Bundle of Holding: Fragged Empire 2E
Sep. 1st, 2025 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicoll
The 2024 revised edition of Fragged Empire: fifteen thousand years in the future, humanity has gone extinct, but eight engineered species rule the wonders that remain.
Bundle of Holding: Fragged Empire 2E
Vance is Worse [pols, US, Ω, Patreon]
Aug. 31st, 2025 11:57 pmsidereaCanonical link: https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1882100.html
0.
With all the eager discussion of the possibility of Trump dying in office, I am in the delicate and unfortunate position of not actually being in favor of it.
Don't get me wrong. I, too, would enjoy to seeing something very bad happen to Trump. What I'd best like is him getting his just deserts – ideally being arrested, indicted, tried, found guilty, sentenced, having appealed, the appeal failing, appealing again, having that appeal fail, petitioning the POTUS for clemency and it not being granted, him being duly executed by the state as the traitor to the Republic and the Constitution he was proven to be. I'm not generally a big fan of capital punishment, but I am in fact willing to make exceptions; he seems to think he's an exception to a lot of things, and here I would agree with him.
But that's not going to happen, not in this time-line, and it's probably for the best that it doesn't.
Perhaps he will simply keel over dead, and I confess I will take at least a little bitter satisfaction in it.
And it's certainly not that I don't wish us all to be spared even another moment of this Trump presidency. Of course I do.
Alas, as much as I hate to crush the pleasant fantasy of us being redeemed by the deus ex machina of artheriosclerosis finally doing its job and carrying off our oppressor: Vance is worse. Much, much worse.
1.
( It's perhaps understandable that you would not realize this.... Read more [6,770 Words] )
This post brought to you by the 219 readers who funded my writing it – thank you all so much! You can see who they are at my Patreon page. If you're not one of them, and would be willing to chip in so I can write more things like this, please do so there.
Please leave comments on the Comment Catcher comment, instead of the main body of the post – unless you are commenting to get a copy of the post sent to you in email through the notification system, then go ahead and comment on it directly. Thanks!
0.
With all the eager discussion of the possibility of Trump dying in office, I am in the delicate and unfortunate position of not actually being in favor of it.
Don't get me wrong. I, too, would enjoy to seeing something very bad happen to Trump. What I'd best like is him getting his just deserts – ideally being arrested, indicted, tried, found guilty, sentenced, having appealed, the appeal failing, appealing again, having that appeal fail, petitioning the POTUS for clemency and it not being granted, him being duly executed by the state as the traitor to the Republic and the Constitution he was proven to be. I'm not generally a big fan of capital punishment, but I am in fact willing to make exceptions; he seems to think he's an exception to a lot of things, and here I would agree with him.
But that's not going to happen, not in this time-line, and it's probably for the best that it doesn't.
Perhaps he will simply keel over dead, and I confess I will take at least a little bitter satisfaction in it.
And it's certainly not that I don't wish us all to be spared even another moment of this Trump presidency. Of course I do.
Alas, as much as I hate to crush the pleasant fantasy of us being redeemed by the deus ex machina of artheriosclerosis finally doing its job and carrying off our oppressor: Vance is worse. Much, much worse.
1.
( It's perhaps understandable that you would not realize this.... Read more [6,770 Words] )This post brought to you by the 219 readers who funded my writing it – thank you all so much! You can see who they are at my Patreon page. If you're not one of them, and would be willing to chip in so I can write more things like this, please do so there.
Please leave comments on the Comment Catcher comment, instead of the main body of the post – unless you are commenting to get a copy of the post sent to you in email through the notification system, then go ahead and comment on it directly. Thanks!
Clarke Award Finalists 2012
Aug. 31st, 2025 09:05 pmjames_davis_nicollI will be too busy to post tomorrow.
2012: O2 offers free wifi to multitudes, which I only now realize may be have been referenced in Kingsman, researchers determine that despite a century having passed, the Titanic remains at the bottom of the Atlantic, and in a glorious celebration of the effectiveness of the modern British educational system, doctors warn Britons not to drink liquid nitrogen.
Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.
Which 2012 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers
Embassytown by China Miéville
Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear
Rule 34 by Charles Stross
The Postmortal by Drew Magary
The Waters Rising by Sheri S. Tepper
2012: O2 offers free wifi to multitudes, which I only now realize may be have been referenced in Kingsman, researchers determine that despite a century having passed, the Titanic remains at the bottom of the Atlantic, and in a glorious celebration of the effectiveness of the modern British educational system, doctors warn Britons not to drink liquid nitrogen.
Poll #33559 Clarke Award Finalists 2012
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 48
Which 2012 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
View Answers
The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers
0 (0.0%)
Embassytown by China Miéville
22 (45.8%)
Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear
6 (12.5%)
Rule 34 by Charles Stross
35 (72.9%)
The Postmortal by Drew Magary
1 (2.1%)
The Waters Rising by Sheri S. Tepper
7 (14.6%)
Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.
Which 2012 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers
Embassytown by China Miéville
Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear
Rule 34 by Charles Stross
The Postmortal by Drew Magary
The Waters Rising by Sheri S. Tepper
August 2025 in Review
Aug. 31st, 2025 09:31 amjames_davis_nicoll
I didn't win any awards in August but I did review 22 more works. James Nicoll Reviews is now 34 reviews away from its 3000th review.
August 2025 in Review
Always the Black Knight by Lee Hoffman
Aug. 31st, 2025 09:08 amjames_davis_nicoll
Marooned on a backwater planet, a down-on-his-luck actor sets out to transform his new home. Will he survive success?
Always the Black Knight by Lee Hoffman
Cats
Aug. 30th, 2025 09:39 amjames_davis_nicollPoll #33552 I knew I forgot something
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 75
Cats?
