hey-o things to ponder, things to laugh

I have an entire Goodreads shelf called "After the Adventure" for books set after the end of a different story! Here are some of them:

Die by Keiron Gillen. One of my all-time favorite series, which is why it gets top billing despite being a comic not a novel. The 42-year-old survivors of a fantasy adventure that stole their adolescence (and one character's arm, and one character's life, and the protagonist's gender) realize they left a friend behind when they escaped last time, and now they need to go back in.

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames. The world's greatest band of monster-killers has been retired for decades, but their former leader's daughter got her army in over their heads. So now the 60-something curmudgeons will just have to dust off their armor, ignore their aching knees, and go try to rescue her.

We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory. Tells the story of a support group for sole survivors of adventures that no one else believes, because they all feature magic or monstrousness. One of the few high-quality depictions of therapy I've ever seen in a horror novel.

Mister Magic by Kiersten White. A group of former Mouseketeers child stars come to realize the show they were on was less Mickey Mouse Club, more Candle Cove, and now they're being forced onto a reunion tour that's even more sinister than it seems.

Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise. Picks up at the end of Peter Pan, when an adult Wendy sees her daughter leave with Peter — and decides to hunt Peter down and steal her kid back, because her perspective on Neverland has shifted a lot in the last 30 years.

The Secret Country by Pamela Dean. Five cousins co-wrote an adventure story by playing pretend in their backyard — and then they switch universes with their fictional protagonist selves, and find themselves in their imagined country. Now they have to decide whether this is a game they want to play out, or an all-too-real political intrigue they need to escape before it turns deadly.

Fuck Fairyland by Skottie Young. When she was six, Gert fell into a magical world of candy and rainbows and talking animals. That was forty years ago. Now a bitter middle-aged alcoholic still trapped in her six-year-old body, Gert is determined to escape Fairyland no matter who she has to dismember to do it.

Wanting something requires dopamine signaling, but liking something doesn’t.

If you have a mental illness/disorder that affects dopamine, you might feel that you don’t want to do the things that you like. You do still like them. You will appreciate having done them.

Let your likes guide you.

(If you want to read more, here’s one experimental paper about it. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5171207/ This theory called the incentive-sensitization theory was originally created to explain behaviors in addiction but can be applied elsewhere as well)

Black text on a white background. It reads:

"Focus on your likes, not your wants.

You may not want to exercise, but you like how it makes you feel.

You may not want to write, but you like the feeling of accomplishment.

You may not want to wake up early, but you like the calm beauty of morning.

Wanting is the desire you feel before doing something. Liking is the satisfaction you feel after doing something. Let your likes guide you.

“What do you mean?” he asked. “But there’s a full stop as part of the question mark!”

She nodded gravely. “I know!” she said. “A lot of people find this confusing. But the speech tag belongs to the line of dialogue, it’s still part of the sentence, so it’s wrong to capitalise it.”

Thank you PK and AO3!

Ensure that you have the latest version of your browser updated on your device.

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Select the My Dashboard link in your username’s drop down menu in the upper right corner of the screen.

Select the “Skins” link in your Dashboard menu.

Select the “Create Site Skin” button in the upper part of the page.

Enter a title for your skin.

In the CSS field, use the following template to hide works, replacing the tag names in quotation marks with your own. You can copy and paste it for as many tags as you like.

Hide all tags containing a keyword

This example will hide works with the tags with "Naruto" in them, including relationship, character, and freeform tags..blurb:has(a[href*="Naruto"i]) { display: none; }

If the tags you wish to hide has spaces, you will need to replace them with "%20" like so:.blurb:has(a[href*="Uzumaki%20Naruto"i]) { display: none; }

Hide a specific tag

This example will hide works with the tag "Fluff", but not "Fluff and Angst" or "Fluffy"..blurb:has(a[href$="/Fluff/works"i]) { display: none; }

If the tag you wish to hide has spaces, you will need to replace them with "%20" like so:.blurb:has(a[href$="/Major%20Character%20Death/works"i]) { display: none; }

Hide a rating tag

This template will hide works that are rated Explicit..blurb:has(span[title*="Explicit"i]) { display: none; }

If the rating you wish to hide has spaces, you can just use the first word of the rating and it will work. For example, using "Teen" for Teen And Up Audiences..blurb:has(span[title*="Teen"i]) { display: none; }

Hide a specific relationship tag

This example will hide works with the tag " Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski", but not "Derek/Stiles". You will need to replace the / character in the relationship tag to a "*s*" and change any spaces to "%20" like so:.blurb:has(a[href$="Derek%20Hale*s*Stiles%20Stilinski/works"i]) { display: none; }

Select the button to “Submit” the skin.

Select the “Use” button to start using the skin.

"Hi guys, welcome back to the channel, I've got a real treat for you today! You might notice the lab looks different, I didn't want to risk putting anyone else in danger with today's experiment and if you've been reading the news this week you'll know that a bunch of big important people on Earth are pretty mad at me right now, so I'm shooting this episode on the moon!

"This is uranium-238, an extremely rarified form of the uranium used in some nuclear reactors. If I get the camera closer, you see that 'snow' appearing in the image? That's caused by individual radioactive ions escaping from the uranium. It's warm to the touch and very pliable. See how easily it's bending? Compare that to how much force I had to use to flatten out that tungsten cube last week, remember how that took both hands?

"Anyway, I know what you're going to ask,"

*voice clip of Snake from metal gear solid saying 'But how does it taste?'*

"Well, we're going to find out! I'm just going to tear off a tiny bit here... Hmm. The taste and texture is similar to lead, but warm and a little fizzy. That would be from those escaping ions hitting the skin cells of my tongue and bouncing off. I'd better spit this out quickly, if one of those bounces back into the uranium it could-

*a loud but muffled explosion sound is heard*

"Okay, so that was what's called a fission reaction! A little nuclear explosion went off in my mouth! That was certainly a new experience, I don't think I want to do that again. It wasn't nearly as much fun as the lava I ate back in the Hawaii video.

FIRST:

The easiest way to get rid of the majority of the bullshit that Windows is forcing on us, as of October 2025, is this one-stop-one-click debloat solution from a modern day hero:

It's very easy, even if you're not tech savvy or get scared of pop up windows saying "ARE YOU SURE?" Yes, you are sure, I promise. This program takes maybe two minutes and will save you SO MUCH pain, time, and money (and exploitation).

Now that you've done that, here's the cleanup, to catch the little shit that the debloat might have missed (most of this will already be done by debloat, but hey, it's good to double check).

Even just reading about some of these features makes me angry. Fucking Copilot and "Discover" AI scrapers are in Notepad. NOTEPAD. And then there's this uncanny valley garbage:

No uncanny valley video calls for me, thanks! (Also, what else is it doing while it scans your face and listens to your calls? What else, microsoft? Because there was a lot of memory being assigned to this program for a simple "smooths your skin" add on).

The truly insane number of places they have stuck ads on your own home computer is sickening. Become Unmarketable.

Bonus:

Some background programs you probably don't need that are taking up space and how to remove them (Microsoft forums, 2024)

Your Samsung Galaxy Phone comes with 22 apps you don't need (Android Police, 2025)