Ana Mardoll's Ramblings: August 2017

Open Thread: Pink

I give you a whole bunch of pink. Also, I'm not trying to alternate between birds and flowers, but it seems to be happening. We'll see if it continues next week.

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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!

Open Thread: Egrets!

Between my pharmacy and myself is a long walk, and this particular spot is quite popular for snowy egrets and mallard ducks. There were actually two more egrets and a few ducks, but to get them all in the picture required zooming out way too much for good a scaled down open thread image.

Open Thread: Green, Yellow, Orange, and an Oxford Comma

I was originally going to go with "Yellow and Orange" but there's green in there too, so that means commas, and . . . yeah.

Honestly it's mostly because yesterday I saw a thing where someone had a long list and after the Oxford comma at the end they added "and Oxford commas", which made sense in context because it was a list of things a librarian would employ in the course of the story the sentence described.

In other news, I always get kind of worried when I'm getting an open thread ready and I realize that there's something from Ana that hasn't been out long. I don't think anyone would really ignore actual content from Ana just because there's an open thread at the top of the main page, but I worry about knocking the content out of the top spot anyway.

Storify: Tech Girls in Fictional Rep

A storify on how (certain types of) positive representation can't be the only solution to Imposter Syndrome. Then a rant on Firefly happens.

Open Thread: Geese

The photo is taken from the new bridge while they walk in the spot where the old bridge used to be.

Not much else to say, just: Geese.

Writings: Houses of the Gods

Like a lot of American kids, I grew up reading Greek mythology as a child and ate up everything I could get my hands on. I was excited when the Percy Jackson books came out and read the first few in the series before losing interest; I loved the idea but was turned off by some of the probably-unintentional casual misogyny (leading me to write "The Curse of the Smart Girl", for readers familiar with my blog). Plus, I couldn't shake the feeling that a really great idea was being used in a way that could be so much better.

I love the idea of demigod kids running around a modern setting, and an ensemble-cast place like Camp Half-Blood for gathering them all up to work and play together is my kind of tea. But so many of the gods seemed wasted or little more than an afterthought. There are two "honorary" houses with no children in them whatsoever (Hera, who is faithful to Zeus and doesn't bear children; and Artemis, the maiden) and then we see the cabin of Athena brimming with children because apparently the Virgin Goddess of Wisdom started churning out babies for the greater good. Nooooo. There are also houses which are criminally underused like the children of Aphrodite--characterized as sweet, empty-headed cheerleaders--and dear Dionysus who I'm not sure we even see in the first few books. Nooooooooooooooo.

So I've spent an unholy amount of time thinking about how I would handle the housing at Camp Half-Blood and here is a fic about adoption and chosen family. I hope you enjoy.

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