#this seems inefficient

[adrianharley]

June Reads

June was another month of fantastic books! The month started off strong with…

The Monsters We Defy, by Leslye Penelope. Absolutely wonderful historical fantasy! The characters are all amazing, especially Clara, our prickly protagonist who’s been cursed to help anyone who asks for it in exchange for a gift that she refuses to use again. The spirit she owes promises to remove her curse—and the curses of anyone who helps her—if she’ll just retrieve one little ring from the wealthiest woman in the District. The magic was delightful, and the gifts and curses of the crew Clara assembles were all horrifying in the best “tricky spirit wording” kind of way. It’s a standalone joy, but I would love anything else Penelope writes with these characters. And it left me excited to learn more about the setting, 1920s Black Washington DC.

Coincidentally, I remained in the 1920s with the next book: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, by Dorothy Sayers. I enjoyed the window into the 1920s—seeing how people at the time thought about WWI, PTSD, and young women with all their newfangled foolish ideas—as much as the mystery itself. It’s a classic mystery for a reason, and if you like British mysteries, you certainly don’t need me to talk up Dorothy Sayers.

I have continued my early forays into manga this month with Witch Hat Atelier, by Kamome Shirahama. It’s only the second manga I’ve started, and it’s setting a high bar: art I want to live inside, Qifrey’s whole endealment (new gender goals), a twisty plot, and, of course, baby penguin gryphons. Baby penguin gryphons. I’m through Volume 5 and eagerly awaiting more library holds to arrive.

For something completely different, Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao, was one long scream of rage. The book could get a bit repetitive, and the world never turned from words onto a page to a vivid, lived-in place in my mind, but the characters were great, the author wasn’t afraid to go places that most authors don’t, and if you support women’s wrongs, I’d recommend it.

And finally, the only nonfiction of the bunch, Alexandra Petri’s U.S. History. If you know U.S. History or U.S. literature, I absolutely recommend this. Tragically, I did not get the jokes in many of the essays—mostly the U.S. literature ones, bringing shame upon my English major—but the ones I did were very funny.

[kaeyachi]

Kaeya had always been an efficient and hard-working individual (he had to be to support Diluc in the background as his brother rose thru the ranks after all).

He has so much free time because he completes all his work way ahead of schedule. And if he still has enough time, he adds more to the workload in secret.

And once all of that was done and over with, he makes time for everyone. He has to. He feels as if every moment has to be given to someone else.

No one knows how he does it. No one has to know.

Every mission has a dozen strategies in line, and every battle plan is made with efficiency in mind. His perfect record will not be tarnished. He can't risk it (even if it baffles others that he would willingly activate a ruin guard just to prevent a failed mission. Jean disagrees with his methods, but Kaeya can say that the results say otherwise)

He needs to be quick.

Efficient.

Perfect.

And so he comes and goes like the wind.

Kaeya values time because he knew every second counted. He can't just stand there as if he were frozen. Time could run out in an instant.

Kaeya had only been late once his entire life.

He'd rather he never be late ever again.

It took one day of being of being imperfect for everything to fall apart. On that tragic day...had he gotten there on time... then maybe...

.

.

.

" Come on, let's get moving, traveler. We're not frozen in place after all. " Kaeya teasingly says. He stiffles a giggle at the traveler's exhasperated sigh.

"Yeah yeah, we've heard enough of you calling us a slacker. Can't you be a bit more patient?" Paimon whines at him.

Kaeya snorts, but acquiesces, hiding the shaking of his hands at the thought of being idle.

He imagines hearing a clock ticking.

Kaeya knows that that is his own problem. He tries his hardest to relax as he waits for the traveler to finish whatever they're making on the alchemy table because, seriously, it is supposed to be a relaxing day. There's nothing major going on, and his schedule is once again empty as intended. What's the hurry?

Kaeya taps his foot on the ground as he waits. He wishes he could take his own damn advice when he tells others to relax.

[fjordfolk]

100% don't punish the growl and listen to your dog and your puppy is not an evil mastermind AND ALSO seeing how Melis behaved today and latey, feeling very validated in our approach to her outbursts of screaming thrashing gnashing teeth being less "sorry sorry never mind" and more "ok buddy are u sure though"

time will tell if she has another ride on the melty brain hormone train coming (Sparta didn't - but she might) but at this moment in time, Melis is a pretty tolerant, people-oriented, socially intelligent little dog who's displaying some very pleasant traits. and who has not growled or snarled or gotten near threshold in many months. at this rate our worst puppy might end up our best dog

[paimonial-rage]

DILUC AND 8 (their pet peeves) -- @milkstore

[Character Analysis Ask Meme]

What are Diluc’s pet peeves?

Lack of respect for service workers - Some may find it surprising seeing how rude Diluc is to the Knights of Favonius, but it’s true. Growing up on the winery, Diluc has seen firsthand the amount of work that goes into making wine and caring for the mansion. He understands the pride his workers put into their jobs. Not to mention his father raised him, not only to respect those under him, but to protect them as well. Is it really surprising then that he does not stand for those who harass his workers? To him, they’re the scum of the earth.

