Hedgeiii - Searching For Sang-froid

“After being wined and dined for years — with one of his billionaire patrons buying his mother’s house and fixing it up and putting his grandnephew through a ritzy private academy — Clarence Thomas returned the favor by casting his tie-breaking Citizens United vote, almost fully legalizing billionaires and giant companies bribing politicians. Political bribery is still illegal in Scotland, The Netherlands, and Australia, which is why politicians in those countries could stand up to the fossil fuel industry. America, in fact, is the only country in the developed world that lets the massive, gravitational “dark force” of billionaires’ and giant corporations’ money be used to purchase politicians who put themselves up for sale. And that’s not only why we won’t see a ban on fossil fuel advertising any day soon; it’s why we won’t see a lot of other things that a majority of Americans want, as well.”

— What is the Invisible Dark Force Destroying Everything?

Gulf of Mexico in Maps

As of me writing this, MapQuest shows GULF OF MEXICO, which is the correct name for a body of water named for Mexico. My knowledge of Mexico historically is a little dubious, and while I THINK most of Latin American ethnic background is a mix of Spanish, some Portuguese, a lot Native North and South American groups/ Empires (Mayans, Incans, Dine'), and dozens or hundreds of other people, that knowledge did stay my hand in calling a name change pure Colonizer Bullshit (as Mexico itself is a product of European colonizer and the name origin of Mexico I am unsure of), but I am certain the world does not need more American jingoism and/ or ethnocentrism and thus Gulf of Mexico should remain if for no other reason than that.

So... I'll be going back to MAPQUEST while Google and Apple boot lick. Waze seems to sidestep by showing (or not needing to show) bodies of water, as it is, in fairness, a driving-focused service.

I know I have, like, three followers, but to you three, I hope you enjoy this until I muster the discipline to get into small snippets of Magic the Gathering content that I derive joy from, interspersed with sharing things like this to try and display that we're not... alone.

Another old favorite. 3/4 for three, keeping my trend of always like at- value heft even with a drawback. These "gating" creatures were a fun cycle, but still largely overcosted (IMO even 2001), save for this and the even better Horned Kavu.

Pre-flash Flash made the gating a potential straight upside that could save a creature. So much fun!

Fleetfoot Panther

Artist: Mark Brill TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

The cruelty of racist white men.

Happy Leland Melvin Day!!!

This is critical for everyone to understand about social media.

Any engagement encourages the algorithm. It's a skill to cultivate only your stuff, and on most meta platforms, impossible by design. They sneak (and often sledgehammer) stuff in to just engage you, especially stuff you might hate.

An explainer for why I don't fuck with algorithmic social media

If you give a pigeon a little button to peck that releases pigeon food, it will push the button when it's hungry.

If you give a pigeon a button to peck that releases food every 5 pecks, it will peck it more often.

If you give a pigeon a button to peck that releases food at a randomly selected, always shifting number of pecks, the pigeon will peck that fucking button all day long.

Algorithm based social media is not set up to give you the best most fun stuff all the time, it is set up to give you a bunch of stress and nothingness with a randomized reward of something that actually makes you happy, because they want you pecking that button all damn day. It is a slot machine of content, meant to keep you putting in quarters made of your time and attention till you've nothing yet.

At least if I'm having a shit day on my own Tumblr feed it's because I've made a bad choice about who to follow and I can fix it.

Whatever minor design disagreements I occasionally have with him, Rosewater will always be one of my favorite people, as both a designer AND human person.

Im really torn between the fact that my favorite set of all time Will be seeing the light of the day again ( lorwyn) and my gut feelings of how It Will be fucked up by the new superbland mediocre art style and the real world politic agenda ( not so) subtly pushed in late sets, in a CARD GAME. We want to see stories of faeries, kithkins, elves, goblins, Giants,merfolk and cinders in their beautiful fantasy setting, no trans they/them faeries that think they're kithkins

Two points:

1) When returning to a world, we’re very cognizant of the aesthetic of the world. We understand returning to Lorwyn requires embracing what made people love it the first time around. Obviously, there will be updates, as the game has evolved much since our first visit, but we’re very aware of the need to recapture the plane’s essence.

2) For far too long, fantasy, as a genre, was used as a way to reflect the worldview of those in power. It leaned into stereotype and reflected how the privileged wished the world was. Modern fantasy is more reflective of the actual world, which includes the wide variety of life experiences that exists.

Trans people, people of color, and women playing a larger role, are all part of modern fantasy because they’re all part of the actual world, and it’s important that our stories and world building be reflective of that.

“I want to return to a time where we could ignore the existence of certain elements because I was happy living in that ignorance” is not an excuse to deny real people and their real life experiences.

Entertainment is at its best when it lifts everyone up and isn’t used as yet another means to ignore certain people’s reality.

So here’s the thing. News stations love to sensationalize the orange man for money. If you weren’t politically aware during his first term I have a few tips to help your wellbeing till 2025:

Do not engage with news media after 8pm. Nothing you learn then will help you before the next morning. You’ll just go to bed anxious and mad

You’re gonna see the worst possible people nominated to head diff parts of the govt. Understand that’s the point, to set everything in favor of corps, internalize that feeling and remember it for the next election, and move on. Dwelling on it only serves to hurt yourself

Learn to sit in uncertainty. Last term the orange man would tweet policy and expect it to manifest. This led to people never knowing if he was talking big game or passing legislation, so people did not know how the government was going to act. Chill. We don’t know what will happen.

Curate your social media experience, do not follow algorithms. Algorithms need you hooked and its easier to keep you hooked if you’re miserable. Be purposeful when you engage with political content, don’t do it on a whim

You are not responsible for the ailings of the world. Don’t put that on yourself. And don’t put it on yourself to keep up with every single wrongdoing about to happen. There will be far too many for one person to keep up with, you’ll exhaust yourself and make yourself miserable

Chill. Its not gonna be fun, but there are ways you can take care of your own well being to keep from spiraling.

I really like this one.

I really think people have forgotten just how bad things were under the Trump Administration. Literally every day there was news about some service being cut or someone terrible appointed somewhere they shouldn't be or what have you. He constantly flirted with WW3 and military dictatorship. It was such a blur of badness that there aren't big standouts for people to point to to make him "the XYZ president." it was everything. all the time. Why do we not remember this.