Like I know I should be the most pissed that he’s going to spread hated deport, immigrants, restrict women, jail blacks, and in general make a lot of decisions that are going to hurt if not kill people.
But I’m actually the most pissed that he now thinks he’s justified. That he said all that drivel, was convicted of 34 federal crimes, sexually assaulted women, and his narcissistic brain is justified that he is a man among men. Fuck all y’all and your ignorance.
Category: reviews
Day 8
Okay, it makes perfect sense. The Uneducated are easiest to lie to. They don’t know how to think or reason beyond a certain capacity or how to research, find sources, and draw conclusions. If you want people to listen to your propaganda w/o questioning, being uneducated is the way to maximize the number of people who will believe you without questioning.
Thus leave it to the stakes, some of which will continue to fund schools and promote education and others who won’t, or, more likely, will teach whatever version of history they want. As a Qanon toting acquaintance so elegantly said when admonishing all education, “If you teach someone 2+2 is 3 their whole life, they won’t know any better.” And what better way to ensure children grow up knowing white males are superior, women are only smart enough to stay hope and please their husbands, and all POCs are dirty, stupid and savage such that they should either be deported or enslaved? Oh and America was always in the right and never did anything wrong.
So divides will really begin to form between states. Unable to find a job if you were educated in the ‘wrong state’. Does 2+2 equal 3 or 4? And, if you’re not rich/intelligent enough to home school a child in a state teaching its own version of history, sucks to be them.
Day 7
I read/ heard a story once about some prisoners of war and how they handled being imprisoned. The ones that expected to be freed, that expected any day that their country would come for them ended up breaking first. And the ones that accepted that this was their reality and maybe they would get out and maybe not ended up enduring.
I’ve been like the first one, expecting to wake up one day and the boomers have died and the idiotic selfish people have become the minority. And after the pain and shock of this election, I’ve have to accept that there is no one coming to save us. Things will never be ’good’ again, at least not during my lifetime. Enough voters are swayed by this drivel that it will always be a fight. And enough politicians care about nothing but money and power.
But even though this is reality, and even though sometimes we need to mourn or rage, there are plenty of people out there who feel the same. Plenty of people who are thinkers and carers, who are pushing through the fear to make things better. We are seeing the creation of the ’strong people’ that ’hard times’ create. And as long as we accept this reality and do what we can to nudge it toward a better one, we’ll be as okay as we can be.
Because this is the reality that we have to live in. There is no one coming to save us. I thought maybe the boomers would die off and we’d have only the younger generation who grew up in this shit economy, but this last election showed, nope.
Day 3
I had a very negative ’daydream’/what if type situation. I was at work doing a task that doesn’t require much active thought. And so my brain went on a magical journey about if the new regime tried to hand maids tale the women. And so I’m there imagining I’m in court because I won’t cover up, and the judge and people are telling me it’s the law and I’ll go to jail if I don’t and I just know if I comply that it’s all over and every woman in the country will end up like the women in Saudi Arabia.
And I know it’s stupid, but I went home and asked my partner what would happen if like, they passed a law that you couldn’t pay women as much as men. (Some sort of example of something little to get women in the home. I’m not diabolical, I know it’s not an amazing plan) for his logic, cause he just knows laws and examples and such and of course he did just that. How businesses could just ignore it, how women would strike, how like no one would put up with it.
And I felt better, but still informed a male friend of what was bothering me to which he replied that he got that was a terrifying thought, and entirely justified, though he doubted it would happen.
I know I wasn’t being logical. But at the same time, the feelings are real. Trump and supporters just have this…idea of the world that is so foreign to me sometimes and it’s a real possibility that they would try something like that. Technically roevwade could be considered the first step.
But the point of this was that no one looked at me and said that was stupid, or that I was overreacting. Not a single person I have expressed any feelings to has. If you have people in your life that are, get away from them. Find your supporters and be safe. Because this is not a good time to be holding in feelings because the people around you are emotionally stunted themselves.
Quick Thoughts: Healthy Women Conflict
Been watching a new Chinese Drama called ‘Everyone Loves Me’. Basic premise is Yue Qianling (female lead) is an artist at a game company and also loves playing fps games. She has a friend group who play together. Gu Xun (male lead) is a member of the friend group, and likes her, but she likes him in real life, and neither of them know the other is the online friend.
Gu Xun has Yue Qianling come work for his department due to her art skills for a particular character, and the person who was working on this character is a woman. I was impressed that they added conflict by having the woman disapprove of her in a completely reasonable way. Yue Qianling’s new and untested, hasn’t worked on this type of game before, her first draft comes out very bland, so the other artist has plenty of reasons to criticize her. And again, the criticisms are completely justified, and while blunt, are not harsh.
The reason I’m pointing it out is because it’s such a refreshing thing to have to women in conflict in an Asian drama in a reasonable way that doesn’t have anything to do with them both bring in love with the same guy or out of irrational jealousy/pettiness over the other’s looks. It’s a legitimate character interaction.
And yes, Yue Qianling does eventually earn her approval.
First Impressions: My Demon
My Demon is a Korean Drama currently coming out on Netflix. Korean Dramas are always hit or miss for me. It is still difficult in this day and age for K-dramas to have a romantic story where the female lead is empowered, or at least not reduced to a helpless damsel in distress if she’s not outright mentally abused by the male lead.
In My Demon, an immortal demon, whose job is to grant a person’s wish for payment of their souls after ten years, loses his power-granting tattoo to a powerful young CEO who is being targeted for death.
I just started episode 3 of this series and so far it has some nice green flags:
- The female lead is a CEO, competent, empowered one, and does not suddenly lose agency when the male lead shows up.
- The male lead has magic powers, but they are limited when his tattoo transfers to her (for unknown reason) so he does not hold all the power in the relationship.
- The female lead is told that the tattoo has his powers and that he needs to be touching her to use them, thus avoiding infantalizing the female lead in that he would just hang around using her without her knowing why.
- Most of the major decisions regarding how the two of them interact are made by the female lead instead of the male lead simply forcing himself on her constantly.
- And though the male lead is a self-centered jerk, is not set up as a child the female lead needs to keep cleaning up after.
- I swear, Korean Dramas are what YA Fantasy would be without the gd age restrictions.
I remain hopeful for this series considering how many of the painful tropes it’s already countered, but I’m annoyed that it’s coming out slowly. Also, since it’s a K-drama, the fact that it’s only 16 episodes is unusual, but they’re not pussy-footing around the plot, and we know the story will be wrapped up at the end of those episodes.
So if this series interests you, like it does me, give it a shot. I’d love to hear what you think about it.
Review: Black Leviathan
My Review of Black Leviathan by Bernd Perplies
My summary: Dragon hunters go out on flying ships to fight and kill dragons, which provide most of the food and clothing to the people of the Cloudmere.
Why I picked up this book: I think I saw it featured in one of Tor.com’s newsletters. I read the back cover copy and thought it looked good.
What I knew going in: It’s a retelling of Moby Dick, but set in a fantasy world with dragons. Also, it was written in German and then translated into English by Lucy Van Clee.
My response: The language was very simple, but that may be a result of it being translated from a different language where the rhythm of language is just different. I found myself pulled along following Lian’s story and the world was very beautifully pulled together.
I was a little less than impressed with the ending, which felt like it was a lot of ‘oh, this is happening because of destiny.’ When there wasn’t really much of a focus on destiny before that point. It almost felt like the book was about to be over and he needed to wrap everything up. There were also a lot of questions that simply got left at the end of the book, which would’ve been fine if there was a sequel, but as far as I can tell there isn’t. Right now I’m just looking at it as there’s enough answered for the book to be over, and enough unanswered that you know the characters are going to go out and have more adventures.
Do I recommend this book?: If you’re going to be upset by a less than stellar ending, then avoid it, but if you’re okay with a wonderful ride of a book and wonderful world-building then I do recommend it.
Review: Gotham Seasons 1-4
Review: Gotham
My husband and I describe Gotham with the phrase: “The worst show on TV we never miss an episode of.”
Our relationship with Gotham has been very interesting, from the beginning. We gave it a shot because it’s Batman, or that universe at least. This show has a lot of bad qualities, one of which being the almost universally bad acting. In season 1, I almost couldn’t stand any time Jim Gordan, the main character, tried to act anything more than a casual conversation between coworkers. Bruce Wayne, was almost as terrible, but we gave him a pass because the actor was still a kid. The only person who did seem to be able to act was Harvey Dent.
And yet, week after week we kept coming back to the show, and it paid off. Because this show knows how to do payoffs. Of course I can’t necessarily give any of those without spoilers galore, but while the lead up is rough and sometimes painful, this show can make the different plots and the different characters come together into beautiful and amazing moments that make you want to cheer.
And thankfully, by Season 5, the acting has improved, and looking back, the character development has been rather beautiful. Jim, Penguin, Barbara, Selena, Ivy, and especially Ed and Bruce. Jim still overacts when he gets really emotional, but Bruce has really settled so firmly into his role and it is a beautiful thing to behold. The first episode of Season 5 has me eager to see how things are going to progress. If you haven’t given Gotham a shot, I’d encourage you to. And if you can make it through the first season, it’s totally worth it. (Plus, season two is when Alfred suddenly becomes more British, because I guess they got a writer who knows British lingo.)
Review: Foundryside
My Review of Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
My summary: A thief takes the job to steal something, even though the offered money is enough to inform her that it’s a job that would be better left alone. She knows she shouldn’t open the box, but she just can’t help herself.
Why I picked up this book: Truthfully? Because I was impressed enough by his ‘Divine Cities’ trilogy and the ending he nailed, that I picked up this book without even reading the cover. I find myself doing that a lot more, recently.
What I knew going in: The book is called Foundryside and he got some cover quotes by impressive people.
My response: I had my mind blown by the world building at least three times in the first 150 pages of this book. I devoured this book like it was a thriller, it pulled me along so beautifully. There was one span of maybe ten pages somewhere close after the halfway point that dragged enough for me to notice. The characters were all enjoyable, the magic system was amazing, and I am dying to find out more about the world he’s set up.
Do I recommend this book?: In terms of world-building and magic system, I was impressed by this book more page for page than anything Sanderson I’ve read. Wow, that was actually painful for me to write. So yes, go read this book.
Review: Vicious
My Review of Vicious by V.E. Scwab
My summary: Two college students discover how ExtraOrdinaries, people with special abilities, are created. And then they try it for themselves.
Why I picked up this book: I liked her first series, plus I heard it was really good.
What I knew going in: I knew it was about people with special powers.
My response: The cover certainly portrays the correct feeling. I found myself intrigued by how she draws the reader through the book using time skipping to introduce questions to get you around the fact that the main character really isn’t all that likable, especially to begin with.
I enjoyed this book, and the characters in it, but it didn’t really hook me in any meaningful way. But then darker, grittier series tend to really have to grab me with characters, and this one just didn’t do that. I’m not sure whether I’ll pick up the next book or not.
Do I recommend this book?: It was well written, just not my cup of tea. I have a few friends I’d recommend it to because I know their reading habits, but I won’t go out of my way to talk it up.