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May. 1st, 2026 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyAs you may guess, this was inspired by the folksong of the same name. You can find more information about that song here.
A note to two dads of little girls
Apr. 30th, 2026 09:03 pmconulyTo the man on the bus talking to his daughter about what color she was going to paint his nails when they got home: Good job! You get a gold star and a cookie, which you will probably share with your kid! Cookies all around, no sarcasm!
To the man in CVS playing on his phone while his wife corralled their two year old and talked to the pharmacist: Dude, if you're not gonna help, just stay home.
This tangentially connects to one of my favorite poems, which I was recently reminded of.
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( Read more... )
To the man in CVS playing on his phone while his wife corralled their two year old and talked to the pharmacist: Dude, if you're not gonna help, just stay home.
This tangentially connects to one of my favorite poems, which I was recently reminded of.
( Read more... )
Road Trip: Northfield, MN
Apr. 27th, 2026 01:04 pmlydamorehouse
Image: Sign at Northfield book sale that reads "Sappy Platitudes"
I'm going to take you all on a trip through time. Cast your mind back to 11:30 am on Friday, April 24, 2026. Now, imagine my family . We are in a former rental car, several decades old, and on the entry ramp to what the locals call 35 E near downtown Saint Paul. Mason and I have just picked up Shawn from work at the Minnesota Historical Scoiety. The energy in the car is high because my family LOVES a good road trip. We are headed down to Northfield, Minnesota for a legendary used book sale.
Per usual, I've made a list of places along the way largely garnered from America's Roadside Attractions. I'm particularly keened to see Hot Sam's Big Weird Junk (https://www.hotsamsantiques.com/). Unfortunately, when we make the pull off, we discover they're not officially open for the season yet. We see enough ot fhe place, however, that we decide that we're definitely going to try to make it back this way again soon. We're thinking about a special trip, just for it.
We have a bit of lunch at Ole Store Restaurant (https://www.olestorerestaurant.com/). I somewhat foolishly try the beet rueben, which is OKAY, but I probably actually wanted a regular rueben. But Shawn enjoys their turkey salad club and Mason has an amazing looking pork schiztle sandwich. The booksale is exactly as increible as promised.
Hours are spent browsing books. The book sale filled a hockey arena. Shawn said that she heard that they had over 70,000 books. We, ourselves, brought home a trunk full of books.
Image with sign reading: Special Curated Collection " I thought I wanted this but I changed my mind."
We took a different route home, one which took us past a place Roadside America only labels as "quirky metal sculptures." This spot was just of Hwy 52 near Coates, MN. The only place to park was right next to a truck refueling place (?) We were in the shadow of the refinery for those who know this area.
I've described the sculptures to people as: "Chainsaw art meets metal welding." Mostly, the subject matters are reminiscent of chainsaw art, the metal is... well, what it is.
Image: a rooster sculpture outside of Coates, MN
Image: "death cycle" (if you look closely you'll see the flaming skull motif)
There were dozens more, but all in this same vein. Worth the detour? I'm not sure the rest of my family thought so, but I'm always up for random weird sculptures in the middle of nowhere.
A Wizard of Earthsea graphic novel, by Ursula Le Guin, adapted & illustrated by Fred Fordham
Apr. 27th, 2026 12:49 pmrachelmanija
An incredibly beautiful book and a very faithful adaptation. Much of the language is word-for-word from the book. I would happily hang most panels on my wall.
A number of sequences are completely wordless, and while very beautiful I don't think I would have understood what was going on in all of them if I hadn't already read the book. There's also a lot of panels which are extremely dark, so much so that it's hard to tell what's happening. Most of these are indoors. I know there's no electricity but in most of these there is magelight!
Also, the otak is the size of a mouse and looks very much like a mouse. That is too small - in the book it catches a mouse and brings it to Ged, and other people tease Ged that it's a rat or a dog. I pictured it the size of a kitten or squirrel, and looking somewhat like a stockier weasel, or a small wolverine or marten. Definitely not a mouse!
It's always interesting to see other people's visualizations of books. The dragon of Pendor is seen mostly through a thick fog, all glowing eyes and fiery breath and insinuation. The flying creatures that pursue Ged and Serret from the Court of the Terrenon are not monstrous pterodactyls, as I always imagined them, but hideous living gargoyles.
I highly recommend this to anyone who's already read the novel, but I don't suggest reading it instead of or before the novel.
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Worked a different place today
Apr. 27th, 2026 10:15 amconulyIt's three shifts this week in addition to my usual - I don't actually want to work six shifts, but I urgently need the cash, so we'll see what we see.
I took the bus there, but when I got there I saw the train tracks and decided to take the train back. And since I was hungry, I stopped into the corner store by the train for a snack, and immediately my chest felt tight and the tears welled up. I feel really absurd about this, but I didn't realize until right then that this is the train stop closest to the hospital. I can only have stopped in this particular store half a dozen times, max, but... yeah. (Actually, thinking carefully, I think I stopped in there the day Mommy was intubated, and that was the last time before today, so no wonder I freaked out and sobbed for 15, 20 minutes straight. If I had started sobbing in the store, maybe they would've comped me my drink.)
I took the bus there, but when I got there I saw the train tracks and decided to take the train back. And since I was hungry, I stopped into the corner store by the train for a snack, and immediately my chest felt tight and the tears welled up. I feel really absurd about this, but I didn't realize until right then that this is the train stop closest to the hospital. I can only have stopped in this particular store half a dozen times, max, but... yeah. (Actually, thinking carefully, I think I stopped in there the day Mommy was intubated, and that was the last time before today, so no wonder I freaked out and sobbed for 15, 20 minutes straight. If I had started sobbing in the store, maybe they would've comped me my drink.)
The Amazing Digital Circus
Apr. 27th, 2026 06:40 amfrithDreamwidth Shockwave Flash embed #117. I'm the only creature on Dreamwidth who uses a Flash embed for YT videos. Each embedded Flash video gets a site-specific ID number. Flash is the only way I know to get embedded YouTube videos to play without Javascript or Cookies. It's "legacy" code for both YouTube and Dreamwidth that allows old scripts from The Early Days to continue to work. YouTube does not give you Flash code anymore, I MacGyver in the YouTube ID string from the URL to make it work.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwAPLk_sQ3w
That's episode one of eight. I think there is only one more episode to go before this series is complete. The Amazing Digital Circus is from the Australian animation studio "Glitch" and is well worth watching. It's about a bunch of people trapped in a virtual environment as whimsical avatars subjected to a gameshow host type entity. They have no way to get out and no memories of how they got there or what their names are. Each episode is about 25 minutes long.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwAPLk_sQ3w
That's episode one of eight. I think there is only one more episode to go before this series is complete. The Amazing Digital Circus is from the Australian animation studio "Glitch" and is well worth watching. It's about a bunch of people trapped in a virtual environment as whimsical avatars subjected to a gameshow host type entity. They have no way to get out and no memories of how they got there or what their names are. Each episode is about 25 minutes long.
Dear fic writer:
Apr. 29th, 2026 01:10 amconulyIt is 1992. This kid is twelve. He doesn’t know the word “gaslighting”, he doesn’t know the phrase “trauma response”, and if he knew the latter, he wouldn’t apply it to himself.
Also, there’s no such thing as a landline. It’s just a phone, so called because it transmits sound, phone, a long way, tele. It doesn’t do anything else, not even voicemail, and you need to pay extra for caller ID.
Also, there’s no such thing as a landline. It’s just a phone, so called because it transmits sound, phone, a long way, tele. It doesn’t do anything else, not even voicemail, and you need to pay extra for caller ID.
my 3w4dw cleanup
Apr. 26th, 2026 09:32 pmgrrlpupI was scrolling through the friending meme for Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, then realized there's actually a large handful of people whom I know at least a little on Dreamwidth but who have somehow fallen out of my Reading Page or not been added correctly. I catch them haphazardly via comments, secondhand news from sanguinity or other mutuals... but tidying up my circle is a better way. :D
So if you are one of those getting a notification that I've subscribed and/or granted access, that's what's going on, and thank you for sharing DW with me!
So if you are one of those getting a notification that I've subscribed and/or granted access, that's what's going on, and thank you for sharing DW with me!
A Shaggy Dog Story
Apr. 26th, 2026 07:53 amfrith
Best news fluff piece of the week: On Monday April 13th in Regina, Alberta, "Missy" the husky skipped out on a vet appointment to walk herself to a "doggy daycare" where she hooks up with her "boyfriend" "Shaggy" on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This boyfriend may look like a shag carpet that washed in with the tide, but between the animal attraction, Missy's owner pussyfooting around the nature of this friendship and "shag" as his name, I'm suspecting that "Shaggy" is a 'boyfriend with benefits'.
The moral of the story is, when the shag calls, all vets are off.
Independent Bookstore Day
Apr. 25th, 2026 08:25 pmlovelyangel iPhone 13 mini photo |
Today, the last Saturday in April, is Independent Bookstore Day. Naturally, Powell’s Books Celebrated Independent Bookstore Day. This afternoon I swung by the Cedar Hills store to see what was happening.
( Independent Bookstore Celebration at Powell’s Books )
One of my absolute favorite etymologies is "snoop"
Apr. 27th, 2026 09:40 pmconulyFrom Dutch snoepen (“to pry, eat in secret, sneak”)
How often were the Dutch eating in secret that they decided they needed a verb for it!?
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( Read more... )
How often were the Dutch eating in secret that they decided they needed a verb for it!?
( Read more... )
Doors of Sleep, by Tim Pratt
Apr. 25th, 2026 01:47 pmrachelmanija
This is the first book I've read by Tim Pratt. I had somehow gotten the impression that they wrote very highbrow, abstract sf that I probably wouldn't enjoy. I have no idea where that came from because this novel, which I tried because of the delightful premise, is completely not that and I enjoyed it very much.
Zax Delatree, a social worker/mediator from a utopian post-scarcity world, develops a condition where he travels to a random other world every time he sleeps. Through a lot of trial and error, he also discovers that he can take with him items on his person, and also other people if he's touching them when he falls asleep. If they're asleep too, they will arrive fine. If they're not, they arrive insane. ("The Jaunt" is one of many spottable influences.) Here's Zax and his companion, Minna, explaining their situation:
"Do you know the word 'multiverse?' [...] We're travelers, sort of. Sort of explorers. And sort of refugees."
"If this is true, the implications are immense."
"The implications are also very small and also personal," said Minna.
This is the most charming and heartfelt novel I've read in a while. It's mostly a picaresque, with Zax and Minna (and assorted friends and pursuing enemies) visiting all sorts of colorful other worlds, exploring and surviving and trying to be of use. The many worlds are great, I loved Zax and Minna and the friends they meet, and it's full of sense of wonder and hopefulness and people being kind under extremely difficult circumstances. I also liked that Zax and Minna are friends who are explicitly not romantically or sexually involved with each other.
There is a sequel, Prison of Sleep, which I have ordered.
God, I hate talking about overnight shifts
Apr. 26th, 2026 10:49 amconulyDon't get me wrong, I love doing them - five hours of reading, three hours of work, what's not to love? - but talking about them? Don't get me started. Every single time it's a back and forth to confirm the actual day the shift starts.
I got a shift through the staffing agency, and I say "So, to confirm, I go to work at midnight Monday?" and he goes "No, Sunday". "So, I leave my house at 11:30 today...?"
No, he meant midnight Monday to 8am Monday.
Every time I look at the schedule at the usual place I find myself momentarily baffled by the fact that the overnight shift is at the top, as the first shift of the day.
Also, literally as I typed that last sentence a spam text came in with the word "lpuuuu", which seems low effort even for a spam text. I get that their business model depends on weeding out everybody smart enough to say "Seems fake!", but seriously?
I got a shift through the staffing agency, and I say "So, to confirm, I go to work at midnight Monday?" and he goes "No, Sunday". "So, I leave my house at 11:30 today...?"
No, he meant midnight Monday to 8am Monday.
Every time I look at the schedule at the usual place I find myself momentarily baffled by the fact that the overnight shift is at the top, as the first shift of the day.
Also, literally as I typed that last sentence a spam text came in with the word "lpuuuu", which seems low effort even for a spam text. I get that their business model depends on weeding out everybody smart enough to say "Seems fake!", but seriously?
Three Weeks for Dreamwidth
Apr. 25th, 2026 09:08 amfrith
Three Weeks for Dreamwidth starts now, whoop whoop! I don't guarantee nuthin' but I'll give posting everyday for three weeks a shot. ^_^ It'll be a little easier to find fresh pictures to post now that the plants are waking up and waving their sex organs at the bees, butterflies and anything else that can be bribed to bump and grind past their pistils and stamens. Mother Nature will try anything.
Saturday stuff
Apr. 25th, 2026 08:35 amchefxhFestes de la Primavera this weekend, though I doubt we will be attending. Another correfoc tonight. Thursday was Sant Jordi, and we ignored that one as well. No roses, no books. (Not really feeling that one, guess you have to be Catalan.) I still want to get to the art store and the hat shop, but on the days when I 1) don't have class, and 2) have only one dog walk, I generally am too tired and need the rest. So Fever stays rolled up in a tube, and I am missing out on hats (which I love), in a culture where they are worn.
I told myself 4 classes ago that I would buy myself a hat if I passed. See how I keep my commitments to myself?
I told myself 4 classes ago that I would buy myself a hat if I passed. See how I keep my commitments to myself?