[20001541]

this is a good point because the world isn't going to run by itself, what's his plan on handling that?

I don't think he thought that far ahead, the comics didn't mention that part 😔

[thedoubteriswise]

so many other places on the internet where you could go to be a whiny piss baby about body hair and get sympathy for it. if you're doing that here I assume you're either very lost or you get off on being ignored and maybe insulted by a few lesbians

[erzyu]

I actually do think Gojo killed the higher ups for many reasons: 1) It makes sense that he would want to clear house because they were all being controlled by Kenjaku. 2) He has Gakuganji now that would take over who is considerably less terrible than them 3) Gojo has a bunch of strong allies that don’t agree with the higher ups, rendering them obsolete 4) He should be able to kill them. as a treat

AS A TREAT u know what, i’ll give u that

hmm, I get what you’re saying, but if the higher ups are “obsolete” now (which I agree), why even go through the trouble of killing them? and ooh yeah I forgot the remaining ones are under kenny’s control, but isn’t gojo planning on dealing with kenny anyway?

[istherewifiinhell]

always curious to me the 'testing doesnt help' thing. i suppose i have to remember theres a difference between structures of standardized testing and the act of just. practicing recall? which i would call 'quizing' myself. but then again i am the route memorization outlier... so...

[theoldkyokodied]

I start writhing like a wild animal every time I see your re animator art it's all so good ouuuu

fhajdhsjbfjshfksg thank youuu!!!

i am but a little guy who's brain won't stop conjuring up images and feeling that i need to share, until i remember that i have a human body that requires doing silly little tasks for maintenance ;u;

[hadikaesque]

Didn't have going around campus on a male classmate's motorcycle on my bingo card

[unopenablebox]

i'd seized on "all the president's men" as my new work audiobook but it's unfortunately very engaging so i am having a hard time not just listening to it whenever

or even worse, downloading and reading it

[project-catgirlpillar]

Yeah it really is odd that this company that produces drones that Carry one (1) single plastic Cup of Beer (the Most Common Size of Beer) at a time isn't worth a morbillion Dollars. So strange

[thetarttfuldickhead]

Just so you're aware, it's spelled Cockburn, not Cowburn. Usually said more like Coh-burn, Jamie is just... Jamie. NEVER said Cock Burn, it's one of those British names that doesn't use all its letters.

https://ted-lasso.fandom.com/wiki/Declan_Cockburnhttps://ted-lasso.fandom.com/wiki/Declan_Cockburn

Huh! I was very much not aware of that. :o (And also feel like Apple might have made more of an effort to get the name right in their own subtitles, because this just isn't fair on us poor ESL:ers.)

However, Cockburn - odd namn that it is - makes so much more sense than Cowburn because ever since I saw it spelled out in the last episode it's been driving me a little insane with how weird it is. Totally bought it, though, because they also have, like, Bumbercatch...

Thanks for pointing it out, nonny! I have learned a new thing!

[meaganfoster]

its all fun and games comparing yourself to a terrible horrible no good very bad fictional character until you realize maybe its about more than shared hypocrisies and recognition of a bone deep aversion to vulnerability. perhaps given the latter its no shock that the realization of the perfectly synchronized private grief dances (maisie voice) feels like a face slap !

[runekeepershymnal]

So this was just rolled out to me and I have some notes.

See me after class.

[vermillioncrown]

Have you ever tried reading fics in another language? I’m currently trying to practice French by reading in French and it’s going………………….. places lol I feel like I lack so much context and that scenes become funny because a character will die or something serious will happen and it will seem out of nowhere for me

It’s been interesting idk if I’d actually read in French for purposes beyond practicing tho lol

um. lol okay

of all things I'd never read fanfic in another language unless I already have some passing familiarity with common vernacular (e.g. chinese, and even then it gives me a huge headache). i need to be at conversational level to make that type of effort make sense.

the closest thing is reading mtl 2ha but even then i gave up quickly. i care just as much about the presentation of content than just the content itself.

fanfic (usually) depends too heavily on the base media that you'll be at a severe disadvantage wrt to context in multiple ways. it's not like a different language is a cosmetic change to whatever you're reading, there's culture behind it, different people process things in different ways, blah blah blah, and they express it differently.

your examples of things landing improperly is exactly why. and then i feel like if i read something in that way, i'm deliberately not reading it as the author intended.

i think if you're reading to practice why not read published literature? there's more consistency compared to the amateur writing of fanfic authors (not that it's bad - it's inconsistent and expects you to come with context. w published lit you'd have more guidance about what you're reading).

ever read about that forum post where this person described a friend that hated predictable narratives such that he'd find obscure eastern european web novels, machine translate them, and read it like that?

you're not on that guy's level. but maybe you're neighbors.