Sunday 8 August 2021

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: Musings On Medium (and Blogging in General)

 



In March I started – tentatively – sticking some of my blog archive onto Medium.

Medium is kind of a weird-a** combo of blogging, freelance journalism, and social networking. And it pays.

Don’t ask me the ins-and-outs of how it pays – it uses some form of occult ceremony to distribute the tithes paid by the ardent congregation (only they call it Medium membership, but meh.)




'The Writer Diaries' written on a notebook, with the title 'Musings on Medium (and Blogging In General)' on the right-hand side




But anywho, it pays.

And since I lost my Amazon UK Associateship (which is a long story which you can read on Dora Reads here, or on Medium here,) I need to work on other modes of monetisation.

Because one of these days I would like to hit an income bracket above ‘Starving Artist™’ – but that’s enough about that.

Friday 6 August 2021

Friday Fics Fix - Loki, Gender, and The TVA (Fandom Is Here For It)

 

‘But as the days wore on in the TVA, blending together as they did, Loki realized that what they missed was magic.

And the freedom that came with it’

 

'Fics Fix!' with purple background and white lightning bolt shape




I mean… it’s probably no surprise that I’ve been absorbing large amounts of Loki fanfiction as if I can somehow merge them with my DNA.

(Which… I feel like there’s probs a fic out there somewhere that’s based on just that scenario, but I’m too scared to look. Because I’ll find it. 😅)

But if you’re new around here: I’m Marvel trash, btw.

And of the many specific types of Marvel trash that I am – being part of Loki’s Army is right up there.


Wednesday 4 August 2021

Month in Review(s) - July 2021


(Warning: this post briefly discusses Coronavirus/Covid 19, and vaccinations/needles)


July was way too fricking hot.

Like, climate change is real - summers were never like this when I was a kid. And while I'm the wrong side of 25, under 30. So some time in the last 10-20 years, things altered majorly with our weather.

It's not normal. It's not pleasant. It's gotta be some sort of punishment from the world for our collective environmental sins.



'July - Gorffennaf' with ice-cream cones on a stand and fruit slices on a table


Sunday 1 August 2021

Nerd Church - Witch-Hunts and Fear: The Emotional Maturity of ParaNorman

 * = commission link



I love the movie ParaNorman*. It’s hugely underappreciated.

This beautiful, weird, stop-motion mash-up of classic horror and kids’ adventure tale is surprisingly emotionally mature.

It explores the way that fear creates hatred, which in turn creates fear and hatred. And that adults can sometimes act out when they’re scared, in ways that can hurt the people – the children – around them.




'Witch-Hunts and Fear: The Emotional Maturity of ParaNorman'





Warning: this post contains SPOILERS for the film ParaNorman, and discusses: persecution (including religious-based persecution,) Ableism, Transphobia, Homophobia, horror elements, executions, death




I’ve seen ParaNorman quite a few times now – it always strikes me like it’s the first time I’ve seen it.

I think I forget, in between watches, just how good this film is.

First-off, of course, I appreciate anything made with stop-motion animation – stop-motion uses puppets or models, which are imaged, frame-by-frame, as they are moved incrementally by hand.

When the still images are put together (at a rate of around 24 frames per second,) it generates the illusion of movement.

In order to create smooth-looking movement, the positioning of the models from one frame to the next has to be both minute and precise.

Thursday 22 July 2021

Comics Wrap-Up - For Every Time That They Want To Count You Out

 

'Comics Wrap-Up' with lined-notebook-style background and speech bubbles containing heart symbols


It's Thursday, I am melting under an 'extreme heat' official weather warning (help,) let's get some comics-y superhero-y goodness!

Thursday 15 July 2021

Comics Wrap-Up - And Trouble's Gonna Follow Where I Go

 

'Comics Wrap-Up' with lined-notebook-style background and speech bubbles containing heart symbols


It's Thursday, this is Dora Reads, and I'm tired so expect a certain amount of archaic verbosity 😉😅 - let's get some comics-y, superhero-y goodness.