Happy Halloween! Having not slept for a variety of stupid reasons, I am appearing this year as the world's most tired Green Man.
Another tool, the
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We're thinking of trying out a quarter acre each of several cereal crops:
- duram wheat
- khorasan wheat
- hard spring red wheat
- dent corn
- rye
- barley
- millet
- oats
So that's two acres that'll need to be cleared. More like four acres, since we'll be companion planting our veggies in with the cereals.
- duram wheat
- khorasan wheat
- hard spring red wheat
- dent corn
- rye
- barley
- millet
- oats
So that's two acres that'll need to be cleared. More like four acres, since we'll be companion planting our veggies in with the cereals.
So I dont lose it: CucinaPro Manual Pasta Maker
This will also roll oats, make veggies chips, phyllo dough and puff pastry.
This will also roll oats, make veggies chips, phyllo dough and puff pastry.
Tags:
We're thinking of trying out a quarter acre each of several cereal crops:
- duram wheat
- khorasan wheat
- hard spring red wheat
- dent corn
- rye
- barley
- millet
- oats
So that's two acres that'll need to be cleared. More like four acres, since we'll be companion planting our veggies in with the cereals.
- duram wheat
- khorasan wheat
- hard spring red wheat
- dent corn
- rye
- barley
- millet
- oats
So that's two acres that'll need to be cleared. More like four acres, since we'll be companion planting our veggies in with the cereals.
Dept of, what will they think of next (some of this is, as I remarked elsewhere, resuscitating Ye Good Ol' Victorian Quackerie - though, as we concurred, VIBRATORS ARE NOT VICTORIAN!!!): With the menopause dildo, we've officially reached peak menopause bollocks.
(Declaration of interest: I once did a podcast with the author.)
***
Dept of, well, on the topic of dildos, or at least, urgent phallicism: I spent a year dating conservative [frothingly alt-right] men:
Something about getting ready to go on these dates made me feel like I was 18 again — except now I had the ability to run professional-level background checks, which I did. Not because I was operating on preconceived notions but because the few peers I told about my mission encouraged me to. Given some of the vitriol against women in online alt-right groups, they felt I should treat every date as if it were a threat to my life. I came up with a routine: before a date, I’d tell at least three people in advance where I was going and what time they should expect to hear from me by. I enlisted a friend who’s a former Navy SEAL to be my unofficial security consultant.
And they wonder why women are not dating....
And that's before getting to meet the actual doozies who are, apparently, not even the worst types on the dating apps.
***
Dept of, let's have some better news, good news about snails (the snails that one thought had been mown down in the ONward March of Progress, or at least, building much needed housing):
the snails are OK. Nothing bad is going to happen to the poor little Whirlpool Ramshorn Snail, the endangered creature which our Chancellor unfairly blamed for stopping a housing development, causing me to get grumpy on social media. But in following up to try and see what actually happened, I found out a bunch of interesting – and in my view extremely heartening – stuff.
.... it was always a false dichotomy, it was always possible to have the houses and the snails too.
***
Dept of gilded snails in a very different space: From snails to street signs: Soho’s history revealed on a new digital map - the snails on the facade of L'Escargot Restaurant.
***
Dept of, gosh I have met (many years ago) the curator of this exhibition: New York City celebrates the “Gay Harlem Renaissance”
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We were supposed to be open tonight for Halloween, free hayrides after dark, carved pumpkin walk, campfire, etc...
40 mph winds. we don't actually have a real building, our selling area is a glorified pole barn. So I rescheduled it and said we'd do it all tomorrow. I have an employee coming this afternoon for farm work (just texted him to change it to sunday woot) but my main goal for this afternoon is more pumpkin carving. I've got three pumpkins bins worth already done, probably need to do another bin or so worth. jigsaws work fantastic, plus a hole saw mounted on a drill for punching out the back for gletch cleanout.
I spent this morning taking down one small canopy and strapping the corners of the other two to tractors. My dad is out of town having fun this weekend, so I'm doing it solo. Not too bad to be honest, we did a pretty good strapping a few weekends ago when we had 30 mph winds, so it was mostly getting the tractors in place and putting straps around the axles in place of the wood totes and pumpkin bins we used last time. I doubled up all the small straps since my dad took the truck and all of the nice big 2 inch straps with him by accident. My mom is going to the hardware store anyway, so she's going to pick up some extras to keep here on the farm for this sort of situation.
So now I've got the afternoon to carve, then relax tonight, so some spinning or maybe go over to my shed and finish the warp on the loom. Fantastic. I've got plans to take monday and tuesday off work, we had two groups reschedule to thursday and friday next week and then we are done for reals. But I want to bake things and make some food which works best when I have two days off in a row. I did successfully get my weavers guild show and sale inventory done, I have 25 items for the sale! Leftover key fobs from last year, a shawl and eleven skeins of yarn. I upped my price a little bit this year on the yarns but they are mostly pretty merinos or merino blends and I think they'll sell even with a slightly higher price. Still surprised I got that many done this year given everything. Someday soon I will have my CPW out of storage and it will be glorious.
My parents have floated a plan: get the office at the new house completely finished, get their desks and computers and then move their bedroom over there, so the work will be staring them in the face all the time and they'll be more motivated. They'd still need to cook here at the farm house, but if they manage that, I will be able to get a huge chunk of the shed over here in one go since their office will be my crafting room. that would be amazing, I could get the boxes in my room moved down and unpacked too. Maybe even wash a fleece??? wild. I can almost taste the off season
40 mph winds. we don't actually have a real building, our selling area is a glorified pole barn. So I rescheduled it and said we'd do it all tomorrow. I have an employee coming this afternoon for farm work (just texted him to change it to sunday woot) but my main goal for this afternoon is more pumpkin carving. I've got three pumpkins bins worth already done, probably need to do another bin or so worth. jigsaws work fantastic, plus a hole saw mounted on a drill for punching out the back for gletch cleanout.
I spent this morning taking down one small canopy and strapping the corners of the other two to tractors. My dad is out of town having fun this weekend, so I'm doing it solo. Not too bad to be honest, we did a pretty good strapping a few weekends ago when we had 30 mph winds, so it was mostly getting the tractors in place and putting straps around the axles in place of the wood totes and pumpkin bins we used last time. I doubled up all the small straps since my dad took the truck and all of the nice big 2 inch straps with him by accident. My mom is going to the hardware store anyway, so she's going to pick up some extras to keep here on the farm for this sort of situation.
So now I've got the afternoon to carve, then relax tonight, so some spinning or maybe go over to my shed and finish the warp on the loom. Fantastic. I've got plans to take monday and tuesday off work, we had two groups reschedule to thursday and friday next week and then we are done for reals. But I want to bake things and make some food which works best when I have two days off in a row. I did successfully get my weavers guild show and sale inventory done, I have 25 items for the sale! Leftover key fobs from last year, a shawl and eleven skeins of yarn. I upped my price a little bit this year on the yarns but they are mostly pretty merinos or merino blends and I think they'll sell even with a slightly higher price. Still surprised I got that many done this year given everything. Someday soon I will have my CPW out of storage and it will be glorious.
My parents have floated a plan: get the office at the new house completely finished, get their desks and computers and then move their bedroom over there, so the work will be staring them in the face all the time and they'll be more motivated. They'd still need to cook here at the farm house, but if they manage that, I will be able to get a huge chunk of the shed over here in one go since their office will be my crafting room. that would be amazing, I could get the boxes in my room moved down and unpacked too. Maybe even wash a fleece??? wild. I can almost taste the off season
Well, it was a good run. I managed to avoid getting the damn thing for more than five years. But it got me.
Am doing sensible things, and have a virtual visit with my GP (or I guess they call 'em PCPs now),and we shall see what she says. Meanwhile, my favorite advice from friends is REST LIKE A POTATO.
Juan has it too. And he was already disabled with Long COVID.
OK, heading towards sleep again.
Good wishes very much appreciated.
Am doing sensible things, and have a virtual visit with my GP (or I guess they call 'em PCPs now),and we shall see what she says. Meanwhile, my favorite advice from friends is REST LIKE A POTATO.
Juan has it too. And he was already disabled with Long COVID.
OK, heading towards sleep again.
Good wishes very much appreciated.
Tags:
James Nicoll Reviews saw its 3000th review on the 17th.
23 works reviewed. 12.5 by women (54%), 10 by men (43%), 0.5 by non-binary authors (2%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 10.5 by POC (46%).
More stats and a big chart here.
Tags:
- 1. Tonne of fireworks seized near Edinburgh ahead of Bonfire Night disorder campaign
- (tags:edinburgh riots fireworks doom )
- 2. 'Doctor Who': Why Disney Ditched Deal With BBC For Sci-Fi Series
- (tags:Disney BBC drwho )
- 3. How the cochlea computes
- (tags:sound hearing Technology )
- 4. How Ancient People Saw Themselves (a history of mirrors)
- (tags:mirrors history archeology )
HAPPY SPOOOOKY DAY and blessed Samhain if that's your thing.
This week's podcast episode sure is spooooooky! It's It Could Happen Here's "Occulture, William S. Burroughs, and Generative AI," and the moment that title popped up in my feed, I knew I'd be talking about it (even though I Don't Speak German covered Mother Night, this week, which is my favourite Vonnegut book. Maybe I'll talk about that one next week).
I had never heard of the Occulture conference, which is...what you think it is. As a good little Marxist materialist, I am not a chaos magick practitioner or believer as such except that definitely magic and the occult are a terrain we should not cede to the enemy so I am not not a chaos magick believer, y'know? At the very least as a philosophical and narrative system it's something that I'm quite interested in.
And of course for all his being one of the most Problematic Faves of all my Problematic Faves—he killed his wife ffs—I never really got over my teenage obsession with William S. Burroughs. As the episode points out, he's lumped in with the Beats but more properly belongs with the Surrealists (and the Dadaists) in terms of what he was doing. And y'all know how I feel about the Surrealists and the Dadaists. So there's an unexpected amount of discussion of Burroughs as a magickian at the the conference and his techniques (some of which were extremely funny, such as cursing a restaurant that took his favourite thing off the menu) and particularly his use of technology to channel the non-human.
Which brings me to the argument that I get into way too fucking much, which is "well isn't GenAI basically the same as cut-up poetry," and that's apparently something that was asked repeatedly at this conference. Spoiler: No it is not. Like, neither artistically nor magickically, which is a relief as that wasn't necessarily where the discussion might have gone. The short version has to do with Third Mind theory, which is quite interesting, and again, I feel there's a much more materialist explanation for why it's not the same but I also appreciate the occultist explanation.
Anyway it's a big meaty feast for my special interests and apparently there will be a second part dropping this weekend, so yay!
This week's podcast episode sure is spooooooky! It's It Could Happen Here's "Occulture, William S. Burroughs, and Generative AI," and the moment that title popped up in my feed, I knew I'd be talking about it (even though I Don't Speak German covered Mother Night, this week, which is my favourite Vonnegut book. Maybe I'll talk about that one next week).
I had never heard of the Occulture conference, which is...what you think it is. As a good little Marxist materialist, I am not a chaos magick practitioner or believer as such except that definitely magic and the occult are a terrain we should not cede to the enemy so I am not not a chaos magick believer, y'know? At the very least as a philosophical and narrative system it's something that I'm quite interested in.
And of course for all his being one of the most Problematic Faves of all my Problematic Faves—he killed his wife ffs—I never really got over my teenage obsession with William S. Burroughs. As the episode points out, he's lumped in with the Beats but more properly belongs with the Surrealists (and the Dadaists) in terms of what he was doing. And y'all know how I feel about the Surrealists and the Dadaists. So there's an unexpected amount of discussion of Burroughs as a magickian at the the conference and his techniques (some of which were extremely funny, such as cursing a restaurant that took his favourite thing off the menu) and particularly his use of technology to channel the non-human.
Which brings me to the argument that I get into way too fucking much, which is "well isn't GenAI basically the same as cut-up poetry," and that's apparently something that was asked repeatedly at this conference. Spoiler: No it is not. Like, neither artistically nor magickically, which is a relief as that wasn't necessarily where the discussion might have gone. The short version has to do with Third Mind theory, which is quite interesting, and again, I feel there's a much more materialist explanation for why it's not the same but I also appreciate the occultist explanation.
Anyway it's a big meaty feast for my special interests and apparently there will be a second part dropping this weekend, so yay!
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...probably because I've not had much of a reading brain for the past few months. And I'm still not getting anywhere much with the final chapter/s of A Common Language, sigh.
On the other hand, I'm feeling better in general and am planning to start a new Couch to 5k on Monday next week. And I'm studying! I'm doing a course on book index construction, and yesterday also did the first half of a workshop on using macros in copy-editing. Both have been great so far. :)
What I've read
The Last Soul Among Wolves by Melissa Caruso: I enjoyed this rather better than the first book in the series, partly because it was less repetitive both in structure and in detail, but the plot about Kem's oh-so-special girlfriend's oh-so-evil mother is still annoying.
Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North: I had to DNF this one, as my reading brain gave out partway through. Maybe another time.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Toward the Night by James Swallow: a fun, standard tie-in book with some nice character work (especially Erica and her great-great-aunt and their developing relationship), a cool concept and a really sweet epilogue. Good for reading when you cannot brain.
The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez: enjoyable story with some good characters (especially the golem), but every one of the many references to eucalyptus being a standard herb regularly used by fantasy-equivalent Jewish healers in this fantasy medieval eastern/northern European setting made me wince. It's not that you can't do that, but if you choose to do it, explaining how that particularly famous bit of stolen Indigenous Australian botanical IP got to where your characters are at a point in fantasy-history when there'd be little to no contact between the relevant fantasy-equivalent cultures even via go-betweens might help.
The Legacy of Arniston House by TL Huchu: I've enjoyed the previous books in this series, but this one just felt dull and flat and empty, and kind of mean. I won't be keeping an eye out for the next one.
Provenance by Ann Leckie: a fun quick reread. I enjoy Ingray and her family and misadventures much better than I do Translation State, which I just started a reread of after finishing this only to remember that I only really like Enae and hir story. Fingers crossed the upcoming Imperial Radch book will be more to my taste.
What's next:
I have the latest Benjamin January book on its way to me via the library (it's been in transit for some time, so it's probably coming from halfway across the state), and am looking forward to Claire North's Slow Gods and Robin Stevens's A Stocking Full of Spies hitting the bookshop at different points in November.
Hopefully next week I'll be able to get some writing done too - but it will have to wait until next week, as I'm off to the coast over the weekend for my niece's eighteenth birthday (which, when did that happen?!). She's just finished her Year 12 work in time for the big day, the clever girl. :)
On the other hand, I'm feeling better in general and am planning to start a new Couch to 5k on Monday next week. And I'm studying! I'm doing a course on book index construction, and yesterday also did the first half of a workshop on using macros in copy-editing. Both have been great so far. :)
What I've read
The Last Soul Among Wolves by Melissa Caruso: I enjoyed this rather better than the first book in the series, partly because it was less repetitive both in structure and in detail, but the plot about Kem's oh-so-special girlfriend's oh-so-evil mother is still annoying.
Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North: I had to DNF this one, as my reading brain gave out partway through. Maybe another time.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Toward the Night by James Swallow: a fun, standard tie-in book with some nice character work (especially Erica and her great-great-aunt and their developing relationship), a cool concept and a really sweet epilogue. Good for reading when you cannot brain.
The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez: enjoyable story with some good characters (especially the golem), but every one of the many references to eucalyptus being a standard herb regularly used by fantasy-equivalent Jewish healers in this fantasy medieval eastern/northern European setting made me wince. It's not that you can't do that, but if you choose to do it, explaining how that particularly famous bit of stolen Indigenous Australian botanical IP got to where your characters are at a point in fantasy-history when there'd be little to no contact between the relevant fantasy-equivalent cultures even via go-betweens might help.
The Legacy of Arniston House by TL Huchu: I've enjoyed the previous books in this series, but this one just felt dull and flat and empty, and kind of mean. I won't be keeping an eye out for the next one.
Provenance by Ann Leckie: a fun quick reread. I enjoy Ingray and her family and misadventures much better than I do Translation State, which I just started a reread of after finishing this only to remember that I only really like Enae and hir story. Fingers crossed the upcoming Imperial Radch book will be more to my taste.
What's next:
I have the latest Benjamin January book on its way to me via the library (it's been in transit for some time, so it's probably coming from halfway across the state), and am looking forward to Claire North's Slow Gods and Robin Stevens's A Stocking Full of Spies hitting the bookshop at different points in November.
Hopefully next week I'll be able to get some writing done too - but it will have to wait until next week, as I'm off to the coast over the weekend for my niece's eighteenth birthday (which, when did that happen?!). She's just finished her Year 12 work in time for the big day, the clever girl. :)
Tags:
Musical Meme, Redux*
2. A song that makes you smile
This one was a tad difficult, because I'm more apt to be dour than to smile. Still, this one never fails to make me grin. Lee Know is normally known as part of Stray Kids' danceracha threesome, since he's had a lot of experience as a dancer (he was briefly a backup dancer for BTS before debuting with SKZ) and helps with choreography. He's also the group's "mom" but in this song, he got to be a kid again himself. His voice is actually quite lovely, so listening to this is a pleasure for me. Together the song and its video are absolutely grin-worthy to me.
Here you go.
*I promise I'll try to include music that isn't KPop or the occasional anime intro or outro. But since that's where my musical head has been for the past few months, and probably where it'll be for the foreseeable future, you're going to have to suffer. Or, you know, enjoy. I'll probably have to put this caveat at the bottom of every entry in this meme exercise.
2. A song that makes you smile
This one was a tad difficult, because I'm more apt to be dour than to smile. Still, this one never fails to make me grin. Lee Know is normally known as part of Stray Kids' danceracha threesome, since he's had a lot of experience as a dancer (he was briefly a backup dancer for BTS before debuting with SKZ) and helps with choreography. He's also the group's "mom" but in this song, he got to be a kid again himself. His voice is actually quite lovely, so listening to this is a pleasure for me. Together the song and its video are absolutely grin-worthy to me.
Here you go.
*I promise I'll try to include music that isn't KPop or the occasional anime intro or outro. But since that's where my musical head has been for the past few months, and probably where it'll be for the foreseeable future, you're going to have to suffer. Or, you know, enjoy. I'll probably have to put this caveat at the bottom of every entry in this meme exercise.
Tags:
- k-pop,
- meme,
- music,
- stray kids
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my_secret_book_journal Oct. 30th, 2025 09:38 pm)
my_secret_book_journal Oct. 30th, 2025 09:38 pm)This is a Regency romance that is strikingly different from the Heyer I've read in the past, because of the female protagonist, who is an actual fallen woman (she's currently a gentleman's mistress, but in the past she worked at an actual brothel) who has also worked out how to count cards.
If you like Regencies, hopefully that sold you on the book.
If you like Regencies, hopefully that sold you on the book.
(my_secret_book_journal Oct. 30th, 2025 09:19 pm)
my_secret_book_journal Oct. 30th, 2025 09:19 pm)Grace Woodhouse was the star kicker on her football team back before she transitioned and quit sports. But her school team is in dire need of a kicker. And girls CAN BE FOOTBALL KICKERS, several of her old friends and teammates point out to her ... there are a number of schools these days where the football team kicker is a girl (often one who got recruited from her school's soccer team, which in fact is what happened with Grace back when she first started playing football).
This book was terrific. The author is a trans woman who played football back in high school (though pre-transition in her case, I think), so the detail in this is authentic. I also really appreciate the fact that while the surface conflict is "can Grace land a sports scholarship and go to college?" the deeper conflict is, "does Grace actually want to play football in college?" and while it's a book about sports, it doesn't treat The Sport as the be-all end-all.
I also love that there's a whole range of responses to the trans girl kicker, but her friends have her back, use her correct pronouns, and treat her as a girl. a jock girl. who's a really good kicker. The football player characters are a delightful, diverse, amusing portrayed group of teenage boys (plus the one girl).
(Spoilers)
( Read more... )
This book was terrific. The author is a trans woman who played football back in high school (though pre-transition in her case, I think), so the detail in this is authentic. I also really appreciate the fact that while the surface conflict is "can Grace land a sports scholarship and go to college?" the deeper conflict is, "does Grace actually want to play football in college?" and while it's a book about sports, it doesn't treat The Sport as the be-all end-all.
I also love that there's a whole range of responses to the trans girl kicker, but her friends have her back, use her correct pronouns, and treat her as a girl. a jock girl. who's a really good kicker. The football player characters are a delightful, diverse, amusing portrayed group of teenage boys (plus the one girl).
(Spoilers)
( Read more... )
.