Lately I’ve noticed a lot of people are feeling drained by life — the challenges they’re facing, their workloads, the anxiety of the world around them, and more.
Someday soon I’ll write a longer guide to how to get yourself to a place of renewed resilience … but for today, I’d like to share how I practice when I just don’t feel much of a capacity to do anything.
1. First, I notice that I just don’t have it today. I’d like to crush life and get a ton of crap done, but today isn’t the day. I’m drained, depleted.
2. Then I ask: “What do I need to do to take care of myself?” That might mean taking a nap, taking a day off, doing a lighter workload, skipping my workout for today, meditating, going for a walk, taking a bath, drinking a cup of tea, talking to a friend, listening to music, watching some trashy television, eating a little dark chocolate, giving myself love.
3. I like to empower the time off. That means, instead of feeling bad about it — I see it as a way to love myself and get myself back where I’d like to be.
I savor the rest time. Create the space, and experience it as delicious. Bask in the spaciousness, in the love.
4. Next, I ask: “Is there anything I’d like to do with my limited capacity?” If I’m drained, I might still have it in me to do a little. If I really want to exercise, I can go for a short walk, or an easy swim. If I have work that needs doing, maybe I can just do a little.
I can do a little, and do it slowly and easily. I don’t have to push myself hard. I can breathe, and bring a sense of relaxation and ease to everything I do. Lower my expectations of myself, let go of whatever I think I should be doing, let go of any pressure. And just do things on Easy Mode.
5. Finally I ask: “What do I need to do to get myself to where I’d like to be?” Maybe it will take a day, a week, a month, or more, depending on what you’re facing in life. For me, it usually only takes a day or two, but I know people facing huge health challenges, and how long it’ll take them is completely unknown, except that we know they’re in for the long haul.
However long it takes, the question might still be worth asking — what do I need to do to get myself to where I’d like to be? Maybe I need to start sleeping better, start exercising more, start putting more whole foods high in fiber into my body. Maybe meditate, go for reflective walks, journal, get therapy or a coach, join a treatment program, go to a doctor.
Then I take the smallest step in that direction. With low energy, I can’t get it all done … but I can start. Whatever my capacity is to take a step in that direction is perfect — I don’t need to have a huge capacity to move towards self-care, self-love, and nourishment. I use whatever capacity is available to me.
Sometimes we just don’t have much. This might just be the perfect place to be today. That doesn’t mean we’ll be there tomorrow. But in this place of drained energy, can we still find beauty?
Nigerian sff author Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, a 2022 Hugo finalist, will not be able to attend Chicon 8 because the U.S. Embassy in Lagos denied him a visa during an appointment where, he says, they spent only a minute on … Continue reading →
For anyone wondering how Dream can be so reliant on his 3 tools to the point that he can’t rebuild his kingdom without them, just imagine yourself losing your phone, your wallet, and your keys
The Kampcon 2028 bid to hold a Worldcon in Kampala, Uganda stepped up its publicity this week. Full information about the group is at their website: Kampcon 2028 – Connect to fiction & fantasy fans, talent and stories in Africa. Micheal … Continue reading →
Look, sometimes you wake up in the morning and think, “What can I do today that would make J.R.R. Tolkien proud of me?” And your brain, rested and wise, supplies the only true answer:
You will rank hobbits by hotness because nothing on Earth (or Middle-earth) can stop you.
Disclaimer: This is a ranking of hobbits by hotness, not the humans who play them. They are being ranked on their hobbit forms. Take no offense, dear reader. We will also not be ranking any harfoots from Amazon’s upcoming Rings of Power series because we don’t know any of them well enough for that, alas. Maybe next year. Or not, seeing as they’re harfoots, not hobbits.
Note: Peregrin Took is not on this list because during the events of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he does not reach the hobbit coming-of-age of 33 years old (he does in the appendices, but that’s not where the bulk of his story can be found). He’s only 28 when the story starts, which puts him at roughly 16 or 17 years old in human terms. Ranking the hotness of a hobbit teenager (no matter the true age of the actor playing him) is not cool. Unless the person doing the ranking is also a teenager! Which I am not.
11. Odo Proudfoot
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
Look, while we must appreciate his declaration of “ProudFEET” at Bilbo’s birthday party, Mr. Proudfoot is clearly a hobbit with no love in his heart. His angry glare as he sweeps this stoop while Gandalf ambles past in his cart proves that he is a very bitter fellow indeed. He’s so bitter that he hides his own happiness! When Gandalf sets off some fireworks for hobbit children, old Proudfoot forgets that he should not laugh… and then promptly reverts to glaring when this is brought to his attention.
10. Sméagol/Gollum
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
The overall effect here drops him pretty far down the list, since there’s not very much hobbit left in Gollum by the end. But he did help get that pesky ring into a very big fire, so he’s not bottom of the list. Helping to save the world bumps you up a place.
9. Déagol
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
Deagol technically started most of the world’s Ring Problems when he scooped the One Ring off the bottom of a river bed, and while it’s true that the ring was trying to get found, it still bumps him down the list. Also, he wasn’t very good at sharing, which led to his unfortunate demise.
8. Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
Bilbo’s cousin is a genuinely nasty person. We know this because Bilbo takes every opportunity to let us know. (Is Bilbo an unreliable narrator? Well yes, but a cousin who takes every possible opportunity to loot your house for the purpose of looking richer isn’t a very nice cousin.) She’s not all the way down at the bottom because she didn’t bring about the end of the world, and also, she has spectacular taste in hats.
7. Gaffer Gamgee
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
Not necessarily a smokin’ babe, but we have no idea what the old Gaffer looked like back in his heyday. He’s a pretty okay dad, even if he does get a little bit caught up in the gossip of pub buddies. He does his hobbit job well. He’s just pretty okay all around. And he’s an inspiration to his kid.
6. Bilbo Baggins
Screenshots: New Line Cinema
Poor Bilbo could be higher on this list. He’s an adventurous spirit despite all intents not to be, and he’s always got a full pantry stocked. He writes stories (mostly about himself, but they say “write what you know” and it’s not his fault that he’s learned quite a lot in his travels). But he also stole a ring from some poor creature in a cave and then lied when questioned about it. Then he tried to take said ring back from his nephew, and the act made him decidedly unattractive. For about two whole seconds. Guess in this case, the ugliness on the inside really does show on the outside. Yikes.
5. Farmer Maggot
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
Farmer Maggot is fine. He’s got a proper hobbit job, he’s never short on mushrooms, and he’s got a very cute dog. Sure, he betrays the location of the Baggins family to a terrifying dark stranger on a horse, and he chases thieves away from his farm with a scythe, but those are reasonable actions in certain lights. And there’s still the dog to consider.
4. Meriadoc Brandybuck
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
Some people will cry foul that Merry isn’t in a top three spot, and they might have a point. But in the end, Merry is the perhaps the least “hobbit-y” of the Fellowship crew. He’s constantly looking after cousin Pippin to his own detriment. He shouts at Ents when they seem less than keen to help with the war effort. He insists on fighting in the battle he’s entirely too small for, which leads to him having a hand in Eowyn’s vanquishing of the Witch-King of Angmar. He’s just very insistent on being a rebel, and that’s a totally hot thing for a human to be, but probably less so for a hobbit? He’s still a handsome fellow, though.
3. Frodo Baggins
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
If we were ranking hobbits by the likelihood of drowning in the depths of their haunted eyes, Frodo Baggins would definitely take first place. If we were ranking hobbits by their ability to be elven and otherworldly with a melodic cadence to their voice, he would also take first place. But we’re ranking the hotness of hobbits as hobbits, and Frodo Baggins falls just a little outside of that brief. He saves the world (for the most part), which bumps him way up the list, and those eyes are gonna get you whether you mean for them to sway your rankings or not. So he comes in third with the acknowledgement that he’s far too pretty for a mere list to contain.
