Reading

Entry tags:

tech: artificial unintelligence

Pushing in everywhere so aggressively and so inappropriately and breaking spellcheck

I wonder how many people have gotten about three hours of research deep into "How to break up with all your Google products" and given up because it's too hard or too much work. This has DEFINITELY happened to me AT LEAST three times in the last ten years.

I'm not even doing it today, I'm just reminded because there's YET ANOTHER post going around about Firefox updating to integrate AI and the hidden switches in about:config you have to use if you want to turn it off. The same post talks about switching your default search engine. In one of these previous times years ago I switched from Google to DuckDuckGo, but DuckDuckGo has been pushing AI more over time and it's really annoying so I've been meaning to switch and -

- at the bottom of the post it said we should all switch to Qwant or udm=14, and so I looked up both of those. Qwant is a French search engine that is aggressively integrating AI, but they are big on not storing and selling your data at least, which would've been nice if not for the llm. udm=14 is a string you can append in Google search that gives you the "old" (pre-AI) style results. (There are other search engines - I found a link to The Search Engine Map, which shows all the ones which give English results - but I feel this experience is representative.)

I'm weighing whether I want to switch browsers. I'm definitely mad enough to, but I hate switching browsers...

Current Mood: sleepy

Entry tags:

Spotlight

I just put up a whole bunch of Saks Fifth Avenue window displays I shot a year or two ago but didn't post to my Flickr. I'm definitely not a fan of these mannequins and would've been much happier if they had heads instead of necks sharpened to a stake, but I really liked the colors and effects Saks used in the displays.

I'm going to try to get into the city one night within the next week in the hope of picking up some nice window displays before the stores spend most of November shrouded as they put together their holiday windows.

+++

A water leak the second-floor neighbors complained about for months was traced to our toilet Saturday. My toilet was supposed to be fixed Sunday but wasn't anchored properly and would move when you got on and off it, so we made the landlord and his cheap repairman return today. It seems okay and stable now.

So, that was four hours Saturday, three hours Sunday, and three hours Monday where I wasn't allowed to use my bathroom for anything.

+++

I wanted to see a few Open House New York locations Sunday but woke up feeling awful so I didn't. The places I wanted to go were in Manhattan and would've required me taking the subway and buses--and figuring out what was running where for a weekend day--and doing a few miles of walking. Maybe next year.

PSA - DW notifications

The AWS outage is affecting DW notifications - some are delayed, some may be lost.

I only noticed I wasn't getting emails about my own comments after I'd already posted a bunch, so I hope they'll get delivered eventually! In the meantime it's probably useful to manually check back for new comments/replies.

(None of the websites and services I used today were noticeably affected otherwise, luckily. I hope everything has come back for everyone else.)

AWS outage

DW is seeing some issues due to today's Amazon outage. For right now it looks like the site is loading, but it may be slow. Some of our processes like notifications and journal search don't appear to be running and can't be started due to rate limiting or capacity issues. DW could go down later if Amazon isn't able to improve things soon, but our services should return to normal when Amazon has cleared up the outage.

Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.

Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.

Current Mood: melancholy
Current Music: Mariners vs Blue Jays on tv

Entry tags:

but that's not the case

I made some chicken thighs in the slow cooker today with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and some tomato paste. The chicken shredded nicely, but mostly what I tasted was salt - it was low sodium soy sauce too, so I'm not sure why. Maybe the balsamic? But that was only 2 tsps. Kind of a disappointment, though now at least I have some room in my freezer for other things. *hands*

Finished my reread of The Dream Thieves and now it's onto Blue Lily, Lily Blue. Still enjoying myself. I guess at some point I'll read something new to me again, but not just yet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In other news, man, the Giants looked good for 3 whole quarters before completely unravelling and losing. the fact that they led for so long, and even came back to retake the lead once they fell behind, and still lost just makes it worse. At least the Rangers finally won last night.

*

Dear Yuletide writer

Dear Yulewriter,

thank you so much for writing a story for me!

I've requested and received all of these fandoms before - some for many, many years - and I love them all. Two of them are related to my current main fandom (Guardian) through the main actors, so I might mention them more on DW, but please don't think that means I want my other requests any less! Regardless of what we matched on, rest assured that you really can't go wrong here. Just the existence of new fic for any of these fandoms and characters will make me incredibly happy.

My AO3 account is

Trobadora, and it's set to welcome treats.

