I literally don’t have the space for any more physical books, but I’ve downloaded every Underrealm book on Kindle. I read The Alchemist’s Touch specifically because of this post and I seriously can’t recommend the Underrealm books enough. they are absolutely fantastic.
I don’t really read anymore, not like i used to. And of i get a masters this year like i am planning to then that isn’t going to change. But hell yes I’m going to go and buy these books because THIS is exactly the kind of thing that i want to support!
YISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
One day I will have a job and a bank account and I will have money from the job in the bank account and I will use some of the money to purchase these books
Hey did you
did you know
did you know we have a podcast now and you can literally listen to the books for free.
(You probably didn’t. That’s okay because it’s very new).
It’s slower than buying and reading them, but it’s great if you have no book budget but you do have some listening time!
torture getting reliable information out of people
knocking someone out to harmlessly incapacitate them for like an hour
jumping into water from staggering heights and surviving the fall completely intact
calling the police to deescalate a situation
rafting your way off a desert island
correctly profiling total strangers based on vibes
effectively operating every computer by typing and nothing else
ripping an IV out of your arm without consequences
heterosexual cowboy
This post breaching containment has taught me that a lot of people seem to think they can accurately profile complete strangers. For the record, no the fuck you can’t.
I know “60s housewives who invented slash fanfiction” has taken on a life of its own as a phrase, but Kirk/Spock didn’t really exist until the 70s and THOSE WOMEN HAD JOBS. They were teachers and librarians and bookkeepers and scientists and they damn well spent their own money going to conventions, printing zines, buying fanart and making fandom happen. Put some respect on their names.
Salute to our troops (70s careerwomen who put their hard-earned dollars into homemade gay erotica)
It was women with secretarial jobs doing a lot of the heavy lifting, if memory serves correctly.
They had training in type setting, could churn things out quickly, knew how to organise mailing lists, and had easy access to Expensive High Tech like photocopiers.
Boss make a dollar, she makes a dime. That’s why she’s printing Kirk X Spock zines on company time.
Personally I think that Azula should have been redeemed simply so that she can become Zuko’s horrible little advisor who whispers evil little plans to him so that he can do the exact opposite
Zuko doesn’t like instilling fear in people as the Fire Lord because it makes him feel too much like Ozai but sometimes motherfuckers NEED to be rattled so they don’t try anything. Which is where Azula comes in. It’s a win/win for everyone except for the poor sucker Azula has set her sights on
If a worker who isn’t the owner says ANYTHING similar to “I’m not really supposed to do this but-” and then does something that helps you, under no circumstances inform the business, including through reviews. You tell them that the worker was polite, professional, the very model of customer service and why you like to go there. You do not breathe a word of the rulebreaking.
Employee-customer solidarity
Even if they don’t- Your review can be the thing that wrecks someone up accidentally;
“Janie was so helpful when I wanted to buy a new washing machine on Friday, she stayed with me for half an hour and wasn’t pushy at all, we had a good laugh about our cats’ silly antics and she got Adam and Suzy to carry it to the car for me- 10/10 excellent service, I’d come back any day!”
-But Management has a policy that workers should spend no more than 10 focused minutes on any customer at a time, and that they should always try to upsell the insurance and the higher price model, so Janie was breaking policy.
-And they aren’t supposed to have their phones on the sales floor, so now Janie is going to be quizzed on whether she was showing photos of her cat to a customer.
-Adam is a warehouse worker and shouldn’t have been in the front-of-house at all, Suzy is a porter, and store policy is both to use a trolley to move heavy items, and that only the porters should do it, so now Janie is in trouble for pulling Adam off-task, Adam is in trouble for walking through the shop floor, and Suzy is in trouble for poor handling procedure. Maybe the store even has a paid delivery service that Janie was supposed to upsell as soon as you said “I can’t put this in my car without help”, so this was all against policy.
Your review should always be as bland as possible, “10/10, five star service, will shop here again, thank you to Janie at the Town Street branch” You NEVER know what was technically a rule-break, capitalism is not your friend, the review process is part of the panopticon.
FIVE STARS, TEN OUT OF TEN, VERY GOOD, NOTHING MORE.
He submitted the proposal to the Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council and the plan was rejected because the proposed four-foot-high railings (fence) and simple cast iron gate (which was chosen purely privacy and security for the front of the home) were considered “too domestic” looking for the former industrial area. The council gave Sheeran a list of options for privacy “railings”, and after changing the proposal Sheeran was given permission that was more in line with the neighbourhood, which is in a conservation area. A direct quote from Sheeran states: “Dear Natalie Edwards from The Sun newspaper. Your story is bollocks, I have done lots of work in the past for Crisis and Shelter and would never build railings outside my home for that reason.The reason was to keep the paps that you employ from being on my doorstep. Have a good day.” this comment has been substantiated by the local police and security companies that Sheeran and his neighbours have had to contact previously when paparazzi have been taking photographs not only of Sheeran’s house but inside his windows, and constantly knocking on his door and yelling outside his house.
Think about this for a moment, a guy bought a house and fixed it up, he was trying to gain some privacy by asking for a simple fence and gate to indicate the property line and gain some distance from the paps, - which the police and council said was fine - and the newspapers who can no longer use these ill-gotten photos and are probably pissed have managed to spin this story to make it seem that this guy (whether you like his music or not), is an asshole and is anti-homeless. And you’re all eating this shit up and believing the newspapers, even though the Sun and Telegraph are well known across the UK for making shit up and lying. smh.
I don’t care about Ed Sheeran, but this is an exercise in media literacy
Has anybody else read The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu, because I’m honestly surprised its not more popular.
Its got such a great spin on the chosen one trope, where the chosen one is a boy who is kinda useless and very spoiled from the fact that nobody is going to question or hurt the Important and Powerful chosen one. Somehow though, he is still a very likeable character and its easy to sympathise with him in the later parts of the books.
So he’s very much a whiny looser at the start, and it takes Taishi, an elderly grandmaster war artist who is very grumpy about leaving retirement to make him…not that. She was such a great character, simultaneously grumpy and sharp tongued, but a softy underneath it all.
Thats not even mentioning the other POV characters who are also amazing, cool, badass, and flawed, and also show that there is no good and evil sides in war.
For a book about a young male chosen one there are so many badass older women while the male characters are all way less cool and competent (said with the greatest affection). So, would highly recommend giving it a read!
Here’s the video version of my discussion of the leaked emails that prove the Hugo Awards removed finalists (me, RF Kuang, Paul Weimer, Neil Gaiman & Ep 6 of Sandman) for political reasons, despite us having the required votes. Because too many of you are making assumptions without bothering to read the full exposé.
There’s a lot of nuance in this case that I hope people can acknowledge. No, it is not “sinophobic” to criticize the Chinese government’s severe censorship policies when anyone who’s spent more than ten minutes on the Chinese internet knows how bad it is, and there IS evidence of pressure in this case. There’s nothing to accomplish by pretending like it’s not a thing. You’re not furthering the world proletarian revolution by speaking over the lived experiences of Chinese comrades and denying factually shitty aspects of your favorite AES.
Yes, the Western and presumably white members of the Hugo admin team DID circle back to racism by trying so hard to appease the Chinese government that they preemptively censored Chinese diaspora ~ to be safe ~ on extremely flimsy reasons without even reading our books. And of course, confusing Nepal for Tibet.
It’s really not one or the other.
Remember, if someone asks you to censor something, you can say no. If they ask you to compile dossiers on problematic individuals, you can say no. You are allowed to not do the censors work for them. You can tell them to go [censored] themselves.
