Reading

Unlucky

A hundred years from now, chroma key colors are going to be considered unlucky to wear in a set of professions like newscasting, and nobody is going to quite realize why.

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personal: jottings

A couple of times a year I go through my social media and prune down my following list on each site. When I realize that I'm avoiding looking at a particular page because it's TOO MUCH, it's time.

This past week I've gone through Tumblr, Twitter, and Dreamwidth (removing comms I always skip past). Instagram, I basically don't look at anyway but I'm removing the app later. Facebook is ... well, I only follow five things there so it's not like it's a trial. XD And Bluesky I haven't yet reached the point where I don't ever want to look at it.

I'm very rigid about keeping all my socmeds (minus DW) below fifty follows wherever possible, and moving what I can to my RSS reader. It helps the mental clutter, and eases the FOMO.

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!challenge week

Thursday, May 29 - Challenge Week, Day 4

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Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: Hadestown OBC - Wait for Me

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Book Log: The Queen's Thief reread (part #2)

Onward to The King of Attolia, my fav in the series! This is the high point for me, though it requires everything before it to have the impact it does, and it needs everything afterward to bring the greater story to its conclusion. It's still so good, so well-paced, so satisfying, and this time I greatly appreciated how they have the assassination attempt just a little before halfway into the book (instead of the near end), so Costis becomes privy to the deception that Eugenides has been pulling on everyone and is given the rest of the book to process this information, and thus share in our frustration as the reader by knowing that Eugenides isn't what he appears to be.

( cut for length )

Current Mood: drained

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d&d: aurendor

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 5/28 Game

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Current Mood: frustrated

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Oops?

"I'm exhausted from not getting enough sleep, and my spoons are gone after the hell that was work today," I said yesterday evening after getting home from work.

"I have so many things that I need to get done this evening, but I don't have the energy right now," I said. "Plus my head's really starting to hurt."

"You know what?" I asked myself. "A short nap will be the perfect solution."

Spoiler: it was not the perfect solution for accomplishing things yesterday evening. Why not? Because instead of it being a short nap, it turned into a full night's sleep.

Oops?

Seriously, I didn't even turn out the lights. I curled up on top of the comforter on the bed. I wasn't even under the sheets. And I still slept for hours.

Luckily, I woke up for something like twenty minutes a little before midnight. That gave me time to take care of a couple of things that I really had to do, and then I was able to at least turn out the lights and such. But, yeah. That wasn't exactly what my plan was for yesterday. It's certainly what happened, though.

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!challenge week

Wednesday, May 28 - Challenge Week, Day 3

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Current Mood: nostalgic

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writerly,
year 2025

Not really Star Wars

I saw a poll on tumblr not too long ago, asking if people read their own fics. My guess is that one of the assumptions underlying the poll is that it's narcissistic to enjoy something you created yourself, which in my opinion is a crying shame of a stance to have because the author knows exactly the kind of characterisation and level of drama you like! And will avoid the squicks you do not!

I make this post because Andor brought interest back to some of the Rogue One fics I posted way back when, despite them being Baze/Chirrut and not Cassian-focused. I've gotten some lovely new comments and kudoses, and decided to check said fic out because I hadn't looked at them in years and... gosh, I wrote this? (This fic in particular, which is set just before the Battle of Scarif.)

I wasn't intimidated by canon lore and tried to fill the logistical issues of the movie and choreographed all these jokes??? How did I do that! (The implication being, I WISH I could turn this kind of ability on like a switch instead of staring sadly at a blinking cursor in a Word doc.) Past!me knows exactly what I like! Plus nothing that happened in Andor contradicts this fic as far as I can tell, which is magic.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: just past Mickey D's
Current Music: Defcon One

Recaf

We know about Decaf, where by some process, caffeine is removed from coffee or whatever.

I present: Recaf. Where maybe decaf isn't doing it today so you add in a bit of caffeine powder or something.

(I have a flask of decaf on me today, and then we stopped for breakfast and got Coke, and I said "recaf" and had to make the definition.)

