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Sticky: Hello peoples!
Feb. 11th, 2019 05:34 pm![[sticky entry]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/sticky_entry.png){kind=small}
So I'm trying to build up my f-list here on dreamwidth. If I've added you to my reading list, it is likely because I was wandering around looking for active posting folk who I share common interests with, and your journal looked interesting. I post some public, some private, so leave a comment if you'd like to be added.
Books, etc.
Dec. 15th, 2024 10:26 pmSo I binged through the Murderbot Diaries, which I enjoyed. I also caught up on the latest Penric & Desdemona (Bujold), the latest from T. Kingfisher (A Sorceress Comes to Call), and the latest from Victoria Goddard The Weaver of the Middle Desert). In my queue, I have Martha Wells's Witch King, Lois McMaster Bujold's The Spirit Ring, Travis Baldree's Booksops & Bonedust, and a bunch of assorted others.
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yolen and I are hate-watching Star Trek Discovery -- it could have been such a better show, instead of the Michael "Mary Sue" Burnham show. We are part way through season 4. Props to the actors, they're doing their best at playing the cards they've been dealt, but the cards suck. And we're glad we got Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds, both of which we are now re-watching in our weekly watch-with-friends-and-chat-on-discord.
Sorry I haven't been so active here of late. Sigh. I miss my old LJ days, pre-facebook and pre-Russian takeover of LJ.
yolen and I are hate-watching Star Trek Discovery -- it could have been such a better show, instead of the Michael "Mary Sue" Burnham show. We are part way through season 4. Props to the actors, they're doing their best at playing the cards they've been dealt, but the cards suck. And we're glad we got Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds, both of which we are now re-watching in our weekly watch-with-friends-and-chat-on-discord.Sorry I haven't been so active here of late. Sigh. I miss my old LJ days, pre-facebook and pre-Russian takeover of LJ.
Drive-by posting
Aug. 6th, 2023 12:21 pmSo, in no particular order:
Reading: I've worked my way through the Nine Worlds books by Victoria Goddard. Recommended. I started with The Hands of the Emperor, which is a fairly thick tome, but enjoyed it, and then went on to the Greenwing & Dart books.
Watching: We're watching our way through Star Trek TOS and Bob's Burgers with our teen.yolen and I are watching Star Trek Discovery, and will be adding Strange New Worlds when it fits in.
Gaming: We went to DexLite, the local boardgame & RPG convention, back the first weekend of July. Was mostly fun, though if I had realized there were going to be no Munchkin events, I would have run a couple. Did get to play my old favorite, Cosmic Encounter, for the first time in years.
Reading: I've worked my way through the Nine Worlds books by Victoria Goddard. Recommended. I started with The Hands of the Emperor, which is a fairly thick tome, but enjoyed it, and then went on to the Greenwing & Dart books.
Watching: We're watching our way through Star Trek TOS and Bob's Burgers with our teen.
yolen and I are watching Star Trek Discovery, and will be adding Strange New Worlds when it fits in.Gaming: We went to DexLite, the local boardgame & RPG convention, back the first weekend of July. Was mostly fun, though if I had realized there were going to be no Munchkin events, I would have run a couple. Did get to play my old favorite, Cosmic Encounter, for the first time in years.
So, I'm currently seeing through just one eye, as I had surgery this past week for a semi-detached retina. Fun.
The world continues to through other stresses out as well. Work, extended family, covid, climate change, politics, ... it keeps on going, doesn't it?
Anyway, that's what's new with me. I re-read the first five books in Roger Zelazny's Amber series, a bunch of Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan books, some manga. I need to catch up on a few of my webcomics.
Yolen and I finished Stranger Things with our 13 year old, who enjoyed it. He made a reddit account recently, and I can see he commented some in the subreddit for the show.
I'm working on writing up a wiki for /r/publicdomain, to try and make it easier for people to answer their own questions; most won't, I know, but it will help a few people.
The world continues to through other stresses out as well. Work, extended family, covid, climate change, politics, ... it keeps on going, doesn't it?
Anyway, that's what's new with me. I re-read the first five books in Roger Zelazny's Amber series, a bunch of Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan books, some manga. I need to catch up on a few of my webcomics.
Yolen and I finished Stranger Things with our 13 year old, who enjoyed it. He made a reddit account recently, and I can see he commented some in the subreddit for the show.
I'm working on writing up a wiki for /r/publicdomain, to try and make it easier for people to answer their own questions; most won't, I know, but it will help a few people.
My family has been fortunate enough that we have been self-isolating since March 11th. I've been working from home since then.
I've poured some of my frustrations into escapism, namely D&D - there are other RPGs I like more, but D&D has the name recognition, so it's where the action is at. I'm playing in a gave on Friday evening, and I'm running two alternating games on Sunday afternoons, one for my son and his friends (a group of 9-12 year olds) and one for adults, mostly friends on FB. The kids game is a homebrew setting, the grownups game is Lost Mine of Phandalin. All are being run over Zoom, though I am also using MapTool to show maps as needed.
I'm reading a few books; one is the amusingly opinionated "A History of Heavy Metal", the other is "The Monsters Know What They Are Doing" which ties back to D&D, as it's monster tactics for various D&D monsters.
I've poured some of my frustrations into escapism, namely D&D - there are other RPGs I like more, but D&D has the name recognition, so it's where the action is at. I'm playing in a gave on Friday evening, and I'm running two alternating games on Sunday afternoons, one for my son and his friends (a group of 9-12 year olds) and one for adults, mostly friends on FB. The kids game is a homebrew setting, the grownups game is Lost Mine of Phandalin. All are being run over Zoom, though I am also using MapTool to show maps as needed.
I'm reading a few books; one is the amusingly opinionated "A History of Heavy Metal", the other is "The Monsters Know What They Are Doing" which ties back to D&D, as it's monster tactics for various D&D monsters.
Book club!
Feb. 2nd, 2020 06:44 pmSo we had our first book club virtual hangout. I'll call it a success, even if there were only 3 of us (4th person finished the book but didn't make it, 5th was still working on the book last I knew.)
Now it'syolen's turn to pick a list of 3 books for us to pick from.
Now it's
yolen's turn to pick a list of 3 books for us to pick from.I asked this over on metafilter, but thought, why not ask over here as well?
I just finished reading T. Kingfisher's Swordheart, and before that I re-read Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor. Last year I read Lois McMaster Bujold's Curse of Chalion series and Penric & Desdemona series. I want more. Please recommend me some fantasy novels with characters who are kind, find love, and end well. A dash of humor is good too, but I've already read (and enjoyed) Discworld.
I just finished reading T. Kingfisher's Swordheart, and before that I re-read Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor. Last year I read Lois McMaster Bujold's Curse of Chalion series and Penric & Desdemona series. I want more. Please recommend me some fantasy novels with characters who are kind, find love, and end well. A dash of humor is good too, but I've already read (and enjoyed) Discworld.
Made bread yesterday.
Jan. 5th, 2020 10:16 pmGot the urge to make some no-knead bread Friday before bed. Threw the ingredients together, went to bed, baked it Saturday afternoon. Nearly all gone now. Mister Boy says we need to make more.
Saw 42FT – A Menagerie of Mechanical Marvels Saturday with the family. Was fun.
Got an unexpected late Christmas gift from my sister-in-law, a bottle of the only wine that I've liked, Brotherhood Holiday Spiced Wine. Sadly, it's all gone now. I like it because it's sweet and cinnamon & nutmeggy.
I started a bookclub-for-friends group on Facebook. Each month, the person who's turn it is proposes 3 books, members vote, and then we read it. For January, the book picked out of the three I proposed is Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor. (The other two I proposed were Lois Bujold's The Curse of Chalion and Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat.) The last Sunday of the month, we are scheduled to do a video chat to discuss the book.
What's up with you?
Saw 42FT – A Menagerie of Mechanical Marvels Saturday with the family. Was fun.
Got an unexpected late Christmas gift from my sister-in-law, a bottle of the only wine that I've liked, Brotherhood Holiday Spiced Wine. Sadly, it's all gone now. I like it because it's sweet and cinnamon & nutmeggy.
I started a bookclub-for-friends group on Facebook. Each month, the person who's turn it is proposes 3 books, members vote, and then we read it. For January, the book picked out of the three I proposed is Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor. (The other two I proposed were Lois Bujold's The Curse of Chalion and Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat.) The last Sunday of the month, we are scheduled to do a video chat to discuss the book.
What's up with you?
Movie watching
Nov. 25th, 2019 10:35 amWatched "The Martian" with MB and yolen; technically the movie is PG-13, and MB is 10, but the rating comes from a few uses of "Fuck" and a butt shot, so really not a problem in our house.
I had seen the film in the theater, and had read the book before seeing the movie. I liked the film, but think I enjoyed it more this time around because I wasn't mentally comparing with the book. I also appreciated that it's a man-vs-nature story, so there's no real villain, just smart people trying to do what they think is best. It also madeyolen think of Castaway with Tom Hanks, and that we could likely watch that with MB as well.
yolen; technically the movie is PG-13, and MB is 10, but the rating comes from a few uses of "Fuck" and a butt shot, so really not a problem in our house.I had seen the film in the theater, and had read the book before seeing the movie. I liked the film, but think I enjoyed it more this time around because I wasn't mentally comparing with the book. I also appreciated that it's a man-vs-nature story, so there's no real villain, just smart people trying to do what they think is best. It also made
yolen think of Castaway with Tom Hanks, and that we could likely watch that with MB as well.Had a good time today
Nov. 17th, 2019 11:05 pmyolen and I went to thudthwacker and eafm's home today, and met up with a few other old friends, for a good afternoon of games, snacks, and chats.We played Just One, which we scored 7, 8, and 11 (the best a group I'm in has done yet), and then a game of Quiddler, which I won.
It made for a pleasant afternoon, and I'm thinking we should try to do something like it again soon, maybe at our place. Perhaps the weekend of December 7th/8th?
I am currently working my way through The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold. I can't remember now where I first stumbled on them, but I started her Chalion series with the Penric and Desdemona novellas. I got a sample of the first off Amazon, decided I liked it, bought it, read it, bought the next, and proceeded to go through them like popcorn. After reading 4-5 of those, I jumped back and read the first book, The Curse of Chalion, which was excellent, then went and finished the published Penric novellas. After that I read Paladin of Souls, and then took a Bujold break reading Monsterous Regiment by Terry Pratchett.
Now I'm on the only one in the Chalion series I haven't finished, at least until she writes more Penric stories.
Now I'm on the only one in the Chalion series I haven't finished, at least until she writes more Penric stories.
Once upon a time was a Standard Fantasy World, with knights and wizards and dragons and all that stuff. Then one day, a wizard figured out how to make a permanent magical transportation "gate" (portal, whatever you want to call it). Later some wizard, possibly the same one or maybe not, figured out they could become phenomenally wealthy by building magical gates for nobles and nations.
So started the Gate corporation, the wizard was ennobled, and pretty soon (<10 years) every major city in the empire/kingdom/nation was networked together, and several of the wealthier minor ones. Many of the gates are toll gates, generating revenue for both the Gate corporation and Nation. The ruling family has it's own smaller private gate network, linking all the palaces into one virtual palace. The military also gets free gate use of course, so troops can be shifted where needed.
For merchants, the gates are first a convenience then a necessity. Goods move faster and cheaper without threat of bandit attack, expense of caravan guards or other losses.
Pretty soon, a number of major surface trade routes have become mostly abandoned. A bridge over a major river collapses, and the funding to fix it is found wanting, as "everyone uses the gates now anyhow".
Places in proximity to a gate experience population boom, and the remote areas thin out. All the cities in the nation become, more or less one city, in a number of ways. Second-tier smaller cities take out loans to have gates built linking them to a larger gated city, or suffer from isolation and reduced trade.
So started the Gate corporation, the wizard was ennobled, and pretty soon (<10 years) every major city in the empire/kingdom/nation was networked together, and several of the wealthier minor ones. Many of the gates are toll gates, generating revenue for both the Gate corporation and Nation. The ruling family has it's own smaller private gate network, linking all the palaces into one virtual palace. The military also gets free gate use of course, so troops can be shifted where needed.
For merchants, the gates are first a convenience then a necessity. Goods move faster and cheaper without threat of bandit attack, expense of caravan guards or other losses.
Pretty soon, a number of major surface trade routes have become mostly abandoned. A bridge over a major river collapses, and the funding to fix it is found wanting, as "everyone uses the gates now anyhow".
Places in proximity to a gate experience population boom, and the remote areas thin out. All the cities in the nation become, more or less one city, in a number of ways. Second-tier smaller cities take out loans to have gates built linking them to a larger gated city, or suffer from isolation and reduced trade.
So I made a post on FB to see if anyone on my f-list was interested in a face-to-face D&D game; my son's been running a game for his friends, so I've been dipping back into 5e and I want to give it a try.
Got 1 yes, and about 12 "I'd love to, but distance/parking/etc", and one "maybe sounds like online would work better" which got some likes.
So I made a post about running it online. A number of likes, but no "yes", and only one "maybe". Ugh.
Now I'm back to thinking I'll run it face-to-face, but recruit some local strangers instead of too-far friends.
[I'll also admit part of the problem is me. As an urban-dwelling car-less person, I can't easily traipse out to the suburbs where a bunch of my fellow alumni friends now live, but my urban setting makes it difficult/expensive for a group of them to visit me due to parking being at a premium.]
Got 1 yes, and about 12 "I'd love to, but distance/parking/etc", and one "maybe sounds like online would work better" which got some likes.
So I made a post about running it online. A number of likes, but no "yes", and only one "maybe". Ugh.
Now I'm back to thinking I'll run it face-to-face, but recruit some local strangers instead of too-far friends.
[I'll also admit part of the problem is me. As an urban-dwelling car-less person, I can't easily traipse out to the suburbs where a bunch of my fellow alumni friends now live, but my urban setting makes it difficult/expensive for a group of them to visit me due to parking being at a premium.]
I've been neglecting my updates, for which a feel bad.
I'm slowly working on getting my home office in shape. Vacuumed the rug for the first time in months, looks much better.
Work has announced a move-in date in two weeks, for the open-office renovation that has replaced my private office. And when we're in offices again, they're getting rid of the working from home, the only good thing that came out of the renovations. Many people were hoping for $BigBoss to allow us even just 1 day a week Work-from-Home. But he said no.
We're trying some new strategies to manage our ADHD household. We just put a magnetic whiteboard on the refrigerator, broken down by days of the week, to track fresh food and leftovers, because otherwise I'm the only one who reliably eats leftovers or salad if it is in the fridge.
Working on cutting down my caffeine intake.
Listening to podcasts about Clark Ashton Smith stories. Had my book club about The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Thinking about signing up for the one for Roger Zelazny's The Guns Of Avalon, the second book in the original Amber series. I'll want to re-read Nine Princes in Amber first, but that's quite doable.
Purchased "Tabletop Simulator" on Steam. Haven't played anything with anyone with it yet.
Considering purging some people on facebook. Ugh. I spend too much time over there, instead of over here, or just doing stuff. Heck, metafilter and reddit are more productive uses of my time than FB, but I still find myself over there too ofthen.
Read some more Kothar the Barbarian stories. They are fun, in a light Conan-ripoff way.
I'm slowly working on getting my home office in shape. Vacuumed the rug for the first time in months, looks much better.
Work has announced a move-in date in two weeks, for the open-office renovation that has replaced my private office. And when we're in offices again, they're getting rid of the working from home, the only good thing that came out of the renovations. Many people were hoping for $BigBoss to allow us even just 1 day a week Work-from-Home. But he said no.
We're trying some new strategies to manage our ADHD household. We just put a magnetic whiteboard on the refrigerator, broken down by days of the week, to track fresh food and leftovers, because otherwise I'm the only one who reliably eats leftovers or salad if it is in the fridge.
Working on cutting down my caffeine intake.
Listening to podcasts about Clark Ashton Smith stories. Had my book club about The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Thinking about signing up for the one for Roger Zelazny's The Guns Of Avalon, the second book in the original Amber series. I'll want to re-read Nine Princes in Amber first, but that's quite doable.
Purchased "Tabletop Simulator" on Steam. Haven't played anything with anyone with it yet.
Considering purging some people on facebook. Ugh. I spend too much time over there, instead of over here, or just doing stuff. Heck, metafilter and reddit are more productive uses of my time than FB, but I still find myself over there too ofthen.
Read some more Kothar the Barbarian stories. They are fun, in a light Conan-ripoff way.
Netflix recommendations.
Jun. 24th, 2019 12:32 amI watched the documentary on Quincy Jones, which I enjoyed, but then netflix recommended "The Black Godfather" to me, about Clarence Avant, who has spent the last 60 years as..a fixer, I'd guess you'd call it. He knows people, he makes deals, he represents artists, he runs record labels, etc, etc. yolen and I had not heard of him before, but we got a kick out of watching the documentary about him. Netflix Link.
yolen and I had not heard of him before, but we got a kick out of watching the documentary about him. Netflix Link.Free stuff.
May. 6th, 2019 12:34 amSo someone in my area on FB was offering a couple boxes of free CDs, described as "classic rock, Phish, and jam bands". I took them up on it.
I've done a rough sort through them; they weren't kidding about the Phish. It's about one full box of Phish CD-Rs of various live shows, plus a smaller stack of Grateful Dead live shows (including a NYC 1991 show I might have been at, I can't remember the exact night I went), and a small stack of misc live recordings of other bands.
The second box has mostly regular, store bought CDs; a number of Beatles albums, REM, Beastie Boys, more Phish, Grateful Dead, Allmand Brothers, and so on. I'm going to give it a more thorough going through, pick out anything I want to keep, and post the rest on swapacd. Anything that doesn't go after a couple weeks, I'll donate to the used bookstore.
The CD-R's though, I'm not sure what to do with. I'm not that big a phish-head to want all these.
I've done a rough sort through them; they weren't kidding about the Phish. It's about one full box of Phish CD-Rs of various live shows, plus a smaller stack of Grateful Dead live shows (including a NYC 1991 show I might have been at, I can't remember the exact night I went), and a small stack of misc live recordings of other bands.
The second box has mostly regular, store bought CDs; a number of Beatles albums, REM, Beastie Boys, more Phish, Grateful Dead, Allmand Brothers, and so on. I'm going to give it a more thorough going through, pick out anything I want to keep, and post the rest on swapacd. Anything that doesn't go after a couple weeks, I'll donate to the used bookstore.
The CD-R's though, I'm not sure what to do with. I'm not that big a phish-head to want all these.
I was looking at my music collection, and I decided to find out how old my oldest MP3 file was. I have plenty of old music -- I listen to jazz from the 1920s, for instance -- but I am talking about file-timestamp-dates. That is, what is the MP3 file I've kept around the longest?
Turns out many of the timestamps have been updated in the various system moves/disk copies, but I do have some music files that are old enough to drink.
Turns out many of the timestamps have been updated in the various system moves/disk copies, but I do have some music files that are old enough to drink.
I've found myself listening to a bunch of Glam Rock and similar vintage material the past week or so. Mostly it started with re-listening to the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack [which I find so good], which lead me to listening to some Brian Eno, Velvet Underground, David Bowie, and Uriah Heep.
What have you listening to this week?
What have you listening to this week?
