lannamichaels: Astronaut Dale Gardner holds up For Sale sign after EVA. (Default)
Lanna Michaels ([personal profile] lannamichaels) wrote2025-05-31 09:14 pm
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Tian Guan Ci Fu [Heaven Official's Blessing], V. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, translators Suika & Pengie



Funnily enough, the thing that gets me to actually read a MXTX novel is to assess getting it as a birthday present for someone who would give me no info on their current reading tastes and said they were willing to get anything, so based on some of their previous tastes, I considered a MXTX book and figured TGCF would be the most likely book of interest. So out from the library I got the first volume out to read it and assess it.

And it's funny and it's good, so I keep reading to see if the volume ends on a cliffhanger or not, and then I get to the Banyue arc. And I had been told the Banyue arc was racist but I was so not prepared for how racist it is. Right off the bat, it's "hello, nice to meet you, I'm a racist caricature" and then it *keeps getting worse*. So I plan to get the other volumes out from the library and read them myself, because this is enjoyable, but I'm unsure of the birthday present situation. I may go with something else.

mhalachai: (Buzzfeed Unsolved)
mhalachai ([personal profile] mhalachai) wrote2025-05-31 05:28 pm

Saturdays in May

For reasons that I'll explain in a month or two, I went to a local used bookstore (Pulpfiction on Main is my saviour) to see if they had copies of the earlier Anita Blake books. Subway construction on Broadway was so bad that it took longer to get there on the bus than it took me to walk home; c'est la vie.

Anyway, my route home took me past my old apartment. I haven't been that way much since I moved out in 2009. The old neighbourhood was pretty much the same - taller trees, although there are a number of rezoning proposal signs up; we'll see what goes through the city planning office and what can actually get built, with the cost of construction sky-high. I wondered if I would feel any nostalgia when I walked past the old place, but there was none. It was a crappy place and I was in a not-so-great mental space when I lived there. Pretty happy I left when I did.

K that's enough navel gazing. I have old books to look at :)
settiai: (Kes -- settiai (TriaElf9))
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-05-31 12:32 am
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settiai: (Hawkeye -- bailunrui)
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-05-30 07:58 pm
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RIP, Loretta Swit

We've lost another one. Goodbye, Hot Lips. šŸ™

I really need to add a M*A*S*H rewatch to my ever-growing list. I started one last year, but then work exploded and I just... never got back to it. Maybe I can do that when and if I finish the Babylon 5 rewatch.
tielan: brown chicken looking at camera, white chicken in profile (garden 01 - pumpkin vine)
tielan ([personal profile] tielan) wrote2025-05-30 08:06 pm
Entry tags:

gardening in winter

It's Friday night, 8pm. I'm tired.

Think I'll get a wash and go lie in bed with the cats around me and read.

Here, have a garden update.
donutsweeper: (Default)
donutsweeper ([personal profile] donutsweeper) wrote2025-05-29 08:46 pm
Entry tags:

insert witty title here

As an FYI Pocket (aka/formerly ReadItLater) is being shut down. Apparently you can export your saves up until October 8th but then all user data will be deleted. I haven't used my account in years but when I saw the news I got it in my head I needed to go through the links and see what, if anything, was salvageable. I think I last really looked at it mid-2018 when I started compiling my useful links masterposts but I know I had done a *lot* with it early in my fandom career and had transferred a tons of saved links over when del.ic.ious went under (sighhhhh, remember delicious? That was such a great site.) and the account was from 2007 or 2008 or something so....

Oh my fucking god I have so many links there. Thousands upon thousands. Why I have it in my head I have to go through them all I do not know, but brain says what brain says. Hundreds of links to dead recipe blogs, hundreds more to deleted livejournals, tons of deleted ff.net and ao3 fics, lots of genealogy sites and other random research things that have gone *poof* but still. Hours upon hours spent clicking links so far and so many left to check/decide about.

And of course I am left with the... where to store these links now? There have been rumors swirling about tumblr dying (for years now, but recently they seem more serious) so I had been vaguely trying to get though favorited posts with links there in case it went under so obviously I'm not going to just transfer ReadItLater stuff there. I had moved a bunch of tumblr stuff to discord but there's been some grumblings that *that* isn't terribly long-term stable either so I should probably move stuff off there too but. Ugh and Grrrr.

For now I've been tossing stuff in a locked-to-me dreamwidth post. Eventually I'll have a good dozen or two new links to add to my useful things masterposts and I also did find some recipes to try and some comment-fic fills I might clean up and post so it hasn't been a complete waste of time but still. Not how I've planned to spend all my free time for a week+ with however many hours of it left to go.

I think I mentioned moths getting into some stored linens, well I finished my first rug with the resulting fabric strips:

Blue green rug
35.5ā€ by 23ā€ give or take, green/blue plaid flannel sheet rug

I somehow managed to find some tumblr art to rec for [community profile] recthething the last two weeks but I now have nothing stored up and no real thoughts so I'm kind of assuming my long streak of reccing there weekly is about to be over. Sigh. But here's art for Discword, Dracula, Hogan's Heroes, MDZS/The Untamed, SPN, Under the Skin, X-Files:

Discworld
- They did the job they didn’t have to do, and they died doing it (Animatic to Les Mis' Drink With Me)
- a take on how this priceless dialog happened on the old cemetery of Ankh Morpork one glorious 25th of May (really like the subtle emphasis on Vetinari's flower here)
- All The Little Angels Liber Chorum's take on the discworld song, along with sketches from Night Guard

Dracula
- I’ve been reading Dracula for the first time, im about halfway through, here’s my take on it so far: The polycule learns about monster hunting (hilarious comic)

Hogan's Heroes
- The Boys (amazing sketch of all of the allied characters)

MDZS/The Untamed
- Modern mdzs series - Wei Ying (Cute Modern AU version)
- On this Easter I would like to honour my favourite resurrected savour of man. (every so delightfully creepy)

SPN
- The Fallen Angel (gorgeous Cas)

Under the Skin | ēŒŽē½Ŗå›¾é‰“
- Happy 520 from our favourite police crew (Everyone's so happy! I love it)
- If Shen Yi was portrayed as the real artist he is (this made me laugh, it's just too true)

X-Files
- if they looked at me like that I think I’d disintegrate on the spot (perfect expressions for Mulder and Scully here)
lannamichaels: Astronaut Dale Gardner holds up For Sale sign after EVA. (Default)
Lanna Michaels ([personal profile] lannamichaels) wrote2025-05-29 07:59 pm

(no subject)



The absolute greatest thing about having medical trauma and having to get medical tests done is when you tell the person doing the test that you have medical trauma and please X, Y, and Z, and they then proceed to ignore it and give you more medical trauma.

And you never know! Until you get there and do it! If the person is going to have great bedside manner and everything will be wonderful, or it isn't, and you just have to roll the fucking dice.

mhalachai: (SPN Fire?)
mhalachai ([personal profile] mhalachai) wrote2025-05-29 04:16 pm
Entry tags:

(no subject)

we had a strange one-day heat-wave yesterday (it's been averaging 19C here for a month and shot up to 30C yesterday; back down to 22C today) and now I have a headache that's either from the heat, some flavoring in the sparkling water I was chugging, the fan, or some fourth option like a change in the air pressure or a brain tumour or something.

Going through life is weird.


settiai: (Siân -- settiai)
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-05-28 10:34 pm
Entry tags:

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 5/28 Game

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

And that's where we left off.
settiai: (Boromir & Faramir -- megalixer)
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-05-28 08:05 pm

Oops?

"I'm exhausted from not getting enough sleep, and my spoons are gone after the hell that was work today," I said yesterday evening after getting home from work.

"I have so many things that I need to get done this evening, but I don't have the energy right now," I said. "Plus my head's really starting to hurt."

"You know what?" I asked myself. "A short nap will be the perfect solution."

Spoiler: it was not the perfect solution for accomplishing things yesterday evening. Why not? Because instead of it being a short nap, it turned into a full night's sleep.

Oops?

Seriously, I didn't even turn out the lights. I curled up on top of the comforter on the bed. I wasn't even under the sheets. And I still slept for hours.

Luckily, I woke up for something like twenty minutes a little before midnight. That gave me time to take care of a couple of things that I really had to do, and then I was able to at least turn out the lights and such. But, yeah. That wasn't exactly what my plan was for yesterday. It's certainly what happened, though.
settiai: (Drack -- settiai)
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-05-26 11:12 pm

Long Weekend

Welp. I didn't accomplish quite as much as I'd hoped this weekend, but hiding in the hotel for most of it definitely seems to have helped increase my spoons. Now if my head would just stop hurting, I'd be all set to go back to work in the morning.

I spent most of the weekend catching up on sleep and reading/writing fanfiction, although I did manage to watch a few new-to-me movies here and there which was a nice plus. My plans to play video games fell through, mostly due to my concentration being shot my first few days off. There was definitely a part of me that wanted to play, but I couldn't drum up the energy to actually open a game and start playing, so I just... didn't.

Still, sleeping and reading with some movie watching isn't bad. I'll take what I can get.

My legs are sadly still a bit of a mess from my fall on Friday. The left one is just bruised and a little scraped, but my right ankle and knee both continue to have swelling in addition to similar scrapes and bruises as the left leg. Add in the psoriasis on both of them, and they both look pretty horrifying at the moment. While I'm limping some, I can still walk, so I'm counting that as a win.
settiai: (Madrox -- rangerinblack)
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-05-25 03:10 pm
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RIP, Peter David

It's not a surprise, since he's had significantly health issues for quite a while, but it's still so sad to hear the news. The word has lost one of the greats.

I've loved so many of PAD's books and comics over the years. MadroX and X-Factor (v3) will forever be one of my favorite Marvel runs of all time. I read his Centauri Prime Trilogy so many times, not to mention "Soul Mates" is one of my favorite Babylon 5 episodes.

There was a period of several years where I was utterly obsessed with his Star Trek: New Frontier series. Imzadi will forever be one of the most influential Star Trek books that baby!me ever read.

He's played such a huge role in my life over the decades. He'll very much be missed.
tielan: (SGA - conversion)
tielan ([personal profile] tielan) wrote2025-05-24 01:44 pm
Entry tags:

I don't have the space for fandom anymore

There's no room for in it for my brain, no space in my schedule for watching, no community to drag me along with them.

And also, I've become resigned to the fact that I will never get stories about the characters that I want. That my interests are not anywhere near the interests of the majority of viewers, and because what counts is eyeballs (or reader pages, or whatever) then the characters I love - or the archetypes I want to see - are not going to appeal to most people.

It's a little demoralising, and makes it hard to write.

Not to mention the state of the world is steadily wearing on us all. Not just the AI (fuck AI) but also the world and all it's harms. All the hopeful stories I had for analogues and spin-offs of our world are presently crumbling while watching Ukraine, Gaza, the authority of the current US Administration, the right-wingers, Christian Nationalism - not to mention all the tech issues.

*sigh*

I can't remember if it was John Green or someone else (might have been Hank Green) who said during the 2020 election process that he was hesitating over starting a new book, because a 2nd Trump administration would create a very different world to one in which 45 only managed one administration. He was, as it turns out, exceedingly prescient on that front.
settiai: (Regina -- meganbmoore)
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-05-24 07:10 pm
Entry tags:

. . .

Well, I'm gifted. There's a Hispanic grocery store across the street, and I walked over there before D&D last night to grab a few groceries that I needed. On the way back, I ended up tripping over my own two feet. I scraped up both legs a fair bit and had to get that cleaned up before the game, but it didn't seem all that bad at first.

I thought it was fine, save for the scrapes, but when I went to bed after the game last night my body let me know that it was worse than I thought. My left leg is bruised quite nicely and my right knee (which was scraped up) was aching. To make it even better, my right ankle - which is the one that I sprained quite nicely about a month ago that's just really properly started to heal - started swelling again a few after I fell. Plus my right knee has also started swelling somewhat today to match the ankle, which is even better.

Luckily, I still have the brace from when I sprained my ankle at the end of April, and I've been trying to soak it as much as possible which seems to be helping some. I'm not worried about it being a fracture this time like I was a month ago, so I'm not wasting the money on a trip to the doctor since there's only so much they can do for a sprain, as many, many, many past sprains have taught me. And while my knee is a bit swollen, it's not bad enough to justify a trip to the clinic on a holiday weekend, at least not yet.

After almost 40 years in this body, you'd think that I would have learned to walk by now. But, no, apparently not. šŸ™ƒ
settiai: (Kes -- settiai (TriaElf9))
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-05-24 12:40 am
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lannamichaels: Astronaut Dale Gardner holds up For Sale sign after EVA. (Default)
Lanna Michaels ([personal profile] lannamichaels) wrote2025-05-23 06:23 pm

Murderbot TV episode 3



Unsure how I feel about having 22 minute episodes (sorry, "30 minute episodes"). On the one hand, short and quick enough to watch. On the other hand, this entire episode is essentially half an episode: In Which Our Heroes Travel To DeltFall And MurderBot Looks Around.

Enjoyable, but this kind of episode feels like it is meant for watching entire seasons all at once, where it would just blend in to the before and after. They spent too much time arguing in the shuttle for it to feel like it stands alone at all.

The security footage of what the Gurathin and Bharadwaj are doing back home was pointless, but I guess Character Building or something.

settiai: (Methos -- mono_borracho)
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-05-23 05:20 pm

Long Weekend

I'm so very, very thankful that the new CEO at Unnamed Nonprofit hasn't tried to change anything when it comes to us having extra long weekends around holidays. Hell, if anything he's even better than the former CEO on that front, as he's added extra time here and there for us.

On that note: yesterday was my twelve year anniversary at Unnamed Nonprofit. Time really fucking flies, huh? There are only five people in the entire company who've been there longer than me, and two of them are probably going to be retiring within the next year or so. So that's also a bit terrifying.

Anyway, I managed to get a whopping ten hours of sleep last night, and it was lovely. It cut into my plans for today, admittedly, but the fact that I don't have to go back to work until Tuesday means I still have plenty of time for writing fanfiction, and playing video games, and maybe even watching some movies/TV shows if I can focus on them long enough to watch something new-to-me.

To the surprise of everyone, including me, I've stuck with my planned schedule for the week. I went and bought groceries after work yesterday, so I've got enough to cover me until my next paycheck and I can make some burgers this weekend too. I decided to go with edibles for my relaxation aid, so I picked up a pack at the dispensary on my way back from the grocery store, but they were having a holiday sale so I had enough left over to get some beer too without going over my budget.

I'm not planning on leaving the hotel the rest of the long weekend, although that could always potentially change. Honestly, though, I'll be happy if I can manage to not even have to leave my room for the entire time. That would be great.
tielan: (SGA - teyla)
tielan ([personal profile] tielan) wrote2025-05-23 07:10 pm
Entry tags:

home again home again...

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: (you broke it!)
tielan ([personal profile] tielan) wrote2025-05-22 09:20 pm

it will be nice to be home again

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: (Siân -- settiai)
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-05-22 12:20 am
Entry tags:

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 5/21 Game

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

And that's where we left off.