#nobody wanted all this book commentary yet i give

[honeyynymphh]

Wip Wednesday

tagged by @sucharide years ago

this is from a new story (one of many) that is very nearly finished. having so much trouble finishing things lately so I’m hoping by posting this into the void I shall be motivated to complete it!

it’s just the beginning so there are no real warnings but it is a little nsfw

Cardinal Copia x FemReader

summary: you’re an abbey maid that has the unfortunate pleasure of having to clean the most infuriating cardinal’s office and personal chambers.

You stare at the books in front of you and sigh, the wooden ladder you stand on groaning a little with the movement. Fuck, how you hated having to clean this damn shelf—well, shelf didn’t really cover it, it was an entire wall full of books and a few odd curiosities. Honestly, cleaning this entire office was exhausting. It took up most of your day, and then you had to move on to the inhabitants’ personal chambers. No wonder nobody else wanted to do it.

All those months ago when Sister Imperator had given out the timetables you’d been ecstatic to see you had fewer rooms to clean than the previous roster. The other maids had given you pitying looks but nobody had offered to swap with you, which you had dismissed as odd. How bad could one person be? You understood why now. It was because this room had to be cleaned thoroughly or you ended up back here, dusting and wiping while the owner of the room sneered out unhelpful and downright rude commentary on your methods.

But you were not going to be cowed by that uptight ass. You didn’t care if Cardinal Copia was nearly as high up as Sister Imperator or the Papas. If the man wanted his study and chambers to be cleaned, he would, at the very least, give you some respect. You were the only one who didn’t find him weirdly offputting—though he very much was that—but cleaning his office and chambers was much more pleasant than having to clean up the Great Hall after one of their decadent feasts or having to clean the rooms of the Papas. You never knew what would be in store for you whenever you entered a space that Papa Terzo had just vacated. And once you were done, it meant you had more free time. It was worth it, especially now that you’d grown used to the Cardinal and his acerbic tongue.

Cardinal Copia was exacting and his manners were non-existent but at least he was predictable. And he rarely made any mess—he certainly didn’t leave cream splattered on the ceiling. At least, you think it had been cream…Papa Terzo had mentioned something about cream pies.

Your eyes focus back on the books in front of you, most are all leather bound and organised neatly. Some have titles in golden lettering along the spines but so few of them are in English. You are nearly finished tidying them back up after having dusted and your eyes scan over them. The Cardinal had such a strange collection of books, and while many you could never read, some had intriguing diagrams and little illustrations in them. As someone not part of the church, just a maid, it was fascinating perusing through the strange old texts. You were sure the one you had leafed through last week had been about summoning actual demons.

One book catches your eye, it’s bound in deep red leather and the spine is decorated in gold embellishments. Your fingers run along the bumps and dips of the spine before you slip it out from the shelf and flip it open at random, your hip pressing against the top of the ladder as you balance yourself. Your eyes widen as you take in the illustration before you. It is…obscene! A woman on her knees in prayer, yet she is naked and bound. And her open mouth is not waiting for the communion wafer but for the cock of the priest standing before her, the rest of the congregation looking on without a care.

You flip to another page. This time, a woman stands upon a small plinth—a rope hangs from the ceiling and suspends her tied hands high above her head. A man stands next to her, ready to strike her bare ass with a wicked-looking birch rod. But there is also another man, on his knees before the other, his mouth clearly wrapped around the other’s cock—his own hard and leaking.

“Intrigued, Signorina?”

[ca-suffit]

Do you believe lestat would've saved claudia if he had the strength to save both cause i saw alot of people say that Jacob too

I'm combining this with this other ask too

Did you see Jacob saying that in the trial (where they are gonna die where Claudia is gonna die) Louis hates Lestat but also falls in love with him again? Like what is that... :/

a) re: Claudia. It was not my initial reaction to agree with hearing that when Jacob said that, but having read the books and based on some other things I'll explain in a sec......yes, it's prbly true.

I don't remember if this was a fandom post here or not, but wherever I saw it, there was a post once getting into how someone can care about u but still harm u. This is usually the biggest disconnect between the fandom (and sometimes Sam Reid himself) and the character of Lestat. In his book, he talks about how he cares about Claudia. U do see examples of it in the show as well. But overall how much did *she* rly feel that from him? How much did he explain the motivation of his actions that hurt her? How many times did he chose the cruelest way to do anything? The fandom is ready to always excuse everything away bcuz of whatever reason in his backstory explains it. Does Claudia ever know this tho? What does his trauma matter to her when he's only passing it on to her in different ways?

There's been a lot of good comments I've seen regarding how he defends her in the trial rehearsals too. How he's allowed to abuse her but nobody else is. How he can compliment her there finally bcuz she's under the scrutiny of others and *now* that's his daughter, *now* that's his blood. I mean, he was always seen bragging when she'd "take after him" before too, but u know what I mean. There are multiple ways to look at all of this and I think they all should be considered. That is the point of the show. Book ppl who are only looking to excuse their fav character are missing a lot of commentary regarding patriarchy, race, father / daughter relationships and whatever else.

The trial, to a degree, does follow the books and Lestat *is* shown being distraught at Claudia's death there too. It's not an act but we haven't gotten more of the pieces yet from the show canon. It also doesn't mean he's going to suddenly change to become another character. A majority of what Louis is haunted by regarding Claudia is based in all the ways he feels like he failed her. That will most likely be Lestat's perspective too. A lot of their shared grief is how much they fucked up someone else's life bcuz of their relationship and how she ultimately suffered the most bcuz of it. This is a common struggle for parents to examine as their kids grow up and give feedback on the experiences of being raised by ppl who maybe didn't have their shit together v well.

b) re: Loustat at the trial. This again ties back to their history as a couple and as parents, as well as both coming from abusive pasts. On the surface, it makes no fucking sense why Louis would be sitting there having *any* positive thoughts about Lestat in that moment. But he's been hallucinating him for so long and waiting for him to be real again that some part of it is still a relief. Circumstances being what they were, when they first made eye contact, u can see and feel the shift. It's even timed in Armand's notes.

Louis has always struggled to "hate" Lestat. He wouldn't have been able to kill Lestat if Claudia hadn't been there, u see him struggle in the 70s interview, u see him struggle in the Dubai interview. Lestat is the first real relationship he ever had. Louis comes from trauma and is drawn to trauma and he passes on trauma to Claudia too. This is Lestat too. This is a large part of why their relationship and all of these relationships are so compelling. It's real, it's tragic, it's fucked up. Louis continuously wants to be with Lestat but also kill Lestat and it's for so many different reasons. Some are all about Lestat and some are about Louis and his own self-loathing.

Being raised in trauma makes u easily susceptible to codependency. Abuse can deepen this bcuz it can make a relationship feel more "real," especially if that's what ur brain has associated with "this is what being loved feels like" (which is what happens if ur abused as a kid by ppl u rely on to survive). It's been established that Louis doesn't like "boring," but stuff like this is not sustainable either, even for vampires. We're still in the "idk wtf I'm doing" stage of anything for all of them and we'll have to see where the show is taking us for what direction this goes in over time.

I mean, this scene sums it all up p well.

[presidenthades]

So... 😳🤯

What did you think of episode 3?

I’m starting to realize I have a pattern in my general opinion of the episodes. When you look at scenes and dialogue at an individual level, it can be pretty great. The writers are churning out a lot of moments that are destined to become screenshots, quotes, GIFs, and memes that get reposted a lot on social media. But if you step back and look at the big picture, you realize it doesn’t make sense and there’s a lot of inconsistency/lack of logic.

I’m still enjoying the show more than not, but that’s mostly because of the acting, set design, costumes, music, etc. The writing is the weak spot, and it’s disheartening. But that means the show is prime material for fanfic, so silver linings? Maybe? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m not a fan of the show’s consistent theme of “women are good, men are violent and want war.” That ain’t feminism, and feminism isn’t supposed to be the moral lesson of the Dance anyway.

I like that Rhaenys is generally level-headed, but I don’t like that the show wants us to pretend like her mass-murdering a bunch of smallfolk at the Dragonpit is no big deal, or that somehow it’s supposed to look bad for the Greens instead of the Blacks. If nobody rioted over Rhaenys’s actions, then nobody should be rioting over the hanging of the rat-catchers. And yet it’s only the hanging of rat-catchers which catches flack. 🧐

Alicent and Criston are unofficially having a fight. TBH I think they’re more interesting like this than when they’re just having sex all the time. I do love that Gwayne seems to realize something is up between them almost instantly; definitely Otto’s son.

Speaking of Gwayne: he’s a smarmy rich kid, and I kind of love him. I would loathe him in real life, but he’s just so fun to watch.

I’m glad that Rhaena finally gets dialogue!!! I love that we see her complicated emotions about being sent away because she’s the only non-dragonrider. The leak about her and Sheepstealer seems more and more likely…but I really am hoping Nettles remains in the show. I would prefer if Rhaena’s arc demonstrates that you don’t have to be a dragonrider to have a good story and be of value to the war effort, and her hatching Morning is a great moment in the book.

I also prefer the theory that Daenerys’s eggs came from Dreamfyre, but it’s not a hill I’m gonna die on.

I LOVED Harrenhal. Spooky vibes, Simon Strong just being like “we don’t want trouble,” Daemon’s hallucination sequence, first glimpse of Alys Rivers. It’s giving me ideas for more Joff adventures. Honestly, I would love if HBO produced some kind of Westerosi horror ghost story anthology.

This is a very minor scene in the episode, but it baffles me so I’ll chat about it a bit. When Rhaenyra is worth her council and they suggest “go somewhere safe while we conduct the war effort,” she calls it treason.

Why is it treason?? They’re literally telling her their ideas to her face. They’re not hiding anything. And it’s basically what happened in the book: Rhaenyra sat out of most of the war while other people conducted it. I feel like this particular scene/dialogue was forced to showcase that Rhaenyra is a woman in a man’s world.

Rhaenys and Corlys’s scene was very sweet. It’s also definitely foreshadowing Rook’s Rest.

I’m not sure I like Helaena’s scene. I read comments that she’s hyper-rationalizing as a coping method, but that doesn’t come across the screen well. I think it’s because Helaena isn’t getting the screentime necessary to convey a lot of this stuff, so we have to resort to BTS commentary to get confirmation that yes, Helaena does actually mourn Jaehaerys, she hasn’t just moved on after a few days.

I enjoyed the vulnerability that Aegon shows during his armor fitting, and his discourse with Larys. I don’t necessarily like Larys, nor do I like him manipulating (?) Aegon, but it’s fun to watch.

I can understand Aegon’s thought process to go out with The Boyz as his own coping mechanism, but like many things this season, it’s thanks to the acting. TGC’s face shows a series of emotions as Aegon realizes what a mess he’s in, then ultimately he decides he might as well go out on the town to get a semblance of normalcy. Without that degree of acting, it would be easy to dismiss Aegon as not caring about anything.

It was fun to follow Ulf’s perspective on the streets of KL. His dialogue was a bit clunky because the writers are trying to set up the dragonseed plot. He and Hugh are going to be an interesting pair to watch, with show!Hugh being the serious guy while Ulf is the clown.

No surprise here, but the brothel scene definitely gave me a lot of emotions. 🥲 I like to think sober!Aegon wouldn’t have been as much of an ass to Aemond, after all the times that Aegon has indicated he’s strongly relying on Aemond and Vhagar. Alas, Aegon was very drunk and said a lot of things he shouldn’t have said. Ewan also had phenomenal face-acting in this scene, where you could see him going from horrified and embarrassed to Stone Cold Badass™️.

HOWEVER. If the E4 leak I’ve heard is true, that Aemond tries to kill Aegon because of this brothel scene, I’m gonna be very pissed. We got a scene in E2 where Aemond says he regrets killing Luke…and now he’s gonna kill his own brother in cold blood? 🧐

Septa Rhaenyra… I’m sorry, but this whole sequence was unintentionally hilarious to me. The whole idea is kinda ridiculous. If you forget for a moment that Luke and Jaehaerys are dead, the scene with Alicent and Rhaenyra gives the vibes of two former besties having a spat over something unserious. Honestly I might use it as inspiration for some Alicent and Rhaenyra interactions in my fics, but the big difference is that nobody’s kids have been murdered (yet?) in my fics.

