sunfishdreamworld

We decided to go to Otakuthon, which was in Montreal~

It was a lot of fun, and much better laid out than getting squished like sardines at FanExpo.

We saw Cirque du Soleil, ate crepes, visited a waterpark, and almost got cooked out in the sun.

One negative is that almost all the most interesting panels were only in french 😔

Originally we were going to take a train, but then train prices went up, and so we ended up driving. I think I liked wandering around using the Metro, just bip and bop around town.

I filled out quite a few squares in my bingo too.

I was going to upload pics here from tumbles but I got lazy, anyway they're hosted there so link, of things I bought. I don't think I regret anything, except maybe the singular noah and mio, because I found the flute one afterward and it was very cute. It also had a lot more variety but still not extreme. A lot of LADS(surprisingly), and Hoyoverse. Barely saw any Metaphor, but I did find a Basilio charm so that made me happy. I guess people need to balance what will sell, but still would have been nice to see more things.

I saw no owasera, I skipped the sword place though, b/c I don't need that. I did see a Yuu in the art alley one day, my sis saw a Krul, and we saw a Mikaela across the subway while leaving on the last day.

www.tumblr.com/redasherah/792373143189815296/convention-haul

Ahem between buying everything and paying for dinners and accommodations everything was a lot xD Well I suppose I'm not used to being the one paying for it. Also we ate breakfast at the hotel (it's was an included one) so that saved some moolah, and we don't usually eat lunch either so I hate to see what a 'normal' person's eat out food bill would have been.
Oh we even went to a yaki-niku grill, that was fun! It kinda made dinner a cooking timed puzzle xD ATe wayy too much there, but it was a one price style so we could try everything.

But we haven't been on an extended trip in years so it's fine.

And we ended up going to IKEA so I bought some shelves! Yay so I can finally get some space for my books, and then my other items and then maybe get some pinboards to put on top. So I can decorate my walls the way I want to.

lovelyangel

Specialty Paper

Every day I am packing up items from my office/library. If I can trash items, I route them to the trash pile. But most things, like the reams of paper above, I can’t bear to part with.

This room needs to be vacated by the end of the month – and there is a lot of stuff to deal with. I don’t know what I’m going to do with all the boxes of stuff that have no home for the next couple of months.

( Hard to Let Go, Below the Cut )

lovelyangel

The Sky Over Cooper Mountain Nature Park
iPhone 13 mini photo

Until a heat wave hits here on Friday, we’re having a week of very nice weather in the Willamette Valley, with highs in the 70s and low 80s °F. On Sunday, the high temperature was 75°F. I had to run an errand in Tigard on Hwy 99W and decided to take the long way home. I hadn’t been on SW Bull Mountain Rd. in a very long time, so I decided to take it from 99W to SW Roy Rogers Rd. Then I took Roy Rogers Rd / SW 175th to SW Kemmer Rd and Cooper Mountain Nature Park. On a sunny and temperate day, the park is a nice place to look out over the Tualatin River Valley. Very pretty. I don’t come here often enough, even though the park is not far from my house.

I considered visiting Jenkins Estate, which is nearby, but I didn’t have enough time. I made a mental note to make a separate trip to Jenkins Estate before the summer ends.

adore

Moontime began around noon today. Cramps were significantly less than last time, so the ayurvedic medicine I've been taking (a combination of ashokarishta and lodhrasava) is doing its thing. Last month I was obsessing over Nushu period panties. I've been pimping the Nushu Hiphugger to anyone and everyone when the topic of periods comes up, and someone I recced it to has become as much of a fan as I am:

I replied with my original post saying I'm the one who recced it, and this was her response (she @/ed me and I redacted my full name although you'll know it if you know my debut novel/have been around my blog long enough lol)

I'm not being dramatic when I say my life has changed. I could never wear a period product for four to six hours in one go without overflowing, before. My life has changed so much that I went out with Bella (who is here briefly) for brunch. We had congee and pancakes! And after we came back to my house to spend the day coworking. I even dropped her back home, despite that taking a couple of hours. I used to never be able to go out on my period.

Current Mood: nice

lovelyangel

I had again accumulated a lot of interesting links over the last couple of months. But upon review, I didn’t feel like sharing most of them. There were a number of intelligent political links, but I generally keep politics low profile here. You already know your political preferences, and I don’t need to fling more gasoline. I’ll note that there were several pieces on stupidity. And everyone knows I hate stupidity.

There were some nice non-political links, but they were a bit too esoteric, and I didn’t feel like making work for people. I’ve kept links for myself for reference. Maybe I’ll share some later. Dunno.

I’m posting just three links because I liked them a lot.

Should You Buy and Enjoy Books You May Never Read?
Here is a headline where Betteridge’s Law of Headlines is a big fail. When it comes to tsundoku, the answer is always ‘Yes!’

