http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5676

This book contains several elements which I like very much: it's epistolatory, it has mysterious ancient sophisticated machinery, and it involves very big size differences. I love miniature things and people, but I also love giants and giant things. This novel is entirely in the form of interviews, and it begins with a young girl walking in the woods who falls into a sinkhole, and lands in the palm of a GIANT HAND. (I can't believe that image isn't on the cover, because it's so striking and is also by far the best part of the book.) The gigantic hand is metal, and it turns out that there are pieces of a complete ancient giant robot scattered all over the world! What happens when the whole giant robot is assembled?

It turns out that what happens is yet another example of a great idea making a bad book, largely - AGAIN - by failing to engage with the premise! WHY IS THIS SO COMMON????

To be fair, this book has many bad elements which do not involve failing to lean into its premise.

The entire book consists of interviews by an unnamed, very mysterious person with near-infinite money and power. He is hiring people to locate the robot parts, assemble them, and pilot it. He also conducts personal interviews with them in which he pries into their love lives in a bizarrely personal manner. It's clearly because the author wanted to have a love story (he shouldn't have, it's terrible) and figured this was the only way to do it and keep the format, but it makes no sense. The interviewers do object to this line of questioning, but not in the way that I kept wanting them to, which would have been along the lines of "Don't you have anything better to do than get wank material from your employees? Drop it, or I'll go to HR."

The girl who fell into the hand grows up to be a physicist who gets hired to... I forget what exactly, but it didn't make much sense even when I was reading it. Anyway, she's on the project. There's also a badass female helicopter pilot, and a male linguist to translate the mysterious giant robot inscriptions. All these people are the biggest geniuses ever but are also total idiots. All the women are incredibly "man writing women."

Most annoyingly, the robot does not seem to be sentient, does not communicate, does not have a personality, and only walks for like 30 seconds once.

Spoilers! ( Read more... )

I feel stupider for having read this book.

It's a trilogy but even people who liked the first book say the returns steadily diminish.

I normally don't think it's cool to criticize people's appearances, but in this case, this dude chose to go with this supremely tryhard author photo.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3154/

When Galileo dropped two weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, they put him in the history books. But when I do it, I get 'detained by security' for 'injuring several tourists.'

https://xkcd.com/3154/

dine

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yhlee

Cotton handspun single from combed top, a "completed" bobbin. I'm spinning threadweight so I don't...feel the need to "fill" the bobbin even halfway (for a planned 2-ply).

I do think I'd probably have a more pleasant time spinning cotton and silk if I had a dedicated treadle wheel for them, someday; but the wheel I own works. :3

(The background art on the wall is a poster of Wonder Woman artwork by Nen Chang.)

yourlibrarian

1) Social media use is declining world wide but still going up in the U.S. Yet younger users are increasingly posting and using less as they develop privacy concerns. ( Read more... )

2) Speaking of investing more time in crafts, I'm taking part in

nacramamo for the first time. The goal is to post daily about crafts in progress or finished. Here's what I've got so far.

Also, as I was asked about this on one of my posts, yes, the necklaces are available for sale. I am also offering them in exchange for donations to Pillowfort.. Pillowfort also applies donations towards Premium features.

3) Over on

tv_talk there's been various conversations about things that have changed since short seasons and irregular hiatuses. I was reminded today that one of them is Halloween episodes. I know that in the UK one-off episodes for Christmas are fairly common but not so in the US. And not all shows take note of Halloween either regularly or at all. But it is fun to guess the release date of an episode when you see what seem like definite Halloween themes in them.

4) Strangely enough when I caught up on S2 of Hacks, there wasn't any indication there were further seasons available. I blame Max, which is really wonky about these things. ( Read more... )

5) I've posted the last of my May trip photos over at

common_nature, featuring Mount Shasta, San Francisco and the San Luis Reservoir.

Poll #33717 Kudos Footer-544

This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

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Kudos!
6 (100.0%)

morbane posting in

yuletide

It's letters time! If you're writing a letter along with your Yuletide sign-up, you can comment here with a link to your letter and also enter the details in the 2025 tagset app. For browsing convenience, the app also generates a google spreadsheet you can access directly. (Bookmarking will be available in the app once tag set corrections are complete.)

