Malazan Empire: amphibian - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

So I was randomly reading THE HOWLING DARK by Christopher Ruocchio...and just like that, I'm out of the Sun Eater series entirely.

There's a goddamn STATUE of Jordan Peterson in this book....and a philosopher group called the Petersonians....

I was already concerned about the seeming conservative slant in these books after moments on the first one (much of Hadrians views seem like what a Consevative-but-Libertarian wet dream, like well disguised goodkind shit)...but you idolize someone like Peterson, and I'm all the way the fuck out.

I always think its amusing when American's put stock in Petersons grifter ramblings, that it's crazy...I lived down the street from the UofT campus where he gave some of those lectures and was present locally when he riled the universities rules becuase he has issues with pronouns...and a lot of that didn't follow him right away once he stepped back into the American sphere...so you get people like Ruocchio who heard some of his milder nonsense and found it wise....

But yeah, life is too short to spend time on a series written by a guy who thinks Jordan Fucking Peterson will be somehow "remembered" in 20,000 years, never mind "great".

Ugh.

Well I am unemployed again. Still trying to process it. I am honestly not sure what happened. We have been undergoing several firings all year for restructurings and layoffs due to reduced revenue but I dont seem to be have been let go for this reason. I was fired supposedly for being unprepared but wasnt given a specific example, and also my manager mentioned being distracted in meetings occasionally (probably true at times but I think thats true for everyone). one of the examples she gave was when I spent a meeting looking at flights to travel home because my grandmother had died that morning, I came to the meeting because I was scared to be late but explained what happened. This example is from July 2024 and even as she gave it she said she understood.

I have no proof but I have a suspicion given the timing that it may have something to do with the fact that I have been covering for a colleague who has been on maternity leave and it probably put me given our slower revenue at at least 1.5 peoples work if not quite a full 2 (thought the difficulty and stress of covering less familiar work was hard, especially when so much of the isntitional knowledge had been fired). Still we had discussed adding the new instruments and territory to my commission but they gave me far less than the person I was covering would have received. I asked if it was a mistake on a monday, received the negative feedback Friday, did an important install the next week and was fired this Monday. So 2 weeks between mentioning the commission and being fired, and 1 week between the feedback and being fired so no chance to act on it. Which makes me believe the decision was already made, they either waited for me to finish the important install or maybe tried to create some paper trail.

I am trying to be introspective but I feel if my performance was dropping that my manager should have/would have stepped in sooner to correct it. I dont think I am so delusional that I would have missed obvious failures in my performance. After discussing the commission I may have pushed back too hard on trying to set some boundaries and pushed back on dealing with some emergencies that popped up what was otherwise the only week I would have been home the whole of November and so which I used I to schedule several medical appointments, podiatrist, dentist, doctor, vaccine before the year ended and I lost my funds. I was expecting December to be equally busy. I was working remote and available for most of the day for emails and customer support but wanted to avoid traveling that week. I was a team player, pulled my weight, and had never received negative feedback before. I asked about performance review with my manager at the end of 2024 but was told we don't do them.

As I said, still processing it. I am secure financially and trying to take some time for myself before hitting the job search to calm myself and relax but am worried about the US economy right now. Late novemeber and decemeber between thanksgiving and christmass is probably not a good time to be searching but jan-march is prime time. A layoff would also be easier to brush off but being fired for performance apparently hurts worse.

Episode 2 is a legit good episode of a show. It's focused, the actors do a good job, and the scenes are allowed to be what they are (not too many cut aways etc).

Episode 1 is kind of a mess. There's too many tonal shifts, moments of clunky acting, and jumps between characters.

Maark Abbott, on 11 November 2025 - 04:14 PM, said:

It was copy pasted in color that blends in is the guess.

No idea what the 8 democrat senators are thinking. I would like robust explanations beyond "people are suffering".... YES. Because of this bullshit and you are only going to prolong the suffering in the long term by being such short term wastes of space.