Rogue-Storm #2
Nov. 16th, 2025 01:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mastermahan posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_daily
One of the odder aspects of Doug's power boost is that everyone's minds automatically translate sound effects.
( Read more... )
Culinary
Nov. 16th, 2025 07:24 pmoursinLast week's bread actually held out pretty well, though was rather dry by the end, however, that meant there was enough left to make a frittata with pepperoni for Friday night supper.
Saturday breakfast rolls: eclectic vanilla, which for an experiment I tried making with Marriage's Golden Wholegrain, fairly pleasant but I think nicer with strong white.
Today's lunch: bozbash, with Romano peppers, aubergine, okra, baby courgettes, fresh coriander, crushed 5-pepper blend, dried basil, and finished with tayberry vinegar. Was going to serve couscous with this but I was not impressed by the way this turned out given the instructions on the packet. Not really necessary, anyway.
(no subject)
Nov. 16th, 2025 01:06 pmnilchancethis is mostly blorbo-related posting, but I've had this stuck in my head for the last few days because of the cold despite the fact that it's not nearly winter yet:
(yes, I'm also thinking of Kristoff and Dalton's five-year separation before the campaign starts. Dalton is resigned to prison for life; he thinks it's safer for everyone if he's there. per the DM, Kristoff refused to give up on him even if he struggled to find a solution. the campaign starts with Dalton getting out. I'm looking forward to them finally seeing each other again, to say the least.)
(yes, I'm also thinking of Kristoff and Dalton's five-year separation before the campaign starts. Dalton is resigned to prison for life; he thinks it's safer for everyone if he's there. per the DM, Kristoff refused to give up on him even if he struggled to find a solution. the campaign starts with Dalton getting out. I'm looking forward to them finally seeing each other again, to say the least.)
Weekly(ish) proof of life: reading (no notes), weather, and butter chicken sadness
Nov. 16th, 2025 01:38 pmumadoshiReading: Recently finished: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (Schwab, V.E.), Confidence (Frumkin, Rafael), and Hemlock & Silver (Kingfisher, T.).
Currently reading: Still working through Almost Everything: Notes on Hope (Lamott, Anne) and most of the way through Metal from Heaven (Clarke, August).scruloose and I have passed the halfway mark on listening to Network Effect, and haven't watched anything since that's occupying our "watch/listen to something together" time.
Weathering: Well, the weather sure has noticed it's November! This is not the first gray wet day we've had, and while yesterday kindly didn't rain on us when we went out erranding, it was down near the freezing mark (and had gone below overnight).
Eating:scruloose and I have a delicious go-to Indian place, but both it and our fallback spot too universally have onions in everything for them to be good choices for Ginny, so periodically when she and Kas are over we gamble on an Indian spot that none of us have tried. ( butter chicken sadness )
Currently reading: Still working through Almost Everything: Notes on Hope (Lamott, Anne) and most of the way through Metal from Heaven (Clarke, August).
scruloose and I have passed the halfway mark on listening to Network Effect, and haven't watched anything since that's occupying our "watch/listen to something together" time.Weathering: Well, the weather sure has noticed it's November! This is not the first gray wet day we've had, and while yesterday kindly didn't rain on us when we went out erranding, it was down near the freezing mark (and had gone below overnight).
Eating:
scruloose and I have a delicious go-to Indian place, but both it and our fallback spot too universally have onions in everything for them to be good choices for Ginny, so periodically when she and Kas are over we gamble on an Indian spot that none of us have tried. ( butter chicken sadness )24 hours in Larnaka
Nov. 16th, 2025 04:49 pmnanilaWhen the conference finished in Nicosia, I took the opportunity to give myself a day and night in Larnaka, which is on the beach on the southern side of Cyprus. It's a popular holiday destination for Western Europeans wanting some winter sun, although because it's more northerly than, say, the Canary Islands, it tends to be a bit quieter, especially outside the school holidays.
I picked a hotel on the beach, and was pleasantly surprised to receive an upgrade to a sea view room with a balcony on arrival. It was too early for me to check in when I arrived, so I went to have lunch on the patio and do a bit of work. I cooled off with a small glass of the local beer (Keo). Then I had a long walk along the beachfront promenade, looking for cats.
[Cat eventually located]
As soon as I could access my room, I went up and had a shower, applied sun cream, and went for a swim. Even at 3 PM it had started to cool off significantly - sunset was at 4:45 PM - so I was alone in the pool, and indeed poolside. I did a bunch of slow, lazy laps and got out to soak up the last of the rays. I also popped down to the beach to poke my toes into the sea.
I got changed and went for another stroll, this time in the opposite direction, to enjoy the sunset. The promenade ran for several kilometres in both directions from the hotel, and when it petered out, the compacted sand on the beach made walking easy.
[Big sky, fiery clouds]
[Palm tree silhouettes]
[Night falls]
By the time night had fallen, I was pleasantly worn out. I went to the bar, thought about sitting there, and then remembered I had a balcony. So instead, I ordered a negroni and took it up to my room. I chatted to the family. I listened to the howling of the cats. Everything went very quiet around 8:30 PM. It was too early to go to bed, tempting though it was, so I did some writing with old episodes of “House” on in the background before turning in. I set my alarm so I wouldn't miss the sunrise, which was at 6:13 AM.
[Sunrise from the balcony]
Very glad I didn't miss the sunrise.
[The sun emerges]
I made myself a small strong espresso and changed for breakfast. I turned up as soon as it opened (07:00) and sat outside to eat. I got chatting to another solo woman traveller, who recommended a walking holiday in northern Cyprus to me the next time I had time to myself (“probably not for the children at this stage, my dear”). She supposed I could bring the husband if I really wanted, but in her opinion I'd enjoy it more on my own. I couldn't laugh. She genuinely meant that.
[Breakfast!]
Still chuckling, I went upstairs to change into something less roasting and had another walk toward the east, the direction I thought gave me the best chance of finding some shells. The beach was mostly claggy sand and pebbles, but I did spot a few.
[Meow.]
I changed into my costume when I got back and went down to the sea for a swim. The tide was out and it was possible to walk nearly all the way to the breakwater without being deeper than my chest. I'm not tall. I walked out, had a little paddle around looking at the fish in the crystal clear water, and swam back to the promenade. I sat on a sunbed and enjoyed drying off in the breeze and the sun. Then I went to the pool. Again there was no one in it because it hadn't warmed up yet, so I had a long, slightly more vigorous swim and then sunned myself again.
I knew it must be getting close to checkout time so I went up to shower and attempt to prevent my hair turning into straw after all the soakings. I mostly succeeded, and was pleased I'd succeeded in not getting burnt either.
I chatted with the family, who were eating a late breakfast of dippy eggs. Keiki was excited about his rugby match. Humuhumu was being a teenage potato. Nevertheless we had a nice chat until was time for me to head downstairs, have lunch, and start the long journey home.
I caught the sunset in the airport, sprinting across the terminal to take a photo before boarding the plane.
Due to various delays, I didn’t arrive home until well after midnight, so technically Monday morning. Nevertheless I had to get up six hour later and go to work. Astro here accurately reflects the amount of sympathy I got from the family about this.
[Astro at home amongst the carnivorous plants and prickly cacti]
I picked a hotel on the beach, and was pleasantly surprised to receive an upgrade to a sea view room with a balcony on arrival. It was too early for me to check in when I arrived, so I went to have lunch on the patio and do a bit of work. I cooled off with a small glass of the local beer (Keo). Then I had a long walk along the beachfront promenade, looking for cats.
[Cat eventually located]
As soon as I could access my room, I went up and had a shower, applied sun cream, and went for a swim. Even at 3 PM it had started to cool off significantly - sunset was at 4:45 PM - so I was alone in the pool, and indeed poolside. I did a bunch of slow, lazy laps and got out to soak up the last of the rays. I also popped down to the beach to poke my toes into the sea.
I got changed and went for another stroll, this time in the opposite direction, to enjoy the sunset. The promenade ran for several kilometres in both directions from the hotel, and when it petered out, the compacted sand on the beach made walking easy.
