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Apres le deluge, moi
Apr. 21st, 2025 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mificThought I'd post some flowers to break up the politics! Here's me, who used to get all my news from destiel memes on tumblr, now following three substack blogs. But I figure when you're living through History, best to pay at least some attention. And even here in NZ we have right wing bastards in government trying to fuck things up. Wrote my first email to my MP, Health Minister, Labour & the Greens protesting a recent directive ordering our Health Service to refer to all pregnant people as "pregnant women". Tossers. Hope you're all looking after yourselves out there.
As predicted, the weather finally ended our almost-drought with a LOT of rain. And thunder and lightning, and some floods and slips but not where I live now (whew). At my old place in the bush we'd definitely have had power cuts but these days I can just listen to the pounding rain and crackling thunder and relax.
The autumn garden's losing many of its flowers and going a bit wild, but I've planted a bunch of seeds which might grow and eventually flower, what with Auckland having weird subtropical weather. We'll see. Also, it's time for violas again! I love violas and pansies with their many colours and little faces.
The tithonia (Mexican sunflower) beside my dalek compost bin is literally taller than the house. Possibly a world record! People keep offering to cut it back for me (neighbour, and the heat pump maintenance guy although it's not menacing the outside unit) but last year it produced huge plate-sized yellow daisies in May so I'm hanging in there for those to reappear (1 so far, hopefully many more). Makes it a little tricky to park my car but I can sort of nudge it in underneath the triffid. Here's the evidence!
As predicted, the weather finally ended our almost-drought with a LOT of rain. And thunder and lightning, and some floods and slips but not where I live now (whew). At my old place in the bush we'd definitely have had power cuts but these days I can just listen to the pounding rain and crackling thunder and relax.
The autumn garden's losing many of its flowers and going a bit wild, but I've planted a bunch of seeds which might grow and eventually flower, what with Auckland having weird subtropical weather. We'll see. Also, it's time for violas again! I love violas and pansies with their many colours and little faces.
The tithonia (Mexican sunflower) beside my dalek compost bin is literally taller than the house. Possibly a world record! People keep offering to cut it back for me (neighbour, and the heat pump maintenance guy although it's not menacing the outside unit) but last year it produced huge plate-sized yellow daisies in May so I'm hanging in there for those to reappear (1 so far, hopefully many more). Makes it a little tricky to park my car but I can sort of nudge it in underneath the triffid. Here's the evidence!
 |  |
| Red chard - I cut it off at ground level so the roots could rot into the soil but, no, it's the second coming. Appropriate timing anyway! | Impatiens still cheerful by my door. |
 |  |
| Leopard spotted liguria in rampant flower for the first time. | a super-late daylily being lovely. |
 |  |
| Cayenne peppers in profusion - nearly too hot for me (well, a quarter of one in a stir fry is ok). | Mystery sweet pepper - a Yugoslavia with a dark stripe or a Sweet Chocolate with a red stripe? |
Cities, Mice, Paintings
Apr. 20th, 2025 12:29 pmalobearThe City We Became by NK Jemisin:
Excellent concept, excellent worldbuilding, excellent range of characters, excellent message delivery, excellent audiobook narration - but I somehow didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.
Sipsworth by Simon van Booy:
Very small story about a very small mouse and a very old lady - cute, affecting, life-affirming - plus great execution of one of my favourite tropes, found family.
The Apothecary's House by Adrian Mathews:
Chunky, immersive, intriguing, with lots of great characters - it's more about the relationships than it is about the mystery (which I love), though it did go a bit melodramatic and thrillery at the end.
Excellent concept, excellent worldbuilding, excellent range of characters, excellent message delivery, excellent audiobook narration - but I somehow didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.
Sipsworth by Simon van Booy:
Very small story about a very small mouse and a very old lady - cute, affecting, life-affirming - plus great execution of one of my favourite tropes, found family.
The Apothecary's House by Adrian Mathews:
Chunky, immersive, intriguing, with lots of great characters - it's more about the relationships than it is about the mystery (which I love), though it did go a bit melodramatic and thrillery at the end.
The Weight of Silence
Apr. 18th, 2025 07:32 amalobearThe Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf takes place almost in real time on one day in a small US town, where two seven-year-old girls go missing very early in the morning.
We get multiple viewpoints from various people in the town, who are variously connected to the case (parents, siblings, law enforcement - and, interestingly, also both the girls) in very short chapters (2-5 pages each), gradually building up a picture of what's going on and what's been going on for some time.
It started out feeling more like a 'want to know what happens' kind of book, rather than an 'enjoy the journey' kind of book, then flipped to a 'journey' book about halfway through, and then back again.
I liked some aspects of it more than others. The perspective of the older brother of one of the missing girls (and his entire arc, actually) was my favourite, and the whole thing became quite affecting as things progressed. My main gripe was that the dialogue was extremely clunky, with not nearly enough contractions to make it flow naturally.
But it all came together quite well in the end - though the tension of the climax was rather diminished by one of the police officers predicting what would happen, and then it happening almost exactly as he envisaged...
It was pretty depressing overall, though there were some lovely moments along the way and some hopefulness at the very end.
We get multiple viewpoints from various people in the town, who are variously connected to the case (parents, siblings, law enforcement - and, interestingly, also both the girls) in very short chapters (2-5 pages each), gradually building up a picture of what's going on and what's been going on for some time.
It started out feeling more like a 'want to know what happens' kind of book, rather than an 'enjoy the journey' kind of book, then flipped to a 'journey' book about halfway through, and then back again.
I liked some aspects of it more than others. The perspective of the older brother of one of the missing girls (and his entire arc, actually) was my favourite, and the whole thing became quite affecting as things progressed. My main gripe was that the dialogue was extremely clunky, with not nearly enough contractions to make it flow naturally.
But it all came together quite well in the end - though the tension of the climax was rather diminished by one of the police officers predicting what would happen, and then it happening almost exactly as he envisaged...
It was pretty depressing overall, though there were some lovely moments along the way and some hopefulness at the very end.
The Paris Express
Apr. 16th, 2025 03:12 pmalobearThe Paris Express by Emma Donoghue takes place in 1895, entirely within one eight-hour train journey across France. It's based on a real-life disaster, with the author using a lot of historical detail about who was on the train and what happened, but also fabricating a lot of detail to fill in the gaps.
It took me a while to get into the story, since most of it is made up of a long series of (admittedly extremely well written) character studies, going through the backgrounds of all the crew and passengers, rather than telling a cohesive, forward-moving story. By page 175, we had 15 different POVs and the introduction of 30 other characters besides, so it was a lot to keep track of.
It's not a long book, but it took me four days to get through the first half - not because it was difficult to read or I wasn't enjoying it, but it wasn't particularly dynamic, despite the knowledge of impending disaster.
Then I read the whole of the second half in less than a day, because I was fully invested in what was going to happen to all the characters by that point - and also because the pace and tension really ramp up in the later stages.
It was pretty grim in places, unexpectedly explicit in others, and also quite graphic in a specifically unpleasant way. But there was also a lot of really interesting historical detail about culture, society, technology, logistics, politics, class inequality, privilege and race.
I was on the edge of my seat for the last few pages, which were both grim and also a bit anti-climactic. But overall, a very well written and well constructed read.
It took me a while to get into the story, since most of it is made up of a long series of (admittedly extremely well written) character studies, going through the backgrounds of all the crew and passengers, rather than telling a cohesive, forward-moving story. By page 175, we had 15 different POVs and the introduction of 30 other characters besides, so it was a lot to keep track of.
It's not a long book, but it took me four days to get through the first half - not because it was difficult to read or I wasn't enjoying it, but it wasn't particularly dynamic, despite the knowledge of impending disaster.
Then I read the whole of the second half in less than a day, because I was fully invested in what was going to happen to all the characters by that point - and also because the pace and tension really ramp up in the later stages.
It was pretty grim in places, unexpectedly explicit in others, and also quite graphic in a specifically unpleasant way. But there was also a lot of really interesting historical detail about culture, society, technology, logistics, politics, class inequality, privilege and race.
I was on the edge of my seat for the last few pages, which were both grim and also a bit anti-climactic. But overall, a very well written and well constructed read.
The Three
Apr. 15th, 2025 10:39 pmalobearI've been doing a series on my podcast of picking books I read a long time ago, rereading them and then comparing my thoughts to when I read them the first time. I'm in the process of transferring that to my upcoming YouTube channel - and the first book I'm going a video version on is The Three by Sarah Lotz.
I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated extremely well. It's about a day in 2012 when four planes crash in different parts of the world, and three children miraculously survive. It's possible there's something strange about them - and the book is made up of extracts from 'books within the book', interviews, documents, etc, all charting different people's reactions to the situation.
It's all very well put together, but it's incredibly drawn out over the course of the book, with only intermittent hints at potential doom and weirdness to come, and very few specifics. I don't necessarily mind questions being left unanswered in books, but this one took the mickey with it rather.
I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated extremely well. It's about a day in 2012 when four planes crash in different parts of the world, and three children miraculously survive. It's possible there's something strange about them - and the book is made up of extracts from 'books within the book', interviews, documents, etc, all charting different people's reactions to the situation.
It's all very well put together, but it's incredibly drawn out over the course of the book, with only intermittent hints at potential doom and weirdness to come, and very few specifics. I don't necessarily mind questions being left unanswered in books, but this one took the mickey with it rather.
Reviews Catch Up
Apr. 15th, 2025 05:51 pmalobearBlack Water Sister by Zen Cho:
This has been on my shelf for a while and I finally got around to it. It turns out I've read something by this author before - Sorcerer to the Crown - a while ago, which I remember enjoying. That was historical, England-set high fantasy, while this is contemporary, Malaysia-set urban fantasy.
It follows Jess, a young ethnically Chinese woman, who has grown up in America. She moves to Malaysia with her parents, which is where they are from, and starts being haunted by the ghost of her recently deceased grandmother. Things get much more dangerous and complicated when she gets embroiled in a conflict between different gods.
It was mostly fine. I liked Jess, the setting was immersive, there was a lot of really interesting cultural stuff, and the dynamics between the different characters were entertaining. It lost me a bit in the second half, though - it felt like it got too complicated and a bit too hard to follow. And the most interesting aspects were given less focus later on. I largely liked where it ended up, but it felt like it skipped over various important things and only hinted at others, so wasn't wholly satisfying.
The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K Le Guin:
This was short, sharp and very brutal.
It's about the effects of humans colonising a forest planet in order to take its resources, and what impact this ultimately has on the indigenous people.
It's violent and unpleasant and has a lot of very upsetting detail - but it's very effective and packs a real punch.
There's some very interesting exploration of language and culture, and the descriptions of the aliens is really well done.
But yikes - not an easy read and I'm glad it wasn't longer.
Wanderstop:
This is a beautiful, poignant, reflective, hilarious, incredibly weird and also soothing computer game that needed to be at least a twice as long as it was.
You play Alta, a gladiator who is suffering from burnout, and finds herself in a magical valley, where there's a tea shop, run by the most wonderful person in the world - Boro.
Boro is now my favourite character in anything ever, and making the tea was really fun.
A lot of the interactions with the various customers were very, very weird, but I enjoyed tidying and collecting and growing trees.
It was also quite buggy - multiple times, the action buttons stopped working and I had to quit out and reload the game, and several times I made the correct tea that was required by the game told me it was wrong.
I didn't feel like Alta's learning journey seemed all that complete by the end of the game, but I cried when it was over.
Solution? I'm going to start again and go more slowly the second time around.
This has been on my shelf for a while and I finally got around to it. It turns out I've read something by this author before - Sorcerer to the Crown - a while ago, which I remember enjoying. That was historical, England-set high fantasy, while this is contemporary, Malaysia-set urban fantasy.
It follows Jess, a young ethnically Chinese woman, who has grown up in America. She moves to Malaysia with her parents, which is where they are from, and starts being haunted by the ghost of her recently deceased grandmother. Things get much more dangerous and complicated when she gets embroiled in a conflict between different gods.
It was mostly fine. I liked Jess, the setting was immersive, there was a lot of really interesting cultural stuff, and the dynamics between the different characters were entertaining. It lost me a bit in the second half, though - it felt like it got too complicated and a bit too hard to follow. And the most interesting aspects were given less focus later on. I largely liked where it ended up, but it felt like it skipped over various important things and only hinted at others, so wasn't wholly satisfying.
The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K Le Guin:
This was short, sharp and very brutal.
It's about the effects of humans colonising a forest planet in order to take its resources, and what impact this ultimately has on the indigenous people.
It's violent and unpleasant and has a lot of very upsetting detail - but it's very effective and packs a real punch.
There's some very interesting exploration of language and culture, and the descriptions of the aliens is really well done.
But yikes - not an easy read and I'm glad it wasn't longer.
Wanderstop:
This is a beautiful, poignant, reflective, hilarious, incredibly weird and also soothing computer game that needed to be at least a twice as long as it was.
You play Alta, a gladiator who is suffering from burnout, and finds herself in a magical valley, where there's a tea shop, run by the most wonderful person in the world - Boro.
Boro is now my favourite character in anything ever, and making the tea was really fun.
A lot of the interactions with the various customers were very, very weird, but I enjoyed tidying and collecting and growing trees.
It was also quite buggy - multiple times, the action buttons stopped working and I had to quit out and reload the game, and several times I made the correct tea that was required by the game told me it was wrong.
I didn't feel like Alta's learning journey seemed all that complete by the end of the game, but I cried when it was over.
Solution? I'm going to start again and go more slowly the second time around.
(no subject)
Apr. 13th, 2025 05:27 pmlunabee341. We went to see the Minecraft movie, and I was thoroughly entertained. It's the first movie I've seen in the theater since the pandemic. I'd forgotten how unnecessarily loud they play the film. Jason Mamoa steals the show. His character is just so funny and pathetically endearing, and his interactions with Jack Black (who Josh says treats the whole movie like a Tenacious D video) are *chef's kiss*. They both clearly had a great deal of fun making this movie.
Of course, as soon as I got home, I checked AO3, and fandom is not letting me down with the Steve/Garrett (I didn't read any of them because they appeared to all be written by 12 year-olds, and I haven't had time to dig through for the gold), but fandom is letting me down with the Garrett meets Eddie Stranger Things crossover. LOL I mean, Garrett has the 80s metal hair and clothes and he's wearing eyeliner and he is hot as fuck; I could stand to read some Stranger Things crossover action. LOL
I know this was not intended as such, but I considered it my own personal SGA Easter egg when Garrett tells everyone he's going to watch their six. <3
2. I bought the latest book in the Southern Reach trilogy and realized about 20 pages in that I really needed to go back and read them all from the beginning to truly get the best experience.
( spoilers for the entire Southern Reach trilogy )
3.
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Funny, sweet, and a guaranteed delight for any cat lover.
I always enjoy Scalzi's writing, and this is no exception.
View all my reviews
Of course, as soon as I got home, I checked AO3, and fandom is not letting me down with the Steve/Garrett (I didn't read any of them because they appeared to all be written by 12 year-olds, and I haven't had time to dig through for the gold), but fandom is letting me down with the Garrett meets Eddie Stranger Things crossover. LOL I mean, Garrett has the 80s metal hair and clothes and he's wearing eyeliner and he is hot as fuck; I could stand to read some Stranger Things crossover action. LOL
I know this was not intended as such, but I considered it my own personal SGA Easter egg when Garrett tells everyone he's going to watch their six. <3
2. I bought the latest book in the Southern Reach trilogy and realized about 20 pages in that I really needed to go back and read them all from the beginning to truly get the best experience.
( spoilers for the entire Southern Reach trilogy )
3.
Starter Villain by John ScalziMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Funny, sweet, and a guaranteed delight for any cat lover.
I always enjoy Scalzi's writing, and this is no exception.
View all my reviews
God in the Details
Apr. 13th, 2025 06:05 pmmificOne of my older and longer poems this time. I'm a hard core agnostic tilting towards atheism, so this is as spiritual as I ever get. It's one of my semi-structured poems with tight metre and loose rhyme.
Faith's a brain virus, so I've heard it said,
harder than smallpox to eliminate.
Leading to genocide, to bombs and blood,
spawning fanaticism, war and hate.
Yet we need something as a plan for life.
A simple plan, not hard to grasp for we
are not great scientists and we cannot see
God in the details of the universe.
Some, not caught up with surfaces, do see.
Raising themselves above the froth of thought,
the fuss of living, the white noise of work,
of hunger, debt, appointments, illness, doubt,
they glimpse the underlying shape of life
and wonder at its intricacy, as do
the scientists, the great thinkers, who explain
carefully to the rest of us how fine
and perfectly constructed it all is;
atoms hum in their courses and the great
expiring breath of matter races out,
pouring its wave into infinity.
But this is not what most of us perceive;
we see duality, not the world complete.
Born raw, our senses register extremes,
happy or wailing, hungry or replete.
Mastering these inner selves in time we learn
some integration, but the ancient split
remains within, looming at times of fear
and pain, to colour all things black or white.
Are we hardwired for two-ness from the egg?
DNA spiralling double in all cells,
from the brain's hemispheres to our arms and legs,
mirrored, divided, coiled upon ourselves.
Is this why we so often lean towards
faiths patterned on our infant, binary self?
Faiths which have good and evil, us and them,
saviours and demons, heaven and the flames of hell.
Unreasonable faiths, illogical.
Impervious to experiment, closed to science.
Smugly triumphant over rational proofs,
wielding their lack of reason like a prize.
Set against this crusade of blinkered faith
the few who see beyond simplistic lies
try to convince us of a greater truth
lodged in a grain of sand, a drift of stars.
Kepler defined the solar system's gears
trying to bend geometry to make clear
the music of the spheres, the planets' dance.
I wish that I, like physicists, could hear
the resonance of numbers, the great song
of mathematics' elegant discourse
distilling crystalline proofs which demonstrate
God in the details of the universe.
But I have problems adding up my tax.
Stumbling on long division, I am deaf
to physics. Still I try to find that core
reality beyond the dust my life
kicks up, looking beyond the wood into
the trees, intricate, fractal, various,
infinitely different, yet their whole may show
God in the details of the universe.
Faith's a brain virus, so I've heard it said,
harder than smallpox to eliminate.
Leading to genocide, to bombs and blood,
spawning fanaticism, war and hate.
Yet we need something as a plan for life.
A simple plan, not hard to grasp for we
are not great scientists and we cannot see
God in the details of the universe.
Some, not caught up with surfaces, do see.
Raising themselves above the froth of thought,
the fuss of living, the white noise of work,
of hunger, debt, appointments, illness, doubt,
they glimpse the underlying shape of life
and wonder at its intricacy, as do
the scientists, the great thinkers, who explain
carefully to the rest of us how fine
and perfectly constructed it all is;
atoms hum in their courses and the great
expiring breath of matter races out,
pouring its wave into infinity.
But this is not what most of us perceive;
we see duality, not the world complete.
Born raw, our senses register extremes,
happy or wailing, hungry or replete.
Mastering these inner selves in time we learn
some integration, but the ancient split
remains within, looming at times of fear
and pain, to colour all things black or white.
Are we hardwired for two-ness from the egg?
DNA spiralling double in all cells,
from the brain's hemispheres to our arms and legs,
mirrored, divided, coiled upon ourselves.
Is this why we so often lean towards
faiths patterned on our infant, binary self?
Faiths which have good and evil, us and them,
saviours and demons, heaven and the flames of hell.
Unreasonable faiths, illogical.
Impervious to experiment, closed to science.
Smugly triumphant over rational proofs,
wielding their lack of reason like a prize.
Set against this crusade of blinkered faith
the few who see beyond simplistic lies
try to convince us of a greater truth
lodged in a grain of sand, a drift of stars.
Kepler defined the solar system's gears
trying to bend geometry to make clear
the music of the spheres, the planets' dance.
I wish that I, like physicists, could hear
the resonance of numbers, the great song
of mathematics' elegant discourse
distilling crystalline proofs which demonstrate
God in the details of the universe.
But I have problems adding up my tax.
Stumbling on long division, I am deaf
to physics. Still I try to find that core
reality beyond the dust my life
kicks up, looking beyond the wood into
the trees, intricate, fractal, various,
infinitely different, yet their whole may show
God in the details of the universe.