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Finished reading Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston this morning. Picked it specifically for a more challenging literary read than my usual fare, and because with Black History Month going on, filling the gap in my English Literature education that is Black writers.
It was definitely a challenging read, it took a while to get used to the phonetically spelled dialect in the dialog. But I'm glad I did it. The book was worth it. A rich slice of life story
Reading a book on literary analysis: How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Really enjoying how approachable it is, how light the tone is while simultaneously holding out info and trusting the reader.
It feels more like a chat with a smart friend than a lecture. Also, it is vastly expanding my TBR with the examples. Like needing to fill the giant gap in my reading history that is Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Finished Twelve Months last night and moving to Sword of Shannara from the D&D 5e 2014 Inspirational Reading list.
Looked a bit at the Goodreads reviews first, and see that some just see it as fully derivative of Lord of the Rings. So far, with son of the Inn keeper and mysterious stranger arriving to small town I see more overlap with Wheel of Time (which came later)
Okay, so I've loved watching Technology Connections (@TechConnectify) for years. I am loving the new video both with good info about renewables and batteries and filled with righteous Midwest anger about the current state of the US. (There's a fake credits roll where the explicit USPol begins if that's not in your current capacity to enjoy but would like the renewables talk). Learn from Minnesota and take care of each other!
Dolmenwood does some extra focus, looking at certain Lord Dunsany texts that are in Appendices N, 3, and E, and then narrowly adding modern texts like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and Stardust to the focused list.
Sort of like Cyberpunk Red does with its Bibliography, ignoring general adventure books in favor of seminal Cyberpunk stories like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Neuromancer, and Snow Crash.
In copying out AD&D's Appendix N, 5e's Appendix E, Pathinder's Appendix 3, and Dolmenwood's Inspirational Books, it's been interesting to note both the overlaps and maybe more interesting, which titles fail to overlap.
Appendix N is largely early 20th Cent. Pulp Adventure. Appendix E takes Appendix N and modernizes it with 40 years of modern fantasy.
Pathfinder Appendix 3 does some modernizing, but also interestingly (to me) looks backwards from Appendix N to things like Shakespeare or Dracula
I've made some reading lists from AD&D Appendix N, 5e's Appendix E, and some other games.
Based on a post from Grognardia (https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-original-dungeon-delver.html?m=0), I've started my delve into the inspirational media of D&D with The Moon Pool by A. Merritt, written in 1919.
It begins with a classic D&D scene, a group faced with a door that will not open and puzzling how to make it do so. And then when the door does open...
Liking Merritt's immersive description so far.
@annaleen I can't say particularly why, it may just be a craving, but this question put the image of a specific cheese in my head.
Cougar Gold by the Washington State University Creamery (I graduated as a University of Washington Husky, this cheese is the ONE thing I can give them)
It's a sharp white cheddar, aged 14 months, and ships in a can. When you open the can, you just get this sharp, pungent, tangy smell. There's a crust of amino acid crystals on the cheese.
Strength Cheese.
Finished my reread of Snow Crash tonight. As much as I love so much of this book, there's a whole bunch that's been visited by the suck fairy since I first read it at age 22.
Like Fido the Rat Thing is the best boy 10/10, would pet.
But there's this tying of sex and violence throughout that doesn't feel like a purposeful theme, or if it is, doesn't feel like a critique. Which given that the protagonist not named Protaganist is a 15-year-old girl, hits a little different as a dad.
@gamerchick02 @kevie I don't either, though I still have more fountain pens than I originally thought I'd have.
For my main rotation, I do love my 3-pen slip that fits in my jacket pocket with a cool retrowave fountain pen design on it. I should probably get something better for organizing than "pen cup" for the others though.
Amid prepping and playing a Cyberpunk Red session with a friend, I've been rereading Snow Crash.
At 77% through, I'm noticing a pattern of a ton of the violence having a sexualization aspect to it with many of the YT chapters having a "should we check his hard drives?" aspect to them. To use a meme, there's a lot of "writer's barely disguised fetish" going on, or at least the appearance of it. Like, "human shark" going for a crotch bite, what?
Using a pocket notebook to keep track of some inspirational reading for games, grabbing Appendix N together with lists from other games.
The mistake was writing the list in Pilot Precise v10 (read 1.0mm liquid ink) in a Moleskine pocket notebook (all the local Office Max had in the form factor), it's on me, I should have remembered. Not like I've seen my Lamy 2000 bleed through multiple pages...
@jwilker Oh, as a reader, that wasn't sarcastic. Random recommendation actually sounds great, but the list is good too.
@jwilker Wait, a list of works recommended by SFF writers that will toss a random work at me every time I refresh?
This sounds great!
@Da_Gut Oh, what's the worst that could happen by adding hallucinations to food service? (/s)
Doing some meal prep for the work week. Found a bulgogi sauce at the grocery store and had to grab it (I have no Korean restaurants around).
With the addition of a bunch of green onions, a boat load of toasted sesame seeds, and a drizzle of sesame oil on top, this tastes like college at the University of Washington.
(I miss the Korean food on The Ave)
@gamerchick02 Do not have 48 pens *yet*
Azura Stevens is so freaking good. Just bucket after bucket in this game.
@MenacingMecha That Starship Troopers armor really got around
@cptbutton @MichaelsMind High CO2 environments can be super dangerous. We had a rule in a university dining hall I worked at that you were not allowed to take the compost bins to the compost bin room alone because the door swinging shut behind you could result in a high CO2 displacing O2 environment real fast.