“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense”

- Alice in Wonderland

BLARGHHGFFFF (sound of cheshire spewing water from his mouth)

I did finally watch it and Holy shit?? But also, did you see Ballister's eyes at the end when the pink light showed up and agshskd 😭😭😭 anyway thanks for making me want to watch this, it was such a unique movie!!

It should be illegal to animate a man this beautiful

I am so glad to know that you had an enjoyable experience <3

November 28, 2023 | A Darker Shade of Magic - 001

I decided to do this anyway, and maybe its cringe or annoying, but I'm still excited about this book even a few exhausting Uni days later. I'm also hoping to like.... prevent myself from falling off of reading by giving myself some interaction to do with it?? This is very much going to be a Spoiler-filled series of posts (assuming I keep up with this), so please be warned. I'm probably going to use Keep Reading cuts and tags so I'm not super annoying with this.

I made it through the first true chapter, and I'm honestly really excited I picked up this book. I recognized the author's name from Bookblr posts about Viscious, but I have that in audiobook form and I already knew I was going to be spending too much at the Barns and Noble that night, so I didn't pick it up. Instead I was really drawn in by the blurb on A Darker Shade of Magic, so I took the chance on it and it proceeded to sit, egging me on, in the corner of my consciousness for the next few days. I'd even started reading something else I bought that day! But something about the vaguely Vash the Stampede figure on the front (and His association with the last book I got brainworms reading) and the idea of a setting of not only one period London, but many, and I could no longer hold myself back. Its Finals, what's better than starting a new obsession? ...

Something odd that I didn't really notice until I got to the page with the big roman numeral 2 on it is that the chapters are broken into sub-chapters like some light novels I've read; I've never seen that in a western novel before, but I also maybe don't read a lot of non-textbooks these days so who knows if that's more common than I imagine. But structurally, it makes the transitions of scenes nice and clean, so its maybe something I'd like to play with in my own writing. I've been really enjoying how Schwab doesn't explain every little detail, but still gives us enough of whats important. The way Kell uses his magic, the way Kell takes care of his appearance, the colour and act of drawing blood - but not so much the transitionary actions when they aren't characterizing or important. When he was leaving the bridge, in 1-3 for instance, we got Kell's little flex of wrist to still the stream and make it reflective, and Schwab spent the time to explain relaxing the wrist when voices carried from other parts of the park; but we didn't get a, "and Kell stood, before walking off the bridge". Instead it was just a "Kell continued on his way". It honestly answers some questions I've had with my own writing, that I've been brunting up against with my NaNo novel this month. How much do I need to explain for the audience to see the motions? I think my difficulty with imagined pictures makes me assume you need a lot more detail to conjure up a scene than is really necessary. I'm also thoroughly enjoying Kell's character. There's a certain stylishness that's innate with the coat of many coats, that honestly resonates with me via my favorite tabletop OC I play. Also a kind of snarky, cocky, stylish, magic-user; I'd like to imagine what chaos Ashton and Kell might get up to if left in a room together. Though the discussions of the rules of Magic would be very interesting, because the Blood of Heroes Sorcery power is much more the Halloween Town "Want something and then let yourself have it", while the magic system of the Many London's seems more structured so far. Though there's this hint in Kell's relationship to magic, that it might not be so different. Something that's interesting to me about it is that the "elemental magics" are less will and word and more just the will part; but the magic described as "true magic" has a language associated. Something feels logically backwards to me about that - implying that the "elements" (which includes Bones) are less natural than the true magic. But then again, the True Magic is life itself, so maybe it makes sense that life is the underlying true magic. But why is the true magic tied to something of human construction - language - while the others are controlled in a more intuitive way?

I'm really excited to learn more!

Go to pinterest and type in “[your name] core aesthetic” and create a moodboard using the first nine images. No need to reveal what your name actually is!

I was tagged by @the---hermit @cheshire-castle-library and @humble-boness. 💕💕 Thanks for the tag, friends!! My layout app FINALLY started cooperating so I could make this. Two boards here, one for my name and the other for a nickname.

That image with the candle showed up TWICE for the TWO different names. Baffling, but it’s a good image, so it’s here twice!

No pressure tagging: @daydreaming-optimist @oh-toasty @sweetlikehoneysteve @deirdredoodle @contre-qui @noa-the-physicist @sttchingllies and anyone else who wants to!

Totally Random Non-Fiction Tuesday

This was a really cool book. It takes stuff like, undersea cables, airplane turbulence, or happiness levels and brings them to life both with words and graphics. I mean, who doesn’t love a good infographic (Really though, this is a library blog on Tumblr, we all already knew that we’re all nerds!)

You may like this book If you Liked: Adrift by Scott Galloway, Ways of Being by James Bridle, or How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil

Atlas of the Invisible: Maps and Graphics That Will Change How You See the World by James Cheshire

{ITZY Chaeryoung Instagram update 06/12/2022}

Meow🐈‍⬛🖤

Bookaroo!

Hey your url is both beautiful and brilliant and i though you should know

Anyway have a great day and congrats in your draft prog!! You're doing smashing!

Nagi

Aw, thank you so much! I love the chaos of the PLL original books and show, and the pun is there because of Sappho's lyre <3 You have a lovely day, too.

Moving into Watermelon Street...

Somewhere, down the street a ways, in a section perhaps you've never been to - perhaps you haven't been to in a long time - stands a stately white house.  Old by make, well-traveled by the mix of flowers and ornaments and general busyness in the front.  And among them stands a sign, modest in comparison - two timber legs, a board with a curve at the top, simply painted - that reads "Welcome to the Glass Sky Inn" with the words "Long Stays Welcome" written underneath, and added to the bottom - a little hanging sign of its own - says "Restaurant".

How long has an Inn resided here?  Or was it even here yesterday?  It must have been, a plantation house doesn't build itself in a day.  Right?  

Well, whatever the mystery of this place may be, you might as well come in.  The smell of home-cooked food is escaping out the cracked front windows.  Corn bread and warm meats, spiced vegetables, and -oh  the smell of Pies.

A young person with sky-blue hair waves at you on the street, standing on the porch as they water the various flowering bushes.  A tall blonde man steps out from the door and catches their attention, and they smile together, and share a laugh, and retreat inside to whatever wonderful mayhem may come to be; though not before the blue-haired one casts one last, warm, smile to you.

Glass Sky Inn

Is a large plantation mansion that's been converted into a bed and breakfast sort of deal. The ballroom is a dining room for the home-style restaurant that's open to the public, serving whatever you might ask for - to the best of their abilities. There are 7 rooms for rent, not including the master bedroom on the top floor, at the top of the stairs, where the proprietors live. A husband and partner who are equal parts mysterious as they are madly and sweetly in love with each other. This is something of a retirement for them. You don't ask how they can be retired when neither looks past their 20's.

Aivis

They/Them | 20's by appearance | Queer The main proprietor of the Glass Sky Inn. It was their idea to make the inn, and they seem to love it quite a bit. "A little piece of solace" they say. Aivis has light blue hair, which shows no signs of dye work, gold-rimmed glasses that take up most of their pale face, and generally wears nothing but overlarge soft sweaters and jeans. They have the air of a graduate student, and can often be found reading when not doing the Inn's book work or helping with the housekeeping. Aivis has a laid-back way, and finds happiness in a lot of simple things. They can be a nurturing person at times, but generally will stand back and let things play out - unless so egregious a situation occurs that they actually grow frustrated and take action. In general, however, they are live-and-let-live.

Adrian

He/Him | 20's by appearance | Queer by association The co-owner and husband (you presume) of the main proprietor of the Glass Sky Inn. He enabled his beloved's wish to have an Inn and see many people resting and having a good time. "It was your wish, my Starlight," he replies. Adrian is tall and handsome, with dusty blonde hair that falls to an past his shoulders. He's generally comfortably dressed - though you're not certain for what era. Peasant shirts and slacks, he might be a RenFaire actor, you could guess? He is more easy to annoy than Aivis, and has a touch of a sarcastic and teasing streak. He likes to try to get a rise out of his beloved, and sometimes pushes them too far. He is generally well natured, however, and genial enough to the guests. If anything, "aloof" is a descriptor you might hear in the town. But he is ever the puppy for his dear Aivis, and you might at times find them curled up in one of the overlarge antique armchairs - Aivis asleep against his broad chest - as he reads, his partner's glasses rescued from their slumber.

decided i'm going to treat myself to some pevsner guides when i get paid :)

From my Space Opera project

Bel woke from a horrid nightmare, fleeting with every gasping breath as his consciousness wrestled with the grasping arms of the dim dreamscape, and the warmer than he'd like sunlight streaming into his bedroom from the crack in the curtains. There was more sun than would make sense for an early morning, and somewhere in the back of his always-on mind, he stored that little tidbit of information; just like he stored the exits, the defensible positions, the location of civilians and security cameras, and where he could be out of line of sight from the “uninitiated”.

List five things that make you happy, then put this in the ask box of the last ten people who reblogged something from you! Spread the happiness and positivity. 💖🖤

seeing little kids point to jellyfish that have washed ashore and immediately calling to their parents "wooooahhh!! Come look at this!!!" and gesturing very excitedly down at the wee moon jellies.

The two girls on the beach who were holding hands and doting on each other and laughing when they ran into the ocean. They had such bright smiles!!

the little frogs who appeared seemingly overnight and scrunch themselves into the most unlikely places (e.g. my air conditioning unit. I can hear that particular AC-unit-inhabiting frog (his name is Arthur, short for "Arthur-itis") hopping all around in the evening, and it always makes me laugh to know he's having a blast just bouncing around in the cool air.)

The people who see me struggling to haul all my groceries through the three entrance doors to my building and kindly hold it open for me while invariably asking "you got it?" to which I always laugh and say "hope so!" and then they laugh and we part ways grinning.

The echoey space under the beach pavilion where I sing when the beach is empty. (If you know any pretty, ideally minor key, songs that would sound cool in echoey spaces PLEASE let me know!! I'm always looking for new songs.)

Thanks for the ask!! These always make me smile! :)