seamus2389

Talking bout stuff you were assigned to read in school I read this article which I think shoots down most of the arguments made for why you should be assigned Shakespeare or Gatsby in English. I has me thinking that the literature part of it should be made optional in secondary schools/ high schools. Finished reading the bone flower throne which is a fantasy novel based on Toltec mythology which I would compare to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon in that it takes the evil seductress character (Morgaine or Quetzalpetlatl here), makes her the main character but with a heavier dose of romance. What furthers the comparison is she becomes a priestesses aiding her god against a foreign one, the authors states the male figure (her half brother - Topiltzin) is somewhat similar to the role Arthur plays in English mythology and incest between the two of them just like in the Mists of Avalon except without the guilt. Also finished the Grace of Kings which is another fantasy novel whose plot, characters and even specific scenes is based very closely on the fall of the Qin and rise of the Han dynasties of China but set on an archipelago with 200 foot long scaled whales, a greek chorus of squabbling sibling gods and rudimentary but effective airships. Most of the focus is on the two characters who end up playing prominent parts in the rebellion against the Xano ( Qin) and the war between them that leads to the establishment of the dandelion (Han) dynasty and the various people aid them. The book follows the actual history so closely that reading about the early reign of the Han I think I know what is going to happen in the second book assuming it's set in the early days of the dandelion dynasty. Between the airships, the map of the archipelago and the Chinese influence it reminded me of Avatar except without any magic and a lot more throats being cut.

We were assigned Roll of thunder hear my cry which was focused on a young black girl and her family in the south in the 1920's when I was 13. I still have my copy of it but haven't since then. Later we read How many miles to Babylon which was about a lower class Irish young guy who goes to WW1 with his upper class Anglo-Irish friend and Of mice and men. I finished reading The Bees: A Novel which is a novel from the point of view of bee called Flora 515 and her life and the life of the bee hive she is part of. Really interesting angle and reminded me of this short story called the cartographer wasps and the anarchist bees which also features the seemingly common conflict between wasps and bees.

Rowan Kaiser of 3MA fame is reviewing the show episode by episode on the av club here and it worth checking out as is the comment section where someome made a very good point about how alot of the relationship between the 8 and the people they know feels real in a way long term friendships/ relationships should and is done so with very little screen time in the first couple episodes. Also if you don't already you should read the av club tv reviews and it's comment section cause they are pretty good.

Finished reading Onwards towards our noble deaths by Shigeru Mizuki and while I knew about how important it for the Japanese army to never be captured and better to die in a suicidal charge as a matter of hounour reading a mostly autobiographical account of what it is like to be a soldier in that kind of army drove home how fucked up the whole thing was.

After a couple months I have finally finished The transformation of the world : A global history of the 19th century. It's of those book I know I'll re-read cause it's about 900 pages of history with a strong focus beyond Europe and the US. The two things that stick with me is the difference between borders and frontiers and t he question of why was it Japan having less knowledge to the Western powers fared better in it's dealing than China in the latter half of 1800's. Also finished reading the once and future king : the rise of crown government in America which looks at the formation and the change in government in the US, the UK and Canada and how the power of the president and PM's have increased in recent decades. I came away from it thinking parliamentary system is better than the US system cause it's a lot easier to hold a PM and ministers to account for their action since they have to appear in the parliament and answer opposition questions on a weekly basis which isn't true of the president and their sectaries. Also learned a bit about the early days of the Canadian government which was interesting. The author also proposes that when drafting the constitution they expected all presidents to be decided by Congress after Washington cause they thought no candidate would have wide enough national support to have enough electoral votes and so it would be decided by congress.

The av club has a pretty hood lost rewatch series going at the moment. Not sure if they will go beyond season 3 since they started covering it regularly back in the day with season 4. Jack tatoo episode is an episode I will happily not see as I rewatch it.

Literally just finished reading that volume and the final panel with Maiko hugging his knees on the ground saying Nitorin was taken home early by his mom was so sad particularly since Maiko and Nitorin are so close. Never even noticed the chapter titles.

The tv critic Alan Sepinwall did a post about finishing watcthing the shows with his daughter and said he thought Korra was a better paced show than the last airbender which he felt was dragging it's feet by the middle of the third season.

Reading this article about long novels I saw a mention of William T Vollmann series on the colonising of the US and has anyone read any of the books and if so are they worth reading. I have his non-fiction book on Imperial county but haven't actually read it yet.

Watching Yuri Kuma I never thought why there are bears and I think you are right about it being a word plucked out of a hat.

City of Bohane is a kinda of post apocalyptic book set in an imaginary city on the west coast of Ireland. The girl with all the gifts is an interesting take on the zombie genre.

Tv shows Comedy Some girls (british and brilliant) Inside Amy Schumer The comeback Fresh off the boat and don't trust the bitch in apartment 23 Pulling (also british) Drama Jane the Virgin Top of the lake (only 7 episodes) Bunheads Transparent Girls The fosters Switched at birth Happy Valley (British and only 6 episodes) S&SF authors Kate elliot Kameron Hurley Nnedi Okafor Elizabeth bear Catherynne Valente Sofia Samatar Jonanna Russ Ursula Le Guin Kelly Link Non-S&Sf authors Zadie Smith Chimanada Ngozi Adichie Edna O Brien Emiear McBride Hilary Mantel Helen Oyeyemi Games Christine Love Liz Reyerson Comics G.Willow Wilson Gail Simone Becky Cloonan

The North-West had the smallest margins for a yes win in general. This article makes a very good argument as to why referendum's on minority rights are not the way to go. Reminded me of this article that makes a similar point and that webiste had of interesting guest posts the last couple weeks like why the focus by the No side was focused on gay marriage with signs like two men's love can't replace a mothers. That and "don't be silenced, vote no" and something about surrogacy were the bread and butter of the posters. One silver lining for the no side is with some many of their posters already being taken down it's be less work to have all down by the end of the week. Finally the waterford whispers (satire) news has been on the ball with some of their stuff the last couple days and one of the politics shows here covered the count live from the George which is the most well known gay bar in the country.It was great in a way only the Vincent Brown show can be with Born this way being the theme song for special episode

It can be a bit of a balls at times but using push to talk instead of always on for speaking can help with that.

I read an article a week or two ago that points out that all that korean talent is being replaced pretty well thanks to how well developed the training system is organised in Korea and that the korean teams will be a lot stronger after the summer split cause the new players will have a lot more experience under their belt and be better intergrated into the teams. Also the korean, chinese and taiwanese teams have also started playing against each other outside of the international tournaments so I think NA and EU are in even deeper trouble come worlds. I think there is a decent gap between EDG and the rest of china so at worlds where it will be 3 chinese and 3 korean teams only EDG will be able to stand toe to toe with the likes of CJ, Jin or the GE Tigers in addition to SKT. EDG only dropped games in the playoff cause Pawn had medical problems so he either wasn't playing or probably not at his best.

I don't know if many people here watch the league of leagends pro-scene but Riot just put up a video of some of the mic talk for SKT and EDG game 5 at MSI. Both Pawn and the EDG coach say nice after seeing Faker pick LeBlanc like they wanted him to and EDG use English since its the common language between the Korea and Chinese player.

The two claims that form the basis of that book are filled with factual and logical holes that this essay does a very good job of exploring it. It is 55 pages long through. This post sums up some of it's points.

Most interesting thing I have read about the election is based on a Yougov pole Cameron could cobble together 324 MPs with the Lib-Dem and DUP's It's 2 short but cause Sinn Fein's 5 seats don't count cause they don't sit 324 is one over 323. Now I wish SF to take the seats to see what kind of crazy shit will down here and in the North politics wish.

I am actually planning on re-read that series (or more accurate reading the first two and re-reading the last one) cause I heard he is working on a equal series called the last king of osten ard. I also have the first two volumes of another series he did sitting on my shelf for years - shadowmarch is the name of one of them. Also only read the final book of the otherworld series as well so might go back and properly go through that series as well which reminds me - how many people here who read SF&F started series a number of books into it and then just back fill ? I have it with Williams books, the malazan series where I read books 2-4 before book 1, a wheel of time where I started on book 7,8 and a song of ice and fire which I started on the second book and never read the first. Also Kate elliot's crown of start where I read 2 and 3 before book 1 and Simon Green's deathstakler series about half of which I read out of order. The one benefit I can think of from all this is I don't mind a work of fiction stating in the middle of something without explaining what is going on cause I have done it to myself so much.

In the LA review of books Sofia Samatar writes about the author who wrote this novella which is an imagined synopsis of 7 season of law and order SVU episode by episode. It has the ghosts of murdered women with bells for eyes and doppelgangers of the two main detectives that is one of the most imaginative and disturbing things i have read.

There a line from the leader of the junior party here in Ireland (Labour) about how they got a quarter of the votes but half of the blame but they also made a lot of promises they broke in government. Two small parts got destroyed in the last 10 years over this (Green and Progressive Democrats) and it looks like the Lib Dem are learning that same lesson over in the UK. Also Sturgeon and the SNP are looking more and more like the Irish Nationalist Party and Redmond back in the 1910's when they got the Home Rule bill passed in return for supporting the Liberals in government. Although in Scotland's case it seems as it is as much as voters abandoning Labour as it is nationalism even though the SNP,

Reading about that episode on the av clubs podmass was what got me to listen to the show. It's also going to be a two parter cause there is so much mad shit - real and made up to cover

Just listened to the Ian Fleming episode where he declares himself god on earth, says the movies should just be someone reading his books, realises he might be a women and Wells calls him a raving lunatic and call James Bond a psychopath - priceless. Also Walt Witman, William S Burroughs, Aesop, Gertrude Stein and the guy who wrote Don Quiote are also amazing. This is possibly the funniest podcast I have listened to and I am going to be really sad when I listen to them all although I might relisten to the Behan episode cause Behan was both so funny and kinda sad way I felt was very Irish.

I have been tearing through Paul F Thomkins comedy podcast - Dead authors. He plays H.G Wells who brings dead authors to our time and interview them and it is brilliant. In particular Brendan Behan (possibly my favourite and not just cause I'm Irish), Charlotte bronte, Plato, Oscar Wilde, Rod Sterling and Anne Frank are incredibly funny to the point I was laughing out loud cycling down the road looking like bit of a weirdo judging by some of the looks I got. They are surprisingly insightful (especially with the statue of limitations for murder having passed so they have no problem admitting to it) either cause the people playing them seem to really have done their homework or are fans of the particular author which took a turn for the worst when Ben Schatz discovered what Roald Dahl said about the jews in an interview. Thomkins H.G Wells is a delight and I am hoping for an episode where he is interviewed by his nemesis Jules Venn.

Jeff gave a talk last year on giantbomb and how video game coverage is changing.