MzRowan

If I'm not the best-dressed man at the on-site quarterly financial planning meeting, I'll *die*.

I am normally not a fan of shiny ties, but this one is an exception. It's this shimmery copper in person.

1940's-ish vibe - please don't drive me crazy by calling this Victorian or earlier. This is also all separates and not a suit. (Jacket and trousers would match if a suit, and there would be some cut differences, fwiw.)

It was a 2-day planning meeting.

These are vintage (1950s) "doeskin" (combed cotton) waistcoats. West of England and Dunn & Co. are two labels here. I see them pop up fairly frequently on ebay and Etsy.

Oh yeah --

Every time I post about these, it's new to someone, so here's from this morning's prep for work: if you have a problem with your neck being a bit too large for your dress shirt, you can get collar button extenders for that top button. Your tie will look a bit looser, but a collar bar helps hide everything. (Similar exists for waistbands.)

...Have to snicker a little when, in order to fit the fifth member of the core marriage into the shot, I have to stick him half a mile away...

Anyway. This is just to let everybody know that for Pride Month of 2026, the Ebooks Direct Pride Package has been really ridiculously discounted.

...From the product page:

This package contains all our Middle Kingdoms material—some of the first LGBTQ-representing epic fantasy in the 20th-century fantasy field, now continuing into the 21st. It also contains the matter-of-fact exit from the (contextual) closet of two of the best-loved characters in the Young Wizards universe—Advisory wizards Tom Swale and Carl Romeo, on their first canonically-"out" venture as a couple. The main part of the collection spans more than forty years, from the publication of Diane Duane's two-time Astounding Award finalist The Door Into Fire, first published in 1979, through its main-sequence sequels (both also Gaylaxic Spectrum Awards Hall of Fame winners) The Door Into Shadow and The Door Into Sunset, to 2018's and 2019's interstitial Tales of the Five novels, The Levin-Gad and The Landlady. The collection also includes such otherwise hard to find short works as Lior and the Sea and the two current volumes of the "Sirronde's World" group, The Span and Parting Gifts.* And finally, it also includes the Middle Kingdoms novelette Overdue (Tales of the Middle Kingdoms #2), and the short Young Wizards work Owl Be Home For Christmas.

All that for $19.99? Seriously, I need my head felt. So please go validate my mental state by buying the package. ...And happy Pride!

(Meanwhile, a project for the course of the month is to put all the queer, bi, and/or ace characters in my various series into that shot. That bridge should be a little more crowded by the time I'm done...) 😏

My space cadet look for my latest retro-cosmic show Destination: Uranus

Murderbot has in fact freed other secunits before. Multiple times. Do not forget that. But also one time it offered and the combat unit was like I ACTIVELY WANT TO MURDER THE FUCK OUT OF YOU. So. It's cautious.

Three is doing something so developmentally important here. It's NOT just that Three knows it has a team to fall back on if it gets into trouble with the baddies, it's also that Three has figured out it can get in trouble with it's own side and that's ok. It's not thrilled to have pissed off ART but it did it anyways! It now knows it can be in trouble and not get tortured or disassembled over it! It did something it wasn't supposed to and then came home to the people who would be mad about it, even though it didn't have to! It could have run off to keep doing it's own thing but didn't.

I love that Murderbot's POV is so limited because it just only cares about it's own missions. If we hear in 2 books from now about how every SecUnit in the Torus deserted their post and have colonized a moon together or something somewhere Murderbot would just be like "huh". Like there would be an emotion check about it but it's not going to stop it's soap operas for more than 3 minutes about it.

I know the idea of the rogue unit that approached Murderbot recognizing Murderbot as the originator of the code is hilarious, but also, let us consider that if it doesn't recognize Murderbot as the originator of the code that unit is gonna get such a weird view of the world. Like sometimes you live your whole life in shackles and then somebody breaks them for you and you run around and the next SecUnit you run into is already free. You'd have to wonder, then, if freedom is far more normal than you'd realized. And you'd have to think- these free units are doing ok. Maybe I can also be ok. Also, the successful free unit is wearing a highly distinctive garment that must have a tactical purpose given than it is still on a mission. And is telling you to change your clothes. So like...maybe it is tactically useful to wear a very colorful poncho thing. Maybe it should tell the other free units to get those, to. It seems to have been aiding that successful free unit. And thus, free sec unit fashion culture is born.

im talking the events of the tok'ra/jolinar's memories 2 parters but More. missing people that she's never met and places that she's never been to. people she already knew reminding her of people she never did. speaking words of a language she knows instinctually, but can't really translate into english. using tok'ra sayings by accident, transliterating them and being perplexed when people ask her what she means. humming tunes she's never heard with her own ears, children's songs from someone else's culture. having skills she didn't have before - mundane as well as practical. maybe she's better at sketching, now.

and physical things! super cool that she can use goa'uld tech and sense symbiotes but there's more you could do with that as well! talking to teal'c without turning round because she just knows he's there. she has a new favourite food now, influenced by jolinar's preferences. she has slightly-too-good reflexes, strength, endurance from the lingering proteins left by the symbiote: she forgets to sleep because she was used to late nights anyway and she's stopped noticing when one all-nighter blends into two or three or four at a time. jack swears up and down that he's seen her eyes glow a little before - sam wouldn't believe him, but daniel says he's seen it too. she's wary of mirrors now, uneasy at the thought of seeing her eyes glow like that.