vivdunstan | Reading

Tried to move my dinner time in just two days, ate too late, crashed my blood sugar, and had to cancel gaming.

(It's not diabetes. It's just that I am incredibly intolerant to eating late)

james_davis_nicoll

Tabletop rolepurring in the world of Pugmire.

Bundle of Holding: Monarchies of Mau

ffutures

This is a bundle of the game Monarchies of Mau, about intelligent "uplifted" cats in a post-human world, from Onyx Path Publishing. It's compatible with an earlier game, Pugmire, about intelligent dogs, which I don't know at all, and includes Squeaks in the Dark, a compatible RPG about intelligent rats. All appear to be based on the OGL rules, e.g. D&D.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Monarchies

This isn't actually a genre that interests me much, but it looks like you're getting a fair amount for your money, and if you're interested it's probably worth a look.

james_davis_nicoll

Modern humans are fine, but what if we had a bit more variety in our stories?

Five Ways Science Fiction Can Expand Beyond Homo sapiens

rolanni

Monday, cloudy, breezy, and cool.

Breakfast was oatmeal and a cup of tea. Had a very nice errand-running session.

Went to Uncle Dean's and bought three pure beeswax votive candles in their own glass holders (they even give you a pack of matches, which is very thoughtful; matches not being as common as they once more). Two of those votives are unscented; the third is scented with frankincense and lavender. I'm glad I noticed the lack of candles on Halloween; I have an anniversary coming up a little later in the week, and it will be nice to have a candle for that, too.

Also at Uncle Deans, I grabbed a loaf of sourdough/olive bread, a pack of "everything" English muffins, and! Yes, I could not resist -- dried pineapple.

The morning being a bit chilly, I grabbed my very favorite not-winter-yet hand apparel -- Pearl iZumi biking gloves -- and I noticed that some of the grippy strips are coming off, transforming them into sticky strips. After I got over being appalled because these gloves are Practically! Brand! New! (I bought them when we were in Miramichi for our anniversary in I'm gonna say ... 2001?), I stopped at TJMaxx to see if I could replace them. Long story short, I couldn't, but! I was able to buy an eight-pack of bed socks (my feet get cold without other feet to put them against) at a good price, so -- success of a sort. I also did not find a 2026 desk calendar, so that's still on the list.

Paid my excise tax on the car, got my stickers, had a nice chat with the lady who heads up Waterville's Health and Human Services office, went to the post office where a kind reader (I don't use people's names, usually, because some folks don't like the publicity. You know who you are, and thank you!) sent me a pic of their tree-and-dragon tattoo and also a moon-and-rabbit coin purse, which the fact that the moon-and-rabbit is on a coin purse couldn't be more perfect.

On the way home, I stopped at Holy Cannoli and bought a slab of meat lasagna only slightly bigger than my head, and two cookies, because I couldn't decide between pumpkin chocolate chip or lemon-blueberry ricotta.

Next up is getting the cat litter from the garage to the house, doing my duty to the cats, and staging the trash for tomorrow's trip to the curb. Then I'll reheat part of the lasagna for lunch.

How's everybody doing today?

james_davis_nicoll

Five crucial steps for curating series.

The Care and Feeding of Series

james_davis_nicoll

My character discovered that using his acting skills to look like a dangerous opponent kind of backfires if it gets the full attention of something that is a dangerous opponent.

yhlee

I slightly less half-assedly fixed the warp on the Clover Sakiori loom (Japanese).

weaving WIP close-up

I didn't bring a comb for the weft and was using a tapestry needle, but catten remains unlikely to mind imperfect weaving.

Also, further adventures in dyeing wool yarn. I'd like to test on dyeing combed top for cotton, ramie, and silk (mulberry/bombyx, eri, tussah, and maybe a small sample of my treasured stash of muga); and then try some on alpaca or mohair after I've processed some more.

dyed yarn

Later in the season, in natural dyes, I might experiment with the traditional hoary old standby of onion skins; rose hips (several of my roses shrubs produce them); and find out if windfall figs from the no-longer-quite-so-baby fig tree do anything interested as dyes. Osage orange, common madder, true and false indigo, hibiscus, and elderberry grow in Louisiana so making a dye plant plot might be entertaining. That or I sacrifice e.g. a bunch of beets lol. For personal use, I don't care about consistency (I prefer chaos ball colors) and I'm not that fussed about reliable fastness. "Throw it in a pot and also an ~appropriate mordant" for personal experiment promises to be very entertaining.

rolanni

Earlier this same day: Spent an hour in Foosball Studio. Got a little bit of foiling done. My back started to hurt so I am now upstairs in my comfy chair having a cup of tea. It used to be called buttermint tea; I don't know what they call it now -- maybe vanilla mint?

I'll likely go down for another session. My goal is to finish foiling half, and there's only another six pieces to go.

So, Rook escorted me downstairs for my second session in The! Studio! -- and was waiting for me, almost an hour later, when I came out again. He ran over and flopped on my feet, showing me his belly, which was awfully nice of him.

Upstairs -- it is dark. I -- am not really sure I can do the dark this year. Not that it matters, particularly; I don't except anyone to install a Celestial Light Bulb for me, but...things are dark enough, surely?

Regarding the glass project: I have ten biggish pieces left to foil and two so tiny they might as well be slivers. If my errands don't take me too long tomorrow, maybe I'll have a go at finishing the foil, so I can get a Flash Lesson in soldering before glasswork is over.

Tuesday will largely be eaten up by the Guy From Fidium, who is, so I'm told, expecting to be here at 8 am and his visit will encompass at least two hours. Argh. And the last glass class is on Wednesday. That was a fast six weeks.

Having gone to all the trouble of setting up The! Studio! it would be a shame to declare this art is not for me. On the other hand, I'm not feeling that I have any real competence, or maybe I mean affinity. I love glass, but this experiment hasn't ignited me (ahem) the way working with hot glass did. And, no, I am not doing hot glass in the house.

What I may do, since I have so many glass scraps left over, is to try something smaller and simpler -- a geometric pattern, maybe -- and see if I've actually learned anything.

The cats are insisting that it's Happy Hour, which, of course, it is not. I think this is my cue to wander around the house, close curtains, turn off and on lights, and wash the pans.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. I'll check in tomorrow.

The state of the stained glass:

james_davis_nicoll

In case the image does not load or someone cannot read it: it is a Bluesky post reading "I firmly believe the Jays would have won had Diefenbaker not cancelled the Avro Arrow."

There are 7 reposts, 2 quotes, and 48 likes.

rolanni

Sunday. Sunny and chilly.

How is it not even noon yet?

Well.

Breakfast was cottage cheese, grapes, toast. Lunch will be soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. Because I Can.

Wrote +/- 780 words first thing, which brings the total WIP to 105,500. Ish.

Wandered around the house making sure the programmable thermostats remembered their programming from last year. Updated my books read list. Dealt with email. Tried to figure out how much I'm going to be dinged for excise tax tomorrow when I go to buy my sticker at City Hall. Ordered in Scottish, Irish, and strong Irish tea. For Science!*

Still need to pay bills and do PR. And work on my glass project.

The cats were strongly in favor of gathering all together in Steve's office first thing after breakfast, and that's where they still are.

How's everybody doing on this first day of the time change?

______
*Science! The scale is: Brisk-Body-Aroma
Brisk: Does your mouth pucker?
Body: Does the tea fill your mouth?
Aroma: Does the tea have a robust scent?

Irish Breakfast Tea: 2-4-3
Hiberian (hi-test Irish): 4-4-2
Scottish Breakfast Tea: 4-5-1

james_davis_nicoll

Was Fred Halpern the boy space hero the papers believed him or the headstrong fool his teachers saw?

Moon of Mutiny (Jim Stanley, volume 3) by Lester del Rey

heron61

I’m currently reading (and loving) Max Gladstone’s latest Craft Wars novel Dead Hand Rule - this series follows his equally wonderful 5 book Craft Sequence. Despite being about undead wizards, physically present deities, and even dragons, I maintain these books are science fiction and not fantasy, both for how careful he is with the setting and more importantly because like all the best SF these novels are all insightful social commentary.

The novels are about industrialization and capitalism, and more specifically about how this economic system is notably superior to the previous system for most of the population, but it also fails a lot of people quite badly, and (in this series) deals with the fact that it is also harming the planet, and likely collapsing civilization.

In the Craft Wars series, the existential threat consists of vast soul-hungry creatures from the stars, while in our world the threat is the far more mundane, if in no way safer problem of climate change. In any case, the books and this book in particular are exciting, thought provoking, and very well done, but I started reading it when hurricane Melissa was about to make landfall on Jamaica and reading about the size and power of that storm while reading this novel definitely amped up the apocalyptic feel.

yhlee

This is beginner mode weaving on a Clover Sakiori tabletop ~portable loom. It has an unbelievably easy warping setup based on the reeds, with what I think of affectionately as typically beautifully overengineered Japanese design and terrific documentation; I don't read Japanese but the pictures + diagrams are extraordinarily clear. I'm US-based so tariffs are a vexed situation, but these tend to run ~$200 USD plus international shipping off eBay. I do also own a Lojan Flex rigid heddle loom, but I like the ease of warping so much better on the Clover Sakiori. I'm also that extremely boring person who just wants to plainweave forever; if I want to embellish fabric, I will embroider.

I half-assed the warp and it shows, but at the level of "can I set this up at all," the answer is yes. Also, catten is unlikely to be a HARSH critic of a tiny little catten blankie to shed all over, so.

warping a Clover Sakiori loom

Just look at those warping layouts! I'm too lazy to check the trigonometry, but I'm betting it's correct.

I'm struggling with weaving (English-language [1]) vocabulary so I can't describe the action further. This YouTube playlist by Renee Johnson Studio shows it in action, though.

[1] There is probably random Korean terminology buried in my head because of my mom, but it's not helpful in sussing out help in English...

I need to lie down now but it was a good day for exploratory weaving.

rolanni

The foil almost makes it look like I know what I'm doing.

SPOILER: I do not know what I'm doing.

That's about an hour and a half and I'm all foiled out. Time for a cup of hot chocolate in a comfy chair.
#
Put the laundry away; washed the pots 'n pans; locked Rookie in a closet; let him out again.

I think I'm done on the day. My back is grumbling, so I'll be taking the hint and retiring to the couch with a book and the heating pad until its time to serve Coon Cat Happy Hour, which is coming right up.

Tomorrow, I plan to write, foil, curse the time change -- and that should be enough for the first Sunday in November. Monday, I have errands which I guess I should get done early.

I should also sometime tomorrow or Monday make an order at Harney's as I'm almost out of the oil that greases the wheels around here -- Irish Breakfast Tea. I got sidetracked today into wondering if I might not like Scottish Morn, instead, which is said to be darker, given that I drink tea as a replacement for coffee... Well. Decisions for later.

Oh. The Sekrit Project is a Sekrit because the contract hasn't been signed.

And! I do believe the mail has just been delivered.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. I'll check in tomorrow.

The Saturday cat census and editorial chastisement committee photos may be found here

andrewducker

Glasgow still feels much more city-like to me than Edinburgh.

Which is probably why I prefer living in Edinburgh.

(Great to visit though)

andrewducker

Sophia and Gideon making the DNA for their respective eye colours.

(First ever trip to the Glasgow Science Centre, it was awesome)
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

james_davis_nicoll

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