how is the kentucky derby not trending on here?? the horse with the lowest odds wins and immediately starts biting everything in its sight, that sounds like a tumblr legend to me
oh my fucking god
This horse wasn’t even supposed to be in the race. Horse number 20 (can’t remember it’s name) dropped out the day before for whatever reason, and Rich Strike was just barely able to sneak a spot into the derby before the deadline. Not to mention that this was just some garbage $30,000 horse that didn’t have any kind of impressive breeding (yes I am aware $30k is still a lot, but for a Kentucky Derby horse, that’s chump change). He was the second biggest upset in the history of the Derby, with one other horse (Donerail) winning with 91-1 odds before in 1913 (Which, for reference, I’m pretty sure Donerail with his 91-1 odds still holds the record for the worst odds in the history of the race. Just for context of how shit Rich Strike’s 80-1 odds were. Not THE worst, but definitely up there).
I am in love with this shit horse who wasn’t even supposed to be there, had some of the worst odds in the history of the race, and had the worst starting position who completely destroyed all of the favorites to win. Watching him come up to first right at the last second was THRILLING.
This story is fucking hilarious
So Rich Strike has barely won a race, but he ALWAYS shoots up in the last stretch. He goes from 11th to 4th, from 8th to 3rd. Rich Strike hits the final corner and suddenly gets flashbacks to his previous life as a Klingon warrior. He starts snarling curses and heads for the finish line like it insulted his ancestors and must PAY, that’s just how he runs races
And this was a blisteringly fast time for the Kentucky Derby- one of the fastest races EVER. When the announcer realized the time when they hit the halfway point he was like “Jesus CHRIST” It was incredible. Which means the lead horses, the favorites, were sprinting as hard as they could the entire race. By the time they got to the end they were exhausted
And here comes Rich Strike, turns the last corner and his vision goes red. The lead horses can’t pick up the final sprint like usual- they already ARE going flat out. Rich Strike comes up on the inside, NOT exhausted by fighting for the lead spot, howling “DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR” like the complete fucking lunatic he is and just blows past everyone
He’s ready to kill. He wants to tear into some Romulans and destroy the Federation, and he wins everything
Then the guy on horseback whose job it is to help slow the running horses down after they cross the finish line comes up and Rich Strike LOSES HIS SHIT
He bites the other horse, he bites the rider, he bites himself. He’s like “oh you think you can slow ME down?! I’LL KILL YOU. QAPLA!”
Tumblr is so funny because you can make a post like “hey do not mix bleach and vinegar in your cleaning, you’ll make chlorine gas and you do not want to make chlorine gas. It is dangerous to mix these two specific chemicals together”, and the comments are like
“Um vinegar isn’t dangerous?? My mom cleans things with vinegar all the time and we have never had lung issues. White people are insane.” (<- does not use bleach, missing the point)
“OH MY GOD BLEACH IS CHLORINE GAS? NOBODY EVER TOLD ME I’VE BEEN CLEANING WITH BLEACH MY WHOLE LIFE, I WILL DIE.” (<- has literally never used vinegar in cleaning, and never mixed the two, missing the point)
“This is just stupid fearmongering, we use bleach and vinegar to wash the floors all the time, OP is lying.” (<- does not actually know what “vinegar” is, and is confusing the word for something else)
“Yeah this is true enough but also keep in mind that this kind of household cleaning product chlorine gas is too weak and unreliable to use for domestic terrorism purposes.” (<- raises concerns, but potentially has a point)
discussions about language from the discord call i was just in w/ friends:
- “my girlfriend can never remember the english word for ‘rubber band’, so she just calls it ‘circle rope’, and i’ve accidentally started saying it too”
- “when i was a kid i didn’t realise that when my grandmother spoke english she used to mix in italian with it, so i used to say ‘allora’ instead of ‘then’ because i just assumed it was english too and my parents didn’t realise until i wrote it in my schoolwork once and confused my teachers”
- “when i first met my girlfriend’s mum she asked me if i wanted to eat thai food and i tried to say, in thai, “sorry, thai food is too spicy for me”, but i accidentally said “sorry, thai food is too sexy for me”
- “one time my flatmate went to print off something at her friend’s office and heard her greet her boss in French, and asked her if she had been greeting him like that everyday. she realised that her friend had been saying something like “good morning, i’m horny” to her boss every day for the last six months”
- “that time i got really drunk on a boat a guy came up to me asked me where i was from in english, and i replied in swedish. every time he spoke to me i replied to him in swedish and he asked my friend if i spoke english, who had the joy of telling him that english was my first language and i was just really hammered”
- “my parents came to visit me at the end of my stay in sweden and i was so excited to show them how much swedish i had learnt, so i took them to a pub and went to the bartender to order. i ordered everything in perfect swedish, the bartender waited until i finished and then said, “i’m really sorry, but do you speak any english? i don’t speak swedish”
- “one time my friend was on a train in the netherlands that stopped because of losing electricity. the announcement was given in multiple languages, 3 of which he could understand, and all of which made sense until it got to the english one, where the conductor announced that the train had “lost its elasticity”
reminder to worldbuilders: don’t get caught up in things that aren’t important to the story you’re writing, like plot and characters! instead, try to focus on what readers actually care about: detailed plate tectonics
@dragonpyre any chance you could elaborate on this
I grew up learning about land formations. Seeing fictional maps that don’t follow the logic and science of them makes me upset
What are the most common sins you’ve seen relating to this? I wanna know
Mordor.
Why is the mountain range square. How did the mountain range form. Why is there one singular volcano in the center. Why does it act like a composite volcano but have magma that acts like it’s from a shield. If it’s hotspot based volcanic activity why is there only one volcano.
And then the misty mountains!!!! Why isn’t there a rain shadow!! And why is there a FOREST where the rain shadow should be!!!!!!!!
So what is a rain shadow?
Wind blows clouds in from the sea, but mountains are so tall the clouds can’t get past ‘em, so you get deserts on the windward side of mountain ranges because clouds can’t get there to water the land, or do so only very rarely.
Oh yeah nothing is more annoying than fantasy maps that can’t get mountains, rivers and rain shadows right.
Literally got so into a dnd campaign I was writing that I started researching tectonic plates last month. So.
As you should, that’s the proper GM energy to have.
Calgary, Alberta is an example of a city that lives in a rain shadow. All the humid precipitation from the Pacific Ocean dumps over western BC (why Vancouver’s so lush), then the now-dry warm winds, the ‘Chinooks,’ come in Eastward over the Rockies.
Often, these winds slip under and raise the lower cloud layers, with a distinct border called a Chinook arch.
This is why most of western Alberta in the foothills has a dry subalpine climate, vs the center and east which are grassy plains. Usually, warm but dry summers, cold and dry winters, with recurring warm melts thanks to Chinooks.
That said, the jet stream has been moving due to climate change, so the area’s been seeing increased severe summer storms, flash floods, hail and tornadoes (one storm a couple years ago caused literally $1 billion in damage) and more severe winter snow dumps that don’t melt as quickly.
If you’re worldbuilding, keep in mind that climate change and geology are linked. The weight of glaciers that are miles thick compresses rock; when they melt, it rebounds. Shale mountain peaks that have been fragmented by meltwater repeatedly penetrating and freezing, are held together by permafrost; now these peaks crumble as it warms. The loss of an apex predator in a region can literally change the course of rivers.
people have tagged this as life imitates art, and I need you to understand that no, I saw this picture of my friend falling off the got dang swing and thought it represented human hubris so well that i went into a made haze of acrylic paint and when I awoke I was holding this finished canvas.
The group chat has decided that since I’ve only had one sexual relationship and it wasn’t a very good one and I’ve since transitioned, changed my legal name, undergone hormone therapy and now had bottom surgery, that I have ship of theseus'ed my way back to being a virgin
