The World That's Coming

There’s so much to unpack from last night’s dream, not least of which is a performance troupe of transgender androids attempting to create emotional closure of childhood wounds, but what sticks out even more than that is the sight of war beginning.

We — me, Kate and a couple of friends whose identities are lost to dream logic — were celebrating something and looking out the window expecting fireworks, but it quickly became clear that we were seeing something else. There were explosions in the sky, sure, but they were explosions, and quickly followed by the sight of hundreds of parachutes opening, men falling to earth with weapons in hand.

There was an inevitability about it, knowing we couldn’t stop them from falling, that they’d come to try and kill us, that was unlike anything else in the world. It was chilling, and hopeless. Oddly enough, that was when I knew I was dreaming.

wolkin:

A question: what are traditions of yours that have either been created or passed down, religious, communal, family, or otherwise?

Feel free to reblog and add your answer. I’m genuinely curious in seeing how much I can learn from people. 

Reblogging to signalboost, and also to let me think if I have any traditions like the ones David’s talking about. No family traditions have survived my adolescence and leaving home, and then leaving the continent, I don’t think (Actually, maybe that’s not true; I continue to have an almost-religious respect and love for libraries, and I’m pretty sure that’s something that came from weekly visits with my folks when I was a kid).

But new traditions get created. Since being in the US, I’ve always done the orphans thanksgiving get together, and can’t imagine Kate and I just doing it alone now. Kate and I go out to dinner every December 24, as a gift to ourselves. We don’t have religious traditions, but social ones and holiday-themed ones, I guess.

I could pretend that I skipped yesterday’s entry because it was Friday the 13th, but the truth of the matter is that I wrote one that was snippy and lists and exhausted, and then thought better about posting it. Maybe that was my personal Friday the 13th horror story, just being utterly tired and grumpy as a result.

Actually, grumpy isn’t entirely right; it was more being overwhelmed and spacey as a result. It took me going to the gym before I started to feel human again, although this morning I feel the effects of that, as well. I slept ten hours, and woke up with my legs whining in betrayal. Welcome to the weekend, then.

xplainthexmen:

We use Marvel Unlimited because there’s not a great alternative for our specific purposes; but I, at least, am pretty reluctant to recommend it.

My biggest problem with Marvel Unlimited is that its interface is godawful unless you’re reading on either a tablet or a monitor at least as tall as a comics page (actually, the interface is still awful then, but the lack of a usable zoom function matters less). Yes, there’s a panel view, but it’s nigh unusable—it’s choppy, it frequently entirely omits parts of panels or entire panels, and it’ll throw panels and even pages out of order. I read on an 11″ laptop, and it sucks, hard. I can’t even imagine trying to navigate that mess on a phone.

It’s also worth noting that the Unlimited library is big, but it isn’t comprehensive; and the gaps often fall mid-series. For instance: If you’re thinking of subscribing mostly to finish up New Mutants, you are going to be sorely disappointed.

With the above in mind, I would recommend looking through the Unlimited library—seeing what’s available and what isn’t—and maybe waiting until Marvel has a free or discounted trial-period offer (which happens pretty regularly) to test it out and see if it’s what you’re looking for. There’s also the new scribd library, about which I know literally nothing, but which sounds like it might be worth checking out.

There is another alternative, one I’ve recommended before and will again for anyone working on a more flexible schedule than ours (basically, anyone not doing high-volume research for a weekly podcast): your local library. If they don’t have the books you’re looking for, talk to a librarian or check the computer system to see if you can request them via interlibrary loan. Comics collections are becoming a more and more standard part of library collections, and if you’re not wed to digital, they are a fantastic resource that far too few people take advantage of.

Best of luck!
/Rachel

Wholeheartedly agreeing with everything Rachel says above, but especially the part about hitting up your local library (and using interlibrary loans) as a way of catching up on the comics you want to read. I’m spoiled being where I am, because the Multnomah County Library system is amazingly good, but nevertheless: libraries, people. They’re your best friend when it comes to that whole reading thing.