Second Quarter Reading Wrap-up!
Jul. 1st, 2026 12:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kingstokenStar Trek: Captain to Captain by Greg Cox - listened to this one as an audiobook and really enjoyed it. It turned out to be much more about Una, Number One from Pike's days, than Kirk and company, but I still found it a compelling listen. The narrator did a good job with the woman's voices, they weren't whiny or cringey at all. It's the first in a series, and I really want to see how the story continues, so I have to read the second book at some point.
Adulting for Amateurs: Misadventures of a Geriatric Millennial by Jess H. Gutierrez - this was a series of humorous essays about being a millennial as an adult. I'm technically not a millennial, but I still enjoyed it. I will say some were better and funnier than others, but all of these types of books are usually mixed bags.
Honor & Heresy by Max Francis - two young men are locked in a magical library together and given the task of doing research and figuring out why a deadly enemy is attacking the empire. I know that may sound whimsical, but trust me it's not, it gets real dark at points. Both these characters have trauma and they only get more by being there. My one major complaint is I wish the M/M romance had been developed more.
Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben - this was pretty good mystery. The beginning premise is that a woman's husband has died, but then a week later she sees him on the nanny cam. I know that sounds like a pretty normal mystery fuckery, but this one doesn't go the way one would expect. I will admit at certain points I just couldn't figure out how some of these events all fit together, and I almost gave up in the middle, but I'm glad I stuck with it because it all made sense by the end.
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau - this was a really good dystopian middle grade novel (which I just finished today!) The author did a good job with the 12 year protagonists, who both felt slightly older because of the world they were inhabiting, but they were also naive and innocent about others things. The author seemed to strike the right balance to me, which isn't always easy with this type of story. I also thought the world-building was great. I do wish I had young relatives in the right age range to pass it on to, because I'm pretty sure a 10-12 year old would really like it.
I also tried a novel called Horse by Geraldine Brooks, because I thought I might join my local library's book club, but I'm afraid I gave up half way through. It was one of those novels that flips back and forth between the past and modern day, I liked the portions set in a historical setting, but I found the modern day sections tedious and I kept wanting to skip over them, until I finally gave up.
Fanmix Exchange
Jun. 27th, 2026 08:26 amkingstoken
HI everyone, I'm modding a new exchange, The Fanmix Exchange! It is exactly what it sounds like, you will create a character/relationship fanmix for another participant and receive one in return. Check out the community for more info:
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fanmixexchangeBill C-34
Jun. 26th, 2026 07:04 amkingstokenHello to any fellow Canadians followers I may have, you may have heard about the proposed bill Bill C-34 (if you haven't learn more here), that which bans social media for children under 16, but what you might not know is the proposed bill would require all adults to provide their ID to a third party verification service before accessing the internet. These verification services are notorious for data leaks, and there is currently no safe age verification service. It also means giving all your personal info and an image of your ID to an unknown third party. Which is a huge invasion of privacy.
So what can you do? Contact your MP! Find out who your MP is and their email contact info here. (even better if you can send them a physical letter, politicians love those for some reason)
The Reddit user EmbassedHelp has provided a great email template for you to use. Here it is in a easy copy and paste format:
Subject: Protect Canadians' Privacy: Oppose Bill C-34's Mandatory Age Verification Requirements
Dear [Prime Minister/Minister/MP Name],
I am writing to urge you to reject the mandatory age verification and age assurance requirements in Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, which would impose these measures across social media platforms, Al chatbot services, and adult content websites, including requirements previously proposed under Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne's Bill S-209.
Mandatory age verification and age assurance as a condition of accessing lawful online content is an unacceptable threat to Canadians' privacy when accessing social media platforms, artificial intelligence systems, and adult content websites. Requiring individuals to verify their age to access lawful online content creates new opportunities for data breaches, surveillance, and misuse of sensitive personal information. In the case of sensitive or stigmatized personal information like adult content, data breaches can cause permanent and irreparable harm. These requirements create records and metadata that link a person's offline identity to their online activity. They also disproportionately target marginalized groups, such as the LGBTQ community. Once this infrastructure exists, its scope consistently expands beyond its stated purpose as seen in other countries.
There is no such thing as private or anonymous age verification. Canadians deserve more privacy online, not less.
Protecting kids should not come at the cost of violating the privacy of all Canadians. I urge you to focus on better parental controls for parents, restrictions on K-12 school WiFi, and targeting services marketed as explicitly for kids. This would be in line with the recent Angus Reid survey on social media age bans, where 72% of Canadians said parents, and not the government, should be the ones enforcing the bans. Most Canadian parents already take measures to restrict their kids' technology and internet use. We should be supporting parents with better parental controls, instead of trying to force companies to violate Canadians' privacy.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Optional Postal Code]
[City], [Province]
Please spread the word far and wide, they are trying to push this thing through fast, and we need them to know it's not acceptable the way it is currently written.