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In my reading of Game Of Thrones fic, I developed an urge for fic where Elia Martell Targaryen (why some married women are only referred to by their maiden names and some are always only referred to by their married names, I do not know) and her kids don't die. It would be interesting to see what it would change!, I thought. Surely it doesn't need to change a huge amount necessarily, but it would great to see it!

And so I went looking and found a bunch and it turns out.

It turns out that when you want fic where legitimate claimants to a throne survive, you get a ton of fic about Targaryen restoration. You get so many fics that are love letters to the Targaryens.

I don't care about Targaryen restoration! I don't like the Targaryens and see no reason why I should! (Except for Aemon, the Targaryen maester who is still alive at the Wall, I allow that he's really intruiging.)

Also I will admit the first time I saw the pairing of Jon Snow/Rhaenys Targaryen, I had a full blown "why? why the fuck?"

But yeah I get it, if Jon Snow is her long lost half-brother, then it's true Targaryen heritage to ship them. I don't see it, I don't even like the ship, and it's interesting how I have no problem whatsoever with Jon Snow/Sansa Stark, who were raised as half-siblings, but my reaction to Jon/Rhaenys is "I'm completely uninterested in reading this". Also I'm not really into Jon/Daenerys.

Maybe it's the whole enforced-incest of the Targaryens? IDK.

But also.

Reading the fic.

Okay so I am never going to read the books, I have long since been warned off from all the grimdark rape, and I am never going to watch the show, ditto.

I did not realize how small the amount of time the Targaryens have actually been ruling in Westeros. They only showed up like 300 years ago???? In a setting where people are like "my family has been ruling in this one spot for 10,000 years" or whatever, the Targaryens are new kids on the block who showed up with dragons, conquered everyone, had several (!) really bad rulers, constantly married each other (in violation of the local religion, and no one else was allowed to copy their behavior because they're special), seemed to do very little marrying out to the locals because who needs to shore up support, dealt with civil war/rebellion, lost their dragons, had a really fucking awful last king, and then, surprise, they were overthrown.

And you want those folks back? You are nostalgic for the wonderful days of the people who showed up five minutes ago and were generally terrible?

Also blowing my mind was, okay, I had been told over and over again that Baratheons all look a certain way since time immemorial and so that's why obviously if you look into it, Cersei's kids can't be Robert's.

But the Baratheons were founded as a new house by a Targaryen bastard. The looks of the Baratheons are the opposite of the Targaryens. Also this is also only like 300 years ago, and Westeros seems to enjoy a society where there are several pathways to ensure that only one or two of your sons are allowed to have children (maesters, the wall, endless wars).

So all this is kind of amusing from a "reading fic without knowing canon" perspective, the slow unfolding of, oh my god, what is going on in this canon. But also the mismatch of people who have actually read/watch this canon and what they want to write (Targaryen restoration, Targaryen incest) vs. me who has not done that, and what I want to read.

But actually what I want to write is a fic where Jon Snow actually is Ned Stark's bastard. Ah, yes, I see here that "Ned Stark is very honorable". Uh-huh. Well, he had an affair with a woman who is a sex worker/laundress/woman who was interested before his marriage and then, because he is so honorable, he took the child in and raised him, rather than leaving Jon Snow to live in poverty.

This explains nothing about why Ned Stark wouldn't tell Jon Snow about this mother but I'm sure we can come up with something (the mother was already married? who cares).

But I'm not writing this, entirely because I have no idea of a plot to go along with this. Oh and also I'm not reading/watching this, but I wrote an MDZS drabble without reading the book/finishing the show.

runpunkrun

Kentucky Route Zero is a creative and thoughtful interactive story about debt, grief, and the relentless march of capitalism, but also creation, repair, and community. There are enough dialogue choices that I felt like I was actually engaging with the characters, who all have their own thing going on, and you're even given some choices about who you can hang out with or where you go next. Some choices will give you a deeper engagement with the story and some just add further texture to this world.

Because it's a story more than a game, you can explore the environment and talk to the people you meet and accomplish tasks you're assigned, but it generally plays out the same regardless of your choices. There aren't any puzzles to solve except for the mystery of wtf is going on, and you'll do most of that on your own time.

The stylized art contributes to the mystery because you'll want to know more, but can't. You view this world from a set distance and because you can't zoom in to inspect the details, there's a kind of remove to it, like you're in a movie and just have to go where it takes you. It's best experienced in a dark room because it's literally too dark to see if there's any light around you.

The story is messy, with the past sliding through the present, and many questions are left unanswered as you attempt to deliver some antiques to an address you can't find. You start out with Conway, a big rectangle of a man, and his old dog, who you can name Blue or Homer—I went with Homer—and along the way you meet people who join you and bring their talents and troubles with them.

The dialogue between the characters slowly reveals their histories and concerns, and at times you can even talk to the dog as a way to talk yourself through what you're thinking. The dog doesn't talk back, but all the other characters have distinct personalities, and I felt like I was building real conversations—and relationships—between them through my choices.

However, I had a real problem with something that happened about halfway through the game that made me feel used, and it colored the rest of the play for me. I could have just stopped there, at the end, and parted with it unhappy, but I couldn't shake the feeling I was missing something and so the next night I started it up again and gave it a second chance, with Blue.

I still have a big issue with that aspect of the game (it involves alcohol, an alcoholic, and a choice that isn't a choice), but my second playthrough picked up a lot of things I didn't see the first time, and I'm glad I gave it a second try. It's definitely a unique story, filled with wondrous things.

Recommended, probably, if you like worldbuilding, games with low stakes—you can't really make mistakes here, though I somehow managed—interesting characters, found family, and a world that's punched through with mysteries: abandoned mines, hidden caves, a moldy computer, an underground river, and of course the secret highway—Kentucky Route Zero.

I've got content notes down below, feel free to ask me for more details. I played this on my Android tablet through my Netflix subscription.

Now for my chronological thoughts as I was playing. Vague spoilers for the game throughout.

( Homer )

( Blue )

Contains: (metaphorical) amputation (maybe); alcohol and alcoholism; debt, foreclosure; dementia and the impending loss of an old friend; repeated references to the death of a child; dead horses, on screen; an old dog who has seen better days but keeps on seeing them; some sounds (mainly discordant electronic ones) made me very anxious, but there's nothing abrupt, loud, or jump-scary.

Accessibility: The game has white text on a black background, which you can't change, but you can change the size of the text and remove some glitch effects. You also can control FPS on the video and turn on captions for the audio.

sineala

What I Just Finished Reading

Once again, nothing. I have had a migraine for 48 hours and counting. (It comes and goes, which is why I am typing this post now. But you can tell I have one, because I clearly don't understand narrative enough to be reading comics and/or am too tired to type much.)

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Fantastic Four #4, Ultimate Spider-Man #22, Ultimate Spider-Man Incursion #5, Ultimates #17 )

What I'm Reading Next

Hey, whoever it was who wanted me to review the sequel(s) to Fourth Wing and I said I wasn't going to do that because only the first book was on Kindle Unlimited and the library ebook waitlist was long and there was no way I was paying money for anything in this series?

Yeah, so books 2 and 3 are on Kindle Unlimited now, so at some point when I can stand to read lengthy original fiction books again (I do not know when this will be) I am willing to read and review terrible fantasy books because I love dragons too much for my own good. Clearly.

So this will probably not be the next thing, but it's on the list.

Current Mood: exhausted

beatrice_otter

I was re-reading some old MCU fic, and in the fic Steve says that Bucky was named for President Buchanan. Which Doylistically he was, but ... there's no reason he has to be from an in-universe perspective.

"James" was an incredibly common first name. The Social Security Administration publishes lists of how popular various names have been over the years; in the 1910s, when James and Steve were born, "James" was the third most popular name for boys. 275,000 baby boys were named "James" in that decade, which, given the size of the population, means that there were a lot of James' everywhere. Very common name.

Ah, but what of Buchanan, you say! Surely there could be no reason to give someone the middle name "Buchanan" if it's not naming him after someone famous! ... and no, actually. While people sometimes were named after famous people or political leaders (just like today), there's actually a more common reason to do it. It was a fairly common thing in the 19th Century for people to have a "last" name as a middle name, often their mother's maiden name, and people still do that today sometimes. Steve's middle name is "Grant", for example; "Grant" was a relatively common surname but (at the time) extremely uncommon as a first name. Steve was almost certainly given the middle name "Grant" to honor someone whose last name was Grant; it was probably his mother's maiden name. Buchanan is a relatively common Scottish name; it's not one of the top ten or anything, but the Buchanan clan is one of respectable size and power. In the same way, there is a very good chance that James was given the middle name "Buchanan" to honor someone whose last name was "Buchanan," quite probably his mother. And for a first name they gave him the third most common name for boys, and maybe didn't realize that there was a President by that name. Especially if they were immigrants, or weren't very well educated. (A lot of people in that generation had only a grade school education, or maybe a middle school education; only 10% of all 14-17 year olds attended high school in the US in 1900; there were still states where even elementary school wasn't required until 1918!) James Buchanan is not one of the Presidents that people talk about much outside history classes, and even then, a lot of history classes don't go into a lot of detail on him besides "last President before the Civil War." Yes, he was a bad President and one of the reasons the US Civil War became inevitable, but there were a lot of factors that were a lot more important.

I think "we liked the name James, and we wanted to honor his mother's family by giving him their last name as a middle name" is a far more likely scenario than consciously deciding to name their kid after President James Buchanan.

On a completely different note, if you want to write an AU where Bucky escaped Hydra early and made a new life for himself ... there's a late-20th-Century composer named James Barnes. He wrote concert band music. Here are some of his pieces: Symphonic Overture, Symphony No. 2, Third Symphony ("The Tragic"), Fantasy Variations on a Theme by Nicolo Paganini, Alvamar Overture.

trillingstar

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azurelunatic

Today Belovedest had to bust the teenagers for playing "the penis game" in the library.

[You say the word increasingly loudly, in turns, until someone loses the game by being told to cut it out or being asked to leave.]

The weather's getting colder, but I have evolved myself an outfit to wear outdoors for lounging while the weather's in the high 50s F -- my slightly ratty plush bathrobe underneath my much more windproof corduroy floor length duster. And the ta'al fingerless mgloves Mama knitted for me, in rainbow stripes. They're just the thing for keeping my hands warm while I'm on the phone.

I've discovered I do enjoy cauliflower "wings", even though I don't enjoy chicken wings.

The scooter has arrived. I am plotting how best to bedazzle it. It does have its own USB power outlet! It also has head and tail lights. It's better for approaching counters than the wheelchair, since the tiller is so close to me.

norabombay points out that given all the poorly supervised international visitors who have been in and out of the White House, they're going to have to take it down to the studs when they refit it for #48 to use. So the general devastation in the East Wing is small potatoes as far as outrage fodder. And anywhere that the last major update was 1947-ish must really need some yanking out of the century of the fruitbat.

My legs are doing better. In part this is because I stuck ibuprofen in my nightly pill box, since I'd been waking up with aching legs and shouting knees pretty consistently.

Medication: the medication definitely has some activity. The main activity seems to be that my appetite has been fading in and out of "did we recently have chemo?!" mode. I'm tempted to give myself a week off every few weeks.

Makeup: currently waiting on a liquid formulation of the eyeshadow that promised to match the eyeliner, because the color is fantastic and I want it in a wide brush. I guess the powder can work for blending it out. (The powder just does not want to cooperate and layer on thick enough to get the color shift effect, even with a wet brush.) My skin continues to behave itself better than my ability to use foundation; there are only a few spots where I want to color correct if I'm doing Full Battle Makeup.

Games: keeping up with all the Gems of War events is sometimes tiring, but it does make winding down my brain at night much easier than other things I could be doing.

Perfume: went through my massive perfume spreadsheet and filled in the formulation for all the BPAL (which is the same except for that one spray). Cracked myself up at some of the descriptions I've left. One particular exceedingly long-lasting one
( Read more... )

morgandawn

Fandom History Rescue Help Needed: Edgewood Maryland (1 hr north of Baltimore)

A Star Trek fan needs help retrieving her fandom history collection from her apartment now that she is in a nursing home. It consists of correspondence and fanzines dealing with Star Trek and Sime Gen fandom history in the 1970s and 1980s. If there are any volunteers willing to help sort and box for shipping, please send me a DM or email me at morgandawn @ gmail.com

morgandawn

A few months ago Phoenix fans helped rescue a fanzine collection and were in the process of boxing the collection for shipping. The organizer/volunteer has been ill and we're looking for volunteers in the Phoenix area willing and able to help with the final push of boxing and shipping the zines to their final home. Please send me a message or email morgandawn @ gmail.com

runpunkrun

Published in 2010, updated with a new preface in 2020, and still very much worth reading in 2025. As Alexander says in the new preface:

In many respects, the core thesis of this book is more relevant today than it was ten years ago. It is now easier to see the patterns, the cycles, the predictable rhetoric, and the ways in which systems of racial and social control adapt, morph, rebound, and are reborn.

Alexander argues that the criminal justice system, specifically through the War on Drugs, perpetuates a racial hierarchy that's replaced Jim Crow as the dominant system of control over people—especially men—of color, just as Jim Crow once emerged to perform many of the same functions as slavery.

She briefly reviews the history of racialized social control in the United states, describes the structure of mass incarceration with a focus on the War on Drugs, looks at the role of race in the U.S. criminal justice system, considers how the caste system operates once people are released from prison, explores the many parallels between mass incarceration and Jim Crow, and reflects on what acknowledging the presence of the New Jim Crow means for the future of civil rights advocacy.

It's a moving, well-developed argument written in plain language, and if you're up for it here in the midst of the ever increasing horrors, I highly recommend it. Be sure to get the 10th Anniversary Edition.

beatrice_otter

I use the same name everywhere so I am

beatrice_otter on AO3. Treats are awesome.

I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am not inspired that way." This letter is long with lots of suggestions and preferences if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for a long time and am usually very happy with my gifts.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

I have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.

General Likes and Dislikes

Other things to keep in mind:

I like stuff that takes side characters and puts them center-stage, especially when the characters and/or actors are marginalized. I enjoy seeing them come to life.
I don't like it when marginalized characters get relegated to the sidekick/supporting/helper role so that it can be All About The White Dude.
I like it when female characters are more than just the Strong Female Character(tm) or The Nurturer.
I like fluff
I like angst with a happy ending
I like stories that make me think about things in a new way.
I like to know that culture matters to people, and to see how different cultures interact and where the clashes are.
I like unreliable narrators.
I like acknowledgment that different people can have different points of view without either of them being wrong.
I like stories that engage with problematic aspects of the source, and which deal with privilege in one way or another instead of sweeping it under the rug.
Worldbuilding is my jam, I am pretty much always up for explorations of why the world is the way it is. I love hearing about the economics, the politics, the religion, the clothing, the history, the folklore, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to know why it matters--how is all this cultural background stuff affecting the characters, the plot, everything. You don't have to do deep worldbuilding, but I'll enjoy it if you do.
I don't like it when plots hinge on characters being selectively stupid, or selectively unable to communicate. Like, if they are stupid or a himbo or whatever in general, or have problems communicating in general, that's fine! Or if they canonically have a blind spot in that area, again, it's fine. But if it's just "the only way I can think of for this plot to work is if the character spontaneously and temporarily loses half their intelligence and competence," then I'm going to spend the rest of the fic wondering why the character didn't just ____?
I like AUs, but not complete setting AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, and especially not mundane AUs--nothing where you keep characters but drop most of the worldbuilding). I like fork-in-the-road type AUs, where one thing is different and the changes all result from that one thing, and you explore what might have been if such-and-such happened.
I like the concept of sedoretu marriages.
I like historical AUs, but only when the author actually knows the history period in question and does thoughtful worldbuilding to meld actual culture of the time with the canon.
Crackfic is really hit and miss for me, sometimes I love it and sometimes I can't stand it. Basically, if it's the characters we know and love in a ludicrous situation, that's great. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me.

