vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
As I say on my profile page I mainly use this blog to keep track of dosage changes and symptom patterns/progression in my neurological disease. Those entries are restricted to family only.

I do post more widely though. Many early entries are friends-locked. If you know me, either in person or online, feel free to friend me.

But some entries will be on more open access, especially those I link to from Twitter.
vivdunstan: Photo of little me in a red mac at Hawick (hawick)
This is so sad to see. My dad was depute rector at Hawick High School from 1971-1996, and for most of his time working there his office was in the Henderson Building that's now been demolished. I knew that building and his office from when I was very tiny. Long before I went to the school as a pupil. It was a beautiful building, really nice architecture. I wish they could have kept it.



Here's a glimpse of what the building looked like before this last week.


Image © Crown Copyright: HES

I was just talking to my Mum earlier this evening, and mentioned that the Henderson Building must be nearly gone if not gone already 🙁
vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
Pleased to manage stuff between neuro illness sleeps. Prodded usefully at academic journal paper final rewrites, making notes in the Word file of how to rework paras. And just now finally framed a LOTR art poster (Jimmy Cauty) in a huge poster frame with a newly arrived mount to make it look spiffy.

And now for more sleep ...
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Just finished reading this for my book club. Struggled hugely with the writing style - so many extremely convoluted sentences. I liked the core plot, but think Hammer's movie version The Vampire Lovers (1970) rearranges the core parts better. I need to rewatch that soon!
vivdunstan: (bernice summerfield)
Onto the last story in the 8th season of Benny audios from Big Finish. Going to discuss this with big spoilers for this story and the previous but one story as well.

spoilers )

Manses

Oct. 16th, 2025 12:54 pm
vivdunstan: Photo of little me in a red mac at Hawick (hawick)
Ridiculously excited to get the latest Hawick Archaeological Society Transactions (I took out a life membership after Dad died - he'd been a life member for decades) and find an illustrated article on the history of Wilton manses (the church ministers' homes). My second Hawick childhood home is the latest Wilton manse - sold by us to the Church of Scotland to be the manse in 1991. My first Hawick childhood home was near an earlier Wilton manse. So must tell Mum about this, and that our bungalow is still the manse over 30 years on.
vivdunstan: Warning sign re risk of being mobbed by seagulls (dundee)
Never mind being alarmed by Christmas looming far too soon. Picked up today in our local supermarket, an information booklet + booking information for the New Year's Day Dook in Broughty Ferry, Scotland. Shiver! No we're not doing the chilly swimming thing ourselves!

Official programme for the New Year's Day Dook 2026 organised by Ye Amphibious Ancients Bathing Association (founded 1884). Entries Now Open! Food Fun Fancy Dress! 1st January at Broughty Ferry Harbour 1pm. A painting on the front shows brave souls swimming in the chilly water with spectators watching from the harbour front.
vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
Should update folks on my low/no alcohol cider taste testing. Had fun. Here is my ranking from favourite to least favourite. I was the main one drinking, but Martin also tried a little, and generally shared my views. I like a strong traditional alcoholic cider taste with a whoomph. Blame my Somerset husband 😜 I also prefer a dry tasting cider to anything sweeter.

Best: Sheppy's low alcohol - like proper cider, with whoomph! Not too sweet. So very good compared to all the others.
Next: Sainsbury's low alcohol - a bit weak in taste, but very drinkable, and not too sweet.
Next: Inch's no alcohol - strange smell (too apple-y for me - I'm not looking for apple juice elements!) but tastes good.
Next: Weston's Stowford Mill low alcohol - has whoomph but far too sweet for me, so not a hit.
Worst (by quite a long way): Thatcher's no alcohol - awful smell and taste, and reminds me of Magners, in a very bad way. We usually love Thatchers cider, but this was not at all for us.

The switch from normal alcoholic cider to low or no alcohol cider (but still with a proper British cider-y whoomph) has helped my alcohol-triggered stomach problems immensely. So pleased with that. I am still drinking a 330ml can of Birra Moretti with our mid-week Italian takeaway meal. Getting away with that. But two cans wouldn't work. I've also stopped drinking wine, which triggers me 50% of the time - not worth it! But I am still enjoying gin and tonic, and small occasional servings of ice cider from Somerset!
vivdunstan: Art work for the IF Archive including traditional text adventure tropes like a map, lamp, compass, key, rope, books a skull, and a sigh referring to grues (interactive fiction)
Back to game coding, working on another chapter of my latest interactive fiction parser game. Coded probably the only door+keys combo in the game. Added a couple of "test X" shortcut commands. Love Inform, the natural language / object oriented / declarative programming language for IF parser games.

This is all partly inspired by having played through, judged and reviewed loads of IFComp interactive fiction games in recent weeks. And it's that time of year (my favourite!) when I'm keen to work on new projects. Or in this case pick up an old one! I hope to enter this game in IFComp 2026.

2260 music

Oct. 12th, 2025 07:35 pm
vivdunstan: Space station Babylon 5 against a dark starry background (babylon 5)
Continuing our umpteenth Babylon 5 rewatch. We’ve just started season 3, and I’m reminded just how much I like the season 3 version of the theme tune.

To be fair Claudia Christian’s voice over helps too. But the music alone is great enough. I have quite a lot of the soundtrack CDs.
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Just finished this, which I was reading on my Kindle, but had also nabbed a signed copy from my local bookshop. I've previously read the author's books Babel (adored) and Yellowface (enjoyed), and was very much looking forward to this dark academia journey into the Underworld.

Katabasis follows two PhD students at Cambridge University who join forces to journey to Hell to bring back their supervisor. As such it draws on many past writings about journeys to the Underworld, and is chock full of nods to these, while still being accessible to the general reader.

The portrayal of the British PhD process, even for a fictional subject like Analytic Magick, felt somewhat off for me, which jarred. Kuang herself is pursuing a PhD at Yale University in America, and it felt often as though she was muddling the longer and different American PhD process with the shorter British one, as well as having a lack of detailed understanding of the British approach. She did study taught postgraduate degrees at Oxford and Cambridge, but that's not the same as undertaking a PhD there. I did, however, buy into the idea of a graduate degree as a potential hellscape! Even if my own two PhD experiences (Computer Science, St Andrews, full-time, had to drop out after my neurological disease struck; and History, Dundee, part-time, completed) were hardly anything like that. PhDs are also extremely dependent on how you luck out with your supervisor(s), and it's fair to say, without being too spoilery, that Alice and Peter didn't have the best luck in this area.

I think what impressed me the most about the book is how well it works given how tiny the core cast is. The focus is primarily on PhD students Alice and Peter, as they travel through Hell, and for it to sustain my interest with that remit is pretty impressive writing. There are some other especially interesting characters encountered along the way, but it's very much Alice and Peter's story. It did sag for me about half way to two thirds through, but picked up nearer the end. Much of the story is told through back stories which are gradually revealed, and it's very twisty and turny, as new information the reader learns upends previous perceptions.

As well as the journey through Hell itself, and the idea of academia and PhD study as a hellscape, there is literal horror in this book. Extremely gruesome in places. I found one section particularly disturbing, but there was a narrative reason for it. Ultimately I was satisfied with where the book ended up.

I haven't read all of Kuang's books, but I really like how varied those I have read have been. Admittedly there are a lot of personal autobiographical elements in them. For example in this one Alice felt reminiscent of Kuang, and Peter (not least a back story that's uncovered for him) of Kuang's own husband Bennett. But each story is very different in tone, genre and setting, and I really appreciate that flexibility in approach.

I'm very glad that I read this book, and look forward to her next novel.
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Buying another academic textbook secondhand, and got a copy for £5 free postage. The identical copy (exact same physical book) was listed by the same seller on two other platforms for £25 and £50 (seems to have recently soared there from £5). Worth shopping around! Bookfinder.com + ISBN made price comparisons really easy. Book on way to me now.
vivdunstan: Portion of a 1687 testament of ancestor James Greenfield in East Lothian (history)
Looking at an academic textbook I bought so I could access it quickly. "Yup, this will be useful!" And grateful for its fairly extensive index, which is much more detailed and useful than the index for a related 1970s textbook Martin borrowed for me from the uni library (I have staff borrowing rights too, but he was on the spot!). Which pretty much just indexes names. As an academic I'm expected to read textbooks as needed. Unfortunately it's a huge problem with my progressive neurological disease and has been for 25+ years now, inc during my history taught MPhil and PhD. So I'm extremely grateful for anything that can help narrow it down. Including a good index!
vivdunstan: Sidney Paget drawing of Holmes and Watson in a railway carriage (sherlock holmes)
Onto another one, and this is one I couldn't remember at all, though I've read through the entire canon five or so times.

spoilers )
vivdunstan: Art work for the IF Archive including traditional text adventure tropes like a map, lamp, compass, key, rope, books a skull, and a sigh referring to grues (interactive fiction)
Today's unplanned activity was deciding to finally get graphical adventure game Starship Titanic by Douglas Adams running on my Mac. I went with the low cost GOG version, and with a little jiggery pokery got it running nicely in my existing installation of ScummVM.

Framing

Oct. 7th, 2025 09:59 am
vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
Newly framed art print, waiting to go on the wall when Martin's back home again. A4 art print from Blockforest.co.uk. There are just a handful left of this limited edition design. Frame from Frames.co.uk in Manchester. The frame has a really nice wood grain effect cushion moulding, which to be fair you can't see so easily in this photo! I found they had a great range of frames to buy, and was able to get just what I wanted. I will also be ordering a poster frame from them later this week to finally put my large James Cauty Lord of the Rings art poster into.

vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Another bunch of books finished since my last post.

    earlier books )
  1. The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi
  2. The Fiddle in Scottish Culture: Aspects of the Tradition by Katherine Campbell
  3. Voices of Scottish Librarians: The Evolution of a Profession and its Response to Changing Times edited by Ian MacDougall
  4. Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor: Volume 1: Terrorformer (graphic novel)
  5. Some of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better by Polly Atkin
  6. The Whisperwicks: The Labyrinth of Lost and Found by Jordan Lees


Of the newly finished ones, The Lantern of Lost Memories was a novel idea, and explored a serious subject, but was rather unbalanced in its few main sections, and frustratingly left some key questions unanswered. It did feel reminiscent of, though not as good as, the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series of books. It certainly fits into that genre of Japanese fiction.

The fiddle history book was clearly a repackaged PhD thesis, and full of interesting content, but often lacking sufficient analysis, or otherwise unbalanced. Somewhat frustrating to be honest. Though not so much as how unobtainable the book is today, having been originally printed in a very limited print run, and going out of print rapidly. I was lucky to be able to borrow it from my local library in Angus, sent over from their Forfar store.

More successful for me was the collection of working memories from librarians working through twentieth and early twenty-first century Scotland. I was most interested in their accounts of their working lives, revealing changes in library practice over time, but there were many other pages to wade through of earlier childhood experiences. I cherry picked the most relevant portions for me.

The Doctor Who graphic novel was a Twelfth Doctor and Clara one. But very disappointing. Too much tell and not show, and hefty info dumps mid way through each story, about things I couldn't bring myself to care about. It was also plagued by repeatedly splitting into multiple POVs, with muddy artwork not differentiating them clearly enough.

Polly Atkin's book was good, and overall I rated it 4/5. But it felt overlong to me, and often padded with lengthy digressions, which made it hard for this chronically ill person to keep reading and following. Though it was very interesting to hear her story, not least as the sister of a friend.

The first Whisperwicks novel was a children's book, telling the story of a child drawn into a mysterious steampunk-like world of magic and quests, and much danger. Felt very Harry Potter like, but original in its approach. I could certainly see me reading the sequel.
vivdunstan: The 15th Doc swirling round on the dance floor in his kilt (ncuti gatwa)
Sharing this for fellow Doctor Who, Discovery of Witches, or Born With Teeth play fans. Or anyone keen on literary history or who likes historical objects or the sixteenth century.

vivdunstan: (bernice summerfield)
Onto this story, after last time’s pivotal one. Going into major spoilers ... Beware! )

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vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
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