Reading

shitposting: personal scariness rating of genius fictional characters

Look, my country is messed up so have some salutary shitposting while I attempt to cope with health/life/everything.

No particular order, define "best" as you please - I mean "somewhat plausible-sounding-ish and fun to read about."

Rated from VERY SCARY, Scary, unconcerned in terms of, hrm, threat level.

Baru Cormorant from Seth Dickinson's books: Scary.
High INT, low WIS. Scary, but doesn't achieve VERY SCARY due to too many emotional vulnerabilities.

Hanse Davion and Ulric Kerensky from BattleTech. I just don't want to be in the same universe they're scary. I'm MORE scared of Hanse Davion than Thrawn because I get the possibly illusory sense that Thrawn is civilized as a default and the vibe I get from Hanse Davion is that civilization, cruelty, courtesy are all just tools, he will do whatever it fucking takes to burn you to the ground if that's the way to win.

Hanse Davion: VERY SCARY
Ulric Kerensky: Scary, but also, clanner honor.

Ari I and II from CJ Cherryh's Cyteen: SCARIEST.
Justin: unconcerned, honestly, give him research funding and pizza and Grant and he's happy, he'll leave you be.

Conrad Mazian from Downbelow Station: Scary and they lucked out he was undone.

Flamme from Frieren: SCARIEST. I almost rate her

Scary not because she's not a terrifying genius but because she has ironclad ethics. Probably the single person on this list I'm MOST afraid of except she's also UNAMBIGUOUSLY GOOD. So she's a rarity: a female chessmaster (or anyway, they're incredibly rare in English-language USAn sf/f) and unambiguously a "good guy."

Lelouch Lamperouge from Code Geass: Scary. Possibly shading into SCARIEST if you add the mind control, but make Nunally cry and he segfaults.

Vladilena Milizé from 86, and how. Scary.

Thrawn: ???
Thrawn from Star Wars Extended Universe is frequently cited but I bought the Timothy Zahn book where he first? appears? extendedly? as a military? genius? for Kindle and I refuse to use Kindle anymore so I'm going to have to suck it up and buy a print copy if I can even remember the title. Anyway, I haven't read books with Thrawn doing stuff so I can't comment further.

Lord Vetinari from Terry Pratchett's Discworld: SCARIEST.
Doesn't generally come up in these discussions because bureaucracy is "boring" and Vetinari wasn't a main character in any of the Discworld books I read. (I binged them for a couple months twenty years ago, then never went back, sorry.) He's a fucking EFFECTIVE BUREAUCRAT. I don't mess with those.

Maomao from Apothecary Diaries. Unconcerned ONLY because she's easily bribed with bezoars. :3

Miles Vorkosigan: Scary.
Honestly one of the most plausible military geniuses BUT ALSO a disaster for all his subordinates. I don't want to be within a galaxy radius of him.

Hiruma from Eyeshield 21. Unconcerned mainly because I don't have ANY involvement in Japanese high school instantiations of American football and FORTUNATELY his domain of interest is VERY SPECIALIZED. :)

Both Seondeok and Misil from The Great Queen Seondeok: Scary to Unconcerned.

Laurent from C. S. Pacat's Captive Prince books. Unconcerned mainly because Good But Not Nice.

Red from The Blacklist: Scary by way of UNHINGED.

Lady Char from Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch from Mercury: Scary. Sorry, I can't focus my eyes enough to dig her name out of the walls of text on various wikis. :]

Beth Harmon from The Queen's Gambit. So very unconcerned. I'm not a chess player. I don't have anything to worry about.

Ikari Gendou from Neon Genesis Evangelion: SCARIEST and also worst dad of the millennium.

Ted Lasso and Keely (sp?) from Ted Lasso: unconcerned, but could well become Scary in an AU. Somewhat uncommon double example of people who are brilliant socially AS WELL AS being good people; Ted Lasso or Keely with that skillset using their powers for EVIL would become horror rapidly.

Asshole Protagonists from K. J. Parker's books are generally Scary. Asshole Genius is pretty much the shtick.

That Guy from The Usual Suspects. Probably SCARIEST but I haven't watched that movie in two decades.

There are going to be comicverse examples that I'm just not familiar enough with to comment further. /o\ Or multiple characters from Re: Zero but thinking about details is too traumatic (complimentary).

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personal

(no subject)

( Mostly about the kids. )

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health,
rl_25

(no subject)

Did get out in the grey humid morning and cleared the first and last third of the back garden path of its leaves, vines, and cherry pits. Not nearly as overgrown as it should be, and it can't be NND clearing stuff, though they do mow as much of my yard as they can get to. Oliver had fits until someone-- not SND-- came out of the garage and told him to stop growling, and subsequently took him inside. Oliver will bounce up to his back porch and stand there barking at me, tail going like a metronome: except SND keeps her screen door open and Oliver's tail bangs on the aluminum part. You'd think this might discourage him-- it can't possibly be comfortable-- but Oliver after all has small dog energy/ lack of brains. I don't know if two years old is still a puppy in chihuahua terms, but Oliver definitely is.

My back however did not have fits-- trust me, am grateful-- but footing as ever was uncertain. Still, sodden from the exercise, I lugged a full bag down the alleyway and up onto the porch, safe from subsequent gales and downpours. Which commenced thereafter, stripping more leaves off the trees. Have put my recycle box out and hope this time the rain will get to clean it somewhat.

Then inspected my tree trimmer which needs to be assembled but not by me, because my concept of spatial arrangements, and my elbows, are not up for Remove wingnut, line up something, return wingnut, tighten, and try to figure out how the cord goes. Maybe Prof Islamic Studies can do it, and borrow it for trimming his magnolia.

Then strained my soup stock and dumped the bones and celery ribs in the compost bag. No idea what I'll do with my stock. Probably just freeze it.

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cooking,
recipes

Culinary

This week's bread (because last week's suddenly got The Mould): a loaf of Bacheldre Rustic Country Bread Flour, v nice if turned out a bit crumbly.

Friday night supper: sorta-nasi goreng with saucisson sec and red bell pepper.

Saturday breakfast rolls: Tassajarra method, einkorn flour, maple syrup, dried ('apple-juice infused') blueberries: turned out particularly well.

Today's lunch: pork belly slices slow-braised in soy sauce, rice wine, maple syrup and 5-spice powder; served with slowcooked tenderstem broccoli (lime rather than lemon at the end), fine green beans and chopped red bell pepper roasted in walnut oil with fennel seeds and drizzled with elderflower vinegar, and cornbread (plain white flour + baking powder, half and half with mixture of fine/coarse cornmeal)..

Just wanted to say

I very very much appreciate everyone who has been leaving me questions and comments here, and if anyone would like to add more they would still be extremely welcome.

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politics

for the record

Protest in a New England town (pop. 15K) today was excellent, well over a hundred people at any given moment, very cheerful, with attendees from toddler to octogenarian (several people using mobility aids), and much support from the cars driving by. One person was in an inflatable pig costume, and another in a dinosaur costume.

Unfortunately, we could not park near the corner with the dinosaur, because our sign read NO KINGS (EXCEPT FOR T.REX) because the small human I was attending with wanted to make sure his support for T.Rex was clear, and frankly I think we had the best sign there. Someone brought a kazoo, which added an excellent element of whimsy to the proceedings.

Good job, everyone, let's do this again until we stop needing to.

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dreams,
rl_25

Moderate efficiency

Woke early from semi-nightmares about trying to find a place to live in in Tokyo. Thus was vertical at 9:15 which gave me a jump on the day. There's a funeral in a week that starts at 11:00 which I might get to if this unwonted wakefulness continues. OTOH it goes on till 1:30 so maybe I should just watch the broadcast.

Laundromat achieved, timed just right so that I came in when the woman with the Monster Wash was already folding her piles and piles of clothes. Between whiles got up to Blawblaws for more moleskin sheets and callus pads which, um, they didn't have. Bought what they did have and will try them on the Morton's neuroma on my foot. The moleskin and pads worked a treat yesterday but they were near to the end of my stash. Anyway, the Rexall down by Bloor probably has them.

So I trotted down to Bloor and, because the day was achy, stopped for a cocktail and sandwich out on a restaurant patio, last chance probably unless November blesses us with mildness. Then debated going to the drugstore before going to the bank. But drugstore is on the way home, so bank first and up to drugstore, arriving at 3:05 and discovering they close at 3 on Saturdays. Not being godless Shoppers, they don't open on Sunday. Ah well. If Monday is dry I'll try to get down there then. And I got 6500 steps in according to my uhreliable phone.

Toyed with the notion of gardening a bit before tomorrow's rain but warm weather is achy weather and frankly I don't like cutting vines while Oliver the dog has conniptions. Really time that pup got used to people; I wonder he-NND can stand it when he goes out back to smoke.

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hxx: comics

a comic exists

Proof copies.

Candle Arc #1 comic proof copies

Meanwhile, I've obtained a secondhand wide-format color printer locally so we'll see how setup goes.

ETA: Wide-format printer (up to 13"x19") is go! (See comments for test printouts.) I'm currently (still) setting up via Ka-Blam + Indyplanet for print on demand because I refuse to deal with fulfillment because my health is f*cked, but for DIY home zines + comics for friends & family or or prototypes or for selling locally, this should be more than sufficient.

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Yes, I felt this probably deserved a codfish across the chops

When I glanced through Mr J Jones' review here of Sami artist Máret Ánne Sara’s Turbine Hall installation (spoiler alert: he did not like it), my thought was, there is no point in asking Mr Jones for an opinion on anything which does not feature nekkid laydeez, because I can remember him being snotty about a Barbara Hepworth exhibition. (And we are not that keen on his opinion on the nl's, either.)

Anyway, two correspondents take to the letters column to have a go at him:

completely misses the point. The land the Sámi live in is “quite big”, just as the Turbine Hall is in Jones’s words, but the Sámi do not take over the entirety of their landscape. They live within it. The “fort” is not a place to “hide”. That is a city-boy reading rather than a deeper understanding of the ancient methods that Sámi families use for herding reindeer in the vastness of their lands, combined with the political realities that surround them. Jones is too close to playgrounds and not close enough to the realities of the Sámi and northern political history.
***
I was appalled by Jonathan Jones’s review.... There is something incredibly unique and, in the end, pristine about existence in these Nordic villages. Maybe it is the ultimate quiet that falls upon the forests at times. Everyday life is not silent, but the forest silence after a day’s work is peace. Is art not art unless it includes some gore, an exhibit of violence? The artist has captured the ordered existence necessary for survival in harsh conditions and the peace that comes from living with nature rather than against it.

(no subject)

Happy birthday,

tavian!

For anyone who enjoys synecdochic being the Pope's Anger Translator

https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3m3eovdxmwk2z

Okay! This is going to take a while so I had to finish some stuff first, but: Why Da Pope Fucking Up Opus Dei Is A Huge Fucking Deal: a thread

I believe the proposed reforms are currently leaked/not confirmed yet, but this is fascinating.

(ETA: the previous round of Pope-exegesis.)

Entry tags:

rl_25,
techy

(no subject)

Yeah, so, the upstairs tablet will not DL any new languages. They all reach 50% and hang. And if you somehow deleted English from Input Language (but how? I didn't even realize it existed) you are left with a tablet that will only write in Japanese. Oh crap. Maybe buy another tablet? but I can't google Samsung tablets in Canada because, yanno, Japanese. Noodle around in the language settings and finally see Restore factory default. Which do. So now the tablet is in English again, and only English, but fine. I don't write in Japanese much anyway.

I am of course flush with money right now and a new tablet would only cost one month's worth of property taxes. But my eyes have been objecting to my glasses, both dollar store cheapies and hideously expensive good ones, so maybe it's time to have my eyes tested again: and that too will cost a month's worth of tax and more. Of course this would happen when I just snagged 120 days' worth of lenses. *And* I have a crown coming up next year which insurance won't cover, and there's the cherry that must be trimmed for many thousands of dollars, and so economic prudence is advised. Henh. Maybe it's just allergies.

It wasn't supposed to rain all day but of course it did. Got out to the library with my rain cape for a couple of holds and a sandwich at Pour Boy. Pour Boy has the virtue of always giving you lots and lots of vegetables whether you want them or not so I don't feel too guilty for having had bread (whole wheat FWIW). But no way I was getting to the laundromat this afternoon so might try tomorrow, though Saturdays are not optimal ever. Otherwise not till Tuesday and maybe not then. October rains OK.

Yuletide Letter 2025

(Context: Yuletide is an annual fanfiction gift exchange for fandoms with relatively few fics, notable for its large number of participants and the high average quality of stories. I’m participating again this year, once more focusing on public domain fandoms that are poems or poetry-adjacent.)

Dear Yulemouse,

Thank you for offering to write in at least one of these fandoms. You are totally awesome for doing this. I can only hope you enjoy writing about it as much as I will reading it — for certainly, squees will ring off the mountains and echo down the canyons when it arrives given, yanno, it’s in a fandom I want yet find so rarely.

The best way to please me is to have fun. Wit, sex, dramatic irony, and cracktastic silly rom-com are all possibilities, but go with whatever floats your boats. Gen, het, slash, femslash, multi, and poly are all great, as clean or smutty as you want (so yes, Yuleporn and Three Turtle Doves both fine). As a partial guide to the sort of things I like, my stories from past Yuletides are as good as anything. Turn-offs (Do Not Want!) are humiliation-based humor, sadism, explicit torture, and A/B/O, plus a couple DNWs specific to two fandoms (listed below). Find something and make it your own, the thing you love writing, and it’s easy odds I’ll like it.

And to make it explicit: poetry, either in whole or in part, is gleefully accepted — I mean, these fandoms are all related to poetry in some way — but not in the least required. Also, again to be explicit, I welcome treats, which get double the thanks for going above and beyond.

The rest of this is basically expansion on my Optional Details Are Optionals, with notes on resources.

( 赠答诗 - 金车美人 (弘农) | Poems Composed in Reply - Beautiful Woman in a Golden Carriage (Hong Nong) )

( Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came )

( Flower Fairies - Cicely Mary Barker )

( “Her strong enchantments failing” - A.E. Housman )

( Mesopotamian RPF )

( Puck of Pook’s Hill Series - Rudyard Kipling )

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Sport for fun and sport for - not

Though even conkers people take seriously apparently: 'King Conker’ cleared of cheating at World Conker Championships (Is nothing sacred?)

However, this sounds like it brings a certain anarchic spirit to the business: ‘Cheating is encouraged’: nut crackers at Peckham’s Conker Championships go for the fun

But apparently the TikTok generation post videos of gently unpeeling them???

The conkers danger is actually a Top Elf'n'Saftee Myff: 10 ridiculous Health and Safety myths debunked.

Am not sure why conkers should be having a moment just now, because they were dropping off the local trees several weeks ago, and are surely now past.

But at least the people playing conkers seem to be having fun: apparently - and counter to all those exhortations to do this thing for the good of your mental health - doing marathons has a downside: One in four endurance runners displays ‘worryingly high’ levels of anxiety and depression.

One wonders how far it's the obsessive dedication as much as any physiological factor that has an adverse effect.

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organisational october

Organisational October - Day 17

So my Organisational October is going about as well as the September Stampede! How are things going for you? I hope everyone else is having a more successful month than I am and managing to keep on chipping away at that list of things that need doing. Tell us what's been going well, and feel free as well to talk about the less successful part of your month. What are the stumbling blocks in your life right now that are making things more difficult?

Always keep in your mind that if you have a bad day or week or month (or year in my case), the beauty of our bite-sizing community is that every day is a new day and you can start again today or tomorrow or when life permits. I have to keep reminding myself that just because I've had a run of bad days, I mustn't give up and call it quits, I just need to start with a little bit of getting things done today or tomorrow. These aren't new year's resolutions, it's a daily resolution and so every day we can have a fresh start and while we can be proud and celebrate if yesterday went well, we don't have to give up if it went badly.

So here's the daily plan - don't forget it's fine to tweak the suggestions to better work for you if something doesn't quite hit what your situation needs, you can skip a day, pick a different day, stick with a task from an earlier day that you need a bit longer to finish - it's all cool here!

This post will remain the place to comment until I next get chance to put up a post. I encourage you to tell us how you are getting on and to cheer on fellow posters.

( Daily Challenge Table shown below the cut )

Hopefully there's enough information in the table to give you a general guide without being too restrictive - feel free to adapt the suggestions and change out days that don't feel relevant or aren't what you most need. Really importantly, PLEASE do not forget we are all about bite-sizing so we're not aiming to get the whole of a room done, we're looking to target a key area within a space or within a task to make progress on it - this is about starting the process and knowing that we can move towards our goal step by step - not in massive jumps when life, health & energy conspire!

Wishing you all a great weekend.

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If anyone would like to distract me by giving me opportunities to talk about hyper-fixations

that would be greatly appreciated.

Currently trying to support a friend in a Very Bad Situation and it's desperately anxiety-inducing and my brain is trying to eat itself, which also makes me less useful as support, which is bad.

So if anyone would like to ask or discuss anything about Prophet or Dark Souls or IWTV or climbing or, you know, any of the somewhat cheering topics I sometimes ramble about, PLEASE DO. "More of a comment than a question" questions also very welcome.

I cannot guarantee replies in a timely or consistent manner (because of the Situation and also the bad state of my brain) but it would be deeply appreciated nonetheless.

(no subject)

Happy birthday,

susanstinson!

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community: thursday recs

Thursday Recs

Crawling in with Thursday Recs!

Do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!

Or have you tried something that's been recced here? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!

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(no subject)

Garden waste pickup happens every other week, along with non-recyclables, and this was a recycle week. I assume Signora neither knows nor cares when it's supposed to go out. She just leaves her bags and bins of clippings piled by the fence and eventually it will disappear. Maybe it's the power of suggestion, but her two immediate neighbours decided today would be a good time to set their bags out as well. But not piled against the fence, oh no. Sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. I wrestled them back out of the way, cursing them soundly. Because they're going to leave those bags out for another week, including the three days of rain, and even if they don't disintegrate therefrom the local wildlife and dogs are apt to get at them. And the garbage guys do not take disintegrated garden bags. Yes it's a mild annoyance but seriously, why are people?

Tried DLing Greek onto the upstairs tablet and it hung at 50%. Luckily it loaded instantly on the downstairs one so I can carry on with Themistocles. Though now I'm of two minds. If I enter a Greek word in, uh, romaji, google at once gives me it in Greek with its meaning first thing. Enter it in Greek and I get Greek webpages-- duh-- and need to click on the link to wiktionary which will eventually give me a translation if I scroll down to it after the Doric, Cretan, Lacedemonian, etc. etc. readings. Maybe sticking to romaji is the way to go.

Had my monthly visit to Sushi on Bloor with their Partager wine, and that was nice. Am currently simmering the bones from that chicken I roasted along with some organic celery that was disappointingly tough and bitter, hence useless for the Waldorf salad I'd intended it for. Plus parsley (a splurge) and bay leaves (do bay leaves actually add flavour?) and a large carrot and an ancient apple that might as well go in the stock as anything. Shall definitely strain this and use as stock, since I'm tired of finding tiny bones in my chicken soup. Must have food on hand because: rain most of the weekend plus autumnal crud in the walker's wheels. Expect to be housebound for a stretch.

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Excursed

Went out this pm: had to make a trip at some point to Institute Whereof I Have The Honour To Be A Fellow to pick up the ID card I muddled the info about where and when to pick up on the day of the welcome reception -

- and discover that due to the systems upgrade in progress which also means a delay in allocating new fellows institutional email addresses, mine has not yet actually been processed anyway, ooops ooops, they will post it to me, much apologies.

So I got in a nice bit of flaneuserie down Alfred Place Gardens as aforementioned herein, and I also, since I was in the area, took in this exhibition: The Word for World: An exhibition and book presenting the maps of Ursula K Le Guin, which I'm not sure I'd have made a special expedition to see, but as it was in an adjacent Bloomsbury Square, fitted in very well.

(Adjacent Bloomsbury Square in which the riffraff do not have access to the central gardens, only keyholders, mutter mutter.)

Nicely done, but I fancy I would have made more of it had I read the works to which the maps related a bit more recently than I have (Le Guin re-reads having been a bit of a back-burner project for a while).