Brandon O'Brien @therisingtithes@wandering.shop

The ToC for Speculative Masculinities is here! A thousand hurrahs for @D_Libris@twitter.com, @jayxwolf@twitter.com & @ronanedits@twitter.com! I’m very grateful to have helped select poetry for this project, and I hope everyone finds the work within as lovely and important as we do!

https://galli-books.co.uk/2019/06/18/speculative-masculinities-table-of-contents/

I’m… also quite entertained that this tweeted *now* when the rt in question was late last night, but w/e

This has been rewarding not only to some of my writing being closer to what I think they’re trying to do, but it’s added joy to the act of writing itself.

Consider: lots of things about how the world works IRL goes without a second thought because all we require is our faith in it.

Sometimes the literal reason why that object or that curse or that cosmic law is here is because it’s an image of something that already exists in the world we know, & we never think about why that’s there either, but now it’s tangible, asking us to see how it weighs on us.

LRT:

I’ve seen a lot of magic systems conversation & I agree with what I’ve seen. I’d like to add what’s given me value in my writing: sometimes the theme is the rule. Sometimes how or why magic works mechanically is a disservice to why your lead needs or struggles with it.

tfw you asked the customer service page of a brand of they still had something you wanted in stock in *late May* and they don’t reply until today with a simple, “No, sorry.”

I’m not even mad. I find that hilarious for some reason.

I am trying to fight fear with sleep.

🥭🥭🥭

FIYAH wants to keep doing as much as possible to represent, to be present, to be a monument of evidence that outstanding Black SFF has always been here and is consistently worthy of value. You can help keep the flame blazing! 🔥

This nomination is significant to us. @fiyahlitmag@twitter.com has gotten to the middle of our third year (!!!) by faith and used the platform to help elevate Black voices in SFF, and I am constantly beyond overjoyed by the trust and love of our contributors and our readers.

The @fiyahlitmag@twitter.com crew is still a ways from getting to celebrate our Hugo nomination in Atlanta together for the first time face-to-face. You can help make that happen! https://www.fiyahlitmag.com/the-hugo-meetup/

You can also help me with my Worldcon travel and other expenses via PayPal (https://www.paypal.me/brandonobrien) or Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.com/therisingtithes)!

I still need help getting to Worldcon! For the next few weeks, you can get a bundle of my games for as little as $5!

https://itch.io/s/18350/brandons-dublin-fundraising-bundle #indiegames

tfw these dreams have made it so hard for you to sleep that you end up trying later and later, but once you find yourself awake in the morning you don’t want to leave your bed

Today's tunes, outta nowhere:

https://youtu.be/nMomwXCxZl4

Sometimes I just think about the fact that the video for DJ Khaled's 'Nas Album Done' has 3 different intros that take 3 minutes & 15 seconds, ending with a young boy running through the streets of Jamaica to give Nas a cigar, even though he's already shown smoking one at 2:28.

I don't think every such stunt is perfect, useful, or doesn't often warrant critique, but it's an interesting way to engage with news comedy—watching is passive, but in a world where acting is often hard, comedians themselves are trying to bridge the gap between intent & impact.

The latest Patriot Act, about internet access inequality, is on DVD and available for rent through Netflix now (I didn't know that was still a thing). But it doesn't genuinely matter if anyone *sees* it—the fact that it happened is newsworthy enough as a metaphor for inequality.

John Oliver leveraged his privilege to turn selling a children's book into essentially donations toward a cause. Why do I say so? Because I'm willing to bet that lots of otherwise very bookish people who have no children bought that Marlon Bundo book on spite alone.