I like plotty, gen stories, and plotty stories in general. I don't care for explicit sex, particularly when it's just thrown in for teh porn. I'm asexual; a lot of the time I don't even bother to read the sex scenes. Romance is awesome (as long as both are in character and the romantic plot doesn't hinge on one or both of them being an idiot). I love it when friendship is held up as important and not secondary to romantic relationships and blood ties.

Please no incest or darkfic. I define "darkfic" as stuff where there's a lot of suffering and no hope even at the end and all the characters are terrible. Angst with a happy ending is fine, I enjoy it, but there's gotta be a payoff. Even an ambiguous ending is fine! But there has to be some note of grace or redemption or hope somewhere, it can't just be "people are awful and the world sucks, the end." I define incest as siblings and/or parents, cousins don't count.

I love outsider perspectives and academic takes on things. In-universe meta (newspaper articles, academic monographs--especially with the sort of snarky feuding common in actual real-world academia, social media feeds in current day or future worlds) is awesome.

Also, I'm picky about European historical clothing details. You don't have to talk about it at all! In fact, if you don't know much about historical clothing, I would prefer if you didn't mention it at all. My pet peeve is corsets: no, they weren't a restrictive tool of the patriarchy, no, they didn't interfere with most women's daily lives, no, most women weren't wearing them so tight they couldn't breathe.

I like religion but I'm picky about it. Basically, Christianity is deeply weird compared to most other religions, and a lot of people whose only experience with religion is living in a culturally-Christian nation assume that what they know about Christianity is some sort of universal principle of What Religion Is Like, and that's just not the case. For example, in Christianity what you believe is more important than what you do. This is not to say we Christians don't teach and practice Christian ethics or have rituals we are very attached to, but rather that if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter what rituals you participate in or what ethical things you do, you are not a Christian (although you may be a "cultural Christian"). Every Christian group has at least a minimal core theology that members must affirm, but participation in ritual is far less rigidly a requirement. Most other religions rank what you do (both ethically and ritually) as more important than what you believe, and it is often quite possible to be a member in good standing if you participate in the practices and rituals even if you believe none of the teachings. Anyway, point is, if you are doing worldbuilding for a fantasy or SF or otherwise non-Christian religion ... unless it is explicitly a Christian-analogue, it should be different from Christianity. Question your assumptions and see where that leads you, and I will be fascinated and thrilled.

Yuletide Challenges
I am opening this up to the following challenges: Wrapping Paper, Chromatic Yuletide, Transtide, Queering the Tide, Two For One, Three Turtledoves, and Yulebuilding. With Two For One and Yulebuilding, feel free to expand beyond what I've suggested here. I am always up for worldbuilding, and for crossovers with fandoms I've written or requested before.

( Fandom for Robots )

( Peter Wimsey )

( Rivers of London )

( Moana )

( Bruce Springsteen RPF )

( Caprica )

( Sense8 )

( Oh My General )
.

delphi

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vass

~~This is a placeholder. I'll finish the letter after I finish the signup and before assignments go out.~~ I DID IT! First time ever I managed to write this letter before the signup deadline. \o/

Dear Yuletide Author,
Thank you for offering a fandom we matched on. I hope you have a good fic exchange season.

