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Things I have played and read recently!
Dec. 31st, 2015 09:47 pmIncluding a bunch of very cheap games still on sale on Steam, unless the sale is done.
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Original-ish Tumblr Posts!
Jan. 29th, 2015 09:56 am15 things that make me happy
Tune Yards "Water Fountain"
An amusing Flight Rising screenshot for Dragon Age fans
A long ramble about Bioware fandom and gender
Some very bright experiments with makeup
I was involved in a discussion at No Award about the Imperial Radch series
Also, not my content at all, but: Wintersend is a an upcoming multimedia exchange about female Dragon Age characters, which seems relevant to many people's interest!
Tune Yards "Water Fountain"
An amusing Flight Rising screenshot for Dragon Age fans
A long ramble about Bioware fandom and gender
Some very bright experiments with makeup
I was involved in a discussion at No Award about the Imperial Radch series
Also, not my content at all, but: Wintersend is a an upcoming multimedia exchange about female Dragon Age characters, which seems relevant to many people's interest!
Tags:
Dragons! Soldiers! And a brain glitch.
Apr. 9th, 2014 04:24 pmFlight Rising Registration opens again April 14!
It continues to be fun and they're doing better with the bugs, the main issue is that you have to just accept the weird ups and downs (mainly downs) of the economy instead of expecting the devs to make sure your investments pay off eg I paid 150K treasure for a dragon whose babies now net me like 10K if I'm lucky. But they are all very pretty babies and that's what really matters :)
I did an Evangelion fusion recently (which I will link to next time I do a creative stuff post) and ever since I keep almost remembering some other story, I think something I was reading/watching around the same time as I saw this very interesting discussion about the anime. The memories are...non verbal or something, distinct but nothing I can put into words and they vanish again really quickly. Something about pretend heirs to a company maybe? Could it be Un Lun Dun?? It's been happening for over a day and is like something I can almost see out the corner of my eye, quite disconcerting.
Saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier and quite enjoyed it! A well made superhero movie with interesting characters, some mild social commentary, THREE named female characters and (EDIT) TWO black guys who get to be competent, lots of explosions. Don't think about it too hard, or expect it to focus too much on anyone who isn't Steve. It did however highlight my issues with the first Captain America movie: Steve himself is a perfectly well written "decent man in a less than decent world" character, but they wallow a bit too much in the lie that the past was a Simpler Time, that it was only after WWII that the US "lost it's way" morally/politically/in war etc. Yes, the US were absolutely the good guys in WWII but only because the Nazis were so terrible by comparison. The US military and government have always been morally shady, and to pretend otherwise is a massive insult to all the people they mistreated.
It continues to be fun and they're doing better with the bugs, the main issue is that you have to just accept the weird ups and downs (mainly downs) of the economy instead of expecting the devs to make sure your investments pay off eg I paid 150K treasure for a dragon whose babies now net me like 10K if I'm lucky. But they are all very pretty babies and that's what really matters :)
I did an Evangelion fusion recently (which I will link to next time I do a creative stuff post) and ever since I keep almost remembering some other story, I think something I was reading/watching around the same time as I saw this very interesting discussion about the anime. The memories are...non verbal or something, distinct but nothing I can put into words and they vanish again really quickly. Something about pretend heirs to a company maybe? Could it be Un Lun Dun?? It's been happening for over a day and is like something I can almost see out the corner of my eye, quite disconcerting.
Saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier and quite enjoyed it! A well made superhero movie with interesting characters, some mild social commentary, THREE named female characters and (EDIT) TWO black guys who get to be competent, lots of explosions. Don't think about it too hard, or expect it to focus too much on anyone who isn't Steve. It did however highlight my issues with the first Captain America movie: Steve himself is a perfectly well written "decent man in a less than decent world" character, but they wallow a bit too much in the lie that the past was a Simpler Time, that it was only after WWII that the US "lost it's way" morally/politically/in war etc. Yes, the US were absolutely the good guys in WWII but only because the Nazis were so terrible by comparison. The US military and government have always been morally shady, and to pretend otherwise is a massive insult to all the people they mistreated.
Since I am awake at 4am with random free floating anxiety (I'm not thinking anxious thoughts, just AWAKE and jittery), some sleepy updates.
Got my passport renewed, it took several attempts to get all my hair in frame.
Bought a spare wheelchair recharger and got my battery replaced, did I mention that? I am now able to go on long trips again! Except I've been trained to freak out every time it goes down a bar, which makes them mildly fraught.
Still staying at Lily's, her cats have gotten quite used to us now and one in particular (Miel, the ridiculously friendly Burmese) is pretty much a fixture in our room since it has at least one human in most of the time. The problem with Miel is she flops on you and falls asleep with such an expression of bliss that you can't bear to move, even if she's flopped on you in the middle of, say, tying your shoelaces. The other cats are less friendly until one of us starts cooking meat at which point we are SUDDENLY THE BEST HUMANS EVER. (In the case of Greta, who hates everyone, this means getting within her minimum 1m distance from all humans and briefly softening her permanent glare into a friendly blink. The other two snuggle as close as possible with big sad starving orphan eyes)
Finished the beta version of my time travel visual novel OMG. Nice to actually finish something.
We have started watching Sailor Moon at video night. It is very silly and dated so far but enjoyable in it's way. The cats find the presence of SO MANY HUMANS very exciting.
House stuff continues slowly. We should hear back on pre-approval on Monday which is POSSIBLY one reason for my anxiety.
My Flight Rising flight is doing an exalting push soon, I have all these babies waiting to be exalted. I have to stop myself getting attached, especially to the ones I had to name to level them up.
Caught up with Legend of Korra at last! It was ok, better than the end of Book 1 but I didn't love it. Not sure why.
Can't bring myself to watch Person of Interest. If I don't watch the next episode I can convince myself the last one didn't happen.
Family "Christmas" is looking to be interesting now that Mum is Jewish. None of the rest of us have cared about the "Christ" part for ages but it used to be a major part for her, and she is quite specifically NOT celebrating Christmas now. Instead we are celebrating 22nd of Tevet (the date in the Jewish Calendar) and it's not clear if there will be gifts (I kind of hope not, gifts are a hassle). I wished her a happy Hannukkah but got the dates wrong, clearly I need to bone up on my Jewish holidays.
Got my passport renewed, it took several attempts to get all my hair in frame.
Bought a spare wheelchair recharger and got my battery replaced, did I mention that? I am now able to go on long trips again! Except I've been trained to freak out every time it goes down a bar, which makes them mildly fraught.
Still staying at Lily's, her cats have gotten quite used to us now and one in particular (Miel, the ridiculously friendly Burmese) is pretty much a fixture in our room since it has at least one human in most of the time. The problem with Miel is she flops on you and falls asleep with such an expression of bliss that you can't bear to move, even if she's flopped on you in the middle of, say, tying your shoelaces. The other cats are less friendly until one of us starts cooking meat at which point we are SUDDENLY THE BEST HUMANS EVER. (In the case of Greta, who hates everyone, this means getting within her minimum 1m distance from all humans and briefly softening her permanent glare into a friendly blink. The other two snuggle as close as possible with big sad starving orphan eyes)
Finished the beta version of my time travel visual novel OMG. Nice to actually finish something.
We have started watching Sailor Moon at video night. It is very silly and dated so far but enjoyable in it's way. The cats find the presence of SO MANY HUMANS very exciting.
House stuff continues slowly. We should hear back on pre-approval on Monday which is POSSIBLY one reason for my anxiety.
My Flight Rising flight is doing an exalting push soon, I have all these babies waiting to be exalted. I have to stop myself getting attached, especially to the ones I had to name to level them up.
Caught up with Legend of Korra at last! It was ok, better than the end of Book 1 but I didn't love it. Not sure why.
Can't bring myself to watch Person of Interest. If I don't watch the next episode I can convince myself the last one didn't happen.
Family "Christmas" is looking to be interesting now that Mum is Jewish. None of the rest of us have cared about the "Christ" part for ages but it used to be a major part for her, and she is quite specifically NOT celebrating Christmas now. Instead we are celebrating 22nd of Tevet (the date in the Jewish Calendar) and it's not clear if there will be gifts (I kind of hope not, gifts are a hassle). I wished her a happy Hannukkah but got the dates wrong, clearly I need to bone up on my Jewish holidays.
What have I been reading....
Oct. 20th, 2013 11:17 amI am bored and the internet is being weird and Cam is asleep so I can't pack. Thus, a post!
First: Flight Rising Registration is opening briefly soon! Afaict it will be 8pm 23rd Oct to 2am 24th Oct Perth time (the rest of you have to work it out yourselves from the site clock ;))
Books:
The Poster Children by Kitty Burroughs: I was sold this as a diverse superhero YA, and hoped the first two would negate my dislike of the third but nope. Two self righteously disagreeable POV characters in and I couldn't take any more and gave up.
Agents of Change by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller: Was halfway through this on the plane before I remembered I'd read it before while very ill. haven't gotten back to it since getting off the plane, I really should. Anyway, it's fun! Though I vaguely recall not liking the ending.
Fanfic:
The Vienna Game by Paratactitian: Homestuck, Terezi<>Sollux. An enjoyable cyberpunk AU caper, the characterisations didn't always work for me (more because the AU hadn't changed them enough than because they differed too much from canon) and it was well-meaning-male-gaze-y (eg we just HAPPENED to never see any of the gay/bi male characters express interest in other men) but still, fun.
I don't normally list fic but it got me through the plane trip to Melbourne after Poster Children dissapointed me.
TV: (New)
Watamote: What an interesting show! It's an anime about a socially awkward girl who freezes up whenever she tries to talk to anyone, but instead of the typical adorable woobie she's a genuinely weird loser, with sunken eyes and weird taste in porn and sour grapes thoughts about other more popular girls. She's likeable despite this, at least for me, and the show pokes affectionate fun at her. I saw someone describe it as best enjoyed by those who can go "Oh god I used to be like that", and while I had more anxiety and like to think I wasn't quite so mean spirited there are certainly...paralells. She isn't showing any signs of being Saved By A Boy's Love either, just slowly making efforts to reach out to people off her own bat (often in wrong headed ways, but she takes even the slightest win as proof of her INCREDIBLE AWESOME so it's not too depressing) I'm only two episodes in, will see how it goes!
Brooklyn 99: a surprisingly enjoyable police comedy: light and funny with likeable characters and enough mild continuity not to irritate me. Pretty diverse too, and the "genius manchild"-esque white guy not only gets called out on his crap but improves. A bit fat shamey, alas.
(Continuing)
Natsume's Book of Friends: I am enjoying this an episode at a time, it's very gentle and sweet without much overarching plot.
Elementary and Sleepy Hollow continue well, Marvel: Agents of Shield continues adequately. (And Joss Whedon continues to have Issues with Black People) Am not up to date with Korra yet *resists urge to poke Cam awake* but am not a massive fan of this season so far, though it has it's moments.
Coursera: Finished my "Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative" course which certainly gave me a better grounding in the Classics modern fantasy draws on and got me thinking about remediation (where a work is translated from one media to another) but would have been SO much better if the lecturer had been willing to be more critical. Oh well.
Music: been listening to a bunch of Rihanna. She's great.
And finally: look how pretty my nails are!
First: Flight Rising Registration is opening briefly soon! Afaict it will be 8pm 23rd Oct to 2am 24th Oct Perth time (the rest of you have to work it out yourselves from the site clock ;))
Books:
The Poster Children by Kitty Burroughs: I was sold this as a diverse superhero YA, and hoped the first two would negate my dislike of the third but nope. Two self righteously disagreeable POV characters in and I couldn't take any more and gave up.
Agents of Change by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller: Was halfway through this on the plane before I remembered I'd read it before while very ill. haven't gotten back to it since getting off the plane, I really should. Anyway, it's fun! Though I vaguely recall not liking the ending.
Fanfic:
The Vienna Game by Paratactitian: Homestuck, Terezi<>Sollux. An enjoyable cyberpunk AU caper, the characterisations didn't always work for me (more because the AU hadn't changed them enough than because they differed too much from canon) and it was well-meaning-male-gaze-y (eg we just HAPPENED to never see any of the gay/bi male characters express interest in other men) but still, fun.
I don't normally list fic but it got me through the plane trip to Melbourne after Poster Children dissapointed me.
TV: (New)
Watamote: What an interesting show! It's an anime about a socially awkward girl who freezes up whenever she tries to talk to anyone, but instead of the typical adorable woobie she's a genuinely weird loser, with sunken eyes and weird taste in porn and sour grapes thoughts about other more popular girls. She's likeable despite this, at least for me, and the show pokes affectionate fun at her. I saw someone describe it as best enjoyed by those who can go "Oh god I used to be like that", and while I had more anxiety and like to think I wasn't quite so mean spirited there are certainly...paralells. She isn't showing any signs of being Saved By A Boy's Love either, just slowly making efforts to reach out to people off her own bat (often in wrong headed ways, but she takes even the slightest win as proof of her INCREDIBLE AWESOME so it's not too depressing) I'm only two episodes in, will see how it goes!
Brooklyn 99: a surprisingly enjoyable police comedy: light and funny with likeable characters and enough mild continuity not to irritate me. Pretty diverse too, and the "genius manchild"-esque white guy not only gets called out on his crap but improves. A bit fat shamey, alas.
(Continuing)
Natsume's Book of Friends: I am enjoying this an episode at a time, it's very gentle and sweet without much overarching plot.
Elementary and Sleepy Hollow continue well, Marvel: Agents of Shield continues adequately. (And Joss Whedon continues to have Issues with Black People) Am not up to date with Korra yet *resists urge to poke Cam awake* but am not a massive fan of this season so far, though it has it's moments.
Coursera: Finished my "Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative" course which certainly gave me a better grounding in the Classics modern fantasy draws on and got me thinking about remediation (where a work is translated from one media to another) but would have been SO much better if the lecturer had been willing to be more critical. Oh well.
Music: been listening to a bunch of Rihanna. She's great.
And finally: look how pretty my nails are!
Stuff: Shrines and roses
Sep. 4th, 2013 10:47 amBooks:
A Shrine to Saint Ann: A very enjoyable little fantasy ebook, reminds me of the Curse of Chalion series by Lois McMaster Bujold but with less racism and more sarcastic reanimated corpses. Like Bujold (and Megan Whalen Smith, who I was also reminded of) a little too in love with gods and royalty and not enough with regular people for my tastes, but that's what I get for reading fantasy. It was still a quick enjoyable read with interesting and diverse characters and worldbuilding, focussed very much on complex female characters being fascinatingly terrible. And only $3!
The Circle of Magic 1: Sandry's Book/The Magic in the Weaving by Tamora Pierce: Light and mostly innoffensive children's fantasy about a mismatched group of children with different magical gifts gathered together to learn magic and the ~power of friendship~ etc. Obviously trying VERY HARD to be DIVERSE (about race/class/gender/body type) which gets wearying sometimes (and is undercut by some skeevy subtext) but is a nice change from books that don't try at all and creates lots of natural moments for character growth and contrast.
TV:
Watched the Cowboy Bebop movie and I did indeed enjoy it more now I know it affects NOTHING in the series chronology and is just a random side adventure. Still makes no freaking sense.
Games:
Flight Rising: Briefly opened for new members! Hello all! You will have to friend me if you want to be friends, the notifications were annoyingly lacking in lair links. Also, the comments to this post have some good advice.
Gone Home: a very good little interactive story (not a dating sim! Or fighting game!!) where you play a woman who arrives home from an overseas trip to find the house empty. You wander around trying to figure out what's been up with your family while you've been gone, and are railroaded enough by having to find keys for locked doors etc that the clues you piece together form a coherent and affecting story. Note: the vast majority of items you can interact with are there purely for atmosphere, don't waste time trying to figure out the Secret Meaning of the toilet paper or how to set it on fire, because there is none and you can't. *cough*
And now two very fluffy fantasy visual novels with f/m dating sim elements.
