alias_sqbr

Who wants a postcard? I printed samples of some of my redbubble art to make sure it printed ok and now have nothing left to do with them. Leave a comment with your address to be sent a random piece of art! Comments screened, any country is ok, art may contain mermaid boobs unless you ask for it not to.

metanews has started up and is worth checking out.

Speaking of meta, Skygiants has some really interesting meta on Night Watch and Les Mis (I am only vaguely familiar with Les Mis and enjoyed it)

Firvulag gave a nice review of Core Cidery which we all went to for Cam's birthday.

I finished and reviewed "Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine over on my other blog but in short: it was good! I ended up skimming "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn: it was triggery (emotional abuse and to a lesser extent rape) and mean spirited and I have very mixed feelings about it's portrayal of gender but afaict is a very good psychological thriller. I also skimmed "Railsea" by China Mieville just because it was boring, but it you like boys own sea adventures, trains, and clever fantasy worldbuilding you'd probably enjoy it (I only like the last two)

Something that recently struck me: Sherlock uses the fact that their Watson is male to play up the "wow, isn't it a bit weird how close these two are?" slashy disquiet by having him do things that seem almost but not quite romantic and thus feel wrong (to a heteronormative audience). Elementary uses the fact that their Watson is female to play up the "wow, isn't it a bit weird how close these two are?" slashy disquiet by having Sherlock do things that feel wrong between two people of the opposite sex that aren't dating (to a heteronormative audience), like him choosing her clothes and offering to choose her underwear in a totally non sexual way.

I personally prefer the Elementary version, but mostly I just find the symmetry interesting.