Taking a break.

A few scattered links:

An interesting post on the subject of cultural appropriation, which appears to be rattling around a chunk of my flist. (Reading comments matters.) This is something I'm needing to chew on, because the thing I'm working on at the moment is set in "the real world" for at least some of it, which means that there are real people of real cultures involved, and not all of them are mine. And I know one of my flaws as a writer is that I don't put in enough concrete detail to ground people in where they are, and that I should go in on my editing pass and make the home of the POV character much more real and grounded in its appropriate cultural background, the assumptions, the ways things work there. Because doing otherwise glosses over the real, genuine issues of cultural difference that are in the roots of the story, because it's possible to treat the things as sort of generics, and my default writing tends to, and that does the people involved a great disservice. (Link from pantryslut.)

Mindboggling high-tech gaming table war room. (Link from apollonides.)

Stunning fountain setup with Diet Coke and Mentos. Quicktime. Has sound, which is not entirely needful for the experience, but does enhance. (Originally from micheinnz, though I've seen it elsewhere since.)

Quickie book reviews:

( Sexual Ecstasy and the Divine, Yasmine Galenorn )

( The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still The Least Valued, Ann Crittenden )

And now back to dealing with Sisyphus's rock.