Blimix

Great reads.

2019-10-16T22:51:35Z

These are some of my favorite things to read online. If you need laughter/entertainment, check them out.

Cephalopod Surprise.

The Horror of Blimps: A Blimp Building Adventure Turned Ugly.

The Tale of My Daughters' Penises. (More charming and innocent than it sounds.) Please be someplace where you can laugh out loud without disturbing anyone when you read this.

A reddit thread answering "What is the funniest lie to tell kids?"

The Sass Awakens as "Emo Kylo Ren" and "Very Lonely Luke" Clash on Twitter.

Norwegian children defeat American Marines.

Chickens of Unusual Size (gallusrostromegalus) wrote of the estate sale and the HOA scam, Arwen's Shenanigans Part I and Part II, the ultimate alpha bitch Mazel, the 1969 Easter Mass Incident, the Tea Ceremony, the Spooky Van, and "LOK’TAR OGAR!!".

The hotel room and the pepperoni.

These next six are the tabletop RPG stories:

The legend of Old Man Henderson. Warning: It is from an older time,
and has a couple of problematic word choices. Worth it, though. This is a long one.

The Tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo.

The Head of Vecna.

Fated 3

Four Monks in a Noodle Shop.

Sir Bearington.

My four favorite short stories from The Chronicles of Clovis by Saki:

Esmé

Tobermory

The Unrest-Cure

Mrs. Packletide's Tiger

Animal images:
Bearded dragon pose.
Gym bag surprise.
Decked out snakes.
The best way to shave a cat.
Corvids DGAF

From my own files:
Why I (Joe) don't make eggplant parmesan anymore

Not comedies, but a great short reads:

Cat Pictures, Please by Naomi Kritzer.

The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat by Brooke Bolander.

Fanfics, just because:

Chief O'Brien at Work. A short series of comics, but it's fannish.

"Harry Potter and the Natural 20" A fanfic in which a genre-savvy, min/maxed wizard from D&D winds up in the Harry Potter universe. It's pretty long and still in progress, but seems to have stalled in 2018, partway through the third story arc.

Hermione Granger and the Goddamn Patriarchy. (Not long.)

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. My favorite book ever. Complete, and very long. (By the time you finish chapter 5, you'll know whether you'll like the rest of it.)

The Toasterverse. Avengers fanfic. It starts here.

Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach. A "Good Omens" fanfic that is super informative in depicting trauma therapy.

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Looking for podcast suggestions.

2018-08-06T02:05:33Z

In the interest of using my time productively, I've switched from music to podcasts and audiobooks during my commute. (This so far hasn't distracted me from the road, but has occasionally made me forget to shop on the way home.) I have listened to all of "No Such Thing As A Fish" (except for the first two years, which are no longer free). I'd love some suggestions for a free, informative podcast to tide me over until I visit the library for the next audiobook I have lined up.

Meanwhile, I particularly recommend the following short stories from The Chronicles of Clovis by Saki: "Esmé," "Tobermory," "The Unrest-Cure," and "Mrs. Packletide's Tiger".

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The Princess Who Saved Herself, and other links.

2015-03-13T18:46:54Z

A Kickstarter that has caught my attention: The Princess Who Saved Herself. Based on the song by Jonathan Coulton, it became a storybook by Greg Pak, available in digital form as a stretch goal of the Code Monkey Save World Kickstarter. (I just read it, and it's quite cool.) The new Kickstarter is to get this already completed book into print. It met its goal immediately (because JoCo fans are awesomely enthusiastic), but it has a stretch goal, and I'm backing it in order to get a copy for my niece. (And, well, to encourage awesomeness.)

Gratuitous links:

Marketing to Doctors (John Oliver). Long, but entertainingly worth it.

The "Monsters" Among Us. On dealing with the cognitive dissonance caused by accusations against trusted members of the community, and how calling rapists and abusers "monsters" makes us less likely to recognize them. (Thanks, Amanda!)

The Police "Black Site" in Chicago. You know how, in China, people get taken to secret jails to be beaten, and friends and relatives can't find out where they are? It happens in the U.S. too. (Thanks, cluegirl!)

Batman vs. Darth Vader (Alternate and way more compelling ending.)

If I Didn't Have You by Tim Minchin, with hilarious commentary.

Choose Your Own Adventure (Portland Poety Slam) This was amazing and inspiring.

Yelp manipulates reviews to extort business owners. Last year, a federal judge dismissed a class-action lawsuit over this, and an appeals court upheld that decision. (I saw Yelp's "secret algorithm" at work recently: I went to post a positive review of a business who had previously won my patronage through honesty at their own cost, and who had dealt well with me once again. Their Yelp page shows a 1.5 star rating with "18 reviews". (Actually twenty: Three were by one person who has never done business with them.) Below all the ratings, in light gray text on a white background, is a link: "51 other reviews that are not currently recommended". Clicking it showed only three more reviews, followed by another light gray link: "Continue reading other reviews that are not currently recommended". Finally, six pages of reviews are available. But even these are strictly ordered by rating, so that the first page is all one-star reviews. Five-star reviews start on page two, and continue all the way through page six. The actual average of all the ratings is (at the moment) 3.25. Clearly, I must never trust Yelp.)

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