The Blue Room

So I recently devoured Lois McMaster Bujold's world of the five gods fantasy stuff and decided to start in on the Vorkosigan Saga. I was absolutely NOT READY for the hot mess (affectionate) that is Shards of Honor.

First bit is a beautifully crafted space adventure novella with compelling characters and everything you want it to have.

Ohhh but we're not done yet! Now it's time for a high drama pulp sci-fi thing featuring WAR and PLOTS and BONDAGE and MURDER and COMPLICATED POISONS and SINISTER FACES GLIMPSED IN THE MIRROR.

And then we're back planetside, but it's a dystopian psychological trap thing somewhere on the timeline between 1984 and late-series Hunger Games. Lordt!

But we get out of that and run to... political intrigue and love and a gentle atmospheric spiritual ominous hopeful thing???

And the epilogue is its own short story that is both lovely and fucked up! What??

and then. My partner started it. And the SAME THING happened to him.

It really does smell bad, all the time. A sort of miasma of piss, smoke, and garbage

Not many trees, not many parks, at least not that I saw. A brick plaza covered with tables and framed by five trees does not count as a park

It just…looks ugly. The buildings are just dingy brick walls covered in fire escapes. This isn’t about age or upkeep of the buildings, this is about architecture and human overcrowding. What if the entire world was brown and blocked the sun.

It’s a heat sink like fuck. Hottest 63 degree day I think I’ve ever felt

Cyclists are nuts. They’re flying in all directions at all times, ignoring all traffic laws and oncoming cars, weaving haphazardly through pedestrians, not one of them wearing a helmet. On another level

Restaurants don’t want you to sit. Not “there’s limited space in this tiny shop,” but “we could 100% have chairs, we just don’t want you to spend time here”

Got the link via @finalducc

The governments agenda is clearly spelled out in this consultation, through the phrasing of the questions.

Excuse me while I link a video. It’s a clip from a comedy so it’s a bit exaggerated but it demonstrates the point very well.

Almost all the questions in that survey were “leading questions”. They had an inherent presumption that the person answering agreed with age restrictions, wanted more severe ones and wanted more websites and services restricted. (Believe me I take no pleasure in being correct that VPN’s are next on their target list).

This is a consultation where they try and make you look a monster for saying no. They push the “but it’s for the children” hard. Like there was one question where in order to say no, you had to not object to children sending/receiving nudes which felt wrong. I mean that’s bad, obviously that’s bad. But the answer isn’t total lockdown of the internet to verified ID.

So yeah if you are from the UK then fill this out, and fill it out carefully. Don’t let them manipulate or trick you into agreeing that mandated age restrictions are necessary, as that is what we have with this “you must prove your identity” and it looks like they want to make it worse, not roll it back.

no leaves, but plenty of eyes.

inspired by me spacing out on a long drive & staring at trees. this happened earlier this year, and birches ended up growing leaves before i finished the doll.