solarbird | Reading

The preface: during my quinceañera Friday night, a woman unknown to me (!) gave me a long-stemmed red rose, bought from Muhammad*. I got it home, and yesterday morning I realized that I hadn't put it in my one, tall, plain glass vase. As I got the vase out from its spot on the counter, I dropped it, and it shattered into an annoyingly high number of pieces.

Fast forward to last night. T wanted to go to the open house at Equinox Studios, the place down in Georgetown with tons of artists & craftspeople. The open house in December is, of course, extra crowded and bAnAnAs. I ran into multiple goths known to me, including Diminutive** and Cyra Hobson, who's quite a sculptor and has her studio at Equinox. It was inevitable, then that I found the perfect vase from Jeanne Ferraro: opaque, cobalt-blue glass.

Lots of people including Ferraro remembered me because I was wearing The Coat. Some dude said he'd seen me walking around our neighborhood. We live less than two blocks apart, and I'd never met him. Who know a coat could be magic?

I completed my set of herbivorous dinosaur fridge magnets. I mean, Parasaurolophus. How could I not?

Things I covet but couldn't buy for various reasons:

The Matisse dining set by John Kirschbaum. I've never seen anything like it, and yes, he knows how to make a comfy chair. If you meet the guy, be patient: he talks unusually slowly.
A photo of one of the Iron Monkeys' pieces. I'd like a print to hide a dent in the wall that I put there while moving furniture.
Jewelry by, oddly enough, Black Dog Forge. They used to be in Belltown, and that's all I can find about them in a quick search. I've seen at least one amazing bed frame that they made.

I've long since realized that I kind of hate my nightstand lamp. There were nice ones there – in colors I didn't like. Le sigh.

Spending the time with T was fun, too. She's almost as good an enabler as the lady who introduced us,

cupcake_goth. She's also a good transit communist like I am; we had excellent Metro mojo last night.

I did not partake of ravey goodness last night because it was after 2300 when I got home, and my dogs were if not barking definitely grumpy. But I'd call the trip a success.

*He's this old South Asian dude who's been walking around selling flowers on Capitol Hill for decades.
**Her name is the diminutive form of mine. She's a full head shorter than I am. I'm never not amused by this.

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: my son jumpenflappen?

canyonwalker

Several times a year I write an update about a credit card I keep in my wallet and how much I've earned from it. It's part of my practice of credit card churning. I open new credit cards for their lucrative sign-up bonuses, quickly charge thousands of dollars to them to secure the bonus points, then throw them in my desk drawer for the remainder of the year while I repeat the process with another credit card. These reviews are my check-ups on how well churning is working for me— as well as my decision point on whether to keep the card or cancel it and repeat the process. Usually I cancel churn cards after a year. Usually. Today I'm writing about a card that I've now had for 8 years— the longest of any travel affinity card— and will keep for at least a ninth: the Chase IHG One Rewards Select Credit Card.

Chase IHG Rewards Card

I have kept this card for many years not because it pays any high-flying benefits but because it does the opposite. This lowly card pays a not-generous 5x points/dollar on IHG hotel spend; 2x on restaurant, gas, and grocery spend; and 1x on everything else. At a value of 0.6 cents per IHG point* that's only 3% value on hotels and less than 2% on everything else. I already own two credit cards that pay 2%, cash, on everything... plus my spouse has a card that pays 3% on all travel. So using this card for spending is generally a losing proposition. 😧

Most of the benefits I derive from this card are not from charging on it. One big one is that every year I get a free-night award. I've found I can redeem these for about $150 value. The certs don't buy a night at a top tier hotel (anymore), generally just a roadside motel along the way between hither and yon, but $150 is nothing to sneeze at; this one benefit alone is 3x the $49 annual fee.

Another nice benefit I get from this card is a 10% rebate on award points redeemed. How much that's worth depends on how many points I manage to spend in a year. This year I redeemed 71k on a few awards stays, so my rebate was 7,100 points. At the rate of $0.006 that's $42.

As for charging purchases to this card generally being a losing proposition... well, I did spend some on this card. If you don't use cards enough anymore the banks may shut down your account! I waited until there was a promo for "Charge $1,000 of purchases to earn 3,000 bonus points" and then spend just a smidge over $1,000 to earn the bonus. That's all I charged during the year. Those 4,000 total points from spending are worth $24.

Adding these all together, the card delivered $216 of value in exchange for its $49 annual fee. That's a little less than I attributed to the card last year but still enough to make it a keeper— especially because once I cancel this card, it's gone forever. Chase and IHG stopped offering this card several years ago. Apparently it wasn't making them enough money— which is corporate-speak for the benefits were too good for consumers. They've replaced it with a card that charges a higher annual fee. I plan to hold on to this lowly old card for as long as they let me.

james_davis_nicoll

I was a bit surprised to come across this as Hartwell wasn't really the go-to editor where women's SF was concerned. An interesting snapshot of SF in a sixteen-year period. The end is the fall of the American republic. Not sure what was significant about 1984.

( Read more... )

james_davis_nicoll

One very small step for a man, one giant leap for Her Majesty's Government.

Cold War in a Country Garden (Dilke, volume 1) by Lindsay Gutteridge

conuly

I don't quite relish the idea of going out in it, and god knows where our shovel went, but gosh, I love looking at the snow!

****************************

( Read more... )

malurette

Titre : Le mouton d'Arüth
Auteure : Jade Michelon
Langue : français
Type : album illustré
Genre : fantasy

1ère parution : 2024
Édition : n/a
Format : 35 pages

(acheté au Festival Harajuku en septembre dernier ; apparemment c'est un projet de fin d'études d'illustration ?)

Le petit Arüth reçoit de sa maman une statuette de mouton et s'en fait un ami imaginaire. Jusqu'au jour où le mouton prend corps l'emmène à l'aventure...

Graphiquement c'est très, très joli ! mais la narration ne fonctionne pas très bien, entre une erreur de temps, quelques fautes d'orthographe et un vocabulaire pas exactement adapté... mais comme l'intérêt ici ce sont les illustrations ça fait la job ?

Cute, pretty kiddie book about a young boy and a magical sheep.

$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

mdlbear

Not a great week. Started out well, with cat cuddles and walks Sunday and Monday mornings. Then came my GP appointment.

CW: medical, whingeing.

Since April or therabouts, my "GP" is a clinic with a handful of doctors and a bunch of assistants. It took me a while (months) to finally figure this out. Anyway, Carmen -- the assistant I saw on Monday -- couldn't find my lab results from 20 November. Fortunately I'd asked for a printout at my previous appointment, so I scanned that and sent it by email. I got my BP meds changed somewhat. Then labs on Wednesday.

Of course, I was supposed to be fasting, so that was a bust. And I picked up my re-filled prescriptions (the pharmacy is across the street), but there was one missing. So I went in again for labs on Thursday, and they couldn't find a vein. WTF? They advised me to try at the hospital. Labs at HagaZiekenhuis require an appointment, but fortunately I already had an appointment, following up on my anemia. So that was Friday. Skipped breakfast, went in, handed them both lab forms, one stick and done. And their website works, so I got to see the results ahead of the appointment next week.

Oh yeah, I also had a psych appointment Thursday afternoon, to discuss antidepressants, which actually went well. I really don't have any idea how to make use of therapy, but I like talking about myself, my problems, and my family. Follow-up in two weeks.

Then yesterday I tried attending Festival of the Living Rooms, the quarterly online filk con that started almost by accident during Covid. But instead of using the Zoom app, which just works, they insisted on going through the web app embedded on their shiny new website. Calling it beta quality is being generous. FotLR may have jumped the shark this time.

Naturally I didn't get much done otherwise, although I did go back and look at the scratch tracks I'd recorded for my next album, Amethyst Rose. Um... They were recorded between 2004 and 2010! WTF? I'll have to see whether anything can be rescued from that debacle.

Enough griping. Links! How about Grooming a Giant Rescue Maine Coon Cat? And Monday's APOD, Flying Over the Earth at Night, a time-lapse from the ISS. Particularly noteworthy for the footage of the Aurora Australis starting at 1:20

If you have lots of free time, take a look at WikiFlix. CONTENT WARNING: very deep rabbit hole full of old movies.

And finally, because of the season and because it's incredibly cool, here's The Ukrainian Origin of “Carol of the Bells” | The Story of Shchedryk (Щедрик). Turns out the tune was taken from an old New Year's Day chant, from back when New Years Day was celebrated on Beltane. Better, here's the Original Ukrainian Version, sung first in a pretty littleral English translation (with Ukranian subtitles!), then in Ukranian. And best of all, here's a Remix by the B&B project for bandura and button accordion.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Current Mood: still grumpy
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: see post

tinny posting in

dw_community_promo

retro_icontest - Blast From The Past Icontests - is once more embarking on

Are you ready to ride? Pack your satchel of art supplies and join us in another round of the Icon Quest!

Looking for more places to make icons? Here is the list of currently active iconmaking communities on dw: https://icontalking.dreamwidth.org/46317.html

numb3r_5ev3n

My iron has felt low for about two weeks now, and I've gone back to taking a daily multivitamin. It may be time to go see a doctor and see if this is back at the point of needing actual supplements, but last year my job switched me to the shitty insurance (good luck getting in anywhere within a six month timeframe unless it's urgent care or the ER, and I need a referral for Planned Parenthood, LOL.) and it doesn't get switched back until the first of the year. But when it gets to the point where all I think about besides my fanfic is how damn cold I am all the time and how nice it would be to just chow down on an entire bag of steamed broccoli, I know there's a problem.

My dopamine levels are crashing again, and I'm trying to keep the momentum going on my writing. Like I know the process is going through a fuckton of drafts and re-writes, but it sucks having to go through so many drafts and re-writes? It sucks that this is what The Process entails? I mean regardless, the fact that I have written more in the past month than I have over the last decade is pretty important, I think. But I don't want to stop there.

I have voiced my opinion on Christmas and the Holidays on this blog several times by this point. It's a Neurodivergent person's nightmare (or at least THIS Neurodivergent person's nightmare) and the only things I like about the Holidays as an adult are making baked goods and actually hanging out with family and then getting to go to my friends' New Years Eve Party where we play In The Air Tonight to the Ball Drop every year (except for 2020.)

Current Mood.

sistawendy

I put on the big blue dress from Gallery Serpentine that I got for my tenth rebirthday and hit the Wildrose last night. It was a small but merry gathering including Tacoma Girl, A from the Merc, and A's sweetie J, not to be confused with J-the-dancing-fiend whom I usually see at the Merc with A.

The Wildrose is a pretty good place to be a dirty old woman. Ahem.

People bought me drinks and I drank them, but adequate hydration and sleeping past 1100 this morning allowed me to, like, not suffer today. Tacoma Girl took me to Lost Lake, which is still a fantastic place to get fish & chips & relative sobriety. Luckily, we were in & out well before the rush that happens when the bars stop serving, i.e. 0100.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: The Mountain Goats, "This Year"

cosmolinguist

After the (amazing!) support act Karkasaurus, we went back to the bar and the first thing D said was "I have got to improve my cardiovascular fitness." (I wasn't expecting this at all, so I burst out laughing.)

His ear plug came apart when he tried to take it out, and it's still stuck in his ear. I got to put a teaspoon of olive oil in his ear now that he's in bed, which might help it find its way out. Protecting your hearing is important, but what a nuisance this is!

james_davis_nicoll

I am not aware of any big name authors who got their start with a work published by Baen Books after 2006. If there are recent analogs of Bujold or Weber, I do not know of them.

dialecticdreamer

Skiing Lesson
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1375

:: Farrah is visiting friends in Colorado when they interrupt their original plans to give her a birthday surprise. General fiction, written for the December of 2025 prompt call, from a suggestion made by

callibr8. My deepest thanks to her! ::

Farrah walked as quickly as her snow pants allowed, and reached the front desk at the hotel before the clerk could page her a third time. “Call for Miss Anders? I’m here,” Farrah declared, crossing her arms. “You do realize that it’s before eight in the morning?”

“Yes, Miss Anders.” The clerk shrugged almost imperceptibly. “We tried calling your room, and when there was no answer, switched to making a general announcement. You had a call, but they asked that you be told to be ready to depart at a quarter of nine. I’m doing my best to make sure that you’re ready.”
( Read more... )

Current Mood: artistic

conuly

Watch on YouTube

conuly

The goal is to herd all the "What do you call this?" posts into the comments there. It never ever works. However, they do occasionally get comments like "Here are the answers to the questions you asked rhetorically as an example" and "Why do you keep posting this and asking the same questions" and "There is no such thing as a pork burger".

Yes, Virginia, there is a pork burger. This is why I have a picture of pork burger patties on my phone, so I can post it every time somebody says that those don't exist, or that they "really" mean a breakfast sandwich or a pulled pork sandwich or a ham sandwich or a BLT.

I always want to ask these people who, I guess, don't get out much why they're so sure that anything they haven't personally heard of before must not exist. It's a big old world, but apparently, not so much for them.

(I suppose I can be forgiven for being a bit snippy this time around, I mean, given everything.)

***********************

( Read more... )

rionaleonhart

In twenty-five years of writing fanfiction, I think this might actually be the most obscure fandom I've ever written for. I hope there's someone in the world who's interested in reading this!

Be aware that this fic contains major spoilers for Death Trick: Double Blind, which is a mystery game and is best played unspoiled.

Title: Invisible Touch
Fandom: Death Trick: Double Blind
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Detective/Magician
Wordcount: 1,100
Summary: The Detective and the Magician get to know each other a little better.

( Invisible Touch )

neonvincent

Crazy Eddie's Motie News earned 97,885 page views and 12 comments on 30 posts during the 30 days of November 2025.

( Most read, commented on, liked, and shared posts during November 2025 behind the cut. )

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: Dinomite Twins Twitch Stream

james_davis_nicoll

So, I asked on Bluesky:

Aside from Larry Correia, are there any big name Baen authors who debuted at Baen, after Jim Baen's death?

(So, Tim Powers wouldn't count because he debuted not at Baen and also long before JB died)

I got three names: Chuck Gannon, Jason Cordova and Mike Kupari. Gannon actually debuted at Baen in 1994 but only two (I think) short pieces, after which there was a long delay until his novels began appearing. I don't know the other two but SF is huge and it's perfectly possible for me to overlook BNAs. Still, granting all three, with LC that makes four... and in 2028, Toni Weisskopf will have been running Baen for as long as Jim Baen did.

This could, of course, be the natural consequence of the Del Monte approach.

[added later]

malurette

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

conuly

And one email and voicemail later, my pay didn't come in and nobody has responded yet. (I did wake up pretty late, but seriously.)

I'll call again in the morning, I don't care if it is a weekend, but....

*headdesk*

I don't know what I'll do for groceries if this isn't resolved by Monday, but I'll wait until Monday to worry about it.

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solarbird

I'm on Mastodon!

December 2025

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Page Summary

sistawendy - Nun engages in consumerism, but doesn't feel bad about it.
canyonwalker - IHG Hotel Card Stays the Longest
james_davis_nicoll - 200 Significant Science Fiction Books by Women, 1984–2001, by David G. Hartwell
james_davis_nicoll - Cold War in a Country Garden (Dilke, volume 1) by Lindsay Gutteridge
conuly - I love looking out the window at the snowfall
malurette - [livre] Le mouton d'Arüth
mdlbear - Done Since 2025-12-07 with bonus s4s
tinny in dw_community_promo - icon community promo: retro_icontest
numb3r_5ev3n - Dec 13, 2025
sistawendy - my quinceañera
cosmolinguist - How you know you're middle aged and going to gigs:
james_davis_nicoll - After some digging
dialecticdreamer - Skiing Lesson (part 1 of 1, complete)
conuly - (no subject)
conuly - So, over at /r/Englishlearning there is a weekly "What is this thing" post
rionaleonhart - Fanfiction: Invisible Touch (Death Trick: Double Blind, Detective/Magician)
neonvincent - Top posts of 11/2025 at Crazy Eddie's Motie News
james_davis_nicoll - Huh
malurette - [BD] Malgré tout
conuly - Well, my pay didn't come in

収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

cheers, love - the cavalry's queer!

Reading

Nun engages in consumerism, but doesn't feel bad about it.

IHG Hotel Card Stays the Longest

200 Significant Science Fiction Books by Women, 1984–2001, by David G. Hartwell

Cold War in a Country Garden (Dilke, volume 1) by Lindsay Gutteridge

I love looking out the window at the snowfall

[livre] Le mouton d'Arüth

Done Since 2025-12-07 with bonus s4s

icon community promo: retro_icontest

Dec 13, 2025

my quinceañera

How you know you're middle aged and going to gigs:

After some digging

Skiing Lesson (part 1 of 1, complete)

(no subject)

So, over at /r/Englishlearning there is a weekly "What is this thing" post

Fanfiction: Invisible Touch (Death Trick: Double Blind, Detective/Magician)

Top posts of 11/2025 at Crazy Eddie's Motie News

Huh

[BD] Malgré tout

Well, my pay didn't come in

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December 2025

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