Birdfeeding
Dec. 17th, 2025 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithToday is partly sunny and chilly.
I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a male cardinal.
I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a male cardinal.
So you want to listen to some poetry
Dec. 17th, 2025 06:27 pmpetrahannah and James Marsters have got you.1969 by Alex Dimitrov is Hannah's recommendation to start with, and it's a banger. Wander the archive of that tumblr and enjoy!
Three for the Memories Coming Back Next Month!
Dec. 17th, 2025 05:04 pmysabetwordsmith![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
threeforthememories 2025 session will be open for posts on January 3, 2026 and will run for 3 weeks until January 24. Do let others know about us, as anyone can participate by just joining the community.Just a reminder of how the event runs:
1) Three photos only per person during each annual session. Members are encouraged to discuss the reason for their choices.
2) Photos can be hosted at Dreamwidth or elsewhere, and should not be larger than 800 px width or height.
3) All three photos should be in the same post. Cut tags should be placed after the first photo.
Write every day: Day 17
Dec. 17th, 2025 10:15 pmluzulaNo writing, alas, but tomorrow I have a writing session with my beta reader, so hopefully that'll get me going again. How about you?
Tally:
( Read more... )
Day 16:china_shop, brithistorian, sanguinity, trobadora, badly_knitted, garonne, goddess47, garonne
Day 17:china_shop, garonne
Bonus farm news: Housemate made parmesan cheese (well, it will be after a year's storage) which gave us 20 liters of whey as a byproduct, which I am now boiling down to Scandinavian whey "cheese". It's brown and sweet from the caramelized sugar of the whey, and not actually cheese. (Note: we do not have cows. We bought the milk from a farmer's market.)
Tally:
( Read more... )
Day 16:
china_shop, brithistorian, sanguinity, trobadora, badly_knitted, garonne, goddess47, garonneDay 17:
china_shop, garonneBonus farm news: Housemate made parmesan cheese (well, it will be after a year's storage) which gave us 20 liters of whey as a byproduct, which I am now boiling down to Scandinavian whey "cheese". It's brown and sweet from the caramelized sugar of the whey, and not actually cheese. (Note: we do not have cows. We bought the milk from a farmer's market.)
in which our protagonist dreams of laurels
Dec. 17th, 2025 10:42 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
wingolog_feedI had a dream the other evening, in which I was at a large event full of hackers—funny, that this is the extent of my dreams at the moment; as a parent of three young kids, I don’t get out much—and, there, I was to receive an award and give a speech. (I know, I am a ridiculous man, even when sleeping.) The award was something about free software; it had the trappings of victory, but the vibe among attendees was numbness and bitter loss. Palantir had a booth; they use free software, and isn’t that just great?
My talk was to be about Guile, I think: something technical, something interesting, but, I suspected, something inadequate: in its place and time it would be a delight to go deep on mechanism but the moment seemed to call for something else.
These days are funny. We won, objectively, in the sense of the goals we set in the beginning; most software is available to its users under a free license: Firefox, Chromium, Android, Linux, all the programming languages, you know the list. So why aren’t we happy?
When I reflect back on what inspired me about free software 25 years ago, it was much more political than technical. The idea that we should be able to modify our own means of production and share those modifications was a part of a political project of mutual care: we should be empowered to affect the systems that surround us, to the extent that they affect us.
To give you an idea of the milieu, picture me in 1999. I left my home to study abroad on another continent. When I would go to internet cafés I would do my email and read slashdot and freshmeat as one did back then, but also I would often read Z magazine, Noam Chomsky and Michael Albert and Michael Parenti and Arundhati Roy and Zapatistas and all. I remember reading El País the day after “we” shut down the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, seeing front-page pictures of pink-haired kids being beat up by the cops and wishing I were there with them. For me, free software fit with all of this: the notion that a better world was possible, and we could build it together.
I won’t lie and say that the ideals were everything. I think much of my motivation to program is selfish: I like to learn, to find out, to do. But back then I felt the social component more strongly. Among my cohort, though, I think we now do free software because we did free software; the motive sedimented into mechanism. These are the spoils of victory: free is the default. But defaults lack a sense of urgency, of the political.
Nowadays the commons that we built is the feedlot of large language models, and increasingly also its waste pond. The software we make is free, but the system in which it is made is not; Linux Magazine 1, Z magazine 0.
All of this makes me think that free software as a cause has run its course. We were the vanguard, and we won. Our dreams of 25 years ago are today’s table stakes. Specifically for my copyleft comrades, it seems that the role of copyright as a societal lever has much less purchase; taken to its conclusion, we might find ourselves siding with Disney and OpenAI against Google.
If I had to choose an idea from the 90s to keep, I would take “another world is possible” over the four freedoms. For me, software freedom is a strategy within a broader humanist project of liberation. It was clever, in that it could motivate people from a variety of backgrounds in a way that was on the whole positive for the humanist project. It inspired me as a meaningful way in which I could work towards a world of people caring for each other. In that spirit, I would like to invite my comrades to reflect on their own hierarchy of principles; too often I see people arguing the fine points of “is this software free” according to a specific definition without appreciating the ends to which the software freedom definition is a means.
Anyway, it turns out that I did win something, the Award for the Advancement of Free Software, for my work on Guile over the years. My work on Guile has waxed and waned, and in these last few years of parenthood it has been rather the latter, but I am proud of some of the technical hacks; and it has been with a heart-warming, wondrous delight that I have been a spectator to the rise of Guix, a complete operating system built on Guile. Apart from its quite compelling technical contributions, I just love that Guix is a community of people working together to build a shared project. I am going to the Guix days in a month or so and in past years it has been such a pleasure to see so many people there, working to make possible another world.
In my dream, instead of talking about Guile, I gave a rousing and compelling impromptu invective against Palantir and their ilk. I thought it quite articulate; I was asleep. In these waking hours, some days later, I don’t know what I did say, but I think I know what I would like to have said: that if we take the means of free software to be the ends, then we will find ourselves arguing our enemies are our friends. Saying that it’s OK if some software we build on is made by people who facilitate ICE raids. People who build spy software for controlling domestic populations. People who work for empire.
What I would like to say is that free software is a strategy. As a community of people that share some kind of liberatory principles of which free software has been a part, let use free software as best we can, among many other strategies. If it fits, great. If you find yourself on the same side of an argument as Palantir, it’s time to back up and try something else.
If it's a moment in time, how come it feels so long?
Dec. 17th, 2025 04:40 pmsovayLast night on a snow-salted suburban road I saw a deer bound suddenly through the splash of the headlights, followed a moment later by what must have been a pair of coyotes because it's been centuries since there were wolves in this part of the world. It was so folkloric, I expected to see riders the next moment, or the moon. After days of sleepless free-fall and headache it hurt to breathe through, I spent much of this afternoon unconscious, which was terrible for my exposure to daylight but produced vivid dreams only occasionally suggesting a surrealist facsimile of same, such as the second-story view onto a green quadrangle where a policeman was bleeding out milk. Hestia is trying to climb through my arms as I type in her best doctorly fashion. In nearly half a lifetime of chronic illness, I don't think I have ever felt this daily-basis bad.
Demonic Ox now listed for preorder
Dec. 17th, 2025 01:48 pmlois_mcmaster_bujold_feedI've been waiting eagerly to show you all the latest cover art by Lauren Saint-Onge -- really lovely, and also, an actual scene from the story! To be published February 2026.
Publisher link here:
https://subterraneanpress.com/bujold-...
In addition, the book will be available from Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore and Dreamhaven Books & Comics here in Minneapolis, though they likely haven't had time to get it entered on their store websites yet. But in due course.
Ta, L.
posted by Lois McMaster Bujold on December, 17
Publisher link here:
https://subterraneanpress.com/bujold-...
In addition, the book will be available from Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore and Dreamhaven Books & Comics here in Minneapolis, though they likely haven't had time to get it entered on their store websites yet. But in due course.
Ta, L.
posted by Lois McMaster Bujold on December, 17
Woe (and cheering myself up)
Dec. 17th, 2025 10:29 pmrmc28I am the stage of being ill with a cold where it feels like I will never be well again, I barely even remember what it is to not cough, and all is doom. Woe, woe is me. [From experience, this stage is usually about two days before I actually get fully well, but try telling my feelings that.]
(brought to you by having to miss yet another hockey practice tonight, the penultimate one of the year, and being sad about it)
Cheering myself up with the news that Heated Rivalry comes to the UK on 10 January. I am going to be very normal about it. Meanwhile I await a delivery of Rick Riordan books from my dealer the buddy who got me into them, and Instagram is doing its usual creepily-accurate targeting, supplying me with Yorkshire Percy Jackson and advertising a PJ musical in Peterborough next spring.
Wednesday Reading Meme
Dec. 17th, 2025 05:03 pmsinealaWhat I Just Finished Reading
Katie Chandler, Backhanded Compliments: A f/f tennis rivals-to-lovers romance that's also a name-on-wrist soulmate story, because I guess this is just what Real Books are like now. It's... okay? The smut was actually decent, and there was some interesting worldbuilding in here (everyone visits the archaeological museum of Naples and talks about the classical views of soulmates), but I think the author should have built up the rivalry before having them actually realize they were soulmates, because pre-existing character investment is not happening in original fiction, and it wasn't really clear to me why they couldn't just be together.
What I'm Reading Now
Comics Wednesday!
( Alien vs. Captain America #2, Avengers #33 )
What I'm Reading Next
I have to read one more book this year so that I do not fail my pitiful Goodreads challenge.lysimache says I should finish reading this novella about Pegasus written for students learning Ancient Greek, but my bookmark fell out and I don't remember where I was. Also I forgot the word for "bridle."
Katie Chandler, Backhanded Compliments: A f/f tennis rivals-to-lovers romance that's also a name-on-wrist soulmate story, because I guess this is just what Real Books are like now. It's... okay? The smut was actually decent, and there was some interesting worldbuilding in here (everyone visits the archaeological museum of Naples and talks about the classical views of soulmates), but I think the author should have built up the rivalry before having them actually realize they were soulmates, because pre-existing character investment is not happening in original fiction, and it wasn't really clear to me why they couldn't just be together.
What I'm Reading Now
Comics Wednesday!
( Alien vs. Captain America #2, Avengers #33 )
What I'm Reading Next
I have to read one more book this year so that I do not fail my pitiful Goodreads challenge.
lysimache says I should finish reading this novella about Pegasus written for students learning Ancient Greek, but my bookmark fell out and I don't remember where I was. Also I forgot the word for "bridle."Anybody have any explanatory links?
Dec. 18th, 2025 04:09 pmconulyAs we all know - or anyway, as most of us know - words are capitalized like names if they're used like names and titles.
This most commonly applies to kinship terms, of course - "I gave a present to my mom" versus "When she opened her present, Mom cried" and "I have an uncle who is a firefighter" versus "You're a firefighter, aren't you, Uncle John?"
But there's a few people in the comments asserting that they've never seen this before, they would've been marked down at school, and so on.
It does boggle my mind somewhat that they, I guess, never read fiction in which people have parents, or else don't pay much attention when they do read, but I suppose not everybody is lucky enough to have been raised by a proofreader. However, what I'm posting about is that it's surprisingly difficult to find an authoritative source on this subject online.
The MW and Cambridge dictionary entries only cover this in the briefest way, without an explanatory note. I can't find a usage note by looking elsewhere at MW. I see people asserting that the AP and Chicago styles require this - but I can't actually access that, and searches on their respective websites go nowhere.
I can find lots of casual blogs and such discussing this in detail, but understandably people who think they already know are reluctant to accept correction from random sources like that. Can't quite blame them, though they're still very wrong. Or, I mean to say, they're out of step with the norms of Standard English orthography.
Does anybody have any source that's likely to be accepted? I don't even care about telling that handful of people at this point, I'm just annoyed at my inability to find a link on my own.
This most commonly applies to kinship terms, of course - "I gave a present to my mom" versus "When she opened her present, Mom cried" and "I have an uncle who is a firefighter" versus "You're a firefighter, aren't you, Uncle John?"
But there's a few people in the comments asserting that they've never seen this before, they would've been marked down at school, and so on.
It does boggle my mind somewhat that they, I guess, never read fiction in which people have parents, or else don't pay much attention when they do read, but I suppose not everybody is lucky enough to have been raised by a proofreader. However, what I'm posting about is that it's surprisingly difficult to find an authoritative source on this subject online.
The MW and Cambridge dictionary entries only cover this in the briefest way, without an explanatory note. I can't find a usage note by looking elsewhere at MW. I see people asserting that the AP and Chicago styles require this - but I can't actually access that, and searches on their respective websites go nowhere.
I can find lots of casual blogs and such discussing this in detail, but understandably people who think they already know are reluctant to accept correction from random sources like that. Can't quite blame them, though they're still very wrong. Or, I mean to say, they're out of step with the norms of Standard English orthography.
Does anybody have any source that's likely to be accepted? I don't even care about telling that handful of people at this point, I'm just annoyed at my inability to find a link on my own.
2025 Deadline Has Passed - What Next
Dec. 18th, 2025 10:17 amyuletidemods posting in yuletide_adminThe deadline has passed, and the main collection is temporarily closed. ETA - now open again!
Congratulations to everyone who has posted! Pat yourself on the back, take a breath, and then please check wordcount, formatting, html; check that you've uploaded the correct version, and that all your text is actually there. You can get to what you've submitted from your Statistics page, or from your Works in Collections. Your story should be marked as "complete" rather than one or more of multiple chapters yet to come.
To all who didn't make it this year: it happens, and we hope you enjoy the collection reveals.
To all who are still working on beta jobs, treats, or pinch hits: thank you and good luck!
Pinch hits coming!!
Post-deadline pinch hits will be available soon atyuletide_pinch_hits. This next round will be due at 9 AM UTC, 22 December.
See what time that is in YOUR timezone
See countdown
Beta requests
We have outstanding beta requests on the Yuletide Discord (please see the #hippo-want-ads channel), and more betas are always welcome at the Dreamwidth beta post.
There is also an Away from Keyboard post up on the participant community, for you to (optionally) let your author know if it'll be a while before you can read your gift.
If there seems to be an issue with your posted work, we'll contact you via the email address associated with your AO3 account. Please check you can access that!
Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Participant DW | Participant LJ | Pinch Hits on DW | Discord | Tag set | Tag set app
Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.
Congratulations to everyone who has posted! Pat yourself on the back, take a breath, and then please check wordcount, formatting, html; check that you've uploaded the correct version, and that all your text is actually there. You can get to what you've submitted from your Statistics page, or from your Works in Collections. Your story should be marked as "complete" rather than one or more of multiple chapters yet to come.
To all who didn't make it this year: it happens, and we hope you enjoy the collection reveals.
To all who are still working on beta jobs, treats, or pinch hits: thank you and good luck!
Pinch hits coming!!
Post-deadline pinch hits will be available soon at
yuletide_pinch_hits. This next round will be due at 9 AM UTC, 22 December.See what time that is in YOUR timezone
See countdown
Beta requests
We have outstanding beta requests on the Yuletide Discord (please see the #hippo-want-ads channel), and more betas are always welcome at the Dreamwidth beta post.
There is also an Away from Keyboard post up on the participant community, for you to (optionally) let your author know if it'll be a while before you can read your gift.
If there seems to be an issue with your posted work, we'll contact you via the email address associated with your AO3 account. Please check you can access that!
Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.
another benediction
Dec. 17th, 2025 08:56 pmcosmolinguistI got a birthday card from my aunt today, my dad's sister.
Inside it says
Wishing you joy from your job.
Wishing you joy from your friends.
Wishing you joy from your family.Hope you and your Mom and Dad can be together in 2026.
Aww. Really sweet. She's good and I should be better at keeping in touch.
(no subject)
Dec. 17th, 2025 12:11 pmmartianmooncrabevery now and then you see something right, so the other night I was waiting at a red light, and I watched some testosterone car make their left turn and right behind them was a city cop. Oh, yeah, the t car came thru the intersection hit the straight and gunned it. Oh its 30mph there, and the cop was right behind them, and before the next traffic light, the disco lit off... sigh.. so many times you see someone being stupid and they keep on going, well... it was gratifying.
I get my van back monday, its been up and down, and they did find a broken part and had to wait for the replacement to come in. they painting it at the moment.
cardiology on friday, niece on saturday to see Wicked, and family xmas on sunday.
pulmonology says my lung sparkle is caused by my reflux issues, saw speech therapist last week and she agrees, she scoped my vocal bits... which I do not recommend, it gave me flashbacks to covid testing... because they run the scope up the old nose and down the back of your throat. gag.
pulmonology was such a tap dancing moment, they were disavowing the spot on my lung, they blamed the old mammaries (hah! already had that checked!) and now they saying its heart tissue. Which I will address on friday. After trying to schedule me a year out for my next appt, its now on for March, since I told them I wasnt comfortable with waiting a year.
the shots for the psoraisis are still kicking my ass, but, my ass isnt as scaley and its slowly healing up, I still shedding skin but its not like I am molting full time. Still itchy as hell, but, not 24/7 ... slowly slowly slowly, but improving.
my sleep study ended up working. I do stop breathing at least 12 times an hour which is double normal. I even got 8. hours of sleep clocked in, and I thought I got only 5. I must have a very active brain because I swear I woke up at least once. Now I wait for my primary doc to chime in.
ouhmmm.. and my A1C had come down! not down enough, but, still... its single digits now.
lots of things to do, but not whipping up enough ambition.
Solstice is coming!
I get my van back monday, its been up and down, and they did find a broken part and had to wait for the replacement to come in. they painting it at the moment.
cardiology on friday, niece on saturday to see Wicked, and family xmas on sunday.
pulmonology says my lung sparkle is caused by my reflux issues, saw speech therapist last week and she agrees, she scoped my vocal bits... which I do not recommend, it gave me flashbacks to covid testing... because they run the scope up the old nose and down the back of your throat. gag.
pulmonology was such a tap dancing moment, they were disavowing the spot on my lung, they blamed the old mammaries (hah! already had that checked!) and now they saying its heart tissue. Which I will address on friday. After trying to schedule me a year out for my next appt, its now on for March, since I told them I wasnt comfortable with waiting a year.
the shots for the psoraisis are still kicking my ass, but, my ass isnt as scaley and its slowly healing up, I still shedding skin but its not like I am molting full time. Still itchy as hell, but, not 24/7 ... slowly slowly slowly, but improving.
my sleep study ended up working. I do stop breathing at least 12 times an hour which is double normal. I even got 8. hours of sleep clocked in, and I thought I got only 5. I must have a very active brain because I swear I woke up at least once. Now I wait for my primary doc to chime in.
ouhmmm.. and my A1C had come down! not down enough, but, still... its single digits now.
lots of things to do, but not whipping up enough ambition.
Solstice is coming!
Wednesday says Happy 319th Birthday, Emilie du Chatelet!
Dec. 17th, 2025 07:33 pmoursinWhat I read
Finished Audrey Lane Stirs the Pot - teensy pedantic note that a girl who was a teenage WW2 evacuee was not going to have been called Doris after Doris Day.
I read a couple more nostalgic (I literally read these when I was still at school) Elswyth Thanes (also the ebooks are v cheap), This Was Tomorrow (1951) and Homing (1957), and apart from a couple of fortunately brief scenes in Williamsburg (I get the impression is being done up as Heritage Site with Rockefeller dough?) set in England/Europe just before and at beginning of WW2. Apart from the 2 idealistic Oxford Groupers (it's not actually named but it sounds very like) who want to shed love and light on the Nazis, nobody is for appeasement. So unlike e.g. Lanny Budd's first wife and her second (Brit aristo) husband.... There is also weird reincarnation theme going on.
Latest Literary Review.
Some while ago I was looking for my copy of The Goblin Emperor and it was not in any of the places I thought it plausibly might be and then I spotted it while dusting the bookshelves in a non-intuitive spot and have been re-reading that. Have also read the online short story Min Zemerin's Plan (The Cemeteries of Amalo, #1.5) (2022), which I hadn't come across before, and re-read The Orb of Cairado (The Chronicles of Osreth, #1.1) (2025). Does anyone know how I can get access to Lora Selezh (The Cemeteries of Amalo, #0.5), which was apparently a freebie for preorders of the Tor edition of Witness for the Dead???
On the go
Have started Dickon Edwards, Diary at the Centre of the Earth: Vol. 1 (1997-2007) (2025) - possibly a dipper-inner rather than a read straight through, though sometimes diaries that one thinks this about grab one like the Ancient Mariner, I'm looking at you Mr Isherwood.
Up Next
As may seem predictable, I am on to a re-read of Katherine Addison's Cemeteries of Amalo trilogy.
I should probably also be turning my attention to Dorothy Richardson, Pointed Roofs, for the Pilgrimage online book group discussion in early Jan.
I Let My Email Go For a Month and Now It Is Crushing My Will To Live: The John Scalzi Story
Dec. 17th, 2025 06:21 pmscalziwhatever_feed
Two things:
One, if you sent me an email in the last month and I have not responded to it, I will be attempting to respond to it in the next couple of days. Sorry for the delay, I was busy doing secret things, and by “secret things” I mean “nothing actually, just avoiding email.”
Two, if you sent an email in the last month and you don’t get a response to it by Friday close of business, you can assume you’re not getting a response to it, not because I hate you and I want you to die, but because I might have accidentally archived it. If you want, and if it is actually important you get a response from me, send it again on that Monday.
— JS
with an open smile and with open doors
Dec. 17th, 2025 06:04 pmwychwoodToday I mostly Power Automated. Or attempted to. I had to call in the expert several times, and at least one of them he was like "yeah I don't know why it's not working either", which was at least validating. My first flow is now sending emails, although I still need to tweak it a bit.
Also: honestly what sort of bullshit is it that you can't get Microsoft Forms to send an email to the person who filled out the form with their details in! That's been, like, basic form functionality for at least fifteen years, and it's all very well saying "oh well you can do it with Power Automate", but that is much more complicated than ticking a "send submissions to user" box and requires access to a whole separate system plus someone to set up all the permissions for you to use whatever Outlook mailbox, etc etc etc...
Anyway. I have three? four? forms that my boss wants me to have up and running before Christmas. Now I've got all the accesses and permissions configured that should hopefully be possible, which is good because I did promise...
On the home front, I have now ordered all the remaining Christmas presents I can do before Christmas Day itself (why do so few places allow you to buy gift-cards to ship on a particular date!), wrapped all the physical things I already have, sorted out the last grocery delivery before Christmas so I won't accidentally starve, and checked in with my siblings to discover that other people have been working on the stocking presents for my parents, and what isn't bought is at least planned.
I built a beautiful tracking spreadsheet that shows what each parent is getting, calculates how much each of us has spent, and checks that against the notional budget for hopefully easier working out who owes what to whom once we're done. And so far no one has got super mad at me for being "bossy" or declared refusal to participate, which is unfortunately what tends to happens. I'm trying to back off now while we're still OK!
Now off to choir!
Also: honestly what sort of bullshit is it that you can't get Microsoft Forms to send an email to the person who filled out the form with their details in! That's been, like, basic form functionality for at least fifteen years, and it's all very well saying "oh well you can do it with Power Automate", but that is much more complicated than ticking a "send submissions to user" box and requires access to a whole separate system plus someone to set up all the permissions for you to use whatever Outlook mailbox, etc etc etc...
Anyway. I have three? four? forms that my boss wants me to have up and running before Christmas. Now I've got all the accesses and permissions configured that should hopefully be possible, which is good because I did promise...
On the home front, I have now ordered all the remaining Christmas presents I can do before Christmas Day itself (why do so few places allow you to buy gift-cards to ship on a particular date!), wrapped all the physical things I already have, sorted out the last grocery delivery before Christmas so I won't accidentally starve, and checked in with my siblings to discover that other people have been working on the stocking presents for my parents, and what isn't bought is at least planned.
I built a beautiful tracking spreadsheet that shows what each parent is getting, calculates how much each of us has spent, and checks that against the notional budget for hopefully easier working out who owes what to whom once we're done. And so far no one has got super mad at me for being "bossy" or declared refusal to participate, which is unfortunately what tends to happens. I'm trying to back off now while we're still OK!
Now off to choir!
The price of postage
Dec. 17th, 2025 12:13 pmbrithistorianWhen I order things from Japan and Korea, my goal for managing postage costs is to have the postage cost less than the item, which I'm usually able to manage. Recently one of my friends sent me a package from within the US, for which the postage cost 3x the cost of the item!
Reading Wednesday, the Dog Days of Summer Edition
Dec. 17th, 2025 09:35 ammuccamukkThese are probably going to be short and sweet, given I read them in late August through September. I'll hopefully catch up to where I am now by the time next term starts, and I go back to only reading stuff for school. Expect a bunch of books about gender, followed by all the romance novels I read on my off time, lol.
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, narrated by Jefferson White
I had only the vaguest memories of the account of Haymitch's games from Catching Fire, or anything else from Catching Fire, for that matter. I never did read the other prequel. If Haymitch is one of your favourite characters, and you just want backstory on all the olds who show up later in the original series, this is solid fun. Collins did a good job of thinking through where everyone came from, and how they got like they are when Katniss meets them. Effee showing up is especially fun. We also get confirmation of several queer characters (which I assume she wasn't allowed to do in 2008), and an interesting note about the Capital banning generative A.I..
I enjoyed all the themes of the amount of groundwork needed to put into a revolution, and how the lives of the people in this story eventually led to the events of the first books. Especially how the characters themselves feel like they've failed and wasted everything, but the reader can tell how it's more a process of (horribly) figuring out what works and what doesn't.
At the same time, it didn't feel like a story of only moving pieces into place for the "real story" that will start later. It certainly doesn't read as a stand alone novel, but it does stand up as being about these characters in this moment. Haymitch is such a sweet kid when we first meet him, and is a bit more of a dynamic lead than Katniss (i.e., he actually likes people and wants to talk to them), and given the pile of characters we meet for the first time (because these games have twice the number of tributes), each of the new people get enough development for the reader to become least somewhat invested in what happens to them (spoiler alert: it's the Hunger Games, so...).
I always found the games themselves the least interesting part of the earlier books, which is largely true here as well, but the story still moves along pretty fast. They probably would've been more interesting if I remembered what the story was supposed to be, as Collins puts a lot into the contrasts and surprises. The post-games section did draaaaaaaaaaaaag though. Especially the recap of the games we'd just read about, and the part that was set up as this huge poetic tragedy. I think if you're like... 14, you'd be weeping through the end, but I found it overdone, and thought her editor should've made her stop.
Still, I'm happy to have read it.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I hadn't read these in fifteen years, so I thought I'd swing back through to remember what we were supposed to know about all the characters we met in the prequel. Enjoyed it. Games still dragged.
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
So most of the characters from Haymitch's book actually show up here, it turns out. So I read this one. Enjoyed this too, though found the games section dragged a bit. The love triangle continues obnoxious, and I did myself the favour of not reading Mockingjay again.
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
I've been hearing bits of this quoted since it came out, and it's quite good. I think the target is more people involved in public life, but it was still good to listen to, these being the times that were given to us. I know it's his area, but I wish there had been more examples from autocracies other than 1930s Germany, for the sake of variety, if nothing else (there were a handful of comparisons from the Soviet bloc, but it was very Nazi centric).
I think it's on YouTube for free, if anyone wants to listen. I'll probably go back to it later, so that I take more on board.
Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians by Austen Hartke
Solid primer if you're interested in the a gender-diverse approach to Christian theology. Hartke talks to a variety of other trans and non-binary Christians, especially those involved in ministry, about their relationship with God and the Bible. Each chapter focuses on a few lines of scripture, which are largely clobber verses, and discusses how they can be seen as trans affirming. It's really beautifully expressed, and thoughtfully takes on some difficult parts of the Bible. Hartke does talk about how frustrating it is to feel like he has to spend so much time justifying himself and talking about the clobber verses, when he just wants to talk about religious gender euphoria. He's since put out a second edition, which might refine that approach, but I haven't looked at that yet. I really appreciated this edition is an intro, however, and helped me put together a church service for Trans Day of Remembrance.
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, narrated by Jefferson White
I had only the vaguest memories of the account of Haymitch's games from Catching Fire, or anything else from Catching Fire, for that matter. I never did read the other prequel. If Haymitch is one of your favourite characters, and you just want backstory on all the olds who show up later in the original series, this is solid fun. Collins did a good job of thinking through where everyone came from, and how they got like they are when Katniss meets them. Effee showing up is especially fun. We also get confirmation of several queer characters (which I assume she wasn't allowed to do in 2008), and an interesting note about the Capital banning generative A.I..
I enjoyed all the themes of the amount of groundwork needed to put into a revolution, and how the lives of the people in this story eventually led to the events of the first books. Especially how the characters themselves feel like they've failed and wasted everything, but the reader can tell how it's more a process of (horribly) figuring out what works and what doesn't.
At the same time, it didn't feel like a story of only moving pieces into place for the "real story" that will start later. It certainly doesn't read as a stand alone novel, but it does stand up as being about these characters in this moment. Haymitch is such a sweet kid when we first meet him, and is a bit more of a dynamic lead than Katniss (i.e., he actually likes people and wants to talk to them), and given the pile of characters we meet for the first time (because these games have twice the number of tributes), each of the new people get enough development for the reader to become least somewhat invested in what happens to them (spoiler alert: it's the Hunger Games, so...).
I always found the games themselves the least interesting part of the earlier books, which is largely true here as well, but the story still moves along pretty fast. They probably would've been more interesting if I remembered what the story was supposed to be, as Collins puts a lot into the contrasts and surprises. The post-games section did draaaaaaaaaaaaag though. Especially the recap of the games we'd just read about, and the part that was set up as this huge poetic tragedy. I think if you're like... 14, you'd be weeping through the end, but I found it overdone, and thought her editor should've made her stop.
Still, I'm happy to have read it.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I hadn't read these in fifteen years, so I thought I'd swing back through to remember what we were supposed to know about all the characters we met in the prequel. Enjoyed it. Games still dragged.
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
So most of the characters from Haymitch's book actually show up here, it turns out. So I read this one. Enjoyed this too, though found the games section dragged a bit. The love triangle continues obnoxious, and I did myself the favour of not reading Mockingjay again.
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
I've been hearing bits of this quoted since it came out, and it's quite good. I think the target is more people involved in public life, but it was still good to listen to, these being the times that were given to us. I know it's his area, but I wish there had been more examples from autocracies other than 1930s Germany, for the sake of variety, if nothing else (there were a handful of comparisons from the Soviet bloc, but it was very Nazi centric).
I think it's on YouTube for free, if anyone wants to listen. I'll probably go back to it later, so that I take more on board.
Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians by Austen HartkeSolid primer if you're interested in the a gender-diverse approach to Christian theology. Hartke talks to a variety of other trans and non-binary Christians, especially those involved in ministry, about their relationship with God and the Bible. Each chapter focuses on a few lines of scripture, which are largely clobber verses, and discusses how they can be seen as trans affirming. It's really beautifully expressed, and thoughtfully takes on some difficult parts of the Bible. Hartke does talk about how frustrating it is to feel like he has to spend so much time justifying himself and talking about the clobber verses, when he just wants to talk about religious gender euphoria. He's since put out a second edition, which might refine that approach, but I haven't looked at that yet. I really appreciated this edition is an intro, however, and helped me put together a church service for Trans Day of Remembrance.