we are all stardust & stories

30s, disaster bi, nerd, rabid consumer of fanworks

[yolas0]

[ovenroastedtwerkey]

Weird cat

[strawberrycatcrowbar]

I think your cat is smoother than it should be

[a-mediocre-time]

Duo! He's on Instagram as lookatmylizards and has an amazing bedroom-sized enclosure but gets to roam the house being chaotic sometimes. I love him and would love a monitor someday when I have the money to give it the amazing space they deserve.

[copperbadge]

On Saturday I said to my partner, as I have said for months, "A ten thousand dollar a year raise would solve so many of my problems."

As of this morning I was reluctantly looking for jobs because I love my job and don't want to leave it, but see: $10k raise problem solver.

As of noon today this was no longer an issue, because my boss called me with the news that I was getting a $10K merit raise.

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. This is roughly $200 extra per paycheck. Enough to pay off debt faster, rebuild my savings, and spend a weekend a month in Milwaukee getting obscenely laid. The sex I'm going to have on $200 extra per paycheck. You can't even.

May all of you get the $10K raise your soul has yearned for. And whatever level of sex you can be satisfied with for $200.

[vergess]

hey bestie i think ur post might be charmed 'cause you aren't gonna fuckin believe what happened today

[a-mediocre-time]

Just applied for a job that would be $10k more and pleaseeeeee

[iasmelaion]

I have been afflicted with a terrible curse: tearing through a book series, and upon finishing, seeking out the fandom only to find that most of that fandom appears to be reading an entirely different series than I am, lol. I brought this on myself, to be clear. I think a big part of the mismatch is that it's a genre I'm not that familiar with and that I don't care about/for in and of itself, so I'm coming at it from a different perspective. Also, maybe I'm reading into things too much! But what can I say, a girl needs enrichment in her enclosure, and there's enough meat on this bone that I will be occupied for a while.

All of which is to say, I read through all seven books of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series that are out to date (thanks, free Kindle Unlimited subscription!), and now I have a lot of thoughts and no one who cares about them ;____; I played myself ;_______;

This series is such a hard sell in general, because on the surface it looks like male power fantasy garbage, it's litRPG, and there's a decent amount of mildly obnoxious dude humor at first. But a) it's only slightly male power fantasy garbage, b) it's not tedious litRPG and in fact the genre evolves and shifts into more straightforward SFF the further in you get, which is clever on a meta level and also a relief, c) to the extent it is litRPG, it mostly isn't boring and annoying about it (no stat nonsense for the sake of stat nonsense), d) the mildly obnoxious dude humor is often genuinely funny and to the extent it is obnoxious, there's some in-universe reasoning for that.

Anyway, the premise is as follows: Earth is suddenly and devastatingly mined for its natural resources by aliens. This results in the death of billions: everyone who was indoors is instantly killed. Anyone who was outside gets a chance to enter the "dungeon", which offers a chance for the remaining humans to compete for an alleged chance at freedom and sovereignty if they reach the bottom floor, but it's basically The Hunger Games: a propaganda exercise that's meant to earn money for the aliens running it as a game show, only this is a dungeon crawling RPG rather than a Hunger Games/Battle Royale situation. No one has ever reached the bottom floor. The best result most achieve is to reach the tenth floor, where they can take a deal for some variety of indentured servitude.

Enter Carl, our hero, a former (late 20s? early 30s? don't recall his age, but somewhere around there) Coast Guard technician who is outside when it all happens because he chased after his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, a best in show tortie Persian cat. Carl and Donut enter the dungeon, Donut eats a magic treat and becomes a sapient talking cat, and the books follow their struggle to survive and fight back against the cruel and inhuman system they've found themselves in.

Tonally, the series is interesting in that it manages to balance a very bleak, dystopian premise with genuine hilarity and moments of legitimately heart-wrenching emotion. Also, this is not a "lone heroic super cool guy saves and fixes everything" kind of story. This series is interested in teamwork and community in dire circumstances, and the found family of it all is genuinely moving. As a whole, it's just bonkers entertaining. I love when I can tell the author is having a blast, and you can absolutely tell that Matt Dinniman is having an absolute blast.

Anyway, a list of things I enjoy about this series and/or a list of general thoughts, some of which include mild spoilers:

PRINCESS DONUT. i love her. this cat is amazing and hilarious. She's exactly like you'd imagine a prize-winning Persian cat named Princess Donut to be. also, to my delight, she gets to be a fully rounded character. like yes, she's hilarious and often comic relief, but she's also taken seriously, and Carl is absolutely Insane about this cat. He fuckin' loves this cat, and the cat loves him. Also, hilariously, she has higher stats than Carl at the beginning. (In fact, she mostly has higher stats than him throughout, so she's technically the party leader. Which is why their party is called the Royal Court of Princess Donut.)

Donut has A+++++ insulting skills. On multiple occasions, I have lol'd in horror and delight at her savagery. A favorite:

Rezan: Why does that cat always type in all caps?

Donut: WHY DIDN’T YOUR MOTHER DRIBBLE YOU BACK OUT ONTO THE TRUCK STOP BATHROOM FLOOR, REZAN?

lest this give you the wrong impression, Donut is a classy lady. She is a princess, after all. but also she is savage.

Carl! The books are mostly in first person POV, so we're in Carl's head for most of them, and he is a great example of an unreliable narrator. He'll seem fairly generic at first, but stick it out through, like, the first third of the first book and onward for the slow and steady reveal of his Tragic Backstory and also such exciting psychological and emotional issues as: Insane about Donut; claims he "doesn't like drama" while in actuality he is clearly Repressing Everything; secretly an idealist who wants to believe the best of people; deeply committed to protecting people; full of revolutionary, anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian rage; holy abandonment issues batman; simply Does Not See It when various ladies basically throw themselves at him; generally Barely Holding It Together at all times.

people on reddit, mostly: Carl's stats!! blah blah blah power stuff. me: okay, but why is Carl Like This. let's deep discuss that. Also let Carl have a little breakdown. As a treat.

these books are so wildly, delightfully anti-capitalist, lol. I poked around Reddit and tumblr a bit, but didn't see anyone discussing this series' politics, but that aspect is super interesting to me. The series is very, very concerned with revolution and resistance and the form those things take when very few options are available to the oppressed, plus the ethics of revolutionary violence.

The dungeon AI! This thing is Way Too Online in a gross dudebro way, but frankly, it's still funny with it, and the evolution of the AI's character is fascinating. Also, I regret to inform you that I do find it extremely fucking funny that the AI has a thing for Carl and his feet. This is wholly hypocritical of me: if Carl was Carla, and the AI made the same comments, I'd have bounced. But what can I say, comedy is about subversion, I guess.

PREPOTENTE. MY PRECIOUS WEIRDO GOATMAN CHILD. Prepotente was a goat; upon entry into the dungeon and eating a magic pet treat, he becomes a goat man type thing, and he spends much of the series as one of the most dangerous and skilled dungeon crawlers, along with his "mother", the shepherdess Miriam Dom. he's a total fuckin weirdo who screams a lot for no reason and i love him. he better fucking survive the series, i swear to god.

one running theme of the series that I love so much is that Carl does not give up on people, and he does not write them off. He often runs into fellow crawlers who, if he was being bloodlessly practical about things, he should have bailed on. They're people who aren't prepared, who haven't leveled up enough, who aren't likely to survive much longer. But he doesn't abandon them, and he doesn't assume they can't get better. He sticks with them and helps them, and they help him. It's about found family ;____; they all love each other so much ;______;

MORDECAI!!! he's a changeling skyfowl and the team's game guide and later manager, and is a former crawler who took a deal. This is supposed to be his last season in the crawl, before he's free of his indentured servitude. he is Dad Shaped. automatic dad. there is in fact something quietly devastating about his Dad Shapedness.

There's a whole super interesting thing going on with the dungeon NPCs, and how we start out assuming most of them aren't "real". unsurprising spoiler alert: they may have been created by/for the dungeon, but many of them are very much real, and once they realize the position they've been put into, they're pissed.

i truly have no real idea where the series is going with its running theme about parents and children, and the protection or lack thereof of children. Our most heroic characters are consistently shown protecting and caring for the NPC children, even when it's at great cost to themselves.

everything to do with the Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook, the secret book with writing from prior crawlers that Carl is given, makes me Emotional. I'm honestly shocked the whole Cookbook was never planned, and that it was a result of Patreon votes. It's hugely important in the seventh book, not so much on a plot level--I can see how Dinniman could have gotten to some of these same plot beats without it--but on an emotional and thematic one. There's something so affecting here about the continuity of resistance, of finding hope and strength in the people who came before you, of planting seeds you water with blood and that you may never get to harvest, and the sheer, furious love of the whole thing.

so apparently Dinniman is a pantser when it comes to writing. Clearly, he's having fun, and it's more or less working out so far, but it does make me concerned about his ability to stick the dismount. I saw in an AMA that he likened it to building a spaceship with legos versus building it with a plan, and that he has fun writing himself out of corners. That's all well and good, but some of the things I'm most interested in this series are the overarching themes, and it makes me wary of those themes not getting a proper payoff. I guess I should just enjoy the ride, and accept that there will almost certainly be many loose ends.

On a meta level, I find it very funny and ironic that when I took a look at the reviews for the seventh book, I saw some people complaining about the absence of the more "entertainment" and "game" aspects of the series: no interviews with the outside, no "character sheets" for Carl, fewer big fights for Carl himself to take on, the AI taking on a more active 'deus-ex AI' role. Because in-universe, the dungeon crawl is no longer entertainment. At this point, the crawl has become an actual war, and the game genre it takes on--4x strategy--reflects that. Carl and the crawlers' choices have increasing ramifications outside the crawl, where actual war is breaking out at least in part as a result of their actions. The AI intervening more and more often to put its finger on the scale is part of the conflict; it's fighting this war as much as the other characters are, if with still inscrutable motivations.

This is in fact one of the central conflicts of the series: to what extent is this still a game? Has it ever only been a game? The crawlers and NPCs are in fact fighting for it to not be a game: they're saying "my life is real, my suffering is real, and if you won't acknowledge that, then you're coming in here with us to fight and die too. Not just a game anymore, is it?" And on another side of the conflict, you have the AI insisting that this stay a game, something with rules and a narrative and at least an attempt at fairness, however much the AI manipulates those things.

It seems like there's something of a genre shift going on with this series. As a reader who's not particularly interested in or invested in litRPG in and of itself, I'm fine with it shifting to being more straightforwardly SFF, and in fact, I think that's an interesting and fun choice on a meta level: the more the crawlers and the AI break and change the game, the more the genre of the series itself shifts.

[a-mediocre-time]

This is the best review / explanation I've read of the books that have become my latest hyper fixation. I wasn't super interested at first because I'm not a gamer so litRPG hasn't been on my radar, but alllllll of this explains exactly how I feel about the books. I'm also so glad they are leaning into found family with all his female friends and not a romance for Carl (boy is not in a place for that and the AI would be pissed haha). Listen to the audiobooks if you can, Jeff Hays is the best narrator I've ever heard.

[gffa]

I have finished Dungeon Crawler Carl #3 and I immediately started up #4 but FIRST I HAVE HALF-FORMED THOUGHTS. For a book that starts out with so many parody vibes and is threaded throughout with bro-style humor, I'm constantly delighted by how much heart this series has. The bigger themes of the series are, "What would you do to survive? What's worth it to survive and how do you live with yourself?" and at what point do you start fighting back against oppression when your life is on the line, when do you stop playing by the rules of the system you can't leave and start doing things that might get you killed? It's woven through with messages about how vitally necessary community is, how helping other people because it's the right thing to do is import, and liberally splashed with "some of these characters are clearly in the middle of a mental breakdown that they can't acknowledge, but boy is it deliberately there". Carl is a fascinating character because he can be a reckless asshole a lot of time, he's clearly walking around with an absolute SHITLOAD of trauma even before the book starts and this is just giving him PTSD on steroids, and he's haunted by the things he's done (sometimes deliberately, sometimes on accident), but he's also asking himself the question of "what's the point of surviving if we don't help everyone we can?" It's a difficult book series to recommend in some ways, because a lot of the early stuff could well turn people off, because the language can be off-putting to a lot of people, and I'm not giving any shade about that. But I swear that underneath it there's a story about revolution and our capacity for resilience in situations designed to break us and the importance of caring about each other just because they're a person. And even what it means to be a "person" and that that can sometimes be a struggle in a situation designed where only one side can survive.

[flashflashhundredyarddash]

Me, a disgraced academic turned farmer, surveying my crops: Finally… I am out standing in my field

[shed-some-light]

reminders for today:

if you or someone you know might need it in the next few years, purchase plan b. the shelf life of plan b is 4 years, and we might not be able to access it as easily as we can now in the days ahead.

if you are larger/plus size: go online and purchase ella instead of plan b. plan b is less effective if you aren’t under 160 pounds.

if you can, purchase books that project 2025 is looking to ban.

mass deportations are starting. if you see ice vehicles or agents, yell ice raid and la migra as loud as you can.

if someone asks who you voted for, keep your mouth shut. they’re fishing for traitors.

if anyone, anyone at all asks about your neighbors or their legal status in the us, you know nothing. don’t be the reason that their family is separated.

if anyone asks about your religion or lack thereof, keep it vague. this administration will look for any excuse to persecute you.

your friends are trans or queer? for the next four years they’re not. don’t expose anyone’s status as a trans or queer person to anyone else, even if you think you can trust them.

did someone you know get an abortion? no, they didn’t. they were never pregnant.

in short, don’t be a snitch, and keep to yourself these next four years. we’ll make it through this even if it seems hopeless at times.

this is all i can think of at the moment, but i’ll be adding on to this as the day continues.

we can survive this. we’ve survived before, and we’ll survive again.

[shed-some-light]

[blueberryjamsart]

happ new 2 u 2, snek

[a-mediocre-time]

I love him

[mrpinchy]

say what you will about california but i love that we have an official state slug (banana slug). more states should have official state slugs.

[mrpinchy]

BEHOLD the majesty of california

[softlyfiercely]

Fun fact! These little guys have one of the broadest vertical natural habitat ranges because they snooch snooch snooch up to the top of very tall redwood trees and they dig dig dig dig down into the ground

[a-mediocre-time]

I love these funky little guys

[kurgy]

tucson aint got much but it does have a bridge shaped like a rattlesnake

[kurgy]

hes my friend

[kurgy]

glad people are reblogging my friend the bridge snake

[monsieurenjlolras]

you've heard of "quiet quitting," now I'd like to introduce you to the next level, The French Work Ethic:

Do exactly what you're paid for and nothing more

Absolutely refuse to be available to contact when you're off the clock

Never prioritize work over your own health, wellbeing, or family because that would be insane, it's just a job.

Have a little glass of wine

Take as long as you feel like for lunch

Deeply understand that work doesn't matter

Make sure your boss your boss knows they're always your second priority ❤️

[a-mediocre-time]

Basically me except I don't day drink and I dont explicitly tell my boss IDGAF 🙃

[veryfunnymemes]

[i-cant-make-a-good-name]

[dandy-boi-ftm]

The best part is the fact that out of the two of them Martha Stewart was the one who went to prison.

[shadowkat678]

Wait…what?

[2fngrsin]

Wiiiiild. He did commit murder (in self defense - no judging) and America‘s Best Housewife was sent to jail because of insider trading, securities fraud, obstruction of justice and conspiracy. This is wiiiiiild 😄😄😄

[skrytch]

[brunhiddensmusings]

also he has every right to make fun of kanye west considering snoop has had a successful career for about two decades including his own cookbook and appearing in movies whereas kanye is a flat earther who had to crowdfund another album because he ran out of money despite kim kardashian being with him, not having the money to produce another album should be the metric when you know you can tell a musician has failed somewhere in either money management or actually being a musician rather then a famous trainwreck

[sunshine-tattoo]

snoop dogg is a good man who loves cooking, nature, and supporting the dreams of young children in poverty. kanye west helped get trump elected.

[brunhiddensmusings]

seriously though check out his cookbook its beautiful

and filled with lgiht humor, legit cooking, and charming life stories

[nevercure]

Whenever I think about snoop I remember that episode of cribs where he lived in an unusually modest house compared to everyone else on that show, spent the entire time with his young daughter hugging onto his leg and dragging her around as he walked. He even talked about how he didn’t want his kids to be musicians and that he just wants them to have a chance at a normal life / he doesn’t wish music career drama on anyone

The dude is mega down to earth for having a networth of 135 million dollars and staying relevant for longer than some of the top charting musicians have been alive

[brunhiddensmusings]

he says he keeps a supply of poptarts in the house for his nieces/nephews and grandkids but admits theyre really for him and then goes on to discuss what selection of condiments your fridge should have to jazz up leftover takeout hes one of the most thoroughly human humans ive ever known of

[owengrose]

Doesn’t he also coach football for kids, and stops smoking during the season to set a good example for the kids?

[bossymarmalade]

all these people going on about how Hozier is the peak representation of musical soft masculinity when Snoop has been out here rocking the smoothest braids and most hype manicures for decades

[stelamaris]

[unamedwatcher]

Have you seen his Planet Earth voiceover video? It’s the best thing I’ve ever heard. Man knows nothing about otters

[randomslasher]

Plizzanet Earth is a joy. Here’s the playlist:

[yeahokayillreblogthat]

Yeah okay ill reblog that

[fiti-vation]

[ernasd]

oh this is a life saver

[gallusrostromegalus]

So these are both “Aw Fuck I’m outta real food” meals BUT ALSO:  if you’re learning how to cook, these are great “baby steps” meals to learn how to cook basics into something enjoyable without “wasting” anything expensive.  Though I maintain that even cooking screw-ups are valuable in terms of lessons learned.

Also they’re great for when you get absorbed in something and you realize your blood sugar is dropping and you need to make something Quick.

[petermorwood]

Making basic storecupboard or fridge ingredients less basic and more nutritious.

[neil-gaiman]

This is wonderful.

[a-mediocre-time]

Amazing, this is so helpful

[petermorwood]

Snake sword - but not a bracelet.

I remember seeing this in a book years ago and since then forgetting what the disguise was. I kept misremembering it as a hatband because a character in James Clavell’s “Shogun” kept a very flexible knife hidden in his…)

There’s a lot more information here. Unfortunately it’s in Russian, but Google Translate makes acceptable sense of it, including pointing out that the case is a probable replacement, made in Paris in 1878, thirty years later than the sword.

The Russian site gives dimensions -  total length of drawn sword 964mm / 38″, blade length 810mm / 32″, blade width 20mm / .78″, blade thickness 7 mm - this last is a typo, 7mm is over a quarter of an inch thick; it should read .7mm / .027″.

The Russian site also shows what’s written on the engraved and decorated part just above the grip. One side reads “Fca de Toledo 1846“ (Fca = fabricata = made)…

…while the other reads “Acargo del Cuerno de artilleria“, which makes no sense, however a closer look suggests something more like…

…“A cargo del Cuerpo de artilleria” - “paid for by” or “charge borne by” or “in the charge (ownership?) of the Artillery Corps.” (Which one?)

¿Te habla o lee español? because I’m intrigued about what it actually means and Google Translate is far too literal.

Personal opinion is that it’s not intended as a working weapon. The thinness of the blade means it could cut like a razor if honed and stropped like one, and could deliver a thrust if handled Just Right. But otherwise, any blade able to bend into a complete circle without taking on a curve is IMO too flexible for combat. Having said that, I wouldn’t like to be poked with it in case I’m wrong. One navel is plenty.

It’s not a bangle or bracelet, either. Using a calculator (I was never any good at geometry, and the only Pi I like is one I can eat) and taking the blade length of 810mm / 32″ as the circumference of a circle, the diameter across the snake’s coil is 129mm / 10 inches. Way too big for arms, except super-huge bodybuilder biceps, which aren’t standard issue.

(Writer’s/artist’s note, prompted by this: don’t give heroes upper-arm stuff - pouches, daggers etc. - which strap across the centre of the bicep. If it’s tight enough to stay on when the muscle’s relaxed, it’ll be too tight when it flexes; muscle charts suggest flexing increases bicep circumference by 1-3 inches depending on muscle development. If there’s no stretch or give - like the snake-sword scabbard - that’s going to hurt beyond a mere pinch.)

It might, just might, slip down and fit round someone’s neck as an interesting collar but that, like my experiment with over-the-shoulder sword drawing, would make it an accident just waiting to happen.

I think it’s an art piece (only history knows what the Artillery Corps had to do with it - presentation? mess conversation-piece?) which also shows what high-quality steel that particular bladesmith can provide. Customers would come in to admire the snake-sword’s workmanship, flexibility and (probably) sharpness, but actually buy something more practical whether a sword, a pocket-knife or a razor (the snake has features of all three.)

Lee Whiteside pointed me at it, but he asked me to mention that Gail Carriger gets the credit for spotting it.

Fascinating stuff.

[a-mediocre-time]

I just spent too long looking for a replica of this because I would wear it as a coronet *daily*

[therabbitthatpostthings]

I will never relate to a character harder than I do Howl Jenkins-Pendragon.

He had a choice: Give your heart to a Fire Demon and live in an ever moving castle as you are being hunted by a vicious witch who wishes to consume you

OR

Pay back your student loans

And he chose the former. So real of him. I would done the same, no second thoughts.

[micro-usb-deactivated20230625]

[disast3rtransp0rt]

As someone who took etiquette lessons, politeness is an incredibly effective tool for disarming bigots. You can either force them to reconsider their words/actions by directly and calmly confronting their behavior (by using the rules of society in your favor), or you can dip entirely while they appear to be in the wrong.

Both options are great.

Because the thing is, when bigots pick fights, they are 100% counting on you to get louder than them. Or meaner. They want you to react emotionally and provide fodder for their ‘You’re Too Emotionally Immature To Understand’ cannon.

What they aren’t expecting you to do is say one of the following phrases in a polite, concerned tone:

Are you okay?

That’s not the kind of language I was raised to use with others.

Do you need a moment to think on why that wasn’t acceptable?

This is no way to engage in intelligent conversation. Please try that again in a kinder tone if you’d like this to continue. (I really like this one because it lets you turn their public-shame rhetoric around)

For those of you who’d are spiteful and/or dealing with Fundamentalists/Evangelicals/generally shitty Christians:

What’s happening in your life to cause you this much anger? I can’t imagine hurting so badly that I need to hurt other people.

Who taught you it was acceptable to treat other people this way? Certainly not the Jesus I remember.

Whatever happened to 'judge not lest ye be judged’?

If I talked like that in front of my parents or grandparents I would be ashamed.

I think there’s something you need to pray on before we try and have this conversation.

And my all time favorite:

“It sounds to me like there are some seriously dark and angry forces at work in your heart.”

(Nothing stops a Christian bigot in their tracks faster than implying the Devil is causing their bigotry. But you MUST be calm, polite, and gentle with your tone and wording. It is absolutely fair to twist the rules and play them at their own game, but you gotta play hard.)

TLDR: It’s much faster to use etiquette, politeness, and rhetoric reversal when eviscerating idiots online and in person, because they aren’t expecting you to weaponize their behaviors back in their direction. Don’t get angry, get spitefully polite! :)

[themythicalcodfish]

I once witnessed a very soft-spoken young Southern man take a hateful older woman’s hands gently in his and say “Sister, I am so sorry that the Devil has carved a home for hatred in your heart. I’ll pray for you.”

It was glorious.

[1863-project]

This works with all sorts of inappropriate behavior. I work as the archivist in a public library, so I end up on the reference desk a lot, and sometimes patrons will say or do things that aren’t exactly appropriate. When patrons try to hit on me, I put on a teacher voice and calmly ask, “Is that an appropriate question to ask someone at work?” and it shuts them down immediately.

This sort of thing always does the trick.

[saint-ambrosef]

some of y'all need to learn how to accept hospitality. stop assuming people are only offering to look after you out of twisted obligation that they don't actually want to do. when you assume that, you are often denying someone the opportunity to genuinely show a friend or stranger love. even if you don't really care about what they're offering, it's respectful of their desire to be kind to accept it anyways.

i had a bunch of girls i've never met over for a women's group. every single one of them denied my offer to make them tea (despite already making myself a mug anyways), get them water, a scone, etc.

i can tell when people refuse to let me be a good host because they "don't want to be a bother". like no!! please be a bother!!! i want to serve you and make you comfortable in my home!

not to be like "we live in a society" but really do live in a modern culture than emphasizes individualism to the point where people will reflexively deny any help or kindness from others for fear of treading on their independence. newsflash: dependence on each other is what makes a community. next time someone offers you kindness, accept it instead of making excuses for why you don't need it. otherwise you've robbed both yourself of being loved and someone else from showing love.

[catchymemes]

[thescarvedinsect-deactivated202]

[a-mediocre-time]

Ouch. Called out