juushika: A black and white photo of an ink pen (Writing)
[personal profile] juushika
Big delta in relative qualities here! Which mostly comes down to my preference for picture books to be numinous/wondrous and my desire for almost nothing ever to be funny. Anyway, interesting author; I don't expect to dig deeper but I'm glad I checked him out.


Title: Flotsam
Author: David Wiesner
Published: Clarion Books, 2006
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 553,745
Text Number: 2078
Read Because: saw this pop up a ton when looking at reviews of Tuesday, hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: A wordless picture book about a boy who finds a camera on the beach and develops its wondrous photos. I bounced off of Wiesner's Tuesday, but this works for me. The art is more dynamic; there's more narrative than just a subversion of an image of American normalcy. This is wonder as a participant act: to inherit and pass it on through curiosity, discovery, and generosity. (Reading a library copy feels particularly appropriate.) It reminds me of Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, which isn't a comparison I make lightly; if I'd found it at the right age, I would probably have an even stronger reaction.


Title: Free Fall
Author: David Wiesner
Published: HarperCollins, 1991
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 553,775
Text Number: 2079
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: Of course I'm an easy sell on "enter the book" as a flight of fancy, and Wiesner's typical wordlessness prevents this from reiterating the usual downfall of that premise, more pure wonder than didactic or smug. This lacks the throughline, intent, and therefore the effectiveness of Flotsam, and is objectively less successful. But the imagery is remarkable & I'm a sucker; this might be my favorite Wiesner.


June 29, 1999 )


Sector 7 )
juushika: Drawing of a sleeping orange cat (Default)
[personal profile] juushika
Title: Underneath Everything
Author: Marcy Beller Paul
Published: Balzer + Bray, 2015
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 305
Total Page Count: 553,705
Text Number: 2077
Read Because: no idea how I found this one, ebook borrowed from Multnomah County Library
Review: The tumultuous social life of a high school senior
whose popular/outsider status and rotating relationships all come back to a messy friend-breakup. In a world where Burton's The World Cannot Give and Ojeda's Jawbone exist, this is a little redundant, mostly in a more cakes! way. It's almost without plot or stakes beyond friend group dynamics, an admirable commitment that pulls in the scope but is frequently infuriating, falling apart in the reveals and climax-that-isn't. I simultaneously buy the toxic, homoerotic dynamic and the crucial importance everything has at this age, and feel like, that's it, that's the big drama?; the writing needs to be better to sell this nuance. But I'd love nothing more than to collect fictional toxic female friendships that experiment with breathplay, so, can't fault that.
juushika: Photograph of a row of books on a library shelf (Books Once More)
[personal profile] juushika
Title: The Haunting
Author: Margaret Mahy
Published: Scholastic, 1982
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 135
Total Page Count: 553,400
Text Number: 2076
Read Because: [personal profile] osprey_archer's review; borrowed from Open Library
Review: Following the death of a great uncle who shares his name, our protagonist becomes convinced he's being haunted by the lonely little boy with once his uncle's friend. I'm enamored of minor middle grade novels that seem to come from nowhere to blow me away. MG has an enviable willingness to get weird and fantastical, which, here, is remarkably phrased and then foiled by an enduring (and plot-relevant) quirky familial domesticity. And then the twist! Which is logical but thematically atypical for the genre, and so satisfying. I love to end the year with one of my favorite books of the year.

Death's End by Liu Cixin (2010)

Dec. 29th, 2025 04:43 pm
pauraque: Picard reads a book while vacationing on Risa (st picard reads)
[personal profile] pauraque
After the events of The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest, this conclusion to the trilogy expands the perspective on the Earth-Trisolaran conflict beyond our two petty solar systems to a galactic, interdimensional, and finally universal scale. (Yes, this is the sort of book where rather than wondering if your favorite character survives, you wonder instead if there will be a habitable universe for them to survive in by the last page.)

This book took me a long time to read, not only because it's 600 pages but also because I kept stopping due to real life distractions. I also don't have the book anymore because it had to go back to the library. So I'm afraid this post is going to be more vibes-based than going into a ton of detail, even though seventy million things happened in the book that would each be worthy of detailed discussion.

My ultimate impression of the book (and of the series as a whole) is that there are a lot of things that the author and I will just never see eye-to-eye on, but I don't mind setting that aside because I like the way he explores his ideas even if I disagree with their fundamental basis.

cut for length )
vriddy: K-9 Volume 1 Cover (k-9)
[personal profile] vriddy
No birb here.


Making choices | K-9 | Fujimaru Jin/Hizuki Ren/Kagari Yukito/Oboro Yuushirou | 1.6k words | rated T

Summary: Had Kagari drawn his sword, it wouldn't have been so bad. But Fujimaru was taken down too early to say the word, and so Kagari didn't.

Read it on Dreamwidth on AO3.

Birb!

Dec. 28th, 2025 05:08 am
vriddy: Cat looking out of the window beside a cup of tea and books (window cat)
[personal profile] vriddy
To PROVE that I am able to make a post without a single mention of K-9 (oh no I already failed), please enjoy pictures of the bird friends I made at the park yesterday :D


Chill bird walking on concrete   Chill bird foraging in a flower bed


I call them magpies because that's what the black and white and beautiful blue-tinted tail colouring makes me think of, but I don't actually know. They are birb. And they are friendly!

One of them came to hang out with us when we took a little break, just sitting there, all puffy and chirping whenever we stopped paying attention to it. Really, surprisingly chill and friendly! I guess people around there are not jerks to them too much.

Puffy bird perching on wall


I know the quality of my pictures is terrible, but that's to encourage everyone to use their Power Of Imagination! I'm actually providing a great public service 😌

Picture of a not a bird friend, at the same park )


Also I'm no longer the only person posting for K-9 out there :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D And they write a PoV I'm less comfortable with (FOR NOW) and that is just AWESOME. Happy times!!! 🥳🥳

Practical problem-solving.

Dec. 27th, 2025 08:31 pm
hannah: (Stargate Atlantis - zaneetas)
[personal profile] hannah
Yesterday I learned there's curtains you can buy that are controlled by an app. I didn't get into the massive security concerns of this scenario because one of my clients has some and she was paying me to figure out what was wrong with them, not get a lecture. Besides, no small number of the issues involved were laid bare when she explained she'd updated the app and the app said the curtains weren't found on the network.

I knew the first step of figuring out if it's a hardware or a software problem was first making sure the machine's connected to the network - if there was a motor that responded to commands sent by the app, it was essentially working from a more advanced and less secure remote control. To check and make sure the motor had power to run and could connect to the app to begin with, I looked for where the power supply was coming from. It wasn't plugged into anything, instead running on 12 AA batteries. I figured that swapping them out for fresh batteries to see if that'd get them back online would narrow down the possible problems before we'd have to see if the curtains need an update.

My client called the company helpline, and they said that given when she'd installed them, it was probably a power issue and to replace the batteries.

I'd also helped her with a miniature flashlight that wasn't working. When she handed it to me, I pulled at it, inspecting the object, seeing what parts were detachable to find out where its batteries would be located - and in doing so, I got them realigned and working again.

When I explained my problem-solving processes to her and working through the possibilities to try to figure out the issue at hand, she gave me what I hold as a high compliment: "You should've been a mechanical engineer."

[title card] december

Dec. 27th, 2025 05:03 pm
tenderfeeling: (elric)
[personal profile] tenderfeeling

well. christmas came and went. i didn't write anything about it because i don't really celebrate!

it's... a... to me, it's like.. [flounders a little] it feels like another one of those social conventions that just makes other people feel bad, but this one seems to be more socially acceptable all around? i don't really know. it comes with a lot of pressure even to people who seem to appreciate holidays. my girlfriend got me a sonic plush, because they wanted to, and though i'm usually very resistant to receiving gifts (i... don't feel... like i deserve them, most of the time...) it would be cute and comforting to me so i'm pretty chuffed about it. little guy will be here around mid january as long as i don't forget to check in with customs.

mom got laid off, we're struggling, rent isn't paid, it's whatever. i've decided to stop stressing out about it and just take each day in stride. it doesn't make poverty less... stressful... to be in, but it keeps me from freaking the fuck out all the time because.. like.. that's not going to change anything. seems like everyone's a little fucked financially recently anyways. the state of the world worries me sometimes! but we've survived worse as a society.

i'm excited for 2025 to be over. it wasn't as bad as 2024.. i had a lot of good things happen and good times but ultimately it's overstayed its welcome. i know the mere passage of time isn't magical and it won't make things better but, you know... we use these measures of time as a matter of perspective more than anything.

in other news, i finally watched all of katanagatari (and am currently reading the novels).... AND simultaneously getting into trigun at the behest of my other partner (that's a story for another entry). all around really good and also you should watch katanagatari. please. please? for me? it's good. "why are you not talking about trigun are you less enthusiastic about it" don't even joke about it lad. i just keep getting shy because it's something i care about that someone else showed me so i'm a little bashful.

things are interesting, things are interesting... even if life is hard, i've been unlocking a sense of deep satisfaction about it recently. i think everything is going to work out. please hang onto hope, even, no, especially when it's hard. it may take a long time, and we may falter, but i think we're all a lot more capable than we think.

P.S.: it's 85f but feels like 100-something right now. i feel like a bowl of melted butter

Speak Up Saturday

Dec. 27th, 2025 04:08 pm
feurioo: (Default)
[personal profile] feurioo posting in [community profile] tv_talk
Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?
vriddy: K-9 Volume 1 Cover (k-9)
[personal profile] vriddy
Friend told me that Uncategorized Fandoms don't show up on your AO3 dashboard, and now I'm mournfully looking at my K-9-less dashboard, like poking at a scab... but also wondering if I'll have written enough for the fandom to show above the cut when it does eventually get wrangled XD


Show of trust | K-9 | Fujimaru Jin/Hizuki Ren/Kagari Yukito/Oboro Yuushirou | 1.6k words | rated T

Summary: Oboro and Fujimaru are down, while Ren and Kagari are left to face off an ever-growing mob of sin users on their own.

Read it on Dreamwidth on AO3.

Warm my bones.

Dec. 25th, 2025 08:18 pm
hannah: (Jack Aubrey - katie8787)
[personal profile] hannah
My parents' apartment building is in a U shape, and on the roof, the bottom of the U is the social area - tables, chairs, plants, tiles. The two sides are closed off from general use - the water tower, electrical system access, stuff where you need it clear for safety.

I recently found out someone's been sneaking up onto the roof to smoke, and they've been doing it in the social area, or so close to it to make no difference. I figure that if they could smoke in their apartment, they would, so this is probably someone's kid, and it's easier to go to the roof to smoke than head out to the breezeway next to the building.

My concern's not any of that, but rather that they're doing it badly. When I was told about the sneaking, I remarked that they'd do better to sneak farther away from the social area so the smell doesn't linger. I said if it's cigarettes, they should do it over the breezeway so they can tap the ash away, and if they're really dedicated, they should bring along a tin of some kind to carry the refuse away with them to dispose of the evidence later. The smoking's one thing to protest, and what really gets to me is the person's total lack of tradecraft.

What IS wrong with Gaming Journalism?

Dec. 25th, 2025 10:45 am
retrogrrrl: (Moo Moo)
[personal profile] retrogrrrl
Shit, I can’t be the only doofus to fuckin’ ask this question, right? God knows I’ve asked it many times, but y’see, I’m in a peculiar position. Carryin’ a pair of tits will do that to ya, couple that with an innate rebellious attitude and a love for retro games ‘cause of economic status and y’got yourself a recipe to make most American gamers whinge — even the nerds that permeate some of the retro space may have a problem with me, and we’re supposed to be more or less the same team!

What can I say? I’m too cool to be a nerd but too nerdy to be cool. Such is my long-standing curse, but that isn’t the end of it.

On top of all of it, I’m also a punk. Even though I no longer partake in the community (‘cause I have none) and distance myself from bein’ exclusively in that space, I got the political and social wisdom it imparted on me. Wisdom bein’, everythin’ fucking sucks but y’can always help your community ‘round you to make a change. Also, you can’t put Avril Lavigne in your fuckin’ crust pants, that’s not a crust band to put on yer crust PANT. My sensibilities and ability to call BULLSHIT have made me look deeper beyond the mainstream assumption that Gaming Journalism is just bad.

Sure, I can betcha is flawed like most other fuckin’ things in the world, but why is it BAD exactly? This question won’t be answered in this blog post, I’m postin’ the question for all the curious eyes scopin’ out my site, but I like givin’ extra context to why I’m askin’. Y’see, I can’t help but to notice that everytime someone says this to me it comes from a source I don’t trust. My brother says Gaming Journos are bad? I remember that he loves Asmongold and genuinely believes white racism is a thing. Twitter user Buttnuttgooner1488 tells me Gaming Journos are woke, damaging to the industry and shit? Well the symbolism in his frontpage aren’t exactly friendly, are they?

I realize this may be ‘cause I’m biased…. well D’UH, y’fuckin’ donut. What d’ya think? I’m not takin’ or hearin’ any gospel spoken outta the moufs of dimwits who have “PRINCIPLES” teeterin’ on the edge of danger fascist rhetoric – and you’ve gotta be a moron to take what they say with no pinch of salt. Half the time the criticizing ‘bout gaming journo ends up fallin’ down the anti-woke/sjw pipeline and delusional dreams ‘bout how the gaming community has always been acceptin’ of women and queer gamers (they don’t even touch the topic of racism ‘cause that would be havin’ to pull lotsa fucking weird tricks from under their sleeves).

I’m not askin’ for a “neutral” account and analysis. That’s another fuckin’ problem, the so-called CENTRISTS’ are just gutless gonzos who can never make a decision in their lives (and comin’ from a versatile bisexual? that’s a BURN) or signal their allegiance to anyone ‘cause they’re coward frumpwusses who rely on the inaction to survive. Y’don’t want me to listen to your bullshit either, I’m gonna call it right out.

I’m lookin’ for critiques within my own pond, frankly. That’s why I point it out. Half the time we’ve got biases, I can easily identify ‘em. Some other times — dependin’ on who’s saying shit — I can trust that someone’s bein’ fair on the topic and it’s not some secret agenda to push ya into an alt-right discord to slowly get you brainwashed. I need an actual point.

So, I guess that’s the question to wrap up this unwarranted rant.

What IS wrong with Gaming Journalism? Is it a similar issue with Journalism as a whole? Are people just whinin’ that their super special niche has branched out into the mainstream and how — like many other mediums — has got a few hands stirrin’ the pot now?
vriddy: christmas gnome (gnome)
[personal profile] vriddy
Wow, vriddy wrote a fic? Wonder what fandom it could be about...............


Good luck, Yuu-san | K-9 | Fujimaru Jin/Hizuki Ren/Kagari Yukito/Oboro Yuushirou | <700 words | rated T

Summary: Fujimaru accidentally discovers a new weakness of Oboro.

Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

Community Thursday

Dec. 25th, 2025 06:17 am
vriddy: Hawks hand sign to wait (pst pst)
[personal profile] vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.


Over the last week...

Posted and commented on [community profile] bnha_fans. The comm is really active in all sorts of good ways, which is LOVELY! :D

Commented on [community profile] goals_on_dw.

Posted & commented on [community profile] getting_started about whether image links also get redirected when using a rename token. The answer is YES which is pretty cool and good to know :D

Signal boosts:

Profile

simplecoffee: (Default)
simplecoffee

March 2025

M T W T F S S
     12
3456789
1011121314 1516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Dec. 30th, 2025 01:42 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios