One of my students offered me blood

Apr. 22nd, 2025 10:50 pm
cornerofmadness: (King)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
In learning that I'm severely anemic and might need a transfusion (we were talking about hepatitis C and transfusions in micro) he offered me a pint of his blood if we were a match (we are) Hopefully I can avoid the transfusion but that was touching and I appreciate it and I wish all of us could have empathy like that.

I forgot to say yesterday that I was very sad to see Pope Francis passing. I grew up Catholic. He was the first Pope I actually liked. I thought he was a very good man. But since I waited a day I can add how much of a shit stain Marjorie Taylor Greene is as she's been vocally celebrating an 'evil man's' passing. People like her make me hope there IS an afterlife... I just hope that the church doesn't swing back ultraconservative again. Regardless, RIP Pope Francis, we're poorer for your loss.


Rocket is home. He looks good except his face is swollen. I think they were pulling a lot of ticks off him (so much for that 30$ tick medicine) He's already insisting on going out so good wishes for him everyone.


So fannish 50 I had something else in mind, can't remember what it is and now I'm doing this because I had planned to do this last week and forgot. Every so often I like to share the newish stuff I find on YouTube in way of fan creations. look at some of this cool stuff. Fandom is really embracing the music and animation side of things. Prior to this all we had was AMVs (which are lovely too) but I haven't see this level of music since the filk music from the 80s.

I'm in love with this and jealous too but then again I'm not an artist so no one is going to dub my art but I love it.



Axel is a fan voice actor known for doing Arackniss and someone did some more music for him.



Oh geez has a lot of music



And it's a part of this, over an hour of fan music for The Owl House



I might have shared this before but this Gravity Falls/Hazbin Hotel mash up is delightful



And I'm pretty sure this was shared but it popped back up and I love it.

About time

Apr. 21st, 2025 11:06 pm
cornerofmadness: Angel hugging his pig amidst rubble (Default)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
So finally Rocket is getting neutered. Why did I wait so long? If I'm honest, I still see him as the apartment complex's cat not mine. I didn't want him really, especially when he first came and I was still learning to walk again. But he is a beautiful cat, not just pretty but so very sweet. His only fault is, is he prefers to be outside and doesn't want to use litter (he wants out)

He did fine and he's staying overnight by my request because he is FIV+. They called me to say he's fine and they didn't pull his teeth because they weren't loose (I knew that but they are broken and THEY were the ones to put it out there in the first place) They wanted me to okay expensive antibiotics because of his FIV and I said yes. I'll get him tomorrow night. I wanted a good 36 hours of him being indoors and not too mobile so the surgical site can heal up


We had two students give presentations today that were good. One was using oyster mushrooms to substitute brewer's yeast to make alcohol based on a paper where it was done with wine. It worked better with wine but he did mix yeast and shroom and it was a nice sour beer (yes there was a taste testing)

It's music monday and we're working through the alphabet. I'm sticking with songs from the last 5 years but you can rec whatever you'd like. We're up to C

I'm realizing I listen to Taylor Swift more than I think )

(no subject)

Apr. 21st, 2025 11:45 am
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss
* I keep thinking 'I'm pretty much over this cold or whatever, I just need a bit of a nap.... why is it tomorrow?'

How the fuck is it Monday?

* I was really looking forward to finishing Lost Records: Bloom & Rage now that the second half of the game it out, but the game thinks I didn't nab the main quest item from tape 1. I was a few hours into tape 2 before I realized it. As great as the story is, the actual mechanics are very futzy and slow, and this hasn't been the only bug. Some games are fun because of the actual game play, some are good in spite of the gameplay.

I don't have time for this, I am going to find a LP to finish it out.

* [pours salt circle around flist] I really should not engage about Murderbot outside of this space. At this point some of the discourse is so far removed from the reality of the canon I am pretty sure people are just making shit up to support their takes. Actually, in a few cases I am completely sure. Maybe once the show is out the hype will drown some of it out? I wonder if it's dropping weekly or all at once?

It's fine to relate in various ways or to have different takes, but there is some wild stuff out there. Not sure what I expected from the fandom that thinks I haven't really consumed the canon because I like the wrong audio adaptation.

Writerly Ways

Apr. 20th, 2025 11:15 pm
cornerofmadness: Angel hugging his pig amidst rubble (Default)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
To my friends who celebrate Happy Easter

I had a thing planned but I had a critical low sugar event (on a day where I ate chocolate eggs, peeps and had couscous for dinner, why?) and then trying to get my sugar up I aspirated some food into my lungs. I feel like crap so here have this question instead.

How do you handle blurbs? Especially my indie author folk? I'm reading Under This Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis and the point of view character is either mentally ill and hearing voices, like real people, (like her brother and father) or something else is going on. Regardless, the blurb spoils the fact her would-be girlfriend is murdered and the character can't be sure that she is innocent of the crime and I'm like way to totally take away ALL the tension of multiple scenes while we're working up to where did Mila go, did she ghost Neely after their one night together? etc. If you want to have a tense, teasing blurb, murder is a way to do it but wouldn't something like 'after the night of the bonfire that leaves one of them dead' be better? It leaves the tension in the story instead of the reader ticking off time until this character dies (and there are multiple people working at this cavern so it could have been any of them)


I'm not sure I have wisdom as to writing blurbs but I know that wasn't the way to do it (btw this is a NY bestselling author and a biggish publishing house and no I wasn't brave enough to ask her about the blurb when I was talking to her last weekend)


OPEN CALLS

Spook Hollow: Tales of Ozark Horror Horror stories set in the Ozark mountains

NonBinary Review #41 Solarpunk

Cosmic Roots And Eldritch Shores May 2025 Window Well written original work in science fiction, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, and eldritch, in written, podcast, video, and/or graphic story form, and from around the world.

Anomaly May 2025 Window Science fiction stories under 300 words

Gen-X Flash Fiction Anthology Scifi, speculative fiction, fantasy, not horror that showcases Gen-X

Starship Blunder 2 Shared Universe set on the Starship Blunder, most genres welcome, you DO need to read the guidelines for details and characters

56 Traditional Children’s Book Publishers Seeking Submissions (No Agent Required)

5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in April 2025

Folklore Review—Now Seeking Submissions



From Around the Web

What Is Romantasy?

The Key to Creating Suspense Is...

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A Peek Inside the Mind of a Developmental Editor

Lessons From a Writer and Her Rejections.


How to Play The Subtext Game with Your Dialogue

Rathacon

Apr. 19th, 2025 11:04 pm
cornerofmadness: Angel hugging his pig amidst rubble (Default)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
Still the best name for a con, still tacked onto a tiny con in Athens that fights in a basketball court. Mostly my friends are running it (trying to rope me in but right now I'm quoting my health issues as why not but I will look for vendors for them).

Speaking of health issues, I could hardly move today, I'm so exhausted. I got there an hour later than planned but it worked out. I wanted to enter the raffles and this year...not a lot there that I was interested in anyhow. I didn't win anything this year (last year I won three things so it balances) and one of my friends said, 'watch me win the thing I didn't want but accidentally dropped my ticket into' And she did. She was going to give it to me (a merman illustration) but someone else wanted it more than me so I gave it to him. Karma owes me (and I don't mean the storm it served up, more on that later)

I didn't get to any of the talks because I knew I would never be able to get to them and manage to stay long enough to get to the raffle (in the future I will have to plan my one-day con trips well if I can't get my energy back). I did however get some fun stuff at the vendors.

I picked up A Shade of Winter from Henlo Press a paranormal mystery (some fool forgot her cheaters today. Not mentioning any names....) I've got the first book in several of their series already... which led me to a conclusion (more on that later)

I picked up a couple's earring set of Ozzie and Fizzarolli from Helluva Boss from Unicorn Massacres Designs. It's a cute set. I've bought from them before (artist is trans with a lot of trans rights stuff if you want to take a look).

From Dany Cat Designs I got some soap for me and for gifts. I still have one bar left over from last year. She didn't have any of the dice soap with her this year. I picked up Hades for myself along with Make It So

I said NO more wall art so naturally I bought two postcard sized bits of art from Cocomomo Art because her Hazbin stuff is probably the best I've seen for sale in the past several cons. She also recced a hopepunk queer anime, Promare. I need to find it.

Speaking of wall art, I should have walked past Amanda Scharf Illustration but her water colors were too damn pretty. Did I need a water color of Angel Dust? No. Do I now own one? What do you think? She had so many colors too. If the purple had only been a little richer....I went with dark blue.

There is an artist I get earrings from every con (and other vendors probably hate her) because she sells them for 3$ a pop vs what everyone else does (but I'm also betting she just buys the charms in bulk somewhere) I need to find out if some of my friends wear bigger earrings. Wish [personal profile] evil_little_dog wore earrings because she'd love half of these and sadly the artist doesn't do pins.

I did get some birthday/holiday gifts too. I'll see several of these vendors again in a few weeks at Final Boss con on my university. There was one person selling ITA bags which I need desperately for all my pins but honestly these looked like grocery bags for the same price as much more intricately done backpack styles so I skipped it (and I can make the banners for the pins myself if I take a minute to do it) I was glad I went. Got a few hugs from friends. Yeah I'm not a hugger but on the other hand it's nice to have people who are genuinely happy to see me.

I left the con and went to Kroger for cheese (this one has the fancy cheeses) All was well. I got my cheeses and some absolutely yummy olives that I'm sorry I didn't buy more of. Came out 15 minutes later and it looked cloudy. Five minutes later as I'm getting my Tim Horton's coffee rocket fuel to drive home on, it's even darker. By the time I go 2 miles to Avalanche pizza to pick up my death in a box (otherwise known as the skeletonwitch) it's BLACK. The manager is telling the staff to tell patrons the deliveries will be delayed because of the incoming storm.

I grab my pizza and beat feet. I don't get 5 miles out of town before it let loose. The wind was first, so strong I was literally knocked off the road three times. Then the rain came so hard I thought 'got to stop at the rest stop just up the road and ride this out.' It was raining SO hard I couldn't see the rest stop and missed it. I inched another mile down the highway to the red light where I know there is a gas station. Waited it out there for about 15 minutes. Thankfully my ebook held out because some one forgot to charge it (not mentioning any names) and it was down to 7%.

Luckily after that it was light rain or none all the way home. I'm glad I went. I wish I had energy that 2 hours didn't all but kill me. So that decision I came to at the con...for some damn reason there are a half dozen things I want to do on the 3rd (all in vastly different directions) Ohioana Book festival in Columbus (very late this year), the Gallipolis street steampunk festival, free comic book day, heartwoods mental health festival (in a Chillicothe park), a psychic fair in Logan, the mother's day glass sale in the Hocking Hills.

I decided not to go to the Book festival. My friend isn't going to be there. I haven't read 90% of the books I bought there last year (I'm working on 2 now).I need a new book like I need slapped. Worse, they'll be signed so I won't want to part with them. That doesn't help my space issue. I think I'm better off either doing the steampunk/comic book thing (they're in the same direction) or the glass/mental health fair (also in the same (but different) direction). Decisions Decisions.

Came home and started to watch the newly dropped Gaslight District pilot. Been looking forward to this. I haven't watched more than a few minutes (too tired) and I'm not sure I like the animation style but I'll need to see more.

olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss


I went to Trader Joes to grab some lunch. This is a picture from halfway through one of the two lines that feed into the main line for the cashiers. When I was finally through I couldn’t see the cashier I was told to go and didn’t move fast enough, so a lady sniped my spot.

Me most of the time: Yeah, I can handle cities. I’m not from NYC but I grew up right near there. The NYC I grew up with was a lot meaner, grittier, more cuthroat than today's NYC.

Me actually in NYC: Help, mean lady stole my cashier!

Since getting food had taken so long, by the time I ate it was getting decently late. So, I decided to change my plans for the rest of the day. I was near Grand Central Station, so I hopped over there. Last time I was there, the ceiling was dark with one light blue spot, like bright sunlight was hitting it. It was the test patch to see if the mural on the ceiling could be restored and if it was still even there.

Today's Grand Central





The train station I remember was a lot different. This article talks about how the ceiling had "half-inch-thick layer of residue from cigarettes, diesel fumes, steel dust, and lead" over the mural and that stone work. Also, "Before the renovation, the Main Concourse was a bit dim, largely because blackout paint was applied to the windows during World War II." Yeah, the windows just weren't cleaned for decades, that was the state of it. That's the train station I remember. Dim light, murals and stone work hidden under decades of grime, the main walkways clear only because during rush hours the sheer mass of people would wear away the dirt leaving only the corners still covered.

From the article, a more familiar site:



Walking into the main concourse today:





The building is amazing with grand stairways and walkways, elaborate stone and metalwork doorways to plain concrete train and subway platforms. There are amazing contrasts and fantastic shots are possible, but I couldn't stay long. I looked over and saw the train to where I grew up, the train my Dad rode on his commute, and nearly fucking lost it. I hadn't been back east since my parents passed. Grand Central is not a place to have a sudden break down so I exited down into the dining hall.

I considered going back to my hometown since I was in the area and likely wont be again, but I knew there was no good outcome. Either I'd feel nothing or I'd be very not okay, and very not okay alone in public. As I know from experience, being emotional in public without someone to act as a buffer can lead to bad shit.

Then I went back up to the main hall and decided I should go. However, being an idiot I decided to leave by going into and through the Met Life Building and then through the Leona Helmsly Building (it's still really called that? amazing):



I walked my Dad's commute to his office building. It's a weird commute. Outside of cutting through two other buildings, you start on on a wide street with massive, recognizable buildings... and then turn down a narrow cross street where most of the sidewalk is subway grating. Just, thin metal mesh over a portal to hell or something that stretches the entire length of the sidewalk and the lion's share of the width. Underneath the trains are making noise, up on the street the metal is making noise as you walk and it moves a bit, and subway exhaust just blows up at you from under your feet. I used to hate having to walk over that, especially at rush hour as a kid because I couldn't see where I was going, I was just being pulled over something that didn't feel solid enough to be walked on, and also there was all the sounds, vibrations and the gross, warm air.

I found the building he worked at, looked over at the buildings I used to look down on from his office, and then decided it was time to head back to my hotel for the night.
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss
Morning view:



The plan for the day was the Morgan Library:



The Morgan Library is amazing. I had a pre-paid will call ticket so my admission sticker didn’t have a time printed on it. Admission is timed and you’re supposed to only be there an hour. People who bought admission there had time stamps on their stickers and I heard some stressing about ‘only fifteen minutes left, we only have fifteen minutes’ Meanwhile, I spent a leisurely two hours and did a full circuit of everything twice, even sat for a bit to look over my photos and post to Bluesky.

It wasn’t until I was there and I’d seen the name ‘J Pierre Morgan’ a few times that my brain turned on and I realized this was the collection of JP Morgan, as in JP Morgan Chase. Chase Bank. I didn't know anything about this place, I just looked up stuff to do in NYC, saw one image of the Morgan Library and went 'yes, good' and put it on the list. I figured I'd learn about it there. In addition to his personal library, you can also see his office, his librarian's office, the modern galleries that were added and the large cafe in the center of the space.

His office:



Vault in his office with thick steel walls for his most valuable books:



A few more pics )

There is almost nothing about JP in there, but lots about Belle da Costa Greene, his librarian. She was a light skinned black woman who passed as white for more of her career. The largest exhibit - which runs though May 4 - was on her, her life, showing photos of her and how they were shot to help her pass. So much on colorism. Two whole galleries were filled with pictures and drawings of her, her life, colorism in that era in general. Not what I was expecting to explore for my afternoon, my plan was 'try to get selfie in pretty room', but I was impressed.

Her office:



Her office had a large display of rolling seals - Each cluster is a seal, an actual imprint and then a photo enlarged to show detail:



Belle in her apartment with her personal library:



I was amused by the analog photoshopping, details where painted over to make it pop for print:



While JP collected European and medieval texts, she collected Asian and Middle Eastern texts and fine examples of Persian Script - from her collection:



Very little is know about her point of view on things. Someone was working on a biography of her, but the manuscript was lost? She was authorized to spent up to 100k of his funds on a single book, 100k in 1910 money, so about 3.3 mill. There is a pastel illustration of her at a 1911 auction bidding 50k for a single volume.

In addition to all that, there was yet another gallery of illuminated manuscripts, a stone passageway lead up to an gallery with a display on Kafka:



The hallways between the spaces also has painted ceilings, artifacts, rare book editions, etc.

And then another gallery with an exhibit about how often Medieval books were chopped up, pages treated like art prints, insets removed, etc. This is a painting and the book it was taken from:



A lot of medieval art we have is from books that were chopped up to treat the illuminations as like paintings, or sometimes bindings were removed to make the books cheaper to move over the ages.

And finally a depiction of how why so many valuable books, paintings, statues and other things from all over Europe got concentrated into one NYC townhouse:



I really lucked out with which temporary exhibits I got to see. The one of Belle da Costa Greene was amazing and I wish it was permanent. The two additional medieval book exhibits were great. The Kafka one I sort of breezed through.

Fannish Friday

Apr. 18th, 2025 11:23 pm
cornerofmadness: Angel hugging his pig amidst rubble (Default)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
Since no one wants to hear about the depression and crap and my day was boring. that said I DO hope taking iron will fix some of this for me. I am getting tired out by going shopping. I don't want to go on like this if I can do something about it. I feel 90 not 50something

And let me say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to [personal profile] lordgloria Hope it was a good one.

But I did write today and I'm happy with this story. It's silly and hopefully fun and I hope you enjoy it if you read it.

Title: My Own Pink World

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Summary: Arackniss didn’t think his brother would set himself up as an overlord once he killed Valentino but he had. Now he needed to see his brother’s new castle but he wasn’t prepared for this much sensory overload.

Rating: teen

Author Note - Written for spikesgirl58’s six word challenge. The words were Asset, Crude, Undermine, Lean, Respectable, & Common.

read the story at AO3 at the above link or under here )



Welcome To The World The Owl House

A Night For Velvette Hazbin Hotel

Green And Gold Torchwood

A Tasteful Easter Egg Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Welcome to Pacific Tech Stargate Atlantis/Stargate SG-1/Real Genius

It’s A Breeze Torchwood

Far Too Long Torchwood

Standards Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Promises Batman

When the Scream Subsides Oxventure

Decisions have Consequences Teen Wolf

NYC Trip Day 2 - Lakeshore Limited

Apr. 18th, 2025 06:13 pm
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss
I took the Lakeshore Limited to NYC. It passes by the Great Lakes and not far from the Finger Lakes, but not near enough to see them. Turns out, the pictures of the train by the water is the section is goes down the Hudson.

Seeing the Hudson river was cool, but I wish I had more context for what I was seeing. I know there is a lot of interesting and historical stuff there, but I was not connecting the sites I was seeing to the local history I learned back in middle school.

Yup, it was snowing:


Familiar places outside the window:





Train:



Islands in the Hudson had lighthouses:



I don't know what this place is, but how do I find it and live there?




Coming into NYC - The windows were super dirty. Annoying, or did they add to the atmosphere:?



Then I arrived and was in Penn Station, an absolute monument to the fact that modern NYC and the NYC I grew up next to are very different places. It was bright and clean and lovely, and not the dangerous hellhole it used to be. Me, being me, I stopped to take some pictures. Then some guy comes up to me.

Him: I was on your train
Me: Okay
Him: Are you also looking for the baggage pick up?
Me: Nope
Him: Because you look lost and it’s dangerous to look lost in this city.

As he said that last part he went from standing slightly closer than I’d like to way too fucking close. I switched to the local dialect and assured him I am fine, and am in fact from the area. That isn’t exactly what I said, but for this post I’ve translated it from New Yorker back into standard American English.

The man may have been on my train, but I doubt it.

Why does this keep happening? I arrive in a city, step off train, and immediately something fucking happens. I decided to just hoof it to my hotel. The lack of traffic in NYC these days is surreal. People talk gridlock sometimes, but old school NYC gridlock was on a whole ‘nother level. Even during ‘low traffic’ times, it wouldn’t be unusual for a light to cycle without a car even being able to move. You’d literally sit through green lights because the cars on the other side of the intersections hadn’t moved and you had no place for your car.



I enjoy staying at CitMs, but it’s starting to feel odd how I am staying in the same room, different view. The system remembers my lighting preferences, like the shade of purple mood lighting I want in the bathroom. Same layout, décor, etc. As it starts to become familiar to me, it’s strange to be having the same room different cityscape.
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[personal profile] olivermoss
That concert I was just at? Their big hit is about being back in Chicago. End of Beginning by Djo if you are curious. That was playing in my head half the trip.

I am becoming pretty familiar with Chicago. I've done some cool stuff there like The Wild Mile and am pretty comfortable using their mass transit system. But I am never there for Chicago, it just keeps being my layover. When I did Grand Canyon fully by rail, my Empire Builder winter hiking trip, my recent Cali Zephyr trip and now this trip, Chicago is my connector. It's kinda weird to me how the city is becoming familiar to me when NYC really isn't. (more on that later)

My plan for the day was to just work in the Metro lounge rather than see the city. I'd packed for warmer NYC weather, not Chicago where it was snowing and windy. It was nice for most of the day, but then some guy came into the quiet section to have a very loud phone conversation, one of those over 60 guys that just projects at their phone, and it was medical stuff about both his daughter and also the kid he was traveling with. the kid was right there and clearly able to understand the conversation. I heard him go 'oops, scared some lady off' and realized other people were literally leaving to get away from this guy and I wasn't? So I also grabbed my stuff and went to go sit in the area where they play game show reruns all day.

Out train left too late for dinner service, but we were offered a free drink and snacks in the dining car:



I was on Viewliner, which is a config I haven’t been on in…. 30 years? More? The bedrooms and roomettes are taller and all on the same level, instead of the double decker set up of the superliners we use west of the Rockies.. One of the ‘features’ of this config is a private bathroom, a toilet right in your room, next to your bed.



As far as I know, this is the more popular config and the private bathroom is supposed to be a good thing. I am team ‘no thank you I’d rather not’ and also team ‘yeah I’ll go piss in the cafe car not next to my pillow’. I don’t know if my take is actually unpopular or if East Coasters are just louder, but I prefer my Superliner config. I do enjoy that the bathroom doubles as stairs so you can easily climb up and also there is a luggage cubby over the hallway. I sat up on a ledge near the roof of my car because I could. I shoulda taken a picture from hanging out near the ceiling, but didn't.

Bed mode:



I woke up in the middle of the night and we were stopped somewhere. It wasn't a station stop, we were just maybe waiting on something. I looked out my window and saw this, which was kinda cool:

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