Job Interview with a Cat    Tell me, what is it about this position that interests you?  The warmth, perhaps? The security?  Or the power you must feel by rendering me useless?  Feel free to expand if you wish.    I see you have had experience of similar positions.  Can you talk about a time when you got somebody’s tongue?  Or were set amongst the pigeons?  Tell me about a time you’ve had to deal with a difficult situation – for instance, have you ever found yourself in a bag? If so, how were you let out of it?     How would you feel if you had to walk on hot bricks?   What about a tin roof of similar temperature?   With reference to any of your past lives,   has curiosity ever killed you?    Finally, where do you see yourself in five years’ time?  In the same position? Or higher up to catch the sunlight?  What’s that? You would like to be where I am now?  Oh, it appears you already are.  Brian Bilston

Today’s poem is called ‘Job Interview with a Cat’.

Be the worst you that you can be!

wait--

There's a Dune quote about this

okay so AI is absolutely cratering imminently and I need all of you to PROMISE me you won't take the high road, and will laugh and rub it in their faces as much as possible. I need you to laugh and go 'WE TOLD YOU SO, BITCH" at every opportunity, PLEASE be extremely mean and ruthless

What do you mean by that?

With the HP trailer dropping tomorrow, here's the whole deal:

If you watch the show, hell even just the trailer, I will think less of you. I will dislike you. I will think you don't care about trans people.

That's it. It's been years. There's no wiggle room. No qualifiers. You care or you don't.

You jest, but this does sound like the pithy opening line to one of your analysis videos

There are so many shows &movies I have not seen that I want to watch, but I do not have the spoons to watch anything I am not already familiar with

I often wonder if the people extolling the virtues of these things ever really, *really* stop and listen to themselves.

I commend you for sitting through all that; I think I would have had a very hard time holding my tongue.

Sorta like how the word "meow" is in the middle of "homeowner" and now you'll never read that word the same again

As a GM/DM/Narrator/etc., if you aren't motivated in large part by helping your table to have a good, fun time, you're going to burn out and be resentful. Do it for the right reasons or save yourself the headache.

Near the outset of WW1, an oft-repeated phrase was "It'll be over by Christmas."

It’s actually FEWER Misérables

Danger zone Disable all All notifications for your subscriptions are off. Delete all notes Delete notes Permanently delete your notes and restacks. Delete your account Delete account Permanently delete your account and information

At the bottom of the Substack settings page, under "Danger Zone," you can turn off all subscriptions at once.

Apologies to all my friends on Substack. I'd gritted my teeth and supported you because I love your work. But Substack's partnership with Polymarket is the last straw for me.

Make the weird game, whatever makes you most excited. Get a team who also want to make weird games. Don't worry about "what the market wants."

Doing that will stifle creativity and lead to burn out. It's also impossible to know. Who is the market? What will they want in 6-12 months? Nobody knows

Greater Mesopotamia?

It is the True Law, you see. Once you are chosen by the tiny deity you are beholden to its whim. To rise and disturb its reverie would be greatest sin

A wall full of mugs arranged in such a way that it looks like the mugs are repeating themselves, creating an uncomfortable illusion

Woe, wall of astigmatism be upon ye

TakeCoin sounds like one of those grocery store crypto vending machines, so you might be on to something

but Charlotte what if I can't spout off a Take? People need to hear my Take!

Word might be on to something with that, though 🤔

This is a CAT checkpoint. Show the most recent cat photo on your phone.

small crab eating a grape (important)

New Word Get!

"Stentorian." I like that a lot, feels good to say

"it's a slow burn" i say as i stare at the draft that's taking me forever to finish

Keysmash

In the same vein (though much more recent at 2009) is Weir's "The Egg."