sorcyress | Reading

My plans to sleep out a recovery from Arisia were somewhat complicated by the move-in of the new upstairs neighbors and the resonating chamber of feet and furniture our bedroom immediately downstairs of this process necessarily turned into, but the snow remains beautifully fallen and is not even supposed to rain back into immediate slush or, worse, spring.

I am re-reading Kathryn M. Drennan's To Dream in the City of Sorrows (1997) for the first time since it came out and had completely forgotten the introduction by J. Michael Straczynski in which he designates it the first fully canonical novel in the Babylon 5 tie-in line. Despite the volumes of Harlan Ellison I was tracking down in used book stores and reading at the time—his credit as creative consultant was a point in the show's favor—it was not until years later that I caught since how much of his nonfiction voice had been adopted by JMS. "How difficult a task was this? Job would've packed it in, Hercules would've retired, and Orpheus would've decided that his days spent in Hades weren't really that bad."

The Post-Meridian Radio Players have now opened auditions for their spring show: Jeeves & Wooster: Hijinks and Shenanigans. I am seriously considering throwing myself on a slot for the genderswapped adaptation. It would be something of an exercise if I went for it; most of my performance skills do not translate into straight acting and I am frankly missing the facility with accents specified in the sides or I'd be able to code-switch out of being asked all the time where mine's really from. I would have to hope I was not just wasting the creative team's time. But even if it's just the hangover from Arisia, I have not auditioned for anything since 2019 and so long as I could decouple the experience from actually landing a part, it suddenly looked as though it might be fun.

Indeed, I had never heard of hickory oil. I am not however thrilled by the prospect of trading off maple syrup.

Current Music: Dry Cleaning, "Hit My Head All Day"

sorcyress

I left off Satureve, I think? lots of very late dancing, which felt very good???

So Sunday continued my pattern of very leisurely late wakeup time (Arisia is one of the only times of year I just straight up guilt-free get to run my sleep schedule the way I actually want to). I got my stuff transferred from the one room to the other, and then had just enough time to hit up the art show before my goat check shift. But first.......Mount Arisia!

On Saturday,

mindways decided to try a speed run (apparently aided by wearing his very speedy pants) during the climb time, and managed to get the thirteen floors in a truly staggering time. I know that I'm not necessarily in nearly as good shape as him, was not wearing speedy pants (in fact, at that point I was wearing a lovely-but-heavy suede skirt), and critically, am quite a bit shorter. I didn't run it. I just decided "okay, if I was going to walk up these stairs like I meant it, what would I score?"

I was not quite a minute slower, but I am _very happy_ with my 2:15 ascension. A bit over ten seconds per floor when *not* running? Yeah, I'll definitely take that, and if we're in the same hotel in 2028, I think I'll have to at least try and beat that. I don't know if I have the stamina to full run up the whole thing, but gosh, wouldn't it be fun to try?

Having not made it up to the art show earlier, I had the vague disappointment of seeing several pieces I would consider buying, if they hadn't already sold. I think that's perfect in some ways, because it meant I got to admire them, and feel happy the artist is being paid, but not have to spend the money myself. It also meant I had a little more buffer to buy needless pretties in the dealer's hall instead, which I'm honestly quite happy about. (shockingly, I did resist the EXTREMELY LARGE d20s. Like, a size for putting on the desk and pondering. And _gorgeous_ too, too often the big ones are just kinda chintzy.)

Goat check was nice, then off to check my texts and send massive congratudolances to Tuesday upon hearing that The Providence Bureau of Invest-Egg-Ations, after placing second the last two years, has won the 2026 Mystery Hunt! Am I gonna get to see this particular sweetie ever in the upcoming year? Probably not, but I'm real happy for them regardless!

I wandered a bit and dealers halled a bit and eventually wound up eating food and hanging out with mom in their room until it was time for us to head to the masquerade. Mom always works as the backstage pirate, and I often work with them. It was...fine. Mom was lovely and the costumers were lovely and Antonia is an absolute bangup MC, and I don't think the audience could tell any of the particularly rough spots (except of course that the judges took forever, because they always do.)

Post Masque I did some lobbyconning. jere7my and I went and got Toast, and then eventually Tuesday showed up and they and I went to get more Toast. I am very pleased that by my last round of the evening, they had more cookie butter, so I could get my favourite combination.

Tues and I wandered a bit, including playing Lost Cities in person, where I did about as badly as I have ever played --I scored a total of one point. Just _brutally_ unlucky with the cards! Tuesday had like, 150 points to make up for it.

Off to bed went we, and that was that.

Monday morn was going to start lazy, but when I checked my phone, I saw a somewhat urgent message from LB saying that they'll were feeling sick and could I put a sign on their table until they could figure out how to get their supplies back. I sailed downstairs to the dealers hall and blatantly ignored the "this space is not open for another forty minutes" sign entirely. I can't summon the authority of I Am Supposed To Be Here everywhere, but I _definitely_ can at sci-fi cons. Do you _know_ who I _am_? I'm the child of Greykell and Richard, this place is in my blood!

I gathered LB's things for them, and was very pleased to see their box exactly fit in my (really, Rey's) rolly crate. So that was trivial to bring home, and I'll swing it by their place later this week. It is good to be able to help my friends and community!

Tuesday and I ate breakfast and got ready for our respective tasks --I had one last goat check shift, which was incredibly slow --apparently the snow scared people out of coming for just Monday?-- and she was off to the wrapup for hunt. I helped clean up and that was that, everything else about the con was lazing about deliciously.

More photos to come later. I hope you are having a good time of things. I hope tomorrow works out well for the all of us.

~Sor
MOOP!

canyonwalker

As of today I've blogged 30 days in a row. That small accomplishment is an accomplishment because my blogging has been spotty the past few months. Occasionally I've gone days at a time without writing.

I'm calling it a small accomplishment because I've done so much better in the past. Until a few months ago I had blogged nearly every day for years. I had a streak of over 300 days in a row from April 2024 into early 2025. Late last year I slipped from skipping one or two days a year to having several skip days a month. 30 days ago I got back up on my digital surfboard and decided I would just do this.

A small accomplishment is still an accomplishment. There have been a few days among the past 30 where I felt the I-don't-wannas. Evenings where I asked myself, "What does it matter if I post something or not tonight?" I learned from those months and years and writing virtually every day that it's a habit, a practice, that has to be developed. And for me it's an important outlet of communication. I rededicated myself to the task. Just do it.

lb_lee

Mori: since I wasn’t going to be much good for anything else today, I decided to make bone broth, since it takes a gazillion hours and requires nothing but you sitting to make sure it don’t catch fire. You just take your bones and various veggie odds’n’ends (I had about a chicken and a half worth of bones, plus carrot stubs, a onion, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns), pour water over ‘em, and simmer for a million years. I been simmering that shit for going on seven hours now; the recipe I got said up to twelve but no way can I stay up to 2AM for that.

It’s still pretty weak, but it’s all my body wants and I swear this is the most delicious shit I done ever put in my mouth. My body is ENTHUSIASTIC about it, and it been enthusiastic about jack fucking shit today.

I AM NEVER NOT MAKING BONE BROTH EVER AGAIN.

Current Mood: hungry
Crossposts: https://lb-lee.insanejournal.com/8109.html

canyonwalker

Airlines and hotels have been sending me "The Year in Review" messages this past week. My gut reaction each time has been, "WTF? 2025 ended months ago!" But nope, it's only January 19. They're not that late. It only feels like 2026 began months ago because we've already had, like, three or four manufactured political crises in the US this year. (And that's just in two weeks. Sigh. It's going to be a long year.)

The 2025 travel summary that hit today made me laugh. This one's from a hotel brand family, Choice, that I seldom stay at.

I've achieved... NOTHING. Way to go! (Jan 2026)

I've achieved... NOTHING. Way to go! (Jan 2026)

Woohoo, in 19 years with them I've achieved Non-elite status. That means I've achieved nothing. I'm so glad they're trying to make me feel special about that. Way to go, me! 🤣

lauradi7dw

https://thezebra.org/2026/01/18/dr-gladys-west-mathematician-whose-work-made-gps-possible-dies-at-95/

canyonwalker

Hawk texted and called me urgently when she was driving home from doing a few errands yesterday. The car was flashing warning messages about overheating and then "Extreme overheating". When I came down to the garage I saw fluid pooling beneath the right front wheel. It was a coolant leak.

Off to the shop for a coolant leak (Jan 2026)

Off to the shop for a coolant leak (Jan 2026)

We called our trusted mechanic this morning to arrange an appointment then called AAA for a tow. We considered trying to drive the car the 5 miles to the shop but decided since coolant would evidently pour out as soon as we poured it in we'd rather not take the chance of causing it to overheat and getting stranded on the side of the road. Plus, we're paying enough as AAA members. We might as well get the free tow from the comfort of home.

At the shop the service advisor noted, "We just saw this car 900 miles ago," and muttered about how they could've missed a coolant problem. That got me thinking, "Wait, it's been months since we've had the car in the shop!" Once upon a time "900 miles ago" would've been 3 weeks... or less. Today, with how little we drive, it's a few months.

lauradi7dw

Tweet from Rep Malcom Kenyatta
>>Your annual reminder that: today a bunch of MAGA politicians will bastardize a King quote and then spend the rest of the year opposing everything he fought for.<<

From classicist Sarah Bond, the link to a paper MLK jr wrote in divinity school about Mithraism. He was a well-rounded guy, just saying.
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/study-mithraism

lb_lee

Woke up with a sore throat. So mad. Trying to figure out how to get my wares without exposing other people to my germs, which the snow outside is not simplifying.

UGH.

EDIT: logistics sorted! Thank you, Arisia friends! T_T you are the best!

Crossposts: https://lb-lee.insanejournal.com/7854.html

lauradi7dw

It's Azeez Al-Shaair. He plays for a team called the Houston Texans. 1
He was fined $11,593 2 for wearing a nose strip that said "Stop the genocide."

1. What a straightforward name. It would be harder for our local team. The Foxborough Massachusettsians doesn't trip lightly off the tongue.

2. It was for an alleged violation of uniform standards. That's a very precise, not rounded-off number of dollars. I am not going to bother finding out how it was calculated.

sorcyress

It's Sunday of Arisia!

I didn't post yesterday because I was busy Having Fun (tm) so here's the things I did yesterday and today! And then my goal is, I guess, by the end of the week to make a lovely highly annotated clothing entry where I babble and post you lots of pictures of how cute I am.

Yesterday I got dressed and ready and headed off to a shift at Goat Check. Despite mom very nearly running the thing for like eight years now, I've never actually formally worked there. But it was good to have a little structure in my life, and so I had shifts yesterday and today, and I have a short one tomorrow. Both days so far have been a very nice balance where there's never been more than one person in line at once, but also there's never been more than about ten minutes without someone coming by to check in or out their coat.

Had lots of lovely conversations along the way, with friendly Kevin (who is here from Pittsburgh and plays DnD with the wife of an SCD friend of mine) and K***** (whose name I can't remember and am big mad about because they're very cool, but hopefully I will get to see them again at YTS!) and Thrantar and BDan and whoever else stopped by. Turns out to be a good gig!

On Saturday, I zooped straight out of Goat Check and went to the Renaissance Dance that Justin dC was running. He is a fine MC and a very good convention-level teacher, and so it's always a nice joy to watch him cope with the chaos. I mostly didn't dance this time, because I wanted to work on my knitting a bit, and also because he had a very full dance floor with several good supporting dancers around. This was also good because my friend Dax wandered by, and we had a good conversation catching up with each other about the last several years!

I slunk out to go get changed and prepare for the Night Market, a first-time Arisia event that seems to have gone very successfully. It was a "stuff swap" --no money to exchange hands, but little trinkets and crafts encouraged to be given to each other. Very kid friendly, but also a nice air of mystery amongst the adults. I had a box of beautiful vintage gloves from when mom was regularly finding them on the super cheap at estate sales for me --I'd been meaning to give much of the box away for aaaaages now, and so it was a lovely accomplishment to find a corner and array them in front of me (I also had "wee beasties" --rubber dinosaurs and other little toys that I've gathered throughout my adventures for those with hands bigger than most of the gloves). I received some ICE whistles and shiny rocks and a cute little pentacle and a couple dinosaurs and some lovely prints/photos and for a few people who wanted gloves but didn't have trinkets, I traded them for Words they liked.

This is how I met aforementioned unremembered K*****, who was doing wandering calligraphy and was willing to trade a pair of gloves for a little card reading "Good Girls Aren't Here". After a series of entertaining "made-sense-at-the-time" decisions, they later wrote me for free "Patellas are not for hitting". It was very satisfying!

The market wound down, the children went scampering off with their prizes, and I declared myself very satisfied to have emptied about 2/3rds the box of gloves! Back to the room for the third outfit of the day, and down to the dance hall for the only DJ Dirge set we got this year.

I danced for most of all the time from tenPM until he shut us down a bit after 2am. He was adorably sniffly as he gave a goodbye spiel, a "I'll keep coming back to Arisia as long as they have me, but man this place feels like home" and I, at least, also teared up with happy joy. It's at least my third year in a row closing out that dance, and it feels so so good for my heart to do so. Fuck but dancing like an idiot late into the night is the thing that heals what ails me. And I appreciate the con environment so much for being completely chill and safe to like...shed shoes and socks and coat and outer shirt and just be able to dance very comfortable.

Somewhere amidst the rest of it, jere7my and I did make it up to House of Toast, so that was a good part of Saturevening as well. And now, not to do spoiler alerts, it's quite late on Sunday and I have a Tuesday who is settling into bed and I wish to settle alongside her. More about how the rest of today went later.

~Sor
MOOP!

sovay

Tonight after my second and last panel of the convention, I was told by one audience member that they would listen to me read the phone book because even under those circumstances they would learn something interesting and Tiny Wittgenstein was definitely confused.

The panels went chaotically well. "Cursed Literature" lived up to its name by losing two panelists before the con even started, but in practice it turned into a freewheeling discussion less of literature in particular than the concepts of hazardous information, the spellmaking of language, and narratives as contagion, which gave me an excuse to boost Emeric Pressburger's The Glass Pearls (1966), An-sky's Jewish Ethnographic Program of 1912–14, and Aramaic incantation bowls plus the inevitable M. R. James. "SFF on Stage" had a supersaturation of panelists mostly from the performing arts and could have gone an extra hour at least as we started with the inherently liminal nature of theater and bounced around through all the ways that the speculative can be invoked on stage through conceits, stagecraft, scoring, nothing but the contract that reality changes because the actor says it does. I went all in on twentieth-century opera and weird technically realist plays and discovered that there has actually not been another production of Jewelle Gomez's Bones & Ash: A Gilda Story since the one I saw with my grandparents in 1996. As always, members of the audience asked such good questions that they should have been on the panels to start.

I have been asked multiple times if I will be around for the last day of Arisia and since I have no further programming the odds are unfortunately good that I will be flat in bed, but at the moment I regret nothing. I saw a

genarti! I saw a

skygiants! I failed to write down the names of a pair of extraordinarily well-dressed attendees who wanted to talk about Jewish folk magic and were thrilled that I recognized their Babylon 5 tie-in novels!

nineweaving and I shared a panel for the first time since virtual 2021! I did not make it back to the dealer's room before it closed and instead sort of keeled over in the disused cosplay repair area with

choco_frosh and presently a friend of his who is unlikely to be on DW, since this time around people were giving me their contact information on Instagram and I felt as though I should have business cards printed on papyrus scraps. I had genuinely not been sure how this experiment in professional interaction would go. It is snowing as busily as a real winter in New England and without begrudging a second of this vanishing season, I am looking forward to Readercon.

Current Music: Blondshell, "Berlin TV Tower"

canyonwalker

Seven weeks ago I lamented I had no travel planned. For the first time in... I don't know how long... I had nothing booked. There were no reservations on any of my radar screens. I knew I'd have a business trip for training in February, 10 weeks out, but it was too soon to book it. Well, the February trip has been booked for several weeks now, and there's an even sooner trip that popped up as of ten days ago. I'm going to Phoenix tomorrow.

Tomorrow's trip will end my travel drought at 7 weeks. That's not the longest time I've gone without travel. I mean, the Covid lockdown had me home for months... though that's (hopefully) a once-in-a-lifetime anomaly. But what a dry 7 weeks it has been. I have not been more than about a 30 minute drive from home in that time. And as that period includes the winter holidays, that's quite a drought.

Tomorrow's trip is not all smiles and roses. It's a work trip, so there's that. And I'm traveling for work on what's technically a day off, the MLK Day holiday. I'll find a way to make up for that. My boss is eminently reasonable so I'm not worried about it.

lauradi7dw

My usual habit is to test for Covid before going to family gatherings and often before taking my friend to her chemo appointments. I have no symptoms of any illness. This morning I did a combination covid and flu test because my plan was to see Flo's family late this afternoon. Faint positive for Covid. Tested again. Negative. Which one was defective? Or possibly more to the point, did I make a procedural mistake one time?
In the famous abundance of caution, I am planning to stay away from people for a few days. I stayed home from ringing, told Flo I wasn't coming, and sent notice to my friend, who arranged for someone else to go with her on Thursday. I'll retest tomorrow and Tuesday. If negative, I'll start having normal days on Friday (day 6).
Will I take this opportunity to do a lot of tidying? I did put some things away, many hours more to go.

lauradi7dw

Watch on YouTube

lauradi7dw

From Courtney Milan, seen on bluesky

>>Guys the reason the US is doing this isn't that Trump is dumb or senile or whatever.

It's that the billionaires have written self-insert fanfic involving Greenland.<<

canyonwalker

Today I started my latest D&D game. This one's based on some ideas I've been kicking around for a few weeks. At its core is a stupid simple premise: I just want to game! I want to roll dice and work the mechanics. I want to open the door, fight the monster, and discover the treasure. But since I'm a forever DM I'll have to settle for creating the game and running it rather than merely playing it. (Either way, the monster gets killed... but it's my monster!)

A few weeks ago Hawk and I got a quartet of players organized. I mean, it's her plus three others plus me as DM. Finding the right set of players was only medium difficult. Finding a time that works for all of us was the hard part. We figured out that Saturdays 2-6pm would work for everyone, for the most part. Today was our first game.

I always start roleplaying games now with a Session Zero. It's a time for us to get aligned on the broad storyline of the game, the style in which we want to play, some ground rules for the table, and, of course, our characters. In this shorter form game, like the last one I started a few years ago, I offered a set of pre-generated characters. Once again, the players were happy to choose from the pre-gens— I worked on creating them to be balanced, unique, and interesting, not just sheets of stats— and they quickly picked out different characters from one another and each felt they'd gotten one of their top choices.

The fantasy setting of Durendal, a once grand city that is now decaying, drawn by Google Gemini (Jan 2026)

Next I worked on introducing the players to the game setting and helping them describe how their characters fit into it. The game is set in the fantasy setting of Durendal, a once-grand city hundreds of years old that is now only half full and in decay. It's a place where ghosts of the past linger and anything can happen.

The players had a leg up on reading about the setting because I put several documents about it in a Google Drive I shared a week ago. Some of them even read all the docs! 😅 After aligning on the background and answering questions about it I challenged each of the players to tell me why their characters would be on a particular street near the city center and "Billionaires' Row", an area where some people with family wealth dating back 200+ years live.

I thought all this Session Zero stuff would take up the whole 4 hour bloc today. Alas the players aligned quickly on gaming style and on picking characters. There was still an hour and a half left, and they were itching to roll some dice. I decided, Fuck it, let's play!

This D&D game is... rolling! (Jan 2026)

Getting the game rolling felt a bit reckless to me. I didn't have any detailed notes prepared. I didn't have any picture cards for monsters. I barely even had a map drawn out. But I've been DMing so long (remember, Forever DM) I knew I could handle it.

The door of a city mansion on Billionaire's Row bursts open. A middle aged man staggers out, calling hoarsely, "Guards! Guards! Someone call the guards!" A moment later a pair of huge arms covered in brown fur grab him and drag him back into the darkness behind the door.

Roll initiative.

The characters were in various places within about 1/2 block radius. They rallied to the call. Though the stout warrior, who's part Jersey Girl, was over in a public park like, "Heyyy! I'm on my lunch break, here. I'mma finish my sandwich over here then see why youse got a grizzly bear in your house there." 🤣

The group assembled on the steps of the urban mansion, made quick introductions, and took stock of who had what skills. There were two warriors, a cleric, a mage, and a small team of city guards led by a swashbuckling nobleman. The casters cast a few buff spells while the warriors sprinted up the stairs and into the dimly lit foyer beyond the half-open doors.

Some of the group had gotten a better look at the brown, furry creature. It wasn't actually a grizzly bear but an Owlbear.
Owlbear, a classic D&D monster, is a magical beast with the body of a grizzly bear and a beak like a bird of prey (Jan 2026)

Owlbear, a classic D&D monster, is a magical beast with the body of a grizzly bear and a beak like a bird of prey (Jan 2026)

For those who don't know, Owlbears are a classic monster dating back to the early days of D&D. They combine the body and strength of a grizzly bear with the head/beak of a giant owl. They also have feathers in odd places. There are a number of different interpretations of what this creature looks like in different games and editions. The picture I'm using here is adapted from the D&D 3.5 Monster Manual published c. 2003. The caption with a roar-hoot is my contribution to the lore. 🤣

The group tracked the monster's trail of destruction— not to mention the distant sounds of ROAR-hoo-hoo-ROAR!!— a short distance to the great hall at the center of the mansion. There the 5 players engaged to rescue the victim, who was lying limply, possibly dead, on the ground at its feet.

Now, I said above we got the game rolling with 90 minutes left in our session. We already went over by 15 minutes, with everyone's agreement, and we only got through the first full combat round of engaging the owlbear directly. (There were several pursuit rounds before the fight became... well, a fight.) We'll begin the next game session at the top of the initiative order in the middle of a pitched battle. GRAAWRhoooWRRR!

lauradi7dw

I am not planning to watch the Super Bowl. I really like this ad for the half-time show.

Watch on YouTube

There was a video of people interviewing anti-trans participants at what was claimed to be a rally defending women's sports. The question: name five women professional athletes. Nobody could. Several people said that they don't watch women's sports. I understand the intention, but I don't know that mocking in this was is the best idea. I do watch some women's sports and I don't think I can name many currently working women's professional athletes off the top of my head. Venus Williams (Serena has retired). Marathoner Ruth Chepngetich doesn't count, because I had no idea about her surname until I looked it up. Des Linden has retired. Gabby Thomas is a famous American sprinter, but it isn't actually her job. I am intrigued at the prospect of a women's professional baseball league, supposedly starting up this summer, but I don't know any names.
It would be the same for me with men professional athletes. Maybe a couple of tennis players. Maybe a marathoner or two. I don't think I could name a single player on any of the Boston teams, although if you gave me a list of Red Sox I might recognize some after seeing them.

sovay

I may feel like a dishrag, but if so it's a dishrag who had a wonderful time returning to Arisia after six years, even if the ziggurat on the Charles is still a dreadful place to hold a convention. For the Dramatic Readings from the Ig Nobel Prizes, I performed selections from W. C. Meecham and H. G. Smith's "Effects of Jet Aircraft on Mental Hospital Admissions" (British Journal of Audiology, 1977) with what I hope was an appropriately haggard channeling of my sleepless night and Leonie Cornips' "The semiotic repertoire of dairy cows" (Language in Society, 2024) with what I hope was an appropriately technical rendition of cow noises. I heard papers on the proper techniques of nose-blowing, whether snakes dress to the left or the right, the sexual correlations of apples. It feels impossible, but it must have been my first time onstage since onset of pandemic. Readers who overstayed their allotted two minutes were surrounded by a chorus of bananas.

I had forgotten how much socializing my attendance of conventions used to entail. I turned the corner for registration and immediately spotted a

nineweaving, followed in close succession by a

choco_frosh,

a_reasonable_man, and a

sorcyress. I was talking to the latter in the coat check when Gillian Daniels came in and now I have a zine-printed copy of the second edition of her chapbook Eat the Children (2019/2026). I had not lengthy enough catch-up conversations with

awhyzip and

rinue and am now in possession of a signed copy of Nothing in the Basement (2025). I brought water with me and kept forgetting to duck outside to drink it. Dean gave me a ride home afterward and commented on my tired look, which was fair: six, seven years ago I could sprint through programming even after a night of anaphylaxis or a subluxed jaw and these days there's a lot less tolerance in the system. It seemed to be a common refrain. If I have fun and don't take home any viral infections from this weekend, it'll be a win.

Tomorrow, panels.

Current Music: Wolf Alice, "Midnight Song"

jazzfish

Just finished Lord of the Rings. This may well have been the first time I read the Appendices all the way through (though I did skim the ones on the calendars and the alphabets).

Two takeaways from RotK:

First, the Scouring of the Shire hits different when you're under occupation. It's also perhaps the most fantastical part of the book, since it posits that the citizenry were nearly all ready to rise up and just needed a push, as opposed to a third of them cheering on Otho and Sharkey and a third of them just hunkering down and hoping it would all pass them by.

Second, the meme take on Denethor as 'doomscrolling in the Palantir to Sauron's algorithm' is ... remarkably apt.

Now ebooks for a couple of days, and then once I'm home the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. UT is, as I recall, mostly-complete fragments with some commentary. The twelve-volume History of Middle-Earth reverses the proportions, and is thus less interesting to me. UT also contains a version of the Quest of Erebor ("The Hobbit") as told from Gandalf's perspective, which should be neat.

All quiet on bus stop patrol. Tuesday had a couple of plateless SUVs and a couple of blocks-away whistle choruses; Thursday and yesterday were quiet. It's nice to be out in the snow in my black wool coat and hat, though, and nice to get some smiles from folks driving past.

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Katarina Whimsy

January 2026

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Page generated Jan. 20th, 2026 11:39 am

People I enjoy!

Reading

Life, a series of memorials and signals

Arisia Sunday and Monday!

30 Days in a Row. Just Do It.

BONE BROTTTTHHHH!!!

I've Achieved... Nothing. Way to Go!

RIP Gladys West

Car Trouble, Yay

MLK jr day

Missing Monday Arisia

I have decided to learn a football player's name

(no subject)

I want to show you all the versions of myself

Traveling After 7 Weeks

who knows?

Greenland again, amusing but very clear

Probably correct

This D&D Game is... Rolling!

It would be nice if the world would dance; ignorance

If you don't want the death of the party after I'm gone, sing one for me

scouring, etc

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January 2026

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