Best Device Ecosystem: Do You Need Multiple Devices?

Seattle Public Library is doing this awesome program called Books Unbanned that allows teens and young adults (ages 13-26) access to their collection of e-books and e-audiobooks from anywhere in the USA. All you need to do is fill out a simple form and you get their Books Unbanned card. Please share this information far and wide. I know they're not the only ones to have done this, but the more the merrier!

I've been playing with midjourney AI. It's fascinating what it can create but I still haven't generated anything amazing that I've seen others post. I wonder if there is an anti AI art assessor that can figure out what art piece influenced the generated art. 🤔

POW

The Political Cartoons of Herblock.

Some gameboy camera pics from a walk.

PBS is free for your kids. FREE FOR YOUR KIDS. My generation grew up on this programming. My kid is growing up with this programming. It's guaranteed safe for your kids with real lessons and it's free to you.

The threat that this is under is NO surprise. The funding for these programs have been under attack for a long time from conservatives but this government regime is enabling the agenda of taking things away from the people. The budget that PBS and NPR direct from the government is so small. They are lying to you that this is cutting government spending in any significant way. It's like telling a low income person, stop paying for heat if you want to save money. It's kind of critical to keep.

René Lalique, Diadem of pearls, diamonds, gold and enamelwork, ca. 1903 (Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim)

I got on this romantasy kick this year. It's been highly entertaining. I still don't get all the tropes but the enemies to lovers thing has been pretty wide in intensity.

Perhaps I'm still stuck being practical in some relationships, but when someone is abusing you or straight up tried to murder you, I find that really hard to find believable to get a romance out of it. Two series I've touched on so far that I can think of, Broken Bonds and I just started Zodiac Academy.

Broken Bonds started me off on this journey, and at first I was a bit 🙃 when it came to North and Nox. Honestly, none of their behavior is actually excusable on how they treat Oleander. But over the range of books I've now read, including the first book in Zodiac Academy it seems kind of tame in retrospect.

I've essentially spoiled some of it myself looking at the ZA hashtags, but seriously the abuse is top level in book one (the last event in the book for goodlord!) and I'm supposed to believe the FMCs still end up with some of these fools? Lol. (Ok, Orion actually seems redeemable for the same scene)

I'm still going to read the series because the setting is a bit insane which in turn is again, entertaining. It's fantasy, but hard pressed to actually see it as romance. Just because characters are sexy and hookup, isn’t that opposite of romance? It's more of a lustasy type story.

I do admit that I almost never read romance stories at all because they seemed boring and all the men were described like Fabio. ACOTAR has reached that level of boring romance by the end of book three.

The story ended in book 3 and I'm trying to power through the holiday filler episode. Feyre and Rhysand are in their plateau, which is why couples like Cassian and Nesta became more interesting. But is this how typical romance novels are structured? It's funny that Tamlin is so vilified because yeah, he was too controlling with Feyre and became the revengeful ex, he actually regretted his actions and tried to make amends to an extent and as far as I could see then left her alone. Compared to the FMC in ZA drowned by 4 hot men, this girl was almost dead and this is still going to turn into some relationship?? Lol.

It seems to me that if the FMC ends up with the abuser, it's hot and acceptable but if they aren't then yeah the MC was a total trash pile. Look, I love suspending belief for a fun story but I'm cracking up here.