I slightly less half-assedly fixed the warp on the Clover Sakiori loom (Japanese).
I didn't bring a comb for the weft and was using a tapestry needle, but catten remains unlikely to mind imperfect weaving.
Also, further adventures in dyeing wool yarn. I'd like to test on dyeing combed top for cotton, ramie, and silk (mulberry/bombyx, eri, tussah, and maybe a small sample of my treasured stash of muga); and then try some on alpaca or mohair after I've processed some more.
Later in the season, in natural dyes, I might experiment with the traditional hoary old standby of onion skins; rose hips (several of my roses shrubs produce them); and find out if windfall figs from the no-longer-quite-so-baby fig tree do anything interested as dyes. Osage orange, common madder, true and false indigo, hibiscus, and elderberry grow in Louisiana so making a dye plant plot might be entertaining. That or I sacrifice e.g. a bunch of beets lol. For personal use, I don't care about consistency (I prefer chaos ball colors) and I'm not that fussed about reliable fastness. "Throw it in a pot and also an ~appropriate mordant" for personal experiment promises to be very entertaining.
Ahhhh remember when FuckYeah[Thing] was everywhere in the fannish parlance?
Anyway some years back I was an avid watcher of NerdCubed's youtube channel, because as someone with horrible hand-eye coordination I found his irreverent skill and enjoyment at taking video games to their absurd limit really fun, and such LPs as I still remember for "Bully", "Shadow of the Colossus", "Psychonauts", "Outer Wilds" and one of the Jurassic Park games where you can actually build a theme park (and the raptors kept escaping, which enraged him to no end). These days I still have him subscribed but don't watch him as often, as there's way more content I follow now.
Regardless, back when he announced that he'd written a book, I ordered it as a way to say thank you for all those hours of entertainment, which is why I have a copy of Daniel Hardcastle's Fuck Yeah Videogames. It is, in my opinion, near incomprehensible if you don't already know Daniel and his brand of humour, as it is an irreverent list of various video games he loves and some he does not, the history ("history", in places) of various video consoles, plus a healthy dollop of semi memoir in the little stories he tells about himself, his family and friends, in explaining the way various video games make him feel. It's less a book and more like longform stand up in text form, I think. Maybe the audio version would be better, as someone who's enjoyed his rambling, but in text form I found it a bit tiresome.
At the back he lists his 100 favourite games of all time and I was shocked to see Outer Wilds was not there (he introduced me to the game!). Then I checked, and oh the game came out in 2019 and he finished writing the book in 2018, which explains it.
Title: Soul Flight Artist: Dksartz Writer: Neverever Universe: 616, AU Rating: Gen for art, teen for fic Fic Wordcount: 5435 Summary:
After Tony Stark became Iron Man, he lost his connection to his daemon. But now she's showing up everywhere and he still can't talk to her. What is going on here?
Summary: Four strangers converge on Collinsport. But maybe one of them is coming home.
The vicious killing of two young boys has Barnabas convinced that a vampire preys upon Collinsport. His suspects are four newcomers: three strangers, and an enemy from his own past, long believed dead.
Reccer's Notes: Though it may be read separately without much fuss, this fic follows Lunatic Yarn, recc'd a few days ago. Blood Levy details the goings on of the ever-put-upon Collins family as they struggle to maintain their reputation while wringing a little love and enjoyment out of ~Life. It's a fine mystery using all the familiar TV show performers, the main ones in their regular roles, while various supporting performers Author has envisioned as original characters. Beginning with sudden action, continuing in an eerie atmosphere, well, could we expect anything else?
Athena called me yesterday with a quest, which was to go to a house about a mile away and pick up a plate. I wasn’t entirely sure what the point of the quest was until I saw the plate: A commemorative plate with our church on it, from the 70s, celebrating a century of Methodist presence here in town. Along with the plate was a program for the actual Bradford United Methodist Church centennial celebration, which happened on September 10, 1972. I would have been three at the time, and also, in California, for this particular event.
I should be clear that the building we now own, the former Methodist church (which we now formally call The Old Church, and less formally, simply “the church”), does not date back to the 1870s. The program helpfully includes a history of the Methodists here in Bradford through the 1970s, and informs us that our building had its construction commence in May of 1917, and was dedicated for worship on November 24, 1918. This means that officially our building’s 107th birthday happens in about three weeks. That’s a lot of candles.
