tcpip: (Default)
Yesterday was the aphelion when the Earth reached the furthest distance from the sun at 157 million km (the closest distance, the perihelion, is 146 million km). It seemed appropriate on that day to describe the relatively flat shape of the solar system and how "flat earthers" need to think bigger. Interestingly, the aphelion and perihelion change with some regularity measured as Milankovitch cycles, which is a driver of long-term climate change. On that topic, I had an interview this week concerning my doctoral progress and grades to date ("mention très bien", to use the Université de Paris system). The next part of my studies is "Climate Change Denialism", which I am sure will be absolutely fascinating, having missed out on doing climate change psychology at the University of Wellington. Speaking of which, I attended a University of Wellingto alumni event on during the week with a Professor of Statistics, Peter Smith, talking on "Fluids in your phones?", about the development of liquid antenna for the next generation of mobile devices. And, to continue the theme, I have been recently offered the role to coordinate alumni events for Murdoch University here in Melbourne.

The week has also witnessed some activities in the aesthetic dimension as well. With an early submission made for Midsumma Festival, I have officially become a producer with my inaugural effort being for Liza Dezfouli's comedy-cabaret "Binosaur". Also, I have ventured out locally with Kate R., twice with aesthetics in mind, once was for Lightscape at the Botanic Gardens, which was beautiful, but rather low numbers due to drizzle, and today for a visit to the National Gallery of Victoria. This evening, I attended the awards ceremony for the Melbourne Poet's Union International Poetry Competition, which featured a marvellous and insightful speech by the well-known anarchist poet, Pi O. Finally, last night I visited ACMI for millihertz producing a rather raw and politically challenging audio-visual production with the descriptive title "Cruise Missile Intersectionality".

To finish the alliterative headings, I will conclude with some reflections on "athletics". Last week, I posted an announcement and a couple of photos of my significant weight loss over the past year (117 to 82 kgs), along with a descriptive essay on how I achieved it. I will point out that I'm not planning to lose anymore, although body composition still has room to change. I've had to hunt through my high school records - four decades in the past - to find when I had a similar weight and, in the process, have discovered my athletic records of the time, which were "quite good". I was among the best in the school for medium and long-distance running, plus I played cricket, rugby, football, and volleyball at an interschool level. But ultimately, I couldn't stand the aggressive competitiveness and the yobbish fans, and dropped out of all those activities. I hope that I can avoid all that in this rejuvenated period of my life.

Random Doctor Who Picture

Jul. 5th, 2025 08:42 am[personal profile] purplecat
purplecat: The Sixth Doctor (Who:Six)

Book cover for Doctor Who The Shadow in the Glass by Justing Richards and Stephen Cole.  A blue cover with the faces of the sixth Doctor and Hitler behind a transparent globe.  Blue streaks emanate out from the globe.

I've no memory of reading this at all. The back makes it sound both interesting and memorable - a retired brigadier stumbling upon shenanigans from WW2 recruiting the sixth Doctor for help. Richards and Cole are both solid Doctor Who authors who I rate but none of it stirs a memory.

(no subject)

Jul. 4th, 2025 09:57 pm[personal profile] ase
ase: Book icon (Books 3)
The Tainted Cup (Robert Jackson Bennett) (2024): murder mystery in a secondary world empire where biological husbandry seems to have beat out chemical synthesis, also there are kaiju leviathans. It's likely the leviathans are linked to the bio-engineering in ways that are glossed over in this novel, from the shape of the this novel and what I know of the sequel. (Only one sequel so far.) The detective-apprentice duo namechecks Holmes and Watson, which is a crime-solving template whose use I'm neutral to dubious about seeing, but Ana and Din mostly stand on their own.

Cup has a pretty speech about "when the Empire is weak, it is often because a powerful few have denied us the abundance of our people," which is a nice summing-up of one of the major themes. (I am all for compelled offering of that abundance, but later.)

Worldbuilding, plot, and characterization very much in a Hugo tradition from the '90s or '00s. I'd put money on Cup getting high marks in some circles.

Someone You Can Build A Nest In (John Wiswell) (2024): "cozy horror", which is a new to me subgenre, where human-eating monster Shesheshen falls in love with a human. And also eats people.

I forgot about the bonkers body count until I tried to fill [personal profile] cahn in on the ending. So let's start there.

Major plot spoilers. Also major theme spoilers. )

Since this won a Nebula, clearly I am missing something. Maybe I'm getting hung up on the baroque Wulfyre murder-hookup chart and how the precocial biology works when I'm supposed to be getting "they're all monsters, we're all monsters, monstrous is as monstrous does" as the message and moving on. Am I just supposed to assume "Bloodchild" is in the DNA and move on? I am so baffled.

Service Model (Adrian Tchaikovsky) (2024): DNF. I started the audiobook, I stopped one sentence in. I tried the ebook, I stopped two sentences in. I did not have a good time slogging through Alien Clay and a survey of reviews tells me I'm not doing that to myself again.

The recurring theme of the 2025 Hugos (so far) seems to be people using other human beings as depersonalized tools. Literal robots (Service Model); totalitarians ship people off to labor camps (Adrian Tchaikovsky's Alien Clay); mother uses daughter as abused pawn in her avaricious plots (T. Kingfisher's A Sorceress Comes To Call); ditto Someone To Build A Nest In; The Ministry of Time going full spy-thriller tropes; to a lesser extent Din's apprenticeship with Ana in The Tainted Cup, but since there's a big empire, a murder investigation, elective (or "elective"?) biological modification of imperial subjects, and city-destroying toxic monsters periodically attacking, I am willing to read on in the suspicion someone is using someone horribly as their tool.

Quick ETA: Cup audiobook narrated by Andrew Fallaize, Nest audiobook narrated by Carmen Rose. When googling "someone you can build a nest in audiobook", the second hit is libro.fm, visible content An adorable romance of people falling in love for the first time set in a wonderful fantasy world, this book is perfect for you! ...wow.

BOOM

Jul. 4th, 2025 10:33 pm[personal profile] jadelennox
jadelennox: Westing Game: a chess queen, a purple chessboard, fireworks, BOOM! (chlit: westing game:  boom)

I've been trying very hard to cheerful!post this week because I'm frequently struggling to breathe, as one does these days. You all know how it is. I was planning on posting from the perfect 4 July book (The Westing Game). But when I looked at the exact words of the quotation, it felt much too on the nose:

The sun has set on your Uncle Sam. Happy birthday, Crow. And to all of my heirs, a very happy Fourth of July.

So, okay, I thinks to myself. I'll quote my other favorite Fourth of July bit from the end. But when I looked it up, uh. That didn't feel any less apropos to the moment?

Turtle?"

"I'm right here, Sandy." She took his hand.

"Turtle, tell Crow to pray for me."

His hands turned cold, not smooth, not waxy, just very, very cold.

Turtle turned to the window. The sun was rising out of Lake Michigan. It was tomorrow. It was the Fourth of July.

Ah, well. Ready for a nice game of chess?

Random Castle

Jul. 4th, 2025 07:06 pm[personal profile] purplecat
purplecat: A ruined keep. (General:Castle)

Tall turrets of a castle with a bridge on one side then the buildings of a town, but castle walls extend beyond.  All in front of a river or estuary.  An overcast sky.
Caernarfon
jadelennox: Girlyman's Nate, Doris, and cartoon fish: "My God, get away, you smell like fish heads." (girlyman: fishheads)

The full case name is "City of Eugene v. Debutante Society of Oregon", but the abbreviated version is fine too.

-- [personal profile] tahnan

purplecat: Hand Drawn picture of a Toy Cat (Default)
We had a "free" day in Cusco, but there were some suggestions of activities that our guide could organise for us. Two other people in the group were interested in seeing the Moray Ruins and the Salt Mines of Maras and we were happy to tag along and make the excursion cheaper.

Moray was the first Inca Plant laboratory we encountered. As noted previously, it wasn't quite clear to us why it earned the status of laboratory.

Pictures under the Cut )

The Salt Mines are not actually mines, but a salt extraction plant that predates the arrival of the Spanish and which are still worked today. Mineral rich water from the mountains comes in and fills clay lined pools. The water then evaporates and the salt is collected. They are owned by 300 families and there were people working them - flattening the clay lining - when we visited. I bought salt.

Photos under the Cut )

(no subject)

Jul. 1st, 2025 09:01 pm[personal profile] ursamajor
ursamajor: Tajel on geeks (geeks: love them)
When [livejournal.com profile] belladonna shares a tweet that got screencapped and put up on Insta:

@ madisontayt_: imagining a vegan who won't drink nyc's tap water because of the microscopic shrimp
@ TheWappleHouse: The what now


and I was like "Yeah! There was this whole thing about NYC's tap water possibly being not kosher because of copepods in the water supply a few years back. Which might've meant that NYC bagels, whose lauded taste and texture were credited to the tap water used to boil them, were potentially treyf. But then other rabbis weighed in and said as long as the proportion of these microscopic crustaceans was less than 1/60th of the total volume, it was okay by the principle of בטל בשישים (bitul b'shishim/beteil beshishim), thank you Shabot6000."



... and then I realized "a few years back" was 21 years ago.

...well, hardly ever...

Jul. 1st, 2025 05:18 pm[personal profile] ysobel
ysobel: A kitten on a piano keyboard (music)
So I was listening to an audiobook of Agatha Christie stories

and one character mentioned the "why and wherefore" of something

which *immediately* got "Never Mind the Why and Wherefore" from HMS Pinafore going through my head [https://youtu.be/fz00Ru9RXA8?si=_iW2jYRH-8RW_w49]

which of course meant I had no choice but to listen to the whole of HMS Pinafore [https://youtu.be/N6iNGprcxFI?si=B-vFtrypguIKurHv for example]

and now various of those songs keep popping up ... for at least week now ... only the lyrics are starting to scramble, which tends to happen when something is stuck in my head long enough.

("I am the captain of the minotaur~~" wait no)

Anyway my plan for dealing with this is to watch the 1983 film version of Pirates of Penzance, which is an extremely solid plan with no possible down sides.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
Two Doctor Who companion outfits for your delectation and delight! Outfits selected by a mixture of ones I, personally, like; lists on the internet; and a certain random element.


Outfits below the Cut )

Vote for your favourite of these costumes. Use whatever criteria you please - most practical, most outrageously spacey, most of its decade!

Voting will remain open for at least a week, possibly longer!

Costume Bracket Masterlist

Images are a mixture of my own screencaps, screencaps from Lost in Time Graphics, PCJ's Whoniverse Gallery, and random Google searches.
kareila: a lady in glasses holding a stack of books (books)
I just finished watching John Green's latest video, in which he talks about the vagaries of the NYT bestseller list and how you will miss out on a lot of excellent books if you use that as your primary source of book recommendations. So that got me to wondering how other people discover the books that they want to read.

Personally, I am such a F/SF devotee that a huge number of the books I end up checking out are sourced directly from Tor's lists of new releases. They publish the lion's share of my current favorite authors and seem to be responsible for the majority of recent Hugo nominees.

I also rely heavily on my local libraries. There are two in particular with good F/SF sections and I am able to find most of the books that I want to read in their collections instead of having to purchase them. I also regularly browse their nonfiction new releases and recommendations for younger readers.

The other major source of recommendations for me is social media - mostly you all here on Dreamwidth, but also Bluesky, Facebook, and Discord. I'm always paying attention to what my friends are into.

Occasionally I'll see an interesting book on the shelf at Target or Barnes & Noble, but I'm not located near any independent bookstores, alas.
echan: rainbow arch supernova remnant (Default)
It is possible to use your entire forearm against one of those giant sloping holds where there's basically nothing to grab its just an awkward orb bigger than your head and you're praying to the gods of friction to keep you there. You do get a lot of friction, laying an entire forearm on it! So much that, after moving your feet up, you're in a terribly awkward position with no good way to move your forearm without losing a bunch of skin or falling off the wall.


I'm better at sloper holds than I think I am, but, confidence & lack thereof adds its own difficulty.

1SE for June 2025

Jun. 30th, 2025 10:04 pm[personal profile] nanila
nanila: me (Default)


I can't quite believe how much has happened this month. At least 60 days of stuff were packed into June's 30. And now we're halfway through the year. Dear Time, Please slow down, Love, Me.

pick-n-mix

Jun. 30th, 2025 03:39 pm[personal profile] jadelennox
jadelennox: Elephants and giraffes comic: "I'm eating a whole leprechaun" (sgnp: leprechaun)

Poll #33308 choices of varying difficulty
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 49


pick one science!

View Answers

space
29 (60.4%)

dinosaurs
19 (39.6%)

pick one plastic pal who's fun to be with!

View Answers

murderbot
12 (25.0%)

lieutenant commander data
18 (37.5%)

lieutenant commander murderbot
6 (12.5%)

murderdata
12 (25.0%)

pick one cat!

View Answers

a cat who does crimes
1 (2.0%)

a cat who does naps
3 (6.1%)

trick question, they're the same cat
45 (91.8%)

pick one poll type!

View Answers

radio button
9 (18.4%)

ticky boxes
24 (49.0%)

free text answer
2 (4.1%)

scientifically constructed and balanced poll with an IRB approval and crosstabs
14 (28.6%)

pick one brassica!

View Answers

brussels sprouts
10 (20.4%)

box choy
5 (10.2%)

cauliflower
7 (14.3%)

turnip
2 (4.1%)

kohlrabi
4 (8.2%)

mustard
5 (10.2%)

sauerkraut
4 (8.2%)

candytuft
1 (2.0%)

horseradish
8 (16.3%)

purple pickled horseradish, maybe with a little charoset
3 (6.1%)

pick one way to feel better!

View Answers

petting the cat
8 (16.3%)

eating cheese
1 (2.0%)

throwing your phone into the fires of mount doom
2 (4.1%)

medication
1 (2.0%)

looking at pictures of nebulas
1 (2.0%)

throwing the technology of your choice into the fires of mount doom
1 (2.0%)

petting this other cat
7 (14.3%)

doing crimes
5 (10.2%)

reading
6 (12.2%)

writing
2 (4.1%)

'rithmetic
0 (0.0%)

digging in the dirt
1 (2.0%)

listening to music
2 (4.1%)

being in the ocean
5 (10.2%)

throwing mount doom into the fires of mount doom, just to see if you can create a singularity via recursive destruction
7 (14.3%)

chebe: (Default)
Seamwork's Elmira, cropped cardigan, again. I like v.2, but let's make it more. Firstly, downsizing to the XL. (Third time tracing out this pattern.)

Secondly, let's colour block! Measure the centre-back, divide in three. Mark similar measurements at all the side seams. Notice how they don't line up, and rough out some compromise with gently curved lines. Trace out (for the fourth time) the colour blocked pattern pieces with seam allowances. Shorten the sleeve length to better fit the visual balance. Lengthen the cuff piece to fit.

Details )

Photo of a short jersey cardigan, with pink top, purple middle, and blue lower sections, and grey lining, with deep-v overlapping front pieces, closed with three small buttons (pink, blue, blue) on each side seam at the waist, hanging from a black hanger against a white wardrobe.

Finished, front
Photo by [personal profile] chebe

Sacsayhuaman

Jun. 30th, 2025 06:01 pm[personal profile] purplecat
purplecat: Two dummies wearing Edwardian dresses. (General:History)
Sacsayhuaman is a massive Inca fortress, called the House of the Sun, on a hill top above Cusco. We were taken up their on our first day in Peru, walked around the site and then walked back down into Cusco.

It is quite a thing )

Chaosium Convention Melbourne

Jun. 30th, 2025 11:49 pm[personal profile] tcpip
tcpip: (Default)
My weekend started on Thursday evening, venturing out with Kate R., to the deco Sun Theatre in Yarraville, where a 20th anniversary screening of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu" was showing with the making of the film, and with a Q&A session with the director and the producer. It was an especially clever low-budget film, deciding to produce in a 1920s style; black-and-white, silent, and with inexpensive but real special effects. Distacted by dinner, we ended up entering the cinema a good twenty minutes late, so on Monday we decided to watch again at my very local cinema (i.e., my place).

It was all a prelude for Chaosium Con, held at the Moonee Valley Racing Club with some 250 people in attendance. Chaosium is quite a fascinating company, as a producer of board games and role-playing games. Established fifty years ago this year, they have produced a great number of games which are very well received by aficionados, including the high fantasy "RuneQuest" once considered a serious rival to Dungeons & Dragons, "Stormbringer" from the world of Michael Moorcock, Larry Niven's "Ringworld", the highly acclaimed "Call of Cthulhu", and the literary brilliance of the Arthurian "Pendragon", and so many more. The company is "just right" in terms of size; large enough to be a successful global publisher, small enough to have personal connections with the fan base. This probably the right time to mention that my main RPG project for the second half of this year will be writing a campaign for "Call of Cthulhu" with the working title "Fragments of Time, Slices of Mind"; it involves "The Great Race of Yith", and that's all you need to know.

I was there to look after the RPG Review Cooperative stall, which did quite well because RPG fans love rummaging through old games from the 80s, 90s, and 00s. I became good friends with our neighbouring stall run by a blacksmith (Morgan F) and a 3D printer (Ash M). It also turns out that our Cooperative was also the only non-Chaosium sponsor of the convention, albeit with a modest sum. Also from the Cooperative, Liz B., worked on the registration desk, Karl B., ran several sessions of his post-apocalyptic Australian-setting RPG, and Chris McC., ran a session of "Superworld" set in Perth. I am encouraging the committee to release a double-issue of RPG Review for Chaosium games, new and old, this year. They have made an incredible contribution to the gaming world, and it will certainly be a real pleasure to explore and publish with the incredible and creative energy.

AI is making my job worse

Jun. 29th, 2025 04:32 pm[personal profile] echan
echan: rainbow arch supernova remnant (Default)
At work I have acquired two junior devs who heavily use AI when writing code. I don't mind the AI, but I do mind that they're too junior to know what good code looks like and AI accelerates their bad choices to stratospheric levels. One dev told me he that "AI couldn't fix the bugs" in his new unit test so he let AI rewrite it in a completely different test framework at four times the length and still with bugs. The other dev asked me to review 1k LOC he had not read himself that was a nightmare of bad choices and code that had no business being added to the existing service. For both, the initial review wasn't even a review, it was me eyeballing it for two minutes then bailing and telling them to rewrite it entirely.
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