smol? otter
@acerbicotter.bsky.social
In the War on Empathy, I am choosing to fight on the side of empathy. Opinions are my own & definitely do not reflect those of my workplace.
Given the bad faith actors on here, unless I know you or we share a mutual, I will probably block you. Sorry.
Given the bad faith actors on here, unless I know you or we share a mutual, I will probably block you. Sorry.
Pinned
smol? otter
@acerbicotter.bsky.social
· Jan 1
Take a screenshot of this GIF, and whichever new word you land on is YOUR word for 2026.
Let's. Go.
Let's. Go.
I can’t get my phone to take a screenshot but I got “smol”
Folks, I have not been “smol” since I was 8.
Folks, I have not been “smol” since I was 8.
Reposted by smol? otter
Microsoft doesn't want Windows 11 to die so they're going to try really hard to improve things.
Me: Remove Gen AI from it then aka Copilot, remove enforced MS account making, remove enforced MyCloud, remove adverts and for the love of fucking everything. QA your bloody updates!
Me: Remove Gen AI from it then aka Copilot, remove enforced MS account making, remove enforced MyCloud, remove adverts and for the love of fucking everything. QA your bloody updates!
February 2, 2026 at 3:45 PM
Microsoft doesn't want Windows 11 to die so they're going to try really hard to improve things.
Me: Remove Gen AI from it then aka Copilot, remove enforced MS account making, remove enforced MyCloud, remove adverts and for the love of fucking everything. QA your bloody updates!
Me: Remove Gen AI from it then aka Copilot, remove enforced MS account making, remove enforced MyCloud, remove adverts and for the love of fucking everything. QA your bloody updates!
I enjoy the joking & fun about Groundhog Day, but I also admit in the current climate I'm worried that people will believe the groundhog's reaction actually somehow affects/predicts the duration of winter.
There will be six more weeks of winter regardless. It's a tilt of the earth on its axis thing
There will be six more weeks of winter regardless. It's a tilt of the earth on its axis thing
February 2, 2026 at 4:06 PM
I enjoy the joking & fun about Groundhog Day, but I also admit in the current climate I'm worried that people will believe the groundhog's reaction actually somehow affects/predicts the duration of winter.
There will be six more weeks of winter regardless. It's a tilt of the earth on its axis thing
There will be six more weeks of winter regardless. It's a tilt of the earth on its axis thing
Reposted by smol? otter
That one fig tree in the Bible is back, and this time it’s personal
February 2, 2026 at 1:02 PM
That one fig tree in the Bible is back, and this time it’s personal
Neat!
This is one of my favorite optical illusions, because even when you know specifically HOW IT WORKS, it's still hard to make your brain believe it.
The image below is real-world video, but you're being tricked into believing it's an elaborate miniature by the DIORAMA EFFECT.
Let's talk about it.
The image below is real-world video, but you're being tricked into believing it's an elaborate miniature by the DIORAMA EFFECT.
Let's talk about it.
February 2, 2026 at 2:40 PM
Neat!
Reposted by smol? otter
February 2, 2026 at 2:34 PM
I remember years and years back, my dad was "invited" by a university in another country to come and assess their geology program. Ultimately, after discussing with a couple people who knew the country (and with my mom), he decided to decline the invitation.
The country, at the time, was known for
The country, at the time, was known for
Unmarked car, no lights or police insignia. Masked armed men leap out. Victim not in the act of committing any crime. This is not how a serious federal law enforcement agency acts in a free society.
How is this not supposed to be a “right wing paramilitary force loyal to the regime”?
How is this not supposed to be a “right wing paramilitary force loyal to the regime”?
This is just insane. It’s only a matter of time before DHS kills another innocent person here.
(clip via MPR and @davidjbier.bsky.social on X)
(clip via MPR and @davidjbier.bsky.social on X)
February 2, 2026 at 2:27 PM
I remember years and years back, my dad was "invited" by a university in another country to come and assess their geology program. Ultimately, after discussing with a couple people who knew the country (and with my mom), he decided to decline the invitation.
The country, at the time, was known for
The country, at the time, was known for
if he tweeted like that after the Grammies, just wait for what he says after Bad Bunny's halftime show.....
February 2, 2026 at 2:24 PM
if he tweeted like that after the Grammies, just wait for what he says after Bad Bunny's halftime show.....
but wait what if the mayor wants to build a bunch of koo-koo monuments to himself and that's what they're fighting against?
Okay, people, time to boycott another NIMBY Disney movie.
Also, this is anti-beaver propaganda. If there’s a character in your cartoon that wants to build things, it should be a beaver
Also, this is anti-beaver propaganda. If there’s a character in your cartoon that wants to build things, it should be a beaver
February 2, 2026 at 2:21 PM
but wait what if the mayor wants to build a bunch of koo-koo monuments to himself and that's what they're fighting against?
well, despite campus claiming they had plowed and cleared all the parking lots, guess whose wasn't?
I'm glad I had yak trax on my shoes and a stout walking stick.
I'm glad I had yak trax on my shoes and a stout walking stick.
February 2, 2026 at 2:19 PM
well, despite campus claiming they had plowed and cleared all the parking lots, guess whose wasn't?
I'm glad I had yak trax on my shoes and a stout walking stick.
I'm glad I had yak trax on my shoes and a stout walking stick.
literally every one of my k-12 teachers, simultaneously trying to encourage me but advise me to "fit in better"
February 2, 2026 at 1:38 PM
literally every one of my k-12 teachers, simultaneously trying to encourage me but advise me to "fit in better"
Reposted by smol? otter
Reposted by smol? otter
The Cortylorhynchus considers my problems, nods sagely, and says, "have you tried basking in the sun about it? While being as spherical as possible?"
November 1, 2025 at 9:00 AM
The Cortylorhynchus considers my problems, nods sagely, and says, "have you tried basking in the sun about it? While being as spherical as possible?"
I don't know, and I have no desire to know.
(I am vaguely aware there is a "modern" Jelly Roll, I also am aware of the Morton one from the early 20th c.)
(I am vaguely aware there is a "modern" Jelly Roll, I also am aware of the Morton one from the early 20th c.)
It’s 8:54 God’s Time and I’m just getting home from an absolute ass kicking of a soccer game and am being informed that Jelly Roll Yglesias’d himself?
February 2, 2026 at 3:05 AM
I don't know, and I have no desire to know.
(I am vaguely aware there is a "modern" Jelly Roll, I also am aware of the Morton one from the early 20th c.)
(I am vaguely aware there is a "modern" Jelly Roll, I also am aware of the Morton one from the early 20th c.)
The real joke is that all of January was a string of Groundhog Days.
February 2, 2026 at 12:44 AM
The real joke is that all of January was a string of Groundhog Days.
Good news tho’, I was worrying the upper abdominal/upper back pain I was having was referred pain from a gallbladder problem but when I was trying to chip the fused sleet off my drive I was like, “wait, why does it hurt right under my boobs and across my upper back?”
Oh yeah muscles I don’t use
Oh yeah muscles I don’t use
February 1, 2026 at 11:23 PM
Good news tho’, I was worrying the upper abdominal/upper back pain I was having was referred pain from a gallbladder problem but when I was trying to chip the fused sleet off my drive I was like, “wait, why does it hurt right under my boobs and across my upper back?”
Oh yeah muscles I don’t use
Oh yeah muscles I don’t use
Anyway, I’m not going to Pruett’s this afternoon. I’ll have to scrounge for dinner and for my packed lunch tomorrow :(
February 1, 2026 at 11:17 PM
Anyway, I’m not going to Pruett’s this afternoon. I’ll have to scrounge for dinner and for my packed lunch tomorrow :(
Holy ****, where’s the Tylenol?
February 1, 2026 at 11:15 PM
Holy ****, where’s the Tylenol?
Got ahold of my friend, she is on the way to the store anyway and is getting a bag of kitty litter so I can get traction, and will try to help guide me so I don’t hit the house but I hate all this so much
February 1, 2026 at 10:17 PM
Got ahold of my friend, she is on the way to the store anyway and is getting a bag of kitty litter so I can get traction, and will try to help guide me so I don’t hit the house but I hate all this so much
I’m stuck I can’t go forward it spins out if I try to go back I’m afraid I’m gonna hit the house. It’s like 6 inches from the house and as it is, I had to squeeze my fat ass out the passenger side door to get out of the stupid car. what do?
February 1, 2026 at 9:58 PM
I’m stuck I can’t go forward it spins out if I try to go back I’m afraid I’m gonna hit the house. It’s like 6 inches from the house and as it is, I had to squeeze my fat ass out the passenger side door to get out of the stupid car. what do?
Reposted by smol? otter
[showing me your skircle]
Me: how do you play it? is it like twister?
Me: how do you play it? is it like twister?
February 1, 2026 at 7:32 PM
[showing me your skircle]
Me: how do you play it? is it like twister?
Me: how do you play it? is it like twister?
wait the ai bots carcinized themselves a religion? so everything becomes crab eventually?
"The central question remains whether the phenomenon reflects genuine emergent behavior or a complex recombination of training data."
THAT IS NOT THE CENTRAL QUESTION
THAT IS NOT THE CENTRAL QUESTION
AI agents given social network to manage — immediately turn it into a religion
Moltbook lets AI agents post and interact without human input; within hours, the agents formed a self-described religion called ‘Crustafarianism,’ built around lobster-inspired metaphors, with core be...
www.ynetnews.com
February 1, 2026 at 8:50 PM
wait the ai bots carcinized themselves a religion? so everything becomes crab eventually?
I heard this in Jonathan Frakes' "Beyond Belief" set-up question voice
did you ever just keep crashing the planes on purpose in the old microsoft flight simulators?
February 1, 2026 at 8:26 PM
I heard this in Jonathan Frakes' "Beyond Belief" set-up question voice
Reposted by smol? otter
Thinking about whoever said that by accepting a meal from people and then arresting them ICE agents broke a cultural taboo that was invented by, like, the first humans to set up a tent
February 1, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Thinking about whoever said that by accepting a meal from people and then arresting them ICE agents broke a cultural taboo that was invented by, like, the first humans to set up a tent
when I was a small child, we had SSR at the end of the day: sustained silent reading. It was not a text for class, but we were encouraged to bring either a book from home, from the public library, the school library, or the classroom library and read it.
it was one of my favorite things
it was one of my favorite things
We shouldn’t make it seem like bad practice, for example, to let kids read quietly in your classroom for 30m and take some notes. Classrooms could be where we teach kids to inhabit the silences reading requires—instead we turn them into another form of pressure and noise.
Setting aside elementary curriculum & instruction for the moment, we've known for decades much of what it takes to encourage reading in and out of school by secondary students regardless of gender, and instead of doing this, we've plied them with edtech, apps, test prep, and devices they carry 24/7.
February 1, 2026 at 7:14 PM
when I was a small child, we had SSR at the end of the day: sustained silent reading. It was not a text for class, but we were encouraged to bring either a book from home, from the public library, the school library, or the classroom library and read it.
it was one of my favorite things
it was one of my favorite things