iamrman: (Buggy)
([personal profile] iamrman posting in [community profile] scans_daily May. 26th, 2025 03:04 pm)

Writer: Roger Stern

Pencils: Tom Lyle

Inks: Bob Smith


The scientists responsible for accidentally giving Will Payton his powers send their own super-powered goons after him.


Read more... )

unrelaxing: (western: morgana hues)
([personal profile] unrelaxing May. 26th, 2025 07:41 pm)
Back in January 2024, I tried to learn a little more on prison abolition and saved the articles I read on Notion. Since I'm trying to use Dreamwidth as an archive, I thought I'd put all the links here.

Title and AuthorDate ReadSummaryLink
"What About the Rapists and Murderers?", by Angel ParkerJanuary 15, 2024Article trying to answer the question about prison abolition and violent crime - found this one frustrating as it offered no solutions to the issue at all.https://medium.com/@amparker/what-about-the-rapists-and-murderers-7a81955b772c (web archive)
"Should police officers be able to get away with having sex with detainees?"January 15, 2024Stats: In 2015, after a year-long investigation, the Associated Press revealed that in the six-year period from 2009 to 2014, about 550 police officers had lost their badges for rape, sodomy and other types of sexual assault; and a further 440 for possession of child pornography and other sex crimes; or sexual misconduct such as propositioning citizens, sexting juveniles, or having consensual but prohibited sex while on duty.https://dailytimes.com.pk/549072/549072/ (web archive)
"THE DANGEROUS FEW:
TAKING SERIOUSLY PRISON
ABOLITION AND ITS SKEPTICS", by Thomas Ward Frampton
January 23, 2024Notes for this article, which is 40 pages long, under the cut.https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/135-Harv.-L.-Rev.-2013.pdf (web archive)
"Can Prison Abolition Ever be Pragmatic?", by Nathan J RobinsonFebruary 1, 2024Prison abolition and prison reform can actually be reconciled fairly easily. The ultimate goal is prison abolition, because in a world without hatred and violence there would be no need for prisons, and the goal is a world without hatred and violence. In the interim, prisons must be made better and more humane.https://transformharm.org/ab_resource/can-prison-abolition-ever-be-pragmatic/ (web archive)
"NYC to pay $125K to woman who accused two NYPD cops of rape in last-minute civil suit settlement", by John AnneseJanuary 15, 2024Connected to ‘Should police officers be able to get away with having sex with detainees?’ article.https://dailytimes.com.pk/549072/549072/ (web archive)

Google Notes for the Hardvard Law Review article: Read more... ) 
fignewton: (fic rec)
([personal profile] fignewton posting in [community profile] stargateficrec May. 26th, 2025 04:25 pm)
Show: SG-1

Rec Category: Episode Related
Characters: Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, Teal'c, Samantha Carter
Categories: gen, friendship, character study
Warnings: none
Author's Journal: [personal profile] lokei
Author's Website: [archiveofourown.org profile] lokei
Link: Falling Back Into Metre, at AO3 (logged in only) or at her old LJ fic archive

Why This Must Be Read: Here's some oldskool fic to brighten your day!

In the wake of One False Step, various members of the SG-1 reach out to one another to make amends after their various dustups while under the influence of off-key singing plants. (That's an accurate description of the episode, but it sounds like the crackiest summary of the crackiest fanfic ever, doesn't it?) It's deft, wry, and perfectly in character - and a very satisfying coda to the episode.


The slow and steady beat of their understanding wove its way across the phone line, un-vocalized but not unheard, like the deep and vital tones of an alien world.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll May. 26th, 2025 09:01 am)
1998! The Good Friday Agreement gives Tories something new to undermine, Former Conservative Cabinet Minister Enoch Powell makes his greatest contribution to Britain by dying, and Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent paper puts him in the running with Thomas Midgley Jr. for single individual who did the most to undermine public health.

Poll #33168 Clarke Award Finalists 1998
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 38


Which 1998 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
30 (78.9%)

Days by James Lovegrove
1 (2.6%)

Glimmering by Elizabeth Hand
8 (21.1%)

Nymphomation by Jeff Noon
3 (7.9%)

The Family Tree by Sheri S. Tepper
14 (36.8%)

Titan by Stephen Baxter
8 (21.1%)



Bold for have read, italic for intend to read,, underline for never heard of it

Which 1998 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Days by James Lovegrove
Glimmering by Elizabeth Hand
Nymphomation by Jeff Noon
The Family Tree by Sheri S. Tepper
Titan by Stephen Baxter
iamrman: (Squirrel Girl)
([personal profile] iamrman posting in [community profile] scans_daily May. 26th, 2025 12:30 pm)

Writer: Ron Marz

Pencils: Ron Lim

Inks: Tom Christopher


Jack of Hearts really doesn’t interest me as a character, so I am going to concentrate on Nebula instead.


Read more... )

The Wikipedia article on the motif of the star and crescent gave a lot more information than I'd expected, but I still don't know why it's so associated with Islam in the present day.

Speaking of symbols made literal, here is a snake saved from eating its own tail. I don't know anything about snakes, but this does look like a vet's office, so if the vet thinks that hand sanitizer is the way to go then it's probably the way to go. (Also, I strongly suspect most of the people in the comments talking about how hand sanitizer to make a snake not eat itself is animal abuse or that the fact that the snake did this is a clear sign of animal abuse don't actually know any more about snakes than I do. If they're right, it's not because they really know.)

***********


Read more... )
It's Monday and I'm up early for 4 hours of work. I don't really mind helping out oncology, and I really like the benefits, which work out to double time and a half (1.5 wages, plus 4 hours PTO). I figure they must really be struggling for them to pay for us to work like this. I mean, it's only two of us, so it's not a ton, but it's still money out of there budget.

Tomorrow, they'll overnight the check to me, and on Wednesday I shall have it. I'm getting excited about paying off all my shit, and being able to finally get a free-standing pantry and some shelves for the kitchen. And pay off the couches! It'll be lovely. I am assuming that the bank is going to hold it for 7 business days, which should put us right about June 9th.

It's also the farmer's market tomorrow, should Door dash ever take the hold off that they put on my card. I have $108 held up on a $54 grocery order. They did three charges, which they've never done, and It's pissing me off.

Yesterday was a mostly quiet day. In the morning, I slept til nearly 8, and relaxed until about 10, when I started making cinnamon rolls. By 11:20, I was a little concerned, because the dough hadn't risen much. Then, I assembled them, spreading the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and rolling them, and set them in the oven to rise again, and started playing a game. That time was the charm, as they got huge. Bigger than fist size when I checked them on bio break. So the oven was preheated and they went back in for 20 minutes to bake while I whipped up the cream cheese frosting. And still got back to game in time.

Twenty minutes later:


A few minutes beyond that:



They turned out light and fluffy and enormous, and I was very happy with them.

Once game was done, I loafed like a motherfucker, made dinner and went to bed. A very relaxing day.

After work today? Probably more relaxing. I'm not feeling particularly ambitious.

For now, though, it's time to take a nice hot shower. Everyone have a lovely Monday!
paradisedinermod: (Default)
([personal profile] paradisedinermod posting in [community profile] paradisediner May. 26th, 2025 08:10 pm)
The regular weekly post for us to talk about any and all of our thoughts about the week's new releases.

Seventeen - Thunder
Irene and Seulgi - Tilt
KickFlip - Freeze
3WAY - Mm-Hmm (Japan)
IU - Never Ending Story
Lee Mujin - 뱁새
UAU
N.Flying - Everlasting
KIIRAS - Kill Ma Bo$$ (debut)
UmYull - 절망 속에서 춤을 추어라
The Rose

New MVs are also added to an ongoing youtube playlist.

Last week's MVs: 19 May

Feel free to add new comments in the replies for songs/MVs we missed.

[ Rec Something Wednesday | WIP Wednesday | Monthly General Chat | Comment Fest ]
thisbluespirit: (margaret lockwood)
([personal profile] thisbluespirit May. 26th, 2025 10:35 am)
I found this sitting in my posts in progress from March, about what I'd been watching at the time, or some of it. I obtained the two small pieces of info it was lacking and have otherwise posted as-is, so it's probably fairly babbly, but I feel it is better to post than not to post. (At least with random mostly-complete media posts, that is.)

The Ghost Camera (1933) This was recced to me ages ago by [personal profile] sovay and I managed to snag it in passing on TalkingPictures TV, but then failed to watch it. (I have issues with watching all sorts of things still for reasons that are too stupid and annoying to go into, but they are all basically the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome being a pain.) But then, [personal profile] liadt sent me it on DVD as well! So having been recced it twice by two people who know what's what when it comes to elderly film and suchlike, I had to eventually consider putting it in the dvd player and watching it.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, I really enjoyed it! It was sweet and fun. The internet tells me it was an unexpectedly good 'Quota Quickie' and it is. A nerdy scientist accidentally acquires a camera with a dangerous set of photos inside it, develops them and sets out, while being dogged by the criminals who want it, to find out whose camera it is - starting with finding the woman in one of the photos. It's engaging, the hero is charmingly atypical and shy, and it really does do some cool things with experimental camera angles and techniques, some of which almost even come across like handheld camera in places.

It's very early UK film, so it doesn't have the polish that a lot of the US ones had acquired by even this point, but if you like old films, this is a fun and interesting one.


Dope Girls (BBC) s1 I've only watched half of this because it was too much for me, but I neverthless watched that much, because it looked fascinating and different and the sort of thing I would be all over if it wasn't so much about crime. I'm hopeless when people in fictonal things are routinely committing crimes, and this is very violent, lots of 'rave' type shooting of scenes, none of which I can cope with. Saying I watched it, given how much I used the skip 10s button is probably an exaggeration BUT it's really beautifully made and it's about women immediately post WWI, based on a true story of a woman who set up a Soho nightclub (given value of 'true' no doubt varies in the show). The series also follows her illegitimate mixed race daughter Billie, a dancer, her legitimate teenage daughter who's getting into spiritualism following her father's death, and Violet, one of the very first women in the police, who's sent undercover into the nightclub.

Warnings for pretty much everything ever: dodgy accents, murder, suicide, meat & butchery, drugs, sex, 'rave' type scenes, beatings etc. It seems to be trying to be the new Peaky Blinders but since PB happened while I was ill and also contains characters who routinely commit crimes, I can't comment on accuracy of media's "the new x" pronouncements.

In short, it looks great if only I weren't me. I might still finish it, unwisely, anyway. It's about women immediately post WWI! /o\


They Came To A City (1944) This is one I happened to catch on TalkingPictures TV just as [personal profile] sovay was talking about John Clements, and I realised I had accidentally snagged this, featuring him. It's adapted from a play by J. B. Priestley, who actually turns up in a little prologue with a wee Ralph Michael & Brenda Bruce to tell the story of the film as a fable to prove a point to them. The story within a story is of nine ordinary British people from different walks of life who find themselves transported to a mysterious city run by an apparently perfect sort of socialist ideal. Some of them hate it, some of them stay, and some of them return to their regular lives to try and make their own cities more like the City. It's very static and talky and we don't see the city, but they pretty much lifted the original play's cast into the film and the performances are great all round and always raise it when it gets too close to being too much just talking about the ideas. It's slow but I found it utterly fascinating and loved it. I had to leave it on the DVR, so I couldn't even delete it as watched!

Also it gave me all the feels about the Beveridge Report and I've never said that about a piece of fiction before.


The Ghost Train (1941) wiki tells me there are actually about nine different versions of this, originally a play by Arnold Ridley who I know as Godfrey in Dad's Army. This is the most comic version, I gather, but also the one that has villainous Nazis instead of unlikely Cornish communists. It was another one I snagged recently from TPTV and, encouraged by current watching ability, I gave it a try and enjoyed it very much indeed! It does occasionally veer towards becoming a vehicle for Arthur Askey but it recovers itself in time, although I would definitely be interested in seeing some of the other versions. But his role as comedian was written in very well (he's a seaside vaudeville performer, his antics cause the stranding & solve it, and everyone gets annoyed with him) and I liked everyone else very much. Another mixed group of strangers get stranded in a remote Cornish railway station - with a story about a ghost train that runs through the station.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun, and I'd definitely be curious to see a version played more straight, but like I said, this is the one that sends a bunch of Nazis off a railway bridge, so I don't feel that it was the worst place to start!


[May comment: still didn't go back to Dope Girls; the state of my brain when employing the iPlayer can be easily illustrated by explaining that what I did was to watch a series and a half of Malory Towers instead. XD]
iamrman: (Franky)
([personal profile] iamrman posting in [community profile] scans_daily May. 26th, 2025 10:15 am)

Writer: Bill Mantlo

Pencils: Sal Buscema

Inks: Sal Buscema


The peril of the Plunderer!


Read more... )

regshoe: Black and white picture of a man reading a large book (Reading 2)
([personal profile] regshoe May. 26th, 2025 10:05 am)
The Bee-Man of Orn and Other Fanciful Tales by Frank R. Stockton (1887), which I read a little while ago when one of the stories from it caught my attention in the [community profile] once_upon_fic tagset. Although I didn't end up matching on or writing for it, I'm glad I read the collection! The stories are weird and sideways in their priorities in an enjoyable way that I really like in original/modern fairytales—especially 'The Griffin and the Minor Canon', the story that was nominated for [community profile] once_upon_fic; many of them, including that one, aren't centred around romances, which was refreshing; and Stockton's writing style is also enjoyable.


Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851). Things I had osmosed about this book before reading it: 1) it's about a mad quest for revenge after a whale; 2) it's really gay, 3) it contains a lot of long digressions full of dubiously accurate whale facts and 4) it's completely bonkers. These are all true; osmosis failed to prepare me for just how true. It's an amazing book, well worth reading, and I can't quite sum up what it's like. It's kind of like if Victor Hugo was American and the French Revolution was whales, perhaps. The structure and style are very funny, even besides the passages—they take up too much of the book, both in length and significance, really to call them digressions—in which the narrator Ishmael tells us everything he knows about whales and whaling. While Ishmael's voice is very important throughout, he's not really the POV character of a lot of the narrative sections, which frequently include scenes he's not apparently there for, focus on other characters and explore their thoughts in detail; much of the dialogue consists of theatrical soliloquies, quite a few chapters open with stage directions and occasionally the whole thing actually switches into script format for a chapter. This book is also incidentally the most ethnically-diverse nineteenth-century novel I've ever read.

As for being really gay, the book opens with canon There Was Only One Bed (and I do mean the fanfic trope There Was Only One Bed, not simply bedsharing) between Ishmael and Queequeg the fascinating Pacific Islander harpooneer; a day or two later they're declaring that they are now married and going off happily to sign up on a whaling ship together, whence the rest of the plot. Though there are occasional good moments, Ishmael/Queequeg is rather neglected later on in the book in favour of whale drama and whale information, which was a bit disappointing. On the other hand I very much enjoyed the whale drama and whale information—Melville(/the narrative written by Ishmael) sees the whole world in whales and whaling, and has an amazing talent for making things significant, besides a distinctive, chaotic and frequently hilarious narrative voice.

As for the main plot, however, I was on Moby Dick's side. What a conservation icon.
Tags:

Posted by Amanda

Welcome back to Cover Snark!

Duke of Rath by Mariah Stone. A headless woman in a red cap-sleeve dress in a yellow gold drawing room. I think she's supposed to be perched on the edge of a couch, but it looks like more like she's about to squat to poop.

Amanda: Is she poopin?

Elyse: The moment you realize it wasn’t just a fart.

Sarah: That’s what the rose is for. She might need a few more for poo-pourri purposes.

(Also, hand to heaven, if you have to share a bathroom, especially while traveling, Poo-Pourri works REALLY well.)

Mourning Wood by Heather M. Orgeron. A floppy haired man is looking at you from bed, peeking over a pillow.

Elyse: I hope that’s a typo.

Sarah: $10 says the title came first and the book was built around it.

Elyse: Did a 12 year old boy come up with it?

I’m all for a good double entendres but lord.

Maya: So is the pitch she’s a grieving widow and he has priapism?

Sarah: If it lasts longer than three chapters, please call your doctor.

Before Girl by Kate Canterbary. A shirtless man on a bed with his arm over his eyes.  There is a creeping red and orange blur coming up from the bottom of the cover.

From PamG: It’s definitely not the original nor illustrated, but it’s all kindsa ugly. Looks like a gruesome assemblage of body parts in a puddle of blood. It’s pretty repellent to me.

Sarah: Are they melting? Too close to the space heater? Sunbathing on a volcano that woke up? What on earth?

Amanda: Is Before Girl like a timeframe indicator like BC and AD?

Sarah: Judging by the cover, it marks the start of catastrophic global warming.

Misdirected Male by Cassidy Lish. A male torso in jeans. A white mail box, with letters spilling out is positioned right by his crotch and the mail flag is up.

From Leslie: Misdirected Mae? And why is the guy dead? At least, his torso is dead. Maybe what is in his pants (or in the mailbox) is not dead. Hard to say.

Sarah: I can’t believe I’m typing these words, but: the mailbox penis is not subtle.

Amanda: I thought that was a stack of maxi pads at first.

Tara: My first thought was “dick in a (mail)box.”

Sarah: If step one is to cut a hole in the (mail)box, and step two is to put your dick in that (mail)box, is step three a visit from the postmaster general?

 

vriddy: Hawks with Fukuoka skyline at night (fukuoka skyline)
([personal profile] vriddy May. 26th, 2025 07:59 am)

I just posted the last story for the hurt/comfort series! I started writing this sometime in... February? When I was just trying to find the joy of writing again in the middle of personal and world overwhelm. And slowly, I got back to where I wanted :) As noted by a friend, the series has 25 stories (which is absolutely coincidental but I will pretend was Totally The Plan, 25 for 2025 yay XD), and nearly 40k words. I think one of the things I wanted to teach myself with the series is also that not everything has to be edited to death. Everything having to do with editing started to feel like an gigantic, impossible ordeal after how long it took for the original novella.

I have some ideas about what I'd like to work on next (back to the Cursed Witch, hopefully! 🤞), but we'll see what happens :)

6 prompts, 7 stories, 3 ships )

torachan: (Default)
([personal profile] torachan May. 25th, 2025 11:10 pm)
1. We finished up another puzzle this morning. After doing that 500 piece one last week, I decided to do the last of the 300 piece ones I'd bought, and it definitely felt a lot easier, so I think we'll probably stick to 500s for the time being. (Though the multi-pack puzzle I bought from Disneyland yesterday does have two 300 piece ones in it, so we'll do those just for completetion's sake, but I probably won't buy any more of that size.)



2. Tonight we went to see Paul F. Tompkins' Varietopia with Alexander. It was a lot of fun!

Mini review and pics )

3. Gemma was kind enough to let me take her picture today.

blindmeteor: (Default)
([personal profile] blindmeteor posting in [community profile] addme_fandom May. 25th, 2025 11:47 pm)
Name: amber

Age group: 30s

Country: us of a

Subscription/Access Policy: 99.99% open. the rare vulnerable personal post will be ~locked.

Before adding me: i am someone in their mid 30s who is stuck in their fandom ways of Ship and Let Ship. antis and discourse-seekers are advised NOT to add me.

Main Fandoms: channing tatum (who is my husband), jupiter ascending (i am CRINGE, i am FREE), the kray twins (do not condone their actions obvs!), kingsman, x-men, venom, dragon ball, sing (yes... the illumination movie)

Other Fandoms: saiyuki, gundam wing, yu yu hakusho, fullmetal alchemist, lupin the third, supernatural, sherlock, doctor who, twin peaks, various others... i like a little bit of everything.

Fannish Interests: art is my main Thing, but i dabble in fic here and there. also, graphic making.

OTPs and Ships: caine/jupiter (jupiter ascending), logan/remy (x-men), eddie/venom (venom), harry/eggsy, (kingsman), johnny/meena (sing), vegeta/bulma (db), gojyo/hakkai (saiyuki), yusuke/hiei (yyh), trowa/quatre (gw), hughes/roy (fma), 002/004 (cyborg 009)

Favourite Movies: aladdin, the adventures of buckaroo banzai across the 8th dimension, rocketman (2019), legend (2015) rocknrolla, bronson, venom (can you tell i like tom hardy?), sing franchise, kingsman: the secret service, hot fuzz, the nice guys, dogma

TV Shows: twin peaks, generation kill, supernatural, sherlock, justified, true blood, the young ones, metalocalypse, king of the hill

Books: profession of violence: rise and fall of the kray twins

Music: MARIANAS TRENCH (my fave band), h.i.m, above & beyond, savage garden, elton john, buck-tick, dir en grey, judas priest, the prodigy, steve winwood

Games: legend of zelda: ocarina of time AND majora's mask, pokémon gold, donkey kong country 2

Comics/Anime/Misc: whenever gambit and sabretooth are written WELL, x-men. lol. dragonball, saiyuki, one piece, cowboy bebop, ninja scroll, cyborg 009, yu yu hakusho, nightwalker, inuyasha, evangelion...
hannah: (Fuck art let's dance - mimesere)
([personal profile] hannah May. 25th, 2025 09:48 pm)
It's terrifically frustrating to realize one of the reasons I'm presently struggling with a new piece of writing is I don't have anyone to talk to about it. The person I talked to through my last big project hasn't been online in a while - which, honestly, is the right call given her real life responsibilities - and I haven't been able to find someone else to help me out through conversation. In part I don't know who to ask about it. In part I don't know how to ask about it.

Some of me feels like I should be able to manage this without the back and forth, that it was just that one project and the rest should be able to keep going as I've done before. Some of me feels like I'm spoiled in several senses of the term to want that kind of thing again. There's questions about time, too: time zones and free time. Free space in people's heads. As though it's too much to ask people for. Especially in regards to the people I know, because I know them, and it's hard to ask someone to start doing that kind of thing for you. At least, I've found it difficult. Writing to an individual, the Stephen King "ideal reader", is a good way to get the juices flowing, and right now, I'm feeling readerless. It's making it difficult to parse out certain choices, because I can't talk them over with anyone. I'm looking at the wall because rubber duck debugging isn't working right now.

Maybe I just need a couple nights' good sleep. I hope that's all it takes.
I just read a fic where a character in the Regency period is reflecting on how she'd never imagined she'd be able to have a full-time nursemaid.

Me: Girl, you are and have always been wealthy and you live in an age where labor is CHEAP.

And by "cheap" I mean "so cheap that servants had servants." (Upper level servants in large houses would often have lower-level servants assigned to them as a perk of the job.) So cheap that the gap between "people who were servants" and "people who had servants" was very narrow, and often crossed over the course of a person's lifetime. It was fairly common for working class/poor girls to work as maids for a few years saving up money before they got married, and if they married a reasonably prosperous farmer they would probably be able to afford to hire a maid themselves in good years. (Not "maid" as in "a personal servant to wait on you hand and food," this is "maid" as in "someone to do the nastier/harder bits of cooking and cleaning.")

By 1795, the price of wages for a day laborer was pegged to the price of bread. A gallon loaf weighed 8lbs 11oz, and was theoretically enough to feed a person for a week. Laborers were supposed to make at least three times the cost of a gallon loaf per week, so that if a gallon loaf cost 1 shilling they should be paid at least 3 shillings per week. That is peanuts. For comparison: A pair of wool stockings in the Regency era cost about 2 shillings 6 pence. In other words, a day laborer was paid only a little more per week than the cost of a good pair of socks. Silk stockings--the kind you would wear to a ball--were 12 shillings, or four times the weekly wages of a day laborer.

Combine this with how labor-intensive even the most basic tasks were, and it meant that anybody who could afford servants had them, and anybody above the poverty line could afford them.

Over the course of the 19th Century, the cost of wages relative to the cost of other things rose dramatically, so people had fewer servants and fewer people could afford to have servants. And still, Agatha Christie remembered that when she was young "I couldn’t imagine being too poor to afford servants, nor so rich as to be able to afford a car." She did not grow up wealthy, she grew up middle class. Even in 1900, your average middle-class person in England could not imagine being too poor to afford servants.

This changed radically over the course of the 20th Century; now a middle class person might have a cleaner who comes in once a week, but they definitely will not be able to afford a full-time servant. You have to be wealthy to afford that. So we assume that servants are a mark of huge wealth even in historical periods, when they just ... weren't. This is not helped by the fact that novels set in period times (whether written then or later) rarely mention the servants, so you can read, say, an Austen novel and not have any clue what sort of servants they have. But unless you have researched the issue, it's best to assume they have more servants than you think they had.

I finally got my own copy of Thick as Thieves so it's time to start my series reread. (Mild tangent: there are so many YA books now and turnover is so rapid, I had to go to multiple huge bookstores to find one that had what I wanted.)

The Thief is still so great! A small, self-contained story compared to everything that will happen after and IMO stronger for that. I love Gen so much, what an obnoxious little trickster. He's so smug of his own cleverness and is constantly DYING to tell the others how clever he is but cannot. I love everyone in the road trip (oh, Pol), even Ambiades whom I believe could've redeemed himself if given the chance, though chances are in short supply.

The book does make me miss that we don't get this deep into Gen's headspace ever again (unless Return of the Thief does, I haven't read it) and elements of it are so cinematic I wish we could get a live-action TV show or movie out of it, just for those scenes. Specifically, the water mechanism of the temple under the Aracthus, and Gen's entering Hephastia's court and realising that what he thought were just statues were the actual gods themselves.

Cut for length, plus other spoiilers. )
senmut: mal from s&b, arm around alina, him looking down at her looking up at him (Shadow and Bone: Mal Alina)
([personal profile] senmut May. 25th, 2025 08:23 pm)
*\o/* Word Count Step Count Headache?
Daily 1,643 10,044 no
Monthly 16,158 233,349 9 days
Tags:
...with more modern eyes. In this case, as I am still on my Batman kick, this means the 1989 BATMAN movie, which I saw on original release in theaters (and loved).

Do I still love it? More than I expected, to be honest. )
Tags:
([syndicated profile] lois_mcmaster_bujold_feed May. 25th, 2025 04:56 pm)
I am pleased to report that the 14th Penric & Desdemona novella is complete in first draft, as of this afternoon. About 36K words at present.

There is still a ways to go till it's ready for e-publication. It lacks both final title and cover at the moment. The title, I've learned on previous outings, is really needed first to bring the cover into the right focus. Also the artist Ron Miller has not yet had a chance to read the full manuscript, which Ron generally does, bless him.

Title is still circling the field. "Penric's take your kids to work day goes wrong" is alas too long, and jokey, if accurate. "Penric's Ox" is too easy to confuse with "Penric's Fox", and besides the livestock is not really the core of the tale. Best and default candidate so far is the double-edged "Penric's Lessons", although that feels as if it would be better saved for some collection. Growf. I hope something snappier will emerge during the test-reading/editing/wait for the cover phase.

It's been pretty interesting to replace the typical lone-wolf magical protagonist living out his angsty extended adolescence with an actual mature adult embedded in a functional family, and see what that does to genre expectations. My first vision of the older Penric, back before I started all this, was more in the former mode. I'm glad I dropped back and started him at his beginning with what became "Penric's Demon" -- he's a much more engaging character now.

No, I don't know anything yet about Blackstone or SubPress. AFAIK, they've not yet been informed the story exists, though my agent will take care of that soon. But I prefer to have it in final, tidied-as-possible form before submitting it for subrights sales.

And now I'm going to go take the evening goofing off.

Ta, L.

posted by Lois McMaster Bujold on May, 25
senmut: Quyhn's face from the scene in Booker's place (TOG: Quynh)
([personal profile] senmut May. 25th, 2025 07:10 pm)
A bit more scattered offerings this week.

1. Angela Bassett & Michael B Jordan | Photos
2. Karl Urban taught himself a trick for Eomer | tiktok embed
3. Blues Brothers love note from tumblr | gifs and text
4. 12 Famous Native American Women | article
5. New photos of Mt. St Helens' eruption (Proper name: Lawetlat'la or Loowit or Louwala-Clough) | embedded video and article link
6. Impressive Tattoos | Art
7. Embroidery color work on black canvas | photos
8. Northern AND Southern constellation shawls | Photos & pattern link
9. 3D printed wheelchairs for tykes, team wants to release pattern for free once they iron it out | Photos & text
10. Knitting Noodles | Embedded video
11. Cat drags in a bat... (monster reveal, humor) | web comic
Tags:
magnavox_23: An animated icon, Charlotte caresses Helen's hair, Helen tilts her head, and they both lean in and kiss. (Sanctuary_Helen/Charlotte_kiss)
([personal profile] magnavox_23 posting in [community profile] icons May. 26th, 2025 09:36 am)
Actors: Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Michael Des Barres, David Tennant, Ncuti Gutwa, Jodie Whittaker, Jo Martin, Peter Capaldi, Jonathan Groff, Michael Sheen, Con O'Neill, Samba Schutte, Benedict Cumberbatch, Pedro Pascal, Oscar Isaac, Jeff Goldblum, Rhys Darby, Renée O'Connor & Lucy Lawless

Fandoms: Stargate, MacGyver, Doctor Who, Good Omens, Our Flag Means Death, Sherlock, The Mandalorian, The Last Of Us, Star Trek, What We Do In The Shadows, Pokemon & The X Files



Check out the rest here. <3
magnavox_23: An animated icon, Charlotte caresses Helen's hair, Helen tilts her head, and they both lean in and kiss. (Sanctuary_Helen/Charlotte_kiss)
([personal profile] magnavox_23 posting in [community profile] fandom_icons May. 26th, 2025 09:21 am)
Actors: Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Michael Des Barres, David Tennant, Ncuti Gutwa, Jodie Whittaker, Jo Martin, Peter Capaldi, Jonathan Groff, Michael Sheen, Con O'Neill, Samba Schutte, Benedict Cumberbatch, Pedro Pascal, Oscar Isaac, Jeff Goldblum, Rhys Darby, Renée O'Connor & Lucy Lawless

Fandoms: Stargate, MacGyver, Doctor Who, Good Omens, Our Flag Means Death, Sherlock, The Mandalorian, The Last Of Us, Star Trek, What We Do In The Shadows, Pokemon & The X Files



Check out the rest here. <3

scrubjayspeaks: fountain pen and spilled glass bottle of blue ink (spilled ink)
([personal profile] scrubjayspeaks May. 25th, 2025 04:06 pm)
I probably shouldn't get in the habit of letting Kickstarter suggest other projects I might like--that way lies madness and empty wallets--but damn:

Dark Fairies - a queer art book
“Dark Fairies” is a 200+ page fully coloured artbook and anthology of comics, short stories and illustrations about dark fairies and queer desire. From cannibal fae to sneaky shadow pixies, this book is a must have for any fan of fairies.

I didn't find my way to it soon enough to snag the bundle that would get me a print copy of their previous anthology, Fey: A Guide to Butch of The Fae Variety, as well, so I opted to just get the digital bundle of the two of them. Admirable restraint on my part, considering how very much this is my jam. The art all looks fantastic.
Chat GPT Is Very Useful for Everything /s
Jason Sanford: Genre Grapevine’s Deep Dive into the Use of ChatGPT by Seattle Worldcon.
Though, honestly, if the rest of the volunteers quit, and the ConCom wasn't responsive to the cries for help from the last two people, I might have done crime too. I'm still perplexed by the Hugos team quitting, as it seems like a disproportionate reaction from people not prone to melodrama, but we'll probably never know.

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books: Philadephia Inquirer and Chicago Sun-Times Publish Summer Reading List of Nonexistent Books.
Good look at how that happened, followed by a long rant about the state of the media landscape, especially in regards to US Politics.

[youtube.com profile] SAVYWRITESBOOKS: The “BookTok Fyre Fest” | A Million Lives was a DISASTER (Video, 1 hour).
A lot of people have been covering this shitshow, which probably shouldn't fairly be in the LLM trashfire situation, but fells spiritually akin to it, so I'm putting it here. Savy also links to A Million Lives Recovery, which boosts all the authors, artists and vendors screwed over by this nonsense. It looks like mostly romantasy, but there's a variety in there.


Misogyny Slop Ecosystem: Cutting five links for discussion of violence against women and non-binary people )


At Least Somewhat Good Stuff:
The Breach: Inside the campaign that upended CanLit’s ties to Scotiabank and Israeli arms.
Nice example of activism getting stuff done.

The Tyee: A Fresh Opportunity to Get Elections Right.
I really want this to happen.

[youtube.com profile] MattBernstein1: A Morning With Vivian Wilson (Video, 45 minutes).
I just like getting to see her being happy.

[youtube.com profile] QwithTomPower: What led Rick Astley to quitting pop music at 27 (Video, 40 minutes).
I got rickrolled the other day, and YouTube recced this charming interview.

[tumblr.com profile] centaurianthropology: Therapy for Thee but Not for Me: Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms in ‘Murderbot’ (Thoughts on Episodes 1-3).
Meta!
.