ashbet | Reading

The Stroppy One and I were idly going through some stuff on YouTube, and ended up watching a few gothy blogs - one covering some new music, a couple of video diaries of Whitby Goth Weekend, etc. As we were watching the most recent one, he turned to me and said, in a scandalized tone, "He didn't blend his whiteface makeup down his neck! Or over his ears!"

I explained that the current way folks are wearing whiteface is more like black metal corpse paint, and blending the makeup over any exposed skin is a bit passe.

He looked at me, smirked, and asked, "How does that make you feel? Cranky Eldergoth?"

Okay, yes, it does cause me to side-eye the person a tiny bit, but ... it's their style. It makes them happy. But yes, my Eldergoth heart is confused.

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One of those videos let me know that there's a new Inkubus Sukkubus album! And a new Jarboe album! :: scurries to bandcamp ::

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I'm starting to plan my packing for the upcoming UK trip, and no really I mean it trying to figure out how to pack lightly. For almost three weeks. My solution (probably) is packing four of the "Selkie Governess" blouses that the Madwoman in the Attic made for me - black, b&w stripe, pink, and ivory - and four skirts that can be swapped around with them. Plus wearing another black one and a black skirt while traveling, and putting another skirt in my carry-on luggage. No, the blouses don't have pockets, but I'm fine with wearing a cute velvet pouch that will hold my phone and fan, with everything else in my purse.

tcpip

"Pacific Island Countries are microcontributors of greenhouse gases yet they are likely to be affected most. Some large nations have blatantly shown their lack of concern on these issues and they seem to believe that their economy and well-being are much more important than the survival of the people from PICs. This sounds inhumane to us. How can we make our voice heard? Are we over-reacting? One thing is for sure: we are vulnerable."
-- Janita Pahalad, Fiji Meteorological Service (Gillispie & Burns, 2000, p223)

For a few years I've more than a usual interest in the climate affairs of the Pacific (including a master's dissertation from the University of Wellington), with the recent completion of a major research paper on energy production which, as the wheel turns very slowly, will hopefully be published soon in the Intergovernmental Research and Policy Journal. In the meantime, however, I have also been nose to the grindstone and have just completed another paper for the same journal, this time on the current and future modelling of sea level change in the Pacific. There are three major improvements in this area: firstly, the adoption of satellite altimetry rather than tidal gauges; secondly, the continued abandonment of the "bathtub" models; and thirdly, the very significant improvements in sheer computational power, especially with general-purpose GPU programming.

Satellites provide a much broader scope for measuring sea level rise, capable of tracking the entire planet rather than just where tidal gauges are located. Further, altimetry actually measures variations in sea-level height, whereas gauges can be subject to subsidence. As for the "bathtub" models, they were fine for predicting sea-level rise due to thermal expansion, but not so good at predicting the effects of storm and wave surges and erosion. Newer, dynamic models are doing a better job at this. Finally, with this additional quantity of data and the complexity of interactions, we are very fortunate to have improvements in computing power through GPGPU programming, which enables massive parallel computation.

Anyway, doing such research has taken up a sizeable portion of my non-working life for the past few weeks, so it's good have some light the end of this project, before I move on to the next topic, which will either be a study in mitigation and adaptation in developing countries or environmental economics, both areas that I know quite well - all depends what my supervisor thinks is best. On a more practical and immediate note, however, it looks like I'll be taking another (short, small) international trip in a couple of weeks to really knuckle down on a major, relevant project for Pacific Island Nations that covers both energy generation and sea-level rise. Who knew that after years of formal study and research, one might be able to make a significant and serious contribution to a chosen subject.

Current Mood: determined
Current Location: The Rookery
Current Music: The Patients, Vol 1-5

flamingsword

Crafting:
Sourcing sustainable notions and trims.

Music:
Marconi Union - Multiforms: Ambient Transmissions vol 3.

Disability:
Accessible Virtual Pride celebration by Calling Up Justice and One Free Community, and some other partnered organizations.

DateAbility App - an online dating forum for people with disabilities. Says it’s screen reader compatible.

Hygiene infographics for disabled and spoonie folks - On Instagram.

