Nonfiction
May. 23rd, 2026 05:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkatOmer Bartov, Israel: What Went Wrong?:( internal/external causes )
Jef I. Richards, A History of Advertising: The First 300,000 Years: ( factoids )
Hal Brands, The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern Century: ( geography and politics )
Paisley Rekdal, Appropriate: A Provocation:( what is appropriation? )
Mel Stanfill, Professor Superstar: Fandom and Anti-Fandom of Academia: ( fans and anti-fans of academia )
Roger Kreuz, Strikingly Similar: Plagiarism and Appropriation from Chaucer to Chatbots:( plagiarism and some related stuff )
Farah Mendelsohn, Considering the Female Man: Or, as the bear swore: ( lit crit )
Joshua Clark Davis, Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought Back: ( how to destroy a movement with law )
Jef I. Richards, A History of Advertising: The First 300,000 Years: ( factoids )
Hal Brands, The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern Century: ( geography and politics )
Paisley Rekdal, Appropriate: A Provocation:( what is appropriation? )
Mel Stanfill, Professor Superstar: Fandom and Anti-Fandom of Academia: ( fans and anti-fans of academia )
Roger Kreuz, Strikingly Similar: Plagiarism and Appropriation from Chaucer to Chatbots:( plagiarism and some related stuff )
Farah Mendelsohn, Considering the Female Man: Or, as the bear swore: ( lit crit )
Joshua Clark Davis, Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought Back: ( how to destroy a movement with law )
and he goes down swinging
May. 21st, 2026 05:58 pmmusesfoolStill with the don't wannas, but for once our All Staff call was mostly interesting (though it never fails to baffle me that people put their requests for different soda in the vending machine in the anonymous complaint form instead of just asking the office manager dude about it - as I said to my boss, no questions about COLAs but always questions about colas, which evoked a real out loud laugh from her so you know, score) and I got the 2 main things I had to do this week done, so tomorrow can just be waiting around for other people to send me their meeting materials (I loathe how they have no consideration for me and my summer Friday sign-off at 2:30 pm, but the C-suite level folks are always like that).
In other news, now I am not seeing Baby Miss L this weekend, because the weather is supposed to be rainy and chilly, so the party was postponed till next weekend. It's fine. I have gotten some lovely videos and pictures of her dancing at a wedding she attended last weekend, and that will suffice for now.
So Tuesday night, I turned off the Knicks game while they were down by double-digits in the 4th quarter and went to bed. Imagine my surprise to learn that they had tied it up and then won in OT! Let's hope they can win in regulation tonight.
And finally, I knew Mike Keenan was a piece of shit, but there's some stuff in this article about the 1994 Rangers (gift link) that I did not know. Interesting read. They won then and haven't since, so I guess it might really have to last a lifetime.
Now I have to figure out what to have for dinner. I guess it could be quesadillas again. Idk.
*
In other news, now I am not seeing Baby Miss L this weekend, because the weather is supposed to be rainy and chilly, so the party was postponed till next weekend. It's fine. I have gotten some lovely videos and pictures of her dancing at a wedding she attended last weekend, and that will suffice for now.
So Tuesday night, I turned off the Knicks game while they were down by double-digits in the 4th quarter and went to bed. Imagine my surprise to learn that they had tied it up and then won in OT! Let's hope they can win in regulation tonight.
And finally, I knew Mike Keenan was a piece of shit, but there's some stuff in this article about the 1994 Rangers (gift link) that I did not know. Interesting read. They won then and haven't since, so I guess it might really have to last a lifetime.
Now I have to figure out what to have for dinner. I guess it could be quesadillas again. Idk.
*
and it's on target every time
May. 20th, 2026 09:36 pmmusesfoolI had a bad case of the don't wannas today, and I don't anticipate it getting better tomorrow or Friday, but we finally start summer Fridays this week and have a 3 day weekend, so hopefully that will help. I could barely stay awake until 5 pm, so after I logged off, I napped hard, and had one of those dreams where I think I've woken up, but no, I'm still asleep and then I think I've woken up from that, but no, I'm still asleep, over and over until I finally do actually wake up and am like, how did I think I was awake in those dreams, it was so clearly not reality? Anyway, it was in the middle of a big thunderstorm and there is nothing better than being cozy in bed during a thunderstorm, so that was all right.
I did want to talk about a couple of books I've read!
What I've just finished
I don't think I ever said anything after finishing The Last Contract of Isako, but I liked it. It's a noir detective story set in a far-future colony that has lost contact with Earth, and the titular Isako is a corporate samurai on her last contract. I really liked her - she was a 50yo woman in a profession best handled by younger people and she knew it. ( spoilers )
I'm seeing Baby Miss L this weekend, so I bought her some books and also read them:
- We Will Rock Our Classmates: A Penelope Rex Book by Ryan Higgins, which was ADORABLE. Baby Miss L liked the first Penelope Rex book, so I think she will like this one, in which Penelope signs up to play guitar in the class talent show, as well.
- Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein, which was super cute. It's bedtime and little red chicken wants a bedtime story but then she keeps interrupting when her papa tries to tell her one.
- The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt (Author) and Oliver Jeffers (Illustrator), which was cute but a little samey for me as an adult - I bet kids love it.
I also reread Parade of Horribles so I think I understand some of it much better but some of it is still a little ...opaque. I'm going do another reread with my notes document open so I can check off stuff that got answered (or not) and add all the new stuff that will now have to be resolved (or not). I will say that while there were some fantastic moments, it's not my favorite book - it's probably in the lower half of my personal rankings, tbh, because I feel like ( spoiler ) I'm also thinking about how supposedly Dinniman said that books 9 and 10 are really one book split into two? And I can think of several ways to manage that, so I'm very interested to see how he does it.
