amyvanhym | Reading

Question a Day Meme - January:

6. In 1709 The Great Frost began during the night, a sudden cold snap that remains Europe's coldest ever winter. What temperature will it reach today where you live?

It's actually warmer this week? So it reached 45 degrees, and is supposed to reach 51 on Friday. Also supposed to rain. But hopefully not when I'm off to see the doctor on Friday.

7. In 1803, Henri Herz, an Austrian pianist and composer, was born in Vienna, Austria. Have you ever learned the piano? If not, would you like to?

Yes. When I was 13, my mother and I took lessons separately, but from the same teacher. I sucked at it - dysgraphia/dyslexia and piano don't mix well. I could play with one hand, but both? And use the pedals? And read the music? Uh, not without a great deal of difficulty.

The teacher went to my mother and told her - that I'd never be able to learn to play the piano and to not waste any more time on it.

My family can draw, paint, write - but we are not musically inclined. We love music, we just can't sing or play an instrument to save our lives.

***

Buffy S6 Rewatch.

I like S5 and S4 better? Even though S6 is much riskier. The production design is slightly off in S6 - hair, makeup, etc. Also Gellar and Marsters apparently decided they had to lose fifty pounds for all those sex scenes.
(Sigh.) They are TOO thin. So is Emma Caulfield. Meanwhile Xander keeps gaining weight. Weirdly, wardrobe has decided to play with Spike's wardrobe - he's gotten a wardrobe upgrade. Actually, Buffy, Spike, and possibly Willow have the best wardrobe.

The writers are having a lot of fun implying sex - without really showing anything? And they seem to be hunting about every way to do it, available.
( Read more... )

guppiecat

I am not native to Minnesota. I choose to live here.

I’ve traveled the world, and while there are places that are warmer, friendlier, cheaper, and easier to live in, Minnesota feels right. The people here leave one another alone - and what others view as standoffishness, I see as respectful distance. But when someone needs help, people show up. It isn’t perfect - no place is - but it’s right for me.

People who haven’t spent much time here don’t understand the cycle of the seasons. Spring isn’t bright and green like it is elsewhere; it’s brown and muddy. Summer is hot and humid - sometimes among the hottest places on the planet—, sometimes smoky from wildfires, sometimes thick with mosquitoes. But the days are long, and the hiking and nature can be spectacular.

Fall is a time of coming together. While it’s not really my thing, as seasonal affective disorder starts to creep in, I can appreciate how important it is for others to gather—to share food, stories, and warmth.

Winter, however, is cold.

In snowy winters, the snow piles up and just keeps going. The joke is that by mid-January, two-lane roads become single-lane roads, and by early February—when there’s nowhere left to put the snow—the roads just start getting taller. This is when people ski and skate, take winter hikes, or retreat indoors to cook, read, watch TV, and spend time with family. This aligns with the public image of Minnesota: a place where time slows, where people are nice to one another in warm, yellow-lit houses while we wait for the cold, dark blues, greys, and whites to thaw.

But that isn’t all Minnesota is.

Minnesota is also about people working together and supporting one another. It’s about protesting injustice, as we’ve seen in response to the killings of Philando Castile, George Floyd, Amir Locke, and so many others. It’s about defending the most vulnerable—immigrants and Native people, the poor, people of color, and those whose sexuality or gender identity puts them at risk.

Minnesotans - more than anywhere I’ve lived, and more than most places I’ve visited - are deeply engaged politically. Even those who claim not to be involved are often only a degree or two removed from people in office or people who have served. We donate money, time, resources, our bodies, and sometimes our own lives to make things better for all of us.

And even in winter, even in the darkness, the sun still comes out some days.

When it does, things melt a little. Tree branches shed their weight and rise. Hard-packed snow turns to slush, and things begin to move. It doesn’t even need to get above freezing. I’ve seen water running down the driveway on a bright day when it’s well below zero.