Life update: we’re in Oregon, and will hopefully be home either tomorrow night or the next day.

the_siobhan

The last two weeks in bullet points:

Several more bags of stuff cleared out of the house

Got the basement lights fixed

Sent in a request for some paperwork from the city that will hopefully help resolve outstanding permits numbered 1-4. Paid for said paperwork. Wrong paperwork was received. Have now sent a new request to a different department in the city. Fingers are crossed. Toes are crossed. Eyes are probably crossed too.

Sent photos sent to city's urban forestry department to hopefully resolve outstanding permit number 5.

Put together some boxes of excess kitchenwares for the ex to take to their new place when they move.

Replaced the filter on the air conditioner so I could turn it on when the weather got hot. No "on" was achieved. Spent a couple of hours fiddling with it before I gave up. Left a message for the tech to come check it out.

Went with dad and wife to new condo to take measurements and plan for move. Purged several shelves worth of expired jars. Packed two (2) boxes.

Came home to discover a shelf in my office had torn itself off the wall and dumped it's contents all over the floor. One of my gargoyles didn't make it.

I am having a glass of wine and going to bed. I will clean up the damage tomorrow.

Current Location: Sisyphus Hill

tsuki_no_bara

oh my flist it's been so hot here. i had some chocolate in my pantry that i had to put in the fridge because it was MELTING. what the hell.

...my a/c is somehow set at 84º. that can't be right.

anyway. yes. i have a/c in my house. ^_^ i regularly miss the front porch on my old place but i now have a/c so i try not to complain too much. i mean it was absolutely necessary on friday because friday was like 94º and that's brutal.

the chocolate by the way came from the admin retreat which was wednesday. i keep adding mental finger quotes - "retreat" - because we didn't actually retreat anywhere, we had it in one of the conference rooms in the big ugly building where we work. breakfast, professional development, lunch, social event. the social event this year was a duck tour - touristy but a good time. one of the ducks is called molly molasses and was named after the ~~boston molassacre~~ great molasses flood. she's brown, natch. because we went on the duck boats all our swag was duck themed, plus one of the admins m wore a shirt with a big rubber duck print and the admins a who makes her own clothes wore a dress made from a small duck print she found online somewhere. and of course we got rubber duckies in our swag bags. and chocolate. :D which is now in my fridge to keep it from melting. (may i repeat - what the hell.)

tuesday was the last big support staff lunch of the summer, theme: hawaii. we had baby picture bingo (so many of my coworkers were such cute babies!) and the food was yummy and there was a lot of it so i took leftovers home. i did not however wear a hawaiian shirt because i don't own one.

and thursday on my way home i gave (or at least tried to give) a lost scotsman directions to his hotel. he and his friends were of course all kilted and wearing soccer jerseys. the first boston area world cup game was today, scotland-haiti, and while i kind of wanted haiti to win because it's been so long since they've been in the world cup i'm not too disappointed that scotland beat them. also apparently the us won their first game which is always nice. a german fan is roadtripping around the south and sharing his exciting food discoveries (wendy's! waffle house! chili's!) and it is ADORABLE.

world cup branded merch includes... soccer themed condoms (available in toronto). what a finish. heh.

i was briefly really caught up in the nba finals and the knicks' amazing game 4 win. i have not however paid attention to the rest of the tournament so i don't know if they won the whole thing or not.

tonight my sister and i saw power ballad which was really cute and who knew paul rudd could sing! surprise. dinner was rotating sushi, very fun. also delicious.

the artemis iii crew has been revealed! three americans representing nasa, one italian representing the esa. andre douglas, one of the americans, thanked his mom at the crew announcement. how cute is that? so cute.

random and fun - rate my chives, an instagram account where people ask this one guy to rate their skill in chopping chives. sometimes the internet is such a weird place.

a youtuber built a working laptop in an altoid tin. so tiny, so minty. uncommonly minty, even. :D

for the americans in the audience, i give you fifty states of s'mores. i think the massachusetts s'more should be made with marshmallow fluff but we do have cranberry bogs so i'll let it slide.

watch the southern lights seen from space.

and finally, the pope held mass at the sagrada familia in barcelona on wednesday and blessed what's now the tallest church in the world. it only took 140 years to get there.

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: the dark knight returns

flamingsword

I think I am in love with the ghost of Andrea Gibson, and need to buy some of their books.

Andrea Gibson — “For Jenn”:

At 12 years old I started bleeding with the moon
and beating up boys who dreamed of becoming astronauts.
I fought with my knuckles white as stars,
and left bruises the shape of Salem.
There are things we know by heart,
and things we don't.( Read more... )

I’m going to try to catch up on people’s journals as much as I can tonight. If I don’t react to your important post with so much as a <3, please assume I did not see it and drop me a link so i can stay in touch with the things you feel are important bits in your life?

flamingsword

Hey, y’all. This is a quick note to say we’re safely in Dallas, just so you know not to worry.

Hope you’re doing well,
-H

cupcake_goth

The first episode of The Vampire Lestat is everything I wanted. There he is, my gloriously messy Brat Prince. Poor impulse control, hiding his insecurities and broken heart by performing hedonism, and yes, my egotistical vampire rock star boyfriend.

There’s a great fan theory going around related to the first scenes, and I agree with it. (It ties into later books of the series, so I won’t go into it. But it makes SO MUCH SENSE.)

I haven't gone looking for discussion around this, but I'm curious as to how the show fans who haven't read the books are dealing with the end of the first episode. Because yes, the trailers implied they were Going There, but whoooooo, it's canon in the show, and I kinda want to see the people melting down about OMG PROBLEMATIC.

tcpip

"Rodents" are the featured article on Wikipedia today, so it's appropriate that my "animaux de compagnie", Mayday and Mayhem are mentioned. Last week, I took them to a specialist vet to get a general check-up and some medications for mycoplasma infection, which, unfortunately, is pervasive among the species. Mayday had incessant sneezing, and Mayhem was snortling, so the visit was rather overdue, but apart from that, they are in very good condition. Mixing crushed doxycycline with rice cream is a certain method to get rats to eat their medicine, and now, a few days later, they are pretty much cured. Despite their age (almost two, which is 60 in rat-years), these brothers are very active, chasing each other about, tails held high (a sure sign of a healthy rat), climbing where they shouldn't climb, and generally being highly intelligent and playful balls of chaos. I attribute their excellent health in part due to their very extended free-range time and their healthy diet of steamed vegetables, a little protein powder, leafy greens, brown rice and oats. I'm not sure how they managed to convince me that their free-range time now consists from when I get up, that they are fed on a mat by the study door, and they can sleep in a kitten bed underneath my bed during the day, being returned to their oversized cage only when I turn in. Rat cunning, that's what they have.

The other member of the household, who is not of order Rodentia, i.e., myself, is apparently also in good health, perhaps due to similarities to my companions in diet and exercise. On my doctor's inquisitiveness, I've undertaken a range of blood tests, which all came back in good order and, after putting on a few kilos from the extraordinary culinary adventures in South America, on the cruise, and then Sichuan province, I am finally shedding my way back towards last year's levels; my body is curiously elastic. For those who are able (and I recognise my good fortune in this regard), a good diet, plenty of exercise, and good sleep, applied with time and consistency, make a world of difference. Still, one doesn't get all the benefits; I recently recall being in good spirits after a great punk gig, finding a smoochy cat on the way home, all purrs and head-butts, and then taking a few steps forward muttering under my breath, "I wish I didn't exist". Ahh, my brain, with its quadruple dose of depression, you take me such places. I even let the mask slip at work at a staff meeting, when I cheerily suggested to all that if we didn't exist, we wouldn't have any problems. That would solve everything for all time! Thank goodness I have my Haustiere to retain a semblance of sanity.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: The Rookery
Current Music: Ascendant, Particle Horizon

flamingsword

• research Crone crowning ceremonies for Ruby’s next birthyday
• study how to have more joy
• do a Shadow work post
• text friends G, J,

numb3r_5ev3n, and

nyyki about updated schedule
• look at Someday House board on Pinterest.

flamingsword

https://www.tumblr.com/terminusverge/818819426272067584/insomnia-productions-high-quality-tiktoks-otters baby otters learning to swim! So cute!

https://readfoundobject.substack.com/p/they-killed-normal-and-called-it

Have you noticed that the middle is gone from everything? Restaurants, companies, careers, music, retail, the economy itself. What replaced it is a barbell: one enormous weight on each end, nothing in the center, and most of us trying not to get crushed by the bar.