*
I did want to talk about a couple of books I've read!
What I've just finished
I don't think I ever said anything after finishing The Last Contract of Isako, but I liked it. It's a noir detective story set in a far-future colony that has lost contact with Earth, and the titular Isako is a corporate samurai on her last contract. I really liked her - she was a 50yo woman in a profession best handled by younger people and she knew it. ( spoilers )
I'm seeing Baby Miss L this weekend, so I bought her some books and also read them:
- We Will Rock Our Classmates: A Penelope Rex Book by Ryan Higgins, which was ADORABLE. Baby Miss L liked the first Penelope Rex book, so I think she will like this one, in which Penelope signs up to play guitar in the class talent show, as well.
- Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein, which was super cute. It's bedtime and little red chicken wants a bedtime story but then she keeps interrupting when her papa tries to tell her one.
- The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt (Author) and Oliver Jeffers (Illustrator), which was cute but a little samey for me as an adult - I bet kids love it.
I also reread Parade of Horribles so I think I understand some of it much better but some of it is still a little ...opaque. I'm going do another reread with my notes document open so I can check off stuff that got answered (or not) and add all the new stuff that will now have to be resolved (or not). I will say that while there were some fantastic moments, it's not my favorite book - it's probably in the lower half of my personal rankings, tbh, because I feel like ( spoiler ) I'm also thinking about how supposedly Dinniman said that books 9 and 10 are really one book split into two? And I can think of several ways to manage that, so I'm very interested to see how he does it.
*
put it in the books!
May. 18th, 2026 11:44 pmmusesfoolwhat a fucking wild night of sports. the Mets scored TEN RUNS in the TWELFTH INNING and the Nats brought in a position player to pitch, and the umpires had to call the replay officials to find out if that was allowed! Spoiler: It was, because it was after the 10th inning? Or something? If you're within a regular 9-inning game, I think you have to be losing by 8 or winning by 10 before it's allowed, but apparently the rules change in extra innings. who knew? #LFGM
ANYWAY. It was bonkers, and then I turned away just in time to see the Canadiens score the winning goal in OT in Game 7!!! I would have been okay with either team winning, and now I just need them to beat Carolina and whoever comes out of the West to win it all and lift the Cup!
And tomorrow, the Knicks are back in action and will hopefully do well and go to the finals! #go ny go ny go
*
ANYWAY. It was bonkers, and then I turned away just in time to see the Canadiens score the winning goal in OT in Game 7!!! I would have been okay with either team winning, and now I just need them to beat Carolina and whoever comes out of the West to win it all and lift the Cup!
And tomorrow, the Knicks are back in action and will hopefully do well and go to the finals! #go ny go ny go
*
maybe take me with you, we can hide
May. 17th, 2026 10:28 pmmusesfoolUsually, I shower at night, but last night, I stayed up too late reading and didn't feel like delaying bedtime so I put the shower off until this morning. While I was in there, I noticed a spider, but it was on the far wall, and I was naked and without my glasses, so I let it live and it disappeared somewhere (the whole room is tiled, floor to ceiling, so I don't know where? but also. I don't want to know where).
This evening, I had to wash my hair, so there I was back in the shower, and I turned off the water and stepped back while I was lathering the shampoo, and there was the spider, dropping down from god knows where right in the middle of my shower!
So I had to get out - with my hair still full of shampoo - grab my glasses and a paper towel, so I could kill it, because come the fuck on, spider, that is not okay! The shower is sacrosanct!
It's a good thing I still have to stay up for an hour to detangle because I would not have been able to go to sleep right away after that, omg.
*
This evening, I had to wash my hair, so there I was back in the shower, and I turned off the water and stepped back while I was lathering the shampoo, and there was the spider, dropping down from god knows where right in the middle of my shower!
So I had to get out - with my hair still full of shampoo - grab my glasses and a paper towel, so I could kill it, because come the fuck on, spider, that is not okay! The shower is sacrosanct!
It's a good thing I still have to stay up for an hour to detangle because I would not have been able to go to sleep right away after that, omg.
*
the way you hold your knife, the way we danced til three
May. 17th, 2026 06:26 pmmusesfoolYesterday, I made these ricotta cheesecake bars, for which I had to shell 62g of pistachios (oh, the humanity!), and they are okay, but either there is not enough butter or I had too much graham cracker crumb because the crust does not cohere. (I used pre-smashed crumbs because that is what I had and probably used too much. Recipes really should give you some sort of measurement beyond "7 or 8 graham crackers, crushed" for these things.)
I also made KAB pretzel rolls (half the recipe) and as always, they are delicious, even if the whole boiling step is annoying. I definitely recommend them, and if like me, you never remember that they have a small amount of butter (2 tbsp) that needs to be softened ahead of time, you can always just substitute the same amount of olive oil, also like me. *wry*
With the LIRR on strike, I'm not going into the office this week (I had already decided that anyway), so I didn't have to do any other baking, and I just bought some spring mix and grilled chicken strips so that'll be lunch for the week.
*
I also made KAB pretzel rolls (half the recipe) and as always, they are delicious, even if the whole boiling step is annoying. I definitely recommend them, and if like me, you never remember that they have a small amount of butter (2 tbsp) that needs to be softened ahead of time, you can always just substitute the same amount of olive oil, also like me. *wry*
With the LIRR on strike, I'm not going into the office this week (I had already decided that anyway), so I didn't have to do any other baking, and I just bought some spring mix and grilled chicken strips so that'll be lunch for the week.
*
