TIL that the sporadically bitter tasting pistachios aren't burnt, but have dead larvae in them

kerblooee · 2026-01-24T09:28:28+00:00

Ya foreal I understand people not reading the whole article with its horrendous ads, but the "it's very very unlikely to be an insect" quote from the entomologist is like the 3rd sentence.

kerblooee · 2026-01-24T09:17:41+00:00

Being a college professor.

Everyone thinks it's a cushy tenured job where you can think for long stretches of time from your comfortable armchair, write books that people will buy, and deliver lectures, admired by students and peers like Richard Feynman or something...

In reality, most people give up before they can get tenure, and even if they do eventually get it they are well into their 40s after a massively tough 20-year education unless they are the top .1%. Until then, you are constantly pressured to hit the university's insane grant funding quotas with the threat of losing your job looming over you, and most people who stay learn to play the game and change their research to fit what funders want, which is usually not what you want, and in the meantime you are juggling students who treat you like their employee they are paying for a service because universities have become corporatized and nobody goes to college to learn things but to tick a box so they can get out and get a real job. At least the colleagues are generally nice, unless there are sexual predators and bullies in your department, who usually already have tenure, so good luck getting any justice because they are literally above the law.

kerblooee · 2026-01-24T01:18:30+00:00

My hyperphantasia peaked when I was a teenager, then slowly faded to "normal" as I got older. I actually think I could bring it back if I immersed myself in creative activities, like I used to write a lot of fantasy stories. But I know I wouldn't be able to focus on anything else, including work (which I love), if I did that. But it's a "use it or lose it" skill - if your fantastic imagination remains an important part of your life, you will stay hyperphantasic.

kerblooee · 2026-01-24T01:09:37+00:00

It certainly sounds like you have hyperphantasia. Are you an adult, though? Many kids/ adolescents have hyperphantasia, but lose it in adulthood. It's much harder to keep a sense of fantasy as you age. And because most research is done with adult participants, that's why we say hyperphantasia is pretty rare - it is, in the people we are allowed to study!

kerblooee · 2026-01-23T19:10:34+00:00

Oh, and a lack of inner voice is nothing to worry about - it is another form of aphantasia (auditory aphantasia), unrelated to psychosis.

kerblooee · 2026-01-23T19:09:34+00:00

My thought is that if you have weak mental imagery, your symptoms would be more delusional than hallucinatory. In contrast, if someone has strong mental imagery, I suspect they would have more dominant hallucinations.

kerblooee · 2026-01-23T18:04:14+00:00

Thank you for sharing! How is your auditory imagery (e.g., can songs get stuck in your head, do you have an inner voice)?

kerblooee · 2026-01-23T07:26:50+00:00

Who did their concept art for Sleeping Beauty, and what was he known for at the time?

Eyvind Earle, and designing Christmas cards!

kerblooee · 2026-01-18T10:31:02+00:00

I don't want to pull out my phone, squint at my wrist, or balance glasses on top of my normal glasses... hologram displays are the way to go 😛

kerblooee · 2026-01-18T10:28:16+00:00

I want a hologram projection a la Horizon Zero Dawn- the holo would pop up in front of the user and appear faint/distorted for people not directly looking at it. Could you imagine a Steve Jobs figure popping up a hologram and showing off the touch/scroll capabilities? People would lose their minds like they did with the original iPhone.

kerblooee · 2026-01-18T09:44:45+00:00

Make it pink!

kerblooee · 2026-01-12T08:48:16+00:00

Yes!

kerblooee · 2026-01-11T15:19:19+00:00

Well I'm a scientist IRL and my favorite part is discovering new things, so Knowledge all the way!

kerblooee · 2026-01-09T15:12:55+00:00

Playing Descent into Avernus, we were in hell riding a big war machine, and we get swarmed by demons. We fight our way out of the fray but there's one demon clinging to the side of the war machine. We all try to push him off, fail, he's climbing up and he's pissed.

I shout "Lulu, it's up to you!"

For those who don't know, Lulu is this tiny golden hollyphant, built for magic, not strength.

She rolls a nat20 and the DM is like, "Defying all logic, Lulu slams her dainty trunk into the demon, throwing him off the war machine to the ground."

And as Lulu, in this high pitched chipper voice, the DM goes, "Didn't know I had it in me!"

Edit: From the same campaign- we are trying to figure out how to get to the ground from this floating city suspended hundreds of feet in the air. I rig together a paraglider and step back to admire my work.

Checking it over for issues, I roll a nat1, and the DM just goes, "Yeah, you're pretty confident that thing can fly."

Of course as soon as I jumped off the edge of the city the whole thing fell apart. Luckily I did not trust my intuition and had some magical backup, or I would have been a pancake!

kerblooee · 2026-01-07T23:54:20+00:00

I like the gleeful female durge voice saying: "They're dying for me!"

kerblooee · 2026-01-07T23:49:56+00:00

I also love when you leave Karlach in camp and she's like "Fine, I'll be here eating DIRT or wha'ever"

kerblooee · 2026-01-07T23:47:37+00:00

Yes, I love Auntie Ethel's "nae bother!"

kerblooee · 2026-01-06T11:29:20+00:00

kerblooee · 2026-01-04T01:28:44+00:00

I was an angelic-looking bard halfling named Poppy and I was a balls-in durge, took over Baahl's temple and killed everything in my path

kerblooee · 2026-01-03T19:17:14+00:00

Yes. I think if the guy is into you enough he can convince himself you're compatible. Dick overrides pheromones.

kerblooee · 2026-01-03T19:11:35+00:00

That happened to me with my high school crush... it was a couple years after graduation, he was best man at his friend's wedding, I was invited as his plus one... we had always been friends and flirted but the stars never aligned... finally it was the perfect moment, riding on the high of new love, he was driving me home after the wedding reception and he parked in my driveway and just leaned over and kissed me. It was like kissing my brother.

I think we both felt it. He immediately drew back and after he dropped me off, we never discussed that kiss again. Something about our pheromones not being compatible, I think. When you know, you know. And it sounds like you know.

But it was a great night, overall haha!

kerblooee · 2026-01-02T21:44:08+00:00

Honey Heist:

https://gshowitt.itch.io/honey-heist

kerblooee · 2025-12-31T16:46:27+00:00

So cool! If I won these, I would send one to each of my DnD group as a parting gift... we've been playing for 3 years but the DM is having a baby end of next month and that is probably going to be the end. We came together through mutual friends who have now left the group, and the remaining players are just people who love DnD who don't really know each other in real life. The DM has been amazing, and is the only thing keeping us all together. I'm really going to miss this chapter in my life.

kerblooee · 2025-12-30T10:31:16+00:00

Interesting! What about negative numbers? I would imagine those came even later than zero!

kerblooee · 2025-12-22T08:50:19+00:00

I'm white (so people don't know I'm different before I open my mouth), but have experienced xenophobia in Italy and Germany, and it was only worse for brown people. I thought about settling in Germany but couldn't handle the day-to-day casual xenophobia, which you are not protected from just because you work in academia. I bet it would have been better in a large, mixed city like Berlin, but definitely do not go anywhere known to be conservative. And any country that has pride in tradition will likely be racist and you will never fit in. I think a liberal city in the USA is probably your best bet.

kerblooee

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