I was cycling home one evening down a remote unlit path, when I saw this kid slumped up against a tree in a ditch. Concerned, I doubled back and called out to him “hey, are you okay?”

He didn’t look my way, just quietly responded with some hesitation “…yes.” Unsettled by the hesitation, I asked him again another way “is all well? Do you need help?”

Again, he barely looks my way and in a very quiet voice responds “…no.” I didn’t know what to do at this point, as a non-native speaker I’d exhausted my conversation options.

I try to cycle on but do so slowly, looking back at an increasingly skeletal looking figure resting against that tree in that small ditch.

In the distance I see another cyclist coming way, and I hail him to a stop with my flashlight. The guy thankfully speaks English, and I tell him about the kid and the tree, and to check up on him.

I ride on a bit more but I look back to see that the other cyclist did stop and appears to be having an equally difficult monotone conversation with the kid too. Resigned to the fact that I did all I could, I cycle on.

A little bit further down the path I see two kids walking towards me. “Hey!” I cry, “there’s another kid down by that tree over there! Do you know him?”

“Yeah, he’s our friend” comes the easy reply, and then the kicker, “we’re playing hide and seek.”

Look, would you stop being reasonable for a second and just fight already?

The Chronicles of Israfel - Starborn

Out there is someone with a hawk-whistle and a jar of raisins. I pray that you too shall never meet.

Presumably the peanuts to lure squirrels, and the whistle to sic your black-feathered demon army on them, you sicko

If those pension investments come crashing down, the government will just have to roll out a new pension scheme not tied to money. E.g. mandatory social duty where all young and able people work in rotas to take care of 1 to 2 elderly people per month.

“And Lo, let us bless his holy vessel, for though his storage was finite and his time to seek was limited, he faithfully preserved our thoughts and feelings, and carried them up onto heaven in his ascension, where he reigns in the gilded halls of FAT12 on his 3.5inch throne.”

Longevity wasn’t a metric the Phoebus Cartel was actively maximising

The one above is my favorite “There are No Flowers in the Real World” by David Lapham (of The Darkness and Batman fame). Anything written by him, Troy Nixey, Gregory Ruth and Paul Chadwick are worth reading.

• “An Asset to the System” by Troy Nixey
• “Butterfly” by Dave Gibbons
• “Deja Vu” by Paul Chadwick
• “A Path Among Stones” by Gregory Ruth
• “A Sword of a Different Color” by Troy Nixey
• “The Miller’s Tale” by Paul Chadwick
• “Wrong Number” by Vince Evans
• “Broadcast Depth” by Bill Sienkiewicz
• “Saviors” by Spencer Lamm

Skip: “I Kant” and “Run Saga Run” and anything by Peter Bagge. Neil Gaiman also wrote a small story called “Goliath” but it’s not something I clicked with.

No no, that’s not 11, that’s one one

The first twilight zone. All the followups just lacked the stark yet innocent tone of a someone reasoning with an unjust reality.

I’ve been making my way through the original recently, one-by-one and though some of them are hit and miss, even the misses are doing something amazing cinematically.

Animatrix was a good followup, and some of the comics

longevity

Heh.

Pandorum re-awakened that feeling for me. I also that feeling was dead, but nope still Alice and well

You’re welcome

If you hold onto your cards for 6-7 years, that’s only around 5 cards.

Mine goes:

• RTX 4070
• GTX 1080
• GFX 5200 (I think?)
• (The Playstation 2 years)
• (The Playstation years)
• 3dfx Voodoo

Ahhhhh, back when GFX Box Art was better than the video game box art on the shelf adjacent

I like that. Creepiest thing about VLC is that it does that even after you’ve killed it

This is a classic XY problem. My ex would often ask me why I wouldn’t peel carrots.

“This guy… had good taste.”