"A Novel"

Oct. 6th, 2025 11:42 pm
viridian5: (Read (Anna Karina))
[personal profile] viridian5
With a book I ordered from the library, The Phoenix Pencil Company, I didn't know it had "a novel" on the cover until I received it. And it has the kind of bs I associate with books that have "a novel" on the cover. This is why I prefer genre fiction. Some of it is in the present, some in the past, chapter by chapter. Some of The Phoenix Pencil Company is first person, while the other is second person, mostly of the "As you know, Meng, since you were there" variety.

Why is the author spending so much time writing to the other person about things they already know!?

The writer of the second person parts has Alzheimer's and is trying to get things down before they disappear, but the way it's written keeps hitting me like "As you know." It's the "you." "You said", "you did." If it weren't second person like this, I think it wouldn't keep slapping the back of my head constantly. I can write down my memories and feelings without this. I can't help feeling that a lot of it is this way because we, the reader, need to be informed, and that things would be set down differently if the reader weren't there. Like in a lot of "a novel" books, I'm too conscious of the form because the writer is thrusting it in my face.
aurumcalendula: gold, blue, orange, and purple shapes on a black background (Default)
[personal profile] aurumcalendula
Night Cascades (2022):

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Road to Empress (2025):

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Sorry, We're Closed (2024):

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Vacuum

Oct. 7th, 2025 03:01 am
[syndicated profile] murderbot_ao3_feed

Posted by razielim

by

Murderbot and the two Barish-Estranza SecUnits it had freed from their Government Modules some time ago regroup after a catastrophic failure and try to find the right tool for a delicate procedure. Too bad they're stuck in a dump... and the BE SecUnits are assholes.

Words: 2493, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 4 of 2025 Murderbot Schlock (Asexual Sex Horrors)

Кошачий Эверест

Oct. 6th, 2025 08:58 pm
[syndicated profile] maiorova_feed
На одиннадцатого году жизни кошечка Коха переквалифицируется из низовой в верховную. То в одну сторону глянет:

IMG_20251006_205710.jpg

То в другую посмотрит:

IMG_20251006_205714.jpg

А это Гоша передаёт привет:

IMG-20250926-WA0000.jpg
pattrose: (Almost Human)
[personal profile] pattrose


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[syndicated profile] murderbot_ao3_feed

Posted by sug4plum

by

When Twenty-two is injured, Mariss rushes back to their home system while contemplating her relationship with her SecUnit and navigating the politics around its personhood.

[Mariss POV, updates Mondays]

[You don't need to read Object Attachment first if you're comfortable starting in medias res]

Words: 3486, Chapters: 1/5, Language: English

Series: Part 6 of Twenty-two and Mariss

Book 95, 2025

Oct. 6th, 2025 09:24 pm
chez_jae: (Archer book)
[personal profile] chez_jae
Primer and Punishment (House-Flipper Mystery #5)Primer and Punishment by Diane Kelly

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


View all my reviews

I’ve been slacking on my reading! I finally finished Primer and Punishment, which is the fifth book in Diane Kelly’s “House-Flipper” mystery series. The main character is carpenter Whitney Whitaker.

Whitney’s cousin and business partner, Buck, has found a new project for them to renovate and resell—a houseboat on a nearby lake. Although unsure at first, Whitney quickly sees the potential and is all in on fixing up the Skinny Dipper. Whitney and Buck strike up a casual acquaintance with the man living on the houseboat in the slip next to theirs. It doesn’t take long for them to realize that Grant Hardisty is a player and a mooch. He has several ex wives in the wings, friends he did dirty, and a dog he barely pays attention to. When Grant’s boat blows up in the middle of the lake, there are no shortage of suspects, nor is there a shortage of confessions. The police zero in on the estranged wife, but Whitney thinks Deena confessed to deflect suspicion from her teenage son. Soon Whitney is chasing down clues and questioning people in Grant’s orbit to find out who really had it in for him and why.

This was a fun story, and a nice departure from the usual house-flipping scenarios. Grant was more of a jackass than an asshole, but it was obvious he crossed the wrong person. Along with renovating and investigating, Whitney is also helping her BFF, Colette, prepare for her upcoming wedding to Buck. That added a fun supblot to the story. Characters were portrayed well, and the plot proceeded in an orderly fashion. I appreciated the balance between Whitney on the job and on the case.

Favorite lines:
♦ The last thing I wanted was to end up with a herpes sore on my lip from a rubber ducky.
♦ “His favorite song was ‘Rock and Roll All Nite’ by Kiss.” // “Well it is a classic.”
♦ I still harbored trauma from playing one of several rabbits in the second-grade class play, and I hadn’t even had any lines.


Good book, four stars

Daily Happiness

Oct. 6th, 2025 07:15 pm
torachan: nepeta from homestuck (nepeta)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I didn't have any meetings or anything today and finished up a good amount of work without interruptions, so I came home a little early. (I do have a bunch of meetings tomorrow, but hopefully they will be productive meetings and we can sort out some of the things that need to get sorted out.)