Overall, E3 was a setup episode for future episodes, so it feels like nothing much happened. I’ll still be here next week for E4, but I’ll probably be grumbling about the writing again. 💀

[zahri-melitor]

New(ish) Comics (this is the best week of the month, no lie)

Batman – Santa Claus: Silent Knight #1: this is fun. I like the way Bruce and Damian are written together. I am annoyed Babs is out as Batgirl. I'm amused that Tim is very specifically excluded from the story that involves real Santa given he'd not be wondering 'ooh oooh is Santa real' like Dick is here.

Someone had better give Darkseid some coal, is all I can say.

Batman #139: …so we really are running Batman and Batman & Robin with contradictory plots right now. Cmon. There was even a way to finagle this so that Damian could be living with Bruce and have Zdarsky’s plot still work! Grump.

“I’m coming for you, Joker. I’m coming for all three of you. For the last time.” (actually there’s a printing error in this line and the letterer has ‘For the the last time’) I disbelieve this Zdarsky, sorry, though if you could figure out a way to get Joker out of the Bat books for a few years I think everyone would enjoy that.

Now that aside, I do want to note that apparently my decision to (re)read all of Henri Ducard’s appearances seems to have been prescient, given Zdarsky has just referred to ‘manhunting’, ‘training when I was young’ and ‘Paris’ all together. That’s Ducard. That trio is 100% Ducard. Sounds like I need to finish Henri Ducard’s post-2016 appearances, which I was delaying. So Batman: The Detective and Batman: The Knight are jumping up my reading list. (And a quick look at ‘Lucie Chesson’ says she’s from Batman: The Knight, so yep, gotta read)

Joker + dolls always makes me think of NML Endgame, personally.

Birds of Prey #3: Damn this continues to just be a solid read. Thompson keeps hitting yet another 'look I can be trusted' target every issue.

I could do with at least 30% less Harley commentary in this book, but I do acknowledge that at least half the team are unlikely to talk much in a combat situation. Future!Maps is cute and as I slowly approach Maps content I’m excited to meet her more. Also… SIN MY SWEETHEART. I have been waiting for this hug for SIXTEEN YEARS. (Literally. I was in DC fandom in 2007 when they were torn apart). Also loooooooooool Ollie got curbstomped by Diana, sucks to be you Ollie.

Blue Beetle #3: Oh I couldn’t help myself (in terms of how many panels I already posted), but Blue Beetle is doing such interesting things right now. Victoria’s finally being acknowledged on page as being super sus and villainous (rather than just slinking around being sus and concerning me deeply). I’m getting more and more worried about the identity of the Red Beetle. We got Traci back! Which from what I hear means that Trujillo is glossing over some of Traci’s recent characterisation, but we’ll see how this tracks (and in any case, re-establishing Jaime’s connections to the magic/dark side of DC via Traci is helpful if we’re about to do a Dan Garrett story).

Free my girl Dani Garrett if we’re doing a Dan Garrett storyline, she’s an autistic mildly amoral archaeologist and I desperately, DESPERATELY want to see her arguing with Victoria Kord over who ‘owns’ the scarab while Jaime’s standing in the middle going ‘excuse me nobody owns Khaji Da, it’s its own being! And my friend!’

Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #3: hello Jimmy Olsen! Hello Turtle Jimmy lore! (I love how silly this book is. I do enjoy JLI stuff that doesn’t take itself seriously) I’m getting attached to a few of the new villains, particularly Linka Grodd.

Shazam! #5: MARY SIGHTING. Darla remains tiny and adorable and I love her too. This comic remains committed to ridiculous fun villains (and Waid and Mora have apparently been off raiding the ‘underused weird Silver Age villains’ list). Mr Dinosaur is an amazing addition to the canon. (And yes. Billy rebuilt the moon. Oh Shazam!) Also I see we are still back firmly in the ‘jealous Freddie’ plot that’s been hanging around for a while.

Warlord #25: this week we check back in with Tara, Mariah and Machiste. Grell’s done some fabulous art for the splash page that I really really like.

Travis is fighting *checks notes* snow giants as he's still too ashamed to come hang out with his friends and partner after the whole 'I killed Joshua' incident a few issues back. He's also cutting all sort of things with his Damascus Steel sword which I have to remind everyone and note is highly suspicious damascus steel, because it's made from a RIFLE and there is no way the type of steel used was able to be worked as damascene, given it likely was alloyed wrong.

I love Ashir here (the guy actually wearing clothes) as firstly, look! A rare appearance of someone with most of their skin covered! Secondly, Travis' burn of "I didn't know you had character".

Anyway, Travis is moping a bit here about being a lone warrior. You could go and hang out with your friends any time you want, Travis. You're the one who left, not them.

[ladyfromaspookyforest]

Scott Clarke is an NPC (I'm dead serious)

Scott does So Much (yes, I'll be capitalizing often in this post) for the story in season 1 and yet is developed more or less not at all. He's a side character. Do I expect to get to know him on the level I know Mike or Joyce? No. It's the fact that he does So Much and yet we know So Little that's odd. I know more about Vickie than I do about Scott despite how much more screentime AND impact Scott has had.

I’ve been looking at some Suspicious Behavior surrounding Scott, which I’m writing a separate post on. So in this post, I won’t be theorizing about anything we don’t know about him. I want to talk about the role he plays as we see it.

I had this thought and once I had it, I couldn’t get rid of it. See, my thought was, “Huh, Scott’s kind of like the chorus in a play.” And I keep thinking about that. The role of the chorus (historically...like Greek historically) is to provide information the audience needs that the actors cannot themselves give. Sometimes they offer commentary on what the actors are doing. Sometimes they offer foreshadowing. Sometimes they announce a tonal shift.

You know when you read a book and there’s a conversation like,

"Are you hungry?" "No, I’m good. I doubt I’ll ever feel truly hungry again now that I’ve lived through the Four Year Famine." "That’s true. Those were a hard four years after the Leprechaun Army of Willyfilly Forest turned all our crops to marshmallows, and when the marshmallows melted on the hottest day of the summer and ruined the soil etc. etc."

and you’re just sitting there like JFC nobody talks like this? The chorus makes it so you don’t have to listen to characters over explain things to each other in abominably unnatural ways. But they aren’t characters whose independent arcs are explored.

In season 2, Scott literally introduces us to Max and in doing so, also reveals to us that she is MADMAX. His first lesson is about the human brain, and he tells us that there are 100 billion cells inside working together as one. This foreshadows the hivemind. His second lesson is about Phineas Gage and how his behavior dramatically shifted after the rod incident. This foreshadows Will’s possession. His third lesson is about instinctual fear and this one is literally given as a voiceover on top of Mindflayer Will approaching the hot bath. It couldn’t be any clearer. Scott’s role in season 2 is very blatantly the Chorus role. He delivers information to the audience and that is all.

In season 1, it isn’t that he’s speaking TO us to provide us with the information we need, but that his EXISTENCE provides us with the information we need.

Example: Instead of suffering through something along these lines—

"The Heathkit is so cool. It’s amazing that it’s able to reach so much further than a regular radio."

—we have Scott teaching the boys about it because it’s just arrived. This is pretty much storytelling 101, basic Show Don’t Tell. But what has me stuck on it is that this is ALL Scott does. The only reason Scott needed to be in the woods searching for Will that first night was so that he could strike up a conversation resulting in the revelation that Hopper lost a daughter.

But here’s how I look at it: Scott’s like an NPC. He just appears while you’re on your important mission to communicate with Will and says, “I’ll give you the key to the Very Important Radio but first you have to do something!” and then you have to go to this assembly and there’s this minor bad guy you fight there and then you get to go use the radio. Or you’re on the Scour the Woods quest and NPC Scott pops up and says “I found this piece of cloth! Looks like it’s from the lab!” And you have to go on your Scour the Lab quest.

Scott Clarke is the true NPC of Stranger Things. There is one instance of Scott Not Furthering the Plot in season 1 and it’s when he’s at home, watching a movie with a ladyfriend (the biggest plot twist of season 1) before Dustin interrupts to make sure he doesn't get too comfortable and gets back to his job of Driving the Plot. So Scott tells him how to make a sensory deprivation tank.

I said that like a joke, but it’s actually so fascinating to me that we don’t just see Scott picking up the phone when Dustin calls, which would have been in line with everything else we’ve seen from him all season. This includes when Connie comes to wrangle the party’s identities out of him. We don’t see what he was doing before she arrives. We see her knock and only then do we see inside as he answers the door. But in this scene, we catch this brief glimpse of Scott’s life before Dustin interrupts and that interruption genuinely feels like it’s saying, “No, no, Mr. Clarke. You’ve misunderstood the assignment. You’re supposed to be helping, not relaxing.”

This happens again in season 3. We actually see inside his garage as he paints a little DnD figure while Joyce is knocking on the door before he hears her and gets up to greet her. It’s just a brief glimpse of his life outside of school. So what we know about Scott is that he likes science, he likes film, and he likes DnD. We actually already knew he liked DnD because he knew what the Vale of Shadows was in The Flea and the Acrobat and we could have guessed he liked film because he’s in charge of (and enthusiastic about) the AV Club. But what we know about Scott is, in short, his interests and that he cares about his students.

I think I need to take a moment to talk about why Scott is different from other side characters. Let’s keep on with season 1 for now. Barb is only in two episodes, but she’s developed enough that we see her emotions. We understand her worry that Nancy is outgrowing her. We see her frustrations as she’s dragged to a party where she doesn’t feel comfortable and then as Nancy abandons her. But ultimately, Barb IS the plot. She’s the instigator for Nancy’s journey. Similarly, Troy is the plot, serving as an obstacle for the boys. Tommy and Carol are antagonists to Nancy and Jonathan and offer Steve a self-growth arc. All of these side characters further the characterization of a protagonist. Scott only furthers the plot. (Don't @ me, I'm not implying he wasn't a great influence on the kids, I'm talking about what we see onscreen)

There are also side characters who don’t really do anything most of the time but maybe have a scene or two where they actually do something relevant. Like Holly. She’s just around most of the time, but then she notices the lights. Or Flo. She’s just at the office doing her job until she offers up some words about love and stupidity to Nancy.

No other side character consistently furthers the plot Every. Single. Time. they are on screen. And yet Scott is totally undeveloped. It’s his complete lack of independent journey combined with the way he appears solely to reveal information the protagonists require that makes him like an NPC. If he did not exist, the plot would halt. He is a destination the protagonists need to arrive at in order to achieve their goals. This is true of both seasons 1 and 3. In season 2, the plot actually would have been fine without him (I wouldn’t. I would not have been fine without Scott, FYI) but he was there to offer us foreshadowing and themes. His Chorus Era, as I am deeming it.

Season 2 also contains the only instance of Scott Not Furthering the Plot AT ALL in a scene. It’s at the Snow Ball. He’s briefly seen tacking up a banner and then again greeting Dustin. Nothing is revealed about him or his life through these moments, but they don’t serve the story in any way and frankly, that’s refreshing. Good for you, Scott. It isn’t like in seasons 1 and 3 where his peace is interrupted. Although, technically, Dustin still has to interact with Scott here in order to get into the Snow Ball.

I’m trying very hard to wrap this up without going into Theory Mode because I’m saving all that for my other post, but I feel like I just shat out a bunch of nonsense if there’s no Great Point I’m making. Conclusion: this character was written with a very specific purpose in mind. The writers made sure he was essential in every scene he is (has a speaking role) in except for one quick non-character-building interaction. And for a character so Important, he is left unusually underdeveloped. I don’t think this was an accident, that’s all. Scott Clarke for ST5.

[zealoussy]

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

✨ Some sort of review

So, basically June (a white woman) is so jealous of her friend, Athena (a chinese american, queer), who seems to have it all, that when she suddenly dies, June steals her friend’s unfinished manuscript. She stole it, polished it so it aligned with her approach to writing, then published the story as hers.

Yes, she's insufferable. Yes, you have to deal with her for the whole book. So, make sure you prepare a snack, a tea, or anything that you can grab when things get frustrating.

