ARB Roundtable
Jun. 11th, 2026 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forestofgloryI'm took part in a roundtable on "Positivity, Negativity or the Secret Third Thing (Criticism)" which is now up at Ancillary Review of Books!
forestofglorydrive-by update
Jun. 10th, 2026 09:36 amrmc28I have about 15 minutes before I need to go to a school meeting, and I haven't updated in ages so:
Hockey
The inaugural season of Kodiaks 2 finished mid-May: we played 20 games and won 1. It was a bit last minute, but we managed to confirm enough ice time to continue with two teams next season, in time to submit our intention to the league by the 31 May deadline. Trials are next week and the week after, the WNIHL annual meeting is in early July and the next season starts in September. We had end-of-season awards, which I was late to due to having a pre-existing booking for formal hall with uni friends, and as manager I got a lovely personalised mug with a photo of the team from our last game, along with a card that made me all mushy and sentimental.
My summer training is still four times a week: uni x2, Warbirds and Kodiaks. Though summer ice for Kodiaks means we have to get a minimum signup from players and coaches to run, two weeks in advance, so it doesn't always happen.
Since the season end, I've had a couple of games with Warbirds, and a friendly with Huskies against Warwick Panthers. Warbirds won one and drew one, Huskies won. That's a nice feeling.
Media and culture
I finished all available seasons of Ted Lasso and very much enjoyed it, looking forward to the new season dropping later this summer. Tony and I have started watching Spider-Noir (we chose to watch in colour, and I am loving the colours). I've started watching Dollhouse with Owen, which is very very 2009.
A conversation about hockey musicals led to the discovery of "Score! A Hockey Musical" which can be watched on YouTube, but I cannot recommend the experience. The music is catchy but the lyrics are dreadful, not even "so bad it's good", and the musical itself can't decide whether to be serious or slapstick.
I thought idly last week, we haven't been to the ADC in a while (I only managed a couple of the plays on the list I made in March) and discovered an amateur production of Come From Away on last week and this. I took Charles last Saturday afternoon (the Huskies game was in the evening) and am meeting a couple of hockey friends to see it again tonight. It's still a very good musical, this is a very good company, it was nearly sold out when I got tickets and deservedly so. I cried, and will probably cry again tonight.
June challenge - out with the old!
Jun. 9th, 2026 06:10 pmfred_mouse posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
bitesizedcleaningOne of the requested challenges was a repeat of the February 2025 "Out with the Old" challenge, which ran over three weeks. Given it is already part way into June, I figure starting that one now, and then seeing what we might do for July--and if you have a Plan! or a small idea, please put your hand up to run a challenge, or suggest a challenge, or ask for someone to help you run one. I'm mostly copying peaceful_sand's week 1 post verbatim....
The focus this week is on the bedroom. What can you find to organise and potentially move out of the room? You can take two views of moving something out - it could be that it's still needed but better stored somewhere else or that you are decluttering in full and it will be leaving your home. If you don't need or find anything to declutter, think of this as a chance to re-organise and revitalise your environment. Don't be afraid to rearrange the furniture, or swap out how you are organising the clothes in your closet, or the things you have on display. At the moment you have a week for this to be your focus, but remember that at any time you can veer away from the comm focus and do what works for you or what you have to focus on. If things are going well but you need longer to finish a goal, don't be afraid to stick with it rather than move onto the next one. Lots of the themes throughout the year will overlap with earlier ones in some way so there's always the chance to revisit something later, or there might be one that you really don't need at all and so you can catch up on one's you've missed then.
If you need to focus on something else this weekend, tell us about your goals and how you get along.
(fred_mouse again: if decluttering is a thing you want to focus on long term, unclutter is a great community focused on slowly getting the clutter out of our homes).
Check in!
Jun. 8th, 2026 08:17 amfred_mouse posting in bitesizedcleaningAnother week, another check in. What is one small win you have had in the last week in making your house a home?
note: I'm attempting to remember to do this once a week. Last year peaceful_sands did monthly challenges, and I'm working up to repeating at least one. If there is one you found useful, or one you think would be really useful for where you are at now, let me know and I'll prioritise that.
Character assassination
Jun. 6th, 2026 03:14 pmwildeabandonOver the last few weeks I've been listening to Les Misérables (the novel, rather than the musical), and having finished it last night I have a few observations. Firstly, it is very long, definitely the longest novel I've ever read, and arguably the longest book*, but I found it surprisingly easy going compared to other lengthy 19th century works I've tackled. It's possible that the audiobook format made a difference there, and I must admit that although I was paying pretty close attention when there was actual plot, my mind did wander a bit in some of the digressions.
Which brings me to my second observation. I now know considerably more than I ever expected to about, amongst other things, the history of the Parisian sewer system. Hugo certainly did his research, and he wanted to make sure it didn't go to waste! According to Wikipedia, more than a quarter of the novel is "devoted to essays that argue a moral point or display Hugo's encyclopedic knowledge but do not advance the plot, nor even a subplot".
My third, and perhaps least trivial observation is that Marius is an absolute cunt. In the musical he mostly comes across as a bit wet and lacking in personality, particularly compared to Valjean and Javert, whereas in the novel he is unsurprisingly a lot more fleshed out. But he is fleshed out as a ghastly, manipulative, self-centred, abusive stalker. To begin with, when he first encounters Cosette, he is in his early 20s and she is a plain gawky adolescent, and he completely fails to notice her. When he sees her again few months later she has turned fifteen and 'blossomed', he becomes obsessed, and for some time he stalks her, but without actually speaking to her. At some point during this period the wind blows her skirt up displaying her ankles to anyone who might be watching, and he spends the next fortnight in an angry jealous sulk with /a woman he has never spoken to/. Later, once they have actually met and declared their love for one another, Valjean, believing that Javert is once again on his tail, decides to leave Paris for England. When Cosette tells Marius this, and indicates that she has little choice but to go with him, he first accuses her of never having loved him, and then threatens to kill himself if she leaves. After they are married, he becomes financially controlling, not allowing Cosette to spend any of 'their' money (the vast majority of which was originally hers) on anything remotely luxurious. When he learns of Valjean's past, whilst he doesn't outright forbid him from visiting, because that might make him look like the bad guy, he makes it so unpleasant and embarrassingly clear that he is unwelcome that he eventually stops coming, and essentially dies of a broken heart.
The way he treats Éponine is if anything even worse. He is utterly disdainful and callous, but perfectly happy to take advantage of her when she is useful to him. One way this comes across is in their manner of address. When they first meet, he tutoies her, which is either done mutually within a very close and intimate relationship, by adults speaking to children, or when you want to draw attention to the fact that someone is your social inferior. She meekly accepts this, continuing to vouvoyer him, but obviously on some level kidding herself that it's an indication of intimacy rather than disdain. Some time later, after she had done him some major favours, he switches to vouvoiment. Not because he has begun to respect her or anything decent like that, but because he and Cosette are now tutoying mutually, and he feels the need to insert some clarifying distance with Éponine. She, reasonably enough, asks if she's offended him, which he ignores, and despite her feelings for him being blindingly obvious from this point, he continues to expect her to act as a gobetween and facilitator for his relationship with Cosette.
A final observation is that this interaction with Éponine is one of at least three or four in which the use of, or change between tutoiment and vouvoiment is significant in terms of plot and/or character development, and at some point I'm going to have to see how English translators handled these scenes, because it seems like it would be very difficult to preserve the social nuances without making it very clumsy.
*Other possible candidates being the Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare, but I don't think either of those really counts as one book.
Which brings me to my second observation. I now know considerably more than I ever expected to about, amongst other things, the history of the Parisian sewer system. Hugo certainly did his research, and he wanted to make sure it didn't go to waste! According to Wikipedia, more than a quarter of the novel is "devoted to essays that argue a moral point or display Hugo's encyclopedic knowledge but do not advance the plot, nor even a subplot".
My third, and perhaps least trivial observation is that Marius is an absolute cunt. In the musical he mostly comes across as a bit wet and lacking in personality, particularly compared to Valjean and Javert, whereas in the novel he is unsurprisingly a lot more fleshed out. But he is fleshed out as a ghastly, manipulative, self-centred, abusive stalker. To begin with, when he first encounters Cosette, he is in his early 20s and she is a plain gawky adolescent, and he completely fails to notice her. When he sees her again few months later she has turned fifteen and 'blossomed', he becomes obsessed, and for some time he stalks her, but without actually speaking to her. At some point during this period the wind blows her skirt up displaying her ankles to anyone who might be watching, and he spends the next fortnight in an angry jealous sulk with /a woman he has never spoken to/. Later, once they have actually met and declared their love for one another, Valjean, believing that Javert is once again on his tail, decides to leave Paris for England. When Cosette tells Marius this, and indicates that she has little choice but to go with him, he first accuses her of never having loved him, and then threatens to kill himself if she leaves. After they are married, he becomes financially controlling, not allowing Cosette to spend any of 'their' money (the vast majority of which was originally hers) on anything remotely luxurious. When he learns of Valjean's past, whilst he doesn't outright forbid him from visiting, because that might make him look like the bad guy, he makes it so unpleasant and embarrassingly clear that he is unwelcome that he eventually stops coming, and essentially dies of a broken heart.
