I read about the first fifth of Ghost Story (Dresden Files) this morning. According to my history it’s been a little over 5 years since I last read this, it feels like so much less. To be as vague as possible, that first meeting with the Ragged Lady breaks my heart every time.

I also started The Fellowship of the Ring earlier this week. Only a couple of chapters in, so not much to say about that yet except that I find Hobbits very unpleasant.

I’ve continued Words of Radiance after a 8-9 month hiatus. This Graphic Audio thing is still rad, I’ve just been going through a reading reading phase rather than an audiobook one. I haven’t gotten around to getting a physical copy yet because I have the previous book in the giant hardcover with (I think) the European art? My local fantasy bookshop hasn’t had it in when I’ve been around and I haven’t bothered to ask.

Finished the latest Incryptid, the last couple have been a bit disappointing. They never quite do it for me, what I really want is for the books to go for another chapter and let me see the family in the aftermath of the story, but they always end abruptly right as the climax resolves and there’s no wind-down. You’d think after 14 books I’d be used to it but it always leaves me a little deflated. It’s nice that we get to explore a little more of different characters each book, but I just want to see them together outside of an immediate crisis too.

What else… I’m near the beginning of The Death of WCW, we’re still going through the history of wrestling in North America. I know a lot of it and don’t really care, but it’s necessary context so fair enough.

Oh and I still have a handful of other books on the backburner, Storygraph says I have 12 books going 🤷‍♂️ I’ll finish some eventually.

Ootl here, is that the president Sleepy Joe I’ve seen getting mocked for years?

I’m most of the way through The Hobbit, it’s fine. It’s a kids book, so I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece.

I also fell a few weeks behind Dracula Daily, but I finished that last night. Can’t say I really enjoyed it outside of a few parts (Lucy was the most interesting) but it’s a classic so I’m glad I can say I’ve read it now.

Ah, the most common argument for exclusives in the last 20 years of console wars.

But she’s honest about the limits, summing it up, “But that’s part of the job, and it’s what makes it fun and challenging and keeps every day new. And it’s, you know, it’s temporary. We’re one year down. We got three to go.”

Assuming there really are only 3 to go, she’ll still be younger than I am now when she finishes, and she’s clearly in a much better place financially. Who gives a fuck?

I don’t have kids because I work 5 13-hour shifts a week and I don’t think it’d be responsible to bring a child into that when I can’t be there to help raise them (nevermind the health issues I’m risking from sleep deprivation already, I don’t need a newborn on top of that). My partner also works full time, and even then we’re barely making enough to get by. But hey, let’s have a story about how one of the worst people in the world had to cancel her 3 holidays this year.

In the end, Leavitt’s reality reads like a cautionary tale for anyone thinking proximity to power comes cheap. Between the canceled trips, the social media taunts, the age-gap commentary, and the nonstop demands of defending Trump, she’s living the full cost of the job — as she put it, just “part of the job.”

So… she isn’t even complaining? This writer is just sad that Leavitt’s life must be tough because of all of these things she chose to do? Thank you for wasting everybody’s time, Atlanta Black Star. I hope your engagement-bait is fulfilling.

Oh

Are they the same guys that dropped Fénix a week ago?

Luckily he’s a really good performer with tons of goodwill saved up, so nobody will make fun of him.

Does he have another wife? Last I heard of him (not that I keep up to date with this loser) was when a video of him abusing his wife came out a couple of years ago, then he spent a while bitching about how women shouldn’t be allowed to file for divorce.

Often I’ll find myself tuning in and out of episodes depending on how engaging the clips are. I listened to this within the last 2.5 hours and I don’t remember a single thing that was said by anybody starting from the first clip of Tucker. I don’t even remember the episode ending, I just suddenly realised it was over while I was working. I’m so glad they’re not continuing this one, it did not grip me at all.

I got them the most recent time, and one of the two was misprinted. The time before that happened to be right when I took a week off work so I wasn’t listening to podcasts on my commute.

Even without the sandbagging that was sloppy as hell. Did they think the match was over after the super kicks or what? They just stood there (and botched a high five, but we’ve all been there).

Came second three times and that’s enough for the Delphoxite. I hate this so much. At least give us normal battles (you know, the thing we’ve just spent 100 hours doing) and not this 4-way shite. I’ve never had less fucking fun.

Weird, Paul James and James Paul are the two fake names I use when I sign up for something I don’t want having my real name.

I’m nearing the end of Changes by Jim Butcher, and since I didn’t really like the following book all that much I thought I’d take a break to finally read the Lord of the Rings series. I got a nice clothbound set of them to match The Hobbit I already had (though for some infuriating reason The Hobbit is half a centimetre taller) and I grabbed The Silmarillion this morning in the same style. I’ll probably never get around to reading that one but my gf is way into these and she’s wanted it for ages.

Edit, pic because they’re really nice

Only rank S, thank goodness. I didn’t do badly last time and it wasn’t particularly difficult, but it wasn’t at all fun either.

You get EVs for a knockout AND a catch, so you can double up. Once you get the Power items there are good spots to target stats, or you can just run through low level areas, attack and catch everything, then use berries (which only cost 200 each) to clear out the stats you didn’t want. It’s super convenient. Before getting the Power items I took a full day to train my team, it’s not worth doing it early.

I’m not a PvP person at all in any games, so even though I did the bare minimum and it only took an hour or so I hated every second of it. As much as I want to grab a Sports Ball for 100% items, I really don’t want to go any further. I came 1st a couple of times and 4th once, but in general I’d hover around 1st-2nd with a Greninja, Machamp/Victreebel & Aerodactyl.

I’m not looking forward to doing it twice more, but I have Delphox and Chesnaught on my roster so I’ll have to (I’ve recreated everything I’ve trained in previous games for randomising my team every day in the endgame, EV training is faster than ever now).

I used Linq for a while. It makes lessons out of whatever “real” content you want in the target language, so you can watch videos, listen to music, read news articles, whatever. The app/site translates words for you as you need them, and keeps track of what you have and haven’t encountered before, so you can find the percentage of new words that works best for you as you look for new articles. I imported a couple of ebooks and read through them, it was pretty good. There’s also a way to pair up with native speakers of your target language who are learning English so you can chat and help each other I think, but I never used it.

It does have the same problem as other things like Duolingo and Memrise where it gamifies it and adds a daily streak, so if you’re not in the mood you have to force yourself to sit down for 10 minutes and do something. I don’t know about other people but personally all that does is ensure I never get enough of a break to get back into the mood, so I do the bare minimum every day and resent it.

Did they actually come back or did a bunch of comments not show up in your profile because the subs were private so they didn’t get deleted, then they reappeared when the subs reopened? I thought some of mine were restored too, but it was a combination of that and the tool I used only hitting the most recent 1000.

Shame?

“I know that this decision will upset many, and delight others, but in this political climate I must keep my family safe,” Douglass said

He’s resigning because the left is so viowent and scawy, not because he’s ashamed. We’ll all have forgotten his name in 2 weeks and he’ll have a better job somewhere else, pulling the exact same shit.