JackalopeJim

Someone put a ziplock bag of spaghetti and tomato sauce in the fridge at work.
I'm not sure how, but I think this is a crime. I believe they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

i dont want to be in a fandom that critisizes the choices of fictional characters like they are human beings. i want to see THEORY and ANALYSIS and STORY STRUCTURE and CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!! I WANT PARALLELS AND MOTIFS AND VISUAL CUES!!! They're not REAL they are TOOLS so stop acting like they are people who made bad choices and should be punished. of course they made bad choices!!! that shit is funny and cool to watch!!

Book 5 and 6 return to the swashbuckling adventure of Book 1. Its one of Herbert's strengths, probably honed in his years as a short story writer.
Is the whole series *amazing*, no? Is it weird that it somehow escaped into the mainstream, holy fuck yes. Ymmv, but I think they're neat!
/end

Because Herbert is an aging SF writer of his era he has to make things weird about sex (and religion). Like the space witches with weaponized addictive super sex. The aging general who unlocks his chakra and becomes the ubermensch. Or the clone who has to ask his cult to stop breeding him.

Book 5 and 6 I have the least to say about but not cause they're bad, just I haven't ever reread them. The setting timeline has advanced thousands of years (again, book 4 is also a multi millenia time jump). Now Hebert gets to add new stuff to the setting!

Book 4. 10,000 year empire built for maximum oppression is undone by a love so strong and pure it must have been made in a lab. Because it was. The emperor is that meme, he "can't be killed in any way that matters". The B plot characters are the best part of this novel. 10/10 religious fanatic.

Book 3 is where it starts getting *weird*. The race memory bullshit gets bigger pride of place. I mainly don't like this book because it does (my fav) St Alia of the Knife dirty. But it's got remote control assassin tigers, so there's good with the bad.

Book 2 is Herbert doing "what happens when the dog catches the car?". IE how do messianic and/or revolutionary systems move past the revolution and govern. Prescience is present but there's less irony and more mystery as the protagonist moves through a predetermined path trying to find an off ramp.

I'm a 1-6 guy because I enjoy the batshit the series escalates to.
The first is the most unique because of how it uses dramatic irony to tell a story about prescience. Each chapter starts with an entry from an in-universe history book, reflecting on the upcoming events.
1/

rah herself is in fact an eldritch entity, but one who is sitting there clutching a diet Dr Pepper asking "are you fucking kidding me with this shit"

High-larious

Talking with Thomas was a real delight! Heather and I peel back the curtain on the process behind Carved in Stone (and we gush about how much we love all of our artists, too!)

Last year someone joined our ttrpg discord server to workshop their anti-fascist and queer take on it called FATAL 2. I am still unsure if it was an elaborate troll. They had a huge PDF they were looking for comments on.

Twitch Twitch is the world

@scott-wegener.bsky.social @bclev.bsky.social I was watching Matt Colville. Scott is occasionally in the MCDM Discord, so I thought you'd enjoy this.
www.twitch.tv/matthew_colv...

Cut to the quick!

A poster that says Did you see: -a tent in the woods? -someone shoplifting? -a person sleeping in their car? NO YOU FUCKING DIDNT people are struggling don't make it worse

Another movie to make you ask why Joan isn't the more famous one.

tfw you feel obliged to explain the offhandedly lewd slang so everyone else in the conversation will stop guessing at the meaning.

Angulotl Cleaver Token

Drawing Draw Steel:

Day 2: Angulotl Cleaver

I'm not sure if this is the best way to phrase this, but please, stop being the Draw Steel reply guy. The game does not need a defense. If it did, coming into the threads of people critiquing it on Bsky would not be the way.

This behavior is what gives fandoms a bad reputation.

I have little to no influence here. But I am begging Draw Steel fans, please leave randos online alone. I promise, those questions are rhetorical.

Block letter print on notebook paper, pinned to wall YOU LOOK GREAT. YOUR TEETH ARE SHARP. YOUR EYES ARE LUMINOUS. THE TOWN FOLK WHISPER YOUR NAME IN HUSHED TONES

#MondayMotivation

Proud papa moment: my son J published a letter in the @nytimes.com today (in print tomorrow) on the need to think our definitions of autism.

You wanna follow some cool trans writers? I gotcha.

go.bsky.app/VaypaqC

Good News folks, you CAN now in fact, play this

The free demo for Legend of Khiimori is now available on Steam for everyone. Check it out, give it a try, tell a friend. Show everyone how much you want horse games 💪❤

That sounds amazing! I've been loving your characterization (and your prose, plotting, and worldbuilding). Very excited to see what happens.

As a fan of Rosemary Kirstein *Steerswoman* series, you can't scare me with long gaps between books.
I'm just grateful I got to experience The Dawnhounds. Anything else you share is icing on the cake.

I wish I didn't get so bitchy when my expertise is questioned.
Strangers do not need to know about or respect the time and study I've put into my hobbies.

But for fucks sake...

The spacelanes, I want to get context for the memonek and kuranzoi heroes in the Heroes book. They don't have anything to do with a specific manifold.

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems... SIMON: What? SHAPIRO: ...Or saying... SIMON: You imagine that? SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over. SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level. SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this. SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)