Books Received, August 23 — August 30
Aug. 30th, 2025 09:01 amjames_davis_nicoll
Six works new to me. Three fantasy, three SF, four are series (at least in a sense) and the other two appear to be stand-alone. Lots of TTRPG material.
Books Received, August 23 — August 30
Poll #33551 Books Received, August 23 — August 30
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31
Which of these look interesting?
View Answers
Victoriana by Alex Cahill et al (Q1 2026)
6 (19.4%)
Victoriana Menagerie by Alex Cahill et al (Q1 2026)
5 (16.1%)
The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu (April 2026)
23 (74.2%)
Ship of Spells by H. Leighton Dickson (November 2025)
10 (32.3%)
Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum, Voll Adventures by Lisa Farrell et al (Q1, 2026)
2 (6.5%)
Coriolis: The Great Dark by Kosta Kostulas et al (August 2025)
13 (41.9%)
I keep meaning to be here
Aug. 30th, 2025 08:11 amvvalkyriJust got home from a truly excellent trip to the San Francisco area, where I stayed with whitebird and his winery friends and ciphergoth and Carlos and my cousin and his fiance, and managed to meet up also with Lindsey and Rob many years ago DC Acro (getting them to their first acro jam in San Fran after they moved there 2 years ago) and megnaab and Dhananjay and Dierdre (all together in Menlo on the way to Ciphergoth) and a mask evangelist Fusion dancer named Alice, including vids of dancing by the water.
Even got to go all the way in the ocean, which was very much a surprise. And since one of the things I missed by being in San Francisco was a burn at a nudist camp, there was something completing in that ocean being a clothing optional beach.
I got to be out of here in half an hour or less to make it to lone bears kids barmitzvah, so there's more I want to write but I guess not just now.
What inspired me to actually show up on dreamwidth was there's all this talk of a certain Orange person maybe he's dead and I keep thinking I'm not sure that helps. Honestly I think it's going to be harder. Vince's still going to do everything out of project 2025 and probably listen just as much to Miller. Not being total chaos and making utterly WTF statements will normalize.
Showing up on dreamwidth meant I saw the Mississippi announcement and talk of Proton VPN as worthwhile. . . and in the comments learned of some other VPN that secretly screenshots everything you do:
https://www.koi.security/blog/spyvpn-the-vpn-that-secretly-captures-your-screen
whitebird and his winery friends and ciphergoth and Carlos and my cousin and his fiance, and managed to meet up also with Lindsey and Rob many years ago DC Acro (getting them to their first acro jam in San Fran after they moved there 2 years ago) and megnaab and Dhananjay and Dierdre (all together in Menlo on the way to Ciphergoth) and a mask evangelist Fusion dancer named Alice, including vids of dancing by the water.Even got to go all the way in the ocean, which was very much a surprise. And since one of the things I missed by being in San Francisco was a burn at a nudist camp, there was something completing in that ocean being a clothing optional beach.
I got to be out of here in half an hour or less to make it to lone bears kids barmitzvah, so there's more I want to write but I guess not just now.
What inspired me to actually show up on dreamwidth was there's all this talk of a certain Orange person maybe he's dead and I keep thinking I'm not sure that helps. Honestly I think it's going to be harder. Vince's still going to do everything out of project 2025 and probably listen just as much to Miller. Not being total chaos and making utterly WTF statements will normalize.
Showing up on dreamwidth meant I saw the Mississippi announcement and talk of Proton VPN as worthwhile. . . and in the comments learned of some other VPN that secretly screenshots everything you do:
https://www.koi.security/blog/spyvpn-the-vpn-that-secretly-captures-your-screen
This one will be [curr ev]
Aug. 30th, 2025 04:20 amsidereaCurrent rumors engulfing Bluesky have me recalling an old Communist-era Russian joke:
Every day, a man walks to a news stand and pays for a copy of Pravda, unfolds it, looks at the front page, and throws it in the trash. Every day he does this, for months, until finally the news seller asks the man, "So what is it you are looking for on the front page every day?"
"I'm checking for an obituary."
"Comrade, the obituaries aren't on the front page."
"Oh, this one will be."
Every day, a man walks to a news stand and pays for a copy of Pravda, unfolds it, looks at the front page, and throws it in the trash. Every day he does this, for months, until finally the news seller asks the man, "So what is it you are looking for on the front page every day?"
"I'm checking for an obituary."
"Comrade, the obituaries aren't on the front page."
"Oh, this one will be."
I bought lottery tickets today
Aug. 29th, 2025 06:01 pmbrickhousewenchPowerball is up to $1 billion today. So I bought lottery tickets when I went grocery shopping.
I don't play the lottery regularly. But I've started buying tickets more often the past year or two. Partly because I'm started to get tired of working. Partly because I need something to dream about (and "spending my lottery winnings" has been a favorite daydream since my college days) and you can't win if you don't play. And partly because they've rigged the games for bigger prizes, and it's hard to resist buying a ticket when they get into "I could afford my own private island" numbers.
So, fingers crossed that I win. Because if I do a lot of people are getting their mortgages and medical debt paid off. And Libraries are getting funded. And oh yeah, Muskrat ain't going to be the only billionaire trying to buy a President for the next election. 😉
I don't play the lottery regularly. But I've started buying tickets more often the past year or two. Partly because I'm started to get tired of working. Partly because I need something to dream about (and "spending my lottery winnings" has been a favorite daydream since my college days) and you can't win if you don't play. And partly because they've rigged the games for bigger prizes, and it's hard to resist buying a ticket when they get into "I could afford my own private island" numbers.
So, fingers crossed that I win. Because if I do a lot of people are getting their mortgages and medical debt paid off. And Libraries are getting funded. And oh yeah, Muskrat ain't going to be the only billionaire trying to buy a President for the next election. 😉
