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Dear Femslash Creator,
Aug. 16th, 2017 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
settiaiJust to note: my requests include Critical Role, Doctor Who, Dragon Age, Hunger Games, Mass Effect, and Crossovers.
First of all, relax! I'm far from being picky, and I can pretty much guarantee that I'll love whatever you decide to draw or write for me. These are nothing but guidelines, for you to take to heart or ignore to your heart's content. Also, hey! You're drawing and/or writing me femslash! What's not to love? ♥
That said, I thought that I'd elaborate a bit on my requests in case, like me, you're the type of person who likes to have something to work with. Feel free to use and/or ignore as much of this as you want. I've tried to include a mix of vague prompts as well as more detailed ones, to hopefully make things as helpful as possible whether you're drawing art or writing fic.
( More details under the cut. )
( Requests under the cut. )
First of all, relax! I'm far from being picky, and I can pretty much guarantee that I'll love whatever you decide to draw or write for me. These are nothing but guidelines, for you to take to heart or ignore to your heart's content. Also, hey! You're drawing and/or writing me femslash! What's not to love? ♥
That said, I thought that I'd elaborate a bit on my requests in case, like me, you're the type of person who likes to have something to work with. Feel free to use and/or ignore as much of this as you want. I've tried to include a mix of vague prompts as well as more detailed ones, to hopefully make things as helpful as possible whether you're drawing art or writing fic.
( More details under the cut. )
( Requests under the cut. )
"You Make Me Look Legitimate." (Check Please) G
Aug. 16th, 2017 05:36 pmlannamichaelsTitle: You Make Me Look Legitimate. (On Archive Of Our Own)
Author:
lannamichaelsFandom: Check Please
Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann
Rating: G
A/N: This is 100%
dira's fault and I have the chat log to prove it. :P The title is from I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory by Kathleen Edwards, which is a wonderful country song about Canadian hockey.Summary: Eric Bittle gets the call from the national team at 3AM.
( 2018 Olympics! )
(no subject)
Aug. 15th, 2017 10:46 pmmelannenNo FMK this week, because I am way behind on reading, and also because I am going eclipse-hunting over the weekend! I will be bringing eclipse-related books on that trip. And thinking about this xkcd strip which was the main thing that got me into the new year, anyway.
Probably it will rain all day, but at least I can say I tried.
So instead of books, since I will be doing a lot of driving in the middle of nowhere, my question this week is: What songs are on your eclipse playlist? "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "The Sun Is A Miasma of Incandescent Plasma", obviously. But what else?
I have been working on the book collection, though! I went through and re-did my to-read lists, of which there are three: one on the library website, which has 300 books on it, of books the library has; the Goodreads one, which includes only books my library doesn't have and has about 250; and ~2500 owned-but-unread, so that's totally doable at my current rate as long as I never add any more to any of the three lists.
(Anybody want to be goodreads friends, by the way? if we aren't already, drop me a line. my gr is connected to my rl so I don't link it here but I will def. add people.)
Me and Mom also cleaned out the cookbooks over the weekend, which was fun! We both agreed on keeping the ones that had some kind of sentimental value to the family, of course. ( food, cooking, and diet as expressed in a collection of second-half-of-twentieth-century cookbooks. )
We got rid of about fifty cookery books. There's only about 200 left. That't TOTALLY reasonable for a family of two that cooks an actual meal at most twice a week, and usually from recipes we know by heart, right?
Probably it will rain all day, but at least I can say I tried.
So instead of books, since I will be doing a lot of driving in the middle of nowhere, my question this week is: What songs are on your eclipse playlist? "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "The Sun Is A Miasma of Incandescent Plasma", obviously. But what else?
I have been working on the book collection, though! I went through and re-did my to-read lists, of which there are three: one on the library website, which has 300 books on it, of books the library has; the Goodreads one, which includes only books my library doesn't have and has about 250; and ~2500 owned-but-unread, so that's totally doable at my current rate as long as I never add any more to any of the three lists.
(Anybody want to be goodreads friends, by the way? if we aren't already, drop me a line. my gr is connected to my rl so I don't link it here but I will def. add people.)
Me and Mom also cleaned out the cookbooks over the weekend, which was fun! We both agreed on keeping the ones that had some kind of sentimental value to the family, of course. ( food, cooking, and diet as expressed in a collection of second-half-of-twentieth-century cookbooks. )
We got rid of about fifty cookery books. There's only about 200 left. That't TOTALLY reasonable for a family of two that cooks an actual meal at most twice a week, and usually from recipes we know by heart, right?
Hero of the hour.
Aug. 15th, 2017 10:18 pmhannahIt only hits me now I might have run out of time to make eclipse plans. Glasses seem to be sold out everywhere online. There's the Museum of Natural History's big viewing event, which I may well leave work early to attend. Though if it's as cloudy then as it was today, I might just walk to the nearest park and stand outside at the appropriate time rather than try anything else.
On some level, clouds in August - or all of summer, really - is just wrong to me. It makes me think it's late September, and turns every day of the week into Thursday.
So I did my best to stay active, and cleaned out and got rid of a bunch of stuff hanging around my apartment. Mostly papers, with a little garbage and no small amount of dust. Spreading it out onto my bed and forcing myself to look at everything was a big help in terms of making practical assessments. Most of it was done to Hawaii 5-0, which somehow makes for ideal apartment-cleaning TV.
On some level, clouds in August - or all of summer, really - is just wrong to me. It makes me think it's late September, and turns every day of the week into Thursday.
So I did my best to stay active, and cleaned out and got rid of a bunch of stuff hanging around my apartment. Mostly papers, with a little garbage and no small amount of dust. Spreading it out onto my bed and forcing myself to look at everything was a big help in terms of making practical assessments. Most of it was done to Hawaii 5-0, which somehow makes for ideal apartment-cleaning TV.
Just for pun.
Aug. 14th, 2017 10:11 pmhannahAt work today, someone said he'd done medical coding himself, a long time ago.
"Like COBOL?" I asked. No, he said, nothing like that, mostly data entry.
"So not a very BASIC job," I said. And boy, once he got it, did he mean it when he laughed.
"Like COBOL?" I asked. No, he said, nothing like that, mostly data entry.
"So not a very BASIC job," I said. And boy, once he got it, did he mean it when he laughed.
Anybody want a copy of the "clean" edit of the new Kesha CD?
Aug. 14th, 2017 08:22 pmdrglam I pre-ordered Rainbow, the new Kesha CD, from Amazon, and didn't realize until I had it in my hands that I had the "clean" version (nor that there even was a clean version, or that if one searches Amazon with the text string "Kesha Rainbow" that the explicit CD version is not in the entire first page of results). So I sent Amazon a whiny email asking if I could exchange the censored version for the full version. Amazon said that wasn't an option, but I could send it back for a full refund. I did the refund protocol, packed the CD up for return, ordered the explicit version, and took the package down to the mailbox. When I got back to my room, there was another email from Amazon letting me know they'd already issued the refund, and that it was logistically inconvenient for them to take the return, so I could do whatever I felt like with the original CD. This all happened Saturday; I've already got the uncensored version in hand (thanks Amazon!)
So, anyone want the clean version? Maybe you've got a Kesha-adoring tween, but can't quite bear the idea of them listening to her singing "I'm a motherfucking woman!"? If so, I can hook a MFW up; reply and it's yours.
So, anyone want the clean version? Maybe you've got a Kesha-adoring tween, but can't quite bear the idea of them listening to her singing "I'm a motherfucking woman!"? If so, I can hook a MFW up; reply and it's yours.
Lives that matter, from St. Louis to Sandy Hook to Charlottesville
Aug. 14th, 2017 08:14 pmerinptahPeople killed by police in the US, 2017. Currently at 759.
Charlottesville-based organizations that can take your money. (The Twitter thread have been going around; this is a blog post that rounds up the links.)
"'I was expecting him to come home, not to be buried,' [the 16-year-old's grandmother] told the station. 'I was telling him, give yourself a little while and you’ll be home with me.'" Justice for Aries Clark.
"We are among the vast majority of Americans who believe that we must take sensible steps to prevent massacres like the one that took my daughter’s life. We will continue to speak up. We will not go away."
2014 FBI study: "There were, on average, 16.4 [mass] shootings a year from 2007 to 2013, compared with an average of 6.4 shootings annually from 2000 to 2006. In the past 13 years, 486 people have been killed in such shootings, with 366 of the deaths in the past seven years." This was commissioned by Obama post-Sandy Hook, and was the first FBI study of its kind.
"...two officers who encountered the armed off-duty officer ordered him to the ground. He complied. When they recognized the off-duty officer, they told him he could stand up and walk toward them. Another officer just arriving at the scene saw the off-duty officer get up and, not knowing he was an officer, fired his weapon once at the man."
"Southaven officers went to the wrong house to serve a warrant on Monday, which resulted in the shooting death of a man who did not have any active warrants out for his arrest." Worse, they shot Ismael Lopez through his front door.
Charlottesville-based organizations that can take your money. (The Twitter thread have been going around; this is a blog post that rounds up the links.)
"'I was expecting him to come home, not to be buried,' [the 16-year-old's grandmother] told the station. 'I was telling him, give yourself a little while and you’ll be home with me.'" Justice for Aries Clark.
"We are among the vast majority of Americans who believe that we must take sensible steps to prevent massacres like the one that took my daughter’s life. We will continue to speak up. We will not go away."
2014 FBI study: "There were, on average, 16.4 [mass] shootings a year from 2007 to 2013, compared with an average of 6.4 shootings annually from 2000 to 2006. In the past 13 years, 486 people have been killed in such shootings, with 366 of the deaths in the past seven years." This was commissioned by Obama post-Sandy Hook, and was the first FBI study of its kind.
"...two officers who encountered the armed off-duty officer ordered him to the ground. He complied. When they recognized the off-duty officer, they told him he could stand up and walk toward them. Another officer just arriving at the scene saw the off-duty officer get up and, not knowing he was an officer, fired his weapon once at the man."
"Southaven officers went to the wrong house to serve a warrant on Monday, which resulted in the shooting death of a man who did not have any active warrants out for his arrest." Worse, they shot Ismael Lopez through his front door.
Online serializations: Law Links 9-10/27, Mercy's Prisoner 6-7/23, Checkmate 9-10/11
Aug. 13th, 2017 08:07 amduskpetersonFirstly, my apologies for not posting announcements last week. It was a heck of a week. I did post the actual fic last week, so this announcement will encompass both weeks.
Secondly, I wasn't sure whether to post my fiction chapters this week. I thought of simply linking to this.
But then I looked at my chapters for this week. They consisted of (1) a protest against people who commit violent oppression, (2) a protest against people who commit violent oppression, and (3) an apology from a character who committed violence.
So yes, I've posted my fic this week. But I'll put off other announcements till next week.
"Sometimes I feel that he is as mysterious as the gods, and that he is hiding something of vital importance from me. Something that would transform my life."
Few events are more thrilling in a young man's life than a blood feud between two villages. Or so Adrian thought.
Torn between affection toward his traditional-minded father and worship of his peace-loving, heretical priest, Adrian finds himself caught between two incompatible visions of his duty to the gods. Then the Jackal God sends Adrian a message that will disrupt his world and send him fleeing to a new and perilous life.
"'You have committed a vile and savage act, one that any other nation would punish with death. Our punishment, on the other hand, will only be to give you what you want. You have sought to live in a world without boundaries of civilization, and such a world shall henceforth be your dwelling place.'"
A cold-hearted murderer. A vicious abuser. A young man hiding a shameful secret. A bewildered immigrant. A pure-minded spy.
All of these men have found their appointed places at Mercy Life Prison, where it is easy to tell who your enemies are. But a new visitor to Mercy is about to challenge decades-old customs. Now these men's worst enemies may be hiding behind masks . . . and so may their closest allies.
"It's all about torture. That's what I didn't understand for a long time. The High Seeker has been seeking out and punishing those of us who wish to show greater mercy to the prisoners than the Code allows. Those of us who question whether it's right to torture prisoners."
The Eternal Dungeon is no longer a prison. It's a battlefield.
Split apart from their closest loves and friends, a small group of prison-workers seek to abolish the use of torture against prisoners in the queendom's royal dungeon. Time is running out, for the deadly High Seeker has already flogged and executed prison-workers who oppose his policies.
Do the reformers have enough time and skill to bring about radical change in the dungeon? Will they be able to overcome their mistrust of one another?
