Member Posts

Entry tags:

What I'm Doing Wednesday

books
still reading Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett. I haven't had the time to really focus on it, so I've been reading Kirk/Spock longfic.

yarning
I finished the crocheted globe for Niece and it looks pretty good. Definitely good enough for a child turning 5, though it's a little unevenly stuffed in a couple of places & I can't get it to shift. Am sad I had to miss yarn group this week, but yesterday I made a 3in diameter moon to go with the Earth. Hopefully it'll all fit in the box.

Yuletide
I nommed:
- The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. (Amina, Dalila, Raksh, and Jamal)
- Shadow of the Leviathan by Robert Jackson Bennett (Ana, Din, Kepheus)
- A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher (Cordelia, Hester, Richard, Penelope)
- Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher (Anja, Snow, Grayling)
- Dark Olympus series by Katee Robert (Icarus, Poseidon, Hades, Penelope)

sadly, Batman: Wayne Family Adventures and Rivers of London both look too large to nom this year, if I'm gauging them right. Drat!

#resist
October 18: No Kings Day #2

I hope you're all doing well! <333

Entry tags:

Massachusetts has updated covid vaccine guidance

I am happy to see that "should receive" the covid vaccine or booster includes infants; children and adolescents who haven't already been vaccinated; anyone with a medical condition that puts them at higher risk of severe covid; and all household contacts of anyone at higher risk.

Everyone aged 65 or older should receive two doses, six months apart.

All healthcare workers "should" receive the vaccine, as should anyone who is pregnant, contemplating pregnancy, or has recently been pregnant, and a few other groups.

Everyone else "may receive" it.

https://www.mass.gov/doc/massachusetts-2025-2026-respiratory-illness-season-covid-19-vaccine-recommendations/download

What I saw is Massachusetts-specific, but it says it is aligned with the recommendations of the new Northeast Public Health Collaborative, which includes New England except for New Hampshire, plus New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

Entry tags:

books,
reading

Wednesday reading

Finished since the last reading post
Finished Kadonnut perintö, in which Björk attempts to help a woman whose father appears to have been a victim of a fortune-hunter before his death, and finds a much larger network.

In Search of Berlin by John Kampfner, which I'd bought on a whim. It told me some things I hadn't really known or appreciated before, but for someone who's never been to Berlin, it was rather hard to follow.

The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse, the fourth and final part of the Joubert series, was a engaging and easy-to-read book for a travel day with lots of turns in the story to keep you entertained.

Currently reading
Started reading Beyond the Door of No Return (La Porte du voyage sans retour) by David Diop in Sam Taylor's English translation. No progress with anything else

Reading next
No idea

Entry tags:

FIC: The High Court (Tempestuous Tours)

OTHER PUBLIC PORTIONS OF THE ROYAL PALACE

The High Court

The rest of the Koretian palace is more easily accessed than the royal residence, rewarding visitors with many hours' worth of sights. I can only touch here upon a few of the more popular places to visit.

A visit to Koretia's High Court is the goal of most visitors. Here Koretia's ruler holds important court cases. In the moment of judgment, he transforms into his godly form. Thus the High Court doubles as a place of worship for most Koretians.

A tip: Although the Jackal considerately wears a mask to hide the most terrifying features of his transformation (which the mask itself barely hints at), it is still wise not to look directly upon the Jackal at his moment of judgment. A few sidelong glances are reasonable enough; the Jackal does not – as one rumor insists – strike down anyone who sees him in divine form. But looking for too long at the Jackal in judgment can have unfortunate effects on viewers. For this reason, a healing woman remains in attendance to assist any visitors who may pass out.

In olden times, court cases were heard privately by Koretia's Kings. The current court, like all of the palace except for the royal residence, was built by Emor during its occupation of Koretia from 961 to 976. During that period, the palace served as the home for the dominion governor, and the court was used by him for trials. A memorial to the Koretians who are thought to have been innocent when they were executed or tortured to death upon the governor's orders has been placed near the entrance of the court. The memorial was paid for by the Chara, at the time that he freed Koretia. It is believed that the Chara had his late father were unaware during that time period of the crimes being committed by the governor in the name of the Chara.

[Translator's note: The Chara's discovery of his governor's offenses is described in Blood Vow and Law of Vengeance.]

Entry tags:

vaccinated

I just got this year's covid booster, as a walk-in at CVS. I'm glad I called first, because the CVS closest to our house doesn't have the vaccine; the one where I get most of my prescriptions does.

The pharmacist asked me if I wanted to get the flu vaccine at the same time, so I told her I'm waiting, on my doctor's advice. The actual injection was faster than I expected and didn't hurt much, so that's good.

The pharmacist gave me a coupon for $10 off a $20 purchase (with the usual list of exclusions). Kitchen trash bags were on the shopping list, so I picked those up, then added a box of envelopes and a bottle of dish soap to get the total up to $20. I got home and saw we may have too much dish soap, given limited storage space, but we will use it.

Entry tags:

personal

Clumsy

I stumbled on the steps up to the bridge that's the shortest route from the bus stop near work to the office yesterday morning and ended up catching myself with my right hand. Fingers first, unfortunately, so for a moment I was wondering if I'd managed to fracture my middle finger again (again, as I definitely did so one spring when I was at university in Sheffield). But it seems it's not as bad this time. That last time, I knew it wasn't good when I ended up feeling faint and nauseous during the lecture I was at after the stumble I took, to the extent I had to be almost horizontal in my seat. None of that this time. The finger is definitely bruised and swollen but I think it's the swelling is the main reason I don't quite have the full use of it rather than any real damage. I don't think I'll have any issues after the swelling eases up. The ring finger also has a little bruise but doesn't seem swollen.

Entry tags:

Home again

After two weeks in Finland, I flew back home yesterday. The journey was mostly uneventful, although with the wind we were warned it might get bumpy and we had the safety belt sign come on rather early over the North Sea. The way the flights worked, I was at home rather late, close to 11pm, so I only really had time to sort out anything I needed for work and go to bed. I found some time to unpack this morning, but felt a bit like a zombie at work by lunchtime. Food, some paracetamol, and a short walk outside helped.

It was good to have two weeks off work and my usual routines. It was my mum's 70th birthday earlier this month, which was why I left it later than usual to have a longer stretch of leave in the summer because I wanted to be there for that and I knew my aunt and one of my cousins who live in Sweden were also coming.

I flew to Helsinki on the 30th and had been hoping for nice weather to walk around. No such luck. It had clearly rained earlier in the day and it was grey and soon drizzly when I set out from the railway station after depositing my bigger bags in the luggage lockers. But I did have a walk, and I did some riding on the trams, and some browsing in the shops. Then it was time to board my overnight train. That meant an early arrival at the other end of the journey on Sunday but that was fine.

At my parents', I didn't get up to much beyond reading, walking, sleeping, and spending time with family. Of course, there were some preparations for the birthday—I baked a cake (could have been better) and made a broccoli pie (tasty), sister made a salmon mousse thing to go with what mum had ordered from a cafe. Mum and I picked up our Swedish visitors from the airport further away and took them back as well. The second trip gave us the opportunity to do some shopping (I bought a dress and a top) and drop by at the older niece's new student digs after she'd had her first actual day at the university.

Current Mood: full
Current Location: late thursday night

Entry tags:

friday 5: random

These questions were originally suggested by

wownelwow .

1. What is your favourite fruit?
apple, or banana.

2. What is the last book you read?
the lost city of the monkey god by douglas preston

3. Do you like any of your school photos?
no.

4. Do you ever blowdry your armpits to get the deodorant to dry quicker?
no. i use stick deodorant, not roll-on. and i would think that blow drying your deodorant would end up reducing the scent of it.

5. What was the last film you watched?
on tv; thunderbolts, or spider-man: across the spiderverse, i forget which. in theaters; the world is not enough.

other answers are over this way.

Entry tags:

covid vaccines

covid vaccine and "underlying conditions"

siderea points out that you probably have >a href="https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1882720.html">"at least one underlying condition" for which the covid vaccine is (still) recommended by the US government, because most people do: the list includes being overweight, high blood pressure, depression, former smokers, and "physical inactivity." She speculates that the list may have been drafted to be as inclusive as possible, by someone who didn't have the authority to say "just give it to everyone."

The current official announcements, widely echoed, sounds as though most people can't get the vaccine, because the FDA is now being run by anti-vaxxers. That is almost certainly not an accident: if you think you can't have the vaccine, you won't ask for it.

Siderea also points out that even if you aren't on that list, a doctor can prescribe this, or almost any approved medication, to anyone they think it's appropriate for. In other contexts, this is what they mean by "off-label" use of a drug.

Note, however, that this may affect whether you have to pay for the vaccine yourself, rather than it being covered by insurance.

It has been pointed out elsewhere that you can always lie to them: nobody has a complete list of former smokers, for example.

Entry tags:

What I'm Doing Wednesday

books
The Disorderly Knights (The Lymond Chronicles #3) by Dorothy Dunnett. 1966. cw: yet more animal harm and graphic violence, child harm, violence against women, dubcon, mention of sexual assault. Swashbuckling! Explosions! Sieges! Mercenaries! ~~Car chases!~~ Malta, Tripoli, Scotland, etc. Much more accessible than the first one, which was Dunnett's first novel. Weird pacing at the end, though.

currently reading: Pawn in Frankincense (The Lymond Chronicles #4) by Dorothy Dunnett. 1969. Baden, Algiers, so far. Piracy!

( yarning )

gift rec request
Mom's having trouble finding a good birthday gift for Niece. She requested "binoculars or a telescope," which another family member is taking care of. Point being, she's not your average almost 5-year-old. She's on swim team, is in ballet, and missed the cut off for kindergarten, so she's still in preschool. I went looking for gift ideas, but they all have small parts, and her brother is still only two and might get into her toys and try to eat things he shouldn't. So no LiteBrite sets or such yet. Any gift ideas, preferably educational, would be much appreciated!

dirt
another baby monstera delicosa has come up! I am so happily surprised! I managed to water nearly everything yesterday & all the other plants are doing well, minus the few who still have a thrips situation, grrrr! :smites all thrips:

healthcrap
had a difficult day Monday, but managed to go get my monthly allergy shot. It's irritating that socializing for less than 2 hours on Sunday makes Monday obligations so challenging. Then I overdid it yesterday and barely slept last night, so today isn't great either. /disability. ( cut for discussion of intended weight loss )

media
I started watching S5 of Lower Decks, and it's so good! I'd forgotten how much I loved S4.

augh
The trunk release lever of my car stopped working. Pretty sure, based on googling, that the cable broke, though I haven't gone spelunking to check. I can still open the trunk with a key, at least, but it's one more thing I need to take care of...or to ignore indefinitely. :(

yuletide!
noms open in less than a week, on the 15th, yay! And the mods have upped the number of fandoms you can nom (5) and request (8)!

#resist
10/18/25: No Kings Day #2

I hope all of y'all are doing well!

Entry tags:

books,
reading

Wednesday reading

Finished since the last reading post
Hyvän miehen kuolema by Virpi Hämeen-Anttila, the 11th novel in the Karl Axel Björk series. It's late 1922 and Björk investigates what looks like a series of unrelated murders while his estranged father starts getting threatening messages.

Putinin trollit by Jessikka Aro, about the kinds of disinformation and defamation campaigns she herself, as a journalist interested in finding out how Russian internet troll armies operate, and others working in similar topics have encountered. Published in 2019, this book still feels very relevant 6 years later.

Suomi on venäläinen by Marjo Vilkko, written to accompany a television programme with the same name, which in turn was created as a companion to a similar programme and book about Finland's Swedish history, culture, identity, and politics. Very interesting, but having been published in 2015, the impact of the past three years of Russia's war on Ukraine are missing.

Currently reading
Kadonnut perintö by Virpi Hämeen-Anttila, the latest Karl Axel Björk novel. Not much progress on Pohjoinen tanssi

Reading next
One of the books I took with me

Entry tags:

GI doctor follow-up

I just had a follow-up appointment with the GI doctor, a few weeks after finishing the course of budosenide. Based on what I told her -- that I'm feeling basically better, even if my gut isn't quite back to how it felt a couple of years ago -- she said to keep doing what I have been, just add a second fiber capsule, and see her again six months. Or send a MyChart message if I need to see or talk to her before then.

Entry tags:

FIC: The Royal Sanctuary: Offering box (Tempestuous Tours)

As you leave, you will see a slot in the wall where you may place an offering to the Charitable Order for Former Captives, which cares for former slaves who cannot care for themselves.

None of the money you may choose to donate will go to the upkeep of the royal sanctuary. The sanctuary is entirely paid for by the Order of the Seven Gods and Goddesses. It is the priests' partial recompense for the evilsl they committed in the past against slaves.

[Translator's note: The events that led to the founding and expansion of the Charitable Order for Former Captives are recounted in Heir and The Strong Twin.]

Entry tags:

disney+ stuff (documentary edition)

i'm pretty sure we gave up on the katrina documentary after one episode. too depressing.

music by john williams--very good. he is so brilliant.

jaws @ 50--so many people said the shark looked so real. i though the common complaint was how fake it looked. unless that was in the sequels, i didn't really watch any of those.

light & magic (season 2) about ILM and the work they did on the star wars prequels & digital stuff in general. goes into the hate that jar jar binks got & george lucas being convinced that he'd be everyone's favorite character in 10-20 years*.
he said the director/interviewer** "everyone hated c-3po when star wars first came out."
interviewer; "i don't remember everyone hating c-3po."
lucas: "well, try this. you thought the ewoks were weird when we were doing return of the jedi."

i was like; that is not the same thing. one guy thinking some characters are "weird" verses the hate that jar jar got, & still gets.

*i still don't like him. although i've only see Ep1 a few time and 2 & 3 once.
**Joe Johnston, who used to work for ILM and directed honey, i shrunk the kids and captain america: the first avenger, among other movies.

Entry tags:

musings,
sport

That sort of person

I had a visitor this week: a very earnest German Shakespeare scholar and teacher who I met last year on a writing retreat. She was swinging through Oxford to attend a conference and stayed in my guest room for a few nights.

When she came into my sitting room she first admired my bookcases, as one does, and then did a double take: "Oh! You have a really big television! What do you watch?"

"Cycling, mainly," I said, but this didn't help. Didn't compute. I could practically see steam rising off the top of her head as the gears clashed. And actually she's the second friend of mine who's been visibly perplexed by my TV.

No doubt they had assumed I'd be the sort of elitist literary snob who wouldn't allow such a thing into the flat. Whereas in fact I am such a massive elitist literary snob that I don't feel any lurking status threat from the presence of a 55" flatscreen. (Plus my favorite cycling commentator is a devoted fan of Fitzcarraldo Editions, so.)

Very minor anecdote but I've never seen anyone so obviously realizing in mid-stream that they'd gotten their assumptions about my preferences and habits all wrong. Do you ever find that you surprise people by liking something that you "shouldn't" like?

Entry tags:

apples,
food

apple: Swiss gourmet

We bought a few Swiss gourmet apples at the farmers market on Thursday, because

adrian_turtle likes them, and I like trying new (or new-to-me) apples.

I tried one this afternoon. It was OK, but nothing special: crisp, moderately juicy, and tarter than I generally like. I thought

cattitude might like it, because he likes tart apples, but his verdict is that there wasn't enough flavor there, though what there was, was good.

I'm going to leave the other two for Adrian, and eat Zestars; we bought some of those yesterday.

Current Mood: exhausted

Entry tags:

cats

Caturday Again

Well, August was definitely A Month. Work has been a perfect storm of urgent projects, some of which involve instructors who either don't like change or who have spent the last 12 months thinking that "You need to update your course labs to Windows 11 by October 2025", is an issue that they might deal with at the end of September 2025. I am so very, very tired of sending chase emails.

Chelsea and Fluffball have also had A Month. As they're too old for pet insurance to be a sensible financial proposition, we signed them up for the vetplan scheme instead. Which means that we pay a monthly fee for each of them and that covers flea treatment, worming treatment, vaccinations, and consultation costs at the vet. They promptly decided to make the most of that with a series of minor ailments.

( Cut for discussion of pet health issues )

Fluffball has tried to assist on the work front but he's very bad at sending chase emails.

I've done some fun things this month too. There's been another Gromit Unleashed statue trail and

keziath and I somehow managed to track all of them down despite ourselves. There were, of course, some Feathers out there too and I particuarly liked Toucan Tango with his tail feathers held on by his belt:

Current Mood: creative

Entry tags:

Signal Boosting: Ladies' Bingo!

ladiesbingo, a Bingo challenge that is for fanworks about the relationships between women, is open for round 13! Here are the categories for the prompt list; you can request a card here.

Now, I don't read much fanfic so I don't know how much of this is true, but it does feel like there is a need for more fanworks exploring womens' relationships. I mean, my own fanworks are largely male-centered, with the exception of my Alisaie/Lyse fic, and even THAT fic was primarily from Alisaie's POV with not much Lyse in it. So I figured, let's get a card and be the change I want to see. Maybe? I mean, I still hardly write fanfic, but maybe a card will spur me on?

( my card under cut )

Oh hey I can make polls!

Update: I can create polls, but not make them useable (I have a free account which means I shouldn't even be able to do this much, if I understand this correctly).

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: early friday

Entry tags:

thoughts,
tv

more disney+ stuff

watched thunderbolts and it was OK. ( spoilers )

saw spider-man: across the spiderverse. could've seen this on FX a few months ago, but my brother didn't want to see it with commercials. ( spoiler )
part 3 is not until june 2027?! ~~will society even last until then?~~ we probably won't be able to see it until 2028 & by that time disney+ will be $30 a month.

also watched jim henson idea man, howard (about howard ashman) & one episode of the documentary about hurricane katrina.