North over Limestone

[North over Limestone]

Listen to your elders

[niennanir]

So last week I posted abut the importance of downloading your fic. And then three days later AO3 went down for 24 hours. No one was more weirded out by this than I was. But while y’all were acting like the library at Alexandria was on fire I was reading my download fic and editing chapter eight of Buck, Rogers, and the 21st Century. And also thinking about what I could do to be helpful when the crisis was actually over.

So first off, I’m going to repeat that if you’re going to bookmark a fic, you really need to also download the fic and back it up in a safe place. I just do it automatically now and it’s a good habit to get into.

But let’s talk about some other scenarios. Last October I lost power for over a week after hurricane Ian. Apart from not having internet or A/C I did find plenty to do, I collect books so I had plenty to read, but maybe, unlike me, your favorite comfort reads aren’t sitting on a bookshelf. So let’s do something about that, shall we?

In olden times many long years ago around 1995 we printed off a lot of fic. It was mostly SOP to print a fic you planned to reread and stick it in a three ring binder. And that’s totally valid today too, but you can also make a very nice paperback with a minimum amount of skill and materials.

Let’s start with the download; Go to Ao3 and select your fic, we’ll be working with one of mine. This method works best with one shots, long fic tends to need a more complicated approach. Get yourself an HTML download

Open up the HTML download and select all then copy paste into any word processor. Set the page to landscape and two columns, then change the font to something you find easy to read, this is your book, no judgement. This is all you have to do for layout but I like to play a little bit. I move all the meta, summary, notes to the end and pick out a fun font for the title: 

No time like the present to do a quick proofread. Congratulations, you’ve just created your first typeset. On to the fun part.

Now you’re going to need some materials: 
8.5x11in paper
ruler
one sheet of 12x12 medium card stock (60-80lb)
scissors
pencil
pen or fine tip marker
sheet of wax paper
white glue
two binder clips
2 heavy books or 1 brick
butter knife

You’ll also need a printer, if you’re in the US there is almost a 100% chance your local library has a printer you can use if you don’t have your own. None of these materials are expensive and you can literally use cheap copy paper and Elmers glue.

Print your text block, one page per side. Fold the first page in half so that the blank side is inside and the printed side out:

use the butter knife to crease the edge. Repeat on all the sheets. When you’ve finished, stack them up with the raw edge on the left and the folded edge on the right. I used standard copy paper, because you’re only printing on one side there’s no bleed to worry about. Take the text block and line everything up. Use the binder clips to hold the raw edge in place.

Wrap the text block in the wax paper so that the raw edge and binder clips are facing out. I’m going to use my home built book press but you don’t need one, a brick or a couple of books or anything else heavy will work fine.

Once the text block is anchored down, take off he binder clips and get out the glue.

You can use a brush but you don’t need one, smear some glue on that raw edge.

Go make a margarita, watch The Mandalorian, call your mother. Don’t come back for at least an hour

In an hour smear some more glue on there and shift your brick forward so that the whole book is covered. This keeps the paper from warping. While glue part 2 is drying we’ll do the cover. Get out your 12x12 cardstock

Mark the cardstock off at 8.5 inches and cut it. Measure in 5.5 inches from the left and put in a score line with the butter knife (the back edge not the sharp edge)

Carefully fold the score line, this is your front cover. You have some options for the cover title, you can use a cutting machine like a cricut if you have one, you can print out a title on the computer and use carbon paper to transfer the text to the cardstock. I was in a mood so I just freehanded that beoch. Pencil first then in pen.

Take your text block out from under your brick. Line it up against the score mark and mark the second score on the other side of the spine

Fold the score and glue the textblock into the cover at the spine. Once the glue dries up mark the back cover with the pencil and then trim the back cover to fit with your scissors.

Voila:

I’m going to put this baby on the shelf next to the Silmarillion.

The whole process, not counting drying time, took less than an hour.

If you want to make a book of a longer fic, I recommend Renegade Publishing, they have a ton of resources for fan-binders. 

[North over Limestone]

[trans-ruffboi]

I think Vivienne as a Divine is interesting because she really isn't faithful. You ask her about her faith and the Chantry, and her response is always a pragmatic argument about how people should live or about the Chantry as a political body. She never professes any belief at all in the Chant as scripture.

[trans-ruffboi]

When you meet her, if the Inquisitor asks her, "Are you devout?" she says that she "was a great admirer of the late Divine Justinia V," and then describes the function of the Chantry "at its best" as a political entity. When she describes the qualities a Divine must have, they are "grace, charm, and a will of solid steel." Nothing about faith. And when she describes you as Andraste's Herald, it's pretty much always in the framing of that being how you're seen by the people of Thedas. It's not even a question to her about whether she believes it.

I think the closest you get is in the intro conversation when she says that the loyal mages haven't forgotten the commandment that magic must serve man. But even then, she says that the loyal mages are loyal to the people of Thedas, not the Chant or Chantry. And I think it's very important to note that before the rebellion, Vivienne had not joined a Fraternity of Enchanters. She wasn't an aligned Chantry Loyalist mage. But when she viewed it as necessary, she took on that role.

She's pragmatic and clearly cares deeply about what she views as the good of Thedas and its people, but despite her great ambition in the sphere of the Chantry, she isn't particularly devout at all and seemingly got there without really pretending to be so. And sure, maybe she's just keeping her cards close to her chest, but I feel like there'd be some indication of that if it was supposed to be genuine faith. If anything, I think her not professing faith to the Inquisition is very honest and shows her confidence in her position.

Inquisition often frustrates me with how it assures me that the Chantry and its authority is absolutely necessary for Thedas, and I think a lot of it would be better if we could challenge that, but Vivienne makes it work in a way that's actually pretty interesting to me.

[trans-ruffboi]

@fandom-space-princess very much this. Vivienne is a very internally consistent character.

I think that Vivienne is very much creating security for herself and those that the system does work for. There is an avenue for security that she has flourished in (whether or not that was accessible for others; she did seemingly gain a lot of her safety and power by being in a relationship with a man on the Council of Heralds) and if she doesn't maintain that then she and her loyalist mages are very suddenly in a less secure position. I don't necessarily agree with her, but her logic always makes sense from her perspective.

And I do think that there is a level of trauma that forces her to consider the way that things have worked for her as the only possible way they can work. She tends to be very critical of other methods of training mages even when they function just as well or better than the Circles in training them safely (the Avvar come to mind especially) and insists that the Circle is the only way it could work. When you suggest another avenue she always has a response for a situation it might not work, but she ignores or dismisses the many many instances where the Circle didn't work or harmed people. (even suggesting that the Circles were "too permissive" to allow a rebellion to happen)

Vivienne will not accept people that might fall through the cracks as a new system develops, though she does admit that the College of Enchanters seems to be doing fine by the time of Trespasser.

She is also fascinating as a candidate for Divine to me not only because of her apparent lack of piety, but because the other two options seem very obvious compared to her. Mages aren't allowed to become Sisters or Mothers or Clerics, so she isn't a part of any existing Chantry hierarchy. She is Chantry-affiliated, and well regarded in the Chantry, but she isn't a part of it. This is a direct route to the top position in the most powerful organization in Thedas.

(As a side note, from an outside perspective some of the way the game handles the Divine candidacy is strange. You have the option to push for the election of only two candidates; Cassandra and Vivienne. To me it doesn't make a ton of sense that you can't push for only Leliana. If you could only push for Vivienne it would make sense, because she's the fringe challenging pick as a mage and needs the Inquisition's support, or if you could push all of them, but the exclusion of just Leliana is weird.
Vivienne is also prioritized first above either of the others in the case of tied points. That's not really strange I just find it interesting.)

Again, I don't necessarily always agree with Vivienne, but she is very interesting and always makes a lot of sense.

[North over Limestone]

[felinedragon]

knowing the broad strokes of how socmed companies actually work in 2023 is such a "bearer of the cursed knowledge" moment rn. no, one-star reviewing tumblr is not going to help make changes happen (it will get tumblr axed by the automattic board faster). no, crab day is not going to get tumblr "out of debt" (if it worked, it would make the automattic board more likely to see tumblr as a useful product, but also it won't work because a vast minority of the userbase are the ones who will be doing it). no, 50k is not a massive chunk of the overall userbase (there are hundreds of millions of users). no, a social media site cannot continue to function without actively gaining millions of users per year (social media is funded almost entirely by investors, who see "endless growth" as the only possible successful outcome). no, there are no realistic revenue streams for image-and-video-hosting socmed other than investors (this shit costs literal billions of dollars a year to run, even if every single person on the website paid for our accounts, there would still be a massive gap in funding). no, tumblr staff are not involved in content moderation (content moderation on all social media is largely outsourced to third-party companies mostly in the global south).

[North over Limestone]

[hilaom]

Just wanted to let everyone who isn’t aware yet know

-The amount of dms you can send on Twitter per day is now limited unless you have Twitter Blue, I can’t tell if it’s a 24hr period or if it resets at midnight but I ran out of “allowed” dms to my friend at 2:30am last night

-Elon has decided to rebrand Twitter to “X” and “get rid of all the birds”, completely removing the massive brand recognition Twitter has

-Tumblr is apparently trending in technology on Twitter right now

[greed-the-dorkalicious]

Also Japanese Twitter is having a field day because the rebranding would result in Twitter being called “X Japan”, which happens to be the name of a very famous Japanese rock band that’s been around since the 80s

[yokune-ruko]

x japan's founder has already posted a thinly veiled legal warning because apparently not only would it be hilariously stupid to make twitter japan "x japan", but the band owns the trademark, so they can't

[North over Limestone]

[riikkapaints]

Aamutähti (Morning star).

[North over Limestone]

[cdbug]

love this thang

[North over Limestone]

[pwlanier]

Bodys Isek KINGELEZ 1948-2015 - Democratic Republic of Congo

Architectural models 1998

Mixed technique and assembly of fine cardboard, paper and transparent plastic

Signed and dated on a support glued to the base of the model "B.I.K 1998"

Artcurial

[North over Limestone]

[albaharu]

Soup

[North over Limestone]

[yagrandmapeach]

We all have each other

[North over Limestone]

[tanoraqui]

[slams fists on table] There is MINIMAL evidence that the whole world of Middle Earth appears flat to Elves. There is MUCH MORE evidence that Elves live on a globe with everyone else (after the Fall of Númenor); they just have access—via ocean sailing, maybe only in a westward direction—to a tangential line leading off the globe to a bonus continent + local seas, which may or may not exist on a flat plane. (Note: not on the moon; the moon is a piece of glowing flower set in a small flying ship, steered by a guy who keeps getting distracted by his crush.) It’s called the “STRAIGHT ROAD”, not the “flat world”!!

It’s like this:

* There’s actually almost 0 evidence of anything really, because Tolkien’s worldbuilding is like the dril budget tweet and he spent $3,600/month on linguistics. But that’s why we should pay attention to word choice like “Straight ROAD”, ie a single path!