Hgskl. This is such a delightful mental image. I’m absolutely living for the skeleton. I need someone to draw that for me.
I’m already sketching the R2D2 thing @thebibliosphere so I may as well do the skeleton flag.
A hero emerges.
Alrighty then. *rolls up sleeves* @thebibliosphere you seem like the kind of person who would prefer grapefruit spoons, if only because they too have teeth.
Also sparkly bones, because I just got more metallic acrylic reasons.
Lemme know if anything else comes to mind, k?
[image description: a skull and half a rib cage drawn on watercolor paper /end ID]
Oye @thebibliosphere and @kori-monster-the-ascendite! Y’all are gonna get your flag, but I need maybe an occasional poke? ^^’ Brain is foggy, and I don’t wanna forget to finish.
“With around 400,000 federal employees currently
furloughed, more than 80 TLS certificates used by .gov websites have so
far expired without being renewed.”
Federal workers went without their paychecks Friday, as Trump’s
shutdown of the U.S. government continues for 21 days and counting. With
no end in sight, concerns are rising that dozens of U.S. government
websites have become insecure or completely unreachable, as their
transport layer security (TLS) certificates expire.
Sites like NASA, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Court of Appeals are affected.
Funding to renew the certificates is on hold while the shutdown continues.
Any of the government websites with an expired cert becomes newly
vulnerable to any number of internet-based assaults, including man-in
the-middle (MITM) attacks that enable third-party bad guys to intercept
what passes between an internet user and a web application on the
affected site. Bad guys can eavesdrop on traffic, assume the identity
of the government website, and siphon off data input by the user.
What kind of data? Maybe your name, your social security or tax ID
number, a whole lot of people are going to be poking around on IRS dot
gov this month. This could get bad.
Unlike Link & Ganon or Mario & Bowser, Ridley and Samus have one very clear storyline.
And they hate each other.
A playful and friendly child, Samus Aran lived with her parents on a colony until it was attacked by Space Pirates led by Ridley. The Chozo, a race of bird-like aliens, arrived too late to stop the colony’s massacre, and took in Samus, the only survivor.
Takeaway: Ridley killed Samus’ parents and destroyed her home.
Samus’ upbringing was placed in the hands (talons?) of two of the Chozo, Old Bird and Gray Voice. To make sure that Samus could survive on the Chozo homeworld of Zebes, Gray Voice spliced some of his genes into Samus’ DNA, making her part-Chozo.
When Samus was only a teenager, the Chozo were betrayed by their supercomputer, Mother Brain. Mother Brain summoned Ridley’s Space Pirates to Zebes, lowering the planet’s defenses in return for the Space Pirates’ allegiance.
Samus was only able to escape the Space Pirate siege because Gray Voice sacrificed himself to get her off Zebes.
Takeaway: Ridley killed Samus’ adopted parent, and destroyed her home AGAIN.
Years later, Samus returned to Zebes as a seasoned warrior. Ridley and Mother Brain were trying to harness the power of Metroids – strange creatures created by the Chozo to be an ultimate weapon against the deadliest creatures in the galaxy. Samus triumphed.
Takeaway: Samus blew up the Space Pirate base, blew up the Ridley’s flagship, blew up Mother Brain, blew up Ridley, and blew up a robot copy Ridley had made of himself.
What was left of Ridley was recovered by surviving space pirates, who turned him into a cybernetic monstrosity. Although Ridley never speaks in games, logs written by Space Pirates indicated that he was brilliant, cunning, and cruel, with a sadistic sense of humor. He fought Samus several times while trying to obtain a powerful substance called Phazon, and eventually fought her with a Phazon-enhanced body. Samus triumphed.
Takeaway: Samus blew up Ridley again and again, regardless of what he did to enhance his body.
When trying to eliminate the threat of Metroids once and for all by wiping out a planet infested with them, Samus came across a newly-hatched “baby” Metroid that imprinted upon her as if she was its mother. Feeling compassion, she spared it… and then Ridley tried to kidnap it, but was stopped by Samus.
And then, as soon as she let down her guard, Ridley returned and kidnapped the baby Metroid. He took it back to Zebes, where Mother Brain had been repaired. Samus was able to defeat them again, but the baby Metroid was killed in the battle, sacrificing itself to save Samus. Samus destroyed Zebes.
Takeaway: Ridley kidnapped a baby Metroid that saw Samus as its mother, leading to its death. Samus blew up Ridley again, and then blew up the entire planet he was on.
(Summary: Ridley killed Samus family, then destroyed her adopted family, laid waste to every home she’s ever known, and kidnapped an alien child that viewed Samus as it’s mother, causing it’s death. Samus has blown him up countless times, even blowing up an entire planet with him on it.)
Ridley finally showed up in Smash.
Takeaway:
this is literally just a callout post
Don’t forget it’s canon that she developed PTSD from her first encounter with Ridley, and it’s only specifically tied to Ridley (no other Space Pirate has caused her to have a panic attack). She has a severe panic attack when she meets him for the second time, and is only able to push through it with the help of the Chozos comforting and protecting her.
It happens in volume 2 of the manga (that was only released in Japan) right here,starting from chapter 8, if you want to see it.
If y’all count Other M as part of the canon, she has a slight relapse when Clone Ridley attacks (likely having dropped her guard thinking Ridley was dead for good after their battle in Super Metroid).
Takeaway: The traumatic event that took place during Samus’ childhood–Ridley attacking and killing her colony, even killing and eating her parents in front of her–gave her PTSD, and at least twice in-canon events she suffers from a panic attack when she’s face-to-face with Ridley, and ONLY RIDLEY causes this.
Can someone explain what’s happening besides someone being reborn?
In the first comic, which is from the Warrior’s point of view, the Warrior has defeated the Monster, who jeers that there will always be another Monster to fight. The Monster dissolves into mist, leaving another tiny, baby Monster in its place. The Warrior picks up this helpless new baby Monster and carries it away. They will try again and do better this time.
In the second comic, which is from the Monster’s point of view, the Monster says that this has to happen; it can’t come with the Warrior, and there will always be another. It tells the Warrior to use what they have learned to fight. It wants to die knowing that the Warrior has hope for the future. It dissolves into mist, and the exhausted Warrior collapses. The new baby Monster comes and brings the Warrior some water in a leaf. Because we are reading this in the Monster’s voice, we realize that it is a new Monster, but also somehow, magically, the same. We also see that the Monster is not inherently evil. It is only very strong, and inevitable.
The third comic is a dialogue between the Monster and the Warrior. The Warrior is exhausted and horrifically wounded. The Monster is also horribly maimed. They are both dying. The Warrior doesn’t want to fight anymore. The Monster tells them to rest and heal. The Warrior hands over their amulet, and we see the Monster’s paw become a hand just before they both dissolve into mist. It clears, revealing that the Monster has turned into a beautiful humanoid, who says they will take care of the new baby monster the Warrior has turned into. The two have changed roles. The Warrior takes up the former Warrior’s gear and strides into the new year with the new baby Monster riding on their shoulders.
It is a beautiful, ruthless, hopeful metaphor about keeping up the good fight, year after year, even when we are worn down, and how we can still face the new year with hope and light, no matter how painful the last one was, and how it is okay to rest if we can’t fight.
Found a very sweet, very stinky dog that now won’t leave my side.
I think you might be her new family…
I wish. She’s well-fed, affectionate, and trained, so somebody is surely missing her.
Baby. A horrendously smelly baby. If we can’t find her owners, we’ve got some potential takers among our friends. Last option is a special pitt bull rescue center – or, if my dad continues to melt over her and bring her scraps of turkey, maybe our home.
more updates please
We’re currently attempting to lure her inside with trails of turkey breast. We don’t want to put her into a car to take her to the vet until she smells less like Death.
Well, she’s inside, and my mom says I can’t call her “Lore” because we already have a dog named after a 90’s TV show character. She wants to name her “Tesla” because she likes Doc Brown’s tradition of naming dogs after scientists, but I don’t want to face future discourse about it.
The Dog has had a bath and took it very gracefully. She’s been incredibly shy since she came inside, but now that she’s (mostly) destinkified, she seems a hundred times bolder and more trusting and is curiously exploring the house.
She seems to absolutely adore other dogs, but Scully has been pissy lately, so we’re keeping them apart. She has a limp that I’m worried about, but her facial lacerations appears to be healing well and she allows herself to be lifted calmly.
We’re waiting to hear back from the owner listed on her microchip. We found her almost five miles from her home address, which doesn’t rule out the possibility of being dumped. If her owners don’t want her, we’ll find her a good home.
In the meantime…
Is there an update? How old is this?? Is she ok??
She’s currently at the clinic with my mom getting vaccinated. Still no response from her owners. She slept next to my bed last night and snored the entire goddamn time.
Day 12: I’ve almost given up hope of hearing back from the owners. As of tomorrow, she’ll have been in our care and long enough for the humane society to consider her abandoned and allow for her legal adoption to a new home. She’s going to spend tomorrow night with a local couple to see how she gets along with their old labrador – if it’s successful, they’ll adopt her once their vacation is over.
In the meantime, I have taught her to provide what I am told counts as “deep pressure therapy”, and she has become a much happier, more confident, and far less stinky dog than she was two weeks ago. Her laceration has healed nicely and her limp has vanished.
In four days, federal employees will suffer their first missed paycheck
since Trump’s border wall shutdown; it’s hard to say who will be worst
hit: the employees who are furloughed will never see that money (but who
may have been able to pick up some other work while they were off the
job to cover their bills); or the “essential” federal employees who’ve
had to show up for work every day without pay, but who will, someday,
get a paycheck to cover their forced labor.
In the latter group are 51,739 TSA “officers” (TSA screeners aren’t
cops, but they’ve adopted the “officer” honorific in a bid to secure
flyers’ obedience while they confiscate their apple-pie filling). Since
the shut-down began, TSA officials have insisted that screeners were not
staging “sick outs” (for example, to avoid daycare expenses by staying
home with their kids) and that the extra waiting time that passengers
were suffering through (53 minutes in Laguardia!) was the result of
heavier than usual travel.
But after Friday, TSA screeners will have to decide whether they want to
stay on the job without pay, and it’s a sure bet that lots of them will
stay home, and there’s not much the TSA can do about it. A TSA walkout
would cripple the nation’s businesses and strike directly at
higher-income Americans (that is, the people who supported Trump as he
used racist wall promises to secure the votes needed for a
two-trillion-dollar tax giveaway to the wealthy).
What happens next is anyone’s guess. Trump’s probably right that giving
in on the wall will lose him any chance of re-election as discouraged
racists stay home from the polls (as they had done historically, until
Trump gave them something to vote for), and deliver victory to Democrats
who have a small but meaningful chance of taxing the shit out of
looters and oligarchs. But the patience of looters and oligarchs – with
the exception of a few long-term thinkers like Charles Koch – is in
notoriously short supply. If Trump loses the racists, he won’t be able
to help the billionaires. But if he loses the billionaires, he won’t be
able to afford to court the racists.
i’m fairly confident the reason everyone assumes Curiosity is about the size of a dog is because informal NASA press (and by extension, the general culture of people who care abt what NASA’s up to) talks about Curiosity like it is, in fact, an unusually smart and self-aware pet, and i think that’s beautiful.
