TwistedEllipses

The Slough House series by Mick Herron: Slow Horses had a close adaption until some misfires in the book London Rules, so changes were necessary. I love an ensemble cast and it has outgrown the initial character in my opinion. It has probably the best voice acting, ideal for the sardonic narration.

The last 3 books of The Expanse series: The decades long time skip would've made these hard to adapt. They're not essential reading for the series, but tie-up most loose-ends. The ending reminded me of a certain sci-fi RPG series' ending (without some of the worst elements).

There's no farming in it, but A Little To Left is pretty chill...

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou: I want to know more of her life, but the library doesn't have her later books. Worse, the only copy is heavily abridged. It does keep the part where she misintrepets puberty as physically transforming into a lesbian like she's a werewolf!

The Neopolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante: I want to know how much was autobiographical. I'm curious if she actually went back home, if the childhood friend's life is imagined. The author however is cypher behind a pseudonym.
It brushes with being melodrama. Too many arguments and affairs for me.

LEAVE ME ALONE! By Imogen Church: I sabotaged myself by misinterpreting the premise as a paranormal curse, so I was disappointed when it became more about a parasocial relationship...

Dogs Of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky: An actual pov dog story about a dog called Rex who just wants to be a good dog. But what does it mean to be good? And is he still a dog?
I am surprised how far past a heavily biologically-modified animal testifying at the Hague it goes. Good book. Yes, you are.

Klara And The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro: He accidentally wrote one of those dog point-of-view stories, (Y'know when the protagonist often doesn't really understand what's happening) except that it's a doll-like android companion for a girl. I thought I knew where it was going and I was wrong. Excellent.

I might start an audiobook thread, since I get through so many trying to get my daughter to nap...

I've been blitzing library audiobooks and they vary wildly in length. The Count Of Monty Cristo clocks in at 52 hours (it feels more like listening to a TV series) whereas I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is an hour long (the recording is a Radio 4 drama, so it's abridged from 10 hours)

The movie poster for Pitch Black

The movie poster for Pitch Perfect

never seen a wilder tonal whiplash between two movies. they even changed all the characters. what was the studio thinking

What Rihanna CDs did you find this time?

Here's to the original A.I. assistant!

Chip wreck! Thousands of chips wash ashore near Eastbourne The chips washed up in Sussex after shipping containers containing

Meanwhile local news:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Even if you were next to her, you would have the horrible sense of pragmatic helplessness. Hopefully they isolate the cause and she bounces back

It never snows at Christmas in England, but we got dangerously close this year with New Year's snow. Somehow it's even stuck around. There's not enough for a Snowman, but maybe enough for a Snowhamster?

It only really comes up with petrol or water. We're still in that on-again/off-again non-committal relationship with the metric system...

That does explain her artworks...

She also says "dada"...but indiscriminately to everyone, especially her mum!

My daughter has learnt to point, so it's now a fun game to change something in a room and wait for the gasp and point...

Dishonorable mention goes to My Secret Santa that forgets its own premises. She finds out her daughter can get a discount on snowboarding lessons if you work at the resort, so naturally she works under a fake identity...what?!

I've watched 4 Christmas streaming movies this year, but are any worth watching? The Holdovers is disqualified for being an actual movie, so the winner is Jingle Bell Heist. It has twists, Peter Serafinowicz and an eclectic soundtrack. Heist! HEIST! HEIST!

"Sir,It's too dangerous! We have to abort!"
* a gloved fist slams on a desk *
'DAMN IT! I gave you an order: JINGLE ALL THE WAY!'

You can be both...

* Leans in close to whisper a secret * It was always edgy...

And it would be called Disney+HuluAppleAmazonMGM+PrimeNetflixWarnerDiscoveryHBOMaxParamount+Shudder because corporations are weird like that...

I can't wait until a few mergers later, when one huge company owns everything and it costs 10,000 times what it should...

The perfect compliment to corned beef and glass...

@midgi.bsky.social Bb's cake was a little...off. But I've fed the A.I. a lot of your personal/biometric data and a fair amount of real cake. So this should now be an image of your ideal cake:

A nightmarish cake produced by A.I. and definitely not by me and paint.net

@babybahamut.bsky.social I did something different this year - In order to produce the nicest cake, I spent hundred pounds on the most advanced A.I. image generation: