liz-squids reblogged
*slowly reaches for the popcorn*
liz-squids reblogged
"Whoa nice, a backup camera¹!"
¹backup cameras have been mandatory for over half a decade
THEY HAVE??
#i'm sorry they've WHAT#are you telling me that people now take their license test#in a car with a goddamn BACKUP CAMERA?#i'm torn between envy and fury#but i looked it up and apparently both the us and canada have required them since 2018???#i'm—
TRULY, I learned to drive in 2022, and all my instructors' cars had backup cameras. But then I started practising in my flatmate's Beetle (2000, no backup camera, also the interior ceiling was falling down, this is a THING with New Beetles), and had to learn from scratch how to reverse.
Which is obviously a valuable skill and it's better to have, but then I bought a 2014 Yaris with a backup camera, and promptly forgot how to reverse without it again.
Veilguard update: the first big choice (and hardening)
liz-squids reblogged
Star Trek: Voyager I Eye of the Needle
I'm fascinated that "Harry talks to his parents once a week" is held up as a sign that he's incredibly close to his family and, if anything, needs to cut the cords and be more independent.
Like, I know this is the Everyone Has Daddy Issues Franchise, but I talk to my parents once a week because I set a hard boundary and that was all the time they were entitled to. Harry making a weekly call home only looks unhealthy if you're using Spock as your baseline.
liz-squids reblogged
if anybody needs some distraction today let me heartily recommend the Hilary Tamar mysteries by Sarah Caudwell, which are about wittily bitchy queercoded lawyers solving murders and tax cases in 1980s London. revel in a narrator whose gender is Oxford Don, a world where rich people have to suffer a 90% top tax rate, a cast whose hobbies are avoiding doing legal work, getting laid, being witty, drinking wine, and chainsmoking, and also occasionally there is a murder. it's a great time.
I recommend these books as "Imagine if a bunch of Enid Blyton characters were old enough to drink and have casual sex." Unless I'm recommending them to barristers, in which I explain that it's a series about barristers solving mysteries and doing about as well as you would expect.
These specific recommendations probably don't work outside the Commonwealth, but I can't help that.
liz-squids reblogged
I dunno, man, seems like a bad day to look to a Hitler apologist for inspiration.
liz-squids reblogged
188. The Humourless Feminist Killjoy Happy Hour (LD 5.03)
Anika and Liz visit a fabulous resort, where we get to sit by the pool and relax while nothing bad happens and no one is weirdly stalked by their ex-girlfriend.
We’re discussing Star Trek: Lower Decks episode “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel”, and spoilers, we aren’t fans!
- The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel did not deserve this
- “My shoulders went up around my ears and stayed there for the entire episode.”
- Jennifer is abusive, and it’s weird how the show (and the fandom!) seems to consider this zany and delightful
- This is not a great season for Tendi’s characterisation so far
- It feels like Mariner and Tendi’s arcs ended in season 4 and the show doesn’t quite know what to do with them now
- But also, less than week to the US election and Lower Decks is like, “How about an episode where a Black woman on the cusp of becoming a leader is mistreated and everyone cheers?” Guys.
- An Apocalypse Now parody? Groundbreaking.
- Anika: “I apologise to people who liked this episode.” Liz: “I don’t.”
- How much has season 5 been affected by the industrial unrest across the entertainment industry? There are so many barriers to making good television at the best of times! Also, Liz talks about season 5 of Babylon 5 (sorry, Anika)
I do not apologise to the people who liked "The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel", but I do apologise to anyone who wanted nice election night escapism and got this episode of Antimatter Pod instead, and also to Anika for making her listen to me talk about Babylon 5.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
First, I'm gonna be using "veilguard spoilers" as my tag for posts about this game. The following has at least one big spoiler, but mostly it's a bullet point list of my impressions so far, and also a look at my Rook.
liz-squids reblogged
Tips for writing those gala scenes, from someone who goes to them occasionally:
- Generally you unbutton and re-button a suit coat when you sit down and stand up.
- You’re supposed to hold wine or champagne glasses by the stem to avoid warming up the liquid inside. A character out of their depth might hold the glass around the sides instead.
- When rich/important people forget your name and they’re drunk, they usually just tell you that they don’t remember or completely skip over any opportunity to use your name so they don’t look silly.
- A good way to indicate you don’t want to shake someone’s hand at an event is to hold a drink in your right hand (and if you’re a woman, a purse in the other so you definitely can’t shift the glass to another hand and then shake)
- Americans who still kiss cheeks as a welcome generally don’t press lips to cheeks, it’s more of a touch of cheek to cheek or even a hover (these days, mostly to avoid smudging a woman’s makeup)
- The distinctions between dress codes (black tie, cocktail, etc) are very intricate but obvious to those who know how to look. If you wear a short skirt to a black tie event for example, people would clock that instantly even if the dress itself was very formal. Same thing goes for certain articles of men’s clothing.
- Open bars / cash bars at events usually carry limited options. They’re meant to serve lots of people very quickly, so nobody is getting a cosmo or a Manhattan etc.
- Members of the press generally aren’t allowed to freely circulate at nicer galas/events without a very good reason. When they do, they need to identify themselves before talking with someone.
Oooh, I can also help with this!
- There are often speeches and they are usually 2/3 boring, 1/3 slightly amusing.
- The food is nearly always mediocre, but if it's good, it's really good
- In my experience (galas in Australia and New Zealand) there is usually a big range of options for wines (usually three reds, three whites and a sparkling in circulation), quite a few beers on offer, but spirits and cocktails are not available at all.
- Non-alcoholic options are usually limited to sparkling water, orange juice and Coke. I am making it my mission in life to add more variety to the non-alco options.
- It's quite routine in Australia to decamp to a hotel bar after the event wraps up (usually around 10pm) for a couple of extra drinks -- this did not happen in New Zealand.
- This might just be me, but I always struggle to hear conversation at these events, I spend most of the night nodding and smiling and trying not to drink too much.
- If you are a woman, you will meet your new best friend in the toilets, and she will turn out to be someone incredibly senior and respected in your field who loves your shoes. You will never speak again after that night.
liz-squids reblogged
Hey, I wanna talk about how we do fandom! I've come to realize that I, personally, tend to differ from many others in that I highly prefer to only engage with a text as it's written, so I don't tend to really like fanon/extremely ooc characterizations and I find it hard to get invested in ships that aren't canon. My way of doing fandom isn't better or worse than anyone else's, but I am curious about how much of a minority I'm in! So:
*We've all seen ships of characters not from the same media and stuff like shipping the concept of ennui with the color blue, okay, I'm asking what you, personally, find compelling!
liz-squids reblogged
Jennifer they could never make me like you!
It's wild that she spends a whole episode gaslighting Mariner and kissing and touching her without consent, and people still think she's a good person who got a raw deal.
#star trek: lower decks#this whole storyline was completely unnecessary#and it's wild that Jennifer spends an episode doing classic abuser stuff and Mariner's friends are like “just play along!”#that Jennifer was not a nice person and was into Mariner for the wrong reasons was already quite obvious#Beckett you deserve the best and also a restraining order against. your ex
liz-squids reblogged
Chapters: 1/10
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Charles Vance/Rayner
Characters: Charles Vance, Rayner (Star Trek)
Additional Tags: There was only one sleeping bag, War Crimes, references to past torture, Violence, Trauma, Shame, Pre-Canon, dubious survival tactics, Lost in Translation, problematic bi representation, nobody’s hands are clean (in either the moral or the hygienic sense)
Summary:
In the dying months of the Kellerun uprising, the Federation finally dispatches aid. Cut off from their convoy, stranded and alone, a junior Starfleet officer and a Kellerun militia soldier face a war of their own.
–
It’s here! The fic that started with the thought “so Vance and Rayner definitely explored each other’s bodies, right?”, before proceeding at warp speed all the way from pwp one-shot to pwp (porn with politics) multichapter tale.
The first few chapters are written, and I know where I want the rest of the story to go; I’ll space posting of the completed chapters out a little to give myself some buffer.
Me at the end of this chapter:
BUT ALSO SCREAMING, CRYING, THROWING UP, REFRESHING AO3 IN CASE THERE’S MORE
I had no choice but to draw Rayner as described in this fic. I assume the Breen hunt him by following the stink lines. Not completely sold on his man bun, but without it he looked like the drummer in an '80s hair metal band. Also, it may in fact be an actual bread roll he is saving for lunch. Why is the angry ghost of Charles Schulz manifesting in my study?
Source: archiveofourown.org
Content warning for this week's Lower Decks
I watched this on the train and found it upsetting! Borderline triggering! So!
liz-squids reblogged
obsessed with star trek repeatedly writing themselves into a corner by creating alien races that are supposed to be The Bad Guys when that explicitly conflicts with their previously established notion that no group of people is inherently good or evil.
first it was the klingons—they’re originally supposed to be this cruel, bloodthirsty, war-obsessed people—and then tng comes along and it’s like wait no maybe war and violence is a part of their culture and actually ties back to ancient traditions and philosophies so we have to be woke about it.
hey these are the ferengi and they’re supposed to represent everything we hate about capitalist society; they’re greedy, scheming, profit-obsessed, and they look like ugly little trolls to emphasize how much we fucking HATE capitalism. oh wait fuck here comes deep space nine and we have to recognize that they’re PEOPLE. okok what if the pursuit of profit is actually part of their culture and ties back to ancient traditions and philosophies. so we have to be woke about it.
this is the borg, they’re a hivemind race of cyborgs who have no sense of individuality and their only motivation is assimilating people into their society. they want to assimilate humanity and we are completely defenseless against them because their technology is eons ahead of our own and they’re incapable of being reasoned with. oh sweet we have a borg prisoner this is the perfect opportunity to commit genocide against them. fuck actually we can’t commit genocide we’re woke and communists and in space.
hey these are the cardassians, they’re part of a cruel and vicious empire which is supposed to be a representation of fascism and authoritarian regimes, they’re a cold, bloodthirsty people with no sense of empathy or compassion, their society literally references 1984 on multiple occasions, and they’re known for the insanely cruel and inhumane methods of torture they use against their prisoners of war. we hate the cardassians…….. except, here’s a cardassian kid who grew up on bajor, and……. fuck. he’s a person. now we actually have to consider his humanity. and being racist is actually……. bad.
this is the jem’hadar, they’re genetically engineered soldiers who have no sense of individuality and only live to defend the state. they’re all born addicted to a synthetic drug that’s manufactured by the state and administered by their masters—this is how they’re kept subservient. they’re ruthless and powerful and they’re incapable of being reasoned with because their only motivation is violence and killing. so we should kill them all, right? FUCK….. what if they’re actually people. goddamnit. now we have to consider their humanity.
hey these are the romulans. hey these are the founders. the list goes on. i just find it really interesting
I think this is one of the (several) reasons I'm so unmoved by the SNW depiction of the Gorn. Nevermind that we speedran this whole issue way back when they were first introduced in the '60s, we've also had so many versions of the slower "Oh hey, these guys are people" reveal. Discovery and Prodigy are the only series across the whole franchise that really sidestep this storyline and go straight into "they're super complicated, actually, and our heroes only know a fraction of the story".
liz-squids reblogged
Chapters: 1/10
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Charles Vance/Rayner
Characters: Charles Vance, Rayner (Star Trek)
Additional Tags: There was only one sleeping bag, War Crimes, references to past torture, Violence, Trauma, Shame, Pre-Canon, dubious survival tactics, Lost in Translation, problematic bi representation, nobody’s hands are clean (in either the moral or the hygienic sense)
Summary:
In the dying months of the Kellerun uprising, the Federation finally dispatches aid. Cut off from their convoy, stranded and alone, a junior Starfleet officer and a Kellerun militia soldier face a war of their own.
–
It’s here! The fic that started with the thought “so Vance and Rayner definitely explored each other’s bodies, right?”, before proceeding at warp speed all the way from pwp one-shot to pwp (porn with politics) multichapter tale.
The first few chapters are written, and I know where I want the rest of the story to go; I’ll space posting of the completed chapters out a little to give myself some buffer.
Me at the end of this chapter:
BUT ALSO SCREAMING, CRYING, THROWING UP, REFRESHING AO3 IN CASE THERE'S MORE
Source: archiveofourown.org
liz-squids reblogged
http://antimatterpod.com/187-free-range-organic-facial-hair-ld-5-01-and-5-02/
Anika and Liz meet their alternate timeline duplicates, who are exactly the same except Fake Anika is super right-wing and Fake Liz has a luscious beard.
It’s time! For the Star Trek: Lower Decks fifth season premiere!
Liz: I don’t ship Rutherford/Tendi/T’Lyn 61 seconds later… Liz: I ship Rutherford/Tendi/T’Lyn
- Remembering Jeri Taylor
- New York Comic Con: Anika has been in the presence of greatness (Carol Kane)
- Is Lower Decks getting tired, or is it Liz who is too tired to feel joy?
- Beard Boimler and Otherford
- We are learning SO MUCH about Orion culture!
- INCOMING HUMOURLESS FEMINIST KILLJOY MOMENT: Maybe October 2024 is not the right time for a subplot about controlling what a pregnant woman does?
- Anika has a Bointer for you: always try to avoid anything that makes you sound like J. D. Vance
- Okay, but seriously, what has Tumblr done to link posts? I don't like this!
- I realise that we had all of Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 way back on 1 July, but I only just finished editing our podcasts for it a couple of weeks ago, I have barely gotten my Discovery feelings squared away (temporarily, they keep coming back like socks falling out of an overstuffed drawer), and I actually need Star Trek to slow its roll. Like, these episodes both felt fine but not amazing to me, and I suspect the problem is actually me.
liz-squids reblogged
Anyone have official vatican-sanctioned anime mascot of the Catholic church on their 2024 bingo?
You got me this time Papal State, I didn’t see this one coming at all
For years, my parents told me that real Catholics never wear rosary beads around their neck, and to do so is inappropriate and offensive. And I believed them. And now the Vatican is just tweeting it out sharing their uncanny valley mascots.