cyphomandra | Network

1. I got my covid and flu shots today. Since I didn't have any meetings or other time-sensitive things this morning at work, I just stopped in the same medical offices where I'd made my appointment for next week and asked if they were doing walk-ins, too, and they were. Had to wait about ten minutes or so, but otherwise it was over pretty quickly. Carla hasn't been able to get hers yet because she's sick. D: (First test said not covid, but she's going to keep testing throughout the duration to make sure. So far I am not showing any signs of catching it, but we'll see. It is hard to avoid each other in our smallish house, though at least since it's summer all the windows and doors are open and the fans going all the time, so there's a lot of air circulation.)

2. Molly just loves this scratcher/ball toy. Sometimes for the scratcher, once in a while for the ball, but mostly just to lie on. It's apparently very comfy.

yuuago

Sometimes I'm not satisfied with the way something came out, but then somebody comments positively on it. And then I realize, oh - I feel about it the way I do because I made it. (This happened today.)

Like, there was a vision in my head of how I wanted the thing to be, and then the result isn't what I had hoped, and that's frustrating and disappointing. But somebody reading it (or looking at it in the case of visual art) won't know about all that, because they didn't make it! They can't see inside my head! Whooooa! And if somebody else made this thing, I'd probably think it was all right. (Maybe not super duper amazing, but all right, and sometimes that's all you want!)

I think also, partly, I get very self-conscious when posting something that's the fic equivalent of rent-lowering gunshots. Like, I put upon myself this expectation that if I write something that a lot of people aren't into, I need to make it extra awesome to make up for that. But, nah. I can write whatever! And it doesn't have to be amazing! It can just be a thing! It doesn't matter!

It's always nice to have little moments of clarity like this.

landofnowhere

Gauss, Titan of Science by G. Waldo Dunnington, with additional material by Jeremy Gray. I mentioned in last week's post that during recent air travel I watched a movie with a dubiously historical version of Gauss and was entertained but ultimately would accept no substitutes for actual historical Gauss.

This is the biography of Carl Friedrich Gauss that I picked up off a university library shelf when I was 15, and made me go all swoony over Gauss's letter proposing to his first wife (link is to the original German manuscript). Returning to it with less swooniness and a more mature ability to evaluate historical sources, and also reading a new edition with helpful front matter, it's clear the book is not 100% "actual historical Gauss": it starts off with a version of the famous 5050 story, which is based on an anecdote that Gauss reportedly told about his childhood, but probably didn't happen exactly that way.

Indeed, as I learned from the front matter, G. Waldo Dunnington was a professional Gauss stan; one of his elementary school teachers was a great-granddaughter of Gauss, and learning that there was no Victorian Great Man biography of Gauss, he spent his entire academic career (interrupted by WWII) remedying that lack. Since I'm also a Gauss stan, I found the book generally readable if sometimes a bit repetitive, and enjoyed various fun Gauss facts. (In the department of obscure historical figures who ought to be fictionalized, there is Friedrich Ludwig Wachter, Gauss's student who studied non-Euclidean geometry and vanished without a trace at age 25.)

I'll probably do more Gauss reading (though also I now have an unproofread scan of Teresa by Edith Ayrton Zangwill so I may read that first); I've started with the letters online, but may also seek out other biographies. I continue to be fascinated by Gauss's youngest daughter, whose story would make a good historical romance; and having done some Gauss reading I'm starting to think I can actually write this fic.

neekabe

A couple nights ago was the first night of the eye goop where I couldn't fall asleep easily and it was very annoying because everything is soft focus Vaseline haze so I can't read until I get more tired.

I'm going to need more podcasts or maybe delve into audio books or something. But I guess it'll have to be book I've read before. But sometimes I fall asleep in under 30 minutes and sometimes it's hours, and books that are too interesting are too interesting. But also the ad breaks are getting longer and longer in podcasts and more and more repetitive and I can't skip easily.

--

I've gone my first whole bottle of eye drops. We got a three pack from costco and I'm happy because they can get expensive. And there were some days when I know I should have used more.

My right eye has been bothering me more recently. I'm curious about what this deterioration is going to be like.

--

I've started using Hank Green's Focus Friend app. It recently added a new room, and my Bean Friend has been knitting away to help furnish it. It's been useful.

I think one of the more annoying things about it, is that it makes me aware of how little time things take? Like I'll be like "I'm gonna put away my laundry! Set the focus session for 20 minutes" And then 10 minutes later, it's all done. It feels like it takes 20 minutes, but the awareness of the reality is annoying.

It's probably a good thing, overall, to have these regular reminders that this chore really just takes 10 minutes maximum. But still annoying XD

--

I'm considering getting an ereader that's newer than my .... 15 year old Aluratec Libre? Open to recs, I'm thinking kobo but I keep seeing boox and am tempted by that as well. I know I don't want the kindle.

I do need to go hold things though.

We're thinking of going somewhere south in the winter for a vacation, so I think it'd be nice to have for then.

nnozomi posting in

guardian_learning

部首
土 part 1 tǔ
土, earth; 圣, holy; 在, to exist ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=32

语法
Using 对 and 跟
https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/dui4-gen1-prepositions/

词汇
乐队, band (pinyin in tags)
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-3-word-list/

Guardian:
从这个土质和骨头的成色来看，起码是百年以上的产物, based on the soil quality here and the bone discoloration, it's from at least one hundred years ago
你是他们的女儿和妹妹，他们当然对你好, you're their daughter and sister, of course they're good to you
[no bands in Guardian]

Me:
我跟你说，你得对她再好一点。
我想去听他们的乐队的live。

carenejeans

Quote of the Day:

"Writing is painful as a life. I feel that even after decades. Doesn't get any easier, which surprised me. The yearning and failing parts don't get easier. And then there are the miraculous times when fluency is effortless. Or even the times of just being absorbed deeply. Can't think of anything better. I regret being unable to occupy that state constantly but to be there at all seems a marvel beyond all others."

— Louise Gluck, to GennaRose Nethercott (11/2/2017), shared on (then)Twitter. Quote taken from Mason Currey's Subtle Maneuvers newsletter.

Today's Writing:

I wrote 352 more words on old SF fanzines. 8-)

Tally

( Days 1-15 )

Day 16:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

yasaman,

ysilme

Day 16:

china_shop

Let me know if I missed you, or if you wrote but didn't check in yet. And remember, you can join in at any time!

peaceful_sands posting in

bitesizedcleaning

Another week has passed us by and some of us might still be stampeding, some of us might be stepping more cautiously or even hobbling along struggling (like me) trying to balance out other commitments and squeeze in a few blasts of time to catch up.

If you've been using the table and tackling something each day, feel free to tell us all about it this week. If not here's the table and pick up with today's (or any other day that suits) and tell us about it when you can - use this post until I manage to get up to speed enough to make another one.

Wishing you well for the next week ahead and remember the aim of the month's challenges is that most can be adapted to fit what you need so if it says a 'flat surface', any type of flat surface will do - desks, worktops, floors, tables and so on. Similarly a vertical surface could be a window, a tiled wall, mirror or door. Part of the challenge is deciding how to apply the daily challenge (ha ha!).

This is supposed to be a low-stress challenge - if you miss a day, it doesn't matter, if the day's challenge doesn't suit, repeat the day before or start on the next day's. With the exception of two days, the challenges should take about 10 minutes, if you want to spend longer that's great, judge by your personal available time and energy.

To make it easier to take part and not be held up by time differences and days when I'm not able to post, all challenges will be posted in the table below the cut to aid both those taking part and the daily poster.

My biggest request for the month is that, whenever you can, you join in the chat - even if you haven't done the day's challenge come and cheer for others. We're here for the ups and downs this month so you can tell us when you're struggling as well as celebrate your successes.

( Daily Challenge Table shown below the cut )

And so today's challenge is, depending on where/when you are reading this (but I'll go with the 17th/18th) to either spend 10 minutes on a flat surface or on a vertical one.

Good luck and enjoy what's left of your September.

slacktivist_feed

Posted by Fred Clark

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/09/17/my-dear-wormw-no-just-stop/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=71321

Laura Robinson on why Screwtape is so good and its imitators are so bad. Plus some grave visits and that discussion of Pentecostal historiography you've all been waiting for.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/09/17/my-dear-wormw-no-just-stop/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=71321

sage

books
still reading Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett. I haven't had the time to really focus on it, so I've been reading Kirk/Spock longfic.

yarning
I finished the crocheted globe for Niece and it looks pretty good. Definitely good enough for a child turning 5, though it's a little unevenly stuffed in a couple of places & I can't get it to shift. Am sad I had to miss yarn group this week, but yesterday I made a 3in diameter moon to go with the Earth. Hopefully it'll all fit in the box.

Yuletide
I nommed:
- The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. (Amina, Dalila, Raksh, and Jamal)
- Shadow of the Leviathan by Robert Jackson Bennett (Ana, Din, Kepheus)
- A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher (Cordelia, Hester, Richard, Penelope)
- Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher (Anja, Snow, Grayling)
- Dark Olympus series by Katee Robert (Icarus, Poseidon, Hades, Penelope)

sadly, Batman: Wayne Family Adventures and Rivers of London both look too large to nom this year, if I'm gauging them right. Drat!

#resist
October 18: No Kings Day #2

I hope you're all doing well! <333

languagehat_feed

Posted by languagehat

https://languagehat.com/language-instruction/

https://languagehat.com/?p=18283

I heard a piece by the American composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel and liked it, so I looked him up and discovered he’d written a piece called “Language Instruction” that you can read about, and hear a snippet of, here. One of the quotes on that page is an excerpt from Allan Kozinn’s NY Times review (Dec. 8, 2003; archived) of a performance:

For all one hears about the classical music world being a museum culture, there is an alternative musical world in New York, just outside the spotlight focused on the big performing institutions.

Virtually every night new music is on offer, usually in the smaller halls (or in places that specialize in it, like the Kitchen and Roulette), performed by musicians whose interpretive interests draw them toward what’s next rather than what has been. […]

The centerpiece was Derek Bermel’s “Language Instruction” (2003), an amusing full ensemble work based on the rhythms and gestures of language tapes. The clarinet was, in effect, the voice on the tape, and the other instruments were the students — variously willing or difficult, competent or bumbling — who must repeat the phrases. Mr. Bermel spins this interaction into an increasingly chaotic fantasy that would have been perfectly at home on a program with Berio’s Sequenza III and the works by Ms. La Barbara, Mr. Aperghis and Mr. Gal.

It sounds like a lot of fun (I enjoyed the audio clip), and I’m very glad our local classical station plays a good deal of contemporary music instead of sticking with the mossy 18th- and 19th-century standbys. (And if you’re curious, as I was, about the surname Bermel, it’s a “habitational name from a place in Rhineland named Bermel.”)

https://languagehat.com/language-instruction/

https://languagehat.com/?p=18283

mrkinch

Today was the third of three clear, hot days this week, good weather for getting out there and back early. I was at the top of the rise by dawn and by the time I was there again two and a half hours later it was warmer than I like. Two warblers, a Townsend's and a Yellow, were the only incoming migrants. Migrants I thought had left were Western Wood-pewee, Western Flycatcher, Swainson's Thrush, and two Black-headed Grosbeaks who seemed to be heading west. The Western Tanager I think was just passing through. I was surprised to see a single American White Pelican on San Pablo Reservoir; I think they're around all year now. ( The list: )

There's a chance of rain tomorrow night. I'll believe it when I hear it!

bluedreaming posting in

fan_flashworks

Fandom: Anne of Green Gables
Rating: G
Length: 100 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: The title is from ALWAYS, I'VE LOVED BIG CARS by Phillip Zhuwao, and Boy with the Red Piano by Louis Armand. It was inspired by CARRYING SOMEONE ELSE’S INFANT PAST A COW IN A FIELD NEAR MARMORA, ONT. by Ken Babstock.
Summary: Everything comes around the same again, even if it’s different. (A contemporary setting poke at Anne & Diana.)

( Read more... )

oursin

What I read

A little while ago Kobo had an edition of CS Lewis's 'Space Trilogy' on promotion, so I thought, aeons since I read that, why not? It turned out to have been not terribly well formatted for e-reader but I have encountered worse, it was bearable. Out of the Silent Planet, well, we do not go to CLS for cosmological realism, do we? But why aliens still so binary, hmmm? (okay, I think there is probably some theological point going on there, mmmhmm?) (though in That Hideous Strength there is a mention of 7 genders, okay Jack, could you expand that thought a little?) I remembered Perelandra as dull, at least for my taste - travelogue plus endless theological wafflery - and it pretty much matched the remembrance. However, while one still sees the problematic in That Hideous Strength (no, really, Jack, cheroot-chomping lesbian sadist? your id is very strange) he does do awfully well the horrible machinations of the nasty MEN in their masculine institutions, and boy, NICE is striking an unexpected resonance with its techbros and their transhuman agenda. Also - quite aside from BEARS!!! - actual female bonding.

Possibly it wasn't such a great idea to go on to Andrew Hickey, The Basilisk Murders (Sarah Turner Mysteries #1) (2017), set at a tech conference, which I think I saw someone recommend somewhere. Not sure it entirely works as a mystery (and I felt some aspects of the conference were a little implausible) - and what is this thing, that this thing is, of male authors ~~doing the police in different voices~~ writing first-person female narrative crime fiction? This is at least the second I have encountered within the space of a few weeks. We feel they have seen a market niche.... /cynicism

Apparently I already read this yonks ago and have a copy hanging around somewhere? I was actually looking for something else by Dame Rebecca and came across this, The Essential Rebecca West: Uncollected Prose (2010), which is more, some odd stray pieces it is nice to have (I laughed aloud at the one on Milton and Paradise Lost) but hardly essential among the rest of her oeuvre.

At the same time I picked up Carl Rollyson, Rebecca West and the God That Failed: Essays (2005), which apparently I have also read before. It's offcuts of stuff that didn't make it into his biography, mostly talks/articles on various aspects that he couldn't go into in as much detail as he would have liked.

On the go

Rebecca West, The Return of the Soldier (1918), on account of we watched a DVD of the movie recently. Yes, I have a copy of the book but have no idea where it is. I was also looking for Harriet Hume, ditto.

Up next

Not sure.

redbird

I am happy to see that "should receive" the covid vaccine or booster includes infants; children and adolescents who haven't already been vaccinated; anyone with a medical condition that puts them at higher risk of severe covid; and all household contacts of anyone at higher risk.

Everyone aged 65 or older should receive two doses, six months apart.

All healthcare workers "should" receive the vaccine, as should anyone who is pregnant, contemplating pregnancy, or has recently been pregnant, and a few other groups.

Everyone else "may receive" it.

https://www.mass.gov/doc/massachusetts-2025-2026-respiratory-illness-season-covid-19-vaccine-recommendations/download

What I saw is Massachusetts-specific, but it says it is aligned with the recommendations of the new Northeast Public Health Collaborative, which includes New England except for New Hampshire, plus New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

muccamukk

Watch on YouTube

Anyone else remember this band? I was very fond of them.

sanguinity

A few of you may remember "Score: Q to 12," in which Sherlock refuses to confine himself to the Scrabble Official Club and Tournament Word List, and Joan refuses to spend any more time trying to make him. (Elementary, Joan & Sherlock, 453 words)

At the prompting of a friend, now there is a sequel, "Score: i√2 to 𓅧," in which the game has continued to evolve. (Elementary, Outsider POV, 221b ficlet)

While I was posting last night, I also archived the DVD commentary I did for "Score: Q to 12" back in 2014. Last month,

mific in

fan_writers was bemoaning the death of the DVD commentary on AO3. And I thought: I've written a bunch, they're just not on AO3; they're all on tumblr and DW. I usually link the main story to them, but I haven't been actually archiving them on the archive site, as I haven't wanted to clutter up the main story with a bunch of extraneous material. But based on that

fan_writers convo, I thought I'd pull this one over as an experiment. Depending on how it goes, I might pull over the rest of my "DVD extras" -- commentaries, deleted scenes -- for other stories, too.

smbc_comics_feed

Posted by Zach Weinersmith

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/o-monks

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
I believe Buddhists aren't allowed to get mad about this misrepresentation, because that'd be a form of attachment.

Today's News:

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/o-monks

aurumcalendula

The fact that the option to enroll in extended security updates for Windows 10 hasn't shown up yet on my PC is stressing me out.

I almost regret not buying a Windows 11 capable PC a few years ago (how hard they're pushing Copilot/AI stuff turned me off it and the news about one of the Windows 11 updates bricking SSDs doesn't fill me with confidence).

minoanmiss posting in

agonyaunt

...and the person I reported it to didn’t seem too concerned Content advisory: ableism, and also sexual harassment. ( Read more... )

magid posting in

agonyaunt

gift link (with three other questions answered)

My husband and I moved into an apartment complex recently. We befriended some of our new neighbors while sitting around the swimming pool. We have discussed politics with some of them, having been given hints that we are all on the same page. But one couple — whom we like a lot — has provided no information about their politics. We have no idea where they stand! The state of the country is very important to us, and we are willing to socialize only with people who support our beliefs. Should we continue to see this couple whose politics are a mystery, or should we tell them where we stand and see how they react?

NEW NEIGHBOR

( answer )

Profile

$cyphomandra: fractured brooding landscape (Default)$

cyphomandra

September 2025

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Page Summary

torachan - Daily Happiness
yuuago - (no subject)
landofnowhere - wednesday book about a Great Man
neekabe - (no subject)
nnozomi in guardian_learning - 第四年第二百五十二天
carenejeans - Write Every Day September 2025 - Day 17
peaceful_sands in bitesizedcleaning - Day 17 or 18 of the September Stampede
slacktivist_feed - ‘My Dear Wormw–‘ … No. Just stop.
sage - What I'm Doing Wednesday
languagehat_feed - Language Instruction.
mrkinch - 9/17/2025 Inspiration Trail
bluedreaming in fan_flashworks - Anne of Green Gables: Fanfic: making the obvious into riddles (I will always love you)
oursin - Wednesday is indulging in a spicy margarita
redbird - Massachusetts has updated covid vaccine guidance
muccamukk - Music Wednesday
sanguinity - The Brownstone Scrabble Championships (Elementary)
smbc_comics_feed - Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - O Monks
aurumcalendula - (no subject)
minoanmiss in agonyaunt - Ask a Manager: A a colleague is harassing female coworkers...
magid in agonyaunt - [NYTimes Social Q’s] My Husband and I Have No Idea About the Politics of Two New Friends

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