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Entry tags:

migraine

egregious backdating for completionism's sake

I went "HOLD ON I HAVEN'T POSTED--" at 00:01 last night, when I had already been in bed but failing to sleep for about twenty minutes, and so I will tell you that part of the reason that I did not manage to actually post, actually yesterday, is that my reward for having finally e-mailed the headache clinic and said "so yeah I took my loading doses in mid-April, sorry I didn't manage to e-mail at the time, executive dysfunction has been eating my entire brain"...

... was of course a response like "well ideally your follow-up appointment would have been last week but, okay, fine, how about Monday? :|"

"... oh and by the way you know those questionnaires we want you to submit a minimum of a week in advance? yeah if you could get those done too--"

-- which: ENTIRE brain.

(I managed to confirm the Monday appointment. I did not manage to get the headache diary and questionnaires done.)

Circus!

I'm covid-cautious, and for last five years I've been staying out of theatres. But there is a circus arts festival taking place this weekend and it's an artform I adore watching. I decided to mask up and roll the dice.

On Thursday I went to see a performance by House of Dust called HAUS of YOLO. It's bawdy and messy and the audience was there for it. I had such a good time - I had not realized how much I'd missed seeing this kind of show.

Here's a review of their Vancouver performance earlier this month

Tonight I have a ticket for Flo, by a Quebec troupe, where the stage set is a life-sized ship built inside the theatre. I'm looking forward to it a lot.

Productive and pleasurable

It's been a good, and busy, month.

For the first time in four years, bought new glasses
Attended Scintillation, bluejo's book gathering in Montreal
Went to my first SCA event since last winter, to see a friend made a premier member of the new Order of the Mark

I think the hypomania is starting to wear off, so I'd better find those overdue lab requisitions and book appointments, so future me can get her thyroid meds renewed.

Entry tags:

ice hockey

A week ago I was in Prague

(I forgot to mention that for about twenty minutes of the day I flew to Prague, I couldn't find my passport, because it was not in the box where it normally lives at home. That was not a fun twenty minutes, and much love to both Tony and Charles for joining me in the search. We found it eventually, it had fallen down the side of the shelf on which the passport box lives, in a way that meant you could only see it from one specific angle. Thankfully, I eventually stood at that angle and spotted it.)

The ice hockey camp continued to be excellent and very hard work, and I feel like I learned a great deal (and now I need to remember to keep using everything I learned and not fall back into bad habits). The coaching was very supportive and kind while pretty much pushing me to my physical limits. I very much hope to return on future camps.

The Saturday evening we went into central Slaný where there was a kind of beer festival happening, lots of different beer stands around the town square, a live rock band on stage, and a bunch of fairground rides. Sunday lunchtime, after the camp was finished, the original three of us got an Uber into Prague in the gloriously hot and humid afternoon. The other two had been to Prague before so I went off on my own to do some tourist things (boat tour! historical tram! walking across the Charles Bridge!) and messaged them when I was ready to meet up again. Turned out we were about five minutes walk apart at that point.

I took a load of photos but actually this random selfie for my family is one I'm really happy with:

We had dinner in Prague, during which time the hot weather broke into torrential downpour, and did a bit more walking around once that tailed off into intermittent showers, but eventually got back to Slaný for the evening. We got packed up and out of our rooms as requested in the morning but were able to leave our kit in storage while we had a leisurely walk and hipsterish brunch in Slaný before it was time to head to the airport.

Getting home was tediously delayed by train cancellations but I still got home in time to put the first washload on and repack my kitbag for Warbirds practice Monday evening.

It's time for some NYC-picking!

Now, I've already told you about the alleys (no alleys in Manhattan) and right on red (none of that either), and now it's time for - garbage.

Since the 1990s it's been the law that residential garbage in NYC has to have the recyclables sorted out. And since this year we also have to separate out the compost, though weirdly they only pick that up once a week, I've complained about this. It's completely backwards.

Anyway, as I said, it's been the law since the 90s that you can't put your cans and bottles in with your regular trash. Do people always follow that law? Oh, heck no. But if you don't and the city catches you at it they'll give you a $300 ticket, and if you don't pay they put a lien on the house. So even if you don't care, your landlord might, and if they care and perhaps only have one tenant at that location you can bet they won't just eat the cost.

And if your protagonist is even minimally conscientious she'll at least glance around for a recycle bin before tossing her water bottle in with the regular trash.

(As a reference here, our terrible neighbors, who have had sanitation and once the fire department called on them multiple times due to the trash they pile up in their yard, still separate out the bottles and cans from the regular trash. Though in their case they may somewhat optimistically believe they'll get around to redeeming them one of these days, honestly, who knows how they think.)

This rant is courtesy of Elsbeth, which Jenn has been watching. Sure, Elsbeth is a snoop and the best way to dispose of several bushels worth of murderous apple pulp was probably to flush it, but all the same - it's weird that such a generally responsible character goes straightaway to throw out her water bottle in the general trash in somebody's house without at least checking that there's no recycle bin.

Password hell

I just spent an hour resetting a bunch of passwords. I didn't do them all, but I did all of the email account ones, my bank, apple, etc. The big ones.Which, ugh, now revisiting the Forbes article, I guess I need to do the FB ones as well. YMMV but it's probably a good idea to change your passwords if you haven't already done so.

Entry tags:

podcasts

podcast friday

Listen this is the best episode of a podcast you'll listen to all week. Maybe ever. In this podcast lies the seed of all other podcasts.

The Aurora-nominated podcast Wizards & Spaceships episode "The Ur-Pisode: The Queer Heart of The Epic of Gilgamesh, ft. Julian Gunn" is about the Epic of Gilgamesh (obviously), why it still matters after 4000 years, and most importantly, why Tablet XII is canon despite what homophobic translators have done with it over the past century or so. It's so good you guys. It makes me happy every time I listen to it.

radiantfracture is just one of the most brilliant people I know and hearing him geek out about this is a delight you won't want to miss.

WTF even is this?

"Square children's book with hex code 03fcdf for the covers"

Why. Just. Why...? Seriously, who thinks that a hex code is a better description than the name of the color in English?

(This time, I wasn't paraphrasing. I usually do, but....)

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( Read more... )

Entry tags:

books

(no subject)

I've finished Game Changers by Rachel Reid. No, not just the book called Game Changer, tho whole series which is called Game Changers. Getting through the whole series that fast is fine, probably. Anyway, tl:dr whole series review is that the books are of very uneven quality. Some people say to skip book 1, and I can see that. It's a bit more fluffy than some of the other books and some of her later writing is much better. But to me book 4 is just confusingly bad, and that can be skipped easily. The Ilya and Shane books (2 and 6) are fantastic and I also really, really liked 3 and 5.

One thing the writer really excels at is having a distinct feel to her characters. For example, most of them have reasons to be anxious with all the pressures they face, but that manifests in different ways in each character. How it feels to them, if they try to ignore it, how they handle it, etc.

The TV series will be based on book 2, Heated Rivalry, which is about Shane and Ilya. But book 6, Long Game, continues to story of Shane and Ilya and is excellent. It also wraps up the series very well, even though it wasn't the intended ending. The author has scrapped book 7 because it wasn't working, but honestly 6 feels like a great series finale. Maybe 1 or 2 scenes more would have been ideal, but the book pays off a lot of stuff and feels satisfying.

The quality of the writing varies a lot over the series, and also each book has a different dynamic. I am very glad I read it, but I think for anyone reading this series there are going to be books that don't click with as much.

Anyway, the individual books.

Book 1 - Game Changer: When I saw the blurb I was like 'oh, it's this book'. I remember this creating a splash when it came out. In spaces I was in, people were pushing this book hard. No matter what you asked for, people rushed in with this recc. There was a point where I really wanted people to shut up about this book. But, that probably says more about the spaces I was in than the book or the fandom.

It's the coffee shop AU trope, but as original fiction. ( Read more... )

Book 2 - I already talked about Heated Rivalry here

Book 3 - Tough Guy: This was very interesting as it dipped into the darker side of hockey as a business and also the impact of hockey injuries. ( major spoilers )

Book 4 - Common Goal: This is about a retiring goalie and a much younger character who is a friend of the couple from the first book. ( Spoilers )

Book 5 - Role Model: This book is about someone who was caught up in the toxic side of hockey culture. Again, bringing in some real stuff. The MC starts out spiraling because his best friend was accused of sexual assault and he has reason to believe the women. His life had just collapsed in a dozen ways. He gets traded and his new team has an openly gay social media manager who is lively, sweet and loves to bake. I really liked this one and how things developed between them.

