#review february

[world-of-wales]

─ •✧ WILLIAM'S YEAR IN REVIEW : 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 ✧• ─

𝟕 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 : The Prince of Wales held an Investiture at Windsor Castle. Later, he attended London's Air Ambulance Charity Gala at Raffles and was received by Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London (Mr. Stuart Shilson)

𝟏𝟎 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 : William and Catherine, along with their children, left for Sandringham to spend Half-Term Break.

𝟏𝟑 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 : The Royal Foundation announced a new partnership between The Lord Mayor’s Appeal & Homewards.

𝟏𝟖 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 : The Duchy of Cornwall announced the estate’s first Innovative Housing Project, which will provide 24 homes in Nansledan as part of Homewards. William attended British Academy Film Awards in London in the evening.

𝟐𝟎 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 : The Prince of Wales released a statement recognising the human suffering caused by the war in the Middle East and the subsequent conflict in Gaza, as well as the rise in antisemitism. Subsequently, William visited the British Red Cross Society in London. He spoke via video call to the personnel providing aid on ground in Gaza.

𝟐𝟏 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 : William held an Investiture at Windsor Castle.

𝟐𝟗 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 : William visited Western Marble Arch Synagogue in London. He also released a statement against the rise in antisemitism.

[mizgnomer]

David Tennant as Macbeth

in honor of the final shows of their glorious West End run on 14 December, 2024

...for Tennant Tuesday (or whatever day this post finds you)

Photographer: Marc Brenner

[eeveekitti]

rambley my new best friend rambley

[brookiecrafts]

Everything i made in February + March 🌱

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Saturday Review, magazine, Special Section, Mind and Supermind, February 22, 1975

[the-spaced-out-ace]

[kirby-the-gorb]

[andreai04]

"District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety," I mutter. Then I glance quickly over my shoulder. Even here, even in the middle of nowhere, you worry someone might overhear you.

Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch �� this is the Capitol's way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion.

A kind Peeta Mellark is far more dangerous to me than an unkind one. Kind people have a way of working their way inside me and rooting there. And I can't let Peeta do this. Not where we're going.

But then… what? What would my life be like on a daily basis? Most of it has been consumed with the acquisition of food. Take that away and I'm not really sure who I am, what my identity is.

I run for them and surprise even myself when I launch into Haymitch's arms first. When he whispers in my ear, "Nice job, sweetheart," it doesn't sound sarcastic.

[maxwelljacobfriedman]

300% increase in faces close enough to be kissing incidents after four years of no activity in just the first quarter of 2025 is an insane spike

[wearethekat]

February Book Reviews: Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler

I received a free copy of the book from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in exchange for a fair review. Publish date April 1st.

I requested this book since I enjoyed Nayler's previous novel, The Mountain in the Sea. In Where the Axe Is Buried, the world is split between a Federation ruled by an immortal series of cloned presidents, and nations governed by AI. Programmer Lilia's new invention sets in motion a series of events, from an assassination attempt on the President to the recruitment of an elderly revolutionary living in the taiga, which will change the world irrevocably.

Where the Axe Is Buried is a much more explicitly political book than The Mountsin in the Sea. It's structured in much the same way, with multiple interlinked but separate POV characters interspersed by excerpts from a fictional book, revolutionary Zoya's banned text. Here, the central metaphor is the creosote bush rather than the octopus. The creosote bush forms a system of genetically identical cloned plants, following the root systems of long dead Ice Age trees. Like a flawed governing system, removing the piece of the creosote will not change the shape of the overall plant, dictated by patterns laid down centuries ago. We get the anecdote as a piece of Zoya's book on the very first page, and it recurs as different metaphors--a fungal system, a steppe tsar--throughout the book.

It's always a bit tricky to write a book about revolution. Nayler's a very good writer, and he easily dodges the trap that so many books about war and revolution fall into (ie, mouthing empty platitudes about change as the authors demonstrate that they haven't thought deeply about a complex and loaded subject). Nayler's elegantly constructed near future dystopia is split between an authoritarian future Russian regime and countries ruled by supposedly infallible AIs in a very post LLM way. On the one hand, the Federation has developed refinements that the Soviets or even Orwell never dreamed of, in a panopticon where a tiny mistake could collapse your social score and send you plummeting into a shrinking circle of restricted parole, and then to a forced labor camp and death. Or, alternatively, in the rationalized states ruled by AI, you can work in an horrifically optimized Amazon-style warehouse while your every movement is scrutinized by companies trying to sell you things, to the degree that looking at a soda half a world away for a moment with your face covered can identify you.

Whether Nayler threads the other needle and manage to not say something about revolution which the reader has a strong personal disagreement with is, inevitably, more individual. It held together well enough to be a five star read for me, even if I'd quibble with a few points. Although I do think the open ended conclusion carries a lot of the rhetorical weight here. Nayler gracefully presents you with a possibility for change, rather than attempting to answer the unanswerable question.

An ambitious and sophisticated dystopia about revolution with a compulsively readable pacing. Highly recommended, especially if you liked Nayler's The Mountain in the Sea.

[world-of-wales]

─ •✧ CATHERINE'S YEAR IN REVIEW : 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 ✧• ─

𝟏𝟎 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 : Catherine and William along with their children left for Sandringham to spend Half-Term Break.

𝟐𝟎 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 : It was announced that the 'Cosy At Christmas' campaign backed by Catherine since November 2023 raised more than £100,000 and received 12,500 items of clothing as donations for Baby Banks.

𝟐𝟒 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 : Kensington Palace confirmed that Catherine had a new private secretary - Lieutenant Colonel Tom White.

𝟐𝟗 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 : William released a statement on behalf of Catherine and himself against the rise in antisemitism. Additionally, Kensington Palace released a statement shutting down media intrusions in Catherine's recovery.

[lovelettersandjournals]

life is changing so drastically, it begins to feel like it was all a dream.

[airborneice]

belated art review thing for 2024!! I always look forward to making these so being 2 weeks late isn't gonna stop me :>

[chalamet-chalamet]

Great reviews for Dune: Part Two! 💥💥💥

[ygoartreviews]

Skeletal Dragon Felgrand

Now THIS. THIS is what I want a Felgrand Dragon counterpart to look like: a radically different, ultra rad design that still is very recognizably Felgrand Dragon. They really went nuts with the prompt "Take Felgrand Dragon and make it look fucked up." From the elongated, skeletal limbs to the weird purple veins to the absolutely horrific exposed spine, this monster screams "undead dragon." Don't even get me started on how well done the foreshortening is on this one. Perfectly seamless AND you get to see all those freaky details on its close up hand. The decision to pair Felgrand's normal colors with purple was excellent and really brings this card home for me. It even has purple wing membranes now!!! Not to mention the evil, entropic energy radiating from it now. Man I can't stop staring at its literal actual spine though.

Rating: 10/10, World's Most Fucked Up Dragon

[rosegardendeprofundis]

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer Review

Dates Read: February 17 — February 25, 2025

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Genre: YA Fantasy/Romance

2025 Reading Goal: 16/100

As someone who recently reread the original four Twilight books and felt they were often boring at best and infuriating at worst, I was pleasantly surprised by how much more engaging this book was than its predecessors.

Midnight Sun tells the events of the first Twilight book from Edward’s perspective instead of Bella’s, and all I could think while reading was that the books should’ve been written from Edward’s POV to begin with. While Bella’s perspective in Twilight does not really give you a taste of the vampire world until halfway through the book, Edward’s perspective is an intriguing, and often disturbing, gothic horror narrative right from the start. The book also gives the reader more insight into the lives of the other members of the Cullen clan—who, let’s be honest, are more interesting characters than Edward and Bella.

Overall, I’m glad I ended up giving this book a try because I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. Is Midnight Sun great literature? No. But is it a good time? Absolutely.