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Jan. 28th, 2026 09:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catnessWrote this kinda poem for the Creative Court prompt "Birthday", I guess I can post in my own journal as well.
(It had originated on the night of a thunderstorm when our building was hit by lightning, and we had a power outage, and I couldn't sleep.)
the year falls down like heavy rain
crashing into the ground
the thunder of memories crushing my brain
drenched and dazed
I stumble around my maze of disquieting voids
avoiding the vortex of voices
incessantly drowning my mind from within
and without
you
another year runs out
another year streams in
(It had originated on the night of a thunderstorm when our building was hit by lightning, and we had a power outage, and I couldn't sleep.)
the year falls down like heavy rain
crashing into the ground
the thunder of memories crushing my brain
drenched and dazed
I stumble around my maze of disquieting voids
avoiding the vortex of voices
incessantly drowning my mind from within
and without
you
another year runs out
another year streams in
Things
Jan. 28th, 2026 11:04 pmvassBooks
Finished Evelyn Araluen's The Rot, which was, as mentioned last week, very good indeed.
Reading KC Davis' How To Keep House While Drowning and Victoria Goddard's Plum Duff.
Tech
Still working the phone side of my tech problems: prolonged backup of All The Things onto a different external drive. But I did also run Slay the Spire on my desktop once, just to confirm whether that would cause it to shut down: it did not. But of course it's less resource-hungry than Hollow Knight.
Garden
Three more ripe tomatoes. I tried to plant some basil, but it didn't survive the heat.
Cats
Ash's nose looking good. Both cats coping with the heat as well as can be expected, i.e. better than I am but still largely horizontal.
Nature
I am a delicate flower and do not like hot weather. This is a problem at this time of year. Slight understatement. But only slight. (My part of the state is not the worst-off. Our highs are low 40s, not high 40s. And I have aircon at home and don't have to go out. It's still bad, and I do have medical conditions that make me more sensitive to heat.)
Also I sustained mosquito bites on my arms while doing my nightly "try to keep the plants alive" water, and am very itchy, which at least has the advantage of being a small problem to grumble about without the undercurrent of constant dread.
Current Events
Australia Day bringing out the racists. Some unmitigated arsehole threw a bomb at an Indigenous elder at one of the Survival Day protests. I didn't protest: couldn't manage the logistics of getting to a protest.
Watching the events in Minnesota and thinking of you all.
Finished Evelyn Araluen's The Rot, which was, as mentioned last week, very good indeed.
Reading KC Davis' How To Keep House While Drowning and Victoria Goddard's Plum Duff.
Tech
Still working the phone side of my tech problems: prolonged backup of All The Things onto a different external drive. But I did also run Slay the Spire on my desktop once, just to confirm whether that would cause it to shut down: it did not. But of course it's less resource-hungry than Hollow Knight.
Garden
Three more ripe tomatoes. I tried to plant some basil, but it didn't survive the heat.
Cats
Ash's nose looking good. Both cats coping with the heat as well as can be expected, i.e. better than I am but still largely horizontal.
Nature
I am a delicate flower and do not like hot weather. This is a problem at this time of year. Slight understatement. But only slight. (My part of the state is not the worst-off. Our highs are low 40s, not high 40s. And I have aircon at home and don't have to go out. It's still bad, and I do have medical conditions that make me more sensitive to heat.)
Also I sustained mosquito bites on my arms while doing my nightly "try to keep the plants alive" water, and am very itchy, which at least has the advantage of being a small problem to grumble about without the undercurrent of constant dread.
Current Events
Australia Day bringing out the racists. Some unmitigated arsehole threw a bomb at an Indigenous elder at one of the Survival Day protests. I didn't protest: couldn't manage the logistics of getting to a protest.
Watching the events in Minnesota and thinking of you all.
The Age of Aguardiente
Jan. 28th, 2026 11:02 pmtcpipThe Invasion Day long weekend (really, just change the date and adopt something less gross for the national holiday) featured three events of note in my life. The first included a short-notice visit from Adam and Lara from Darwin; we went to Balloon Story, which had some amusing moments, but really was something for the kids. It was nevertheless marvellous to catch up, albeit for a shorter time than usual, and I am sure there will be a next time. Afterwards, I ventured out to the Thornbuy Bowls Club, where my friend of almost forty years, Simon S., was celebrating his birthday party. With a collection of over a score of migrant friends from Perth, the cycling and motorcycle community, and various nerdish characters of various stripes (which much crossover), Simon's plan to hold a relatively low-key gathering was stymied by his friendship circle, who came out in spades.
