Kyle D. Long

@blatherscribe.bsky.social

437 Followers 397 Following

Writer (unpublished), Egyptologist (unfinished), migraine (continuous), human (probably). Extra-large liminal space. Always add marinara. He/him. Profile thingy is a penglion by HumanDescent. No longer 1.026 TV's Jack Reachers tall.

An "I Go Pogo" mock campaign button: a yellow circle with Pogo Possum's smiling face in the middle, "I Go Pogo" in a fancy P.T. Barnum-esque font above, and "© 1956 Walt Kelly" below.
Elite Dangerous screenshot: a view from the cockpit of a spaceship, with orange-colored holographic displays of ship systems and space radar and whatnot, and ahead, past the struts and bars of the cockpit, a brilliant blue-white neutron star with polar jets up and down and diffraction spikes from the canopy glass right and left.
A screenshot from Elite Dangerous, featuring a slightly battered metallic spaceship that looks as if it might have been rejected from a Star Trek design session (saucer-like front section and engines on wing-like pods at the back), with glowing holographic lines on it for no good purpose, warping toward a reddish supernova remnant, the Jellyfish Nebula.
A bronze head of Sargon, Akkadian king. He's a stern-looking fellow with a long beard hanging in regular curled ringlets. He was apparently Not Popular, as someone has come along and hacked out his eyes, a ritual disfigurement intended to make his afterlife less pleasant.
The employees of Sir-Tech Software in or around 1984. I was not able to find all of their names. It's a group of five men and four women, all white except one gent who is either not white or has a heck of a tan. They're all wearing early '80s businessy attire, so lots of short sleeves and ties, plus a couple of nice suits. The lady in the far right is wearing an Apple rainbow logo T-shirt and a dark skirt. She is clearly the coolest person there.
From the forgotten 1980s TV show Misfits of Science, the main cast, left to right: Johnny B (Mark Thomas Miller), a white man with slicked back hair wearing a black leather jacket and a red T-shirt shirt, his superpowers are shooting lightning and being cool. Gloria Dinallo (Courteney Cox), a white woman in a denim jacket. Her powers are telekinesis and being a "troubled teen." Dr. Billy Hayes (Dean Paul Martin), a fairly nondescript white guy, the scientist trying to figure out what the heck is going on. Dr. Elvin Lincoln (Kevin Peter Hall), a very tall Black scientist whose powers are shrinking (it's funny because he's tall) and wearing the heck out of sweater vests. I did not remember most of this, I had to look it up, and I'm very sorry this has gone on much longer than the silly joke warrants.
The iconic still from A Trip to the Moon (1902), the Moon as a human face with a bullet shaped space capsule lodged in its right eye. The Moon does not appear well pleased.
The FIFA World Cup logo: the trophy itself (a gold monstrosity that apparently looked like two athletes holding up the world to someone who did 1971 levels of drugs) above the letters FIFA in white, both emblazoned over a black vertical 26 on a grey field.
A screenshot of the original concept for Delenn from Babylon 5 (Mira Furlan). A male Minbari (an alien humanoid species notable for a somewhat angular face, hairless head which in this version had blueish leopard spots on top, and a large ornate bone structure around the back of the head), he is looking at you with an enigmatic, evaluating expression. The character eventually enters a chrysalis and emerges as a blending of human and Minbari. The original concept was to have him male as a full Minbari, and transition to female in the chrysalis. Alas, the execs were cowards, and after the pilot Delenn's makeup was adjusted to make her a female Minbari who does not change gender in the chrysalis.
A Caspar Milquetoast cartoon labeled, "The wind blows off his hat." Mr. Milquetoast, a thin older white man with short white hair and a mustache, looks with some concern at his hat, which has been blown off his head to land next to a "Keep Off the Grass" sign. He's saying, "Oh, well, I had to buy a new hat anyway, might as well get one to-day." R point being that Mr. Milquetoast is a weak individual who avoids any form of confrontation, even with inanimate objects and nonsensical rules, even at personal cost.
A post-apocalyptic diner I made in Fallout 4. It has a decayed nuclear-obliterated 1950s retrofuture ambience: rounded corners, metal roof, walk-up outside counters, black and white checkerboard linoleum, retro appliances. Blue neon letters on the red and blue awning proclaim it Sheffield's. Inside, Sheffield, a former Nuka Cola addict now decked out in (I think) a vault suit, stands behind the counter taking orders from a variety of wasteland denizens including a hovering Mr. Handy robot.
The cast of the 1980s show Robin of Sherwood in award-winning period-accurate furs and homespun. Left to right are: Will "Grumpy" Scarlet (Ray Winstone), Little John (Clive Mantle), Much (Peter Llewellyn Williams), Lady Marian (Judi Trott), Robin of Loxley (Michael Praed), Edward of Wickham (Jeremy "Boba Fett" Bulloch), Friar Tuck (Phil Rose), and Nasir's shoulder (Mark Ryan's shoulder). Not pictured: Other Robin Hood (Robert of Huntingdon, aka Jason "Yes, That Connery" Connery).
Screenshot from Whatever showing the beginning of a paragraph at left and John Scalzi's smiling face with his name under it at right, thus appearing to say, "There have always been John Scalzi."
Pope Leo in his white robes holding a microphone close, with his eyes closed, looking like he's singing.
A statue of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, showing him fairly realistically, with the long limbs and face and heavy hips and bellies often seen in Marfan's Syndrome patients (a condition of which I am in no way making light).
A hand-painted fountain pen mostly in shades of brown and tan, depicting the bennu-bird (Egyptian phoenix, more or less) with blue plumage on the cap, and the deity Thoth (with the head of an ibis wearing a moon-crown) surrounded by ibises on the body. It's resting on a dark brown background with books and papers with Egyptian symbols and a bronze model of a scarab beetle nearby.
Pogo Possum, a cartoon anthropomorphic opossum created by Walt Kelly for satirical political comic strips. He's wearing a red and black striped shirt, carrying a floral carpet bag with an umbrella stuck under his arm, smiling, and tipping his big ol' plaid top hat to you. Above his head is "Pogo" in block letters.
Looking out between two gnarled pine trees like gateposts, over the rim of the Grand Canyon. All is cloaked in mist. Nothing is visible beyond the cliff's edge between the trees but a shadow of a canyon spire, almost lost in the deep pale grey fog. It is almost raining, droplets still suspended half-formed. You can almost see the silence.
Dragonquest by Michael Whelan, a painting for the Dragonriders of Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey. Dragons fly over a mountains landscape at sunset, riders on their backs directing them as they burn falling Thread (long filamentous organisms that devour any organic matter) with their fiery breath.
A Medieval Cat stuffed toy (a yellow cat with a human face with a slight smile) points with his little sword to a copy of Death Valley Blooms by S.M. Mack. The book cover has the title apparently written on a core sample showing desert stratigraphy intertwined with roots and bones, with wildly blooming flowers above.
The "WIMDY" fox, sans text: a beautiful red fox with a white chest, standing in a snowy field, squinting with ears back into a bitter snowy wind.
Larry the Mole Man from The Tick cartoon, a smallish grey fellow with big pink eyes wearing a green jumpsuit with his name on it and a yellow hardhat with a miner's lamp. He has been known to accompany his Mole King on bongos, beatnik style.
Poster for Space: 1999, showing the iconic spaceship the Eagle (a '70s NASA-futurist ship with a long main section, four landing gear pods, a conical nose with triangular windows, and classic rocket nozzles at the back) orbiting the Moon with the Earth in the background.
A still from Joe vs the Volcano: Joe (Tom Hanks) stands on a raft made of his ridiculous luggage (four giant steamer trunks), floating on the empty night sea. He is reaching up as if to touch the edge of the astonishingly large moon hanging near the horizon.
The new Pope, having kicked the habit and shed his skin, flanked by immature popes in their subadult color markings.
The light blue-grey that is one of the colors of "the dress" in the original photo.
From a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, Calvin being pasted by a massive barrage of well-deserved snowballs.
VINCENT (I'm not shouting, it's an acronym for Vital Information Necessary Centralized) from The Black Hole: a hovering spherical grey robot with various retractable appendages (pincers, little round feet, probes) and a round helmet-head that pops up out of the body to reveal perpetually worried-looking eyes. He can draw everything back into his shell like a very round turtle. I only wish I could.
The TOMY Armatron sold by Radio Shack in the early 1980s: a robotic arm similar to those in automotive factories, in pale blue and dark grey plastic with an orange plastic claw. It has two tiny orange joysticks that you use to move it around and pick things up. I had one as a kid and absolutely loved it for about half an hour.
The "BlueSky Number" box, it reads: Celebrating 10M users # 1,059,083 And it has my name, designation, and incept date (Sept. 18, 2023). Just three more years and all this will be gone, like tears in rain.
A Pogo comic strip by Walt Kelly. Panel 1: Churchy LaFemme (a turtle) shouts, "WOW!" causing Pogo (an opossum) and Beauregard (a hound dog) to leap up into each other's arms in fright. Panel 2: With Pogo and Beauregard lying on the ground in shock and concern, Churchy says in a much smaller voice (literally, as in the type is small), "It's Friday the Thirteenth!"
Cover art for Assassin's Creed II, featuring Ezio Auditor da Firenze, a young Italian man wearing an elaborate white and red outfit featuring a large leather belt with an Assassin symbol like a stylized A, multiple throwing knives, and on each arm a fully extended "hidden" blade. Somehow we are expected to believe he remains inconspicuous in this getup.
A photo of a red granite statue of the ancient Egyptian female pharaoh Hatshepsut in the form of a sphinx. She (or he, Hatshepsut used both depending on the situation) appears as a recumbent lion with the head of a woman. She is wearing the cloth nemes headdress and false beard of kingship.
Fairly heavy rain partially obscuring and lending a grey pall to a semi-rural street, stop sign, streetlight, and a field and barn beyond.
A cloudy grey sky looking, deceptively, merely overcast. Approaching thunder was a rumble like horses running in an overwrought movie battle scene.
A mourning dove sitting on a weathered wood railing, looking back as if to say, "I see you, human, and I can tell you're not fast enough to be an effective predator, so go back inside."
A maroon Honda CN250 scooter almost exactly like the one I owned. It looks like what happens if you surgically remove all the cool from a motorcycle.
A screenshot from the Amiga computer game Arctic Fox (1986). It shows an info screen in the super high tech snow tank you pilot. On the screen is an enemy tank rendered with exactly 20 straight lines. It looks like something a child would make out of cardboard, or a Cybertruck. (There is also some text describing the tank, but it's unimportant.)
Parent and child Baluchitherium, a huge extinct rhinoceros-like animal with long legs, a long neck, a relatively tiny head, and no horn.
A screenshot from the 1984 PC game Gato, showing a very low quality graphical interface with a few dials and text labels, below an image of a wireframe ship floating on a magenta ocean below a cyan sky. CGA graphics for the win!
A dik-dik, an inordinately cute little antelope with tiny pointy horns, a funny little snout, big expressive eyes, and large twitchy ears. It is very busy being cuter than is permitted by law.
A still from the Atari 2600 game Adventure, showing a room in a red maze, the player (a red block), a white key, and a green dragon. It's all very pixelated, if you like your pixels half an inch across.
Across a residential road, an old barn, a field, some trees; in the distance the lights of a (very) small city; in the foreground a streetlight. A light dusting of snow covers all, more snow creates haze around the streetlight.
George Santos, his mouth open; the reporters watching.