# helping others (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 4 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover helping others. Page: Feed: --- ## [Books and Circuses](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/08/books-and-circuses.html) _2026-08-24 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ This weekend was the National Book Fest and I got there at ten so I could see Daniel Nayeri. I got to the room a bit early and so saw the tail end of Lauren Tarshis's interview, including the audience portion where a kid asked, "Which book were you least excited to write and which book was your editor least excited about?" This was a standout question. Applause young child. Tarshis said that… ## [The Crime Chicken and the Crime Egg](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/08/the-crime-chicken-and-crime-egg.html) _2026-08-17 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ I'm well aware that some of the takes about DC being a crime ridden den of iniquity are bait. But DC is currently in an overlapping state of people claiming that things are out of control, and therefore shampoo in the drug store has to be locked up. And therefore we need a teen curfew, and to restrict teens shopping in supermarkets. And therefore we need armed National Guard to patrol the streets… ## [The Sounds are Different](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/08/the-sounds-are-different.html) _2026-08-12 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ I was up this past weekend visiting family in Connecticut. Small towns and other suburbs are always interesting because everything is so close together that things should be walkable, but the sidewalks disappear so clearly they don't really expect you to walk. But I noticed when at my relative's house that the trains sound different. I can't quite come up with how to describe it but it's almost… ## [Rain Delay](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/08/rain-delay.html) _2026-08-03 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ I went to take in some tennis as part of the DC tennis tournament last weekend. I had originally meant to buy a ticket for one session this weekend but forgot and it sold out so I opted for a quiet weekend. As it turned out, there was a lot of shuffling Sunday because there was rain predicted, and even with only three finals left to go, they needed to get through them and the awards ceremonies,… ## [Hadestown: The Musical](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/07/hadestown-musical.html) _2026-07-30 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ I saw the live capture of "Hadestown: The Musical" Sunday during what was initially going to be a 5 day run in theaters. It has now been extended. Since I reviewed the live show, I'm just going to make a list of things I like and didn't here. Love: Eva Noblezada, Patrick Page (on a ruptured achilles, shout out to the costume designer for that sparkly leg brace), Amber Gray, Andre De Shields, Reeve… ## [Romance Book Blast](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/07/romance-book-blast.html) _2026-07-28 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ Hello there! Today (July 28th, 2026 in case you are reading this on a different day) is Romance Book Blast. Over 950 authors have made their romances free in ebook forms. Including my Repeated Burn which you can find on the short reads page. If you need a few or a few hundred more romances, there are lots of choices. Go forth and get ready to read! www.romancebooklovers.com Also, as of early this… ## [Now vs. Later](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/07/now-vs-later.html) _2026-07-21 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ Some days it's really tough to think long term. Right now I have a trip coming up and I want to take a new knitting project on the trip with me. Except, I haven't finished the last three projects I'm working on. Two are sweaters that are bulky and not great travel projects. Though both would be super helpful in my cold cold office. One is a sock weight shawl where I've finished the colorwork,… ## [We Need to Talk About AI](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/07/we-need-to-talk-about-ai.html) _2026-07-13 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ I don't use AI to write. AI has in fact illegally used me to write. Sure, sometimes the entitity hosting my words have permission, but I haven't and they are my words. For me drafting is fun. I love the surprise when a few stray plot bits coalesce. I love when characters says things I didn't consciously know they were going to say. But if I wanted to read something someone else wrote, there are… ## [7 Things About Staying Cool When It's Stupid Hot](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/07/7-things-about-staying-cool-when-its.html) _2026-07-06 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ I like heat. I even like humidity. (Dry air send my throat, eyes, nasal passages into a panic.) I also like watching tennis which around here happens in the dead heat of summer. My favorite social media comment ever was a guy yelling at the tournament account that they shouldn't hold tennis tournaments when it's going to rain. And well, we really need that rain when the heat index is triple… ## [Bid on Me (and other things)!](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/06/bid-on-me-and-other-things.html) _2026-06-30 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ It is the Romancing the Vote auction, raising funds for voting rights here in the US and I have two items I am going to get a little long winded about, even though they already have descriptions. First, I love quotes. I used to have a box of index cards, just with quotes from various books I loved on them. And last auction I felt bad about not being able to offer international shipping, so tried… ## [Unlimited Mobile Internet, One V-SIM (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/G8xVZTe9an7c) _2026-06-30 · **Sponsored**_ Automatically switches across T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon; no throttling, no contract. ## [Ripped Bodice Bingo Suggestions](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/06/ripped-bodice-bingo-suggestions.html) _2026-06-22 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ Note: I am, of course, going to include my books in this. I skipped a few I don't have suggestions for. Character smells like fresh cut grass Song Lyrics: Oh hello, both I Belong to You and Presented with Love would work for this. I Hate Everyone But You: Zomromcom by Olivia Dade National Park: Hello again, I Belong to You fits here as well, with Rock Creek Park. Of Kings and Queens also mentions… ## ["A Fine Madness" from Wooly Mammoth at the Hamiltonian](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/06/a-fine-madness-from-wooly-mammoth-at.html) _2026-06-15 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ Content note: discussions of pandemics "A Fine Madness" in being staged in multiple locations across DC. I saw it at the Hamiltonian Gallery on U Street. "A Fine Madness" is technically a one person show, although it is interactive, so the audience is part of the show, to the extent they wish. The show is a few things. It's a little bit autobiographical. It's a little bit reflective. It's a little… ## [Two Sales](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/06/two-sales.html) _2026-06-12 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ Happy Kings bad, but Lei pretty day, or as it is more commonly known, King Kamehameha Day. As newsletter subscribers already know, my two books that mention King Kamehameha Day are on sale. Aloha to You has a very brief mention as Adriana does a whirlwind of lei making. Of Kings and Queens has much of the action taking place on King Kamehameha Day. Aloha to You is a little bit snarky dude, anxious… ## [It is an Honor](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/06/it-is-honor.html) _2026-06-08 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ The Tony's were last night, and not all my faves won. Sure, very many of my faves were up against each other. One could also argue that I have too many faves for someone who has not yet seen these particular shows. But in the end, just being nominated is an honor. There were only six eligible musicals this year and the nominations don't even fully reflect that. Don't get me wrong winning is cool… ## [One Sentence Tony Descriptions](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/06/one-sentence-tony-descriptions.html) _2026-06-01 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ It is the Tony's this Sunday and so we revive the annual tradition of me describing Tony nominated plays and musicals in a single sentence, aka badly. It should be said, I tend to amuse myself describing them so succinctly you can't really tell what it's about. But these are great works, and trust that I have been scouring interviews with everyone, and and so excited to see more of what this… ## ["Aguardiente" at Gala Hispanic Theater.](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/05/aguardiente-at-gala-hispanic-theater.html) _2026-05-26 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ I am currently editing a novel that has taken much longer than expected to edit. So a musical about trying to finish a musical is both entirely on point, and perhaps something I am not in the best place to analyze. Aguardiente is primarily in Spanish. I do speak some Spanish, but not enough to keep up with a musical. There were captions, so I was following along quite well, but when a few people… ## [Gaithersburg Book Festival](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/05/gaithersburg-book-festival.html) _2026-05-18 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ I went to the Gaithersburg Book Festival this weekend, and bought more books than I planned. (I always think I am less susceptible to paper books and then I remember I can give them as gifts and well, things escalate.) I decided to not set an alarm. Well, Friday night me decided not to set an alarm. A prior me had set one, but put it at 8pm not 8am so it was not very helpful. But while there were… ## [Happy AANHPI Month](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/05/happy-aanhpi-month.html) _2026-05-11 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ It is Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage month here in the US. I've been writing about this for years, and each year it gets a little easier to find titles to talk about. I'm a big fan of reading diversely. Different genres, sure, but different viewpoints and perspectives also. No, that doesn't mean you need to read books by or about anyone who thinks you or the people… ## [Scheduled: Nothing](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/05/scheduled-nothing.html) _2026-05-04 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ As the weather gets warmer I get so excited about the increase of things to do an see that sometimes I forget to have a day or two where I can just be. Or play silly phone games. Hang with my cat. Knit. Read. Just kind of be. Where the plan is no plan. Productivity is great but what if sometimes I didn't focus on that. Sometimes creatives call this filling the well, and yes, that too. But I think… ## [Books!](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/04/books.html) _2026-04-29 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ This past weekend was Independent Bookstore Day and Local Yarn Store Day (the weekend before Maryland Sheep and Wool too, someone hates my wallet). I roped a friend into doing the DC Bookstore Crawl with me. I had, because I apparently like to stack a day, also planned a vet appointment for my cat. So we did that in the morning and then headed out around lunch for books and yarn. The DC area is… ## [Unlimited Mobile Internet, One V-SIM (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/2TGEXXj1QhfO) _2026-04-29 · **Sponsored**_ Automatically switches across T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon; no throttling, no contract. ## [End of an Era?](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/04/end-of-era.html) _2026-04-20 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ It was an odd year to be a Caps fan. After they exceeded expectations last year, they of course got rewarded with higher expectations, and did not quite live up to them. There's a business adage about under promising and over delivering, and it's because if you say it will be done Friday, but deliver Thursday, people will be pleasantly surprised. They sort of never talk about how next time, they… ## [Relative Risk](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/04/relative-risk.html) _2026-04-13 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ Wikipedia has an entry on relative Risk that I find fascinating. We all, for very good historical and biological reasons, factor in our own experience when calculating risk. So sure, there's research and evidence, but you also are gonna say, nope, I got food poisoning last time I went there, so never again. It also means when something happens near you, in a place you visit all the time, you… ## [Being a Fan](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/04/being-fan.html) _2026-04-06 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ I went to a men's college basketball game earlier this year (My sports superstitions for basketball are basically non-existent unlike other sports.) It reminded me of a story. I went to a family wedding up in Connecticut. As we arrived at the reception, the person next to me grabbed my arm and said, "Oh my God that's Geno. Look, it's Geno!" I said, very sincerely, "I don't know who that is l,but I… ## [The Power of No](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/03/the-power-of-no.html) _2026-03-30 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ There is a thing people say about how the word no is a complete sentence. As in, no I will not be doing that. Or no, if you do that, I will not be applauding you or supporting you. It of course doesn't mean you always get your way. There are moments when it is useful to be in brainstorm mode. To say, oh great idea but what if we did this instead. If everyone is trying to figure out where to eat… ## ["As You Like It" at the Folger Shakespeare Theater](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/03/as-you-like-it-at-folger-shakespeare.html) _2026-03-24 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ "As You Like It" is one of Shakespeare's comedies, which basically means everyone doesn't die at the end. It uses two setting the court and the forest of Arden where folks who have been banished from court have gone to hang out. Basically there's a disgraced Duke, the younger son of a deceased Duke, whose brother has refused to look after him, and then we add the daughter of a disgraced Duke, and… ## ["Safety Not Guaranteed" at Signature Theater](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/03/safety-not-guaranteed-at-signature.html) _2026-03-23 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ Content note: discussions of grief There was a movie version of this first. I have not watched it, though I am now intrigued. I basically read the description of the show, which boiled down to a classified ad seeking a time travelling partner and including the titular line, safety not guaranteed, and I was in. The cast is only six, plus the band, and there are a few moments where the cast… ## ["Inherit the Wind" at Arena Stage](http://www.talkapedia.com/2026/03/inherit-wind-at-arena-stage.html) _2026-03-16 · RandomRanter · Talkapedia_ Content note: off stage death. We read "Inherit the Wind" in high school and I adored it. I described it to a coworker as a story about a teacher who gets in trouble for teaching Biology, which is both true and taking a side. The program note mentions that the show is talking about bigger issues than who is right and who is wrong. So me taking a side in the court case is sort of beside the point.… ## [The Dissidents (Extended 2025): A novel by H.M. Forester](https://mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-dissidents-extended-2025-novel-by.html) _2025-11-18 · Etienne de LAmour · Mystical Faction_ I'm very happy to announce that an extended edition of The Dissidents by H.M. Forester has now been published. And after spending days locked in my apartment, having run out of coffee and other supplies, been driven on by my daemon, and half smoked myself to death, I too am much relieved to have finally been released. Enforcement Officer Kingsley is pretty sure of himself and the Greater Good that… ## [Philip Pullman's The Rose Field: Book Review](https://mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2025/11/philip-pullmans-rose-field-book-review.html) _2025-11-09 · Etienne de LAmour · Mystical Faction_ ★★★★★ I enjoyed this book, as I have His Dark Materials and the first two volumes of the trilogy. I must say that Philip Pullman came up with many wonderful ideas, and I'm thrilled by his streaks of Romanticism; the dying art of imagination; inspiration; the daemonic and other forgotten, rejected, or forbidden knowledge; the Secret Commonwealth of the "Otherworld"; heresy ("free thinking"); and,… ## [The Rise of Sauron in the 21st Century](https://mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-rise-of-sauron-in-21st-century.html) _2025-10-30 · Etienne de LAmour · Mystical Faction_ Not content with hijacking "red-pilled" and claiming to be a key player in the Resistance, Musk (and his alt-right ilk) are now perversely using The Lord of the Rings to describe the "invasion" by migrants, equating the latter, and presumably liberals, with the Dark forces and aligning themselves (the Right) with the light, while the simple Shire folk have no idea what's going on in the wider… ## [One OS for your AI workforce (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/48z2LubLpFt1) _2025-10-30 · **Sponsored**_ Build, direct, and supervise an AI workforce from a single operating workspace. ## [Preter pereo paĝrulado (Beyond doom scrolling)](https://mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2025/10/preter-pereo-pagrulado-beyond-doom.html) _2025-10-11 · Etienne de LAmour · Mystical Faction_ If you're like me and you're getting worried about skim reading so many articles online that it is having an adverse cognitive effect on things like reading comprehension and retention, maybe consider learning a new language . I'm just taking baby steps in learning Esperanto (at the equivalent stage of “This is a Janet. Janet is cooking in the kitchen. And this is John. John is in the lounge… ## [The Misguided War on Woke: Part and Parcel of the Culture Wars](https://mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-misguided-war-on-woke-part-and.html) _2025-10-03 · Etienne de LAmour · Mystical Faction_ With the election of Donald Trump for a second term in 2025, the War on Woke , now officially sanctioned, has greatly intensified. And other figures such as the neurologist and writer Dr. Iain McGilchrist, best known for his work on the hemispheric functioning of the brain, have taken up arms in the fight: not against the war but in support. And yes, I do appreciate that anything, including… ## [Hannah Spier, Iain McGilchrist, and the Partisan Attack on the “Cult of Progressivism”](https://mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2025/09/hannah-spier-iain-mcgilchrist-and.html) _2025-09-20 · Etienne de LAmour · Mystical Faction_ I just read an article titled “ The Psychological Mechanisms behind the Cult of Progressivism : Why Charlie Kirk's murder was the execution of a heretic and why it will happen again” by Dr. Hannah Spier, MD, who self-describes as “The Antifeminist Psychiatrist. Exposing bad therapy and the liberal narratives that contribute to our poor mental health” and who also has some pointed things to say… ## [Take the Red Pill, It's Not About Left vs Right](https://mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2025/09/take-red-pill-its-not-about-left-vs.html) _2025-09-13 · Etienne de LAmour · Mystical Faction_ Wherever you find yourself on the political or religious spectrum, please watch this video from a former intelligence agent with much knowledge of psychological operations (psyop) and brainwashing. It may radically change our perspectives, and help save us, those we love, and the world we love. Charlie Kirk’s Death Exposed the Biggest Scam in History, by Chase Hughes ... “Charlie Kirk’s… ## [Seeing with the Right Eyes: Review of Idries Shah Remembered](https://mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2025/08/seeing-with-right-eyes-review-of-idries.html) _2025-08-05 · Etienne de LAmour · Mystical Faction_ ★★★★★ Tahir Shah (Ed), Idries Shah Remembered . An Afterword to my own Reading Like the Sufi mystical tradition that Idries Shah represents, champions, and exemplifies, Shah himself is so multi-faceted that he cannot simply be categorised or pigeon-holed, and perhaps dismissed. There's a tale in the book, containing an idea that crops up again and again, and which applies here: that of the… ## [Going Underground: Building a Caring Alternative Parallel Society](https://mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2025/07/going-underground-building-caring.html) _2025-07-25 · Etienne de LAmour · Mystical Faction_ As the poet, dissident, and member of the Czech underground resistance movement during the communist regime, Ivan Martin Jirous wrote, perhaps in “Parallel Polis: An Inquiry”: “If it proves impossible legally to compel the ruling power to change the ways it governs us, and if for various reasons those who reject this power cannot or do not wish to overthrow it by force, then the creation of an… ## [A Little Something for Your Ark, Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt](https://mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2025/07/a-little-something-for-your-ark-beyond.html) _2025-07-10 · Etienne de LAmour · Mystical Faction_ In these increasingly dire times we have plenty of warners , but what we desperately need right now are more arks . As Michael Ventura wrote: “\[A\]ll of this passing things on, in all its forms, may not cure the world now—curing the world now may not be a human possibility—but it keeps the great things alive. And we have to do this because, as Laing said, who are we to decide that it is hopeless?…