What’s a sneaky rogue to do when Saint Patrick’s Day rolls around? Dress in green and blend in with the crowd!
Here’s a green transmog in honor of the holiday. (And the rest of the year, it might help you hide in the bushes.)
Here’s the pieces that went into the set.
Image: World of Warcraft screencap
Of Dice and Dragons talks about games and gaming.
Randomly spotted recently when playing my Dwarven warrior in World of Warcraft:
LOL—88,888 gold. Pretty much just one blink and I would’ve missed it!
Of Dice and Dragons talks about games and gaming.
Artist Suzie Grieve harvests materials from the local woodlands and fields in the Lake District, U.K., with a focus on the weeds and invasive species, and weaves baskets out of the fibers. And they are very neat and beautiful:
The twist? Some of her baskets are not just neat and beautiful, and they’re not just small, they’re tiny. T I N Y!
Even if these baskets were of a more typical size, they would be impressive: the careful selection of materials to create stripes from naturally different colors, the planning and placement of patterns to create a pleasing whole, and the high quality of the work.
Then you shrink everything down to mere millimeters and centimeters, and the challenge grows larger. MUCH larger! I’ve done enough small-scale sewing to comprehend some of the challenges involved when scaling down the size of a project.
This is seriously impressive work requiring skill, imagination, and dedication. Kudos!
Found via Colossal.
Images by Suzie Grieve on Instagram: Miniatures. Tiny leafy basket. Two baskets.
In Making Stuff we share fun arts and crafts done by us and our fellow geeks and nerds.
If I ever heard of a Red Sonja reboot project, I must’ve immediately forgotten it, for the fate of movie projects is unknowable and often fickle, and that is multiplied for genre projects starring women.
Now, though, it sounds like Millennium Media’s Red Sonja is due for release later this year in the UK and Ireland. This version is directed by M.J. Bassett and written by Tasha Huo and Roy Thomas on the basis of Robert E. Howard’s original comic book characters. Matilda Lutz plays Sonja.
At this writing, IMDB doesn’t list much information and has only 10 photos for the production, including a poster.
Interestingly, IMDB also lists Roy Thomas as an uncredited writer for the comic book. Thomas’s latest big-name project is Deadpool & Wolverine.
I hazily remember the previous adaptation from 1985 starring Brigitte Nielsen. ‘Twas the time when there were so few SFFnal movies and tv series in the boonies where I grew up that you pretty much had to see everything coming your way if you wanted to see anything. If I recall, it was like the 80s Conan adaptations—Conan the Barbarian in 1982 and Conan the Destroyer in 1984—which is to say pretty campy, but attempting very, very, very earnestly to bring epic fantasy to screen.
Bassett’s version is filmed in Bulgaria and Greece, and reportedly will have a different tone from male-gaze versions of the character. While both of these details sound promising, and while I would love to see more genre projects led and directed by women, somehow I seem to doubt the movie will be released on the big screen here in Finland. We’ll see.
Image via IMDB
Does your bathtime need some extra cute fantasy accessories? Check out these Lord of the Rings rubber duckies!
Here’s Gandalf the Grey. “A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He bathes precisely when he means to.”
Or here’s Eowyn, ready to defend your bathtime from any pesky interfering Nazgul.
You can see the whole selection in the Tubbz section of Just Geek.
We don’t have a bathtub, so I’m not in the market for bath toys myself, but I still think they’re neat.
(Note: We have no relationship with this product or company.)
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
In a press release last week, Apple TV+ announced the release date for their Murderbot adaptation. Yay! (The last I blogged about the series wasn’t even a year ago, so the production is moving right along…! Anyway.)
The first two installments of the 10-episode series will be streamed on Friday, May 16. This double feature will be followed by new episodes every Friday through July 11, 2025.
They also released the first two photos of actor and executive producer Alexander Skarsgård as Murderbot, one with helmet on and the other with helmet off.
There really isn’t much detail in these photos; I wish there was a little more. Stylistically they’re not too far off of what I imagined on the basis of the books, except that Murderbot’s armor looks too flimsy. (Maybe they’ve written in a reason for that?)
This February’s press release also describes the series as a comedic thriller, which is interesting in itself. Yes, there are comedic elements, and yes, there is suspense and combat—in fact, I remember being flabbergasted when Murderbot exploded into action literally on page two of All Systems Red. I mean, it wasn’t a surprise that some fighting would be involved, but that quickly? It was an unusual attention-grabbing move to barely introduce your main character, never mind the world, before sweeping your readers into a fray with large hostile life forms with big teeth. Not to mention the trouble at the DeltFall survey site and the threat of EvilSurvey that steadily mounts through the book. Makes me wonder exactly which aspect, the comedy or the thrill, has Apple TV decided to focus on, or if both feature equally, whether they’ll be able to pull off a nice balance.
The IMDB entry for Murderbot reveals another two tiny tidbits: there will be a spaceship named Twodor and a named side character Venenek, neither of which appear in Martha Wells’s original writings. I’m sure IMDB will fill in more info as the release draws nearer.
One thing is sure: this spring will be a great time to re-read Murderbot. Not that there’s ever a bad time. 🙂
Images via Apple TV+
Today marks three years since the beginning of Russia’s needless and embarrassing three-day special operation war in Ukraine. I very fervently wish I had been wrong about the length of the conflict.
As a Finn, it’s a little bewildering to think that technically our neighboring country is at war, for the fighting is so distant, literally a thousand kilometers away. Or was initially; as the years have gone by, action has been inching closer.
For one, Ukraine has started striking at targets within Russia. The closest target facility to us (so far, I think) is in Ust-Luga on the Gulf of Finland (its seaport handling oil and gas has seen more than one drone hit). That’s some 200 km / 130 miles as the bird flies from Helsinki—not that far away, really.
For another, there’s increased harassment outside active conflict zones. The biggest change in our neck of the woods came after Finland’s record-fast NATO membership in April 2023. Russian planes have a long history of breaching Finnish airspace from time to time, either as a test or out of boredom, or I don’t even know why. That’s nothing new, and they’ve continued the habit. In addition, now we and our European allies are facing acts like suspected potential sabotage of undersea cables and other forms of attempted hybrid influencing—break-ins at water treatment plants or reservoirs, unidentified drone sightings, hacking of computer systems, instrumentalizing of migrants heading to the EU, incendiary parcels, and GPS jamming, among others.
Reportedly, this type of disruption has been called “cognitive warfare”. The feel I get is that at the national level this sort of pestering is largely seen as an attempt at provocation, an old tactic we have some experience with.
From my point of view, the conflict in Ukraine feels like a proxy war. Their ability to mount an effective defense keeps the rest of us on the perimeter of Russia’s ambitions safe—or if not safe, exactly, at least safer and at least for now. As awful as it is, I kinda want the war to go on longer, because it engages Russia’s forces and focus in one place; when it ends, they will again have the resources to plan “special operations” elsewhere. Continuing conflict gives us time to update our defenses and channel more help to Ukraine.
But at the same time, I definitely do not want the war to continue. It’s dreadful, and it needs to end, with Ukraine’s independence intact. Please and thank you.
Images: Field in Ukraine by Oleksandr K via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). Map of Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea via Mapcarta.
This post has been edited for clarity.
When the suckage just sucks too much.
Cats (or at least most cats) may not like water, but this one might have kept an ancient sailor safe on the waves.
The cat is part of the decoration on the underside of a small talisman found at the site of the ancient city of Naukratis in Egypt. Talismans of this type are called scaraboids because they are similar in shape and size to scarabs, but do not have the traditional scarab markings on their domed top.
The cat is a hieroglyph, one of three on the bottom of the object. Reading from right to left, the feather represents the sound i, the cat represents m (from the Egyptian word for cat, miu), and the sun disc represents n (from the word niut, meaning town or city, which the sun disc sometimes stood for). Put together, these hieroglyphs spell imn, a form of the name of the Egyptian god Amun. Many other scarabs and similar talismans from Naukratis contain forms of the name of Amun.
Amun was an important god in ancient Egypt, at times regarded as the king of the gods. Among his other functions, he was worshiped as a god of air and winds who protected sailors and other travelers on the sea. A talisman of Amun was an appropriate thing for an ancient sailor to carry around.
Naukratis is an interesting place to find a talisman like this. Naukratis was a Greek city founded inside Egypt by permission of the Egyptian kings. It was originally built as a home for Greek mercenaries serving in Egypt, but it quickly became a port for Greek and other foreign merchants who wanted to trade in Egypt. Most of the sailors who came through Naukratis were not Egyptians, yet there seems to have been a thriving trade in Egyptian and Egyptian-themed talismans, many produced in local workshops. It is likely that the intended customer for this scaraboid was not an Egyptian but a visiting Greek.
On one hand, the prominence of the cat on this talisman makes it seem like a bit of tourist kitsch designed to appeal to foreigners. Domestic cats were not yet common in most of the ancient Mediterranean, and Greeks associated them with Egypt. Including a cat in the talisman made it extra Egypt-y for a Greek audience. On the other hand, Naukratis amulets include many different hieroglyphic ways of spelling names of Amun, not all of which use cats or other specifically Egyptian symbols. Even if some pieces were made as tourist souvenirs, there also seems to have been a market for talismans referencing the Egyptian sailors’ god, even in a place where most of the sailors were not Egyptian.
This talisman and others like it are an interesting window into the multicultural world of Naukratis, where Greek sailors hoped for protection from an Egyptian god and cats were good protectors against the dangers of the sea.
History for Writers looks at how history can be a fiction writer’s most useful tool, from worldbuilding to dialogue.
On Instagram, Alice as catinawitchhat styled a series of everyday outfits inspired by Middle-Earth. (She also pulled all the outfits together for a slideshow for those who prefer moving image.)
My favorite of Alice’s four collages is the first. It shows her versions of the Shire, Gandalf, and Erebor:
The Lonely Mountain Dwarf ensemble is fantastic: the little touches of fur in her boots and the edges of the vest, the embroidery on the tunic, the warm-looking leggings, the knit armwarmers and chunky cardigan, they all contribute. Add to those the puffy shorts (or skirt?) plus the fairly simple leather accessories with brass-colored metal accents and visible, chunky topstitching. Very nice!
The third mashup is also very neat, with the three principal human cultures of the Lord of the Rings—the rangers, Rohan, and Gondor:
Gondor is perfect, so austere and bleak. Her version of the rangers I find too dark for my liking—not a fan of black, even if it has its uses—but the profile I agree with.
Alice reminds the readers that her outfits aren’t cosplays, but her styling the contents of her wardrobe. And why not, if you can do it this well! While at times I don’t have exactly the same readings of the various Middle Earth cultures as she does, I do appreciate the combinations of elements from our mundane world and the suggestions she’s able to create through the careful selection of details. Makes me want to look at my closet with a new eye. 🙂
For more detail, visit the individual outfits in their own posts: The Shire. Gandalf. Erebor. Rivendell. Mirkwood. Lothlorien. The Dúnedain. Rohan. Gondor. Rhûn (Easterlings). Harad (Southrons). Mordor.
Images by Alice on Instagram
In Making Stuff we share fun arts and crafts done by us and our fellow geeks and nerds.
In the past few weeks, Marvel has been actively marketing Captain America: Brave New World—understandably, as the movie opens next week. (Already!) I thought these two featurettes below were worth linking to. (Note that a spoiler warning is in effect!)
Captain America: Brave New World | Get Tickets Now by Marvel Entertainment on YouTube
Captain America: Brave New World | First Look by Marvel Entertainment on YouTube
We get a few more glimpses of President Ross’s Red Hulk, more walk talk—in fact, SO much war talk—and perhaps a few second’s worth more of Sam Wilson.
More tantalizingly, however, a fleeting hint that appears at the very end of the older of these clips (the one saying Get Tickets Now—cue to the 1:20 mark) seems to be saying that Joaquin Torres from the MCU series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (played by Danny Ramirez) will get his own wingsuit. And, indeed, the IMDB cast listing confirms it: he’ll become the next Falcon. That should be interesting, since we’ve only ever seen Sam’s take on how to make use of the wings.
BNW releases on February 14, 2025 in the U.S.
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
Co-Geeking 