pelielios

pelielios, 9 months ago

@jiujensu @skyekilaen @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon Seconding the Cyberiad and all other Lem!

The Cyberiad is basically sci-fi fairy tales, many lighthearted. I have such good memories of cuddling with my dad while he read them to me, doing all the goofy voices.

Especially for the AI that is perfect in every way except that it insists that one plus two equals (huge dad growl) SEVEN.

pelielios, 9 months ago

@willelm @jiujensu @skyekilaen @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon Hmm I would say skim each story first, I wasn't YOUNG young but I was like 8+ and my parents were hippies.

Some stories get darker and some are more aimed at adults (like a whole planet of paper-pushing bureaucrats that would fly over a kid's head) but there's definitely no sex and drugs and rock'n'roll involved.

At worst, cartoon violence and existential dread.

pelielios, 9 months ago

@willelm @jiujensu @skyekilaen @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon I don't remember a point in that particular story where anyone actually gets hurt, but the angry AI 1+2=7 robot definitely angrily chases Trurl and Klapaucius down and threatens to flatten them for disagreeing.

By that age I found this HILARIOUS. YMMV.

Some of Lem's other books I would absolutely hold off on until they're older (13-16ish). Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, The Futurological Congress, very dark and bleak (but amazing).

pelielios, 9 months ago

@skyekilaen @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon Vladimir Voynovich, anyone?

I know him best for Moscow 2042 (basically a novel-length riff on the "no red ink!" joke) and Ivan Chonkin but he had some very good scifi short story collections.

I'm still haunted by one where a spaceship repairman is tasked with finding the cause of a recurring clanking noise and welp, spaceship's haunted.

Not sure any of the English compilations are still in print but he is etched in my psyche for good.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@lenoreo @Diva007 @romancelandia @romancebooks My M/M/M series doesn't hone in on specific labels much in the text, but one of the mains is very much demi (partly by upbringing but mainly by temperament) and another is mainly ace but finds sex a useful form of rebellion.

Then there's the one who's gay but engaged to a woman and two-timing with a straight guy.

Their collective sexuality is MESS.

(Link in profile, Book 1 free today!)

pelielios, 10 months ago

@Diva007 @lenoreo @romancelandia @romancebooks I hope you enjoy them! A lot of the explanations are very slow in coming but at its core, it's a group of wildly different people who all care deeply about each other.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@zombierustpunk I watched Rocky for the first time with my parents. I was maybe 13? Of course it was uncomfortable!

I also watched a lot of Monty Python with them when I was too young to understand why it SHOULD be uncomfortable, and quickly learned that repeating those jokes at school got concerned looks from teachers.

(Nothing untoward was hoing on, my parents were just permissive hippies. Read a lot of uncomfortable age-inappropriate SFF too!)

pelielios, 10 months ago

@Popehat Is a hundred years how long ago women came up with a replacement for men?

No, more like 3000+ years?

butterfly meme, male archaeologists: "is this a darning tool?"

nah it's a dildo son hth

pelielios, 10 months ago

@joy @cliff1976 Hope the passport is safe! If not, might not be too soon to reach out to the embassy and set things in motion for a replacement so she doesn't get stuck.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@willaful I'm still not totally sure whether I belong. I don't know the trope names, I don't quite get where the break is between romance and smut, I feel really out of place.

I made one timid overture a while back but idk.

If there is some kind of orientation space that would help so much.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@willaful @romancelandia Romancelandia is specifically the group I had in mind. I've been lurking a while and just don't know where to jump in to that as a community.

Romance overall feels too broad, specific communities have their own unspoken rules and can feel very intimidating to newcomers.

Not a criticism, just wishing for a more structured inroad, you know?

pelielios, 10 months ago

@willaful @romancelandia I'm not sure myself!

Kind of a long-time dreamer, first-time writer situation, still trying to work out where I fit in with books that sometimes get explicit but it's also not exactly the point whether they do.

Most of the activity seems to be around existing fanbases, which is great! But also makes me hesitant to barge in as a total unknown.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@weirdwriter @willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks Followed, thank you!

I tend to write spicy scenes in soft-focus, but they definitely get harder depending what is going on.

Some of them have awful chemistry by design.

It's been tough to work out where I belong, I just keep lurking for now.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@sandralindsey I definitely will, thanks for the recommendation!

pelielios, 10 months ago

@TexasObserver @josephinelee Es Cendol / ABC!

Usually involves palm sugar syrup, mung bean dough extruded into green noodles, sugar-soaked kidney beans, palm seeds, young coconut, sweet corn, grass jelly...

but it's ALL good. Layer stuff on there and make it sweet.

I have a little ice-shaver that takes regular ice cubes and even though Boston is having glorious weather right now, I tucked in to some with pandan-flavor condensed milk today.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@autism101 @actuallyautistic Got something like more than 28% of autistic people, 91% of allistic people. As an ADDer that seems just about on the money.

I wasn't sure how to answer a lot of the questions about routine. I cope well with breaks/changes IF I have enough time to mentally prepare, but I cannot do surprises, even "good" ones.

I can handle every day being different as long as I know what to expect.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@SuperWendy @romancelandia Mine (in profile) are pretty opposite. An ex-Old Order Mennonite virgin and a spy whose specialty is the honeypot.

Also whip-smart and uh, go-with-the-flow. (The MC/POV is not a great intellect but he's not dumb exactly. He likes being taken care of, let's put it that way. As for his partner, "You gotta let a racehorse run or it'll kick the stable apart.")

pelielios, 10 months ago

@autism101 @actuallyautistic Not autistic but ADD, I think America in particular makes this more difficult than it needs to be.

If I say "I'm okay," people are ready to put me in a 72-hr hold. "Fine" is bad, "good" is neutral.

Performing rainbows and sunshine all the time drains me like nothing else.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@BigAngBlack As a kid in Houston, we heard about a death a year from kids getting heatstroke and falling off the swings at recess.

That's a LOT less intense than outdoor physical labor, and the temps were generally 98ish, not 120!

I have FURY for the abolishment of water breaks and anyone who has lived in heat should too.

Fun fact: humid heat is extra dangerous because you may not FEEL thirsty but you are. Hydrate TF up.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@BigAngBlack In Jakarta I would occasionally get dizzy and my vision would start to go black (never got along with heat, growing pains, idk) and it was always an all hands on deck situation, but then, it was a school for rich kids so there would be hell to pay if I stroked out during peewee soccer.

Would be nice if we treated everyone as seriously. Heat is deadly.

pelielios, 11 months ago

@autism101 @actuallyautistic My mom isn't diagnosed autistic but is sure not NT.

She did marching band in HS and the go-to punishment was running laps, which she always did barefoot. Infuriated her instructor.

Unsure if autistic or just hippie...

I (ADD) keep rubber house slippers on at almost all times because stepping on cat hair or dust or whatever makes me insane.

e: and I cannot do socks. Can NOT.

pelielios, 11 months ago

@Chron I definitely learned not to touch any woolly caterpillars when I was a kid in Houston.

That picture triggers my automatic "NOPE!"

pelielios, 11 months ago

@autism101 @actuallyautistic oh and I take a lot a LOT of very long baths.

Something about the gentle all-over pressure, the complete fine-tuned control over temperature, lighting, smells, all the sensory stuff.

Plus it's pretty socially acceptable to not want to interact with anybody while you're in the tub.

I know it's not an option for everyone but the bath has been my ultimate safe space since I was a little kid.