singularity

This was a random get a few years ago, but I put off reading Nicola Sutcliffe's Queens of the Kingdom: The Women of Saudia Arabia Speak because I expected it to upset me. I've now read it and yes, it upset me! A lot!

( Cut for length. )

Current Mood: busy

sef1029

Here's audio for a Stargate SG-1 story I wrote years ago. Ah, the good old days.

Summary: Sam relates the story of Daniel's return from ascension and a mission to meet the Gadmeer.

Sam Carter in fatigues

Podfic on AO3

azurelunatic

The washer saga ended a little while ago, with a brand repair tech who corrected something simple. Thursday night (the start of Friday wash day) the dryer gave up.

Since the dryer had been leaving unsightly rust streaks on all the lights, I have not been subtle in my campaign for a new one.

Delivery is scheduled for today, of a dryer with a steam cycle but without wifi.

harpers_child

Have determined that the ren faire shop put me in the wrong size corset. Either that or their pattern is wildly bad for my body shape. It's an underbust so I was avoiding the worst of my fit issues. They only had the one length, so I knew to expect that it'd hit my thighs when sitting. (I am absurdly short-waisted.)

In an attempt to tighten the bottom enough to not be able to fit my closed fist longways on either side of hip while also having room for my closed fist shortways in front of my lower stomach, I have tightened the damn corset enough that the bottom two (of six) pairs of lacing are touching. Also despite having balcony seating for a family of four there is also significant gaping around the top of this thing. I have an inch maybe two of reduction around my middle.

This is comically ill-fitted at this point. I was wearing two thin linen dresses and a pair of linen pants I only wear under longer things when I got fitted. I thought the fit issues I had at faire were because the damn thing was too long.

I guess I'll take pictures and reach out to see how to return it. I might be able to get out to faire again before end of season, but I also might not.

runpunkrun

Some screens I watched recently, in alphabetical order, all on Netflix:

Abstract: Each hour-long episode features a different artist in a different medium and examines their approach to making art. Totally fascinating. Highly recommended.

Another Life: Bad SF. I watched twenty minutes of this, but the writing was terrible, the world building vacuous, and my beloved Katee Sackhoff completely devoid of charisma. Does star that beardy Teen Wolf guy, though, if you're in the market.

Archer: I used to randomly watch this on FX, and so I sat down and started over at the beginning so I could see the whole thing. The comedy style is more insulting than I enjoy now, but I could listen to H. Jon Benjamin talk all day. This was also how I learned Jessica Walter died in 2021 and it hit me unexpectedly hard.

Diplomat: Watched season three, and it was so good I regretted not rewatching season one and two before the new season. Though how Kate hasn't figured out she's exactly like her husband is a hilarious mystery. Like the moment one of them isn't getting enough attention they do something completely fucked up. Highly recommended. Contains (in part): suicide.

Four Seasons: I felt pretty sure I wasn't going to be into these middle-age married people's problems (two white straight couples, and a mixed race gay couple), but it's Tina Fey so I had to try. I liked it more than I thought I would! It was a pleasant diversion and I liked the set up of two episodes per season (Earth seasons, not TV seasons) as these old friends get together for visits and vacations. Contains: divorce, grief.

High Town: Set in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and filled with drug use, drug dealers, party queers, depressed fishermen, and cops. High production value and a hot gay woman of color as a lead (Monica Raymund as Jack), but after an episode and a half I didn't care about any of the characters. It's no The Wire.

Wayward: Starring Mae Martin. Also created, written, and executive produced by Martin, so me with my Mae Martin problem spent the entire time very distracted. But, my love for Martin's beautiful pointy face aside, this drama/thriller about a small town and its cult-like reform school lead by a chillingly maternalistic Toni Collette is very watchable. Also gory, violent, upsetting, and pointlessly set in the early 2000s, but the dog makes it. Recommended. Contains: drug use, shitty parents, child harm/death.

Wick is Pain: I've never seen a single John Wick movie, but I enjoyed this behind the scenes look at how action films get made, particularly this series with its signature gun fu style and, of course, Keanu Reeves, who does the majority of his own stunts and fighting and who is interviewed along with the directors, producers, and stunt personnel involved with the films. Contains: violence, guns, cinematic death of a dog.

The Woman in Cabin 10: Started this solely on the strength of Keira Knightley's presence, but even she couldn't rescue this glossy but limp woman-sees-something-alarming-but-literally-no-one-believes-her thriller. I watched this in twenty minute increments over three nights, swearing I was done with it every night until, on the third night, Keira Knightley did something so unforgivably stupid I immediately deleted it from my continue watching list.

scaramouche

I got Anaïs Mitchell's Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown a few years ago after I first listened to the Hadestown OBC, watched a couple of bootlegs, and slowly realized hey, I'm into this. It isn't show I love end to end, like there's whole sections that don't do anything for me and I can only appreciate on a technical level, but the moments that hit hard, they hit very hard.

So I got Anaïs Mitchell's book because it was the only thing to do with the show that I could get from my side of the globe (still hoping for a touring production to drop by Singapore one day!), though I didn't read it properly at the time. I've read it now! It's all the lyrics as of the time of the Broadway opening, but Mitchell also goes through the creative process and shares lyric variations, some of which I've heard through the London production and Broadway previews. Some of the decisions that I found a little strange or disappointing (like the placement of "Why We Build the Wall" and the loss of Persephone's verse in "Chant II") are explained, as are the adjustments of the characters as time went along (especially how audiences tended to find Hades and Persephone more interesting than Orpheus and Eurydice).

Of course listened to the music and watched clips as I read the book, and got those feelings all over again. May have cried a bit, and so on.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: restless
Current Music: Hadestown OBC - Why We Build the Wall

harpers_child

1. Weather change has knocked me over. That's possibly unfair to the weather change as I've been knocked over since I had covid in August. I should make a doctor's appointment about it, except I don't have the brain bandwidth to make it. I need to make several different doctor's appointments and just can't make myself do it. (ADHD and chronic fatigue make for a fun combination.)

2. Pulled down and uprooted the black eyed pea plants. They've been dead for a few weeks and I've been grabbing the pods as they dry out. No more pods for a few days so it's time for the dead plants to go. (Did find a few pods while pulling down the vines.) About a third of the vines got cut up and put into the composter. Stopped about there due to combination of blister forming on my finger and running out of room.

3. It's not seasonal depression when it's been ongoing for more than a year, but I've fallen deeper into the hole since the time change. ("this is not your grave, get out of this hole.") I'd been doing better. The backslide is hitting me almost as hard as the increased bad brain.

sineala

What I Just Finished Reading

Diane Duane, Dark Mirror: Reviewed here.

Avengers Disassembled: Reread this for 616 Book Club; giving myself credit because otherwise I will not make my Goodreads goal.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( 1776 #1, Fantastic Four #5, Iron and Frost #2, New Avengers #6, Ultimate Black Panther #22, Ultimate Wolverine #11 )

What I'm Reading Next

Not sure yet.

Current Mood: hungry

runpunkrun

A quiet mystery with an emphasis on character, plus a little carpentry and a lot of Irish countryside. A perfect read for late fall as it turns into winter.

Though when I say it's perfect for fall, I mean that the season in the book closely matched what was going on outside my own window. The story, on the other hand, is an discomforting mix of cozy and violent, and I found the resolution to the mystery something of a letdown, so I mostly enjoyed this for the scenery, the small town atmosphere, and the relationships between the characters. Cal wasn't my favorite, a Chicago cop who retired because he couldn't tell if he was doing the right thing anymore, has the flavor of someone who might use "woke" as an insult (let him tell you his stance on pronouns), and still has the voice of his ex-wife in his head critiquing his every thought (which, let's be honest, he needs), but he's well drawn and his contradictions reflect his circumstances and the era, and when I say era, I mean 2020, that decade of a year.

Contains: graphic violence; child harm; graphic descriptions of mutilated livestock and hunting rabbits for food; published in 2020, but pre-covid.

scaramouche

I'm 20 episodes into 189 for Aryana (each episode is like 20 minutes once you skip the recap and future teases), and there's stuff I like about this show!

Aryana, despite being the sweet, kind, thoughtful heroine of the show, also stands up for herself and gets to argue/fight back! Not only against her enemies (heheh "enemies") but also against the people she loves, including her mother and best friend, and that's just so nice. Love doesn't preclude disagreement, and being good does not mean having to accept injustices meted upon yourself. No idea if this is more common in the genre now (I've only watched three other Filipino shows at this point, so I'm speaking about telenovelas of the past in general), or if it's because Aryana is thirteen instead of an adult woman and the rules for a teenaged main character are different. Either way, I like it.

There are still certain conventions in play, i.e. the good characters are very good, and the mean characters are very mean, but I did like that Aryana made a genuine mistake when she first met her future-rival (and secret half-sister) Megan. Which means that Megan doesn't hate Aryana out of nowhere -- it was a legit off-the-wrong-foot situation. A good character would, of course, have listened to Aryana's explanation instead of elevating it to an unnecessary rivalry, but Aryana isn't 100% blameless, and that's neat. I also like that the rivalry lives rent-free in Megan's head while Aryana only ever seems to remember Megan exists whenever Megan actively harasses her. Basically, the power dynamics aren't what I thought they would be, with Aryana being a poor girl on a scholarship in a fancy school.

( Cut for length. )

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Kool and the Gang - Celebration

ursamajor

And then suddenly, it became tech week for Verdi.

We borrowed Valerie Sainte-Agathe from SF Girls' Choir in preparation for this performance. Valerie breaks things down differently from Ash, but I like how she pushes us in certain ways that make us realize we know things better than we think we do; it's a confidence builder. Of course, that's a double-edged sword when it's the case where you actually don't know things as well as you know you need to, but I think overall most of us are benefiting from that presumption of a musical capability baseline, that we can read notes and lyrics at the same time and don't always have to start with one or the other. The occasional singing in mixed formation; the times when she tells us to just put the sheet music down and trust our memory.

We did a "retreat" a couple of weekends ago to basically cram in the equivalent of two additional rehearsals, and I think it helped to just run almost everything in order, to realize that yes, we actually have touched on all of the sections where we sing, and now it's just a matter of linking them together into one performance. (And, um, warming up sufficiently; some of my sopranos have definitely not been feeling warmed up enough for some of the high notes we've got in the Verdi; apparently the tenors have a similar plaint.)

Rehearsals Wednesday and Thursday; performance Friday night, along with a world premiere from Cava Menzies to open the show. I believe there are still tickets available for anyone local and interested. Guess I'd better dig out the concert blacks soon and make sure they're clean :) And figure out a lighter-weight folder for the Verdi, lord is the new edition heavy, but it still needs to be in a black music folder to blend in!

(Note to self: obviously it won't arrive in time for Verdi, but if you're thinking about trying to find a lighter-weight concert top before Break Bread, look at Blackstrad? Occasionally, the algorithm deposits actually relevant things in my feed. I'm currently intrigued by their Vesper top and their Elektra top, though I suspect given dress code the Vesper's a better option. There's even a petite section!)

And Break Bread will be upon us faster than a blink: rehearsal next week, break for Thanksgiving, two more regular rehearsals, and then dress rehearsal and performance all on Sunday, December 15. I'd better hurry up and order my music for our February concert, haven't done that yet, naughty section leader!

Current Mood: busy

sineala

Today's cheap indie video game rec, found via a review at Ars Technica, is Skigill, which costs $5, currently $3.50 as a launch discount, and it is definitely at least as much fun as, say, a fancy caffeinated beverage of your choice, although admittedly it's less tasty.

It is yet another Vampire Survivors-esque "bullet heaven" roguelite auto-shooter -- you know, the kind where you dodge the enemies and the game does the aiming and firing for you. You know the kind of game I mean. The gimmick of Skigill here is that it is for people who really, really love RPG skill trees. You are actually running around on a giant skill tree, and as you kill enemies and collect XP, you can stand on any node of the skill tree (that is linked to one you have previously unlocked) and it will put your points in that skill, unlock new weapons, etc. So you are leveling up and building your character based on where you are running around.

There is of course also a second skill tree that you can access between runs and use to get yourself permanent stat increases. You know how this genre works.

It's in Early Access but there is enough content in here that it's pretty playable. The Mac port insists it is 32-bit and will not work, but this is lies; it works just fine on my M1 Air.

The game has extremely retro yellow-on-black pixel graphics and a chiptune soundtrack. The one downside is that the dev is committed to having no tutorial and in fact no in-game text whatsoever, which means I have absolutely no idea what most of these little symbols are or what they do or what my character is or how come when I stand on a skill node it doesn't unlock even though it looks like I have enough XP, which means I probably don't understand what the numbers in the game represent. But I will never know what I am doing wrong, because the game will never tell me.

Still, it's fun, if you like this genre of game. And skill trees.

Current Mood: dorky

beatrice_otter

Now that

crossworks authors have been revealed, I can share what I wrote! I wrote a Miss Fisher/Lord Peter crossover!

My first thought was of course that I should do some sort of casefic, but couldn't come up with a case. My second thought was to have Phryne and Mary meet up during the war--Phrynne drove ambulances, Mary was a nurse--but then I realized that that would make major changes to Mary's life, because I could not picture Mary crossing paths with Phryne in any noteworthy way and then living the same aimless post-war life Mary did. I certainly couldn't see her getting involved with either Goyles or Cathcart. And that would be very interesting, but a much longer story than I had the capacity to write. So instead, I had Phryne meet Peter during the war.

Title: the wings of our frail souls
Author: Beatrice_Otter
Fandoms: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (TV)/Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Written for: sinkauli in

crossworks 2025
Betaed by: Lirelyn
Author's note: Canon has Phryne serving in a French women's ambulance unit during the war. I have changed this to the FANY, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, which was a British women's volunteer group, because their general approach to the First World War was very similar to Phryne's approach to life in general. The British Army didn't want them, so they went over anyway and convinced the Belgians and the French to let them drive. They seem to have a long tradition of doing whatever the hell they thought needed doing and ignoring or steamrolling men who got in their way.

At AO3. On Squidgeworld. On Pillowfort. On tumblr.

***

It was not, Phryne thought as she steered Josephine through the French countryside, that you could precisely call her job boring. There was a war on, and she was much nearer the front than she told her parents in her infrequent letters home. She was driving an ambulance between the French triage unit and the hospital, avoiding potholes as best she could. The men in the back of her bus moaned or swore at each one she hit. It was important work, one part in the chain that saved as many men as possible from the jaws of death. It was good work, and more meaningful than she'd thought it would be when she'd signed up for the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, desperate for anything that would get her out of London.

It was only that she'd driven this route so often she could do it in her sleep. The only change was the appearance of more potholes and ruts.

Josephine's engine—which had been running roughly—died with a horrible sound.

Phryne swore, fluently and filthily, in French, and popped out to open up Josephine's hood. "Shouldn't have even dared think it was boring." A short bit of poking around confirmed her fears.

( Another FANY ambulance pulled up next to hers—Gertie, by the sound of it. )

sineala

Reposting book reviews from Goodreads because why not? This one is obviously a reread!

For reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, I haven't felt like reading basically anything at all in a long time, and definitely not novel-length fiction. But lately I have started to feel like my brain can hack it, and then I spent a while thinking I just wanted to read something I already loved, and then I stared guiltily at my TBR pile, and then I thought, fuck it, I'm just gonna read Dark Mirror again. Probably haven't read this in, like, fifteen years. So here I am.

( Dark Mirror )

Current Mood: dorky

runpunkrun

an early winter shower
a rice paddy with new stubble
darkens just a bit
-1690

Translation by Jane Reichhold.

( 俳句 )

ursamajor

I know, two baking entries in a row, but I really do need to write down my riffs and recipes when I make them so that I actually remember what I did! Especially when I use up the tail end of things I don't always keep in stock. So playing a little bit of catch-up here.

For choir baking this week, I started with Nik Sharma's Spicy Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies, and King Arthur's recommendations for making drop cookies into bars.

( the process of riffage )

( spicy hazelnut ginger bars )

*

I also made Smitten Kitchen's Chocolate Toffee Cookies for the first time in awhile.

( everything is riffs )

( chocolate toffee cookies, modernized )

*

I had a glut of carrots, so I tweaked Serious Eats' Brazilian Carrot Cake recipe to fit a 9x9 pan.

( riff notes )

( carrot cake in a blender )

*

Cramming one last recipe riff in here while I'm thinking about it: yet another choir bake, furikake marshmallow bars. Basically crispy rice cereal treats with added furikake, black sesame, and a little sesame oil.

( furikake marshmallow bars )

Current Mood: hungry

scaramouche

Chris Horton's Ghost Nation: The Story of Taiwan and Its Struggle for Survival was a spontaneous recent get, and also published this year, so I figured I'd better read it quick before uh........ the situation changes.

I'm not very familiar with the issues surrounding Taiwan, though living somewhere that's been affected by China's recent oceanic expansionist policies, it's not difficult to pick up at least some of it casually. I have also been to China to attend international exhibitions multiple times, so I'm well-aware of the sensitivity of maps and flags which are always, ALWAYS pre-checked on everything you bring into the exhibition area (backgrounds, flyers, posters, etc.) and they WILL boot you out and/or destroy your materials if they find anything not fitting the accepted standard.

Anyway that, plus my previous reads about Mao, WWII Shanghai, and that book about the triangulation of Japan-Korea-China relations, means that I knew of the broader history of Japan's occupation and the ROC's fleeing to Taiwan when the CCP took power, but not much that's more modern than that. The book's a good read for learnings, through Taiwan's history through colonization and resistance to cultural oppression through the changing periods, with pain and trauma forming their modern self-confidence into one of the freest democracies in the world. I feel like I have a better grasp of some of the nuances of Taiwanese identity, too? Like, I knew about Taiwan's indigenous tribes, but not their roles in the evolution of the island through its modern societal development and with immigrants coming across the strait.

Horton, who has lived in Taiwan for a while, is I think very clear about the potential benefits but also the potential cost that would need to be paid for annexing Taiwan (islands are just harder to invade, etc.), plus the arguments being made for the supposed historical justification of it, which isn't really an argument because it's not about justifications, it's about location, economy and resources. Look at those resources! Fascinating stuff about Taiwan's massive semiconductor industry, as the greatest supplier in the world, and I wonder how that's been going with the AI boom as well.

Current Mood: thoughtful

cinaed

* = Rewatch/reread
Anime/Cartoons
- Bob’s Burgers 16.01-16.04
- Helluva Boss 1.01-2.12
Books/Short Stories
- I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
- The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America’s First Serial Killer by Skip Hollandsworth
- Lone Women by Victor Lavalle
- Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel
- The Stolen Luck by Shawna Reppert
- The Safe-Keeper’s Secret by Sharon Shinn
Manga/Comics/Light Novels
- One Piece 108-109
- Oglaf (ongoing webcomic)
- Order of the Stick (ongoing webcomic)
- Wilde Life (ongoing webcomic)
Movies/Documentaries
- The Big Conn (2022)
- Kpop Demon Hunters (2025)
Podcasts
- Midst: Unend
- Not Another D&D Podcast
Theater/Concerts
- Julius X (Folger Theater)
TV Shows/Web Series
- Dimension 20: Cloudward Ho 17-20
- Only Murders in the Building 5.05-5.10
- Survivor 49.01-49.06
- Tales Unrolled 23-24
Video Games/Board Games
- The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

cinaed

( In which the party returns to the Grove and begins to make plans to fight and kill the man who murdered the cleric and the paladin’s fathers )

sineala

What I Just Finished Reading

Still nothing.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Alien vs. Captain America #1, Avengers #32, Ultimate X-Men #21 )

What I'm Reading Next

No idea. Feeling like I might actually be able to get my brain to read books, though.

Current Mood: tired

Star Trek Reboot Fic

Book Log: Queens of the Kingdom

Stargate SG-1 podfic: Meeting of Minds

Alas, dryer

(no subject)

Watching the screen: Netflix edition

Book Log: Working on a Song

(no subject)

Wednesday Reading Meme

The Searcher, by Tana French

Aryana (10.5% completed)

(no subject)

Skigill

fic: the wings of our frail souls

Star Trek TNG: Dark Mirror by Diane Duane

#684, Bashō

spicy hazelnut ginger bars; chocolate toffee cookies; blender carrot cake; furikake marshmallow bars

Book Log: Ghost Nation

October 2025 Monthly Media

Astvanor Session 173 (10/24)

Wednesday Reading Meme

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