(no subject)

Apr. 13th, 2026 07:00 pm
beccaelizabeth: my Watcher tattoo in blue, plus Be in red Buffy style font (Default)
[personal profile] beccaelizabeth
The thing with recent brain space being mostly taken up with John Constantine
is that I'm not getting plot bunnies about fighting demons, as per baseline metaphor,
I'm just getting detailed daydreams about getting him to maybe possibly talk to the NHS again, this time maybe with informed care and actual modern treatment options.

It's interesting in the 2014 TV show it comes up that a character who had cancer until someone did a Deal reassured the person they were trying to talk out of the Deal by saying treatment is way better now, but so much plot depends on treatment just not working. Any kind. If it actually helped it wouldn't be a horror show. there'd be other options.

and yet horrors persist even with adequate medical treatments, so there's a corner to pull the story around somehow.



John needs a hug so much, let alone actual help,
and, also,
John makes so many of his own problems.

these are of course not unrelated.


But get him to actually quit the bad stuff and get all polished up and have friends and a team
and you have Legends of Tomorrow, more or less,
and then they undid it all to put him back in the box the way they found him.

for him to be in character he needs all his sharp edges left on
but you want him to be happy instead.


hence daydreams, not plot bunnies.



I should go back to rewatching Legends of Tomorrow.

(no subject)

Apr. 13th, 2026 06:40 pm
beccaelizabeth: my Watcher tattoo in blue, plus Be in red Buffy style font (Default)
[personal profile] beccaelizabeth
Going for a walk and seeing the ducks (tiny!) is very good
but then I have to have a lie down and there goes the rest of the day.

Ducks are good and flowers are good and trees are good too though.

The case of the missing notifications

Apr. 11th, 2026 11:58 pm
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
[staff profile] denise posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance

I keep forgetting to post about this: we've been troubleshooting the "missing notifications" problem for the past few days. (Well, I say "we", really I mean Mark and Robby; I'm just the amanuensis.) It's been one of those annoying loops of "find a logical explanation for what could be causing the problem, fix that thing, observe that the problem gets better for some people but doesn't go away completely, go back to step one and start again", sigh.

Mark is hauling out the heavy debugging ordinance to try to find the root cause. Once he's done building all the extra logging tools he needs, he'll comment to this entry. After he does, if you find a comment that should have gone to your inbox and sent an email notification but didn't, leave him a link to the comment that should have sent the notification, as long as the comment itself was made after Mark says he's collecting them. (I'd wait and post this after he gets the debug code in but I need to go to sleep and he's not sure how long it will take!)

We're sorry about the hassle! Irregular/sporadic issues like this are really hard to troubleshoot because it's impossible to know if they're fixed or if they're just not happening while you're looking. With luck, this will give us enough information to figure out the root cause for real this time.

beccaelizabeth: my Watcher tattoo in blue, plus Be in red Buffy style font (Default)
[personal profile] beccaelizabeth
I really liked this one. Strong story, well told, good voices.

It took me a couple of tries to listen it though because Short Trips make me sleepy, as it is Storytime. So I put it on before going asleep but then woke up to the end credits. So asleep me decided to rewind it to the last bit I remembered and have another go, only with the same result. And again. And more. And I think I spent an hour and a half listening to this half hour ish story before I actually decided to stay asleep that time.

It was good when I woke up in the morning and relistened from the beginning though.

I liked that it started as Lost Property and became Lost Person and then resolves found again. It has layers and resonance for 13 and all the things she's been through and is learning about herself. And it has something to say to this agoraphobic listener, about maybe possibly seeing the sky a bit more often. I also liked the stuff it had to say about change and not being afraid of it. And it managed to fit three savings of worlds into one Short Trip. Very well done.

(no subject)

Apr. 9th, 2026 05:06 pm
beccaelizabeth: my Watcher tattoo in blue, plus Be in red Buffy style font (Default)
[personal profile] beccaelizabeth
Today I did the April Paperwork, which is the maximum paperwork and requires someone to double check it all, so mum helped and got biscuits. Getting it finished is pleasing but having to do it is less than fun. Feeling pretty good and accomplished right now though.


Except this morning I had one of those dreams that's really simple but kind of trips you up all day when you think about it. Like oh, still sad.

I dreamed I met someone from television and they'd got old and expanded and had bonus bought hair on, but it was still so good to see them and they gave good hugs.
And I woke up and remembered they are never going to get that old.

still sad.



Annual paperwork and the years still turning.

Give good hugs while the gettings good.

(no subject)

Apr. 8th, 2026 03:58 am
beccaelizabeth: my Watcher tattoo in blue, plus Be in red Buffy style font (Default)
[personal profile] beccaelizabeth
When we went to the duck pond this week there were tiny baby ducks :-D
and the person walking with me had not been to the pond before and made happy awww noises whenever they did a duck like thing :-)

and then I did not write about it at the time because I got home and realised it is the season when I need to wash every bit of me I do not cover well, and then wash it again, and still there will be Itchy Colors. :/

Flowers are VeryGood to look at and LessFun to share air with.

But I am fine really so that's okays.

(no subject)

Apr. 6th, 2026 01:19 pm
beccaelizabeth: my Watcher tattoo in blue, plus Be in red Buffy style font (Default)
[personal profile] beccaelizabeth
I finished rereading Ancillary Mercy this morning and when I went to check my catalog I gave some of the three books about half a star higher than I had before, except the one I rated 5 already. And I think I like them better this time because I read Translation State. Translaters aren't just quirky weird now, they're, well, really difficult to translate, and having the same problem reading everyone in the story. Knowing the new stuff it is just a Very Different experience, reading them again.

So that is cool.



Also today I tried to put my hands on a piece of paper I was sure I'd put right under the TV but I couldn't find it so I went through All The Paper. All.
Then I gave up and sat down
and found it immediately
right where I would see it from the chair.

Well done earlier me, I was not to know I would not be lazy sitting this once.

April is annoying the way all the numbers change, I have several number change things to do this week, but at least I have rediscovered the paperwork for it.

(no subject)

Apr. 4th, 2026 10:22 am
beccaelizabeth: my Watcher tattoo in blue, plus Be in red Buffy style font (Default)
[personal profile] beccaelizabeth
In the process of stirring the books so the ones I can see and reach are in fact the ones I want to reread
I made enough space there is an empty shelf
but below the edge of the bed, where I am unlikely to check.

So I Pondered, and now down there I have put
all remaining Anita Blake books
and a collection of books where I bought the first one by that author but am unlikely to buy their others.

there's nothing wrong with those books, I'd have sold them if I didn't want them, but I didn't feel inspired to go find what else they wrote.

Or in the case of that book about necromancers and cavaliers I did get them, but as ebooks, and I am not in the fandon even if I can see they're doing something fun.

So. I am probably going to forget what is down there. But what is down there is: assorted things where I didn't get book two on paper. A trilogy I don't really remember. And a series where I have only kept the first nine.



I also got the torch out to find out what the bottom shelf is on the other two cases, and one is the rest of the Neil Gaiman and David Gemmell books.
I may well not need to keep all the Gaiman, considering.

Also, I really need to dust.


I am rereading Ann Leckie Ancillary books now. Just finished the first one and was pondering if I shall start the second before Wait For Shopping Hour. Reckon I shall.

Translation State, by Ann Leckie

Apr. 2nd, 2026 04:21 pm
beccaelizabeth: my Watcher tattoo in blue, plus Be in red Buffy style font (Default)
[personal profile] beccaelizabeth
I said I should do something other than read a book, then I went and read a book.

Translation State, by Ann Leckie
Very good, and deeply weird. Kind of disturbing but partly because it makes the uncomfortable bits seem really ordinary for one of the more alien points of view. And just when you start thinking that yeah they're basically human things go full weird and they're really really really distinctive.
Good story.

Read it all in a row and now have to notice I have a tiny headache and possibly should have ate a food or something in there.
Shall go chug a ribena now...

Butterfly Effects by Seanan McGuire

Apr. 2nd, 2026 06:09 am
beccaelizabeth: my Watcher tattoo in blue, plus Be in red Buffy style font (Default)
[personal profile] beccaelizabeth
I started and finished Butterfly Effects by Seanan McGuire with only one necessary sleep in the middle.
Mum bought it for me for christmas (pre order, but had to reorder when the pre got cancelled) so she brought it over when it arrived at her house.

I liked the book well. I gave it 4.5 stars on librarything and the half star is because I felt a bit ambivalent about Fixing Things.
Having written and deleted this paragraph a few times I'm now sure the story did a fair working through of its consequences and paid proper attention to the emotions and practicalities in this 'verse and then opened out a new set of stories, so really it's just me having feelings.
It's tricky doing consequences in a fantasy 'verse, if everything is possible sometimes it can feel arbitrary or like only your favourites or the ones with plot armour get their chances. But this story went to visit a whole world built around being able to do what one special character can do in the usual setting, and poked the consequences with a judicious stick, so that's properly built now.

I am as usual inclined to go back to the beginning of at least one of Seanan's series and reread the lot.
They are good reading and the point of view characters are varied and distinctive and would acknowledge my existence as an actual person with thoughts on the inside, which I am appreciating more having tried rereading some other stuff lately.



I think I need to do some things that are not reading soon and for a while.
But this read has been fun.

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