Movies: None

Television/Streaming: a couple of episodes of Buffy and Farscape.
Buffy:

"Faith, Hope & Trick" - first appearance of Faith (she's an interesting foil to Buffy)

"Beauty and the Beasts" - Angel comes back. Oz might have mauled some kids out in the wood when he escaped his cage.

"Homecoming" - Both Cordelia and Buffy are annoying as fuck in this one, but I am watching this through adult eyes and that's probably coloring my attitude with some of these episodes. (Use your words)!

"Band Candy" - this one had some pretty funny bits; especially Giles being an absolute fool. And Principal Snyder!

Farscape:

". . . Different Destinations" - they end up going back in time at the memorial and change the path of history.

"Eat me" - they come upon a damaged Leviathan and find all the Peacekeepers turned feral and cannibalistic. Also some of the Moya crew get split into two. Crichton's double makes it back on board ship with him. That would be freaky! It will be interesting to see what happens with the two of them.

Books: It has not been a great week for books! I had two books I stopped reading: T. Kingfisher's Hemlock and Silver and Ben Greenman's Emotional Rescue.

The Kingfisher book was a book club read for January that I never got in time. It just recently became available as I was finishing The Reformatory. I got about twenty percent or so in and I was just kind of annoyed at the book, so I stopped reading.

The Greenman book is essays on music. I thought it would be more like Rob Sheffield's Love is a Mix Tape or Talking to Girls About Duran Duran. No. Greenman's book was rather boring and also felt a bit misogynistic, so I had to quit reading that one, too.

I'm now reading Pylon by William Faulkner. It's a bit different than the other fare of his I've read, but I'm interested to see where it goes. It's set in a fictionalized New Orleans during an air show, so lots of talk of planes and pilots.

Listening to: only one Rolling Stone Top 500 album this week. Number 488 is The Stooges self-titled album from 1969. On the 2012 list, this album was at 185. Rolling Stone blurb:

Fueled by “a little marijuana and a lotta alienation,” Michigan’s Stooges gave the lie to hippie idealism, playing with a savagery that unsettled even the most blasé clubgoers. Ex-Velvet Underground member John Cale produced a primitive debut wherein, amid Ron Asheton’s wah-wah blurts, Iggy Stooge (né James Osterberg) snarled seminal punk classics such as “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” “No Fun,” and “1969,” bedrock examples of the weaponized boredom that would become a de rigueur punk posture.

This one is not really my cuppa, but I didn't outwardly hate it (like the Suicide album). It's a pretty short album, too. I can see the influences they had on other bands. Of the songs here, I like "I Wanna Be Your Dog," which I've also heard covered by several bands, as well.

Playing: I finished Assemble With Care; this is by the same studio that did Alba: a wildlife adventure. It's a visual novel with puzzles; you are Maria, who repairs electronics and such, and you've come to a little town for their festival. Various folks want your help, so you take apart and reassemble game systems, tape decks, watches, and more as you learn about issues in these folks' lives. It's a short but sweet game. The controls were occasionally a little frustrating (you can use your mouse on PC, but sometimes if I clicked too quickly, I'd put the piece I was working on to the side and then would have to hover over and pick it up again).

How goes the decluttering? Have you shifted anything out of the house? Found something to sort through? Had thoughts on things you can let go of?

Comments open to locals, lurkers, drive by sticky beaks, and anyone I've forgotten to mention.

Congratulations to everyone who has found and/or disposed on any clutter in the last week!

ps. I'm going to be a bit sporadic for at least the next month; please cheer along others in the comments!

Last weekend, we stayed in a Landmark Trust property a mere half-hour journey to Bletchley Park. We were surprised by nice weather on the Saturday, so we made the trip. Below is an assortment of photos from the selection of buildings we managed to visit over the course of five hours. I don’t think we saw more than a third of it, so we’ll definitely take advantage of the year-long entry that the steep admission price gets you to see the rest.



The dingy basement has had a lick of paint and yet somehow doggedly retains its character.



Listening stations.



Keiki does some Morse code-breaking.



Humuhumu does some Enigma encoding.



A surprisingly dry and sunny day after all the rain we’ve been having.



Daffodils were not quite ready.



The Mansion seemed like it was a bit of all right.



Not so sure the Intelligence Factory needs this.





Humuhumu and I spent quite a while on this interactive exhibit, plotting the locations of various maritime assets and enemies.





Many of the personal testimonials in the exhibition mention how boring and repetitive some of the intelligence work was.



You can see why they resorted to putting frogs in the pneumatic tube system to liven up the day.

The Park is beautifully maintained and the interactive exhibits are well designed and engaging - I’d say from the age of about 10 on up - so well worth a visit. I restrained myself to one book in the gift shop (The Walls Have Ears by Helen Fry) but could easily have brought home a stack.

What is my favorite place in the world?

God. Uh. Hmm.

I want to toss some far-flung locales on here, but I haven't been there in over twenty years and God only knows if they're still nice, so. I guess we'll go with the places I have known well and loved.

It's a toss-up between:

The Salt Lake City Public Library, at least as I remember it circa 2010 (which, God, was a long time ago...!) — I went to a bunch of poetry readings etc here and always loved it and felt very in my element whenever I was there, and the rooftop garden is super neat.

Cape Perpetua, because it's fucking beautiful.

Swan Lake, Montana, because I spent just about every childhood here from the time I was 4 to the time I was 14.

Mesa Verde, because it's just fucking cool.

SF MoMA, because I adore it and have a lot of great memories of visiting different exhibits there (for several years in a row I had business stuff that took me to San Francisco at least once if not twice a year, and I always hit up SF MoMA when I went).

Anyway yes, I am Indecisive, you are welcome :D

Title: Our Share of Night
Author: Mariana Enriquez
Translator: Megan McDowell
Genre: Fantasy horror, fiction, family drama

If Mexican Gothic left you craving more South American fantasy horror, Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez of Argentina (translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell) has you covered. This is a family epic intertwined with the dark machinations of a macabre cult and its impact. It's also a splendid allegory for the evils of colonialism and generational trauma. This book was #15 from the "Women in Translation" rec list.

The book begins with Juan, a powerful but ill man who acts as a "medium" for the cult to commune with its dark god. Juan, struggling with the health of his defective heart, the wear-and-tear of years as the medium, and the grief and rage of his wife's recent death (he suspects, at the orders of the cult he serves) is desperate to keep his son Gaspar from stepping into his shoes, as the cult wants. Juan's opening segment of the book is about his efforts to protect Gaspar.

From there, the book branches off into other perspectives which give background to both the cult and the family. This is a great way of giving us a holistic and generational view of the cult, but it does drag occasionally. Gaspar's sections--in his childhood and then later in his teens/young adulthood--together make up the majority of the book, and while enjoyable, do amble off into great detail about his and his friends' day-to-day lives, such that I did wonder sometimes when we were getting back to the plot. I don't like to cite pacing issues, because I think that gets thrown around a lot whenever someone didn't vibe with a book, but the drawn-out length of these quotidian sections doesn't fit well with how quickly the climax of the book passes and is wrapped up. I would have liked to have spent less time with Gaspar at soccer games and more on his plans for addressing the cult.

However, on the whole, the book is a fun, if very dark read. It also serves well as a critique of Argentina's moneyed class and of colonialism in general, and how money sticks with money even across borders. Here, Argentina's wealthy have more in common with English money than with the Argentine lower classes (and that's how they want it). The cult, populated at its upper echelons by the privileged, is an almost literal blight on the land, willing to sacrifice an endless amount of blood, local and otherwise, to beg power off a hungry and unknown supernatural entity.

It brutalizes its mediums, which it often plucks from poverty to wring for power and then discard. Juan was adopted away from his own poor family at six, under the insistence his parents would not be able to pay for the medical care he needed, and he is the least-abused of the cult's line of mediums. As soon as the cult sets their eye on his son, Juan must begin scheming how to keep Gaspar away from them.

Although he acts out of love of his son, Juan is also a deeply flawed person. He is secretive, moody, lies constantly (there is actual gaslighting here) and doesn't hesitate to knock Gaspar around to make him obey. The more he deteriorates--a common problem with all cult mediums--the less human he becomes. Part of this is his work, but much of it is also attributable to years of being used by the cult for its ends and the accumulated emotional trauma. This, of course, is then inflicted on Gaspar through his father's tempers and secrets.

Similarly flawed are the other members of the immediate family. Juan's wife Rosario, despite a better nature than her parents, still supports this cult and is eager for Gaspar to follow in his father's footsteps as a cult medium, in part for the prestige it will bring her as his mother. Gaspar, although far more empathetic and gentle than either of his parents, eventually grows up with his father's temper. Watching him grow from a sweet-natured little boy into the troubled young adult he becomes after years of his father's abuse and neglect is painful, but realistic.

The book is also unexpectedly queer. It's not often a book surprises me with its queerness, because that's usually what landed it on my radar in the first place, but this one did. Juan and Rosario are both bisexual and later in the book we spend some active time in Argentina's queer scene, including during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. 

