Network

Still no repair response

I sent them another voicemail and email saying that a delay in shipping or even ordering a part may be acceptable, understandable, or forgivable, but lack of communication is none of those things and if they don't get back to me with an ETA on this repair then they'll have to refund our deposit so we can call somebody else.

Either way, I know how I'm spending the next few hours (laundromat) and how I'm spending tomorrow morning (phone).

[ SECRET POST #6822 ]

Posted by Fandom!Secrets

https://fandomsecrets.livejournal.com/2299652.html

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Books read, May

I didn’t read much this month but What Did You Eat Yesterday is just delightful and I will happily wallow in it for days.

Copper script, KJ Charles
What did you eat yesterday, 5-21, Fumi Yoshinaga
Ordeal by innocence, Agatha Christie
The examiner, Janice Hallett
Artificial conditon, Martha Wells
Invisible boys, Holden Sheppard

Copper Script, KJ Charles. Post-WWI London, detective sergeant Aaron Fowler agrees to investigate someone who claims they can read people’s characters from their handwriting after his rather dodgy cousin is dumped by his fiancée on this evidence, and becomes hopelessly entangled with the graphologist, Wildsmith, as they fall in love and solve crimes. It’s perfectly competent but didn’t get me any deeper than superficial enjoyment at the progressive ticking off of plot and relationship beats. I wasn’t really in the mood for either a cop hero or graphology as for-real mindreading though.

What did you eat yesterday, 5-21. Fumi Yoshinaga. These have been stacking up on my shelves and I finally caught up with reading them all - I think 5-8 were re-reads and then it was all new. This slice-of-life domestic cooking manga follows closeted lawyer Shiro (who does most of the cooking and is obsessed with frugality with a side of fat-shaming, which didn’t bother me because it feels so internalised but other readers may differ) and his partner Kenji (cheerful gossipy hairdresser, gives great specific compliments on the food) and their social circle through in real time, so the characters start in their early forties and are now in their fifties. I just love the art and the observation and the food and the way Yoshinaga can do so much in just a few panels, and the fact that the time frame means that what conflicts and problems there are (such as Shiro’s parents allowing him to bring Kenji to one family New Year’s celebration but then telling him not to do it again) can play out over months or even years. It is definitely a different generation to She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat, in terms of expectations and identity, as well as broader cultural referents like social media, but I love them both. I have made a few recipes from this series and they’ve all turned out well, as well. I keep meaning to track down the TV series but I usually only watch about one TV series per year and unexpectedly this year it seems to be The Pitt, so that will have to wait.

Ordeal by Innocence, Agatha Christie. I’m not sure if I’ve read this one before. A man able to provide the person convicted of murder with an impeccable alibi finally shows up two years after the crime. The convicted suspect is dead, and the family and friends remaining are not at all grateful for this new information - not least because it means that one of them is the killer. The concept is great and as usual it's a well-handled mystery, although does stack up the bodies a bit (my parents used to watch this Scottish police drama called Taggart when I was small, and it usually became easier to work out who'd done it with each episode as more and more suspects turned up dead).

The Examiner, Janice Hallett. Another in her series of found document murder mysteries (a series in terms of format, not recurring characters), this one follows a group of students in their year at a multimedia art master’s program; as they await the approval of the final external examiner, it becomes apparent that one of them may have been murdered. This is very readable and it has some nice moments, plus I enjoyed the art masters concept, but it gets less likely as it progresses, one of the twists felt a little mean-spirited and the final revelations more contrived than inevitable.

Artificial Condition, Martha Wells. Will end up reviewing with the other Murderbots.

Invisible Boys, Holden Sheppard. Gay male teens struggling with their sexuality in small town western Australia; nothing goes particularly well. It’s well done for what it is but the female characters are short-changed and the three male narrators can be hard to distinguish at times. Reinforces my desire to stay in cities.

[ SECRET POST #6822 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6822 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 33 secrets from Secret Submission Post #974.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Entry tags:

school trip

BATS

Between one thing and another we wound up having a semi-impromptu mini-break in Chester, including a few hours at Chester Zoo.

... where we went into the bats enclosure and were transfixed for about an hour, basically from the moment we walked in until chucking-out time.

It's a big dark room, artificially crepuscular, with lots of trees (dead) for roosts, and somewhere in the vicinity of 350 bats (Seba's short-tailed and Rodrigues fruit bats). THEY WILL COME SO CLOSE TO YOU. THEY WILL COME SO CLOSE TO YOU. They were flying well within a foot of our faces. You could FEEL THE WIND FROM THEIR WINGBEATS.

And A was greatly honoured by one LANDING ON THEIR TROUSERS.

