"the last song you listened to is now the title of your sex tape"
Feb. 16th, 2019 07:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kore"No Mercy" by Heather Peace, via aurumcalendula's sizzling multifandom F/F vid
....totally fair
(Not unrelatedly, someone on![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
spacefungusparty compared Michael Burnham and Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius to Sydney Bristow and Irina Derevko and I LOVE IT)
aurumcalendula's sizzling multifandom F/F vid....totally fair
(Not unrelatedly, someone on
spacefungusparty compared Michael Burnham and Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius to Sydney Bristow and Irina Derevko and I LOVE IT)Dark Games: One Night on the Road
Feb. 16th, 2019 04:05 pmelfOne Night on the Road is a classic example of "we have a palette of four colors: Grey, black, dark blue, and dark green. We will expand this with pale blue and pale red but only as tiny fragments in the distance." The developer's native language is not English (I have reason to believe it's Russian), which normally isn't a problem, except that it didn't occur to them to find an English beta reader to check their Steam listing text:
This showed up on my feed because it's tagged "Hidden Object." I like hidden object games. This... does not look like a hidden object game. Normal hidden object games are like Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink (a delightful steampunk-ish HO game) or the Nightmares from the Deep series (also delightful - ghost pirates). Less-normal HO games include weird mobile and Facebook games that add an energy-use mechanism, so you collect "gems" and need to recharge them to do the searches.
This... this does not look like it has any hidden object features at all. Nothing in the trailer (which involves "driving through spooky empty town at night") or the screencaps implies there are any search-for-items scenes. This might be a point-and-click adventure, or it could be a combat-survival game where you have to find weapons, but mostly it looks like a walking sim.
The publisher's other game is a combat-heavy MMORPG with microtransactions; it's a year older and pretty much everyone who tried it, hates it. I suspect the only reason ONotR isn't full of hate-reviews is that nobody buys walking-sim HO games just because they show in in the queue. The walking-sim and HO fans, like me, tend to be more selective than MMO players who will grab anything under $10 with the right keywords.
Violent MMORPG players are not (necessarily) less interested in quality, but their ideas of what "quality" means is different. "Has no real plot" is often not a strong negative; "has great shoot-em-up scenes" can outweigh that. For the walking sim people, there has to be a reason to get this game and not just replay Gone Home or Home Is Where One Starts. Both of those are charming. This? This is not charming. This looks like, at best, the opening act of a real game.
One Night On The Road is a quest where you play as a character who ran out of gas in a small town. In search of fuel, he finds a shop where he knock you out down and found himself in a small house. You need to look for items that will help you to get out of the house and leave town.This looks like an asset flip, the video game equivalent of making a book of nothing but Wikipedia articles. (Okay, the assets aren't all free. It's the video game equivalent of a picture book of royalty-free photographs purchased from istockphoto.) In this one, it looks like they bought a "small town at night" package and maybe threw in some combat details.
This showed up on my feed because it's tagged "Hidden Object." I like hidden object games. This... does not look like a hidden object game. Normal hidden object games are like Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink (a delightful steampunk-ish HO game) or the Nightmares from the Deep series (also delightful - ghost pirates). Less-normal HO games include weird mobile and Facebook games that add an energy-use mechanism, so you collect "gems" and need to recharge them to do the searches.
This... this does not look like it has any hidden object features at all. Nothing in the trailer (which involves "driving through spooky empty town at night") or the screencaps implies there are any search-for-items scenes. This might be a point-and-click adventure, or it could be a combat-survival game where you have to find weapons, but mostly it looks like a walking sim.
The publisher's other game is a combat-heavy MMORPG with microtransactions; it's a year older and pretty much everyone who tried it, hates it. I suspect the only reason ONotR isn't full of hate-reviews is that nobody buys walking-sim HO games just because they show in in the queue. The walking-sim and HO fans, like me, tend to be more selective than MMO players who will grab anything under $10 with the right keywords.
