I hope everyone who was inclined to do so had a Happy Easter. Here’s an open thread to carry you through the night.
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by Adam L Silverman| 71 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
I hope everyone who was inclined to do so had a Happy Easter. Here’s an open thread to carry you through the night.
Comments are closed.
RaflW
I was mostly reclined this Easter. :)
Clem
Ok, thanks
redshirt
I went to a far too expensive brunch and felt awful about it though it was nice and fun.
Also, what Spiderman are you reading?
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: I’m watching this morning’s episode I DVRed on DisneyXD.
Major Major Major Major
Reposted from below: I made a slapdash guide to Not Being An Asshole Bernie Supporter, based on Facebook exchanges I had today.
For those of you who haven’t had run-ins with this particular beast yet. (Yes, these are all my ‘friends’.)
James E Powell
Easter doesn’t mean too much since I’m not into Christianity or candy. But it was – and still is – my birthday! But I’m so old that the only thing I did to celebrate was get up early, walk outside and yell, “Fuck all of you! I’m still here!” Then I made breakfast and did a crossword. Good times.
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: Never seen it, I’m sure it’s fun.
Do you recall a Spiderman comic from the early 80’s that had the Spiderman v. Juggernaut?
redshirt
@James E Powell: It was my mother’s birthday today too, hence the outrageous upscale buffet.
Cacti
@Major Major Major Major:
Ron seemed like a real charmer.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@James E Powell: Oh, Happy Birthday.
satby
@James E Powell: by now it’s a belated Happy Birthday, but hope it was relaxing and enjoyable.
Major Major Major Major
@Cacti: Yeah, uh, whoo boy. What a weird day.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Cacti: LOL, I got the same impression.
BillinGlendaleCA
@James E Powell: What? No “get off my lawn you damn kids”?
ETA: Happy B-day.
benw
@James E Powell: Happy birthday, MOTHER FUCKER! :)
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: Its meh. But its a cartoon and its on after the Guardians of the Galaxy cartoon (which is so bad, you just have to watch – like a 42 car pile up with lots of gore) and the Avengers cartoon, which is pretty decent. And they’re on a weekend morning, which, as is tradition, is when superhero cartoons should be on.
I don’t recall that comic because I never read Spider-man comics. I have the giant sized Superman Vs Spider-Man crossover and I have a Doctor Strange and Spider-man team up against Dr. Doom and Dormamu that someone gave me. But those are the only two I’ve got. I never read anything from Marvel but the various X-Men/mutant titles. And I stopped that after about five or six years when I couldn’t keep up with the massive expansion of titles, the number of mutants, and the fact that I couldn’t keep the story lines straight with a flow chart.
Mnemosyne
As recommended, I finally got a chance to read Lois McMaster Bujold’s Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance and definitely liked it much more than the previous book in the series, Diplomatic Immunity. I really felt like Immunity was a misfire, but Alliance was a fun combination of romance novel and crime caper. Since I’ve been on a big romance kick lately (prepping to write my own), it was kind of funny to see Bujold stick to all of tropes (tongue firmly in cheek), including the mandatory shopping trip. And, of course, the characters get exactly the ending you want them to have by the end of the book — on a beach far, far away from both of their crazy families.
Also, I appreciate that, unlike many series authors, Bujold is able to keep her own complicated timeline straight. So far, despite the fact that I’ve read 15 books in the series, she hasn’t accidentally contradicted herself, unlike a lot of other authors. And it’s kind of different to read books that take place in a functional future society, not just ones where things are on the verge of breaking down.
Major Major Major Major
@James E Powell: Ooh, I forgot the crossword today!
Happy birthday! Hope you got some cloud-yelling in, and don’t forget to replace the onion on your belt!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Wait, I’m supposed to replace the onion? No one told me that!
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: Did you read DC?
Anyways, Spiderman v. the Juggernaut was an epic tale of an unstoppable force against an unhittable target. Lots of destruction and I LOVED the way Spidey finally beats him {SPOILER ALERT} –
Spidey lures the Juggernaut into a conveniently just poured concrete foundation for a new skyscraper – AKA 40 feet deep fresh, liquid concrete. The unstoppable Juggernaut sinks, Spidey breathes a big sigh of relief and makes a joke, The End.
NotMax
@redshirt
Rule of thumb is that if it’s Marvel the human part of the moniker takes a hyphen or a space.
DC: Superman, Batman, Hawkman, Aquaman
Marvel: Spider-man, Ant-man, Iron Man, Man-Thing
Not 100% of the time but close enough for government work, as the saying goes.
Major Major Major Major
@BillinGlendaleCA: Oh, well, not in Glendale, everybody knows that.
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: Yes, select DC title plus the X/mutant titles.
From what I know of Juggernaut from the X-Men comics, that would seem to do it.
redshirt
@NotMax: Huh. You’re right. I was using DC normative phrasings and didn’t have a clue.
NotMax
@James E Powell
Huzzah!
(We’re all gonna chip in to buy a period for your middle initial. Fully returnable if it’s a case like Harry Truman’s. :) )
Anoniminous
@Mnemosyne:
Be interested in hearing your reaction to her current book “Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.” I’ve read it twice and had different post-book h’mms when I put it down.
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: I didn’t forget, my kitchen sink started leaking. Didn’t feel like doing it after the crisis was over.
Sunday is my dead tree day. I hope to get to it tomorrow.
John Revolta
@BillinGlendaleCA: It’s the style.
Try to get one of the big white ones.
Mnemosyne
@Anoniminous:
I’ve been borrowing a lot of eBooks from the library lately, so I may try to get it that way at first and save myself $9.99. I’m still getting over the gut punch at the end of Cryoburn, though. I assume there is not an intervening book between that and Red Queen?
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: I want to emphasize that I’m not trying to poo poo anyone else’s choice of comics for reading. Marvel’s stuff is, by and large, not to my taste. A lot of the time DC hasn’t been as well depending on the creative choices surrounding the continuity reboots. If Marvel is your thing I think that’s great – I’m not trying to crap on your choices.
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: Yes, I long ago made Marvel mine; but I’d vote for DC if it were the nominee.
normal liberal
@Mnemosyne:
It’s straight to Gentleman Jole from Cryoburn, with about a three-year gap between them. (I disliked Cryoburn even more than Diplomatic Immunity, except for the final gut punch part.) The Cetagandan bunker from Captain Vorpatril surfaces with additional backstory. I hope LMB writes one more to wrap up the Cetagandan plot lines, but Gentleman Jole has a valedictory feel about it.
Dog Dawg
Still reading V for Vendetta and loving it. Only second title I’ve read by Alan Moore, but it’s just so clear that he stands above his competition, one of the best.
I find V to be a much more whimsical version of Rorschach, and the story is much more hopeful than Watchmen. The far right political slant is less obnoxious because radical anarchism isn’t such a bad rhetorical when faced with true totalitarianism. and V is such an affected character that it’s easy to take it with a grain of salt and focus on the common enemy.
The flashback sequence with Valerie and the mindf@ck conclusion to it was really satisfying, and particularly sophisticated for the medium.
I will probably have to hunt down his other titles because I have still haven’t found anyone else that comes close to the level of seriousness and raw talent that he possesses.
TheMightyTrowel
@Anoniminous: i love the early books in the series then kind of lost momentum but got back into them with vorpatril’s alliance but wow i hated gentleman jole. It felt like something written about lgbt relationships by a well meaning straight person ca 1985.
Tenar Darell
1. Day before yesterday while trying to kill a hornet/wasp that got indoors at my father’s, I dropped my big a**, new within the past 5 months, phone. There’s what looks like a fine line crack in the zagg glass protector, but how do I confirm it? Anybody have any suggestions about how you tell without peeling off the screen protector? (I found the crack by touch & then turning up the brightness. Looks like it’s only on the surface of the screen protector, but not sure. Want to be sure since I got some warranty options here).
2. In funny human behavior notes: swear to dog I’ll never not try to read my phone/tablet/book while sleepy in bed, because I’ve done the nodding off and smacking myself in the face even more frequently lately. I will never learn a lesson from these experiences though. (Member since 6 or 7 years of age in the “Reading is life!” club).
Mnemosyne
@normal liberal:
I felt like Cryoburn was a bit of a return to form, but I really hated Immunity. She had created this great character of Ekaterin in the previous two books and then had no idea how to slot her into that story. It was very annoying.
PurpleGirl
Somehow I slept almost the whole day. Really bad thing to do, now I’ll be up all night. It oftens seems like I don’t have the mental energy to do anything (even read Balloon Juice, sigh).
Major Major Major Major
Late-night fun with Samwise the Cat, a pink ribbon, and some filters
Mnemosyne
@TheMightyTrowel:
I did notice in Alliance that she has all of her bisexual men end up with women, so I’m not too surprised. It’s a little odd. It looks like an eBook is not available through any library (which is weird), so I may end up having to buy it after all.
Mnemosyne
@PurpleGirl:
Sleeping more than usual and other sleep disturbances (like early-morning insomnia) can be signs of clinical depression. Have you been screened for that lately?
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Will see your desaturated kitteh, and raise you one monochrome doggy, on spring break on verboten, rental striped sofa.
Major Major Major Major
@PurpleGirl: @Mnemosyne: Oh, good call, Mnem. Couldn’t hurt to get checked! Depression’s a bitch.
gwangung
@Mnemosyne: In a lot of ways, it deals with the wreckage at the end of CRYOBURN (and that wreckage is in some unexpected places).
Also, Bujold sorta takes a sledgehammer to mythic status of her previous protagonist, Miles (which, I think, he’s had coming).
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
My big warning sign is this weird early morning insomnia — I wake up at 4 am regardless of what time I go to bed, and I can’t fall back asleep. That’s when I know it’s time to get a new Wellbutrin prescription.
Major Major Major Major
@trollhattan: The interplay of texture! The austag, austag! of the stripes juxtaposed with the Dürrenmittel on the dog (which Klimt would have delighted in) serves to underscore, ahmmmm…
Cute dog. :D
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: Interesting.
I can’t stand that stuff personally, but then again I’m epileptic, soooo yeah.
ruemara
The whole lemon tart came out ok. The lavender added a nice fragrance, but I think next time I’m adding more fresh ground lavender and decorating with some sugared violets.
I worked out hard in preparation for eating normal food and wound up pre-beaching myself.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Wellbutrin is totally contraindicated for epileptics and says so on the labeling (yes, I’m the nerd who reads the package insert before I take something). Stay far away from it. It works for me because I have ADHD.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: I.. I know… how do you think we found out I’m epileptic in the first place?
Anne Laurie
@Major Major Major Major: I swear I didn’t read this until after I posted up top. But you might enjoy it!
Mnemosyne
@gwangung:
Hm. I don’t really think of Miles as mythic, and she’s had quite a few takedowns of him before, but I’ll be interested to see what people mean.
She had been hinting for quite a while before Alliance that Ivan was not actually an idiot and was instead shrewdly staying far, far away from politics, so it was nice to see that come to fruition.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
That must have been a fun way to find out. Not. :-o
It actually says that it’s not recommended for anyone prone to seizures, so alcoholics and anorexics/bulimics are also specifically named as people who should not take it, because both of those things put you at higher risk of non-epileptic seizures.
I hope your hour and day count is still going on. Don’t break the streak!
gwangung
I think a lot of what I liked about GENTLEMAN is the thoughts of an older protagonist, which I felt far more keenly than I did Miles’ goals and obsessions.
And Cordelia from the outside seem like a person who has their act together (and it hasn’t changed with the return to inside her head).
normal liberal
@gwangung:
Miles may deserve being taken down a peg or two, but I found him a little out of kilter overall. Per the earlier discussion about the retro quality of LMBs handling of the LGBT relationships, it is static: how she wrote about Aral at the beginning was fairly cutting edge for the time, but now it’s kind of leaden. And Aral’s relationships with men are pretty disfunctional, including the age/power imbalance with Jole.
It’s a pity about Ekaterin – once she and Miles are together Bujold doesn’t seem to Make sense of them as a couple, although there are a few hints at that in Jole.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: 30 days!
Suzanne
@James E Powell: Happie berfday!
Day was meh. Spawn the Elder was at her dad’s this weekend, and dad’s other daughter taunted Spawn about her suicidal friend (friend told Spawn he was going to commit suicide, Spawn told us and we called the school and psych). Then when she talked to her dad about it, he said, “Well, you ARE being kind of bitchy….”. To a fucking twelve-year-old. I worked on my taxes. I folded laundry. I made dinner with Mr. Suzanne. I am trying to decide if it would be wise to push for more custody. I think Spawn’s dad is off the wagon.
ruemara
@efgoldman: Booo. Here is a proper beached whale pose.
@Major Major Major Major: Congratulations! Go Team Sober!
Major Major Major Major
@Suzanne: Oh, lord. Sorry & hugs and all. :-|
Prescott Cactus
@Tenar Darell:
Just guessing, not a pro. The screen protector is very thin and flexible, more unlikely to crack than the screen itself. If you have warranty options, you can always give them a try.
Family rule is, if you drop it once or if it hits you in the face twice, it time to shut it off.
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Vielen Dank! Die Hund schläft noch.
lurker dean
@Tenar Darell: ha – i’ve done the tablet face smack. i recently got a tfy hand strap (search on amazon) to help hold a new tablet that is slightly too wide to hold comfortably with one hand. i was pleasantly surprised to find that having the strap wrapped around a finger or two has stopped the face smacks when i get drowsy. there are other brands and styles available too. the tfy is a little too long for a kindle paperwhite, but good for 8″+ tablets.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Yay!
@Suzanne:
Speaking of reasons to stay sober … what a dick. You may need to talk to your lawyer, but I think having him fall off the wagon is a valid reason to reduce the amount of time he’s allowed to spend with her.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
I read everything and research each med before I’ll take it. Primarily because I seem to be one of those one in a million who has bad reactions to meds that have been out for decades with little to no side effects except the very seldom, odd, how does it do that reaction. This yr found one med with very good results that almost everyone tolerates extremely well, gives me psychotic hallucinations. My 60+ yr old doc had never seen this and didn’t believe me. I have a new doc.
Prescott Cactus
@Major Major Major Major: 30 Days !
Happy Milestone ! ! ! Keep up the good work ! ! !
Ruckus
@Major Major Major Major:
Congrats. Keep it up. 30 days is great.
Prescott Cactus
@Mnemosyne: Hope all your testing is done and that your are healthy in wellness.
Suzanne
@Major Major Major Major: WTG!!! Thirty days is a great accomplishment.
@Mnemosyne: I can’t prove it, though. Fuck.
Major Major Major Major
@Suzanne: Stays in the hair 90 days, if you want to get creepy about it.
James E Powell
Much thanks to all for birthday wishes – I’m ready for another lap around the fireball.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Dog Dawg: I was really liking V for Vendetta, right up until . . .
Let’s just say that Alan Moore’s take on rape was offensive.
Mnemosyne
@normal liberal:
With the caveat that I haven’t read Red Queen yet, keep in mind that Aral was set up as a bit of a kinkster from the very beginning. If you look at the conversation that Cordelia and Mark have about him in Mirror Dance, Cordelia basically says that Aral is turned on specifically by soldiers, not by men in general, which is why Commander Cordelia Naismith, Betan Astronomical Survey, was immediately attractive to him. And because she’s Betan, she’s more equipped to handle (not be freaked out by) his kinks than any other woman he’ll probably meet.
So, yeah, I won’t be surprised at some squicky aspects of Aral’s secret life in Red Queen, because IMO Bujold has already laid the groundwork for those. Heck, I had my suspicions about the devoted Jole back in The Warrior’s Apprentice.