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trollprincess · 1 year

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So my hometown is building a community center, and some people are livid there’s going to be an LGBTQ+ presence. Since I’m not sure I trust my hometown newspaper to publish the letter to the editor I just wrote, I’m going to post it here with some names and whatnot redacted.

*

Dear Editor,

I am writing this letter in regards to the proposed community center, and the response which appeared in your newspaper.

My name is Jennifer. Many of you know me well. You went to school with me, you’ve worked with me, you know my parents or my brother. You know me as the bookworm who learned to cross the street just to get to the library, the bundled-up woman walking her barky beagle mix down Main Street, the friendly girl with the colorful hair who tries to smile at everyone she meets.

I grew up here. I remember buying penny candy and comic books in a store which burned down years ago, picking up groceries for my grandmother in another store which is now just a public eyesore, and writing my self-published novel in a cafe which changes hands only to fail every oher year. I have spent the vast majority of my life living in [this town].

I’m also bisexual.

The proper term may be more like pansexual. As described by a character on a certain sitcom, “I like the wine and not the label.” It’s the person I love, not the body parts. And in part, that might make me demisexual as well, meaning that I am only attracted to people after I get to know them well.

That last paragraph might be confusing to some of you. It’s not hard. I don’t like everybody, but I keep my options open. Better?

I questioned for years whether or not I was bisexual or pansexual or straight, but I was never - not once in my entire life - afraid that if I told my parents I was not straight they would hate me or reject me. I’ve got great parents. My mom and dad love me more than any words I could summon up can describe. And what’s upsetting for me right now is how many people in this town I thought felt the same about me, or about their own children, don’t.

I don’t remember when the people here became so cruel. Am I just seeing the past through rose-colored glasses? Probably. I don’t think I remember anyone here being so cruel and filled with hate, and then I recall my high school years in the 90s, when “gay” was the worst slur you could call someone. I don’t want to think that people I’ve known since I was in kindergarten have been bigoted all this time, but then a memory will slip through of some racist comment or grumbled slur someone I thought was a nice person I could trust said.

Now, sometimes, I’m afraid in my own hometown.

I shouldn’t have to be. No one should have to be. Hence, the community center.

Putting aside the LGBTQ+ community, this town needs somewhere where kids and teens can go. I grew up here and every time we came close to having somewhere to go, it would be snatched away in a heartbeat, only for the adults to wonder why teens were out kicking out the slats in the gazebo or burning the playground equipment. Go outside and play! Just don’t hang out here, or there, and definitely not downtown, and nowhere around people. And God forbid, not in groups.

A community center is something this town has desperately needed for decades. Decades. A place where we can go in the rain, where kids can go to hang out safely with our friends, and where we can learn about each other’s differences.

I’m sick of the cruelty I’ve seen in this town - from older folks, from people with inflammatory bumper stickers on their car, even from members of the town council. I’m sick of that cruelty not being called out by others around them because those people “grew up in a different time” or “are my friends, I can’t tell them not to say that.” I’m sick of living in fear of the cruelty of my own neighbors. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Why is it important that LGBTQ+ people be included in the community center? For the same reason non-Christians should be included, and people of color, and others who are different. Because some of you are so ill-informed you think gay people are recruiting (we’re really not, although we appreciate you think we can agree on a grocery list, much less an agenda), that we’re grooming children to molest them (oh, if anything cut down the possibility kids in this town would get molested, it was tearing down most of the churches), and that transgender people are going to go around forcing people to be a different gender and cutting off people’s genitals (please stop thinking about other people’s genitals, it’s rude and gross).

Talk to us. Listen to us. We’re actually pretty nice. And not just us, but other people who have different life experiences than you. That’s the whole point of a community center - to learn, and to grow, and to become a better person by correcting the harmful beliefs you carry with you.

I’m going to close my letter with a quote from Waymond Wang, a character from “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” He said, "The only thing I do know is that we have to be kind. Please, be kind. Especially when we don't know what's going on.”

Thank you.

[Yours truly, fuckos.]

#lgbtqia #lgbtqia+

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lifeofamarauder · 1 year

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The Dark Prince 1

Mattheo Riddle x Odette

Part 1 <3 (it gets more spicy as we go but you first need to SUFFER)

Word count- 1,313 words

I wrote this not from Y/n perspective but let me know if you want me to post that version as well if you prefer it! I tried not to use too many descriptors for Odette, other than her house and family names.

.

Intro: I had a few quiet first years at Hogwarts. I explored the castle, read books in the library, and even brought a black cat to join me my in fourth year. It was all so quiet and nice. Until he came along.

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I'm officially fifteen.

I'm officially fifteen and I have planned absolutely nothing for today. If my mum were here she would be scolding me about not having planned some grand party in the astronomy tower or at the very least invited my friends to Hogsmeade then getting drunk off of butterbeer and pumpkin ale. I couldn't tell her how impossible this was seeing as the only person who knew and cared about my birthday was Luna, a fourth year who would join me and jinx (my adorable kitten I brought with me last year) reading together or playing wizards chess. I also could never tell her how horrible I was at wizards chess and that miss Luna Lovegood beat me every time. I value my life too much for that, though I don't mind either of these things myself. But I am truly the antithesis of her.

My mother is a kind woman, as long as you are one of her party guests or my older brother, Silas. Two years older than me and more perfect than any other Ravenclaw Purebred around, Silas may as well be a Prince according to my mother. He even became Prefect this year. We're all so very thrilled (or so I'm told).

But today, I get to do whatever I want, and I don't need to tell anyone else about it. Today is the one day of the year I can be completely selfish and introverted. I only take this one day to myself, as my mother and my brother take control of my other 364.

I pet Jinx and move her off my chest before I set out some toys for her to entertain herself while I'm gone. Even though I know she will just end up sitting at the window watching ravens fly by the tower, I want to make sure she has anything she might need. I've never met a more spoiled cat and honestly? She deserves it.

I manage to make it all the way to the library without running in to Silas or his Quidditch buddies who would immediately notify him about my whereabouts. I'll count that as my first birthday gift of the day. I'm all prepared to sit in my favorite nook debating for around 30 minutes over which book to read first (I brought 3 just in case) when I notice someone in my spot.

Now, I didn't pick this spot my first year for its comfortable sitting or bright lighting, I picked it solely for it's purpose that it would be the very last place someone else would try to sit.

If this were any other day, I would walk away and decide to read in the astronomy tower or the empty corridor by the DADA classroom, which will most certainly be empty on a Saturday, but today is MY day. So I suck it up and decide to ask him to kindly leave him. I stand there awkwardly looking at his back and impulsively choose to poke him to get his attention.

His dark eyes immediately look up and I take a moment to fully look at his face now. He has a scar forming on his nose and another on his cheek that looks like it's been there a few years now. My breath catches when we make eye contact and I'm struck by how dark and deep his eyes are as they bore into mine.

I realize I'd been standing there staring at him for longer than I should, and shake my head a little to clear my thoughts before I force myself to continue.

"Can you move?"

Smooth.

He just keeps staring at me, his dark curls falling in his face, so I gather what's left of my courage and force out another sentence, slightly stronger this time.

"I need this seat. Can you please move to somewhere else?"

He, again, doesn't say anything, but this time his eyes darken slightly and he has the faintest hint of a smile.

I force myself not to smile back but unfortunately I cannot hide the blush escaping. I open my mouth to elaborate once more when he finally says something.

"What's your name Princess?"

I'm taken aback by the unexpected pet name. Princess? I just met this guys and he thinks its ok to call me Princess? He just keeps sitting in my seat, not acknowledging my request and SMIRKING at me. My desire to smile at him is gone, now taken over by annoyance. Who does he think he is?

"Apologies your highness, you must not have heard me. Honestly." I roll my eyes to give full effect of my annoyance. "I just want-"

"I mean I'm more than happy to keep calling you 'Princess', Princess, I just thought your name might be more favorable to you." he interrupts me while turning back to his book. And wouldn't you know, he's STILL smirking. I'm starting to lose it.

"You most certainly may not keep calling me Princess, my name is Odette and it's my birthday and all I want for this one day is to read in my spot where no one will bother me and maybe if I'm feeling adventurous I'll steal some hot chocolate up to my room and read THERE until I fall asleep and have to wake up and then once again do everything else for everyone else until I can't take it anymore!!!"

I realized my voice was rising and I had begun gesturing quite frantically but I kept eye contact with him. A small win. His smirk was still there, but this time his mouth was more agape and he looked like he was slightly shocked by my sudden outburst. And maybe impressed? I can't tell. I'm too shocked myself at my outburst that I can barely register anything else. I take deep breaths and try to calm my heart.

He slowly closes his book and stands up. I hide my head in embarrassment until I see his feet come almost in contact with mine as he backs me up into the bookshelf. My eyes shoot up and lock instantly with his which does nothing to calm my heart. I swear his face gets closer and I can feel his breath tickling my face but I'm unable to look away. He pulls in close to my ear and whispers, "My name's Mattheo but by all means, please keep calling me 'your highness'."

He pulls back only slightly to look at me, my face flaming by this point. The corners of his mouth lift up once more and he looks down to where I'm clutching my books in my hands. His hand reaches out and I think maybe he's coming in closer and I instinctively flutter my eyes closed. Instead, I feel one of the three books I'd long forgotten being pulled out of my hands. Mattheo steps slightly away from me, making the space he left suddenly feel cold.

He inspects the cover and looks back up at me before simply saying, "This is one of my favorites." He sets the book down on our table and he starts to walk off. I shake my head once more trying to clear it of whatever just happened.

"Happy birthday, Princess!" he calls over his shoulder.

I begin to call after him, feigning annoyance, to say that is not my name once more but he's already vanished.

I look back to the spot I just won back expecting to feel more victorious, though it suddenly looks much less enticing then it did minutes ago.

I sit down across from the book he laid on the table and attempt to pick through the two that he didn't touch but I tell myself I'm only curious as I pick through the one he claimed was his favorite.

I become fully immersed in the story and fail to notice the jealous eyes that had been peaking out at me from behind the shelves.

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bellshazes · 10 months

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my first two jobs ever, in order, were "board game teacher" and "university library assistant," so tho I've never formally studied games (I have been dropping out of college on and off since 2015, and was a freshman in 2012 lmao) I've been casually exposed to games and the people who make and play them in a professional context, as well as having the research skills to help close the gaps. i actually kind of hate playing board games but i loved GM-ing the coop arkham horror and watching my players, which i did for seven years straight.

my current fixation is the result of several years' fucking around on YT watching all kinds of game content, from LPs to specific game dissection to video essayists. jacob geller and folding ideas are kind of gold standards, but this week I've been really enjoying errant signals in particular. Sometimes I'm introduced to concepts this way - ludonarrative dissonance, ergodic literature, the magic circle, etc. that, and getting recommendations from friends or accidentally stumbling into game studies via other research (such as the paper i wrote a few years ago on theater-as-games in prison contexts). most of it though is having thoughts and opinions on things and letting it percolate until i am dangerous enough to find someone who's already explained a concept better than I could, and then running with that. find something that cites its sources, and then chase the ones that seem interesting.

my syllabus post is very much not a reclist, though i do in varying ways recommend everything on that list and it might be of use. here's some stuff I think would be great starting points:

Rules of Play - Game Design Fundamentals, Salen and Zimmerman. This book is an excellent resource, as it introduces a wide variety of scholars who you can dive into as it is relevant to your interests as well as providing tons of useful frameworks and vocabulary to go hunting. It's an easy read with concise bullet-point summaries after each chapter, and the PDF is hyperlinked for easy navigation. I might have found this via Wikipedia, honestly.

A Play of Bodies: A Phenomenology of Video Game Experience, Keogh. What I'm currently liveblogging - it is firmly a literary/philosophical work, rather than by/for designers, and correspondingly it's a little more difficult without at least passing familiarity with cyborg theory or any brand or offshoot of post-modernism, but still fairly digestible and a great read so far.

My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft, Nardi. Found this during my theater-and-games paper, and MMO anthropology is not really my thing, but it's a nice complement to the other books as an explicitly player-theorist perspective. Also provides a more approachable introduction to a variety of theorists and sources. (Open access on JSTOR!)

Draw Your Weapons, Sarah Sentilles. I'm biased because I discovered this book by accidentally attending an author event at my local museum, and the games portion is incidental, but if you can find it I think this analysis of the relationship between depictions of violence and violence itself is worth your time. Memorable re: games for its discussion of Press F To Pay Respects.

here are some videos which I offer as examples of channels you might enjoy diving into, looking for additional jumping-off points:

Playing as Anyone in Watch Dogs Legion, Errant Signal. I really appreciate Errant Signal's thoughtful, personal approach to analysis and especially his highlighting of buried gems in his Blips series as well as his non-self-deprecating reevaluation of some of his older analyses over his decade plus career making videos.

Controllers Control Everything, Game Makers Toolkit. Discovered via the Boss Keys series highlighting the souls games, and although I think his channel is (increasingly) geared toward devs, these are well-constructed, thoughtful videos about many aspects of game design. Even when I don't personally get what makes him enjoy Zelda dungeons in that specific way (I'm an outlier), I appreciate his analysis.

Mega Microvideos 2, Matthewmatosis. Perhaps better known for his extremely long-form essays, I love Matthewmatosis' series of microessays framed like Wario Ware minigames. They are brief but don't pull punches, and the format is uniquely delightful. (See also this microessay mixtape.)

Making Sense of Catherine Full Body, SuperButterBuns. She doesn't do much essay content, I guess, but I she loves Catherine and the Persona series, and this dissection of Catherine Full Body is an absolute treat.

Jon Bois. Okay, mostly not about games, but like - come on. 17776 and Breaking Madden, alongside everything else he's ever done, fit because I feel like they do. If nothing else, I think Pretty Good and his general use of Google Earth as a medium for storytelling have a lot of utility in talking about digital media. He's good for the soul.

The Future of Writing About Games, Jacob Geller. One of the gold standards for a reason - and especially if you're looking for further solid recommendations for other writing/creating about games. This video in particular discusses & links to some really great pieces, but his Big List of Other People's Video Essays is also a great way to spend the next month of your life. (You might notice some crossover between this list and his, only some of which is coincidental.)

if i have any conclusion, it's that my current fixation on digital literalism is me finally finding an outlet/academic match-up with a fascination i developed in 2015 when studying gonzo lit. i think the utility of academia and the long history of scholarship on a given topic, as a non-academic, is to help you express ideas or reinterpret beliefs or experiences you've had to others without having to reinvent the wheel. i always become most energized when i stop worrying about knowing all the bg and chase whatever is useful and affirming or enlightening to me. and you can get pretty far if you think about why you like what you do, and just - enthusiastically also consume non-academic stuff. maybe this is a note more for myself! but thank you for the opportunity to monologue.

