demonbrat_98 | Reading

As always, good news like comedy and beauty is more often than not in the eyes of the beholder, and mileage will most likely vary on the below.

( mainly political resistance items - showing small political and legal strides in the fight against fascist bigotry and fascism in general )
20.California lawmakers removed provisions from a proposed bill that would have slashed rooftop solar net metering compensation when customers sold their homes.

https://www.canarymedia.com/newsletters/california-lawmakers-back-off-on-anti-rooftop-solar-legislation

( political resistance stuff )

( nice news about nature and stuff )

“The planet is everybody’s. All it offers is the grass, the sky, the water, the ineluctable dream of peace and fruition.”

– E.B. WHITE

Whew...here's a flower:

trailer_spot

After the Hunt    HD720p 23MB
Intense trailer for the latest movie directed by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Challengers, Queer). It's a thriller drama in which a college professor (Julia Roberts) finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star pupil (Ayo Edebiri) levels an accusation against one of her colleagues (Andrew Garfield) and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light. Chloë Sevigny and Michael Stuhlbarg are also part of the cast.
It's distributed by Amazon MGM Studios, so after a theatrical release in October it will probably start streaming on Prime soon afterwards.

Hoppers     HD720p 22MB
Funny early teaser trailer for the latest animated Pixar movie, to be in theatres next March. Scientists have discovered how to “hop” human consciousness into lifelike robotic animals, allowing people to communicate with animals as animals! Using the new technology, Mabel (Piper Curda) will uncover mysteries within the animal world that are beyond anything she could have imagined. Bobby Moynihan and Jon Hamm will also lend their voices.

Tron: Ares    HD720p 35MB
Full trailer for another sequel. Plot summary reads: A highly sophisticated program, Ares (Jared Leto), is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission. Jeff Bridges will return, also part of the cast are Greta Lee, Sarah Desjardins, Gillian Anderson, Evan Peters, Cameron Monaghan and Jodie Turner-Smith. Directed by Joachim Rønning (Young Woman and the Sea, Kon-Tiki, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil).
Starting to look like the average superhero movie.

Dreams    HD1080p 11MB
Trailer from the Czech Republic for the latest uncomfortable drama written and directed by Michel Franco (Sundown, Chronic, Memory). It's about Fernando (Isaac Hernández), a young ballet dancer from Mexico, who dreams of international fame and life in the US. Believing that his lover Jennifer (Jessica Chastain), a socialite and philanthropist, will support him, he leaves everything behind and narrowly escapes death while crossing the border. His arrival, however, disrupts Jennifer’s carefully curated world. She will do anything to protect their future together – and the life she has built for herself. Rupert Friend is also part of the cast.

Predator: Badlands    HD720p 14MB
Alien sci-fi movie set in the future on a remote planet, where a young Predator (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia (Elle Fanning) and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane, Prey).
What may make this movie interesting (for some) is the fact that the android Thia apparently is created by the Weyland-Yutani bio-weapons division, hinting at another attempt to merge the universes of Predator and Alien.

shadowkat

Somewhat depressed today, been feeling lonely and depressed lately - kind of like that Adele song? My Little Love? Except I don't have kids. ( Read more... )

Random tidbits:

1. Kevin Feige announced today that yes, the MCU plans on recasting all of the X-men, and Tony Stark and Steve Rogers down the road. Probably around 2027, after Secret Wars.

He made some good points. Why not? It's not like they haven't recast James Bond, Doctor Who, Captain Kirk, Spock, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman - multiple times.

Superhero films/comics have a lot in common daytime soap operas and insanely long-running television serials/film franchises - in that the following often happens, and their audience/readers are used to it and tend to shrug it off or hand-wave it:
( Read more... )

That said... I find this disconcerting: ( Read more... )

I've mixed feelings? ( Read more... )

What do you think? Assuming there's anyone out there reading this that's still into the MCU films and the Marvel comics. I honestly can't tell. [Note: If you aren't into it? Or it's not your thing? I really don't need to know, silence remains golden on that front.]

2. Malcolm Jamal-Warner, who played Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died at the age of 54.

"Per The Associated Press, Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Department confirmed that Warner died on Sunday in a drowning accident while on vacation with his family at a beach along the country's Caribbean coast. He was pulled into a current. Fellow beachgoers tried to rescue him, but first responders from Costa Rica's Red Cross were unable to revive him."

Go Here

I'm thrown by the folks who are dying that are younger than me. This is the second one in a few weeks. The first was Julian McMahon of cancer.

3. On a more positive note? I attended a Zoom presentation of my agency's new climate protection toy today. ( Read more... )

Here's a link to the MTA's Climate Resilience Program

And a link to the newly proposed high speed train: GO HERE.

4. Went on a walk around Battery Park at lunch today, and saw a man holding a large yellow python, also a man playing a kind of old style string instrument (he was playing AULD LANG SYNE) and took pictures of flowers and buildings.

Man holding huge python - behind the cut for the snake adverse:

( really big yellow snake )

Man playing weird instrument:

( weird instrument )

Slabs of a WWII War Memorial amid the greenery.

( see memorial )

And finally...a field of corn flowers in NYC:

shadowkat

Haven't done much today. Outside of fighting a sinus headache. It's a hot day - 87-89 F/ 27-29 C, an muggy. So I've been sticking to the fans and A/C (78-79F/18-19 C indoors). And looking out at the treetops, birds and sky, also binge watching The White Lotus S3 on HBO MAX, and watched a portion of my UU Church's service about how make it about Love. Didn't hear the whole sermon - but the portion I did was interesting - the lay-person lecturer/preacher was a former staff member of the Bernie Saunders Campaign, and had worked for a non-profit involved with Hurricane relief. She interviewed a Mayor who had worked with Hurricane victims. ( Read more... )

The White Lotus, Episode 7, I think also had a nice little thought lesson, which I didn't expect to find. It's underlying theme of the series, I suspect?
( Read more... )

At any rate, both comforted me more than expected. Like a cool blanket or hugging a monk.

**

I also saw Ryan Coogler's Sinners on HBO Max this weekend. How to describe it? ( vague spoiler )

The set up, although it may be better to go in blind like I did? I don't know. I kept going to sleep during the first half - which was kind of plodding, except with insanely beautiful cinematography. So beautiful, I was glad I had a 55 inch television set. It would look amazing in a movie theater. The colors popped.

Then in the second half, once the sun goes down - it changes. And takes off. Also, it suddenly becomes a really cool musical.

Wales told me some time ago that she walked out of the movie theater and couldn't see the whole thing. She loved the first part, but found the second part too scary. I didn't find it all that scary when I saw it? It didn't scare me at all. (It's not a mean horror film like Heredity or MidSommer or so many others, it's more of a fun thematic musical horror movie?) Actually I was kind of puzzled at why Wales found it so scary she had to walk out of the movie theater? (I saw the Ring in the movie theater with Wales and Blair Witch Project, she didn't walk out then? Those were scarier and ended horribly, this really wasn't. This ended on a good note. It wasn't mean.) Honestly, if you can make through Supernatural, Game of Thrones, Vampire Diaries, Buffy, and Doctor Who - you'll be fine. It's kind of humorous actually. While it borrows heavily from Night of the Living Dead - it's not Night of the Living Dead (way too many horror films have). And doesn't come close to The Walking Dead.

The film is beautifully made, and has an excellent score. Also the performances for the most part are spot on. But, it like many of Ryan Coogler's films is more style over substance. I never care that much about the characters? I don't know them well enough to care. Part of the problem is the action takes place within one day, and there are a lot of characters to care about. Also, we're not given a lot information on any of them? Just snippets here and there. The point of view character - we only know a scant amount about, and his relationships with the others, a stray line here or there. The focus of the film isn't on the characters or the plot really, but on theme. The director is more interested in the meta or the thematic message, than he appears to be in the characters or the story - so it all felt a bit hollow in a way?

That said, it's a lot of fun in the second half, and has great visuals and soundtrack. If you are a fan of cinematography? And visuals? You should enjoy it. Also R&B music, blue grass, and African-American/Irish/Scottish-American folk. The Soundtrack is great - I want the soundtrack. Also there is an all-encompassing scene of African-American musicians throughout the cultural history of that music - which is worth seeing on a big screen with surround sound all on its own (if you are into that sort of thing? I'm not, so seeing it on my television screen was fine for me).

I just wish he did a little bit better job building and developing the characters, which would have meant cutting back on the long scenes of the boys driving through the white cotton plantation fields (that's what kept putting me to sleep). And I get why we got those scenes - like I said, it's a visually thematic film - heavy on the meta-narrative, and blends genres, while commenting on them as well as various horror film, historical and black exploitation film tropes. Also went through various music genres and how to tell stories through music and build suspense through music. This film is in many ways a musical - but it uses the music to further theme and story, without becoming an opera, or a musical in the classic sense of the word.

I'd tell you more? But part of the fun is not quite knowing. Although I did figure it out - more or less at a certain point, the writer more or less telegraphs it to the audience at the halfway mark.

yourlibrarian

1) I have not been keeping up with the challenges given other things going on, but this one grabbed me: What games do you play, if any? Are you a solo-gamer or do you view games as a social activity? ( Read more... )

2) I've been watching a bunch of things on Max, mostly biographies. I found the Jaws 50 year anniversary documentary interesting as, while I remember the film I've never seen it.

In bios I finished Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed which was a fair amount of surface stuff. ( Read more... )

3) In movies, saw Shazam fury of the gods which was pretty meh, as it just seemed rather predictable. Also watched Traitor which was a lot more interesting in terms of the undercover spy story. Then saw the Batman Lego movie which was 30 minutes too long (tedious final battle section) but was otherwise entertaining, particularly in all its pop culture references. ( Read more... )

4) In TV series, I ended up skipping through most of The New Pope just as I had The Young Pope. It just felt rather repetitive. Also watched The Investigation, a Danish production focused on the police activity finding evidence for the actual case of a murdered journalist aboard a submarine. ( Read more... )

5) Continuing to post trip photos to

common_nature, the latest being our stay in Hood River

Poll #33381 Kudos Footer-530

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beccaelizabeth

Relistened some 7th Doctor Big Finish today.
7 & Ace in Assassination Game I realised I had put on my relist because it mentions The Light, who also turn up in a Torchwood audio and arguably are referenced in a Torchwood book. Except in Torchwood they are not much like this. So probably it's more like when you get two secret societies called Watchers, because no one is trademarking their secret society. Someone wants to claim to be a major concept like Light, that's up to them. ( Read more... )
Other than that it was a lot of politics and mind control and running around. Didn't hate it. Didn't like its ideas though.

In Torchwood it's simpler, the Light introduces itself as Hell. Extradimensional conspiracy to get in. Still creepy infiltration and mind control stuff but without the mind controlled babies.

Actually all three of today's listens involved mind control stuff, which always seems to me a lazy shortcut. Persuade us someone could be persuaded or go home. But they did okay on that in the Dalek one.

7 and Mel in
We Are the Daleks
and
The Warehouse.

We Are The Daleks was released in 2015 and set in the 80s. ( Read more... )

So there were good bits and not so good bits. Reacting to the Daleks as if they're just another trading block and deciding to oppose them on the same grounds they decided to oppose the EU is funny and an interesting angle. But mind control takes the pressure off the problem from the story title. It makes it a dumb sci fi problem solved by moving the transmitter, instead of a lot of moral choices.
But that does make it solvable in the space of one adventure, so, can see what they were going for there.

The Warehouse was one of those that takes ordinary words like Delivery and respins the story around them not meaning quite the same thing there as here. Deliverance and religion get attached to a big warehouse for fulfilling online orders. ( Read more... )
After relistening this one I went back to my existing listing in my catalog and gave it an extra star. It's still not maximum stars but I think I must have been in a bad mood listening the first time. Liked it.

Liked today pretty well.
Sunday tasks achieved. Lots of nice foods to choose between. Plenty of quiet time to listen.
Pretty good day.

beccaelizabeth

Today I played WotR Lord of Nothing and did the cave, tower, and jungle.
I stopped before the Shadow because I remember going through that as fast as possible because Creepy, and it is sleepy time now.

I got the two fiddly achievements I was trying for, including one that *should* have worked already but I found a guide that said it was bugged so you had to do the thing a particular way that would usually be losing. So I did a proper save, played it the right way, did another proper save, and went back and did it the wrong way. Then I exited the game and loaded the right way version. And then it went Ping and I got an achievement something like 0.6% of players do.
This is not because I'm impressive, its because hardly any percent of people seem to actually play their game, the can't miss it achievements aren't impressive percents on the xbox either.

I also spent some of today playing using the actual xbox controller rather than the wired powera version I usually use, because the controls were being quirky and I wondered if it was game or controller. Either way it stopped. But, I relearned why I don't use the xbox one. It is just different enough everything Bothers Me and the buttons click Wrong and I can't put my fingers in the exactly places. Blah.

This is not exciting gaming news.

But it passes the time.

I'm never going to get 100% of achievements because already Core difficulty is annoyingly hard instead of just quite challenging. There's more difficulties above that and all you get for it is a finished the whole thing on that difficulty trophy. ... the highest difficulty one I believe is called Test of the Starstone, which, would be nice to be able to say I passed.

The weather is nicer outside but my flat does not feel like changing, except to intermittently feel like if you put a wet sponge in a microwave. Dryer is better.

But basically had an okay day.

shadowkat

1. So far, I've managed to put two things together, a canister to hold large utensiles on my counter top, and a see-through plastic medicine box. The Medicine box is unfortunately slightly defective - on of the sides doesn't quite fit the box. But I've made it work - sending it back is just costly and a bit of work.

Yes, I know, I know...

2. Cancelled two subscriptions: New York Magazine, and Paramount Plus. (I realized I seldom watch Paramount Plus, and I'm protesting their decision to cater to the Doofus to obtain permission from the Federal Government to merge with Skydance Media.)

Okay let's talk about THAT for a hot minute or two?

For financial reasons, Paramount is pursuing a lucrative merger with Skydance Media.

The nitty gritty on the Merger
( Read more... )

3. Thinking of relaxing, reading, and getting groceries. But first must fix lunch.

4. Friday Five on Saturday...

* Name five favorite movies.

Star Wars - Empire Strikes Back, Gross Point Blank, LadyHawk, Raiders of the Lost Arc, Endgame

* Name four areas of interest you became interested in after you were done with your formal education.

Human Rights Advocacy/Social Justice (although I'm kind of burned out on it at the moment), Watercolor, Cooking and nutrition (I have dietary restrictions), Trains

* Name three things you would change about this world.

1) Selfish Entitled Asshole Syndrome - switch that default to being kind and helping others with a communal sense of cooperation, 2) Climate Change - everyone work together to reduce it, and aid in scaling it back, Dependency on Cars - switch from roads to high speed trains, 3) install universal health care across the globe - so everyone has free access to health care (provide health care specialists with housing stipend, a month vacation, free education, trip allowance, transportation stipend, and free tickets to entertainment events).

* Name two of your favorite childhood toys.

Barbie Doll - I used it to tell stories, I was very rough on it.
Star Wars Action Figures - also used to tell stories.

* Name one person you could be handcuffed to for a full day.

Can't think of anyone. So thankfully, it will never happen.

shadowkat

Read through correspondence list. So just to let you know? I read, I just don't tend to comment - because, I can't think of anything to say outside of - oh, that's interesting, thanks for sharing.

What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to list or talk about.

( my list )

***

I've thought about it? If I were in charge? I'd arrange for teachers to be paid for the entire year including the summer, with the caveat that they either do summer school for one month or a course or tutoring. They get at least one month off paid vacation. Paid for Spring Break and Christmas.
And have some latitude on materials. And smaller class room sizes.

Allow for creativity. And provide a housing stipend, also pay for transportation. Of course I want this for everyone.

Why can't I have a world where folks have equal access to health care, housing, food, entertainment, work, and love? I'm tired of the Selfish Entitled Assholes Ruling the world - can the Universe kill them off already? [Rhetorical questions - mileage may vary on this - and if it does, I'd rather not know?]

***

July Question a Day Meme

14. Do you enjoy mocktails/cocktails? What’s your favourite?

Not really. Sugar is involved. I avoid sugar. Alcohol will burn off the sugar - but you know, alcohol - which causes other health related issues and drug interactions. So, I don't drink cocktails or mocktails at all any longer.

15. When was the last time you saw any bees?

About two days ago - on the flowers? I've not been walking around the flowers recently as much - because it's been really hot. Today it was 92F/32C.

16. Do you know any sign language? Have you heard of Makaton?

Not really. No.

17. If you enjoy tea, how do you make it – with a teabag, with loose-leaf tea, in a mug or in a teapot?

Usually a teabag, loose leaf requires more work. In a mug, since again teapot is work and mess, and I like easy. Also as far as I can tell there's not a lot of difference. I do have a tea infuser. I take black tea and matcha with milk (usually unsweetened oat or almond/coconut milk). Herbal without.

Right now, I'm into Matcha Lattes, which isn't a tea so much as a powder.
Stronger than green tea, with more curative power.

18. Are you good at arranging cut flowers? Have you ever tried Ikebana?

No, I suck at it. I don't know what Ikebana is? I looked it up HERE - and no. I've not tried it.

I know people who are amazing at it - a co-worker is a floral arranger and florist - she raises her own flowers, and buys cut flowers and creates amazing arrangements, with dyes and everything.

But, I get cut flowers, and I screw it up - I can't figure out the slant, have no patience, and I don't handle plants well? Also I'm allergic to flowers slightly? So I don't tend to get cut flowers that often? And mold really - allergic? And no room for them?

I can photograph and draw and paint them, though?

See?

rivkat

James C. Scott, ( James Scott, resisting dominance )

Agustin Fuentes, Sex Is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary: ( not as detailed as I wanted )

Deborah Valenze, The Invention of Scarcity: Malthus and the Margins of History: ( Malthus and corn (and corn laws) )

Jane Marie, Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans: ( The bad kind of MLM )
Becca Rothfeld, All Things Are Too Small: ( in praise of excess )

Douglas Brinkley, The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day, and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion: ( a big day and its commemoration )

Anthony Shadid, Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War: ( shockingly, it's complicated )

Guru Madhavan, Applied Minds: How Engineers Think: ( they try things )

Theatre Fandom: Engaged Audiences in the Twenty-First Century, ed. Kirsty Sedgman, Francesca Coppa, & Matt Hills: ( live theater as a fandom source )

Dan Ariely, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone - Especially Ourselves: ( he's not wrong or exempt )

Tony Judt, When the Facts Change: Essays, 1995-2010: ( foresight that didn't help )

KC Davis, How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing: ( functionality is all )

beccaelizabeth

Today I played WotR on Core difficulty from waking up at Defenders Heart through to actually defending it, because then I could do Prelate's Nemesis, which I missed on my other Core plays.
It only pinged after I quit and loaded it again, but I figured it would.

Defender's Heart takes like 42 rounds. And most of them are boring, because once you have web grease pit cast on the gate nothing gets in, and Camellia can Entangle the streets all around so nothing much climbs in and when it does it stands there waiting for your arrows. ... this leads to a certain amount of entangle web greasing your own team. Today it went extra wrong because Nenio who cast half the spells got caught in them so she couldn't cancel them. Lots of running around to fix that. Still, everyone on my team and at least the vast majority of the defenders survived the fight.
The Nabasu fight goes great if Ulbrig Grabs them and goes very very poorly if he does not. So it took a couple of tries. Worked though.

Core remains more frustrating than fun. A sensible me would stop chasing achievements and go back to playing the difficulty I actually like.

... a sensible me would play far fewer hours in one day.

... unlikely...

snickfic

- As mentioned, I signed up for

battleshipex. I guess this was a good decision(??), becuase I've now written 8400 words across six fics in the past six days. That plus an impulsive art piece meant I capped out for board 1, which feels like absolute crazypants. I hope I like the fics okay when I go back and edit them...

I might be a little burned out now. If my team reaches board 2 before I leave for my trip, then maybe I will feel like writing a couple more things, but if not, that's also fine. I've more than doubled my participation the other year I played, so!

- I continue to play Cult of the Lamb. It's so fricking cute. I've beat the main boss and am now indulging in the extras like sending my cute followers to the mating tent where they make eggs that hatch into more cute followers. My only complaint is that the music is extremely repetitive, just one samey jingle for the home base and another for combat.

- The Oasis tour has started, and I've been trying to avoid hearing too much about it, but I DID have friends sending me tons of photos and videos from the first couple of nights, and they hugged?? Noel CRIED????? They walked out together, and Liam took Noel's hand and lifted it like he was a prizefighter? Have I mentioned Noel CRIED.

The first gig was July 4, which meant I was getting all this at the same time I was trying to be social at a cookout.
Me on the outside: So you finished that degree? Congratulations!
Me on the inside: OH MY GODDDDDDD THEY HUGGGGGGED.

I peeked at the forum around that time, and everyone there was absolutely euphoric. Cannot WAIT to see it all for myself! SOON.

shadowkat

1. Dueling Superman Reviews - which unintentionally depict how to write a film review and how not to write a film review.

Professional film/music/book critic and science fiction novelist John Scalzi and his daughter, an inspiring blogger (who to date has primarily written blog posts in her father's blog) post dual reviews of the new film - Superman (directed by James Gunn).

Go HERE (Warning, Athena Scalzi's review is filled with spoilers, although I got confused halfway through, jumped to the end and gave up on her review, her father, John Scalzi's review has relatively few - actually no spoilers outside of what you might see in the trailers.)

The dueling reviews - which are quite different takes on the film - unintentionally show the dos and don'ts of writing reviews, and glaringly show the difference between a professional film critic's review and a amateur film reviewer who saw a flick.

Snippets for examples of the difference:

Beginning of AS's review: ( Read more... )

Beginning of JS's review: ( Read more... )

And..

Ending of AS's review: ( Read more... )

Ending of JS's review: ( Read more... )

The trick in reviewing anything - is to give the reader just enough information for them to determine privately if they want to see, read, or listen to the item being reviewed themselves. Is it worth their time? Their taste more likely than not will differ greatly from the reviewer's - so the trick is to give them enough information, without spoiling them, to know whether to check it out for themselves. And at the same time - entertaining them, giving them interesting information, and not boring or confusing them in the process. This is not easy to do. Most amateur reviewers haven't a clue how to do it, as you can see from AS's review.

I figured out from John Scalzi's whether it made sense to see the film in a big theater, and whether I'd like it. And that was without being insanely spoiled on it. Besides giving me a headache, Athena's review confused me and spoiled me about various bits, I'd prefer not to be spoiled on. Also, AS's review only works for those who have already seen the film and not as a review - whose audience is those who haven't seen the film yet. You can't make sense of AS's review without having seen the film. I also couldn't tell if I'd like the film or not. But I knew without a doubt whether I would reading her father's review. (I won't and will wait for it to come on television. It's like Gunn's other films - too busy. And movie theaters aren't comfortable any longer? And have too many distractions? I'd rather watch at home.)

( cut for length )

2. Books

I think I've landed on The Rook -

Per Good Reads: Myfanwy Thomas awakens in a London park surrounded by dead bodies. With her memory gone, she must trust the instructions left by her former in order to survive. She quickly learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in a secret agency that protects the world from supernatural threats. But there is a mole inside the organization, and this person wants her dead. Battling to save herself, Myfanwy will encounter a person with four bodies, a woman who can enter her dreams, children transformed into deadly fighters, and terrifyingly vast conspiracy. Suspenseful and hilarious, The Rook is an outrageously imaginative thriller for readers who like their espionage with a dollop of purple slime.

"Utterly convincing and engrossing -- -totally thought-through and frequently hilarious....Even this aging, jaded, attention-deficit-disordered critic was blown away."-Lev Grossman, Time

About the author: Dan O'Malley graduated from Michigan State University and earned a Master's Degree in medieval history from Ohio State University. He then returned to his childhood home, Australia. He now works for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, writing press releases for government investigations of plane crashes and runaway boats.

This may work for me - it fits my sense of humor, and I'm also a jaded, attention-deficit-disordered critic at the moment.

Plus it's on Kindle so not hard to lug around.

Finished Remarkably Bright Creatures - my difficulty with it was all the characters were frustratingly dense. The writer contrived ways to keep them apart which irritated me. I deal with dense people daily, I can't handle reading about them? Also the writing style didn't work for me, for some reason?

Re-listening to all of the Kate Daniels Graphic Audio Dramatizations - there's ten in all. Plus several single audio books, which aren't. Maybe by the time I finish there will be more? The Kate Daniels series scratches whatever itch I need scratched at the moment. Also they are kind of comfort reads.

And still making my way through the thick paperback of Fair Folk.

beccaelizabeth

Today was Cleaner Day, so I am cleaner, my house is cleaner, and I ran the dishwasher and the washing machine and am waiting on the drying cycle for the laundry. Maximum clean.

Quite a lot tired.

I watched a couple more Doctor Who, 12 and Clara. ( Read more... )

I can see how this is interesting story, but they're becoming versions of themselves I remember finding least fun.

Ah well, will see.

Oh good, laundry beeps, tasks complete 🤞

shadowkat

Disclaimer: As always, good news is often in the eye of the beholder and mileage may vary on the below. Hopefully you'll find something to make you smile.

1. Only about a quarter of medical schools include training on how to discuss safe gun storage and firearm injury prevention with patients. Scrubs Addressing the Firearm Epidemic is working to change that — and ensure that future doctors play a role in preventing gun violence.

https://www.thetrace.org/2025/07/medical-school-gun-violence-prevention/

2. Great land protection story from the Port Townsend Leader about the exciting recent purchase of 81 acres of forest and wetlands by our friends at the Northwest Watershed Institute (NWI)! The land will be permanently protected and stewarded as part of NWI's 500-acre Tarboo Wildlife Preserve in the Quilcene area. Jefferson Land Trust is proud to have played a facilitation role in this project by working with the U.S. Navy to secure matching funds through the Navy’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program. The Navy’s funding purchased a restrictive easement on the land that prevents development (but does not grant any rights to the military for use of the property).

https://www.ptleader.com/stories/northwest-watershed-institute-purchases-forest-for-addition-to-tarboo-wildlife-preserve,215813

3.Senator Chris Van Hollen’s amendment in the Senate Appropriations Committee to "retain, preserve and compile" any records related to Jeffrey Epstein passed unanimously. On that note, the Epstein files are proving to be a real thorn in Trump’s shoe, and I’m here for it.

https://www.ksby.com/politics/senate-committee-unanimously-approves-amendment-that-would-preserve-jeffrey-epstein-files

[The fight over the Epstein files and release of the client list is amusing, partly because it's one of the many platforms that the Doofus ran on, and right now, his base, Magna is furious at him. Over on Twitter, Stephen King got into trouble with his fans - for stating that the Epstein Client List was about as real as the Tooth Fantasy and Santa Claus. ]

4.L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has signed an executive order to provide cash cards worth several hundred dollars—funded by philanthropy—to undocumented immigrants who miss work due to fear of ICE raids.

https://mayor.lacity.gov/news/mayor-bass-issues-executive-directive-support-immigrant-communities

5.US District Court Judge Nina Wang has fined two of Mike Lindell's attorneys $3,000 apiece for their error-riddled AI-generated legal brief. Lindell, of My Pillow, lost the defamation case and is on the hook for $2.3M in damages.

[Yeah, don't use AI to write things folks. It's a computer code created by IT - and IT can't write that well, and some can't write to save their lives.]

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5389852-mypillow-ceo-mike-lindells-attorneys-fined-for-inaccurate-ai-generated-brief/

6. Poland generated more power from clean energy sources than coal for the first time in June.

https://www.ft.com/content/ae920241-597e-49d9-a4b9-bfdfa9deabb6?accessToken=zwAGOQFSub4YkdOukgJBWX5J2dOkub_fqd6rtg.MEUCIC7wxgJShKjVR3u717YcwKFA3kRvRTs4yUanM49uZ5ZYAiEAiv7r4PrLesRguLHgvVlrgsCiItG8QsBG5GNgqjqgj5A&sharetype=gift&token=4a8b6641-d698-4252-8c2f-e667b96f2351&ref=climativity.com

7.Michael Jordan opened his fourth free clinic for people who are uninsured or underserved in North Carolina, his home state.

https://www.newsweek.com/sports/nba/michael-jordan-opens-another-free-health-clinic-native-north-carolina-2050274?sh_kit=7a2950363f4b90b1881ae76c68d24551846eea9063b67a6a14e9fa39bc419e40

8.NEW ORLEANS FINANCIAL COLLAB GETS $1M GRANT TO INVEST IN LOCAL START-UPS
The Financial Wellness Collaborative received the $1 million grant to help small businesses manage their financial health and scale-up.

https://www.blackenterprise.com/new-orleans-financial-collaborative-grant-invest/

9.Mexico sent water rescue teams and firefighters to help in Texas after the holiday weekend floods.

https://www.newsweek.com/mexico-sends-help-texas-floods-2095878

10.A new Gallup poll taken over the month of June shows Trump support on “handling the immigration issue” now stands at 35% with 62% opposing.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/692522/surge-concern-immigration-abated.aspx
( the rest of the 44 beneath the cut - the science stuff is towards the end of the list. )

And just in case you found zip in that list to smile about? Here's a photo of flowers.

beccaelizabeth

https://seanharry.com/home/flux/
if I was a person who left the house any more I would so want to go to this one
13, 9, Yaz, Toshiko, Ianto, and Rhys
and more spaces left TBA on the Guests pictures.

beccaelizabeth

I have finished rereading all the Murderbot books.

I had a few little thoughts as I went along. ( Read more... )

The most recent book, the one where story saves the day, that made me feel kind of tired. Because I felt like the truest line was saying if the corporates made story at them first they would win. I have not of late been optimistic about the power of story, since I have been seeing people reading many things with the special lenses on, the ones that have decided the meaning first and only see the ways that fit. It's an excellent theory and a great development for the character and kind of a writer power fantasy. It should work.

The world could be nicer.

But the reread was good.

lirazel

troisoiseaux just reread A Brief History of Montmaray, reminding me of the existence of this series, which got my mind to churning.

There's a very specific sub-genre of books written for bookish teenage girls that I need a name for. They're either set in or written in a previous era (usually late Victorian to WWII), usually in the UK though occasionally in the US (though some have scenes set elsewhere, especially in Ibbotson). They're self-indulgent but well-written, focus on the inner lives of their heroines, are chock-full of lovely period details, and have a sense of whimsy without going too far into the precious or twee. They're often more episodic than plot-driven. The characters are always well-drawn, eccentric, and wide-ranging in age and sometimes class, though not (sadly) in race. Honestly, the books are...very white. They are not cozy in the sense that word gets thrown around today--there's always loss or death--but they feel cozy aesthetically despite this.

Here are the examples I've come up with:

Eva Ibbotson's young adult novels (A Countess Below Stairs, A Company of Swans, The Morning Gift, A Song for Summer, Magic Flutes)
I Capture the Castle
The Montmaray Journals
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion
the Gone-Away Lake books (this duology is an outlier in that it's MG and has a male co-protagonist, but they feel this way in my memory, though admittedly I haven't reread them in 20 years)
Daddy Long-legs

Strangely, I would not include L.M. Montgomery's books in these categories, except, maybe, The Blue Castle? I don't know why, but the vibe is different enough to me that they don't belong in this category.

O Caldeonia is this genre taken and turned sharper and crueler. It's this genre with an edge.

[eta] This is a sub-set of the Special Girl genre articulated by

qian below. To me, Ibbotson is the epitome of this genre. It's got a glittering-ness to it that sets it apart from things like Little Women and Montgomery (The Blue Castle aside. Maybe it feels almost fairytale-adjacent? Like, the world they're operating in has things like crumbling castles, dukes (though they may be driving taxis now, as in Ibbotson), a kind of air of not-realism to the world they're operating in even if the emotions of our main character are realistic. Like I have to accept that I'm in a different world with different laws for how things work and to complain about the way things work would be as silly as complaining about how things work in a fantasy novel. They are the spiritual children of Frances Hodgson Burnett.

So my questions are:

a) what should we call this genre?

and

b) does anyone have any other titles they think belong in it? I'd like to compose a list and also I would like to read those books because this genre exists for me specifically and I eat it up with a spoon.

snickfic

Authors have revealed!

I wrote: everybody's on the run, Cuckoo (2024), Ed/Gretchen and Gretchen & Alma, post-canon, 2k. This fic was a surprise. I matched on Creator's Choice of Fandom, which meant I could write whateverfandom I wanted, and fresh off finishing my 20k Re-Animator fic, I planned to write more Re-Animator. I came up with several ideas, managed to write a solid 1100 words on one, and just completely stalled out. Instead I wrote this entire fic on the day of the deadline.

I think it turned out okay, though! I enjoyed this movie so much when I saw it earlier this year, especially the messy worldbuilding, and the ending is very wish-fulfillment, I feel, for a certain kind of viewer (which I guess I am, lol). It was fun to try to imagine what the immediate aftermath of everything might look like for these three.

Meanwhile, I received: You, Me, and the Serum Makes Three, Re-Animator, by

psychomachia. Dan/Herbert, mpreg, 3k. Absolute galaxy-brained way to knock Dan up, A+. Just a very fun series of relationship development and pregnancy vignettes.

shadowkat

Grabbing random questions from the Friday Five because I feel like answering random questions.

1. Have you ever been to summer camp?

Yes. But mainly day camps, which are very different than overnight camps and a lot more fun. Only over night camps were brief and in girl scouts, and when I was a kid (6-12) and each time, I had a parent along for the ride.

2. Have you ever made a s'more?

Many many times. Not so much now for various reasons.

3. Have you ever slept under the stars (no tent/tarp)?

Kind of? And I ended up going inside. I don't like bugs?

4. What type of bed do you have (queen, twin, bunk, etc.)?

Queen

5. If you could retroactively erase one TV show from the history of entertainment, which one would you choose?

Toss up between Fox News, and the Bachelor/Bachelorette. For more or less the same reasons.

6. Are you more like your mother or your father?

It's kind of 50/50?

7. If you could take a year-long vacation, what would you do?

Cruise around the world? Or maybe take various train journeys and boat journeys, and walking trips?

8. If you were a crayon, which color would you want to be?

Violet or Purple - a deep purple

9. Which color do you think you would be regardless of what you wanted?

Green

10. Would you rather be used and get blunt, broken and lose your wrapper, or not be used and stay pristine?

Used and get blunt, broken and lose the wrapper.
( the rest of the 37 seemingly random meme questions )

That cheered me up greatly. Thank you, Friday Five.

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shadowkat - The Weekly Good News Report from the American Resistance & Its Global Allies - Tuesday July 22
trailer_spot - After the Hunt, Hoppers, Tron: Ares, Dreams, Predator: Badlands
shadowkat - Recasting the MCU, RIP MJW, Climate Resilency Projects & personal crap
shadowkat - Sinners film review, and personal stuff...
yourlibrarian - Sunshine Challenge #6
beccaelizabeth - (no subject)
beccaelizabeth - (no subject)
shadowkat - The Friday Five on a Saturday among other things..
shadowkat - Thursday Memage ...
rivkat - Nonfiction
beccaelizabeth - Wrath of the Righteous all day
snickfic - (no subject)
shadowkat - How to review and not to review a film...also book meme
beccaelizabeth - (no subject)
shadowkat - The Weekly Good News Report from the American Resistance & It's Global Allies..
beccaelizabeth - (no subject)
beccaelizabeth - Murderbot, written form
lirazel - lauren's never-ending search for words to describe the vibes of specific books
snickfic - H/C Exchange
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Page generated Jul. 23rd, 2025 04:38 am

Musings of a DemonBrat

Reading

The Weekly Good News Report from the American Resistance & Its Global Allies - Tuesday July 22

After the Hunt, Hoppers, Tron: Ares, Dreams, Predator: Badlands

Recasting the MCU, RIP MJW, Climate Resilency Projects & personal crap

Sinners film review, and personal stuff...

Sunshine Challenge #6

(no subject)

(no subject)

The Friday Five on a Saturday among other things..

Thursday Memage ...

Nonfiction

Wrath of the Righteous all day

(no subject)

How to review and not to review a film...also book meme

(no subject)

The Weekly Good News Report from the American Resistance & It's Global Allies..

(no subject)

Murderbot, written form

lauren's never-ending search for words to describe the vibes of specific books

H/C Exchange

Friday Five Questions Cobbled Together and Randomly Answered

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April 2017

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