#bought this for the library

[thequeerlibrarian]

I love Kai Meyer 😍

[audsomeartist]

Pork is real, Pork is me, Pork is exactly where I’m supposed to be (outfit reference from @carrreto on Instagram, York is from Drawtectives)

[bevebevo]

gebby 😊

[yourfavouritebookseller]

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Folio Society, 2003

[cyberstudious]

sunday, august 4th, 2024

this weekend I got a library card for the library in my new city and spent a while exploring and getting excited about books. I had to restrain myself from checking out like every book in the tech section because they were all so interesting lol. for now I'm borrowing books on high performance python and identity security, because those are the two topics I'm struggling with at work right now haha. not pictured is Babel, which I'm currently reading as an ebook. I've just been in book mode for the past few weeks and I want to learn all the things!

also yesterday I published a post announcing the studyblr masterpost jam! there's been some chatting around studyblr about bringing back some of the old-style studyblr resource posts and the like, and I thought this would be a fun way to do it! I'll be writing a bunch of masterposts about cybersecurity next week and I'd love to learn about what y'all are studying <3

[secondbeatsongs]

if I order a vinyl record on bandcamp is it okay to leave a note like, "hey! I used to like your music under your old band name when you were performing locally, and I was devastated when you erased your online presence and took down all your music, so I'm really glad I was able to mildly cyberstalk you on facebook and find you again, and that you're still making music!"

or should I just be normal about this

[utilitycaster]

if you're up to elaborating, i would love to hear more about your complicated feelings on Taliesin's reads of this campaign, because that's something that's been itching my brain but I'd been having a hard time pinpointing why and I'm interested to hear your thoughts!

So I think it's best summarized in part as a combination of what was said in this post I just reblogged and these tags from @kerosene-in-a-blender on this post:

#yeeeaaaahhhh#ngl it seems like the characters and parts of the cast got so caught up in the potential moral dilemma of interventionist gods#that they forgot the gods of exandria aren't particularly interventionist#critical role#critical role spoilers#cr spoilers

Ashton feels like they learned something about their own arrogance and assumptions with Shardgate...and then it just vanished. And the fact that Taliesin genuinely read that as what was supposed to happen when like 3-4 authority figures, some of whom (Allura) have existed since Campaign 1 as People To Listen To had said "This is a bad idea" in plain language does give me pause because like...with all due respect, I get why Ashton would do this anyway! But come on, man, how do you hear that and not go "oh maybe it's a bad idea."

I don't want to read in too much to cooldown and 4SD either but I really do just feel that like...some of the cast, and Taliesin isn't alone in this but definitely seems to be using it the most in-game, have come under the impression that the purpose of this campaign is specifically to upend everything we knew...but that idea is just an assumption that is not supported, and as I've said repeatedly, there is no situation in which the world is not drastically changed - there's going to be either a hostile alien invasion, or a friendly alien migration, but either one will be monumental within Exandrian history, and that's not counting the establishment of the Accord/the collapse of local institutions in both the Dwendalian Empire and Bassuras/ If one cannot see any possibility for vast change within the world other than killing/driving out the gods, I don't know how to address this nicely. This is an uncreative and stupid position that I can't engage with because it's so stupid. It's like saying World War II didn't change anything in our world because at the end of it the US and USSR both still existed largely intact. So the over-focus on only one means of change in a way that feels based on an interpretation of this campaign's purpose that isn't even stated anywhere is telling and deeply frustrating.

As the second post indicates, it feels like some of the cast, Taliesin especially, got caught up in a theological argument of divine intervention that personally I had a great time debating in Hebrew school when I was 13, but is not ultimately true in Exandria (or reality, for that matter). On some level it's like maybe read some Harold Kushner and you'll calm down; it feels like you're arguing against like, some very real religious tenets (that are not exclusively Christian for once) but in a story where that's not actually a problem.

I'd throw in that Bells Hells sit in this awkward place of not being nobodies (or Nobodies) anymore but many are still acting like it and Ashton is at the forefront. Indeed, look at the name "the Nobodies." The problem is that Ashton is a Somebody now. He's not like, the ruler of a city, or an ancient dragon, or a god. But they're someone who has the personal raw power and the connections to survive an ill-considered second shard absorption. They're someone who is easily going to survive a fall out of a window, and who can't be bound into service. They are someone who has been entrusted by the world to assist in saving it, and they're too fixated on the gods not personally saving them to consider the vast potential harm to others, and I think it's not inherently out of callousness but rather that they've rather abruptly risen from "orphan criminal who expected to be dead by 30" to "guy tasked to save the world" but they have no option but to rise to the occasion, as the Raven Queen said. To change the world, he must change himself, and I feel like Taliesin, who often enjoys the idea of characters who don't change, is perhaps too wed to that concept for this particular narrative. And, for what it's worth: I've said it before that my personal preference is to keep the gods in place...but I would genuinely be MILES happier with a party that decisively had decided to kill the gods. I would not agree with their decision, but anything is better than this indecision. And since Ashton is pretty staunchly in favor of killing the gods and the rest of the party is varying degrees of strongly against (Orym, Braius), weakly against (Chetney, Fearne, Imogen, increasingly Laudna) and unsure but worried specifically about the mortal impact (Dorian) at some point it's like. Either say "I don't like this, but this is the party's plan" or leave. The decisiveness matters on an individual level too; because Bells Hells does not have good internal methods of resolving conflict for reasons stated above and below, at some point it's like. You have to give it up because no one will make you. If Ashton genuinely cannot or will not yield on this, either commit to betraying the party (totally valid, could be a great story) or have them leave; if Ashton does trust the party, have them reluctantly give in. A party-wide choice must be made and fast. The party is aimless because they are all pulling in different directions and it all cancels out, but Ashton is definitely contributing extensively to that agonizing stasis.

I suppose I should wrap up with what I've been saying a lot but should probably go on this post which is that a lot of the flaws in this campaign are not any singular person's fault. I really do feel like they began with the fact that Matt was clearly building to this specific story, and Bells Hells were not a party terribly suited to it in the first place and then were given an earlier narrative that, because it was heavily on rails to get them to the solstice setpiece, failed to give them the tools to become people who would be prepared for this endgame. I think Matt really wanted the cast to make the decisions here, and did not have a specific decision in mind, and now they're all finding that they're playing characters who can't make that decision. It's a culmination of a lot of smaller out-of-game choices that have failed to gel into a coherent whole. When I say the Raven Queen was right, and if they are not ready for this, to go home, I don't think the party should be tpk-ed or anything, but yeah, if they can't decide what to do when they are essentially tasked with killing the BBEG and diffusing the universe-shattering bomb, they should abdicate. I don't think a story in which the heroes fail is a bad one. I know Call of the Netherdeep has been a touchstone in the fandom throughout this campaign and there's one possible ending to that that's sort of unsatisfying, but the unsatisfying nature itself makes it an interesting story to me. I think this campaign ending with the party saying "we can't do this" is vanishingly unlikely, and complaints aside I think they will probably make a decision now but it all feels exceedingly doylist - Bells Hells are the characters the cast happens to be playing for this climactic final moment so I guess they will play those characters, and those characters will have to make a choice so that the final moment happens, but it doesn't feel terribly organic.

[texasthoughtsaboutnothing]

I love that PM made Warp Trains canonically cognito-hazards.

Love Town is a major early part of Ruina and it's nigh universally regarded as traumatizing, like I've had friends who I failed to prepare actively breakdown after experiencing it. Obviously that's not good necessarily, and my heart goes out to the people who couldn't get past it and just quit there. However, its extremally well-conceived and effective horror, taking The Jaunt and walking you through an arguably far worse version of that nightmare step by step and avoids many other horror pitfalls (namely SA, which I could praise PM for avoiding as a whole). Anyways, I digress.

You get hints of it in Ruina, but Limbus has hard canonized that the experience of finding out about the trains is just as bad for the characters as it was for us. Roland no-sold that shit, Don and Yi Sang are completely broken by the revelation and even Faust is clear she hates the work. Turnover is high for W Corp and the ex-employees universally leave with "copious amounts of tears and saliva about their faces." This work, this knowledge, it messes people up both in game and out and I think that's neat.

All of which is also to say what the actual fuck is wrong with you, Hong Lu? Ryoshu being fine I get, she's built different. What did they do to you bro that you're all hunky-dory after experiencing manmade horrors entirely within our comprehension?

[rararasputins-dick-mind-control]

milton monday

bonus milton in the oven. someone save him

[binah-beloved]

she is here.

[sharpbutsoft]

Okay ive a lil question on books and the general consensus re: the ethics of *sourcing* a digital copy of a book you already own

(Assume in all cases that you want to read the book on a device where you cannot use your local library’s digital loan scheme, or it does not have one)

*ie you paid for it on apple books but want to read it on an e-reader device

I think physical books should start including codes for an e-copy of the book as standard like many vinyl records now do, and that if you purchase and ebook once from any service, you should be able to read it on any device in a standard format (usually epub) but I know it can be a touchy subject

Would love to hear others’ thoughts, especially from authors

[let-them-fight]

[captainkirkk]

Hi I just wanted to say I have been waiting to read The Hands of the Emperor ever since you talked about it ages ago and FINALLY got a copy from the library to start reading this week.

And I am LOVING it so much, definitely up there as one of (if not THE) best book I've read this year!!! It's so simple to read but the characters and world and RELATIONSHIPS are beautifully complex I am in tears over it most nights and I'm only about half way through.

So thank you for the recommendation!!

Glad to hear it!! It's also one of my favourite books and I'm so thrilled I've roped more people into the fandom

[yourfavouritebookseller]

The Girl From the Other Side

By Nagabe

[reluctanthurricane]

[gendzl]

not once in the 8 years I've lived here has this library system declined to buy a book I've asked for. I am soooo special and have such excellent taste, they cannot deny me anything <3