Bard spotting on Bluesky 31 January 2025

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

I watched a documentary about the kid who played Tetris all the way to the game crashing at level 256, & this is what I learned:

The designers expected people to crash out at lvl 29

The I piece on the NES shows up slightly less often than 4 of the other 5 pieces

Some levels are monochrome …

Demi-Semiramis (@nataliereed84.bsky.social):

Mathematicians figured out that even without the level 256 limit, Tetris cannot be sustained infinitely, because eventually a sequence of blocks comes along that cannot be cleared.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Especially if I'm playing

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

I watched a documentary about the kid who played Tetris all the way to the game crashing at level 256, & this is what I learned:

The designers expected people to crash out at lvl 29

The I piece on the NES shows up slightly less often than 4 of the other 5 pieces

Some levels are monochrome …

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Some levels require more than 800 lines be completed to finish the level (!)

The NES implementation uses a "small" static PRNG table which dictates which piece comes up next, so "frame perfect" play at lvl 29 & up, they can sometimes know which pieces are coming far in advance b/c patterns

Uncut Femmes (@juliagiantrat.bsky.social):

Other trans people, give me your weird gender thoughts:

How do you conceptualize your pre-transition self?

Did you "kill" [deadname] so the real You could live?

Did You just become different?

Do you hate or love [deadname]? Or something in between? Has that feeling changed with time?

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

thank you, it's a really interesting and productive prompt. In different circumstances, I'd share my thoughts publicly. Thanks again.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Like, as far as "things I've already said in public" about this, my egg-crack-dissolve incident involved a very unpleasant ego death experience, and it is extremely difficult for me to relate to the person I was 20, 30 years ago. That difficulty may be from time passing, or from trauma. Hard to say.

gwen ever (@wheneverends.bsky.social):

i have no love of christianity

but jesus would have washed our feet with his hair

and you fricking know it

gwen ever (@wheneverends.bsky.social):

joy is my battle cry

love is my weapon

you should fear me

i'll destroy your way of life

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Is that the secret to his awesome curls

gwen ever (@wheneverends.bsky.social):

i'd try it

probably used olive oil or oil based soap

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

About thirty years ago I walked away from what was probably the highest pay-to-actual-labour-ratio job I'd stumbled into - systems operations in the health care industry - specifically because the team lead made it clear the weekly trip to Hooters was their Team Building Exercise

NDNchick4Decency (@exilednomo.bsky.social):

🤮

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

It was sooooo so ick

I tried to carry on through but that was not tenable

NDNchick4Decency (@exilednomo.bsky.social):

It's beyond awful. And now they all got a license to do even much worse

mel 𐂂 (@mel.bzky.team):

WATCH OUT INTERACTING WITH BRITISH PEOPLE: IT MAY SEEM SAFE AT FIRST, BUT BEFORE YOU KNOW IT YOU WILL FIND YOURSELF SAYING "RECKON" INSTEAD OF "THINK"

Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief (@katie.bzky.team):

WAIT NO I SAY RECKON IT'S NOT BRITISH

mel 𐂂 (@mel.bzky.team):

YEAH SURE KATHERINE TIGHTPUSSINGTON SOUNDS CONVINCING

mel 𐂂 (@mel.bzky.team):

GO BACK TO BRIGHTON

mel 𐂂 (@mel.bzky.team):

STOP BEING A BRIT IN MY MENTIONS

Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief (@katie.bzky.team):

NOOOOOOO STOP I'M NOT

matt (@robowookie.bsky.social):

reading way too much dorley

Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief (@katie.bzky.team):

no such thing

matt (@robowookie.bsky.social):

I think 'becoming a britaboo' would be too much 🤭

Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief (@katie.bzky.team):

I'M NOT

liv (@livfreeorcry.gay):

SHOW MORE

🫴🏻

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Trump says the trainee trooper pilot was at fault, y'all

GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com):

if trump wants to blame the troops after installing a drunk, male feminist national guardsman at the pentagon and then telling them that he's going to strip the commissaries and schools from their bases, i won't stop him

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Trump is ignoring economists, y'all

Guardian US (@us.theguardian.com):

As Donald Trump threatens to slap steep tariffs on many countries, he is boasting that his taxes on imports will be a boon to the US economy, but most economists strongly disagree.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

'Trump is [doing something extremely unwise], y'all' but in a way that's indistinguishable between bad news, good news, sarcasm, and celebration is as far as that attempt at a meme developed in my head.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

I don't believe it will make things better to play out that regular expression

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

What did Google fricking expect?

MurphyPop (@murphypop.bsky.social):

Holy shit when I just tried this it worked.

The power of weird. The strength of profanity. All hail getting strange with it.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Trump doesn't think doctors should know how to test for, treat, and prevent HIV, y'all

Brad Heath (@bradheath.bsky.social):

From @reuters.com: The CDC and other health agencies are scrubbing webpages about transgender issues, risky behaviors by children and telling doctors how to test for and treat HIV as the Trump administration cracks down on what it calls "gender ideology."

www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

About thirty years ago I walked away from what was probably the highest pay-to-actual-labour-ratio job I'd stumbled into - systems operations in the health care industry - specifically because the team lead made it clear the weekly trip to Hooters was their Team Building Exercise

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

I wasn't out, then. I was outwardly a skinny, typical nerd guy. Ugly Government Issue eyeglasses and all.

The pay was enough to make payments on a car, house, student loans, food, etc etc etc

Others had been there for a decade+, so excellent job security

I just couldn't do the Misogyny

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Am I to understand that someone who, at some point past, publicly came out as at minimum Gender Non Conforming, saying "Hey, I want to try [masc pronouns]", and selfdescribed as a trans identity,

has published a fiction piece with a problematic fictional character —?

& is now being pilloried?

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Did we not (at minimum) already cover this social parametric space once before, with Isabel Fall?

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Let me rephrase:

Don't. Fricking. Do. This.

Don't pillory trans / GNC people who write & publish fiction - even contemporary social satire / commentary fiction - which just so happens to have a transgender villain.

Don't build that door.

Because it will be used by 'phobes to socially murder.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

And let me be clear:

I do not give a single frick what you think you read into the author's intentions as you demanded the author is cisgender and has no internal insight and no lived experience and no right to …

To what? TO WHAT? NO RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH??!?

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

I JUST READ SOMEONE WHO BROKE OUT A CHARACTER COUNT, TO PERFORM LITERARY PHRENOLOGY ON A PIECE OF FICTION, IN PURSUIT OF A PURPORTED ARGUMENT OF MALINTENT ON THE PART OF THE AUTHOR

FRICKING

CALIPERS

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

In Season 1, Episode 3, IIRC, they have a "flashback sequence", following June to a coffee shoppe, on the street, to her work, where she and all the other women are constructively terminated, "not fired"

IMO trans bathroom bans are just … constructive termination

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

The "prioritise service to areas with higher birth rates" part of the EOs, is some sheer Handmaid's Tale bullshit

They really are gunning for a Republic of Gilead

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

They're piloting it on trans people, because they're prying open the gap, testing for pushback, seeing what will stick, before going for all LGBTQ, then repealing / finishing gutting the 14th, then …

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

They have made no secret that they want to carve the world up into religiostates and ethnostates

/r/dallas is a discussion forum with 4 mods, down from 7 mods 5 years ago, and an unacceptable long running policy and practice that can be expressed as "Moderating here comes after job, commute, cooking, family, sleep, holidays, exercise, naps, and blowing our noses".