The Sidewise Award for Alternate History is looking for new judges to join the award committee. It's an award I've cared about for more than 25 years, and loved judging for the past five years. If you are interested in alternate history, put your hat in the ring. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

As Ben explains in the discussion here, simply reporting special votes as they are counted would mean outcomes become clear and pundits could make calls. We'd have a sense of the shape of parliament and opinion writers who hate waiting for the final update can pen endless columns as counting unfolds

Imo one of the best epic fantasies of recent years. Big fun fantasy stuff yes, but also some serious reflection on colonialism, extractive capitalism, patriarchy, and control of information. (Also *extremely* recognisably Australian (w/o being fantasy!Aus) if you're from this corner of the world)

@meakoopa.bsky.social - had to do it. (And can I again marvel (womp) that we've got a himbo Juggernaut baking muffins for his boyfriend and their mutual situationship (I feel like Quaari probably doesn't do boyfriends per se?) in the pages of a mainstream comic)

"A simple way to get to know about a town is to see how the people work, how they love, and how they die"

1 hour painting

Those mean two *very* different things. (the yellow ticker is correct; the applied to the tenancy tribunal but did not get an order permitting eviction.)

CHOTINER: And you didn’t know this person - what did you call him again? CELEBRIMBOR GREATEST OF THE ELVEN SMITHS: Right, his name was Annatar but CHOTINER: And you taught him to create a ring harnessing all his malice and cruelty? CELEBRIMBOR: Well I mean I was deceived CHOTINER: So you’ve said

"A simple way to get to know about a town is to see how the people work, how they love, and how they die"

Interesting that baseball doesn't really have the grammar for Ohtani - as with most American sport, extreme specialisation dominates - but cricket does: Ohtani is a historically great all rounder. Imran Khan or Gary Sobers level.

Apropos of nothing, Gen Z is at that awkward point where the youngest members are still uncomplicatedly children and the oldest are approaching 30. Any discourse about them where age is relevant is utterly meaningless unless we identify which end of that age bracket we're talking about.

(am I sad Avengers Academy has been cancelled on seemingly little notice, the last domino to prompt this thought? Yes. But it also is & will remain an extraordinary fusion of high culture, low culture, creative visual storytelling & pure faggotry. & it's remarkable Marvel let it exist for 60 issues)

Flicking through my bookshelf looking for something to help with a bit of a reading slump. Picked up an old favourite; I'm going to resist a reread for now, but noticed its epigram for the first time in ages. McHugh's work lives that sentiment, & I wish more SFF understood why that was interesting.

This sounds like a hell of a double act.

Strikes me that when things end it's often extraordinary, looking back that they lasted as long as they did. TV shows, bands, basic methods of social ordering lol... Not really a profound insight just that permanence isn't an indicator of value. Some things have value *because* they were temporary.

essamayranapiri.com/naakahi/ Have put pdf of my epilogue/zine/chapbook to ECHIDNA up on my website. Check it out if you're interested ktk.

CHOTINER: So your son is 14, is that right? IKARI: It's complex, Isaac. If— CHOTINER: And the “robot” he pilots, that’s actually the child of an alien you keep crucified in the basement, which is possessed by the spirit of his dead mother? IKARI: Look, let me answer the question. CHOTINER: Sure.

Stuff quiz attempting to induce Italy to declare war on NZ.

I think "the grammar of it" is a key point for why a lot of these feel dissatisfying to me, it feels like they carve out just enough space for a central pair of exceptional queer characters (and sometimes their friend group) instead of the broader reimagined social speculation of earlier queer SFF

Useful piece. I'd jump off it to make a slightly different point too: if trad pubs are mining fanfic (either reskinning or clearly using the grammar of it) for the bulk of their queer books (which they *are* for queer dudes in SFF), then all queer rep looks like fic & don't we *also* deserve canon?

Tonight in Wellington, a panel celebrating Maurice Gee's writing for children features Kate De Goldi, Claire Mabey, Harry Ricketts, Anna Jackson, Tatjana Schaefer and Dr Vivien van Rij, chaired by Emeritus Professor Kathryn Walls. Floor 12, Rutherford House, Bunny Street, 5.30-7pm - all welcome!

If you want to support some #NewZealand game developers @steampowered.com have an NZ made sale on right now store.steampowered.com/sale/nzgames...

Justice For CJ Cherryh

2) Bit of a goldilocks effort here with the birds (1 big, 1 small, 1 in the middle), plus an arty black and white. I like the pattern the fallen tree & foliage make against the sky.

It's better in Auckland 😉

Brilliant view of the partial solar eclipse in Wellington, looking towards the rising sun.

Processed a couple of days' worth of photos today, so enough to justify a double post! 1) A couple of twisty tūī (motion blur in the 2nd isn't on purpose but I like the effect), a full family portrait of our paradise duck friends, & a takahē friend a *long* way from its usual upper lake haunt.

There is a tiny independent bookshop that specialises in romance that’s opened in Remuera. Went there today with Ms 21, just delightful. A great selection & a lovely spot to visit. enamouredbooks.co.nz highly recommended in these trying times.

Editing photos from my last wander, and stuck again how much difference some (reasonably light; I don't like pushing things from naturalistic to hyperreality) editing makes. See e.g. below: edited on the left, original on the right. Lighting tweaked, sharpened slightly & colour balance tweaked.

this exists it is called thinking

I have to explain computers to both my older and younger coworkers.

So, uh... Apparently we're interrogating the techs from the wrong perspective?

No better place in Aotearoa New Zealand to be chewing the fat about public law. 🐝

Zealandia Red Alert: Paradise duck fluffies! (and some other friends)

Friday evening. Gin time. (There are many good gins out there, good in many different contexts. I think this is by some distance my favourite for a gin and tonic light on tonic & heavy on gin. Also; gorgeous bottle)

Still unmatched in match-3 goodness, a remaster of the OG Puzzle Quest is out today. If you haven't played well worth doing so - not much change from the original other than a couple of QoL tweaks and improved graphical fidelity, but the version newbies should pick up. (on PC and most consoles)

It is 20 years since Conor Gearty gave the Hamlyn Lectures on Can Human Rights Survive? As a mark of respect following the dreadful news of his, Cambridge University Press & Assessment has made these lectures Open Access for the remainder of the year. You can find them here: lnkd.in/e5Xrt2G5

Some *really* fun replies to this. Do dive in and offer an opinion, or find some 30/40 year old shelf-bending epics to dive into!

There's a reasonably large list of vaguely conspiratorial views to my left I have never quite got but the most bizarre of them has to be this idea that legal personhood is a neoliberal conspiracy. Like the ghost of Milton Friedman is cackling in delight as your local cricket club buys some bats.

A word for good customer service, NZ folks. Got a phone from Parallel Imported, screen stopped working. Prompt response to my warranty query, prompt communication on receipt of my phone, and prompt confirmation that they accepted it was faulty, with clear communication of timelines. Impressed.

"The university will stop sharing the data required to be included in the ranking as of 2026. As a result, Sorbonne University will no longer feature in future rankings produced by THE, which include the World University Rankings, the Rankings by Subject or the Impact Rankings." Excellent!

With apologies to anyone with this name who tries to @ me over the next week.

Some *really* fun replies to this. Do dive in and offer an opinion, or find some 30/40 year old shelf-bending epics to dive into!

If a college or university pledged to eliminate not only AI but screens from campus, outside dedicated labs, I would want very badly to teach there.

Nothing about Brust's Dragaera novels feels like epic fantasy, but I'm pretty sure the Khaavren Romances technically check the boxes.

Man, more people really *should* read Julian May's Pliocene Exile books (bonkers in a good way, really hasn't been anything like it since, tho you do have to put up with a bit more sexism than I'd like) but don't think they're epic fantasy. Nominally (very nominally) science fiction.

Re: the Deverry, as someone who came to them as an adult, I do think the thing that makes them still worth it is how very human they are. There's a whole lot of nonsense going on, but the people do feel peopley, and there's something there to connect to that I think really helps them out.

SFF discourse starter for the morning: The "stop reccing Golden Age SF to people, it doesn't hold up" discourse is never ending. But I haven't seen the equivalent for the golden age of fat epic fantasy; the 80s and 90s. So: what 80s & 90s epic fantasy holds up best to modern eyes and why?

All these games have my highest recommendation. If I haven't convinced you to play them yet, take the opportunity. Stories of ephemeral community and flickering hope in the ruins of interstellar capitalism seems particularly on point these days.