squirrelitude | Network

A successful businesswoman has the opportunity of a lifetime offered to her, only to have an old friend greatly complicate matters.

The Friend Zone Experiment by Zen Cho

troisoiseaux

Since this is, I think, relevant to the interests of more than a few DW friends: National Theatre will be streaming the Ncuti Gatwa Importance of Being Earnest on YouTube (free!) from March 12-18, before adding it to the National Theatre at Home streaming service!!!

osprey_archer

It’s been three months since I last posted a hobby update, partly because the hobbies have been on hiatus lately. It’s been cold and gray and dark, and after doing so well getting up early for tea and cross stitch in November and December, I’ve slipped back into my slovenly old ways of dragging myself out of bed at the last possible moment.

Also my right shoulder has been acting up, which has impacted my ability to play dulcimer or cross stitch. I have finished but one of the adorable cross stitch advent tags for next year’s Picture Book Advent. And actually I’ve only finished the cross-stitching part; it still needs to be sewn to a felt backing in order to become a true tag.

However, I did manage to decorate MANY paper hearts to brighten up my office door. In fact, I made so many that I took the overflow hearts home to decorate the Hummingbird Cottage, with the intention of making yet more, but then I ran out of steam… However, even this moderate sprinkling of hearts brightened the place up, especially since I’m the fortunate possessor of four Valentine-themed dish towels and six Valentine cloth napkins (black fabric with red and pink hearts, striking).

I have St. Patrick’s Day napkins too, but my search has so far not turned up any St. Patrick’s Day dishtowels. However, I’ve been cutting out paper shamrocks at a remarkable rate, so hopefully the plethora of shamrocks will overcome any defects in the dish towel area. Should perhaps consider a few leprechauns too?

I’ve also been looking through my trusty Irish cookbook and have been thinking it’s time to make lemon curd again, plus perhaps try my hand at brown bread ice cream. (Sprinkle brown bread crumbs with brown sugar, bake till toasty, then fold into softened vanilla ice cream. Crunchy and caramelly, apparently.) Plus of course I’ll be making my usual round of Guinness stew.

After St. Patrick’s Day, I’m thinking the office door will segue to a general spring theme that can last through graduation at the beginning of May. Flowers, probably. But what kind? Paper tulips and daffodils? A crabapple tree in full bloom? (I believe this could be stunning but would require me to cut out MANY pink flowers.) A torrent of general mixed flowers?

For the Hummingbird Cottage I’d also like to do some decorations on a more specifically Easter theme. I have a vision of cut paper pysanki eggs, which may be beyond my somewhat limited paper-cutting skills. But you never know till you try.

summersgate

Awakening.

Today needs to be a day dedicated to cleaning. We're picking Hazel up tomorrow so she can spend the weekend. Since I've changed Sunday dinners to being fortnightly affairs I've declined in the cleaning department. Just goes to show how true it is for me that I only clean if we get company, so (every) Sunday dinners were good because I kept the house up better.

Warm! It's 42F at the moment, but supposed to go up into the mid 50s later with sunshine. In addition to cleaning I definitely want to get some time outside worked in there too.

skygiants

One of the simplest and purest pleasures in fiction is to ride along as an unhappy person becomes happier, and this at the heart is the charm of the self-pub coming-of-trans novel Our Simulated Selves.

On first glance the premise of this one could seem dire: depressed incel, told by dream girl that they would not date even if the incel was the "last man on Earth," uses advanced brain-scanning technology and giant quantum supercomputer to set up a simulation world where literally everybody else on Earth does disappear immediately after that argument, and see how long it takes sim self and dream girl to get together in this apocalypse scenario. (The reader, who has already seen our protagonist describe dysphoric brain fog and experience mysterious joy about playing a girl character in D&D, will at this point certainly have some ideas about the ways that this sad incel is working from some fundamentally incorrect principles.)

Most of the book is from the POV of sim protagonist with occasional outside-world interjections and responses from the simulation runner, which means you also get sort of a fun inside/outside view of an apocalypse-ish survival situation -- within the simulation, protagonist and dream girl are running around gathering up non-perishable food and trying to figure out how long the power grid is going to last; meanwhile, outside the simulation, Protagonist Zero Version is like 'shit, I didn't really think through that they'd be treating this like an apocalypse and I forgot to write any code for food spoilage!' But the main satisfaction of the book is in watching our protagonist go through the work of transformation to become a better and happier person -- with a little added weight, because at the same time we're also seeing the worst and cruelest and most unhappy version. Overall I found the reading experience really charming and sweet!

sabotabby

I know I've been going on a lot about Charles R. Saunders for an author whose books I still haven't read but. Here's a podcast about him! Wizards & Spaceships' "Charles R. Saunders ft. Jon Tattrie" talks about his life, his works, his mysterious death, and the politics that shaped his life, from the Black Power movement to the Vietnam War to bigotry in SFF publishing and to Black Lives Matter. It's really a wide-ranging, fascinating discussion and I hope you'll give it a listen and maybe even share it with people.

Happy Black History Month everyone!

kat_lair

***

Kat Reads Books

The Judge, the Jailer, and the Thief by Gemma Walker: Alex is freshly out of prison and has a heist of a lifetime to pull, if she can just repair the relationships with her family and also her ex girlfriend who she needs on the team. Rebecca is an ambitious judge waiting on a promotion that needs some encouragement to happen, all the while supporting her girlfriend of 20 years prepare for the celebration of the fancy tower building she's the architect of. Jimmy, a disgraced detective, wishes to regain his glory days or at least not lose them, except there's a documentary crew poking about an old case of a thief he and Rebecca put away a long time ago... Okay. Here are the things I enjoyed about the book: everyone was believably imperfect. The plot was complex and pulled it off pretty well, like I saw one of the main twists coming, but not the other. No big deal made out of the queer rep. The writing was pretty engaging. Here are the things I struggled with: I didn't really like any of the characters. The final decision Alex made endeared her to me more, but up to that point everyone was just... willing to do and say unpleasant things for reasons they justified to themselves. The omniscient pov was also something I haven't read in ages so it took a while to get used to it and the 'head hopping' was frequent and happened in. every. scene. It also made all the scenes really long because 'x said this, feelings/thoughts description' followed by 'y said, another feelings/thoughts description' etc ad infinitum. Most of the scenes were people talking instead doing, and everyone's emotions went from one end to the other like ten times in each scene. And on one hand, that's realistic as our emotions obviously fluctuate but on the other, we are rarely that fucking conscious of it so to have it described every time that she was delighted and then scared and then excited and then apprehensive and then and then in every. single. conversation. was exhausting. The core plot was good and I liked the found family theme, but then not to even show the central heist in detail from Alex's pov felt like such a cop-out. I gather there is a sequel coming, I am ambivalent about picking it up but I also want to know what happened to some of the characters, e.g. entirely unclear if Rebecca ever got any comeuppance or not. Argh. In summary, the book could've used a tighter edit.

Kat Watches Things

Our Flag Means Death season 1: Has anyone not seen this yet? Just me then. One of those things that I knew I would enjoy but just hadn't gotten around to. Two men in their middle years find a way to break out of their society imposed boxes, deal with their trauma and freedom to be themselves. And also find each other. Oh and they're pirates (yes both, how dare you) with a delightful ragtag found family crew. Also everyone is queer. An extremely satisfying watch as a queer middle-aged person especially. The two leads did a spectacular job. I will get to the second (and final) season eventually, just not sure I'm emotionally ready.

Kadonnut: Joulupukki (Missing: Santa Claus): A cute children's movie from 2015 where four kids are invited to visit Christmas land and have to find the missing Santa Claus who has been kidnapped. Or has he? It was pretty fun with the different elves, some stilted acting but okay, like exactly what one might expect. Bonus points for the rap battle that was genuinely funny.

Pastori ja Ruma Kuusi (The Pastor and the Ugly Christmas Tree): A short film about a new pastor/vicar who wants to bring people together to decorate a Christmas tree outside a shopping centre. Predictable but I really enjoyed the guy who played the vicar, he was fun.

Despicable Me 3: A rewatch but still good. I love Minions and I cannot lie. Gru unites with his twin brother, loses and regains his job, shenanigans. The Minions!

Hotel Transylvania 1-3: First was a rewatch and involves Count Dracula working through his human related trauma because his daughter falls in love with one. Second was also a rewatch and centres on Mavis and Jonathan's monster-human family and whether or not their kid is a vampire and if that matters and to whom. Adorable. The third movie in the series I hadn't seen and focuses on a family vacation on a monster cruise where the captain has an ulterior motive which may or may not involve Drac's heart... It was fun but the romance aspect felt a little forced. I did enjoy all the details about the cruise and how everyone was spending it. Out of the three, the second movie with its family/identity focus is my favourite.

Code 46: This was in BBC iPlayer's Valentine collection, said 'dystopian romance' and so J and I clicked on it randomly for background watching and then ended up going WHY THE FUCK IS SHE DOING THAT and YOU COULD DRIVE AN UBOAT THROUGH THE PLOT HOLES. I mean... We enjoyed that part. The movie itself... Okay, in 2077, for reasons, a lot of the population is in vitro fertilised/grown in identical clone batches (yes, I know, it does not make logical sense, ignore the actual science). So if you want to procreate the old fashioned way you have to do a genetic screening first to check that you're not genetically related and in violation of Code 46... Anyway. The story goes that a fraud investigator enforced with an empathy virus, arrives in Shanghai to figure out who is smuggling out insurance papers that are the only way to travel between highly protected population hubs. He falls in love and sleeps with the perpetrator instead. All within like 24h. Already unbelievable. And then... Everyone makes absolutely batshit decisions, the Code 46 sure is violated, the woman bears the ultimate consequences, there's a super uncomfortable consensual non-consent scene that both of us made 'ewww' faces at and... Idk. This sure was a film I've watched. Is all I can say.

Mulan: Rewatch, still one of my favourite Disney movies.

Mulan, the live action remake: Possibly a part rewatch? At times I felt like I'd seen it before and at other times not so no idea. I... Didn't mind it. The cinematography was gorgeous and the changes to the story (the dragon was a phoenix, the love interest was not the captain but just another soldier, there was a hot witch) were understandable and worked decently. I liked that the love story didn't get anything beyond a flash of abs and some hand touching really. I did come out of this eyeing the Mulan/Xianniang (the hot witch) interactions with interest.

Zootropolis: Probably a fifth rewatch. No regrets. Still love it.

***

kore

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

sovay

The pattern of my days has tended toward craptastic, but

theseatheseatheopensea has been writing incredible fills for prompts that I left in

threesentenceficathon, most recently the one I threw out originally for an episode of TNG I hadn't seen since childhood. The latest pebble

rushthatspeaks has brought me from the internet is a black cat Tarot whose particular standout is the Hanged Man.

fleurdelis41 sent me Jewish dance cards and

ashlyme a suite of Stanley Myers' The Martian Chronicles (1980).

spatch introduced me to Beans. I have been re-reading Robin Scott Wilson's Those Who Can: A Science Fiction Reader (1973), the anthology in which Le Guin explains how her brain plotted out the characterization of her novelette "Nine Lives" (1969) without bothering to let her know in advance:

Together with this glimpse of the situation, the character of Owen Pugh presented itself, complete and unquestionable, and indeed, at that very point, pretty enigmatic. Having a character really is very like having a baby, sometimes, except that there's a lot less warning, and babies don't arrive full-grown. But one has the same sense of pleased bewilderment. For instance, why was this man short and thin? Why was he honest, disorderly, nervous, and warmhearted? Why on earth was he Welsh? I had no idea at the time. There he was. And his name was Owen Pugh, to be sure. It was up to me to do right by him. All he offered (just like a baby) was his existence. Any assurance that this highly individualized, peculiar, intransigent person really was somehow related to my theme had to be taken on trust. A writer must trust the unconscious, even when it produces unexpected Welshmen.

I don't think anyone has ever made a Morden-and-the-Shadows vid to the Pack a.d.'s "Cardinal Rule" (2011) and it's a crying shame.

Current Music: The Pack a.d., "Body Parts"

trailer_spot

The Mandalorian and Grogu    HD720p 29MB
Trailer for another Star Wars spin-off movie. The generic summary still reads: Once a lone bounty hunter, Mandalorian Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his apprentice Grogu embark on an exciting new Star Wars adventure. Sigourney Weaver will also be part of the cast, Jeremy Allen White and Martin Scorsese will lend their voices. Directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Jungle Book, The Lion King).
I had totally forgotten that there was already a short trailer last September. Also, the recent 30-second Superbowl spot that gives the feeling that this will be a Space Western: HD720p 9MB.

Toy Story 5    HD720p 34MB
Trailer for fifth installment of the animated franchise. Become acquainted with the new character Lilypad, a high-tech frog-shaped smart tablet (Greta Lee) that makes Buzz (Tim Allen), Woody (Tom Hanks), Jessie (Joan Cusack), and the rest of the gang’s jobs exponentially harder when they have to go head-to-head with the all-new threat to playtime. Also new to the voice cast are Craig Robinson as Atlas, a cheerful talking GPS hippo toy and Conan O’Brien as the toilet training tech toy, Smarty Pants. Co-directed by Andrew Stanton (WALL·E, John Carter, Finding Nemo) and McKenna Harris.
I hesitate to mention it, but I don't think I've seen any of the previous films.

Pressure    HD720p 33MB
Historical drama based on a stage play. In the tense 72 hours before D-Day, and with the fate of the free world hanging in the balance, the movie follows General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) and meteorologist Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott) as they face an impossible choice - launch the largest and most dangerous seaborne invasion in history or risk losing the war altogether. Kerry Condon, Chris Messina and Damian Lewis are also part of the cast. Directed by Anthony Maras (Hotel Mumbai).

Redux Redux    Tlr1 HD720p 14MB   Tlr2 HD1080p 19MB
Indie multi-verse movie that garnered some favourable festival reviews. In an attempt to avenge her daughter’s death, Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) travels through parallel universes, killing her daughter’s murderer over and over again. With each kill, she grows addicted to the revenge streak, putting her own humanity in jeopardy.
Now in limited release in the US. Two different, short trailers to choose from.

Rose    HD1080p 28MB
Austere drama filmed in black-and-white set in the early 17th century. Somewhere in Germany, a mysterious soldier (Sandra Hüller) arrives in an isolated Protestant village. Slight and modest by nature, his face disfigured by a scar, this stranger declares himself to be the heir of a long-abandoned farmstead and produces a document to support his claim to the suspicious villagers. With the passage of time, he overcomes their doubts and, proving himself to be a hard-working, God-fearing man, becomes a part of their community. However, his quest for acceptance is built on a bold-faced lie.
Another showcase for Hüller's talent. Movie currently takes part in the official competition at the Berlin Film Festival.

oursin

Happy birthday,

elekdragon!

madfilkentist posting in

girlgenius_lair

Not something Klaus had done, but something he would do.

tamaranth

2026/025: The Dispossessed — Ursula Le Guin

... all the operations of capitalism were as meaningless to him as the rites of a primitive religion, as barbaric, as elaborate, and as unnecessary. In a human sacrifice to deity there might be at least a mistaken and terrible beauty; in the rites of the moneychangers, where greed, laziness, and envy were assumed to move all men’s acts, even the terrible became banal. [p. 130]

Technically a reread, but when I read this at the age of 14 or 15, I didn't really understand it: I recalled very little of characters, themes or incidents.

The brilliant physicist Shevek comes to realise that the collectivist society of Annares, a moon colonised by an anarchist movement, is not conducive to his work. He travels to the 'home world', Urras, which is ebulliently capitalist. Eventually he realises that Urras, too, stifles his scientific creativity.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: thoughtful

ineptshieldmaid

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

nanila posting in

awesomeers

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260219.html

IC 2574: Coddington s Nebula

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260219.html

shadowkat

I've finally reached my favorite episode of Angel - Destiny. It's the episode in which Spike and Angel fight for the fake vampire shanshu. I love that episode. Plan on watching tonight or tomorrow night - time permitting.

Rumor has it that Hulu/Disney is waiting for Buffy the Vampire Slayer's 3oth Anniversary - which is next year, to air "Buffy: New Sunnydale". That will be my 60th year on this planet. I was roughly 27 when Buffy first aired. I'd moved to NYC one year prior. And I was watching it live - didn't own a VHS at the time, DVD's didn't exist yet and there was no such thing as streaming. You missed an episode? You prayed for reruns. (And Fox eventually replayed all the episodes of Buffy right before the new episodes aired.) Online fandom back then - was difficult to find, and scattered among various websites, with hidden fan boards. I didn't discover it until November 2001, and fell down the fandom rabbit hole, and haven't really resurfaced since.

**

Feeling much better. Not coughing hardly at all, and not blowing my nose, and no runny eyes. Still wore the mask to and from work, but I'm starting to back off of it.

But have leg cramping and digestive issues tonight. Hmm. I had chickpea mac and cheese, with brussel sprouts, celery, carrots, and broccoli in the air fryer. Maybe too much for the stomach? Sigh.

Eh, no time left. Will do the Question a Day Mememage tomorrow or Saturday.

watersword

I seem to be Canadian now, which is very exciting. (My paternal grandfather was born in Ontario.) I need to pull together a relatively short stack of documents to prove it (3 birth certificates, 2 marriage certificates, 2 name change records), and fingers crossed Canada (home and native laaaaaand) will welcome me home.

It is supposed to snow AGAIN this weekend. I keep reminding myself that this is how winter is supposed to be.

My to-do list has three MUST DOs on it:

write up notes for therapist before Monday session
read & comment on manuscript for crit group Tuesday
pollinator garden email

If you see me doing anything else except, like, keeping body and soul together for the next few days (if it snows more than half an inch, I'll have to take care of my neighbors, and a friend is coming over with her kid to encourage me to clean and have dinner, but other than that — !), yell at me until I go back to my aforementioned tasks.

I spent this week in slide deck hell and the week before in spreadsheet hell. There is still more slide deck hell to come, but I think I can pace it out a little more now. But spreadsheet hell will not end until May, thanks to HHS (pdf link). I like accessibility work, but I also like digital paleography and information architecture and wireframing and right now accessibility is expanding to fill all the available time and then some. Fortunately, one of the slide decks from hell actually requires me to work on a writing project, so I can cling to some vestige of being a creative person who doesn't live in slide deck or speadsheet hell. Maybe someday I will actually be one! Maybe someday I can contribute to CanLit!

summersgate

Waves.

When I got home from group I took the dogs for a walk down to the creek. The creek water is high from all the melting snow but not up over the bank. The ground feels mushy. I came home from that and it was such a nice day I went over and spent some time in the goat shed writing in my journal and catching up on that. I hadn't written anything since September. A few pictures: ( Read more... )

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Scamperings

Network

The Friend Zone Experiment by Zen Cho

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Hobby Update

friday

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podcast friday

Interesting Links for 20-02-2026

Kat Consumes Media

JILL SCOTT TINY DESK THIS IS NOT A DRILL

Barely even human body parts will give yourself away

The Mandalorian and Grogu, Toy Story 5, Pressure, Redux Redux, Rose

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Friday's comic

2026/025: The Dispossessed — Ursula Le Guin

Figure Skating Meta, I guess?

Just One Thing (20 January 2026)

IC 2574: Coddington s Nebula

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thursday later

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August 2024

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