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xanthippe74 · 4 months

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The mood this year, as this header photo demonstrates, was Le Tired. Just physically and emotionally slogging along. Brain stuck on perpetual static. A pull-the-covers-over-my-head sort of year. I read a few books, watched a lot of shows, found new songs to listen to on repeat, and spent way too much time futzing around on Tumblr.

But that's not what this post is about! This is to remind myself that I did accomplish writer-ly things this year, even if it didn't feel like it sometimes. So here's my 2023 Fandom Year in Review:

Drarry

🐈 A Dreadful Invasion (of the Feline Persuasion) rated G | 6K words

Most of the time, it’s easy for Harry to forget that Draco Malfoy is his next-door neighbour—until the night Malfoy seemingly goes round the twist in his back garden. Of course Harry has to investigate. A birthday gift for @caroll-in.

🍷 Under the Table rated T, 4K words

A string of nearly-insufferable dinner parties has made Draco acquainted with Harry Potter’s completely insufferable, social-climbing boyfriend. But tonight it seems like Potter’s finally had enough, and Draco’s more than happy to watch it all play out from across the table.

WIP progress: I added about 25K to my Drarry retelling of Howl's Moving Castle. The working title is "Skybound" and it will be about 55 to 60K words when complete (by spring 2024, god help me!). Featuring: lots of banter, secret identities, adventures and misadventures in a floating house, a plucky house-elf, and (of course) a fire demon who wants to make a bargain.

9-1-1 fics, HP recs, and 2023 highlights under the cut!

9-1-1/Buddie

🌧️ It pours, man it pours rated T | 11K words

An endless rainstorm. A head-on collision on a dark canyon road. Eddie and Buck find themselves stranded with a woman in labor after they’re cut off from the rest of the 118 by a flash flood. With the fate of their team unknown, can they weather the night ahead—and mend the rift Buck caused by trying to kiss his best friend?

💣 A Few Good Pranks rated T | 4K words

The firefighters of the 118 decide to give Bobby a turn at pranking them after seeing how disappointed he was to be left out. And since two heads are better than one, why not three? Or four? If only they could figure out who's pranking and who isn't, and who the intended victim is. It's all in good fun, though—as long as everyone is too distracted to notice that Buck and Eddie keep sneaking off alone.

❤️‍🩹Let It Be Me rated T | 1.8K words

After another Buckley Family reunion-turned-disaster, Buck makes a decision about his parents. Of course the 118 has his back. Or, Bobby employs some LAFD equipment to help Buck out—and tell him something he needs to hear.

Episode codas/fix-it ficlets: 1x01 | 1x03 | 2x01 | 2x03 | 6x10 | 6x11 | 6x12 | 6x13 | 6x15

WIP progress: First chapter of a season 3/canon divergence Buddie fic. Featuring: angst with a happy ending, a secret marriage of convenience, and pandemic bed sharing.

HP Rec List

I was inspired by this post to rec twelve favorite fan works from 2023 in twelve days in December. It actually took fourteen days, but I did it!

💖 12 Favorites from 2023 💖

(after posting those twelve, of course I thought of a few more faves that I missed. I'll try to share them soon!)

2023 Highlights

I'm so very grateful for the wonderful, funny, imaginative people here who shared their creative works, the memes that made them laugh, photos of their pets, gif sets of shows I didn't know I needed to watch, and insights into the characters we love. You all got me through the year, honestly.

I had a good time doodling some Halloween treats for Inbox Trick-or-Treating. I hope it will become an annual Tumblr event! Thanks to the folks who rang my doorbell that night and the other blogs who gave out treats.

I truly treasured every kudos, comment, and rec I received this year. I was also very fortunate to receive a few special gifts:

🎙️ EllaMcSmellBella recorded a Podfic of "Spooked in Salem," my Drarry 'Round the World fic.

🎙️ Spades/bumblingbees recorded a Podfic of "Crimson Neon."

📕 @cheriecherishchen wrote a lovely rec for "Vortex" and designed gorgeous book covers for that fic and its sequel, "Riptide."

✏️ @saijordison drew this incredible piece of art for "Riptide."

And finally, if you read all the way to the end of this post, I'm grateful for YOU. 😁

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year and an excellent 2024!

#2023 year in review #my writing #drarry #buddie

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nerdygaymormon · 7 months

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Therapy Session 10/3/2023

I'm writing about today's therapy session because there's some things I want to remember. This blog also acts as a journal for things related to being a queer Mormon, and going to therapy for an eating disorder is related.

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I shared about the hard time I had while in Utah when two lovely people had come to meet me. My leg had fallen asleep and I couldn't get up. A strong Samoan guy had to help. I was so embarrassed. All the feelings of shame about my body, my weight, my eating disorder, of worrying how others view me and wanting to be accepted and loved, all of that came rushing in.

I also shared about this past weekend and General Conference and the homophobic messages and the suggestion that addictions to food are offensive to God. The strong feelings caused me to give into my disordered eating. And even as I was binging, I was mad about it.

He helped me reframe how I think about those instances, highlighting the progress I've made. Being mad as I was binging is an indication that I'm wanting to choose a different destiny, to effect change, and that desire will help me do so. He took it as a very positive emotion in that moment.

We also talked about ways of defusing those emotions and thoughts. We reviewed some pages in a book which I think were helpful.

I shared that when I write about those feelings, it takes these big, amorphous feelings and defines them. They're still powerful but now I'm pouring them into a blog post or onto a page, and that's where they live.

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At the end of our session, he surprised me. He remembered that I'm a gay Latter-day Saint and he was doing some research and wanted to talk about something he found with me.

He shared that Jesus said, "Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will find it." He asked me what my thoughts are on this.

I talked about how if I try to live up to other people's ideas of who I should be and what my life should look like, that it's not my life, I'm living theirs. By trying to save the community and connections I have, I wind up losing myself. But if I am willing to risk losing my community and those who say I must live a certain, I get to live authentic to my heart and beliefs and to who I am, in that way I gain my life.

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He had been thinking of the story I shared of having bilateral pulmonary embolism (blood clots in both lungs) and welcoming what I saw as a chance for death. Then deciding to go the hospital where I was put in intensive care and began a year of recovery.

This story helped him see the difference between fate and destiny. Fate is something that happens to us, destiny is something we choose. We can choose to give into our fate. I was fated to have a serious health issue and I wanted to give in and let it end my life. Destiny was deciding to deal with the circumstances, to make choices to move forward towards something different.

I think most queer Mormons do this. We have been fated to be queer, and we are taught a narrative which says we're defective and unworthy and offensive to God. But at some point we say this doesn't serve me, I don't feel this in my heart, and we start making choices to a different belief or a different path, and in that way we lose the life we thought we must have and instead gain a life true for us. We decide that it is better to live

#david gets personal

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minimalist-language-learning · 1 year

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My advice on Remembering the Kanji (RTK)

Before I share my learning routine and advice for RTK I would like to write about my personal experience first:

When I started to learn Japanese, kanji seemed incredibly difficult. They were just a complicated combination of strokes to me. Then I came across the book Remembering the Kanji (RTK) by James W. Heisig. Volume 1 presents a total of 2.200 kanji (including most of the Jōyō kanji).

I used the german version of Remembering the Kanji

The beginning was promising. I easily learned the first few hundred kanji. This experience was amazing. I never thought that this could be possible. But then I made the mistake of proceeding too fast. I saw forum posts of other RTK users who claimed that they “finished“ RTK in 3 months or even less. This motivated me and I tried to learn 25 kanji a day. Even though it was difficult to create memorable stories for this amount of kanji every day I moved on. After my first try to learn kanji with RTK, I forgot a great part of it after I "finished" the book.

I was not satisfied but I decided to move on and tried to read as much as possible instead. My idea was that I would make faster progress if I don't learn kanji consciously. It's not impossible to learn some kanji by seeing them repeatedly in context but it didn’t worked as well as I expected.

Kanji seemed not as complicated like before but because of the great number of kanji and a lot of similar looking kanji they were still a great obstacle for me. Then I noticed that I still remembered the meaning of a number of kanji I learned with RTK. When I came across these kanji in context, I was able to understand new words without looking them up. Knowing their (rough) meaning really made a big difference. This made me think.

Around this time, I gave RTK a second chance and learned from my mistakes. I realized that if I really wanted to benefit from RTK I need to think long-term. It's not that you do RTK for only 3 months and you are done. What I needed were sustainable strategies.

I finished all 2.200 kanji (RTK volume 1) a while ago and I know most of them well now. By reviewing my RTK deck my recognition rate will further improve over time. My RTK knowledge helps me enormously with reading japanese books. I’m really happy that I gave it a second chance. That’s why I want to share my experiences and tips in this blog post. I hope that this post can be helpful for Japanese learners who struggled with RTK.

My learning routine

My usual learning routine looked like this (more detailed tips below):

1. Review

Every day, I used Anki to review my own RTK deck.

Read the keyword and (if in doubt) the hint

Try to remember the elements of the kanji and their positions and write the kanji in the air

Turn the card and check the kanji

If it was wrong, change the hint and/or improve the story

2. Adding new kanji

After reviewing I usually added around 10 to 15 new kanji a day. My cards contain not only keyword and kanji but also fields for hints, elements of the kanji and the story. Here's an example (my original cards are in German so this is just a rough translation):

Hints: If the keyword was very similar to another kanji I added a hint to reduce the risk of mixing them up.

Elements: I also added the elements of the kanji. This is useful for two reasons: By writing them out I become more aware of the elements which helps to remember new or complex elements correctly. Plus, by putting them on the back side of the card I can refresh my memory during reviews without using the book.

Story: Instead of creating a story only in my head I added the story to my cards. The reasons are the same like for the elements (see above).

. . .

After adding 5 new kanji I made a small break, came back and reviewed the new kanji. Then I repeated this process for another 5 kanji.

I usually added around 10 to 15 kanji a day. This was my sweet spot. Since I work full time and because my main focus was on reading japanese books I hadn't a lot of time for RTK. By not adding more kanji that I can handle I made sure that I remember them well.

Then I continued reading a book in Japanese and/or listened to something in Japanese. RTK was just a small part of my learning routine. My goal was not to finish it as fast as possible but to make sure that I remember these kanji as well as possible. Slowly but steady I learned more and more kanji. This gave me a noticeable advantage while reading.

RTK is not a race

As I wrote above, I made several mistakes myself but instead of blaming RTK I realized that I need to take the explanations in the book more seriously. It's really important to make sure that the stories are memorable and that you pay attention to the details.

The most important lesson I learned was that RTK is not a race. During my second attempt, it was not my goal to "finish" RTK as fast as possible but to remember these kanji LONG-TERM because this makes reading and learning new words much easier.

By proceeding too fast, the risk of forgetting a lot of kanji is very high. When it comes to RTK, a high recognition rate is more important than speed, in my opinion. That’s why I created sustainable strategies that helped me to remember most of the 2.200 kanji long-term.

5 Tips on Remembering the Kanji

Tip #1: Don't underestimate the power of writing

In the beginning, I used to write every kanji on paper. Now, I only write them with my finger (either in the air or on the table). This is much faster and easier.

Why writing them at all? Some people say, being able to recognize them is enough. Personally, I remember them much better through writing (even if I just write them in the air; the movement of the hand makes a great difference for me). In my experience, writing works much better than just looking at a kanji because through writing I become aware of every detail. Many kanji look pretty similar. Sometimes only one little detail is different. The risk of mixing them up is much higher.

I tried the "recognition-only approach" in the past and it didn't work well for me. The ability to recognize and distinguish kanji just by looking at them has its limits. It's not very accurate, that's why I still mixed up similar kanji. 宇 and 字 or 烏 and 鳥 for example look very similar at the first glance. The original RTK method on the other hand helps to avoid that because you pay much more attention to the details.

Plus, writing in Japanese by hand is important to me. I love writing and kanji are very beautiful! That's the reason why I want to be able to write in Japanese. But even if you don't want to be able to write kanji, I recommend to write them in the air during reviews to reduce the risk of mixing them up. It may not seem like this could make a big difference but in my experience it's really helpful. The power of writing should not be underestimated.

Tip #2: Add hints

When I repeatedly mix up kanji or when I can't remember how to write them correctly, it's a sign that the story is weak. I pay attention to the story and try to make it more memorable. Plus, when I confuse a kanji with another I add a hint to the card like "Don't confuse with [similar keyword]".

It's also helpful to copy the definition of the keyword from a dictionary and/or a japanese word written in hiragana that contains this kanji and add it to the card. This way I have more context and this prevents me from confusing a keyword with a similar one (because the definitions are different).

Using little hints is a great way to make the learning process less frustrating. Over time, I need these hints less and less. Eventually, I remember difficult kanji correctly.

Tip #3: Take the time you need

It's also very important not to rush. I barely added more than 15 new kanji a day. Most of the time, I only added about 5 or 10 a day. Since I work full time and because my main focus was on reading japanese books I hadn't a lot of time for RTK.

During reviews I pay attention to the things I described above. Do I mix them up? Can I remember them correctly? Whenever I have trouble to remember certain kanji, I improve the story and/or add some hints. Some kanji may be more difficult than others, but over time you can learn every kanji by paying more attention to them. Paying attention to why you didn’t remember some kanji correctly and eliminating sources of error is really important. If a story doesn’t work don’t hesitate to improve it.

However, there's no need to be too strict. You don't need to nail them down to 100% before you move on. But I think it's a good idea to give new kanji time to sink in a bit before continuing. That's why I recommend to slow down the pace instead of rushing through the book.

Tip #4: Be creative

The meaning of some primitives chosen by Heisig are not optimal for everyone. It works much better if you choose something that has a strong meaning to you (like, characters from your favorite series). Just make sure that your personal meaning doesn't conflict with later keywords or elements. Ideally, it's as close to Heisig's word as possible or it's so unique that it's impossible to mix it up with other words.

If a kanji is used as part of another kanji (like 青 in 請 for example) you don't necessarily need to use it in it's combined form if it's difficult to create a good story. You can split or combine the elements of a kanji the way you like if it helps you to remember the kanji.

Tip #5: Combine RTK with reading

Some people recommend beginners to do RTK at the very beginning of their Japanese learning journey. The idea is, to complete RTK as fast as possible so that you can focus 100% on the language itself afterwards. However, I think depending on the person this can be counterproductive. RTK is probably more difficult for people who just started with Japanese because they can’t see the benefits of RTK yet. When you have no use for what you are learning it’s hard to stay motivated over an extended period of time. I think this is one reason, why people who tried RTK gave up.

When I started RTK I wasn’t a complete beginner of Japanese. I did RTK in addition to my other Japanese activities like reading books. This way, I often came across kanji I just learned. I saw them in context and they helped me to understand new words without looking them up. Experiences like these were a strong proof for me that RTK really pays off and this gave me a motivation boost.

So instead of doing RTK at the beginning and doing nothing else, I recommend to wait until you can read at least graded readers or easier novels, for example. Otherwise it’s probably too hard to stay motivated for so long.

. . .

I hope these tips can be helpful for someone. It's sad when I read that some people gave up because they constantly mix up or forget a lot of kanji. There are also people who rush through RTK without creating memorable stories for each kanji and stop doing their reviews after "finishing" RTK. And then they claim that RTK is a waste of time and doesn't work because they can't remember most of the kanji — which is no surprise in this case.

While I absolutely understand that RTK may not work for everyone it's not fair that people who didn't take the explanations in the book seriously claim that it doesn't work in general.

Learning kanji takes time. This is absolutely normal. It's not a shame if you need more than 3 months or a year to complete RTK. In my opinion, if the goal is to remember these kanji long-term 3 months are very unrealistic for most people. Seeing people who "finished" RTK in a short amount of time creates false expectations. RTK is not about breaking records. To me, it’s much more important to make sure that you remember these kanji long-term. Every learned kanji is already a little advantage, that's why speed is not so important anyway.

Without RTK learning kanji would have been much more time consuming and frustrating for me and the risk of forgetting and mixing them up would be much much higher. To me, there's no real alternative to RTK and now that I finished it I'm very happy that I put in the work and time.

Maybe I will also learn the additional 800 kanji from volume 3 in the future. But for now I'll focus on consolidating the 2.200 kanji from volume 1 and on other learning activities.

#langblr #languagelearning #self study #japanese learning #languageblr #learning japanese #language learning tips #remembering the kanji #kanji #learning kanji

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thegayhimbo · 7 months

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Stranger Things Runaway Max Review (3/3)

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out my other Stranger Things Reviews. Like, Reblog, and let me know what your thoughts are regarding the show or the upcoming season! :)

Stranger Things Comics/Graphic Novels:

Stranger Things Six

Stranger Things Halloween Special

Stranger Things The Other Side

Stranger Things Zombie Boys

Stranger Things The Bully

Stranger Things Winter Special

Stranger Things Tomb of Ybwen

Stranger Things Into The Fire

Stranger Things Science Camp

Stranger Things “The Game Master” and “Erica’s Quest”

Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons

Stranger Things Kamchatka

Stranger Things Erica The Great

Stranger Things “Creature Feature” and “Summer Special”

Stranger Things Tie-In Books:

Stranger Things Suspicious Minds

Part 4: Billy Hargrove

Those of you who've followed my blog know I've never liked Billy as a character. I loathed him back in 2017 when he was first introduced to the show, and the following years since have done nothing to improve my opinion about him. If anything, I've continued to despise him not just because of how repulsive he is as a person, but because of the never-ending parade of excuses and abuse apologies I've seen this fandom make for every shitty thing he's ever done.

As a general rule of thumb, I don't like abusers. I especially don't like bullies. In the past, I've been forced to put up with people who've behaved like Billy does. People who constantly projected their issues onto me and others because they needed an outlet for whatever the hell their problem was, and didn't give a damn about how hurtful they were being. These were the kind of people who were snide, cruel, rude, unpleasant, and unkind because they could get away with it, and who enjoyed getting a rise out of others because their lives were so miserable that they could only get satisfaction by putting others down. Whatever empathy I initially might have had for them has been replaced with cold contempt, and I want nothing to do with them anymore.

I want to be clear that I recognize Billy as an abuse survivor, and that the way Neil raised him played a major role in turning him into an abuser. To the book's credit, it does not shy away from depicting the abuse in all of its ugliness, or how Neil's twisted values rubbed off on Billy in the worst possible way. I can understand why Billy became the way he did, and even pity him to some extent.

What I am NOT sympathetic towards, however, is Billy taking his rage out on everyone to the point they become collateral damage, and inflicting abuse on Max to the point her life became a living hell. I have no patience for fans who either victim-blame Max for the way Billy treated her, or victim-blame others characters (like Steve and Lucas) for the way Billy treated them. I also don't have the time or patience for people who want to act like Billy's history gives him carte blanche to be vile and hateful to others. It's the same feeling I have for other characters outside of Stranger Things, including the Roy Family from Succession and Henry Bowers from Stephen King's IT: Even if the writers gave valid backstories to these characters to explain why they are as messed up as they are, it still doesn't make their behavior excusable, and trying to act like it is does not make those characters endearing in any way.

But even with all this context, none of it makes Billy look better in the book or on the show. If anything, he comes out looking worse.

He's still belittling and nasty to Max when he can get away with it:

He intentionally goes out of his way to isolate Max from others, including driving away the friends she initially had in San Diego (Ben and Eddie), and later tries to do the same thing with Lucas and his group:

At one point, he goes out of his way to break the arm of Max's best friend, Nate, in order to drive him away (and it works):

This event btw (Billy breaking Nate's arm) is the reason for why Neil and Susan decide to move to Hawkins. Billy, of course, doesn't take any responsibility for his behavior, and instead tries to blame Max for what happened:

At one point, Billy sets a dead cat on fire as a means for getting under the skin of his so-called friend Sid, which succeeds in driving Sid away when it becomes clear just how unhinged Billy truly is:

Multiple times, Billy either abandons Max to skateboard home on her own, or threatens to:

He repeatedly treats girls like shit, with the big difference being he's more open about being a sleazebag compared to Neil (which doesn't make him a better person by any means):

Notably, from the show, he speeds up his car the moment he sees Mike and his friends on the road, and Max is genuinely scared that Billy is going to hit them. It gets to the point she grabs the wheel in order to stop Billy. And the moment Max does this, she is TERRIFIED that Billy is going to hurt her for it:

He also breaks Max's skateboard as punishment for her hanging around Lucas:

When Billy finds Lucas later at Joyce's house in the season 2 finale, Max is genuinely scared for Lucas's safety in that moment:

And finally, when Billy starts beating Steve to a bloody pulp, Max is genuinely scared that Billy is going to kill him:

What really gets under my skin is how Billy knows that what he's doing to Max (and to others) is wrong, and still does it anyways. He likes getting a rise out of people. He likes being vicious to others when he can get away with it.

For as much as some fans like to wax poetic about Billy being a complex character...........he really isn't. His character, and the way he carries himself through life, can be summed up as "I'm miserable, so everyone else gets to be miserable with me." He isn't even unique in terms of that kind of character. I can point to other shows and movies (True Blood, Star Wars, Breaking Bad, Succession, Stephen King's IT, etc) where the type of character Billy represents has been done to death before.

To put it bluntly: I'm tired of characters like Billy. It's easy to be a bully. It's easy to be cruel. Nothing about that makes me remotely interested in him.

There's a rich hypocrisy in how people in this fandom will direct their bile at Susan for turning a blind eye to the abuse Neil dishes out to Billy while simultaneously turning a blind eye to the abuse Billy dishes out to Max. I cannot begin to describe how many times I've seen fans either downplay/whitewash the worst of Billy's behavior, make excuses and abuse apologies for him, or else victim-blame every other character for the way Billy treats them. There is clear-cut, irrefutable evidence that Billy is an abuser, and fans still want to pretend that he wasn't.

In a way, a lot of these excuses/apologies are so reminiscent of the ones made for real life abusers that it makes me wonder if the stans who project themselves hard onto Billy (and become vicious towards anyone who dares to say anything negative about him) are going through something awful in their personal lives to make them behave like this. Otherwise, why are they pretending that a character's actions aren't abusive? There's no other satisfying explanation.

And if it sounds like I'm unsympathetic, it's because I am. I have seen so many Billy stans over the years who have gone out of their way to bully and harass anyone who is slightly critical of Billy, or else deliberately go into the #anti billy hargrove/ #anti harringrove tags to pick fights with Billy antis and then play victim when those people (rightfully) get irritated with them. It's gotten to the point my sympathy for them is non-existent.

You guys know damn well why there are out people out there who don't like Billy. Own up to it. If you want to sit there and headcanon Billy being a woobie soft boi who's secretly a sweetie-pie that truly loved his sister and wasn't abusive to her, that's your business. Don't come trying to shove that headcanon down our throats, and then act upset because we reject it.

And last, but not least........let's talk about Billy's *ahem* behavior towards Lucas on the show.

Part 5: Billy and Lucas

When I first saw season 2 back in 2017, even before the Duffer Brothers gave their interview about Billy, I pegged the guy as a racist. Everything about his behavior towards Lucas, to his comments to Max about how "there's a certain type of people in this world you stay away from" and how Lucas was one of those kids, was a big indicator for me at the time about Billy's bigotry. When the Duffer Brothers later came out in an interview and confirmed he was racist, I wasn't shocked:

Last year, Caleb McLaughlin (who plays Lucas) also came out and confirmed this in an interview:

Now Jason is a whole different character that I will talk more about when I review Lucas on the Line, but it's important to note that Caleb was firm in pointing out that Billy was racist, and that Billy specifically targeted Lucas because he was a black kid. Both Billy and Neil were bigots, and Max even acknowledges this in the book:

There is a whole on-going discussion these days about fandom racism, how characters of color in movies and TV shows get the most bile and contempt directed at them, and how there's a tendency to have their pain and traumas dismissed in favor of white characters, and Stranger Things is no different. In fact, this is arguably one of the first shows where I became aware of how prevalent fandom racism is, and it all had to do with how many people were determined to erase Billy's racism towards Lucas and deny that it ever was a thing. Disgusting isn't a good enough word to describe this.

As for the tiresome, pathetic excuse Billy stans offer about how Billy was really being protective of Max...............Seriously? That's what your going with?

We're talking about a guy who drove away Max's friends, sadistically broke her best friends arm, blamed her for things that weren't her fault, repeatedly abandoned Max to skateboard home either because he didn't want to wait for her or because he wanted to shag the next girl he laid eyes on, made it clear to Max that he hated her and wanted nothing to do with her, was repeatedly abusive to her and worked to isolate her from everyone and everything she loved. But now he suddenly cares for her safety?

I know I'm being sharp here, but the constant mental gymnastics people do to make Billy seem less awful than he really is has caused me to lose a lot of respect for this fandom.

As for the people who will inevitably bring up Dacre's take on Billy........... @scoopertroopers put it best in the post I reblogged from them last year: 1.) The Duffer Brothers are the ones who wrote Billy to be racist (and said as much in the interview they gave), and 2.) Caleb McLaughin, a black actor who has been subjected to racism from this very fandom, has a better claim to say whether a white character's actions on a show constitute racism.

Billy was a racist. His treatment of Lucas was racist. Period.

Final Thoughts:

This is defiantly a tie-in book I recommend buying and reading. It's faithful to the show, and it gives more insight into Max's character. There are parts of this book that may be hard to get through because of the subject matter, but it is worth it to see Max come out on the other side and begin to find a place where she can belong and feel safe.

#stranger things #max mayfield #stranger things runaway max #lucas sinclair #caleb mclaughlin #anti billy hargrove #tgh opinions #tgh reviews #neil hargrove #the duffer brothers

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anipgarden · 7 months

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Ani Reviews: A Step-by-Step Guide to a Florida Native Yard

I promised you guys a review and here it is. I've never really done a book review before but I'm doing my best to make this Coherent and Helpful.

[Photo ID: a book, titled A Step-by-Step Guide to a Florida Native Yard by Ginny Stibolt and Marjorie Shropshire.]

Out of all the books I checked out from the library this round, I started with this one because it was the shortest out of all of them--if we don't count the appendix and index, its 101 pages long. You can read where I sort of live blogged a portion of this read here.

I think its a pretty good read! It's definitely a lot more relevant if you are the home owner and most directly in charge of landscaping decisions and such. It gives a bit of advice on how to handle making similar changes in an HOA neighborhood, and provides pointers and resources to other books that can also be helpful in the journey to make your landscape a wildlife-friendly habitat. It focuses on Florida specifically, as denoted by the title, and will frequently remind the reader that gardening in Florida is vastly different from gardening anywhere else. So whether you've been a Florida resident all your life, or are planning on making a move on down here, this book can be a helpful resource if you want to transform some or even all of your yard into a habitat.

After the introduction, the book is separated into seven major sections referred to as Steps. There's Assess Your Property, Plan for Drainage and Stormwater Sequestration, Install Trees, Plant Shrubs, Working with Herbaceous Plants, Build a Wild or Natural Area, and Create Spaces for Human Use. If you're more interested in one part than the others, you can definitely skip around to find what you're looking for. I will say, the Drainage and Stormwater section made my head spin a bit.

I will say this: I don't know if the writers ever fully decided if they wanted this book to be targeted towards those who are already gung-ho about native plants and itching to transform their landscape, or to people who are just beginning to dip their toe into the idea. Overall though, it was a nice and informative read, and the illustrations inside are lovely.

#ani reviews #ani rambles #out of queue #honestly like this book was a nice source of inspo that would inspire a transformed yard FOR ME #however if someone isn't already interested in native gardening I don't think its gonna push them into it #if all the talk about complicated drainage systems doesn't scare them off then honestly like #the alternative solutions they offer for lawns aren't... detailed on much #i would really love to find a book that focused on alternative lawn groundcovers for Florida specifically that targeted the concerns #i find that most people have #like 'can this hold up to kids playing soccer? to dog activities? if I roll my trashcan over it to get it to the curb is it gonna die on me #because like this book recommends dune sunflower as an altenrative to turf grass but even in the appendix section it doesn't mention if it #can handle being stepped on at all #it does say frogfruit is a good turf grass substitute but also like #frogfruit sunshine mimosa and twinflower are the other 3 it suggests forth and theyre ALL butterfly hostplants #and while the possibility of there being bugs in a turf lawn is far from an impossibility idk the idea of stepping on caterpillars icks me #*out. like even if ur not barefoot #and i know my mom and one of my other friends' first concerns would be 'would snakes hide in it' and idk if thats like #a Fringe Concern that most people don't worry about but I've never seen anyone address it when talking about alternative lawns #i am getting off topic #im ending the tags here byebye

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flamingplay · 9 months

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9, 12, 20, 64!

Thank you so much, Maddie, for such good questions! <3

9. favorite smell in the summer?

If we're about June, it's lilac, for sure, had lots of them near my house... And the freshely moved loans after the rainy days... You can guess I miss my homecity, I don't like any summer smells I smell where I live now lol

12. name of your favorite playlist?

I don't like conventionally streaming music, I liked the playlist that my friend showed me with her liked 2022 songs and more and I absolutely adore Jon's (Jonny Buckland's) playlists that he made during quarantine, you can't imagine how much of a gift it is to know and have anything about this man fghjk They're all showing immaculate taste (you can find there The Stone Roses, Funkadelic, Bjork, Talking Heads, Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, Massive Attack, to name a few) so just listing:

Jonny's 60s playlist [link]

Jonny's 70s playlist [link]

Jonny's 80s playlist [link]

Jonny's 90s playlist [link]

20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)?

I messily leave notes anywhere I can reach to, I've never been good with keeping notebooks even though I always wanted to... So my options are notes apps, pieces of paper lying around, back of my lecture notebooks, some flyers I picked, anywhere lol

64. favorite website from your childhood?

oh, I didn't have internet access or computer until I turned 16, so it's all not about my childhood... There used to be a great website-music-review-blog called Indiebirdie that I read and which influenced my music taste MASSIVELY: this is where I first heard about Everythign Everything with the release of Arc being reviewed just after the release, and that is why I was like "hm, bookmarking" (hecking procrastination) until the release of A Fever Dream with which I finally decided to introduce myself to the band in general, this is where I found London Grammar as the admins there were among the very first discoverers of their music... Lots to remember...

#hope you have a nice day <3 #answered #asked

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irregularcollapse · 1 year

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hello! you said you would be happy to talk about your original work. please expound upon this topic. thank you!

oh boy well i was going to write a review for the vampire lestat today, but procrastinating by answering this ask is obviously easier!!! perfect timing, thanks anon

my last completed manuscript is titled Do It Yourself! and is a reworking of that fic that i don't want to talk about. it's a YA (but maybe NA) contemporary romance. the MC is Eleanor, an Australian pianist who goes on exchange to a university in Philadelphia, PA for a semester. she discovers DIY punk, joins an all-girl punk band, falls in gooey love, and re-evaluates her future. i have loosely, without effort or hope, submitted it to some agents/publishers, but i don't know if it's right for publication in honesty. one of the problems is that the target demographic isn't concrete; it's a university story, probably more NA than YA, but to make it more concretely NA would require further rewrites and truthfully i can't be bothered with that right now. i also don't want to go through the rigmarole of self-publishing. so as it stands, it's available to read as a google doc link by request! i don't mind who reads it as long as i know who has it, as i don't really want it shared around in case i do decide to do something with it in the future.

my current project is an as-yet-untitled celebrity romance. this will definitely be an adult romcom. i'm collecting things connected to it in the tag "the celebrity book". as it stands right now, the MC is a butch tattoo artist who loathes celebrity/stan culture, and then a "local girl made good" Australian actress-turned-Hollywood It Girl moves into her apartment building while working on a film. loosely inspired by Notting Hill and everything that annoys me about that movie even though i love it to pieces and think it's the perfect romcom. i'm still in the planning stage, because i'm struggling a little bit with the story beats and actual plot. however, i'm really excited about it conceptually! will definitely be sharing vague bits and pieces about this as i work on it.

my life's dream is to write a vampire romance, but it terrifies me. how could anything i write capture what vampires mean to me? how could i write anything as good as the stories i love so much? maybe this is the year, idk. for the time being, i'll settle for reviewing things for my silly little blog :)

#asks #anonymous #my writing #<<< that's my writing tag if anyone wants to stalk #like actually though any questions about my original writing are welcome #it helps to motivate me to actually :) write :)

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quillandrapier · 1 year

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Putting my friends of button house au here so I get a kick in my butt to actually write the fanfics for it. Anything in blue might change:

Friends of Button House exists as a way to examine in a modern au who would these people be if they lived today rather than in the past, exploring through interactions between each other how they improve each others lives

Button House under the previous owner Heather existed as a place where the public can learn and use the house to learn about history, enjoy the beautiful grounds or come to events. There were re-enactments, weddings and more! Which unfortunately came to a stop after Heather's health declined really badly in her final years leading the house to decay.

The players:

Fanny (Last name not decided.) : Fanny is the founder of the Button House Historical Society. She was friends with her Late ex-husband's aunt Heather as Heather took pity on her when she first married George. Now divorced and her ex-husband dead, she reaches out to others to help save the historical home from becoming just another hotel and losing its rich history. Former maths teacher.

Pat Butcher: Local scouts leader and Button House Historical Society's Treasurer. Moved down south about 10 years ago when Daley was first born to get him into the best school area and due to being offered a job there. Heather let him use the grounds during summer for outdoor Scouts events. When he saw Fanny's post on Facebook he managed to drum up lots of support. Is a presenter on local pirate radio

The Captain: Ex-Miltary and the offical archivist. He first came to Button House while still working for the military while he was healing from an injury. He was tasked with documenting its years at war and the lives of the people who lived there. Now having had to leave the army he deiced to join the effort to save Button House. Still thinking of a name for him, probably would be Edward Higgins, Edward Darling or something like that. Sorry Richard truthers. Has never actually gone by his name in his life as he tends to get given a nickname day one and never shakes it. Now a pencil pusher at a local army base after being forced out of active duty.

Kitty: Social media Manger for Button House and looks after the offical blog. Kitty is a forensic student taking a year out to herself after realising how toxic her family is and moving away. First came to Button House as a child and fell in love with it due to it being one of the few places she was free to be herself and after making great friends with a sensitive young child glued to the libary. After the society found Alison and Mike, she was invited to live in the house with them as she got back on her feet during her gap year. Thinking the last name Fletcher thanks to @varietysky

Thomas Thorne: Is officially the Libarian, but this just means he sits around reading the books and reviewing (bashing) them on the blog. First came to Button House and deciding then and there he was going to be a poet one day. Helped in the campaign to save the house. Now having graduated with a masters in English literature and daddy's (stolen) money running dry, he is now trying to have his big break. Is trans and named himself after Thomas Chatterton. Also has started therapy to help get over Alison so he doesn't lose the only friends he has left.

Sir Humphrey Bone: Button House offical curator. Married Sophie at Button House in a grand ceremony. Despite that ending in divorce, Humphery liked the house enough to want to save it too. No one knows what he does for work or how he manged to get a knighthood. No one knows he's Robin's cousin. Trans too. Thomas is oblivious.

Robin Hale: All round caretaker of Button House. He seems to have a weirdly broad set of skills and was the grounds keeper when Heather died. Hangs out with the others because he likes them (aw.) Also fixes a bunch of the electrical stuff, and is a talented coder, that's how he makes his actual money. Both he and Humphery look eerlie like their grandfather Bob. They have an Aunt Edith too.

Mary: Button House Videographer. Orignally from a very a small villiage in Wales. Studied film studies at uni. Now runs the local farm shop and bakery with Annie. Joined after being asked to make a film to help drum up publicity in the area after they decided Pat used too many starwipes and windows movie maker wasn't going to cut it. May one day leave to make her dream film in another country. Maybe last name Jones or Owens

Julian Fawcett: Former MP of the contitsuency who publically donated to the society as a way to help his image before being caught up in an accident during sex. It got leaked to the press along with an abuse of expenses and other really shady stuff. Was forced to take the fall for the party despite becoming a rising star in the last few years. Now hangs around the society as no one else associates with him anymore and they take pity on how sad he's become.

Alison and Mike Cooper: Both now own Button House thanks to the Historical society finding Alison and proving her claim to the house. Now helping them build Button House back to its glory days. Mike is nearly always out the house for some reason so the other society members never see him.

Plaguers: Live on a self-sustaining commune on the edge of the property. Is only allowed to stay because of an agreement where they give Heather stuff like fresh bread and eggs in exchange for not getting the authorities involved. Are like Wizards with the old boiler though.

Want to make a fake historical society page for them and everything.

Story ideas:

Thomas: After ending therapy on bad terms, it's Bonfire night and Thomas is sprialing and spends the night about ready to explode.

Kitty: Tired of being always looked over, always ignored, never being respected, Kitty becomes the lead singer in the Button House band: Circus of Contrition.

Fanny: A look back on how the lonely Fanny started the society and fought for it to exist.

Mary: After helping setting up a small cafe in the house for visitors, Mary is kinda conflicted on leaving behind button house and living out her dream.

Alison: Alison reflects on Button House means to her after being interviewed for the local news.

The others I haven't got any concrete ideas at all but will think of, also happy to hear name suggestions.

#bbc ghosts

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lorz-ix · 8 months

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Moving my "media reviews" over to this blog

For a good few years now, it's been a tradition for me to share all sorts of movies, shows, games and other media that I go through over the year, giving my thoughts on them and all that, over on the other hellsite. For example, this was this year's thread.

I've decided, since twitter fucking sucks, and I can write things with less restrictions here, that I will be posting them here instead and simply sharing the links over there. And what better way to start things off than-

Thunderclash goes bananas (a Transformers fanzine, 2023)

I decided to share this one first, despite usually preferring to share the stuff that I read in chronological order, because it's still available in digital format and I'm not sure when that won't be the case anymore! It's only 5GBP, and all proceeds of digital purchases go to charity, so please consider picking it up if it sounds interesting.

This is a 60 page, one-off comic centering on some obscure transformers from the late years of the Generation 1 continuity, like the titular leader, Thunderclash. Co-authored by some of the fandom's finest, the story focuses on a community of gorillas on modern day Earth, where the main hero crash-landed and subsequently adopted a silverback disguise. There, they will have to wait for the Autobot rescue party and hope their enemies don't find them first.

It's a surprisingly charming tale with a couple of emotional moments, as emotional as they can be in a brief book like this one. As the introduction itself says: "This story is about a lot of things. It's about Robots in Disguise. It's about love, honesty an openness. It's about learning to let people make their own decisions, and not presupposing you know what they want. Oh, and it's about monkeys. Lots and lots of monkeys." Plus, anyone can read it and appreciate it regardless of your previous knowledge of the franchise.

Of course, it gets a wholehearted recommendation from me. It's 5 pounds for charity, you can't go wrong.

#lorz mediapost 2023 #transformers #fanzine

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thatseventiesbitch · 6 months

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Hi! I hope this isn’t too weird. I know you work with high school students, so you might be able to help. Do you have any tips to get motivated? I find myself struggling to do my assignments— even the easy ones that take less than an hour.

Thank you for helping if you see/answer this.

Hello! No problem. I am happy to put on my school counselor hat for a moment. 🤠

First, my dear - you need discipline, not motivation. And do not feel bad - you're not the only one who struggles with task initiation and/or procrastination. It's highly, highly common - even in adults. That's why building skills and habits that work for you now, as a high schooler, will serve you well.

A few tips/tricks I go over with my students:

If you have long-term projects or assignments, map out mini-deadlines for yourself along the way so it doesn't feel as overwhelming and you don't ever get into a situation where you have to like, write a 20 page paper in one afternoon (i.e. I'll write the introduction paragraph today, have the first two body paragraphs done by Tuesday, then add the conclusion on Thursday, then review the essay before I turn it in on Friday)

When you sit down to work on a task you don't like (i.e. math homework) give yourself a chunk of time - for instance, I will work on this for an hour and a half. When the hour and a half is up, I will [be finished for the day/take a brain break/move on to a different task]. Give it your all for the time you've dedicated to the task, and then when the timer is up, let yourself walk away even if it is not complete. You can come back and do more tomorrow. (The kicker is that a lot of the time you are so close to finishing anyway, that you just decide to wrap it up.)

Take brain breaks! Breaks between tasks. It's important to get up, physically move around, and to look away from the computer screen/notebook/textbook you've been so intensely concentrating on. Take care of your human needs. Do a little high energy dance party. Pet an animal. Get outside. Although sometimes my brain breaks end up being permission to scroll the internet/tumblr/reddit/tik-tok/what-have-you for ten minutes before I get back to the grind.

Do what you can to make study time/your study space feel welcoming/inviting/a place you want to be. For some kids, studying with a friend in a coffee shop all afternoon is what works. Some need to be alone, but like to have certain music/podcast playing or a certain snack they only get for themselves when they study. I've even had some kids tell me they like to scroll through, like, study blogs/study aesthetics to get them in the right mindset before they start.

If you don't already, use some sort of an assignment notebook or write out the list of assignments you have to complete. Put a checkbox next to each one, and cross it off when you complete it. Sounds silly/minor, but your brain gets a little shot of dopamine each time you do, and that feeling is exactly what will keep you going!

Additionally, I like to share this story from one of my favorite books of all time - Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott:

"Thirty years ago, my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird."

To this day, this is the phrase I tell myself when I feel overwhelmed and/or immobilized by the task in front of me - "Okay, let's take it bird by bird." Aka, just start. Aka, one thing at a damn time. Aka, the only way forward is forward.

