PicoBlog

Blade of God X (BOGX) is an immersive action RPG that combines stunning visuals with engaging gameplay mechanics. The game has received prestigious awards such as the 2023 HUAWEI AI CLOUD "Game Changer Awards" and the Innovation Breakthrough Award from Huawei HDC, highlighting its innovation and industry impact. The game is available across multiple platforms: PC, Android, and iOS. The game offers a rich storyline set in a dark-themed fantasy world filled with mythical creatures and epic battles from Norse mythology.

There are a lot of reasons to enjoy Kaveh Akbar’s new novel Martyr!, and I will review a few before I tell you why I struggled with loving it myself. To start with, the writing is amazing. There are sentences we’d all kill to write on every page. Here’s one about New York that I just loved: Pigeons tucked themselves into the soft-edged letters of Duane Reade sign, the cradles in the D’s and E’s and R full of sticks and leaves and hair.

Anyone who has followed the debate surrounding the history of the Confederate monument in Arlington National Cemetery has had to sift through a great deal of misinformation. To help us better understand this history, I am joined by Dr. Karen Cox, who teaches at the University of North Carolina—Charlotte. Dr. Cox literally wrote the book on the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and their efforts to erect monuments across the South, including Arlington National Cemetery.

(photo by Adam Peditto) Over Labor Day weekend after a long drive from Indianapolis to visit my parents in North Carolina, I was fortunate to chat with Chris Teti - the guitarist for one of emo’s greatest band’s The World Is A Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid To Die - about the band’s stunning and rich new album Illusory Walls, the challenges and blessings behind recording the record during a pandemic, becoming the sole guitarist, and more.

Tomiwa Owolade’s first book This Is Not America is a ferociously-intelligent, zestily-argued riposte of a book that takes aim at thought traps which have (in his view) shaped and distorted the recent conversation around race and so-called “black experience” in contemporary Britain — and not for better. In the opening chapters he sets up the contemporary… ncG1vNJzZmiklZa1rq%2FLmqmepl6owqO%2F05qapGaTpLpwvI6aZJynnquys7%2FAraCopl2strW0jK2fnmWnp7a1sdFmq6ilmayu

Dear readers, Due to recent travel, and a more ambitious turn I am taking on my upcoming essay on the Covid, I have slightly modified my short-term plans and am offering you a brief introduction to the thought of Christopher Lasch, adapted from the little book I published a few years ago in French. With the multiplication of references to Lasch recently, and the very Laschian tone of Limits and Hope, I thought it would be useful for you all to have a short, but comprehensive presentation of his work as a resource material.

In the United States, eggnog is a staple of the holiday season, with or without alcohol, so it is safe to say that if you live in the US, you have at least heard about it. But egg punches in various compositions are popular drinks around the world, and many make use of locally produced ingredients. Mexico has rompope. Peru has biblia, which, oddly, is also the Spanish word for Bible.

My first blogpost on the topic of the Awaken Church seeking a permanent presence in Coronado detailed the scandals of the two Australian churches that form Awaken’s historic roots. The second blogpost focused on Awaken’s “prosperity” claims that parishioners who give the church their wealth will have curses removed as manna from heaven rains down. Part three exposed Awaken lead pastor Jurgen Matthesius’ preposterous claims of performing miracles by speaking in tongues.

In last week’s newsletter, we looked at a simple, delicious Hot Toddy built on rye whiskey and maple syrup, and showed how that no-frills Old Fashioned-esque drink could be extrapolated into a General Theory of the Hot Toddy — an all-purpose structure for making and modifying Hot Toddys in various forms.  That rye-maple Toddy is an incredibly easy cocktail to make — you only need whiskey, maple syrup, bitters, a slice of orange, and hot water.