A Font Confession
Only we font geeks will enjoy this one. However, Ironic Sans is a fun site.

There’s No Undo Button For Our Fallen Democracy (kottke.org)
I worry about my kids; their future is dire. For me – I’m an Old – and like others my age, I’m resigned to the fact that this is the world that I will die in. (Yeah, I kept one political link.)

adore

I've finished writing Project Fang. I'm partway through the final edits, and it'll be done in a matter of days. It's also the first book in a duology, which became clearer to me the closer I reached the end by vindrae on kingdom of knuffel

I was worrying so much about crafting enough plot to sustain a novel that I overshot by quite a lot by vindrae on kingdom of knuffel

I'm happy with the arc of the first book though, it stands pretty well on its own.

The closer I come to putting it out in the world, the more mixed up my feelings become. I enjoy this book immensely, it has much of what I like in it. But I'm not feeling that heady elation I got when I finished my previous books. What I'm feeling is more akin to post-book blues. I'm trying to understand why I feel closer to depressed this time. I mean, in general this process has felt empowering. I thought I couldn't write after all the stuff I'd been through, and it turned out I could. Also, after being offered my dream job and that offer being retracted before I could take it, here I was, giving myself my dream job. Nobody can take it from me because nobody can stop me writing and publishing my next book. Here's something that's truly mine and that nobody can take away from me. I should be overjoyed, no?

I want to get to the bottom of this but I don't know how. Have you experienced anything similar? Would appreciate any lights that can be shed here. by vindrae on kingdom of knuffel

I guess I haven't felt very excited about books in general because of certain bad experiences, but I have had good experiences too, have also met good people and had a lot of help from fellow writers. I've asked myself over the past few days whether I truly still love books or whether I'm just hanging on to them because I haven't been able to fall in love with anything else the way I did with books as a child. But I know I do love them! I just haven't felt it that often lately. I thought becoming part of the indie space would help me feel it more often and it does help. It's been helping me all this time! It's like the sole reason I didn't relapse into depression. It's just now, that it's feeling... like this.

I have messaged my therapist, but I have not managed to get a slot with her for months because of work (last time I talked to her was March). I hope I can wrangle a session with her soon, but I can't count on it. Maybe I should bring this up somewhere on the indie author discord I'm in. I don't know. I'm just so confused.

Maybe this is just PMS, y'all. Maybe? //crosses fingers, toes and eyes
Maybe it's going to find a new way to make me question everything every month, or something. I don't know. At least that would be an explanation. Right now I'm just unable to figure out what's underlying this.

Current Mood: gloomy

lovelyangel

In the first half of August, we transformed the photo display wall in the family room into a storage wall.

( From Photos to Storage )

lovelyangel

So very unusual. Within the first six months of 2025, I have attended three concerts (Heart, Hitsujibungaku, and Lindsey Stirling). My lifetime average is well under one concert a year.

At each of the three concerts, I brought the Panasonic Lumix ZS99 Camera. Cameras with interchangeable lenses (“Professional Cameras”) are not permitted at concerts, and we can bring only compact cameras at best. Most people just use their smartphones.

( Rethinking My Concert Camera )

lovelyangel

The last day of my free three-month trial of Apple TV+ is tomorrow. I have calendar reminders that have nagged me to cancel the subscription. I activated the trial so that I could watch Murderbot – and that was a success; I liked the series very much.

While I was in the free trial I had wanted to sample some of the other shows. But I rarely watch shows outside of anime (which consumes a lot of my spare time), so I didn’t sample anything until this week. The main series I wanted to sample was The Studio. I like smart humor. However, the entire premise and satirical take on the situation made me uncomfortable – and I lasted only 15 minutes into episode 1. I didn’t see myself watching an entire season.

I pivoted and watched the first episode of Foundation. I had read enough online to know that the series doesn’t strictly follow the books – and that’s fine. I read a lot of Asimov when I was a kid, and the Foundation series is in my library – although I don’t remember the last time I read it. One thing about Asimov – he’s not very good about writing characters. His characters are more about moving the story along. A version of Foundation that focused more on characters would be interesting.

Anyway, I really liked the first episode, and I’ve started episode 2. I guess this means that I’ll start paying for an Apple TV+ subscription – at least until I get through 30 hour-long episodes of Foundation. Given how slowly I watch TV, this could be a while. I don’t subscribe to Netflix, HBO, Paramount, Disney, or Hulu, so I guess I can splurge on one “normal” content provider. (Crunchyroll and HIDIVE are definitely not mainstream.)

I can’t even watch a full episode of Foundation in one sitting; it takes me two evenings to get through an hour. There aren’t enough hours in the day, strangely.

I did watch about 18 minutes of Wolfs. I had heard that the movie was so-so, but I’d still like to see Clooney and Pitts banter with each other.

If I keep the Apple TV+ subscription longer term, I’d like to watch the film The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. I’d also check out these shows: Dickinson, Bad Sisters, Severance, Slow Horses, and Sunny. For now – one series at a time.

labingi

Pleased to share my first article for Sufficiency and Wellbeing magazine, "My Cat Is a God" (literally), featuring Hudson the Hudster.

labingi

This is the first self-published book I have ever read a good chunk of without realizing it was self-published. [EDIT: This is not a dig at self-published writing. I am self-published and hope my books are roughly comparable to traditional in quality, but it is a mountain to climb to do all the traditional publisher work yourself on your own dime, so I'm impressed when a work does it, and I want to uplift that it's possible.] The book is as well written as a number of recent traditionally published books; it’s well edited, proofread, designed, nice cover art. It looks professional.

But in retrospect, it had to be self-published because it’s a Silmarillion fan fic with the names changed, and a traditional publisher wouldn’t take it for fear of being sued. Its premise (I’ll just render this in Tolkien terms) is one of the exiled Noldor returns to the Undying Lands after dying (?) in Middle-earth. That’s a fantastic premise for a fic! With some alterations, it’s a great premise for an original story. That’s why I bought it! I don’t think it fully exploits this premise, though. It’s a goldmine for psychological and philosophical development, and it has fairly little of either, in my opinion.

It does have a great original addition in the idea of a male and female elf who are well-matched “professional/vocational” rivals to such a degree they can be almost interchanged with each other. That concept may be the story’s strongest, and again, I felt it wasn’t fully exploited.

But some of my discontents are discontents with the source material (The Silmarillion): 1) the style is, for my taste, too expository—too much “telling,” not enough “showing”; 2) I just don’t get the concept of the Undying Lands on any deep level, because my cosmology is very different from Tolkien’s. Goddard is, I think, trying to follow Tolkien here, and part of my difficulty suspending disbelief may come from my just not getting it. I give her marks, on the whole, for showing respect for Tolkien’s work and not altering his Elves in any bizarre ways.

One the whole, I find the book conceptually fascinating but not developed deeply enough to fully engage me. Spoilers follow...

( Read more... )

lovelyangel

Frutamania
Beaverton Night Market • Beaverton, Oregon
Saturday, August 9, 2025
Nikon Z8 • NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.8 S
f/2 @ 85mm • 1/1000s • ISO 1600

In 2023 the Beaverton Night Market was held twice – once in July, and once in August. I’m not sure there was a night market in 2024. Instead, there was a full weekend of the Legendary Makers Market.

This year, the Legendary Makers Market was held on the same weekend as the Oregon Country Fair, so I wasn’t able to go. And, this year, the Beaverton Night Market was only one night.

( Some Photos Below This Cut )

lovelyangel

It was in July 2024 when I purchased my first ukiyo-e woodblock print – of Ultimate Madoka. While I was waiting for production of that artwork, I ended up purchasing a second ukiyo-e print – a re-creation of one of my favorite prints by Hiroshige Utagawa. At Shin Hanga Gallery I was lucky to get a print of Ohahi Bridge and Atake in Sudden Shower. I had purchased from them in the past, and they are a reliable vendor. I placed the order at the end of July 2024 and received the print in perfect condition two weeks later.

I held off on getting the print framed until the framed Madoka print arrived. I wanted to make sure the Hiroshige print frame was compatible with the Madoka print frame. My Madoka arrived near the end of June 2025, and right away I Went to Chrisman Framing to get my Hiroshige print framed. Tony was very helpful.

The job estimate was two weeks – so, mid July. However, the frame I had selected was out of stock, and there was a four week delay for the material to arrive. So the total wait was six weeks. But it was worth it. The framed print is beautiful.

Framed Hiroshige Ukiyo-e Print

It’s hard to see, but the frame is a very dark brown. I needed the frame to not clash with the Saia oil pastel frame. The new frame does look too close to black, though.

I’ve temporarily hung the three pictures that will be on the gallery wall in the new library – just so I could get a feel as to how they will look. Because the art is radically different between them, I was a little concerned – but I think things will work out OK.

Gallery Wall Preview

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rin

July 2024

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rin

Reading

went on a vacay

Library Update #6: Eviction

Local Amenities

🌙

Link Trio

Finishing touches on Project Fang ( ´ཀ` )

Library Update #5: Cabinet Wall

Try Again

Apple TV+

"My Cat Is a God"

The Bone Harp by Victoria Goddard: An Originalized Silmarillion Fic - Review

2025 Beaverton Night Market

The Second Ukiyo-e Print

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July 2024

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