#thanks for the ask!#Good luck #You've got this #Other #Personal-ish #ask #answered #anon

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ettawritesnstudies · 11 months

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Thank You

If you’ll permit me a minute to be cliche: this photo would not have been possible without you. When I started university in August 2019, the sum of all my author-y potential measured up to:

No finished manuscripts

A pipe dream of ever publishing my work

A scatterbrained outline of The Laoche Chronicles

Forty-four phone notes full of half-witted ideas

A grand total of 3 followers on my brand-new tumblr account

At the time, I had no grand plans of marketing my work, though I knew it would be necessary if I ever wanted an audience. I chose a degree in chemical engineering because I knew my baby platform and half finished stories weren’t going to cut it as a career in their current state as an 18-year-old, and I needed to have a day job if I wanted to pursue my end dream of self publishing. I was just hoping to survive my first year of engineering school, pass my weed-out classes, and hopefully make some new friends. That fall semester passed with sporadic progress on my book, and halfhearted attempts at breaking into the writeblr community, until I decided to try my hand at Inktober and made my first few acquaintances: @siarven and @abalonetea, who have both featured on this blog since then. It was also at this point, sometime during a Calculus III lecture, that I invented my pen name:

All was going well, and I was pleased with my incremental progress until the world ended.

The less said about the pandemic, the better. Writeblr truly kept me sane through working full-time jobs and taking 18 credit hours during the semester. When I was truly close to dropping out of school, I kept going, knowing I had these online friends to cheer me up after brutal exams and long nights of studying. The tag games and community filled the dearth of interaction left by quarantine and an insane schedule. During my summer internship in 2020, I finally had the time to finish the first draft of Storge and the confidence in myself to start a website. Rereading my first post is a surreal experience, in part because I still see myself as a little kid as hiding under the blankets with a flashlight, notebook, and pen, thinking “I wanna write a book!”

I woke up the next day crying to the sheer volume of kind messages congratulating me on meeting this milestone. Instead of feeling burnt out after reaching such a lofty goal, this gave me all the more energy to keep working. Since then, I’ve been so blessed to grow this community and this website. It’s incredible to see how far I’ve come, now being able to claim:

A finished manuscript of Storge

A 3rd draft of Runaways after going through 2 rounds of Beta Readers

8 short stories and an audio drama

An active mailing list

Over 1000 followers on tumblr, but more importantly, a thriving community of writers who support each other’s releases through ARCs, leaving reviews, enthusiastic questions, and a welcoming space for new writers to share their craft.

140 posts on my website and regular readers who care about my ramblings ❤

Now I’m on my way to my new job – I’ll be doing research and development in my chosen field with a team I really like, and the freedom to listen to books while I’m in the lab. This next month will still be a hiatus for blog posts and new writing as I pack up my life for a cross-states move, but I’m beyond excited to enter change. My hope is that I can start saving for editing costs and devote more time to my craft thanks to a 9-5 schedule and NO!!! HOMEWORK!!!!!!!!! Really, I cannot say enough how thrilled I am to never have to take another exam ever again, thank GOD. With a bit of luck and no small amount of grace, I hope I can publish and share my stories with you sooner rather than later.

Thank you for all the support and camaraderie these past years. In a way, I owe this diploma to you as much as to my classmates and professors. The night before graduation, I said to my friends, “I’ve been waiting for tomorrow for eight years.” Now I’m living in the future, and I can’t wait to write the next chapter.

#etta rambles #graduation

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wahlpaper · 10 months

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Thistlefoot Review

Thistlefoot by GennaRose NetherCott

CW: Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Death, Genocide, Self-harm, Suicidal Ideation, Swearing, Toxic Parental Relationship, Money Problems, Homelessness, Possession, Child Death, Drinking, Blackmail, Gore, PTSD, Self Loathing

5/5

I have found in my attempts at using dating apps that the media/entertainment recommendations of my matches tend to stick with me a lot longer than the people do. I say this to be funny, not for pity. Months ago I matched with a book-loving girl who gave me the perfect book rec. I told her about my blog being Queer and Jewish-based, and she immediately suggested Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott. It took a while for it to get to me on Libby, but it was absolutely worth the wait!

Thistlefoot is about two magical siblings, Isaac and Bellatine Yaga. They are left a living house from their great-great-grandmother, Baba Yaga. Isaac and Bellatine are young adults now and haven't seen each other in 6 years. They don't trust each other, but they're willing to work out what to do with the house. Isaac has some debts he wants to clear and Bellatine wants the freedom that comes with a house that can walk. So they decide to continue their family business of puppet shows for one year, adding a stage to the house. Unfortunately, the house wasn't the only thing Baba Yaga left them. The past is coming back through an old enemy who wants the house destroyed.

Folklore, the past, and the concept that the body remembers trauma are all very important to Thistlefoot. Nethercott did a lot of research on folklore while writing the book. She looked into her Russian roots and quite a lot of American stories. She incorporated as much as she could into the book and wrote her own in as well. Folklore also affected how the story was told. Most books in third person have a narrative to explain what's happening outside of dialogue, but it's rare for them to feel like a character. In Thistlefoot, you aren't just reading a story, you're being told one. Perhaps it's Nethercott inserting herself into the story. Throughout, you also get interjections from Thistlefoot, the house, as she tells you interesting, but misleading information about the past.

I absolutely loved the experience of reading Thistlefoot. I didn't really know what was going to happen as I went through, even down to the last page. Every bit of the present, past, and history unfolded when the time was right. The story centers on a group that doesn't want to care about each other, but can't help themselves. Isaac and Bellatine are joined by a musical trio that just wants to fix the world and a girl that Bellatine brings to life with her animation powers. Basically, everyone has something about themselves that they aren't sharing, and that absolutely includes the house. Some pieces are revealed more cinematically than others, but they all contribute to why this book is so popular.

Despite the fact that Baba Yaga is not traditionally Jewish, I think it was a smart move to make that her religion. Russia's history of pogroms and antisemitism plays an important role in the story. There are many happier aspects of Judaism incorporated as well, such as traditional names, the use of Yiddish, and a shofar. Alongside the Jewish representation is queer representation. Bellatine has a romance with another woman, Baba Yaga was happier as a widow than married, Isaac had complex feelings for his best friend, and Sparrow the musician is non-binary. More diversity than this is included in Thistlefoot, making the book that much more relatable.

Nethercott spins an epic tale and race against time in Thistlefoot. If you're looking for a cinematic book that you can feel like a part of, I highly recommend this one. Puppetry, folklore, and memory come together to tell a tale you won't forget!

#thistlefoot #gennarose nethercott #bookblogger #book blog #queer books #queer characters #jewish books #wlw #jewish authors #baba yaga #folklore #nonbinary rep #contemporary fantasy #magic powers #puppets #isaac and bellatine #happy pride 🌈

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msbarrows · 1 year

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Reading Recap 2022

Saw someone else do this and liked the idea enough to also do it.

To make things easier on myself, I limited myself to a) books I read for the first time this year, that b) I added to my library in 2022. Which means there’s a handful of books I added in prior years and only got around to reading this year that are not included. Also a lot of books that I added this year but had previously read (see: slowly replacing all my favourite paperbacks with ebooks), or even just re-read this year (which would make an image with many, many more covers than this one).

Anyway - some of these I got free from Tor giveaways, some I picked up in sales, some I bought after seeing them in a Tumblr post and thinking they sounded interesting, or were written by people whose fanfiction I liked, so might as well try some of their published (or self-published) stuff too.

So, books I’ve read this year that meet the above criteria, in no particular order:

The Grief of Stones, Katherine Addison - first saw a mention of her on a Tumblr post about good fantasy authors, where her book The Goblin Emperor was mentioned. Read it, loved it, have been reading her ever since.

The Golden Enclaves, Naomi Novak - started reading her as astolat, moved on to Naomi Novak things, of course I was going to read her published Scholomance series after enjoying her earlier fanfic Scolomance series (pretty much completely unrelated other than it being based around a dangerous magic school).

Nona The Ninth, Tamsyn Muir - Added Gideon The Ninth (from a Tor giveaway) and Harrow The Ninth (on a good sale) in previous years, only finally got around to reading them just before this one was due out. Enjoyed it muchly, looking forward to the next in the series.

All The Horses Of Ireland, Sarah Tolmie - saw a gushing review of it somwehere, decided to give it a try. Liked it.

Nettle & Bone and Illuminations, T. Kingfisher - started reading her after seeing a post on Tumblr about the release of A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking, have been reading her ever since. Both of these were excellent.

Into The Broken Lands, Tanya Huff - I’ve been reading her since picking up a copy of Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light at the end of the 80s, and was delighted a year or two later to learn one of my fave Canadian authors worked at my all-time-favourite book store in Toronto, Bakka (oh hi person I’ve bought my weekly stacks of books from for ages, now sitting behind a table doing a signing). I highly recommend her to anyone interested in good fantasy or some light SF, particularly if they’re interested in books that include queer characters written by a queer author.

Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree - kept hearing good things about this book, decided to make it one of my Christmas presents to myself for reading over the holidays. It was great.

The God Engines, John Scalzi - I keep hearing good things about his writing but hadn’t read anything by him yet. Saw this on sale and tried it. I think I need to try something else by him before I can decide if I like him enough to start working my way through his bibliography.

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, Xiran Jay Zhao - sounded interesting, another Christmas present to myself, something to enjoy while impatiently waiting for the next book in the Iron Widow series. It was pretty good.

Pegasus, Robin McKinley - Been wanting to read this for years (since back when she was writing about her writing progress on it on her blog well over a decade ago), and it finally dropped a few dollars in price, from “painfully expensive” to merely “new book expensive”, so I finally bought a copy. It was good, but considering how many years it’s already been out (12!) I was disappointed to hit the end and realize it’s meant to be the first in a series... which has clearly failed to materialize in the years since.

Strange And Stubborn Endurance, Foz Meadows - I don’t recall what brought this book to my attention, but I enjoyed it muchly, and am looking forward to additional books in the series (which apparently won’t be until next December). Should probably try some of their other books.

A Taste Of Iron And Gold, Some By Virtue Fall, and The Lights of Ystrac Wood, by Alexandra Rowland - that first is another where I don’t recall why it went on my wishlist, but I enjoyed it enough after getting around to buying it that I went and bought (and read) a couple more by the same author. All excellent.

Taji From Beyond The Rings, T. Cooper - I think I may have seen it mentioned on a list of queer romances? I forget. It ended up on my wishlist somehow, and when I was picking out things to read over the holidays it’s blurb sounded interesting enough to give it a shot. Liked it, and have since also picked up (but not yet read) the four books in their Familiar Spirits series.

Fete For A King, Infinite Jes, and The Lady And The Tiger, by Sam Starbuck - started reading his stuff as copperbadge, have picked up some of his self-published things this year, really enjoying the Shivadh romances (I’ve already re-read them all twice and will probably re-read them a third time when he posts the next in the series next year). Need to get around to reading the non-Shivadh ebooks I also purchased.

A Swift Kick To The Thorax, by Mara Lynn Johnstone - saw the cover, read the blurb about it being a human veterinarian dealing with aliens with an earth animal problem - thought that the sound of it put me in mind of the Piers Anthony’s Prostho Plus collection of short stories, about a human dentist dealing with alien tooth problems. It was exactly that silly. Very space opera. And also very good. Good enough that I’ve bought (but not yet read) another book by her.

#Reading #Reading Recs #Reading Recap 2022

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mackerelphones · 1 year

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YU-NO, the Classic PC-98 Incest Porn That Defined a Generation, Is Worse Than You Think

Some months ago, over on my website, I wrote a review of the hilariously acclaimed time travel-ish PC-98 porn game YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World. People trip over themselves to worship this thing. Hey, I have room on this Tumblr blog and should not stop promoting writing just 'cause it's not brand new, so here is the opening of my YU-NO review. If you want even more dirty details, please just click the link down near the bottom of the post and read the whole thing (or click here). It is practically a short book.

In 1996, Elf published the original PC-98 release of YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World, written by Kanno Hiroyuki, revolutionizing “visual novels.” Through its impressive scale and long playtime, YU-NO set expectations of scope and narrative complexity later titles would emulate, or so many sources allege. Mages published an HD remake of YU-NO in 2017, releasing it in English in 2019. This review, however, regards the extraordinary 2011 fan translation by TLWiki, though it is not a review of the translation itself (aside from one decision regarding the graphics). Not “merely” a translation of a lengthy script, the patch transforms the lackluster 2000 Windows port into a version of YU-NO perhaps more definitive than any other, including the full voice acting from and scenes then exclusive to the Sega Saturn release, the uncensored graphics and script of the PC-98 original, and high-quality versions of Umemoto Ryu’s enchanting FM soundtrack. Please take nothing I say to belittle TLWiki’s outstanding effort, one which seems to have vanished from the internet with the emergence of the Mages remake and its graphics bland as stock photography.

Some writeups of YU-NO shower the multiple-award-winning title with cringing adoration as a moving masterpiece and one of the finest video games ever created. I sometimes wonder if I came from an alternate universe, much like happens in YU-NO, where the version of YU-NO I played is a different beast than the one, in an embarrassing Hardcore Gaming 101 article, Audun Sorlie touts as “a true masterpiece” that “remains just as revolutionary as it did in 1996” “not soon to be forgotten or surpassed.” However, the evidence of other people’s gameplay footage, as well as the principle of uniformitarianism, assure me I played the same video game.

I prefer to avoid writing material as negative as what follows. However, on my Mackerel Phones YouTube channel, I have often referenced YU-NO, as in the Time Zone video whose ideas appeared in my head while recovering from YU-NO. So it would be valuable to explain these references. My let’s play of YU-NO and my largely comedic 2020 video “Who’s Afraid of Yu-no?” are no longer online. Their legacy is a community guidelines strike on my channel and me opting to delete several unrelated quality videos for fear of them possibly violating YouTube’s capricious content policies. The loss of this material has spurred me to return to YU-NO for this third and, I pray, final time in this review and the analytical essay I have also posted to mackerelphones.com. So, on my own website where only I can decide how much nudity is acceptable, I decided to speak my piece on YU-NO more at length than in “Who’s Afraid of Yu-no?” I have expended considerable time on this review and with the essay, so please share it with anyone you think may find it interesting.

To begin, I will address what almost no other YU-NO writeup or review (!) mentions. Here is some ad copy used for the 2017 remake from a post on noisypixel.net: “YU-NO tells the story of a love that awaits from beyond this world.” That love is a mysterious naked woman who appears in the Prologue, and Takuya’s true love and true, final sexual partner in the true ending. And she is his biological daughter.

Most of YU-NO serves as a setup for the final section, what I will call the Epilogue, a half-pedophiliac parent–child incest romance story. “A love that awaits you from beyond this world”—is whoever wrote that trolling? Prior to that point, YU-NO was sometimes pretty and, despite gratuitous rape, casual sexism, poor game design, and other problems hardly shocking for some porn adventure game from the ’90s, largely engaging. But the incestuous finale transforms YU-NO from an unfortunate product of its time into the worst trash I ever made the mistake of playing. When I seem to say anything positive about YU-NO later on, please keep in mind this caveat.

The above screenshot is our hero Takuya making out with his daughter in the Prologue.

“Papa… You’re getting stiff…” Our hero, everybody! (Granted, in this particular scene, he is apparently not actually getting stiff. It is only in the next scene his daughter is trying to get into his pants.)

As the credits rolled and I processed these tens of hours of my life, I felt the unhinged Epilogue had come out of nowhere. Sometimes people describe a story as “firing on all cylinders.” YU-NO’s ending fizzles out and dies on all cylinders, casting a pall over what came before. For endings never emerge from nothing. The Prologue opens with player character Arima Takuya remembering his own father considering him a sexual rival for his mother in his infancy (!) and concludes with Takuya making out with his daughter from the future (!). The player then embarks on a quest whose goal turns out to be having sex with their daughter whom the player raises from infancy in-game to really hammer home that, yes, this is your kid and you should really want to bone your kid. See this actual baby, your actual baby? the script seems to say—you better dream of pounding her pussy.

“Just look at these puffy cheeks. There just has to be something stuffed inside of there.” Her cheeks are quite clearly not puffy.

This epic-scale tale hailed as enthralling and beautiful ends with Takuya choosing to abandon the community, friends, and family the player has spent tens of hours getting invested in to instead spend the rest of his life alone at the beginning of time having sex with his vapid shrill-voiced mommy-child-wife with a child’s brain in an adult’s body who just so, so wants to sniff and fuck her dad. Her name? Yu-no.

YU-NO, then, may as well be entitled Fuck Your Daughter Quest. This is the ending, the point of YU-NO set out in the very title. That elf child on the cover is supposed to turn you on. Player self-insert Takuya says over an image of full-frontal child nudity, “she started becoming well-fleshed in all the pivotal positions, making me unsure of where to rest my eyes. Even if it’s your own daughter, it’s still a naked girl running around in front of you. It’s hard to just shut down your instincts.”

The above is the one screenshot I censor in the post on my website. Every person who preaches about how great YU-NO is or dares defend Takuya has to answer for this shit.

I hope this isn’t what the reviewer on noisypixel.com meant when the praising the sugary-sweet raise-and-fuck-your-daughter ending route for “having a reasonably shocking twist” (I can think of only one other twist, the Ayumi spit-take I describe in the section of my review titled “The Worst Ending of All Time”). Retroactively, characters asking Takuya what his plans for the future might be or even showing him trust send a chill down one’s spine. When, in the Prologue, his stepmother Ayumi tells Takuya that her wish is “for [him] to walk wholeheartedly on the path [he chooses,]” this path is abandoning the rest of humanity to become his own daughter’s sexual partner. I am tempted to say a human writer, but out of respect for Kanno, I will say a good writer would craft this scenario as a visceral condemnation of Takuya. But, with sappy romantic music and sappier writing, YU-NO depicts this relationship as aspirational. This must be that “revolutionary” quality Sorlie refers to. I can’t think of anything else quite like it!

That Sorlie glosses over the story being about how incestuous love saves the universe as YU-NO being “cerebral in the ways it challenges morals and logic” is laughable. Let us read some of that “cerebral” dialogue challenging conventional morality:

YU-NO: “Why can’t parent and child make love to each other?”

TAKUYA: “T-that’s, well… hmm, I wonder why.”

Takuya concludes that because there are no laws against it in the parallel world he is in, parent–child incest is acceptable. Really makes you think. Dostoevsky got nothing on this ponderous philosophizing. Move over, Bataille—my notions of morality can never recover from such a thoroughgoing attack. /s

***

Here ends this preview of the full post. A sample of some of the sweet, sweet sentences further in my review:

The Epilogue of YU-NO warrants special treatment. Sorlie calls it “one of the most exhilarating and incredible experiences you will ever have while playing a video game”—a scathing indictment of video games. I admit I was not so exhilarated with Takuya’s pet-like wife Sayless who looks identical to his mom or Takuya perving over his kid when she is twelve (!) or Takuya taking the side of the theocratic dictatorship that enslaves him and kills his wife or Takuya failing to save the day while other actually interesting characters (plus Yu-no) suffer and die to stop Ryuuzouji’s evil plot to destroy the universe. I guess that shows I am one of those “sensitive gamers” whom Sorlie cautions might be weirded out by the cerebral power of the badly plotted incest porn isekai. (To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand YU-NO…)

This is just the beginning of my long and girthy YU-NO review in which I break down my all-time least favorite video game like I am piranha solution. There is MUCH more to it, and it is really funny imo, so please check it out over on my website (though maybe not if you’re in a place where seeing some nudity would be inappropriate). And please reblog this if you think your followers could use a good splash of water to the face. Or might find it interesting, whichever.

#yu-no #yu-no: kono yo no hate de koi o utau shoujo #pc-98 #visual novel #video game #yu-no is bad #anime bullshit

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canpokemonwritebooks · 1 year

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About This Blog

In an episode of The Adventure Zone, the McElroy brothers claimed that Pokémon cannot write books then decided a few, such as Mr. Mime and Mewtwo, would be able to write books. So, on this blog I will determine whether or not Pokémon can write books using a random Pokémon generator and a 100 point scale.

If and when I cover every Pokémon, either total or by a category, we will know if Pokémon can write books.

The 100 point scale assigns points based on the following questions:

Is this Pokémon physically capable of writing?

Does this Pokémon know what a book is?

Can this Pokémon read?

Would this Pokémon have access to the materials needed to write a book?

Does this Pokémon have enough basic education to write well?

Would this Pokémon be good at writing?

Does this Pokémon have anything to write about?

Would this Pokémon be able to get their writing into a book?

Would this Pokémon want to write a book?

Does this Pokémon have any other redeeming qualities?

Additional notes

This is not a serious blog. It is a joke treated seriously.

This blog is not a roleplay/ pokeirl blog. More below.

The only posts on this blog will be the usual “can Pokémon write” posts, posts related to both Pokémon and books, and responses to asks. No reblogs from other accounts.

My main blog is @entity9silvergen. I sometimes post about Pokémon on there but I go through phases.

Pokémon are referred to with it/ its pronouns (usually) because this is how they are referred to canonically. I personally refer to them with gendered pronouns but I wanted consistency here.

Determining whether a Pokémon can or cannot write is not reflective of my own feelings about that Pokémon. I will often leave a note in the tags if I particularly like a Pokémon or if a popular Pokémon has scored poorly to clarify this.

Dunsparce points are given to Pokémon who score low but are loved enough that they deserve to write books.

Many Pokémon are very similar so the posts about them will be very similar. I will try to vary them but there’s only so much I can do.

A 50-70 on the writing scale is a pretty solid gray area and will usually be determined based on whether or not the Pokémon has hands or I will say the Pokémon can write but not well.

A 70 or higher usually means the Pokémon can write but not always.

Here is a link to this blog as a separate website.

Asks, Requests, and Challenges:

You are welcome to challenge any decision or make suggestions. I prefer you make suggestions for posts via ask and any challenges by reblog. You are welcome to include your own image if you don’t like the ones I use. Other asks are welcome as long as it’s sort of on topic or related to a post.

Please only leave one Pokémon per ask. You are welcome to leave multiple asks.

Suggestions made by ask will be moved to the top of the queue. If multiple suggestions are made at once, whichever came first will be queued first.

Revisions are not prioritized so it may be some time before I update a Pokémon’s score. I will respond to the ask though. I think the discussion around the score is more significant than the discussion itself.

If a Pokémon’s score is contested purely on the fact that the Pokémon is liked, I may give it some Dunsparce points.

You can request any canonical Pokémon.

This includes any Pokémon from the Pokédex, Pokémon from the latest generation, a specific trainer’s Pokémon from the games, a popular Pokémon character from the anime, a Mega Evolution, a and regional variant.

This excludes OCs and fan-made Pokémon. If I ever run out, I may review the Fakémon from smogon’s Create-A-Pokemon project and/ or Pokémon from popular fan games such as Uranium, Sweet, or Insurgence.

You are welcome to roleplay in asks, such as reference your trainer OC’s Pokémon or roleplay as a canon character. I will respond going along with the roleplay but I myself am not roleplaying a character. Claiming that your own Pokémon is able to do something will not affect scores though, especially for challenges/ revisions.

Asks can be requests but they can also be anything related to Pokémon, writing, or books. I respond to asks about me or my thoughts on Pokémon on my main blog but perfectly okay to do so here.

Pokemon Analyzed:

Gen 1:

Charmeleon

Meowth (request)

Paras

Gengar (request)

Lapras (request)

Eevee (request)

Vaporeon (request)

Jolteon (request)

Flareon (request)

Porygon (request)

Mewtwo (request)

Gen 2:

Furret (request)

Spinarak (request w/art)

Togepi

Espeon (request)

Umbreon (request)

Wobbuffet

Dunsparce (contested)

Donphan

Porygon2 (request)

Stantler

Smeargle (request)

Tyranitar

Gen 3:

Sceptile (request)

Cascoon

Gardevoir

Breloom (request)

Ninjask

Altaria

Banette (request)

Relicanth

Luvdisc (request)

Gen 4:

Garchomp (request)

Riolu (request)

Skorupi (request)

Leafeon (request)

Glaceon (request)

Porygon-Z (request)

Arceus (request)

Gen 5:

Munna

Audino (request)

Leavanny (request)

Scolipede (request)

Whimsicott (request)

Darumaka

Trubbish (request)

Cofagrigus (request)

Gothorita (request)

Joltik (request)

Yamask (request)

Chandelure (request)

Hydreigon (revisions)

Gen 6:

Froakie

Sylveon (request)

Goodra (request)

Phantump (request)

Diancie (request)

Gen 7:

Komala

Pheromosa (request)

Celesteela (request)

Poipole (request)

Gen 8:

Rillaboom (request)

Raboot (request)

Sobble (request)

Drizzile (request)

Inteleon (request)

Gen 9:

Meowscarda (request)

Tinkaton (request)

Bombirdier

Sandy Shocks

Iron Valiant (request)

Regional Variants

Specials/ Collections

Eeveelution Special

Utria Library Masterpost

Can the author write books?

#pokemon #taz

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