Not so random peeve of the day
Apr. 3rd, 2026 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicollIn the TV show I am watching, the protagonist keeps looking away from the road while driving.
james_davis_nicoll
whoops!
Apr. 3rd, 2026 07:55 pmarchersangeli have been reading about various people having issues with their phones & it reminded me that i did not do a post for our 3 year phone anniversary.
in the 2 year anniversary post my brother was worried about the battery life of the phones. well, it turns out that the main problem is him using the phones to look up stuff. now that he is aware (& trying to cut back) the battery life is better.
but now he can't get the phones to update, security or software, i forget which. they are supposed to have software updates for 5 years & security updates for 4 (or is that the other way around?).
he's tried everything; looking up troubleshooting guides, various phone forums & even doing a chat with samsung tech support. still nothing.
this has soured him on future samsung phones & he is considering google phones for when we need to move on from these.
in the 2 year anniversary post my brother was worried about the battery life of the phones. well, it turns out that the main problem is him using the phones to look up stuff. now that he is aware (& trying to cut back) the battery life is better.
but now he can't get the phones to update, security or software, i forget which. they are supposed to have software updates for 5 years & security updates for 4 (or is that the other way around?).
he's tried everything; looking up troubleshooting guides, various phone forums & even doing a chat with samsung tech support. still nothing.
this has soured him on future samsung phones & he is considering google phones for when we need to move on from these.
some good things that have happened today
Apr. 3rd, 2026 11:58 pmkaberettThe fancy bakery had Two Cardamom Buns left when we got there, so I got one of them, and we took our Pastries down to the New River (which is still neither of those things) for the traditional springtime pursuit of Watching The Waterfowl.
Coot the first very obligingly stood up to show us their eggs after really not very much waiting at all, and they are still eggs! No gaping maws there yet. Coot the second was a total surprise to me; I think I'd not been along that particular stretch recently. This one was Not Obliging At All and indeed remained resolutely circular atop its nest, removing its head from beneath its wing only once and only briefly, but we deduce from the fact that it was atop the nest that Orbs Exist.
Pastry course then actually took place sat on a bench just down the bank from a very sleepy pile of Egyptian goslings all huddled up, until they were Alarmed by bread and then gradually heaved themselves up to investigate grass. I remain fascinated by the differences in size evident at this stage of development within the one clutch.
Also; found a bridge hidden in a hedge. Collaborated on iterating toward a solution for a problem. Picked things up and put them down again. Indulged some special interest. Good Job Team.
Good News Friday - Good Friday Edition
Apr. 3rd, 2026 05:11 pmbrickhousewenchIt’s Friday! *Kermit arms* And it's been ages since I remembered to make a Good News Friday post.
I did a little searching on the New York Times travel section for articles about Greece. I also read some other articles, and discovered that in Italy you can stay in religious guesthouses for as little as 50 euros a night. And even better, one of the requirements is that they ask you to be quiet! I don’t mind a spartan room, in fact I sometimes find it charming. And I don’t mind that some of them have curfews, I'm usually in bed by midnight, and I’d rather not be woken up by drunks coming home late at night. This just opened up a whole new option for me as far as traveling to Europe. More grown up than a youth hostel, but around the same price! I’m going to spend some time this weekend thinking about maybe booking a trip to Rome, or Florence, or Venice and staying at a monastery or nunnery. * bounces *
At the grocery store today a little old man complimented my Artly Fartsy T-shirt and asked me where I bought it?
The SUN is out!
Linkies!
From Messy Nessy Chic’s 13 Things I found on the Internet today comes this fascinating post about Why So Many Control Rooms Were Seafoam Green (one of my favorite colors!)
[Faber Birren] painted his bedroom walls red vermillion to test if it would make him go mad.
Which links to an article about Faber Birren, which is also worth a read. He’s a fascinating character!
Lacking any guidance from previous researchers, we set out to answer the age old question “Where have all the bloody teaspoons gone?”
I did a little searching on the New York Times travel section for articles about Greece. I also read some other articles, and discovered that in Italy you can stay in religious guesthouses for as little as 50 euros a night. And even better, one of the requirements is that they ask you to be quiet! I don’t mind a spartan room, in fact I sometimes find it charming. And I don’t mind that some of them have curfews, I'm usually in bed by midnight, and I’d rather not be woken up by drunks coming home late at night. This just opened up a whole new option for me as far as traveling to Europe. More grown up than a youth hostel, but around the same price! I’m going to spend some time this weekend thinking about maybe booking a trip to Rome, or Florence, or Venice and staying at a monastery or nunnery. * bounces *
At the grocery store today a little old man complimented my Artly Fartsy T-shirt and asked me where I bought it?
The SUN is out!
Linkies!
From Messy Nessy Chic’s 13 Things I found on the Internet today comes this fascinating post about Why So Many Control Rooms Were Seafoam Green (one of my favorite colors!)
[Faber Birren] painted his bedroom walls red vermillion to test if it would make him go mad.
Which links to an article about Faber Birren, which is also worth a read. He’s a fascinating character!
Lacking any guidance from previous researchers, we set out to answer the age old question “Where have all the bloody teaspoons gone?”
Aurora Reminder
Apr. 3rd, 2026 11:37 amjames_davis_nicollA reminder to Canadian citizens and permanent residents: you have but a day to vote on the Aurora Awards!
I am but one of the eligible candidates. Each of us is as Canadian as possible under the circumstances. M
ore information here.
I am but one of the eligible candidates. Each of us is as Canadian as possible under the circumstances. M
ore information here.
Bad news
Apr. 3rd, 2026 03:43 pmlexinI have had some bad news: my old friend Peter Cheer passed away in the last few days.
We (our DnD group) became worried when he didn't contact us to confirm whether or not he was playing last Sunday, and I had tried to get hold of him by email, text and Discord, with no luck. So I sent a message via the Police Scotland website for them to do a welfare check and a policeman rang me on Wednesday night with the bad news.
He told me that it was a 'medical issue' and nothing suspicious, which is something to be grateful for.
They are getting in touch with Peter's wife, Tabby, who is currently in Nairobi, through Interpol.
I am really upset, I was very fond of Pete, a kindly, good, man in all the best ways. He was a Quaker, and everything a Christian should be.
I’ll miss him. He used to stay with me during our August gaming get-togethers. Staying with me was cheaper than getting a room at the university.
He had an adventurous life despite having profound disabilities (he walked strangely, he was completely deaf in one ear, and had lost an eye) brought about by having a bad fall while mountaineering in 1981. He did Voluntary Service Overseas three times, in Kenya, in Mongolia, and I think the third time was in Ecuador, though I could be wrong.
We (our DnD group) became worried when he didn't contact us to confirm whether or not he was playing last Sunday, and I had tried to get hold of him by email, text and Discord, with no luck. So I sent a message via the Police Scotland website for them to do a welfare check and a policeman rang me on Wednesday night with the bad news.
He told me that it was a 'medical issue' and nothing suspicious, which is something to be grateful for.
They are getting in touch with Peter's wife, Tabby, who is currently in Nairobi, through Interpol.
I am really upset, I was very fond of Pete, a kindly, good, man in all the best ways. He was a Quaker, and everything a Christian should be.
I’ll miss him. He used to stay with me during our August gaming get-togethers. Staying with me was cheaper than getting a room at the university.
He had an adventurous life despite having profound disabilities (he walked strangely, he was completely deaf in one ear, and had lost an eye) brought about by having a bad fall while mountaineering in 1981. He did Voluntary Service Overseas three times, in Kenya, in Mongolia, and I think the third time was in Ecuador, though I could be wrong.
Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar
Apr. 3rd, 2026 09:23 amjames_davis_nicoll
A collection of (Michael Hanson voice) speculative fiction stories from Amal El-Mohtar.
Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar
Typo du jour
Apr. 3rd, 2026 06:38 pmfred_mouseThey needed someone else to bare witness to this.
Not enough to watch, but they have to be naked when doing so. Which, actually fit quite well into the scene I've stolen the quote from, but ah, not enough for me to think it was a deliberate play on words.
Sustaining involvement and joy in tiny fandoms
Apr. 3rd, 2026 11:14 amvriddyContent notes: There are a few moments of self-pity in here :D I don't like being negative in general, but I thought I'd be honest about things, both for myself and for my future self who will totally be over it, yet able to remember what it was like not to be that cool, thanks to this post XD
I've written quite a few fics in tiny fandom-of-ones before, sometimes even for manga that didn't have a translation available anywhere so really no hope of finding fellow fans :D And I enjoy it, like, finishing a book, seeing there's no fics for your particular vision (or at all!), scribbling and dropping one, and then huuuh sometimes nothing because it was just about two background characters that deeply intrigued me and apparently only me. Or sometimes, maybe once a year, getting a comment like "I just finished reading the book and I'm so glad someone shared the same vision!" -- that feels sooo good :D Like having left a little treasure out there for someone else to find. (It's what I imagine geocaching is like??) And it's happened to me in the reverse so many times, too! Bless you ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
yuletide folks in particular, for unknowingly having had my back so often!
( Writing for a tiny fandom and then staying there, however, feels very different )
( 'Write for yourself first' - sure! Why share, though? )
Which brings us to, coping mechanisms! Haha. ...You know, I spent actual time searching for how people do it, heh, when it started becoming harder. Here's what I found people do:- Keep writing, stop posting
- Rope more people into the fandom
- Get into a bigger fandom in parallel -- the bigger the better!
- Mindset change: posting to connect vs posting to archive / connect quietly
- Wait to post so there is less attachment to the story
- RP being someone who doesn't care like you wish you were
( I think I've basically done all of these 🤔 )
This got so long again XD XD I'm adding headers! But also, now, with the important question!!
Beloved tiny fandom and fandom-of-one writers and creators out there, how do you do it? And how do you keep it up? How do you manage the psychology of it? Do you have down moments regardless of the joy of it, and how do you handle those?? Clearly I do suck at it, so I'm all ears! It'd be cool to reduce the amount of non-joy as I go back to my gigantic file of K-9 ideas and throw them into the cauldron, eventually... :D Any coping mechanism to add to the list? And I think this all probably applies to podficcers and icon makers too, who tend to navigate smaller circles. How do you sustain it?? Please allow me to learn your secrets :D
SCORE!
Apr. 2nd, 2026 10:10 pmalthea_valaraSomeone at Stitch Club today (who I think was a visitor? not sure, but I got the impression it wasn't one of the regulars) brought yarn to destash. GOOD yarn. EXPENSIVE yarn. I have a bunch of new yummies!
Some of the colors aren't ones I would gravitate to, but the fiber content was too good to pass up. And the yarns that had prices on them? were $18-$26 a skein. It is RARE that I can splurge for yarn that expensive! Normally I just use big box acrylics. So I'm, like, drooling some now, lol.
If you wanna see photos, I'll get them during daylight tomorrow. Too dark now.
I was pleased to get some more Misti Alpaca. I have a hat/cowl made out of that yarn that I really, really like. I haven't been wearing them this winter because my new coat is green and the hat/cowl are predominately red, and I didn't want to look like a Christmas tree. The color of this one is creamy white, which would look good with the coat, so probably a new hat?
Man, am I gonna have fun looking for patterns!
1 skein Brushed Suri by Blue Sky fibers (142 yards / 50 grams, 67% baby suri / 22% merino / 11% bamboo) in color 901 (a rust color)
1 skein Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio DK (275 yards / 4 oz, 100% Superwash Merino) in color Park Heights
1 skein Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Chunky (108 yards / 100 grams, 100% Baby Alpaca) in color CP21 Winter Queen
1 skein Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Grande (110 yards / 100 grams, 100% Baby Alpaca) in color 403 (a deep gray, almost black)
2 skeins Shibui Knits Maai (DK, 175 yards / 50 grams each, 70% Superbaby Alpaca / 30% Fine Merino) in color Cove (a deep green)
3 skeins Blue Sky Fibers Eco Cashmere DK (164 yards / 50 grams, 50% Recycled Cashmere / 50% Virgin Cashmere) in color Gold Rush. CASHMERE!! (a goldish yellow)
1 skein Julie Asselin hand dyed yarns Fino (400 yards / 115g or 4oz, 75% Merino / 15% Cashmere / 10% Silk) in color Olea (hard to tell the color at night, but I'd say it's a yellowish olive)
Some of the colors aren't ones I would gravitate to, but the fiber content was too good to pass up. And the yarns that had prices on them? were $18-$26 a skein. It is RARE that I can splurge for yarn that expensive! Normally I just use big box acrylics. So I'm, like, drooling some now, lol.
If you wanna see photos, I'll get them during daylight tomorrow. Too dark now.
I was pleased to get some more Misti Alpaca. I have a hat/cowl made out of that yarn that I really, really like. I haven't been wearing them this winter because my new coat is green and the hat/cowl are predominately red, and I didn't want to look like a Christmas tree. The color of this one is creamy white, which would look good with the coat, so probably a new hat?
Man, am I gonna have fun looking for patterns!
2026 52 Card Project: Week 13: Ikebana
Apr. 2nd, 2026 08:40 pmpegkerrI'm getting this out a little early because I'm heading to Minicon tomorrow.
I got together with a friend, Rebecca, for another Year of Adventure event: she spent a couple of pleasant hours teaching me some of the very basic principles of ikebana, or Japanese flower arrangement (she has been studying the practice for a number of years). I recognized some of what she explained to me about the principles of Japanese design from what I know about bonsai, and from some articles I'd read about Japanese fashion.
These arrangements are meant to evoke tranquility. They emphasize asymmetry, minimalism, and negative space. Rebecca demonstrated how to a build the structure using a kenzan (a spiky metal pin frog) to secure stems in a shallow bowl.
Traditionally, ikebana focuses on three elements: Shin (heaven - the tallest line), Soe (earth - the supporting line), and Hikae (human - the balancing line). The stems you choose for each are set at specific angles in the most formal style. We played around with free form. I had no idea what I was doing, of course, but it was fun and absorbing, and I was genuinely proud of my first effort.
Since Japanese ikebana emphasizes minimalism, this collage is very simple: a picture of my arrangement displayed on a table top. The only other element I added is the enso symbol in the upper right, a circle which may be closed (perfection) or open (the beauty of imperfection).
The enso is the symbol of the Japanese aesthetic concept of wabi-sabi, which is about embracing the beauty found in imperfection, transience, and the natural cycle of growth and decay. Ikebana embodies this by celebrating the fleeting beauty of life.
Image description: An ikebana flower arrangement in a white vase with eucalyptus leaves, pussy willows, sea holly, and white tulips sits on a table. Upper right corner: an enso circle.
Ikebana
Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.
I got together with a friend, Rebecca, for another Year of Adventure event: she spent a couple of pleasant hours teaching me some of the very basic principles of ikebana, or Japanese flower arrangement (she has been studying the practice for a number of years). I recognized some of what she explained to me about the principles of Japanese design from what I know about bonsai, and from some articles I'd read about Japanese fashion.
These arrangements are meant to evoke tranquility. They emphasize asymmetry, minimalism, and negative space. Rebecca demonstrated how to a build the structure using a kenzan (a spiky metal pin frog) to secure stems in a shallow bowl.
Traditionally, ikebana focuses on three elements: Shin (heaven - the tallest line), Soe (earth - the supporting line), and Hikae (human - the balancing line). The stems you choose for each are set at specific angles in the most formal style. We played around with free form. I had no idea what I was doing, of course, but it was fun and absorbing, and I was genuinely proud of my first effort.
Since Japanese ikebana emphasizes minimalism, this collage is very simple: a picture of my arrangement displayed on a table top. The only other element I added is the enso symbol in the upper right, a circle which may be closed (perfection) or open (the beauty of imperfection).
The enso is the symbol of the Japanese aesthetic concept of wabi-sabi, which is about embracing the beauty found in imperfection, transience, and the natural cycle of growth and decay. Ikebana embodies this by celebrating the fleeting beauty of life.
Image description: An ikebana flower arrangement in a white vase with eucalyptus leaves, pussy willows, sea holly, and white tulips sits on a table. Upper right corner: an enso circle.
Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.
While You Were Sleeping fic, and writing meta
Apr. 3rd, 2026 01:33 pmchina_shopArticle 48 [Restriction on Acceptance of Engagement] (7647 words) by china_shop [Teen and Up]
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 당신이 잠든 사이에 | While You Were Sleeping (TV)
Relationships: Han Woo Tak/Jung Jae Chan/Nam Hong Joo
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Threesome - F/M/M, Getting Together, Prophetic Dreams, Found Family
Summary:“Woo Tak, you haven’t left home yet, right?” Hong Joo’s voice comes down the line with the familiar confidence of long-standing friendship. “Don’t drive. You’ll get stuck in traffic, and you’ll miss your test.”
Woo Tak momentarily forgets his place in her life. His crush is usually manageable, but this morning, taken off-guard, he can’t suppress a kindling warmth, nor the smile that accompanies it. “Nam Hong Joo, have you been dreaming about me from all the way over in Australia?”
This request came up for pinch hit around the time I defaulted on Yuletide, and I thought, well, if I can't manage my assignment, I'll at least do a treat. Especially since I'd nominated While You Were Sleeping (one of my long-standing tiny Kdrama fandoms). But in the end, this foundered too. Turns out partners having operations is not great for my writing productivity.
So since mid-February (I think?!), I've been finishing the draft, re-writing, and re-re-writing. I came up against successive problems, and I want to document them here, because I know these issues are cropping up in my writing generally, of late.
- Internal/external consistency: one of the big problems with my first few drafts was: Character A decides to do X and continues to believe they're doing X while actually doing Y. In other words, the external dialogue and actions contradict the internal monologue in a way that is not deliberate and just comes across as confusing and nonsensical. ("I've decided not to tell them how I feel... except that I keep hinting without acknowledging that.") I'm sure there are deliberate ways to do this that can be very effective. This was not that.
Solution: step outside the POV and look at what the character is actually doing. Then signpost reversals and the reasons for them. - Cue words/flow: one of Matt Bell's newsletters a while back quoted Robert McKee talking about cue words:
[E]very reaction[...] needs an action to prompt it.
Therefore, ideally, the last word or phrase of each speech is the core word that seals meaning and cues a reaction from the other side of the scene. [...] A miscue happens when a core word is placed too early in Character A’s line and prompts a reaction from Character B, but because Character A has more words to recite, Actor B must swallow her response and wait while Actor A finishes performing his speech.
In prose, this isn't just about external reaction, but internal reaction too. If the POV character's internal monologue isn't reacting to the last thing that happened/was said, then the reader is left scrambling to make connections with something that might have happened lines or paragraphs back, or which might not be there at all. I find I'm particularly prone to this when I have a lot of meta thoughts I'm trying to include in the POV's internal monologue.
Solution: restructure so that the reactions directly follow on from the thing that caused them, and make sure that meta thoughts flow naturally, each one prompted by the last, in a way that fits the overall arc/direction of the scene (keeping in mind that it's perfectly fine to have reversals). - Location of conversation/theory of mind: I've been finding lately that my POV characters often conduct a huge amount of the story just inside their heads, even when there's someone else there. They have all these thoughts and feelings to process! It's a lot! And then occasionally the other person says something, setting off a new cascade of thoughts and feelings. But most people have theories about what the people they're talking with are thinking, how they're feeling, what they're trying to achieve. Conversations, especially romantic ones, usually work better when the focus is shared between the POV character's internal thoughts, and their assessment of what is happening externally.
Solution: make the other party to the conversation more active. And make the POV character react to them, as well as their own internal stuff. - Direction/progress of scenes: I touched on this above, but it deserves its own point. Because I discovery write, I find it easy to take a very meandery path from the start of the scene to where I want to end up. In fanfic, this isn't fatal because we all enjoy spending time with our characters. But it can undercut tension and test readers' comprehension. It's something I want to work on.
Solution: structure scenes so that there's a sense of progress, with only one or two reversals, not flip-flopping every few paragraphs.
Anyway, things to think about. Things to work on. I'm super grateful to
teaotter for multiple beta rounds, helping me figure some of this stuff out. And I'm looking forward to applying these lessons to my current WIP, which oh dear, really needs it. ;-)Me-and-media update
Apr. 3rd, 2026 12:16 pmchina_shopPrevious poll review
In the Favourites poll, 63% of respondents have a favourite colour, 23.9% said sort of, and 8.7% said no. In ticky-boxes, rainbows came second to hugs, 68.8% to 87.5%. Raccoon chefs came third with 43.8%. Thank you for your votes! ♥
Reading
Still listening to The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley, read by Sid Sagar. At this stage, I'm enjoying the worldbuilding most of all. (Why is ancient xenophobia, eg, Thebians hating on Athenians, amusing, when its modern counterpart is the worst?)
Still dipping into Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell. I'm still in the drafting part, which has lots of strategies and good things to think about, but doesn't seem like it will get you a clean first draft. Like, that is not at all his goal.
Kdramas
I've nearly finished my immediate rewatch of One Spring Night. Will I manage not to go straight back to the beginning, or will it be like that time I had Maroon Five's Songs About Jane in my car tape deck for maybe three years straight? (Note to self: potential Yuletide fandom; I would love future fic about teenage Eun-u and his relationship with his new mother (and cousin(s) and possible younger siblings), and also his sort-of-outsider POV on his parents' relationship.)
Finished Undercover Miss Hong, which was sweet and fun. Not a favourite for me, but enjoyable, and I'm glad I watched.
I'm in the market for something new. I started Phantom Lawyer (about a fledging lawyer who sees ghosts and takes them on as clients; yes, it's a shaky business model), but Andrew's watching it with me, so that's an evening thing. I need something else to lure me onto my exercise machine.
I tried episode 1 of The Practical Guide to Love, for Han Ji-Min, but am not convinced. (Is anyone else watching it? Does it pick up?) Also, a little more of While You Were Sleeping, but either VIKI or I have forgotten where I'm up to. No Love Scout this week or last, due to illness.
Other TV
The Pitt. Ahhhh, my favourite weekly stressbomb.
A few more episodes of The Madison, which continues to be pretty; continues to push the message that cities are trash, versus country living, which is wholesome and full of community, and inspires personal growth. Somehow, the appearance of a love interest has turned me off the whole thing, and I don't even know why. Genre shift? Also, (can I be spoilery? does anyone care?)
Rooster, Cheers, and Scrubs season 1. A little bit of SurrealEstate. Paper Girls with Ed. Fringe and Bluey with my sister.
Online life
520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange modding behind the scenes, yay! Part 2 of sign-ups closes tomorrow, then it's matching, and then things will quieten down for a bit. | A lot of beta. :-) | My computer went into a crashing spiral a couple of days ago, and I started worrying (DNW to upgrade from Windows 11 to a subscription model!), but the culprit appears to have been a faulty flashdrive. Now I've removed that, things have calmed down. *knocks on wood, makes a backup*
Writing/making things
I finished a fic in March (by the skin of my teeth)! Hooray! So happy about that. I'll post about it separately.
I'm still having thoughts about my other started-for-Yuletide WIP, but I've fallen into the "I'll just ~quickly~ get this done before switching to my exchange assignment" trap before, and that way lies desperate last-minute scrambles up against the deadline, especially when I'm going so slowly. So I'm putting WIP #2 on hold until I at least have a 520 Day draft... which is why I'm writing this update, rather than racing to finish a fic that simply cannot be completed in two busy days.
Life/health/mental state things
Things are good. A bit hamster-wheel-esque, but at least my arms are hanging in there. | I'm looking forward to next week when Writers' Hour goes to 8am NZ time, and I can find a new rhythm for my day that somehow includes exercise. (Summers are great because I exercise first thing and then it's done.) | It's a long weekend, with a bunch of family stuff going on. My other-city-based brother (not to be confused with my US-based brother) is coming to dinner tonight for the first time in roughly a decade.
Cat
Halle really likes burrowing; I think she may be part mole. Sometimes I go into the bedroom, and a lump in the bedclothes starts letting out little warning "don't sit on me" meeps.
Car
I stopped driving on about 6 March because, you know, petrol prices. Which meant of course that when I tried to drive to lunch on Wednesday, my battery was completely flat, and I had to call NZAA and go for a long drive to recharge my battery. This seems like a terrible, inefficient system. Why can't my car just sit there, primed, until I (rarely) want it? Bah! I've considered getting rid of it entirely, but we're heading into winter, so idk.
Good things
So many hot cross buns, srsly! I finished a fic, after many many rewrites, yay!!!!! Family stuff will probably be good and will definitely come with delicious food!
In the Favourites poll, 63% of respondents have a favourite colour, 23.9% said sort of, and 8.7% said no. In ticky-boxes, rainbows came second to hugs, 68.8% to 87.5%. Raccoon chefs came third with 43.8%. Thank you for your votes! ♥
Reading
Still listening to The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley, read by Sid Sagar. At this stage, I'm enjoying the worldbuilding most of all. (Why is ancient xenophobia, eg, Thebians hating on Athenians, amusing, when its modern counterpart is the worst?)
Still dipping into Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell. I'm still in the drafting part, which has lots of strategies and good things to think about, but doesn't seem like it will get you a clean first draft. Like, that is not at all his goal.
Kdramas
I've nearly finished my immediate rewatch of One Spring Night. Will I manage not to go straight back to the beginning, or will it be like that time I had Maroon Five's Songs About Jane in my car tape deck for maybe three years straight? (Note to self: potential Yuletide fandom; I would love future fic about teenage Eun-u and his relationship with his new mother (and cousin(s) and possible younger siblings), and also his sort-of-outsider POV on his parents' relationship.)
Finished Undercover Miss Hong, which was sweet and fun. Not a favourite for me, but enjoyable, and I'm glad I watched.
I'm in the market for something new. I started Phantom Lawyer (about a fledging lawyer who sees ghosts and takes them on as clients; yes, it's a shaky business model), but Andrew's watching it with me, so that's an evening thing. I need something else to lure me onto my exercise machine.
I tried episode 1 of The Practical Guide to Love, for Han Ji-Min, but am not convinced. (Is anyone else watching it? Does it pick up?) Also, a little more of While You Were Sleeping, but either VIKI or I have forgotten where I'm up to. No Love Scout this week or last, due to illness.
Other TV
The Pitt. Ahhhh, my favourite weekly stressbomb.
A few more episodes of The Madison, which continues to be pretty; continues to push the message that cities are trash, versus country living, which is wholesome and full of community, and inspires personal growth. Somehow, the appearance of a love interest has turned me off the whole thing, and I don't even know why. Genre shift? Also, (can I be spoilery? does anyone care?)
not even really spoilers
there are all these flashbacks to Conversations from a Marriage between Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell, and every single one of these takes place in New York while Michelle Pfeiffer is in the bath. After a while, I concluded that actually these conversations had happened all over the place (at brunch, in the street, in Central Park, in bed), but Michelle Pfeiffer's character's bereavement/grief means she can only conceptualise them as bath conversations. And then Andrew said that soon there'd be flashbacks of her friends in the bath with her, too, and now I can't take them seriously at all. (Also, she must have been so pruney after shooting all those bath scenes!)Rooster, Cheers, and Scrubs season 1. A little bit of SurrealEstate. Paper Girls with Ed. Fringe and Bluey with my sister.
Online life
520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange modding behind the scenes, yay! Part 2 of sign-ups closes tomorrow, then it's matching, and then things will quieten down for a bit. | A lot of beta. :-) | My computer went into a crashing spiral a couple of days ago, and I started worrying (DNW to upgrade from Windows 11 to a subscription model!), but the culprit appears to have been a faulty flashdrive. Now I've removed that, things have calmed down. *knocks on wood, makes a backup*
Writing/making things
I finished a fic in March (by the skin of my teeth)! Hooray! So happy about that. I'll post about it separately.
I'm still having thoughts about my other started-for-Yuletide WIP, but I've fallen into the "I'll just ~quickly~ get this done before switching to my exchange assignment" trap before, and that way lies desperate last-minute scrambles up against the deadline, especially when I'm going so slowly. So I'm putting WIP #2 on hold until I at least have a 520 Day draft... which is why I'm writing this update, rather than racing to finish a fic that simply cannot be completed in two busy days.
Life/health/mental state things
Things are good. A bit hamster-wheel-esque, but at least my arms are hanging in there. | I'm looking forward to next week when Writers' Hour goes to 8am NZ time, and I can find a new rhythm for my day that somehow includes exercise. (Summers are great because I exercise first thing and then it's done.) | It's a long weekend, with a bunch of family stuff going on. My other-city-based brother (not to be confused with my US-based brother) is coming to dinner tonight for the first time in roughly a decade.
Cat
Halle really likes burrowing; I think she may be part mole. Sometimes I go into the bedroom, and a lump in the bedclothes starts letting out little warning "don't sit on me" meeps.
Car
I stopped driving on about 6 March because, you know, petrol prices. Which meant of course that when I tried to drive to lunch on Wednesday, my battery was completely flat, and I had to call NZAA and go for a long drive to recharge my battery. This seems like a terrible, inefficient system. Why can't my car just sit there, primed, until I (rarely) want it? Bah! I've considered getting rid of it entirely, but we're heading into winter, so idk.
Good things
So many hot cross buns, srsly! I finished a fic, after many many rewrites, yay!!!!! Family stuff will probably be good and will definitely come with delicious food!
Poll #34439 The whooshing sound as they go past
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 40
Deadlines, generally speaking
View Answers
yay! motivating!
10 (25.0%)
meep! *hides*
11 (27.5%)
manageable in moderation / under specific circumstances
25 (62.5%)
depends on the time of year
9 (22.5%)
other
3 (7.5%)
ticky-box full of pirate treasure, and the pirates are labradors and border collies
19 (47.5%)
ticky-box of finding a rhythm
15 (37.5%)
ticky-box of sunbeams dancing brightly on leaves in the breeze
26 (65.0%)
ticky-box of lemur vs sloth poetry slam
15 (37.5%)
ticky-box full of hugs
35 (87.5%)
Is it Friday yet?
Apr. 2nd, 2026 06:59 pmbrickhousewenchIt’s been another busy week. Life under our AI overlords moves so much faster than before. Is it Friday yet?
Today I had a couple of meetings, one of which was talking about how to address our horrendous backlog of 1,700 issues in GitHub. One of the team had mentioned wanting to look a little closer at the numbers, and something in my brain kicked off an idea. I went in and looked at how many issues we had open from each year and made a little table. I had to google how to query a range of dates (thank dog for StackOverflow!). I discovered that we had two issues that are eight years old! (those got closed today). And the other thing I thought to throw into my table was when each version of our product was released, at least as far back as the three years I’ve been here.
TL;DR, we can close at least half of our issue backlog as being opened against versions of the code that we don’t support anymore (versions 2.x). We released version 3.0 in 2024, and we released version 3.7 a week or so ago. Technically anything that’s not from 2025 or 2026 is probably against an unsupported version of the code, but we’re starting with the oldest and working our way forward.
I spent time this week closing issues against our Helm charts (which moved to another repository and the Community is owning them now) and against a deprecated client that reached end of life (EOL) last month and has been ripped out of the code. I’ve also been going back and looking at anything tagged as docs to see if I can merge/close or otherwise resolve them. So lots of cleanup work this week and today.
Today I also:
- Submitted Tom's resume for an open position.
- Made my hotel reservation for the weekend in Athens between our Lisbon offsite and our Athens offsite.
***
We tried to put out a patch release at the end of the day yesterday, but had trouble for some reason. Three of us got to work troubleshooting. I’ve had plenty of problems with our automated workflows failing, but even so, it took the three of us about an hour to debug things before we could get the release process to start. I wrote up quick patch release notes (there was only one change) and got those published, then logged off. The release process takes a while to build and publish all the downloads. But when I logged on this morning, apparently the build process failed.
The engineer tried again today, and failed again. The automation knew that it had already created an 3.6.9 release yesterday, so it created a 3.9.10 release today. When he was grumbling about it on Slack, I quipped, “Well, on the bright side we can just declare 3.6.9 "The April Fool's release". ”
He replied, “I love your positivity, Julie!”
And another engineer commented, “haha, Julie that's genius!”
I do manage the occasional good one-liner at work.
***
Too tired to cook tonight, so I order a pizza. All the snow piles are gone (I’ll have to check on Snow Mountain over in the Hannaford parking lot while I’m out running around tomorrow). And I spotted the resident bunny on my way to the car. =)
Today I had a couple of meetings, one of which was talking about how to address our horrendous backlog of 1,700 issues in GitHub. One of the team had mentioned wanting to look a little closer at the numbers, and something in my brain kicked off an idea. I went in and looked at how many issues we had open from each year and made a little table. I had to google how to query a range of dates (thank dog for StackOverflow!). I discovered that we had two issues that are eight years old! (those got closed today). And the other thing I thought to throw into my table was when each version of our product was released, at least as far back as the three years I’ve been here.
TL;DR, we can close at least half of our issue backlog as being opened against versions of the code that we don’t support anymore (versions 2.x). We released version 3.0 in 2024, and we released version 3.7 a week or so ago. Technically anything that’s not from 2025 or 2026 is probably against an unsupported version of the code, but we’re starting with the oldest and working our way forward.
I spent time this week closing issues against our Helm charts (which moved to another repository and the Community is owning them now) and against a deprecated client that reached end of life (EOL) last month and has been ripped out of the code. I’ve also been going back and looking at anything tagged as docs to see if I can merge/close or otherwise resolve them. So lots of cleanup work this week and today.
Today I also:
- Submitted Tom's resume for an open position.
- Made my hotel reservation for the weekend in Athens between our Lisbon offsite and our Athens offsite.
***
We tried to put out a patch release at the end of the day yesterday, but had trouble for some reason. Three of us got to work troubleshooting. I’ve had plenty of problems with our automated workflows failing, but even so, it took the three of us about an hour to debug things before we could get the release process to start. I wrote up quick patch release notes (there was only one change) and got those published, then logged off. The release process takes a while to build and publish all the downloads. But when I logged on this morning, apparently the build process failed.
The engineer tried again today, and failed again. The automation knew that it had already created an 3.6.9 release yesterday, so it created a 3.9.10 release today. When he was grumbling about it on Slack, I quipped, “Well, on the bright side we can just declare 3.6.9 "The April Fool's release". ”
He replied, “I love your positivity, Julie!”
And another engineer commented, “haha, Julie that's genius!”
I do manage the occasional good one-liner at work.
***
Too tired to cook tonight, so I order a pizza. All the snow piles are gone (I’ll have to check on Snow Mountain over in the Hannaford parking lot while I’m out running around tomorrow). And I spotted the resident bunny on my way to the car. =)
unexpected dental visit
Apr. 2nd, 2026 05:21 pmredbirdI was going to have my teeth cleaned next week, but the dentist's office called yesterday to tell me that the hygienist wouldn't be in that day, and asked me to reschedule either for today, with the next available after that being in June. So, I went over to Watertown this afternoon.
Before cleaning my teeth, the hygienist took a full set of X-rays, because it had been a couple of years. The dentist looked at them, and said that there are no cavities, but some of my old fillings are no longer doing their jobs. So, he wants to do two crowns (at least). This will involve some drilling, apparently, but no root canals. I have an appointment in two weeks to do the work on at least one tooth, possibly both, depending on how I'm feeling after the first. To my surprise, my current dental insurance is covering 100% of the cost.
Also, after a complicated office maybe-move and name change, that dentist is consistently seeing very few patients at a time: there's often nobody [else] in the waiting room while I'm there, which is reassuring given that I can't wear a mask while having dental work.
I stopped on the way home at Lizzy's and got a quart of ice cream. It's a few degrees above freezing and overcast/drizzly, so I didn't want to be outside eating ice cream, but that also meant I could leave the insulated bag home.
Before cleaning my teeth, the hygienist took a full set of X-rays, because it had been a couple of years. The dentist looked at them, and said that there are no cavities, but some of my old fillings are no longer doing their jobs. So, he wants to do two crowns (at least). This will involve some drilling, apparently, but no root canals. I have an appointment in two weeks to do the work on at least one tooth, possibly both, depending on how I'm feeling after the first. To my surprise, my current dental insurance is covering 100% of the cost.
Also, after a complicated office maybe-move and name change, that dentist is consistently seeing very few patients at a time: there's often nobody [else] in the waiting room while I'm there, which is reassuring given that I can't wear a mask while having dental work.
I stopped on the way home at Lizzy's and got a quart of ice cream. It's a few degrees above freezing and overcast/drizzly, so I didn't want to be outside eating ice cream, but that also meant I could leave the insulated bag home.
the downtown trains are full with all of those bookish girls
Apr. 2nd, 2026 11:52 amursamajorFacebook memories reminded me that as of the day before yesterday, it has been twelve years since one of the most atrociously awful endings to a TV series I've ever watched was broadcast, and I am still mad about it. The family ability to hold a grudge will out. ;) (To illustrate, it has been 32 years since my mom deigned to set foot into a Safeway, despite it being the closest grocery store to my parents' house.)
Last year, I turned Penny Mosby into a budding urbanist; this year, I just looked at the entire post-series timeline and thought about how Penny may have been too young to help Zohran Mamdani get elected, but she's just about the right age right now to get in trouble with her dad over riding one of her classmate's unregulated internet-acquired emotos that's labeled as an ebike despite going twice as fast and the batteries being the ones that set houses on fire, especially because if her mom did die in 2024 (and given this timeline, probably from COVID-related health issues, augh), you all know Ted would be the most overprotective helicopter dad ever, his worst impulses unchecked with the love of his life gone.
( musings on how COVID changes the post-HIMYM timeline )
Anyway. I finally got off the waitlist for Heated Rivalry at the library, so of course I devoured it, and now I want to actually watch the show and read the rest of the series (and acquire a stupid Canadian wolf-bird shirt), but again, waitlist. And I do want to pick up the new Abby Jiminez first. And I got off the waitlist for Ladies in Hating for romance book club this month, so it's not like I don't have immediately pressing reading material already.
And my plans for Indie Bookstore Day this year - by transit, per usual. Bonus stipulation: I'm going to try to hit up an indie bookstore in each of the five Bay Area counties affected by the imminent transit fiscal cliff. Look, gas is almost $6/gallon, it's not getting better anytime soon, and you know how traffic *already* sucks? Imagine how much worse it'll be when those of us not regularly driving add our cars to the road. But we need to get the measure on the ballot before it can be voted on, so.
It'll be a little challenging - no bookstore opens before 10 am; geography means I have to optimize my route in a way that gets me to the fifth bookstore before it closes at 6 pm, which means I probably have to be out the door at 7 am in order to get the 60-odd miles south to a Santa Clara County bookstore; I've got 120 miles to go to cover the five counties and the four most-affected transit agencies. But it's exactly the kind of logistics I love planning for. 😁
Last year, I turned Penny Mosby into a budding urbanist; this year, I just looked at the entire post-series timeline and thought about how Penny may have been too young to help Zohran Mamdani get elected, but she's just about the right age right now to get in trouble with her dad over riding one of her classmate's unregulated internet-acquired emotos that's labeled as an ebike despite going twice as fast and the batteries being the ones that set houses on fire, especially because if her mom did die in 2024 (and given this timeline, probably from COVID-related health issues, augh), you all know Ted would be the most overprotective helicopter dad ever, his worst impulses unchecked with the love of his life gone.
( musings on how COVID changes the post-HIMYM timeline )
Anyway. I finally got off the waitlist for Heated Rivalry at the library, so of course I devoured it, and now I want to actually watch the show and read the rest of the series (and acquire a stupid Canadian wolf-bird shirt), but again, waitlist. And I do want to pick up the new Abby Jiminez first. And I got off the waitlist for Ladies in Hating for romance book club this month, so it's not like I don't have immediately pressing reading material already.
And my plans for Indie Bookstore Day this year - by transit, per usual. Bonus stipulation: I'm going to try to hit up an indie bookstore in each of the five Bay Area counties affected by the imminent transit fiscal cliff. Look, gas is almost $6/gallon, it's not getting better anytime soon, and you know how traffic *already* sucks? Imagine how much worse it'll be when those of us not regularly driving add our cars to the road. But we need to get the measure on the ballot before it can be voted on, so.
It'll be a little challenging - no bookstore opens before 10 am; geography means I have to optimize my route in a way that gets me to the fifth bookstore before it closes at 6 pm, which means I probably have to be out the door at 7 am in order to get the 60-odd miles south to a Santa Clara County bookstore; I've got 120 miles to go to cover the five counties and the four most-affected transit agencies. But it's exactly the kind of logistics I love planning for. 😁