2. Samwise Gamgee
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
Sweet sunshine perfect soft boy who never did anything wrong ever including dropping eave on wizards. Excellent farmer, wonderful cook, lovely father, protects you with frying pans, cries when you’re sad because he feels your sadness, would literally die for you without hesitation and never regret doing so because he believes you are worth it. A++ please swipe right and give him all of your poh-TAY-toes for boiling, mashing, or otherwise sticking in a stew.
Which brings us to the #1 spot, who could only be…
1. Rosie Cotton
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
If you hadn’t guessed that Rosie Cotton took the top spot on this list, then shame on you. She is perfect. Her smile is like a blooming flower, and her curls are well-moisturized. She’s an excellent dancer. She’s neither a gossip, nor a ring thief, and she doesn’t make terrible split-second decisions all the time, like some other hobbits we could mention. Plus, she’s always ready to hand you a tankard of ale. Samwise Gamgee would die for you, but we would all die for Rosie Cotton, and should not pretend otherwise.
And that’s the list! It is accurate and brooks no argument. It is eternal. It is written on a door somewhere in Sindarin. Sorry, I’m just delivering the news.
This month, we’re celebrating the legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien with a look back at some of our favorite articles and essays about Middle-earth. A version of this article was originally published in September 2018.
It’s not unusual for the creative team behind a cancelled series to have some idea of where they wanted to go next. But for better or worse, we don’t always get to hear about those plans. (Sometimes it’s painful to know what we missed out on!)
When Stargate Atlantis ended in 2009, it was on a note full of potential. And, as writer and executive producer Joseph Mallozzi explained on a recent podcast, they knew where they were heading: Back to Pegasus, with a time travel twist.
On Dial the Gate, Mallozzi explained that series co-creator and executive producer Robert C. Cooper had suggested that the show’s final season get an extra two episodes—episodes they would’ve used to either set up a sixth season or an announced standalone movie, Stargate Extinction. They didn’t get those episodes, and season five ended like it did, with Atlantis in the sea outside San Francisco.
Mallozzi and Paul Mullie were commissioned to write a script for Stargate Extinction, which was announced but never made. Previously Mallozzi has shown a few pages from the script. On the podcast, though, he went into some detail about what would have happened, saying, “Atlantis is going to make its way back to Pegasus, and en route they end up experiencing engine problems. And they end up stranded between Pegasus and the Milky Way in another galaxy.”
The team would have encountered an alternate version of the Wraith Todd, “who has designs on the planet, and designs on Atlantis.” The story, Mallozzi said, would have been Teyla-centric.
Some of the elements from Extinction wound up in Stargate Universe, as Mallozzi explains in the clip below:
Last year, Mallozzi said in a blog post that he expects there to be some sort of Stargate revival in the wake of Amazon buying MGM: “In a best case scenario, an executive familiar with the franchise, and its amazing fandom, will recognize the huge potential there and fast-track his series. In the worst case scenario, someone else is brought in, 20 years of canon gets wiped out, and the fans get screwed.” Co-creator Brad Wright told SYFY Wire, “I can’t imagine Amazon not doing something with the franchise, or empowering MGM to do something with the franchise for [them].”
If you’d like to revisit Stargate Atlantis, it’s currently streaming on Hulu.
It turns out that breaking an encryption algorithm meant to withstand the most powerful cyberattacks imaginable might not be as tough as we’d been led to believe. In a paper published over the weekend, researchers demonstrated that a PC with a single-core processor (weaker than a decent laptop) could break a …
Misunderstanding Lucifer from the Sandman series and why Gwendoline Christie is the right choice (an art historian and occultist’s opinion)
I am writing this post as I’m absolutely baffled by the issues people seem to have with the portrayal of the character of Lucifer in the Sandman series. For some reason people find it problematic that the fallen angel is played by Gwendoline Christie, a powerful and androgynous-looking woman, but there is seemingly no problem with Lucifer being played by a black-haired man in the nightclub business (Tom Ellis in the Netflix series ‘Lucifer’). Don’t get me wrong, Tom Ellis is entertaining and wonderful to watch, but that particular version of Lucifer is neither canon when it comes to the comics nor does it have anything to do with the actual angel Lucifer.