That’s the thing about Minnesota: even in the darkest days of winter, we make our own sunshine. We come together. We help one another thaw and reshape ourselves. We jump each other’s cars, clear driveways, bring food - because if we don’t help one another, collectively, we don’t survive. At least not as the people we want to be.

It’s in that context that I fiercely oppose the cold-blooded killing of Renee Nicole Good this morning by federal “law enforcement” operating far outside their jurisdiction. It’s why I support those attending tonight’s vigil, and the protests in the days ahead against this violence—and the violence still to come from those who claim to be governing this country.

I can’t do otherwise.
We can’t do otherwise.

Because in Minnesota, even on the coldest days, the bright light of the sun melts ICE.

gingicat

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rocky41_7 posting in

books

First book of 2026! This was The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente with illustrations by Michael Kaluta. I have no recollection of how this ended up on my TBR and I was a little skeptical checking it out in the library, but I'm glad I stuck with it because it ended up being a lot of fun and I will definitely check out the second volume.

You might be a little confused in the beginning, as In the Night Garden is a series of nested stories within stories and the style takes a minute to get used to, but it's worth it. Valente unfolds a veritable matryoshka of tales into neat blooms whose petals all fit together. Retroactive reveals and recontextualiations are delightful here.

Valente's vivid prose brings together her fantastical tales with such clarity; she attends frequently to all five senses, so that the reader knows what the characters are not only seeing, but hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling as well. There's obviously a lot of fairy tale inspiration here, but Valente definitely brings her own flavor. Women are almost always the hero of Valente's tales (though they play the villains too!) and there are such a great variety of them. Monsters abound too, but they get their chance to tell a tale too. (There's also some gentle ribbing at the Arthurian legends, with one witch lamenting about "all that questing" princes get up to.)

I was so engrossed in the work I didn't realize until quite late in the book how little romance factors into it. In a fairy tale inspired book like this, I would have expected a great many characters motivated by romance, but I can only think of two here who are primarily motivated by a love interest, and this delights me too. I'm arospec myself and while I enjoy a good tale of romance, I also weary of how frequently and totally it is centered in stories, so I was really enthused by how little that's the case here.

Friendship and family relationships do make frequent appearances though, and the friendship between the orphan teller of tales and the young boy hanging onto her words is the framing story. Love between mother and daughter, between brother and sister, even between strangers is a common thread.

She also avoids a pitfall I see in various modern fantasy stories which are so keen to explain the magic of their world they strip it of all mystery. Valente's world remains largely unexplained and asks the reader to simply take it as it is, which I found fun and appropriately mysterious.

The style of the book allows Valente to pull in a great many diverse characters and voices, which she does it well. Most impressive though is her ability to pull a cohesive tapestry out of all the various threads she's juggling.

A really fun and unusual story which I enjoyed a lot--a great start to a new year of reading!

marycatelli posting in

books

No Man's Land: Volume 3 by Sarah A. Hoyt

The tale concludes! Spoilers ahead for the earlier two.

( Read more... )

shadowkat

Well, some good news? I misread the Bed Bugs notice on the entrance of my apartment building. Not surprising - considering it was in tiny print. ( I brought home my reading glasses from work to read it properly.) I read after I asked a neighbor if we should be worried about it - and he looked at me quizzically, and said, not really, although I'm always concerned.

Then I read it. It stated:

Units: 81
Inspected: All
Infested:0
Cleaned: 0
Number found: 0

And the date of the inspection.

No wonder I was confused. Without my reading glasses, 0's look like 8's and 9's.

I worried about this all day long, went on the internet (which of course made it worse) - and finally convinced myself to read the sign in the lobby again, but with my reading glasses this time around.

Whew. No bed bugs in the building.

***

Now, I just have to figure out the will - first things first complete it, have it reviewed by lawyer, then sent, notarized and witnessed. And try not to worry about the knees. I'm icing both now. And hobbling very slowly up and down steps. Plus side? I'm grateful I moved years ago to this apartment complex - it's highly accessible for folks with ailments. It has a ramp to the entrance, so you can avoid the two steps. Then once inside - two elevators. So I don't have to go up and down the steps. And, I can either do laundry in the basement or send it out to be down - still without having to go up and down steps. I can also order food to be delivered to me.
Not certain about pharmaceuticals (other places yes, just not sure about my pharmacy).

***

Thought about the Spike/Buffy ("Spuffy") and Angel/Cordy ("Cangel") relationships, and ( Read more... )

I liked how the writers delved in the nasty consequences of using another person to "get off" or using sex as a drug. While alcohol and other drugs - are problematic, using sex as a drug is kind of similar to vampirism - in that you are using someone, with little care to how they feel, to get yourself off. Our society tends to handwave that - or generalize and state all consensual and kinky sex is bad, ie demonize the people and the act of sex (particularly if the act varies from whatever is considered the norm). (Let's face it - our global society and culture has serious issues regarding sex and sexual behavior. Always has. They also like to generalize (no despite what people might think we all don't experience sex the same way, our bodies are very different from each other, and no two people experience or need the same thing in regards to it, everyone is different). Part of our problem is - we can't talk about it in a way that doesn't involve ribald humor or running for the hills. A lot of folks can't say the words vagina and penis. And come up with other words for these parts of their anatomy.) One of the things I loved about Buffy is how the writers satirized societal views regarding sex and the culture's relationship to sex. ( Read more... )

cielsosinfel posting in

onesongaday

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Current Music: Tracy Chapman - Subcity

nairiporter posting in

talkpolitics

Recent talk about the United States asserting control over Greenland, whether framed as acquisition, pressure, or "strategic necessity", should be taken seriously not for its feasibility, but for what it signals. Greenland is not a vacant asset, it is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, a NATO ally. Treating it as a bargaining chip implicitly weakens the principle that borders and sovereignty among allies are not subject to unilateral revision.

From a NATO perspective, this kind of rhetoric introduces strategic ambiguity where cohesion is essential. NATO's strength depends less on raw military capacity than on mutual trust and predictability. If a leading member appears willing to coerce or sideline another ally over territory, it complicates alliance decision-making and gives adversaries an opportunity to test fractures, particularly in the Arctic, where Russia and China are already probing for influence.

More broadly, this episode reflects a tension between transactional power politics and the rules-based order the US has historically championed. Even if intended as leverage or domestic signaling, normalising the idea that great powers can "reallocate" strategic geography undermines the norms the West relies on to criticise similar behaviour elsewhere. The long-term cost is not Greenland itself, but the erosion of credibility when the same standards are no longer consistently applied.

yourlibrarian posting in

tv_talk

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk

End of year is a time for 2025 lists. The Guardian came out with Top 50 TV Shows & Hidden Gems of 2025. Can a gem be that hidden if it’s on a list of top shows? What makes something a “hidden gem” to you?

angrboda

Snowpocalypse seems to have been downgraded rather. At least where I live. Up north they're still under an orange weather warning.

In other news, I received some colour cards today. What they had in the paint shop was quite limited, because purple is apparently not a fashionable colour this year or something, but I could order some more on their website and pretty much just put anything in my basket that had purple in the name. I'll have to have a good look at them in the room tomorrow in daylight. I do have a new tentative favourite now, though. We can get paint samples, so if in doubt that's what we'll do.

I'm also hoping to get the sewing machine out tomorrow and have a stab at the curtains. Husband is nearly finished with plastering and sanding, so I can't keep putting it off. I cut the (rather expensive) fabric the other days, so we're already past the point of no return. It's just a question of getting it done now and remember the stuff I learned while making the bedroom curtains.

ETA: "Though" Gosh, I overuse this word. Please don't make any drinking games based on this, I fear it might end poorly.

sovay

Doubtful as it may be under present conditions to find encouragement in anything of military origin unless it's the USS Princeton in 1844, about twenty-seven seconds into the two minutes' patriotism of Warship Week Appeal (1942) I cracked up.

