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Aug 8Liked by Martini Glambassador

like

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Excellent. I was waiting for the batteries to show up. Totally worth the wait.

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Aug 8Liked by Martini Glambassador

lol..BatteryShark!

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Aug 8Liked by Martini Glambassador

Jeez, a bit of warning, I had a sudden attack of 'Baby Shark'!

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Aug 8·edited Aug 8Liked by Martini Glambassador

Hey, Chum!

If you swim to find relief

Be careful where you dip

Friends with fins and pointy teef

Will chew yer ass off at the reef.

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Is that supposed to be sung to the tune of that Sublime song? I'm having trouble with the iambic pentameter.

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Make up something. That's what I do.

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If the reef doesn't tear up your feet first.

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Aug 8Liked by Martini Glambassador

I found your Easter egg!

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author

I'm going to pretend I was totally clever and intentionally put one in there ;-)

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Aug 8Liked by Martini Glambassador

D'oh! It is also just Picture of the Day!

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What! What am I missing?

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If you embiggen the gif with the arrows in the corner, there's a next picture arrow, which leads to an image that is just the image at the bottom of everybody's new favorite dad.

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I see! I never thought to do that before!

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Aug 8Liked by Martini Glambassador

A politician ACTUALLY wearing sheep’s clothing…

https://mediaproxy.salon.com/width/1200/https:/media2.salon.com/2021/11/glenn-youngkin-1105211.jpg

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founding
Aug 8Liked by Martini Glambassador

Tubby Shark doo doo doo doo doo doo.

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Aug 8Liked by Martini Glambassador

If there is a 60 years from now, former child-minders will still shudder at the mention of that horrid song

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author

Aaaah, earworm! LOL

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Aug 8Liked by Martini Glambassador

Actual laughter here in this here commie liberal house

Thank you

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Aug 8Liked by Martini Glambassador

Electric shark punch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBF0S6qq6dA

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author

Heh, I have a feeling a team of animators worked on that far longer than I did on mine.

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It took me a minute to get it! Need more coffee and ... what sigital animation tools do you use (if any)?

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author

The rolly polly shark I made with a vector program called Amadine, which is not quite as easy to learn as the program I used to use, Vectornator, but the latter went to a subscription model, which is never a good idea to get trapped into, IMHO. But I think there's a trial period if you were interested and wanted to try it out.

The animation bit I did in Davnici Resolve, which has a free version that is quite feature-rich, but is also well worth the one-time cost to upgrade.

Then I did some extra putting together in Photoshop, which, yeah, I hate their business model, but this is 10 year old software and it still works and doesn't require the nasty subscription, so it's part of my usual workflow.

Ha, that might be a lot more information than what you asked for :)

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Thank you so much. I'm a GIMP user, and the kid is starting with Davinci for some animations. For vector, I'm using Inkscape. I never had the opportunity (when I was doing a lot of this) to learn the Adobe tools mostly due to the price.

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author

I know GIMP, but I've never fooled around with Inkscape. Maybe I should give it a try.

Also, too, your kid probably is well aware of Blender. It might be easier for a lot of the animation workflow in the long run, but its a bitch to learn. Super feature-rich, though, and might be worth kid's time to tinker around in (it's free!).

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I've used Blender for simple things ... logos, etc. He is currently playing with Moho as well for 2D stuff.

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author

Oooh, I'm going to go play with that!

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founding

Harris and Walz are generating energy by the gigawatt. Don Don's batteries are dead and JD cannot find the 'on' button.

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It’s indeed a great picture. I just wish it was a little less goose-steppy. Because you know that some rwnj is going to notice and … proof! Proof we’re not the nazis! They are! See?

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I like this piece more than the Bulwark piece on the same subject…

‘Edgelords’ and ‘butt-sniffers’: will Trump’s tour of hyper-masculine podcasts win over young men? | Arwa Mahdawi | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/08/donald-trump-adin-ross-young-men

> The ex-president is chatting with Logan Paul, Adin Ross and others with vast followings as the demographic shifts right

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Pic caption: ♫"If I were a rich man..."♪

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OT: We need to push back on the nonsense data being pushed about declining birth rates and fertility rates. Its used as an excuse to oppress women due to population 'emergencies'.

Fertility tables based on actual children birthed are misleading. The demographic definition of fertility shows offspring production, but the common definition of fertility is the *ability* to conceive. This confuses laymen. In demographics, ability to conceive is termed 'fecundity'. You need data on things like sperm counts (of various countries and peoples) to show true fecundity rates.

Birth rates fluctuate based on many factors and choice is a big one. If a woman has 10 children and those children have only 5 children each, the overall population increases but the birth *rate* declines. It can be compared to the way some speak of empires. "If the empire isn't expanding, its in decline", for instance, but birth rates fluctuate due to many factors. When young people think about planning for children, their calculus includes safety and prosperity. The post-WW2 'Baby Boom' is an example of that sort of birth rate increase.

Economists have lots to say about the necessity of increased population to pay for and care for aging generations, but those are based on labor efficiency, labor scarcity, cost of living and other economic factors. Economics really need to be discussed separately.

I keep running into people showing me birth rate/fertility data and we need to understand the rigamarole going on.

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Because...WOMBATS!!!

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Aug 8Liked by Rebecca Schoenkopf

Olive oil is all you really need with raccoons.

