(![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
apod_feed Aug. 10th, 2025 05:55 am)
apod_feed Aug. 10th, 2025 05:55 am)
Arrgh, book 7 is not the last book! And the next one doesn't come out until next year! Arrgh!
*
*
Seven Devils by Elizabeth May and Laura Lam
Enemies to lovers sapphic (at least that’s where I assume it’s going, based on the setup) scifi about the heir to the evil galactic empire running away to join the rebellion, and the ship mechanic she is forced to work with despite bad history. Sounds potentially fun, right? It might be, but this was sold as adult and no. Incorrect. This reads so much like YA, I had formed this opinion before even finishing the first page. Not in the mood, particularly for this brand of YA where the main characters are supposed to be in their twenties but are in their feelings – and their feelings about their feelings – as if they are sixteen. Probably reads better if you know what it is going in. Why do publishers mismarket a book like this?
Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn
Woof. If I’d read this in the 90’s when it came out, I would have eaten it up with a spoon. It’s 90’s romantasy, using that definition of romantasy as ‘reads like YA but with more sex.’ I read 25% of this and came so close to liking it. Young prince who wants to do things smarter not harder, and what’s up with the dragons. But I just cannot with the gender and sexual politics here. There was a lot that was hard to swallow (the dying father advising his son to make sure his wife knows who is the “master” in bed, and the book is like way into that) but I noped out for good when our hero finds out our heroine isn’t a virgin (like he is) and throws a massive tantrum. I suspect he will improve but nope. Out.
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong
Cozy fantasy about the travelling seer whose lonely existence is disrupted by accidentally acquiring a found family, also various plot things. Lots of people like this one. I have no soul, so was variously bored and annoyed by it, even though it is perfectly competent at what it is doing.
Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman
Trans scifi with a literary bent that is supposedly about the trans kid of trans parents discovering that they were revolutionaries after their deaths. I could not pay attention to this to save my life, and I don’t know why, since I gave up so early and have little sense of it. Worth trying again sometime?
Enemies to lovers sapphic (at least that’s where I assume it’s going, based on the setup) scifi about the heir to the evil galactic empire running away to join the rebellion, and the ship mechanic she is forced to work with despite bad history. Sounds potentially fun, right? It might be, but this was sold as adult and no. Incorrect. This reads so much like YA, I had formed this opinion before even finishing the first page. Not in the mood, particularly for this brand of YA where the main characters are supposed to be in their twenties but are in their feelings – and their feelings about their feelings – as if they are sixteen. Probably reads better if you know what it is going in. Why do publishers mismarket a book like this?
Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn
Woof. If I’d read this in the 90’s when it came out, I would have eaten it up with a spoon. It’s 90’s romantasy, using that definition of romantasy as ‘reads like YA but with more sex.’ I read 25% of this and came so close to liking it. Young prince who wants to do things smarter not harder, and what’s up with the dragons. But I just cannot with the gender and sexual politics here. There was a lot that was hard to swallow (the dying father advising his son to make sure his wife knows who is the “master” in bed, and the book is like way into that) but I noped out for good when our hero finds out our heroine isn’t a virgin (like he is) and throws a massive tantrum. I suspect he will improve but nope. Out.
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong
Cozy fantasy about the travelling seer whose lonely existence is disrupted by accidentally acquiring a found family, also various plot things. Lots of people like this one. I have no soul, so was variously bored and annoyed by it, even though it is perfectly competent at what it is doing.
Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman
Trans scifi with a literary bent that is supposedly about the trans kid of trans parents discovering that they were revolutionaries after their deaths. I could not pay attention to this to save my life, and I don’t know why, since I gave up so early and have little sense of it. Worth trying again sometime?
Tags:
August is supposed to be this winding-down/wound-down month, right?
Well, for reasons which I concede are not particularly seasonal, the last week or so has been a bit of a flurry.
Getting next volume of The Ongoing Saga ready for publication in near future.
My tech person having issues with the website: it transpired that they had been upgrading some software which had had knock-on effects, but this involved a lot of three-way emailing about what was going on.
And I decided, for Reasons, to start putting together my talk for conference at end of September (rather than leave it until later I'd rather at least rough it out now and leave it to percolate) and this has so been the thing where the writing is the process and I am now actually feeling that I might have something a bit more original than I thought, and it has more of a shape to it. But the thing with this was that I kept having Ideas and going and adding bits and moving bits around, and realising I needed to go and Look Stuff Up, rather than just collate bits from my notes, so it was more of a vortex than I'd anticipated, and still ongoing.
Plus, the new physio exercises for hip/lower back and incorporating them into the routine, and, er, something or other was causing flareup of the Old Trouble, so there was working around that.
(Also, flurry of spam/phishing emails claiming to be 'support tickets' with deeply implausible references and origins.)
Tags:
- academic,
- c-c-,
- conference,
- physio,
- seasons,
- spam,
- technology,
- writing
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
It's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Tags:
»
There stand our gods before us, do you hear them saying, that the road that leads to nowhere is long
(![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beanside Aug. 9th, 2025 05:58 am)
beanside Aug. 9th, 2025 05:58 am)My god, I'm exhausted today. If I didn't ave a Saturday shift, I'd definitely still be in bed.
Yesterday's meeting went pretty well. I got up half an hour early and got myself together to go forth down to the city. I looked very business appropriate in a pencil skirt, a teal blouse and dress shoes. (Remember those dress shoes.)
I got down there fine, GPS is actually very good for downtown, and I left just before 7, so I was before a lot of traffic. Before I knew it, I was pulling up to the hospital. My plan was to valet, but in my invite package, they mentioned that the conference center was right by the one bridge from the parking garage, so I gave it a try. I found a pretty close spot, so I was like "okay, I can do this." And sure enough, the conference room was *right* there.
I had 60 min before my meeting officially started, so I figured I'd try to get my badge, and did hike one, which was about a mile all totaled. Nothing horrible, but yeah. Dress shoes.
I couldn't get my badge, because I needed a paper from HR, which I in no way had time for. So, I went back to the conference room and figured I'd try after we were done.
On my walk there, I heard my name, and found the director of Radiology addressing me. She recognized my picture from the article and paused to say hello and introduce herself.
They had a light breakfast--bagels and pastries. I had half a bagel, not wanting to be greedy. Then we had the meeting. It was good. Just your basic "welcome to Hopkins." It was interesting to find that we had scheduled over 300,000 exams just for the outpatient centers alone. A chunk of those the pt scheduled via mychart, but we did a good number. I do wonder how much money we bring in. It's gotta be fairly steep.
During the meeting, we were encouraged to participate, and the head of radiology singled out the story I had online, about the sweet patient. She was very complimentary and held it up as an example of something that was top of the line customer service, and would drive brand loyalty. So that was nice.
Afterwards, we got a tour of the hospital. It was about 2 1/2 miles of walking. In dress shoes.
I did it, but goddamn.
I did get a good view of the famous Hopkins Dome and took a picture.
Finally, our tour was almost over.
We stopped in our fifth building to get our box lunches, and swag and came back through the building where I needed to get my badge. Peg let me beg off the rest of the tour so I could get my badge at that point, and I did so. After 18 months, I finally have my Hopkins credentials! I don't technically need them, but I wanted them.
Then, I gimped back to the sky bridge, stopping at the gift shop in the Children's Center. On an end cap by the door, I glimpsed a pile of rainbows, and thought "surely they don't have gay pride stuff prominently displayed in the gift shop in the Children's center! Uh, dear reader, they had a FUCKTON of gay pride things displayed. I got a mug for Jess that says "Queer AF."
Then, I toddled off to my car. Right around ten minutes from home, the leg cramps started to hit.
That became a theme for the next three hours. My legs and feet were NOT happy.
I got home and unpacked all my swag, which included a nice tote bag, a cool automatic umbrella, some sunglasses, lip balm, lens cleaners and a nail file/mirror combo.
I took a little nap once the leg cramps eased up, and then ordered dinner. We had game after dinner, and that was a lot of fun.
Today work, then nothing scheduled. I'd like to go get my pills, but aside from that, just relaxing and recovering. My legs are just sore as hell today. But since I walked somewhere between 3-4 miles in totally non supportive flats, I'm not shocked.
Okay, time for me to get myself together for work. Everyone have an amazing Saturday!
Yesterday's meeting went pretty well. I got up half an hour early and got myself together to go forth down to the city. I looked very business appropriate in a pencil skirt, a teal blouse and dress shoes. (Remember those dress shoes.)
I got down there fine, GPS is actually very good for downtown, and I left just before 7, so I was before a lot of traffic. Before I knew it, I was pulling up to the hospital. My plan was to valet, but in my invite package, they mentioned that the conference center was right by the one bridge from the parking garage, so I gave it a try. I found a pretty close spot, so I was like "okay, I can do this." And sure enough, the conference room was *right* there.
I had 60 min before my meeting officially started, so I figured I'd try to get my badge, and did hike one, which was about a mile all totaled. Nothing horrible, but yeah. Dress shoes.
I couldn't get my badge, because I needed a paper from HR, which I in no way had time for. So, I went back to the conference room and figured I'd try after we were done.
On my walk there, I heard my name, and found the director of Radiology addressing me. She recognized my picture from the article and paused to say hello and introduce herself.
They had a light breakfast--bagels and pastries. I had half a bagel, not wanting to be greedy. Then we had the meeting. It was good. Just your basic "welcome to Hopkins." It was interesting to find that we had scheduled over 300,000 exams just for the outpatient centers alone. A chunk of those the pt scheduled via mychart, but we did a good number. I do wonder how much money we bring in. It's gotta be fairly steep.
During the meeting, we were encouraged to participate, and the head of radiology singled out the story I had online, about the sweet patient. She was very complimentary and held it up as an example of something that was top of the line customer service, and would drive brand loyalty. So that was nice.
Afterwards, we got a tour of the hospital. It was about 2 1/2 miles of walking. In dress shoes.
I did it, but goddamn.
I did get a good view of the famous Hopkins Dome and took a picture.
Finally, our tour was almost over.
We stopped in our fifth building to get our box lunches, and swag and came back through the building where I needed to get my badge. Peg let me beg off the rest of the tour so I could get my badge at that point, and I did so. After 18 months, I finally have my Hopkins credentials! I don't technically need them, but I wanted them.
Then, I gimped back to the sky bridge, stopping at the gift shop in the Children's Center. On an end cap by the door, I glimpsed a pile of rainbows, and thought "surely they don't have gay pride stuff prominently displayed in the gift shop in the Children's center! Uh, dear reader, they had a FUCKTON of gay pride things displayed. I got a mug for Jess that says "Queer AF."
Then, I toddled off to my car. Right around ten minutes from home, the leg cramps started to hit.
That became a theme for the next three hours. My legs and feet were NOT happy.
I got home and unpacked all my swag, which included a nice tote bag, a cool automatic umbrella, some sunglasses, lip balm, lens cleaners and a nail file/mirror combo.
I took a little nap once the leg cramps eased up, and then ordered dinner. We had game after dinner, and that was a lot of fun.
Today work, then nothing scheduled. I'd like to go get my pills, but aside from that, just relaxing and recovering. My legs are just sore as hell today. But since I walked somewhere between 3-4 miles in totally non supportive flats, I'm not shocked.
Okay, time for me to get myself together for work. Everyone have an amazing Saturday!
(apod_feed Aug. 9th, 2025 05:06 am)
apod_feed Aug. 9th, 2025 05:06 am)
One of the all-time historic skyscapes occured in July 1054, when the
Suspension of disbelief = I will not start verbally poking holes in the physics of this action movie until we are out of the movie theater
Suspension in disbelief = a frozen state of constant WTF
Suspension in disbelief = a frozen state of constant WTF
A middle-grade graphic novel about a boba shop with a secret.
Aria comes to stay with her grandmother in San Francisco for the summer to escape a bad social situation. Her grandmother owns a boba shop that doesn't seem too popular, and Aria throws herself into making it more so - most successfully when Grandma's cat Bao has eight kittens, and Aria advertises it as a kitten cafe. But why is Grandma so adamant about never letting Aria set foot in the kitchen, and kicking out the customers at 6:00 on the dot? Why do the prairie dogs in the backyard seem so smart?
This graphic novel has absolutely adorable illustrations. The story isn't as strong. The first half is mostly a realistic, gentle, cozy slice of life. The second half is a fantasy adventure with light horror aspects. Even though the latter is throughly foreshadowed in the former, it still feels kind of like two books jammed together.
My larger issue was with tone and content that also felt jammed together. The book is somewhat didactic - which is fine, especially in a middle-grade book - but I feel like if the book is teaching lessons, it should teach them consistently and appropriately. The lessons in this book were a bit off or inconsistent, creating an uncanny valley feeling.
Spoilers! ( Read more... )
Fantastic art, kind of odd story.
Tags:
(oursin Aug. 8th, 2025 06:02 pm)
oursin Aug. 8th, 2025 06:02 pm)People on bluesky have been sending up the claim that GPT-5 boosts ChatGPT can provide PhD-level expertise.
After all, if you ask me for Mi Xpertise, you are likely to get 'it's complic8ed' and your ear bent with perhaps TMI on the subject, and what the areas of uncertainty are.
Do we not think that it would be more like having an overconfident mansplainer in one's pocket?
This led me to the teasing memory of a quotation, which I have tracked down and found has been researched in considerable depth here: Quote Origin: I Wish I Was As Sure of Any One Thing As He is of Everything.
It's fairly reliably attrib. to Lord Melbourne about the historian Thomas Macaulay (not, we fear, a member of the discipline given to declaring IAMC, sigh). Though it's been ascribed to various about various (funnily enough, all blokes) over the years.
(beanside Aug. 8th, 2025 05:26 am)
beanside Aug. 8th, 2025 05:26 am)Meeting day! I am very nervous. And again, I'm kind of wondering what the endgame for this is. The purpose stated to me is to "get me face time with Peg". But I don't know to what end. I'm apparently just supposed to go and be me at her? Which is not comforting. I'm waiting for my Vyvanse to kick in, maybe that'll help settle me down, since right now I'm a bit nervous. I'm just not sure I'm very good at being a schmoozer. Work has set parameters that I need to follow, that makes sense to me. This is freeform. Ugh.
Oh well, all I can do is my best. None of my managers are going to be at this meeting, so I'm basically being tossed to the wolves. It's an orientation meeting, so at least I won't have to do full time schmoozing. The thing is, Patient Access Specialists like me do not get an orientation like this. We get an online orientation with all the other secretarial people. Thus, I'm assuming that I'm being thrown in with the doctors and nurses. I'm not sure how I stand out among that.
Again, I'll deal, but wow. It's only half a day, I can do this. I'm just going to blast Ghost all the way down, and I'll be good. At least I can finally get my employee badge.
Tomorrow, we don't have anything planned. A friend had invited us over to their apartment for fajitas, but I'm not sure I want to go out at all. We'll see.
Tonight, since I'm only working half a day, I'm going to either make a full roasting chicken with dressing and mashed potatoes and gravy or alternately, I'll make spinach lasagna.
Sunday, we have a shitton of games, so we'll be ordering dinner, or eating leftover lasagna.
Okay, time for me to go forth and start getting ready. Everyone have an stellar Friday!
Oh well, all I can do is my best. None of my managers are going to be at this meeting, so I'm basically being tossed to the wolves. It's an orientation meeting, so at least I won't have to do full time schmoozing. The thing is, Patient Access Specialists like me do not get an orientation like this. We get an online orientation with all the other secretarial people. Thus, I'm assuming that I'm being thrown in with the doctors and nurses. I'm not sure how I stand out among that.
Again, I'll deal, but wow. It's only half a day, I can do this. I'm just going to blast Ghost all the way down, and I'll be good. At least I can finally get my employee badge.
Tomorrow, we don't have anything planned. A friend had invited us over to their apartment for fajitas, but I'm not sure I want to go out at all. We'll see.
Tonight, since I'm only working half a day, I'm going to either make a full roasting chicken with dressing and mashed potatoes and gravy or alternately, I'll make spinach lasagna.
Sunday, we have a shitton of games, so we'll be ordering dinner, or eating leftover lasagna.
Okay, time for me to go forth and start getting ready. Everyone have an stellar Friday!
.