marnanel @marnanel@queer.party

Mine; feel free to share.

My dad was sent on a team-building weekend by his work.

Them: Which of these characters will you throw out of your balloon?
Dad: None of them. I'm not playing God.
Them: You have to pick one of them.
Dad: All right. Me.
Them: ...you can't do that.
Dad: Why not?

at a clinic

N: I'll just let you out the back *unlocks*
Me: bloody hell, you've locked the fire exit
N: yeah we have to, otherwise people just walk in
Me: yeah but it's a fire exit
N: but we have to lock it
Me: okay, so take the sign down
N: but it's not my job
Me: please tell your h&s
N: but...

The feed goes ever on and on,
Down from the post where it began.
Now far ahead the feed has gone;
I must stop scrolling if I can.
Before I get to TVTropes,
I've got to put the phone away
Before I shatter any hopes
Of doing something else today.

Hippos are an invasive species in Colombia.

"At night, the animals roam the countryside, wandering into ranches, eating crops and occasionally crushing small cows."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27905743

Nihilism, now... nihilism makes sense to me. Answering the question by saying it has no answer is a neat solution, and oblivion is a beautiful and attractive idea. But someone saying there's a purpose to their life which they themselves have made up... it seems like lying to oneself out of fear of the dark.

What confuses me is this: if "you create your own meaning" means "you decide what's important in your life", is there any reason I can't say "I define meaning to be exactly where I am"?

I asked this once on a forum, and people got a bit upset with me. One person said "you can say that, but it's like comparing a pile of paint with the Mona Lisa". That puzzled me, because he didn't give a reason.

I was, and am, frustrated as hell that everyone else seemed to know what "meaning" meant apart from me, especially when I kept hearing that everyone needs it! I know people aren't doing it to annoy me, but it made the whole concept seem rather suspect.

For a long time I didn't understand what people meant by "meaning", outside of semantics.

I think I have more of an idea of what people mean by it now: I think it means that they've found (or made up) a story about their life where they're the protagonist. Apparently this helps people get through the day, or something?

I only realised yesterday that when one of my uni lecturers said

"The notion of absolute truth is problematic: how would you know if you'd found it?"

he probably didn't mean "there is no material universe" (à la Berkeley) but "perception always requires interpretation".

I have refused a direct order from a manager exactly once. A coworker had checked in code with an obvious injection exploit.

Manager: we have to ship tonight.
Marn: tomorrow. we can't ship with this security hole.
Manager: no, we have to do this.
Marn: then you will have to fire me. Professional ethics.

He backed down, as I'd expected. I couldn't afford to lose that job, but someone has to say no to that sort of attitude.

Have you ever?

I hear a lot about people learning physical self-defence. I think it's even more important to learn mental self-defence: how to defend yourself against coercion in each of its many forms.

I'd like to see a zine about this. Do you know of one? If not, shall we make one?

So I reimplemented Podd in JavaScript because why not.

https://marnanel.org/podd/

NO ENEMIES
by Charles Mackay, 1814-1889

You have no enemies, you say?
Alas! my friend, the boast is poor;
He who has mingled in the fray
Of duty, that the brave endure,
Must have made foes! If you have none,
Small is the work that you have done.
You’ve hit no traitor on the hip,
You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip,
You’ve never turned the wrong to right,
You’ve been a coward in the fight.

a Welsh friend posted something this week about bizarre cultic sexual practices in ancient Greece, and her autocorrect made that into "Celtic".

"People of Earth, your attention please. People of Earth, your attention please. This is Prostetnic Vogon BoJo of the Galactic Eurosceptic Planning Board. As you may be aware, regrettably your economy is due for destruction."

"Consent is a Yes"

Poem and narration: Sabrina Mahfouz.
Animation: Rachel Brian.

https://youtu.be/F63awcIk8uM