I'm so happy we finally managed to persuade you to move out here, Lyz! \o/ And super excited to see what your next costuming feat is...
We'll be arriving at 1:30am...would you suggest walking at this time? I strongly suggest not walking at that time. Chance of crime aside, drivers in that area are not looking for pedestrians at all. I was nearly hit a couple times on my way from the light rail last year—and that was earlier in the evening and wearing reflectors and lights.
"Knee! Watch the knee!" Do gentle knee stretches help? I blew mine out hiking this summer, and have found some internet-recommended stretches that have helped lessen and even prevent* soreness but mileage can vary, depending on the cause of the issue. * Well, stretching AND avoiding hikes with more than about 750 feet of elevation gain, which is a challenge out here!
Corn, chicken, and pumpkin chowder: This is a fall and winter favorite; I usually use butternut squash instead of pumpkin. The whole category of "skillets" includes a bunch of easy options that are faster than hotdishes (a.k.a. casseroles). Here are a few we make that are pretty parent friendly/
Also, once you start acquiring a set of reliable recipes, I recommend making a spreadsheet so you can look up your options all at once and record any modifications.
After a rough week, some fun news for the locals in the thread: the TWIST film festival is coming soon!
Mercifully for those celebrating in Seattle, the temp will only be about 65º F when the parade starts, and isn't meant to get radically higher. Those in warmer climates, I salute your sartorial dedication!
I am so excited to have all these excellent people on our team—they're super sharp and a pleasure to work with!
For some reason I've been reading lots of pairs of books lately.
And for something completely different...
Provenance, by Ann Leckie—set in the Imperial Radch universe, but in another human society with three genders. Great world-building, lots of heist and intrigue elements, and numerous queer characters! Kingfisher by Patricia McKillip, an urban fantasy blend of the Mabinogion and Parzival—the setting has a lot of PNW flavor, and there's so much talk about good food! Also reread Patricia McKillip's Riddle Master Trilogy, with much paging back and forth this time to cross-check revelations, which made it much more satisfying.
After a brief sojourn in the homeland, it's a pleasure to be enjoying Seattle's drizzly, low-40s (both high and low) weather. Also adding to my displeasure with the homeland, I recycled a book on Disney promoting the gay agenda that my sister's caregiver snuck into her book stash (fortunately, there was zero chance of my sister reading it anyway). I guess I should be glad said caregiver is perfectly friendly to me and my wife in person? But ugh. On the other hand, I DO recommend Ann Leckie's new book Provenance, which has a ton of queer and genderqueer characters. (It's set in the same universe as the Imperial Radch trilogy, but stands alone fairly well.)
"Hon, could you please grab that potion from the back room while I get the rest of these fine heroes' purchases tallied up?"
I'm playing a noncombat mechanic, and my stealth drone has been working out great—not only for scouting, but also for breaking into facilities and hacking systems while my underarmored and -armed character hides a safe distance away. The Int penalty hurts, but not as bad as my character's terrible Stealth would.
So glad to hear from you, Cindy! That's rough news, though—my thoughts are with you. :-( Unrelatedly, for everyone: Please check your phone and see if it has an option to set an emergency contact (ICE) on your lock screen. If so, set one! That way if something happens (or even if you just drop your phone while running for the bus or whatever), EMTs or a helpful bystander can alert your loved ones. (Spoiler: All involved are now safe and sound, but I was sure glad to get that call.)
Reading Rebel Mother: My Childhood Chasing the Revolution by Peter Andreas, an amazing true tale of family dysfunction and leftist international politics of the late 20th century. I'm enjoying it, but am glad to have been spoilered in advance that...
Spoiler: everyone in the family survives the main period covered by the book (the book's frame is that the eponymous mother had recently passed away, but of natural causes at age 71).
My wife is a proponent of Habitica for the same purpose. Since playing games like that don't work for me, we've worked out some goals where she gets points for me doing things. (While I'm not personally motivated by points, I am motivated by her clear satisfaction at earning them.) In the same discussion, she also asked me what habits I wanted her to work on. We've found that each targeting a couple behaviors that bug the other person has helped reduce frustration and nagging and generally had a disproportionately positive effect on our relationship. :P Three cheers for support systems that enable and reinforce success!
For folks in Seattle, the Twist queer film festival is coming in mid-October! I strongly recommend I Dream in Another Language, which I saw at SIFF. Looking forward to an enjoyable evening browsing through the other offerings (though the films with knitting and luchadors seem like strong contenders)!
The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin, sequel to The Fifth Season and the Obelisk Gate. Aha, THAT was the series I meant to recommend to a friend who enjoys disaster fiction, but left off my list. Thanks for the reminder! ^_^
A hard copy of Station Eleven arrived at the library just as I finished the third volume of the Chronicles of Alsea, so I've switched gears to mostly reading that, reserving the fourth volume of the Chronicles for kindle/insomnia reading. Saved for the future: Newsflesh 3.2: How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea (conservationists fighting zombie wildlife in Australia!)
