SkyTwo

I'm sitting on a pile of 'em, between having Car Wars and Fighting Fantasy books as a kid and backing some of the new KS projects (The Fantasy Trip). Yet I've never tried Ogre or Illuminati, so I feel like I can't even say I'm a definite thumbs-up or down. 🤔

As the mother of twin 16yo boys, she'd quite possibly die before playing video games. XD

But she's a dear about indulging my tabletop game hobby.

Hoping my fiancee's love for it can be parlayed into playing Dungeon Crawl Classics at some point. Wish me luck. ;D

'Minnesota Nice' has gone from punchline to gold standard.

Electrons, by Tasti Box from the album Tasti Box - CDLP001

Electrons... are the vehicles of the brain.

collectivedirection.bandcamp.com/track/electr...

A sign with the admonition (in Japanese) "Smoking prohibited in the halls and elevators." Beneath that in English are the words "No Smorking."

Context:

ARCANA - Malleus' Tarot Deck A tarot deck reimagined through Symbolism, occult imagery, and Dark Nouveau art

@malleusdelic.bsky.social has relaunched their tarot deck project. It is beautiful, it is funded, and they produce work of excellent quality. Don't miss it.

SCIENCE

The Day the Clown Smorked.

A sleepy-ish cat on my lap turns her head to look at me as I'm in an armchair rocheting a multi-color striped blanket square.

And as an aside, taking up Tunisian crochet this year helped me maintain my sanity-- less time spent obsessing over the news, more creative juice to keep up the fight. It's an obvious bit of advice, but also a great excuse to share a photo of Puja.

Copy from an Adam Serwer article in The Atlantic: "When the 18th-century writer Samuel Johnson asked why “we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes,” he was identifying no mere contradiction, but liberty as it was imagined by men who owned other human beings as property. Slaveholders such as John Calhoun saw slavery as inseparable from their own freedom, and they worried that the false doctrine of abolitionism would eliminate that freedom away. “Already it has taken possession of the pulpit, of the schools, and, to a considerable extent, of the press; those great instruments by which the mind of the rising generation will be formed,” Calhoun said. (It seems the “woke mind virus” was telling lies about the great and benevolent institution of American slavery as far back as two centuries ago.) Defending slavery, however, required invasive uses of power, such as banning antislavery literature and returning escaped Black people to bondage. Many white Americans in the 19th century began to understand that the “Slave Power” curtailed their freedoms as well. And this is what many people forget: Systems of domination rarely spread their blessings widely. The Redemption-era revocation of Black freedoms didn’t result in prosperity for white people writ large, but a Gilded Age in which the upper classes gained unfathomable wealth and economic crises left millions destitute."

Celebrate the year's labors. Cherish your loved ones. Rest. Then we join the fight again, more heartened than we were a year ago. And thank you, @adamserwer.bsky.social.

As a cat owner, I feel particularly fortunate to experience this every night.

As political photos go, this is no Conference of Yalta. Yikes.

talkingpointsmemo.com/wp-content/u...

Share something random or you’ll have an awful December

I mean, I don't want to start some shit or anything, but I would've said... 7 pounds 8 ounces?

I hate to repost something with "🧵" given my rando status and all, but this is fun.

Part of me would be delighted to see a hologram of Isaac Asimov pop up and reveal that he has retroactively become the richest man in the galaxy by suing Musk for IP theft.

And if so inclined you can always thank The Sea and Cake for bringing it into this century.

I took a break from the usual fantasy novels to read Judy Blume's Blubber in elementary school to see what all the girls were reading, and it was *revelatory*.

ARCANA MALLEUS TAROTS

Beautiful artwork from a talented art collective. Help make this project a reality! @malleusdelic.bsky.social

www.kickstarter.com/projects/mal...

I'm not an expert, but does this not seem very New York Times Style section-y?

Who's your favorite Jedi? (Wrong answers only.)

So we've got *that* in common.

I really liked Bryan Magee's "The Great Philosophers," which is an accessible overview and beginner reference work. And widely available.

An image of the English-language poster for the 2025 film The Ice Tower directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic.

One-Word Movie Reviews™️: Part of an ongoing one-joke premise

[N]ICE!!!

La Tour de Glace (2025)

And beneath every entry? The phrase "Pause for laughs."

"Fellow fascists, this is the Super Bowl we're talking about-- we need the greatest entertainers on the planet! Get me Ray Stevens, Yakov Smirnoff, and let's see... is there an Anita Bryant tribute act we can book?!"

Ensconed?! YUM!

I've abandoned almost all of my language policing stuff over the years, but every time I see 'archeology' I feel like something's being stolen from me.