When we first got the building, I thought it had been built in the 1930s, so the building is appreciably older than I first assumed. It’s probably not the oldest building in town, but it’s close to it — there was a major fire in town in 1920 that burned down most of the existing structures. This building survived that particular calamity.
From the centennial program I also learned the construction cost of the church: $17,000, not counting the pipe organ, which cost an additional $1,700 and was installed a year after the church was opened for worship. I put this sum into some inflation calculators to see how much it would be in 2025 dollars, and the answer was between $340,000 and $365,000, depending on which inflation calculator you used. I don’t dispute that inflation gradient, but I am also reasonably sure you couldn’t build a structure like this one, at the size it is, and with the amenities it has, for that amount; it would cost at least three times that much now, if not more. We bought the church entire for $75,000. In any era, we got a very good deal on this church.
Also apparently the church at one point had ivy growing up its sides, so the illustration on the plate would suggest, although the picture in the program itself does not show any of that. It may have been artistic license. The centennial celebration, incidentally, was pretty modest: Standard services in the morning, a “carry-in dinner” at noon, and then a 2pm program of “singspiration” and special music with comments from former ministers and friends. Then a fellowship hour at 4:30, and at 7, a special concert by the Teen Ambassadors Singers, sponsored by the Bradford Area Council of Churches. Sounds like a lovely Sunday, honestly.
I’m delighted that our neighbor gifted us this plate, and this centennial program; between the both of them I feel like I have a much better idea of the building we now own and are the custodians of. Both the plate and the program will have places of honor in the church. I’m happy that we have this building, and hope to keep adding to its history here in town.
Title: Harry Happens to Hogwarts Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters I am writing this for fun and not profit. Rating: PG-13 Content Notes: Canon-typical violence, major AU (Harry grew up from the age of nine in Grimmauld Place), humor, angst, minor bullying Pairing: None, gen Summary: AU. Harry goes to Hogwarts for his first year, carrying a magical trunk that carries part of the essence of Grimmauld Place with him and secure in Phineas Nigeullus’s promise to have the portraits watch out for him. He’s a bit puzzled by how everyone expects him to act, but, well, that’s not his problem. He has tons already, he doesn’t need more. Author’s Notes: This is the sequel to my fic “Growing Up Grimmauld,” and won’t make much sense without it, as I don’t spend much time recapping that fic. This particular story is the second of my “From Samhain to the Solstice” series, being posted between Halloween and the winter solstice. At the moment, I don’t know how many chapters this one will be.
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (tagged both books and Granada) Pairings/Characters: Holmes/Watson Rating: T Length: 11,539 words Creator Links:Unpainted Canvas (RatTale) Theme: mystery & suspense, casefic
Summary: During a hard case Holmes and Watson part ways after an argument, and now Holmes suddenly has more to worry about than missing children.
Reccer's Notes: After they have a terrible row, Watson is kidnapped by bad guys to prevent Holmes from pursuing a case. The entire story is from Holmes POV, and there is a lot of worry and tension as Holmes tries to solve the disappearance of his friend. It's a good casefic, as well as the circumstances leading to realization of feelings by Holmes.
This is beginner mode weaving on a Clover Sakiori tabletop ~portable loom. It has an unbelievably easy warping setup based on the reeds, with what I think of affectionately as typically beautifully overengineered Japanese design and terrific documentation; I don't read Japanese but the pictures + diagrams are extraordinarily clear. I'm US-based so tariffs are a vexed situation, but these tend to run ~$200 USD plus international shipping off eBay. I do also own a Lojan Flex rigid heddle loom, but I like the ease of warping so much better on the Clover Sakiori. I'm also that extremely boring person who just wants to plainweave forever; if I want to embellish fabric, I will embroider.
I half-assed the warp and it shows, but at the level of "can I set this up at all," the answer is yes. Also, catten is unlikely to be a HARSH critic of a tiny little catten blankie to shed all over, so.
Just look at those warping layouts! I'm too lazy to check the trigonometry, but I'm betting it's correct.
I'm struggling with weaving (English-language [1]) vocabulary so I can't describe the action further. This YouTube playlist by Renee Johnson Studio shows it in action, though.
[1] There is probably random Korean terminology buried in my head because of my mom, but it's not helpful in sussing out help in English...
I need to lie down now but it was a good day for exploratory weaving.
A decade ago today, Sugar and Spice came to live with us here at the Scalzi Compound. They were semi-feral kittens who lived on the porch of my mother-in-law’s neighbor; we were originally going to just get one but the two of them seemed particularly attached to each other, and both Athena and Krissy thought it would be cruel to separate them, so, fine, we took them both. Two kittens at once means quite a bit of chaos, which is how I eventually started calling them “The Scamperbeasts.” They were the founding members of a club that grew to include Smudge, and now, Saja.
Neither Sugar nor Spice seem inclined to make a big deal out of the day — they are both napping right now, Spice four feet from me in the cat tree in my office — but I thought it would be nice to make note of the day anyway. A decade is a lot of time in the life of a cat, and a fair amount in the life of a human, too. I glad our times on earth have intersected. Even if Sugar does randomly hork up weird things onto the carpet on a semi-frequent basis, and Spice regularly wakes me up at 3am to show me her butt. None of us are perfect, now, are we.
Spooky season's not over yet because our theme for November is mystery & suspense!
The tag for this round is: theme: mystery & suspense
If you're just joining us, be sure to check out our policy on content notes. Content notes aren't required, but they're nice to include in your recs, especially if a fanwork has untagged content that readers may wish to know about in advance.
お言葉に甘えてもう一杯頂きます。 If you insist I'll have another drink.
コーヒーをやめて紅茶を頂きます。 I'd like to have tea instead of coffee.
今日は大統領から手紙を頂きました。 I have received a letter from the president today.
先生に辞書をいただきました。 I received a dictionary from the teacher.
社員「すみません、あした用事があるので、仕事を休ませていただきたいんですが。」社長「あしたか。ちょっと急でこまるんだけれど。」 Employee: "please, tomorrow I have things to do. Would you let me have a day off ?" Boss: "Tomorrow? It is pretty sudden and I am bothered..."
火曜日、木曜日、土曜日にしていただけませんか。 Would you mind do it on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday?
I've made my way through two different versions of this post before discarding most of the content and starting over. What happened was, I finished watching Crime Scene Zero, had mostly negative reactions and wrote that up, then started rewatching Crime Scene from season 1 and realized that hey, season 1 was not that great either so my feelings must be biased due to nostalgia goggles, but then I went through my favourites of season 2 and recalibrated again so here we are.
My most recent simplified conclusion is that Crime Scene Zero was fine overall, as I really enjoyed two episodes, was mostly positive on one, and didn't like two. (For reasons to get into shortly.) This seemed like a bad ratio until I rewatched bits of seasons 1 and 2, and realized that because those seasons had 10 and 13 cases each, compared to Zero's 5 cases, they FELT better because there were more cases I enjoyed, when the actual ratio of % per season enjoyed is similar to Returns and Zero.
Important to note that BOOOOOO, Hong Jin-ho didn't come back AT ALL, for either Return or Zero. He was an original cast member! Jin-ho, why! He probably has reasons, but I am still sad. But to my surprise, he has been in multiple episodes of Running Man, which I stopped watching ages ago, so maybe I'll.... find those..... maybe. I would've thought that Running Man isn't his style, but what do I know about the vagaries of reality TV celebs.
Pairings/Characters: Barnabas Collins, Julia Hoffman, Elliot Stokes, David Collins, Elizabeth Collins, Roger Collins, Angelique Bouchard Collins, Harry Johnson, Willie Loomis, Maggie Evans
Summary:A dumbwaiter system found in the house unleashes a baffling illness which turns pleasant friends into infatuated screwballs. Meanwhile, games with the dumbwaiter bring Hallie and David nights of terror. With the addition of an afghan that roams the house at will and a houseguest no one wants, Collinwood hits the height of mayhem.
Reccer's Notes: You'd be pretty hard put to discover a stranger, more unsettling setting than a dumbwaiter in which an intrepid soul or two ventures to travel. Add to this Halloween rec the inimitable spookiness of the great estate of Collinwood and you've discovered a delightful read with stellar characterizations and the usual undercurrent of Things Unseen in the fandom.
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