“You’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, my friend.” Is such a brilliant line that sounds like it came outta the cigarette addled mouth of some noir detective interrogating a slimy perp, but no, it was actually Justin McElroy admonishing his brother’s driving skills in American Truck Simulator™️ and I think it’s beautiful how we can all just say words
Rachel: uh, and- and it’s something that I’ve noticed like, when I saw these three things about like- empathy, positivity, and strong emotional connections, it kinda helped me highlight… which components were missing from my previous relationships and kind of-
Griffin: you scared the living- the ever living fucking- mother fucking-
Rachel: *laughing*
Griffin: -fucking shit out of me and I shit my pants and almost died.
Rachel: *still laughing*
Griffin: are you kidding me? Doing a sentence like that? On a podcast? I almost shit my fucking butt off- are you kidding me? “It helped me realize something-“ this is our last episode of Wonderful!- are you kidding me?
Rachel: *laughing* I’m sorry
Griffin: Jesus Christ-
Rachel: *still laughing* helped me realize what was missing from my previous relationships-
Griffin: okay, but you understand that you sent shockwaves through the whole- like people were writing Facebook posts like, “WHAT THE FU- oh.”
Rachel: why would I bring you to this podcast to tear you-
Griffin: i don’t know! Last week you brought our sexual relations- our sexual conquest into the thing, I thought that “maybe Rachel is doing a bold new style of podcasting”
Rachel: *laughing* Griffin, I’m taking this opportunity…
Griffin: yeah, wowzers
Rachel: no, I was gonna say that it makes me realize why ours works so well
Griffin: oh, thank God
Rachel: ‘cause we are very empathetic with each other, we do compliment each other often-
Griffin: yeah
Rachel: and-
Griffin: sex power is off the charts
Rachel: -we’re positive
Griffin: yeah, we can’t even quantify our sex power
Rachel: yeahh, sex power
Griffin: blew up the bedroom yesterday
Rachel: ah, jeez
Griffin: a wave of super sonic force shot out of my body like I was-
Rachel: well you don’t have to tell out listeners, they probably felt it
Griffin: oh, no, apparently that’s what we do on this show, is tell them about my super sonic sex energy like Blanka from Street Fighter- shooting out of my body like electricity, tearing off the wall paper
Rachel: i don’t know who Blanka is
Griffin: that’s okay, he’s a big green monster from Street Fighter. He’s cool. He does this power where he crouches down and shoots electricity out of his body and like, y’know, E. Honda tries to punch him but gets a big shock
Rachel: you with your sex power, you’re more like Sheet Fighter
Beautiful big almond eye, realistic and full of expression as she gazes gently at you. Elbowed antennae and delicately segmented legs and body. Gorgeous pearlescent sheen like she is glowing. This ant moisturizes. This ant is round and huggable. This ant is a star. 11/10.
Beautifully detailed, lifelike pose but with an unexpected neck and odd antennae, perhaps scared straight. Her eyes suggest she has seen things. Her expression confirms she has seen too much. She is haunted and I want to know more. 7/10.
Floppy antenna, pointy muppet face, oddly posed legs. What is she? She has no waist. May be she is some kind of bee in disguise? I find her unsettling. 3/10.
This ant has an unexplained, double-jointed thorax, and no evidence of a waist. Her four-footed pose suggests that she a centaur rather than an ant. Centaur ants would be cool. I’m not sure what was intended here. 2/10.
Good first impression, kind of bland in the details. This ant has no particular waist to speak of, floppy rather than elbowed antennae, and an inexpressive face. Her color scheme is soft and hazy. I like the sharp angles of her stylishly sophisticated legs. This ant may not know quite were she is going, but she knows how she is getting there. 6/10.
Were you even trying. 0/10
Gasp! This ant is elegant. This ant has a beautiful tapered thorax, a segmented abdomen, alert, elbowed antennae, and a light-footed pose. This ant’s face suggests curiosity and a desire to explore the world. This ant inspires me. I want to be like her. 10/10
3-legged, waistless centaur-ant with strange, limp antennae and a beak. I don’t know what this is? It kind of reminds me of a Hork-Bajir. 1/10, not an ant.
This ant… makes me sad. All of her legs are broken. The MS Paint art style and gradient abuse convey distress. She has a duck beak. Despite this, her expression suggests perseverance and determined cheerfulness. I want this ant to have a better life. I am rooting for her. 3/10
This ant is a bold and challenging mixture of photorealism and caricature. She is broad and low-built and seems very sturdy. She looks like she would help you move. This ant is a dependable friend. 9/10
A picture of an ant from a children’s book. She is wearing little boots. This ant is wrong in every way, and yet I can’t stay mad at her. 7/10
An interesting, top-down view of an ant; her legs are positioned with slightly jarring symmetry. Nevertheless, her overall impression is that of a graceful, stylized design, like a pictograph. She is suitable for adorning fine garments and jewelry or perhaps gracing the walls of a tiny ant church. I like this minimalist ant. 8/10.
A tweet that reads “just a quick reminder that a society exists to serve the people within it. there’s no such thing as a person being ‘useless’ to a society, only a society that is useless to a person”
“We can rebuild her… We have the technology… We know the way!”
A few months ago I ripped apart a Moana doll and made it into a stop-motion puppet using a kinetic armature kit.
The walk cycle above was the first thing I animated with this puppet, and was just a throw-away practice test with no green screen. I had never done a walk cycle in stop-motion before and soon discovered how difficult animating a straight-ahead cycle within a localized space with no retakes could be.
I showed the cycle to my dad while he was holding my Moana puppet in his hand and he seemed more impressed with this crappy test than the actual animation I did on the movie! I think the combination of him holding the puppet, and then seeing it come to life on the video before him was what blew him away. I guess that’s the appeal and magic of stop-motion. :)
Here’s a second test I animated for fun:
I read that it’s best to have the foot joints nice and tight to hold the weight of the puppet, and have the arms looser. It’s amazing how much weight those toe and foot ball-joints could hold for the falling poses:
Before Steven was born Amethyst used to say ‘fuck’ all the time & so when he was a baby Greg had to sit her down and explain that she has to stop swearing around Steven because he’s young & impressionable
So Amethyst is like “but that’s my favourite word, when will be stop being young & impressionable so I can say it again??”
And Greg is like “uhh I don’t know, 15 I guess? 15 is probably old enough”
“Got it”
flash forward to Steven’s fifteenth birthday and he is woken at dawn by Amethyst yelling “wake the FUCK up Steven it’s FUCKING TIME”
& he spends the entire day losing his mind
Steven: w-what’s happening
Garnet: *deadpan* Amethyst just got her favourite word back
Amethyst: *running around the house* FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK
Greg: what’s going on
Amethyst: you said once Steven was 15 I could say fuck again
Greg, who only hazily recalls the conversation in question: ……i DID?
Amethyst: *runs outside* FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK *distant sounds of spooked birds*
Pearl: Steven the *whispering* F-word is a bad word that Amethyst USED to say before-
Steven: I know what fuck means Pearl
Amethyst: *stopping dead in her tracks* WHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATT??
Pearl: who taught you that word mister!!
Steven: um… Lars and Sadie… *mumbling* five years ago…
Amethyst: I’ve been denying myself my favourite word for FIVE YEARS for NOTHING??
Greg: uh even if he knows what it means it’s still not really appropriate for you t-
