themis1

I finally completed Dragon Age: Veilguard, after only four months. ( I enjoyed it! with spoilers )

Other games: I played the rest of Carto, which is a very enjoyable little map puzzle game and I recommend it; I started Submerged but didn't get very far with it, played a bit of Loddlenauts and liked that better, will probably play more; picked up Quilts and Cats of Calico which has a ridiculous story mode that I'm working through, finished the second act but got stuck on one puzzle where my solution appears to be mathematically correct but doesn't get the right number of cats so I must be misunderstanding a rule somewhere, much more overtly math-y than I was expecting somehow; progressed my re-play of The Secret Order 2: Masked Intent which is as ridiculous as all my Artifex Mundi games but still oddly satisfying; and played a few minutes of Psychonauts after Sunday's video game concert included a track from it and I realised that the name was familiar because it was already in my Steam library. That one was mildly entertaining, but the interface feels a bit janky and the graphics are hideous (...it is twenty years old, probably not surprising); I'll probably try a bit more.

oursin

Was alerted to Zoom seminar I must have signed up for ages ago and not put into my diary, with link, approx 30 mins before it was due to happen.

Well, that was interesting and informative: 'Protest and Identity Formation in the Time of Covid: The UK in Historical Context', if ultimately rather grim.

Given that I am in the cohort that thinks the response of The Powers That Be was very much in the Day Late and a Dollar Short ballpark and marked by gross ineptitude even where corruption was not in play, I had not realised how much there was resistance based on the belief that it was an excuse for the imposition of The Iron Heel (and this crisscrossed a wide spectrum of beliefs).

And a lot of the evidence for that was actually not widely reported.

And one observes that there are doubtless differences between the overall picture and the impact of immediate local policing practices.

But looking at what one might consider the wider penumbra of the panic (the torching of 5G towers e.g.) I was reminded (I would be, wouldn't I) of some of the episodes in Norman Cohn's The Pursuit of the Millenium, especially as the speaker invoked the Black Death as a comparison point for epidemic + social upheaval.

skygiants

I've had great luck in the past with the sort of kdrama in which an angry immortal supernatural woman has to hang out in contemporary Seoul with a nice mortal boy. We were hoping The Judge From Hell would be that sort of kdrama, and, technically, it is; I think in its heart it would love to be Hotel del Luna. Unfortunately, it has also decided that what it wants to be is a violent revenge fantasy with incoherent and punitive ethics. Interspersed with wacky shenanigans! and a healthy dose of Catholicism?

Okay, so the premise: our heroine is Justitia, the DEMON JUDGE of the UNDERWORLD, THIRD IN LINE to the THRONE OF HELL, whose job is to sentence unrepentant murderers to unending torments. However, when a nice young judge gets murdered and accidentally ends up in her domain instead of the lesser hell where she belongs, Justitia refuses to listen to her pleas of innocence, gets ready to sentence her anyway, and promptly gets her wrist slapped by her superiors: she's gotten complacent! Time to go to Earth, wearing the body of the dead judge, and learn! about JUSTICE!!!

Given that Justitia's initial mistake involved accidentally sentencing an innocent person, you might be forgiven for thinking that Justitia's job on Earth might involve perhaps getting justice for the wrongly accused, or learning to temper justice with mercy and a little bit of nuance, or even uncovering faults and corruption within the justice system as it exists. haha! no. Justitia's job is to hit a quota of Unrepentent, Unforgiven Murderers On Earth and sentence them to unending torment, just like in her day job. She does this by chasing them around a sequence of nightmare scenarios that mimic the things they have done to their victims and beating them up, then stamping them on the forehead with a little stamp that says GEHENNA while then the doors of hell open and an ominous voice roars GEHENNA!!!! and they get sucked into hell. We did not enjoy the excruciating sequences of murderers being chased around a sequence of nightmare scenarios that mimicked the things they had done to their victims, which the show obviously wants us to find cathartic and satisfying. We did enjoy the ominous voice that roared GEHENNA!!!! It made us laugh every time.

