primeideal

Okay, so you know those "height charts" people might put on the wall to mark how tall their kids were on X date? There's a very rough version of one of those on both doors of a city bus I took today. Not kid-scale, just adult-sized like "this is 5 feet, this is 5.5, this is 6." I have so many questions. Is it like an amusement park, you must be 4 feet tall to ride alone? Is it for reporting crimes: "the suspect who fled through the back door was no taller than 5'6"? Is it for if the bus floods? "Yeah we'll send a dispatcher out but only if it gets past the 5' mark, everyone can tread until then."

So last year I had this weird double-take when someone writing in a conservative magazine cited my uncle as an example of the far-left radicals she was tired of, and to be fair, he is a good example of this. Recently, I was reading a journal that was doing a deep-dive into some scientific communities and online activism gone too far, and they cited a researcher/academic/scientific advocate who writes online. This person is someone I first "met" in a fannish context over fifteen years ago, and they are very smart and persistent, I can definitely believe the difficulties they face and the clear-sightedness they would bring to the issue.

But. For their online activity. They use the same fannish pseud as the one I know them by. So it's kind of like saying "According to Esplin 9466, media coverage of this research topic is sometimes misleading."

I wonder how many people will get the reference.

Late but still relevant:
-in a city full of museums, there are a lot worse themes for a museum than "conceptual art"
-nevertheless, WRITING WORDS IN BIG LETTERS does not, in and of itself, create aesthetic value
-this is the conceptual art that got displayed in a very prestigious museum in a very prestigious city, which means it's kind of at the...tip of the pyramid, as it were. For every level you go down of less fame, there's an order of magnitude more people who are doing the same thing but to less success, perhaps because they are even more inscrutable/pretentious. What does the bottom of the pyramid look like. (That was a rhetorical question, don't tell me, I don't want to know.)

In happier news, completed a draft of mini-bang project, and got to the exciting midpoint? main encounter? scene in bigger-bang project, so that's coming along! :D

"A zealot is just someone who can't change her mind; a fanatic is someone who can't change her mind and won't change the subject."

I'm half an hour into day two (out of two) staffing a conference with the world's perkiest oversharer. Send help (and snacks because the student union is closed for the weekend).

Edit: just heard about Comrade No-Boundaries' bad experiences with gyms for the third time in thirty hours. Stoooooop.

Recently some of my colleagues mentioned they were going to try to do /r/fantasy's bingo, where you read 25 books from different authors fitting different themes over the course of a year. (Well, or five, but that's pretty straightforward.) And I was like...I read fast enough to do this if I committed, but I'm probably not going to commit, because I have all these e-books on my computer I haven't read. And the library left mask mandates in place for a long time and I'm not super interested in in-person browsing while those are still up. (Although they actually un-mandated them as of late February, I don't know if I was caught up on that, but that's my bad.)

And then I started looking into e-readers, because what if they're actually less eye-strainy and more portable than laptops? So long story short, I'm getting an e-reader soon. It might be a terrible idea, it might be a sunk-cost fallacy, it might still be impossible with migraines, but oh well! That's not what I need recommendations on.

What I need recommendations on is, if you're not walking up and down the aisles and maybe sometimes skimming the last page even though it won't make sense to get a feel for tone, how do you find new-to-you e-books of interest? There's a lot of new speculative stuff I can sort of tell won't be to my taste, and that's fine, I'd rather find a new author I love and devour a whole series by them than complete a bingo with "eating my vegetables" stuff. But I'm obviously years behind the curve here, so...advice?

(I may also do a list of "here's recent-ish stuff I enjoyed, here's stuff I tried and didn't like," in case that's useful. Are any of the review aggregators good for building predictions based on both those sets?)

I was, as the kids say, knitting my taxes with the help of a popular online program. Especially in the state section, there are some weird questions that don't apply to 95% of people but you should look over them just to be sure. For instance, federal and state policies may be different when it comes to earnings from Olympic medals. And then, separate from the main charitable deductions section, there's a "donations to certain charities" section that was very delicately phrased:

( the world is your oyster )

TFW you're writing a long fic with lots of time skips and you're like...is this just about wrapping up or do I just want it to be wrapping up so I can move onto other things? I'm guessing the parts I have yet to write will still be pretty lengthy for these reasons. One of the good pieces of advice I got from a panel at Capclave recently was "instead of 'show don't tell,' you want to make the slow parts fast and the fast parts slow." (That is, it's okay to summarize/skim over periods where not much is happening, and linger on the scenes that are important.) So I think I'm just in "a slow part that needs to be fast."

Also, the last fanfic I wrote that wasn't for an exchange/fest was fairly long and still has not posted, because I want to post it along with a companion fic. And I haven't started that one, because of all the fest stuff I have going on, plus original deadlines, plus this current fic which is like "would selfishly love to finish something inspired by a new and hot fandom before everyone moves on..." So that might also be throwing off my sense of "am I really getting close to the end or am I just in a rush for validation" even though it's past 7k /o\

Completely unrelated news. I don't blog about it too much because there's nothing much to say, it's just whining, but I struggle with frequent migraines. Usually there isn't exactly "good news" on the migraine front, just "bad news" and "no news." Well, today I was grocery shopping, and I was like, "I'm running low on Excedrin, time to restock. Doesn't matter if it's generic or name-brand, just get a bulk size and have plenty on hand." So I grabbed a large supply. When I went to check out, the scanner was like, "item not found, help incoming." So I'm thinking...is this a new controlled substance? Is the FDA watching to make sure I'm not trying to use Excedrin to produce sketchy drug content? No, the checkout person was just like "...I don't know, this bar code is not recognized. Guess it's free." Score!

Several years ago, I was introduced to "change ringing" through the a math context. There's some next-level "the Russians used a pencil" stuff here--English tower bells are too heavy to ring repetitively and melodically, so they discovered some of the concepts behind "permutation groups," the Dutch used a carillon ;)

However, I only lived in that area for a few more months before moving to another part of the country that didn't have a tower, so I paused. A couple years ago, I moved again, and there was a new tower, but I'd forgotten pretty much all I knew. It was kind of a long commute to practice, and I was basically just using some of their practice time to re-learn the very basics of manipulating the rope, couldn't play in a group yet. And they were like "every few months we have intensive beginner practice, join us then and we can get you up to speed." So I planned on that. And then...the pandemic happened...

Which actually turned out to be a surprisingly good thing for learning the patterns, because the mental memorization ability is almost completely decoupled from the physical rope manipulation. So a few months in some British people programmed a virtual platform for this, because of course. And I've been able to practice with my "neighbors" without a commute, and advancing far in the mental part, and we even have been able to meet in person for handbells!

But I haven't gone back to the tower practices because it's too long a commute for little practice when we're still sort of pandemic-limited. Except finally we got the long-delayed newbie practice, and I got to work on the ropes. Which is kind of scary because this group can be a bit intimidating with their experience and also the fact that these enormous bells are kind of dangerous, so I had to work through a lot of anxiety. But I did it! And then the next morning, I felt some arm soreness that was like...I have more side effects from bells than I did from the vaccines :D Good to be back in the habit.

The vast majority of the time I do okay without a car, but turns out, it's pretty difficult to replace your phone when you don't have a car and also don't have a working phone.

In other news, I have a new phone now. Pretty impressive how notes handwritten in pencil can survive shipwrecks but I take a phone out in the rain for like fifteen minutes and it dies.

Today MLB had its first all-women broadcasting crew for a game. It was part of their "YouTube game of the week" series which I'm not super familiar with, and involved the Orioles (who are terrible), but I had to watch. (I usually follow the Cubs, who have had a women "sideline announcer"/"let's go to Taylor for some backstory on XYZ." Which is fun, especially because she's close to my age and sometimes trolls the oldsters about their being old, but sometimes feels like a pigeonholed "men do the real stuff, women do fluffy backstory pieces. For Mothers' Day weekend they had a woman as part of the main crew, though.)

Anyway, part of the YouTube shtick for "making the game cool and hip for the youth" is micing people up, and the clips of random players talking that they compiled after the game were pretty funny. If it's originally in Spanish they put written translations in as well. So there was one conversation about "All those Tampa Bay players look huge on TV but in person, they're tiny. I had no idea Wander Franco was that small. But they have big hearts for playing baseball," d'aww. And "did you know this is the first all-women broadcaster crew?" "Today?" "Yeah, dude, I heard about it on MLB Network." (Nice product placement!) "Well that's important, it's good that women are carving out these opportunities." "Yes, especially because they're all smarter than us anyway." hahahaha. In the postgame show the announcers were like "it is pretty weird that the players are commenting on us and we're being asked to do interviews, usually it is the other way around." But IDK, I think about my second-grade self with her articulation difficulties and baseball nerdiness and how cool it would have been for her to hear that. It's good to know these opportunities are on the way and even though they were the first team, they'll be far from the last. <3

you can unfollow me at any time, I probably won’t know and even if I do I won’t be offended!
some of my fiction may have themes or implications that not everyone will agree with. It may be the case that I don’t agree with the implications of them because I am creating works of fiction and not ideological manifestos for how I would like the real world to be!
it may also be the case that sometimes I do agree with the subtexts or messages in a story, but that you might not. If you don’t want to engage with anyone who might possibly disagree with you on some things, you probably will want to unfollow me, because I am not going to agree with you on 100% of every issue, and even if I did, relevant issues and opinions change over time!
if you disagree with some of the themes in my stories but still want to read and enjoy some of the others, that is okay too! In the same way that I subscribe to people but only read their works in fandom X, you can subscribe to me but roll your eyes at fics you think are dumb. (Admittedly, it’s a little harder to filter those out, but that’s up to you.)
none of this excuses me from the responsibility I have to not be rude or hostile to other people. If you see me saying offensive or mean-spirited things on dreamwidth dot org or anywhere else, you are allowed and encouraged to yell at me and tell me to get off the internet!
the absence of rudeness and hostility (see above) is not equivalent to “mindless agreement and allowing people to put words in my mouth.” The absence of rudeness and hostility is, literally, “an absence of rudeness and hostility.” Nothing more, nothing less.
the above remains true at any time, I just thought it would be a good thing to repost today.

The other day I purchased baseball tickets online. Then I got a follow-up survey asking me about my experience using mlb.com to order tickets. Okay, pretty standard. Why did I purchase tickets for this series--because my favorite team was visiting. What was the most important factor in picking seats--location, I guess, but they didn't have an answer for "price." What precautions would you want to see in place when ordering food--well, I don't think food service workers should need to wear masks unless they were always wearing them pre-pandemic; most people in our area are vaccinated and I don't want to displace the responsibility of taking health precautions onto the concession stand labor force. Then again, I'm not someone who spends a lot of time ordering beer or hot dogs at the ball park so maybe I'm not the target audience.

And then there was this "check all that apply" question, which was...a lot.

( Baseball! )

"The graveyards are full of indispensable men" -- someone, probably not Charles De Gaulle
( work work work )

Did a lot of sightseeing/touristy things in the DC area over the last week, spending time with my family, which was great. One of the places (I'm not exactly sure which, but I think it was probably the post office/clock tower area) mentioned the history of DC--it was a planned city, originally designed by Pierre L'Enfant (who L'Enfant Plaza, an area with a big subway station), is named after. The survey of the boundaries was conducted by Andrew Ellicott, who is from the same family that Ellicott City in Maryland is named after, along with Benjamin Banneker, an astronomer/almanac writer, who is historically noteworthy for being a black polymath in early US history. There's been a lot of rightful celebration of him in terms of "hey, black people have always been at the forefront of science." However, it's not clear if he played a direct role in the city planning process. There's a wikipedia editor or editors who clearly has/have an axe to grind about "this guy is getting credit for things he probably never actually did, here is the fact-checking." Which is kind of niche, but I can relate to "please fact-check things before you quote them" and "unclear if we're doing this for accuracy or just the revisionist history feelings" mood.

However. One of the exhibits (again, thinking this may have been the post office, but not sure) was like "after L'Enfant got fed up with the project and left in a huff, Banneker was able to recreate his work from memory. Clearly they had a connection! Were they secret lovers maybe??!" and like, where is that RPF ship.

Also, although Banneker was not the first person to do so, he noted the 17-year appearance of the Brood X cicadas (the ones that are currently making a lot of noise in DC and Maryland right now) and pointed out that since they had last appeared in 1783, they would be due in 1800. Please give me all the RPF/"Hamilton"/etc. fic about the prime number cicadas!!

( Not even very Easter-y, just life )

"Anybody can lock themselves out of their apartment, it takes a special kind of genius to lock themselves in..." - things I have said to myself a couple times since moving to this apartment.

(Also, doing some research for an original story, and I came across an article from 1970 that feels relevant as a critique of performative progressivism both then and now. Not linking it because it's gotten blowback both then and now, but, good to know that some things never change.)

The goal is "try to live in harmony with everyone," not "try to live in unison with everyone."

( Fewer than six degrees of separation )

As I was boarding the bus in the morning, realized I did not have my hat or gloves, which were fairly new after this episode. Returning from the bus in the afternoon, found them on the sidewalk. Score!

Currently working on a short story for a specific themed anthology, and a. not sure if it's speculative enough, b. basing it around some RL events that fit with the anthology theme. There are actually a large number of closely related events, though, and I think summarizing them all would be boring for readers who won't know the RL inspiration but especially those who do. So do I go with i. the better-known and perhaps overused ones, or ii. the slightly lesser-known but perhaps even more absurd ones? Part of the issue is that "better-known" is "by the standards of a mainstream-ish subculture in which I am deeply immersed and can't think objectively."

The good news is, and I'm not going to post links because it'd probably be way too specific, but I have come across a bunch of amusing/fun research stuff for this story so that's one upside.

Sunday night it started to snow in the DC area, and shortly after, my wi-fi/DNS started acting up. I assumed it was just my devices being finicky (I have a new computer on the way, but that's another story). Monday, more snow, wi-fi still bad. Reset the router. Logged into my service provider (via mobile data) that said it wasn't just me, the area was affected, should be fixed in a couple hours. (And here's what to do if you have a power outage, which I didn't.) Went for a walk to pass the time. Come back, still the same. A few minutes later, power goes out. Uh-oh. Is this a large problem too? Let's check "Washington Post" on the phone.

Post headlines are about how the storm has moved to New York and is terrible there. Okay, how about "local news." First headline in the local section: "Giant pandas roll, play in snow." Excellent use of the headlinese comma. And the article included links to these excellent tweets.

The power came on a couple hours later and the internet shortly after that, everything is fine. And the snow is pretty, even if I did not appreciate it firsthand to the same extent the pandas did.

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primeideal

May 2025

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Entries tagged with life

Height charts

Six degrees

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How do you browse for e-books?

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Fic and life

I like big bells and I cannot lie

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Aperiodic reminder

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Indispensable

Washington DC

Easter blehs (and a couple yays)

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Gloves part 2, writing part n+1

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