usually called Public Utility Commissions (PUCs).

For 40 years, PUCs have limited private utilities to a "rate of return" based on a "just and reasonable profit." But in recent years, the "experts" who advise PUCs on rate-setting have been boiled down to a tiny number of economists, who have discovered that the true "just and reasonable profit" is much higher than it's ever been considered.

Mark Ellis was one of those profit-hiking "experts," but he's turned whistleblower. On paper, Ellis looks like the enemy: former chief economist at Sempra Energy, an ex-Exxonmobile analyst, a retied McKinsey Consultant, and a Socal Edison engineer. But Ellis couldn't stomach the corruption, and he went public, publishing a report for the American Economic Liberties Project called "Rate of Return Equals Cost of Capital" that lays out the con in stark detail:

https://www.economicliberties.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/20250102-aelp-ror-v5.pdf

I don’t post thirst traps on social media. I do, however, post the occasional photo of an elaborate meal I cooked. While this might not seem as sexy as showing off my abs (existent but hidden by years of eating pretzel chips), the food photos do point to some modicum of stability, focus, a need for novelty and pleasure, and of course, a commitment to the domestic life. If I’m in my kitchen cooking dinner for my wife, I’m not out boozing with strangers. I’m at home, transfixed by the Hexclad wok we got for Christmas, a pan so nonstick I nearly sling food on myself every time I stir something in it, making me rethink centripetal force experiments from Physics class and all the summers as a kid I felt my body go around the curve of a water slide at the Rocky River public pool and swore I was about to be flung over the edge and onto the concrete below.

My intense fascination with a brand recommended by attractive celebrity chefs might also add to the fantasy that my culinary endeavors are sexy. A man knowing what equipment works best in the kitchen is a replacement for a previous generation’s obsession: tinkering with cars. Imagine how similar it is to see a man wiping grease off his hands after fiddling with a dipstick versus wiping grease off his hands after tasting a sauce with his fingers. I think this image makes my case. All that to say: I cook a lot and like to show it off for the positive feedback I receive. The Instagram hearts, the drooling emojis, the digital applause all do more for my pleasure centers than the taste of the food.

Read whole essay here!

Did everyone somehow just forget that Russia was the one who started the war on Ukraine? That Russia invaded Ukraine apropos of nothing, and has been doing everything it can to steal what it can and destroy what it can't? That Ukrainian kids are being stolen by Russia for russification? That Russia is actively trying to suppress Ukrainian language, culture, and national identity? That Ukraine is just defending itself and is literally just asking for Russia to fuck off and leave them alone? Did everyone just forget that??

Like I'm the nuance guy, and folks: there's no nuance here. There is no justification for this invasion. There is a clear aggressor and a clear victim. This is about as clear cut as it gets.

Russia started the damn war, and now wants it to end and is negotiating with the US (not Ukraine??) to get there. This is literally just wrapping up Ukrainian surrender to Russian imperialism in a pretty bow and calling it "peace."

I feel like I'm losing my mind.

literally I remember the day it started and I was like "...the fuck? he just invaded them apropos of nothing! is it 1759 in here?!"

and so was everyone else on the Internet

even Zelenskyy was like "um? why? I literally go watch football in Russia and then we all get beers afterwards in Ukraine?"

seeing it get twisted around is some We Have Always Been At War With Eastasia bullshit

poster for your poster needs (grossly oversimplified but i'm going for broad strokes not intensive academic rigor)

free to use, repost & reproduce, no credit necessary

reblog to send three ghosts after elon musk

#each rb is an additional three ghosts right

The three ghosts:

Hello internet user whose entire concept of feminism comes from tiktok. In front of you are three ancient myths about women. You have five minutes to figure out which one of them was made up in the 1970s. If you choose wrong, you will be ripped to pieces by Maenads.

Okay since everyone wants the test, instead of giving you three myths here’s several myths. One of them is a real Greek myth with sources of it from ancient times and the rest of them are fake. One of the misconceptions was specifically invented in the 70s.

1. In every version of the myth, Medusa is born a human and Athena turns her into a monster

2. Hestia, goddess of the hearth and family, willingly gave up her place as the 12th Olympian to make room for Dionysus

3. Persephone chose Hades and wandered into the underworld of her own free will

4. Pandora didn’t know what was in her jar and unleashed evils on humanity by accident

5. During the voyage of the Argonauts the huntress Atalanta beat the hero Peleus the father of Achilles in a wrestling match

6. King Midas of Phrygia decided to give up his golden touch after turning his daughter to gold

7. Aphrodite was widely worshipped as a war goddess in Greece

lmao I promise you that only one of these is real.

Hiding the answers under a cut in case you wanna guess on your own.

Explanations for all of them, again under a cut.

Guys this post isn't about neo-pagans and a lot of you are reading this as me hating new retellings or something. I have nothing against any of these stories. I just get frustrated when people "well actually" me about the "original" version of a myth when they have no sources for what they're saying. These stories not being exactly the way you thought they were doesn't have to mean anything. It's fine.

Re-writing/re-interacting/re-interpreting/relying on new gnosis/etc for your own relationship with your gods or with the stories that you inherited (willing or not) from the culture that you grew up in: totally fine! Literally done by every culture and group of people with their own stories since the beginning of time!

Misrepresenting what other people actually believed in historical periods: Misinformation at best and fucking lying at worst, because that's history involving actual people.

In terms of actual history, we can only argue based on what we actually find evidence of. Because those were real people, not imaginary constructs we get to move around to justify our current desires.* And that's a shitty thing to do to real people; they are not dolls.

*yes, yes, this has actually been what people have done with history/etc for a very long time: it's a bad habit and a thing we want to stop doing, and while careful actual study of evidence may not ever give us perfect truth, it does at least mean that the range of possibilities remains within the realms of fucking reality.

I cannot stand the parodies of modern major general, they're overdone and simply not as good as the original. They've done them about everything, whatever topic, big or small.

And when i notice one of them my eyes will always start to roll.

The diction's always slurry when they rush the complicated words, and adding many fricatives will turn it so cacophonous. The slanted rhymes are silly and they keep just making more and more, please someone stop the parodies of modern major general.

The scanning of the lyrics in the meter is unbearable, they emphazise the syllables in ways that are untenable, in short in matters musical, prosodic and ephemeral, i cannot stand the parodies of modern major general!

I think this picture of my gf helping fix my car should be in the MoMa

I got to marry my wife, and our pupper was our flower girl. 2.5 years ago this wasn’t possible, as it wasn’t legal in Australia. It rained our whole wedding day, but was so worth it in the end with our phenomenal photographer.

op this looks absolutely magical

I forgot homophobia was a thing and i spent about 5 seconds wondering why it was ever illegal to have a dog as a flower girl

“Are you the witch who turned eleven princes into swans?”

The old woman stared at the figure on the front step of her cottage and considered her options. It was the kind of question usually backed up by a mob with meaningful torches, and the kind of question she tried to avoid.

Coming from a single dusty, tired housewife, it should’ve held no terrors.

“You a cop?”

The housewife twisted the hem of her apron. “No,” she muttered. “I’m a swan.”

A raven croaked somewhere in the woods. Wind whispered in the autumn leaves.

Then: “I think I can guess,” the old woman said slowly. “Husband stole your swan skin and forced you to marry him?”

A nod.

“And you can’t turn back into a swan until you find your skin again.”

A nod.

“But I reckon he’s hidden it, or burned it, or keeps it locked up so you can’t touch it.”

A tiny, miserable nod.

“And then you hear that old Granny Rothbart who lives out in the woods is really a batty old witch whose father taught her how to turn princes into swans,” the old woman sighed. “And you think, ‘Hey, stuff the old skin, I can just turn into a swan again this way.’

“But even if that was true – which I haven’t said if it is or if it isn’t – I’d say that I can only do it to make people miserable. I’m an awful person. I can’t do it out of the goodness of my heart. I have no goodness. I can’t use magic to make you feel better. I only wish I could.”

Another pause. “If I was a witch,” she added.

The housewife chewed the inside of her cheek. Then she drew herself up and, for the first time, looked the old woman in the eyes.

“Can you do it to make my husband miserable?”

The old woman considered her options. Then she pulled the wand out from the umbrella stand by the door. It was long, and silver, and a tiny glass swan with open wings stood perched on the tip.

“I can work with that,” said the witch.

things that made me stop wanting to die that require no effort whatsoever

Almost all of these are about variety. Humans need stimulation! We need enrichment! We literally cannot do the same thing every day!

The other day I was feeling miserable, so I hopped on a bus and rode it all the way back to where I’d started, and my brain, which had finally had some proper stimulation via new environments, was suddenly ready to go again!

This is why taking walks/drives and trying new hobbies are good for you! Don’t turn yourself into a sad zoo animal! You need some pumpkins to roll around in your enclosure!

ITS BACK!!!!!

god i fucking love the quote “dont turn yourself into a sad zoo animal” it has really inspired me!

For most of my life I would have said library, but now I have a hard time holding physical books, so my library is an e-rider with a stand. Now, Craft Room wins.