( this got long but tbh not as long as it could have been. this show was so incoherent )

paulkincaid

A couple of weeks ago I lost my wedding ring, which was really upsetting. The ring was there when I was working in the garden that morning, but I'd gone up London later and stopped off in a cafe for a drink, then I went to the loo. And while I was washing my hands I noticed that the ring was missing. One of the side effects of losing weight is that my rings have started slipping off my fingers, and this time I had felt and heard nothing. I checked everywhere I could, but no sign. And when I got home I looked everywhere I might have left it, but again no luck.

I was, unhappily, growing resigned to the fact that it was gone. But this morning I pulled a clean t-shirt out of the drawer, and there was the ring folded inside the shirt. Except that on the day I lost the ring I had not ironed, folded, or put away that particular shirt. In fact I had probably put that shirt away the week before I lost the ring. So I have no idea how this happened, I'm just really glad that it did.

oursin

Happy birthday,

redroanchronicles!

oursin

That the place I was very glad to leave in my youth is now The Top Place to Visit in the UK, though I think 'visit' may be the operative word there, after all back in my day the foreign language students and other summer visitors had an entirely different vision of it. Street foodstalls and trendy bars, not to mention galleries, Not In My Day, though we did have the walks in nature and seascape.

***

(The person who asked about this could have found the info themself, it was really easy to find.) Stillbirths only had to be registered in England from 1927.

(This was the person who had found me as A Nexpert in a field I don't consider my main field of xpertise via Google AI. I was, in fact, able to provide quite a bit of information from the depths of Mi Knowinz. )

***

How to decode the less than intuitive citations in footnotes to Gould and Pyle, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine (1898 edition).

(Though I think the person asking the question to which this was actually the answer could possibly have given the matter a little thought and worked it out themself? Maybe not: maybe they have not had the years of dealing with Weird Citation Practices that are under my belt.)

***

Still got it for telling people Where To Find Archives....

oursin

Happy birthday,

aedifica,

the_rck and

thornsilver!

oursin

Last week's bread seemed to be holding out but got very dry and was eked out with the rolls.

Friday night supper: the rather ersatz 'Thai fried rice' with Milano and Napoli salami.

Saturday breakfast rolls: eclectic vanilla, something like 60:40 strong white/white spelt flour (end of bag of the latter).

Today's lunch: venison crumble, with this diced ragu which is more or less rather more finely diced than usual venison, cooked in a moderate oven in red wine with shallots and garlic and a few juniper berries for a couple of hours and then a crumble topping of 2:1:1 strong wholemeal flour/strong white flour/pinhead oatmeal + butter + seasoning + crushed coriander seeds (I think I made rather more of this than I usually do) spread on and baked in somewhat hotter oven for a further 30 minutes; served with Boston beans roasted in pumpkin seed oil with fennel seeds and splashed with gooseberry vinegar, and baby pak choi stirfried with star anise.

oursin

Do we think this trip is doomed already???

My best friend Kady and I are planning a backpacking trip around south-east Asia in a few months and I have proposed the idea of us getting matching tattoos:

We’re both 20, and I think we’ll look back on them when we’re older and remember what a fun life we’ve lived. Tattoos are a reminder of a particular time, and I want to cherish our youth. I’ve found a cool tattoo parlour in northern Thailand, where we’ll be staying. I’ve seen videos of people having great experiences there and the tattoo artist is really talented.... It’s not like I want to get a random tattoo. I’m quite creative and have already started sketching ideas that represent who Kady and I are.

You're 20, duckie....

***

In other gruesome news, okay, it is not one bloke spreading his seed to 100s, but I'm not actually sure that 'a worldwide limit of 75 families for each sperm donor' as applied by the European Sperm Bank isn't somewhat on the high side, even when it doesn't turn out further down the line with more sophisticated testing that a donor has a rare cancer-causing mutation.

***

And this is sad, rather than gruesome, and makes me wonder about the whole marketing of the 'freezing eggs' thing as 'a groundbreaking act of empowerment', especially as it hasn't turned out like that:

I did not anticipate the emotional landscape that I would face a decade later, as a scientific intervention became a personal meditation on time, money, and unfulfilled dreams.

oursin

Happy birthday,

catlinyemaker,

heleninwales and

ruudboy!

paulkincaid

Hat tip to Ian Mond for this review of Colourfields now up at the Locus site. No surprise that I find myself strangely in agreement with him. https://locusmag.com/2025/05/colourfields-writing-about-writing-about-science-fiction-by-paul-kincaid-review-by-ian-mond/?fbclid=IwY2xjawKeT8lleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETBHeGRvdFFQcVFlVWoxdExHAR5ZuvJRKpEdR7Ut3vkKdD69Y_5Oh9fOR1M-7hKQwvsfEVZ0-Y6GnDT6XcKxPQ_aem_V-SwlvXC-JqLdjI-X9Vz7Q

oursin

My dearios will have heard me whinge about the massive point thahr misst of so much spam I get offering deals and collaborations with my entirely non-profit and very niche personal website -

- and that sometimes one can see that they've picked up on a word or even a phrase but have totally missed CONTEXT quite apart from the fact that I am Not In Trade, perish the thort, not to mention that they tend to miss what one might consider obvious links.

But, lo, I am boggling like a boggling thing over this:

[A] vertically integrated manufacturer based in China with over 14 years of experience specializing in high-efficiency equestrian gear and innovative pet products.
Our 22,000m² facility provides in-house manufacturing of a wide range of products including saddle pads, horse rugs, fly masks, halters, pet beds, leashes, harnesses, and other items. We are pleased to offer top-tier European and American brands known for their superior quality, cost-effectiveness, and prompt delivery.

I don't think I've even got anything on the site relating to e.g. 'pretty horsebreakers' in Victorian England or, indeed, wot abaht bestiality. Or I have a vague recollection that the annals of Victsmut here and there include ponyplay but I don't actually Go There.

I am boggled but in a different way by the spam from a mirror factory in Hangzhou city which informs me that ' it only takes more than ten minutes to drive from our company. I can show you our factory at any time and give you quick feedback to inform you of the production progress.' Pretty sure it does only take more than 10 mins....

Current Music: The Bogglemen, Gee up, Boggle Horse

marthawells

It's Murderbot Day again, though the episode actually dropped yesterday on Murderbot Eve.

Here's an interview with David Goyer where he says nice things about me:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2025/05/22/murderbot-ep-david-s-goyer-on-alexander-skarsgrd-and-staying-true-to-martha-wells-books/

“No one was interested. They were like, ‘This is just RoboCop’ and we were like, ‘No, it's not at all. It's the anti-RoboCop,'” Goyer recalled. “It's about neurodivergence. It's about humanity.”

And an interview with Paul and Chris:

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/05/the-making-of-apple-tvs-murderbot/

Paul Weitz: The first book, All Systems Red, had a really beautiful ending. And it had a theme that personhood is irreducible. The idea that, even with this central character you think you get to know so well, you can't reduce it to ways that you think it's going to behave—and you shouldn't. The idea that other people exist and that they shouldn't be put into whatever box you want to put them into felt like something that was comforting to have in one's pocket. If you're going to spend so much time adapting something, it's really great if it's not only fun but is about something.

oursin

Happy birthday,

szandara!

oursin

I initially saw this because somebody on Facebook posted the video: Boyfriend proposed during the marathon she trained 6 months for, and in the list of Inappropriate Times and Places to Propose, while she is actually running a marathon is very near the top, right? it's bad enough for bloke to be waiting with ring and maybe flowers at the finish line (for many observers, marathon proposals are about men stealing the spotlight).

Run, girl, run.

***

To revert to that discussion about The Right Sort of Jawline and Breathing Properly the other day, TIL that mouth taping is (still) A Thing, and Canadian researchers say there’s no evidence that mouth taping has any health benefits and warn that it could actually be harmful for people with sleep apnea.

***

Since I see this is dated 2020, I may have posted it before: but hey, let's hear it for C18th women scholars of Anglo-Saxon Elizabeth Elstob, Old English scholar, and the Harleian Library. I think I want to know more about her years in the household of Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (1715–1785), duchess of Portland, who I know better through her connection with Mrs Delany of the botanically accurate embroidery and collages of flowers.

***

I like this report on the 'Discovery of Original Magna Carta' because it's actually attentive to the amount of actual work that goes into 'discovering', from the first, 'aha! that looks like it might be' to the final confirmation.

paulkincaid

Oh go on, put words in my mouth ... https://jonathanstrahan.podbean.com/e/episode-678-nearly-15-years-of-rambling/

oursin

What I read

Finished The Life Revamp - okay, not mind-blowing?

