readingtogether | Member Posts

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I feel like I'm having more and more days where I would like to wander off and become an ornamental hermit.

That is probably also a post on its own... This is, thus far, a weekend of feeling very old/turning to dust and blowing away, and general enshittification annoyances.

Beyond that, I have finished the Destiny Astray as far as I'm going to for now. Absolute nightmare, would build again in an instant. Though I suppose I'd much prefer to be able to afford the ridiculously difficult-to-get official version of the kit and build that. (I remain tickled that the not-actually-wrong translated name of the bootleg kit translated back as Heresy of Fate. So I suppose I should be calling it that.)

I will have to get some photos posted because while building it absolutely sucked, it looks gorgeous and absolutely passes the two-foot rule.

I am going to make good on my promise to build a bunch of 30MM kits for the next little bit...

There are no fewer than four gunpla/plamo contests with deadlines in March. One of which I am definitely committed to (Redacted III), another I strongly intend to do (30ML), and the others are if I have a brilliant and fast idea that I can knock out quickly and easily.

I have a lot of other projects I need to get (back) to, but at this point I just need to get myself together to get to the nerd show today and do that. One thing at a time...

(Please go vote in my poll if you haven't.)

mekare

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fred_mouse

The Stars You Can't See by Looking Directly by Samantha Murray* - Complicated story about infertility, and parenthood, and bigotry. 4 stars

Arbitrium By Anjali Scahdeva - this one has quite the summary, which I think I found detracted from the story. I also found the story very clunky, with a lot of world-building passages that I didn't find particularly engaging. The main character is quite reserved, and it is very much relevant to the story, but it means that I needed some other way for the story to grab me, and it didn't. 3 stars

India World by Amit Gupta - there was a formatting glitch here, by which one is suddenly in a different scene with no transition, which threw me out of the story repeatedly. Slow moving coming of age about what love of home means when one is part of a diaspora. I really liked the ending, which is more a pause in the progression of scenes that the reader is invited into. 4 stars.

Grow by Carrie Vaughn (from 2022) - DNF I found I did not care to learn about the origin story of a teenage 'ace' (wildcard, one presumes, given that it is part of the Wild Cards universe, which I've bounced off each time I've gone near it)

Porgee’s Boar - Jonathan Carroll (from 2022) - quite chilling story at multiple levels, about art, and the power of art to show people what is inside their own head. 4.5 stars

D.I.Y. by John Wiswell (from 2022) - this is a reread, but I already had it open and I had fond memories (although I vaguely recall it making me angry about politics and bureaucracy) so thought it worth revisiting. This is a very USian dystopia of corporate greed and lone wolf ~~scientists~~ magic users. I don't like either of those tropes a lot, but it is well done. 4 stars.

* Not sure if I was actually at uni with Sam, or if I met them through people I was at uni with. I know them well enough that I read much of the story in their voice, which very much affected my experience of the story. Often I find that soothing; here I found it distracting.

nanslice

I've been struggling to be interested in things lately, but I'm going to try to get some thoughts out!

I'm so excited for 1348 Ex Voto. You play as a knight errant named Aeta and you're off to save your girlfriend. The gameplay looks pretty rough, I gotta admit, but I'm still cautiously excited. I encourage you to not read the comments on that youtube video unless you want to see the very worst of the gamer community complaining about it. :\ Anyways, this game comes out March 12th, which is a Thursday, the beginning of my weekend, so that's really nice. :3

Resident Evil: Requiem was released today and I'm excited to find an LPer who plays in a not annoying manner, haha, because I'm absolutely so hyped for this game, but I'm also a huge chicken who is not good at scary games. XD; Excited to see in a game again. :D

Pokemon Wind/Waves looks gorgeous! Since it's not even being released until 2027, I hope that means they're giving themselves time to really polish it up. And that gives me time to afford a Switch 2, haha. XD;

....had a sudden urge to try to app somewhere to rp. I haven't successfully rp'ed in ages lmao. I don't even know who I'd play as.

