Notices by Legit_Spaghetti (legit_spaghetti@mastodo.neoliber.al)

There are a lot of popular themes in post-apocalyptic storytelling that you see over and over: "War never changes," "People are the real monsters," "Man's hubris will be our undoing," "Civilization is defined by people, not laws," etc.

I think a theme we need to explore more in times like ours is "Nobody is coming to save you."

It's up to us. We can't sit and wait for a hero to swoop in and save the day. We each have a part to play, and every little thing helps.

All we have is each other.

So, uhhh, we have a dog now? She's a rescue. A schnauzer poodle mix, her fur was pretty matted and flea-bitten, so one of the first things we did was get her groomed and washed. That trim produced a pronounced mohawk, so my wife thought it might be cute to dye her mohawk pink. Turns out dyeing a dog is not trivial, so now she's got a pink mohawk and slightly pink fur overall. She doesn't seem to mind, but people (especially kids) are delighted to see this pink dog.

#DogsOfMastodon

@davidrevoy Not pictured: The third kid, Blort, who was lucky enough to end up with fish top and horse bottom.

Y'know, I'd be a lot less sketched out about being between jobs if the US healthcare system weren't so spectacularly shitty. What a colossal clusterfuck of greed, inefficiency, waste, and Kafkaesque bureaucracy.

And this is the VASTLY IMPROVED version of the US healthcare system thanks to Obamacare.

I don't get it. Americans want better healthcare and cheaper housing. How simple would it be to run on a platform of "you won't spend thousands on health insurance and you'll have your own place."

@GottaLaff During the reign of Stalin, the Soviet leader tried several times to assassinate Yugoslavian president Tito. Fed up, Tito eventually sent a letter to Stalin, which read in part:

"Stop sending assassins to Belgrade. We've already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle [...] If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send a second."

No further assassins were sent.

That is the language Russian leaders understand.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore

When a fish bites your thigh so hard you fear you'll die, that's a moray

When you think you might try something different this time, that's a foray

When a passage is wide with a slab made of pine, that's a doorway

When an elk in the wild flips your car on its side, you're in Norway

The largely successful mission for the world's largest rocket was an important milestone for SpaceX's Starship program [...]. A camera on the buoy showed the ship slowing down before contacting the water, then tipping over and exploding as expected.

Oh to be granted the same leniency as a whiny, ketamine-addled billionaire. I don't think I'd receive the same kind of adulation if my shit tipped over and exploded as expected.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/08/spacex-bounces-back-with-a-starship-test-flight-that-ended-on-a-buoyant-note

Listen, I'm not some super smart foreign policy wonk or whatever, but I think that the most important thing about the Alaska summit between Putin and the other guy is that we really need to see the Epstein files.

@JessTheUnstill

"Alright, we have those survey results you asked for."

"Terrific, let's hear it!"

"So, it looks like people want us to fix bugs and usability issues."

"Uh huh, okay."

"And they want stable releases with long-term support."

"Cool."

"Oh, and they'd like the software to work even when they're offline."

"Fantastic, well done!"

"So, are we..."

"Not gonna do any of that, shoehorn A.I. into everything, and add other useless features nobody asked for? You betcha!"

@foone "Normal" went out the window a long time ago around here.

@michelestrider I still can't get over the fact that our Reichstagsfeuer-moment involved a dude named Big Balls. Future historians must think we were all so dumb. And they'll be mostly right.

Yarn shop owners booked my wife to teach them some of her dyeing techniques, then left early and stiffed her for $600 because they were "not getting what they wanted" out of the training.

That's fucked up. I know my wife is a phenomenal teacher; I've helped her teach her workshops. This is no way to treat a professional instructor.

#FiberArts

@RamenCatholic The prime real estate on the Moon is the Peaks of Eternal Sunlight and the Valleys of Eternal Night, which conveniently are very near each other.

Near the Moon's pole, there's a formation that's in near-permanent daylight. If you're colonizing the Moon, that's the land you should grab, because that's the ideal place for solar panels. Second priority are the nearby craters that never get any sunlight, because if there's frozen water on the moon, that's where you'll find it.

There's an exercise they teach you where you go from "Well, this shit fucking sucks" and reframe it into "What would it take for this shit to not suck so fucking much?"

I feel like we all would like shit to suck a little less. If your shit's fucked, think of what can be done to start the process of unfucking it.

Everyone is fighting a hard battle. In a world that sucks ass, being kind is the most punk thing you can do. That includes being kind to your own dumb self.

@ai6yr Sunday night is a GREAT FUCKING TIME for someone to shit the bed. Well, not so much shit the bed, more like diverted untreated sewage into a mattress warehouse.

There's a kid named Kylo at the pool who was very obviously born after episode VII and I fucking cannot.

ME: "Some light would be nice."

LIFE: "Best I can do is more tunnel."

ME: "..."

LIFE: "..."

ME: "I would like to speak with your supervisor."

@LoganFive You can absolutely just say that.

@LoganFive Ah, well, yeah. Although back when I was hiring people, I always appreciated candor a lot more than slick and practiced answers.

Welp, after 21 years with Blizzard Entertainment, I was laid off today. What an incredible journey. I got to be part of challenging, exciting projects, and I played a part in shaping the company's voice for over two decades.

One thing you learn living in California is that the most intense growth usually follows after a wildfire. Some plants even require fire to release their seeds.

So we'll see what comes next. If you need an editor on your team, hit me up.

#GetFediHired