Current Mood: depressed

not Wednesday but ...

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!challenge week

Tuesday, May 27 - Challenge Week, Day 2

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Current Mood: sore

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Long Weekend

Welp. I didn't accomplish quite as much as I'd hoped this weekend, but hiding in the hotel for most of it definitely seems to have helped increase my spoons. Now if my head would just stop hurting, I'd be all set to go back to work in the morning.

I spent most of the weekend catching up on sleep and reading/writing fanfiction, although I did manage to watch a few new-to-me movies here and there which was a nice plus. My plans to play video games fell through, mostly due to my concentration being shot my first few days off. There was definitely a part of me that wanted to play, but I couldn't drum up the energy to actually open a game and start playing, so I just... didn't.

Still, sleeping and reading with some movie watching isn't bad. I'll take what I can get.

My legs are sadly still a bit of a mess from my fall on Friday. The left one is just bruised and a little scraped, but my right ankle and knee both continue to have swelling in addition to similar scrapes and bruises as the left leg. Add in the psoriasis on both of them, and they both look pretty horrifying at the moment. While I'm limping some, I can still walk, so I'm counting that as a win.

Entry tags:

!challenge week

Monday, May 26 - Challenge Week, Day 1

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Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Jessica Simpson - A Public Affair

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Book Log: The Queen's Thief reread (part #1)

I finally got my own copy of Thick as Thieves so it's time to start my series reread. (Mild tangent: there are so many YA books now and turnover is so rapid, I had to go to multiple huge bookstores to find one that had what I wanted.)

The Thief is still so great! A small, self-contained story compared to everything that will happen after and IMO stronger for that. I love Gen so much, what an obnoxious little trickster. He's so smug of his own cleverness and is constantly DYING to tell the others how clever he is but cannot. I love everyone in the road trip (oh, Pol), even Ambiades whom I believe could've redeemed himself if given the chance, though chances are in short supply.

The book does make me miss that we don't get this deep into Gen's headspace ever again (unless Return of the Thief does, I haven't read it) and elements of it are so cinematic I wish we could get a live-action TV show or movie out of it, just for those scenes. Specifically, the water mechanism of the temple under the Aracthus, and Gen's entering Hephastia's court and realising that what he thought were just statues were the actual gods themselves.

( Cut for length, plus other spoiilers. )

Current Mood: gloomy

randominity

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Current Mood: sad

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celebrity: death

RIP, Peter David

It's not a surprise, since he's had significantly health issues for quite a while, but it's still so sad to hear the news. The word has lost one of the greats.

I've loved so many of PAD's books and comics over the years. MadroX and X-Factor (v3) will forever be one of my favorite Marvel runs of all time. I read his Centauri Prime Trilogy so many times, not to mention "Soul Mates" is one of my favorite Babylon 5 episodes.

There was a period of several years where I was utterly obsessed with his Star Trek: New Frontier series. Imzadi will forever be one of the most influential Star Trek books that baby!me ever read.

He's played such a huge role in my life over the decades. He'll very much be missed.

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Recs -- oh look! Something other than The Pitt!!! (But also The Pitt.)

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Recent shenanigans: wrist, Cronch, and 3D printer

Got steroids to the left wrist on Tuesday, and sulked for the rest of the day because it was tender ( Read more... ).

Friday I put together the Cronch Tower, to replace the Cronch Pile. It's a 5 foot construction of wire shelf panels, with two two-foot high baskets and a final open topped container. This is to manage the chip needs of 3+1 people.

After shopping Friday, Belovedest pulled the Holiday Morass in front of me, for me to sort out into Yuletide, Halloween, and ~~It's Fall, Y'All~~ Decorative Gourd Season. Plus None of the Above. And Thorn came up for company while working and sociability. Since they had hung the work privacy shade on the window.

Today before I woke up, Belovedest had herded the Cronch Tower further. And unboxed my printer. And while I took advantage of the 80+F weather to lounge, they ran a test print.

