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assorted updates
Friday, May 8th, 2026 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmc28- I have had a migraine this afternoon and evening, which is the warning sign I'm pushing my sleep schedule too much, again
- I read the new Murderbot book, very hard to put down, enjoyed it very much
- earlier this week fanf and I joined 20th wedding anniversary celebrations for atreic and emperor, who remain lovely people who collect lovely people around them, yay
- last weekend Kodiaks lost to Coventry Phoenix 1-8, but I got my first ever WNIHL point with an assist on that goal. And then the next day we turned a 2-1 lead over MK Falcons into a 4-2 loss in the last ten minutes of the game and that hurt quite a lot. But also it was lovely to see some Hull camp friends on the MK side, both on and off the ice
- I started watching Ted Lasso, currently half way through season 1 and enjoying it very much. The episodes are short enough and the people / plot engaging enough I'm managing to stick with an entire episode at a time without getting distracted
- next week I'm seeing a 40th anniversary screening of Top Gun in the local IMAX screen. I got teased about did I remember seeing it on original release, which no, not quite, but it's very nearly 37 years since I first saw it on a tiny coach TV screen on a school trip to Germany. I still know most of the lines by heart
Varsity! (one last time)
Friday, May 8th, 2026 12:02 pmrmc28The last of the Varsity ice hockey games between Oxford and Cambridge universities is tomorrow evening, at Cambridge Ice Arena, at 5pm. I will be playing for Cambridge Huskies B against Oxford Vikings C.
- Will it be high quality hockey? No
- Will it be entertaining? Absolutely
- Will I fall over? Obviously
- Will I get in a fight? Maybe, if someone touches my goalie
My goalie is one of the Men's Blues, who put on goalie pads for the first time on Tuesday. Generally the squad is the people who couldn't play Varsity for Huskies or Women's Blues, plus the aforementioned novice in goal and an experienced goalie skating out. Our attempt at an entire forward line of goalies was regrettably thwarted by people having other commitments.
The results of the other Varsity games this year were:
- Cambridge Narwhals v Oxford Vikings A: won by Cambridge
- Cambridge Huskies v Oxford Vikings B: won by Oxford
- Cambridge Women's Blues v Oxford Women's Blues: won by Oxford
- Cambridge Men's Blues v Oxford Men's Blues: won by Cambridge
So this is both a not very serious game, and vitally important to win the best of five.
I'm still getting used to my new skates so I'll be playing this (and my other game for Kodiaks on Sunday) in the old ones.
Proof of life
Thursday, May 7th, 2026 06:49 pmazurelunaticnorabombay is visiting! We hung out yesterday afternoon and had dinner. Additional dinner plans for tonight.Hugos Invitational Opinion Post
Wednesday, May 6th, 2026 07:20 amradiantfractureThe Backstory
sabotabby got me hooked on the Ancillary Review of Books' podcast A Meal of Thorns via her post on the MoT episode about Ready Player One, and I've been traipsing through the back catalogue.Last year, host Jake Casella Brookins and frequent guest Roseanna Pendlebury hashed through the Hugo short lists book by book in great toothy detail. The episode was a sublime listening experience as I wandered through the wooded trails around Pkols / Mount Doug a few weeks ago, mostly because I agreed with almost everything they said. (At least about the books I'd read.)
(Last year I happened to do pretty well on Hugo reading. Without trying very hard, I read half the books -- 3/6 novels and 3/6 novellas. This year, not so much -- I've only read Amal El-Mohtar's novella The River Has Roots.)
(NB El-Mohtar's episode of MoT on The Traitor Baru Cormorant is also excellent.)
On precedent, I've been eagerly looking forward to the MoT Hugos episode this year, but so far they don't seem to have one planned.
Hence my rough approximation. Let me interview you about the Hugo noms you read and your takes thereon.
I guess I'll go first:
I liked The River Has Roots a lot. I'm shocked to discover it's El-Mohtar's first solo long-form fiction -- her voice has, to my ear, such assurance, both here and in This is How You Lose the Time War. She knows what she wants to do with this story and she does it, piece by piece. For such a small book, the story feels spacious. It's economical but doesn't feel rushed or compressed to me. I would have liked to know a little more about how she was imagining the phenomenon of grammar. I enjoyed the chicken.
Now you! (If you want.) -- Any Hugo short lister is fair game, whether I have read it or not.
§rf§
Long weekend
Saturday, May 2nd, 2026 02:43 pmrmc28I have slept so much this week. Both Wednesday and Thursday evening I had a miraculous lack of commitments, and both evenings I thought "I could get a bunch of things done now" and instead ... went to sleep. And re-read Ocean's Echo because I needed a comfort reread, apparently.
Anyway, I had Friday off work and Monday is a bank holiday, and I spent my day off going to Woking and back to buy new ice hockey skates from the place my friend works. She's only been telling me since last July I will benefit from new skates, and I have finally reached a point of "ok FINE I will SPEND MONEY then". (In April I bought a new chestpad and a new pair of shorts, both from Bauer's women's range, both on visits to Puckstop opposite iceSheffield when I was there for Nationals, both providing this weird feeling of stuff actually fitting as opposed to simply covering the relevant body areas.) I had a lovely time picking out new skates with friend L: they are very pretty and fit amazingly, but also I am having to relearn how to skate in them and it feels very odd.
Today and Sunday I have the last two Kodiaks 2 "home" games of the season in Peterborough (we have one last game next weekend, away at Coventry). I'm going to keep using my old skates for these games because I'm not solid enough in the new ones yet. On Monday evening I have CUIHC full club formal hall, and a pretty green velvet dress to wear to it, thanks to a charity shop run at the end of January.
Question thread #150
Friday, May 1st, 2026 06:22 pmpauamma posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_devThe rules:
- You may ask any dev-related question you have in a comment. (It doesn't even need to be about Dreamwidth, although if it involves a language/library/framework/database Dreamwidth doesn't use, you will probably get answers pointing that out and suggesting a better place to ask.)
- You may also answer any question, using the guidelines given in To Answer, Or Not To Answer and in this comment thread.
To-read pile, 2026, April
Friday, May 1st, 2026 11:17 amrmc28Books on pre-order:
- Platform Decay (Murderbot 8) by Martha Wells (5 May)
- Radiant Star (Imperial Radch) by Ann Leckie (12 May)
- Call Me Traitor by Everina Maxwell (1 Dec)
- Unrivaled (Game Changers 7) by Rachel Reid (1 Jun 2027)
Books acquired in April:
- and unread:
- Greater Good (Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy 2) by Timothy Zahn
- and previously read:
- Warhorse by Timothy Zahn
Borrowed books read in April:
- Like Real People Do by E.L. Massey
- Like You've Nothing Left to Prove by E.L. Massey
- Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan
Rereads in April:
- Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell
April had a lot of ice hockey and a lot of driving (including two separate Nationals tournaments), and thus relatively little reading. One day I will actually read the Thrawn books, honest ...