This Present Darkness @thsprsntdrknss@metalhead.club

For September, I did a cover of "Happy Now" by Zedd & Elley Duhe. I didn't do it justice, but it's just a song I really like that hit home for me so I wanted to do it anyways. Next month will be back to the usual metalcore. As usual, if you like my work, feel free to support me @ liberapay.com/nicolaewallace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQD8U9S40_g

Democrats: "Wow, it's super lame how the government makes being gay, black, or in any way different from the status quo illegal and bad. You should just let people live their lives as long as they aren't hurting anyone."

Also Democrats: "we totally need more government regulation to control every aspect of our lives, including how much you can succeed. No way that can backfire."

Republicans: "All lives matter, life is sacred, babies should be born, what if that baby grows up to cure cancer?"

Also Republicans: "You don't deserve healthcare and housing just cause you exist, you lazy piece of shit. What do you contribute to society?"

Had the windows open all day, what a beautiful day.

I have another research question: so one of my characters is leader of a rebellion. I kind of want to make that character black because I feel like it would make sense, and it would give off a strong "black panther" vibe, but at the same time I feel like the nature of the organization's ideology is edging pretty close to "domestic terrorist" and I might do more harm than good. Anyone willing to give me some insight there?

The Hobbit and LOTR come to mind as other comparable books I grew up on.

Research question for my story: so as a white person, I grew up on classic books and authors like Narnia, Poe, Lovecraft, His Dark Materials, etc. Are there any comparable books that a person of color would've grown up on, books that hold up even into adulthood? Or are these books pretty universal?

Serious question: what's that term for when a product is compatible with it's competitors? Like when Microsoft releases a version of Office for Mac? There's a certain term for it and I can't recall. It's a good thing.

Well, there it is. The dumbest fucking thing I’ll read all day.

Me: a daily Qubes user
*opens a VM*
*does other stuff while waiting for it to load*
*30 minutes later*
"Why is this open?"
*closes VM*
*immediately remembers why I opened it*

My local used electronics store sells a 48-port gigabit managed switch and I have no need of anything so incredibly powerful or large but fuck if I don't want it anyways.

And so free speech took another agonizing, bloody step toward its grave.

https://mastodon.social/@eff/103533576435594883

As an audio/video professional, I’m amused that Catholics invest big money in massive, beautiful buildings and then have garbage sound systems that barely function, while Protestants invest in garbage buildings that look abandoned in the middle of nowhere but buy production value on par with Coldplay at the Super Bowl.

Last but not least: apparently the deceased was a die-hard Cowboys fan so his casket had Cowboys stuff on it. I feel like that’s kind of trashy, but I’m more upset that gluing those stupid stars on there was probably an extra $5000. Funerals are a fucking predatory scam.

His assistant for the service was a woman though, and she was even allowed to put the wine in the tabernacle, so I guess that’s progressive. Now if only they got progressive with their sound system cause that microphone gain staging was FUCKED.

On a last note about Catholicism, I find it amusing that a religion that spent so much time crushing “heresies” such as paganism has so many props and symbolism like a pagan religion would. I’m pretty sure he saged both the altar and the casket. Probably wasn’t sage but it was essentially the same thing with a different herb.

Additionally, I’m slightly offended that the service was so “plug and play.” The priest kept saying the deceased’s full name as if it was a damn mad lib. It’s like he had a script and all he needed to do was put in the person’s name and correct pronoun.

On that note, the funeral WAS a mass. As someone who has spent the better part of 30 years in and out of various christian churches, that was a textbook sermon, not a memorial service.

First off, I will never again compare a catholic mass and a funeral. The funeral has exponentially more emotion.