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As someone from a more average family, I’ve always been fascinated by your anecdotes about your upbringing. What’s it like to have parents so deeply immersed in fandom, and when did you realize that most kids’ parents have zero familiarity with fandom stuff?

as soon as I brought up renfaires and D&D and filk songs and cthulhu carols at school and got bullied about it :/ made it pretty obvious nobody knew or cared what I was talking about

But it was nice! Being raised in fandom, a thing built entirely from open enthusiasm for things you love, taught me to pursue things not because they were popular or What Was Expected Of Me, but because I loved them. I think it laid some major foundations in my worldview that helped me avoid a lot of normative expectations that wouldn't have worked for me, just by teaching me from minute one that things that are weird and unpopular can be perfect for you, and things that seem to work for everyone else can not work for you, and that's okay.

Once you've internalized "this seems to be something everyone does/likes/wants, but the thing I want seems to be almost unheard of - and yet I still want it" it may be easier to apply this to things like recognizing one's orientation (in my case "this all seems boring and weird and extremely limiting, but everyone acts like it's normal and great, so I think I'm just gonna… not do it"), pursuing unorthodox careers, and just… trying the weird things and seeing what works.

Identifying the things you love doing is already a difficult exercise, and it's made much more difficult by artificial filters like "these things are Cool And Sexy while these other things are Cringe And Weird and Should Not Be Liked." Being able to decouple your brain from the high school popularity contest makes the search for your passions that much easier, and I think I started with a serious leg up thanks to the guidance and unconditional support of two absolute nerds.

I feel like a curator who displays old tat as antiques, given a chance to have a set of canopic jars on display for a short while because it's the only place to keep them while the van gets fixed.

when she says she doesn’t send nudes

Frankly, being 21 and attending high school sounds pretty darn weird unless you're a member of staff.

“No? Why? Because I’m a vampire?” “No… Actually, pretending you’re 21 and attending high school for eighty years is a little weird, man.”

Havelock Vetinari is literature's most dangerous tyrant.

Astute, learned, and wickedly clever, there are no ends the man will not go to in achieving his goals. There is no one he will not manipulate, no one too important to remove by a variety of means, and no one so powerful as to threaten his position.

And this applies, most importantly of all, to himself. Who watches the Watch, after all?

But Vetinari is literature's most dangerous tyrant because he is at once, yes, a tyrant, but ALSO literature's most dedicated civil servant.

He cares for the city. And ONLY for the city. It is from this position of being the man who truly only cares for Ahnk Morpork that he derives his authority. After all, who cares as much as he does?

Vimes? Perhaps, but he's a married man and a father with private concerns that should take his attention as well (even if Vetinari has to constantly remind him of that fact). He has other things to worry about, but good job that man for sticking to his lane: a sledgehammer sized scalpel for repelling threats and keeping the peace.

Carrot? Certainly, but Carrot cares more for the PEOPLE than the CITY. His mind is on the present, keeping the ones who are alive upright and breathing and getting justice for those tragically cut short. He is not concerned with the welfare of the CITY, as such. Not with the future the next generation shall inherit.

The guilds? Self-interested fools who were happy to take what Havelock gave them: stability and a piece of the pie no sane person would eat. They are content to squabble over portions of nebulous power, and all of them recognize that if Vetinari were gone... well, it doesn't much bear thinking about, really.

The nobles? Self-interested fools who are UNhappy with what Vetinari has given them: a slow walk to total obscurity and an eternal life in the back catalogues of Twerp's Peerage. Besides, they tend to only be effective when they can convince others to foolishly do their bidding, and the market for such men has seen a suspicious dearth in supply as late.

The wizards? Certainly not. Tried that before, thank you, and everyone seems much happier when gravity remains consistent and no one randomly becomes newts. Let them remain in their university, fat, happy, and most definitely NOT doing any bloody magic.

Lipwig? Maybe. In time. If he is convinced that it is in his own self-interest and things remain... interesting. But he also has Spike and the Bank and the Post Office, and a man can only juggle so much before suddenly there's a chainsaw in the front row and an awful lot of screaming. Best to keep him in practice of course, but... no. Not yet.

Vetinari uses all of them. They are tools in his box as he tunes and fixes and cares for the Disc's greatest city. The Turtle moves, but so does the Patrician, and it is a close contest on who shifts greater mountains. It is easy to imagine more than a few of the gods on Cori Celeste are keeping an eye on him and wondering what he's up to.

Except for the smart ones. They are doubtlessly taking notes.

Those eels are enough to make any sane person question their place in the universe.

Dune Bug: Look. There's a frog.

Fire Kraken: HI there, frog! Have you seen any gears around here?

Punk Shock: The frog can't talk, Fire.

Fire Kraken: Why not? Is he stupid?

Punk Shock: He's an animal.

Fire Kraken: So what? We're animals too.

Punk Shock: We don't have time for this!

Dune Bug: No, hold on. He has a point.

Fire Kraken: Yeah! What makes us different from the frog?

Punk Shock: They're not.... like us.

Fire Kraken: What do you mean? Are you racist?

Punk Shock: What!? No! I mean they walk on all fours and live in the woods. They aren't... y'know... sapient.

Dune Bug: But what makes something truly sapient? Is the frog's simple demeanor really a proper means to judge its capacity for thought?

Punk Shock: Yes. Stop talking about this.

Dune Bug? Has God forsaken this creature?

Punk Shock: I said stop.

Dune Bug: Or has he forsaken us by cursing us with intelligence?

Punk Shock: Dune Bug! The Flashfin is currently being evilized and I really just wanna get out of this swamp. Can you please have your existential crisis later?

Dune Bug: Does this quandary not weigh on your mind?

Punk Shock: No!

Fire Kraken: Why? Because you're racist?

Punk Shock: I'm not racist! Frogs don't talk, ok!? That's just how it is!

Dune Bug: Or is that just how you perceive it? How can you know what they think?

Punk Shock: I don't care what they think.

Fire Kraken: Because you're-

Punk Shock: NOT because I'm racist! We talk, they don't. There's nothing to think about unless we come across a non-sapient eel or something.

Fire Kraken: Like that?

Punk Shock: .......Maybe God has forsaken us....

I'm a little late but I've been thinking about the Ides of March and how it could be commemorated IRL, in a "remember that politicians are just humans" way. I was wondering if anyone had similar ideas.

Personally, I'd commemorate with a sort of game. You gather a bunch of people and one of them, typically one with the most authority, is elected as Caesar. You can have props like the laurel crown, or just a random crown and staff or something.

Caesar then gets to give each other player a dare to do, and if the players can't or refuse to do it, they get a slap or a spank. But then, once everyone was dared, Caesar receives a dare from each other player.

Tally up how many times Caesar refused or failed a dare, then add the number of times someone else did and got slapped. That's how many times Caesar gets slapped or spanked by the players.

Of course, this is supposed to be in good fun so there should be no dangerous dares and no slapping too hard. Instead of slapping you could also bonk the person with something like a foam noodle or a cardboard tube, or stab them with one of those prop knives that retract into the blade.

I guess one could also make a kinky version, I won't judge.

Anyway, that's how I would celebrate the Ides of March! I was wondering if anyone else had ideas!

In 2023, I had to price these really cool Lord of the Rings DVD sets (I think it was the extended editions).

I wish we'd get this kind of beautiful art on more packaging, even though I know this to be some kind of premium version.

This is it, the best news story (from BBC news):