Two hundred feet exactly of no-credits 35 mm, the object in question is a trailer produced for the Ministry of Information, essentially the same concept as the film tags of WWI: a micro-dose of propaganda appended to a newsreel as part of a larger campaign, in this case a sort of public information skit in which it is supposed that Noël Coward on the Denham sets of In Which We Serve (1942) is approached by Leslie Howard, slouching characteristically on with his hands in his pockets and his scarf twisted carelessly label-out, anxious to discuss a problem of National Savings. "How do you think we can make an appeal so it won't quite seem like an appeal?" With limited screen time to realize their meta conceit, the two actor-directors get briskly down to explaining the mechanics of the scheme to the British public with the shot-reverse-shot patter of a double act on the halls, but the trailer has already dropped its most memorable moment ahead of all its instructions and slogans, even the brief time it rhymes. Diffident as one end of his spectrum of nerd heroes, Howard apologizes for the interruption, excuses it with its relevance to naval business, and trails off with the usual form of words, "I'm sure you won't mind—" to which Coward responds smoothly, "I'm delighted to see you. And I know perfectly well—as we rehearsed it so carefully—that you've come to interview me about Warships Week." He doesn't even bother to hold for a laugh as Leslie snorts around his unlit cigarette. It doesn't all feel like a bit. The interjection may or may not have been scripted, but Coward's delivery is lethally demure and his scene partner's reaction looks genuine; for one, it's much less well-timed or dignified than the smile he uses to support a later, slightly obligatory joke about the income tax, which makes it that much more endearing. It's funny to me for a slant, secondhand reason, too, that has nothing to do with the long friendship between the two men or further proof of Noël's deadpan for the ages: a dancer with whom my mother once worked had been part of the company of Howard's 1936 Hamlet and like all the other small parts, whenever her back was to the audience and the Hollywood star was stuck facing the footlights, she tried to corpse him. One night she finally succeeded. Consequently and disproportionately, watching him need the length of a cigarette-lighting to get his face back, I thought of her story which I hadn't in years and may have laughed harder than Leslie Howard deserved. If it's any consolation to him, the way his eyes close right up like a cat's is beautiful, middle-aged and underslept. It promotes the illusion that a real person might say a phrase like "in these grim days when we've got our backs to the wall" outside of an address to the nation.

Not much consolation to the MOI, Warship Week Appeal accomplishes its goal in that while it doesn't mention for posterity that a community would adopt the ship it funded, the general idea of the dearth of "ships—more ships and still more ships" and the communal need to pay down for them as efficiently as possible comes through emphatically. It's so much more straightforward, in fact, than I associate with either of its differently masked actors, I'd love to know who wrote it, but the only other information immediately available is that the "Ronnie" whom Coward is conferring with when Howard courteously butts in is Ronald Neame. Given the production dates of their respective pictures, it's not difficult to pretend that Howard just popped over from the next sound stage where he was still shooting The First of the Few (1942), although he is clearly in star rather than director mode because even if he's in working clothes, he is conspicuously minus his glasses. What can I tell you? I got it from the Imperial War Museum and for two minutes and thirteen seconds it cheered me up. Lots of things to look at these days could do much, much worse. This interview brought to you by my appealing backers at Patreon.

Current Music: The Advisory Circle, "Inner Activity"

gingicat

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Current Mood: angry

avalonautumn

Here we go again...

I'm in a mood that is difficult to articulate.

I know. That's so weird for me! The second half of last year really made me feel both impotent and fed up in ways that's changed how I'm dealing with life and people. Part of that mood is just plain anger. I'm pissed at a lot of people and I don't know what to do with that emotion. I'm also feeling okay with surrendering to reality-- like I have no power but so the fuck what? Another emotion I don't know how to handle really. So I'm just sitting with both those emotions always just there and that's the mood I've been in for months upon months.

I've been writing regularly, if rarely, over the months, and one thing I'm going to do over the next couple of months is post those entries on my LiveJournal. I'm really behind on that! But I'll catch up by only one or two posts at a time so anyone reading can catch up pretty easily, rather than overwhelming my 2 or 3 regular readers who are still around that venue. Posting these should help explain why I'm in this long-term feisty mood.

I'm going to try to get back to posting once a week again, maybe more if the mood strikes. One reason I haven't been writing more is that I don't find that I have much new to say. It seems like the same issues arising over and over, and circling around my frustration over these things is boring the fuck out of me! I want to move on and move up, but I can't, so I just... sigh and pivot to distracting myself with some silly diversion. That's not exactly enthralling to communicate, ya know? But okay-- some new shit pops up most weeks I can write about, and so I'll do my best on that.

Financially, I have to do my back taxes (where I'm owed via EIC or Earned Income Credit-- my sponsored writing counts for a wonder!) as well as last year's taxes, which should help some. It took until last fall before I had access to my own 1099s from Patreon. I'm also seeing my doctor and working out all my diagnosed chronic issues so I can apply for SSI, rather than Disability. Disability is much harder to get (though worth it if you can get it, because it's more money) but I don't think I can handle the stress of it. So I'm applying for something that allows for me to work a little on the regular (like my Patreon money) and going that route. This winter these goals are my main focus. Alimony ends in August, so I have to get going on this. I hate that it took me this long to figure things out, but I've had no support for it except my therapist, and my PTSD bullshit makes me very reluctant to face scrutiny of any kind! Intellectually I know this, but that doesn't make dealing with my overwhelming emotions any easier. The lizard brain trumps the emotional, and the emotional trumps the intellectual. I finally think I can do all this without panicking and shutting down.

Wish me will. It's not luck I need, but rather the will to keep at it and see it through!

Once I get the paperwork (online forms) worked out and sent, I think I'll finally be able to take a deep breath.

Other things on my agenda: Buy new clothes. I'm literally down to rags on some of my favorite long-sleeved shirts. I had to throw two away in the last month because they got so full of holes they were useless. I guess that tax return money will help with this endeavor.

I need to repair my iPad that's been down for almost a year because I don't know how to fix it, and I need a ride to the Apple store or something and I'm tired of asking my roomies for favors all the time! But I've got to bite the bullet and do it. It's stupid to have something that's only bad because of a software glitch!

I require another go-round at the dentist. It's been 2 years and that's too long. Again-- tax return money.

At this point, I'll be back down to nothing again, but okay-- I'll have clothes and an iPad and teeth working, and that's all good.

Most of my other projects with other people are on hold because between my migraines and their reluctance, we're at a stuck point. Fine.

That leaves psychological and spiritual goals for the year.

I'm going to do another round of IFS therapy because I'm finding myself at an emotional stuck point (see "mood" above there) and clearly some things are just not dynamic enough to be useful anymore. I'll share that on my journals because that's how I roll. But buckle up because I have a feeling some Aspects of me are raring for a fight. Somebody new has popped up, that's for sure!

Spiritually, I'm going to explore the Norse god connection (that THEY started, not me!) and see if I can get more communication going and ask what I can do and ask them for some favors in return. What I want is pretty simple: better health. If I have that, I can manage the rest. I admit I'm curious as to why they contacted me in the first place and what it is they think I can do! Because I'm not very impressive on the practical level, let's admit that. Conversationally, sure! But how that translates into favors for pagan gods I couldn't tell you.

Finally, it's that time of the year again... My gang of celestial or other-dimensional Visitors start abducting me to... teach hybrid teenagers about life on Earth? I don't know! I don't remember enough to report much, but maybe I'll get a few precious seconds of memory. Last year (or was it the year before?) I remembered one child of mine named "Cathay" who looked more like a Grey but had this artistic, weird outlook on life and it was cool to remember someone in that secret life of mine that I could actually enjoy as a person. Sure-- she was "deep reading" my mind, and that's always invasive, but at least she was bubbly and light in her mental touch, so the mind rape was more gentle.

Like how I'm ending this with the freaky shit? Yeah-- I'm REALLY behind in those reports! But in the next few weeks I expect at least a few things to leak out, and so we'll see how it goes. If you're new and you don't believe in that type of thing, it's fine. I'm not offended! I don't know that I could believe it if... I hadn't had all the experiences I've had as well as multiple witnesses to a precious few of them. I suppose you can just scratch your head at the weirdo who dares to write about everything in her life, even the ghosts and aliens and faeries and gods! I could censor that stuff out, but why bother? I don't care much if others affirm my experiences anymore. I haven't in a long time.

I can't say I'm looking forward to the new year. However, I do know that some big changes are coming and I can only hope they're better than the older reality they're replacing. In my own life at least. In the bigger world, I already know that the shit show is going to get much, much worse.

Current Mood: weird

tinny posting in

tv_talk

There's a new comm for Heated Rivalry:

gamechangerhr
A community dedicated to the Game Changer Book series and the Heated Rivalry TV series

and they have a friending meme, too: https://gamechangerhr.dreamwidth.org/855.html

sovay

After a full week without water in the kitchen, the plumber cameth on half an hour's notice from the property manager and was horrified to hear about it, but he was swift and competent and we have a new and working faucet, which was all the problem turned out to be. Hestia made herself invisible in the bedroom throughout the proceedings. I washed a fork without first boiling water and it felt like a big deal.

I just finished reading David Hare's A Map of the World (1983), whose device of examining an interpersonal-political knot through the successive filters of the roman à clef, the screen version, and the memories of the participants reminded me obviously of similar exercises in metafiction and retrospect by Tom Stoppard and Michael Frayn, double-cast for an effect at the end approaching timeslip such as works almost strictly on stage. I did not expect to find some fragments preserved in an episode of The South Bank Show, but there were some of the scenes with Roshan Seth, John Matshikiza, Bill Nighy, Diana Quick. I wish I thought it meant there were a complete broadcast I could watch, but I'm not even finding it got the BBC Radio 3 treatment. More immediately, it reminded me of how many of the stories I read early were about stories, their propagation and mutation, their conventions, their shifting distances from the facts. "And, in time, only the bards knew the truth of it."

The problem with the denaturing of language is that when I say to

spatch that the political situation is insane, I don't mean it's a little far-fetched, I mean it is driven by wants and processes that are not rational and it is exhausting to be trapped inside someone else's illness.

Current Music: Fast Blood, "Rut"

shadowkat

Question a Day Meme:

4. Do you have any travel plans arranged for this year?

Well, kind of? But nothing really planned or definite at the moment - due to continuing health issues from 2025 - specifically my cranky knees (which aren't cooperating with me and deteriorating at the ripe old age of 58). My plan was to go to Chicago in the Spring with Mother, maybe a train trip in the fall, and possibly a short excursion to see her in Hilton Head. Now, not sure what I'm doing.

5. Are you looking forward to any TV shows this year?

* The Pitt S2 - HBO
* Diplomat S4 or is it 5 - Netflix
* Lanterns - HBO
* Slow Horses S5 (I think - the next season in any event) - Apple +
* Second Season of Dept Q - Netflix
* Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale (assuming of course Hulu shows the pilot and any new episodes post-pilot) - Hulu

***

Oh, Angel/Buffy rewatch?

The Angel/Cordelia and Buffy/Spike romances are ...frustrating? In many respects I prefer them to Buffy/Angel, but they are still frustrating to watch?

Neither Angel nor Buffy know how to communicate, while Spike and Cordelia are kind of no-nonsense, and say it like it is.

Also, the writers don't appear to know what to do with Xander and Gunn. They are in holding pattern with Xander/Anya. Poor Anya appears to be stuck in the Magic Shop either planning her wedding, working, or researching with Xander at night. Xander and Gunn are similar characters - "dudes" - and the writers have no idea what to do with them.

Buffy and Spike - need to talk more? I actually feel more for Spike than Buffy this season - mainly because he just wants to talk it out. And she refuses to. She likes to talk at him - basically complain about her life, or lack thereof, but not discuss their relationship, or his role in her life. It's hard not to identify with Spike in this situation. Which while insanely interesting and rather innovative from an overall narrative/ story-telling perspective, it's also a touch messy from a plot perspective? Because I know where this is headed? And I'm not sure it works - if I'm rooting for Spike? Worse - I'm rooting for Spike to be redeemed without a soul and get Buffy. And that's against the story-thread and the canon. We're supposed to rooting for Buffy to get away from Spike, to see he can't change, and be shocked that he goes and gets a soul - and think, but of course, and then realize no he still can't have her - but at least he gets it now, and finally can be redeemed? But it's not quite being written that way entirely - because I think the writers being rather existentialist were on the fence about it? (I mean let's face it - where's the fun in writing this sort of thing, if you can't break your own rules?) Also the story-thread is kind of predictable and boring, so the writers decided to be a bit more ambiguous about it, and let both Spike and Buffy think, well, maybe, he can be? That's great - but it can prove to be problematic.

I think S6 fascinates me - because it's so subversive, and indecisive, and filled with risks. Honestly, it and S4 - they writers had a lot of fun breaking a ton of television writing and trope rules. And I had a blast watching them do it. They did manage to change the medium in the process - because other writers, actors, creative types saw it - and got excited, and decided to do it too. I'm not sure we'd have BSG, RT Davies Doctor Who/Torchwood, Lost, Vampire Diaries, Interview with a Vampire, Veronica Mars, Grey's Anatomy, Bridgerton, etc without Buffy. Whedon had fun breaking rules, and god bless them, the network let him do it.

marycatelli posting in

books

No Man's Land: Volume 2 by Sarah A. Hoyt

The second of three volumes. This is not a trilogy of separate stories, but dictated by the limits of modern-day binding technology. Spoilers ahead for the first volume. Also, do not read this one first because you will be baffled.

( Read more... )

gingicat

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sovay

This administration has run so hard from the start on leaded fantasies, the presence of a fossil fuel in its latest scream for the headlines seems macabrely apropos. Oil is indeed a lucratively unrenewable resource, but aren't those equally heady fumes of the Banana Wars and Neptune Spear? In my own throwback to the twentieth century, I haven't been able to get Phil Ochs out of my head. It was in another of his songs that I first heard of United Fruit. I live in endless echoes, but I am tired of these threadbare loops of empire that were already sticky shed and vinegar when another fluffer of American exceptional stupidity hung out his banner of a mission very much not accomplished. Is it the Crusades this time or Manifest Destiny? War Plan Red hasn't panned out so far, but we can always rebrand the Monroe Doctrine. Colombia! Cuba! Greenland! Daddy's shadow and Deus vult. "Every generation of Centauri mourns for the golden days when their power was like unto the gods! It's counterproductive! I mean, why make history if you fail to learn by it?" I was thirteen when I heard that line and I understood the question. Who knew I was going to spend the rest of my life finding out just how many people were never even interested in trying?

Current Music: Phil Ochs, "Cops of the World"

marycatelli posting in

books

No Man's Land: Volume 1 by Sarah A. Hoyt

The first of three volumes. This is not a trilogy of separate stories, but dictated by the limits of modern-day technology.

( Read more... )

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

Amy VanHym

January 7, 2026...

Winter in Minnesota

Dear Purimgifts Author

Recent Reading: In the Night Garden

No Man's Land: Volume 3

No bedbugs, and thoughts on how Buffy/Angel talked about sex

Tracy Chapman - Subcity

Greenland, and beyond

TV Tuesday: Hiding in Plain Sight?

(no subject)

Now let's listen to a conversation between two English actors on the subject of Warships Week

more apocalyptic signs

Looking Forward Towards 2026

Heated Rivalry comm

How am I supposed to know what's real?

Memage - January Question a Day (and Buffy/Angel Rewatch)

No Man's Land: Volume 2

I wrote another thing

And we'll find you a leader that you can elect

No Man's Land: Volume 1

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January 2018

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