It's always winter when I feel like this...
Dec. 30th, 2025 04:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sporky_ratAnyone else get the massive urge to make jam and can tomato sauce and do the rest of the sort of food put up in the liminal space between Christmas and New Year's?
sporky_rat
Indoor Life
Dec. 29th, 2025 07:53 pmursulas_alcoveThe wind has picked up to something fierce. The temperature is dropping like a stone. The power went out long enough to screw up appliances. I was in the basement when it happened. Lots of thoughts run through my head when things like that happen. Starting with "Oh no, not again". One year we did lose power for a week in 20 degree F temps. A lot of prep has to happen to survive that.
After another run to the doctor for my husband, it started snowing horizontally. No one ever likes to see that. It was originally forecast for later in the day. We made it home and got him up the hill before it became slippery. I treated him to a nice omelet for lunch and a movie afterwards. He had thrown his hips out as well as both thighs. The adjustment was painful. He deserved a treat.
Meanwhile, I tackled a mountain of dishes. I am working on a major grocery resupply list. We get a quarterly discount at the food co-op. It resets on January 1st but we don't get a retirement check until the 14th. By then, the list will be long. I took a good look at our dry goods. First, we have some that don't need the giant container that they are in. Whole foods has smaller Le Parfait jars on sale. I made a list. I also cleaned up older jars and replaced old sealing rings. For things like camomile that we aren't using a lot of, it went into a smaller jar. I got myself a Mason Genie or something like it. I sealed several jars to keep the dried herbs fresher longer. Organizing the shelves was immensely satisfying because now I can actually see what I have. Rice and pasta is on the top shelf. Flours are down a shelf. Dried beans and other things like salt or arrowroot are on the next shelf down. The kitchen makes a whole lot more sense now.
Empty jars got washed. Oh the dust! Some got put away once they dried. Some things still need to be transferred to smaller jars after the smaller jars are good and dry. Now it's dinner time. Reheating leftovers will save time. Tomorrow is my daughter's appointment with a surgeon. Fortunately, the snow was just a dusting.
After supper, I'll go back to watching Lord of the Rings to finish my knitting. In my head, it's called Lord of the Strings.
After another run to the doctor for my husband, it started snowing horizontally. No one ever likes to see that. It was originally forecast for later in the day. We made it home and got him up the hill before it became slippery. I treated him to a nice omelet for lunch and a movie afterwards. He had thrown his hips out as well as both thighs. The adjustment was painful. He deserved a treat.
Meanwhile, I tackled a mountain of dishes. I am working on a major grocery resupply list. We get a quarterly discount at the food co-op. It resets on January 1st but we don't get a retirement check until the 14th. By then, the list will be long. I took a good look at our dry goods. First, we have some that don't need the giant container that they are in. Whole foods has smaller Le Parfait jars on sale. I made a list. I also cleaned up older jars and replaced old sealing rings. For things like camomile that we aren't using a lot of, it went into a smaller jar. I got myself a Mason Genie or something like it. I sealed several jars to keep the dried herbs fresher longer. Organizing the shelves was immensely satisfying because now I can actually see what I have. Rice and pasta is on the top shelf. Flours are down a shelf. Dried beans and other things like salt or arrowroot are on the next shelf down. The kitchen makes a whole lot more sense now.
Empty jars got washed. Oh the dust! Some got put away once they dried. Some things still need to be transferred to smaller jars after the smaller jars are good and dry. Now it's dinner time. Reheating leftovers will save time. Tomorrow is my daughter's appointment with a surgeon. Fortunately, the snow was just a dusting.
After supper, I'll go back to watching Lord of the Rings to finish my knitting. In my head, it's called Lord of the Strings.
Covid still low in eastern Mass, not so for Flu
Dec. 29th, 2025 04:01 pmcvirtueAt present, transmission levels are low in my area. Standard flu is high (not on this chart - v high in NYC and other areas.). Note that Eastern Mass levels are not representative of the whole state or of New England generally.
NB: it looks like at least one of my public health newsletters is using the term SARS2 instead of the probably-filtered-by-some-platforms "Covid-19". rolls eyes
The full term would be SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2)
Other infectious:
If you go looking for news on Bird Flu, you should search for “highly pathogenic avian influenza” -HPAI- which is the term many sources are using because bird flu is several different individual viruses.
The USA is still not assertively testing for bird flu; it's entirely up to individual farms and/or states to report anything to the Feds. I think this is just ASKING for a huge human pandemic of bird flu to happen soonish. Especially as bird flu is transmitted between farms on the WIND.
You'll see bird flu strains noted with the initials-and-letters scheme such as H5N1, H5N4, H5N3. Standard human flu also has designations with the same scheme; for example, the influenza type that is surging now in the US (and causing a lot of ER visits) is H3N2.
The designation of "200 RNA copies per ml" (X axis) as "low transmission" is something I figured out by reading a lot of articles and also text/English opinions about eastern MA transmission about a year ago. I doubt you could find anyone official saying "X level on this wastewater chart is low transmission."
[image: Current COVID wastewater chart Dec 2025.png]
Books I've Read: Book of the Year
Dec. 28th, 2025 10:00 amhrj(This is the promised separate review of my favorite book from 2025.)
Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer is not simply my favorite book of the year, but is my candidate for Best Book of the Year overall. This is not simply a book about history but is a book about the process of history. It demonstrates the fractal messiness of the people, places, and events that we try to tidily sort into specific eras, and especially how all those people, places, and events are braided together into a solid fabric. Palmer doesn’t shy away from pointing out how thoroughly our understanding of history is shaped by the prejudices and preoccupations of historians; she embraces this aspect noting at every turn how her own take is shaped by her love of the city of Florence and especially its most controversial son, Machiavelli.
But what makes this book great is the humor poured into the cracks around the politics, violence, and art. (A recurring feature is little comic dialogues that summarize key events in a narrative style familiar to anyone on Twitter or Bluesky. I desperately want to see these presented in visual format, whether as live theater or animated shorts. It’s hard to pick a favorite line, but the top two are “Maria Visconti-Sforza: I’m standing right here!” and “King of France: You Italians are very strange.”)
The book concludes with what I can only describe as a stump speech for the importance to the contemporary world of studying and understanding history, embracing the necessary messiness of “progress,” and the hope that we can indeed continue the Renaissance project of reaching for a better world.
This is a very long book, though paced in manageable chapters. When I decided to read it and found that the audiobook was the same price as the hardcover, I went for audio (at over 30 hours!) and listened to it while taking the train home from the International Medieval Conference. The narration is top-notch, capturing the emotional range of the text perfectly. The side benefit is that the combination of material, voice, and length made it perfect to add to my “sleep-aid audiobooks” collection, which means I get to enjoy it over and over again (in the bits and pieces I consciously hear). But of course I bought the hardcover too, not only so I could get Palmer to autograph it, but because I needed to be able to track down my favorite bits and check out the footnotes.
Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer is not simply my favorite book of the year, but is my candidate for Best Book of the Year overall. This is not simply a book about history but is a book about the process of history. It demonstrates the fractal messiness of the people, places, and events that we try to tidily sort into specific eras, and especially how all those people, places, and events are braided together into a solid fabric. Palmer doesn’t shy away from pointing out how thoroughly our understanding of history is shaped by the prejudices and preoccupations of historians; she embraces this aspect noting at every turn how her own take is shaped by her love of the city of Florence and especially its most controversial son, Machiavelli.
But what makes this book great is the humor poured into the cracks around the politics, violence, and art. (A recurring feature is little comic dialogues that summarize key events in a narrative style familiar to anyone on Twitter or Bluesky. I desperately want to see these presented in visual format, whether as live theater or animated shorts. It’s hard to pick a favorite line, but the top two are “Maria Visconti-Sforza: I’m standing right here!” and “King of France: You Italians are very strange.”)
The book concludes with what I can only describe as a stump speech for the importance to the contemporary world of studying and understanding history, embracing the necessary messiness of “progress,” and the hope that we can indeed continue the Renaissance project of reaching for a better world.
This is a very long book, though paced in manageable chapters. When I decided to read it and found that the audiobook was the same price as the hardcover, I went for audio (at over 30 hours!) and listened to it while taking the train home from the International Medieval Conference. The narration is top-notch, capturing the emotional range of the text perfectly. The side benefit is that the combination of material, voice, and length made it perfect to add to my “sleep-aid audiobooks” collection, which means I get to enjoy it over and over again (in the bits and pieces I consciously hear). But of course I bought the hardcover too, not only so I could get Palmer to autograph it, but because I needed to be able to track down my favorite bits and check out the footnotes.
Books I've Read: May, June, July, August 2025
Dec. 26th, 2025 05:26 pmhrjActually the one book I finished in May is going to get its own separate entry (Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer) because I've decided it's my favorite book of the entire year.
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman -- (audio) The entire Invisible Library series came up on sale as a set on Chirp, and since I'd heard interesting things about it I picked it up. I've only listened to this first volume. Although I find it interesting and imaginative, I kept not getting back to listening to it (hence it took me an entire month to finish). That's made me less interested in trying the next book in the series. I didn't dislike it--it just didn't grab me.
The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet by Lindz McLeod -- (text) I actually bought this one in both text and audiobook, but since I was already listening to a book of similar genre and setting (see next entry) I went for the text version to keep psychological separation. This is a sapphic Jane Austen-inspired story (as one might guess from the title). I've always felt that Mary Bennet got short shrift in the original book. This story begins well after the end of Pride and Prejudice and has paired her with the now-widowed Charlotte Collins (née Lucas). Mary has the advantage of having acquired a mentor in London who runs a not-very-covertly queer household, which eases the way for Mary and Charlotte to be able to share their attraction and provides a short-cut around the economic challenges for a female couple. I found the story cute and emotionally satisfying although Charlotte occasionally shocked me in blowing off the expected social isolation of recent widowhood.
A Rare Find by Joanna Lowell -- (audio) Another Regency-era sapphic romance, involving an amateur archaeologist and the love/hate relationship with her neighbor. Enjoyable, though a bit over-packed with subplots similarly to the previous book of hers that I've read (A Shore Thing). Lots of occasionally improbable hijinks on the quest for Viking-era artifacts and recognition. There were a few places where my historic sensibilities were trampled on. (You do not just "park" a horse and carriage overnight while you're off canoodling. I mean, maybe a groom was summoned to take care of them? But something it didn't get mentioned.) The conclusion seemed a bit contrived but overall I liked it.
Servant Mage by Kate Elliott -- (text) I have no idea how Elliott managed to pack so much plot and worldbuilding into one tiny novella! Secondary-world quest fantasy with a very relatable protagonist and lots of peril. There are unexpected and satisfying twists. I really hope this is a set-up for more fiction in this world.
The Tapestry of Time by Kate Heartfield -- (audio) Historic fantasy set during World War II focused around the war efforts of a family with various psychic powers who are connected in some way to the Bayeux Tapestry. Told through multiple viewpoints, the novel gradually builds up a fragmentary picture of how all the parts relate until it all comes together. There’s a fair amount of violence and peril, as one might expect in a wartime espionage story, but the ending is satisfying. A strongly woman-centered story with positive queer rep (and resolution). Heartfield writes dense, twisty books that can take some concentration but I’ve enjoyed every one that I’ve tackled.
Murder by Post by Rachel Ford -- (text) This fairly short story introduces the continuing detective couple, Meredith and Alec Thatch, set in the wake of World War I in England. Alec is passing as a man in order for them to marry, but is not presented as transgender as far as I can tell. This adds an extra element of risk and danger when the resident of a neighboring flat is found dead with signs of poison. This is a classic cozy-style mystery, with lots of clues and red herrings, allowing the reader to think just one step ahead of the characters. This initial story—really just a novelette—is free on the author’s website. I hope that some day she’ll decide to release the rest of the series more widely than just Kindle Unlimited. It deserves a wider audience. It's really testing my resolve not to buy Amazon-only books unless I'm committed to doing a review.
In August I started two long-term reading projects. Having enjoyed the tv adaptation of the first Murderbot book, I decided to give the series another try (after having bounced off one of the middle books). And I've been enjoying Rachel Fraimow and Emily Tesh's podcast, The Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones so much I decided to do a (possibly non-exhaustive) reading project of Jones's books. I have twelve of her books on my shelves, though I'm not entirely certain I've read all of them, and I hadn't quite connected up which ones were in series and what order they came in. Having very belatedly acquired a local library card, I've been taking advantage of Libby audiobooks to tackle these two projects, which spaces them out nicely, given wait times.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells, Artificial Condition by Martha Wells -- (audio) It's hard to evaluate the first book separate from having seen the tv series first. It was interesting both how closely the series followed the plot and the places it diverged. Having more details on all the characters (and there are a lot of them for a novella), the story began to grow on my seriously by the second book. It helped that it didn't feel like it was wall-to-wall combat scenes like my first (out of order) encounter with the series. Artificial Condition had a more mystery-like plot, which I enjoyed.
A Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones -- (audio) Young adult. This seems to be a very typical Jones set-up: a disfunctional family with the least-regarded kid as the protagonist. (That's all my notes say. I confess that some of her books have now run into each other in my memory.)
Oops, almost forgot one of my August books!
Lake of Souls by Ann Leckie -- (audio) A short fiction collection, with some stories tying in to her Imperial Radch universe and others feeling like they're part of some other connected setting. Leckie writes the most vivid and believable truly alien characters I've encountered since back when I was reading a lot of C.J. Cherryh in the '90s. The title story is a great example.
On Audiobooks
One of the things I cut back on in preparation for my retirement was my Audible subscription. (I had the three-books-a-month level.) That's changed my audiobook consumption somewhat. What I borrow from Libby is a bit random, not simply because I tend to only put one book at a time on my wait list, rather than having several lined up in Audible, but because the types of books available are different. As I've previously mentioned, I've also been buying audiobooks from Chirp, but primarily using it for random discovery within their sale books. When I decide to outright buy a audiobook these days, I'll try Apple Books first (because: Amazon). Very much like my approach to ebooks, I dislike having books on multiple platforms because I lose track of what's where. But I can't really escape that, alas.
Why do I do so much of my reading in audio? Mostly because I do so much print and e-text reading for the Lesbian Historic Motif Project. Also, between bicycling a couple hours a day and yard work, I have a lot of contexts when I can multi-task audio. Another factor is my aging eyes. When I'm focusing on something close up for an extended period of time--whether it's my LHMP reading, or needlework, or whatever, my eyes take up to an hour to recover and be able to focus at other distances properly. It's annoying. And I can't avoid it for the LHMP work. Audio avoids adding annoyance. (Unintentional alliteration.)
Anyway, enough for now. Tomorrow I'll do my Inventing the Renaissance review, which I plan to post widely. When I first started doing this catch-up book posts, I also disseminated them to several review sites, but that got a bit exhausting and awkward. (I discovered that there's a limit to how many book reviews you can post to Amazon on a single day. A good thing, probably, but hard to keep track of when I'm doing catch-up reviews.)
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman -- (audio) The entire Invisible Library series came up on sale as a set on Chirp, and since I'd heard interesting things about it I picked it up. I've only listened to this first volume. Although I find it interesting and imaginative, I kept not getting back to listening to it (hence it took me an entire month to finish). That's made me less interested in trying the next book in the series. I didn't dislike it--it just didn't grab me.
The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet by Lindz McLeod -- (text) I actually bought this one in both text and audiobook, but since I was already listening to a book of similar genre and setting (see next entry) I went for the text version to keep psychological separation. This is a sapphic Jane Austen-inspired story (as one might guess from the title). I've always felt that Mary Bennet got short shrift in the original book. This story begins well after the end of Pride and Prejudice and has paired her with the now-widowed Charlotte Collins (née Lucas). Mary has the advantage of having acquired a mentor in London who runs a not-very-covertly queer household, which eases the way for Mary and Charlotte to be able to share their attraction and provides a short-cut around the economic challenges for a female couple. I found the story cute and emotionally satisfying although Charlotte occasionally shocked me in blowing off the expected social isolation of recent widowhood.
A Rare Find by Joanna Lowell -- (audio) Another Regency-era sapphic romance, involving an amateur archaeologist and the love/hate relationship with her neighbor. Enjoyable, though a bit over-packed with subplots similarly to the previous book of hers that I've read (A Shore Thing). Lots of occasionally improbable hijinks on the quest for Viking-era artifacts and recognition. There were a few places where my historic sensibilities were trampled on. (You do not just "park" a horse and carriage overnight while you're off canoodling. I mean, maybe a groom was summoned to take care of them? But something it didn't get mentioned.) The conclusion seemed a bit contrived but overall I liked it.
Servant Mage by Kate Elliott -- (text) I have no idea how Elliott managed to pack so much plot and worldbuilding into one tiny novella! Secondary-world quest fantasy with a very relatable protagonist and lots of peril. There are unexpected and satisfying twists. I really hope this is a set-up for more fiction in this world.
The Tapestry of Time by Kate Heartfield -- (audio) Historic fantasy set during World War II focused around the war efforts of a family with various psychic powers who are connected in some way to the Bayeux Tapestry. Told through multiple viewpoints, the novel gradually builds up a fragmentary picture of how all the parts relate until it all comes together. There’s a fair amount of violence and peril, as one might expect in a wartime espionage story, but the ending is satisfying. A strongly woman-centered story with positive queer rep (and resolution). Heartfield writes dense, twisty books that can take some concentration but I’ve enjoyed every one that I’ve tackled.
Murder by Post by Rachel Ford -- (text) This fairly short story introduces the continuing detective couple, Meredith and Alec Thatch, set in the wake of World War I in England. Alec is passing as a man in order for them to marry, but is not presented as transgender as far as I can tell. This adds an extra element of risk and danger when the resident of a neighboring flat is found dead with signs of poison. This is a classic cozy-style mystery, with lots of clues and red herrings, allowing the reader to think just one step ahead of the characters. This initial story—really just a novelette—is free on the author’s website. I hope that some day she’ll decide to release the rest of the series more widely than just Kindle Unlimited. It deserves a wider audience. It's really testing my resolve not to buy Amazon-only books unless I'm committed to doing a review.
In August I started two long-term reading projects. Having enjoyed the tv adaptation of the first Murderbot book, I decided to give the series another try (after having bounced off one of the middle books). And I've been enjoying Rachel Fraimow and Emily Tesh's podcast, The Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones so much I decided to do a (possibly non-exhaustive) reading project of Jones's books. I have twelve of her books on my shelves, though I'm not entirely certain I've read all of them, and I hadn't quite connected up which ones were in series and what order they came in. Having very belatedly acquired a local library card, I've been taking advantage of Libby audiobooks to tackle these two projects, which spaces them out nicely, given wait times.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells, Artificial Condition by Martha Wells -- (audio) It's hard to evaluate the first book separate from having seen the tv series first. It was interesting both how closely the series followed the plot and the places it diverged. Having more details on all the characters (and there are a lot of them for a novella), the story began to grow on my seriously by the second book. It helped that it didn't feel like it was wall-to-wall combat scenes like my first (out of order) encounter with the series. Artificial Condition had a more mystery-like plot, which I enjoyed.
A Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones -- (audio) Young adult. This seems to be a very typical Jones set-up: a disfunctional family with the least-regarded kid as the protagonist. (That's all my notes say. I confess that some of her books have now run into each other in my memory.)
Oops, almost forgot one of my August books!
Lake of Souls by Ann Leckie -- (audio) A short fiction collection, with some stories tying in to her Imperial Radch universe and others feeling like they're part of some other connected setting. Leckie writes the most vivid and believable truly alien characters I've encountered since back when I was reading a lot of C.J. Cherryh in the '90s. The title story is a great example.
On Audiobooks
One of the things I cut back on in preparation for my retirement was my Audible subscription. (I had the three-books-a-month level.) That's changed my audiobook consumption somewhat. What I borrow from Libby is a bit random, not simply because I tend to only put one book at a time on my wait list, rather than having several lined up in Audible, but because the types of books available are different. As I've previously mentioned, I've also been buying audiobooks from Chirp, but primarily using it for random discovery within their sale books. When I decide to outright buy a audiobook these days, I'll try Apple Books first (because: Amazon). Very much like my approach to ebooks, I dislike having books on multiple platforms because I lose track of what's where. But I can't really escape that, alas.
Why do I do so much of my reading in audio? Mostly because I do so much print and e-text reading for the Lesbian Historic Motif Project. Also, between bicycling a couple hours a day and yard work, I have a lot of contexts when I can multi-task audio. Another factor is my aging eyes. When I'm focusing on something close up for an extended period of time--whether it's my LHMP reading, or needlework, or whatever, my eyes take up to an hour to recover and be able to focus at other distances properly. It's annoying. And I can't avoid it for the LHMP work. Audio avoids adding annoyance. (Unintentional alliteration.)
Anyway, enough for now. Tomorrow I'll do my Inventing the Renaissance review, which I plan to post widely. When I first started doing this catch-up book posts, I also disseminated them to several review sites, but that got a bit exhausting and awkward. (I discovered that there's a limit to how many book reviews you can post to Amazon on a single day. A good thing, probably, but hard to keep track of when I'm doing catch-up reviews.)
Uncertainty
Dec. 25th, 2025 07:44 pmursulas_alcoveIt's not been a good week. I've had little sleep. My husband's health is not in a good place right now. Because of that, I am not getting much sleep. So bah-humbug for the day. I spent 5 hours making more English muffins. Finding decent bread has been futile. When the farmer's market is in session, I can get bread, but not at this time of year. The food co-op has decided to only order multi-grain which I cannot digest. Instead, I spend a half a day working on bread products. That alone will tire you out.
Yesterday I made mozzarella. I like making bread with the leftover whey. Somewhere in there I made shortbread cookies. A long nap followed.
I made the mistake of watching too many economists over the week. Let's just say, it left me with a really bad feeling about 2026. As a nation, our prognosis isn't good. It also sucks that this is a month where there will be 5 weeks between social security checks. That means making two payments for internet and two payments for the home equity all out of one check from December. The COLA notices went out. It is almost nothing as an increase. It leaves me still in a bah-humbug mood.
To combat this feeling, I'll be canning a bunch of stuff. I have two bags of tomatoes in the freezer and 9 pounds of chuck roast. I'll be warming up the pressure canner in January. I'll be following along with Leissa at Sutton's Daze for her Canuary event. I won't be able to buy groceries until after the 14th of the month but there should be some good recipes to think about in the meanwhile. No worries, my shelves are well-stocked and I have lettuce growing in the basement.
https://youtu.be/PGsb3gDBSvc?si=UPxIDsj48k1JaWBm
Sunday is when the temperature dips down. Tomorrow is an ice storm (in theory). The radar doesn't seem to give much of a clue. I hauled wood up near the house in case we lose power. The cold weather plants got moved up near the house under an awning.
I've been thinking a lot about next year's garden. There needs to be more potatoes in my life. I pre-ordered The Compact Garden book by Char Lopez. Their Youtube channel is "plantedinthegarden". As to what growing zone, they are zone 5B in Toronto, if I remember correctly. I am looking for inspiration for my small urban yard. If I can get a small section fenced off in the backyard, I can improve my yield. Another inspiration is "FarmForProfitUganda" which also deals with container gardening in a small space. She has unique challenges like water shortages. But I love her multi-level grow bench! What a difference it makes to live at the equator!
With the warm weather this week, I only managed to repair the herb spiral from the deer knocking all my bricks down. A fence is now blocking them from cutting through. The topsoil has been mulched for the rest of winter. It was a start. Once I can setup the burn barrel again, I need to make more biochar. There are a lot of cherry tree twigs that could go into a tin to be turned into char. "SergioOutdoors" will show you how to adapted an old tin to make charcoal. Now you know all my inspirations. The economists keep me inspired to keep working on preparedness. If they are wrong, I lose nothing.
My sweater is complete. The picture is dark and dingy but I am pleased with it.
Yesterday I made mozzarella. I like making bread with the leftover whey. Somewhere in there I made shortbread cookies. A long nap followed.
I made the mistake of watching too many economists over the week. Let's just say, it left me with a really bad feeling about 2026. As a nation, our prognosis isn't good. It also sucks that this is a month where there will be 5 weeks between social security checks. That means making two payments for internet and two payments for the home equity all out of one check from December. The COLA notices went out. It is almost nothing as an increase. It leaves me still in a bah-humbug mood.
To combat this feeling, I'll be canning a bunch of stuff. I have two bags of tomatoes in the freezer and 9 pounds of chuck roast. I'll be warming up the pressure canner in January. I'll be following along with Leissa at Sutton's Daze for her Canuary event. I won't be able to buy groceries until after the 14th of the month but there should be some good recipes to think about in the meanwhile. No worries, my shelves are well-stocked and I have lettuce growing in the basement.
https://youtu.be/PGsb3gDBSvc?si=UPxIDsj48k1JaWBm
Sunday is when the temperature dips down. Tomorrow is an ice storm (in theory). The radar doesn't seem to give much of a clue. I hauled wood up near the house in case we lose power. The cold weather plants got moved up near the house under an awning.
I've been thinking a lot about next year's garden. There needs to be more potatoes in my life. I pre-ordered The Compact Garden book by Char Lopez. Their Youtube channel is "plantedinthegarden". As to what growing zone, they are zone 5B in Toronto, if I remember correctly. I am looking for inspiration for my small urban yard. If I can get a small section fenced off in the backyard, I can improve my yield. Another inspiration is "FarmForProfitUganda" which also deals with container gardening in a small space. She has unique challenges like water shortages. But I love her multi-level grow bench! What a difference it makes to live at the equator!
With the warm weather this week, I only managed to repair the herb spiral from the deer knocking all my bricks down. A fence is now blocking them from cutting through. The topsoil has been mulched for the rest of winter. It was a start. Once I can setup the burn barrel again, I need to make more biochar. There are a lot of cherry tree twigs that could go into a tin to be turned into char. "SergioOutdoors" will show you how to adapted an old tin to make charcoal. Now you know all my inspirations. The economists keep me inspired to keep working on preparedness. If they are wrong, I lose nothing.
My sweater is complete. The picture is dark and dingy but I am pleased with it.
Books I've Read: January-April 2025
Dec. 24th, 2025 11:52 amhrjIt's going to be a bit trickier to create this post while visiting at my Dad's place since my process involves three different windows (spreadsheet of reading notes, Dreamwidth entry, and database for finished reviews) which I can normally pull up on different screens.
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher -- (audio) The plot is...well, let’s call it “allusive of” rather than “based on” the fairy tale of the goose girl and her talking horse. There’s a horribly abusive mother (whose comeuppance is similar to the climax of my fairy tale The Language of Roses), a sympathetic ingenue, and a lovely second-chance romance involving an older woman (a Kingfisher specialty). Big content notice for violence and coercion. It's a very painful story, so I'm not sure that "enjoyable" is the right description, but I'm glad I read it.
Murder in an English Village by Jessica Ellicott -- (audio) I was exploring some sale books to see if I could find any interesting historic mysteries and thought this book looked interesting. It’s set between the World Wars and involves two old school chums—-one an English spinster and one an American adventuress—-who stumble into several mysteries. It’s a pleasant enough mystery, though I was unwarrantedly hoping for a touch more sapphic subtext, along the lines of Miss Buncle’s Book.
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf -- (audio) Picked up from an audiobook sale, in part because I'd done an interview where the interviewee made the assumption that of course every feminist has read Woolf and I realized I hadn't. A Room of One's Own is broadly about the difficulties of being a woman writer. Pair this classic with Joanna Russ’s How To Suppress Women’s Writing and then sink into a deep depression about how little has changed since those books were written.
All the Painted Stars by Emma Denny -- (audio) A pleasant enough medieval f/f romance with competent prose, but the historic grounding is exceedingly thin and occasionally annoying. Horses aren't cars. Parchment isn't post-its. Village brewers don't work at industrial scale. It wasn’t a matter of large inaccuracies, but of a constant flow of small details that kept distracting me from the endearing main characters. This book is a follow-on from her previous one which focused on a gay male couple. The two stories are connected by family ties.
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older -- (audio) The second in a sapphic space-mystery series. These are novellas set in a colony constructed around Jupiter after humanity fled an uninhabitable Earth. Murder mysteries get solved by a detective and academic duo who are also negotiating a revival of their romance. The books are enjoyable and have a fun time grounding the mysteries in the worldbuilding.
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker -- (audio) I finally got around to reading this highly praised book, which came out a number of years ago. The novel asks the question: can a naïve and brilliant golem who has lost her immigrant master on the voyage to America, and a metal-working Jinni newly freed from magical entrapment find their way together in early 20th century New York and foil the schemes of the sorcerer who wants to re-enslave them both? This was beautiful and heartbreaking and ultimately triumphant and I don’t know what took me so long to come back to it, given that I’ve owned a hard copy since it first came out.
Gentleman Jack by Anne Choma -- (audio) I don’t usually consume books for the lesbian history blog via audiobook -- it makes it hard to take notes! It made sense in this case because it’s more of a narrative history rather than a scholarly analysis. This is a narrative history of Anne Lister’s life between November 1831 and March 1834, the period covered by the tv series Gentleman Jack. The book was written specifically as a companion to the tv series, giving the actual details of Anne’s life during that period, which differ in various details from the tv series. (The tv series both omitted and invented significant details.) Interspersed in the narrative are extensive quotes from Anne’s diaries. The account is very readable and will give you a solid background of Anne’s life and times. It is neither a scholarly historical analysis (for that, you might try Jill Liddington) nor an extensive and contextualized survey of significant portions of the diaries (for which you want Helena Whitbread). But it hits a sweet spot for the general reader. And if you’re a fan of the tv series, it makes an interesting “compare and contrast” to understand how history gets adapted for the requirements of drama.
The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison -- (audio) I think this finishes up the Cemetaries of Amalo series, set in the same universe as The Goblin Emperor. As with previous books in the series, there are a number of plot threads that braid together in the resolution. Our protagonist, a "witness for the dead" who can communicate with dead souls finds himself representing a murdered dragon. One of the other major plot threads about an escaped insurgent ties back in at the climax in a way that feels a little too convenient. And there's a surprising twist to a hinted-at romance arc that's been developing across the series.
The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan -- (audio) I've read several Courtney Milan historic romances in the past, with mixed impressions. This one worked very well for me, centering around Victorian-era feminist movements and one of her favorite tropes: aristocrats who are desperately trying to escape their fate. But the reason I picked it up was for the very-much-background sapphic romance that has been slipped into the cracks of the main story.
I was originally going to do just January and February in this post, but then there were only two books I finished in March, and none in April, so it made sense to expand the official scope. (April was, of course, my last month on the job and I was a bit distracted.) Looking ahead in the spreadsheet, I may do another four-month set in the next post and then do one post each for the final four months of the year, based on numbers.
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher -- (audio) The plot is...well, let’s call it “allusive of” rather than “based on” the fairy tale of the goose girl and her talking horse. There’s a horribly abusive mother (whose comeuppance is similar to the climax of my fairy tale The Language of Roses), a sympathetic ingenue, and a lovely second-chance romance involving an older woman (a Kingfisher specialty). Big content notice for violence and coercion. It's a very painful story, so I'm not sure that "enjoyable" is the right description, but I'm glad I read it.
Murder in an English Village by Jessica Ellicott -- (audio) I was exploring some sale books to see if I could find any interesting historic mysteries and thought this book looked interesting. It’s set between the World Wars and involves two old school chums—-one an English spinster and one an American adventuress—-who stumble into several mysteries. It’s a pleasant enough mystery, though I was unwarrantedly hoping for a touch more sapphic subtext, along the lines of Miss Buncle’s Book.
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf -- (audio) Picked up from an audiobook sale, in part because I'd done an interview where the interviewee made the assumption that of course every feminist has read Woolf and I realized I hadn't. A Room of One's Own is broadly about the difficulties of being a woman writer. Pair this classic with Joanna Russ’s How To Suppress Women’s Writing and then sink into a deep depression about how little has changed since those books were written.
All the Painted Stars by Emma Denny -- (audio) A pleasant enough medieval f/f romance with competent prose, but the historic grounding is exceedingly thin and occasionally annoying. Horses aren't cars. Parchment isn't post-its. Village brewers don't work at industrial scale. It wasn’t a matter of large inaccuracies, but of a constant flow of small details that kept distracting me from the endearing main characters. This book is a follow-on from her previous one which focused on a gay male couple. The two stories are connected by family ties.
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older -- (audio) The second in a sapphic space-mystery series. These are novellas set in a colony constructed around Jupiter after humanity fled an uninhabitable Earth. Murder mysteries get solved by a detective and academic duo who are also negotiating a revival of their romance. The books are enjoyable and have a fun time grounding the mysteries in the worldbuilding.
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker -- (audio) I finally got around to reading this highly praised book, which came out a number of years ago. The novel asks the question: can a naïve and brilliant golem who has lost her immigrant master on the voyage to America, and a metal-working Jinni newly freed from magical entrapment find their way together in early 20th century New York and foil the schemes of the sorcerer who wants to re-enslave them both? This was beautiful and heartbreaking and ultimately triumphant and I don’t know what took me so long to come back to it, given that I’ve owned a hard copy since it first came out.
Gentleman Jack by Anne Choma -- (audio) I don’t usually consume books for the lesbian history blog via audiobook -- it makes it hard to take notes! It made sense in this case because it’s more of a narrative history rather than a scholarly analysis. This is a narrative history of Anne Lister’s life between November 1831 and March 1834, the period covered by the tv series Gentleman Jack. The book was written specifically as a companion to the tv series, giving the actual details of Anne’s life during that period, which differ in various details from the tv series. (The tv series both omitted and invented significant details.) Interspersed in the narrative are extensive quotes from Anne’s diaries. The account is very readable and will give you a solid background of Anne’s life and times. It is neither a scholarly historical analysis (for that, you might try Jill Liddington) nor an extensive and contextualized survey of significant portions of the diaries (for which you want Helena Whitbread). But it hits a sweet spot for the general reader. And if you’re a fan of the tv series, it makes an interesting “compare and contrast” to understand how history gets adapted for the requirements of drama.
The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison -- (audio) I think this finishes up the Cemetaries of Amalo series, set in the same universe as The Goblin Emperor. As with previous books in the series, there are a number of plot threads that braid together in the resolution. Our protagonist, a "witness for the dead" who can communicate with dead souls finds himself representing a murdered dragon. One of the other major plot threads about an escaped insurgent ties back in at the climax in a way that feels a little too convenient. And there's a surprising twist to a hinted-at romance arc that's been developing across the series.
The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan -- (audio) I've read several Courtney Milan historic romances in the past, with mixed impressions. This one worked very well for me, centering around Victorian-era feminist movements and one of her favorite tropes: aristocrats who are desperately trying to escape their fate. But the reason I picked it up was for the very-much-background sapphic romance that has been slipped into the cracks of the main story.
I was originally going to do just January and February in this post, but then there were only two books I finished in March, and none in April, so it made sense to expand the official scope. (April was, of course, my last month on the job and I was a bit distracted.) Looking ahead in the spreadsheet, I may do another four-month set in the next post and then do one post each for the final four months of the year, based on numbers.
Books I've Read: November-December 2024
Dec. 23rd, 2025 02:26 pmhrjNot all audio in this group, though in part because three of them don't exist in audio (as far as I know).
You're the Problem, It's You by Emma R. Alban -- (audio) This is the same author as Don't Want You Like a Best Friend, and in fact this book is in the same continuity, with characters from the earlier book showing up in this one. M/M historic romance. Honestly, the things that bothered me about the previous book continued to be annoying in this one. The characters are modern teenagers dressed up in costume. The social dynamics, conversation, and language in general are intrusively contemporary. On top of that I didn't find the plot interesting and the final twist was obvious from a mile away. That said, the writing is technically competent, and if you like your historicals to be modern teenagers in cosplay, you might enjoy it.
The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo -- (audio) Part of the Singing Hills cycle, in which cleric Chi wanders around collecting stories with their sentient hoopoe bird. This one partakes strongly of horror elements. The climactic twist wasn't a surprise to me, though the details weren't obvious earlier. Quite solid, although not my favorite book in the series.
A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland -- (audio) Lovely writing! This is a not-revealed-until-very-late-but-obvious-if-you-know-the-tropes selkie story. F/f romance. The plot is both sweet and menacing, though the protagonist has a few "are you really that dense?" moments. Content notes for animal death and for main character peril but a happy ending.
Harvest Season by Annick Trent -- (print) I have loved everything I've read by Trent and should really track down the works of hers that I haven't read yet. Historic f/f romance short story. Sometime lovers get involved in labor activism for the weavers and find their chance to be together when they need to flee the law. The history feels very solid and the writing is gorgeous.
The Lotus Empire (The Burning Kingdoms #3) by Tasha Suri -- (audio) I had so very many thoughts when reading this, but my notes just say "very satisfying ending" (to the series). Alt-India. High politics, warfare, magic, and creeping infiltration by an alien presence whose goals are extremely different from what any of the humans might want. It gradually becomes apparent that this is a science fiction setting rather than a fantasy setting, without dropping any of the trappings of high fantasy. There has been a f/f romance thread throughout the series, with the pair alternating between lovers and deadly enemies. The romance wraps up in a much more satisfactory way than previous events led one to believe was possible. I loved loved loved this series.
I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Connor -- (graphic novel) I was charmed this graphic novel taking a queer twist on Jane Austen's Emma, which presents the Knightley character as a transmasculine age-mate to Emma and gives Emma a cousin who is mixed race and becomes the primary focus of Emma’s misdirected match-making. Much of the plot involves the Knightley character coming to terms and acceptance with their gender identity and Emma recognizing her romantic attraction to them. While the cast changes take the plot in some new directions, there are also parts where the story follows the beats of Austen’s original rather strongly.
Masters in this Hall by K.J. Charles -- (print) M/m historic romance. A short caper-style adventure involving characters related to the "Lily-White Boys" series, which ties in various characters seen in that continuity. Clever.
Bold Privateer by Jeannelle M. Ferreira -- (audio) Short f/f historic romantic adventure, written in Ferreira's usual poetic/impressionistic style. There is violence but no tragedy. This appears to involve characters related in some way to the protagonists of The Covert Captain, but who receive only a brief passing reference in that book.
A Ruse of Shadows (Lady Sherlock #8) by Sherry Thomas -- (audio) One of the things I've enjoyed about this Sherlock-Holmes-is-a-woman mystery/adventure series is how the non-linear presentation and severely unreliable viewpoints keep you guessing...and then you want to read it all again immediately to see how it fits together. Unfortunately I just wasn't feeling it in this one. The non-linearity shifted into incoherence I kept losing the plot (and I normally love that sort of thing).
The Duke's Sister and I by Emma-Claire Sunday -- (audio) I don't know what it is with so many of the current crop of sapphic historicals from major publishers being so...so MEH. The plot is generic and there isn't enough of it, the characters spend too much time angsting over their relationships, and it's only tenuously grounded in its alleged historic setting. It's not exactly *bad*, it just isn't *good*.
And that finishes up the 2024 reads. Only another whole year to go!
You're the Problem, It's You by Emma R. Alban -- (audio) This is the same author as Don't Want You Like a Best Friend, and in fact this book is in the same continuity, with characters from the earlier book showing up in this one. M/M historic romance. Honestly, the things that bothered me about the previous book continued to be annoying in this one. The characters are modern teenagers dressed up in costume. The social dynamics, conversation, and language in general are intrusively contemporary. On top of that I didn't find the plot interesting and the final twist was obvious from a mile away. That said, the writing is technically competent, and if you like your historicals to be modern teenagers in cosplay, you might enjoy it.
The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo -- (audio) Part of the Singing Hills cycle, in which cleric Chi wanders around collecting stories with their sentient hoopoe bird. This one partakes strongly of horror elements. The climactic twist wasn't a surprise to me, though the details weren't obvious earlier. Quite solid, although not my favorite book in the series.
A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland -- (audio) Lovely writing! This is a not-revealed-until-very-late-but-obvious-if-you-know-the-tropes selkie story. F/f romance. The plot is both sweet and menacing, though the protagonist has a few "are you really that dense?" moments. Content notes for animal death and for main character peril but a happy ending.
Harvest Season by Annick Trent -- (print) I have loved everything I've read by Trent and should really track down the works of hers that I haven't read yet. Historic f/f romance short story. Sometime lovers get involved in labor activism for the weavers and find their chance to be together when they need to flee the law. The history feels very solid and the writing is gorgeous.
The Lotus Empire (The Burning Kingdoms #3) by Tasha Suri -- (audio) I had so very many thoughts when reading this, but my notes just say "very satisfying ending" (to the series). Alt-India. High politics, warfare, magic, and creeping infiltration by an alien presence whose goals are extremely different from what any of the humans might want. It gradually becomes apparent that this is a science fiction setting rather than a fantasy setting, without dropping any of the trappings of high fantasy. There has been a f/f romance thread throughout the series, with the pair alternating between lovers and deadly enemies. The romance wraps up in a much more satisfactory way than previous events led one to believe was possible. I loved loved loved this series.
I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Connor -- (graphic novel) I was charmed this graphic novel taking a queer twist on Jane Austen's Emma, which presents the Knightley character as a transmasculine age-mate to Emma and gives Emma a cousin who is mixed race and becomes the primary focus of Emma’s misdirected match-making. Much of the plot involves the Knightley character coming to terms and acceptance with their gender identity and Emma recognizing her romantic attraction to them. While the cast changes take the plot in some new directions, there are also parts where the story follows the beats of Austen’s original rather strongly.
Masters in this Hall by K.J. Charles -- (print) M/m historic romance. A short caper-style adventure involving characters related to the "Lily-White Boys" series, which ties in various characters seen in that continuity. Clever.
Bold Privateer by Jeannelle M. Ferreira -- (audio) Short f/f historic romantic adventure, written in Ferreira's usual poetic/impressionistic style. There is violence but no tragedy. This appears to involve characters related in some way to the protagonists of The Covert Captain, but who receive only a brief passing reference in that book.
A Ruse of Shadows (Lady Sherlock #8) by Sherry Thomas -- (audio) One of the things I've enjoyed about this Sherlock-Holmes-is-a-woman mystery/adventure series is how the non-linear presentation and severely unreliable viewpoints keep you guessing...and then you want to read it all again immediately to see how it fits together. Unfortunately I just wasn't feeling it in this one. The non-linearity shifted into incoherence I kept losing the plot (and I normally love that sort of thing).
The Duke's Sister and I by Emma-Claire Sunday -- (audio) I don't know what it is with so many of the current crop of sapphic historicals from major publishers being so...so MEH. The plot is generic and there isn't enough of it, the characters spend too much time angsting over their relationships, and it's only tenuously grounded in its alleged historic setting. It's not exactly *bad*, it just isn't *good*.
And that finishes up the 2024 reads. Only another whole year to go!
iPhone, day 3
Dec. 22nd, 2025 10:59 pmcellioIn my last post I talked about the sudden death of my Android phone (again) and my pursuit of an iPhone, which was stymied not by Apple but by T-Mobile. That was Thursday. On Friday morning I returned to the Apple store soon after opening time, this time with a backpack full of auxiliary hardware (tablet for an authenticator app, old mostly-broken phone that could still take a physical SIM card, iPad for Apple login on another device, and by the way my existing phone charger to confirm I didn't need to buy a new one).
It took almost two hours, but we got past the T-Mobile hurdles so I could walk out of the store with a working phone. I'd already decided there was no way I was buying it from T-Mobile (and I suspect it would be locked if I did), and neither I nor the employee who was helping me felt good about "buy it here, take it there, hope they do the right thing". I have many colorful things to say about T-Mobile...later.
For the locals: Mikey in the Shadyside Apple store is fabulous. This was customer service way above and beyond what I've experienced at other tech providers. Mikey was knowledgeable, empathetic, and cheerful even when T-Mobile was screwing with us. I really hope the feedback I gave on the customer-service survey contributes to Mikey getting some recognition. And this is in stark contrast to previous phone vendors, who, if you can get a human at all, will just tell you to ship the phone back to them at your expense, or buy a newer model, or otherwise do what is convenient for the vendor but not the customer.
I bought the iPhone 16E; it's the most affordable current model, but it's still a lot more than I've paid for a phone before. On the other hand, Dani has had his current iPhone for a lot longer than I had my previous Pixels (both of them). Maybe a mid-range phone costs $100/year and the replacement schedules are different between Android and iOS.
So, the actual iPhone. I've used an iPad, so I was a little familiar with the environment, but using a phone is different in some important ways. There are definitely things I'm not used to; some might be better, some worse, and many merely different and I just need to get acclimated. Initial stream-of-consciousness impressions:
Setup was pretty straightforward, carrier issues aside. No surprises from the first phone call and first text message. I couldn't import anything from my dead Android phone, but the iPhone knew about apps I had installed on the iPad, so that helped. I can access anything in Google's cloud storage by installing their apps (e.g. for photos). I haven't figured out if I can recover text messages.
The default keyboard does not include period and comma on the main screen. What the hell? Is this why so many text messages blow off punctuation?
I am used to a global "back" button, not just for browsers but for everything -- pop out of map navigation (while staying in the map app), go back to your photo gallery from looking at an individual photo, etc, with the top-level "back" being "exit the app". Apple does none of that -- they rely on the individual apps to provide navigation, so if an app doesn't have the "back" concept, you can't do anything. And apps, of course, can and do change the UI -- maybe there's a "back" button and maybe it's in the top left corner, or maybe you're expected to navigate by controls across the bottom for different views, or maybe it's something else. Android apps had those variations too, but there was always the phone-level "back" button. I miss it.
There's also no "home" button (take me back to the desktop). You leave an app by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. I sometimes have to try a couple times; I haven't yet found the magic "sweet spot".
There is a gesture, also involving swipe up from the bottom, to see all the apps that are running and allow you to really close individual apps. This was the third sticky button on Android. I haven't quite figured this out on the iPhone yet; sometimes I stumble into it, and often the screen shakes at me to tell me it didn't understand what I was trying to do. Learning curve... Also on the learning curve: apparently on the iPhone you swipe left to dismiss notifications, not right? Neither is better; it's just an adjustment.
Settings are weird. A lot of apps don't have any control for accessing settings, even when apps clearly have settings. I had to ask Mikey about that. It turns out that the system-level settings -- where you control things like display, sound, passcodes, etc -- also has a section for app settings. To add a non-default calendar to the calendar app, instead of using the non-existent in-app settings, I go to Settings -> Apps -> Calendar and poke around in there. On the other hand, some apps do have in-app settings, so you have to hunt around for them.
Apple is very much still in the world of "we think this design is intuitive and therefore you don't need any assistance". I had to do web searches to find documentation on what some of the glyphs mean. There's a "control center" (similar to Android) where you have quick access to things like toggling Wifi, Bluetooth, and dark mode, and changing brightness and text size and volume, and a bunch of other stuff. The iPhone offers more options than Android and the layout is highly customizable. They have some cute ideas, like apparently there's some tool for "identify the music that's currently playing", which I think means in your environment and not Spotify, but I haven't explored it yet. Almost all of this involves graphics not text, though, and not all of their choices are as obvious to me as they were to their designers. There are three "disconnected box around a thing" glyphs; one's a QR-code scanner, one's a "tell me what this thing is" (uses camera and probably AI), and I'm not yet sure what the third one is.
This is me, so we have to talk about visual accessibility. This was the very first thing I tested in the store on Thursday, 'cause if that didn't work, nothing else mattered and I'd have to head back to Androidville. Mixed review here: adequate with some compromises, but there is more work to be done here. Specifically, fonts: there are two font-related toggles, normal/bigger and normal/bold. These affect displays in apps that pay attention to them, which they don't have to. Also, apparently the OS is not an app in this sense; nothing I did changed the text labels for the apps on the home screens. The text is "one size fits all". Yeah, you can reportedly magnify your entire screen, but that's not what I want (too much collateral damage). I mitigated this by changing the desktop from their colorful interferes-with-text wallpaper to solid gray. Unlike my Android devices, the iPhone doesn't have a built-in library of wallpapers; there's the default, or you can use a photo, or you can set a solid color. So, solid color it is; I'd've preferred something with a little more character (but also legibility), a balance I struck on Android, but oh well -- it's just wallpaper, not something important.
There was something small and light gray that Mikey had to point out to me in the store (would have missed it entirely), but I can't now remember what it was. I suspect there will be more of that sort of thing.
Ok, apps. I was migrating from Android, so I couldn't just bring all my apps with me. There are iOS versions of most of the apps I used (not always identical), so I just had to look them up individually in the App Store and install them. Initially I did this from memory, which was frustrating, but then it occurred to me to ask my Android tablet if it could tell me about apps that weren't on that tablet but that I'd used. The answer to that turned out to be "yes". Some things I haven't found equivalents for yet; this will be a background process for a while, I expect. Critical stuff is mostly in place (I need to have a conversation with my bank about their app); nice-to-haves are trickling in.
I'm trying out some of the native Apple apps, particularly ones that could replace Google apps. Some differences are strange: in the Apple calendar app, how in the world do you get it to show you a month view like Google Calendar? I can get it to show me a couple days at a time (in list form, like a week view but not all week), but I want the month view. I haven't tried out the Apple apps for photos and maps yet, but plan to soon. The note-taking app seems fine so far. I can't imagine using Pages, Sheets, or Keynote on a phone, but they came pre-installed.
I couldn't figure out how to use Apple's email app with multiple accounts, but that's ok; I used Thunderbird on my Android phone, so I'll just install...what do you mean there's no Thunderbird app for iOS? (Beta coming soon, they say.) Ok, I found another client that'll do. Still hoping for Thunderbird later; I liked it on my previous phone and also use it on my desktop Mac.
My Android phone had a fingerprint reader for unlocking. It was flaky, so I often ended up having to enter my passcode. This iPhone has Face ID, and so far it's worked flawlessly for me. I asked Mikey how to temporarily disable it for situations where I'm worried about it being used against me (hostile agent has physical possession of your phone -- we can all imagine scenarios, I'm sure), and he pointed out that it always requires the passcode after restart. Good to know.
Speaking of restarting... I had to search the web. Mikey did tell me how to turn the phone off, but apparently I'd misremembered. On my old phone, a long press on the power button brought up a menu; on my newer Android tablet, you have to do it in software as far as I can tell; on the iPhone both are possible but the physical option involves both the power button and a volume button and then an on-screen slider. I guess people don't restart (or turn off) phones very often?
It's only been a few days (and one of those was Shabbat, a no-phone day), but so far the experience of actually using the phone has been smooth. It feels comfortable and even pleasant at times. My Pixel's 5G connection was sometimes flaky and would drop out at the most inconvenient of times (like while trying to navigate); I haven't taken my new phone on any big outings yet, but so far I'm not seeing these problems when out and about. There are some initial weirdnesses, but I think I'm going to like this a lot better than my Pixel.
More thoughts later as I settle in.
Books I've Read: October 2024
Dec. 22nd, 2025 03:24 pmhrjI'm chunking these posts based roughly on the number of books, so some cover one month, some two.
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton -- (audio) What if Regency England social politics but murderous dragons? I found it a fascinating worldbuilding project. My notes say "peculiarly interesting." I felt that things wrapped up too tidily at the end with the "good guys" all getting rewarded and escaping consequences. I recall having some other thoughts about the gender politics but I'd have to go back and re-read to recall specifics.
The First Rebellion by M.C. Beaton -- (audio) I had signed up for a new audiobook outlet (Chirp) that often has significantly reduced sale prices, so I've periodically taken the opportunity to try some books that I wasn't specifically looking for. (In general, I've tended to be unsatisfied with the books I've picked for that reason, but you never know.) Straight historic romance. Supposedly a "naïve bluestocking rebel wins the heart of a rakish nobleman by being unruly and rude to him" but I found it really hard going. The characters were childish and unlikeable and the male lead isn't worth winning. DNF.
Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein by Anne Eekhout -- (audio) Spotted this one when pulling titles for the podcast. An imaginative story coming up with a (fictional) backstory for events that inspired details in Frankenstein. My notes say "very literary and more than a bit Freudian." There is a sapphic plot thread but it doesn't have a happy ending. Content note for sexual grooming and abuse.
The Duke at Hazard by K.J. Charles -- (audio) A delightful homage to Georgette Heyer's The Foundling, featuring a naïve young duke and his quest to prove himself competent and independent. Utterly charming and satisfying. It combined enough parallels with the original to amuse the reader while diverging in enough points to be its own thing. Certain characters in the conclusion cross over with The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting. (I've occasionally noodled f/f Heyer-homage plots and reading this got me thinking strongly about the social and economic logistics of how to do a sapphic version of Cotillion. To the extent that I have an outline-and-notes document for it.)
Craze by Margaret Vandenburg -- (audio) A history lesson about queer life in 1920s New York City, dressed up as a novel. Entertaining and informative, if occasionally overly erudite for some readers. Read in the context of interviewing the author for my podcast.
The Fire and the Place in the Forest by Jeannelle M. Ferreira -- (audio) Short fiction and poetry focusing on sapphic relationships, especially in historic settings. Even though my main format for fiction these days is audio, I'd buy Ferreira's work in that format no matter what because even her prose is poetic and that's the best way to receive it. (Advisory: I am not exactly unbiased as she has sold me stories.)
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells -- (audio) Secondary world fantasy. I'd been wanting to check out some of Wells' earlier work and this came up on sale (if I recall correctly). Amazing worldbuilding, though with a bit of a "generic fantasy" feel in the prose. I did have the same issue I had with the first Murderbot story I read, which was feeling like it was overloaded with blow-by-blow fight scenes. (But maybe I'm alone in finding that a negative?) This is a romance novel at heart, with many standard tropes gender-flipped due to the social structure, which resembles that of social insects.
If I do one of this posts per day, I should be caught up by the end of December. That will be my goal.
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton -- (audio) What if Regency England social politics but murderous dragons? I found it a fascinating worldbuilding project. My notes say "peculiarly interesting." I felt that things wrapped up too tidily at the end with the "good guys" all getting rewarded and escaping consequences. I recall having some other thoughts about the gender politics but I'd have to go back and re-read to recall specifics.
The First Rebellion by M.C. Beaton -- (audio) I had signed up for a new audiobook outlet (Chirp) that often has significantly reduced sale prices, so I've periodically taken the opportunity to try some books that I wasn't specifically looking for. (In general, I've tended to be unsatisfied with the books I've picked for that reason, but you never know.) Straight historic romance. Supposedly a "naïve bluestocking rebel wins the heart of a rakish nobleman by being unruly and rude to him" but I found it really hard going. The characters were childish and unlikeable and the male lead isn't worth winning. DNF.
Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein by Anne Eekhout -- (audio) Spotted this one when pulling titles for the podcast. An imaginative story coming up with a (fictional) backstory for events that inspired details in Frankenstein. My notes say "very literary and more than a bit Freudian." There is a sapphic plot thread but it doesn't have a happy ending. Content note for sexual grooming and abuse.
The Duke at Hazard by K.J. Charles -- (audio) A delightful homage to Georgette Heyer's The Foundling, featuring a naïve young duke and his quest to prove himself competent and independent. Utterly charming and satisfying. It combined enough parallels with the original to amuse the reader while diverging in enough points to be its own thing. Certain characters in the conclusion cross over with The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting. (I've occasionally noodled f/f Heyer-homage plots and reading this got me thinking strongly about the social and economic logistics of how to do a sapphic version of Cotillion. To the extent that I have an outline-and-notes document for it.)
Craze by Margaret Vandenburg -- (audio) A history lesson about queer life in 1920s New York City, dressed up as a novel. Entertaining and informative, if occasionally overly erudite for some readers. Read in the context of interviewing the author for my podcast.
The Fire and the Place in the Forest by Jeannelle M. Ferreira -- (audio) Short fiction and poetry focusing on sapphic relationships, especially in historic settings. Even though my main format for fiction these days is audio, I'd buy Ferreira's work in that format no matter what because even her prose is poetic and that's the best way to receive it. (Advisory: I am not exactly unbiased as she has sold me stories.)
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells -- (audio) Secondary world fantasy. I'd been wanting to check out some of Wells' earlier work and this came up on sale (if I recall correctly). Amazing worldbuilding, though with a bit of a "generic fantasy" feel in the prose. I did have the same issue I had with the first Murderbot story I read, which was feeling like it was overloaded with blow-by-blow fight scenes. (But maybe I'm alone in finding that a negative?) This is a romance novel at heart, with many standard tropes gender-flipped due to the social structure, which resembles that of social insects.
If I do one of this posts per day, I should be caught up by the end of December. That will be my goal.
(no subject)
Dec. 21st, 2025 05:17 pmsporky_ratWhy on earth would my three card draw be the Five of Coins, the Empress reversed, and the Emperor? Where's my Tower???
(I am constantly amused by my deck's intense sarcasm.)
Books I've Read: August-September 2024
Dec. 20th, 2025 04:20 pmhrjThe subject line is a lie -- I finished no books in August 2024 due to spending the entire month traveling (Worldcon and sightseeing).
A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell -- (audio) Sapphic (sort of? one character is transmasculine but still somewhat female-identified?) historical romance. This had beautiful writing and a much more complicated plot than a simple romance, involving artists and bicycle touring in Victorian England. It did feel on occasion that there were a few too many progressive issues crammed into the plot, as if all the bases needed to be covered at once. The author has several other books that braid lightly with this one in terms of characters.
A Liaison with her Leading Lady by Lotte R. James -- (audio) Lesbian historic romance involving a theater company in early Victorian England. The title had led me to expect something more leaning towards erotica and I was pleasantly surprised to be mistaken. The writing was, overall, very nice though sometimes just barely short of over-the-top in style. On the whole, it felt well grounded in the history, though sometimes the concrete everyday details felt thin. There were several "theater culture" aspects that felt highly anachronistic, like they might have been mapped backwards from modern practice. The romance plot was both formulaic and believable.
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler -- (audio) Character is trapped in a "Groundhog Day" cycle in a fantasy role-playing-like world and must figure out how to succeed through trial and error when every error means death and starting from scratch. It's...ok? I guess? I DNFed this after a few chapters. I'm not a fan of "D&D look-and-feel" books and I just couldn't get interested in the story. I read this around the same time as John Scalzi's Starter Villain and felt the two had a similar feel, so if you liked the latter you might like this one?
Can't Spell Treason without Tea by Rebecca Thorne -- (audio) This is more or less the archetype of the "D&D-world coffee shop AU". Two women escape their roles in a fantasy kingdom and run away to start a combination tea and book shop in a remote village. Plausibility does not come into the question, so I don't judge it on that point. But I just couldn't find it in myself to care about the characters and it was another DNF, which is a shame because "lesbian light fantasy" should be catnip for me.
Netherford Hall by Natania Barron -- (print) Regency-esque fantasy with sapphic romance, in a world featuring magic, vampires, etc. I wanted to like this more than I did. It felt like there were a lot of unconnected details and the conversation-to-action ratio was a bit high. Very imaginative. Don't go into it expecting a historic setting though.
Going to finish up this post with "all K.J. Charles all the time" though I didn't actually read them back-to-back. (I was working on trying to fill in the gaps in the catalog.)
Gilded Cage by K.J. Charles -- (audio) Gay male historic romantic adventure. A sharp, fierce, polished little gem of a story. It kept teasing me with cross-references to characters form the Sins of the City series and now I want to see relationship charts.
Any Old Diamonds by K.J. Charles -- (audio) Gay male historic romantic heist adventure. Comes before Gilded Cage in series order and it was interesting to read this one out of order. See previous comments about wanting to trace connections to Sins of the City. Oh, and excellent as usual.
Rag and Bone by K.J. Charles -- (audio) Gay male historic romantic adventure with magic. A lovely little sweet relationship and a plot where people who do questionable things for good reasons get rewarded. Not sure if this ties in with any of her other series.
Hopefully I'll continue posting a few months every day until I'm caught up, rather than getting distracted and letting it lapse.
A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell -- (audio) Sapphic (sort of? one character is transmasculine but still somewhat female-identified?) historical romance. This had beautiful writing and a much more complicated plot than a simple romance, involving artists and bicycle touring in Victorian England. It did feel on occasion that there were a few too many progressive issues crammed into the plot, as if all the bases needed to be covered at once. The author has several other books that braid lightly with this one in terms of characters.
A Liaison with her Leading Lady by Lotte R. James -- (audio) Lesbian historic romance involving a theater company in early Victorian England. The title had led me to expect something more leaning towards erotica and I was pleasantly surprised to be mistaken. The writing was, overall, very nice though sometimes just barely short of over-the-top in style. On the whole, it felt well grounded in the history, though sometimes the concrete everyday details felt thin. There were several "theater culture" aspects that felt highly anachronistic, like they might have been mapped backwards from modern practice. The romance plot was both formulaic and believable.
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler -- (audio) Character is trapped in a "Groundhog Day" cycle in a fantasy role-playing-like world and must figure out how to succeed through trial and error when every error means death and starting from scratch. It's...ok? I guess? I DNFed this after a few chapters. I'm not a fan of "D&D look-and-feel" books and I just couldn't get interested in the story. I read this around the same time as John Scalzi's Starter Villain and felt the two had a similar feel, so if you liked the latter you might like this one?
Can't Spell Treason without Tea by Rebecca Thorne -- (audio) This is more or less the archetype of the "D&D-world coffee shop AU". Two women escape their roles in a fantasy kingdom and run away to start a combination tea and book shop in a remote village. Plausibility does not come into the question, so I don't judge it on that point. But I just couldn't find it in myself to care about the characters and it was another DNF, which is a shame because "lesbian light fantasy" should be catnip for me.
Netherford Hall by Natania Barron -- (print) Regency-esque fantasy with sapphic romance, in a world featuring magic, vampires, etc. I wanted to like this more than I did. It felt like there were a lot of unconnected details and the conversation-to-action ratio was a bit high. Very imaginative. Don't go into it expecting a historic setting though.
Going to finish up this post with "all K.J. Charles all the time" though I didn't actually read them back-to-back. (I was working on trying to fill in the gaps in the catalog.)
Gilded Cage by K.J. Charles -- (audio) Gay male historic romantic adventure. A sharp, fierce, polished little gem of a story. It kept teasing me with cross-references to characters form the Sins of the City series and now I want to see relationship charts.
Any Old Diamonds by K.J. Charles -- (audio) Gay male historic romantic heist adventure. Comes before Gilded Cage in series order and it was interesting to read this one out of order. See previous comments about wanting to trace connections to Sins of the City. Oh, and excellent as usual.
Rag and Bone by K.J. Charles -- (audio) Gay male historic romantic adventure with magic. A lovely little sweet relationship and a plot where people who do questionable things for good reasons get rewarded. Not sure if this ties in with any of her other series.
Hopefully I'll continue posting a few months every day until I'm caught up, rather than getting distracted and letting it lapse.
Books I've Read: June-July 2024
Dec. 20th, 2025 03:49 pmhrjYeah, yeah, it's been a year and a half since I posted these review-like-objects. I keep reading notes in a spreadsheet, so I'm not entirely writing these from memory. I figured I'd try to get caught up as a year-end project.
Saint of Steel books 1-4 (Paladin's Grace, Paladin's Strength, Paladin's Hope, Paladin's Faith) by T. Kingfisher -- (audio) Delightful, if formulaic, fantasy romance series in which broken people find wholeness with each other. They don't necessarily have typical HEA endings, though sufficiently to meet Romance (with a capital R) requirements. There's a series through-line, and other books/characters in the world get passing references. The romance threads involve significant amounts of people obsessively thinking about sex, destructively pining, and then enjoying significant amounts of on-page sex. Gender pairings included m/f and m/m but no f/f.
Rose House by Arkady Martine -- (audio) Interesting "what if a smart house...no a really smart house" story, not so much horror as suspense and mystery. Well done, though it didn't blow me away.
The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older -- (audio) I was doing a bunch of reading for awards and was finishing up the novella category. My initial notes indicate that the story didn't really hook me and that for an exotic exoplanet setting I wasn't getting a lot of clear sensory impressions. I think that impression was wrong, because (having read further in the series) I have very strong sensory memories of the setting and enjoyed it enough to keep going with later books. There's a mystery and a f/f "second chance" romance between college sweethearts, and a strong Sherlock Holmesian vibe for the primary detective character. I'm going to contradict my initial notes and give this a strong rec. (Getting ahead of myself somewhat, I particularly liked how the meaning of each title in the series becomes clear late in the book with a bit of punch.)
A Bluestocking's Guide to Decadence by Jess Everlee -- (audio) Lesbian historic romance. I liked this better than I was expecting to (since I was expecting another cosplay historical). The setting made good use of an existing community of non-conformists (in several senses), offering an acceptance of queerness while the plot conflicts are entirely separate from sexuality.
The Perils of Lady Catherine De Bourgh by Claudia Gray -- (audio) This is part of a light mystery series focused on two original "next generation" characters spun off of Jane Austen's novels. (The male and female protagonists are very tentatively working their way toward a romantic relationship, with the main barriers being class differences and the male protagonists being neuro-atypical.) A very likeable story, though I confess I spotted the culprit in the mystery very early on, based on the one potential suspect that the protagonists never seriously considered. I like the gradually advancing overall arc of the series.
Unfit to Print by KJ Charles -- (audio) Gay male historical romance. This one has a rather sweet second-chance romance, though I found the resolution of the non-romance plot to feel rather rushed. The sexual dynamics were more to my taste than in some of her books (where I don't always feel that the characters actually *like* each other very much, but are just horny for each other).
Saint of Steel books 1-4 (Paladin's Grace, Paladin's Strength, Paladin's Hope, Paladin's Faith) by T. Kingfisher -- (audio) Delightful, if formulaic, fantasy romance series in which broken people find wholeness with each other. They don't necessarily have typical HEA endings, though sufficiently to meet Romance (with a capital R) requirements. There's a series through-line, and other books/characters in the world get passing references. The romance threads involve significant amounts of people obsessively thinking about sex, destructively pining, and then enjoying significant amounts of on-page sex. Gender pairings included m/f and m/m but no f/f.
Rose House by Arkady Martine -- (audio) Interesting "what if a smart house...no a really smart house" story, not so much horror as suspense and mystery. Well done, though it didn't blow me away.
The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older -- (audio) I was doing a bunch of reading for awards and was finishing up the novella category. My initial notes indicate that the story didn't really hook me and that for an exotic exoplanet setting I wasn't getting a lot of clear sensory impressions. I think that impression was wrong, because (having read further in the series) I have very strong sensory memories of the setting and enjoyed it enough to keep going with later books. There's a mystery and a f/f "second chance" romance between college sweethearts, and a strong Sherlock Holmesian vibe for the primary detective character. I'm going to contradict my initial notes and give this a strong rec. (Getting ahead of myself somewhat, I particularly liked how the meaning of each title in the series becomes clear late in the book with a bit of punch.)
A Bluestocking's Guide to Decadence by Jess Everlee -- (audio) Lesbian historic romance. I liked this better than I was expecting to (since I was expecting another cosplay historical). The setting made good use of an existing community of non-conformists (in several senses), offering an acceptance of queerness while the plot conflicts are entirely separate from sexuality.
The Perils of Lady Catherine De Bourgh by Claudia Gray -- (audio) This is part of a light mystery series focused on two original "next generation" characters spun off of Jane Austen's novels. (The male and female protagonists are very tentatively working their way toward a romantic relationship, with the main barriers being class differences and the male protagonists being neuro-atypical.) A very likeable story, though I confess I spotted the culprit in the mystery very early on, based on the one potential suspect that the protagonists never seriously considered. I like the gradually advancing overall arc of the series.
Unfit to Print by KJ Charles -- (audio) Gay male historical romance. This one has a rather sweet second-chance romance, though I found the resolution of the non-romance plot to feel rather rushed. The sexual dynamics were more to my taste than in some of her books (where I don't always feel that the characters actually *like* each other very much, but are just horny for each other).
gremlins
Dec. 18th, 2025 11:47 pmcellioToday while I was using my phone (Pixel) in a perfectly ordinary way, the screen went black and soon after the phone stopped responding at all. I tried all the usual diagnostics and remedies to no avail, then took it to Google's favored repair shop. (The phone's out of warranty so that doesn't matter, but it was also the closest option and they do work on Pixels.) My hopes for a loose connection were dashed when the guy said the motherboard had failed, this is a common problem with the Pixel 5A, it can't be fixed, and I need a new phone. Oh joy...
I bought a Pixel when my previous phone decided that holding a charge is not strictly required. I chose a Pixel in part because I was tired of vendor bloatware and I wanted generic Android. That phone failed two weeks before the end of the warranty, so Google replaced it. I've had this Pixel for less than three years. And here we are again.
I've had other problems with this phone, and some with my previous Android phone too. When I inherited an iPad this summer I took it as a chance to explore iOS. Some things are certainly different, some cryptic, and some hindered by Apple's design philosophy, but it seems a reasonable option. Dani is happy with his iPhone and showed me some of the things I hadn't yet figured out. It appears that most of the apps I use have iOS versions, and I can probably find reasonable alternatives for most of the rest (Tusky I'll miss you), and not having a working phone is a problem. So I decided to change teams.
The problems came from unexpected sources.
I went to the Apple store, worked with a very helpful and clueful person there, and was making good progress when I asked where the tray for the SIM card is. No physical SIM cards; that's all digital. Ok, I said, and we transfer my phone number and stuff how? No worries; they can do that at the Apple store. I just need to open the T-Mobile app on my phone and... oh right, we'll need to do that from a computer. Off we go, I log in (I'd made sure I knew my T-Mobile password), and... 2FA. They want to send a code to my phone. The phone that can't show a code. I asked if we could maybe, just for a minute, move my SIM card to some other phone they might have lying around, but no luck. The web site had a second option, an authenticator app, which is on my phone...
I do have that app also installed on my tablet, because I worry about single points of failure. I hadn't thought to bring my tablet with me (smacks forehead) and there wasn't enough time to fetch it and still get my iPhone today, but the employee suggested that I could also buy the phone at a T-Mobile store and they'd be able to validate my identity and move the SIM card. And I'd be welcome to come back tomorrow for any setup assistance I need. I thanked the person and apologized for not getting the phone from him (he understood), and headed to the T-Mobile store.
T-Mobile's phone service has been mostly very good for us, but customer service is not their strong suit and it's been getting worse recently. (Their new CEO probably wants to close all their stores, forcing people to do everything through their crappy and oft-broken app.) I went to their store and the person said no problem, they can sell me an iPhone and move my service to it, I'll just need to use their app to... Ahem. Oh right, he said, ok we can sell you the phone, but we can't take a credit card; you'll need to pay cash. Oh really? I pointed out that the amount is over the daily limit at local ATMs, and he said I could pay a smaller amount and they'll finance it. Dubiouser and dubiouser. Somewhere in there he mentioned an "upgrade charge", I asked in what way I was upgrading my service, and he admitted that it was a service charge because they can't mark up the phone. Uh huh. At the start of the conversation, after checking my ID, he thanked me for being a customer for more than a decade, but I guess being a long-time customer doesn't actually mean anything.
I said no thanks and left. When I got home Dani said he got a text message from T-Mobile that someone on the account was making service changes, which I very much did not, so now we'll have to make sure they didn't actually do anything.
Tomorrow morning I'll go back to the Apple store with a bag of electronics -- my tablet for the authenticator app, my previous phone and its charger in case we need to move a SIM card to get a 2FA code anyway (I was able to use the phone tonight if it's plugged in), and the inherited iPad just in case that's helpful for anything because why not? I just wish I knew the name of today's helpful person so I could ask for him again. (He never said and I hadn't asked. Oops.)
Gremlins. Why did it have to be gremlins?
Many things: snowflake close ups, elizabethan goldwork...
Dec. 17th, 2025 02:54 pmcvirtueI made two new designs for myself on Spoonflower (custom printed yardage), but they are available to buy if other people want them. My most popular design, however, is the Elvish calligraphy trim. I get about a dollar per yard someone else buys. Spoonflower will print on linen, velvet, chiffon, cotton twill... many different fabrics. Also wallpaper.
The designs are an irregular peppermint candy cane stripe, and Elizabethan pearl-and-goldwork from a painting - see image.
My designs are here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/cvirtue?sort=new
YouTube pays creators: Good to know: a creator I support via Patreon was asked: "If a YouTube Premium viewer watches your video, does YouTube give you a share of their premium payment in lieu of them watching your content but not watching adverts on your content? Creator: They do, and in some cases it's more than I get for people watching ads."
Book: My current favorite new book is based on this series of shorts by the woman that's been doing armor & movie swordfights reviews for years; her description of this is "Caroline wants to write a romantasy novel. Rosamund, her heroine, isn't quite the compliant 18-year-old she expected..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFZrnSkQb1w&list=PLj4N-R1RQxAt60HueNg7w0IMrZPO8WweR
Videos she has done which I recommend:
Inigo vs. Westley: Princess Bride Perfection [CV: choreography of the swordfight at the top of the Cliffs of Insanity, and how it supports the storyline] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0rkUbrPo3k
Just Stab Me Now: A Women's Armour Tier List: Can you move? Can you breathe? Can you fight? [CV: I'm sure you've noticed a lot of fictional armor makes ZERO practical sense.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbJK4T-SBRA
How to Hide a Sword in Your Dress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ5Z6awBSb8
Tiffany window: Video from the Met about a huge Tiffany window they just bought & restored, this one was one of the many designed by Agnes Northrop. https://youtube.com/watch?v=KfdWikGUT5Q&si=hfPl62aOaxSHQpNI
Snow crystals: This person lives in Alaska and does close-up video of snow crystals that form on spider webs. Account name is Lotze Art & Design, if for some reason you can't see this without a FB account. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1FjuinfYmp/
