#speaker recommendations

[mothcpu]

rehash of my SAYER AI construct designs from a couple years back

iamsayer.com

[speakergame]

Progress Update - 6/27/23

hello, my darlings! long time no see

thank you all for your patience and supportive messages during my long and unannounced radio silence. I've been a bit under the weather the last couple of months. nothing life-threatening, but severe enough to knock me on my ass for a while.

I'm getting my balance again, slowly. I've had a lot of time to write and brainstorm while I've been out, so there's that! still no ETA on the update, beyond the ever-unsatisfactory Soon™ but progress is being made! I've paused Patreon for July, but hopefully it'll be the last month I need to do that and I'll have something concrete to show by this time next month 🤞

I'd also like to get back in the habit of regular progress updates, but we'll have to see how my continued recovery goes.

thank you for reading and for waiting, I hope you all have a fantastic week, and I'll see you next time 💙💙💙

[asterrrrion]

Hey, I'm looking for a fiction podcast ! I've only listened to The Magnus Archives and Welcome to Night Vale (also a bit of The Strange Case Of Starship Iris), but I must warn you that I cannot handle podcasts like TMA again (be it either the horror or the level of sadness). I'd like to find one with an mlm canon relationship because I'm an mlm starved for representation :'). Also trans and enby rep would be really great, but then again not finding LGBT rep in podcasts is difficult. I don't mind angst and sadness as long as there's no major character death and it turns out to end bittersweet or happily (pls no bad endings I'm depressed enough as it is), as long as the happy/sad ratio isn't more on the sadness side. I'm a sucker for character driven stories and good characters in general (I think characters are the most important part of fiction).

If you have any recs for me I'm all ears !

Also if there's a discord or an active community or it's still ongoing that's always a big plus for me.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

The Immortals Quartet

Time to chat about another of Tamora Pierce's beloved heroines and one of her early quartets. This is also the quartet that--in my entirely subjective experience--catches a lot of guff for its romance subplot. But we'll get to that. These are some of my favorite books of Pierce's, and I'm pretty sure that I read these after the Alanna and Kel books, although they were her second published quartet, coming before Kel. Let's talk The Immortals Quartet.

Veralidaine Sarrasri, unlike Alanna and Kel, is not originally Tortallen. Our girl is Gallan, and when we first meet her in Wild Magic, she is recovering from bandits sacking her village, burning down her house, and killing her family and all their animals. She's also desperate to hide what she thinks is a form of madness from every human she runs across, which gets really complicated when Numair starts teaching her how to harness her wild magic. And for just a hot second, can I say how much I love Numair in this series? He has just as much character as Daine and I am never NOT here for phenonemally powerful mages who are also basically oversized puppies.

Getting to watch Daine develop relationships with Numair, Onua, Alanna and George, the royal family, and the Queen's Riders is such fun, and so well done that when Daine finally feels safe enough to explain why she sometimes seems recalcitrant about her magic lessons it feels immensely earned. These relationships also become immensely foundational to the rest of the series, as does Daine's b-plot but still really compelling arc about hating Stormwings.

The Stormwing arc really finds traction in Wolf Speaker. In my experience, most people say that In the Realms of the Gods is their least favorite Immortals book, but for me, Wolf Speaker takes that prize. Not at all because it's a bad book, but for me it's the most forgettable of the four. Daine and Numair are investigating sus nonsense in Fief Dunlath, and there are blood rain and shape shifting/mind riding shenanagins and Daine begins to have holes poked in her Stormwing prejudice courtesy of Rikash Moonsword. It's a fine book, and the subplots with the wolves and ogres are compelling, but for whatever reason this book does not stick in my head.

The book that does stick in my head and is unequivocally my favorite of this quartet is Emperor Mage. This book follows the Tortallen peace delegation to Carthak, and geopolitical and divine shenanagins ensue. Dain's relationships with Kaddar and Ozorne--and particularly how Numair and Ozorne's history colors both those relationships--are again central to the plot. The Graveyard Hag is also actively throwing broom handles between the spokes of Daine's wheels by giving Daine the power to bring skeletons to a seeming of life.

That gets absolutely amazing because the Graveyard Hag wants Daine to reanimate human skeletons, but Daine makes the PHENOMENAL point that humans forget literal walking nightmares really fast. What humans don't recover fast from is when you literally raze their centers of government to the ground, including food stores, records of all kinds, and the freaking treasury. So instead of making human skeletons dance through the streets, Daine reanimates DINOSAUR SKELETONS and wrecks absolute shop. It's amazing, I wouldn't change a thing.

The other thing I love about this book is Numair yo-yoing between being an experienced intelligence operative and black robe mage and a complete idiot. He is tangled up in plans to free slaves and overthrow Ozorne and yet he still somehow manages to forget all of that and swing at Ozorne when he suggests that Numair is banging Daine. Numair. Honey, sweetie, friend, you cannot be THAT much of an idiot. And the best part is, at least three other characters call him on that idiocy. This book is fantastic.

In the Realms of the Gods is the book that, in my experience, gets the most flak from fans. My experience has been that people object to the student/teacher dynamic between Daine and Numair deveoping into a romance and the significant age gap between the two characters as the romance develops. People also seem to feel that this book is too long and drags in places. I don't tend to find that the book is draggy and long, but that tends to be a very "your mileage may vary" thing for readers.

In terms of the age gap and student teacher dynamics, I want to start off very clear: In real life, student-teacher relationships are never ok, are always predatory, and I do not support. However, to paraphrase Red from OSP, not every book that shows things that aren't unequivocally morally good do not need a "Do Not Try This At Home" sticker on the cover. Books don't have to be morally instructive, they don't have to show the best possible healthy relationships, they just have to be interesting. And honestly? I find Daine and Numair interesting. On top of that, Tamora Pierce is aware enough as an author that Daine and Numair actually do (however briefly) discuss the potential pitfalls of the age gap between them. They don't address the student/teacher thing, but then I wouldn't expect them to because that's not the relationship they have in this book. They are more partners than student/teacher. All this to say, I can understand why people dislike this romance, but I'm not here to throw shade, because honestly I enjoyed it.

I also enjoyed meeting and learning about Daine's parents, exploring the literal Realm of the Gods and all the wibbly wobbly timey wimey chaos shenanagins, and the conclusion of Daine's Stormwing arc. (And how dare Pierce make me cry that hard over Rikash. That was uncalled for.)

Overall, I deeply loved this quartet, and Daine is a welcome change from the very martial Alanna and Kel. She also represents an evolution of the magic systems in Tortall, which was really compelling and refreshing.

[sukugo]

no me conoce (remix) - jhay cortez + j balvin + bad bunny // panels redrawn by @naeldeus <3

[royalarchivist]

Badboyhalo: Alex was just telling me the other day that he --

Quackity: ALEX? *startled laughter* That’s - I’ve never in my life heard Badboyhalo call me Alex. That caught me so f*cking off-guard, what the hell.

[Later]

Quackity: Bad, can you call me Alex from now on? That was hot.

Badboyhalo: I’m not - I’m not calling you -- No, in fact, I’m never saying your name ever again.

[chemsexholmes]

watching YouTube exclusively in French and Spanish from now on to learn language. Hopefully this will not lead to any unexpected rabbit holes

[shivroythinker]

enjoyers of messy twisted musings on the toxic parts of girlhood and motherhood and blood and monsters and love as an all-consuming destructive force and biting and cosmic horror i need you to read jawbone (orig. spanish: mandíbula) by mónica ojeda immediately

[mogoce-nocoj]

i think that esc madrid interview with nace, jan and jure might be my new favourite because the image of bojan and kris both sick and not being able to stop their bandmates from talking nonsense is hilarious to me. like between jure “i'd start a pool drama with käärijä” and nace mimicking bojan being a drama queen about dad jokes and jan accidentally mixing up the word order and saying that elvis costello is “our previous bass player's ... godfather?” there's enough chaos in this interview that at least kris got a little heart attack after watching this

[space-mouse]

strongly recommend watching kamala harris' speech from last night.

she used the passive voice to describe the israeli government's war crimes against palestinians in gaza, and emphasized her commitment to israel's ability to defend itself (read: arms). she also called for a ceasefire and drove the crowd to deafening cheers in defense of "the palestinian people's right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination."

[northernmoments]

Du skal gå der ingen har gått før

Stå i det som ingen har stått i før

Du skal bli glad, du skal bli lei

Og samma kor langt du flyr frå ditt reir

Er det aldri lenger enn bak en sky heim

Kommer en kald og en mørk høstdag

Kor det er andre du skal få trøst av

Det fins varme i så mange andre fang

Du kommer deg alltid opp og står

Vinter kan ikkje forhindre vår

Du blomstrer når du må

[guillemelgat]

I'm sharing this song by Tarta Relena which is an adaptation of Pashtun women's improvised poetry published in the book Songs of Love and War, compiled by Afghan poet Sayd Bahodine Majruh and translated into Catalan as El suïcidi i el cant by Margarida Castells Criballès. Tarta Relena are a band of two young women who adapt lots of interesting texts and pieces of music from all sorts of eras and places into stripped-down electronic and vocal works with incredible harmonies and sonorities. I think this song has a lot of really interesting things going on, and the lyrics are very intense but very beautiful.

