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Entry tags:

i could fucking cry

Watch on YouTube

In this interview with Brad Lander, he is one of the few politicians that has actually spoken up against Donald Trump using "Palestinian" as a slur.

Current Mood: tired

Entry tags:

Miscellaneous

The number of times recently when I was reading the cover copy summary of a fantasy book and get interested in the plot... and then it gets to the part about the protagonist's attraction to so-and-so and I realize it's a romantasy and put it down... way too many. And it's almost always a dark, illicit, or unwanted attraction.

+++

My left ankle is doing well! It barely hurts. I left off the compression/support sleeve altogether today because it was making the top of my foot hurt and I was fine. I'm looking around and walking much more carefully and with more awareness though.

+++

I tried the first episode of season 1 of Peacemaker and bounced off it hard. I didn't even make it all the way through the first half. Didn't like the characters, didn't like the tone, it didn't make me care.

+++

My current WIPs are Encanto. No idea if anybody here is reading my Encanto fics, but it's what I'm doing.

Current Mood: sore
Current Music: "Jonestown" by Concrete Blonde

Entry tags:

Metal from Heaven by August Clarke

This book fought me. There were so many times I nearly put it down for good, but some online reviews said it got much better at about 50% of the way through so I slogged on. It does pull off something pretty cool at the end, enough for me to raise the rating from "did not like it" to "it's okay" but not enough for me to rate it higher or feel like the effort to get there was entirely worth it.

There are some great scenes! Punctuated by long stretches where I was so bored. How could a book about a lesbian highwaywoman seeking revenge on the industrialist who had her family and friends murdered when she was a child--only she survived the massacre--have boring stretches? And yet.

The writing is florid and sometimes nearly blurry. Metal from Heaven's main viewpoint character often sees the world somewhat off because she's deeply allergic to ichorite, a metal that she was exposed to a lot at the foundry she and her family had worked at that is now being laced into everything. When close to it or in contact with it, it hurts her body in many ways as well as overlays a nearly hallucinogenic slant to everything she sees. ( spoiler )

It might've been nice having more POVs than just hers.

This book throws a lot of superfluous details at you... then reveals much later on that not all of it was superfluous. Some transitions were abrupt and awkward. There are so many names in this--people, places, religions--that it can be hard to keep track of who is who and what is what, so an appendix would've been nice.

Some of the twists were very clever, but one major one absolutely failed at my suspension of disbelief. I was not able to go along with it.

Entry tags:

movies

(no subject)

The Old Guard 2 (2025):

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

wednesday reads and things

What I've recently finished reading:

Lamentation by C.J. Sansom, the 6th Shardlake novel. This is all about the heresy hunts in the last few years before Henry VIII's death - one faction wanted to go back towards Catholicism, one wanted a radical re-imagining of religion and social structures, and if you wanted to stay in the regime's good graces, you walked the narrow path of "the King is the divinely ordained leader of the Church, and whatever he says goes." Warning for historical burning of heretics, plus canon-typical violence; also for weird religion and contentious legal cases. Matthew Shardlake still has a crush on the queen (Katherine Parr).

What I'm reading now:

My hold on Katherine Addison's The Tomb of Dragons came in, so that. Just barely started.

What I recently finished watching:

American Primeval, which, huh, I've never before encountered media in which the Mormons are the bad guys. (This is not a spoiler. It's pretty clear from the get-go, but it gets more pointed and cartoon-villainy toward the end.) Definitely violent and gory, though also it felt very clearly written to Tug The Heart Strings (and then, often, deliberately kill the character it's just tried to make you care about) at which at least for me it failed to do. I liked Abish, Two Moons, and Captain Edwin Dellinger, and James Bridger amused the hell out of me, but - I mostly enjoyed it, but I don't feel it was superlative. I got tired of the filter to wash out colors so it looked almost old-photo sepia.

I did enjoy the historical setting of the Mormon War; as I mentioned last time, I researched it for my Yuletide story, and I think it's just an interesting time, the settlement/colonization of western North America.

What I'm about to start watching:

Murderbot! We always wait until enough episodes are out that we can watch ~every other day and not have to wait.

What I'm playing now:

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, which was recommended to me as a "spooky atmospheric puzzle game", and I'm enjoying it a lot. You play as a mysterious woman who has come to a mysterious hotel full of locked doors in what might be Germany in 1963, at the request of a mysterious man for reasons of ??? I told my brother about it because it's cheap in the summer sale at Steam, and he decided it sounded good so he is playing it now, a bit behind my progress but because of the nonlinearity he's ahead of me in some things. We're trying to give each other elliptical hints when needed.

Entry tags:

reading

current reading (spolsky 1/?)

In almost two months, I've read about 15% of Bernard Spolsky's The Languages of the Jews (slowness is a me-issue). By the 15% point, the book has summarized contemporary usage of Hebrew in Israel, then begun examining historical usage of Hebrew from earliest to more recent. So far, Spolsky tries to assert rather than tuck away his assumptions, which I appreciate. I've read some work by philologists and historical linguists on other language families, and a historical treatment by a sociolinguist who's aware of his strengths is a lovely thing.

( a couple of the book's assumptions and something cool it does with them )

Nominations Query 3

Please check if your nominations have been approved and are appearing correctly. If there are mistakes, please report them here or at tentaclemod@gmail.com. There are 153 nominations left to approve.

Please reply to the questions within 24 hours.

Слабое сердце - Фёдор Достоевский | A Faint Heart - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Arkady/Vasily I can't find any reference to a Vasily by searching the book on Google. Is that Vasya?
- 鬼滅の刃 | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Manga)
  Could the nominator please help us find the character Tsukiguni Yoriichi/21st Fire Hashira — is that the Flame Hasira?
  - Our Flag Means Death (TV)
    Captain Flint | James McGraw/Israel Hands,
    Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy/Israel Hands - These don’t seem to be canonical characters, can we move these to Crossover Fandoms?
    - What We Do in the Shadows (TV)
      How does Israel Hands belong here? Could the nominator explain?

(no subject)

Face of sadness & rage: the public library here has had to cut its streaming services, likely in part because of the destruction of the IMLS, which funded a lot of that. This is a fucking travesty.

It's been too hot to bake, so I picked up a loaf of bread and am basking in the season's first tomato sandwiches. Bliss.

One thing I want to do before the end of the summer is borrow the ice cream maker and dehydrator from the Thing Library; my ice cream quest continues (Dutch Chocolate is perfectly fine but not a standout); blueberrying has not been scheduled but I have agreement that it sounds like fun from the people I want to go with. I am up to H.M.S. Surprise in the Aubreyad and enjoying myself thoroughly.

I love summer so much. I feel like a person.

Entry tags:

Poll: Location, location, location (drama)

Poll #33318 Location, location, location

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10

View Respondents

What's your favourite location in the show?

View Answers

the main room at the SID
7 (77.8%)

Zhao Yunlan's flat
6 (66.7%)

Shen Wei's office
2 (22.2%)

the Dijun's palace
0 (0.0%)

the Sky Pillar in its field of ruins
3 (33.3%)

the SID lab
0 (0.0%)

the Inspectorate lab
0 (0.0%)

Shen Wei's flat
2 (22.2%)

the streets of Dragon City
1 (11.1%)

the streets of Dixing
1 (11.1%)

the Dixing bar
3 (33.3%)

the Allied Forces Head Quarters (YOHE)
0 (0.0%)

other (please specify)
2 (22.2%)

When we first see Da Qing in Ye Olde Haixing Era, how long has he been wandering around looking for Kunlun?

View Answers

thanks to the Hallows' planning, only a few hours
2 (20.0%)

a day or less
2 (20.0%)

several days
0 (0.0%)

one to two weeks
0 (0.0%)

he kept getting distracted chasing mice and birds, so more than two weeks
2 (20.0%)

Shen Wei sent news of his benefactor (short hair; strange weapon) to Ma Gui and Fu You, who did the math and sent Da Qing out to find him, so less than an hour
7 (70.0%)

other (please specify)
1 (10.0%)

Entry tags:

Your regular Wednesday service has been deferred

For hedjog is going floppp.

Travel troubles today: being unable to see where the hell the alleged railway station near hotel was, and taking a taxi instead; railway out of order this evening, Ubers were summoned to take participants to hotel.

Yr hedjog was Living Bit of History in opening roundtable.

And in later sessions, there was a certain amount of That There Dr oursin going on in the questions/comments....

Some good conversation - even if hearing aids not too helpful in crowded rooms - but have noped out from evening meal, feeling too tired, will go for light meal here and early night (I hope).

Current Mood: in solidarity
Current Location: near the lake they call Michigan

Entry tags:

political

PSA: The People's Union USA economic boycotts for July

The economic boycotts led by The People's Union USA for the month of July: Amazon, Home Depot, Starbucks.

For more details, see this Newsweek article.

Entry tags:

wishlist wednesday

Wishlist Wednesday

Wishlist Wednesdays are intended as a catch-all for anything you'd like to ask for in a casual, low-stress setting. No need to create a separate entry to the comm (although you are always welcome to do that, too), just leave a comment with your request right here under this entry.

It can be anything. Are you looking for icons of a specific drama or actor? Do you need a beta for your fic? Do you want to know where to buy merchandise of something? You can ask for recs of any kind (fanfic, drama, novel, music, whatever), or even leave specific fic prompts that others might be able to fill. Or whatever else that you can think of. Right now we're still kinda experimenting with this format, after all.

Feel free to discuss wishes/requests in the comments. And if you want to fill a request, feel free to do so right in the comments, too, or make a separate entry to the comm.

And please also check out the previous entries!

Multiple wishes/requests are definitely all right, just post a new top level comment for each. It would make it easier for people who might be interested in helping you out. The only thing I'd suggest for now is that you hide possible spoilers in the usual ways:

or

Paperwork

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Sugar We're Going Down - Fall Out Boy

Entry tags:

movies

a loaded god complex, cock it and pull it

Last night I watched a cute movie on Netflix called Nonnas about that restaurant on Staten Island that hires grandmas as chefs. Lorraine Bracco, Brenda Vaccaro, Talia Shire, and Susan Sarandon play the nonnas, and Vince Vaughn plays the guy opening the restaurant. It's kind of a nice mellow detox from The Bear in terms of a bunch of Italian-Americans yelling at each other in a restaurant kitchen. *g* Plus a really horrifying rendition of capuzelle, which is a roasted (or baked?) sheep's head, which is one of those dishes I try to forget knowing about. Anyway, the restaurant still exists, and now it has grandmas from all different backgrounds who cook there (a review of the real restaurant).

Today was my Monday, and tomorrow is my Friday at work. I could get used to a 2 day work week!

*

Current Mood: hopeful

Entry tags:

ficathon: black emporium

Dear Black Emporium Creator,

First of all, relax! I'm far from being picky, and I can pretty much guarantee that I'll love whatever you decide to create for me. These are nothing but guidelines, for you to take to heart or ignore to your heart's content. Also, hey! You're writing me fic or drawing me art! That's automatically a good reason for me to love you, no matter what. So, please, keep that in mind. Trust me, you can pretty much do no wrong.

( More details under the cut. )

Entry tags:

o canada

My first Canada Day

I really need a Canada icon...

Anyway, it's my first national holiday as a semi-Canadian. I am working because I love to get time & a half, but did still want to celebrate in some way so I am:

Reading Dynasties and Interludes, a gigantic history of Canadian electoral politics.

Registering to become an organ donor & stem cell donor and making an appointment to donate blood.

Watching a documentary about mining.

I may also try to go see the fireworks later, though I would rather see fireflies...

what fresh hell is this?

It rained for three hours straight - thunderstorm, hail and torrential rain - and didn't cool done one bit. That shouldn't be allowed. And now we have all the heat and all the humidity, and ugh.

(Hi! I'm still here. Things are just very busy and I can't seem to find the time or energy for posting, much less keeping up with anything other than the

sid_guardian discussions ... I hope everyone's doing well, whether you're caught in this heat wave too or not.)

For my many sins ....

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Entry tags:

Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, am in Birmingham

Wot a saga, eh, wot a saga, first time I have ventured significantly forth these many years -

And to start with, MAJOR HEAT EVENT.

In anticipation, I had - or so I thought - prudently booked a taxi via taxiapp, with a certain amount of leeway, just in case -

- which turned out very prudent, as when I went to check the booking this morning the app was showing 'network error' and this was clearly on their end rather than mine, and a little looking about suggests that this is not their first ~~rodeo~~ server problem.

So when, at designated time, taxi cameth not, I set out towards the Tube, not without some hope that a black cab might pass me on my way, but that Was Not To Be -

And on reflection, I should perhaps have waited for a Bank train, because getting out on Charing X platforms at Euston involves rather too many stairs.

However, Avanti kindly texted me the approx time my train would be boarding, and this all seemed set - although my (1st class) seat was aisle, backwards, there was nobody in the other 3 seats so I switched -

HAH.

When we reached Coventry, choochoo sighed and gave up, and we had to debouch and take the next Birmingham bound train - which was delayed....

At Birmingham New Street had considerable faff trying to discover a Way Out that would take me to a taxi rank.

When I finally arrived at hotel booked by conference organisers there was an immense performance trying to find the right group booking, as it was not under any title that I might have thought of but that of some hireling booking agency.

However, I am now in nice cool room and have had tasty room service snack. Even if I have had to wrestle with getting my laptop to talk to the free wifi...