All of this shit ICE is doing in Minneapolis has my blood boiling.

You guys remember this? I remember this. So many childhoods ripped apart for no fucking reason.

Houston has something called Arctic fronts. Which is a little funny to me, being from Oregon.

The thing is, though, that we regularly have "cold fronts" that drop the temperature 20 degrees... from 100 F to 80 F. It's not actually cold, so we call those "cool fronts." We also have fronts that drop the temperatures slightly without any precipitation (dry front), and fronts that bring massive precipitation without affecting the temperature much (storms with potential flooding). "Cold front" is usually reserved for a front that will bring truly low temperatures: anything below 70 F (cue laugh track from northerners). Which is why we need "Arctic front" for when a hard freeze is coming through.

Anyways. Arctic front is scheduled for this weekend. Should be fun. They're promising it won't be as bad as that time the state tried to freeze us to death. We'll see what happens.

Update: Rafael has fled the state.

”Ivan knew he was on thin ice if he started channeling [Miles]”

Ivan you have been channeling Miles since you got married real quick to avoid getting arrested

"they followed me home dad can i keep them?" alskdfjlaksdjflk MILES

hes very "you kneel before my throne unaware that its built upon lies" but like. "dont they realize my throne is built upon lies?"

Also, his sacred honor is involved, so now he has to make them true, very inconvenient. This is what happens when nobody knows who you are, like they think they do on Barrayar.

Started to write a post about it, and then realized I’ve written it before. Basically, I love Cordelia Vorkosigan as much as anyone else, but I do think that in-universe, very few people realize how deep her emotions run. Everyone seems to think of her as some perfect, rational model of womanhood, but she’s kind of bonkers! Her husband and her sons are all sucidally reckless! She desperately wants to have a quiet life with Aral with a horde of kids and she can never have it because she fell for a man who can’t not be at the center of the empire! She can’t stop her first son from charging headfirst at every stupid military-esque thing! She maybe gets Mark partway to stability (though maybe it just seems that way because Mark isn’t a POV character anymore).

I think that’s why I like Gentlemen Jole and the Red Queen so much. Cordelia gets to breathe, finally.

You are very right! And even she'll tell you she's not really quite sane. (It's not entirely Barrayar's fault either. Escobar and Beta Colony "helped.")

But to be fair, she also does kinda feed into this view of herself:

And, yes, I 100% agree that one of the wonderful things about Gentleman Jole is she finally gets to have something of the peaceful life she wanted 40 years ago. (Well, if you can call it that with 6-9 of her and Aral Vorkosigan's kids about!) It's bitter-sweet because it's without Aral. But Oliver is a nice bonus.

I actually think Cordelia recognizes that “sanity” isn’t really a thing. I think she knows people have needs and drives, and that you can try to address those rationally, but that you can’t rationalize them away without crippling the person. And she recognizes it in herself too - I think the exchange in Mirror Dance between Gregor and Cordelia illustrates (and shows to Mark) that Cordelia’s rationality is itself a tool that she uses to keep the needs of her heart in check.

And of course, part of her life is falling in love with a man who’s in love with pain. I think a critical part of Aral and Miles is the desire to burn themselves up for the right cause (I believe there’s a line in Shards of Honor about how Cordelia has fallen for the breathtaking beauty of pain by falling for Aral). And Oliver isn’t that type. Oliver is someone who can accept that he is enough on his own. Which, I agree, is a comfort to Cordelia.

Started to write a post about it, and then realized I’ve written it before. Basically, I love Cordelia Vorkosigan as much as anyone else, but I do think that in-universe, very few people realize how deep her emotions run. Everyone seems to think of her as some perfect, rational model of womanhood, but she’s kind of bonkers! Her husband and her sons are all sucidally reckless! She desperately wants to have a quiet life with Aral with a horde of kids and she can never have it because she fell for a man who can’t not be at the center of the empire! She can’t stop her first son from charging headfirst at every stupid military-esque thing! She maybe gets Mark partway to stability (though maybe it just seems that way because Mark isn’t a POV character anymore).

I think that’s why I like Gentlemen Jole and the Red Queen so much. Cordelia gets to breathe, finally.

I mean, by that point in the story, I'd say Miles is also pretty stabilized. Mark just seems more stable in contrast to his brother. Ekaterin and Kareen are doing the most to manage the Vorkosigan chaos, I swear.

I could go either way on Miles. I feel like the implication in Gentlemen Jole and the Red Queen is that Miles is still pretty close to throwing himself into a case à la Diplomatic Immunity, and its lack of opportunity as much as anything else that’s preventing that from happening.

I posit that Ekaterin is actively preventing any such opportunities, possibly in collusion with Gregor.

That definitely makes sense. I think that Gregor very much wants Miles to survive to a ripe old age. But I think that as of Gentleman Jole, Miles is still in the headspace that if there’s a problem, he needs to stick his head in there and see what it is.

I do also think that Miles is aware that his health is not such that he’ll last that long (and I’m haunted by the idea that Lois McMaster Bujold has stated that Miles will die before 60). So I could see Miles still looking for some grand rest that will prove him worthy of…something and dying in the process.

He WOULD do that, the little git. Poor Ekaterin.

Wait a minute.

Very rigid moral system without a lot of room for nuance.

Hyperempathy makes her incredibly angry on others' behalf, while high-masking makes her look entirely unempathetic.

Constantly stimming (pulling her hair) when she's stressed -- and becoming more irritable when she's unable to stim.

Knows a lot about herbs, is constantly judging other people by their knowledge of herbs, and gets mad when there's something about herbs that she doesn't know.

Girls I think Nynaeve might be autistic.

Counterpoint: She has the social skills to become the youngest Wisdom since whenever.

Motivating myself to power through my weekly b12 injection by remembering that the alternative is death by exhaustion. Surely stabbing myself once a week is better than that?

Forgot to stab myself last Sunday, so I spent the last two days taking excessive naps.

Started to write a post about it, and then realized I’ve written it before. Basically, I love Cordelia Vorkosigan as much as anyone else, but I do think that in-universe, very few people realize how deep her emotions run. Everyone seems to think of her as some perfect, rational model of womanhood, but she’s kind of bonkers! Her husband and her sons are all sucidally reckless! She desperately wants to have a quiet life with Aral with a horde of kids and she can never have it because she fell for a man who can’t not be at the center of the empire! She can’t stop her first son from charging headfirst at every stupid military-esque thing! She maybe gets Mark partway to stability (though maybe it just seems that way because Mark isn’t a POV character anymore).

I think that’s why I like Gentlemen Jole and the Red Queen so much. Cordelia gets to breathe, finally.

I mean, by that point in the story, I'd say Miles is also pretty stabilized. Mark just seems more stable in contrast to his brother. Ekaterin and Kareen are doing the most to manage the Vorkosigan chaos, I swear.

I could go either way on Miles. I feel like the implication in Gentlemen Jole and the Red Queen is that Miles is still pretty close to throwing himself into a case à la Diplomatic Immunity, and its lack of opportunity as much as anything else that’s preventing that from happening.

I posit that Ekaterin is actively preventing any such opportunities, possibly in collusion with Gregor.

Started to write a post about it, and then realized I’ve written it before. Basically, I love Cordelia Vorkosigan as much as anyone else, but I do think that in-universe, very few people realize how deep her emotions run. Everyone seems to think of her as some perfect, rational model of womanhood, but she’s kind of bonkers! Her husband and her sons are all sucidally reckless! She desperately wants to have a quiet life with Aral with a horde of kids and she can never have it because she fell for a man who can’t not be at the center of the empire! She can’t stop her first son from charging headfirst at every stupid military-esque thing! She maybe gets Mark partway to stability (though maybe it just seems that way because Mark isn’t a POV character anymore).

I think that’s why I like Gentlemen Jole and the Red Queen so much. Cordelia gets to breathe, finally.

I mean, by that point in the story, I'd say Miles is also pretty stabilized. Mark just seems more stable in contrast to his brother. Ekaterin and Kareen are doing the most to manage the Vorkosigan chaos, I swear.

Misheard formidable as ‘vormidable’ when listening to the audiobook and it’s really a description that works either way. Lady Alys is indeed a vormidable woman.

When my brother was little he got the "(first name) (middle name) stop it" treatment so often that he thought "stop it" was a second middle name. So what I'm saying is there's a non zero chance that Aral Alexander and Helen Natalia, having made enough trouble to get first-and-middle named pretty often themselves, think that Ivan's full name is "Ivan You Idiot Vorpatril" for a while

Cordelia, looking through a family photo album with the twins: And can you tell me who this is?

Helen: Ivan You Idiot Vorpatril!

Ekaterin: No, sweetheart, that's not his name.

Miles, simultaneously: Yes! Exactly right!

Ivan’s continued discomfort with/refusal to think about his mother’s love life is a fair fun thread throughout this book so far. I’m looking forward to this dinner—look on the bright side Ivan! You may have sprung a sudden (semi-fake) marriage on your mother but this dinner can’t go any worse than the last significant dinner in this series.

Don't tempt fate...

Yooooooo!!! Very late present got in and I’m so excited! It’s a compilation of essays about feminism, disability, and queerness in Bujold’s works

Oooooooohhhhh I want one, too