2. We got our ballots for the special election. There is only one thing on the ballot: the proposition to redraw California districts to be almost entirely blue if Texas tries to gerrymander themselves to be all red. Not a fan of gerrymandering in general and wish it were illegal, but if it is legal, Democrats should use it to their advantage, since Republicans are determined to keep as many people from voting as possible. This measure will only go into effect if Texas does it first.

3. We ordered dinner through Grubhub tonight and there was an item missing, which was disappointing as it was one I was really looking forward to, but it was just a side, not the main meal, and the refund process for missing items is really easy. This was my first time needing to get a refund like that, but I'm glad they let you do it through their site and not have to call the restaurant directly.

4. Chloe loves her box.

Emotional Context

Oct. 7th, 2025 02:00 am

Fandom Update, October 06, 2025

Oct. 6th, 2025 05:55 pm
volkameria: Agnes Tachyon (UmaMusu) tired at her computer (pic#agnestachyon_tired)
[personal profile] volkameria
Been a hot minute since one of these! I haven't been doing much on DW in general but felt like it was time for a quick media/hobby roundup. 

Reading/Listening: Currently reading some SGA fanfic (Sholio I love you), more Maisie Dobbs, and Pride and Prejudice. Never read a Jane Austen before, and boy have I been missing out! Her sense of humor, sarcasm, and wit is amazing, and I love how characters can be multifaceted at one point and caricatures to make a statement the next, all without falling into Flanderization.  I've also gotten back into the Dresden Files series now that we have a release date for Twelve Months (January 2026!!!!!!) and have been listening to it as an audiobook because the narrator is simply amazing.

Watching: *deep breath* I absolutely love Babylon 5 you guys it's amazing it's excellent it's cinema. Easily one of the best TV shows I've watched in general, I'm putting it up there with SG1 and Azumanga Daioh in terms of great TV. Would die for Susan Ivanova. Would also die for Mr. Garibaldi. Not quite there yet with Sheridan, but getting pretty close, especially after his really fun "I'm fascinated by conspiracy theories because I can use them to bring bad actors to justice" speech. still think sinclair and garibaldi should have kissed, but that's just me. I really want to know more about Kosh, and his whole deal with knowing the weird darkness aliens, and it sounds like I'll have my wish granted over the next few seasons!

Hubby and I watched Twilight last night. It's even more cringe and ridiculous than I remember from getting dragged to a showing as a teenager. Hubby was a bit concerned about it from a moral standpoint - he found Edward insanely creepy, invasive, and downright deplorable, so I don't think we'll be watching the rest of 'em for the meme. I think as someone who grew up with fandom and having spaces to explore that kind of stuff, I see Edward as a creep personally, but totally get people who find him hot and am glad there's a piece of media for people to interact with that dynamic in a safe, fun way through fiction. Hubby didn't, and tends to find fandom offputting in general, so it's really interesting getting non-fandom takes from him on popular media!

Playing: Grimshire is a constant, being one of the better Steam games I've played in recent memory alongside Town to City which has sucked up so much of my free time it's not even funny. I adore this game. It's a city builder where you build 18th century European towns, with enough economy management to require some thinking but not enough that you can screw yourself over a la Cities Skylines. And you can always take a break and put flowers on everything! It's so charming and utterly lovely, and they're going to add Halloween decorations!! I'm so excited. It has a demo too, so please check it out!

Creating (new)
!: I'm not writing much anymore, but that hasn't stopped me from creating things! I've been sewing a lot lately; mended 2 pairs of pants (did a vine on one, and a funky little star with "You tried" like that one Tumblr meme on the other). Working on sewing Stargate and Babylon 5 patches onto things, and turning an old sweatshirt into an art piece by embroidering stars all over it. As much as I wanna do Whumptober, I just can't see myself signing on for it. Really tempted to do a personal NaNoWriMo next month, but... I really don't know. We'll see, I guess? I'm much more likely to throw myself full tilt into sewing instead, haha. I need to finish my Eito themed patch, anyway, and maybe cross stitch myself an Agnes Tachyon themed one too!

I leave y'all with a really great breakcore mix! Praying you have a great week, and looking forward to catching up on DW affairs!

10/6/2025 Lower Packrat Trail

Oct. 6th, 2025 03:03 pm
mrkinch: Erik holding fieldglasses in "Russia" (bins)
[personal profile] mrkinch
U, Chris, and I met as usual, walked out trails and met at Jewel Lake, which shockingly had water in it! We had a little rain last week but there must be something else going on. Anyway, the Black Phoebe was very active - we watched him beat a large bug into submission and swallow it - and two Mallards were swimming about. The highlight on Lower Packrat was hearing a Swainson's Thrush! It's been a couple of weeks since the last one. The list: )

As I was walking along the creek I heard a sound I knew but not in this context: a bird was bathing! The creek is very well hidden for most of that trail and I did not see the bird, but one of my favorite people on youtube posts videos of birds bathing in her several water features in Eastern Tennesee, so I could imagine it.:) Honestly, I did not think there was clear water enough in the creek for birds to want to bathe, but it is upstream from Jewel Lake. Warbler Ridge Birds, if you're interested.
davidgillon: Text: You can take a heroic last stand against the forces of darkness. Or you can not die. It's entirely up to you" (Heroic Last Stand)
[personal profile] davidgillon

My sister and I sat through a 4 hour online seminar on Saturday, on what to do to prep claiming Continuing Healthcare funding for my mother (so the NHS pays for her care home place rather than the family). The presenter was a lawyer, backed by a MH nurse turned patient advocate. They were obviously trying to drum up work for their little firm ("The Lawyer and The Nurse"), but in a "we're here if you decide you need us" way, not "you absolutely need us". Very useful.

