#or at least v short form video? i like longer video essays but not enough to zero on on the youchewb

[vagueiish]

i think the heat is getting to me because im considering dling tiktok

[icewindandboringhorror]

I’m trying to be better about responding to things, so another small ask response post! I feel like the answers are short enough to not actually require putting a ‘read more’ but I ended up doing it anyway just because I have no idea what the standards for length are and I don’t want people to get mad or something lol.. (responses under read more) 

------------

 (note: I’m not going to write the questions completely as they were asked/shown in images above, just type summaries of them since that’s faster, so this is why the text varies)

-

1. “do you have any goals for the coming new year?”

gHHgg, mostly the same goals as last year since of course I didn’t get everything done lol. Mainly I want to: finish my game, finish the information on the Avirre’thel and a few other worldbuilding posts, make more sculptures (5 this year), and do at least like... 10 costumes this year (since I’ve kind of been ignoring that stuff to focus on other projects, but I still enjoy it and have ideas!). Some of my goals in therapy are to leave the house at least once every 2 weeks without panicking and find friends in my area to play board-games with/do creative things with/etc. in person, but those are kind of less in my control (me being able to go places is somewhat dependent on the schedules of those around me, finding friends is a matter of luck and coming across the right people at the right time, etc.). 

Mostly I just really want to get the gourddamned game and worldbuilding stuff done since those have been longer projects, and I’m always getting new ideas for stuff I COULD work on before I’m even done with older things lol. In my head I’m already planning the elven religion and things happening far in other corners of Nanyevimi and it’s like “we’re not even DONE with the vampires yet!!!", as well as already having like 2 new games I could make (one of which I really like the idea of and have already nearly completely planned against my will, like my brain just keeps shooting information at me while I’m trying to focus on other stuff ghgh), some animations and a bunch of other things and it’s like oghHH... blease.. Finish Something for once before mentally checking out and moving onto the next hundred ideas you fool 

(also I told myself I can’t play any games until I finish my own (aside from like, sims builds on occasion) so I especially want to get it done soon since I always feel sick in the summer (no matter how much water I drink or how cool I try to stay, I’m just really heat sensitive and don’t live in a place with air conditioning)  and sitting around and playing games while I’m deliriously exhausted / nauseous / have constant heat headaches is a prime summer activity lol)

-

2. “do you know where to get a witch hat?”

Unfortunately I have no idea where to get a witch hat lol, aside from maybe the costume aisle of stores around halloween?? (and even then, usually they only come in black). I’ve made sloppy ones myself by like, hot-gluing stuff to a regular hat, but I’ve never actually bought one. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to list them in the replies or something so maybe anon can find where to get one lol

-

3. “can i use your costumes as inspiration for drawings/what social media should I credit you with?”

 It’s fine to use my costumes and etc. as inspirations for art/etc! If you’re posting it on instagram it could be easier to just link my instagram since that’s on the same platform, but really it doesn’t matter to me. As I evolve into more of a hermit wizard I lose social media literacy and don’t understand which accounts are best to link people to or what social media is currently most popular lol 

-

4. “do you watch Worldbuilding Notes on youtube?”

I actually hadn’t before (basically all I watch on youtube are like... video game/fantasy media lore analysis/information videos, general educational channels/documentaries/lectures, leftist video essays, and like.. the occasional let’s plays of games I can’t afford (if I can manage to find gaming youtubers who aren’t insufferable ggh). But weirdly I haven’t really looked into much worldbuilding content?? despite that being something I focus on so much (and also that I watch conlanging and linguistics stuff, which often seems to intersect with writing/worldbuilding youtube)), but thanks for recommending them! The concepts presented seem very interesting!

 I always really really wish I could condense information and make clear concise videos like that (audience wise, probably way preferable to just writing long text posts), but I just have such an inherent inability to make brief points (aka why no matter how good I was at a subject in school, I’d still fail/barely pass any essay/long form answer assignments.. I just.. can NOT organize my thoughts for the life of me for some reason). The best I could do is a more rambling podcast style lore explanation thing where I just speak naturally about stuff, but that seems like that’d still be nearly just as weird as long text posts, since I tend to ramble and be very silly when I speak lol, so currently I just don’t know of a more concise and accessible way to present my world information. :V   But anyway, thanks for suggesting it! The videos seem really cool, I like the ideas I’ve seen so far, and mostly am just in awe of their sheer power and expert ability to like... present detailed information in such a neat/clean/cohesive way aaaaAA (like.. the exact opposite of me but in a good way lol)

-

And that’s all for this short group of replies lol! I still have other things in my inbox and etc. to reply to so sorry if I haven’t got to yours yet, I just wanted to get a few quick ones out of the way!!

[lilianrogers]

January Books

The thirteenth month of 2020 is coming to close and I managed to read yet another book about a global pandemic (Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim), dip my newbie toes into Henry VIII’s love life (Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel), experience the weird weird weird world of Jeff VanderMeer (in Dead Astronauts), and pick up a self-published collection by two local - but not residing in Singapore - academics, Cherian George and Donald Low (PAP v. PAP). 

For my thoughts in video form check out my YouTube video: https://youtu.be/MdG8O81QPYQ

Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim

Somehow I managed to read four books set during a global flu-like pandemic over the past several months. I finally figured out that this is not because authors are suddenly gripped by the subject, but that these books always existed and are now coming to the fore. I was eager to pick this one up because it's written by a Singaporean-Canadian author and it was mentioned to me by my friend Daryl.

Ocean of Minutes turned out to be the most depressing of the flu books I’ve read, with the main character Polly never catching a break. Polly has time traveled to the future in a kind of indentured servitude to work for the company that will also provide the treatment for her boyfriend Frank who has caught the flu and must remain behind. They pick a meet up location for when Frank’s timeline has caught up to Polly’s.

Lim uses this premise to critique the treatment of workers under capitalism, and the callousness of the immigration system in the US. It’s also a neat vessel for reflections on love, and whether Frank and Polly’s young romance can stand the test of time, and their struggles apart from each other. Highs for me included the tender and realistic depiction of the early days of Frank and Polly’s relationship. Lows included the hamfisted manner in which Lim critiques the systems that strip us of our humanity (these scenes of despair mostly served to move the plot along rather than build an organic sense of indignation), and the frustrating naiveté (borderline cluelessness) of Polly. 

Rating: 3.5/5 

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

I am very late to the game on this one. Everyone, including both of my parents, read Wolf Hall when it first came out in 2009 (to critical acclaim). This first book of Mantel’s trilogy is a dramaticized history of 1500-1535 England through the lens of Thomas Cromwell, a well known advisor to English archbishop and Catholic cardinal, Thomas Wolsey, and later to Henry VIII. Key events covered include: Wolsey’s downfall, Henry’s infatuation with Anne Boleyn (and her maneuverings to become Queen), and the many executions of heretics, traitors, and fallen politicians. 

Thomas Cromwell really comes alive as a cosmopolitan and industrious man, and there is some gut wrenching writing from Mandel, but I think you need to already have a relationship with this history in order to really fall in love with this book. Every mega fan I know is British, and someone in my book club summed it up perfectly by calling Wolf Hall the ��Hamilton: An American Musical” for Brits. To have history that you’ve known all your life, but only in a superficial way, sketched out with such detail and drama is a kind of drug. Unfortunately I didn’t even know Henry VIII had six wives until reading this book, so I remained mostly immune. My early 16th century European history is quite up to snuff now though, so feel free to quiz me. 

Rating: 3.8/5

Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer

This is the weirdest book I’ve read in ages. Dead Astronauts is book two of VanderMeer’s Bourne trilogy (which I did not realize until later). I picked it up from my local library because I liked the cover and because the first book of VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, Annihilation, gave me literal goosebumps. 

I still have no idea what I read, and there’s not really a plot in this book so much as a bunch of snapshots with recurring characters, which include anthropomorphized animals and the three dead astronauts (only one of which is human, I think). The only thread I can confidently say I understood is that there is an evil Company that has destroyed the natural Earth with terrifying biological experiments that produce Hieronymus Bosch-like creatures. There are multiple realities and universes, and the astronauts are working towards some kind of common goal (but I couldn’t tell you what that is). 

But the point of this book is definitely not plot. It’s a book that is meant to creep you out, and leave you bewildered by a slew of environmental horrors (Jeff VanderMeer’s specialty). Through this kaleidoscope of weirdness you get a solidified feeling of the cruelty of humans and the brutality of environmental degradation. The form is also totally unconventional with the use of different fonts, multiple pages of the same words repeated over and over, and passages that read like spoken word. I didn’t really know what was going on most of the time, but sometimes it’s okay to have a book where you’re just along for the ride.

Rating: 3.5/5

PAP v. PAP by Cherian George and Donald Low

I am a Cherian George fangirl and really felt my Singapore politico identity come to fruition when I ordered this self-published collection hot off the presses. The main argument of this volume of short essays by the two academics is that the PAP is here to stay (at least another 15 years) and true reform must come from within the party itself, rather than from external forces or the Opposition. I am not fully convinced this is possible, but if there is any political party enlightened enough to overcome the kryptonite of control maybe it’s Lee Kuan Yew’s. 

This was a fun read because it is so recently published and includes all of the events of the most recent General Election that took place in July 2020, but in general I felt that it skimmed the surface (either providing a too-basic overview of issues like economic distribution and democratic accountability, or rehashing well-known arguments). I much prefer George’s Singapore Incomplete, which feels both snappier and better thought through. 

Maybe George and Low might have been better served by writing a book solely focused on the case for why reform must come from within (and how, whether that’s possible or even likely, and in-depth examples from other countries), instead of providing short overviews of many different issues. The chapter that offered the freshest view and food for thought was the last one, “Riding the populist tiger,” which dissects how the recent wave of populist nationalism in the world has provided the PAP with a political advantage, but is also a poison that could threaten Singapore’s longer term stability.

I also agreed with George and Low’s appeal for a “PAP that wants to lead not just to rule”. They argue that the PAP must be bold in describing a positive vision for Singapore, rather than continuing to position itself as a protector of Singapore from “its inherent vulnerabilities”. The PAP should be proud of the material success and stability Singapore has been able to accrue since independence, but George and Low are right in saying gone are the days when the PAP can simply rest on these laurels. PAP leaders should address the issues of the day with the confidence and creativity of a dominant party.   

Finally, the status and treatment of foreign workers in Singapore received widespread public attention during the Covid-19 pandemic, and I am looking forward to an in-depth treatment of this topic, which George and Low mention only in passing in this book. 

Rating: 3.5/5