emberleo | Reading

I've reached the point in Hades II where I'm very bad at everything even with Godmode at max (this game is actually not accesible at all, though it Tried, it's both harder than the first Hades, and less forgiving, and the Godmode is like...ehhhh. On the one hand I get that like, it's very cool for people to get very hard achievements when a game is very challenging, and on the other hand, for those of us who have pretty big motor dysfunction etc. who want the game to be accessible, the game is like phenomenally hard even with their 'accessibility' options, and that's frustrating.

I don't want to have to use mods, mostly because they can be finicky and sometimes break saves etc., but I honestly can't see some ways forward through the game without them. Massive props to the people who can play without Godmode in a game that is so much harder. I consider myself lucky that I can beat the vanilla game, but everything else (Chaos challenges, etc.) is like...welp. We'll see. Some are fine, some are not. ( spoilers, and rather more ranting than I expected )

Okay, I'm done.

siderea

Hey, quick temperature check. I've been reading a lot of media I don't expect my readership to read, and now I'm a little disoriented to who knows what.

Poll #33668 Geopolitics awareness check

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 103

What country do you currently live in?

What is your age?

12-19
1 (1.0%)

20-29
5 (4.9%)

30-39
15 (14.7%)

40-49
27 (26.5%)

50-59
35 (34.3%)

60-69
13 (12.7%)

70-79
6 (5.9%)

80+
0 (0.0%)

To the best of your knowledge, if the US were to go to war tomorrow, against what country would it most likely be?

siderea

1)

Is there a term for the part of a large non-fiction writing project that comes after the research – when you have a huge pile of sources and quotes and whatnot – and before the actual "writing" part, the part that involves making sure you have all the citations correct for the sources, maybe going over the sources to highlight what passages you will quote verbatim, organizing them (historically by putting things on 3x5 cards and moving them around on a surface), and generally wrangling all the materials you are going to use into shape to be used?

I think this is often just thought of as part of "research", but when I'm doing a resource-dense project, it's not at all negligible. It takes a huge amount of time, and is exceptionally hard on my body. I'd like, if nothing else, to complain about it, and not having a word for it makes that hard.

2)

I don't suppose there's some, perhaps undocumented, way to use Dreamwidth's post-via-email feature with manually set dates? So you email in a journal entry to a specific date in the past? This doesn't appear among the options for post headers in the docs.

I am working on a large geopolitics project where I am trying to construct a two-year long timeline, and it dawns on me one of the easiest ways to do that might be to set up a personal comm on DW and literally post each timeline-entry as a comm entry. But maybe not if I have to go through the web interface, because that would be kind of miserable; I work via email.

moonvoice

I am a simple man who likes simple things and Kate McKinnon being willing to make such a mess of herself on Hot Ones made me incredibly happy.

Anyway this is just a quick break from playing Hades II because v.1.0 launched last night! I got one game in before bed (Toby was unimpressed), and am pretty much just going to be playing extremely badly (god SO badly, I played with the scythe today and just, haha, ah, sigh) and getting more story out of this game. It's fun pinging all the achievements (not that many) from previously gameplay and they're all at 0.1% rarity or whatever because not enough people have played this version of the game yet, it'll be nice to see the numbers go up.

It's humid today. The 20C might as well be 30C. I'm going to really miss winter this year, I'm not ready for summer, and spring is not playing around. She's a fickle thing. (Actually, Luflijka, you're not, I know you're doing your best).

I've been thinking of how antis/anti-shippers sometimes respond to 'don't like don't read' as though it's the worst thing to say, but it's really just the fandom equivalent of 'hey you remember what the safewords are right? You can safeword at any time.' It's like they resent being reminded of their ability to consent to reading fic, because they can't handle any form of self-accountability at all. And that's where we start, right before the bullying and the abuse takes place. Idk how anyone ever feels that an anti-shipper ever has a single leg to stand on, when that's the starting line.

moonvoice

I literally have spent years thinking 'oh I should write something' and then...not. I get so frustrated with myself over it, and I've been thinking and noodling over how I want to use this, and I think some kind of combination of like, sharing photos like I used to (otherwise why am I paying for that SmugMug subscription lol), and reviewing things I'm engaging with, and maybe talking about writing stuff perhaps.

Sometimes I think what Twitter/X and Bluesky and similar platforms (Tumblr) took away was like, a basic functionality of Dreamwidth and LJ before these things existed, of the more light-hearted, less-gravity style of writing, where if I have a simple thought now, or a little rant, it goes elsewhere, instead of here. And then as a result of that, I mentally feel pressured to write long, meaningful entries that have like, deep emotion or whatever, which is just silly really, because that was never how I used this site when I enjoyed it most.

Like yeah I wrote some deep entries, but I had just as much fun - if not more fun - sharing art and photos and cross-stitch etc.

I've seen other folks like 'I'd like to use DW again' but sometimes I wonder if that's just nostalgia. 'I'd like to reminisce on what it used to be like here.' It's not going to be like that again, but there are cool people here, and I'd like to grow my participation here into something new.

In the meantime, I think Glen might be home, so it's time to go let our dog, Tobermory, go greet him lol

elf

Eaglecon is Cal State LA's student-focused science fiction convention.

It's very small - mid-week, two days only, 8 programming items the first day and 6 the second. Mostly one-hour events with 15 minute breaks between. Programming is over for the day by 4:30; there is no late-afternoon/evening schedule. Daytime student event.

I'll post later about the convention itself. General LA-related thoughts:

1) It mostly feels like home (SF Bay Area) except there is only one garbage can in each room - not three (trash, recycling, compost).

2) I am the only person I can see wearing mask.

3) Temperature's nice. I brought only a light denim jacket and it's been fine, a little warm at mid-day but okay even then, and it keeps the sun off my arms.

4) My prep would've been different if I'd known the room had a microwave and fridge. (I could've called to check; was not up for it.) Today on the way back to the hotel, I stopped into a Chinese supermarket and picked up some kind of beef-veggie rice bowl & frozen steamed buns with sesame filling, both of which can be heated up in the microwave.

5) Lots of Chinese stores nearby, with signs in both Chinese and English. I read zero Chinese but I can recognize the word "no" (の) in Japanese, and I didn't see it. It's common enough that I'd expect it of there are a lot of signs, so I am assuming the language I'm seeing is Chinese.

6) I may stop in to the Chinese supermarket on the way out tomorrow and grab short-grain rice. It's hard to find short-grain rice in American supermarkets. I will have to see how packing goes and if I can leave space for a 2-lb or 5-lb bag of rice.

You know what they say...

I mean to say a mix of things about Hades II and then mostly ranted so like, uh, skip that maybe x.x

Poll: Sense of geopolitical awareness [pols, US, war]

Two Q [writing, DW]

Okay back to thirsting for way too many people in this video game.

Still around? Yes. Still alive? Maybe. Debatable. Possibly resurrected at this point.

I'm at Eaglecon in LA

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September 2013

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