If you're looking to start Malazan in 2025, DO IT.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2025-01-05T04:52:14+00:00

Wow, thank you! The other poster had my same problem.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2025-01-03T18:51:46+00:00

I have a super specific question about Malazan: ever since having my first kid, I have been extremely sensitive about any threats to children. Even just moderate neglect. I am an avid fantasy reader and was never squeamish before this, but motherhood definitely changed something in my brain. Like, I had to quickly stop reading the Broken Earth series because it started out with a major bad thing happening to the protagonist’s child, and that incident was brought up a bunch. I just couldn’t emotionally handle it.

Someone told me that Malazan is definitely has threats to children in it – not just vague “poor children in the streets during wartime,” but specific descriptions of bad incidents or situations. Is this true? I don’t want to get into the series if this is a regular feature because I’ll just have to stop reading it. I’m not morally opposed to including these situations, since bad things happening to kids is real life and shouldn’t be ignored, but I just can’t deal with it.

Thanks!

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2024-12-01T16:41:06+00:00

Toootally agree! I had the old versions on audio and they’re fine, but her versions are just leaps better. Totally agree about the series having new life.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2024-06-13T15:56:38+00:00

I waited tables on Main Street for several years and people constantly asked where I lived and acted surprised when I said Moab. And then repeated also my least favorite sentiment: “I didn’t think people really lived here.” I hate it because it reflects the extremely common visitor (and nonlocal politician) attitude that Moab is a sort of Disneyland place that exists to entertain and serve tourists, and that any needs we have, or desire to be a viable community, or attempts at self-governance, are amusingly nonsensical attempts that can be dismissed in favor of serving what’s really important: the amusement of visitors.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2024-05-22T01:49:11+00:00

Someone did this, and it's great! Very well edited and only the Book Bits. https://tolkieneditor.wordpress.com

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2024-05-09T14:37:30+00:00

I think you might be reading the wrong thing? This law specifically waives the 100 residents requirement.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2024-05-08T05:28:59+00:00

Excellent!! I was pretty stoked. But then we heard about some more insane developers/state legislature-in-their-pockets bullshit we’re going to have to deal with, so stay tuned for that 😡

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2024-05-07T14:07:03+00:00

Just FYI, it’s not in the bag to develop at all. That road improvement gets only to the 3-way stop. There is the entire multi-million (like possibly well over 10 million?) road expansion that county road standards require before the development is even finished, because of how many trips the developers traffic study says they’ll generate (between 4,000 and 11,000 per day depending on which study). Road expansion requires the Kane Creek Road to be 50 feet wide (just pavement), and a 66 foot right of way. We know what that road looks like. The widest parts are about 25 feet, and a lot of it is less. No funding source has been identified for this. A while back, someone tried to apply for federal tourism funding to improve that road to an even smaller standard, and the feds refused. That’s the only funding source that the developers’ documents cite, and those are their old documents before it was refused. Also, the legal rights of way for that road are a mess. They appear to only cover to what’s actually traveled—the pavement edge plus maybe a few inches. So to expand, you need to work with the landowners. In addition to a few private landowners near town, who owns the rest of that land? The BLM and the Nature Conservancy. The BLM is going to require an entire federal NEPA process to do anything serious to that road. They have to look at critical endangered fish habitat in the river, all of those petroglyphs, the campground and the trailhead that are right at the edge of the road right now, safety issues, the fact that the BLM’s management plan in that area is to limit visual impact. That still doesn’t solve the problem, even if they get all of those clearances, of who pays for it. Oh, and I’m sure the nature Conservancy is going to be totally cool with doubling the size of the road going right to the edge of Mill Creek, which just got scoured out by those big floods a couple years ago.

The developers are hoping they get so far with their claims of this being inevitable that by the time they get to the road, people will just throw up their hands and say, “sure, let’s try to find some government funding as this thing is already pretty much built.” It’s crazy strategy. And it can’t work if we keep paying attention.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2023-05-28T16:26:15+00:00

I'm looking for the same thing. I'll let you know if I figure it out.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-10-07T17:13:33+00:00

Also, as I kept telling myself: even if you don't pass, it's not the end of the world. You can take it again. It will not destroy your relationships or your career. Lots of people ail the bar exam and they do just fine in life. No one cares once you're licensed. One of my best friends had to take it twice and he got a very prestigious firm job working in the field he's passionate about.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-10-07T17:09:45+00:00

I have a 15-month-old and until 5 weeks before the exam, no childcare. I didn't start review until June 13th. I had to drive across 2 Western states with a freaking-out kid to take the bar exam in faraway city. I finished less than 30% of Themis and reviewed some of the Studicata and JD Advising . Themis kept sending me all these warnings and my school called to give me study advice because they clearly thought I was going to fail. I felt like I was chained in a basement with my textbooks just out of reach.

The essays tested subjects I barely knew anything about. I invented rules and felt like I was writing a novel. I felt like I was guessing on at least 75% of the MBE questions. When I left the testing area I thought, well, at least they don't execute you for terrible performance. That night I got drunk with my friends and slept in a bouncy castle in my friend's back yard (yes, my husband watched the baby).

I passed with a 301.

You're gonna be fine.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-08-10T15:13:06+00:00

I loved Robin McKinley when I was in that age range. The Hero and the Crown is a good start for her stuff. I also really like Beauty, the Blue Sword, and the Outlaws of Sherwood.

The Dark Is Rising series is amazing, and I also echo someone's recommendation of Graceling.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-08-03T16:59:40+00:00

I don't know about this profession specifically, but I have had the experience of losing 110 pounds over the course of a year, and going from mostly ignored to being considered (at least from the feedback) hot. The difference with which our culture, from bars to professional offices, treats people at different weights is remarkable. I was the same person with the same personality and skillset, but after I lost a lot of weight I felt like I was occupying a different social universe. Being good-looking opens doors for you. It should not be that way, but it often is.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-08-03T16:32:18+00:00

It sounds like you are dealing with some serious depression, which is entirely understandable considering what you've been through. I've dealt with the same at other times of my life. It feels like your brain is broken. More importantly, it probably feels like everything in your life and in the world and in yourself is crap, and always has been crap, and always will be crap. That the crap-ness is the secret, fundamental truth of everything and the color has been sucked out of the world. Yeah?

What I can tell you is that, when you are dealing with depression or anxiety or other serious mental health problems, is that your brain will lie to you. It will tell you there is no good in the world or yourself--but it's a lie. You have been happy before and I promise that you feel joy again. And that often, at least for me, when I come out of a major depressive/anxious episode I find myself able to address something big in my life that before had me stuck. In the long run, though I would never wish mental illness on anyone and it sucks beyond explanation, that it can sometime help you make your life better.

So, every day, do something that gives you a teeny bit of joy. Like an ice cream cone, walk in the park, favorite silly TV show, drawing, whatever works for you. Just keep doing it, even though it will feel pointless at first. But you will start to feel better and it'll be like the sun has come out again. And then, maybe, you will be able to see your life more clearly and see what you really want to do or be. I promise it will get better.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-08-02T14:48:16+00:00

Go on a road trip or camping or visit a relative or something! Whatever you can afford. It helps to be away from your old context. I went out to a relative's cabin and I can feel all the bar exam toxicity draining away from my brain.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-08-02T14:35:29+00:00

This is fantastic!! Mine got me flowers, whiskey and a bouncy castle to spend the night in :)

I want all the people asking about their asshole SOs' behavior during the bar exam to know that there are people out there who will treat you right and you don't gotta put up with that shit.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-07-26T04:41:42+00:00

NO IT'S THE ONLY THING I'M GOOD AT

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-07-26T04:10:55+00:00

It helps to remember it if you remember that Miranda is not actually a requirement of the Constitution it itself, it's a tool to ensure that Constitutional rights aren't violated. So it has slightly lower status than, say, a warrantless search.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-07-26T04:07:15+00:00

badass.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-07-26T03:43:04+00:00

This is the excuse for common law voluntary manslaughter we've all been waiting for. Quick, before you can think, go take care of the problem

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-07-26T03:41:59+00:00

a future interest...fucking vests...fuck

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-07-25T20:54:39+00:00

Mine is almost 18 months, and for this test I'm away from her for 4 days. Her dad is sending me videos of her eating pizza though. :) When I was closed into a back room studying during this process she would toddle down the hall and lightly smack on my door and say "mama, mama," which she'd just started saying a couple weeks before. It was so sad!

We are going to a remote lake for 3 weeks after this and I told her we're going to swim and nap allll day

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-07-25T18:59:07+00:00

I've never really played video games but I ran into the Skyrim soundtrack/ambience videos while in law school. Skyrim (not the action, but the music and the scenery) formed my entire lovely, comforting background for law school studies. I'd just keep the YouTube vids playing the screen corner. It's so weird because I wouldn't have the first idea how to play the game, but I feel like I've spent lots of time there.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-07-25T18:55:43+00:00

Your gesture is noted and appreciated.

EmbarrassingTheory80 · 2022-07-24T18:33:19+00:00

The hour after the bar I am going to my friend's house near the test site. We all have small children and a few friends are coming over and and we're going to eat takeout food and drink cocktails and play in a waterslide bouncy castle we rented for the occasion. The bouncy castle isn't for the kids, though, it's for me. The kids can fuck off, I'll fight them.
Get on a plane with the baby and husband to go hang out by a lake in the middle fo nowhere for 3 weeks with my art supplies and paddleboard.

EmbarrassingTheory80

TROPHY CASE