@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

DejahEntendu

@[email protected]

DC area TTRPG gamer, geek, life-o-phile
Parent of an adult person.
I try to be nice and I can be taught.
Leaper before looker...
I love books that explore how people and societies react to/change with circumstances.
I have no patience for stories that celebrate prejudice.
I fall asleep listening to historical romances and never review them.

10th level office worker with the IT archetype and a specialization in Active Directory. Multi-classed into management.

Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/dejahentendu

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@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to random

Joan loves me.

Black cat facing the camera with her eyes mostly closed. I am in the background, obscured by her head and ear, scritching her cheek. She is cuddled on my chest
ALT
@stumblewyk@jawns.club avatar stumblewyk , to random

Long thread about my TTRPG campaign and it's unintended intersection with current politics:

I'm currently running a game set in a homebrew world where what we consider the material plane has been split - each classical element has a floating island in the void where it (and a humanoid that embodies it) holds sway. Where those elements meet, paraelements carry the day: Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Ash, Jungle, Swamp, Ice.

1/

DejahEntendu ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

@stumblewyk I'm currently prepping to run a (heavily modified) old adventure. I realized one of the GB groups is basically MAGA and has to ask my group if they thought it was too "on the nose" for our current environment. Everyone was OK with it, so long as they were allowed to kill the BGs in question. Catharsis is a real thing!

@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to random

One of my GMs posted this on another platform. It's beautiful and true.

B & His Tribe (02-07-2026)
We’ve been gaming together for close to forty years now (and one or two not quite that long, but no less important).

Forty years with the same people isn’t just “gaming.” It’s shared lives. It’s a mythos we’ve all built together, one lucky critical die roll after ridiculous plan after catastrophic plan.

Most groups don’t last a year.
Plenty don’t last a campaign.

1/n

DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

I bet most don’t survive the first scheduling conflict.

But forty years?
That’s a tribe.

Today has been rough and I needed a lift so I’ve been reading through all our stories today. The cantina massacre, the Rope Trick implosion, the cleric beatdowns, the NPC trauma, the Delta Green spirals, It’s obvious why we’ve lasted this long.

Because we weren’t just playing games.

What we’ve got is rare, I think. We still remember each other’s critical failures from 1987.

2/n

DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

We have running jokes older than some RPG systems. We have characters who still haunt each other’s nightmares (not really but close enough). We have war stories that get retold like legends. We have games where chaos is expected, welcomed, and weaponized.

Most people never get this.
Most people never even get close.
We’ve grown up together.
We’ve survived life together.
We’ve built mythologies together.

The fact that we can still tell

3/n

@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to random

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

Kingfisher's homey feminism gives us another great one. The awkward princess wins the day, banishes the ogre, and rides off into the sunset for more adventures! A woman's work is never done, after all.

@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to random

Attempt #3 at a soft sourdough loaf. Still hard on the outside. But probably not 1/2" deep this time (I hope). I'll cut into it tomorrow.

A sliced bread style loaf of sourdough bread. Fresh out of the oven on a cooling rack with all kinds of mess on the stove behind it. It is a lovely golden color.
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DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

The crumb is good. And the crust softened up some. I'm pretty happy with this one!

@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to random

For some reason, last night I remembered when my kid gave up their binky (pacifier).

They were around 18 months and had taken up flinging the thing away when they didn't want it any longer. Then later demanding it when they wanted it again. This resulted me having to boil found ones often and replacing from time to time. I got so tired of it.

One day, the kid grabbed the binky from their mouth and pulled their arm back to fling it. I looked at them and said, "don't."

1/2

@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to random

My sister, who always manages to find the oddest and most frivolous things, got me this for my winter solstice gift this year.

Flamingos are an obsession of mine.

A flamingo lamp in profile. The belly is lit softly and the underside of the head more brightly. The coloring is surprisingly accurate. It stands with one leg lifted, as flamingos do, on a silver laptop. It is in front of a window with a yard in the background. A reflection on the bird shows in the laptop screen.
ALT
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to random

OK, so let's see... we buckled down this week and made it through more than one encounter. We were not less random.

First, the gorallon (something like that) got loose on the ship and we were told not to kill it! We managed. Some of the group started looking into how it got out, but the captain didn't seem to care, so I just let it lie.

Then, when we were up on deck talking about what the rest of the team found, the GM asked me, "hey, do you lean back

🧵

@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to random

One of the reasons I listen to books is that it's the best format for my flavor of ADHD. No distracting visuals or noises like with TV/movies. It being read to me means I can't wander off with my attention as easily as reading an ebook or traditional book.

And then they started making these "Graphic Audio" books with tons of background noise, ahem, "cinematic music and sound effects." We hates them.

I get that some people may prefer them, but can't the extraneous sound...

@transworld@masto.ai avatar transworld , to random
DejahEntendu ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

@transworld
FTA: Any city that does not comply, he said, could risk the “withholding or denial of state and federal road funding and suspension of agreements with TxDOT.”

Aside from the blatant BS of calling them a safety hazard, AS IF Texas repairs their gorram roads in the first place!

@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to random

The Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson

Re-read this for a SFF book club I go to. It did not age well. It was never one of my favorite of his books, anyway.

My main comment was that this was written in his techbro edgelord era. More on that later.

The Drummers - just completely cringe worthy. There were so many less problematic ways to create a "wet net." Orgies to share data? Aren't there simpler ways to share nanobots?

🧵

@bookstodon

DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

The not-so-subtle rascism against the Chinese (and others, but to a lesser extent). Of the two Chinese women in the group, one DNFed at page 200. The other just found the ridiculousness of his Western version of Confucianism to be hysterical.

The view that Western culture peaked in the Victorian Era and that Occidental cultures aspired to be that. (Finkle-McGraw was a Korean orphan, adopted by white folk. He was among the founders of the Vicky enclave. Nell's discussion with the owner...

DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

Of the bordello she went to work at about how they re-use scripts written for Vicky's. There is so much more!)

Stephenson posits a post-cyberpunk (as in living in the after-effects of that societal change) world where people have sorted themselves into groups (claves) based on what's important to them. Race, politics, religion, some combination thereof. This world is verging on post-scarcity, but not there yet. His main theme is around education, familial love, and how the two interact...

DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

And here's what I'm still chewing on...

I know Stephenson does satire. But when he writes about tribal affiliations and uses trite stereotypes, but doesn't talk about the impact of the stereotypes on the people they're about, does it still read as racism? I've come to the conclusion that it does, but I'm still kinda on the fence. The reason I'm on the fence is that he doesn't write aspirational fiction. He takes who we are, and what's going in technologically and then extrapolates...

DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

And we are tribal in our interactions with each other. We all have in groups and out groups based on what's important to us.

Is Stephenson just another old white guy in the end who isn't critically addressing issues of racism in his worlds?

I love his work from an intellectual thought experiment on technology and society. I feel like that's passé with the younger crowd. (For clarity, I'm a verging-on-older white chick in the US.)

Thoughts?

End 🧵

@gbhnews@mastodon.social avatar gbhnews , (edited ) to random

blanket situation, cold snap edition

DejahEntendu ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

@gbhnews
Bed socks
Down comforter
Cats

If that's not enough for my feet, there's a heating pad at the bottom of the bed.

If I have to be up and about
Bed socks
Wool slippers
Big hoodie with the front pocket thing

@lee_quadkorps@dice.camp avatar lee_quadkorps , to random

module enjoyers:

How do you feel about bullet points? Especially to detail rooms in a facility/dungeon.

I feel like they've risen and fallen over the past few years.

DejahEntendu ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

@lee_quadkorps Anything to make the information stand out when you're scanning the page trying to find it!

@georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar georgetakei , to random
DejahEntendu ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

@georgetakei
"Let them eat gold leaf."
-Probably Trump

@georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar georgetakei , to random

What about the victims whose lives were destroyed by Epstein and those he trafficked them to? No concern for their rights from Rep. Higgins?

The image shows two X posts. Ron Filipkowski quotes Rep. Clay Higgins, suggesting Higgins is concerned that releasing the Epstein files might harm the Republican Party. In response, Rep. Clay Higgins criticizes Thomas Massie, calling his Epstein petition "100% wrong" and a political maneuver. Higgins defends the Oversight Committee's official investigation into Epstein-related matters, adhering to criminal justice procedures, and accuses Massie of risking the privacy of innocent Americans with his petition.
ALT
DejahEntendu ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

@georgetakei

Seriously, it's ALWAYS "you can't ruin the lives of the men who rape!" as if there were no impact to the people they rape.

@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to bookstodon group

Babel by R.F. Kuang

An intense and difficult read (for a white person). But well worth the time. A diverse group of 4 translators in the same year at Oxford bond over their classes. But life isn't simple and as they each grow, at varying rates, there is friction. Set in a fantastical, but eminently realistic, Colonial Era Britain, there is a lot for Kuang to build on, and I feel she did an excellent job of bringing us a tale of

1/

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DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

rebellion and struggle against injustice.