Current Mood: sleepy

shadowkat

1. FB, Instagram, and Youtube want me to buy a Mellow Cloud Pillow for some absurd reason. I've been pummeled with ads on it on all three. The evil marketing people have figured out how to manipulate us into buying things via social media platforms. Must resist. Otherwise they win. I do not need a Mellow ergonomic pillow - also been there done that, and they never work for me.

2. After re-watching all of Buffy and up to Angel S5 Episode 17, I've picked up on a few things that I feel compelled to share...

* For a low-budget television series done in the 1990s-early 00s, and at a fast pace, with 22 episodes per season, not to mention being on the brink of cancellation? These series are brilliant in many ways - almost flawless in acting, stunts, special effects, and dialogue. ( Read more... )

* The best character arcs are - Spike on Buffy and Wes on Angel. And they both have one thing in common - outside of the fact that they are both in the Buffyverse - Whedon had no idea what he was going to do with either character, how they fit into the story, or plot. Interestingly enough? Whedon did carefully plot out all the others - specifically Cordelia and Willow, and was proud of it. But, ironically, Cordelia and Willow have the worst character arcs - neither quite works, both are clumsy, and both rely way too much on possession by an outside source and comic book gimmickry. (ie. Whedon spent too much time obsessing over Dark Phoenix for his own good.)
( Read more... )
* Angel can't be redeemed because he's too busy fighting with himself to get anywhere. ( Read more... )

3. My soap opera is aggravating me, which is par for the course with soap operas, they tend to be that way by nature? I watch them because I get invested in various characters.

The Pitt, on the other hand, is excellent and my favorite television show at the moment. It's very comforting. Also it looks exactly like the ER's that I've been inside of in NYC. Certainly looks a lot like the one in NYU Langone. It's about problem solving in crisis mode. And shows a lot of kindness. Very nice antidote to my rising misanthropy - caused by a combination of factors, public transportation, crazy org, national news (the small scraps I get), and the soap opera. Also social media platforms (not this one - Dreamwidth is kind of an oasis in a sea of negativity and ads.).

4. A co-worker (Moscow Co-worker) sent the following article link to myself, Breaking Bad, and various other co-workers for our reading pleasure.

"For you reading pleasure (long article that spooked some people yesterday):"2028 Global Intelligence Crisis

To which Breaking Bad replied: "Way too long and technical for me."

Sigh. It is. It's also about how AI is taking away our jobs and evil tech revolution is taking away jobs ....reminds me of the industrial revolution.
No wonder it scared folks.

Actually, if you've studied history (specifically between 1870s-1980s) and have a mind for pattern recognition, you may realize how incredibly similar the two trajectories are. I'm not sure if that's comforting or not? Does kind of promote a feeling of general misanthropy and malaise. But hey, at least we know if things get worse than the height of the industrial revolution (that was the atomic bomb and WWI and II), we're all dead.

And on that happy note - I'm off to bed, hopefully to sleep and not dream overly much.

stonepicnicking_okapi

Day 27: Ecstasy

I can't believe February is almost done and I've not posted any art. The image my mind conjures at the word 'ecstasy' is paintings of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian.

The caption to this [Circle of Girolamo Siciolante, St. Sebastian Receives the Palm of Martyrdom, 1570s] is:

As is usual, St. Sebastian has been stripped, tied to a tree, and shot with arrows. The headless trunk at the base of the tree refers to the previous beheading of Tiburtius, son of the prefect of Milan, whom Sebastian had recently converted along with the prefect and 1,400 others.

Not to split hairs, but in the legend the saint did not actually receive martyrdom when he was shot with the arrows shown. He died four days later, beaten to death by the servants of Diocletian and Maximian. And it is not just a palm that the angel in the painting brings, but a golden diadem as well.

Being beaten to death would not be as sexy a subject for portraiture! But that beheaded body is not exactly sexy, either! Hmm.

saint sebastian

silversea

Never was a big fan of classic literature (this may or may not have something to do with my parents giving me children's abridged versions of classic literature as a kid...), but in the last few years I started venturing out of my usual speculative fiction/weeb tastes. Started with Dracula and Frankenstein and the likes, was pleasantly surprised by how readable they were. In retrospect, of course they are very readable, that's why they endured so many years!

Finding Standard Ebooks exposed me to a whole new world though. Highly recommend for any book that's out of copyright.

( ramblings, feel free to ignore )

silversea

It's been a while since I last posted, mainly because of depression, not having anything to say, etc. Trying to get back in the habit, but I think it'll be infrequent posts anyway.

Recently read Lady Susan by Jane Austen and then watched Love & Friendship (confusingly named after a different Austen work) directed by Whit Stillman.

( Review )

phantomtomato

I have a long catch-up post this month, as I was traveling across the January to February transition! I spent a month in Tokyo then, and though I didn’t expect to read very much during the trip, I ended up fitting in a couple of books (and a couple of duds).

A Room Above A Shop by Anthony Shapland
This debut novel tells a story about two unnamed Welsh men, called M and B, who fall in love during the 1980s. The book focuses on their experience of staying closeted and hiding their relationship from the others in their small Welsh town. Outwardly, they take the appearance of a shop owner and his live-in apprentice. Shapland’s prose is sparse and atmospheric, which along with the indirect way of addressing characters and glancing, in-the-know references to Welsh history, make for an extremely stylized read which has been recognized with awards and in reviews. It’s a short, quick book, and so I would recommend it broadly—not because I think it’s generally palatable, but because it’s an easy dose to take.

( Read more... )

The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis
The Rules of Attraction starts midsentence. I knew this, but forgot, and flipped back and forth in my eBook to confirm that I hadn’t skipped a page. Later, reading Wikipedia, I learned that many readers over the years have also treated this as a mistake in the printing—a shared experience. The book continues chaotically from there.

( Read more... )

The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
This was my third Maugham, a choice made by happenstance once I realized that I would have many 20-30 minute rides on the Tokyo Metro with not much to do but read or think. The Painted Veil was on my phone, short, and I’d forgotten any summary of it. Let me attempt one now: Kitty Fane is an Englishwoman displaced to Tching-Yen (fictional Hong Kong) by her marriage to Walter Fane, a bacteriologist working under the colonial government. She is unhappy in her marriage, which she chose because of the impending date of her younger sister’s own to a wealthier man, and in the two years since her move she’s begun an affair with the older, handsome Assistant Colonial Secretary, Charlie Townsend. Walter discovers this affair, and the aftermath of this discovery is the meat of the book, in which the Fanes face a cholera epidemic and Kitty, now disillusioned with Charlie and in a remote outpost with more limited company, completes a transition from frivolity to self-actualization.

( Read more... )

Two DNFs:

Providence by Craig Willse A professor at a small liberal arts college in Ohio (modeled significantly after my own undergrad!) becomes obsessed with a mysterious and dangerous student. Willse writes a convincing and funny take on the elite rural midwestern SLAC, and an unconvincing take on why and English professor with a tenure-track appointment would ruin life and career for a nineteen year old boy.

George Passant by C. P. Snow Small-town politicking in exurban 1920s England. The opening incident is a fascinatingly direct tale of homosexual attraction ruining a man’s reputation, but after that Snow’s writing loses focus, and his blank-slate narrator fails to persuade me to attend to any of the actors in this slow-moving drama.

K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs with David Roberts
Ed Viesturs is an American mountaineer famous for climbing all fourteen mountains taller than 8000m, and in this book he takes on K2, the second tallest of those after Everest. He explores the history of climbing on K2 through the stories of a half-dozen notable expeditions on the mountain, looking at the challenges, failures, and mistakes in each of those years. Viesturs refrains from defining success as a complete ascent of the mountain, though of course that figures—he takes the more interesting approach of discussing teamwork, technique, and technical feats by the climbers. Though somewhat jargon-y, it’s still easy to follow the action in the book, and between Viesturs’ appreciation for the emotions of mountaineering and Roberts’ presumable editing and writing contributions, the book flew by.

( Read more... )

rekishi

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malurette

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rmc28

for your latest work: Not Pounded By This T-Rex On The USA Men’s Hockey Team Because It Turns Out He’s A MAGA Dork

(I had a full body "you go here TOO?" reaction when I saw that title, haha)

If you've managed to avoid being aware of the latest way men's hockey has been highly disappointing, please continue in blissful ignorance and/or consider watching a PWHL game this weekend, but I'll take this moment of crossover fandom for the comfort it is.

stonepicnicking_okapi

( 1-23 )
25. unconditional love
26. forbidden love
27. ecstasy
28. the beloved

--

Two BTS ficlets

Day 25: Unconditional Love

Fandom: BTS
Pairing: jhope/SUGA
Summary: SUGA apologizes.

( Read more... )

---

Day 26: Forbidden Love

'Forbidden love' is a concept that I enjoy reading about and writing about in fiction but acknowledge that in real life, it usually comes with unfair if not abusive power dynamics. Like 'soulmates' and other tropes, it belongs in fiction. But the tension is nice.

Fandom: BTS [AU]
Pairing: RM/Jin
Summary: Romance novelist RM spots a fan of his work on the subway.

( Read more... )

shadowkat

1. Does anyone know of a really good tearjerker (preferably something I've not seen and doesn't cost anything). ie. A movie or television series that makes you sob or cry really hard? I'm trying to clear my sinuses, and a really good cry would aid in that tremendously.

I tried the Angel S5 Episodes A Hole in the World and Shells, but alas didn't help. Possibly because I'd seen them before, and I prefer Illyria and Illyria/Wes to Fred and Fred/Wes. I guess I could watch The Body again? But I re-watched recently, so not sure that would work.

2. Oh, weird take away from A Hole in the World (Whedon) and Shells (DeNight)? I preferred Shells, which was written and directed by Stephen DeKnight - that writer has the best written episodes overall, making me think I should try Spartacus at some point. ( Read more... )

3. Another weird tidbit -in response to a question about what he remembers most from filming the episode Smashed, in a recent Youtube Con Q&A, Marsters highlights the chandelier stunt (where Spike jumps onto the Chandelier and flies into Buffy?) - he wanted to do the stunt himself (because it would be a better take), but Jeff (the stunt coordinator) said no, no, that stunt is mine, I'm taking that one - and explained why. ( why actors do not do their own stunts unless they are insane )
The reason I love Marsters Q&A's and interviews - is he doesn't really talk about personal crap or himself all that much, he talks about the process of filming television series, theater, acting in various mediums, and the backstage or all the stuff that goes into creating a television series. I find what people do for a living fascinating - or the process of creating a work of art really interesting. (I'm not sure that's nerdy so much as geeky? Since I could care less about the minutia.)

4. I'm obviously feeling much better today. Even made it into work, which is a good thing - since my doctor's note stated I could come back today. ( the crazy ass process of getting sick time via Crazy Org or why I try to avoid it like the plague and considered using vacation time )

Still have it though. ( Read more... )

stonepicnicking_okapi

That’s My Heart Right There by Willie Perdomo

We used to say,
That’s my heart right there.

As if to say,
Don’t mess with her right there.

As if, don’t even play,
That’s a part of me right there.

In other words, okay okay,
That’s the start of me right there.

As if, come that day,
That’s the end of me right there.

As if, push come to shove,
I would fend for her right there.

As if, come what may,
I would lie for her right there.

As if, come love to pay,
I would die for that right there.

--

Poem that Begins w/a Tweet About Gwendolyn Brooks by Mitchell L. H. Douglas

Gwendolyn Brooks was a Jeopardy question no one could answer tonight.
That’s a metaphor too painful to wrap my head around.

& I said, “The poem is about Love
because all poems are about Love,”

& you rolled your eyes so hard
I thought they would snap back to center

w/cherries & diamonds. The flit
of your lashes renders me nameless & I fall

blank for what feels like a block. Falling
is a metaphor for my life: unsettled,

unmoored. I capitalize Love
because it is bigger than what we are

or what we give credit for: oaken,
open. For that, you have no answer,

your breath in kitchenettes:
hal/ved, qu/art/er/ed—cut again.

dhampyresa

I've finished a play through of Slay the Princess. I really enjoyed it! I will now try to go after all the achievements héhéhé

I had to turn off the parallax and the ambient sound so I wouldn't get nauseous. Something to keep in mind if you're sensitive to motion sickness and/or vertigo.