And the replacement does look better every single time, I grant you that. The A24 film is better than the $40 million adult drama from 2007, yeah, we can all agree on that. The Sweetgreen bowl is better than the Applebee’s chicken parm, sure. Your favorite Substack is sharper than the mid-list magazine that folded in 2019. Every replacement is a genuine upgrade. But every replacement serves fewer and fewer people.
[…]
Each time, the thing that died was the thing that served the most people with the least pretension, and each time, the thing that replaced it was a genuine improvement that served fewer people while flattering the taste of a specific class.

The pattern is so consistent it stops looking like a market correction and starts looking like a heist.

https://chillhop.bandcamp.com/album/chillhop-esssentials-summer-2026 lofi music on Bandcamp

tsuki_no_bara

hands up anyone who read poison elves.

*looks around, puts hand down*

don't mind me, i'm having nostalgia feels. i found a kickstarter for book 4 of the collected pe - evidently there are going to be five in total - pe went 100 issues so breaking it up into five collections makes sense. i got there through a kickstarter for an aria onmibus which is a comic book i haven't even thought about for, i dunno, twenty-odd years. pe was my first fandom, my first online fandom, for a long time the fandom by which all others were judged, and the reason my favorite fannish story is about sacrificing a virgin to the dark lord.

i've told that story many times and depending on how long you've been here and how else you know me you may have heard it many times. i said it was my favorite, didn't i. :D it was a weird and wild fandom and i don't think i'm ever going to fully let it go. i mean, how can i when i can happen upon a random kickstarter that's 783% funded and still has eight days left? i guess pe (and drew hayes, the creator) (aka the dark lord) had a long reach. the kickstarter pointed me to an interview with robb horan in the comics journal about drew. some of it i knew and some of it i didn't. (robb ran sirius entertainment which published eighty of pe's hundred issues. drew self-published the first twenty.)

i should see if i can dig up a picture of me with the ridiculous papier-mache ears so you can laugh at me. :D one of the guys on the mailing list - because that's where the fandom was, a mailing list - made a soundtrack kind of cd which i seem to have lost when i moved and i am UPSET about it. it went where all my mix cd's went, probably.

it really was a time and i've been wallowing in my feels about it. also resisting the urge to try and organize my comics so i can find shit when it resurfaces like this. (like, i remember the art for aria being absolutely unreal and now that someone's trying to put together an omnibus of it i kind of want to reread it.) but that would probably take a bigger chunk of free time than i currently have.

anyway. that's what i've been thinking about. last night i went out for dinner with my sister, her friend e, and friend e's hubs, to celebrate their birthdays (not the husband's tho). fun and delicious and no nostalgia at all. and today i bought some shirts and now i need hangers to put them on. >.< and it's been extremely hot the past couple days and i do not love that. last weekend i watched the entirety of the boroughs (sad, kind of sweet, creepy) and last month i watched legends (tense, violent, and i convinced one of the admins m to check it out) and now i'm watching shogun which i'm enjoying altho the politics are convoluted and i don't fully understand what's going on.

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Music: mine is long and needle-like! nyar!

tcpip

As a consistent, long-standing, albeit irregular contributor to Rocknerd, it is to my shame that I have not contributed anything since February (March Violets, Crocodile Promises). The stack of things that I should review has grown, and, having decided to take a day of rest from work, study, and politics, I turned my attention to art and worked my way through four reviews with an electronica focus:

* Rüfüs Du Sol, Inhale / Exhale (2025). Australia's most successful contemporary electronica-dance band for 15 years, this late review of their latest album notes mostly consistent positive tempo, coupled with a tale from euphoria to loss.
* Basement Jaxx, Sidney Myer Music Bowl. A live review of one of the biggest names in UK garage electronica, known for maximalist performances with high-tempo anthems. Great sounds, albeit with hefty ticket prices and sometimes questionable sound quality.
* Leftfield, Botanical Gardens. Previously reviewed on Rocknerd 15 years ago, Leftfield are an example of beauty in music: "Leftfield are the music of passionate defiance from people who have nothing but each other". Very loud and very clear, the concert would have been improved with length.
* Cut Copy, Botanical Gardens. Unpretentious, often understated, Melbourne's Cut Copy provided a good selection of the past and their most recent album, "Moments". Rather than dancefloor bangers, they provide a continuous joyful vibe.

Now for a brain-dump of some hypotheses on the music of physics, as speculated by a non-physicist. Following Louis de Broglie's hypothesis and Quantum Field Theory, it is fair to say that everything is a wave. From de Broglie was the hypothesis that what we think of as matter has wave-like properties, which has been confirmed through electron diffraction experiments (apropos, waves also exhibit particle-like behaviour). This is accepted as mainstream quantum mechanics; particles are described by a wavefunction, ψ. In Quantum Field Theory (QFT), the fundamental entities of the universe are quantum fields (e.g., electron fields, quark fields, photon fields, etc), and particles themselves are excitations in those fields. Unlike an "everyday wave", like a wave on the ocean, there is no external cause for this it's the fundamental force and motion from the universe.

When a quantum state occurs periodically in time, it can be associated with a frequency. A frequency measured over equal intervals is essentially an oscillation, or, in musical terms, a beat. For a state with definite energy E, the wavefunction evolves as: f=E/H, the Planck-Einstein relation, where a particle of energy E has an associated oscillation frequency, f. Now, when there is a single eigenstate, a quantum oscillation is more like a single tone. However, the universe has multiple quantum states superimposed with interference, and from that beat frequencies appear. If everything is ultimately oscillating quantum fields, then the universe is an ensemble of coupled rhythms. How far I can push these hypotheses will be explored on another day; however, I am tempted to also map this to the insights between the relationship between music and psychology and the philosophical concept of harmony. But all that's for another day; two paragraphs on quantum mechanics and music is enough for today.

Current Location: The Rookery
Current Music: The Comsat Angels, The BBC Sessions

cupcake_goth

I'm seriously thinking of looking for a CD portable stereo. Yes, a boombox. I want to listen to some of the CDs I own, and I don't want to have to fight with iTunes/Apple Music to put music on my iPod. There are enough weird, incomprehensible steps to get new music I own onto my iPod, to the point that I'm going to need to set aside a day to see what I can manage.

So! Yeah, I'll add a boombox to my mental list of items I always look for at thrift stores.

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Retro fashion technology: I've been getting into clip-on earrings. Mostly because I want to wear BIG earrings, and some experimenting has led me to the fact that BIG earrings are more comfortable as clips than as pierced.

Did you know that interesting clip-on earrings aren't easily found at thrift stores anymore? Just add that to the pile of reasons why thrift flippers/resellers vaguely annoy me. That, and Goodwill keeping their good merchandise for their auction sites. Grrrr.

flamingsword

I just got done listening to Home, which is the new single by Sara Bareilles. I’m not crying but I am a lot wistful and definitely planning on listening to the whole album when it drops.

Today, the besties that I will be living with and I got sunburned (but hopefully not too badly), and we have done two days worth of work in one day, so hopefully we don’t wind up paying for that tomorrow. I would like to show them the local yarn shop, the Greensboro arboretum, the Greek Market, and try to pick up my last check from work. Saturday I’m going to go to the memory care place and say goodbye to Uncle Tex, who I will probably not get the chance to see again, then get ready for people to bring takeout to Mom’s house so that we can do our leave-taking after celebrating my upcoming birthyday.

Sunday we get on the road headed for Dallas, and I’m only planning on seeing a few people when I get there, but - A: it’s helpful to break up legs of the trip and 2: I want hugs, dammit.

tsuki_no_bara

oh my flist it is so cold in the ugly building where i work that i brought slipper socks into work today to keep my feet from freezing off. i complained about it during lunch - yesterday i even had to put on a jacket at my desk - and admin p offered me his space heater. bliss. ^_^ i went from feeling like a bag of frozen peas to feeling like a rotisserie chicken.

i still had to take a walk in the afternoon in order to defrost. i mean, seriously.

last week clover (my favorite local chain and makers of the best pita bread) announced they were closing - like all of their restaurants - and apparently the outpouring of love and distraught wailing was enough to... i have no idea what but they're not closing after all. someone wrote a tribute song and someone else drew memorial art and another local place posted something really nice. i'm super curious what happened but also very excited that there are still delicious pita sandwiches in my future.

it's officially old news but since i mentioned it i have to share actual news about saturday's meteor.

there's a province in china where pet owners race with their pets. and yes, that is a guy carrying his saint bernard.

and two things that really only matter to new yorkers:
the baklava guy and his baklavan going around selling baklava in brooklyn parks. (no, seriously, he calls his van the baklavan and i think that is adorable.)

as a way to help support the knicks in their quest for the nba championship, mayor mamdani has temporarily repealed bedtimes for the knicks' smallest fans. the executive order is printed in comic sans, in case you were wondering how official it is. how cute is that? so cute.

Current Mood: cold
Current Music: rizzoli & isles

cupcake_goth

Day TWO of missing work because of a migraine. Which, of course, in addition to being a horrible experience now comes with a side of anxiety and paranoia about job security. Sure, Brain Raccoons, let’s do that.

—-

Last night was the “The Vampire Lestat: One Night Only” concert in NYC, and every image or video snippet from it is amazing. Sam Reid truly has been possessed by the spirit of Lestat. Not being at the concert is going to be a regret for the rest of my life, which I KNOW is a small, inconsequential thing to regret when balanced against everything else going on, but … I’ve been waiting for something like this since I was a teen, so of course it stings.

However, I’m very lucky in that a friend with media news connections went and picked up some swag for me!

petrea_mitchell posting in

agonyaunt

Dear Carolyn: My brother is about six months into a new relationship with a guy he really likes and says he can see the relationship heading to marriage. He seems really happy.
I cannot pronounce the new boyfriend’s name. Well, more precisely, I cannot hear the difference. His name is Crag. Evidently, I pronounce it as Craig. I cannot hear the difference. I have tried 9 million times to hear the difference, and I fail every time.

My brother or Crag will say the name, and I repeat it back and it is wrong. This is not for lack of trying. I speak two other languages in addition to English, and I do have some words in other languages that I avoid because I just cannot replicate the sound. Each and every time I say the boyfriend’s name, he corrects me. I will use work-arounds (e.g. are you (plural) going to the game? vs. Are you and Crag going to the game?), and the boyfriend will point out that I’ve just avoided his name. Are you kidding me? Come on.

My brother is my only sibling, and we are very close. I cannot imagine a world in which I don’t get along with or like his boyfriend, but this name thing is really wearing me down.

— Name Game

( Read more... )

redbird

I went to REI this afternoon to buy sandals, and I found a pair that suits me. They're Tevas, and if I'm satisfied after wearing them a few times, I'm going to order another pair in a different color (these are basic black).

I tried on several other shoes, which ranged from not quite right to just weird (a pair of Birkenstocks that had their arch supports in a really weird place relative to my feet).

Having found a pair that I thought fit, I walked down and then up a flight of stairs, as a test, and they were fine. I try not to climb a lot of stairs, but some are unavoidable, and it seemed like a useful test.

I'd been a little worried that there wouldn't be anything left in my size, since we're well into the time of year when a lot of people are wearing sandals, but REI clearly thinks it's still sandal season, along with hiking and running shoe season.

lil_m_moses

Books Finished
- Livesuit by James S.A. Corey (novella) [e-audio]
- Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy by Martha Wells (novella) [Kindle]
- Made Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky (novella) [e-audio]
- System Collapse by Martha Wells [Kindle & e-audio]
- Platform Decay by Martha Wells [e-audio]
- The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey [e-audio]
- How to be Okay When Nothing is Okay by Jenny Lawson [e-audio]
- Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi [Kindle]
- Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi [Kindle]
- Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch by JK Rowling [e-audio], more German listening

Library DVDs/Streaming Programs Watched
- Wake Up, Dead Man
- The Boys: S5D3-4 [2 equiv]
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: S3D1-2 [2]