Everything important is in the requests themselves, but if you'd like even more info, general likes etc., here you go:

General Preferences

( Likes & Dislikes/DNWs )

Fandoms and characters

Jump directly to:

( 绅探 | Detective L (TV): Luo Fei & Huo Wensi )

( L'Oréal 'Time Engraver' Commercials: The Time Engraver, Worldbuilding )

( Nantucket trilogy - S.M. Stirling: Kashtiliash & Raupasha )

( Ring of Swords - Eleanor Arnason: Ettin Gwarha & Sanders Nicholas )

( Starfire series - Various Authors: Zhaarnak'diaano | Zhaarnak'telmasa & Raymond Prescott )

( 长公主在上 | Eldest Princess On Top: Li Yunzhen & Gu Xuanqing )

( 1632 series - Various Authors: John Chandler Simpson )

Ahem. Lengthy as always. But I hope you'll find something inspiring in here, and most of all, that you'll have fun writing! :)

Entry tags:

litterachewer

Diwali - and Narnia

A lot going on, etc, etc. My mother's first Diwali party in the new house went marvellously well. My in-laws were here for it; lots of family friends; plus three of my friends, brown and married-into-brown. Food, patake, tikka and diya, a little bit of aarti and sweets. I got a Diwali cake from Lola's because I was so shocked and delighted that you can get commercially made Diwali cakes now, and it turned to be delicious; a kind of mango coconut confection with rose petals and pista barfi stuck to the top. So I got dressed up, everyone came, and it's so utterly fucking lovely to see A. and L. casually happy and comfortable as part of a brown family. I never get tired of it. My dad not being here made us realise that no one at the party knew how to tie a kalawa. It's supposed to be a priestly skill, and my dad came from a very traditional Brahmin family. (This was the first time I'd realised this, since his death: because I'm a Brahmin Hindu by solely patrilineal descent, I was the only one in the room. Me. The priestly skills of the Bronze Age pandits. Me.) The thing is, if my dad tied a kalawa, it never, ever, ever came off - he was a surgeon tying surgeon's knots, so the thread just stays with you until it drops off. The threads got tied anyway, without him and even though I know nothing. We're gonna have to abolish the caste system, it turns out.

Diwali isn't till tomorrow, actually! But I'm so pleased about it all.

I'm having a bit of an existential time, otherwise. Writing has been bad, it's making me feel genuinely sick and sad, and I've been worrying a lot about my Wednesdays. If I don't write on them, and I don't work on them, what do I do? Related: cluster is why I don't work in the mornings, but if cluster isn't hitting me every day, then what am I doing with my time? And that, inexorably, has been turning into - well, what am I doing with my life? I'm having trouble with that. My therapist, who is helpful sometimes, gave me advice, and then started laughing at herself for just... giving me advice, against all tenets of the therapeutic relationship. It was good advice, I think. It was - do nothing. Stop trying to get a grip on your life. Fill each Wednesday with whatever you feel like doing that day.

I'm trying it. We'll see what happens. So far it seems to have been reading a lot of children's literature, Joan Aiken, CS Lewis, Judy Blume - and I was actually going to divide this part about the books from the rest of the post, but it strikes me that "Hindu adult reads books intended for Christian children" is a pretty good segue. ( the rest of this is about me rereading Narnia )

Entry tags:

yuletide

Yuletide 2025 Dear Author letter

Dear Yuletide Author:

Thank you for writing a story for me! I love it already!

If you have a story in mind in any of the fandoms I requested, go for it--I will love pretty much anything for these sources. I love worldbuilding, I love character-focused fic, I love smut of all stripes, and I love gen. I want to read what you want to write.

In all of these fandoms, I am especially interested in any or all of the following:

--Nontraditional relationship dynamics and the way people find or build a niche for themselves in a world with strict rules--about gender and relationships and everything else.

--Seeing the characters deal with actual historical figures and events and inventions--ones offstage or coming up post-canon, or more detail on events during canon.

--Material culture: how they decorate their rooms, what they have for dinner, how they dress. These fandoms are all made for lavish descriptions of fashion--the men's no less than the women's!

If you are here as a pinch hitter: I'm so sorry. I have all historical fandoms this year. Fortunately they are all fairly short: two stand-alone novels, one film, and one TV series of 6 30-minute episodes. The one that will probably need the least amount of historical research is Mademoiselle de Maupin, which is extremely vague about what year or even what century it's set in.

One general DNW: Animal cruelty. I can handle non-graphic descriptions of hunting, butchery, or veterinary work, but please, nothing with an element of punishment or betrayal--no deliberate harm to animals by people they trust.

( Mademoiselle de Maupin - Théophile Gautier )

( Horace - George Sand )

( Quacks (TV) )

( Impromptu (1991) )

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: you should see me in a crown - billie eilish

Entry tags:

books: raven cycle

visions i vandalize

runpunkrun mentioned that there is now a graphic novel of The Raven Boys, which ignited in me a fierce urge to reread the series, so I've started that, and I still love it (♥BLUE♥! ♥RONAN♥! #the same impossible stuff), but I also kind of wish now that I didn't read the Dreamer trilogy (or that Stiefvater had written it differently), since it kind of recontextualizes (and potentially retcons) some stuff that I don't think really needed it.

*

Bohemian Rhapsody flashmob

I'm sure everyone but me has already seen this, but I have to share it anyway - this is amazing!

Watch on YouTube

Background info

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: "No More Nightmares" by Dead When I Found Her

Entry tags:

Will you tell me a story tonight

My fic site has returned!

+++

Oh, I don't owe my dentist money! I don't have a balance. Their computer system just sends bills out automatically sometimes and they don't always reflect the correct balance on file!

I'm so glad I tried e-mail first. If I drove all the way to Bayside to talk to them in person about this, since they refuse to discuss billing stuff on the phone, I would've been even more ticked off. Plus, this way I have an e-mail of them saying I don't owe them money.

+++

So my Gas Guru app is no longer in operation, and I switched to Gas Buddy, which is a massive downgrade. They list so many stations with no pricing. Even if you give me an old price and tell me it's a few days old, like Guru would've, that would be better.

Current Mood: pessimistic
Current Music: Rangers vs Leafs on tv

Entry tags:

sports

here's what took place moments ago

The Rangers haven't scored in almost 8 periods (if this 2nd period in Toronto ends without them scoring in 2 minutes, it will actually be 8 periods) - and it's not even like they've been shut out by top tier goalies! - but Chris Kreider has 5 points in 3 games so far for Anaheim. They definitely sent the wrong Chris away over the summer. Sigh.

[eta] A goal! For the Rangers! Huzzah!

*

Crossposts: https://lexin.insanejournal.com/329715.html

Entry tags:

health: me

Sick again

Once again I seem to be suffering some kind of 48 hour bug. This time it’s a full D&V. I went to bed at 16:00 and am up because I can’t sleep and thought that a lemon and ginger tea might help.

So far it hasn’t, I’m just being sick again, and my stomach hurts, just under my ribs. It’s miserable.

Entry tags:

King of Ashes, by S. A. Cosby: DNF

Roman left the family business, a crematory, and its town to become an accountant to the rich and famous. His sister now runs the crematory with their father, while their younger brother Dante stays on the rolls but his actual profession is being a drug addict and ne'er do well. When the kids were teenagers, their mother vanished. Their father is widely suspected of having murdered his wife and cremated his body, but no proof was ever found. When the book opens, Roman hears that his father is in the hospital, victim of a suspicious accident. He heads home to visit his father and help out his sister. Naturally, he immediately gets embroiled in trouble.

I've loved or liked all of Cosby's previous books and was very excited for this one - especially given the crematory setting. (Cosby himself ran a funeral home with his wife.) Unfortunately, I did not like or feel connected to any of the characters in this one, and so I didn't care what happened to them. Cosby's characters are typically criminals who do bad things, but in his other books, I understand the reasons they are who they are and like them even if I wouldn't want to meet them in real life. But in this one, fairly early on, Roman - who I already didn't feel connected to - commits an act of horrifying cruelty that seems completely unmotivated.

( Read more... )

It's possible that this is explained later, and my guess is that the explanation is "Roman is actually a sadistic sociopath," but I lost all interest in him at that point, and DNF'd the book as I no longer wanted to read about him, none of the other characters interested me either, and the sadistic sociopath explanation doesn't help. I heard an interview with Cosby where he talks about wanting to write a classic tragedy with a very bad protagonist a la Macbeth, which makes his intention make more sense to me, but it doesn't make me want to return to the book.

Cosby is a great author but this book was a miss for me. I HIGHLY recommend Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears for very well-written books where bad people do bad things that are very motivated, and you can't help rooting for them to succeed. I recommend All Sinners Bleed for a well-written book about a good guy fighting both crime and legal bad things. I recommend My Darkest Prayer for a fun, OTT thriller with a very Marty Stu protagonist. I don't recommend this.

