seaglassgarden

ysabetwordsmith posting in

birdfeeding

Today is partly sunny and mild.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity yet.

I put out water for the birds.

.

Current Mood: busy

pauraque

Note: Stronach came out as trans after this book was published, so earlier reviews may misgender her, as does the cover bio.

In this first book of a planned fantasy trilogy (of which two books have so far been released), we're introduced to the city of Hainak, a seaport that's just been through a political revolution, as well as an alchemical-biological magitech revolution. Our main character is Yat, a naive cop who wants to be a hero, but instead she's just been demoted for being queer. As her life crumbles into a haze of drugs and disillusionment, she stumbles into the doings of a secret faction, gets murdered, and finds herself resurrected with new powers that allow her to manipulate life force with her mind, all of which gives her a very different perspective on what a hero is and what she actually wants to fight for.

So... I really wanted to like this. I did enjoy the Māori-inspired worldbuilding and the author's vivid visual imagination, filling the city with a profusion of bizarre wonders as well as a strong sense of place. I also liked a lot of the characters and cared what happened to them. But ultimately I found the book didn't have enough structure to hold together.

It's being marketed as akin to Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series, and I think that comparison pinpoints the problem. Many aspects of the book do seem similar—there's magic with body horror, fantasy with sci-fi, loads of queerness... as well as byzantine political intrigue, misdirections about characters' identities, conversations that don't specify what's being discussed, and long monologues from unidentified speakers. But the reason all the confusing stuff works when Muir does it is that she does eventually provide enough information for you to fit all the pieces together, and on re-reading you discover that all the things that initially confused you actually make complete sense and Muir had a plan all along. And maybe Stronach also has a plan in her head, but if so it didn't make it onto the page. The book ends in a muddle of events that seem superficially dramatic but don't actually explain that much or draw the needed connections between the disparate plot elements.

The part of the book that's presented the most clearly is Yat's journey of realizing that the police only protect the powerful and serve the status quo, so if she wants to be a hero to the downtrodden then being a cop isn't the way to do it. Which would be a perfectly reasonable character arc, except that Yat's backstory is that she was an orphan living on the streets and she saw firsthand on a daily basis what cops are like, so why is her story about her "realizing" something she already knows? I guess she's supposed to be in deep denial, but it just didn't make any sense to me.

Some reviews I read had also led me to believe that the book has a lot more pirate content than it actually does. I mean, it does have pirates! But I felt cheated that we didn't spend more time with them, both because pirates are awesome and because the backstory of these specific pirates was super intriguing but criminally underexplained. I often felt like the book was barely intersecting the outskirts of a way more interesting story centered on the pirate captain and her crew, and wondered why they weren't the main characters.

Anyway, I think there was a lot of potential here but it didn't cohere enough for me to want to continue with the series. Too bad.

fred_mouse

Today (Tuesday)

second day of uni - more focused. Met two other PhD students, and a said hello to another who didn't actually talk to me, so I'm not sure if they are staff or student (we are in a locked office space, because of research reasons, which is quite nostalgic. The card scanner makes the same beep as the ones at the Telethon Institute did)
I'm kind of keeping up with other parts of my life, but not in any way that makes it look like I have my shit together. The lounge has a teetering mound of clean washing, there is a pile of stuff on the bed I need to sort before I can go to sleep (by which I think I mean 'dump back on the floor'). I've taken some of the necessities in to the new office, and tomorrow I'll organise a locked cubby for keeping things in, which means I can bring any books in that make sense.

Yesterday

Didn't quite make it to bed before 11pm last night, but it was close. Awoke naturally at 6:50am, which meant that I could relax for a little bit and laze about until the alarm went off. I didn't, in the end, getting up after about 2 minutes, and getting in the shower.
Past me had a work day morning packing checklist, which was greatly appreciated this morning, as there were a couple of things that I would otherwise have forgotten. There are a couple of items that I've managed to misplace, and maybe I'll have time to sort them tonight, but I'm not optimistic about that. I was enough slow getting ready that I missed the 7:45am bus, so artisanat dropped me at the train station. Youngest gave me two options for public transport from there--either the circle route (longer, relies on Leach Hwy not being clogged), or train to Canning Bridge and either the 100 or 101 bus. I did the latter, and once I found the right stand at the interchange, got the first bus that came past.
Good meeting with supervisors, I have ideas of what is to come. I spent more time sorting out logging in to things than I had allowed for, including a trek to the library IT help desk, where it turned out that what I was assuming was one problem turned out to be four separate issues, one of which was solved by changing my password in Outlook. I also went and asked questions of the Library Helpdesk person, who gave me a personalised tour of all the things on the Library Webpage that might be of use to me, and pointed at things to follow up.

Sunday

Went boating on the river with buggs_jenny, their partner P, and their parents (G, K). This was a somewhat last minute invite, they organised for there to be a kayak for me to use, and I had a lot of fun. I hadn't allowed for the timing of how it would all fit together with the fact that it was a recorder group Sunday so it was a bit of a rush to head off and I didn't help with the clean up. I now have to work out how to get involved and go more often (this is not an every weekend thing; I could at best do the off weeks from recorder) given that the car we are looking to sell is the one with the roof racks, but I can't get our kayak on to it on my own. Although, having said that, it is some years since I've moved that kayak and I have no idea how heavy it is relative to my current strength--it is possible that all the shoulder work that I've been doing would be enough.
Recorder with G and ariaflame; L has injured their shoulder and P isn't yet back from visiting their sibling in the eastern states. G is now calling us the A minors; I gather this is a joke that is related to the name of another group they are in. We worked through several trios that I'm not sure that aria has seen before, with some swapping around of parts so that they were sight-reading the easier of the C recorder parts (ie. soprano or tenor).
Dinner with chaosmanor. One of those weeks where it turns out that we have gone through the veggie stash much faster than usual, and I under measured the amount of cabbage to cut to fill the gap for the stir fry. Fortunately, chaosmanor wasn't all that hungry, artisanat was out dancing and got dinner there, and Youngest and Eldest are able to raid the fridge if they are still hungry. And I had had one serve of each of the options at afternoon tea at recorder - G had made two things, and aria had brought one, and I have no ability to resist that kind of temptation. Particularly when G had made a serving specifically for me, because they had made a Bakewell tart (which is similar to the version I make but didn't have coconut in, which might mean that I've conflated two recipes) but had realised at the last minute that their pastry wasn't GF, and had cooked a generous serve in a ramekin.

larryhammer posting in

cnovels

I reviewed I Am Average and Unremarkable by Yue Xia Die Ying in my journal. TLDR: A heroine-centered xianxia that's great fun to read even with its strong engagement with moral questions.

---L.

ysabetwordsmith posting in

birdfeeding

Farmers are creating a brighter future for Bolivia’s red-fronted macaws

Once rural landowners learned they could generate income by protecting macaws, the endangered birds went from burdens to boons.

Progress!

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith posting in

common_nature

Today we visited the butterfly gardens at Lake Charleston.

( Walk with me ... )

Current Mood: accomplished

chameleons3

We constantly forget DW exists. That is a shame because it has a lot of utility.

We process aloud often, and relationally, and get a lot out of holding space for others. That means making a habit of checking online spaces that aren't just Discord. Even remembering to check Mastodon can be a struggle.

We are not doing poorly. Not anymore. there were four days in a row that on their own would've been difficult. But back to back we just imploded. Collapsed. Were soup for a while. Blendy isn't bad on its own but can be hard when it's due to distress. Were talking slowly and with a lot of effort, words were hard, thinking was hard, everything was so difficult to tolerate.

Once we did some somatic regulating, we were able to cope. Then blew something out of proportion that got us whacked out again (got enyo whacked out, therefore all of us) and then got some somatic co-regulating to feel decent.

Not in our window of tolerance yet, but better.

We need to make a habit of using this site. It's very good.

Current Mood: restless

ysabetwordsmith posting in

gardening

Today I started making liquid fertilizer from Russian comfrey. Begin with Part 1: Jugs. With those done, I harvested leaves.

( Walk with me ... )

Current Mood: accomplished

ysabetwordsmith posting in

gardening

Today I started making liquid fertilizer from Russian comfrey. This plant fills a lot of guild roles in permaculture including fertilizer, miner, mulcher, protector, attractor. I have been using it primarily as a bee plant that I can also slash-and-drop several times a season. I grow it under many of my trees and there's some in the prairie garden too.

There are various ways to make liquid fertilizer from comfrey. I will be testing two: 1) a small amount of comfrey leaves in a large amount of water, and 2) only comfrey leaves crammed tightly in a jug. (See Part 2: Leaves.)

( Walk with me ... )

Current Mood: accomplished

synecdoches

Not endorsing this quiz or website, but it gave us something interesting to think about. "Read Your Color" tries to categorize what people seek when they read a book-- not by genre, but by emotional depth, narratove style, etc. It's hard to describe, but each "color" is described on the site. Reading about the different types, we noticed that we do gravitate toward some types more than others, but different members may be more one style than another. So this is my note to self that we want to interrogate more deeply what each of us prefers in a book and a story, so that we can find things that engage each of us more fully.

mousme

It is SO nice not to have to be the SitRep writer anymore! I spent a small chunk of today holding the hand of the new SitRep writer as she navigated her first day of writing SitReps, just as the previous SitRep writer did for me last week. It is a job and a half, and honestly the instructions we were given are, uh, not very clear. I am sort of tempted to re-write them and submit the proposal to the "Core" team of supervisors/managers so that future SitRep writers don't find themselves navigating a sea of practically indecipherable text. Okay, it's not that bad, but whoever wrote the instructions did so with no regard for brevity or clarity, nor is it particularly well ordered. Technical writing is a skill, after all.

I'm working from home tomorrow, which is a blessing. It's the only WFH day I have this week, so I plan to take full advantage of that. I have to get up early enough to take out the recycling and the green bin, but at least I don't have to get up at the ass-crack of dawn. Also, since I'm not the SitRep writer this week, it ought to make for a much more chill day. If that turns out to be the case, I am going to try to take advantage of the "extra" time to keep packing up the house.

KK is finally home after being out with H most of the weekend. We drove to the new house this evening and took the dogs out for a run, checked the mail, and picked up the cat food that had been delivered there (we didn't want to leave it outside in case the smell was too enticing for the local wildlife). I also wandered over to the road that leads to the neighbour's farm and said a respectful hello to some of the dairy cows that were hanging out nearby. They were pretty nonplussed at my presence, but they didn't seem overly concerned otherwise. I quite like cows, so I'm hoping we will be on good terms with our neighbours in general. I also spotted the same cat I'd seen over the weekend (I think) trotting down the path in the direction of the farm, so I am reasonably confident that the cat must belong to them.

Okay, time for bed. Catch you on the flip side, friends!

Current Mood: tired

rebeccmeister posting in

gardening

(updated and cross-posted from my blog)

My newest mulch pile:

I only recently got a wood chipper, and I am so happy to be able to mulch small branches at home now!

Lovely little flowers on the French lavender:

I have a dahlia I call the Dark Dahlia, which is behind the lavender, under some rhubarb leaves, just starting to come up. This is most exciting because I wasn't sure if I got it out of the ground in time last fall/winter.

The wine barrel tomato plants are getting much bigger, and have some flowers going:

Some of the ripe strawberries (while walking my cat Martha):

Yummy strawberry-arugula salad! Needed more strawberries. Next time.

beehaiku

closeups of the corallites of eight colonial corals

some colonial corals’ corallites! clockwise from top left:
1.) Class Anthozoa, Order Scleractinia, Genus unknown
2.) Class Anthozoa, Order Tabulata, Genus Syringopora
3.) Class Anthozoa, Order Tabulata, Genus Halysites
4.) Class Anthozoa, Order Tabulata, Genus Favosites
5.) Class Anthozoa, Order Scleractinia, Genus Thecia
6.) Class Anthozoa, Order Rugosa, Genus Hexagonaria
7.) Class Anthozoa, Order Tabulata, Genus Aulopora
8.) Class Anthozoa, Order Scleractinia, Genus unknown

didelphidae

hello dreamwidth! i'm sorry i haven't been on my laptop very much since my last entry. when i moved into my apartment, my dad asked to use my old bedroom as his office. not planning to ever use this bedroom again, i told him he could move my desk out of the room to make room for his larger one. now, i'm back, and since he took his things out, i just don't have a desk. currently, i've been using the back to my yogibo, a body pillow-adjacent bean bag, as a ledge to work in my bed. it's definitely not ideal but it's something, i guess. definitely kills my motivation to open my laptop as frequently as i used to.

also, i wrote back in february about how i had to bring my laptop in for a $40 repair to re-meld the hinge in my laptop to my screen. apparently, the epoxy still wasn't enough after a week of re-applications, because it's snapped again! i've gotten pretty alright at forcing the hinge open so the screen doesn't pop out of place like it did in february, but it's noticably fucking with my screen's display in the bottom left corner. my laptop is barely two years old, i really don't want to replace it.. if i can't find a decent repair person in bike range of my parents' house, i guess i'll bring it back to the cheap spot when i go back to my city next month? i don't know. but that's definitely not helping my desire to do things on the computer.

not a whole lot has happened in the past month. i'm trying to get the ball rolling on general manager responsibilities at the radio station so there's less work to do in the next semester, but no one i need to be talking to in order to do what i want has responded to me, so i'm stuck on that. i spend most of my time most days at work, where i typically will just operate the drive-thru counter at my workplace, though i occasionally get to do barista work. when i don't have work, i like to visit my boyfriend. the bike route is fun and it's just nice to see him. but he also doesn't really have anything going on other than work, so i end up often feeling like i'm ruining his alone time. there was a killer show at a venue not far from my house last week - i might do a separate blog post writeup about that one. but unfortunately, shows that feel worth the extra effort after a shift or knowing i'll have to wake up for another one early the following morning are just so few and far between here.

i did have a very fun day with friends last week. one of my uni friends was visiting my boyfriend's city, but had some extra time to kill so he decided to start at mine. we got food at my favorite mexican restaurant (though i was too full from my lunch to actually order anything, which devastated me), went shopping for sylvanian families at barnes and noble (where i got the latte cat family, including the little camping siblings kit), and browsed the record shop that hosted my semi-first concert. i might have him more friends come to visit later this month or in july, but no concrete plans have been made yet. i had hosted a similar thing last year, where my friends crashed at my house since it was empty and we got to visit the surrounding cities together, but the one person i'd been hesitant to invite blew it by vaping directly in front of one of my parents' security cameras, forcing me to kick everyone out. my mom seems fine with me having people over again, since she knows that i had specifically told him to not do that and i don't keep in touch with him anymore, but my dad hasn't given me clear permission, and i don't want to encourage my friends to drive for hours only to have no place to rest.

i'm headed to boston on friday. it was a bit of a rushed decision - instead of waiting for any events going on in the city like i initially wanted to, i'm meeting with my friend there since it's a solid middle point between our towns states apart. i'll probably find myself making another short trip like this one there again before the end of summer, since the train was way cheaper than i expected. i'll see how i feel about my finances when i get back, i suppose!

i'm hoping that by writing this update, i'll get more in the groove of posting here. pretty much everything i want to work on over the summer is on my computer, but it's been so hard bringing myself to open it that nothing's really happened yet. i'll probably get a lot more introspective in my pieces here, just because there isn't much else for me to do but think.

Current Mood: groggy
Current Music: spiritkiller - falling man

ribirdnerd posting in

birdfeeding

Quite a few birds over the weekend.

The favorite was a Cardinal family, with the young cardinal following the parents around a begging for seed.

I also saw a Hummingbird. I assume a Ruby throated, it was hard to tell in the low late afternoon light

cielsosinfel

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

ysabetwordsmith posting in

birdfeeding

"Birdsong of Shaker Way"
by Ann-Margaret Lim

Every day is perfect, if
when you wake, you hear birds
in the garden, in the yard. Birds

up and down, ushering in one more day
in all the houses on Shaker Way. Birds
on telephone lines, light posts. Birds

twit, twittering on trees
hailing fellow birds
with a nod of beak—gray kingbird;

top-hatted, streamertail
tuxedoed, doctor bird—
busy-bodied hummingbird

tucking in, out, of pink, red ixoras
punch-drunk in love. Birds
preening for, chatting up other birds—

the oriole, the grass quit, in mid-song
on the lawn, in a dance of birds
an all-day-long conference of bird;

red-headed woodpecker
—drummer boy, or girl bird
in this daily symphony of birds

—an orchestra on Shaker Way
in serenade of each perfect day with birds—
from the very first mockingbird

heralding, in solo warble
one more day, filled with birds—
brightened, lightened, trilled by birds:

precious, diamond-throated
sweet song, miracle-toting birds
the-gift-of-day-is-here birds.

Bird, bird, bird. Hello bird.
You lift me up bird.
You sing the day beautiful, bird.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith posting in

birdfeeding

Today is partly sunny, mild, and damp. It rained thoroughly last night.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity today though.

I put out water for the birds.

On the old picnic table, a cucumber is blooming.

EDIT 6/9/23 -- I did the indoor setup for the two jugs I'll be using to make comfrey liquid fertilizer, and took pictures.

EDIT 6/9/23 -- I tore up a handful of comfrey leaves for the first jug, put them in it, and filled the rest of the way with water. If it works, this will produce a dilute solution of liquid fertilizer.

EDIT 6/9/23 -- I started filling the second jug. This one needs to be entirely full of comfrey leaves. I only got about halfway before I ran out of energy. I'll have to work on it more later.

I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus two mourning doves.

EDIT 6/9/23 -- We went out to Fox Ridge and Lake Charleston. So many things are blooming! :D

EDIT 6/9/23 -- I added more comfrey leaves to the second jug. It's mostly full now, but not tightly packed, so it still needs more leaves stuffed in.

EDIT 6/9/23 -- I added more comfrey leaves to the second jug. While it's possible to push down the mass, it springs back immediately, making it hard to keep additional material inside. I'll call it done for now. If the stuff wilts down by tomorrow, I may add more then.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

forestofglory

Here's some thoughts on media I read and watched recently

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen— This YA fantasy novel was really fun! There are lots of heists and disguises. All the moms are terrible but they aren't dead (being Death doesn't count). I really hated all italicized German words (it is not a problem that they were German I just hate it when “foreign” words are italicized, it's both othering and distracting to me as a reader) However this really sucked me in! It’s fast paced and twisty and the worldbuilding feels grounded.

Coffee Prince ep 5-20— I finished this classic of crossdressing girl media. It was cute and fun! I got a great comment on my post about crossdressing girl media about how crossdressing allows women to form friendships with men on more equal footing. This drama really leans into that and the pleasure of being ‘one of the boys” without having to justify oneself.

This did the best job of “The MC thinks he’s gay because he likes the crossdressing FL” that I’ve seen (Though I haven’t seen many) it could be even better but I was pleased with it nonetheless.

(Content note: Blink and you'll miss it miscarriage and fertility issues)

The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy— Somehow no one told me that it is a crossdressing story but trans. That is, the main character is a trans girl who starts the book thinking she’s a boy in disguise. Interestingly she "disguises" herself as a girl so that she can go out into the world and become a witch (mostly crossdressing men in media are trying to access "inner" spaces). The author even thanks Tamora Pierce in her acknowledgments, so it's very clearly part of that tradition.

What people did tell me about this book is that there are a bunch of meetings, in fact I was expecting more meetings based on how much people talked about them.There are some meetings, but they don’t drag out and are often summarized. But I was not expecting it to be quite as brutal as it was, there was a lot of fighting and some killing, and also quite a bit of phillosy about power and making choices. Definitely a book that gave me a lot to think about.

I don’t often go seek out reviews after I read a book, but this one I really wanted to see what other people said about it. I really liked Roseanna’s review.

The Truth Season 3 cases 4-5— I continue to really enjoy this show! I especially liked the set of costumes that looked part of a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream. Also they have been playing with the format in fun ways with these two cases.

halfcactus posting in

cnovels

A second audio drama update to commemorate a milestone: Fei Du (Yang Tianxiang) and Luo Wenzhou (Liu Cong) read out passages from Macbeth. (Fei Du's VA sounds like he might have a cold in this recording...)

Original post:
https://www.missevan.com/sound/player?id=11069730

Subtitled audio:

Watch on YouTube

If subtitles don't appear automatically, please tap the CC button to display them.

Orange subtitles = Luo Wenzhou
Purple subtitles = Fei Du

Notes:
The second "excerpt" they read out is "语言是有魔力的，你说出了它，它就会缠绕着你". Thank you so much to

llonkrebboj for going through CN and EN versions of the text to confirm that this is not a real quote. ^^; There were a few web sources that claimed (confidently but wrongly) that this was a line from Macbeth, which was mystifying and kind of funny.

Cover art:
dreamlike illustration of a book opening against the background of sky, birds, and voyages

dreamlike illustration of a book opening against the background of sky, birds, and voyages

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seaglassgarden

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Reading

Birdfeeding

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach (2019)

Daily notes

Review of I Am Average and Unremarkable, Yue Xia Die Ying

Conservation

Photos: Lake Charleston Butterfly Gardens

Trying to use this more

How to Make Comfrey Liquid Fertilizer Part 2: Leaves

How to Make Comfrey Liquid Fertilizer Part 1: Jugs

for later: Read Your Color

At least work is back to normal

June garden updates from Albany, NY

❖

an inevitable fall off

Birds

(no subject)

"Birdsong of Shaker Way" by Ann-Margaret Lim

Birdfeeding

Meida Round Up: Crossdressing Girls and Other Disguises

Subbed: Silent Reading audio drama x Macbeth

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June 2025

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