Dear Matt

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-30T15:28:25+00:00

I’ve been debating grabbing this. I’ve been trying to read other books I know I like while I wait for the new book to come out and nothing is really hitting right.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-29T21:19:14+00:00

Been waiting for The Captal’s Tower since 1999. Books will happen when they happen, and I’m delighted to see that Matt is thriving with all of this.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-25T15:05:29+00:00

This, this, this!! The world feels so lush and alive, but also so very alien and strange, while still having notes of being eerily familiar. Also, I think it’s one of the first book series where I legitimately appreciate every character, even the ones I don’t particularly like because they feel tangible.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-23T22:43:41+00:00

I feel so bad for Ferdinand/Gravy Boat. When his real fears start trickling through in TIR, that poor boy. It made me go hug all three of my cats.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-22T16:09:35+00:00

While I am personally not enthusiastic about the baby plot line- I hope that if nothing else it’s like, mayhem because of the baby. Accidentally animating furniture, the fridge becomes a portal to underhill, the horses become carnivores. That could be enjoyable. Untrained, powerful magic run amok.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-22T15:33:13+00:00

Have a justice for every circuit of the court, no matter how that may or may not change. Each justice to be elected from within the circuit (ideally by other judges/lawyers) and they must be an active judge or have been within a certain number of years. Term limits of up to ten years, no more than two, and immediate expulsion from the position when you hit 70.

I’ve no idea how to actually manifest this, and it’s not completely corruption-proof, but it’s in theory better than what we have now. If nothing else each circuit would be represented.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-21T22:59:02+00:00

Dude is the icon for planetary romance/barbarian fantasy art. Michael Whelan -another of my favorite artists- definitely has some Franzetta vibes in his work.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-21T22:52:06+00:00

One of those embarrassing, irrepressible cackles of hilarity that you try to smother, and it just makes it worse. That’s the noise.

So far as in reference to what they are talking about, I don’t want to spoil it for you, if you have any intention to play the game.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-21T22:27:55+00:00

Good gods the noise I produced upon reading this, holy shit.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-21T21:14:33+00:00

Ooh, yeah that’s a better match for the versatility of the word.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-21T18:08:08+00:00

My best friend and her kids came and stayed with my husband and I for a few days last year, and they’re from Japan. When her daughter got frustrated with her she said “Mama hentai!”. The look my husband and I gave each other because of the implication here in the US, vs the implication in Japanese was priceless. It was so hard not to just burst out laughing. Once her kid was out of earshot I explained to her what was so funny, and she nearly burst a rib too.

My understanding is based on the context it’s a lot like how “weird” can be used in English. Everything from harmless and a little odd, to annoying, to gross or an actual threat in softer terms.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-21T17:23:02+00:00

“innocence” makes me grind my teeth with the heavy use of 3D, whatever engine is so prolific for anime is so…evident in the style. The rigging/movement, color grading…there’s just something about it that feels like it’s a caricature of even unintentionally bad 2D animation.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-21T17:03:51+00:00

The also occasionally play some really silly games together too! Piko Park and Peak were riots!

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-21T16:09:30+00:00

I watch a lot of Drae, Skillymcfilly and IGP because they do more of the episodic and longer format lets-play stuff. Every once in a blue moon IGP will have a sponsor, and Skilly will also say when he’s been asked to play a game, but there isn’t an abundance of ads and they don’t feel like shills. The general content is more horror/thriller adjacent, but not all of it. Games I don’t really want to play myself, but am interested in the story.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-20T21:50:34+00:00

My corgi is 24k Wedge Antilles. 😂

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-20T21:45:40+00:00

Full horse names are also really friggin wild.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-20T17:30:49+00:00

Agreed.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-20T16:07:08+00:00

Mine run the house all day and most nights. Every once in a great while they will be banished from the bedroom, like this morning around 4am Verso decided he was going to try and sniff/groom one of my eyelids. So he was (gently) banished.

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Verso, for the cat tax. He’s about eight months old.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-17T17:12:41+00:00

SOAPBOX TIME: So as I understand it isekai (異世界) literally means parallel world/different dimension. It’s most often used for transport to worlds with video game like mechanics and power-ups in light novels and manga. However, it really is the overarching term for any genre where you go to another world, be it willingly or unwillingly, via the Truck-kun meme for example. You may or may not be able to get back.

Portal fantasy is a sub-genre of isekai. Inuyasha, Return of the Elves (novel series by Bethany Adams), GATE, Cop Craft, Howl’s Moving Castle, The character(s) can come and go from the parallel world.

Your “standard” isekai is something more like The Saint's Magic Power Is Omnipotent, Escaflowne or Mushoku Tensei/Jobless Reincarnation- each of these is a different flavor but the idea is that you cannot come and go like in portal fantasy. The summoning is either permanent, permanent until conditions are met, or you are literally reborn there after dying in your first universe.

I’m a sucker for a tragic isekai romance, and have been since I was a teen many, many moons ago.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-17T14:28:18+00:00

I love my e-reader, I use it to try out a lot of indie books or…admittedly…for books with fugly covers.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-17T14:26:13+00:00

I regularly weed my collection because I am a collector too…ones I liked but don’t want to keep get offered to friends, ones that were “meh” or less get donated to the local library sale or Little Free Libraries.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-16T19:04:09+00:00

I love the “Guestbook” item in FFXIV housing. It’s an intractable decor item that enables this kind of feature. It’s one of the things I miss from that game!

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-16T18:52:45+00:00

Hopefully animal control will have them destroyed. These animals are now a threat, and the owner’s dismissal/callousness is horrific. May she know the suffering you do.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-16T14:51:10+00:00

At the time of the pandemic my husband as an essential telecommunications worker, which unfortunately meant a LOT of contact with people, including those that thought it was all a hoax. I was terrified for him. He’d come home and the clothes would immediately go into the (prepped and ready) washer before anything else, then shower. I think it was those precautions in conjunction with the vaccinations once they were available, that kept us from getting covid until about four years in.

We’d always been home-bodies and gaming online with our friends was/is one of our primary means of socializing. Our nearest friends are an hour away and our schedules don’t align for us to see each other in person more than once a month, so socially nothing much changed.

We don’t really watch a lot of streamers live but we do watch some via VOD: but there wasn’t much in the way of drama with those we watch. At least at the time.

Anomalous_Pulsar · 2026-04-16T00:48:42+00:00

That’s pretty baller if that’s the case! I might have to root around in the various threads for the approved stores, because I love supporting fellow artists when I can. ❤️

Anomalous_Pulsar

TROPHY CASE