The following day was my own gathering of the same sort (and yes, it included several people from the day before), with the additional theme of South America and Latin America from the recent trip. With over 30 people visiting my apartment throughout the day, I provided a wide variety of dishes from the different countries I visited (plus a couple from Ecuador, which I did not), various favourite beverages, and music. All along with a slideshow of photos from the trip. I actually didn't end up making everything, but have endeavoured to do so in the following days because, as usual, I overcatered. Blessed with an incredible variety of often brilliant friends, the gathering was really quite lively, and I am rather overwhelmed by the support and enthusiasm that everyone contributed to the day. Photos will be forthcoming, but for now, "Lev's Solar Orbit, South America and Antarctica Voyage" included the following food, drinks, and music:
Los Platos
- Fainá (Uruguay): Chickpea flatbread with parmesan and mixed herbs
- Aji Amarillo Salsa (Peru): Yellow capsicum with milk, vinegar, lime juice, jalapeño, mustard, garlic
- Llapingachos (Ecuador): Potato cake, cheese and spring onion
- Salsa de maní (Ecuador): Peanuts, milk, onion, cumin, coriander, red chilli
- Torrejas De Espinaca (Peru): Fried tortillas with spinach, spring onion
- Ensalada Negra Inca (Peru): Apichu (golden sweet potato), avocado, black beans, quinoa, and chard (silverbeet)
- Salsa Criolla (Argentina): Capsicum with tomato, onion, garlic
- Pastel de choclo con carne (Chile): Maize with beef, tomato, onion, milk, basil, paprika
- Pastel de choclo sin carne (Chile): Maize with soy TVP, tomato, onion, milk, basil, paprika
- Ceviche (Peru): Ocean fish with red onions, tomato, cucumber, capsicum, lime, coriander, jalapeño
- Empanadas (Argentina): Pastry with gorgonzola cheese and puerro (leek)
- Tortillas fritas con Dulce de Leche (Uruguay): Tortillas, ice cream, milk, sugar, cream, chocolate
Las bebidas
- Café de Galeano (Uruguay): Coffee, dulce de leche, cream, amaretto
- Caipiroska (Uruguay): Vodka, lime, sugar
- Piscola Eléctrica (Chile): Brandy and Pepsi blue
- Pisco Sour (Peru): Brandy, lime juice, egg white, sugar, bitters
- Terremoto (Chile): Pineapple ice cream, red wine, pomegranate juice
- Tierra del Fuego (Argentina): Tequila, Campari, spiced vodka
La Musica
- Jorge Morel (Argentine classical guitar)
- Astor Piazzolla (Argentine founder of nuevo tango)
- Los Prisioneros (Chilean post-punk)
- Los Buenos Muchachos (Uruguayan alt-rock)
- Dengue Dengue Dengue (Peruvian electronic-industrial)
- Föllakzoid (Chilean electronica)
- Vangelis, Antarctica movie soundtrack
The following day was my own gathering of the same sort (and yes, it included several people from the day before), with the additional theme of South America and Latin America from the recent trip. With over 30 people visiting my apartment throughout the day, I provided a wide variety of dishes from the different countries I visited (plus a couple from Ecuador, which I did not), various favourite beverages, and music. All along with a slideshow of photos from the trip. I actually didn't end up making everything, but have endeavoured to do so in the following days because, as usual, I overcatered. Blessed with an incredible variety of often brilliant friends, the gathering was really quite lively, and I am rather overwhelmed by the support and enthusiasm that everyone contributed to the day. Photos will be forthcoming, but for now, "Lev's Solar Orbit, South America and Antarctica Voyage" included the following food, drinks, and music:
Los Platos
- Fainá (Uruguay): Chickpea flatbread with parmesan and mixed herbs
- Aji Amarillo Salsa (Peru): Yellow capsicum with milk, vinegar, lime juice, jalapeño, mustard, garlic
- Llapingachos (Ecuador): Potato cake, cheese and spring onion
- Salsa de maní (Ecuador): Peanuts, milk, onion, cumin, coriander, red chilli
- Torrejas De Espinaca (Peru): Fried tortillas with spinach, spring onion
- Ensalada Negra Inca (Peru): Apichu (golden sweet potato), avocado, black beans, quinoa, and chard (silverbeet)
- Salsa Criolla (Argentina): Capsicum with tomato, onion, garlic
- Pastel de choclo con carne (Chile): Maize with beef, tomato, onion, milk, basil, paprika
- Pastel de choclo sin carne (Chile): Maize with soy TVP, tomato, onion, milk, basil, paprika
- Ceviche (Peru): Ocean fish with red onions, tomato, cucumber, capsicum, lime, coriander, jalapeño
- Empanadas (Argentina): Pastry with gorgonzola cheese and puerro (leek)
- Tortillas fritas con Dulce de Leche (Uruguay): Tortillas, ice cream, milk, sugar, cream, chocolate
Las bebidas
- Café de Galeano (Uruguay): Coffee, dulce de leche, cream, amaretto
- Caipiroska (Uruguay): Vodka, lime, sugar
- Piscola Eléctrica (Chile): Brandy and Pepsi blue
- Pisco Sour (Peru): Brandy, lime juice, egg white, sugar, bitters
- Terremoto (Chile): Pineapple ice cream, red wine, pomegranate juice
- Tierra del Fuego (Argentina): Tequila, Campari, spiced vodka
La Musica
- Jorge Morel (Argentine classical guitar)
- Astor Piazzolla (Argentine founder of nuevo tango)
- Los Prisioneros (Chilean post-punk)
- Los Buenos Muchachos (Uruguayan alt-rock)
- Dengue Dengue Dengue (Peruvian electronic-industrial)
- Föllakzoid (Chilean electronica)
- Vangelis, Antarctica movie soundtrack
ImageMagick for drawing
Jan. 28th, 2026 03:47 pmmiriam_eIf anybody is interested here are the ImageMagick commands I used for my most recent l-systems experiments.
To create a blank, white canvas:
magick -size 512x512 xc:white canvas.pngmagick -size 512x512 xc:white canvas.png
To draw a black line:
magick canvas.png -stroke "$col" -strokewidth $w -draw "line $xp,$yp $xnp,$ynp" -quality 0 canvas.png
canvas.png is the input image to be written on.
-stroke sets the color of the line (I used the variable $col, which I set to "green")
-strokewidth sets the thickness of the line (in this case $w, set to 1)
-draw and the command "line" sets the start and endpoints of the line.
-quality was ChatGPT's excellent suggestion to force an uncompressed png image. It suggested a different, incorrect command, but the idea was spon-on.
canvas.png is specified again as the output image.
To create a blank, white canvas:
magick -size 512x512 xc:white canvas.pngmagick -size 512x512 xc:white canvas.png
To draw a black line:
magick canvas.png -stroke "$col" -strokewidth $w -draw "line $xp,$yp $xnp,$ynp" -quality 0 canvas.png
canvas.png is the input image to be written on.
-stroke sets the color of the line (I used the variable $col, which I set to "green")
-strokewidth sets the thickness of the line (in this case $w, set to 1)
-draw and the command "line" sets the start and endpoints of the line.
-quality was ChatGPT's excellent suggestion to force an uncompressed png image. It suggested a different, incorrect command, but the idea was spon-on.
canvas.png is specified again as the output image.
L-systems in bash
Jan. 28th, 2026 08:05 ammiriam_eOnce again, I'm fiddling around with l-systems. The eventual aim is to develop a simple way to populate virtual worlds with plants. It has been many decades since I experimented with l-systems. This time I've begun with recreating the simple plant described in the Wikipedia l-systems page.
To give myself a baseline I wrote it in bash script. But bash doesn't have graphical output, so I used ImageMagick to draw the lines on a canvas, and displayed the result using the small, fast, image viewer feh. One nice thing about feh is that it can receive notification when the image it is displaying changes, and update its display. This let me watch the plant grow as the program proceeded.
It turns out that while bash is quite fast at generating the strings that define the shape, ImageMagick clogs things up somewhat. I asked ChatGPT about this and it surprised me by giving some great advice: ensure the canvas (which was in .png format) is not compressed and this will relieve a lot of the load. My computer still staggered under the weight, but it didn't do so badly. It took just over an hour to render the image below. My ancient CoCo computer from about 1983 took less than half that time. It had a 6809 microprocessor that ran at a feeble 0.89 MHz, whereas my current computer runs at an underwhelming 1.1 GHz (1,100 MHz) on each of 2 cores -- more than a thousand times faster. And if I run it on the XRoar CoCo emulator on my computer, but at full speed instead of the original speed, then it takes about 2 minutes.
 [18m56s or 2m15s].png "CoCo - 8 levels--writable screen (256x192) [18m56s or 2m15s].png")
L-system plant traced to the same level
of complexity on my old CoCo,
My next experiment (if I'm not distracted by some other shiny thing) will be to rewrite the program using awk, which will run much, much faster. For display I'll use the same technique as when I made Wolfram 1D cellular automata a while back. That is, write to the old ASCII .pbm image format. Since awk is primarily a text processing language, getting it to write image data to an image format that is intrinsically text is a marriage made in heaven. Also, I've already developed simple line-drawing, and other routines for awk. I'll still use feh to asynchronously display the image as it updates. This will be interesting.
It strikes me as weird that we have a great flowering of computer languages at the moment -- more than a thousand, last time I looked -- yet almost none of these can display or manipulate images or sound. It sometimes feels like we've gone backwards. We do have some specialised languages to manipulate images and sound, but they can do little else, and interfacing standard languages with those specialised ones can often be messy (like using ImageMagick to output graphics from other languages, such as bash).
It surprises me that with all the computing power we have today, progress feels like it is splintering. I can process images and sound and text in complex ways that once upon a time I could have only dreamed of, but in other ways it feels like we've hardly progressed. I used to be able to quickly whip up simple programs to process text and output graphics and sound... but no more, it seems. We have an amazing world that seems weirdly lopsided.
Additional: I just recompiled xRoar, the CoCo emulator, and got that warm feeling of being able to do those old experiments again, relatively easily and simply... though the CoCo's line editor is even worse than Linux/Unix's ancient ed line editor. The solution is to edit on linux and load the program into XRoar's CoCo.
To give myself a baseline I wrote it in bash script. But bash doesn't have graphical output, so I used ImageMagick to draw the lines on a canvas, and displayed the result using the small, fast, image viewer feh. One nice thing about feh is that it can receive notification when the image it is displaying changes, and update its display. This let me watch the plant grow as the program proceeded.
It turns out that while bash is quite fast at generating the strings that define the shape, ImageMagick clogs things up somewhat. I asked ChatGPT about this and it surprised me by giving some great advice: ensure the canvas (which was in .png format) is not compressed and this will relieve a lot of the load. My computer still staggered under the weight, but it didn't do so badly. It took just over an hour to render the image below. My ancient CoCo computer from about 1983 took less than half that time. It had a 6809 microprocessor that ran at a feeble 0.89 MHz, whereas my current computer runs at an underwhelming 1.1 GHz (1,100 MHz) on each of 2 cores -- more than a thousand times faster. And if I run it on the XRoar CoCo emulator on my computer, but at full speed instead of the original speed, then it takes about 2 minutes.
L-system plant traced to the same level
of complexity on my old CoCo,
My next experiment (if I'm not distracted by some other shiny thing) will be to rewrite the program using awk, which will run much, much faster. For display I'll use the same technique as when I made Wolfram 1D cellular automata a while back. That is, write to the old ASCII .pbm image format. Since awk is primarily a text processing language, getting it to write image data to an image format that is intrinsically text is a marriage made in heaven. Also, I've already developed simple line-drawing, and other routines for awk. I'll still use feh to asynchronously display the image as it updates. This will be interesting.
It strikes me as weird that we have a great flowering of computer languages at the moment -- more than a thousand, last time I looked -- yet almost none of these can display or manipulate images or sound. It sometimes feels like we've gone backwards. We do have some specialised languages to manipulate images and sound, but they can do little else, and interfacing standard languages with those specialised ones can often be messy (like using ImageMagick to output graphics from other languages, such as bash).
It surprises me that with all the computing power we have today, progress feels like it is splintering. I can process images and sound and text in complex ways that once upon a time I could have only dreamed of, but in other ways it feels like we've hardly progressed. I used to be able to quickly whip up simple programs to process text and output graphics and sound... but no more, it seems. We have an amazing world that seems weirdly lopsided.
Additional: I just recompiled xRoar, the CoCo emulator, and got that warm feeling of being able to do those old experiments again, relatively easily and simply... though the CoCo's line editor is even worse than Linux/Unix's ancient ed line editor. The solution is to edit on linux and load the program into XRoar's CoCo.
Snowflake Challenge #14 - fandom promo
Jan. 27th, 2026 08:38 pmcatness
Challenge #14
In your own space, create a promo and/or rec list for someone new to a fandom.
I don't know how to do promotions / convincing, so here are my entirely personal reasons why I love The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir. (Currently a trilogy: Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, Nona the Ninth, with the 4th book forthcoming.)
* It's set in a world where high technologies, such as space travel, coexist with magic, specifically necromancy. The necromancy is not an old-fashioned "raising the dead through obscure occult rituals" - there are many different types of necromancy, described in precise technical details, and this magic is actually an essential base for all the scientific progress. And then, there are also sword fights!
* The story is complex, richly detailed and always intriguing, with crazy mind-boggling twists. Curiously, each book is written in a different genre! The 1st one is simultaneously a Locked Room Mystery and a Deadly Game, set in an eerie semi-abandoned space station, which reminds me both on Hogwarts and the Portal game labs. (I'd love to see a computer game based on it!) The 2nd one is a psychological horror mindfuck thriller which puts everything you know into question and makes you doubt your sanity. The 3rd one is a character drama in a hardcore dystopian world, with a charming child-like protagonist whom I absolutely adore even though I'm usually not into easygoing and optimistic characters.
* The language is sophisticated and witty and sharp, incorporating biblical references and pop culture references and Tumblr memes. From elaborate to silly to morbid to technical to poetic, it covers everything.
* The 9 Houses fall into the Grouped For Your Convenience trope, although it's not Sorting by personality traits, but rather, people's personality traits are largely determined by the House they grew up in, and the kind of necromancy they had learned. But of course the sorting addicts can play with the sorting quizzes ;) I sort myself into the 6th House - the Emperor's Reason, the Master Wardens. Their planet is a big library, which contains most of the Empire's knowledge and research.
* There are numerous characters, and it takes an effort to learn all the names (there is actually a list in the beginning ;) But almost every character is memorable and has their own unique personality and voice, and some of them are extremely relatable. Their relationships are complicated and dynamic, often horribly twisted. I appreciate the lack of explicit romance, though there's enough romantic tension, and fanfic writers have plenty of material to work with ;)
* The common tagline for the series is lesbian necromancers in space. Though I'm not much into any kind of romance, queer or het, one thing I admire about these books is that sex and gender are so completely unimportant and irrelevant for the story. Any character can pursue any profession, job, position, hobby or relationship. Well, of course it depends on their abilities, their House, their affiliations etc, but never sex. There is no concept of men being better warriors or women being better scientists etc, and also, there's no preaching about gender equality, discrimination and such - these issues are just never mentioned! Same for a physically male character hosting a female's conscience and vice versa, it's simply not a problem and not an issue. That's the world I want to live in...
* And on a more personal note, these books are big on the themes of grief and loss, and I found a deep, multifaceted and inspiring concept (Lyctorhood) to provide a powerful metaphor for an actionable approach to coping with grief.
So, if you're unfamiliar with the series and think that they might be your thing, get Gideon the Ninth and dive in! The 9 Houses await.
"Two is for discipline, heedless of trial;
Three for the gleam of a jewel or a smile;
Four for fidelity, facing ahead;
Five for tradition and debts to the dead;
Six for the truth over solace in lies;
Seven for beauty that blossoms and dies;
Eight for salvation no matter the cost;
Nine for the Tomb, and for all that was lost."
~~ Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth.