Blue Rose: I played the demo of this and enjoyed it but not enough to pay $20 for the full version, especially given all the typos and general amateurish feel. It's fairly generic fantasy with lots of anachronism and unconvincing worldbuilding, the characters were varied and kind of interesting but the dialogue was often stilted. The one f/f romance option seems nice but bland. Blindingly white, even the (blonde!) woman who seems to be from pseudo-China.
Everlove: Rose. This I enjoyed enough to pay $5 for the full version and I'd say I got my money's worth but I wouldn't rec it very strongly. The historical setting is SO SHALLOW and the vast majority of scenes are identical on every path even when you make drastically different choices. But the art is pretty, the characters are likeable enough and the plot was interesting the first time through. The puzzles are easy (on an iPad) and not super fun but do break up the plot. You have the option to declare yourself a lesbian in one scene but otherwise it's very heteronormative despite your female best friend having the cutest sprite :( I wasn't very satisfied with the special ending you get after doing all four paths.
A Shrine to Saint Ann: A very enjoyable little fantasy ebook, reminds me of the Curse of Chalion series by Lois McMaster Bujold but with less racism and more sarcastic reanimated corpses. Like Bujold (and Megan Whalen Smith, who I was also reminded of) a little too in love with gods and royalty and not enough with regular people for my tastes, but that's what I get for reading fantasy. It was still a quick enjoyable read with interesting and diverse characters and worldbuilding, focussed very much on complex female characters being fascinatingly terrible. And only $3!
The Circle of Magic 1: Sandry's Book/The Magic in the Weaving by Tamora Pierce: Light and mostly innoffensive children's fantasy about a mismatched group of children with different magical gifts gathered together to learn magic and the ~power of friendship~ etc. Obviously trying VERY HARD to be DIVERSE (about race/class/gender/body type) which gets wearying sometimes (and is undercut by some skeevy subtext) but is a nice change from books that don't try at all and creates lots of natural moments for character growth and contrast.
TV:
Watched the Cowboy Bebop movie and I did indeed enjoy it more now I know it affects NOTHING in the series chronology and is just a random side adventure. Still makes no freaking sense.
Games:
Flight Rising: Briefly opened for new members! Hello all! You will have to friend me if you want to be friends, the notifications were annoyingly lacking in lair links. Also, the comments to this post have some good advice.
Gone Home: a very good little interactive story (not a dating sim! Or fighting game!!) where you play a woman who arrives home from an overseas trip to find the house empty. You wander around trying to figure out what's been up with your family while you've been gone, and are railroaded enough by having to find keys for locked doors etc that the clues you piece together form a coherent and affecting story. Note: the vast majority of items you can interact with are there purely for atmosphere, don't waste time trying to figure out the Secret Meaning of the toilet paper or how to set it on fire, because there is none and you can't. *cough*
And now two very fluffy fantasy visual novels with f/m dating sim elements.
Blue Rose: I played the demo of this and enjoyed it but not enough to pay $20 for the full version, especially given all the typos and general amateurish feel. It's fairly generic fantasy with lots of anachronism and unconvincing worldbuilding, the characters were varied and kind of interesting but the dialogue was often stilted. The one f/f romance option seems nice but bland. Blindingly white, even the (blonde!) woman who seems to be from pseudo-China.
Everlove: Rose. This I enjoyed enough to pay $5 for the full version and I'd say I got my money's worth but I wouldn't rec it very strongly. The historical setting is SO SHALLOW and the vast majority of scenes are identical on every path even when you make drastically different choices. But the art is pretty, the characters are likeable enough and the plot was interesting the first time through. The puzzles are easy (on an iPad) and not super fun but do break up the plot. You have the option to declare yourself a lesbian in one scene but otherwise it's very heteronormative despite your female best friend having the cutest sprite :( I wasn't very satisfied with the special ending you get after doing all four paths.
Flight Rising!
