Moe Lane's Blog, page 119
December 7, 2024
TikTok, tik tok, tikkkkkk tokkkkk…
It is looking grim for the Chinese company:
A federal court in the United States has upheld the legality of a bi-partisan action that could cause social media app TikTok to become inaccessible nationwide beginning in January 2025. Attorneys representing TikTok are expected to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of the United States, but they’re currently up against a January 19 deadline.
This is one of those complicated topics that have relevance to both my former and current lives. Focusing strictly on the latter: this will have a serious impact on BookTok, in the ‘high explosives steadily dropped on it’ sense of the word. I imagine that a lot of people who use that service are absolutely freaking out, right now.
Personally, I’ve been expecting something like this to happen for a couple of years now. Which is one major reason why I haven’t been moving into the TikTok space. The other reasons? …Ehh, those are more in the ‘my former life’ column. Suffice it to say that there’s a reason why the app wasn’t sold to a non-ChiCom entity.
Book of the Week: Sink the Rising Sun.
Sink the Rising Sun‘s coming out next week, and Jon Gabriel’s an old internet buddy of mine*. Plus, it’s a WWII submarine warfare book. What’s not to like?
*Who has not given me an ARC or anything, not that I would’ve taken one anyway. Sales are important. Especially when it’s a first book.
#commissionearned
December 6, 2024
‘A Christmas Carol.’
Just a bit of whiskey. Unaccountably, I have a meeting tomorrow. A not-fun SCA officer meeting.
A Christmas Carol, Tom Lehrer
#commissionearned
Well, *that* was an unexpectedly generous cocktail crawl.
I didn’t drink (well, except for the margarita, but that was just one drink anyway) much, but the restaurants doing this cocktail crawl thing weren’t shy about giving you a plate of food. Good stuff, too, not pigs-in-a-blanket or anything. Clearly they wanted us going, Hey. We should come back here and have a real dinner, and they will no doubt be pleased to hear that it absolutely worked.
Just not tonight: the thing ended at 8 PM, and I am morally certain that every restaurant in that little complex we were at is still packed to the gills, rafters, and/or the bursting point.
Moe Lane
PS: Part of me is now wondering whether I should have a little whiskey, since I’m home and don’t need to drive anywhere. Another part of me is wondering whether I should have a rather larger whiskey. It’s a puzzler.
Doing a food/drink walkabout thing tonight…
…which we will of course have to pace ourselves on, because I am not twenty-five anymore and neither is my wife. But that’s all right. When we were that young we couldn’t afford stuff like this. Remember your advantages, is what I say.
But expect a quiet night here.
Tweet of the Day, I Suspect Nobody Ever Explained This One edition.
I’m with @ZODIAC_MF that there are more immediately and genuinely traumatizing things out there, but the scenario presented in the video below made me laugh out loud. So there’s that.
I think Mr Sunday Movies description of this scene was the best. Couldn't stop laughing. pic.twitter.com/REmS6Fkf0u
— Stu Miley(@Thank_you_Herb) December 5, 2024
December 5, 2024
Doing prices for the FERMI RESOLUTION WORLDBOOK TTRPG.
These are the numbers that I’m thinking of for the FERMI RESOLUTION TTRPG:
Softcover, Large, Regular Color$29.95Hardcover, Large, Regular Color$34.95Digital File$14.95I have to think of them now because I need to come up with pledge levels for the Backerkit (it’d be awesome if you signed up for notifications for that, by the way). The book will be about 150 pages, and have a bunch of art. Do these numbers feel right to you? It’s a self-contained book using the GUMSHOE rules.
12/05/2024 Snippet, BANSHEE BEACH.
Information!
Patreon!“Depends, compa… Shamus. I mean, maybe there’s some simoleons in it for me if I figure it out?”
“Maybe there would be,” I promptly agreed. “Lucas?”
The look Lucas gave me at that was anything but blank. Dirty as hell, in fact. He still didn’t bobble as he pulled out a bankroll and peeled off some monroes. But when Bananas reached for them, Lucas smoothly raised his money-laden hand out of reach. “So, hey, friend. Do you know what happens when an Adventurer pays for information and then somebody tries to welch out of it?”
“Ah… no?” offered Bananas.
Lucas smiled. Technically. “Are you eager to find out?”
12/05/2024 Snippet, PICKMAN’S MODELS.
We really need to get this one to bed. The other one, too.
Patreon!He wasn’t the only one disquieted by their surroundings. “Twisty passages, all alike,” he heard Buckley mutter at one point. “Bo– sir, I think that a lot of this is fresh.”
“Fresh?” asked Reithner. She was still steadier than Tobias had expected. Possibly even steadier than he was. “You think these people still have enough energy to dig? Without machines, no-one would waste calories on that.” She sniffed. “Even with machines, what would be the point?”
Tobias’s light unfortunately found a metal plate that had been hung on the wall. Dimly-remembered and particularly unwelcome memories let him recognize the stylized features of Madam Corpse-Mask.This etching had been done by somebody with real skill, somehow managing to evoke both her skeleton body, and the flayed sacrificial face she wore. The outlined horror almost glowed, even after he hastily moved his light elsewhere. Was there a hint of it still on his retinas? Surely not.
“If these people are Red Imperial cultists, Lieutenant,” he managed to say calmly, “then we should try not to understand their point. We might succeed.”
