selenak: (Demerzel and Terminus)
selenak ([personal profile] selenak) wrote2025-07-13 11:26 am

Foundation 3.01

In which we make another time jump, the Foundation is now in its monarchical phase, while Empire seems to approach its version of the Third Century Crisis. Also: Demerzel is still my favourite.

Spoilers are explaining the Three Laws of Robotics and the Zeroth Law )
kimberly_a: Hawaii (Hawaii)
kimberly_a ([personal profile] kimberly_a) wrote2025-07-10 06:55 pm

Mostly about anxiety and leg rehab

I haven’t written a journal entry in a bit because it was a daily goal for me for a while, and I recently started having really bad stress, so I decided to (at least temporarily) remove most of my daily goals until I’m doing better.

I think the main cause of my stress/anxiety has been how hard I’m working on getting my knee/legs rehabilitated. I’ve been doing a barrage of physical therapy exercises twice a day, going to the pool a couple hours twice a week (which requires the Paratransit process), going to the physical therapist’s office once a week, and going for walks as often as possible, usually at least once a day.

That might not be so stressful, except that I don’t have a great mind-body connection, so I have been making a concerted conscious effort to pay attention to my body—especially my left knee—and keep track of how it’s feeling: whether there’s any pain, whether there’s any tightness, etc. And I’ve been exerting this effort pretty much every moment that I’m awake. Eventually this kind of awareness should become automatic, like I think it is for most people, but in the short term it requires an incredible amount of energy.

But it’s been yielding great results. I think my knee and legs are doing better than any time since I broke my foot in 2017. I notice as soon as there’s discomfort and change what I’m doing as a result, adding in different stretches when necessary, not continuing on with things that are causing discomfort, even when it’s something I really want to do, even if stopping causes Shannon inconvenience. I’ve gotten to the point now where I can go up and down stairs without pain, so I was able to actually do some laundry last week! I know most people wouldn’t be excited about doing laundry, but I was ecstatic! I went up and down the stairs a few times that day, and my knee has been feeling a little tight since, so I’m going to be cautious when I try it again.

In addition to daily goals like writing in my journal, I’ve also mostly put my Korean studies on hold. Most days I spend about 10 minutes reading in my app of short intermediate stories/articles (though I seem to have progressed beyond the intermediate into the advanced level of the app), but don’t do any other studying. I just don’t have the emotional or intellectual energy. Luckily, my main study Discord server is on summer break right now, and the person who leads study groups on the other server where I’m active has been on vacation. So I’m not missing many group study opportunities. But I’ve lost my streak in various flash card apps and such, and for a long time I was writing a Korean journal entry every day, and I haven’t done that since June 28. But I’m trying to keep my priorities straight. Right now my top priority is leg rehab!

Though I’ve stopped some of the other things I was doing, I’ve actually been working on some fiction writing, inspired by the writing group I went to at the library last month. I have a short story I’ve been working on, and I’ve written a couple of poems. I really like one of the poems, but I don’t think I’m ready to share it with anyone because it’s extremely emotional, about all of my experiences with death. I wouldn’t want to take something that heavy to the writing group, for example. At least not right now, when I don’t really know the people. But I’m still hoping to have a rough draft of my short story done before the next writing group meeting in two weeks. It started out inspired by a children’s story I’d written in Korean, but it’s grown to be much more introspective than I would have been able to write in a foreign language. I think I might have a full rough draft finished maybe tomorrow, and have time to put it through a couple of revisions (maybe with Shannon’s feedback) before taking it to share with other people.

I say I might have a rough draft done by tomorrow, and yet I’ve been quite sick the past couple days. Last night I was woken repeatedly by itching, which has continued today, and my digestion has been terrible the past couple days, too. It turns out that stress is one of the triggers for mast cell activation syndrome. Yay. And apparently the dosage of the Xolair that controls my symptoms most of the time isn’t enough to control them when I’m really stressed out. I’m talking to my allergist in about two weeks, so I’ll consult with her about whether there’s anything additional I can do when I get breakthrough symptoms like this in acute situations.

But for now all I can do is try to reduce the stress and anxiety. That’s why I’ve cut back on things like my Korean studies, but Shannon has also suggested that I talk to my physical therapist to find out which activities are likely to be having the most impact on my knee/leg progress, and maybe eliminate something I’m doing. I’m guessing most likely I would eliminate going to the pool for the water exercise class. I think it’s helping, but maybe it isn’t helping enough to be worth the additional stress right now, until my anxiety has subsided. I’ve been making such great progress that I hate to stop any of the stuff I’ve been doing … but … I’m anxious all the time and now I’m itching and having diarrhea.

In the past when my anxiety became this bad, I usually took enough Valium for a couple weeks to break the cycle, then could go off the Valium again. But when I take a truly therapeutic dosage of Valium, it makes me sleep pretty much all day long. So right now I’m taking a dosage that makes me sleep a LOT, but not all the time, and it isn’t really enough to stop the cycle. But I don’t want to increase the dosage and fall unconscious for days/weeks on end. I’ve got too much going on right now. Of course, the amount of stuff I have going on right now is probably WHY I’m anxious.

Maybe I should talk to my psychiatrist about what to do about the anxiety, rather than trying to solve all my problems myself. I’ll phone her office tomorrow.

Oh, one last thing that I want to remember. Gary was over here today, sitting in the rocking chair in the living room, and Megara was very interested in him! It was the first time we’ve ever seen her show interest in anyone else instead of fear! She kept trying to get closer to him, but Mango kept getting jealous and driving her away. Gary suggested that sometime we might want to lock Mango up for a bit and let Megara approach him as much as she wants. It was a shock to see her so confident and curious! It made us really happy.
selenak: (Damages by Agsmith01)
selenak ([personal profile] selenak) wrote2025-07-08 04:08 pm
Entry tags:

R.F. Kuang: Yellowface (Book Review)

Very entertaining satiric novel set in and about the publishing industry. Our first person narrator, June (white), is a writer with a debut novel which didn't make a splash and won't even, so her agent tells her, get a paperback edition, in stark contrast to her college friend Athena Liu's (American Chinese) work: Athena has three novels already published, just secured a Netflix deal and celebrates that and finishing the first draft of her newest work with June when she dies an accidental death by pancake. June doesn't just dial 911. She also makes off with Athena's manuscript, about which only she knows, edits, rewrites and publishes it. Presto, success, at last! ! But wait! There's no lack of sharp-eyed foes waiting, social media is truly a jungle, and June might be her own worst enemy....
Very vague spoilers ensue )

The novel has the right kind of length for this story - which is to say, less than 400 pages - so the various buildings up of suspense - will June get away with it being the big, but not the only one - are not drawn out too long, and there's not a gigantic cast of characters. Said characters reminded me of comedy of manners types - very stylized, often types for certain ways of behaviour - fittng the satire format. The only other thing of R. F. Kuang's I'd read before was Poppy War, a fantasy novel of a very different type, so I'm impressed by her range. Otoh, if Poppy War was so grim that I emerged emotionally exhausted and sure I would go through the experience again (while being glad I had done so in the first place), Yellowface felt like a slick writty automaton which you observe once and marvel at its cleverness but don't feel the need to do it again. But I will certainly continue to keep out an eye for this author.
selenak: (Naomie Harris by Lady Turner)
selenak ([personal profile] selenak) wrote2025-07-06 03:03 pm
Entry tags:
selenak: (Cat and Books by Misbegotten)
selenak ([personal profile] selenak) wrote2025-07-05 10:59 am

Barbara Kingsolver: Demon Copperhead (Book Review)

Aka a 2022 novel set in the Appalachians during the late 1990s and early 2000s with the euphemistically called "Opiod Crisis" very much a main theme, and simultanously a modern adaptation of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. The last Copperfield adaptation I had seen or read was the Iannucci movie starring Dev Patel in the title role which emphasized the humor and vitality of the novel and succeeded splendidly, but had to cut down the darker elements in order to do so, with the breathneck speed of a two hours mvie based on a many hundred pages novel helping with that. Demon Copperhead took the reverse approach; it's all the darkness magnified - helped by the fact this is also a many hundred pages novel - but nearly no humor. Both adaptations emphasize the social injustice of the various systems they're depicting. Both had to do some considerable flashing out when it comes to Dickens's first person narrator. No one has ever argued that David is the most interesting character in David Copperfield. As long as he's still a child, this isn't noticable because David going from coddled and much beloved kid to abused and exploited kid makes for a powerful emotional arc. (BTW, I was fascinated to learn back when I was reading Claire Tomalin's Dickens biography that Dickens was influenced by Jane Eyre in this; Charlotte Bronte's novel convinced him to go for a first person narration - which he hadn't tried before - and the two abused and outraged child narrators who describe what scares and elates them incredibly vividly do have a lot on common.) But once he's an adult, it often feels like he's telling other people's stories (very well, I hasten to add) in which he's only on the periphery, except for his love life. The movie solved this by giving David - who is autobiographically inspired anyway - some more of Dickens`s on life and qualities. Demon Copperhead solves it by a) putting most of the part of the Dickens plot when David is already an adult to when Damon/Demon is still a teenager (he only becomes a legal adult near the end), b) by making Damon as a narrator a whole lot angrier than David, and c) by letting him fall to what is nearly everyone else's problem as well, addiction.

Spoilers ensue about both novels )

In conclusion: this was a compelling novel but tough to read due to the subject and the unrelenting grimness. I'm not saying you should treat the horrible neglect and exploitation of children and the way a rotten health system allowed half the population to become addicts irreverently, but tone wise, this is more Hard Times than David Copperfield, and sometimes I wished for some breathing space in between the horrors. But I am glad to have read it.
kimberly_a: (BTS)
kimberly_a ([personal profile] kimberly_a) wrote2025-07-02 08:23 pm
Entry tags:

BTS IS BACK

So … BTS did a liveshow recently (when they video stream casual conversation for fans, responding to questions viewers type into the chat and such) and announced that they’ll have a studio album coming out in spring 2026, accompanied by a world tour. It’ll be their first world tour in 7 years! First there was the pandemic (which led to the cancelation of 2020’s scheduled Map of the Soul tour, for which I had tickets), and then they went into the military. They hadn’t even done a live show with all of them together since September 2022. (The first member of the group joined the military at the end of 2022, and the last member was just discharged less than 2 weeks ago.) They were all emotional about being all together again after so long.

There’s been some confusion among muggles (lol, non-ARMYs) about whether BTS have broken up, since they’ve all been doing solo work over the past couple of years and not group projects. But the group never broke up. The entire time that they’ve been doing solo work, they’ve been describing and defining themselves as members of BTS. The group was just not able to be working together for logistical reasons, as all members joined the military at various times, so it was a great opportunity to explore their own independent music.

All the members of BTS have different musical and performance interests, which can only be expressed so much while performing as a group. Their management company has always encouraged them to pursue their own individual projects if they wanted to, but their schedule with BTS was so taxing that most of them really didn’t have the time/energy to do side projects.

They staggered the dates when each of them entered the military, so that the ones who went in later had time to do solo projects before joining up, while the first ones to join had time after they were discharged. So, for example, Yoongi/Suga did a solo tour before he joined the military in September 2023 (he was just discharged a week or two ago). Hobi/j-hope did the reverse, joining the military earlier (in April 2023) and doing a solo tour at the start of this year after his discharge. There was a period of only a few months when all seven members were in the military, because they scheduled it so that the rest of the time there was always at least one of them out, making music.

Each of them, while they were free but other members were in the military, took this time when BTS as a whole was separated as an opportunity to each pursue their specific passions. One member, for example, really likes jazz, and so he produced a bunch of very jazz-influenced music. Another had always wanted to have time to improve his piano skills, and so worked on that and added more piano playing to his solo performances. One went full on into mainstream hip-hop. A few of them wrote deeply introspective albums about their personal emotional struggles. All seven of them had a chance to really explore their own personal musical interests as individuals who make up BTS.

But now they’ve all completed their mandatory military service and are starting up group projects again. One member (Jin) will be in the U.S. throughout the latter half of this month on his solo tour, so that’s apparently when a lot of work will be done on the album, since during the liveshow they specified they’d be following him to the U.S. to work on it.

There’s also a live album that will be released in just a couple of weeks. It’ll be their first group album release since June 2022’s anthology “Proof.”

It’s an exciting time to be BTS ARMY! Now that they've announced a tour in spring 2026, I have more motivation than ever to save money! The tickets I bought more than 5 years ago were more than $300 each, so who knows how much they'll cost now! (TicketMaster is such a scam.) Plus airfare and such...
yourlibrarian: Every Kind of Craft on green (Every Kind of Craft Green - yourlibraria)
yourlibrarian ([personal profile] yourlibrarian) wrote2025-07-02 01:23 pm
Entry tags:

Sunshine Revival Post

1) As part of [community profile] sunshine_revival's first challenge: "Creative Prompt: Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want (an image, an icon, a story, a poem, or a craft) and share it with your community."

I just shared some necklaces I made a few months back over at [community profile] everykindofcraft. I did a lot of beading in the first 13 years after I took it up, but things have been rather start and stop in the last 10. A craft store closeout + a challenge from a relative got me making some new things in the last few months. That probably also contributed to my starting [community profile] everykindofcraft here, because I saw various people posting wonderful stuff that not many people were seeing, whereas on Pillowfort some general craft communities there are always getting posts.

Hopefully we can get more crafters sharing here!

2) Have been watching a slew of Apple+ shows as our subscription cutoff nears. The miniseries Disclaimer was framed in an interesting way, one which I suspect had a lot more clarity in multimedia than in the book, but perhaps not. It uses multiple narrative voices and POV for the narration, including second person, first person, and some omniscient narrative. This was pretty relevant because of who was being framed (literally) and who actually got to have their voice(s) heard. Read more... )

3) Surface is a story told in a much more straightforward manner even though it also involves an unreliable narrator of sorts in that our central character had memory loss and is trying to piece together her past which also involves a parental mystery. Read more... )

4) Also saw the movie Wolfs, which is fine but largely a vehicle for us to watch Pitt and Clooney do fun stuff. Read more... )

5) Finished The Big Conn and Cowboy Cartel, two documentaries about big crime. I found the former much more interesting, even though I'd heard about the case before. What was probably the most striking about both was the role of the media in precipitating change. Read more... )

6) Careme was marketed as the story of the first celebrity chef, who served Napoleon, Tallyrand and others. It was certainly about far more than cooking. Read more... )

Poll #33317 Kudos Footer-529
This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
5 (100.0%)



yourlibrarian: Angel and Lindsey (Default)
yourlibrarian ([personal profile] yourlibrarian) wrote2025-07-01 03:42 pm
yourlibrarian: (MERL-ArthurLake-kathyh)
yourlibrarian ([personal profile] yourlibrarian) wrote2025-06-30 12:15 pm

All is Well

1) A few more trip photos posted over at [community profile] common_nature, these of Oneonta Gorge.

2) Saw The Flash film and found it better than expected but also so-so. The big problem to me was the lead himself. Granted his character isn't really written to have any charm but a good bit of the humor fell flat for me, and when he was on screen twice as much it made it worse. Read more... )

3) Just an update about the bed situation listed in my last post. Everything went well! The youngsters delivering the bed had no problem with taking the old one down to the moving truck, and moving the other one to another room. Read more... )

4) A new wrinkle in the last few weeks is that during yet another heavy rain we got a leak near our front door. Read more... )

5) I quite liked this diagram of the interaction between entertainment production and fan activities. This came from an interview on Henry Jenkins' blog about a new set of textbooks for studying fandom.



Poll #33307 Kudos Footer-528
This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
6 (100.0%)



selenak: (Naomie Harris by Lady Turner)
selenak ([personal profile] selenak) wrote2025-06-29 06:04 pm
Entry tags:

Ironheart (TV Series) Episodes 1 - 3

Aka the series which was delayed for years, with the result that there is much preemptive sceptism. Having watched the first three episodes which got dropped a few days ago, I very much like what I'm seeing so far. The way the series provides a distinct feeling of a place and people reminds me of what the show Ms Marvel did with the Pakistani community in New Jersey - in this case, Riri Williams comes from the Chicago South Side, as does the director, google tells me, and that's where she returns to in the series' pilot.

Spoilers could make an Iron Suit in a cave, but would need the cash to be brought to the cave first )