OpenStars

Those eyes though...

We can do more! Maybe... significantly lower the resolution, while keeping the image the same size?

Also, image search found this completely unrelated gem: link

While not automated, typing those terms into the search bar does function to retrieve posts with those hashtag terms. So OP is not confused - rather, they are taking us all #backtoschool:-).

To be clear, not of himself, but rather when Trump assassinated Iranian General Qassem Soleimani - whatever else he may have been, he was employed in that capacity by a foreign power, and Trump killed him with a "precision strike", aka assassination. I thought that event might have literally started WWIII, but instead Iran was like "naw, we're cool bro", and that was it.

Hrm, they seem off by a little, maybe... 42 units?

Maybe DeSantis should spend a billion dollars building a wall, to keep out the immigrants from NYC!? :-P

He already effectively did that to keep out Disney it seems. :-|

When [NYC] sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

-Donald Trump

There is a whole entire universe of back-stories there - not just Han Solo as a kid & young adult (but that too!), but Boba Fett, Lando Calrissian & Vuffi Raa, and like you know Darth Vader but there is also Prince Xixor the head of the Black Sun organization that was his top rival for power underneath the Emperor, and all manner of "minor" characters like IG-88 that almost took over the universe:-), oh and we should not forget Anzat the nostril vampires.

Robots, magic, love, intrigue, pirates, death, honestly like any story it's more about the strength of the author to tell it than anything but the universe is there to work within, and that's solid.

You already mentioned some of the top highlights: the Thrawn series - b/c Timothy Zahn is really good - and the rogue series, are both good. I found Michael Stackpole to be a bit distracting to read b/c of all the action terms, but if you can either know or ignore what "pitch" and "yaw" mean, they are great regardless:-). Especially Wedge becoming a pirate - fantastic!:-P

I am guessing that you only think you know about Luke/Leia/Han - e.g. Luke was this old hermit sage in the wilderness in the more recent movies - but at one point he was abandoned by his mentors and had to sort of just figure out the entire Jedi thing all on his own. He went from child/tween to young man to middle-aged long before he pulled back to his role of "retired sage on a mountaintop", which is the journey of a literal lifetime.

I think you are right to avoid the Yuuzhan Vong - not necessarily forever but at least to start with, b/c it was written in a time when all the other stories had already been told, and people were waiting on George Lucas to expand the universe to be able to tell more, so they are just strange, and also meant to be interpreted in the context of flat being "different" than any that came before. Ngl, there are some interesting stories embedded in that arc, but you can come to them later if you want - they are not good to start your jouney with imho.

Basically I am confirming your existing plan: read what you are interested in, those you mentioned are good, and once you read them, you may have a better feel for what you would be more interested in knowing next. e.g. I always thought the whole back-story of the Noghri was somewhat interesting, especially Leia's involvement, but until you read the Thrawn series you may not even know what those are.

I guess I should add that it will be really weird to be shifting universes all the time: the Empire (Thrawn and X-Wing series) is a very different place than the Old Republic, the latter is full of entitled people who barely know the meaning of the word "hardship" (and who all think that their lifestyle will go on & on forever) while the former rarely if ever mentions someone who has a stable source of income & a home, instead everything is slavery, death, and freedom fighting. So I confirm that your plan to read whole entire series at once is a good one, as those transitions especially between pre- and post-TOR will be jarring.

So get in there, and enjoy!:-)

As I understand it, bc printing something on paper with ink has costs associated with it. Hey... wait a minute!? :-P

Trump's "just grab them by the pussy" quote was revealed to the public almost a decade ago, in October of 2016.

Trump's successful assassination attempt was in January of 2020, after his first impeachment but before his second one, and before the "excess deaths" from the pandemic killed more Americans than all wars combined.

Trump's conviction of rape was one year ago.

How long has it been since Trump even traveled to NYC, from Florida - didn't he even move his "home state" status there officially a couple years back?

Other places changed their names to remove the toxic Trump phrase multiple years ago in the past.

Click bait article seems to be dredging up click bait drama, about some rich folks who now (why NOW all of a sudden!?) worry about their property values being affected by the Trump name - as the article states, not bc of anything that he did, but bc he's currently under investigation and so due to the negative stigma attached to that, i.e. rich folks worry that they may be less rich soon. Sorry / not sorry if I don't care in the slightest.

While true that the timing is shit, the amount is nowhere close to "table scraps" - this seems like it will legit be helpful, maybe even enough to turn the tide in Ukraine?

Also, it's not like Congress fed its own and then waited months to feed the dog - rather, dinner for the entire family was delayed from the start of the fiscal year 2024 in October 1 until just a few weeks ago, involving the ousting of one Speaker of the House and almost doing so to the second as well. And now, this aid package for Ukraine may likewise finish the job of getting the Speaker kicked out, bc any time the government is "functional" is considered bad by some elements.

But the timing from passing the federal budget itself to passing this aid package is actually quite short. Yes it's half a year late, but it did eventually happen, and the amount of aid is large, so is a "success" by multiple metrics, and all the more so given the opposition. If we do end up having a civil war as people like MTG are calling for, this may well be the last aid package that the USA ever manages to pass in the final stages of its democracy.

So imho we should take the win and be happy - we may not get to celebrate Congress doing routine activities like "passing budgets" very often in the future, even six months late.

Too late - it is posted to !dankmemes@lemmy.world, so it is a meme now:-P