lydamorehouse: void cat art (void cat)
 I had planned to post about the books I've been reading lately yesterday, of course, but in a good news/bad news sort of way, I ended up writing so much on the new novel that I lost track of time. As I was telling my writing accountablity Zoom group, I don't quite know what happened, but I hit a voice that I'm super comfortable in (not previously a POV character) and I'm running with it.

Enough about that. 

I've recently gotten very into audiobooks. After finishing The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey (which I sort of disliked, though not enough to quit listening to it), I picked up We Have Always Been Here by Leah Nguyen. I also somewhat disliked We Have Always Been Here. I never cottened to the main character/narrator, Park. I found her (at least how she was read to me) to be an unlikely combination of paranoid and clueless. Like, the book opens with Park having been poisoned. Because Park has been bullied all her life, she doesn't put much mind to this, even as weird shit starts happening all around her on the ship, including other people being attacked, she never goes back to "I wonder if any of this connects to what happened to me?" I don't know about you? But I hate when main characters don't seem interested in solving the plot and/or generally forget clues that, to the reader, seem like Big Deals. And being poisoned one day and having your mentor tell you "I have a project that is going to take up all my attention, you're now the main psychologist" feels like the sort of thing that a paranoid person should reallly start deep dive investigating. you know? Don't get me wrong. Park investigates the crap out of everything else going on in this ship, but she never connects any of it back to things that happen to herself. Worse, the big reveal at the end made me realize that had she done so, she would been directly led to one of the main villains.

But, the androids in the story get a good ending. They were who I cared about, so it worked out for me.

I'm now listening to The Sculpted Ship by K. M. O'Brien. I've been describing this book to people as a science fiction version of Legends & Lattes. The stakes are so low in The Sculpted Ship that if I were not already a fan of slice-of-life manga and thus have built-up a huge tolerance for people just wandering around and doing tasks, I probably would have fallen asleep listening to this. This is not a criticism per se, however, because, given the current political situation in the United States, a story that is essentially about THINGS WORKING OUT is exactly what the doctor ordered (for me, anyway.) 

I'm not quite finished with it and there does seem to be a little intrigue a foot here in the last 20% of the book, but I am hopeful that things will just work out as so many things before this have. That would be fine with me.

Speaking of slice-of-life manga, I read two "wandering around in a post-apocaplyptic world" science fiction manga in the past week. I read Usuzumi no Hate / The Color of the End: Mission in the Apocalypse by Iwamune Haruo and Shuumatsu Touring / Touring After the Apocalypse by Saito Sakae. Both of which I would highly recommend, with a few caveats. The Color of the End has a plague in it and there is a lot of death and dying, including suicide. Likewise, Touring After the Apocalypse has its dark/sad moments as well as some suicides. Weidly, despite those warnings, I found both of these manga to be hopeful and "quiet" in a "let's appreciate life while we have it" kind of way. Very appropriate for flower viewing season.

I also read a couple of family dramas:  Otona no Zukan Kaiteiban / Adults’ Picture Book New Edition by Itoi Kei and Kashikokute Yuuki Aru Kodomo / A Smart and Courageous Child by Yamamoto Miki. Both of which I liked, but mileage may vary. If you're at all interested in reading fuller reviews of any of the manga I've mentioned, feel free to check out my manga review site: https://mangakast.wordpress.com/

Speaking of manga, a quick plug for the old podcast. Yesterday we dropped our twenty-first episode, this time discussing the cyberpunk manga classic Blame! (https://open.spotify.com/show/11brxmJZjf3gnzltvwXI7H) I guess, I technically re-read that recently, too. Weirdly, despite the fact that the podcast is a lot of squee, I wouldn't necessarily recommend Blame! Technically, Blame! is also a lot of wandering around in a post-apocalyptic world, but it feels far less hopeful. In fact, the vibe is grim. It is interesting and pretty and action-packed, but it might not be what the soul needs right now, if you catch my meaning.

I think that's it. Otherwise, I've been writing a lot and prepping for Minicon. 

You?
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 My deepest apologies. I've been busy doing the things I do, including the podcast.  

I did a lot of TTRPGing since the last time we chatted. I ran a D&D game on Saturday, played in a somewhat disasterous Star Trek: Adventures game that same night, and ran a Thirsty Sword Lesbians game Tuesday night. I don't game nearly as often as this list makes me seem. I just swear to all the gods that whatever day my D&D group has agreed to play that month, I also have Star Trek game that same night. Likewise, the TSL group will just somehow fall in the same week. I literally play/run at least TWO of these three games MONTHLY. How they all end up clustered like this is, indeed, a mystery. 

I'm also in the last few hours of nominating for the Hugo's. I pulled the trigger and bought virtual tickets to Seattle WorldCON at the same time. When I virtually attended Glasgow's WorldCON, one of the tech guys told me that they'd be using a lot of the same program/technologies and I hope that's true. I found the virtual version of that con particularly robust and, perhaps more importantly, decently inuitive to use. 

I should also report that part of my lack of communication/updatery here is the fact that Mason is home for Spring Break. He's currently off at a coffee shop working on his senior thesis, so, if y'all are so inclined, I'm sure he could use white light and thoughts and prayers. ;-) My understanding of his thesis work is the intersection of science fiction and environmental justice. I mean, pretty cool stuff!  And perfectly aligned with his majors, which are, in fact, English and Environmental Studies. 

Otherwise, how the heck are you all? 
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 I'm currently in another screen waiting for my podcast co-host to show up. 

