Daily Happiness
Nov. 17th, 2025 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torachan1. I decided to have a work from home day today so that I didn't have to drive in the rain. The morning was actually pretty sunny and nice, but we got a bunch more rain this afternoon. I think that's supposed to be it for now, though. I did manage to take an early afternoon walk just before the rain kicked in.
2. I was supposed to have a web meeting at five this evening, but it got pushed to next Monday.
3. A couple months ago I ordered a new pair of shoes because I really like these ones and didn't want to find that when I actually need a new pair, they've been discontinued. Recently I noticed it getting harder and harder to walk on wet pavement without slipping, and when I looked at the bottoms of my shoes, found the tread completely gone, so yesterday I broke out the new shoes and can now walk without fear of slipping all the time! So then I decided maybe I should order another backup pair, just in case, and found they're currently on sale for half off. Both because it's such a good deal and because the deep discount made me suspicious they might be discontinuing them, I went ahead and ordered two pairs, so now I'm set for a while.
4. Tuxie really likes this cat house on rainy days. I know he has somewhere he usually sleeps that's more fully sheltered, but he seems to like being out in the rain a bit, so this gives him the best of both worlds.
2. I was supposed to have a web meeting at five this evening, but it got pushed to next Monday.
3. A couple months ago I ordered a new pair of shoes because I really like these ones and didn't want to find that when I actually need a new pair, they've been discontinued. Recently I noticed it getting harder and harder to walk on wet pavement without slipping, and when I looked at the bottoms of my shoes, found the tread completely gone, so yesterday I broke out the new shoes and can now walk without fear of slipping all the time! So then I decided maybe I should order another backup pair, just in case, and found they're currently on sale for half off. Both because it's such a good deal and because the deep discount made me suspicious they might be discontinuing them, I went ahead and ordered two pairs, so now I'm set for a while.
4. Tuxie really likes this cat house on rainy days. I know he has somewhere he usually sleeps that's more fully sheltered, but he seems to like being out in the rain a bit, so this gives him the best of both worlds.
All fun and games until
Nov. 17th, 2025 07:29 pmoursinAre they going to eat me alive?’: trail runners become prey in newest form of hunting:
Would you like to be chased by a pack of hounds? It’s a question often put to highlight the cruelty of hunting, because the answer would seem to be no. Or so you would think.
Yet increasing numbers of people are volunteering to be chased across the countryside by baying bloodhounds in what could soon be the only legal way to hunt with dogs in England and Wales, rather than pursuing animals or their scents.
I seem to recall that the pursuit of children with bloodhounds featured in the Mitford children's childhood (or was this just one of Nancy's fictional artefacts?) but as I recall that did not involve pursuing them across country on horseback.... (and presumably the children were already acquainted with their father's bloodhounds).
Maybe this would have struck differently - jolly countryside japes? - if this had not been the same week in which there was
a) a review of the new remake of The Running Man:
Ben signs up for a top-rated reality TV show called The Running Man; he has to go on the run across the US, hunted by professional killers, and if he can survive for 30 days, he gets a billion dollars. But all too late, he realises that these shark-like fascist TV execs aren’t going to play fair.
(pretty sure I have come across similar scenarios set in nearish future dystopias) and
b) this creep-making report: Italy investigates claims of tourists paying to shoot civilians in Bosnia in 1990s:
[J]ournalist and novelist Ezio Gavazzeni, who describes a "manhunt" by "very wealthy people" with a passion for weapons who "paid to be able to kill defenceless civilians" from Serb positions in the hills around Sarajevo.
Different rates were charged to kill men, women or children, according to some reports.
I'm really not sure it's a great idea to start this sort of thing.
The sun was not up at 7:00
Nov. 17th, 2025 08:31 amcimoreneI'm up early to call for a doctor's appointment at eight before a "job hunting course" at nine. The latter is something I've seen twice before and am expecting a fair amount of wasted time this week, but they do provide an individual coach to give advice and talk through options and that should help me, not only because of my executive dysfunction, but also because I'm genuinely torn about what to do next.
I don't know how much of the day I have to wait for a call back from the health center, though, so I will have to leave to take the call at some point.
I don't know how much of the day I have to wait for a call back from the health center, though, so I will have to leave to take the call at some point.
Daily Happiness
Nov. 16th, 2025 08:36 pmtorachan1. We had a great time at Disneyland this morning, despite some rain.
2. Woke up this morning to find a huge ant infestation in the kitchen. We've had six months at least that were ant-free, but it's not surprising with the amount of rain we got yesterday. They were all over the sink and surrounding counters and even in some drawers and cupboards. D: So that was a huge cleanup job before we went out this morning, but thankfully when we got home there were still quite a few here and there, but not a whole other swarm, and now it's really just one or two. Tomorrow's supposed to be more rain, but that should be the end of it, so hopefully after that the ants will go back to staying outside.
3. Ollie likes the new bathmat placement as well.
2. Woke up this morning to find a huge ant infestation in the kitchen. We've had six months at least that were ant-free, but it's not surprising with the amount of rain we got yesterday. They were all over the sink and surrounding counters and even in some drawers and cupboards. D: So that was a huge cleanup job before we went out this morning, but thankfully when we got home there were still quite a few here and there, but not a whole other swarm, and now it's really just one or two. Tomorrow's supposed to be more rain, but that should be the end of it, so hopefully after that the ants will go back to staying outside.
3. Ollie likes the new bathmat placement as well.
Forwards and backwards
Nov. 16th, 2025 07:59 pmstarladyI ran the Berkeley Half Marathon 10K again today. Contrary to my ambitions, my time this year was even slower than last year, although still more than 30 seconds/mile better than my worst-ever showing in 2022. I think part of it is that I really didn't put enough training in over the last month for various reasons. And yet my split times actually came down by nearly 10 seconds/mile over the course of the run per the tracking, which does seem to show that I've gotten better at the downhills.
So yeah, I'm not particularly satisfied with this result, but on the other hand I was once again physically pretty okay afterwards, not completely destroyed like I used to be. I haven't done a great job at integrating 8K or 10K runs into my training plans over the past year, so I think a clear goal is to start doing an 8K run regularly and ideally aim for a 10K once a month or so. And I've also bowed to the inevitable and acknowledged that my shoes really only last eight months at the outside--I bought a hardly used pair of shoes on eBay the other day so I'm looking forward to new ones.
I haven't gotten a race shirt since 2019 because I have more than enough running shirts, and amusingly now that's apparently old enough to qualify as vintage--one woman in the corral was asking me about the shirt, and another dude gave me a fist bump mid-race because we were both wearing the shirts. Pleasingly enough, the "loyal runner" gift this year was actually useful: a running hat that I wore in today's race. Previous gifts have been mostly...more T-shirts...which seems to defeat the purpose of not getting a race shirt.
One final bit of shenanigans: I left the bike station after parking my bike and the keypad went dark behind me. I figured I would deal with that after running the 10K, and the eventual answer (after "Someone else called about this earlier!") was "I dunno, no one's answering because it's Sunday." "Yes, a day of the week." (The entire premise of the bike station is 24/7 access to cardholders.) The dude swore up and down I would get a call back about the keypad status, which of course I didn't, so tomorrow I will have to call them because a) it's not difficult to get back down to the bike station, but I'm not making the trip unless I know I can retrieve my bike; and b) I want a refund of the money I've unwillingly spent on it being locked in there. Overall BikeLink is great! But the edge cases where there's a problem have, in my experience, been extremely annoying. Luckily I was able to call my roommate to come pick me up, so at least that worked out.
So yeah, I'm not particularly satisfied with this result, but on the other hand I was once again physically pretty okay afterwards, not completely destroyed like I used to be. I haven't done a great job at integrating 8K or 10K runs into my training plans over the past year, so I think a clear goal is to start doing an 8K run regularly and ideally aim for a 10K once a month or so. And I've also bowed to the inevitable and acknowledged that my shoes really only last eight months at the outside--I bought a hardly used pair of shoes on eBay the other day so I'm looking forward to new ones.
I haven't gotten a race shirt since 2019 because I have more than enough running shirts, and amusingly now that's apparently old enough to qualify as vintage--one woman in the corral was asking me about the shirt, and another dude gave me a fist bump mid-race because we were both wearing the shirts. Pleasingly enough, the "loyal runner" gift this year was actually useful: a running hat that I wore in today's race. Previous gifts have been mostly...more T-shirts...which seems to defeat the purpose of not getting a race shirt.
One final bit of shenanigans: I left the bike station after parking my bike and the keypad went dark behind me. I figured I would deal with that after running the 10K, and the eventual answer (after "Someone else called about this earlier!") was "I dunno, no one's answering because it's Sunday." "Yes, a day of the week." (The entire premise of the bike station is 24/7 access to cardholders.) The dude swore up and down I would get a call back about the keypad status, which of course I didn't, so tomorrow I will have to call them because a) it's not difficult to get back down to the bike station, but I'm not making the trip unless I know I can retrieve my bike; and b) I want a refund of the money I've unwillingly spent on it being locked in there. Overall BikeLink is great! But the edge cases where there's a problem have, in my experience, been extremely annoying. Luckily I was able to call my roommate to come pick me up, so at least that worked out.
2025 Disneyland Trip #72 (11/16/25)
Nov. 16th, 2025 05:19 pmtorachanThe forecast this morning said a little rain early and then cloudy but no rain for most of the day. It was not raining when I took my walk in the morning, but we did get a bit of sprinkling on the drive down to Anaheim...and then as soon as we got to the parking lot it started to full on rain. D:
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Culinary
Nov. 16th, 2025 07:24 pmoursinLast week's bread actually held out pretty well, though was rather dry by the end, however, that meant there was enough left to make a frittata with pepperoni for Friday night supper.
Saturday breakfast rolls: eclectic vanilla, which for an experiment I tried making with Marriage's Golden Wholegrain, fairly pleasant but I think nicer with strong white.
Today's lunch: bozbash, with Romano peppers, aubergine, okra, baby courgettes, fresh coriander, crushed 5-pepper blend, dried basil, and finished with tayberry vinegar. Was going to serve couscous with this but I was not impressed by the way this turned out given the instructions on the packet. Not really necessary, anyway.
24 hours in Larnaka
Nov. 16th, 2025 04:49 pmnanilaWhen the conference finished in Nicosia, I took the opportunity to give myself a day and night in Larnaka, which is on the beach on the southern side of Cyprus. It's a popular holiday destination for Western Europeans wanting some winter sun, although because it's more northerly than, say, the Canary Islands, it tends to be a bit quieter, especially outside the school holidays.
I picked a hotel on the beach, and was pleasantly surprised to receive an upgrade to a sea view room with a balcony on arrival. It was too early for me to check in when I arrived, so I went to have lunch on the patio and do a bit of work. I cooled off with a small glass of the local beer (Keo). Then I had a long walk along the beachfront promenade, looking for cats.
[Cat eventually located]
As soon as I could access my room, I went up and had a shower, applied sun cream, and went for a swim. Even at 3 PM it had started to cool off significantly - sunset was at 4:45 PM - so I was alone in the pool, and indeed poolside. I did a bunch of slow, lazy laps and got out to soak up the last of the rays. I also popped down to the beach to poke my toes into the sea.
I got changed and went for another stroll, this time in the opposite direction, to enjoy the sunset. The promenade ran for several kilometres in both directions from the hotel, and when it petered out, the compacted sand on the beach made walking easy.
[Big sky, fiery clouds]
[Palm tree silhouettes]
[Night falls]
By the time night had fallen, I was pleasantly worn out. I went to the bar, thought about sitting there, and then remembered I had a balcony. So instead, I ordered a negroni and took it up to my room. I chatted to the family. I listened to the howling of the cats. Everything went very quiet around 8:30 PM. It was too early to go to bed, tempting though it was, so I did some writing with old episodes of “House” on in the background before turning in. I set my alarm so I wouldn't miss the sunrise, which was at 6:13 AM.
[Sunrise from the balcony]
Very glad I didn't miss the sunrise.
[The sun emerges]
I made myself a small strong espresso and changed for breakfast. I turned up as soon as it opened (07:00) and sat outside to eat. I got chatting to another solo woman traveller, who recommended a walking holiday in northern Cyprus to me the next time I had time to myself (“probably not for the children at this stage, my dear”). She supposed I could bring the husband if I really wanted, but in her opinion I'd enjoy it more on my own. I couldn't laugh. She genuinely meant that.
[Breakfast!]
Still chuckling, I went upstairs to change into something less roasting and had another walk toward the east, the direction I thought gave me the best chance of finding some shells. The beach was mostly claggy sand and pebbles, but I did spot a few.
[Meow.]
I changed into my costume when I got back and went down to the sea for a swim. The tide was out and it was possible to walk nearly all the way to the breakwater without being deeper than my chest. I'm not tall. I walked out, had a little paddle around looking at the fish in the crystal clear water, and swam back to the promenade. I sat on a sunbed and enjoyed drying off in the breeze and the sun. Then I went to the pool. Again there was no one in it because it hadn't warmed up yet, so I had a long, slightly more vigorous swim and then sunned myself again.
I knew it must be getting close to checkout time so I went up to shower and attempt to prevent my hair turning into straw after all the soakings. I mostly succeeded, and was pleased I'd succeeded in not getting burnt either.
I chatted with the family, who were eating a late breakfast of dippy eggs. Keiki was excited about his rugby match. Humuhumu was being a teenage potato. Nevertheless we had a nice chat until was time for me to head downstairs, have lunch, and start the long journey home.
I caught the sunset in the airport, sprinting across the terminal to take a photo before boarding the plane.
Due to various delays, I didn’t arrive home until well after midnight, so technically Monday morning. Nevertheless I had to get up six hour later and go to work. Astro here accurately reflects the amount of sympathy I got from the family about this.
[Astro at home amongst the carnivorous plants and prickly cacti]
I picked a hotel on the beach, and was pleasantly surprised to receive an upgrade to a sea view room with a balcony on arrival. It was too early for me to check in when I arrived, so I went to have lunch on the patio and do a bit of work. I cooled off with a small glass of the local beer (Keo). Then I had a long walk along the beachfront promenade, looking for cats.
[Cat eventually located]
As soon as I could access my room, I went up and had a shower, applied sun cream, and went for a swim. Even at 3 PM it had started to cool off significantly - sunset was at 4:45 PM - so I was alone in the pool, and indeed poolside. I did a bunch of slow, lazy laps and got out to soak up the last of the rays. I also popped down to the beach to poke my toes into the sea.
I got changed and went for another stroll, this time in the opposite direction, to enjoy the sunset. The promenade ran for several kilometres in both directions from the hotel, and when it petered out, the compacted sand on the beach made walking easy.
[Big sky, fiery clouds]
[Palm tree silhouettes]
[Night falls]
By the time night had fallen, I was pleasantly worn out. I went to the bar, thought about sitting there, and then remembered I had a balcony. So instead, I ordered a negroni and took it up to my room. I chatted to the family. I listened to the howling of the cats. Everything went very quiet around 8:30 PM. It was too early to go to bed, tempting though it was, so I did some writing with old episodes of “House” on in the background before turning in. I set my alarm so I wouldn't miss the sunrise, which was at 6:13 AM.
[Sunrise from the balcony]
Very glad I didn't miss the sunrise.
[The sun emerges]
I made myself a small strong espresso and changed for breakfast. I turned up as soon as it opened (07:00) and sat outside to eat. I got chatting to another solo woman traveller, who recommended a walking holiday in northern Cyprus to me the next time I had time to myself (“probably not for the children at this stage, my dear”). She supposed I could bring the husband if I really wanted, but in her opinion I'd enjoy it more on my own. I couldn't laugh. She genuinely meant that.
[Breakfast!]
Still chuckling, I went upstairs to change into something less roasting and had another walk toward the east, the direction I thought gave me the best chance of finding some shells. The beach was mostly claggy sand and pebbles, but I did spot a few.
[Meow.]
I changed into my costume when I got back and went down to the sea for a swim. The tide was out and it was possible to walk nearly all the way to the breakwater without being deeper than my chest. I'm not tall. I walked out, had a little paddle around looking at the fish in the crystal clear water, and swam back to the promenade. I sat on a sunbed and enjoyed drying off in the breeze and the sun. Then I went to the pool. Again there was no one in it because it hadn't warmed up yet, so I had a long, slightly more vigorous swim and then sunned myself again.
I knew it must be getting close to checkout time so I went up to shower and attempt to prevent my hair turning into straw after all the soakings. I mostly succeeded, and was pleased I'd succeeded in not getting burnt either.
I chatted with the family, who were eating a late breakfast of dippy eggs. Keiki was excited about his rugby match. Humuhumu was being a teenage potato. Nevertheless we had a nice chat until was time for me to head downstairs, have lunch, and start the long journey home.
I caught the sunset in the airport, sprinting across the terminal to take a photo before boarding the plane.
Due to various delays, I didn’t arrive home until well after midnight, so technically Monday morning. Nevertheless I had to get up six hour later and go to work. Astro here accurately reflects the amount of sympathy I got from the family about this.
[Astro at home amongst the carnivorous plants and prickly cacti]
Erin Reads: What Moves The Dead, The Queue, Mogworld
Nov. 15th, 2025 10:41 pmerinptahWhat Moves The Dead: Another T. Kingfisher novel, and, wow, it’s a good thing I didn’t start with this one. DNF halfway through. I figured out the twist pretty quickly, double-checked on Wikipedia that I was right, and wasn’t gripped enough by the characters to enjoy the process of “listening to them bumble around for a couple more hours failing to figure it out.”
Future game plan: stick with her fantasy works, skip the horror.
The Queue, by Basma Abdel Aziz: Bought this on Audible years ago, and didn’t remember not liking it. So I downloaded it when I tried out Libation, and gave it a re-listen.
Definitely worth it. Reminds me of 1984, in that it’s a near-future dystopia run by a government that is as totalitarian as it is surreal. At the same time, it’s set in Unnamed Middle Eastern/Muslim City (the author is from Cairo), so it all plays out in a way that’s culturally-specific to that part of the world.
Cool and enriching to see which parts are different. Depressing to see that certain things are the same. The POV residents have a range of perspectives and life experiences, but they’ve all been more-or-less frogboiled into accepting an untenable situation as Just How Things Work. One guy spends the whole book actively dying, but he was injured during the Disgraceful Events that nobody will talk about directly, and his friends/loved ones/doctors keep running into “of course the government will authorize him to get life-saving surgery…just as soon as you have all the proper paperwork.” The titular Queue is all the citizens lined up to get their paperwork. It hasn’t moved for a month now. But it’s going to start soon! Somewhere between the MOASS and the Rapture, probably!
Also, there’s a character named Yehia, which I assume is the same name as Yehya Badr with a slightly different Anglicization. So that was entertaining.
Mogworld, by Yahtzee Croshaw: Checked this out based on how much I liked Will Save The Galaxy For Food, and it did not disappoint.
Starts as a fantasy story about a necromancer overlord’s reign of terror through his undead hordes, but from the POV of Jim, a beleaguered zombie who just wants to die (again) (for good, this time). Then it develops into a parody of fantasy-adventure video-game mechanics. Then you start to see the chat logs between the game developers. Then Jim starts to see the chat logs between the game developers…
It’s like if Terry Pratchett wrote Guilded Age. It’s full of absolutely incredible turns of phrase. (One that I had to stop and write down: a group of supernatural beings is described as “heading off to deliver unwanted resurrections, like a flock of poorly-briefed storks.”)
There’s a character type you see sometimes, where the male protagonist has the support of a devoted female hanger-on, who he finds grating and annoying and never appreciates…but he keeps her around because she does useful things for him. She conveniently never notices his disdain, so she keeps giving him endless support for zero care/support/respect in return. (Misa from Death Note is…a deconstruction of this trope? A commentary, at least.)
Mogworld pulls a twist on this that I’ve never seen before. Undead bodies don’t heal, so Meryl is the local expert in sewing them back together. When the plot drags Jim off on a solo adventure, Meryl follows, conveniently dedicating herself to repairing all the dramatic injuries he gets along the way. But, the reason is: Jim is the only other zombie from Meryl’s home country…and Meryl is a huge [their country] supremacist! So there’s something Jim can legitimately resent about her, he’s not just being an entitled sexist. (They both do a bit of learning and growing as the story goes on, too.)
One warning: the R-slur gets thrown around a bunch. It’s a book that deals with video-gamer culture and was published in 2010, so this isn’t hugely unrealistic…but the writing mostly doesn’t have other slurs/profanity outside of that, so it was kind of a jumpscare.
As long as that’s not a dealbreaker, definitely give this one a read.
Daily Happiness
Nov. 15th, 2025 04:53 pmtorachan1. That rain is really raining, but I did get in three walks today. (I usually get four on Saturdays but skipped the farmers market as I had already taken one pretty wet walk and the rain didn't let up much until after they were closed.) It was drizzling when I took my morning walk and I did take an umbrella, but it really didn't seem too bad, so I decided to stop and get bagels and lattes, but it got much rainier and windier after I got my stuff, and the cup holders they have do not have handles (just those four cup cardboard things), which made it very awkward to carry, especially with an umbrella. And the tread is mostly gone on my shoes, so I have to walk carefully on wet pavement and couldn't even hurry home. D: Carla was very happy about the surprise bagels and lattes, though, and I enjoyed mine as well.
2. It's still looking like tomorrow will just be cloudy with a small chance of rain, so we're planning on Disneyland in the morning.
3. I think I've got the Christmas tree branches all pulled apart and fluffed out. We still have our old tree skirt (Winnie the Pooh), so I put that down and will start on ornaments at some point. It's been so long since we had a tree, I don't even remember all our old ornaments, though I do know there were a lot of penguin ones.
4. One of the cats sat on the bathmat too soon after peeing and got pee on it, so I had to wash it, and after washing, I just set it in this basket rather than putting it back on the floor, and suddenly it's the most popular spot.
2. It's still looking like tomorrow will just be cloudy with a small chance of rain, so we're planning on Disneyland in the morning.
3. I think I've got the Christmas tree branches all pulled apart and fluffed out. We still have our old tree skirt (Winnie the Pooh), so I put that down and will start on ornaments at some point. It's been so long since we had a tree, I don't even remember all our old ornaments, though I do know there were a lot of penguin ones.
4. One of the cats sat on the bathmat too soon after peeing and got pee on it, so I had to wash it, and after washing, I just set it in this basket rather than putting it back on the floor, and suddenly it's the most popular spot.
Back home
Nov. 15th, 2025 07:04 pmqueen_ypolitaThis morning brought sunshine, slightly hazy, but absolutely gorgeous nonetheless. I ventured out for some parkrun tourism and it was great to be out in that sunshine, even if the wind was rather brisk and chilly.
My train from Edinburgh departed at midday, so I didn't really have time for anything apart from parkrun. The journey was uneventful and I spent it reading. And the cross-London transfer and train journey home were equally unremarkable. There were some delays and changes on GWR trains after Storm Claudia, but that didn't really affect me, as I'd always aim for whichever would depart next. All the issues were apparently further west down the line.
My train from Edinburgh departed at midday, so I didn't really have time for anything apart from parkrun. The journey was uneventful and I spent it reading. And the cross-London transfer and train journey home were equally unremarkable. There were some delays and changes on GWR trains after Storm Claudia, but that didn't really affect me, as I'd always aim for whichever would depart next. All the issues were apparently further west down the line.
A few cool things
Nov. 15th, 2025 04:27 pmoursinThe Spanish government has granted citizenship to 170 descendants of volunteers in the International Brigades in recognition of their fight against fascism.
Go them!
The daughter of a Manchester man who volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War has reflected on his "incredible feat of solidarity" as her family is set to become Spanish citizens.
***
‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard fights to preserve Black newspapers.
“We don’t even know all of what we have,” Mr. Nightingale marvels.
The basement is a trove of artifacts, including old editions of Black-owned newspapers that tell the life of Black Americans during the 19th and 20th centuries. Articles cover slavery, lynchings, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights era. The archive project, which is part of the university’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, is bringing to life the faces of yesterday by merging them with the digital world of today. This way, the hope is, they won’t be lost ever again.
***
Disentangling obscured women: One Artist – ‘Mary Katherine Constance Lloyd’ – Dismembered To Create Two: or The Importance Of Biography:
Googling ‘Mary Katherine Constance Lloyd’ led me to the ArtUK page for ‘Mary Katharine [sic] Constance Lloyd’, which included birth and death dates and a short biography[i]. It was then only the work of a moment to discover on Ancestry that the woman with the given dates was not a Mary Katherine Constance Lloyd but a Katharine Constance Lloyd. How peculiar, I thought, and looked again at the ArtUK page. It then seemed obvious that the paintings displayed were unlikely to all be by the same hand. Four, including the one described by Birrell in the chapter on ‘Mary’, might be classed as ‘impressionist’, while the others were formal portraits of worthy 20th-century gentlemen, attired in various robes of office.
A little more online research established that there was, indeed, another artist with a similar name, Mary Constance Lloyd, and that a succession of art reference works had carelessly blended their two lives together – to create ’Mary Katharine Constance Lloyd’. I suppose it is a measure of how little importance is attached to the lives of such women artists that in 50 years no author had bothered to research either subject ab initio – but, when compiling a new biographical dictionary or making a footnote reference, had merely copied the – incorrect – information.
Don't think I shall be rushing to read that book on women artists and still life cited in the opening of the post!
***
We are always up for some toad-related phenomena around here: Newly identified species of Tanzanian tree toad leapfrog the tadpole stage and give birth to toadlets. How about that.
Tags:
Weekly Reading
Nov. 14th, 2025 08:20 pmtorachanRecently Finished
Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile
Title is pretty self-explanatory. This was an interesting read.
Miss Morton and the Missing Heir
I was worried this series might be winding up, but it looks like there will be more. I prefer mysteries where the protagonist is more proactive about solving the case, whereas these ones it's definitely more of a "murder happens around the MC and she happens to make some discoveries" rather than really actively wanting to solve it herself, but I do enjoy the series.
A Death in Tokyo
Another Detective Kaga mystery. I am enjoying these. Sadly, it seems there's only one more translated in English, and the Japanese ones are not available as ebooks, so I won't be reading any more any time soon. (It's something to consider looking for on our next trip to Japan, I guess. Might pick some up if I can find them for cheap.)
I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons
Humorous fantasy book about a young man who works as a dragon exterminator in a world where dragons are pests that infest peoples houses like rodents and gets involved in a much larger dragon-slaying quest after being summoned to clean up the local castle. I picked this up at a Little Library because of the title. It's written by the author of The Last Unicorn, which I have neither read nor seen the movie of, though I know it's a classic. This was a fun read, so I might check out some of his (numerous) other books at some point.
My Home Hero vol. 10-12
Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile
Title is pretty self-explanatory. This was an interesting read.
Miss Morton and the Missing Heir
I was worried this series might be winding up, but it looks like there will be more. I prefer mysteries where the protagonist is more proactive about solving the case, whereas these ones it's definitely more of a "murder happens around the MC and she happens to make some discoveries" rather than really actively wanting to solve it herself, but I do enjoy the series.
A Death in Tokyo
Another Detective Kaga mystery. I am enjoying these. Sadly, it seems there's only one more translated in English, and the Japanese ones are not available as ebooks, so I won't be reading any more any time soon. (It's something to consider looking for on our next trip to Japan, I guess. Might pick some up if I can find them for cheap.)
I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons
Humorous fantasy book about a young man who works as a dragon exterminator in a world where dragons are pests that infest peoples houses like rodents and gets involved in a much larger dragon-slaying quest after being summoned to clean up the local castle. I picked this up at a Little Library because of the title. It's written by the author of The Last Unicorn, which I have neither read nor seen the movie of, though I know it's a classic. This was a fun read, so I might check out some of his (numerous) other books at some point.
My Home Hero vol. 10-12
Daily Happiness
Nov. 14th, 2025 07:55 pmtorachan1. The rain has definitely arrived. I was able to get out and take a walk this morning during a break in the rain (and it didn't seem to have been very heavy before then anyway), but once I got home, it started raining and I wasn't able to go out in the garage to do my morning exercise (and puzzle time). It rained pretty steadily on my way to work, but wasn't pouring when I arrived, so I was able to get in the building without getting too wet. According to Carla, it rained off and on throughout the day, though she was able to get out for a little walk this afternoon. When I left work, it wasn't raining, and I thought maybe if it still was dry when I got home, we could take our evening walk before any further rain, but alas, it started raining almost as soon as I got out of the parking lot and only got heavier and heavier as I got closer to home. It's been raining pretty hard all evening, though I was able to get out to the garage for a bit when there was a short break, so I was able to use the exercise machine today. Still hoping there might be another break long enough to take another walk later, but we may have to skip it tonight. It's supposed to rain for the whole next week, with a couple maybe less rain days in the middle, so we'll see how this goes. (A bit bummed that it's going to be too rainy to make Disneyland pleasant tomorrow, because it's the start of the holiday season and we want to try to new foods, but we're hoping to go Sunday as that should have some less rainy periods.)
2. So glad it's the weekend. I'm making progress on stuff at work, but feeling stressed and blah about the project as a whole and just ready for a break.
3. It's payday today and when I went to pay bills I found that the air miles credit card suddenly charged me a membership fee. It had no membership fee when we signed up, but apparently that was just for the first year. Since discovering that the miles don't work well for a trip to Japan, the only thing they're useful for is Carla's occasional domestic trips to visit family, but it's not worth keeping the card if there's a fee. I checked the statement and it said you can get a refund for the fee if you cancel your card within 30 days of the fee being charged, so thankfully today was only ten days and I was able to cancel. Hopefully I will indeed see the charge reversed soon.
4. Gemma!
2. So glad it's the weekend. I'm making progress on stuff at work, but feeling stressed and blah about the project as a whole and just ready for a break.
3. It's payday today and when I went to pay bills I found that the air miles credit card suddenly charged me a membership fee. It had no membership fee when we signed up, but apparently that was just for the first year. Since discovering that the miles don't work well for a trip to Japan, the only thing they're useful for is Carla's occasional domestic trips to visit family, but it's not worth keeping the card if there's a fee. I checked the statement and it said you can get a refund for the fee if you cancel your card within 30 days of the fee being charged, so thankfully today was only ten days and I was able to cancel. Hopefully I will indeed see the charge reversed soon.
4. Gemma!
what I need is Accounting For Anticapitalists
Nov. 14th, 2025 06:44 pmfinchOne thing I have learned about myself doing this Accounting for Managers course is that I absolutely hate having to write from a pure "upper management" point of view to the point where my options are just "procrastinate indefinitely" or "write it as if I run some kind of employee-owned co-op" and so I'm opting for the latter most of the time.
The rest of this is just a thought dump, feel free to ignore.
Somewhere yesterday I realized that I've been tearing down all of my systems and guardrails instead of what I usually try to do, which is changing them one at a time or, ideally, not changing them at all.
My household routines are off and honestly have been since before my nibling got here. Laundry's just. Not moving. I can't seem to make any progress on packing. Nothing's getting out of the house. I've complained about this before, it's boring.
I got a new pair of jeans with a slightly smaller pocket so I decided to try a slightly smaller notebook and all hell has broken loose since then on the notebook front. I've tried and bounced hard off of two, I'm still sort of using a third but not very well, I've got a journal that's too large to be an EDC living next to my bed except when it isn't, and I bought the absolutely gorgeous PaperblanksxFourth Wing notebook and it's in this size they call "midi" which is like... 5x7? It's bigger than my jeans pockets but it's fall now and I'm wearing my jacket a lot and it has no problem fitting in my jacket pocket and I'm trying SO FUCKING HARD not to move into it just because it's SHINY NEW but at the same time it's like... distracting thinking about it so maybe I should just fucking do it, you know? If I like it, then I can try a paperblanks planner for next year in the Midi size too. And if I don't I'll just go back to the one that works.
Please somebody tell me this isn't worth the amount of overthinking I'm doing.
I had somebody suggest making a list of values in a way that hit me like a ton of bricks, where normally that would sound twee as hell. Because it occurred to me that I'm actually always looking for a single word or phrase that unites everything I care about and that's just... pretty much impossible. But if I make a list then I don't have to just pick one. (lolsob why does "you can be more than one thing" feel like a big deal)
Other things I've torn apart and now cannot commit to: - backups (I don't want to depend on google drive. Currently waffling between a nextcloud instance and protondrive.) - email providers (Currently waffling between fastmail and protondrive.) - digital notes/references/bookmarks (kind of half moved into Obsidian, tried xtiles but never settled into it, playing with moving back into Notion, there are some things Notion just makes really easy.) - website (one of the things Notion could make really easy is some variants on website maintenance. not all of them but... definitely some. currently have some sites on a regular ftp host, some still on nearlyfreespeech, and some still running on fastmail's web server option. not keeping up with anything. augh etc.)
Also other stuff I'm forgetting, I'm sure.
Mirror Mirror
Nov. 14th, 2025 02:43 pmmarycatelli posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
booksMirror Mirror by Sarah Mlynowski
The adventures conclude! Spoilers for the earlier ones ahead!
( Read more... )
The adventures conclude! Spoilers for the earlier ones ahead!
( Read more... )
Art and history
Nov. 14th, 2025 06:30 pmqueen_ypolitaToday, I started my day by heading out to the National Galleries Modern. There's actually Modern One and Modern Two, but I only went to the former. There are some sculptures outside, too. Like the name suggests, the art on display is from 1900 onwards or so, mostly organised thematically. Very enjoyable. I had lunch there before taking the steps down from the museum to the riverside and following the Water of Leith walkway for a while for my walk back towards the city centre. There's an Antony Gormley sculpture in the river, and a riverside AIDS memorial.
Before going to the National Museum of Scotland, I made detour to the National Galleries National shop. At the National Museum, there was so much to see I barely made it through two areas.
The weather today was a clear improvement on yesterday: clear and bright if not particularly sunny, although breezier and a bit colder than yesterday. It had cleared rained during the time I'd been in the National Museum, and there was some more before I made it back to where I'm staying. I probably don't have time for anything much tomorrow before my train south departs.
Before going to the National Museum of Scotland, I made detour to the National Galleries National shop. At the National Museum, there was so much to see I barely made it through two areas.
The weather today was a clear improvement on yesterday: clear and bright if not particularly sunny, although breezier and a bit colder than yesterday. It had cleared rained during the time I'd been in the National Museum, and there was some more before I made it back to where I'm staying. I probably don't have time for anything much tomorrow before my train south departs.