sir_guinglain

Everything is so much.

I did get my hair cut between work and circuits today (missing a call from my boss by skiving a little bit early, oops).

And circuits was good, the last week our usual trainer is doing it! They have to reassure us that they'll still be around, they're still doing lift club, but they need their Monday evenings back. They're self-employed and they work long odd hours, and they have a kid and everything. Fair enough but I'll miss them! We've already had their replacement a couple times and it helps to know I like them too but still.

We always have music playing on a big speaker during circuits, and they asked everyone to pick a song to play tonight. I chose Calvin Harris's "Summer" because I'd already had to listen to some metal nonsense and an actual ballad (who wants breathy singer-songwriter types in the gym??) and I needed some dance music. I did my burpees so much faster when "Sandstorm" was playing!

Biggest achievement of today was getting the report draft to the copyeditor on time. Second biggest is making sure my best binder has been washed and has a chance to dry before I need to wear it tomorrow afternoon (and Wednesday). Third biggest achievement is finally, only after I got back from circuits, starting to think about what my keynote speech on Wednesday will entail.

Priorities!

I've got a few slides and everything. Our pal V gave me a lift home from circuits and when I told him I had no idea what my talk was going to be about and maybe should be worried that I'm not more worried, he said "I think I'm more worried for you now!" Oh no. He really did seem it too, bless him. I should text him tomorrow and tell him that it's fine.

The best thing that happened today is something I mostly sorted out a couple of days ago: some friends having a shitty time and dreading the UK heatwave said they'd benefit from getting some groceries delivered. One of them was able to give an idea of what kind of food would work and V told them I'm a genius at sorting out groceries online so no pressure. I took the suggestions and what I know of them and what kinds of things were on offer. The first message we got this afternoon was "It's arrived! Just put it in bags and taking a breather. From first impressions: you know us very well :D" Aw. I'm just glad it's stuff they can eat.

The next message was one of them describing the other's reaction to seeing baby cucumbers (which I'd chosen as easier to eat than having to slice up one big cucumber): "oh they're unpickled pickles!" I've been smiling at that ever since.

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Do you recall this paper (which is also summarised in this article in the Conversation) about which a YouTube video was made?

Well it's just gone and won the journal's best paper award.

I continue to think one should be wary of indulging in futurism and remain glad I managed to keep the words "Rogue AI" out of it.

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Belatedly browsing the schedule for Oxonmoot 2025 in Sched, and wondering how anyone with colour blindness can cope with the colour scheme Sched uses to differentiate between in person, hybrid and online events. Luckily not a problem for me, but seems like a core thing Sched should be doing better.

Meanwhile after wondering that, I am now speeding through the Oxonmoot programme, seeing which events I hope to watch. Probably watched after the Oxford event, using the wonderful catch up streaming the con organisers have honed over the years. I am very likely to sleep through the whole live event.

... quite a bit later ...

And that's seemingly 31 events in the Oxonmoot 2025 programme I'm especially interested in and hope to watch, probably after the event. Marvelling as always at the range of talks and events. Phenomenally grateful to the Tolkien Society and Oxonmoot organisers for making this event accessible online.

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After we got back from the dog show and picking V up from a social visit, I tried to get my hair cut but they were already closed; turns out they've changed their Sunday hours. Which is fine, but argh. I could really do with a haircut, and I like them before big work events like I have on Wednesday. Which I leave for Tuesday afternoon, which means dealing with this on Monday. When I have circuits after work, and it's just annoying trying to fit everything in.

After 5pm I couldn't go to the gym, I couldn't get my hair cut. So much still goes un-done.

And it's not as if I mis-spent any of my day: I slept until 11 and I think if I could do that every day it would fix me. And in the afternoon D and I went to the dog show that is my favorite part of our local pride. The chonky shiba Oscar! The boopable chocolate-brown Bruno! The best-dressed Artie in Hawaiian shirt and straw hat! The elderly lady Poppy with her cute neon pink and orange legwarmers! A family let me sit on their bench with them so I didn't have to stand. The sun was perfect, the weather was perfect, the beer was cold.

D's idea of a successful weekend is to feel on Sunday night like Friday was a long time ago. And it definitely does. But I still want more weekend.

