franavu

Going home today!

Seriously, I like travel, but not when work comes on top of it. Although being away from Sydney for the last two weeks has been good - the rain that is flooding northern NSW is also raining down in Sydney, albeit not as hard.

May need to check up in the roof cavity tomorrow to get an idea of how it's going up there. Might need to do a bunnings trip first for some decent lighting.

(ps. It's been raining pretty hard in Sydney the last couple of weeks. We're due for a few days' break shortly, just as I get back, hopefully enough to get the garden sorted out)

--

Last day on client site in Melbourne. Next week we're being included on the meetings (theoretically) and told about the issues that arise. And so begins the battle for (office) supremacy…

(ugh. I ate too much breakfast too fast and now I am having regret. Or indigestion. *burp*)

One of the issues in any translation from development to support is starting to recognise the issues that are arising and which ones are going to be perennial problem. There's also the manner in which we take on those issues.

I am a "we'll take it as it comes" kind of person.

My colleague (who is the team lead in this instance) is a "prepare for everything" kind of person.

So we are doing a lot of work to map everything out, determine what is going on, identify where things are happening, and look at possible solutions for issues that are not yet happening, but which might.

I personally tend to think that's a waste of time, but I am perhaps a little bit like the guy whose roof never leaks when it doesn't rain. Also, a lot of guys on the tech monitoring side tend to want pages and pages of directions. (Pages and pages of directions sends me to sleep.)

I'd rather dig out the issue myself than be fed what someone else thinks it is. Of course, that isn't how most support guys tend to think of it. And the up-tops really hate the "trust the techs, they know how to fix it" - which, granted, they often would find that maybe the techs in question don't know how to fix it as knowledge is lost between one support group to the next.

Next week, the processing of handing over the reins is supposed to begin. Whether it does, how much of it actually is given to us, and how we handle it? That's another question. I kind of miss the days of my last client, where if there was a problem, I would mostly fix it on my own cognisance. Then again, the system of the last client was set up to expect issues like this and things which might fall through. This client is a lot more insistent that every little issue be logged. I'm bad at that...

Oh well, colleague is on top of that at least. I guess I'm going to have to get up to speed on what's required to do this, that, and the other…

tielan

I'm mostly just tired. And the bed is doing my back in. Soft beds do this a lot with me. They need to be just soft enough that I can lie on them, but firm and flat - no dips in the mattress.

I want my cats. And my house. And my bed. And my space. I want to work from my office desk instead of commuting. (Okay, the commuting might be required going forward.)

I have met some excellent people while on this work trip, but also I am tired and I want to be in spaces which are mine.

settiai

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Current Mood: sleepy

lannamichaels

Improvement from the book: I can tell people apart! Yay!

Didn't recall that Pin-Lee is the lawyer until I went to go check who played the character. But I can tell them apart!

Pin-Lee is so fucking hot.

Gurathin's my fave. IIRC from the first book, he was the only one to distinguish himself as an individual character and I didn't like him. But he's so good here. Definitely favorite character.

There is something about Skarsgard that is driving me bonkers, and I think it's his voice/accent. Everyone else is so individual and he sounds so... like, it would be one thing if he sounded robotic but he doesn't. It sounds better when it has the helmet-voice-modifier thing going, but in general... IDK still feeling the whole "completely miscast" vibes.

Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon: every single person involved in this -- from the writers, to the set people, the props people, the hair and makeup people, the special effects people, the actors, the editors, everyone who had anything at all to do with it -- are having the time of their life doing this and it shows.

tielan

Went out to visit a friend at Malvern this evening - a FB friend who I've been chatting with about the last six or seven years. Faith and gardening, mostly, but his family was instrumental in some early missions to a section of Indonesia, and there were a bunch of people from those churches who had come to Melbourne for a visit, and so there was gathering and food and company and sharing of stories and theology.

It was great. I was a little apprehensive - I've never met this friend before in person, he's about 70, I think, maybe 75. Still pretty hale, and unfortunately still working. His daughters are my age and a little bit older (the older one was at the dinner tonight and we got talking about perimenopause), so he must be at least 75. But he's lovely, his wife is lovely, it was delightful to talk to a bunch of people and to watch the exchange of stories and histories.

At the daughter's suggestion, I caught two trams back, and I'm glad she made the suggestions she did. A lot better lighting and not so much walking past areas that are a little bit of a problem...

But now I'm back, it's nearly 11pm and I haven't had a shower yet. Need to get to that and get to bed.

No more social dinners. (I did one last night, too, with a writing friend from, oh, 20 years ago. We talked a little bit about stories and people and politics and so forth, and there was duck laksa and so much of it I ended up having half of it for lunch today!

Oof. Anyway, last two nights will be 'quiet' (ie. not social, that's the plan, let's see if it pans out hahah) and then it's HOMEWARD HO.

I'm like this after two weeks. Imagine me after seven weeks...

settiai

It's a short week at work, so I'm hoping to make the most of it and properly relax at least some this coming long weekend. Of course, I have to make it through the week first.

( Rambling about my plans for the week under the cut. )

Current Mood: hopeful

tielan

So, it's been good to meet some of the colleauges I'm working with. Others…well, they're typical 'guys in tech' and, moreover 'South Asian/West Asian guys in tech', which is to say they're very insular socially, and very closed when it comes to including an East Asian female in their outings.

( people gonna peop )

--

Spent a great weekend with friends I haven't seen since their kids were much smaller. I've known B for over 20 years - since before she met her husband C (internet dating back some twenty years) - and although we've moved through very different stages of life, we're still good friends.

I gave her a draft (very drafty draft) of the novel, which I've started to fix/adjust/rewrite. Still trying to work out some of the details about the various characters, the various moving parts of the story, and where everything lands up.

We went out on both Saturday and Sunday, which is a lot for her - she has CFS and struggles with her energy levels. We went for a walk around the area on Saturday morning, and then out for dinner that night. Sunday was markets and then taking me to the station, and by the end of it, I think she was pretty exhausted and sore. At least she gets today off - she doesn't work, is on disability (FWIW). Her husband works, currently the service rep at a local mechanic's place and he's got the knowledge for it, but not the body. They've had a lot going on the last 18 months and are hoping for a stretch of quiet.

--

So the hotel is not as nice as last week's hotel in terms of the room and appointments (tile flooring all the way, no carpets, no rugs, and the layout of the room is kind of peculiar), but the location is considerably better for going out and eating and stuff.

Eh. I'll take it.

--

Tonight, I'm catching up with a friend for dinner, and hopefully another friend on Tuesday night. Wednesday and Thursday will be scrounge days, although someone has recommended a place in the city

--

Back home, we have a chicken ( possible graphicity )

--

Electorate next door has fallen in favour of the Independent. By 40 votes.

WHEW.

That's "automatic recount" territory, of course, but it's been very carefully scrutinised, and so the counts are unlikely to change.

settiai

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Current Mood: accomplished

donutsweeper

Daughter's favorite animal is the pangolin and she moved last week so I hunted down a pattern and made her one for a housewarming present

It's based off the lemon-pangolin pattern here but I made a bunch of changes (and actually took notes!) so if anyone wants to try their hand at it, let me know, I can write up my version.

Weather here has been nuts, it went from a highs of 94 to 48 in only a few days. I loathed the heat and high humidity but that kind of temperature change is nuts and hard on the body as well. Santini isn't thrilled with the weather change either but that's because he's of the belief windows should always be open just in case he wants to properly stalk the bunnies or squirrels (does he ever get off his pile of blankets on the couch to do so? No, of course not. Does that matter? No, of course not. He is cat. His opinion is all that should matter)

Moths got into the chest we were keeping some random linens and clothes in so had to toss the chest and then decide what to do with all the now not wearable/donatable sheets and shirts and whatnot so, of course, it's all going to be rugs. I spent most of the week prepping it about half of it -cutting in strips and then rolling the strips into balls/disks depending for easier use later (after washing, of course)- but then decided to start a blanket instead of a rug. Maybe I'll switch off between a skein of blanket, do a rug, another skein, more rug, etc.

And, last but not least, two weeks of

recthething tumblr recs (DCU, MDZS/The Untamed, Sherlock Holmes-ACD, ST:DS9, Star Wars, SPN, X-Files)

DCU
- Every tender shrimp needs a soft space to recuperate, amiright? (very tender Bruce/Clark moment)

MDZS/The Untamed
- mdzs fandom, long time no see! it’s been almost five years since i last drew wei wuxian, so please accept my offering now (wonderfully eerie Yiling Patriarch era WWX)
- Nie Mingjue and Baxi-huahua The Unrelenting (absolutely love this idea of how Baxia would be in a swords->dogs modern AU)
- Wangxian lightbox (very neat)

Sherlock Holmes - ACD
- Holmes and Watson overlooking the moors (lovely yet eerie Hound of Baskervilles moment)

ST:DS9
- Quark Study (Quark and tribbles, love it!)

Star Wars
- happy star wars day!!! may the 4th be with you!!! (adorable grogu doodle)
- Skywalker Twins comic (hilarious Leia being better with the force than Luke comic)

Supernatural
- Destiel (I think I like the alt background under the cut better but this is a wonderful scene from a hunt either way)

X-Files
- Mulder and Scully in the rain (lovely painting of these two)

(I'm honestly surprised I managed to find stuff to rec these past two weeks. I keep thinking that I'm going to break my approximately 4yr long weekly reccing streak but have managed to squeak in a few. I doubt I'll keep it up, but oh well, it was a fun challenge while I managed it)

tielan

3 degrees around here. The heater that I have is barely keeping the cold at bay. I think the space needs a few more curtains to cut down the area that needs warming...

Anyway, I'm just here for another night.

Good to catch up with my friend B, who used to be on LJ and has a DW account but probably hasn't used it in over a decade! I haven't seen her or her husband, C, since 2023 when her FIL died, and haven't seen her sons since...even longer. They were shorter than me when last I saw them, they have since shot up and tower over me at a 6-foot minimum. Haven't visited her family down here since before the pandemic, and she's had a lot going on in so many dimensions.

Got down here last night, ate pizza and had a long chat to catch up on all the things that don't get put on FB. Went for a walk today around town and did more talking about directions and futures and stuff, then back home for lunch, and out for dinner. Tomorrow is markets.

I gave her the rough (exceedingly rough) draft of my novel, and promptly found a bajillion spelling and name mistakes. I'm in the process of cleaning it up, but it's slow. Rewriting the next novel will be even slower, trying to fit everything in. There's a lot of stuff to get through!

For the cold tonight, I've piled a few extra things on the bed to help keep me warm - pillows, clothing, etc. It'll be fine, just a wee smidge colder than I'm used to (and I like things warm and toasty, but can't be helped). Like I said, it's only for one night.

Good to catch up with B though.

lannamichaels

I wrote this on tumblr nearly a year ago in reply to:

byjove:

countries will be like “nooooo our birth rate is falling exponentially and it’s effecting our economy” and immigrants will be like “hey can you let us in so we can boost your economy and fill your empty jobs and raise our children here” and inevitably the country is like “the only thing worse than a large scale collapse of our population is letting foreigners live here”

byjove:
America’s immigration policies are difficult enough but I read the immigration policies for some countries and it is batshit insane. they’re straight up like “we hate disabled people, we hate people who don’t speak our language, if you don’t have a $85k a year salary lined up for you, we don’t want you to move here. if by some miracle you jump through all the hoops and move here, it will take you 20 years to obtain citizenship and during that time we will not rent to you because you’re a foreigner.” damn bitch. fuck you.

lannamichaels:

I read foreign policy stuff and every few months, like clockwork, there’s an article about [insert country here] having demographic problems caused by not enough young people and What That Means.

And every single time, I have only two questions:

1. What is your immigration policy?
2. How much does it cost to have and raise a baby, both direct monetary and intangibles, such as does a woman destroy her entire professional career to do so?

Fixing both of those will fix every single falling population problem I have ever read about in those places. Because the answer is generally “both. both are bad.” And places where the second one is considered to be fine, the first one absolutely isn’t.

(I state these are the constant issues at play in foreign policy writings to contrast that with the stuff I’ve heard about from rural demographic problems where the issue is “we have young people, but they leave because there aren’t any jobs.” That is internal population shifting within a country and comes with other problems, ex: rent.)

I bring this up here now because I'm not going to keep adding on to someone else's post, especially this long after, but we have a new entry in the "every so often Foreign Policy likes to talk about birthrates" trend and it's...

It's an entire article about how Israel doesn't have this problem, because Jewish women tend to have lots of kids compared to the rest of the countries considered equivalent economically, and at NO POINT mentions the Holocaust.

How oh how do you have an article about how Jewish women have a culture where having a lot of kids is considered necessary and DO NOT MENTION THAT, I do not know. It probably gets included in, oh, it's a religious reason, but except not that much because it points out that secular Israelis also have more kids on average than the comparison population.

The author cannot be this clueless. Was it just that he felt it awkward to point out there is the actual need to repopulate????? Even I have heard from women dealing with infertility who feel like complete failures because they can't help poke Hitler in the eye.

As a complete aside, though, since I'm on this subject, many things piss me off in Harry Potter and Harry Potter fandom but among the worst is the Weasleys. Molly and Arthur Weasley are the only characters in that entire backstory who understood the assignment.

Congratulations, you have just managed to survive a genocide that wiped out an entire generation! What do you do?

Every other character: uh, have one or two kids?

Arthur and Molly Weasley: hold our birth control.

Yes, yes, I'm aware that in context, the Weasleys aka "poor and red haired with more children than they can afford" are anti-Irish bigotry. Also we don't know too much about random other characters and their families, true.

But seeing it repeated in fandom? Oh, that's a lot of people who don't know what it's like to be part of a people that survived a genocide five minutes ago.

The magical world is in a massive demographic problem* and the Weasleys are the only ones who are taking it seriously.

*all this random extra ridiculous pureblood stuff that isn't in the books that has become some kind of calcified fanon also makes no sense, and part of the reason it makes no sense is that your population size is too goddamn small. The magical world in Britain, if we take the numbers seriously, is actively in the process of dying out.

tielan

But not restfulness.

Off to catch up with a friend tomorrow and the weekend, back on Sunday to a hotel in the city.

Interestingly, I and one other guy are at the hotel where most of the others were last week...the others have been moved to a high-end hotel!

Anyway. I'm just glad to not be out here after tonight. Although how I'm going to manage to pack my bag again, I really don't know.

settiai

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Current Mood: sleepy

jjpor

Extending all my best wishes and good vibes to

thisbluespirit - I hope you are having a good day, and that things are going your way generally. <3

Current Mood: chipper

tielan

inexplicably tired. I even got 8 hours pretty solidly last night. (I think. I don't remember waking up anyway.)

Will try for more sleep. MOAR SLEEP.

Wish me luck.

rhi

I mean, it's different, but hey, I get to post with links to fic! No, I'm finally catching up on the Inkvent prompts, so have more short fic. Hope you enjoy!

Winterberries (100 words) by Gryphonrhi
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: John Sheppard
Additional Tags: his team damn it, Drabble, inkvent prompts
Summary:

White snow, red berries, and soon red blood.

Cosmic Glow (400 words) by Gryphonrhi
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Numb3rs (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Larry Fleinhardt/Megan Reeves
Characters: Larry Fleinhardt
Additional Tags: One of my favorite on screen couples, and the least likely, but oh they work well together, Inkvent
Summary:

An astrophysicist buying a house so far from campus makes sense, actually.

Fruit Cocktail (1145 words) by Gryphonrhi
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Nero Wolfe - Rex Stout
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Saul Panzer, Fritz Brenner, Nero Wolfe
Additional Tags: Archie's here but he's not really here, you'll see - Freeform, Friendship, Families of Choice, Inkvent, Prompt Fic
Summary:

This was a little past 'experimental cuisine' as far as Saul was concerned.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: My brain has mashed together Sexyback and Seven Nation Army. Send help.

lannamichaels

If you think defending your right to use a common name as a pejorative is more important than listening to everyone with that name saying "please stop, this is causing us actual real harm", then just let me know right now and I can ban you from my blog and you can ban me and then we'll all live happily ever after: you with your moral superiority that you can hurt whoever you want as long as you feel you have a good enough reason, and me without having to endure this right now or ever.

Like, I thought we all got over this in middle school, using someone's name as an insult because, tee hee, teacher, I'm not really calling them a bad word, I'm just turning their name into a bad word, that's totally different!!!!

I am so incredibly serious. I have limited ability to cope and this shit has already ruined two days within the last seven entirely by triggering mental health problems and making me literally actually cry with frustration over why so many people are so keen on hurting people even when they've asked them repeatedly to stop.

This is not a victimless term. You need to fucking stop or get out of my life and I'll get out of yours and we'll both move on.

tielan

The new members (the known ones at any rate) were sworn in today, and the Prime Minister (Anthony Albanese of the Australian Labor Party or ALP) presented his cabinet.

Yes, we do politics just that fast around here. Elected one week, sitting the next.

There are still a handful of counts taking place, some of them are going down to the wire. And I do mean the wire. The final date for ballots to come in (from remote and distant places where Australians have cast their votes) is this Thursday, I believe.

--

The conservative party in Australia, having lost their leader after he lost his seat, have been doing the whole 're-elect a new one'. Now, in Australia, party members choose who the new leader will be, not the voters. So there's a lot of in-party factionalism and back-and-forth.

Our options were: far right faction white guy with history of corruption who refused to resign from his ministerial position, moderate white woman with history of corruption who did resign from her ministerial position after being found out. There were assorted minor possibilities but they were all an outside chance, compared with these two.

Incidentally, white corruption guy came with an indigneous deputy minister in tow - an indigenous deputy minister who is far-right wing, opposed the Indigneous Voice To Parliament, and has just jumped ship from the "country" conservative party to the "urban" conservative party, leaving the "country" conservatives without a leader...

This is a party that has 'a woman problem'. They don't do quotas (unlike Labor) and it shows. They stuff female candidates into marginal seats, or anywhere where they think that a woman might beat another woman.

(Incidentally, one of those electorates where they put a woman they thought might beat another woman? They're up by a mere 56 votes in an electorate where over 100,000 voted! HOLY WOW. It's being recounted. Poor AEC workers, what a job!

I did say some of them were going down to the wire!)

Anyway, they voted on who was going to lead the Aussie conservatives in the coming months (at least until someone stabs her in the back) and it's the white female moderate. Who, if you want an idea of what 'moderate' entails, once gave a speech about how Australia would amount to nothing if not for colonisation.

Yeah.

We can't let the Americans have all the white supremacists, I guess...

There are, of course, those who will herald the election of the first conservative party leader as a master stroke. Every conservative female politician in the country (there aren't many of them) was photographed with a big grin and a positive note about how the conservatives have changed and how they listened to Australia and, and, and...

...think I'm gonna wait and see about how the conservatives have changed. Not that I'll ever vote for them again.

Actually, speaking of 'wait and see'-ing when it comes to leaderships...someone on Threads posted a picture of a whole lettuce...

lannamichaels

I am unfortunately being taken in by the Murderbot TV Show promo campaign and am starting to think this might actually be good and I might enjoy it.

Oh no.

(it seems like it's WELL LIT!!!!!! And has bright colors!!!! And I'll be able to tell characters apart, possibly, which I could not do in the book except for like two of them!!!! So I'll be able to see what's going on, follow the plot, and identify the characters!!!!!) (my standards are low but also frequently unachievable.) (guess it remains to be seen if the camera movement makes me sick.)

settiai

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Current Mood: accomplished

Profile

franavu

October 2012

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

Page Summary

Style Credit

Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated May. 23rd, 2025 09:33 am

Reading

home again home again...

it will be nice to be home again

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 5/21 Game

Murderbot TV episodes 1 and 2

tuesday

This Week's Plans

life

Titansfall D&D: Summary for 5/18 Game

Pangolin and Puttering

visiting friends in country town Victoria

(no subject)

moar sleep achieved

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 5/14 Game

Happy Birthday!

I'm going to bed now

Short fic postings for Inkvent, SGA, Numb3rs, and Nero Wolfe

(no subject)

last lingering bits of Aussie politics

Murderbot

Titansfall D&D: Summary for 5/11 Game

Profile

October 2012

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags