Things learned in January

Feb. 3rd, 2026 09:34 pm
tinny: Something Else holding up its colorful drawing - "be different" (Default)
[personal profile] tinny
There's not much and I'm not surprised. But I am sticking with this until I am more awake again and my ability to write down (and hopefully remember) things will be better again. It's marginally better than the eight things I had in December.

10 (+2 related) things I learned in January )
oursin: Drawing of hedgehog in a cave, writing in a book with a quill pen (Writing hedgehog)
[personal profile] oursin

So yesterday I had further converse with another person apropos giving a talk as part of a series of events in connection with an exhibition of archives at a local record office some months hence and they sound keen, and it is something I can do, and have a fair amount of material including visual stuff already. Plus, besides expenses, there will also be a modest honorarium - they actually asked what do I usually get paid - errrr.

So there's that.

And the long review essay is finally in production and while I had some rather confusing emails about this yesterday I think this is down to Academic Journals Having Really Confusing Systems, it is indeed going ahead, and I was obliged to compose a short biographical note, both to reflect current institutional state and also be pertinent to topics addressed in review (my last bio note leaned rather heavily on my relationship with Sid).

And I am beginning to get to grips with article for review, though slightly fearing I may be Interrogating From the Wrong Perspective (journal is Not My Disciplinary Field, though article certainly overlaps it).

Have had the very cheering news that a conference I thought I would never get to again because it would involve transatlantic travel, is coming to London next year, yay yay yay, I am already pondering a paper.

In other personal news, have booked dental checkup and hygienist appointment for next week.

And in other news, the National Trust has reached its target to buy the land around the Cerne Giant:

The money will be used to improve access to the 55-metre (180ft) figure and to link up a patchwork of habitats, improving conditions for species such as the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly.
It will also enable further archaeological work to help solve the enduring mystery of whom the giant depicts, and when and why it was created.

Stuff I Love: One Shots

Feb. 3rd, 2026 02:26 pm
author_by_night: (I really need a new userpic)
[personal profile] author_by_night
 Doing  [personal profile] dreamersdare 's Stuff I Love Challenge!

#1 - One Shots.

Make a Top Ten list for your favourite standalone media and tell people exactly why you love it. This can be in any format - movies, one shot dramas, novels, short stories, plays, something else not mentioned here. Whatever you like!

Let's see.

1. Nightcrawler 

I've only seen this movie once, but it had a deep impact on me. It's about a rogue photographer who grows frustrated with his poor job prospects (IIRC), and takes matters into his own hands by taking crime scene footage in very unethical ways. I don't want to spoil too much, but let me just say it wasn't so much the turns it took as it was the turns it didn't. I thought the chickens would come to roost, and they really didn't. It's amazing and makes you think about what you see on TV and even social media. 

2. The Importance of Being Earnest 

I'll be honest, when we were assigned this play in high school, I had a visceral reaction because the name Ernest made me think of the Ernest films in the 90's. Obviously, it is not that.  I've read it and scene it several times since, though it has been quite some time. It's a master satire with fun twists that, thinking about it, really shouldn't have worked, but works very well. "A handbag?" indeed. 

Interestingly, I read a few of Cecily's part out loud for fun once, to test my acting skills. I actually got a very different impression of her doing so, playing her as less ditzy than she let on.

3. Kindred

The bare-bones description is that it's about a black woman in the seventies who ends up going back in time and unknowingly saves the life of her ancestor's enslaver's son. The son continues to call her into the past. It's very much about black trauma, and also a critique on how time travel would be different for black characters versus white characters.  (No apologies are made for any of the enslavers.)

I first heard of it when it was on Hulu. I decided to read the book before watching the show. From what I've heard, the show does a disservice to the novel, so I'm glad I made that decision.

4. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

While marred by learning that the creator, Bernie Su, was terrible and continues to be terrible to the cast, I love the webseries itself. It's a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice, wherein Lizzie Bennet is a grad student vlogging for her thesis. I unfortunately missed the show while it was being released, so I didn't get to enjoy this part, but it was very interactive. You could follow the characters on what was then twitter and tumblr, along with other social media pages. You could ask questions in Q&A's. All that aside, I think the story itself was adapted well. Lydia's character is actually far more sympathetic (even if Lizzie is scathing at first), and she's allowed to rise from a bad situation. Charlotte's modernized storyline is actually very clever. All in all, it's clever and a lot of fun. I just wish Bernie Su wasn't a terrible person.

5. Funny in Farsi

Funny in Farsi is a memoir I wish everyone would read, that I may re-read myself. It's Firoozeh Dumas's account of growing up in the United States as an immigrant from Iran. While the story does touch on sad subjects, it's mostly fun (hence "funny"), focusing on friends, family, and culture. 

6. I'm Thinking of Ending Things

This is a movie I shouldn't love so much, as it's very grim and pessimistic. But it's such an amazing mindfuck that gets me every time I watch. The supposed premise is that it's a woman traveling home with her boyfriend to meet his parents, all the while thinking of breaking up with him. As the movie goes on, however, you realize there's a lot more to the story than that. All I'm going to say.

7. North By Northwest

I love that it starts out as a comedy of errors, then becomes so much more than that. It's also fun to recognize so many tropes in the film.

8. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Lamb walks us through not only Joshua's childhood (and later adulthood), but what are known as the "missing years". Biff and Joshua spend those years globetrotting, and their trek includes a study of Buddhism. The book also has very interesting depictions of various Biblical figures, including Maggie - AKA "Mary Magdalene".

The author has said that he is "Buddhist with Christian tendencies".

9. Persepolis

A graphic novel and memoir about a girl growing up during the Iranian revolution. It's a story of how fast your world can fall apart, but also of resilience. You watch Marjan see everything through very innocent eyes initially, though she isn't so naive as not to notice contradictions between her parents' wealth and their claims of being socialist. We grow up with her as her world becomes scarier and she better understands the darkness, but there's still a lot of love in the pages.

The second volume is also very good, though she's older completely void of that innocent optimism. (Or as Satrapi once put it, "in the first book, I am cute. In the second, I am not cute.")

10. Jane Eyre

(I know some of you really don't like Jane Eyre. Sorry.)

Jane Eyre was a quarantine read; I somehow managed to get through high school and college without reading it. One of my friends and I wanted something to do while quarantining, so we started a two person book club, She'd already read Jane Eyre, I never had.

I'll grant you, Jane Eyre didn't age particularly well, and parts of the novel lost me entirely. But I was still enthralled with it; the main character isn't wealthy (unlike many contemporary female heroines), although she does live among the wealthy for much of the novel. While her abusive childhood is heartbreaking, it rang true, including the part where she feels she has to reconcile with her abusive stepparent - only to learn the stepparent only ever wanted to gloat. In that way, it actually felt quite modern. The mystery is worked in quite well, and not at all how I was expecting. And while Jane had some problematic views (again, it didn't age well in a lot of ways), I still enjoyed following her story.

Oh, and Helen Burns would definitely sell CBD oil today..

 
kingstoken: (Kirk Spock McCoy)
[personal profile] kingstoken posting in [community profile] fanart_recs
Fandom: Star Trek: TOS
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Spock
Content Notes/Warnings: N/A
Medium: Digital 
Artist Website/Gallery: winterfoxdraws
Why this piece is awesome: Lovely motion in the piece of Spock with the whales  
Link: Tumblr

Badgers, Cozy Fantasy, & More

Feb. 3rd, 2026 04:30 pm
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

Ready or Not

Ready or Not by Cara Bastone is $1.99! Bastone’s contemporaries come highly recommended by those who have read them. I loved Promise Me Sunshine, but that’s the only one I’ve read.

A surprise pregnancy leads to even more life-changing revelations in this heartfelt, slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance of found family and unexpected love.

Eve Hatch lives for surprises! Just kidding. She expects every tomorrow to be pretty much the same as today. She loves her cozy apartment in Brooklyn that’s close to her childhood best friend Willa, and far from her midwestern, traditional family who has never really understood her. While her job is only dream-adjacent, it’s comfortable and steady. She always knows what to expect from her life . . . until she finds herself expecting after an uncharacteristic one-night stand.

The unplanned pregnancy cracks open all the relationships in her life. Eve’s loyal friendship with Willa is feeling tense, right when she needs her the most. And it’s actually Willa’s steadfast older brother, Shep, who steps up to help Eve. He has always been friendly, but now he’s checking in, ordering her surprise lunches, listening to all her complaints, and is . . . suddenly kinda hot? Then, as if she needs one more complication, there’s the baby’s father, who is (technically) supportive but (majorly) conflicted.

Up until this point, Eve’s been content to coast through life. Now, though—maybe it’s the hormones, maybe it’s the way Shep’s shoulders look in a T-shirt—Eve starts to wonder if she has been secretly desiring more from every aspect of her life.

Over the course of nine months, as Eve struggles to figure out the next right step in her expanding reality, she begins to realize that family and love, in all forms, can sneak up on you when you least expect it.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Red, White & Royal Blue

Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston is $1.99! Aarya gave this one a C- because she found the political world building too much of a distraction.

A big-hearted romantic comedy in which the First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales after an incident of international proportions forces them to pretend to be best friends…

First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations.

The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. Alex is busy enough handling his mother’s bloodthirsty opponents and his own political ambitions without an uptight royal slowing him down. But beneath Henry’s Prince Charming veneer, there’s a soft-hearted eccentric with a dry sense of humor and more than one ghost haunting him.

As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. And Henry throws everything into question for Alex, an impulsive, charming guy who thought he knew everything: What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

To Kill a Badger

To Kill a Badger by Shelly Laurenston is $3.99! This is book six in The Honey Badger Chronicles. I know it’s the latest in the series, but not sure if this is the last one entirely. Do you know?

Laugh-out-loud humor, a feminist outlook, and one-of-a-kind shape-shifting romance come together with the continuation of the fan-favorite Honey Badger Chronicles from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Shelly Laurenston.

Nelle Zhao is a social media maven who knows what matters. And the only thing that matters right now is survival. Not easy, though, when her honey badger teammates attract trouble the way she attracts attention. She didn’t know when it became her job to protect the ones she cares about from themselves, but even she has to admit…she’s really good at it. Too bad some people don’t appreciate when she’s being helpful. Especially Keane Malone, who doesn’t know how to accept a friendly paw. But Nelle excels at helping! And at ignoring other people’s irrational demands, such as doing it all alone. Keane, poor pretty kitty, doesn’t understand the kind of assistance a shit-starting honey badger like Nelle can truly offer . . .

Keane knows two things—he doesn’t like other people, and he is going to crush the de Medicis, an evil coalition of male lion shifters who are not only snatching innocent humans for fun and profit, but also killed his father. And for once, he may not be able to fight this fight alone, forcing him to let long-legged, jet-setting Nelle join the fight. And getting close to Nelle is suddenly bringing out his roar . . .

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Tempests and Tea Leaves

Tempests and Tea Leaves by Rachel Morgan is 99c at Amazon! This is book one in the Charmed Leaf Legacy series, which is described as a cozy, gaslamp fantasy romance.

Bridgerton meets cozy fae fantasy with a dash of Pride & Prejudice in this sparkling, no-spice tale of magical debuts, an enchanted tea house, and banter-filled romance.

In a world where both race and magic determine one’s place in society, half-fae Iris Starspun has always known she doesn’t belong. Having a human mother is bad enough, but being magicless as well? That’s simply unforgivable.

But when Iris unexpectedly manifests magic at age nineteen, her parents see it as their chance to save the family from financial ruin. Never mind that her silly paper-folding magical ability is considered frivolous at best, useless at worst. And never mind that she decided long ago not to marry. The Bloom Season has begun, and Iris must attempt to secure a match—or watch her family’s future crumble.

Enter Lord Jasvian Rowanwood, heir to the most powerful family in the United Fae Isles. His ability to calm the deadly magical tempests that form in his family’s lumyrite mines is revered by all, and he takes that responsibility very seriously. Perhaps too seriously, if you ask his meddlesome grandmother. But Jasvian knows exactly what magic should practical, purposeful, and definitely not involving delicate paper creations or half-human debutantes with razor-sharp tongues.

But then Jasvian’s grandmother—the formidable Lady Rivenna—does the unthinkable and offers Iris the coveted position of apprentice at The Charmed Leaf Tea House, the most influential establishment in all of Bloomhaven. Now Iris must navigate both her new role and the scorn of Lady Rivenna’s grandson, all while trying to secure a match that might save her family.

Set in a whimsical world of paper magic, mischievous gossip birds, and a tea house with a mind of its own, this charming romantasy serves up a perfectly steeped blend of swooning romance and delightfully barbed banter.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

This HaBO request was sent in by Oyinkansola, who is looking for this romance:

Amputee doctor matchmade from heaven with a florist?

I read this book about 10 years where the hero and heroine’s mothers met in the heaven, got along, and decided to stage a meet cute for their kids. The hero is a medical doctor who is an amputee. To my memory, he is really charming and handsome. The heroine is a florist? I am less certain about her profession. I don’t know if this counts as a spoiler but they did have twin babies at the end of the book…

It was funny, and a really easy read.

Can we HaBO?

cimorene: A small bronze table lamp with triple-layered orange glass shades (stylish)
[personal profile] cimorene
I have written some rather harsh things about John Dickson Carr, and I stand by them and by being a hater.

But I wanted to be able to articulate just what it has that bothers me about them, so I started reading some more of his work. I found a GAD blogger who loves the guy and picked ones he mentioned. I quite liked the first Sir Henry Merrivale mystery I read (originally published under the pseudonym Carter Dickson), 1943's She Died A Lady. Then I read 1944's Till Death Do Us Part, which is the first mystery I've ever read with a setup to rival Christie's The Clocks. The setup takes longer: about 30% of the novel. But it is fantastic.

In The Clocks, as you know, Bob, a war-hero sort of young man who later acts as sidekick to Poirot is walking down a residential street when a door opens and a young woman runs out screaming. She just arrived to this house and found it empty except for a dead body; she's a typist and was hired through a secretarial bureau. He goes in with her and they find the corpse in a room that also contains a whole bunch of different clocks for some reason (six maybe?). The owner of the house then returns. She's blind, she didn't hire the typist, she has no connection with the victim and doesn't know how he got there, and she also doesn't own the clocks.

In Till Death Do Us Part the narrator (a playwright of crime thrillers) and his brand new fiancée go to a county fair. His fiancée first appears to have some sort of confrontation with the fortune teller (witnessed in silhouette through the tent), then accidentally shoots said fortune teller with a target rifle from outside the tent just as he was saying to the narrator, "I'm the famous criminologist from the Home Office and there's something I've got to tell you!" He is carried away by the doctor, but sends for the narrator to tell him that his fiancée is a murderess who has gotten away with poisoning two husbands and a past betrothed by injection of prussic acid so they looked like suicide, and that he wants the narrator's help to catch her. This is part of the setup but it's also a twist at like 30% of the book so )

praying mantis

Feb. 3rd, 2026 03:23 pm
mllesatine: some pink clouds (Default)
[personal profile] mllesatine
This praying mantis visited me last september on my fourth floor balcony. I'm not sure if it was a male or female, I think it was male. A saw the same mantis for a few days. I have some hope that this means that a female mantis laid eggs (called "Oothek") and I might see the babies in the spring.

I posted my pictures to a German site (https://gottesanbeterin-gesucht.de/). Check out the map of the last few years. There are two distinct populations in Germany (East and West) but barely any sighting in the south or north.

Springfield, Ohio is up next

Feb. 3rd, 2026 01:43 pm
rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
[personal profile] rydra_wong posting in [community profile] thisfinecrew
Via Naomi Kritzer on Bsky, this thread of ways to donate or volunteer:

https://bsky.app/profile/leeceelee.bsky.social/post/3mduanvydvs2q
[syndicated profile] bruce_schneier_feed

Posted by Bruce Schneier

Microsoft gives the FBI the ability to decrypt BitLocker in response to court orders: about twenty times per year.

It’s possible for users to store those keys on a device they own, but Microsoft also recommends BitLocker users store their keys on its servers for convenience. While that means someone can access their data if they forget their password, or if repeated failed attempts to login lock the device, it also makes them vulnerable to law enforcement subpoenas and warrants.

one of those days

Feb. 3rd, 2026 06:46 am
marcicat: (penguin)
[personal profile] marcicat
*the 9 am work meeting yesterday was CANCELLED, WHAT???

*I mean, yay! Huzzah! But also hey, I tried really hard to be on time for that, and it was all for naught!

*felt so grumpy by the time I got through the remaining work meetings that I wrote a thousand words of fanfic

*spite = my primary motivation to do most things, honestly

*and now it's Tuesday!

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