conuly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
conuly) wrote2025-05-31 07:29 am
conuly) wrote2025-05-31 07:29 am
It's turkey o'clock.
That, or we have a new dog on the block that sounds a lot like a turkey and which will not shut up.
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flemmings (flemmings) wrote2025-05-27 06:00 pm
flemmings) wrote2025-05-27 06:00 pmEntry tags:
(no subject)
Property tax bill comes in yesterday and I opened it with resignation because city council voted in an increase of same. Except that, as ever, my second half set of taxes is something like $50 a month less than the first set. So I am content. So today I went out and clipped my hedge, what I could reach of it, as well as the English ivy I now read is an invasive plant. Certainly it's taken over the front yard and its springy mass is impossible to walk on with my precarious balance and spasming back. Is why I couldn't clip all of my hedge. But I do need to wade in and pull it off the trees that it's in the process of choking.
Meanwhile Oliver stood at his gate down the walkway and barked whenever he saw me. I suppose that makes him a good watchdog and that's why SND doesn't train her dogs out of the habit. Or he could have been barking at the little dachsund who passed by twice with his little owner and her mum. Little owner is maybe three or two and change, and very reminiscent of the Mighty Helen at the same age. Turned around to say hello to me, and then asked her mum what I was doing.
Equally, the fir at the corner of my front planter is dead. I should take it down, or rather, pay someone else to take it down. Just, dead or not, it blocks the view of my porch a little, and I am loath to lose it. I wonder if Prof Medieval Studies might like to take his power saw to it, seeing as he lopped quite a few branches off his own magnolia.
Meanwhile Oliver stood at his gate down the walkway and barked whenever he saw me. I suppose that makes him a good watchdog and that's why SND doesn't train her dogs out of the habit. Or he could have been barking at the little dachsund who passed by twice with his little owner and her mum. Little owner is maybe three or two and change, and very reminiscent of the Mighty Helen at the same age. Turned around to say hello to me, and then asked her mum what I was doing.
Equally, the fir at the corner of my front planter is dead. I should take it down, or rather, pay someone else to take it down. Just, dead or not, it blocks the view of my porch a little, and I am loath to lose it. I wonder if Prof Medieval Studies might like to take his power saw to it, seeing as he lopped quite a few branches off his own magnolia.
conuly (conuly) wrote2025-05-31 03:58 pm
conuly) wrote2025-05-31 03:58 pmGeez, maybe today is not the day to hang out at /r/whatsthatbook....
OP: Hey, looking for a board book series from when I was a kid! It was traditional fairy tales and fables, and the part I really remember is the illustrations! I'm sure if I see those illustrations I'll know it's the right book!
Me: Care to describe these illustrations? Even a little? Were they brightly colorful or more muted, or maybe black and white? Were they realistic or cartoony?
OP: Oh, they looked similar to the hare and the tortoise board game! Like, when I saw that I first thought it was the books!
Me: Oh, I guess you're gonna make me google that instead of providing a link, cool.
Guys, it turns out there are at least five different editions of this game, each one with a totally different art style.
Meanwhile, on a different thread on the same post:
Other Commenter: Could it be Aesop's fables?
Me, silently: WTF, buddy? That's not a suggestion.
OP: Oh, no, it was more colorful than that!
Me, a bit less silently: WTF? Like... what edition are we talking about? You need to help us help you!
All comments are paraphrased, but seriously.
Edit: I am absolutely dying at this point to ask who, exactly, OP thinks Aesop is, but that conversation is not going to go anywhere productive. I'd really better forget the whole thing.
Me: Care to describe these illustrations? Even a little? Were they brightly colorful or more muted, or maybe black and white? Were they realistic or cartoony?
OP: Oh, they looked similar to the hare and the tortoise board game! Like, when I saw that I first thought it was the books!
Me: Oh, I guess you're gonna make me google that instead of providing a link, cool.
Guys, it turns out there are at least five different editions of this game, each one with a totally different art style.
Meanwhile, on a different thread on the same post:
Other Commenter: Could it be Aesop's fables?
Me, silently: WTF, buddy? That's not a suggestion.
OP: Oh, no, it was more colorful than that!
Me, a bit less silently: WTF? Like... what edition are we talking about? You need to help us help you!
All comments are paraphrased, but seriously.
Edit: I am absolutely dying at this point to ask who, exactly, OP thinks Aesop is, but that conversation is not going to go anywhere productive. I'd really better forget the whole thing.
oursin (oursin) wrote2025-05-27 06:06 pm
oursin) wrote2025-05-27 06:06 pmEntry tags:
Saying, what no flagellants - then thinking, actually, might be preferable
Was alerted to Zoom seminar I must have signed up for ages ago and not put into my diary, with link, approx 30 mins before it was due to happen.
Well, that was interesting and informative: 'Protest and Identity Formation in the Time of Covid: The UK in Historical Context', if ultimately rather grim.
Given that I am in the cohort that thinks the response of The Powers That Be was very much in the Day Late and a Dollar Short ballpark and marked by gross ineptitude even where corruption was not in play, I had not realised how much there was resistance based on the belief that it was an excuse for the imposition of The Iron Heel (and this crisscrossed a wide spectrum of beliefs).
And a lot of the evidence for that was actually not widely reported.
And one observes that there are doubtless differences between the overall picture and the impact of immediate local policing practices.
But looking at what one might consider the wider penumbra of the panic (the torching of 5G towers e.g.) I was reminded (I would be, wouldn't I) of some of the episodes in Norman Cohn's The Pursuit of the Millenium, especially as the speaker invoked the Black Death as a comparison point for epidemic + social upheaval.
Every Day Above Ground (mallorys_camera) wrote2025-05-27 09:48 am
mallorys_camera) wrote2025-05-27 09:48 amEntry tags:
The Catskills
lifeinroseland & fam braved the Holiday Catskills last weekend.Is this not the most beautiful nuclear family you have ever seen?
My first time meeting her children in the flesh. Her little son has the most amazing vocabulary for an 18-month-old, and Princess Star is as fiery & independent as she is beautiful & intelligent—which I suspect presages difficult teenage years but a mega-successful adulthood:
It was so good to see them!!!
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GPS decided to give me a complete tour of the Catskills on my way to Phoenicia. The Catskills were insanely beautiful on this, the unofficial first day of summer.
An abandoned barn:
The Ashokan Reservoir. They drowned 10 villages to make it when they dammed Esopus Creek in the early 19-aughts. My fantasy is that cottages, church spires, & apple orchards are floating around beneath its waters. (Probably not, though.) It supplies 40% of New York City's water:
Today, I have a shitload of errands to do in addition to the usual Remuneration & gym workout. And no desire to do any of them! But it is gorgeous out! So, you know. I'm cheerful.
flemmings (flemmings) wrote2025-05-26 06:42 pm
flemmings) wrote2025-05-26 06:42 pm(no subject)
Got my Covid booster today so arm which has been aching with the damp is now aching with the shot. OTOH something like three people today remarked on how nice it was to see the sun finally. Even if it didn't rain Saturday it was grey, and Sunday of course did rain. Spent the weekend drinking and eating sugar, so now we begin the dry out, water, and veggies routine. Have cancelled Wednesday's physio from an abundance of caution re: side-effects, and am moving a bit more, either from exercises or housekeeping. That I've been doing little of the latter is indicated by having to empty the vacuum's canister twice just from vacuuming the front hall and living room.
Since I was up at Dupont I got a xerox of my water/ property tax rebate form in case I screwed it up when filling it out. Asked for two copies, forgot to say it didn't need to be double-sided, and was a bit stunned when he charged me five dollars for same. I mean it got me some five dollar bills for tips if I want to order take-out this week, but next time I'll do it at the library.
Otherwise I struggle to get out of bed these mornings because even with the heating coming on, it's still cold. So much easier just to go back to sleep and have comforting forgettable dreams.
Since I was up at Dupont I got a xerox of my water/ property tax rebate form in case I screwed it up when filling it out. Asked for two copies, forgot to say it didn't need to be double-sided, and was a bit stunned when he charged me five dollars for same. I mean it got me some five dollar bills for tips if I want to order take-out this week, but next time I'll do it at the library.
Otherwise I struggle to get out of bed these mornings because even with the heating coming on, it's still cold. So much easier just to go back to sleep and have comforting forgettable dreams.
oursin (oursin) wrote2025-05-26 07:23 pm
oursin) wrote2025-05-26 07:23 pmTIL
That the place I was very glad to leave in my youth is now The Top Place to Visit in the UK, though I think 'visit' may be the operative word there, after all back in my day the foreign language students and other summer visitors had an entirely different vision of it. Street foodstalls and trendy bars, not to mention galleries, Not In My Day, though we did have the walks in nature and seascape.
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(The person who asked about this could have found the info themself, it was really easy to find.) Stillbirths only had to be registered in England from 1927.
(This was the person who had found me as A Nexpert in a field I don't consider my main field of xpertise via Google AI. I was, in fact, able to provide quite a bit of information from the depths of Mi Knowinz. )
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How to decode the less than intuitive citations in footnotes to Gould and Pyle, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine (1898 edition).
(Though I think the person asking the question to which this was actually the answer could possibly have given the matter a little thought and worked it out themself? Maybe not: maybe they have not had the years of dealing with Weird Citation Practices that are under my belt.)
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Still got it for telling people Where To Find Archives....
Every Day Above Ground (mallorys_camera) wrote2025-05-26 10:07 am
mallorys_camera) wrote2025-05-26 10:07 amEntry tags:
Social Isolation
This was a difficult week.
It rained every single day, & then my only two pals in the area were MIA for various reasons.
And I ended up experiencing SOCIAL ISOLATION (intoned with a kind of echo chamber effect), which is different from garden variety lonesomeness: Lonesomeness feels like a temporary condition that is not your fault; SOCIAL ISOLATION is a disease of the elderly brought on by their own bad habits. Socially isolated people do not proactively build social connections! They do not join clubs, volunteer, wave the Stars & Stripes at community events! They don't strike up conversations with the harried checkout clerk at the Shop-&-Drop. If they do finally manage to capture the attention of a real human person, they natter on & on about some obscure rock star from the 1970s or their bursitis or how much stuff has changed in the last 50 years.
The absolute worst habit of the elderly, though, is that they are old.
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I suppose no one ever feels old, though when you look at them, you wonder: Why the hell not?
That person I catch a glimpse of in the mirror when I'm not mugging it up self-consciously? That's not me, that's my grandmother.
And I'm one of those old people who's in pretty good shape.
Thing is I probably have more friends than most people. Friends with whom I resonate on an intimate level and who have my back.
They just don't live here.
But, of course, I live here.
I make my most important social connections online, which is kind of an ageless milieu. My prose is sprightly; sprightly signals "young." I meet a lot of the people I bond with online, and those meetings often turn into friendships. I won't say "age" doesn't influence those friendships, but it's just one factor in a whole lot of factors: I am X years older than you, and now let's chatter about books and movies and music and the meaning of the Universe, your children and my children, shoes, ships, sealing wax, cabbages.
But here, I must make social connections the old-fashioned way, face-to-face. And whatever delusions I may have about my age-defying demeanor, I am clearly a member of the pariah tribe, the Senior Citizens.
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The irony about SOCIAL ISOLATION is that it feels like something you oughta be ashamed of, which, of course, is even more isolating. SOCIAL ISOLATION is sticky and heavy, and that weight makes it difficult to cleave to all those wholesome routines—exercise, engagement, good nutrition—that make you feel good about yourself.
All moot points today because (finally!) it's gorgeous & sunny out. And warm! And so, I am perfectly content.
conuly (conuly) wrote2025-05-29 05:22 am
conuly) wrote2025-05-29 05:22 amLooking out my window at Venus and the crescent moon
The Wikipedia article on the motif of the star and crescent gave a lot more information than I'd expected, but I still don't know why it's so associated with Islam in the present day.
Speaking of symbols made literal, here is a snake saved from eating its own tail. I don't know anything about snakes, but this does look like a vet's office, so if the vet thinks that hand sanitizer is the way to go then it's probably the way to go. (Also, I strongly suspect most of the people in the comments talking about how hand sanitizer to make a snake not eat itself is animal abuse or that the fact that the snake did this is a clear sign of animal abuse don't actually know any more about snakes than I do. If they're right, it's not because they really know.)
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Speaking of symbols made literal, here is a snake saved from eating its own tail. I don't know anything about snakes, but this does look like a vet's office, so if the vet thinks that hand sanitizer is the way to go then it's probably the way to go. (Also, I strongly suspect most of the people in the comments talking about how hand sanitizer to make a snake not eat itself is animal abuse or that the fact that the snake did this is a clear sign of animal abuse don't actually know any more about snakes than I do. If they're right, it's not because they really know.)
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oursin (oursin) wrote2025-05-25 06:00 pm
oursin) wrote2025-05-25 06:00 pmCulinary
Last week's bread seemed to be holding out but got very dry and was eked out with the rolls.
Friday night supper: the rather ersatz 'Thai fried rice' with Milano and Napoli salami.
Saturday breakfast rolls: eclectic vanilla, something like 60:40 strong white/white spelt flour (end of bag of the latter).
Today's lunch: venison crumble, with this diced ragu which is more or less rather more finely diced than usual venison, cooked in a moderate oven in red wine with shallots and garlic and a few juniper berries for a couple of hours and then a crumble topping of 2:1:1 strong wholemeal flour/strong white flour/pinhead oatmeal + butter + seasoning + crushed coriander seeds (I think I made rather more of this than I usually do) spread on and baked in somewhat hotter oven for a further 30 minutes; served with Boston beans roasted in pumpkin seed oil with fennel seeds and splashed with gooseberry vinegar, and baby pak choi stirfried with star anise.
conuly (conuly) wrote2025-05-25 07:44 am
conuly) wrote2025-05-25 07:44 amSo, my library eloan of Long Live Evil came through
A note to anybody who wants to read this: I get the impression that we're supposed to think that the "original" book was written with prose so purple it might as well have been in grape-scented marker. The effect can be a little much, but hey, at least nobody gazes outward with a glint in their silvery orbs, limpid, lambent, or otherwise! But yeah, if you aren't able to get into it within a chapter or two, that's not going to improve itself.
I liked it, but to be fair, I like most things I read.
Oh, one more warning - somebody at Goodreads was going on about the fact that the author either misunderstood or willfully misused the term "Ladies in Waiting" for this book. I don't quite agree that it's something to get so annoyed about, but we've all got our thing. I don't like books which have potatoes in pre-Columbian Europe (or not!Europe). You'll all be pleased to note that I observed no potatoes in this book.
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I liked it, but to be fair, I like most things I read.
Oh, one more warning - somebody at Goodreads was going on about the fact that the author either misunderstood or willfully misused the term "Ladies in Waiting" for this book. I don't quite agree that it's something to get so annoyed about, but we've all got our thing. I don't like books which have potatoes in pre-Columbian Europe (or not!Europe). You'll all be pleased to note that I observed no potatoes in this book.
( Spoilers )
flemmings (flemmings) wrote2025-05-24 07:15 pm
flemmings) wrote2025-05-24 07:15 pmEntry tags:
(no subject)
It stopped raining long enough for me to get to the library for the amazing number of holds that trotted in last week. Skies are still November dramatic but temps got up to the mid-teens so I was fine with just a cloth jacket. This after bumping the thermostat up last night to a heady 18C, because Thursday night I froze with it at 16, in spite of two wool blankets and my down duvet. Wind is what does it, as ever.
The neighbourhood lilacs have mostly scattered ahead of the Glorious 25th.
City mails me the form for property tax and water relief a tad early. Maybe because another postal strike is in the offing? Of course I can apply online. Yeah. 'What you will need: tax statement (check), property tax bill (check), utilities bill (check), a printer and a scanner. Yeah, right. Every impoverished oldster has those. So I will courier the thing instead.
Vlad was getting up my nose so I went for Murderbot instead. Kobo not being amazon is its one selling point, because the Kobo app likes to give me black screens if I pause my reading too long so I must back page and reopen the book. Is also very slow at resizing the font. I suppose I'm expected to buy an actual Kobo reader, which no. And I'm finding it very difficult to parse the action on either e-reader. ( Artificial Condition is on kindle app, Network Effect on Kobo.) Which is odd, because I think I read it in e-format from the library. I may have to buy it in dead tree at this rate.
Also shoulder has started to object to the weather along with elbows and knees. Woe is me.
The neighbourhood lilacs have mostly scattered ahead of the Glorious 25th.
City mails me the form for property tax and water relief a tad early. Maybe because another postal strike is in the offing? Of course I can apply online. Yeah. 'What you will need: tax statement (check), property tax bill (check), utilities bill (check), a printer and a scanner. Yeah, right. Every impoverished oldster has those. So I will courier the thing instead.
Vlad was getting up my nose so I went for Murderbot instead. Kobo not being amazon is its one selling point, because the Kobo app likes to give me black screens if I pause my reading too long so I must back page and reopen the book. Is also very slow at resizing the font. I suppose I'm expected to buy an actual Kobo reader, which no. And I'm finding it very difficult to parse the action on either e-reader. ( Artificial Condition is on kindle app, Network Effect on Kobo.) Which is odd, because I think I read it in e-format from the library. I may have to buy it in dead tree at this rate.
Also shoulder has started to object to the weather along with elbows and knees. Woe is me.
oursin (oursin) wrote2025-05-24 04:51 pm
oursin) wrote2025-05-24 04:51 pmEntry tags:
Down in the woodshed
Do we think this trip is doomed already???
We’re both 20, and I think we’ll look back on them when we’re older and remember what a fun life we’ve lived. Tattoos are a reminder of a particular time, and I want to cherish our youth. I’ve found a cool tattoo parlour in northern Thailand, where we’ll be staying. I’ve seen videos of people having great experiences there and the tattoo artist is really talented.... It’s not like I want to get a random tattoo. I’m quite creative and have already started sketching ideas that represent who Kady and I are.
You're 20, duckie....
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In other gruesome news, okay, it is not one bloke spreading his seed to 100s, but I'm not actually sure that 'a worldwide limit of 75 families for each sperm donor' as applied by the European Sperm Bank isn't somewhat on the high side, even when it doesn't turn out further down the line with more sophisticated testing that a donor has a rare cancer-causing mutation.
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And this is sad, rather than gruesome, and makes me wonder about the whole marketing of the 'freezing eggs' thing as 'a groundbreaking act of empowerment', especially as it hasn't turned out like that:
I did not anticipate the emotional landscape that I would face a decade later, as a scientific intervention became a personal meditation on time, money, and unfulfilled dreams.
conuly (conuly) wrote2025-05-28 12:50 am
conuly) wrote2025-05-28 12:50 amSo, realistic contemporary fiction is written and set more or less in the present
But time moves on. What, exactly, do you call "realistic contemporary fiction" once it's no longer contemporary? It's not exactly historical fiction either, since writers of historical fiction generally make specific choices in bringing the past to life, ideally with few or no whoppers of mistakes.
I sometimes say "then-contemporary", but... well, it sounds a bit silly, doesn't it?
(On a related note, it looks like now people are less likely to say "issues book" and more likely to say "social issues book", is that accurate? I'm not loving a change that involves using more words to get to the same meaning, but okay.)
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I sometimes say "then-contemporary", but... well, it sounds a bit silly, doesn't it?
(On a related note, it looks like now people are less likely to say "issues book" and more likely to say "social issues book", is that accurate? I'm not loving a change that involves using more words to get to the same meaning, but okay.)
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conuly (conuly) wrote2025-05-27 07:05 pm
conuly) wrote2025-05-27 07:05 pmOf course, she's not fully recovered
She can put weight on her foot, but after she walks for a while she doesn't want to. Still, it's recovering pretty rapidly, that's the important thing.
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