Violent MMORPG players are not (necessarily) less interested in quality, but their ideas of what "quality" means is different. "Has no real plot" is often not a strong negative; "has great shoot-em-up scenes" can outweigh that. For the walking sim people, there has to be a reason to get this game and not just replay Gone Home or Home Is Where One Starts. Both of those are charming. This? This is not charming. This looks like, at best, the opening act of a real game.
Discovery S2 E5 - Saints of Imperfection
Feb. 16th, 2019 03:18 pmkoreVery quick delayed allcapsy reaction after a second viewing:
NOW THAT WAS MY SHOW
( Matter can neither be created nor destroyed in an isolated system )
tl;dr I liked "Obol for Charon" a whole lot, loved this one to bits and pieces. I am HOPEFUL. (Speaking of "Obol," Sonequa Martin-Green is marvelous, but I dunno how Doug Jones manages to be heartbreaking through twenty pounds of ridiculous makeup. SirPatStewACTING.gif)
Everything having to do with New Fake Spock: I still don't fucking care.
NOW THAT WAS MY SHOW
( Matter can neither be created nor destroyed in an isolated system )
tl;dr I liked "Obol for Charon" a whole lot, loved this one to bits and pieces. I am HOPEFUL. (Speaking of "Obol," Sonequa Martin-Green is marvelous, but I dunno how Doug Jones manages to be heartbreaking through twenty pounds of ridiculous makeup. SirPatStewACTING.gif)
Everything having to do with New Fake Spock: I still don't fucking care.
Quotes of the Day
Feb. 16th, 2019 03:02 pmmuccamukkThe only power adequate to stop tyranny and destruction is civil society, which is the great majority of us when we remember our power and come together. The job begins with opposition to specific instances of destruction, but it is not ended until we have made deep systemic changes and recommitted ourselves, not just as a revolution, because revolutions don't last, but as a civil society with values of equality, democracy, inclusion, full participation—a radical e pluribus unum, plus compassion. This work is always, first and last, storytelling work, or what some of my friends call "the battle of the story." Building, remembering, retelling, celebrating our own stories is part of our work.— Rebecca Solnit, "In Praise of Indirect Consequences"
This work will only matter if it's sustained. To sustain it, people have to believe that the myriad small, incremental actions matter. That they matter even when the consequences aren't immediate or obvious. They must remember that often when you fail at your immediate objective—to block a nominee or a pipeline or to pass a bill—that, even then, you may have changed the whole framework in ways that make broader change more possible. You may change the story or the rules, give tools, templates or encouragement to future activists, and make it possible for those around you to persist in their efforts.
To believe matters—well we can't see the future, but we have the past. Which gives us patterns, models, parallels, principles, and resources; stories of heroism, brilliance, and persistence, and the deep joy to be found in doing the work that matters. With those in hand, we can seize the possibilities and begin to make hopes into actualities.
Some history-making is intentional; much of it is accidental. People make history when they scale a mountain, ignite a bomb, or refuse to move to the back of the bus. But they also make history by keeping diaries, writing letters, or embroidering initials on linen sheets. History is a conversation and sometimes a shouting match between present and past, though often the voices we most want to hear are barely audible. People make history by passing on gossip, saving old records, and by naming rivers, mountains, and children. Some people leave only their bones, though bones too make a history when someone notices.— Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History
How is this hard?
Feb. 16th, 2019 11:33 ammuccamukkBook:
Book: *spends the seven paragraphs immediately following sketching out the origins and conditions of slavery in America.*
(Okay, the prose is not the best, but one idea follows another. GENIUS! Give the man a GG!)
The previous book, The Great Cowboy Strike, was a 240-page tribute to a need for stronger editorial control in small publishing houses. Non-fiction is not in fact written via a process of vomiting facts onto a page and then not organising your ideas or providing any kind of narrative at all.
To comprehend the events that had brought Anderson and international attention to Osgoode Hall that cool December morning, we must understand slavery in America.
Book: *spends the seven paragraphs immediately following sketching out the origins and conditions of slavery in America.*
(Okay, the prose is not the best, but one idea follows another. GENIUS! Give the man a GG!)
