Introductions, and a call for more mods!

Hello everyone! I thought I’d give an introduction for myself and for this comm, so it doesn’t seem quite so empty.

I’m PugJesus - a terminally online user who blathers on about history altogether too much. I particularly enjoy the history of the Roman Republic and Empire, the medieval period, and economic history. I’m not a professional historian, or anyone special like that - I went to college and majored in History, but I was only an undergrad. Thus, my opinion is generally slightly more-informed than the average layman, but only slightly!

I’m very capable of being incorrect, so despite my penchant for convincing-sounding paragraphs, I beg you - don’t ever take my word as gospel, on anything! I’m extremely capable of being wrong, and that’s aside from the issue that history itself is rarely settled! I’m a lowly monoglot (shaming my ancestors) who can’t even read primary sources without a pre-existing translation, and despite my enthusiasm for history, much of my post-college reading has been from an eclectic selection of literature ranging from cutting-edge to hopelessly-out-of-date. A man buys what books and journals he can afford, after all 😭

I already mod more comms than I really want to. But people, otherwise, might be WRONG on the INTERNET, and we can’t have that! If anyone would like to assist with the modding burden - which I expect to be light - feel free to send me a message, and I’ll check your comment history!

If you feel you might be answering often here, feel free to introduce yourself below! Or don’t - all participation in this comm is welcome, at any level of expertise or involvement! We’re here to learn together, after all!

when I was younger, I didn’t get the “goat farming” trope. I sincerely loved computers, after all! And my job was to make them even better for everyone!

Goats. Goats never commit human rights abuses at incomprehensible scale in a way that intentionally dilutes responsibility too thinly to convict any one person. I’d like to go feed some goats

Writers: here are ten free and easy ways to add a dash of visual interest to your blog posts without resorting to AI imagery (which signals to readers that your blog post is probably also AI and there’s no need to bother reading it):

1) A thoughtful photo you’ve taken yourself — a nice sunrise you saw, a cool angle spotted on vacation, your pet curled up on the couch, flowers. Play with your phone photo app’s filter settings to nail the tone. It doesn’t need to be particularly related to the post, it’s related to you as a person.

2) An image from Wikimedia Commons that’s somehow related to the subject matter — there are unfathomably many, you can search by keyword. Remember to credit. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

3) A screenshot of a scene you made in a sandbox game such as Minecraft or Animal Crossing

4) A scene you made with toys such as Lego (you can also use free Lego design software such as Bricklink Studio) https://www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/main.page

5) Play with the effects in whatever image editor you have access to, using your own photos or free-to-use images, to create something a bit abstract and avant-garde

6) Even if you can’t draw or paint very well, you can probably make some pretty cool abstract or collage imagery with whatever art supplies you have around. Dampen some paper and randomly dip watercolor paint onto it and see what happens

7) Those stickers you stashed and never used? Yeah you can make something with them. If they’re individually cut, you don’t even need to peel them, you’ll still find the One True Way to use them one day, I’m sure

8) Shelfies. None will dare question your competence after they see you have a real paper copy of Subject Matter Tome Volumes 1 through 6

9) You can get a lot of mileage out of compositing pre-made video game assets into an image. A good place to start is Kenney’s free and generously licensed 2D assets: https://www.kenney.nl/assets/category:2D and the Tiled editor which is specifically meant for assembling images out of video game asset tile sheets https://www.mapeditor.org

10) the most ridiculously amateurish thing you can scribble on a post-it note or in MS Paint is preferable to AI imagery because it clearly signals a real human cares about the post.

#writing #writingcommunity #collage #blog

If someone wants to leak me a copy of this app (either .apk or .ipa), please reach out on Signal — my username is zackwhittaker.1337 — and I would be keen to run this app through Burp Suite to see how it works. Happy to grant anonymity.

https://www.govexec.com/management/2026/05/white-house-ordering-agencies-place-its-new-app-all-employees-government-phones/413738/