Gig list - December 2025
Dec. 2nd, 2025 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gentlyepigramsI haven't been very regular about doing these posts this year, but I've made up my mind for 2026 that I'm going to be more regular. We went to Ambercon Northwest in November and otherwise were super busy but did no shows, including David Byrne, which I have regrets about. But it was cold and I was in a lot of pain and exhausted, so I missed it.
( List under the cut to protect your flist. )
( List under the cut to protect your flist. )
Interesting things - 2025 11 30
Nov. 30th, 2025 11:06 pmgentlyepigrams- They’re doing to America what they did to Christianity. This stuff is why so many liberals from the South cringe when they hear Jesus stuff. It's not Jesus, it's his nominal supporters.
- Word of the week: Turkuterie. I'd rather have this than a giant turkey breast any Thanksgiving.
- What I Learned on My First Deer Hunt. Interesting to read as someone who enjoys hunted meat but is not interested in participating in a hunt.
- How Stephanie St. Clair Became The ‘Numbers Queen’ Of Harlem. I had heard of her but didn't know her story.
- How to Reject Someone Nicely. Useful tips to consider.
- The Unbearable Whiteness of the Goodreads Choice Awards. From last January but still relevant. TL;DR: the site's demographics are white women 25-44 and the reader's choice awards reflect that.
- Barcelona's Sagrada Família becomes world's tallest church. I remember visiting Barcelona as a teenager when the church was much smaller. It brings me joy to see it move toward completion.
- The best Doctor Who speeches of all time, ranked. The title lies because it's only New Who and the Genesis of the Daleks speech is right up there with any of these.
- Is ‘Gentle Density’ Too Much for Single-Family Neighborhoods in Dallas? Gentle density means duplexes, triplexes, ADUs (granny flats) and similar small increases in density, as fought by every NIMBYer in the world.
- Why Is DC’s Phillips Collection Selling Off Its Masterpieces? Good questions about deaccessioning vs new acquisitions.
- 35 arrests in Bulgaria in a large art trafficking investigation. A friend of mine who's involved in the money and security side of the art world posted this.
Sword Worlders Amuck - 2025 11 30 session
Nov. 30th, 2025 07:24 pmgentlyepigramsGM Michael
Ian playing Skuld with her AI Gunnar
Sarah playing Inarra Vetari
Steve playing Steve Delikai
Ginger playing Ingrid Bolting
I think this is session 5; I missed a session when I was in Phoenix last month. We'll play again in January.
( Rough notes under the cut. )
Ian playing Skuld with her AI Gunnar
Sarah playing Inarra Vetari
Steve playing Steve Delikai
Ginger playing Ingrid Bolting
I think this is session 5; I missed a session when I was in Phoenix last month. We'll play again in January.
( Rough notes under the cut. )
Look! I remembered to post before December started this year!
Nov. 30th, 2025 02:42 am![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
denise posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_newsHello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.
The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.
( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )
Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.
On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.
karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.
( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )
Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.
On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.
Weekly media report - for the fortnight ending 2025 11 20
Nov. 26th, 2025 09:45 pmgentlyepigramsBooks
Higher Magic, by Courtney Floyd. I want a book about magical grad students but this is not it. DNF about 75 pages in.
The Library at Hellebore, by Cassandra Khaw. DNF about 50 pages in. I really want to like her books but I just don't like horror.
The Kamogawa Food Detectives, by Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood. Sweet stories about a man and his daughter who run a very special restaurant and a detective agency that finds the food that people used to love.
A Murder for Miss Hortense: A Mystery, by Mel Pennant. Miss Hortense founded the Pardner investment club but was booted from it For Reasons and in the present (2000), she has to open the case that got her booted up all over again after her former friend who was running the club dies. The early Pardner history reminded me a bit of community stories from Call the Midwife but the patois accents, which I presume are realistic, drove me a little crazy.
Murder at the Wham Bam Club, by Carolyn Marie Wilkins. Perfectly adequate mystery that is clearly first in a series featuring a Black psychic in 1920s small-town Illinois. The setting is more interesting than the main character. A student ran away from the boarding school for Black girls where the protagonist had once been a student; she has to save the school by finding the girl, who ends up accused of murder when the lead musician at the local jazz club gets himself killed. The psychics/hoodoo in this book do a lot of telling, not showing, and a bit too much deus ex machina for my taste. I wouldn't turn down a sequel but will not prioritize it, which is a shame because this setting could hold some interesting mysteries.
The Nightshade God, by Hannah Whitten. Third in this trilogy about incarnated gods and the mortals they possess. The worldbuilding is cool, the plot is twisty, and the minor characters are actually more interesting and likeable than the protagonist (if not than her two OT3 boyfriends). I'm glad I finished this but I don't think I'll chase down more from this author.
Music
Florence + the Machine, Everybody Scream. Still digesting this. It's a little more rockist than her early stuff, which I think is true of much of her later music. It's also really angry, which I don't say in a negative way. I liked it.