The way he treats Éponine is if anything even worse. He is utterly disdainful and callous, but perfectly happy to take advantage of her when she is useful to him. One way this comes across is in their manner of address. When they first meet, he tutoies her, which is either done mutually within a very close and intimate relationship, by adults speaking to children, or when you want to draw attention to the fact that someone is your social inferior. She meekly accepts this, continuing to vouvoyer him, but obviously on some level kidding herself that it's an indication of intimacy rather than disdain. Some time later, after she had done him some major favours, he switches to vouvoiment. Not because he has begun to respect her or anything decent like that, but because he and Cosette are now tutoying mutually, and he feels the need to insert some clarifying distance with Éponine. She, reasonably enough, asks if she's offended him, which he ignores, and despite her feelings for him being blindingly obvious from this point, he continues to expect her to act as a gobetween and facilitator for his relationship with Cosette.
A final observation is that this interaction with Éponine is one of at least three or four in which the use of, or change between tutoiment and vouvoiment is significant in terms of plot and/or character development, and at some point I'm going to have to see how English translators handled these scenes, because it seems like it would be very difficult to preserve the social nuances without making it very clumsy.
*Other possible candidates being the Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare, but I don't think either of those really counts as one book.
marines make do
Jun. 5th, 2026 03:47 pmwatersword posting in sewingI have a merino sweater with faux-leather patches at the shoulders. The patches are, to the surprise of no one, shredding; I picked up a pair of leather pants cheap at a thrift store, intending to cannibalize them for replacement patches. Does anyone have advice about sewing leather?
My plan is to unpick the shredded pleather patches, use them for templates to trace onto and cut the real leather, and hand-sew them on. I do have access to a sewing machine at the local makerspace, but I suspect the needle will snap as soon as I try to run it through.
Mickey 17
Jun. 4th, 2026 10:26 amemperorMickey Barnes and Timo join an expedition to the planet Niflheim, hoping to outrun a murderous loan-shark. The hapless Mickey signs up as an "Expendable", not realising this means he will have his memories uploaded to a computer and then be made to do all sorts of hazardous work, getting cloned/printed afresh every time he dies. He rapidly makes his way up to Mickey 17 before being abandoned in an ice ravine...
The expedition is led by a feeble but egotistical white supremacist whose followers (who make up a sizeable chunk of the expedition crew) wear red hats; and that is about as subtle as the politics of this film gets. It has a number of Points To Make, and it does so with some vigour.
A bunch of the plot doesn't hold up if you look at it hard ( spoilers ), and sometimes the plot was deeply predictable ( spoilers ). There were bits that were too cringey for me, but I have abnormally low tolerance for cringe.
But I think my main problem with Mickey 17 was that I didn't find myself caring about the plot very much - something about the whole thing kept breaking my suspension of disbelief, and I found myself thinking "this is a very silly movie" rather than getting caught up in what was happening. Possibly because too many of the characters' choices seemed inexplicable? Anyhow, my least liked of the Hugo films this year so far (and there's only 1 left).
The expedition is led by a feeble but egotistical white supremacist whose followers (who make up a sizeable chunk of the expedition crew) wear red hats; and that is about as subtle as the politics of this film gets. It has a number of Points To Make, and it does so with some vigour.
A bunch of the plot doesn't hold up if you look at it hard ( spoilers ), and sometimes the plot was deeply predictable ( spoilers ). There were bits that were too cringey for me, but I have abnormally low tolerance for cringe.
But I think my main problem with Mickey 17 was that I didn't find myself caring about the plot very much - something about the whole thing kept breaking my suspension of disbelief, and I found myself thinking "this is a very silly movie" rather than getting caught up in what was happening. Possibly because too many of the characters' choices seemed inexplicable? Anyhow, my least liked of the Hugo films this year so far (and there's only 1 left).
Media Roundup: Misc Sequential Art
Jun. 3rd, 2026 10:41 amforestofgloryI've been nearly constantly sick and/or overwhelemed for the last two weeks, but I did read some things!
The Cartoonists Club by Raina Telgemeier, Scott McCloud, et al.— A story about a group of kids forming a cartoonists club and making comics that’s also an intro to basic comics making and concepts. I’ve been wanting to read a bit more comics theory. (I’ve read Understanding Comics, but that was a while ago) Anyways this was cute and fun, but didn’t really scratch my comics theory itch. Would probably be good to give to a kid who is interested in comics though.
Supergirl's Family Vacation written by Brandon T. Snider, art by Sarah Leuver— This is so charming! It’s one of those graphic novels that’s its own little continuity – Supergirl is 13 and lives with her cousin Superman and his family and feels overlooked as a superhero. Anyway she convinces them all to go on vacation and then adventure happens! They go on a space road trip! Natasha Irons is there (she’s Supergirl’s best friend) Lois gets to be awesome but doesn’t steal the scene. There's a short scene of Batman and Wonder Woman getting instructions to take care of the stuff while they are away!
The whole thing is just very warm. I love the manga influenced art, the expressions are great, the colors are great! At one point there are magical girl-esqe transformation scenes. It’s very cute and sweet!
Batman & Robin Eternal by James Tynion IV et al— This did a much better job than Batman Eternal at being a story about legacy, and was just more cohesive in general. Only being half as long probably helped some. I read this when I was sick and bit out of it so I feel like some bits of it went over my head.
Laid-Back Camp Vol. 15-17 by Afro— While I’m on my slice-of-life manga kick I thought it would be nice to get caught up with this series.. It’s still one of my favorites of the genre, it's got food, female friendship, and great landscapes. It does make me sad that I am too disabled to go camping though.
Lightfall books 2-4 by Tim Probert— I was going to read these a bit slower, but they were due at the library so I had to hurry up a bit. This series is really good! I love the art, it's evocative, plus there are great landscapes! Also I didn’t say last time but there is a very good cat! The story went in some unexpected directions and I want to know what happens next! Too bad it's going to be a while before the next book is out.
A new season of my beloved wacky Chinese reality show The Truth has started airing and I'm excited for it! It's been a while since I watched anything.
The Cartoonists Club by Raina Telgemeier, Scott McCloud, et al.— A story about a group of kids forming a cartoonists club and making comics that’s also an intro to basic comics making and concepts. I’ve been wanting to read a bit more comics theory. (I’ve read Understanding Comics, but that was a while ago) Anyways this was cute and fun, but didn’t really scratch my comics theory itch. Would probably be good to give to a kid who is interested in comics though.
Supergirl's Family Vacation written by Brandon T. Snider, art by Sarah Leuver— This is so charming! It’s one of those graphic novels that’s its own little continuity – Supergirl is 13 and lives with her cousin Superman and his family and feels overlooked as a superhero. Anyway she convinces them all to go on vacation and then adventure happens! They go on a space road trip! Natasha Irons is there (she’s Supergirl’s best friend) Lois gets to be awesome but doesn’t steal the scene. There's a short scene of Batman and Wonder Woman getting instructions to take care of the stuff while they are away!
The whole thing is just very warm. I love the manga influenced art, the expressions are great, the colors are great! At one point there are magical girl-esqe transformation scenes. It’s very cute and sweet!
Batman & Robin Eternal by James Tynion IV et al— This did a much better job than Batman Eternal at being a story about legacy, and was just more cohesive in general. Only being half as long probably helped some. I read this when I was sick and bit out of it so I feel like some bits of it went over my head.
Laid-Back Camp Vol. 15-17 by Afro— While I’m on my slice-of-life manga kick I thought it would be nice to get caught up with this series.. It’s still one of my favorites of the genre, it's got food, female friendship, and great landscapes. It does make me sad that I am too disabled to go camping though.
Lightfall books 2-4 by Tim Probert— I was going to read these a bit slower, but they were due at the library so I had to hurry up a bit. This series is really good! I love the art, it's evocative, plus there are great landscapes! Also I didn’t say last time but there is a very good cat! The story went in some unexpected directions and I want to know what happens next! Too bad it's going to be a while before the next book is out.
A new season of my beloved wacky Chinese reality show The Truth has started airing and I'm excited for it! It's been a while since I watched anything.
Checkin!
Jun. 2nd, 2026 09:26 pmfred_mouse posting in bitesizedcleaningThanks everyone on your comments on the last checkin; fabulous to see so many people making small progress. I do not have the oomph to reply individually, but I wish I did.
Instead! It has been a little over a week since the last checkin, and time for another one. What is one small win you have had in the last week in making your house a home?
To-read pile, 2026, May
Jun. 1st, 2026 01:34 pmrmc28(aha, this post-by-email has finally appeared!)
Books on pre-order:
- Call Me Traitor by Everina Maxwell (1 Dec)
- Unrivaled (Game Changers 7) by Rachel Reid (1 Jun 2027)
Books acquired in May:
- and read:
- Darksight Dare (Penric & Desdemona) by Lois McMaster Bujold
- Grumpy Fake Boyfriend by Jackie Lau
- Four Weddings to Fall in Love by Jackie Lau
- Radiant Star (Imperial Radch) by Ann Leckie [1]
- Big Red Tequila (Tres Navarre 1) by Rick Riordan
- Platform Decay (Murderbot 8) by Martha Wells [1]
[1] Pre-order
Go me, I read everything I acquired this month. I did not read a single borrowed or previously acquired book but I have two library books awaiting my attention now I'm past the month boundary.
I bought Big Red Tequila on the first day of the month but got distracted and didn't pick it up again until the last few days. Rick Riordan's adult detective Jackson "Tres" Navarre has a lot of the sass and stubbornness of his teenage demigod Percy Jackson, the book is a lot longer but the pages turn just as quickly. There are six more books in the series ...
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Jun. 1st, 2026 10:56 pm![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
denise posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_maintenanceQuick note that post-by-email and comment-by-email is (sometimes?) failing silently without actually posting right now! I'm pretty sure this is related to last night's shenanigans and will be fixed once Mark can finish the full fix for it, which he's working on, but if you've posted or replied by email in the last 24 hours, fish it out of your sent folder to check if it posted!
EDIT: This should be fixed as of around 7AM EDT! We *believe* everything that was stuck in the plumbing has been sent along to your journal or the comment thread it was meant for; it's definitely not where it was stuck anymore, at least.
EDIT: This should be fixed as of around 7AM EDT! We *believe* everything that was stuck in the plumbing has been sent along to your journal or the comment thread it was meant for; it's definitely not where it was stuck anymore, at least.
(no subject)
May. 31st, 2026 10:00 pmdenise posting in dw_maintenanceRobby has managed to put in a temporary fix for the site errors and things failing to refresh or not showing up where they should! The permanent fix is going to need Mark's experience, and unfortunately -- seriously, this literally never fails -- Mark has been on an international flight all day, because of course he has. (Never. Fails. He and I are not allowed to both take vacation at once.)
The site will work just fine with the temporary fix in place, things just might be a little slow here and there. We'll keep you updated.
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May. 31st, 2026 08:59 pmdenise posting in dw_maintenanceWe're aware of site traffic issues and are working to fix them for the people who are having problems! (The tactics the damn bot traffic uses are endlessly shifting, and they're really good at looking like real traffic, sigh.)
Beer festival round up
May. 30th, 2026 11:09 amrmc28I managed to go Monday evening, Tuesday lunchtime to early evening (no closure Tuesday afternoon), Wednesday lunchtime and Thursday evening. Thursday evening was considerably more crowded but on the right side of my people-proximity tolerance: unsurprisingly I saw a lot of people I knew that evening, usually in passing.
I had multiple cheese platters over the course of the festival, and also got to taste vegan cheeses from other people's platters. Of the standard cheeses I especially liked Mayfield, Sussex Camembert[1], and Sheep Rustler, and the vegan standouts were Fetamorphosis and Shoreditch Smoked.
[1] I guess it's not trying to say it's Camembert de Normandie and thus not breaching PDO?
I managed to try all the AF beers available that I wanted to, and rotated back around to Mash Gang's Lesser Evil chocolate cherry stout for my last drink of the festival (we also have cans of it in the fridge now along with a couple of their IPAs for me to try). Nirvana Brewery's offerings were also pretty good, cementing my feeling that the best AF beers come from AF-specialist breweries rather than standard breweries making an AF option. Butcombe's Goram IPA Zero was the only real disappointment of the festival, will not bother again.
I also had both available AF ciders. Hogan's High Sobriety has an excellent name and was pretty good, but the prosaically-named Premium Low-Alcohol Cider from locals Cranes was even better.