sarah zedig 🐐

@hmsnofun.bsky.social

6179 Followers 732 Following

artist, writer, creator of godfeels. keeping an eye on the material conditions. 30s. seattle. videos: https://www.youtube.com/@letstalkaboutstuff podcast: @transquestioning.bsky.social fiction: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1475819

screenshot of the first four panels of kc green's followup to "On Fire", a page from his 2000s webcomic Gunshow that gained a life of its own as the "this is fine" dog, a dog in a little hat sitting at a table in a burning house acting like it's fine. the dog's name is question hound, but no one's actually read Gunshow so they think he's just a meme. anyway, the screenshot is this:

panel 1: question hound sitting at a table with a coffee cup in a burning, smoky room.

panel 2: closeup of question hound as he raises a finger. "Th-"

panel 3: question hound pausing mid-word, coughing into his closed fist.

panel 4: question hound screaming in cartoon terror, eyes big as dinner plates, mouth open in a scream of madness as his hat flies off his head and he knocks a coffee cup off his table. "THIS IS NOT FINE!!"

screenshot of the live air quality index (AQI) map for the greater Seattle metroplex. it's covered in dots that each contain a number, with about half being yellow (AQI greater than 50) and half being green (AQI lower than 50). this means that while the smoke is clearing out, the air is still contaminated enough to cause problems for sensitive groups.

screenshot of USER BLOCKED

THE WOLF in his BOX

The first thing I did when I got here was rent a storage unit. Job, apartment, all that stuff would come later. It was nine days til, so there just wasn’t time to fuck around with rental applications, playing nice with some manicured property manager who’s never eaten a burger out of a trash can and thinks anyone who has ought to be locked up someplace. No patience for it, no time.
Tricky part’s always finding a complex with the right balance of lax management, low population density, and heavily reinforced walls. Guards at your average downtown rent-a-garage facility love sniffing out overnighters. Avoid the big chains, you want an independent place somewhere on the edge of nowhere, tucked away in a sea of parking lots and car dealerships. That’s where you look: post-industrial no-man’s-land, the sprawling asphalt blastwaste that is the highway’s shadow. The only folks you’ll find there at night is cops and vagrants, and they’re too busy looking out for each other to notice some other funny business. If you’re smart about it, anyway.

The shooting at Seattle Center became national news because it happened in one of the city's civic living rooms, interrupting the story we prefer to tell about who violence happens to and where it belongs — something we imagine confined to other neighborhoods and other lives until it crosses an invisible border and becomes, suddenly, everyone's problem. That is asymmetric compassion. Please let me be clear: It is not that the Seattle Center victims received too much empathy. It's that too many others have received too little for so long that many in our city no longer notice the withholding as a choice.

poster for fullmetal alchemist (2003)

a story isn't a house. you can ignore the blueprint. you can change it as you go without checking the math. you don't even have to have a blueprint in the first place! there is no cost for trying and failing. there is no penalty for breaking the rules. you SHOULD know the rules, you SHOULD have a solid grasp on what the average Finished Thing looks like, and you SHOULD probably spend some time in the I Fucking Suck At This mines before diving face first into your ambitious narrative epic. but you don't HAVE to. no one is going to send you to forever jail if you don't. you can break every never-ever-do-this rule in the book and still end up with a great story, as long as you write it good. and the only way to learn how to write it good is to write it bad first.

a frame from homestuck: beyond canon where dirk strider, wearing a very anime outfit, peers moodily over a table cluttered with pages. he is planning something. something to do with horses.

picture of 80s-era stephen king grinning wetly, while red on-screen text reads "STEPHEN KINK"

a diagram of the Milky Way galaxy from the side pointing out the disc, the stellar halo, globular clusters, the location of our sun, and... the galactic bulge...

great question! the shortest obvious answer, to get it out of the way: study and practice. there is, i think, a broad cultural literacy around pop sci-fi that isn't necessarily true of other genres just because it's so integral to 21st century tech and internet culture, and that's given a lot of casual sci-fi fans the conviction that they're experts. but how much of that expertise is from science fiction literature, vs movies and television? how much sci-fi have you actually read? how much of what you've read is from more than ten/twenty years ago? the question of how to avoid getting lost in the conceptual weeds is one that many other writers have answered in the past (some more successfully than others) and, contrary to the hilarious beginner's conviction of "i don't want other people's work to taint my vision", retracing their steps is preferable to forging a new path from scratch.

think of it like you're scaling a mountain. a newbie climber thinks it's all about rugged self-reliance, they want to take big swings and not follow the crowd and show the world how amazing they are. in the process, they make rookie mistakes that even casual climbers could have told them how to avoid, and they expend vastly more energy in the process by walking a straight line up hill instead of following the well-worn switchback trail to the point they almost certainly won't finish the climb, and might not even make it out of the beginner area. the experienced climber knows that following the established path isn't weakness, it's taking advantage of work that was already done and is not necessary to do again. they conserve their energy, pace themselves, and have enough experience to know what risks are worth taking. afterwards, the newbie will complain loudly about how unfair it is that everyone else is cheating by, essentially, climbing in easy mode, and doesn't understand why they're not impressed by him but are instead embarrassed.

[there's more but i hit the character limit]

satellite image and land-use map of a small triangular plot of land surrounded on all sides by 5-lane highways

image borrowed from the quoted piece

screenshot from season 3 episode 3 of Interview with the Vampire, which shows Lestat behind the wheel of a car in a close-up looking very cunty. on the bottom of the screen is subtitled narration that reads: "Serving cunt has its consequences."

screenshot from promo video for House of the Dragon season 3, showing a bunch of dudes extremely on fire. on-screen text reads: "23 STUNT PERFORMERS IGNITED IN ONE TAKE"

picture of the rafters of a basement being used as a film set. an overhead fixture has four tube lights attached to it either by magnets or rope, and several rectangular light panels have been clipped to various overhead support beams.

What winds me up the most about our national life in general is the fashion for imprecise and redundant speech. I inherit this deep-seated misosaskopeslexis* from my father, who was disdainful of the transatlantic accent we all affected in the 1960s and 1970s, and the now forgotten vocabulary that went with it (hey, wow man, cool, far out, heavy, groovy etc).

VIDEO GAMES AREN'T ART
(because art doesn't exist)

a chart of the 2026 mlb season so far in the AL west, showing the mariners are currently the only team of five to have a winning record

seattle mariner randy arozarena just doing his thing, walking off a baseball game

a ytp of the 2000s live action les miserables, enacting the meme of a character saying "it's pride month, you know what that means!" and then another character responding "what? huh? you want me to [crime relevant to the second character's fictional profession]. here, prisoner 24601 must steal a gay loaf of bread

original sinkdog

picture of a crow carrying something in its beak. the image is generally dark and flat.

screenshot of katt munroe's talksprite during combat in the new star fox game

screenshot of the switch 2's v-tuber esque face mapping technology, where a human expression read on a camera (left) is animated on fox mccloud's face (right)

screenshot of falco lombardi from the new star fox game, he kind of looks like the top half of an anthro bird furry stapled onto the bottom half of a more feral bird furry

graph of the AL west rankings, showing the seattle mariners currently ahead of the pack by a couple of games

Anonymous asked:

I saw a post speculating about the possible impact from the back rooms movie. Do you think there will be any long term effects on the movie industry?

sarah responded:

i'm old enough now to have witnessed a fair few moments like this, where a hot young upstart breaks in and does the unexpected if not presumed-impossible and everyone's left thinking "nothing will ever be the same!" and then time passes and everything mostly stays the same. so i'm skeptical of the hype in that sense, that this is gonna be a huge turning point for hollywood. historically they always learn the wrong lessons and end up backing the worst horses because the industry (by and large) isn't run by artists, it's run by the same type of business boy who runs every other corporation.

i actually saw Backrooms last night and, much to my surprise, i kinda loved it? i'm grading it on a curve, naturally, there are a lot of nits one could pick with the script and story construction-- but the vibes, the atmosphere, the visuals, the themes, it all really came together for me and resulted in a film that's a lot of fun to talk about. it isn't just competent or, like, "good for a movie directed by a 19 year old," it's genuinely one of the better horror films i've seen in a long time. all those nits i mentioned didn't really bug me too much in the end because most of them are just The Parlance Of Contemporary Horror, your jump scares and spooky monsters and handholdy on-screen flashbacks to the movie you are currently watching etc. the presence of these things annoyed me, but compared to how those same quirks are deployed in most mainstream horror movies Backrooms comes across as downright restrained.

the reason it's good is that they got Kane Parsons to make this flick. he's not bandwagoning from the outside, he's very clearly iterating on and

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screenshot of my follower count, a perfectly round 6000

screenshot of a twitter post from @dkulchar on january 6 2021: "Trying to explain to my parents (very gently) that basically nobody under 40 right now expects good things to happen ever again"

Anonymous asked:

do you have tips for getting yourself to actually sit down and work on creative projects? my adhd is medicated and yet i still struggle to actually work on the art and writing i deeply want to be doing

sarah zedig replied:

i wish i had an easy no-scope solution for you but i fully expect to be struggling with this same problem for the rest of my life. the artists who appear to be able to just churn shit out consistently for years on end are, in my experience, people who've developed a rigorous set of habits and built a lifestyle around their work, or are genetic freaks who've somehow hacked their own adhd into a superpower, or otherwise just don't really have much self-consciousness about the quality of their own work. they are few and far between, and even fewer are those who can maintain that pace indefinitely, but that doesn't stop the rest of the world from holding them up as the examples we should be aspiring towards. needless to say, i don't think that's particularly helpful.

there ARE lessons to be learned from them, to be clear. we tend to get up in our heads about making art because it's often an emotional process, but the reality is that the work part of the work is just that: work. nobody who clocks in at an office job is excited to be there every day, or even any day. sometimes making art is tedious and annoying and you just have to buckle in and do it anyway. a lot of it really is just habits, practice, and projecting a level of confidence that you probably lack. most people's bar of quality for your work is a lot lower than yours, and-

the text cuts off here to entice readers to click through to the full post on tumblr

a fake episode title screen for star trek deep space nine which reads "THAT TIME GRAND NAGUS FUCKED QUARK'S MOM"

a picture of a tree being struck by lightning, the trunk fully lit up and on fire.

The judge briefly explained his reasoning in court, saying the Altoona officers conducted an “improper, warrantless search” of Mangione’s backpack at the McDonald’s where he was eating breakfast the day of his arrest.

“Therefore, the evidence found during the search of the backpack at the McDonald’s must be suppressed, including the [loaded] magazine, cellphone, passport, wallet and computer chip,” Carro said in his written ruling.

Carro then reasoned that items discovered in Mangione’s backpack after it had been taken to a police station and reopened were permitted to be shown to jurors.

Those items included the gun, a silencer, a USB drive and the red notebook.

There is no cost to use the toilets. The City is partnering with Throne to train our downtown ambassadors and CARE team members. This training will help them provide access for people who don’t have cell phones. They will be ready to help people access the restrooms within the coming weeks.

The bathrooms are free, but Throne requires people to text a number or use an app to enter so if someone breaks the rules — by smoking inside, for example — they may not be allowed back.

a panel from achewood, 8/11/2003, at original resolution. the words are pixelated but readable, even ones barely more than five pixels across.

[Discord] NITRO NOW COMES WITH XBOX GAME PASS
Yep, Xbox Game Pass (Starter Edition) is included with Nitro now. Tons of games, plus exclusive deals on gear, and new Orbs perks.

picture of one corner of a bandana with a goat in a circle rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise

One of the garage doors starts rolling up, pulled by an old-sounding motor overhead. In walks Mary, clothes morosely colorful. The door lowers again behind her.

DILL: EYYYYYYYY THERE SHE IS 8D
Mary: Hello Bilious Stranger
DILL: HAHAHAHA and she doesn’t even miss a BEAT hahaha i love the way this lady just says stuff

Mary approaches the computers, a hefty deck of captchalogue cards in a plastic sack. She regards me with a wry smirk.

Mary: Oh Good, You Are Only Partially Corpselike
Dana: So they say.
DILL: did you hop in on that place i told you about??
Mary: Yes Although I Would Describe It As Less Of A Hop Than A Normal Bipedal Walk Of Average Elevation
Mary: Alas I Am Not Much Of A Hopping Person These Days
DILL: well what’d you think?????? pretty sick threads am i right?????????? 8O
Mary: The Apparel Was Indeed Deeply Diseased
DILL: NOICE hahahhaha. well ok ladies this has been a croak and a half but i’m literally in the middle of a raid and if i flake on my party again they’re gonna start calling me slurs soooooo
DILL: CROAKER OUT >83

screenshot of the starfox nintendo direct splash screen, which shows the star fox team's new photorealistic designs

a handwritten scrawled note with four arrows pointing at it, which reads "MUST GET BLUE OYSTER CULT CDS!"

two images of the same crow taking off from a branch composited together

screenshot of a tumblr text post that reads as follows.

pavlovsgun asked:

Thoughts on the Mariners so far this year?

sarah zedig replied:

i'm really glad they didn't come out of last year's season triumphantly blasting the competition into the stratosphere. i find a sick and twisted pleasure in witnessing such a good group of players struggle to find their groove. the thing is, the mariners always kinda suck at the start of the year (though this year has been very pronounced), though it seems like the bats are finally warming up again. i think it's foolish to use their current performance as a gauge of their playoff chances/the quality of the team as a whole. last year they blasted their way into the postseason on the back of a 14 game winning streak in july or august, and all the key players from that moment are still on the team today. so while it's hypothetically possible that the mariners turned into pumpkins across the board in the off-season, i think this bad spring is ultimately gonna be a blip. that's what i love about baseball. there are SO many fucking games in a season dude. anything can happen. it rules.

and hey, if the mariners DO just completely suck eggs this year, wouldn't that be the most perfectly mariners thing to have happen? i've only been a fan for a couple years now. as much as i want them to make it to/win the world series, i also feel like i'd be getting off easy if they did. what is it to love this team without suffering? i didn't come here to see the best baseball team in america. i came here to see the best baseball team in my heart. and that is what they give me every day even when they suck and i want them to die forever.

a dog that is a sink

Is the ABS strike zone three-dimensional?

