jazzfish | Reading

This is the first book I've read by Tim Pratt. I had somehow gotten the impression that they wrote very highbrow, abstract sf that I probably wouldn't enjoy. I have no idea where that came from because this novel, which I tried because of the delightful premise, is completely not that and I enjoyed it very much.

Zax Delatree, a social worker/mediator from a utopian post-scarcity world, develops a condition where he travels to a random other world every time he sleeps. Through a lot of trial and error, he also discovers that he can take with him items on his person, and also other people if he's touching them when he falls asleep. If they're asleep too, they will arrive fine. If they're not, they arrive insane. ("The Jaunt" is one of many spottable influences.) Here's Zax and his companion, Minna, explaining their situation:

"Do you know the word 'multiverse?' [...] We're travelers, sort of. Sort of explorers. And sort of refugees."

"If this is true, the implications are immense."

"The implications are also very small and also personal," said Minna.

This is the most charming and heartfelt novel I've read in a while. It's mostly a picaresque, with Zax and Minna (and assorted friends and pursuing enemies) visiting all sorts of colorful other worlds, exploring and surviving and trying to be of use. The many worlds are great, I loved Zax and Minna and the friends they meet, and it's full of sense of wonder and hopefulness and people being kind under extremely difficult circumstances. I also liked that Zax and Minna are friends who are explicitly not romantically or sexually involved with each other.

There is a sequel, Prison of Sleep, which I have ordered.

greenstorm

Dammit. Yesterday the guy came to quote the fence and I headed to the back with him, then came back along the side fence and showed him where the gate needed to be cut. I hopped gates and climbed fences and ducked trees at my previous pace, not thinking much, and by bedtime I was at 8200 steps according to my not-super-accurate-but-still watch.

When I take Solly out I'm careful to do a gentle stroll. She mostly leads, so she can sniff and decide which parts of the fence need to be shored up with a poop marker (she will only poop within fifteen feet of a fence, and ideally within 5, and at distinct intervals along it. Like night barking it's part of guarding the property). I'm mindful that we need to walk 4x/day, which is a lot for my body, and I do what I can to mitigate that.

When I garden I have alternating short exertion and long slow periods. Last year I was able to develop an internal sensitivity that let me know when to rest.

I was not doing any of that yesterday afternoon, and though the guy was only here for 20 minutes I'm noticing distinct difficulty using stairs again today. I have all my day's food in the fridge but I'd soaked my pea seeds and really want to garden, and Solly will need her walks.

It's just so much harder to attune to myself around people. As I've said before it's probably a lot of habit. I know I haven't developed the skills to communicate (verbally or nonverbally) that I'm just done and need to stop or slow down even when I notice it's something I need. My habits around interaction developed before all this, at work and in groups of friends, and it will take a lot of repetition to change them. And, not being around people much, I don't have a lot of repetition.

When Avallu would nip at people who tried to come through the gate, I picked up a visceral "hand raised, palm out, just above belly-button height" gesture from one of the work violence-in-the-workplace webinars. Saying "wait, stop" just made people step closer to the gate to talk, but if I did that gesture big and confident, they less often came closer. It didn't need a ton of explanation, I could do it, get myself to the gate or grab Avallu, and then just pick up talking as normal. It's a gesture that communicates on its own, and breaks the person out of their automatic movements.

I need something like that for "I'm just done". Sitting on the ground doesn't do it, and if I'm just done I may not be able to get back up. Yawning is rude. Maybe massaging the bridge of my nose or temples, which is kind of a headache-signal?

I'm writing because I want to be outside and I'm disappointed and trying not to think about it, but this writing is also using my energy.

greenstorm

It is such a relief to be able to go outside instead of staring at some words or numbers on a screen uncomprehendingly, losing time and or falling asleep, staring again, typing a bunch of stuff, realizing my fingers are on the wrong keys and deleting it, forgetting what I was going to type, and staring at the screen again.

This post brought to you by the disability people confirming they don't need anything more from me right now, and deciding to not go after my employer for messing up my tax forms, and deciding to file my taxes slightly wrong because of that.

I've also got someone to come and quote doing the back fence properly; I'm losing poultry to the foxes and garden to the deer pretty fast right now, and will continue doing so until Solly is better or I get another trained dog or I get decent fences. We'll see what he says for cost. I'd already bought the wire a couple years ago, hoping to do it myself, but that won't happen since I can no longer actually lift the rolls of wire, so we'll see.

I don't love my animals being eaten.

rydra_wong

Via https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3mkboea2zgs2k

Clinician Guide: Constellation of Chronic Medical Conditions Commonly Seen in Autistic & ADHD Adults

https://allbrainsbelong.org/all-the-things/

In May 2022, we formed a Task Force of clinicians, patients, and community members to discuss what works (and does not work) to manage these medical conditions or symptoms. We also gathered information from more than 100 autistic adults. These individuals gave feedback based on their personal experiences. The content we share on this website combines evidence-based medicine, lived experience, and our clinical experiences treating patients with these conditions.

james_davis_nicoll

Four books new to me. Three fantasy, one horror (maybe?) and at least one is part of a series.

Books Received, April 18 — April 24

Poll #34517 Books Received, April 18 — April 24

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 21

View Respondents

Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

The Drakon King by Terry J. Benton-Walker (November 2026)
0 (0.0%)

They Cry by Glen Cook (November 2026)
6 (28.6%)

The Raven at the Ash Door by K. A. Linde (June 2026)
4 (19.0%)

Monsters of Ohio by John Scalzi (November 2026)
14 (66.7%)

Some other option (see comments)
1 (4.8%)

Cats!
18 (85.7%)

sorcyress

Iiiiit's NEFFA!

I've spent most of the week fucking around in Providence and doing nothing, which has been quite lovely and probably necessary (it's always many bad sign when I don't do anything for a week off) but now I am pleased and excited to be at NEFFA! I am here on my usual performer badge, but that's not really relevant until Sunday morning, so tonight was just lots of wandering around and stopping every fifty feet to say enthusiastic hellos to another person I know and adore.

In terms of official scheduled things that weren't just hanging out and chatting with people or working on my knitting¹ or eating extremely delicious SioPao² here is what I managed tonight:

*Charis and I did the contra medley together! The sound balance was a little off, which is mostly a shame because the band was _phenom_. Whirlwind is Alex Cumming and Jeff Kaufman and my beloved SCD brother Stephen Thomforde. Fuck yes contra dancing to bagpipes! The last dance in the medley was Michael Karcher calling a dance called The Carousel --a rare instance of me liking something enough to actually ask what it was! I should do this more often with contra dances, really³. The progression was a left hand allemande for the Robins that changed the focus between hands-four _really_ marvelously!

*I loitered outside long enough to hear the tent pub-sing going through Rattlin Bog, and decided it was just chilly enough that I would prefer the indoors, so instead I went up the hill and attended...

*Flat Footing Percussive Waltz! What a great concept for a workshop! I like waltzing and I like percussion! I was sadly disappointed by the ratio of saying things to doing things, which is especially frustrating because I did enjoy and appreciate the things that were being said! But it was much less physical lessony than I would've liked and we only got through like 2.5 fairly simple variations.

We did end with time for one freestyle "practice what we've shown you" and I made enough eyes at Susan dG to get to dance with her, which is always fairly delightful. She's got a cross-step workshop on Sunday that I am hoping to go to, it's been ages since I've done either one of her basics classes or cross-step.

I think that was it! I rounded out the evening adjacent to the hotel-bar-pub-sing and talking with new-friend Manya and newer-friend Leee! I mostly didn't sing, but it was very nice to listen to!

I am looking forward to the many things I have circled for tomorrow (including what sounds to be an excellent late-night contra sesh called by Michael and played by Torrent! And lots of Scottish Country Dancing! And getting to observe the Morris Dancers! And other good things!)

I hope you are well, whether you are dancing, or singing, or just resting at home this weekend. <3

~Sor
MOOP!

1: Several weeks ago, at demo team, I was working on something in between dances. I happened to have hit a frustrating point just as Cathy brightly asked "oh, what are you making?"

"Mistakes."

Anyways, I think about that response a lot. I'm very proud of it, even though it's not necessarily a good conversation continuer.

(this footnote is relevant because among other problems, I found that my scarf had slid mostly off one needle earlier today so I had to get it back on and then I did a row and then I realized I had knit when I should've purled so I had to tink it and recount the stitches about thirty times and augghhhhh. But I prevailed! It is good! And soon I will run out of this _awful_ particular yarn and be able to do something soothing and nice like the ten inches I did of lovely blue seed stitch.

2: I asked the Filipino food booth "do you still have your, uh, steamed buns" and they said yes and a very enthusiastic Big Mom Energy woman explained how it was pronounced and confided that her daughters (helping work for the first time apparently) had been calling it a _dumpling_) and I thanked her for the correction and also it was _so good_ damn.

3: On the one hand, I really don't have the time to become a contra caller as well. On the other hand, the barrier to entry is _much_ lower (you just need a kitchen and some suckers) and I would probably be good at it, and it would be _unbelievably funny_ to get good enough that I could eventually get hired at ESCape as their contra caller. I mean, hell, if I'm gonna invest in The Bit I should do this with ECD as well.

This entire paragraph is a joke, but it would be nice to collect the names of good contras and ECDs I like to go with my collection of SCDs.

jadelennox

I hope Nael, currently age 16-ish, is doing very well, and still writing delightful poems about tigers.

rimrunner

I’m about a quarter of the way into Margareta Magnusson’s The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, which I recall getting a fair amount of attention back when it was published in 2018. It’s less immediately rigorous than Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which I’ve also read, but in some ways more immediately helpful because Magnusson’s book directly addresses those of us with a propensity to hang onto things until inertia makes them permanent fixtures. I’m not planning on dying anytime soon (then again, most people who die aren’t planning on it), but I am moving house in the not too distant future, and no way am I taking all of this with me. So.

Someone pointed me to Caroline Shea’s essay “A Candle Burning: Nation and the Agency of Nature in Fantasy” this week, which ties into both my enjoyment of genre fiction (I’ve read all of the books Shea discusses except for Lud-in-the-Mist, which is on my to-read list) and my engagement with the more-than-human world. (It’s a source of ongoing disquiet to me that I’ve yet to find a satisfactory term for the latter, but people in my extended community of nature nerds use that one a lot; it’ll do for now.) What Shea says here about the agency of nature is very much in line with a perspective I find myself aligning to when tracking. To track successfully, you must grant agency to the beings you’re tracking. And if you grant it to them, why not to the rest of nature, too?

I like radio. This is because I’m old. I’m also aware that there are parts of my own country where the only radio stations you can pick up are terrifying right-wing “news” channels and Christian radio (nothing against it, but why is so much of the music so insipid? I digress), and admittedly I mostly listen to KEXP on streaming because the southern reach of their broadcast radius runs out somewhere around Federal Way. That said, I love Radio Garden, which allows you to stream radio stations all over the world. Pick a favorite (one of mine is WOZQ, the Smith College radio station I myself DJed for in the 90s), choose a geographic region, or just cruise at random. It’s the kind of labor-of-love project that seems harder to find in the increasingly monetized, algorithmized, and enshittified Internet, and I hope it doesn’t go away.

Sigh. This administration, man.

I’m a big fan of History Buffs, which scratches the same itch as blogs cataloging the errors of ostensibly historical movies did back in the day. It’s especially rewarding when he recognizes the work that went into something like Master and Commander; that’s actually how I first came across the channel, while doing some research on the kinds of warships from the era in which the story is set. But I have to admit that his takes on movies that get it wrong are hilarious; he did not, for instance, care for Elizabeth.

Current Mood: nerdy

sartorias

There's been a situation that has been making life stressful for the past year, and yesterday the stress doubled. My way of dealing with this kind of cosmic ass kick is to bury myself in writing, where I feel I have a pretence at control. I only say this because I might not be as responsive to posts as usual, and if anyone even notices a dearth of commentary from me (very small chance I realize) it's not you, it's me. Not gone, just coping and scribbling away.

rachelmanija

A science fiction novella about aliens, communication, and certain dark topics which are spoilery to mention. Though if you read the blurb for this book, it very strongly implies those topics and the specific shocking twist that involves them. It reminded me of China Mieville's Embassytown, though the latter benefited from its longer length.

Ro's species, along with some others, can jump into the minds of Star Eaters, the mysterious species that alone can mine the mineral that enables space travel. Ro is told that doing so is the only way to study them, and while jumping into their bodies extinguishes their minds, they are extremely long-lived beings and their minds definitely come back, so Ro is only doing the equivalent of causing a day-long blackout. The Star Eaters were apparently once enslaved, but now work voluntarily; communication with them is difficult and puzzling. Once you jump in, you're stuck for the rest of your life, but Ro is such a curious and skilled linguist that he's willing to give up everything to understand this oddly mysterious race. (I guess the possessing being's mind is supposed to only live for its species's normal lifespan? This is not explained.)

If you've read much science fiction, or many books in general, you have probably already figured out what's really going on. In fact it's so obvious that it seems strange that it takes the characters so long to do so, but of course no one knows exactly what story they're in.

Everything involving alien communication is great. But the plot is so predictable and grim that I didn't enjoy the book much.

( Read more... )

james_davis_nicoll

Kea must solve a murder to save her community.

The Killing Spell by Shay Kauwe

greenstorm

I planted the first seeds yesterday: the fava mix I've been shepherding since the beginning, a pink hybrid radish called Orient Ruby, and Olympia spinach. Both big radishes and spinach are sensitive to daylength, which often means they can't grow well in spring here: by the time the soil is thawed, the days are too long for them and they bolt.

I don't do any gardening for certainty. I do it to learn the plants.

In any case, I planted them in the upper field in one of the bays between baby apple trees and covered them with frost cloth. Instantly Little Bear and Hazard came and played in the frost cloth; Bear absolutely adores going under fabric and skulking. I'd forgotten about that. Last year he would run straight through the relatively lightweight cloth.

Next is grain and peas. I haven't grown peas much, but I'm trying for more diversity than just tomatoes this year. Last year the fennel, kohlrabi, and broccoli were such successful additions that I'm following that path a little more. I also have a bunch of old soup peas, of course, I can't remember the provenance of the oldest ones but still. And I want to plant my dwarf soup peas again if the seeds will sprout.

I got this out to write because it occurs to me that I don't do art about things, for the most part. If we're going to consider pottery art and gardening not-art, I still do them both in order to be inside the thing I'm doing. Everything is aligned: mind, body, that whole subconscious apparatus that figures out how to interact with the physical world and performs the calculations necessary to throw a ball, the discernment apparatus and the appreciation one. Everything works together in one direction.

I have done pottery about wildfires. I have and will do it about The Waste Land. And I will eventually do it about Avallu. Those are important things.

So you'd think I'd do pottery about the garden. I don't. My experience of the garden might inform my pottery but it's not a thing I alchemize into some body of work. I'm not sure why that is.

nineweaving

Happy birthday, W.S!

Nine

vvalkyri

Earlier today I got a birthday notification from Facebook for someone from the theater group who moved away a bunch of years ago and died fairly unexpectedly from complications of the pancreatic cancer it had seemed she had bested.

I wrote a birthday message including that Facebook tells me you would have been 44 today and I hope you're somehow aware of all the elegies folk have written in your honor.

I lost count of how many people said something along the lines of she was one of the best people they knew.

There were, as there always are, some basic happy birthdays and I did drop the obituary on one but didn't spend the time to do a lot more.

A couple hours later I got a call from someone who had discovered via birthday greetings or rather birthday 'wish you were still here' on a good friends profile that the reason he hadn't been able to reach her the last several days as she was moving out of a home with her ex-partner was that her ex had killed her then himself this past Saturday.

What ties these together is of course Facebook's birthday system.

I'm thinking a lot about how the most dangerous time for a woman in an abusive relationship is attempting to leave it. I'm thinking a lot about how no I don't really know how someone several states away could have done anything to help prevent that. I'm thinking a lot about how preventing felons from having firearms did not work in this case. Thinking a lot about how I can't really think of how she could have been better protected other than possibly only being in the ex's presence with escort. But for all I know perhaps she thought it was amicable. I did not know her.

I know a couple of other people in her city but I have no idea what sorts of things random strangers can do to help at this point. Although there were kids in their twenties.

Speaking of birthdays, I had been sort of thinking of trying to have a birthday picnic like object at DCLX like I have in other years. But the weekend is so very full. I have someone who would very much like some help from me out toward Dulles at some point on Sunday but I will have been so non-stop tomorrow and Saturday.. and somehow, I haven't even been through all of the messages on Facebook.

Did I mention it ended up being a really good birthday weekend after all? How has there already been so long? 10 days past.

Argh I had a whole lot of phone calls that I was going to try and manage today.

james_davis_nicoll

Don't expect them any time soon.

The Science Behind Torchships

james_davis_nicoll

p+B11 is aneutronic (although the side-reactions aren't) and B11 is comparatively abundant in the Earth's crust.

A novel approach to proton-boron 11 fusion.

james_davis_nicoll

What transformed Cheradenine Zakalwe into the superlative Special Circumstances asset he is today?

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

rydra_wong

It is currently 50% off on Steam, which I believe is as good as it gets in the post-Elden Ring era.

rydra_wong

I can STRONGLY rec Chants of Sennaar to anyone who enjoys deduction/puzzle games, and in particular the micro-genre of games that have translating a conlang (in this case, multiple conlangs) as their central mechanic.

Watch on YouTube

Looks like Sable, plays like a cross between Return of the Obra Dinn and Heaven's Vault.

(It makes the excellent choice which Sable also made and which more indie games should go for, namely putting all your characters in face-hiding hoods or masks so you can completely avoid uncanny valley bad face animation and spend your resources on other things instead.)

Made my brain ache in a good way and made me feel clever. I did have to draw maps (my spatial orientation is terrible, so others may not need to except for one specific maze-like area), and make assorted paper notes to solve various puzzles.

You have to not only successfully translate each language individually, but, later in the game, interpret conversations between pairs of languages. This requires knowing that the languages have different word order -- in a very simple way -- one language does object-first Yoda-speak, several languages vary in how they form plurals, etc., but you do have to be able to translate in a grammatically correct way, not just word by word.

And to get to the "true ending," the game requires you to go all out and "speak" the languages, by using a given language to correctly describe a picture you are given (with no text).

I admit I did get a tiny bit emotional when I made it to the end.

Has a subsidiary stealth mechanic, which I mostly enjoyed; near the very end of the game, it did briefly hit the point of requiring a somewhat quick response, but was still ultimately within the capacity of my abysmal reflexes. Nonetheless, it's not a zero-coordination-required game.

rebelsheart

So I mentioned this elsewhere, but I made a decision a month or three ago.

I work for the US Federal Government in desktop support. I am what is known as a term employee.

If the President were hired as opposed to elected, they would be a term employee.

I get all the benefits of being a federal employee, but only for four years. At the end of that period, my term can be extended four more years. Once.

My first four years are up January 3, 2027.

The US Government is not really hiring right now.

So the decision I made was that if I don't see evidence that my term will be extended or a path to become a permanent employee by the end of July, I would start looking elsewhere.

Right now, looking at the fields I want to be involved in, there is one posting in my geographic region that aligns with what I want to do.

It is for an agency I have been told to avoid since I started as a contractor in December of 2020.

So, tick-tock goes the clock.

Current Mood: annoyed

Profile

Tucker McKinnon

Words are inadequate

Adventures in Mamboland

"Jazz Fish, a saxophone playing wanderer, finds himself in Mamboland at a critical phase in his life." --Howie Green, on his book Jazz Fish Zen

Yeah. That sounds about right.

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Indeed do many things come to pass

Reading

Doors of Sleep, by Tim Pratt

(no subject)

(no subject)

Relevant to the medical needs of at least 70% of my social circles

Books Received, April 18 — April 24

NEFFA Friday

The tiger was asleep on my knees until recently.

Death Cleaning, Nations and Nature in Fantasy, Radio Garden, Flu Vaccines and History Buffs

Here and There

The Language of Liars, by S. L. Huang

The Killing Spell by Shay Kauwe

(no subject)

Willingly

(no subject)

The Science Behind Torchships

A novel approach to proton-boron 11 fusion

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

Also, in the unlikely event that I've sold anyone on Dark Souls

un-Babels your Tower

Tick-Tock... Down Counts the Clock

Profile

Most Popular Tags

Adventures in Mamboland

Expand Cut Tags