The thing about the adaptational changes made to The Seven Dials Mystery
Jan. 27th, 2026 03:38 pmcimoreneThe thing about the changes made in the new miniseries of The Seven Dials Mystery is that they seem motivated by a couple of motives that strike me as unwise and illegitimate:
You see what I'm saying? ( Read more... )
- to make a rollicking comedy-adventure-farce way more serious and solemn and sad
- to make sure the main heroine is not motivated by spunk, excitement, or sheer desire to solve crimes, but by revenge for the man she loooooooooved
- to make the heroine just the MOST speshul, not because of what she achieves or her choices and actions, but because of who she innately is
You see what I'm saying? ( Read more... )
at present you are a nuisance to your friends and a disgrace to your country's legislature
Jan. 26th, 2026 02:48 pmcimoreneSo far, this appears to be a quite mild case of shingles, from what I've been able to gather. It's annoying and worrying, but it hasn't become more than slightly and intermittently painful. I'm not sure if I'm extraordinarily lucky, or if I'm just young enough to make mild symptoms much more likely. We are also having a cold snap again, though it's not really all that cold, only a little bit below the freezing point and a little bit more snow.
Snowflake Challenge #13 - communities
Jan. 26th, 2026 10:19 amcatness Challenge #13
TALK ABOUT A COMMUNITY SPACE YOU LIKE. It doesn’t need to be your favorite, or the one where you spend the most time (although it certainly can be). Maybe it’s even one that you’ve barely visited. But talk about that space and how it helps support fannish community.
I don't participate in communities much, I'm mostly a lurker. Lately my preferred lurking space is Reddit. I like the way you follow not people but groups (subreddits), the slightly old-fashioned interface, the convenience of threaded comments, and most of all, the variety, breadth and depth of the content.
There is an active (or relatively active) subreddit for almost any interest, mood or app!
( linkspam )
and that's just a tiny bit of what's out there. (Not all of the listed above are fandom-related, but heck, whatever keeps your creative gears spinning ;)
Also, it's easy to group subreddits into your own themed lists, and browse a specific theme whenever you feel like it. Actually, I mostly just drop to my main page and scroll for a while.
Perhaps Reddit is not a proper "community", as the atmosphere is not always warm and friendly and supportive, and some users are rude and obnoxious, and the interaction is mostly on specific subjects and not with specific people, but I suppose this is my personal usage pattern as a lurker. And TBF, real communities take a lot of time and effort to participate in, and I usually just don't have so much energy in my mental space. (Snowflake Challenge is pushing me in the best way though ;)
His butler was too formidable
Jan. 25th, 2026 02:33 pmcimoreneThe Powerhouse by John Buchan is a 1916 thriller mystery about an international secret criminal organization that's absolutely laughable in light of (1) the later course of history and (2) the development of the genre. Readable, pleasant narration, and quite a turn of phrase, but insubstantial.
The Patient in Room 18 by Mignon G. Eberhart is set in a private hospital in the American Midwest in 1929, and that made it interesting at first. It has some gobsmacking passages that it doesn't seem to know are racist ("This other guy was obviously wrong to be prejudiced against this mixed race woman but she is obviously fashionable and lazy because of her Black ancestry" - the enlightened detective). The plot relies on a witness to the first murder waiting a week, then deciding to spill his guts to the narrator in a clump of bushes where anybody could overhear, then refusing to say who did it and running away to get murdered while the narrator is just like "Huh!"
The Patient in Room 18 by Mignon G. Eberhart is set in a private hospital in the American Midwest in 1929, and that made it interesting at first. It has some gobsmacking passages that it doesn't seem to know are racist ("This other guy was obviously wrong to be prejudiced against this mixed race woman but she is obviously fashionable and lazy because of her Black ancestry" - the enlightened detective). The plot relies on a witness to the first murder waiting a week, then deciding to spill his guts to the narrator in a clump of bushes where anybody could overhear, then refusing to say who did it and running away to get murdered while the narrator is just like "Huh!"
Status
Jan. 24th, 2026 08:31 pmcimoreneI watched the new Agatha Christie's Seven Dials Mystery, and then reread the book, as I had only a slight recollection of it. The visual design and costumes charmed me, but I was baffled by adaptation choices. Then I watched The Residence, which was much better, and visually lovely as well, as expected from Shondaland.
I stopped reading the works of Freeman Wills Crofts - I read all I could find, but there are more that I haven't yet. The guy was quite prolific. Then I finally got around to reading John Dickson Carr's The Hollow Man, the last book I hadn't read on the bookclub list in Wake Up Dead Man. It was... okay. It did not revise my previously unfavorable opinion of JDC as a mystery writer. It's a fun enough and okay read, but it's not satisfying and the tone and style are... weird. I suppose if I want to articulate this better I'll have to read more of his work.
Anyway, I've been reading some other random early mystery novels since then - AEW Mason (pretty good but some Of Its Time issues), GDH Cole (the majority of the narration is by silly characters whose cluelessness the reader is presumably meant to see through, a narrative technique which makes me gnash my teeth), JJ Connington (better but loses major points for extended scenes of a dumb detective being dumb and his smarter boss being even smugger and more secretive about everything than Sherlock Holmes).
I also have experienced a change of heart, not about the NHL - it's still evil and its culture is toxic and most NHL hockey players suck - but about posting the unfinished hockey WIP with all the names changed. I didn't want to do that from 2016 until like, this month, but now I think I would be okay with it, provided I did finish it (I like the bit I have anyway). I can't at all explain why this feeling changed, though. But clearly we've all been able to process quite a bit about the nature of fanfiction with the names changed since the release of Heated Rivalry.
I keep thinking I want to write something about one of these things, but shingles is making it uncomfortable to sit up with the laptop and type and I keep going, "Fuck it, I have a moderately horrible ailment anyway right now, so lying down and resting is virtuous", and crawling into the flannel duvet tent against the radiator with Sipuli. It's nice in there. In fact at times it's so toasty that I forget it's chilly out in the rest of the house.
I stopped reading the works of Freeman Wills Crofts - I read all I could find, but there are more that I haven't yet. The guy was quite prolific. Then I finally got around to reading John Dickson Carr's The Hollow Man, the last book I hadn't read on the bookclub list in Wake Up Dead Man. It was... okay. It did not revise my previously unfavorable opinion of JDC as a mystery writer. It's a fun enough and okay read, but it's not satisfying and the tone and style are... weird. I suppose if I want to articulate this better I'll have to read more of his work.
Anyway, I've been reading some other random early mystery novels since then - AEW Mason (pretty good but some Of Its Time issues), GDH Cole (the majority of the narration is by silly characters whose cluelessness the reader is presumably meant to see through, a narrative technique which makes me gnash my teeth), JJ Connington (better but loses major points for extended scenes of a dumb detective being dumb and his smarter boss being even smugger and more secretive about everything than Sherlock Holmes).
I also have experienced a change of heart, not about the NHL - it's still evil and its culture is toxic and most NHL hockey players suck - but about posting the unfinished hockey WIP with all the names changed. I didn't want to do that from 2016 until like, this month, but now I think I would be okay with it, provided I did finish it (I like the bit I have anyway). I can't at all explain why this feeling changed, though. But clearly we've all been able to process quite a bit about the nature of fanfiction with the names changed since the release of Heated Rivalry.
I keep thinking I want to write something about one of these things, but shingles is making it uncomfortable to sit up with the laptop and type and I keep going, "Fuck it, I have a moderately horrible ailment anyway right now, so lying down and resting is virtuous", and crawling into the flannel duvet tent against the radiator with Sipuli. It's nice in there. In fact at times it's so toasty that I forget it's chilly out in the rest of the house.
Snowflake Challenge #12 - appreciation
Jan. 24th, 2026 07:04 pmcatnessChallenge #12
Make an appreciation post to those who enhance your fandom life. Appreciate them in bullet points, prose, poetry, a moodboard, a song... whatever moves you!
Another Solar Orbit and Future Plans
Jan. 23rd, 2026 11:59 amtcpipThree days ago, I completed another orbit around the sun. Nothing terribly remarkable about that, however, I do experience a wide range of joyful emotions of surprise, affirmation, and humbleness when close to four hundred people across all walks of life reach out to me in some way to send their best wishes. The actual day itself was spent, first and foremost, in the good company of Mel S., who, as tradition dictates, took me out to perhaps the only eating establishment in town that suits her dietary requirements. Then, with a delightful dash of synchronicity, I discovered that a friend, Jaimee, shares not only the heritage of The South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand, but also the same birthday. She had already organised an evening with friends, so I joined in and made it a dual gathering, with glamorous photo opportunities and some excellent conversations. I was particularly impressed and surprised by one youngster who shared an almost identical childhood and adolescence to mine, which is pretty unusual, to say the least - separated by decades and thousands of kilometres, there was a connection that only experience brings.
The celebrations are not complete, however. On Monday, for the second year, deflecting the wickedness that is Invasion Day, I'll be hosting a "linner" party. Unsurprisingly, this will be styled in a Latin American and Antarctic manner to follow up on the recent epic trip to those locations. Not much on the menu from the latter, of course (I don't fancy eating penguin, seal, whale), but the former does provide an enormous array of options, of which I am concentrating almost exclusively on interesting food and drinks from the locations I had the opportunity to visit. I should also mention, in this context, that I have been blessed in the days that I have returned to attend to other similar gatherings; Nitul D. recently finally hosted a housewarming gathering, which was full of some delightfully intelligent and educated individuals who were quite happy to discuss Incan civilisation, imperialism, and play chess. The second was Django's birthday party, which always attracts a likeable crowd from his wide range of interests (musicians and RPGers feature prominently). This weekend I will also be party to birthday drinks for Simon S at the Thornbury Bowls Club, which, as one of my oldest friends, also promises excellent company.
The marking of another year has meant in recent days that I've engaged in some planning of what I want to do this year and how it fits with my longer-term objectives in life. Recently, I mentioned that I have sufficient outstanding but interesting things to complete, so the bigger ticket items can be delayed for a while. Still, not being one to put things off too much, I have started a new unit in my PhD studies in global energy policy, which, whilst based at Euclid University, draws upon content from the University of London, where I started an economics degree (at LSE) several years ago. Further, I have plans to visit Guizhou, Sichuan, and Jiangsu provinces in China in two months' time, which also involves visits to a couple of "big science" installations, more to be revealed soon. Adding this to some more usual activities involving work, study, and social life is sufficient for the time being. But I do have something else quite remarkable on the back burner.
The celebrations are not complete, however. On Monday, for the second year, deflecting the wickedness that is Invasion Day, I'll be hosting a "linner" party. Unsurprisingly, this will be styled in a Latin American and Antarctic manner to follow up on the recent epic trip to those locations. Not much on the menu from the latter, of course (I don't fancy eating penguin, seal, whale), but the former does provide an enormous array of options, of which I am concentrating almost exclusively on interesting food and drinks from the locations I had the opportunity to visit. I should also mention, in this context, that I have been blessed in the days that I have returned to attend to other similar gatherings; Nitul D. recently finally hosted a housewarming gathering, which was full of some delightfully intelligent and educated individuals who were quite happy to discuss Incan civilisation, imperialism, and play chess. The second was Django's birthday party, which always attracts a likeable crowd from his wide range of interests (musicians and RPGers feature prominently). This weekend I will also be party to birthday drinks for Simon S at the Thornbury Bowls Club, which, as one of my oldest friends, also promises excellent company.
The marking of another year has meant in recent days that I've engaged in some planning of what I want to do this year and how it fits with my longer-term objectives in life. Recently, I mentioned that I have sufficient outstanding but interesting things to complete, so the bigger ticket items can be delayed for a while. Still, not being one to put things off too much, I have started a new unit in my PhD studies in global energy policy, which, whilst based at Euclid University, draws upon content from the University of London, where I started an economics degree (at LSE) several years ago. Further, I have plans to visit Guizhou, Sichuan, and Jiangsu provinces in China in two months' time, which also involves visits to a couple of "big science" installations, more to be revealed soon. Adding this to some more usual activities involving work, study, and social life is sufficient for the time being. But I do have something else quite remarkable on the back burner.
Things
Jan. 23rd, 2026 03:29 pmvassBooks
Nearly finished Evelyn Araluen's 2025 poetry book The Rot. It's very good. I keep thinking of people I know who would appreciate it, and wanting to shove the book at them and say "here, look". (sovay, you're one of them.) Depression, colonialism, girlhood, death, hauntology, Country, survival.
Listened to Margaret Killjoy's narration of Katherine Mansfield's short story 'A Cup of Tea'. Margaret gave a little context about the story afterwards, including that the main character was thought to be based on Mansfield's cousin, also a writer, whom Margaret herself hadn't heard of. I looked her up afterwards: Elizabeth von Arnim, and went WHUT, Elizabeth and her German Garden? I haven't actually read it, and am not sure how I knew about it, just that it was on my radar. Mansfield's story is simultaneously scalpel-sharp and more merciful than it might have been: the story doesn't attempt to puncture the protagonist's saviour fantasy, or allow it to go as wrong as it could have done, but does make clear in every detail how entirely it is a self-serving saviour fantasy, how entirely she's disregarding the needs, safety, boundaries, and basic consent of the woman she's trying to help. (I thought of the scene in chapter 6 of What Katy Did in which Katy and Clover kidnap an Irish child from her parents and lock her in their attic because they want to "adopt" her.)
Went to the library and borrowed the second Asterix book, having not really given Asterix a chance since I was too young to have any historical context (plus the only one we had in the house was missing several pages, possibly by my own actions at a far younger age.)
Comics
Really feeling for Dina in Dumbing of Age right now. The part about her and Becky is sad and believable, but the part that hit me right where I live was "now even my room is not my own. It's been... ransacked. Strangers have touched... everything." Same fucking autism. I would be out of my fucking mind.
Fandom
Working on my claim for Fanoa'ary, the next Lays server event.
Games
Redactle and Squardle withkaberett, cryptic crosswords with shehasathree.
Little puzzle games on my phone: Breakout 71 (breakout with many possible upgrades to unblock, with a lot of flexibility in possible builds) and Tessel, a tile game in which one rotates multicoloured tiles to match the colours, creating enclosed areas of a single colour. I tend to get way too engrossed in this kind of game and spend too long on it, so I like very much that neither of these two are gamified beyond "actually being a game": no ads, no freemium, no nudging to play at a particular time or for a particular length of time. They're very pausible.
Tech
No progress on desktop problems yet: I'm working on paying down some technical debt on my phones before I try more intensive desktop troubleshooting. In the meantime, no Hollow Knight for me.
Crafts
Finished framing/backing a cross-stitched item which I had intended to givebookgirlwa for her birthday in 2025. Now to wrap it up and send it to her.
No weaving progress yet.
Garden
Two ripe tomatoes (pear-shaped, cherry form factor.)
Cats
Suspicious scab on Ash's nose seems to be healing up okay. *touch wood*
Nature
After a week of more moderate summer weather, we're heading into another heat wave. I hate hot weather, and physically don't deal well with it, but my biggest concern here is fire. Some of the fires from the last heatwave are still burning. The politicians are fighting about the CFA's funding (and yeah, they've been underfunded for a long time and have ageing equipment and an ageing volunteer force, and due to the governments' (plural but including ours) inaction on climate change, the fires they're fighting are getting more numerous and more severe) and there's a distinct scent of manufactured grassroots blame for the Labor state government (and. Like. I don't like Jacinta Allan either! Her authoritarian leanings concern me. But that doesn't mean the opposition would be better, or that a lot of her critics aren't misogynistic or conspiracy-theorists in distinctly Sky News flavours.) Which political digression I find easier to think (grumble) about than the fires themselves. The people and animals harmed already, the likelihood of more and worse in the next week. (And also, personally: the stress of managing my own potential evacuation in a situation where the danger zone is all over the state, my brain's in a constant loop of "but other people have it worse" and it's too hot to think.)
Current Events
It's bad. It's all so bad.
Nearly finished Evelyn Araluen's 2025 poetry book The Rot. It's very good. I keep thinking of people I know who would appreciate it, and wanting to shove the book at them and say "here, look". (
sovay, you're one of them.) Depression, colonialism, girlhood, death, hauntology, Country, survival.Listened to Margaret Killjoy's narration of Katherine Mansfield's short story 'A Cup of Tea'. Margaret gave a little context about the story afterwards, including that the main character was thought to be based on Mansfield's cousin, also a writer, whom Margaret herself hadn't heard of. I looked her up afterwards: Elizabeth von Arnim, and went WHUT, Elizabeth and her German Garden? I haven't actually read it, and am not sure how I knew about it, just that it was on my radar. Mansfield's story is simultaneously scalpel-sharp and more merciful than it might have been: the story doesn't attempt to puncture the protagonist's saviour fantasy, or allow it to go as wrong as it could have done, but does make clear in every detail how entirely it is a self-serving saviour fantasy, how entirely she's disregarding the needs, safety, boundaries, and basic consent of the woman she's trying to help. (I thought of the scene in chapter 6 of What Katy Did in which Katy and Clover kidnap an Irish child from her parents and lock her in their attic because they want to "adopt" her.)
Went to the library and borrowed the second Asterix book, having not really given Asterix a chance since I was too young to have any historical context (plus the only one we had in the house was missing several pages, possibly by my own actions at a far younger age.)
Comics
Really feeling for Dina in Dumbing of Age right now. The part about her and Becky is sad and believable, but the part that hit me right where I live was "now even my room is not my own. It's been... ransacked. Strangers have touched... everything." Same fucking autism. I would be out of my fucking mind.
Fandom
Working on my claim for Fanoa'ary, the next Lays server event.
Games
Redactle and Squardle with
kaberett, cryptic crosswords with shehasathree.Little puzzle games on my phone: Breakout 71 (breakout with many possible upgrades to unblock, with a lot of flexibility in possible builds) and Tessel, a tile game in which one rotates multicoloured tiles to match the colours, creating enclosed areas of a single colour. I tend to get way too engrossed in this kind of game and spend too long on it, so I like very much that neither of these two are gamified beyond "actually being a game": no ads, no freemium, no nudging to play at a particular time or for a particular length of time. They're very pausible.
Tech
No progress on desktop problems yet: I'm working on paying down some technical debt on my phones before I try more intensive desktop troubleshooting. In the meantime, no Hollow Knight for me.
Crafts
Finished framing/backing a cross-stitched item which I had intended to give
bookgirlwa for her birthday in 2025. Now to wrap it up and send it to her.No weaving progress yet.
Garden
Two ripe tomatoes (pear-shaped, cherry form factor.)
Cats
Suspicious scab on Ash's nose seems to be healing up okay. *touch wood*
Nature
After a week of more moderate summer weather, we're heading into another heat wave. I hate hot weather, and physically don't deal well with it, but my biggest concern here is fire. Some of the fires from the last heatwave are still burning. The politicians are fighting about the CFA's funding (and yeah, they've been underfunded for a long time and have ageing equipment and an ageing volunteer force, and due to the governments' (plural but including ours) inaction on climate change, the fires they're fighting are getting more numerous and more severe) and there's a distinct scent of manufactured grassroots blame for the Labor state government (and. Like. I don't like Jacinta Allan either! Her authoritarian leanings concern me. But that doesn't mean the opposition would be better, or that a lot of her critics aren't misogynistic or conspiracy-theorists in distinctly Sky News flavours.) Which political digression I find easier to think (grumble) about than the fires themselves. The people and animals harmed already, the likelihood of more and worse in the next week. (And also, personally: the stress of managing my own potential evacuation in a situation where the danger zone is all over the state, my brain's in a constant loop of "but other people have it worse" and it's too hot to think.)
Current Events
It's bad. It's all so bad.
Snowflake challenge #11 - grant wishes
Jan. 22nd, 2026 02:51 pmcatness Challenge #11
In your own space, grant someone's wish from Challenge #5.
Ah, a creative way to increase user engagement ;) I did post a few comments with various recs the last time. This time I've invested some effort into it and made several snooker icons for
zimena. It feels a little like cheating - normally it's very hard for me to make icons for fandoms I don't associate with. But zimena is my friend, and I've heard a lot from her about her snooker heroes, so the subject is at least somewhat familiar :) And adding Chinese text was very educational for me ;)
Oh okay
Jan. 21st, 2026 02:28 pmcimoreneApparently I have shingles....
Going to the pharmacy for antivirals and bandages when Wax is done with work.
This raises the interesting possibility that I've had headaches and fever for the last week without really noticing because I'm already miserable, huddling in blankets with no energy as my default state in January.
Going to the pharmacy for antivirals and bandages when Wax is done with work.
This raises the interesting possibility that I've had headaches and fever for the last week without really noticing because I'm already miserable, huddling in blankets with no energy as my default state in January.
Snowflake Challenge #10 - mood board
Jan. 20th, 2026 08:32 amcatness Challenge #10: Big Mood (Board)
CHOOSE SOMETHING YOU LOVE AND CREATE A MINI MOOD COLLECTION OF THREE (or more) ITEMS THAT EVOKE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT IT.
I love pixel art and retro games. I'm posting a bunch of my old piccies drawn during my attempt at a Pixel Art Daily challenge. (Now I'm learning in a more organized way.)
( a bunch of images under cut )
