Well, today I saw a groundhog
9 Aug 2025 01:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyAnd then tonight as I took out the trash I saw where it's evidently been burrowing, a big hole directly under the retaining wall to our yard.
Now what?
Now what?
conuly
Ask a Manager: Two From The Same Column
5 Aug 2025 12:21 amminoanmiss posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
agonyauntCompare and Contrast.
( Employee's Husband Sent Us Revenge Porn )
( 4. Delivery person uses our lunchroom )
( Employee's Husband Sent Us Revenge Porn )( 4. Delivery person uses our lunchroom )Daily Happiness
4 Aug 2025 09:16 pmtorachan1. All this driving hasn't been great for me and my right arm and leg were still not feeling great this morning, but it seems to have gotten better over the course of the day. Tomorrow I only have to drive to Gardena at least.
2. It was not nearly as hectic at the new store today but still very strong sales. Hopefully we can settle into something more like this than the intensity of the first week.
3. Molly!
2. It was not nearly as hectic at the new store today but still very strong sales. Hopefully we can settle into something more like this than the intensity of the first week.
3. Molly!
I think I just saw a groundhog
8 Aug 2025 06:00 pmconulyCrossing the street right in front of my house!
I didn't see his shadow, so I have no idea if the current [insert whatever] will be long or short.
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( Read more... )
I didn't see his shadow, so I have no idea if the current [insert whatever] will be long or short.
( Read more... )
The Ambulance Merry-Go-Round
4 Aug 2025 09:45 pmcimoreneMy dad (C5/6 quadriplegic wheelchair user) has been in and out of the hospital all spring and summer.
Initially, there was some kind of internal bleeding, I think, and he kept having very low blood pressure and cardiac events and then having to have his many medications adjusted. Then he had to have a colectomy, and then he got a persistently recurring UTI that is resistant to antibiotics. A lot of these times he's been carted off to the hospital it's been for low blood pressure or a slight fever, and it seems to my sister and me like they're just stabilizing him, tweaking his medication, and releasing him, sometimes the same day, only for him to be back in an ambulance in less than a week.
This is having a weird effect where it's cumulatively and abstractly more scary every time he goes, while at the same time it is becoming so familiar that it's starting to feel routine. I know this is why people got convinced they were safe from COVID after a few months of wearing a mask and why people are frequently injured in the streets near their homes: the cognitive illusion that an action is proved safe if you've done it a bunch of times and nothing bad happened. Or in the case of these hospital visits, bad things happened, but he didn't get seriously (ICU) ill.
It's rough on my sister, who lives with her husband and my parents in the US, and I can't really support her long distance very effectively. And even if it were safe to travel there now, there's no way to know how long it would keep happening, so it still wouldn't probably be practical for me to go.
Initially, there was some kind of internal bleeding, I think, and he kept having very low blood pressure and cardiac events and then having to have his many medications adjusted. Then he had to have a colectomy, and then he got a persistently recurring UTI that is resistant to antibiotics. A lot of these times he's been carted off to the hospital it's been for low blood pressure or a slight fever, and it seems to my sister and me like they're just stabilizing him, tweaking his medication, and releasing him, sometimes the same day, only for him to be back in an ambulance in less than a week.
This is having a weird effect where it's cumulatively and abstractly more scary every time he goes, while at the same time it is becoming so familiar that it's starting to feel routine. I know this is why people got convinced they were safe from COVID after a few months of wearing a mask and why people are frequently injured in the streets near their homes: the cognitive illusion that an action is proved safe if you've done it a bunch of times and nothing bad happened. Or in the case of these hospital visits, bad things happened, but he didn't get seriously (ICU) ill.
It's rough on my sister, who lives with her husband and my parents in the US, and I can't really support her long distance very effectively. And even if it were safe to travel there now, there's no way to know how long it would keep happening, so it still wouldn't probably be practical for me to go.
conulyFirst we've got Bride of Chaotica!, in which Kate Mulgrew enthusiastically chews the scenery. Mmm! Part of a balanced breakfast!
Also, she's pretty judgey about Tom's extracurriculars. E remarked that her daily coinflip must've landed on "Mom", and I can't say she's wrong.
