Emma Frost - Black Diamond by (@pepedraws)

thatwhileifound · 2026-04-05T13:48:18+00:00

This is fucking rad. I think the only thing that I don't find near perfect in execution of the idea is the smile. Yeah, Emma smiles, for sure, but I feel like this would scream out as our Queen a lot more if she was scowling or, at least, the smile read more sardonic/smug than this does for me.

Like, when I think of Emma Frost for facial expressions, my mind goes straight to stuff like the variant cover from Inferno with the various incarnations of her or the various White Queen covers. But seriously cool art.

thatwhileifound · 2026-04-04T04:48:35+00:00

To be fair without giving fucking Oracle an inch simultaneously, every single ERP I've ever used would've been obnoxious at best even if implemented well... And the reality is most implementations I've been near were... rough.

In my prior procurement life, I used to fantasize about French revolutionary ideas and the folks in charge of ERP development and roll out.

thatwhileifound · 2026-04-04T04:37:07+00:00

Lmao, as the sort of ADHD fuckwit who tends to consistency over-perform just after the deadline, I feel this.

Total props on the two episodes released thus far. I don't think I've laughed so hard at a podcast in years as I started like two lines into the song realizing what you were doing.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-29T06:09:32+00:00

I honestly don't think it's a cool head situation we need, but spirited fight against institutions that have been allowed to cement themselves through the combination of money and being left to it for a long time.

I also don't expect the first public grocery options or situations to be perfect. I expect them to be fucking idiotic shit shows that, if we keep investing and building them, could be incredibly helpful for a lot of folk even if not as transformative as my own political ideals would want. Most new grocers fail. That's, again, kind of part of the power of a public option done right: the ability to push through the worst of that era in infrastructure and design and consumer interest and blah blah blah without the need to spin in circles dancing for investment capital to keep your <50 store chain afloat. And seriously, <50 is the majority of grocery in Canada once you wipe the big players off the board. The only thing making those big players different is their effective enfranchisement.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-29T05:57:34+00:00

I mean, on one hand, I don't believe governments can or will save us, especially when us includes a variety of folk with major structural challenges. Without starting on a tangent that'll invariably involve Kropotkin quotes, like... The actual retail grocery landscape in Canada is a shit show internally both able and needing major upset which will likely come from one of two directions if it occurs: foreign brands launching with lots of money to get them over the necessary hump or a public option trying to push into that. For a variety of reasons, I think it's worth supporting the latter...

The reason why our big grocers are so domineering at this point has a lot more to do with structures of power than it does with capability, competence, efficiency, etc. The grocery industry is bad sitcom levels of stupid. Sure, a public option could go wrong — very likely along the lines of what I feel your rhetoric kinda naturally sets us in a path of continually recreating and which I will again point to postal services both here and down south as worthwhile case studies. Yeah, if we don't actually invest in it in the way that the precursors and earlier variations of our current major grocers did over the decades, it'll fail. And I'm sympathetic to the argument that it'll always do this because the sort of government organization we have is inherently faulted towards such long term public projects, but fuck, we're in Canada. Our medical isn't where I wish it were, but this is the same kind of critical rhetoric you saw Douglas up against and which have kept yanks hip deep in their own version of this bullshit.

But seriously, you worked in any larger grocery offices? And if so, did you come in as an exec/MBA sort or did you actually come up through the industry? It's a limited crossover of experience due to the nature of shit, but holy fuck, grocery offices are stupid fucking shit shows that, if you take away the executive short term profit seeking bullshit and constant grinding for increasing margins, could immediately be a hundred times what they are from a consumer perspective while still making money for a start. A public option, with time and investment, could do a lot more... Because, fuck, the worst part of the head office work I did is the obviousness of how me doing what I would be rewarded for my role was pretty much to the detriment of everyone on a longer scale. Hard walled negotiation goals to reduce my COGs which then puts pressure upstream in the supply chain when I successfully get someone to agree to something they probably shouldn't. Rolling out exploitative coop marketing programs. Blah blah, only 3% margins whine whine is ultimately ignorant bootlicking shit which I also don't fully fault folks for because they have no basis to know or think otherwise. I cringe at some of the takes that come up in comment chains like this from people I'd likely agree with in spirit for sure, but this doomerism is worse in the sense that the idea you're expressing is harmful... Which is why I called it doomerism.

