Watsfic's 50th

Feb. 27th, 2026 09:39 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
Seen on the Watsfic discord, qwp

Hey [personal profile] everyone,

**It is with great pride that I announce WATSFIC's 50ᵗʰ Anniversary!** On January 13th, 1976, we were officially recognized by the Federation of Students as a student club. For 50-years since then we have been nerding out to all facets of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. From the original release of Star Wars and the animated Lord of the Rings films, to Dungeons and Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and Wargaming.

To celebrate our first half-century as a club at UW, **we are hosting our 50ᵗʰ Anniversary Event on March 7ᵗʰ. Join us from 11 AM to 11 PM in MC 4041 and 4042** as we take a walk down memory lane. With stops along Ravenloft and the White Plume Mountain, glimpses of the wonders and horrors of space with Mothership and Warhammer, casual pitstops with Board Games and Magic: The Gathering, and some nice R&R complete with classic films and painting.

**Please Sign-Up using this form :**
Walk-Ins are welcome, however, we cannot guarantee space for everyone at every activity.

**We'd like to thank everyone** for helping keep this club going strong for 50 years, **and invite you all, first-year to alumni, to join us in this once in a 50-year celebration** of nerdom at the University of Waterloo!

Read more... )
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
Noted author, bigot Dan Simmons reported dead of stroke.

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

Feb. 27th, 2026 09:06 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


The Sicilian debacle leaves Syracuse with seven thousand Athenian prisoners slowly starving in a quarry. What better time to stage a play?

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
andrewducker: (Zim Doom)
[personal profile] andrewducker
A bit of context - A safe Labour seat switched to a seat where Labour came third (Greens 40%, Reform 28%, Labour 25%).

1) That wasn't as close as polls made it out to be. The polls had Green 7% above or tied with Labour, who were either 3% ahead of or tied with Reform. Instead, Greens walked it by 12%. If we're going to be stuck with making decisions about tactical voting based on the polls then we need polls that are more accurate than that!

2) This is the worst possible result for Labour. If people are going to vote tactically against Reform (which they really want to do), then you *really* want to be able to place yourself as the best alternative to beat them. And now we've had two by-elections where that wasn't the case. One in Wales, which Plaid Cymru won and one in *Manchester*, a Labour heartland, which the Greens won. This makes it look like even where Labour are historically strong they aren't going to beat Reform.

3) What does this do for the Greens in the council elections? Well, presumably it sets them up to claim that they're a strong contender to beat Reform, everywhere where Labour is currently the lead. They might be! They might not be! But it really doesn't look good for Labour any way around.

4) What does it do for the Lib Dems in the council elections? It probably locks them out from any of the Labour heartlands - they'll focus on the Conservative areas of the country. Which, frankly, appears to be their strategy anyway.

5) I have no idea who a bunch of people actually wanted to vote for. It seems likely that at least 28% wanted to vote for each of Labour, Greens, and Reform, but if the polls had shown that Labout was on 30% and Greens were on 28%, who would that extra 12% who voted for the Greens have turned out for?

6) This is a bloody stupid way to run an election system. "I'll vote for whoever has the best chance of beating the party I don't like" is such a fragile way of voting for anything. It "works" in a 2 (or 2.5) party system, as England has been stuck in for decades. It completely fails in a 5 party system (6 in Wales and Scotland).

7) What does this mean for Keir Starmer? Well, I reckon nobody else wants to be PM for the council elections. So I'm not expecting him to resign until the 8th of May.

8) What does this mean for Labour's "Tack rightward to gain votes from fascists" strategy? Your guess is as good as mine, but I really hope it's dead now.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1.08

Feb. 27th, 2026 10:17 am
selenak: (Father Issues by Raven_annabella)
[personal profile] selenak
In which we find out the writers of this show must really like both Thornton Wilder and the last two seasons of Angel: The Series while having issues with one particular Voyager episode, or rather its aftermath. Also, at last, at last, SOMEONE is back an my screen!

Spoilers take back a key nitpick from last week and are an Angel fan anyway )
rolanni: (Default)
[personal profile] rolanni

What went before: Wednesday. Snowing and partly sunny.

Despite the distress it will of course cause his fandom, I am forced to report that Rookie the Cookie is a Schmuck. Or possibly only a Jerk. He's been knocking stuff off the shelves in the Tech Room -- notably, bottles of liquid toner, which apparently make a lovely thud-SMACK sound when they land (honestly, it's a very distinctive sound; I can recognize a toner bottle hitting the floor from two rooms away). I expect he doesn't really know that I can't easily pick the damn' things up right now, but -- aargh. Get a cat, they said, they'll be fun. Get a Maine Coon Cat, they said. They're very interested in their people and like to engage.

In other news, despite having felt somewhat better last night, I'm back to Square One (minus the THC) this morning. It occurs to me that I better line up a ride to my appointment at Thayer tomorrow afternoon, which -- aargh x 2. I hate bothering people to do stoopid stuff for me.

I've written to my PCP regarding pain management -- the idea being that, going in the front door with back pain (yes, I'm doing my PT homework) needs to be supported by another approach, because even my therapist said that this will keep happening, only as my core gets stronger, an episode will last ... less long. What I want, of course, is The Grail: something that will kill the pain, or get it down to manageable levels, and neither make me sick or fuzz me out, so I can write. And so I'm not a danger to myself or to the cats. That's important, too. As is eating. It's ridiculously hard to eat when you're in pain.

The cats are taking good care of me -- well. Firefly and Tali are checking in regularly to administer lap-sits and purr therapy.

Rookie's knocking shit off the shelves in the Tech Room.

In addition to pain management brainstorm, I arrived at the opinion that I should also figure out ways to work even when I'm feeling this bad. So! I have moved Writing Operations to the comfy chair in my office (which has been Back Pain Central), rigged up the laptop with my favorite keyboard, and brought the WIP, and the portable hard drive here, too. So, hopefully, I'll be able to continue with fixing stuff that's already been written, and that this episode of painful nonsense will vacate before I realio, trulio need to start producing New! Copy!

So, that's the somewhat muddled news from the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.

How's everyone doing?
#
So, that was no fun at all.

I don't want to get ahead of myself but I may have gotten around the Horn. Of course, I'm shaky because I haven't eaten anything for 3 days except peanut butter crackers (Note to self:  Buy peanut butter crackers; the damn things are lifesavers.) to buffer the meds.

I do have a ride lined up for my appointment this afternoon, so that's good, and my intention is to actually have breakfast and then come back to the comfy chair, do some work on the WIP, and not push things. And eat snacks. What a time to be out of hummus. Bad planning, past me.

Firefly is on my lap and purring.

I'm almost done my Russian Caravan tea Christmas present (Note to self: buy more Russian Caravan tea).

And that's that's the fascinating Thursday report from the cat farm and confusion factory.

Dictated to my phone.
#
Did some work on the WIP, actually ate food. Steve Symonds gave me a ride to and from the hospital for my test, so that's taken care of. Managed to get the cat fountains changed out, which has been really bothering me. I'm such a bad cat mom. Talked to the accountant, and -- ouch. Not unexpected, but still. Ouch. I'll pick up the papers on Monday, when -- fingers crossed -- I hope to be Fully Operational.

In the meantime *whispers* my back is not hurting, which places as a Minor Miracle, and what I really want to do is go curl up (figuratively) and read Local Custom.

May I just say what a great job we did with Local Custom? The gradual unfurling of the leaves of character, the! worldbuilding!, the things that are said so very plainly and yet don't mean the same thing to the person you're talking with and -- I swoon. No, really.

Damn, I wish I could write like that.

Also? There's a description -- a Very Detailed Description -- of a counterchance board. I. Had. No. Idea.

So, anyway, I see the tax stuff, and that I have to Move Monies in order to satisfy the IRS and the State of Maine, but yanno what?

Imma go read.

Everybody have a good evening. I'll see you tomorrow.

No...really. I will.

Tali collecting overdue ear scrubbles:


Photo cross-post

Feb. 26th, 2026 12:02 pm
andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker


Nice sunset.

(And lovely that the sun is up when I wake the kids at 7am and the sky still looks like this when I get home at 6pm)
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

Hell’s Heart by Alexis Hall

Feb. 26th, 2026 08:37 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


What better cure for melancholy than to serve under a captain whose obsessed pursuit of a leviathan will surely doom all involved?

Hell’s Heart by Alexis Hall

Paradise Season 2, episodes 1- 3

Feb. 26th, 2026 11:38 am
selenak: (Bruce and Tony by Corelite)
[personal profile] selenak
Last year I marathoned the very well made series “Paradise” (Hulu in the US, Disney + for the rest of us), but was quite torn about whether or not I was happy regarding the announcement of a second season due to the show’s success. It seemed to me the first season told a mostly self contained story and the premise would lose its key ingredient in a second season. Also, there had been a couple of shows which were terrible when more than one season was greenlighted because they clearly hadn’t planned for it. Otoh: nitpicks aside, I did love Lost, which made a pretty radical premise change and pulled it off. And the first season of Paradise had been pretty perfect for what it was. So I watched. And based on the first three episodes now released (and there is a reason why the first three came together, more beneath the spoiler cut), I am happy to report that it looks like I was wrong in my fears. Those three eps are excellent.

Spoilers are now all pumped up and ready… )
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


The Good Society Bundle featuring Good Society, the Jane Austen-inspired tabletop roleplaying game from Storybrewers Roleplaying.

Bundle of Holding: Good Society (from 2024)

Another Repeat Bundle - Good Society

Feb. 25th, 2026 06:59 pm
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[personal profile] ffutures
This is a repeated offer of Good Society from Storybrewers Roleplaying.It's inspired by Jane Austen and similar authors, and TV shows like Bridgerton, Downton Abbey, and Upstairs, Downstairs. The supplements include rules for magic, an adventure involving vampires, and LARP rules (Live Action Role Playing):

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2026GoodSociety


  

Last time I said:

The closest I've come to this is the Regency add-on for Fiasco, which I played at Continuum last year, but that wasn't a fully-fledged RPG.

I really like the idea of this, especially if it proves possible to adapt it to e.g. Master and Commander and other adventure material with this setting - the Scarlet Pimpernel-inspired Sense, Sensibility, and Swordsmanship might be a good starting point for that - and the price is pretty good. It's lavishly illustrated and looks like a lot of fun. Unless you hate Austen I think it's definitely worth taking a look.


We still don't have a Master and Commander supplement, or anything Sharpe-like, but apart from that I don't think there's anything I want to change here. It's a fun bundle and worth a look, especially if you like the source material.
andrewducker: (bubble)
[personal profile] andrewducker
A critical question came up at lunch today, for which I do not have a satisfactory answer. So, throwing it open to the floor:

Are there *any* movies which would not be improved by the addition of Godzilla?

Babel no Toshokan by Tsubana

Feb. 25th, 2026 08:52 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


What could possibly go wrong with playing along with an unhappy teen's delusions?

Babel no Toshokan by Tsubana

Photo cross-post

Feb. 25th, 2026 01:51 am
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[personal profile] andrewducker


Sophia spent a chunk of Monday evening writing up her half term week without having to. Her handwriting is already better than mine.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

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