An Interview with Tolkien
Jan. 27th, 2026 05:28 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
rachelneumeier_feedDaphne Castell’s 1966 interview with J.R.R. Tolkien
In 1954, when I was working in a university science faculty, Allen & Unwin published a Book. The effect upon the learned and respectable body of people who composed the faculty staff was extraordinary. Lecturers and other responsible people went about quoting it, drawing maps of its geography in enthusiastic detail; one head of a department used to leave messages for his colleagues in High Elven, and for his secretary in Grey Elven.
The Book was, of course, Professor J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, which was followed by the two companions that complete the three-volume work, The Lord of the Rings. … For those not fortunate enough to have encountered The Lord of the Rings, I should explain that it is extremely difficult to classify-if one has to classify a work of fiction. It is a combination of almost everything good you can think of in a story. It has high adventure, romance, fantasy, wonder, convincing people and dialogue, horror, humour, and a noble story of the struggle of good against evil.
This is a long interview; click through and read the whole thing. It’s very interesting seeing something about TLotR that was published so long ago, before the trilogy became, basically, the foundation upon which all modern epic fantasy is constructed.
Please Feel Free to Share:
The post An Interview with Tolkien appeared first on Rachel Neumeier.
Arena, Iris
Jan. 26th, 2026 07:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ranunculusCalifornia is basking in reasonable temperatures and even sun. It did freeze last night but warmed right up.
Yesterday's chore was to "groom" the arena. This required taking the tractor down from the house, a distance of about 2 miles in the chilly morning air. Before hooking up the drag I made a faint effort to move some sand from the south side of the arena where the sand is thick, to the middle where there are some dips that become pools when it rains. I did get some sand moved we will see if it did any good in the next good rainstorm. Got the whole thing dragged, fluffing up the sand and hopefully killing all the grass that had germinated. Took about four passes over each square foot of sand in a 140 x 250 ft rectangle. With that done I got out the sprayer and sprayed the edges for the second time this year. I suspect there will be a third time as well. There was spray leftover to use on the weeds in the pastures. Almost all the plants I target are mustard, dock and fiddleneck. Horses don't eat any of them unless starving. Dock and mustard can take over a pasture, reducing the area that can be grazed dramatically. Both plants are perennial in this climate. Mustard at least has the advantage of fixing nitrogen in the soil, but that isn't enough for me to want it in the pastures.
Today's chores involved paperwork and a trip to town to take iris starts to a lady, plus grocery shopping.
Rain tomorrow, the first rain since Jan 8th. Apparently a one day wonder before it goes back to being reasonably warm and sunny.
Yesterday's chore was to "groom" the arena. This required taking the tractor down from the house, a distance of about 2 miles in the chilly morning air. Before hooking up the drag I made a faint effort to move some sand from the south side of the arena where the sand is thick, to the middle where there are some dips that become pools when it rains. I did get some sand moved we will see if it did any good in the next good rainstorm. Got the whole thing dragged, fluffing up the sand and hopefully killing all the grass that had germinated. Took about four passes over each square foot of sand in a 140 x 250 ft rectangle. With that done I got out the sprayer and sprayed the edges for the second time this year. I suspect there will be a third time as well. There was spray leftover to use on the weeds in the pastures. Almost all the plants I target are mustard, dock and fiddleneck. Horses don't eat any of them unless starving. Dock and mustard can take over a pasture, reducing the area that can be grazed dramatically. Both plants are perennial in this climate. Mustard at least has the advantage of fixing nitrogen in the soil, but that isn't enough for me to want it in the pastures.
Today's chores involved paperwork and a trip to town to take iris starts to a lady, plus grocery shopping.
Rain tomorrow, the first rain since Jan 8th. Apparently a one day wonder before it goes back to being reasonably warm and sunny.
Everything, all at once
Jan. 26th, 2026 09:01 pmoffcntrIt's been a while since I've posted. I've been busy in the studio, of course, throwing as much as a hundred pounds of clay a day. But there's been a bunch more.
My mother has been in the hospital, twice, in the last week and a half. First because her heart wasn't working properly--a pulse rate of 30 bpm is not optimal. They took her to the doctor in Neillsville, who immediately sent her on to Marshfield; they put in a pacemaker the same day. I called her a day or two after she returned home; she had a bad cough and seemed not to be thinking too clearly: she was trying to write a check for the electric bill and couldn't figure out how to do it. Next day she was back in the hospital, this time with Influenza A and pneumonia. She's home today, still with a cough, but otherwise much improved.
Meanwhile, Denise and I have been trying to decide what to do with her late mother's house in Wisconsin. We'd been renting it to my brother for the last ten years, but he announced in mid-December that they were moving to Detroit to be closer to his wife's extended family. Originally planned to stay until spring, but a housing situation opened up and they were moving out at the end of the year.
Yikes.
I transferred the utilities into our name, he kept the wifi running because the thermostat needed the connection. Met with our financial advisor to discuss what to do if we sold the house, even talked to a realtor about reinvesting the proceeds locally so we don't get slammed with taxes. Hadn't gotten any predatory postcards from real estate speculators in a while, but suddenly got four in the course of a week, an email a week later. Tucked them into a file folder in case we needed them.
While we were biting out own tails, trying to decide what to do, my nephew--brother's son--threw another complication into the mix. He and his wife would like us to keep the house in the family, and they'd manage it for us, either for an equity stake, or as a side business income stream, whichever we'd prefer. They're in St. Paul, which is a bit distant, but they think they can make it work. They're currently doing research. I like this idea. I don't want to unload the place on a house flipper, or someone who'd turn it into short-term rentals. It'd be a lovely family dwelling, and would be much happier as such.
I've been trying to repair my kiln vent since December, but it I keep needing just one more piece. First it was the fan assembly, $495 plus shipping. Then I had to order the vent attachment, as the old one was rusted solid; only $30 this time. This morning, I got the bugger mounted on the wall again, only to discover that the ducting had corroded through. $35 from Skutt, probably another month or two before they manage to ship it to me. I'm half tempted to drive up to Portland and pick it up in person.
Also meanwhile, I've have oral surgery--the same day mom got her pacemaker--new crown and implant post that will get a tooth attached next month.
And I've been watching with horror as things go to shit in Minneapolis/St. Paul. I've got family and friends there, including niece and nephew who have taken to carrying their passports with them everywhere, since they're a little browner than the fascists prefer.
I haven't known how to express any of this without gibbering, so I've been head down over the potter's wheel, trying to restore some order to my universe, even if it's just by making bowls.
My mother has been in the hospital, twice, in the last week and a half. First because her heart wasn't working properly--a pulse rate of 30 bpm is not optimal. They took her to the doctor in Neillsville, who immediately sent her on to Marshfield; they put in a pacemaker the same day. I called her a day or two after she returned home; she had a bad cough and seemed not to be thinking too clearly: she was trying to write a check for the electric bill and couldn't figure out how to do it. Next day she was back in the hospital, this time with Influenza A and pneumonia. She's home today, still with a cough, but otherwise much improved.
Meanwhile, Denise and I have been trying to decide what to do with her late mother's house in Wisconsin. We'd been renting it to my brother for the last ten years, but he announced in mid-December that they were moving to Detroit to be closer to his wife's extended family. Originally planned to stay until spring, but a housing situation opened up and they were moving out at the end of the year.
Yikes.
I transferred the utilities into our name, he kept the wifi running because the thermostat needed the connection. Met with our financial advisor to discuss what to do if we sold the house, even talked to a realtor about reinvesting the proceeds locally so we don't get slammed with taxes. Hadn't gotten any predatory postcards from real estate speculators in a while, but suddenly got four in the course of a week, an email a week later. Tucked them into a file folder in case we needed them.
While we were biting out own tails, trying to decide what to do, my nephew--brother's son--threw another complication into the mix. He and his wife would like us to keep the house in the family, and they'd manage it for us, either for an equity stake, or as a side business income stream, whichever we'd prefer. They're in St. Paul, which is a bit distant, but they think they can make it work. They're currently doing research. I like this idea. I don't want to unload the place on a house flipper, or someone who'd turn it into short-term rentals. It'd be a lovely family dwelling, and would be much happier as such.
I've been trying to repair my kiln vent since December, but it I keep needing just one more piece. First it was the fan assembly, $495 plus shipping. Then I had to order the vent attachment, as the old one was rusted solid; only $30 this time. This morning, I got the bugger mounted on the wall again, only to discover that the ducting had corroded through. $35 from Skutt, probably another month or two before they manage to ship it to me. I'm half tempted to drive up to Portland and pick it up in person.
Also meanwhile, I've have oral surgery--the same day mom got her pacemaker--new crown and implant post that will get a tooth attached next month.
And I've been watching with horror as things go to shit in Minneapolis/St. Paul. I've got family and friends there, including niece and nephew who have taken to carrying their passports with them everywhere, since they're a little browner than the fascists prefer.
I haven't known how to express any of this without gibbering, so I've been head down over the potter's wheel, trying to restore some order to my universe, even if it's just by making bowls.
(no subject)
Jan. 26th, 2026 10:41 pmskygiantsLike several other people on my reading list, including osprey_archer (post here) and troisoiseaux (post here, I was compelled by the premise of I Leap Over the Wall: A Return to the World After 28 Years In A Convent, a once-bestselling (but now long out-of-print) memoir by a British woman who entered a cloister in 1914, lived ten years as a nun, decided it wasn't for her, lived another almost twenty years as a nun out of stubbornness, and exited in 1941, having missed quite a lot of sociological developments in the interim! including talking films! and underwire bras! and not one, but two World Wars!
Obviously Baldwin did not know that WWI was about to happen right as she went into a convent, but she does explain that she came out in the middle of WWII more or less on purpose, out of an idea that it would be easier to slide herself back into things when everything was chaotic and unprecedented anyway than to try to establish a life for herself as The Weird Ex Nun in more normal times. Unclear how well this strategy paid off for her, but you can't say she didn't give it an effort. Baldwin was raised extremely upper-class -- she was related to former Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, among others -- but exited the convent pretty much penniless, so while she did have a safety net in terms of various sets of variously judgmental relations who were willing to put her up, she spends a lot of the book valiantly attempting to take her place among the workers of the world. And these are real labor jobs, too -- 'ex-nun' is not a resume booster, and most of the things she felt actually qualified to do for a living based on her convent experience (librarianship, scholarship, etc) required some form of degree, so much of the work she does in this book are things like being a land girl, or working in a canteen. She doesn't enjoy these jobs, and she rarely does them long, but you have to respect her for giving it the old college try, especially when she's constantly in a state of profound and sustained culture shock.
Overall, Baldwin does not enjoy the changes to the world since she left it. She does not enjoy having gone in a beautiful young girl with her life ahead of her, and come out a middle-aged woman who's missed all the milestones that everyone around her takes for granted. She does, however, profoundly enjoy her freedom, and soon begins to cherish an all-consuming dream of purchasing a Small House of her Very Own where she can do whatever the hell she wants whenever the hell she wants. After decades in a convent, you can hardly blame her for this. On the other hand -- fascinatingly, to me -- it's very clear that Baldwin still somewhat idealizes convent life, despite the fact that it obviously made her deeply miserable. She has long conversations with her judgmental relatives, and long conversations with us, the reader, in which she tries to convince them/us of the real virtues of the cloister; of the spiritual value of deep, deliberate, constant self-sacrifice and self-abegnation; of the fact that it's important, vital and necessary that some people close themselves away from work in the world to focus on the exclusive pursuit of God. It is good that people do this, it's spiritual and heroic, it's simply -- unfortunately -- the only case in which she's ever known the church to be wrong in assessing who does or does not have a genuine vocation after the novice period -- not for her.
Baldwin is a fascinating and contradictory person and I enjoyed spending time with her quite a bit. I suspect she wouldn't much enjoy spending time with me; she will keep going to London and observing neutrally that it seems the streets are much more full of Jews than they were before she went into the convent, faint shudder implied. At another point she confesses that although she'd left the convent with 'definite socialist tendencies,' actually working among the working people has changed her mind for the worse: 'the people' now impressed me as full of class prejudice and an almost vindictive envy-hatred-malice fixation towards anyone who was richer, cleverer, or in any way superior to themselves. Still, despite her preoccupations and prejudices, her voice is interesting, and deeply eccentric, and IMO she's worth getting to know. This is a woman, an ex-nun, who takes Le Morte D'Arthur as her beacon of hope and guide to life. Le Morte! You really can't agree with it, but how can you not be compelled?
osprey_archer (post here) and troisoiseaux (post here, I was compelled by the premise of I Leap Over the Wall: A Return to the World After 28 Years In A Convent, a once-bestselling (but now long out-of-print) memoir by a British woman who entered a cloister in 1914, lived ten years as a nun, decided it wasn't for her, lived another almost twenty years as a nun out of stubbornness, and exited in 1941, having missed quite a lot of sociological developments in the interim! including talking films! and underwire bras! and not one, but two World Wars! Obviously Baldwin did not know that WWI was about to happen right as she went into a convent, but she does explain that she came out in the middle of WWII more or less on purpose, out of an idea that it would be easier to slide herself back into things when everything was chaotic and unprecedented anyway than to try to establish a life for herself as The Weird Ex Nun in more normal times. Unclear how well this strategy paid off for her, but you can't say she didn't give it an effort. Baldwin was raised extremely upper-class -- she was related to former Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, among others -- but exited the convent pretty much penniless, so while she did have a safety net in terms of various sets of variously judgmental relations who were willing to put her up, she spends a lot of the book valiantly attempting to take her place among the workers of the world. And these are real labor jobs, too -- 'ex-nun' is not a resume booster, and most of the things she felt actually qualified to do for a living based on her convent experience (librarianship, scholarship, etc) required some form of degree, so much of the work she does in this book are things like being a land girl, or working in a canteen. She doesn't enjoy these jobs, and she rarely does them long, but you have to respect her for giving it the old college try, especially when she's constantly in a state of profound and sustained culture shock.
Overall, Baldwin does not enjoy the changes to the world since she left it. She does not enjoy having gone in a beautiful young girl with her life ahead of her, and come out a middle-aged woman who's missed all the milestones that everyone around her takes for granted. She does, however, profoundly enjoy her freedom, and soon begins to cherish an all-consuming dream of purchasing a Small House of her Very Own where she can do whatever the hell she wants whenever the hell she wants. After decades in a convent, you can hardly blame her for this. On the other hand -- fascinatingly, to me -- it's very clear that Baldwin still somewhat idealizes convent life, despite the fact that it obviously made her deeply miserable. She has long conversations with her judgmental relatives, and long conversations with us, the reader, in which she tries to convince them/us of the real virtues of the cloister; of the spiritual value of deep, deliberate, constant self-sacrifice and self-abegnation; of the fact that it's important, vital and necessary that some people close themselves away from work in the world to focus on the exclusive pursuit of God. It is good that people do this, it's spiritual and heroic, it's simply -- unfortunately -- the only case in which she's ever known the church to be wrong in assessing who does or does not have a genuine vocation after the novice period -- not for her.
Baldwin is a fascinating and contradictory person and I enjoyed spending time with her quite a bit. I suspect she wouldn't much enjoy spending time with me; she will keep going to London and observing neutrally that it seems the streets are much more full of Jews than they were before she went into the convent, faint shudder implied. At another point she confesses that although she'd left the convent with 'definite socialist tendencies,' actually working among the working people has changed her mind for the worse: 'the people' now impressed me as full of class prejudice and an almost vindictive envy-hatred-malice fixation towards anyone who was richer, cleverer, or in any way superior to themselves. Still, despite her preoccupations and prejudices, her voice is interesting, and deeply eccentric, and IMO she's worth getting to know. This is a woman, an ex-nun, who takes Le Morte D'Arthur as her beacon of hope and guide to life. Le Morte! You really can't agree with it, but how can you not be compelled?
Poem: "Shopping for College"
Jan. 26th, 2026 06:12 pmysabetwordsmithThis poem is spillover from the September 5, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from fuzzyred. It also fills the "Family Support Makes a Difference" square in my 9-1-24 card for the People with Disabilities Drabble Fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. It belongs to the College Arc in the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
( Read more... )
fuzzyred. It also fills the "Family Support Makes a Difference" square in my 9-1-24 card for the People with Disabilities Drabble Fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. It belongs to the College Arc in the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.( Read more... )
(no subject)
Jan. 26th, 2026 10:37 pmsorcyressIt's Monday!
We had a snow day today, which was very good. I managed to mostly not just play Stardew Valley the entire day straight, and actually do some grading. By which I mean, uh, about an hours worth total. Oh well. It's a start.
(I also did some nice things in Stardew).
Honestly the hour of grading I did was maybe the second most important hour of all of it. There's one more really important hour (actually enter comments) but now I'm in a much less dire place than I was. And yeah, there are several hours in between these two hours, but if they don't happen, they don't happen and everyone will live.
It is hard to care as much about Doing Good At My Job when like, fascism. Am I being kind? Am I hopefully teaching my students to be kind? I think that's probably more important than grading everything to the absolute pinnacle of my ability. Or so I'm telling myself. :/
After some grading and Stardew happened, Austin braved the Many Snow to come visit for regular Mondate! This is good! He showed me some of the things he worked on at Mystery Hunt, and we ate ice cream, and watched an episode of Leverage. It's the Grave Danger Job, which is mostly really good but the last five minutes where the team gets revenge on the drug cartel by using Homeland Security against them.......yeahhh that hits different in 2026 than it did in 2006. Blugh.
(Both Aldis Hodge and Beth Reisgraf are really good actors and able to put it on full display here. I do really like that part, and I like how good this episode is for the OT3 of all OT3s.)
Tomorrow is also a snow day, which is a very very good thing. I might walk Austin to the work shuttle, if I'm feeling very brave --I technically haven't left the house since arriving here Friday evening and it's probably time. The backyard is excitingly drifty! I don't think we have a sled anymore --I think someone borrowed it somewhere along the way and it never returned-- but fucking around on the bike path while wearing many gear seems like a noble pursuit. Maybe I will even bring a camera?
I hope you are staying safe and being kind to your neighbors and occasionally calling your politicians to yell at them. For what little it's worth, ICE's funding is going to run out unless the senate votes to extend it, so maybe like, call your senators sometime in the next day or two and tell them to fucking not?
<3
~Sor
MOOP!
We had a snow day today, which was very good. I managed to mostly not just play Stardew Valley the entire day straight, and actually do some grading. By which I mean, uh, about an hours worth total. Oh well. It's a start.
(I also did some nice things in Stardew).
Honestly the hour of grading I did was maybe the second most important hour of all of it. There's one more really important hour (actually enter comments) but now I'm in a much less dire place than I was. And yeah, there are several hours in between these two hours, but if they don't happen, they don't happen and everyone will live.
It is hard to care as much about Doing Good At My Job when like, fascism. Am I being kind? Am I hopefully teaching my students to be kind? I think that's probably more important than grading everything to the absolute pinnacle of my ability. Or so I'm telling myself. :/
After some grading and Stardew happened, Austin braved the Many Snow to come visit for regular Mondate! This is good! He showed me some of the things he worked on at Mystery Hunt, and we ate ice cream, and watched an episode of Leverage. It's the Grave Danger Job, which is mostly really good but the last five minutes where the team gets revenge on the drug cartel by using Homeland Security against them.......yeahhh that hits different in 2026 than it did in 2006. Blugh.
(Both Aldis Hodge and Beth Reisgraf are really good actors and able to put it on full display here. I do really like that part, and I like how good this episode is for the OT3 of all OT3s.)
Tomorrow is also a snow day, which is a very very good thing. I might walk Austin to the work shuttle, if I'm feeling very brave --I technically haven't left the house since arriving here Friday evening and it's probably time. The backyard is excitingly drifty! I don't think we have a sled anymore --I think someone borrowed it somewhere along the way and it never returned-- but fucking around on the bike path while wearing many gear seems like a noble pursuit. Maybe I will even bring a camera?
I hope you are staying safe and being kind to your neighbors and occasionally calling your politicians to yell at them. For what little it's worth, ICE's funding is going to run out unless the senate votes to extend it, so maybe like, call your senators sometime in the next day or two and tell them to fucking not?
<3
~Sor
MOOP!
The wind is blowing the planes around
Jan. 26th, 2026 06:48 pmsovayMailing our census form back to the city turned out to be slightly more of a Shackletonian trek than I had prepared for, not because I had failed to notice the maze of sidewalks and driveways tunneled out of the snow-walls on our street or the thick-flocked snowfall that had restarted around sunset, but because I had expected some neighbor to have snowblown or at least shoveled the block with the post box on it. It stood amid magnificent, inviolate drifts. I waded. At 18 °F and wind chill, my hands effectively quit on me within five minutes, but even between their numbness and my camera's increasing preference not to, I did manage to take a couple of pictures I liked.
( Laughter doesn't always mean. )
JSTOR showcased Laura Secord with the result that I had to listen, thanks these aeons ago toladymondegreen, to Tanglefoot.
It is a sign of how badly the last three years in particular have accordioned into one another that my reaction to discovering last year's new album from Brivele was the pleased surprise that it followed so soon on their latest EP. I am intrigued that they cover the Young'uns' "Cable Street" (2017), which has for obvious reasons been on my mind.
I can find no further details on the secretary from the North Midlands who appears in the second half of this clip from This Week: Lesbians (1965), but if there was any justice in the universe the studio should have been besieged with letters from interested women, because in explaining the problems of dating, she's a complete delight. "Well, that's the difficulty. In a way, it means that I have to keep making friends with people because I can't find out unless I make friends with them and then if they are lesbian, there's hope for me, but even then there isn't hope unless they happen to take to me!"
( Laughter doesn't always mean. )
JSTOR showcased Laura Secord with the result that I had to listen, thanks these aeons ago to
ladymondegreen, to Tanglefoot.It is a sign of how badly the last three years in particular have accordioned into one another that my reaction to discovering last year's new album from Brivele was the pleased surprise that it followed so soon on their latest EP. I am intrigued that they cover the Young'uns' "Cable Street" (2017), which has for obvious reasons been on my mind.
I can find no further details on the secretary from the North Midlands who appears in the second half of this clip from This Week: Lesbians (1965), but if there was any justice in the universe the studio should have been besieged with letters from interested women, because in explaining the problems of dating, she's a complete delight. "Well, that's the difficulty. In a way, it means that I have to keep making friends with people because I can't find out unless I make friends with them and then if they are lesbian, there's hope for me, but even then there isn't hope unless they happen to take to me!"
Weird dog and postman experience!
Jan. 27th, 2026 01:06 pmmificI get quite a few mailorder things delivered and the couriers know to just leave packages by my door if I'm not immediately available, but this morning I was right there, door open and all. So I was baffled, then annoyed, when the NZ Post courier van just sat in my driveway and tooted at me. What the fuck? I finally located my crocs and went outside and made a WTF gesture, and the driver reluctantly got out of his cab and thrust a package at me then quickly scrambled back in and took off.
I turned around and whoa, there was a stray dog behind me standing up looking over into my neighbour's patio which is edged by a short bit of picket fence. Then I heard it start yelping in distress and pain and realised its front legs had slid down between the pickets and gotten stuck with its paws being too wide to pull back horizontally through the gaps. It was a largish dog, what we call a huntaway here, and it was really worked up so I didn't feel safe approaching it from behind to try and lift up its legs, right next to its mouth - seemed like a good way to get bitten. But luckily while I was dithering and trying to figure out what to do it accidentally freed itself - it had been sagging down on its haunches which only trapped it worse, but it must have stood up again. I shooed it away and could see it had a white muzzle so quite an old dog. I hope it's ok, but I wasn't able to check its collar for owner details.
Having had a chance to look up what to do in that sort of situation in future, there really isn't anything*. It was too minor for the police and not a dangerous dog per se, and not an animal being mistreated so not the SPCA's area, although if it had stayed stuck I'd have called them for advice.
Another unexpected start of the day story!
*having calmed down and thought it through I should have got my broom and lifted its feet up that way, but I was in a panic-brain state at the time.
I turned around and whoa, there was a stray dog behind me standing up looking over into my neighbour's patio which is edged by a short bit of picket fence. Then I heard it start yelping in distress and pain and realised its front legs had slid down between the pickets and gotten stuck with its paws being too wide to pull back horizontally through the gaps. It was a largish dog, what we call a huntaway here, and it was really worked up so I didn't feel safe approaching it from behind to try and lift up its legs, right next to its mouth - seemed like a good way to get bitten. But luckily while I was dithering and trying to figure out what to do it accidentally freed itself - it had been sagging down on its haunches which only trapped it worse, but it must have stood up again. I shooed it away and could see it had a white muzzle so quite an old dog. I hope it's ok, but I wasn't able to check its collar for owner details.
Having had a chance to look up what to do in that sort of situation in future, there really isn't anything*. It was too minor for the police and not a dangerous dog per se, and not an animal being mistreated so not the SPCA's area, although if it had stayed stuck I'd have called them for advice.
Another unexpected start of the day story!
*having calmed down and thought it through I should have got my broom and lifted its feet up that way, but I was in a panic-brain state at the time.
What I did today
Jan. 26th, 2026 11:59 pmcosmolinguistToday I:
- woke up late. I, very unusually for me, was so tired when my alarm went off that I set a new one. For some reason, I decided to make it five minutes before my first meeting, my team's usual check-in. So yeah, I did not make that.
- got dressed and downstairs eventually, triaged email and Teams messages.
- did my morning chores: open the curtains, empty the dishwasher, make breakfast for me and a pot of tea for the household...
- got halfway through the dishwasher when my work phon rang. Actually rang, not a Teams call. How odd!
- remember as the guy starts talking that I agreed to do an interview but forgot to put it in my calendar
- the interview is with rail industry press rather than my usual audiences of general public or politicians, so I got to drag some of the technical vocabulary out of my brain.
- had a little cry at lunchtime about Alex Pretti
- had two absolutely brutal meetings this afternoon, for a total of three hours: more technical stuff. I have looked at so many diagrams of train stations...and there weren't any breaks in that 2-hour meeting!
- walked Teddy with V, as a nice antidote to all the thinking and trying to decipher engineering diagrams (some of which were labeled by hand).
- made dinner by chopping all the veg in the fridge that needed using up and roasting it (some wrinkly peppers, half a head of rubbery broccoli, a few carrots I didn't know we had, mushrooms that were best before last week...) into a serviceable dinner
- helped D do a Tesco order for tomorrow
- read too much news
- had a shower
- went to bed late and now can't sleep
Worldbuilding
Jan. 26th, 2026 03:18 pmysabetwordsmithWhy Fantasy NEEDS More Fantasy Jobs on YouTube
Fantasy worlds are filled with magic, monsters, ancient ruins, cursed artifacts, and god-level threats but when you look closely, the same few roles always seem to keep everything running. Warriors, mages, priests, nobles, and merchants handle almost everything… somehow.
That's because many people prefer stories with big, flashy plots. However, some other people like smaller, everyday stories -- the whole "cozy" angle is all about that, not about blowing shit up. Now I love a good explosion as much as the next guy, but that's not all I enjoy. Variety is good.
( Read more... )
Fantasy worlds are filled with magic, monsters, ancient ruins, cursed artifacts, and god-level threats but when you look closely, the same few roles always seem to keep everything running. Warriors, mages, priests, nobles, and merchants handle almost everything… somehow.
That's because many people prefer stories with big, flashy plots. However, some other people like smaller, everyday stories -- the whole "cozy" angle is all about that, not about blowing shit up. Now I love a good explosion as much as the next guy, but that's not all I enjoy. Variety is good.
( Read more... )
Link and creativity/art update
Jan. 27th, 2026 11:54 amchina_shopUghhhhhh! *hugs to everyone, all of you, so many hugs and then some more*
For those who need it,troyswann linked to her art-blog post Gardening in the Rubble, about continuing normal life while the world is on fire.
*
Lately, I've been having trouble focusing on written words, so the fic edits are going verrrrry sloooowly. I don't think these are going to count as late![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomtrees gifts anymore, but I'd still like to finish them!
I've also been continuing to mess around with art. ( Current status, for future reference. ) In conclusion: noses are the worst, followed by lips, followed by eyes. Ears are also terrible.
Aaand now my right wrist/base of my thumb is furious at me, owww, because of course I chose a new hobby that involved a ton of detailed/controlled handwork. Should've taken up singing instead. *poutsigh*
For those who need it,
troyswann linked to her art-blog post Gardening in the Rubble, about continuing normal life while the world is on fire. *
Lately, I've been having trouble focusing on written words, so the fic edits are going verrrrry sloooowly. I don't think these are going to count as late
fandomtrees gifts anymore, but I'd still like to finish them! I've also been continuing to mess around with art. ( Current status, for future reference. ) In conclusion: noses are the worst, followed by lips, followed by eyes. Ears are also terrible.
Aaand now my right wrist/base of my thumb is furious at me, owww, because of course I chose a new hobby that involved a ton of detailed/controlled handwork. Should've taken up singing instead. *poutsigh*
meanwhile...
Jan. 26th, 2026 05:33 pmredbirdWe got a lot of snow in the Boston area, but people seem to be coping fairly well. The building management company have sent people over here to shovel the walks, several times, so I was able to take out the trash and recycling. The forecast for the next several days is for cold, very cold once you count the wind chill. It turns out that I can wear Adrian's old snow pants, which will do a lot to protect my legs from cold and wind. The remaining problem is boots: even with the 3/4 insoles Adrian lent me, they're too loose, including at the front, so I may try putting in a pair of full-length insoles and see if that helps. The other possibility is to go out looking for a pair of snow sneakers, or at least waterproof hiking shoes/boots (though the forecast is for the kind of weather where waiting for two trolleys, and walking from home to trolley to store, is daunting.
I've been looking at Bluesky again, in large part for news and commentary about what ICE is doing in Minnesota and elsewhere. When I've had enough for a while, I click on the "astronomy" feed I subscribed to months ago, so the first things I see are an astronomical pictures.
I did a lot of PT yesterday, and a few exercises today. It feels like I haven't gotten a lot done today, which I think is because I'd been hoping to make some phone calls (not all of them political), and assumed I wouldn't be able to take the trash out today. (The alternative to that walk along the side of the building is a spiral staircase, indoors, but spiral staircases aren't good for me, and this one is tight enough that my joints really don't like it. Cattitude can deal with it when necessary, but he's already going up and down that stair regularly to do the laundry.)
I've been looking at Bluesky again, in large part for news and commentary about what ICE is doing in Minnesota and elsewhere. When I've had enough for a while, I click on the "astronomy" feed I subscribed to months ago, so the first things I see are an astronomical pictures.
I did a lot of PT yesterday, and a few exercises today. It feels like I haven't gotten a lot done today, which I think is because I'd been hoping to make some phone calls (not all of them political), and assumed I wouldn't be able to take the trash out today. (The alternative to that walk along the side of the building is a spiral staircase, indoors, but spiral staircases aren't good for me, and this one is tight enough that my joints really don't like it. Cattitude can deal with it when necessary, but he's already going up and down that stair regularly to do the laundry.)
monday later
Jan. 26th, 2026 04:25 pmsummersgateI feel assaulted by memories of animal deaths and terrible things right now. The time of year, the month and the deep snow. On Jan 25 in 1983 my beloved Lady was put to sleep and that was also the day that Pat and I called it quits. I felt very bereft when I came home with Lady's body and found that Pat had moved his stuff out of our bedroom while I was at the vet's. All I could do was scream and kick the boxes of my stuff that he had packed up and brought to the bedroom that was going to start to be just mine. The ground was dry that year and we had already dug the grave for Lady, we knew her time was near. I laid her down by myself and started covering her with dirt. Nanny goat was nearby watching me crying and stepping on the grave to tamp the dirt down. I opened the gate and she came out and if you can believe it, she started to step up and down on the grave too as if she understood. The other memory I have was in January of 1964 when I as a little 10 year old was walking our dog Trixy down back. He started to have convulsions and collapsed while we were down over the hill. I can remember carrying him home through the deep snow, crying - how difficult it was. Yesterday slogging through the deep snow when we were walking to the creek with Andy took me back to that day. This new loss of a pet (Skye) is just one more sad memory to add to this season. Though Skye is still with us I know now with absolute certainty that there will be nothing to save her. After doing the ultrasound today they could see that her liver is too involved and there is no way to remove the mass. I could have put her to sleep today I suppose. I know some people would have and I don't see anything wrong with that but I couldn't. She had a good week last week getting lots of attention and enjoying her food and hopefully she'll have another good week or two, or three (?) to do that. When she can't enjoy those things it will be time.
I think I am different from some people in how attached I can get to animals, though I know there are a lot of other people who feel the same. When I was a little kid I can remember lying on the floor with Trixy and seeing how he had eyes the same as me, a mouth, a voice, thoughts, teeth and a tongue, ears, elbows, toes and fingers, fingernails, heels, knees, ribs and all the other things that I had too. I was an animal. We looked different but we were basically the same. It wasn't enough to realize that all humans are brothers but all animals are brothers too.
Anyway...
Onward.
I think I am different from some people in how attached I can get to animals, though I know there are a lot of other people who feel the same. When I was a little kid I can remember lying on the floor with Trixy and seeing how he had eyes the same as me, a mouth, a voice, thoughts, teeth and a tongue, ears, elbows, toes and fingers, fingernails, heels, knees, ribs and all the other things that I had too. I was an animal. We looked different but we were basically the same. It wasn't enough to realize that all humans are brothers but all animals are brothers too.
Anyway...
Onward.
Monday Media - January 26
Jan. 26th, 2026 03:35 pmlebateleurWE FINALLY GOT SNOW YESTERDAY! The initial "2 feet starting at 7 pm Saturday night" became "3-5 inches starting after midnight Sunday morning" but seeing as we haven't had a real snowfall in ten-freaking-years I WILL TAKE IT. (Seriously, I hate "sunny blue skies and cold with no snow" winters. There are few things I find more depressing.) I tried my absolute best to stay up for the snowfall as the estimated start times ticked further and further back into the night but alas, tapped out around 11:30 pm. There was a good 4" (Only four? *sob*) on the ground when we got up yesterday morning, but we went out for a lovely multi-mile walk through the streets and Park in the virgin snow, seeing absolutely nobody aside from a few other couples and a group of seven armed national guardpuppets walking single file up the street in the opposite direction, doing absolutely fuckall of use to the city.
Wintry mix and an increasing number of fishtailing and/or marooned cars on the unplowed roads ultimately got us to head back home. We made hot coffees, and then hot cocoas, and then mulled cider. I settled in to read my Asian news sites, and then my European news sites, and then realized it was Burns Night. And then I got a little sad.( Read more... )
Games: A main gaming group member's beloved-by-everyone pet passed away last week, so gaming has been preempted by other distractions, hugs, and really, whatever else they need from us for the foreseeable future.
Witchcraft has proved super challenging and great fun. This is a solo player tabletop game where you command a coven of witches trying to protect your fantasy medieval European village from fairytale monsters in the face of a skeptical jury. The game's mechanics are complex and challenging, with enough variability in their components to create a lot of replay value. Would I enjoy them as much if the setting were "medical researchers trying to save their chronically ill patients from certain death in the face of a skeptical ethics review board" or "rogue military alpha males trying to save their kidnapped ladyfolk from 'terrorists' in the face of a skeptical JAG?" Absolutely fucking not. But this game knows the sort of player it wants to appeal to with its chosen scenario, I am exactly the sort of player it appeals to with its chosen scenario, and it plays to my/those preferences brilliantly.
Otherwise, a fellow resident is in the early stages of setting up a gaming night, with Azul, Carcassone, Catan (*sigh*), or Wingspan as potential options, so I'm (no pun intended) on board and excited about that.
Music: I skipped last week's house session as my socializing meter was at 0. Both yesterday's pub session and today's house session have been cancelled due to Weather (ruling out group playing), and seeing I can't get the humidity in my unit above 19 percent even with both humidifiers going full blast for the past 72 hours, I won't be doing any solo playing at home. (PS: Houseplants, I am so, so sorry. Please don't all of you die on me I swear I am doing the best I can.)
Podcasts/Articles: Nothing this week.
Roleplaying: Nothing this week.
Television: An unsung hero uploaded a 40 minute interview with one of the Stars in My Personal Firmament of Irish Fluteplaying to yt this week, and I inhaled it like oxygen.
Video Games: Machinarium, Pentiment, and Ghost of Yotei continue apace. The GC has been replaying Knights of the Old Republic on the tower, so my Ultima IV replay has not progressed at all in the last seven days.
これで以上です。
Wintry mix and an increasing number of fishtailing and/or marooned cars on the unplowed roads ultimately got us to head back home. We made hot coffees, and then hot cocoas, and then mulled cider. I settled in to read my Asian news sites, and then my European news sites, and then realized it was Burns Night. And then I got a little sad.( Read more... )
Games: A main gaming group member's beloved-by-everyone pet passed away last week, so gaming has been preempted by other distractions, hugs, and really, whatever else they need from us for the foreseeable future.
Witchcraft has proved super challenging and great fun. This is a solo player tabletop game where you command a coven of witches trying to protect your fantasy medieval European village from fairytale monsters in the face of a skeptical jury. The game's mechanics are complex and challenging, with enough variability in their components to create a lot of replay value. Would I enjoy them as much if the setting were "medical researchers trying to save their chronically ill patients from certain death in the face of a skeptical ethics review board" or "rogue military alpha males trying to save their kidnapped ladyfolk from 'terrorists' in the face of a skeptical JAG?" Absolutely fucking not. But this game knows the sort of player it wants to appeal to with its chosen scenario, I am exactly the sort of player it appeals to with its chosen scenario, and it plays to my/those preferences brilliantly.
Otherwise, a fellow resident is in the early stages of setting up a gaming night, with Azul, Carcassone, Catan (*sigh*), or Wingspan as potential options, so I'm (no pun intended) on board and excited about that.
Music: I skipped last week's house session as my socializing meter was at 0. Both yesterday's pub session and today's house session have been cancelled due to Weather (ruling out group playing), and seeing I can't get the humidity in my unit above 19 percent even with both humidifiers going full blast for the past 72 hours, I won't be doing any solo playing at home. (PS: Houseplants, I am so, so sorry. Please don't all of you die on me I swear I am doing the best I can.)
Podcasts/Articles: Nothing this week.
Roleplaying: Nothing this week.
Television: An unsung hero uploaded a 40 minute interview with one of the Stars in My Personal Firmament of Irish Fluteplaying to yt this week, and I inhaled it like oxygen.
Video Games: Machinarium, Pentiment, and Ghost of Yotei continue apace. The GC has been replaying Knights of the Old Republic on the tower, so my Ultima IV replay has not progressed at all in the last seven days.
これで以上です。