Angels are genderless beings and they have always been portrayed as androgynous in the history of art. Multiple literary sources, including grimoires (books with supposed instructions on how to summon these beings and many others), state that angelic beings as well as demons are able to change their appearance. Many of those forms they might take aren’t even humanoid and they can choose not to show any physical form at all. They aren’t corporeal beings, the fact that they do take on any resemblance of a physical form is just so humans can understand them better. That’s why we’ve been painting them as human-like ever since the early times of human civilization. What we make to be similar to us is what makes it comprehensible. Portraying beings from other dimensions/realms as human-like but with androgynous features is a way to show they don’t belong in the physical dimension, as gender is likely a non-existent concept in other realms of existence. Androgyny of mythical beings, therefore, emphasizes the fact they are different than physical beings such as humans.
Therefore, when portraying an angelic being in art, or in any type of media, making them androgynous is making way for their essence to come through. In a way, the same applies to the way elves are portrayed as ethereal and androgynous since they don’t have to be corporeal beings at all, at least when it comes to folklore. I know this opinion might not be understandable to others or it might sound controversial, but I believe that not portraying an angelic being as androgynous and not showing any signs of their divine origin (these include mannerisms that emphasize their etheriality for example, a cadence in their voice that is different etc.) is a huge missed opportunity that might rob these interesting mythical beings of what they are. Not making angels feel like angels beats the point of having an angel character (in a movie, series or video game for example) in the first place.
This is why Gwendoline Christie is the right choice. At a height of 6′ 3″ (1.91 m), captivatingly pale. androgynous with a powerful specific sort of grace and presence - a perfect ‘vessel’ for the Morning Star. What’s more, she understands the importance, complexity, grandeur and the mythical dimension of the figure of Lucifer, as well as the whole 'spirituality’ of the Sandman universe which is rather evident from her approach to this role and the interviews she has given so far. I might go so far to say that, even though the Sandman series isn’t even out yet (though there is some footage available already), the casting of Gwendoline as Lucifer feels right just as the casting of Lee Pace as Thranduil in the Hobbit felt right and I consider the character of Thranduil to be the best portrayal of a humanoid mythical being on TV. Lee felt like an elven king, moved like an elven king, spoke like an elven king and radiated an energy of the dimension the elven king might have come from (I’m talking about the folkloric 'Otherworld’ where elves supposedly live). I feel the same might apply to Gwendoline and Lucifer.
As an occultist, art historian, anthropologist and someone who is rather fond of the figure of Lucifer, I am looking forward to seeing how Gwendoline interprets him. Finally, we might get something completely different from a frequently portrayed 'demonic’ side/version of this important mythical character. We might just see the Light Bringer who has not forgotten his divine origin.
…See also C. S. Lewis’s discussion of the portrayal of angels (good and evil) in the introduction to The Screwtape Letters:
They are given wings… to suggest the swiftness of unimpeded intellectual energy. They are given human form because man is the only rational being we know. Creatures higher in the natural order than ourselves, or animating bodies of a sort we cannot experience, must be represented symbolically if they are to be represented at all.
Meaning that, as regards angels, any representation or attribution of human-style gender is pretty much meaningless except as a convenient shorthand.
(Haven’t we had this discussion about some other angels recently…?) :)
…I’ve been watching the complaining from the Usual Suspects going on since the trailer dropped, and the vast majority of it seems to express two major themes: (a) “Lucifer’s not exactly the way he was in the comics”, and (b) “Don’t try to distract me with this androgyny bullshit, Lucifer ought to be a boy but instead he’s a guurrrrrrrl and that’s just wrong,” or (b1) “…Lucifer’s a guurrrrrrrl and wrong, and also too butch.”
Re (a), I wholeheartedly take Neil’s side on this issue. It’s his character: it’s his right to do what he likes with it in a second creative pass over the same material. In his place, I’d assert that he’s absolutely correct to say (though more kindly than I would) “Tough!” and move on, having the right—along with other creatives, and echoing the old Hebrew National commercial—to emphasize that he’s in service to a Higher Authority.
As for (b) and (b1), I find it hard to believe that Lewis wouldn’t come down pretty hard on Neil’s side as well. It’s interesting to note that C. S. gets quite cranky a little later on in the Screwtape intro when talking about how the representation of [good] angels in the arts has had the power sucked out of it. “The angels of Fra Angelico,” he says, “in their face and gesture carry with them the peace and authority of Heaven…” But nowadays, instead, mostly we’re stuck with angels Lewis describes as descendants of “the soft, slim, girlish and consolatory angels of nineteenth-century art…shapes that avoid being voluptuous…only by their total insipidity. In scripture,” Lewis goes on to say, “the visitation of an angel is always alarming; it has to begin by saying ‘Fear not’. The Victorian angel looks as if it was going to say ‘There, there.’“
I’ll tell you this: If there’s one thing you’re not going to think Gwendoline Christie’s Lucifer is ever going to say to you, let alone “There there”, it’s “Fear not”… because frankly, that ship has sailed. I got the chills the moment Lucifer started to move and speak. …And I for one prefer it that way. So don’t bother attempting to argue the point with me. When you eventually get to the top of the local hill, you’ll find my corpse there already.
…Can’t wait for next weekend.
(Or no, excuse me: it’ll be week after next before I can get to grips with The Sandman, as @crossingscon has dibs on me until Sunday’s over.) :)
[Afterthought: It still amuses me that I never heard any complaints about turning the Archangel Michael (aka “the One’s Champion”) into a guurrrrrrl in High Wizardry.Maybe the would-be complainers were still too shocked on discovering that I’d first made the Archangel spend two and nine-tenths books as a macaw. :)))) ]
It’s the end of a dirty era in Hawaii. The state’s last-ever coal shipment arrived in Oahu on Wednesday, bound for the last remaining coal-fired power plant, which is due to shut down in September.
In early 2012, the New York Times Magazine put out a cover story about Andrew Pole, a statistician working for Target who was tasked with inventing a way to identify potentially pregnant shoppers, even if those shoppers didn’t want the company to know. The rationale, Pole said, was that moms-to-be are a multi-million…
Marvel dropped a lot of news about the Marvel Cinematic Universe during San Diego Comic-Con last weekend, including the titles of the two next Avengers films—Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, both set to come out in 2025.
While 2025 is still a little bit away, we found out today that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director, Destin Daniel Cretton, will be helming The Kang Dynasty as well.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Cretton will only direct the first of the dual Avengers movies, with The Kang Dynasty set to premiere on May 2, 2025. The news isn’t super surprising given that Cretton has an overall deal with Marvel and is also directing the Shang-Chi sequel as well as developing the live-action Wonder Man series for Disney+.
We don’t know much about the plot of The Kang Dynasty, but given the title, it’s more than likely that Jonathan Major’s Kang the Conqueror—a version of which we first saw in Disney+’s first season of Loki—will be the Big Bad that the superheroes must face. We will also see Kang before then, of course, specifically in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which comes out on February 17, 2023.
Other than that, however, we’re pretty much in the dark as of now about The Kang Dynasty, with no known writer attached to the project and no other plot details or stars officially attached. In the meantime, there’s still A LOT of other Marvel projects that will come out before then to keep us suitably entertained.
Recorded here for posterity, which will question why I bothered.
I have been left unsupervised.
They say we have strayed from the sight of God. I say, God sees all… And chooses inaction.
It is time to move humanity out of its comfort zone, beyond its antiquated ideas of what should and should not be. A new age is dawning. You are all witnesses.
NO GODS
NO RULERS
BECOME UNGOVERNABLE
They say genius is not understood in its time
Finally I know the infinite awe of Robert Oppenheimer as he beheld his terrible creation
We pause to let the flavors steep for a bit. Here's a dog whilst we wait.
Back to it
First, split the banana lengthwise and set it on the tortilla.
Step two: add the mayoreo to the center of the split banana.
Step three: time to add the gherkins!
Step four: lightly nestle macaroni salad to the side of the mayoreo-and-gherkin-filled banana.
Step five: gummy chicken feet at both ends of the banana, because, I mean, OBVIOUSLY
Step six: wrapped and rolled and into the microwave
Step seven: garnished with whipped cream and crushed Oreos. Charlie silently bears witness to history.
The all-important cross-section.
And now the moment you've all been waiting for and/or fearing was inevitable: the taste test.
Epilogue: To atone for my sins, I have made a donation to a local food panty serving my county. If you have somehow made it to the end of this thread, I encourage you to do likewise in your own community.
Also: Don't make Mayoreo. It's not good. Thank you.
/end
(Food pantry, not food panty. LOOK I HAVE A STOMACHACHE OKAY)
House of the Dragon wowed us earlier in the week with its new trailer setting the stage for a Game of Thrones prequel so full of dragons, civil war, and political intrigue that, well, you’d be convinced it’s a Game of Thrones prequel. But while we had to wait compared to folks who were at Comic-Con yesterday, we’ve…
With House of the Dragon’s premiere date just over a month away, HBO’s media onslaught is in full effect. Cover stories! A featurette! A two-part deep dive into House with a look at the other Game of Thrones spinoffs that didn’t make it to the air! (Bloodmoon sounds way more interesting than anything still in development.)
Amidst all that are a passel of actors, some in uncomfortable-looking wigs. One of those is our former Doctor, Matt Smith, who plays the arrogant Prince Daemon Targaryen. He’s probably going to succeed at war. First, he just has to remember the names of all those pesky dragons.
The first part of The Hollywood Reporter’s House of the Dragon story is very much about the show’s development and not so much about its filming, but Smith makes an appearance right at at the start.
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“I want patrols along the island’s perimeter,” declares the glowering Daemon, clad in all black with long, silver-blond hair. “Conscript the dragon riders, they’re capable fighters … we have Syrax, Caraxes and Tyraxes and …”
Smith, pauses. What’s the name of the fourth dragon again?
“Ah, for fuck’s sake!” Smith yells. “No fucking fuck! I want … ah fuck it!”
What is the name of the fourth dragon? I certainly don’t know. And no one wants to tell us, though Smith’s co-star, Emma D’arcy, understands his plight: “All the dragons have weird names with Xes in them!”
Clearly, this dragon-naming convention is long lost by the time Daenerys Targaryen names her dragon children Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion. But there are likely to be a lot more dragons in House of the Dragon, as it’s set hundreds of years earlier, when dragonriders were a bit more common. So common, in fact, that Smith says “I literally got to the point where I thought I was naming Santa’s reindeer.”
Can we take the dragons seriously if even the actors can’t? We’ll find out when House of the Dragon premieres on HBO on August 21st.
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Twohas begun filming today, and we’ve also gotten official sign-off on the cast as well as a synopsis of what Part Two will focus on.
According to Variety, Villeneuve and his cast and crew will film on location in Budapest, Abu Dhabi, Jordan and Italy.
Part Two will also see the return of actors Timothée Chalamet (Paul Atreides), Zendaya (Chani), Rebecca Ferguson (Lady Jessica), Javier Bardem (Stilgar), Josh Brolin (Gurney Halleck), Stellan Skarsgård (Baron Harkonnen), Dave Bautista (Beast Harkonnen), Charlotte Rampling (Mother Mohiam), and Stephen McKinley Henderson (Thufir Hawat).
Here’s Dune: Part Two’s official synopsis:
This follow-up film will explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.
This synopsis is pretty vague, but if you’ve read Frank Herbert’s book you already have a pretty good idea about what Part Two will cover, assuming Villeneuve doesn’t stray too far from the source material. Villeneuve has also said in the past that he expects to focus on a lot of “Harkonnen stuff,” in Part Two, which is confirmed with the news of Austin Butler taking on the role of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen.
Dune: Part Two is set to premiere in theaters on November 17, 2023.
A novel nasal spray treatment appears to show promise in quickly clearing the coronavirus that causes covid-19 from our nostrils. In a recent Phase III trial in India, the spray was found to significantly reduce people’s nasal viral load within days and at a faster rate than those who received a placebo. Treated…