Entry tags:

Community Recs Post!

Every Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.

This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)

(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)

So what cool fics/fanvids/fancrafts/fanart/podfics/other kinds of fanworks have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.

BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here

Entry tags:

yuletide

Yuletide letter placeholder :)

Not enough brain to write it yet, you all know the drill.

Entry tags:

reading

What Am I Reading Wednesday - October 15

I've done a fair amount of reading this week, although most of it is still in progress.

What I Finished Reading This Week

Your Island – Jon Klassen
Being one volume of a new trilogy by the author. These books are for very young readers (or more precisely, read-to'ers) and thus lack the at times ominous whimsy of his other volumes, but not!ominous Klassen whimsy is just as delightful, as are his lovely illustrations.

Pocket Rough Guide London – Annie Warren
Yes, my compulsive need to read every page in a book if I read any page from it extends to travel guidebooks, don't judge. The editing was poor in places (although probably not in a noticeable way to someone just dipping in and out of it) but the information was useful and nicely illustrated, especially given its small size.

What I Am Currently Reading

Sistersong – Lucy Holland
I poked at this one ever so slightly this week, but largely set it aside to focus on Pagan Britain.

Pagan Britain – Ronald Hutton
I'm inhaling 70 to 100 pages of this dense book a day, helped in large part by having put myself on a total news blackout, and I'll definitely finish it by tomorrow morning if not tonight.

What I'm Reading Next

This week I acquired Triads by Poppy Z. Brite and Christa Faust, no. 244 of 250 signed by both authors, for an obscenely small amount of money at the local charity book popup.

これで以上です。

Entry tags:

yuletide

My favorite winter holiday is upon us!

Yuletide signups are open!

Here's the tagset showing what's eligible to request and offer.

What intrigues you in the tag set? And who plans to participate this year?

Entry tags:

fic exchange letter

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you for writing for me! If you have any questions, please check with the mods. I am a very easy recipient and will be delighted with whatever you write for me. I have no special requirements beyond what's specifically stated in my DNWs. I'm fine with all POVs (i.e., first, second, third), tenses, ratings, story lengths, etc.

My AO3 name is Edonohana. I am open to treats. Very open. I love them.

This year I have gone for a slate of obscure-even-for-Yuletide canons plus a few less obscure canons with obscure-even-for-Yuletide characters. Some of my prompts are longer than others, but I want everything equally.

I like hurt-comfort, action/adventure, horror, domestic life, worldbuilding, evocative descriptions, camaraderie, loyalty, trauma recovery, difficult choices, survival situations, mysterious places and weird alien technology, food, plants, animals, landscape, X-Men type powers, learning to love again or trust again or enjoy life again, miniature things or beings, magic, strange rituals, unknowable things, epistolary fiction, found footage/art/creepy movies/etc, canon divergence AUs anf alternate versions of characters. I particularly love deadly/horrifying yet weirdly beautiful settings, especially if there's elements of space/time/reality warping as well. And many other things, too, of course! That list is just in case something sparks an idea.

( General DNWs )

( Crossroad - Barbara Hambly )

( Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin )

( Fire Dancer Series - Ann Maxwell )

( Ki and Vandien Quartet - Megan Lindholm )

( The Last Hot Time - John M. Ford )

( Lyra - Patricia Wrede )

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: "The Plumbing Song" by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Entry tags:

What you gonna do

I have supposedly successfully signed up for Extended Security Updates for Windows 10. Wish me luck.

A confirmation e-mail would be nice, but apparently this is Microsoft so no. Damn, I should've done a screen cap of the window saying I did it.

eta: If you go to Settings, then Update & Security, on that screen it should say you're enrolled in Extended Security Updates in the upper right-hand corner.

+++

Today I got a surprise in the mail. I'm on Medicaid, which should pay for everything on my routine dental work. Every time I've done something with my dentist, I've been assured by them it was covered. If it isn't, I don't do it.

Today I received a dental bill for a total of $324. It looks like it includes routine checkups and x-rays from 2024, which should've been and I was told was covered by Medicaid, and something from 2021(!) that I don't understand at all. Why am I suddenly getting hit with something from 2021? Especially since everything should be covered. What is happening? This isn't right.

Hilariously, when I called them today, I was told this can't be discussed or disputed by phone, only by e-mail or an in-person visit, and since the dentist is a fair distance away in Bayside, I'm trying e-mail first.