hkellick | Network

A quiet mystery with an emphasis on character, plus a little carpentry and a lot of Irish countryside. A perfect read for late fall as it turns into winter.

Though when I say it's perfect for fall, I mean that the season in the book closely matched what was going on outside my own window. The story, on the other hand, is an discomforting mix of cozy and violent, and I found the resolution to the mystery something of a letdown, so I mostly enjoyed this for the scenery, the small town atmosphere, and the relationships between the characters. Cal wasn't my favorite, a Chicago cop who retired because he couldn't tell if he was doing the right thing anymore, has the flavor of someone who might use "woke" as an insult (let him tell you his stance on pronouns), and still has the voice of his ex-wife in his head critiquing his every thought (which, let's be honest, he needs), but he's well drawn and his contradictions reflect his circumstances and the era, and when I say era, I mean 2020, that decade of a year.

Contains: graphic violence; child harm; graphic descriptions of mutilated livestock and hunting rabbits for food; published in 2020, but pre-covid.

scissorsevered

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Current Music: Back Door - Clan of Xymox

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spikedluv

I hit Walmart and Agway while I was downtown. At home I did a load of laundry, hand-washed dishes, emptied the dishwasher and ran another load, went for several walks with Pip and the dogs, baked chicken for the dogs’ meals, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, scooped kitty litter, and showered.

I pulled spaghetti sauce out of the freezer for supper and also browned ground beef to make the base of ~something for the coming cold days (I'm thinking our family version of goulash, which is nothing like actual goulash, which I found out when I ordered it out once and was like, wtf is this?!! o_O).

I finished the Hallmark Christmas movie I started last night and watched another. I think the light snow was making me feel seasonal-ish.

Temps started out at 26.6(F) (forecasted to be 23) and reached 34.5 (forecasted to be 30). Both the low and high temps were slightly higher than forecasted. Today is supposed to be the coldest day of the week, and I hope that holds. There was a coating of snow on the ground when I left the house this morning, but the main roads were pretty good. It snowed all day, but so light you could barely see it, and it melted as soon as it hit the ground, thankfully. It was very windy for most of the afternoon and I had to dress very warmly (aka, so many layers) on our walks.

Tumblr-speak has made it into my everyday language. When I let Ti out this afternoon I asked him if he was sure he wanted to go outside because it was awfully ‘wimdy’ out.

Mom Update:

Mom sounded good today when I called her. ( more back here )

sabotabby

Just finished: Katabasis by R.F. Kuang. Yeah, she lands the ending. This was just too good—scathingly funny, unexpectedly sweet, and a worthy take on Dante's Inferno. It's one of those ones where I rush to Goodreads to see what stupid people thought about it and I think the complete opposite of that. I just love Alice so much, basically.

Currently reading: Kalivas! Or, Another Tempest by Nick Mamatas. Complete coincidence that I'm reading two genre takes on classic works of literature with similar titles one right after each other. Anyway, this is the cyberpunk take on The Tempest that you didn't know you needed. Caliban/Kalivas is the last free-range human, i.e., lacking in post-human augments and able to die in a post-apocalyptic world of godlike enhanced assholes. It leans very heavily into the play's anticolonialist themes and also into our current state of being ruled by lunatic billionaires who want to live forever. It's very good, obviously.

dine

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conuly

Democrats rebel after 8 senators cut a deal to end the shutdown without ACA funds

Bunch of weak-willed cowards.

conuly

She was inordinately pleased to have been born on the anniversary of the Armistice, not that it kept her country from being invaded again when she was a young woman.

**********************

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brightknightie

(

batdina, this is to your address. ~grin~)

I realized today that when I started engaging with The Legend of Zelda (TLOZ) in a fanfic kind of way, and mentioning it here, I did it with no overview or explanation, as if you all either necessarily already knew or wouldn't care to know. Please let me remedy that now! :-D

The Legend of Zelda is a Tolkien-inspired Japanese RPG video game franchise with 21 main-series games and many spin-offs since it appeared in 1986. I played the first game on a relative's console in, I think, '89. A live-action movie is coming in 2026; I'm anxious. (At least it must be better than the regretted '89 cartoon.)

The different games tell different tales. They combine puzzle-solving, combat, and exploration gameplay to unfold a story and theme. To grotesquely and unfairly oversimplify, Ocarina of Time is about nostalgia and loss and consequences; Majora's Mask is about fate and loss and meaning; Tears of the Kingdom is about community and loss and rebuilding; Twilight Princess is about identity and loss and choice; Link's Awakening is about reality and loss and truth...

The usual setting is the kingdom of Hyrule and its surrounds. The usual leads are Link, the hero, representing courage; Zelda, the princess, representing wisdom; and Ganondorf, the villain, representing power. The most important macguffins are the Master Sword, aka the sword that seals the darkness, and the Triforce, a sacred embodiment of the energy of divine creation balanced as courage, wisdom, and power. Most Hyruleans are ordinary humans, if usually with pointy ears, dividing themselves into sub-groups by region or culture. There are also several other sentient species. This universe has technology, magic, divinities, and demons.

While some of the games are direct sequels to others, most happen hundreds or even thousands of years apart, and so are both fully-functional standalone stories and intricate parts of a complex canon web. The games have not come out in chronological order. The timeline is controversial; it begins in unison, splits into three AU lines, and then those three lines eventually reunify.

The various Links, Zeldas, and Ganondorfs -- and other recurring characters -- throughout the games may or may not be reincarnations or descendants of each other even within the same timeline. All Zeldas are descendants of the goddess Hylia (Skyward Sword). We have had blonde, brunette, and red-haired Zeldas. Only one Link is known to be a descendant of another Link (Twilight Princess); we know of once that there were two Links alive at the same time (The Minish Cap). We have had blond and brunet, tall and short, child and adult Links. Every Ganondorf so far has been born to the Gerudo people, at least one century apart, with a similar build and coloring.

All* mainline TLOZ games are well-regarded in the gaming community, nominated for or winning awards as well as usually selling well. A few are universally considered masterpieces. These days, most fanficcy fans are into Breath of the Wild, its sequel Tears of the Kingdom, and their two non-mainline spin-offs, Age of Calamity and Age of Imprisonment, which wrap non-TLOZ gameplay around TLOZ story cores.

Thank you for joining me on this tour. I appreciate it! :-D

* Okay, okay, maybe not so much Tri Force Heroes, Four Swords Adventures, Spirit Tracks, and Phantom Hourglass. But I think that Spirit Tracks is underrated.

torachan

1. We finished up another puzzle.

This is the cat side of the two-sided Disney dogs and cats puzzle we got recently. I was anticipating the double-sidedness being a higher difficulty setting but since the "back" side of the puzzle has a matte finish and the "front" is glossy, it was actually very easy to tell which was which. What did add to the difficulty was the fact that the outer edges are just one color. What I ended up doing with some of them was actually checking the back side to see if there was any color on there other than the background green, and fitting those pieces in first, then finally working on the ones that were just single color on both sides and going by shape alone. The actual illustration itself was pretty easy to work on and went quickly (especially since both of us were working on it). I'm looking forward to doing the dog side at some point, but not going directly into that one next.

2. I used up the last of the croquettes we had in the freezer when I made the curry on Sunday, and Carla was wishing we had some more to have with the leftovers, but rather than buy another package (which would have resulted in leftover croquettes), we hit on the idea of using the last few frozen aloo tiki, and they worked very nicely! Now that's yet another thing gone from the freezer (and both they and the croquettes were suuuuuuuper icy, so they really needed to get used up).

3. Jasper!

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http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5699

less painful than an apology

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5699

senmut

AO3 Link | First Aid (300 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Teen Titans (Franchise)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Slade Wilson, Dick Grayson
Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, +Modern Age (1986-Present), Post-Crisis, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary:

Dick's surprised he showed up bleeding but he'll help

First Aid

Dick didn't say a word of protest when he opened his door to see Slade there, not once the man moved the heavy jacket and showed blood seeping out of a hasty bandage. Maybe he should have; the man had to have other safe houses nearby.

He was going to land on the side of 'Slade thought it was bad enough to ask for help' and leave it at that.

"Any tail?"

"Partner's dealing with it; she'll go her own way after."

Ahh, the elusive — "You have her in the States?" Dick asked, startled even as he helped peel the clothes off.

Hell, that looked like shrapnel from an explosive.

"Kind of unavoidable this time," but Slade didn't elucidate beyond that about her. "I promise nothing I was doing would get me back on the wanted list here. Someone had a vendetta, and my healing's been slowed by whatever toxin was on the slivers."

"Cheshire?"

Slade's eye hardened, his jaw set. "There's a reason my partner is handling the cleanup."

Who in the hell was this woman? Had to be meta, to keep up with Slade, but no one had pieced together a solid profile on her.

"And you let her?" Dick asked, before huffing out an amused air. "Now I have heard everything."

"She's got people I prefer not to be known by, and leave it at that, Kid?"

"Alright." Dick shut up about it, and just saw to cleaning everything out, so that Slade could heal. He'd file a note with Vic later, for their unofficial file on the partner. Right now, he just wanted his… complicated to stop bleeding and probably get some rest.

"Not bad," Slade said, once everything was dealt with. "Appreciate the help, Kid."

"I'd say any time, but I bet I was closest."

rocky41_7 posting in

booknook

Title: Flight of the Fallen (Magebike Courier Duology #2)
Author: Hana Lee
Genre: Fantasy, post-apocolypse, action

It’s been a bit! Timing conspired to prevent me from reviewing my last audiobook (Katherine Addison’s The Grief of Stones), but I’m here with the conclusion of the Magebike Courier duology by Hana Lee, Flight of the Fallen.

On the whole, I think if you liked the first book, you’ll like the second. It’s more of the same, which is no complaint from me. Lee digs only slightly more into the worldbuilding of the Wastes, but as with the first book, it’s clear that’s not where Lee’s strengths or interests lie, and so she doesn’t overreach herself there, which I think is best.

The main trio—Jin, Yi-Nereen, and Kadrin—continue to be fun and engaging characters, although Jin’s self-pitying act that began at the end of book 1 grows a little tiresome, even if it is understandable. (Fortunately, she gets over it and her best traits--her courage, her determination to keep trying, her capacity to love--win resoundingly in the end.) Making a surprisingly delightful reappearance is Sou-zelle, who actually threatens to usurp our lovers as the most interesting protagonist for the first third of the book. Book 1 did a good job of making Sou-zelle a more dynamic character than merely Yi-Nereen’s jilted fiancé, and book 2 continues to give him more depth.

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books

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kaberett

I will grudgingly concede that the ridiculously overengineered parsnip risotto from The Modern Vegetarian is actually very tasty and it's very obvious that without the THREE DIFFERENT PREPARATIONS OF PARSNIP it would also be significantly less Parsnip. It is not, however, sufficient to convince me to update The Risotto Rule. But, as I say, it's very tasty and we have at least another day (possibly two?) of it, which I am cheerful about as a concept!
Blessedly my repeat prescription request had made it to the pharmacy by the time I swung by to pick up A's IOU and a new thing, so I won't need to make any more trips there ~~this week, at any rate~~.
Chillis in the greenhouse that I really need to bring home before I lose the gamble on frost are looking happy still despite a week+ of neglect.
Through hunting duvet covers (the one I bought for myself when I first moved out of the Den of Christians and into My Own Flat, in very early 2014, has tragically failed catastrophically) I have been reminded of the existence of incredibly gaudy (watercolours of) tulips, and I'm probably not going to spend slightly silly money on watercolour stripy tulips, but I'm very glad they exist.
We are continuing to Really Enjoy playing Inkulinati together, and I now definitely have enough grasp of the mechanics to collaborate on What We Wanna Do Next. One level fits quite neatly into some of the slightly awkward chunks of time in our week; I am looking forward to tomorrow's. <3

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itsnotmymind posting in

fandom_icons

The rest here.

spikedluv

9-1-1: My eyeballs are still popping. ( spoilers )

Matlock: This ep made me uncomfortable. ( spoilers )

Tracker: Good ep! ( spoilers )

purplecat

I have a publication in the Agents and Robots for Reliable Engineered Autonomy (AREA) workshop. Corroborative V&V for Autonomous Systems: Integrating Evidence and Discrepancy Analysis for Safety Assurance. It should be open access, but does not appear to be. It's not a super-exciting paper. It takes the observation that, if you are doing assurance of robotic systems you will take a variety of approaches; abstract models, simulated tests, hardware tests... and then have to reconcile the results of these approaches. The paper describes the first stab at a tool for this, but it is a very early prototype.

davidgillon

Me, Last night: It's bloody freezing in here!

Me, this morning: It's not bad, but still colder than it should be. Maybe I should check the central heating?

Central Heating: Look at all my pretty blinkenlights!

Me: It's probably the water pressure, I'll need to top up the system, but I need to warm up first

So I go put the fan heater on in the living room until the room is nice and toasty and I warm up

Warmed up, check the pressure: 0 Bar.

So I turn the awkward little knob underneath that lets water into the system (not the nice big handle next to it that doesn't) and fill the system to 2 Bar. Turn the system on, blinkenlights keep flashing

Me: I'll give it quarter of an hour to sort itself out

Quarter of an hour passes

Central Heating: Pretty blinkenlights!!

Me, still cold: Hmm, that big red blinkenlight says 'reset', it couldn't be? Yes, it's also a button.

Me, after pressing the reset light/button and an obvious restart: I'll give it quarter of an hour to sort itself out

Another quarter of an hour passes

Central Heating: Pretty, pretty blinkenlights!!

Me, still still cold: Bugger, must be something -- oh, you idiot!!!

Walk into still toasty living room, pick thermostat up and carry it into kitchen

Central Heating: Oh, wow, it's cold in here, hang on a minute and I'll get that sorted

*headdesk*

Current Mood: Warmer

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The color of infinity inside an empty glass

The random insanity of your not-entirely-typical geek

The Searcher, by Tana French

(no subject)

this is genius!

The Day in Spikedluv (Tuesday, Nov 11)

Reading Wednesday

I was told there would be no math

What is this crap!?

Today is my grandmother's birthday

TLOZ in a nutshell (okay, an enormous nut's shell, but still)

Daily Happiness

The Gordian Iris

30 in 30: DCU Comics

Book review: Flight of the Fallen

Recent Reading: Flight of the Fallen

some things make a post

Cthulhu fhtagn and other tentacles, part 12

Avatar: The Last Airbender Season One Icons

TV Talk: 9-1-1, Matlock & Tracker

Corroborative V&V for Autonomous Systems

In which I am a bear of little brain.

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