The previous book, The Great Cowboy Strike, was a 240-page tribute to a need for stronger editorial control in small publishing houses. Non-fiction is not in fact written via a process of vomiting facts onto a page and then not organising your ideas or providing any kind of narrative at all.
WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 16 -- Saturday
Feb. 16th, 2019 01:09 pmlinaewen posting in writethisfanficHello on Saturday! What kind of a writing day has it been so far today -- or if today hasn't gotten going yet, how did you fare yesterday?
- I thought about my fic once or twice
- I wrote
- I did some planning and/or research
- I edited
- I've sent my fic off to my beta
- I posted today!
- I'm taking a break
- I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment
Saturday Discussion - Today is a good day for talking about general writing topics or posting snippets of what you are currently working on. Feel free to share what you are working on, or whatever is on your mind with your writing today!
- I thought about my fic once or twice
- I wrote
- I did some planning and/or research
- I edited
- I've sent my fic off to my beta
- I posted today!
- I'm taking a break
- I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment
Saturday Discussion - Today is a good day for talking about general writing topics or posting snippets of what you are currently working on. Feel free to share what you are working on, or whatever is on your mind with your writing today!
Various Visual Media Reviews, mostly short
Feb. 16th, 2019 09:00 ammuccamukkHaven't done one of these in a couple months. Don't seem to be watching a lot of tv/movies that's not retreads for fic, or comfort rewatching.
She-Ra: The Princesses of Power Season One
Really enjoyed it, but have zero fannish feels. I am looking forward to seeing where the story goes over the next four seasons.
Doctor Who: "Resolution"
This was an episode that existed. Felt like 30-minutes of plot stretched into an hour of episode. Liked Ryan's dad. Did not like the oddly sexual tentacle monster. The Doctor grandstanding was good. Want to own the scarf. (Does the bbc shop sell them? ETA: No.) Hope next series has more guest writers.
The Innocents: 1x01 "The Start of Us"
Nenya and I were calling this "The Hot Ux Show" because one of the leads was in Doctor Who. The title of the show is actually The Innøcents, which I believe is meant to make me think of Nordic thrillers, and mostly makes me laugh. This is a Netflix thing about a couple of teenagers, one of whom probably has super powers, on the run from creepy parents, creepy secret organisations, and creepiness generally. Abandoned due to too much threatening looming and bad lighting, and not caring about teenagers as a rule.
(I'm realising that if the main characters of a show are under 20, my chances of giving a shit about them is much lower.)
Our Kind of Traitor (2016)
*sighs* So I was stuck on shithole island with nothing else to do but watch this movie, and I still ended up skimming through scenes towards the end. I don't know how different this is from the book, and I usually like le Carré, but this wasn't doing it for me. I was watching for Damian Lewis (I was promised he doesn't play a rapist in this one, and instead he played a Sad Father out for Revenge), and he was enjoyable in a quietly competent with an RP accent kind of way. Though even Lewis got stuck with one of those macho threaten the badguy by telling him your actual plan scenes. Stellan Skarsgård was clearly having a lot of fun as an utterly over the top and terrified mobster, and it was a very pretty movie, but the main plot was so boring, omg!
The central character was Ewan McGregor playing a meek and failed husband to power lawyer Naomie Harris (If you're thinking I'd rather be watching a movie where Naomie Harris's character was the lead, you're guessing correctly). Over the course of the movie, he finds that the core of his character is that Modest Bravery that Is Typical of the British Character. There's a scene where he gets in a physical fight to protect a woman (there actually several of these scenes), and Harris sees him do it, and then after being A Frigid Bitch before (because he was cheating on her!) gently takes his hand. Readers, my eyes rolled so hard that they fell out of my head and bounced off the table onto the floor. I'm willing to take that kind of character if he's played by Ralph Fiennes, but McGregor doesn't have the chops for it.
Ocean's Eight (2018)
As with previous Oceans movies, this one coasted entirely on rule of cool and the charm of an incredibly charming cast. I enjoyed it immensely, laughed a lot, and have several ships. I hope they make more with this cast.
She-Ra: The Princesses of Power Season One
Really enjoyed it, but have zero fannish feels. I am looking forward to seeing where the story goes over the next four seasons.
Doctor Who: "Resolution"
This was an episode that existed. Felt like 30-minutes of plot stretched into an hour of episode. Liked Ryan's dad. Did not like the oddly sexual tentacle monster. The Doctor grandstanding was good. Want to own the scarf. (Does the bbc shop sell them? ETA: No.) Hope next series has more guest writers.
The Innocents: 1x01 "The Start of Us"
Nenya and I were calling this "The Hot Ux Show" because one of the leads was in Doctor Who. The title of the show is actually The Innøcents, which I believe is meant to make me think of Nordic thrillers, and mostly makes me laugh. This is a Netflix thing about a couple of teenagers, one of whom probably has super powers, on the run from creepy parents, creepy secret organisations, and creepiness generally. Abandoned due to too much threatening looming and bad lighting, and not caring about teenagers as a rule.
(I'm realising that if the main characters of a show are under 20, my chances of giving a shit about them is much lower.)
Our Kind of Traitor (2016)
*sighs* So I was stuck on shithole island with nothing else to do but watch this movie, and I still ended up skimming through scenes towards the end. I don't know how different this is from the book, and I usually like le Carré, but this wasn't doing it for me. I was watching for Damian Lewis (I was promised he doesn't play a rapist in this one, and instead he played a Sad Father out for Revenge), and he was enjoyable in a quietly competent with an RP accent kind of way. Though even Lewis got stuck with one of those macho threaten the badguy by telling him your actual plan scenes. Stellan Skarsgård was clearly having a lot of fun as an utterly over the top and terrified mobster, and it was a very pretty movie, but the main plot was so boring, omg!
The central character was Ewan McGregor playing a meek and failed husband to power lawyer Naomie Harris (If you're thinking I'd rather be watching a movie where Naomie Harris's character was the lead, you're guessing correctly). Over the course of the movie, he finds that the core of his character is that Modest Bravery that Is Typical of the British Character. There's a scene where he gets in a physical fight to protect a woman (there actually several of these scenes), and Harris sees him do it, and then after being A Frigid Bitch before (because he was cheating on her!) gently takes his hand. Readers, my eyes rolled so hard that they fell out of my head and bounced off the table onto the floor. I'm willing to take that kind of character if he's played by Ralph Fiennes, but McGregor doesn't have the chops for it.
Ocean's Eight (2018)
As with previous Oceans movies, this one coasted entirely on rule of cool and the charm of an incredibly charming cast. I enjoyed it immensely, laughed a lot, and have several ships. I hope they make more with this cast.
Painting
Feb. 16th, 2019 07:12 ammarthawellsSo yesterday I had a doctor's appointment and then spent the rest of the day painting our guestroom. It had been a soft yellow for quite a few years, and that was okay, but the walls had been really scraped up and it was just looking really bad. It's a very bright room so I tried something different and painted it a fairly dark blue. It took me from about 11:30 or so to 4:00, but it looks really good, even without the furniture and everything in place. I have a ton of touch-up to do and I need to re-paint the white trim, but I should be able to get that done this weekend.
#ThanksOppy
Feb. 15th, 2019 05:36 pmkoremelannen reminded me -- OMG, remember when people made NASA rover (and other) accounts on LJ?Opportunity M. Rover -
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
opportunitygrrlStardust -
stardustboySpirit -
spiritroverGravity Probe B -
gravity_probe_bHubble Telescope -
hubbletelescopeGeostationary Weather Satellites -
goes_satMars 3 -
mars3 (This one went all out: 'I am Mars 3, superior space exploration technology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. With Comrade PROP-M, I explore Mars for the greater glory of the Soviet People and to undermine the thinly veiled attempts at interplanetary oppression by the capitalist United States and their "Viking" missions. For Comrade Secretary Brezhnev, for Comrade Lenin, I advance, inspired by the Beautiful Socialist Cause!')Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer -
fuse_satMars Beagle -
mars_beagleSolar and Heliospheric Observatory -
soho_satVoyager -
voyager_at_90auThat's all the ones I could find. I wonder who made them.
And there are official(?) Twitter accounts:
Curiosity -
Spirit and Oppy -
(I thought there were more?) Also, some beautiful art from Twitter.
Gamer zine: DIRGE
Feb. 15th, 2019 05:30 pmelf
I'm gonna be in a zine.
Well, if it funds, I'll be in a zine. (Maybe it'll be a zine later if it doesn't fund? I dunno.) It's a zine for contributors who aren't straight-cis-white-dudes:
We need more diverse games that take us places we never even knew that we wanted to go. We need more diverse voices. Having a diverse range of ideas will keep the industry alive and vibrant. Ten years from now role-playing games will look much different than they do today and encouraging creators to embrace that evolution will be important.Be nice to me, folks; this is the first time I've sent off my work to a total stranger to be published. Presumably, I get paid for this, although the details are fuzzy right now.
I'll have a short story about my goblins. Maybe an essay about goblin society, depending on space constraints.
The Kickstarter campaign runs until the morning of March 3; it's about halfway funded.
Things I am not currently posting about:
Feb. 15th, 2019 05:59 pmmelannenfanfic I read this week, even though I really like doing those posts, and
novembermond is hosting fanfic friday to encourage people to do that and share it, because I looked back over my AO3 history for the week, and nope it's too embarrassing to share;this other "study" that showed up on pinboard about how social media is bad for you, which I was thinking about doing a bonus science teardown of, except it's such bad science there isn't even anything to tear down, so I'm just going to link to Bad PR instead;
a post about putting favorite characters on "too cool for school/just wants to be a good boy" axes spun off from
china_shop's very scientific guardian poll because my attempt at doing it spun off into thoughts on power/race/gender vs. tropes vs. sf settings that play with both, and why black panther is so great; and anyway that's too much work to write about;the javascript trope sorter that going around vs. the same list on my trope sorter that I posted the day before it turned up
the fanfic I'm currently trying to finish which was supposed to be on the "write a quick ending and call it done" list, hahaha
hats, pictures of hats, why I own so many hats, and konmari, because I haven't gotten to the point in the reorganizing project where I am on to hats yet
next steps in nonfiction library reshelving project, begun two years ago
the martian, welcome to mars,
opportunitygrrl, and how humans are so human about people stranded on marswhy every attempt I make to use markdown to do easy lists in DW entries fails
work bullshit, because auugh
more thoughts about into the spiderverse inspired by listening to the spiderverse soundtrack on my commute inspired by work bullshit
weighted blankets vs. blankets that just happens to be weighty because I would have to have made my bed first
this unrelated playlist I'm suddenly working on\
further bookmarklet updates
the current state of the New Septic Tank saga
the half-finished december meme post I'm supposed to be posting next
probably I will add to this list as I remember more things
Signal Boost: HBO War Week 2019
Feb. 15th, 2019 11:57 ammuccamukkeasycotroopers posted: HBO War Week 2019
HBO War Week is the first of what we hope to make an annual prompt meme. Each day of one consecutive week is dedicated to a one-word prompt. Prompts can be filled any way you like, be it fanart, fic, edits, gifsets, or anything else you can think of. All types and ratings of fanwork are welcome, as long as they have relevance to one or more series from the HBO War fandom (Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Generation Kill). Crossovers, AUs, and fusions are welcome.
what I'm reading
Feb. 15th, 2019 09:36 amkoreWe are all hostages of time. We each have the same number of minutes and hours to live within a day, yet to me it didn't feel equally doled out. My illness brought me such an abundance of time that time was nearly all I had. My friends had so little time that I often wished I could give them what time I could not use. It was perplexing how in losing health I had gained something so coveted but to so little purpose.
....my friends were golden threads randomly appearing in the monotonous fabric of my days. Each visit was a window that opened momentarily into the life I had one known, always falling shut before I could make my way back through. The visits were like dream from which I awoke once more alone.
- The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, Elisabeth Tova Bailey (2010)
(A beautifully written, charming, short book which is in no way slight, despite its size and subject matter. She really knows what it is like to live in the country of the sick, the "land of counterpane" as RLB Stevenson called it: "Given the ease with which health infuses life with meaning and purpose, it is shocking how swiftly illness steals away those certainties. It was all I could do to get through each moment, and each moment felt like an endless hour, yet days slipped silently past. Time unused and only endured still vanishes, as if time itself is starving, and each day is swallowed whole, leaving no crumbs, no memory, no trace at all.")
Review and excerpts
Related essay: "A Green World Deep in Winter: The Bedside Terrarium"
ETA Another quote:
There is a certain depth of illness that is piercing in its isolation; the only rule of existence is uncertainty, and the only movement is the passage of time. One cannot bear to live through another loss of function, and sometimes friends and family cannot bear to watch. An unspoken, unbridgeable divide may widen. Even if you are still who you were, you cannot actually fully be who you are. Sometimes the people you know well withdraw, and then even the person you know as yourself begins to change.
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 15 -- Friday
Feb. 15th, 2019 07:34 amlinaewen posting in writethisfanficHello on Friday! Looking back at the day today -- or yesterday, if today hasn't gotten going yet -- how did it go?
- I thought about my fic once or twice
- I wrote
- I did some planning and/or research
- I edited
- I've sent my fic off to my beta
- I posted today!
- I'm taking a break
- I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment
Looking forward, how are you planning to spend your weekend?
- I'm going to make up for not writing all week by having a writing marathon
- I'm going to keep writing at my current rate and see how it goes
- I have other plans, but I might have time to get some writing in
- I'm going to take a break from writing
- I thought about my fic once or twice
- I wrote
- I did some planning and/or research
- I edited
- I've sent my fic off to my beta
- I posted today!
- I'm taking a break
- I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment
Looking forward, how are you planning to spend your weekend?
- I'm going to make up for not writing all week by having a writing marathon
- I'm going to keep writing at my current rate and see how it goes
- I have other plans, but I might have time to get some writing in
- I'm going to take a break from writing
Chocolate Box Reveals
Feb. 14th, 2019 10:08 pmmuccamukkBEHOLD MY GIFT!
Frozen for an Age (6616 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sinbad (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Gunnar/Sinbad (Sinbad)
Characters: Sinbad (Sinbad), Gunnar (Sinbad)
Additional Tags: Bad Guys Made Them Do It, Vikings, Guilt, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slavery, Escape
Summary: He had a plan—he always did, sooner or later. But this one felt as cruel as anything he could have imagined.
Seriously, someone wrote me super angsty Sinbad/Gunnar vikings made them do it that's all about h/c and perfect characterisation. Someone is the best.
Frozen for an Age (6616 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sinbad (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Gunnar/Sinbad (Sinbad)
Characters: Sinbad (Sinbad), Gunnar (Sinbad)
Additional Tags: Bad Guys Made Them Do It, Vikings, Guilt, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slavery, Escape
Summary: He had a plan—he always did, sooner or later. But this one felt as cruel as anything he could have imagined.
Seriously, someone wrote me super angsty Sinbad/Gunnar vikings made them do it that's all about h/c and perfect characterisation. Someone is the best.
Fake People
Feb. 14th, 2019 08:18 pmelfHow to recognize fake AI-generated images - specifically, fake photographs - is an interesting article. The short version: Straight hair doesn't look like hair; watch for asymmetry (despite the whims of fashion, most people wear earrings that match) and weird background images; look at hair that doesn't flow like hair and teeth that don't seem to line up correctly; check patterns on clothes because AIs are terrible at creating realistic weave patterns.
And you may need these skills because... This person does not exist! This is an AI-generated photo. (Refresh for another one.)
Endless userpics for fake Twitter accounts! Less skeevy purpose: random character photos for gaming purposes.
And you may need these skills because... This person does not exist! This is an AI-generated photo. (Refresh for another one.)
Endless userpics for fake Twitter accounts! Less skeevy purpose: random character photos for gaming purposes.