No. Though the rulebook defines the strike zone as a three-dimensional box, the ABS strike zone is two-dimensional. A three-dimensional version was initially tested, but it allowed breaking balls to nick the edges of the zone, leading to inconsistency in strike calls.

A robot in HRI is often defined through its hardware and software.
In this sense, the ABS is defined as a combination of: an array
of high-speed cameras developed by Hawk-Eye Innovations, the
strike zone–defining software, and the ABS server and algorithm
that process pitch trajectories and generate calls. However, on
closer examination, the physical and material boundaries of the
ABS become far more ambiguous.
1. Technical Infrastructure. In addition to the core components
highlighted above, other elements and technical infrastructure are
just as integral to the functioning of the ABS. If we consider hard
ware, is the stadium scoreboard—where fans see the ABS’s decision
visualized and displayed—part of the system?
Beyond hardware, does the ABS include the Wi-Fi networks that
transmit data? The electrical infrastructure powering the cameras?
2. Social Infrastructure. Moreover, if we look at the essential hu
man actors behind the scenes, more than a few groups are required
to operate the ABS in real-time: MLB engineers who maintain the
code, press box operators who trigger the graphics, control room
staff who route them to the scoreboard, and umpires, equipped with
belt packs and earpieces, who communicate with ABS operators
and relay calls to players and audience. Similar to HRI’s Wizard of
Oz methodology, these human operators remain largely invisible
to spectators while being essential to the system’s functioning. Are
these people part of the ABS?
3. Conceptual Definition. Moreover, the ambiguity of boundaries
extends to the ABS’s conceptual and identity dimensions. Two
years into experimentation, reporters ironically dubbed the human
umpires “robo-umps,” a label that soon became widely used to de
scribe ABS more generally [8]. For example, the Washington Post
quoted Rick White, president of the Atlantic League—a separate
league unaffiliated with MLB—joking, “It’s amazing how good these
robots look. They look just like the actual umpires.” An MLB offi
cial explain…

2. Background
The existing literature often conceptualises AI as
a tool designed to enhance human decision-making
(Binns et al., 2018; Lee and See, 2004; Ribeiro
et al., 2016). This framing is especially prevalent in
domains such as healthcare, finance, and navigation,
where AI systems are typically evaluated based on
how effectively they improve outcomes for individual
users (e.g., Araujo et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020),
or how well AI systems replicate individual users’
static output, otherwise known as “benchmarking” in
AI literatures (Orr and Kang, 2024). Studies in
HCI and AI ethics often foreground metrics such as
accuracy, reliability, trust, and explainability as key
indicators of successful adoption (Papenmeier et al.,
2022). Within this paradigm, AI is treated as a static
system that delivers outputs which users are expected
to either follow or reject—an interaction modelled as
discrete, one-off, and largely decontextualised. Users
are often cast as passive recipients of technological
assistance. While this framing may be appropriate
in certain applications, it falls short in capturing the
complexities of AI systems deployed in socially and
institutionally embedded environments, where multiple,
diverse stakeholders operate across different levels
with varying interests, roles, and interpretations of the
system’s function.

screenshot of an interview with chainsaw man creator tatsuki fujimoto: I do want to get the main engine of the story down on paper, and there are themes I want to convey, but I also create my manga in such a way that I don't convey everything. There are totally unrelated events and gag scenes that I hope will divert the awareness of the readers. My assistant-sans say I'm always fiddling with everything, haha. Do you know of the movie The Big Lebowski? That movie really made me think "what even was that?" when I was done watching it. Nothing was resolved, wasn't everything pretty meaningless! But still, the protagonist had development, and the story progressed, there was this sublime absurdity that I loved. I want Chainsaw Man to give the reader that kind of aftertaste too. So on that note, I sincerely hope you read Part 2 as well, and I am personally quite looking forward to the animation as well, so please watch the anime.

you've watched 60 of 143. 41%

photo of an alley with a pulled over semi that says "two men and a truck"

stop the count, marta is another tyler durden and this is a movie about toxic masculinity blowing itself up so that all the men can become women. no, why are you still counting? the facts are right there, damn you!!