Willow (our cat) is in the hallway, just outside of the room I record in, meowing at me for attention. Meanwhile, I have no idea if I'm in the right place because some time ago my co-host got irritated that I never seemed to remember when we were recording and asked if he could access my Google calendar, so we could sync up. Good idea! Only, I used to always attach the Zoom link to my calendar notification. Now, it and the alarm to remind me to show up are gone.

Not a huge problem, just a small irritation. 

Last night I slept for crap because I decided in my infinite wisdom that it was a good time to catch up on John Oliver and, thus, I spent much of the night last night waking up in a heightened sense of existential dread. 

Should be an interesting show today!
lydamorehouse: (nic & coffee)
 Quick administrative note before I get into the rest of it: I've changed my policy about who I'm granting access to my locked posts to. I didn't have any problem that precipitated this. So, if you are finding yourself suddenly dropped, please don't imagine it's because you did anything wrong!  I've decided for simplicity's sake that I'm only granting access to folks who subscribe to me. I'm doing this in part because I discovered that I was following a bunch of dead accounts, all of whom still had access. I just figured that while I was there, I might as well make everything consistent. The chance that I will let you back in if you ask is incredibly high. In fact, if you'd rather not subscribe but still want see my locked posts, just drop me a request. I apologize for any disruption in your service, as it were!

==

Okay, so.  I can't believe it's already noon and I've accomplished next to nothing.

It's kind of been like this since last Tuesday, however?  

The specifics of this morning go like this. Shawn and I got up and were doing our usual things when we realized that we needed to get our car off the street by 7 am for the street sweeper. So, I threw some lunch together for her (I have been making bento for Shawn since we bought a fancy, double-decker bento box several years ago), and we rushed out the door without breakfast. We decided to stop at Brugger's and although we're enough of regulars there that the guys behind the counter start making my sandwiches before I order, I really need to change that order because my GERDS can no longer handle the Swiss and sausage egg sandwich. But, as I'm sure some of you can relate, 1) it feels too hard right now to ask them to change the order, and 2) honestly, the kindness of the gesture is worth the stomach upset. Like, I need small kindesses so much right now, you know? 

I got home and did some of my usual morning internetting, which no longer involves checking social media. I have largely given up being on Facebook, outside of using it as a place to post cute pictures or pictures of food I am making or have made. If you want to follow me on a social, I am at Bluesky: @lydamorehouse.bsky.social

homemade hot-cross buns (half-eaten tray)
Image: half-eaten tray of fresh, homemade hot cross buns

Then, my alarm went off reminding me to get ready to record my podcast with Ka1lban. I was also working on a new review for MangaKast, which I have not updated in well over a month, and so I didn't really notice the time go by... until it was almost a half hour past when he usualy shows up. I dropped a note to him in Discord, wondering what was up--but apparently he doesn't get notifications from that... and anyway, he hadn't been planning on recording today, anyway, unbeknowst to me. 

This is where things start to feel very abortive, you know? Like, I'm all prepped for something that just isn't happening. 

I'm a little worried that something similar is going to happen tonight as well. I'm supposed to be running a Thirsty Sword Lesbians game at 7pm for a new group that I've assembled. I am embarrassingly prepared.  Like, it's a cyberpunk setting and I made two little mini movies of "found footage" for this group (if they follow the right clues!!) This is part of what I did to occupy my time while we were waiting for the news last Tuesday night, so I mean... it wasn't like I could concentrate on anything else. 

But this morning one of my players, [personal profile] haddayr , emailed to say that she's feeling too sick to fully participate. She's going to try to listen in, but no garuntees. This is our very first session? Players (at least the first one to respond, anyway,) made it clear that they are willing to go ahead without her, but... given how today is going so far, I'm sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

To be perfectly clear, it would be okay if it did. I have learned from my other online groups is that it's always best to have at least two dates arranged ahead of time. So, if we have to cancel this time, we KNOW when the next session is supposed to be. It's already on the calendar. 

It's more that this has just felt very typical of almost all my days since last Tuesday. I feel very much like I can't get my feet under or, when I do, it's for something that is no longer happening or gets postponed or just doesn't work out for whatever reason. 

How are the rest of you doing?
lydamorehouse: (ichigo being adorbs)
 It's Wednesday again, so it's time to check in with what people are reading or have read.

As usual, my reading has been heavily focused on cyberpunk-ish titles. Last week, I mentioned that I had started listening to an audiobook of Body Scout by Lincoln Michel.  This book gets approximately 3.5 stars on Goodreads and that seems fair and accurate to my opinion of it. I'm not really a body horror or a basebal fan and this book has a lot of both. Even so, I found the characters very compelling, probably because I am generally a fan of the noir detective, which our hero Kobo, is not exactly, but he is certainly cast strongly in the mold of. [personal profile] lcohen , you said you might be interested in this because you like baseball? I hesitate to recomend it to you, however, because there is not only the aforementioned body horror, but also a LOT of violence. Our hero gets beaten up a LOT.

I failed around, like one does, after finishing Body Scout, not sure what I was in the mood for next. Eventually settled on another audiobook that is equally dark and is definitely cyberpunk, called When the Sparrow Falls by Fred Sharpson. The audiobook narrator is amazing, first off (he has a very cool British accent), and secondly the story is incredibly compelling in an 'always-having-to-watch-your-back authoritarian future' way. Like, no one likes the old Soviet Bloc vibe, but you can totally understand why a story set in a future world like that would be INTENSE. In basic terms, the premise of this one is that our hero, Inspector South, a low level cop-type bureaucrat in a Luddite/Human Supremicist enclave, gets assigned the job to escort an AI driving a body that looks exactly like his dead wife's around, things get weird and tense fast.

The actual book blurb probably does a better job of describing it, however. I recommend looking that up.

