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Jun. 6th, 2025 08:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishGoing through my books, because it's been a couple years since my last serious purge. Pick up The Fortunate Fall. Note that it's under the author's deadname. Ponder what to do about that: sticky-label on the spine? Shelve it under R?
Open it up. Note that my copy is signed (under the author's deadname). Flip through. Read two and a half pages. Realise I've just booksniped myself. Put it firmly back on the shelf.
Next up, I guess. I was gonna read some of my unreads to see if they're worth keeping / hauling but sometimes the bookshelf speaks.
(I believe Cameron Reed's second novel will be out this fall. FINALLY. I am excited.)
Just finished Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter. It's ... the trappings are I guess "industrial fantasy." I think Abby described it as nihilistic. I can see where she was coming from but to me it's more about, mm. The process of outgrowing nihilism, maybe.
Currently reading the sequel, The Dragons of Babel, which starts off in the same nihilistic vein but quickly takes a turn for the at least somewhat more cheerful. I remember liking this one an awful lot when I read it. Looking forward to the third volume after this.
Open it up. Note that my copy is signed (under the author's deadname). Flip through. Read two and a half pages. Realise I've just booksniped myself. Put it firmly back on the shelf.
Next up, I guess. I was gonna read some of my unreads to see if they're worth keeping / hauling but sometimes the bookshelf speaks.
(I believe Cameron Reed's second novel will be out this fall. FINALLY. I am excited.)
Just finished Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter. It's ... the trappings are I guess "industrial fantasy." I think Abby described it as nihilistic. I can see where she was coming from but to me it's more about, mm. The process of outgrowing nihilism, maybe.
DONNY: Are these the nazis?
WALTER: No, Donny, these men are nihilists. There's nothing to be frightened of.
Currently reading the sequel, The Dragons of Babel, which starts off in the same nihilistic vein but quickly takes a turn for the at least somewhat more cheerful. I remember liking this one an awful lot when I read it. Looking forward to the third volume after this.
scanners vs. divers, again
Jun. 4th, 2025 11:44 amalthea_valaraI was discussing confidence and job searching with friends the other day, and one of them suggested reading Refuse to Choose: Use All of Your Interests, Passions and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams so I dutifully clicked the link and then went WAIT WHAT A BARBARA SHER BOOK I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT?!?!
I'm a big fan of Barbara's books, and spent a lot of time on her message board when I was younger. I helped proofread Wishcraft when she was first digitizing it, and had even talked to her on the phone once regarding the project. I was very sad when I heard she had passed away, because her books were very formative and helpful for me.
So yes, I immediately bought the ebook of Refuse to Choose and started reading it, and well, it's basically a how-to manual for scanners.
Hmm.
Okay, let me explain: Barbara says there are two types of people in the world: scanners vs. divers. A diver is someone who finds a subject they are interested in, then dives into it and learns everything about it. Scanners are the opposite: they taste a bunch of different subjects and have a lot of different interests.
In the past, I had considered myself a scanner. Now, I'm not so sure. I mean, it's been TWENTY YEARS and I am still primarily listening to Final Fantasy music. It's been FIFTEEN YEARS and I am still knitting and crocheting happily. And those are primarily my two interests. So that feels more like a diver to me.
And yet: I get bored within 6-12 months at a job. Once I learn what I'm doing and master it, I get depressed and listless. I was also the person in high school and college who took classes just because they sounded fun (like, I was never REALLY interested in acting or the theater, and yet I took both "Beginning Acting" and "Play Production" in high school, and enjoyed the classes.)
There's such a thing as a frustrated diver--that person who hasn't found their niche yet. I do wonder if that could be me. Or flipping things around: am I really a scanner that's masking as a diver right now because of anxiety/depression/whatever? There are so many ways I'm afraid to step out of my comfort zone. I'm trying to be more brave and try new things, but it's going to be a process.
If I think of all the things I have tried in the past... well, let's list them:
* photography
* drawing (when I was a kid)
* digital art (a college class I took that was open to highschoolers)
* journal/memoir writing (took a class on this)
* fiction writing (I subbed to Writer's Digest for several years)
* acting
* play production
* embroidery (I have a kit from the library that I was working on)
* candle making (never did it, but bought a kit when I was younger)
* astronomy (had a telescope)
* piano (took lessons as a kid, had electronic keyboards as an adult)
* flute (played in grammar/high school)
* violin (bought a cheap one off ebay and the Suzuki method books and played around with them)
* marathon walking
* pin loom weaving
* tablet weaving via backstrap method
* bracelet making (as a kid/teen)
* origami
* studying Japanese for fun
* anime/manga
* coding for fun (bot!)
* interactive fiction coding/writing
* website design
* DVD making (I made a simple menu for a DVD of Serenity-related items)
* painting, particularly on windows
* trading card games (MtG and LOTR)
...and probably more... that's quite a list! And I wouldn't say I mastered any of them, with the possible exception of bot. I am proud with what I did with bot. Oh, and I actually succeeded in completely a marathon, so that's an exception too. But all of the others, I dipped into for a bit. Usually, I would get REALLY EXCITED about something, throw my all into it for a bit, maybe succeed in accomplishing something, and then... drop the subject.
One thing I notice is that much of the stuff on the list has a creative element to it. I do very much feel like I'm a creator. I want to produce stuff. I want to create stuff out of nothing. I want to inspire or bring joy to people with my creations. I am happiest when talking about creating things. Also happy when discussing video games, but then it's primarily about the really good stories and characters and not so much the gameplay. I'm a sucker for a good story.
So yeah, maybe I *am* a scanner that hasn't allowed herself to explore lately. Either way, I'm gonna finish reading the book and see what Barbara has to say.
I'm a big fan of Barbara's books, and spent a lot of time on her message board when I was younger. I helped proofread Wishcraft when she was first digitizing it, and had even talked to her on the phone once regarding the project. I was very sad when I heard she had passed away, because her books were very formative and helpful for me.
So yes, I immediately bought the ebook of Refuse to Choose and started reading it, and well, it's basically a how-to manual for scanners.
Hmm.
Okay, let me explain: Barbara says there are two types of people in the world: scanners vs. divers. A diver is someone who finds a subject they are interested in, then dives into it and learns everything about it. Scanners are the opposite: they taste a bunch of different subjects and have a lot of different interests.
In the past, I had considered myself a scanner. Now, I'm not so sure. I mean, it's been TWENTY YEARS and I am still primarily listening to Final Fantasy music. It's been FIFTEEN YEARS and I am still knitting and crocheting happily. And those are primarily my two interests. So that feels more like a diver to me.
And yet: I get bored within 6-12 months at a job. Once I learn what I'm doing and master it, I get depressed and listless. I was also the person in high school and college who took classes just because they sounded fun (like, I was never REALLY interested in acting or the theater, and yet I took both "Beginning Acting" and "Play Production" in high school, and enjoyed the classes.)
There's such a thing as a frustrated diver--that person who hasn't found their niche yet. I do wonder if that could be me. Or flipping things around: am I really a scanner that's masking as a diver right now because of anxiety/depression/whatever? There are so many ways I'm afraid to step out of my comfort zone. I'm trying to be more brave and try new things, but it's going to be a process.
If I think of all the things I have tried in the past... well, let's list them:
* photography
* drawing (when I was a kid)
* digital art (a college class I took that was open to highschoolers)
* journal/memoir writing (took a class on this)
* fiction writing (I subbed to Writer's Digest for several years)
* acting
* play production
* embroidery (I have a kit from the library that I was working on)
* candle making (never did it, but bought a kit when I was younger)
* astronomy (had a telescope)
* piano (took lessons as a kid, had electronic keyboards as an adult)
* flute (played in grammar/high school)
* violin (bought a cheap one off ebay and the Suzuki method books and played around with them)
* marathon walking
* pin loom weaving
* tablet weaving via backstrap method
* bracelet making (as a kid/teen)
* origami
* studying Japanese for fun
* anime/manga
* coding for fun (bot!)
* interactive fiction coding/writing
* website design
* DVD making (I made a simple menu for a DVD of Serenity-related items)
* painting, particularly on windows
* trading card games (MtG and LOTR)
...and probably more... that's quite a list! And I wouldn't say I mastered any of them, with the possible exception of bot. I am proud with what I did with bot. Oh, and I actually succeeded in completely a marathon, so that's an exception too. But all of the others, I dipped into for a bit. Usually, I would get REALLY EXCITED about something, throw my all into it for a bit, maybe succeed in accomplishing something, and then... drop the subject.
One thing I notice is that much of the stuff on the list has a creative element to it. I do very much feel like I'm a creator. I want to produce stuff. I want to create stuff out of nothing. I want to inspire or bring joy to people with my creations. I am happiest when talking about creating things. Also happy when discussing video games, but then it's primarily about the really good stories and characters and not so much the gameplay. I'm a sucker for a good story.
So yeah, maybe I *am* a scanner that hasn't allowed herself to explore lately. Either way, I'm gonna finish reading the book and see what Barbara has to say.
Link soup, from quite a range of dates
Jun. 3rd, 2025 09:00 pmazurelunaticThe usual mess of interesting things I've read, most of them quite out of date, in approximate order of my having read them. Brought to you by my browser crashing twice when I tried to start it after my most recent reboot.
As always, I use Export Tabs to wrangle this. And maybe my current 1,625 tab count will decrease some after I close all these?
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/export-tabs/odafagokkafdbbeojliiojjmimakacil?hl=en
Some good news from the south:
Woman who went on the lam with untreated TB is now cured | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/07/woman-who-went-on-the-lam-with-untreated-tb-is-now-cured/
Mechanical Watch – Bartosz Ciechanowski
https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/
How a North Korean Fake IT Worker Tried to Infiltrate Us
https://blog.knowbe4.com/how-a-north-korean-fake-it-worker-tried-to-infiltrate-us
How I Got My Laser Eye Injury - Funranium Labs
https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2024/07/how-i-got-my-laser-eye-injury/
( Read more... )
As always, I use Export Tabs to wrangle this. And maybe my current 1,625 tab count will decrease some after I close all these?
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/export-tabs/odafagokkafdbbeojliiojjmimakacil?hl=en
Some good news from the south:
Woman who went on the lam with untreated TB is now cured | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/07/woman-who-went-on-the-lam-with-untreated-tb-is-now-cured/
Mechanical Watch – Bartosz Ciechanowski
https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/
How a North Korean Fake IT Worker Tried to Infiltrate Us
https://blog.knowbe4.com/how-a-north-korean-fake-it-worker-tried-to-infiltrate-us
How I Got My Laser Eye Injury - Funranium Labs
https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2024/07/how-i-got-my-laser-eye-injury/
( Read more... )
i've made enough of my own mistakes on my own
Jun. 2nd, 2025 07:42 pmjazzfishI'm home. I'm pretty well caught up on classwork; mostly what remains is a big group project and a final exam. And I need to finish writing the final report on my practicum. Weird to think this will all be in the rearview in three and a half weeks.
I'm still jobhunting, which remains a reliable depression trigger. Not worth talking about other than to note it's ongoing, on all counts.
Mr Tuppert has decided that what is best in life is to demand scritches/pets from the cat-mat next to the laptop spot on the table, while I'm eating and reading ye internette. Sometimes he also gets brushed, which he generally ... somewhere between tolerates and enjoys. Eventually he decides that he's had enough company and isn't it time for me to go be somewhere that's not in his space? He expresses this through the medium of lightly biting my hand. Not ideal but one works with what one has. Treats can redirect him away from being cranky, but that is not really a road I want to go down.
For now I keep sending out resumes. If I continue to get no bites by the end of the month I will have to regroup. In the meanwhile it's threatening to be early summer out there. Things as they currently are aren't so bad.
I'm still jobhunting, which remains a reliable depression trigger. Not worth talking about other than to note it's ongoing, on all counts.
Mr Tuppert has decided that what is best in life is to demand scritches/pets from the cat-mat next to the laptop spot on the table, while I'm eating and reading ye internette. Sometimes he also gets brushed, which he generally ... somewhere between tolerates and enjoys. Eventually he decides that he's had enough company and isn't it time for me to go be somewhere that's not in his space? He expresses this through the medium of lightly biting my hand. Not ideal but one works with what one has. Treats can redirect him away from being cranky, but that is not really a road I want to go down.
For now I keep sending out resumes. If I continue to get no bites by the end of the month I will have to regroup. In the meanwhile it's threatening to be early summer out there. Things as they currently are aren't so bad.
Unlucky
May. 29th, 2025 04:39 pmazurelunaticA hundred years from now, chroma key colors are going to be considered unlucky to wear in a set of professions like newscasting, and nobody is going to quite realize why.
I want to ride my bicycle I want to ride my bike
May. 28th, 2025 06:10 pmthe_shoshannaWhen I was ten years old, friends and I came back from seeing a James Bond movie and were playing at James Bond on our bikes, and I swerved too sharply, fell over, and broke my left leg. I broke both the fibia and the tibula, in fact, but they were clean breaks, very tidy. Hurt like screaming hell, though. As was the custom of the time I was in the hospital for several days and came out in a full-leg cast. My father, who lived some distance away, couldn’t get there right away and sent me a dozen roses in the hospital, which made the whole thing absolutely worth it; I had never felt so grown-up!
But that was the end of my bicycling career. For fifty years.
Now, however, I've moved to a small, mostly flat, navigable city, and I want to try getting back on that literal-not-proverbial bike! I fairly often have places to go and errands to run where driving feels silly but walking might take juuuuust too much time, and a bike seems like the obvious option. But do I want to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a new bike and run the risk that I won't enjoy it, or feel safely balanced after so long, or whatever, and will in fact end up not using it much? I do not.
Fortunately this city has a couple of nonprofit bike repairing and reselling organizations! So I stopped by one of them this afternoon and chatted with the head mechanic, and he picked out a bike for me from their (all donated) stock on hand, and we verified that it fits me. It needs some repair work and tuning up, which they will do over the next couple of weeks (him: "There's about six bikes ahead of you in line." me: "It's been fifty years, another two weeks is not a problem!"), and they asked for $125-$175, according to my ability to pay. I wasn't able to actually test-ride it, since it has no tires at the moment, but I was able to balance pretty well; I do feel pretty confident that I haven't forgotten how to ride a bike.
(And this time I hope to learn how to shift gears, too! Kid-me's bike was a three-speed and I just left it in second all the time.)
Now I just need to get a helmet -- which I do know to buy new/unused. And a lock. Whee!
But that was the end of my bicycling career. For fifty years.
Now, however, I've moved to a small, mostly flat, navigable city, and I want to try getting back on that literal-not-proverbial bike! I fairly often have places to go and errands to run where driving feels silly but walking might take juuuuust too much time, and a bike seems like the obvious option. But do I want to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a new bike and run the risk that I won't enjoy it, or feel safely balanced after so long, or whatever, and will in fact end up not using it much? I do not.
Fortunately this city has a couple of nonprofit bike repairing and reselling organizations! So I stopped by one of them this afternoon and chatted with the head mechanic, and he picked out a bike for me from their (all donated) stock on hand, and we verified that it fits me. It needs some repair work and tuning up, which they will do over the next couple of weeks (him: "There's about six bikes ahead of you in line." me: "It's been fifty years, another two weeks is not a problem!"), and they asked for $125-$175, according to my ability to pay. I wasn't able to actually test-ride it, since it has no tires at the moment, but I was able to balance pretty well; I do feel pretty confident that I haven't forgotten how to ride a bike.
(And this time I hope to learn how to shift gears, too! Kid-me's bike was a three-speed and I just left it in second all the time.)
Now I just need to get a helmet -- which I do know to buy new/unused. And a lock. Whee!
Recaf
May. 27th, 2025 01:09 pmazurelunaticWe know about Decaf, where by some process, caffeine is removed from coffee or whatever.
I present: Recaf. Where maybe decaf isn't doing it today so you add in a bit of caffeine powder or something.
(I have a flask of decaf on me today, and then we stopped for breakfast and got Coke, and I said "recaf" and had to make the definition.)
I present: Recaf. Where maybe decaf isn't doing it today so you add in a bit of caffeine powder or something.
(I have a flask of decaf on me today, and then we stopped for breakfast and got Coke, and I said "recaf" and had to make the definition.)
give the governor a "harrumph"
May. 25th, 2025 04:56 pmthe_shoshannaI was supposed to meet up with someone yesterday, and we had the following email conversation:
them: We operate out of Location A and Location B. I'll be at Location A Saturday afternoon from 2:00 on.
me: Great, I'll be at Location A a few minutes past 2:00 on Saturday!
me at 2:15 pm: Hey, you're not here yet so I'm going to run a quick errand and come back.
me at 2:30 pm: You're still not here, so I guess we'll try again next week? I hope everything is all right on your end.
them at 3:00 pm, after I was already home again: We're at Location B.
It's not a huge deal, we will connect next week, but damn, I would have appreciated even a perfunctory "Oops, my bad," you know?
them: We operate out of Location A and Location B. I'll be at Location A Saturday afternoon from 2:00 on.
me: Great, I'll be at Location A a few minutes past 2:00 on Saturday!
me at 2:15 pm: Hey, you're not here yet so I'm going to run a quick errand and come back.
me at 2:30 pm: You're still not here, so I guess we'll try again next week? I hope everything is all right on your end.
them at 3:00 pm, after I was already home again: We're at Location B.
It's not a huge deal, we will connect next week, but damn, I would have appreciated even a perfunctory "Oops, my bad," you know?
Recent shenanigans: wrist, Cronch, and 3D printer
May. 24th, 2025 09:12 pmazurelunaticGot steroids to the left wrist on Tuesday, and sulked for the rest of the day because it was tender ( Read more... ).
Friday I put together the Cronch Tower, to replace the Cronch Pile. It's a 5 foot construction of wire shelf panels, with two two-foot high baskets and a final open topped container. This is to manage the chip needs of 3+1 people.
After shopping Friday, Belovedest pulled the Holiday Morass in front of me, for me to sort out into Yuletide, Halloween, andIt's Fall, Y'All Decorative Gourd Season. Plus None of the Above. And Thorn came up for company while working and sociability. Since they had hung the work privacy shade on the window.
Today before I woke up, Belovedest had herded the Cronch Tower further. And unboxed my printer. And while I took advantage of the 80+F weather to lounge, they ran a test print.
The print came out fine! Belovedest now knows where I keep the spare filament (in The Heir and the Spare, naturally). We are discussing next steps!
Friday I put together the Cronch Tower, to replace the Cronch Pile. It's a 5 foot construction of wire shelf panels, with two two-foot high baskets and a final open topped container. This is to manage the chip needs of 3+1 people.
After shopping Friday, Belovedest pulled the Holiday Morass in front of me, for me to sort out into Yuletide, Halloween, and
Today before I woke up, Belovedest had herded the Cronch Tower further. And unboxed my printer. And while I took advantage of the 80+F weather to lounge, they ran a test print.
The print came out fine! Belovedest now knows where I keep the spare filament (in The Heir and the Spare, naturally). We are discussing next steps!