The translation was great! It read very naturally, even the dialogue, and it never felt stilted or awkward in its phrasing.

An ambitious novel that for the most part, pulls off what it's trying to do. As mentioned, I wish the ending had gotten more room to breathe, and I would not have minded this coming at the cost of some of the middle bits of navel-gazing, but I still felt the story was satisfying. 

When did you last…

1. Scrounge for change (couch, ashtray, etc.) to make a purchase?
   
   I honestly can't remember. So many places are cashless now that I often don't carry any. It must have been pre-Covid.
   
   
2. Visit a dentist?
   
   Five months ago. My next clean is in March.
   
   
3. Make a needed change to your life?
   
   The most significant recent change was changing to a gym I actually want to use, at the start of the year. I really needed that. I feel so much healthier.
   
   
4. Decide on a complete menu well in advance of the evening meal?
   
   Most nights, tonight included. We have to plan because of the kids. Most days we eat breakfast and supper at home as a family because we have the luxury of schedules that allow us to do so.
   
   
5. Spend part of the day (other than daily hygiene) totally/mostly naked?
   
   No idea. I hardly ever do this. It's flippin’ cold here most of the time. For those who say the UK temperatures are mild, okay, maybe to you, but I spent most of my life in the tropics before I moved here and I wasn't wandering around naked there either.
   
   

This Isn't a Philly Cheesesteak

ASIAGO & SMOKED GOUDA CHEESE SAUCE
2 Tbsp butter, unsalted
1 Tbsp flour
1 c heavy cream
1 egg yolk, beaten
8 oz Asiago cheese, shredded
4 oz smoked Gouda, shredded
2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
2 Tbsp horseradish sauce
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

STEAK INGREDIENTS
4 Tbsp olive oil (you may need a little more for cooking steaks)
2 oz pancetta, dice (this gives extra flavor to veggies)
1 small green bell pepper, sliced thin
1 small red pepper, sliced thin
1 medium white onion, sliced thin
4 oz mushroom gourmet blend (baby bella, shiitake & oysters mushrooms)
1 1/2 lb rib-eye steak - thinly slice (about 8 slices, 2 per sandwich)
Salt and pepper to taste
4 ciabatta rolls

Directions
2 Asiago & Smoked Gouda Cheese Sauce
The first thing we want to do is get the sauce going. To make this sauce you will need a double boiler. If you do not have one, then use a stainless steel bowl set snugly inside a saucepan filled with water.
3 The key to this sauce is low and slow over a gentle heat. This will achieve a creamy cheese sauce. You will also need a wooden spoon and whisk. This sauce should take about 8 -10 minutes to complete. But it requires your undivided attention. Stay with this step until sauce is complete.
4 Pour water half full in double boiler and place over a medium heat. Melt butter in the top of the boiler. Once butter is melted add flour to make a roux, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon for about 2 minutes or until blended well. Then add heavy cream and continue to stir constantly. Add Asiago and Smoked Gouda to cream mixture, use whisk to blend cheese well. In a small bowl, whisk egg yolk until nice and smooth, then add beaten egg to mixture. Whisk until the sauce is warm and begins to thicken, then add Italian seasoning, horseradish sauce, and nutmeg. Continue to whisking constantly, then salt and pepper to taste. When cheese sauce is thick, reduce the heat low to keep it warm while preparing steaks.
5 Philly Steak
In a large skillet over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, then add pancetta, green peppers, red peppers, and onions, sauté until slightly softened, about 2 -3 minutes, then add mushrooms to the mixture sauté until mushrooms are tender. Season veggies lightly with salt and pepper. Then transfer mixture to bowl cover and keep warm.
6 Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to skillet and be sure pan is hot so rib-eye steak will cook fast. Sauté steak, cooking each slice about ½ minute on each side, but do not overcook. Remove steak and place on a plate, season lightly with salt & pepper.
7 Let’s make this sandwich, with tongs, place 2 slices of steak on ciabatta roll and top with veggie mixture. Then spoon some of the cheese sauce over the steak and veggies, cover with top roll and serve the best cheesesteak sandwich ever.

A favorite or hilarious story from the TTRPG table?

Oh, God, there are so many little moments that are burned into my brain, but I think the one I have to talk about is the Desk Goat.

( Beneath the jump. )

I will say that the other "favorite" moments I have are all ones that had pretty serious story consequences, etc, and so aren't particularly funny (or easy to explain). Think along the lines of deciding to redeem villains, challenging certain narrative assumptions about where stuff was going (and forcing me to pivot on a dime, ha), etc.

Technically, the players becoming attached to and deciding to redeem one specific villain is what led to the weird poly romance novel I (mostly) wrote last year, but...yeah.

(I say "mostly" because shadaras was there the entire time and most of the worldbuilding etc was stuff done in tandem as, wouldn't it be fun if..., so though the prose is like 95% mine, the story is definitely a collaborative effort.)

Today's project was creating an enclosure behind the log garden. I dragged some more logs back there so I can dump dead leaves inside. That way, they'll stay put, create habitat, hold moisture, and remain available in case I want some leaf litter during the warm season. This is a good use for old logs if you have any lying around.

( Walk with me ... )

Tabletop goals for the year?

In no particular order:

1). Finish the Bounty Hunter's Guild and give it a satisfying ending.
2). Run and wrap Goodbye My Darling.
3). Start the long-form Eberron campaign (name TBD).
4). Finish Space Heist and get it on itch.io, even if it's only as a public beta or something, because IT HAS BEEN LONG ENOUGH.

That's nice and concise, I think? :D

Will say that I do have a brief update re: sourdough — I made a successful starter and yesterday, I baked bread with it for the first time. Nothing fancy; I made two regular boules. The prove on it could probably have been a bit better, but dang, y'all, it tasted great. :D I ate sourdough toast this morning and it was everything I wanted. 10/10, would do again. ♥ So that's one thing crossed off my, "I want to try to do this" list, and now that I've done it the straight way, I can start playing with different flours and such (want to incorporate a bit of rye into it, for flavor), start thinking about inclusions, etc. I had this amazing fruit and nut bread at one point that I kinda want to try remaking...was like, walnut with dried cranberries? so, yeah.

We shall see!

When did you last . . .

1. Scrounge for change (couch, ashtray, etc.) to make a purchase?

2. Visit a dentist?

3. Make a needed change to your life?

4. Decide on a complete menu well in advance of the evening meal?

5. Spend part of the day (other than daily hygiene) totally/mostly naked?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones is gory historical horror set in 1912 Montana that's in conversation with Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. More importantly, it's both narrative and meta-narrative about settler colonialism and the genocide Americans perpetrated against the indigenous inhabitants of the American West, viewed through a lens of revenge, survival, and atonement. Finally, it shows a long, difficult attempt at justice, requiring sacrifice and suffering along the way.

This review contains spoilers.

( Read more... )

For those not well-versed in American history, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz would be good preparation for this novel, or as a readalong.

Fiber arts project I've finished that I'm most proud of?

There's two that I'm really proud of, honestly — the rainbow afghan (pictures of which have been lost to time, alas), which was a queen-sized afghan I made from these blocks. It was, literally, red/orange/yellow/green/blue/indigo/violet flowers, yellow-centered with black edging about them to set it off (instead of white as in that pattern).

My ex pressed on me to give it to his mom, since she was going through a hard time, and so I parted with it and we shipped it to her. I have mixed feelings about that — on the one hand, it was so much work and it was really pretty (I made it all from thrifted yarn; it was jewel-toned and beautiful), but on the other hand, I don't tend to keep stuff I make, so who knows where it would have ended up otherwise? She was grateful to get it, so.

The other one that I'm very proud of is a cross-stitch project I did earlier this summer. It was the first time I'd actually cross-stitched anything in about five years, and I did it without a proper pattern (I did get instructions on how to do the worms and the dragon, but, you know). Pictures of it are up on Mastodon, so here. Perfect? Definitely not, but the person it was made for appreciated it, and I am still proud of it, so. ♥

The first crocuses are blooming! I just had to take pictures when I spotted them this morning. Yesterday they were just buds.

( Walk with me ... )

Break-ins and Bloodshed by Danielle Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


View all my reviews

I finished reading Break-Ins and Bloodshed last night. It’s the second book in the “Hearts Grove” series of cozy mysteries by Danielle Collins. The main character is Henrietta Hewitt, who owns H H Antiques.

Henrietta is busy with her store and getting ready for a local festival when her friend, Ralph, asks her to help him investigate a string of recent break-ins. Ralph is a licensed PI, and he values Henrietta’s keen eye for detail. When Henrietta sees a pattern, she goes to check out the neighborhood on her own, but what she finds is a dead body. While the police investigate this new situation, Henrietta and Ralph continue looking into the burglaries. As the clues and evidence come together, Henrietta realizes the culprit may be closer than she thinks.

I enjoyed the story. It was refreshing to read a cozy mystery that involved break-ins moreso than murder. Henrietta is a likable character who makes good use of her own common sense. The plot was quick, although I would have liked to see Henrietta at work and home more. Most of the narrative involved the investigation.

Favorite line: “I got free ice cream out of it, so I think it was worth it.”

Charming—four stars

Happy Wednesday! What are you reading now?

Vegan Tourtière
Prep Time 30 minutes Cook Time1 hour 30 minutes Chill Time 30 minutes Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes
Servings8

Equipment
1 9-inch pie plate

Ingredients
Metric
288 g dried brown lentils
1 large russet potato (16 to 18 ounces), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
32 g vegan butter, divided
1 large onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
54.5 g chopped pecans
1 g dried thyme
2 g smoked paprika
0.05 g rubbed sage
1 g ground cinnamon
1 g ground ginger
1 g black pepper
0.5 g ground cloves
0.5 g allspice
0.5 g ground nutmeg
29.57 ml soy sauce
1 ml red wine vinegar
6 g salt, or to taste
1 batch vegan pie dough (enough for a double crust), or 2 store-bought crusts
29.57 ml unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk

US Customary
1 ½ cups dried brown lentils
1 large russet potato (16 to 18 ounces), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 tablespoons vegan butter, divided
1 large onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon rubbed sage
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 batch vegan pie dough (enough for a double crust), or 2 store-bought crusts
2 tablespoons unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk

( Read more... )

Feb 17

(Day 16 was technically due YESTERDAY and I WILL DO IT, I just have a lot of thoughts on writing!)

1-5 novels/series I've read that I think other people should read so I can talk about them

Ha. Um. Hmmm.

This is always fun because it's like, "what DO I want other people to read, that isn't something they've already read?"

So!

A couple of pitches 'cos, you know, yeah.

1). Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. This is always one of those ones where it's like, "I feel like people were told to read it and bounced hard off the premise", because it came out when "vampires" was still "Anne Rice" and pre-Twilight. Post-Twilight (and I guess to some extent the Sookie Stackhouse books?), we're all kind of burnt out on 'em, and yet.

Sunshine — or Rae, to her friends — is a baker in the coffee house that's owned by her stepdad, Charlie. In a world where vampires, demons, and weres are common, she's about as normal as you can get. High school graduate by the "skin of her teeth", as she puts it, she's not exactly a deep thinker. A huge introvert with a desire for nothing more than to be left alone, the coffee house is her life, and she sees nothing wrong with that.

...until, you know, she's kidnapped by vampires to be used as an object of torment for a different vampire, and has to tap on the heritage granted to her by her extremely powerful sorcerer father to escape.

In other books I feel like this would turn into something where she learns to "embrace her dark self" or whatever, but no — she really does just want to go back to the coffee house and keep on Doing The Thing.

Alas, alack, the world has other opinions — and the vampires who nabbed her are very curious how the hell it is that she managed to escape...and why it is she took their other (vampire) prisoner with her.

2). Mudlark, by Lara Maiklem. Nonfiction. If you have no idea what mudlarking is, you need to read this. If you do know what it is, you should probably already have read it, and if you haven't, well, what are you waiting for?

(I know, I know, that's a hell of a review, and yet. I'm not wrong!)

3). Ombria in Shadow, Patricia McKillip. People who know me are probably going, "??" at the idea that I'm not recommending you read Riddle-Master; that's fine.

Ombria in Shadow opens with a death: the rule of Ombria, Royce Greve, has died, and a woman of unknown relation, Dominia Pearl, is taking over as regent for his heir. As her first act, she tosses Lydea, Royce's mistress, into the streets of Ombria.

This could be the beginning of some kind of weird revenge/redemption arc, but that's not where it goes.

Lydea is capable and clever, sure, and there is someone else who people want to see on the throne of Ombria, but there's multiple things at play, multiple factions at work, and much to consider going on beneath the surface. The politics are fun, the magic is wonderful, and the ending is entirely unexpected. It's lyrical and beautiful and I love it so. Finding a signed copy at a used bookstore was one of the best unexpected gifts I've ever gotten from the universe.

4). Strong Poison, Dorothy Sayers. It's in the public domain now! You really have no excuse not to read it. Er.

Warnings for the usual period-typical stuff to the side (and Sayers is not as bad as most), it's a book about a murder trial — specifically, murder by arsenic — that's laid out rather well and plotted in a way that's quite fun. It's dated as hell, of course, being as it came out in the 1930s, but it's fun, the characters are likable, and the plot itself is quite good.

Also I find that if people read it and like it, I can convince them to read Have His Carcasse and Gaudy Night, which are, I think, two of the best ones. :)


I think that's it, though of course I imagine shadaras will pop up and remind me about all the books I have been like, "?! you haven't read THAT?" at them about, so watch this space? :P