Kai1ban, my podcast co-host for Mona Lisa Overpod, and I have the next two episodes already recorded, so we had a skip week this week in order to continue research a few more titles for our Cyberpunk & Horror episode. I've been asking around various social media sites for good recommendations of cyberpunk short stories with a hint of horror, and I got a good list... which I am only just starting to work my way through. One story that I read that I'm not entirely sure qualifies called "Talk to Your Children About Two-Tongued Jeremy," by Theodore McCombs. It's about the danger of school bullying, if that bullying came from a learning app, and how a certain social economic class is hyper-focuses on getting their kids into The Right School, etc. I really liked it and what happens in it is tragic and awful in places, but I'm never sure what magic quality makes something horror rather than just "kinda dark," you know?

I just looked to see what I had read in terms of manga... and, speaking of horror, I am horrified to discover that I haven't reviewed anything for almost a month!  Yikes! Well, that's another thing I will add to my to-do list today, which is see what I can find in terms of cyberpunk manga with horror vibes (and, yes, I've already read Blame!)

And you? Are you reading anything that you want to share? Anything you want to complain about?
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 It is Wednesday, right?

Having Shawn's surgery cancelled has thrown a wrench into so much, including my sense of time. Also, things that were off are suddenly possible again--including the possibility that I could attend part of ConFABulous this weekend. I do have a membership, so maybe I will stop by, but probably the smartest course of action is just to stay close to home and regroup.

But, it's reading day and I have a few things to report. First of all, I'm listening to the audiobook of Frankenstein for Mona Lisa Overpod's Halloween episode. I'm probably halfway through?  I think I reported last week or whenever I last talked about this book that I was pretty certain that I must have read it for my English degree. Nope. No way. I would have remembered how young Victor Frankenstein was when he created his monster. He's in his second year of university. (This man never completed his doctorate, by the way. Unless he goes back to school before the end of the book, there's no way.) So, what, like nineteen? Anyway, you can tell. Victor is not good at adulting. His solution to creating a monster in the backroom laboratory of his apartment is to freak out, lock the door, and run out into the street and have a panic attack for a couple of days while wandering in the rand, LITERALLY hoping that the problem will solve itself. 

Which it sort of does?

In another scene that had me imagining a hilariously panicked young adult, Victor runs into his pal Henry Cavill (it's actually Clerval, but the reader's pronunciation has imagining Superman) who has finally managed to get his father to agree to send him to university, that same day the monster was created and Victor is all, like, "Uh, my apartment? mmmm, yeah, I GUESS we could go back there..." and is very sus and runs up to check the place out before letting Henry come in. Discovering the monster gone, he's like "WHELP, disaster averted!"

And, I don't know why, but this whole thing reads to me like something I'd read on Tumblr, you know? Or an AITA post. "Created the Philosopher's Stone, but Now I Can't Go Back to My Apartment: AITA?"

This is the other thing I swear to god no one remembers about this book. Victor Frankenstein created the philosopher's stone very explicitly. It's all over the beginning when he nearly quits university in a huff because the ugly Natural History professor tells him that alchemy is an "exploded" science (as in debunked) and only idiots waste their time studying it. Victor's like, "Okay, but you smell," and huffs off to his rented apartment determined to sulk. Except he gets bored and decides to attend a lecture by a much more handsome chemistry professor who, unprompted says that chemistry has the old alchemists to thank for its existence and so Victor is like, "THIS. This is for me." But, it's really only because this new chemistry prof is cool with him continuing to be the reigning expert in alchemy (despite explaining kindly that the science has moved on from trying to change lead to gold) that Victor even stays at university.  Meanwhile, Victor continues to be obsessed with breaking the law, as Edward Elric might say, of equivalent exchange. And... has some successes making the spark of life from nothing! No one also told me that Victor apparently broke the code earlier and decides to move on from reanimated... (what? It's not said, but I am totally imagining a reanimated mouse running around his apartment lab)... "successes" to building a human.

No stitching required! Instead, Victor gathers parts for his creature from the usual places... and the Butcher's. I had hither to NOT imagined Frankenstein's creature being part "rack of lamb." But, apparently so!  Also, it's implied once the philosopher's stone (which is possibly just a formula? He won't tell us, because of course he doesn't want anyone to use this malicious and dreadful art) is applied the creatures body basically knits itself together. 

Very, very different from all the Hollywood and other versions I've seen!  But also something I'd love to actually see dramatized. Like, Victor is just letting the body percolate with the magical science of the philosopher's stone when it opens its glassy eyes and reaches for him.

I am loving this book so far. Who knew it was so weirdly relatable?

But, you all have read this before so it's not news. I feel a bit like Captain America waking up 90 years later saying, "Guys! Have you seen this thing called a TELEVISION! It's so cool!"

Otherwise, I also read a pretty cool manga called Dogma. But, I feel like I should tell you about that next Wednesday.

So, my usual question to you all: read anything NEARLY AS COOL AS FRANKENSTIEN lately?? 
lydamorehouse: (ichigo freaked)
 Shawn and I have a notebook full of allegorical names for a farcical mystery we are never going to write. These are names like Scott Free and Helena Handbasket. I wonder if General News is in the list? I should check. It's been a while since we added a new name.

But, on to the actual general news (as opposed to the allegorical one.) I don't think I have a huge amount to catch you up on this week, but it's been a while so I thought I'd catch you up on the goings-on arounds these parts.

Tuesday ended up being a skip week for the podcast. While my co-host tested negative for COVID, he did come down with something nasty enough to keep him off the air. What was ironic about that, is that I had Shawn reschedule her pre-op appointment because it had conflicted. Then, suddenly, neither of us had anything to do at that time. (Well, I mean, Shawn went to work, but it was a very, "Damn it, we coulda..." sort of thing.) It has been, I think you'll see, a week like this.

