lokiofsassgaard

I read books 1-4 of C S Poe's Memento Mori series. A while ago when I was still trying to find books by browsing Amazon (this is a terrible way to find books these days, but the reccing ecosystems I was in were worse) I kept staring at these covers and considering. They seemed relevant to my interests, but also I got burned on a lot of random buys. Also, it seemed like the more a book looked like it was maybe catering to me that it would be borderline unreadable, or actually unreadable.

I liked them and they are very well written. However, they are tricky reccs. It's about a pair of detectives dealing with series killers in NYC and has an actually good sense of NYC crime history. A lot of this is rooted in good research. However, the darkness, the various content warnings and a few other things are going to turn off a lot of readers.

So I was going to make really tortured metaphors about how, even putting all that aside, the books have a very specific vibe that I don't think most people would like. However, what tipped the scale and made me finally take a chance was a fan artist I follow doing an unofficial alt cover for it. Also, the books seem popular on the MM books subreddit and in some of the fan spaces I'm in right now.

It's going to be a 5 book series and book 4 just came out. There is a lot of interconnected stuff between the books so I am glad I read them in order. I'll need to do a canon review before the final one comes out. Definitely a series where you might want to look up warnings and tropes beforehand.

lovelyangel

Photography Studio Equipment Awaiting Teardown
August 29, 2025
Nikon Z6 • NIKKOR Z MC 50mm f/2.8
f/4 @ 50mm • 1/60s • ISO 1600

Fighting despair while sorting, packing and moving... I’m failing at emptying the big room by the end of the month. There are so many little tasks that pop up, forcing reorganization while packing. While some things are bound for trash/giveaway, there is still way too much stuff that must be moved and stored, and I don’t know where it will go.

While in the garage, I saw that I have 12 more boxes of books (mostly SF but also old classics and tech books). There is no way 70 boxes of books will fit into the new bookwall, and there will be a Grand Culling when the books are shelved. There will also be a fair amount of double-stacking on the shelves, I’m sure.

In the garage I also found several reams of specialty paper. (I had wondered where the Conqueror Lightspeck (sky blue color) went to.) I don’t think all the paper will fit into the storage cabinet currently slated to hold those items.

I also have to take down all my photography studio equipment – tripods, cameras, lights and light stands – and find some place to store the gear temporarily. There is a surprising amount. I’m tagging heads to match their legs, as I doubt I’d remember which head goes on which light stand. (They’re all different.) It will be nice at the end for all the equipment to be stored in one place, as historically they’ve been scattered and stashed in various locations around the house – wherever I could find space.

My packing and moving is currently complicated by scheduled volunteer work for my church, currently in progress, and that work continues through Saturday. This weekend, I’m making a concerted push to vacate the big room, including moving my office into my bedroom. The project remains daunting.

sholio

State of Whumptober:
7/31 (24 to go)
2 Biggles, 4 Murderbot, 1 Babylon 5

They're definitely not all whump or even h/c; some of them are just using the day's prompt for a general ficlet. Because it's my journal and I say so.

Turns out writing short h/c snippets for Babylon 5 is extraordinarily hard (at least with the characters I want to write about) due to

spoilers.

the incredibly short window of everyone being happy and getting along before it all goes to hell. You pretty much either need 20K of fixit beforehand, or somehow fit all your little hurt/comfort tropes into like 4 months of canon. (Obviously this pertains primarily to Londo.)

I also did sign up for Out of Order Flash. (Nominations are still open if the thing you want isn't in there.) I currently have no matches; I don't suppose any Biggles people (or Murderbot! or B5!) are around to be ~tempted~.

In other news, it is definitely early fall. Leaves are turning gold and falling! The air smells like autumn! I love this time of year best of all times of year, and yet .... help.

susandennis

I've only been in a few orthopedic shoe stores but every one of them was WEIRD. This one was a little less weird except. There was a big yellow piece of paper taped to the front door that said YOU MUST SIGN IN. It was curling at the sides like it had been there forever. One step into the store there is another yellow sign repeating the demand and explaining it was because they were short staffed. I am so so so tired of hearing how everyone is so short staffed. Hire more people, people!!

Anyway, the kid who waited on me was about a 5 out of 10. But, he was a solid 5 and with attitude counseling, he could be an 8 or 9. But since they don't know how to hire people... I digress.

He shouted at me as I was doing the required sign in 'You don't have to sign in!' OK WTF?

It was a rocky start.

He listened, he measured, he recommended and his recommends were pretty spot on. I tried on about 4 pair and 3 of them were almost acceptable. I was hopeful. And then he brought out a pair of David Tate's (Evita) and put them on and before I even stood up I knew... Winner Winner chicken dinner.

I tried on more. Then I tried on a different size of the winner but, nope, perfect. Seriously my feet were just giddy. I told him I'd wear them out. He tried to put the shoes I'd worn in into the box and I said nope, I'd carry them. 'All sales final without the box! Also if you wear them outside.' You ain't gettin' these back, dude. Quit trying.

But he did have the last word... As I got out of the car at home and walked to the garage door, I kept hearing this noise. I looked down and that rascal had let me walk out with the tag still on!! So glad I didn't go shopping or a walking tour.

But, I have such happy feet.

greghousesgf

I was in a really good mood because I had some great plans for the holiday weekend starting early this afternoon but I just got a text and they've all been cancelled. :(

Current Music: Antonio Carlos Jobim

susandennis

I got dressed and brushed my teeth and reached for my pills and discovered I had not taken them on Wednesday OR Thursday!! I was sneezing all day yesterday and thinking the allergy pills had quit on me again. I sometimes forget a day every couple of months but never two!

If I die today, you'll know why.

Off to buy shoes in case I don't die today.

susandennis

This will not be an entry about my new phone BUT the first couple of paragraphs will be. The good news is... I love it. It's got a lot of updated tweaks and tricks that I didn't expect and are hard to describe in a meaningful way. But outside of the fact that it is not cracked like my old one, it's even way better so I'm delighted.

BUT... yep, there is a but. Audible. This has happened before to me more than once. I do not remember what fixed it other than maybe Audible did an upgrade. Unless you have the audible app open, the book stops every 2 or 3 minutes. It resumes again when you go back to the app but seriously. I think Audible hates Pixels. Reddit does back me up with this ongoing issue. Every year there is at least one, maybe two threads about the problem. This morning I started this year's by linking to last year's and saying my new Pixel 10 had the same problem and I'd tried all the tweaks in the linked thread. I got a fast response asking what OS and what version of Audible. Now... new Pixel 10 - what the fuck os and version do you think I might have?????

I am considering a divorce from Audible. My annual membership renews in September. I have no more credits to spend. Maybe this is a good time to call 20 years a good run. Libby gives me lots of books. I changed my membership to monthly for the time being. If they fix the problem, I'll likely re-up. If not, then, nope.

But, speaking of customer experience... Bonny went to Fred Meyer on Wednesday. She wanted to find some step in sneakers. And she found the perfect pair of Skechers but they did not have her size. She found a Fred Meyer person and asked if there were more in the back or a different store. She said English wasn't his first language but she finally understood that they did not have more and would not because it was an older style. She took a photo of it and mentioned to him she'd see if she could find it on Amazon. He asked for her phone, she unlocked it and when to the Amazon app. He found the shoes on Amazon in her size and asked 'buy?' and she said YES! And he did. And yesterday afternoon she discovered they had been delivered to her apartment and they were perfect. She was so delighted. And so in love with that Fred Meyer guy. And Amazon. I think she's only ordered from Amazon about twice in her life. It was pretty hilarious.

Today I think I'm going over to that shoe store the podiatrist recommended. I looked online. They don't have many non-ugly shoes but they do have a few pair. So I'll go give them a shot.

And maybe do laundry. Baseball isn't until 4. Both my teams play at the same time for the next few days.

Oh one more camera thing. It has the most amazing zoom I've ever seen.

I just took these two photos sitting right here at my table. See the table I circled in red?

I zoomed in on it.

Isn't that wild???

Just next to that table, last night, some folks were set up for a little outdoor dining. With my new zoom, I could tell what they were eating!!! That has to be a football field away from here. Amazing.

susandennis

greghousesgf

Having some Pride of the Port tea after having come back from getting some groceries at Trader Joe. It's really hot out and the dumb bus taking me back home took a really long time to show up. I'm too tired to go swimming now.

Current Music: John Lennon

susandennis

The phone came with a nice USB c to USB c cable but I don't know why. I'll just add it to my collection.

I just put the old phone next to the new one on the table and tapped a few buttons and done. sim card was even, magically turned into an esim. Even my wallet was set up with my credit card.

The only glitch. Really the only one was the watch. A Pixel watch. This took way too long and too many tries to get connected. Left hand right hand clearly the Pixel department has gotten too large.

Now my old old phone is packaged for return which I will do right now.

My new phone is very pretty.

susandennis

I remembered this morning that UPS used to give me a map when it got close to delivery and, then, I found out, it still does! So I watched the truck til it got close and then speedwalked down to the front door. I sat there a few mins when Martha came up from her yoga class and kept me company.

Do you get a new phone every couple of years or so????? Oh Martha.

Why don't you just wait until they guy comes around with packages this afternoon? Oh Martha.

Then he drove in and I snagged the goods.

p.s. My grand plan to 'share' photos to Flickr is a fail. Turns out that option works only once in a while and has been a 'known issue' for years. Sigh.

p.s.s. Guess what I'm going to do next???

susandennis

UPS says it will be here by 11:30 and I can get it at 1, assuming Timber Ridge's delivery service works as designed which it most likely will.

We had clouds the whole time for volleyball this morning which makes for such a nicer game. Sadly, for the first hour, we also had TheAsshole. But he left after an hour so the second hour was great fun. We didn't have that many players so those of us who were there got lots of exercise.

A resident just drove into the parking garage in a gynormous pickup truck. The door opened automatically which means it read his license plate which means he actually does live here and the truck is not borrowed or rented. It's pristine, like never used. And it's huge. Now, what the fuck would an old retired guy who does not own a home need with a giant truck and why does he not use it. I have actually seen it parked in the garage and it is way too big for our parking spots so it sticks out. I'm surprised one of these other old people haven't rammed into it.

At the RUM yesterday, the facilities guy announced they are going to rename our parking spots. Right now, everyone's spot has their apartment number on it which is very handy if you are nosy like me. Very handy. But, alas, if you are trying to manage assigned parking spots, it's a stupid system. Like with Myrna. She gave up her car and so her spot. They gave it/rented it to someone who needed another spot. Then she died and they sold her unit and they had to kick out the one who had been parking there so the Dick and Jan could park there cause it had their apartment number painted on it.

Anyway, they are going to a much better system of name/assigning spaces and are going to clean up and repaint all the garages. This is going to piss off the half of the population who still drive and the other half don't care. There's a middle group, not small, of people who have cars and don't/can't drive them. On my tiny hall alone, there's Joan, Jim, John... None of their cars have been driven in months. Batteries RIP

There were no other giant revelations at the meeting. The boring people were as boring as ever. The best ones are always the Director of Housekeeping and the Facilities Director. They are always interesting and entertaining. And, they were yesterday, too. Smartly, they put them at the end so we all stay.

I've got one more episode of Code of Silence (Britbox) and I need to watch it this morning to find out what happens. But, probably, I should get dressed first.

sage

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and the paid time! I appreciate it so much! <333

( books: Smith, Kingfisher, Smith, Abulafia, Herron, Tierney) )

home
So glad to be home. Though I came home just in time to discover chigger bites up my legs from repotting mom's new money tree...which at least weren't a mosquito or spider in my bed like I first thought they were? (The bites take 2-3 days to appear, so I was confused.) I didn't make it to yarn group Sunday thanks to a vicious migraine that took forever to pass, even with meds. Frustrating.

dirt
I lost a few plants from being out of town so long, but they were already in fragile shape so I'm not that surprised. The bougainvillea is blooming in the sweltering heat. I need to get the spider plants planted into the Buddha head planter. The drainage hole is unexpectedly small, so I'm pondering the planting mix. I would redrill it, but it's concrete and I don't have a bit that large.

healthcrap
splitting headaches all too frequent, inc today. I called the pain clinic finally and got an appt set for more botox. Stupid head/jaw. I'm so impatient to feel better.

#resist
Labor Day: Monday, 9/01: Workers over Billionaires (#5051)

I hope all of y'all are doing well! <333

greghousesgf

Feeling much better now, I had a great time with my friend yesterday, we went to this bar across the street from my place and had some drinks and then we went down the street to this other pub and had dinner and listened to live music.

Current Music: Albert King

snickfic

- "I am definitely not signing up for

ficinabox," I said, and then promptly wrote most of a letter. I now have a request I can match to and spent the morning making a list of other requests that I could swap for. I've submitted a swap request, maximum two swaps of 2k each, but there's time to change my mind before swaps close.

- The Kinktober prompts are out. I have managed to write like one kinktober fic ever, plus October is the WORST month for this when I'm also working on FIAB and Yuletide treats and watching all the horror movies, and yet. You know what ship I want all the kinks for, all the time? It's Gallaghercest. I've made a list of all the kinks from this year that I think would be the most fun for them, and I think maybe I will try to post... one a week? That seems like something I could do.

- Speaking of the Gallaghers, I have almost 7k of reunion... vignettes? At this point there are enough of them that maybe it's just a story, lol. I keep pecking away, and words keep happening.

susandennis

None of the three pairs of shoes that I got yesterday was a winner. BUT, I am probably keeping one pair because I love them. They fit nicely and feel good but have no arch support and don't work with an insert. But I do love them. I guess I need to go to that shoe store after all. But, no rush.

I returned the other two yesterday and stopped by QFC to get a poke bowl. The raw fish counter is at the front of the store. It was as good this time as last. I do need to get some poke sauce. The sauce it comes with is too spicy hot for me. But, it's a winner for dinner for sure.

My new phone arrives tomorrow! I'm giving serious thot to no case. Naked carry. With the fancy insurance. The only issue is my Timber Ridge card. We have one card that gets us inside from some of the outside doors, into our apartments (I never keep mine locked so no need there) and, into some places outside of business hours - like the pool. Bam. So I have to carry it. It's now tucked between my phone and the case. But, I'm thinking, I'll glue a magnetic sheet onto it and slap it onto the phone. Or try a magnetic wallet. I've got ideas. But I also bought a cheap case just in case...

Today we have our quarterly Resident Update Meeting (RUN). All of the department heads report on what's been happening and what's planned. Mostly they just stand at the podium and read the words on their power point presentations. But, sometimes, you get a decent nugget of news. It's worth an hour.

John is still hanging in. Hazel was just here for an update. Things are kind of getting into a regular routine. And she got her hair cut yesterday so she even looks less frazzled.

Halloween production has begun.

sholio

It's that time of year. :D

Whumptober 2025 prompts list on Tumblr and text list on Google docs.

( Full prompt list and alternates )

Happy to hear any suggestions, requests, or ideas/inspiration! (Results not guaranteed.) I will probably be looking at writing Biggles, Murderbot, and Babylon 5 for this, and I already have specific thoughts on a few of the prompts, but I'm happy to hear any thoughts or suggestions that you have.

sholio

I won't sign up for more exchanges, she said, before being tempted by exchanges. Although this is more a broad smorgasbord of things I'm currently being tempted by.

I'm probably not signing up for Sex Pollen Exchange despite being very tempted. I love the trope, but I suspect signing up to write it for other people would be a great way for my brain to decide it had never seen a sex pollen in its life. (Signups close Aug. 31.)

I'm definitely not doing

ficinabox this year (signups 'til Aug. 31) because I'm definitely not up for 10K right now, but I wish the best to all who are throwing themselves on that pyre!

One thing I actually am seriously thinking about signing up for is Out of Order Exchange, a semi-flash exchange for non-linear fic. Currently taking nominations, and the signup window is tiny (Aug. 29-Sept. 1), then there's a 2-week writing period. I just think it sounds like a fun challenge (300 word minimum, 1 fandom minimum for requests/offers).

I also did sign up for

fandomgiftbasket, which is taking signups until Sept. 5. This one has no requirement to create anything; you can simply leave prompts (3 fandom minimum) and receive gifts. They do have a tendency towards delays if they have trouble filling all the baskets.

And this year's Whumptober prompts are out! (There is also a Whumptember challenge, because of course there is.) This is like the WORST year to try to write all the Whumptober days, because I have a lot going on that month, but I am so tempted to at least give it a try.

greghousesgf

Nothing went as planned yesterday and the worst part was trying to go home at about 6 only to not be able to get into the bldg because there was a power outage which I wasn't even warned about by the fucking fools who run this place and the gates and elevators didn't work and the power was out till TWO THIRTY IN THE MORNING!!
Thank fuck I could call L. on my cell phone and they let me hang out at their house till I could take a bus back home.
Then I could only get about 3 or 4 hours sleep because PG&E would not stop fucking calling me on my home phone.

Current Music: Getz/Gilberto

susandennis

Today I have 3 pairs of shoes coming from Amazon. I'm hoping against hope that one of them will be comfortable enough to wear a lot. If not, I do know how to return Amazon purchases.

So last week, after aqua yoga, I sent the Fitness Director a note explaining why I wasn't going to go back (boring, cold because no movement, too much breathing, not enough stretching). She responded by asking if they class made changes would I reconsider? I told her I'd try it once.

Honestly, I could tell within the first 5 minutes that I would be a class regular again. Lots of stretching and moving. My back felt really energized and so did I. 200% better. But, of course, next Monday is Labor Day, so no class. Sigh.

This morning was the first volleyball morning that I really needed to have lights on when I got up. Nice. It's still hot out but at least it's hot for a shorter period of time.

Today is house cleaner day and also time to start making some Halloween themed dolls and creatures. Steve asked me this morning if I'd ramped that up yet and I guess now is the time.

Two ball games but the first isn't until 4.

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Loki of Sassgaard

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Page generated Aug. 30th, 2025 03:41 am

I have no idea what I’m doing

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Books, 4 of them this time

Library Update #7: Stuff and More Stuff

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The feet knew

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what the????

What's the plan, Stan?

new camera does not suck

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