Kyle D. Long

@blatherscribe

Writer (unpublished), Egyptologist (unfinished), migraine (continuous), human (probably). Extra-large liminal space. Always add marinara. He/him. Profile thingy is a penglion by HumanDescent. No longer 1.026 TV's Jack Reachers tall.

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Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Jul 9

An "I Go Pogo" mock campaign button: a yellow circle with Pogo Possum's smiling face in the middle, "I Go Pogo" in a fancy P.T. Barnum-esque font above, and "© 1956 Walt Kelly" below.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Jul 6

You can be flying along, minding your own business, and ZARK! neutron star.

$Elite Dangerous screenshot: a view from the cockpit of a spaceship, with orange-colored holographic displays of ship systems and space radar and whatnot, and ahead, past the struts and bars of the cockpit, a brilliant blue-white neutron star with polar jets up and down and diffraction spikes from the canopy glass right and left.$

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Jul 6

I've let myself get sucked back into Elite: Dangerous. I do love this game, even if it can be a mite slow at times. There's something restful about wandering around undiscovered star systems, poking my nose into places no human nose has gone before. I'm pretty sure someone else said that better...

A screenshot from Elite Dangerous, featuring a slightly battered metallic spaceship that looks as if it might have been rejected from a Star Trek design session (saucer-like front section and engines on wing-like pods at the back), with glowing holographic lines on it for no good purpose, warping toward a reddish supernova remnant, the Jellyfish Nebula.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· May 3

He has a point, though. According to legend, neither Mary nor the unnamed mother of Sargon gave birth via caesarian. I don't know of many other claimed virgin births. But would you trust this guy? He seems sketchy.

A bronze head of Sargon, Akkadian king. He's a stern-looking fellow with a long beard hanging in regular curled ringlets. He was apparently Not Popular, as someone has come along and hacked out his eyes, a ritual disfigurement intended to make his afterlife less pleasant.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· May 3

When Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord released for PC in 1984, it cost $60. That's $192 in today's money. The customer base is larger, but the games are more expensive to make. The companies have hundreds or thousands of employees, as opposed to Sir-Tech in 1984 or thereabouts:

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Apr 29

I have the wrong misfits, don't I? 😅 (Also if you push through the "everyone's going to die" anxiety with The Walking Dead, you'll eventually reach "why won't they just die" anxiety, which tends to make the remaining seventy-four seasons a bit of a slog.)

From the forgotten 1980s TV show Misfits of Science, the main cast, left to right:

Johnny B (Mark Thomas Miller), a white man with slicked back hair wearing a black leather jacket and a red T-shirt shirt, his superpowers are shooting lightning and being cool.

Gloria Dinallo (Courteney Cox), a white woman in a denim jacket. Her powers are telekinesis and being a "troubled teen."

Dr. Billy Hayes (Dean Paul Martin), a fairly nondescript white guy, the scientist trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

Dr. Elvin Lincoln (Kevin Peter Hall), a very tall Black scientist whose powers are shrinking (it's funny because he's tall) and wearing the heck out of sweater vests.

I did not remember most of this, I had to look it up, and I'm very sorry this has gone on much longer than the silly joke warrants.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Apr 6

Treaty with the King of the Selenites, now broken. When the astronaut return, it may be to bring news that we are at war.

The iconic still from A Trip to the Moon (1902), the Moon as a human face with a bullet shaped space capsule lodged in its right eye. The Moon does not appear well pleased.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Mar 27

There's a weird symbol on my dad's Coke can, which turned out to be the World Cup 2026 logo, which includes the World Cup silhouette, which does *not* look like two athletes holding up the globe to my eyes. 🧐

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Mar 9

I've started rewatching Babylon 5, and as always when I watch "The Gathering" I am infuriated by how cowardly the studio execs were. Cowardly and bigoted. Anyway, Original Trans Delenn is watching you. You don't want to disappoint him.

A screenshot of the original concept for Delenn from Babylon 5 (Mira Furlan). A male Minbari (an alien humanoid species notable for a somewhat angular face, hairless head which in this version had blueish leopard spots on top, and a large ornate bone structure around the back of the head), he is looking at you with an enigmatic, evaluating expression.

The character eventually enters a chrysalis and emerges as a blending of human and Minbari. The original concept was to have him male as a full Minbari, and transition to female in the chrysalis. Alas, the execs were cowards, and after the pilot Delenn's makeup was adjusted to make her a female Minbari who does not change gender in the chrysalis.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Mar 5

A Caspar Milquetoast cartoon labeled, "The wind blows off his hat." Mr. Milquetoast, a thin older white man with short white hair and a mustache, looks with some concern at his hat, which has been blown off his head to land next to a "Keep Off the Grass" sign. He's saying, "Oh, well, I had to buy a new hat anyway, might as well get one to-day." R point being that Mr. Milquetoast is a weak individual who avoids any form of confrontation, even with inanimate objects and nonsensical rules, even at personal cost.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Jan 6

First, good job everyone, keep it up. Second, it has always been strange to me how much that place looks like a diner I made in Fallout 4. 🧐

A post-apocalyptic diner I made in Fallout 4. It has a decayed nuclear-obliterated 1950s retrofuture ambience: rounded corners, metal roof, walk-up outside counters, black and white checkerboard linoleum, retro appliances. Blue neon letters on the red and blue awning proclaim it Sheffield's. Inside, Sheffield, a former Nuka Cola addict now decked out in (I think) a vault suit, stands behind the counter taking orders from a variety of wasteland denizens including a hovering Mr. Handy robot.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Jan 6

I have no idea what the movie is actually about, but that poster conveyed two things to my mind: 1) Robin Hood was bad, actually. 2) Do Not Watch. Subject to change, of course, but that was a heck of a marketing choice. Anyway, I'm an old nerd, these are still my Robins Hood:

The cast of the 1980s show Robin of Sherwood in award-winning period-accurate furs and homespun. Left to right are: Will "Grumpy" Scarlet (Ray Winstone), Little John (Clive Mantle), Much (Peter Llewellyn Williams), Lady Marian (Judi Trott), Robin of Loxley (Michael Praed), Edward of Wickham (Jeremy "Boba Fett" Bulloch), Friar Tuck (Phil Rose), and Nasir's shoulder (Mark Ryan's shoulder). Not pictured: Other Robin Hood (Robert of Huntingdon, aka Jason "Yes, That Connery" Connery).

Robin Hood, a foxy fellow, from Disney's Robin Hood: an anthropomorphic fox in a green tunic and yellow hat, holding a bow in one hand and making a ta-da gesture.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Dec 9

The version of your website that appears on my phone has an amusing formatting oddity that sounds like the first line of a novel: "There have always been John Scalzi."

Screenshot from Whatever showing the beginning of a paragraph at left and John Scalzi's smiling face with his name under it at right, thus appearing to say, "There have always been John Scalzi."

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Nov 23

When you get caught between the Moon and New York City...

Pope Leo in his white robes holding a microphone close, with his eyes closed, looking like he's singing.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Nov 10

Those who wanted to curry favor with Akhenaten, whose unusual appearance was probably due to Marfan's Syndrome, began having themselves depicted in tomb art as looking like him, with elongated limbs and necks and faces, and heavy hips and large bellies.

A statue of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, showing him fairly realistically, with the long limbs and face and heavy hips and bellies often seen in Marfan's Syndrome patients (a condition of which I am in no way making light).

A relief depicting Akhenaten and Nefertiti and three of their daughters. The art is much more stylized now, exaggerating all the ways they were different, far beyond the actual effects of Marfan's, making them look alien (or as they would have said, divine). This is what courtiers began to emulate.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Sep 5

Oh, no. I went to look at Benu again, and found a pen with Thoth on it! Anyone want to buy a kidney? 😭 benupens.com/wp-content/u...

A hand-painted fountain pen mostly in shades of brown and tan, depicting the bennu-bird (Egyptian phoenix, more or less) with blue plumage on the cap, and the deity Thoth (with the head of an ibis wearing a moon-crown) surrounded by ibises on the body. It's resting on a dark brown background with books and papers with Egyptian symbols and a bronze model of a scarab beetle nearby.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Aug 26

Even before Kermit and his banjo, ol' Pogo already knew that. 😁

Pogo Possum, a cartoon anthropomorphic opossum created by Walt Kelly for satirical political comic strips. He's wearing a red and black striped shirt, carrying a floral carpet bag with an umbrella stuck under his arm, smiling, and tipping his big ol' plaid top hat to you. Above his head is "Pogo" in block letters.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Aug 22

A photo you took that brings you inner peace...

Looking out between two gnarled pine trees like gateposts, over the rim of the Grand Canyon. All is cloaked in mist. Nothing is visible beyond the cliff's edge between the trees but a shadow of a canyon spire, almost lost in the deep pale grey fog. It is almost raining, droplets still suspended half-formed. You can almost see the silence.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Aug 20

Pasta shaped like Thread? 😱

Dragonquest by Michael Whelan, a painting for the Dragonriders of Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey. Dragons fly over a mountains landscape at sunset, riders on their backs directing them as they burn falling Thread (long filamentous organisms that devour any organic matter) with their fiery breath.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Aug 12

@whatsmacksaid.bsky.social, something arrived in today's post that has Medieval Cat's interest (don't worry, he's not attacking, just using his sword as a pointer). Can't wait to read it! 😁

A Medieval Cat stuffed toy (a yellow cat with a human face with a slight smile) points with his little sword to a copy of Death Valley Blooms by S.M. Mack. The book cover has the title apparently written on a core sample showing desert stratigraphy intertwined with roots and bones, with wildly blooming flowers above.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Jul 17

For a moment I thought you meant one of the coyotes was Loki's nemesis, which would have been cool but also a little worrisome. 😅 I've never lived close enough to get acquainted with coyotes, though I did share a mutual "WIMDY" look with one on the edge of the Badlands once.

The "WIMDY" fox, sans text: a beautiful red fox with a white chest, standing in a snowy field, squinting with ears back into a bitter snowy wind.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Jul 16

Solid.

Larry the Mole Man from The Tick cartoon, a smallish grey fellow with big pink eyes wearing a green jumpsuit with his name on it and a yellow hardhat with a miner's lamp. He has been known to accompany his Mole King on bongos, beatnik style.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Jun 17

Because I am Old™: Space: 1999 Battlestar Galactica (the 1978 original) Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Max Headroom

Poster for Space: 1999, showing the iconic spaceship the Eagle (a '70s NASA-futurist ship with a long main section, four landing gear pods, a conical nose with triangular windows, and classic rocket nozzles at the back) orbiting the Moon with the Earth in the background.

Poster for the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica, in traditional movie pile-of-actors style, showing painted versions of the main cast taken from unrelated stills and promos in a vertical stack on a backdrop of the Cylons destroying their homeworld. In spite of the carnage behind them, Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) is the only one looking serious. Apollo (Richard Hatch) looks smug, Athena (Maren Jensen) is apparently blow-drying her hair, Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) may be looking down Cassiopeia's cleavage and trying not to get caught, and Cassiopeia (Laurette Spang) and young Boxey (Noah Hathaway) are just having the time of their lives. The '70s were a weird decade.

Poster for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, with inset scenes showing Princess Ardala (Pamela Hensley), Tiger Man (H.B. Haggerty, and yes Tiger Man was his official name), Kane (Michael Ansara), and scenes of battle. In the center, Buck Rogers (Gil Gerard) points his blaster at you while Wilma Deering (Erin Gray) holds her blaster ready and stares adoringly at the back of his head. Twiki the "ambuquad" who is definitely not R2-D2 (Felix Silla) obviously thinks these humans are nuts.

Poster for Max Headroom. Blessedly simple for a change, it's just Max (Matt Frewer in a latex mask of his own face) laughing on a background of colored lines. Text reads, "Max Headroom: 20 minutes into the future."

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Jun 7

Joe vs the Volcano. It's funny, it's philosophical, it's surrealist, it's absurdist, and just about every damn shot is a work of art.

A still from Joe vs the Volcano: Joe (Tom Hanks) stands on a raft made of his ridiculous luggage (four giant steamer trunks), floating on the empty night sea. He is reaching up as if to touch the edge of the astonishingly large moon hanging near the horizon.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· May 8

I kicked the habit. Shed my skin. This is the new stuff I go dancing in.

The new Pope, having kicked the habit and shed his skin, flanked by immature popes in their subadult color markings.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Jan 4

I've never seen either version. The original photo was light blue-grey (HSV 220, 29, 73) and muddy gold (44, 43, 48). I just checked in a paint program. And that's what I saw. So I've always been baffled by people who *see* dark blue and black (as opposed to guessing), because it's just not there.

The light blue-grey that is one of the colors of "the dress" in the original photo.

The muddy gold that is one of the colors of "the dress" in the original photo.

The original photo of "the dress," showing a light blue-grey and muddy gold striped dress hanging in a shop. The dress is in shadow, the rest of the store is overexposed. Grabbed from Wikipedia.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Nov 30

Wouldn't it be easier to just close the window? *takes a hundred snowblown snowballs to the mush*

From a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, Calvin being pasted by a massive barrage of well-deserved snowballs.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Oct 24

Describe your in-person social skills with an image.

VINCENT (I'm not shouting, it's an acronym for Vital Information Necessary Centralized) from The Black Hole: a hovering spherical grey robot with various retractable appendages (pincers, little round feet, probes) and a round helmet-head that pops up out of the body to reveal perpetually worried-looking eyes. He can draw everything back into his shell like a very round turtle. I only wish I could.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Oct 12

"It can babysit your kids, walk your dog."

The TOMY Armatron sold by Radio Shack in the early 1980s: a robotic arm similar to those in automotive factories, in pale blue and dark grey plastic with an orange plastic claw. It has two tiny orange joysticks that you use to move it around and pick things up. I had one as a kid and absolutely loved it for about half an hour.

Kyle D. Long@blatherscribe· Sep 17

Just found that BlueSky number folks have been talking about. Not within the first million, but lower than my ICQ number (if anyone remembers that)... so if this trend continues I'll be within a meaningful distance of the first users of a new social media platform in about 173 years.