To infinity, and beyond!

May. 15th, 2025 09:30 am
rolanni: (Default)
[personal profile] rolanni

What went before:  Business first; list of title affected by price increases

We now return to your regularly scheduled frivolity.

It is Thursday in Central Maine; cloudy, damp, and warm(ish).

Breakfast was cottage cheese, grapes, and toast. Second cup of tea to hand. Lunch will be a sweet potato because I have two left and I'd better eat them before I leave to go walking up and down in the world.

Ashley will be by in half an hour, more or less, and I've picked up the house, except for the kicker that Rook and Tali keep dragging off the sofa so they can play kicker-ball. Kicker-ball seems to have much in common with Calvin-ball, and Tali is quicker at the rule shifts than Rook, though I fear the moment he realizes How It Works.

Tonight is ASL class; today, I have correspondence to answer and things to put in piles in prep for said walking up and down. Yes, I'm starting to pack already. If I try to do it all on Monday, or, as Steve would do, Tuesday, I'll hurt my back (no, I don't know why, I just know that's what happens), and we're trying to avoid that, since I'm driving.

I also need to recheck the routes/maps. No, they didn't move Cooperstown or Baltimore (though Baltimore is sinking, so that's exciting), but I'm running without a navigator (yes, I Keep Saying That, and it continues to be true).

Tali is now on my lap, nibbling my fingers as I try to type -- and, gone.

What're y'all doing today?

Ah.  Today's blog post title is of course attributed to Mr. Buzz Lightyear


Sky Pride, volume 1 by Warby Picus

May. 15th, 2025 09:18 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


A forsaken orphan reinvents himself as a formidable warrior.


Sky Pride, volume 1 by Warby Picus
rolanni: (Default)
[personal profile] rolanni

Business first, in answer to pleas for a list. Below are the books affected by Amazon's new Minimum List Price Rule. Note that these are PAPER BOOKS ONLY, and yes those would be CHAPbooks.

NOTE: CHAPBOOKS. Because in Olden Times such things were thin, cheap pamphlets and/or small books and they were sold by traveling vendors called CHAPmen. CHAPmen sold CHAPbooks. The name stuck even when chapbooks became pamphlets/small books self-published by philosophers, poets, and impoverished writers, to distinguish them from, err, real books.

So, once more, the list below includes the Pinbeam Books chapbooks in paper, only. Prices on these items are going up ("Love in a Elevator" is playing in the background -- no, really. This morning's soundtrack has been pretty good.) ON MONDAY, May 19 2025.
Ebook prices remain (for the moment) unaffected.

The Gift of Magic
Courier Run
Surfside
Shout of Honor
Degrees of Separation
Legacy Systems
Change Management
Heirs to Trouble
Sleeping with the Enemy
Fortune's Favors
Due Diligence
Ambient Conditions
Moon's Honor
Technical Details
Spell Bound
Cultivar
The Gate that Locks the Tree


Slowly Warming

May. 14th, 2025 05:45 pm
kevin_standlee: (Fernley House)
[personal profile] kevin_standlee
I kept the fire going overnight and into today, but I'm going to let it go out overnight. Lisa and I were able to spend some time sitting out on the front porch, but we both were bundled up in our jackets to do so. However, we expect it to get warmer. I sure it won't be long before I'm complaining about the heat.
lydamorehouse: (ticked off Ichigo)
[personal profile] lydamorehouse
white lilac for Midwestern hanami
Image: white lilac

I'm at least always reminded on a Wednesday that maybe I should go on over to DW and at least drop a line about what I've been reading. As has become typical of me, I will also attempt to catch you up on the rest of my life. But first, since it's probably the least interesting, I'll start with my reading.

This has been a banger week for me.

I finished Nghi Vo's The Chosen & The Beautiful, which I probably would have appreciated more if I were a fan of The Great Gatsby, which I am not. I didn't hate Vo's book, however? I liked the magic far better than any of the people, but I'm pretty sure, given what I know about The Great Gatsby, that was likely by design. Then, I have been absolutely CRANKING through The Singing Hills Cycle, which is Nghi Vo's loosely connected series of novellas about the wandering scholar-priest Chih, whom I adore. This week I listened to The Empress of Salt and Fortune, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, and Into the Riverlands. I have Mammoths at the Gates queued up and ready to listen to! I don't even know how to explain how awesome these novellas are, but if you are at all a fan of C-Dramas I guarantee you will *love* these. I could not be happier to see that another in this series is up for a Hugo this year. Thank all the gods my friend [personal profile] naomikritzer is up in a different catagory or I'd have a real connundrum on my hands.

Also, because there was a day when I could not get the next Singing Hills novella, I listened to Remote Control. another novella, this one by Nnedi Okorafor. I have to say? These two hour audio versions of stories are amazing--like popcorn for the brain! 

The rest of my week has been a lot. Much of it fun stuff, but a goodly chunk of it being preparation for heading East to watch Mason graduate from college. (I know! It doesn't seem possible to me, either!) To be fair, Shawn is doing most of the actual planning. But my job is often to do much of the fetching, as it were. Plus, with this crazy heat (it's been all the way up to 90 F / 32 C), I've been trying to keep the ground moist for my baby seedlings that are coming up in the boulevard garden. My bouelvard, like anywhere that I attempt to "grow" grass, is an absolute nightmare. I would be summarily kicked out of any gated community for my inability to keep grass of any sort alive. However, I am attempting to make up for that this year by having a stunning boulevard garden. So in amongst the perrenials, I dumped a literal ton of "butterfly garden" seeds. Things seem to be emerging? Of course, we are also poised to be out of town for a week and a half. So, I may come back to a lot of dead things. 

Which I guess also goes with the grass aesthetic, I guess. 

Sigh.

At any rate, the fun thing I did this week was spontaneously go on a "Midwestern hanami" with the above-mentioned Naomi. I have long told her how jealous I am that the Japanese actually make a holiday out of flower viewing (which is what hanami translates to--actually technically it's just "flower" and "to see.") In Japan, of course, what people go out to look at are cherry blossoms. We could do that here, but cherry blossoms bloom when it's still a bit "nippy," as we say here in Minnesota, plus there just aren't a ton of cherry trees to be had. Lilacs--even though lots of other things are in bloom--are really to the Midwest what cherry blossoms are to Japan. Like in Japan, lilacs are not native... but you wouldn't know it. Also, people plant them EVERYWHERE and when they bloom, you can smell them on the air. Just like in Japan, you can, if you know where to find them (and I do,) walk through a kind of tunnel of lilacs in bloom.


tunnel of lilacs
Image: On Summit Avenue, there exists a secret tunnel of lilacs two blocks long....

Naomi and I have long talked about doing a lilac hanami, so we finally did. On Tuesday, we set off to Summit Avenue just east of Lexington where exists a lovely, two-block long tunnel of lilacs. It was a perfect spot, actually. Public, but still a little private. 

A dork enjoy a picnic under the lilacs
Image: A silly otaku (me) enjoying a picnic under the lilacs.

We spent the time snacking on sushi and fantasing about a Minnesota where everyone has the week off when the lilacs come into bloom. We imagined all sorts of lilac "flavored" treats people could sell, including some "Minnesota State Fair"-inspired things like a corndog with lavender/lilac-colored mustard artistically droozled to look like a lilac. It could be a thing!

Minnesotas could all wander around with phones and camera out, trying to get the perfect quintessential lilac shot.

lilacs in a row

lilac close-up


(no subject)

May. 14th, 2025 07:21 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
It is a vile calumny that I run ttrpgs as an excuse to create play-aids, he said as he emailed a five page document of frequently used tables and rules to the players.

Bundle of Holding: Dungeon Dressing

May. 14th, 2025 04:08 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Seven hundred pages of tables from Raging Swan Press.

Bundle of Holding: Dungeon Dressing

CT scan looks fine

May. 14th, 2025 01:58 pm
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird
I had a CT scan of my lungs this morning, then saw the pulmonologist. The CT scan looks OK, considering: "Again seen is diffuse bronchiectasis with tree-in-bud opacities seen in the right upper lobe, right middle lobe and lingula. The areas in the right upper lobe may have improved in the interval."

The low-tech exam was also reassuring: the doctor used a stethoscope to listen to my chest, and had me cough while listening. She heard no wheezing (or other problems), which is good. So, she told me to keep using the flutter valve twice a day, and come back in six months.

And, some non-medical notes:

I discovered that it's possible to accidentally cancel a Lyft ride by putting your phone in your pocket after the driver has picked you up. The driver suggested I text Lyft to tell them I hadn't meant to cancel, but I couldn't figure out how to do that. After a minute or two of frustration, I asked the driver if he would take cash instead, and he said yes. So I handed him $25, and repeated the destination address so he could enter it in his GPS. I try to carry some cash on general principles, but this isn't something I was expecting to need, or be able, to pay cash for.

Mount Auburn was also having some trouble with their medical information system: the doctor could see the CT scan, but only on the machine in her office, not the one in the exam room. Fortunately, I didn't need to see the images. Given their computer problems, I was particularly pleased to have a list of my current medications on my phone, to show the doctor's assistant. I don't yet have my follow-up appointment, but that's not because of today's computer problems, but that they aren't set up to book follow-up appointments that far in advance.

I took transit home, which is cheap and makes sense to me, from many years of practice. I stopped at Flour to get something to eat, 7-11 to use their no-fee ATM to withdraw some more cash, and CVS to pick up a prescription, and was home in time for lunch. It was effectively two stops rather than three, because the 7-11 and drugstore are both near the bus stop where I was changing from the bus to the trolley.

Attention Pinbeam Books readers

May. 14th, 2025 10:59 am
rolanni: (Default)
[personal profile] rolanni

What went before, short form:  Amazon sent me a letter informing me of changes to its royalty structure.  PRINT titles that have a cover price of less than $9.99 will experience a reduced royalty -- from 60% to 50%.  Some other books will receive NO ROYALTIES AT ALL.  Amazon was writing to me because I have titles that fall into the NO ROYALTIES AT ALL zone, and I have until June 10 to Fix This.

NOTE:  This is paper books only from Pinbeam Books, the Lee-and-Miller indie publishing side of It All.

NOTE TWO:  Pinbeam's paper books are produced and distributed by Amazon, so even if you buy one of Pinbeam's print book from another bookstore, you are still buying it from Amazon.

#

Wednesday. Anything can happen day.

Please join me in a moment of silence as we contemplate this irony.

Right.

Sunny and going to hit the low 70sF. Windows my office are OPEN. Bathroom window is NOT OPEN.

The caffeine has done its work; and I've traveled through the Land Of O!God O!God, what the PHUCK am I going to do? I don't have TIME for this and we're going to be living in a tent by the river, and the Cats &c&c&c -- which is the toll I pay for having a bent brain -- and have arrived at A Place of Thinking.

So.

I've gone through the list of titles affected by Amazon's newest flexing of its muscles. It is Less Bad than the first reading/panic attack made it seem. There are 22 Pinbeam Books titles affected by this...new arrangement.

Despite the explanation in their letter, five of Pinbeam's 22 affected titles are listed at $10 (aka above the Magic $9.99); the rest are listed at $8.

I need to research what's going on with those five $10 titles; also -- there's a separate problem with The Tomorrow Log, which someone seems to have hijacked. However Amazon's system is for some reason a little overwhelmed at the moment, and I can't actually GET to TTL's publisher listing to see what's going on there.

Focusing on the below-magic-list-price titles . . . 17 @ $8. Here, I have three choices: (1) I can let Amazon continue to sell them and pay me nothing; (2) I can increase the cover of all titles to $10, or (3) I can take them off-sale.

(1) is Right Out.

Frankly, (2) and (3) both pretty much add up to $0. People can't buy a book that's not listed, and! I doubt anybody will buy these titles in paper at $10. However, exposure is a thing, and keeping the titles in view has benefit.

So (2) it is.

I will be increasing the price of the affected titles on Monday, May 19, so people still have time to buy these titles at the older, lower price.

Why am I doing this so quickly, since Amazon isn't implementing their changes until June 10?

Because I will be traveling, and then I will be exhausted from traveling, and having to catch up with All The Rest of the stuff that somehow piles up when you're traveling, even if you're -- ahem -- old, widowed, and Have Nothing To Do All Day.

And that's Anything Can Happen Day so far at the Confusion Factory.

I'm going to go get a third cup of tea, and what's left of that chocolate mint brownie. Panic really uses up calories.

I trust that everyone is abiding in a state of Calm Peacefulness this morning?

In good news, the cat tree was in bloom this morning.


james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll



The narrator lives in a town filled with marvels, marvels they are determined to share with the reader.

People From My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami

Hot and Cold

May. 13th, 2025 03:32 pm
kevin_standlee: (Snow Day)
[personal profile] kevin_standlee
A few days ago, it got so warm that I had the windows open to try and air out the house. Yesterday it was very windy, and as usually the case, that was the sign that a storm was coming. The storm dropped enough snow in the Sierra that chain controls were up for a while, and there was some light snow on the Virginia-Pah Rah mountains to the west of Fernley. (Most of it melted by mid-day.) It got cold enough here that to keep my fingers from freezing, I re-lit the fireplace. I might have been able to get by with just the electric heat, but I had a bunch of cardboard boxes that I needed to dispose of anyway, so I cut them up and burned them as well. It was so warm this past weekend that I was about to move the small amount of firewood on the porch out to the main wood box, but now I'm glad I didn't, because I would have just had to bring the logs back up to the fireplace.

I don't expect this cold snap to last long, and soon I'll start having to think about getting the swamp cooler out and ready to start running again.
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