Liberman indicates that calling Loki a trickster is too reductive: he does not behave as tricksters typically do in other folklore. Instead, think of him as a "literary instrument," whose presence and involvement serve to underscore the characteristics of the other gods.

"Misattributed

Religion is for people who’re afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who’ve already been there.
    Commonly attributed to Deloria on the internet, or sometimes to a few others, but without legitimate sourcing, the earliest variant of this yet located is a single quotation in Awakened India Vo. 99 (1994) p. 327, ascribed to Fr. Patrick Collins, University of Notre Dame, USA:

        Religion is for those who are afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who know they have been there — perhaps through involvement with religion.

    The next variant located is ascribed to an anonymous member of Alcoholics Anonymous in Illuminating the Heart: Steps Toward a More Spiritual Marriage (1996) by Barbara G. Markway, p. 28:

        Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell; spirituality is for those who have been there.

    A variant also occurs in The Higher Power of the Twelve-Step Program: For Believers & Non-Believers (2001), by Glenn F. Chesnut, Ch. 1 : Discovering a Higher Power:

        Religion is for people who're afraid of going to hell; twelvestep spirituality is for those who've been there."

I want to get some of these books, I think.

Very sparse on the words here, but Britannica gives some actionable tips on improving curiosity.

I've bought and begun reading the book mentioned in this article, and it seems like this article is simply a summary of the book - complete with intensive quotes (MOST of the article!)

I'm a little disappointed with the book so far - I'm extremely disappointed by this "article".

"Is a comments section necessary on a blog in this day and age? I don't think so, and here's why."

I feel this, and I think if someone wants to respond to something I have to say, they can write it on their own blog, as many do quite often!

"Beware the Orc, for this is what you become when you follow an evil lord into war!"

A good piece about the importance of actual practice.

A short but very inspiring post about something I believe to be a virtue I'd like to (and think in some ways I am) engage in.

An interesting look on the true greed of Ebenezer, and avoiding his fate.

A few cool tools for finding new sites to read!

Good quick piece on how to block bots with .htaccess.

An interesting take on recovery

"the cure for addiction was connection"

"The hardest thing about recovery is that you have to look at why you drank and used drugs in the first place."

very moving piece from a fellow in recovery, good stuff.

Really good "rant" about inaccessibility in tech spaces and how this affects disabled users.

An article with active steps you can take to be more curious (that DOESN'T cite the Ian Leslie book!)

Another article by Shalveena about commonplace books and how best to use them.

Spoilers: They put a chronological table of contents in the back of the book. A really good idea!

Another article on frustration tolerance.

Reading this has given me some good ideas to improve my frustration tolerance, like practicing low-stress skills like knitting and making music. It has also helped me to realize my frustration tolerance may be higher than I believe, though I do still feel the need to continue working to improve it.

"Learning to write prose is tough, and it can take years of struggle to grasp the basics. You have to understand construction, character, theme, pacing, the effects of word choice, the specifics of your subject and so much more. Learning to write a collaborative form like comics just adds new troubles and traps as you run into the difficulties inherent in the medium, or specific to the people you’re working with."

Advice from a pro about writing for comics.

Great article on the concept of the digital garden. Not sure anything I'm doing technically qualifies, but I'm very inspired by the notion.

A relatively surface-level assessment of the gendered presentation of Aragorn as an example of a non-toxic masculinity.

“When you learn to be a better listener, you will hear things you may never have heard before. Here are 5 ways to become a better listener.”

Decent piece on being a better listener.

Oh McSweeney's, you've done it again.

This is another article on curiosity that mentions - and paraphrases from, without citing - Ian Leslie's Curious, a book I am still not sure I like.

A useful duo of browser extensions I'm going to be using going forward! Thanks, Robert!

This is a delightful look at HTML and CSS through the eyes of a child. Very fun read.

Nicola Mustone talks mostly about using Wordpress for various types of websites, but does advise some alternatives for certain types of content.

(I don't love the recommendation of Substack or the insistence on using Discord where a forum may be more applicable just because "people already live" there. For that matter, I don't really love Wordpress, but alas.)