Cathrine Schmid

@schmidcathrine

Medium Humanoid (Paladin), Lawful Good AC 18 (plate armor) HP 67 (6d10 + 31) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 16 12 16 15 8 18 Condition Immunities: Frightened

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Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Jul 5

From Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson, 1992

Why is the Deliverator so equipped? Because people rely on him. He is a role model. This is America. People do whatever the fuck they feel like doing, you got a problem with that? Because they have a right to. And because they have guns and no one can fucking stop them. As a result, this country has one of the worst economies in the world. When it gets down to it—talking trade balances here—once we’ve brain-drained all our technology into other countries, once things have evened out, they’re making cars in Bolivia and microwave ovens in Tadzhikistan and selling them here—once our edge in natural resources has been made irrelevant by giant Hong Kong ships and dirigibles that can ship North Dakota all the way to New Zealand for a nickel—once the Invisible Hand has taken all those historical inequities and smeared them out into a broad global layer of what a Pakistani brickmaker would consider to be prosperity—y’know what? There’s only four things we do better than anyone else: music, movies, microcode (software), high-speed pizza delivery.

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Jun 21

So you can spell out the names of the letters on the alphabet phonetically, and many of them dont actually start with the letter those names represent Which means you can re-alphabetize the alphabet Which then becomes an iterative process of approaching the True Alphabet Behold

A vertical spreadsheet table with two columns and 26 rows. The left column contains single uppercase letters of the English alphabet, each in its own row. The right column contains the way each letter is pronounced, written out in capital letters. They have been reordered so that their pronunciation is also in alphabetical order.

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Jun 18

I can't ever see one of these without hearing it to the tune of Tiny Dancer

Yellow bumper sticker reading "please be patient, student driver"

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Jun 4

This city was once the jewel of our kingdom. A place of light, and beauty, and music. And so it shall be once more!

Boromir standing victoriously over the city of Osgiliath, holding a pride flag

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Jun 2

Shout out to @rpg-volley.bsky.social for this still-relevant advice from 6 years ago today

A June 2020 tweet from former Twitter user RPG saying "Just start chanting 'ENDEX' at the National Guard and they'l all pop their helmets off and take a seat or wander off. Promise. Money-back guarantee"

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Jun 1

*stares directly into the camera like a 2010s sitcom*

An ad for a rainbow-themed dog collar from Human Rights Campaign, with the slogan "queer gear for your furry friend" emblazoned across the top of the ad like they don't know what they're doing. We see you HRC. Dont pretend like you didnt know what tou were doing here.

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· May 27

People: "This new wokeness made the military weaker!" The United States Army, "Personal Conduct For the Soldier", 1949:

Don't make fun of customs that are new to you. Your behavior is probably as funny to the Hindu as the Hindu's behavior is to you. Don't laugh at the Mohammedans when they pray five times a day facing their holy city of Mecca. Who are we Americans to ridicule anybody's clothes? Our swallowtail coats, zoot, suits, and women's hats are funnier than flowing robes, turbans, and grass skirts. Remember that whatever you say is likely to be understood by some passerby, for everywhere people understand some English.

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· May 26

This is the grave of Technical Sergeant Leonard Matlovich. It doesn't bear his name because he intended to be a monument to all gay veterans.

A close-up photo of a dark stone headstone in a cemetery, with green grass visible in the background. A blue baseball cap with a white peace symbol is placed on top of the headstone. On the left side of the stone is a pink triangle above the words “NEVER AGAIN” and the date “6 JULY 1943.” On the right side is an inverted pink triangle above the words “NEVER FORGET” and the date “22 JUNE 1988.” In the center, large engraved text reads: “A GAY VIETNAM VETERAN.” Below that, in smaller letters, the inscription says: “WHEN I WAS IN THE MILITARY THEY GAVE ME A MEDAL FOR KILLING TWO MEN AND A DISCHARGE FOR LOVING ONE.”

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· May 6

Burger King ad but instead of the words Burger King it says sonic the hedgehog

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Apr 30

I miss when the Army used to say things like this.

Excerpt from Army Doctrine Publication 6-22 regarding illegal, unethical, or immoral orders

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Apr 19

Ok new petition lets make dogs the dominant lifeform they're better

A light brown pit bull-staffordshire mix dog with a red collar curled up asleep on a patterned pillow on a gray couch, surrounded by several blankets in blue, pink, and green-white. A small Ty Beanie Baby toy, also a brown dog, rests near her paws.

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Apr 7

My fucking god. What a shot.

A photo of the back of the moon with the earth behind it

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Apr 5

The Edgar Allen Poe Speakeasy came home to Maryland today, and it is quite a good show.

A performer sits on a wooden chair on a dimly lit stage bathed in blue and purple light, surrounded by candles, props, and gothic décor set against an exposed brick wall, as an audience watches from the foreground.

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Apr 3

We said it the moment it happened- it wouldn't stop with trans people.

A transgender flag painted on a white wall, with "first they came for me" painted in black over it

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Mar 30

A Tumblr thread with four posts on the theme of goodness being more complex and interesting than evil.
Post 1 — papayajuan2019:
"cruelty is so easy. you're not special for choosing it"
Post 2 — belyenochi (quoting Toni Morrison):
"I just think goodness is more interesting," Morrison said. "Evil is constant. You can think of different ways to murder people, but you can do that at age five. But you have to be an adult to consciously, deliberately be good – and that's complicated."
Post 3 — chilewithcarnage (quoting Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas):
"The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist; a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain."
Post 4 — ttthelyss (quoting Brennan Lee Mulligan):
"Evil is boring. Right? I kinda believe in the banality and mundaneness of evil. Evil is just selfish impulses, which at the end of the day are really easy to understand. It's easy to understand why people do bad things. It's like 'yeah, ok, you're selfish and scared and cruel, I get it.' Being good is complex and beautiful and hard."
Post 5 — oldshrewsburyian (quoting C.S. Lewis):
"How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints."

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Mar 27

"This is Baltimore's moment, and we recognize that trans people need to be able to see themselves in that moment...We are not going to be like our forefathers, we are going to be a place where every single person who comes to this city is welcome here."

A printed program for the Trans Day of Visibility event hosted by the Baltimore Mayor's Office of LGBTQ Affairs. The flyer reads: "Friday March 27th, Trans Day of Visibility, 10AM–11AM, Baltimore City Hall Rotunda." The design uses the transgender pride flag colors (light blue, pink, and white) in stripes along the top and bottom borders and as background highlights on the text banners. The City of Baltimore seal appears in the bottom right corner alongside the text "Mayor's Office of LGBTQ Affairs."

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Mar 1

As more of us start coming back in flag-draped coffins again, I'm thinking about something I wrote some years ago. I'm so tired of all this death.

There is a strange familiarity with death and violence that military personnel deal with on a daily basis which grants a sort of knowledge that most other professions do not gain. The most elemental thing that a Soldier knows, or is prepared to know, is that the spectre of Death is always nearby.

Military culture works to turn every visit from Death into a celebration of the Warrior Spirit. The raw grief is tempered, if not completely drowned out, by a wash of heroic sentiment and patriotic feeling. No matter how gruesome the details, or how unrecognizable the contents of that flag-draped coffin, ceremony turns the details of Death into something beautiful and fine.

But Death still takes its toll on you. Physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually... I'm exhausted.

Who am I kidding? I was already exhausted.

My friends are dying. They are wanting to die. Trying to die. Because the world wants us to die. Because the world thinks we aren't worth the effort to save. Just take as much as they can, and throw us aside when they're done.

I can't even count how many people have told me that they wouldn't even care if they never woke up.

There's no celebration of heroism to be had here. No warrior spirit. Just quiet desperation. Just an endless, drudging sense of sheer hopelessness.

I want to say to them, "the world is better with you in it. There is so much that is dark and bad here, you are one of the bright spots. Please, please don't die."

And if I'm to be completely honest, "Please, don't leave me here alone. I can't lose you too."

People keep asking if I'm considering my own death. They don't get it. They're completely missing the point. Death took my friends from me. Why would I give it more?

But that spectre is right there, right behind me, just out of view. Whispering in my ear the most horrible thing I can imagine--

"I'm taking you last.”

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Feb 25

We're gonna make it By me.

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Feb 24

Cover of the Japanese fashion magazine “SENSE,” August 2015 issue.

Cathrine Schmid@schmidcathrine· Feb 21

This was the conclusion of the memo I attached to my retirement packet last May. Nothing the military does will ever clear away the stain of the shame they bear for this. There's no honor left in the institution.