megwrites | Reading

1. It's the start of a three day weekend! And the start of three weeks of long weekends.

2. The stadium that is hosting World Cup games is right in between home and work and the freeway has had signs up with the dates of upcoming games informing people that traffic will be bad and avoid the freeway if possible. Unfortunately it's not possible for me if I have to go in to work those days, but so far I've managed to avoid getting caught in really bad traffic. Today the match was at noon, and I normally would have stayed until like 2:30-3 and then come home and taken my 4pm meeting at home, but I knew that would be right when everyone would be leaving the stadium so I was able to come home before the 2pm meeting and take both of those from home. The traffic was a little worse than usual (as it has been on other game days) but not too bad.

3. We're going to Pride Nite at Disneyland later tonight. The event doesn't start until 9pm, so hopefully rush hour traffic will die down in a bit here and we won't have too much trouble getting there.

4. Gemma seems to really like my new carpet. She's been coming and rolling around asking for pets more than she did with the old carpet lol.

torachan

1. When I took a walk after lunch today I happened to walk past a Wendy's and saw they had Minions stuff up all over the windows, so I checked their menu online to see if they had a banana Frostie and they don't, but they do have a banana syrup you can get swirled into your Frostie, so on my way back I popped in and got a chocolate/banana swirl. It was pretty good! Not nearly as good as the banana chocolate shake at Fat Burger, but I might get it again while they have it.

2. A while back we saw a video on youtube about various local restaurants and one of them was a fried chicken place that's pretty close. It looked really good and we said we should go sometime but then totally forgot about it. Then tonight we were talking about dinner and decided to get something and Carla remembered it, so since Carla was feeling worn out and didn't want to go out to eat, I rode my bike down there to pick up food and bring it home. It was about an eight minute ride each way and honestly with as bad as traffic was right then I think I probably got home faster than I would have in a car, and certainly faster than a delivery driver would have as they'd probably stop at other places first. Also saved money by not paying all the delivery fees.

We got a crispy chicken sandwich and a Asian salad crispy chicken wrap and both were really good. Also got a side of lemon potatoes, which were also tasty.

3. We originally were putting this blanket as a tent on the sofa for Chloe but then Ollie discovered it and was using it all the time, but now Chloe has come back to it, too. (So far they haven't had any disagreements about who can use it when. Fingers crossed it stays that way!)

rydra_wong

GFW's unisex boxer briefs are back (now with a modified design that allows you to wear menstrual pads with wings, and a wider size range):

https://www.gfwclothing.com/collections/boxer-shorts-unisex

They are the best.

sanguinity

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Oddly, I've never read this one before. It made its way into the same bucket as The Wizard of Oz during my childhood: I'd seen the movie, so I didn't need to read it.* (I did read the several dozen Oz books that came after the first one! But not the first one, because I'd seen the movie and that was good enough.**) But with Pride and Prejudice, it was even more pronounced: I hadn't seen "the" movie; I'd seen a good dozen or more of them! And read a bunch of tumblr-meta about the book. And... And...

And the book proved very familiar! I knew all of the beats, and many of the famous passages! But every once in a while there'd be a scene that I couldn't recall having seen in any adaptation--for instance, the one with Miss Bingley trying to annoy Mr Darcy into giving her attention as he writes letters. A delightful scene! That I couldn't recall ever having seen adapted! So there was definitely more nuance and detail on the page than I had osmosed over the decades.

And yet not that much more detail. I think this is the first time that I've ever read the book after seeing a movie adaptation, where I discovered I already knew what was going to happen on pretty much every page.

Still worth reading! Austen's prose is a delight, as always. And of course I was reading specifically for Colonel Fitzwilliam, who is mostly Character Not Appearing in the adaptations anyway. But for a book I'd never read before? It felt eerily like a book I had read before.

Alexandre Dumas (trans. by Anonymous), The Count of Monte Cristo (1844-1846)

Exactly the opposite experience! I knew there was a long imprisonment in the Chateau d'If, and thought I knew that he eventually dug his way out with a teaspoon, but that was it. Everything in here was new to me.

phoenixfalls, who has loved this book since childhood, quizzed me early on as to what I thought the book was about. "Adventure novel," I said. "Lots of swashbuckling and swordfighting and shit."

Spoiler: Unless I have forgotten something, there are exactly zero swordfights in this novel. Also, no swashbuckling to speak of, unless we count the intellectual swashbuckling of masterminding a multiple-decade revenge scheme with an absurd number of moving parts. Very sexy of him, that.

I read this as part of a one-chapter-a-day read-along, and enjoyed that experience very much--well, until I neared the end, and said "fuck that" and read six chapters a day until I finished it. (The read-along is still winding up as we speak.) I will say that even at a chapter a day -- which is a good clip! -- there was a section in the middle when there were Too Many Characters*** to keep track of, and I was fighting for my life to keep sorted who was whose daughter, engaged to whom, and also what everybody's name was now. At one point I had to put it down for two weeks to read another time-sensitive thing, and when I picked it up again, I needed to use SparkNotes to get myself oriented again, I was so lost. How the hell people managed when this was serialized weekly, I have no idea.

Some things I especially liked: ( spoilers ahoy! )

All in all, a very satisfying read. I'm a bit meh about Edmond/Haylee at the end, but there's something appropriate about the Revenge Twins pairing off to figure out what one does after successfully prosecuting one's revenge. I'm a little worried that in all of Edmond's masterminding, he didn't do any retirement planning: this is absolutely a guy who is going to go nuts in six months because he didn't take some woodworking classes before he retired. (I propose that he get Faria's manuscript published, and then go on a lecture tour, promoting and defending it.)

I'm not quite in the place where I want to start right over at the beginning again, but I do very much miss reading a chapter every day at lunch. And I am curious to know what it looks like on a second read, when one knows what Edmond is about.

--

( footnotes )

coffeeandink

oh hey I'll be at Readercon this year. Let me know if you want to hang out!

queen_ypolita

Finished since the last reading post
Murder before Evensong, which I was reading to get a cosy crime novel for the Helmet reading challenge. Nothing to write home about, I didn't think, and I'm not likely to attempt to read further books in the series.

Currently reading
Have made some progress with The Sutton Hoo Story. Picked up Queer beyond London by Matt Cook and Alison Oram to read something topical for the pride month. I remember listening to a podcast where the authors were talking about this book a couple years ago, which led me to put it on my to-read list. And it's been really interesting so far.

Reading next
Not sure. Something from my shelves, as I don't think I'll have time to visit the new central library after it re-opens but before I go away, beyond dropping off my current loans.

torachan

1. Tuxie is a quiet eater, so when I hear a plate clattering outside I know that it's someone other than him eating. During the day, it's crows (especially when it's baby season; they love to feed their babies with cat food) and during the night it's usually possums. Of course since it's dark outside, I hardly ever get a good view of the possums, but last night I heard a clattering plate and I had left it right on the back porch and had the door closed, so I turned on the outside light and looked out the door's window and was able to watch the possum as it ate. I don't know why some people say possums aren't cute. I love them!

That reminded me that I also recently heard a noise right outside my bedroom window in the middle of the night and one of the cats was watching very intently out, so I peered out my window and saw the shadowy shapes of a bunch of possums walking along the top of the fence about two feet from my window.

My dream is to one day see a mama possum with all her babies on her, but so far I have not had the chance.

2. As I mentioned the other day, I got the new shelf set up in the garage, so this morning I took some pictures. It looks like I took pics around this time last year and you can see we've added several more pieces of furniture since then.

( Read more... )

3. People always use the hashtag Tongue Out Tuesday for cats on bluesky, but I guess Jasper got confused and thought it was Tail Out Tuesday.

sanguinity

Today is the ten year anniversary of "Something Good (Will Come From That)", my retrospective of a hundred years of Holmes and Watson on film:

Watch on Vimeo

(Vid, commentary, FAQ, and timestamps on AO3.)

language_escapes and I spent a year making it, and a very good year it was. She turned down co-author credit, but I maintain this vid never would have happened with out her.

"Something Good" is ten years out of date now; that's especially apparent when I re-read the commentary. It's been good to see how many more versions of Holmes and Watson have come by in the interval. I'm particularly happy to have female and non-white Holmeses coming out of Korea and Japan: both of those were thin on the ground when we made the vid.

At the time, I thought of this vid as my masterwork, and despaired of ever making anything so good again! Mostly at a loss for what to do with myself, I kept on making things, and I'm happy to say there's been plenty of good stuff in the interim. Good stuff, new fandoms, and new fannish friends. There were even a few more vids!

So here's to

language_escapes and all my fannish friends, new and old, and a hundred years (plus ten!) of Holmes and Watson walking arm-in-arm.

torachan

1. The new car has black interior, including the NFC wireless charger, which was getting so hot that it was causing my phone to overheat and shut off in the middle of my drive home, so today when I got to work I parked under one of the solar panels and wow, that really kept my car cool! I figured it would help to be in the shade but I didn't think it would be that drastic. I'm definitely going to try and park somewhere covered from now on.

2. Speaking of the car, I was finally able to get Bluelink set up today, so now I can set the charger on a timer and stuff like that. Also the car will stop bugging me to set up Bluelink lol. I wanted to! But the purchase still hadn't been fully processed, I guess, because it kept saying there was no car associated with my account, but today I got an email from Hyundai saying I could set it up now. It also lets me see the remaining charge and stuff like that from the app, which is handy.

3. Look at Ollie multitasking! Yawning and stretching at the same time!

jesse_the_k

Since my last update, there’s been welcome climate change. We’ve been training him to ignore sudden noise and movement — I deploy some freeze-dried beef liver at the same moment MyGuy stomps or talks loudly or generates air pressure changes. Out on walks he rarely reacts to cars or analog bikes.

The best news is Shadow is actively seeking our approval.

The black haze of hair at the foot of my recliner proves the time he spends looking for my love. (Luckily for all of us, I can independently wield our analog carpet sweeper to expose the blue-green carpet again — so this happy interaction doesn’t increase deployment of the Ugly Vacuum Monster.)

In the past month, he’s begun to rest his chin on my knees. Today two remarkable events: his silky soft chin anchored my right foot, which MyGuy captured for the ages:

( click for pic )

Later he sidled up to MyGuy for attention, lay down in sphinx pose, and then permitted MyGuy to roll him on his side and stroke his back and side.

rydra_wong

Watch on YouTube

Saw this at Sheffield DocFest yesterday and stumbled out into the afternoon light afterwards with shellshock.

Found out afterwards that Dogwoof bought the rights and it's getting a UK cinema release in July (and apparently a "Oscar-qualifying run" in the US in the autumn).

We got an unscheduled bonus Q&A from the directors/stars (Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak) and gave them a standing ovation, which British people do not give lightly.

The Q&A (in a screening room so small they didn't even need to hand a mike around) was intense and vulnerable and occasionally hilarious.

One of the people in the film, Habak's doctor friend Hamza, turned out to be in the fucking audience, and put his hand up to ask a thoughtful question and then troll gleefully: "So, that Dr Hamza, what a great character ..."

While the rest of the audience were like JESUS FUCK DUDE WE JUST WATCHED YOU IN AL-QUDS HOSPITAL TRYING TO TREAT PATIENTS WHILE BEING BOMBED.

(Habak like: "I MADE YOU LOOK THAT GOOD.")

And then the people in the front row of the audience were like "So, we're film-makers from Ukraine ..." and didn't even need to explain why it was so meaningful to them.

torachan

1. Carla bought some peaches the other day and I was ready to be disappointed with them as I have been with all the other stone fruit I've tried so far this year but these were actually good! Nice flavor and texture. So hopefully that means we're properly into stone fruit season now.

2. The other day Carla heard about this upscale international market called Epicurious Gourmet that's in North Hollywood, so we went and checked it out today. It is indeed very high end and fancy, but they had a lot of neat stuff and we did buy a few things.

3. They open at eleven, so we were there right around lunchtime and I figured I'd look around and see what was nearby that we might want for lunch and found a place that was shown on the map with a pizza symbol, but when I clicked on it turned out to be an Armenian place that sells both shawarma and similar stuff like that as well as regular American style pizza, but they also have an Armenian flatbread that is sort of pizza like, with lots of cheese and two runny eggs on top and the picture hooked me so we went there. Carla got a shawarma and I got the flatbread and both were delicious (though each was a meal for two, so we have lots of leftovers).

That's a pat of butter melting on there!

3. I finally got that new Ikea shelf finished today and rearranged some furniture in the garage to make room for it. Now Carla has a proper record shelf, but we also have more shelves for other stuff, as it's way more space than she needs for records now (and hopefully ever lol). There's still room for maybe one more shelf in there, as well as a corner shelf between the CD shelves, but it's really coming together. I also moved a standing lamp from the living room out there since we never use it in the living room since getting the overhead lamp put in and Carla would like a standing lamp for reading rather than turning the full room lights on (especially since they are prone to flickering).

4. We had some frozen already cooked hamburger patties from a time a while back when Carla grilled up a bunch of burgers and then froze them for easy meals. These ones turned out to be really small after cooking and kind of got a bit overdone, so they've been sitting in the freezer and not getting eaten, but Carla had the idea of using them to make chopped cheese sandwiches, so that's what we did for dinner and it worked so well! We still have enough patties to make a couple more sandwiches later this week, too, and I'm looking forward to that.

5. Molly's hard at work getting her fur all over the sheet after I just changed it lol.

New shelf

queen_ypolita

This afternoon, I went to see Julius Caesar by Secret Shakespeare at the Abbey ruins. I saw the same group's performance of the Scottish play there last summer, so I was intrigued by this one too, although my prior knowledge of the play was non-existent. Anyway, the concept was similar: a promenade performance stopping at various points in the area, no fixed stages, ordinary clothes rather than costumes, hardly any props, starting without a preamble with the actors just stepping out of the audience. And I enjoyed all of that, but it really would have helped to be more familiar with the play than just skim-reading the Wikipedia article. That said, I was surprised I recognised parts of some of the speeches, because I clearly didn't know they came from this one. On the whole, I was pretty confused all the way through, although I was enjoying the experience of being there. And in a performance like this and the ruins open to the public throughout, it's also fun to overhear passers-by wondering what's going on.

I'm going to see another round of Shakespeare at the ruins in July, but that will be with a fixed stage and seating in the chapterhouse.

Yesterday, didn't do anything much. On Friday, I had a break from ordinary work in the form of a volunteering day with a charity partner, in west London. That was fun. I've been at the same site a couple of times before, including last year on a day when it was 30 degrees with blue skies and sunshine. This year, the weather was more suited to working outdoors, breezy, mostly overcast, warm enough but not too hot. We started our day there by carrying some metal posts across the site so they can be repurposed, then worked on some Hügelkultur beds and wheelbarrowed woodchip and manure and some vegetation and spread it on the beds. It was fun, but my arms have been pretty sore yesterday and today.

torachan

It was hot and sunny yesterday so we went down for dinner instead of breakfast/lunch. Unfortunately it was still pretty warm and sunny when we got there, though at least the sun was going down. But even once the sun was no longer blazing, it was still super muggy. Bleh.

( But we did have a nice dinner! )

torachan

1. The other day I noticed a new Vietnamese coffee shop had opened nearby and this morning I rode my bike over there to try it out. They are famous for their banana coffee, which was sort of a frappuccino style drink, so I got that. It was super delicious, but they had only drinks, no food, and I wanted some sort of pastry or something. There's a bakery a couple doors down that is suuuuuuper trendy and has a line down the block all the time so although I would love to try them, I didn't want to wait in a line so long my drink would be gone by the time I got my food.

So I decided to leave my bike parked there and walk a few blocks down to Randy's Donuts, which is a famous LA donut shop that started opening new locations in recent years after having just been a single location for ages. I've never actually been to the one in Santa Monica. As I was walking, I saw there was a Dunkin Donuts across the street just one block down and was briefly tempted to just go there, but I knew Randy's would be better so I continued on and I'm so glad I did because they had a Pride donut and also a mango tajin one and both were so good. Their donuts are big and I really only should have gotten one, but I wanted both lol. The mango one had mango tajin frosting and a delicious mango filling. The Pride one was just a frosted glazed donut with rainbow stripes, but even for a basic donut it was really tasty. I was very full afterwards but it was such good breakfast.

2. It was still hot today so we went to Disneyland for dinner instead of going earlier in the day. Sadly it was warmer than I would prefer even at 6pm when we got there, and super muggy. But we did have a delicious dinner.

3. Tuxie's fur has been growing back on his forehead. I don't think you can really even see where the wound was anymore. So handsome!

torachan

Sunday we had non-Disney plans, so no need to get started super early in the morning, but of course I did wake up early. The laundry had piled up again, so I walked over to the other hotel to get a load started and then walked to the station to get McDonald's. Unfortunately, I'd misremembered the opening time and thought they opened at seven, but it's not until eight. All that was open was a Starbucks, another little sandwich/coffee shop whose name I don't remember and the New Days convenience store. I got pastries and coffee for myself and onigiri for Carla and took everything back to the hotel to eat.

( Togoshi Ginza, Gotanda, and Shibuya )

sasha_feather

Hi friends!

I am doing OK but also could use more help. Here are my goals.

1. Before winter rolls around, I'd like to get a roommate / housemate, or more than one. I'm okay going slow with this search but last winter was lonely.

I live in the country just outside of Rochester, Minnesota. I am caretaker for my parents' hobby farm. If you or anyone you know is interested, this could be a great opportunity for someone who needs affordable, safe housing. Need someone kind and trustworthy. I've posted about this before and can give more details privately.

2. Keep saying no when my parents ask me for things. I can also try to arrange more help for them but for now I need to... just stop helping them, I think. A therapist might be able to help me with this, leading to--

3. Get help finding a therapist who takes my insurance. Have asked multiple people but so far no dice.

I am grateful for:

1. Nice weather and a safe and comfortable place to enjoy it.

2. Social calls with friends.

3. Kind neighbors.

4. My animals.

ithiliana

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

torachan

1. It's been hot this week, but the evenings have been fairly cool and overcast, which is nice! (I'll be glad when the temps go back down a little next week, though.)

2. Last Friday I met a new guy at work who is taking over my supervisor's duties as my supervisor is transitioning to be more like the company vice president and will have less time for other stuff (though apparently he's still going to be my direct supervisor) and the new guy was wearing a Dodgers Pride shirt. Then today I noticed another new person, who works in my office but a different division, has an inclusive Pride flag on her desk.

3. It's the weekend! And the next three weeks are short work weeks.

4. Curling up on Carla's chair while it's pushed under the desk is just about Gemma's favorite place in the whole house. It's so secret!

torachan

Recently Finished
Everyone In the Group Chat Dies
Picked this up at the library on a whim after seeing it on the new release shelf. Told in split timelines between the present and events that happened a year ago. In the present, the MC gets a text from someone who should be dead, and as she tries to figure out what's going on, other people in the group chat get picked off one by one. The past timeline follows the events that lead up to the death of the person supposedly sending the texts in the present. Pretty standard thriller. I liked it all right, but don't feel the need to rush out and read more by the author.

Curse of the Poppy
Fifth in the Penny Green mystery series.

The Man Everybody Was Afraid Of
Fourth in the Dave Brandstetter mystery series. This was probably my least favorite so far, not for any particular reason, just felt a little boring until it got near the end.

Murder and the Missing Treasure
New Cleopatra Fox release! I'm always excited to see a new book in the series.

The Harlem Hellfighters
Graphic novel about Black soldiers in World War I. There's a mix of real and fictional characters, but overall apparently follows historical accounts fairly faithfully. Interesting reading, though I wasn't a fan of the art style.

Nodame Cantabile vol. 11-12

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a library of souls

reading

Reading

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PSA for UK people (or those who don't mind the international shipping cost)

Recent Reading: Pride and Prejudice and The Count of Monte Cristo

Readercon 35

Wednesday reading

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Something Good (Will Come From That): Ten Years

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Shadow Day 112: Tangible Warming

... yeah you should probably see this

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Outdoors theatre and other stuff

2026 Disneyland Trip #26 (6/13/26)

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2026 Japan Trip Part 6 (4/12-13)

status update

Definitely feeling mah Cronehood! (not in a bad way)

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Weekly Reading

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