oursin: Photograph of small impressionistic metal figurine seated reading a book (Reader)

What I read

Made a rather slow progression through Li, Wondrous Transformations, and finished it, a little underwhelmed somehow. Some useful information, but a fair amount of familiar territory.

As a break, re-read of KJ Charles' Will Darling Adventures, Slippery Creatures (2020), Subtle Blood (2020) and The Sugared Game (2021), as well as the two short pendant pieces, To Trust Man on His Oath (2021) and How Goes the World (2021).

Then - I seem to be hitting a phase of 're-reading series end to end'? - Martha Wells, All Systems Red (2017), Artificial Conditions (2018), Rogue Protocol (2018) and Exit Strategy 2018), and the short piece Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (2020).

Also read book for review (v good).

Literary Review.

On the go

Martha Wells, Network Effect (2020).

Up next

Predictably, Fugitive Telemetry and System Collapse.

Also at some point, next volume in A Dance to the Music of Time for reading group (At Lady Molly's).

Still waiting for other book for review to turn up, but various things I ordered have turned up, so maybe those.

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April 23rd, 2025next

April 23rd, 2025: Hey, did you know I wrote a choose-your-own-path STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS book last year? Well GOOD NEWS EITHER WAY, it's a finalist for both a Hugo and an Aurora award! That is extremely awesome and I'm very happy. If you've ever wanted to read an interactive AWARD-NOMINATED Star Trek comic, might I recommend WARP YOUR OWN WAY??

– Ryan

oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
Happy birthday, [personal profile] damnmagpie!
snickfic: (Giles bookish)
- I signed up for [community profile] seasonsofdrabbles. Come join me! So I have someone to write for.

- After my first [community profile] hurtcomfortex idea got increasingly complicated with less and less direct h/c, I now have a new idea that is directly h/c and much simpler. Which is great, because I can tell it's going to be a long 'un. (That's why the writing period for this exchange is so long, right? Because h/c takes lots of words??) So now I have 400 words, and the deadline isn't for like six weeks! Woo!
mecurtin: face of tuxedo tabby cat Purrcy looking smugly happy (purrcy face)
#Purrcy was both happy and regal, sitting in my seat on the sofa with the sun coming the skylight on it. See how he smiles at me in Cat!
#cats #CatsOfBluesky

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby is lightly curled on a brocade cushion, looking at the camera with ears alert, whiskers spread wide and white, eyes light green and pupils just slits. He is clearly very happy, as sunlight shines on the cushion and most of him.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby is lightly curled on a brocade cushion, looking at the camera with ears alert, whiskers spread wide and white, eyes light green and pupils just slits. He is clearly very happy, as sunlight shines on the cushion and most of him.




I sat out on the porch to eat breakfast today, and the local hive of feral honeybees was awake, buzzing about looking for nectar. The crabapple flowers are opening, so they seem to have their timing just right. The carpenter bees were also out, inspecting the eaves. It was really good to have that 1/2 hour, even though it was so late in the morning (I had errands to run before my stomach was ready for breakfast) that I didn't see or hear any migrants.
◾ Tags:
astrogirl: (Ford)
Chapter 6 of "Congratulations on Your Apotheosis" is up. And leaves me feeling like I really should apologize to the characters.
sovay: (Claude Rains)
Apparently if permitted to sleep for nine hours, my brain presents me with a cheerfully escapist dream of meeting Dirk Bogarde at a film festival and then spending the rest of the afternoon perusing his library and forgoing dinner in favor of sailing, which was probably more my idea of a good time than his, but I like to think if I hadn't woken when I did, he'd have introduced me to Anthony Forwood.
rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/04/protests-erupt-across-the-uk-after-supreme-court-ruled-against-trans-rights/

Many many pictures.

Also, more protests yet to come, apparently, with ones scheduled for Oxford and Cambridge.
catherineldf: (Default)
So I used to call this “The Greening of Our Lives” when I started it, but there is no more “our” so I think I’ll drop that part. And I haven’t done one of these for the past couple of years because, honestly, it was too depressing. But you can click through on the hashtags if you want to see what we did before this point.

Between April of 2024 and today, I’ve:
  • Had a new heat pump dryer and high efficiency washer installed (just yesterday!). Energy + water savings + reduced gas use
  • Had new window treatments installed to help block drafts and increase natural light (also to make me feel less like Miss Havisham)
  • Continued to work from home so less driving time.
  • Got an induction hot plate and cookware set (Costco, for the win!) to reduce amount of cooking on gas stove.
  • Upgraded my convection oven so I use the gas oven less.
  • Had an home energy audit done and got a low flow shower head and some insulation on the basement pipes.
  • Started container gardening
  • Doubled down on the pollinator plants and reducing the grass. Continue to avoid pesticides and herbicides.
  • Switched to buying more used/refurbished electronics
  • Continued involvement with Buy Nothing Club
  • Switched Queen of Swords Press to recycled/recyclable mailers from Eco Enclose and recycled paper shopping bags from Nashville Wraps.
  • Switched QoSP newsletter to Buttondown, a platform that doesn’t use AI (so far) and reinvests part of the proceeds in environmental projects.
  • Continued with Windsource, continue to avoid AI use wherever possible, recycling, composting, reusing, etc.
  • Support local and international green projects.
What are you up to this Earth Day?


oursin: Photograph of a statue of Hygeia, goddess of health (Hygeia)

So today was my physio let's see how you're doing assessment, at the different health centre -

- which I was in a bit of a swivet about getting to, because the obvious straightforward route is the longest, and there are shorter ones but these involve a tangle of residential streets -

- not to mention, whichever way you slice it, the road winds uphill all the way, yea, to the very end, because the health centre is bang opposite Parliament Hill.

Nonetheless, I found a route which seemed doable, which said 24 mins (and that was not actually starting from home base but from the road by the railway line), which I thought was possibly optimistic for an Old Duck such as myself, but mirabile dictu it was in fact just over 20 but under 25 minutes, win, eh?

And took me along streets I have seldom walked along since the 70s/80s when I was visiting them more frequently for Reasons.

Had a rather short but I hope useful meeting with the physio - some changes to existing exercises and a new one or two.

Thought I would get a bus back as I had had time to check out the nearby bus stops, and there was one coming along which according to the information at the stop was going in a useful direction.

Alas it was coming from the desired direction, but still, cut off a certain amount of homewards slog.

ambyr: a dark-winged man standing in a doorway over water; his reflection has white wings (watercolor by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law) (Default)
Dear Carolyn: When I asked my daughter-in-law about their vacation destination and flight information, she asked why I wanted to know. I said if there was a crash, I would want to know that it wasn’t their flight. She asked why I was wishing their plane to crash. She also said this type of question takes away her agency.

Sharing flight information is common among my mom friends, so I was surprised. She suggested therapy to handle my anxiety.

I am now feeling very unsure about how to relate to her. She seems to make up a version of me that isn’t accurate and then respond as if that was who I am. I want to avoid conflict with her because this relationship is important to my son. How to proceed?


Easiest: Stop asking for flight info )
oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
Happy birthday, [personal profile] mme_hardy and [personal profile] polyamorous!

February 2025

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