silverwolfcc

MEGA update January 29, 2024

( WILL TRY TO UPDATE AS I GO DUH )

My least favorite aspect of sci-fi is that it tends toward dystopic, humanity is evil, or that the alien species are parasites hellbent on destruction, consumption, and can't be reasoned with. (Independence Day, Halo, Starship Troopers etc.) Rarely, if ever, is it hopeful, inspiring, or aware of the awesome beauty of space exploration and befriending new species, and even Star Trek risks falling into a trap of being too militant for my tastes. Far too many writers also don't know anything about zoology, and when it comes to their new species; it shows. Even Animorphs which has so many earth animals, still falls into the category of having the aliens generally be parasitic and wholly evil without much dimension or room for ambiguity.

K.D. Koppos has done the impossible in blending sci-fi and cozy in a breakout new genre-defining story that loses none of humanity's best, but still serves to remind that Earth's lessy hairy apes aren't the biggest badasses out there, but it's our compensation by adpatation that made us Earth's "top species," and able to reach the stars.

Why no one has done cozy scifi before is beyond me, but I expect when word spreads, it'll catch on like wildfire, because it's a perfect match.

Recently retired from space military (which is basically a mercenary position among the more advanced other alien species where Earth is still learning to adapt) Jim Roy Howard sets up the titular interstellar truck stop. In an absolute love letter to American truck stops, road trips, and diners, JRH goes on to set up a menu based almost entirely on whatever alien foods he can get from those passing by bringing their space travel from one planet to another, and always adapting based on the simple knowledge of an army cook.

There is a little bit of mystery when teenage runaway Marigold crashlands (literally) into said truck stop and quickly starts befriending and investigating the surroundings. Koppos brilliantly sets up the found family trope in an absolutely heart-warming and subverting typical sci-fi tropes way, by once again, reminding readers what is truly the best part of humanity: our connections to each other. Her reactions to the other alien species is completely charming and despite her rocky start (haha rock puns -- the constable is fond of those) she soon gets to live her best life.

Earl and Bud are the "regulars" -- sort of like Cliff and Norm from Cheers, and my personally favorite part of the book, I would love to do an entire tv show about them. If there are any book/tv series about truckers, someone let me know. Anyway.

Much like Cheers, (a cozy gathering place with lots of locals refueling for their weary travels) meets Halo (the war might be over, but it's never wholly forgotten from the characters' lives and experiences) and Futurama (space travel but it's a "regular" shipping company, only in this case -- a diner, but also, nothing about it is boring!) and dashes of Doctor Who inversed (the travelers come to you! And instead of "No soldiers on board the TARDIS" it's almost all soldiers but for the one Martian -- Marigold.) I was pretty blown away by the characterization and world building Koppos put into the story. The author never forgets that every single person has their own story to tell, and yet the common uniting factor on Earth, or space, is we all need to eat.

If K.D. Koppos can do this with scifi, I can't wait to see what they do next. It might be too soon to say they're my favorite author, but they definitely re-ignited passion for reading I didn't even realize I'd lost. Just as I wish all scifi had more hope, cozy, found family, and people doing "normal jobs" but in space and exploring which instantly makes it exciting; K.D. Koppos lit a spark in me I hope never dies out.

The one "problem," of course, is you'll instantly be hungry for more, even as you find yourself somehow nostalgic for the future! The book I first said, "Where have you been all my life?!" (I have two Trekkie, Stargate, scifi nerd parents.)

---

For fans of:
- Star Trek (space soldiers meeting aliens, now more peaceful soldiers) -- especially Lower Decks (because there's no exploration except in what the characters bring to the diner, and it's otherwise the underappreciated more cozy part of space; what comes after the first meeting!)
- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (zany species)
- Catch 22 (humor)
- Starship Troopers (but subverting the enemy trope, and more building off it in a way I wish the rest of the scifi genre had...)
- Dungeon Meshi (literally improvising foods off alien planets)
- Space Dandy (you could absolutely picture the crew stopping at JRH sometime!)
- Found Family trope (such as in Doctor Who)
- Cozy Mysteries
- Diners (I'm going to reiterate Doctor Who)
- Futurama ("normal" job ie: delivery or diner - But in space! And never losing the wonder from that.)
- Cheers (where everyone knows your name)

I finally did it. I reached the point where the post got too big. I thought about removing all the strikethrough ones, but it's too much work, and I want to leave them for the same reason I put them in the first place so here we go into Part 2.

Most recently updated February 6th, 2024

( J-Z )

As with the other, leaving a comment with requests is 2nd best way to get games, 1st best being add me on steam (Silverwolfcc) and have it on your wishlist, THAT EASY.

Bats are friends, not food!

They are the doggos of the sky!



They are cute and friendly -- and also the most disease ridden plague-carriers pretty much on the planet, yup, even more than rats. In fact, not only should you not eat them? Don't handle them at all.

Like birds, bats have internal body temperatures of 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40.5 degrees Celsius) to let them handle altitudes, flying, and winter well. This is a temperature at which if you are running a human fever that high, you risk dying. Bats have an additional dangerous component to human digestion over birds in that they primarily eat mosquitoes, flies, and pathogen carriers. Thus, a lot of bats have immunological defenses that protect them against such pathogens, which humans are incapable of dealing with, not even with all the antibiotics and anti-virals in the world!

They are an important part of the world's Ecosystems, and help clean the air and fertlize new grounds, turning what is lethal to humans (and other tastier livestock!) into HEALTHY HELPFUL environs for all!

Spiritually and culturally, many religions hold bats as unclean (Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Native Americans, Shinto) because of their diet; but also as possible blessings and good luck because they keep the area free of dangerous pests.

1. Bats' Diet:
Mosquitoes
True Bugs
Moths
Beetles

- Some species (vampire bats) drink blood (of livestock, not humans) which makes them dangerous to humans for blood illnesses, and some eat fruits, or flower nectar - but in the case of the latter; this makes them invaluable pollinators like hummingbirds, and bees, and they STILL can carry a host of diseases that they aren't affected by but humans are!

2. Bat Diseases that can be transmitted to humans:
-- Rabies - the most obvious one and why people are scared of them. Rabies is scary in ANY animal, but bats are the only ones who can get it that fly!
-- Ebola

-- Coronaviruses including SARS, and Covid-19 (and others!!!)

-- Henipaviruses like Nipah and Hendra

In order to eat insects and survive flying, bats have a highly specialized immune system! In fact rather than having lots of antibodies to diseases; their immune systems' response is *lowered*! In humans this would make us weak to everything, but in bats, who are not land-bound; their immune systems do not trigger overreactions to viruses and therefore coronaviruses and henipaviruses do not kill them!

3. Evolution

If you've been clicking all these links and paying attention, you may have noticed a common theme with all these viruses: they primarily attack the central nervous systems, and/or are respiratory illnesses! This again harkens back to being the only Earth flying mammal!

Birds don't just have lungs (like mammals)! They have extra air sacs which enables the act of flying even more easily! Like hot air balloons, their bodies are very light and highly geared towards rapid and easy ventilation!


Bats are mammals! They don't have this! They have mammal lungs, like humans!



In order to compensate for all of this; bats actually intake oxygen at a rate comparable to birds; by utilizing far more muscle, and requiring much bigger and stronger hearts! Their lungs are the strongest and largest per body volume of all mammals; unsurprisingly, and consequently many of the aforementioned viruses can co-exist in the bats without harming them! In humans, we evolved to digest multiple different foods, and our lungs never reached the extreme conditions necessary for flight; instead humans physically evolved for long-term endurance hunting; wearing our prey down slowly! Both humans hearts and lungs are incapable of surviving the pressure that bats put on theirs; exertion which makes them survive viruses up above! That's why the most lethal bat viruses affect respiratory and/or central nervous systems. Bats can carry many other diseases that humans can ignore because they don't add additional strain to our own physiology.

Meanwhile, even the fruit bats have more developed digestive systems because they branched off the same way! They're able to handle neurotoxins and pollutants (they also have a shorter lifespan than humans so just as fish can accumulate mercury in their systems without dying from it, humans can't handle the constant build-up!) which can lead to severe central nervous system illnesses!

Furthermore, while we've already made great strides in learning from bats' echolocation and wing structures, we have no idea what else we have yet to learn from bats in the future!

4. Cultural Taboos

There are two lines of thought when it comes to human consumption of meat; usually both on polar opposite ends! Whether for or against carnivorous consumption: that all meat is on equal moral grounds. Either that PETA is right and meat is murder; or that it doesn't matter if you eat a dog, dolphin, elephant, whale, or chicken. Meat is meat. (Except when it's not.) In between the two extremes, however, lies the idea that relgious meat restrictions exist for good reasons, even if they're not always outright obvious.

For instance, my dietary restrictions are nearly limited solely to foods native to the American continents. The more a food was evolved and cultivated by humans in Europe and mainland Asia, becoming more and more specialized to new strains; the less likely I am to tolerate it. So apples (central Asia), carrots (Afghanistan), olives (Greece), soy (Asia), Nutmeg (Africa), broccoli (Mediterranean) are all toxic for me! I also can't eat turkey, even though they're native to the Americas; the indigenous people didn't keep livestock and usually hunted deer, buffalo, and other plentiful mammals instead, modeling their hunting traditions much like wolf packs! Likewise I have to be careful with any dairy (milk and eggs) and the more my diet is the three sisters (squash, corn, and beans!) the better I do.

Not all descendants of any group of people have this problem, of course. Most people CAN PHYSICALLY freely digest against their ancestors' societal or moral taboos, but there are absolutely a percentage of people who will not be able to, and there's no way of knowing if you're one of them until it starts to negatively affect you!

Moreover, all cultures associate food, especially meals or feasts, with family, society, and general togetherness. Even the Pilgrims' first overture of friendship to the Native Americans was to try to thank them with a friendly Thanksgiving feast!

The physiological differences in bats and birds with regards to human consumption aside; chickens can and often are much loved as pets that also provide humans with eggs. Chickens are not terribly intelligent, and don't survive better or longer in the wild, in part because they've been cultivated as livestock for so long, but compared to bats, bats are ultimate survivors and do better with minimal human interference.

Jewish and Muslim Kosher and Halal foods respectively are generally for human safety purposes (see again: diseases), but in halal it's extended to try to prevent animal cruelty, and in nearly all religious instances: to help individuals feel better about themselves as a good person.

Native American tribes prided themselves on being able to never worry about famines; and feed well more than their population, so eating coyotes, bats, owls, or other non-herbivores (not including fish) was never considered because of the sheer entropy rate from the food chain!

The caution against eating bats wasn't just for disease and the health and safety of individuals, however! Bats play an important role in the ecosystem!

5. Bats are great for the environment!

- Bats are mosquitoes' biggest and best predator!
- Bats pollinate and disperse seeds just as well as bees, and since they are mammals and nocturnal, you're less likely to accidentally disturb them!
- Bat guano restores vital nutrients to the soil: BUT this is better away from humans as it can still carry other pathogens dangerous for humans and disperse wild fungi spores.
- Harkening back to the idea that not all meat is the same, bats have highly important social structures that aside from creating huge roosts; the way crows have murders, or wolves have packs, bat colonies, much like wolf packs and elephant herds, are hugely interconnected to the entire ecosystem and affect not just the plantlife, soil, insect consumption, but even all other animal species of the region!

So save a life, and don't eat bats! The life you save, might even just be your own!

Stop trying to shame other men for liking the female body.

First of all, it does not help your point. Secondly that is nothing to do with equality, so if your concept of feminism is "equal rights," you're sure as hell failing it. Thirdly, sex negative shaming is far more associated with patriarchal attempts to control feminine expressions of sexuality. HOWEVER MUCH you try to maintain that it's about protecting women from other men, this is BY DEFINITION THAT MUCH MORE PATRIARCHAL.

It's irritating enough to try to find an apolitical explanation of homosexuality in the Roman legions (jfc this shouldn't be like pulling teeth, but I underestimated the "climate" we're in....) and to constantly pull up articles about how lesbianism was outlawed as an attempt to control women's sexuality.

It's irritating enough to have to deal with right-wing propaganda decrying women's sexuality as amoral decay rotting the very integrity of any fabric holding society together. (Drama llamas everywhere.)

But you're being a POOR ALLY when you espouse critical views decrying women's choices to enjoy porn or otherwise sexual material. And when you attack other men for enjoying such things, you're still basically telling women they're amoral and bad for liking it too. STOP.

Learn to look inward. Ask yourself what you really want in life. Don't try to control or fixate so deeply on others.

Heal thyself, well before you start on society.

- I like big boobs in media I consume. You know why? Because I like representation of myself in a physical format that I didn't choose/ask for, but nevertheless LIVE WITH EVERY DAY.

How can you say that there must be more women in media (films/tv/video games) but not with big boobs? Get out with that shit.

I like pretty girls being happy. Fucking fight me.

I love giant boobed women kicking ass and being unstoppable. Specifically because I don't have the health to kickbox anymore, but I loved the days I did, and I love the stories with them. Stop trying to suggest there's something wrong with the people who enjoy this.

Grow the the fuck up. Learn to enjoy things yourself. IT IS OKAY TO LIKE SEXY THINGS AND AESTHETICS. SERIOUSLY. You don't have to flay yourself and go martyrdom making yourself miserable for your sins of lust. All it does is hurt yourself and everyone around you.

Please stop.

OH AND?

I'm bisexual. I like men in crazy ass sexy shit too, but like most women? My taste in men varies more than my taste in women. And you know what?

THAT'S OKAY TOO.



P.S.

You will not get brownie points for mocking other men who are self-actualized enough to know what they like and go for it.

Instead, focus on ACTUAL FUCKING PROBLEMS. OR. GROW A GOD DAMN PAIR AND ASK REAL WOMEN WHAT THE REAL PROBLEMS ARE. FUCK.

Meme-ing aside, the salt is high today. 300 GamerGater's packed the bar/venue in DC, but the cops had MULTIPLE bomb threats called in all the same and had to come check it out. Whoever did call it in is probably going to get traced though, unless they just said "Yeah some dipshit on the internet was making threats, please make sure nothing terrible happens." Who knows.

One threat was definitely made in person however. http://ggindc.blogspot.com.au/ -- pictures of the event. Everyone had fun anyway!

Today anti-GG can't decide whether to admit 3rd party trolls do harass both sides, or should they just applaud the attempts to disrupt a violent hate mob that was making a lot of money for a local pub. Decisions, decisions... -- On the other hand they all argue an SJW would never make the bomb threats, fire alarm, worry/use up police time etc. Oh okay.

Meanwhile Based Mom says:

You know it's a good party when there are threats, bomb scares, fire alarms, evacuations & police. #GGinDC pic.twitter.com/WAmnp41kF2

— Christina H. Sommers (@CHSommers) May 2, 2015

Mark Kern politely points out: