Readercon: Lois, Megan, and Tammy; Miles, Gen, and Alanna

Jul. 10th, 2026 11:24 pm
kate_nepveu: sleeping cat carved in brown wood (Default)
[personal profile] kate_nepveu

Panel the first! As soon as the con is done I must dive back into work, so I'm trying to be very prompt and quick about panel notes.

Lois, Megan, and Tammy; Miles, Gen, and Alanna
Bethany Powell, Kate Nepveu (moderator), Marissa Lingen, Sophia Babai, Victoria Janssen

Fans of Lois McMaster Bujold often speak of both Megan Whalen Turner and Tamora Pierce in the same breath, saying their writing and characterization feel the same, that these women are writing in the same vein, scratching the same itch for their readers. Why are these writers being grouped together by fans? How are their works in conversation with each other? Are there additional authors and series that belong on the same list?

As usual, my notes are sketchy when I'm moderating and it's easiest for me to remember what I've said. Also I turned into a pumpkin some time ago this evening. Please correct me if I've misremembered something or ask if I've been too cryptic. Or, you know, just chime in!

panel notes

I opened by saying that most of us were a little puzzled by the premise of the panel.

Bethany had been recommended Vorkosigan via the Queen's Thief fandom as, if you like trickster stories...

Marissa thought that, on reflection, all three had a Dorothy Dunnett influence: very chiaroscuro, high highs and low lows, especially in the YA context when Turner and Pierce started. Also all very concerned about the apparatus of the state.

(Sophia, later: all very interested in the connections between the personal and the political.)

Victoria noted that all three have a lot of characters getting through traumas and being really dramatically changed by it, which can be very compelling especially if you're reading in a fandom.

Sophia thought there was more Dunnett-esque stuff in Pierce's Emelan books, in terms of the character Briar and the worldbuilding. Unfortunately two of the Circle Opens books (Magic Steps and Street Magic) are virulently racist, far beyond the kind of bog-standard racism of the Alanna quartet or Turner's treatment of the various thinly veiled historical inspirations in her series.

I asked what else people might caveat their recommendations of these three authors for.

Bethany: a friend really dislikes narrators withholding information and therefore could not with The Thief.

Many people noted the extremely ... difficult to characterize without major spoilers but morally complex and troubling ... nature of Queen of Attolia, the second Turner book.

Marissa: there's a lot of sexual violence in the Vorkosigan series. Also, to shift to Bujold's other major world, the Chalion-verse, takes place in a setting in which the clear Islamic analogue is demonstrably wrong. Me: yeah, it was a bad day when I learned that The Curse of Chalion—which I'd really enjoyed!—was "what if Isabella and Ferdinand were awesome?"

Someone pointed out, possibly also Marissa, that one thing that those works shared with Pierce and Turner were pantheons with pretty personal relationships with the characters.

Somewhere I noted that I hadn't remembered the last book of the Queen's Thief series at all, and I'd just reread it last night. It was interesting that the narrator of that is also a physically disabled young man in an aristocratic society, but in a very different way than Miles.

An audience member asked about the famous Bujold writing advice of thinking of the worst thing you can do to your character and then doing it. Marissa: terrible advice. Often what writers think of as "the worst" are very common things, none of which is really the worst, either specific to that character or in general. (Me: I'm relistening to The Odyssey and every time Odysseus says he's suffered like no-one else ever, I'm like, what about the slaves you've taken from the cities you've sacked?) Should be something like, of the things that it would be interesting to have happen to your character, do the worst of them.

Sophia, I think: Queen of Attolia is about what the character thinks the worst thing would be and then what it actually is.

A number of other authors and works were suggested:

Victoria, I think Marissa, and I all suggested Elizabeth Wein. Victoria suggested The Sunbird, particularly since it does move from Britain-or-equivalent to Africa-or-equivalent. I caveated that the first book of the series is even more incest than one would expect from Arthuriana. I also recommended Code Name Verity for the Lymond protagonist; caveat, it's World War II.

Sophia: some actual Indian writers: Indra Das; Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta. Also if you've seen me on a panel before, you've already heard me say it, but The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera.

Marissa: Ellen Kushner. Caroline Stevermer. (I would not have thought of Stevermer, who I adore, in this context, but everyone should read When the King Comes Home anyway.)

? Bethany: The Poet Empress by Shen Tao, dark and messed up (my paraphrase even more than usual!)

Sophia: She Who Became the Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan

audience: T. Kingfisher? me: Pierce yes, very interested in craft and competence. not sure about the others.

audience: withholding narrators?

Sophia: We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn.

Me: a little bit The Incandescent by Emily Tesh but it's third person so it doesn't seem the same as The Thief. Some Desperate Glory is wonderfully unreliable in a totally different way.

someone, possibly from the audience: The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie (also interesting gods). also the Imperial Radch trilogy (me: more than once, we only know the narrator's crying because someone asks her about it! why should she tell us such a thing?)

someone recommends The Captive Prince trilogy by C.S. Pascat. (Caveats: slavery; racism.)

Bethany: The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills.

Marissa: Dunnett starter rec, standalone historical King Hereafter, which is Macbeth without Shakespeare.

(Also an audience member, possibly the one who'd put the panel suggestion in? had a very kind compliment about the discussion.)

And that was time.

edit: here is the Strange Horizons article I was thinking of: Photon Torpedoes Break the Space Muqarnas: SFF Audiovisuals and Anti-Muslim Violence. I gather that we couldn't staff a panel jumping off from it this year, but hopefully next.

Poll #34817
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 2

View Respondents

+1 (thumbs-up, I see you, etc.)?

View Answers

+1
2 (100.0%)

Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

Friday five: Yesteryear, Ramtha, Unholy Anorexia, Dementia, Czarina

Jul. 10th, 2026 07:43 pm
rimrunner: (Default)
[personal profile] rimrunner


I’m in a neighborhood book club, and we recently read Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear. I had decidedly mixed feelings about it, though truth be told I’m not sure whether it’s because, as a nerd who mostly reads sci-fi, I was disappointed to discover that it doesn’t actually involve time travel.

I guess that’s a spoiler of sorts, but I was a little annoyed that it was being marketed that way, and it’s clear soon after the main character wakes up in (what she thinks is) the past that that’s not actually the case. What’s actually going on is in some ways more interesting, though I kept feeling the book would resonate with me more if I had more exposure to both influencers and certain brands of Christianity than I want to.

The book did engender a lot of discussion, so, there’s that.

Back in 2022 Seattle Met magazine ran an article on the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, which I just read this week. The Ramtha compound is located about 60 miles south of Seattle in Yelm, WA. I’d heard about it back in the 1980s because Gary Trudeau used to make fun of it in Doonesbury, but I didn’t know it was based in Yelm until I went to the town for the first time in 2009 for a friend’s wedding. Since then I’ve been spending a lot of time in the area and will eventually be living there. The article’s discussion of Ramtha’s effect on the town tracks with what I’ve seen and heard from people I’ve met there, though it doesn’t mention some of the other reasons the town’s population is growing, including people moving north and south from increasingly expensive Portland and Seattle.

Sarah Lyons, whose writing I’ve been very much enjoying lately, had a recent piece titled “On Unholy Anorexia” that I at first read out of idle interest and then found myself really getting into.

Recently I’d decided to intentionally lose some weight, for health-related reasons. This isn’t an invitation to a referendum on that decision, but rather because the decision is recent, I found myself comparing it to the extremities Lyons describes in her piece. As a former Catholic I’m familiar with the forms that turn up in the lives of the saints, but it wouldn’t have occurred to me to compare them to the mortifications of the flesh showing up on Tiktok. I don’t think I’ll be looking there for inspiration.

Neurologist A.B. Acharya writes about his mother’s dementia, and I find some of the beats familiar though not all. My own mother’s aphasia is now so severe that our conversations, when we have them, consist largely of yes or no questions. She is always trying to get up and walk around, which I suspect to be an expression of frustration with her circumstances that she can’t get across in any other way. We were far down this road before I properly recognized we were even on it, and one of the many terrible things about the journey is that it continues whether you want it to or not, whether you’re prepared for it or not, whether you’re doing anything about it or not. Dementia sucks, and there’s no sure way to avoid it.

One thing I enjoy about getting into new-to-me music as an Old is there’s no pressure to know the latest of anything (though I get the impression that that’s less of a thing than it used to be anyway). So, though she’s been around for awhile, I just recently discovered Czarina:

  • Current Mood: blank
  • Current Music: Czarina, "Holy Water
Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

5 Years with "Ocean"

Jul. 10th, 2026 04:39 pm
canyonwalker: My old '98 M3 convertible (cars)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
We've had our car, "Ocean", a BMW 230i convertible, for 5 years now. It's a 2018 model that we bought gently used in 2021 from a dealer in San Diego— and memorably drove nearly 500 miles home.

Here's a pic from when we picked it up:

We finally see the car in person... and buy it! (Jul 2021)

We bought the car, a 2018 model, with 24,xxx miles on the odometer in 2021. A year ago it was at 57,xxx. Today it's just reaching 62,800. It's not surprising to me that we've only added about 5,500 miles in the past year, less than half the US average of 13.5k per year1. Retirement!

How do we like driving an 8 year old car? To us it doesn't feel 8 years old. It barely even feels 5, the amount of time we've owned it. Approaching 63k miles it's still in great shape— modulo that confidence-shaking $4k repair bill this past January. It drives well and handles well, and a convertible is awesome in this part of California. Mild winters and mild summers mean we can drop the top to enjoy al fresco driving much of the year.

What about modern tech? Enh. The one thing we'd like would be wireless Apple CarPlay. That'd make it easier to use mapping tools and play our tunes. But having driven a variety of newer-tech cars as rentals over the past few years I'm really leery of all the undesirable new tech that's becoming increasingly non-optional with newer cars. The good news is that as gently as we're adding miles to this car, maybe we won't have to think seriously about how to replace it for at least 10 more years!



  1. It's easy to find via web search that the average miles driven per year in the US is "12-15k". But what's the source for this? A tiny bit more searching turns up the US Department of Transportation's Average Annual Miles per Driver by Age Group. There you find the overall average of 13,476, often rounded to 13,500 like I did here. It's interesting to see in this primary source the differences by age group and gender!



Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

Pull up a Rock and Sit a Bit (Little Lakes Valley part 2)

Jul. 10th, 2026 08:50 am
canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
Mammoth Lakes Travelog #11
John Muir Wilderness · Tue, 7 Jul 2026. 11:30am.

The air up here at 2 miles high (over 3km) is thin. It's a good thing the Little Lakes Valley trail goes by so many lakes. Each one is an opportunity to stop and rest and enjoy the beauty.

Marsh Lake in the Little Lakes Valley, John Muir Wilderness (Jul 2026)

There are so many lakes up here. The trail goes by half a dozen of them. There are even more if you dart a bit off the main trail. This photo (above) is from the foot of Marsh Lake. You'll barely see it if you stay on the main trail. But a level spur trail about 100 meters across the valley takes you to these amazing views.

Back on the main trail there's another short climb and then a descent to Heart Lake.

Heart Lake in the Little Lakes Valley, John Muir Wilderness (Jul 2026)

Heart Lake is fed by multiple streams, not just Rock Creek coming from the west but also a few dropping down from Mount Starr and Ruby Lake to the north. (Mount Starr is behind the camera in the photo above, so don't ask which one it is. 😅)

Ruby Creek flows into Heart Lake in the Little Lakes Valley, John Muir Wilderness (Jul 2026)

This stream feeding into Heart Lake (above) is the outflow from Ruby Lake 700' of elevation above us. We hiked to Ruby Lake on our previous trip here, in 2022. Why not go back? We considered it. We could have turned right instead of left at the fork earlier on the trail. It's too much to do that hike and this hike in one day, though, and we haven't hiked this route since 2018.

Also, this branch of the trail is easier. 😅

Speaking of taking it easy....

Taking a rest at Box Lake in the Little Lakes Valley, John Muir Wilderness (Jul 2026)

By the time we got to Box Lake we needed a longer rest. Pull up a rock and make yourself comfortable. You can see Hawk here drinking it all in, with views across Box Lake and Mount Morgan (elev. 13,567') beyond.

Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

In gratitude: a 2007 Toyota Prius

Jul. 9th, 2026 11:44 pm
rimrunner: (Default)
[personal profile] rimrunner


I believe our things have a part in shaping us. I also believe that we shape those things in ways that might well be called their spirits. Our use of things makes them individual exemplars of those things, especially if we have them for a long time.

I said goodbye to my Toyota Prius this week, and I’m feeling pretty sad about it.

When I bought the car in 2006, it was mostly because I needed a vehicle for a long commute. At the time I was working in the south end of Tacoma and living adjacent to White Center, a daily round trip of about 70 miles. The second-gen Priuses were just coming out and were so hard to get that the only reason I didn’t have to wait six weeks for mine was that someone in Portland had decided they didn’t want it, and I didn’t care so much about the color that I minded getting a black one instead of dark gray.

That car made a five days a week trip with me for almost 16 years, COVID notwithstanding. I took it into situations that exceeded its design parameters, including forest service roads and snow and ice conditions that it was never meant to face. (It was great on slick roadways, though, thanks to the engine braking feature.) I loved taking it downtown, where I could squeeze it into parking spaces that my previous vehicle, a Chevy S-10, never would have managed.

I had it for 20 years, and over 300,000 miles.

It was still on its first hybrid battery, though I could tell that the battery was losing its juice. When it died, I thought, it would be time to replace the car, as a new battery would certainly cost more than the car was worth. I’d already had several expensive repairs as various parts of the car inevitably wore out. It wasn’t quite the Ship of Theseus, but it might well have gotten there.

I know that this isn’t always the logic people have about cars; in fact, there’s a good chance that my next car will be a used EV as people who bought the first two generations of them start trading up. I’ve never cared about having the latest and greatest of anything, although the Prius was brand new when I bought it, mostly because you couldn’t get used ones, yet. But whenever I decided to fix my car rather than put that money into a new one, it was due to a mix of sentimental attachment, and a belief I have about reducing externalities in general. We make a lot of trash on this planet, and trash is what all cars eventually become.

All that adds up to 20 years, and over 300,000 miles.

At the beginning of June, someone hit the passenger side rear quarter panel while I was stopped at a stoplight. They were trying, it turned out, to avoid another vehicle that had started merging into where they were driving. Not a lot of damage, but body work is never cheap these days, and the body shop quote added up to over $3000 when all was said and done.

The liability claim offered a payout of over $5000. In the end, it all came down to math.

I could’ve taken a lower payout, and gotten it fixed. I could’ve kept driving it, even without repairing the body damage, until the hybrid battery died, or something else expensive to replace, or it was in a worse crash (it had already been rear-ended once), or the engine finally at long last gave out. Occasionally I think maybe I should’ve, but I have a long history of second-guessing my own decisions.

20 years. That’s longer than I’ve been married, though only just.

It feels a bit silly to be sad about it. This isn’t even the worst thing I’ve gone through this week, to say nothing of my wider circle of acquaintance, not to mention the rest of the world. But in the small, personal, immediate circle of my life, something that took care of me and helped me move through the world in ways that I wanted or needed to is gone, something that was part of that life for 20 years and over 300,000 miles.

So long, little car. I’ll miss you.
  • Current Mood: sad
Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

Little Lakes Valley part 1: Into the Wilderness

Jul. 9th, 2026 09:00 pm
canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
Mammoth Lakes Travelog #10
Above Mosquito Flat · Tue, 7 Jul 2026. 10:15am.

Our big hike for today is a trek into the Little Lakes Valley in the John Muir Wilderness. The trail starts from the inauspiciously named Mosquito Flat. But seriously, Mosquito Flat is a great place to start a hike. That's because it's at elev. 10,230' (3,118 m) — and your car gets to do all the climbing up to there!

The Little Lakes Valley trail from Mosquito Flat starts out easy (Jul 2026)

It's a winding 9 mile drive up from Tom's Place along US-395. The  road is barely paved the last mile or two. The parking lot fills quickly, even on a midweek day like today. But once you slather on suntan lotion and bug spray, heft your pack, and start walking it's beautiful views right away. And did I mention, you're already almost 2 miles high?

In Yo' Forest Hiking Yo' Wilderness! (Jul 2026)

Not far up the trail you enter the John Muir Wilderness. US Forest wilderness areas are a special designation with higher protections and stricter rules for use. For me, these boundary signs are like, "NOW ENTERING: HAPPY PLACE".

These happy places do come with toil, though. From the wilderness boundary it's up, up, up.

The trail climbs once you enter the John Muir Wilderness (Jul 2026)

Fortunately the views are amazing. That gives plenty of reason to stop at catch my breath— I mean, admire the scenery and take pictures! Below is Rock Creek flowing through a wet meadow while wildflowers line the path.

We've hiked this trail a few times before. The wildflowers are a nice difference this time. I was wondering if we'd hit snow covering the trail in places. With the burst of heat we had in the spring the snow melted early, though since then the temperatures have been mild so wildflowers are still thriving up here. It's like getting the best of both seasons.

Which way at the fork? YES! (July 2026)

At half a mile in the trail forks. Which way to go? The answer is YES!

We've hiked both trails before. To the right, the trail climbs steeply to Ruby Lake and continues on to the Mono Divide. We hiked to Ruby Lake a few years ago. To the left, the trail continues deeper into the Little Lakes Valley Mack Lake, Marsh Lake, Heart Lake, Box Lake, Long Lake, and others. We hiked to Long Lake several years ago. That's where we're going again today... and farther, if we can make it.

Into Little Lakes Valley in the John Muir Wilderness (Jul 2026)

The payoff for choosing the Little Lakes Valley trail comes almost immediately. I mean, the ascent up from Mosquito Flat was scenic, but just after that fork I showed the trail crests a rise, and the view across the valley really opens up ahead of you. In the distance are a bunch of 13ers (mountain peaks above 13,000' high): Mount Morgan, Rose Finch Peak, Bear Creek Spire, Mount Dade, Mount Abbot, and Mount Mills. (Okay, one of those is only 12,743'. I'll let you figure out which. 😅)

To be continued....

Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

Month 3 on The Pill: Mixed Results

Jul. 9th, 2026 02:23 pm
canyonwalker: Pill bottle and pills (being sick sucks)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
I've been on The Pill for 3 months now. "The Pill", of course, is Ozempic (technically, Rybelsus), a GLP-1 drug. I'm taking it for reducing blood sugar and losing weight.

How's it going? Well, after I experienced noticeable improvements the first two months things flattened out a bit in Month 3. I've lost more weight, though at a slower pace this month than in the first two. I lost 3 pounds this month, bringing my total to 21.

Losing just 3 pounds is frustrating because it's such a slowdown from the first two months. Yes, I know, 3 pounds in a month is a run rate of 36 pounds a year, which would be a great sustained rate for weight loss. But whether 3 pounds/month sustains is the question. With my monthly weight losses of 10 pounds, then 8 pounds, then 3 pounds... well, you can see the declining trend there. I'm concerned that in another month or two I'll bottom out at around 25-30 pounds down from where I started and not lose any more beyond that.

My blood sugar levels, as measured by daily glucose tests, are actually up over the past two weeks, which is concerning. They should be continuing down, or at least staying level with where they were last month. I'll get a better handle on this when I have my next blood test, probably in about a month. The A1C level measured in a blood test is more indicative than the daily glucose checks I can do at home.

On the positive side I continue having only mild side effects. Symptoms like diarrhea and nausea are in check. My eat two-thirds practice I started early in the course has continued serving me well. I even tested that a few nights ago with dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse.

All the above could change in another month. I'm currently taking the medium dose of the pill. My doctor advised that she'll likely advance me to the high dose next, possibly as soon as my followup in another month. The high dose is double what I'm taking currently. It could juice my reductions in blood sugar and weight... and/or juice those unwanted side effects. 🤢

Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

Taking it Easy in Mammoth. Brazilian for Dinner.

Jul. 9th, 2026 08:25 am
canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
Mammoth Lakes Travelog #9
At the Westin · Mon, 6 Jul 2026. 9pm.

We decided to call it a day after hiking Twin Falls today. We had another hike on our list that we'd hoped to do today but we just didn't have the energy for it. The 9,000' altitude at Twin Falls had hit me hard. So we went back to the hotel— which is at merely 8,100' elevation 😅— and relaxed.

We trudged up to our room, stripped off our sweaty hiking gear, changed into swimsuits, and headed back downstairs to the pool deck.

Enjoying the hot tub at the Westin Monache in Mammoth Lakes (Jul 2026)

The water in the swimming pool was a bit too cool for us, especially with a not-warm wind whipping past us every time we stood up. So we soaked in the hot tub and tried to stay mostly submerged.

After a good long soak— I believe we were out there for almost an hour— we headed back up to the room. I peeled off my swim trunks and went straight for a shower as I felt slimy still from the sweat and dust and bug spray and suntan lotion. Plus I wanted to look nice as we'd decided to treat ourselves to dinner this evening at a fancy restaurant: a Brazilian steakhouse!

We hadn't eaten at a churrascaria in, oh, at least a few years at this point. Hawk's been on a medication that makes that type of food not fit her appetite... and now I am, too. Being on Ozempic the past few months I've wondered, with my reduced appetite would I get the value of spending $100pp at an all-you-can-eat steakhouse? And would the food be so tempting that I'd be prone to overeat and get sick after?

We'd been waiting until the stars aligned: It had to be a day when Hawk was ready to enjoy red meat, and both of us had exercised to work up a fair appetite, and I had eaten a minimal lunch. Well, items 1 and 2 were ✅, and for lunch I'd only nibbled on a protein bar. So off to the Brazilian steakhouse for dinner we went! 😋

Back at the room, stuffed and happy, we relaxed on the sofa and enjoyed watching the sunset through our balcony doors.

Watching the sun set from our hotel in Mammoth Lakes (Jul 2026)

It's about 9pm now (I snapped the sunset photo above at 8:18) and I feel like I'm fighting off sleep. Of course I did wake up at 5:30am today with morning light pouring through our windows. And since that's likely to happen again tomorrow, plus we're planning a full day of hiking, I should get to bed soon.

Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

Hiking Twin Falls

Jul. 8th, 2026 06:41 pm
canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
Mammoth Lakes Travelog #8
Twin Lakes · Mon, 6 Jul 2026. 12:15pm.

As Hawk and I were putting together a list of possible trails to hike on this visit to Mammoth Lakes, she suggested Twin Falls just outside of town and showed me a map. It's practically right next to the start of a trail we hiked on a previous visit. "I think we looked at that from the side of the road and considered it 'done'," I said. But then she showed me a pic on AllTrails.com, and I realized we had definitely not seen Twin Falls before— and if we had, I wouldn't have pooh-poohed it!

To put this falls in perspective I'll start with the view we got to last.

Twin Falls, viewed from across Twin Lakes in the Mammoth Lakes area (Jul 2026)

This is Twin Falls as seen from across one of the Twin Lakes. It falls almost 300' down a steep ridge from Mamie Lake. There's a trail from the bottom that switch-backs up the mountainside but doesn't really get close to the falls.... Then, according to AllTrails.com at least, there's a trail from the top that drops like a shot right next to the falls. We opted to hike the latter.

What AllTrails.com marked wasn't an established trail but rather a "social route" as people call it nowadays. Use trail was the term we hikers used years ago. Either way, it's a path that's beaten down from people walking on it, it's very dicey in spots, and it's not maintained. The trail notes promised us view of Upper and Lower Twin Falls, which are near the top and about halfway down the long cascade you see in the pic above.



Here's a video showing Upper Twin Falls in action. Much of the time I post stills of waterfalls from my hikes. Here I chose to share the video because it captures the scope and activity of the falls better than a still image can convey.

As we headed to Lower Twin Falls next we faced a decision about how to get there. The route indicated on AllTrails.com did not exist. The trail going straight down from this point was... notional, at best, and looked treacherous. AllTrails also showed we should cross the stream here. Uh, no! 😨

We lateraled over to the switchback trail, the official trail in this area, and zigzagged more than halfway down the ridge. The problem with this trail, presumably the reason why the social trail exists, is that it veers away from the falls! We used our orienteering skills to pick a route back over to the stream not far below where it looked like the Lower Falls tier would be. After a bit of bushwhacking and scrambling over deadfall we found an old use trail that cleaved close to the stream and ascended to Lower Falls.



In this video you can also see Twin Lakes below us when I pan away from the falls. And did you spot that little bridge spanning between the Twin Lakes? That's where I stood to capture the first pic in this blog.

When we were done enjoying the Lower Falls we continued hiking up the use trail to Upper Falls. There was a use trail between the two! It's just in such poor condition that it wasn't really visible from above. I mean, climbing up from below we were doing things like climbing almost vertical sections of hillside by grabbing onto exposed tree routes. Here's a pic Hawk took of me coming up the trail:

Climbing a difficult trail at Twin Falls in the Mammoth Lakes area (Jul 2026)

When we got back up to Upper Falls I felt like my butt had been thoroughly kicked. Well, actually it was my butt that was in agony, it was my lungs. The elevation up here is nearly 9,000', and having barely 24 hours to acclimate from sea level is not enough for a person of my age. So from here we lateraled back over to the switchback-y trail and zigzagged our way back up to the trailhead at the top.
Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

A Stroll at Convict Lake

Jul. 8th, 2026 06:39 am
canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
Mammoth Lakes Travelog #7
Convict Lake · Mon, 6 Jul 2026. 12:15pm.

I mentioned earlier today that we're looking to do a bunch of shorter hikes ranging out from Mammoth Lakes today. Part of "a bunch" means that some things are misfires. We started with the columns at Crowley Lake, which was slightly a misfire because this time we couldn't get all the way up to the columns; they were in wading-depth water that was disgusting with algae. After that we drove a 4x4 road through part of the Owens Gorge. I didn't take pictures there, though I should have. Then I went exploring a few side canyons off US-395 on the eastern Sierra Nevada. No dice on that. Not everything that looks like a massive canyon has a road into it.

Of course, some massive canyons do have roads into them. One we're saving for tomorrow because we'll do a big hike there; another we visited today because it's a pleasant short stroll. That's Convict Lake.

Driving to Convict Lake in the Eastern Sierra Nevada (Jul 2026)

On the access road to Convict Lake you can tell you're in for something special. Those 12,000'+ peaks that line the side of US-395... well, there's an obvious gap in them. And a brown sign for Convict Lake.

The road goes up right to the edge of the lake. There are several small parking lots there and a few hiking trails, including one that's an easy stroll along the side of the lake and provides access to gravel beaches popular with picnickers and fishers.

Convict Lake sits below 11,000'+ peaks on the Eastern Sierra Nevada (Jul 2026)

We didn't bring rod and reel or even a picnic basket, just ourselves and our cameras. It's always so dramatic gazing at this colorful rock wall rising 3,000' above the lake. Wouldn't it be special to hike up the way up there? ....Yeah, special and painful. 😅

We visit Convict Lake almost every time we're traveling along this section of US-395. It's a scenic gem on a road that's packed with so many scenic gems. And this one's easy to visit. Well, easy in the not-winter, anyway. Our first visit here was in early December twenty-something years ago. The road was snowed under past the foot of the lake. We clambered over 8' tall snow drifts just to see a view similar to this... and felt the chill of sub-zero wind blowing straight through all our layers of clothes. It's way nicer now in July. ⛄️

Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

The Columns at Crowley Lake

Jul. 7th, 2026 07:40 pm
canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
Mammoth Lakes Travelog #6
Crowley Lake · Mon, 6 Jul 2026. 10:30am.

Today's our first full day in Mammoth Lakes. We got up early— or at least I did. I woke up at 5:30 when dawn light started streaming through the east-facing picture windows in our 7th floor suite at the Westin. I kind of knew that was going to happen. I mean, I'm an observant person, I can put 2 and 2 together (I can also compute the inverse of a 3x3 matrix in my head... or at least I used to be able to 😅), and the sun has been rising in the east my whole life so far. I just hoped I might be able to sleep past 5:30am.

We're aiming to hike a number of shorter treks today. Our first outing is to Crowley Lake, about 30 minutes south of Mammoth Lakes. In one specific cove on this lake there are amazing nature-made stone columns. They look like something from Greek antiquity!



Crazy story about how we found this place.... Four years ago we were at the Sunnyvale Art & Wine Festival, similar to the one we attended a month ago. Except a few years ago these shows were better. They were better because they had more talented artists (as in, more artists who were talented, as to a dozen artists hawking the same 3 derivative things). Also, the artists worked their own booths, so when we saw something that caught our eye we could talk directly to the creator to learn more about it.  Anyway, we were in a photography booth with huge prints of various scenes from the Sierra Nevada. As we're familiar with so many of the parks Hawk and I were playing "Name that scene" with the pictures. We saw amazing photos of this natural colonnade. We were stumped. The photographer told us, "Those are the columns at Crowley Lake." Well, in less than a minute we'd located Crowley Lake on a map... and a few weeks later, on our next 3-day weekend trip, we visited Crowley Lake.

Now that we're visiting Mammoth Lakes again, we just had to go back to Crowley Lake. Yes, the columns are that awesome!

The trek starts, for us, with a bit of 4x4 driving. People with "cute 'ute" SUVs might be able to get to the bottom of the first hill, but getting up the other side requires better hardware. A lot of people walk it— and it can be an unforgiving walk in the summer, with a dusty trail and zero shade. We drove until the last half mile or so, where a footpath leads down the side of a bluff to a sandy cove on the lake shore.

This visit was different from our first one. Oh, the columns are the same... but the lake level was higher. Four years ago we could walk right up to the columns. This year the water level was maybe 3 feet higher, enough to cover the bottom of most of the columns. And the water was disgusting with algae and other goop, so we weren't inclined to get our feet and legs wet. Probably visiting later in the season is the right way to enjoy the columns at Crowley Lake to the fullest.


Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

#PoolLife Continues in Mammoth, now #BearLife, too!

Jul. 7th, 2026 06:39 am
canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
Mammoth Lakes Travelog #5
At the Westin · Sun, 5 Jul 2026. 10pm.

Although June was my month of #PoolLife, the month I decided "I'm going to use the pool and/or hot tub every day" (minus the one day I missed), I've kept the streak going in July. Today we left home, though, for our Mammoth Lakes road trip at 9:30am. Did we squeeze in a soak in the hot tub early in the morning? No.. because we figured we'd get one at our hotel this evening!

The hot tubs and pool at the Westin Monache in Mammoth Lakes (Jul 2026)

After walking down to "the village" for dinner we came back up ("up" being an operative word 🥵) to the hotel and went for a soak in the hot tub. The high altitude sun was already set, so we didn't have to worry about sunburn and stayed out for almost an hour.

Oh, we had a little excitement from the balcony of our room before we went to the pool. From the street far below I heard the sirens of a police car making occasional short blasts. At first I figured, "NBD, police activity in a tourist town is not unusual. Probably someone trying to park in the bus stop." But when the siren blasted again and again I went outside for a look-see. A few people had stopped and were holding their phones up to record video. "Are the cops rousting a vagrant?" I wondered. Then I saw the action....


The vagrant was a black bear! I was climbing along the retaining wall of an apartment building below us. A few residents were on the balcony the bear was trying to scale. (Not really a bright idea.) By the time I started my own video recording the bear had given up on joining the folks on the balcony and was instead padding along through the yard between that building and our hotel.

Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

Hotel Walk-Out in Mammoth (Sadly becoming a Trend!)

Jul. 6th, 2026 08:32 pm
canyonwalker: Uh-oh, physics (Wile E. Coyote)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
Mammoth Lakes Travelog #4
Mammoth Lakes · Sun, 5 Jul 2026. 5pm.

As we neared the end of our road trip today things started looking up. And by "things" I mean the weather. All afternoon we'd had gray, depressing skies over the Sierra Nevada that even cast a pall over normally stunning Yosemite. Even the scenically overwhelming Tioga Pass was somewhere between overwhelming and "Meh" today. So imagine my surprise as we turned south on US-395 and looked forward (literally) to Mammoth Lakes....

Mammoth Lakes is the one bright spot in the Sierra Nevada today (Jul 2026)

Yes, Mammoth Lakes is, like, the one sunny spot in the Sierra Nevada today!

We drove into the town of Mammoth Lakes and to our hotel, the Alpenhof Lodge.

Alpenhof hotel in Mammoth Lakes, Calif (Jul 2026)

The Alpenhof is the hotel we switched to after we started planning the trip around the more-luxe but also spendier Westin Monache a few blocks away. We said no to the Westin because we reasoned that this hotel, despite being more like a Quality Inn from the 1970s, offered everything we wanted— for 40% less. Alas by the time we arrived we had learned that several of those things we wanted, which were promised on the website, were closed or broken. 😡

The front desk agent acted sympathetic... but the only option he offered was, "I can cancel your whole reservation right now." I pointed out how that was an absurd alternative, as we'd planned a 4-day trip around this stay, we'd driven 6 hours from home, and at this last minute finding alternative lodging would likely be way more expensive than what we booked a week earlier. I asked instead for a discount on our rate as a few promised facilities were unavailable. He said only the manager could authorize that, and the manager wasn't there.

I took the keys and drove around the back to find our cottage. I was still fuming about the situation... and seeing the cottage looking like something not particularly fancy from decades ago just snapped it for me. With Hawk's agreement we drove back to the front, checked that the "take it or leave it" offer was still available, and left it.

We walked out. I've only walked out of a hotel maybe 4 times in over 1,000 nights of hotel stays. And ironically 2 of those times have now been in Mammoth Lakes. (The last was 3 years ago.)

Hawk quipped, "It's now our thing!"

So, where did we go? We found a decent rate over at the Westin Monache. Yes, the one we steered away from a week ago because we decided it was too spendy.

Westin Monache hotel in Mammoth Lakes, Calif (Jul 2026)

It's spendier, but all the stuff they promise actually works. And actually we found a rate that's less spendy than what we saw a week ago... though it's still a big step up, cost-wise, from what we booked at the Alpenhof Lodge.

Fortunately it's also a step up in terms of luxury.

Our suite at the Westin Monache in Mammoth Lakes (Jul 2026)

Here's a photo from the living room in our one-bedroom suite. Our balcony overlooks the town and the mountains and valleys beyond from the 7th floor. And now we're about to walk down to the village to get some dinner. When we come back it'll be time to the use the hot tub— the two hot tubs this hotel has, both of which work! 🤣

Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

Tioga Pass-ing Through. A Vertical Mile.

Jul. 6th, 2026 02:56 pm
canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
Mammoth Lakes Travelog #3
Tioga Pass · Sun, 5 Jul 2026. 3:30pm.

Our road trip to Mammoth Lakes continues. After busting out in Yosemite due to weather we continued driving east on route 120. After exiting the park at the Tioga Pass, elev. 9,945', the road winds around a cluster of beautiful stark lakes and then drops down through an amazing canyon.

A vertical mile in the Tioga Pass (July 2026)

The sights here never fail to amaze, even under today's gray skies. Even the time I drove through here literally after midnight I could tell I was being dwarfed by the huge grandness of nature around me.

This is one of the places where you're up close to a vertical mile. The mountain peaks rise past 12,000' while the valley below rests at about 6,800'. The road itself doesn't descend a vertical mile; it's more like a 3,000' descent in your car. But notice the road skirting along the side of the mountain in the pic above. You are clinging to a narrow ribbon across the middle of that vertical mile!

Turn around and there's more, of course.

Waterfalls below Ellery Lake in the Tioga Pass (Jul 2026)

The little roadside pull-out we stopped at affords views in all directions. Back up the mountains behind us is a waterfall. It drains out of Ellery Lake higher up in the Tioga Pass.

From here it's down, down, down to the rim of Mono Lake.

Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

Busted Out in Yosemite

Jul. 6th, 2026 07:19 am
canyonwalker: Uh-oh, physics (Wile E. Coyote)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
Mammoth Lakes Travelog #2
Tuolumne Meadow, Yosemite · Sun, 5 Jul 2026. 3:pm.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, our road trip today to Mammoth Lakes takes us straight through Yosemite National Park. Bonus, right? And because we staggered our trip from the July 4 weekend, so we're going out when most crowds are heading home, we've enjoyed minimal traffic as we head out. Double bonus!

There's only one problem. The weather.

The "partly cloudy" promised in today's weather forecast— yesterday it promised full sun for today— turned into fully overcast skies by early afternoon. Today as we drove up past elev. 8,000' into Yosemite's Granite Country, everything was covered with a pall as if filmed in an overexposed, deteriorated black-and-white movie. The ground was gray, the sky was gray. There was no contrast. We skipped Olmstead Point with its view over Half Dome. We stopped briefly at Tenaya Lake, normally a stunning sapphire of the high country, but even the water gray as there were no colors to reflect.

We did stop again at a creek in Tuolumne Meadow and hopped out for a short walk.

Lembert Dome in Yosemite's Tuolumne Meadow on a cloudy day (Jul 2026)

We followed a footpath down to a small creek; I believe this is Lyell Creek. In the background you see Lembert Dome. There are hiking trails that loop around the back and up to the top of the granite bald. Hiking that was my plan for today! But in this crummy weather I'm just not feeling it. Oh, and I am feeling the effects of 8,000'+ elevation. So is Hawk. So maybe it's good the crummy weather gives us an excuse to nope out of hiking.

Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

Driving to Mammoth Lakes, but first: Lard!

Jul. 5th, 2026 07:22 pm
canyonwalker: My old '98 M3 convertible (road trip!)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
Mammoth Lakes Travelog #1
Manteca, CA · Sun, 5 Jul 2026. 11am.

"You had me at Lard." Who ever thought they'd say that? Well, we're stopped in the town of Lard. Except you won't find it as "Lard" on a map. Officially it's the town of Manteca, California. But manteca is Spanish for rendered pig fat. Aka, lard.

We got a slightly later leave on things this morning that I wanted. I wanted to leave at 9:15; we actually left at 9:35. Not a huge amount of difference. And it's not like we left late because we were lazy or unprepared or anything. I mean, I felt lazy when I sat in a chair and vegged after breakfast this morning. But I needed to sit for a bit because I was experiencing... let's say, gastric pain. Yes, a side effect of a medicine I'm on.

Originally I figured we'd stop for lunch in the town of Oakdale. It's a halfway point for traveling to Yosemite, where I'm hoping we'll squeeze in a hike this afternoon before driving the rest of the way to Mammoth Lakes later in the day. Yes, the fastest route to Mammoth Lakes takes us straight through Yosemite National Park, the crown jewel of the US National Park Service! But nope, we decided instead to stop in Lard Manteca, which is about 20 miles closer to home.

Del TacoWhy Manteca? It's because they have a Del Taco here! (Thus it wasn't actually lard that made us stop, it was a favorite brand of eatery in Lard. 🤣) Yes, we love Del Taco. It's a fast food chain that serves burgers and Mexican food, in combos together like a couple of tacos and a side of crinkle fries. The food quality is waaaay better than Taco Bell. It's one of our guilty pleasures, and because there are none in the Bay Area we only get to visit them when we're headed out of town. And yes, we've eaten at the site of the original Del Taco restaurant... and unlike the carpet-bagging centi-millionaire Fox News personality who bought his way into winning a primary race for California governor last month despite embarrassing himself with a photo op at the site, we know what a f-cking street taco is!

And right now I'm enjoying my gorditas in Lard.

Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

2026 52 Card Project: Week 26: Heat

Jul. 5th, 2026 07:40 pm
pegkerr: (Deal with it and keep walking)
[personal profile] pegkerr
This is late and brief because I was at Convergence.

The beautiful weather that we have enjoyed for weeks abruptly dissolved into humid heat at the end of this past week.

Simultaneously and somewhat inexplicably, I experienced a surge of...hmm. How to put this delicately. Let us call it a surge of internal heat.

I know that periods of heightened libido are completely normal, even considering my age.

Still. For a widow living alone, times like these can be a little sad. And frustrating.

And inconvenient.

Image description: A wooden thermometer silhouetted against a hot summer sky. Over the sun a pair of women's lips are half open in passion. At the base of the thermometer, a passion flower is overlaid over a red rose.

Heat

26 Heat

Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.
  • Current Mood: hot
Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

D&D: A Fight with a Wight... and a Scary Purple Light!

Jul. 4th, 2026 07:49 pm
canyonwalker: Roll to hit! (d&d)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
My D&D group had already been through a few encounters in the haunted House of Black Wood in the city's Silent Quarter— so called because nobody talks about what happens there. They fought through eerie zombies that formed and reformed from dust on the floor as they entered. Upstairs they found a clutch of ghouls and a ghast ready to eat a young captive.

Upon killing the ghouls to free the captive (alas a second captive was already dead) their mission was nominally complete. They'd promised the young man's aunt they'd find who abducted him. Indeed, the players decided, "That's enough for one day!" and had their characters go home to rest for the night. 😅

The House of Black Wood in the Silent Quarter (Apr 2026)

But their mission was not complete. Destroying undead was the greater mission. Destroying all undead. And there was still evil lurking within the mansion's basement. They went back the next morning, at full health and with full complements of spells, to purge the remaining evil from the House of Black Wood.

They knew something evil was in the basement. Something evil-er than the rest of the house. All they had to do was find a way to the basement.

Into the Basement 

They scouted again from the outside, in the fresh light of day. (Recall they decided to enter the haunted house the previous day as night fell!) Small windows in the footer of the house were blacked out and covered with iron grilles, making it too hard to enter that way.

They imagined there was a door from outside, possibly next to the kitchen door through which they'd already entered. Indeed there was, but it was a secret door, and their Search rolls all sucked. 😅

They also searched inside, figuring based on the architecture of the house the most likely place for a hidden stairway down was in the library, behind the fireplace. Indeed it was! But again their Search and Track rolls all sucked. Through perseverance they found it, a latch next to the fireplace that opened a wall panel slightly ajar. Beyond was a narrow stairway down.

The group formed up in a single file marching order. Herran the ranger took point. Her combination of fighting prowess and awareness made her the best pick to lead. Plus, she especially hates undead, for reasons that weren't clear to anyone but her.

The stairs descended and turned a corner, opening into a narrow corridor. At opposite ends were wooden doors, shut. Herran headed toward the one that the cleric's spellcasting revealed had evil behind it. Herran listened at the door, heard nothing in particular, then opened it, and....

Aaaaah! 😱

Fighting a wight - bolstered by an evil priest - in the basement of the haunted house (May 2026)

I showed this group the picture of what Herran saw and described it something like this:

Ten feet beyond the door stands a creature resembling a human corpse. Beneath ragged clothes and patchwork armor you see gray skin stretched tight across its bones. Its skull-like face shows sharp teeth and  glowing orbs in its sunken eye sockets.

In the background kneels a man, stripped to the waist and wearing a metal helmet, his arms chained to the wall behind him. He is chanting and a purple aura surrounds him. On the other side a fire burns in a furnace. Malevolent eyes seem to peer out from the flames.

The undead creature lunges toward you with outstretched arms with fingers like claws.


Herran took all this in then screamed, closed the door, and ran. 🤣

Aside: Creating that Picture 

The group loved this illustration, BTW. The effect with the evil cleric casting the spell turned out really well. I provided minimal prompting for that. Ditto the effect of the demon-looking thing in the fireplace. Ooh, the group was really unnerved by that. (It turned out it was just ambiance. Evil ambience.)

Curiously what took the most iteration was getting the undead creature, the wight, to face forward. AI kept drawing him looking, surprised, at the cleric. Dude, the cleric's your ally! After getting nowhere with subsequent prompts to the AI image generator I simply 'shopped the image myself, copy-pasting a not-surprised version of the wight's head into this picture. I've taken that approach a few times with AI image gen so far.... When I can't get key features all correct in one image, I use Photoshop Elements to copy-paste between multiple images.

Back to the Fight...

Herran's player deciding to scream "Eeek!" and close the door and run was not what I expected to happen. What I expected was for Herran to step forward, bravely, while shouting "Rally to me!" Herran, after all, is a) a skilled warrior and b) as a ranger has undead as one her favored enemies. Oh, the wight wants a fight? I'm your huckleberry! But surprises like this are part of what makes GMing fun.

One thing I do as GM is strive to let the players shape the story, within reason. Contrast that with many other GMs I've played with where, if the plan was to have the fight right here as soon as the door opened, there'd be no way out of that. The monsters would all attack as soon as the door opened, or there'd be no way to close the door, or both. Instead I gave Herran a bit of prerogative. Though the monsters knew the PCs were back in the house, they didn't know exactly when the door would open. And Herran was quiet enough about that to enjoy a bit of mutual surprise.

I let Herran run from this fight without the monsters pursuing her. But I didn't give the players a free do-over on starting the fight. The monsters were now forewarned. They set up an ambush. So while the party rejiggered its formation and came back down the stairs primed for the fight, the monsters were better organized and primed to fight, too.

Amusing what came next was a comedy of errors. Not only did one party member make a very poor tactical decision that left the group splintered in multiple combats, but everyone started flubbing their attack rolls. It was round after round of more than half the swings missing. ...Which wasn't exactly bad for the party, as that wight's touch packed a dreaded energy drain.

Ultimately the party prevailed. And everyone contributed to the victory in important ways— including the rogue and the wizard, two character types that often don't shine in combat. That's another thing that's important to me in how I GM.... I create characters and encounters so that everyone has opportunities to shine.

Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

D&D: Fighting Ghouls - and AI Slop - in the House of Black Wood

Jul. 4th, 2026 09:09 am
canyonwalker: Roll to hit! (d&d)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
It's been a while now since I've written about the D&D game I'm running. Yes, it's still running; just slowly, as the challenge of matching schedules has us down to about one meeting a month now. But, hey, that gives me three sessions to catch up on now as it's been three months. 😥

When last we left our heroes they were investigating disappearances in Lentria's notorious Silent Quarter, which led them to the haunted House of Black Wood.

The House of Black Wood in the Silent Quarter (Apr 2026)

Inside the Blackwood House— which they so trope-fully entered as night was falling— they found zombies that swirled up from the dust on the floor. 😨

Maybe Look Upstairs?