( To receive notices of my fiction by e-mail )
Secondly, I wasn't sure whether to post my fiction chapters this week. I thought of simply linking to this.
But then I looked at my chapters for this week. They consisted of (1) a protest against people who commit violent oppression, (2) a protest against people who commit violent oppression, and (3) an apology from a character who committed violence.
So yes, I've posted my fic this week. But I'll put off other announcements till next week.
"Sometimes I feel that he is as mysterious as the gods, and that he is hiding something of vital importance from me. Something that would transform my life."
Few events are more thrilling in a young man's life than a blood feud between two villages. Or so Adrian thought.
Torn between affection toward his traditional-minded father and worship of his peace-loving, heretical priest, Adrian finds himself caught between two incompatible visions of his duty to the gods. Then the Jackal God sends Adrian a message that will disrupt his world and send him fleeing to a new and perilous life.
- Latest chapters: Chapter 9/27 and Chapter 10/27. End of Law Links 2: The Sword. Next week: Law Links 3: God of Mercy.
- Online fiction: Law Links at AO3.
- Free multiformat e-book: Law Links.
- Series: The Three Lands.
- Series resources: The Great Peninsula: series resources for The Three Lands.
"'You have committed a vile and savage act, one that any other nation would punish with death. Our punishment, on the other hand, will only be to give you what you want. You have sought to live in a world without boundaries of civilization, and such a world shall henceforth be your dwelling place.'"
A cold-hearted murderer. A vicious abuser. A young man hiding a shameful secret. A bewildered immigrant. A pure-minded spy.
All of these men have found their appointed places at Mercy Life Prison, where it is easy to tell who your enemies are. But a new visitor to Mercy is about to challenge decades-old customs. Now these men's worst enemies may be hiding behind masks . . . and so may their closest allies.
- Latest chapters: Chapter 6/16 and Chapter 7/16. End of Mercy's Prisoner 1: Life Prison. Next week: Mercy's Prisoner 2: Men and Lads.
- Online fiction: Life Prison at AO3.
- Free multiformat e-book: Mercy's Prisoner.
- Series: Life Prison.
- Series cycle: Turn-of-the-Century Toughs.
"It's all about torture. That's what I didn't understand for a long time. The High Seeker has been seeking out and punishing those of us who wish to show greater mercy to the prisoners than the Code allows. Those of us who question whether it's right to torture prisoners."
The Eternal Dungeon is no longer a prison. It's a battlefield.
Split apart from their closest loves and friends, a small group of prison-workers seek to abolish the use of torture against prisoners in the queendom's royal dungeon. Time is running out, for the deadly High Seeker has already flogged and executed prison-workers who oppose his policies.
Do the reformers have enough time and skill to bring about radical change in the dungeon? Will they be able to overcome their mistrust of one another?
- Latest chapters: Chapter 9/11 and Chapter 10/11.
- Online fiction: Checkmate at AO3.
- E-book: Checkmate.
- Series: The Eternal Dungeon.
- Series cycle: Turn-of-the-Century Toughs.
( To receive notices of my fiction by e-mail )
I think I succeeded.
Aug. 10th, 2017 10:15 pmhannahI took a boat ride out to eat pie today, which is as it should be. To be precise, I rode a ferry out to Brooklyn, because New York City is an archipelago and a ferry was faster than the subway, and then walked to where I could eat key lime pie. Real key lime pie, made with just five ingredients, out in Red Hook right by the water. My brother was with me, and we ate on the grass by a miniature beach, having walked through a part of New York City I'd never been to that more than anything reminded me of San Francisco. Not exactly for the food, and not exactly for the water. More in that it was a bright, sunny day with few clouds and little wind, that where I was walking happened to have the lazy, low-horizon line architecture of the California Bay Area, small houses clustered together with the incidental empty lot left to grass and flowers and birds, funky little shops scattered up and down a main drag, a town hidden away out at the edge of a city.
Sometime after I got back to Manhattan, I realized there was a bit of sadness to the day too: I had to retire one of my rings. One of my favorites, to be honest. The little lizard pinkie ring I bought almost thirteen years ago to the day, back in August of 2004 in the Yerba Buena Gardens during a Philippine arts and culture festival just after I moved to San Francisco for college, worn until August of 2017 when the ring finally began to wear thin enough I'm worried it'll snap in two. So I took it off, kissed it, and put it away. I'm adjusting to a different one now. It's got leaves, but no little lizard face.
