Oct. 8th, 2025 09:50 pm

a few things make a post

twistedchick: watercolor painting of coffee cup on wood table (Default)
[personal profile] twistedchick
1. After a little experimentation, I've found that it is possible to sing most popular Christmas carols (and possibly other songs) with the only lyrics being repeats of "Epstein". I suggest this for the use of protesters, as I imagine the lovely sounds of four part harmonies with a stunning effect on the bystanders.

2. Does anyone else have tinnitis? And if so, how do you manage to fall asleep when everything else is quiet? I have been listening to rain sounds on a recording, which helps, but it's hard to be relaxed and ready and just NOT tip over into sleep. Suggestions welcome!

3. Songs I have figured out (to some degree) on Native American flute: the guitar lead line to Layla (the piano interval is in C and very easy); the sax lead line to Gerry Rafferty's 'Baker Street'; the Beatles' 'Blackbird'; bits and pieces of many other Beatles tunes; the Beach Boys' 'California Girls', including the key change in the chorus that most people don't notice. If my only real inheritance from my mother's dad is his ability to play anything he could whistle, I'm very glad to have it; it has done well for me all my life even though I can read music (he couldn't).

4. I bailed at the last minute on a dental cleaning today, because I got no real sleep last night (see 2.) and I was not up to driving for half an hour or having someone's hands in my mouth for an hour. I also felt overheated and queasy, and told the receptionist that when I called, and she agreed I shouldn't come in. We rescheduled for Nov. 6, which was Mom's birthday, so I'm not likely to forget to come. It's late at night and I still do feel a bit off, so I'm calling the whole thing self care.

5. And I'm looking forward to seeing the nominations list for Yuletide. Every year there are more diverse possibilities, many of which I have no idea about since I'm not up on the latest Korean or Japanese or Chinese shows. But there are still enough oldbies like me around that I should be able to cobble together some requests and a list of possibilities to write about.
cupcake_goth: (Vampire Governess)
[personal profile] cupcake_goth
- I ended up tapping out of work on Friday, because my stomach/innards started doing the thing that sent me to the ER, and I needed to take meds and fall over RIGHT THEN. Things slowly got better, but I pretty much crashed on the couch all weekend, watching tv and doing hand sewing. Buttons. Many buttons.

- I still have many medical appointments to schedule. My labs and ultrasounds all came back fine, but apparently I have some ovarian cysts; those plus some other possible pelvic issues may be the cause of my sudden-onset abdominal pain. Therefore, time to find a GYN and make an appointment. Lets's see how far out the ones suggested by my GP are booked, whee.

- My boss moved our 1:1 to today (instead of the usual Wed. time) because she wanted to talk to me about having a mentor to help me hone my skills in writing leadership & exec communications. The big things I need to improve, apparently, are giving the tl;dr version with the important info, the "why" behind the issue, and to call out the areas where I don't have the answers; in fact, it's good to point out where I don't have answers. I'm all for a mentor, but that last bit of pointing out where I don't have answers freaks me out. I'm supposed to be perfect, dammit. (Cue laughter from everyone around me, yes, I know.)

She also commented that I'm doing really well, and this is all to set me up for future success to get the promotion. This leads me to believe that maybe I'll get a decent review.  Now let's set the timer for when the Brain Raccoons will start screeching.

- My duster from Market of Stars arrived. The print is gorgeous. The fabric is much lighter than I expected. And the shape is a little more square than I expected. It's beautiful, but ... let's put it this way, I'm glad I didn't spend my own money on it. I'm sure I'll be able to figure out a way to make it look better than "Hi, I'm wearing a square of fabric", but it'll take more finessing than I expected.
Oct. 3rd, 2025 04:01 pm

All nominations approved!

twistedchick: watercolor painting of coffee cup on wood table (Default)
[personal profile] twistedchick
There was a delay on some of them; I wasn't sure if the person reviewing had stopped for lunch or if there was a problem.

Dark Winds (tv)

Kate Shugak series (Dana Stabenow) [and yes, Mutt is a character]

The Saint (tv)

The Equalizer (tv, 2021) [this is the one with Queen Latifa]

This Rough Magic (Mary Stewart)


I have some ideas for a couple of them.

I haven't written up my Dear Author letter yet; how could I when I haven't picked out what I want to write? I don't see nominations as being about my writing -- I put in something I'd like to write, yes, but others simply should be in the lists because I know of other people who would like to write them.

And, speaking of writing, I spent the other four afternoons this week in a free 8-hour workshop on publishing from Hay House. It was worth the time, I think, to get a better sense of how that business works and what it does and doesn't do; that has all changed a lot since I wrote my first manuscript decades ago. (You will never see that one; it has been burned, it was that awful.)
Oct. 2nd, 2025 06:41 pm

Festivids letter placeholder

fairestcat: Dreadful the cat (Default)
[personal profile] fairestcat
The letter will be here soon.
Oct. 1st, 2025 01:05 pm

(no subject)

cupcake_goth: (vampfangs)
[personal profile] cupcake_goth
Yesterday was a pray-for-a-coma migraine. I went to an appointment with my GP to talk about a bunch of things, then came home, looked at my computer, realized that yes really a migraine was coming on fast and hard, then logged out. My interrupt meds kinda-sorta helped, but I spent the day in a napping haze.

Late afternoon-ish, there was a marked drop in the symptoms that mean I can't look at the TV, so Peev and I decided to watch Weapons. Which is a decent horror movie, and I'll probably watch it again to see what I missed. You see, Peev was adamant that I not do my usual thing of spoiling myself for the movie, because he'd heard from multiple people to avoid all spoilers before watching. 

... yeah. Now he understands why I spoil myself, because being tense and anxious about possible jump scares and just what happens next means I can't settle in and enjoy the story AND causes a low-to-mid level anxiety attack. He gets it now. 
Oct. 1st, 2025 09:27 pm

monthly word count - september

askerian: Serious Karkat in a red long-sleeved shirt (Default)
[personal profile] askerian
TOTAL: 1 077 words.
jeeeeeeeze this is my worst month in years. not surprised.

Posted: nein.

In progress:
-suburban ot4 (1 019 words.)
-svsss cosplay fic (58... words...)

and i haven't posted any ot4 either cause i'm slowly but surely catching up so i need to slow the heck down. last year when i started posting one chapter a month or thereabouts i was writing chpt 20 and now i'm on... chapter 22. not sustenable.

teaser... one teaser..... )
Sep. 28th, 2025 08:25 am

(no subject)

skygiants: janeway in a white tuxedo (white tux)
[personal profile] skygiants
VOYAGER CATCH UP. I said I wanted to post about the first half of S6 before we were actually done with s6 and have not .... quite achieved that, technically, but TODAY we start the seventh and final season so I feel like if I post today it more or less counts, spiritually, emotionally, etc.

Voyager Season 6, episodes 1-13 )

Overall early S6 not a high point in our Voyager experience, with some exceptions; it feels like we're on a little bit of a downward arc after the highs of S4/S5, but we will see what the future holds!
Sep. 27th, 2025 12:37 pm

(no subject)

skygiants: Kozue from Revolutionary Girl Utena, in black rose gear, holding her sword (salute)
[personal profile] skygiants
Q: So, did you expect to like Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword?

A: No. If I'm being honest, I did not pick up this book in a generous spirit: I haven't read any Grossman previously (though I watched some of The Magicians TV show) but my vague impression was that his Magicians books were kind of edgelordy, and also he annoyed me on a panel I saw him on ten years ago.

Q: Given all this, why did you decide to pick up his new seven hundred page novel?

A: I saw some promotional material that called it 'the first major Arthurian epic of the new millennium' and I wanted to fight with it.

Q: And now you've finished it! Are you ready to fight?

A: ... well ... as it turned out I actually had a good time ........

Q: Ah. I see. Did it have a good Kay?

A: NO. Kay does show up for a hot second and I did get excited about it but it's not for very long and he's always being an asshole in flashbacks. It has a really good Palomides though -- possibly the best Palomides I've yet encountered, which is honestly not a high bar but still very exciting. Also, genuinely, a good Arthur!

Q: Gay at all?

A: No, very straight Arthur. Bedivere's pining for him but it's very unrequired, alas for Bedivere. There is also a trans knight and you can tell that Lev Grossman is very proud of himself for every element of that storyline, which I thought was fine.

Q: What about the women, did you like them? Guinevere? Nimue? Morgan?

A: Well, I think Lev Grossman is trying his very best, and he really wants you to know that he's On Their Side and Understands Their Problems and Respects Their Competence and, well, I think Lev Grossman is trying his very best.

Q: Lancelot?

A: I have arguments with the Lancelot. Can we stop going down a character list though and talk about --

Q: God?

A: Okay, NOW we're talking. I don't know that I agree with Lev Grossman about God. Often I think I don't. Often while reading the book, I was like, Mr. Grossman, I think you're giving me kind of a trite answer to an interesting question. I don't actually think we need to settle this with a bunch of angels and a bunch of fairy knights having a big stupid fight around the Lance of Longinus. BUT! you're asking the question! You understand that if we're talking about Arthurian myths we have to talk about God! And we have to talk about fairy, and Adventures, and the Grail, and the legacy of Rome, and we have to talk about the way that the stories partake of these kind of layered and contradictory levels of myth and belief and historicity, and we don't have to try to bring all these into concordance with each other -- instead we can pull out the ways that they contradict, that it's interesting to highlight the contradictions. You can have post-Roman Britain, and you can have plate armor and samite dresses and the hunting of the white stag, and the old gods, and the Grail Quest -- you don't have to talk to just one strain of Arthuriana, you can talk to all of them.

Q: Really? All of them?

A: Okay, maybe not all of them, but a lot of them. I think that's why I liked it -- I think he really is trying to position himself in the middle of a big conversation with Malory and Tennyson and White and Bradley and the whole recent line of Strictly Historical Arthurs, and pull them into dialogue with each other. And, to be clear, I think, often failing! Often coming to conclusions I don't agree with! Often his answer is just like 'daddy issues' or 'depression,' and I'm like 'sure, okay.' But it's still an interesting conversation, it's a conversation about the things I think are interesting in the Matter of Britain -- how and why we struggle for goodness and utopia, how and why we inevitably fail, and a new question that I like to see and which Arthurian books don't often pick up on, which is what we do after the fall occurs.

Q: Speaking of the matter of Britain, isn't Lev Grossman very American?

A: Extremely. And this is a very American Arthuriana. It wants to know what happens when the age of wonders is ending -- when life has been good for a while, within a charmed circle, and now things are falling apart; but the charmed circle itself was built on layers of colonial occupation and a foundational atrocity, and maybe that did poison it from the beginning. So, you know. But I don't think any of this is irrelevant to the UK either --

Q: Well, you also are very American and maybe not best qualified to talk about that, so let's get back to characters. What did you think of Collum?

A: Oh, the well-meaning rural young man with a mysterious backstory who wants to be a knight and unfortunately rolls up five minutes after the fall of the Round Table, just in time to accompany the few remaining knights on a doomed quest to figure out whether Arthur is still alive somewhere or if not who should be king after him, in the actual main plot of the book?

Q: Yeah, him. You know, the book's actual protagonist.

A: Eh, I thought he was fine.

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