Sunshine, avoiding rain and music
Oct. 24th, 2025 10:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
queen_ypolitaThe cold is still going through its stages and today's coughing has been nasty at times. I didn't get up to much beyond doing my weekly shop this morning. In the afternoon my train journey via Gatwick was uneventful. It's a small thing, but beating the train journey planner by making a quicker change than it suggested also felt good. Nice, breezy, but no longer warm autumn sunshine at both ends of the journey.
The cough was pretty bad on the first part of the train journey and in the last hour before I was heading out to the concert. I was fully expecting to have to make a quick exit at some point because it got uncontrollable. It didn't come to that, thankfully. I managed not to cough during either half but the interval was pretty bad. It did take frequent sips of water.
There was also an unexpected, quick rain shower about 20 minutes before I needed to leave for the concert and another after about 10 minutes after I'd got back, so I clearly got lucky with the weather and stayed dry. It was very breezy regardless.
The concert was very good: a baroque group playing Purcell, Bach and others, interweaved with readings from (mostly) Oscar Wilde's letters and other writings. There was a clear dramatic arc from pleasure, suffering but with no regrets, to redemption and reconciliation and being at peace.
I'm going to another concert at lunchtime tomorrow, and will do some wandering around town before it.
The cough was pretty bad on the first part of the train journey and in the last hour before I was heading out to the concert. I was fully expecting to have to make a quick exit at some point because it got uncontrollable. It didn't come to that, thankfully. I managed not to cough during either half but the interval was pretty bad. It did take frequent sips of water.
There was also an unexpected, quick rain shower about 20 minutes before I needed to leave for the concert and another after about 10 minutes after I'd got back, so I clearly got lucky with the weather and stayed dry. It was very breezy regardless.
The concert was very good: a baroque group playing Purcell, Bach and others, interweaved with readings from (mostly) Oscar Wilde's letters and other writings. There was a clear dramatic arc from pleasure, suffering but with no regrets, to redemption and reconciliation and being at peace.
I'm going to another concert at lunchtime tomorrow, and will do some wandering around town before it.
Reagancomics (4 of 7): Disillusionment
Oct. 24th, 2025 06:16 amtcampbell1000 posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_daily
1985 was a bye year for Reagan, prominent-comic-book-wise. The Crisis on Infinite Earths passed without a single presidential address.
( My fellow Americans, and all citizens of the world, I call upon us all to stand together against the white menace of the Anti-Monitor. No arsenal, and no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women, except maybe an antimatter wall that destroys everything it touches...Bobby, this needs a rewrite. )
Follow Friday 10-24-25
Oct. 24th, 2025 12:53 amysabetwordsmith posting in followfridayGot any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).
Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".
Reagancomics (3 of 7): Glory Days
Oct. 23rd, 2025 10:06 amtcampbell1000 posting in scans_daily
(Boosted up from 5 installments--I found even more material than I was expecting to. Warning for suicidal ideation, serious drug-use discussion.)
At first, Reagan's portrayals in comics stuck close to the template of a generic "placeholder president," with only the occasional real-life touch to give his character some color. The most notable thing about his first comic-book appearance as president is that it stars, of all people, the "Dial 'H' for Hero" duo. The year is 1981, the comic is Adventure Comics #485.
( Kids these days, always on their phones. )
In the coughing stage of a cold
Oct. 23rd, 2025 05:21 pmqueen_ypolitaAll sorts of viruses have been doing the rounds in the office, but it still seemed I caught this cold out of nowhere until I struggled to sleep on Monday night. People with fireworks until at least 11pm didn't help, but constant sneezing was the major issue. The end result was getting up on Tuesday feeling I'd barely slept. At least I was already going to be working from home because of the dentist appointment. I wasn't sure how I'd get through it with the way my nose was constantly running, but the actual appointment went fine. It was just that I needed two boxes of tissues to get through the rest of the day. Yesterday went better. I had planned to be in the office on Wednesday but my head felt so dull in the morning and I wasn't sure if it was going to be another day constantly holding onto a tissue, I worked from home. Today, I felt better in the morning, so I felt ready for the office. That did mean trying to fight the cough with water and hot drinks at times, but it was OK.
I'm on leave tomorrow so I can set out for Brighton in the afternoon. I'm hoping the cough settles a bit more, otherwise going to the concerts might be a bit stressful.
I'm on leave tomorrow so I can set out for Brighton in the afternoon. I'm hoping the cough settles a bit more, otherwise going to the concerts might be a bit stressful.
Update
Oct. 23rd, 2025 02:27 pmlexinYesterday I went to Llandudno for my annual check up with the oncology team. People may remember that I had a mastectomy in 2022 following a diagnosis of breast cancer.
Getting there is a minor irritation - it involves a taxi to the station (£7) a train to Llandudno (£5) and then another taxi to the hospital (£9). Then I repeat the performance to get back, doubling the cost. I have done this at various times for five years.
This time, I learn that had I ever asked, I could have scheduled the appointments in Bangor, where I live. A taxi to the hospital does cost £9 (it’s probably gone up) but I can get a bus back which costs me nothing because I have a disabled person’s bus pass covering me for buses in the whole of Wales, plus some trains which I have never got to grips with.
So next time, it will be in Bangor.
The oncologist said he couldn’t feel anything, but I will have to have the usual mammogram, and thankfully that will be in Bangor, too.
In other news
That stomach bug is still showing signs of hanging around. I feel a bit poorly and definitely cold, and I don’t think schlepping to Llandudno helped much.
Getting there is a minor irritation - it involves a taxi to the station (£7) a train to Llandudno (£5) and then another taxi to the hospital (£9). Then I repeat the performance to get back, doubling the cost. I have done this at various times for five years.
This time, I learn that had I ever asked, I could have scheduled the appointments in Bangor, where I live. A taxi to the hospital does cost £9 (it’s probably gone up) but I can get a bus back which costs me nothing because I have a disabled person’s bus pass covering me for buses in the whole of Wales, plus some trains which I have never got to grips with.
So next time, it will be in Bangor.
The oncologist said he couldn’t feel anything, but I will have to have the usual mammogram, and thankfully that will be in Bangor, too.
In other news
That stomach bug is still showing signs of hanging around. I feel a bit poorly and definitely cold, and I don’t think schlepping to Llandudno helped much.
Wednesday reading
Oct. 22nd, 2025 05:54 pmqueen_ypolitaFinished since the last reading post
When Will There Be Good News?, which I liked.
The Voyage Home by Pat Barker. I think I've enjoyed the previous two in the series more than I did this one, but it was still good.
Currently reading
Started reading Co-intelligence by Ethan Mollick. Also started reading The End of Innocence by Simon Garfield. I don't think I've made progress with anything else.
Reading next
I've got a library book waiting
When Will There Be Good News?, which I liked.
The Voyage Home by Pat Barker. I think I've enjoyed the previous two in the series more than I did this one, but it was still good.
Currently reading
Started reading Co-intelligence by Ethan Mollick. Also started reading The End of Innocence by Simon Garfield. I don't think I've made progress with anything else.
Reading next
I've got a library book waiting
Recent Reading: Private Rites
Oct. 22nd, 2025 09:30 amrocky41_7 posting in booksLast night I wrapped up another Julia Armfield novel, Private Rites. This novel is about three estranged sisters who are pushed back together when their father dies.
Very sorry I can't give this one a higher rating (I gave it a 3.25 on StoryGraph), because I loved the last Armfield novel I read, Our Wives Under the Sea, and this book shares a lot of similarities with that one. Our Wives Under the Sea was a meditative, slow-paced exploration of an evolving grief which hit me quite hard, but Private Rites comes off, if I can be excused for phrasing it this way, like it's trying too hard. Private Rites obviously really wants the reader to think it's Deep and Thoughtful and Literary, and it shows this desire too clearly for it to work, for me.
What does succeed in Private Rites is the frustrating and heart-breaking portrayal of three estranged sisters struggling with the legacy of a complicated and toxic father. Isla, Irene, and Agnes are not particularly likeable people, and even they muse over whether this can be tied to their strange and un-childlike childhood, or if it's just natural to them. Armfield so captures the feeling of being trapped at a certain age around family, the notion that they are locked into their view of you at ten or thirteen or seventeen and never update that view to reflect who you are as an adult and how you may subconciously regress to fit that view around them. She also catches the frustrating feeling of knowing you are reacting irrationally to a sibling and not being able to stop yourself and how much emotional history undergirds these seemingly outsized responses.
The slow apocalypse happening in the background of the story feels like it ties in well with the emotional state of the three protagonists; a drowning of the world that takes place a little at a time over many years until things become unlivable.
However, as mentioned above, the book ultimately does not succeed to me at being engaging. It is incredibly introspective in a way that comes off as navel-gazing. The "City" portions of the chapters felt especially like Armfield begging us to find the novel artistic and creative, which was unnecessary, because there's plenty here to stand on its own.
The ending also felt like a complete non-sequitur. The seeds for it were sown throughout the book, but not prominently enough that I cared when it came about. Instead, I felt cheated out of an emotional denouement among the three sisters, which is cast off in a coup by this last-minute, poorly-explained plot point.
I also felt like Isla gets an unfair share of grief, and it wasn't clear why she among the three of them was singled out to be exclusively miserable.
Do love the queer representation here; Armfield continues to excel in that.
On the whole, there is a lot of good meat here and it approaches grief from a completely different angle from Our Wives Under the Sea so that it doesn't feel at all repetitive if you've read that one, but it also drags more and I found the ending unsatisfying.
Very sorry I can't give this one a higher rating (I gave it a 3.25 on StoryGraph), because I loved the last Armfield novel I read, Our Wives Under the Sea, and this book shares a lot of similarities with that one. Our Wives Under the Sea was a meditative, slow-paced exploration of an evolving grief which hit me quite hard, but Private Rites comes off, if I can be excused for phrasing it this way, like it's trying too hard. Private Rites obviously really wants the reader to think it's Deep and Thoughtful and Literary, and it shows this desire too clearly for it to work, for me.
What does succeed in Private Rites is the frustrating and heart-breaking portrayal of three estranged sisters struggling with the legacy of a complicated and toxic father. Isla, Irene, and Agnes are not particularly likeable people, and even they muse over whether this can be tied to their strange and un-childlike childhood, or if it's just natural to them. Armfield so captures the feeling of being trapped at a certain age around family, the notion that they are locked into their view of you at ten or thirteen or seventeen and never update that view to reflect who you are as an adult and how you may subconciously regress to fit that view around them. She also catches the frustrating feeling of knowing you are reacting irrationally to a sibling and not being able to stop yourself and how much emotional history undergirds these seemingly outsized responses.
The slow apocalypse happening in the background of the story feels like it ties in well with the emotional state of the three protagonists; a drowning of the world that takes place a little at a time over many years until things become unlivable.
However, as mentioned above, the book ultimately does not succeed to me at being engaging. It is incredibly introspective in a way that comes off as navel-gazing. The "City" portions of the chapters felt especially like Armfield begging us to find the novel artistic and creative, which was unnecessary, because there's plenty here to stand on its own.
The ending also felt like a complete non-sequitur. The seeds for it were sown throughout the book, but not prominently enough that I cared when it came about. Instead, I felt cheated out of an emotional denouement among the three sisters, which is cast off in a coup by this last-minute, poorly-explained plot point.
I also felt like Isla gets an unfair share of grief, and it wasn't clear why she among the three of them was singled out to be exclusively miserable.
Do love the queer representation here; Armfield continues to excel in that.
On the whole, there is a lot of good meat here and it approaches grief from a completely different angle from Our Wives Under the Sea so that it doesn't feel at all repetitive if you've read that one, but it also drags more and I found the ending unsatisfying.
Justice League Unlimited #12 When There Is A Chaotic Situation. The Devil Comes Out To Play
Oct. 22nd, 2025 11:18 amDear Yuletide Author Letter (2025)
Oct. 22nd, 2025 11:06 amlareinenoireDear Yuletide Author,
First of all, thank you so much. If you've ended up with my prompts, I either bow to your applause or apologize for your trouble.
A few general things before I get into specific requests.
I am happy with gen, het, or slash (M/M and F/F both). Whatever best fits the story you want to tell.
Things I love: Complicated, nuanced relationships; siblings and friends bothering one another; clever characters being clever; clever characters being idiots (in-character idiots, of course); longing; UST; emphasizin ur wimminz (see icon); Gothic undertones; classical allusions/references; musical references; historical references; Grand Epic Moments; genfic with just a bit of romance; snark; period detail (I am an absolute sucker for it); moral ambiguity; unreliable narrators; gut-punch endings.
Things I do not love so much: PWP; explicit kink (unless it's required by the plot); dubious or coerced consent (unless it's genuinely in-character); characters behaving unrealistically for the time period (whether canon or AU); invisible wimminz; using magic to explain things away (I'm looking at you, Philippa Gregory); using romance to explain things away; gratuitous violence.
And now, requests!
( Requests & Details below )
Again, thank you so much in advance for this gift, and I have no doubt I'll love whatever you write.
First of all, thank you so much. If you've ended up with my prompts, I either bow to your applause or apologize for your trouble.
A few general things before I get into specific requests.
I am happy with gen, het, or slash (M/M and F/F both). Whatever best fits the story you want to tell.
Things I love: Complicated, nuanced relationships; siblings and friends bothering one another; clever characters being clever; clever characters being idiots (in-character idiots, of course); longing; UST; emphasizin ur wimminz (see icon); Gothic undertones; classical allusions/references; musical references; historical references; Grand Epic Moments; genfic with just a bit of romance; snark; period detail (I am an absolute sucker for it); moral ambiguity; unreliable narrators; gut-punch endings.
Things I do not love so much: PWP; explicit kink (unless it's required by the plot); dubious or coerced consent (unless it's genuinely in-character); characters behaving unrealistically for the time period (whether canon or AU); invisible wimminz; using magic to explain things away (I'm looking at you, Philippa Gregory); using romance to explain things away; gratuitous violence.
And now, requests!
( Requests & Details below )
Again, thank you so much in advance for this gift, and I have no doubt I'll love whatever you write.
The Uncle's Story
Oct. 22nd, 2025 09:16 amwatervoleIf, like me, you enjoy 'The Importance of being Earnest' (and even possibly if you don't), this delightful little story by Kalypso will surely please you as much as it pleased me.
sign of the season
Oct. 21st, 2025 11:26 amtwistedchickI was going absolutely insane, trying to figure out which of my 50-odd tabs was playing holiday music. Nothing showed up on the tab list. Finally I hit command-option-escape, to list what was open, and discovered that the very nice holiday advent calendar a friend sent me had decided to serenade me. I shut it down; sanity restored.
Reagancomics (2 of 5): Pre-Inaugural
Oct. 20th, 2025 09:47 pmtcampbell1000 posting in scans_daily
Ronald Reagan's first appearance in comics doesn't foreshadow his political career at all. It shows him only as an actor--with plans to keep acting until he's old enough to play parts with his glasses on.
( He could've played Clint Eastwood's dad. )