As an unlikeable character, June is written too well, I think. When you read this, you will expect to hate everything that she says and does. Granted, there are a lot of things you can hate about June. But the thing is, RFK leaves enough room in the characterization of June for the readers to interpret what kind of character she is.

You see, in satire, usually you have this expectation that the characters will always talk in exaggeration, their behavior and worldview, you can’t help but expect the characters to be some sort of caricature. Yet often, in this book, the things that she says are the messages that RFK wants to deliver.

If you find yourself agreeing with this quote from June,

We’re just suggesting the right credentials, so that readers take me and my story seriously, so that nobody refuses to pick up my work because of some outdated preconceptions about who can write what. And if anyone makes assumptions, or connects the dots the wrong way, doesn’t that say far more about them than me?

may I remind you that in this context, June stole Athena’s manuscript about a WWI Chinese Laborers story? Well you’ll find more layers of irony like this in Yellowface.

That dissonance between how I perceive June and some things she said that I agree with, makes me reevaluate my thinking about what was said, who said, how it was said. (A lot of things said on the internet. It’s easy to lose my voice in the noise, sometimes I even forget to make my own judgment.)

Another thing about June is that she feels human in this book. Before you come at me, no, I am not a June defender. There are moments where you will see how June is slowly deteriorating. In those moments, you can see that June is capable of guilt and grief and fear. That, makes her human.

Although not for long you’ll be reminded again, how still unlikeable she is. What an asshole she is. Some people may not like this way of characterization where, after showing her vulnerability, you'll then be hit in the face with a reminder how bad she is.

For me personally, I like to be reminded that she is terrible simply because I’m an empath.

Aside from June's characterization, there's also the social commentary. Have you ever felt like you have so much in your head but it seems impossible to express what you think? Yeah, RFK spoke what I had in mind like how. This book is I think RFK's way to give words to the things that she has been observing. She's very thorough at that too.

Maybe it's because I'm chronically online. Or maybe it's because I'm always interested in media trends. But there are a lot of nuances in which RFK write the things that she wanted to show the readers.

For example, June thought that the way Athena approached historical fiction is "so hackneyed that they defy belief", although it was implied that Athena was trying to be as truthful as possible to the actual history.

For June, how Athena writes is not accessible, didactic, therefore makes it not a good craft. Meanwhile all this time the opposite has been said about Athena's books: brilliant, authentic, insightful.

Part of Athena's original draft that June's editor said to be "torture porn" was a literal story straight from historical record. That exchange between June and her editor is a good example of "the winner is the one who write the history" or whatever, that sentence, but in a bad way.

From this gaze, we get to see how power is an essential factor that builds the narrative. There's a big part in the story where white privilege plays a role in which they have more advantages over people of color.

SPOILER ALERT

June is misusing her influence towards a POC character which consequently ruin that person's life entirely.

SPOILER ENDS.

Talking about POC, RFK has got some humour in her. I love how Juniper is written being so delulu that it makes her look plain stupid.

"Diversity is what’s selling right now. Editors are hungry for marginalized voices. You’ll get plenty of opportunities for being different, Emmy. "

In booktwt specifically, it is not an uncommon occurrence where readers are debating about diversity. "Just because the book is diverse doesn't mean it's good," that saying is not unfamiliar among the readers. What is a good book, honestly? Pulling the thread from this scope, RFK tried to capture how twitter discourse looks like, what each sides are arguing about.

It's easy for people to dismiss the happenings on the twitter as, "It's just twitter", although in a lot of cases it's warranted that things are overblown in there, but there needs to be some consideration where people's life are depending on it. What does this mean is, it all comes down to the theme of white privilege again. June's career is depending on social media, mainly twitter. Being the June that she is, let's say, she's not nice to people, so there are consequences of her own actions, but knowing how deranged twitter can be, relying your career using that media can be debilitating. June is obviously overwhelmed by this. I like this part because this is where the social commentary shines light about the publishing industry.

But Twitter is real life; it’s realer than real life, because that is the realm that the social economy of publishing exists on, because the industry has no alternative.

I don't think I ever heard a book that tells a story about publishing industry this close. Readers are introduced to the behind the scenes of publishing industry with a sense of familiarity, using terms that readers use when they talk about the books they consume. Yellowface is an intriguing piece of literature that break the door to the source of the enjoyment itself and the way it is created in this profit-hungry society. Not only that, it also a neat composition of characterization, storyline, motif, worldbuilding, and a sprinkle of social commentary.

TLDR: Seriously, please read Yellowface! It's well-written, engaging, insightful, and overall an amazing book.

[saltygilmores]

Thoughts While Watching Gilmore Girls, Season 2, Episode 6 ("Presenting Lorelai Gilmore") Part 1

Read all previous commentaries here. Jess is here. And inside that comically large sack of stuff he bought in, he is carrying The Agonies. Okay, let's not panic, we have some breathing room in early season 2, because in some of the early Jess episodes it looks like they weren't quite sure what to do with him yet and would just kinda stick him in the first or last minute of the episode showing him wiping down tables at the diner and stuff. But The Agonies are coming. Rory: In the future am I going to be working at CNN or just walking around their offices carrying a basket of sandwiches? That second thing.

Swing and A Miss, Netflix Captioner. Jessay! "I'm sorry I'm late to work Uncle Luke but since you're apparently in no rush to to give me my own bedroom this is the only time of day I get a chance to jerk off." Lorelai: Gross t-shirt. Nobody asked you. We see Emily gossiping with her DAR biddies. There's a chill in the air. Evil is afoot. Rory shows up at the Biddy Conference to pick up a book from Richard, blissfully unaware of the hell that will soon be unleashed upon her. The biddies descend on Rory, and our sweet, naive summer child has soon voluntarily accepted to "come out" at the debuntate ball.

Good for you honey. Does Paris know? Lorelai: Rory, do you know what a coming out party says? It says "Hi, I'm Rory, I'm of good breeding and marriagable age and I will now parade around in front of young men of similary good breeding and marriagable age so they can all take a good long look at me. Like animals being up for bid at the county fair." Dean & Lane got married (and pregnant) when they were 19 and Logan proposed to Rory when she was 21 so being a breedable marriagable teenager is kind of par for the course in The Hollow. A bridal auction sounds like an idea right up Taylor Doose's alley, don't give him any ideas. Rory: It says your father is supposed to present you at the ceremony. Aw, god damn it! I was fully prepared for Forrester being an intregral part of this episode but I once again did not anticipate the arrival of CrustyPher and the horrors are flooding back. It's going to be an AssClown Double Feature!

Pictured: The Horror. Is this a cosmic joke, a curse upon me, for saying "Thank God Lorelai didn't call Christopher again" at the end of my last review? Christopher makes a joke that Lorelai called him because all of her "976 numbers were busy". Okay, that joke even went partially over my crusty Millennial ass at first because I've only ever heard of people saying "900 numbers". He meant a phone sex hotline. The gymnastics that AmyShermanPalladino performed to insert subtle dirty jokes into this show under the radar are nothing short of breathtaking. Is that why Lorelai doesn't pay Luke for her coffee? Because she's in debt over over a crushing phone sex hotline addiction? Miss Patty entertains the gents who call the Stars Hollow phone sex hotline and Kirk is for the ladies.

I'm sorry I'm just trying to distract myself from the Upcoming Horrors. Lorelai: This is very important to your daughter and she has never asked you for anything, and although your constant non presence in her life and your lack of ever showing up when you promise to be there or calling when you say you're going to call or basically doing anything you promise to do would tend to indicate that you owe her big time, and before you say no, I want you to take a minute to remember you have a great daughter and she has a mother who will hunt you down like a half price Kate Spade purse if you disappoint her. Wow that is so terribly sad. Rip him a new asshole Lorelai!

Not this assclown smiling clownily while the mother of his child rips into him for being a shitty father. Crustypher blows Lorelai's mind when he actually agrees to escort Rory to the cotillion. The hilariously vague Netflix description of this episode reads "Lorelai finds herself attracted to a changed man." I'm nervous. The Horrors, they are upon us now.

Oh hey there's Dean's self portrait behind the couch. And now for your favorite game and mine, "Bargaining WIth Buttheads."

Prince Charming here didn't have his nap and bottle today so he's having a widdle shitfit. He's gonna give Wory a widdle utlimatum before he agrees to escort her to the ball.

This seems like a bizarre, lopsided compromise. He'll dress up in a coat and tails and go to a frigging cotillion as long as she watches some dumb tv show with him for the next month...? You held all the chips in this bargain, buddy. You could have asked for a handjob. At least a handjob. Maybe even two. Maybe DURING Battlebots. Maybe then you wouldn't be so cranky. I'm spearheading a new initiative called Handjobs For The Hollow. More handjobs all around for the men in The Hollow to mellow them out.

I'm not a religious person, but leave poor God out of this.

Rory:"Is it a sack filled with 16 years of back child support payments?"

Rory needs to take that thing, bludgeon Crusty, then go inside and bludgeon Dean. An opportunity like this rarely presents it self more than once.

I'm just saying, Jack Pearson died saving his family from a house fire.

Me: Lorelai, you're going to end up the subject of a true crime podcast. Lorelai: What's a podcast? Me: Nevermind...

Oooh, shopping bags. Looks like someone Escaped The Hollow And Visited The Real World™ Swell, even Richard is being a dickhead too. Get your peanuts, get your popcorn, It's a Three Ring Butt Circus and all the clowns are present and accounted for.

It's the Waltz Of The Sugarplum Buttheads.

Oh please do go on Crusty...Enlighten us with your crusty widsom...so, yeah while you're doing that, I'm just going to be...over here. Doing...stuff.

He always looks chronically constipated. Someone had to say it.

This cannot be good.

As always, Miss Patty has no chill. She is my hero.

Please tell me she poisoned his latte when he had his back turned. Lorelai: Asking Luke to make a chai anything is insane. Crusty: I think he just threw a cinnamon stick in some tea. Lorelai: It wasn't a cinnamon stick. Ah, so Luke poisoned his drink. My good man.

Damn. So close :(

Fascinating. Just fascinating. Do go on. I'm just going to be over there...buying some popcorn... Crusty sits Lorelai down to mansplain what a job is. See, it's this thing where you go to the same place every day, and then at the end of the day you feel like you've done something and earned something. My man Crusty here didn't think he'd like having one of these job things, but shucks, he was pleased to discover that he "quite enjoys the stability." Jack Pearson also went back into a burning house to save the dog. I'm just saying.

Lorelai and Crusty turn around to see Dean about to hurl Rory to the ground inside Miss Patty's.

He can't kiss, he has no rhythm, he's not attractive, he's dull, he's mean, and he's not very smart, but damn, the ladies love Dean for some reason, especially Rory's mom.

Crusty and Dean searching for their reflections in the mirror and coming up empty because they're ButtVampires.

Tie it nice and tight, Crusty. Lorelai, mocking high society debutantes: Idk how Rory is ever going to make it in society! She's going to get a job and only get married once! Well, Lorelai is no Miss Cleo, that's for sure.

Lorelai: My parents are openly fighting. They've never done that before. What should I do? Crusty: Move to California, that's what I do when my parents fight. That sentence doesn't make any sense. Sounds like The Male Gilmore Girls Characters California Wormhole (which has at one point or another swallowed Max, Jess, and Dave Rygalski) sucked up another victim but unfortunately It didn't like how he tasted and spit him back out to Connecticut.

But just like your promises to your daughter, you didn't keep your word and let us all down by not having one. Crusty: I have to stay up to do work. Lorelai: *laughs* Sorry, I keep forgetting that's not a joke anymore. Jack Pearson served in Vietnam, I'm just saying.

[semper-legens]

16. The Hero of Ages, by Brandon Sanderson

Owned: No, library Page count: 802 My summary: The world is ending. The ash is falling. The mists are killing. Ruin has been released. There is only one more chance for a happy ending. But with everything at stake, will anyone realise what needs to be done? My rating: 5/5 My commentary:

Okay. Okay. Oooooookay. I’ve put this one off for a bit. Mostly because I didn’t want this series to conclude, you know! Well, there is another trilogy, but I don’t currently have that accessible to me. But as it turns out, I was wrong to wait, because this was so, so good. It was a very satisfying conclusion to the series, building on what has been foreshadowed and built up throughout the series to deliver a whammy of an ending. This thing’s eight hundred pages, there’s absolutely no way I can give you all of my thoughts on this, but I’m gonna give you as many as I can type.

Baby you know my favourite trope is a hopeless struggle against the odds with a small band of rebels desperately hoping that the world will get better for their efforts despite insurmountable issues. And this is very that. It’s literally the end of the world, again and again and again, and there is absolutely no way that they can win. And yet. Despite everything, even though it costs them all they have and more, they manage to make it. And the cost is high! Characters are dropping like flies, and nobody is safe, but when death comes it feels like a satisfying conclusion to that character’s arc, rather than a shameless ploy to increase the tension and add shock value. It was very well executed, and I enjoyed it greatly.

Let’s talk about some specific characters. Like my boy Spook! Poor Spook. He starts out as being a street rat that Kelsier and his crew used as a scout, and in this book grows to become a Survivor in his own right. He’s hearing the voice of Kelsier in his head...which turns out to be Ruin exploiting and manipulating him, something that shatters his worldview entirely. I admire Spook’s maturity, but at the same time pity how easy he is to manipulate - not that that’s his fault. It seems like a running theme with these characters that the most worldly are the most vulnerable, and given that the most worldly are street rats who had to grow up fast, that makes sense. Spook’s lost a lot, he’s been underestimated, and now he grows to become a player in his own right.

The second character I want to talk about specifically is Sazed. Guy’s been through a lot. He’s lost his faith, and doesn’t collect religions or wear his copperminds anymore. I do have questions about this storyline - Sazed’s loss of faith and dismissal of the various religions he studies is very Christian in its framing. Sazed dismisses religions because of logical contradictions or the Divine not being perfect, but not all faiths have a singular god who is meant to be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent, and we don’t really see that in the religions that Sazed is studying. Still, I really enjoyed the character study of Sazed here, how he is brought to his absolute lowest point and claws himself back to save everyone. I admire that, you know.

There’s so much else I could say about this book, I love how Sanderson wove this story of Ruin and Preservation and the wider mythos being hinted at and foreshadowed, so that when the reveal comes it still hits hard, but it makes perfect sense from what you know of the world. It’s amazing writing, and I really love it.

Next up - the dead walk the streets, and sometimes fall in love.

[space-blue]

okay first of all how does anyone bear to do asks i need to keep switching between two tabs trying to figure out what questions i'm trying to ask, there's got to be an easier way-- BUT right, Behind the Scenes asks: 1, 5, 12, 18 PLEASE, and 23. (PS am i supposed to ask so many? prob not. screw it, i'm greedy (PPS am i supposed to be anon rn idk if that's correct etiquette)) THANKS!

I jot the numbers down somewhere if I'm getting overwhelmed. You did great though! And no, there is no etiquette on how many to ask, don't worry. If there's a double I'll just send you to the other ask. More means I get to talk about fic more, which is great! :3

What was the first fandom and/or pairing that you wrote fic for?

Star Wars, Thrawn x OC. I was pretty sauced. I think I have some great moments in there, and I was free to create all the banter I wanted, etc. But it suffers a LOT from me being completely new to multi chapter work. I go into meandering tengeants and don't know when to stop on the world building. It had its fans and really dragged me into the whole fanfic universe though. Maybe one day I'll finish it, but I had no idea which way to go. I feel like I wrote myself in a corner, somewhat haha

5. What is the perfect environment for you to write in?

I don't mind loud spaces like cafes or pubs, so long as the music isn't obnoxious and I can hear my own. I just like places where nobody is going to come to me to interrupt me. Sadly I live and work in a backpacker hostel, meaning I have 50 odd housemates at any given time, without counting the 250 guests. I get interrupted a LOT. So right now, hidden in my bed or hunkering down at my fav cafe, would be my answer.

12. Is there a trope you haven’t written yet but really want to?

Yes! There's this Tarkin & Ahsoka fic I mentioned in this ask. It focuses on the amnesia trope. I really, really like to write sort of mind fucky things from character PoV. So Tarkin struggling with shattered memories and having to rebuild himself while trusting this total stranger… Hard. Especially when WE all know she's lying to him to try and use him for her side, because the rebellion just needs the help that badly. I do need to make better research on real amnesia before I apply scifi logic to it... And I need to not be hyperfixation on Quaritch's blue ass. His own trope scratches a similar itch, since he's a clone with implanted memories. So identity crisis as well...

18. What is a line/scene you’re really proud of? Give us the DVD commentary for that scene.

OK ok I have this entry from my Hannibal ficlets that focuses on a secret inside the "mind palace" Hannibal Lecter has. I've read all three relevant Hannibal books, watched the films, all TV series… And then I read the book Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. It's excellent and I recommend it. It focuses on a man living inside an enormous house that has three levels going in all directions, with clouds in the top level and a sea with rushing tides in the bottom. There are statues everywhere… And birds… And it's very WTF and it takes you a long time to understand what's going on. It's in this man's pov too which thickens the mystery.

I love the works of Piranesi. He's an italian architect and archaelogist who once got sick. 22 yo and delirious with fever, he sketched a series of 'infinite prisons' which you can see here!

So I'm writing this tiny daily ficlet, trying to stick as close to 200 words as I can, and I was folding myself into a piranesian pretzel trying to FIT THE DAMN EXPRESSION in. Making Hannibal's mind palace into a piranesian thing.

There is a corner of his mind always plagued by snow. It is a torturous journey there, through labyrinthine passages, down echoing stairwells and across bridges arcing over the piranesian landscape of his palace. It is easy to lose one's way, to be distracted by the vaulted ceilings of a chapel, the confines of well used hideouts, or the familiar outlines of his Baltimore office. But if he keeps walking, fingers brushing against all the door-frames of all the halls of his mind, eventually they alight on damp wood, cold and brittle. 

[he's off to visit his baby sister, who he keeps in there. He was forced to eat her by soldiers as a child, yeah it's dark]

23. If you had to remix one of your own fics, which would it be and how would you remix it?

I'm not super hung up on this idea. I write and move on. I have 151 works currently and I've been on ao3 for not even 3 years. So as you can imagine I have a tendency to create a new work rather than worry about remixing.

This being said I'd probably completely retool my very first fic, as per answer 1. I'd change the OC, shorten the plot by A LOT, get the action started sooner, completely drop a lot of worldbuilding… It's a slog, which can be very sweet in a fanfic when you're enjoying the slog content, but dear lord, it makes for awkward re-reading. I'd make the OC an alien instead of a human raised by aliens. Too much going on.

[thelondonpedestrian]

Book Review: Severance by Ling Ma

Severance treads a very fine line between apocalyptic pandemic thriller and marginally infuriating over introspective memoir. While I was perhaps hoping for more of one than the other, I'm not sure how well either delivered for me.

The prologue has a strong start with "After the end came the beginning. And in the beginning there were eight of us, then nine - that was me...".

All books need a great opening sentence and this was a good one. As it stands, I was expecting much more exploration into the themes and survival of the characters trying to live with the incurable mysterious" Shen virus" pandemic than I felt actually came across. The novel boasts 26 chapters and 291 pages and sadly it felt like only very few of these actually addressed the present day issue of protagonist Candace Chen's new life as one of very few virus survivors. The reader is offered few glimpses into how Chen faces her present day adversity with fitting into a small group of "non-fevered" individuals, who are slowly picking their way across America to settle down at the "facility" - a place to presumably congregate and start life anew

Instead, much of the novel is devoted to Chen's memories of her arrival in America as a second generation Chinese immigrant, growing up to eventually move to New York and start a career in book production. Much of the book is given over to Chen's grief and loneliness regarding her deceased parents and their motivations for moving to America, Chen's frustration with her ex boyfriend for deciding to leave New York while she wants to stay, Chen's perceived inability to fit in with her peers despite being able to seduce multiple men on multiple occasions (I don't have a problem with this, it just doesn't scan with the not-fitting-in aspect), and Chen's lack of motivation as to why she wants to work at her job- largely boiling down to the last request of her dying mother being "make yourself useful"

I found author Ling Ma's writing incredibly compelling, which is how I managed to finish the book in one 8 hour sitting, but closed the book feeling generally quite annoyed at Chen for making the choices that she did up until the final chapter. It is strange when a page-turning book houses an irritating protagonist. Hate-reading is far too strong a term for this, but perhaps mildly-irritated-reading works better. I did read all of this during a sick day and really had nothing better to do while resting, so I guess that played a part.

Ling Ma spends an awful lot of this book reeling out pages and pages of description regarding the intricacies of specific Bible book production in East asia and endless lists of branded shopping boutiques and the products that lie within in. This creates a personality for Chen that feels hollow and kind of boring. Chen comes across as not even caring much about any of these things in her own life and yet they become such a seminal part of the book. It is reminiscent for me of American Psycho and the dirging monologues of Patrick Bateman's endless skincare and workout regime. Perhaps it is a commentary on late stage capitalism meant to strike a chord with the millennial audience?

I do appreciate that the Shen Fever virus described in the book has symptoms of repeating mindless tasks with a blank stare in its earlier stages, which I guess is meant to draw parallels with the protagonist. However it felt like Ma was trying to jam it down my throat way too much. It seems that Ma wanted to present Chen as this introspective, independent soon-to-be single mother who would make her choices on her own terms but instead it fell flat. More and more Chen felt to me like a very clichéd, lone wolf, nobody-understands-me moody selfish twenty something. Instead of telling her ex boyfriend at their last meeting that she is a) pregnant and B) the baby is his, she opts to conceal this information and push him away until he eventually disappears. Nowhere in the book does it give any indication that Jonathan (ex boyfriend) deserves this kind of treatment. They break up because he wants to leave new York and she doesn't. She refuses to tell him about the baby because... Well. I don't really understand why. That's it. Choosing to give birth and raise a baby in the middle of a world-ending pandemic by yourself over opting to stick it out for a while with someone you at least know and trust feels like a very weird, not entirely well informed decision to me.

I also couldn't get beyond how Severance feels very much like parts of The Stand written for a modern audience and with less words. Perhaps this is an homage to Stephen King? Particular parallels can be drawn with Chen inevitably having to get out of New York by herself, walking, while pregnant and facing down a pontentially perilous journey through the Lincoln Tunnel. Furthermore the group of survivors she meets has a self-appointed leader who is very Christian-religious focused. Admittedly none of them dream that a wise old lady servant of God is leading them to salvation, but the religious leading element is a strong focus.

All in all, I wish that this book had some more editing. I wanted to know more about the group dynamics of the survivors and how their relationships develop and splinter. I wanted to know less about bible production, beauty products and the capitalist hellscape we're all forced to endure every day. Hell, even if Chen herself became sick at the end, that would have made the beginning make a lot more sense to me.

Would I recommend? Eh. Maybe. If you need to kill 8 hours while holed up in bed with a bad back, sure. If you want character depth and a genuinely original take on an old theme? Maybe not.

[29pageshomestuckeveryday]

Homestuck, page 3,320

==>

Author commentary: Here's an intriguing revelation that Smol Bean Kanaya was semi-raised by Doc. What does this actually mean? It's hard to know for sure, other than giving us yet another indication that he's always got a lot of irons in the fire when it comes to manipulating the fate of these kids, and also that he's a creep who's inclined to get himself way too involved in the affairs of young girls. We already knew that stuff, though. At least we learn here that he was responsible for Kanaya's Prospitian awakening. But then Kanaya remarks with dramatic irony that Jade's lucky she didn't have anyone like this messing with her covertly, which of course we know to be false, since Vriska retconned herself into being the reason for practically everything, including Jade's sleeping habits. And Vriska herself was really just one of Doc's pet projects, as he insidiously pushed her to become what she is. This whole thing can be seen as Doc's pet project, right up until his death just after [S] Cascade. At which point his machinations cease to have any impact at all, which perhaps tellingly coincides with the end of Homestuck's identity as an meticulously over-engineered Nightmare Story.