[Big sky, fiery clouds]
[Palm tree silhouettes]
[Night falls]
By the time night had fallen, I was pleasantly worn out. I went to the bar, thought about sitting there, and then remembered I had a balcony. So instead, I ordered a negroni and took it up to my room. I chatted to the family. I listened to the howling of the cats. Everything went very quiet around 8:30 PM. It was too early to go to bed, tempting though it was, so I did some writing with old episodes of “House” on in the background before turning in. I set my alarm so I wouldn't miss the sunrise, which was at 6:13 AM.
[Sunrise from the balcony]
Very glad I didn't miss the sunrise.
[The sun emerges]
I made myself a small strong espresso and changed for breakfast. I turned up as soon as it opened (07:00) and sat outside to eat. I got chatting to another solo woman traveller, who recommended a walking holiday in northern Cyprus to me the next time I had time to myself (“probably not for the children at this stage, my dear”). She supposed I could bring the husband if I really wanted, but in her opinion I'd enjoy it more on my own. I couldn't laugh. She genuinely meant that.
[Breakfast!]
Still chuckling, I went upstairs to change into something less roasting and had another walk toward the east, the direction I thought gave me the best chance of finding some shells. The beach was mostly claggy sand and pebbles, but I did spot a few.
[Meow.]
I changed into my costume when I got back and went down to the sea for a swim. The tide was out and it was possible to walk nearly all the way to the breakwater without being deeper than my chest. I'm not tall. I walked out, had a little paddle around looking at the fish in the crystal clear water, and swam back to the promenade. I sat on a sunbed and enjoyed drying off in the breeze and the sun. Then I went to the pool. Again there was no one in it because it hadn't warmed up yet, so I had a long, slightly more vigorous swim and then sunned myself again.
I knew it must be getting close to checkout time so I went up to shower and attempt to prevent my hair turning into straw after all the soakings. I mostly succeeded, and was pleased I'd succeeded in not getting burnt either.
I chatted with the family, who were eating a late breakfast of dippy eggs. Keiki was excited about his rugby match. Humuhumu was being a teenage potato. Nevertheless we had a nice chat until was time for me to head downstairs, have lunch, and start the long journey home.
I caught the sunset in the airport, sprinting across the terminal to take a photo before boarding the plane.
Due to various delays, I didn’t arrive home until well after midnight, so technically Monday morning. Nevertheless I had to get up six hour later and go to work. Astro here accurately reflects the amount of sympathy I got from the family about this.
[Astro at home amongst the carnivorous plants and prickly cacti]
The Day in Spikedluv (Saturday, Nov 15)
Nov. 16th, 2025 07:14 amspikedluvI hit Price Chopper and the bakery while I was downtown. I did a load of laundry, hand-washed dishes, made egg salad, went for several walks with Pip and the dogs, baked chicken for the dogs’ meals, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and scooped kitty litter.
For funsies, I watched Matlock, Mistletoe Mysteries, and some HGTV programs. Dr. Pol was once again my background tv later in the evening.
Temps started out at 32.5 when we got up, but had reached 24.8(F) before I left the house. (Temps dropped over 7 degrees in an hour and a half!) Just watching the temp drop made me cold. It eventually reached 44.8 that I saw before going down to visit mom, but Pip said it hit 50. Rain came in late afternoon, it got really heavy (Pip said there was an inch in the rain gauge, but given how hard it was coming down I thought there’d be more) and there was thunder and lightning, which we didn’t expect.
There was one blast of thunder that must’ve been right above us because it was so loud it sent Midnight, who’d been sleeping in his bed under a blanket, shooting out of there like a bullet. He stood on the bed (his bed is on our bed during the day) looking all confused and wary, like, wtf was that?!! It was followed by the brightest bolt of lightning, which lit up the bedroom through the drawn shades. Thankfully it moved away after that.
Mom Update:
Mom looked good today, which was nice. ( more back here )
For funsies, I watched Matlock, Mistletoe Mysteries, and some HGTV programs. Dr. Pol was once again my background tv later in the evening.
Temps started out at 32.5 when we got up, but had reached 24.8(F) before I left the house. (Temps dropped over 7 degrees in an hour and a half!) Just watching the temp drop made me cold. It eventually reached 44.8 that I saw before going down to visit mom, but Pip said it hit 50. Rain came in late afternoon, it got really heavy (Pip said there was an inch in the rain gauge, but given how hard it was coming down I thought there’d be more) and there was thunder and lightning, which we didn’t expect.
There was one blast of thunder that must’ve been right above us because it was so loud it sent Midnight, who’d been sleeping in his bed under a blanket, shooting out of there like a bullet. He stood on the bed (his bed is on our bed during the day) looking all confused and wary, like, wtf was that?!! It was followed by the brightest bolt of lightning, which lit up the bedroom through the drawn shades. Thankfully it moved away after that.
Mom Update:
Mom looked good today, which was nice. ( more back here )
Gamify Your TBR!
Nov. 16th, 2025 10:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
smartbitches_feedI’m not going to bury the lede. I got baked and decided to make a Monopoly-inspired game board to help me tackle my TBR pile. (Also a great lead up to my upcoming gift guide on boardgames!) I have so many books and a very large Goodreads list, which often leaves me paralyzed by choice.
I first came across this idea on Instagram through PrintedPaperTraveler, who designed a board that’s a mix of Monopoly and Snakes & Ladders. She calls it TBR Knockout.
Here’s her video on how to get started:
View this post on Instagram
I wouldn’t describe myself as a super crafty person, but I do have a Canva account. I also think I prefer the digital nature of my board, as it allows me to easily change squares if I find that things aren’t working as well as I thought.
I went completely bonkers with pastel pink clip art and honestly, it brings me so much joy.
(You can right click on it for a larger version.)
The idea is that you roll two six-sided die and move that number of spaces. Peruse your TBR pile for whatever matches the prompt you landed on.
I have a couple dynamic categories on the board: Color, Read the Alphabet, Least Favorite/Favorite Tropes, and Release Month. These are designed to change as I land on them. Example: Once I land on Read the Alphabet for A, I pick a book with a title, author name, or character name that starts with A. Once I finish, I’ll edit the square to B.
Other explanations:
- Friend Read: Goodreads has a “compare shelves” feature. I’ll compare my shelves with a GR friend and pick a book on my TBR pile that they’ve already read.
- Nightstand Read: Every month, I put about 5-7 books on my nightstand as some sort of aspirational reading list. Land on this square, and I have to choose one of those.
- Chance: I bought some TBR cards! They’re little cards with prompts on how to choose what to read. You can easily design some yourself. Here are the ones I’ve purchased: Romance TBR Card Deck from BookmarkedWithLoveCo, TBR Cards: Romance Edition from FleursOnSunday, TBR Cards: Fantasy Edition from FleursOnSunday.
- Community Chest: I’m starting with a jar with 5 slips of paper with randomly selected titles from my TBR pile. As I pass GO, I get to add more to the jar.
The idea is to read books I already own whether in physical copies or digitally. I also want to make more use of my library. There is one square that allows me to buy a new book, but I have to read it immediately.
Here’s a blank version of the above board if you’d like to make your own. Customize it with whatever categories you want! I kept mine pretty general, but may create some harder, more specific categories in the future once I take this for a test drive.
My first roll was for a total of 4 spaces. I landed on New Series. For this square, I think I’ll finally start Done and Dusted by Lyla Sage ( A | BN | K | AB ), which is book one in the Rebel Blue Ranch series.
What do you think about gamifying your TBR pile? Have you done something similar?
SBTB Bestsellers: November 1 – November 14
Nov. 16th, 2025 08:00 amsmartbitches_feedThe latest bestseller list is brought to you by fondue, fluffy socks, and our affiliate sales data.
- Arcana Academy by Elise Kova Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- Dirty Rowdy Thing by Christina Lauren Amazon | B&N | Kobo | GooglePlay
- Ready or Not by Cara Bastone Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- A Governess’s Guide to Passion and Peril by Manda Collins Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- The Ex Vows by Jessica Joyce Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- Voidwalker by S.A. MacLean Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire by Anna Fiteni Amazon | B&N | Kobo
I hope your weekend reading was delicious!
One World Under Doom #8
Nov. 15th, 2025 04:00 pmcyberghostface posting in scans_daily
“That relationship between Doom and Valeria is maybe one of the best in comics. It’s so unusual and almost impossible. The idea that your hated villain would be the goddaughter to your child seems ridiculous, but it works because, Doom, for all of his many faults, he does have this weird, twisted sense of honor. I love that he will be Emperor Doom, but also still wants to be Uncle Doom to this young woman. They’re both pulling each other in different directions, kind of towards each other. It’s so operatic and big, but it makes sense emotionally.” — Ryan North
( Scans under the cut... )
A few cool things
Nov. 15th, 2025 04:27 pmoursinThe Spanish government has granted citizenship to 170 descendants of volunteers in the International Brigades in recognition of their fight against fascism.
Go them!
The daughter of a Manchester man who volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War has reflected on his "incredible feat of solidarity" as her family is set to become Spanish citizens.
***
‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard fights to preserve Black newspapers.
“We don’t even know all of what we have,” Mr. Nightingale marvels.
The basement is a trove of artifacts, including old editions of Black-owned newspapers that tell the life of Black Americans during the 19th and 20th centuries. Articles cover slavery, lynchings, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights era. The archive project, which is part of the university’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, is bringing to life the faces of yesterday by merging them with the digital world of today. This way, the hope is, they won’t be lost ever again.
***
Disentangling obscured women: One Artist – ‘Mary Katherine Constance Lloyd’ – Dismembered To Create Two: or The Importance Of Biography:
Googling ‘Mary Katherine Constance Lloyd’ led me to the ArtUK page for ‘Mary Katharine [sic] Constance Lloyd’, which included birth and death dates and a short biography[i]. It was then only the work of a moment to discover on Ancestry that the woman with the given dates was not a Mary Katherine Constance Lloyd but a Katharine Constance Lloyd. How peculiar, I thought, and looked again at the ArtUK page. It then seemed obvious that the paintings displayed were unlikely to all be by the same hand. Four, including the one described by Birrell in the chapter on ‘Mary’, might be classed as ‘impressionist’, while the others were formal portraits of worthy 20th-century gentlemen, attired in various robes of office.
A little more online research established that there was, indeed, another artist with a similar name, Mary Constance Lloyd, and that a succession of art reference works had carelessly blended their two lives together – to create ’Mary Katharine Constance Lloyd’. I suppose it is a measure of how little importance is attached to the lives of such women artists that in 50 years no author had bothered to research either subject ab initio – but, when compiling a new biographical dictionary or making a footnote reference, had merely copied the – incorrect – information.
Don't think I shall be rushing to read that book on women artists and still life cited in the opening of the post!
***
We are always up for some toad-related phenomena around here: Newly identified species of Tanzanian tree toad leapfrog the tadpole stage and give birth to toadlets. How about that.
(no subject)
Nov. 15th, 2025 10:48 amskygiantsI am extremely belated in actually posting about Taiwan Travelogue -- I know that I read it before June, because in June was when I was talking about it with recognito and he said 'oh I think it's an Utena riff' and I was like ?? ?!?! !!!! aj;dlkfjs;l of course it's an Utena riff. (recognito's post about it here.)
Which is of course a very unfair way to begin this post because it's many other things besides an Utena riff- primarily of course a story about colonization and power relations, as told through gender and appetite. Taiwan Travelogue is a book that presents itself as a translation from the Japanese into Taiwanese -- which I of course then read translated into English, another layering into the text -- of a Japanese writer's journal of her time in Taiwan, 1938-9. She's there to promote her book, not to promote the project of Japanese Imperial Expansion, of which she certainly does not really approve! and which she is not going to propagandize, except in the ways that she can't help but propagandize it! and she wants to experience the real Taiwan, most notably Real Taiwanese Food. Aoyama's major passion in life is eating, she is a tall young woman with a huge appetite, and the tour guide experiences that have been prepared for her are not sufficient to her desires.
Enter Ong: Aoyama's new entry point into Taiwan, a quiet young woman from a mysterious background who, unlike her other assigned translator, is willing to not only take Aoyama off the beaten path to Unapproved Culinary Experiences but also to provide additional culinary experiences at home in her lodgings. Whatever Aoyama hears about, she wants to eat. One way or another, Ong makes it happen. Ong, it turns out, is the only person Aoyama's ever met who can eat as much as Aoyama can; Aoyama feels a deep connection to her, is desperate for some sense of genuine reciprocal emotion, but no matter what she tries, moving from their employer/employee dynamic into something genuine seems impossible. From Aoyama's point of view, she's always reaching out, and Ong is always slipping away, putting up a barrier. As Ong sees it -- well, whatever she's trying to tell Aoyama, Aoyama does not understand.
The metaphor of colonialism as played out through the inherent power imbalances of a failed romance is not a new theme and plays out more or less as expected here, though it's relevant that this is a book about A Lesbian: one of the things that the text wants to explore I think is how being, in your own mind, in the position of an underdog and an outsider makes it harder for you to see the ways and situations in which you are neither of those things. But really what I found most striking about the book is not the central relationship at all, but the food. The book has a lot of dishes in it, and every dish has a context and a history: the ingredients come from somewhere, the way it's made has a certain history to it, the way it's made in one location differs from the way it's made in a different location, and Ong always takes care to explain why. The portrait of the impact that colonization by Japan has had on Taiwan is largely drawn through detailed descriptions of changing recipes. The book made me very aware of how hungry I am for material culture in my fiction! ... and also it just made me normal hungry.
recognito and he said 'oh I think it's an Utena riff' and I was like ?? ?!?! !!!! aj;dlkfjs;l of course it's an Utena riff. (recognito's post about it here.) Which is of course a very unfair way to begin this post because it's many other things besides an Utena riff- primarily of course a story about colonization and power relations, as told through gender and appetite. Taiwan Travelogue is a book that presents itself as a translation from the Japanese into Taiwanese -- which I of course then read translated into English, another layering into the text -- of a Japanese writer's journal of her time in Taiwan, 1938-9. She's there to promote her book, not to promote the project of Japanese Imperial Expansion, of which she certainly does not really approve! and which she is not going to propagandize, except in the ways that she can't help but propagandize it! and she wants to experience the real Taiwan, most notably Real Taiwanese Food. Aoyama's major passion in life is eating, she is a tall young woman with a huge appetite, and the tour guide experiences that have been prepared for her are not sufficient to her desires.
Enter Ong: Aoyama's new entry point into Taiwan, a quiet young woman from a mysterious background who, unlike her other assigned translator, is willing to not only take Aoyama off the beaten path to Unapproved Culinary Experiences but also to provide additional culinary experiences at home in her lodgings. Whatever Aoyama hears about, she wants to eat. One way or another, Ong makes it happen. Ong, it turns out, is the only person Aoyama's ever met who can eat as much as Aoyama can; Aoyama feels a deep connection to her, is desperate for some sense of genuine reciprocal emotion, but no matter what she tries, moving from their employer/employee dynamic into something genuine seems impossible. From Aoyama's point of view, she's always reaching out, and Ong is always slipping away, putting up a barrier. As Ong sees it -- well, whatever she's trying to tell Aoyama, Aoyama does not understand.
The metaphor of colonialism as played out through the inherent power imbalances of a failed romance is not a new theme and plays out more or less as expected here, though it's relevant that this is a book about A Lesbian: one of the things that the text wants to explore I think is how being, in your own mind, in the position of an underdog and an outsider makes it harder for you to see the ways and situations in which you are neither of those things. But really what I found most striking about the book is not the central relationship at all, but the food. The book has a lot of dishes in it, and every dish has a context and a history: the ingredients come from somewhere, the way it's made has a certain history to it, the way it's made in one location differs from the way it's made in a different location, and Ong always takes care to explain why. The portrait of the impact that colonization by Japan has had on Taiwan is largely drawn through detailed descriptions of changing recipes. The book made me very aware of how hungry I am for material culture in my fiction! ... and also it just made me normal hungry.