It's a fun breather episode so long as you forget the fact that dozens of photonic aliens died before anybody on Voyager even realized they were at war. Whoops! Also, they spend almost the entire episode mere inches away from a shipwide epidemic of some sort of gross gastrointestinal illness, but nobody seems to care about that either, it's all played for laughs.
Then this episode I completely forgot where Tuvok and Tom are crash-landed on a time displaced planet for several months or a year with a woman who is deeply crushing on Tuvok. Tom, for whatever weird reason of his own, is adamant that the correct course of action is for Tuvok to get in touch with his emotions and just go to bang city with this woman. E and I agreed that the actually correct and logical course of action was for Tuvok to give Tom that punch in the face that he is just begging for, but for some reason Tuvok refrained. Seriously, I have no idea what bug flew up Tom's butt this episode, but he was so fucking obnoxious for no reason at all. Maybe, Tom, you should get in touch with your emotions before you start lecturing the Vulcan about his. I genuinely have no idea what his deal was or was supposed to be.
On a very different note, I don't know if anybody can make it to London who cares, but Camlann is doing a live prequel episode in September. If you know a bit more about Arthuriana than I do you probably would like the audiodrama a lot. Or even if you only know as much as I do or a little less. The music is amazing.
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Also, she's pretty judgey about Tom's extracurriculars. E remarked that her daily coinflip must've landed on "Mom", and I can't say she's wrong.
It's a fun breather episode so long as you forget the fact that dozens of photonic aliens died before anybody on Voyager even realized they were at war. Whoops! Also, they spend almost the entire episode mere inches away from a shipwide epidemic of some sort of gross gastrointestinal illness, but nobody seems to care about that either, it's all played for laughs.
Then this episode I completely forgot where Tuvok and Tom are crash-landed on a time displaced planet for several months or a year with a woman who is deeply crushing on Tuvok. Tom, for whatever weird reason of his own, is adamant that the correct course of action is for Tuvok to get in touch with his emotions and just go to bang city with this woman. E and I agreed that the actually correct and logical course of action was for Tuvok to give Tom that punch in the face that he is just begging for, but for some reason Tuvok refrained. Seriously, I have no idea what bug flew up Tom's butt this episode, but he was so fucking obnoxious for no reason at all. Maybe, Tom, you should get in touch with your emotions before you start lecturing the Vulcan about his. I genuinely have no idea what his deal was or was supposed to be.
On a very different note, I don't know if anybody can make it to London who cares, but Camlann is doing a live prequel episode in September. If you know a bit more about Arthuriana than I do you probably would like the audiodrama a lot. Or even if you only know as much as I do or a little less. The music is amazing.
( Read more... )(no subject)
4 Aug 2025 10:06 amconuly posting in agonyauntDear Carolyn: A friend and colleague has been MIA at work and in our friend circle for weeks. She claims she hurt her back, is in pain and having procedures and and and… And this has her missing meetings and deadlines and happy hour and dropping all the balls. She has not told anyone exactly what happened with her back. She said she was doing some light housework when it just hurt all of a sudden, which sounds ridiculous to me and everyone else I know. We don’t know what “procedures” she has had. We don’t know when she will get back to normal. We’re not talking about an old person here; she is 43! I called her the other day and I could hear the TV on, during the workday, which she turned off or muted when she took my call.
I feel like she is lying or exaggerating to get out of work — while not taking formal leave or PTO, because we can work remotely — and she is blowing off her friends and colleagues while we pick up the slack for her at the office and make her excuses at social functions. How do I figure out what’s really going on with her, and get her to do her own work again so I don’t have to fill in for someone who is home watching TV while I’m busting my you-know-what?
— Busting My You-Know-What
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I feel like she is lying or exaggerating to get out of work — while not taking formal leave or PTO, because we can work remotely — and she is blowing off her friends and colleagues while we pick up the slack for her at the office and make her excuses at social functions. How do I figure out what’s really going on with her, and get her to do her own work again so I don’t have to fill in for someone who is home watching TV while I’m busting my you-know-what?
— Busting My You-Know-What
( Read more... )Yesterday ended in a headache
4 Aug 2025 09:10 pmconulyLowkey enough that I felt bad complaining about it, but bad enough that I couldn't focus and had to go to bed early, and then I slept through half of today as well and only woke when I got hungry enough.
So, yeah.
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So, yeah.
( Read more... )conuly posting in agonyauntDear Carolyn: My dad, uncle and grandfather are all lawyers, and I always thought I wanted to be one, too. Until I realized in college I was much more interested in science. I switched my major to microbiology and graduated with honors. Now I’m in my last year of my PhD program, but according to my dad, I’m a huge failure and a disappointment.
My younger cousin graduated from law school and joined the family law firm, and it’s all he can talk about. My mom said I shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up all those years I said I wanted to be a lawyer. They also are still complaining that my switching majors cost them extra tuition. It’s not like I pulled a deliberate bait-and-switch; I changed my mind.
When my dad asked what my plans were and I told him I’d be looking for a postdoc position, he said I was going to waste my life in academia and never make any real money.
I think most parents would be overjoyed their daughter is getting a doctorate, but mine act like I’m a dropout and a failure. There’s no way to make your parents supportive or proud of you, though, is there?
— Changed My Mind
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My younger cousin graduated from law school and joined the family law firm, and it’s all he can talk about. My mom said I shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up all those years I said I wanted to be a lawyer. They also are still complaining that my switching majors cost them extra tuition. It’s not like I pulled a deliberate bait-and-switch; I changed my mind.
When my dad asked what my plans were and I told him I’d be looking for a postdoc position, he said I was going to waste my life in academia and never make any real money.
I think most parents would be overjoyed their daughter is getting a doctorate, but mine act like I’m a dropout and a failure. There’s no way to make your parents supportive or proud of you, though, is there?
— Changed My Mind
( Read more... )Daily Happiness
3 Aug 2025 09:34 pmtorachan1. Yesterday's total sales for the new store was just slightly less than grand opening day, and today looks like it might end up higher than yesterday.
2. I really do feel refreshed after yesterday, even though it was just one day off. Hopefully I can have two days off next weekend, though.
3. I went down there to help out today, but was able to make it a short day and meet up with Carla at Disneyland afterwards for a late lunch.
4. Jasper is such a handsome house panther.
2. I really do feel refreshed after yesterday, even though it was just one day off. Hopefully I can have two days off next weekend, though.
3. I went down there to help out today, but was able to make it a short day and meet up with Carla at Disneyland afterwards for a late lunch.
4. Jasper is such a handsome house panther.
2025 Disneyland Trip #53 (8/3/25)
3 Aug 2025 09:27 pmtorachanWe went a whole two weeks without going to the parks, due to me being so busy with work (well, Carla did go once by herself). Today I was going to help out at the Irvine store, but because we had so many other people signed up to help as well, I felt okay about just making it a half day (it is technically my day off, after all), so I dropped Carla off at Disneyland in the morning and then worked until around two, then headed back up to meet her.
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( Read more... )(no subject)
3 Aug 2025 01:30 pmaethel1. There's a new round of AO3 statistics discourse, this time with some commentary on fic injections. Reddit post. Apparently the latest hobby among The Youth is to spam a ship tag in order to artificially inflate its numbers to prove... something. That their ship is the best? That they are the most dedicated fan? Reminds me of kpop stan culture.
2. I watched all of Murderbot, and it was delightful! I have a week left on my Apple TV subscription and tried a few other shows that looked intriguing--Dickinson and The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin. They're both entertaining, but I don't feel a desperate desire to watch the whole thing.
3. Speaking of desperate desires, I've been reading more romance novels: A Fashionable Indulgence by KJ Charles was excellent, and I'm currently waiting to borrow the sequel. I then started A Delicate Deception by Cat Sebastian, which seemed fine for a bedtime read, but now I'm also reading Frankenstein and Mansfield Park, and modern popular fiction set in vaguely nineteenth century suffers in comparison. I'd tried to read Mansfield Park once before in my youth, but never finished it; so far it's engaging me this time as an audiobook (Jane Austen is a good writer, did you know??). In rereading Frankenstein I was struck by how often characters' education or lack thereof was mentioned; you could say the novel is a treatise on the importance of a liberal arts education and the dangers of too much emphasis on STEM. I'm only a third of the way through though.
I was reading The God of the Woods for a Goodreads challenge, and it was ok, but also I had the feeling that there was just a serial killer in the woods and not a god and I didn't care about everyone's very 1970s personal problems so I dememed it and fail_fandomanon spoiled it for me. A hold for The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands came in, so I'll be trying that one instead.
2. I watched all of Murderbot, and it was delightful! I have a week left on my Apple TV subscription and tried a few other shows that looked intriguing--Dickinson and The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin. They're both entertaining, but I don't feel a desperate desire to watch the whole thing.
3. Speaking of desperate desires, I've been reading more romance novels: A Fashionable Indulgence by KJ Charles was excellent, and I'm currently waiting to borrow the sequel. I then started A Delicate Deception by Cat Sebastian, which seemed fine for a bedtime read, but now I'm also reading Frankenstein and Mansfield Park, and modern popular fiction set in vaguely nineteenth century suffers in comparison. I'd tried to read Mansfield Park once before in my youth, but never finished it; so far it's engaging me this time as an audiobook (Jane Austen is a good writer, did you know??). In rereading Frankenstein I was struck by how often characters' education or lack thereof was mentioned; you could say the novel is a treatise on the importance of a liberal arts education and the dangers of too much emphasis on STEM. I'm only a third of the way through though.
I was reading The God of the Woods for a Goodreads challenge, and it was ok, but also I had the feeling that there was just a serial killer in the woods and not a god and I didn't care about everyone's very 1970s personal problems so I dememed it and fail_fandomanon spoiled it for me. A hold for The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands came in, so I'll be trying that one instead.
weeknotes (july 27-august 2)
3 Aug 2025 11:55 amtozkaLife Updates
Finally starting to feel settled into this housesit in Ann Arbor. Though the bed is comfortable, I haven’t been sleeping well. I wake up exhausted, which isn’t good. Feeling tired when I wake up makes me not want to go out and do things, so I’ve mostly been in the house slumping on the (admittedly very comfortable) couch with my books and my Roku.
But this week things changed! I dragged myself outside and did a walk around the neighborhood on Tuesday, one of the less-hot days, and I’ve switched to spending my mornings outside in the garden with my book and coffee mug. It’s an urban area, but this particular plot/neighborhood is ripe with tall trees and plants, so there’s lots of creatures to watch. Yesterday I spotted a goldfinch, and today I saw a chipmunk and a groundhog.
This morning I woke up feeling normal, so I think it’s working. I may start going on sunset walks when the temps cool down in the evening.
🐈⬛ The cats continue to mostly ignore me, but in a benevolent way. Miss F and Mr N have started letting me pet them more, but Mr B still runs if I get closer than 10 feet away. I suppose the upside is they’re very independent and I can get a lot of work done without having to shoo them off my keyboard.
Media Consumption
🎧 Lots of podcasts this week. Caught up on My Brother, My Brother and Me episodes from the last two or three months. I used to listen to eps regularly but this past year in particular it’s gotten increasingly obvious that they are aware that they’re, like, being watched? Like, it’s a little too much “looking for the bit” so they can clip it and put it on TikTok.
Also caught up with Too Many Tabs, which has topics I enjoy but which has gotten maybe a bit more shout-y since they started recording videos for Youtube. I’m sensing a trend.
Also listened to a great episode of Gender Spiral Podcast, which I wrote about here (DW).
📺 Continuing on my Midsomer Murder binge-watching. I’ve made it through DS Troy and have gotten into DS Scott’s episodes.
One thing I’ve been thinking about more during this rewatch is what happens to all these victims and secondary characters after the episode ends. So many people who find a dead body, lost a loved one, had a family secret exposed, etc. and they just disappear from the world entirely.
Hardly anyone shows back up again– there were a few times in the early seasons when a character from a previous episode would be referenced, and there’s one memorable time in season 10 (I think) where the same two character actors show up as the sister/nephew of characters from season 1. But other than that it’s just a swath of murder and misery in this one small UK county and nobody talks about it!
Which obviously has to happen, or else the story would never continue. But I think it’d make for an interesting story (perhaps a satire), to focus on what happens after a TV murder mystery. Anyone know if something like that exists? I’d be very surprised if a satirical author hadn’t put something out already.
📖 Still reading Moby-Duck, and am about halfway through it now. Very much enjoying it (especially when I’m reading it under a tree in a garden).
Food & Dining
I ate a salad and am very proud of myself.
Basically I ate all the good stuff from my major order (DW) and am down to eggs and beans, so I need to head out this week to get rice and potatoes and other starchy things I can put eggs and beans on.
Besides that, though, I actually have quite a bit left from my last order and I think I can put off ordering again for at least another week. Or at least until DoorDash gives me another coupon.
Web Updates
Joined heaps of fanlistings and a few cliques, as well as two site directories (Smooth Sailing and LinkLane.net) and a webring (No AI Webring). I joined the MelonLand Forum and am dipping my toes in.
New page added to the main site:
And blog posts:
- weeknotes (july 20-26) (July 27)
- little free library visit log #1 (July 29)
- 📷 purple coneflower (july 29, 2025) (July 30)
- 📖 reading log: moby-duck by donovan hohn (July 30 & being updated daily)
- ai spams fediverse, zine library, permacomputing (August 2)
- 🎧 listened to: gender spiral podcast “money sucks -and- you can do it (w/river nice)” (August 2)
Looking Forward
Keep working on my website, write more blog posts, finish Moby-Duck and maybe one more book, perhaps start an animal-spotting log for this garden because WOW and catch up on my Dreamwidth correspondence.
Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.
Daily Happiness
2 Aug 2025 08:34 pmtorachan1. It was so nice to have a day to rest! I did reply to more work messages than I usually do on my days off as there was stuff pertaining to organizing help for the new store, but mostly it was a work-free day and it was just nice not to have to do a lot of driving or be on my feet all day running about doing this and that.
2. We did go to the farmers market this morning, and the stall I usually get watermelon lemonade from was out, so we tried the pomegranate blood orange lemonade and that was really good, too. It was sunny and muggy so we drank the whole thing while we were there, and then Carla went back over to the stall to get another one to take home and the guy had found some more bottles of the watermelon, so she ended up getting a couple of those, too.
3. Ollie was in the other room mewing at me and when I asked him what was up, he came in here with the Grogu toy in his mouth. What a mighty hunter!
2. We did go to the farmers market this morning, and the stall I usually get watermelon lemonade from was out, so we tried the pomegranate blood orange lemonade and that was really good, too. It was sunny and muggy so we drank the whole thing while we were there, and then Carla went back over to the stall to get another one to take home and the guy had found some more bottles of the watermelon, so she ended up getting a couple of those, too.
3. Ollie was in the other room mewing at me and when I asked him what was up, he came in here with the Grogu toy in his mouth. What a mighty hunter!
Weekly Reading
2 Aug 2025 07:12 pmtorachanI didn't do a reading post last week due to being swamped with work, so this is two weeks' worth of reading.
Currently Reading
The God of the Woods
71%. In the mid '70s, a teenage girl goes missing at camp, in the same woods where her brother went missing years before and was never found. This is told through multiple POVs, of the people investigating, the camp counselor, a friend, the mother. It's really good so far and a very quick read, despite being almost 500 pages. I'll probably finish it tonight.
A Death at the Dionysus Club
5%. Sequel to Death by Silver. Also listening to this as an audiobook and very disappointed that the narrator is different and not nearly as good as the first book's. If I'd previewed this before buying it, I might have decided to go with the ebook instead, but I just assumed that same series = same narrator!
Drop Dead Sisters
9%. The MC goes camping with her semi-estranged family, only to have to join forces with her sisters when they find a dead body. I'm liking this so far, though I've only just started.
The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
11%.
Recently Finished
Sister Outsider
This was good. Not really much to say about it.
Kill Her Twice
Just all right.
Nikhil Out Loud
This was so cute!
Just Happy to Be Here
Also just all right.
Trust Me When I Lie
By the author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. The creator of a true crime documentary finds himself tangled up in the case when his documentary gets the suspect a retrial and then his lawyer turns up dead in exactly the same way as the previous victim. I liked this a lot, though not quite as much as his other series.
Malice
A Detective Kaga novel. This is the fourth in the original publication order, but first in the English translated series. I thought maybe it was done first because the chronological order is different from publication order, but that doesn't seem to be the case so idk why they are going out of order. I read this in English and the translation didn't blow me away but was generally well done and not overly stilted. It was a very quick read and I'm looking forward to reading the next one.
Death by Silver
First in a historical murder mystery series with a sort of Sherlock Holmes vibe. M/M romance, but the mystery is the primary plot. Magic is a thing, and I liked the worldbuilding for it. However! I did this one as an audiobook and I loved the narrator's voice but he often sounded like he had a lozenge in his mouth while reading, which was very distracting. It was most pronounced in the first chapter and I almost decided to switch to reading instead of listening, it was so bad. But I was in the middle of a long drive, and it got better as it went on (though never fully went away), so I stuck with it. I much prefer this narrator to the one for the second book, who is very overwrought and distracting, though at least not constantly making wet mouth noises on a lozenge.
The Night Librarian
Cute middle grade graphic novel about kids who take their dad's rare edition of Dracula to the library to find out how much it's worth, only to have the characters come alive and escape the book, which is when they find out that the library has a special department for that, and periodically lets characters out of old books to give them a break. The kids and characters try to track down the book and the person behind the rogue escape.
Upstaged
Cute middle grade graphic novel about a nonbinary teen at an arts camp, trying to navigate putting on a play and confessing their feelings to their best friend.
Shiba Tsuki Bukken vol. 1
Cute manga about a girl who rents an apartment haunted by a ghost shiba. In fact all the rooms in the building are haunted by shiba ghosts, because before being turned into apartments, it was an abusive puppy mill. So now the MC and the other residents have to give the ghost shibas the love and affection they didn't get in life. Sad background when you think about it, but it's really cute. I'll probably read more.
Dokudami no Hana Saku Koro vol. 1
Fifth-grader Shimizu has never paid much mind to his classmate Shigaraki, who is awkward and often has meltdowns, but little by little he becomes obsessed with Shigaraki's art, and decides to befriend him. Shigaraki definitely reads as autistic, though no one uses that word, but even though it's his art that Shimizu is drawn to, it's not like he's some artistic savant or anything, just a creative kid. I really like this so far.
Shadow House vol. 20
Currently Reading
The God of the Woods
71%. In the mid '70s, a teenage girl goes missing at camp, in the same woods where her brother went missing years before and was never found. This is told through multiple POVs, of the people investigating, the camp counselor, a friend, the mother. It's really good so far and a very quick read, despite being almost 500 pages. I'll probably finish it tonight.
A Death at the Dionysus Club
5%. Sequel to Death by Silver. Also listening to this as an audiobook and very disappointed that the narrator is different and not nearly as good as the first book's. If I'd previewed this before buying it, I might have decided to go with the ebook instead, but I just assumed that same series = same narrator!
Drop Dead Sisters
9%. The MC goes camping with her semi-estranged family, only to have to join forces with her sisters when they find a dead body. I'm liking this so far, though I've only just started.
The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
11%.
Recently Finished
Sister Outsider
This was good. Not really much to say about it.
Kill Her Twice
Just all right.
Nikhil Out Loud
This was so cute!
Just Happy to Be Here
Also just all right.
Trust Me When I Lie
By the author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. The creator of a true crime documentary finds himself tangled up in the case when his documentary gets the suspect a retrial and then his lawyer turns up dead in exactly the same way as the previous victim. I liked this a lot, though not quite as much as his other series.
Malice
A Detective Kaga novel. This is the fourth in the original publication order, but first in the English translated series. I thought maybe it was done first because the chronological order is different from publication order, but that doesn't seem to be the case so idk why they are going out of order. I read this in English and the translation didn't blow me away but was generally well done and not overly stilted. It was a very quick read and I'm looking forward to reading the next one.
Death by Silver
First in a historical murder mystery series with a sort of Sherlock Holmes vibe. M/M romance, but the mystery is the primary plot. Magic is a thing, and I liked the worldbuilding for it. However! I did this one as an audiobook and I loved the narrator's voice but he often sounded like he had a lozenge in his mouth while reading, which was very distracting. It was most pronounced in the first chapter and I almost decided to switch to reading instead of listening, it was so bad. But I was in the middle of a long drive, and it got better as it went on (though never fully went away), so I stuck with it. I much prefer this narrator to the one for the second book, who is very overwrought and distracting, though at least not constantly making wet mouth noises on a lozenge.
The Night Librarian
Cute middle grade graphic novel about kids who take their dad's rare edition of Dracula to the library to find out how much it's worth, only to have the characters come alive and escape the book, which is when they find out that the library has a special department for that, and periodically lets characters out of old books to give them a break. The kids and characters try to track down the book and the person behind the rogue escape.
Upstaged
Cute middle grade graphic novel about a nonbinary teen at an arts camp, trying to navigate putting on a play and confessing their feelings to their best friend.
Shiba Tsuki Bukken vol. 1
Cute manga about a girl who rents an apartment haunted by a ghost shiba. In fact all the rooms in the building are haunted by shiba ghosts, because before being turned into apartments, it was an abusive puppy mill. So now the MC and the other residents have to give the ghost shibas the love and affection they didn't get in life. Sad background when you think about it, but it's really cute. I'll probably read more.
Dokudami no Hana Saku Koro vol. 1
Fifth-grader Shimizu has never paid much mind to his classmate Shigaraki, who is awkward and often has meltdowns, but little by little he becomes obsessed with Shigaraki's art, and decides to befriend him. Shigaraki definitely reads as autistic, though no one uses that word, but even though it's his art that Shimizu is drawn to, it's not like he's some artistic savant or anything, just a creative kid. I really like this so far.
Shadow House vol. 20
The shooting was on Monday
3 Aug 2025 06:36 pmconulyHow're you gonna send your "thoughts-and-prayers" email on Friday? At this point, silence would've been better. (I have no idea how I got on the mayor's email list.)
Speaking of the shooting, my aunt texted me to check in. She, uh, she called me by the name I tried out for like five minutes in middle school. I have no idea how she remembered that. I barely remember that. But at least she didn't ask after Mommy's health this time.
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Speaking of the shooting, my aunt texted me to check in. She, uh, she called me by the name I tried out for like five minutes in middle school. I have no idea how she remembered that. I barely remember that. But at least she didn't ask after Mommy's health this time.
( Read more... )tozkaListen to the episode here / Transcript / Youtube / Podcast RSS
Really excellent money-focused episode which talks about some of the differences between how queer people handle money vs. non-queer people (example: needing money for HRT, money to move out of the country for safety, etc.), some of the ways you can get started thinking about money in a healthy way, how to talk about money with your friends, mutual aid and how to plan for it, and lots more!
I especially liked a part about how older gen can’t handle how things have changed for us, not because they’re being willfully obtuse, but because it makes them scared for us! And they don’t have the emotional regulation skills needed to handle it properly.
Also this quote from River Nice, from 00:52:20:
I’m like, “I empathize a lot for my parents. I empathize for anyone in debt.” It’s like, we’re in truly unimaginable times that we all have to somehow navigate, but we have each other. Actually, all we have is each other. We literally don’t have anything else. We don’t have the money in the bank, it’s not real. You say the stock market might not exist in 30 years, that’s so true.
That’s where it all has to come back in all of the work that I do is like, “Yes, I want you to understand how the rules currently exist, how they’re currently played. I want you to creatively play them as best you can, but also, what can we be setting up that we have options in the future? We can talk about diversification. We can, some of us put some money in the stock market to have some options there.
We can buy some property to have some options there. We can invest in skills, like trade school, like cooking, gardening. We can invest in relationships, in healthy conflict.”
River Nice’s website, Be Intentional Financial. Free stuff offered (on resources page) include: How to Live Your Life While In Debt, Budgeting workshop, How to Talk to Loved Ones about Money, How to Buy a House Outside the Nuclear Family.
Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.
