No, that's--no, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!

I'm reading Narcissus in Chains because I am committed to getting through all the Anita Blake novels. I am told this is the book where it really goes off the rails and rolls into not-as-sexy-as-it-thinks town, but for now it's a pretty "normal" Anita Blake book, with just a bit more sex than there's been in previous books. It's not horrible and some of it has been, if not hot, then at least pleasurable to read. (Note: I am only 200 pages in and not even half-way through the 630 pages. I expect this to change. And I do know it will get worse.)

But of course, there's one thing I must comment on.

Dear Mrs. Hamilton,

Bath soap/body wash is NOT an adequate form of lubrication! That shit burns like a mother fucker, not to mention it can dry out pretty quickly and, you know, not really lubricate. I'm not even going to try and wonder whether or not said soap was anti-bacterial and why, if it was, that it's a bad thing to introduce to the vaginal environment.

I'm all for whatever floats your boat and suspension of disbelief, but lubrication requires a bit more realism for this reader.

A Reluctant Fan of your Work,

Jade

WoW: An Observation

While reading this, admittedly, somewhat heatwarming article about a guild's work to make raiding a possibility for a blind British Army veteran of the Iraq war, I couldn't help but notice one thing:

The actual blind person is entirely absent from the conversation.

Maybe, maybe it wasn't possible to get an interview. Maybe there were scheduling conflicts, a freak power outage, or maybe Ben didn't want to participate in the interview, but reading the whole thing it didn't feel like they were talking about a real human being. It was more like Ben was...a show piece or a pet? (One paragraph seemed all about "He has to follow my instructions and does it so well!") And questions are more about how the able bodied people had to work around him.

I could be way off the mark on this, and again, I think what Ben's guild is doing is fantastic. It shows not everyone in WoW is a jackass, but at the same time I really think you can't compare someone calling out instructions over Mumble to all the obstacles Ben must overcome just to sit at the computer. I mean, come on, they've downed freaking Ragnaros and Deathwing and are doing heroics. Shouldn't Ben get to talk about, well, Ben?

It's just not sitting right with me.