Brian Daboll’s Final Hail Mary

Sep. 24th, 2025 07:01 am
[syndicated profile] thedrawplay_feed

Posted by DrawPlayDave

Whelp, the Russell Wilson Giants experience lasted 3 starts. He was dreadful against Washington. Then he put up a career day in a mirage performance against Dallas’ dumpster defense. He came home with some dignity back under his name to face a weaker KC squad. The result was one of the worst games Russ has played. He arm-punted multiple moonballs directly into triple coverage. In maybe the most embarrassing sequence of the game, the Giants found their way into the redzone and Russ launched 3 pass attempts way out of the back of the endzone. Even on 4th down, when throwing it away is a massive disaster. You could hear the cries for Dart and the boos through the TV broadcast.

So here we are. Rookie Jaxson Dart has been given the starting job. They woke him up before September ended. This is it. This is the final card Brian Daboll had to play to save his job. If this doesn’t work out, I doubt they even survive till January. And it’s probably not going to work out. Nor should it, because I’m tired of this staff. Daboll especially.

In the earlier days of this disaster regime, namely year two and early year 3, the general consensus was Schoen was the problem and maybe we’d be better off if we could somehow fire Schoen but keep Daboll. Slightly into year 4, I’ve kind of swung in the opposite direction and I think Daboll is the bigger problem. I think Schoen should probably also just go, but looking back on more data I think Schoen has done an okay job. The team has talent on it. The cap situation is fair enough and the Jones contract debacle only hurt for a short time period. The drafting has been alright. He has done work to address roster issues. Most of his offseason moves I’ve been happy with, or at least contented by. What I’m seeing is a lot of these moves not working out because Daboll and company dont know how to develop and use these talents. I see a distinct failure of development across the board.

This team has talent. This team, on paper, should not be this anemic. The defense should be relatively stout and angry. The offense should have plenty of functional weapons, and the offensive line has veteran talent and young talent on it. But none of these players are developing. No one seems to improve. Kayvon feels like the same underwhelming performer he was as a rookie. Deonte Banks keeps getting benched. JMS is a terrible center. Evan Neal is a complete bust. When a GM keeps drafting busts, especially with high draft position…maybe the problem isn’t the picks or the GM. Maybe the problem is the coaching. None of Schoen’s “bad” draft picks were rated badly at the time of picking. Not every bust is on the team, sometimes guys just fail. But I see a pattern of talent coming to the Giants and not doing shit. That’s a coaching problem.

Brian Daboll got this job by “being the guy who developed Josh Allen”. But Josh Allen has only gotten better since he left. Maybe the Bills are just a smarter regime. Maybe Josh Allen is built differently and put in the work himself. Xavier McKinney was a good player on NY, and now he’s an All-Pro on a team that knows what they are doing. Saquon Barkley was a star for NY, but he turned into a god on one of the best talent development franchises in the league. Now, and most damningly of all, Daniel Jones is thriving as the QB we wished we had for 3 seasons under Daboll. The guy we brought in to “fix” Daniel Jones as this QB whisperer has been dreadful, while Jones himself instantly turned into an NFL-caliber quarterback the second he got into a functional offense. It’s still too early to say Daniel Jones is genuinely good now. But him playing better ball than he ever played in NY to start this season is apocalyptic for Daboll and Schoen, who kept their jobs in January by convincing Mara it was Jones’ fault the whole time.

Daboll consistently has this team looking undisciplined, weak, and underprepared. He can’t decide whether he wants to call plays or not. He’s routinely fumbled kicking injury situations. He yells at players on the sideline all the time. Players look routinely annoyed and upset. He makes weird gameday calls all the time. He can’t adjust or rally the troops. Daboll sucks. Maybe he works as an offensive coordinator, but he’s not head coach material.

I don’t know if I even want Dart to succeed under this regime at all. If Dart balls out, this dopey thumb of a coach is going to keep his job. He doesn’t deserve to. I don’t want the Giants to just be another Bears, a team that panic drafts a QB at the end of a regime’s thread and then forces the next regime to try and fix that mistake until they repeat it, but Mara tried to give Daboll slack and patience and he has rewarded us with garbage.

Dart, just don’t die out there. Do your best, and throw these bums under a bus when you get the chance to later this year.

The post Brian Daboll’s Final Hail Mary appeared first on The Draw Play.

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AO3 Logo with words AO3 Update

In the last year, AO3 has seen a rise in "art commission" spambot comments. The bots leaving these comments pretend to be artists who want to make comics or illustrations for a fan's fic. After convincing their targets to contact them off AO3, they scam their targets into paying for that art. Fans have reported that after sending payment, they either received AI-generated art or nothing at all.

AO3 has been working on various methods that we hope will reduce the spam. However, these scammers are persistent and creative about circumventing our protections.

To avoid falling victim to one of these scams, the Policy & Abuse committee recommends:

  1. Do not commission art from someone who solicits you by commenting on your work on AO3. Commercial activity is prohibited on AO3. If someone is encouraging behavior that violates our Terms of Service, it’s a good idea to be cautious. They likely do not have your best interests in mind.
  2. Do not provide your email or social media contact information to a commenter who asks for it, even if they say they'd just like to discuss your work further. Scammers try to get you to talk to them privately, because it is often easier to deceive or manipulate people in a one-on-one conversation.

Example of this type of scam

An example AO3 comment exchange with a spambot.

Elizabethbrown123: Wow, this fic was amazing! The way you describe things is so vivid and really brought the characters to life. Your work moved me to tears.
cool_username_42069: Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. <3
Elizabethbrown123: You're welcome! I'm so glad you responded. Do you use Discord or Twitter, or could you tell me your email so we can chat more? I've got some ideas I'd love to share with you, but I don't want to spoil anything.

This is just one example of how a scammer tries to lure the work creator onto a different platform where they can pressure the creator into commissioning art. These scammers use AI to generate realistic-sounding comments. The comments often contain generic praise or statements that could apply to any work, but sometimes they are extremely lengthy and/or specific. If the creator is suspicious and asks why the scammer wants to move the conversation off-site, they will typically claim that they aren't a scammer and/or that they can explain things better in private.

However, unlike a regular user, a scammer will always do at least one of two things:

  1. They will ask you to commission art from them, or
  2. They will share their contact information and/or ask for your information (such as an email address or username on a site that supports private messaging, like Instagram or Discord)

If you suspect that you've received a spam comment on your work, don't reply and especially do not provide them with your contact information. Just report the comment to Policy & Abuse so that we can take care of it.

What to do if you encounter this scam

If you receive a scam comment from a guest, you can press the "Spam" button on the comment. This helps train our automated spam-checker to better detect this type of behavior.

If you encounter a scammer that has a registered account, or if you encounter a guest posting scam comments on someone else's work, please report them to the Policy & Abuse committee. To do so:

  1. Select the "Thread" button on the scammer's comment. This will take you to the specific comment page.
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Policy Questions & Abuse Reports.
  3. In the "Brief summary of Terms of Service violation" field, enter "Spambot".
  4. In the "Description of the content you are reporting" field, enter "This is a spambot, their username is USERNAME."

Reporting in this fashion helps us auto-sort your report so that it can be handled as soon as a Policy & Abuse volunteer is available. To help us address reports about these types of bots as fast as possible, please only submit one report per account, and don't include multiple accounts in the same report.

If you encounter a scam commenter on someone else's work, you can let the work creator know the commenter is likely a bot and link them to this news post.

We also encourage you to share this post on social media and help spread the word about how to protect yourself from scammers and reduce spam on AO3.

[syndicated profile] daringfireballfeed_feed

Posted by John Gruber

Taegan Goddard, a few days ago at Political Wire:

The sudden suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show after threats from FCC chair Brendan Carr was a jolt. It looked like the next step in Donald Trump’s campaign to silence dissent.

But there’s another way to see it: an opportunity.

It’s been clear since the last election that conservatives dominate the independent media space. Trump rode the reach of right-wing podcasts to victory while Kamala Harris stuck to traditional television.

But those old outlets are collapsing — and they’re never coming back.

That means the stars of late-night TV — Kimmel, Colbert and others — could thrive outside corporate networks. They can build their own platforms, reach bigger audiences, and escape the grip of billionaires and timid executives.

While Goddard didn’t say it in this piece, the subtext should be that building the alternative on Substack or social media is not the answer, either. The Internet is decentralized and built exactly to counter these forces our country is facing under Trump 2.0.

The big problem is YouTube. With YouTube, Google has a centralized chokehold on video. We need a way that’s as easy and scalable to host video content, independently, as it is for written content. I don’t know what the answer to that is, technically, but we ought to start working on it with urgency.

I Owe You Nothing

Sep. 23rd, 2025 03:05 pm
[syndicated profile] thesphinxblog_feed

Posted by NevilleMorley

I don’t understand this world any more, #273 in an ongoing series… This is so bizarre that I really wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be fake – if it’s genuine, it suggests that we really are in the final stages of Late Capitalism Will Eat Itself – but there was some discussion on Bluesky this morning (https://bsky.app/profile/purplepingers.bsky.social/post/3lzhmig336n2v ) of a draft rental agreement from somewhere in Australia in which the would-be tenant was required to agree that the landlord would have a claim to a share of any IP generated on the premises. I mean, what? The snarky response that the tenant would have an equally plausible claim to a share of the property as their rent is helping the landlord pay the mortgage on it works because it makes just as little sense.

The idea that my university has a claim on any IP I generate in the course of my job is plausible enough, albeit clearly driven by the hope of emulating Johns Hopkins in being able to fund the whole enterprise from a few handy patents in the biomedical field, rather than anything the humanities are likely to generate, and albeit this did create a temporary headache back when I had my collaborative project with some theatre people where shared IP, rather than any one party laying claim to all of it, is the norm. Bottom line: they pay me to do this stuff, and provide facilities for this purpose, so generally fine.

The idea that anyone who has in any way supported or made possible my academic work thereby has a claim to the results is problematic – even if my wife and the cats might be on board with it. All the colleagues whom I would routinely thank for interesting comments and suggestions? The coffee roastery in Lower Bavaria that fuels my espresso consumption? Apple computers? The soothing music of the Marcin Wasilewski Trio? The electricity company? I look forward to having to renegotiate my council tax bill, once they work out the importance of their (frankly rather shoddy) maintenance of roads and pathways for the walks that help me clear my head.

On the other hand, we are not invariably the weaker party on whom such terms can be imposed. I think it is the case that the university also lays claim to any IP generated by students during their time with us. But that is woefully unambitious – no wonder the higher education sector is struggling. Surely, if our teaching counts for anything, we can claim some credit for whatever our students achieve later in life? So I look forward to new student contracts including the clause that we can demand 10% of anything they make in future, in either cash or shares. How likely is it that they’ll have read the small print, after all?

[syndicated profile] daringfireballfeed_feed

Posted by John Gruber

ABC is putting Kimmel’s show back on tonight, which is great. But I think it’s essential to watch the joke that triggered his suspension. I’m linking here to a CNN post with the full clip. CNN headlined their post “What Kimmel Said About Charlie Kirk That Yanked His Show Off Air”, and that’s basically how most news outlets have phrased it.

But the joke wasn’t about Charlie Kirk. It wasn’t about Charlie Kirk’s assassin. It was about Donald Trump being a sociopathic ghoul. Trump was asked how he’s holding up after the death of “his friend Charlie Kirk”. You really have to watch it — a transcript of Trump’s answer does no justice to how sociopathic it was. And Kimmel called him out on it with mockery.

[syndicated profile] thedrawplay_feed

Posted by DrawPlayDave

THE WEEK IN CHAOS
I think I’ve been laboring under an outdated impression. I’ve been under the impression the Dolphins success hinges on Tua, and while that’s still true…Tua is done. The Dolphins put up a fight against Buffalo but they are not fielding an NFL caliber defense. But for 3 straight weeks, Tua has had one pass that was directly to a defender that he did not see while staring down his target. He turns to mush under pressure. I think Tua is just done. But despite it all, the Dolphins are trending slightly upward. They won’t be picking #1. Probably. Let’s say #4.

We had a few really shit games this weekend, the kind of games that make you not enjoy football as a sport. But one thing that is nice about those sorts of terrible games: the score stays close so the ending gets funny. The Texans might just be shit. May be time to recalibrate having faith in Houston. The Jaguars are not great, but they do seem to have some scrap to them. The second instance of shit ball/funny ending was 49ers/Cardinals, a waste of time that finally got funny when the Cardinals looked to maybe win on a safety only to blow it and disgrace themselves. Steelers/Patriots was pretty unmemorable outside the Patriots coughing the ball up twice in the redzone. Packers/Browns was a defensive smothering that ended very funny. Chiefs/Giants was unwatchable trash and Russ played maybe his worst game I’ve seen in years from him.

Then we had some blowouts. The Seahawks squished the Saints like a bug. The Commanders kicked the Raiders off a cliff. The Colts demolished the Titans. The Bears of all teams swatted the Cowboys with ease. The Panthers…wait…the Panthers? The Panthers relegated the Falcons.

The Chargers and Broncos combined for a quality match, with the Chargers going up early, squandering the lead to a big Broncos run, then coming up clutch to win with a kick. Bucs/Jets ended up a good game, but you’d be forgiven for skipping the first 3 quarters when the Bucs mostly just beat up the Jets. The Rams/Eagles game was a tale of two halves, with the Rams giving the champs a handly stuffing until the switch flipped and the Eagles did the beatdown.

Lions/Ravens was as advertised: a damn good football game. However it proved the Ravens have problems and the Lions are going to be just fine.

GIANTS CORNER
There were some people in the fanbase who found optimism after last week because the team showed offense. I’m not sure why. This week confirmed the Cowboys defense is simply a pile of dung and the Giants, despite playing an entertaining game, had not turned any kind of corner. Russ chucked up multiple moonpicks to Nabers because the Chiefs could actually defend, and the offense was Cam Skattebo being neat plus Chiefs defensive penalties. The defense couldn’t tackle Mahomes nor get off the field. Same shit, different week. This team doesn’t have a real chance to win until they play the Saints. Daboll didn’t develop Josh Allen, Daboll got carried by Josh Allen. Daboll and Schoen convinced John Mara that Daniel Jones was the problem, and now Daniel Jones is off having a career revival.

Daboll & Schoen should have been fired in January. Giving them another year and letting them draft a rookie QB only to stick washed Russ out there is just wasting everyone’s time. I assume Dart gets the Saints start so that he looks good in a nail-biting win against the worst team in the NFL.


CHAOS OF THE WEEK
This was one of the better witching hours in recent history because it featured not one, not two, but THREE blocked last-minute field goals. First up: the Eagles, who had already completed a big second-half comeback and previously blocked a different Rams field goal attempt. The Eagles pulled ahead late, but the Rams managed to work back into field goal range and set up a game-saver to erase the sour taste of the comeback. Nope! Blocked, and ran back for a touchdown by a 300lb man, just to twist the knife. Then, the Packers set themselves up to finally put this ugly game behind them and move on from Cleveland, only for Cleveland to block it. The Browns squeaked out a few more yards and kicked a game-winner of their own to put the Packers on ice after a hot start. Then we had the wildest ending of the week. The Bucs set themselves up to kick, up 6 points, to go ahead by two scores with just over a minute left. The Jets, completing a comeback of their own, block it, run it back, and are now leading by 1. The Bucs get the ball back, drive the field with some Baker Baking and kick the actual game winner anyway.

 

CHAOTIC MOMENTS OF THE WEEK
Mike Vrabel, high off paint fumes, calls for a fucking pitch play on 4th down, in the first half, from their own 15 yard line. It converted, so he’s been spared the shame. But I saw it. I saw it, Mike. What the fuck are you doing?
-The Falcons released Younghoe Koo this week because he hadn’t been kicking that well. The new guy shanked two attempts against Carolina. Maybe the problem is you, Falcons.
-Due to the nature of football you can never really claim a single player deserves all the credit for a win, but damn did the Vikings Isaiah Rodgers make a good case anyway. Rodgers had one of the best single-game defensive performances you will ever see against the Bengals, all in one half. He scored two defensive touchdowns, one off a pick and one off a scoop & score. By the way, he forced that fumble that he ran back, and he also punched the ball out on another drive.

THE VIBE CHECK
The Packers took a big slap to the face this week. After starting the season as a Super Bowl contender, they were suffocated by the Browns defense and lost. Sometimes you need that gut punch to keep yourself honest. The Bengals also suffered maybe the biggest single week vibe drop, losing Burrow for the season (basically) and then getting pantsed by the Vikings.

The Seahawks have been on the rise since an unfortunate week 1. Beating Pittsburgh was solid, but completely demolishing a bad team instead of playing down to the competition? Thats what good teams do.

-The Patriots have not had a good start to the year, making the Raiders look competent, barely beating Miami, and now crumbling to Pittsburgh after two massive redzone fuckups. Things aren’t feeling great. The Texans are 0-3 and they don’t look to be improved.

-The Bears finally got a nice comforting win though, same for Carolina. The Colts are just…man what is happening in Indy? A complete reversal from what we thought going into this year. Indy is playing with house money and having a great time. 

-After week 1, the Lions are looking just fine, but the Ravens have suffered. They gave up a win to Buffalo, beat Cleveland, and then mostly held their own against Detroit until Henry fumbled again. Is Henry a fumble guy now?

CACKLES OF THE WEEK
Marcus Mariota takes off on a designed run, picks up 20 yards, then the ball flies out of his hands like a bar of soap to ruin everything.

BIG OOF OF THE WEEK
-Tua, again with this. Do I need to rename this section the big Oofua of the week
RAVENS WHAT ARE YOU DOING

CHAOS WATCH
The Panthers play the Patriots, Dolphins, Cowboys, and Jets in the next 4 weeks. I expect the Panthers to suddenly get taken seriously when they put up decent games against this trash, when they should not be.
-The Vikings had a miracle comeback against Chicago, shat themselves against Atlanta, and then ripped the Bengals to shreds. Wentz is starting. The Chaos Gods have not abandoned their vessel.

FRAUD WATCH
The Packers took a hit to their credibility this week but I need to see them struggle some more to think it was more than just a trap game. The Eagles looked potentially fraudulent for a half, but then the offense found itself again and won, so no counting them out yet. The Colts and Chargers appear to be legit for now. The Bucs are a chaotic team that wins close games, but they have the grit that makes them true.

The Steelers? Suspicious. They look like the 9-8 squad we know them to be. The Cardinals and 49ers both proved themselves fraudulent this week, putting together a goddawful display of unwatchable tripe. The 49ers are in first place in the division. I told you this was going to be the fraud division. The Rams could have had it locked up but fumbled the bag.

SNUFF FILM OF THE WEEK
-The Seahawks were up 38-6 by the end of the half against the Saints. Just a complete demolition. I’ve never seen Seattle fans so comfortable during a football game.

 

DISAPPOINTMENT DUCK
Packers may have simply gotten trap gamed, but it’s hard to deny going into 0-2 Cleveland looking like the best team in the league only to get absolutely suffocated and lose on a blocked kick was a gut punch.

 

MOST UNWATCHABLE TEAM OF THE WEEK
This was a tight race between the Saints and Falcons. I simply could not decide. Both teams got run over. The Saints got more badly beaten, but they at least scored points and we knew they’d suck? The Falcons got embarassed by the Panthers in maybe the best game they;ve played in the Bryce era. Neither team deserves to escape the shame.

 

————————————————————

BETS FOR NEXT WEEK – THE X-MEN! (I’m not a comics guy so those of you who are, please give me better suggestions if you have them)

TNF – SEAHAWKS @ CARDINALS
Short week divisional games usually result in some weirdness so this one is probably more of a toss up than you’d think. However the Hawks are getting better as it goes and the Cardinals have spent 3 weeks barely scraping by.
If the Cardinals win, I will draw Kyler Murray as Dark Phoenix

VIKINGS @ STEELERS
The Vikings remain impossible to read. The Steelers can be counted on to be a reliable talented underachiever. Maybe Rodgers makes this one personal because he got denied the Vikings gig, but Brian Flores is probably going to give him hell. I’ll go home team for now because Carson Wentz is poopy.
If the Vikings win, I will draw Carson Wentz as Mystique, switching between his 6 different uniforms of the last 6 years

COMMIES @ FALCONS
The Commies dominated both bad teams on their schedule so far. The Falcons had me hopeful after week 2, but seeing this sad display in week 3 has me writing them off again.
If the Falcons win, I will draw Michael Penix Jr as Jubilee

SAINTS @ BILLS
We just need to get through this week to set up the 0-4 fight next week for Saints/Giants.
If the Saints win, holy shit. Alvin Kamara as Colossus or something

BROWNS @ LIONS
The Browns defense is legit, but I don’t trust the offense to keep up with Detroit, who will still score.
If the Browns win, I will draw Joe Flacco as Rogue

TITANS @ TEXANS
Big game for the Texans. The Titans are not a good football team, Cam looks like a rookie. The Texans should finally be able to win against a weak divisional opponent. If they lose this, it’s Joeover and maybe we were all wrong about this entire regime after 2023 like how the Giants were frauds in 2022.
If the Titans win, I will draw Cam Ward as The Juggernaut

PANTHERS @ PATRIOTS
Panthers balled out against Atlanta. Can they keep this fraud train rolling up north? I’ll take the home team, because I do not trust that to happen.
If the Panthers win, I will draw Bryce Young as Wolverine

CHARGERS @ GIANTS
Looking at this matchup made me curious. I knew the Eli Giants never beat the Chargers, and the post-Eli Giants were too bad to beat the Chargers…have I ever seen the Giants beat the Chargers? The answer is…probably not, the last time was in 1998 and I dont remember that year. I would have been ten. Maybe I’ll witness a win in another 4 years, because it ain’t happening this week.
If the Giants win, I will draw Brian Daboll as Professor X, using his powers on Herbert Storm

EAGLES @ BUCS
A real football matchup for big boy men. Excited. Not picking against the champs yet.
If the Bucs win, I will draw Baker Mayfield as Cyclops

COLTS @ RAMS
Another big boy matchup for big boy men. This is the second test for Indy. If they can beat the Rams, on the road, this team is for real, and we have to be scared of them. Christ how bad must Anthony Richardson be for the team to be this good with Jones under center?
If the Colts win, I will draw Daniel Jones as Beast

JAGUARS @ 49ERS
We’ve got a lot of middleweight fights going on. Can the 49ers continue to inflate their win total by picking on the Jaguars? I’ll take the home team.
If the Jaguars win, I will draw Trevor Lawrence as Emma Frost

RAVENS @ CHIEFS
The Chiefs avoided disaster by beating the Giants, but they didn’t acquit themselves of the questions during that game at all. They are headed for 1-3 at rapid speed.
If the Chiefs win, I will draw Mahomes as Toad, tripping Juggernaut Henry

BEARS @ RAIDERS
Another “who can save their season and who is completely toast” matchup. I’ll go home team once more.
If the Bears win, I will draw Caleb as Gambit

PACKERS @ COWBOYS
The Packers have to win this. They have to. If the Packers lose the Micah homecoming game to this sorry ass Dallas defense, the Packers are immediately frauds. This is the game I would take in eliminator if I was in one of those games.
If the Cowboys win, I will draw Dak Prescott as Iceman, defeating Micah Pyro

MNF – JETS @ DOLPHINS
People are going to look at this like “oh god two awful teams this game will suck”. But as often as those games end up a slog, they also end up fun. I think this game will be fun. But I guess I have to actually pick somebody…so…Jets?
If the Dolphins win, I will draw Tua as Psylocke

MNF – BENGALS @ BRONCOS
Here’s the one that’ll suck. The Broncos offense sucks. The definition of a moveable object meets a stoppable force. This game will be so ass.
If the Bengals win, I will draw Ja’marr Chase as Magneto

A TIE
If we get a tie, I will draw Apocalypse

 

ALSO: you are probably going to be noticing some design changes this week. I’ve been playing around with some minor visual tweaks and some background stuff. If you hate or love an update you see, please let me know, I’m just experimenting at the moment.

The post CHAOS REPORT 2025 WEEK 3: No Kick For You appeared first on The Draw Play.

you can't celebrate without champagne

Sep. 23rd, 2025 04:10 am
[syndicated profile] baseball_rpf_ao3_feed

Posted by MeeliInc

by

The LA Dodgers need one more win to make it to the World Series, and they only have each other as a means to get there. Who will have the rookies back when 56,000 eyes peer on him? Rising tensions all lead to the same road. Champagne can speed up the process, though.

Words: 4873, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

:dusty-stick:

Sep. 16th, 2025 07:45 pm
marginaliana: Buddy the dog carries Bobo the toy (Default)
[personal profile] marginaliana
Various:

--Currently reading Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke, which is a silly epistolary novel told via slack messages at a PR company in which one of the characters has had his consciousness mysteriously uploaded into the company's slack channels and all his coworkers think it's a bit. Also Slackbot is having an existential crisis. Also the gentlest of satires of a PR business carries on around it all. I have actually read this before but did not retain it (as discovered when I checked out the ebook and it opened to the last page) but that just means I get to enjoy it fresh. Do recommend as very light reading.

--The makers of the game Shovel Knight wanted the characters to be body and pronoun swappable - this is a great article about their process of designing the system

--The Book of Love by Kelly Link - DNF. I don't even know any teenagers but I know this is not what teenagers are like, even if they've just come back from the dead. Contains: stereotypical teen sister drama with zero nuance, mysterious authority figure knows things but doesn't reveal any of them and speaks only in the most cryptic of ways because reasons, etc. There was one interesting/creepy bit of worldbuilding but I couldn't be bothered to see if anything came of it because I was so annoyed by everything else. It doesn't seem like it was sold as YA but god it felt desperately 2004-YA. And jagged, in that way modern pop literature uses jaggedness to mean reality. Anyway, unsurprisingly this got rave reviews and I hated it violently.

--Reread Jonathan Livingston Seagull which I believe I last encountered in my teen years and the only reaction I can manage is disdain. But why? Has western society passed out of the time of fable? Am I too close-minded for metaphor? Or is the book just fundamentally not very good? Honestly, I really don't think it's very good. I'm prepared to accept it conceptually but the different sections just don't go. It's cramming five different concepts into a seagull-shaped trenchcoat, and three of those concepts are trying to bite each other's faces off.

--Everyone should tell me their yuletide nominations just so I can be delighted about things I'm probably not going to write.
a_t_rain: (ravenclaw)
[personal profile] a_t_rain
So, I think this was my first time coming back to a book I really loved when I was a teenager but haven't picked up in at least thirty years. (My mom has been nagging me to move my books out of their house, so I've been doing it bit by bit with the ones that I feel sentimental about, and I grabbed Fahrenheit 451 off the shelves this summer because it seemed timely.)

It is. Like, there's a lot of stuff that is obviously, amusingly dated, like Guy's salary being six thousand dollars a year,* and some stuff that didn't really bother me in high school but does now. (Clarisse is very, very obviously a Manic Pixie Dream Girl now that we have a name for it, and Millie ... well, there are hints that might have been developed in really interesting directions, like the way she's clearly miserable enough to attempt suicide but wholly unable to acknowledge THAT she's miserable, let alone why -- but they just aren't.** Also, Guy, maybe you should try talking to your wife's friends without haranguing them and randomly bringing their reproductive choices into it?)

But there is also stuff that didn't make much sense to teenaged-me that seems grimly logical now, like the ease with which a whole culture can make the leap from "books disturb us and make us uncomfortable" to "books should be banned." Also, the idea that people might actively prefer an immersive, participatory simulacrum of human relationships to the real thing seems way too prescient for comfort, even if the "participatory" part involves the adorably quaint method of sending scripts through the mail.

I'd been vaguely thinking of this as a 1960s sort of novel, but it isn't, it's McCarthy-era. (I guess the treatment of nuclear war should have been a tipoff that it had to have been written in the narrow window between Hiroshima and mutually assured destruction, but I'd sort of forgotten there was a nuclear war in this book.) And, as such, it feels an awful lot like it belongs to our times as well.

* Bradbury (wisely) didn't specify the exact year in which the story is supposed to take place, but it's definitely after 1990.

** If you have fic recs, I'm all ears!
[syndicated profile] standardebooks_new_feed
After his marriage fails, a Russian nobleman returns to his family estate and falls in love with the devout daughter of his cousin, who encourages him to reconcile with his wife.

ADHD roadblocks

Sep. 22nd, 2025 04:01 pm
cimorene: A small bronze table lamp with triple-layered orange glass shades (stylish)
[personal profile] cimorene
I have been thinking about the ADHD struggle, and I decided I should buy the Barkley book on adult ADHD and also a copy of How To Keep House While Drowning; I added them to my cart at the online bookstore, then didn't order them because I didn't have the executive function to do that yet. I found some potential replacements for the charger of my laptop that just broke as well, but didn't manage to finish comparing them and decide.

Other stuff I need to do and have been unable to start includes:Read more... )

I think a lot of what's blocking me from several of these things in the last month, anyway, is that they feel like projects that require planning and stamina, but so much of my bandwidth has been going to anxiety about the driving test (two days from now) that there wasn't space. This is extremely normal for me and obviously a fallacy, but I guess I've been feeling like the time until the test was mostly short enough that I should just try to minimize anxiety and worry about all the other stuff after. And I didn't want to take my adhd meds in between.
[syndicated profile] thedrawplay_feed

Posted by DrawPlayDave

Despite some wild finishes this week I’m still having a pretty good season so far. But, after a long wait, we finally have the return of Sexy Trevor. Sort of. Kinda. A most cursed Sexy Trevor. Anyway you could say this week…sucked.

 

THE UNSEEN BETS for Patreon members! A reminder, you can see the unfinished or unposted ones if you join!

The post CARTOON BETS WEEK 3: KIRBY SAYS HAIIIIIIIIII appeared first on The Draw Play.

[syndicated profile] baseball_rpf_ao3_feed

Posted by notthebigspoon

by

There's nothing about a long, hard, sweaty fuck that doesn't turn Brandon on. He likes the sting of bites and scratches, he likes fingers digging into his hips and leaving deep purple bruises that he has to hide in the clubhouse and the showers. He likes the ache that hangs around his body next day, like the ache he has from a hard fought and hard won game but so much better. He loves everything about it. He just doesn't love that that's all there is to it.

Title taken from Don't Want to Change Your Mind by FM-84 and Ollie Wride.

Words: 990, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

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