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Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 08:46 am
22 works reviewed. 11.5 by women (52%), 10 by men (45%), 0.5 by non-binary authors (2%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 9 by POC (41%).
March 2026 in Review
Tags:
22 works reviewed. 11.5 by women (52%), 10 by men (45%), 0.5 by non-binary authors (2%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 9 by POC (41%).
March 2026 in Review
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 02:37 pm
Tags:
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 08:31 am
A host of familiar faces from the Star Wars movies fend off extra-galactic occupiers.
Destiny’s Way (New Jedi Order, volume 14) by Walter Jon Williams
Tags:
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 07:41 am
I have a stack of library books and used bookstore buys looking at me accusingly but instead I have been lured into doing a massive McCaffrey read. I know. I don't respect my choices either.
My other problem is that once I am embarked on a Text I have a hard time stopping it, so when all the library offered me in ebook was an omnibus of Dragonflight - Dragonquest - The White Dragon I was always going to be reading all three. And, you know, it did start out quite well! Rereading Dragonflight a very funny experience because it's like
Dragonflight: and here's where Lessa washes her hair
Me: tiny Becca what do you think about this
the inner tiny Becca: I LOVE LESSA I LOVE IT WHEN SHE GETS TO WASH HER HAIR 🥹
Dragonflight: and here's where F'lar sends F'nor on a haunted mission back in time
Me: tiny Becca what do you think about this
the inner tiny Becca: who's F'lar
But actually with very few actual memories and a lot of informed knowledge from the twenty years since the last time I read these books I truly expected F'lar and the central romance plot in general to be ... worse? Like yes it's 1968 and yes there's the dubcon dragonsex of it all and yes F'lar's whole mission in life is to convince the world that you Cannot stop feeding the military-industrial complex even after four hundred years of peace or you Will be eaten by mindless alien hordes [On Which More Later]. But the thing that the dubcon dragonsex actually does, narratively speaking, is it fully displaces the emphasis of the romance away from 'when are they going to have sex' to 'when are these two assholes who trust themselves very much going to learn to trust each other.' They're having sex all through it; the dragons have taken care of that, so the sex is no longer the point. The partnership and the problem-solving is the point, and it is fun to watch them solve problems and increasingly know which problems they can rely on the other to solve. Which I think is interesting and purposeful and honestly pretty bold, for 1968! I'd like to see more romances do that now! Also the problem-solving is satisfying, and haunted mission back in time plot that I had completely forgotten is quite effectively creepy. I ended Dragonflight like 'you know what, as Of Its Time as it is, in many ways this book actually does really work. Maybe ... Pern is good?
Then on to Dragonquest and The White Dragon and it turns out Pern unfortunately is not good, although both of these books are real would-be-good-if-they-were-good situations.
Dragonflight: and here's where F'lar sends F'nor on a haunted mission back in time
me: Dragonquest what do you think about this
Dragonquest: what haunted mission
No, Dragonflight is kind of a mess of a book but what I do think is interesting about it, thematically speaking -- to come back to the military-industrial complex of it all -- is that the end of Dragonflight is a lot of people going 'to be manly and heroic is to fight forever on a cool dragon, we've reached peacetime and it's dull so we're going forward in time so we can continue fighting forever on a cool dragon' and the beginning of Dragonquest is like 'actually I have reconsidered my thinking about this and it turns out fighting forever is perhaps bad for you, psychologically? maybe instead of heroic forever war we can look at some alternate pursuits that are also heroic and manly but less lethal and traumatizing. Like space exploration! Did anyone watch the Moon Landing? Wasn't that pretty cool?' (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
genarti when I was talking with her about this also pointed out that at the time Dragonquest came out we were also several more years into Vietnam.) Obviously McCaffrey is all in on the Pioneer Spirit and the wistful terra nullius of it all but I appreciate that she's actively revising her thoughts on the military and its relationship to the populace it theoretically protects as she's writing it, and it's interesting to see the evolution. Really really funny to see F'lar go from the 'SEND TITHES LIKE YOU DID IN THE DAYS OF YORE' guy to the 'I'm your progressive candidate for Weyrleader and I think this military appropriationism has gotten a bit out of hand' guy. I love the end of the book where it's like 'well we've actually solved the problem of Thread but unfortunately our solution is not cool and sexy, so we need a dragonrider to do something that is cool and sexy but ultimately completely useless to get everyone else to buy into it.'
(E who dragged me into this: plausible reading that the grubs are a feminised solution. we must put our hands into mother earth and urgh it's all moist and gooey
me: i love that you went there because my first thought is that the solution is lower class. the humblest tillers of the land
E, determined: thread is being absorbed by a planetary vagina dentata which also has life-generating properties)
Anyway, F'nor does some spaceflight, in a cool and sexy but ultimately completely useless way, which is making up I suppose for the other cool and sexy thing that F'nor absolutely does not get to do which is challenge dragon biological essentialism. F'nor/Brekke is not a particularly successful or interesting romance plot but nonetheless I truly was on the edge of my seat for this -- I remembered that Brekke's mating flight ends in Tragedy but I thought F'nor might at least like succeed a little bit in proving that it's hypothetically possible for a brown dragon to mate with a queen? But no! he doesn't even get to try! Having raised the question of 'what does dragon gender really mean and how much does it bind us' Anne cannot bring herself to answer it. Have you instead considered that spaceflight is cool and sexy.
And The White Dragon is even more a book of 'having raised the question, Anne cannot bring herself to answer it.' Not much actually happens in The White Dragon, we're making a number of mountains out of molehills, but it's all whirling around the central anxiety point of 'if my soulbonded dragon falls out of standard dragon color/gender categories and moreover is definitely ace then what does that make me?' And the book's answer is '....a guy. A manly guy who successfully achieves all of his society's standards of masculinity. Do not worry about it.' Well, I wouldn't have been worrying about it, Anne, if you hadn't been telling me to worry about it, and then you gave me the most boring answer possible.
There is more to say about The White Dragon -- not least the way that every woman in the book seems to have gotten a hefty splash from the misogyny fountain -- but I am running out of time so we'll call it here. Am I done? No! I am now halfway through Dragonsdawn. More on that anon.
My other problem is that once I am embarked on a Text I have a hard time stopping it, so when all the library offered me in ebook was an omnibus of Dragonflight - Dragonquest - The White Dragon I was always going to be reading all three. And, you know, it did start out quite well! Rereading Dragonflight a very funny experience because it's like
Dragonflight: and here's where Lessa washes her hair
Me: tiny Becca what do you think about this
the inner tiny Becca: I LOVE LESSA I LOVE IT WHEN SHE GETS TO WASH HER HAIR 🥹
Dragonflight: and here's where F'lar sends F'nor on a haunted mission back in time
Me: tiny Becca what do you think about this
the inner tiny Becca: who's F'lar
But actually with very few actual memories and a lot of informed knowledge from the twenty years since the last time I read these books I truly expected F'lar and the central romance plot in general to be ... worse? Like yes it's 1968 and yes there's the dubcon dragonsex of it all and yes F'lar's whole mission in life is to convince the world that you Cannot stop feeding the military-industrial complex even after four hundred years of peace or you Will be eaten by mindless alien hordes [On Which More Later]. But the thing that the dubcon dragonsex actually does, narratively speaking, is it fully displaces the emphasis of the romance away from 'when are they going to have sex' to 'when are these two assholes who trust themselves very much going to learn to trust each other.' They're having sex all through it; the dragons have taken care of that, so the sex is no longer the point. The partnership and the problem-solving is the point, and it is fun to watch them solve problems and increasingly know which problems they can rely on the other to solve. Which I think is interesting and purposeful and honestly pretty bold, for 1968! I'd like to see more romances do that now! Also the problem-solving is satisfying, and haunted mission back in time plot that I had completely forgotten is quite effectively creepy. I ended Dragonflight like 'you know what, as Of Its Time as it is, in many ways this book actually does really work. Maybe ... Pern is good?
Then on to Dragonquest and The White Dragon and it turns out Pern unfortunately is not good, although both of these books are real would-be-good-if-they-were-good situations.
Dragonflight: and here's where F'lar sends F'nor on a haunted mission back in time
me: Dragonquest what do you think about this
Dragonquest: what haunted mission
No, Dragonflight is kind of a mess of a book but what I do think is interesting about it, thematically speaking -- to come back to the military-industrial complex of it all -- is that the end of Dragonflight is a lot of people going 'to be manly and heroic is to fight forever on a cool dragon, we've reached peacetime and it's dull so we're going forward in time so we can continue fighting forever on a cool dragon' and the beginning of Dragonquest is like 'actually I have reconsidered my thinking about this and it turns out fighting forever is perhaps bad for you, psychologically? maybe instead of heroic forever war we can look at some alternate pursuits that are also heroic and manly but less lethal and traumatizing. Like space exploration! Did anyone watch the Moon Landing? Wasn't that pretty cool?' (
genarti when I was talking with her about this also pointed out that at the time Dragonquest came out we were also several more years into Vietnam.) Obviously McCaffrey is all in on the Pioneer Spirit and the wistful terra nullius of it all but I appreciate that she's actively revising her thoughts on the military and its relationship to the populace it theoretically protects as she's writing it, and it's interesting to see the evolution. Really really funny to see F'lar go from the 'SEND TITHES LIKE YOU DID IN THE DAYS OF YORE' guy to the 'I'm your progressive candidate for Weyrleader and I think this military appropriationism has gotten a bit out of hand' guy. I love the end of the book where it's like 'well we've actually solved the problem of Thread but unfortunately our solution is not cool and sexy, so we need a dragonrider to do something that is cool and sexy but ultimately completely useless to get everyone else to buy into it.' (E who dragged me into this: plausible reading that the grubs are a feminised solution. we must put our hands into mother earth and urgh it's all moist and gooey
me: i love that you went there because my first thought is that the solution is lower class. the humblest tillers of the land
E, determined: thread is being absorbed by a planetary vagina dentata which also has life-generating properties)
Anyway, F'nor does some spaceflight, in a cool and sexy but ultimately completely useless way, which is making up I suppose for the other cool and sexy thing that F'nor absolutely does not get to do which is challenge dragon biological essentialism. F'nor/Brekke is not a particularly successful or interesting romance plot but nonetheless I truly was on the edge of my seat for this -- I remembered that Brekke's mating flight ends in Tragedy but I thought F'nor might at least like succeed a little bit in proving that it's hypothetically possible for a brown dragon to mate with a queen? But no! he doesn't even get to try! Having raised the question of 'what does dragon gender really mean and how much does it bind us' Anne cannot bring herself to answer it. Have you instead considered that spaceflight is cool and sexy.
And The White Dragon is even more a book of 'having raised the question, Anne cannot bring herself to answer it.' Not much actually happens in The White Dragon, we're making a number of mountains out of molehills, but it's all whirling around the central anxiety point of 'if my soulbonded dragon falls out of standard dragon color/gender categories and moreover is definitely ace then what does that make me?' And the book's answer is '....a guy. A manly guy who successfully achieves all of his society's standards of masculinity. Do not worry about it.' Well, I wouldn't have been worrying about it, Anne, if you hadn't been telling me to worry about it, and then you gave me the most boring answer possible.
There is more to say about The White Dragon -- not least the way that every woman in the book seems to have gotten a hefty splash from the misogyny fountain -- but I am running out of time so we'll call it here. Am I done? No! I am now halfway through Dragonsdawn. More on that anon.
Tags:
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 12:11 pm
Penn's student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, traditionally publishes an April Fool's issue every year, generally a week or so before April 1. This year's version has not (so far) been put out as a paper version, or even in the standard online form, but only as a set of images.
Echoing the title pun, this year's front page features Iran-related jokes. The two featured articles are headlined "Unemployed Senior Really Banking on Job Offer from the Military Draft" and "Iran Announces New AI-yatollah, First Chatbot Supreme Leader":
Below the fold, there's "Alpha Phi to Monitor Situation in Iran", "Alert: All men [WHARTON EXEMPTED] ges 18-25 to Report for Service", and "Al-Qaeda Claims Responsibility for 1920 Commons Dinner Last Night":
Geoff Pullum documented a few Linguistics April Fool's in-jokes years ago (here and here), and I'm sure there have been others that escape my memory at the moment.
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 01:08 pm
I'm on Lisinopril for blood pressure.
Yesterday I used the local pharmacy's app to ask for a repeat prescription.
Three hours later I got a text asking for my blood pressure results.
This morning I used my blood pressure monitor to take some readings and emailed to the address in the text.
An hour and a half later I got a message from the pharmacy saying they have my pills waiting for me.
It's nice when systems work smoothly.
It would, of course, be nicer if this was all in one NHS app, but all of the bits talking to each other is a good start.
Oh, and of course, none of this cost me a penny. The blood pressure monitor would have, if a friend hadn't given me one they had spare, but the GP surgery definitely lends out the ones it has to people who don't have their own.
Yesterday I used the local pharmacy's app to ask for a repeat prescription.
Three hours later I got a text asking for my blood pressure results.
This morning I used my blood pressure monitor to take some readings and emailed to the address in the text.
An hour and a half later I got a message from the pharmacy saying they have my pills waiting for me.
It's nice when systems work smoothly.
It would, of course, be nicer if this was all in one NHS app, but all of the bits talking to each other is a good start.
Oh, and of course, none of this cost me a penny. The blood pressure monitor would have, if a friend hadn't given me one they had spare, but the GP surgery definitely lends out the ones it has to people who don't have their own.
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 03:08 pm
Tags:
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 12:00 pm
- 1. New UK visa rules -> foreign students down 10% -> universities cutting staff & not enough graduates in vital fields
- (tags:university migration uk doom )
- 2. Spain closes airspace to aircraft involved in Iran war
- (tags:spain war iran usa airplanes )
- 3. Even Trump Unsure How Rambling Speech On Iran Veered Off Into Ranking The 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' Films
- (tags:pirates Caribbean movies politics USA satire )
- 4. 85% of S&P 500 Decline this year is from 8 tech stocks based around AI
- (tags:ai technology investment doom )
- 5. Huge surge in AI misconduct cases recorded at Edinburgh University
- (tags:university cheating AI Edinburgh Scotland )
Tags:
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 05:52 am
It's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!
Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!
Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Tags:
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 10:50 am
Title: The Meeting on the Island: Rescue
Fandom: Spooks (MI5)
Pairing/Characters: Ros Myers, werewolf!Lucas
Content Notes: PG. This is a six part story, in which Lucas North is a werewolf, but remains a valued part of the team.
Prompt: March 31 Ros Myers & Lucas North Glory
The Meeting on the Island: Rescue on AO3
Fandom: Spooks (MI5)
Pairing/Characters: Ros Myers, werewolf!Lucas
Content Notes: PG. This is a six part story, in which Lucas North is a werewolf, but remains a valued part of the team.
Prompt: March 31 Ros Myers & Lucas North Glory
The Meeting on the Island: Rescue on AO3
Tags:
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 09:32 am
This weekend, we went to the botanical gardens and we saw a big group of Bohemian waxwings! They are very rare guests here on their way to and from Scandinavia and I had never seen one before. I did know instantly what they were seeing them all sitting in the tree though.
( Read more... )
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 04:20 am
Thankfully, Monday is done, and now it's Tuesday. Sure to be very busy, but we'll deal.
Yesterday, I spent a lot of time on the phones, trying to keep the call volume down some, with little breaks to do shit. The emails to the add on box were fast and furious, and I struggled to be on the phones and keep up. Since I have holds on some days, that was semi important, so I could tell people where we had slots for patients. Right now, I don't have a ton of holds, but we'll see.
Unfortunately, towards the end of my day, I was trying to fill in a cardiac MRI slot for our Columbia office because they had a cancellation for Monday, and with their restrictions, they can be tough to find patients for. And as I was working on it, one of my coworkers filled it with a patient they absolutely could not see. So, I was curious, and started looking through a few appointments, and since they opened up their schedule for regular scheduling, it looks like there's quite a few that have been scheduled incorrectly.
So that's my job this morning. I get to comb through the next two months plus of their schedule and see how fucked up things are. I am of course, going to make a spreadsheet about it.
It turned out that they already have a document with some common responses, so my grand idea was moot. I may still make up some for my benefit, but we'll see. Depends on what kind of time I have.
After dinner, we had a pork loin with a Hawaiian smoked seasoning. It was really tasty, but had a little kick to it. The Kailua Seasoning Company has some amazing blends. So far my favorite is the Aloha Smoke Spice, but the others are really tasty as well. Tonight will be the lemon pepper blend on some halibut, which should be tasty. I may make a lemon cream sauce to compliment it, but we'll see how I feel after a busy day of work.
We've got an appointment to take Boodle to the vet for a check up. She's lost a bit of weight, and I'm a little concerned. Okay, a lot concerned. That's how our last two cats passed. She's still eating, drinking and doing her business perfectly normally, but I worry. She's about 15 years old, and she's my baby. I had a little meltdown about it last night, but today I am very firmly not thinking about it.
Tomorrow, another fun day of work. Wednesdays are usually when the call volume slows down a touch, and I can get more administrative work done. Still no word on when I'm going to be shadowing the trash fire, so it may not be this week. It doesn't matter much when it is. I'm going to do it and I'm going to make notes, and then, I will present them honestly.
I've been watching the videos of the curtain call for the Rocky Horror Preview shows. We're going to be seeing it in June. I'm glad we're in the last row of the mezzanine, so I don't have to see Luke Evan's junk in detail. Lets just say that he was very happy to see the crowd. It was a wee bit distracting. It looks like a cool show. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
It's down to 37 days til the Alaska cruise. I've hired a cat watcher, but we still can't get Yoda acclimated to the kennels. He needs his second flu shot, which is scheduled on April 9th. Then another two weeks for it to take effect, and then we can send him to the kennel on the 23rd. Which we're going to do. He'll stay for four days. Then, he'll have another couple of days their on that Thurs and Friday 4/30-5/1, and then on Wednesday the 6th, he goes for 11 days. God I'm nervous about this. The vet is our backup plan, but I'd feel horrible about that. I already feel bad that for 11 nights there will be no one for him to snuggle up to. But we deserve a vacation.
Pet care is costing me more than renting a chauffeured van to take us on a tour of Seattle, and up to Vancouver, which will probably be a 6-7 hour service.
We were watching a video for ideas of where to eat in Vancouver (so many places) and the hosts were complaining over things being expensive. Their version of expensive was $8 CAD. Which is like $5.74 in USD. I was rolling my eyes so hard. They had a couple of good suggestions, but mostly I spent it annoyed. The next video was much better, and it gave me ideas for our night out when we go see Mortal Kombat II. Our choices are very limited with the Brother in Law. He's very much a meat and potatoes kind of guy. But he and my sister aren't coming to the movies with us, so we can go wherever we want. Currently leaning towards hitting Chinatown for some dumplings and dim sum.
Either Baltimore is very expensive (likely) or Vancouver isn't that expensive (also possible).
There's a Hy's steakhouse in Vancouver, which I only know about because of Hawaii videos. It's kind of the big steakhouse in Waikiki, and when I looked it up, it had a franchise in Vancouver. I'm tempted, though it's super pricey. I did say that I wanted this trip to be first class all the way, so I think I might do it.
Hopefully the Vancouver uber scene is up to snuff so we can get to places. We're going to use the hop on hop off trolley for the daytime, but I think they stop running in the evening, so Uber or taxi it shall be. With four of us, we'll need a bigger vehicle, or for someone to sit in the front of the car and cram the rest of us in the back. But a mini van would be better, because none of us are small people.
Okay, time for me to get myself together and maybe write a bit on Marchen. I keep going back and adding things to the ealier parts, so I haven't made a ton of headway in the last couple of days. Everyone have a stellar Tuesday!
Yesterday, I spent a lot of time on the phones, trying to keep the call volume down some, with little breaks to do shit. The emails to the add on box were fast and furious, and I struggled to be on the phones and keep up. Since I have holds on some days, that was semi important, so I could tell people where we had slots for patients. Right now, I don't have a ton of holds, but we'll see.
Unfortunately, towards the end of my day, I was trying to fill in a cardiac MRI slot for our Columbia office because they had a cancellation for Monday, and with their restrictions, they can be tough to find patients for. And as I was working on it, one of my coworkers filled it with a patient they absolutely could not see. So, I was curious, and started looking through a few appointments, and since they opened up their schedule for regular scheduling, it looks like there's quite a few that have been scheduled incorrectly.
So that's my job this morning. I get to comb through the next two months plus of their schedule and see how fucked up things are. I am of course, going to make a spreadsheet about it.
It turned out that they already have a document with some common responses, so my grand idea was moot. I may still make up some for my benefit, but we'll see. Depends on what kind of time I have.
After dinner, we had a pork loin with a Hawaiian smoked seasoning. It was really tasty, but had a little kick to it. The Kailua Seasoning Company has some amazing blends. So far my favorite is the Aloha Smoke Spice, but the others are really tasty as well. Tonight will be the lemon pepper blend on some halibut, which should be tasty. I may make a lemon cream sauce to compliment it, but we'll see how I feel after a busy day of work.
We've got an appointment to take Boodle to the vet for a check up. She's lost a bit of weight, and I'm a little concerned. Okay, a lot concerned. That's how our last two cats passed. She's still eating, drinking and doing her business perfectly normally, but I worry. She's about 15 years old, and she's my baby. I had a little meltdown about it last night, but today I am very firmly not thinking about it.
Tomorrow, another fun day of work. Wednesdays are usually when the call volume slows down a touch, and I can get more administrative work done. Still no word on when I'm going to be shadowing the trash fire, so it may not be this week. It doesn't matter much when it is. I'm going to do it and I'm going to make notes, and then, I will present them honestly.
I've been watching the videos of the curtain call for the Rocky Horror Preview shows. We're going to be seeing it in June. I'm glad we're in the last row of the mezzanine, so I don't have to see Luke Evan's junk in detail. Lets just say that he was very happy to see the crowd. It was a wee bit distracting. It looks like a cool show. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
It's down to 37 days til the Alaska cruise. I've hired a cat watcher, but we still can't get Yoda acclimated to the kennels. He needs his second flu shot, which is scheduled on April 9th. Then another two weeks for it to take effect, and then we can send him to the kennel on the 23rd. Which we're going to do. He'll stay for four days. Then, he'll have another couple of days their on that Thurs and Friday 4/30-5/1, and then on Wednesday the 6th, he goes for 11 days. God I'm nervous about this. The vet is our backup plan, but I'd feel horrible about that. I already feel bad that for 11 nights there will be no one for him to snuggle up to. But we deserve a vacation.
Pet care is costing me more than renting a chauffeured van to take us on a tour of Seattle, and up to Vancouver, which will probably be a 6-7 hour service.
We were watching a video for ideas of where to eat in Vancouver (so many places) and the hosts were complaining over things being expensive. Their version of expensive was $8 CAD. Which is like $5.74 in USD. I was rolling my eyes so hard. They had a couple of good suggestions, but mostly I spent it annoyed. The next video was much better, and it gave me ideas for our night out when we go see Mortal Kombat II. Our choices are very limited with the Brother in Law. He's very much a meat and potatoes kind of guy. But he and my sister aren't coming to the movies with us, so we can go wherever we want. Currently leaning towards hitting Chinatown for some dumplings and dim sum.
Either Baltimore is very expensive (likely) or Vancouver isn't that expensive (also possible).
There's a Hy's steakhouse in Vancouver, which I only know about because of Hawaii videos. It's kind of the big steakhouse in Waikiki, and when I looked it up, it had a franchise in Vancouver. I'm tempted, though it's super pricey. I did say that I wanted this trip to be first class all the way, so I think I might do it.
Hopefully the Vancouver uber scene is up to snuff so we can get to places. We're going to use the hop on hop off trolley for the daytime, but I think they stop running in the evening, so Uber or taxi it shall be. With four of us, we'll need a bigger vehicle, or for someone to sit in the front of the car and cram the rest of us in the back. But a mini van would be better, because none of us are small people.
Okay, time for me to get myself together and maybe write a bit on Marchen. I keep going back and adding things to the ealier parts, so I haven't made a ton of headway in the last couple of days. Everyone have a stellar Tuesday!
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 09:49 am
***
Happy Transgender Visibility Day to all my gendervariant boos! (and if you're introverted lil gremlin who hisses at the thought of 'visibility', know that I perceive you gently, in your cave, in passing whilst I leave a cupcake outside)
***
Happy Transgender Visibility Day to all my gendervariant boos! (and if you're introverted lil gremlin who hisses at the thought of 'visibility', know that I perceive you gently, in your cave, in passing whilst I leave a cupcake outside)
***
Tags:
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 09:39 pm
Title: A Question of Glory
Fandom: Blake's 7
Pairing/Characters: Roj Blake & Olag Gan
Content Notes: None
Prompt: 31 March - Roj Blake & Olag Gan: glory
A Question of Glory
Fandom: Blake's 7
Pairing/Characters: Roj Blake & Olag Gan
Content Notes: None
Prompt: 31 March - Roj Blake & Olag Gan: glory
A Question of Glory
Tags:
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 08:42 am
Get Your Words Out has pretty flexible and generous guidelines on "what counts" when choosing a word count pledge. My brain, however, doesn't count the same way. (I started by writing "unfortunately" instead of "however" but got stuck on the word -- I don't particularly think it's a bad thing! It just is a thing.)
When I first joined GYWO, I was already writing just about everyday and tracking "streak" with 4thewords. I was more interested in finding out how many "story words" I could write in a year, and challenge myself there. I still am... but recently, I'm also discovering the ways in which this works against me, too. For example, I HATE deleting stuff in general, but according to my way of counting words, if it's deleted or rewritten from scratch, then it shouldn't "count" because I have nothing to show for it at the end of the year. As of this January, I tentatively started counting deleted words in that I shelved the first version of the Leopard/Tree K-9 fic in January (1.2k words) because it came out with the same frustrating "flatness" issue I mentioned a few times recently. The second version I wrote in February ended up at 7.5k words and I'm a lot happier with it! In terms of content it's not that different, in the end, but it's (clearly!) expressed very differently, with a lot more emotion too, much more satisfying to me. I guess the first version could be considered a "Draft Zero" in a way; I was telling the story to myself and figuring out the broad strokes. I broke it down very differently in the second version, which I only could do once I knew where I was going. I'm vaguely tempted to write yet another version with (craft) stuff I've learnt recently, but we'll have to see about that!! I haven't even finished editing the new version, yet.
Another way I noticed my way of counting words works against me is in prep time. I (joyfully!) use the snowflake method, and so far that's meant "plot plot plot OMG SO EXCITED I'M JUMPING IN" which is fine, like, I wanted to see if I could finish long things. But having to do another set of structural changes after 3 rounds of editing and beta-reader feedback on the cursed witch was so painful, I know I should spend more time in the planning stages... but between "excitement for the story" and "nothing really 'counts' until I start writing actual story words", it tends to push me toward starting the writing asap (even though a snowflake outline is veeeery many words by the time it's done!). And likewise, I have written <500 "story words" this month, but I wrote a post-draft outline for the soul thief, then spent EXTENSIVE time planning all the structural changes I want to make, to the point where my new outline stands at about 10k words now. Grew from 30 scenes to nearly 50. And that doesn't include any of the analysis/brainstorming I did as prep writing by hand.
At first, I tried measuring "time" because as annoying as tracking can be, I've been finding that very helpful for understanding the amount of effort editing takes. I don't like that at all for plotting/brainstorming though, because it's "thinking" and that's less predictable or tangible. I think counting the snowflake and outline words could work decently, though, or is worth a try at least. But I don't really want to add those words into my GYWO pledge, I think, even though that would mean I met my monthly goal... Hm... HMMMMMMMMMMM... Hm!!
Okay. I think I would like to track the planning word counts on my spreadsheet, but separately from my "story words" (no idea what that's gonna look like, yet!). I'm not changing what I'm counting for GYWO this year, because I signed up with a particular way of counting in mind. I'll see how I feel about it when pledging for next year opens in December. Right now, I'm leaning toward still pledging only for "story words" going forward because, for me, that's what I'm interested in challenging myself to write more of. If I finished a year with only planning words, I would be massively disappointed.
But, if I notice that counting planning/plotting separately means I still get antsy and rush too early into writing "words that actually count" then I will have to reconsider.
I'm really hoping the amount of planning I'm making ahead of revising the soul thief will result in a lot less pain than the cursed witch revisions turned into, but we shall have to see. I'm excited about it, too! And of course, daunted as well :D /o\
When I first joined GYWO, I was already writing just about everyday and tracking "streak" with 4thewords. I was more interested in finding out how many "story words" I could write in a year, and challenge myself there. I still am... but recently, I'm also discovering the ways in which this works against me, too. For example, I HATE deleting stuff in general, but according to my way of counting words, if it's deleted or rewritten from scratch, then it shouldn't "count" because I have nothing to show for it at the end of the year. As of this January, I tentatively started counting deleted words in that I shelved the first version of the Leopard/Tree K-9 fic in January (1.2k words) because it came out with the same frustrating "flatness" issue I mentioned a few times recently. The second version I wrote in February ended up at 7.5k words and I'm a lot happier with it! In terms of content it's not that different, in the end, but it's (clearly!) expressed very differently, with a lot more emotion too, much more satisfying to me. I guess the first version could be considered a "Draft Zero" in a way; I was telling the story to myself and figuring out the broad strokes. I broke it down very differently in the second version, which I only could do once I knew where I was going. I'm vaguely tempted to write yet another version with (craft) stuff I've learnt recently, but we'll have to see about that!! I haven't even finished editing the new version, yet.
Another way I noticed my way of counting words works against me is in prep time. I (joyfully!) use the snowflake method, and so far that's meant "plot plot plot OMG SO EXCITED I'M JUMPING IN" which is fine, like, I wanted to see if I could finish long things. But having to do another set of structural changes after 3 rounds of editing and beta-reader feedback on the cursed witch was so painful, I know I should spend more time in the planning stages... but between "excitement for the story" and "nothing really 'counts' until I start writing actual story words", it tends to push me toward starting the writing asap (even though a snowflake outline is veeeery many words by the time it's done!). And likewise, I have written <500 "story words" this month, but I wrote a post-draft outline for the soul thief, then spent EXTENSIVE time planning all the structural changes I want to make, to the point where my new outline stands at about 10k words now. Grew from 30 scenes to nearly 50. And that doesn't include any of the analysis/brainstorming I did as prep writing by hand.
At first, I tried measuring "time" because as annoying as tracking can be, I've been finding that very helpful for understanding the amount of effort editing takes. I don't like that at all for plotting/brainstorming though, because it's "thinking" and that's less predictable or tangible. I think counting the snowflake and outline words could work decently, though, or is worth a try at least. But I don't really want to add those words into my GYWO pledge, I think, even though that would mean I met my monthly goal... Hm... HMMMMMMMMMMM... Hm!!
Okay. I think I would like to track the planning word counts on my spreadsheet, but separately from my "story words" (no idea what that's gonna look like, yet!). I'm not changing what I'm counting for GYWO this year, because I signed up with a particular way of counting in mind. I'll see how I feel about it when pledging for next year opens in December. Right now, I'm leaning toward still pledging only for "story words" going forward because, for me, that's what I'm interested in challenging myself to write more of. If I finished a year with only planning words, I would be massively disappointed.
But, if I notice that counting planning/plotting separately means I still get antsy and rush too early into writing "words that actually count" then I will have to reconsider.
I'm really hoping the amount of planning I'm making ahead of revising the soul thief will result in a lot less pain than the cursed witch revisions turned into, but we shall have to see. I'm excited about it, too! And of course, daunted as well :D /o\
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Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 01:56 am
This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, April 7, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "I am SO done with this." I'll be soliciting ideas for activists, rebels, Women Who Run with the Saberteeth, explorers, traitors, exes, people who escape domestic violence, refugees, runaway youth, escaped slaves or other captives, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, stray or feral animals, other people who get into untenable situations, protesting, planning, throwing in the towel, escaping, running like someone left the gate open, adventuring, hitchhiking, quitting school, divorcing, disowning, betraying, teaching, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, trails, sailing ships, campervans or RVs, distant lands, the forest primeval, prehistory, liminal zones, schools, homeless shelters, hotels, churches, sharehouses, campfires, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where the intolerable happens, unhappy relationships, protest rallies, slavery or captivity, locks or chains, travel mishaps, sudden surprises, the buck stops here, trial and error, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, Get a Life Program, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.
Among my more relevant series for the main theme:
An Army of One is developing its own neurovariant culture after rebelling against the Galactic Arms.
The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past.
A Conflagration of Dragons has the Six Races (plus the dragons) who all have different cultures and climates. This often poses challenges for the refugees.
Coracle Shores is about leaving a distressed world for somewhere better.
The Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find enough resources to survive, when former cities are unsafe.
The Moon Door explores a women's chronic pain group and lycanthropy.
Not Quite Kansas deals with demons and angels, also characters dumped out of their original worlds.
The Ocracies has a wide variety of countries crammed together, each with a totally different government. Sometimes people leave their homeland to find something they like better.
One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks after quitting as the God of Evili.
Path of the Paladins includes a few characters who have walked away from unbearable situations, like Johan.
Peculiar Obligations combines Quakers and pirates, the latter of whom are well versed in weighing anchor.
Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society. The supervillains are the most likely to cut and run from a bad situation.
Schrodinger's Heroes has a lot of situations that people want to get away from including Chris avoiding some of his relatives, Morgan moving to a new dimension, and dimensions that just suck for everyone.
The Wandering is a series about fantasy time travel where people loop back within their own lifespan.
Or you can ask for something new.
Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.
If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.
( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )
Among my more relevant series for the main theme:
An Army of One is developing its own neurovariant culture after rebelling against the Galactic Arms.
The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past.
A Conflagration of Dragons has the Six Races (plus the dragons) who all have different cultures and climates. This often poses challenges for the refugees.
Coracle Shores is about leaving a distressed world for somewhere better.
The Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find enough resources to survive, when former cities are unsafe.
The Moon Door explores a women's chronic pain group and lycanthropy.
Not Quite Kansas deals with demons and angels, also characters dumped out of their original worlds.
The Ocracies has a wide variety of countries crammed together, each with a totally different government. Sometimes people leave their homeland to find something they like better.
One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks after quitting as the God of Evili.
Path of the Paladins includes a few characters who have walked away from unbearable situations, like Johan.
Peculiar Obligations combines Quakers and pirates, the latter of whom are well versed in weighing anchor.
Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society. The supervillains are the most likely to cut and run from a bad situation.
Schrodinger's Heroes has a lot of situations that people want to get away from including Chris avoiding some of his relatives, Morgan moving to a new dimension, and dimensions that just suck for everyone.
The Wandering is a series about fantasy time travel where people loop back within their own lifespan.
Or you can ask for something new.
Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.
If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.
( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )
Monday, March 30th, 2026 11:14 pm
( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )
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Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 01:41 am
I should be writing the Substack column, or at least trying. But I have no words right now. The words are just ... missing.
There is too much news going on, and not enough that's new. They weren't kidding about calling it a 'flood' of information, designed to bury us under extraneous crap. I can deal with that; I do deal with it, sorting through it to newsblog on FB as I've done the past few years. But this week nothing is standing out and waving for me to write about it. So much is either at a standstill or just not at a point that has changed. And what I need is something that is changing, so I can look at before and after or alternatives.
I am encouraged by the 9 million or so people who came out during No Kings, though the statistic is muddled -- I have seen it attributed to worldwide protests that day as well as to in-country protests, which is not helpful. But still, 9 million. And so many small places in Red states with sizeable crowds protesting -- and on my side of the street, too. So encouraging.
It just feels as if the Winter of our Discontent is still blowing winds. The only Son of York on the horizon is Jack Schlossberg, grandson of JFK and definitely a Son of York as he's New York born and bred. I do support him and if I still lived in that state would be out stumping for him -- but he's running for a Congressional seat, and that is not going to be enough to overturn the Joker in the Oval.
But it's a start. I can use a start.
There is too much news going on, and not enough that's new. They weren't kidding about calling it a 'flood' of information, designed to bury us under extraneous crap. I can deal with that; I do deal with it, sorting through it to newsblog on FB as I've done the past few years. But this week nothing is standing out and waving for me to write about it. So much is either at a standstill or just not at a point that has changed. And what I need is something that is changing, so I can look at before and after or alternatives.
I am encouraged by the 9 million or so people who came out during No Kings, though the statistic is muddled -- I have seen it attributed to worldwide protests that day as well as to in-country protests, which is not helpful. But still, 9 million. And so many small places in Red states with sizeable crowds protesting -- and on my side of the street, too. So encouraging.
It just feels as if the Winter of our Discontent is still blowing winds. The only Son of York on the horizon is Jack Schlossberg, grandson of JFK and definitely a Son of York as he's New York born and bred. I do support him and if I still lived in that state would be out stumping for him -- but he's running for a Congressional seat, and that is not going to be enough to overturn the Joker in the Oval.
But it's a start. I can use a start.