Poetry Fishbowl Update
Jan. 14th, 2026 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThe Call for Themes is still open if you want to suggest topics for early 2026. Now's the time, because I hope to post the poll on Thursday.
ysabetwordsmith
Don't even try.
Jan. 14th, 2026 09:48 pmhannahToday I learned a photo-scanning app has a number of embedded ads that show up after a certain number of photos, exhorting you to buy a subscription rather than keep using the free version. You can't skip them, either. It left a bad taste in my mouth. What made the taste worse was finding out you can't just delete your account: you need to send the company a request to do that.
For an app designed to scan photographs to convert physical media into digital information, all the better to easily share some photographs from the Twentieth Century. I'd have thought that the added bonuses from a paid account would be enough to entice some purchases, and they try to get your money even while using the bare-bones, no-frills version that's fairly limited in scope and capabilities. While you're already using it.
It's further cemented my position to generally avoid apps on principle. That principle being "I don't have time for bullshit."
For an app designed to scan photographs to convert physical media into digital information, all the better to easily share some photographs from the Twentieth Century. I'd have thought that the added bonuses from a paid account would be enough to entice some purchases, and they try to get your money even while using the bare-bones, no-frills version that's fairly limited in scope and capabilities. While you're already using it.
It's further cemented my position to generally avoid apps on principle. That principle being "I don't have time for bullshit."
and another worm
Jan. 14th, 2026 08:49 pmstepnixWormgame uses spell components as the limiting factor for its spellcasting, which is a clever way to do spellslots without using the phrase "spell slots," but you mostly get the spell ingredients on the surface, not in the dungeon. The monster harvesting system is for alchemy, different thing, doesn't do spells. But! that one "spell components are the reason wizards dungeon crawl" post i saw was compelling to me, so now i'm imagining a megadungeon setup where "hey you found a vein of Sorcerer's Sulfur, you can harvest enough for one cast of Fireball every time you pass this floor" is part of regular dungeon exploration "new component cache discovered" on the event table, "your old cache has been raided by rival adventurers," etc. I'm also imagining "add a renewable component cache to the mapped dungeon" as a potential level-up option for wizards, or "you can now repurpose one component as another" idk i think there's juice here
10 out of 20 - All for the Game - Neil Josten - On His Terms
Jan. 14th, 2026 08:49 pmcmk418 posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
sweetandshortTitle: On His Terms
Fandom: All for the Game
Character: Neil Josten
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 126
Prompt: Bubble
Summary: Neil's done with hiding
( On His Terms )
Fandom: All for the Game
Character: Neil Josten
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 126
Prompt: Bubble
Summary: Neil's done with hiding
( On His Terms )
Wednesday Reading
Jan. 14th, 2026 08:13 pmsenmutHey I am actually reading.
After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations by Eric H. Cline, part of the Turning Points in Ancient History series, is currently 27% read. Given I began it last night... not bad.
I will probably check out the other books; the collapse of the Bronze Age has long been of interest to me. My largest concern is too much leaning into the Bible, referring to the Tanakh as "the Hebrew Bible", and I got weirded by calling a Jewish archaeologist as having been "ordained" as a Rabbi. I did not think that was the word.
Coolest factoid so far? The resurgent Assyrian Empire of the era had a Pony Express, with mule riders.
After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations by Eric H. Cline, part of the Turning Points in Ancient History series, is currently 27% read. Given I began it last night... not bad.
I will probably check out the other books; the collapse of the Bronze Age has long been of interest to me. My largest concern is too much leaning into the Bible, referring to the Tanakh as "the Hebrew Bible", and I got weirded by calling a Jewish archaeologist as having been "ordained" as a Rabbi. I did not think that was the word.
Coolest factoid so far? The resurgent Assyrian Empire of the era had a Pony Express, with mule riders.
(no subject)
Jan. 14th, 2026 08:28 pmskygiantsOn the first weekend of January genarti and I went along with some friends to the Moby-Dick marathon at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which was such an unexpectedly fun experience that we're already talking about maybe doing it again next year.