I loved these books so much. The themes of colonialism, minority rights, de facto slavery, complacency/unwillingness to rock the boat of those in power (rather than monolithic evil), etc. run through all three, getting more overtly central in books 2 & 3. I got the same feeling as Davia D that those two books felt more like two halves of a whole with the first book standing on its own more. I also really enjoyed the notion of a music-obsessed ship AI using her ancillaries as a choir (and successfully got One Thousand Eggs stuck in Sutter's head :D). And it was unexpectedly relaxing to read sci fi that wasn't a dudefest—other than a couple characters who are gendered via in-world translation into languages with grammatical gender, you're free to imagine people as you will, and the physical descriptions of characters almost entirely support that.
Between SIFF and Pridefest, we saw the following: Check It: Documentary about what is possibly the first ever LGBTQ gang, formed by kids in the DC projects for self defense. I have not felt my privilege so hard in years. Forever Pure: Documentary about a Jerusalem soccer team backed by far right nationalistic fans; the team's Russian war criminal owner hires two Muslim Chechen players. Spoiler: It does not go well, though no one ultimately dies. I Dream in Another Language: My favorite of the bunch, a magical realism-style film about a linguist trying to reconcile the last two speakers of a dying language, who haven't spoken in decades. Beautiful and heartbreaking and funny story. Mr. Long: The unexpected marriage of Tampopo and a hardcore gangster film, it had both a shockingly high body count for a cooking film and a surprising about of heartwarming interactions with wacky and intrusive but sincere neighbors for a gangster film.
The only downside to this was actually caused by a combination of the unexpected late start + one of my games being left off of the posted schedule outside the Cascade rooms; as it wasn't listed, a group of people quite reasonably assumed the table was vacant and open for pickup games, so my players and I all showed up at 2:00 with no table. Potential approach that might help: "reserved" signs for tables with event times listed on them. *adds to feedback list*
Aviso: If you're down with drip coffee, you can get free refills all day next to the coffee kiosk.
Best farewell gift: giving us a glimpse of the best of ourselves and each other. Thank you, Wes!
Fun fact: It's only Kostchek in the core book because we told Judy, "Dude, regardless of how awesome it is, we can't have a shirren named Kostchtchie in the core rulebook." :D In fact: Kostchtch! Kostchtch has no regrets about their choice of name... though they might had some cultural misunderstandings about humans' ancient history. *waves appropriate arms dismissively* Also, if you think shirren courtship is complicated, consider sedoretu, and the Oankali.
This can happen with your dryer, too, and as our neighbor learned, can start fires. :-/ (Spoiler: They caught it really fast, so injuries or major damage, but scary.) If your dryer seems wimpy (often the first sign), get it delinted!
* lets out a might roar to banish all the darkness, negativity, and general badness away * Now I'm mentally recasting My Neighbor Totoro with bears. Thank you! :D
Run by... LZP? Or yourself? There are not enough exclamation points to express Linda's delight when she learned of this event. :D
If ordering from B&N, you can also have books sent to your local store. (And if the system still works like it did 10+ years ago, contact details for orders placed through the store did not have to be verified in any way—people would sometimes order books as J. Doe + fake phone number and pay in cash to preserve their privacy.)
Just finished Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, which was EXCELLENT. Dystopian space opera, with surreal future warfare shown from both the command level and the boots-on-the-ground level, that has great character development, humanization of the lives touched (whether friend or foe), multiple queer characters, queerness presented as no big deal, and actual gender balance (!!!). And special bonus dark humor.
Oh, the book is Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi. Hold placed! Also now waiting on The Kingdom of Gods, because I forgot the rule of ordering sequels when you get the book before, at the latest. Btw, Comrade, there was a convo of "dubious historical merit" with a Communist taxi driver in The Shadow of the Wind about the state of Stalin's health, which made a pleasant comedic break from people being beaten in the street by Franco's police while neighbors look on in guilty fear from their doorways.
Turns out being in flu-recovery mode for me means sitting around reading for hours. Read The Counterfeit Madam and The Fourth Crow by Pat McIntosh (1490s murder-mysteries set in Glasgow). Best read with internet access to decode the Scots dialect terms and investigate the fascinating details of material culture, like pattens and box-beds. I also started but abandoned The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Now rolling on The Broken Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin.
Taste of Honey was great! Highly recommended. I've put off Verne for a bit to read Dynasty of Rogues—the writing is perfectly cromulent rather than amazingly lyrical, but it's an exciting tale of intrigue and treachery with all female characters, which is a delightful reversal of most such books.
And, speaking, of adaptations, Mr. Comrade insists that we should go to the musical-ized version of The Parable of the Sower coming to Boston in March. Oooh, passed on to my Boston compatriots! I hope the show travels eventually, would love to see it.
Read The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (this is the way the world ends—race politics plus all the natural disasters and planning for multi-year catastrophes!), then raced through Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson (fantasy Africa with queer protagonists). I recommend both, and they make a good pairing! Now reading The Original Dream by Nukila Amal while I wait for my holds on two more Jemisin books, another Wilson novella, and Verne's Lighthouse at the End of the World.
For anyone in the Seattle area or who's visiting for PaizoCon, I want to plug Outsider Comics, a new comics store in Fremont that's super welcoming to women, queer folk, and other marginalized people. My wife subscribes to Princeless through them, and says they're super helpful to people like her who are just getting into comics... and other friends report they're also very good at introducing even addicts to things they didn't know they urgently needed. :P Sounds like the store has periodic events, too (a friend is already in talks with them about cross-promotions for a queer romance writers' conference she runs), so we're hoping to check that out soon!
Speaking of love prevailing, oh my gosh, we just saw an early showing of Loving last night, and it was so good! We were very teary and enjoyed it very much. Lots of actors who were new to us, moments of humor, good chemistry between the main couple. If you have the chance, see it this weekend when it opens (which is apparently the only weekend that matters for judging whether movies are successes).
I'll pass your words on to the moderators, mechaPoet.
Just checking in to say how grateful I am that you're all here, to thank everyone who is offering comfort, and encourage everyone to do all they can to take care of themselves and each other.
Does anyone know any fantasy literature with LGBTQ protags? I've been looking for some! When in doubt, ask Goodreads! From that list, I enjoyed Malinda Lo's books, and several friends recommend Ginn Hale and Astrid Amara. In other news, we saw The Handmaiden this weekend—it was gorgeous but not for the faint-hearted.
Spoiler: Trigger warnings for torture, child abuse, and attempted rape; the situation with Lady Hideko's uncle is much grimmer and creepier than in Fingersmith, the book it's inspired by. Also I had a strong sense that the erotic bits were choreographed and shot with an audience other than PNW lesbians in mind (see also After Ellen's review). BUT, it had a happier ending than Fingersmith, which was a pleasant surprise.
Absolutely! (And we track that too.) Based on our experience, though, increasing representation often improves quality of representation, too. When we made a push to increase the % of female characters, NO author's solution was to simply add more prostitutes or people to rescue—instead, they wrote female NPCs who filled a wider array of roles, like guards, advisors, merchants, con artists, etc.
Historically speaking, women were never underrepresented in RPGs. Speaking narrowly to this point, women absolutely were underrepresented, even in early Paizo products. We've run the numbers, counting NPCs and representations in art, and it has taken a lot of conscious, ongoing effort to turn that around. See this and the links within for more on the broader phenomenon of highly skewed male to female ratios in media being perceived as balanced. Speaking more broadly, it's so important to be aware of who is being underrepresented or left out entirely—we value feedback like the OPs, and we're listening.
Please vote, USians! We got our ballots on Friday (Washington is an all mail-in voting state), and spent a leisurely Sunday brunch voting over waffles with friends. It was LOOOONG this time, but packed with measures I'm really excited about...
Spoiler:
(increasing the minimum wage across the state, strengthening mass transit, increasing protections for vulnerable populations, and gender-neutral language in the city charter, to name a few There were races where there are clear choices, and races with flawed choices (voting for a judge who opposed marriage equality because her opponent is radically worse). And because we are privileged in some ways, our district has two progressive queer candidates for state representative running against each other. They are both doing so much good in the world and I wanted to vote for both! One has advocated for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and people experiencing homelessness, and the other has advocated for victims of domestic violence and human trafficking, queer youth, and the Pacific Islander community. That race was a difficult choice, but one with no wrong answer.
Re: gatekeeping, one (of many) examples I've encountered was having a stranger at Gen Con criticize me as "not really geeky" because I was knitting in the Starbucks line. I was wearing my Paizo shirt and staff badge at the time. No point to the comment other than to try to invalidate my credentials. Re: "gamer girl," it makes me grit my teeth. If other women want to use it, though, I respect their choice.
Lots of queer characters, no favorite class for them (though the grippli rogue was super fun to play). I've mostly been playing in relatively short-term games, so romance doesn't come up that often, but said rogue did politely decline the advances of a flirty harpy. Harpies' stench is a real barrier to relationships when you breathe through your skin!
The Pentagon has lifted the ban barring trans folk from serving in the US military. The exact details are unclear—apparently incoming members must be stable in their gender identity for 18 months before enlisting, but those already in the military will be covered for hormone therapy and surgery. Presumably the latter would also apply to future recruits who begin transitioning only after enlisting? More info needed. But yay!
Teriyaki savory cupcake design in progress, corn bread, shredded beef, quality teriyaki sauce, a few Thai chili, smooth mashed potatoes as "frosting", it is all coming together nicely.Luau style cupcakes with Teriyaki Buttercream Frosting. Both of these seem like they'd have a natural home at a state fair—I would for sure happily try 'em while watching Mutton Busting at Puyallup or boat races at the Evergreen State Fair!
Oh man that flourless cake. Thanks, all!
Bob, I'm so sorry to hear about your mother. I have no useful advice as to what to say to her—but take care of yourself through this time, and don't be afraid to reach out to friends and family for help and support.
Mark M.: What happened to that other sun god?
For those not already familiar with it, I recommend the web series Carmilla, a Canadian lesbian retelling of Le Fanu's Carmilla set in a surreal college in Austria. It's delightful, and there's a ton of associated content—especially since one of the main actors has declared herself captain of a shipdom involving her character (LaFerry). Oh, and watch with the subtitles on—they did their own, and sometimes use them as another venue for snark.
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