luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
Ugh, I am sick, and also unable to talk at all due to a sore throat. : ( My voice can be pretty fragile and so I take care not to strain it in these circumstances, and have now got a replacement for my teaching in the beginning of next week. Housemate who got sick before me has lost his sense of taste and smell, which obviously alarmed me! But testing says it's not covid.

It's true that I'm writing fewer words per day than previously, but I am so happy I'm not losing my writing--I really like my idea for [personal profile] candyheartsex and am having fun writing it! \o/ And glad I signed up.
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
Whew, I am done with this stage of my moving, but it was a struggle. There was just more stuff, and then more stuff, as happens when a succession of housemates have lived in an apartment and left shit behind (wtf, why does Microsoft Word’s dictation censor the word shit and replace it with ***??). And I was left to take care of it. One particularly careless housemate even left dirty dishes in the sink when she left!!! *boggles* I am very grateful for my dad who helped me on the last day. Also very grateful I paid for the cleaning and made the housemates pay for some of that. And I am looking forward to hopefully getting housemates who take more responsibility.

I have managed to keep writing throughout most of this, and now have three chapters and 15K of my current longfic! I love it when a story is alive in my head: I always have a rough outline in my head when I start, with the main plot and with the basic emotional and/or relationship arc. But as for smaller plot details, they usually bloom and embroider themselves in my head when I get to that part of the story, and it's such a delight! When I've thought of a title for the story, I suppose I'll start posting it as I go.
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
The Martian by Andy Weir (2011)
Reread. I am in the middle of moving: packing boxes, planning logistics, etc. In all this it is a comfort to listen to an audiobook about a guy who has much worse logistical problems than I do, and solves them all competently with Science. Also, he has no life admin problems, such as realizing that his ID went out of date and now he can't get hold of the package containing the present for his niece’s birthday, so it will return to the store which unreasonably will charge $20 for the return, not to mention all the further cascading life admin problems that result from having no ID. Not that this has ever happened to me or anything.

My Friend Annie by Jane Duncan (1961)
Before that I read the fourth entry in the My Friends series; this continues very good. This one introduces new characters which then throws new light on and changes your view of events, relationships, and characters in earlier books. The books aren't chronological, but go back and forth in time and look at things from different angles.
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
My computer crashed and died, may it rest in peace. If you're expecting a response from me, I may be slow...
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (1986)
I fell for the peer pressure (the peers in question being [personal profile] garonne and [personal profile] sanguinity) and re-read this book, or rather, re-listened to it. And yes, still very enjoyable! I'm undecided about whether the science fiction elements are essential, or whether this could also have been written as, say, a time travel romance with someone from a modern culture traveling to a past culture. (ETA: I mean, not that the SF elements have to justify their presence.) Also, there are definitely elements which speak to me as a Flight of the Heron fan! This is the sort of enemies to lovers I like, and also I was so relieved when Cordelia remembered to withdraw her parole before escaping…

Forbidden Harbour by Teresa Radice and Stefano Turconi (2015)
An Age of Sail graphic novel which solidly passes the Bechdel test, but sadly not the [personal profile] sanguinity Bechdel test. It's a ghost story of sorts, and I liked the story and characters well enough, but what really blew me away was the art, which is done as pencil drawings (I think). OMG, the beautiful and detailed ships! And when we get to land we see that it's not just the ships: the historical setting is so beautifully rendered.

I am also reading (but not for pleasure) sixty student essays on mathematical modeling of population dynamics. Worst student quote so far: "the logistical model is of limited use when it comes to populations in nature since they, unlike humans, don't exist in a vacuum, but depend on and affect each other".

Augh. /o\ Does he really think humans do not affect, and are not affected by, other species in the ecosystem?? This is an otherwise bright student who did well on his math exams…
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
Arrgh, Firefox updated and somehow took with it all my open tabs, all my bookmarks and all my add-ons/extensions! Oh well. I had tons of tabs open, perhaps I should just view it as getting a clean slate--but it does mean that I might not reply to something I ought to, just so you know.

Also I lost fics which I was planning to read. I have a backed-up system for fics over 5K, where I mark them as to-read on AO3 and also download them to my ereader and keep those epub files in cloud storage. That's like, two layers of back-up. But for fics shorter than 5K, I just keep them open in tabs in a window...which now was lost. I reconstructed some of them via AO3 history, but not all. Oh well.

Anyway! The Unsent Letters exchange has revealed, showing that (unsurprisingly) [personal profile] sanguinity and I were matched to each other. I received this delightful solution to the difficulties of writing confidential love letters in the open. It is both sweet and funny, with dirty botanical double entendres! \o/

Comfort Me With Apples (1685 words) by sanguinity
Fandom: The Jacobite Trilogy | The Flight of the Heron Series - D. K. Broster
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ewen Cameron/Keith Windham
Characters: Ewen Cameron, Keith Windham
Additional Tags: Epistolary, Codes & Ciphers, Established Relationship, Long-Distance Relationship
Summary: 'Then it must be a cipher that none will suspect as a cipher,' Ewen answered stubbornly. 'Surely if we put our heads together we can manage that.'

On the eve of war, Keith and Ewen devise a code to keep their letters private.

And I wrote the following fic, which was inspired by an idea I'd had for a while, to write Ewen's contribution to The Lyon in Mourning. In the end I didn't do that--I tried, but it just ended up rephrasing/summarizing canon and not being very interesting! So instead, I wrote the letter exchange between Ewen and Robert Forbes (the author/editor of The Lyon in Mourning) leading up to that contribution. I always love writing pastiche of 18th century prose! So much fun.

Preserv'd for Posterity (1668 words) by Luzula
Fandom: The Jacobite Trilogy | The Flight of the Heron Series - D. K. Broster
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Ewen Cameron, Robert Forbes
Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, Epistolary, Grief/Mourning, Documentation, Post-Canon
Summary: To Ewen Cameron of Ardroy

Dear Sir, I have not the Honour of being known to you, & you will no doubt wonder at a Stranger writing to you without an Introduction, but I must hope that you will excuse the Liberty when I have explain'd my Purpose.

luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
Ugh, I had a stressful day yesterday, mostly related to my environmental organisation. /o\ Luckily I now have a quiet weekend at home, because earlier in the week I realized I was under too much stress and cancelled the conference trip I was supposed to have gone on this weekend (also related to my environmental organization). Go me.

However, I have also bought myself a new and upgraded microphone, because I'd been unsatisfied with my previous one for a while (which I've had for 10-15 years now). To celebrate, I have recorded the song which yesterday's podfic is named for, because I thought it deserved a larger audience. It's a song about birds flying south for the winter, but really about political exile, written in 1816 during the Bourbon restoration. You can listen to it here!

Do tell me what you think about the sound quality! Although I have also discovered (which is no surprise, really) that sound quality is very much affected by how you listen to it. It turns out that with an external sound card and good quality headphones, recordings made with my previous microphone also sound much better than they did with cheap headphones. Ah well.
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
I am grading university student papers. Their task was to write about the application of mathematics in other subjects, after watching some lectures by mathematicians in industry who talk about their work. I won't inflict the students' bad grammar or terrible style on you, but let me quote some of their sweeping statements:

Student 1: Society is changing exponentially!
Me: Do you really mean that all social change is exponential? If so, how do you know?

Student 2: All phenomena in nature and society can be modeled mathematically!
Me: I suppose this is technically true if you allow for bad models with no relation to reality, but otherwise, citation extremely needed.

Student 3: In the future, humanity will keep all their knowledge about mathematics, and the subject will continue to develop!
Me: How do you know that?

I don't know what genre they think they're writing in. Some sort of...advertisement for mathematics? *feels grumpy*
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
I've been living with my parents a lot lately because I have a different tolerance for covid risk than my flatmates. My flatmate N is doing their internship (I suppose is the word?) at a preschool during their preschool teacher training during May, which, lots of risk. And now N has said that they are moving, with their dogs. : ( I knew this would happen sooner or later, because they had told me they were looking for a more dog-friendly neighborhood. It still made me sad.

But I was not prepared for flatmate P moving after the summer as well. He said he wanted a more social living environment, which I'm not sure what to do with. When we have planned social activities in the past, it's always hard to find times when he can schedule something, because he's so busy! So I just feel like, fine, what is wrong with me that you don't want to live with me? Should I feel bad about living with my parents so much during the pandemic, because otherwise it might not have happened? But it's not like anything good would come out of asking him that. Flatmate number four has fairly recently moved in and seems like a good guy, but he was away a lot during the winter and now I'm away a lot, so we don't know each other well. But we've talked about finding new people in the fall.

I feel a bit...abandoned and unmoored, I suppose? : ( Hugs welcome.

I talked with my oldest and best friend, who wants to move back to town eventually, and she told me she would love it if we could find some sort of two-apartment house and live together. She has a husband and small kids. That would certainly be different? I don't want kids myself, but I do crave continuity right now, and it would be great to live close to her. Well, this is just an idle thought right now.

On top of this, my mom was lamenting that my sister and I won't be taking over the summer place after she's gone. Which is of course not decided yet! But my mom is drawing this conclusion because I don't have a driving licence and my sister lives some distance away. Which I guess there is some truth in. Augh, I didn't need that to think about on top of everything else. /o\
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
I'm so confused by the worldbuilding in the book I'm currently reading. I'm reading it for my book club; it is Alix E. Harrow's The Once and Future Witches, set in fantasy New England in 1893. The main worldbuilding premise is: witchcraft exists, and is persecuted (also there are suffragettes).

There is casual mention of saints, priests, nuns and monks in a way that implies that Catholicism is the dominant religion. My first theory about this was that the Reformation never happened in this world, but that doesn't hold water, because there's an off-hand mention of a Quaker. My next theory was that perhaps most of the Catholics in England were driven to emigrate to America, instead of the Protestant Dissenters? But that doesn't work, because there's mention of the Georgian Inquisition, implying that England's government is Catholic in the 18th century. (And by the way, the term "Georgian Inquisition" is not a great idea, because the reason the Georges were on the throne in the first place is to make sure the monarch was a Protestant.) So I suppose my theory is now that the Reformation happened, but was unsuccessful in England and the country remained Catholic, with a minority of Protestant movements like the Quakers.

I probably was not meant to think so much about this (and I might not have if I was more gripped by the book in general), but I can't help it! It's unclear to me why the author chose to make Catholicism the dominant religion. I hope it's not because they thought that Protestants did not persecute witches? Surely not. But why, then? I really can't see any connection at all to what's going on in the story. Is this just very random worldbuilding? Will it all make sense later in the book? Am I too picky about worldbuilding?
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
M, from another environmental organization, calls me on the phone: "I've been trying to reach L. I'm really frustrated by how she's been going about this collaborative process. And J, who has worked with these issues a long time, is feeling really sidelined, and like L is steamrolling her. Can you tell L to call me? But don't tell anyone what I said about J!"

Whereupon I call L, who is in my environmental organization: "I can't see what she thinks is unclear about this process! These things that she complained about, I have have emailed her about them. And I'm working closely with J, and honestly, she thinks M is acting weird! But of course I'm not going to tell M so. I'll call her."

What is going on here?? And I can't really confront them with the discrepancy in their view of J, because they were both saying those things in confidence! *throws up hands*

Well, I hope they can work it out...
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
I just discovered that I have moths (well, moth eggs and moth larvae) on my sock shelf, at 10.30 pm in the evening, and I am leaving tomorrow morning (for the family summer place). Yes, I have lots of woolen socks. Yes, I do like biodiversity, but not among my socks. /o\

And yes, it's a small problem compared to, uh, some others. *crosses fingers for the US*
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
I went hiking this weekend--it was the first time I was away from home in three weeks (except for walks/runs close to where I live). The first two days were good, except that I found myself developing a blister during the second day, despite frequent pauses to air my feet. So I decided to skip the last day. My flatmates found a bus stop for me three kilometers away (I don't have a smartphone), but when I got there to take the bus at nine this morning, I found that it didn't actually run on Sundays. So then I had to walk to the next closest one, five kilometers more. /o\ I got some comfort from prooflistening to a recording where Ewen Cameron limps home to Ardroy on his half-healed leg. I mean, I know that a blister on one's toe is not of quite the same dignity as a grievous wound taken at Culloden, but whatever, it gave me comfort. Then I had to run flat-out for the last ten minutes, and just caught the train with one minute to spare.

Now I'm home, and mean to stay on the couch for the rest of the day.
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
cos(x + 90°) = 0
cos = −(x + 90°)

Aaaaaaaahhhh...
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
So I have been involved in various court cases as the representative of my environmental organization in the last few years, since I am one of the spokespersons. (This does not mean I write the legal arguments...). Being the representative has so far just meant that I handle the correspondence.

Anyway, one of our cases has now advanced through the three levels of the Swedish court system and ended up in the EU court. Wow, sudden culture clash: to send in documents to them electronically you need a login to their electronic system. To get that, you print out and fill in a form along with some document proving you are indeed the representative in the case, and then you send these forms to them by mail and they process the forms. And then hopefully you get your login.

In the Swedish courts you just email them your documents. WTF is your problem with email, EU court?? I mean, theoretically without those hoops I guess it would be easier for anyone to email them and pretend to be me, but Swedish courts don't seem to have problems with that happening.

I complained about this to my German flatmate and he was all: you mean you can just email the court in Sweden? Obviously customs vary...

ETA: ..and now I just got an email from a lawyer in another environmental organization who said he found the process of getting such a login to be "horribly complicated". /o\
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
So as well as previous quarrels, my mom and I have now had The Money Quarrel! Fun times. But tomorrow I will be back home, whew.

Really no need to click, I only wanted to vent )

Aarrrgh

Dec. 30th, 2018 07:12 pm
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
Have now spent a week in a small cabin with my parents, one week to go. I definitely don't regret it, and I appreciate many aspects of their company, but there are times when I have to retreat into my own room and put headphones on so I don't hear them talking.

My dad asked me today when I'm going to grow out of my leftist opinions. Yes Dad, I know you were briefly a Trotskyist when you were seventeen, and your opinions have changed since then, but I'm almost forty. It is not a youthful phase. *rolls eyes*
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
So tonight there was a discussion in my home where one of us (let's call him K) turned out to have some pretty disturbing opinions. We were talking about this guy who is wrong on the internet, named Jordan B. Peterson. Among (many) other things, he's against no-fault divorce, thinks a woman in high heels who does not want to be harrassed is a hypocrite, is against climate science, etc.

I was sitting with N (another person in the household) and we were rolling our eyes at this guy's opinions. Then K came into the conversation and it turned out that he actually thinks this Jordan B. Peterson is a great guy. He thinks that Peterson helps young frustrated men with his sage advice and that the things we're reacting against are just things that Peterson is saying to provoke and gain an audience and that they're not that bad. And that we're only reacting to them because we're not Peterson's audience. *eyeroll* We asked him didn't he think people like this were a danger? Wasn't Trump a danger either (another person who spouts stuff like this to get attention)? And he...equivocated.

N and I were upset by this, and before they went to bed, N sent me an email saying that they didn't feel comfortable living with K anymore and that this was just the last drop. It's true that there are other issues. K does do his share of the housework (at least when prompted), but he never takes initiatives for example to decide when we need to clean or fix things and is passive in the process of finding new housemates when needed (we have one fourth room which is small and there's a higher turnover of people there).

Actually N feels bad that K got into the household without going through an interview process. K was originally a friend/acquaintance of N who was in a spot of housing trouble and stayed temporarily with us. Then the person in the fourth room moved out and K got that room instead, and he later moved into one of the bigger rooms when the person who had that room moved.

It's possible that eventually N would leave because they don't want to live with K (they said so). And I really don't want that to happen, because I love living with them! And I would definitely prefer another housemate than K myself. OTOH I don't know how I feel about booting someone out of the shared apartment. I have been booted out once myself (IMO for ridiculous reasons on the face of it, but I guess really because some people just didn't like me--in that case I ended up in a far better place afterward).

Am I just being conflict-averse here? I mean, being housemates is a relationship, and it is reasonable that relationships can end when one or more people don't want to be in them anymore. Legally I have this covered--I hold the lease and have a secondary contract with him that I could end--but I am more concerned about the social aspects of it.

Or am I being intolerant? I do think that one should be able to discuss differences and not immediately cut people out once they express different opinions than me. If someone says something I disagree with at one point, that doesn't mean they're forever a bad person. OTOH it's not the same thing to say that one should be able to discuss with people in general, as to say that one needs to have a housemate relationship with such a person. And there are the other issues as well.

We have also just admitted a new fourth member who seems lovely, and I am sorry about involving them in the drama of this. They're moving in on the 1st of December.

Any advice, O internet friends? Have you ever been through something like this?

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