The print came out fine! Belovedest now knows where I keep the spare filament (in The Heir and the Spare, naturally). We are discussing next steps!

Current Mood: frustrated

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real life: injury

. . .

Well, I'm gifted. There's a Hispanic grocery store across the street, and I walked over there before D&D last night to grab a few groceries that I needed. On the way back, I ended up tripping over my own two feet. I scraped up both legs a fair bit and had to get that cleaned up before the game, but it didn't seem all that bad at first.

I thought it was fine, save for the scrapes, but when I went to bed after the game last night my body let me know that it was worse than I thought. My left leg is bruised quite nicely and my right knee (which was scraped up) was aching. To make it even better, my right ankle - which is the one that I sprained quite nicely about a month ago that's just really properly started to heal - started swelling again a few after I fell. Plus my right knee has also started swelling somewhat today to match the ankle, which is even better.

Luckily, I still have the brace from when I sprained my ankle at the end of April, and I've been trying to soak it as much as possible which seems to be helping some. I'm not worried about it being a fracture this time like I was a month ago, so I'm not wasting the money on a trip to the doctor since there's only so much they can do for a sprain, as many, many, many past sprains have taught me. And while my knee is a bit swollen, it's not bad enough to justify a trip to the clinic on a holiday weekend, at least not yet.

After almost 40 years in this body, you'd think that I would have learned to walk by now. But, no, apparently not. 🙃

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2025 Reading #9 plus more

Final update on Mr Holmes! He has been officially adopted! His foster mom fell in love with him basically on sight and she and her partner have given Mr Holmes a forever home. I am so grateful that he found a loving family and a comfortable life for the rest of his years.

Picture book readings:
Home is a Wish - Julia Kuo, author and illustrator
Dealing with a big move to a new home, and the worries that come with that. Cute but not memorable. 5/10

A Cat Like That - Lester L. Laminack, author; Nicole Wong, illustrator
A chubby cat and his wanderings around his town. Illustrations were a bit off for me, but I did like the little map that showed the cat's movements. 5/10

Pavlo Gets the Grumps - Natalia Shaloshvili, author and illustrator
Pavlo is a grumpy kid/kitten that doesn't want to play. Mom and friends help with his big feelings. Okay, but nothing special. 5/10

Midnight Motorbike - Maureen Shay Tajsar, author; Ishita Jain, illustrator
I liked the story and setting of this - Amma and daughter take a motorcycle ride through India at night when it's too hot to sleep - but the illustrations were very muddled. Lovely story, not a joy to look at. 4/10

We Are Lion Dancers - Benson Shum, author and illustrator
Lovely book about children watching lion dancers and learning how to do the dance themselves. 7/10

Scamp - Anden Wilder, author and illustrator
Cute story about a little girl who is almost more cat-like than her cat. 7/10

Another Word for Neighbor - Angela Pham Krans, author; Thai My Phuong, illustrator
Gorgeously written, excellent vocabulary, lovely illustrations. This was a winner of a book, where a new family with two kids moves next to an older man who just wants quiet. They make friends and they make pho! 9/10, would definitely buy.

Safe Crossing - Kari Percival, author and illustrator
This was adorable. Environmental education and citizen outreach, plus a diverse set of characters. There is a touch of a sad moment when the unfortunate realities of salamanders and frogs crossing a road gets explained but it's not huge, and treated with compassion. 9/10, would absolutely buy.

Reading goal #9!
Ben Aaronovitch - Masquerades of Spring
If you had set me down and said this is Aaronovitch's Yuletide fic, I would not have been in the slightest bit surprised. This read like a Folly-based Jeeves and Wooster AU, which is not a criticism! It was a frothy book, very enjoyable and fun. 8/10

DNF: Manda Collins - Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem. Five chapters in and I kept picking something else to read, so back it went!

Currently checked out:
Boyd and Beth Morrison, Lawless Land
Evie Woods, Lost Bookshop