eve_prime | Reading

49/52 for the group 2025 Weekly Alphabet Challenge

This week's theme was: W is for Wire

I recently bought some wireless bluetooth earbuds, but they don't work with some things, so these are still useful. The bluetooth earbuds are great with the tablet for listening to audiobooks. I can wander further away without losing the sound. They even work if I'm upstairs and the tablet is on the kitchen table. However, they didn't work properly with the laptop, so I still use the old earbuds for Zoom.

This was something of a desperation shot. I had had vague ideas about photographing some barbed wire, but the weather had been so bad this week that I didn't get out for a proper walk. However, this photo did give me a chance to try the new phone's camera on something close up.

Also I'd wanted to post this yesterday, but there was something wrong with Flickr's login so I couldn't upload the photo. All seems well today though.

Finally, I've just noticed that the 2025 Weekly Alphabet photo group has been created, so I'll be taking alphabet photos for another year. :-)

lovelyangel

Bookwall in My Library
Nikon D810 • AF-S Nikkor 16-35mm f/4G VR
f/5.6 @ 16mm • 1/20s • ISO 800

It’s been pointed out to me that photos of my new bookwall don’t do a good job of conveying size. I took the photo above to show scale. The bookshelves are 13’ high, and I am 5’8" tall. The wide angle lens adds some distortion at 16 mm. I corrected what I could in Lightroom.

( Small Things, Below This Cut )

denise posting in

dw_news

Hello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means

karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.

The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.

( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )

Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.

On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.

lovelyangel

I went and checked – and CDJapan had the new MISAMO album available for pre-order. As usual, there are different versions. Rabid fans will probably order all the versions; that’s not uncommon among ONCE. For me, getting the individual albums is too expensive. I usually get just the DVD package. However, the CD included in that package doesn’t have any of the solo songs, so I also ordered the CD that has those three extra songs. I’m not rabid, but I’m fervent.

It turns out that CDJapan is having a Black Friday sale until 12/2 (or 12/1, here) if you remember to enter the special coupon code. I often forget. So I was pleased that I remembered to enter the code to save 1000 yen (on orders >10000 yen) and enter my rewards points to save 113 yen. I also chose FedEx FICP for delivery as that option has all customs and duties fees paid at time of order – instead of at time of delivery. Minimum fuss for me, please.

And, while my memory is wobbly... I thankfully did remember to pre-order the Gunbuster Sound Collection. There were so many ways to mess up this order. But, anyway – mission complete:

CDJapan Order, Black Friday Sale

lovelyangel

Yesterday I was shopping in the Nike Company Store, as I wanted to check out the new Nike Pegasus Premium shoes, and I was surprised by some music that started coming over the overhead sound system.

I was thinking that’s TWICE! And a recent song... maybe “Strategy”? Then, a moment later... ah, no! It’s “Do not touch” by MISAMO! Amazing! I could never have imagined a MISAMO song being played in a store in the United States.

(Admittedly, Nike works hard to keep up with current trends, especially in music. Their store music is on point, moreso than most places. Vibes are pretty important in sales.)

Last Friday, MISAMO announced their first full album, Play, would be released on February 4, 2026. MISAMO continues to up their momentum (somehow, in spite of being in the middle of a TWICE World Tour).

Tangentially related, today CDJapan notified me of the reissue of the Sound Collection of Gunbuster. I have the first two Gunbuster CD releases, but I don’t have this third release. The content of this 3-disc set has a big overlap with the first two CDs, but there is some material which is on neither. I was eager to place the preorder... but...

I realized the release date for the Gunbuster CD set, January 28, 2026 – just a few days before the MISAMO album release. The MISAMO Play album is not yet available for preorder. If I wait until it is, I can order the Gunbuster and MISAMO releases at the same time, and get them in a single shipment (coincidentally in time for Angel’s Month). I am now waiting... waiting...

marthawells

Great interview about Murderbot:

Bifurcating Character with Incisive and Witty Inner Monologue: a Masterclass with ‘Murderbot’ Co-Showrunners Paul Weitz and Spirit Awards Winner Chris Weitz

Since SecUnits issued by the Corporation Rim (a group of mega-corporations ruling the galaxy in the distant future) are sentient, complete obedience to human orders is guaranteed by the “governor module” in each unit. However, Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård, who nabbed an Emmy for his intricate and chilling performance in the HBO series, Big Little Lies), figures out how to disable its module to gain autonomy. “Murderbot is sentient from the get-go — it’s basically a slavery narrative. It’s important to Martha that Murderbot was always sentient,” Chris says of the close collaboration with consulting producer, Wells. “All the SecUnits are under human control. They can think for themselves but can’t act for themselves. So, they experience this torture of being at the disposal of others.” In addition to exploring themes of humanity and free will, the series also calls into question the issue of personhood, as Paul notes: “To what degree are we going to grant personhood to non-human intelligence?”

https://www.filmindependent.org/blog/bifurcating-character-with-incisive-and-witty-inner-monologue-a-masterclass-with-murderbot-co-showrunners-paul-weitz-and-spirit-awards-winner-chris-weitz/

***

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things after basically three weeks of travel in October, catching up on household stuff, trying to get ready for the holidays, getting back into working on the current book. I think I was more mentally exhausted than physically, but it was still a lot.

I didn't stay more than a day in any one city (except for two nights in Allentown, PA, which was lovely) and I was mostly leaving before most of the hotels started to serve breakfast, so I was living on a lot of airplane food. I did get to ride the train for the first time in the US (the Acela Amtrack) which was fun. I've ridden trains in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Scotland, but never here.

There was a lot of emotional overwhelm, seeing so many people, but also it felt really good, because they were all people who cared about books and art and creativity. The smallest crowd was in New York, about 40-50 people, the largest was in Seattle with around 300. The Texas Book Festival in Austin was like an encapsulation of the whole trip, being in a giant crowd of people (the largest in the festival's 30 year history) who were all "books, books, books!" I've heard that people seemed to be going to more arts-related events lately, and that was what I saw on my trip.

lovelyangel

Halfway through Sorting of Office/Art Supplies
iPhone 13 mini photo

In this situation, the only solution is to blow everything up and reassemble pieces. The photo above is actually after a lot of sorting and reorganization has been done, and organized items are put away. But obviously there’s still a lot of work to do.

In opening all the boxes at the same time and moving items onto the table, I learned I had two sets of four rolls of double-sided tape... and then found two giant rolls of double-sided tape. (Yes, I use a lot of double-sided tape.) Now they’re all in one place, and I won’t be tempted to buy another roll.

I had 5 + 1 + 1 boxes of 5000 Swingline staples (plus a small box). One of those boxes was from J.K.Gill when I was young and was on sale for 69¢, originally $1.25. I’ve never finished one box, and it’s clear I’ll never need 7 full boxes of staples. At least four boxes are in the giveaway pile. So is an extra stapler – and a third Scotch tape dispenser. (I think that dispenser is the one I kept at work. The extra pair of scissors I kept at work is also in this surplus pile.)

I’ll continue to separate the necessities from the collectables (e.g., Nyanko Burger stationery) from the Don’t Need This Stuff Anymore clutter. I’m aggressively cutting back so that I don’t fill up my storage. I was really worried about storage for a while, but I’m less freaked out as items are falling into place. We’ll see how it goes.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

Another Green World

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