fbhjr

oh my flist it is so cold in the ugly building where i work that i brought slipper socks into work today to keep my feet from freezing off. i complained about it during lunch - yesterday i even had to put on a jacket at my desk - and admin p offered me his space heater. bliss. ^_^ i went from feeling like a bag of frozen peas to feeling like a rotisserie chicken.

i still had to take a walk in the afternoon in order to defrost. i mean, seriously.

last week clover (my favorite local chain and makers of the best pita bread) announced they were closing - like all of their restaurants - and apparently the outpouring of love and distraught wailing was enough to... i have no idea what but they're not closing after all. someone wrote a tribute song and someone else drew memorial art and another local place posted something really nice. i'm super curious what happened but also very excited that there are still delicious pita sandwiches in my future.

it's officially old news but since i mentioned it i have to share actual news about saturday's meteor.

there's a province in china where pet owners race with their pets. and yes, that is a guy carrying his saint bernard.

and two things that really only matter to new yorkers:
the baklava guy and his baklavan going around selling baklava in brooklyn parks. (no, seriously, he calls his van the baklavan and i think that is adorable.)

as a way to help support the knicks in their quest for the nba championship, mayor mamdani has temporarily repealed bedtimes for the knicks' smallest fans. the executive order is printed in comic sans, in case you were wondering how official it is. how cute is that? so cute.

Current Mood: cold
Current Music: rizzoli & isles

cornerofmadness

Not only did I get the you're fine see you in six months go-ahead from my cancer doctor, I also lost those 10 pounds I gained and my BP was 112/57.

Now considering I ate a lot last week I'm surprised and I think there is something to what's been knocking in my head. My increasing weight and blood pressure might be related to stress and cortisol levels. This isn't something we really test for often (more when we suspect adrenal tumors) now I'm off work a couple weeks and everything is going back to normal (for me)

I wasn't going to go to the mall since I'll be back on Saturday (the theater is at the mall) but my appointment was at 1 and I was back in my car at 140. I hit the comic book store and finally walked to this Chinese restaurant I've been wanting to go to for years (no parking but I always have to park in the garage and it was a good day to walk). And....it was closed for the week. Sigh. I went to the German place instead but it's still not even 3 pm so I go to the mall to Home Goods and now I have to take something back on Saturday. The clearance body butter. I assumed that was packing tape on it. No, I got it open (which is weird because I wasn't going to open it. I don't usually need it unless the heaters are on) and someone had broken the seal and dug a finger's worth out of the cream. Yep, no thanks.

On my drive home that cardiologist I don't like called me. This is the second time his office has done this. Last time it was his NP, this time it was him, just checking in with me. It was unexpected. How are you feeling? Did you know your holter monitor study was normal (yes we already talked about this but obviously you didn't put it in your note) When will you be coming back to see me? August (unless I change that)

What I Just Finished Reading:
The Faraway Inn - a cozy fantasy (portal) set in Vermont. a really sweet YA cozy fantasy. I enjoyed it to pieces

The Gay Disaster Detective Agency - one of my arcs. I usually like Lev AC Rosen but this isn't working for me. Yeah there are better gay books out there for Pride month. Go read Rosen's Evander Mills series instead (but it is post WWII so it's not exactly happy gay stuff)

The Kindness of Strangers - another arc that wasn't for me

What I am Currently Reading:

Our Sisters Keeper - a very weird own voices black magic setting in the 1920s, has some serious creepy vibes

The Death Card - currently struggling to get into it

What I Plan to Read Next: some of my looming arcs

May's Reads - I didn't read as much as I would have liked to. But as always if you want to talk about any of them, please let's do it.

Dungeons and Danger cozy mystery

That Which Feeds Us Sapphic horror (set in Hawai'i)

Hooked on Murder cozy mystery

The Colour Out of Space Horror manga (Lovecraftian)

We Burned So Bright dystopian (with mature gay couple)

Death al Dente mystery

Lumine Volume One fantasy graphic novel

Impure Blood Volume 1 steampunk graphic novel

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Midsomer Murder

sonia

The machines are fine. I'm worried about us. by Minas Karamanis.

Alice can now do things. She can open a paper she's never seen before and, with effort, follow the argument. She can write a likelihood function from scratch. She can stare at a plot and know, before checking, that something is wrong with the normalization. She spent a year building a structure inside her own head, and that structure is hers now, permanently, portable, independent of any tool or subscription. Bob has none of this. Take away the agent, and Bob is still a first-year student who hasn't started yet. The year happened around him but not inside him. He shipped a product, but he didn't learn a trade.

Appearing Productive in The Workplace from No One's Happy.

The reckoning will not be subtle. The firms still doing the work properly will be in a position to charge for it. The firms that have hollowed themselves out will discover that what they hollowed out was the thing the client was paying for.

The AI Bubble from No One's Happy.

The reason none of them can stop is that the investment, the revenue, and the justification for the next investment are the same transaction. If Microsoft reduces its OpenAI commitment, it loses one of Azure’s largest customers, the AI revenue line that justifies $192 billion in capex, and the earnings growth that holds its stock price — all at once. The same logic binds Alphabet and Amazon to Anthropic: the equity position and the cloud contract are the same bet, and unwinding one unwinds both.

Funny but serious, Chieng issues an AI warning to grads by Liz Mineo, Harvard Staff Writer.

He continued, “Whatever your chosen profession is, please don’t let AI rob you of the fun part of it. Your generation’s upcoming battle won’t be humans against AI; that’s at least two months away. … It’s going to be people with substance versus people with shallow knowledge. It’s going to be mastery versus faking it. It’s going to be people with good taste versus tacky. I trust you will put in the work necessary to be on the right side of those battles.”

Quality in the Age of Slop by Sinclair Target.

This blog post is very long and almost entirely about the 1974 bestseller Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. It is also about AI—there will be some juicy takes, pinky swear—but those familiar with ZAMM should consider themselves warned. [...]

Quality is related to caring because once you care, once you are interested, you have a vantage point from which to make Quality judgments. These Quality judgments (e.g. "Is this good code?") are based in part on the romantic mode of understanding and so within the classical mode alone aren't defensible. But they are necessary, because in the moment-to-moment work on the machine, there are thousands of facts you could consider, thousands of alternative threads you could follow, all equally valid in the classical mode, and the only way to make any sense of it all is to apply a Quality-focused version of Occam's Razor.

koshka_the_cat

I should start my water dress soon. The ivory organza and light blue silk taffeta came. The sequins and wool felt for the belt are on the way. I have a good start to the very simple bodice I want to make. It will be fun once I start!

I so want some spray basting though. Sewing lame to organza sounds pretty nightmarish. That will help. I'll probably do it by hand too.

shadowkat

Beginning of the June - Question a Day Meme

1. Is anything (minor or major) irritating you at the moment?

My back is bothering me, and so is my right knee, and my shoulders are tight.

2. Have you ever used a photobooth? Are they still around where you live (where’s the nearest one?)

I don't remember? I assume so. No, they aren't in my area - they may be in New York City? But I've not seen any? I have no clue where the nearest one is? (I hate getting my picture taken - so it's not something I'd seek out?)

3. Do you still pay for things with cash? Have you been somewhere recently where they don’t take cash anymore?

Yes, depends on the place. There are some spots that tend to prefer cash. I bought a milk shake from Carnval with cash - they tend to want you to spend more for the card. Although that may have changed, I didn't ask.

Also, my hairdresser wants either cash tips or tips by Venmo, I'd prefer to give cash. I don't like Venmo.

Yes, I've been to places that don't take cash - here and there. Not many though. The MTA OMNY CARD Machines don't take cash, nor does my laundry room - we have to use a credit or debit card to renew and add funds to the laundry card. It used to be cash only, but now it's card only.

***

Wednesday Reading Meme

* Currently reading "Wydling Hall by Elizabeth Hand", Hand is an established horror and dark fantasy writer from the late 20th to early 21st Century. Notably best friends with some writer bloke who blew me off on a dating app for not having a photo that gave him that spark. I got annoyed enough - to write the interaction into the book I self-published. (I'm not positive? But I think the guy may have been horror writer Paul Trembalay, although at the time we flirted with each other on social media - he was unknown and struggling. ) I'm not a fan of professional writers - particularly horror writers, they tend to be assholes? I don't know what it is about that profession - but the ones who become successful at it (ie, can make a living at it), tend to be folks you do not want to meet in person or know? Sci-Fi writers aren't too bad - they tend to keep to themselves and don't go overboard on the marketing. Literary also not that bad, nor is urban fantasy. But Horror - damn.

But I can still enjoy their writing. I'm very good at compartmentalizing.
It's rare that I can't compartmentalize. Also, I know very little about Elizabeth Hand (by design - I don't want to know anything - the small bits shared on book jackets and in the acknowledgements - are more than I want to know). Honestly, I wish the writers would just go by pseudonyms and we learned zip about them.

I know too much about Neil Gaiman - so can't read his books any longer or watch anything adapted from them. (That's an author that I can't compartmentalize - I've tried and failed. Not helped by the fact that he is a dark fantasy horror novelist. So I got rid of the Neil Gaiman books I owned.)

Anyhow - Wylding Hall is a creepy folk horror gothic novel about a 1970s British acid-folk band, whose somewhat misguided manager sends them off to/ strands them at - an ancient, creepy isolated country house in Britain, to record their album. Much chaos ensues, a legendary album is recorded, and alas their new lead singer mysteriously disappears. Years later, a documentary is made with the surviving band members - the story is told through their fragmented interviews. (Think Daisy Jones and the Six - except as a creepy horror novel by Elizabeth Hand featuring some quirky British folk band in lieu of Fleetwood Mac.) The story unravels the dark secrets of the house and the band's tragic summer, blending folk horror, psychological suspense, and a haunting mystery.

It's compelling. Very similar to Hand's other novels - which kind of refer to the demon in the corner, without ever actually looking at the demon in the corner? You are aware it is there, what it has done, what it is about to do...but for the most part? It's left to your imagination. It's a specific style of psychological horror writing that I adore. I like the less is more approach to writing. Where the horror is more implied than actually shown. Donna Tart did it well with The Secret History. Hand shows a touch more than Tart, but not by much. And both excelled at psychological folk horror, with a gothic twist.

Oh, it's June finally. I graduated from PT for the most part. No more for the time being. Vestibular issue has been corrected. Hooray? Now, if I can just get my right knee fixed.

senmut

Next up, having spoken of resonance, I'm asking:

What character has inspired you? Inspiration can be many things. To be better, to pick up a skill, to try a new food, anything.

This one is a toughie for me, because I was constantly tackling encyclopedias to learn new things introduced in books I read, but not necessarily directly because of a character. And I've inflicted several skills I tried to pick up on my original characters, but uncertain if that goes int he other direction.

Fortunately, I'd been warned about Turkish Delight. +g+

So ultimately, I think it comes to being inspired to be better. And I can't pinpoint one. Black Beauty inspired me to look for the best in others (before I became a member of the Certified Cynics). John Carter taught me that I can offer my skills, but ultimately the people around me need to sort themselves out (so don't barrel in with solutions without taking input is the way I modernized that). Moreta made me strive to face challenges with more calm (which honestly helped curb some of my temper for a time).

ashelterofpages

A brief update today because my brain is sluggish.

I managed to do some writing for the first time in a month. It's nothing for submission or anything, just a little story for a character I roleplay with my partner, but I think that was good for me. It scratches the same sort of itch that writing fanfic does, and I find that if I keep up doing these kinds of stories alongside the stuff I write for submission, I'm a much happier person.

Tomorrow should be Going Into The World and I'm a little nervous for it. It'll be the most significant amount of walking I'll have done since breaking my toes, so yeah. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3254/

No other experiment has a lower false negative rate.

https://xkcd.com/3254/

tellshannon815

linky posting in

tvfanfiction

Title: Help From A Furry Friend
Fandom: Kamen Rider Gotchard
Rating: G
Warnings/Spoilers: Genfic, Canon Divergence, Introspection, Character Study, Cats
Summary: Kyoka meant well. Lachesis knew she did.
Author's Notes: Written for the Girls Remix: Women of Tokusatsu exchange.

On Ao3, On DW

jo posting in

tv_talk

Silo season 3 premieres on AppleTV+ on July 3.

Watch on YouTube

magid

Remember how last week I posted about Clover’s demise? Well, apparently I wasn’t the only person incredibly saddened by this, and 10 minutes ago, I got an email from them saying that they were overwhelmed with the love, and…. they’ll be re-opening the Cambridge and Boston locations next week!

( their email, minus photos )

conuly

Yay!

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

( Read more... )

quillpunk posting in

booknook

It's Wednesday! What are you reading?

prisca posting in

fic_promptly

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

purplecat

Reading: I've just started Frazer Hines' novelisation of Evil of the Daleks. Given he acknowledges Mike Tuckers and Steve Cole (purveyors of fiction), I do wonder how much of a hand he actually had in it. Good so far, but I'm only just starting Chapter 2.

Listening: I've been listening through the Missing Episodes Podcast. These started out really good but the one I just listened to on The Highlanders felt self-indulgent and over-long. Sufficiently so that I wondered once or twice if the presenters were drunk.

Watching: I was in Cyprus last week, and I'm now catching up and marking, so not much. Before I left we were watching Masterchef. B. is in Japan so it will be four weeks until we pick that up again...

yourlibrarian posting in

everykindofcraft

Had this set of bold shiny slides, and one leftover bead ring, so put those together with some champagne colored glass for a (hopefully) elegant look.

( Read more... )

runpunkrun

It's like Martha Wells heard me when I said the thing I like the least about this series is all the descriptions of walking and was like CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. This book is almost entirely one long walk. Even Murderbot was complaining about it.

A return to form, where, much like the first four books in the series, that form is a novella where Murderbot is in a situation and must get itself and its assigned humans out of it. This time the situation is an escort mission, only, unlike a video game, the people Murderbot is escorting can think for themselves and won't walk off a cliff if left alone for a second. They're interesting characters and, unlike many of the other humans Murderbot adopts, I had no trouble keeping them straight, but they're not Murderbot's main people, so despite Murderbot's increasing self-awareness of its emotional state, this book lacks a lot of the deep feels that, say, Exit Strategy or Network Effect provoke. Instead, I mainly found it interesting for the worldbuilding and the exploration of the different ways people live in the Corporate Rim.

I loved seeing Three again, but, of course, I wanted more Three, and really I missed Murderbot's interactions with the humans, augmented humans, and "bot pilot" who know it best. Because the thing I like the most about this series, and I said this too, is Murderbot and the way it's learning how to be a person and building relationships despite not knowing how to do either of those things.

Contains: child harm, the usual violence and swearing (though not as much as usual!), character using a mobility device.

mishey22 posting in

abc_onceupon

Emilie de Ravin cried during the scene where Belle and Mr. Gold are dancing since it was (at the time) her and Robert Carlyle's last scene together.

Belle and Mr. Gold's kiss at the end was improvised by Robert Carlyle.

u-https-i-pinimg-com-originals-ec-a8-b5-eca8b5e8ad4b5caca4891361e7599db8

feurioo posting in

tv_talk

Watch on YouTube

From Russell T Davies comes Tip Toe, a gripping new suburban thriller set in Manchester, where neighbours Leo (Alan Cumming) and Clive (David Morrissey) find their lives pulled apart as prejudice, paranoia and radicalisation begin to poison everything around them.

Tip Toe starts Sunday 31st May on Channel 4.

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i don't want my feet to get frostbite

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Links: The doing is the point

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Wed Reading Meme/Question a Day Meme for June

June 3 - Inspiring Characters

the sweet sound of my own yawning

Detector

Book bingo May

Kamen Rider Gotchard | Lachesis

Silo season 3 trailer

Clover: the return?!

June is here!

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

Tuesday, June 2 - Promotion Day

Reading, Listening, Watching

Bees and Silver Slides

Platform Decay (Murderbot #8), by Martha Wells

06/03/26

Tip Toe Trailer

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