I can replace it easily enough - it's a common enough design that just looking up "lizard toe ring" on Google gets me the same thing right away, like right here. But it won't be the one I used to wear, and I'm hesitant to look into repair shops because it'd be so easy to replace it might not get taken seriously.
And though I wish I still had a smiling little lizard on my hand, it's not yet broken. I can take comfort in knowing it's not broken, or lost. In threat of those, but I didn't let that happen. I took it off and now it's put someplace for safekeeping. It saw me through a lot of adventures, like the one I had today, running to catch the ferry back, riding up front and feeling a bit of spray on my face and stepping away from my life to enjoy the world for a while.
So I guess, with this new ring, I start over again tomorrow.
Sometime after I got back to Manhattan, I realized there was a bit of sadness to the day too: I had to retire one of my rings. One of my favorites, to be honest. The little lizard pinkie ring I bought almost thirteen years ago to the day, back in August of 2004 in the Yerba Buena Gardens during a Philippine arts and culture festival just after I moved to San Francisco for college, worn until August of 2017 when the ring finally began to wear thin enough I'm worried it'll snap in two. So I took it off, kissed it, and put it away. I'm adjusting to a different one now. It's got leaves, but no little lizard face.
I can replace it easily enough - it's a common enough design that just looking up "lizard toe ring" on Google gets me the same thing right away, like right here. But it won't be the one I used to wear, and I'm hesitant to look into repair shops because it'd be so easy to replace it might not get taken seriously.
And though I wish I still had a smiling little lizard on my hand, it's not yet broken. I can take comfort in knowing it's not broken, or lost. In threat of those, but I didn't let that happen. I took it off and now it's put someplace for safekeeping. It saw me through a lot of adventures, like the one I had today, running to catch the ferry back, riding up front and feeling a bit of spray on my face and stepping away from my life to enjoy the world for a while.
So I guess, with this new ring, I start over again tomorrow.
17776: what football most definitely will not look like in the future
Aug. 9th, 2017 07:02 pmlannamichaelsFile this under "this was gonna bug me if I didn't make a post about it". :P
So, 17776. This thing has a pretty cool premise and some interesting stuff. It's got cool storytelling techniques! It makes really great use of the medium! It's got space probes talking to each other without any lags! It's got suddenly the humans stopped aging! It's got terrible, terrible worldbuilding.
Problem the First: The name of it.
See, the thing is, "1776" is an important/prominent year for Americans. If you then add another 7, to invoke 1776, that's like putting Chekov's gun on the wall. And then the gun never fires. Dude, if you're gone called something that invoking of 1776, you need to do something with it. Otherwise it's an issue. A distracting issue.
Problem The Second: What football will look like.
The "football" makes no sense. And I don't mean in an "this has no relationship to current day American football except for the ball" way. I mean that in a no-human-being-would-ever-do-this way. It boggles the mind. Okay, so let's say football decided games don't have to have an end point. No one would play one football game for eight hundred or twelve thousand years. That is not how things work. That's not how people work. That's not how time works.
Problem The Third: None of this makes any sense.
I don't mean the instantaneous communication across vast distances in space or humans living forever. That suspension of disbelief is the price of admission. No, I mean the humans. Because...
Problem The Fourth: There is no sense of scale.
It is 2017. To belabor the obvious: the year 17776 is very far from now. However, nothing has changed except football. Nothing has changed in 15,000 years. Dude. No.
OK, ok, so technically, there's ~peace love and kittens~ and all that, which we are told about and never shows up as a thing at all. Especially since we're all post-scarcity and everything is awesome, but there are still beleaguered office workers? And general store owners and basically, enough signs that the current economy is still trucking along. Essentially the only difference is that football is now a game with states as end zones.
This would have worked better if this was fifty or a hundred or so years from now. That would be kinda cool. But 15,000 years?
Like, 15,000 years ago, I don't think agriculture was even a thing yet. And yet humanity has stagnated in such a way that nothing has really changed in 15,000 years except the coast looks different because some cities are underwater and we have magic nano robots to fix all injuries and everyone gets along?
"But this is just a clever little thing about how football could mutate?" okay well, then, why does he keep bringing it up and then going "lol no, that's just how it is now, no one knows why" and stuff like that? Why keep bringing it up just to dismiss it as irrelevant? Why does it spend so much time on it and Pioneer 9 asking about it?
There's any number of worldbuilding problems you can handwave off easily by just not pointing the sphere of attention in that direction. That is *not* what is being done here. It's more like "oh hey, I'll keep bringing up how bizarre and unlikely this is, just to dismiss it as a serious issue of inquiry". C'mon already. You put something under a direct spotlight and then decided to keep pointing at it and never doing anything about it. If you aren't going to explore this stuff or answer any questions, stop being a jerk about it. Going "oooh, oooh, oooh, I got a secret and I'm not telling" is probably fine for getting clicks, but it does nothing good to your story.
I mean, ffs, you don't just get to briefly sum up major accomplishments and then shrug it off with "you don't see any of those things because people didn't want them. If they advanced too much further technologically, those advances would inevitably intrude on their humanity. People wanted to walk. They wanted to take the bus that smelled like cigarettes. They wanted those precious three minutes between asking a question and knowing the answer.". (also, a minor rage that that's in an image and not text). Again, we are talking about 15,000 years. Where is your sense of scale??? Where is your basic sense of what humans are like???
(also, the idea that we've reached the ~~peak of human achievement that humans actually want to achieve~~ right now is fucking goddamn bullshit that I'm not even going to engage with. Like, the idea that we'll just press freeze on how things are now for middle class America and somehow somethingsomethingworldpeace somethingsomethingpostscarcity and not change a thing and just sit around and watch football all the time? For 15,000 years? This is such bullshit, I can't even begin.)
Like, the only way this makes any sense at all is if Pioneer 10 and JUICE are unreliable narrators and are making this entire thing up to troll Pioneer 9, except that is specifically addressed in the final chapter and denied. But I guess the question is, can we trust an unreliable narrator to admit to being unreliable? Because then there's also the title of the piece to take into account. It's just, it's such a massive part of the story, Pioneer 9 asking about this all the time. And then, no answers! Or, well, only answers that don't hold up at all. You have this mystery at the heart of it, but then you don't solve the mystery.
It's just, it's really frustrating, considering how cool some of this stuff is. :(
Oh, and also...
Problem The Fifth: Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer
This is just a minor nit, especially since it has happened IRL yet, but I feel like it's safe to assume that JUICE is gonna get thrown into Jupiter or something like that to destroy it? Why didn't they just go with the Voyagers or New Horizons or something like that? What, does the Immortalization Of Humans and somehow the Stagnation Of Human Achievement mean that the JUICE mission doesn't end?
Do I know anyone in Philadelphia?
Aug. 8th, 2017 08:44 pmsettiaiHey, it's worth a shot. Out of curiosity, do I know anyone who lives in Philadelphia who would have a sofa or clean(ish) corner on the floor available for someone to crash November 16th or 17th through the 19th?
I'm seriously considering going to PAX Unplugged that weekend since tickets are cheap and there are buses between DC and Philly for something like $20. The problem is that I've taken a look at my finances, and I really don't think that I can cover the cost of a hotel room. I've been looking at some potential Airbnb options (which are filling up fast, probably because of the con), but since that can definitely be hit or miss I thought that I'd check on the fandom front first.
Anyone?
I'm seriously considering going to PAX Unplugged that weekend since tickets are cheap and there are buses between DC and Philly for something like $20. The problem is that I've taken a look at my finances, and I really don't think that I can cover the cost of a hotel room. I've been looking at some potential Airbnb options (which are filling up fast, probably because of the con), but since that can definitely be hit or miss I thought that I'd check on the fandom front first.
Anyone?
FMK #20: Holmesiana
Aug. 8th, 2017 06:31 pmmelannenLast week's K winner was Hounded. I guess I do not get to read it and find out if the second-most-popular male UF lead gets sexually assaulted as often as Harry Dresden does. ;_;
The F winner was Truckers, which is good, since I went from thinking about urban fantasy tropes to reading old Marcone/Dresden fic to reading all the Vimes/Vetinari(/Sybil) fic to reading all the Watch books to working on that prompt about the First Sedoretu of Ankh-Morpork.
(Finally reading Snuff was what convinced that that okay, Vimes could manage to be married to Margolotta, they have many things in common and also he can see in the dark now and she and Sybil as pen pals is canon, so.)
...which also explains why I still don't have any more reviews for you, oops.
But! We have made it to FMK #20! Which means another non-SF option! This week: Holmesiania.
How FMK works, short version: I am trying to clear out my unreads. So there is a poll, in which you get to pick F, M, or K. F means I should spend a night of wild passion with the book ASAP, and then decide whether to keep it or not. M means I should continue to commit to a long-term relationship of sharing my bedroom with it. K means it should go away immediately. Anyone can vote, you don't have to actually know anything about the books.
I pick a winner on Friday night (although won't actually close the poll, people can still vote,) and report results/ post the new poll on the following Tuesday, and write a response to the F winner sometime in the next week.
Link to long version of explanation (on first poll)
( Poll: Chabon, Douglas, Estleman, Gardner, Gilbert, Hall, King, Kurland, LeBlanc, Meyer, Peacock, Smith, Springer, Stout, Thomas, anthologies )
The F winner was Truckers, which is good, since I went from thinking about urban fantasy tropes to reading old Marcone/Dresden fic to reading all the Vimes/Vetinari(/Sybil) fic to reading all the Watch books to working on that prompt about the First Sedoretu of Ankh-Morpork.
(Finally reading Snuff was what convinced that that okay, Vimes could manage to be married to Margolotta, they have many things in common and also he can see in the dark now and she and Sybil as pen pals is canon, so.)
...which also explains why I still don't have any more reviews for you, oops.
But! We have made it to FMK #20! Which means another non-SF option! This week: Holmesiania.
How FMK works, short version: I am trying to clear out my unreads. So there is a poll, in which you get to pick F, M, or K. F means I should spend a night of wild passion with the book ASAP, and then decide whether to keep it or not. M means I should continue to commit to a long-term relationship of sharing my bedroom with it. K means it should go away immediately. Anyone can vote, you don't have to actually know anything about the books.
I pick a winner on Friday night (although won't actually close the poll, people can still vote,) and report results/ post the new poll on the following Tuesday, and write a response to the F winner sometime in the next week.
Link to long version of explanation (on first poll)
( Poll: Chabon, Douglas, Estleman, Gardner, Gilbert, Hall, King, Kurland, LeBlanc, Meyer, Peacock, Smith, Springer, Stout, Thomas, anthologies )
My sinuses are trying to kill me
Aug. 8th, 2017 01:56 pmvamysteryfan Again, the murderous little devils. This time it's a cold, not allergies.
Crazy day at work today. We started 12 people yesterday and then 55 people today. Lots of paperwork. I spent the morning running around like a nutcase. Thank heavens for lunchtime. Afternoon was more paperwork.
I had such a nice weekend. Jenn and I had a chance to catch up on Saturday night. It was a fun, fannish evening. I haven't had one of those in a while. And anybody who comes to visit DC - you should definitely try Centrolina in City Center. Attentive service, great seafood, and desserts to die for.
I finished reading The Pigeon Tunnel by John LeCarre. I liked it. It's a very odd but interesting book of essays. The theme is loosely what inspired his various books. It helps if you are pretty knowledgeable about the Cold War. He did quite a lot of in-person research. I loved the information about meeting Arafat. There are also a couple of essays about his feckless father (an unsuccessful conman by his account).
I read a couple more Comissario Brunetti books by Donna Leon, filling in some earlier books in the series I hadn't read. The Golden Egg was about the death of a Venetian man with no official history. I did not see the ending coming, even with the clue in the title. I read Dirt, the second book in the Stone Barrington series by Stuart Woods. I do much prefer Stone when he wasn't wealthy, before he solved problems by just throwing money at them.
Hope everyone had a nice weekend!
Crazy day at work today. We started 12 people yesterday and then 55 people today. Lots of paperwork. I spent the morning running around like a nutcase. Thank heavens for lunchtime. Afternoon was more paperwork.
I had such a nice weekend. Jenn and I had a chance to catch up on Saturday night. It was a fun, fannish evening. I haven't had one of those in a while. And anybody who comes to visit DC - you should definitely try Centrolina in City Center. Attentive service, great seafood, and desserts to die for.
I finished reading The Pigeon Tunnel by John LeCarre. I liked it. It's a very odd but interesting book of essays. The theme is loosely what inspired his various books. It helps if you are pretty knowledgeable about the Cold War. He did quite a lot of in-person research. I loved the information about meeting Arafat. There are also a couple of essays about his feckless father (an unsuccessful conman by his account).
I read a couple more Comissario Brunetti books by Donna Leon, filling in some earlier books in the series I hadn't read. The Golden Egg was about the death of a Venetian man with no official history. I did not see the ending coming, even with the clue in the title. I read Dirt, the second book in the Stone Barrington series by Stuart Woods. I do much prefer Stone when he wasn't wealthy, before he solved problems by just throwing money at them.
Hope everyone had a nice weekend!
Refugees, tomato raids, libertarian towns, and more
Aug. 8th, 2017 11:48 amerinptahYou can send a set of ITMFA pins to your Congressperson. Proceeds go to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and the International Refugee Assistance Project.
"'The refugee agencies didn’t really feel comfortable sending their kids anywhere,' Adams says. 'We needed to be that place for them.” It’s no coincidence that as Sullivan has established itself as the go-to school for refugees in the last couple of years, its academic standing has also risen."
"Airwars researchers estimate that at least 2,300 civilians likely died from Coalition strikes overseen by the Obama White House—roughly 80 each month in Iraq and Syria. As of July 13, more than 2,200 additional civilians appear to have been killed by Coalition raids since Trump was inaugurated—upwards of 360 per month, or 12 or more civilians killed for every single day of his administration."
"I was having lunch with Shonda Rhimes last week and a woman stopped at the table — well-dressed, probably in her 40s or 50s — and she said, ‘I just can’t leave this restaurant without telling you I’m just so devastated,’ and she just started to cry. I was on the other side of the table, or I would have done what I have done countless times since the election, which is just put my arms around her. Because people are so profoundly hurt." The surreal post-election life of Hillary Clinton.
"Not only were the Hartes upstanding citizens with clean records, they were also both former Central Intelligence Agency officers. And they were not weed growers. Rather, the quick-trigger suspicion of law enforcement had snagged on — it would later turn out — tea leaves and a struggling tomato plant."
"Initially, the city would impose property and sales taxes, but the property tax would ratchet down to zero over time. The business-friendly environment would draw new economic activity to Von Ormy, and eventually the town would cruise along on sales taxes alone." Spoiler alert: it did not cruise. It crashed and burned.
"A Facebook group for Norwegians opposed to immigration was widely mocked after members apparently could not tell the difference between empty bus seats and burka-clad women."
"'The refugee agencies didn’t really feel comfortable sending their kids anywhere,' Adams says. 'We needed to be that place for them.” It’s no coincidence that as Sullivan has established itself as the go-to school for refugees in the last couple of years, its academic standing has also risen."
"Airwars researchers estimate that at least 2,300 civilians likely died from Coalition strikes overseen by the Obama White House—roughly 80 each month in Iraq and Syria. As of July 13, more than 2,200 additional civilians appear to have been killed by Coalition raids since Trump was inaugurated—upwards of 360 per month, or 12 or more civilians killed for every single day of his administration."
"I was having lunch with Shonda Rhimes last week and a woman stopped at the table — well-dressed, probably in her 40s or 50s — and she said, ‘I just can’t leave this restaurant without telling you I’m just so devastated,’ and she just started to cry. I was on the other side of the table, or I would have done what I have done countless times since the election, which is just put my arms around her. Because people are so profoundly hurt." The surreal post-election life of Hillary Clinton.
"Not only were the Hartes upstanding citizens with clean records, they were also both former Central Intelligence Agency officers. And they were not weed growers. Rather, the quick-trigger suspicion of law enforcement had snagged on — it would later turn out — tea leaves and a struggling tomato plant."
"Initially, the city would impose property and sales taxes, but the property tax would ratchet down to zero over time. The business-friendly environment would draw new economic activity to Von Ormy, and eventually the town would cruise along on sales taxes alone." Spoiler alert: it did not cruise. It crashed and burned.
"A Facebook group for Norwegians opposed to immigration was widely mocked after members apparently could not tell the difference between empty bus seats and burka-clad women."