Having another bout of lower-back misery, re-reads of KJ Charles, Any Old Diamonds (Lilywhite Boys, #1) (2019), Gilded Cage (Lilywhite Boys, #2) (2019) and Masters in This Hall (Lilywhite Boys, #3) (2022). Still querying the understanding of the divorce law at the time.... (there seems to be an assumption at one point that spouse in prison was grounds??).

On the go

Started Upton Sinclair, Dragon's Teeth (Lanny Budd, #3) (1942). This is the one with spiritualism taken in the serious experimental fashion of the times along with New Thought, besides the whole international political situation. Also, spot-on fashions in child-rearing, though I don't think Truby King was actually name-checked over the strict 4-hour feeding regimen!

Set to one side as Vivian Shaw, Strange New World (Dr Greta Helsing, #4) came out yesterday.

Still dipping into Melissa Scott, Scenes from the City.

Still working on the book for review, which is rather dense: excellent work but not exactly light reading.

Up next

Should get to Anthony Powell, Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (1960) in preparation for online discussion group.

Discovered that there is a new work by Gail Godwin, Getting to Know Death: A meditation (2024), a memoir generated by a serious accident at the age of 85.

Still have not got round to latest Literary Review.

oursin

Happy birthday,

lotesse and

nilchance!

rocky41_7 posting in

books

This week I finished The Dawnhounds, the first book of the The Endsong series by Sascha Stronach.

This book has been compared to Gideon the Ninth, which I think does it a disservice, because while there are enjoyable things about it, if you go into it expecting The Locked Tomb, I think you're going to be disappointed. They are not on the same level.

Protagonist Yat's homeland—the port city of Hainak—is implied to have been colonized and fought a revolution to escape that, but while some of the changes have been welcome—the embrace of "biotech," freedom of determination—her home is in the throes of sliding from one abusive regime to another. They have thrown off the yoke of colonization, but as Yat comes to slowly realize over the course of the novel, what they replaced it with isn't much better.

Yat is in a prime position to realize this. A former street rat turned cop who joined the police in hopes of making a positive change for people like herself, she's been slowly worn down over the years into someone who simply closes her eyes to the worse abuses by the government and partakes herself in the lesser offenses. The kick-off for the story isn't any of that though—it's that Yat is demoted after her coworkers learn she's patronized a queer bar. She's blundering through the fallout of that—continuing to patronize that same bar, and using drugs to cope—when the fantasy plot hits her in the head.

Unfortunately, here is where the novel began to lose me. I think the comparisons with The Locked Tomb arise from the way The Dawnhounds throws the reader into the plot with the promise of revealing more information later. Except that where TLT is a masterclass in subterfuge and gradual reveals that make perfect sense in retrospect, and in some cases reframed entire characters and story arcs, The Dawnhounds just...never really reveals the information.

( Read more... )

wychwood

I continued the culture theme - actually I forgot to post about it, but I also went to the opera! That was ten days ago now, Peter Grimes, a Britten piece I'd never actually heard before. What a downer though.

Anyway. On Saturday I went to the cinema to go and see Ocean, a new David Attenborough that was having a theatrical release. Excellent as ever, although mostly not new; I liked the juxtaposition of "incoming climate disaster" with the example of Save the Whales as a campaign that really worked. Afterwards I had a couple of hours to kill before church, and they were offering £5 tickets, so I took myself across the building to see Thunderbolts*, which was entertaining, had some genuinely touching character moments, and did not go in for too many extended fight scenes as a replacement for plot. I mean, there definitely were plenty of fight scenes, it's still Marvel, but sometimes you think "really we could have cut half an hour of fight scenes out of this film without losing anything" and I didn't, here. Helped that it was a two-hour film, probably.

Then on Sunday my dad got confused answering one of the crossword questions and produced the concept of Douglas Adam's Watership Down, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

finished!!! Veilguard what do i do with my life now

Saying, what no flagellants - then thinking, actually, might be preferable

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Ring

(no subject)

TIL

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Culinary

Down in the woodshed

(no subject)

Colourfields

The ongoing spammity-spam saga

Episode 3 Available Now

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Oddments

Cosy Coode Street

Wednesday it has been allegedly going to rain, but no sign of it yet

(no subject)

"The Dawnhounds" by Sascha Stronach

sublime/ridiculous

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March 2025

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