The way the marathon works is that people sign up in advance to read three-minute sections of the book and the whole thing keeps rolling along for about twenty-five hours, give or take. You don't know in advance what the section will be, because it depends how fast the people before you have been reading, so good luck to you if it contains a lot of highly specific terminology - you take what you get and you go until one of the organizers says 'thank you!' and then it's the next person's turn. If it seems like they're getting through the book too fast they'll sub in a foreign language reader to do a chapter in German or Spanish. We did not get in on the thing fast enough to be proper readers but we all signed up to be substitute readers, which is someone who can be called on if the proper reader misses their timing and isn't there for their section, and I got very fortunate on the timing and was in fact subbed in to read the forging of Ahab's harpoon! (genarti ALMOST got even luckier and was right on the verge of getting to read the Rachel, but then the proper reader turned up at the last moment and she missed it by a hair.)
There are also a few special readings. Father Mapple's sermon is read out in the New Bedford church that has since been outfitted with a ship-pulpit to match the book's description (with everyone given a song-sheet to join in chorus on "The Ribs and Terrors Of the Whale") and the closing reader was a professional actor who, we learned afterwards, had just fallen in love with Moby-Dick this past year and emailed the festival with great enthusiasm to participate. The opening chapters are read out in the room where the Whaling Museum has a half-size whaling ship, and you can hang out and listen on the ship, and I do kind of wish they'd done the whole thing there but I suppose I understand why they want to give people 'actual chairs' in which to 'sit normally'.
Some people do stay for the whole 25 hours; there's food for purchase in the museum (plus a free chowder at night and free pastries in the morning While Supplies Last) and the marathon is being broadcast throughout the whole place, so you really could just stay in the museum the entire time without leaving if you wanted. We were not so stalwart; we wanted good food and sleep not on the floor of a museum, and got both. The marathon is broken up into four-hour watches, and you get a little passport and a stamp for every one of the four-hour watches you're there for, so we told ourselves we would stay until just past midnight to get the 12-4 AM stamp and then sneak back before 8 AM to get the 4-8 AM stamp before the watch ticked over. When midnight came around I was very much falling asleep in my seat, and got ready to nudge everyone to leave, but then we all realized that the next chapter was ISHMAEL DESCRIBES BAD WHALE ART and we couldn't leave until he had in fact described all the bad whale art!
I'm not even the world's biggest Moby-Dick-head; I like the book but I've only actually read it the once. I had my knitting (I got a GREAT deal done on my knitting), and I loved getting to read a section, and I enjoyed all the different amateur readers, some rather bad and some very good. But what I enjoyed most of all was the experience of being surrounded by a thousand other people, each with their own obviously well-loved copy of Moby-Dick, each a different edition of Moby-Dick -- I've certainly never seen so many editions of Moby-Dick in one place -- rapturously following along. (In top-tier outfits, too. Forget Harajuku; if you want street fashion, the Moby-Dick marathon is the place to be. So many hand-knit Moby Dick-themed woolen garments!) It's a kind of communal high, like a convention or a concert -- and I like concerts, but my heart is with books, and it's hard to get of communal high off a book. Inherently a sort of solitary experience. But the Moby-Dick marathon managed it, and there is something really very spectacular in that.
Anyway, as much as we all like Moby-Dick, at some point on the road trip trip, we started talking about what book we personally would want to marathon read with Three Thousand People in a Relevant Location if we had the authority to command such a thing, and I'm pitching the question outward. My own choice was White's Once And Future King read in a ruined castle -- I suspect would not have the pull of Moby-Dick in these days but you never know!
genarti and I went along with some friends to the Moby-Dick marathon at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which was such an unexpectedly fun experience that we're already talking about maybe doing it again next year.The way the marathon works is that people sign up in advance to read three-minute sections of the book and the whole thing keeps rolling along for about twenty-five hours, give or take. You don't know in advance what the section will be, because it depends how fast the people before you have been reading, so good luck to you if it contains a lot of highly specific terminology - you take what you get and you go until one of the organizers says 'thank you!' and then it's the next person's turn. If it seems like they're getting through the book too fast they'll sub in a foreign language reader to do a chapter in German or Spanish. We did not get in on the thing fast enough to be proper readers but we all signed up to be substitute readers, which is someone who can be called on if the proper reader misses their timing and isn't there for their section, and I got very fortunate on the timing and was in fact subbed in to read the forging of Ahab's harpoon! (
genarti ALMOST got even luckier and was right on the verge of getting to read the Rachel, but then the proper reader turned up at the last moment and she missed it by a hair.) There are also a few special readings. Father Mapple's sermon is read out in the New Bedford church that has since been outfitted with a ship-pulpit to match the book's description (with everyone given a song-sheet to join in chorus on "The Ribs and Terrors Of the Whale") and the closing reader was a professional actor who, we learned afterwards, had just fallen in love with Moby-Dick this past year and emailed the festival with great enthusiasm to participate. The opening chapters are read out in the room where the Whaling Museum has a half-size whaling ship, and you can hang out and listen on the ship, and I do kind of wish they'd done the whole thing there but I suppose I understand why they want to give people 'actual chairs' in which to 'sit normally'.
Some people do stay for the whole 25 hours; there's food for purchase in the museum (plus a free chowder at night and free pastries in the morning While Supplies Last) and the marathon is being broadcast throughout the whole place, so you really could just stay in the museum the entire time without leaving if you wanted. We were not so stalwart; we wanted good food and sleep not on the floor of a museum, and got both. The marathon is broken up into four-hour watches, and you get a little passport and a stamp for every one of the four-hour watches you're there for, so we told ourselves we would stay until just past midnight to get the 12-4 AM stamp and then sneak back before 8 AM to get the 4-8 AM stamp before the watch ticked over. When midnight came around I was very much falling asleep in my seat, and got ready to nudge everyone to leave, but then we all realized that the next chapter was ISHMAEL DESCRIBES BAD WHALE ART and we couldn't leave until he had in fact described all the bad whale art!
I'm not even the world's biggest Moby-Dick-head; I like the book but I've only actually read it the once. I had my knitting (I got a GREAT deal done on my knitting), and I loved getting to read a section, and I enjoyed all the different amateur readers, some rather bad and some very good. But what I enjoyed most of all was the experience of being surrounded by a thousand other people, each with their own obviously well-loved copy of Moby-Dick, each a different edition of Moby-Dick -- I've certainly never seen so many editions of Moby-Dick in one place -- rapturously following along. (In top-tier outfits, too. Forget Harajuku; if you want street fashion, the Moby-Dick marathon is the place to be. So many hand-knit Moby Dick-themed woolen garments!) It's a kind of communal high, like a convention or a concert -- and I like concerts, but my heart is with books, and it's hard to get of communal high off a book. Inherently a sort of solitary experience. But the Moby-Dick marathon managed it, and there is something really very spectacular in that.
Anyway, as much as we all like Moby-Dick, at some point on the road trip trip, we started talking about what book we personally would want to marathon read with Three Thousand People in a Relevant Location if we had the authority to command such a thing, and I'm pitching the question outward. My own choice was White's Once And Future King read in a ruined castle -- I suspect would not have the pull of Moby-Dick in these days but you never know!
Daily Check-In
Jan. 14th, 2026 06:03 pmstarwatcher posting in fandom_checkinThis is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Wednesday, January 14, to midnight on Thursday, January 15. (8pm Eastern Time).
Poll #34083 Daily Check-in
This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 25
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 25
How are you doing?
I am OK.
17 (68.0%)
I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
8 (32.0%)
I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)
How many other humans live with you?
I am living single.
12 (48.0%)
One other person.
9 (36.0%)
More than one other person.
4 (16.0%)
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.
Adventures Elsewhere — December 2025
Jan. 15th, 2026 12:38 amhelloladies posting in ladybusinessAdventures Elsewhere collects our reviews, guest posts, articles, and other content we've spread across the Internet recently! See what we've been up in our other projects. :D
( Read more... )
wednesday reads and things
Jan. 14th, 2026 04:32 pmisisWhat I've recently finished reading:
The Tiger and the Wolf by Adrian Tchaikovsky, first book in the Echoes of the Fall series. This is a fantasy Bronze-Age-ish world where tribes not only identify with an animal-god, but tribal members can shapeshift into the form of that animal at will. Interestingly, people can see at a glance which animal-tribe people are part of, seeing their "soul"; each also has its own culture which seems appropriate for the associated animal, i.e. the Wolf people are pack-oriented, aggressive, dominating, while the Bear people are big and shambling and prefer their solitary caves. The story follows a teen girl, Maniye, who has two souls and therefore two forms - that of her father, the Wolf that raised her, and that of her mother, a captured Tiger - but it's more of an adult story than YA, even though it's largely a coming-of-age narrative. There are hints of dark things coming, the return of the "Plague People" who the people of this land came here to escape; these are people who have no souls, which again is something plainly visible. I liked this a lot! So I'm reading the second book now, The Bear and the Serpent.
(I should say, I really like the major Bear character, Loud Thunder, who basically wants to sit in his cave with his dogs and sometimes go out and hunt and not be bothered by, ugh, people, but unfortunately has a Destiny, and hates it. Also the major Serpent character - the Serpents in general are super interesting, sort of the wise elders of the world.)
What I'm currently watching:
We finished S1 and are now mid-S2 of The Empress. It's oddly butting up against The Leopard now as we're getting to the Italian provinces of the Austrian Empire agitating for freedom and a united Italy, even mentioned Garibaldi. I love the history of it all, the problems of an old world inexorably moving into the modern times, rulers having to face the collisions of the privilege they love and the reality of being a good leader. Also the costumes, especially the womens' gowns, are fantastic.
What I'm currently playing:
Still Ghost of Tsushima. It's so pretty! And I appreciate that there are a number of female swordsmen and archers, even if it's not strictly historically factual.
The Tiger and the Wolf by Adrian Tchaikovsky, first book in the Echoes of the Fall series. This is a fantasy Bronze-Age-ish world where tribes not only identify with an animal-god, but tribal members can shapeshift into the form of that animal at will. Interestingly, people can see at a glance which animal-tribe people are part of, seeing their "soul"; each also has its own culture which seems appropriate for the associated animal, i.e. the Wolf people are pack-oriented, aggressive, dominating, while the Bear people are big and shambling and prefer their solitary caves. The story follows a teen girl, Maniye, who has two souls and therefore two forms - that of her father, the Wolf that raised her, and that of her mother, a captured Tiger - but it's more of an adult story than YA, even though it's largely a coming-of-age narrative. There are hints of dark things coming, the return of the "Plague People" who the people of this land came here to escape; these are people who have no souls, which again is something plainly visible. I liked this a lot! So I'm reading the second book now, The Bear and the Serpent.
(I should say, I really like the major Bear character, Loud Thunder, who basically wants to sit in his cave with his dogs and sometimes go out and hunt and not be bothered by, ugh, people, but unfortunately has a Destiny, and hates it. Also the major Serpent character - the Serpents in general are super interesting, sort of the wise elders of the world.)
What I'm currently watching:
We finished S1 and are now mid-S2 of The Empress. It's oddly butting up against The Leopard now as we're getting to the Italian provinces of the Austrian Empire agitating for freedom and a united Italy, even mentioned Garibaldi. I love the history of it all, the problems of an old world inexorably moving into the modern times, rulers having to face the collisions of the privilege they love and the reality of being a good leader. Also the costumes, especially the womens' gowns, are fantastic.
What I'm currently playing:
Still Ghost of Tsushima. It's so pretty! And I appreciate that there are a number of female swordsmen and archers, even if it's not strictly historically factual.
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The Case of Affinity
Jan. 14th, 2026 03:44 pmarmainaSo, I like Affinity Studio, I like the products a lot. I like the interface, I like what they do, I like the ease of use with vector tools, I like the range. They're very close to being an actual replacement for Photoshop in ways no other application has been before it. I purchased the total suite of Affinity 2 at launch for 100$, an incredibly affordable price and well worth the tools for photo editing, vector work, and page layouts.
Some time ago, the Affinity suite of applications' parent company, Serif, got acquired by Canva. There was concern about this, a lot about what Canva stood for and the growing amount of generative tools being shooed in with little oversight. But for a time Canva left the Affinity Suite alone and it made some wonderful advancements. Affinity Publish is a big reason why I was able to start making zines, as it's interface was easy to pick up on and especially intuitive.
A couple months ago, Affinity was made into a singular program and released for free, and I have some mixed feelings about that.
NOW
I have no complaints about the fact that they made free something that once was paid. I don't think that's a bad thing, I don't feel I'm 'owed' anything. I paid for a digital license, not exclusivity. I still have the installs and backups, I can install it wherever and whenever. And in some ways, I think it's a good thing.
When trying to teach people basic photo editing, there's an ease of use that simply does not exist for Krita or GIMP. You can certainly learn to use those two, but there's a very stark learning curve that can get incredibly frustrating. And then, there's the text tools. There's one thing very few free services have gotten right and that's text tools, GIMP is a lot better than it used to be, but both Krita and Inkscape have some very odd controls for text editng. I've guided a lot of tech-inexperienced people through a lot of applications, and the truth is, Affinity and Photoshop have consistently been easier for tech newbies to pick up on than GIMP and Krita.
When the announcement hit about Affinity being rolled into a new program and it would be free, the first thing I thought was.. 'Oh I finally have a free tool I can point a whole lot of people to that they'll be able to pick up pretty easily and learn from. I know a lot of 'non artists' that would benefit greatly from being able to have a tool to do minor image editing. I can make PSD templates and they'll work completely, intact text layers and all, in affinity. And that's before even getting into how people that want to make Zines and don't have the money for fancy software can now look to Affinity. Most the free zine makers are for the really small zines, and then scribus is free but it isn't nearly as robust as Affinity. Like, in a lot of ways, Affinity going free is honestly, kind of amazing for the overall accessibility of design.
The thing that I'm actually concerned about this distribution model, is the long-term access.
With the applications I pay for, I typically get access to previous versions that I can install as needed if a change happens that I don't like. This type of free model, one that isn't open source, these companies rarely allow for access to previous versions which means if it changes, you're often unable to roll back to a previous version if you don't like the new changes. And if they ever decide the project isn't worth it to keep onto anymore, they can scorched earth the whole thing and there'd be nothing for it. Or they can switch back to a paid model, but only subscription once again locking others out of the ability to work on their projects lest they conform and hope they have it saved as another format.
So while I'm very excited for there to be something viably comparable for matters of graphic design for anyone low or no income, I'm very wary about the future of what that might mean and the access to the tools in question.
Some time ago, the Affinity suite of applications' parent company, Serif, got acquired by Canva. There was concern about this, a lot about what Canva stood for and the growing amount of generative tools being shooed in with little oversight. But for a time Canva left the Affinity Suite alone and it made some wonderful advancements. Affinity Publish is a big reason why I was able to start making zines, as it's interface was easy to pick up on and especially intuitive.
A couple months ago, Affinity was made into a singular program and released for free, and I have some mixed feelings about that.
NOW
I have no complaints about the fact that they made free something that once was paid. I don't think that's a bad thing, I don't feel I'm 'owed' anything. I paid for a digital license, not exclusivity. I still have the installs and backups, I can install it wherever and whenever. And in some ways, I think it's a good thing.
When trying to teach people basic photo editing, there's an ease of use that simply does not exist for Krita or GIMP. You can certainly learn to use those two, but there's a very stark learning curve that can get incredibly frustrating. And then, there's the text tools. There's one thing very few free services have gotten right and that's text tools, GIMP is a lot better than it used to be, but both Krita and Inkscape have some very odd controls for text editng. I've guided a lot of tech-inexperienced people through a lot of applications, and the truth is, Affinity and Photoshop have consistently been easier for tech newbies to pick up on than GIMP and Krita.
When the announcement hit about Affinity being rolled into a new program and it would be free, the first thing I thought was.. 'Oh I finally have a free tool I can point a whole lot of people to that they'll be able to pick up pretty easily and learn from. I know a lot of 'non artists' that would benefit greatly from being able to have a tool to do minor image editing. I can make PSD templates and they'll work completely, intact text layers and all, in affinity. And that's before even getting into how people that want to make Zines and don't have the money for fancy software can now look to Affinity. Most the free zine makers are for the really small zines, and then scribus is free but it isn't nearly as robust as Affinity. Like, in a lot of ways, Affinity going free is honestly, kind of amazing for the overall accessibility of design.
The thing that I'm actually concerned about this distribution model, is the long-term access.
With the applications I pay for, I typically get access to previous versions that I can install as needed if a change happens that I don't like. This type of free model, one that isn't open source, these companies rarely allow for access to previous versions which means if it changes, you're often unable to roll back to a previous version if you don't like the new changes. And if they ever decide the project isn't worth it to keep onto anymore, they can scorched earth the whole thing and there'd be nothing for it. Or they can switch back to a paid model, but only subscription once again locking others out of the ability to work on their projects lest they conform and hope they have it saved as another format.
So while I'm very excited for there to be something viably comparable for matters of graphic design for anyone low or no income, I'm very wary about the future of what that might mean and the access to the tools in question.
inherited IRA, part too many
Jan. 14th, 2026 04:56 pmredbirdI thought that all the money had been transferred from my mother's IRA account at BNY to my account at Fidelity at the end of December.
Last week, I got a message from Fidelity saying that a transfer couldn't be completed, and BNY needed to talk to me. That message was _exactly_ the same as the one I got in November, so I wasn't even sure this was a real thing rather than a glitch.
After several days of wrestling with phone trees and leaving messages with my advisor at Fidelity, I tried BNY again this afternoon. That wound up being a long phone call, including a long time on hold while the person I was talking to looked things up.
What he was able to tell me is that there is some amount of money greater than zero still in my mother's name at BNY, possibly capital gains on the money they had already transferred. The person I was talking to said he couldn't tell me how much, but that based on this call, I could have Fidelity call BNY and tell them to transfer this money.
But that would be too simple: Fidelity said they would need a current statement on the account. So, back to BNY, whose system is set up to provide information to people with accounts they can log into. The available workaround is for them to send me a request form, and for me to attach a copy of my mother's death certificate, and my driver's license, and then I should have it in 1-5 business days.
In the meantime, I have emailed my brother, who told me that any amount of money still in Mom's name in 2026 would complicate things for him as executor. (I was pleased to be able to email him on December 30 and tell him that the transfer had finally been completed.)
Last week, I got a message from Fidelity saying that a transfer couldn't be completed, and BNY needed to talk to me. That message was _exactly_ the same as the one I got in November, so I wasn't even sure this was a real thing rather than a glitch.
After several days of wrestling with phone trees and leaving messages with my advisor at Fidelity, I tried BNY again this afternoon. That wound up being a long phone call, including a long time on hold while the person I was talking to looked things up.
What he was able to tell me is that there is some amount of money greater than zero still in my mother's name at BNY, possibly capital gains on the money they had already transferred. The person I was talking to said he couldn't tell me how much, but that based on this call, I could have Fidelity call BNY and tell them to transfer this money.
But that would be too simple: Fidelity said they would need a current statement on the account. So, back to BNY, whose system is set up to provide information to people with accounts they can log into. The available workaround is for them to send me a request form, and for me to attach a copy of my mother's death certificate, and my driver's license, and then I should have it in 1-5 business days.
In the meantime, I have emailed my brother, who told me that any amount of money still in Mom's name in 2026 would complicate things for him as executor. (I was pleased to be able to email him on December 30 and tell him that the transfer had finally been completed.)
wednesday
Jan. 14th, 2026 04:35 pmsummersgate
Yesterday's art-a-day. Blind drawing. Skye was on my mind a lot yesterday. She refused her breakfast and then went into hiding. Dave finally found her in our bedroom under a dresser behind a bunch of stuff in the afternoon. She wouldn't come out but I put some food in there with her and she did eat it. We took her to the vets this morning and they did x rays. Now we know how big the mass is. About the size of an apple or small orange. It's squeezing her organs - the liver and other organs and intestines. She lost another pound. Anyway. She seems better at the moment and we brought her home to hopefully to give her lots of love in her last days. She's on a steroid now. Once a week she'll get a B12 injection. The vet tech showed me how to give a subcutaneous injection and I did one on Skye myself before we left. I was surprised at how smoothly the needle went in. She goes in for a follow up in 10 days. And if at any time we think she is suffering too much from all this we can bring her in and put an end to it. It felt good to discuss that.
*****
Candy and I hiked at Two Mile this morning up on Black Gum Hill. An overcast and relatively warm day (mid 40's). Just as we were leaving it started to rain. So many times that seems to happen when I'm on a hike. It's dry the whole time but once the car is in sight the water drops start to fall. We drive away with rain pelting the car, feeling very lucky.
I caved and ordered the linocut printing stuff. Now I need to decide what I want to print. I'm thinking it needs to be a little more of a thought-out project than my usual art-a-day stuff.
What We Weading Wednesday
Jan. 14th, 2026 03:53 pmwhite_asterStill not dead yet!
Major stuff I've read lately:
- Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell - A somewhat dated but solid book on plot and structure. It's kind of genre-oriented rather than literary-oriented, and very much toward the mystery and thriller genres, but it's got some very good advice on plot and characters, which I imagine many subsequent books on plot and characters have repeated and reworked in the meantime.
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel - A really good book to read early on when you're investigating the personal-finance-o-sphere. This is not a cookbook, 'do this' sort of personal finance book, but more a "seriously think about how you THINK about money before you set your goals" kind of book. I've read a lot in this sphere, and still I thought this was an excellent and fresh take, highlighting how some serious introspection can help you avoid serious mistakes.
- How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Katy Milkman - ...meh? I dunno, maybe I've read too much in this area to find this particularly thrilling. Also, it suffers a bit from being too "explain the experiments" to really appeal to the average reader while at the same time just rehashing things that actual informed readers already know. So, it retreads some common ground, I felt.
- Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots - I've now read this book three times, and still love it. A witty, exciting story about a former hench who gets injured by a superhero and uses her considerable data analysis-fu skills to calculate the cost in property damage and human life of deploying superheroes/WMDs for basic crime. This gets her hired by the world's scariest supervillain, and away we go. A neat world mashup of super heroes and corporate drudgery, with a lot to say on exploitation and capitalism. Also I loved the main character's voice and I am WAITING (not so) PATIENTLY for the sequel that's set to come out in a few months, as I really, really want to see how Anna's arc progresses and how her relationship with Leviathan evolves.
Reading now:
- Reading the next Morgan Housel book, The Art of Spending Money. Am less impressed than with The Psychology of Money, mostly because i'm about a third of the way in and it's making the exact same points. It also seems, more than Psychology of Money, focused on the problems of rich people (all the ways super rich people fritter away their money) rather than issues seen by more average folks. I've also started reading Little Bosses Everywhere, which...someone here might have suggested? Interesting book on MLM/pyramid scheme history.
Bundle of Holding: Halls of Arden Vul (from 2022)
Jan. 14th, 2026 03:39 pmjames_davis_nicoll
A vast megadungeon from Expeditious Retreat Press for D&D, AD&D, and other tabletop fantasy roleplaying games.
Bundle of Holding: Halls of Arden Vul (from 2022)