There's a daunting amount of stuff to do before the Decision Support Tool assessment on the 22nd, and we'll likely need to ask for a postponement in order to get stuff like copies of my mother's hospital notes and understand the relevant bits - we'd hoped we could rely on her discharge notes, but there are a couple of things missing because the in-hospital reaction was "well, that's weird, not sure why it's happening, not a lot we can do", which translated to not mentioning it in the discharge notes at all. *headdesk*

I did get to ask during the Q&A about my worry that the sheer extent of the crossovers between symptoms in different areas would be missed if the nurse-assessor wasn't familiar with my mother's rare issues, and was told we absolutely needed to emphasise every crossover in writing, not assume they would recognise them, and that it would be useful to get input from my mother's consultant.

We've actually done this before with my dad, but his case was so obvious that we didn't really have to fight to get it, though there was one attempt to take it away where I now know I happened to say the right thing to get it for him completely by accident.

I've fallen out of love with Punk(s)

Oct. 6th, 2025 08:31 pm
retrogrrrl: (Rock this town)
[personal profile] retrogrrrl
I have fallen out of love with punk…

Fuckin’ insane testimony comin’ from your friendly neighborhood punkzo, right? Well, I guess it was long-time comin’ I just didn’t want to scope out what that gut instinct had been tryin’ to tell me for a long time.

Read more... )

Different from/than/to?

Oct. 6th, 2025 11:22 pm
[syndicated profile] languagelog_feed

Posted by Mark Liberman

Several commenters on yesterday's post "'Between you and I'", starting with Martin Schwartz, go back and forth (or round and round?) about different from vs. different than vs. different to.

So I can't resist quoting the entry for different from, different than, different to from Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage:

We have about 80 commentators in our files who discourse on the propriety of different than or different to. The amount of comment—thousands and thousands of words—might lead you to believe that there is a very complicated or subtle problem here, but there is not. These three phrases can be very simply explained: different from is the most common and is standard in both British and American usage; different than is standard in American and British usage, especially when a clause follows than, but is more frequent in American; different to is standard in British usage but rare in American usage. 

After a list of examples from elite writers using all three forms, the entry continues:

The history of the controversy about different than and different to has two strands. The first is the history of the usage itself. The evidence shows to and unto as the first prepositions used, as early as the 1520s. The OED cites a 1603 comedy coauthored by Thomas Dekker for the use different to and a 1644 work by Sir Kenelm Digby for different than. From the 18th century the OED lists Addison with different from, Fielding with different to, and Goldsmith with different than.

The OED entry notes that different from was then (1897) usual, and that different to was well-attested and common in speech, but disapproved by some as incorrect. No mention is made of disapproval of different than, but a long list of standard British authors who had used it is appended. The original objection to different than appears in Baker 1770. He found this sentence in William Melmoth's translation of Cicero's letters, published in 1753:

I found your Affairs had been managed in a different Manner than what I had advised.

Commented Baker: “A different Manner than is not English. We say different to and different from; to the last of which Expressions I have in another Place given the Preference, as seeming to make the best Sense.” Leonard 1929 found the subject in no other 18th-century grammars, but Sundby et al. 1991 shows that Baker's opinion was carried down to the 19th century by a few less well-known grammarians.

At any rate, Hodgson 1889 and Raub 1897 object to different than, and it has become a favorite topic of 20th-century comment. In the first half of the century different than was regularly condemned. In the second half some still condemned it, but a majority found it acceptable to introduce a clause, because insisting on from in such instances often produces clumsy or wordy formulations. But there is still quite a bit of residual hostility to than, especially when it is followed by a noun or pronoun. This may have more to do with the question of whether than can be a preposition (see THAN 1) than with different itself.

Different to has been the subject of more nearly continuous dispute. Disapproval began with Priestley in 1768. Baker 1770 preferred from to to and he raised the often repeated point that the verb differ takes from and not to. Fowler 1926 dismissed this point as mere pedantry; notwithstanding his scorn, the argument can be found in remarks from several late 20th–century commentators.

Fowler 1926 stoutly defends different to, and his defense has probably done much to lessen British objection to the expression, although objection still lingers in many letters to The Times, as Howard 1980 reports.

In summary we can say that there need have been no problem here at all, since all three expressions have been in standard use since the 16th and 17th centuries and all three continue to be in standard use.

.I recommend buying the book, and consulting it in such cases. It won't assuage your peeves, but may help you put them into perspective.

 

 

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