The new dryer is just fine, except the top is ever so slightly slanted in a way that makes it a bad place to set your dryer balls.
Have I mentioned that especially after Colonoscopy Week I've had more trouble than usual walking? I've been using my cane inside the house for the first time in quite a while, and I'm limited in how much I can carry without (more) pain. It sucks. Belovedest has set up the short ramp against the shortest outside stairs, and while going up it is Bad, going up the stairs without it is Worse. (Both outside doors have stairs.)
I wasn't available to assist with any of the Thanksgiving cooking. Belovedest did it themselves! Including: turkey, the epic tray of dressing, biscuits from the mix, and instant potatoes made the way that erases the taste of Box. (There was also salad available, but there's quite a bit of vegetable in the sausage-cornbread dressing.)
Today we had some roof inspectors. The inspection's free; the quote for fixing things up is *sigh* very much not free.
58 The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman (e) (bkclb) 57 The Bookshop of Dust and Dreams, Mindy Thompson (e) 56 Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt (e) (bkclb) 55 Hunting Ground, Patricia Briggs (Alpha&Omega 2)(re-read) (e) 54 Cry Wolf, Patricia Briggs (Alpha & Omega 1) (re-read) (e) 53 Alpha and Omega, Patricia Briggs (Alpha&Omega.5(re-read) (e) 52 Blind Date with a Werewolf, Patricia Briggs (e) 51 The Women, Kristin Hannah (e) (bkclb) 50 Emilie and the Hollow World, (Emilie Adventures #1) Martha Wells (e) 49 Black Tie & Tails (Black Wolves of Boston #2), Wen Spencer (e) 48 Shards of Earth, Adrian Tchaikovsky(The Final Architecture #1)e) 47 Hemlock and Silver, T. Kingfisher (e) 46 Outcrossing, Celia Lake (Mysterious Charm #1) (e) 45 Outfoxing Fate, Zoe Chant/Murphy Lawless (Virtue Shifters)(e) 44 Atonement Sky, Nalini Singh (Psy-Changeling Trinity #9) (e) 43 Stone and Sky, Ben Aaronovitch (Rivers of London #10) (e) 42 Regency Buck, Georgette Heyer (re-re-re-&c-read) 41 I Dare, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (Liaden Universe #7) (page proofs) 40 To Hive and to Hold, Amy Crook (The Future of Magic #1) (e) 39 These Old Shades, Georgette Heyer, narrated by Sarah Nichols (re-re-re-&c-read, 1st time audio) 38 Faking it (Dempsey Family #2), Jennifer Crusie, narrated by Aasne Vigesaa (re-re-re-&c-read, 1st time audio) 37 Copper Script, K.J. Charles (e) 36 The Masqueraders, Georgette Heyer, narrated by Eleanor Yates (re-re-re-&c-read; 1st time audio) 35 Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha's Vineyard, Nora Ellen Groce (e) 34 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Winifred Watson, narrated by Frances McDormand (re-re-re-&c-read; 1st time audio) 33 The Wings upon Her Back, Samantha Mills (e) 32 Death on the Green (Dublin Driver #2), Catie Murphy (e) 31 The Elusive Earl (Bad Heir Days #3), Grace Burrowes (e) 30 The Mysterious Marquess (Bad Heir Days #2), Grace Burrowes (e) 29 Who Will Remember (Sebastian St. Cyr #20), C.S. Harris (e) 28 The Teller of Small Fortunes, Julie Leong (e) 27 Check and Mate, Ali Hazelwood (e) 26 The Dangerous Duke (Bad Heir Days #1), Grace Burrowes (e) 25 Night's Master (Flat Earth #1) (re-read), Tanith Lee (e) 24 The Honey Pot Plot (Rocky Start #3), Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer (e) 23 Very Nice Funerals (Rocky Start #2), Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer (e) 22 The Orb of Cairado, Katherine Addison (e) 21 The Tomb of Dragons, (The Cemeteries of Amalo Trilogy, Book 3), Katherine Addison (e) 20 A Gentleman of Sinister Schemes (Lord Julian #8), Grace Burrowes (e) 19 The Thirteen Clocks (re-re-re-&c read), James Thurber (e) 18 A Gentleman Under the Mistletoe (Lord Julian #7), Grace Burrowes (e) 17 All Conditions Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) (re-re-re-&c read) (audio 1st time) 16 Destiny's Way (Doomed Earth #2), Jack Campbell (e) 15 The Sign of the Dragon, Mary Soon Lee 14 A Gentleman of Unreliable Honor (Lord Julian #6), Grace Burrowes (e) 13 Market Forces in Gretna Green (#7 Midlife Recorder), Linzi Day (e) 12 Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, Judi Dench with Brendan O'Hea (e) 11 Code Yellow in Gretna Green (#6 Midlife Recorder), Linzi Day (e) 10 Seeing Red in Gretna Green (#5 Midlife Recorder), Linzi Day (e) 9 House Party in Gretna Green (#4 Midlife Recorder), Linzi Day (e)* 8 Ties that Bond in Gretna Green (#3 Midlife Recorder), Linzi Day (e) 7 Painting the Blues in Gretna Green (#2 Midlife Recorder), Linzi Day (e) 6 Midlife in Gretna Green (#1 Midlife Recorder), Linzi Day (e) 5 The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Author), Kyle McCarley (Narrator) re-re-re&c-read (audio) 4 The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune (e) 3 A Gentleman in Search of a Wife (Lord Julian #5) Grace Burrowes (e) 2 A Gentleman in Pursuit of the Truth (Lord Julian #4) Grace Burrowes (e) 1 A Gentleman in Challenging Circumstances (Lord Julian #3) Grace Burrowes (e)
_____ *Note: The list has been corrected. I did not realize that the Gretna Green novella was part of the main path, rather than a pleasant discursion, and my numbering was off. All fixed now.
Previous poll review In the Making friends with chatbots poll, 66.1% of respondents hadn't used AI in the last seven days, as far as they were aware, and 8.9% had used it for work. A quarter of respondents had used it against their will. Once again, I'm left wondering how representative Dreamwidth denizens are. My people!
In ticky-boxes, alpine octopuses practising their yodelling came a distant second to hugs, 41.1% to 67.9%. Thank you for your votes!!
Audio entertainment Tons of Tech Won't Save Us, which is really good. Argh, everything. /o\ Most of the available episodes of new Aotearoa NZ political podcast Cross Party Lines (in the vein of and inspired by The Rest is Politics), which is really good -- intelligent and informed, of course, and I appreciate that the right-wing representative has zero time for our current government. Writing Excuses. Letters from an American. One episode of Fansplaining. A couple of episodes of The Life Indigenous, and the start of an episode of The Tongue Unbroken: Language Revitalization & Decolonization.
Online life Constantly running to keep up, partly because I haven't been around as much. | I need to not compare my Yuletide productivity with last year's -- finishing my assignment is enough! Anything else is jam. | The sid_guardian Slo-Mo Guardian Rewatch continues to be wonderful!
Writing/making things A few bits and pieces inspired by the Slo-Mo Rewatch, a few flashfics. It's time to roll up my sleeves and dig into my Yuletide fic: so far I have 360 words and a scene list. I'm in a reasonably good writing headspace, so I expect it to be fun if I can keep from second-guessing my prose. *knock on wood*
Good things Meerkats and kangas and lemurs, oh my! Sunshine. TV. Dumplings. Biking. Yuletide and Guardian. Dreamwidth. Haircuts (I had 8 months' worth cut off, and when I stood up, there was a MOUNTAIN of clippings on the floor). Coloured pencils. Podcasts. Libraries.
I went to the big family Thanksgiving gathering yesterday. People were glad to see me, and I was glad to see them, particularly the niece from Fresno with husband and three kids, all of them now in their teens - it'd been a while since I'd seen them.
Nonetheless I found it a difficult experience for other reasons. I was not feeling very well, and was worse after I got home - I left immediately after dinner, about 3 hours after arrival, while B. stayed on for another four hours and, by arrangement, was delivered home by nephew and niece who live vaguely in this direction. Also the heavy food was tough for me to handle. I've been living at home mostly on soup, baked fish, and other soft and gentle things. But we improvise! Now to make turkey noodle soup for dinner with some leftovers I brought home.
Every year as the holiday season begins we’ve run a gift guide for the holidays, and over the years it’s been quite successful: Lots of people have found out about excellent books and crafts and charities and what have you, making for excellent gift-giving opportunities during the holiday season. We’ve decided to do it again this year.
So: Starting Monday, December 1, the Whatever Holiday Gift Guide returns! If you’re a writer or other creator, this will be an excellent time to promote your work on a site which gets tens of thousands of viewers daily, almost all of whom will be interested in stuff for the holidays. If you’re someone looking to give gifts, you’ll see lots of excellent ideas. And you’ll also have a day to suggest stuff from other folks too. Everybody wins!
To give you all time to prepare, here’s the schedule of what will be promoted on which days:
Monday, December 1: Traditionally Published Authors — If your work is being published by a publisher a) who is not you and b) gets your books into actual, physical bookstores on a returnable basis, this is your day to tell people about your books. This includes comics/graphic novels and audiobooks.
Tuesday, December 2: Non-Traditionally Published Authors — Self-published? Electronically published? Or other? This is your day. This also includes comics/graphic novels and audiobooks.
Wednesday, December 3: Other Creators — Artists, knitters, jewelers, musicians, and anyone who has cool stuff to sell this holiday season, this will be the day to show off your creations.
Thursday, December 4: Fan Favorite Day — Not an author/artist/musician/other creator but know about some really cool stuff you think people will want to know about for the holidays? Share! Share with the crowd!
Friday, December 5: Charities — If you are involved in a charity, or have a favorite charity you’d like to let people know about, this is the day to do it.
If you have questions about how all of this will work, go ahead and ask them in the comment thread (Don’t start promoting your stuff today — it’s not time yet), although I will note that specific instructions for each day will appear on that day. Don’t worry, it’ll be pretty easy. Thanks and feel free to share this post with creative folks who will have things to sell this holiday season.
A little while ago angelofthenorth had offered to cook a thanksgiving dinner with some of my usual recipes.
Fuck thanksgiving as a concept, obviously, but an excuse for a fancy meal is always welcome.
So I found the handwritten notes-to-self that constitute my versions of pumpkin pie and scalloped corn, and she made those tonight with a delicious veggie haggis, roast new potatoes and turnip, carrot and parsnip, and what would've been mashed swede except we didn't mash it.
I helped, doing chores like chopping the pumpkin and washing dishes. It was fun. At one point when I was drying a mixing bowl and about to put it away, she said "we make a good team!" That was nice to hear!
Everything was delicious. It's so annoying that I stull have a headache that has come and gone all day, because I have no spoons to say more.
The YouTube video above fascinates me, because it details how people making $500,000 a year — economically fortunate by any sane measure — are still frequently living paycheck to paycheck. One signal reason for this is the issue of lifestyle comparison, and the fact that income disparity in the 1% is vastly wider than the income disparity within other segments of American life.
Huh? Well, as an example, let’s look at the third quintile of income in the US. In 2023 that third quintile had incomes roughly between $61,000 and $98,000, according to the US Census. Everyone within that quintile was within $37,000 dollars of each other in yearly income, more or less. That disparity is not nothing, obviously, but it’s all within economic hailing distance. In the one percent, the income range was between about $560,000 and, well, more than a billion dollars (this is reported income, not unrealized, illiquid wealth in things like stocks and real estate). Someone on the lowest rung of the 1% is vastly economically closer to someone in abject poverty than they are to that billionaire.
Thing is, if you are in the 1%, you’re not comparing your lifestyle to someone living in a tarpaper shack, you’re comparing your lifestyle to other people in the 1%. This often means comparing yourself to people who have ten or a hundred times more income than you do, with similar inequalities in overall wealth. Your lifestyle costs more, and because it costs more, the temptation of the “lower rung rich” to financially overextend themselves to keep up appearances is real — and also, in the world of the upper classes, things just cost more, because companies catering to rich people know their customers don’t want to be seen counting their coins. The person in the market for a BMW 7 series is a fundamentally different economic entity than the person in the market for a Honda Accord. This person is shopping at Erewhon, not Aldi. In the 1%, apparently, you are who you appear to be, or at least, who you appear to be to your neighbors and co-workers.
(Mind you, shit’s getting more expensive for everyone everywhere, it’s not just the 1% feeling the inflationary pinch. But as the video points out, businesses and economists are aware that most people in lower four quintiles are as squeezed as they’re going to get; any new growth in sales/revenues are going to come from the top end, which makes them ripe for price increases on goods and services directed to them specifically.)
“Well, Scalzi, you’re bougie as fuck and yet you don’t seem to be living paycheck to paycheck,” I hear you say. And it’s true! There are reasons for that. One, I’m a writer, and my “paychecks” — advances, royalties, the occasional film/TV option — arrive so sporadically that if we tried to budget around their arrival we would be screwed. Early on, when I was still a freelancer (and, to be clear, with the help of Krissy having a more regular income) we built up a “buffer account” to make sure our paying of bills was not dependent on waiting for any one particular check of mine to arrive. That buffer account still exists, just a little more padded out.
Two, we’ve largely avoided the comparison trap. We live in rural Ohio, a location not exactly swimming with people whose income we directly index our own against, and not a place where shops cater to the higher end of incomes. I’m a writer, which means the professional community I am part of does not generally have the same incomes as, say, neurosurgeons or finance dudes. The highly sporadic nature of writer income also means I am aware the income is not reliable, and watching the careers of other writers through the years means I know one can’t just assume everything will be golden forever. Also, you know. Krissy and I both grew up with periods of our lives where we experienced, shall we say, a deficit of money. This has made each of us relatively conservative with what we do with our money, both individually and together. We’re not going to spend money to impress other people. We’re sure as hell not going to pile up debt to do it.
Three, we have other advantages and strategies. Where we live means we are able to acquire property at a discount to other areas (this means we’re unlikely to sell it later at ridiculously inflated prices, as we might if we lived in a city stuffed with high-income earners, but that’s fine). We don’t have any debt, which means we don’t have to pay out of our income to service it. I am financially literate and numerate (my very first book was on finance) and I don’t like to gamble, so our overall investment strategy is very much predicated on the idea that compound interest is our friend. Whenever I feel like trying to get rich quick, I buy a lottery ticket. It has roughly the same odds as me or any other non-professional without access to advanced financial market tools successfully day trading or timing the market.
Finally, for both Krissy and me, there’s a point where the use of money has diminishing returns, and we don’t tend to spend after that bend of the curve. Last year Krissy bought a Honda CR-V hybrid. Could we have afforded something more upscale? Sure. But inasmuch as the CR-V had everything Krissy wanted and needed in a car, and going upscale from there would have meant a lot more money for only marginal improvement in utility, was it worth it to her? No. Likewise, my 2011 MINI Countryman lacks some modern technological amenities that I would like in a car, but not so many or so much that I’m going to spend for a whole new car when my own car still runs perfectly well and, frankly, sticking my phone into an eye-level holder and using an adapter to plug the thing into my car speakers will handle 90% of what I want.
(This doesn’t mean I have never done silly things with money, as my frankly over-endowed guitar collection will indicate. But I don’t get out over my skis on stuff like that. I always check in with Krissy, who is our day-day-money manager, before I make any such purchases. If she tells me “no” then it doesn’t happen.)
Krissy and I have been smart, and also we have been lucky, which should not be discounted either. There are lots of points in our lives where we could have been one bad break away from real financial problems. Beyond this, I don’t pretend I haven’t been incredibly fortunate in my own career, sometimes for reasons that have very little to do with me directly. It also doesn’t hurt that my own skills were portable, which allowed us to live somewhere housing and living costs were not ridiculously high.
At the end of the day, however, we’ve avoided so many problems by simply not worrying about how we stacked up against other people financially, and by being able to be content when things are good enough. We didn’t need to keep up with the Joneses, or the Bezoses. We’re doing well enough to be happy. And that’s the thing.
22. What questions do you often ask yourself? How would my life have turned out if I'd made different choices at various points in my life.
23. What are you an expert at? I'm quite a good knitter and seamstress, but I don't know that I'd put myself at expert level.
24. How would an extra $1000 a month change your life? It might help me feel more relaxed about money, but possibly not. I'm lucky enough at this point to have enough for my needs for now and into the future.
25. What things in life should always be free? Education, healthcare.
26. What is your favorite time of the year? Autumn.
27. What is something you have always wanted since you were a kid? To be able to roller skate.
28. What is the most recent dream you remember having while sleeping? I remember that I've had a couple of vivid dreams lately, but now I can't remember what they were about.
On Wednesday my real estate agent let me know that the repairs and painting inside the house had been done, plus he had personally painted the white parts ot the outside of the house (i.e. the two long sides). He sent a video of a walk-through inside the house and everything looks amazing, but he also sent a photo of the outside and he has chosen to paint the formerly white sides a dark grey, which I think looks horrible. (And my daughter agrees with me.) The colour doesn't really go well with the lightish red bricks on the end wall which faces the street. However, I've noticed that grey is a popular colour for houses recently, and at least it doesn't look dingy and shabby like it did before. He is waiting for professional photos of the house which he hopes will be delivered today, and then he will list the house. He is hoping to have an open house on Sunday.
My son in law has been trying to get an old Mac computer to work so he can set up Violet and Eden with free Duolingo accounts because Eden wants to learn Italian and Violet wants to learn Spanish. He just wants a computer with nothing distracting on it, and he does not want them using one of his computers. On the way home last night he was talking about this and I suddenly remembered I've got an old but almost unused 15 inch Chromebook which I was regretting not sending off to the electronics recycling place, so I told him I would let him have it for the girls to do Duolingo on. I reset the Chromebook to factory settings so any of my data is gone and it's basically bare, and he has set it up with separate user accounts for each girl. He says it's perfect because there is nothing distracting on it. Also it's heavy and he will keep it in his office for them to use. There will be no carrying it around to different parts of the house and using it unsupervised.
I didn't sleep well last night, or at least, I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep, and I woke up with a slight headache this morning. I was determined to go for a walk because walking usually helps get rid of a headache, so I went out around 9:45 am when the temperature was about 3C/37F. That was what the thermometer said, but there was a brisk cold breeze and I'm sure the wind chill factor was below freezing. I managed to keep warm enough by walking briskly, and my headache has gone.
A funny story about Aria: last night my daughter was talking about cutting Aria's toenails while she was asleep, which apparently Aria didn't want to happen. A bit later this happened:
Aria: Can I wear footy pyjamas to bed? Mummy: Of course you can. Aria (getting into the pjs): now you won't be able to cut my toenails.
A Soyuz rocket launched on Thursday carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, as well as NASA astronaut Christopher Williams, for an eight-month mission to the International Space Station. The trio of astronauts arrived at the orbiting laboratory without incident.
However, on the ground, there was a serious problem during the launch with the ground systems that support processing of the vehicle before liftoff at Site 31, located at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
In a terse statement issued Thursday night on the social media site Telegram, the Russian space corporation that operates Soyuz appeared to downplay the incident: “The launch pad was inspected, as is done every time a rocket is launched. Damage to several launch pad components was identified. Damage can occur after launch, so such inspections are mandatory worldwide. The launch pad’s condition is currently being assessed.”
'My dear boy, why don't you try acting?' (attested from the mouth of Dustin Hoffman, to whom Olivier addressed this plea when Hoffman was going to extreme Method lengths).
And this was not a dreadful error in the props room or something out of a murder mystery:
It was the Exeter University theatre society’s annual play at the Edinburgh fringe and I’d landed the part of Cassius in Julius Caesar. The director decided that instead of killing himself, Cassius would die during a choreographed fight with his rival, Mark Antony. We also chose to use real knives, which sounds absurd, but we wanted to be authentic. The plan was for the actor playing Antony to grab my arm as I held the knife, and pretend to push it behind my back. We must have rehearsed the sequence 50 times. We were about halfway through our month-long run, performing to a decently sized audience. Dressed in our togas, with the stage dark and moody, we began the fight as usual. Then something went wrong. There was a sharp piercing feeling. The knife was supposed to have been quietly slipped to me – instead, it had gone into my back. I realised what had happened while acting out my character’s death, and thinking: I have to lie here until the lights go down. .... When a doctor told me I’d come close to dying, and that the play had to stop using real knives, I remember thinking: “You just don’t understand theatre.”
However, right at the end of the article he does acknowledge: 'I’m super conscious of safety nowadays'. We should hope so.
What next - real poison where text requires? What was the director thinking? I would think using Real Knives might make it less authentic with choreographing to ensure Doing No Harm
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