Laurel Amberdine 🕊

@MonkeColon91031 @ChristianityOn Funny how Jesus doesn’t seem to have anything to do with it in your view.

Um, actually, St Paul says in 1 Cor 1 that "God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." so write that down.

@HariSel57511397 I can’t help but be very Wolfe-influenced (and very Catholic). One of my more Wolfean novels got a lot of compliments on submission, and even one offer… but only if I removed the overtly-religious bit at the end.

First, a staggeringly small amount of authors could’ve pulled off BOTNS to begin with. Second, you’d be insane to try to write something like it in today’s market. No one would give you the time of day.

@MalazofWesteros Meh. But read The Lord of the Rings at least!

Got 0 so I guess I’ve found my reading list for next year 😅

@SouthronHabibi Yay, glad to see you’re going back home!

No sleep till Houston. Home for 8 weeks for the holidays. Prayers for a safe flight please. Happy Thanksgiving. Allahu Akbar, God is Great.

@MalazofWesteros IIRC, her first books didn’t sell well so she relaunched under a new name, and chose something that wasn’t clearly female, because there was a lot of bias against women at that time.

Just found out Robin Hobb wasn't her real name.. has my whole life been a lie?

@edzitron “Tech only does this when it’s anxious” 😂 Great talk!

In 15 minutes I'm giving a talk at Web Summit called "why tech is shit now" and you can watch it here. websummit-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/27KP2OIa51xs3D…

@GreatUSTreasure @JamesNotJamie1 Yeah, as someone from Illinois this got me a few times. Why does this interstate go so far out of the way to get to the next city, when we could just take this local road and go straight there Half hour later: oh no (But at least I was in a car)

@JamesNotJamie1 Almost every map looks really flat.

Following this illiterate guy on ig who decided to skateboard across america a couple weeks ago and left his house in LA w one change of clothes and no money expecting it to take like 2 weeks. He was so surprised when he found out the rocky mountains exist. Really good content

@FrHarrison Yeah, it seemed very flawed, heavily biased toward those already involved, with plenty of free time, and motivated by an agenda.

has anyone ever asked, re: synodal listening, what the metrics, methods, and polling theory they are instituting to ensure that what is heard and listened to is in fact representative of all catholics? I feel like if one wants to do this, you cant just open the door for listening circles and presume it is representative. it means actively engaging those who wont go to such things and ensuring their voice is represented. but that is hard work, and requires some real method of polling to be implemented as part of the process.

@MalazofWesteros Yeah… remember that disclaimer you posted on 10/27? Was not a joke. (I totally forgot it myself of course.) Still unsure how I feel about this book, for multiple reasons, but Mycroft is a big one.

Yeah I really don't like this person at all. Such horror all while lacking any remorse at least from the text I'm reading so far... Damn

Starting what’s considered by respectable SFF voices as the modern Sci Fi standard: Terra Igota

@FredericMari @Noahpinion Well, a large number of gen Z generally started watching porn when they were < 10. They’re addicted by the time they’re teens. They can’t relate to actual women. Attempts at dating and marriage fail. Already marriage and childbearing were in steep decline.

@Noahpinion I’ll bite. What did it do? Concretely? Apart from the obvious ie, people can consume porn easily. But what are the world changing second order effects?

There's an argument to be made that internet porn was the most important global cultural change in our lifetimes.

Because of my vow of poverty, I am unable to own the libs.

@ReReadingWolfe I know so many serious Catholics who love Gene Wolfe. The only ones who don’t like him have the same reasons as anyone else —don’t like SF, too confusing, etc. Nothing ideological.

This is true for any mono-ideological community. Not only religious ones. I don't agree with the follow-up sentiment and neither do the Catholic Gene Wolfe readers I encounter (some of them priests). Granted that could be selection bias.

@thesoyjim What? That’s terrible.

@SouthronHabibi I don’t think I could disturb it. I’d have to find somewhere else to sleep.

I hit my 90th night at the Ritz Carlton in Abu Dhabi and they went a little overboard.

@prof_fantasy Sabriel by Garth Nix. It is standalone though there are books that follow in the same setting.

@thesoyjim youtube.com/watch?v=U3qc_H… Mixing Colours, Brian Eno & Roger Eno. The videos are nice too.

@thesoyjim So true. And the first chapter always just talking about what they’re going to talk about in this book. Just get to it! I’m already reading this thing!

@josephnollasj Catholicism for Dummies is actually great.

Catholic Twitter, I need a good book to help an inquiring young adult learn more about Catholicism. An introduction to Catholicism kinda book. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated. My sincere thanks.

@ReReadingWolfe Mentioned this to my coworkers at Locus recently and most of them didn’t know!

Can be obtained on the Castle of Days collection which includes The Book of Days By Gene Wolfe short faction collection, The Castle of the Otter book of essays about The Book of the New Sun, and a second collection of essays that you can’t get anywhere else.

@SteveSkojec The Philippines gets huge hurricanes yearly, and I think it's one of the reasons their infrastructure stays terrible and it's so hard for them to advance. Constantly rebuilding.