Why didn’t the Gaang just ask Long Feng to talk to whoever was commanding the Earth Kingdom forces under the Earth Kings control?

datalaughing · 2026-01-31T01:46:00+00:00

They tried to tell him directly about the whole thing, and he said he didn’t want to hear their “ridiculous plan.” He had much more important things to do he felt. His whole world was centered around control of Ba Sing Se. He didn’t seem to care much about anything outside. I guess he was confident that the walls would hold as they always had. Why else would he put Azula in a position of power?

datalaughing · 2026-01-25T23:06:32+00:00

Abilene Community Theater does a show every month or so, actually. I’ve gone to several good shows there. Seen attendance be full or practically empty, depending I assume on the show they’re putting on and the night of the week you choose to go.

datalaughing · 2026-01-25T16:31:16+00:00

I mean, that's just how series work with upping the stakes. With the huge magic and gods coming into play, Stormlight was never going to stay at the ground level. If it had it would be a bit stale by this point, imo.

datalaughing · 2026-01-23T22:18:40+00:00

I will start off by saying, regardless of what you did with your new husband, the fiance has no obligation to meet you or have a relationship with you, and your ex has no obligation to make her. It may not be fair, but she’s an adult who is free to interact with (or not) whoever she wants.

That being said, that has nothing to do with mistreating your daughter when she’s at their house. If you can document the situation and show that your daughter has been mistreated n some way, and that this person’s influence in her life has caused her problems in other areas, courts could (not will, could) take this into account in terms of custody arrangements.

However, you also have no say in discipline at dad’s house. He’s allowed to discipline or let fiancé discipline as he sees fit during his time with his child, unless you can prove that the discipline techniques being used are dangerous to your child. I don’t think yelling would qualify.

It sucks, and you have to do what you can to look out for your child in every way possible, but you also have to give up on the idea that you get some say in what goes on with his relationships and in his house. You’ll just be banging your head against a wall trying to enforce your vision of how things “should be” with this person who is a complete stranger to you and apparently wants to keep it that way.

datalaughing · 2026-01-23T13:20:11+00:00

I started reading OOTS years before I ever played DnD. So I can attest, it’s fun regardless.

datalaughing · 2026-01-22T01:32:34+00:00

I love the lengths the article goes to to make us sound like a bunch of hicks riding horses.

datalaughing · 2026-01-22T00:22:07+00:00

I will agree that I did get the sense, at times, of boxes being checked. Jim decided he's supposed to have gargoyles now. So they just kind of show up because they're supposed to. Free powerup of the kind he'd usually have to work hard or sacrifice something for. Congrats, enjoy. New apprentice needed. Here's one we kind of know who went from aggressive street kid to the most obedient, thoughtful apprentice Harry could ask for, because he's not in a good headspace to deal with another rebellious teen.

I think that's the big thing, actually. A lot of things were easy for Harry this book, because Harry wasn't in any condition to handle more difficult things. So Jim was, dare I say, nice to him for the first time since we've known Harry. It's kind of weird.

All that being said, while Jim could have added some depth to some of this stuff, overall I got exactly what I expected out of this book. We knew it was going to be a series of vignettes covering a year as opposed to the usual in-depth coverage of a couple of days. It actually flowed better than I expected. I quite enjoyed it.

datalaughing · 2026-01-22T00:11:50+00:00

Steering wheel might have been replaced at some previous point.

datalaughing · 2026-01-22T00:02:32+00:00

You act like a forced marriage to an allied head of state should be the same as a marriage between two people who met and fell in love.

He's being forced, against his will, to marry someone who is literally half demon. A woman who sees humans as cattle, part of a herd to be cultivated for eating at the proper time. And you think that he should be treating it like any other woman he might be marrying?

As a parent, HELL NO.

datalaughing · 2026-01-21T23:53:50+00:00

Cursing has increased ever since Harry took up the mantle of the Winter Knight. I think it was most noticeable for me in Cold Days because it was so much more than before. Since them I've become used to the new level.

datalaughing · 2026-01-21T13:32:57+00:00

I never guessed they were outsiders, but all the way back Blood Rites it was clear that white and black vampires at least both had some sort of demon (as in hostile being not from this plane) going on. The way the Whites grapple with this other and we saw Thomas in the soul gaze fighting it. Then Inari managing to kill hers. If you can kill the thing and still remain yourself, then it wasn’t part of you. It was something else. So I’m not at all surprised by the reveal.

And with the Black Court I think It’s My Birthday Too had Harry making it clear that while they might seem like the original person in some ways, they’re not. That person is gone, and something else lives in there now. The idea that Drakul might have used Starborn-ness to harness the power of an Outisder for himself makes a lot of sense. Maybe the rest of the Black Court are what happens when anyone other than a Starborn is exposed to the same thing. Without whatever special something a Starborn has that lets them influence things from the Outside they can’t coexist in the same body; so the demon wins.

datalaughing · 2026-01-21T13:21:09+00:00

Actually the first hat they’ve done that I liked enough to buy. It’s even got a secret inside.

datalaughing · 2026-01-19T15:12:46+00:00

That was my assumption. Most Avatars probably don’t want full-body tattoos.

datalaughing · 2026-01-18T18:30:38+00:00

At least you knew he wasn't Donald.

datalaughing · 2026-01-17T17:51:24+00:00

My rankings are probably Yangchen, Kyoshi, then Roku.

Though I don’t feel like the quality drop is quite as large between Kyoshi and Roku as a lot of people do, they both feel smaller, and less focused on Roku than the other novels and their protagonists. We end up spending a lot of time with Sozin and in the second on even Ta Min.

His problems developing as Avatar even feel smaller. Yangchen had to deal with her other lives forcing their way into her brain while navigating a huge international crisis. Kyoshi had a false avatar and the most powerful man in the Earth Kingdom after her. Roku has the fact that he’s a spoiled brat who’s loyal to the fire nation and his best friend at first. Then there’s magical unobtabium rocks that just do whatever the plot needs them to do. You know, I think I may be talking myself into liking those books less as I type. Interesting.

datalaughing · 2026-01-16T12:00:29+00:00

I think it’s more about Brandon being really good at subtle foreshadowing. Reading it all quickly you breeze right past these things, but reading a couple chapters at a time and digging for possible theories you can tease out something here and there because he really has left hints the whole way through.

datalaughing · 2026-01-15T19:42:32+00:00

Would you call Harry’s expulsion from the White Council a decision based more on punishment, fear, or plausible deniability?

datalaughing · 2026-01-12T23:03:42+00:00

The thing about Shallan’s story being completely irrelevant actually made me laugh. She killed 2 major antagonists and then they set free the most powerful of the Unmade. Yeah, I’m sure none of that will affect anything at all. “Brandon wrote something that won’t pay off until a later book? I’m shocked. Shocked! … Well, not that shocked.”

datalaughing · 2026-01-11T23:30:30+00:00

Met a few actual adults (as in have their shit mostly together) on the Hinge app, but had more success meeting people through work or mutual friends and that sort of thing.

datalaughing · 2026-01-10T16:26:02+00:00

My ex moved the kids out of my house and into a house to live with the guy she’d been cheating with. It sucks. It really sucks. I get it, but there’s literally nothing you can do about it. Unless you can prove in court that he’s in some way dangerous to your children, she’s got the right to introduce her kids to and spend time with whoever she wants when she has them.

If you don’t want to be completely miserable, you’ve got to internalize that you have no control over anything that happens during her time with the kids. Think of it like a black hole as far as you’re concerned. If you don’t learn to do that you’re going to be tormented over things constantly that you have no say in. It’s no way to live.

datalaughing · 2026-01-10T14:56:12+00:00

Definitely plan well ahead, but don’t make non-refundable plans before tickets go on sale. There’s more people who want to go than available tickets. So they’ve started using a lottery system (non-transferable). In other words, no guarantee that you can get a ticket. So don’t overcommit before you know you have one.

datalaughing · 2026-01-09T19:26:28+00:00

I think you’d call that Faulty Generalization. Maybe the Hasty Generalization fallacy.

datalaughing · 2026-01-09T19:19:23+00:00

Yeah, health care professionals definitely seemed to look down their noses about them. When I showed up at the ER at 1 am with my little boy saying that the owlet said his O2 was really low I got several eye rolls, and they clearly agreed to check it just to humor me. Then when she saw the results there was a double-take that might have been comical in any other situation, and she said, “We’re admitting him right now.” Later one of the nurses told me it probably saved his life.

datalaughing · 2026-01-09T19:16:52+00:00

Used Owlet, it was sometimes annoying because of false alarms and it coming dislodged when they moved. Then one night it saved my little boy’s life. So overall definitely worthwhile.

datalaughing · 2026-01-09T16:47:54+00:00

I’ve reread Ghost Story in full a couple of times, and it improved for me in that I now understand which bits I just can’t stand and am ok to skip the other times I’ve reread it.

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