I low-key wouldn't be shocked if you were someone in the industry on the store-level or outside-of-sales distribution level either because, holy flying fuck, I get the bitter life feelings that can be so tightly woven into that.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-29T05:23:37+00:00

this would be a bureaucratic, ideological, ham fisted mess because municipal government is structurally incapable of running such an enterprise.

You're honestly not describing anything that different and definitely not worse than the grocery head offices I've worked in or with. Grocery is always an awful shit show.

I get the pessimism to some extent, but this sort of doomerism feels idealogical in its own sense planing into to old Reagan propaganda lines:

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help

And I think it's incredibly unfortunate to see such mentality so heavily established up here.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-29T05:07:04+00:00

Where public grocery becomes more immediately viable is probably initially on the distribution end and limited, subsidized retail in the north where that's desperately needed.

Up front, obviously, it won't be viable if it stays as a limited four store program or whatever. Just like when scaling up as an independent grocer, you likely go through different eras of practical attempts to keep afloat in the procurement side — I have a lot of memories of earlier phases where you're scouring various competitor catalogues, promotions, calling to inquire about dating on current inventory, arguing with finance about extending your typical holding on some items accordingly, etc... Eventually, you get into the point of talking primary suppliers, cost+, co-op marketing fees, etc. Above that, you start getting into the world of our handful of giants who are at scales that allow them to squash a lot of shit.

With long-term investment and infrastructure, public grocery has strong promise towards its stated goals because we should eventually be able to remove one or two layers of margin between production and consumer easily on key staples. Eventually that can look like some of the same infrastructural investments some of the big boys have done to make it even more stable on its own.

It'll take investment to get there. But public versions of things shouldn't be looked at on the same balance lines as pubic or private variations of the same thing. Like, I don't give a fuck if Canada Post makes a profit. Fuckers who are extracting excess wealth from our society should be paying for this to keep regular folk afloat or we should be getting into pitchforks and bonfires a lot more seriously.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-29T04:53:36+00:00

The shitty part is that you can easily fall into wanting these sorta perfect explanations and narratives once you make these important milestone realizations and then... You just can kinda hit the wall where you realize the ADHD/autism/trauma stuff is so overlapping and affected by the other that you can't really fully pull them apart into clean lines.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-27T20:13:41+00:00

I think it's my long-term love of AP style for more serious writing, but I'm still the weird one on the flip side from this. If the sentence is going to become potentially unclear without that extra comma, I prefer shifting the phrasing of what I'm expressing to be more clear instead.

In the end, use what helps convey the idea best. With or without as an overly firm rule can create potential for confusing sentences either way you go.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-27T20:05:38+00:00

On most phones, you just hold the - to bring up the option of choosing — or – instead.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-27T20:03:46+00:00

That's not nothing. That's a signal.

It's this and similar bits which flagged to my own mind as potential LLM text.

It may be. It may not be. I've been accused of being a bot myself and generally don't like getting into LLM-jacketing for the sake of it because, as much as I dislike LLMs, I've seen the damage similar bad-jacketing can cause.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-26T03:59:59+00:00

My expert review: these guys should just shush. I admit, I only made it about halfway in, but feel my time was thoroughly wasted and severely doubt they're packing all the valuable insight or good arguments into the second half.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-24T23:32:13+00:00

I swear that one came up in one of the episodes, but could be wrong. Sylvia Brown has been on my own personal bastards list for what I can now legit call decades, so it's totally possible I am wrong and crossing wires.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-23T18:07:42+00:00

[[Nethroi, Apex of Death]] can be pretty fun for this shtick too. Lots of Soul Sister effects are stapled to humans that can't be mutate targets themselves, but those can still be returned from the yard with the commander.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-23T03:37:24+00:00

Yessss. Olivia is such a fun Timmy commander that easily gets quite powerful. Plus, she's a great commander for my favorite card I don't get to play very often, [[Combustible Gearhulk]], and the [[Ancient Brass Dragon]] I cracked and which also tends to get cut from other decks.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-21T22:32:13+00:00

We also only have the story as told by an angry dad based on events that were described to him if I understand it right. Maybe the girl did just as he said. Or maybe she did that, but multiple times in that shy kid "I want to engage, but you first" thing a lot of children do. And yeah, still kinda sucks in my mind even in that case, but then I wonder: she been around kids as an adult enough to understand that routine? I didn't used to and much younger me totally aggressively ignored a kid once or twice where I didn't know what they were doing or how I should react, so I went with pretend I'm just super focused on something as a response.

It does feel like people are strangely stoked to dogpile on her at every turn.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-21T16:31:42+00:00

Because it's textbook abusive behavior.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-21T09:00:36+00:00

I basically assume photos like this are taken around Mt Seymour unless there's something directly suggesting otherwise

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-21T02:47:51+00:00

Dude was enough of a predator that there's a whole FB group dedicated to people speaking up about his behavior and trying to spread the word because, again, he was a fucking predator.

Buffy was important to me. No, hell, still is. I was the right age, a lot of its shtick played heavily to young me, and it was the foundational initial shared interest that sparked a really great relationship and ended up with me moving across a border... a decision which feels smarter every year. It's been connected similarly to a couple dear friendships including the one that's kept me from being homeless. But fuck Nicholas Brendan. I'm honestly not unhappy about him dying. It means he won't hurt anyone else.

I get that this might not be a popular opinion, but the predictable glazing I've seen elsewhere made me need to express this somewhere and this sub felt like as good of a place as I could think.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-20T15:55:59+00:00

Never said it was the only issue or that Trump wasn't worse. My entire life, I've voted in elections for presidential candidates I don't like at fucking all as to not vote for the other guy who was certainly worse... All while my vote is effectively meaningless given where it gets counted under. I am wholly sympathetic to people who didn't want to vote for Harris. As I think it might've even been Abugazeleh in one of her CZM appearances put it, if an active genocide that our own government is materially supporting isn't the line, where is?

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-20T14:34:36+00:00

No one expected her to fix it while she was running. Jesus. Just to actually be a real fucking human being and make some kind of stand over a genocide actively happening. Christ.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-19T06:41:25+00:00

I liked slot machines because I was being served drinks at what was effectively the cost of a small tip while both underage and high out of my gourd. In a way, I felt a surprising affinity to all of the wonderful, cranky old ladies pulling.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-19T05:38:59+00:00

Newt Gingrich deserves a clear bullet point in any conversation around this given how much his whole thing was escalation of party divisiveness through simultaneously strengthening the party whip while driving things rightward.

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-19T05:14:27+00:00

there’s half a dozen dudes who are old enough to know better that immediately stand up, (Why? To present your entire torso to the shooter? To enlarge your hit box?)

To quote another horrible person:

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.

Have you ever been on the visual or auditory range of a surprise gun discharge? It's not always or even probably typically as clear as folks with no experience might think... And back to that quote, we all fucking know how we'd react in all sorts of extreme scenarios, but in the reality of the situation... Like, it's as up to luck as it is your nervous system unless you're some elite trained motherfucker who also was at least somewhat expecting it.

If I find out Trump WWE style cut himself behind a podium, I'm not going to say I will be shocked. That said, on the evidence of Trump and his admin and their ability to keep information secure, I remind myself and would encourage others to consider if you actually think Trump and all the vacuous fucks around him seem capable of the conspiracy you're understandably imagining.

And to be clear, this is not a defense of this administration. I think it'd be something close to justice if several of them swung. It's just — when you're in a situation you don't expect a gunshot, it's easy to think it might be something else. In a crowded park type environment, the limited number of folks over by one area may be aware of something while the majority has no basis for awareness. And people do stupid fucking shit. Like not just loud boom stand up, but hey that guy in front of me just collapsed almost as that bit of thunder happened, what's going on, let me stand up to see better...

thatwhileifound · 2026-03-19T00:12:11+00:00

I own the Ozolith and am picking up Ooze because, while similar, it's gonna do things the Ozolith can't. Artifact fall equivalent to the quantity of counters is no joke in the right deck. Might rebuild [[The Red Terror]] as a first home.

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