The magic, being based in linguistic drift and nuances of meaning, was just fascinating, as a language nerd. I appreciated the footnotes. I felt it added to the scholarly feel of the book. You could ignore them if you'd rather; but if you like history and language, do read them.

Yes, there is racism in this book, as told from the eyes of those suffering it. That's part of the point of the book.

2/2

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DejahEntendu OP ,
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@jzb bookstodon@a.gup.pe icon bookstodon group

I was a little nervous starting this one, as I DNF'ed The Poppy War. The violence was way too graphic for me. I get that the era she was worrying about was graphic, but I just can't handle that level of description. I'm glad she avoided it in this one, because it really was a wonderful read!

@Cedara@social.tchncs.de avatar Cedara , to bookstodon group German

Nnedi Okorafor : One Way Witch
(She Who Knows; 2)

If you want to read it, I put a little review in here:

https://text.tchncs.de/cedara/h2nnedi-okorafor-one-way-witch

In case you don't know yet, Mrs. Okorafor is also on Mastodon: @nnedi



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@bookbubble

DejahEntendu ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

@Cedara @nnedi bookstodon@a.gup.pe icon bookstodon group @bookbubble

I believe she prefers Dr. Okorafor.

@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to bookstodon group

Brother Bronte by Fernando A. Flores

Sort of three stories that are tied together.

This is set in, what, a post-governmental-collapse Texas, part of the former United States, in a small corporate town that outlived its usefulness? There's a lot to unpack in this world.

From the deep misogyny of making mothers rights-free, and women in general to a lesser extent, forcing them into corporate slavery simply because they're mothers

1/

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DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

to the outlawing of books and eradication of education, this paints a deeply disturbing world of nearly feral people turning on one another for the smallest of reasons. And yet there's still love and support of neighbors to a certain extent. Small acts of social support in defiance of the hierarchical, capitalistic society they're living in. The story is super focused in on a handful of people in this small town in Texas,

2/

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DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

so we never get the larger picture of how this happened. Or what infrastructure still exists. But some clearly does, though from our eye-level of the poorest, it hardly seems possible. In the end, there's an escape to something better for those who can live with it.

I'm not sure that I actually liked the book, but it was an interesting read.

3/3

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@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to bookstodon group

A Road Back from Schizophrenia: A Memoir by Arnhild Lauveng

I have very mixed feelings about this book. It was a moving, intense memoir of sleeping who was deeply broken for a time in her life. And beautiful, hopeful message for those who are or know someone who is affected by psychosis. Lauveng is careful to be clear that this is her story and not a roadmap for everyone.

All this being said, much of what Lauveng talks about being

🧵

@bookstodon

DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

helpful for her isn't rocket science. It's, honestly, the basic common courtesy we would offer anyone not diagnosed with a mental disorder. And that makes it depressing. I think this book is a nice addition to the stories coming out that show the need for reform in our support of these patients, but it's not groundbreaking except that she considers herself healed of schizophrenia. If you want to read this book because you're looking for hints about

🧵

@bookstodon

DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

how to enable this outcome, you won't get them. Unless you need to be told to treat patients with respect and dignity, and to honor their choices.

She said, right in the closing chapter, that schizophrenia outcomes divide into thirds: healed, living with peace but not healed, and living with trauma and not healed (my words). I need to follow up on that, as this is news to me.

3/3

@bookstodon

DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

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Ah, she was talking about remission, from what I can tell.

@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to bookstodon group

A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen

Chen is excellent with emotions and interpersonal dynamics.

The book was written during the 2019 pandemic. And it shows. It's a very grim prediction of what would happen after a truly devastating outbreak, worse even than the Black Death in Europe. I enjoyed most of the story, though it wasn't anything overly special. Chen gave it an upbeat ending. One brighter than I expected. That kinda disappointed me.

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@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to bookstodon group

The Future of Another Timelibe by Annalee Newitz

I loved the writing mechanic used to share changes to the timeline! It made the changes clear without hitting you over the head with them.

This was a very intersectional feminist book with a lot of pondering about how we can all affect our lives and the lives of those around us in a positive manner by pushing back and sharing our views. It was a well-rounded out world with

1/2

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DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

some interesting thoughts on time travel and cohesive characters revealed in a slow-burn. It was worth my time.

CW: incest

2/2

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@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to bookstodon group

River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

What happens when you need to choose between love and duty? in a world where grammar is magic, maybe the answer lies in riddles. This gorgeous, lyric fairy-tale gives us the answer in song. The audiobook is just under 3 hours long and so worth listening to.

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@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to bookstodon group

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

I loved the writing. The story was engaging, and the style was extremely easy to connect with. I had zero sympathy for Ruth. OK, that's not entirely true. Her being a self-important, controlling, mean-girl of a friend wasn't exactly completely on her. I found Kath's interactions with her to be kinder than I wished her to be.

But the SciFi part?

1/2

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DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

What a gentle way to talk about how society would change under the circumstances of the world Ishiguro built. The central change was a slow reveal, so I don't want to mention it. But having a kind, forgiving person be the narrator for a story with such a horrific central idea was a gorgeous juxtaposition. I loved this one!

2/2

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@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to bookstodon group

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz

Fascinating world building. Cool characters. Timely, in-your-face, antifascist, anti-corporate, eco-scifi. Yes, just a little preachy, but not awful about it.

Interestingly, I've read a couple of eco-scifi books recently. They both also had very strong themes of individual consent and collective direct decision-making.

@bookstodon

@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to bookstodon group

The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love by India Holton

Lighthearted palate cleanser. Just what I needed.

Take ornithology, cut-throat competition, a PR push, and mix liberally. Add in a romance where the characters actually like each other for something beyond the chemistry, et voilà! Madcap fun!

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@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to bookstodon group

Scattered All Over the Earth by Yōko Tawada

The writing was lovely. The threads pulling everyone together were kinda cool. I clearly lost track of the point. I listened to the end twice, thinking of spaced out and missed something. Either I didn't, or I missed it a lot further back! It felt kind of like a highly coincidental slice of life story. Kinda weird. Kinda fun.

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@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to bookstodon group

The Man Who Broke Capitalism by David Geddes

I feel like we could be living in a better world had someone told Jack Welch that no amount of power or money would fill the hole in his heart and sent him to therapy.

This was an incisive history of Jack Welch at GE and the downstream effect he and his proteges had on the U.S. economy. Gelles doesn't trash capitalism bat believes we can have ethical capitalism instead of the Welchian

1/

@bookstodon

DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

take on it. It's a lovely thought, but naive, in my opinion.

We go through cycles where the "leaders of industry" pillage the companies they run, the environments in which they exist, and the very people they rely on to survive. That's the employees and consumers, if you're wondering. And the the governments step in to rein the worst of it in and we're ok for a little while. Then there's another Welch (hmmm, maybe Uber?) to takeit up to the

2/

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DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

pillage level again. Rinse, repeat. Stakeholder Capitalism would be lovely, but someone would come along and kick down our sandcastles again.

Anyway, a good read, even though we diverged at the end.

3/3

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DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

@markvonwahlde bookstodon@a.gup.pe icon bookstodon group

Bring back? You say that as if they're not doing it now.

@franciscawrites@mastodon.scot avatar franciscawrites , to bookstodon group

The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (1993) is set in 2025, the name of the US President is Donner.

Let me quote,

“He hopes to get laws changed, suspend “overly restrictive” minimum wage, environmental, and worker protection laws for those employers willing to take on homeless employees…”

“They [workers] don’t get paid much, so they get into debt. They get hurt or sick, too. Their drinking water’s not clean and the factories are dangerous…”

Are we there yet?
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A screen shoot of a tweet that reads: Rep. Andy Biggs introduces bill to abolish OSHA and completely eliminate federal workplace safety protections. There's a picture of Rep. Biggs smiling alongside President Trump. To this tweet Ted Nivison replies: Let's ban seatbelts and bring back asbestos too.

A screen shoot of a tweet that reads: Rep. Andy Biggs introduces bill to abolish OSHA and completely eliminate federal workplace safety protections. There's a picture of Rep. Biggs smiling alongside President Trump. To this tweet Ted Nivison replies: Let's ban seatbelts and bring back asbestos too.
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DejahEntendu ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

@franciscawrites bookstodon@a.gup.pe icon bookstodon group

I found this book so much more realistic than The Handmaid's Tale. Butler did a fantastic job here!

@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar DejahEntendu , to bookstodon group

Witch King by Martha Wells

The world building was quite good and the magic system was interesting. And who'd'a thunk the demons would be the good guys?

On the other hand? The story was too much about the war and the politics for my taste, and not enough about the psyche and the sociology. I'm sure other people would enjoy it more.

But read the book rather than listen to the audiobook. The narrator was competent, but...

1/2

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DejahEntendu OP ,
@DejahEntendu@dice.camp avatar

his standard, non-inflected voice used for the MC and narration was right in the pitch I can ignore easily. Also, it was the flattest of his voices. I do feel it detracted from the story for me.

2/2

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