rolanni: (Default)
rolanni ([personal profile] rolanni) wrote2025-10-25 12:21 pm

Communique to the Internets

Saturday. Cool and cloudy.

Before we get to the recap, someone -- Alma? -- had asked how you remove the stabilizer without damaging the embroidery. I had previously used stabilizer, which was impossible to wash out, but! Improvements have been made. The instructions for the stablizier on which the pattern for my embroidered shirt were printed said, "Rinse under a stream of warm water." So, I took it into the bathroom, turned on the shower and stuck the shirt under the warm water. Somewhat to my surprise, because, I, too had expected A Fight, the stuff just melted away. It took -- what? A minute. Then I hung the shirt up and let it drip.

Mind you, it was stupidly difficult to embroider through the stabilizer, which is too bad because apparently the kit-making people have latched onto this as The Answer, and are now sending a bit of linen, a pattern printed on stabilizer, thread, etc. So, the two kits that remain on-hand (both black-cat-themed, what was I thinking?) are both "affix the pattern to the cloth."

# # #

Feel free to skip from here to the next # # # if you'd rather not hear an elderly lady complain about her old war wounds.

You have been warned.

Yesterday was No Fun At All. I owe Patty Briggs for the timely arrival on my tablet of the chronicle of Asil's yuletide adventures, which made the day somewhat less bad, but even a beautiful, doomed, ironic man can only do So Much. One does wonder what looms -- well, but that would be a spoiler, and we already know what looms.

My back hurt sufficiently that I took the drugs, even though I knew that was probably a Bad Idea, as indeed it was. The drugs make me sick. I know this, but they do also, sometimes, work against the pain. Sadly, yesterday was not one of those days. Tali gave it her All, but even so . . .

At 9:30, I just fell into bed, exhausted, and slept for three solid hours, then off and on in hour-sized chunks. Firefly was on night-watch, and she, too did her All, including smacking Rook off the bed, when he decided that I would feel better if I played. (She did allow him to remain later, when he snuck up and curled against my knee.)

I finally got up sometime after 10:30, took a shower, made myself a mug of peppermint tea and sat down at my desk to write this communique to the internets.

Since the drugs were such a disappointment, I have decided to quit the course. Yes, my back still hurts. A lot. But if this is going to be my life, I guess I'm going to have to learn how to ignore the pain and do what needs to be done though it. You wouldn't think this would be hard, since I'm pretty good at ignoring various other sorts of pain, but the back pain is my nemesis. So! a project.

Just what I needed.

# # #

My Plan for the day is to find something non-threatening to eat after I've finished my nice mug o'peppermint, then go back to Steve's office and get some writing done.

I have in my in-box two letters from the law firm representing writers in the Antropic settlement, replying to mine of several weeks ago. It looks like I'll need to get Madame the Agent involved on account of Steve being dead like he is. I'll look at those again when I'm feeling a little more the Thing.

So, that's caught us all up. The cats, I believe, are in Steve's office, and I -- am going to make another cup of peppermint tea and a piece of toast, and go join them.

And how're y'all doing today?


mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)
Mark Smith ([staff profile] mark) wrote in [site community profile] dw_maintenance2025-10-25 08:42 am

Database maintenance

Good morning, afternoon, and evening!

We're doing some database and other light server maintenance this weekend (upgrading the version of MySQL we use in particular, but also probably doing some CDN work.)

I expect all of this to be pretty invisible except for some small "couple of minute" blips as we switch between machines, but there's a chance you will notice something untoward. I'll keep an eye on comments as per usual.

Ta for now!

rolanni: (lit'rary moon)
rolanni ([personal profile] rolanni) wrote2025-10-25 11:10 am
Entry tags:

Books read in 2025

52  Blind Date with a Werewolf, Patricia Briggs (e)
51  The Women, Kristin Hannah (e)
50 Emilie and the Hollow World, (Emilie Adventures #1) Martha Wells (e)
49 Black Tie & Tails (Black Wolves of Boston #2), Wen Spencer (e)
48 Shards of Earth, Adrian Tchaikovsky(The Final Architecture #1)e)
47  Hemlock and Silver, T. Kingfisher (e)
46  Outcrossing, Celia Lake (Mysterious Charm #1) (e)
45  Outfoxing Fate, Zoe Chant/Murphy Lawless (Virtue Shifters)(e)
44  Atonement Sky, Nalini Singh (Psy-Changeling Trinity #9) (e)
43  Stone and Sky, Ben Aaronovitch (Rivers of London #10) (e)
42  Regency Buck, Georgette Heyer (re-re-re-&c-read)
41  I Dare, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (Liaden Universe #7) (page proofs)
40  To Hive and to Hold, Amy Crook (The Future of Magic #1) (e)
39  These Old Shades, Georgette Heyer, narrated by Sarah Nichols (re-re-re-&c-read, 1st time audio)
38  Faking it (Dempsey Family #2), Jennifer Crusie, narrated by Aasne Vigesaa (re-re-re-&c-read, 1st time audio)
37  Copper Script, K.J. Charles (e)
36  The Masqueraders, Georgette Heyer, narrated by Eleanor Yates (re-re-re-&c-read; 1st time audio)
35  Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha's Vineyard, Nora Ellen Groce (e)
34  Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Winifred Watson, narrated by Frances McDormand (re-re-re-&c-read; 1st time audio)
33  The Wings upon Her Back, Samantha Mills (e)
32  Death on the Green (Dublin Driver #2), Catie Murphy (e)
31  The Elusive Earl (Bad Heir Days #3), Grace Burrowes (e)
30  The Mysterious Marquess (Bad Heir Days #2), Grace Burrowes (e)
29  Who Will Remember (Sebastian St. Cyr #20), C.S. Harris (e)
28  The Teller of Small Fortunes, Julie Leong (e)
27  Check and Mate, Ali Hazelwood (e)
26  The Dangerous Duke (Bad Heir Days #1), Grace Burrowes (e)
25  Night's Master (Flat Earth #1) (re-read), Tanith Lee (e)
24  The Honey Pot Plot (Rocky Start #3), Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer (e)
23  Very Nice Funerals (Rocky Start #2), Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer (e)
22  The Orb of Cairado, Katherine Addison (e)
21  The Tomb of Dragons, (The Cemeteries of Amalo Trilogy, Book 3), Katherine Addison (e)
20  A Gentleman of Sinister Schemes (Lord Julian #8), Grace Burrowes (e)
19  The Thirteen Clocks (re-re-re-&c read), James Thurber (e)
18  A Gentleman Under the Mistletoe (Lord Julian #7), Grace Burrowes (e)
17  All Conditions Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) (re-re-re-&c read) (audio 1st time)
16  Destiny's Way (Doomed Earth #2), Jack Campbell (e)
15  The Sign of the Dragon, Mary Soon Lee
14  A Gentleman of Unreliable Honor (Lord Julian #6), Grace Burrowes (e)
13  Market Forces in Gretna Green (#7 Midlife Recorder), Linzi Day (e)
12  Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, Judi Dench with Brendan O'Hea (e)
11  Code Yellow in Gretna Green (#6 Midlife Recorder), Linzi Day (e)
10  Seeing Red in Gretna Green (#5 Midlife Recorder), Linzi Day (e)
9    House Party in Gretna Green (#4 Midlife Recorder), Linzi Day (e)*
8    Ties that Bond in Gretna Green (#3 Midlife Recorder), Linzi Day (e)
7    Painting the Blues in Gretna Green (#2 Midlife Recorder), Linzi Day (e)
6    Midlife in Gretna Green (#1 Midlife Recorder), Linzi Day (e)
5    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Author), Kyle McCarley (Narrator) re-re-re&c-read (audio)
4    The House in the Cerulean Sea,  TJ Klune (e)
3    A Gentleman in Search of a Wife (Lord Julian #5) Grace Burrowes (e)
2    A Gentleman in Pursuit of the Truth (Lord Julian #4) Grace Burrowes (e)
1    A Gentleman in Challenging Circumstances (Lord Julian #3) Grace Burrowes (e)

_____
*Note: The list has been corrected. I did not realize that the Gretna Green novella was part of the main path, rather than a pleasant discursion, and my numbering was off. All fixed now.


james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-25 09:20 am
Entry tags:

Books Received, October 18 — October 24



Eight works new to me. Three fantasies, two horror, two SF, and one hard-to-classify RPG. One of the SF books is pretty horrory, so maybe that should be three fantasies, three horror, one SF, and one hard-to-classify RPG.

Books Received, October 18 — October 24

Poll #33761 Books Received, October 18 — October 24
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Abyss by Nicholas Binge (May 2026)
3 (13.0%)

Testimony of Mute Things by Lois McMaster Bujold (October 2025)
11 (47.8%)

Morsel by Carter Keane (April 2026)
2 (8.7%)

The Cove by Claire Rose (May 2026)
3 (13.0%)

Outgunned by Riccardo ​“Rico” Sirignano & Simone Formicola, with art by Daniela Giubellini (December 2024)
2 (8.7%)

And Side by Side They Wander by Molly Tanzer (May 2026)
11 (47.8%)

Lightning Runes by Harry Turtledove (March 2026)
3 (13.0%)

A Long and Speaking Silence by Nghi Vo (May 2026)
14 (60.9%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
18 (78.3%)

james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-24 08:51 pm
rolanni: (Default)
rolanni ([personal profile] rolanni) wrote2025-10-24 12:19 pm

Sunny Friday with embroidery and glasswork

What went before: Finished embroidering my shirt:

Friday. Sunny and coolish.

Slept late because went to bed ditto. Woke up with a backache, because of course I did.

So my glassworking teacher came out and said last night that I had chosen a very difficult design, but that was good, because I could be an Example for the rest of the class. Which I guess is a thing you never outgrow.

Those who have been following along will perhaps recall that I broke the starfish twice while I was cutting it, the second time much less catastrophically than the first. I took what remained of that sheet of glass to class to see if I could be taught better.

The teacher took the glass and the pattern and broke the starfish three times during scoring, all worse than my second attempt, so! keeping my second attempt in the design.

I also learned last night that something that I had subconsciously been depending on -- that any errors in scoring could be adjusted in the grinding stage -- was ... optimism. Apparently, grinding is only for roughing up the edges so the foil will stick, and not a fix for shoddy cutting.

Homework is attaching the foil to all the pieces, which I've already forgotten how that's supposed to go, but that is, after all, why Google gave us Youtube.

I finished reading The Women last night, and am cleansing my palate with Blind Date with a Werewolf before going on to Remarkably Bright Creatures.

I have taken naproxen and baclofen, which is somewhat nerve-wracking, since the last time I had back pain severe enough to hit the drugs I wound up in the ER (because the drugs didn't work on the pain though they made me plenty sick, and the shot of steroids administered by the clinic kicked my blood pressure into the stratosphere, so not doing that again). So far, neither drugs, nor ice, nor heat seem to be helping, so my next act will be to clean the cat boxes while I can still bend over, and then try to figure out what I can do to keep the pain in the region of "uncomfortable," the goal being to not wind up, weeping, in the Command Chair.

Standing up and sorta leaning into my desk isn't actually uncomfortable, so I may work on the Sekrit Project, if I can't think of anything to do that will actually mitigate the pain. Clearly, wrapping a zillion small pieces of glass in foil is not an option.

Tali has been sitting on me when I sit or lie down, and purring, while Rook takes up a station in the same room. Firefly is off-duty and sleeping in the sunshine in my office.

So! How's Friday treating you?


james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-24 08:57 am

Death in the Cards by Mia P. Manansala



High school student and semi-professional tarot card reader Danika Dizon assists her PI mother to look for a missing person... a teen who vanished after Danika gave her a tarot card reading.

Death in the Cards by Mia P. Manansala
rolanni: (Default)
rolanni ([personal profile] rolanni) wrote2025-10-23 01:27 pm

In which the lost are found

Yesterday, I baked bread, did embroidery, carried books down to the basement and got them safely stowed, finished Phase One of the Sekrit Project, which leaves two Phases left to complete by November 14, which is totally doable.

I also found Steve's cardinal, which was hiding behind books on the bottom-most shelf of the bookcase from which it fled.

And a bonus find...

About a million years ago, I bought Steve a sundial for his birthday. Approximately two hundred years ago, the gnomon went missing. The sundial then became a piece of glass art that sat on a bookshelt in Steve's office.

Today, as I was looking for the cardinal, I found the gnomon for the sundial. It had been stuck to a book.

So the sundial is back together, which is pleasing, even though it I probably have no place to set it up, since -- windows, cats.

Still, I'm pleased that it's at least potentially functional again.

#

Where are we? Thursday?

Thursday. Sunny, white-and-gray clouds traveling across a blue sky.

Breakfast was two slices of yesterday's bread, toasted, cottage cheese, and grapes. Yesterday, I ate three slices of bread with butter as soon as the loaf was cool enough to slice, two slices this morning, and I foresee another slice or two with lunch. I am not usually like this, but I'm gonna finish this loaf by Saturday. Guess I needed Vitamin Bread.

Wrote 1,459 new words this morning. Did the addition, to get some idea of where I am contract-wise, and found the total WIP at 102,870, which In Theory means I can type THE END.

Yeah, yeah. We laugh at Theory.

I did sleep in, and my desk one! more! time! looks like a bomb hit it. How does this keep happening? Gremlins, I guess.

Tonight is glassworking, which means a late lunch, because class goes so late. Happily, I can sleep in tomorrow.

That? Is all the news from this side of the world.

How's everything going for you?

Oh.  I got the sundial set:

Thursday afternoon cat census:


james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-23 11:41 am
Entry tags:

Bundle of Holding: Nightmares Underneath (from 2023)



The August 2023 Nightmares Underneath Bundle featuring The Nightmares Underneath, the old-school horror-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Chthonstone Games.

Bundle of Holding: Nightmares Underneath (from 2023)
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-23 08:51 am
Entry tags:

Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner



Faraday, Oregon, seems to have a missing persons problem. Its problem is much worse.

Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-22 08:53 am

A Thousand Blues by Cheon Seon-Ran



A robot muses contentedly on the events that led it to its rapidly approaching doom.

A Thousand Blues by Cheon Seon-Ran
rolanni: (Default)
rolanni ([personal profile] rolanni) wrote2025-10-21 04:31 pm

Come and take a little walk with me, baby, and tell me --

Q: How many witches does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Into what?
#
Tuesday.

So that wasn't much fun. The nerve-zapping-via-electrodes was...disconcerting. The insertion of the thin needles was downright upsetting. However! we lucked in that my patience and the number of needles to be inserted came to an end at the same time.

After, I went to Bleeker and Greer, had an early lunch of ham quiche and mocha (yes, yes -- indulge me) then came home via Camden, Northport, Belfast.

I'm going to have a snack and get myself in gear to go out to needlework in a couple hours.

Today's blog post title brought to you by Lonesome George Thorogood, signing Bo Diddley, and coincidentally the song I heard three times today on three different stations. "Who do you love?"

Below, Park Row, in Northport, Maine.


james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-21 08:55 am

The Eye of Argon by Jim Theis



The story that began the grand tradition of picking on a teenager's work.

The Eye of Argon by Jim Theis
rolanni: (Default)
rolanni ([personal profile] rolanni) wrote2025-10-20 07:22 pm

Monday Evening Update

Did some work on the Sekrit Project, checked the post office box, put gas in the car, went to the book club, hit the grocery store, came home and strung lights. Checked the route to the hospital in Rockport, bought next month's book club book -- Remarkably Bright Creatures -- my choice, because -- octopus.

Tomorrow I drive to the hospital in Rockport (ref "gas/car") for a nerve conduction test. I don't think a visit to the hospital to have electricity run through my body counts as a Writer's Day Off, even if I do get to drive to the coast. I also want to try to get to needlework tomorrow evening, so -- I may be scarce, but fear not! This is The Plan.

Wednesday looks like a free day, as does Friday, Thursday is mostly free, except for glass class, which I will try to go early so I can talk to my teacher about various fixups that probably need to be done.

So! How was your day?

Let there be light.  Left to right -- Steve's Office, Sharon's Office, Living room

Eek.

These just in...

And gosh it was nice of the UPS guy to throw both boxes into a puddle AND block the front door, AND fail to put said boxes in plastic, even though it's raining.

And we end the day on a complete mystery.

I went back to Steve's office to put the new edition of I Dare on his shelf and in doing so, bumped the cloisonne cardinal he had sitting on the shelf, which fell to the floor OR SO I THOUGHT. I cannot find it, ANYwhere. Hands and knees, flashlights, vacuum cleaner -- I have no idea where that bird went. My only hope now is the cats, and the hope there is that they won't destroy it if they do find it.

Sheesh.

Wine o'clock.

Everybody have a good evening.


james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-20 04:25 pm
Entry tags:
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-20 02:04 pm
Entry tags:

Bundle of Holding: Ghastly Affair



A bundle for Daniel James Hanley's tabletop roleplaying game of Gothic and Romantic Horror in the decadent, disastrous age of Marie-Antoinette, Napoleon, and Lord Byron.

Bundle of Holding: Ghastly Affair
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-20 12:40 pm
alierak: (Default)
alierak ([personal profile] alierak) wrote in [site community profile] dw_maintenance2025-10-20 10:11 am

AWS outage

DW is seeing some issues due to today's Amazon outage. For right now it looks like the site is loading, but it may be slow. Some of our processes like notifications and journal search don't appear to be running and can't be started due to rate limiting or capacity issues. DW could go down later if Amazon isn't able to improve things soon, but our services should return to normal when Amazon has cleared up the outage.

Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.

Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.
rolanni: (Default)
rolanni ([personal profile] rolanni) wrote2025-10-20 09:08 am

Gothic Monday

What went before ONE:  So that's +/-1,320 words on the morning. I'm not reporting the impact of these words on the WIP total because I don't know exactly where they go.

The cats were all waiting for me when I got to Steve's Office, and they stuck with me until I said, "That's a wrap," whereupon Rook and Tali got up, stretched, and followed me to the front of the house.

It's now time to have lunch, then go downstairs to perform one's duty to the cats, and monkey around with my glass for a bit.

The cloudy morning has become a sunny afternoon, though still cool.

And so it goes.
#
What went before TWO:  Aaaand that's enough fun for one day! I have finished cutting what glass I can. As Was Predicted, I did break the starfish -- twice, but the second time much better than the first (Do not laugh. The bar we're using here, as Miri Robertson once famously said, is the one that's buried in that snowpile over there). So, rather than run out of glass, I shall take what I have with me to class, prepared to Learn Better.

There's a horrifying amount of glass pieces in my scrap box. Honestly, I should go into the kaleidoscope business.

Also, the project got its tithe of blood today, so I was glad I had wimped in and taken my silly little first aid kit down to The Studio.

But! All that said -- I'm for a cup of tea and a bun, and then I do believe I'll read.

Everybody have a good evening. I'll check in tomorrow.
#
What went before THREE: New entry in Steve and Sharon's Excellent Adventure, for those who are reading along: Eager Street
#
Um. Monday? Cool and damp; rain in the forecast.

Updated my books read list -- I have read my 50th book, which is something of a relief; I really didn't think I was going to see that many.

Read the first eight chapters of the book club book last night. I really can't tell if the ... predictability is a feature or a bug. As in, yes, this; yes, this, too; no that's pretty flimsy, but it gets us where we're going; ok, yeah, they lied, what a surprise -- is just the entrance ramp into the Real Story* (feature) or if, having begun, this is how we mean to go on. Well. I'll find out.

In other news, I was inclined to feel Poorly Used when I got the news that my health insurance will be going up $30 a month in 2026, but that was before I read the newspaper and found out that this same insurance provider is dropping membership for half the state. Yes, the half that needs it the most, why do you ask?

Sigh. It's possible that Mondays aren't good for me.

P'rhaps I'll go find a cup of tea and something for breakfast.

How's everybody doing this morning?
________
*I almost had a fistfight on a panel regarding the beginning of The Goblin Emperor, in which,** and my fellow panelist was insisting that it was Bad Storytelling because Basic Security mandates that you Don't Do That, and my equally empassioned argument that this was just to "explain" how we got to the Unlikely Situation which was the Actual Story the writer wanted to tell. Wow, that was an exhausting panel.
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
_________
**The Emperor and all of his sons are on the same airship when it blows up.


james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-20 08:54 am
Entry tags:

Clarke Award Finalists 2019

2019: The Tories somehow find someone worse than May to be Prime Minister, UK pleas to the EU for a Brexit negotiation do-over on the grounds “our negotiators were fucking numpties” fall on deaf ears, and Tory MPs reject multiple Tory Brexit proposals, for which UK voters rebuke the incompetent Tories with a massive majority.

Poll #33744 Clarke Award Finalists 2019
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36


Which 2019 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Rosewater by Tade Thompson
9 (25.0%)

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
2 (5.6%)

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee
28 (77.8%)

Semiosis by Sue Burke
13 (36.1%)

The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag
4 (11.1%)

The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley
1 (2.8%)



Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2019 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Rosewater by Tade Thompson
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee
Semiosis by Sue Burke

The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag
The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley