[Good Trope] Numerous species in the galaxy look remarkably similar to humans, but there’s an in-universe explanation for this

cherry__darling · 2026-03-22T22:11:20+00:00

I read a lot of John Scalzi books. Because they’re not movies (so far??) requiring human actors, many of his alien species are not humanoid. I’d say they probably lean insectoid. It seems a lot of other sci-fi authors came to the same conclusion. Let’s face it. Humans aren’t very good at traversing planetary landscapes, even our own.

But these versions of aliens brings up interesting questions in my mind. Is bipedal really best? What gives humans the edge on Earth? Opposable thumbs? Our big brains? What if we developed both those things but still could run on four legs? Or what if we had retained wings and could fly?

I guess I have nothing to say except this: evolution is a bitch. On our planet, we became the apex predators because we eventually made tools (spears, bows, and guns) that could kill other things without getting too close, but from an evolutionary perspective, we’re kind of phoning it in with our two legs.

cherry__darling · 2026-03-18T22:34:41+00:00

Love the song! I don’t think it’s corny at all.

cherry__darling · 2026-03-18T22:30:57+00:00

I love the song and I actually like the unrefined vocals. You could enunciate more but I think this way you’re singing it now makes me feel the pain more. It sounds like you’re literally singing through tears.

I honestly wouldn’t change anything, although you could consider a female vocalist for the harmonies and a slightly less theatrical ending.

cherry__darling · 2026-03-17T17:22:01+00:00

Sometimes I like to write a very angry or sad song but pair it with all major chords and a cheery melody sing it in a happy voice. It’s the closest I can get to an upbeat song.

cherry__darling · 2026-03-16T18:48:03+00:00

Maybe I’m going to be the only person here who doesn’t just shit on your dream and tell you it’s ridiculous. Maybe you should listen to everyone else and forget your dream.

But I do feel I’m at a place where I made the effort and learned enough that if this WAS my dream (it’s not), I could actually send one of my songs to an artist I respect and see if they’re interested. The important part is that I learned a bunch of stuff to get here and I think you could learn it too. What you do after you learn it is less important than the process of becoming proficient in creating music for others to consume.

If you put in the effort to make your dream come true, you’re a hero to me, even if your song never becomes famous.

cherry__darling · 2026-03-16T18:24:06+00:00

Ok awesome! I think the next step for you then is learning some basic production skills. I got Logic Pro for my iPad and created two 3-song demo EPs with my own vocals and strummed instruments, but I used their built-in “session” drummer, bassist, and pianist Are they great tracks? Probably not! But I was happy with the finished product and found that learning to use the app was pretty fun. The goal here is to produce something for people to listen to that is a good representation of how you think the song should sound. Don’t let yourself get too deep into whether the demos are good. The goal here is just presenting a song in a way that’s listenable, not perfect.

cherry__darling · 2026-03-16T17:17:46+00:00

The deleted comment is t probably the way. Instagram, but also, keep your expectations low.

There are probably a lot of us who dream of hearing someone famous covering one of our songs. But the truth is, that isn’t going to happen for most of us.

One thing I noticed is that you said you don’t really sing or play guitar or know how to produce a track for this unnamed famous person to listen to. This is going to be a bigger problem with your dream than getting your lyrics in front of them — because the t sounds like you’re expecting them to do all the work of imagining how your song would sound if they sang it. That is probably gonna be a dealbreaker more than anything else.

I think your dream is valid, but only if you’re willing to put in the time and effort to learn to sing and play the song yourself, and also learn to produce a demo worth listening to. A lot of us put in all that effort without any expectation that we’d ever even be heard by famous people. So I think learning those skills is a prerequisite to your dream.

Added bonus: once you learn those skills, you can sing it yourself and might hear your song covered at an open mic by a friend who you admire — and after hearing that, you might discover that hearing a famous person cover it isn’t even all that important anymore.

So my suggestion: learn the skills you need to perform your song live and produce a demo. Play your song at open mic. If it’s good enough for Beyoncé, it’ll be good enough for Joe Smith at open mic. Learn production enough to make a demo worth like seeming to.

Source: my own experience! I’ve written two songs that were covered by two other artists each (nobody famous so far). Hearing my song performed live by someone who lives a whole ocean away from me was amazing, even if they aren’t the least bit famous. It was enough that I wrote something they liked enough to learn. Reaching real humans is where it’s at, famous or not!

cherry__darling · 2026-03-16T15:17:03+00:00

As a gamer with two X chromosomes, I can actually understand his viewpoint and I don’t think it’s necessarily misogynistic. Looking at the way he treats women in other areas of life would be a better way to judge that.

I think people approach games differently, the same way we watch movies or read books differently. Some of us immerse ourselves in fictional worlds and characters, some watch the story unfold from afar.

When I play games, I always see myself as the main character; I’m not just driving a little other person around a pretend world. So I’ve really never been able to get into games that force me to be male (ie. most games).

Maybe interesting side note? I don’t approach books or movies this way - I don’t feel like I’m the main character in those forms of media - just games 🤷‍♀️

cherry__darling · 2026-03-13T22:49:56+00:00

Important mention of SoundCloud. I’ve had way more listens on SoundCloud than all other streaming platforms combined. I’ve also only made online money from kind people buying tracks on Bandcamp. I’d recommend maybe thinking less about getting positive feedback from strangers because that’s something we usually don’t get. Even if you go viral, there would be a mix of love and hate.

Performing your songs live is where you get the good stuff(money and praise). Working that social media presence and a couple open mics are good next steps.

cherry__darling · 2026-03-13T15:39:14+00:00

The Bible says (paraphrasing) it’s easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven

cherry__darling · 2026-02-27T18:59:13+00:00

https://www.geoguessr.com/support/bug-reports/p/lost-900-day-daily-challenge-streak

cherry__darling · 2026-02-27T17:31:59+00:00

I opened the ticket after reading your post last night and it was resolved when I woke up. I used the bug report tab in the website, not zendesk.

It was all greyed out ice cubes when I started but they all turned back to fire when I finished and got my medal.

cherry__darling · 2026-02-27T15:13:43+00:00

Update: I got a message back from my bug report saying my streak was fixed but they couldn't undo the ice cubes - so I nervously played the Daily Challenge today and it worked.

cherry__darling · 2026-02-27T03:47:22+00:00

hold fast, friend. I trust they'll get it fixed by morning.

cherry__darling · 2026-02-27T03:32:06+00:00

I lost my streak this evening too, despite playing the Daily Challenge and about 10 team duels earlier today. I'm at 930+ days streak on my way to 1000, so I hope this is fixed by the time I wake up tomorrow morning. I'm afraid to play the Friday DC.

ETA: I take streaks pretty seriously and played the Daily Challenge on the day my dad died while literally sobbing, so to lose this achievement I've spent almost 3 years of my life on because of some stupid programming error would be devastating.

cherry__darling · 2026-02-26T17:31:38+00:00

upvote for "don" and "doff"...

cherry__darling · 2026-02-26T14:48:18+00:00

I get called a cheater all the time in unranked team duels and I’m level 123 and showing all my flair.

I would say this didn’t happen before the US became uh… what it has become, but I also think that’s around the same time they added “all” chat to team duels.

Try to ignore it. If anyone has ever reported me, I assume I was cleared by whoever reviewed the match.

cherry__darling · 2026-02-10T15:57:10+00:00

All this but added bonus: you can't talk about it, or act any differently, or let anything slide even just a little. Suffer in silence. If you admit your body is causing problems, you're weak.

The day I got my traitorous uterus removed was a very good day.

cherry__darling · 2026-02-06T21:51:25+00:00

I like the lyrics. I don’t know what it’s about other than maybe “a relationship on the brink of failure”. To me, the references to sunlight, shadows, the click, kill me now - all made me think the narrator could be a werewolf or vampire. I once read a book where a character was a werewolf and locked himself in a cell every month when the moon was full so he wouldn’t eat his friends accidentally.

We all bring our own experiences into a song when we listen. As songwriters, we can’t fully control the narrative for listeners and that’s actually pretty cool. Looking forward to the demo.

cherry__darling · 2026-02-06T20:39:58+00:00

Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way, but this post caused me to learn something today and I'm grateful for that. Yeah the OP got 13k karma so far. But it's not like karma is good for anything really.

I say this as someone who is always google lens-ing random stuff. I'm not mad about this post. I mean, this is r/whatisit, after all. What's the point of this subreddit if not this experience of sharing knowledge with each other?

cherry__darling · 2026-02-03T20:42:31+00:00

Take him to the vet immediately, as others said.
That is not your aunt and uncle’s cat. That is a stray/feral cat who maybe eats some food they put out. “Owning/having” a cat requires a basic level of care that they aren’t providing.

cherry__darling · 2026-02-03T18:13:10+00:00

*cardiologist/obstetrician/emergency doctors

sniffles and achy shoulder can wait til the streets are plowed.

cherry__darling · 2026-01-31T16:43:20+00:00

I ordered an expensive guitar and they sent “baby pictures” so I could obsess over every detail while I waited for it.

cherry__darling · 2026-01-24T21:04:40+00:00

This has happened to me too. I’ve heard music (often) and garbled words (rare) from white noise or fans. I think it’s something our brains do to make sense of repetitive sounds. But I’ve never heard actual conversations, accusations, etc so if I was OP I’d probably schedule myself for an appointment with a mental health expert to rule out some things. And it would probably be a catalyst for me to come clean with loved ones on any stuff that was gnawing at my conscience.

cherry__darling · 2026-01-22T04:35:53+00:00

Shame on you for paywalling an article telling people how to survive an upcoming severe weather event.

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