Sep. 3rd, 2013 08:43 amRegistrations for Flight Rising are open today/tomorrow for a few hours: Tuesday, September 3rd from 5:00AM to 8:00AM PST. They plan to try opening registrations again after that once they see how the servers handle the load, so if you miss out subscribe to the tumblr etc and you should be able to get in eventually.
some useful advice for creating an account
A bit about the game:
The main aim is to have dragons you think are pretty and/or socially desirable. You get these dragons by breeding them, buying them, applying appearance modifiers, and adding apparel. You can see my dragons in my lair. (there's also familiars, like a pet for your dragon that gives you money)
The fun is (a)The challenge of breeding the exact colours and effects you want (b)The challenge of earning the money you need to buy the breeds/colours/effects/etc you want (c) All the associated minigames (d) Keeping up with the complexities of the dragon market.
Some of the minigames: a Bejewelled clone, memory, jigsaw puzzles, a guessing game, a turn based fighting game with levelling and random drops, and gathering items.
And while I'm here:
Colour predictor (these are the colours for the shiny wildclaws I just bought who won't be ready to breed for a MONTH)
Dragon Capitalism An interesting blog by someone who thinks about the dragon market way more than I do
The Flight Rising Wiki Has lots of useful info
some useful advice for creating an account
A bit about the game:
The main aim is to have dragons you think are pretty and/or socially desirable. You get these dragons by breeding them, buying them, applying appearance modifiers, and adding apparel. You can see my dragons in my lair. (there's also familiars, like a pet for your dragon that gives you money)
The fun is (a)The challenge of breeding the exact colours and effects you want (b)The challenge of earning the money you need to buy the breeds/colours/effects/etc you want (c) All the associated minigames (d) Keeping up with the complexities of the dragon market.
Some of the minigames: a Bejewelled clone, memory, jigsaw puzzles, a guessing game, a turn based fighting game with levelling and random drops, and gathering items.
And while I'm here:
Colour predictor (these are the colours for the shiny wildclaws I just bought who won't be ready to breed for a MONTH)
Dragon Capitalism An interesting blog by someone who thinks about the dragon market way more than I do
The Flight Rising Wiki Has lots of useful info
Stuff what I have been reading and stuff
Aug. 16th, 2013 08:37 pmBooks:
Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey: I quite liked this, a believable slow burn dystopia set in a Texas town that's become a military border zone. It's a pretty realistic take on what it would be like to be born with mild super powers (super strength) as a disprivilged person in a police state, ie not actually that helpful. It's overall quite compassionate, and optimistic enough that I didn't get depressed despite the dark subject matter (which includes rape and child abuse), though without giving any spoilers the ending while not entirely unsatisfying was the sort of thing that puts me off a lot of YA. Still, the main character is mixed race, poor, and queer, and it's an entertaining and easy read. There was a lot of stuff to do with class and race which seemed mostly ok to me but I'm hardly an expert. I remember seeing someone complain that while the main character's LI is a girl every other important person in her life sems to be a man, and that's definitely true. The female characters aren't bad they're just backgrounded.
I read some ACTUAL POETRY for this “Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative” course that's starting up soon: Ithaca by C.P Cavafy, which gains an extra layer of meaning when you know the author was a Greek immigrant, and Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came which is basically this guy going for a walk and FREAKING OUT about everything, I'm not sure if we're supposed to like him but I wanted to punch him. "He must be wicked to deserve such pain", huh.
Currently reading "The Magic in the Weaving"/"Sandry's Book" by Tamora Pierce. It's...ok, very kids-fantasy, and she mentions the black character's blackness every two paragraphs. Still, it fills in the time waiting for busses pleasantly enough.
TV:
I keep forgetting to say, we've been watching Cowboy Bebop at the fortnightly Wednesday video nights. And now we're finished! It really is a great scifi show, despite the random points where it makes NO SENSE and the way it veers from being quite diverse and humanising everyone to falling into sexist/racist etc cliches. Next up: the movie. Let's see if I enjoy it more now I'm not expecting it to tie up any loose ends from the show.
After that it's either Sailor Moon or Princess Jellyfish, or I try connecting up my laptop and we choose something from Crunchy Roll.
Speaking of Shinichirō Watanabe, I tried Kids on the Slope, his latest story of a reckless fighter, uptight dark haired guy and seemingly-flighty-but-actually-clever girl, this time set in a highschool in 1960s Japan. Being reminded of the end of Cowboy Bebop made me look up the end which made me decide to put off watching more until I'm in the right headspace. Still, it's quite good.
Still watching and enjoying Natsume's Book of Friends and Free.
Games:
Flight Rising was down for a few days and I missed it more than I expected. Since it came back I bought a breeding pair of shiny shiny dragons (..and an extra male by mistake, oops) I find playing puzzle games to earn extra treasure quite relaxing, it's partially filled the hole in my life left by Glitch.
Still playing my douchebag Aeducan through Dragon Age Origins, just murdered Wynne. The only thing that's given me pause so far was letting that demon inhabit the little girl, but it's not like I had the persuade points to save her anyway. (I deliberately haven't given him any persuade points, that way I have to murder and/or intimidate my way out of everything) Morrigan, naturally, finds him quite charming :)
Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey: I quite liked this, a believable slow burn dystopia set in a Texas town that's become a military border zone. It's a pretty realistic take on what it would be like to be born with mild super powers (super strength) as a disprivilged person in a police state, ie not actually that helpful. It's overall quite compassionate, and optimistic enough that I didn't get depressed despite the dark subject matter (which includes rape and child abuse), though without giving any spoilers the ending while not entirely unsatisfying was the sort of thing that puts me off a lot of YA. Still, the main character is mixed race, poor, and queer, and it's an entertaining and easy read. There was a lot of stuff to do with class and race which seemed mostly ok to me but I'm hardly an expert. I remember seeing someone complain that while the main character's LI is a girl every other important person in her life sems to be a man, and that's definitely true. The female characters aren't bad they're just backgrounded.
I read some ACTUAL POETRY for this “Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative” course that's starting up soon: Ithaca by C.P Cavafy, which gains an extra layer of meaning when you know the author was a Greek immigrant, and Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came which is basically this guy going for a walk and FREAKING OUT about everything, I'm not sure if we're supposed to like him but I wanted to punch him. "He must be wicked to deserve such pain", huh.
Currently reading "The Magic in the Weaving"/"Sandry's Book" by Tamora Pierce. It's...ok, very kids-fantasy, and she mentions the black character's blackness every two paragraphs. Still, it fills in the time waiting for busses pleasantly enough.
TV:
I keep forgetting to say, we've been watching Cowboy Bebop at the fortnightly Wednesday video nights. And now we're finished! It really is a great scifi show, despite the random points where it makes NO SENSE and the way it veers from being quite diverse and humanising everyone to falling into sexist/racist etc cliches. Next up: the movie. Let's see if I enjoy it more now I'm not expecting it to tie up any loose ends from the show.
After that it's either Sailor Moon or Princess Jellyfish, or I try connecting up my laptop and we choose something from Crunchy Roll.
Speaking of Shinichirō Watanabe, I tried Kids on the Slope, his latest story of a reckless fighter, uptight dark haired guy and seemingly-flighty-but-actually-clever girl, this time set in a highschool in 1960s Japan. Being reminded of the end of Cowboy Bebop made me look up the end which made me decide to put off watching more until I'm in the right headspace. Still, it's quite good.
Still watching and enjoying Natsume's Book of Friends and Free.
Games:
Flight Rising was down for a few days and I missed it more than I expected. Since it came back I bought a breeding pair of shiny shiny dragons (..and an extra male by mistake, oops) I find playing puzzle games to earn extra treasure quite relaxing, it's partially filled the hole in my life left by Glitch.
Still playing my douchebag Aeducan through Dragon Age Origins, just murdered Wynne. The only thing that's given me pause so far was letting that demon inhabit the little girl, but it's not like I had the persuade points to save her anyway. (I deliberately haven't given him any persuade points, that way I have to murder and/or intimidate my way out of everything) Morrigan, naturally, finds him quite charming :)
Tags:
