Claudia Gray's Photo Blog

Book covers, vacation pictures, photos of day to day life in New Orleans, and various forms of geekery, from YA author Claudia Gray.

[usergambit]

THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU (2026) dir. Jon Favreau

[runraerun]

how it feels watching Star Trek for the first time.

[most-precious-garbage]

[capybaralovers]

[esotericy]

Keanu Reeves photographed by Gail Harvey 1988

[ex0skeletal-undead]

A Clutch of Vampires by Edward Gorey

[headspace-hotel]

Nathan pyle’s newer comics are delightful

Also...these panels

[bethanydelleman]

I read the first book of comics with my kids and they loved it!

[wilwheaton]

“Like traditional casinos, online sportsbooks use a variety of mechanisms to entice gamblers in and then to keep them betting. They use deceptive advertising, claiming generous “average” payouts when in reality “just 1.3 percent of [daily fantasy sports] players were collecting 91% of prize money,” according to a McKinsey report cited by Funt. Like traditional casinos, they employ “VIP hosts” to cosset heavy hitters, and they lure big bettors with comped Super Bowl trips and other complimentary goodies. For more ordinary suckers, their strategies have become more refined. For example, they track your betting frequency, and when it declines, they bombard you with special offers and incentives to get you going again. They are becoming shockingly sophisticated users of mined personal data. Because sportsbook apps require that users activate geolocation on their devices (ostensibly to be sure that gambling is legal where players are), they can pinpoint exactly where a gambler is sitting in a ballpark and use seat prices to infer income and wealth information. An exec at a geodata firm speculates to Funt that they could soon pinpoint the type, and price, of the residences in which bettors live. And of course the pure seamlessness of the apps, the incredible ease of moving money from a bank account into the app, is an enormous incentive to compulsive behavior: the drugs, the dealer, and the ATM all in a single, handheld device. Americans placed $150 billion in bets in 2024, a number that has continued to rise. DraftKings alone has nearly four million monthly users.”

—

How Gambling Ate the World | The New Republic

I am so tired of this whole stupid industry and I hope it will be regulated, hard, at some point in my lifetime. This shit ruins lives.

[redlipstickresurrected]

Vanessa Stockard aka Derek Milkwood (Australian, b. 1975, Sydney, Australia) -Kevin the Kittin, 2023, Painting

[mithrandirl]

[funny-tik-toks]

[cool-beans-central]

Trying to keep up with this made me feel like English wasn’t my native language

[fliplifeupsidedown]

this is art

[normal-horoscopes]

I love videos of people performing religious ceremonies for small animals. Especially if it’s not something a small animal could participate in theologically.

[normal-horoscopes]

Sadie the Dog has been BLESSED upon this fine ASH WEDNESDAY she has been reminded of the FRAGILITY OF LIFE and has observed the start of the LENT SEASON

[normal-horoscopes]

Butters the Cat is wearing a TINY KIPPAH

[boydsjosten]

Cat on tiny praying mat !!!

[normal-horoscopes]

Cat on a tiny praying mat!!!

[petermorwood]

@muslimgamer​ and others might confirm this for me: AFAIK cats are Clean Creatures in Islam, so cats on prayer mats - especially their own mini prayer mats - aren’t offensive. One website I looked at said “cats will be cats, cats like to mirror people, and giving them their own mat helps stop them being a distraction during prayers.”

[hijab-described]

[ID: Photos of cats on prayer mats, some have their own miniature mats, others sit alongside their humans. /end ID]

[nealashitposts]

brothers and sisters of the book i am incredibly distracted look at the BABIES

[imomnba-x07]

I love him your honor, he’s so silly

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

"Just because I'm right, doesn't mean I'm being helpful" is a vastly underrated thought process that I strongly encourage others to get comfortable with

[phantomrose96]

Gosh I’d love to give it a try. It’s just so hard to find the time with all the *describes a daily schedule that is 65% dilly-dallying*

[aretasreads]

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

you are playing with an imaginary toy in an imaginary sandbox. fandom is all about having fun and letting your imagination run wild. canon is only a suggestion, not a rule. how much of canon you will follow, if any, is entirely up to you.

please stop trying to apply rules on hobbies and something that’s supposed to be your comfort place and a form of self-care.

“is it okay if I think this” “is it okay if I imagine that” it’s YOUR little world that you create for yourself and your own enjoyment. you literally do not need strangers’ opinions or permission when it comes to a hobby that doesn’t harm or affect anybody in real life. again, it’s YOUR imagination, YOUR world, YOUR creation. you have all the power and the freedom to:

headcanon whatever you want, however you want

ship whatever you want, however you want

write whatever you want, however you want

draw whatever you want, however you want

create whatever you want, however you want

reject whatever you want, however you want

as long as you’re not harming anybody in real life, how you have fun with fictional characters and your imagination is no one’s business but your own’s.

last but not least: fiction is not, and will never be, a reflection of your real-life moral compass. what you like in fiction does not reflect who you are in real life as a person. kill that cop in your head.

[claudiagray]

I should also add--were it not okay to disregard canon sexualities, slash fandom would not have come into existence until very recently, and so much LGBTQ fanwork and fan enthusiasm would either not have come into being or been kept away from others who enjoyed it. Fandom is a space where any aspect of characterization can be reimagined. Every once in a while, something's going to get bent in a direction that others don't enjoy (and sexuality is far from the only area in which that is true)--but what it offers is the opportunity for you to bend it back in your own way, and bend whatever else you want along with it.