Sidenote: I think it's fine to just read the Shane and Ilya books, but Role Model does leads into the last book in some interesting ways. A chunk of both books overlap timewise and the MC from this book is on Ilya's team. I really enjoying getting the additional perspective on things.

Book 6 - Long Game - Time to see how Shane and Ilya are doing. Shane and Ilya are such great characters. They are really in a different and have been stuck watching other couples come out and able to love openly and get married and by truthful to their friends. Lots of amazing call backs to the first book and building on things that happened in it. ( Read more... )

Rewatching the second season of Prodigy all in a rush with E, trying to finish within a week

I noticed something I didn't notice before about Ascencia. ( Read more... )

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(no subject)

* I have my Leyfarers Chapter 7 Finale tomorrow. I am interested to see how things go. Between that session and the start of Chapter 8 we will be switching from the 2012 D&D ruleset to the current one. We'll be able to change characters or even reroll at our current levels. I am not changing much, because 2012 rangers were so weak that a lot of people refused to play them. I've been looking forward to this for a while.

The finale will involve a reality-distortion that will account for all the changes that will happen. My Dwarf is losing his stone sense which is going to be very weird for him.

I spent all this time trying to learn one ruleset and now I need to relearn things and set up all new reference materials for myself.

* I really want to be posting interesting Pride related pics, but I haven't found much this year. It's been a weird June. Some of the events I did last year don't seem to be happening this year. Maybe I should go early tomorrow and poke around Laurelhurst Park. I know it's not much, but when shit gets tough people tend to thank me for my posts, shows them not everything is dark. But I just haven't come across a rainbow yarn bombing yet!

oof but I am having difficulty getting back into routines post-event

I have managed all of my physio once and only once this week. I have not yet got on the mat at all. I have been spending a lot of time asleep, which probably shouldn't surprise me, and a fair amount migrainey, which does (unpleasantly). Have this evening at least managed to send the email to the headache clinic that's been due since April, and consequently may or may not actually get an appointment in time to get a prescription in time to not need to reload the f2f galcanezumab again.

(Have also been really struggling with actually opening notebook since the last trip up north, which is helping precisely nothing. Maybe acknowledging that here will make it a little less scary to go back to, at least.)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

North Continent Ribbon is shortlisted for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin prize, along with Rakesfall, Sapling Cage, The City in Glass, and a bunch of other fascinating-looking books I haven't read yet.

I am so, so, so thrilled.

(no subject)

going home this weekend for dad's memorial

Entry tags:

books

Reading Wednesday

Just finished: Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This one was really fun. I have three more Hugo nominees to read but so far this is on top. There's something weirdly quaint about it—it's a girl and her robot story, or rather, a robot and his girl story, these two absolute oddballs wandering a post-human wasteland on a quest for meaning, and I can read like a thousand stories with this concept and not get bored if the author pulls it off. Which I think Tchaikovsky does. IMO his stuff either floats your boat or it doesn't but I find him incredibly fun and humanist and this was a delight.

UpRising by Kelly Rose Pflug-Back (ed.). This is an ARC and I don't know when it's coming out, but when it does, you should read it. It's an anthology, mostly poetry, about mad pride/mad liberation and most of the writing is stunning. It's dark stuff—besides the mental illness, there's addiction, homelessness, police brutality, and so on—but written with unbridled passion and compassion. Interestingly enough, there's a story by A.G.A. Wilmot in it (the author of Withered, which I went on a big rant about last week). As with that book, the protagonist is asexual and has an eating disorder but there's nothing cozy about the story and it was actually one of the highlights for me.

How To Write a Fantasy Battle by Suzannah Rowntree. Another ARC, this is a short little book that is exactly what it says on the package. For reasons, this is pretty relevant to my interests right now, though it focuses more on medieval-style warfare than, say, urban guerrilla fighting but with wizards. That said, it is an accessible walk through the big concepts that apply to a number of different settings, using examples from the Crusades to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Super useful, well-written, and even entertaining.

Currently reading: A Sorceress Comes To Call by T. Kingfisher. I just started this one. It's about a girl named Cordelia who grows up with a, shall we say overbearing?? mother. Who is able to make her "obedient"—basically paralyzed, mute, and silent at will. She's not allowed to close her door, and her only joy in life is riding her horse, which her mother approves of because it'll help her get a suitor. She befriends a girl in town who also likes riding. That's about as far as I've gotten. Very creepy so far, though, I'm intrigued.