lol. I went to move my laundry to the dryers, and the person who’d left their laundry in the washers I’d used - which I’d piled on top of said machines 45 minutes ago - JUST came to grab it. They got all huffy upon seeing their laundry sitting on top of now-empty washers. I avoided eye contact. 😇

When I was in Japan last month, it felt weird going around without a mask, despite it being much safer there. I didn’t know if the people in masks were just being cautious, or actually sick but just with colds.

High-trust societies with strong social contracts feel miraculous compared to the US.

I also really don’t like that, whenever I get cold/fever symptoms, my kneejerk reaction is to wonder if I’ve finally gotten COVID for the 5th time. The last time was well over a year ago, so vaccines + masks are definitely working.

But the whole thing has traumatized me. For the long term.

“Stupid Canadian wolf bird” might also work, though.

Thank you SO MUCH for this! I knew about the McDowall --> Welker update, and I did pick up on some animation differences between the two, but I'm so interested to check this out. I appreciate you taking the time to reply!

You don't happen to still have that recording, do you? I know it's a longshot...I run piratesofdarkwater.net (what's left of it, anyway...sigh) and remain a quiet archivist of all things PoDW. I'm just curious how different it was from all subsequent releases!

So 8 total, with residing here for 5 years first, right?

My dad became a citizen in the 80s pretty quickly. When I became a citizen 25+ years ago (moved here as a baby, but tl;dr we only applied after I started undergrad), it took ~1.5 years. It's horrifying how much worse it's become.

I live right next to Seattle Center (at least until 2 weeks from now when I move to a different area). Shit’s getting loud, bahaha