Was just reminded of my... 'distaste' for factory farming, so I'm just putting this out there into the infosphere.

I once sprinkled a portobello mushroom cap with MSG and steak spice, and pan fried it. The result stunned me. I realized that if I had that available as an affordable (and nutritionally complete) replacement, I'd be perfectly happy to never eat meat again. I mean, it's about the flavour, the texture, the nutrition (if it's about the life taken, then you have some serious fucking problems). Does it taste like meat? No. But it's a fully satisfying substitute.

We're pretty goddamned advanced, you know? There's this YouTube channel, 'Thought Emporium', where this dude legitimately genetically modified yeast to produce beta carotene and add to the nutritional benefit of bread. So, if we can make yeast produce nutrients that it does not normally produce in nature, then can't we apply the same science to mushrooms? MSG exists in kelp, and vitamin B12 and myoglobin are basic animalia kingdom products. We can incorporate this into mushrooms and make them into meatshrooms, and no animal has to live and die for our sustenance ever again. Save that they could live happily, and provide the feedstock for our food as a simple biological process. This is within our grasp. This is within the grasp of a goddamned content creator. This is something I'd make happen if it was within my grasp, but where I am in life... All I can do is point the way, and hope that somebody better equipped will travel it.

Crisis intervention team dispatched. Crisis intervention team aggravated psychotic dude to point of screaming rant at me in spite of non-involvement. Crisis intervention team fucked off. Cool. Keeping weapon close at hand now.

Sorry if I'm a bit more abrasive than usual. The situation here is really... really bad. I do not know if I am safe, or if I might wake up to the housemate holding his "athame" (read: a cheap collectable dagger ostensibly belonging to me) to my throat. I've hidden it for now, but I can't possibly secure every potential weapon or tool of destruction in his reach. In addition to emotional abuse and manipulation, he has gone completely psychotic, with paranoia, confabulation, and bizarre 'religious' delusions of grandeur. That is not hyperbole. There are things I can't openly discuss about the situation. Very... unethical things that I should never have been subjected to, but the upshot is that I'm left effectively powerless to do anything but wait until he starts acting in an openly threatening manner, then call 911. And even then, he's ultimately going to be dropped back in my lap again, only at that point I'll be a confirmed 'enemy'. I want him gone, but I strongly suspect that's never going to happen. I want me gone, but that's a non-option because I can't leave Fez or the cats alone with the creep, and I have nowhere to go and no independent means to survive in any case. If anybody happens to have some spare deus ex machina lying around, I could sure use some right now, man.

Computers are not Hilbert's Grand Hotel. Even the most powerful have limited space, and rely on memory addressing that becomes increasingly complicated and, thusly, fallible. So, if everyone could cool down a bit on mass posting YCH/adoptables of inappropriate resolution and format whilst racking up tens of thousands of uncleared notifications instead of posting 'here are other places you can find me since FA is so unreliable' journals and making like rats abandoning the ship that they, themselves, sank under their own mass? That'd be pretty awesome.

Ahem...

In a previous journal (three, actually):
"Using PNG where high-quality JPG is called for (read: any time you're not making cartoon flats/simple gradients) is, in my experience, increasing file size by a factor of ten. You are multiplying site bandwidth use by 1000%"

In the current MOTD:
"Our original maintenance window was due to a sharp increase in storage usage for uploaded works that required us to expand our storage capacity on short notice."

I told you so.

Knock it off with the inappropriate use of PNG already. It is pompous, ignorant, and wasteful of scant resources that you aren't paying for. Stop it.

I'm just thinking about how bad things can hypothetically be. Not necessarily like a 'Fahrenheit 451' scenario, but... Like, what if some tech oligarch or another who doesn't like people accessing information freely were to gain access to that freedom and shut it down? Or what if a tin-pot despot with uncontrollable narcissism were to systematically criminalize any website that contains criticism or inconvenient information? Okay okay, I admit it; of course you know that I'm talking about North Korea, not some hypothetical. In any case, what if there was a way to rebel by downloading a vast repository of knowledge and the means to read it, and sticking it on an inexpensive, copyable, and easily concealable data storage device?

Anyways, here's a Rickroll. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip.....abase_download

'Inspired' by a recent visit to an optometrist. I regularly get the same thing from dentists, pharmacists, nurses, gaffers, cashiers, sanitation technicians, papal conclaves, and the mysterious oracular abyss in the north-east corner of this house's crawlspace. There's just something I wish I could say to medical professionals without it setting anyone's teeth on edge the way it does mine. You know... a 'bedside manner' tip that most don't seem to understand.

Having been a type 1 diabetic since 1978, I've had a vested interest in the progress of diabetes management for my entire life. When I was diagnosed, I was not expected to live to my current age. I was there as monitoring progressed from dipping chemically treated paper strips into urine samples, to manually timed and hand-blotted blood tests, to precise automated blood glucose monitors, to temporary cybernetic implants that monitor interstitial glucose levels every few minutes and radio an alert to my reader or phone if I am approaching a dangerous condition. My insulin injections were extracted from animal cadavers for years, but now they're produced by genetically engineered bacteria and delivered in a form that crystallizes once injected then slowly dissolves to supply a steady baseline level. I have watched promised cures prepare for human trials, quietly disappear, then resurface without explanation to prepare for human trials again decades later. I have sustained serious kidney damage through diabetic complication, and I have healed that damage with care and guidance. I've been called a "train wreck" by one doctor, and I've been praised for making substantial and difficult improvements by another. All those moments will be lost in ti— ah, never mind.

In any case... When you repeatedly tell me that "high blood sugars cause damage, so you should really try to get those sugars down a bit," do you think I don't know that? Do you stress over the greedy cost of healthy, metabolically strategic foods like I do? Do you calculate hypersensitive, interdependent nutritional/digestive/metabolic/medication/mental state variables on the fly any time you do or eat anything? Do you maintain an acceptable level of discipline in spite of executive dysfunction, organizational problems, and chronic depression? How many injections do you administer to yourself in a given day? Do you think that you can emulate a vital human organ more effectively and consistently than I care to? Do you have the faintest genuine comprehension of the challenges involved?

So, when you judge me and demoralize me and demotivate me from your place of partial knowledge and complete personal inexperience when I tell you that I'm doing the best that I can... why do you not believe me? My stakes are immeasurably higher, my knowledge and experience are profoundly deeper, and you parroting this uninvested, insipid phrase makes me feel unheard and disrespected. I have not survived this formerly-and-often-still terminal disease for nearly half a century with minimal complication via gross ignorance of rock bottom basics.

In Luke Skywalker's first iconic duel with Darth Vader (never mind that Alan Dean Foster thing), Luke succeeds in squarely striking Vader's right shoulder with his lightsaber. This is not a choreographic 'whoopsie', as evidenced by the intense shower of sparks and Vader's surprised pain response. Earlier in the same film we watched that same lightsaber slice easily through the armour of a tank (which, admittedly, was a plainly terrible design completely based on the 'rule of cool', and whose plot armour was mostly made vulnerable via four Achilles' whole-damned-legs). So, how was that obvious bifurcating strike not the end of Vader right then and there? Now, it seems to me that the bulk of Star Wars lore is continuity apologist bullshit that's been shoveled into all the plot holes and reinforced with a monomolecular Fanium shell, but here's the really weird thing: in 45 years, no explanation has been given. There are magical materials capable of deflecting, resisting, or absorbing the energy of a lightsaber, but Darth Vader's armour does not canonically integrate any of these. Vader has occasionally used personal shields in various Star Wars media, but I can't find a clear reference to his using one at that time. Force deflection? But he had so much power and competence to easily prevent that wild swing from ever being made, let alone connecting. It's baffling...

When I really think about it, though, I think I get it. It's 5D plot chess, and whatever hand-wave wasn't shall have been replacing has never-always been the won't have been perfect, as Lucas might will laid the foundation for in THX-1138.

Or maybe it was a paradoxical aftershock from hyperspace ramming the entire continuity into quantum logic plasma.

This username doesn't really reflect my Personal Truth anymore, so I'm abandoning this account, personal brand, and everyone who watches it. Follow me at  Xargblaff_the_Unkempt42069 now.

*Sigh*

People... Can you just don't? Names and accounts are addresses, not fecking tinsel.

Loving the current price of gas in Canada? Don't get used to it.

The now-discarded carbon tax was subjected to a massive propaganda campaign by the oil industry. It was never supposed to land in your lap as an end consumer; it was meant to make the oil business slightly less lucrative, and pressure energy giants to clean up their act. Instead, they used it as a scapegoat in order to ludicrously inflate their retail prices—they got to rob you blind, persuading you that environmentalists and a government marginally less carbon-friendly were to blame all the while. And you fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.

So, with the repeal of the tax, they find themselves in a position where they have to either drop their prices or drop the act. But in three weeks, that price is going to start creeping up again, just enough that you'll grumble, but you won't put two and two together. When the plausibility wears thin, there'll be a refinery fire, and prices will soar for a month—then drop part way to where they were before, and the cycle of escalation will continue as the summers get hotter and hotter, and food becomes more and more scarce, and hope dwindles. And those idiotic "I did that!" stickers on all the pumps? They're not coming down any time soon. Gotta keep the people stupid, angry, and misdirected. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

But be honest; you already knew god damned well who the real villains were, and that they're laughing at you and your blind obedience all the way to the bank. Didn't you?

"Questioning corporate motives? Here are 12 reasons that's a bad idea."

E621 had me going for a moment there. Good one, guys.

Funny how a tiny edit can amplify the impact. The red streak was meant to be a brushstroke, but as I was looking at it I realized that moving the leaf could change the context and fortify the entire image.

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/60321184/

Cripes. When I see a Cloudflare 'security check' these days, it typically ends up in a recursive loop. So, when I got that this morning... Well, I figured that was it for my ability to even see this site, let alone participate.

Let that be a... well, a plea, developers: don't don't bank your access on shitty, 'too powerful to bankrupt' networks with a service and ethical record best described as "whatcha gonna do, cry about it?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed0Q3DMo65o

https://wallpapercave.com/wp/wp4482185.jpg

Ah... sorry.

When I was a child, I wanted to be rich. I wanted to drive a Lamborghini Countach—or possibly a Pontiac Firebird. Look, I was a kid, okay? And I wanted a helicopter, a private Concorde (until I learned about the SR-71), and a 'rocket' like Tom Swift had (the 'Victor Appleton' Tom, not the literary Tom). And a pyramid, possibly with some sort of plants inside it, because both had mysterious, possibly psychic powers, according to some embarrassingly pseudo-scientific books on the living room shelf.

As a teenager, I wanted to use wealth to create the things I'd read about in better science fiction books. I wanted to build a mechanical hound, like the ones in Fahrenheit 451 (only less sinister). I wanted to put music on computer chips. I wanted to make robotic fire lizards, because I couldn't think of a less impossible way to bring them to life from the pages of the 'Dragon Riders of PERN' series.

Well, now I drive what I can get my hands on, I hold a pipe dream of one day flying an ultralight or gyrocopter, and I vicariously live out my rocket scientist dreams by scoffing at how unbelievably stupid SpaceX rockets are. Boston Dynamics beat me to the hound, and music on chips became a very real thing entirely without my input; the danger of being an 'ideas man' without an 'actualization staff', I suppose. Perhaps I should have been born with an emerald spoon in my mouth if I wanted to be effectual. There's still time for me to build autonomous animatronic dragon pets if I should ever somehow win the lottery that I know better than to waste money on, as I don't think Furbies are close enough to qualify.

But, struggling aside, it's sort of okay. Today, I feel like wealth and its accoutrements are so... performative. This elite game of keep-away is below childish; if you'd asked eight year old me, he'd have said that everyone should drive a Lamborghini. That everyone should be rich, and fly around in fast aircraft, and take trips to space, and be important. And I see that those very few that actually do these things... All of the pain and poverty and environmental damage that they inflict upon the entire planet is born of an infant greed, never outgrown, insatiable. It's a tragedy, in the Classical sense, that everything is sacrificed to that greed piece by piece, and all that is gained by these would-be gods is a renewed discovery of emptiness. You can never know accomplishment if failure—or at least the cognizance of failure—was never an option.

Edit: On a related note... An official political petition was started today to revoke Elon Musk's Canadian citizenship. The current number of signatures represents about 0.2% of the entire Canadian population. On a petition. In one day.

https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions.....etition=e-5353

Yesterday I had some routine endocrinology bloodwork, plus a check for any vitamin deficiencies at my request since I've been feeling pretty dragged out for some time. I just got a call from the pharmacy to inform me that I now have a prescription for vitamin B12 tablets, as this will be less expensive than buying them off the shelf. I... guess that explains the fatigue? Twenty-seven hours, and the system has the situation settled before I knew that there was a situation, respecting my finances in the process.

Tell me again, CPC, how socialist health care is broken—not for lack of your unstinting efforts to make it so. Pray, for your own sakes, that the rest of us continue to stand between you and the fires you gleefully set.

Name: Chateau Hoochfox 2024
Nationality: Canada (it's only domestic if you are too)
Type: Red wine, ostensibly
ABV: ?? (what, you think I bothered taking SG readings on a small batch of "can you please get this out of the freezer to make room for Christmas baking" hooch?)
Reason for selection: I mean, I normally wouldn't, but I surprised myself a bit here.

