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Choices
Jul. 8th, 2026 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessAnd then they offered me 0% apr for FIVE years.
It's hard to say no to that.
Came home, searched for end of life planning things that are also humorous found them (and then went to drink pickle brine so I can speed things along)
After that I saw something on Facebook that sounded so good so I went off the site to track it down in the real world so to speak. I found it. It's not some b.s. made up for FB. abruzzo sister tours and they do ancestral tourism. I will check into them more. This would be like archaeotours in Wales where I have a private tour. I am willing to pay for that. Hoping this is an option that doesn't have 1001 complaints lodged around them.
What I'm Reading Wednesday
What I Just Finished Reading:
One of the Girls - this was good
Our Wicked Gifts - not bad, horrorish
What I am Currently Reading:
Purra-normal Activity - a cozy mystery, so far so good
The Silent Companions - for summerween
The Harvesting - Zombie apocalypse fare
What I Plan to Read Next: some of my looming arcs (carry me to the grave or the seance garden) and things for popsugar
The Hockey Player
Jul. 8th, 2026 03:30 pmolivermossThe coda to all this, which happened after the doc wrapped I assume, is that the Oilers also didn't re-sign him. He's UFA, and currently unsigned. So, the Oilers acquired him and treated him seriously as a prospect for their NHL team, then switched to their new coach Mike Babcock, and then he was not re-signed. Now, we don't know how this played out. Luke might have seen the hiring of Babcock and decided to GTFO, or maybe he feels he has a better chance to move up in a different franchise. But his story is very much an unfinished one and it's a bit strange for this doc to drop while he's on the market and has been for a bit.
Again, we don't know what is up. He might have multiple offers and is deciding. I obviously think he'd be a great fit for Coachella Valley, and hey we just hired staff specifically to develop defencemen! But the doc tries to end on a happy note, when in reality things are deeply unresolved.
I check Luke's Elite Prospects page daily, but if he finally gets a contract somewhere I'll probably hear about it elsewhere first.
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (2021)
Jul. 8th, 2026 06:16 pmpauraqueI was so-so on A Memory Called Empire. I would say I had a stronger reaction to the sequel, both positive and negative.
First, the positive: I loved Nine Hibiscus and Twenty Cicada, new characters in this installment. She's the passionate, brilliant captain of the flagship, he's her loyal, cerebral first officer who adheres to a stoic alien philosophy. They deal with high-stakes ethical quandaries as the lives of millions hang in the balance, and they love each other with an intensity that goes largely unspoken. Is this aspect of the book pandering to people who love Kirk and Spock? Perhaps, but I had a great time being pandered to. I wanted the entire book to be about these two.
I mostly liked the stuff about establishing communication with the aliens too, which is also classically Star Trek in tone and approach. (It bugged me a little that the linguistics wasn't more realistic, but you rarely get that in SF and it isn't really the point here.)
Unfortunately, the things I liked were pretty definitively outweighed by all the half-baked themes, garbled political messaging, and many characters' infuriatingly stupid choices and baffling cluelessness. It wasn't quite throw-the-book-across-the-room level, but at certain moments it got close.
Ranting and spoilers
- How can it possibly take SO LONG for the characters to figure out that the aliens are a hivemind???? It's not just that it's a basic SF trope and obvious to the reader from literally the first page of the book. It's also that all the prompting the characters need to make the leap is right there in front of them the whole time! Mahit herself has Yskandr's mind in her head, there are the Sunlit guards and the Shard pilots who share their perceptions through technology... To these characters, the existence of a species with a shared consciousness shouldn't even be surprising. But it still takes them 400 fucking pages to figure it out, and they act like it's a galaxy-shattering shock. This makes no sense whatsoever and it makes most of the characters look inexcusably dumb.- I don't get the way the Mahit/Three Seagrass relationship is written at all. In the first book, they liked each other from the start and then nothing happened with it until suddenly they kissed at the end. In this one, they have a stupid fight at the beginning and feel weird and uncomfortable around each other for hundreds of pages until suddenly they fuck. This didn't work for me. It especially didn't work because I felt like I was supposed to side with Mahit in their argument, but I didn't, because Three Seagrass doesn't know what Mahit is mad about and Mahit refuses to tell her. Mahit's narration is explicit that she wants Three Seagrass to know what's bothering her without being told, so basically she's punishing Three Seagrass for not being fucking psychic. Am I the only one who thinks it would have been more interesting if they'd actually ever talked about any of the issues between them, rather than just winding themselves up about it in their heads?? By the end I wasn't rooting for them to get/stay together at all, so when Mahit ran away from the relationship (again) I didn't even care.
- I felt the lack of gender stuff in the first book was a missed opportunity. In this book, the author seems to be strenuously trying to miss that opportunity as hard as she can. There is one scene where Mahit (in their shared consciousness) accuses Yskandr of not understanding fashion for "female-bodied people." It's brushed off. There's another scene where Three Seagrass says she wasn't sure if Mahit liked people of her "gender and sex," and several where Three Seagrass silently wonders if she had sex with Mahit, or with Mahit and Yskandr, or just Yskandr. No further discussion of these points. I truly don't understand what Martine is going for here. She chose to create a protagonist who is a woman sharing a mind and body with a man. She seems dimly aware that there might be interesting things one could say about this. She apparently doesn't want to say any of them.
- Even leaving aside the gender issues, I think there's a lot more that could have been done to explore the mindsharing scenario. Yskandr often reads like an invisible sidekick who just pipes up now and then to give Mahit some information, advice, or a snarky comment. What is his experience/consciousness/sense of embodiment like? We don't get his own internal monologue, just the things he "says" to Mahit. It doesn't feel as weird and alien as it seems like it should.
- Mahit and Twenty Cicada should have talked! He's assimilated to Teixcalaan in some ways but maintained his cultural distinctiveness in others; doesn't that seem like an extremely relevant perspective for Mahit to hear? The books act like Mahit is the only one in the galaxy who has mixed feelings about Teixcalaan, but surely she can't be.
- On a larger level, these books are about an absolutist expansionist empire and the vulnerable republic it threatens, and nothing about any of that is resolved or even really explored all that much. The child heir Eight Antidote is an interesting character and he's trying to do the right thing, but there's so much more going on here that can't and won't be resolved by a kid with some moral fiber taking the throne. Having a relatively nice emperor does not solve the problems of imperialism. In this book we learn more about how systemically fucked up Lsel is too, and nothing happens with that either. The plot doesn't even make it hard for Mahit to decide whether to stay loyal to Lsel, since there are power-mad authorities on Lsel who want to KILL HER. No wonder people were expecting a trilogy here; this book does not wrap up a single loose end.
Okay, that's probably more than enough of a rant. TL;DR: Book dances around a lot of interesting speculative and interpersonal possibilities and solidly lands on very few of them.
wednesday reads and things
Jul. 8th, 2026 04:00 pmisisWhat I've recently read:
The Astrobiology Immersion Program by
petra recommended it. AU in which on the way back to Erid, Rocky and Ryland Grace bodyswap. I love bodyswap as a trope and it's especially rich when the bodies are alien to each other. I thought it was a little long, and the handwaving a little handwavy, though the ultimate "why" resolution was super interesting, and I really liked that the story continues through to the consequences on Erid.The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt, which is a sort of literary dark-humor western, with a really fun narrative voice. Charlie and Eli Sisters are Bad Men With Guns who wield them for a mysterious mogul called the Commodore. Except Eli's got a sensitive side, and he's starting to wonder why he's killing people for money when he could just settle down and run a trading post somewhere. My favorite part, oddly, was the throughline of Eli being completely unable to hold onto any money; if he doesn't give it away out of soft-heartedness as soon as he gets it, it's stolen, and I was delighted every time it happened.
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley, which was a recommendation from
merit - I couldn't resist the premise of a woman waking up with amnesia and learning, through letters written from her former self, that she's a high-up bureaucrat in a secret organization of people with supernatural powers who deal with supernatural crimes and threats to the country. Sort of like Rivers of London but with Ghostbusters-level humor. ETA: and now I am reminded of another reason I really liked this: the main character, Myfanwy Thomas, discovers (somewhat to her surprise) that she is frighteningly competent at her job. Also there is a fantastic female character with whom I ship her (and there is fic). Anyway, lots of fun, and I'm now reading the second book in this series, Stiletto.What I've recently watched:
S4 of Dark Winds, which unfortunately had quite a bit of action in LA - not that I have anything against LA, it's just it's not the familiar Four Corners scenery. As soon as they (metaphorically) hung a German on the wall I was expecting it to fire (metaphorically) Karl May, and I was not disappointed.
We've just watched the first episode of S2 of the live-action One Piece. I love how goofy it is!
small amusements in media references
Jul. 8th, 2026 02:53 pmbluedreaming(I originally shared this on discord because that’s where I put microposting these days and then I figured: why not here?)
Dreamwidth reading woes
Jul. 8th, 2026 11:39 ambluedreaming( Read more... )
So, I’m stuck!
Manners?
Jul. 8th, 2026 07:24 pmoldestcharmThe people at the station weren't much better. I do not understand how no one these days lets people get off the train first, but is already rushing to board. No one noticed the wheelchair lady or the guy with the crutches — both of whom I'd held the door for earlier at the station. I got on the train last, being shoved at.
Anyway, I got yelled at by the ticket lady on the train. She was annoyed I didn't put my small but heavy suitcase up on the shelf. The shelf was already full of other people's stuff and I am not allowed to lift heavy things as I am recovering from my surgery. I hadn't left it in anyone's way, it was as close to me as possible, but she was in a bad mood and I suppose she felt she could take it out on me.
Just... this isn't how I was raised. My mum did a good job instilling manners in us and now it seems they are utterly useless. One good thing is that I made some people smile. I would focus on that, but unfortunately during the whole ordeal with the ticket lady I moved wrong and now the surgery wounds are a whole lot more painful that the were previously. It will pass, I know. And I'll get back to making people smile tomorrow at work. I hope each one of you found something to smile over today. <3
On a less morose note, here's a verbatim quote from /r/whatsthatbook:
Jul. 10th, 2026 11:26 amconuly( Read more... )
I'm free(?)
Jul. 8th, 2026 03:09 pmsolenneAnyway, in order to keep my mind off future I've been focusing on hobbies as much as possible. I'm continuing A Storm of Swords after a big pause due to exams. I also started my reread of Harrow the Ninth last night as a treat for sending the portfolio. It's somewhat hard for me to read right now. I am slower than usual, and I think it's due to mu brain being fried from looking at words the past week. Still, I am really enjoying myself and I am determined to catch any possible foreshadowing I missed last time. The last time I reread it I did the same, but I was partially listening to the audiobook, so I didn't underline anything. Now I am back to reading the pdf and am highlighting everything in Readest, which I started using recently.
The next on the list is She Who Became the Sun, and then possibly Babel. I am trying to think of a way to read them without ruining the nice covers. I have to take into account that I will be going on a vacation, and I do love reading on the beach, so I'll probably have to read something else If I don't want to ruin the nice covers of Babel.
I've also been dealing with TV Time shutting down, but I have moved my data, so now I can decide what to do in peace. I've moved to Refract, but the app is now experiencing some issues because so many TV Time users have moved there. The developers are trying their best, and say that everything will be fixed as soon as they get used to like 30times more users. I don't envy their position. Will probably be starting a list in google sheets just in case. This will probably keep me busy enough to stave off the imminent existential crisis.
And I keep existing.
Solenne
Word: Lathi
Jul. 8th, 2026 06:45 amstonepicnicking_okapi...lathi
a heavy stick often of bamboo bound with iron used in India as a weapon especially by police (as in dispersing a crowd or quelling a riot)
...which I came across in the DW book club book Midnight at Malabar House:
And then independence had happened, and Seth --a tear-gas-and-lathi-charge officer, a man who had toed the British line, believing his duty to his uniform to supersede his duty to the cause of his countrymen-- had fallen from favour.
YMI -- ODB: 8 July 2026
Jul. 8th, 2026 03:45 amsparoweODB: The Holy Grail
July 8, 2026
READ: Matthew 26:20-30
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Matthew 26:28
For centuries, people have been fascinated by the Holy Grail—the cup Jesus drank from at the Last Supper. The legends surrounding King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table detail their obsession over the search for the cup. They believed it had magical powers. In film, Indiana Jones and his father, Henry, fulfilled Henry’s lifelong pursuit of the Grail.
While this makes for fascinating storytelling, the truth is much more straightforward. The cup itself has no special powers. The real power is found in what it represents. Matthew describes the scene in the upper room the night before Jesus went to the cross: “Then [Jesus] took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’ ” (26:27-28). The cup is a picture of the blood that Jesus would shed on our behalf.
John the Baptist introduced Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Hebrews 9:22 tells us, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” And Paul wrote that Christ himself is “our Passover lamb” (1 Corinthians 5:7). Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. How thankful we are for the shed blood of our Savior, the Lamb!
— Bill Crowder
What does it mean for you to celebrate Communion? How do you express your thanks for the sacrifice Jesus made for you?
Loving Father, left to myself I would be forever lost. Thank You for the provision of Your Son and His willingness to go to the cross in my place.
Source: Our Daily Bread
rising numbers still
Jul. 7th, 2026 11:04 pmdaryl_wor18,372
couple days later...
and THEN
again I wish I knew but nobody gets in touch, alas....
It's baaaaaack
Jul. 7th, 2026 08:07 pmpetrea_mitchellDidn't the parties settle like five years ago? some may ask. And they would be correct, but apparently the latest owner of SCO still thinks it can invalidate that.
Chaghan's Death
Jul. 7th, 2026 07:17 pmrocky41_7Flinging myself into the sun over Chaghan's death and its impact on Esen and Baoxiang.
The night before Chaghan's death, Baoxiang and Chaghan have a really awful fight, where Chaghan draws his blade on Baoxiang (who is unarmed); whether or not he would have actually killed Baoxiang if Esen hadn't intervened is unclear. (Chapter 12)
Esen found himself without anything to say. Up until this moment he had truly believed that if Baoxiang would just try, he could still be the son Chaghan wanted. But now he knew it had always been impossible.
As if reading his mind, Baoxiang said simply, "See?"
The next day, after the hunt, when Baoxiang is refused a horse on his father's orders, they fight again (Chapter 12):
Lord Wang met his eyes, pale and defiant. "So am I to find out by happenstance, from the servants, that my own father has disowned me?"
Chaghan said coldly, "Your father? I thought I had made it clear that you've lost any right you had to use that name. Would that my sister had died before getting you! Get out of my sight! Get out!"
Yet, seconds later, when Chaghan is in danger (Chapter 12):
"Father!" Lord Wang's voice was shrill with horror as he threw himself lengthwise into the dirt at the edge, heedless of his silks...He saw the two reaching hands grasp. The cords in Lord Wang's neck stood out with the effort as he shouted, "General, help!"
Even after these two horrific fights they've had, even after years of Chaghan making it clear he regrets adopting Baoxiang and the thousands of implicit and explicit ways he's told Baoxiang he thinks he's worthless, Baoxiang still sees Chaghan as his father. When Chaghan is in danger, even immediately after Chaghan has publicly disowned him, Baoxiang does not hesitate for a second to rush to Chaghan's aid.
Yet as Esen looks at Baoxiang in the aftermath of this event, of their father's death, his mind almost immediately turns to suspecting Baoxiang let Chaghan die. Yes, Ouyang had sowed the seeds of that thought, but Esen is the one willing to believe, almost immediately, that Baoxiang let this happen on purpose.
When they return to Anfeng for Chaghan's funeral, Esen bars Baoxiang from attending. (Chapter 15)
He [Esen] strode to the doors and flung them open, stepping out into the diffuse brightness of the hot pearl sky. The empty courtyard echoed with the memory of those hundreds of people in white. But today there was only one figure there. From a distance Wang Baoxiang's elaborate white drapery and drained face had all the humanity of a carved piece of jade.
On the day of his father's funeral, Baoxiang stands alone outside in the courtyard because Esen will not allow him to attend the ceremony, because Esen has already become so wholly convinced that Baoxiang let their father die.
The first time Esen and Baoxiang speak after this incident, Esen makes the following observation. This occurs as Esen sits at his father's desk for the first time, trying to get a grip on running the household he now heads (chapter 15):
His [Baoxiang's] fine-boned Manji features seemed more prominent, and there were shadows under his eyes. Under his familiar brittle smirk, there was something as pale and secretive as a mushroom.
The very first thing he does in their first post-Chaghan confrontation is to highlight Baoxiang's foreignness. His otherness. Esen is full-blooded Mongol. Baoxiang is not. Esen doesn't even think of him as Nanren, but as Manji. Barbarian. And in this moment, when Esen regards him full-on for the first time since suspecting him of killing their father, he thinks Baoxiang's foreign features are "more prominent."
Of course, they fight (chapter 15):
Esen slammed back his chair. "You dare speak of him to me!"
"Why?" asked Baoxiang, advancing. His voice rose. "Why can't I speak of our father? Do tell, is there something you think I did?"
...
"I don't admit anything! I don't need to! You've already made up your mind." Baoxiang grabbed the desk and held on..."No matter what I say, no matter what I do, both of you would think the worst of me. You slander me with ill thoughts I've never had--no, not even when he had me on my knees, and was cursing my very existence. You think I murdered him!"
It's a brutal, ugly, honest fight that's really gutting to read (kudos to SPC). It's not just that Esen suspects Baoxiang might have done it--it's that, as Baoxiang said, he's already decided Baoxiang did it. Without speaking to Baoxiang, without really considering any other option, he almost immediately reached for and settled on "Baoxiang killed our father out of resentment." It's how quick and willing Esen was--like Chaghan--to believe the worst of Baoxiang. He begins the entire encounter, as noted above, by mentally clocking that Baoxiang isn't like him or Chaghan. He's different. He's foreign. He's secretive.
We, the readers, were present at the moment of Chaghan's imperilment. We know that Baoxiang tried to save him, that in spite of Chaghan's abuse, he was desperate to bring him back to safety, but he failed. Esen, in absence of having seen it for himself, is ready to believe right off the bat that Baoxiang acted selfishly and viciously--and that, I think, is what really cuts him. That his own brother, probably the person he is closest to (which says a lot, given how little these two actually know each other...) is so quick to see the worst of his intentions.
Esen concludes this fight by disowning Baoxiang as Chaghan did days earlier (chapter 15):
Esen slammed his hands against the desk with such ferocity that it dealt a blow to Baoxiang and sent him stumbling...Esen heard the ugliness of his voice: it was his father's voice. "He was right about you. You're worthless. Worse than that: a curse. Rue the day this house took you in! Even if I have not the authority of the Great Khan, then at least my ancestors should witness the truth of my words in disowning your name. Get out!"
It takes Esen all of a handful of days to assume Chaghan's former relationship with Baoxiang. Where before he defended Baoxiang (not particularly zealously, but still) to Chaghan, now he echoes Chaghan's own words, the same words he knew had hurt Baoxiang so badly before.
It's crushing. We know they care about each other, we do. But in this time when they should be leaning together, to support each other in their grief, Chaghan's legacy has left them with this. Baoxiang at last is left with no allies, and Esen, although he doesn't know it, is left with no one to stand between him and Ouyang.
No clue about electricity
Jul. 7th, 2026 09:09 pmcornerofmadnessIt was a day of me mostly working and feeling nauseous. I DID get the next scene in the slasher story done with a lot of help from FB friends (I was having a brain fart, couldn't think of all the skill sets you see at a renn fest)
Ah time for my Buffy verse Fannish 50 questions
Day 10: Least favourite episode
A couple years back Rolling Stone did their ranking for an anniversary. I'm not sure I agree with all of it.
right here on Rolling Stone
Some of my least favorites are Doublemeat Palace most because it made me want to punch the Watchers for not taking care of the Slayers (which frankly makes ZERO sense which is why I don't like it)
R.S. said this was the worst Where the Wild Things Are - I don't even remember it so I'll say yes.
Empty Places - the episode where Buffy is pushed out of her house. You already know how much I hate this one
Smashed - thanks for the sexual assault
Gingerbread - It was just a low point for Joyce
( all questions under here )
fic: Start clean-slated, Jumanji (1995), G
Jul. 7th, 2026 06:15 pmlotesseChapters: 1/1
Fandom: Jumanji (1995)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Alan Parrish/Sarah Whittle
Characters: Sarah Whittle (Jumanji), Alan Parrish
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Growing Up Together, Childhood Sweethearts, Childhood Trauma, Time Travel
Summary:
All she has to do is wait for their future to unfold, and unfold herself into the person she was always meant to be.