I mean, why bother with fancy sauces?

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Aug 8Liked by Rebecca Schoenkopf

Cambridge Day makes Tabs??!!!! Watch out for the troll army in the comments, but that's just great to see.

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“He does not think in a complex way at all.” -- Some STAT dude named Pennebaker

"You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump." -- Fran Lebowitz

I'm starting to think that Donold Fucking Trump may not be the stable genius everyone claims he is.

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Bigly brain! Best words!

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I'm sure I can find a seat on the bandwagon for you. It's joyful here.

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When our magnificent long-haired GSD Left us after 14 amazing years, serendipity came inside after a night of carousing. I had started a June fire in the woodstove the night before to warm her, and the cat jumped up on the now cool stove, and did the classic doubletake when she looked down at the dog. She jumped down and sniffed her up and down, but there was something hesitant and almost ceremonial about the way she did it.

Kiara was about 85 pounds, too heavy for me to pick her up and carry her out. I brought the toboggan in, and put her body on it and pulled her out the downstairs door. Serendipity walked in front of me, and when I paused, she sat down and looked ahead. When I started up again, she walked, and you cannot tell me she was not walking honor guard.

I opened up the back of the ancient Subaru I was driving at the time, and she jumped up in there and raked her claws diagonally across the carpeting in the back, and then came at it from the other side, and raked her claws deeply diagonally across the carpet, and then hopped out and sat there while I maneuvered the toboggan into the back of the car.

We had a very old neighbor dog that was roughly the same size and magnitude of hairiness that Kiara was. Sometimes he would just come over and stand and eventually wander away. I think he was a bit in his dotage at that point. He came over one night the next winter, and stood outside in the darkness. Serendipity saw him through the window, and I saw her again do a doubletake, and froze and stared, and I could sense her confusion and hope.

We underestimate animals wildly, I think.

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Agree 100%.

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Honestly, The Bulwark article is garbage. My credentials? I was married to a guy who is now MAGA (25 years!!) and raised one. Look, feel free to engage with them at your own risk. In First Aid classes, they say "Call, Check, Care." Please use the same advice when you are attempting to reach out to these disaffected men. CALL friends and family and let them know that you are dating or seeing one of these guys. Give them all the info to make sure you have back up. CHECK to make sure that you are safe and have a means of escape, if needed. CARE only once you've established a network of friends and ensure your safety.

Do I know what does work? Yes, yes I do and the Harris-Walz campaign is doing it. Keep having fun! Surround yourself with great folks who have empathy. Laugh. Keep learning and investing in yourself and only put in time with people who value you. When the disaffected men have had enough, they might join you - but only on your mutually respectful terms. You hear me?!!

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WaPo Alexandra Petri's article, here ya go, kids:

https://archive.ph/YmiiW

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Thanks! Somehow, none of my tricks including archive.ph work for me on WaPo articles.

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I read the Bulwark piece and I am a little confused by what this author would like high ranking Democrats to do. I think that by getting out and talking about how people-focused policy benefits everyone, that should do plenty. Like, no need for anyone in the inner circle to go on Rogan or anything like that. I think it'd be beneath them and only piss off a reliable voting bloc. From the limited information I know about incel dudes, they're not so great at planning ahead and tend to be reactionary and emotionally unregulated so why coddle and court them?

Sounds like they're mad that the world isn't clamouring to give them big paying jobs just by virtue of being a man and sorry, that's on them. The entitled, lazy sad boy crowd can hang with Trump for all I care.

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That article talked about the “popular” Adin Ross, but never mentioned his chair-sniffing.

Fuck that weirdo. Fuck all those creeps.

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What these guys need is therapy, but that's nothing you or I or anyone can choose for them.

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Amen and I agree. I just vented about how I thought the Bulwark piece was garbage. You took a slightly different approach, but it boils down to the same thing, "Why coddle and court them?"

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Elder Cat (PBUH) was our second cat; he joined our family when our first cat was 5. She died when he was 7, and as sad as it was for us, it seemed SO MUCH WORSE for him. He walked around the house bellowing for her, he wouldn’t let me leave his sight, even to take a shower (worse than usual haha, I’ve had more than one cat try to actually join me in the shower just because, but this was inconsolable yowling). The day I went to run errands and got a text from Mr. Cats saying “OMG when are you coming home he hasn’t stopped yowling since you left” was the day we started looking for a new cat—for him. We weren’t ready yet, but he was. He calmed down the second Big Dunk came through the door; there were a couple days of hissing, but even so he was 90% calmer. When Elder Cat passed, Big Dunk definitely mourned him (not as intensely as Elder Cat had mourned *his* first companion, but he was EXTRA EXTRA). He too seemed to take a deep sigh of relief when Babby Ginger came through the door, even though they aren’t as close as he and EC were. And Iswear to y’all, even 3 years later, if we say EC’s name his ears perk up and he starts looking around for him.

Anyway I always thought the idea that other animals don’t mourn and it’s just anthropomorphism on our parts was bullshit (like, the idea that elephants and gorillas don’t mourn is bonkers) and didn’t need convincing, but I still wasn’t prepared for the depth of mourning that they seemed to exhibit.

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I guess I should be somewhat concerned about losing the “incel vote” but it also makes me wonder if this group has been skewing certain polls for young people. If any group would know how to screw with an online or opt in poll it would be incels.

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