Every day I learn about a new Twitch Guy I’ve never heard of before in my life who is apparently the Most Popular Man Ever and capable of creating minor sociological phenomenon at a whim
“Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave it to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale (BA, 1977), and was trained to be a museum curator in the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in American Material Culture (MA, 1980). A decorative arts curator at the Newark Museum for thirty-seven years before he retired, Ulysses has never stopped writing for the sheer pleasure of it. Aside from books on Victorian furniture, art pottery, studio ceramics, jewelry, and the White House, Ulysses created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel, appeared in 2012. His most recent novel, Cliffhanger, was released by JMS Books in December 2020.
“Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of 45 years. They have two grown children, adopted in 1996.
“Ulysses is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant. His late mother, Julia, was the President’s last living great-grandchild; youngest daughter of Ulysses S. Grant III, and granddaughter of the president’s eldest son, Frederick. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City. He is also on the board of the U.S. Grant Presidential Library and Museum at Mississippi State University.”
And frankly, the novels sound like they slap:
Desmond was nominated for a Lambda Award.
“With his husband of 45 years.” You kids don’t know … they got together before AIDS, at the peak of the Gay Glam Life. They stayed together as their generation died around them, and made through it to the point where they could marry and have a legal family. He looks like a chipper preppie who never had a serious thought or care in the world, but it took *incredible* determination, commitment, and also luck to get here.
“Stop being funnier than me on my own post” is one of my favorite healthy tumblrisms, along with things like “hang on lemme look that up…yeah this is funny” and explicit tone indicators (positive). Like yeah let’s build a world where we playfully format healthy interactions. You made a post and you wanted to be the star but damn, you’ve really gotta hand it to this other person for their really funny addition, so here’s the internet equivalent of giving someone a friendly punch on the shoulder while making sure they know they got a good grade in social interaction
I’m still enjoying the hell out of Baldur’s Gate 3, but I almost never buy viddy games at launch, so I am ill-equipped to deal with annoying quests without guides
Even having played some of the early access, and the previous games, and some of Larian’s last game, this is still even better than I expected. The polish is amazing. I rolled a critical fail during a scary conversation and died instantly, and it was one my favorite gaming moments in forever.
