In which there are hyrdopunk, medieval aviation history, and evidence of sentient puffin Time Lords
- Headline of the [random time period]: "Malware parasites feed on gossip fans" (BBC News online).
- Lego lols: this time the kids challenged me to rebuild their medievals mixels, Paladum, Camillot, Mixadel, and their nixel, so I made two medievalist mechs and some scenery for each of them. This was the second vignette and features a hydro-punk mechasaur with a spin-able waterwheel tail, a watergate, and a boat.
- Englishman Eilmer of Malmesbury was, at the beginning of the 11th century, the first European to fly or glide successfully although he broke both his legs on landing. The monk built himself wings, which he affixed to his hands and feet, and then he jumped from a tower at Malmesbury Abbey. He reputedly flew "more than a furlong" (about 200 metres or 220 yards) before crash-landing. Of course, the historical Eilmer was a monk not a mech and he jumped from a tower not a fantastical dome and spire, nor was he made of Lego bricks from the medievals mixels sets (Paladum, Camillot, and Mixadel). Also, although Eilmer is the first human glider well-attested in surviving written historical sources, there are claims that the Andalusian polymath Abbas ibn Firnas, during the 9th century, was the first Westerner to fly, having built himself wings and jumped from a tower in Cordoba.
P.S. These days the interior of Malmesbury Abbey is sometimes used as a skate park (no, rly).
- Unpopular Doctor Who opinion #6241287448!!1!! Did you know that puffins breed in a loomery? As Time Lords reproduce on looms this presumably means that Gallifreyans are an evolved species of sentient puffin. QED.
- Reading, books 2016, 63.
56. Little Beach Street Bakery, by Jenny Colgan. My first ever "chick lit", albeit with a surprise skiffy-themed wedding. Very wish-fulfilmenty... if you have those sorts of wishes about being an upwardly-mobile gentrifying craft-baker, with a tamed pet puffin, and hot n cold running men. Don't worry though, Our gentrifying Heroine doesn't end up with any of those working class local men, no, she's happily-until-the-next-book with an upper-middle class American management consultant in a fixer-upper in an up-and-coming area. Oh, and the only baddie in the book is an old working-class local woman. Colgan knows what fantasies sell to her readers, obv. (3/5 = 4/5 for the writing + 2/5 for the heavily massaged kneaded and honey-tongued Thatcherite conservatism). Tried reading her Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris but within a couple of pages it became apparent that the Thatcherite chick lit also included the disability-as-inspiration towards a better life trope, ugh, no, nope, no.
57. Reread
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- Lego lols: this time the kids challenged me to rebuild their medievals mixels, Paladum, Camillot, Mixadel, and their nixel, so I made two medievalist mechs and some scenery for each of them. This was the second vignette and features a hydro-punk mechasaur with a spin-able waterwheel tail, a watergate, and a boat.
- Englishman Eilmer of Malmesbury was, at the beginning of the 11th century, the first European to fly or glide successfully although he broke both his legs on landing. The monk built himself wings, which he affixed to his hands and feet, and then he jumped from a tower at Malmesbury Abbey. He reputedly flew "more than a furlong" (about 200 metres or 220 yards) before crash-landing. Of course, the historical Eilmer was a monk not a mech and he jumped from a tower not a fantastical dome and spire, nor was he made of Lego bricks from the medievals mixels sets (Paladum, Camillot, and Mixadel). Also, although Eilmer is the first human glider well-attested in surviving written historical sources, there are claims that the Andalusian polymath Abbas ibn Firnas, during the 9th century, was the first Westerner to fly, having built himself wings and jumped from a tower in Cordoba.
P.S. These days the interior of Malmesbury Abbey is sometimes used as a skate park (no, rly).
- Unpopular Doctor Who opinion #6241287448!!1!! Did you know that puffins breed in a loomery? As Time Lords reproduce on looms this presumably means that Gallifreyans are an evolved species of sentient puffin. QED.
- Reading, books 2016, 63.
56. Little Beach Street Bakery, by Jenny Colgan. My first ever "chick lit", albeit with a surprise skiffy-themed wedding. Very wish-fulfilmenty... if you have those sorts of wishes about being an upwardly-mobile gentrifying craft-baker, with a tamed pet puffin, and hot n cold running men. Don't worry though, Our gentrifying Heroine doesn't end up with any of those working class local men, no, she's happily-until-the-next-book with an upper-middle class American management consultant in a fixer-upper in an up-and-coming area. Oh, and the only baddie in the book is an old working-class local woman. Colgan knows what fantasies sell to her readers, obv. (3/5 = 4/5 for the writing + 2/5 for the heavily massaged kneaded and honey-tongued Thatcherite conservatism). Tried reading her Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris but within a couple of pages it became apparent that the Thatcherite chick lit also included the disability-as-inspiration towards a better life trope, ugh, no, nope, no.
57. Reread
This entry was originally posted at http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/580352.html and has
comments Please comment there using OpenID.