renard_roux @ renard_roux @beehaw.org

Posts

7

Comments

380

Joined

2 yr. ago

Thank you, it's just not for me then 😊👍

Ummm ... WHAT?! 🤯

Some slightly off-track suggestions (because genres are a bit misaligned with what you're asking for):

• — - — - — -

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb series)

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

I must admit that Charles Stross' pitch is what got me to pick up the book in the first place, it's just too funny:

“Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!” —Charles Stross

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The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn Trilogy)

OK, maybe not so far off the path ...

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Storm Front by Jim Butcher (Dresden Files series)

So I’m suggesting The Lies of Locke Lamora!

Is there some sort of twist that makes it more fun further in? Got halfway through the first Gentleman Bastard and had to give up because I just couldn't care less.

I didn't loathe it like I did with the Kingslayer Chronicle (also DNF), but it's one of a select trio of books that I just couldn't finish, out of some 200 books I've read the post 4 years (Jo Nesbø's "The Bat" being the third).

I recently recommended Rosetta Stone to a new friend who just moved to Denmark from South Africa with his family, only to find that they had switched to a subscription model, and also scrapped their Danish course completely 😓

Was getting ready to raise the black flag and search the seven seas for the old Danish Level 1 course, when I discovered that it was available at the library, and he just had to put in a reservation and it would be sent to our local branch for pickup.

He has it now, and he's super happy with it (as a supplement to Danish classes).

If you don't know Rosetta Stone, its main feature is that there are zero instructions; everything is set up so you have to intuit what is going on, the idea being that you're learning the new language "the same way you learned your first language", as opposed to having to use your main language as a translation layer.

I did a little bit of their Japanese and Spanish Level 1 course some ~20 years ago, and I still remember everything I learned, even though I never used either language for anything since.

Anyway, my main point is that you might be able to get access to good commercial courses from your library, maybe check it out 😊👍

I've actually had great success with Rosetta Stone (not free in either way), but YMMV.

They are not paid, AFAIK. Confirmed.

I've been thinking about how a secondary revenue stream could make sense as a Mod Appreciation Donation source.

I think I read some Mod thoughts on merch a while back, but can't remember exactly why it wasn't in the mix at current time (difficult to source ethical merch or something?).

I, for one, would be happy to donate some time to create graphics for merch if it went towards Mod bonuses (or server upkeep, if nothing else).

@mods feel free to reach out if you have any thoughts on the matter, or any concrete ideas that a graphic designer might be able to help with ❤️👍

I agree with everyone saying "donations are for running the server, use as intended", although I like the idea of the tiny mod-team getting a small monthly stipend or something. Maybe consider adding "5% of donations are divided among the mods for coffee and therapy" to the donation info text? 🤔

A compromise, in regards to charity, could be a community-based effort of some sort — everyone votes to pick a quarterly charity, and it's promoted as a stickied post:

"The Beehaw community has voted to support X [insert charity] for this quarter, please support it if you can"

Ugh, can't believe fucking Elon ruined a whole letter, and one of the cool ones, at that 🤢

Yikes! That paints a pretty scary picture 😬

Side note - I really like how you crossed out your spelling error instead of just fixing it - I always proof-read my comments after I post them (because I always forget to do it), and this might actually, in s tiny way, be useful to someone who's still learning the language, or just didn't know a particular working is wrong. I'm going to try and start doing this as well, thanks 😊👍

Insert Bond Villain Plot™ where he's secretly buying all the EMP-hardened server parks in the world, and it's getting ready to orbital-nuke everything except Shitter servers back to the stone age.

And of course he will brick every phone and computer everywhere, so nobody will be able to use Shitter, but God damnit, it will be the only site left!

Ah, pedantry. Snubbing OP for using the word 'opinion' instead of 'advice', which, given the context, should be synonymous here. Got it 👍

What an odd question. May I ask why you posed it (serious)?

There seems to be some sort of snub in it, but I can't figure out who the target is.

Is it not common sense to ask for advice when you're unsure of something?

I'm sure he just wanted to test all (all) the food first to make sure his population doesn't get poisoned; very commendable, really. Not everyone is a villain, you know!

Now now, let's not bring appearance into this; I'm sure the genocidal maniac can't be blamed for how he looks, and you might hurt his feelings.

I just re-watched all the first 14 Bond movies, and there are apparently satellites that can track all the subs, so we're good 😊👌 Also, you can just reprogram the missiles to blow up the other subs — just steal the launch codes, easy peasy 👍 Check mate, Kim! 💥🚀

Side note: many (or, indeed, most) of the films did not age well 😣 I'm not proud of how little of the misogyny, borderline rape-y, no-consent, belittling of women stuff I failed to notice as a kid (patents' fault) and adolescent (my fault); it starts to get a bit better around the end of the Moore era, and I'm now getting ready for the Dalton era. It will be interesting to see the newer films with this fresh context of the old ones, and I've never seen the two newest ones, which I think were supposed to address all of these issues.

Secondary side note: so far, the best ones (IMHO, YMMV) have been For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View To A Kill.

After finishing The Last Of Us 2, I spent a lot of energy being sad about all the people in my life who don't play games. They'll never have that experience, and I found that somewhat upsetting. There's no other way to live that story, and I wish l could give it to just everyone, and have them actually play and enjoy it.

Googling this was 50/50 for me. It couldn't possibly exist, but on the other hand, it's just too perfectly insane. I was very surprised at the result.

Great read, thank you 👌

I've never seen it spelled 'coöperative' before, and it's glorious! That's how I'm spelling it from now on 😁

I'm guessing they're Obama.