It's important to give these new character match-ups something to bond over. There's practically always some material that can be used, because conveniently, due to the properties of "persona alchemy" as an iterative characterization method (which I've commented on in past books), there just happens to be a lot of character profile overlap. Kanaya is obviously the Jade of her group, in certain ways. Not in terms of personality, but definitely on a situational basis, like aspect, upbringing, etc. So why not let them jam a little on how cool it is that they had the same basic childhood, right down to living in clones of each other's houses? (Except, wait, I guess they don't mention that. But Jade would probably think that was REALLY COOL.) Then, a bit further, we see this is actually the "Jade announces her password plan for the first time" conversation, and Kanaya comes this close to blowing it and being the one responsible for the plan in the first place, by telling Jade that Future Jade already told her about it. I've talked about how often conversational material, ideas, plans, and such seem to eerily "spontaneously generate" themselves due to this clusterfuck of endlessly looping Trollian chat. Concepts and talking points which disturbingly have no origin at all. Maybe it's refreshing that one character finally has a problem with this. Jade just wants everyone to be the original author of their own thoughts and actions, and is applying some enforcement for this belief. Meanwhile, maybe it's odd that nobody else ever cared about this, or even really commented on it that much. They probably were all too distracted by the shouting matches, poor attempts at trolling, and emergent romantic quandaries. The fact that Jade takes a stand against letting Paradox Space write their own thoughts for them seems like a departure for her character. She spent her whole life cheerfully allowing her destiny to be dictated to her through cloud visions. Now that that's over, she's trying something different. Insisting on it, actually.

[dailyaudiobible]

6/26/2023 DAB Transcript

2 Kings 9:14-10:31, Acts 17:1-34, Psalm 144:1-15, Proverbs 17:27-28

Today is the 26th day of June, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today, like every day as we gather again, yet again, day-by-day, step-by-step and take the next step forward. And our next step leads us back to where we left off, that happens to be the book of Second Kings right now. And so, let's pick up the story, Second Kings chapter 9 verse 14 through 10 verse 31 today.

Commentary:

Okay so, as we continue our journey through the Book of Acts, we’re back out on the road with Paul. So, we’re on the second missionary journey now, depicted in the Book of Acts. And we got a snapshot today of Paul in three different locations and this little snapshot gives us a view of the way that Paul adapts to who he's talking to. So, we have this picture of Paul in Thessalonica, he's in the synagogue, he's opening the Scriptures and revealing that Jesus is a part of the Hebrew story, a part of the Hebrew heritage. That the Jewish Messiah, and many came to faith and believed. Of course, opposition arrived, as it seems to have arrived everywhere that Paul goes, as the good news continues to spread throughout the world. And so, a mob forms and Paul and Silas have to sneak out at night and then they go to the next city and that's called Berea, and Paul goes to the synagogue again among the Jewish people. The Berean’s have a different reaction than those in Thessalonica. The Berean’s are listening diligently, they’re studying the Scriptures to sort of trace what Paul is laying out for them. They have a lot of questions, many come to faith. And then again, opposition arises once again to oppose what Paul is teaching. Once again, he's got a move onto the next city and in this case, he's taken to Athens to wait for Silas and Timothy, to catch up. In Athens he's dealing with people who have very, very open minds and very, very, very much want to explore spirituality, but are also very pagan. So, in this setting Paul's not trying to show a Hebrew person, how Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and how he fits into the Jewish story. And when he is given invitation to speak, he says, look I notice you're very religious, like everything is religious around here. I was walking along looking at all these shrines and I found an altar that said, to an unknown God. I'm here to tell you about the unknown God. So, we’ve been watching Paul now, we’ve seen him open the Scriptures with devout Hebrews, we've seen him talking one-on-one with a jailer, we've seen him in mob settings where there is great vigorous debate going on. We’ve watched him walk into a place where nobody has a clue what he is going to share and simply begin to reveal the unknown God. Paul wasn't running around trying to win theological arguments or to be right, or to bring condemnation and sin or the awareness of sin upon people. He seems to be able to look at the people that he's talking to and attempt to discern what they need and to try to bring truth into this situation. He seems to be more concerned about the people than the argument, very much like Jesus. And sometimes we get that mixed up. We all know that we are commissioned to share the good news of the Gospel. And sometimes that doesn't require us, spouting doctrine and being right. Sometimes that means offering a good heart and an open ear to hear a story, to meet a person where they are and to offer life in the situation. May we remember that offering the good news isn't about us, it's about bringing Jesus, and that can happen in spoken and in unspoken ways in just about everywhere we take a step, if we’re paying attention. We've seen Paul in all kinds of different contexts; let's learn from that.

Prayer:

And Holy Spirit, come. Most of the time, we are not paying attention to the fact that we are supposed to be not only representing You but revealing You in what we do and what we say and in what we think. And so often, when we are talking about You, it's to be right about something, as opposed to being hands and feet willing open vessels for Your use, living sacrifices. And so, forgive us for the times that we’ve missed it, because there have been many. Forgive us the times that we have simply ignored it because there've been many. Come, Holy Spirit, and let us realize that every breath is a gift from You and every step we take and every interaction that we have, is an opportunity to bring light into the darkness. Come, Holy Spirit, into this, make us aware of what we are doing and saying, we pray, in Jesus name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that is home base and that is where you can find out what is going on around here. Alternatively, you can download the Daily Audio Bible app free from the App Store that is connected to your device.

And there is something coming up around here, like a week from now, is the fourth, well, a week from tomorrow, fourth of July. That’s a national holiday. That's Independence Day here in the United States of America. But right on the heels of that we have kind of our own unique Daily Audio Bible holiday. Something that we have observed together as a community for 14 years, I believe. This is the 14th, well let me count, hold on a second. I’ll be right back. Okay, I’m back, it’s 16, 16 years, that we have been observing this little holiday that we call the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk. This is something that happens every seventh of July, it's a very unique and individual experience that becomes a really beautiful communal experience. So, those of you who have been around a while you kinda know the drill. Those of you who are like what, the Long Walk? What are we talking about here? The 7th of July is pretty close to sitting dead center in the year. And it is a really, really good time in the middle of the year, to take a day and reset for the second half of the year. We might often think of these things as luxuries that we can't or couldn't or can't afford or can't this or can't that, there's just all kinds of reasons. But often what we’re arguing against is the very thing that we need the most. Like, we will just keep charging ahead in our year, just bulldozing our way through the year getting more and more fatigued, more and more sleep deprived, more and more confused, anxiety will begin to bubble and grow and become a thing and depression, all of the things that may have legitimate, biological reasons, but truly the pace of our lives is a contributing factor to all of this. We won't slow down because we think we can't. July 7th, this little day for 16 years that we’ve been carving out. That's what we've been doing, carving it out, saying, this is mine. This day is a day for me and for my God. So, we encourage, take the day. If you don't have the day, take the day, make a square around it. Let nothing penetrate it. It is a special time, if…if…if you can jump in, it is a special time to say, okay, middle of the year, I jumped on, I’ve been moving my way through the Bible, middle of the year check-in. I’m gonna go for a long walk. And this kind of comes, I mean, remember when you fell in love with your spouse, or the one that you’re with? You fell in love and maybe you would go for long walks and maybe you would realize that time didn't exist during that time. Maybe even the rains came, and you walked and splashed in the puddles and everything, things that maybe we never do now. It was playful, it was childlike, it was love, time stood still. There was no rush to communicate data. It was unhurried conversation getting to know each other. That's what we're talking about here. Go somewhere beautiful, whether that's your backyard, whether that's a park that's a few blocks away, or whether you get in your car and drive couple hours to a place that is very meaningful to you. Take some lunch, take some water. Go for a long walk in the center of your year. A time for your mind to calm down. A time for you to reunite with your body and be aware of the fact that God has created a lush, unbelievable planet that is bursting forth with life all around us and were not paying attention because we’re locked into our work and our technology. So much builds up inside of us and we need to pray about it. But so often our prayers are flares right, there just like help, I’m going down over here. Help, SOS! What if you went for a walk that was unhurried and you had all day and you had carved out all your obligations. Like this is, this is your day, and you go for a long walk, and you get in touch with your body by paying attention to the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, the lilies of the field, the lushness of creation. And that begins to pull your heart into a place of adoration and worship as you begin to feel God's presence calming you, because he's telling you He loves you by giving you the day. And then we begin to speak. Right, and then we say everything that we need to say. Everything that we haven't had time to say. Everything that we fall asleep saying. Like, say it, pour it out to the lover of your soul. And then, spend time listening and walking in silence, enjoying all that creation speaks about our Lord. This is the Long Walk; this is something I look forward to every year. So many thousands of us look forward to this every year. And it's obviously, I just described a very individual, very unique and personal experience between you and God. What makes this a community experience is that as we're doing this individually, we know that our brothers and sisters all over the world are doing this as well. That we are all drinking in the serenity, the rejuvenation, the healing of slowing down for a second and catching our breath and being in the presence of God. So, what makes it a communal experience is knowing that were doing it but also, we put a post on our Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, which is Facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. We put a post on there on 7th of July and invite everybody to take a picture of where you are, or little video of what it was like during your day. And we post these all back into this post and all of the sudden we are scrolling through the beauty of God's creation all over the world on this very day, the 7th of July. We all get to kind of regroup together and see windows into each other's lives, windows into each other's geography and are knit together, knowing that we have gone out and regrouped for the second half of the year. So, that is the 7th of July. That is a week from this Friday, make plans. I mean, think about it, we may talk to God every day, it may be fleeting, may not be enough, we may feel guilty about it, but think about the Lord, your creator looking forward to you taking some time to be with Him. And He is looking forward to this, greatly. That is the posture that we go into this with. So, that's coming up, the 7th of July.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. First of all, humble gratitude. Thank you for your partnership, especially as we move through the summertime. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you're using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that's the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today, I'm Brian, I love you and I'll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hello DAB Family, this is Dancing Flame in North Carolina. I’m a relatively new listener. And I had a prayer request. I have an uncle. He is my, one of my favorite people in the whole wide world. And he is nearing the end of his life. He’s in palliative care now. And his days are short. And I wanted to ask you guys to pray that he would find the Lord and be saved and be with us all in heaven. He’s a wonderful man, incredibly generous, incredibly funny, was very successful in business, very gifted. But he does not know the Lord. And it breaks my heart. We only see each other every few years. The amount of time we’ve spent together is disproportionate to the deep love that I have for him in my heart. But I just ask that you would join me to kind of storm the gates of heaven and just ask for God to, in His unending mercy, to save him. To reveal Himself to him, to show him who He is and to show him his great need for a loving Savior. I just ask that the Holy Spirit would just infiltrate him. Father, even if he’s not necessarily willing that God in His mercy, would just rain down on him in these last moments, that he could be saved. I know that, you know, the thief on the cross, all he had to do was say that he believed, and he joined Jesus in paradise that day. And so, that is my prayer for my Uncle Chris. And I just ask that you would join me that you would just join me in believing for his salvation and for asking God for incredible grace and mercy to reveal Himself to him in a mighty way. Thanks DAB Family. Love you all. Always praying for you.

Hey DAB Family. This is Beloved in Texas and I’m sure some of you, at least, those in the U.S., heard about a devastating tornado that went through the Amarillo Panhandle not to long ago. A lady at work, her sister was killed in that tornado. And she’s asked for prayer. Her nephews found their mother and the only way she was able to be identified, were her clothes and her nail polish. And they’re showing signs of PTSD. They were raised in church but they’re kind of far from the Lord now. So, I would just like to ask you to come alongside me and pray for Chad and Cory. Father, we just lift up Chad and Cory right now, in Jesus name. And I just ask that You would replace those images in their head with loving images of their mother: her love, her smile, her hugs. And I pray that You would fill them with your peace Father. I thank You that even though they don’t understand what happened and why, they can lean not on their own understanding but on Yours. Lord, I pray that You would turn this situation to the good and that You would bring them right back into Your loving arms. In ….

Hello DAB community, it’s Morning Lift. Just reaching out to ask for you guys to pray for me. I’m going through a difficult time with my marriage. I’ve been separated now for too long. And it’s seems that my wife is continuing to take steps towards separation rather than reconciliation and it’s really just discouraging and I need help. And I’m praying that God would give me hope. And I’m asking that God would fill me with His joy because I know that He’s the only thing that can satisfy in this world: not relationship, not reconciliation with my wife, nothing really can satisfy me, or anyone for that matter, but the love of the Father. And I just pray for that satisfaction, that joy that comes from Him. I pray that I would seek Him and that I would make decisions for the right reasons, not out of fear, or not out of any manipulation or desire to get what I want. And I just ask for you guys to hold me accountable in prayer, lift me up in prayer. And I also lift you up in prayer. And I ask that God would just bless you and take care of all your needs. In Jesus name I pray.

Hi, this is Betty from Hamburg. I’m calling in again tonight to thank you DABers for helping me in the past. And to ask you to please, please pray for my son Nathan. His mental illness is getting the best of us all, right now, especially him. He’s not managing it well. He’s tried to manage it on his own and it gets worsened when he drinks. And he has been drinking. So, I just pray that you would give us clarity to know what to do, how to help him and how to protect ourselves, as he’s living here in the house. And just to, I don’t know, I’m kind of at a loss right now. So, just thank you for hearing my prayer. And thank you that I can come to this community. Thank you, friends.

[castle-dominion]

let's watch the version with only two ppl bc I think it will be easier when I'm exercising (tho I always like listening to the executive producers & I'd love to get some other crew ppl at some point)

gosh there are 9 caption options with all the languages & audio versions dang

"didn't talk much" Yeah plastic bag over the head didn't get a chance to meet him? Gah that's sad

talking about how hot susan sullivan is lol she was flirting with us cuz she's hot & she's allowed JH always acts like we haven't seen the episode yet. if we are watching the commentary, we have PROBABLY seen the episode already babes "a prom date? isn't she like eleven?" SD: do you think nathan will ever have kids? JH: he just needs to quit bossing me around like he's my dad

I like how all the other audio commentaries are like "talking about stuff, sometimes conversations are sparked by the show" but this one is just "shush don't talk over us this is our scene!"

SD: Good scene, I want a still of that with everone's autograph JH: Do you want me to sign that for you <3? SD: SD: No, 'cause I can sell it JH: I sell most of my stuff on ebay SD: You sold all the stuff I gave you 🥺?

poor guy, plastic bag, heat, holding breath, playing dead...

SD: Without me🥺??? JH: I like looking at dead bodies

JH: I do the Barack walk, it's like, part of my character SD: ???? JH: My obama walk

SD: A little young for him? JH: He's 35 on the show SD: Oh my Gahd! JH/JE: I'm a detective, I know these things

SD: Poeple roll on the floor in grief

JH: Nathan ask her out? SD: Did he??? JH: I'm asking SD: oh, no he didn't. But damn look at the jawline on him. Not right now that's her.

Poor guy couldn't find his light

SD: That (if you step on nathan's line/light, you, dever, can get fired) was in my contract from day one, written in red ink I remember.

what the f are they talking about XD XD XD JH: You know, my mom, in the 70s, she went to canada...

Yo that was the SOUND STAGE??

bro. WE HAVE SEEN THE EPISODE. JH PLEASE. IT'S OK. SD: we play well in a two-shot ; ) SD: See what's tucked under my arm there? (castle book) JH: Yeah. Woah soup coolers! SD: . You don't even want to talk about it

HOLY CRAP THAT'S SPECIAL practical EFFECTS MAKEUP Like what would you tell your agent? "WHat do you mean I'm auditioning for obscene faced woman?" The special effects are great & do a lot of work

Oh good for him! "He's available for parties, bat mitzvahs, bar mitzvahs, he brings his own jumpy castle," he's going to kill me when he sees this

Sal the wardrobe guy! My beloved!

SD: "You're gonna give her a complex" MR: She already has body image issues both: *cracking up* JH: I remember when I was her age I had body... Me: wow real full of yourself JH: ....... image issues too SD: would u describe SS as "brassy"? JH: I already described her to you. the word was "hot" JH: I hope she watches this & knows I think she's hot

JH: sh, great scene coming up SD: Our last two scene : ( *both fake laughing* SD: I laughed genuinely there that entire set, beautiful place, ONE scene? It shows that they love us SD: we have to fill out those forms after hours. ...You don't? JH: Not part of my job, that's part of yours I like the dynamic they put on, the "you could get fired" & "you need to fill out forms" & stuff they play with JH: it's bc you're the New Guy

SD: Look at you there. Steamy. JH: My attitude or my look? SD: The way I feel when I look at you XD bruh

SD: She's not here JH: SD: SD: Everybody has seen this before so we can say: She's the killer! It's called hide the killer. Nobody watches the commentary first. You watch the episode first & then you're like *in a voice* "that was intriguing; jon huertas; I saw him on generation kill. I'm going to see what he has to say about episode 1:10" JH: Wait nobody watches the episode with the commentary on first? I can't tell if he's joking SD: Noo! You're not supposed to! & when you do you go "Oh I don't want to hear this first it'll ruin everything." They Know that. JH, wistfully: That's what I've been doing wrong all these years (I think THIS is a joke tho) SD: There are spoilers!

JH: There he goes trying to make you look stupid SD: You didn't know it either! Nor did stana! Well Beckett didn't. Stana knew bc she read the script Uh yeah that's how it works

SD: the bullpen uwu, look at the floor-- wait I love this scene JH: you're not supposed to stop talking SD: me & castle bond really quick here

Do y'all usually watch it more than once? I mean you read the script & act the dang thing & yeah you watch the final episode, but do u usually watch these things more than once? JH: You don't watch it over & over again like I do? SD: no, I don't. Once, & then I burn it

KR: checked my wallet for condoms & showed me his gun collection. My hands were shaking so bad I could barely put on the corsage. JH: did that actually happen to you? SD: no. improv: "yes and" SD: I mean yes SD: I mean no

I like how actors get together & talk about building the scene rather than just reciting lines & movements. JH, sounding like he's leaning back, crossing his legs, & folding his arms behind his head: Ladies & gentlemen, it's not on the page, this stuff has to be cultivated. [...] SOMETIMES directors /j

KR: Ask "Hard Candy"? Good luck. RC: "Hard-- hard Candy"? JE: Assistant U.S. Attorney Candace Robinson. She makes mobsters cry. JE, cut & improvised: & she's hot too KR, " " whispered: No she's not JH: but she IS hot SD: no yeah she is I know but yeah, but we have to have-, a lot of times what we do with esposito & ryan, (or at least idk if we've made this consciously as a choice, but) we sort of make opposite choices, which is fun. Subconscious? These two have great on-camera chemistry, they really seem to work well together SD: Like you feel one thing, I sort of check in we're like "what are you thinking during this scene?" JH: Yeah it's true. I feel the right thing, you kind of feel the wrong thing /lh (oh wait there's more after this) SD: Yeah no what I do is I go after the wrong thing. that way there's a foil &, I look stupid, yeah. *JH laughs* No we just make a choice of like I think she's hot, you think she's hot, no I think she's mean JH: but you're doing that just to, just to do the opposite of what I'm doing SD: well that's so there's conflict JH: you, your character actually thinks that she's hot (cause who wouldn't...) SD: conflict is the nature of drama (maybe that's why she's hard candy: mean but pretty) JH: That DA right there was hot SD: She is!but she's mean to me JH: That's the hottest DA we've ever seen SD: but she's mean to me I can't look past the facade of that (ok is that "me" or is that "me as Ryan"?) SD: so this is the example of the kind of things that we like to choose. I like the insight into the characters but dang this was just a funny argument JH: ladies & gentlemen, pay attention to seaon two, I'm lobbying to get her as my love interest for season two SD: let's see if that happens JH: pay attention to season 2 SD: like a kid in a candy store: jon huertas.

JH: u probs know we shoot this in LA SD: WE DO??? JH: this street looked so much like new york I thought I got left out *SD casually drops that this was where the french dip snadwich was created*

yeah I love good use of lighting *in souther accent* he talks like this, *starts repeating his lines but with an alabama accent*

SD: why do they have to make jimmy the rat moran irish? Bro moran is of irish origin but also a hella spanish name so when spain colonized the americas it became a native american hispanic name too... context again, I LOVE the tech props, they make this stuff real, you can actually scroll & stuff! JH, with heart eyes: I love our crew JH: abc <3 beacon <3 SD: u'r kissing up to them JH: I'm trying to get the DA to be my love interest!

*talking about bailey chase & his pretty jawline & killer talents* SD: I think he gets embarrassed when we talk about him like this I hope he watches this JH: he doesn't watch the commentary SD: I'll tell him, I'll text him right now

yk sometimes I can't tell who is talking, huertas/esposito or dever/ryan. With their faces it's ok bc I can often lip read (supplementally, I can't read lips alone,) but in the commentary I can't see their faces. A least with the commentary they usually say which one is talking. They probs do with the regular ep too, I just rely more on the lips during the real episodes than the captions. It's times like this I realize I really am hard of hearing. I sometimes forget I'm HOH bc I can still hear, but then I realize in situations like rn that, well, full hearing ppl don't have these issues. suspense, drama comedy-- *interupts* & horror! (castle with the severed head)

both: uwu molly. She has really grown up! JH: now I'M feeling protective of her. who is this kid, Who Is This Kid? Hold up, who is this kid let me see this kid. Don't say the wrong thing [or] I will come through this microphone [& beat u up] laughing silently trying not to laugh for real & disturb my family

SD: I think I had that tie when I sang in show choir in sophmore year in high school

both: I live in castle's loft. SD: I bring a cot upstairs JH: I sleep in his bed. that's right nathan I sleep in your character's bed *NF+SD doing christopher walken impressions* ngl I love the captions. HUERTAS: (IMITATING CHRISTOPHER WALKEN) Seamus, & that's IT for this line of subtitles, they can only fit ONE WORD on that he actually said SD: Nathan & I were doing it, Jon kind of felt left out he's like "why can't I do a christopher walken?"

good morning I'm back & WOW this ep is taking a long time & I actually didn't have a good workout bc they're so funny I quote every funny line but everything they say is funny argh

WOAH HOLD ON captions said that was dever but DANG that was SOME VOICE

I'm p sure we DO see his face?

JH: bc you're mean to people SD: People are mean to ME!

SD: I was ordering chinese, do you remember? JH fondly: yeah I do SD: wasn't scripted tbh I was /wondering/ what he was doing on the phone. They probably have each other's favourites written down on a list on their phones so they can order enough to share, like my mom-- ooh that would be a good plot point in a fanfic, they find out valuable information by seeing people's food orders in the notes app. maybe they find out who the next-of-kin are if they don't have an identity (they could get that from the phone number-- UNLESS IT'S LIKE ME UNTIL I WAS 19: DIDN'T HAVE A PHONE PLAN), they could find out who the killer is by whose favourite is at the crime scene or the ginger beef sauce around the vic's neck from strangling them, they could go to one of the restaurants & the waiters probably heard smth abt the conspiracy or they could get descriptions of each of them or they could get pics from security footage, idk I think it would be a fun plot point

both: those two mess up & WE are STILL the ones doing the legwork

what? IS THIS WHAT USA HEALTHCARE IS LIKE? YOU GET KICKED OUT OF YOUR ROOM & THEY WORK ON YOU IN THE PARKING LOT SO A SHOW CAN FILM THERE??? oh btw espt's jacket & ryan's shirt, both rly nice. patterned.

SD: "You have to take that axe to my door? I understand, it's for hollywood." We get some very understanding people in this town JH: I think they're understanding because we usually pay them about ten thousand dollars a day

Apparently that thing I hate is called rack focus. it kinds sucks Bill Roe, DP. I love a good dp, I wanted to be a DP at some point, but mister roe PLEASE chill with the focus tricks, t' hurts me eyes.

JH: if he does anything wrong seamus I'm going back thru this microphone Don't you... GET YOUR LIPS OFF... *gasps* Aw that was quinn's fist onscreen kiss ever! Good for her *both clap for her*

u right, I'm glad they are talking abt the music

Oh AM himself wrote this script. Three days!

SD, half an episode after joking about going upstairs with a cot: is there anything up those stairs? I'm awlways scared to go up. JH: I think she actually has a bedroom up there SD: I think she does I think she lives there bc she's underage she's sort of JH: yeah SD: that's where she gets homeschooled

HOLY CRAP MOLLY QUINN IS A VIOLINIST? HECK YEAH! & SHE PLAYS ELECTRIC? OOF THIS IS SO GOOD I NEED TO GO VISIT MY FAVE MUSIC SHOP NOW BC HHHHH I WANT AN ELECTRIC FIDDLEOLA but every electric violin gets bought immediately. oof. Plus I'm probably more likely to get an acoustic electric fiddleola/5stringed violin. I have my eyes on a mandolin tho. Once, dad called a mandoline slicer a "banjo" but fun fact a banjo is another name for a spider, like for deep frying things. I said this to him over text & sent images & then he just sent me a pic of an arachnid.

you're right there ARE many people for a saturday morning... SD/KR: see what happens when you buy an espresso maker? it gets ABUSED castle

SD: is this the last scene we shot together? JH: DON'T MAKE ME CRY IN THIS

SD: nice cup i have there JH: barack obama walk

I love these two bc they KNOW things, they know themselves best so they can point out what was going on in their head during scenes as well as stuff like lighting & music & another actor's first kiss & stuff. wait was that line improvised? did you really make JH have to hold back a laugh on set? "how come he's drinking & sayin his line at the same time?" Glad they're talking abt the mug bc I HAVE noticed that ryan has a specific mug! he DOES change it up for season two JH: that cartoon character on your mug reminds me of you SD: I'm like a clown to you????

SD: Look at that. I like when we're smart. JH: Finally. You know why this is my favourite episode? 'cause you/ryan & I/espt close this case. SD: that's real police work JH/JE: now go get em beckett, we told beckett to go get the guy. SD/KER: that's true. "Go get them, guns drawn. I mean we'd do it but we have a knicks game to go to." I think is what... the line that got cut JH: that's what was going on. SD: that line is gone now JH/JE: we know what happens when we go get people. we tackle them. SD/KR: YOU tackle them, I pull my gun. & then-- but you tackle them really well so I don't.. I don't encroach on your territory JH/JE, chuckling: well thank you SD/KR: yeah JH/JE: You can next time [if] it's a big guy. SD/KR: I might tackle JH/JE: if it was this guy? (onscreen is a somewhat tall, fit, somewhat buff, def strong, like fbi trained man) SD/KR: uhhhhhh I don't think I'd tackle him JH/JE: we'd both need to tackle him SD/KR: I think we'd both need to. He's a tall feller. *silly voice* that's a tall drink of water. JH/JE: I hit him high, you hit him low SD/KR: hit him high, hit him low

jacqueline geary never would have suspected this librarian

Oh wait he DOES have a mask but it's an oxygen mask

SD: I wonder if that sound is post JH: *ASMRs his mic*

**Emotional** JH: so the episode is almost over; are you...? SD: am I feeling weepy JH: Yeah r u getting sad? SD: yeah a little bit. Were you? just now? too? JH: I was SD, voice high+soft: that's amazing. I'm feeling that same thing. it's like that pull of like uh... **emotional...?** JH: we're like the Corsican Brothers SD: yeah. .. What? JH: we can feel each other (right?) SD: oh is that what they did? **yeah nice segue from emotional to whatever the heck this is** JH: cheech & chong's.... SD, laughing: ya oh god you just referenced cheech & chong? JH: come on man who doesn't love cheech & chong? SD: everyone's going to hear that now, & they're going to like, "that's what they do? (watch cheech & chong?)"

JH: *moving the convo to his love interest to-be*

SD: Burn. Facial. ...Psych.

SD: Are we going to get to get in the interrogation room this time? I only went in there once; this whole year. JH: I was only in there once or twice yeah. SD: Don't get me wrong... JH: yeah I want to interrogate somebody. SD: That's a terrible interior there, but... JH: I want to play good cop bad cop. SD: Maybe they'll let us play good cop c- bad cop & I'll, you know... idk, *laughing* maybe not JH/JE: I think you might qualify as the good cop. SD/KR: Really? I c-- you don't think I could be bad cop? (btw I am just remembering all the extras, I like it, the one person by the garbage can is actually caught betting on a murder ordering girl scout cookies next season.) JH: hey SD: You don't know my previous work prior to castle? SD, kind of grumbly: I play a "good guy" on castle JH: I've seen you play a bad guy on... SD: yeah! JH: Ladies & gentlemen (he's said l+g like three times now), Seamus Dever. I saw him on an episode... (wait it's déver? I thought it was deever lol, bc of the e after the consonant probably, stupid english.) SD: Don't promote other network shows they don't like that, it has to be smth that's on ABC JH: another crime... *SD laughs* JH: I don't,, I don't think so JH: but it was another crime procedural; i saw him play the bad guy on there & I was impressed. SD: I used to play nothing but bad guys. I'm happy to play a good guy

sorry it just reminded me of the USOUD google forms version JH: you played nothing but bad guys? SD: yeah for a long time there. It's nice playing good guys tho!

SD, talking about story structure: it's the climax, the cliffhanger JH: r u allowed to say climax? SD: YES. IT'S A LEGITIMATE WORD JH: I just thought maybe SD: in composition JH: the censors might feel weird SD: no, No! SD: it's in english composition class! JH, softly: climax JH: idek what it means except for "climax" SD: No! I mean well maybe if you wouldn't have you know maybe If you'd gone to school a little bit more JH: pfsouhuh (I can't tell who says the first "why") SD: "Why? who needs that? I'm going to become an actor" JH: I'm like kobe bryant. I'm like the kobe bryant of the acting world dude SD: "I'm like kobe bryant, I don't need to..." He's pretty smart though he speaks like three or four different languages, I was surprised by that. (the only shocking thing is that he's american. A lot of europeans I know speak a dozen languages. Mom's first language, dad's first language, the language of the place you live, the secondary language of the place you live, english, another language just for fun... Personally I already speak fluent english & conversational french, tourist-talk in japanese, baby-talk in cree+michif, & then I know a few words in a ton of languages. I want to be fluent in eng, fr, cree+michif (michif is basically half bad cree & half bad french), ASL (I used to have a somewhat functional sign language with my friends at school, it worked for playing tag & stealing candy or complaining at my gramma's bc I taught my brother, but it was all conlang & direct translated english), japanese, & then german, spanish, mandarin, tagalog, & then all other languages too lol bc I like them, portugese, swedish, italian, arabic, hebrew, anishinabe or ojibwe (ojibwe is an anishinabe language like potowatome is an anishinabe language, but ojibwe is also v similar to cree), Gaeilge+Gàidhlig, bungee (which is gaelic+ojibwe), ukranian, dutch, finnish, welsh, inuktitut, cantonese, greek, hindi, punjabi, mauri, russian, Mohawk+Oneida+Onondaga+Cayuga+Seneca+Tuscarora & Cherokee, Mi'kmaq, Innu, Tigrinya, greek, turkish, korean, just all the languages. This list is /kind of/ in order of most important to least important to me btw. By the end it kind of devolved.)

SD+JH: How did we get to talking about kobe bryant? I don't care abt sports at all.

We were at a nice restaurant we thought we had an hour "do do-do do-do, I'll have the steak frites" & the producers were like "uh we're trying to shoot" "can we get this to go?" this really nice lunch "can you pack it up in styrofoam for us?" they were like what?

*announcer voice* this has been Seamus Dever playing detective kevin ryan! & i'm jon huertas ; ) you know who I play 😏

Well that was a lot harder to sit through. it is literally 14.20, 2.20pm, I have not even watched a single ep of castle in my solo watch yet, I was just finishing up from last night. holy fuck. This was supposed to be "you don't need to comment anything dom" but then they were hella funny all the time & I woke up late & can you believe I still need to do a bunch of lessons for work? ugh

[dailyaudiobiblechronological]

1/19/2023 DAB Chronological Transcription

Genesis 22 - 24

Today is the 19th day of January, I'm Jill. Welcome to Daily Audio Bible Chronological. What a joy, honor and truly distinct privilege it is to be here with you on this journey through the Bible. And we'll do it in its entirety, in chronological order until we get through it. And it's going to take a year. So welcome, buckle in, get some coffee and let's enjoy the journey together, shall we? We are continuing in the book of Genesis and we're reading chapters 22, 23 and 24 today. This week we are in the Christian Standard Bible, Genesis, chapter 22.

Commentary

Let's talk about Isaac, shall we? This is another case where you are welcome to wrestle through the story of Abraham and Isaac. But let's just talk about a couple of important points to bring understanding. First of all, let's remember that Abraham has made a covenant with God, or I should say God has made a covenant with Abraham unlike anything we have witnessed thus far in our readings. So we can try to understand covenant, but I'm not sure that's actually humanly possible. So I like the word consider. Let's try to consider covenant. Now, a lot of us will think of the words promise or vow as they relate to covenant, but it's far deeper than a promise or a vow. There's much at stake. There are generations and generations and generations to be born to come from this covenant. There are ripple effects that are unseen and unknown at the time of covenant. So of course, there might be some testing of the covenant. Now, what you might wrestle with is the fact that really God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. So remember back to a couple of days ago, we're going to allow God to be God. Yes, God asked Abraham to take his only son Isaac as a sacrifice. And so they are well on their way and Isaac realizes we are going to a sacrifice and there is no lamb for the burnt offering. And then what we hear next is a testament to the faith and the trust that Abraham is known for with God. And he answers him, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering. My son Abraham is either being deceitful or he is 1000% trusting in God to provide. And we can wrestle with so much so that he's willing to sacrifice his son. My resolve comes back to we can't comprehend covenant. We can try, but we can consider. We can consider that this goes beyond what we can imagine. Because so many times I think we believe as Christians, as believers, that it's just smooth sailing. The biggest job we'll have is to find a bag big enough to collect all of our blessings that rain down. Trusting God is hard work. Surrendering our will, surrendering our agenda to the one who might say no, hard work. Believing in, hoping for things unseen. Yeah, call me crazy, but man, I've lived a lot. We can hear this story of God testing Abraham and yes, brutally. The wording is nobody. Test vary in different translations. In today's reading, God tested Abraham. Nobody will escape suffering and hardship and trials and tests, and yet we do almost everything we can to avoid them. We may not be able to comprehend fully covenant, but if we want relationship with God, which we say we do, if we want to know and be known by the Creator of our existence, we need to know. There's going to be some hard work, there are going to be some hard asks. And this is where faith and trust cannot be talked about, but they must be put into action. What I can be sure of and say for certain is that there is so much at stake with Abraham in the future generations and years to come and years to come, and years to come because of the covenant made between Abraham and God. And what God was willing to find out with Abraham was, does your yes mean yes? Before we go any further, before I give you a land of promise and much, many, can you be faithful here and now? And it's a question that we can all ask ourselves.

Prayer

So Father, we thank you for your word today. We thank you that we can wrestle through these hard things and you're with us in the wrestling. And I pray for so many people, Father, who have trust issues because people have continuously let them down, turn after turn, important people, foundational people in their lives have been anything but trustworthy. They have done anything but keep their word. They've been unsafe and unsecure, unwilling to listen. And I pray, Father, that you would prove yourself true to be a good, loving Father, trustworthy, safe, stable, that you keep your promises and you love us until the very end and even after, thank you for these words that penetrate our heart and sometimes they offend our mind to reveal our heart. And so we sit with that with you and pray that you would speak, wisdom would speak. We pray this all here and now. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.

Announcements

Daily Audio Bible, that's home base. Check it out. If you have not take a look around, check out the store. Plenty of resources there to enhance your journey through the Bible. And I will start mentioning them and I'll get on a tangent and none of us need that. So check out the store. Lots of great things there to take part of. If you'd like to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, we thank you so much for your partnership. If you're giving by mail, DAB PO Box 1996, Spring Hill, Tennessee 37174. Or hit the Give icon up at the top right hand corner of that mobile device. Lastly, hit the Give icon on the website as well. If you need prayer, you like to pray for someone that's previously called in several different ways to do so. 800 583-2164. Or once again utilizing that mobile app, hit the red circle button at the top right hand corner. You have two minutes on the prayer line. Turn the wheel to Chronological after you hit Submit. I'm doing this in my mind, and it will get to the right channel. That is another aspect of this community that we cannot do without. You bear the burdens of so many and it's one of the most beautiful aspects of this community. So thank you for being people who will bear the burdens of their brothers and sisters literally all around the globe. That's it for me today. I'm Jill. We'll turn the page together tomorrow. I can't wait until then. Love one another.

Community Prayer Line

Hey, DABCers. It's Pam, his ransom soul in New Jersey. Jennifer, I heard your call on the January 12 podcast asking for prayer on the one year anniversary of your dad's passing. Merciful and loving Abba father, I lift up to you, Jennifer, her sisters and their husbands, her mom, and also all of us who are still deeply grieving the loss of loved ones, friends and church family members. Dearest Lord, while yes, it's the greatest comfort to know that those who are gone are with you, healed and whole and happy, it's still difficult to function here on this side of heaven without them. It feels like pieces of our hearts are missing and the pain and emptiness is always there. But thank you, Lord, that you're there with us and all of that also in our hurt, our sorrow, our loneliness, our emptiness, in the missing of our loved ones. Thank you, Lord, for your strong and comforting presence every day and for sitting with us, walking with us and carrying us through our grief and pain. And Father, for his redeemed daughter in Florida, please bring healing to her hands so that she's able to work. Please continue providing for her and send some Godly loving and supportive people into her life so she doesn't feel so isolated. Trade all her fear and anxiety for your perfect peace. In the mighty name of Jesus, our hope and time of need. Amen. Grace and peace to you, family. God bless you.

Hi. This is Diana from Southern California. I've been a listener for several years. This is my first time to call in. I'm calling to pray for his redeemed daughter. She said she's having a terrible time with pain in her hands and I can certainly relate. I'm 64 years old and in the same situation, and I understand how depressing it is when we can't even do our favorite activities or even work. I take care of my 85 year old mother and it's extremely difficult for me with my hands always aching. I drop things all the time. So I want to say a prayer for both of us. Dear Lord, I'm praying now for his redeemed daughter and also for myself. And I pray that you would help us find an answer to the pain in our hands and that you'd give us strength to get through each day and just guide us in the way that we're supposed to go right now. And pray that you would be with all of those that are experiencing pain in their lives and help us have a good attitude and know that you still love us and that you're looking out for us. And we pray for an answer to the pain. And just pray that you would be with us. In Jesus name, amen.

Great. Thanks. My dearly beloved, dear DABC community, this is filmmaker upload from California, and happy New Year, first and foremost, and happy January. I know it's a mixed bag for a lot of us because some of us are still trying to fight the consequences of the flooding and the bad weather in California and other places. And also a lot of us grieving loved ones that passed away either at the end of the year or just recently, some figuring out decisions to make this year or yeah, just a lot is going on. But I wanted to pray and ask God to guide us and also to thank Him. Father, thank you so much for bringing us into this year and for your love and kindness through it all. Father. We thank you. That the rock we can just lean on and know that you're going to walk us through. You're going to walk us through this month. Father, I put out the needs of so many, dear God, people who are still trying to get their lives together after the flooding in California. Know the trees that fail and sorting out insurance stuff. Dear God, I pray that you come to their rescue. I pray for people who are suffering in hospitals, dear Lord, that you administer the right medicine and heal them and bring them home. I pray for people who are facing depression, dear God, especially in the winter, for they pray that you be their comfort and you be there light. I pray for people who are making decisions about like for Debbie. I pray that you comfort her and guide her through this and bring friends for her. In Jesus's name, I pray.

Hey, DABC family. This is Billy from Montgomery with the Trinity stone. I wanted to put a prayer request out there for Jack McLeod. He is a guy that I mentored last class with Hope inspired ministries. He is in the hospital and his body is septic. They said he's septic and he's not responding to anything. So I just wanted to put a prayer request out there for him. Sounds like he's in dire straits. It doesn't sound good. Anyway, we just needed to cover him up with prayer. His name is Jack McLeod and I will talk to you guys later. Love you all. Bye for now. Talk to you all later.

[omnitonki]

Battman on leatheer wings s1e1 no commentary

#Battman on leatheer wings s1e1 no commentary series#

#Battman on leatheer wings s1e1 no commentary series#

And yet this thing's a loud, growling beast of a muscle car, complete with all kinds of tricks and gadgets and computer systems that, like the series itself, mix that 1930s/1940s art deco look and fashion with modern technology. There's obviously an influence by old 1930s concept cars here, most notably the 1938 Phantom Corsair, with the bulk of the car's body being in front of the cabin. The car, like everything else in the show, feels timeless. It doesn't really share much esthetic with any other live-action or comic book design before it (aside from the sliding jet-like canopy seen in Tim Burton's Batman films), yet it's instantly eye-grabbing and feels completely at home in this world. The design of the most beloved fictional car in history is wholly original for this series. It is also here that we get our first look at Batman's greatest accessory, the Batmobile. We also get some humorous back and forth between Batman and Alfred here, showing the show isn't oppressively dark and without heart. Here we are already given insight into how this Batman is a brilliant detective, first and foremost, as he's already assembled a list of other targets and stolen items relative to the crime he's being blamed for. We then head to the Bat Cave, where Batman ( Kevin Conroy) and Alfred (played by Clive Revill in this and two other episodes, before he was replaced by Efrem Zimbalist Jr. for the remainder of the series) investigate the situation. So to have a plot where he's being fingered for someone else's crimes creates some great drama and intrigue. One who's wanted by law enforcement just as much as the criminals he terrorizes. This Batman is a vigilante, plain and simple. Gone is the happy deputized masked agent of the law who parks in front of Police Headquarters and shakes hands with other officers. This gives non-comic-readers a very unfamiliar and jarring view of Batman and the world in which he operates. Freeze next time and with other characters coming up, but it started here with Man-Bat. We will see this used to achieve greatness with Mr. It would also be the first use of what would become one of the defining traits of the series: taking a lesser-known or not as respected villain from the comics and giving them depth and pathos to make them into something more. It was the show in a nutshell, and I think it worked really well in that respect." It has as much to do with mood as it does with action. It's not about- even though we were eventually going to do that too–the wacky Joker or the silly Penguin it's dark, it's spooky, it's mysterious. The episode was designed to show you what the show was going to be about. It wasn't like the Joker, where you had to deal with people expecting him to be Jack Nicholson or Cesar Romero. Nobody had any preconceived notions about him. Man-Bat was chosen specifically because he wasn't familiar to very many people outside comic-book fans. That was the first story we thought of when we first started plotting out stories for the show. Video can't be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Batman "On Leather Wings" Fox promo () Batman must find out who the mysterious Man-Bat is and clear his own name." The official synopsis for the episode: "When a vicious bat creature known as Man-Bat, starts terrorizing Gotham City, everyone mistakenly thinks that Batman is the culprit. While we don't get a Batman origin story or anything of the sort here, we do get more of a sense of how Gotham City feels about and approaches Batman in this episode than in the previous one. The swap came courtesy of WB and Fox, as they wanted to capitalize on the popularity of the big screen Batman adventure, Batman Returns, and thus bumped what was intended to be the 15th episode, The Cat and the Claw Part 1, which featured Batman's big-screen co-star Catwoman, up to the debut slot in an attempt to get some cross-promotion.īut fans only had to wait one day for things to get back on track, as On Leather Wings aired the very next afternoon, and boy was it worth the wait! This feels much more like a proper premiere episode for the show, as certain characters and iconic things are more present here than in the previous episode. Especially since said roommate doesn’t actually know he’s Superboy.As I alluded to above and mentioned in last week's review, this episode was the first produced and was always intended to be the debut episode of B:TAS. Trying to hide all that from his incredibly suspicious, incredibly hot new roommate while maintaining his studies and placating his parents? Tim has never had it so hard. Leeayre Fandoms: Batman (Comics), Superboy (Comics)īeing Robin’s vessel is hard enough: the exhaustion, the life-threatening late night activities, the bruises and bullet holes and broken bones.

[theavatarspirit]

Do you have a recommendation list of wlw books? Could be your favorites or the ones you thought were the best or just anything really. I'm always looking for more of them

of course my dude

lets get the big boys out of the way

this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone. you've probably heard about. you've probably seen quotes from it. i myself was late to it (i read it the other month) but lord is the hype worth it (in my opinion). made me crazy.

the priory of the orange tree by samantha shannon. yes its big. im sorry but it is worth it. samantha the audacity to create sabran berethnet and let me read the book in a 24 period. the yearning of it all.

gideon the ninth/harrow the ninth by tamsyn muir. its aight. im not the person you should go to about gtn tbh but everyone else out there will tell you about it.

my personal favs

a memory called empire/a desolation called peace by arkady martine. yes i am talking about them again. these two books are the best thing ever written. how many hugos can one woman win. it is so intricate and layered and nobody says what they mean and the politics and the brain surgery and the sluttiness of former ambassadors. thinking about mahit dzmare's character makes me feral. three seagrass can be a teixcalaan so personal.

foundryside/shorefall by robert jackson bennett. me once again banging my one man drum about foundryside. please it is so good i dont care if the fantasy magic system isn't for you. there is a shit talking key. there is brain surgery. there are complex morals. there is a wlw romance just for the hell of it. where the plot goes in shorefall to this day makes me batshit insane. i have read shorefall at least half a dozen times in four months. can the third book come out now please mr bennett i am dying.

the long way to the small angry planet by becky chambers. becky chambers my beloved. i would die for you. i am so sorry i haven't read to be taught yet but i will buy everything you write. but about this actual book it is perfect. everything in this book was so good and soft and whenever i thought something would happen that would make me mad. nope. every single book in this series (there are four of them and all are beautiful to look at if you dont live in america) is outstanding. becky chambers and arkady martine duking it out for the hugo next year.

other books i wholeheartedly recommend

the rise of kyoshi/the shadow of kyoshi by fc lee. yes they are fantastic. if you like atla read them.

when the tiger came down the mountain by nghi vo. stunning novella but i recommend reading the first one the empress of salt and fortune first. also stunning but not as gay.

the jasmine throne by tasha suri. the start of a promising trilogy. the slow burn reeled me in lads. but in my honest opinion not as morally grey as what the people on goodreads said.

sweet and bitter magic by adrienne tooley. do you not mind ya? do you like every single trope imaginable shoved into a book? this is the book for you. the angst got to me ill admit it.

the atlas six by olivie blake. some kind of weird dark academia shit going on here. a plot relevant threesome. not wlw but theres lgbt rep throughout.

the library of the unwritten/the archive of the forgotten by aj hackwith. again not wlw but lgbt rep but i adore these books. third in the trilogy comes out the end of the year and i am stoked. cool library concepts is the best book plot and this are by far the coolest.

steel crow saga by paul krueger. a fun read overall. atla and pokemon vibes with some of that sweet sweet complex moral questions with a fun wlw couple.

jane unlimited by kristin cashore. i dont care it gets really weird in the end i adore this book. get weird kirstin you do you. fun chose your own adventure type thing. main character has romantic moments with two of the characters and its not romance heavy.

finna by nino cipri. novella about two exes trying to get through inter dimensional ikea. yes that is the plot. yes it is good

books that i haven't finished/read yet but have heard they are good

she who became the sun by shelley parker-chan. ive read the first couple chapters and was meh but everyone else ive seen that has read it loved it. is said to be mulan meets the song of achilles, which are two things i have not seen/read so.

one last stop by casey mcquiston. i have read 2/3s of this but ill be honest the sex kinda threw me out of the book. if you dont have this problem and liked rwrb you will also like this.

the liars dictionary by eley williams. if you like pretentious english kid speak. really neat idea for a book is you can get past that.

the councillor by ej beaton. ugh i wanted to read this one so bad but i found it at not a good reading time for me. sounds like it is fantastic though. politics heavy book.

unconquerable sun by kate elliot. if you like greek retellings and can stand tense changes (i cannot).

black sun by rebecca roanhorse. have heard nothing but good things and is hugo nominated and yet i have not finished. shame on me.

these feathered flames by alexandra overy. russian folklore inspired fantasy. dont know whether it is classified as ya but has ya vibes.

fireheart tiger by aliette de bodard. i haven't even started this one but its short and has politics, yearning, and yearning while doing politics.