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As encountered by me while poking Wikipedia. I was specifically researching gods for TGCF/Heaven Official's Blessing, but I think this sort of thing is interesting for anyone with an interest in Chinese fantasy or folklore.

I don't know enough to judge if these wikipedia pages are accurate, and if people have better places to read up about this sort of thing, or any other info, I'd love to hear about it!
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I have a cold. I DO NOT WANT A COLD. THIS IS A VERY VERY BAD TIME FOR A COLD. So to distract myself from how much I really don't want to be sick (aaaargh moving and holiday ahhh), here's what I've been reading and watching etc.

Books:

The Circle of Magic: Tris's book by Tamora Pierce: On pause while I finish the library books below but enjoyable enough so far.

Lois Lens Lesbian Secretary by Monica Nolan: this is the delightfully cheesy tale of a 50s cheerleader who gets a job as a secretary in the big city and tries to figure out why she keeps having these FEELINGS around girls in tight sweaters and why none of the women she meets seem to have boyfriends. It's unfortunately hipster racist and overall not worth thinking about very hard but otherwise fun, like if Enid Blyton fell into a vat of soft porn.

The Little Book of Hindu Deities by Sanjay Patel: Not enjoying this very much. The author was raised as a Hindu but I'm not sure he is one, and there's something irritatingly twee about the tone. Also he has these "amusing" asides which assume attitudes I don't share eg that men having long hair is weird and girly.

The essentials of Hinduism: a comprehensive overview of the world's oldest religion by Swami Bhaskarananda: An accessible guide to the basics of Hinduism by someone who obviously loves the religion. It was very conventional and he did that typical thing of dividing attitudes neatly into "not actually part of my religion" and "part of my religion thus unambiguously awesome (except for a few bad apples doing it Wrong)", but he was obviously trying to be even handed and open minded and I certainly learned a lot.

(I read these last two because I'm writing a character from a Hindu background and have become frustrated with the "lol those wacky Hindus" attitude of secondary sources)

TV:

Sleepy Hollow: fun cheesy supernatural buddy cop drama in a small town with a ~mysterious past~. He's an 18th century soldier transported forward in time! She's a no nonsense cop! Together they're trying to stop the apocalypse! I find them both quite charming which helps a lot.

Orphan Black: Up to episode 4! I WILL FINISH THIS ONE DAY.

Marvel: Agents of SHIELD: Joss Whedon does a B grade family show about a Secret Government Agency Saving The Day. Ok, though some of the one liners felt forced and I had a few "JOSS NO" moments along with the "Teehee, this is definitely a Whedon show" moments.

Free: Season one is over and ended on a happy satisfying note that still left me hoping there's a season 2.

Games:

I already reviewed Dear Esther and Ristorante Amore.

The Knife of the Traitor: a silly macabre visual novel, it's very cheesy and rushed and feels like the people who made it were very young but I enjoyed it well enough and it's certainly a change from the usual. You play an amnesiac Evil Princess who's woken up with a knife in her throat and has to figure out which of the people who might justifiably want you dead stabbed you. The other characters are all male and there's romantic elements but it's not really a dating sim. I rolled my eyes a few times at some unfortunate choices in the writing but the art was pretty good, someone obviously had fun with the character design.

Boy it's good to be home! Had a blast this year, met and talked to lots of people. Feeling moderately drained but not entirely terrible, time will tell how much I crash tomorrow.

The cat is trying not to make it obvious how happy she is to see us and is currently curled up by my legs :)

( Galactic Suburbia podcast recording, How to write fight scenes, Religion Creation in fantasy, Classic Doctor Who, female characters in the background, 2012 launch, vidding )

1000 scientists called Steve affirming the validity of the theory of evolution. EDIT via Hoyden about Town

I will now rant because I am feeling ranty.
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I've been pondering doing one of these for a while, but wasn't sure I'd get the wording right. Since it worked so well on his lj, I've decided to completely steal the language of angriest's recent post instead(*).

1. Tell me your religious beliefs. It can be as simple as "I am an X" or it can be a lengthy paragraph if you like. If you feel your religious and/or spiritual beliefs are private, either don't reply or leave a note saying as much.
2. If you want to reply to something someone else has written, feel free - particularly if you want to ask them a question about the religion you've always wanted to ask but have never been able to, or felt comfortable enough to.
3. This is one of the biggies: if someone asks you a question and you don't feel comfortable answering it, do not feel obliged to answer. Either don't reply at all, or drop a quick reply saying "I don't really want to answer that".
4. Religious intolerance will not be tolerated. I'm aiming this particularly at the aggressive atheists who seem to get their kicks scoring points, but the rule applies in any direction.

I know a lot of you are on both flists, I decided to do it now while it's still fresh in your heads. You are quite welcome to repeat/post a link to your comment over there! And yes fred_mouse I know you were also planning on stealing his idea, but, well, there's no reason it can't be stolen multiple times :D

(*)And yes, I checked it was ok. Don't want to be sued for copyright violation by the big mean famous writer :)

Note: I am posting links to two posts in anti-racist communities. Keep in mind that the assumption is that readers are familiar and agree with anti-racist ideas so they're not explained or excused, and I'd rather you reply here unless you genuinely mean to join them (in which case, as always, read the userinfo first!) Also, as I say in the first post, please do not use this as a chance to snipe at other people's religious groups.

So a while ago I posted a post called How to reconcile anti-racism with atheism (or other religious belief) to debunkingwhite, and thought about posting it here since it's something I'm interested to discuss with other atheists but at the time didn't feel up to dealing with the discussion. But hey it's not like I have anything better to do at the moment...

I actually think Towards an Intersectionality of Atheism and Race is a better post on the subject, though :)
( In which I ramble )

O-day was fun, I ate waaaay too much free sugar and ended up with almost no voice at the_riviera_kid's going away thing. Met several adorable children (Quinn Basden and my supervisors(*) kids, who I haven't seen for so long it's like they're new people)

Wait, how is it 10:30 already?

And now, some topical humour. I'm quite proud of this one.

(*) No, not the one whose youngest has nearly finished his engineering degree :P