mass giggling
Apr. 25th, 2019 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oracneDayjob is overrun with tots today, for "bring your child to work day." I am not expecting to get anything done whatsoever, other than a meeting to instruct someone in a task I am offloading.
oracne
Wednesday Reading
Apr. 24th, 2019 08:14 amoracneDeath by Silver by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold is set in an alternate universe Victorian London, where metaphysician is a common profession, at least for men. There's an intriguing secondary female character, Miss Frost, whom I'd love to know more about, who's been trained in metaphysics at a women's college. Julian Lynes is a private detective and Ned Mathey a metaphysician; they'd been lovers while at a terrible boarding school, and are now figuring out their relationship as adults while solving a mysterious murder that involves cursed silver. As an added complication, one of their worst tormenters from school is related to the murder victim, and they have to deal with their feelings about that as well. I enjoyed both the romantic plot and the mystery.
Dreadful Company by Vivian Shaw is the second book about Dr. Greta Helsing, contemporary descendant of the Dracula Dr. Helsing, who is a doctor for supernatural beings. She's traveled to Paris for a conference on supernatural medicine, as a last-minute replacement for someone else. Greta spends most of this book caught up in someone else's revenge plot, but does quite a lot for other people (beings?) at the same time, which I found extremely satisfying. Winston was my favorite (I will not spoil Winston's identity). I was happy to learn that a third book is now available for pre-order, and amused to learn that Shaw is married to Arkady Martine, whose book I read last week.
I also re-read The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison because the Kindle version is on sale, and I'd been meaning to re-read it anyway. I ended up switching between the electronic version on my phone and the hardcover at home; sadly, print books do not automatically synch with e-books, but I managed! Enough time has passed since the book came out that I'd forgotten some plot twists, which only added to my enjoyment of revisiting Maia and his world. I'm so happy there is going to be a sequel. It was a good choice for a difficult week, with so many terrible things happening all over the world.
Dreadful Company by Vivian Shaw is the second book about Dr. Greta Helsing, contemporary descendant of the Dracula Dr. Helsing, who is a doctor for supernatural beings. She's traveled to Paris for a conference on supernatural medicine, as a last-minute replacement for someone else. Greta spends most of this book caught up in someone else's revenge plot, but does quite a lot for other people (beings?) at the same time, which I found extremely satisfying. Winston was my favorite (I will not spoil Winston's identity). I was happy to learn that a third book is now available for pre-order, and amused to learn that Shaw is married to Arkady Martine, whose book I read last week.
I also re-read The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison because the Kindle version is on sale, and I'd been meaning to re-read it anyway. I ended up switching between the electronic version on my phone and the hardcover at home; sadly, print books do not automatically synch with e-books, but I managed! Enough time has passed since the book came out that I'd forgotten some plot twists, which only added to my enjoyment of revisiting Maia and his world. I'm so happy there is going to be a sequel. It was a good choice for a difficult week, with so many terrible things happening all over the world.
(no subject)
Apr. 24th, 2019 12:46 amkore( Spoiler Endgame 'analysis' )
I AM SO FUCKING SICK OF "NO IT WASN'T X IT WAS Y AND THEREFORE IT WAS GOOD." ESPECIALLY AFTER THE MAGICIANS.
I AM SO FUCKING SICK OF "NO IT WASN'T X IT WAS Y AND THEREFORE IT WAS GOOD." ESPECIALLY AFTER THE MAGICIANS.
THANKS, I HATE IT
Apr. 23rd, 2019 07:40 pmkore( MASSIVE ENDGAME SPOILERS )
After this and the Magicians finale it's going to be a cold day in hell before I throw my heart into another canon run mainly by white males, I can tell you that.
After this and the Magicians finale it's going to be a cold day in hell before I throw my heart into another canon run mainly by white males, I can tell you that.
I read the Endgame spoilers
Apr. 23rd, 2019 06:15 pmkoreand WOW fandom is going to continue to explode. There is something to make nearly everyone ticked off!
Man I feel tired. I miss just enjoying these movies. I think I will go back to my Black Widow comics.
( Vague spoiler )
Man I feel tired. I miss just enjoying these movies. I think I will go back to my Black Widow comics.
( Vague spoiler )
Roseanne Cash!
Apr. 23rd, 2019 08:16 amoracneI went to a reading by Roseanne Cash last night at Writers House, which made me really happy. She interspersed songs with readings from her memoir, and answered a few questions at the end.
I thought she was beautiful; she is so much herself that it shines through both her songs and her writing. Also, her voice up close is much richer than I would have expected (I was in the second row, probably about six feet away).
One thing that made me laugh is she started off with "Seven Year Ache," because the students she'd been working with earlier in the day had told her they were obsessed with the 1980s, before they were born.
I left smiling.
I thought she was beautiful; she is so much herself that it shines through both her songs and her writing. Also, her voice up close is much richer than I would have expected (I was in the second row, probably about six feet away).
One thing that made me laugh is she started off with "Seven Year Ache," because the students she'd been working with earlier in the day had told her they were obsessed with the 1980s, before they were born.
I left smiling.
"I'm giving you the conn, Una."
Apr. 22nd, 2019 07:37 pmstultiloquentiaSomething neat happened during last week's Star Trek episode. Pike said to Number One, "I'm giving you the conn, Una," thereby officially canonizing Number One's given name. Previously, it had only existed in tie-in novels. One of those tie-in authors, David Mack, confirmed on Twitter that, in addition to being an obvious pun, Una is an homage to Una McCormack, their friend and fellow novelist:
["Re: Number One's name 'Una' being canonized on @startrekcbs: Pretty darned sweet! As Greg Cox Notes, I first suggested the name 'Una' (partly as an homage to our friend & peer @unamccormack), but it wouldn't have stuck had he, @daytonward & @kevindilmore not all concurred."] Go to Twitter for another few lines of backstory.
Una started out as a fic writer! She's so damned good that somebody recommended her fanfic to an editor at Pocket Books, who invited her to pitch. Her writing is a beautiful balance of the cerebral and the emotional. She's an awesome person, one of the kindest mentors and fannish community-builders I've ever met.
The fact that she's now linked to Number One, of all possible characters, is one of the coolest things that's ever happened in the history of Trek, as far as I'm concerned. My glee is very much coloured by Francesca Coppa's essay from the very first issue of Transformative Works and Cultures, Women, Star Trek, and the early development of fannish vidding, in which she positions Number One (as well as the three aspects into which she was split after the pilot episode—Majel Barrett's Voice of the Enterprise, Barrett's Nurse Chapel, and Spock) as a stand-in for female Star Trek fans:
["Re: Number One's name 'Una' being canonized on @startrekcbs: Pretty darned sweet! As Greg Cox Notes, I first suggested the name 'Una' (partly as an homage to our friend & peer @unamccormack), but it wouldn't have stuck had he, @daytonward & @kevindilmore not all concurred."] Go to Twitter for another few lines of backstory.
Una started out as a fic writer! She's so damned good that somebody recommended her fanfic to an editor at Pocket Books, who invited her to pitch. Her writing is a beautiful balance of the cerebral and the emotional. She's an awesome person, one of the kindest mentors and fannish community-builders I've ever met.
The fact that she's now linked to Number One, of all possible characters, is one of the coolest things that's ever happened in the history of Trek, as far as I'm concerned. My glee is very much coloured by Francesca Coppa's essay from the very first issue of Transformative Works and Cultures, Women, Star Trek, and the early development of fannish vidding, in which she positions Number One (as well as the three aspects into which she was split after the pilot episode—Majel Barrett's Voice of the Enterprise, Barrett's Nurse Chapel, and Spock) as a stand-in for female Star Trek fans:
In these two guises—Nurse Chapel and the Enterprise computer—the displaced character of Number One serves as the model for two archetypical fan positions: the woman who embodies visible desire, and the disembodied but all-controlling voice. The former is often presented as a negative fan stereotype: the groupie, the stalker, the shrieking Beatlemaniac, the "Mary Sue" who dreams herself into the story, the girl with the embarrassing public crush on a movie star. The latter, I would argue, is the voice of the vidder: the woman behind the camera, slide projector, VCR, or computer, the technological woman who controls the machine. The disembodied voice is also the voice of the slash writer (who writes about bodies not her own) or the omniscient and controlling fan artist who takes control of the protagonists' images and bends them to her will. But most fan works seek to unite the analytical mind and the desiring body in order to create a total female subjectivity.Female fans have always been so central to Star Trek—a woman greenlit it; women resurrected it from cancellation; women ran the first cons; printed the zines; kept the fandom alive for fifty years. How cool, how fitting, is it that a brilliant fan writer who actually got to steer the ship is now honoured as part of the mythology of Star Trek's original woman?
"That was not six months!"
Apr. 22nd, 2019 02:49 pmkore
Colette Negroni button-up shirt
Apr. 24th, 2019 02:45 pmchebeColette's Negroni is a men's button-up shirt. But what even is gender. And I wasn't having a huge amount of luck with the women's shirts and blouses I'd tried, so I gave it a go.
Negroni is a casual shirt with a doubled back yoke and front facing. As usual I left off the chest pockets and went for the short-sleeved version. Beyond the two tucks under the yoke there are no shaping seams. Every seam is enclosed or flat felled! It was my first time making a garment with entirely hidden seam finishes, and it does take a little longer, but the result is so wonderfully clean. It also has a cute collar button detail that made my vintage-loving friends very happy.
I made up a Large in an aubergine cotton lawn, which is less translucent than the last cotton lawn I used, but needs to be ironed if you so much as look at it, so there was a lot of pressing during construction. The end result feels amazing, strong but light.
It's when we get to fit that we find out what they meant by men's. It is made to fit a longer body with less hallow back, straighter sides, and hips that don't increase much. So aside from the usual fit issues (too long in the shoulders/sleeves) it actually fit quite well across the chest. No gaping. But there is an excessive amount of fabric across the lower back. And yet that fullness does not help it fit across the hips. I can still wear it happily as an overshirt, and with some changes I can see it making a solid base for future shirts.
( Photos )
Negroni is a casual shirt with a doubled back yoke and front facing. As usual I left off the chest pockets and went for the short-sleeved version. Beyond the two tucks under the yoke there are no shaping seams. Every seam is enclosed or flat felled! It was my first time making a garment with entirely hidden seam finishes, and it does take a little longer, but the result is so wonderfully clean. It also has a cute collar button detail that made my vintage-loving friends very happy.
I made up a Large in an aubergine cotton lawn, which is less translucent than the last cotton lawn I used, but needs to be ironed if you so much as look at it, so there was a lot of pressing during construction. The end result feels amazing, strong but light.
It's when we get to fit that we find out what they meant by men's. It is made to fit a longer body with less hallow back, straighter sides, and hips that don't increase much. So aside from the usual fit issues (too long in the shoulders/sleeves) it actually fit quite well across the chest. No gaping. But there is an excessive amount of fabric across the lower back. And yet that fullness does not help it fit across the hips. I can still wear it happily as an overshirt, and with some changes I can see it making a solid base for future shirts.
Finished Negroni, front view
Photo by chebegeek
( Photos )
GIP
Apr. 22nd, 2019 01:01 amkoreThe US president said on Thursday he was having a 'good day' after the release of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the now-closed Russia investigation.
IDEFK, man. It feels like every day we get closer and closer to tyranny. Every minute of every day, even. And even if he's impeached or not re-elected or somehow glory hallelujah convicted, can the country recover? Good fucking question. I just keep trying to kind of cling to "hope in the dark" and, as an example, that little moment in Apollo 13 when Ed Harris says "I believe this is going to be our finest hour." But I just really don't know.
Shareable icons:
("Trump tweeted angrily throughout the day." - Guardian ....Good Lord.)
IDEFK, man. It feels like every day we get closer and closer to tyranny. Every minute of every day, even. And even if he's impeached or not re-elected or somehow glory hallelujah convicted, can the country recover? Good fucking question. I just keep trying to kind of cling to "hope in the dark" and, as an example, that little moment in Apollo 13 when Ed Harris says "I believe this is going to be our finest hour." But I just really don't know.
Shareable icons:
("Trump tweeted angrily throughout the day." - Guardian ....Good Lord.)
