conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
1. Dear Care and Feeding,

My husband “Chad” and I have a 4-year-old son, “Lane.” Recently for his birthday, my parents gifted him a set of Winnie-the-Pooh books. It’s been a tradition in my family for the last three generations for kids to read these books. But my husband won’t let my son have them.

He says doesn’t want Lane to read them because he insists that Winnie-the-Pooh is for girls. I’ve never heard anything so stupid! How can I make him understand that Pooh is a character that has been beloved by both boys and girls alike for nearly a century now?

—Much Ado About Pooh


Read more... )

****


2. Dear Care and Feeding,

My wife “Carla” and I have a 3-year-old son, “Andy.” Andy became a big brother last month when we had our daughter, “Isabelle.” Andy had been reliably potty-trained for four months before Isabelle was born, but within days of bringing Isabelle home from the hospital, Andy began having accidents. Carla’s solution has been to put him back in pull-ups. I don’t think allowing him to regress like this is a wise idea. She says to let him do it for the time being if it makes him feel better. It seems to me that taking a firm approach (making him go back to using the toilet or face punishment) would be in his best interest. Who is right?

—We’re Not Going Backward


Read more... )

Hawk and Dove #2

30 Jul 2025 12:32 pm
iamrman: (Carol)
[personal profile] iamrman posting in [community profile] scans_daily

Writers: Karl and Barbara Kesel

Pencils: Greg Guler

Inks: Scott Hanna


Hawk and Dove fight the avatar of an unpronounceable Aztec goddess.


Read more... )

Boy review

30 Jul 2025 10:43 am
[personal profile] cosmolinguist

I got a text from the gender clinic a while ago saying "You are due a mandatory in person annual review appointment," so that's what I'm going to this morning.

I asked D to come with me, which he kindly has taken off work for, and on the bus in to town he said "So what do I need to know about this appointment?" I said I had very little idea myself and read out the text: mandatory, in person, review.

I did this on the phone last year, but all I remember is that that's when I was first told that I'm too fat to get top surgery. I think otherwise I'm very straightforward: I take my T, I don't forget, my GP is good at prescribing it, I'm not too unhappy with any of the side effects. Last year I could say I was doing counseling from them and I was told I was getting near the top of the voice coaching waiting list (though, another year on, I've still heard nothing about that...)

I told D "I think it's just, like, a meds review but for the whole real, not just meds."

"A boy review," he said.

I grinned. "Yeah!" I rested my head on his shoulder and asked "How is your boy?"

"Pretty good," he smiled. "Could do with more sleep."

So yeah, I'm off for my boy review.

Grace Petrie ticket?

30 Jul 2025 10:46 am
lokifan: London: you can fly (London: you can fly)
[personal profile] lokifan
Do I have any Grace Petrie fans (totally fine if we don't know each other, all Dreamwidth Grace Petrie fans are a friend in waiting) who wanna come see a preview of her Edinburgh show at the Bill Murray in Angel tonight? 6:30 show, wraps up by 8, according to her :) Her last stand-up show, Butch Ado About Nothing, was FANTASTIC.

Will also accept jealous comments from people too far away to come

We saw the huskies yesterday!

1 Aug 2025 09:24 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
Moonpie started to get super hyped up, as usual, and so did they, so I picked her up... and ended up with two huskies eagerly jumping up on me to say hi to their best chihuahua friend!

Well, at least my feet were firmly planted. Before we saw the huskies, on our earlier walk, we bumped into a friendly yorkie (?) - no collar, no people. But well-fed and groomed, this isn't another Finn. He eventually disappeared under a fence, but I've been asking everybody I saw if they know whose dog he is exactly, because I was that worried. Was he outside alone in the heat? That's no good.

Anyway, I asked the guy with the huskies, and he had no idea, but he told me something else - the day before, he thinks he saw a fox! I'm not sure he wasn't just mistaken, but if he isn't - wow! I know we have bunnies on the South Shore, and coyotes in the Bronx, and whatever the city says we definitely have a full time population of deer mid-Island, so maybe a fox isn't so strange.

***********


Read more... )
falkner: [Hey! Say! JUMP] [Inoo Kei] ([HSJ] Inoo from Boys Don't Stop MV)
[personal profile] falkner posting in [community profile] booknook
What are you reading?

Sneaky signal-boost: [Sign-Up Post] October Review-a-Thon 2025

Guy Gardner: Warrior #27

30 Jul 2025 10:31 am
iamrman: (Power)
[personal profile] iamrman posting in [community profile] scans_daily

Writer: Beau Smith

Pencils: Mitch Byrd

Inks: Dan Davis


Capital Punishment: Part 1.

Guy is in the Capitol to get a commendation from the President, only to get into yet another super-villain brawl.


Read more... )

(no subject)

30 Jul 2025 09:43 am
oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
[personal profile] oursin
Happy birthday, [personal profile] forestofglory!

Just One Thing (30 July 2025)

30 Jul 2025 09:28 am
nanila: me (Default)
[personal profile] nanila posting in [community profile] awesomeers
It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!
elderwitty: a square silver fruit basket with ivory handle. the sides are vertical slots over a grid of 3 rows of small squares (Josef Hoffman - silver & ivory fruit bas)
[personal profile] elderwitty
I've copied my 2009 entry, and updated it with more movies, some tv shows, run times, and video links.

I'm back, and bossy as ever. When you've finished reading all the books I recommended, you can take a break and catch a good flick or binge a show. Here are nine the ones I insist you see.


Movies

1) Holiday (1938) - my favorite movie of all time. Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Lew Ayres, and Edward Everett Horton. Hard-working young man Johnny Case (Cary Grant) takes a break from his labors to see what he's working for. While on holiday in Lake Placid he meets and falls for Julia (Doris Nolan), a lovely young lady. After arriving home in NYC, he cabs over to her place to meet the family. Surprise #1 – she's stinking rich. Surprise #2 – her non-conformist sister Linda (Kate Hepburn) is perfect for him. Their brother Ned (Lew Ayres), who likes a tipple, approves. The rest of the family – not so much. Johnny's best friends, Nick (Edward Everett Horton) and wife Susan (Jean Dixon), provide support and superlative comedic timing. Also, Grant and Hepburn do some acrobatics in the playroom.
95 minutes
Scene from Holiday


2) The Tall Guy (1989) – Jeff Goldblum's Dexter King is the second banana in Rowen Atkinson's one-man show in London's West End. He falls for Emma Thompson's Kate Lemmon, a nurse with a fondness for the color orange. After Dexter gets fired for getting more laughs than the star, he has to find a new gig. He lands lead role in a musical based on the life of the Elephant Man. At one point they destroy Kate's apartment with sex. Riotously funny.
92 minutes
The Tall Guy trailer


3) Enchanted April (1992) – two somewhat depressed Victorian housewives (Josie Lawrence and Miranda Richardson) decide to leave their dreary London lives and distant husbands behind and rent a small Italian castle for the month of April. They advertise for women to share the expense, expecting to be able to pick and choose the perfect companions, but only two apply; an elderly widow with firm ideas on how things should be done (Joan Plowright) and a beautiful flapper (Polly Walker) who just wants a break from being grabbed. Despite having seemingly nothing in common, they forge strong friendships, with each other and, unexpectedly, with their husbands (Alfred Molina and Jim Broadbent) who come to San Salvatore, one at the behest of his wife and the other looking for beauty. Breathtakingly gorgeous. Only took 15 years before it was available on DVD. WHEEE!!!!
95 minutes
Enchanted April trailer


4) Let it Ride (1989) – Jay Trotter (Richard Dreyfuss) is having a very good day. Well, sure, his wife Pam (Teri Garr) is going to leave him if he doesn't stop gambling. And, yes – his best friend and track-buddy (David Johansen aka Buster Poindexter) is a loser who couldn't pick a winner to save his life. Furthermore, Vicki (Jennifer Tilly), the pretty girl he meets at the track, doesn't fall out of her dress even one time (though not for lack of trying). Still, he can't seem to put a foot wrong when it comes to picking the horses. A sort of fairy tale about a loveable loser who makes good.
90 minutes
Let it Ride trailer


5) Gunga Din (1939) – Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Cary Grant, and Victor McLaglen are three British soldiers in colonial India who have to stop the murderous Thuggee cult from sweeping across the continent. Armed only with their guns, an elephant, a native waterboy (Sam Jaffee), dashing style, and their rapier wit, they attempt to keep the world safe. And, ya know, find some gold and treasure for themselves. Action-adventure, comedy with lots of snark, and even (a very little) romance. If you've seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, some of this will seem familiar. I get the feeling that Steven is a fan.
117 minutes
Gunga Din trailer


6) Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (1990) – according to IMDB, Gary Oldman is Rosencrantz and Tim Roth is Guildenstern. The editors are quite possibly the only ones who are sure of that, including the characters themselves. Hamlet's two college friends, called by the King to discover what is wrong with him, wander in and out of scenes of Shakespeare's famous play, getting into trouble both onstage and off. Playwright Tom Stoppard wondered what these two minor characters got up to when they weren't in their very few scenes in the play, and this is what he came up with. Very funny, very clever, and the chemistry between the leads is phenomenal.
117 minutes
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead trailer


7) Dead Again (1991) – Kenneth Branagh is Mike Church, a PI doing a favor for the orphanage where he grew up. He's trying to find the identity of a mute woman found wandering the grounds. He can't bear to leave Grace (Emma Thompson), as he calls her, at the county mental ward – so he takes her home instead.
Hypnotist/antiques dealer Franklyn Madson (Derek Jacobi) is able to get her to speak, but it's not much help, as she is amnesiac except for memories of Roman and Margaret Strauss, a conductor and cellist from the 1940s whose love story ended in murder and execution.
Throw in Andy Garcia as a reporter and Robin Williams as an ex-psychiatrist, and you have a classic whodunit.
107 minutes
Dead Again trailer


8) Bringing Up Baby (1938) – the classic screwball comedy. David Huxley (Cary Grant) is a mild-mannered paleontologist who wants just three things; an intercostal clavicle – the last piece of the brontosaur he's reconstructing, to marry the very respectable Miss Bird, and a million dollar grant from society dame Elizabeth Random. Only three things stand in his way: George, a terrier with a taste for fossils; Baby, a leopard with a doppelganger problem; and Susan Vance (Katherine Hepburn), a flibbertigibbet, nominally in charge of George and Baby, who is also in the running for the grant (and the Grant) and who seems to have the inside track, since she's Elizabeth's niece. Fast talking, fast action - comedy at its very best.
102 minutes
Bringing Up Baby trailer


9) The Philadelphia Story (1940) – Tracy Lord (Katherine Hepburn) is about to be married, for the second time. Things get complicated when her first husband, C K Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) shows up with two friends in tow. Turns out they're not really friends – Macaulay Connor (James Stewart) is a tabloid reporter and Elizabeth Imbrie (Ruth Hussey) is his photographer. It seems that Tracy's father has been naughty, which makes it possible for tabloid editor Sidney Kidd to extort her cooperation. She tries to throw a wrench in the works by playing up the expected eccentricities of the wealthy, with the help of younger sister Dinah (the fabulous Virginia Wiedler). The wedding does not go off without a hitch. There are hitches aplenty, mostly due to sparks between Tracy and Dext that are far from snuffed out. Funny, touching, romantic and hilarious by turns. And a drunken Jimmy Stewart is a sight you have to see.
112 minutes
(Useless trivia - porn star turned legit actress Traci Lords got her nom de porn here. Okay, that's probably not true, but it makes a much better story than 'her best friend's first name plus Jack Lord's last.' whatever.)
Original The Philadelphia Story trailer
Modern The Philadelphia Story trailer


10) The Princess Bride (2020) – the original is, of course, awesome, but approximately 95% of Hollywood collaborated on a home version at the start of the first Covid lockdown. It's glorious.
68 minutes
The whole movie


11) Roxanne (1987) – modern take on Cyrano de Bergerac, with Steve Martin as a big-nosed fire chief who falls for Daryl Hannah's astrophysics student.
107 minutes
Roxanne trailer


12) All of Me (1984) – Roger Cobb (Steve Martin) is a lawyer who'd rather be a jazz musician, but will settle for making partner. Edwina Cutwater (Lily Tomlin) is his loony client, a dying (and spoiled) heiress with a plan to move her soul into a healthy body so she can finally experience life fully. There's a hitch, though, and they end up fighting for control of Roger's body.
93 minutes
All of Me trailer


13) Long Gone (1987) – Stud Cantrell (William Petersen) is playing for the Tampico Stogies when he meets Dixie Lee Boxx (Virginia Madsen). Hard to summarize, but great fun.
112 minutes
The whole movie


14) Cold Comfort Farm (1995) – There's nowt so queer as folk.
105 minutes
Cold Comfort Farm trailer


15) Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990) – Alan Rickman's Jamie is in love with Juliet Stephenson's Nina.

Then he dies.

Then he comes back.

Then he invites his dead friends around.

Then things get complicated.

106 minutes
Truly, Madly, Deeply trailer



TV

Pride & Prejudice (1995) – the BBC/A&E version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.
6 episodes, 50 minutes each
Pride & Prejudice trailer


Anne of Green Gables (1985) – in the late 1800s, siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert (Colleen Dewhurst and Richard Farnsworth) send to the orphanage for a boy to help them work their farm on Prince Edward Island. Luckily for all involved, they get Anne Shirley (Megan Follows) instead.
3 hours, 19 minutes
Anne of Green Gables trailer


Wonderfalls (2004) – inanimate objects tell Jaye (Caroline Dhavernas), a philosophy major in a family of high achievers, what to do. Their tasks help her become a better person...while totally messing up both her job at the Niagara Falls gift shop and her personal life.
13 episodes, 44 minutes each
Wonderfalls trailer


Strange Luck (1995) – freelance photographer Chance Harper (DB Sweeney) has the strangest luck. He's always in the right place at the wrong time. Or is it the other way around? Still not available on DVD.
17 episodes, 44 minutes each
Strange Luck trailer
Strange Luck Episodes 1-15
Strange Luck Episode 16 ‘Blinded by the Son’
Strange Luck Episode 17 ‘Struck by Lighting’


Jake 2.0 – Jake Foley (Christopher Gorham) works at the NSA. In IT, but he's applied to be an agent. Several times. Unsuccessfully. Then he gets infected with nanites, and starts training as a real agent. Sort of.
I can’t find anywhere to watch it online, but it’s finally out on DVD. Check your favorite retailer.
16 episodes, 42 minutes each
Jake 2.0 opening credits

Worldcon 2018 surprise email

30 Jul 2025 08:52 am
vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
[personal profile] vivdunstan
Rather bizarre to wake up to an email from the 2018 San Jose Worldcon. Offering me a print or digital (PDF) copy of the souvenir book I never got back then as a supporting member. From Bluesky the email has also baffled at least one other person, who didn't even remember for sure if they were a supporting member (yes, per the online list). Anyway Google Form filled out, and I have my PDF. I gather there's been a saga since ...

Targeted T

29 Jul 2025 08:58 am
[personal profile] cosmolinguist

D watched me put the planned manitizer on my thighs this morning and sang "goopy legs doodoodoodoodoo" to the tune of "Baby Shark."

Then he said "No wonder you're so good at wall sits, you put the testosterone right on your quads!"

(I am not that good at wall sits, but I don't hate them as much as he does.)

I smiled. "I don't always, you know," I said. "Sometimes I put it on my shoulders, upper arms. It's why my biceps are so good."

jazzfish: Jazz Fish: beret, sunglasses, saxophone (Default)
[personal profile] jazzfish
Still here. Still applying for jobs, now including tech writer jobs. So far I've gotten ... a single initial-phone-screen. The economy really is shit.

Marker-edging and gluing all the Ogre Designer's Edition models proceeds apace. I've discovered that, mm, around ten twenty-five, sheesh percent of the tank models were miscut in ways that will require Surgery. The models are constructed out of cardboard punch-outs, with notches in them that slide together to go at right angles. Except that for some of them, the die didn't punch straight down, it punched down at an angle. Which results in leaning, drunk-looking cybertanks. I've maybe another dozen to do that were cut properly, including ... eight? eight where I'll get to be Creative on the marker-edging colour. Then I guess I take a craft knife to some of the notches, and hopefully manage to adjust them to be less drunk, with minimal bloodshed.

Depending on how I'm feeling I may consider marker-edging all thousand-some counters as well. When I write it out like that it seems less likely. On the other hand it would look really good.

I am managing to keep myself more or less functional, mentally/emotionally as well as task-completion-y. I've been going out biking several days a week. Today I made it out to Central Park, a ride of 8 mostly-uphill km that takes me about an hour (and forty minutes to ride back), and sat under the trees and had a picnic lunch and a bit of a meditation. It was good. Getting out is a struggle, especially when it's been over 25C most days, but it's always, always, worth it.

Been doing some yoga as well. My tolerance / ability to convince myself to do yoga seems to cap out around 30-40 minutes. So I'm getting through the entire standing sequence but only a couple of the floor sequence stretches, and none of the cooldowns (except savasana, of course). Might benefit from accepting that this is how long I can talk myself into this, and shortening the sequence so I get the whole thing, even if it's less of it.

I got out my bass last night as well. I am unsurprisingly terrible, but surprisingly less terrible than I'd expected. When I was teaching myself back in, jeez, 2021 I guess, I developed some rudimentary technique, and that seems to have stuck at least a little bit. I'm curious as to whether I'll be able to get anywhere with self-teaching.

Reading, too, but that can wait til tomorrow as is proper.

I hope you're well.

/o\

29 Jul 2025 09:45 pm
settiai: (Bilbo -- dark_jackal32)
[personal profile] settiai
Raise your hand if you're extraordinarily gifted and managed to fall while taking your boots off, landing in a way that scraped the fuck out of your left foot (both the side and the heel) when it slammed into the bedside table.

... just me, huh?

The timing is about as good as it can get at least. Monday and Tuesdays are my days in the office, and this whole mess happened after I made it home tonight, so my shoe wearing the next few days will probably be limited. And, hey, I'll take a scraped up foot over a sprained ankle any day.

But still. Oof. Only me. 🙃

Heads up for the Pacific

29 Jul 2025 09:28 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
8.7 quake in Siberia, tsunami warning across the Pacific.
rocky41_7: (Default)
[personal profile] rocky41_7 posting in [community profile] booknook

Title: Someone You Can Build a Nest In
Author: John Wiswell
Genre: Fiction, fantasy, romance

A+ Library is my bit where I review books with asexual and aromantic characters.

Went on a weekend trip with the squad this weekend and we had to stop at the local Barnes and Noble (It's been a while since I was in one that big! Ours in my town is now in the mall, so it's quite small.) where I spent too much and picked up some things on my TBR plus my own copy of Our Wives Under the Sea. We had some downtime on the trip and I managed to finish the first of the new books while we were there. This was Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell.

I wanted so much to like this book, and not just because I was charmed by the purple-themed Barnes and Noble-exclusive cover and edging. It landed on my TBR for being an asexual romance (sapphic, if you take Shesheshen for female, which you don't have to do), and I enjoyed the plot concept. Unfortunately, I did not like the book. If I had not paid for it I probably would not have finished it. The following review is not to say it's a bad book—it has an average rating of 4.05 stars on StoryGraph based on over 6,000 reviews, so obviously people like it—but to say that it specifically had a number of things that made it a big thumbs down for me.

The character: Shesheshen, asexual; Homily, asexual

Final verdict: Thumbs down

Previous read: To Be Taught, if Fortunate

 

Full review below )

 

 


rocky41_7: (Default)
[personal profile] rocky41_7 posting in [community profile] books

A+ Library is my bit where I review books with asexual and aromantic characters.

Went on a weekend trip with the squad this weekend and we had to stop at the local Barnes and Noble (It's been a while since I was in one that big! Ours in my town is now in the mall, so it's quite small.) where I spent too much and picked up some things on my TBR plus my own copy of Our Wives Under the Sea. We had some downtime on the trip and I managed to finish the first of the new books while we were there. This was Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell.
 
I wanted so much to like this book, and not just because I was charmed by the purple-themed Barnes and Noble-exclusive cover and edging. It landed on my TBR for being an asexual romance (sapphic, if you take Shesheshen for female, which you don't have to do), and I enjoyed the plot concept. Unfortunately, I did not like the book. If I had not paid for it I probably would not have finished it. The following review is not to say it's a bad book—it has an average rating of 4.05 stars on StoryGraph based on over 6,000 reviews, so obviously people like it—but to say that it specifically had a number of things that made it a big thumbs down for me.

The Character(s): Shesheshen, asexual; Homily, asexual
Verdict: Thumbs down
Previous read: To be Taught, if Fortunate

Full review below )
 

Day 1652: "A dagger."

29 Jul 2025 04:01 pm
[syndicated profile] wtfjht_feed

Posted by Matt Kiser

1/ The Trump administration moved to repeal the scientific finding that allows the federal government to regulate greenhouse gases, calling it a $1 trillion drag on the economy. The EPA’s 2009 “endangerment finding” states that greenhouse gases threaten public health and forms the legal basis for most federal climate rules. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said repealing it would be “the largest deregulatory action in the history of America” and would “drive a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion.” The proposal cited a Department of Energy report led by climate skeptics who claimed U.S. emissions don’t “significantly” affect global climate trends or public health. (New York Times / NPR / Washington Post / Politico / Wall Street Journal / USA Today / Associated Press / Axios / CNBC / The Hill)

2/ Ghislaine Maxwell offered to testify before Congress but only if granted immunity, advance access to questions, and a delay until the Supreme Court rules on her appeal. Her attorneys said she would otherwise invoke her Fifth Amendment rights. The House Oversight Committee rejected those conditions and said it “will not consider granting congressional immunity.” Maxwell also suggested she would testify publicly if Trump granted her clemency, writing she would be “willing – and eager – to testify openly and honestly.” Trump, meanwhile, said Jeffrey Epstein “stole” young women from his Mar-a-Lago spa, including Virginia Giuffre, who was 16 at the time. “He stole her,” Trump said, adding, “she had no complaints about us whatsoever.” Giuffre later accused Epstein of trafficking her and died by suicide in April. Trump nevertheless insisted he banned Epstein for hiring away staff — not for misconduct — calling the two issues “sort of a little bit of the same thing.” (CNN / Politico / Associated Press / CNN / Washington Post / Axios / NBC News / NPR / Wall Street Journal / NBC News / USA Today / The Hill)

3/ In April 2025, the Trump administration cut $158 million in federal grants for gun violence prevention, eliminating 69 DOJ-funded intervention programs across cities like New York, Chicago, and Memphis. The programs trained outreach workers to de-escalate conflict and prevent shootings. On Monday, a gunman killed four people and injured one at a Manhattan office tower. Police said Shane Tamura, 27, carried an assault-style rifle and left a suicide note blaming the NFL for brain damage he believed he suffered playing high school football. The shooting occurred inside the same building that houses the league’s headquarters. (Reuters / New York Times / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal)

4/ A third whistleblower gave Congress an audio recording that appears to contradict testimony from Emil Bove, a former Trump lawyer nominated for a lifetime seat on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The recording suggests Bove misled lawmakers about his role in the dismissal of corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Senate Democrats, citing “serious concerns” and “substantial information relevant to the truthfulness of the nominee,” asked the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate and urged Republicans to delay the vote, which could happen this week. The Justice Department, meanwhile, called the allegations a “bad faith attempt to sink a nominee.” (Washington Post / Associated Press / Politico)

5/ The U.K. said it will recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza and a long-term peace plan. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the move after recalling his cabinet and citing “starving babies, children too weak to stand” as justification. Israel called the move a “reward for Hamas,” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing Starmer of “punishing its victims,” and warning that “a jihadist state on Israel’s border TODAY will threaten Britain TOMORROW.” Trump, meanwhile, said the U.S. “has no view” but criticized the move as “rewarding Hamas,” and adding: “I’m not in that camp.” Trump also said he and Starmer “never did discuss it,” despite meeting one day prior. (NPR / Politico / Associated Press / Washington Post / New York Times / Reuters / NBC News / Politico / ABC News)

poll/ 32% of Americans support Israel’s war in Gaza – down from 42% in September and the lowest level since polling began in late 2023. Disapproval rose to 60%, with support dropping to 8% among Democrats and 25% among independents. Republican support, meanwhile, increased to 71%. 52% of Americans view Benjamin Netanyahu unfavorably – his worst rating since 1997. (Gallup)

poll/ 40% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president – the lowest of his second term. Among Republicans, 83% approved of his performance, while just 3% of Democrats and about one-third of independents approved. (Reuters)

The midterm elections are in 462 days.

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Scratch Ljubljana -- Maybe

29 Jul 2025 04:29 pm
kevin_standlee: (Lisa)
[personal profile] kevin_standlee
Lisa's planned trip to Ljubljana, Slovakia, which was to start tomorrow, is now on hold, and I had to cancel the reservation. She called me late in her day to tell me that she'd done more research on the hotel we'd booked and discovered that there was no lift, and that all rooms were upstairs. Lisa cannot climb stairs easily, and she definitely cannot do so carrying luggage, so that made it untenable. I was able to cancel the reservation without penalty. Thank goodness we found this out before she got there!

The trip might still be able to be salvaged, though. There are other hotels (an IHG property, even) that do have lifts. By the time I could get back to the computer, Lisa had long since gone to bed (and a good thing, given how stressful today was for her), so we'll have to discuss it tomorrow. At the best case, she might leave a day later than originally planned, particularly if I can make a reservation where I made it abundantly clear that they should charge it to my credit card even though the card will not be present. We've done this before, and particularly with IHG properties. I do have Diamond status with them for the rest of this year; it would be nice to get some use out of it!

The School Reader, Fifth Book

29 Jul 2025 07:32 pm
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
[personal profile] marycatelli posting in [community profile] book_love
The School Reader, Fifth Book: Designed As A Sequel To Sanders' Fourth Reader by Charles Walton Sanders

An 1859 book presenting texts for elocution classes. Probably mostly of interest for the selections, chosen for the edification of the young as well as the elocution -- and to keep them interested. Often has several selections on the same topic. For instance, at one point, the condor. Eulogies on Thomas Jefferson and John Adams -- both, considering their common death date -- and on John Quincy Adams. Among many other topics.

Murderbot TV plot bunny

29 Jul 2025 04:10 pm
muccamukk: The PresAux team hug Murderbot, who looks confused. (Murderbot: -hugs-)
[personal profile] muccamukk
(Up for adoption, if anyone wants it.)

We were just rewatching the last two episodes, and Spoilers for 1x09 )

The School Reader, Fifth Book

29 Jul 2025 07:32 pm
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
[personal profile] marycatelli posting in [community profile] books
The School Reader, Fifth Book: Designed As A Sequel To Sanders' Fourth Reader by Charles Walton Sanders

An 1859 book presenting texts for elocution classes. Probably mostly of interest for the selections, chosen for the edification of the young as well as the elocution -- and to keep them interested. Often has several selections on the same topic. For instance, at one point, the condor. Eulogies on Thomas Jefferson and John Adams -- both, considering their common death date -- and on John Quincy Adams. Among many other topics.

Me-and-media update

30 Jul 2025 10:28 am
china_shop: Close-up of Zhao Yunlan grinning (Default)
[personal profile] china_shop
Pandemic life
I would like to go for a swim today, but the outdoor pool doesn't open till October, boo.

Previous poll review
I really enjoyed everyone's answers to the Youtube poll, thank you! I'd been thinking that I mostly use it for a) tv and movie trailers, b) specific music I'm looking for or that people have linked to, and c) how-tos (especially technical things, now that the search engines are useless, but also random stuff like how to fold dumplings). But the discussion reminded me I also watch essays, usually about story, writing, or film, in particular: [youtube.com profile] HelloFutureMe, [youtube.com profile] heyjameshurst, [youtube.com profile] everyframeapainting, [youtube.com profile] EllenBrock, and so on. And occasionally talk shows, exercise things (yoga, zumba), and other random things. I have my history disabled so I won't spend my whole life algorithm surfing.

In the poll, 48% of respondents said music, 44% said other, and 24% said "instructional videos - practical" and "dramas and tv". Ten percent of respondents don't use Youtube. In ticky-boxes, squishable fur-creatures (46%) came second to hugs (70%). Thank you for your votes and comments!

Reading
Audio: System Collapse (Murderbot) by Martha Wells, read by Kevin R. Free. I enjoyed this, not quite as much as Network Effect but well enough (and it might hit better on a re-read, like Network Effect did for me). I really appreciate that the series is grappling with wider existential issues, rather than opting for "Murderbot is super special" exceptionalism. And the middle section of Saving The World Through [Spoiler] was very fun.

Audio: Waiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall, read by Will Watt. This is a gorgeously written (and brilliantly narrated) m/m & m/m romance -- very close POVs, lovely similes. The perfect-partner wish fulfillment is almost at magic realism levels, and I found the transition from POV1 to POV2 a bit jarring, but I had been wondering how there could still be six hours left at that point, so something had to happen. My fannish brain wanted it to all come together more at the end -- poly, or friend group -- but how it actually played out was more realistic. The gestalt felt kind of genre-breaking: some very romance-novel elements, elevated by the observational detail and dreamy pacing, and complicated by the unorthodox structure. In minor characters, I loved Marius' mother so much.

Continuing on with Meditations for Mortals (thought-provoking and compassionate; the one-short-chapter-a-day really does feel meditative, and I suspect I'll go right back to the beginning once I've finished) and Guardian (just a few weeks to go in the readalong).

I found Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh in a neighbourhood tiny library yesterday, so probably that sometime soon. I haven't read it since I was a kid, and somehow I own the sequel but not the original. Talking cats ftw!

Kdramas/Cdramas
Continuing Nothing But Love and enjoying it tremendously. Both the leads have such a huge amount of heart, and the theme song's chorus ("you will be loved, you will be loved") really is the theme of the whole show. The found-family vibe is slowly coming together.

Other TV
The Secret Genius of Modern Life hosted by Hannah Fry s02e02 -- about the history of the vacuum cleaner; very close to being a puff piece (suck piece?) about Dyson.

The first episode of Tribe hosted by Bruce Parry (UK documentary series), where he goes to stay with remote tribes and lives with them for a few weeks, taking part in their daily life. It has what I'm assuming are the usual implicit tensions of this kind of anthropology (risks veering into voyeurism), especially when there's a camera crew involved. Parry can't actually sink into the experience fully because he has to keep breaking scene to narrate to camera. But was still really interesting.

Dead Ahead -- an Aotearoa NZ answer to the Ghosts franchise. A Māori family return from living in London to inherit the family home and find themselves haunted by dead relatives (kēhua). It's pretty great and also bilingual, with a fair amount of subtitled reo Māori. (Note to self: rewatch if/when you finally get around to starting to learn te reo.) One short season, which argh, does not resolve the central question. More of a drama than a sitcom.

North of North -- more indigenous TV, this time in the Canadian arctic. We've seen three episodes now, and it's delightful. The main character is lovely and charismatic, and it's made us laugh really hard a few times. Fresh and surprising.

More Bluey -- how is this show so adorable? How am I so intractibly earwormed with Bingo's "poor little bug on the wall, ding jing" song?

Tetris (2023 movie) -- this was unexpectedly excellent! It's a biographical thriller about trying to secure the distribution rights to Tetris. Set during the cold war, with a Ted Lasso-like main character. (I may only think that because of the moustache, lol.) A flawed but likeable main character, anyway. It contains corporate intrigue, corrupt and backstabbing magnates (Robert Maxwell played by Roger Allam of Cabin Pressure fame), and naive Westerners heading to the USSR and landing themselves in hot water in multiple hapless ways. Playful, funny, energetic, tense, and based on a true story. (On Apple+.)

Fandom
Multiple modding things happening at once. I can do this!

And ooh, [community profile] fan_writers already has 150+ subscribers. \o/

Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses (the last couple of episodes haven't really landed for me; I like the technical ones), Letters from an American (US politics), Gone By Lunchtime (local political pundits; their discussion of the RSB made me want a lawyer or two to butt in).

Writing/making things
Lots of false starts. Apparently I'm still restocking the well or whatever.

Life/health/mental state things
My arms are such a mess, gah. Other than that, things are okay!

Food
I made Crispy Sesame Tofu last night, and it was amazing. Like the lemon chicken recipe, it contains 4 tablespoons of sugar; totally worth it. The tofu crisped really well, too. Last week I made nuoc cham (the dipping sauce that often comes with Vietnamese summer rolls; fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, water, garlic, chillis) for the first time, and it was delicious. Conclusion: sugar is the answer to everything.

Today I'm going to make chicken dumplings to re-stock my freezer.

Link dump
Korean practice post | Current earworm (from Bluey) | Cow Cuddling & Highland cow experience (UK) | The Four Types of Novel Writers by [youtube.com profile] EllenBrock (Youtube, revisiting) | 9 Mistakes You're Probably Making in the First 10 Pages by [profile] alyssamatesic (Youtube) | Louis Baker - R A I N B O W (Youtube, music). (So much youtube, hi.)

Good things
Guardian. Local TV shows. Cat! Cooking new things. An inbox full of fannishness. Audiobooks.

Poll #33442 Your name
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 41


When you give your name over the phone, you often / habitually

View Answers

spell it out, unprompted
29 (70.7%)

exaggerate the pronunciation to reflect the spelling
6 (14.6%)

offer an explanation or additional information
11 (26.8%)

other
5 (12.2%)

ticky-box full of being gentle with yourself
28 (68.3%)

ticky-box of a taxonomy of dandelion-wishes
13 (31.7%)

ticky-box of sugar in everything
11 (26.8%)

ticky-box full of waiting patiently, fiddling your bag strap
11 (26.8%)

ticky-box of three enchanted owl feathers that can draw forth the dawn
23 (56.1%)

ticky-box full of hugs
32 (78.0%)

kaberett: (the lost thing)
[personal profile] kaberett

... this being the style I have already sacrificed one of to The Endless Woodchip. Attempt at loss the first occurred while putting up tent; attempt at loss the second occurred late on Saturday night, when I was rushing from A to B to provide a roll-mat to a player and lost a fight with the bunting we use to discourage people from walking into the tent in places we don't want them to.

It was dark. Nonetheless I spent several whole minutes searching before giving up and resolving to try again in daylight. Consequently I got up good and early to start hunting before the team started carting all of the Objects back out of the storage ISO (all of the in-character valuables get locked away overnight while the tent's unstaffed...) and... discovered it really wasn't going to need much hunting after all.

Read more... )

Tragically the brass hair stick I pulled out of "freecycle" before letting the players at the aged-out lost objects... wound up getting dropped in a known fairly well-defined location, and vanishing utterly into the ether, despite a good five people having a hunt for it. Ah well; maybe it'll show up next time, and maybe it won't, and either way I am likely to have future opportunities to Acquire More Hair Adornment.

Watson Birthday Fill!

29 Jul 2025 03:19 pm
senmut: Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes looking forward, standing close (Fandom: Sherlock Holmes)
[personal profile] senmut
Genius (1643 words) by all_and_sundries
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Basil of Baker Street & David Dawson
Characters: Basil of Baker Street, David Dawson (Great Mouse Detective)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Friendship
Summary:

Basil knows that Dawson is cleverer than he gives himself credit for, and he sets out to prove it, but things don't go exactly as planned.

lfl visit log #1

29 Jul 2025 12:52 pm
tozka: multiple popples crowded around one big book (popples reading)
[personal profile] tozka

Went for what turned out to be an hour-long walk around the neighborhood and visited five Little Free Libraries– and found some great books!

The majority were full of kids books, which makes sense I suppose as people tend to load up on those at thrift stores and whatnot, so they’re easy to pass along.

My favorite LFL was #119554, not least because I found two books which look really good! It also had the best design, with one box for adult books and one for children’s books, a separate dog treat library and even a water bowl. Super cute!

As far as I can tell, all these libraries are the pre-built ones from the LFL website.

LFL Visited

  1. LFL #89560 “Elm Tree Little Library” – Ann Arbor, MI – Took Square Foot Gardening.
  2. LFL #119554 – Ann Arbor, MI – Took Climate Resilience and Seasons of the Wild.
  3. LFL #135682 “Barking Dog Library” – Ann Arbor, MI – Took Moby-Duck.
  4. LFL #177207 – Ann Arbor, MI.
  5. LFL #178758 – Ann Arbor, MI – Took Paradise Rot.
Photos under here! )

🌟 All LFLs Visited

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

Check-In Post - July 29th 2025

29 Jul 2025 07:26 pm
badly_knitted: (Get Knitted)
[personal profile] badly_knitted posting in [community profile] get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.


This Week's Question: What do you like to listen to / watch while crafting?


If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!



oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
[personal profile] oursin

Some book reviews that have lately crossed my line of sight.

Andrea Ringer. Circus World: Roustabouts, Animals, and the Work of Putting on the Big Show:

Ringer is not interested in the perceived glitz and glamour of big top spectacles. Rather, she presents the golden age circus as a site of working-class labor, where both humans and beasts toiled from day till night under the near-constant gaze of thrill-seeking visitors.
....
_Circus World _is the sort of book that will captivate (and, in some cases, horrify) a great many readers. It's a
must-read for anyone interested in the history of the modern circus; the same is true for historians of animal entertainment and industry. Gender studies scholars will appreciate Ringer's fresh insights into the ways circuses amplified colonial and patriarchal notions of race, gender, and family. Plus, the book's short length and bite-sized
chapters make it ideal for classroom use. Above all, _Circus World _succeeds as a work of labor history, one that takes nontraditional work and nontraditional workers seriously.

***

Dominic Pettman. Telling The Bees: An interspecies Monologue. Possibly a bit twee/poncey?

Weary of the insistent demands and disappointments of online life in the early 2020s, Dominic Pettman turned to a very old practice: Rather than commenting on current events by posting for his followers on social media, he would tell the bees instead. The record of this experiment is _Telling the Bees: An Interspecies Monologue_ (2024). "Indeed, this time-honored activity--practiced in villages all over Europe, for centuries--seems much healthier to me than confessing things to the digital ether, the anonymous world via social media," he writes early in the journal (p. 2).
....
In Pettman's case, as a resident of New York City, he doesn't have much access to actual, in-the-flesh bees. The apartment co-op won't let him have a hive on the roof, for one thing. At the start he makes do by talking to "wild" bees he encounters on his walks in Central Park, but as the seasons change and the threats of COVID-19 force
ever smaller spaces of interaction, Pettman conjures and speaks to virtual bee--"the memory of bees," as he calls it, prompting a wry rejoinder from a waggish colleague: "These bees ... Are they in the room with us now?" (p. xi).
Readers seeking a journal of material human entanglement with physical bees will not find that here. Pettman's virtual bees are much more akin to the "virtual animal totem" [.]

***

This one does involve actual encounters with the beasts in question, it would appear: Leslie Patten. Ghostwalker: Tracking a Mountain Lion's Soul through Science and Story.

Patten then combats history and myth with a series of case and site studies in Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, and California, and interviews with mountain lion experts of every stripe--from trackers, hunters, and houndsmen (people who hunt with dogs) to wildlife biologists and conservation management specialists. Along
the way, Patten nimbly debunks so many myths about cougars--that they are isolate, cold-blooded killers who need to be managed to keep them from pets, livestock, and small children and that legal hunts are an effective way to manage and stabilize populations.

***

Hedgehogs in fact are ambiguously situated: Laura McLauchlan. Hedgehogs, Killing, and Kindness: The Contradictions of Care in Conservation Practice.

In the UK, hedgehog conservation is both necessary and supported by the public: Population numbers are in steady decline, while the animals themselves occupy a fond place in the British consciousness. The second section details her fieldwork in New Zealand at pest-control initiatives, including outreach events and community pest-control groups, conservation initiative Zealandia (a completely fenced ecosanctuary in Wellington dedicated to restoring
native flora and fauna), and her own "guerrilla" care for local hedgehogs. In New Zealand, hedgehogs are thriving despite their status as an invasive species, provoking widespread public animosity.

TV Tuesday: Pinching Pennies

29 Jul 2025 12:59 pm
yourlibrarian: Alec counts his money (DA-AlecMoney-sinister_morgue)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] tv_talk

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk



A recent article talks about the financial crisis in British TV. U.S. streamers also spent more lavishly on TV shows 5 years ago than they are now, with some shows never even being shown to an audience.

Are there things you would miss if budgets ended up being cut 30% or more from what we've seen in recent years? What sort of programming might you miss?
mtbc: maze L (green-white)
[personal profile] mtbc
Just on my walk to work this morning, twice I had to dodge tourist groups blocking the entire pavement. I thought that I had avoided this in escaping Cambridge, England, but apparently not. Not being attired for leisure, I occasionally have people ask me for help with local navigation. At least, a no-steps route at the Edinburgh end worked well for me today and took little longer. I don't feel enormously steady on many-steps and can experience some vertigo so it would seem foolish to make a frequent habit of them.

In considering the prospect of moving house a little south, it occurred to me that Glasgow's buses are best avoided and the south-side trains will go up to Central, not Queen Street from where the better Edinburgh trains depart. If I want an easy commute, it behooves me to remain near a subway station from which I can easily transfer at Buchanan to Queen Street. I wonder if there is any prospect of finding a garden flat (so better for L. the dog) in our youngest's school catchment area within easy reach of the subway; it seems a tall order.

At the last part of my way home tonight, I stop to pick up the car from a local car park. I left my parking space clear because the electricians are fixing a light above it. I did so on a previous day when there was word of their arrival, on which they helpfully spent their time partly on other activities that did not require cars to have been moved. So, second time lucky, one hopes. That first was a while ago, their work was interrupted by an unexpected-by-us holiday on their part.

Pensions guys presented to us at work and got me to thinking: I have a mountain of debt at a reasonable APR and I am in a high income tax bracket. I don't have much in pension savings so old-me will be in a low tax bracket. I expect that my debt grows faster than my pension. However, I can pay pre-tax money into my pension. So, better to direct spare post-tax money toward the debt or pre-tax into the pension? I wonder if a cranking of approximate numbers yields an obvious correct answer. It would be nice to not think about secondary factors like less debt means better APRs or that I can deduct paid mortgage interest from my US taxes.

Years ago I implemented a composable simulation language into which, were it handy now, I could easily plug these questions for a year-by-year simulation. Back when working on demonstrating that technology's application to financial planning, I was amused that such inevitably led to the question, when do you plan to die?, so this pensions question is a nice exception in that I can simply optimize for starting far-off retirement in the best position.

Green Lantern #191

29 Jul 2025 05:53 pm
iamrman: (Power)
[personal profile] iamrman posting in [community profile] scans_daily

Writer: Steve Englehart

Pencils: Joe Staton

Inks: Bruce Patterson


I wonder how much Len Wein's original plan for the Predator differs from the story we actually got.


Read more... )

Challenge 196: Violet

29 Jul 2025 06:33 pm
holyscream: A drawing of a vampire by artist GyaGa next to a matching color card. (icon)
[personal profile] holyscream posting in [community profile] iconthat
Anime still of a girl tapping on her phone in front of a heart-patterned background.

Momoka Sonō from Girlish Number
https://images2.imgbox.com/b0/10/lTwFkguP_o.gif

Next color:Red

Sunshine Challenge #7

29 Jul 2025 05:01 pm
pensnest: Dark silhouette opening jacket to reveal rainbow chest (Rainbow Superman)
[personal profile] pensnest
I seem to have skipped a couple, so may go back to them later.

Journaling: Life in fandom goes through ups and downs. Reminisce about the "wild ride" of your time in fandom or in other online communities.

It's not so much the Ups that matter. The exciting moments of being in a fandom—going to Trek cons, meeting people I knew only in writing (or hadn't known at all), having sparkly weekends and Camp Sparkle and some of the best laughs I've ever had in my life, going to concerts, and the highs of real feedback and the excitements of participating in challenges large and small, all those things—are why it's wonderful being a part of a fandom. The sadness comes when you fall out of your fandom and have not found anything to replace it, or else your fandom falls away. I fell out of ST:TNG fandom. Popslash fandom fell away from me. So these are the downs.

*

I have a new medication for diabetes now, the Jardiance having resulted in The Itch From Hell, of which I shall say no more except that when I stopped taking the medication, the itch stopped. (And the peasants rejoiced, etc.) So now I have something that will prod my pancreas instead, I hope.

*

Why Norwich celebrates Pride a month later than everybody else, I do not know, but it is so. I went into the city last Saturday, had tea and scone with a couple of my fellow knitters, and wandered out to explore the many stalls set out in the car park near the theatre. Didn't buy *much*, really. Three pairs of earrings and a couple of badges. (It's weird being the same age as old people.) I paused in town to have an early lunch of pasty and coffee, and met the beginning of the parade coming down the little lane I was in. Very glamorous, colourful, and fun. I even had the chance to say hello to a friendly and well-dressed dachshund.

It's nice to see *overt* tolerance being practised with pleasure and enthusiasm. Normal life is generally tolerant here, but in a passive way. But the city centre was *packed* with people in pride colours (and several in furry suits, who must have been very uncomfortable), either marching or waving and cheering.
profiterole_reads: (Inception - Eames Arthur and Girl!Eames)
[personal profile] profiterole_reads
The Anonymous Letters of C Forestier (bought via itch.io before the censorship scandal, but it's also available at other retailers) by Felicia Davin (The Gardener's Hand) was a lot of fun! It's Book 3 of the French Letters, an epistolary story mixing 19th-century fantasy and queer romance (with some erotic content).

Each volume focuses on different characters, but they know one another and the plot is related, so I recommend reading them in order. There's also some nice humour here and there.

This tome has major f/nb between a bisexual woman and a genderfluid protagonist. New characters include an aromantic woman and a minor trans female character, old ones an nb/nb pairing and an f/f (gnc)/m triad.
forestofglory: A green pony with a braided mane and tail and tree cutie mark (Lady Business)
[personal profile] forestofglory posting in [community profile] ladybusiness
In the last few years I’ve gotten into Chinese reality shows. I like them because they are relaxing, feature teamwork, and often have fun outfits and stage design. They are also helpful for my Chinese language study.

The term for all of these shows in Mandarin is zongyijiemu (綜藝節目) which I most often see translated as “variety show”, but seems to be a term for any kind of unscripted TV. I’ve used the term reality show here because that’s what I’m more familiar with and what I think will be more familiar to Lady Business readers.

Reality shows are a bit of a sidestep from my love of Chinese dramas. I got into these in part because I wanted to see my favorite actors in other contexts, and because I wanted something that worked for me to watch in short chunks, but was low stress. I have RSI problems with my hands and it helps to take frequent short rests, and these types of shows work well for me as things to watch in my hand breaks. These shows tend to have quite long episodes (over an hour) and I would have trouble watching an episode in one go but they work for me in smaller pieces.

Read more... )

The Big Idea: Mia Tsai

29 Jul 2025 02:19 pm
[syndicated profile] scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by John Scalzi

Memory is a funny thing. We all have them, and yet, even when we all have the general same set of memories, each of them is different from the memories of others. Author Mia Tsai has been thinking about memory a lot, and how they come to inform her novel, the very appropriately-named The Memory Hunters.

MIA TSAI:

“You can’t prove [historical event] didn’t happen. Were you there?”

What if we could say yeah, actually, I was? And then we could share the memory of being in that place and time with anyone we chose? What if there were people who could slip back into the genealogical record, pull memories from centuries past, and show definitively that something happened? And then, how would we deal with the fact that memories are not as reliable as we believe them to be, especially eyewitness accounts?

I’ve been fascinated with memory for decades. When it comes to music, I memorize repertoire quickly, and the few times I’ve had trouble with memorization have turned into crisis-inducing moments. I wondered what predisposed me and others like me to memorization and what made it difficult for others to know a piece by heart. Still, we work to memorize deeply in classical music, which means memorizing not just notes on the page, what the hands look like as they play, or what the music sounds like, but the theoretical analysis of the music and the feel of the piece in your body.

I took that fascination with me to college, where I jumped into psychology and cognitive neuroscience and learned how fallible human memory is. The brain is incredibly suggestive, and mistakes happen at every stage of the memorization process, from information gathering to memory retrieval (the infamous selective attention test, also called the invisible gorilla test, wasn’t created to test memory, but it serves as a good example of how someone can be an eyewitness yet not remember critical aspects of the situation).

So, with that knowledge as a foundation, I imagined how retrieving someone else’s memories would work. My own memories aren’t fully realized scenes from a movie; the same holds true for many people. How could someone truly understand someone else’s memories?

And if those memories could be understood, how would they be reframed and shaped as exhibits in a museum?

About ten years ago, I watched a video on Janet Stephens, the hairdresser-turned-archaeologist who now specializes in ancient Roman hairstyles. She’d interpreted the word acus not to mean a hairpin, as others thought, but a needle and thread, and it broke open her understanding of how the hairstyles were created.

In the future, with no real documentation on how to use our everyday items, like self-sticking wall hooks or decorative toothpicks (or 8-tracks, floppy disks, and manual transmissions) we might need our own Janet Stephens. How would anthropologists and archaeologists write about us in museums? This cast-iron hook I had, which was supposed to be drilled into a post and used to hang pots, an object I thought was simple enough that it could not be misconstrued as anything else—would it get misinterpreted two hundred years into the future? Would its placard in the museum read like this? OBJECT OF UNKNOWN FUNCTION, EARLY TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. CAST IRON. Wouldn’t it make research easier if, say, an anthropologist with the ability to pull memories from DNA fragments could take specimens off said hook hundreds of years later, say yes, I was there, then write more accurately about it?

But it’s not enough to magically pull a memory and present it. Our lives are rooted in culture and context at increasingly micro levels thanks to social fragmentation, and so the people doing the memory work would also need to be well versed in the historical context of the memory. Much like how “acus” mystified archaeologists until a hairdresser came along with the right knowledge set, the memories gathered by my fantasy anthropologists would need someone to interpret them—perhaps someone living who would have a tangible, contextual connection to the memory, someone who might be looking for lost ancestral knowledge or needed a reference to how things used to be done.

None of that personal connection would have a place in a museum. Thus, I created the memory temple as well as a system of ancestor worship for the everyday things that have great personal impact but much less impact when weighed against the rest of public history. I took inspiration from Taiwanese ancestor worship as well as the practice of people going to the cemetery to speak to their loved ones. And The Memory Hunters continued to grow.

There wasn’t a part of society diving didn’t touch. In effect, the characters in the book would always be beside their ancestors except for those who had been sundered from family heirlooms or relatives. I turned that over for a bit, not really able to get my jaws around it, until one day I heard someone say she’d love to sit with her ancestors for five minutes. Suddenly, it crystallized for me so many of the book’s issues that had been hovering just out of reach. It put me back in first grade, living half a world away from the rest of my family, when we were tasked with bringing in a family tree (I could not).

The Memory Hunters takes place in a world where distance and lost knowledge can be overcome, and I think that’s the biggest speculative aspect of it.


The Memory Hunters: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s

Author Socials: Web site|Bluesky|Instagram

Online Event

29 Jul 2025 09:00 am
marthawells: Murderbot with helmet (Default)
[personal profile] marthawells
Tomorrow (Wednesday the 30th) Summer of Science Fiction & Fantasy: Martha Wells in conversation with Kate Elliott

July 30 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm PT Register at this link:

https://www.clarionwest.org/event/summer-of-science-fiction-fantasy-martha-wells-in-conversation-with-kate-elliott/

It's free!

About me:

Parapsychological librarian and friendly neighborhood heretic.

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