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Entry tags:

garden,
weather

Autumn garden views, and cyclone prep

I haven't posted garden pics for a while due to autumn untidyness - so far as Auckland has an autumn, which is not very. Still green, just cooler and wetter. Also, I've been busy enjoying and making fanworks and have neglected the garden as it slides inexorably into disrepair. But everything's still green, and I do enjoy looking out at it so I thought you might like some views from my windows and doors. Overcast today so not ideal photography conditions, but as Cyclone Vaianu is bearing down on us in 36 hrs I figured I'd get pics now in case it's chaos by Monday. First time my landlord's property manager has ever emailed tenants with a cyclone warning and info about how to batten down! If I was still in my leaky house in the bush I'd be very worried but this flat's in a safe place - solid construction, high ground but not exposed, no big unsafe trees nearby - so fingers crossed. I'll roust out my camping gas stove and lamp in case of power cuts, and we'll see. Hope you're all safe from extreme weather events!

( pics here... )

Entry tags:

dark is rising,
fic

fic: The sort of beauty that's called human (Will/Bran, G for now, 5/?)

The sort of beauty that's called human (5727 words) by lotesse
Chapters: 5/?
Fandom: Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Bran Davies/Will Stanton
Characters: Bran Davies, Will Stanton (Dark is Rising), Owen Davies, Herne the Hunter (Dark is Rising)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Loss of Parent(s), Immortality
Series: Part 4 of Wherein was bound a child
Summary:

“We have to go,” Bran said, his voice coming out hoarser than he’d expected. “Rhys called. Trouble with my da. A stroke.”

No more needed to be said aloud. They were going back to Wales.

Entry tags:

A few fandom things

1. New Dungeon Crawler Carl book comes out in just a month! I'm wondering if I should reread the previous book before it drops, because these books have about a zillion characters and I'm confident that I have forgotten most of what happened in it.

2. The thing which happened to me on Tumblr today was so weird that I'm going to describe it under the cut even though I already complained privately to friends. (Murderbot fandom is so freakin' weird. Seriously.)

( Awkward! )

3. Speaking of Space Swap, they are still looking for some pinch hitters!

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Made a extremely silly decision this past weekend, which was to break up our long drive to and from Philly by Exactly long enough to see one (one) show in NYC on the way down, and another on the way back. Literally put the car in a garage by the theater, went into the show, got the car out of the garage, and kept driving. And to make matters even sillier the show that we saw on the way down was Bad -- and we knew it was going to be! Or at least we had a reasonable suspicion! But were we not going to go out of our way to see Norm Lewis play Villefort in a Count of Monte Cristo musical? Of course we were. The path before us had simply been prepared.

Q: When you say it was bad, do you mean it was a bad musical as a musical, or a bad adaptation of Count of Monte Cristo?
A: Oh, both! Absolutely both.

Q: What made it a bad musical?
A: Well, the music. And the lyrics. They hit exactly every beat on the Musical Sheet while constantly feeling like less subtle knockoff versions of other songs you might know slightly better. The song you might know slightly better is not a subtle one, you say? Well, I guarantee you that songs such as "Dangerous Times," in which the full cast explain that they are living in dangerous times, and "How Did I Get So Far Away [From Me]," in which Mercedes sadly wonders how she has gotten so far away from herself, are less so. When the best you can say of a song is that it felt like pallid diet Frank Wildhorn -- as in, lacking the noted power and vibrancy of real Frank Wildhorn, composer of such deathless works as Death Note: The Musical -- then you know we're scraping the bottom of the barrel. And that's not even mentioning the frenetic stream of mediocre jokes.

Q: And what made it a bad adaptation?
A: I mean I know there are probably people in the past who have said that Edmond Dantès literally did nothing wrong but I want you to understand: in this show, Edmond Dantès literally does nothing wrong. His backstory takes up the entire first act, and by the time we hit intermission I was already like "huh, there's not going to be a lot of time in here for revenge schemes," but I didn't actually understand how dire the situation was going to be until ( this part of the Q&A gets into quite detailed plot spoilers )

Q: So do you regret your objectively silly decision to go out of your way to see this musical?
A: No I do not, not in the least, and I would have regretted missing it. There is something very nutritious in bad theater, I think. It forces you to consider what good theater might look like. Also, the surprise appearance of Lucrezia Borgia was one of the funniest things I experienced all weekend.

Entry tags:

fic,
narnia

fic: Not time’s fool, Narnia, Caspian/Lucy, 8/?

Not time’s fool (13040 words) by lotesse
Chapters: 8/?
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Caspian/Lucy Pevensie
Characters: Lucy Pevensie, Caspian (Narnia), Ramandu's Daughter | Liliandil, Edmund Pevensie, Peter Pevensie, Polly Plummer, Digory Kirke, Eustace Scrubb, Lord Rhoop (Narnia)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Romance, Sailing, Prophecy
Series: Part 3 of An ever-fixèd mark
Summary:

By remaining in Narnia, and not going home again, Lucy had purposefully thrown herself in the path of fate, making herself the obstacle to derail the terrible train of events from its determined track, which had the prophesied end of all Narnia at its end, and her own premature death in a ruined railway carriage. She wasn’t going to let that happen. She had made of herself a lodestone, pulling fate out of its accustomed course. Inevitably, she would leave change in her wake. She meant it to be so, for the preservation of all.

Current Mood: disappointed
Current Music: nothing now

Data pointing.

I'd very much like to rant about an article I saw in The New York Times Magazine about people trying to get away from smartphones, except it'd boil down to my firm hypothesis they'd achieve the same result by taking the internet off the smart phone. If the apps don't work, you can't get a quick hit of anything. I still don't understand how that manages to be the default for pretty much everyone else and how other people's phones can't also be set to only get internet access when they're logged into a network. It's baffling.

I suppose to ask what goes into making this possible is to get the answer that it's built into the settings with few people bothering to change them, or even consider that as something which could be done - and that cellular data roaming functions aren't something people think to play around with, either.

Who benefits from this is very much the people pushing for the constant immediate gratification and ongoing distractions.

What's the desired outcome is the reliance on the smartphone as distraction device, giving attention and money, rather than a useful tool that can be modified as desired by the owners and end-users.

Current Mood: creative

Entry tags:

Mood Theme in a Year: Second Medium Track Run

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Entry tags:

daily

Daily Check-In

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Thursday, April 9, to midnight on Friday, April 10 (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34460 Daily check-in poll

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 18

How are you doing?

I am OK
8 (44.4%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now
10 (55.6%)

I could use some help
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single
4 (22.2%)

One other person
9 (50.0%)

More than one other person
5 (27.8%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

Entry tags:

hot as molten silver

Here is another poem about the moon. Also, cats.

( How the full moon wakes you )

Entry tags:

fandom: books

"The Midsolar Murders Series 1-3" by Mur Lafferty

Mallory fled Earth and lives on a sentient spaceships surrounded by aliens because of a tiny problem she had on Earth. People kept on being murderer around her. She kept on solving their murders. But instead of being celebrated for that, the cops distrust her and people avoid here. Sp space it it. Only, it's not the peaceful escape she hoped for. There's another human refugee – Xan -, a former friend who joined the military and is on the run after playing whistleblower in regards to a powerful drug. And there's Adrian, the arrogant ambassador for Earth. And also, murders.

These books are another case of cool idea but lacklustre execution for me. The writing felt perfunctory and soulless to me and it never made me care for the characters. There were some really awesome ideas in regards to the world-building, the aliens and their conflicts and it always felt very constructed and not lived in. Also, the AO3 and fanfic mentions felt so jarring in that universe.

The plot-lines also tended to have discrepancies in the timeline (or maybe I just didn't understand some parts of the plot line?) and sometimes actually felt slightly incoherent. I also was so confused by the first actual murder not actually being solved and that never coming up again. Same goes about the whole miliary strategy against the aliens and whatever was going on there with both Xan and Adrian. That was just so weird. I hope that picks up again if there are more books in that series.

There were some parts and characters I really liked. Tina was fun, I kinda like Adrian and I actually wanted more about him and his friendship with the alien and his drone.

This could be a really fun TV show.

Entry tags:

Seconds to Spare, by Rachel Reiss

18-year-old Evelyn is on a plane, transporting her father's ashes, when there's an announcement of turbulence. A passenger gets up from her seat, then collapses in the aisle. The plane begins to nosedive, and everything goes white. Then Evelyn is back on the plane, which is no longer nosediving. There's an announcement of turbulence. A passenger gets up from her seat, then collapses in the aisle. The plane begins to nosedive...

Evelyn quickly realizes that she's in a 29-minute time loop. She tries to figure out why the plane is crashing and how to stop it, but gets absolutely nowhere. She talks to other passengers. She steals their food and eats it. She watches every movie on the plane. She learns everything about everyone, except the handsome sleeping teenage boy who never wakes up during the loop. She goes through 400 loops and almost loses her mind. And then, on one loop, the boy wakes up. And on the next loop, he also realizes that he's in a loop...

Like the last novel I read by Reiss (Out of Air, the one with the teenage scuba divers), this book has a great premise. I enjoyed how Evelyn makes herself free with everything on the plane while trapped, and I also enjoyed how she and Rion, the sleeping boy, work together once he wakes up to figure out what's going on. However, it had an issue that more-or-less ruined the book for me. Rion suggests something that somehow Evelyn failed to try in 400 loops, which is to follow one person on the plane at a time, and observe everything they do. It never occurred to Evelyn to watch the flight attendants, and watching one of them reveals exactly what's causing the crash. They try to prevent it in several ways that don't work. Then Rion figures out a clever plan that saves the plane and fixes the loop.

The author clearly wanted to have Evelyn be alone in the loop for a long time. I can see why she wanted that - we get a vivid sense of her frustration and despair - but it makes Evelyn seem useless when she spends ages watching movies and so forth, and then Rion figures everything out almost immediately. This is exacerbated when Rion also comes up with the plan to fix things. This wouldn't have been a problem if they'd been in the loop together much earlier - then they could have bonded while investigating, taken breaks and done the fun stuff that she did alone, and mutually figured stuff out. It would have been more fun to read and felt less sexist, which I'm sure was unintentional but is inevitable when the girl fails at everything for ages, then a boy shows up and both solves the mystery and fixes the problem.

I'll be interested to see if Reiss's third book also has a three word title that rhymes with "care."

Entry tags:

Big Mistakes Trailer

Watch on YouTube

Now on Netflix.

Two directionless siblings are blackmailed into the world of organized crime. Starring Dan Levy, Taylor Ortega, Laurie Metcalf.

Entry tags:

Graphic Novel Favorites From My Recent Reading

After years of struggling to read new-to-me fiction, I’ve recently entered a phase of reading graphic novels and comics and I’ve been reading so much! (It helps that I accidentally got into a comics-based fandom via stress-reading fic late last year.) It’s only April yet I have already read more books this year than I have in any year since 2020, it's truly wild. I haven’t had this much fun reading in ages!

I wanted to share some of the things I’ve been enjoying, so I thought I’d write a rec list. I find graphic novels easier to focus on when I’m stressed than prose novels, and I also love getting to see so much art. I’ve been mostly reading MG and YA works – it feels like there is a lot going on in that space right now! Plus it’s a space where there tend to be many stories focused on friendship, which I really enjoy. I’ve also been choosing more lighthearted things to read. The world is stressful and I can’t deal with stressful reading at the moment.

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

Hornblower movies 5 & 6

Onward I sail in my Hornblower movie adventures! Five and six are a pair, based on Lieutenant Hornblower, which features a mad captain who is convinced that his lieutenants are plotting to take over his ship. His lieutenants, in increasing fear for their lives, conclude that they’d better take over the ship.

It’s interesting to watch these so soon after reading the books, because you read the books and it seems like there’s plenty of dramatic incident, and then you watch the movies and you go “Ah, the producers decided they needed to juice this up a bit.” Example: in the movies, the entire action is framed by the lieutenants’ trial for mutiny. If they are found guilty they will be HANGED.

Example two: in the book, Captain Sawyer falls down the hatchway, hits his head, and basically is incapacitated ever after. In the movie, he still falls from the hatchway (obviously we’re not going to let go of the question “did Hornblower push him?”), but he recovers! retakes the ship! and then promptly sails it directly under the guns of a Spanish fort, which forces the lieutenants to take action to remove him from power!

While I was reading Lieutenant Hornblower, I entertained myself greatly with the speculation that Hornblower DID push Captain Sawyer. However, upon reflection I’ve decided that if he had pushed Captain Sawyer, literally every promotion would be accompanied by the reflection “This is only happening because I MURDERED my CAPTAIN, truly I am the WORST.” On the other hand, this might explain the great increase in neuroticism between Mr. Midshipman Hornblower and our return to Hornblower POV in Hornblower and the Hotspur? Feels so guilty he can’t even name his guilt…

Okay no, I really think that if Hornblower were guilty he would be naming his guilt to himself incessantly. Maybe he’s just more neurotic because of the stress of serving under mad Captain Sawyer who was convinced that all his lieutenants and especially Hornblower were plotting against him.

ANYWAY. Getting back to the movie adaptations. I can see why these films must have made Bush/Hornblower fans Big Mad. Bush is at long last introduced - and then he’s upstaged at every turn by established movie fan favorite Lt. Kennedy.

Kennedy, not Bush, is the one who is nice to young Wellard after Captain Sawyer whips him for no reason.

When Bush is wounded, Hornblower briefly cradles his head, then the doctor is like “Go away, there’s nothing you can do here,” and Hornblower’s like “okay” and drops Bush like a hot potato. He hotfoots it off to have a chat with Kennedy, who tells him unsteadily that the prisoners have been dealt with… “Is that your blood?” Hornblower asks.

Kennedy mumbles something about how he’s fine.

“IS THAT YOUR BLOOD?”

Kennedy lets his jacket fall open and we see that his white shirt is SOAKED in blood. END OF SCENE.

And then of course Kennedy dies for Hornblower! Shambles into a court, barely able to stand upright on account of his wounds, and insists that he’s the one who pushed Captain Sawyer down the hatch! (As we have seen in endless flashbacks, he wasn’t even in the vicinity.)

Hornblower is not in court that morning, having been decoyed away, which upon reflection doesn’t quite make sense: surely he has to be in attendance at his own capital trial? But obviously we can’t have Hornblower spoiling Kennedy’s dramatic gesture by popping up to yell “That’s a lie! I pushed Captain Sawyer!” (Possibly no one pushed Captain Sawyer! Maybe he just fell! Those hatches have no safety rails. Absolute death traps.)

Anyway, Kennedy is duly sentenced to death. But before they can hang him, he dies of his wounds. Hornblower, of course, is at Kennedy’s bedside, holding his hand as he dies.

One presumes that sometime in the final two movies, Bush will at last have a chance to repair to his sickbed, where Hornblower will tenderly brush his hair from his forehead. But even then, how can he compete with the guy who sacrificed his life for Hornblower? The filmmakers clearly decided to ride the good ship Hornblower/Kennedy into the sunset.

Entry tags:

dorset gardens

Blossom

Pyrus salicifolia pendula.

Everything is in blossom at Holme Gardens - the cherry trees, the crab apple trees, the pear trees, the Japanese quince...

( Sakura season )

Entry tags:

#ArirangD1

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Entry tags:

daily happiness

Daily Happiness

1. I took my laundry over to the hotel next door this morning and since last time I used their app to do it, I did not take any cash. We’ll, you can still use the app, but there’s terrible cell reception in the hotel, especially back by the laundry room, and last time I didn’t notice it because I was using hotel Wi-Fi, but I’m not actually a guest at that hotel, so no Wi-Fi for me. I just about got the wash going after a long struggle, but unlike the machines at the last two hotels, this is not a combo so I had to go back to do the dryer separately and foolishly did not take cash that time either, and I couldn’t even text Carla to bring me cash since the reception was that bad. Instead I took the damp laundry back to the hotel to hang dry. Thankfully we had enough clean clothes to wear today (though we really were down to the last few items as we packed light with the intention of doing laundry multiple times) and when we came back to the hotel in the afternoon, I took the few things that were still damp and did a 15 minute run in the dryer (with cash) to finish them off.

2. Today was our Disneyland day and it was pretty much perfect. Despite the delay of doing laundry in the morning, I was able to get over there and line up before opening and Carla joined me soon after. We were in the park by a few minutes after 9 and got an express pass for Beaty and the Beast right away, plus one for Monsters Inc a little later. Last time we hadn’t managed to get the pass for Monsters Inc and while I went on it myself Carla wasn’t up to the hour+ line, so I wanted to make sure we got that this time. By the time we were able to put in for another pass, they were sold out for Winnie the Pooh, but we were able to do it with the regular line later in the evening when the wait was down to 20 minutes. It was a bit sunny in the morning but not hot, and windy in the afternoon and evening but not too cold.

3. We were planning on DisneySea tomorrow, but it’s supposed to rain all day (though based on the total inches, probably only sprinkling) and the park is closing at 6pm, which means we wouldn’t be able to go back to the hotel and rest then come back for dinner, which is our preferred method. So instead we will go on Saturday, which will be more crowded, and do other stuff tomorrow.

4. Finally heard back from the tax preparer and we will be getting a decent refund!

Current Mood: accomplished

Entry tags:

d&d: aurendor

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 4/8 Game

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off, because the DM's internet died again (as the game's start was already delayed because of internet issues).

Current Mood: determined
Current Music: Dreamers in Exile - Voxtrot

Kiss the rules of empires past.

I know you're supposed to meet works where they are, and there's some where I can't manage that. I had an appointment this morning and wanted something easy and light that wasn't all that many pages so it'd easily fit in the backpack. I'd picked up Red White and Royal Blue off a stoop some weeks ago, so I didn't even need to wait for a library hold - just grab it off a stack and stick it in there. It started out as little better than "just okay" but I still wanted to know firsthand what the fuss was about. The voices were flat, the drama felt cheap, and I kept going. Then it got to a moment where the main character thinks of his mother by her first name. Firmly in his point of view, suddenly shifting from "his mother" to her first name. We're given no indication his is the kind of family to do that. Any decent editor looking to maintain tone and voice should've picked it up and requested a change.

Threw me right out of the book twenty pages in. I didn't literally throw it because I was in a waiting room, but I certainly stuffed it into my backpack with enough force to count.

It didn't have be bad, either. While it suffers when put next to the other novel I'm reading, Clockers by Richard Price, pretty much everything suffers when put next to that one. But this could be better, and end up as good a possible version of this story as possible. Do more. Try harder. Deepen and broaden your goals. Be better.

I may keep reading out of spite. If this got onto a shelf, then clearly it's not because my own writing isn't good enough to do the same, it's a problem with me not pitching to more agents and the industry being less and less willing to gamble. I know I'm better than this. It's not a problem on my end, and if nothing else, this book is solid confirmation of that.

Entry tags:

daily

Daily Check-In

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Wednesday April 08, to midnight on Thursday, April 09. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34456 Daily Check-in

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 27

How are you doing?

I am OK.
15 (55.6%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
12 (44.4%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
11 (40.7%)

One other person.
11 (40.7%)

More than one other person.
5 (18.5%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.