"Going There," Jack Gilbert
Apr. 21st, 2019 05:01 pmkoreOf course it was a disaster.
The unbearable, dearest secret
has always been a disaster.
The danger when we try to leave.
Going over and over afterward
what we should have done
instead of what we did.
But for those short times
we seemed to be alive. Misled,
misused, lied to and cheated,
certainly. Still, for that
little while, we visited
our possible life.
- via
Signal Boost: Take heart
Apr. 21st, 2019 04:41 pmkoregoss posted: Take heart“Optimism is radical. It is the hard choice, the brave choice. And it is, it seems to me, most needed now, in the face of despair — just as a car is most useful when you have a distance to close. Otherwise it is a large, unmovable object parked in the garage.
...History and fable have both proven that nothing is ever entirely lost. David can take Goliath. A beach in Normandy can turn the tide of war. Bravery can topple the powerful. These facts are often seen as exceptional, but they are not. Every day, we all become the balance of our choices — choices between love and fear, belief or despair. No hope is ever too small.”
- Guillermo Del Toro
vital functions
Apr. 21st, 2019 10:03 pmkaberettReading. V excited that I can read physical books at the moment without my hands yelling at me (hurrah for ring splints). Head On (John Scalzi) and record of a spaceborn few (Becky Chambers) in hard copy; I'm now making substantial progress through The Collapsing Empire (also John Scalzi) in ebook, because I got to the top of the library queue. (For reference, also on hold: Feel Free, being collected essays by Zadie Smith; Daring Greatly, Brené Brown, having failed to get together the brain to read it when I got it out the library in hard copy a while back; The Consuming Fire, John Scalzi, sequel to TCE; Conversations with Friends, Sally Rooney. There's a fair chance that I'll suspend the holds on both the Smith and the Brown just because they are likely to be fairly heavy going and, as discussed in therapy a few weeks back, it is actually okay for me to read for fun at the moment.)
( Details, including spoilers. )
Film/TV. Leverage. It is Leverage. I am still kind of fascinated by it but, like, I cannot quite deal with Eliot, last episode, having... decided that Parker was incompetent? For reasons of plot convenience? Obviously she wasn't, but. Oh children.
Growth. AHAHAHA SO MUCH. Headlines:
Notable Pokémon. Another (!) shiny Eevee. Hatched a Really Rather Good Beldum. No event-specific shinies yet, of course, but there we go.
( Details, including spoilers. )
Film/TV. Leverage. It is Leverage. I am still kind of fascinated by it but, like, I cannot quite deal with Eliot, last episode, having... decided that Parker was incompetent? For reasons of plot convenience? Obviously she wasn't, but. Oh children.
Growth. AHAHAHA SO MUCH. Headlines:
- I've repotted the lemon!
- I've provided some timelapse photography of the plot!
- I've borrowed a cordless drill and made significant progress with building my raised bed edging! (This also counts as a Skill Acquisition, especially as I was doing so without more competent supervision.)
- I've fixed the broken autovent on the roof of the greenhouse! (Ish. It's possible I need to get a new wax cylinder; it's not opening as much as I really feel it ought.)
- ............ I found the carpet.
- It is, you see, The Rule that every allotment plot is absolutely chock-full of fundamentally made-of-plastic carpet.
- I thought I'd got away with it.
- I tried to dig a hole to put the legs of the raised bed into.
- ... I hit carpet.
- I have found at least two layers.
- I... I think they extend underneath all the raised beds.
- The raised beds in which I am growing spinach, and fennel, and allium various.
- The raised beds I weeded thoroughly last year and then manured and then left to get themselves set up with decent soil structure and generally getting going with a no-dig philosophy.
- That I'm now going to have to dig up.
- To get out the carpet.
Notable Pokémon. Another (!) shiny Eevee. Hatched a Really Rather Good Beldum. No event-specific shinies yet, of course, but there we go.
truth
Apr. 21st, 2019 04:28 amkore
https://twitter.com/clpolk/status/
tl;dr as someone on Tumblr said it's not about fandom expectations, it's about narrative betrayal
[growth]
Apr. 20th, 2019 10:41 pmkaberettApparently I haven't posted any photos of the allotment since last August, whoops.
( Four photographs. )
I'm really pleased with how it's coming along? This is the very first plot you see when you enter the site, which fact I am occasionally a little daunted by, but I am making progress and I sincerely hope sorting the raised beds out will facilitate a bunch more.
( Four photographs. )
I'm really pleased with how it's coming along? This is the very first plot you see when you enter the site, which fact I am occasionally a little daunted by, but I am making progress and I sincerely hope sorting the raised beds out will facilitate a bunch more.
April 2019 booklog
Apr. 30th, 2019 01:38 amkoreThis got way behind because a lot of March had bad anniversaries that hit me like a ton of bricks.
These are new-to-me books. Titles in bold are for the 2019![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
50books_poc challenge. Fiction is in green.
34. The Hot One: A Memoir of Friendship, Sex, and Murder, Carolyn Murnick (2017) (a response: "An Open Letter to Carolyn Murnick")
35. A Man of Independent Mind (Clorinda Cathcart's Circle Book 2), L.A. Hall (2019)
36. Nebula Awards Showcase 2004, ed. Vonda N. McIntyre (2004)
[Rereads]
A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in a Skip, Alexander Masters (2016)
Full Dark House: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery, Christopher Fowler (2003)
To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis (1997)
Screwtop, Vonda N. McIntyre (1976)
These are new-to-me books. Titles in bold are for the 2019
50books_poc challenge. Fiction is in green.34. The Hot One: A Memoir of Friendship, Sex, and Murder, Carolyn Murnick (2017) (a response: "An Open Letter to Carolyn Murnick")
35. A Man of Independent Mind (Clorinda Cathcart's Circle Book 2), L.A. Hall (2019)
36. Nebula Awards Showcase 2004, ed. Vonda N. McIntyre (2004)
[Rereads]
A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in a Skip, Alexander Masters (2016)
Full Dark House: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery, Christopher Fowler (2003)
To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis (1997)
Screwtop, Vonda N. McIntyre (1976)
Kondo Lite?
Apr. 20th, 2019 12:34 amkoreI don't know if it really counts as KonMari-ing since I didn't throw anything away, just finally, FINALLY bought a cheap-ass plastic spice rack that fits inside a cabinet so I could FIND stuff. The cabinets are typically pretty tidy, altho I should really have stripped out the awful old shelf paper, washed the nasty fake wood down, and put down some new nice shelf paper. But then it never would have gotten done. So with that caveat, LOOKIT MY SPICE RACK
(yes I use the somewhat cheap "grocery store" spices and I drink Stash tea, because they're always in stock at the QFC/Bartell's that's about six blocks away for not too much money, and reliable/accessible/affordable is good.)
Before I got the spice rack, all those little bottles were just on the shelf all at the same level, with wasted space above, and theoretically the least-used ones were at the back but it still DROVE ME CRAZY trying to find shit. Now it's all accessible! For like a good five minutes after I finished I just stood looking at it, absurdly pleased. (Yes, I also like this tumblr, don't @ me.)
(THE FOLGER'S INSTANT COFFEE IS NOT MINE, IT IS T'S. INSTANT COFFEE SHOULD BE ABHORRED AS AN ABOMINATION UPON THE EARTH. He says he likes it. He also uses the nasty Kroger cinnamon on his morning oatmeal. Says ditto. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
(yes I use the somewhat cheap "grocery store" spices and I drink Stash tea, because they're always in stock at the QFC/Bartell's that's about six blocks away for not too much money, and reliable/accessible/affordable is good.)
Before I got the spice rack, all those little bottles were just on the shelf all at the same level, with wasted space above, and theoretically the least-used ones were at the back but it still DROVE ME CRAZY trying to find shit. Now it's all accessible! For like a good five minutes after I finished I just stood looking at it, absurdly pleased. (Yes, I also like this tumblr, don't @ me.)
(THE FOLGER'S INSTANT COFFEE IS NOT MINE, IT IS T'S. INSTANT COFFEE SHOULD BE ABHORRED AS AN ABOMINATION UPON THE EARTH. He says he likes it. He also uses the nasty Kroger cinnamon on his morning oatmeal. Says ditto. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)