fenopause | Member Posts

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I've been obsessed with watching Mali lately. She's got so much personality and potential. She can sing, and dance, and she's a good little actor, as well. Oh, and as an American, I just love her Brit accent. She's such a trip!

Her doing Respect is my favorite so I had it start there, but the whole video is great.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: amused

rachelmanija

After a wet-bulb heat wave kills thousands in India, the UN forms an organization, the Ministry for the Future, intended to deal with climate change on behalf of future generations. They're not the only organization trying mitigate or fight or adapt to climate change; many other people and groups are working on the same thing, using everything from science to financial incentives to persuasion to terrorism.

We very loosely follow two very lightly sketched-in characters, an Irish woman who leads the Ministry for the Future and an American man whose life is derailed when he's a city's sole survivor of the Indian wet-bulb event, but the book has a very broad canvas and they're not protagonists in the usual sense of the word. The book isn't about individuals, it's about a pair of phenomena: climate change and what people do about it. The mission to save the future is the protagonist insofar as there is one.

This is the first KSR book I've actually managed to finish! (It's also the only one that I got farther in than about two chapters.) It's a very interesting, enlightening, educational book. I enjoyed reading it.

He's a very particular kind of writer, much more interested in ideas and a very broad scope than in characters or plot. That approach works very well for this book. The first chapter, which details the wet-bulb event, is a stunning, horrifying piece of writing. It's also the closest the book ever comes to feeling like a normal kind of novel. The rest of it is more like a work of popular nonfiction from an alternate timeline, full of science and economics and politics and projects.

I'm pretty sure Robinson researched the absolute cutting edge of every possible action that could possibly mitigate climate change, and wrote the book based on the idea of "What if we tried all of it?"

Very plausibly, not everything works. (In a bit of dark humor, an attempt to explain to billionaires why they should care about other people fails miserably.) Lots of people are either apathetic or actively fighting against the efforts, and there's a whole lot of death, disaster, and irreparable damage along the way. But the project as a whole succeeds, not because of any one action taken by any one group, but because of all of the actions taken by multiple groups. It's a blueprint for what we could be doing, if we were willing to do it.

The Ministry for the Future came out in 2020. Reading it now, its optimism about the idea that people would be willing to pull together for the sake of future generations makes it feel like a relic from an impossibly long time ago.

luzula

200 words of longfic; total wordcount now 106,200. How about you?

Tally:
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Day 11:

china_shop,

badly_knitted,

trobadora,

sylvanwitch,

sanguinity,

cornerofmadness,

Bonus farm news: We ended up leaving the boar carcass on a clearcut a mile into the forest away from any houses, cutting open the skin so the birds of prey would have an easier time. Wild boar skin is tough.

topaz_eyes

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verushka70

UPDATE: I had a little break, so I did upload all Regina's XXXs and OOOs screenshots of PG to my public Dropbox, so anyone/everyone can see them. Credit to Regina Keim, of course - but this beauty simply must be shared! If/when she makes her album public, I'll remove mine.)

The Stratford festival posted pics of Waiting For Godot (Stratford) rehearsals with Paul Gross (and David Keeley) on their public Facebook page. Anyone can view these; you don't have to have a FB account - it's public.

Regina Keim also posted a photo album of screen shots of an adorably young and clean cut-looking PG from 1994's XXXs and OOOx movie.
( currently restricted only to members of the FB Fraser-Kowalski Slash group but I've asked if she'll make it public, details here )

julian

Someone anonymous bought me paid time, with the note, "I love your bird photos," which is a) kind, and b) gives me incentive to *take* some bird photos. And other photos. And, as a necessary corollary, walks.

Before that, I need to find my walking boots, one of which is in Some Bag Or Box, and also possibly buy other boots (because snow), which is always somewhat tangled because I have ridiculous calves and ankles.

But meantime, I can organize my tags! And post other things. And so on.

Anyway, thank you, Photononymous!

mxcatmoon

So, a fun thing happened that hasn't happened in a looong time.

My most recent fic, which was supposed to be a short one-shot, got several comments from people who said they'd love to see more. Their input inspired me, and now I've got notes for an involved plot and it's become a multi-chaptered story. That used to happen back when I was writing Moonlight fic and had a lot of reader interaction on the forums, and I've mentioned in the past how much fun that was and how I missed it.

This will cause me to be posting chapters of a WIP as it's being written -- another thing I haven't done in a decade that I said I'd love to try again someday. I also think it'll help me to write a longer story again, since I feel like it needs to be substantial if I'm going to have chapters. Of course, the story will know when it's finished and I currently have no idea how many words it will end up being. I'm not sure it's going to be longer and a couple chaps...but you never know.

Once again I know the joy of being able to have chapter titles for each one. I've already got two of them:

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Current Mood: loved

dine

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thistleingrey

Threading seven strands of thin cotton yarn through a standard heddle and tying the three minimally required knots was enough hand-effort to knock out some night-time sleep. I'd guessed it beforehand and paused after the knots, such that there were only minimal negative effects.

(Since this heddle's holes are too small for a reed hook (which I don't have) or a crochet hook of a size to snag the cotton yarn, I used the Stoorstålka suohpan---a little nylon loop---included with its heddle. A US knockoff product is available, slightly cheaper for me than paying shipping individually from Jokkmokk.)

I still haven't begun weaving with those seven cotton strands because the Stoorstålka backstrap, as demonstrated by their rep, doesn't stay on me. There's a remedy for it, however!

I've unearthed a backstrap starter kit from my first dip into weaving and braiding, purchased more than 25 years ago (it refers to making a case for one's cellphone or pager). It's meant for kids and kid-reach. Its backstrap is a piece of thin nylon rope, affixed to a (useful) band-lock. I have to step into and out of it. But someone pre-warped it 25+ years ago, and I've used it slowly to weave a basic band.

That band could become a backstrap slightly better than the nylon rope, which is a backstrap-using weaver's equivalent of a coder's "hello, world". I'd rather practice, then make something a bit wider. The kit's strap, which is drying with its ends braided, is only 2 cm across.

It seems to me that the main difference between weaving a band (suitable as strap, belt, etc.) and weaving cloth is how strongly each row of weft is beaten, pushed into its neighbors. The tools or loom type used don't matter, except insofar as they aid or limit the implementation.

Like fishing and sailing (but not like knitting, which is far younger a craft), weaving has a lot of terms of art in English. I started making myself a list to check whether I'd understood things consistently across different texts and videos; by now it's longer than several of my recent posts together. That's next, after I drain it of some sidechat, and then I'll resume posting about non-weaving things.

mrkinch

Today I went at low tide, hoping for Black Skimmers. I didn't find any (although merlin thinks it did) and initially didn't think I'd submit a list until I heard the geese. As on Sunday, I heard both Cackling and Greater White-fronted Geese but this time I found the latter, two long skeins of them very high up, more than a hundred in the first skein and at least sixty in the second. I still did not see the Cacklers. Maybe tomorrow. Heh. I heard and saw more shorebirds than over the weekend because there was more shore exposed. Had I gone a little earlier the birds would have been closer, but I heard Black-bellied Plovers and Marbled Godwits, and a flock of Least Sandpipers flew low over the Bay. I even heard Ridgway's Rails, who may have been responding to my coughing. Percussive sounds often get them going. The only surprise bird was hearing a Purple Finch! They're usually up in the hills, not at the shore. ( The list: )

Another birder told me that there were Snow Geese reported at Shimada Friendship Park, which is just down the road from Meeker slough. I thought I might as well go see and there they were, three adults and a juvenile resting in the grass. Not the first time I've seen them there but I'd not seen four at a time.

mergatrude

My handwritten daily journal is as empty as this DW one. I haven't really wanted to write about anything while dealing with the ongoing restructure at work. It's a lot of energy and emotions and attention. *breathes in pink, breathes out blue*

Reading: I noped out of two audio books recently. ( cut for rambling )

At a local bookshop I like browsing titles and then checking them out at the library. Recently, I was intrigued by The Seeker and the Sage, by Brigid Delaney. It's an introduction to Stocism, and listening to it has been a good reminder that I am the source of at least half of my suffering. *g* The audio book is enjoyable, even if I want to roll my eyes at the woman a good two thirds of the time.

I also browsed Plain life: on thinking, feeling and deciding by Antonia Pont, but I haven't managed to open it yet, due to all my reserves coming in at once (again!) and me being overwhelmed.

The only other book I have opened is one on making friendship bracelets. I want to make some as gifts for my work colleagues, given that we won't be working together once the changes are implemented.

Watching: Dude and I continue to inch our way through season 5 of Super Store, not missing Amy as much as we thought we might. We also watched Stranger Things 5, Part 1 and are okay with it. The Honest Trailers video is (as usual) pretty spot on.

Gaming: I haven't been playing much on my own. Dude bought Sonic Racing Crossworlds so we've been playing that (is it better than Mario Kart? Maybe?), as well as Sackboy: A Big Adventure. It's adorable! I've also been sucked back into Merge Dragons, though am avoiding spending money on it.

james

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luzula

No writing. How about you?

Tally:
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Day 10:

badly_knitted,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

cornerofmadness,

china_shop,

carenejeans

Day 11:

china_shop

Bonus farm news: Well, no farm news, but I got a needle in each arm (flu and covid).

julian

supergee, aka Arthur Hlavaty, who I was never close to but enjoyed, died a day or so ago. He wrote engagingly, both on Dreamwidth/LJ and other places, apparently knew like, everyone in SF fandom. His wife's post on it, and Kalimac's reminisce.

Peace to his wife and husband, aka

nellorat and

womzilla.

He was very much a fanzine fan, and had a life and a half in various ways. He was quietly who he was, and lived his life as that; witness his family, for example. As I said, I liked him, in a "ships passing in the night" sense, and I'm mostly posting about it because... Well, people matter. The people who make up community, who are in the same places.

(Also, writer John Varley has probably died, though I haven't seen a definitive post on that yet. I've enjoyed what I read of him, but he was never one of the ones I really *connected* to.)

dine

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mrkinch

I got up there at 10(!) hoping to avoid the fog, and I mostly did. So it was sunny, the trail was tolerably dry, and I got to the north end as I did not last time. Unfortunately there were chainsaws going up on the ridge and I suspect they discourage bird activity. Perhaps not, but the only mixed flock I came upon was around the point and away from the noise. Anyway, it was not a particularly birdy morning, no Warblers, and again very few Winter visitors: a lot of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, as usual, one Hermit Thrush, but three Golden-crowned Sparrows! It's strange to be relieved to see three Golden-crowns. The mixed flock was fun and added substantially to my list. ( The list: )

The Golden-crowns were part of the delightful mixed flock I found in the big oak out at the point, probably eating bits of green as they love to do. They devastate U's newly planted garden every Spring unless she puts down netting.

mific

Aaaand, another piece of art for my current obsession!

On AO3 and tumblr

It's Friday tomorrow, yay!

luzula

Ugh, looong day at work; comment replies tomorrow. 100 words of longfic.

Tally:
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Day 9:

trobadora,

goddess47,

sylvanwitch,

badly_knitted,

chestnut_pod,

sanguinity,

china_shop,

Bonus farm news: When I came home this evening we had a dead wild boar hanging from a rafter in one of the sheds. It had apparently got stuck in a fence wire with its leg, and a neighbor helped my housemate to shoot it. But then he had to go to work and did not have time to gut it etc, and now it's too late. So no boar meat for us. But then, I bet it was super stressed by having its leg caught (poor boar!) and perhaps the meat would not have been good on that account. So now we have a boar carcass to dispose of somehow...