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Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 02:57 pm
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 05:00 am
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 12:41 pm
Across several weeks of wandering---
Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club (2020): many words proportional to ambiance/plot, such that I began almost to resent how often my finger had to tap the screen. Though I appreciate how the setting lets Osman juxtapose well-observed characters who wouldn't otherwise acknowledge each other---the members of the old-folks community are more interesting than the middle-aged and younger adults---I couldn't have read this story a few years ago. OTOH, I did finish reading it.
Rena Rossner, The Sisters of the Winter Wood (2018): paused since more than a week ago in ch. 19 (22.5%). I ran out of curiosity there. If I want the story to be doing a bit more than it does, that's a me-problem.
Nell Irvin Painter, Old in Art School (2019): paused at 5% to save up Painter's voice, for times when I'm pickier. Painter retired from teaching at Princeton to undertake a BFA and MFA at RISD. My classes are remote, my degree smaller and briefer, and I'm not 67 yet (Painter's age upon pivoting), but it's lovely to find an aware fellow-traveler in her text.
I've reached 68% in Grace Cho's Tastes Like War, up from 20something %.
I've DNFed Sherry Thomas's A Ruse of Shadows at 4%, which may be a record---it's within the reprise of recent events. I ran out of curiosity there.
I've dipped into Carolyn Lei-lanilau's Ono-Ono Girl's Hula (1997), whose short publisher's page erases her and me as potential readers: "If you think you know something about what multiculturalism means in real life, read Carolyn Lei-lanilau and think again." Eh, bite me. The title indicates performance outright, so being irritated by yet another trifle constructed for mainstream readers is a me-problem. Either I'll get over it before the library wants the book back, or I won't.
I'm currently at 10% of Skull Water by Heinz Insu Fenkl (2023), a continuation of Memories of My Ghost Brother.
Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club (2020): many words proportional to ambiance/plot, such that I began almost to resent how often my finger had to tap the screen. Though I appreciate how the setting lets Osman juxtapose well-observed characters who wouldn't otherwise acknowledge each other---the members of the old-folks community are more interesting than the middle-aged and younger adults---I couldn't have read this story a few years ago. OTOH, I did finish reading it.
Rena Rossner, The Sisters of the Winter Wood (2018): paused since more than a week ago in ch. 19 (22.5%). I ran out of curiosity there. If I want the story to be doing a bit more than it does, that's a me-problem.
Nell Irvin Painter, Old in Art School (2019): paused at 5% to save up Painter's voice, for times when I'm pickier. Painter retired from teaching at Princeton to undertake a BFA and MFA at RISD. My classes are remote, my degree smaller and briefer, and I'm not 67 yet (Painter's age upon pivoting), but it's lovely to find an aware fellow-traveler in her text.
I've reached 68% in Grace Cho's Tastes Like War, up from 20something %.
I've DNFed Sherry Thomas's A Ruse of Shadows at 4%, which may be a record---it's within the reprise of recent events. I ran out of curiosity there.
I've dipped into Carolyn Lei-lanilau's Ono-Ono Girl's Hula (1997), whose short publisher's page erases her and me as potential readers: "If you think you know something about what multiculturalism means in real life, read Carolyn Lei-lanilau and think again." Eh, bite me. The title indicates performance outright, so being irritated by yet another trifle constructed for mainstream readers is a me-problem. Either I'll get over it before the library wants the book back, or I won't.
I'm currently at 10% of Skull Water by Heinz Insu Fenkl (2023), a continuation of Memories of My Ghost Brother.
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Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 02:50 pm
We got 6-8 inches of snow, and a lot of cold, but we're still here. Power works, gas works, water works. I'm going out now to try to take down the plowed wall next to the cars. It only took 2 days to see a snowplow -- but the area is still closed down through tomorrow, so not surprising.
Not looking forward to more from next weekend.
ETA: Both cars have 2.5 feet of ice and snow along the side next to the lane. I couldn't budge it.
If the SU can't either, we may have to phone the incel across the street to dig it out for an exorbitant fee. If we didn't have the possibility of another storm, with wetter snow, this coming weekend I'd let it sit, but I will still have that doctor's appointment next week.
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Not looking forward to more from next weekend.
ETA: Both cars have 2.5 feet of ice and snow along the side next to the lane. I couldn't budge it.
If the SU can't either, we may have to phone the incel across the street to dig it out for an exorbitant fee. If we didn't have the possibility of another storm, with wetter snow, this coming weekend I'd let it sit, but I will still have that doctor's appointment next week.
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 01:45 pm
( books (Pratchett, Robert) )
yarning
no yarn group Sunday due to the ice storm, such as it was. We didn't get as much freezing rain as forecast, but we got enough to make it unsafe to drive here, where we utterly lack the infrastructure for it. I've been making more hats for the children's shelter. A ridic number of hats. Like, twenty.
healthcrap
after the shingles shot, I didn't feel right until *Sunday*. Thanks for the sympathetic words on my last post. (We'll do it all again for shot #2 in a couple of months.)
#resist
+ https://standwithminnesota.com
+ https://projectreliefme.com (mutual aid in Maine)
+ Jan 30-31: ICE OUT OF EVERYWHERE shutdown and protest
+ Feb 17th: #50501 Protest: Impeach, Convict, Remove, Defund
+ March 28: No Kings Protest #3
+ There's a drive for knitted or crocheted balaclavas for the Minneapolis protesters, so I'm looking into doing that, except I've used nearly all my appropriate worsted weight yarn that's not earmarked for money-making projects. Not sure what to do. Anybody got a yarn stash they don't need? Or I guess I could go to walmart, which, sadly, is cheaper than Michaels. Or I could order an equivalent $ number of balaclavas from amazon and have them sent there. Hmm.
I hope you're all doing well & keeping up your spirit in spite of all the horrors. Much love! <333
yarning
no yarn group Sunday due to the ice storm, such as it was. We didn't get as much freezing rain as forecast, but we got enough to make it unsafe to drive here, where we utterly lack the infrastructure for it. I've been making more hats for the children's shelter. A ridic number of hats. Like, twenty.
healthcrap
after the shingles shot, I didn't feel right until *Sunday*. Thanks for the sympathetic words on my last post. (We'll do it all again for shot #2 in a couple of months.)
#resist
+ https://standwithminnesota.com
+ https://projectreliefme.com (mutual aid in Maine)
+ Jan 30-31: ICE OUT OF EVERYWHERE shutdown and protest
+ Feb 17th: #50501 Protest: Impeach, Convict, Remove, Defund
+ March 28: No Kings Protest #3
+ There's a drive for knitted or crocheted balaclavas for the Minneapolis protesters, so I'm looking into doing that, except I've used nearly all my appropriate worsted weight yarn that's not earmarked for money-making projects. Not sure what to do. Anybody got a yarn stash they don't need? Or I guess I could go to walmart, which, sadly, is cheaper than Michaels. Or I could order an equivalent $ number of balaclavas from amazon and have them sent there. Hmm.
I hope you're all doing well & keeping up your spirit in spite of all the horrors. Much love! <333
Tags:
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 01:21 pm
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 01:57 pm
What I Just Finished Reading
Nothing.
What I'm Reading Now
Comics Wednesday!
( 1776 #3, Iron Man #1, Sorcerer Supreme #2 )
What I'm Reading Next
IDK. Once again, I need fewer migraines.
Nothing.
What I'm Reading Now
Comics Wednesday!
( 1776 #3, Iron Man #1, Sorcerer Supreme #2 )
What I'm Reading Next
IDK. Once again, I need fewer migraines.
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 06:00 pm
What I read
Finished The Edge. Well, there was a fair amount of research on Canadian railways went into that....
Shani Akilah, For Such a Time as This (2024), sortes ereader, i.e. opened up as I was scrolling my unread list - not sure how I came across this but enjoyed it, linked short stories about a group of Black British young (ish) people of diverse origins.
Forgot to mention this which I had already started last week and put to one side: Dennis Covington, Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia (1995, reissue with new afterword 2009) - I think I saw something about this somewhere and was interested in the idea. I was a bit irked at first by the style which was a certain kind of upmarket journalistic, and I was then a bit hmmm about him getting in touch with his own occluded lost in the mists family roots, but it was intriguing stuff, especially the way he got both drawn into the whole thing and then ejected by the community.
Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man (1964), since we watched the movie at the weekend (Colin Firth gives with brood) and I couldn't remember the book well enough to say how it matched (it did some odd things). Not, I think, peak Isherwood.
Madeleine E. Robins, The Sleeping Partner (Sarah Tolerance #3) (2011, recently reissued) - I read the earlier ones ages ago but missed this, which I was really gripped by.
On the go
And straight on to Madeleine E. Robins, The Doxies Penalty (Sarah Tolerance #4) (2025)
Up next
No idea - though a book I requested for review has now turned up. (Also essay review I turned in months ago finally came back with some minimal edits to do.)
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 07:13 pm
This month is almost over, so, let's hear it. *g* How did it go with your fannish creativity?
Did you manage to make a thing?
Created fanart or made vids? Wrote fic or meta? How about picspams, link collections, character mood boards, themed playlists, promo posts, or whatever else you create for fannish enjoyment?
Here's the place to share it with us! Leave a link in the comments, or elaborate on it as much as you want.
Did you manage to make a thing?
Created fanart or made vids? Wrote fic or meta? How about picspams, link collections, character mood boards, themed playlists, promo posts, or whatever else you create for fannish enjoyment?
Here's the place to share it with us! Leave a link in the comments, or elaborate on it as much as you want.
Tags:
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 01:03 pm
Tags:
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 05:36 pm
It is Wednesday, my dudes, and that means a new Storytime is waiting for you, wherever you get your podcasts.
This week’s story, Magnificent Maurice, or the Flowers of Immortality, was SO MUCH FUN to narrate. Here’s my intro:
About ten thousand years ago, some cats in Mesopotamia looked at a bunch of humans and thought, “I bet we could trick them into giving us food and shelter,” so they domesticated themselves. As a dog owner who is a member of my cat, Watson’s, staff, I’d say that it worked out pretty well for them.
This week, it is a privilege to tell you a story about one of the greatest cats who has ever lived (just ask him, he’ll tell you), a very special cat, with a very special job. I’m going to straighten my collar and make sure my hair is just so, as I tell you the tale of Magnificent Maurice, or the Flowers of Immortality.
You’re going to love this, especially if you are on staff for one or more housecats. In Patreon, we are celebrating our feline bosses, sharing their full names (Watson’s True and Full Name is His Royal Majesty, Sir Waddington Pottybottoms III, Esq.,The First of His Name, Head of The Complaint Department) and the titles of the songs we sing to them, featuring their names. It’s a lot of fun, and I encourage all of my fellow pet owners to jump in, here, if not there, and share.
Also, before I hit publish and get ready for work, I want to take a minute to thank all of you who listen to the podcast, who have subscribed to our Patreon, who have taken the time and effort to rate, review, and recommend us so we can grow. You are making it possible for me to do this, week after week, and I am intensely grateful to you. It is such a privilege to entertain you, to tell you these wonderful stories, and introduce you to authors you may not know, but I think you will love. And speaking of that, if you missed this, I wanted you to know that Senaa Ahmad, whose The Skin of a Teenage Boy is not Alive was on the pod a couple weeks ago, has a brand new short story collection out called The Age of Calamities (“Written by an inimitable new voice, The Age of Calamities is a genre-defying, mind-bending collection of absurdist, funny, and speculative short stories.“), that is available wherever you get your books.
It is such a gift to do this, y’all. If I can do this as my regular job for the rest of my career, if I never have to go work on camera again, if all I do is tell you stories and promote the Arts, I will be so happy. It feels like that has a very real chance of happening, and that fills me with such joy, I feel like I’m going to burst.
Okay. NOW I am going to go get ready for work. Stay safe, friends.
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 12:13 pm
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 05:02 pm
General thoughts on large changes:
* Having three ages with only some things carried over between them actually works really well. If you do well on the victory tracks on one age it helps in the next age, but it's not impossible to catch up. And it's meaningful to pivot from science one age to conquering in another age to economics in another.
* Adding hexes to cities is simpler and meaningful, but confusing to people used to earlier Civ games. Each tile has a natural yield. When you grow the city (when you get a new pop) into that tile, it gets the appropriate improvement. Hexes adjacent to city tiles (within 3 of the centre) don't produce any yield but count as controlled by the city. (That's where you can expand into) Placing buildings also grows the city. Building count as urban hexes, they all need to be contiguous with the centre.
* Gaining influence spent for diplomatic actions works really well. It makes investing in diplomacy meaningful, for warlike civs as well as friendly ones. It makes a difference which civs you butter up, but you can't infinitely butter up a civ that doesn't like you. And influence is used during war to influence war exhaustion, so a more/less popular war makes a real difference.
* There is a soft cap on the number of settlements which I like. It's less runaway victory/failure than how many settlers you can build. But it's less dramatic when building a settler isn't A Big Deal.
* Independent powers make a bit more sense. There are villages which can be hostile (like barbarians) or can be befriended (when they become city states). Late in the age you get auto-hostile ones who act like barbarians. It feels more organic.
* I like mixing and matching leaders and civs, and mixing and matching different civs appropriate to the region between ages.
* They got rid of rock-paper-scissors units. But overall the balance of military seems fairly good. I really enjoy it when I have good unique milirary units, like horse archers (just always OP), or elephants with machine gun mounts (Siam FTW) 🙂
* Some of the victory tracks are really fun. In modern age, economic requires connecting a rail network and processing factory resources. In exploration age, military/expansion track rewards settlements in foreign lands, extra if conquered, extra if your religion, so it can reward a variety of play. But some feel more unfinished, just "do X amount of Y".
( Read more... )
* Having three ages with only some things carried over between them actually works really well. If you do well on the victory tracks on one age it helps in the next age, but it's not impossible to catch up. And it's meaningful to pivot from science one age to conquering in another age to economics in another.
* Adding hexes to cities is simpler and meaningful, but confusing to people used to earlier Civ games. Each tile has a natural yield. When you grow the city (when you get a new pop) into that tile, it gets the appropriate improvement. Hexes adjacent to city tiles (within 3 of the centre) don't produce any yield but count as controlled by the city. (That's where you can expand into) Placing buildings also grows the city. Building count as urban hexes, they all need to be contiguous with the centre.
* Gaining influence spent for diplomatic actions works really well. It makes investing in diplomacy meaningful, for warlike civs as well as friendly ones. It makes a difference which civs you butter up, but you can't infinitely butter up a civ that doesn't like you. And influence is used during war to influence war exhaustion, so a more/less popular war makes a real difference.
* There is a soft cap on the number of settlements which I like. It's less runaway victory/failure than how many settlers you can build. But it's less dramatic when building a settler isn't A Big Deal.
* Independent powers make a bit more sense. There are villages which can be hostile (like barbarians) or can be befriended (when they become city states). Late in the age you get auto-hostile ones who act like barbarians. It feels more organic.
* I like mixing and matching leaders and civs, and mixing and matching different civs appropriate to the region between ages.
* They got rid of rock-paper-scissors units. But overall the balance of military seems fairly good. I really enjoy it when I have good unique milirary units, like horse archers (just always OP), or elephants with machine gun mounts (Siam FTW) 🙂
* Some of the victory tracks are really fun. In modern age, economic requires connecting a rail network and processing factory resources. In exploration age, military/expansion track rewards settlements in foreign lands, extra if conquered, extra if your religion, so it can reward a variety of play. But some feel more unfinished, just "do X amount of Y".
( Read more... )
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 08:09 am
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snowflake_challenge: Tropes: "Talk about your favorite tropes (themes, motifs, cliches) in media or transformative works."I've been musing on this Snowflake prompt since it posted. Just yesterday, I finally looked up the proper fannish/genre terms for my own most favorite kind of story (not previously having known there were terms for it!). Apparently, the vocabulary is "noblebright" (fantasy) and "hopepunk" (sci-fi). It seems these terms have nuances beyond their genre associations, but together they seem to orbit the general target of the stories of my heart.
I've previously tried to express this storytelling approach and way of understanding by quoting Lois McMaster Bujold on "choosing the hard right over the easy wrong," Saint Teresa of Ávila on "no hands, no feet on earth but yours," and Forever Knight on "the girl or the cup." But, unanchored, misconceived, those could be made to lead to despair, nihilism, hopelessness, and that's not at all what I want. Now, I do love to read tragic and sad stories! By all means, serve me character death! Serve me whump! But I want it in a world of meaning, a universe where the characters' choices and efforts matter. I want characters who fight for the good and the better and the right, whether at the closest, tiniest level in their own lives or at the widest, grandest level for all lives. I want stories that never preach cynicism to the reader.
The worlds in which these favorite character types live are of course full of woe. There are monsters and villains and tyrants who sometimes, perhaps often, win the day. But they won't -- can't -- win eternity. The stories emphasize that caring -- love, community, honesty, self-sacrifice, justice, mercy -- is brave, powerful, and dangerous to oppressive systems and all forces of darkness. Hope isn't just a feeling; it's a chosen determination about how to live. Actions have consequences. Characters have agency. Good and evil are different and the difference matters.
When a hero falls, his god embraces him, even if his world never did.
(Now that I have these words, I need to update my profile and standing "Likes & dislikes" post.)
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Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 09:56 am
Because I never brought it over here! Here's the Yuletide fic I wrote!!!
Can you believe it took me 39 years of life to write The Blue Castle fic? I'm very proud of this--it's a love letter to the book and the characters, and I'm so glad that Yuletide gave me the nudge to write it. Yuletide!!!!
of wild honey (7940 words) by Lirazel
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Blue Castle - L. M. Montgomery
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Barney Snaith/Valancy Stirling
Characters: Barney Snaith, Valancy Stirling, Cecilia "Cissy" Gay, Abel Gay
Additional Tags: Yuletide, Yuletide 2025, 5 Things
Summary:
Can you believe it took me 39 years of life to write The Blue Castle fic? I'm very proud of this--it's a love letter to the book and the characters, and I'm so glad that Yuletide gave me the nudge to write it. Yuletide!!!!
of wild honey (7940 words) by Lirazel
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Blue Castle - L. M. Montgomery
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Barney Snaith/Valancy Stirling
Characters: Barney Snaith, Valancy Stirling, Cecilia "Cissy" Gay, Abel Gay
Additional Tags: Yuletide, Yuletide 2025, 5 Things
Summary:
Abel held up his hands, helpless. “She’s sitting in my house holding Cissy’s hand this very minute! She gave me her valise before I left the house, and I thought sure she’d send an errand boy to fetch it back tomorrow. But no, not an hour ago she walked right up to my door, determined as you please, and I do believe she intends to stay despite how the whole damned ruck of Stirlings must be throwing a tantrum as we speak. The spunk of the girl! The ways of Providence are strange.”
Life was full of surprises, but in Barney’s experience, people generally weren’t. Oh, people had surprised him before, in his callow youth, but that was because he hadn’t understood who they really were. Once you got down to someone’s true character, you could see that they’d been who they were all along. People mostly kept doing just what they’d been doing their whole lives, what they’d been brought up to do. Of course he’d met a handful of those who bucked tradition and struck out on their own, but he hadn’t expected to find one in Deerwood.
“Is it Providence?” he asked. “That seems as clear a demonstration of free will as anything I’ve ever heard.”
Five times Valancy Stirling surprises Barney Snaith.
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Sunday, February 1st, 2026 05:54 am
and god, I love her so much. She truly is a sweet and gentle kitty.
*******************
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 08:56 am
What dark motive leads a successful teen comedian who has vowed never to date anyone less funny than her to help an unfunny but otherwise personable young man work on his comedic skills?
Someone Hertz, volume 1 by Ei Yamano (Translated by David Evely)
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