General likes: Worldbuilding. Queer and trans people and polyamory. Gen and shipping are both fine. Bad puns (all puns are bad puns). Dinosaurs. Spaaaaace. AIs (not in the LLM sense!). Non-AI computers. Aliens that are alien. Science! (accurate or cartoony). People working together. Kissing. Co-sleeping. Infodumping is Good, Actually. Experimental formats and/or interactive fiction are welcome.

DNWs: animal harm, sad cats, dementia or terminal illness, rape/noncon, misgendering, ableism.

Fandom-specific

16th Century CE RPF
Characters: Michel de Montaigne
Character Exceptions: My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

( more )

Translation State - Ann Leckie
Characters: Qven, Reet Hluid
Character Exceptions: My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)

( more )

Prophet - Sin Blaché & Helen Macdonald
Characters: Any
Character Exceptions: My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

( more )

the well-meaning mortician and the undead ghoul man whom he cannot embalm (Tumblr post)
Characters: the well-meaning mortician, the undead ghoul man he cannot embalm
Character Exceptions: My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

( more )

Nine Worlds Series - Victoria Goddard
Characters: Aioru, Lazo Mdang, Princess Anastasiya, Quintus Mdang
Character Exceptions: My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)

( more )

And that's all. Thank you again, and have a fun and non-stressful Yuletide!

lannamichaels

I figured out how to hack simchas torah and the needing to eat lunch at a reasonable time problem: pack a lunch and eat it during, after, and on the way home.

Anyway anyone want anything? Drabble, dvd commentary, meta, etc?

These posts don't expire.

I also just typed "these posts don't exist", so good night, night vale, good night.

sineala

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Captain America #4, Iron and Frost #1, One World Under Doom #8 )

What I'm Reading Next

I have read eight books this year. I do not have enough brain to read anything except, apparently, a couple comics a week.

Current Mood: tired

runpunkrun

The Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel, adapted from Maggie Stiefvater's book by Stephanie Williams, illustrated by Sas Milledge with colors by Abel Ko:

The dialogue in this adaptation is faithful to the novel, but perhaps too faithful. I think Williams missed an opportunity to take some of the novel's internal reflection and transform it into dialogue. Like it would have been easy, and told us a lot about both of them, to have Blue lean over to a coworker and mutter, "Check out President Cellphone," when Gansey first walks into Nino's.

That means this is missing a lot of the character work that you get in the novel, like Gansey's utter devotion to the Pig (which I don't think is ever called by name here?). Blue's initial disgust for Gansey also seems much weaker. Oddly, 300 Fox Way is exactly as empty as the novel makes it, with only the three main psychics, and Blue and Calla (briefly) present on the page. That's one thing that would have been easy to show in this visual format, just fill the panels with all those aunts and cousins Blue swears are in the house but who never seem to impact much of anything except the state of the kitchen sink. (Don't tell me the house is crowded and then not show me constant fighting over who gets to use the bathroom. This bothers me every time I read the book.)(Though this does fix Blue's age to match the rest of the series, and I can't tell you how happy I was that her explanation to Adam got cut off before she could say "young.")

As an adaptation, it feels watered down, and I can't judge it as a standalone graphic novel because I've read the book so many times I brought all that with me and also missed the things it left out. Like Gansey's Topsiders, and Blue's weird clothes, and Adam's Coke shirt. Not that any of these things are important on their own, but they tell us something about the characters. That Gansey looks like he came out of a yachting magazine and has about the same amount of understanding about the real world as if he did, and how Blue's punk do-it-yourself ethos applies not just to her clothing and her room, but her approach to life, and that for the psychics, Adam, in that crowd of Raven Boys, is at first only as memorable as the slogan on his t-shirt. The detailed artwork is gorgeous, however, especially the lush colors of Cabeswater, and Ronan's back tattoo is fucking amazing, and I support the decision to make Blue and her family Hispanic because this is a very white story otherwise.

So for me, this is a nice effort, and a pleasant read, and it gets a lot right, but mostly it just made me want to read the book again, as, inevitably, all graphic novel adaptations do. But it might be perfect for reluctant readers or those who prefer graphic novels.

