may we live forever

she/her || my fandom musings || vorkosigan saga || wheel of time || loads of spoilers

[iliiuan]

Genny Harrison (@surfnukumoi)

I went back to The West Wing expecting comfort. Instead, Arnold Vinick made me realize I was not watching to remember what politics could b

A very worthy read. We have got to figure out how to talk to each other again.

Genny Harrison’s essays are consistently good and frequently great. I highly recommend browsing her collection.

[iliiuan]

AumSum: What if cats ruled the world?

Me: They already do, homey.

[standwithdaanes]

as much as everyone loves "the power of love won't save us, we need the power of incredible violence" i'm sorry to rain on your parade but we've actually tried that about ten million times as a species, and you'll be shocked to hear the power of incredible violence, without the power of love behind it, is just brutality. the power of incredible violence has been ruling (various parts of, and then the entire) world for the past 5,000 years. ours is not that damn special.

like yes use that gun you found but WHY are you using it? on who are you using it? what would make you stop using it? is your goal to live in a world where every problem is solved by violence, or is your goal to do the violence necessary to live in a world where that necessity is unthinkable?

[iliiuan]

“If ever you don’t hate [the war axe] any longer, then will be the time to throw it as far as you can and run the other way.” -Elyas Machera to Perrin Aybara in The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

[scribefindegil]

everyone who is not currently in the process of moving please pause and take a moment to be grateful that you're not currently in the process of moving

[iliiuan]

Certain people will be pleased to know that crows are not slandered in The Curse of Chalion.

Animals were innocent, even the grisly crows; that innocence surely made them all a little sacred.

[iliiuan]

@apocalypticavolition

I made this post for you.

[the-oracle-of-the-lost]

therapy wouldn't fix Moiraine, but it would teach her how to use therapy-speak to manipulate people so i think we should let her go for that alone.

[studentofetherium]

the thing about Wheel of Time is that Robert Jordan is so bad at gender dynamics that he often accidentally writes BDSM class s yuri

[studentofetherium]

if i was a fujoshi, I'd probably have a lot to say about that as well, but the fact of the matter is that he writes gender dynamics so poorly that it makes everyone come across as at least a little gay. sometimes a lot

[studentofetherium]

men don't like women and women don't like men, but they like each other

[iliiuan]

Ugh my summer electric bill is painful 😭

[turtwigodon]

I had a weird call the other day from some telemarketer offering to lower my bill and I just kinda awkwardly looked around for my non-existent AC system like...bro you said my address and everything but ummm, I don't have the thing in my home built in the fifties, I have fans and open windows...I am not your target. Now if you had called when it was hot and there was no wind and you called offering me aforementioned AC, I may not have hung up on you so quickly.

[iliiuan]

My January bill two years ago was even worse 🙃

All the vents are high on the walls and the ducts all go through the uninsulated (poorly insulated?) attic. It’s a very inefficient system in general, and particularly bad for cold weather. This past winter, the cold days were much more respectful of my finances and spread themselves out over multiple billing periods.

I can’t wait to get solar panels.

Stay cool, friend ✌️

[turtwigodon]

Who puts vents up high?! Ugh that is rage inducing!

May solar panels be in your near future and be everything you could want ☀️

[iliiuan]

It’s because it’s summer here 11 months out of 12. The cold air falls and helps with mixing. But it doesn’t do heating well at all.

[iliiuan]

Ugh my summer electric bill is painful 😭

[turtwigodon]

I had a weird call the other day from some telemarketer offering to lower my bill and I just kinda awkwardly looked around for my non-existent AC system like...bro you said my address and everything but ummm, I don't have the thing in my home built in the fifties, I have fans and open windows...I am not your target. Now if you had called when it was hot and there was no wind and you called offering me aforementioned AC, I may not have hung up on you so quickly.

[iliiuan]

My January bill two years ago was even worse 🙃

All the vents are high on the walls and the ducts all go through the uninsulated (poorly insulated?) attic. It’s a very inefficient system in general, and particularly bad for cold weather. This past winter, the cold days were much more respectful of my finances and spread themselves out over multiple billing periods.

I can’t wait to get solar panels.

Stay cool, friend ✌️

[tanoraqui]

Caz: *prays to the Daughter for good mules*

Ista: *takes a shot, threatens a demon-ridden horse into submission*

[average-smoothie-enjoyer]

My favorite “humans are space orcs” idea is that trope where aliens kidnap some humans for their zoo, except it ends up like Jurassic Park. And the poor Alien Humanologists who were invited to the park are like:

“You mean you locked up a pack of curious, highly competitive persistence predators with NO enrichment in the enclosure? You FOOLS! If you had bothered to throw a basketball or half a box of Legos in there, KE-X9 would still be alive!

“Well of course they climbed the retaining wall! Did you think to study their evolutionary lineage AT ALL?”

[what-even-is-thiss]

The humans would find a way to use the basketball and legos to escape. I mean one time a guy somehow escaped from a prison in Mexico without breaking any laws so his escape would be legal so honestly given enough time the Jurassic park situation is inevitable.

[elidyce]

Jurassic Park would be awesome, but now that I think about it I also kind of love love the idea of humans as the alien zoo equivalent of those octopuses that climb out of their tanks and wander around taste-testing other exhibits or throwing sub-par shrimp at handlers. 

Like they’re totally unable to figure out what’s happening because the cameras keep going out, but every night things get moved, or stolen, exhibits are disappearing, WHAT IS GOING ON, they’ve moved facilities twice and it’s still happening, are they haunted, are the ancestors angry, WHAT IS HAPPENING!?

And then a weary humanologist is all ‘… your humans are getting out’. 

“That is impossible.” 

“They’re getting out.” 

“That enclosure is COMPLETELY SECURE.” 

“And yet somehow they’re getting out.” 

“THE HUMANS ARE NOT GETTING OUT.” 

“Oh yeah? I bet you twenty glarks they’re getting out. Stay after closing time with me and I’ll show you.” 

*next day*

“… the humans were getting out.” 

“… why did they keep going back in, then?!”

(In a deeply embarrassed mumble) “They said they weren’t going to escape until they finished their behavioural experiments. Uh. On us.”

[weaselle]

two things come to mind:

1 - at our own zoos the MOST notorious jail breakers are the orangutans, who exploit all manner of methods, including literal lock picking. One orangutan, Ken Allen escaped several times WHILE THE ZOO WAS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC without getting caught by watching Zoo employees, even when they tried to disguise themselves as tourists to catch him at it. While he was being “secretly” surveilled, he managed to escape AND show the other orangutans how to escape. They finally found out he was doing some thought-to-be-impossible rock climbing to escape. To fix it, they brought in a team of human rock-climbers to locate all possible methods of climbing out. So. Humans would absolutely be the worst to try to keep contained. Like, “escape rooms” are currently seen as a fun date idea. I’m sayin.

2 - animals that escape most often return to their own enclosure (after all that’s where their beds and dinners are, and if the zoo is any good it is the place best suited to their species-specific needs for miles and miles) after they have had sufficient excitement. Ken Allen the orangutan would escape and wander around the zoo looking at the animals like he’d bought a ticket. So if the keepers were nice, and formed a bond, and the set up was comfy, once the human knew they could get out if they really wanted, they’d probably go back, depending on how uncomfortable/dangerous the alien environment was.

I mean if they were raised in captivity. Wild-caught humans, all bets are off; depending on age of capture a return home could be a full blown obsession, the sabotage of engineering from mechanisms up to entire facilities is a strong possibility, and they may go on a murder spree with improvised or stolen weapons if desperate.

[asteroidtroglodyte]

Humans consider an Escape Room to be a Fun Courtship Ritual

[roseapprentice]

The wild humans thing does depend a LOT on how good the zoo is, IMO. If you, as the alien zookeeper:

“Rescued” humans who weren’t thriving in the wild. (Aka dire medical debt.)

Made sure to take an entire social troop instead of lone individuals. (Your closest friends/family members are there.)

Offered VERY good care and enrichment.

Then I think you’d have at least a PARTIAL chance of your wild humans proving to themselves that they can escape and immediately going, “Okay but the zoo is obviously better.”

[vifetoile]

I'm not getting it all sorted, she worried. I'm not getting it right. You are brilliant, the Voice reassured her. It is imperfect. So are all things trapped in time. You are brilliant, nonetheless. How fortunate for Us that We thirst for glorious souls rather than faultless ones, or We should be parched indeed, and most lonely in Our perfect righteousness. Carry on imperfectly, shining Ista.

Ista dy Chalion and the Bastard (a right bastard), Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

[chapters-and-chatter]

Wheel of Time text posts w/ full book spoilers

I’ve been hoarding text posts in a pinterest board for months. Time to release them into the world

All art credit to the original artists!

[hag-o-hags]

my favorite thing about Miles Vorkosigan so far is that he is an exact 50/50 combo of his father's incredible strategic maneuvering and his mother's willingness to go off half-cocked on a batshit insane op that could only be called a plan because advance thought was technically put into it and tapdance on quicksand until shit works out.

[hag-o-hags]

"average vor clan charged with treason at least once" actualy just statistical error. average vor clan charged with treason 0 times in history. Mils Vorkosigan, who is a maniac & is charged with treason every 3 years, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

[mytly4]

I'd say the charged with treason part is more a Vorkosigan clan thing. 😆 To quote Miles:

“Grandfather once said to me, when I was upset about, God, I don’t even remember which one, ‘We’re Vorkosigans. If the charge isn’t at least murder or treason, it’s not worth rolling over in bed for.’ Then he thought a moment and changed it to, ‘Treason, anyway.’ And after another, ‘And sometimes not even then.’”

[iliiuan]

Ugh my summer electric bill is painful 😭

[iliiuan]

“I am all for immigration, but I draw the line at midwestern transplants” is one hell of a take.

“I hate how they don’t incorporate into the beautiful tapestry of my city. They have different social norms and I expect them to assimilate immediately and completely.” Do you hear yourself?

“This is not the same as anti-immigration sentiment I swear.” Uh well you’re wrong.

I want to fucking scream.

I was working on an essay about how states within the US have open borders with each other, and how this makes us an economic powerhouse, but apparently I was thinking of directing my essay at the wrong fucking group. God damn.

To summarize: Immigrants are good. “Transplants” (e.g. immigrants from another jurisdiction who have no legal barriers to said migration because they’re from the same country) are good. People being able to move to new places and live their lives there is good. I fully support people being able to move house wherever they damn well please. Always and absolutely. (Caveat: as in, buy a house in an existing settlement, not build a house in whatever random ass place they choose. Just in case anyone was misunderstanding.)

I am so over this shit.

[cannoli-reader]

"not build a house in whatever random ass place they choose"

Whyever not? I am assuming, of course, that they own or lease the land, otherwise building a house would be a really weird thing to do. But if they do, why not build it wherever they want?

[isaacsapphire]

“I love population growth, but I draw the line at constructing new housing” is a fairly common political position.

[iliiuan]

@cannoli-reader Building a house on land you own and that is zoned for building a house is within the construct of joining existing communities. That’s not whatever random place, that’s a normal behavior. Reasonable places to build housing vary wildly by location. Houston, for instance, has plenty of already developed land with empty ass buildings that really do need to be converted to housing, but also lots of undeveloped land that really does need to be left alone so that floods go away from people’s homes and not into them. Just as an example of how building in whatever random place is not a great plan where I live.

@isaacsaphire We do need more housing. I wasn’t trying to say that people shouldn’t build houses. I was saying that houses need to be in appropriate places. Individual families are not typically constructing their own homes. Builders construct subdivisions, and then regular people buy one of those houses. I accidentally overemphasized preexisting housing and that wasn’t my intention.

ETA: “Come and live wherever they want” sounded too much like “Let people start inhabiting national parks” and I wanted to emphasize that I didn’t mean anything absurd like that. “Come buy land and use it within constraints of local law” is very much within the bounds of what I wanted to express. (I also have seen responses to the idea of open immigration go something like, “Well, they can live in your backyard, then!” Um excuse me what? They can live in their own house or apartment like normal people.)

[iliiuan]

“I am all for immigration, but I draw the line at midwestern transplants” is one hell of a take.

“I hate how they don’t incorporate into the beautiful tapestry of my city. They have different social norms and I expect them to assimilate immediately and completely.” Do you hear yourself?

“This is not the same as anti-immigration sentiment I swear.” Uh well you’re wrong.

I want to fucking scream.

I was working on an essay about how states within the US have open borders with each other, and how this makes us an economic powerhouse, but apparently I was thinking of directing my essay at the wrong fucking group. God damn.

To summarize: Immigrants are good. “Transplants” (e.g. immigrants from another jurisdiction who have no legal barriers to said migration because they’re from the same country) are good. People being able to move to new places and live their lives there is good. I fully support people being able to move house wherever they damn well please. Always and absolutely. (Caveat: as in, buy a house in an existing settlement, not build a house in whatever random ass place they choose. Just in case anyone was misunderstanding.)

I am so over this shit.