Cosmetic Balls
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cosmeticballs.bsky.social
Cosmetic Balls
@cosmeticballs.bsky.social
Shelter is a privilege of the sane and competent
Pinned
I'm back from my mental health sabbatical to promote my latest essay for @crossplayblog.bsky.social and to get back to ruining my mental health (unrelated to crossplay)

open.substack.com/pub/patrickk...
Playing Video Games With My Kid Hasn't Gone How I Expected
To me, challenge has always been an inextricable part of video games, even when some of those games were, in retrospect, absolute bullshit.
open.substack.com
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
starmer is doing all the anti-immigrant and anti-trans "popularism" stuff the centrists are demanding US dems do and this is the predictable result:
The government's net approval rating has fallen to -59, Labour's lowest score to date

Approve: 11% (-2 from 23-25 August)
Disapprove: 70% (+3)
Net: -59 (-5)

yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...
September 2, 2025 at 6:47 PM
September 2, 2025 at 2:28 PM
It's crazy to me how Newsome did the "I know you are but what am i" bit to Trump once and he immediately has an army of blue MAGA dipshits riding his dick and scolding anyone who says they don't like him like he's the only possible option to challenge Trump... IN THREE FUCKING YEARS
August 29, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
I will teach a course on Black histories of New Orleans in the spring. Katrina will be a central topic, too. Never forget this emblematic example of anti-Black racism before, through, and after the storm.
August 29, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
As Jerry Jones gives away his best defensive player to Green Bay, I couldn’t help but wonder… Would a man ever let his defenses down for me?
August 29, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
IMO many Americans don't even buy guns for personal protection or to defend themselves against a tyrannical government. They simply have a shopping addiction
August 27, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
This from Riley Gaines is why trans people freak out when Democrats try to carve out some compromise over sports. The politicians and activists attacking trans people are not interested in compromise! They're interested in our eradication from public life and are exploiting sports to that end
August 27, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
"My friend Victor like saved me though, because he laid on top of me. But he got hit."

10-year-old describes witnessing Minneapolis shooting.
August 27, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Marry...?
Spotted in my neighborhood
August 27, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
"we are human beings worthy of the same respect and dignity you'd extend to anyone else" vs "no you're not"
This from Riley Gaines is why trans people freak out when Democrats try to carve out some compromise over sports. The politicians and activists attacking trans people are not interested in compromise! They're interested in our eradication from public life and are exploiting sports to that end
August 27, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
ChatGPT essentially advised a sixteen year old on how to take his life—including by telling him how to make a noose and to avoid talking to his parents, even when he wanted to.

And then he did.

www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...
August 27, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
I got the complaint in the horrific OpenAI self harm case the the NY Times reported today

This is way way worse even than the NYT article makes it out to be

OpenAI absolutely deserves to be run out of business
August 26, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
I'm a candidate, not someone currently in office, but I've been explicit about the need for this since the start of my campaign.

Talked about why it is so important in the second half of this article from June.

badfaithtimes.com/this-u-s-sen...
This U.S. Senate Candidate Wants To Fix The Rogue Supreme Court
"Democrats who promise policy initiatives but don’t discuss court reform are living in a land of make believe."
badfaithtimes.com
August 26, 2025 at 2:03 PM
One of the greatest movie editing triumphs I've ever seen is in The Crow when Eric stabs TinTin to death and says, "victims, aren't we all?" And it immediately jumps to Medicine playing "time baby II"
August 24, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
we used to build household shrines to Going On The Computer and it's no coincidence that as we abandoned these we started straying further from god's light
August 22, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
by accepting that i did waste a lot of it and that i don't know what im doing and that this is how it is for essentially everyone. and then you die and/or the relationships and people and animals who matter to you disappear or die and so it goes!
Those of you 40 and up… how did you manage that whole “what am I doing with my life?” “Did I waste my life?” Feeling

(obvs if you didn’t feel that way this question isn’t for you)
August 21, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
This is fucking terrifying. Genuinely truly terrifying. What’s their scheme? To prosecute parents? Doctors? To take people’s treatments away? Absolutely no way this can end well.
August 21, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
Every August I do draft review podcasts for the folks. They're personalized video pods for your fantasy football league. I mock and cajole and sometimes say nice things.

Email me at draftreviewpod@gmail.com if you're into it.
August 5, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
Too on-the-nose, universe. Too on-the-nose.
August 16, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
Asbestos as a metaphor for where I suspect we might be going with LLM tools: rapid push to shove it into everything as a "modern solution," then an eventual "oh shit" walkback.
August 14, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
sometimes when you're very overdue on doing laundry, your only shirts available are your worst shirt, for obvious reasons, and your favorite shirt, which you have reserved in case of emergency. this is known as the Launderer's Paradox and may result in you wearing your favorite shirt to walgreens
August 14, 2025 at 5:45 PM
I'm back from my mental health sabbatical to promote my latest essay for @crossplayblog.bsky.social and to get back to ruining my mental health (unrelated to crossplay)

open.substack.com/pub/patrickk...
Playing Video Games With My Kid Hasn't Gone How I Expected
To me, challenge has always been an inextricable part of video games, even when some of those games were, in retrospect, absolute bullshit.
open.substack.com
August 14, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Cosmetic Balls
this is a segregationist administration and it is wild to me that there is any resistance to this straightforward observation
It’s like telling a cancer institute to stop spending so much on cancer research.

Here are a few of the many cuts.

Via @jasperjsmith.bsky.social
June 27, 2025 at 12:35 AM