1338's recent activity
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
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Comment on Benjamin Netanyahu vows there will be no Palestinian state ahead of UN meeting in ~society
1338 Link ParentI wouldn't say "few decades." They were receiving criticism for their human rights violations and official policies of disproportionate response by the 60s. I mean, the freaking nakba was...I wouldn't say "few decades." They were receiving criticism for their human rights violations and official policies of disproportionate response by the 60s. I mean, the freaking nakba was immediately after the partition.
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Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative
1338 LinkI received feedback from my second alpha reader for my manuscript/draft. Assuming I can finish my side/practice thing (which somehow has exploded to 60k), I'll get start on Draft 2 this weekend. I...I received feedback from my second alpha reader for my manuscript/draft. Assuming I can finish my side/practice thing (which somehow has exploded to 60k), I'll get start on Draft 2 this weekend.
I was a little disappointed by the first reader's feedback. While there was good feedback I can incorporate, it was very micro and limited. The second reader's feedback is far more substantial. They pointed out some higher level areas to make changes, what worked/didn't, and things that felt not great.
I was most surprised by some of the feedback I didn't receive. I expected to hear very strongly that my opening was too weak. While the first reader pointed out one, especially slow, segment in the second chapter, the second reader seemed to enjoy the character depth that the pace allowed. I have one character I was worried is fairly trite in terms of representation (LGBT) but they were well received, the only major feedback from my second reader (who is LGBT themselves) was a lack of closure for the character at the end of the book.
I was actually feeling pretty confident with the direction I wanted to take Draft 2 before now. I was thinking I'd do a focus on plot, cut the scenes and themes that aren't relevant to it, and take a step back from the strict narrative structure I have in place. That would allow me to bring the first action-heavy chapter closer to the beginning and really eliminate everything that isn't the story. The cost would be some degree of world-building and character exploration. Now I'm considering if I should instead do a micro-level pass where I buckle down on superfluous scenes and wordiness, as well as incorporating the specific items of feedback, but without those larger changes.
This weekend I expect I'll read the feedback more thoroughly and then re-read my draft before deciding. It's been over a month since I finished it, so I'm hopeful I'm far enough removed now to really take a scalpel to it.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
1338 LinkOn the fiction side I read Boomsday by Christopher Buckley and The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak since last thread. Both of them were in the bucket of generally enjoyable but far from...On the fiction side I read Boomsday by Christopher Buckley and The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak since last thread. Both of them were in the bucket of generally enjoyable but far from my favorites.
The quasi-America but even worse in Boomsday certainly makes the satire easy though I did find some plot points a little strange given the that predicate. I would probably have enjoyed it more had I read closer to the Bush era than our current Trump one.
In Wedding, I was mostly impressed by how the fact that literally everyone was quite unlikable didn't seem to detract from how enjoyable the book was to read. I like there being unlikable characters but it often can make it harder to stay in the book but that really wasn't the case here. A lot of it comes down to an unusual balance of the predominance of character flaws I suppose. The major shift in how the daughter was presented was very well done though that did leave a lot of the ending predictable. Not in a bad way necessarily, but in a "of course that's how this goes" way. One that pairs with Boomtown now that I think about it.
The only non-fic I finished since last time was On Writing by Stephen King. I definitely walked away with some good things to think about. One thing I'd learned myself recently and the book helpfully helped reinforce/validate is the importance of taking a break between Draft 1 and 2 to give yourself the headspace to look at things cleanly. As an aside, I had such a weird feeling of deja vu reading the chapter about his car accident until I remembered it was due to the Dark Tower books where he literally wrote the accident into the narrative.
I've started in on The Fellowship of the Ring as I didn't want too big a gap between the prequel and main books since it messes up my bookcase. I think it's going to be slow going for me to get through the trilogy as I'm not loving it so far. At the current rate I'll still be working on it through October but maybe that'll change once we leave the shire and things pick up. On the bright side, reading this might help me finally get a month where I read more non-fiction than fiction.
On the non-fiction side, I'm most of the way through I'm Gonna Say it Now: The Writings of Phil Ochs which is a collection of various (non-song) things Ochs wrote. It's quite interesting to see how his lyrics are mirrored in his prose and the themes/repeats between his writings from things he liked. One thing I've noticed is how much he loved to say someone's name as a punchline. It's something he did a bunch in his on-stage introductions to songs and even a few times in the songs themselves, but that trend is also present especially in his earlier writings. This book is also a great companion to the biography I read earlier that quoted bits of some of these writings. I have a couple more biographies about him still on my shelf.
Addendum... Not a book book but since there's not a (non-Japanese) comic thread... I recently finished reading The Boys TPBs. I quite enjoyed it. It was remarkable how utterly different it is from the show; pretty much all of the things I didn't love about the TV show are things that were totally absent from the comic. I get some of the changes they made, especially given the politics (corporate and otherwise), but a lot of them feel like they just make the story weaker in the long-run. It does make me more curious where the show is going though as obviously many of the comic's machinations can't happen. The very last TPB (vol 12) took me by surprise, it's certainly appropriate for the characters and in some ways now that I've had time to digest it feels perfect, but it was gut-wrenching in the moment. I especially love the way Homelander is so much more of a slowburn in the books that gets more and more intimidating over time and how no-chill the comic's satirizations are. Comic-wise I'm planning to read Maus next.
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Comment on What follows GitHub? in ~tech
1338 Link ParentAlmost like we shouldn't centralize our infrastructure on for-profit corporations.One is maintained by the community for the community and the other is maintained by a business worth hundreds of billions for profit. I don't have anything to back this up, but I feel like large corporations can never stop iterating and adding/removing features.
Almost like we shouldn't centralize our infrastructure on for-profit corporations.
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Comment on See the true relative geographical size of different countries in ~science
1338 LinkI think one of the more interesting things about this is how you can observe how the equal-area projection they use to implement this doesn't preserve angle/orientation by moving a country...I think one of the more interesting things about this is how you can observe how the equal-area projection they use to implement this doesn't preserve angle/orientation by moving a country north/south (especially the US or Canada due to their large flat border)
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Comment on WebCurate - Find the best websites on the internet in ~tech
1338 Link ParentBuild interesting initial website Attract users with real content Replace content with more and more advertisements over time Bait-and-shit- Build interesting initial website
- Attract users with real content
- Replace content with more and more advertisements over time
Bait-and-shit
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Comment on Weekly thread for casual chat and photos of pets in ~life.pets
1338 Link ParentThat must be one delicious treat she's holding by the camera! The only thing better would be if she managed to get the dog posed with his snoot on the cat's forehead. But then you'd need to get...That must be one delicious treat she's holding by the camera!
The only thing better would be if she managed to get the dog posed with his snoot on the cat's forehead. But then you'd need to get the cat to wear a green dress
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: Voting topic in ~games
1338 LinkBehind the Wheel (5) Hop Skip Jump (5) Back in a Flash (5) Lode Runner (5) Tetris (-100000)Behind the Wheel (5)
Hop Skip Jump (5)
Back in a Flash (5)
Lode Runner (5)
Tetris (-100000) -
Comment on Jesse Welles - With the Devil (2025) in ~music
1338 LinkHe's alright and it's good to see this type of music getting noticed but I'm curious why I'm seeing his songs on social media fucking constantly the last 3 days.He's alright and it's good to see this type of music getting noticed but I'm curious why I'm seeing his songs on social media fucking constantly the last 3 days.
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Comment on The Carpenter's Son | Teaser in ~movies
1338 LinkSo it's like a religious Jesus movie focusing on Lazarus? Is Nic Cage going the Kevin Sorbo route?So it's like a religious Jesus movie focusing on Lazarus? Is Nic Cage going the Kevin Sorbo route?
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Comment on Tildes' Colossal Game Adventure: Inauguration and nominations in ~games
1338 Link ParentI don't entirely know. I always assumed the game "Flicky" was called that because you kinda "flick" the items (and to a lesser extent the chicks) as part of gameplay. Then since they reused the...I don't entirely know. I always assumed the game "Flicky" was called that because you kinda "flick" the items (and to a lesser extent the chicks) as part of gameplay. Then since they reused the "flicky" birds in sonic, the name just stuck.
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Comment on Tildes' Colossal Game Adventure: Inauguration and nominations in ~games
1338 LinkI nominate Flicky, the wholesome, hypnotic, and inevitably heartbreaking platformer for the Sega Genesis (and others). It's also secretly the first Sonic game....I nominate Flicky, the wholesome, hypnotic, and inevitably heartbreaking platformer for the Sega Genesis (and others). It's also secretly the first Sonic game.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
1338 Link ParentI mean Smaug certainly wasn't blameless but for what we actually see in the book he just acted out in anger after a bunch of murderous thieves broke into his home. You wake up in the middle of the...I mean Smaug certainly wasn't blameless but for what we actually see in the book he just acted out in anger after a bunch of murderous thieves broke into his home.
You wake up in the middle of the night to a strange draft and realize someone cut a hole into your bedroom. You discover the home intruders responsible are hiding in your crawlspace and realize they're trying to steal your valuables. You can't quite reach where they're hiding and you live in the middle of nowhere so you can't just call the police. You catch one of them sneaking out of the crawlspace back into your bedroom and, in between mocking you, he drops that one of your neighbors (that you've been feuding with forever) was involved. Rage overrides your better senses and you go over to that neighbor's house, leaving the burglars to continue robbing you. At your neighbor's house you get in a fight with their large family and cause some damage as they're pelting you with sticks and stones. Eventually one of them eventually hits you in an old wound and you drop dead.
What you don't know is the people behind your break-in is a gang of the descendants of the previous owners of your house who you evicted many many years ago. They believe their historic grievance gives them more right to your house than you, its long-standing resident. The burglar they hired (with a promise of a fraction of your possessions) stole even his robbery tool from your neighbor down the street! They always hoped to murder you in your sleep so they could steal not only all your possessions but your home itself; they waste no time before claiming possession upon realizing you're dead. And as your body grows cold they cause a fucking "race war" between all your neighbors.
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Comment on Bluesky will block Mississippi IP addresses in response to its age assurance law in ~tech
1338 Link ParentRelevant Alabama and Mississippi certainly compete at times. Like using civil rights as an example, while Alabama got the high profile "stand in the schoolhouse doors" incident, the worst of the...Alabama and Mississippi certainly compete at times. Like using civil rights as an example, while Alabama got the high profile "stand in the schoolhouse doors" incident, the worst of the violence was in Mississippi e.g. Medgar Evers and quantity of lynchings.
And like the other comments pointed out, Mississippi tends to be the worst of the worst in so many statistics. Alabama at least has some redeeming factors and as a result has at times been the "face" of the traditional US south, Mississippi distinctly has not been that because not even the Lost Causers want to group themselves in with Mississippi.
Like in this case, they take a troubling general trend and do it even fucking worse.
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Comment on So was there no song of the summer this year? in ~music
1338 Link ParentThat really took me back to my childhood, though not for that performance in particular. When I was a kid we had this stupid rodent toy with gross rubbery flesh and a tophat that would dance and...1983 - Puttin' on the Ritz
That really took me back to my childhood, though not for that performance in particular. When I was a kid we had this stupid rodent toy with gross rubbery flesh and a tophat that would dance and sing a snippet of that song. Somehow youtube has video of that inane toy whose foot I must have pushed 8 million times.
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Comment on Bluesky will block Mississippi IP addresses in response to its age assurance law in ~tech
1338 LinkGood to see Mississippi adapting to new technology and innovating in its quest to remain the worst state in the union.Good to see Mississippi adapting to new technology and innovating in its quest to remain the worst state in the union.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
1338 (edited )LinkMy reading has fallen off a cliff due to my dog's surgery/recovery changing up my habits and making it harder to focus. I just today finished the book I started 2 weeks ago: The Hobbit. It was OK....My reading has fallen off a cliff due to my dog's surgery/recovery changing up my habits and making it harder to focus. I just today finished the book I started 2 weeks ago: The Hobbit. It was OK. A nice enough pleasant read but nothing I found especially interesting or enjoyable. If it weren't for it being so famous I don't think I'd especially remember much about it a year from now. I feel bad for Smaug, it's one of those stories where the protagonists feel like the real bad guys.
I also started Stephen King's On Writing. Got past the first autobiographical section to where he discourages adverbs. I've had much less capacity to write than read since then so that's been on pause.
I'm not sure what I'll read next. I'll probably be better able to get some reading in this weekend. I got a copy of that new The Stand anthology that feels very tempting but 800 pages feels a tad intimidating given it just took me 2 weeks to do 300 pages.
I'm also due to get some alpha feedback on that thing I've been writing. So maybe I'll just read my draft again.
Edit: eventually decided on Boomsday. I forget where I read someone recommending that, maybe on here?
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Comment on Pet store owner builds mini subway station for his cats in ~life.pets
1338 LinkThat's certainly a lot of dedication to his craft. Now, how do we go about getting that preserved to confuse future archeologists and fuel conspiracy theories about the fairies of the 3rd millennium?That's certainly a lot of dedication to his craft. Now, how do we go about getting that preserved to confuse future archeologists and fuel conspiracy theories about the fairies of the 3rd millennium?
Ooh I have this one sitting on my to-read shelf. Good to hear it holds up.