in which my brain offers me a wholly constructed alternate reality that sounds frankly incredible

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that periodically has to remind itself about the existence of La Croix as a flavored beverage option that won't anger the Prediabetic Sugar Gods 

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Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory GiveawayThe thing about having a 4yo and a baby who doesn't yet sleep through the night is that you can't put them in the same room together overnight, and it's also not possible to put yourself in the room with him without causing even more sleep complications. Long story short, we're sleeping in the office (the house's third and possibly actual master bedroom, considering it has the attached half bath) on the pull-out couch, which is also where my computer is, so the edit on the last episode we recorded (which admittedly was last year) still isn't quite complete. But it'll get there someday!As of the time of this writing, there are still not only 43 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ratings, but someone managed to slip past the perimeter and enter another lovely review, which I only just saw now! Whoever you are, you have not only our thanks but our favor should we ascend to the throne. The rest of you: a new standard has been set!!Instant Band Night 15: TIME WARPHOLY SHIT IT'S NEXT WEEK💉 Vax!➕ Boost!😷 Mask!Otherwise your ass isn't getting in the door, and after a two-year hiatus, I cannot imagine what kind of amazing shit you're going to see, so make it happen! (Eventbrite) (Facebook)+ +  S E E   Y O U   S O O N  + + 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.The colony had been built as a series of gigantic caverns under the Martian surface, each one big enough to hold a couple of neighborhoods. The lighting was full-spectrum daylight and it was beautiful; the whole place was beautiful. I took my time walking through the rambling but cozy courtyards of the zone that called itself the Mission, sculpted from dark adobe-colored stone and crammed with plants in freestanding pots and neat little gardens. I'd never been here before in person, but I knew I had a home waiting for me — the key was in my pocket, after all. It was just around the next corner. The door opened, and I was home: a few steps led down to the floor of a spacious, L-shaped studio with a friendly-seeming mint-green color scheme. It was home. There was a guitar case on the floor near the kitchen. One curving wall was done in glass bricks, providing most of the light. The bed was only about half-made. My computer sat at a small desk, already open to MissionMail, where I had a couple of welcome messages waiting to be read. There was nothing to worry about: no rent, no bills to pay, no job I had to get to. Nobody worried about that on Mars Colony, at least not here in the Mission. Near the entrance steps there was an electric piano with a few things scattered on the keyboard, including Mavis's purple glasses case. I smiled.This was literally a dream I had weeks ago and it still hasn't entirely left my head. It's impossible to convey the overwhelming sense of being taken care of that suffused it from top to bottom, the absolute bedrock knowledge that I had no material needs that wouldn't be easily taken care of. I had a favorite bar to meet my friends at, for fucksake. Seriously!! You've had dreams like this, right? Where the whole thing feels so real, with such lived-in background information baked in from jump, that it's like you're literally just visiting a parallel reality in which you've existed comfortably for your whole damn life? Why do our brains do that to us. It was fucking nice there. What was your favorite alternate reality? 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.I'm putting this here so I can hold myself accountable: I need to be a more chilled-out person when it comes to getting Quentin to do stuff. I don't have to repeat "get in your chair" a million times until I'm practically growling it at him. I don't have to do that! It doesn't fucking matter if he gets in his chair quickly!! He knows he needs to sit there to eat his lunch; he'll get there eventually!! I've been turning things into an Epic Battle of Wills that 100% do not fucking have to be, and all it's been doing is stressing us out. Like I needed more stress right now? Jesus. Everybody look at me! Look at the genius sitting in front of his computer!!!!!! 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪 

Fascination Corner

I read a lot of newsletters; here are some links that caught my eye. 

• Emails from Democrats telling us to vote are missing the goddamn point. (Vice) 

• "Americans’ Views On Abortion Are Pretty Stagnant. Their Views On The Supreme Court Are Not." (538) 

• Oh, thank fuck: robots and computer vision are now starting to get good enough to sort our recyclables. (IEEE Spectrum) 

• There are streamers out there trying to change minds by debating with people, and sometimes it even works. Huh! (CNET) 

• I admit that Kate Bush is one of my musical blindspots, but it's still been interesting to see how much actual money she's making off the Stranger Things renaissance of "Running Up That Hill". (Quartz) 

• Speaking of music, the Eve 6 guy gives surprisingly great, poignant advice, especially to new parents wrestling with raising their kids here in Hell World. (Input) 

• In that vein as well, here's something just called "What to Do When the World Is Ending" (Yotam Marom on Medium) 

• Wild: experimental data suggests that one of the reasons we choose the friends we do is because they smell like us. (Weizmann Institute of Science) 

• Is the Goldilocks Zone bullshit? The Scientists have run some simulations and it looks like liquid water can exist on planets with enough atmosphere and geothermal activity no matter where they are in relation to their sun; hell, it might even exist on rogue planets. (U of Bern) 

• Add extra robotic limbs that respond to your input and you'll start to think of them as a part of you even more quickly than you might think. (U of Tokyo) 

• The Scientists have invented a soft implant that can wrap around a nerve and cool it down to provide drug-free pain relief on demand. (Northwestern) 

• Everyone read about my smart and creative friend! (The Verge) 

• Millions of years of withering radiation exposure means we might have to dig about seven feet down into the Martian surface to find any evidence of life. (Motherboard) 

• The Scientists are making progress on bacterial batteries. (SUNY Binghamton) 

• Here are four ways to theoretically stop catastrophizing in your head. (The Conversation) 

• Some Engineers have discovered that by correlating background checks per capita with suicides committed by a gun statewide, they can infer a surprisingly accurate picture of gun ownership in that state. (NYU) 

• For the first time ever, a species of pitcher plant has been discovered that lays its traps underground. (Science Alert) 

• A couple weeks ago, Land O'Lakes started selling pre-portioned butter in half-tablespoon balls in bags for easier home cooking and baking. Okay! (PR Newswire) 

• It might be a good idea to bank some of your poop at a dedicated facility while you're young and healthy, so Future You can go back and get your fecal microbiome straightened out when something inevitably fucks it up later. (Cell Press via Science Daily) 

• Someone get Hank Schrader on the line:* there are twice as many minerals on Earth as we thought, at least according to a new system of categorization, which has more interesting implications than you might think. (Vice)* I may be overestimating the number of readers here who remember Breaking Bad to this degree of detail 

• Being able to recognize, categorize, and tell the difference between objects is neither a universal skill nor something that comes with general intelligence; evidence suggests it's a wholly independent thing on its own, and The Scientists have given it the name "o" — just the letter o, for object recognition. (The Conversation) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumUnsolicited Dick Pics, It Looks Fine From Up Here(If you've made it this far, feel free to hit REPLY and tell me what you think this band/album sounds like, because now I'm curious) 

Thanks

If you've read this far, I thank you. Feel free to forward this to someone you like, or inflict upon someone you don't.