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was referring to a book i own and i said “i have it on book”

is it so over for me

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HE TOOK MY COMPUTER CHARGER

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Wood planing competition for thinnest plane of wood

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my personal argument for open borders is really simple it just boils down to "i believe restricting human movement and barring certain people from certain places on this earth is a human rights violation"

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💥🙌👏

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You think “oh it would be useful to learn how to identify my thrifted yarn and clothing” and before you know it you’ve been recruited by fiber witches giving out their spells willy nilly, again

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First I got it into my head (again) to read all of Stephen King's books, then I thought... I wonder if other people get that thought, then I decided to make a challenge for it.

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This is the best one

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It's crazy to me how all of the ICE shit is just coming for PhD students out the gate. Like, you realize that the fact 80% of the world has to come to America if they want to get a grad degree has been a major component of why we've been the global center of tech and science for 80 years, right? Like, their ideology doesn't make sense anyways, but I at least expected them to have the common sense not to attack actual national assets, or at least not right out the gate

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Scott Pilgrim is, I think, the best example I can think of for establishing a setting's Nonsense Limit. The setting's Nonsense Limit isn't quite "How high-fantasy is this". It's mostly a question of presentation, to what degree does the audience feel that they know the rules the world operates by, such that they are primed to accept a random new element being introduced. A setting with a Nonsense Limit of 0 is, like, an everyday story. Something larger than life, but theoretically taking place in our world, like your standard spy thriller action movie has a limit of 1. Some sort of hidden world urban fantasy with wizards and stuff operating in secret has a nonsense limit around 3 or 4. A Superhero setting, presenting an alternate version of our world, is a 5 or 6. High fantasy comes in around a 7 or so, "Oh yeah, Wizards exist and they can do crazy stuff" is pretty commonly accepted. Scott Pilgrim comes in at a 10. If you read the Scott Pilgrim book, it starts off looking like a purely mundane slice of life. The first hint at the fantastical is Ramona appearing repeatedly in Scott's Dreams, and then later showing up in real life. When we finally get an explanation, it's this:

Apparently Subspace Highways are a thing? And they go through people's heads? And Ramona treats this like it's obscure, but not secret knowledge. Ramona doesn't think she's doing anything weird here. At this point, it's not clear if Scott is accepting Ramona's explanation or not, things kind of move on as mundane as ever until their Date, when Ramona takes Scott through subspace, and he doesn't act like his world was just blown open or anything, although I guess that could have been a metaphor. there's a couple other moments, but everything with Ramona could be a metaphor, or Scott not recognizing what's going on. Maybe Ramona is uniquely fantastical in this otherwise normal world. And then, this happens

Suddenly, a fantastical element (A shitty local indie band finishing their set with a song that knocks out most of the audience) is introduced unrelated to Ramona, and undeniably literal. We see the crowd knocked out by Crash and The Boys. but the story doesn't linger on the implications of that, the whole point of that sequence is to raise the Nonsense Level, such that you accept it when This happens

Matthew Patel comes flying down onto the stage, Scott, who until this point is presented as a terrible person and a loser, but otherwise is extremely ordinary, proceeds to flawlessly block and counter him before doing a 64-hit air juggle combo. Scott's friends treat this like Scott is showing off a mildly interesting party trick, like being really good at darts. The establish that Scott is the "Best Fighter in the Province", not only are street-fighter battles a thing, Scott is Very Good at it, but they're so unimportant that being the best fighter in the province doesn't make Scott NOT a loser. So when Matthew Patel shows off his magic powers and then explodes into a pile of coins, we've established "Oh, this is how silly the setting gets". It's not about establishing the RULES of the setting so much as it is about establishing a lack of rules. Scott's skill at street-fighter battles doesn't translate to any sort of social prestige. Ramona can access Subspace Highways and she uses it to do a basic delivery job. It doesn't make sense and it's clear that it's not supposed to. So later on, when Todd Ingram starts throwing around telekinesis, and the explanation we're given is "He's a Vegan" , you're already so primed by the mixture of weirdness and mundanity that rather than trying to incorporate this new knowledge into any sort of coherent setting ruleset, you just go "Ah, yeah, Vegans".

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In an emergency motion brought to the conference, doctors affirmed “the rights of transgender and non-binary individuals to live their lives with dignity, having their identity respected”. Attendees urged the Supreme Court to acknowledge the existence of intersex people and condemned the “scientifically illiterate rulings from the Supreme Court, made without consultation with relevant experts and stakeholders, that will cause real-world harm to the trans, non-binary, and intersex communities in this country.”

28 April 2025

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Happy Terry Pratchett Day, on what would have been his 77th birthday.

To mark the occasion, we are putting our focus on reading for all, so we invite you to pick up a book, celebrate those championing literacy and access, share the stories that impacted you most, and celebrate your local libraries, who make this accessible across the country.

Terry was a firm believer that reading should be for everyone, and we continue to champion this ethos. No matter the age, format, or genre, there's a power in words and stories to transport readers.

For those looking to bring a little bit of Discworld into your, or younger readers', lives, Gollancz have given us some free sample colouring pages from the Discworld colouring book to share and print at home: https://terrypratchett.com/free-to-download-discworld-colouring-pages/

A continued and hearty thanks to all who keep Terry's work and legacy alive, and mark days like today in his honour. And to those who continue to fight for access to reading, for the importance of libraries, and the worlds that await within the pages of books - we thank you.

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hey, don’t cry. one half flour one half yogurt knead into dough and fry for easy flatbread and dip in balsamic vinegar, okay?