Wednesday, I was scheduled to record with Cheryl Morgan--my editor and publisher over at Wizard's Tower--for her podcast. That went really well, but it was funny the extent to which I'd forgotten a lot of the plot of Resurrection Code

Yesterday, I had both an in-person Wyrdsmiths (my writing critique group) and I hung out with my friend [personal profile] jiawen for a couple of hours, which was nice. We talked about everything from WisCON to the recent presidential debates, volcanos, and our various lives and such. Good times. 

Then I went for a very short walk and now I'm hot and tired. Dang exercise, making me sweaty!
lydamorehouse: (nic & coffee)
 Just two minutes ago, I finished reading a powerful webcomic recommended by [personal profile] bcholmes called O Human Star. I cried all the tears, the ugly ones and the happy ones. I can not recommend it enough. 

In a sort of similar vein (at least in terms of a world where androids and humans co-exist), I finished listening to the audiobook of  Klara and the Sun by Kazou Ishiguro. I can't say that I enjoyed Klara and the Sun because it's ultimately--in my opinion, anyway--a tragedy, I did find it very compelling all the way through. I'd read Ishiguro's previous novel, The Buried Giant, when it was up for the Mythopoeic Award (2016). Looking back at my review of that book, I can see that I had similar feelings about it. Ishiguro's narrative style is very dream-like in both of these books, though I was impressed in Klara and the Sun how he was able to tell the readers more than Klara herself always fully understood or grasped. That can be extremely tricky to pull off, and he does it masterfully here. As I told a friend, I liked this book right up to the very last line--and the last line didn't make me HATE the book, just feel deeply, DEEPLY sad.  

Otherwise, I crammed in a couple of food-related manga ahead of tomorrow's OH-F*CK-O'CLOCK WorldCON panel "Let Them Eat! Food in Anime."  Of them, I really loved all 70+ chapters of Wakako-Zake by Shinkyu Chie. (The link is to my review, but from there, if you like, you can find a copy of the manga.) It is impossible not to spoil this one because the entire manga is about a 28-year old woman who goes out to eat and enjoys her food (and whatever alcohol she pairs it with.) That's it. That's the entire manga. And, I would read 70 more chapter of it, if it were available. As part of all this prep, I also skimmed through the manga Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi / Campfire Cooking in Another World with my Absurd Skill by Eguchi Ren / Akagishi K, reminding myself as to why I loved the anime so much.  I also ended up watching a few episodes of Food Wars! so I could reasonably understand what people were talking about, should it come up. I should probably re-read my review of Dungeon Meshi before tomorrow AM, too. 

Unrelated, I also read the Japanese re-imagining of Batman manga called Batman: Justice Buster by by Shimizu Eiichi and Shimoguchi Tomohiro, (Again, all the links to the manga will take you to my review, but from there you can usually get to an online version of the manga.) I really loved what they did with the Joker in this series, honestly. If you are a Batman fan... well, it might drive you crazy? Or you might love it. 

Over the weekend, I read a couple of cyberpunk short stories that were collected in The Big Book of Cyberpunk that I'm borrowing from a friend. I re-read James Tiptree, Jr.'s "The Girl Who Was Plugged In," and Pat Cadigan's "Pretty Boy Crossover." 

Oh, and I listened to the first couple of episodes of the Call of Cthulhu Mystery Theater podcast and The-Channel-Show, since both of the producers of those shows will be part of the panel that I'll be moderating on Saturday.  The first is a slightly scripted TTRPG podcast of a cast of characters playing Call of Cthulhu, the only TTRPG that I ever rage quit. It is one of those that is designed to end in a total party kill/deep insanity and I had spent way too much time building my character... and so I was deeply upset to be agoraphobic (and thus basically useless) after the first session. Unlike me, these actors are aware of what they're getting into, so it's more fun to listen to. The-Channel-Show is... deeply weird. The first few episodes, at any rate, are basically two people (AIs?) "channeling" the future of... some world? Possibly ours? Possibly not? But, it's very surreal and... yeah, not for me. But, weirdly, when I was on the how-to workshop for Glasgow WorldCON online stuff, the writer/producer person Dana Little was on the same call. She didn't put her camera on, but seeing her name come up was just sort of "Oh. There you are. I was just listening to you be VERY STRANGE. Hello," you know? 

I think that's everything!  

I should probably go organize myself for tomorrow, but what about you? Have you been reading anything good lately? Anything not so good?
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 If you're following along as Kai1ban and I talk about cyberpunk, we dropped a new episode yesterday afternoon celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of William Gibson's Nueromancer: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1QmYty2vDu8KnA92lJ1yFx. I initially wondered if we'd have anything new to say about it, but we actually talked for almost 2 hours about just this book (well, and of course, the ideas and concepts it spawned.) For perhaps obvious reasons, I ended up talking much more about my own writing in this one than I have on previous podcasts, which always makes me feel weird, but there's simply no question that most cyberpunk writers were, in their own ways, affected by this book.

Anyway, if you are so inclined, please enjoy.

If not, carry on!  


lydamorehouse: (Default)
 I should probably make myself a Mona Lisa Overpod icon, so you all can see at a glance when I'm hyping (or talking about) my podcast and respond accordingly.  The fourth episode has dropped. https://open.spotify.com/episode/7I9RjNxKXWczWK8ZKC2J3d, in which we discuss the second Ghost in the Shell movie, Innocence

I failed to articulate a point that I desperately tried to make during the podcast--like, I think I try twice (at least during recording) and I think I failed both times. It was one of those moments when, as I was driving to the store, immediately after we'd finished recording when I was fully hit with an "I shoulda said."

I will say that listening to part of it last night before my iPad's battery ran out, I was impressed with my co-host's editing ability, because I managed to sound pretty articulate all around.

But, so, the point I was trying to make was why Innocence fell flat for me. I managed to discuss the fact that I felt like the movie missed an opportunity for a gut-punch in the feels, despite having all the elements that should have made it possible. What I failed to articulate is this: there was a scene that was missing--not one intentionally left out by the director, but one that should have been written in.

The basic story, if you don't know it is that there are these sex bots gone wild. They are turning on their owners and murdering them. It is immediately clear that this is a cry for help (because one of the sex bots begs for help before Batou dispatches it in the LITERAL opening scene.) Through the course of the investigation, we discover that the sex bots are being "ghosted" by actual trafficked human children. In the end the children are sort of rescued, but then are admonished for "causing trouble" and murdering people. That alone is unsatisfactory, which I was able to express. But, the scene that we should have had but never got was seeing how the people who owned these sex bots treated them. I am not asking for a gross sex scene, but I would have liked to see something to show me, as the viewer, whether or not their violence was justified. As it was, we just had to imagine the worst. We had no concrete evidence that the people who died deserved their fate or whether or not it was more complicated than all that (which would have then tempered Batou's weird lecturing about the harm done by children who were trying to escape sex slavery, and worse, since the ghosting eventually killed the hosts.)

It was a kind of show don't tell. We were told by a number of people how the sex bots felt about being used and abused, but we never got to see the sex bots feel anything other than a blank-faced murder spree.  

That ended up making the film seem hollow as a result.

At least for me. 

Anyway, even if you skimmed this, I feel better for having had a chance to finally articulate my point!  Listen, if it's your thing. if not, well, hopefully we'll hit something at some point that will be. 
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 First of all, the obligatory reminder that if you'd like to listen to me and my co-host, Ka1iban, talk about the original Ghost in the Shell anime movie from 1995, you can do it. Here's the Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5yZxXGcx2E6EAga4k5pmMa. You can also listen on Spreaker, iTunes, or anywhere fine podcasts can be found. 

If you listen, please review and/or rate us, subscribe, and all those good things.

/advertisement

This last week, I continued to keep on reading and listening to the cyberpunk stuff--so, here's what I got through:

The big standout was Feed by M.T. Anderson. I listened to this as an audiobook, which is what I would recommend as the best way to consume it, hands down. The production value on the audiobook is phenomenal. The story is, in part, about social media taking over your brain, and so there's a point where the narrative is broken up with fake advertisements, which are so well done that I initially mistook them for real ones--I thought my phone had flaked out or I'd hit some pop-up. It took several seconds before I realized that these were fake and tailored to the novel. So, that part was EXTREMELY well done. And perfectly hammered in the point of the book, because my brain is so used to being interrupted and bombarded by ads that initially I went into "don't pay attention to this" mode and didn't fully register that my audio book should NOT come with ads. And, of course, we all believe that we're SO good at multitasking, which we all know is at least partly a lie was laid bare by this whole thing. Like, we think we are so adept at tuning advertisements out, when, really, we are subconsciously absorbing them... as I was until I woke up to the fact that this was part of the narrative.

Wake up Sheeple, indeed. ;-)

I finished reading the physical book of 36 Streets by T. R. Napper and... mmmm, I loved the setting of this book a lot. It's a cyberpunk Vietnam, specifically Hanoi. But, the main character never gelled for me and the grim not only stayed grim throughout, but got WORSE. Like, people I had invested in and lied died stupid deaths. So, not what I would call a satisfying story and the text never asks any of the interesting questions of cyberpunk as far as I was concerned even though the main character, Lin, choses to erase huge portions of her memory in order to "fight unencumbered." All of which, to me, felt needlessly macho instead of some kind of treatise or reflection on personhood. 

I listened to the short story "Seb Dreams of Reincarnation" by Aimee Ogden which is a great story in the vein of David Levin's "Damage." In which people's minds become space ships. Seb, the titular hero, was once a ship and now he's trying to cope with being a human again and not really doing great--at least not until he takes up the hobby of manning drones. It's a story I want people to read, so I won't spoil it, except to say that the ending is EXTREMELY heartwarming. 

I also re-read the short story "Maneki Neko" by Bruce Sterling, which is a story that's sort of like Naomi Kritzer's "Better Living Through Algorithms" (though, obviously, Naomi does it better.)

I gave up on the audiobook The Electric Church by Jeff Somers as it suffered the same problem of T. R. Napper's book, which was excessive machismo. A problem, as much as I hate to admit it, at least in cyberpunk written by men. 

I started to listen to the audiobook of Warcross by Marie Lu, which was liking until it became a millionaire boyfriend novel. I'm going to stick with it, but I am adjusting my expectations.  

Other things in my queue: 
  • Armada by Ernest Cline (audiobook)
  • Accelerando by Charles Stross (audiobook)
  • Jennifer Government by Max Berry
And, of course, I'm going to have to rewatch Ghost in the Shell 2.0: Innocence for the next podcast. 

So, what about you? What are you reading lately? Anything good? Anything AWFUL?
lydamorehouse: (help)
 Today, I spend a startlingly large amount of my time queueing up social media posts for my new podcast, which no one will interact with. This, my dear readers, is not a complaint directed at you in any way, but at the universe at large. It is a capital-t Truth in the era in which we live that podcasts and authors and artists and such like are supposed to have SOME KIND of social media presence and that people are mostly supposed to ignore them. It's white noise advertisement. The idea is that you might just pop-up in someone's feed as they scroll by and perhaps, by chance, the name of the product will get lodged in someone subconscious and that then spits-out into a click through or whatever.

Honestly, it's all very cyberpunk when you think about it that way.

I am not convinced it works.

Probably because I'm not very good at it.

Yet, my co-host is doing a lot of the technical hard work of our podcast, so I agreed to be in charge of social media. Which, if you've met me online, you're probably thinking..... "Hmmm, Dreamwidth grrl, are you really suited for this?" NO. No, I'm really not, but I'm doing my best. I'm finding (and attributing!) a lot of really lovely cyberpunk art. I've good Goodreads quotes about androids and cyborgs and the nature of intelligence and souls from various authors. I point people to things I'm reading, things I want to read, and all that. 

At any rate, how are you?

For myself, I'm currently waiting to see if Mason will ever return from St. Louis. He flew down to visit a friend there almost two weeks ago and was supposed drive back with his friend last Wednesday. It just hasn't happened. I mean, he's an adult? If he wants to stay there until it's time to fly back to Connecticut in August, it's his prerogative. It's more a case of Shawn and I starting to lay bets every morning whether or not today is the day they will finally be headed this way... or if, at this point, this going to end with his friend staying in St. Louis and Mason booking a return flight by himself. It really doesn't matter to us (except in terms of should we have a room prepared for said friend or not?) But, you know, it's a daily question.

The grant project that I took part in several years ago, Bee the Change (from Lawns to Legumes) was soliciting photos and stories of our gardens are growing. Due to all the rain we've been having, mine is having a bumper year.  But, at this point I'm not sure how much of it is actually native anymore. I guess, technically, the plan was "a pollinator" garden and we were allowed a few non-natives, but I swear that all the native plants I invested in are dead, with the sole exception of the native grasses. I have a bunch of beebalm that is flourishing, but it might be a non-native strain. It looks nice, though.

bee balm and fleabane
Image: beebalm and fleabane.

 At any rate, I did send them back a few pictures. They wanted little stories so I mostly focused on the fact that I have somewhat of a black thumb--my gardens grow, but they grow WILD--and that if I can plant natives and have them thrive (mostly?) then anyone can. I'm not sure how inspirational I was. We'll see if they actually use my comments and photos in their newsletter or not.
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 So, I talked about this here, but it's now live. Our first episode can be found on Spreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/mlop-count-zero--60266166, but we should be appearing on Spotify, Apple Tunes, and all your other favorite podcast streaming networks shortly. 

I might be having too much fun doing these. I have secretly always wanted a podcast and now here we are. I am so, so grateful to my co-host Ka1iban for doing all the technical stuffs. I listened to the opening of this and it is so very clear that he (and all the folks at Just Enough Trope) are professionals!

Anyway, busy day today. Have to run. Talk to you tomorrow!

Cyberpunk

Apr. 16th, 2024 02:08 pm
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 Out of the blue, I was contacted by the guy who runs the Just Enough Trope podcast on Facebook DM.  He wanted to ask me whether or not I thought a podcast devoted to cyberpunk was viable. I didn't say, but I could have, "Dude, I am currently listening to an Academic podcast about the Emperors of Rome, so I mean, probably? People will listen to almost anybody talk about anything." What I said instead was something far more true and professional which was, yeah, why wouldn't they? I ended up asking him what his hesitation was, why he was looking for advice. He said a bunch of reasonable things, but then threw in, "Also, I don't have a co-host."

So, of course I wrote back to say, "Well, you didn't ask, but how about me?"

He was shocked I was available and we are now writing a f*ck ton of notes for show ideas. Even if nothing else comes of this, I am having an absolute blast thinking about cyberpunk-y things again. 

In fact, I was just glancing through my book collection wondering where all my cyberpunk books went. I swear I had more than what I found. Also, I may have stopped reading cyberpunk in the 1990s and so I am woefully behind on the genre. Do any of you read cyberpunk regularly? If so, what are you reading? What's a book old or new that you'd recommend we know about--and yes, you can list one of William Gibson's. I'm just collecting all the info right now, so even if you think, "Ah, surely she's read this," please add it, anyway. Like, I haven't read Noor by Nnedi Okorafor, should I? Anyone else?
lydamorehouse: (Default)
By chance, I was trying to find one of my older fics. You would normally just go to AO3 and start scrolling, but I have a lot.

I mean, A LOT.

So, it is actually sometimes easier for me to just Google my own work. So, I popped in the title I was looking for and discovered that TWO of my Bleach fics were featured on a PODCAST.

"Berry Barista" and "The Loss of More Than Power," were called out as part of the "Ichigo's Harem" by The One True Podcast, Episode 19 (you will have to scroll down, I could not find a direct link. Not that I expect anyone but me cares to listen to this whole thing). The first part of the podcast just explains what Bleach is and why there are so, so many ships that sail with Ichigo, the main protagonist. The story that the guest speaker talks about wishing she could write, is, in fact, "The Loss of More than Power." and then she gets into her recs. And, let me tell you right now, there is literally nothing quite like being simultaneously called out as "I don't think they have updated in a long time," and "It is so good. SO GOOD." 

Yep.

My fan fic career in a nutshell. 

At any rate, the other thing I forgot to tell you all about is that as part of Shawn's work, she is doing a course in "Design Thinking." It's one of those certification programs that requires a lot of projects. One of them was to design and BUILD a tinfoil hat, I have to admit that I kind of dig the craft parts of this course? Previously, Shawn and I had to do a brainstorming session with post-it notes. I mean, I say "Shawn and I' because technically these are supposed to be "team" projects, but, of course, no one is in the office right now. So, she's been tapping me to be her team.

The good news is that I kind of dig it.

Here's me modeling the cooking tinfoil hat, for the discerning conspiracy theorist who likes to cook and is fond of anglerfish.

anglerfish cooking tinfoil hat
It has a recipe hook, a fancy fish tail counter weight, a spoon holder, drip pockets, and so much more!!

Also, as my friend Laurie Winter pointed out when I posted this to Facebook, the other feature of our hat is that the aliens can not implant their recipes into your brain!  Bonus!

We sent a series of these pictures to Mason, who left for college and Connecticut the day we sat down to do this with, "Here's what happens when we are left with an empty nest."  We got back, "??? ARE YOU OKAY?'  
lydamorehouse: (ichigo hot)
I don't do a lot of podcasts for various reasons, but one that I've been listening to a lot lately is called "Maintenance Phase." On "Maintenance Phase" they do a lot of debunking of fad diets and deep dives into the history of things like the BMI. Food and food politics is one of those things that I find myself strangely drawn to, so this is very much adjacent to my interests. 

Anyway, last night, I happened to listen to the episode about Angela Lansbury's exercise video from the 80s and I just had to go find this gem, myself.




It's actually pretty amazing. Shawn and I have decided that this is the exercise program for us. I love how gentle she is and how she wants to start out every morning finding something we love about our body. I was like, !!  Yes, please.

The folks at Maintenance Phase called her "The Bob Ross of Exercise" and they are correct. 
lydamorehouse: (Default)
...for What are You Reading Wednesdays?  If they do,  I can tell you that I'm listening to something that an article in the New York Times turned me on to. It's a podcast from 2015 or so called "Afroqueer Podcast"  I know almost nothing about the continent of Africa and so thought this might be an interesting way to celebrate pride month while also raising my own awareness about a part of the world that I'm astonishingly ignorant about.

I've listened to four episodes so far and it's difficult to say I'm enjoying it, since some of the content is difficult and painful, but I am definitely learning stuff.  And, of course, some of the stories are extremely heartwarming as well. 

Otherwise, it looks like the "why can't I see Lyda's pictures?" mystery has been solved. I also forgot I have a premium membership to DW? So, I will now attempt to avail myself of the photo uploading option that is native to this system. I don't have anything in particular that needs showing off, but I will test with a picture of my cat:


my cat hanging over the edge
Image: snaggle-toothed, orange boy cat hanging over the edge of the rocking chair, giving the camera a slightly crazed glare.

Does everyone see it?

Tired

Oct. 17th, 2018 12:48 pm
lydamorehouse: (ichigo being adorbs)
 My car has new tires! Hooray.

I spent a goodly portion of my morning at the Dunn Brother's across from Dave's auto waiting for Tor to put the new tires on, however. At one point, I was writing some letters to my international pen friends and I think some kind of local politician sat down in the collection of chairs beside me. I could not tell which variety he was, but there was talk of the Minnesota legislature. I should probably have known him on sight. All I can say for sure is that I could have gone into politics--I swear most of them are annoyingly loud and aggressively 'working it'? They all seem to have something akin to what I used to call my 'con persona,' where I'm _not_ exactly FAKE, but I'm so hyper-aware of my performance that it has a veneer of 'acting,' even when I'm not... though maybe, yes, if you consider improv acting, which I do.  

Anyway, I got the car fixed and Tor and I had a funny conversation about my letter writing, because I saw that my car had been wheeled into the garage and so I mistakenly thought they were almost done with it. When I realized that they weren't, I pulled out all my letter writing stuff to pass the time. We got to talking as he was printing up my bill about "kids these days" and how we both remember having to have a "letter writing class" in school, where the teacher taught us the format for personal and business letters. He was also super-irritated that kids don't learn cursive writing any more. He said that Dave's grandson (who is a bit of a fixture around the shop) told Tor that he'd learned to "text" at school, and Tor was very "WTF are my tax dollars even FOR???" 

I have no idea what the politics of the guys are at Dave's Auto. I would suspect they lean Republican and i would not be surprised at all if any of them were the kind of run-of-the-mill bigots and racists you find in rural Wisconsin/Minnesota, because their reception area is decorated with deer skulls and taxidermy and there's a sign that says "Business hours are subject to change during hunting season." A lot of hunters can be very pro-gun, which often shunts them into the Republican camp. However, In Minnesota it's not always an easy 1:1. 

Still, it was nice to bond over cursive.

In other news, I finally officially went on hiatus for Twin Cities Geeks. It's a big commitment for a volunteer gig, which maybe sounds dumb coming from me. I mean, it's not like I have any other official reviewing jobs and I kind of have all the time in the world on my hands. But, I think coupled with the fact that I'm not feeling super-passionate about any comic book titles right now...? I don't know. I'm glad I left the door open and they seemed more than happy to have me back when I'm ready, because they are a good group and I like contributing. 

I was feeling very low about that when I also got asked to be on a half-hour segment of a podcast about writing: MF Galaxy. Malcolm (Minister Faust) and I have been friends since we were both up for the Philip K. Dick way back when.  When he asked, I was just fresh off the conversation with TCG and feeling very much like a has-been. He was very lovely about the fact that the podcast is about the process / craft of writing and that I was still relevant. I'm really looking forward to chatting with him. We have a Skype call set up for next Tuesday. 

Oh, and the vegetarian chili was apparently a hit yesterday with Mason's robotic team.  They scraped the crockpot clean and specifically told Mason to tell me that it was "bomb-ass," which at first I was unclear as to whether or not that was a compliment. Mason assures me it was. I tend to trust him, if only because they dang near licked the bowl clean.

So that was a win.

I should get up and go to the grocery store and pick up stuff for dinner tonight. I'm hoping to talk Shawn into making her sloppy joes.


lydamorehouse: (ticked off Ichigo)
Over the weekend, I went to see "Blade Runner 2049" by myself at 10:15 pm on Saturday night. I hate seeing movies by myself. I actually ended up at the wrong theater--I'd pre-purchased tickets for Inver Grove Heights, but apparently, despite living here for decades, I don't actually know the suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul, and I ended up in Oakdale. I guess I just thought "Oh, yeah, that nice theatre with the comfy recliners" and I drove to the wrong one on automatic pilot. "Blade Runner 2049" wasn't even showing there, so I had to decide whether to race across town to try to get to the place I'd paid for, or, to head off to somewhere closer in order to not miss any of it. I opted for not missing anything, because some months ago, I agreed to talk to the folks over at Just Enough Trope about the movie. So I ended up at a super late show, in IMAX. I'm not a big fan of the IMAX experience. I'm old, so I often find it too loud and the screen is so big that sometimes I feel like it's impossible to take everything in properly.

But, I saw it and we recorded my part of the podcast on Sunday afternoon.

I'm listening to the podcast right now, for the first time, and I don't sound too stupid. http://justenoughtrope.com/2017/10/09/237-sexbot-boobie-business/  They edited me a little, but not a lot, so you get me in my most rambling, interrupting myself glory. The podcast itself is surprisingly long. I talked to them for about an hour, and almost all of that is there. But, the conversation is interesting (at least I thought so both at the time and listening now.)  We get into some interesting things about cyberpunk and the questions of humanity that it often plays with.  If you get a chance, check it out and see what you think of it. On the Just Enough Trope page, they list the time stamp for when my interview/conversation starts, so you can just jump to that. Though I listened to the front matter, just to hear the context.

Other news is that late last night, Mason announced that he is going to homecoming with A DATE.  He won't tell us who (because he's a little sh*t), but we have some guesses.  We do know that it's a young woman, so take that for what it is. Adorably, he calls her his "lady friend."  We are going to be doing some shopping in preparation.  Mason still has a few nice dress shirts, but he'd like to get some dress pants that aren't high water (damn those growth spurts!) and check out shirts and ties, just because. We're going to re-dye his hair either tonight or tomorrow.  It's kind of exciting.  It made me remember my first high school dance.  I already think Mason will have a better time than I did at the first one, since he's actually going with someone he likes, as opposed to me, who just longed balefully in the direction of Rich Steffans.  (Kind of pathetic in retrospect. No offense to Rich, but I obsessed on him and literally NEVER talked to him, so he must have been so baffled by my odd behavior.)

I did later go to most of the dances with dates--yes, I dated boys, some I quite liked, in fact.  

Anyway, I'm excited for Mason.  

II spent yesterday doing some more fussing-because:POLTICS.  Shawn confessed over the weekend that she's always hated the bins we have for recycling in the pantry and wanted another solution to them. I suggested reducing the number (we had four) and moving one of them to the bottom of the landing, since we have alley pick up of mixed recycling now and that's on my way out to the back.  We left one in the pantry for guests, but moved it into a more out of the way place. I painted both of the ones we decided to keep. Shawn had wanted brown, and I hunted around in the basement, certain that we had a brown--only it turns out what we had was a dark brick red. They turned out really nice, actually, though when they were still wet I was pretty terrified that I'd be saying, "Um, so..... I know you wanted brown, but how do you feel about pink???"  I took the remaining bins out to the garage where they'll function as storage.  Into the spot they used to occupy we pulled down Shawn's grandfather's spool table from the attic.  It's got a bottom shelf, so we're using it as a bookshelf for our overflow cookbooks, which had been piled around Shawn's comfy chair in the living room. (Our personal home decorating aesthetic is built around this New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/style/lets-celebrate-the-art-of-clutter.html.) 

At any rate it looks nice, though it has made it starkly obvious that on my list of home improvements, we're going to have to move "repaint the pantry" further up on the list.  :-)

Maybe I should go listen to the news and see if it makes me anxious enough to tackle another project!  ;-)
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 Mason and I have done our podcast thing again "Villain's Soliloquy: #32" in which we discuss the current happenings in Bleach, Toriko, and Fairy Tail.  We also talk a little about the current line-up in Weekly Shounen Jump because a lot of people out in Tumblr land are wondering what might replace Naruto now that it's ended.  I did actual research about this, so you know... 

It might sound a bit choppy this time because I ended up editing out a lot of us shuffling around trying to find things. So, if you're wondering about that, that's what it's about.  Because all THREE of you are probably deeply concerned.

Deeply.



Beyond that, here is another reminder to local folks that if you want to come hear me read, I'll be doing a rapid-fire type reading thing at Acadia Cafe on Sunday (Nov. 9) from noon to 3 pm.  I'm still not sure what I'll read, but it'll be something I'm working on.

My folks are coming up for a visit today, so I dragged some things up to the attic.  For a brief moment, I lost Ms. Ball (our black-and-white) cat up there for a while (I think she was investigating the various squirrel nests.)  But, she came back down eventually.  She's very social and is our number one lap cat, so it was cold and unfriendly up there.  Now her face whiskers are covered in dust.

I should do the dishes and other fussing about so that I'm ready.

See you later!

June 2025

S M T W T F S
123 4 5 67
8 9 10 11 12 1314
1516 17 18192021
22 23 242526 2728
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 1st, 2025 05:29 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios