May Update: Coming to you live from Stardew Valley, and: a SALE!
May. 23rd, 2025 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saxbrightwellYes, I fell down the Stardew Valley rabbit hole again. One of my kids AND my partner expressed an interest in starting multiplayer farms and I have been helpless to resist the siren song of my favorite game ever experienced in a whole new format - one where I get to play the expert guide! It was a foregone conclusion, I'm afraid. And then reviving my excitement for SDV got me finally checking out the new Baldur's Village mod on my own, which - I already knew Astarion was just the sort of scrungly blorbo I'm weakest for, but requiring a high-performance desktop computer prevented me from meeting him... until he was accessible as a sassy little pixel sprite. The mod is delightful, 99% polished, all the NPCs seem very strongly realized even to someone who hasn't played Baldur's Gate 3 (it's set after the conclusion of that game and right off the bat everyone is very palpably haggard and exhausted following The Events), and apparently the fan developers are planning to work in a romance arc for the huge bear elf druid Halsin next O_O
Anyway, this has somewhat slowed down my progress on book 5 XD
I am still at it though! This second year since publishing Low Dawn has been about learning to go with the flow, and trust my drive to regenerate during fallow periods. This isn't a fandom hyperfixation; it's my own world and my own characters, and their ability to rev me back up is different from the worlds and characters of others.
Also, my book 1-3 omnibus got selected for another Kobo sale! It'll be on for $3.99 from today until the 27th, at Kobo and every other bookstore platform served by Draft2Digital. Get it here!
Anyway, this has somewhat slowed down my progress on book 5 XD
I am still at it though! This second year since publishing Low Dawn has been about learning to go with the flow, and trust my drive to regenerate during fallow periods. This isn't a fandom hyperfixation; it's my own world and my own characters, and their ability to rev me back up is different from the worlds and characters of others.
Also, my book 1-3 omnibus got selected for another Kobo sale! It'll be on for $3.99 from today until the 27th, at Kobo and every other bookstore platform served by Draft2Digital. Get it here!
Self propulsion is a crock
May. 22nd, 2025 10:39 amsporky_ratMuscles are annoying. I understand the biological method by which we develop our muscles after using them; they're still annoying when the delayed onset muscle soreness hits. Which it has, and now my hips and quads and hams are in misery.
I am working on pullups as well, and my deltoids hate me. That's fine, I can hate them back just as equally.
On the more cheerful side of working a body and being reasonably good at it, I have had several people ask me to teach them stretching so they don't do anything awkward to themselves during high impact activity.
Around The World In 24 Hours
May. 21st, 2025 09:42 amfilkferengiYou know those books where one day takes hundreds of pages? I'm in a bestseller titled _From 101.3 to 97.8 in 24 Hours_. Side effects were bonus scenes nobody wanted.
Now I hear the siren call, "Hi ho, hi ho! It's back to bed I go."
Now I hear the siren call, "Hi ho, hi ho! It's back to bed I go."
Friday Five...
May. 16th, 2025 12:51 pmchicatingYou're holding a dinner party and can invite three famous people from the past or present; who would they be?
Kurt Cobain, Richard Belzer, and disability activist Judy Heumann(At least today. Another day, different answer.) Maybe Bobby Kennedy so he can call up and yell at his son the way he so richly deserves.I think I might enjoy hearing "What the fuck is wrong with you?" in that accent, though he'd probably also be sad that he wasn't there and all that.
2. You have the opportunity to question someone about something you've always wanted to know and receive a truthful answer; what would your question be? I would ask God or some other supreme being whether there is a larger destiny fulfilled in the whole crip thing or whether it's an accident, like getting the too-brown crouton or some shit like that. I'm not sure which I'd be rooting for....being part of Meaning, especially with some direction, would be nice, but knowing "Mistakes were made," might actually relieve some pressure that I've had for...most of my life, actually.
3. If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be? Am I ungrateful if I say "most of it." Because there are nice parts, I swear, but I still kind of think "most of it" anyway. I hate that I live here, I hate that I have to keep fighting about poor-people shit.I hate the second-adolescent space I'm kind of stuck in, like, if you *remember* the album "Parents Just Don't Understand" that probably shouldn't be in your weekly thought process anymore unless you're the mom who doesn't get it. right? Bleagh.
4. If you could save other people's lives by completing an act that would lead to your own death, would you do it?
God, yes, please. Sign me up. That might actually be part of the draw, perhaps.
5. Would you commit murder if you knew that you could get away with it?
I know that people who think they know me would probably say I'd say "No. Because it's wrong." People who really know me know I have a Wish List, so, yeah. "If I'm at your door, you know why I'm there."
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
Kurt Cobain, Richard Belzer, and disability activist Judy Heumann(At least today. Another day, different answer.) Maybe Bobby Kennedy so he can call up and yell at his son the way he so richly deserves.I think I might enjoy hearing "What the fuck is wrong with you?" in that accent, though he'd probably also be sad that he wasn't there and all that.
2. You have the opportunity to question someone about something you've always wanted to know and receive a truthful answer; what would your question be? I would ask God or some other supreme being whether there is a larger destiny fulfilled in the whole crip thing or whether it's an accident, like getting the too-brown crouton or some shit like that. I'm not sure which I'd be rooting for....being part of Meaning, especially with some direction, would be nice, but knowing "Mistakes were made," might actually relieve some pressure that I've had for...most of my life, actually.
3. If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be? Am I ungrateful if I say "most of it." Because there are nice parts, I swear, but I still kind of think "most of it" anyway. I hate that I live here, I hate that I have to keep fighting about poor-people shit.I hate the second-adolescent space I'm kind of stuck in, like, if you *remember* the album "Parents Just Don't Understand" that probably shouldn't be in your weekly thought process anymore unless you're the mom who doesn't get it. right? Bleagh.
4. If you could save other people's lives by completing an act that would lead to your own death, would you do it?
God, yes, please. Sign me up. That might actually be part of the draw, perhaps.
5. Would you commit murder if you knew that you could get away with it?
I know that people who think they know me would probably say I'd say "No. Because it's wrong." People who really know me know I have a Wish List, so, yeah. "If I'm at your door, you know why I'm there."
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
Something to try instead of pocketmods
May. 14th, 2025 05:01 pmlilfluffSomething I brought up a little while back over on the fediverse:
Hey, remember the fad a while back for these things called pocketmods? If you don't remember the name, you might remember them as those things you would print on a sheet of paper, fold in half along the long axis and into four sections the other way, then make a careful slice down the middle... and if you did it all correctly you had a little pocket sized, eight page booklet with advice on some subject or with small forms on which you could note down how you were spending money to aid in keeping up with your finances, or small RPG booklets. If you remember these (or never forgot them) you may also remember that you only printed to one side of the paper because when you folded it all up each page of the booklet was one side of a folded double thickness section. When I ran across pocketmods again recently this bothered me. You literally, as in really truly literally as well as emphasis literally, lose 50% of the available page surface when you make a pocketmod.
(Assume that I spent the next five minutes not-quite-ranting grumbling about this and just move on to the next paragraph)
What if I told you there was a better way to get small pocket sized booklet that still used a single sheet of paper? All you need to add to the process is either a needle and thread or a stapler. Let me introduce you to a little thing called an octavo. If you check the illustration on the linked page it's the third one down. You make three folds which divide the sheet up into eight sections (thus the name octavo). After you third fold you have something in the form of a little booklet. Now, after the three folds you need to either use the needle and thread to do a 3-hole pamphlet stitch to hold it together or grab the nearest stapler and use one or two staples to hold it together. Now you just need to make a couple of cuts. There are two visible folds on the bottom edge and two on one half of the sheets on the side opposite the spine. You can either use a straight edge or blade to carefully slice right along the folds to separate the pages, trim those two sides with a pair of scissors, or you can do what I did and place a metal straight edge down about two millimeters in from the edge and use a blade to trim off a little strip. Do the last on the three non-spine edges and you'll have nice neat pages with corners that meet cleanly.
If you would like to see the result you can click on the link to see my post over on part of the fediverse a few days back that includes a picture (and a link to a different octavo fold explanation on a site that includes sample pdfs of Shakespeare that you can print and fold). That one in the picture took only a few minutes, including the time spent searching for and reopening the link to the web site with the octavo example to double check that I was remembering the folds right. Fold, fold, fold, staple, staple, slice, slice, slice and I had myself a 16 page pocket notebook for something I'd need to take notes on over the next week or so. It is unlikely to be the last one I make, as they are just handy little things. As noted over on mastodon these little booklets fit quite nicely into a little pouch I have on hand that is intended to be used as a cell phone holder. But it could likely easily hold a half dozen or more little booklets like this. Oh, and nothing is stopping you from folding two sheets of paper, nestling one inside the other and then sewing or stapling and then instead of a 16 page booklet you have a 32 page booklet.
And I'll likely make some bigger booklets. I have a long reach stapler which means if I do a folio (they fancy way of saying just folding a single sheet once dividing it into four pages) signature I wouldn't have any trouble reaching in the 5.5 inches to staple the spine if I don't feel like sewing (and unlike most smaller staplers it has an adjustable paper stop and measuring guide to help you staple at the exact distance you want). About a decade ago I did a project I called at the time Character A Day (but have since referred to as the Seven Days, Seven Characters world-building project). For seven days I came up with a character, wrote a bit about them, wrote up RPG stats using the FATE Accelerated system, and included a setting aspect. At the end of the seven days I had seven characters as well as a setting for them. I've been considering for a while now grabbing those posts, doing a cleaner rewrite, maybe including a little more, and putting it together as a small pdf. 4.25" x 5.5" is not an uncommon page size for indie RPG pdfs. As long as the revised version stayed under or not much over 48 pages at that page size then it would be easy to do up a single signature from a stack of pages (I believe the manufacturer says the long reach stapler I have should be able to do up to twenty pages, but a dozen is probably much easier to staple through and twelve sheets would be forty-eight pages).
Hey, remember the fad a while back for these things called pocketmods? If you don't remember the name, you might remember them as those things you would print on a sheet of paper, fold in half along the long axis and into four sections the other way, then make a careful slice down the middle... and if you did it all correctly you had a little pocket sized, eight page booklet with advice on some subject or with small forms on which you could note down how you were spending money to aid in keeping up with your finances, or small RPG booklets. If you remember these (or never forgot them) you may also remember that you only printed to one side of the paper because when you folded it all up each page of the booklet was one side of a folded double thickness section. When I ran across pocketmods again recently this bothered me. You literally, as in really truly literally as well as emphasis literally, lose 50% of the available page surface when you make a pocketmod.
(Assume that I spent the next five minutes not-quite-ranting grumbling about this and just move on to the next paragraph)
What if I told you there was a better way to get small pocket sized booklet that still used a single sheet of paper? All you need to add to the process is either a needle and thread or a stapler. Let me introduce you to a little thing called an octavo. If you check the illustration on the linked page it's the third one down. You make three folds which divide the sheet up into eight sections (thus the name octavo). After you third fold you have something in the form of a little booklet. Now, after the three folds you need to either use the needle and thread to do a 3-hole pamphlet stitch to hold it together or grab the nearest stapler and use one or two staples to hold it together. Now you just need to make a couple of cuts. There are two visible folds on the bottom edge and two on one half of the sheets on the side opposite the spine. You can either use a straight edge or blade to carefully slice right along the folds to separate the pages, trim those two sides with a pair of scissors, or you can do what I did and place a metal straight edge down about two millimeters in from the edge and use a blade to trim off a little strip. Do the last on the three non-spine edges and you'll have nice neat pages with corners that meet cleanly.
If you would like to see the result you can click on the link to see my post over on part of the fediverse a few days back that includes a picture (and a link to a different octavo fold explanation on a site that includes sample pdfs of Shakespeare that you can print and fold). That one in the picture took only a few minutes, including the time spent searching for and reopening the link to the web site with the octavo example to double check that I was remembering the folds right. Fold, fold, fold, staple, staple, slice, slice, slice and I had myself a 16 page pocket notebook for something I'd need to take notes on over the next week or so. It is unlikely to be the last one I make, as they are just handy little things. As noted over on mastodon these little booklets fit quite nicely into a little pouch I have on hand that is intended to be used as a cell phone holder. But it could likely easily hold a half dozen or more little booklets like this. Oh, and nothing is stopping you from folding two sheets of paper, nestling one inside the other and then sewing or stapling and then instead of a 16 page booklet you have a 32 page booklet.
And I'll likely make some bigger booklets. I have a long reach stapler which means if I do a folio (they fancy way of saying just folding a single sheet once dividing it into four pages) signature I wouldn't have any trouble reaching in the 5.5 inches to staple the spine if I don't feel like sewing (and unlike most smaller staplers it has an adjustable paper stop and measuring guide to help you staple at the exact distance you want). About a decade ago I did a project I called at the time Character A Day (but have since referred to as the Seven Days, Seven Characters world-building project). For seven days I came up with a character, wrote a bit about them, wrote up RPG stats using the FATE Accelerated system, and included a setting aspect. At the end of the seven days I had seven characters as well as a setting for them. I've been considering for a while now grabbing those posts, doing a cleaner rewrite, maybe including a little more, and putting it together as a small pdf. 4.25" x 5.5" is not an uncommon page size for indie RPG pdfs. As long as the revised version stayed under or not much over 48 pages at that page size then it would be easy to do up a single signature from a stack of pages (I believe the manufacturer says the long reach stapler I have should be able to do up to twenty pages, but a dozen is probably much easier to staple through and twelve sheets would be forty-eight pages).
Mothers' Day Musings
May. 11th, 2025 03:11 pmwyld_dandelyonA few years ago, I wrote a thing that really wasn't about Mother’s Day, but about our patchwork society:
...and—as is usual on my Facebook these days, because I have friends who care deeply and passionately about our world and the people in it—there was a lot of politics on my wall. One of the things on my wall was a friend (admittedly not a Clinton fan) who expressed horror that Hillary was willing to accept support from Republicans. In her mind, that was proof that Hillary doesn’t share any values with liberals.
And I cringed. This was, after all, Mother’s Day, a day when we all—liberals, conservatives, the apolitical, and people whose politics are best described on some other axis—celebrate our marvelous mothers or console our friends who had the misfortune to be born to mothers who aren’t so marvelous. We all value family, just as we all value warmth when it’s cold. Like today—cold and rainy, prompting me to reach for something warm. I tried a sweater, and it was too scratchy. With all the political uproar, I wanted more comfort than that.
There’s this old silk jacket I have. I bought it at the thrift store years ago even though it was a bit threadbare because the colors—purples and blues and greens—are marvelous and it fits gently around me and it’s so soft and sensual. It feels good, like a warm hug made of rose petals. It was old when I bought it, and now the outer silk is pulling apart in strips and shreds. Periodically, I pick this jacket up and give in to the illogical urge (why not just replace it?) to take satin scraps or shapes cut from old silk shirts and patch the areas that are the most tattered.
I pick it up today and put it on long enough to warm up a little, and rip it some more trying to put my phone into a place that, as it turns out, is not the pocket after all. I look again at my Facebook and see more vitriol against that other mother who hopes to help the world from the big white house in DC, and I take the jacket off again. I cut a bit of purple from a ripped silk sleeve I’ve been using to clean my glasses and start stitching it to the coat, and I feel comforted.
Our social fabric is tattered right now, pulled apart by low income and bigotry and fear. But we can’t just throw it away and buy a new one. Someone has shared a quote showing that Trump thinks he can get the nation through hard times by not paying our debt. I sigh. I so very much don't want to see more things like that, so I switch over to Live Journal on the computer and read a poem where a policeman tries to help a person with superpowers who has PTSD. Then I listen to an interview of Hillary, so I can close that tab on the web browser. I enjoy listening to Hillary when she can actually talk about her hopes for what she can accomplish if she’s President, and it’s easier to sew when I’m listening instead of reading. I reflect that our world is kind of like the poor super-kid in the poem, broken and traumatized and scared.
The bit of purple silk stitched firmly to the sleeve, I go looking to see what I can find that’s suitable to put next to it. Our youngest cat, Nebula, is sleeping in a box of material, and is quite bemused when I pull the box out and dig through things around and under her. She blinks at me, strange human, and I rub her under her chin. I find a scrap of white brocade not much more than an inch wide, and some blue satin and green brocade, and part of a tie whose off-white lining could work. And a hairball. Ugh. I brush the old dried mess into the trash and consign that bit of cloth to the laundry, along with some clothes that will probably be donated.
Then back to my old jacket with safety pins and material. I cut and lay down several more pieces and pin them in place. Some of them will doubtless get moved around as I stitch, but it’s a plan. I thread the needle again and continue. The lovely smooth texture of the silks and brocades calms me. It feels as if each stitch is sending healing energy out into the world, a gentle prayer or bit of kind sympathetic magic to help us all in our quest to make the world a little healthier, a little less ragged, and a little more beautiful.
I use up the thread on my needle and tie it off. Next is a spot where the original fabric is just gone, the rough lining showing through. It reminds me of the places where lies and hatred have hurt me and people I care about, but I smile, because here on this jacket I can fix things. More green, I think, to cover this spot. Green would look good. We could use more green in our politics too, and fewer lies. More kindness and less fear. I pin and I stitch, and I send my good wishes out into the world, and in my head is a line from science fiction that has, contrary to all expectations, become popular culture: “Make it so.”--May 11, 2016
This is a photo of most of the back of the jacket, as it exists today. Most of the original silk patches are failing with age, and so I keep on needing to patch the jacket to keep the stuffing inside. You can see just a hint of some of the stuffing trying to escape the middle of a purple patch near the upper right corner.
It is still a remarkably good metaphor for our society--when the old parts fail, new people need to step up and take their place. It won't be exactly the same, of course, people are more individual than crazy quilt patches, after all. But if we do step up to fill in the gaps, and to insist that this thing is still valuable, we can keep it.
Also, I should probably line it one of these days, as the inside silk is failing too. Similarly, our laws need to be updated from time to time, even the constitution itself could use some reinforcing (and a few bits rewritten).
Like patchwork, it is slow and painstaking work. But I think it's well worth doing.
...and—as is usual on my Facebook these days, because I have friends who care deeply and passionately about our world and the people in it—there was a lot of politics on my wall. One of the things on my wall was a friend (admittedly not a Clinton fan) who expressed horror that Hillary was willing to accept support from Republicans. In her mind, that was proof that Hillary doesn’t share any values with liberals.
And I cringed. This was, after all, Mother’s Day, a day when we all—liberals, conservatives, the apolitical, and people whose politics are best described on some other axis—celebrate our marvelous mothers or console our friends who had the misfortune to be born to mothers who aren’t so marvelous. We all value family, just as we all value warmth when it’s cold. Like today—cold and rainy, prompting me to reach for something warm. I tried a sweater, and it was too scratchy. With all the political uproar, I wanted more comfort than that.
There’s this old silk jacket I have. I bought it at the thrift store years ago even though it was a bit threadbare because the colors—purples and blues and greens—are marvelous and it fits gently around me and it’s so soft and sensual. It feels good, like a warm hug made of rose petals. It was old when I bought it, and now the outer silk is pulling apart in strips and shreds. Periodically, I pick this jacket up and give in to the illogical urge (why not just replace it?) to take satin scraps or shapes cut from old silk shirts and patch the areas that are the most tattered.
I pick it up today and put it on long enough to warm up a little, and rip it some more trying to put my phone into a place that, as it turns out, is not the pocket after all. I look again at my Facebook and see more vitriol against that other mother who hopes to help the world from the big white house in DC, and I take the jacket off again. I cut a bit of purple from a ripped silk sleeve I’ve been using to clean my glasses and start stitching it to the coat, and I feel comforted.
Our social fabric is tattered right now, pulled apart by low income and bigotry and fear. But we can’t just throw it away and buy a new one. Someone has shared a quote showing that Trump thinks he can get the nation through hard times by not paying our debt. I sigh. I so very much don't want to see more things like that, so I switch over to Live Journal on the computer and read a poem where a policeman tries to help a person with superpowers who has PTSD. Then I listen to an interview of Hillary, so I can close that tab on the web browser. I enjoy listening to Hillary when she can actually talk about her hopes for what she can accomplish if she’s President, and it’s easier to sew when I’m listening instead of reading. I reflect that our world is kind of like the poor super-kid in the poem, broken and traumatized and scared.
The bit of purple silk stitched firmly to the sleeve, I go looking to see what I can find that’s suitable to put next to it. Our youngest cat, Nebula, is sleeping in a box of material, and is quite bemused when I pull the box out and dig through things around and under her. She blinks at me, strange human, and I rub her under her chin. I find a scrap of white brocade not much more than an inch wide, and some blue satin and green brocade, and part of a tie whose off-white lining could work. And a hairball. Ugh. I brush the old dried mess into the trash and consign that bit of cloth to the laundry, along with some clothes that will probably be donated.
Then back to my old jacket with safety pins and material. I cut and lay down several more pieces and pin them in place. Some of them will doubtless get moved around as I stitch, but it’s a plan. I thread the needle again and continue. The lovely smooth texture of the silks and brocades calms me. It feels as if each stitch is sending healing energy out into the world, a gentle prayer or bit of kind sympathetic magic to help us all in our quest to make the world a little healthier, a little less ragged, and a little more beautiful.
I use up the thread on my needle and tie it off. Next is a spot where the original fabric is just gone, the rough lining showing through. It reminds me of the places where lies and hatred have hurt me and people I care about, but I smile, because here on this jacket I can fix things. More green, I think, to cover this spot. Green would look good. We could use more green in our politics too, and fewer lies. More kindness and less fear. I pin and I stitch, and I send my good wishes out into the world, and in my head is a line from science fiction that has, contrary to all expectations, become popular culture: “Make it so.”--May 11, 2016
This is a photo of most of the back of the jacket, as it exists today. Most of the original silk patches are failing with age, and so I keep on needing to patch the jacket to keep the stuffing inside. You can see just a hint of some of the stuffing trying to escape the middle of a purple patch near the upper right corner.
It is still a remarkably good metaphor for our society--when the old parts fail, new people need to step up and take their place. It won't be exactly the same, of course, people are more individual than crazy quilt patches, after all. But if we do step up to fill in the gaps, and to insist that this thing is still valuable, we can keep it.
Also, I should probably line it one of these days, as the inside silk is failing too. Similarly, our laws need to be updated from time to time, even the constitution itself could use some reinforcing (and a few bits rewritten).
Like patchwork, it is slow and painstaking work. But I think it's well worth doing.
