Sitting down to a Saturday afternoon #DnD game and the GM just dropped an April Fool's element: We all got pasted with magical pixie spitballs that gave us each a minor magical curse, randomly determined by which chair we chose for the game. Here's mine: Update: Fighting a gelatinous cube. My fancy, dignified, reserved elf is finger-gunning the hell out of this thing. Turns out that magic missiles and minor magical finger-gun curses go together pretty well.

My husband and I watched the pilot of STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS last week and were pretty annoyed with it. We haven't gotten around to episode 2. At the time I was just mildly not into it, but the past few weeks in politics have underlined what I found so frustrating.🧵 There's the run-of-the-mill silly TV stuff. Like a whole batch of recycled characters from other STAR TREK media. Not my thing. Or Pike insisting on taking Spock on a mission where his physiology makes him the worst choice to go. Predictably, that derails the entire mission.

Playing D&D with the usual Saturday crew. We're in a goblin village called Yellyark where they've built all their tents on a big canvas platform tied to a big bent-over tree. They've just explained that when danger comes, they fling themselves to safety. There's a diagram! .@CAwkward immediately proclaimed this "the self-yeeting village," which I've just realized should be called Yeetyark, or possibly Yeettown. When they relocate, they can call their updated location New Yeetington. We are all way too taken with this idea.

As a general ongoing 2021 project, I'm seeking out more short stories. It's been an enjoyable way to encounter new authors, stretch my reading habits a little, and understand the craft better. Here's a thread of what I've read, with links in cases where the stories are online: Today: The spouse rarely reads fiction these days, so when he recommended Monique Laban's "The Failed Dianas," I jumped on it. It's great: a young woman meeting her older self. Sorta. You'll quickly predict where it's heading, but likely not where it goes. clarkesworldmagazine.com/laban_02_21/

With the Dems holding a slim majority in the Senate, it's time for bipartisan compromise and legislation that serves both parties equally.

Just as soon as COVID is eradicated. And the Voting Rights Act is restored. And the detainment camps are shut down and ICE is abolished and …we've rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement and restored the USPS' independence and rebuilt the EPA and enacted campaign finance reform that doesn't prioritize corporations over people and enforced the emoluments clause and revived federal protection for LBGTQ people and