Higher Magic, by Courtney Floyd. I want a book about magical grad students but this is not it. DNF about 75 pages in.
The Library at Hellebore, by Cassandra Khaw. DNF about 50 pages in. I really want to like her books but I just don't like horror.
The Kamogawa Food Detectives, by Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood. Sweet stories about a man and his daughter who run a very special restaurant and a detective agency that finds the food that people used to love.
A Murder for Miss Hortense: A Mystery, by Mel Pennant. Miss Hortense founded the Pardner investment club but was booted from it For Reasons and in the present (2000), she has to open the case that got her booted up all over again after her former friend who was running the club dies. The early Pardner history reminded me a bit of community stories from Call the Midwife but the patois accents, which I presume are realistic, drove me a little crazy.
Murder at the Wham Bam Club, by Carolyn Marie Wilkins. Perfectly adequate mystery that is clearly first in a series featuring a Black psychic in 1920s small-town Illinois. The setting is more interesting than the main character. A student ran away from the boarding school for Black girls where the protagonist had once been a student; she has to save the school by finding the girl, who ends up accused of murder when the lead musician at the local jazz club gets himself killed. The psychics/hoodoo in this book do a lot of telling, not showing, and a bit too much deus ex machina for my taste. I wouldn't turn down a sequel but will not prioritize it, which is a shame because this setting could hold some interesting mysteries.
The Nightshade God, by Hannah Whitten. Third in this trilogy about incarnated gods and the mortals they possess. The worldbuilding is cool, the plot is twisty, and the minor characters are actually more interesting and likeable than the protagonist (if not than her two OT3 boyfriends). I'm glad I finished this but I don't think I'll chase down more from this author.
Music
Florence + the Machine, Everybody Scream. Still digesting this. It's a little more rockist than her early stuff, which I think is true of much of her later music. It's also really angry, which I don't say in a negative way. I liked it.
Dishwasher Saga, the sequel
Nov. 24th, 2025 10:55 pmgentlyepigramsPrefix, our concierge service, showed up this afternoon and installed the dishwasher. That's the good news. We are waiting for the first load of dishes to come out of it right now.
The bad news is that while they were behind it figuring out what the flippers did to get the old dishwasher in and out, they found some black stuff on the drywall. So after the holidays, we're looking at mold remediation. The good news there is that whatever it is (mold or mildew), it's not in the drywall behind the sink.
In any case, we're now in possession of a working dishwasher for the first time in weeks and even though we're going to have to pull it out to fix the drywall behind it, and hopefully that's all, it's something.
The bad news is that while they were behind it figuring out what the flippers did to get the old dishwasher in and out, they found some black stuff on the drywall. So after the holidays, we're looking at mold remediation. The good news there is that whatever it is (mold or mildew), it's not in the drywall behind the sink.
In any case, we're now in possession of a working dishwasher for the first time in weeks and even though we're going to have to pull it out to fix the drywall behind it, and hopefully that's all, it's something.
Interesting things - 2025 11 23
Nov. 23rd, 2025 01:34 amgentlyepigrams- What The Response To My “Are Boyfriends Embarrassing?” Article Says About The Current State Of Heterosexual Dating. Yet again glad I'm not out there in the dating pits. If anything happens to my husband, I'm moving to Crone Island.
- Olivia Nuzzi is an Embarrassment to Journalism. Best thing I've read about the Nuzzi scandal and honestly the last thing I hope I have to read. (BRB updating my Bsky mute list!)
- Visits from the *ahem* Squad. The key insight I took away from this post is that the "spare time internet" is inimical to creative work. Hmmm.
- Bari Weiss wants to take down CBS News’ Standards and Practices unit for having ‘too much power’: sources. They spanked a favorite of hers for getting mad about unprofessional treatment of Ta-Nehisi Coates over his recent book that covers Israel and Palestine. Quelle surprise.
- Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani. The former chair of Africana Studies at Bowdoin got screwed by the NYT mandate to tell the stories that elite Times subscribers want to hear.
- Met Museum Workers Push to Unionize. Good for them.
- The Sublime Ache and Freedom of Freya Marske’s Cinder House. I need to clear my reading list and get to this.
- The Other Satanic Panics. TIL there were anti-RPG panics in Spain and Brazil.
- The remarkable life of Sophia Duleep Singh, the suffragette princess of Punjab and goddaughter of Queen Victoria. Another TIL.
- This Cheese Defeated 5,200 Others to Be Named the Best in the World. I am beginning to think there are a lot of best cheese awards out there.
- In a reading rut? How to get back into reading for fun. I am not in a rut, more of an overwhelm, but I think this is all good advice.
- Self-Silencing Is Making Women Sick. A couple of years old but new to me.
- I Want You to Understand Chicago. ICE delenda est.
- Why Is Larry Summers Still Employed? This is a very good question that we all know the answer to.
- What is the ‘forehead kiss of doom and despair’? Yet again grateful that I am not young and in the dating scene.
- ‘The English person with a Chinese stomach’: how Fuchsia Dunlop became a Sichuan food hero. Chinese food (mostly Americanized) is of interest to me so I had to buy the book this article is part of the publicity wave for.
- Fedora man unmasked: Meet the teen behind the Louvre mystery photo. I love these folks who wear anachronistic clothes.
Dishwasher saga
Nov. 22nd, 2025 07:53 pmgentlyepigramsSo our dishwasher died a few weeks ago before we went to Portland. We've been trying to get it replaced ever since. We did the research and bought a Bosch model and arranged to have it delivered earlier this week. The installer said it wouldn't fit in our slot. Turns out that when the folks who remodeled the kitchen put in the marble tiles (many of which are broken), they took part of the clearance that many dishwashers, including the well-recommended Bosch, need. Back to the drawing board and Consumer Reports.
We got a list of brands that would fit and went back to Lowe's. Or rather, spouse did. He arranged for Lowe's to deliver a Kitchen Aid dishwasher that was decently recommended. They couldn't deliver it and install until after Thanksgiving, for some reason, but they could deliver this afternoon. He has also arranged for PreFix, our repair/handyman service, to show up and do the installation on Monday.
Fingers crossed that Monday night will involve loading the dishwasher. Washing by hand is Not Fun. Also I'm yet again annoyed by a sorry piece of remodeling that the flipper who did the house before we bought it--not from them; we bought it from the people who bought it from the flipper--messed up.
We got a list of brands that would fit and went back to Lowe's. Or rather, spouse did. He arranged for Lowe's to deliver a Kitchen Aid dishwasher that was decently recommended. They couldn't deliver it and install until after Thanksgiving, for some reason, but they could deliver this afternoon. He has also arranged for PreFix, our repair/handyman service, to show up and do the installation on Monday.
Fingers crossed that Monday night will involve loading the dishwasher. Washing by hand is Not Fun. Also I'm yet again annoyed by a sorry piece of remodeling that the flipper who did the house before we bought it--not from them; we bought it from the people who bought it from the flipper--messed up.
We ate at: Restaurant Beatrice with Tasting Collective.
Nov. 20th, 2025 11:00 pmgentlyepigramsRestaurant Beatrice is one of our local upscale Cajun places. We'd been there before, a couple of years ago, with a friend who wanted to go. We thought it was nice but never got back there and have more recently frequented another Cajun place that's both closer to us and more downscale (including being open during the day).
The Tasting Collective offering had five courses, one of which I had to request a substitution for because it was an Elvis-aligned dessert that had peanut butter ice cream. Since we would all be sad if I ate PB ice cream because I'd throw up afterwards, they gave me the same dessert with a different ice cream.
First course was a gumbo, which everybody at the table (including several Houston folks, where we also have really good Cajun food, and did before Katrina) thought was too thin; second course was boudin, which was fine but had a particularly nice remoulade; third course was a banh mi with pork sourced from the owner's brother; fourth course was Atchafalaya catfish; and fifth was the Elvis dessert.
I remember it being better when we went a couple of years ago and one of our party, who is a huge perfectionist, said she thought it was an issue with the change of executive chef. Which might be, but the letdown of the gumbo was an extreme disappointment. Also there was some discussion about how the story behind the restaurant had changed somewhat in the last few years, which I had paid no attention to. I was more interested in how she pronounced Atchafalaya, which is different to how I learned to pronounce it from the Cajuns in Houston when I was a wee thing.
Net result: I wouldn't turn down Restaurant Beatrice if one of my friends wanted to to go, but I don't think a return visit is high on our list.
The Tasting Collective offering had five courses, one of which I had to request a substitution for because it was an Elvis-aligned dessert that had peanut butter ice cream. Since we would all be sad if I ate PB ice cream because I'd throw up afterwards, they gave me the same dessert with a different ice cream.
First course was a gumbo, which everybody at the table (including several Houston folks, where we also have really good Cajun food, and did before Katrina) thought was too thin; second course was boudin, which was fine but had a particularly nice remoulade; third course was a banh mi with pork sourced from the owner's brother; fourth course was Atchafalaya catfish; and fifth was the Elvis dessert.
I remember it being better when we went a couple of years ago and one of our party, who is a huge perfectionist, said she thought it was an issue with the change of executive chef. Which might be, but the letdown of the gumbo was an extreme disappointment. Also there was some discussion about how the story behind the restaurant had changed somewhat in the last few years, which I had paid no attention to. I was more interested in how she pronounced Atchafalaya, which is different to how I learned to pronounce it from the Cajuns in Houston when I was a wee thing.
Net result: I wouldn't turn down Restaurant Beatrice if one of my friends wanted to to go, but I don't think a return visit is high on our list.