lotesse | Reading

Last week's bread did some spectacular mould action, bah, so I made the light rye loaf from Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery, discovering as I weighed out the ingredients that I had rather less strong white flour than I thought and had to make up the requisite proportion with white spelt. Turned out v nice, though.

No Saturday breakfast rolls because of rushing off to conference.

Today's lunch: pork spare ribs, which I rubbed with a mix of maple sugar, hot and sweet smoked paprikas, black pepper, garlic salt, and salt, and left overnight, then wrapped in foil and cooked for 3 hours in a very low over, then basted with what was more of a barbecue sauce than a glaze of a small tin of chopped tomatoes + apple vinegar + dashes of tabasco and worcester sauce, simmered together, and cooked at a slightly higher temperature for 45 or so minutes - v tasty if a little dry - possibly did not need quite so long at that final stage; served with tenderstem broccoli and okra simmered for 45+ minutes in coconut milk with ginger paste and fresh coriander (possibly a little overdone?); baked San Marzano tomatoes; and cornbread (plain white flour + baking powder, half and half with mixture of fine/coarse cornmeal).

torachan

Currently Reading
European Travel for the Monstrous Gentelwoman
14%. Sequel to The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter. This one is very long (over 24 hours in audiobook form) so I'll be at it for a while, but I'm enjoying it a lot.

Death at the Fireside Inn
42%. First in a new-to-me historical mystery series, but it's pretty mid so I doubt I'll continue the series.

The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America
8%. Title is self-explanatory. I only read the first chapter so far, but it's interesting. Unfortunately I had to return it to the library, but I immediately put it on hold again and there was no one else waiting for it, so I should have it back soon.

The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
29%.

Recently Finished
The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science
This was fun. A little on the too wacky side for me, but enjoyable. I'll check out the sequel when it's out.

Lone Women
Highly recommended. I really liked this a lot.

Murder on the Marlow Belle
I don't know why the US release of these books is so far behind the UK release. It's in the same language! But it is, and that's annoying. This was out in January in the UK and only came out in the US this month. The next one is out soon in the UK but I assume I'll have to wait a while to get it here. :(

Made in Chicago: Stories Behind 30 Great Hometown Bites
We watched someone on youtube talking about one of the dishes in this book and he mentioned that this is where he heard about it. The book sounded interesting, so we ordered it right away. It's only 130 pages and some of the dishes have recipes to make at home, so it's a very quick read. I should look and see if there's something like this for LA.

Kaikai Gigigigigi vol. 1
New series by Uguisu Sachiko. I like all her stuff so of course I bought it. To be honest, it seems very much like a retread of You Will Hear the Voice of the Dead, but I loved that series so I'm down for it. Protag is a very ordinary boy who keeps finding himself at the center of supernatural happenings in his town. Each chapter is basically a stand-alone horror story with a thin overarching plot linking them.

Kubikari vol. 1-4
Short four-volume horror manga that I only finished because it was so short. A group of high school kids go to an old hotel in the middle of nowhere to film something for their social media channel, only to get trapped there while people start dying. The motivations were very flimsy and the whole thing was just not very good, but since it was short I wanted to see how it ended.

oursin

Happy birthday,

kathmandu!

shirebound

Happy Birthday to

claudia603, my wonderful friend who brought me into the LJ/DW world! Many loves, dear one.

I spotted two hearts for you. ♥ ♥

beatrice_otter posting in

fancake

Fandom: Hawkeye, MCU
Pairings/Characters: Clint Barton, Kate Bishop, Bucky Barnes
Rating: teen
Length: 5k
Creator Links:

aimmyarrowshigh
Theme: food, team,

Summary:

“I’m not saying you need to decide right now. Or any time soon. But someday, you might want to walk away. And you’re luckier than most of the… superheroes… that I’ve ever known because you know what normal looks like. You know how to be normal. You can go back to normal if it’s what you want. And I know it’s not what you want right now, and I respect that, but I’m glad that it’s an option.”

Or, Clint and Kate challenge each other to prove they're the better New Yorker because they know the best food spots. Truths about superhero life and life in general come out along the way as they eat through the five boroughs.

Reccer's Notes: I love the humor and the support, and the way Clint mentors Kate.

Fanwork Links: Slice of Life

beatrice_otter posting in

fancake

Fandom: Batman
Pairings/Characters: Jason Todd, Alfred Pennyworth
Rating: Gen
Length: 12k
Creator Links:

Cerusee
Theme: food, trauma, family, angst,

Summary:

Alfred angles himself so he can stir the diced pancetta, sizzling away in the pan, and watch Jason at the same time. “You’ve never shared the particulars of your…missing years.”

"Yeah.” The rhythmic thunk thunk of the knife against the wood falters. “The missing years."

"I wish you would.”

Or, the one where Alfred drags the tale of Jason’s death and resurrection out of him piece by horrifying piece.

Reccer's Notes: There are a lot of stories about Jason reconciling with his family and them learning all the things that happened to him from his death and resurrection onwards. This has a lovely focus on Alfred, and the trauma that Jason suffered, and their relationship

Fanwork Links: Scheherazade

beatrice_otter posting in

fancake

Fandom: Deep Space Nine
Pairings/Characters: Kira Nerys
Rating: Gen
Length: 871 words
Creator Links:

AuroraNova
Theme: food and cooking, worldbuilding, trauma & recovery, old fandoms, gen, female characters, backstory

Summary: Starfleet personnel mistake minor inconveniences for real suffering. Kira knows the difference all too well.

Reccer's Notes: This is short, but it packs a punch and explores the differences in perspective between Kira and the rest of the command staff in a very visceral way.

Fanwork Links: Hunger Pangs

torachan

1. It was nice and overcast again today. Still very muggy, though. (It even rained a little overnight again.)

2. I beat Donkey Kong Bananza tonight. It's definitely a fun game. Looks like there's a ton of post-game stuff to do, and then there's a (paid, boo) DLC as well. I also want to play Final Fantasy Tactics, which is out at the end of the month, but I'll probably hold off on that and keep playing Donkey Kong for a bit first.

3. The lady at the farmers market had passionfruit bars again. They were soooooo good last week, I was really hoping she'd make them again. And the almond stand was back, so I was able to get my orange almond butter.

4. Jasper's posing for his mall photo.

sonia

This morning I went to the farmers market, and stopped at the hardware store on the way to pick up earthquake straps for my two 6' tall bookshelves. I swear I was thinking about it before the recent 4.3 earthquake just a couple miles up the road, but now everyone is after getting shaken awake at 3am. Fortunately there were still strap kits available.

I had cleared off the downstairs bookshelf and was working on marking where to drill, when CVS called. Their system let me schedule my Covid vaccine across their lunch break, so they were calling to say I could come in now, or an extra half hour later than I expected. I put down my tools and walked right over. Still on Team Moderna. They didn't ask me any extra questions or hassle me at all, and didn't ask for payment. Hopefully United Healthcare will cough up the payment for it.

Came home, struggled with drilling the holes and getting the long screws to go all the way in. I'm not sure they're anchored as firmly as they should be, but hopefully it's better than nothing.

My stud finder was giving me mixed signals, so I took it apart to check the battery, and then couldn't figure out where an extra piece went. Finally looked it up on youtube, found exactly the video I needed, with a lot of comments from people who had been exactly in my situation. Whew. Anyway, that's why I'm not sure if I picked the best places for the screws.

I put the shoe bins, bags, and cookbooks back on the bookshelf, and took a break by sitting on the front step in the sun and caught up with my accounting.

Then I tackled the bigger bookshelf upstairs. Found a few boxes to put books in, filled them, and made piles from even more books. Wrestled with locating studs again, and got the big screws most of the way into the wall. Sadly scratched the heck out of the wood floor moving the bookshelf on my own. :-( I wanted to find a handyperson to do it for me but just haven't found one. Oh well, now I get to go back to the hardware store and see if there's anything I can do to smooth over the scratch.

I put most of the books back. My arm is starting to feel sore from the vaccine, so I'll deal with the rest tomorrow. But it feels good to have the earthquake strapping done, even if not perfectly. And it feels good to have gotten my Covid vaccine too, although physically it won't feel great for a day or two.

torachan

Since it's been cooler and overcast, we did a late morning/midday trip, which meant the park was at its most crowded, but honestly it wasn't too bad. And the weather was very nice (though still muggy).

( Read more... )

conuly

but it was a set of two regular palmsized scrubbie brushes for dishes. Which was disappointing, but E made the amazing discovery that they are really fun to smash together, bristle to bristle, so that's all right.

****************

( Read more... )

china_shop

Previous poll review
In the Muppets poll, 40.7% of respondents chose Kermit, followed by 37.0% for Animal, and 29.6% for Gonzo. Hugs won the ticky-boxes, followed by paper tigers. Thank you for your votes!

Reading
I'm loving Black Water Sister -- the interactions between adherents of different religions are especially delightful. I'm making my way through it pretty slowly because I haven't had much listening time, but it's great!

Slowed down even more on Inventing the Renaissance. And the entirety of my non-audio reading has been the Guardian subs in Korean (skipping over some bits I don't know, but still looking up way too many words).

Kdramas (so many Kdramas)
( Cut for length. )

Other TV
We've started The Newsreader (Australian, stars Anna Torv) set in a TV newsroom in 1986. It's great so far -- Torv's character has a lot of emotional range, and the other lead is also interestingly complex. (TW: depression, anxiety.)

Also, one episode of Skeleton Crew, which is just as The Goonies-ish as I've heard. We'll give it another episode and see. Prehistoric Planet, which is really good. Just lovely animation and creature work. Bluey -- how is this so consistently excellent?? We're ploughing through season 3, and then there'll be none left. Oh no!

Guardian/Fandom
I am behind on EVERYTHING! Including this post. /o\ Also, I've been going through my browser windows and randomly closing tabs, now and then, so apologies if I left you hanging in a comment exchange. Firefox was just getting too hard to navigate.

Writing/making things
The Wishlist clock is ticking. I keep bumbling around like a bee doing things that are not writing fic, and then after a while saying to myself out loud, "This is not Writing Fic!" My brain gears don't seem to be working properly, and there's this one treat I'm stuck on... gah! Trying to remind myself that deadlines are just games we play with ourselves.

Life/health/mental state things
I have new glasses! They're really great. Except for biking home after picking them up, I've been wearing them non-stop with very few issues. Good for driving, okay for biking, great for TV. The fact that I have a world map and an artwork at the top and bottom of my stairs, respectively, turns out to be very helpful for distracting me from the out-of-focus stairs themselves. My keyboard is wobbly when I look at it, and sometimes the kitchen bench ("counter" for Americans) swims when I turn my head, but that's fine. I have yet to a) get the knack of gracefully attaching my clip-on sunglasses, and b) break my habit of looking under my glasses or taking them off for close work. But I'll get there. Generally I'm super happy, no notes! (My optician was right.)

Next test: we're seeing Avatar: The Way of Water in HFR 3D next week. I'll take my old glasses as backup, just in case.

Korean
Zoom call yesterday, and omg, I fumbled so much. I seriously need to practice speaking before next time. I yearn to rattle things off without having to think about it.

Link dump
Darebee home workouts (via Tumblr) | NHS's Couch to 5k page | AO3 has added Collection Tags | this shot-for-shot remake from Phineas and Ferb of "Genghis Khan" by Miike Snow (via

petra, I know exactly nothing about the canon, I've watched it twice, can't get over how good it is, I think I have... a platypus ship??) | Timothy Olyphant on Conan, taking it all very seriously (TW: toe bruises).

Good things
Jaffa Cakes, tv-watching friend dates, new glasses, writing, betas (♥!), Dreamwidth, a glorious wealth of Kdramas, wikipedia, fandom, Guardian, Guardian, Guardian.

Poll #33664 Fire burn and caldron bubble

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 35

View Respondents

Choose a potion

View Answers

sleep
16 (45.7%)

love
1 (2.9%)

immortality
7 (20.0%)

transformation
14 (40.0%)

grow-a-tail
6 (17.1%)

other
7 (20.0%)

ticky-box full of acoustic toothbrushes
8 (22.9%)

ticky-box of but now I can see all the dust and cobwebs
12 (34.3%)

ticky-box full of moose having a picnic buffet and running out of salad
14 (40.0%)

ticky-box full of a top-up prescription for writing mojo
19 (54.3%)

ticky-box full of hugs
27 (77.1%)

oursin

Today was the day of the conference at which I had been invited, at rather short notice, to give a keynote.

Not only did I have to get up EARLY especially for a Saturday, I had a rotten night because the lower back decided to kick off and even when it had calmed down a bit it took ages to get back to sleep.

And then as I was doing my final preparations I discovered the battery in one of my hearing aids was flat, which was a bit irksome, because I had been expecting all week for it to do the warning bonging, like the other one did, and had to replace that.

So anyway, I got out, and found that the place I was aiming at was not quite so far distant from the Underground station as had been indicated, and also, even though I was late, so was the start.

Rather few actual in-person attendees - I'm not sure how many there were on the Zoom.

Crisis! there was supposed to be a delivery of sandwiches at lunchtime which Did Not Arrive so we all went out to forage (these later turned up some hours later, what is the point).

So, I think my paper went over okay, and there were some questions, even if some of them got rather off-topic onto more general questions about archives.

Some of the papers were moderately interesting, some of them were a bit hard to hear, and I picked up at least one useful reference (possibly) for one of my own projects.

Met one old academic acquaintance from way back, and a couple of interesting Younger Scholars.

Had already decided that I was not up for going on to meal in restaurant, so came home to flop.

jesse_the_k posting in

access_fandom

The 20 Thousand Hertz podcast dives deep into Why is movie dialogue so hard to understand?, providing six possible reasons why more and more people are turning on subtitles/captions for movies, TV, and the streaming services we use to watch them. Reason six comes with a solution!

Dallas Taylor, 20k.org’s founder, points out video games have solved this problem: most permit users to individually adjust the loudness settings for

music
sound effects
dialogue

Movie sound, on the other hand, is designed to be impressive in a great big theater. But of course most of us watch the screen sector’s output at home.

https://www.20k.org/episodes/subtitleson has both the 30-minute audio and a transcript

I’m a big fan of this podcast, which is often disability-adjacent. In its nine years, it's covered how artists shape sound to convey meaning, how manufacturers tune their devices to be friendly, and how Beethoven created great music when he couldn’t hear at all.

Not surprisingly, many fans work with sound. Taylor solicited listener-produced contributions; I enjoyed the sixteen he chose. The overall winner celebrates the sonic scrapbook a Canadian sound designer keeps of his blind son’s upbringing, and introduces generational delight to the stop announcements on the Montreal transit system.

Accessibility Issue: I couldn’t open the SquareSpace transcript window using my tab key (crucial for those of us who don’t use mice) so I hope this highlight link to the control opens the transcript—let know about trouble/solutions in the comments.

garryowen posting in

fancake

Fandom: Sherlock BBC
Pairings/Characters: Sherlock/John
Rating: Mature
Length: 3044 words
Creator Links:

coloredink
Theme: Food and cooking

Summary: He just wanted John right down to the amino acids that made up his body, and he wanted them in his own body.

Content notes: Cannibalism. Sort of.

Reccer's Notes: This fic exemplifies what I loved about Sherlock fandom: the potential to explore rather uncommon ideas and concepts of love. Like Sherlock wanting to actually consume a physical part of John because he loves John so much. Coloredink is a fantastic writer on the sentence level, and they perfectly capture the energy of the Sherlock/John dynamic while also being funny as hell.

Fanwork Links: you are what you eat (and you know what that is)

yuletide_admin_feed

Posted by morbane

https://yuletide-admin.livejournal.com/295610.html

There's a new post up on the Yuletide Admin comm regarding Yuletide 2025 Nominations Closed. Please note that there may have been a delay between that post and this crosspost.

You can go through to DW to check the details:

Dreamwidth Post

If you have follow-up questions, they can be asked in the DW comment section using a DW login, OpenID with another login, or a signed anonymous comment.

https://yuletide-admin.livejournal.com/295610.html

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

rydra_wong

For fans of body horror and/or excellent boss design, please enjoy the Gaping Dragon:

Watch on YouTube

Look, I just love its whole vagina dentata/Venus fly trap/ribcage/entire-body-as-maw/spine-snapping-backbends thing, okay? And it’s a fun fight, despite its absurd number of hitpoints and ability to kill you if it bumps you with a leg while it’s charging.

For anyone curious about how the process of figuring out a Dark Souls boss fight can go, some samples:

https://youtu.be/nnZP6WkKRpg?si=M3abOUFachMgs6cP&t=1143
https://youtu.be/u2U5mlfI6zM?si=Scx5xCM_Z7lB4bbX&t=5560 (after getting Capra on the second try, Mapocolops enters the Montage Of Despair zone)

Important context for some of what’s happening: Dark Souls has no animation cancelling, so if you press the “light attack” button twice, your character will swing twice, and if you press the “heal” button they will start the (slow) flask-drinking animation, even if you’ve subsequently realized this was a terrible idea and are now frantically pressing the buttons to dodge and screaming at your character to move. This is part of what requires you to be more deliberate and tactical; you can’t button-mash your way through even if you can mash buttons quickly.

(Also, both Reggie and Mapo started off summoning an NPC for assistance, but the trouble with it in this fight is that the NPC AI is not very bright and tends to stand in front of the dragon and get eaten early, leaving the player dealing with a boss that still has the extra HP to make up for the summons.)

Conversely, after having a horrendous time with Capra, Symbalily reads the fight near-perfectly on her first try: https://youtu.be/ByTGX1NRFs0?si=VBbn5DLh0hK-Gqp5&t=3183

(Team Halberd for the win; that two-handed R2 is so good.)

oursin

Happy birthday,

naryrising!

sholio

This was actually around a week and a half ago - a week ago last Tuesday, Sept. 16 or so - but I've been deep in the word mines and I'm just now writing it up. (Click to embiggen photos.)

We enjoy doing walks in the fall when the weather is nice, and we decided to walk out and explore something interesting. I don't remember if I wrote about it at the time, but we had a little wildfire scare at the end of June, when a lightning-sparked wildfire started a few miles from our house. It got an all-hands-on-deck suppression approach (because it's so close to town and adjacent to several subdivisions), and was extinguished after burning about 15 acres or so. We watched the water tankers dropping loads on the blaze from our house.

This fall, we decided to try to walk out and find the location and have a look at it. We tried it once and failed, but after looking at satellite maps we decided that we were headed in the right direction, just turned back too soon. It involves walking down an old road cut - utility access road? who knows - that mostly looked like this:

one-lane dirt road with fallen gold leaves

But occasionally more like this.

dirt road with huge puddle reflecting trees

And we found the fire zone! Once we were there, it was unmistakable. The rest of these pictures are under a cut because some might find them distressing, although I mostly found it eerie and fascinating; it was nothing like any place I've ever been before. (All burned trees, no vehicles or structures.)

( Photos under the cut )

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no the circle won't be broken

Reading

Culinary

Weekly Reading

no subject

It's a birthday!

Hawkeye: Slice of Life by aimmyarrowshigh

Batman: Scheherazade by Cerusee

DS9: Hunger Pangs, by AuroraNova

Daily Happiness

Feeling very virtuous

2025 Disneyland Trip #64 (9/27/25)

So, I thought I was getting a palmsized scrubbie brush with a soap dispenser

Me-and-media update

Hedjog is go flop

Finally! Why It’s Harder to Hear Dialogue These Days

Sherlock: you are what you eat (and you know what that is) by coloredink

Yuletide 2025 Nominations Closed

postscript

"Don't get vored"

no subject

A walk in the fire zone

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