#peter answers #metanarratives #rules of play #masterpost #i almost talked abt some Classics like huizinga & juul & piaget etc. but frankly. if you decide you want to read those you'll find citation #when someone inevitably (& frequently) references them & you can chase them if you like. i've read piaget it's not relevant MOST of the tim #and. man i do love monologuing but also!!! i think i could stand to be more plan language - i want to.#learning always happens in dialogue for me. even if it's ask-and-answer. so i'm always v grateful when people indulge me.#ANYWYA sorry i posted this and immediately privated it bc i meant to draft it during work yesterday.#long post

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polaroidcats · 2 months

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I assume that you have emotional attachments to objects (because of the print you love) and so have a favourite book which you know you will never read again but can’t throw out (and what is it if I’m right?) ❤️❤️

Hi Rory!!! 💖

oh wow everyone is nailing it with these, you are so, so correct!!!!

My inability to get rid of things I have emotional attachments to definitely applies to books, here is an incomplete list of books I will likely never even read or reread but also will never be able to give away:

My Gregor the Overlander books!! I knew Suzanne Collins mostly from these books and when Hunger Games came out/became popular I tried to tell all my friends about this series because I loved it so much when I was 10-12 years old!! And my first internet name was "Boots" because of the younger sister in that book, I loved her so much. And I don't see myself rereading them anytime soon but I have so many fond memories of absolutely devouring and rererererereading them as a preteen so they will stay forever!

"Die Geschwister Apraksin" by Karla Schneider, this was also one of my fave books when I was around 12-13, I don't remember much, except that it was about 5 orphaned siblings during or after the Russian revolution, and it absolutely broke my heart and I cried more than I had ever cried before when reading a book. I don't even think it was a particularly sad book, I think it just made me very emotional for some reason, to imagine these kids' lives and their struggles. And I read it as part of my local bookstore's initiative where they let kids borrow and read the advanced reader copies of books, and then we wrote little reviews that would get posted on a pinboard at the store. So when I had to give the book back (in order to borrow a new book, it was like a little library system within the bookstore), I immediately asked the bookseller if they had the book in stock because I wanted to buy it with my pocket money, but they only had the paperback and (again) I had gotten so attached to the hardback one and the bookseller could tell how much the book meant to me so she just gifted me the copy I had just returned, the one I read, and that meant so much to me, to get to keep the physical copy that I actually read and not have to buy a new version.

Herzen, Hände und Stimmen by Ian McDonald - I have never read this book, idek what it's about but from the book cover I assume it's scifi. I did an exchange semester in France as a teenager, and my host family didn't speak any german but somehow they got this random (thrifted) german book and they gave it to me bc I speak german. And I've never been that much into scifi but the gesture was so sweet and I have so many nice memories of my time with them, so even though I will probably never read that book I will also never give it away.

A complete translation from Vergils Aeneid with the latin and german text side by side. I did Latin in school, and for our final exams we all had to pick one specialized subject we would have an oral exam on, and my specialized subject in Latin class was the 6th book of the Aeneid, so even though I barely remember any Latin and will definitely not reread that for fun, I enjoyed it back in the day and will never get rid of that book.

I have a book on erotic dream interpretation, idk if that fully counts into this category, but my friend and I saw it when my uni library (!!) had a thrift sale of their old books, and that book was so hilarious, I had to get it and then for a while whenever I had people come over to my flat to pregame I would ask them about their dreams and would then very professionally interpret them with my book. This one might not fully count bc I'm not ruling out that I will never do that again but I haven't looked at it in a long time but would never get rid of it because it's too iconic haha

Okay this got way too long so I'm stopping now, but yeah hahaha you were so correct with this one 😂

make an assumption about me!

#ask game #rory tag #thank you for for sending this haha sorry it got so long!!<3

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butcherlarry · 5 months

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I was tagged by @burins in a people I want to get to know tag meme! Thanks for the tag!

Last Song: I was actually listening to this in the car as I was coming home from work today, Sexkiller on the Loose by Carpenter Brut. I really like this whole album, Trilogy , and listen to it all the time when I'm traveling. It's nice thinkin' music for me, but I have to be careful because it's very easy to speed when listening to the upbeat songs.

The last podcast I listened to was the most recent Behind the Bastards episode, discussing Michael Lewis and the terrible book he wrote about Sam Bankman-Fried. I also completed a re-listen of BtB's six part series on what a bastard Henry Kissinger was, in honor of his death.

The last book I read was Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis. I might have stayed up until 12:30 am finishing it, and was VERY TIRED when I went birding the next day. Reading this book finally pushed me to get a library card so I can read the next book, Truth of the Divine. I've been holding out on getting a library card for the last couple years because my life has been so hectic with multiple moves. I've finally settled down enough where I can get a library card, and this book was the push I needed to finally do it.

My favorite color: purple! I just really love that color. If you look in my closet, you'll see a lot of purple clothes :)

Currently Watching: What everyone else on the Internet is watching, Hbomerguy's Plagiarism video essay. I couldn't watch it all yesterday and have one more hour to go!

Last Movie: Barbie! I watched it with my two best friends over a discord chat. One of them hadn't been able to see it yet, so we watched it together. It was also lovely to catch up :)

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: Hmmmmmm. I'm a sucker for sweet things, but sometimes that gets to be a little too much for me. So sweet and savory or sweet and spicy are always favorite combos of mine.

Relationship status: Single. Not really looking for anyone either. I'm starting to suspect that I'm aro as well as ace.

Current obsessions: BIRDS. Omg, birds. I blame my cats for this, I got a bird feeder to hang outside a large window at my old apartment to entertain them. Well, it ended up entertaining me too. Now I have a nice camera, multiple bird field books, and I go to the local arboretum every Sunday to go birding. It's my "go out and touch literal grass" day. And it's so much fun to see the birds throughout the year, especially seeing which ones stay in the area and who migrates/come back. The dark-eyed juncos and white-throated sparrows are back and I'm SO HAPPY to see those little guys! I post my pictures on my bird tumblr or Bluesky, as well as the Batfam discord server I'm in :)

Last thing I googled: How to take the FUCKING knife guard off our back up meat slicer to clean it. I wanted both slicers going because we had 100 POUNDS (45+ kgs) of deli turkey to slice for my company's holiday party and it was dirty from the last time it was used. I have NO IDEA how the FUCK we got it off the first time. It should be simple! There is a long pin/bar you unscrew in the back! But it still wouldn't come off!! I think there is some kind of safety we're not triggering, but I have NO CLUE what it is. The manual it came with and the manufacturer's videos on YouTube were NO HELP. I blame the French (the slicer was made in France).

I'm tagging @ktkat99, @betta-male, @sunny-in-gotham, @halehathnofury, @froizetta, @superbattrash, @lizyarikus, @sisaloofafump, and anyone else who would like to join! No pressure though! :)

#tag game #tag meme #about me #thanks for the tag burins!#I hope you're happy about the library card part #I moved 3 times between April 2020 and end of December 2021 #so settling down and getting a library card was the last thing on my mind during that time #it's nice to have one again :)

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morrak · 1 year

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Untitled Wednesday Library Series, Part 98

A significant portion of my academic energy is spent griping about how people put too much emphasis on book-as-standard-unit/instance-of-written-work (the semiotic environment is bad and usually also wrong!). And yet I continue to talk mostly about books in this post series (which isn’t nominally about books, but rather a (my) collection(ish) of written works of all sorts). Interesting, yes?

Anyway, this one’s about a book chapter. To wit: the second in Marc Ereshefksy’s 2001 The Poverty of the Linnaean Hierarchy: A Philosophical Study of Biological Taxonomy. My copy comes from Cambridge University Press’ New York location.

The How

One of my information science professors — Southern California type; background in corporate knowledge management; practical shoes — had soft spots for information taxonomy and botanical databases. I wrote her a glitterbomb of a final essay reviewing some papers on digital and biological identifiers as memory devices, which earned me this recommendation.

Evidently she uses this chapter for her mostly non-science-background-having information taxonomy students to explain evolutionary systems. She seemed very excited to find someone who ‘might like it’ because everyone else thinks it’s the worst thing she assigns. A good choice for winter reading, I thought. I was right, I think.

The Text

Ereshefsky’s argument, while interesting, does not concern us here. We focus instead on its second chapter, ‘A Primer of Biological Taxonomy’, which is connected only barely to the rest of the text.

Every book about taxonomy, you understand, has to have The Chapter. Usually The Chapter is the second one, as here. The Chapter must do several things. It must have The Figures, which show all sorts of abstracted cladograms and phylogenetic trees. It must explain monophyly, paraphyly, and polyphyly. It must recapitulate at least three (3) species concepts, including Mayr’s biological one. It must do these things in a way that sets it apart as little as possible from other The Chapters, because The Chapter is torch to be carried (however poorly) and not a wheel to be reinvented or (heaven forbid) slashed. You do not fuck with The Chapter.

It is possible to fuck up The Chapter. Many authors do. Ereshefsky does not. His is, by most metrics, the best The Chapter I have ever read, and I have read many. There are explained each of four major schools of classification, seven major species concepts, and some important historical conflicts and congruencies between the same. The diagramming is tight. The pace is good. Words are used well and sentences strung together. Few embellishments but lots of good teaching.

This is definitely written by a philosopher and not a trading biologist, but it is possibly better (for some applications) for that. One failure might be that it is inaccessible. Another success might be its honesty.

The Object

I must gripe a bit. Diagrams really ought to be closer to their mentions in the text. Typesetting an entire book is no mean feat and often close agreement between figures and text blocks is impossible. Even so, far too many of the swings here are missed. It is atimes clunky. Endnotes are a similar pain. Give me footnotes instead. Cowards.

The package is nice, easy to read from, and well sectioned. Uninspired B+.

The Why, Though?

The rest of this book will appear in a later installment of UWLS, but for now I offer this and a promise to send scans to anyone who wants The Chapter for personal or teaching reasons. My wallet will not allow me to say this alone was worth the price of admission, but I’m tempted to. I feel a concerning amount of relief? pride? at the way this chapter manages what most textbooks don’t.

Oh, and the bits citing Mayr do the rare next thing by citing preceding works handling concepts of reproductive isolation. Mayr’s definitions, plural, are too commonly crunched down. Points for that.

#images #untitled wednesday library series

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liapher · 2 years

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in love with your dta book binding and i find i am increasingly more invested in wanted to physically hold a copy of dta so i was wonder if you had any advice or resources (programs/materials/web sites) for beginners or like point me in the right direction if you don’t mind?

Okay so keep in mind I'm very much an amateur at both typography and bookbinding

Alright, typesetting. What I initially did was just open some of the books on my shelves to see how those were designed and just use that as inspiration. That absolutely worked, although there are some details I would now do differently. Last fall/winter I fell into a bit of a rabbit hole and read every typography book that I could find at my library. The ones i would actually really recommend are the following:

“The Elements of Typographic Style” by Robert Bringhurst. This one is a really nice intro to all kinds of typesetting details. It’s also pretty easy to find PDFs of this book on Google :-)

Jan Tschichold’s essays on typesetting and book design, if you can get your hands on them. I think they were translated and published as “The Form of the Book.” Tschichold explains the typographical choices that have worked well for centuries and how to do modern (20th century) versions of those. He’s very much not into having fun and experimenting though. I nevertheless found it really interesting and useful to read what he wrote and to then decide whether to heed that advice or to deliberately ignore it (since I’m here to have fun with typesetting).

If you speak German: “Lesetypografie” by Friedrich Forssman and Hans Peter Willberg. Its thesis is basically: book design has to be for the reader, and it's really good at explaining what that actually means with tons of examples.

For a free online resource, you could also check out practicaltypography.com, especially the sections on page layout and text formatting.

Moving on: typesetting software. I use LaTeX because I was already used to using it for typesetting academic texts, and because it allows me to be a little control freak about all kinds of details >:) and because it allows me to programmatically import the text and change its design. If you’re already used to working with LaTeX or if you enjoy programming, I definitely recommend it, but otherwise I have to warn you that the learning curve is very steep. This document contains links to how-to guides for various other kinds of software though, maybe those might be useful to you?

For re-ordering the pages of your PDF so they’re in the order you need for folding signatures when handbinding a book, you’ll need an imposition tool. I use LaTeX, but I know lots of people swear on this online tool.

Designing a cover (if you want to use a print-on-demand service or if you want to add a dust jacket to a handbound book): I use Affinity Photo, mostly because that’s the image editing software I already had anyway, but I'd also generally recommend it; it can do lots and is sold at a very fair price imo. My general tip is not to place any elaborate design details near where the spine and the front/back cover meet (and the front/back cover and the cover flaps)—if you use a print-on-demand service, they might end up printing the cover just a smidgen too far to the left/right and it'll look weird if part of your spine design is now on the front cover, and if you design a dust jacket, you might underestimate the small amount of extra material you might need to fit the dust jacket around the spine or around the fore-edge of the cover. Before exporting the print-ready PDF, merge all layers—this will considerably reduce the size of the PDF.

Printing books via print-on-demand services: I've used lulu.com, which prints books that are of a fine enough (but not perfect) quality. If you want to design a cover + interior to print via their service, definitely make sure to read their formatting guide where they explain what kinds of trims/bleed edges/etc. you should take into account. To find out what dimensions your book cover is gonna need to have (specifically how wide the spine is gonna be), use their pricing tool and enter the page count, select the binding type etc. My tip here is to only start designing the cover once the interior is done and you know how long the book will be—otherwise, you’re gonna spend a fair amount of time adjusting your cover layout to work with a new spine width... :)))

Printing dust jackets: go to your local copy shop and check what kind of glossy, slightly-thicker-than-copy-paper paper they have available and ask if you can use their paper guillotine to trim the printed cover to the size you need.

Handbinding a book: I read the “printing” and “physical assembly” sections of this document, and I also watched a lot of Darryn Schneider's videos on Youtube—he’s a professional bookbinder who makes a lot of incredibly useful videos on various bookbinding techniques. Really great if you’re a visual learner! To get started, I’d watch his video on tools for beginners, his series on making a case bound book, and his video on the square back case binding. I really like the latter technique—it’s great if you’re making thinner books where the width difference between the spine and the rest of your textblock isn’t too, too pronounced, and if you're a bit scared of actually backing and rounding spines / don’t have the appropriate tools. I also found it very helpful to ask questions in this fanbinding discord!

In terms of tools, I have:

A good-quality cutting mat + cutter (Olfa, definitely worth the small investment so far), and a metal ruler

A bone folder (great for, well, folding stuff, but also for smoothing out creases as you glue cloth or paper to the bookboard)

An awl (and a couple of pieces of (mostly) corrugated cardboard stacked on top of each other to protect my desk when I punch holes into the signatures)

Two bristle brushes, a large one (about an inch across) and a small one (less than 1 cm across)

Sewing needles—I’d recommend using one that’s relatively blunt and large but a bit thinner than the awl for sewing the signatures, and a thinner and pointy one if you want to make headbands

I don't have a press, I just use a stack of heavy books

and as for the materials:

Off-white 80 GSM paper, but I’ve also used whatever off-white copy paper the library printers happened to stock. Real bookbinders use paper with the grain running parallel to the spine—I don’t since it’s way more expensive, at least where I live.

Bookbinding glue (see also here and here)

Cotton gauze

For these books, I used some random leftover woven cotton tapes, but afaik if the book is fairly thin you don’t need tapes and can just sew the signatures together with the French link stitch instead. (That's what I’ve been doing at least)

2 mm thick bookboard (solid cardboard, preferably acid-free)

Bookcloth. It’s special in that it’s made from non-stretchy fabric and backed with paper, so you can glue it to the bookboard without any glue spots staining the cloth. I’ve been buying bookcloth from bookbinding/stationery suppliers, but you can also find online guides to making your own bookcloth (no recommendations as I haven’t tried that yet)

Some pretty paper for the cover and/or the endpapers (optional, you can also cover the entire cover in bookcloth and use plain endpapers). Since this involves applying a bunch of glue to the paper, it’s a bit easier to work with if the paper’s a tad heavier than copy paper (around 100 GSM maybe?), although that isn’t a requirement

Linen thread. I got some from a bookbinding supplier and picked the 18/3 one, which is nice, but if I had to choose again I might consider getting something ever so slightly thinner. Also full disclosure I don't know how or if this thread is different from regular linen thread. Lots of people apply a thin coat of beeswax to their thread, but I haven’t done that so far, and haven’t had any problems with that (will report back if that changes)

Optional: a thin leather cord (or shoelaces) and some thin thread you happen to have lying around for making headbands

Also optional: some pretty ribbon to use as a bookmark, like those thin fabric ribbons you can buy for gift-wrapping

I think that's it? For the most part it’s about approaching this with a can-do attitude and not being too afraid of just trying things out

This is a bit all over the place, but if you have more specific questions, feel free to send me another ask! :)

#also regarding wanting to have a physical copy of dta: if it's really just about wanting to hold a book in your hands but you're not too int #interested in the design/assembly: feel free to pm me and i can share print-ready pdfs with you #but if you are interested in typesetting/crafting: absolutely do it i promise it's lots of fun!!!!#bookbinding #replies #deangloriam #mission update

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galactic-pirates · 6 months

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💢: What was the first fandom you ever got into?

and

💔: Tell me a sad headcannon you have for James Watson.

Just found this! Sorry 😬

What was the first fandom I got into?

I always debate being honest when this question crops up because I was 11 and it was more wanting someone to be nice to me, than any actual personal passion for the show. Anyway! It was The Royal/Heartbeat. That’s been off the air for a long time now but Heartbeat was something of a British institution for 20 years or so. Set in the 1960’s, sort of a slice of life drama I guess. It was more “episode of the week” shenanigans than a pure soap.

When I went to high school I immediately found myself in the library. Friendless 11 year old. I started helping out with shelving books, checking them out etc. The librarian my first year was a very nice lady, sadly she left and her replacement… but that’s another story. Anyway there was a 15 year old who also volunteered and they were trying to write fanfic for The Royal. I think they might have been dyslexic because even though I was a lot younger I beta read for them. Then they wanted to make a fansite and I already knew how to code basic websites so I helped them with that, which led to being a mod on the forum, and eventually I started writing my own stories. I’m a writer and I wanted to be included so it follows.

The experience ended poorly. The forum got members and one of them ended up becoming a mod as well, and they didn’t like me. They were in their thirties I think and I can’t imagine treating an 11 year old like they did me, but I admit I likely didn’t help myself - I was 11 and so obviously not likely to make the best choices always.

I had moved on by then to other fan spaces on the internet. I had started writing for Without a Trace. I then discovered fanlistings and got really heavily into making little fansites. I did some graphic edits, a few music videos. Do people still do those? Set show clips to songs? I quit everything fandom-wise when I was 19. I didn’t start back up again until I was 25.

A sad headcanon for James Watson

I don’t know why but I have just always thought that his father died when he was a child. I don’t recall any basis for this in the show but it was the background I think I wrote in Choosing Fate. Once I have something that works I tend to keep it as a headcanon. Like thinking that originally Helen was given the source blood by an abnormal she helped one day. I can’t remember if I specified an age but I think it was maybe 6-8 years old. Old enough to have a few memories but young enough for the image of his father to be more idealistic dreams and impressions.

Thanks for the ask ❤️ sorry about the delay. It was hiding.

#I answer things

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elizabethplaid · 11 months

Text

Put away a bit more laundry today, including the sweaters in a doesn’t-fit-under-the-bed bin. Those bins really suck, considering that I need to put my bed frame on risers for them to fit.

Had to take a break, after bending over for so long. I read “Meet Kit” from the American Girl book series - one of the books I bought from the library last year. It was like 64 pages, so it went by quick.

After recovering, I dug out Oriole (Tonner “Model Behavior” Olivia Chase) and redressed her and some other dolls. I can’t remember the last time I redressed dolls. Maybe a year ago? Last August? Idk. Had good and bad feelings about it. Definitely re-sparked my interest in 1-6 scale knits.

Complaints about Oriole below the cut:

I hate that her head has the “hook” side of hook-and-loop tape (aka velcro). Wigged dolls are so good for redressing, because you don’t have to worry about their hair as you change ‘em. But the velcro dot keeps snagging on fabric, defeating the purpose.

Guess I’ll have to get those little silicone dots or a silicone wig cap. Gotta remove the bits attached to the head, at the very least.

The purple Create-a-Monster wig (with peg snipped) fits her nicely, even with the velcro dots. This doll is shaped more realistically, so her head seems tiny and her body seems masculine (muscle-y?). She lacks the grace that the Antoinette and Chic bodies had. Even the Deja Vu body, as awkward as it can be to hold poses, is more favorable to me. I think it’s the arms/hands and width of the shoulders that I throw me off.

There’s also a rubbery “underwear”-shaped sleeve over her hips. I don’t remember what others have remarked about it, other than it being odd. There was worry of staining, I think. I’m debating whether or not to cut it off, and how badly I want to destroy it in the process.

The manufacturer wrote on the back of the doll with a marker, which is weird. Back of the head and back of the neck. It doesn’t seem like an artist’s signature. Has this happened with other examples of the newer Tonners? If so, then the Ryan Roche dolls would have the same marks. (I know I saw someone on tumblr with a Ryan Roche doll, but the skintone might be too dark to notice the marker.)

This is literally the 2nd time I’ve taken her out of the box, since I got her last year. It’ll take some time for her to grow on me. I already have strong preferences/opinions on what I like about doll aesthetics and sculpting.

Taking the hyper-empathy interpretation, we’re probably not meshing well, because she’s mad at me for leaving her in the box for so long. That or because I keep giggling at her tiny head. The vibe felt better towards the end of my dressing session with her today. So that gives me hope that we’ll “get along” better later.

#daily notes #doll nerd #tonner dolls

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krazys-ass-emporium · 1 year

Text

8 Shows to know you

@j-ellyfish tagged me and my slow ass is finally filling this out.

1. Star Trek (Mostly TOS, but also TNG, DS9, and Voyager. Sorry, but the new stuff just doesn’t look like Star Trek to me.)

This was my first fandom I guess?? I didn’t actually interact with anyone since this is before I ventured onto the depths of the interwebs. I was 10 years old and everyone kept calling me a Vulcan because of how literal I was. I did not know what a Vulcan was but soon found out and got my grubby hands on every piece of media I could find at the local library. I probably watched every VHS and read every novel they had. Spock is still my favorite to this day. I wrote my freaking GED essay about him.

2. Redwall

I might have been even younger when I got into this than when I got into Star Trek. This is just so unknown no one knows what I’m talking about lolol. It was more the books than the show, but it has a short animated series so it still counts. I was obsessed with this. I made forts out of logs by the stream across the street from my house and swords out of wood and play-fought my brother with them.

3. Teen Titans

This was probably my segue into anime. Yes, this isn’t actually an anime, but since it incorporates anime aspects it got me used to them?? I was very into superheroes in general when I was like 12 to 15 or so, but these were my top fave. Controversial opinion: DC is better than Marvel. I made my very first OC based on Teen Titans I think she might have been partly Star Trek too lol. I also started drawing people because of this show. Before that I only drew horses and wolves.

4. InuYasha

My very first anime. It all started when I saw a manga at the library and then looked up the anime on YouTube. Ah, the memories of watching an episode in three parts and you’d never know if it would be the dub or the sub. This was the first fandom where I actually joined the interwebs and interacted with human type people. The internet in 2006 was a very different place lol. I got my first email address (which I still have lol) to join this website called Fanart Central so I could post my InuYasha fanart. I found my first online friends there too. I miss them...

5. Pokémon

I’m not entirely sure how I managed to watch as much of this as I did, but I only gave up when I got to Alola. The original is my favorite, but I also liked some of the newer stuff too. I drew art for Pokémon too and let me tell you, it’s the most toxic hell hole of a fandom ever. I’ve never gotten flames before Pokémon, all for liking an unpopular ship lol. The internet in 2010 was the Wild West.

6. Yu-Gi-Oh!

Holy crap was I into Ygo. I still have my room covered in it lol. I still love it to bits, but I’ve calmed down a lot. I have a lot of cards too and I do know how to play, but not competitively and I don’t know anyone in person who wants to duel me :( I got into cosplay because of Ygo and made my first cosplay (Joey Wheeler) in 2013. I apparently like to suffer because Ygo cosplays are NOT easy. I made my still best friend in this fandom. Seriously, this is one of the best fandoms out there, most everyone is so nice.

7. Supernatural

(Don’t look at me, I know pfft). I can’t deny how much I like this show... it’s honestly the one I’ve rewatched the most times. I no not know why. I guess it’s just easy to binge lol. You can blame my group of gay guy friends back in 2013 for me getting into this. It’s also why I got Netflix, and tumblr. And here I still am...

8. Hetalia

Oh wow, a Hetalia blog having Hetalia on the list, weird. Got into this at the crusty old age of 28, so I don’t have the nostalgia for it like a lot of y’all. I fell hard pretty fast. I also have made way more friends than probably any other fandom I’ve been in? Probably because I stuck my head out of my shell for a bit lol.

I tag no one because I’m lazy, do it if you want and you can blame me pfft.

#Krazy Rambles #8 Shows to know you

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sage-nebula · 1 year

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For the fic writer's ask: 💞 💝 and 🎀

Thanks 💜

💞 what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

The characters, definitely. The characters are the backbone of any story. And to illustrate the point, I'll posit this scenario:

Say you go to one of those by-the-road tiny libraries, and there are two books inside that you can choose to read.

One book has intricate, expansive world-building; the author clearly put all their time into developing the lore of their world, to the point where the bulk of every chapter is infodumping about the world's history and cultural practices. However, as a consequence, the characters are very flat and one-dimensional, only serving as vessels to exposit more about the world they live in rather than having lives of their own.

The other book leaves a lot to the imagination about the worldbuilding. The author spends only the barest minimum of time on the world's history, gives you only enough pieces to be able to form a rough picture in your head of what the world currently looks like before they move on. There are many gaps here that they leave to you, the reader, to fill in. However, the characters are three-dimensional individuals, each with their own motivation and relationships and conflicts.

Which book would you rather read?

It's personal preference, of course. Some people LOVE world-building and it's what they care about most with any fictional narrative. But for me, I couldn't give less of a damn about it most of the time. I hate doing it myself, and I tend to dislike stories that spend ages expositing about this location or that world event. The entire reason I dislike Tolkien novels is because he spends what feels like three chapters describing a meadow. I just don't care about that. I want the characters, the dialogue, the relationships. I enjoy stories that are largely slice of life because those slices of life give us yet another avenue of insight into the characters and their relationships. I don't care how intricate your world-building is; if your characters are boring, I will put your book back.

All that said, grammar and writing style is also very important to me. Epithets, except for in cases where the point-of-view character doesn't know another character's name, make me want to claw my eyes out. And I put The Hunger Games back on the shelf when the first sentence of the first book was Katniss using purple prose to exposit about her sister. Writing style is integral to my enjoyment of a story. As I've said to various people before, I am super picky.

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

Hm, well, I was surprised that I only got one mean comment for including Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts in chapter three of Beyond Oblivion. I was expecting way more people to take issue with that, lol. Although, when I later made a poll asking what fic people would like me to work on next, pretty much no one voted for that one, so . . . maybe people were just being polite, LOL.

Other than that, I did expect more people to be interested in Inflection Point, given that at the time I wrote it a lot of people were interested in Beyond Oblivion, so I thought a prequel showing how Miles ended up where he was would be interesting. But it got very little attention, so I thought wrong lmao. It's fine though; I still had a nice time writing it, so not all was lost.

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

I'm very skilled when it comes to dialogue. I can hear conversations in my head and transcribe them easily, and the same goes with jumping from character voice to character voice without skipping a beat. My characters might be talking in a void, but at least they're talking!

#skimmingthesurfaces #writer meme

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steelycunt · 2 years

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Oh god, young mungo.

Firstly, I checked it out of my local library for ✨free✨ so that was nice, you should deff look into doing that because yes, it’s so expensive.

The author is Scottish and wrote all the dialogue in a Glaswegian dialect and my puny American brain was going “😵‍💫 what are they saying” lol but I got the hang of it quickly. I like his writing style, I haven’t read his first book Shuggie Bain but I hear lots of good things about it.

But Mungo as a character is like so precious and so innocent and I just want to protect him from everyone and everything. It’s truly just hard to see him kinda lose some of that and toughen up- but like he needs that living where he’s living to protect himself.

I would check the trigger warnings too before reading because I went into it blind basically, not knowing anything and there’s a r*pe scene and it’s pretty jarring, especially if you’re not expecting it ya know? But I hope that doesn’t put you off lol

Also, I think in one of your fics Remus is reading Giovanni’s Room and I’d never heard of that book, but I’ve checked it out now so thanks for the rec lol I’m excited to read

ahh hi hello!! i'm so pleased you liked it, i'm really looking forward to reading it myself :-) and also the fact that it was in your local library!! i might have to go and have a look in mine...mine's really tiny so usually i rely on it for things like classics mostly but i'll have to have a look :-) i am an absolute hardcover HATER to be honest, even without the fact that they're double the price they just do not have the charm of paperbacks they'll never have the charm of paperbacks :-/ also thank you for the heads up on trigger warnings btw! i'd heard its a bit hard going at times but i didn't know anything more specific than that, so i will probably check those first.

i hope you like giovanni's room omg!! let me know what you think!! essentially in that scene i decided he was going to be reading a book. and then i decided he was going to be reading the book i was reading as a little treat to myself because why not, and actually i think gr ended up being a surprisingly fitting pick xx same with any albums or songs that ever turn up in my stuff...every time i get to mention something like that i spend sooo long deciding which of MY favourite albums i'm going to give a little shoutout to (provided they aren't anachronisms in whichever year i'm setting it) xx little easter egg for myself xx

#at this point i'm on tumblr for two purposes. r-posting and being a door-to-door salesman for james baldwin's giovanni's room :-/#anon #telegram #tw rape #tw rape mention

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camelliagwerm · 1 year

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For the fic writer game, 8 and 18 for A Pulsing Wound of Need and all the titles therein? I really admire your titles, they roll of the tongue so nicely.

Thank you, Ash!

fanfic writer questions | ao3 account for specific questions

8. Which fic or hc do you feel most proud of?

Fic-wise, I am leaning towards The Burdens of Command as it was really the first time I stepped out of my comfort zone and wrote something that was pure smut, and wanting to make sure it felt true to the characters; the entire thing is built on this idea that Camellia, for all her pride when it comes to her....technique in the bedchamber, ultimately won't have the same amount of experience as Valerius and now she has this opportunity to explore certain fantasies and kinks with a dedicated partner. She also has this delightful little bark after you invite her up to the Commander's quarters where she asks what normal couples do to keep sex interesting and that was a thought I kept in mind while writing it as well. (Though I imagine that O, These Cardinal Sins might take that honour once I'm done with it since I don't tend to write multi-chaptered things if I can help it. I prefer to keep my projects...contained for my own sanity.)

Headcanon wise - it's very blink and you miss it, but one of my favourite headcanons / the one I'm the most proud of is that Camellia is prone to dog-earing pages in her novels. Canonically she loves to read romance novels (and therefore, smut as well) - so I liked the idea of her dog-earing certain pages for 'inspiration and further exploration'. I've brought it up a couple of times: once in Addicted to the Taste of You and in a prompt fill:

“So,” he murmurs, a ringed finger tapping the folded corner, “I’ve noticed you marked a few specific pages. Like this.” Her cheeks grow hotter still. “They are helpful, umm, aids.”

18. How'd you come up with the title for (fic name)?

The series title actually went through a few different names, but A Pulsing Wound of Need comes from one of my favourite novels, A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson, which is a reimagining of Dracula and his brides. The full quote is "you turned a strong-minded girl into a pulsing wound of need. I never knew the meaning of the word enthralled before you" - with the narrator Constanta talking about the early days of her relationship/marriage to Dracula. I'd always considered Valerius to be the one who is enthralled, so I changed it to 'a strong-minded man into a pulsing wound of need'. From that, I felt like A Pulsing Wound of Need really felt like the best title for what is essentially a gothic romance/horror series. As for the other titles:

May You Dine Forever - an aphorism from the Urgathoan faith; they use this phrase to call upon others to perform wanton acts of gluttony or more importantly, bestow a rite of passage upon an ally. There's a flavour text in Camellia's act 3 quest unique to Urgathoans saying that while she might not share your faith, what she is doing is well-known to any follower of Urgathoa. As such, this felt like an appropriate title as it is Valerius' way of both encouraging Camellia's habits (the wanton acts of gluttony - including the sex) and reassuring her that he is her ally and will keep her secret.

Curiosity - so this was...inspired by a scene in the Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter where the naive narrator discovers some rather explicit books within the Marquis' library, but with Camellia's own curiosity in Valerius and what exactly made him decide to not only spare her, but support her. I couldn't thnk of a better title at the time, so Curiosity it is. This might be a fic I come back to and flesh out more like I did with May You Dine Forever, which was a rewrite of my original fic from October last year.

Sanguinary Delights - this was both a nod to the main location of this fic (the Ten Thousand Delights) and the murder that takes place, but also it is in the 1e dhampir information that "many suffer a reprehensible desire to indulge in sanguinary delights, despite the fact that the act provides most no physical benefit." Reading that really made it jump out at me.

Afterglow - no particular reasoning behind this one. Honestly, I might remove it from being its own fic and put it in my prompt collection.

Addicted to the Taste of You(r Blood Red Lips) - this comes from a song by Moncrieff called Serial Killer from the pre-chorus and I picked it out because this fic is the first time Valerius feeds from Camellia.

The Burdens of Command - you know how sometimes you just have those titles that come to you all of the sudden? That was this one; and it is about Valerius relinquishing control to her, even if it is just in the bedroom.

In These Quiet, Intimate Moments - this was a nightmare to title, and in the end I just picked a phrase I liked from the prose.

My Strength and Comfort - also came from the prose itself; Arsinoe allows Camellia to see Valerius when he should be praying before the final battle at Threshold, and she joins him for that prayer despite not sharing the same faith as him. He draws his strength from his faith, but he finds his comfort in Camellia. Both are equally important to him.

O, These Cardinal Sins - I think I just picked this one after none of the other working titles I had really fit (I really wanted to make a lyric from Bedroom Hymns work). Sex & religion come up a lot in songs, so maybe I'll find something else I prefer further down the line.

Something New, Something Red - this is a play on the wedding superstition of something old, new, borrowed and blue, with the ruby choker being both something new and something red, rather than blue (I've mentioned before how rubies are considered a romantic gesture among his family, so substituting blue for red felt more apt -- and the ruby choker itself having a more macabre touch.)

Something I Gained Nonetheless (Us) - this is a quote directly from Camellia's final true romance talk at Threshold - that she never aspired to have such a close bond with anyone while on the crusade, but she gained her relationship with Valerius nonetheless. It's a good catchall for my prompt collection.

#turbulentpumpkin43 #answered

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darklightsworld · 2 years

Photo

Now that I’m frequenting tumblr once again, it’s time to make the post I wrote in June, but got lazy selecting photos for, so it never saw the sunlight ^^;;; This is part 1, with tiny update comments. I will try not to slack on part 2.

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Long time no see, tumblr. It has been a busy year so far, and more than a half are gone already (well, 3/4 now). Yet, we’re still not over covid (Still!!!) >_> We’re having the biggest number of infections ever, but fortunately traveling is not restricted. Never mind that people are self-restraining even without being told from above. It’s really disappointing, I was hoping that Japan would gradually open up after they started to let in organized tourism (the economy really needs tourism, especially with the cheap yen, thus more expensive imports, rising prices), but I don’t see it happening any time soon :/ (Well, it just happened, yay! Covid had the seventh wave meanwhile, currently decreasing numbers, but far from over) I think I was really lucky to be able to travel to Europe in May-June, just before the new variant started to spread. Now I have a short trip booked to Sendai in September (summer is for surviving and not for traveling in Japan, after all), and I was asked to hold a speech in Kyoto in late October (and Nagoya in November) – I really hope it won’t be cancelled (they won’t 👍), I really want to go back, even if it’s a few days (accidentally I wrote years first, yeah, Freudian). Once again, because Tokyo is the most infected, traveling for research is out of question, which sucks… The National Diet Library really should make postwar magazines freely available. Like seriously, what do they expect to happen with 50-60 year old of magazines, that don’t happen with 80 year old ones?!

Anyway, I just wanted to share a few photos of my Europe trip. The catalyst was a symposium in Spain I was invited to, and taking the opportunity I also visited home before and after that. Traveling became damn expensive and difficult due to covid. I paid like 60 thousand more for the ticket. Sure, there might have been cheaper ones with long overlays, but I don’t like traveling too long, so I take a direct flight from Tokyo to Vienna if I can. Of course, due to the war the trips were longer than usual by 2-3 hours orz But, on the other hand, unlike European planes there weren’t many passengers, so lying across seats was possible (managed to get screaming kids on both flights though…>_>). In the end even to Spain, or more accurately to Galicia, there weren’t many options from Budapest, so that trip was also from Vienna, my dad driving the three hour trip from home back and forth a lot of times ^^;

Both Hungary and Galicia were extremely hot for that time of the year, but not before and after, so I felt like the heat was following me from Japan – and then back -_- Due to the trip to Galicia I didn’t spend that much time in Hungary, so rather than go sightseeing all the time I was trying to relax and eat food I can’t get here, like good cheese, túró rudi, paprika salad every day, etc. I really hoped to make a trip to the capital for the Bosch exhibition, but the timing was not right :((( By the way, being without a mask required some getting used to in the first few days, but it was sooooooo good. I really miss that now…

So, first batch of pics: Vienna. We spent two days in Vienna before the Galicia trip, because my plane took off at seven in the morning, and I was not willing to travel through the night to get there by five. It was really nice and an additional plus of traveling through Vienna. Once again we stepped into a holiday (in 2019 the National Day, now Ascension of Christ @_@), but it was not too bad. First (half) day were were just walking around in and around Hofburg. Karlskirche was new to me, very nice church, but the elevator inside the church messes up the view a lot. The main purpose this time was the Belvedere, also a first for me, and it was great. Many great exhibitions, old palace and history.

tbc...

#austria #hofburg #karlskirche #belvedere #vienna

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sansajonquil · 9 months

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might talk to Dean Winchester more ;; can relate to his mark of cain && general personality.

it is quite interesting with the prejudice I was met with during my life. Yesterday, I had an antigen test where I self isolated at home upstairs in my room && was talking to myself on tumblr. I put the kettle on the floor of my room. It was pretty nice & strange to be back in the rpc, although I tentatively stepped in the water with water washing around my ankles ;; sansa talking to cesare w a visual accompaniment at westeros cafe + athelstan talking to lagertha & ragnar. Some people also followed me first :o which was nice they were interested in me / my blog && messaging/roleplaying with me. I had also gotten used to talking to myself ooc as especially differentiated from the older times of rp when I felt very choked and judged ;; noted when I said at the time to ariel that I didn’t feel like she judged me. Yet some seemed to judge quickly at the marshmallow squishy comforting / thumping Julian’s back like wechat sticker ;; tavvy’s toy && my pinned post talking about my own rules I keep edit adding to find ways to adapt happily into rpc/life in general. ( drinking water/fresh air walking ) && in perpetual building frustration, I also wrote how I didn’t stand by callout posts && how damaging they could be in pushing one to the edge to write endless goals ( this stemmed from my worry in talking to ariel again as I spoke to her a lot about my anxiety during university as it was really horrifying yet strangely fulfilling ( as noted on my wordpress in which I now breathed life in the mundaneity) & I knew from clues/hints she talked behind my back to other rp friends when I was drowning. I also talked to myself how bad it was to live out my entire life on the rpc / site & to just immerse myself into happy && it was great fun to ascend to heaven and valhalla without caring what others think.

my relationship with orion is interesting. She, with ariel saying some context of my experience in rpc & how it seemed to affect my life/thoughts, said something about study of oneself in dialectical behavioural therapy ( pulling books from the city of weep ) as she had brain fog too. this was in a october day.

my relationship with johnnie is a bit more disjointed. I watched many YouTube videos of his, and felt he was with me during my library study ;; when I felt I needed to be completely alone && walking along the road like boulevard of broken dreams && on my own mahogany ship sailing. When i watched poison, I thought his red colour lips was like beautiful red paint 🎨 ;; I think YouTube && doing art was part of my experience when writing athelstan park drabble — colour within chaos. I could also relate to past & present selves ;; when he is singing always looking for ways to improve himself && getting frustrated && throwing up blood into the desert outback from his eternal sitting in barn. I felt he was speaking to me when he talked about growing up and that everyone was worried about me and that I didn’t deserve hate. && then other direct messages he said like I was a bad person and what I did now didn’t really matter and doesn’t excuse my not trying to understand properly to the level of fogginess that I nearly died in my sleep/didn’t sleep to near dying, yet he could appreciate people who bettered themselves contrasted in confusion.

when people spam calling me, or anyone in general, I do not think they understand how unsafe individuals feel. When people spam call me yesterday, I watch unbroken by melovin ;; yet thought this was very irritating out to get me within me trying to live life from the complete mess that life gave me. I also rightfully think in secret of vengeance, which help me sleep :)

I thought it very creepy when brandon said I was a fake-ass wannabe while wearing ryuk make-up ;; yet knew it was a weird ironic short visual of black comedy — of people trying to find their own voice && visual style of presentation && the ulzzang emo MySpace days.

#personal

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kitewithfish · 1 year

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Reading Meme for Feb 1 2023

What I've Read Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - Oh, man, the last third of this book is just payoff after payoff - stuff that I was certain was going to be left to be resolved in the next book was just laid out in front of your eyes and it worked so damned well. This was my second attempt to read this book - the first time, just after it came out, I made charts and tried to keep track of all the characters and figure out the mystery of the whole thing, well, I had some trouble. The second time around had a much better result when I just let the whole thing wash over me. I really enjoyed this book and I'm starting on the next one immediately. Penric's Fox - Lois McMaster Bujold - I am still really enjoying this series, which are short mysteries set in the Chalion universe with a metaphysical 'odd couple'- a young human man with no background in magic is host of a centuries-old demon who has the memories and personalities of nine previous women hosts as part of her constituent parts. They fight crime! It's also got touches of the kind of settled affection that I tend to associate with long-married couples who still adore each other. Penric gets roped into solving murders that are short and clear, with a cast of interesting recurring characters and a boss who is a badass woman in her 70s. The mysteries are a bit straightforward but explore some of the interesting edge cases of how magic in their world works. Fun palette cleansing reads. (I which Bujold had a little more eye for queer relationships in her books but what she does provide is emotionally solid, so, meh.) I'm Not As Think As You Drunk I Am - Mardiaz173 - https://archiveofourown.org/works/33021898 - Clark Kent/ Bruce Wayne - DC comics universe - This was just a nice short little fic where Superman wants desperately to date Batman, but Bruce Wayne keeps showing Clark a side of himself that few people get to see. Which will our hero choose? (I read this on the recommendation of the podcast Clio/Mireille for their Sept 2022 episode on Superman/Batman Identity Porn fic.) It is a fun fic and a charming podcast. Living With a Tiger by x_los - https://archiveofourown.org/works/33488392 - 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù - Original Luò Bīnghé/Shěn Yuán, post Post-Bingge vs. Bingmei Extra - I am delving at last into the fic for the Scum Villain fandom, and I love the set-up on this. X_los wrote an AU that really delves into a grey version of the characters from the canon, and I really enjoyed it. (If you don't care to read the canon, this is still mostly intelligible on its own.) The tags are accurate. What I'm Reading Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir has got her hooks in my soul. Like with Gideon the Ninth, I was spoiled by tumblr osmosis for some elements of this book, but I honestly don't think it matters! Starts basically directly after Gideon the Ninth and I am glad I followed my friend's recommendation to start this book immediately upon finishing Gideon, as my poor memory would not have helped with understanding this book. I find these books do very little explicit handholding of like, "Character realized that this new development related back to This Setup from Chapter 2" and yet Muir does indeed set up enough reminders to guide you back to the points you need to recall for the payoff to be satisfying. What I'll Read Next Phoenix Extravagant - Yun Ha Lee - Book Club The Uncle's Story - Witi Ihimaera - The library wants this back and I don't want to give it back! I might end up having to buy more of the Ihimaera books I want to read - local libraries are NOT great about having these around, and I am slow. The Good Lord Bird Library books Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys Unnamed Midwife (whole series)

Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, True Colors by Karen Traviss, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Like Real People Do by EL Massey, Tom Stoppard, invention of love. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon, Alisha Rai Partners in Crime, the Right Swipe, Aphorisms of Kerishdar

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