ethaisa

I take notes in the margins
It's where I seem to fit
My penciled annotations
Swim around like salutations
I duck under it.
I used to be so careful
Afraid someone would see
But now I never bother
Looking for a rogue marauder
If they saw me, would they let me be?
-K Royka, 6/17/2025

Somehow I managed to sneak in an entire 12 episodes of television - six hours!! Overall I'm glad I watched it, they did a reasonable job with it, and I liked some of their choices more than others. Behind the cut, a longer review with major spoilers for both the adaptation and the original book series.

( Read more... )

The tooth hole doesn't hurt nearly as much as I expected. I think that's down to gabapentin being one heck of a nerve pain drug. It does hurt of course but manageable with tylenol. I don't like not being able to see the wound and won't be able to tell how it's healing. Here's hoping it heals well. Definitely doing my salt washes.

Found out I can't really go out to the Squonkapoloosa fest, or at least I can't go the night before because I'm house sitting. Boo. But I also found a paranormal circus ...about the same distance away. I could do it if I drive up early that day but who knows where I could park at Squonk. I'm better off at the circus which has tickets and guarantees

in today's work annoyance (and I'm not even there) the online academic calendar has the wrong day for labor day and the wrong start date (I suspect it's last years) but I got the real one today. Boy we're starting late, late enough that I can consider going to my 40th h.s. reunion...there are about 2-3 people I wouldn't mind seeing. The rest can still go to hell.

It's community rec time

beautifulmechanical Do you love music? We do, too. (I just joined)

birdfeeding Birds, birdfeeding, and birdwatching.

common_nature Share the wonders of nature that are all around us!

I really did intend to post yesterday, but I didn't get to it. Well, it's Thursday!

What I recently finished reading:

The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison, the third book in the Cemeteries of Amalo sub-series of The Goblin Emperor books. I had gone into it with mixed feelings; not that I strongly cared about

spoiler

the Thara Celehar/Iäna Pel-Thenhior ship, but I had heard that the way it was sunk was awkward and issueficcy and felt like "I was going to write this relationship in but it felt pointless after all the fanfiction", and - yeah, it was

but I enjoyed it, overall. I liked the low-ish stakes plot, and the DRAGONS, and the fairly mild author's message of what makes a person a person, and the importance of basic rights and the rule of law, which, let's face it, is a relevant message these days.

Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky, stand-alone SF. Again, a lot of people whose reviews I follow didn't like it, but I did; Tchaikovsky is hit and miss for me, but this was a hit. A biologist who is also a political dissident on an extremely authoritarian Earth is exiled as prison labor on a planet with native life that is very weird and apparently hostile. This is basically another exploration of Tchaikovsky's Theme, which is at core, I think, "How can we see the Other as a Person? How do we overcome the instinct to be closed and tribal, and instead practice empathy, leading to discussion and exchange?" There are echos of the Children of Time series, in particular Children of Ruin (the second book), I think. There is also the strong contrast between a culture which gives lip service to the importance of individuality, but demands conformity, and a culture which emphasizes the communal and the good of the community. And of course, the importance of resistance, of holding to one's core beliefs even in the face of a terrible horrible authoritarian government.

I mostly enjoyed the style except for a few references which seemed a little too grounded in 21st century reality for this future in which humans are mining multiple far-flung planets. The structure and pacing worked well for me. Warning for a terrible horrible authoritarian government that doesn't give a shit about human lives other than their own, and body horror, and an ending which may strike some people as not entirely happy, but which satisfied me. sovay, it's very different from Elder Race but if these themes appeal I think you'll like it.

"Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy" by Martha Wells, a Murderbot short story, in which Murderbot doesn't explicitly appear, but ART | Perihelion has recently met it for the first time. It's from Iris's point of view, on a mission with the rest of the crew, and really the mission is just a framing device McGuffin for "Peri has changed because it met someone?!?", and I agree with runpunkrun's take that there are way too many words devoted to them walking around on this mission which turns out to be not really relevant, compared to the actual point of the story. Still, it's nice to have a bit about Murderbot from not Murderbot's POV.

What I'm reading now:

Just started on the seventh and last Shardlake book by CJ Sansom, Tombland.

What I recently finished watching:

Murderbot! I enjoyed it! I (mostly) appreciate, or at least understand, the changes they made in adaptation. (Not sure why it's not enough for Pin-Lee to be Space Lawyer, but also must be Badass Fighter? And the Arada/Pin-Lee/Ratthi thing didn't seem to have any reason for being and just felt a bit cringe.) I really loved the ending, and Gurathin's whole general arc, and SANCTUARY MOOOOON, and Mensah is chef's kiss perfect.

Speaking of Sanctuary Moon, Murderbot vidded it! Okay, it was really pollyrepeat, but: RADIOACTIVE by Murderbot [vid]!!!

What I'm watching now:

Arcane, because B watched the first episode during the winter, riding the stationary bike, and decided I might like to watch it with him, so moved on to something else so we could watch it together. Not very far into it yet.

What I recently listened to:

The third episode of S3 of The Strange Case of Starship Iris, which, I really liked this one!

I made this fancy lemonade with what I learned from minoanmiss's tags is called oleo saccharum, which is sugar syrup made with the oils in the citrus peels. I had 8 lemons, and some leftover frozen strawberries and blueberries, so I let the berries defrost in the fridge overnight and then this morning I did all the juicing and the dicing and then let it sit for several hours (5, I think?) before straining the syrup and adding the juice etc. It's very good, though I need to try it with lemons only, I think, and maybe less sugar. Because I do like my lemonade on the tarter side.

Anyway! I dug out my potato masher and my citrus reamer with carafe for this, so it was nice to be able to use them. I do kind of wish I had a food mill but I've never been able to justify the expense to myself - I used a large fine mesh strainer and it worked fine.

In other news, I watched the most recent season of GBBO and I LOVED EVERYONE IN THE TENT, but especially Dylan! Nelly! Gill! and Georgie! ( spoilers, I guess ) And Allison is so great. I hope she sticks with the show for a long time.

*

Beginning of last week: experimented with dropping my amitriptyline dose from 75 mg to 50 mg, after a week of having been really fairly good at actually taking it at or around 9 p.m. rather than... later... as an experiment in "does this reduce daytime sleepiness?"

(Prompted by the all-nighter I pulled filling out the EHRC consultation and trying to get the house to cool down overnight during the 35 °C weather: in service of same I did not take my amitriptyline and... felt weirdly good all the following day? With no naps? Like, not even sleep-dep euphoria, just... relatively cheerful and with it and so on and so forth?)

And, see, I'd been aware that last time I tried dropping the ami dose my insomnia got much worse again, so I was alert for that, but after the first night of Fretting I've actually been doing remarkably well! It is possible that I have more or less learned how to go to sleep! I'm super proud of myself!

... and then at the beginning of this week I started going "huh, I'm getting a bunch of endometriosis-y abdominal twinges. that's... interesting. like, it's about six months post-op, and that's when pain commonly recurs, but this doesn't feel like my pre-op pain at all, so what's... going on?"

WHAT IS GOING ON IS THAT I HAVE REDUCED THE DOSE OF MY ONE AND ONLY PAINKILLER.

But the really unfair bit, right, the bit I am actually aggrieved about?

... is that apparently last time I tried this my pain also kicked up a gear and I was also surprised then and I had completely forgotten about this. I remembered the insomnia!!! I did not remember the increased pain. How dare I produce evidence that Sometimes Painkillers Work. :|

Asunder, Kerstin Hall, 2024 fantasy novel. Really good - compelling worldbuilding, vivid characters, a strong central premise and interesting episodes around that. She's currently working on the sequel and I will be eagerly awaiting it. Old and new powers, some more eldritch and demonic than others, an involuntary soulbond/possession situation, several weird forms of transportation. Recommended to people who liked Perdido Street Station but would like something Mieville-free and woman-centered, or... I'm flailing for a good comparison here. Martha Wells' new fantasy series maybe.

James C. Scott, ( James Scott, resisting dominance )

Agustin Fuentes, Sex Is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary: ( not as detailed as I wanted )

Deborah Valenze, The Invention of Scarcity: Malthus and the Margins of History: ( Malthus and corn (and corn laws) )

Jane Marie, Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans: ( The bad kind of MLM )
Becca Rothfeld, All Things Are Too Small: ( in praise of excess )

Douglas Brinkley, The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day, and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion: ( a big day and its commemoration )

Anthony Shadid, Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War: ( shockingly, it's complicated )

Guru Madhavan, Applied Minds: How Engineers Think: ( they try things )

Theatre Fandom: Engaged Audiences in the Twenty-First Century, ed. Kirsty Sedgman, Francesca Coppa, & Matt Hills: ( live theater as a fandom source )

Dan Ariely, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone - Especially Ourselves: ( he's not wrong or exempt )

Tony Judt, When the Facts Change: Essays, 1995-2010: ( foresight that didn't help )

KC Davis, How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing: ( functionality is all )

We're already more than halfway through the planned sunshine_revival, but that means prompt number five has come to say hello to us.

Challenge #5:

Journaling prompt: Be a carnival barker for your favorite movie, book, or show! Write a post that showcases the best your chosen title has to offer and entices passersby to check it out.

Creative prompt: Write a fic or original story about a character reluctantly doing something they are hesitant about.

( See! Hitler On Ice! See! Jews In Space! )

I write RPF and due to sheer stupidity thought a guy (L) was Australian but he's from New Zealand 🤦‍♀️ Is there anyone who could translate these Australianisms (which I really love and got from Home & Away and Neighbours) into New Zealandisms? I don't watch any NZ soaps.

Also, do New Zealanders play keepy uppy? When you bounce a football on your knee and see how many times you can do that without dropping it. A well known British game but maybe it's called something different in New Zealand?

~~~

“G’day mate,” said the Australian. “Sorry, we're playing keepy uppy and the ball got away from us.” He was smirking as he picked up the football.


“Don't be such a flaming galah.” L threw the ball at N.


“Strewth mate, that’s 50 already.”


“Here we are,” said L. “Enjoy, you pair of hoons.”

I was like, can I make this work for fancake's "Working Together" theme? And I decided I could not.

So I'm going to slap it in here for now because it's too good not to share immediately:

RADIOACTIVE by Murderbot [vid] (30 words) by pollyrepeat
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Murderbot (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Characters: Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries)
Additional Tags: The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon (Murderbot Diaries), Fanvids, Video Format: Streaming, Embedded Video
Summary:

A vid or fanvid is a video edit, often set to music, produced by fans, known as "vidders."

No spoilers for Murderbot, and all the spoilers, I guess, for The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.

Perihelion's people notice it's been acting strangely since it returned from its last solo mission. A short story set after Artificial Condition.

My favorite thing about this series is Murderbot and ART and their favorite humans. My least favorite thing is all the descriptions of walking around. This has both. I would have liked it a lot better if it had spent half as much time describing the path they took through the spaceport facility and twice as much time exploring Iris and Peri's relationship because that's the important stuff, right? I wanted to learn more about their relationship and the ways Peri changed after meeting Murderbot and what Iris thinks about those changes. Here I was thinking ART was always like this, but it seems Murderbot might have had more of an effect on ART then it could have known.

Instead: Transit schedules. :(

Read it for free at Reactor.

Introduction Post * Meet the Mods Post * Friending Meme * Challenge #1 > * Challenge #2 * Challenge #3 * Challenge #4





Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

( Sunshine Revival Challenge #5 )

Check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.



<a href="https://sunshine-revival.dreamwidth.org/"><img src="https://images.squidge.org/images/2025/06/12/Sunshine-Revival-Carnival-2.png" alt="Sunshine-Revival-Carnival-2.png" border="0"></a>

Exiled for the second night running on account of the bustedassedness of our air conditioning, I have been self-medicating with college radio, old movies, and pulp novels. WUMB netted me Cordelia's Dad's "Granite Mills" (1998) and WHRB Thanks for Coming's "Friends Forever" (2020). Killer Shark (1950) is pretty much the other way round from its title with its setting of the mid-century shark fishery in the Gulf of California, but its call-it-courage adventure makes a cute B-showcase for Roddy McDowall just aged out of his child stardom, all his scene-stealer's tilts and flickers in place even if he was directed to give his best shot at sounding like an all-American teen. Night Nurse (1931) remains one of my favorite and endlessly watchable pre-Codes: steel-true Stanwyck, Blondell cracking gum and wise, and Ben Lyon as the sweetest bootlegger in the business, the kind of romantic hero who lets the heroine take the lead while he takes her at her word. Nancy Rutledge's Blood on the Cat (1945) does contain a most excellent black cat, tester of gravity, router of dogs, unendangered throughout the novel despite its human body count. The number of monarch caterpillars is now something like sixteen.

We got a lot done yesterday and today, Mark and I sorted through a bunch of stuff on Tuesday, and talked to Ralph (Mom's stepson) and figuring out which things are his/his sister's, and then which withim that what people actually want. Legally, he and Liz own the flat and some of the contents (specified\). In practice, there are things none of us want, partly because of geography: Ralph doesn#t need furniture, and he's the only one of us who lives anywhere nearby. So it's mostly what has sentimental value, like Simon's family china.

To our London friends: If we get enough done today, we might still be able to see people tomorrow or Saturday, but I don't know yet.

I also got into a stupid argument Tuesday afternoon with Ralph's wife Jenny, who was trying to convince me that my brother and I had some koind of obligation to arrange for clearing out everything that nobody wants, so Liz (Ralph's s sister) can sell the flat. This started with me telling her that we hadn't traveled from the US to be unpaid labor clearing out a flat for someone else to sell, and then on the third time she cirled back to telling her that by insulting my recently deceased mother she wasn't helping. |She said she wasn't trying to help, I told her to at least stop hurting then, and walked away from the conversation. My brother is one of the executor's of the will, so maybe has some obligations here, but Ralph and Liz own the flat now--my mother had a life tenancy and then it went too her stepchildren. I emerged a while later to find that Mark, Ralph, and Jenny had made a bit more progress in figuring things out.

They left here at about five, and Cattitude and Adrian went shopping to buy a few groceries.

liv, who is staying part-time in a flat half a mile from here, came over for the evening, and we had a very good, long visit. Adrian cooked dinner in an unfamiliar kitchen; I'd checked with Live a fw hours earlier about dietary restrictions. The original plan was just for her to come over here, where we can sit in the back garden, but one advantage of that is being able to comfortably share meals with people.

Wednesday was productive, sorting through papers and Mom's jewelry and a few oddments. The will leaves a few specific pieces of jewelry to Simon's daughter and two of my cousins, so we need(ed) to locate those. Beyond that we can do whatever seems good, and had agreed to offer things we didn't want to our cousins. We've found one piece Adrian is taking, and there's a bracelet of Grandma's that my cousin Janet asked us to sell her. If we find it, it's Janet's, as a gift.

After Mark and Linza left, the three of us decompressed a bit. After supper, I sorted through a bunch of [photos, pulling out a few that \I want and/or thought \mark would want to least see. My mother's youth hostel card, signed by her and Grandpa, was in an envelope, along with a 1949 student discount subway pass, which got her free or discounted trips home from school. Thirty-odd years later, they were giving us passes good for free trips both ways, but only after the first few weeks of the semester.

In going through papers, and figuring out what we need, including things the executors and Mom's account might need, we have so far found four social security cards. What seems to be the original has a number stamped on it rather than neatly printed. One of the others makes sense in that it has her second married name on it--Eve Rosenzweig Kugler--but four still seems like a lot.

I'm going to post this and have some breakfast

Let's begin with a zine constructed for those who feel like the U.S. Fourth of July holiday is not very representative of the country. Or that it is very representative of the country, and there needs to be a lot of changes.

A useful ponderance on how humans will ascribe beneficence to things they believe are genuine, and will declare things that are identified as copies and knockoffs to have malice, or at least ugliness, associated with them, even though humans, as a whole, are very bad at determining which is authentic and which are not, since that determination tends to be the domain of experts who have studied and have to make such determinations based on their studies and whether a possible forgery matches what they have studied. I think the more interesting thread to tease on this piece is the one that's about the value of enjoying a good fake, because "enjoying a good fake" is pretty well at heart of most human entertainment. We know so many of the stories we tell contain elements of fakery, or special effects that make the fake appear real, and yet we willingly go to them, sometimes repeatedly. I think that's the more interesting route, and the excerpted piece walks around it without answering it. If we get something useful out of the forgery, does the fact that it's a forgery mean that we have to discard everything associated with it? In some cases, the answer is yes, often because the things that came with the forgery are anti-social and harmful to other people, but some of the Pratchettian lies are very, very useful to us. Do we need to discard them, as well? Why are we so upset when something that is warranted as true turns out to be false, even if it is useful, but we do not have similar upset for things that do not warrant themselves as true, even though considerable effort goes in to making them appear as if they are true?

A victory! After a visually impaired man died from falling off a train platform that did not inform him of the edge of the platform, tactile paving has been completed on all of the train platforms so that hopefully there are no further tragedies of the nature of Cleveland Gervais. If someone needs an example of the saying "Regulations are written in blood," this is the kind of thing they can be pointed at.

( And then, the things that are less victorious )

Last for tonight, The Lavender marriage, where at least one of the participants is queer in one form, but the marriage is to someone who the law will see as being right and appropriate, providing protection for the queer person about being seen to obviously as queer.

(Materials via adrian_turtle, azurelunatic, boxofdelights, cmcmck, conuly, cosmolinguist, elf, finch, firecat, jadelennox, jenett, jjhunter, kaberett, lilysea, oursin, rydra_wong, snowynight, sonia, the_future_modernes, thewayne, umadoshi, vass, the meta_warehouse community, little_details, and anyone else I've neglected to mention or who I suspect would rather not be on the list. If you want to know where I get the neat stuff, my reading list has most of it.)

Fuzzy head
I need bed
No extra stops
Just rest my head.
-K Royka, 7/15/2025