rachelmanija: (Books: old)
[personal profile] rachelmanija


A middle-grade graphic novel about a boba shop with a secret.

Aria comes to stay with her grandmother in San Francisco for the summer to escape a bad social situation. Her grandmother owns a boba shop that doesn't seem too popular, and Aria throws herself into making it more so - most successfully when Grandma's cat Bao has eight kittens, and Aria advertises it as a kitten cafe. But why is Grandma so adamant about never letting Aria set foot in the kitchen, and kicking out the customers at 6:00 on the dot? Why do the prairie dogs in the backyard seem so smart?

This graphic novel has absolutely adorable illustrations. The story isn't as strong. The first half is mostly a realistic, gentle, cozy slice of life. The second half is a fantasy adventure with light horror aspects. Even though the latter is throughly foreshadowed in the former, it still feels kind of like two books jammed together.

My larger issue was with tone and content that also felt jammed together. The book is somewhat didactic - which is fine, especially in a middle-grade book - but I feel like if the book is teaching lessons, it should teach them consistently and appropriately. The lessons in this book were a bit off or inconsistent, creating an uncanny valley feeling.

Spoilers! Read more... )

Fantastic art, kind of odd story.

Mood theme

Aug. 8th, 2025 10:21 pm
coffeepaws: Furry style side portrait of a wolf wearing headphones and a green hoodie (Default)
[personal profile] coffeepaws posting in [community profile] getting_started
I can't figure out where / how I can select a mood theme. Could somebody help me? Thank you :)

What I'm looking for in art.

Aug. 8th, 2025 08:15 pm
andrewducker: (No Time Travel)
[personal profile] andrewducker
I remember seeing a game which looked amazing. The whole world was destructible, there were thousands of different combinations of things to find in it, and they'd put a ton of effort in to making it a fun experience.

I played it for a couple of hours, and got bored of it, because it turns out that that isn't enough for me. Because what they'd made was also a Rogue-Like. Which is to say that it completely resets back to the start when you die, and that start randomly creates the world that you play through.

And I don't want to play through a whole different world each time, where everything is different to the last time I played. What I want for a solo game is for someone to lovingly craft a world, and then for me to learn that world inside out as I try to beat the various challenges in it*.

A few months ago [personal profile] danieldwilliam sent me this link to a Neal Stephenson essay. And while I didn't agree with him about everything, the idea of "microdecisions" has stuck with me. That what makes art art isn't the idea (although good ideas are important) it's all of the ways that that idea was reified into the finished work.

A key quote:
Since the entire point of art is to allow an audience to experience densely packed human-made microdecisions—which is, at root, a way of connecting humans to other humans—the kinds of “art”-making AI systems we are seeing today are confined to the lowest tier of the grid and can never produce anything more interesting than, at best, a slab of marble pulled out of the quarry. You can stare at the patterns in the marble all you want. They are undoubtedly complicated. You might even find them beautiful. But you’ll never see anything human there, unless it’s your own reflection in the machine-polished surface.

And if that works for you - if staring at the swirling polished surfaces is what makes you happy, then I'm delighted for you. I've certainly been very entertained by generated patterns myself in the past. And I can totally be distracted by it for short periods of time. But when I'm looking for something actually *engaging* then right now it doesn't work for me. I need something human** in there.

Another example of this - movies. The more that special effects became good enough that movies could show me *anything* the more I wanted things with *character* in them. Things where you could tell that someone (or some group of someones) had really wanted to get something out of their brains so that other people could see the world the way they see it. I was discussing with [personal profile] swampers the other day that we really appreciated the movies that A24 are putting out, because even when they're a bit of a mess they're a really interesting mess that someone had obviously cared about. The trailer for Eternity looks like it would absolutely annoy me in parts, but it would do so because I'd be experiencing someone's thoughts about the world, and I might learn something about them, and maybe also about me for engaging with it.

*Multiplayer games are different. When I played a ton of Minecraft with Julie I was happy for her to set the direction of what to make, and then I'd treat that as my challenge. But sandboxes with no set challenge don't interest me. And I have played a chunk of games like Slay The Spire or Balatro or Dead Cells . But even then I'd play for enough to get the hang of it and then stop, usually without actually beating it, because "Go back to the beginning and beat that for the 500th time so that you can spend 10 seconds losing the end before starting again" isn't much fun for me. Even with Hades, which does a great job of giving you a meta-story around each run that grows as you replay, I got all the way to fight Hades, lost near-instantly, and the thought of replaying the entire game for 20 minutes just to lose to him again filled me with exhaustion and I haven't been back since. If Noita had a "save" function and a set of specifically designed levels that were fun and were definitely beatable *and* a random world generator you could use once you'd played those levels then I'd probably have invested a lot of time in it.

**I am not against the idea that eventually AIs will achieve consciousness and attempt to impart something to us through the medium of art. And that would interest me. I just don't think that the generators we're currently investing in are that.

Foundation 3.05

Aug. 8th, 2025 07:45 pm
selenak: (Gaal Dornick - Foundation)
[personal profile] selenak
In which Gaal unleashes her inner Hari, and lots of revelations happen in all plotlines.

Spoilers need to get the plan back on track by any means necessary )

(no subject)

Aug. 8th, 2025 10:21 am
seekingferret: Two warning signs one above the other. 1) Falling Rocks. 2) Falling Rocs. (Default)
[personal profile] seekingferret
Fantastic 4:First Steps

Jews do not dance in this movie. I have seen four Fantastic 4 movies and Ben Grimm does not dance in any of them.

Photo cross-post

Aug. 8th, 2025 12:26 am
andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker


Last ever nursery drop off for Gideon.

He has Monday and Tuesday in a holiday club and then from Wednesday he's in school!

We've had a child in this nursery since 2019, it's going to be weird to not be there any more.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

Redactle-related fact of the day

Aug. 7th, 2025 11:53 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

I did not, until a few hours ago, know that diesel was named after Rudolf Diesel, "... who invented the Diesel engine, which burns Diesel fuel".

(Some cheerful things, in brief: turns out shimmer inks really do work better when you thoroughly scrub the feed of your fountain pen clean at least occasionally; I am excited about tomorrow's bread; I was Greatly Honoured by the Toddler in a truly toddleresque fashion the details of which I shall not go into; I have finally got my act together to order a copy of the Roti King cookbook; glorious comfort reread of a thing I'd totally forgotten was even available for comfort reread, and for bonus points there are new bits!!!)

Choices choices

Aug. 7th, 2025 10:27 pm
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
[personal profile] rmc28

Work's "Active Staff" programme through the university sports centre is mostly dormant in August, but has just acquired a regular "give it a go" session for women's football on Thursday afternoons. (Hmm, I wonder what recent event might have prompted such a thing ...) Unfortunately this session clashes exactly with my favourite free exercise class, which has just rebranded from "yogalates" to "stretch and relax".

One of these activities will help my knee mobility and one of them is highly likely to mess up my knees further. Much as I want to be as tough as Lucy Bronze, I regretfully skipped the football and stuck with the stretches.

forestofglory: Cup of tea on a pile of books (books)
[personal profile] forestofglory
As the title says I've actually read some of the pile of graphic novels that I got from the library! Things have been busy and I've been sick so progress has still been slow.

The Worst Ronin by Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Faith Schaffer — A graphic novel about a teen girl who wants to be a samurai and an older jaded ronin. The tech level is handwavy feudal Japan but with cell phones, which I found distracting. I didn’t think the cell phones added enough to the book to be worth it. Content note: gore, grief and dying

Anzu and the Realm of Darkness by Mai K. Nguyen and Diana Tsai Santos— Graphic novel about a Japanese American girl named Anzu who has just moved to a new town and get accidentally swept into the underworld. I thought it was pushing a little hard on we can solve systematic problems like bullying with individual choices but it was mostly sweet. I liked the kind of cartoony art style and all the different mystical critters.

Dragon of the Lost Sea by Laurence Yep —I read this Chinese mythology inspired MG fantasy novel to the kid at bed time. I had read these books myself as a kid and I was a little worried that they wouldn’t hold up, but the suck fairy has not gotten them! It’s maybe a little weird that the dragons all have wings. Chinese inspired stuff written in English these days tends to be very strict about not mixing in more western elements like that but actually the mixing is fun. Anyways this is a fun adventure story with lots of characters with big personalities.

Navigating With You by Jeremy Whitley,Casio Ribeiro, and Nikki Fox —A graphic novel about two girls who are both new at their high school. They decide to go on a quest to find all 7 volumes of an out of print manga they both never finished reading. I loved this! Both girls are charming and quirky in a geeky way, the manga story within the story was lovely. One of them does have a dead mom, something I generally avoid but by the time that was revealed I was hooked. It was super fun and charming!

Himawari House by Harmony Becker —A graphic novel about three young women from different places who move to Japan and end up living in the same house. It's a very slice of life with lots of food and friendship but also some sad moments. The author has a heartfelt note at the end explaining that she wrote on the accents because she wants to destigmatise having an accent. I have mixed feelings about it though because I find written accents way harder to parse than spoken accents.
[personal profile] cosmolinguist

Yesterday I had a nauseating headache all day. It kept me from getting anything done at work which was rough when this latest project is bearing down on me, deadlines looming. I knew it'd put me under more pressure today (which it did). I wanted to go lift weights after work. I realized I need a haircut but I didn't go do that. I was stressed about still not having booked my travel and accommodation for this conference I'm keynote-speaking at next week. I hadn't started the keynote speech of course (and should I be worried that I'm not more worried about that?).

There's just too many things I need to fit in to not-enough days this week. And the only one I managed yesterday was booking a hotel and train tickets (and finding out that an online pal who lives nearby will not even be around that day to get dinner with, boo!). Which is a pretty big deal because I find that so stressful, but it's so little for a whole day.

Today I did okay with the work project and have a little more time than I thought -- end of tomorrow instead of midday today makes a big difference. And I did go to the gym -- [personal profile] angelofthenorth was going swimming this evening so I did too. It was okay at first but people dicking around in the one lane that there was for swimming laps meant I had enough collisions and disruption that my lizard brain noped out before my body would have.

Cardio is so difficult -- not the activity itself, but everything else. It's much more anxiety-inducing to go swimming or cycling on my own, it's not always easy to line schedules up with other people's... (indeed today I almost regretted when helping D do garden chores at his girlfriend's house took longer than expected). There are Reasons that I have avoided it in recent years...

The Friday Five for 8 August 2025

Aug. 7th, 2025 03:03 pm
anais_pf: (Default)
[personal profile] anais_pf posting in [community profile] thefridayfive
This week's questions were suggested by [livejournal.com profile] sparklesalad

1. What is one food (or meal) you used to hate but now love?

2. If you had to give up one of your favorite foods (or meals) for good, what would it be, and why?

3. Which food seems like it should be healthy and isn't, and do you eat it? Why?

4. If you were an item of food, personified, what would you be and why?

5. You've seen tomatoes and pies used for this purpose ... now think of a more inventive item of food one could throw at someone. What is it and why would throwing it at someone be hilarious?

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.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

Photo cross-post

Aug. 7th, 2025 12:27 pm
andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker


It was bath day, and I needed a physical book to read in the bath.

Thoughtfully my friends have written one and it was published a few days ago.

(The Needfire, MK Hardy. I'm two chapters in and rather enjoying it.)
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

mtbc: maze N (blue-white)
[personal profile] mtbc
After the EU passed the General Data Protection Regulation, many smaller US organizations took the simple option of blocking the EU from their websites. It's for that reason I have a US-based web proxy in my back pocket for checking US news from local sources.

Now, the UK's passed the Online Safety Act which seems to be at least as onerous. I was chatting with a creative British person today. There is some website (I didn't ask which) that hosts their writing and art, and it's become inaccessible to them. So, like so many other British people in recent days, they've now subscribed to a VPN service.

The OSA seems to be a deleteriously blunt instrument. Children now seem to be barred (by easily bypassed means) from seeing all kinds of information that, frankly, it's good if they can see.

I am curious to know how this got so far without being stopped. It certainly says something poor about the powers that be, that pressure to do something resulted in pushing through legislation that had been widely warned about by many. It's not at all unique, we even had the Clinton administration trying to push the Clipper chip, but this example seems to be turning out unusually badly.

The Labour government had already burned up its honeymoon period but they still make unforced errors that the Conservatives make hay from. Amid all this, we also get to watch the Chancellor square the circle they've painted themselves into (with the Conservatives' help). An outbreak of political competence would make a welcome change.

Update: Very shortly after posting this, I read of moves in the EU to resurrect efforts to prevent communications from being wholly private.

Silo: Season 1 Review

Aug. 7th, 2025 04:29 pm
selenak: (Visionless - Foundation)
[personal profile] selenak
Since because of Foundation I'm currently watching Apple plus again, I also marathoned the first season of Silo, which I didn't have the chance to do last time I watched Apple. In the meantime, I had watched the series Paradise over a the Mouse Streaming Service, and in reviews, comparisons to Silo had been made, which enhanced my curiosity. (Now that I've seen the first seson, I know why, though I would say the shows are far more different than similar, even the resoective premises. At best, you have some parallels in some of the conditions and in one of the results. Which is why I still think it was a mistake to not conclude Paradise (which had a good season, don't get me wrong, but I think the quintessential core story is told within it) as opposed to giving it another season, whereas I look forward to Silo's second season (because while the first one has a concluded main story arc, it is very much written as the start of a larger story).

Spoilers don't know who built the Silo, or why )

Irregular Listening Post

Aug. 7th, 2025 07:18 pm
highlyeccentric: Monty Python - knights dancing the Camelot Song (Camelot song)
[personal profile] highlyeccentric
Courtesy of a recent subscriber bonus episode (preview here of Gender Reveal, I have discovered Mal Blum, who has a new album out (I think I had previously had their country-ish EP on a list of queer country music that I was slowly working through, but never got to that one). I am enjoying it.



I like this song and was amused by Mal and Tuck discussing people taking it too literaly.

The music video is... weird, though. It seems average-good, close-ups on the singer appropriate to the song. But the group choreography is... weird. Perhaps just "niche indie artist can't afford really cutting edge music video"? But am I wrong in thinking that it felt like the choreographer did not know what kind of person Mal is or whose gaze to showcase them for?

I may have to go back and look at some of Mal's older music videos and form Opinions.

Henchmen

Aug. 6th, 2025 10:24 pm
[personal profile] cosmolinguist

Looking out at the backyard, V said "Those lilac branches will need to be cut back some time." They added, "I may have to get one of you henchmen to do it."

And then "I'm just gonna call you two my henchmen now."

I looked over at D on the other end of the couch and said "That's a pretty nice name for us, coming from them!"

They continued: "When people ask me what our relationship is, I'm just gonna say 'They're my henchmen. What, you don't have any?' "

" 'Skill issue'," I said. They laughed.

To-read pile, 2025, July

Aug. 6th, 2025 10:12 pm
rmc28: (reading)
[personal profile] rmc28

Books on pre-order:

  1. Queen Demon (Rising World 2) by Martha Wells (7 Oct 2025)

Books acquired in July:

  • and read:
    1. Moonlighter by Sarina Bowen
    2. Grown Wise (Liminal Mysteries) by Celia Lake
  • and unread:
    1. Death by Candlelight (Adam and Eve Mysteries 1) by Emma Davies
    2. The Little Cottage on the Hill (Little Cottage 1) by Emma Davies

Books acquired previously and read in July:

  1. A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine [2][Sep 2024]

Borrowed books read in July:

  1. Once Upon You and Me by Timothy Janovsky
  2. You Had Me At Happy Hour by Timothy Janovsky
  3. Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane
  4. One-Touch Pass (SCU Hockey 4) by J.J. Mulder [8]
  5. The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
  6. Fourth Wing (Empyrean 1) by Rebecca Yarros [2]

Rereads in July:

  1. A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine [2]

I continue to enjoy all of Celia Lake's books, and I still adore the Teixcalaan books by Arkady Martine, whether reading or listening to them. Stuart Turton wrote the entirely gripping groundhog-day country house murder mystery, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, and I found The Last Murder at the End of the World another very gripping science-fictional murder mystery, this time in weird post-apocalyptic flavour.

Fourth Wing is a massive fantasy tome (21 hours of audiobook!) about a lethal military college for aspiring dragonriders, which piles a great many tropes onto some rather wonky worldbuilding. It is very entertaining and I can see why it is hugely popular. I am part way through the even more massive sequel and I regret nothing.

[1] Pre-order
[2] Audiobook
[3] Physical book
[4] Crowdfunding
[5] Goodbye read
[6] Cambridgeshire Reads/Listens
[7] FaRoFeb / FaRoCation / Bookmas / HRBC
[8] Prime Reading / Kindle Unlimited

kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

For Redactle reasons, yesterday I wound up working my way through Wikipedia's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities.

This turned out not to be helpful for Terrible Game Purposes, but it did mean that I came across a city in Anatolia, Turkey, "founded by the Phrygians in at least 1000 BC[E], although it has been estimated to be older than 4,000 years old".

The name of this city? Eskişehir.

"Eski" is the Turkish (and possibly Turkic?) word for "old" (antonym of "new" -- antonym of "young" is a different word). "Şehir" means "city".

We are so good at this.