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[millenniallust4death]

I’m paying to force seven thousand strangers to see a photo of my late husband having fun with his dog. Tumblr Blaze is totally worth it. XD

[dduane]

So just to let folks know what's going on

So first of all: let me tell everybody how things went with the new glasses.

Briefly: they're brilliant. The new varifocals work way better than earlier versions of them have routinely done. (This is apparently secondary to the way my eyes continue to change shape as I get older. It continues to make me snicker that I'm getting Iess nearsighted as I age. "So," I said to my Eye Lady, "if I can manage to live to, like, a hundred and twenty-five, I'll be twenty-twenty?" She gave me sort of a cockeyed look. "Well... you'll still be astigmatic. As for the rest of it, let's see how things go...") The reading glasses are no good for the computer: they’re genuinely just for reading. ...But this is okay, because the varifocals work fine for computer work. So THAT whole business has turned out more than satisfactorily... and thanks once more, from the bottom of my heart, to all those who helped out. ❤️

And get this. I went out to lunch after picking the new glasses up, and in the middle of lunch found myself paper-outlining a paranormal police procedural trilogy. (headclutch) So that went well. ...And no, I can't tell anybody anything about the plotting on these: it's too soon. But this looks like something of a change of writing voice (and thematic material) for me: darker than usual, maybe a touch grittier. We'll see how this group of works sets itself up as work gets going. (Other works further along in progress are in front of these right now, but that's fine. Giving things time to mature is never a problem.)

Anyway: typically enough, some other unexpected health junk that had been behaving itself during the spring then started kicking up cranky in June and over the last couple of weeks. (eyeroll) I don't want to get into more detail than necessary about this, but it's an outgrowth of the internal problems that have made me give up long-distance travel. It's required a goodish outlay of cash, and has resulted in me falling behind on my rent.

My landlord is being really easygoing about this, but nonetheless I'd very much like to get caught up on this before it gets any worse. (As being behind this way, I'm finding, is increasingly interfering with my work... especially as that's now become so much easier to get to grips with due to the new glasses.)

So it seems to me that this is a good time to repeat the Summer Reading Sale over at Ebooks Direct!

I imagine lots of people here know the drill. Everything's cheap, and the ebook bundles are all being held at their lowest price points for the duration (meaning specifically the "All The Wizardry" bundle, the Middle Kingdoms series bundle, the LGBTQ Pride collection, and the Feline Wizardry bundle—Even our "Give Me Everything You've Got" collection, which is the whole ebook store in one package, has had a bit knocked off.

So could I get folks to reblog this post so that people who might not have caught one of these sales before can do so now if they want to? Please & thank you!

And additionally: for those who're already up to the gunwales in ebooks and don't need any more, but still want to help out with the rent situation—if you'd like instead to drop something into my Ko-Fi, it'd be very welcome. And if you feel like doing this, I thank you very much in advance! 🙂

Support Diane Duane

Support Diane Duane

...So that's the news from Lake Wobegon for the moment. ...Now to slip outside and give the potted plants a potful or so of water as an evening drink. They've been suffering from the (unusual-for-us) local heat wave, there's a wildfire watch on (leading to a ban on selling portable BBQs), and we're also having a ban on watering things with a hose at the moment. (sigh) One thing after another...

Anyway, thanks again, folks.

[catandgirlcomic]

Cat and Girl vs the audience

[melonishus]

You know on this most joyous of days , I know people will come with the usual “We shouldn’t celebrate someone’s death” and I say we ABSOLUTELY should

Let’s all remember that the man , and others like him wake up every day and decide they’re going to harm your friends , your family , innocents who have no way to defend themselves against the power they all wield . And they gladly do so to get a little more powerful than the day before

They don’t get to expect humanity when they’ve spent their miserable lives depriving us of our own

So by all means , be tasteless. Decide what dance to do on his grave .He may be replaced by another viper , but for now the worlds a somewhat better place for him being gone

[melonishus]

You know on this most joyous of days , I know people will come with the usual “We shouldn’t celebrate someone’s death” and I say we ABSOLUTELY should

Let’s all remember that the man , and others like him wake up every day and decide they’re going to harm your friends , your family , innocents who have no way to defend themselves against the power they all wield . And they gladly do so to get a little more powerful than the day before

They don’t get to expect humanity when they’ve spent their miserable lives depriving us of our own

So by all means , be tasteless. Decide what dance to do on his grave .He may be replaced by another viper , but for now the worlds a somewhat better place for him being gone

[evilwizard]

warrior who came to me for advice: i just don’t know if i should listen to the telepathic trees, who say i should save the forest, or my adopted wolf mother, who says i should cut it down to build my city. that’s why i came to you… should i go with Psi Ents or Dog Ma?

me: your existence feels fairly contrived

[oldschoolfrp]

Dodging spikes flung from a manticore's tail (Jeff Dee cover for AD&D module S2: White Plume Mountain, by Lawrence Schick, TSR, 1980-81 edition)

[sprenge777]

There are some very cool individual bits in this, and also, I hate it. Just despise it. Everything that's wrong with the old school, all in one convenient volume.

[swordy-da-goat]

An amorphous black blob thingy that shape-shifts into any hazard related thing.

[swordy-da-goat]

The Hazard Monster also has the ability to change the reaction of their body. Examples include:

There are other examples of reactivity, but I don’t wanna draw them

[ominous-signs]

This is SO cool

[markscherz]

Teaching evaluations for this year are in and… are some of you in my classes? Because these are clearly tumblrcore responses.

[sprenge777]

The secret to good teaching is enthusiasm.

And mini frogs.

[succubusboyfriend]

you have permission to pick that 2 year old "abandoned" project back up. it's not mad at you for setting it aside. and maybe time and distance have helped ease or erase the things that made you put it down in the first place.

[sprenge777]

Can confirm. A couple months ago I picked up a project from 9 years ago. It's so much better now. Or maybe I am.

[powerbottombrucespringsteen]

Born without the gene that makes you want to listen to other people’s DnD campaigns

[catandgirlcomic]

A brief history of reviewing things on the internet. vol. I

[sprenge777]

Was there; can confirm

[raccoonmilf]

Why does my dad text like this??? Who taught him this??

[sprenge777]

I will not be the first person to say EDGAR ALLAN POE and I will not be the last!

[powersimon]

The carrier of carriers. A tribute to Terry Pratchett

[sakurabomb]

@ominous-signs saw this one at a mall the other day

[ominous-signs]

Official ominous sign

[sprenge777]

I'M SO

STILL ARE

HERE YOU

[powwhamteaching]

Been giving my tenth graders more in-class writing prompts on paper, no technology allowed. It has worked really well!

The quality of their thinking is much deeper. Their voices are more interesting and unique. Most importantly of all, I don't have the voice in my head going, "Ugh, is this AI?"

I think one of the worst parts of AI is how it has spoiled a lot of the joy I feel working with students. I read a half-way interesting idea, but I have to stop. Did the kid come up with this? Or did a computer write this for them? I want to gush praise on them and be excited for them, but I also feel like an idiot when I realize I have been praising a robot. And since they are learning, a lot of tenth graders do write like clunky robots, at least on a computer.

But anyway, my kids' hand-written prompts are really good! Highly recommend reading a bunch of things during the unit, making kids do worksheets/hand-written notes, then giving them a class period to respond to a prompt where they can use those worksheets, notes, and texts. It's good for their writing and thinking, but it's good for your soul.

[catnippackets]

the hardest pill to swallow about being in a fandom is that some people are only ankle-deep in it and aren't taking things too seriously and other people are up to their necks and taking it as seriously as a heart attack and yet everybody thinks that every other person is in it just as deep as they are and will get very upset to realize otherwise because they don't know how to engage with the different perspective

[sprenge777]

This, but for everything