Contains: child abuse and domestic violence; wasps; reference to past suicide attempt; the text is small, thin, and faint enough that it's difficult to read in print.

delphi

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runpunkrun

I was at my desk using the old computer my uncle sent me back in the 90s, typing away, but the keys on keyboard required a lot of force and were hard to use, so I picked up the keyboard to see what kind of cord it had, thinking maybe I could get a new keyboard and plug it in, but the cord wasn't attached to the computer! But it still worked! DUN DUN DUN.

(This dream is based on: When I was in high school, my computery uncle sent me a used Tandy something or other (Tandy 1000, maybe? it had, among other things, a word processing program (DeskMate?) and Sid Meier's Civilization I on it and came with absolutely no documentation), and yesterday one of the keys on my dad's Chromebook was sticky. Now there are two computers that have almost nothing in common.)

((Also, I'm getting better at knowing, emotionally, that the 90s weren't "ten years" ago, but I'm still not going back far enough. My original estimate was twenty years, but no that was literally thirty years ago, dawg.))

delphi

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azurelunatic

There's a new power scooter out, the Golden Buzzaround Carry-On HD. The HD part is important. This is the heavy duty one, which is also first-in-class lithium ion battery scooter. But that's not what this entry is about (and the scheduled arrival date is Tuesday).

Since the scooter was backordered and not going to arrive in time for the Michigan trip, I ordered a (not too expensive for the specs) power wheelchair off Amazon. The choice was partly informed by the advertised shipping time: two days. Plenty of time for it to arrive. And then I watched the shipment crawl over what was clearly ground transport, likely because of the battery. Eventually the package arrival date got down to our departure date. Meanwhile, I was paralyzed with anxiety about the trip, and was barely able to pack. At least I was able to make checklists for when I eventually unfroze on the day of departure.

FedEx said my power chair would arrive between 1 and 3. This was inaccurate, and at some point the forecast switched to "end of day".

When it hadn't arrived by 4, we loaded into the car with my upright (unpowered) walker. At the last minute as we fled out the door, I thought our snack supply looked a little too small and grabbed a random bag to toss a few more things into. As we pulled out of the neighborhood I called the airline accessibility services line to report the change. Which took a little while, as I had to explain that no, I hadn't "changed my mind" about bringing the power wheelchair, the reason I wasn't taking the power wheelchair was because it hadn't arrived yet, so I couldn't take it. At that point I got the appropriate amount of sympathy.

Within the MINUTE I told the very nice customer service person goodbye, Alex spotted the FedEx truck.

By that point Silver and I were on I-5, but with a very nice turn off opportunity. (Silver had taken that specific route because it's a pain in the ass to get over another couple lanes that quickly and in traffic.)

So we went back, we thanked the Bastard profusely and profanely, with the double thumb-tap to the lips (both of us, simultaneously). Silver offloaded the walker and onloaded the chair while I talked to the airline accessibility department again and tried to figure out what the battery voltage was. The footrests fit into the duffel bag with the extra snacks, just as if I had planned it intentionally. I asked Silver to empty my padded tote bag, so we could use it for the battery.

We got to the airport on time for all of that.

I got the best of both worlds: chair coming with me, but since the battery wasn't charged we checked the main body of the chair at the Special Services counter and got wheelchair service through the airport. Security was less of a zoo than usual because we went through the wheelchair lane instead of the endless maze. I got pornoscanned for the first time.

That got us to the gate an hour earlier than we'd intended.

I was very glad to have the power chair with us, as it made some of the bits that would have been excessively strenuous much much better. Silver got used to lifting the thing into the back of their mom's SUV, and eventually we banged our heads on the car less often.

Coming back, it wasn't quite as easy going through security since I was still new at steering the chair and we didn't have the professional chair-pusher to finesse security. (No, not the ateva way.) We gate-checked the chair. I checked in with the two wheelchair-pushers who met us at the Seattle end of things, and assured the one who was waiting for me that I had my chair (as Silver cussed gently at the footrests).

And when we eventually got home, Yellface cussed us both out like I've never seen her cuss before. She was Peeved! That we! Had Abandoned! Her!!!!

I have since decked it out with retroreflective tape, electroluminescent wire, and a miniature disco projector meant for a bike.

lannamichaels

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson (2023): DNF. Not unenjoyable but also not gripping. His prose here was more engaging than the last Sanderson I tried to read, which actually isn't saying much. Also it was short enough that it didn't physically hurt to try to read it, which is another point in its favor. It had a strange tone, not quite funny, not quite satirical. Despite having nothing in common with Princess Bride The Book, it strangely felt like it was trying to be Princess Bride The Book.

Then after DNFing, I flipped to the end to see that, yes, it was trying to riff on the tone of Princess Bride The Book, so I guess it did it well enough that I could be like "...is this trying to be Princess Bride without understanding what makes Princess Bride funny/satirical?" But hey, the intention came through.

The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story by Lemony Snicket (2007): Excellent, hilarious book about a latke that jumps out of the pan while being fried and deals with the fact that that family are the only Jews in the picturesque village full of people celebrating Christmas. Then the latke is eaten. A++, no notes.

I Am Anne Frank by Brad Meltzer (2020): internets, I read this book for content for a 4 year old. I don't even believe in doing that, but here I am. The 4 year old is a big fan of this series, and Somehow, both me and his parents, when getting books from this series out of the library for him, and seeing all the books that there are in the catalog, have not gotten him this one. Then one day he went to the library and picked it out himself. And a lot of the time, he treats getting out books as the joy is just getting them out, not reading them, so I was going to just return this one unread on the logic that he wouldn't remember, and let this problem be his parents problem, but okay, fine, let's read this book and see how bad this would be to read this to him.

I went in fully expecting this to be a Saint Anne book and I was 100% correct. But it's worse than that. Now, this book series, it focuses a lot on the famous person as a kid (because of the target audience), then goes into them doing what makes them famous, and stops before death, and ends with a lovely heartwarming moral lesson for the target audience. This is a problem with Anne Frank, who never did anything notable in her life, because she never had the opportunity, because she was Jewish. There is no "and then I grew up and did the thing that made me famous". There is no "and then I did anything". She has no accomplishments. This already doesn't fit in at all with the other books in the series: those books are about triumphing over adversity, about working hard and accomplishing great things. Anne Frank did not do any of that.

So what can Anne Frank do? Well, you see, she dies and thus teaches you a moral lesson. That's how these books end: they have the person do what makes them famous and then it has a moral lesson for the target audience. The moral lesson of a dead Jewish girl is, *checks notes*, help other people and be kind. The last line of the book is "I am Anne Frank and I believe that people are truly good at heart." Okay. Well, I suspect if you go back in time and ask her in the concentration camp, you may get a different answer. But no one wants to hear that. They want to know that a tragic victim forgave them for it even as she died. No hard feelings!

I've made a metric I call "do they expect any X to read this book/attend this training/watch this video about X". Applicable to many things! Does this book about disability expect anyone with this disability to read it? Does this presentation about mental health problems expect anyone in the audience to have any mental health problems? Does this book about a Jew expect any Jews to read it?

This book is a bit meh on that. (I know the author is Jewish. That's irrelevant to the intended audience.)

But, hey, I had no great expectations anyway.

Anne Frank by Clémentine V. Baron, translated by Catherine Nolan (2018): Gotten out by an older kid at the same time, so the reading for content was less severe, although months ago this kid DNFed the I Survived the Nazi Invasion book really early on because it was too sad (which we were glad of; when she picked it up, we were all like, uh, let us know if you want to talk about it, and then she read for a bit and asked if something really happened, we said yes, and she put the book down), and has complained of nightmares from certain things, so, like, there was some checking the content, but I skimmed it more. On the whole, better than the above book. I think it did a much better job of not flinching at the end. I'd rather read this book to the 4 year old.