Finding another stash of books that can mostly be donated to Oxfam's. Including several Egaeus Press weird short story collections, gorgeous hardback books, but I no longer need, and am happy passing on. As well as a Little Endless "Delirium's Party" hardback. Keeping some of the other books though.

Time and distance is making it easier to pass on some of these books. And we still have way too many books in house, especially a huge number I can no longer read with my progressive neurological illness. It's very freeing passing them on. Even if book lover me naturally rails against the concept!

P.S. I reread the Little Endless book quickly tonight before passing it on. Quite charming, and written and drawn by someone other than Neil Gaiman. Gorgeous mini Endless comic book art too.

P.P.S. Martin is now going to have an incredible number of books to take to Oxfam later this week!

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It's past the voting deadline, and I didn't vote in the dramatic presentation long form category, but I'm still trying to watch the shortlisted films.

I'd not seen Dune part one, so watched that and then part two (which was on the shortlist this year). It's one book turned into two lengthy films, and part two has a rubbish ending - we get no sense of Paul becoming Emperor as any kind of triumph before it's undermined by the immediate start of the next war. They are both grand spectacles, but their pacing is odd - at times it seems to be dragging and then key events are rather rushed over (so you're left not really quite understanding what happened without resorting to plot summaries after the fact). And the racial politics have dated poorly, shall we say? And I don't think the whole sandworm ecosystem is even vaguely plausible. But there's some great scheming and some interesting characters (albeit that a lot of the villains are entirely 2-dimensional).

The Wild Robot is an altogether different film, very heavy-handed with its messaging and happy to tug on the heart-strings. The plot doesn't really stand up to scrutiny (robot has access to all human knowledge, but doesn't know how geese swim? etc.), but it's well-animated and has lots of fun moments. And despite being the film of the first book of a trilogy, it actually has a decent ending! But I really struggled to suspend my disbelief because the plot is so full of holes.

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Healthy Summer Living FTW

It was 95F or so today, with a heat index of 106F. So what did I do? I stayed inside, of course, where I could enjoy air conditioning.

Oh, and then I spent the entire afternoon baking. You know, that culinary art that involves working in a hot kitchen? Yeah.

Why yes, I can operate somewhat counter intuitively, why do you ask?

About four dozen peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (far fewer as of now, since Bob and I have been eating far too many of them), and two loaves of bread, due to come out of the oven in about 29 minutes. And I am untowardly pleased with myself.

Tomorrow, I help my friend RS install Zoom on her tablet; we were supposed to do it Friday, and then today, but she said it was too hot for me to come over. I suppose I won't tell her about my kitchen adventures. Heh.

I'm wondering if there's anyone out there on my f'list who's watched KPop Demon Hunters. I have folks elsewhere who've seen it and loved it as I do, but I'm wondering what people beyond my KPop stan circles think of it. It's not really how KPop operates, but it's a cute KPop fairy tale* with some truly ear-wormy songs. Anyone out there? Anyone? Bueller?

*One of the guys in one of the groups I love said he couldn't watch it because it wasn't how things actually operated. Bless - fairy tales don't work like the real world works, sweetie.

Current Mood: content
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: Ateez "Wonderland"

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The local pride has the best parade. They don't (can't!) close the arterial road we'd march down but we do get half of it. So we stay on the left side and oncoming traffic is on the right.

Pretty soon I noticed the chants whenever a bus was coming toward us. The most frequent bus on that road is the 192. So I heard (and soon happily joined in, enough that I nearly lost my voice by the end of a pretty short parade): "One nine two! Gay for you! One nine two! Gay for you!" Just nonsense, but it was fun. And we kept it up as long as it took for the bus to get past us.

Halfway through, we encountered a rail replacement bus, a common sight while Stockport station is closed. And pretty soon I heard (and yelled "Replacement bus! Gay for us! Replacement bus! Gay for us!"

At the end, we added a "One fifty! Gay for me!" and "One seven one! Queer is fun!"

Some of the bus drivers waved at us, some just stoically went about their job. But apparently everyone on the 171 was looking grumpy. I'm sad to see a bus I used to get to and from work being so unsupportive!

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When V was making breakfast and I was wandering around the kitchen checking what groceries we needed, they told me "Well, the spirit of Gary is causing mischief." They pointed out that the sheepskin they use on their dining room chair was on the floor.

They initially bought themselves one but the first time Gary encountered it he claimed it, and they couldn't bear to take it back so just bought another one.

He ended up with three over time.

We got rid of (most of) his along with his other things, but V does still have theirs of course, on that chair.

It probably fell on the floor when I was putting the chairs back after they'd been on top of the table so the dining room could be cleaned yesterday. But regardless, Gary is such a big presence still.

I miss him so much. I think about him every day.

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everygary everywhere all at once

A guest blog post from Martin on my academic musings blog.

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James Arthur Lovell, Jr. 1927-2025

He never actually said "Houston, we have a problem." That was apparently his crew mate, Jack Swigert, who reportedly said "OK Houston, I believe we've had a problem here." Lovell then clarified the situation further, saying "We've had a problem here. We've had a main B bus undervolt."

It doesn't matter, ultimately, because Lovell's heroism wasn't because of what he said.

Lovell, the commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission in 1970, was the face of a mission that turned from a potential tragedy to a victory of teamwork, both on the ground and in the cold and dark lunar landing module - a bloody-minded determination to get the crew home, using spit and baling wire (actually plastic bags, cardboard and duct tape) and on-the-fly math and physics problem-solving with pencils, papers and slide rules. Lovell played an active part in that kind of pre-smartphone computing; one of his many talents was engineering know how.

These two videos are both gripping, although the first (and possibly better) one is on a page that isn't as accurate as it might have been. The one from the NASA website is slightly dryer, but with a wealth of information.*

His life, from his birth in Cleveland to his death in Lake Forest, Illinois, was so much more than that admittedly defining moment. The Wikipedia article is rigorously complete. The Washington Post's story is a good one (possibly paywalled), and the Chicago Sun Times' story, which is not behind a paywall, comes from an excellent writer and full of hometown pride. The stories talk about Lovell's love affair with rockets and space, which started when he was a kid and never ended. The stories are so worthwhile to read.

Rest in honorable piece, Commander Lovell, and may you finally walk on the moon as you make your journey to the stars.

* YouTube has decided to be a mess today, so it might be worth avoiding it.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: Bump of Chicken "Ginga Tedsudou"

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Hello and Hello and Hello

I'd written an entire post. It took a lot out of me. And I hit the wrong damn key and it's gone and it isn't recoverable. Believe me, I've tried. So here's what I can do.

Trigger warning follows for a bad mental situation, although it's much better now:

( I mean it. TW for self-harm shit. )And that's that. I think I can get back to relatively wholesome posting Real Soon Now.

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: Saint Sister "Causing Trouble"

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Work's "Active Staff" programme through the university sports centre is mostly dormant in August, but has just acquired a regular "give it a go" session for women's football on Thursday afternoons. (Hmm, I wonder what recent event might have prompted such a thing ...) Unfortunately this session clashes exactly with my favourite free exercise class, which has just rebranded from "yogalates" to "stretch and relax".

One of these activities will help my knee mobility and one of them is highly likely to mess up my knees further. Much as I want to be as tough as Lucy Bronze, I regretfully skipped the football and stuck with the stretches.

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fitness,
football

Still on operation reduce the piles of books around the house, giving most to charity. Managed to find 20 more books to donate in a couple of short bursts this evening and just now. Had set myself that target today. Plus a chunky limited edition OOP Big Finish Doctor Who boxset. Going to Oxfam's.

We still have far too many books I'm not using and won't be able to use even more as my neurological disease progresses. Would like to get some floor space back. At the moment too many places in our bungalow resemble my former PhD supervisor Charles's office, which was filled with book piles too!

Today's book grab was an eclectic range, including book history (journals and academic books), cultural history, roleplaying game books, and comic books. Some alarmingly chunky books among them! Can see a sense of progress in the study. But much more still to clear out. For another time.

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Yesterday I had a nauseating headache all day. It kept me from getting anything done at work which was rough when this latest project is bearing down on me, deadlines looming. I knew it'd put me under more pressure today (which it did). I wanted to go lift weights after work. I realized I need a haircut but I didn't go do that. I was stressed about still not having booked my travel and accommodation for this conference I'm keynote-speaking at next week. I hadn't started the keynote speech of course (and should I be worried that I'm not more worried about that?).

There's just too many things I need to fit in to not-enough days this week. And the only one I managed yesterday was booking a hotel and train tickets (and finding out that an online pal who lives nearby will not even be around that day to get dinner with, boo!). Which is a pretty big deal because I find that so stressful, but it's so little for a whole day.

Today I did okay with the work project and have a little more time than I thought -- end of tomorrow instead of midday today makes a big difference. And I did go to the gym -- angelofthenorth was going swimming this evening so I did too. It was okay at first but people dicking around in the one lane that there was for swimming laps meant I had enough collisions and disruption that my lizard brain noped out before my body would have.

Cardio is so difficult -- not the activity itself, but everything else. It's much more anxiety-inducing to go swimming or cycling on my own, it's not always easy to line schedules up with other people's... (indeed today I almost regretted when helping D do garden chores at his girlfriend's house took longer than expected). There are Reasons that I have avoided it in recent years...

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Looking out at the backyard, V said "Those lilac branches will need to be cut back some time." They added, "I may have to get one of you henchmen to do it."

And then "I'm just gonna call you two my henchmen now."

I looked over at D on the other end of the couch and said "That's a pretty nice name for us, coming from them!"

They continued: "When people ask me what our relationship is, I'm just gonna say 'They're my henchmen. What, you don't have any?' "

" 'Skill issue'," I said. They laughed.

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Books on pre-order:

Queen Demon (Rising World 2) by Martha Wells (7 Oct 2025)

Books acquired in July:

and read:
1. Moonlighter by Sarina Bowen
2. Grown Wise (Liminal Mysteries) by Celia Lake
and unread:
1. Death by Candlelight (Adam and Eve Mysteries 1) by Emma Davies
2. The Little Cottage on the Hill (Little Cottage 1) by Emma Davies

Books acquired previously and read in July:

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine [2][Sep 2024]

Borrowed books read in July:

Once Upon You and Me by Timothy Janovsky
You Had Me At Happy Hour by Timothy Janovsky
Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane
One-Touch Pass (SCU Hockey 4) by J.J. Mulder [8]
The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
Fourth Wing (Empyrean 1) by Rebecca Yarros [2]

Rereads in July:

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine [2]

I continue to enjoy all of Celia Lake's books, and I still adore the Teixcalaan books by Arkady Martine, whether reading or listening to them. Stuart Turton wrote the entirely gripping groundhog-day country house murder mystery, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, and I found The Last Murder at the End of the World another very gripping science-fictional murder mystery, this time in weird post-apocalyptic flavour.

Fourth Wing is a massive fantasy tome (21 hours of audiobook!) about a lethal military college for aspiring dragonriders, which piles a great many tropes onto some rather wonky worldbuilding. It is very entertaining and I can see why it is hugely popular. I am part way through the even more massive sequel and I regret nothing.

[1] Pre-order
[2] Audiobook
[3] Physical book
[4] Crowdfunding
[5] Goodbye read
[6] Cambridgeshire Reads/Listens
[7] FaRoFeb / FaRoCation / Bookmas / HRBC
[8] Prime Reading / Kindle Unlimited

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Woke up this morning, did the usual chores and made tea, went with D to his dental hospital appointment, waited around a lot, came home long enough to eat lunch, went back (thankfully much less waiting this time!), actually tried to do a couple of hours' work, had counseling after that, made dinner after that (what if I made our usual carbonara but with broccoli and shallots added in because they needed using up? it was received well), actually made myself go swimming after all that (with the help of D giving me a lift; I just could not face getting myself there by any means), I walked home afterwards and now I'm exhausted and going to bed.

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diary

Watch on YouTube

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Unpickled pickles

Prize-winning Paper

Oxonmoot 2025 upcoming

Dog show

More book clearing

More Hugo Films: Dune, The Wild Robot

Dept. of Baking

Queer is fun!

Random Doctor Who Picture

Poltergary

Butterflies in Dundee in 2025

Dept. of Farewell

Dept. of Recovering Spoons

Choices choices

Book clearing

Not enough hours in the day and yet so many days in the week

Henchmen

To-read pile, 2025, July

One thing after another

Behind the scenes at The Ninth Doctor Adventures

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