M’arrenquin amb un ganivet totes les pigues Let them tear out all of my freckles with a knife si nego que et desitjo, si amagues que m’estimes. If I deny that I love you, if you hide that you love me

Benamat, vine a la vora i seu amb mi una estona, Beloved, come to my side and sit with me a while que la vida aviat serà tal com l’hivern que s’escola. Because life will soon be like the winter that trickles away

L’espai entre nosaltres que ens separa l’un de l’altra The space between us that separates the one of us from the other em nega com l’onada quan s’empassa les barques. Drowns me like the wave when it swallows ships

Ai, agafa’m, ai, abraça’m, ai, tingue’m a la vora, Oh, take me, oh, embrace me, oh, have me by your side que aquesta pena meva se m’emporta i deixa sola. This pain of mine is taking me over and leaving me alone

La meva boca és teva, pots devorar-la sens por, My mouth is yours, you can devour it without fear però deixa’m la llengua lliure per anar-te parlant d’amor. But leave my tongue free to keep speaking to you of love

El jardí del món creares, oh déu meu, i no és pecat You created the garden of the world, oh god, and it’s not a sin que n’hagi pres la flor que a mi més m’ha agradat. That I’ve picked the flower which I like best

Amor meu, jura una cosa, jura que vindràs amb mi, My love, swear me something, swear that you’ll come with me que pugui jo sembrar-te totes les flors del camí. So that I can sow all the flowers on your path

Quan passo prop de la tomba d’un sant When I pass close to the tomb of a saint li tiro pedres pels desitjos que em va negant. I throw stones at them for the desires they deny me

I si era veritat que tu no em sabies estimar, And if it was true that you didn’t know how to love me digue’m per què despertes el meu cor endormiscat? Tell me why you awake my sleeping heart?

Ves-te’n lluny, amic meu, bon viatge i bon vent, Get yourself far from me, my friend, goodbye and good riddance dels amants n’eres un més, i ara me’n trobaré cent! As a lover, you’re just one more, and now I’ll find myself a hundred

M’he repintat les pigues i avui nit em crema el ventre. I’ve repainted my freckles and tonight my insides are burning Si ara em veiessis, perdries la raó per sempre. If you saw me now, you’d lose your mind forever

Demà els que tinguin gana deixaré ben satisfets Tomorrow anyone who wants it I’ll leave well satisfied travessaré la vil·la amb els cabells al vent. I’ll cross the village with my hair blowing in the wind

[tunamayojazz]

a look into yuta and toge's couple dorm life

(template by pckgmeat)

[weirdo-from-bonesborough]

Dune fans keep warning people not to read too many Dune books is hilarious because I feel the same way about Ender’s Game. If you think you want to read Speaker for the Dead no you don’t. No you don’t.

Edit: read some of the stuff y’all are saying about Dune and uh never mind. Enderverse is fine.

[sudoscience]

Sometimes I question the usefulness of some of the sentences Duolingo teaches me (really, when am I ever going to have to say "You are an apple" or "She doesn't have a rhinoceros"?), but it did teach me an incredibly useful phrase the other day: ik ben moe en ik ga naar bed (I am tired and I am going to bed). So, thanks for that.

Look, I know it's more about teaching you the vocabulary and grammar than teaching you entire sentences through rote memorization, and I think that's fine, in principle. I just think they could do so in a more practical order. Why did it teach me how to say "De schildpad en het konijn lezen het menu" ("The turtle and the rabbit are reading the menu") like 20 units before it taught me how to say "Waar is de wc?" ("Where is the bathroom?")?

Furthermore, their Dutch instruction seems kind of lacking in general, especially compared to other languages like Spanish or French. It seems like it mostly expects you to intuit the grammar, or, confusingly, it will introduce a concept and then not explain it until much later. It introduces adjectives early in Section 1, but buries how they're conjugated in the details of Section 2. And, to make matters worse, Section 2 has 20 units that cover a wide variety of topics, but this is all the help they give you:

I could continue to rant, but... ik ben moe en ik ga naar bed.