[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by SB Sarah

An image of a VHS cassette with a label that reads FRIDAY VIDEOS Smart Bitches Ep. 21 against a pink crosshatch backgroundDo I know where my keys are? No.

Do I remember what I was wearing yesterday, or what I did? Ha, not at all.

Do I know without having to think about it what day or year it is? Absolutely not.

Do I remember random lines from random ass trailers for movies I didn’t see?

OF COURSE I DO.

Today’s Friday Videos: random ass movie trailers that are still quotable.

True story: I remembered this video. I could even picture it. I can QUOTE WHOLE ASS PARTS OF IT. Do I remember what movie it was?

Please. I do not. So a-hunting I will go!

Now, the first part is a dude saying, “In a world…” so I searched for that but there’s an entire other movie by that name. For crying out loud. My memory is foggy enough. Foggy isn’t even the right word. Like what’s worse than fog? Smog? Visual soup? My memory is clam chowder?

BUT THEN! I found it!

This is the trailer for a movie called Comedian that’s connected to Jerry Seinfeld (who, forgive me Seinfeld fans, I never thought was funny. He gives me a mighty ick) that I have never seen.

But do I quote the trailer? YES I DO.

In a land…before time! 

The voice actor is Hal Douglas, who died in March 2014, and was probably the voice over for more than half the television promos I saw as a kid (This Thursday on a very special episode of…). Linda Holmes at NPR wrote about him when he died, saying, “The lines were so cheesy, and the delivery was so satisfying.” The Guardian even rounded up some of his most iconic trailers and tv spots. 

In a world! 

What movie trailers do you still remember? Got favorite quotes? 

[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by SB Sarah

We are back in the time machine, heading to July 2000 to check out the Ads & Features from Romantic Times Magazine! Smart Podcast Trashy Books Romantic Times Rewind

We’re going to talk about Geocities websites, author research, and Hands.

Lots of Hands.

This one is a little spicy, y’all! At about 45 minutes in there’s an extended discussion of anal in romance fiction (as you do) and at about 50 minutes in, we discuss death, mortuary science, and make some allusions to decomposition.

That’s right. Dead bodies and anal sex. This episode is a banger.

Listen to the podcast →
Read the transcript →

Here are the books we discuss in this podcast:

We also mentioned: Are you ready for the Visuals? Here we go! [spoiler] The cover of RT July 2000: Virginia Henley's the Marriage Prize is the cover feature and the art is a beautiful oil painting of a knight in blue velvet with the requisite mullet kneeling in front of a blonde white woman with long hair and a flower crown in a white gown. She's touching his face amid a garden of pastel flowers with a path to a castle visible int he background Isn't this cover gorgeous? We had a few questions about that feather, and how it got there. John deSalvo is shirtless with a feather growing out of his head down his neck. He is embracing a woman with red hair and a long blue gown   Julianne MacLean has had a long and awesome career, and her books page is a trip through cover trends. We love this German cover in particular: The German Cover of Julianne MacLean's book with a frothy painting of a woman with red hair being held by a shirtless man with a mullet because of course she is   It's Harvey, Mr. Romance 1999! The Tarzan costume was for a European ad, which alas I cannot find online. It's Harvey! Black and white photos of a man smiling in a loin cloth with long hair, embracing a woman in a bikini and torn short skirt This was the era when a lot of author websites were on GeoCities. Here's Virginia Henley's GeoCities site. Virginia Henley's geocities website: the lower loop of the G holds a picture of Virginia wearing a masquerade mask in silver and purple. Everything is purple. The font is purple comic sands. Her newsletter was last updated in 2002 Purple comic sans! I do not believe this hat was on this person when this photograph was taken. My Buffalo Soldier - a sepia toned photograph of a tall black man in a vintage military uniform staring at the reader. A hat has been BADLY photoshopped on to his head. He is being embraced by a white woman holding a parasol and wearing what looks like a waitress outfit - white button down, black skirt Also, why is she dressed like a waitress at a bistro that has expensive food and metal chairs? This man is GREEN: A clip of the full page ad for a Bertrice Small book, A Memory of Love. The man looks green. his skin is greenish. He's wearing an enormous yellow doublet, and he is embracing a woman wearing a long pink gown, with long blonde hair behind her. She has blue eyeshadow on. And she has blue eyeshadow!! "Hands," the subtitle of this episode, refers to the number of author photos that involved posing with hands in places we did not understand. TO BE CLEAR we are NOT mocking this person's appearance. That's a fantastic photograph and this author looks freaking great. But we do not understand the hand position. Amanda and Sarah attempting to recreate an author photo where the person's hands are being held up in front of her, one hand clasping the other wrist like claws Why are the hands like that. How funny is it that the fact that John DeSalvo is fully clothed in this cover jumped out at us? A clip of some of the cover of Irish Rogue, in which DeSalvo is power standing in historical clothing including a red jacket over a white shirt that's open slightly to the waist, black trousers and knee high boots. He's got all his clothes on AND he's in a power stance! An illustration of a black haired white woman in a puffy, ruffled off the shoulder blue gown And this was the back cover launch ad for the Zebra Ballad line, which featured continuity stories across multiple books by different authors. The back cover with images of the four Kensington Ballad Romances. all of which are photographs with a white bar on the right side and the title and author below I still don't love photograph covers for historicals and for the life of me I can't figure out why I don't like them. I've been asking myself about this preference for literal years.   [/spoiler]

If you like the podcast, you can subscribe to our feed, or find us at iTunes. You can also find us on Stitcher, and Spotify, too. We also have a cool page for the podcast on iTunes.

Thanks to our sponsors:

More ways to sponsor:

Sponsor us through Patreon! (What is Patreon?)

What did you think of today's episode? Got ideas? Suggestions? You can talk to us on the blog entries for the podcast or talk to us on Facebook if that's where you hang out online. You can email us at sbjpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave us a message at our Google voice number: 201-371-3272. Please don't forget to give us a name and where you're calling from so we can work your message into an upcoming podcast.

Thanks for listening!


Podcast Sponsor

Smart Podcast Trashy Books Romantic Times Rewind Support for this episode comes from Savage Bonds, book two in the Shadowmist Pack series by Evie Mitchell! If you are looking for a body-positive slow burn romance with very spicy scenes, knotting, an emotional support glory hole, and shared psychic orgasms, listen up. A gritty, paranormal shifter romance, Savage Bonds follows Lithia, the first female Beta of the Shadowmist Pack, after she is betrayed and imprisoned in a silver-lined torture facility. Her only lifeline is a voice from the next cell: Kier, a nomad who has been held in isolation for three years. His sanity has been eroded after years of psychic assault, but when he connects with Lithia though a small hole in their shared prison wall, he finds an ally, and a reason to endure. Together, they must navigate a brutal escape through a burning wilderness to the safety of her pack. And as the pack prepares to dismantle the organisation that imprisoned them, Lithia and Kier must decide if they are brave enough to claim a future built on more than just shared trauma. While Savage Bonds is the second in the Shadowmist Pack series, it can be read as a near-standalone. One reviewer on Goodreads says, “I enjoyed this book even more than the first in the series! Lithia is my favorite. She's such a baddie and I love her for it! The world building in this one is awesome too. If you like werewolf romance, this series is for you.” And I think you need to know about the dedication from author E.V. Mitchell:

To the readers who saw a hole in a prison wall and immediately thought, “…yeah, I’d fist that.” You brave, horny disasters. You trauma-bonded, violence-inclined little gremlins. This book is for you.

Savage Bonds and the Shadowmist Pack series by E.V. Mitchell are available now in Kindle Unlimited, and in print on the author’s website, or in your local library - woohoo! Audiobooks are coming soon.  
Remember to subscribe to our podcast feed, find us on iTunes or on Stitcher.

Poem: "A Generous Impulse"

26 March 2026 23:10
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem came out of the March 17, 2026 Bonus Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] chanter1944. It also fills the "Sewing" square in my 3-1-26 card for the National Crafting Month Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by [personal profile] janetmiles. It belongs to the Iron Horses thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

Read more... )
shadowkat: (Default)
[personal profile] shadowkat
Dang-nabbit, internet, is persuading me to buy books again. (I really do not need to buy any more books. Although at least they are e-books - which is either a lease to read it on the Kindle, so not really buying ...I don't know, the whole thing confuses me to no end. And I can't afford a Kindle and a Kobo. Plus buying books on Kindle is easy and cheap, so there's that and I get points. )

1. I bought Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Safron - about a boy in late 1940s Barcelona or post WWII Barcelona who is charged with protecting a book, long out of print, and rare - from the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. The Book in question is also entitled "Shadow of the Wind". Thank you Sarah Michelle Gellar for perking my curiosity enough for me to purchase this book. Much appreciated. (She said in an interview broadcast on Instagram that her two favorite books were Donna Tartt's Secret History (which I loved and devoured in the 1990s) and Shadow of the Wind (so I got curious about Shadow of the Wind - which Stephen King also adored). The book is difficult to describe with a convoluted plot - I apparently like to read and write these types of books, which makes my life more difficult but far less dull.

Then grabbed, "Locked-In by John Scalzi" - which I'd flirted with previously, as when he first published it ages ago, but got persuaded when he posted that a bunch of people in Texas (it's always one of the Southern States - must be all those hot days? Bakes the brain?) had chosen to ban it. He was upset about it. (I'd have been too.) Apparently it's never happened to him before. (which is interesting - he's certainly liberal and political enough). So, I got curious - and decided to get it for $6.99.
Which is admittedly more than usual, but there you go. It's a sci-fi/mystery hybrid with a convoluted plot. Has a Black Mirror vibe to it. I've read a couple of his "stand alone" books: Red Shirts, Starter Villain, Kaijiu Preservation Society...the last two were read by Will Wheaton. Scalzi is a nerdy sci-fi writer, and usually has nerdy protagonists. He's kind of similar to Andy Weir? Except I like Weir's books slightly better.

As an aside? I'm fundamentally against censorship. Are there books that I despise? Yes. Do I think they should be censored? No. The challenge of "free speech" is folks you don't agree with have to have it too - in order for it to work. There were librarians commenting on Scalzi's post stating they sent out books they despised all the time.
thoughts on book censorship )
And finally a Dark London Mystery/Romance Series novel entitled Winterblaze by Kristen Callihan which was $1.99,
and a second chance romance between an estranged married couple, in a paranormal verse. "Poppy Lane is keeping secrets. Her powerful gift has earned her membership in the Society for the Suppression of Supernaturals, but she must keep both her ability and her alliance with the Society from her husband, Winston. Yet when Winston is brutally attacked by a werewolf, Poppy’s secrets are revealed, leaving Winston’s trust in her as broken as his body. Now Poppy will do anything to win back his affections." The second chance ex-lover trope is a huge kink of mine. (I prefer older romances to young ones...for the most part.)

I love books. Books are my friends. They've seen me through some tough times.

Coworker: Are you one of those people who always has a book in your hand or with you?
ME: Definitely

If I had to choose between books, television and movies - I'd probably pick books - easier to carry around and less noisy.
autobotscoutriella: (sharpedo1)
[personal profile] autobotscoutriella
Guess who started playing Hades :D

Which is why I haven't been around much this week! I'm having a fantastic time, and I've also been staying up way too late and generally forgetting to do things because I think I have time for just one more run. Greek mythology was arguably my first fandom as a kid - alongside Narnia and The Hobbit - so the whole thing is extremely up my alley, and it's a really, really pretty game.

(All these years later, I'm amused that my otherwise restriction-happy parents handed me unabridged translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad when I was eight and ten, respectively. Return of the Jedi was off-limits because Princess Leia wore a bikini, but The Iliad is probably totally fine!)

Poem: "A Darkness in the Sky"

26 March 2026 19:50
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is spillover from the March 17, 2026 Bonus Fishbowl. It was inspired by a discussion with [personal profile] roughentumble. It also fills the "Stone" square in my 3-1-26 card for the National Crafting Month Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by [personal profile] janetmiles.

Read more... )

Community Thursdays

26 March 2026 17:02
ysabetwordsmith: A blue sheep holding a quill dreams of Dreamwidth (Dreamsheep)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...


* Posted "Photos: Charleston Food Forest Part 2 Left Side" in [community profile] birdfeeding.

* Posted "Birdfeeding" in [community profile] birdfeeding.

* Posted "2026 Rose & Bay Award Winners" in [community profile] crowdfunding.

Birdfeeding

26 March 2026 14:19
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is mostly sunny, windy, and hot. It is 87°F outside. The promised pouring rain has not appeared, although it drizzled a bit last night. This is abnormally dry for March. :/

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/26/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 3/26/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

It's a little cooler now; the high was 88°F today.

I've seen a fox squirrel at the hopper feeder.

EDIT 3/26/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

Prairieland Thoughts (Vent)

26 March 2026 14:02
who_is_page: A canine psychopomp looking at you head-on with its jaws opened and light shine all around. (I Will Fucking Get You)
[personal profile] who_is_page
I don't know if there's anything I can say about the Prairieland outcome that hasn't been said already. The fact that owning literature--specifically owning zines--can net you a terrorism charge and prison sentence of 10 to 60 years is... Unfathomable to me. Terrifying, as a zinester who creates and distributes both fiction and non-fiction. To see zines publicly redefined as insurrectionist materials in connection to terrorism on a government website makes my head spin.

The whole trial was a sham. A mistrial filed on the first day because of a fucking T-shirt? People convicted of terrorism when they weren't even at the protest in question, instead just because they know the people who were, they're against fascism, and they had spooky scary anarchist literature? Claiming anti-ICE protests are terrorism or that anti-fascists are a terrorist organization at all is beyond the pale. "Attempted murder" charges my whole ass, and using black clothing and the use of Signal as proof of a crime doesn't pass the sniff test at all. Our country is worse than a joke, because the incompetence is intentional and part of the design. 

I'm wearing my "let's make zines" shirt today. There are zine meetups soon and I want to make something talking about this for them, because people in my community need to know and I'm going to explode if I don't do something, but it's such a huge, ugly pill to swallow. I feel more now than ever that I need to learn Esperanto, given the anti-fascist ideals it represents and the benefits to being able to communicate in a global lang. It's also nice middle finger to the fact that fash tried to stamp Esperantists out once and failed. And honestly? I think not talking in English would make me feel a lot safer tbh. Maybe I'll pick up Toki Pona after, too. 

I think this just all goes to show that if the US government wants to lock you away, they'll make up and legitimize any reason to do so. Doesn't matter if you're actually guilty of a crime or not. Which we all already knew, but is still eternally devastating.
smallhobbit: (John rain)
[personal profile] smallhobbit posting in [community profile] fan_flashworks
Title: Action on the Thames
Fandom: Sherlock (BBC)
Rating: G
Length: 1,017 words
Summary: Inspector Stanley Hopkins of Thames River Police is in charge of an operation

thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
This is crazy cool, figuratively and literally. Two years ago they did a similar test, transporting protons in a truck around their campus - that's linked in the Physicsworld article. I'm kind of disappointed that I missed that news, but you can't keep up with everything.

I'm not going to go into details here, because I don't fully understand the concept of the containment system to hold the antiprotons. And yes, that is antimatter. But in a nutshell, they built this really amazing containment device out of things like oxygen-free copper with a cooling system measured in degrees Kelvin, and successfully transported a trap containing a cloud of 92 antiprotons around the campus for 30 minutes, traveling up to 42 km/h."

If somehow the containment failed and those 92 antiprotons were released and annihilated themselves against 92 protons, the resulting energy would be largely unnoticeable. They say that the total amount of antimatter produced in labs might be enough to warm a cup of coffee.

The ultimate goal is to get their containment system up to the capability of an eight hour drive to be able to transport antiprotons to a lab in Germany where more experiments and measurements can take place. Thus, this is a very nice and useful - and extremely cool! - baby step in that process.

SCIENCE IS AWESOME! Even if I don't understand parts of it.

https://physicsworld.com/a/researchers-at-cern-transport-antiprotons-by-truck-in-world-first-experiment/

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/03/26/065258/researchers-at-cern-transport-antiprotons-by-truck-in-world-first-experiment
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Suburban Wildlife
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1241
[November 2017]


:: Albert is exploring his backyard when he spots what seem to be a mother bird and babies in a tree. A little closer, he spots the cat features and immediately goes to find his grownup. Part of the Mercedes story arch, in the Polychrome Heroics universe. It takes place the same day as “Workday Weirdness” in the afternoon. Prompted by [personal profile] mama_kestrel and sponsored by her, with my deepest thanks. ::




The back yard was bigger than some pocket parks. The boy rode his tricycle along a long loop that ran from the long edge of the back patio, all the way out to meet the flowerbed in front of the cinder block fence, then looped back in an irregular waving route that bordered the side yard. Edible plants filled the spaces between the walkway and the wall on that side, with fruit trees espaliered along nearly every inch of the wall.

Along the familiar, repeating curves, the boy sped up, even when his knee whacked into the handlebar on one side or the other. Near the shady end of the patio, he stopped, watching a mama bird teaching the babies how to… He frowned, then shook his head. Instead of going closer, he deliberately rode the tricycle into the lush grass in the middle of the loop and, after much huffing and straining, got the tricycle back onto the pathway. He turned right, backtracking the rest of the way to the patio.
Read more... )

Sci-Fi, Amanda Quick, & More

26 March 2026 15:30
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

Winterblaze

Winterblaze by Kristen Callihan is $1.99! This is book three in the Darkest London series. I love this series! However, it wasn’t my favorite for a couple reasons, namely the tropes here aren’t my bag. This is a second chance romance with an estranged married couple. This book is available elsewhere, though I’m only seeing the sale price at Amazon.

Once blissfully in love…

Poppy Lane is keeping secrets. Her powerful gift has earned her membership in the Society for the Suppression of Supernaturals, but she must keep both her ability and her alliance with the Society from her husband, Winston. Yet when Winston is brutally attacked by a werewolf, Poppy’s secrets are revealed, leaving Winston’s trust in her as broken as his body. Now Poppy will do anything to win back his affections…

Their relationship is now put to the ultimate test…

Winston Lane soon regains his physical strength but his face and heart still bear the scars of the vicious attack. Drawn into the darkest depths of London, Winston must fight an evil demon that wants to take away the last hope of reconciliation with his wife. As a former police inspector, Winston has intelligence and logic on his side. But it will take the strength of Poppy’s love for him to defeat the forces that threaten to tear them apart.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Mystique

Mystique by Amanda Quick is $1.99! This is a standalone historical romance with a temporary betrothal. This was originally published in the mid-nineties.

A tantalizing tale of a legendary knight and a headstrong lady whose daring quest for a mysterious crystal will draw them into a whirlwind of treachery–and desire.

When the fearsome knight called Hugh the Relentless swept into Lingwood Manor like a storm, everyone cowered–except Lady Alice. Sharp-tongued and unrepentant, the flame haired beauty believed Sir Hugh was not someone to dread but the answer to her dreams. She knew he had come for the dazzling green crystal, knew he would be displeased to find that it was no longer in her possession. Yet Alice had a proposition for the dark and forbidding knight: In return for a dowry that would free Alice and her brother from their uncle’s grasp, she would lend her powers of detection to his warrior’s skills and together they would recover his treasured stone.

But even as Hugh accepted her terms, he added a condition of his own: Lady Alice must agree to a temporary betrothal–one that would soon draw her deep into Hugh’s great stone fortress, and into a battle that could threaten their lives…and their only chance at love.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

The Deep Sky

The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei is $2.99! This is a sci-fi mystery title. I’ve heard good things about Kitasei’s sci-fi books. Have you read any?

Yume Kitasei’s The Deep Sky is an enthralling sci fi thriller debut about a mission into deep space that begins with a lethal explosion that leaves the survivors questioning the loyalty of the crew.

To save humanity, they left everything behind—except their differences.

It is the eve of Earth’s environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity’s last hope: eighty elite graduates of a competitive program, who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space. But halfway to a distant but livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, is an immediate suspect.

Asuka already felt like an impostor before the explosion. She was the last picked for the mission, she struggled during training back on Earth, and she was chosen to represent Japan, a country she only partly knows as a half-Japanese girl raised in America. But estranged from her mother back home, The Phoenix is all she has left.

With the crew turning on each other, Asuka is determined to find the culprit before they all lose faith in the mission—or worse, the bomber strikes again. Now, in order to survive, she must burn brighter than the stars that surround her.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

A Crown of Ivy and Glass

A Crown of Ivy and Glass by Claire Legrand is $1.99! This is book one in The Middlemist Trilogy series. This came out a couple years ago, right as the romantasy trend started kicking up.

Lady Gemma Ashbourne seemingly has it all. She’s young, gorgeous, and rich. Her family was Anointed by the gods, blessed with incredible abilities. But underneath her glittering façade, Gemma is deeply sad. Years ago, her sister Mara was taken to the Middlemist to guard against treacherous magic. Her mother abandoned the family. Her father and eldest sister, Farrin—embroiled in a deadly blood feud with the mysterious Bask family—often forget Gemma exists.

Worst of all, Gemma is the only Ashbourne to possess no magic. Instead, her body fights it like poison. Constantly ill, aching with loneliness, Gemma craves love and yearns to belong.

Then she meets the devastatingly handsome Talan d’Astier. His family destroyed themselves, seduced by a demon, and Talan, the only survivor, is determined to redeem their honor. Intrigued and enchanted, Gemma proposes a bargain: She’ll help Talan navigate high society if he helps her destroy the Basks. According to popular legend, a demon called The Man With the Three-Eyed Crown is behind the families’ blood feud—slay the demon, end the feud.

But attacks on the Middlemist are increasing. The plot against the Basks quickly spirals out of control. And something immense and terrifying is awakening in Gemma, drawing her inexorably toward Talan and an all-consuming passion that could destroy her—or show her the true strength of her power at last.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Thursday 26/03/2026

26 March 2026 16:31
lhune: (3L)
[personal profile] lhune posting in [community profile] 3_good_things_a_day
1) It stayed dry while I went and fetched a painting I had made earlier this year

2) Little chocolate eggs :P

3) Discovered a new and easier way to mop the floors of my flat

Well, It Finally Happened

26 March 2026 14:52
[syndicated profile] scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by John Scalzi

I always wondered which of my books would be the first to be banned, and now I know:

Via this post from @thebloggess.bsky.social, I learn that my book Lock In has been banned from schools in New Braunfels, TX. There is irony here in that Lock In won the Alex Award from the ALA, given for "adult books suitable for teens." thebloggess.com/2026/03/25/t…

John Scalzi (@scalzi.com) 2026-03-26T08:09:00.591Z

I'm on a cruise so I'll have more to say about it at a later time, but the short version of this is, of course, fuck censorship, and also, my books will outlast these motherfuckers, we'll see them (politically) dead and in the ground and my books will be there to piss on their (metaphorical) graves.

John Scalzi (@scalzi.com) 2026-03-26T08:09:00.592Z

As noted above, I’ll likely have more to say about this when I get back the JoCo Cruise, but for now, two points, which I may expand upon in a later post:

1. On a personal level, I don’t expect this ban to move the needle much, positively or negatively, for sales of Lock In, which has been out for a dozen years now;

2. Please refrain from exclaiming “Having your book banned just means you’ll sell more!” or something similar in the comments. One, it’s absolutely not true for the vast majority of books that get banned; the usual result is a net loss for authors and publishers. Two, this is sort of comment that, however well-intentioned to be supportive, minimizes the seriousness of book banning as an intentional policy. The busybodies banning books in New Braunfels targeted more than 1,500 books, not just mine. None of that is a thing to be happy about; there is no actual upside to book bans.

— JS

This is hard

26 March 2026 10:30
malada: bass guitar (playing base)
[personal profile] malada
Just finished half an hour of scales on my bass. I'm relearning the neck, relearning how to place my fingers (so the notes don't buzz) and relearning what scales sound like... or should sound like.

With neuropathy in my finger tips, my loss of hearing and lack of practice, it's hard.

It's exhausting. It leaves me shaking. It needs to be done.

I think I'll cut my practice into to parts: scales in the morning, songs and riffs in the afternoon. I don't want to do a full hour mixing up different exercises. I want to concentrate on one thing each session. I'm not sure how I'll fit in my guitar practice but that may be for another time. Keyboard scales are more for ear training than for actually keyboard skills but some muscle memory from my childhood playing still seems to be present. I need to concentrate on the sounds... not the fingering right now.

I just need to put in the work.

Thankful Thursday

26 March 2026 15:05
mdlbear: Wild turkey hen close-up (turkey)
[personal profile] mdlbear

Today I am thankful for...

  • A safe trip home (Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning).
  • Finding out from my urologist yesterday that my bladder appears to be fully operational. NO thanks for my pelvic floor needing more exercise. I hate exercise.
  • x2x(1) and ssh(1), letting you share your keyboard and mouse seamlessly between two linux boxes.
  • Enough space in the kitchen area for two recycling bins.
  • A plethora of chargers with known locations, that I can lay hands on if I need one. (I also have a plethora of corresponding cables, but I don't know where all of them are.)

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