Latest Posts by samalander7 - Page 2
Today the sky looked like straight from a van gogh painting
Winter scenes in Oregon
elliothawkey
Trying to put my finger on the concept of how like the only real interaction between Kaladin and Jasnah in the series is like that one like… not quite argument in like book two where they both present their somewhat opposing moral philosophies and Jasnah talks circles around Kaladin and he walks away kinda bitter and neither of them change their ways over it but three and a half books later his approach to morality leads him to find peace and become a cornerstone influence for good in the world while her philosophy leads her to losing a kingdom and spiraling into self loathing and something something “it was unfair that convincing someone depended not on the strength of ideas but the strength of the arguer.” But he was RIGHT and she was WRONG and I don’t know where I’m going with this but DO YOU GET WHAT IM SAYING
Kaladin Return posit: a whole book, #6 or maybe #7 depending on series pacing, wherein its slowly increasingly obvious that the Heralds have returned - or at least, they should have, but no one can find them. People are looking for them, either to ally with them or to kill them. (Those who are immortal know, but those who aren't, don't, that this is actually normal - it takes a few days for even a Herald to re-orient themselves to being alive. And they don't necessarily all reappear together, and only Jezrien and Nale ever had fast-travel options!) Some Herald gets an Interlude POV eventually, so we do know they're out there, pulling themselves together for the fight...
Then meanwhile, there's some battle that goes poorly and ends with a megalomaniac Fused, or maybe an Unmade, standing high and lecturing a bunch of people about how their resistance was doomed from the start, the righteous shall now inherit the whole Roshar, Retribution reigns and Honor is dead--
"People keep saying that," a familiar voice complains, and everyone turns in shock and there he is: Kaladin Stormblessed, floating in midair with the wind whipping at his hair and blue cloak that he picked up somewhere on the road from Shinovar. Not glowing, dark-eyed, but aloft nonetheless, with a silver spear in his hand and Sylphrena full-size at his side.
"I'm still alive," Syl replies, arms crossed. She, too, wears Bridge Four blue, and she has lighting in her eyes and a rainstorm in her hair (which she tosses in proud irritation). "And I'm a solid chunk of Honor, you know. I'm very respectable about it these days."
And then it's epic and Kaladin really gets a cult this time, to his immense dismay.
In August this year Dragonsteel asked me if I could add some concept art and designs as inspiration for the Worldhopper ball mainly to visualize the room and the wedding attire of both Adolin and Shallan.
As usual I loved to get into the tiny details - from embroidery patterns to alethi wedding traditions. Some of them made it into the final event some of them did not and this is why I am so happy I can finally share them with you!
So to say that I made some high pitched noises when i stepped into the venue at the ball last December is probably an understatement. Paladin Creative, Dragonsteel and their many helpers did such an impressive job making this immersive ball reality and fun – especially considering with so little time beforehand.
Thanks to @paladincreative, @valentine.bridal and @kayleemakescrafts for making these designs physical! 💙
Thank you to @officialsavannahcarrasco and @jacksupertoast for bringing these two to life those nights! ❤️
And of course major thanks to @brandsanderson and @izykstewart for letting me help dress Adolin and Shallan for their wedding! (I felt weirdly like a proud mum 😆)🧡
“Standing before the deathspren was a tiny figure of light. Not translucent, as she had always appeared before, but of pure white light. That soft, feminine face had a nobler, more angular cast to it now, like a warrior from a forgotten time. Not childlike at all. She stood guard on his chest, holding a sword made of light.”
The Way of Kings, ch.38: Envisager
Kaladin, beaten to within an inch of his life and then left out in a Highstorm (which he miraculously survived), being guarded by Syl.
I can’t get over how much I love these books. Prepare for a LOT more art!
father and daughter ⛈
I know, I know, gatekeeping the outdoors, that's supposedly bad, right, but I think if you show up to do a hike and you brought a portable speaker with you to play music while you hike, I think, like hear me out, there should be a gate, and someone at the gate should keep you from doing the hike.
Winter
Akaroa, South Island, New Zealand
Winter
by jhamilbader
Amazing poetry!
It's quiet by the firepit,
The pops and the crackles,
making the conversation.
The flames lick the wood,
the smoke, an annoyance I
try to avoid.
But that's where we connect.
You crack jokes,
(really, really bad jokes)
and I laugh,
because just the sound of
your voice,
your laugh, your smile,
Fills me with joy.
The little things, they
are what I long for,
what I truly want.
I want to know your favorite
color, song, food, car.
I want to know
how you take your coffee,
what you think of berfore bed
what your goals are for life.
But most of all,
I want to see how you see
me.
I catch your gaze across the
fire the light and mirth
in your beautiful eyes
reflecting the devoted falmes.
This is nice.
I smile; you smile back.
My stomach flies away,
Along with my heart, and I think,
Love is quiet, like the firepit.
I like the direction this is going in, but I think it’s missing some nuance.
My main critique is that this fails to realize just how complex computers really are. Because of this complexity there has to be different layers of user interaction with varying complexity, and consequently, control.
As someone who has dabbled in programing, I can give some insight as to why some tools are made exclusively for command line: gui's are not easy to make. Even harder if you want it to be any good. When I want to make a tool or program to do something for me, I don't choose to make it only accessible from the command line because I want to disadvantage others or otherwise maintain a status quo where I have an advantage, I do it out of practical necessity; programming is a hobby I use to accomplish things when I can't tools that do what I want, and as a hobby I don't sink enough time into it to make everything into polished gui's. There is something to say regarding companies who have the resources deciding not to make a gui when they could, but that's not an issue I'm aware of.
I really love the critique of how computers are currently structured, specifically folders and file structures. For files and folders that the computer is directly using (say by the os or applications) I would say folders are probably a decent way of ordering things. Or that is to say I can't think of a better way to structure things in an efficient way for the computer to access. (I know your critiquing the focus on efficiency, but for resources used by the computer itself, not the user, efficiency is important. Poor efficiency results in worse system performance, and so is not desirable.)
Returning to files (or equivalent concept) that are used by the user, there really is no reason why they should be ordered the same as the operating system does it. There is a pretty good argument that they shouldn't be ordered in such a way, which I believe is what is being argued above. I personally order my files and notes in folders mostly out of a practical need. There are alternatives though, look into Personal Knowledge Management systems and the tools that make them possible. My personal favorite is Obsidian, and in there I don't order files using folders, I use tags and note metadata. To track books I'm reading for example, I have a '#books' tag to designate the notes, and then I use a combination of properties ('status' with 'reading', 'read', 'tbr' or 'progress' with the number of pages I've read so far, etc). I can then use special searches to create lists of notes to surface information or content that is useful and easy to find. To make my point, I think that there are tools allowing users to already go beyond the hierarchical file/folder structure. They might have farther to go, but I think people are interested enough in them that they are improving.
Should using the command line be necessary? Honestly, no. It probably shouldn't. Should the command line not exists? Also no. Because of the complexity of computers, I don't think we should try to remove that lower level. Should we improve the higher levels? Give more control to users without requiring them to go to harder to use mediums, such as a command line? One hundred percent!
I would also agree that command line and computer system management stuff does have a steep learning curve. And unfortunately I don't see that going away; it's sort of in their nature to be hard to learn. Maybe I'm being a broken record, but computers are complex. That doesn't mean that the user interface (gui 99% of the time) should be difficult to learn. And to the point above, that control should require a steep learning curve.
There is an argument to be made though regarding giving command line tools and interaction some grace. If the goal is to make user interfaces that are easiest to use for different individuals, that is what works for one person might not work for another, so we need several options for different individuals and tasks, then I would say command line interfaces should be included in that. I would say that they can be the best tool for some people and for some tasks. Not all tasks, and not all people though, which ties back in to the necessity of using them if you want to do certain things. Perhaps that shouldn't be necessary.
It is also worth pointing out that due to the complexity of computers, if the user had easy control over their entire system, they could very easily mess it up in irreparable ways. Because of this it might be a benefit to have difficult interface options such as command lines that have a steep learning curve, because it requires by nature that the user knows, to a degree, what they are doing, and are thus less likely to case permanent damage.
That was a lot. Thanks for reading this far!
everyone trying to own trump about the "he doesn't know sex isn't determined at conception" thing really fundamentally does not understand what the point of that was, and learned basically nothing from his first term. he is not invested in scienve, biology, or any rational discussion where his provably false beliefs would be subject to scrutiny. he is signaling to everyone in the country that it does not matter what you say, he will never care and he will take every action to enforce these views and embolden his followers with the same rhetoric. you cannot logically talk to a person like this when they are reasoning with emotion, not logic. you cannot dunk the transphobia away. someone post the vonnegut quote.
One of my favorite parts of The Stormlight Archive, especially The Way of Kings, is how Sanderson introduces this deeply alien landscape to us. He does so mostly by not introducing things specifically, only narrating as if the viewpoint character were looking at normal stuff that everyone sees all the time—which, to them, they are! Sanderson also often uses one-off names for things, like I think he uses the word "chull" before he actually describes one, and leaves you, the reader, to make your assumptions on what those words could mean. Often you assume you're in "rabbits are called 'glips'" territory, where normal things are called by a fantastical name just for flavor.
The reason why I like this is that you get some moments that are... the closest feeling I can compare it to is "dawning horror," when you realize your assumptions are wrong. Like I heard about "songlings," and I assumed, "Ah, yes, birds!" And then I heard about axehounds and I assumed, "Ah, dogs :)"
And then you actually encounter songlings in the text and. Oh. They're cricket-crab things. Uh.
And then Sanderson actually shows you an axehound and it's even worse, it's a crab-dog!
After that you're left sweating. What else is actually crab? Are the horses secretly crabs? They keep mentioning hogs, but we never see a hog described, are they actually crabs??
But the answer is no. They're just pigs. Brilliant.
Adorable! I love them
letterpress postcards by Pottering Cat, Japan
My boyfriend @aborigonalguppyrabits and I were discussing cosmere reading order and decided that it was best expressed as a flow chart. The project got a little out of hand. Obviously there’s no right way to read the books, but we thought we’d offer our solution.
