conuly: (Default)
conuly ([personal profile] conuly) wrote2025-08-12 02:23 pm

A few unrelated questions

(Some of which I may have asked before, in which case, forgive me.)

1. People often do say that the English subjunctive is in decline. However, literally nobody I've ever heard say this has provided any sort of evidence. Is there any data on this other than "yeah, feels that way to me"?

1a. I've also heard that the subjunctive, or at least some forms of the subjunctive, is more common in USA English than UK English, from somewhat more authoritative sources but with roughly the same amount of evidence.

2. I got into it with somebody on the subject of "flammable/inflammable". I am aware that there are signs that warn about inflammable materials, and also signs warning about flammable materials. Is it actually the case that anybody has ever been confused and thought they were being warned that something could not catch on fire? Or is that just an urban legend / just-so story to explain why the two words mean the same thing and can be found on the same sorts of signs?

3. Not a language question! I've recently found one of the Myth Adventures books in my house. Gosh, I haven't re-read these in 20 years. Worth a re-read, or oh god no, save it for the recycle bin?

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Read more... )
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-10 10:18 pm
Entry tags:

Congratulations to the 2025 Aurora Award Winners!

The winners are:

Best Novel: The Siege of Burning Grass, Premee Mohamed, Solaris
Best YA Novel: Heavenly Tyrant, Xiran Jay Zhao, Tundra Books
Best Novelette/Novella: The Butcher of the Forest, Premee Mohamed, Tordotcom
Best Short Story: “Blood and Desert Dreams“, Y.M. Pang, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 408
Best Graphic Novel: Star Trek Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way, Ryan North, art by Chris Fenoglio, IDW Publishing
Best Poem/Song “Cthulhu on the Shores of Osaka“, Y.M. Pang, Invitation: A One-shot Anthology of Speculative Fiction
Best Related Work: Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Two
Stephen Kotowych, editor, Ansible Press
Best Cover Art/Interior Illustration: Augur Magazine, Issue 7.1, cover art, Martine Nguyen
Best Fan Writing and Publication: SF&F Book Reviews, Robert Runté, Ottawa Review of Books
Best Fan Related Work: murmurstations, Sonia Urlando, Augur Society, podcast
mtbc: maze I (white-red)
Mark T. B. Carroll ([personal profile] mtbc) wrote2025-08-10 06:21 pm
Entry tags:

Success with computer input devices

I had mentioned how my work Mac, plugged in at home, was applying the wrong keymap for my external keyboard and imposing some godawful acceleration on my scroll-wheel. Now I have adequate solutions for both:

  • I installed an open-source utility named DiscreteScroll, which fixes macOS's unnecessary scroll wheel acceleration, making the scroll-wheel behave rather more manageably.

  • It turns out that Apple's idea of a UK-layout keyboard is not the typical one, it's kind of halfway to a US one. As the Mac doesn't understand the typical UK layout, I realized that I can just buy a US-layout keyboard, which I am used to anyway. Having despaired of making sense of the differences among the dazzling range of Keychron keyboards, I indulged in a nice, loud Unicomp.

In another keyboard victory, a couple of my UK keyboards had dodgy keys. I can be slow to realize things but, eventually, I had the useful idea of transplanting a keycap (using my pry an old Kindle open at the seams levers) to make one fully able keyboard from the two problem ones.

Admittedly, although working with Mac OS X instead of GNU/Linux usually slows me down some, for my day job I am finding the Mac not to be much of a hindrance.
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
Redbird ([personal profile] redbird) wrote2025-08-10 01:10 pm

Too hot

It is too hot here to do much, alas. Friday was OK, but it was too hot yesterday for me to eant to go out—possibly doable, but sitting outside for lunch would have been unpleasant— and it’s not forecast to improve until after I leave.


So mostly I am sitting in the only air conditioned room in the apartment, reading. This isn’t exactly bad, but it doesn’t feel worth the trip, in terms of either dollars or the hassle of traveling.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-10 09:03 am

Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg



Two Americans set out for Venus. Only one returned. Where is the missing man? Evans knows but Evans is not a reliable witness.

Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg
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beatrice_otter ([personal profile] beatrice_otter) wrote2025-08-10 12:02 am
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(no subject)

It's always fun to try out the Vulcan Name Generator. This time I got some doozies.
The first two: T'Kok and Suk.

While I think that a very ... interesting fic could be written about T'Kok and Suk, I do not think I would be the person to write that fic.

stepnix: chibi Shin Godzilla (Default)
Stepnix ([personal profile] stepnix) wrote in [community profile] anime_manga2025-08-09 10:50 pm

Otakon licensing announcements

Discotek and AnimEigo both announced new licenses at this year's Otakon!

From Discotek we have...

  • Megaman (USA series)

  • Shin-chan (English dubbed version)

  • Urotsukidoji: Sequels of the Overfiend

  • Goldenboy

  • Lupin the 3rd: Castle of Cagliostro redubbed

  • Sgt Frog: The Movies

  • Zegapain

  • Digimon Movies 406

  • Monster: The Complete Series

  • Higurashi: When They Cry Kai

  • Higurashi: When They Cry Rei

  • Project ARMS

  • Zone of the Enders: Complete Collection

  • New Aim for the Ace

...and toku series like Kamen Rider Amazon and Kikaider 01

From AnimEigo we have...

  • Hotori: Simply Wishing For Hope

  • Alien Nine

...and updates on their release of Looking for the Full Moon, a magical girl series that's intrigued me for a while now.

conuly: (Default)
conuly ([personal profile] conuly) wrote2025-08-11 05:53 pm

Pink pineapple looks oddly like salmon

but it *is* pretty sweet!

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Read more... )
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-09 10:59 pm

I don't think any of my Old World players frequent DW

A book I'm thinking of having play an important role in the campaign is Heinrich and Moritz Tod's Morally Uplifting Tales for the Edification of Recalcitrant Children, the Tods being the Old World analog of the Brothers Grimm. Uplifting Tales is an important cultural artifact and also the sort of book you'd read to kids at bed time if you wanted them to cry themselves to sleep.
mtbc: maze L (green-white)
Mark T. B. Carroll ([personal profile] mtbc) wrote2025-08-09 02:40 pm
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Investing in a pension

I had an interesting chat with a pensions guy. He pointed out that the historic performance of even relatively conservative pension funds exceeds the APR on my mortgage. So, given that my paid mortgage interest is tax-deductible on my US taxes, and that I have the tax efficiency of being a higher-rate taxpayer who can pay pre-tax salary into their pension, indeed it probably makes sense to direct any spare money (e.g., annual bonus) into pension instead of mortgage. I have other debt too that I shall prioritize but it is nice to have that bigger picture.

Frankly, I think that I should take some risk in pursuit of faster growth. My pension savings are inadequate at the moment. My suspicion is that gentle, conservative pension investing would leave me still without much of a pension. I would like to think that I have another good couple of decades' of full-time work in me; perhaps that duration, plus not soon rebalancing toward blue-chip bonds and suchlike, might mean that I actually receive a reasonable pension in the end, we'll see.
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-08 06:21 pm

Sidewise Award Announcement

The Sidewise Award for Alternate History is looking for new judges to join the award committee.

This is the first time in the 30 year history of the award that they've made an open call for awards judges.

Apply here.
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
Redbird ([personal profile] redbird) wrote2025-08-08 03:36 pm
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I'm in Montreal

I'm visiting [personal profile] rysmiel for a few days. The trip up was borin, which is good: anything exciting would probably be bad news, or at least make you late for dinner.

It is going to be hot over the weekend, so we went out for a relatively early brunch today, so we could sit almost-outdoors at Juliette et Chocolat and eat crepes. We then walked around Jean Talon market, where I bought plums, blackberries, and a cucumber.

I have np real plans for the next few days, which is fine.
lydamorehouse: (help)
lydamorehouse ([personal profile] lydamorehouse) wrote2025-08-08 10:34 am

Bee Happy?

Something other than a bumblebee for once!
Image: Another upside down bee, this time one that isn't a bumblebee!

Weird thing I am noticing. Bumblees give no craps if a phone camera is hovering over them. They're also slow moving, generally? I even had one curious bumblebee just latch on to my finger and inspect the camera for itself. Honey and other bees? Camera shy! It's much harder to get a picture of them!! So, here is, shockingly, a bee that is not a bumblebee.

Let's see, what's new with me?

Jas and Mason are continuing their whirlwind exploration of the Twin Cities. Yesterday was the "must see" of Minnehaha Falls, with the requiste lunch at Sea Salt. Mason apparently tried fried oysters for the first time, thanks to Jas. The two of them also did the whole walk all the way to the Mississippi River, since I mean, you're nearly there, so why not? Over dinner at Bole (an Ethiopian place here in St. Paul), Jas said that they had never actually seen sandstone in the wild before, as it were, and found it deeply fascinating. This is the sort of thing that I love hearing about because, having grown up surrounded by sandstone bluffs, I forget how uncommon sandstone might be to someone from another biome.

We took Jas to Bole because, while they have heard of Ethiopia restaurants, they have not been because berbere spices are a migraine trigger fro their mother. So, we were able to provide a guilt-free experience, which I think they quite enjoyed. We ended up sitting outside in the patio, despite the mugginess and threat of rain. It's always so much fun to show off the cool stuff in the city, you know? Our food (and our immigrants, damn it!) is always some of the very best parts of it all.

Since I believe I reported about this earlier, I thought I'd also give an update on Rhubarb's inappropriate urination issues? If you don't want to read about cat pee problems (and who would blame you!?), I will put it under the cut.

Cat bathroom issues, solutions, and theories.... )

tl:dr we're still working on it? I have faith we'll get her fixed without having to restort to drugs.

That's all the news that's fit to print, plus some that had to appear under the cut.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-08 10:22 am
Entry tags:

Five User-Friendly Rulesets for Tabletop Roleplaying Games



Not every gamer finds joy in wildly complicated, esoteric, hard-to-learn rules...

Five User-Friendly Rulesets for Tabletop Roleplaying Games
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-08 09:28 am
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-07 09:30 pm

The Old World Character Generation

More details later but it seems the group is essentially Don Quixote in the form of a Brettonian knight's bastard who has completely bought into chivalric ideals despite the fact no true knight considers him worthy to have such ideals, and an assortment of hangers-on who see him as a meal ticket.

Which is to say, the group is centred on someone who will seek out adventure.