There were many other Excellent Creatures -- the Humboldt penguins in particular were very excited by the rain (so much porpoising), and the giant otters were indeed giant, and there was an enormous dragonfly, and the flamingos went from almost entirely asleep (including one baby that had not yet got the hang of the whole one-leg trick) to YELLING INCESSANTLY after being buzzed by the scarlet ibis.

Extremely good afternoon out, 13/10, would recommend.

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The Terminal List S1 (meta and spoilers)

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Georgia

I made it to Georgia.

Left HK in the middle of a Typhoon 8 (IDK what it was, but they started cancelling Monday flights, so it sounded pretty serious). Reached Istanbul on time as per schedule.

Istanbul was redoing their airport last time I came through here in 2022. It is the headquarters of Turkish Airlines which services a large chunk of Eastern Europe and Western Asia (and Africa, and all the major world centres).

It's freaking HUGE. And shiny. And new. But there are not enough seats, signposts, or information about what to do and where to go and what needs to be done. And nobody could tell me if I was too late to make my flight, so I didn't really have time to look at everything, although I really wanted to...

Sometimes I have to remind myself that almost everything I can get in a major airport, I can find back home in Sydney, home-made and better quality.

Made the flight to Georgia, got off, met the driver who took me to the place where the tour group was today.

( after 36 hours in Georgia )

Entry tags:

daily: check in

check in day 9

How is the writing going today?

Poll #33593

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

View Respondents

Today I

View Answers

wrote
3 (37.5%)

edtied
4 (50.0%)

posted
2 (25.0%)

sent to beta
0 (0.0%)

researched
0 (0.0%)

planned
3 (37.5%)

had a cheeky break
0 (0.0%)

dealt with life
2 (25.0%)

Discussion: Do you do a lot of research for your fic or very little?

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Costume Bracket: Quarter Final, Post 3

Two Doctor Who companion outfits for your delectation and delight! Outfits selected by a mixture of ones I, personally, like; lists on the internet; and a certain random element.

( Outfits below the Cut )

Vote for your favourite of these costumes. Use whatever criteria you please - most practical, most outrageously spacey, most of its decade!

Voting will remain open for at least a week, possibly longer!

Costume Bracket Masterlist

Images are a mixture of my own screencaps, screencaps from Lost in Time Graphics, PCJ's Whoniverse Gallery, and random Google searches.

Entry tags:

Georgians (as in, dynastic period, not poetry)

For some reason, concatenation of open tabs on this theme.

Sociability was intrinsic to British politics in the eighteenth-century:

Although women were prevented by custom from voting, holding most patronage appointments or taking seats in the Lords (even if they were peeresses in their own rights), politics ran through the lives of women from politically active families — and their political activities largely took place through the social arena, whether it was in London or in the provinces. Like their male counterparts, they used social situations to gather and disseminate political news and gossip, discuss men and measures, facilitate networking and build or maintain factional allegiances, or seek patronage for themselves or their clients.

***

This Is What Being in Your Twenties Was Like in 18th-Century London:

Browne wrote that he needed money to pay rent—and to purchase stockings, breeches, wigs and other items he deemed necessary for his life in London. “Cloaths which [I] have now are but mean in Comparison [with] what they wear here,” he wrote in one letter.
Financial worries didn’t stop Browne from enjoying his time in the city. “Despite telling his father how short of cash he was, Browne maintained a lively social life, meeting friends and eating and drinking around Fleet Street, close to the Inns of Court,” per the Guardian.
According to the National Trust, Browne’s descriptions of his social life evoke the scenes captured by William Hogarth.

***

The Friendship Book of Anne Wagner (1795-1834):

What is a friendship book? As Dr Lynley Anne Herbert relates in her post for us on a seventeenth-century specimen, it is a lot like an early version of social media, a place to record friendships and social connections.

***

This one is actually Victorian (and I think I may have mentioned before?): Peter McLagan (1823-1900): Scotland’s first Black MP - notes that he was not even the first Black MP to sit in the Commons.

***

And this is actually a bit random: apparently the Niels Bohr Library & Archives 'is a repository and hub for information in the history of physics, astronomy, geophysics, and allied fields' rather than exclusively Bohring. Anyway, an interview with the staff there about what they do.

Tuesday, 9 September 2025

Editor's Note: If your item was not linked, it's because the header lacked the information that we like to give our readers. Please at least give the title, rating, and pairing or characters, and please include the header in the storypost itself, not just in the linking post. For an example of what a "good" fanfic header is, see the user info. Spoiler warnings are also greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Off-Dreamwidth Links
Blogtor Who: Video of the Day – Doctor Who: Flesh and Stone, 2010
Blogtor Who: Video of the Day – Doctor Who: The Zygons, 2025
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Blogtor Who: Candy Jar’s ‘Just Sarah’ Celebrates 50 Years of the Doctor Who Companion

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Fanfiction
Complete
Too Complicated by

badly_knitted (G | Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness)

Recommendations

paranoidangel recommends speedily in our days by AnonymousDandelion

Communities & Challenges

tardis_festivities announces the schedule for the 2025 Doctor Who and Related Fandoms Festivities Exchange

If you were not linked, and would like to be, contact us in the comments with further information and your link.

