Reading

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crafts: spinning

unhinged spinning

Unhinged spinning experiment: Immolation Fox prototype #1 (WIP)

Close-up:

(This is a WIP single, which I'd plan to ply, so that's active twist right now.)

I'm resigned at this point to destroying fiber in the service of something I find personally delightful to spin but Shinjo only knows how I'm going to get rid of the resulting yarn since I don't knit or crochet and don't plan to start. I took it up as an extremely backhanded way of additional physical therapy for my ankles.

If I am scarce right now, I'm physically ill, sorry! Spinning is at least a different sickness distraction from Balatro, which eats my device batteries.

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Trapped, by Michael Northrop

Seven teenagers get trapped in their high school during a blizzard when they miss the bus that evacuated the rest of the school.

This was easily the worst book I've read all year, and I've read some doozies. I read it because I'd bought a copy for the shop for the niche of "children's/younger YA survival books for kids who've already read all of Gary Paulson and "I Survived."" I am going to return it to the publisher (Scholastic, which should be ashamed of itself) forthwith, because it is AWFUL.

Why is this book so bad?

1. It's incredibly misogynist. The narrator, Scotty Weems, is constantly thinking of girls in a gross, slimy, objectifying way.

The two girl characters, who get trapped in the high school along with five boys, never do anything useful. One's entire personality is "hot" and every time she's mentioned, it's with a gross leering description of her body. The other girl's entire personality is "hot girl's friend."

2. The characters have exactly one characteristic each, and even that one often gets forgotten, to the extent that I kept mixing up "normal boy" with "mechanically inclined boy." The others are "dangerous boy" and "weird boy." The latter gets downgraded to "not actually weird, just funny" (as in makes one supposedly humorous comment once.) We get no insight into them, their backstories, their home lives, etc, because none of them ever really talk to each other about anything interesting despite being trapped together for a week!

3. SO MANY gross descriptions of pimples, peeing, and pooping.

4. The book is boring. No one does anything interesting on-page until the second to last chapter, when it FINALLY occurs to Scotty to make snowshoes. Most of the book is Scotty's inner monologue about pimples, pooping, peeing, and hot girls. The kids barely interact!

5. The kids keep saying that help won't come because no one even knows they're missing, but that makes no sense. Every single one of them was supposed to get picked up. It's never explained why SEVEN DIFFERENT FAMILIES wouldn't notice that their kids never came home.

6. The incredibly contrived scene where Best Friend Girl comes staggering in screaming and disheveled, repeating, "Les, Les!" This is the name of Dangerous Boy. One of Indistinguishable Boys assumes Les sexually assaulted her and runs out and attacks Les. Best Friend Girl recovers enough to explain that she went to a room and it was dark and cold and she got lost, and she was trying to say there was LESS light and heat there. Because that's what you'd naturally gasp out when freaking out, instead of, say, "Dark! Cold!"

I feel like the existence of this scene in a PUBLISHED BOOK lowered the collective intelligence of the universe by at least half a point.

7. No interesting use is made of the school setting. The kids open their own lockers to get extra clothes and snacks, find pudding and canned peaches in the cafeteria, and spend the rest of the time silently huddled in classrooms, occasionally checking their useless cellphones that don't have any signal. Toward the end, they start a fire, and then, OFF-PAGE, construct a snowmobile (!).

Things they don't do: Break into other kids' lockers in the hope of finding useful stuff. Attempt to cook the cafeteria food. Search the library for survival tips. Get mats from the gym so they're not sleeping on freezing floors. Search classrooms and the teacher's lounge for useful stuff. Have a pick-up ball game to keep warm. Find ways of entertaining themselves without cell phones. HAVE GETTING TO KNOW YOU CONVERSATIONS - WHAT IS THE POINT OF DOING THE BREAKFAST CLUB WITHOUT THIS?

Spoilers! ( Read more... )

Truly terrible.

ETA: I just discovered that it went out of print soon after I purchased it (GOOD) and so is not returnable (DAMMIT).

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podcast: aggro goose

Aggro Goose #2

Watch on YouTube

Aggro Goose #2: mimesis is a vector quantity (worldbuilding, "fictive complaints")

(I think the one cuss word this time is...assholes? Badasses?)

My real agenda is to refine my vocal plugin chain, with sf/f discussion as a side-effect. That said, Aggro Goose is happy to take topic suggestions in comments or to yoon at yoonhalee dot com.

(FYI, I'm scarce right now thanks to orchestration homework &c.)

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A Long Rest to Restore Hit Points

I lost two days.

Not exactly, but I was starting to feel sick on Wednesday and went down for the count. I just slept. I woke up now and again to eat, drink some water, take meds, and go back to sleep. It was insane. I told

naomikritzer that I felt a little like Murderbot just doing a complete hard reboot. I woke up some time last night to get the status update that I had returned to 40% operational, and then woke up at 80%.

Crazy.

Now, I'm trying to catch up a little on WorldCON. I'm listening to the Virtual presentaion "Food in Fantasy" which has an all Nigerian author panel (Presenter(s): Amadin Ogbewe, Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe, Uchechukwu Nwaka), which is really fascinating. I just learned that there is a supersition that if you pick money off the ground you could turn into a yam. Apparently, this was something that really freaked out one of the panelists when he was younger. I would love to learn more about this, but I will say that Google is becoming pretty useless thanks to AI. I also just learned that, in Nigeria, if you accept food in a dream it can transport you to another place. They are now talking about how you translate certain foods specific to Nigera for non-African readers, which is a good question because there's something to be said for both trying to explain it or just letting it be there. Ogbewe just suggested something I really like, which is to not over explain, but to let the food exist as is, normalize it.

I am of two minds. When I write about foods that are unusual in the West, particularly when I'm writing fanfic, I do like to take a moment to sort of give a sense impression of it. Like, what it smells like, taste, and texture. But, it is true that if you explain something too much, it can knock a reader out of the story and focus on something that isn't what the story is actually about.

Anyway, I'm back.

I hope at all of you at Seattle WorldCON are having a great time!

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media

The CSR Good-Bye

I joke about the Midwestern Good-Bye, where the phrase, "Well, I guess we better be going," doesn't actually mean you're leaving. It means you still have to work your way through two or three more conversations before you finally walk out the door. This can take anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes.

I've noticed that another group of folks do the exact same thing. I suppose we should call it the Customer Service Representative Good-Bye. It goes like this:

ME: Great! That's everything I need. Thanks.

CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE: You're welcome. Would you say that we have resolved your problem today?

ME: Yes. That's all I need.

CSR: Great! Is there anything else I can help you with?

ME: (wanting to say, "What part of THAT'S ALL I NEED did you misunderstand?"): Nope. That's everything.

CSR: If you would like to take a survey detailing the kind of service you got today, just stay on the line.

ME: No thank you.

CSR: Is there anything else I can help you with today?

ME (wanting to say, "Change the cat box"): Definitely not.

CSR: Okay, well, thank you for calling Beelzebub Life Insurance. I hope you have a good day.

ME: Thank. Bye.

CSR: Don't forget the survey!

ME: Right. Bye!

CSR: Again, thank you for calling Beelzebub Life Insurance. Have a good day.

ME (wanting to say, "How many good days are you going to wish me?"): Thanks. Bye!

(click)

It's gotten so bad that I've taken to shortening the script to this:

ME: Great! That's everything I need. Thanks.

CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE: You're welcome. Would you say that we have resolved your problem today?

ME: Yes. Bye!

(click)

Sheesh.

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Hominids, by Robert Sawyer

A Neanderthal from an alternate universe where Homo Sapiens went extinct and Neanderthals lived into the present day is sucked into our world due to an experiment gone wrong. The book follows his interactions with humans in one storyline, and the repercussions in Neanderthal World in another.

I picked up this book because I like Neanderthals and alternate dimensions that aren't about relatively recent history (ie, not about "What if Nazis won WWII?"). The parts of the book that are actually about Neanderthal World are really fun. It's a genuinely different society, where men and women live separately for the most part, surveillance by implanted computers prevents most crime, mammoths and other large mammals did not go extinct, there are back scratching posts in homes, they wear special eating gloves rather than using utensils or eating barehanded, etc. This was all great.

The problem with this book was everything not directly about Neanderthal society. Bizarrely, this included almost the entire plotline on Neanderthal World, which consisted of a murder investigation and trial of the missing Neanderthal's male partner (what we would call his husband or lover), which was mostly tedious and ensured that we see very little of Neanderthal society. The Neanderthal interactions on our world were fun, but the non-Neanderthal parts were painful. There is a very graphic, on-page stranger rape of the main female character, solely so she can realize that Neanderthal dude is not like human men. There's two sequels, which I will not read.

It got some pretty entertaining reviews:

"☆☆☆☆☆1 out of 5 stars.
No. JUST NO.
I am sorry, but the premise of inherently and innately peaceful cultures with more advanced technology than conflict-driven cultures is patently absurd. Read Alistair Reynolds' Century Rain for an examination of how technological advancement depends on strife: necessity is the mother of invention, and the greatest necessity of all is fighting for survival. I will not be lectured for my male homosapien hubris by a creature that would never have gotten past the late neolithic in technology."

Hominids won a Hugo! Here are the other nominees.

1st place: Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer (Canadian)
2nd place: Kiln People by David Brin (American)
3rd place: Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick (American)
4th place: The Scar by China Miéville (British)
5th place: The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson (American)

Amazingly, I have read or attempted to read all of them. My ratings:

1st place: Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick (American)
2nd place: The Scar by China Miéville (British).
3rd place: The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson (American)
4th place: Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer (Canadian)
5th place: Kiln People by David Brin (American)

If I'd voted, it would be very close between Bones of the Earth and The Scar, both of which I loved. I made a valiant attempt at The Years of Rice and Salt. Like all of KSR's books, I'm sure it's quite good but not for me. I know I read Kiln People but recall literally nothing about it, so I'll give Hominids a place above it for having some nice Neanderthal stuff.

The actual ballot is a complete embarrassment.

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The Journey, by Joyce Carol Thomas

This is one of the most unusual books I've ever read. And if you've been reading my reviews for a while, you know what a strong statement that is. Here's the buries-the-lede back cover:

The town's teenagers are dying. One by one they are mysteriously disappearing but Meggie Alexander refuses to wait in fear. She and her boyfriend Matthew decide to get to the bottom of all the strange goings-on. And they discover a horrible secret.

Now someone is stalking them - but who? There's only one thing that can save Meggie now - the stories a tarantula told her as a baby.

Bet you weren't expecting that, huh?

This was a Scholastic novel from 1988. I'd seen other Thomas novels in that period but never read them, because they all looked like depressing historicals about the black experience - the one I recall seeing specifically was Touched by Fire. I sure never saw this one. I found it in the used children's section of The Last Bookstore in downtown LA.

Any description of this book won't truly convey the experience of reading it, but I'll give it a shot. It starts with a prologue in omniscient POV, largely from the POV of a talking tarantula visiting Meggie soon after she's born, chatting and spinning webs that tell stories to her:

"I get so sick and tired of common folk trying to put their nobody feet on my queenly head. Me? I was present in the first world. Furthermore," the spider boasted, squinting her crooked eyes, "I come from a looooong line of royalty and famous people. Millions of years ago I saw the first rainbow. I ruled as the Egyptian historical arachnid. I'm somebody."

As I transcribe that, it occurs to me that she shares some DNA with The Last Unicorn's butterfly.

The prologue ends when Meggie's mother spots the spider and tries to kill her, believing her daughter is in danger. Chapter one opens when Meggie is fifteen. Briefly, it feels like a YA novel about being black and young in (then)-modern America, and it kind of is that, except for the very heightened writing style, including the dialogue. Thomas is a poet and not trying to write in a naturalistic manner. It's often gorgeous:

She ended [the sermon] with these resounding words falling quiet as small sprinklings of nutmeg whispering into a bowl of whipping cream.

The milieu Meggie lives in is lived-in and sharply and beautifully drawn, skipping from a barbershop where customers complain about women preaching to a quick sketch of a neighborhood woman trying to make her poor house beautiful and not noticing that its real beauty lies in her children to Meggie's exquisitely evoked joy in running. And then Meggie finds the HEADLESS CORPSE of one of her classmates! We check in on a trio of terrible neighbors plotting to do something evil to the town's teenagers! The local spiders are concerned!

This book has the prose one would expect to find in a novel written by a poet about being a black teenager in America, except it's also about headless corpses and spider guardians. It is a trip and a half.

( Read more... )

I am so glad that Thomas wrote this amazingly weird novel, and that someone at the bookshop bought it, and that I just happened to come in while it was on the shelf. It's like Adrian Tchaikovsky collaborated with Angela Johnson and Lois Duncan. There has never been anything like it, and there never will be again. Someone ought to reprint it.

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Troubled Waters, by Sharon Shinn

Zoe Ardelay and her father have lived in exile in a small village since he, a former courtier, had an argument with the king. At the opening of the book, her father has just died of natural causes. Then Darien, the king's advisor, shows up and announces that Zoe has been chosen as the king's fifth wife. Zoe, immersed in the drifting, passive phase of grief, sets out with him for the capital city she hasn't seen since she was a child. The story does not go in any of the expected directions after that, starting with the conveyance they use to get there: a new invention, a gas-powered automobile.

This small-scale fantasy is the first of five "Elemental Blessings" books, but stands alone. It does end up involving the politics and rulership of a country, but it's mostly the story of one woman, how her life changes after her father dies, and the relationships she has with the people she meets. It's got great characters and relationships, focuses on small but meaningful moments in a very pleasing manner, and has outstandingly original worldbuilding. Most of it is not set in court, and involves ordinary poor and middle-class people and settings. The vibe is reminiscent of early Robin McKinley.

Welce, the country it's set in, has two aspects which are crucial to both plot and character, and are interestingly intertwined. They may seem complicated when I explain them, but they're extremely easy to follow and remember in the actual book.

The first aspect is a system of elemental beliefs and magic, similar to a zodiac. The elements are water, air, fire, earth, and wood. Every person in the country is associated with one of those elements, which is linked with personality characteristics, aptitudes, aspects of the human body, and, occasionally, magic. This is all very detailed and cool - for instance, water is associated with blood, wood with bone, and so forth. We've all seen elemental systems before, but Shinn's is exceptionally well-done. The way the elemental system is entwined with everyday life is outstanding.

How do people know which element is theirs? Here's where we get to the second system, which I have never come across before. Temples, which are not dedicated to Gods but to the five elements, have barrels of blessings - coins marked with symbols representing blessings like intelligence, change, courage, joy, and so forth. Each blessing is associated with an element. People randomly pull coins for both very important and small occasions, to get a hint of what way they should take or, upon the birth of a child, to get three blessings that the child will keep for life. The blessings a child gets may or may not show their element - if they don't, it becomes clear over time based on personality.

The blessings are clearly genuinely magical and real, but often in subtle ways. I loved the blessings and the way they work into the story is incredibly cool. Same with the elements. Zoe's element is water, and her entire plot has a meandering quality which actually does feel like a water-plot, based on the qualities ascribed to water in the book.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes small-scale, character-based fantasy AND to anyone who likes cool magic systems or worldbuilding. It's not quite a cozy fantasy but it has a lot of cozy aspects. I can see myself re-reading this often.

There are five books, one for each element. I've since read the second book, Royal Airs. It's charming and enjoyable (and involves primitive airplanes, always a bonus) but doesn't quite have the same lightning in a bottle quality of Troubled Waters.

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Just on a Roll, so Bear with Me (or Bee with Me, as it Happens)

Bee at the Minnesota Historical Society's pollenator garden, yesterday

My whole household was up this morning at 3:30 am to see Jas off to the airport. Even my notorious late-sleeper, Mason, got up to come along on the ride to the airport.

We are all going to miss Jas. Jas won my heart over not only because Mason is so clearly in love with them, but also because they cooked at least two evening meals for us! And, convinced Mason to do the dishes afterwards! Independent of each other both Shawn and I very much implied to Jas that not only were they welcome back any time, they were welcome to STAY!!

We did manage to pack them back with some gifts so hopefully we aren't failing this whole gift-giving ritual thing.

They will be missed! But, Mason is already making plans to go to them next (Oklahoma City in Oklahoma--a place he's been once already, but about which I know almost nothing.) We joked that we'd have to try to host Jas in the winter, so they could see Minnesota at its worst.

The news continues to be horrific. I guess I knew that the National Guard being called out on citizens for being Black was probably not that far behind the concentration camps for Brown folks, but JFC. I'm supposed to be traveling to the DC area in mid-September for Capclave and I have no idea what will be waiting for me there. Like, WTF. To be crystal clear--not that I fear for myself, because the last time I was in DC I walked through the area that the tour guide book suggested was unsafe with my then twelve year old son and we had a great time, the only thing I exposed him to was some poverty not unlike the neighborhood we live in back here in the Twin Cities. People were super friendly and helpful when we were lost. DC is very Black? This is, last time I checked, not a crime or indicative of criminal behavior. Maybe a person might feel safer in DC if, I dunno, they weren't racist.

So, yeah, here's a cool picture of a grasshopper (under the cut for the bugphobic)...

( WARNING: Bugs! )

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Bee-cause I Can

A bumblebee in the center of a bright yellow flower, a classic shot.

So, what's news, you ask? Or maybe you don't, but I'm going to tell you anyway. Just because I can.

A lot of my writer-type and fan friends are headed off to Worldcon in Seattle. As I have noted before, I am not on any programming this year, though I am attending viturally. At some point here, I'll probably host a virtual hangout or two, just because I can and it is probably the only way that I'm going to feel at all involved in this convention. The only good news is that Naomi Kritizer tends to win the Hugo at the cons I'm in "attendence" at, even when that attendence is only virtual. So, (knocking on wood for her) that will happen.

My day started out kind of supidly. I got a response from one of the attendees about programming interest from this year's Gaylaxicon and so I went into the document to make sure to add names, etc., etc. My keyboard, which is wireless (and battery operated,) started flaking out. It erased entire lines from the programming descriptions (thank all the gods for control-z!) and added rows of llllllllllllllllllllllll or whatever other letter I was attempting to type. I had already been having the thought, "I wonder how I'll know when my keyboard needs a new battery?" so I sussed out pretty quickly that the problem was, in fact, dying keyboard batteries. What followed was a lot of stupid, mostly of the variety of what IT folks used to cal ID10T or Problem Exists Between Computer and Chair.

I tried a number of AAA batteries that we had around the house and none of them seem to work. To be fair to me, it was clear that in our usual battery bag (in that one drawer, you know the one--every house has that one drawer, I swear,) one of the batteries had exploded. So, when I tried them in my keyboard and they didn't work, it wasn't necessarily that stupid of me to assume that the problem might be the batteries rather than my ability to follow illustrated directions. It was just mildly stupid. Luckily, we already had a real need to get some Draino from Menards since our bathroom tub has been draining very slowly, so I made it a twofer and picked up some always-useful dishsoap while I was at it.

But then, when the brandnew batteries didn't work, I knew the problem was NOT the batteries. Did I not have the little toggle pushed in all the way? Did I need to reboot?

Please note what I have not yet considered: could it be that I have put the batteries in the wrong direction?

It took far too long for me to figure out that, indeed, perhaps the most obvious thing to do was to flip the batteries and see if that solved the problem. Now, again to be fair to me, I think that I was really convinced I knew which way the positive terminal had been facing when I pulled the batteries out, but it took me FAR TOO long to finally get a pair of reading glasses and a flashlight and shine it into the battery compartment to read the damn "positive goes here" pictogram.

JFC.

Monday? Do you have to be so damn Monday?!

Monday: "I am this way just because I can!" *evil cackle!!*

In other news, today is Jas's last day with us. They are leaving tomorrow at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am. I mean, it is true that 5:30 am, is normally when our alarm goes off, but it feels ungodly to have to be leaving the house by that time. The kids have gone off to Como Conservatory today for their last day out on the town, which prompted me to remember to buy tickets for this year's Obon ceremony. As discussed before, Obon is celebrated very differently in America (and throughout the Japanese diaspora) than it is in Japan, where it is more like the Mexican Day of the Dead. Here (and in Britian and Brazil, which, is home to the largest Japanese population outside of Japan,) Obon tends to be celebrated as a cultural festival. Not that I'm complaining! I have enjoyed the heck out of Como Conservatory's Obon every year that I've remembered to go!

It's been weird, however, to not have the car? It's been great for Mason and Jas to be able to take off and do whatever they like for however long they like, but, inevitably, I'll be at home and I think, "Ah, yes! I could do that one errand while everyone is out!" and yeah, no, I can't--because whatever it is, isn't really the "just take the bus" kind of errand, like groceries. People obviously do do grocery runs by bus, but hauling a bunch of bags that far isn't fun for anyone. So, yeah.

I think that's everything I know for now. How's by you?

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Ghosts and Cookies

So I'm reading this YA novel about some teens who are hunting a ghost. The book is clearly supposed to be eerie and spooky. The ghost in question is evil and malicious. The problem is, the ghost, an old woman, keeps fading in and offering people cookies.

Yeah, you read that right. The spooky, evil spirit shows up with a plate piled high and says, "Cookies!" And everyone yells in fright and runs away.

It's unintentionally funny. I wonder what on earth the author was thinking. Cookies are about the least scary thing a ghost could offer you. Even the word "cookies" sounds cute. It keeps yanking me out of the story. We don't know yet why the evil ghost offers cookies, but I have the feeling the cookies were involved in someone's death. How horrifying. Except ... COOKIES!

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Super Boba Cafe # 1, by Nidhi Chanani

A middle-grade graphic novel about a boba shop with a secret.

Aria comes to stay with her grandmother in San Francisco for the summer to escape a bad social situation. Her grandmother owns a boba shop that doesn't seem too popular, and Aria throws herself into making it more so - most successfully when Grandma's cat Bao has eight kittens, and Aria advertises it as a kitten cafe. But why is Grandma so adamant about never letting Aria set foot in the kitchen, and kicking out the customers at 6:00 on the dot? Why do the prairie dogs in the backyard seem so smart?

This graphic novel has absolutely adorable illustrations. The story isn't as strong. The first half is mostly a realistic, gentle, cozy slice of life. The second half is a fantasy adventure with light horror aspects. Even though the latter is throughly foreshadowed in the former, it still feels kind of like two books jammed together.

My larger issue was with tone and content that also felt jammed together. The book is somewhat didactic - which is fine, especially in a middle-grade book - but I feel like if the book is teaching lessons, it should teach them consistently and appropriately. The lessons in this book were a bit off or inconsistent, creating an uncanny valley feeling.

Spoilers! ( Read more... )

Fantastic art, kind of odd story.

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Bee Happy?

Something other than a bumblebee for once!

Image: Another upside down bee, this time one that isn't a bumblebee!

Weird thing I am noticing. Bumblees give no craps if a phone camera is hovering over them. They're also slow moving, generally? I even had one curious bumblebee just latch on to my finger and inspect the camera for itself. Honey and other bees? Camera shy! It's much harder to get a picture of them!! So, here is, shockingly, a bee that is not a bumblebee.

Let's see, what's new with me?

Jas and Mason are continuing their whirlwind exploration of the Twin Cities. Yesterday was the "must see" of Minnehaha Falls, with the requiste lunch at Sea Salt. Mason apparently tried fried oysters for the first time, thanks to Jas. The two of them also did the whole walk all the way to the Mississippi River, since I mean, you're nearly there, so why not? Over dinner at Bole (an Ethiopian place here in St. Paul), Jas said that they had never actually seen sandstone in the wild before, as it were, and found it deeply fascinating. This is the sort of thing that I love hearing about because, having grown up surrounded by sandstone bluffs, I forget how uncommon sandstone might be to someone from another biome.

We took Jas to Bole because, while they have heard of Ethiopia restaurants, they have not been because berbere spices are a migraine trigger fro their mother. So, we were able to provide a guilt-free experience, which I think they quite enjoyed. We ended up sitting outside in the patio, despite the mugginess and threat of rain. It's always so much fun to show off the cool stuff in the city, you know? Our food (and our immigrants, damn it!) is always some of the very best parts of it all.

Since I believe I reported about this earlier, I thought I'd also give an update on Rhubarb's inappropriate urination issues? If you don't want to read about cat pee problems (and who would blame you!?), I will put it under the cut.

( Cat bathroom issues, solutions, and theories.... )

tl:dr we're still working on it? I have faith we'll get her fixed without having to restort to drugs.

That's all the news that's fit to print, plus some that had to appear under the cut.

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Bees, More Bees (Also, D'uh)

Today's bee, captured in flight.

16;9, y'all. It's just landscape instead of portrait. MAN, I feel dumb. But, I don't feel as though any of my previous bee photos are wasted. I can also submit photos to the New York Times Spelling Bee that are square. So, I should be able to do some editing and send them again! (They are gonna love me, there. OTHO, I'm sure they get a lot of dummies like me!)

I found a resource rich (as in chock full of bees) area that is part of my daily routine. The Minnesota Historical Society! They have a huge pollenator garden on their hillside and yesterday it was literally buzzing with activity.

Meanwhile, Jas has proved themselves to be an excellent house guest. Their family recently had to trip to Japan (and Taiwan, where Jas has a grandmother,) and they brought us lots of absolutely PERFECT gifts. Shawn loves konpeitou--the Japanese hard candy that looks like little sandburs. Not only did Jas bring a package of the actual sweets for her, but ALSO earrings that are in the shape of konpeitou! This is especially wonderful because Shawn (who has otherwise very little interest in all of my Japanese stuff) likes the idea of saying "Ganbetta" (do your best!) but can never remember it, so often tells me, "Konpeitou!" when she means to wish me good luck. So konpeitou has been our silly way of wishing each other good luck.

For me, Jas brought some fun washi tape and post-it notes. Again, perfect for me, if you know my love of letter writing, etc.

Then, apparently, their mother also just sent along a whole bunch of odds and ends as gifts, too. We're going to have to step up our game? I have not participated in this competative gift giving thing before. Is it a Southern thing? (Jas's folks live in Oklahoma.) I ask because Mason's other friend Gray, also has parents who send Mason home with odd gifts (they're in Missouri.) Thoughts, any Southern State living friends of mine?

Today, I am planning on letting them have the car to do with as they like. Mason loves Saint Paul (and Minneapolis) and delights in showing off all the cool features found therein. I know they are planning on seeing Minnehaha Falls because that is a tourist MUST (and also Mason loves eating at Sea Salt.) Yesterday, they walked to the Creamery formerly known as Izzy's now... somthing else, which I have forgotten. So, Jas is getting the full tour!

I shall end with a slightly different bug. If anyone on my list of friends is bug-averse, please let me know and I will put these photos under the cut!

grasshopper on lily

Image: grasshopper on bright red lily (in Grantsville, WI. We stopped at an old-fashioned rootbeer stand type place that had these amazing flowers and I spotted this little fellow.)

Military science fiction, positioning of strands, and "center of genre"

Watch on YouTube

...this video is age-locked (18+) because I'm the asshole goose who used too many cuss words. But also, discussion of Game of Thrones, Foundation, etc with spoilers.

(A friend requested this and apparently I am INFINITELY interested in discussing big space battles and things go asplode.)

P.S. Aggro Goose is taking topic requests, especially around narrative in any medium. Leave a comment or email me! (yoon@yoonhalee.com)

(My real agenda is not what you'd think. I need to practice audio cleaning, including de-essers and de-plosives. Now you know!)

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: New Digs

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How is it midweek already?

I have been SO exhausted lately, and I'm not sure if it's allergies and the change in the weather (SF is suddenly experiencing warmth and sun for the first time in ages) or that I've just been spreading myself far too thin lately at work. A bit of both, perhaps. I won't bother you with the details, just that I left early today as I was pretty much running on fumes. Thankfully I have tomorrow off so I will spend the day chilling. [I have my two bookkeeper opens Friday and Saturday, but those don't tire me out even though I wake up early...I'm too busy sitting at a computer processing things!] I have no other plans except heading over to PetSmart to pick up some litter and check out a replacement cat tree for the older one that's falling apart. Oh, that and continue doing a bit of writing work!

Meanwhile, Outside Lands is this weekend, so I've a feeling there will be all sorts of nonsense going on. The volume at the Day Job wasn't too bad last year, as it was mostly people buying stuff for home partying or pre-show get togethers, but we shall see. I'm more concerned about some idiot parking in front of my garage door (which we will gladly have towed at the owner's expense) blocking me in or out. The sound might be a bit louder I think, considering the performers that will be there, but we shall see. Thankfully they still stick to the 10pm shutdown, and that's right about the time we finally turn out the lights.

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Upside Down Bee on a Wednesday!

Bumblebee hanging off Joe Pye Weed in my front yard.

It's Wednesday!

My quest to crack the New York Times Spelling Bee picture selection continues. Today's entry might be a little blurry, but I just loved how I managed to get a shot of the bee hanging upside down like that. I got a few others today, which I will pepper the NYTimes with over the next few days. I've been trying to not be a pest myself and have been limiting myself to a single entry a day. I THINK I have these pictures sized correctly at 9:16, but maybe not? My phone actually has a setting for 9:16, but they might actually want 16:9?? Which, I'm not sure how to do, so maybe I am sending these all into the void. I guess we'll see.

I have just sent Mason and Jas off to find something for Jas to eat. Jas arranged a surprise visit with Shawn and I some months ago, and today was the big "SURPRISE!" Mason nearly cried he was so pleased and happy to see them walk in the door!

OF COURSE, the surprise was almost ruined today. Just after I had gotten a text from Jas that they had landed, Mason started nudging me about going out practice driving. I had to make up a lie on the spot and I ended up saying, "Uh, I would be happy to do that in a bit, but I'm... uh, waiting for a package. Which I... might have to go pick up?" I thought he'd figure out for sure, but this apparently fooled Mason enough that I later found out from Jas that Mason was texting them saying, "My ima is being very weird about a surprise package for me? I don't understand what's going on, but I guess I'll find out."

Sure enough!

By chance an actual package that I had been waiting for came to our doorstep and so, I picked that up, I walked in holding it, and said, "Yep, I picked up my special delivery." He looked up just in time to see Jas trail in behind me.

If Mason could be the epitome of "..." he was at that moment. It went:

...

"WHAT."

Then, "OH MY GOD. WHAT?"

This could not have worked out better.

I might have gotten a little misty-eyed, too. I ran off to the post office before I embarassed myself and also to give Mason some room to give Jas the house tour without me awkwardly trailing behind.

As for the rest of my life, let's see. I haven't read much of anything at all this week, but I did finish watching The Apothecary's Diaries which I'm weirdly happy to find out has a third season in the works. I don't know why I say weirdly? Maybe because I'm both rooting for and not rooting for the romance? I'd kind of like Mao Mao to get to be happily ace ever after, but I also kind of like the Prince/Eunuch? Anyway, then I started up Rent-a-Girlfriend because why not, I guess. If any anime fans have a better recommendation for something to follow up The Apothecary's Dairies, please feel free to drop it into the comments!

I'll have some thoughts on my Thirsty Sword Lesbians game yesterday night in a bit, but right now I think I'm going to bask in the warm glow of "Jas is here and my son couldn't be more happy!"

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The Bog Wife, by Kay Chronister

The Haddesley family has an ancient tradition: when the patriarch dies, the oldest son summons a wife from the bog. Now living in Appalachia, the current patriarch is dying and a new bog wife must be summoned soon, but their covenant with the bog may be going wrong: one daughter fled years ago to live in the modern world, the last bog wife vanished under mysterious circumstances, the bog is drying up, and something very bad has happened to the oldest son...

Isn't that an amazing premise? The actual book absolutely lives up to it, but not in the way that I expected.

It was marketed as horror, and was the inaugural book of the Paper & Clay horror book club. But my very first question to the club was "Do you think this book is horror?"

The club's consensus was no, or not exactly; it definitely has strong folk horror elements, but overall we found it hard to categorize by genre. I am currently cross-shelving it in literary fiction. We all loved it though, and it was a great book to discuss in a book club; very thought-provoking.

One of the aspects I enjoyed was how unpredictable it was. The plot both did and didn't go in directions I expected, partly because the pacing was also unpredictable: events didn't happen at the pace or in the order I expected from the premise. If the book sounds interesting to you, I recommend not spoiling yourself.

The family is a basically a small family cult, living in depressing squalor under the rule of the patriarch. It's basically anti-cottagecore, where being close to nature in modern America may mean deluding yourself that you're living an ancient tradition of natural life where you're not even close to being self-sustaining, but also missing all the advantages of modern life like medical treatment and hot water. I found all this incredibly relatable and validating, as I grew up in similar circumstances though with the reason of religion rather than an ancient covenant with the bog.

The family has been psychologically twisted by their circumstances, so they're all pretty weird and also don't get along. I didn't like them for large stretches, but I did care a lot about them all by the end, and was very invested in their fates. (Except the patriarch. He can go fuck himself.)

It's beautifully written, incredibly atmospheric, and very well-characterized. The atmosphere is very oppressive and claustrophobic, but if you're up for the journey, it will take you somewhere very worthwhile. The book club discussion of the ending was completely split on its emotional implications (not on the actual events, those are clear): we were equally divided between thinking it was mostly hopeful/uplifing with bittersweet elements, mostly sad with some hopeful elements, and perfectly bittersweet.

SPOILERS!

( Read more... )

genuinely the funniest fake "literary agent" scammer phishing attempt...

...that I've ever seen.

Hi Yoon Ha Lee,

Good day!

We are pleased to inform you that we will be endorsing your book Rick Riordan Presents: Dragon Pearl-A Thousand Worlds Novel Book 1 to Barnes & Noble.

I noticed that your book has been published, but it hasn’t yet been picked up by Barnes & Noble. and one of the main reasons is that there wasn’t a literary agent or professional representative presenting it on your behalf. Unfortunately, this is quite common because many large retailers like Barnes & Noble have specific submission standards, and a formal representation is often required just to get your book on the door.

That said, please don’t be discouraged. This isn’t about the quality of your work, it’s about making sure your book is being championed in the right places, by the right people. Your voice matters, and your story deserves the chance to reach a wider audience.

That’s why I strongly recommend you take the next step and consider professional literary representation. With the right partner guiding and presenting your book, you’ll open the door to opportunities like national retail placement, in-store exposure, and even media features.

This could be a turning point in your publishing journey, and I truly believe it’s worth exploring. As your Executive Book & Film Literary Agent, I will guide your book down the right path and help you create the perfect plan. Let’s talk, I will call you once I hear back from you. Thank you.

Note: Your work has real potential, and I’d love to see it get the visibility it deserves.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to the possibility of collaborating with you to share your remarkable work with a larger audience.

Best regards,
Peter White
peter.white@readersquillagency.com [alleged]

Lollllllllll.

Candle Arc #1: p. 1 color test

Weirdly credible watercolor test of a comic page from Candle Arc #1 (image has slightly cleaned-up lineart as I wasn't sure this brand of paper was going to work out so why sink in more effort before the test).

I'm annoyed that I cannot for the life of me find a US-based (as a USAn) color digest size (5.5"x8.5") zine/booklet/comic printer that handles print on demand. I absolutely cannot commit to physical fulfillment as a business model even as a side hustle (health); but at-home color printers that do anything larger than US letter (8.5"x11") or MAYBE A4 are extortionately expensive, and I am never making back any money sunk into this.

I need to resign myself to hand-watercoloring like THREE copies for the very few interested friend/family people (and myself) and give up on trying to make physical color copies available because quite literally the ROI makes zero sense and I have orchestration homework waiting.

Why digest? Because I've found paper (...for now) I can print onto with my laser printer (which only goes up to US letter/A4) and then do watercolor on top of without (a) jamming my printer because it's too thick (b) destroying the paper once I do even a gentle wash because it's too thin.

Even if I could produce color comic zines at home, however, the bottleneck remains that I absolutely can't do physical fulfillment on a regular/reliable business, and I am never going to sell enough indie/hobbyist comics to justify HIRING someone to handle fulfillment, so this ends here. :p

(If anyone has leads on print on demand printers that work well for this kind of thing, I'm all ears, although I'm not optimistic. This is weirdly difficult to Google possibilities for as well.)