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Charizard is a weird axolotl in my minds eye. in my dreams too

#very cool design #pokemon

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finally reading Victoria Goddard’s The Hands of the Emperor and it’s really got all of the good fantasies in it. sky ships and sea trains. a functional imperial bureaucracy. the loneliest god-emperor you’ve ever seen and a big sprawling rambunctious family to love him. death-defying devotion to your friendships. a deeply intimidating clothier who will give you a personal makeover upon promotion. a lot of competent people trying their level best to survive mountains of paperwork. disgustingly gorgeous textiles. academic digressions into historical research that hijack entire chapters. an unspecified cataclysm that fractured time, space, and maybe reality, but don’t worry that was a thousand or maybe just twenty years ago and we built a functional bureaucracy out of the debris eventually. we’re dismantling the aristocracy and it’s taking a moment, but the rehauling of the meritocratic exams is bringing promising young candidates from the hinterlands to reform the future. oh by the way we rolled out universal basic income. the spreadsheets are many but so are your assistants helping you make sense of it. you are finally loved and appreciated and recognized for all you have done. you are bringing the fire back to the hearth of the world. you’re doing it, you’re doing it, it’s really happening. put your pen down, the meetings can wait until tomorrow. you can rest now

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pro-AI in the sense of "they taught a bread scanning computer to recognize cancer cells" etc etc

against AI in the sense of "we stole artwork from hundreds to thousands of artists, didn't credit them and didn't financially compensate them"

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You're making it difficult for me to take progress photos, ma'am.

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Hmm. If they can make this strategy work for COVID, that’ll really be something.

#it's published in PNAS which is more rigorous than Nature or Science so that's a good sign #but obviously it hasn't been tried in a human yet so it could fail #it'd be a gamechanger if it worked though!

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This guy always takes his chocolate art to the next level!!... Omg!!

(Source)

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For the book ask: 2 and 6?

2. Are there particular authors you would say helped guide you?

I don't think so, at least not on a conscious level. A lot of fiction has made me question my philosophy & a lot of nonfiction has given me very specific information so they've obviously influenced my decision-making that way, but I think I tend to turn inward for decisions more than outward.

6. What book/series/author do you turn to in tough times?

I absolutely go to either Robin McKinley's books or the Anne of Green Gables series. When I am having a hard time I just want to spend a while somewhere else, and both of them are very atmospheric and very comforting for me.

Thank you for asking! 😊

#ask game

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3 for the ask game!!

3. What fictional character is most important for you today?

A very hard question, but excluding my D&D characters I'd say either Kip from The Hands of the Emperor or Wei Wuxian from The Untamed! Kip's philosophy and journey is very meaningful and inspiring & I recently re-read HOTE so it's on my mind, while on the opposite side of the spectrum I've just read so much fic about Wei Wuxian I think he kind of has to be on here haha!

Thank you for asking! 😊

#ask game

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BOOK ASK: 1, 4, & 7, please!

1. Who was the most important fictional character for you growing up?

This one was really hard for me to choose, but I think Alanna from The Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce! I loved that she never gave up, and that she was kind and brave and clever and refused to let other people's opinions stop her from pursuing her dreams. Probably most important though was that she had a temper and was still awesome, since that's something I really struggled with as a kid!

4. What book/series/author do you think has most heavily informed who you are today?

The obvious answer would be Tamora Pierce for the various role models (Alanna, Sandry, Kel) but as I've already answered one with her I will instead pull a deep cut and go with The Starry Rift: Tales of New Tomorrows. It's an anthology of stories about space and I remember reading it and listening to Drops of Jupiter and looking up at the stars wondering what's out there. It helped push me into a lifelong obsession with space, and now I'm an astrobiologist 😆

7. Is there a book that really changed how you view the world?

Lots of them! But today I think I'll balance things out with a recent favorite, Worn by Sofi Thanhauser, that really made me re-examine the importance of clothing on history, culture, & our modern world. I really recommend it!

#ask game

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3d printed start gate

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BOOK ASK: stories for guidance and support edition

Who was the most important fictional character for you growing up?

Are the particular authors you would say helped guide you (i.e. provided perspective and helped you make big decisions)?

What fictional character is most important for you today?

What book/series/author do you think has most heavily informed who you are today?

What real person you’ve read about has had the biggest impact on you?

What book/series/author do you turn to in tough times?

Is there a book that really changed how you view the world?

Send me a number and I’ll answer that question!

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great blue heron , Ardea herodias

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nancy drew and the case of the color work sweater🔍

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– Смотри: я сфинкс….

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Art by Shan Yanan

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Opinions on fullmetal alchemist?

Brotherhood is the best anime ever made.

It's the most tightly-plotted slowburn mystery I've ever seen. Everything ties together. It makes more and more sense the more times I rewatch it, which in a mystery story is goddamn rare. In the very first episode, the filler villain at one point says "You don't understand the shape this country is in!" and that's a completely innocuous thing for this character to say except no it isn't

The magic system is a beautifully hard arrangement that never breaks its own rules, and it effortlessly explains everything you need to know to follow every alchemy-based twist just through the explanation of equivalent exchange and the question "what could equal the value of a human soul?" Alchemy follows equivalent exchange at all points and functions basically like Advanced Chemistry, and whenever it looks like the rules are being broken, it's just because somebody is burning human souls to do it.

The cast is massive, but never crowded. Everybody has a part to play. Even the seemingly-interchangeable minion characters all end up being unique contributers to the plot; there is truly no separation between Main Characters and Minor Characters because at any point anyone can turn out to be suddenly deeply important.

Contains a profound philosophical meditation on how even the most powerful person is not omnipotent, and the purposelessness of a power that can't be used to save the people they love, and this theme culminates in the only instance of the "extremely cool powerful badass sacrifices all their powers" trope that I actually 100% like.

Somehow this slowburn hard-magic mystery builds up to a massive anime confrontation about teenagers using the power of friendship to kill god and it never makes any buckwild leaps to get there. The resolution is emotionally satisfying and ridiculously kickass.

There are stories that I come back to more often, or hit me harder in the moment, or contain higher highs, or had more impact on their genres, but FMA:B is, pound for pound, the best anime ever made. 10s across the board.