Slowswift

Duly noted. Let the pestering commence!

"Who's your favorite character?" Are you active on the fandom wiki? 'cause I'm thinking there's a non-zero chance the two of you'd get along fantastically. (That or I can bug her to get an account here...)

...and now there's cackling. "The latter, but mostly I'm indifferent now."

And now there are happy squeals. XD

I feel you should know that as I scrolled past this, my sister started making very high-pitched noises next to me. (It's one of her favorite series.)

I don't know that he was exiled, per se, but he sure ain't the mayor anymore. DISCLAIMER: As far as I can tell, the 2006 flag was designed by committee, not the mayor personally (though that's its own problem...). I bear no ill will to Mayor Anderson as it specifically relates to the 2006 flag!

After years of a terrible one, and then years of a not great one, on Tuesday Salt Lake City finally adopted a new flag! This pleases the vexillology nerd in me greatly. (Current flag and the two old ones for comparison below!)

The link is simple and the game is fun. 10/10

Yeah, Conference was amazing. I particularly liked the talks of President Oaks and Elders Rasband, Lund, Soares, Andersen, and Holland. I definitely look forward to going through this one again!

Quick check-in to add something: This book (Symphony for the City of the Dead) is good, but it is by no means lighthearted. The book follows Shostakovich during the early USSR, which is just as brutal as you might expect. There's nothing too graphic as yet, but neither will you be singing about sunshine and flowers. I'm glad that the author does wax witty at points, because yikes.

I'm reading Symphony for the City of the Dead, a biography of Dmitri Shostakovich, as recommended to me by @Mistrunner... a long time ago. Oops. With non-fiction, it can really take me some time to get going, unfortunately. I read a few chapters after she rec'd it and actually quite liked it, so I'm glad to finally have found my stride again! I like the author's voice -- it's not too dense or hard to understand, and he just has this quiet wit sprinkled in that I love. I'm still not very far in, but I think I can recommend it in turn! I'll of course post again when I've finished.

I did, but -- and this may be the only thing I've said this about thus far -- I thought the movie was better. (Yeah, yeah, I know. Blasphemy, sacrilege, shun the nonbeliever! and all that. Sue me. ) I actually really liked Artemis. Maybe it helped that there was no hype for me: the first I heard of it was seeing it on the shelf. I promptly bought it and loved it.

I've only ever seen some of the old Dune series (watched it in class, of all places!), but it's been long enough that I'd like to actually read it myself. And B&N has this really pretty special edition too...

Heck yes I am! I'm hopeful my family'll still be able to do our traditional picnic up the canyon, even with COVID. (Should be possible. It's pretty easy to stay away from everyone when you're out in the wilderness.) I'd love the new hymnbook, but I think that's still a year or two out. Anybody have any hymns in particular that they'd like to see added (or removed)?

I cannot recommend this talk enough -- it just yanked me out of a properly crappy mood, and I felt like I needed to share it.

Y'know, just about every time I was ordained to a priesthood office, I haven't felt the Spirit, at least not in the "traditional" way. Anyone else who was there has assured me that they did, but for me? Nuthin'. I don't know why that is; don't know what I need to learn, if anything. But I have felt it on many other occasions acting in Priesthood capacity, so I know somebody did something right. Also, something that's helped me before was remembering that I'd had a blessing -- for example, the last time I had to speak in church, I was nervous as all heck (as one is). Got a blessing, didn't feel much at the time. But up at the pulpit, just as I was starting to really worry, I remembered that I'd been blessed with calm and clear speech, and the rest of the talk went swimmingly. Dunno if this will be universally applicable, but my point is that blessings are not isolated, contained experiences. That blessing will help. Maybe not in the way you think, but it will. Bit late, but I wish you the best, Ene!

Picked up Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones again on a whim. It -- and to a lesser extent, the first book, Dark Lord of Derkholm -- is one of my favorites by DWJ and just overall.

*ROAR* *inserts the dragon's favorite food, before it climbs back out and eats me instead*