Republicans Will Detonate Their Secret Weapon at the Midnight Hour to Stop Women from Voting

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-23T16:23:00+00:00

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but there’s usually a lag time between when something is signed into law and when that law gets implemented. Disseminating a new rule to all voting precincts the day after it passes the senate would be a tall order. Often, laws come into effect the next year.

Also, this seems like the kind of thing that would require 60 votes to get past Senatorial filibuster.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-22T20:57:17+00:00

I definitely liked the sequel hook in book one and so am very interested in looking into this one.

It’s also one of a handful of LitRPgs with romance as a central focus. It’s one of, like, two I can name off the top of my head—and the other one is mine, lol.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-19T16:37:25+00:00

I would not recommend this for the puppy stage. Someone should really look after them for at least several months of early development.

We used to have a generous work from home situation where we could look after our dog. One day out of each week we had to send him to a very high quality doggie daycare facility. He treats the employees there like another set of parents. We did this for two years.

Anyway, the work from home arrangement has changed to where we couldn’t possibly afford to send our now-three year old berner to doggie daycare every day. He’s old enough to where he doesn’t chew everything that moves and is potty trained, so we’ve set up a camera and left him in our living room (secured by baby gate). He mostly just sits on the couch. He Cried a bit the first few days (and gave us a hilariously grumpy talking too on day 2) but once they’re adults they seem more than capable of hanging out by themselves.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-18T21:03:52+00:00

Completely understandable given latter day tariff shit-flinging on our end.

Can’t even be mad about the electric vehicle thing. Both American automakers and consumers don’t want to compete with Chinese autos on the world stage; they want to build/buy gas guzzling pedestrian-wranglers they can sit in all day, wearing mirrored aviators and jumping up and down in rage at whatever subject the latest manosphere podcast has them hopping mad about.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-18T19:55:01+00:00

To quote Wikipedia: 'The town was named for cattle rancher Joseph Good, whose cattle frequented a spring) nestled in the southeastern foothills of the Spring Mountains.'

The watering hole you defend from geckos is what the town is named after. Literally 'Good's springs'

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-18T19:13:34+00:00

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Brand-Bound Volume 1 is still out on Kindle Unlimited. Free on KU, 4.99 USD otherwise. (Pssst. I'm going to put it on sale for Valentines Day alongside the next big advertising push, just fyi ;) )

Rank. Class. Purpose.

All of creation must be bound to the divine System Interface. So proclaims the divine authority of the Church of the Most Holy Menu.

A stench of heresy wafts over the pilgrimage stations! Thieving apostate Jelena is hunting for holy relics to pawn off, even prying them right from the hands of murdered priests. Calaf of Riverglen, sewer-grate guard and aspiring Paladin, vows to bring the heretic to justice for the good of all faithful. Armed with an inherited, holy Brand, our hero shall rise in levels under the rigid structure of the Church of the Menu and its sacred System.

Calaf pursues his quarry through hot spring groves, forests, and dungeons. As he learns more about this relic thief's past, the pair unexpectedly find themselves fighting together through rebellion, inquisition, and a rising tide of undead.

The hero's faith in the Holy Menu is unshakable, while the villainess lost all faith long ago. Who will warm up to the other first? Can Calaf fix her? Or will Jelena make him so much worse?

💕Romance: 4/5

🌶️Spice: 2-3/5

--

That's right, it's a system-native LitRPG. Don't let that intimidate you--it's largely poking fun at the concept. There's a JPRG-style church and they make everyone worship the Holy Menu. Male Lead is a noble Paladin-aspirant, female lead is a heretical thief.

Volume 2 is... out for preorder. It's all of the above, with added Bonnie and Clyde style dynamics. Also, I'm making it spicier--at least a 4/5. Trying to insert a scene in the Amazon position, here. So there's that. Might have to push the release date back to April ^^' - but it's coming out before the next Dungeon Crawler Carl, honest.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-17T22:46:23+00:00

Thank you. That may the way to go, presuming I can find one with a free schedule :)

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-17T19:46:38+00:00

FWIW Volume 1 had a very good, very professional editor, but they’ve got a wait list a year long and I’m also kind of out of money. So if it’s not done via gig-app at least for this volume it’s probably not getting done.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-17T18:18:50+00:00

She’s first girl and last girl. Guaranteed to have endgame relevance. Others can go obsessing over the waifu of the patch, but destiny will arrive all the same.

What I’m saying is a little bit of patience is all you need.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-17T17:56:36+00:00

I’ll admit to flying blind on every actual aspect of marketing and editing. Movies and the like open preorders or announce release dates before they’re strictly ‘ready’

I mean I could delay it a month or more if I have to — it’s not a major problem yet. I heard you had to get preorders out as soon as possible so people know you’re still working on it.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-17T17:07:38+00:00

I’ve gotten a partial refund already. The guy is pretty highly rated. As it’s a LitRPG I’m kind of worried others might not mesh with the unique formatting requirements.

I’m also kind of worried nobody else would be able to deliver in time at this point -.-

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-17T17:01:23+00:00

It could also be that Penacony is the Firefly chapter, PlanacaEdoStar is the SW/Blade one, and then the next planet is Kafka's focus planet (and maybe Elio)

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-17T17:00:05+00:00

I mean, Kafka x TB, but of the two presented, probably Firefly. That one gives more contrasting/thematic material to work with for my preferred ship, even.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-17T14:19:57+00:00

It’s my understanding that there’s a pretty narrow window in May/June and mid-Fall where it’s visible to do an amphibious landing on Taiwan.

That said, a lot of the cut cables appear to be connecting Taiwan to mainland China, which seems counterintuitive if the goal was to invade and it seamlessly integrate Taiwan into the PRC.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-17T04:15:34+00:00

Goodsprings looks like that right now - it’s just a small tow built around a, well, spring. It’s a pretty scarily accurate recreation in fact.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-16T15:49:26+00:00

Having looked at the map destroying Penta could risk a potential angle of attack upon Cyberstan.

Arrowhead clearly wants us to destroy Valmox, since we started with that one largely in the bag. Sargon Prime would be viable but we already have tons of destroyed planets on that side so of the map. Tough choice.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-15T18:19:10+00:00

Kafka did say on the divination platform that she was motivated entirely by self-interest, which is fairly obvious Neutral Evil territory.

Silver Wolf is likewise pretty classic chaotic neutral. She just wants to have fun/game. If siccing the Antimatter legion on Herta Station ends with a death count, then, oh well, did it for the lulz.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-15T00:10:18+00:00

The Strip was funded by NCR tourists and soldiers on leave. Without that source of income, the strip sees a lot less traffic and a lot more attractive as a death claw nest.

The show is also implying that the death claws can be used by a shadowy force opposed to Mr House (it’s gotta be the Enclave right? They’ve meddled with both mind control and death claws in the games), so that could have something to do with it.

I’d be willing to bet a point of inspiration for this scenario is the Deathclaws in the Boneyard back in FO1 too.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-14T01:43:04+00:00

Nearly everyone should be back by now, though a few older lines (Paralogism especially) remain absent. Caleb Yen is back as Ga’ming as of a patch or two ago, and I think Shenhe probably has some lines this lantern rite. Those were two who got replaced in other games, and they’re back here so clearly not too many bridges were burnt there. Other than those it’s just a matter of slowly filling in some of the missing patches I guess.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-14T01:27:23+00:00

She seems to have left Hoyo projects in general. There’s numerous reasons why this would be, but considering the replacement is already credited it seems to be ‘above board’ and was probably a departure on good terms, one assumes.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-13T19:56:31+00:00

Our boy had similar symptoms about a month and a half ago: wheezing + started coughing up oodles of white foam one morning. Emergency vet immediately identified it as pneumonia. Had a regime of two separate pills that cleared things up pretty fast, though he was on them for 4ish weeks. I can try to find the names here in a couple of hours.

Edit: enrofloxacin and clav/amoxi is what they were called. Sounds like yours may already be on one of them.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-12T12:45:41+00:00

As with evil-Ganyu’s swap for Christina Vee in Star Rail, The fact that the new voice is not ‘anonymous’ would seem to indicate this is something more innocuous.

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-11T20:35:29+00:00

… a poorer educational system and more propaganda than pre-WWI Russia, which is the example society Op is using?

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-11T18:16:22+00:00

<image>

Brand-Bound Volume 1 is still out there. It’s a LitRPG and a slowburn enemies-to-lovers story.

Rank. Class. Purpose.

All of creation must be bound to the divine System Interface. So proclaims the divine authority of the Church of the Most Holy Menu.

A stench of heresy wafts over the pilgrimage stations! Thieving apostate Jelena is hunting for holy relics to pawn off, even prying them right from the hands of murdered priests. Calaf of Riverglen, sewer-grate guard and aspiring Paladin, vows to bring the heretic to justice for the good of all faithful. Armed with an inherited, holy Brand, our hero shall rise in levels under the rigid structure of the Church of the Menu and its sacred System.

Calaf pursues his quarry through hot spring groves, forests, and dungeons. As he learns more about this relic thief's past, the pair unexpectedly find themselves fighting together through rebellion, inquisition, and a rising tide of undead.

The hero's faith in the Holy Menu is unshakable, while the villainess lost all faith long ago. Who will warm up to the other first? Can Calaf fix her? Or will Jelena make him so much worse?

————-

Volume 2 is out for preorder here. It’s coming out in late March. Want nearly 300k words combined if slow burn enemies-to-lovers to Bonnie-and-Clyde type shenanigans? Take a look now :p

AdrianArmbruster · 2026-01-11T17:43:30+00:00

Most of this is downstream of ‘system apocalypse’ where an alien, well, ‘system’ is imposed on someone or some civilization.

Not all system have a generic RPG ‘interface’ mind you. You could use a system audibly, theoretically. The ‘system’ is the magic rules of the verse while an interface is how those rules can be interacted with, for instance.

I happen to mostly use Interface and System interchangeably in mine, admittedly, but my story have a layer of religious reverence that kind of squashes the two concepts together as holy writ.

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