I was feeling a little blue and I was looking for something on the internet to cheer me up and Warren Ellis has a post on his tumblr pointing to a website, I Write Like, so I thought, oh, hey, why not? Warren got David Foster Wallace; I was thinking, huh, maybe it’ll tell me I write like John Steinbeck! Hell, maybe David Mitchell!!!
Sigh. Going to bed now.
PS - It’s funny. I admit it. Even I think it’s funny.
Winter Sux
I found this poem in a folder on my computer somewhere and having had a day that so perfectly encapsulates everything I love about summer, this poem is reminding me of everything I hate about winter.
December 27-1:37 am
It was foolish to think the sky
would be clear, but I still sit on a lawn chair ’s
cold hard plastic, and look for stars.
The sky is empty, with the tightest
woven tulle curved over the dome of the city.
I see the breathing of the atmosphere
and the constriction of air in a wind chill.
A street lamp in the alley is orange and its
spectral vibrancy seeps into the air
and the presence of a dense fog turns the light
from revealing to concealing and it
hovers in the night. It was foolish to think
anything could be clear tonight. The stars
stay hidden and no matter how long I hold
my breath, the air always comes out cold.
I wait as long as I can, but it will never be long enough.
Let’s all take a moment to appreciate cats and the contributions they make to the lives of the people who love them. <3
(via bookoisseur)
Source: prismafox
Twitter vs Female Protagonists in Video Games
Thanks #XboxOne #E3 press conference for revealing to us exactly zero games featuring a female protagonist for the next generation.
— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq)Above is a tweet I made this afternoon in reaction to the fact that none of the games presented at Microsoft’s Xbox One E3 press conference featured female protagonists. Below are some of the Twitter replies to that observation which exemplify the male privilege and male entitlement endemic in the gaming community today. This is also a window into what it’s like to be a female video game critic on twitter.
1. @simplyflyin
3. @Triosem
6. @SethForsman
7. @Beefheart82
8. @AzEHeaD15
9. @NickFuckypu
10. @JLB_esquire
11. @MathiasKaizer
12. @About20Donuts
13. @RogerLateralus
14. @izashid29
15. @BEATandDELETE
16. @B_Razz
17. @twerk_king69
18. @Epsilon_Five
19. @Spyrolic
20. @itwasagoodtime
21. @JerkfaceMcGee
22. @patq911
23. @r0bz0rz
24. @JimPhee
25. @Pootslap
26. @Pokefan1223
27. @Aurini
28. @yutt
29. @HennersQuack
30. @GabeAsterd
31. @MundaBric
32. @DoctorWatkins
33. @xTheShad0wZ
34. @GangWarlord
35. @le_mec
36. @coolguyquietess
37. @OldMiley
38. @TheChad118
39. @dodgykebaab
40. @urafaget
41. @BJ_Dickson
42. @Bloodergo
43. @Uneternal
44. @The_Master_E
45. @TheVidyaBoy
46. @danier_san
47. @ReissDJO
48. @mrdizzy
49. @IntelMiner
50. @AliAdelMohamed
Yeah! Why isn’t the free market creating more games with dumb bitch protagonists that I can play on my Obamaphone!? THIS WORLD HAS NO JUSTICE I TELL YOU! In other news, I’m incredibly grateful that I don’t have to talk to any shit-headed men like this in my real life. FUUUUCKING HELL.
![gideongordongraves:
cocaine-and-insulin:
miakosamuio:
mishastolemywormstache:
sandandglass:
CNN actually researched how much it would cost to go to Hogwarts
#NO WONDER THE WEASLEYS ARE FUCKING BROKE
How exactly did they “research” this? Looks like they just pulled a bunch of random figures out of their butts.
It’s stated in the books that tuition to Hogwarts is “free for all children in Britain”. I don’t know why they thought it wouldn’t be - it’s a British high school, not a college. So there, you just saved yourself $42,024.
In Chamber of Secrets, Mrs. Weasley emptied her entire bank account which contained only two galleons [£10 / US$20] and she managed to buy all five children’s entire set of books and potion ingredients with this, as well as Ginny’s robes, hat, clock, cauldron, and wand!!! And we know she bought all of these as she mentioned having to buy them. The fact that she bought all of these with only £10 pretty much proves how absolutely ridiculous CNNs estimation is.
If you want more proof, the actual cost of Harry’s wand is far over estimated here, and the exact price in both pounds as US dollars can easily be found right within the books! Harry’s wand is bought for seven galleons, a galleon being worth about five pounds [mentioned by JK Rowling in an interview and in FBAWTFT/QTTA] means that his wand was £35, or US$53. So there’s some straight-out-of-the-books-and-word-of-god proof that the figures CNN have given are way off the mark. Not to mention the fact that even if you don’t go to Hogwarts, as a magical human you’re gonna have to buy a wand anyway if you want to do magic.
As for the school books, I’ve done an approximation based on various prices given through-out the books and on Pottermore. While these prices involve a substantial amount of guess-work, I think you’ll agree that my calculation is far more accurate than CNNs:
The Standard book of Spells costs one sickle [29p / US59c]. On the back of my comic relief copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them it says it costs fourteen sickles [£4.60 / US$8.26]. One Pottermore, all text books are one galleon [£4.97 / US$10.17] - however Pottermore currency only uses galleons so it’s likely they have rounded off. Lockhart’s books, the most expensive in the series, are five galleons on Pottermore meaning that the exchange rate in the books puts them around two galleons and fourteen sickles [£14.60 / US$20.80]. If we put a high average on this and assume that all textbooks are approximately a galleon [they are likely much less], and that each year has around seven required reading books, the entire price for seven years worth of books would be forty-nine galleons, which equals approximately £243, or US$367 - and remember, this is the maximum estimated price for the textbooks.
For the minimum, we need to consider that the Weasleys get a lot of things second hand, with Ginny’s copy of A Begginers Guide To Transfiguration being described as “a very old, very battered copy” - likely no more than five sickles. If they got all their books around that price, it would cost them no more than £14 / US$21 for the entire seven years worth! So school books, far from being US$516, fall somewhere between US$14 and US$367 for the entire seven years at Hogwarts.
Next we have robe, glove, cloak, and hat prices - these are never mentioned in the books or on Pottermore, so I can’t account for that. However I seriously doubt it’s as a high as they’ve got here. Considering books in the wizarding world are generally much cheaper than in the muggle world, I think it’s fairly safe to assume that clothing is as well. Likely a maximum of a galleon for a single set of robes.
They’ve also forgotten a huge number of things - cauldrons, potion ingredients, scales, and star charts, among others.
So yeah, I really don’t know where they came up with these figures. It looks like some guy just wanted to make a story about how expensive Hogwarts would be and put a bunch of American college figures together and thought “yeah, this looks good.”
Do not fuck with a fandom.
This is the greatest.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_loznyapaEE1qc8jh0o1_r1_500.jpg)
CNN actually researched how much it would cost to go to Hogwarts
How exactly did they “research” this? Looks like they just pulled a bunch of random figures out of their butts.
It’s stated in the books that tuition to Hogwarts is “free for all children in Britain”. I don’t know why they thought it wouldn’t be - it’s a British high school, not a college. So there, you just saved yourself $42,024.
In Chamber of Secrets, Mrs. Weasley emptied her entire bank account which contained only two galleons [£10 / US$20] and she managed to buy all five children’s entire set of books and potion ingredients with this, as well as Ginny’s robes, hat, clock, cauldron, and wand!!! And we know she bought all of these as she mentioned having to buy them. The fact that she bought all of these with only £10 pretty much proves how absolutely ridiculous CNNs estimation is.
If you want more proof, the actual cost of Harry’s wand is far over estimated here, and the exact price in both pounds as US dollars can easily be found right within the books! Harry’s wand is bought for seven galleons, a galleon being worth about five pounds [mentioned by JK Rowling in an interview and in FBAWTFT/QTTA] means that his wand was £35, or US$53. So there’s some straight-out-of-the-books-and-word-of-god proof that the figures CNN have given are way off the mark. Not to mention the fact that even if you don’t go to Hogwarts, as a magical human you’re gonna have to buy a wand anyway if you want to do magic.
As for the school books, I’ve done an approximation based on various prices given through-out the books and on Pottermore. While these prices involve a substantial amount of guess-work, I think you’ll agree that my calculation is far more accurate than CNNs:
The Standard book of Spells costs one sickle [29p / US59c]. On the back of my comic relief copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them it says it costs fourteen sickles [£4.60 / US$8.26]. One Pottermore, all text books are one galleon [£4.97 / US$10.17] - however Pottermore currency only uses galleons so it’s likely they have rounded off. Lockhart’s books, the most expensive in the series, are five galleons on Pottermore meaning that the exchange rate in the books puts them around two galleons and fourteen sickles [£14.60 / US$20.80]. If we put a high average on this and assume that all textbooks are approximately a galleon [they are likely much less], and that each year has around seven required reading books, the entire price for seven years worth of books would be forty-nine galleons, which equals approximately £243, or US$367 - and remember, this is the maximum estimated price for the textbooks.
For the minimum, we need to consider that the Weasleys get a lot of things second hand, with Ginny’s copy of A Begginers Guide To Transfiguration being described as “a very old, very battered copy” - likely no more than five sickles. If they got all their books around that price, it would cost them no more than £14 / US$21 for the entire seven years worth! So school books, far from being US$516, fall somewhere between US$14 and US$367 for the entire seven years at Hogwarts.
Next we have robe, glove, cloak, and hat prices - these are never mentioned in the books or on Pottermore, so I can’t account for that. However I seriously doubt it’s as a high as they’ve got here. Considering books in the wizarding world are generally much cheaper than in the muggle world, I think it’s fairly safe to assume that clothing is as well. Likely a maximum of a galleon for a single set of robes.
They’ve also forgotten a huge number of things - cauldrons, potion ingredients, scales, and star charts, among others.
So yeah, I really don’t know where they came up with these figures. It looks like some guy just wanted to make a story about how expensive Hogwarts would be and put a bunch of American college figures together and thought “yeah, this looks good.”
Do not fuck with a fandom.
This is the greatest.
(via bookoisseur)
Source: sandandglass
Oh, Joss. Never change.
(via nerdygirllove)
Source: whedonversegifs
I’m all about shiny hair. Growing up there was a shampoo company called Breck. They had what are called “Breck Girls”. These Breck Girls has shiny bouncy full and lustrous hair. Or so I was told. By the time I was even into caring about my hair, Breck as a brand had faded, and other brands like Agree, Pert, Finesse, and Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific took hold of my attention.
A growing body of social science has begun to compare straight and same-sex couples in an attempt to get at the question of what is female, what is male. Some of the findings are surprising. For instance: we know that heterosexual wives are more likely than husbands to initiate divorce. Social scientists have struggled to explain the discrepancy, variously attributing it to the sexual revolution; to women’s financial independence; to men’s failure to keep modern wives happy. Intriguingly, in Norway and Sweden, where registered partnerships for same-sex couples have been in place for about two decades (full-fledged marriage was introduced several years ago), research has found that lesbians are twice as likely as gay men to split up. If women become dissatisfied even when married to other women, maybe the problem with marriage isn’t men. Maybe women are too particular. Maybe even women don’t know what women want. These are the kinds of things that we will be able to tease out.
The Gay Guide to Wedded Bliss - Liza Mundy - The Atlantic
Maybe women are too particular. Maybe even women don’t know what women want. These are the kinds of things that we will be able to tease out.
That statement rubs me in a really bad way.
Source: The Atlantic
Source: yoursherlock
We’ve burnt women at the stake, we’ve drilled holes in people’s heads. So much has been done wrong by powerful people in the name of religion. It’s not religion’s fault, it is powerful people’s fault. They will abuse anything you give them. If you replace religion with science or money, rich, old, white people are gonna burn women at the stake, they’re gonna do it for whatever reason, they’re gonna do it because they hate women.
Dan Harmon - Harmontown Episode 56 (via bittersongs)
(via harmontown)
Source: bittersongs
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