Reading

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writing about writing

Status Report: Best Launch Ever

I'm so annoyed lol.

So I'm annoyed on two fronts. First is I don't know why it sold better. Second, this seems to confirm allllll that launch work and $$$ I spent before amounted to jack squat.

The conventional wisdom is that novels sell better, and longer novels sell better than shorter ones (understanding the people saying this are often in KU, which rewards length). Erom is not a conventional genre, and I traditionally write a pretty tight book, but I think I might loosen up a bit for the next one, aim for higher WC, and be less ruthless with my edits.

I have a hard time NOT editing the bejesus out of a book, even when it's a "this won't sell" weird-ass erom. I would like to get more comfortable with less work for these types of books. Final edits are by far the most tedious part of the process for me, and if I could cut that out and just write, have a good time, and yeet, that would be swell.

Entry tags:

personal

arg

Back in May, I picked out my health insurance provider. I looked over the plans, I looked up some doctors and such in my area, saw both plans had doctors in my area and picked out the health provider that seemed better with coverage.

I just went to book a dentist appointment and now there's no one in the area taking that health insurance??? I'm not sure what happened. Maybe I missed something? I looked it all up on the website and everything, I don't really understand. unless because it was through the state portal that it did something weird to their search website? I don't know.

now I guess I need to see if I can change health insurance providers. what the heck

eta: I think I don't have health insurance right now, fuck. the provider called me a couple times in june and I was so busy. and I looked at the state portal and it says my application was denied. frick. guess I'll call tomorrow.

Current Mood: busy

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Climate Change

Melting glaciers are awakening Earth's most dangerous volcanoes

As glaciers melt around the world, long-dormant volcanoes may be waking up beneath the ice. New research reveals that massive ice sheets have suppressed eruptions for thousands of years, building up underground pressure. But as that icy weight disappears, it may trigger a wave of explosive eruptions—especially in places like Antarctica. This unexpected volcanic threat not only poses regional risks but could also accelerate climate change in a dangerous feedback loop. The Earth’s hidden fire may be closer to the surface than we thought.

Somehow OH SHIT just doesn't seem like enough. O_O I have noticed that the volcanoes seem more restless than they used to, and now wonder if this could be a contributing factor.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

food,
recipe

Today's Smoothie

Today we made a smoothie with:

1 cup almond milk
1 cup Brown Cow vanilla yogurt
3 tablespoons Bettergoods pistachio butter
a dash of cardamom

The result is off-white and on the thin side. It tastes okay, but does not have much pistachio flavor at this stage.

The pistachio butter does have a strong pistachio flavor, but it is quite sweet; sugar is the second ingredient. So we skipped the honey that we usually put into a nut butter smoothie.

Current Mood: busy

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Superhero on Call

This is what's wrong with most renditions of superheroes.

Superhero on Call

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy, mild, and wet. It rained earlier.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a male cardinal.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/12/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

It started drizzling again.

EDIT 7/12/25 -- I potted up 2 apricot seeds.

I picked the first ripe cucumber. :D

Current Mood: weird

Nintendo bans Switch 2 owner for playing Switch 1 games on his console

Man, gaming seems harsher as time goes on. Doesn't help when companies like Nintendo are pretty harsh themselves when it comes to their own games. Seemingly this guy bought Switch 1 games on a Facebook marketplace and tried them on his Switch 2 console, updating them from their site to have them running. Sometime later bans him for trying out said games and when calling Nintendo he got notice that said games were pirated allegedly, to which the person in question went on providing evidence tha he got them legitimately.

Well the thing was that if the Switch reads a game you own twice, it might be seen as a pirated one, which still sounds ludicrous. I know Nintendo can be so paranoid and defensive about their games in business but damn.

The whole article can be read here:

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/handheld-gaming/nintendo-bans-switch-2-owner-after-they-played-used-switch-1-games-decision-eventually-reversed-after-proving-innocence

Well, I'm (probably?) hired pending the results of this background check

and completion of orientation. They really are taking anybody with a pulse, as judged by the extremely detailed list of instructions for appropriate behavior during orientation. I'd be more insulted, but that's good for me, I really need a job. If they had higher standards they would hire somebody with formal work experience, or at least an associate's degree.

(Don't think I've stopped applying other places, mind you, but I'm really not in a position to be picky, either.)

**************

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The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association

Well... if you're interested in reading a book about how living in an over-privileged Connecticut town is terrible and nobody should ever do it (especially if that's going to intersect badly with their terrible childhood) then this is a book you'll like. I preferred Dreadful - the realism : magic ratio in this book leaned a little too realistic, also, I just do not believe that the only school choices are a. fancy schools for wealthy overachievers that have massively high standards and high stakes testing b. xenophobic schools with very low standards and c. homeschooling. Even if there are no public school options there still have to be artsy fartsy schools for wealthy people who know that their kids cannot do the pressure cooker thing starting in kindy.

Current Mood: busy

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Philosophical Questions: Poverty

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

Is poverty in society inevitable?

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Extinct Birds

'The Lord of the Rings' director Peter Jackson is on a mission to revive the world’s tallest bird, 600 years after it went extinct

Inspired by their debut project, Jackson is now working with Colossal to bring the ancient moa back to life through subfossil sourcing and genetic engineering.

On July 8, Jackson and his partner donated $15 million to the project.

The moa is an excellent choice for de-extinction, as it died out relatively recently and due to human misbehavior.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Today's Adventures

Today we went to the Marshall Farmer's Market. It's an evening market from 6-8 PM, followed by a band concert, which is way better than a morning one.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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New Crowdfunding Project: "Take Us North"

Take Us North is down to the last day or so of its campaign. If you want to participate, now is the time.

$50,976 pledged of $30,000 goal
509 backers
26 hours to go

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Art

This art workshop made a "landscape" out of loose parts for the artists to use as inspiration. Every art room should have a generous collection of objects to mix and match like this.

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is sunny and sweltering.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a house wren.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/11/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a fox squirrel.

EDIT 7/11/25 -- Yesterday I collected 5 little pink crabapples while out and about. These are almost marble size, much more useful than the pea-sized ones. So I potted up those today to see if they'll sprout.

Trying to read Dogs of War

Adrian Tchaikovsky is amazingly hit-or-miss for me, but this looks like it's coming up "hit". The sapient arthropods are a swarm of bees. If there are any spiders, I haven't met them yet!

Current Mood: busy

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Bonus Fishbowl

There will be a bonus fishbowl on Tuesday, July 15. The theme will be "anything goes." If you want a continuation of an earlier piece, or something totally new, that doesn't fit the usual themes, then now's your chance. Brainstorm in advance and jot down ideas for later. You can also request any favorite series, character, setting, etc.

Note that our internet connection has been bad for well over a month. Sometimes it's down completely, other times things like Dreamwidth and searches won't run. So I'm losing a lot of work time and may only have access for half a day or less. Given this limitation, there's a higher chance of actually getting things written for prompts that use characters, settings, etc. that are already established.

Current Mood: busy

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Follow Friday 7-11-25: History

Today's theme is History.

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Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne

A possibly premature post, but I think some of you are familiar with this series.

I've been wanting to play a Shin Megami Tensei game but was never sure where to start. Players look favorably on Nocturne, and I understand the somewhat recent remaster wasn't very good, so I got PS2 running on my SteamDeck and gave it a whirl. Until now, I've limited emulation to pre-PSX for the most part, so being able to dig more into PSX and PS2 really opens up my options.

I went into this not knowing what to expect beyond "demons" and it's pretty damn compelling. The graphics have aged well and the atmosphere and mood is awesome. I wanted to set expectations, so I read a little more and according to HLTB this is about a 50-hour game. It has multiple endings, and the dungeon crawling is very crawly, and I think people got annoyed about getting a mediocre ending which, for a game of this length, is very understandable. Definitely not a "put down and come back 2 weeks later and still know where the hell you are" type of game. My gaming threshold tends to be 30 to 40 hours at the very best of times, so we'll see how it goes.

Current Mood: busy

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Communities

Here's a cool Dreamwidth tool: take the URL of any community and add /read to the end. It will show you posts by all the members. So for instance:

https://birdfeeding.dreamwidth.org/read