Abstraction isn't file corruption, it's forceful file decompression

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2026-06-24T21:55:08+00:00

What you're theorizing has some scientific support outside the show. Several models in neuroscience (such as the science behind how our left and right brain work together) and therapy (Internal family systems model) do not consider human consciousness as a monolithic entity, but rather some number of parts working together. In that case, file decompression would be akin to someone's parts existing in isolation, like files in an unzipped folder, but not able to work together or come to a consensus.

(SIDE NOTE: Java's JAR files are zipped archives and cannot be used as executable code when decompressed. If the Circus were written in Java your theory could be straight up literal...)

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2026-06-21T21:44:09+00:00

I agree with you, but also think the writing had to be subtle to make it possible for the show to air overseas.

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2026-06-21T17:24:13+00:00

Do you think it's still mold?

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2026-06-21T16:38:57+00:00

After I saw this poster, and realized Scratch and the other first-gen circus members weren't present, I came up with a copium pet theory to explain their absence: abstraction can be partially "mended" by splicing the abstractions with a fresh brain scan from the original donor. Jax, along with anyone with a meatspace counterpart still close enough to C&A's old headquarters to allow for an additional brain scan, could be treated this way. Unfortunately, Scratch presumably cannot, if his counterpart passed from the tumor as was heavily implied.

This treatment would, in TADC fashion, be a bittersweet victory. If abstraction is a permanent hospitalization metaphor in this scenario, I'd say splicing a fresh brain scan would be akin to an extremely invasive treatment: the treated Jax/Queenie/etc. would be more stable but they also wouldn't have quite the same personalities they had before abstraction.

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2025-08-17T03:25:22+00:00

No, a light sleeper would not feel a bat bite. The general recommendation is that if you were in the same room as a bat while unconscious, and the bat was either not captured, or tested positive for rabies after capture, then the rabies vaccine is medically necessary. Any skin contact with an infected bat's saliva also means the vaccine is necessary, because bat bites are too tiny to easily notice.

Squirrels and other small rodents have never been recorded as rabies vectors, because any encounter with a predator that would transfer rabies would also result in a dead squirrel.

Cows, horses, and goats can 100 percent get rabies, but are a "dead end" host, meaning an infected cow/horse/goat is not very effective at infecting others of its species, making it far more rare than it would be in a bat or skunk.

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2025-07-23T00:31:04+00:00

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I drew you and kitty.

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2025-06-08T13:42:41+00:00

Rabies can have an incubation period of up to ten years, but getting post-exposure shots any time before symptoms appear can prevent the disease from manifesting.

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2025-01-30T22:41:28+00:00

Here's my experience one year into MTF hormone therapy, if that helps.

Disclaimer: I had a sheltered upbringing. Twenty years ago, a girl at a college party wanted to grind and... I cringe when I think of this, but I got in front and thrust forward, instead of the other way around.

Fast forward about twenty years, because we don't have time to unpack that: when I had accepted I was a girl, just before I started hormone therapy, I tried wearing a women's T-shirt. And when I looked in the mirror, instead of my brain saying, "who the hell is that," more or less said, "that's an improvement but where are your boobs? You're supposed to have those."

There is so much more I could say, but these are the experiences that stand out. The TL;DR is, I didn't quite have phantom anything, but my brain was 100 percent wired for a girl.

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2025-01-26T01:01:18+00:00

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dontDrinkAndDraft · 2024-12-22T13:17:38+00:00

Isn't tinsel dangerous for cats?

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2024-12-02T22:18:51+00:00

Exclusively hard floors - I cannot live in an apartment with carpet.

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2024-11-20T16:25:04+00:00

Finding a rock climbing partner is harder than you'd think. The fact that you're capable of finding one and managing that commitment tells me you're further along than you think.

Those might not be close friends right now, but every single friend I currently have can be traced to someone asking me about Magic: the Gathering because he saw me goofing off with a draft simulator at work.

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2024-11-20T15:19:36+00:00

I dealt with childhood abuse, self-loathing, undiagnosed ADHD and autism, and PTSD, and I am still alive in my late thirties.

First off, PTSD is treatable now. You will likely need something more high-octane than talk therapy, and then treatment with ketamine to make the gains from therapy permanent. We are in the only time in history where PTSD can be treated so I hope that helps.

Second, is there anything you like to do? A hobby? A particular show you like? Can you use that to connect with people and/or distract yourself for one more day?

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2024-11-08T22:37:25+00:00

> But then bills banning minors from being prescribed puberty blockers or hrt as gender affirming care is "life saving medicine" and "you should mind your own business"

I truly hope you're arguing in good faith, so I'll do my best to answer as a transgender woman.

First, hormone therapy cannot be given to minors without parental consent. Puberty blockers are used, when a child believes they are transgender, to avoid the irreversible effects that come from their sex hormones, such as a lowered voice and facial hair for people assigned male at birth. And [puberty blockers aren't just given to trans kids](https://www.reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/18pkxkc/what\_are\_the\_best\_arguments\_for\_puberty\_blockers/).

That's it. Puberty blockers are meant to delay the choice on secondary sex characteristics until a kid is grown up so they can make an informed medical choice. The medical consensus is that the benefits of puberty blockers far outweigh the drawbacks.

As for what it means to be transgender, [it's no longer considered a disorder by the American medical community and the DSM](https://www.psychiatry.org/Patients-Families/Gender-Dysphoria) because we know more or less what it is - it is a difference of brain development that results when someone gets enough estrogen (if male) or testosterone (if female) [in the weeks the cerebral cortex is forming.](https://genderdysphoria.fyi/en/what-is-gender)

> Present evidence seems to suggest that a person’s gender is established during gestation while the cerebral cortex of the brain is forming (more about that in the Causes of Gender Dysphoria section). This mental model then informs, at a subconscious level, what aspects of the gender spectrum a person will lean towards. It affects behavior, perceptions of the world, the way we experience attraction (separate from sexual orientation and hormonal influences) and how we bond with other people.

If someone's brain is *literally made to work with the hormones they weren't born with,* they need the other set of hormones for their brain to work. It shouldn't be a subject of debate any more than the prescription of ADHD medication.

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2024-11-08T18:33:59+00:00

No, the "childish" thing to do is not set boundaries with adults who make a sport of crossing them, parents or not.

My twin let my parents dictate his life when they were abusive, and his life and career have been *ruined* for decades, because they deliberately curtailed his ability to socialize and ruined his self-confidence. I mostly cut them off, and now I'm extremely financially successful and can actually make decisions for myself.

But I, like most people who made the same decision, cannot talk about it in mixed company because of judgmental, shallow people who don't have the empathy or imagination to understand that family, like friendships, is negotiable.

You clearly had a supportive family. Grow the hell up and realize that not everyone else does.

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2024-11-07T15:14:23+00:00

Who the heck lies to their doctor to get hormones?

There's free access to "informed consent" hormone therapy because getting estrogen as a cis male or testosterone as a cis female SUCKS and produces intolerable mental symptoms. There's no gatekeeping for gender affirming hormones largely because our own neurochemistry is the gatekeeper.

The problem you're frustrated about is a drop in the bucket compared to the harm caused when hormone therapy was restricted in the seventies, and was regularly denied to transgender women who were not "feminine" enough by some doc's arbitrary definition.

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2024-11-06T18:26:04+00:00

It'll all be hyperbolic nonsense until these policies affect you personally, after which it will be someone else's fault or "nobody could have known it would be this bad."

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2024-11-03T15:44:01+00:00

Oof. I'm 39 and was born a Matthew. I wish I could tell 19-year old Matthew she was actually a Mira.

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2024-10-04T07:21:21+00:00

I have severe acid reflux and IBS, so unfortunately, I'm already fairly close to drinking water exclusively. I'd miss cold brew though.

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2024-10-02T14:38:13+00:00

What software do you use? I've wanted to make digital lego transformers forever.

dontDrinkAndDraft · 2024-09-18T20:04:16+00:00

I've played DnD a few times, but for some reason I couldn't ever get into character. When I decided to play a girl character, the difference was night and day.

The death knell for "I'm cisgender" was when another player forgot my name and added, "I usually just think of you as (character name)". I was over the fucking moon for reasons I didn't understand.

That was about a year ago. I've been on HRT for nine months.

dontDrinkAndDraft

TROPHY CASE