Washington State friends: There’s a bill proposed to outlaw gender affirming care for minors in Washington. It's currently open for public comment. Please go add your voice. app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/bill/1038

This is his pardon, purchas’d by such sin For which the pardoner himself is in.

Twice

Truly one of the most amazing shrugs in literary history #tolkien

Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Portland Saturday to protest ahead of the incoming presidential administration. “I look out on all of you, and I see an ally in each of you,” said Veronica Leonard, “What we have now is a stronger, more united coalition of communities than ever before.”

Just a quick guidance to the differences between #wuxia and #xianxia. - Wuxia stories center around martial heroes with superb combat skills who live by a code of honor, justice & virtue. - #JinYong 's novels are typical of this genre with numerous film / TV / #cdrama adaptations.

NEW: My staff just got ahold of this memo from House Budget Committee Republicans. It's lengthy and hard to digest but it tells us exactly how Republicans plan to sell out the American people for another round of tax cuts to the rich. We're breaking down the highlights as we go:

I don't want to stream anything! I don't care how convenient it is—let me give media companies my money in exchange for actually owning a physical version of the movie/TV show/album/whatever. I don't really want to pirate these things; I want to legally purchase PHYSICAL COPIES I OWN. /80s baby

The problem is we combined Tolkien with King Arthur, losing key parts of each. So you get the orphan farmboy who is the Chosen One/True King and must defeat the Dark Lord, the classic LotR + Sword in the Stone formula --

Frost: "Never did I think that my first debate of the new congress would be debating a Republican bill that empowers pedophiles and predators. They say it's about protecting women but it's a damn lie." @maxwellfrost.bsky.social

Rep AOC: "republicans, who have voted consistently against the violence against women's act, who have taken the rights of all women to have control over their own body, who as women are bleeding out in parking lots, now want to pretend today that they care about women."

An excellent article on the Gaiman accusations—some of the information has been available for months (enough for us to know he was a sexual abuser), but this is a) nuanced, insightful reporting and b) has more sources and a LOT more detail (TW for basically everything including child abuse).

Starbucks workers in LA are being forced to work in areas impacted by the recent wildfires - even where the air quality is unsafe. Management told partners that stores must open because “the community depends on us,” ignoring that some workers had to evacuate their own homes.

we must remember anita bryant as she lived

[laughs in Greek]

This is absolutely not restricted to Meta; judging by the cavalier and apologise-rather-than-ask-permission attitudes of Big Tech, and yet so many of us in academia are pretending that using ChatGPT or Microsoft's Copilot is fine, as if there are no ethical issues.

What happens when aliens attempt to govern humanity, only to find we're a rather ungovernable species? @jdnicoll.bsky.social on five stories in which our alien overlords get more than they bargained for. reactormag.com/five-stories...

Put your best foot forward in this new year, it's the first Manul Monday of 2025!

Happy Birthday to J.R.R. Tolkien. Thank you for bring such inspiration to readers and creatives around the world! "J.R.R. Tolkien" 42" x 33"- 106cm x 83cm oil on panel, 2012 private collection

Every year on 1 January, Public Domain Day celebrates the artistic works that enter the public domain, becoming free for everyone to use, share, and adapt. Wikimedia volunteers are at the forefront of sharing these works while navigating copyright restrictions. ➡️ w.wiki/CbAe

Stop Forcing A.I. into Fucking EVERYTHING!

Earthrise. Taken #OTD 56 years ago. In terms of seeing that we're all on this one single planet, it's one of the most important photos ever taken.

Canadian man tempted to support annexation just to watch Americans try to deal with Quebec

(Incidentally, I just turned in a novel outline yesterday, so word to the wise -- in general as you start selling things on proposal rather than on spec, you will NEED to give people outlines. So I suggest learning how to produce one on demand even if you don't usually use them in your process.)

I didn't remotely achieve my goal of revising every day for the #NovWritingChallenge because I was derailed by a whole ton of things in November, mainly teaching Shakespeare, the US elections, and asthma problems that struck after I got COVID and never returned to my previous baseline. THAT SAID-

it's clear now that republican trolls are squatting here. i know it's tempting to engage, but i cannot stress enough that blocking is the only way to preserve this community. block and move on. block and move on. block and move on.

I'm both intrigued and nervous about the talk of Bluesky adopting a paid model of sorts. The only one I've ever found worthwhile is Dreamwidth's, both out of goodwill for the site/management, and because I don't have to pay for basic functionality, but do get features I actually value and like.

I have simply not known what to write about for a while now. So I wrote about some things we can do to keep supporting art—specifically books and authors, since that's my beat.

Just found out about Paul Susi's work getting people ID's so they can get benefits or apply for jobs, or whatever else they might need government ID for; filling in a niche that shouldn't need to be filled, but for this fucking system. Trying to find out if there's anything like this around here…

People of Bluesky! Quote a favorite film using gifs only.

9. Senator Wyden (D-Oregon): "After the 2004 election a lot of pundits said it was time for Democrats to stop standing up for gay people. They were wrong, and history showed we could stand up for what’s right and still win elections."

You've been kidnapped. The characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who is coming to save you? For me, it's the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series. I feel sure I'll be rescued in the end, and with a certain amount of homoerotic flourish tbh.

King: hey guys sorry i'm late King: i just could not get up this morning King: feels like I've been sleeping for days King: what did i miss? King: how did the election go? Lovecraft: not too bad King: King: oh no King: oh no oh no oh no

The moment I saw the picture, I somehow felt this HAD to be in the PNW, even before seeing it's in Oregon. I know "80% bleak mundanity, but with a certain eldritch je ne sais quoi" is not a concept limited by political boundaries (or time or space, I suspect!), but it feels like our kind of evil.

Silmarillion miniatures from a Dragon magazine ad in 1991. WAY before I was familiar with these characters. I don't know what I like more, the fact that they made two Túrins (why not one for each name?) or the fact that they also made Gwindor (poor Gwindor) and Beleg (poor Beleg).

sorry I mistyped this nightmare path: File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options > Privacy Settings > Connected Experiences

Holy shit this is so absolutely fucking perfect

can’t wait 4 “”rogue whitehouse staff””” to start skeetin “we’re weally sowwy about deporting all the gays :( :( :( “

Seconding this. There are so many things to care about. Time, energy, resources are finite for all of us. Work where and how you can, wherever your expertise lies. And hold space/the megaphone for folks working on the fronts you can't handle or are less adept at navigating at any given time.

The worst part about this particular moment is that, while I feel deeply sad and anxious, I don’t feel shocked. At all. 2016 was shocking. This is, yep, y’all are exactly who you told us you are.

SARAH MCBRIDE OF DELAWARE BECOMES THE FIRST TRANSGENDER MEMBER OF CONGRESS CAN I GET A HELL YEAH FROM THE STRESSED OUT CHAT

HOPE (1997) Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 13" x 10" Ammonites have always been meant as a personal form of “memento mori” symbols in my art. They are cautionary reminders of our impermanence. 1/7 www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/ho...

Weird nerds who insist it's "unrealistic" for queer people to exist in dark fantasy are so full of it, when queer people exist now, in incredibly dark times. We are and always will be, regardless.

1. Panicked when I couldn't find the ballot I'd properly filled out and signed—but found it last night on my piano and it's getting dropped off with the rest of the household's. 2. I've been busy the last two days, but still managed to find an hour a day for editing for the #NovWritingChallenge! 🎉

As we all await the outcome of what feels like a make-or-break election, I want to offer some perspective, if you’ll hand a fellow with eight-plus decades the mic for a moment.

When it comes to violation of Americans’ privacy, the overturn of Roe has pushed our country to a crisis point. I wrote about how we got here, and what needs to be done to protect women in post-Roe America. Check it out:

I've kept up with the #NovWritingChallenge for a whole two days—around 2 hrs 20 mins of editing today! Some of that was figuring out how to reconcile some apparent inconsistencies, rather than drastic structural revision or line edits, but still important to me and something I had to add in writing.