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Teen Titans (1996) #9

Words and pencils: Dan Jurgens

Inks: George Perez

Prysm finds herself in the lost world of Skartaris.

( Read more... )

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Recent Reading: Tales of Earthsea

We're back at the Earthsea Cycle with book 5: Tales of Earthsea. This book is a collection of short stories set in Earthsea, crafted as a kind of bridge between books 4 and 6.

Friends may recall that the last book, Tehanu, was not my favorite of the series, although I appreciate what Le Guin was doing. In Tales of Earthsea, we get the best of both worlds in a sense--a return to the fantasy adventure themes of the original trilogy combined with Le Guin's updated views on gender and roles. Like Tehanu, Tales of Earthsea is no longer really children's fiction. Sex, substance abuse, child abuse, and various other mature themes are much more present here than in the original trilogy. These later Earthsea books read like they were written for the then-adult fans of the original trilogy, and I think it works well.

In each of the five stories of Tales of Earthsea, Le Guin is introducing us to elements of Earthsea society not seen before in the series: How women ended up being excluded from wizardry, a young man with the ability to become a wizard (the magical aptitude) who decides he wants another sort of life for himself, a wizard of Roke who misuses his power and chooses not to return although he is invited to, a woman who wants to study at Roke but is refused. In this way, Le Guin gives much breadth to the world of Earthsea by introducing these stories outside the "mainstream" Earthsea narratives.

I respect that Le Guin doesn't just try to retcon the sexism written into the earlier Earthsea books--instead, she really tries here to reckon with how the women of Earthsea manage it, how they get around it, and how it hurts them. The resultant picture feels realistic, up to and including how frustrating it is to watch women be excluded from the school of Roke despite having helped found it.

She continues with her theme of unexpected heroes--protagonists who are average people from little nothing towns on little nothing islands who despite expectations prove themselves capable of great things, which is always fun to watch.

We get backstory on several things present in the original trilogy, like the founding of the school and some history of Ged's first teacher, Ogion, which was great fun (and once again I am screaming clapping cheering as the specialist boy in all of Earthsea Ged makes a cameo).

A very enjoyable read overall, and I feel properly enthused and excited for the next book.

Current Mood: indescribable

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Out of Office

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Absolute Batman #11

( Bane's origin )

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Staying the Course

My virtual tax instructor lists his hobbies as "horror movies" and "video games." So, I guess I'm in the right tax class.

I was surprised by how many of the other students had thick accents and names most mainstream Americans would find difficult to pronounce. I guess H&R Schlock employment is a well-known step on the ladder that leads to the dizzying heights of the American dream.

The class wasn't as bad as I feared it might be. Spying on those differently accented students was actually quite interesting. And Microsoft Teams turns out to be an efficient tool.

###

Afterwards, I met up with Belinda whom I mostly avoided all summer because she voted for Trump, and after Brian died, my tolerance in general went wayyyyyy down.

I informed Belinda that I would not be TaxBwana-ing this coming year.

And she said, "Well, then, I'll go to H&R Schlock and tell them I want you to do my taxes. I trust you."

Which I guess is flattering.

We had lunch at the falafel shop in Rhinebeck where all the movies stars go when they come to Rhinebeck. (A surprising number of movie stars come to Rhinebeck.)

And then we drove up to an apple stand just north of Valatie.

I'm not sure from whence comes Belinda's fixation on this particular apple stand; it is not remarkable in any way. But the drive through rural Dutchess & Columbia Counties, past fields of sunflowers and corn, and patches of scrub woods, was lovely. It was a crisp, sunny day, distinctly autumn. The leaves on the trees in those woods have not yet begun to turn—I guess because there was so much rain this year? The color changes of leaves is more related to tree hydration than to temperature changes.

There was a cunning little distillery in the corner of the apple stand, so multiple opportunities for ArtPhotos™!!!

That last photo is not an apple stand ArtPhoto™, but a photo from Italy sent me by the real-life Daria with the note, On our walks, four of ‘em, every time we saw a cat Brian would stop and snap a pic, “for Patrizia.”

It made me sad...

Though I must say, I am simply filled with admiration & awe for the real-life Daria for staying her mountain course, keeping to the adventure!

Under similar circumstances, I probably would have hopped the next train to London, spent my remaining days abroad huddling inside the British Museum, ruminating on what a hideous failure I am.

###

Speaking of cats, the kiskas brought me the corpse of a very large mouse this morning.

They were very proud!

I showed the corpse to Icky who stared at me like, What do you expect me to do about it?

Well, you're the fucking landlord, Icky. Figure it out!

Finally, he mumbled, "I guess I should start setting traps in the basement again."

I guess you should!

Entry tags:

Adventures of Superman #457

Plot: George Perez

Script: Roger Stern

Pencils: Dan Jurgens

Inks: Ty Templeton

Matrix's psychic link with Superman accidentally causes them to terrorise Smallville. Meanwhile, Intergang are still out to get Lois Lane.

( Read more... )

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Forgotten Newbery Books that Are Really Worth Reading

rachelmanija suggested a list of Forgotten Newbery Books that Are Really Worth Reading, so I’ve compiled my top ten, listed here in order of year of publication. For obvious reasons, this list skews toward the older books, and I tried to pick ones that I felt have been really forgotten, although it turns out that it can be a bit hard to tell if a book has been truly forgotten or if I, personally, just hadn’t happened to heard of it before this project.

1. Marjorie Hill Allee's Jane’s Island, 1932. Come for an engaging story that also meditates on women’s place in the sciences and society, stay for lovely description of life around the Wood’s Hole research station, and also for the cranky German scientist who is VERY shell-shocked from World War I and FIRMLY intends to prove that nature is red in tooth and claw.

2. Dorothy P. Lathrop’s The Fairy Circus, 1932. FAIRIES put on a CIRCUS with the aid of WOODLAND CREATURES. What more could you want from a book!

3. Erick Berry’s Winged Girl of Knossos, 1934. Have you always wanted a retelling of the tale of Theseus and the minotaur crossed with Daedalus and Icarus with a genderswapped Icarus who is a tomboy in the tomboy-welcoming culture of ancient Crete? Yes you have.

4. Christine Weston’s Bhimsa, The Dancing Bear, 1946. Two boys (one English and one Indian) go adventuring across India in the company of their friend Bhimsa, the dancing bear. A fun adventure story.

5. Cyrus Fisher’s The Avion My Uncle Flew, 1947. An adventure story set in post-World War II France, featuring a glider and some secret Nazis in the mountains and the most impressive literary trick I’ve seen in a Newbery book, or indeed in pretty much any book ever. (I talk about it at more length in the review but don’t want to spoil it here.)

6. Claire Huchet Bishop's Pancakes-Paris, 1948. In post-war Paris, a young boy gets a box of pancake mix from some American soldiers, and makes pancakes for his mother and sister for Mardi Gras. That’s it! That’s the story.

7. Louise Rankin's Daughter of the Mountains, 1949. When a young Tibetan girl’s beloved dog is stolen, she chases him all the way across Tibet and into India to get him back. Super fun adventure story. No one is the least bit fazed at the idea of a girl having an adventure.

8. Jennie Lindquist's The Golden Name Day, 1956. Nancy spends a year with her Swedish-American relatives and they get up to all sorts of lovely escapades. Beautiful illustrations by Garth Williams, who you may be familiar with from the Little House series. There should be more books which are just about characters having a fantastic time.

9. Mari Sandoz's The Horsecatcher, 1957. A Cheyenne boy wants to become a horsecatcher rather than a warrior. I’m not planning a companion post to the Problem of Tomboys about Boys Who Don’t Want to Do Classic Boy Things, but if I were, this book would be on it. Fascinating evocation of our hero’s world.

10. Cynthia Rylant's A Fine White Dust, 1987. Kind of an outlier on this list, which is mostly adventure stories and people having good times stories. This one is a realistic fiction story about a boy growing up in the South who falls in love with a traveling preacher. VERY intense. EXTREMELY gay. Never admits to being gay but nonetheless one of the gayest books I’ve ever read. Very short. I read most of it in one lunch break and spent that entire lunch break internally keening because it is VERY STRESSFUL but in a good way.

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just one thing

Just one thing: 09 September 2025

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!

Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

Current Mood: calm

Entry tags:

books,
read25

2025/140: The Long Way Home — Louise Penny

2025/140: The Long Way Home — Louise Penny

Armand Gamache did not want to have to be brave. Not anymore. Now all he wanted was to be at peace. But, like Clara, he knew he could not have one without the other. [p. 42]

After finishing the first big arc in the Gamache series last December (with How the Light Gets In) I had been saving the rest of the series for this winter: but unseasonably poor weather enticed me to read the next book. It was like coming into a warm room after a long cold journey: the familiar characters, the emotional honesty, the humour, the intricacies of crime.

( Read more... )