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Sep. 10th, 2026 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impySooooooooooooo... I broke my second bone yesterday morning before the sun even came up. Woo! Luckily it was just my left pinkie toe, but still. I called out of work the night before because my sinuses were attempting to murder me and my period did not fill me with confidence, and I wound up smacking my foot into the door frame on my way to the can. Such grace. I mean, I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty sure. The crack that ensued was pretty loud and toe is turning fun colors, though not as quickly as when I broke my big toe on that foot. In any case, unfun!
Was going to mention the reason my coworker was late last night but y'know, I think we'll deal with that some other time. Or never.
Instead, I shall bemoan the Spice Girls releasing their Singles Collection and it being $130 or $140, not currently showing in the US and I'm not chancing tariffs and $43 in shipping. Le sigh.
Eta: the US version doesn't come with free stickers and we don't have the poster option. Instead, we have the world's blandest tote bag. Also, it's $150 for the cheapest option (no bag, obviously. ) Sigh part 2.
Was going to mention the reason my coworker was late last night but y'know, I think we'll deal with that some other time. Or never.
Instead, I shall bemoan the Spice Girls releasing their Singles Collection and it being $130 or $140, not currently showing in the US and I'm not chancing tariffs and $43 in shipping. Le sigh.
Eta: the US version doesn't come with free stickers and we don't have the poster option. Instead, we have the world's blandest tote bag. Also, it's $150 for the cheapest option (no bag, obviously. ) Sigh part 2.
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Sep. 8th, 2026 01:01 amimpyUGH. I finally got a weekend to myself and I slept Sunday away, woke up with the Sunday headache of old, and then overnight the combo of wisdom tooth of EVIL and sinus pain tried to murder me. So I had go try and head back to bed, only to wake up still in pain and basically doctor myself as best I could until I finally hit the right combo of benadryl, ibuprofen, salt water rinse, and heat compress to knock me on my ass long enough for things to feel better. It's also possible, but not likely, that we finally fucking got the storm we were supposed to get Sunday (which I think set off my latest bout of misery) so that might've cleared out the weather related pain. Seriously, Saturday they were calling for severe thunderstorms at my go to work time, so I'm mentally prepping to have to call out/in late and it's pretty much bone dry. Sunday's supposed to storm up a, well, storm. NOTHING. We had thunder in the afternoon and lightning when I went to get the mail at night, but no rain. Today was also supposed to be a washout. It was sunny every time I got up. OBNOXIOUSLY SO. I needed the storms to wipe out the heat and also move on through so my face stopped feeling like someone was trying to hit me with a shovel, damn.
Sigh. So, that was my weekend. Oh, and period showed up so I couldn't even go to the pool with Widget tonight.
Sigh. So, that was my weekend. Oh, and period showed up so I couldn't even go to the pool with Widget tonight.
(SFF Bingo): A Trade of Blood, by Robert Jackson Bennett
Sep. 7th, 2026 08:52 pmprimeidealThis is the third book in the Ana and Din Mysteries/Shadow of the Leviathan series. In "The Tainted Cup," I was like, "I like the worldbuilding, the characters are a little too one-dimensional and over-the-top sometimes." "A Drop of Corruption" improved upon this--the characters didn't seem so over-the-top, but the worldbuilding was still good. This one has maybe gone too far in eroding the characters' unique traits.
Din and Ana travel to a province where cattle is the big industry because everyone likes eating meat. There are two rival aristocratic families in the livestock business who are a big deal locally, even if not the richest or most important on the scale of the entire empire. The daughter from one house is found dead; the son from the other is found covered in her blood. A Romeo and Juliet tragedy? Frame job?
The exciting part of this, for me, was that Din inadvertently runs into one of his sisters, Fotia. Din took the job as an investigator, with the biotech modifications that ensues, as a way to pay off his family debts and provide for them. But he hasn't spoken to them in years, and Fotia is not happy about it when they reunite. The comparison and contrast between the paths they've taken in life, and how it might or might not be construed as sacrifices for monetary advancement, was neat.
RJB has a fun sense of humor, I like stuff like "I got to intimidate people by reminding them that I have a perfect memory and they shouldn't mess with me. They don't stop to think about the fact that my memories are kinda meaningless if they remove my head from my shoulders."
In book one, it was an important part of the plot that Din is dyslexic. By now, however, he's able to read things and translate well even in his second language. Ana's ranting and raving used to get them sideways looks from authority figures they need to work with; now, it's more confined to her complaining about aristocrats to Din, but being ultimately chill with the fact that Fotia is enaged to one. There was a Reddit post about "the vault had four dials with thirty possibilities each, which meant that the total amount of combinations was unable to be brute-forced. Ana mentioned 'yeah, that's 810,000, that's too many' and everybody was impressed that she could do math in her head," except, as the Redditor pointed out, "a lot of us can do 30^4 in our heads, that's not something you do every day but it's also not rocket science?" Intelligence being more an informed attribute than indirectly revealed.
This wouldn't be an issue if I was otherwise invested in the characters and the story, but this one is more of a downer.
Bingo: Published in 2026, Murder Mystery
Din and Ana travel to a province where cattle is the big industry because everyone likes eating meat. There are two rival aristocratic families in the livestock business who are a big deal locally, even if not the richest or most important on the scale of the entire empire. The daughter from one house is found dead; the son from the other is found covered in her blood. A Romeo and Juliet tragedy? Frame job?
The exciting part of this, for me, was that Din inadvertently runs into one of his sisters, Fotia. Din took the job as an investigator, with the biotech modifications that ensues, as a way to pay off his family debts and provide for them. But he hasn't spoken to them in years, and Fotia is not happy about it when they reunite. The comparison and contrast between the paths they've taken in life, and how it might or might not be construed as sacrifices for monetary advancement, was neat.
RJB has a fun sense of humor, I like stuff like "I got to intimidate people by reminding them that I have a perfect memory and they shouldn't mess with me. They don't stop to think about the fact that my memories are kinda meaningless if they remove my head from my shoulders."
In book one, it was an important part of the plot that Din is dyslexic. By now, however, he's able to read things and translate well even in his second language. Ana's ranting and raving used to get them sideways looks from authority figures they need to work with; now, it's more confined to her complaining about aristocrats to Din, but being ultimately chill with the fact that Fotia is enaged to one. There was a Reddit post about "the vault had four dials with thirty possibilities each, which meant that the total amount of combinations was unable to be brute-forced. Ana mentioned 'yeah, that's 810,000, that's too many' and everybody was impressed that she could do math in her head," except, as the Redditor pointed out, "a lot of us can do 30^4 in our heads, that's not something you do every day but it's also not rocket science?" Intelligence being more an informed attribute than indirectly revealed.
This wouldn't be an issue if I was otherwise invested in the characters and the story, but this one is more of a downer.
"It makes me wonder--is such a people worth maintaining? For a willingness to tolerate suffering for one's comfort only grows over time, in my experience. In facct, the more I read, the more I suspect, Din...perhaps we now echo an older age of the Empire. One that failed--perhaps deservedly."
I studied her, unnerved. Whenever Ana had spoken of protecting the Empire before, she had always listed the many unsatisfying compromises one had to make to keep it all upright--but she had never suggested that it might be better to send it all tumbling down.
Din's response to this attitude a couple chapters later is a Candide-esque "well, we just have to cultivate our garden," but I found it unconvincing.I studied her, unnerved. Whenever Ana had spoken of protecting the Empire before, she had always listed the many unsatisfying compromises one had to make to keep it all upright--but she had never suggested that it might be better to send it all tumbling down.
Bingo: Published in 2026, Murder Mystery
Etymology is fun
Sep. 1st, 2026 10:03 pmprimeidealI saw a post after the "Lake America" nonsense talking about the etymology of the Great Lakes. When Longfellow wrote about "by the shores of Gitche Gumee" in "The Song of Hiawatha," that's one transliteration of the Ojibwe name for Lake Superior. "gichi"--great, "gami"--lake, sea.
Also, "mishi" is "large." So large lake/water="mishigami." From which we get...Lake Michigan. Makes total sense that they're related, but I'd never have realized.
Also, "mishi" is "large." So large lake/water="mishigami." From which we get...Lake Michigan. Makes total sense that they're related, but I'd never have realized.