This is about 60% Riparia grapes that I desperately need to get under control before they eat the house and 40% store brand mixed frozen berries, bolstered with white sugar because... riparia grapes. Going to try splicing a more favourable cultivar onto the root stock this March, I think. Anyways, I crushed the grapes gently, and used appropriate sanitization techniques rather than just washing, right? Eh... Maybe not so much. Opening the first bottle, I was less than confident that the end product would be anything but vinegar (which was an acceptable outcome, honestly). However...

It's wine alright. Smells dark purple and apple green, with a finish of burnt sugar. Strong colour, and clean mouthfeel. Extreme but oddly pleasant sourness masking a possibly off-dry profile, with a malic/lactic balance favouring the latter. Surprisingly balanced tannin, with strong tones of "oh, I probably shouldn't have crushed the seeds that hard." It actually works if you keep an open mind. The berries—particularly strawberry—have a presence, but it's easily lost in the strong grape and botanical flavours if you're not paying attention. This is some awfully complicated swill, and I'm sort of sad there's so little of it. I really do need to try a bumbleberry country wine soon...

I did absolutely everything wrong in an effort to make some freezer space, I ended up with something that would absolutely shock proper critics, and I'm not entirely sure if it's the good or bad kind of shock. Not technically the most unique wine I've ever had, but the Terra Boa 2022 was only astonishing insofar as it was utterly devoid of any characteristic flavour besides "meh," so I'm giving myself top marks on this. 4.6/5 tipsy foxes

I don't remember it being this way, and it sure as hell hasn't been widely advertised... Apparently you must register online to receive your voter card in the mail.

https://vreg.registertovoteon.ca/en/home

This snap-election innovation brought to you by the guy who bought your vote with your own tax dollars...

"Ye outcast of humanity,
Be welcome in our fold;
The fury in our hearts is not for thee.
The wolf is at thy window
While the Taxman's at the door,
Yon ringing pot, it shan't thy supper be."

'A Ballad of the Wulver', chorus. From 'Loup-Garou': A power metal album that never was, following the theme of lycanthropy folklore from around the world.

I can create the lyrics. I can compose the melodies, though the riffs and percussion might be better filled out by someone more versed in the genre. I can even mix tracks, to some extent. But I'm a bit lacking in the band department, the leadership to bring such a band together, and the necessary capacity for networking and social integration. I kind of hate the hard-wired shortcomings that kill all of my ideas, because ideas are the one thing I'm any good at.

https://smartvoting.ca/

I took this to be a Liberal Party voting funnel, but they're not even on the map in my riding for the upcoming Ford-o-Matic 'I Can't Believe It's Not Democracy' snap election; if it's astroturf, then it isn't their astroturf.

Yes, I loathe strategic voting, but listen. It'll be a cold day in hell before the Conservatives institute Proportional Representation, so until we get the representation we deserve, we'd better bloc out the baddies.

https://macleans.ca/society/canada-.....state-america/

So, this isn't what you'd call a nice article... But it's factual, and the tone is a bit predictable if you're a member of a population that's been chafing in the shadow of a 500 pound gorilla that's been cropdusting you for decades, only to have it suddenly full-out shart on you.

And I've been hearing things from America as well; Canadian solidarity, moral dissent, reasonable fear of retaliation in (ironically) shocking forms I'd never even considered. We may yet walk out of this with greater sovereignty than we've had in four generations. Trump has shat himself so mightily that perhaps his fans on this side of the border are choking on the stench of the reality check, and just maybe rethinking their heroes and values.

It's going to be tough, but I think we'll make it. How about you, America? Your nation is completely engulfed in flames, figuratively, and literally to some extent. Just one month into Dolon Mump's four-year reign of horror, and a new dark age has been mandated and effectively executed without due process; have you had enough yet?

And, I mean, "DOGE"? Really, Muskie? Fucking man-child; should've just stuck to making awful rip-off games and allowed the world to never have to notice your sub-mediocrity.

With a Canadian Federal election looming (and an absolute monster looking overwhelming in the polls), I'd just like to point out that a whopping 19% of Canadians polled oppose proportional representation, while a 68% minority support it.

Satire? That's not satire. That's what happens when you adhere to a fundamentally and intentionally broken 'first past the post' electoral system. There is no voice of the people, only the voice of the party. Personally, I'm willing to risk two or three back bench loons if it means we don't have to fear yet another fascist kaiju laying waste to our political landscape.