Ana Mardoll's Ramblings: May 2017

Open Thread: Tiny Wax Person

Because who needs snow when you have cheese that comes sealed in wax?

I do note that while the traditional "stack of three shapes each progressively smaller, huge pointy nose, arms that don't match the rest of the aesthetic" style has been maintained from the clear snowman roots of the concept, the progressively smaller shapes making up the body and head are rounded cubes with some irregularities, not balls.

This was a creation of the munchkin weasel.

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Friday Recommendations! What have you been reading/writing/listening to/playing/watching lately? Shamelessly self-promote or boost the signal on something you think we should know about - the weekend’s ahead of us, so give us something new to explore!

And, like on all threads: please remember to use the "post new comment" feature rather than the "reply" feature, even when directly replying to someone else!

Time Quintet: Turkey Dinners and Light Promises

[Wrinkle Content Note: Fascism, Hypnotism, Captivity]

Wrinkle Recap: The kids have gone into a very big building, asked questions of strangers there, and are now being detained by a random man.

A Wrinkle in Time, Chapter 7: The Man with Red Eyes

I realized today I haven't been including recaps at the top of each entry in this series like I do with Narnia. I apologize and have added a recap now, though coming up with the recap was a bit jarring. I'd not noticed as a child just how much this sequence feels like a railroaded plot from a harried dungeon-master.

The kids were dropped on a hill and told to wander around until something happened. They walked through a village, interacted with a couple of NPCs, then came to a city that seemed strangely featureless except for one enormous building that is bigger than the biggest thing ever. They went into the imposing building after pursuing a line of logic familiar to most gamers: why is the building there if we're not meant to go into it? Then they asked an NPC who they are and what they do here and the NPC is now taking them to the level mini-boss (The Man With Red Eyes) and the boss behind the mini-boss (IT).

Unfortunately for our children, they're about to learn why you need to grind a level or two before you meet up with the boss. All that magic equipment on your character sheet will only get you so far.

Open Thread: Hardware Moose

I don't know much about hardware moose, but I think that when the antlers fall off people harvest the tools and such then sell them in the store this representation of one was on the outside of.

This was seen between the rhododendron droppings and the bus station. I had to go a bit out of my way to get a decent shout because there was initially a parking lot between me and it and all the cars and such were in the way. The green bag is mine for most intents and purposes and one of the wonderful things about not being stuck on crutches is that I can allow a bag with wheels to take most of the weight while I pull the thing with a crutch-unencumbered hand.

This was taken on my longest walk since breaking my ankle. It's not back to normal, but it is worlds better now (and definitely still improving.)

I spent a while debating with myself whether to have the usual Friday open thread this week since the emergency back up open thread has barely been used, what with it being less than two days old. It's probably a sign that when an open thread is getting long in the comments we should break out an emergency back up open thread sooner than happened this time.

Anyway, I obviously did finally decide to make this thread, it would be weird if you were reading this and I hadn't. What I figure is that the other open thread can be a place to continue the discussion of comics with all of the thorny territory that implies (bad accounting, unfair practices, racism, and Nazis, and not-really-Nazis-{but-totally-Nazis}, canceling popular series starring POC, and so forth) as well as the Dresden Files and all of the thorny territory that implies, and maybe also mixing up names and words and such, though that's a good deal less thorny.

This thread, by contrast, can be for everything else. You know, like every other open thread.

Open Thread: Rhododendron Droppings

I'm not even sure what to say. It was all over the sidewalk. For a value of "All over" that means "under or adjacent to a rhododendron.

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Wednesday Something! We're in the middle of the week and already got over a hundred posts in the Friday open thread. Apparent'y we have much to say. Converse on.

And, like on all threads: please remember to use the "post new comment" feature rather than the "reply" feature, even when directly replying to someone else!

Narnia: Horses and Horses

[Narnia Content Note: War, Threat of Rape, Centaur Sex (sorry) ]

Narnia Recap: Shasta has united with the Narnian army and Corin has strong-armed him into being his "bodyguard" for the upcoming battle. Obligatory note about racism, intent, and Lewis is here.

The Horse and His Boy, Chapter 13: The Fight at Anvard

The Narnians are marching to war and all I can think is how non-fantastical their army is. We have humans, dwarves (who are apparently the same size as humans, since a fourteen year old boy can wear their armor), giants (who are nonspecifically large humans), and Horses on which the humanoids all ride--so far a pretty normal medieval army. Lewis then waves vaguely in the direction of Talking Animals by including Dogs, Bears, and a few Big Cats, but that honestly doesn't seem very impressive to me?

Feminism: Poor Relations and Early Concerns

I wrote this Storify after a new book was announced on Twitter. If anyone can help hook me up with an ARC when they come out, I'd be obliged.

Full storify under the cut. [Content Note: Forcible gender reassignment surgery on cis people.]

Open Thread: Jar Lid

Technically, I suppose, it's a picture of the entire jar in which the lid is obscuring the rest of the jar. I was only trying to get a shot of the lid, you can only see the lid, so I'm going with "Jar Lid".

Not my jar or my lid; saw it at my sister's house.

Narnia: Truffaut Was Right

[Narnia Content Note: War]

Narnia Recap: Shasta has united with the Narnian army and Corin has strong-armed him into being his "bodyguard" for the upcoming battle. Obligatory note about racism, intent, and Lewis is here.

The Horse and His Boy, Chapter 13: The Fight at Anvard

We didn't have a Narnia thread for April and this is honestly because I think this book has broken me. I don't mean it has made me sad or upset (though it surely has done so in the past), but I mean that it just doesn't work. Trying to analyze this book as a piece of fiction is like trying to explain a fever dream according to the rules of conventional storytelling. This book was not written to those rules because its author didn't care about conventional storytelling.

I'm honestly not sure what Lewis' intent was writing this--the best faith interpretation I can give this mess is that he'd gotten this far and people wanted more so he tried to give them something entertaining in as short a time and with as little effort as he had to spare rather than turn them down and send them away empty-handed--but we can say fairly certainly that things like Coherent Plot and Consistent Characterization and Not Breaking The World-Building With Impossible Details were not high on the list.

Open Thread: Ornamental Fence Bottom

At eye level and above the fence around Lincoln Park in Portland (once home to Occupy Portland) is a very simple utilitarian design of square metal upright bars connected by a single crossbar. If one keeps their eyes up the only particularly interesting thing to see, other than rust patterns, is the "posts" between the fence sections (holding up the sections.) Those are somewhat taller, have a footprint of a regular octagon and eight bars to match, also two octagonal cross loops. Truly a sight to behold.

In other words, it's a fairly boring fence. It's not ugly, and it can be appreciated, but it seems to be a place where utility almost completely triumphed over style, with the only concession to style being, "I suppose we could do something different with the posts since they're completely different constructions anyway."

If, however, one looks down, that changes.

It's not as if there are spectacular friezes depicting the mythological history of Portland, Maine or the life of Lincoln, there's just a repeating pattern of circles and lines. It is, however, something different. Instead of the straight vertical and horizontal lines that characterize the higher fence sections and the posts, there are multiple sizes of circle, 45 degree lines, variable depth, and, well . . . style. Right at the bottom. So your ankles will get a nice view.

Self-Promotion: Aniyah and Miyuki 4Evah

The wonderful and talented @layahimalaya has drawn Aniyah and Miyuki from Survival Rout and I am now the proud owner of an Aniyah-and-Miyuki themed notebook from her store, as one does. I had to share because I haven't stopped happy-squeeing yet.

I really love everything about this but oh-so-especially Miyuki's in-betweenie size. I love xer so much. And I love how carefully Aniyah is being held and holding in return; I know her spine hurts her today. (Because mine sure does.)

These two characters are my heart.

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