Wagotabi: A Japanese Journey (2024)
Apr. 29th, 2026 04:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pauraqueWrapping up edutainment month, I played Wagotabi, a RPG designed to teach you basic Japanese. I wanted to give the game a fair evaluation so I started way in advance and have played short sessions every day (their recommendation for optimal memorization). As of today I've played for 35 hours across 50 days, and I've completed all the available content so far. The game is in early access and more content is planned for the future, though there isn't a set timeline.
The game's story is that you're a student traveling to Japan to learn from the Japanese Masters of each prefecture. (So far only Kagawa and Okayama are available.) This requires a series of quests that involve searching for objects from Japanese folklore. Along the way you learn a few words and points of grammar at a time, immediately using them to talk to NPCs, figure out where to go for side quests, buy food and drinks, and solve puzzles.
( 読みましょう ! )
Wagotabi: A Japanese Journey is on Steam for $9.99 USD (currently on sale for $7.49). There's also a free demo.
The game's story is that you're a student traveling to Japan to learn from the Japanese Masters of each prefecture. (So far only Kagawa and Okayama are available.) This requires a series of quests that involve searching for objects from Japanese folklore. Along the way you learn a few words and points of grammar at a time, immediately using them to talk to NPCs, figure out where to go for side quests, buy food and drinks, and solve puzzles.
( 読みましょう ! )
Wagotabi: A Japanese Journey is on Steam for $9.99 USD (currently on sale for $7.49). There's also a free demo.
Book Culls
Apr. 29th, 2026 10:05 amrachelmanijaI'm still going through books and discarding ones that don't grab me after a chapter or so. (Lots grab me within one paragraph).
Stir it Up! Ramin Ganeshram
A Trinidadian-American girl wants to be a celebrity chef. It begins with a recipe for "two cups of love, a pinch of sharing," etc. BARF.
Before the Fall, by Noah Hawley
Hawley is a TV writer/creator who did a show I loved (Legion) and a show I liked (Fargo). The premise of this book - a man who, along with the young boy he saves, is the sole survivor of a plane wreck and starts investigating the victims to find out if it wasn't an accident - really appeals to me. Unfortunately, it's written in a style I can only describe as "Middle-aged white dude writes New Yorker fiction." Not for me.
Guns in the Heather, by Lockhart Amerman
In a fast-moving tale of international espionage, Jonathan Flower is lured by a false telegram from the school he is attending in Edinburgh. With his father, he is involved in a grim hunt in which they are stalked by a ruthless band of foreign agents.
The plot sounded fun but was actually kind of tedious. The best part was the author amusing himself with the dialogue. I am recording some for posterity:
Tommy is a fat, jolly sort of character who likes to talk jive with a Glasgow accent. This is purely so he can say stuff like "We dig it, mon, but good."
Her voice and her person both reminded me of the Scots adjective "soncy." This is purely so she can say stuff like "There's a bit sandwich forby - under yon cover."
"Wullie's awee the dee?" (His accent was what we call in school "pure Morningsayde.")
"We're teddibly soddy, of course. It's so fearfully dismal to be doodly with a gun."
My new band name is Doodly With A Gun.
Stir it Up! Ramin Ganeshram
A Trinidadian-American girl wants to be a celebrity chef. It begins with a recipe for "two cups of love, a pinch of sharing," etc. BARF.
Before the Fall, by Noah Hawley
Hawley is a TV writer/creator who did a show I loved (Legion) and a show I liked (Fargo). The premise of this book - a man who, along with the young boy he saves, is the sole survivor of a plane wreck and starts investigating the victims to find out if it wasn't an accident - really appeals to me. Unfortunately, it's written in a style I can only describe as "Middle-aged white dude writes New Yorker fiction." Not for me.
Guns in the Heather, by Lockhart Amerman
In a fast-moving tale of international espionage, Jonathan Flower is lured by a false telegram from the school he is attending in Edinburgh. With his father, he is involved in a grim hunt in which they are stalked by a ruthless band of foreign agents.
The plot sounded fun but was actually kind of tedious. The best part was the author amusing himself with the dialogue. I am recording some for posterity:
Tommy is a fat, jolly sort of character who likes to talk jive with a Glasgow accent. This is purely so he can say stuff like "We dig it, mon, but good."
Her voice and her person both reminded me of the Scots adjective "soncy." This is purely so she can say stuff like "There's a bit sandwich forby - under yon cover."
"Wullie's awee the dee?" (His accent was what we call in school "pure Morningsayde.")
"We're teddibly soddy, of course. It's so fearfully dismal to be doodly with a gun."
My new band name is Doodly With A Gun.
Meme from @muccamukk
Apr. 29th, 2026 09:22 amrmc28The Last...
Movie I watched:
in the cinema: Project Hail Mary (2026)
on (my friend's) TV: Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)
Series I finished: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Season 2 (2026)
Book I finished: Daughter of the Deep, by Rick Riordan (2021)
Book I bought:
bought outright: Warhorse, by Timothy Zahn (1990)
pre-ordered: Call Me Traitor, by Everina Maxwell (1 Dec 2026)
Book I received as a gift: Amsterdam, by Russell Shorto (2013) - given for Christmas 2023 according to my booklog, still languishing on the TBR
Food I ate: pressed nut+fruit snack bar to finish off my post-hockey-practice meal in the small hours this morning
Meal I cooked: porridge for Nico's breakfast this morning
Drink I had: pepsi max
Song I listened to: "Castle of Glass" by Linkin Park
Album I listened to: Hadestown OBCR
Playlist I listened to: "three-plus years in love (with hockey)" - which reminds me I need to figure out where Living on a Prayer fits into it, as we ended up belting it out as a team on the bench on Saturday, and yes it needs to go in (unless I start a new playlist for my fourth season ...)
Concert I went to: my friend and teammate's gig in Jesus College bar last month
Game I played: does ice hockey count? does Duolingo count? (though I gave up on it last year for being too gamified and no longer teaching me). I literally can't remember when I last played a board game and I don't really do computer games.
Person I talked to: Nico
Person I texted:
Individual: Charles
Groupchat: Kodiaks 2 leadership
Meme from Impala-Chick
Apr. 28th, 2026 10:54 pmmuccamukkThe Last...
Movie I watched: Persuasion (2007)
Series I finished: The Other Bennet Sister (2026)
Book I finished: The Once and Future Riot by Joe Sacco (2024)
Book I bought: Cards of Grief by Jane Yolen (1984)
Book I received as a gift: Not sure, I've had a "Dear God, I have too many books already!" standing comment on gifts for some years now.
Food I ate: Okonomiyaki.
Meal I cooked: Same as above.
Drink I had: Other than water, coffee with cream. If alcohol, rum and orange juice a couple days ago.
Song I listened to: "Everything's Going to Be Alright" by Beverley Knight.
Album I listened to: J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations by Angela Hewitt.
Playlist I listened to: I don't really playlist.
Concert I went to: Lennie Gallant last fall? Maybe?
Game I played: Civilisation IV: Beyond the Sword
Person I talked to: Nenya.
Person I texted: A neighbour lady.
Movie I watched: Persuasion (2007)
Series I finished: The Other Bennet Sister (2026)
Book I finished: The Once and Future Riot by Joe Sacco (2024)
Book I bought: Cards of Grief by Jane Yolen (1984)
Book I received as a gift: Not sure, I've had a "Dear God, I have too many books already!" standing comment on gifts for some years now.
Food I ate: Okonomiyaki.
Meal I cooked: Same as above.
Drink I had: Other than water, coffee with cream. If alcohol, rum and orange juice a couple days ago.
Song I listened to: "Everything's Going to Be Alright" by Beverley Knight.
Album I listened to: J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations by Angela Hewitt.
Playlist I listened to: I don't really playlist.
Concert I went to: Lennie Gallant last fall? Maybe?
Game I played: Civilisation IV: Beyond the Sword
Person I talked to: Nenya.
Person I texted: A neighbour lady.
(no subject)
May. 2nd, 2026 01:45 amconulyAnybody able to recommend a library or ten that allows for nonresident digital cards?
There’s a series I was reading, and the three libraries in NYC have books 1 - 4 and then 9 - 11. I don’t like it enough to pay for just the missing books. I still want to read them. More library systems, that I would pay for. (And hopefully get these books.)
There’s a series I was reading, and the three libraries in NYC have books 1 - 4 and then 9 - 11. I don’t like it enough to pay for just the missing books. I still want to read them. More library systems, that I would pay for. (And hopefully get these books.)
The Wild Shore, by Kim Stanley Robinson
Apr. 28th, 2026 10:55 amrachelmanija
This was Robinson's first novel, one of a set of three set in future Orange County, Californias, exploring three different futures for America. The second one is about a future much like the present day, hyper-capitalist and dystopian. The third is set in an ecotopia which apparently involves lots of softball. (I've only read The Wild Shore, and gleaned this information from reviews of the others.) After reading The Ministry of the Future, I thought I'd give Robinson another try, and this book sounded most relevant to my personal interests. (I've attempted Years of Rice and Salt multiple times and never gotten very far in. It sounds so interesting!)
The Wild Shore is set about sixty years after the US was shattered by multiple neutron bombs, then quarantined by the rest of the world. It's now a bunch of extremely small, struggling towns which are kept separated from each other as the rest of the world uses satellite imagery to bomb them any time they attempt to do something like build railroad tracks. The California coast is patrolled by Japanese vessels who prevent them from sailing too far out. No one in the book has any idea who bombed the US or why, but given the quarantine I assume the US started the war and someone else finished it.
The book is narrated by Henry, who is 17 and lives in a village of 60. He hangs out with a bunch of mostly-indistinguishable other teenage boys. (I spent three-quarters of the book thinking Steve and Nicolin were two different boys. They are not. I wish writers wouldn't randomly call characters by their first or last name.) They fish and farm and trade with scavengers. Henry is the prize student of Tom, one of four elders who recall the pre-catastrophe days. It is immediately obvious that Tom's teachings are a mix of real and complete bullshit, but as the younger generation has no context or means of fact-checking, they tend to think it's either all true or all bullshit.
The village gets contacted by the remnants of San Diego, which wants to build a rail line and fight back against the quarantine. Henry gets sucked into this, with disastrous results.
This book is SLOW. I often like books that are mostly about daily life, but Henry's daily life was not that interesting - he spends a lot of time hanging out with boys and talking and thinking about girls and daddy issues, and you can get that in any contemporary novel about teenage boys. The only real character is Tom - everyone else is lightly sketched in at best. Girls and women are only present as girlfriends, potential girlfriends, and moms. (There's one girl who's the leader of the farmers, who are mostly women - the men are mostly fishers - but she doesn't get much to do.) The book was just barely interesting enough that I finished it, but it didn't end anywhere more interesting than the rest of it.
( Read more... )
Content note: Characters use racial slurs for Japanese people.
garden update
Apr. 27th, 2026 07:36 pmthistleingreyLast fall I pruned the back yard's shrubs and saplings, slowly, and closed my eyes whenever I had to hack a few times at a thicker branch. This spring, my slow pruning of the additional rain-fueled shoots and yanking of some grass and oxalis have given tiny housemate some exercise on non-walk afternoons. She considers it her duty to catch anything I pull out and toss towards a fence to decay, such that pausing to gather two or three things before tossing is met by loud objections.
From those 3-5 minute snippets of labor, we have no more dog-safe twigs to lop, a first since fall 2021. When I told tiny housemate one day that I hadn't brought a cutting tool outside because we're finished, tiny housemate disagreed and bit off a few small branches within reach. Perhaps they were in the way for investigating cat- and squirrel-crossings.
For things that don't need pruning, I do as little as possible. Last fall, the hydrangeas struggled through dry weeks (non-rain watering occurs via hand-carried can, a hose drip that I move around now and then, or not at all), but they've decided to put forth leaves this spring. The persimmon tree has had the hose-drip treatment only once in 2026 so far, after too much rain last year left its fruit almost tasteless. In the fall I harvested some, which my mother sliced and dehydrated into treats for tiny housemate, and the rest went to the curbside compost service because tiny housemate and local squirrels kept fighting over the ones that dropped.
It's hilarious to try calibrating web advice that's somewhat informed. My physical endurance, the limiting factor, is in the respective target audiences for "Recovery after Covid" at AARP (AARP keeps dropping its age threshold for membership---I haven't joined, but it's now 50 years) and "I have been unable to run because of pneumonia for about two months" at RunnersWorld (I ran short distances with mild bacterial pneumonia 7-8 years ago, apparently, because former primary care dismissed the early stage as just a bad cold).
Neither article is of use to me; somewhere without any past bed rest is where I am. As Susan Paul writes in the second article, "In the right doses exercise can boost our immune system but, conversely, too much training can significantly impair it." And no one says, use nibble-doses of yardwork/housework as a proxy for lifting weights and feeding proprioceptive balance. Why would they, when "Go for walks" is their main goal.
From those 3-5 minute snippets of labor, we have no more dog-safe twigs to lop, a first since fall 2021. When I told tiny housemate one day that I hadn't brought a cutting tool outside because we're finished, tiny housemate disagreed and bit off a few small branches within reach. Perhaps they were in the way for investigating cat- and squirrel-crossings.
For things that don't need pruning, I do as little as possible. Last fall, the hydrangeas struggled through dry weeks (non-rain watering occurs via hand-carried can, a hose drip that I move around now and then, or not at all), but they've decided to put forth leaves this spring. The persimmon tree has had the hose-drip treatment only once in 2026 so far, after too much rain last year left its fruit almost tasteless. In the fall I harvested some, which my mother sliced and dehydrated into treats for tiny housemate, and the rest went to the curbside compost service because tiny housemate and local squirrels kept fighting over the ones that dropped.
It's hilarious to try calibrating web advice that's somewhat informed. My physical endurance, the limiting factor, is in the respective target audiences for "Recovery after Covid" at AARP (AARP keeps dropping its age threshold for membership---I haven't joined, but it's now 50 years) and "I have been unable to run because of pneumonia for about two months" at RunnersWorld (I ran short distances with mild bacterial pneumonia 7-8 years ago, apparently, because former primary care dismissed the early stage as just a bad cold).
Neither article is of use to me; somewhere without any past bed rest is where I am. As Susan Paul writes in the second article, "In the right doses exercise can boost our immune system but, conversely, too much training can significantly impair it." And no one says, use nibble-doses of yardwork/housework as a proxy for lifting weights and feeding proprioceptive balance. Why would they, when "Go for walks" is their main goal.
(no subject)
May. 1st, 2026 09:56 pmconulyAs you may guess, this was inspired by the folksong of the same name. You can find more information about that song here.
A note to two dads of little girls
Apr. 30th, 2026 09:03 pmconulyTo the man on the bus talking to his daughter about what color she was going to paint his nails when they got home: Good job! You get a gold star and a cookie, which you will probably share with your kid! Cookies all around, no sarcasm!
To the man in CVS playing on his phone while his wife corralled their two year old and talked to the pharmacist: Dude, if you're not gonna help, just stay home.
This tangentially connects to one of my favorite poems, which I was recently reminded of.
******************
( Read more... )
To the man in CVS playing on his phone while his wife corralled their two year old and talked to the pharmacist: Dude, if you're not gonna help, just stay home.
This tangentially connects to one of my favorite poems, which I was recently reminded of.
( Read more... )
Monday Media - April 27 Edition
Apr. 27th, 2026 03:40 pmlebateleurGames: This was a busy weekend for games. We spent ::mumblemumble:: hours playing a session of Eldritch Horror, and actually managed to vanquish the Ancient One 💪 so the sleep deprivation winning entailed was ultimately worth it. Twenty-four hours later at a gathering at Favorite Indian Buffet, we decided to reconvene to spend another ::mumblemumble:: hours playing Wyrmspan.
Both games are great fun. I like Eldritch Horror even more than Arkham Horror, I think because its whole-of-globe canvas just feels like the appropriate setting for 1920s pulp/supernatural horror to my brain. And while both Wingspan and Wyrmspan are both gorgeous and I love birds, I really love fantasy dragons, so I'm an easy mark for the latter. Nor did it hurt that I'm currently reading Novik's Buried Deep (and am about to start Brennan's Onyx Court) and so would have had dragons on the brain even if there weren't a few Temeraire-verse stories in the anthology.
Movies: The anime fan-subset of the Geek BBQers wrapped up our Rebuild of Evangelion (re)watch. As one of the viewers who watched the original anime back in the day but had not seen any of the remakes before, I was not quite sure what to expect (and still have vivid memories of watching a bunch of very upset and equally committed otaku protesting the release of 2.0 at the movie theater across the street from my workplace in Kyoto). I enjoyed it! It was definitely a nostalgia trip but also interesting to watch knowing 1000 percent more about Japan's domestic experience of WWII versus viewing it through the lens of adolescent angst (Everything is so hard and no one understands me!) We tackled Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo and Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time during this session, meaning I was wholly out to sea as to what would happen in many places. But it felt like the new stuff dovetailed really well with the original, the new additions were fun, and (without spoiling anything) there was a lot about it that I felt improved on the original while still keeping its patented "psychological turmoil as interpreted through Christian mysticism by someone who did not grow up Christian"-weirdness vibe.
Music: We saw Carpenter Brut and Health at the "Okay but not great" concert venue. Carpenter Brut was fabulous We got our tickets months ago when the show was first announced and were bemused to learn that it had sold out in the meantime. As a result, we did not arrive early and did not have great sightlines on the stage for the first half of Carpenter Brut's set. But honestly? There was not much to be seen anyway, given that Carpenter Brut is primarily an auditory experience. And it was an experience: his music is eerie and foreboding enough on a set of earbuds or speakers. In a proper venue it is wicked.
Health was a bit of surprise. I mainly knew them as "the guy that remixed that Crystal Castles track" and was surprised to learn that "that guy" was actually an entire band, and that said band has been around for about 20 years. We'd assumed, judging from the venue info and the tickets, that Carpenter Brut was the headliner (as did most of the crowd, who took off after Carpenter Brut's set ended) but upon realizing that Health was actually the main acted, said "Eh, we already paid for it" and decided to stick around. Their guitarist's cringe high school jock jokes aside, they're actually pretty good. Their vocalist sounds like the forlorn lovechild of maynard keenan and Brian Molko, and their music is clearly pretty heavily inspired by APC, NIN, and the like. Having only heard it once I have no real opinion on theme or lyrics, but I would certainly listen to it again.
Podcasts/Articles: Too many to mention them all, but I did revisit Patrick Radden Keefe's A Teen's Fatal Plunge Into the London Underworld while I wait for my hold on London Falling to come in. (Guys, Keefe is one of my favorite nonfiction authors and I lust after this book. Luckily, I'm only about #17003 on 35 copies! 😒)
Roleplaying: Having Put Together A Crew(TM) from the star players of our various D&D homebrew and official campaigns, the GC held a pretty excellent Session Zero for a new Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaign. I am playing a fey swarmmaster druid, who I'm envisioning as a sort of fish-out-of-water by virtue of the fact that as a few amongst a bunch of human children in the feywild, she's the only one who 1) knows what's going on, but 2) doesn't know how out of their element any of the others are.
Television: AEW continues to be an absolute delight. My heart and soul increasingly belong to Thekla, who is about as close to an IRL incarnation of Karlach as I think this timeline can get. Her Collision match with Alex Windsor was fire. Pac versus Lio Rush was a verrrrry close second; I love how good Pac was at playing the straight man to Rush's Smeagol-brand creepiness, which made me an instafan. (Seriously, it's the best wrestling creepiness since Velveteen Dream. Also, Pac continues to be criminally underrated and underused.) Mina Shirakawa and Hikaru Shida's Japanese smacktalk is fabulous. Nick Wayne made Mox look both fast and not boring 😂, Brody King continues to dominate, MJF continues to be the consummate heel, and FTR and Stokely will always crack me up. This is an absolute match and storyline golden era, and not even the unnecessary reintroduction of Jericho can spoil it.
Video Games: It's been a dry period for me for video gaming, but I am casually spectating as the GC plays his way through Metaphor, which, hysterically, he keeps inadvertently referring to as "Persona", and which, hysterically, everyone still knows what he's talking about.
これで以上です。
Both games are great fun. I like Eldritch Horror even more than Arkham Horror, I think because its whole-of-globe canvas just feels like the appropriate setting for 1920s pulp/supernatural horror to my brain. And while both Wingspan and Wyrmspan are both gorgeous and I love birds, I really love fantasy dragons, so I'm an easy mark for the latter. Nor did it hurt that I'm currently reading Novik's Buried Deep (and am about to start Brennan's Onyx Court) and so would have had dragons on the brain even if there weren't a few Temeraire-verse stories in the anthology.
Movies: The anime fan-subset of the Geek BBQers wrapped up our Rebuild of Evangelion (re)watch. As one of the viewers who watched the original anime back in the day but had not seen any of the remakes before, I was not quite sure what to expect (and still have vivid memories of watching a bunch of very upset and equally committed otaku protesting the release of 2.0 at the movie theater across the street from my workplace in Kyoto). I enjoyed it! It was definitely a nostalgia trip but also interesting to watch knowing 1000 percent more about Japan's domestic experience of WWII versus viewing it through the lens of adolescent angst (Everything is so hard and no one understands me!) We tackled Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo and Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time during this session, meaning I was wholly out to sea as to what would happen in many places. But it felt like the new stuff dovetailed really well with the original, the new additions were fun, and (without spoiling anything) there was a lot about it that I felt improved on the original while still keeping its patented "psychological turmoil as interpreted through Christian mysticism by someone who did not grow up Christian"-weirdness vibe.
Music: We saw Carpenter Brut and Health at the "Okay but not great" concert venue. Carpenter Brut was fabulous We got our tickets months ago when the show was first announced and were bemused to learn that it had sold out in the meantime. As a result, we did not arrive early and did not have great sightlines on the stage for the first half of Carpenter Brut's set. But honestly? There was not much to be seen anyway, given that Carpenter Brut is primarily an auditory experience. And it was an experience: his music is eerie and foreboding enough on a set of earbuds or speakers. In a proper venue it is wicked.
Health was a bit of surprise. I mainly knew them as "the guy that remixed that Crystal Castles track" and was surprised to learn that "that guy" was actually an entire band, and that said band has been around for about 20 years. We'd assumed, judging from the venue info and the tickets, that Carpenter Brut was the headliner (as did most of the crowd, who took off after Carpenter Brut's set ended) but upon realizing that Health was actually the main acted, said "Eh, we already paid for it" and decided to stick around. Their guitarist's cringe high school jock jokes aside, they're actually pretty good. Their vocalist sounds like the forlorn lovechild of maynard keenan and Brian Molko, and their music is clearly pretty heavily inspired by APC, NIN, and the like. Having only heard it once I have no real opinion on theme or lyrics, but I would certainly listen to it again.
Podcasts/Articles: Too many to mention them all, but I did revisit Patrick Radden Keefe's A Teen's Fatal Plunge Into the London Underworld while I wait for my hold on London Falling to come in. (Guys, Keefe is one of my favorite nonfiction authors and I lust after this book. Luckily, I'm only about #17003 on 35 copies! 😒)
Roleplaying: Having Put Together A Crew(TM) from the star players of our various D&D homebrew and official campaigns, the GC held a pretty excellent Session Zero for a new Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaign. I am playing a fey swarmmaster druid, who I'm envisioning as a sort of fish-out-of-water by virtue of the fact that as a few amongst a bunch of human children in the feywild, she's the only one who 1) knows what's going on, but 2) doesn't know how out of their element any of the others are.
Television: AEW continues to be an absolute delight. My heart and soul increasingly belong to Thekla, who is about as close to an IRL incarnation of Karlach as I think this timeline can get. Her Collision match with Alex Windsor was fire. Pac versus Lio Rush was a verrrrry close second; I love how good Pac was at playing the straight man to Rush's Smeagol-brand creepiness, which made me an instafan. (Seriously, it's the best wrestling creepiness since Velveteen Dream. Also, Pac continues to be criminally underrated and underused.) Mina Shirakawa and Hikaru Shida's Japanese smacktalk is fabulous. Nick Wayne made Mox look both fast and not boring 😂, Brody King continues to dominate, MJF continues to be the consummate heel, and FTR and Stokely will always crack me up. This is an absolute match and storyline golden era, and not even the unnecessary reintroduction of Jericho can spoil it.
Video Games: It's been a dry period for me for video gaming, but I am casually spectating as the GC plays his way through Metaphor, which, hysterically, he keeps inadvertently referring to as "Persona", and which, hysterically, everyone still knows what he's talking about.
これで以上です。
A Wizard of Earthsea graphic novel, by Ursula Le Guin, adapted & illustrated by Fred Fordham
Apr. 27th, 2026 12:49 pmrachelmanija
An incredibly beautiful book and a very faithful adaptation. Much of the language is word-for-word from the book. I would happily hang most panels on my wall.
A number of sequences are completely wordless, and while very beautiful I don't think I would have understood what was going on in all of them if I hadn't already read the book. There's also a lot of panels which are extremely dark, so much so that it's hard to tell what's happening. Most of these are indoors. I know there's no electricity but in most of these there is magelight!
Also, the otak is the size of a mouse and looks very much like a mouse. That is too small - in the book it catches a mouse and brings it to Ged, and other people tease Ged that it's a rat or a dog. I pictured it the size of a kitten or squirrel, and looking somewhat like a stockier weasel, or a small wolverine or marten. Definitely not a mouse!
It's always interesting to see other people's visualizations of books. The dragon of Pendor is seen mostly through a thick fog, all glowing eyes and fiery breath and insinuation. The flying creatures that pursue Ged and Serret from the Court of the Terrenon are not monstrous pterodactyls, as I always imagined them, but hideous living gargoyles.
I highly recommend this to anyone who's already read the novel, but I don't suggest reading it instead of or before the novel.
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The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie (2019)
Apr. 27th, 2026 02:42 pmpauraqueI am back! I haven't really had a chance to catch up here yet, but here's my vacation read, for starters.
This stand-alone fantasy novel has a classic plot: A young soldier-prince hurries back from the front to inherit rulership from his dying father, only to find when he arrives at the capital that his uncle has usurped the throne. What makes the book stand out are the vivid characters and immersive worldbuilding—features that did not surprise me, having read and loved Leckie's science fiction for much the same reasons.
In the world of the book there are beings called gods, but their powers are subject to the laws of nature. They have to be careful what they try to will into existence, because if it requires too much energy or creates a paradox it can hurt or kill them, and if they don't understand the underlying principles of how something works they may not be able to do it at all. The gods have their own goals and internal politics, which humans often don't understand. I really liked how the consequences were worked out, with a mix of human beliefs about the gods—some accurate, some overcomplicated or oversimplified, and some fanciful wishful thinking. Even when it is actually possible to speak to the gods, some people will still only hear what they want to hear.
On the human side of the story, the themes struck me as thoroughly Shakespearean. The prince versus the conniving uncle, certainly, and more generally the impact of fatal character flaws and the focus on emotionally intimate relationships shaped by tricky power dynamics. The focal human character is not the prince Mawat, but his loyal retainer Eolo, a farmer's son turned soldier whose steadiness and observational skills are a balance to Mawat, who is smart but often lets his temper overrule his logic. When Mawat is being irrational, other characters beg Eolo to step in because Mawat will listen to him—except he doesn't always, and there is only so much Eolo can do within the bounds of hierarchy.
Eolo is also a trans man, which is a lens through which we learn a lot about how this world deals with people who fall outside social norms. I loved how this was handled. Different places have different attitudes toward queer people, and it's not a one-to-one mapping to real life views or a didactic take where the more queer-friendly folk are perfect "good guys". (None of the book's cultures are all good or all bad. They all have systemic problems and both admirable and ill-intentioned people in them.) Eolo's experiences and self-perceptions are grounded in the world he lives in. He's not an out-of-place transplant from our own world or an excuse to lecture to the reader. On the contrary, the book assumes the reader is savvy enough to pick up on nuanced points about gender and trans experiences without having them spelled out, and it's so refreshing.
The narrative is from the perspective of a god who uses second person to refer to Eolo as it observes his actions. This could be a barrier for some readers who are put off by long stretches of second person, but I found it very appropriate and not a distraction.
I would love it if Leckie wrote more novels in this world. I think she has some stories set in it, but I haven't gotten around to reading her short story collection yet.
This stand-alone fantasy novel has a classic plot: A young soldier-prince hurries back from the front to inherit rulership from his dying father, only to find when he arrives at the capital that his uncle has usurped the throne. What makes the book stand out are the vivid characters and immersive worldbuilding—features that did not surprise me, having read and loved Leckie's science fiction for much the same reasons.
In the world of the book there are beings called gods, but their powers are subject to the laws of nature. They have to be careful what they try to will into existence, because if it requires too much energy or creates a paradox it can hurt or kill them, and if they don't understand the underlying principles of how something works they may not be able to do it at all. The gods have their own goals and internal politics, which humans often don't understand. I really liked how the consequences were worked out, with a mix of human beliefs about the gods—some accurate, some overcomplicated or oversimplified, and some fanciful wishful thinking. Even when it is actually possible to speak to the gods, some people will still only hear what they want to hear.
On the human side of the story, the themes struck me as thoroughly Shakespearean. The prince versus the conniving uncle, certainly, and more generally the impact of fatal character flaws and the focus on emotionally intimate relationships shaped by tricky power dynamics. The focal human character is not the prince Mawat, but his loyal retainer Eolo, a farmer's son turned soldier whose steadiness and observational skills are a balance to Mawat, who is smart but often lets his temper overrule his logic. When Mawat is being irrational, other characters beg Eolo to step in because Mawat will listen to him—except he doesn't always, and there is only so much Eolo can do within the bounds of hierarchy.
Eolo is also a trans man, which is a lens through which we learn a lot about how this world deals with people who fall outside social norms. I loved how this was handled. Different places have different attitudes toward queer people, and it's not a one-to-one mapping to real life views or a didactic take where the more queer-friendly folk are perfect "good guys". (None of the book's cultures are all good or all bad. They all have systemic problems and both admirable and ill-intentioned people in them.) Eolo's experiences and self-perceptions are grounded in the world he lives in. He's not an out-of-place transplant from our own world or an excuse to lecture to the reader. On the contrary, the book assumes the reader is savvy enough to pick up on nuanced points about gender and trans experiences without having them spelled out, and it's so refreshing.
The narrative is from the perspective of a god who uses second person to refer to Eolo as it observes his actions. This could be a barrier for some readers who are put off by long stretches of second person, but I found it very appropriate and not a distraction.
I would love it if Leckie wrote more novels in this world. I think she has some stories set in it, but I haven't gotten around to reading her short story collection yet.
Worked a different place today
Apr. 27th, 2026 10:15 amconulyIt's three shifts this week in addition to my usual - I don't actually want to work six shifts, but I urgently need the cash, so we'll see what we see.
I took the bus there, but when I got there I saw the train tracks and decided to take the train back. And since I was hungry, I stopped into the corner store by the train for a snack, and immediately my chest felt tight and the tears welled up. I feel really absurd about this, but I didn't realize until right then that this is the train stop closest to the hospital. I can only have stopped in this particular store half a dozen times, max, but... yeah. (Actually, thinking carefully, I think I stopped in there the day Mommy was intubated, and that was the last time before today, so no wonder I freaked out and sobbed for 15, 20 minutes straight. If I had started sobbing in the store, maybe they would've comped me my drink.)
I took the bus there, but when I got there I saw the train tracks and decided to take the train back. And since I was hungry, I stopped into the corner store by the train for a snack, and immediately my chest felt tight and the tears welled up. I feel really absurd about this, but I didn't realize until right then that this is the train stop closest to the hospital. I can only have stopped in this particular store half a dozen times, max, but... yeah. (Actually, thinking carefully, I think I stopped in there the day Mommy was intubated, and that was the last time before today, so no wonder I freaked out and sobbed for 15, 20 minutes straight. If I had started sobbing in the store, maybe they would've comped me my drink.)
Dear fic writer:
Apr. 29th, 2026 01:10 amconulyIt is 1992. This kid is twelve. He doesn’t know the word “gaslighting”, he doesn’t know the phrase “trauma response”, and if he knew the latter, he wouldn’t apply it to himself.
Also, there’s no such thing as a landline. It’s just a phone, so called because it transmits sound, phone, a long way, tele. It doesn’t do anything else, not even voicemail, and you need to pay extra for caller ID.
Also, there’s no such thing as a landline. It’s just a phone, so called because it transmits sound, phone, a long way, tele. It doesn’t do anything else, not even voicemail, and you need to pay extra for caller ID.
it's 8pm and the last bit of twilight still lingers
Apr. 26th, 2026 06:45 pmshadarasso the last time I posted here was at the beginning of the month, hm. well! hello, I still exist!
1.
I've been at a different work site for 2.5wks, which was a lovely break. Chill worksite, small job; just me and one journeyman who I enjoy working with. He was like "this is one of the best jobs I've ever worked" about it, which is a wild contrast to how the big job we'd both been working (and are returning to tomorrow) is one of the worst.
The little job isn't fully done, but we can't do anything else until they get all the remaining parts in. The hope is that when that happens (in a month, maybe...? nobody had estimates.) they'll call us back to finish it, since we know what's going on and what the plan was. This is especially pertinent because we were not given particularly detailed plans, and then proceeded to change a lot of it (memorably: one unit we were supposed to install couldn't be installed where they wanted it because of service requirements, so it had to be flipped and therefore everything coming from it had to be re-routed to accommodate that).
also, we just want to go back, since it was a nice job.
Back to the big job tomorrow, and...
well, not looking forward to it. In theory it'll wrap at some point this summer. idk when. But it's a job site where everyone always seems stressed and that trickles down and makes it so much harder than it needs to be.
(also, like, having lunch at 10:30am as the only break in the day is. not ideal? yes we get out at 2:30 but man the clock usually feels so slow between 11am-2pm...)
2.
I drew a cover for On the Lord's Estate the other week!
Left to right: Mal, El, and Benny.
I've known more or less what I wanted to draw for bk2 since... mm, the halfway mark of writing it, maybe? Important to have all three of them together, important to show Mal happy, important to place it in the conservatory. I'm very happy with how it came out—especially Mal. <3 Mal turned out just as I was hoping as far as expression/vibe goes.
This also means thathafnia and I have started posting bk3! Of the Lord's Family is the happy ending. <3 featuring healthy communication, family feelings (if the title wasn't a giveaway), and everyone settling into their lives. It'll be the end of this trilogy, and then it'll be time for various stories about the kids.
(which means more thinking about what I want to do with Rhei, and also continuing to noodle about Tolly... many ideas, only so much time and energy, but also no rush beyond my own internal "BUT I WANNA HAVE THIS DONE SOONER" feelings. xD)
3.
I've been keeping up with the new Star Wars cartoon Maul: Shadow Lord, and it is such a funny example of Disney Star Wars Overconnected Bullshit in a few very specific ways.
a. No characters are really introduced. You are expected to simply already know who they are. Even as someone who has watched pretty much all the Star Wars cartoons, I was not aware of who some characters were because some of them were introduced in comics about Maul. (Additionally: the prequel comic series for this show has 2/5 issues out as of right now, as the show airs. I think this is hilarious.) HOWEVER.
b. Even the characters who were not previously introduced are given particularly in-depth introductions. This is mostly confusing because I expected them to be introduced somewhere, since it took until episode three for two major characters to have their names spoken on-screen. Their names have been known via promo material? But didn't show up in the show? This is fine if it's intentional but it's so weird when it's the same vibes as characters who were introduced in comics.
c. I mean this isn't a Disney problem specifically but it sure is very Star Wars: There is only one (1) prominent female character, one (1) prominent secondary female character, and one (1) tertiary female character allowed at a time. It was honestly really funny when the tertiary character got Sent Away and then a new tertiary female character showed up a couple scenes later?
anyway I like it well enough when it's not Fight Scenes, and sort of don't care when it's Fight Scenes, but since it's a show for like tweens I think it's forced to have Fight Scenes in every episode. Which, like, that's fine but I find it more fun to watch Maul attempt to seduce everyone into helping him than I do watching the flashy lights show of a combat sequence involving blasters and/or lightsabers.
4.
It is finally spring. Flowers are blooming, the trees are turning green with new leaves, and the weather is consistently above freezing! These are all good things!
5.
anyway while I'm thinking about it, right, I meant to post this (which I wrote like a month ago at least) and now I have! Mouse! :D
The Question of Crushes, 2.4k, gen, wherein a teenager is interrogated by a like eight year old about if they have a crush on the kid's oldest sibling.
1.
I've been at a different work site for 2.5wks, which was a lovely break. Chill worksite, small job; just me and one journeyman who I enjoy working with. He was like "this is one of the best jobs I've ever worked" about it, which is a wild contrast to how the big job we'd both been working (and are returning to tomorrow) is one of the worst.
The little job isn't fully done, but we can't do anything else until they get all the remaining parts in. The hope is that when that happens (in a month, maybe...? nobody had estimates.) they'll call us back to finish it, since we know what's going on and what the plan was. This is especially pertinent because we were not given particularly detailed plans, and then proceeded to change a lot of it (memorably: one unit we were supposed to install couldn't be installed where they wanted it because of service requirements, so it had to be flipped and therefore everything coming from it had to be re-routed to accommodate that).
also, we just want to go back, since it was a nice job.
Back to the big job tomorrow, and...
well, not looking forward to it. In theory it'll wrap at some point this summer. idk when. But it's a job site where everyone always seems stressed and that trickles down and makes it so much harder than it needs to be.
(also, like, having lunch at 10:30am as the only break in the day is. not ideal? yes we get out at 2:30 but man the clock usually feels so slow between 11am-2pm...)
2.
I drew a cover for On the Lord's Estate the other week!
[Click to View Image]
Left to right: Mal, El, and Benny.
I've known more or less what I wanted to draw for bk2 since... mm, the halfway mark of writing it, maybe? Important to have all three of them together, important to show Mal happy, important to place it in the conservatory. I'm very happy with how it came out—especially Mal. <3 Mal turned out just as I was hoping as far as expression/vibe goes.
This also means that
hafnia and I have started posting bk3! Of the Lord's Family is the happy ending. <3 featuring healthy communication, family feelings (if the title wasn't a giveaway), and everyone settling into their lives. It'll be the end of this trilogy, and then it'll be time for various stories about the kids.(which means more thinking about what I want to do with Rhei, and also continuing to noodle about Tolly... many ideas, only so much time and energy, but also no rush beyond my own internal "BUT I WANNA HAVE THIS DONE SOONER" feelings. xD)
3.
I've been keeping up with the new Star Wars cartoon Maul: Shadow Lord, and it is such a funny example of Disney Star Wars Overconnected Bullshit in a few very specific ways.
a. No characters are really introduced. You are expected to simply already know who they are. Even as someone who has watched pretty much all the Star Wars cartoons, I was not aware of who some characters were because some of them were introduced in comics about Maul. (Additionally: the prequel comic series for this show has 2/5 issues out as of right now, as the show airs. I think this is hilarious.) HOWEVER.
b. Even the characters who were not previously introduced are given particularly in-depth introductions. This is mostly confusing because I expected them to be introduced somewhere, since it took until episode three for two major characters to have their names spoken on-screen. Their names have been known via promo material? But didn't show up in the show? This is fine if it's intentional but it's so weird when it's the same vibes as characters who were introduced in comics.
c. I mean this isn't a Disney problem specifically but it sure is very Star Wars: There is only one (1) prominent female character, one (1) prominent secondary female character, and one (1) tertiary female character allowed at a time. It was honestly really funny when the tertiary character got Sent Away and then a new tertiary female character showed up a couple scenes later?
anyway I like it well enough when it's not Fight Scenes, and sort of don't care when it's Fight Scenes, but since it's a show for like tweens I think it's forced to have Fight Scenes in every episode. Which, like, that's fine but I find it more fun to watch Maul attempt to seduce everyone into helping him than I do watching the flashy lights show of a combat sequence involving blasters and/or lightsabers.
4.
It is finally spring. Flowers are blooming, the trees are turning green with new leaves, and the weather is consistently above freezing! These are all good things!
5.
anyway while I'm thinking about it, right, I meant to post this (which I wrote like a month ago at least) and now I have! Mouse! :D
The Question of Crushes, 2.4k, gen, wherein a teenager is interrogated by a like eight year old about if they have a crush on the kid's oldest sibling.
The Jewish War: Last half of book 6
Apr. 26th, 2026 04:38 pmcahnLast week:Lament for the destroyed trees and landscape around Jerusalem. A woman eats her own child. More discussion of Titus and whether he wanted to spare the Temple or not. The Carthage and Alexandria precedents for Romans treating defeated opponents. Torching a temple = REALLY BAD LUCK. The timetable of the siege of Jerusalem set by Vespasian's ascent as emperor.
This week: The aftermath of the burning of the temple, and the end of the siege of Jerusalem. Still some pretty awful stuff.
Next week: First half of book 7... isn't this the last book?! OK,selenak, give us a stopping point... :)
This week: The aftermath of the burning of the temple, and the end of the siege of Jerusalem. Still some pretty awful stuff.
Next week: First half of book 7... isn't this the last book?! OK,
selenak, give us a stopping point... :)