i genuinely never heard a seal until now

the realization that you don't need to choose between "rich inner life" and "dumbass" is so freeing.

So, there's a lot of USians around who are very clearly fucking fed up with their political choices this election cycle, and planning to sit it out.

And I get it! What's the point of voting if there's no one to vote for?

The thing is, I'm Australian. In Australia, voting is compulsory. We don't get to sit out our elections, and I'll be real honest with you - we don't exactly get better choices than you lot. So how do you vote if there's no one to vote for? You find someone to vote against. And there's always someone to vote against.

Now, we have the pleasure of preferential voting in Australia - We get to rank every candidate from 1 to X, and I'll tell you, there's something so cathartic about putting the biggest bastard of the lot at the very bottom of your preferences. I understand that USians don't get that option - you get to mark one person, and that's it.

That means that you get one shot, so aim it at the biggest bastard of the lot. The candidate you most utterly detest. Put your vote in the worst possible place for them. Don't even think about who that vote's going towards, that's not the point. Remember, every vote is a vote against someone. Make sure you fuck up that someone's election day!

My coworker completely misreads our maintenance guy’s vibes… he sees a big fuzzy bearded dude who works outside and thinks he must be super macho, completely missing all the bisexual tabletop gamer coding in his mannerisms. So when maintenance guy and I greet each other like high camp theatre nerds with a series of bows and flourishes and made-up titles, coworker is SO visibly confused and thinks I must have trained him to do this.

yeah he is my thrall now. I clicker-trained him with football hamburger gun and now he rolls for initiative at my command.

C. 1930s,

Photograph of two women kissing captioned "Um-m! that kiss! Guess I still love you! Jus' can't help it!"

(via)

the whole mutual thing is really overhyped on this site. sometimes interests don’t match up and that’s the only reason why there isn’t a mutual following. if you’re a regular in my inbox or my notifications, i have visited your blog before. if i didn’t want you around for any reason, you would be blocked. so yeah. you can spam my notes and/or talk with me (and possibly become my friend) even if i’m not following you back. no worries.

This is very true. Like being a mutual is cool and all, but I enjoy people who just regularly Like or Reblog or Reply to my posts! I’m happy you’re here! I am very selective about which blogs I follow AND how many because otherwise it takes me too long to browse my dash and I compulsively want to see EVERYTHING on my dash, so it’s better for me to be choosy, and that’s not a reflection on anyone. I appreciate my friends who follow me even if I don’t follow them back!

the stars were beautiful, weren’t they?

The Lantern | Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds is a game best enjoyed without spoiling anything for yourself. The game relies on mental checkpoints, so once you know about something, there is no way of reliving the magic of finding it out via simply playing the game.

This piece of literature includes spoilers for the WHOLE main game (Outer Wilds) AND DLC (Echoes of the Eye). I am going to mention critical story points and I am going to touch on how to solve endgame puzzles.

If you are interested in space, please check out Outer Wilds. If you like puzzle games, please check out Outer Wilds. If you are interested in a more unconventional game, please check out Outer Wilds. I will not force you to, but I can only recommend playing Outer Wilds.

Eye of the Universe as a Reflection of the Inhabitants, Nomai, and Hearthians (Theory)

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR OUTER WILDS AND ITS DLC ECHOES OF THE EYE UP AHEAD. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Also it’s a long read. Be warned.

(Almost) feels like home

Art by Brynn Metheney

Shrinkflation

So, I found out a fun fact this last weekend!

Every state has a Department of Weights and Measures. One of their jobs is to make sure that companies are actually selling you the quantities they claim they're selling. For example, this is the department which tests gas pumps and makes sure they're really pumping out a gallon of gas when they charge you for a gallon of gas.

So....

If you happen to, just as an example, notice that your 1lb (16 ounce) box of San Giorgio spaghetti actually only has 10oz of noodles, and you weigh your other boxes of spaghetti to discover they run from 10 to 14 ounces but never the full pound they're supposed to have, and that's why you never seem to have enough pasta for leftovers the next day, then you can report that to the Department of Weights and Measures.

They will want to know where you bought the item, and then will investigate whether the store or the manufacturer is routinely shorting customers. If they do, they will issue a fine to the offending party, you will be eligible for a refund, and under some circumstances lawsuits may follow.

Now, I don't know the outcome of the complaint I just initiated, but they did not want to know specific receipts or times of purchase. Which is good for me as I didn't keep any of those things, at the time I just said "Wow, fuck San Giorgio" and switched brands. But this is still enough to get an inspector out.

This falls broadly under the umbrella of consumer protection services and tends to be housed in state agricultural departments. A search for "[state] weights and measures" will usually yield results but you can also look for your state's consumer protection webpages on USA.gov.

Also if you want to learn more about Shrinkflation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has a whole page devoted to it.

Bilbo barely passed Old Took's record lifespan after having a supernaturally-life-extending ring for 60 years. which begs a question. what the hell did Old Took do

I have a theory that somewhere back up the line gandalf fucked a took. This sounds like complete crack but hear me out. The tooks are rumored to have “fairy blood” which in LOTR terms means either elves or maia. There is an ancestor who’s unusually tall and many of them are noted to live unusually long lives unless they meet with illness or injury, same as the numenorians did. They don’t hve extra pointy ears and elves don’t have a special interest in the line. But who DOES have a special interest in looking after tooks (and bilbo who is a took on his mother’s side/his adopted son frodo)? Gandalf. That dude is ALWAYS fussing over some silly little guy. He regularly brought the old took birthday presents.

Back in the day some bold hobbitess decided to climb that old man and ever since then gandalf has been looking after his line of tiny crazy bastards and no one will convince me otherwise.

Do you know this queer character?

Castiel is Queer and Agender or Genderfluid, and uses varying pronouns based on presentation!