What's the deal with letters?
Letters are an optional tradition of Yuletide. When you sign up to the event, there's a space in the form for linking to somewhere in your own space (journal, public document, etc) where you can go into detail about what you like in fic and fandom. This post collects these links. The prompts on AO3 are hidden through sign-ups, but letters are visible as soon as you want them to be.

Letters are an optional extra in Yuletide. If you only post a letter here, you haven't signed up. To get an assignment and a gift, you need to sign up at the collection - open Oct 14-24. If you're using this post before sign-ups are open, please check back on AO3 to sign up there!

What makes a good letter?
Mileage varies. We encourage you, at minimum, to include your AO3 name, the fandoms and characters you're requesting, your Do-Not-Wants (DNWs), and whether or not you can receive treats. [This is a feature you can set in your AO3 preference settings. New accounts have permission to receive treats turned off by default, but participants with older accounts should check if they have not checked this in a while]. There are additional posts here and here discussing how to use DNWs.

How to post your letter

Finish your letter and make sure it's publicly visible. Here's the tagset to check what you can request

Enter it in the app*! You can edit your letter after submitting it - save the key, or ask the mods for the key if you lose it

Comment below! Include:
- Your AO3 name
- A link to your letter
- The fandoms you are requesting (3-8)
- The characters you are requesting in your fandoms (1-4, or Any)
If you post to the app first, it will spit out a handy chunk of text with all these details for you to use when commenting.

*Please reach out here if you're having trouble with the app! Characters can be selected by clicking on them.

!!! We ask you to add your letter both places to make sure it gets to people who are excited to read it. If for whatever reason you can only comment on a post, then please include the following line in your comment:

Mods, please add my letter to the app.

We will sweep the post occasionally and add letters to the app.

Warning: Locked or placeholder letters will be removed. You can add your letter when it's done.

If you have a question, contact a mod on Discord or comment here

Mini-challenges
As mini-challenges are posted, they will be added below.
( See links to this year's mini-challenges under the cut. )

The opening (and closing) of sign-ups will be announced at the admin comm.

Enjoy! And thank you to karanguni for the app!

jesse_the_k

sonia introduced me to Windborne, the acapella group from Massachusetts. Their version of "The Grey Funnel line" makes my head go sproing in a pleasant fashion.

( uncaptioned video within )

I’ve loved this 20th century ballad since I first encountered it on Silly Sisters in 1976. I recently learned that Cyril Tawney wrote the song as he was leaving the UK’s Royal Navy, called "Gray Funnel Line" by those who toiled there. Full lyrics at that link.

rydra_wong

I am just saying.

dine

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dancesontrains posting in

tv_talk

My partner mentioned to me a while back that Eleanor Shellstrop from 'The Good Place' is one of the few lead women characters sey've seen who are awful in the selfish and mean way she is; usually they tend to be catty or bitchy (I've not yet finished S2, no spoilers please).

I was wondering what other lead women or girl characters come to mind that fit this dynamic? Hyacinth Bucket from 'Keeping Up Appearances' is the first to come to mind, a stunning performance of deep denial and heavy class pretentions (not sure if this was called something else in the US or other countries). Or on a darker note, Jill from the horror comedy 'Nighty Night' https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395404/ who is unashamedly vile.

Granted I've mostly been watching stuff with male leads recently, but I was wondering who else there is that fits this unlikeable or deeply flawed niche?

yuletidemods posting in

yuletide_admin

Tag set housekeeping

We've removed Mouthwashing (Video Game) as that was approved in error. Sorry for getting your hopes up, nominator!

烏は主を選ばない | Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai | Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master (Anime): It’s come to our attention that Nazukihiko and Wakamiya are the same person, so we’re merging those characters.

Nominator of Luca (The History of Sound) - it looks like the Wikipedia page for this movie incorrectly listed Luca as the name of Lionel's lover in Rome; according to IMDB and the original stories this movie is based on, it's Vincent (who was also nominated), so we're deleting Luca.

Thank you for all the tag set issues you’ve let us know about so far! Please continue to check the tag set and let us know of further corrections we should make. Please tell us about these corrections before 9am UTC, Monday 13 October, so we can fix them before sign-ups.

Limited Do-Not-Match option

Most of the time, the person assigned to create for you in an AO3-based gift exchange, and the person assigned to receive a gift from you, are determined by the tags you select in the sign-up form.

Some exchange moderators also offer participants the option to say "Please do not match me up with [ExampleUserName] or [ExampleUserName2]. I don't want to receive a gift from them or create for them." This feature makes it easier, for example, to offer a fandom requested by six different people including someone you'd prefer to avoid, and have peace of mind that you can still avoid that person.

A Do-Not-Match option is difficult to offer flexibly in Yuletide because of the large number of participants and the large number of people who have only one possible creator or recipient. However, we see a Do-Not-Match option as a valuable tool to reduce friction and make everyone happier, so we intend to offer a limited version of this feature in Yuletide, on a trial basis. Please note that this is not an absolute guarantee you won’t receive a story from one of the people you list.

How it will work

When you sign up on AO3, the sign-up form will also link out to a Google form where you can list the AO3 names of up to 3 people you do not want to match to and can tell us if you want to avoid writing for a person, receiving an assigned gift from a person, or both. We will also ask for those people's AO3 ID numbers, which you can find on their AO3 profiles, and for the email associated with your AO3 name. We will not ask for the reason you wish to avoid a person.

After we run the matching process, we will check all matches against our master Do-Not-Match list. We will take the following actions:

If your assigned recipient or creator is someone you asked to avoid, we will attempt to match you to someone else.

If your only possible recipient is someone you asked to avoid, we will email you to recommend you expand your offers. However, we will leave the match in place if you do not respond in the first 24 hours following the close of sign-ups.

If your only possible creator is someone you asked to avoid, we will send out your requests with initial pinch hits.

If you are the only possible recipient for a creator you asked to avoid, we will leave the match in place, but will prioritize your requests for double-assignment to two creators. [Because of how matching works, there will always be Yuletide participants who start out with two assigned creators; generally we try to choose them at random.]

We will not take the following actions:

We will not ask a creator to drop out or expand their offers if their only possible recipient is someone who would prefer to avoid them.

We will not inform a participant that someone else has asked not to match to them. [This information will be restricted only to the core Yuletide mods, Isis, Morbane, and pendrecarc, and will not be shared with the larger pool of Yuletide assistants.]

We will not review treats for unwanted matches. Putting someone on your Do-Not-Match list will not prevent them from creating a treat for you (but please see FAQs below for other tools to achieve this).

We will not prevent someone on your Do-Not-Match list from claiming you as a pinch hit. We will check our master Do-Not-Match list when assigning pinch hits, so if the first person to claim you is a person you prefer to avoid, we will leave a short amount of time to see if another claim comes in. But we will not hold your pinch hit indefinitely or tell the first creator they aren't allowed to claim you.

We will not ask you why you wish to avoid a particular match.

FAQs (foreseeable/anticipated questions)

Who am I allowed to put on my Do-Not-Match list?
Any three AO3 accounts you would prefer to avoid matching to. This can be for any reason, serious or unserious. Do not tell us the reason, please. If the reason is harassment or similar, we recommend reaching out to the Policy & Abuse team separately. You may only give specific names, rather than a description like "anyone who mostly wants porn".

Can't I just block people I don't want to match to?
No. Adding other users to your block list stops them from giving you a treat (see item AO3-6502 on this news post). It also stops them from being able to comment on your work. However, it does not affect challenge matching. A person you have blocked can be assigned to create for you, and you can be assigned to create for them.

Wait, am I allowed to block people in Yuletide?
Yes. Feel free to use the blocking feature to improve your AO3 experience. However, blocking someone and also matching to them could lead to unhappiness for both of you - so please consider using all the tools at your disposal to avoid matching to people you have blocked. This could mean choosing not to offer a fandom if you suspect it has been requested by a person you wish to avoid, or it could mean using the Do-Not-Match option for people you have blocked.

What other AO3 tools exist to manage my gift experience?
If you wish, you can choose to receive gifts only from assigned writers in a gift exchange or people who have claimed your prompts in a prompt meme. This is sometimes described as turning treats on and off. If you created your account after February 2022, please review this setting in your AO3 account preferences. If you select the setting "Allow anyone to gift me works", you can receive treats. If you do not select this setting, only an assigned author can give you a gift in Yuletide.

Will this be a feature of Yuletide going forward?
Maybe, maybe not. It will depend on how well it works out this year!

Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Tag Set | Tag Set App | Community DW | Community LJ | Discord | Pinch hits on Dreamwidth

Please either sign in to comment, or include a name with your anonymous comments, including replies to others' comments. Unsigned comments will stay screened.

cimorene

I have been reading and skimming 1920s magazines and have not got tired of that yet. I have learned so much more about the period, and have a much firmer grip on the idiom of the time.

It was a didactic article about world literature from one of these 20s women's magazines that actually made me curious about the Arabian Nights - I didn't read the whole article, bc racism, but the brief history inspired me to read on Wikipedia. The history and background there fascinated me, and I wanted to read the translation of

The Leiden Edition, prepared by Muhsin Mahdi, [...] the only critical edition [...] to date,[48] believed to be most stylistically faithful representation of medieval Arabic versions currently available. [... It] was rendered into English by Husain Haddawy (1990).[61] This translation has been praised as 'very readable' and 'strongly recommended for anyone who wishes to taste the authentic flavour of those tales'.

It is very readable and really entertaining! In fact I've stayed awake longer than I meant to several nights this week because of wanting to finish one of the stories.

I've also realized that the... maybe not exactly subgenre; category? of Arabian fantasy is all stylistically influenced by them. That seems painfully obvious now that I've thought it, but I've never thought about it before! I have not read much of it, though, and I know there are newer fantasy novels in that setting that are not written by white people, some on my to-read list; they are possibly quite different or more diverse. But in the past (mostly childhood), I've read

Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones (1990), set in the universe of Howl's Moving Castle

The Harem of Aman Akbar by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1984)

Night's Master and Death's Master by Tanith Lee (1978-79)

Oh, Wikipedia even says on the page for the last series that it's inspired by the Thousand and One Nights. I must've seen that before I read them (it was only like five years ago maybe) and forgotten.

feurioo posting in

tv_talk

Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

rydra_wong

Watch on YouTube

("CARTOON PONY ON AMPHETAMINES.")

(And I just heard they cast Sheila Atim as Akasha, because half the casting is just raiding the National Theatre and it's glorious.)

The thing about IWTV (now being renamed The Vampire Lestat for S3, presumably at the demand of Lestat's lawyers) is that a) it would make Anne Rice roll in her fucking grave, and b) it somehow manages to be deeply truthful to elements of the spirit of the books in a way that a more "faithful" adaptation that didn't engage in such a vigorous Interrogation Of The Text couldn't do. It's fascinating, and it also hits in a particular way for those of us who read the first books as impressionable teens, and then, you know, grew up:

https://www.tumblr.com/silverbirching/752456802186182656/yessssss-and-he-watched-it-on-my

Anyway, the first two seasons are on Netflix and on BBC iPlayer in the UK, so if you're tempted, now is a very good time to catch up.

rydra_wong

I am now enjoying being able to distress all my Souls-playing friends through my unironic enjoyment of Blighttown.

(It's a tough but genuinely awesome level which has a bad reputation because on release the intricacy of the environment and number of moving parts would destroy the framerate and people would have to try to get through it at 10fps. But this is no longer the case since the remaster! And everyone who's upset about spending lots of time plummeting to their death needs to get on my level because I've been doing that all through the game anyway; it's just usually funnier in Blighttown.)

ETA: I have run the second bell and thus officially left the early game and entered the mid-game.

dine

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

amazonv

unemployed day 35

October 10 Friday
Slept in the morning for a little after feeding the cats at 7am and not having slept
feeling mostly better, still sick but functional
gem finished our cabinets!
LunchClub meeting with Roman Yusufov https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryusufov/
Poked into my EI (unemployment US / Employment Insurance CA) claim a little, underreview, may need to follow up after canadian thanksgiving
Listened to day 5 ADHD summit https://amazonv.dreamwidth.org/1317657.html
Dinner and hang out with in laws
adhd summit again which is wrecking my schedule
BSides Edmonton: urgent emails
TDI: quickbooks, urgent emails, reach our to informa tech which took me an amzingly long time
Skytalks check emails
doing an hour on google cybersecurity course

I have noticed things are just not sticking in my brain...WTF is up with me, i listen to things over and over and just in one ear and our the other...

amazonv

#ProductCon San Francisco: The AI Conference for Product Leaders

Hosted by Product School

October 8th 2025

i attended virtually

notes, in progress, need to rewatch

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lu3JrTXPkb6zOP6tnlevIheEDcU4F0JrI4sPSo4kmcg/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.celdl1ht54qx

amazonv

unemployed day 31

October 6 Monday
Sick, confirmed "cover me" coverage (think cobra) active, called 811 nurse line
went to 2 walk in clinics, first was full
got medication (nasal spray, throat numbing
missed Open SSF meetings :(
Listened to day 1 ADHD summit https://amazonv.dreamwidth.org/1316765.html
Listened to intentional living audio podcasts https://amazonv.dreamwidth.org/1317909.html thought it was all content for day one, found out it was the full content for all the days *shrug* i was not the ICP
Send resume to a friend, and sent a few
Annual Board meeting for TDI
TDI: NCL signups, urgent emails
BSides urgent emails
Set many stocks to sell as need the money and they have met or exceeded the profit goal
trouble getting to sleep, maybe got to sleep 6am?
Skytalks check emails

unemployed day 32

October 7 Tuesday
slept in because sleep issues
Listened to day 2 ADHD summit https://amazonv.dreamwidth.org/1316873.html
felt like crap so rescheduled call with heather
did some applications
BSides Edmonton: thomas email, urgent emails, quickbooks
TDI: quickbooks, urgent emails
Skytalks check emails
I think i managed to get to bed at not an awful hour

unemployed day 33

October 8 Wednesday
#ProductCon live - https://amazonv.dreamwidth.org/1318557.html
canceled/moved interview (they did)
Listen to day 3 ADHD summit https://amazonv.dreamwidth.org/1317137.html
BSides Edmonton: urgent emails
TDI: quickbooks, urgent emails
Skytalks check emails
Checked if in the window for ann frank tickets yet, no
not sure i actually slept

unemployed day 34

October 9 Thursday
Listen to day 4 ADHD summit https://amazonv.dreamwidth.org/1317550.html
mom surgery went fine
"gemni at work" google livestream, interesting but seems to be enterprise only, but managed to get som free credits? had to rewatch a second time later to see if i missed anything ai (llm/ml) does seem to have great potentials and realizing some of it like helping use natural language to query your data, but still, one needs data and needs to be able to trust and collect and store the data
initial interview, canada may be an issue but seems like an excellent fit
BSides Edmonton: urgent emails
TDI: quickbooks, urgent emails
Skytalks check emails
tried to get back to daily journaling
didn't actually sleep at all

It's the friends of the saw of the table!

Neck And Neck

Sleeping Giants, by Sylvain Neuvel

Physics Insight

how easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again!

emotional support spinning: cotton

NaCraMaMo Here at Dreamwidth

Dear Yuletide Writer Letters 2025

music: Windborne Sing "The Grey Funnel Line"

PSA: Prophet is a Yuletide fandom and also extremely readable

the road to success is always under construction

Looking for recs with unlikeable or deeply flawed women lead characters

Do-Not-Match Option - LIMITED Yuletide edition

Limited Do-Not-Match option

How it will work

FAQs (foreseeable/anticipated questions)

Reading Mahdi's Arabian Nights (1984) trans. Haddawy

Speak Up Saturday

I am cackling with glee

For anyone wondering how my Dark Souls progress is going

remember, if you see something, say nothing. and drink to forget

unemployed day 35

#ProductCon San Francisco: The AI Conference for Product Leaders

unemployed day 31-34

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