smallfandombang | Member Posts

In trying to find a new pair of closed-toed sandals that use a buckle instead of Velcro, I'm learning that's basically a product no longer being made. I'm also learning shoe websites don't like people searching for things like closed-toed, or the clasp mechanism. Sometimes what I want is classified as a sandal, sometimes a shoe. And this isn't even getting into considering things like heel height, and heel narrowness.

It's especially demoralizing to find there's very little made in the way of women's shoes with buckles these days. Something nice to wear to work and meeting up with friends that helps me feel like I'm a grown-up and costs less than $400 doesn't seem like it should be giving me such a headache, but then, it's shoe shopping. Nothing's at all pleasant about that. These seem promising, and I may risk buying sight unseen to avoid going into a physical shoe store.

Current Mood: distressed
Current Music: nothing now

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This is my card for the

julybreakbingoevent :D

( card and fills )

shadaras

1.
The River Has Roots, by Amal El-Mohtar, is very beautifully written and really is a love letter to fairy tales and sisterhood, all of which I knew it would be going into it. It is also a novella I am turning over in my head because I am trying to figure out if my "I think it should've been longer" is a genuine structural thing or just the side-effect of the print volume being ~130 pages long, only 99 of which are the titular story. (the other 30 pages are a short story teasing her upcoming short story collection.)

This is not a long story! Reading a doorstopper novel, something like Priory of the Orange Tree or Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell (neither of which I ever finished, hah), being off in your estimations of length by 30 pages is unlikely to matter to the overall pacing of the book or what you expect from it.

It is almost a quarter of these printed pages.

That is a very significant amount of difference! I think about structure and pacing as I read. It's not always conscious, but I know that the number of pages remaining matters to me and my expectations. Sure, there's often some number of pages that aren't narrative at the end of a novel, but: scale, again, and also the sort of book that has extensive end notes/an appendix/etc is visible from the start, where it probably has a map and/or dramatis personae as well.

All of this is to say: I liked this story quite a lot! Which is why I'm spending so many words squinting at the way it was presented and poking at it like "you could've done better to prepare me for how this story was going to pace so that I wasn't surprised when it ended". (Because it is a gorgeous volume, with beautiful illustrations and clear care given to how it appears as an object, so why—)

2.
I taught kids class for aikido last night, because my friend who usually lead teaches wasn't feeling well, and used this as an excuse to teach the kids a very basic forward roll technique. They're all good enough at forward rolls to take one, and this throw done at their level just guides them into the position to take a forward roll; there's no force behind it, just form. (If done with the right timing and angle, it is very effective at forcing a roll! But that's much more advanced and very hard to do unintentionally.)

They did great with it, as I knew they would, and idk why this is the first time they've been taught a forward roll technique other than "my friend didn't want to teach it yet".

Next on my agenda: making them do the ikkyo pin. We'll see how long it takes to get there. (This is more likely to be something I can be like "hey what if we taught this" about and get "oh, yeah, sure" in response.)

3.
I talked to my mom on the phone this weekend. [insert 1k of deleted words about family stuff here, which tbh boil down to: I really should figure out finding and seeing a therapist. (this is not a new thought.)]

4.
I've started watching The Apothecary Diaries, an anime that I have been "yeah I'd probably like this" about since I first heard of it, and: surprise! I do like it quite a lot, as I like most stories about women and their politics and also weird girls with specialized knowledge using that knowledge to solve mysteries and help people. Maomao, the protag, is a 17yo apothecary who loves poison, does not notice people flirting with her, and thinks about how pretty the women surrounding her are all the time. (Also there's a dude who's in love with her in part because she's the only woman who goes "ew, leave me alone" instead of mooning over him, because heterosexuality must be gestured at and dudes need representation too.) (There are other men in the show; that guy, who also has interesting plot reasons for existing and doesn't actually exist solely to moon over Maomao, is just the only one other than Maomao's dad/teacher who really matters.)

I'm 10eps in and having fun. Truly just one of those things where sometimes everyone going OMG IT'S SO GOOD makes it hard to give stuff a shot, and going "y'know what I want to try something new and this has always sounded fun" is a lot easier to make happen.

5.
In other thoughts about tv shows and structure/pacing. So. Okay. I have a terrible fondness for Hearing About Sports while also often having zero interest in watching sports. (Sometimes

tavina liveblogs sports at me and I adore this, it's very fun, please tell me about your investment in an event and explain to me why you have feelings about it; I love to go !!! over things I only just heard about and learn about underdogs I will promptly root for on principle. or about Your Team doing well at things when I have no investment about rooting for anyone in particular but like it when my friends' investment is rewarded!)

So there's the netflix sports shows, which I'm pretty sure started with Drive to Survive, which is about F1. There are a number of seasons. My twin got me to start watching them like. Three years ago...? Something like that. It's a good series, and that's in large part because in its first season it understood a very important fact about sports tv:

You need to give the audience enough context about the sport that they know why they should be invested in it.

It's not enough to present a charismatic and/or attractive person who wants to win (and probably won't) and say "look! root for this person!". You gotta know what the sport is, and what makes it dramatic, and what it takes for someone to be good at it, and then you need to show the people you're following being good at that sport! It's okay if they fail, or fuck up, or whatever not being perfect looks like; you just also gotta show when they do things right, when they get close to victory, when they have the stuff that makes it interesting to root for them. And that means the audience needs to know what that is, and what it looks like, and see that happening.

A startling number of mediocre Netflix sports reality shows do not understand that the first thing I want from a sports reality show is: the sport

perhaps I am unusual for this, but, like

if you want to get people into your sport... I think they need to be given the tools to understand the basics of how your sport works... and see that sport being performed/played in competition...

also your show can't just be "look! women can do this too!" and generally spend more times on the lives of the women than on the women actually doing the thing. like, yes, I know people find that inspiring, but wow it's more inspiring to see people doing thing than to see them crying with their families about having fucked up, couldn't you have used that time to show some people doing cool stuff instead. show me their training. their actions. not their failures to the point where I'm like... where even was the cool victory stuff... you were too focused on humanizing them and forgot that being visibly good at shit is part of the story of "I want to be one of the best in the world at this activity" too...

lil_1337

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verushka70

Originally reblogged by me on Tumblr but worth reposting here because YES, PREACH!, and WTF.

[image: RR.jpg]

I don't love Robert Reich but I sure like him A LOT 1) because abso-fucking-lutely to the above, and B. many other concise brilliant analyses he's posted.

These fuckers are 100% hypocrites. It's all bullshit to push through an authoritarian system designed to promote and enhance kleptocracy. That is the ultimate goal: kleptocracy. Look it up. You will see that I am right.

Also I am increasingly disheartened that, yet again, William Gibson's scifi and speculative fiction has predicted the course of Western society. Goddamnit. I appreciate his intelligence and creativity but. Why does he have to be right so often. Dogdamnit.

kingstoken

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digthewriter

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Crossposts: https://digthewriter.insanejournal.com/427662.html

xdiorix

Dear podficcer,

I am super excited to hear whatever you have in store for me! I am on tumblr at

blackestglass and AO3 at

blackglass.

Things I Like: TROPES AND AUS. AWESOME LADIES. CHARACTERS OF COLOR. TEAM/FAMILY HIJINKS AND FEELS. OT3s AND MORESOMES ARE A-OKAY. GEN/HET (My slash ships are few and far between). I am here for the happy and the humor and the fluff. I mean, I am okay with angst and will forgive you for the critical hits to THE FEEEELS as long as it's balanced out with levity and has a happy ending. I am okay with any rating from gen to suuuuuuper explicit. I also love filk, so if you wanted to record that for me it would be SO welcome.

Things I Don't Like: I am not into character death, dub/non-con/rape, explicit violence, ZOMBIES CAN'T DO EM NOPE NOPE NOPE, dystopias, post-apocalyptic AUs, Omegaverse, slave fic, infidelity, soulmates/soulmate mark AUs, and character-bashing. I've also discovered that I cannot listen to extended scenes in which characters are being wrongfully accused with no one to stand up for them on their behalf. I can skim those scenes in text, but it's harder to skip in audio. So maybe no courtroom drama AUs lol.

Tropes/AUs I am into: Honestly, as long as the tropes/AUs don't fall into any of my DNW categories, you're pretty much good to go. College/High School AUs! My weakness. Coffee shop AUs! SPACE AUs! Regency AUs (omgggggg Regency AUs)! Characters in a different profession AUs! Genderswap/Rule 63/Spectrum slide (choose your favorite term)! Hella into piiiiiining (with eventual resolved sexual tension), failboats in love, fake dating/married, secret dating/married, kidfic/deaging yes do want, forced to share the same bed, huddling for warmth, accidental baby acquisition, etc. If the canon is sad, I prefer the EVERYBODY LIVES/NOBODY DIES AUs.

Fandoms:

9-1-1: Tumblr gifsets GOT ME. I don't usually ship slash, but I am not immune to idiots-to-lovers + co-parenting/found family so Buck/Eddie has been very good for me. I would prefer getting together fics over established relationship fics or PWP for this fandom/pairing. The more pining/mutual oblivious yearning, the better. I also like Buck/Tommy! I love all the ladies fandom hates, so please no Ana, Abby, Shannon, Taylor, Natalia or Marisol-bashing. Aside from Buck/Eddie, I would enjoy cute Fire Fam gen fic, Buck being a dad to Chris fic, Hen/Karen fic, Bobby being Buck's dad fic, Hen + Chim besties fic, or Chimney-centric fic. I loved Shannon and wish she hadn't been fridged, so I would love AUs where she lives and she and Eddie are amicably divorced and good co-parents. I'd even enjoy OT3 Buck/Eddie/Shannon. I am very sad about Bobby, so would prefer AUs where he's still alive.

The Murderbot Diaries: I am SO WEAK for the found family feels in this universe. Anything about Murderbot and its PresAux humans would be very good for me. I am ESPECIALLY invested in Murderbot and its relationship with Mensah and look, obviously I love gen fic, but the way I feel about Murderbot and Mensah is the same way I feel about Joan and Sherlock from Elementary, which is I love them platonically but I'd also love podfic that explores their relationship in shippy or queerplatonic ways. I also really enjoy Murderbot and its prickly relationship with Gurathin, but that dynamic I specifically prefer to be platonic. I really adore stories about Murderbot having a soft spot for all the mini-Mensahs/Mensah children. Murderbot interacting with fauna is also a reliable favorite for me! I do prefer book canon over the TV show canon atm.

The Mandalorian: My tastes for this fandom are very easy. Single Dad Mando raising his Green Baby. That is all I want. I'm not particularly invested in shipping for this fandom. That being said...I don't hate Din/Bo. The loyal-liege trope is one of my bulletproof kinks so uh, Din pledging his loyalty to Bo? Did in fact activate my "I could ship that" senses. I haven't actively looked for any fic, so if you find one you like that you think I'd like, don't let me stop you!

CQL (The Untamed)/MDZS: My particular catnip for this fandom is Jiang Cheng/Wen Qing--a badass lady who deserved better gently domming a very angry, emotionally tortured man with lots of AU fix-it fic??? MADE FOR ME. In terms of gen fic, I will HAPPILY accept any fic where the women of CQL/MDZS get to be alive and be awesome. As an oldest Asian daughter, I overidentify with Jiang Yanli and want her to have good things, so JYL centric stories where she gets to have an interior life and an identity outside of taking care of her brothers would be Very Good for me. I also really enjoy shipping her with Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen. What can I say? I want her to be pursued by men of TASTE. And honestly? I will read any femslash pairings with her but I've developed a special investment in JYL/WQ. So basically, I believe in OLDER SIBS SUPREMACY! I am extremely into the big sibs Jiang Yanli, Nie Mingjue, Lan Xichen, and Wen Qing OT4 and any permutation of pairings or OT3s within this OT4. In lieu of the OT4, I will accept gen fic about any combination of those 4 bonding over how much they love their younger siblings. In general, I HAVE A LOT OF FEELS ABOUT ALL THE SIBLINGS. So gen fic about the LAN BROS! THE NIE BROS! THE WEN SIBLINGS!! THE YUNMENG TRIO! I WANT THEM. I WANT ALL THE SIBLINGS TO BE HAPPY! If you'd prefer to do something more canon-aligned, I would like post-canon JIANG CHENG AND WEI WUXIAN TO GET OVER THEMSELVES AND BE BROTHERS AGAIN. I'm also extremely invested in jiujiu!Jiang Cheng and any gen stories about him raising Jin Ling would make me cry many tears. I have also discovered that I am VERY INTO girl-Huaisang because the idea of Nie Mingjue being EXTREMELY PROTECTIVE of his baby sister delights me.......and also I ship it, ahem. I am also very into Huaisang/Zonghui (behold! a rare m/m ship!)--THE BODYGUARD ROMANCE I DESERVE. No canon compliant fic for them, I want Zonghui to be ALIVE and DESPERATELY IN LOVE WITH HUAISANG.

Rogue One: Jyn/Cassian break my heart. THEY ARE SO BEAUTIFUL AND TRAGIC, and naturally all I want are AUs where they get to be PARTNERS/A BATTLE COUPLE/IN LOVE. I do not, under any circumstances, want canon-compliant fic for them. I don't want to be sad about them!!! I'm already sad about them, I don't need more pain! ;_;

Critical Role/The Legend of Vox Machina: For Campaign 1 or The Legend of Vox Machina, you will literally never go wrong with Percy/Vex. Aside from Percy/Vex, I also really like Vex/Jarett, Gilmore/Jarett, Grog/Keyleth, and Kima/Allura. I would also adore gen fic for this fandom because FOUND FAMILY FEELS. I love Percy and Keyleth's friendship SO MUCH, so gen fic for them is especially appreciated.

For Campaign 2, I am basically entirely about Caleb/Jester. And more specifically, what I like about the ship is how much Caleb makes Jester's happiness a priority. I prefer stories which feature Jester's POV or at least a story where Jester's emotions are given priority or equal weight with Caleb's Sad Boi feelings. To put it simply, Jester is my fave, I like the ship because Caleb treats my fave well and I want that dynamic to be front and center.

For Campaign 3, I am super into Fearne/Ashton. Their dynamic is FASCINATING. I also really enjoy Laudna/Imogen.

EXU Calamity left me in shambles emotionally. I'm extremely invested in Laerryn/Loquatious so anything for them would be perfect. I would also love any reincarnation fics for the Ring of Brass or just pre-canon fics in general. Modern AUs where nothing bad ever happens to them? DO WANT.

Dimension 20: I've loved most of the campaigns and sidequests, but fannishly I'm most inclined towards Fantasy High and The Unsleeping City, as well as the Escape to the Bloodkeep sidequest. I am always into the found family and gen shenanigans most of all. As a former church kid, I feel Very Seen by Kristen's evolving relationship with her deities and her queer journey. I love everything about Gilear and if you find fic about his relationship with Fig, I WANT IT. I also love everything about Kingston Brown and would love Kingston-centric podfic. I am EXTREMELY invested in Ricky/Esther and Sofia/Dale, so ship-wise, this is where I live. For the Vile Villains, I just want stories about them being the best evil friends they are. I do enjoy the Lords of the Wing from A Court of Fey and Flowers, so if you'd like to podfic me a story about the cousins being the Messy Bitches they are, I would love that. I enjoyed Mentopolis enormously, and fics about Conrad and The Fix and post-canon fics about The Fix/Pasha would be amazing! Misfits and Magic season 2 set my Sam/Evan ship feels SAILING. I honestly wanted them to get together in season 1 but this season??? Their dynamic??? *chef's kiss* IMMACULATE. Also when Evan asks her if he can be her dog and live in her house??? AWAKENED SOMETHING INSIDE ME. I'm JUST SAYING. Pup play fic exists on AO3...with a bp author... *eyes emoji*

Leverage: Leverage Redemption has reignited the OT3 love and that's mainly what I want. But I also love found family gen and case fic and fun crossovers! Also......Sophie/Harry aka Our Mr. Wilson? I'm ngl, I SHIP IT.

Mass Effect Trilogy- I will forever be aboard the good ship FemShep/Garrus and would LOVE LOVE LOVE podfic for them. I'm also willing to receive cute team gen, fic about KROGAN BABIES, and Tali/Kal Reegar podfic. Also, ANYTHING ABOUT SPACE HAMSTER. I'm not really interested in MaleShep or any of the other romances tbph.

Dragon Age (2 or 3)- Again, I'm mainly interested in FemHawke or FemInquisitor. My VERY FAVORITE DA2 pairing is Hawke/Varric, but I also enjoy Hawke/Sebastian, Merill/Carver, and Isabela/Fenris. I...don't care for Anders. (I'm not asking for Veilguard podfic specifically, but in the event you're podficcing Hawke/Varric fic that's post-Veilguard, I want the AUs WHERE MY MAN IS ALIVE. plz ;_;) My VERY FAVORITE DAI pairing is Inquisitor/Iron Bull--like, that was my gateway into the DA spiral bc I wanted to Ride the Bull. I don't mind Inquisitor/Cullen but I don't read a lot of fic for them because there's just...too much and it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff iykwim. I don't care for Solas. As always, aside from these specified pairings, I also super enjoy cute gen fic and I have the very softest of spots for Cole, so anything about people being kind to Cole is my jam.

Red vs. Blue- York/Carolina is still the Tier 1 OTP. AUs or fix-it canon AUs for them please, because I'm so sad about them ;__; BUT--I recently caught up on the seasons I didn't watch after they killed my boy and uh...I AM ON BOARD THE WASH/CAROLINA SHIP I HAVE MANY FEELINGS ABOUT THEM. Also, Caboose is my One True Love, so Caboose-centric gen fic is everything I could ever want.

Fullmetal Alchemist (anime/manga)- Roy/Riza were my first OTP, in the sense that I only ship them together and not with anyone else. I want them to be in love. It can be set pre-show, during the show, post-show, or in a wild AU--as long as they're in love you cannot go wrong with me. Whether they're desperately pining for each other or happily married, as long as I am DROWNING IN FEELINGS about how much they love each other I will be so so satisfied. LET MY BABES BE IN LOVE, THAT'S IT.

I also really love Lan Fan/Ling Yao, and I also SUPER ENJOY Lan Fan/Ling Yao/Greed. IT IS THE BODYGUARD ROMANCE I DESERVE AND WANT.

Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku- This is a longshot fandom, but sob, I love Hirotaka/Narumi and would love podfic for them. I would also be okay with OT4 podfic for Hirotaka/Narumi/Kabakura/Hanako, bc fandom has opened my eyes to the polyamorous possibilities and on rewatch, the OT4 vibes are REAL.

Spy x Family- another longshot fandom, but I am, as always, into the found family-ness of it all. I also SUPER ship Loid/Yor and would love podfic for them. Bond is Best Boi so fics from his POV would be fantastic!

Elementary- Joan and Sherlock are my OTP. I am a-okay with stories involving them being platonic bffs, but if it's shippy you will own my soul forever. FICS ABOUT CLYDE WOULD BE LOVED AND PETTED AND CLUTCHED CLOSE TO MY HEART.

Ouran High School Host Club (anime/manga)- a small fandom, I know, but I would love anything involving the Host Club being their RIDICULOUS OVER-DRAMATIC SELVES and having WACKY ADVENTURES. Also leaning more gen, rather than shippy with this fandom. That being said, my preferred pairings are Mori/Haruhi and Kyouya/Haruhi if you can't find anything that works for you. In terms of ot3s, I like Kyouya/Tamaki/Haruhi!

Tortall (Protector of the Small books specifically)- I am all about Keladry. KELADRYYYYYYYYY. KEL BEING AWESOME. KEL BONDING WITH ALANNA. KEL AND HER BOYS. KEL AND HER PEOPLE AT NEW HOPE. Gen is fantastic, but you should know I ship Kel/EVERYONE. I wrote a manifesto about her with fic recs here.

Avatar: The Last Airbender- I've been on a Zuko/Katara kick lately, so please indulge my feels for this ship, plz and thanks.

The Punisher/Daredevil series specifically- Frank/Karen. Period. End. I'd prefer you steer away from stories where she's Perfect Pure Karen who's put on a pedestal--what I like about this ship is that they see each other's darkness, recognize it, and accept it.

I think that's about it. If you want more information about my tastes, my recs tag on tumblr, or my recs tag on

het_reccers is a good thing to trawl through. :D And if you have any questions, feel free to comment anonymously.

Giving:
Aside from the fandoms/characters/ships outlined in my letter, I'm also willing to create in:
911: Lone Star
MCU (movies up to Shang Chi, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye--I haven't seen any of the other Disney+ series)
DCU comics (Batfamily, pre-Infinite Crisis Teen Titans, pre-Infinite Crisis Birds of Prey, Batgirl (Cassandra Cain run), Justice League International)
DCU animated series (Teen Titans (original series, not Teen Titans go), Young Justice, Batman, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited)
The Martian (book/movie)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series)
Firefly (TV series)
Good Omens (all canons)
Miraculous Ladybug
Stargate Atlantis
Naruto, Bleach, Sailor Moon, Gundam Wing, Inuyasha (anime only)
Enchanted Forest
Figure Skating RPF
Spirited Away
Sleepy Hollow
Brooklyn Nine Nine
Calvin and Hobbes
Sense8
The Good Place
Untitled Goose Game
Mulan
Carmen Sandiego (any adaptation)
The Mummy
The Queen's Thief
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Bridgerton

spikedluv

I did not go to visit my mom. My sisters took it in turns today so I could get some stuff done. I’ll take my turn again tomorrow morning.

I had a chiropractic appointment this morning. I hit Walmart while I was downtown and got in a longer walk around the park. I also stopped in at the Feed Bag to pick up the suet Pip forgot (and to reserve two large metal garbage cans for Pip to pick up on Monday; he got one when he got birdseed this past Monday (the task fell to him since I was a tad busy) and decided he wanted more. They’re big enough that I can’t take them in my car. As it turns out, he doesn’t have any more in stock so will have to order them.)

I hit Stewart’s on the way home, returned a book to the library, stopped to check mom’s mail, visited my aunt (since I won’t be available to do so tomorrow; and complained to the social worker about how they do her hair – it’s such a minor thing, but it would be so easy to keep her hair in curls instead of straight and straggly by not using a hairbrush on the curls and I’d like her to look nice, at least, because she has so little dignity left, you know?), and stopped at Sunnycrest again to check on the beef stick status. If you guessed they ~still don’t have them, you’d be right. I’m going to be annoyed if I found something Pip likes and they won’t carry them anymore, or at least regularly.

I did a load of laundry, ran a load in the dishwasher and emptied it, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter. I baked chicken for the dogs’ meals and fed Pip leftover pulled pork (yes, from the big b-day do a couple weeks ago; mom put it in the freezer) for supper. I did get fresh strawberries at Sunnycrest, so I made biscuits. I had strawberry shortcake for my supper; Pip prefers his biscuits with peach jelly because that’s how his mom used to do it.

(He refuses to eat a biscuit with anything other than peach jelly. It’s very frustrating. You can imagine my shock the first time I made chicken and biscuits for supper and Pip only ate the chicken and gravy and completely refused the biscuit because I didn’t have any peach jelly. Basically a bowl of soup, lol! I had no idea anyone would eat biscuits with ONLY jelly. I mean, I eat my leftover biscuits with butter and jelly, but solely?!! I know now and prepare accordingly.)

The surgeon’s office called today to schedule the removal of the node they found during Pip’s endoscopies. August 11, the day after my birthday, so one heck of a b-day pressie. *g* [I told him when he got home from work and he was like, I'm not having that removed! And I'm like, why not? Apparently he thinks it's not necessary when two different doctors think it is. *shrug* He's going to talk to the doctor himself to get it sorted. He's such a pain in my butt about this sort of thing.]

I finally started System Collapse, watched an HGTV program, and sent mom some messages she'll see when she gets home, in lieu of our usual telephone conversation.

Temps started out at 55.0(F) and reached 82.8. There was a mix of sun and clouds and a breeze, thankfully.

Mom Update:

My sister kept us informed of events as they occurred:

( I did bullet points so it got long )

scifirenegade

The Yahoo Groups Rescue Project needs more taggers.

Paul Leni's The Last Warning (bilibili link). The copy on the Internet Archive is quite battered, this one is nicer. The website is weird for online viewing, so thank heavens for third-party tools (hehe). Leni's stuff is always nice, and I'm very curious about the sets (they were reused for The Last Performance apparently).

EDIT: Another upload. 360p. Hey, it's public domain.

Blog post about J. Storer Clouston. Featuring an omnibus edition of The Spy in Black, The Lunatic at Large, Simon and The Man From the Clouds. Conrad Veidt on the cover, never seen that specific publicity portrait. There's a message printed on this edition that he wrote (of course, someone told him to write that). Maintains "Germanisms", I hate he doesn't put the little strike on his t's.

Current Mood: mellow

hannah

In chatting about arbitrary divisions into two groups and applying that to the internet, we came up with the binaries of good internet and bad internet, and young internet and old internet. I then suggested algorithmic internet and end-user internet, and I stand by that. I often say I only use social media on my computer where I have a full keyboard, big screen, mouse, and browser extensions, all of which help me curate my experience - while it's not perfect, I'm still largely in control of things. I haven't ceded ground to an app or control to a set of suggestions. I'll often see complaints but rarely what's being complained about, which gives me both a skewed view of what's going on and satisfaction in being so well-curated I barely glimpse what's being touted as a widespread problem.

Keeping the internet on a computer, where it belongs, fixes a lot of problems before they start.

Also of note today was someone on my floor moving out and I got some fancy imported Korean sea salt they weren't going to bother hauling around with them. I don't know how fancy it is, but it tastes quite nice. I'm thinking I'll use it in soup.

Current Mood: sympathetic
Current Music: Brian Wilson (live) - Barenaked Ladies

lil_1337

( Review )

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: Home
Current Music: None

severina

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seleneheart

What If? by Randall Munroe

Blurb:

Fans of the xkcd comic ask Munroe a lot of strange questions: What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? What if everyone only had one soulmate? What would happen if the moon went away?

In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by his signature xkcd comics. (They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.)

In celebration of 10 years of unusual insight, Randall Munroe has revised his classic blockbuster to ask what if? x 10. The result is 10x the adventure of scientific inquiry. Featuring brand-new 2-color annotations and illustrations, this special anniversary edition is far more than a book for geeks, What If? explains the laws of science in operation in a way that every intelligent reader will enjoy and feel much smarter for having read.

While I love, xkcd comics, I found the book a little hard to get through. Some of the questions were genuinely interesting and the explanation intriguing, but many of them seem to end up in the same place every time. An amusing read overall though.

Note: with this square completed, I have one left!

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: Mark Isham - The Huntsman

elf

I have been reading the TTRPG space on bluesky.

1) Everything is commercial. Soooo much "buy my thing." You might think there'd be a mix of "buy my thing" and "hey come watch/listen to our playthroughs" but no. It's all "buy my thing."

2) It's really, really hard to avoid D&D and Pathfinder.

3) I had managed to forget how wank in TTRPG spaces goes down. It's never just "D&D has taken over the hobby and that sucks." It has to include "people who play D&D are stupid/cowards/wimps/conformist shills." Possibly with a side of, "if people were paying attention to what's good, they would buy my thing..."

(I do not like D&D. I do not play D&D. I have thought many negative things about D&D, and about D&D evangelists. I have never thought the only reason people play D&D was because they were too stupid to look at other game systems. I am damn well aware there is a ton of inertia involved, plus the hassle of convincing your entire gaming group to try something different.)

4) We don't have any shared vocabulary and this is a problem. Or rather: We have some words - crunchy, rules-lite, narrative game, OSR, "role-play vs roll-play," meta-gaming, RAW, probably a few more - but we have zero agreement on what they actually mean, on which games or play styles fall under which term.

5) Unlike the fanfic communities, there has been no serious meta looking into what's changed when a former on-paper hobby went digital. There are blog posts and such, but they're scattered as hell. And 2/3 of the discussion is weird hand-wringing about what people will or won't buy, not about how the hobby itself changes when the rules are on a screen rather than paper.

+1) If there are discussion groups about TTRPGs-as-a-fandom, I can't find them. Dammit.

+2) Don't get me started on the gleeblor.

shipperslist

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kitewithfish

What I've Read
All Systems Red by Martha Wells - Watching Murderbot the show with some friends led us into a discussion of differences between the show and the book, so I ended up re-listening to the book. It just keeps holding up - it's tightly written with a narrative voice that is just so clear and so dry and sometimes so scared - I love this book. I'm not sure where I land on the show exactly, but this did confirm that at least some of the plot differences are from the show removing the drones that SecUnit uses to see things remotely.

What I'm Reading
The City and the City by China Mieville - audiobook narrated by John Lee (not my fave but perfectly competent) - This is the first time I'm reading China Mieville after all the online awareness of the accusations and it's for a book club. The book does lean pretty well into the weirdness of the two cities arrangement - where you might have something pass in front of your eyes but you unsee it, because it's in a different city than the one you live in . It's a mureder mystery, so a lot of my final read will depend on how the story resolves

My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book 2 by Emil Ferris - still weird!

Hunting Toward Heartstill by Blackkat -about 45%
The Antarctica Conspiracy Derin Edala – slightly on hold.
The Ministry of time - on hold.
Someone you can build a nest in -on hold

What I'll Read Next
Star Trek: Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way
The Tainted Cup
The Deep Dark

Track Changes
Alien Clay
Service Model
Someone You Can Build a Nest In
Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed
Navigational Entanglements
The Butcher of the Forest
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
The Brides of High Hill
The Tusks of Extinction
“Charting the Cliff: An Investigation into the 2023 Hugo Nomination Statistics”
“Signs of Life”
“By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars”
“The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video”
“Loneliness Universe”
“The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion”
“The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea”
“Lake of Souls”

mrs_sweetpeach

( Click here for Week #23 )

Current Mood: nervous
Current Location: Home and on my corner of the couch
Crossposts: https://mrs-sweetpeach.insanejournal.com/789727.html

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