That much was in the last part I wrote about. In this session the group continued their foray through the house. In the other large room on the main floor they found more of these zombies. They dithered on going up the stairs in the main foyer, failing to find all the tracks showing that monsters had gone up and down those stairs recently 🤣, and instead searched for clues in the drawing room and library. Their search for clues was about as fruitful as finding those tracks. I.e., everyone made rolls of no better than about 10,

The group hypothesized (correctly!) that the source of evil in the house was likely downstairs.  A Detect Evil spell revealed that there was, indeed, a stronger evil in the basement than on this level. Alas they never did point their detection spell upstairs, as there was active evil up there. But their search for stairs down was about as fruitful as finding those tracks on the stairs up. I.e., after everyone made rolls of no better than about 10, they gave up.

I gave them more clues in the form of hearing faint cries for help from upstairs. TBF, I had given them that clue earlier, and they ignored it. The second time's a charm. They marched up the stairs... and found a room full of ghouls!

AI Slop fighting the undead - these are not the PCs you're looking for! (Apr 2026)

Fighting Ghouls... and AI Slop

This picture, above, is the first iteration of the scene I got from using AI image generation to help illustrate it. BTW, this is the picture I was trying to get for several days when I fought with AI as it acted like a whiny little shit. I point that out because this was just after the AI boasted to me, falsely, about aaaaaall the work it was doing for me. As part of its boasting/whining it recapped the group of adventurers it "created" (false: I created that group and gave it specific, repeated prompts). Then it churns out this image with completely the wrong group of adventurers. This quartet (above) is the generic "D&D adventurer group" Gemini falls back to— even when my prompt explicitly says something like, "Draw a picture of the group of adventurers I defined fighting a group of 3 ghouls led by a ghast."

But I had fun showing this first iteration to my players.

"Look, Jill, your character turned into a guy... and you have three arms!"
"Hawk, your cleric is now a male dwarf... and Christian!" 😨
"Barbara, you're an elf again."
"Sorry, Jeremy, you didn't make the cut for this scene." 🤣

...Not to mention the scene is drawn at the bottom of a staircase when I explicitly prompted that the group was entering a room on the top floor of the building. But at least AI did a good job with my description of the two prisoners in the room, one dead from injuries and one tied up and frightened.

I prompted AI again with a reminder to use the right characters in the scene. It obliged....

Undead fight with the right characters - and the wrong ones, too (Apr 2026)

It obliged not by replacing the wrong characters with the correct ones but by basically adding them all together!

"I like my robe but not the fact I've aged 30 years since the last adventure," Jeremy quipped.

"And why you'd float around behind them rather than shoot a Magic Missile from a safe distance, I don't know!"

The Money Shot(s)

I gave AI more prompts, calling out the mistaken staircase and the generic PCs. After another two iterations I got to a result I was pretty happy with:

After several prompts - the correct characters fight the ghouls! (Apr 2026)

Barbara's character is still looking kind of elf-y. She noted that. I noted it, too, when I was iterating on these images but decided that if Gemini wouldn't change it after multiple requests it would never change it. Besides, it's not D&D without a hot elf warrior chick somewhere in the picture, right? 🤣

I did try one more iteration, though. A prompt I found worked well in the previous scene was asking Gemini to recompose the illustration to show it from the characters' point of view.

Fighting ghouls in the House of Black Wood - from the PCs' POV! (Apr 2026)

Boom! Now that's a compelling action picture!

Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

I live (and have a Readercon schedule and two booklog posts)

Jul. 3rd, 2026 09:20 pm
kate_nepveu: sleeping cat carved in brown wood (Default)
[personal profile] kate_nepveu

* waves feebly *

Here's my Readercon schedule, which I'll also put behind the cut:

Readercon schedule

Friday, July 10, 2026
18:00
Lois, Megan, and Tammy; Miles, Gen, and Alanna
Salon A-B, Duration: 60 mins
Bethany Powell, Kate Nepveu (moderator), Marissa Lingen, Sophia Babai, Victoria Janssen

Fans of Lois McMaster Bujold often speak of both Megan Whalen Turner and Tamora Pierce in the same breath, saying their writing and characterization feel the same, that these women are writing in the same vein, scratching the same itch for their readers. Why are these writers being grouped together by fans? How are their works in conversation with each other? Are there additional authors and series that belong on the same list?

Saturday, July 11, 2026
12:00
Building a Seven Stories Mountain
Create - Collaborate, Duration: 60 mins
Graham Sleight, Kate Nepveu, Katherine Karch, R.W.W. Greene (moderator), Rich Horton

Powerful, literary aliens, flattered by our interest in worlds not our own, show up in Earth orbit and demand we choose seven spec-fic books that represent honestly the pros and cons of humans as a species. Lies, omissions, and puffery will be met with extermination. What list of essential (existential!) reading will this panel generate, and what will that list say about how we see ourselves?

Saturday, July 11, 2026
19:00
Miles to Go: The Vorkosigan Saga at 40
Salon A-B, Duration: 60 mins
Ian Strock, Kate Nepveu (moderator), Katherine Crighton, Meredith Schwartz

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga! Miles Vorkosigan and his parents Cordelia and Aral have fascinated readers for four decades of compulsively readable books that offer lessons on biology, engineering, manners, shenanigans, and the argument that societies are shaped (and reshaped) by reproductive rights and control. What have we learned from the Vorkosigans, and what are we still learning? What dreams from the Saga are still on our horizon?

Sunday, July 12, 2026
11:00
The Odyssey in 2026
Salon A-B, Duration: 60 mins
Charles Allison (moderator), Kate Nepveu, Kenneth Schneyer, Sonya Taaffe

Homer's Odyssey is having a moment: a new major translation by Daniel Mendelsohn (following other major ones by Emily Wilson and Peter Green), a recent movie starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche (The Return), a musical adaptation that is a social media sensation (Epic), and a forthcoming blockbuster movie written and directed by Christopher Nolan. What aspects are these translations and adaptations highlighting compared to past versions, and what elements are ripe for more attention?

Sunday, July 12, 2026
14:00
Things Everyone Likes But You
Salon E, Duration: 60 mins
Casella Brookins, John Kessel, Kate Nepveu (moderator), Katherine Karch, Tracy Majka

We all love talking about books we love, but you know what else is fun? Complaining about books everyone else loves. This curmudgeonly panel will discuss some of the most popular, beloved works that they just can't stand.

I also booklogged! Twice!

* whooshes away to do more of the many things what need doing *

Poll #34798
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 26

View Respondents

+1 (thumbs-up, I see you, etc.)?

View Answers

+1
26 (100.0%)

Tags:
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry
Page generated Jul. 11th, 2026 03:55 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios