Sakura of DOOM

More updates

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 22:51:09 GMT

Hallo all! I keep meaning to post updates, but then I get distracted. Anyway, thankfully CB flew back home mid-October, and we have been having "fun" with the US medical system since then. He luckily has very few side effects from the stroke, mostly limited to very mild paralysis on one side of his face (people have not noticed unless it's been pointed out) and some weirdness with taste. The annoying thing has been trying to get medical appointments and figure out what to do, as some doctors have been more helpful than others. Also, dealing with insurance sucks.

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Update

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 08:19:30 GMT

Thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts, sharing experiences with international medical situations, and translation help! The hospital says CB can be discharged this weekend, yay! His facial paralysis has gotten a little worse in the past few days, though the doctors say this can happen. Right now we're trying to figure out how to get him home. Our travel insurance seemed like they might help, but now it sounds like nothing is covered, and the other private air ambulance service wants him to have a hospital bed ready back in California, but that is also proving difficult to get. From what the doctor said yesterday, he is probably okay to fly commercially but would need a medical escort, so we are figuring out how to get that arranged. Fingers crossed...

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Help?

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 07:38:28 GMT

*dusts off journal* I've been meaning to post updates for a while, but of course never got around to it.

Anyway, CB had a stroke while we were on a family vacation in Paris. He is doing well, all things considered--the damage seems limited to a slight droop in his mouth and double vision--but he's been in the hospital for about a week now. My parents are with me, and we are trying to figure out his care with limited access to his doctors (visiting hours are limited, and they often make the rounds outside visiting hours). We have a translator, though it's our tour guide who obviously doesn't have that much knowledge about medical terminology. We have some print outs of test results in French, but we're having difficulty getting access to actual medical records, since they usually are put together on patient discharge.

Does anyone have experience with internationally transferring patients and/or flying with medical escorts or on a plane with medical equipment? We obviously don't want to move him if it will endanger him in any way, but we would also like for him to begin treatment back at home as soon as it is safe for him to go back.

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One year later

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 06:48:40 GMT

Wow, a year ago, I was unceremoniously sent home from work in the middle of the day because the entire Bay Area was going to shut down the next day. CB had already been working from home for a few weeks by that point, and stuff in Taiwan actually looked worse than here, so I didn't think everything was going to be better by the end of the shelter in place order in three weeks.

Even so, I was hoping things would be somewhere near normal around summer, and I was really really hoping we wouldn't still be here in a year. And yet here we are.

Some things that have kept me (mostly) sane:
( Read more... )

I very much hope that Biden's goal of July 4th with friends and families pans out.

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One shot down, one to go!

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 05:29:04 GMT

I got my first vaccine shot last Friday! It was the Pfizer one, and I am scheduled to get the second shot in four weeks. And two weeks after that, I think I will get a haircut, a massage, and a pedicure.

I only had some soreness in my upper arm, but I have heard from several coworkers that the second shot is when the side effects usually kick in.

I am not quite thinking of it too often, but even having the one shot has made me feel so much better in the back of my head. It makes regular life seem that much closer, and it's so wonderfully weird to hope that if Biden is right about the vaccine schedule/production, CB may also be vaccinated in a few months, and we may be able to watch In the Heights in an actual movie theater! I keep tearing up every so often thinking that seeing people or going to things is possibly maybe within reach.

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Happy new year!

Sat, 13 Feb 2021 00:24:16 GMT

Happy new year to everyone who celebrates! I always get homesick for Taiwan around new year, but this year is even worse.

I meant to post more during the pandemic, but that clearly did not happen once stuff at work got busier. I will try again! Although I will probably be very bad at answering comments; it takes a lot of the same brain I use for answering work email, and by the time I'm done with that, it's hard to manage to write anything substantial or coherent.

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Kolata, Gina - Flu

Mon, 13 Jul 2020 04:55:56 GMT

Subtitle: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It

I should have written this up sooner, since now I have forgotten many of the details. While Kolata does summarize the 1918 influenza pandemic, most of the book is on the aftermath, from how scientists figured out that a virus was responsible to actually trying to find a sample of the virus and figuring out why it was so virulent.

My big question after finishing Barry's The Great Influenza was how scientists eventually figured out that the influenza was caused by a virus and not by a bacteria. Kolata goes a little into this, but I don't actually remember exactly how people came to the conclusion. I believe it was less a single moment and more lots and lots of experiments that gradually ended up ruling out a bacteria? I also found it kind of hilarious that Kolata gives Barry's favorite scientists one or two lines and then skips over them entirely.

Most of the book is spent on how two different teams of people went looking for samples of the 1918 virus. The U.S. Army had actually preserved several bits of lung sample, but the big discovery was finding the still-frozen body of an Inuit woman in Alaska. I found Kolata's write up of the team that didn't succeed a bit odd, particularly her description of the woman in charge, Kirsty Duncan. There are just a few weird mentions of how attractive Duncan was to the men on the team, and one of the team member's daughters basically accuses her father and Duncan of having an emotional affair.

Also, although the successful team did end up getting the full genetic sequence of the virus, the book makes it sound like everyone is still puzzled as to why the 1918 virus was so deadly. When I finished the book, I felt as though Kolata had written the book too early, although of course one doesn't know if a major scientific discovery is going to be made or not.

I did end up finding an article on the reconstruction of the 1918 virus at the CDC, which was apparently in 2005. They did several experiments, and it seems as though the combination of several things all worked together to make the virus so virulent. My main question is if Kolata had written the book prior to this, and then published it in 2011, and if so, why it wasn't updated. It seems like this would have been good information to have in the book!

- rachelmanija, Ch. 1-2
- rachelmanija, Ch. 3-6

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Barry, John M. - The Great Influenza, Parts IX-X

Tue, 12 May 2020 05:19:15 GMT

Now I remember why it took me months to crawl through the end of the book even though the middle was extremely interesting!

Part IX is about the longer-term effects of the pandemic. I have to say, reading about the various waves that came after the first two in 1918 didn't make me super optimistic about the future. Barry details how even though the virus mutated so it was milder (but still would have been the most lethal influenza virus known, except compared to its former self), it continued to sweep through communities for at least a year. San Francisco, which had done well in the extremely awful second wave, declared victory and told people they could take off their masks, only to be struck by a third wave. And then there were more recurrences in the early 1920s.

Barry then goes on to more or less blame WWII on the 1918 influenza pandemic. Much like how SARS-CoV2 has had unforeseen complications, the influenza virus didn't just affect the respiratory system. In some cases, it seemed to do something to the brain. Unfortunately, Woodrow Wilson came down with it (although some accounts say it was a minor stroke) during the Paris Peace Conference as everyone was negotiating the Treaty of Versailles. Wilson, who was apparently all for non-vindictive measures previously, caved to France and England's more punitive demands, and Barry draws a line from Wilson's mental instability due to his bout with the flu to the treaty terms to the eventual rise of the Third Reich. (I, on the other hand, am sure the virus played a role but wasn't the only factor.)

( In which I am annoyed )

Despite the frustration, still worth reading, particularly the bits directly concerned with the pandemic. You can probably skip anything before and after. In the afterword, Barry talks about how we might prepare for another influenza pandemic, which is what most infectious disease people were most afraid of. I guess a coronavirus upended expectations, but it pretty much has all the traits that made people so afraid of another influenza pandemic—extremely contagious and lethal enough to shut down society. Thank goodness it's not quite as lethal and that it doesn't mutate as much, but still. All Barry's notes about preparation and not lying to the public are great, and I can see why people in the George W. Bush administration read it when trying to prepare for a biological attack. It's too bad none of it seemed to stick.

- rachelmanija's post for Parts VIII-IX

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Barry, John M. - The Great Influenza, Parts IV-VIII

Sat, 09 May 2020 07:23:28 GMT

The pandemic begins! In the late winter/early spring of 1918, influenza begins to make its way through various military camps. Mostly it seems that while the number of cases and the seriousness of the cases was abnormal, it was mostly written off as a particularly virulent and nasty flu season, with a few outbreaks later in the year (around May) being even worse, with deaths hitting younger people and occurring within 24-48 hours of the onset of pneumonia.

But by August, it had quieted down. Then the October wave came, and it was really bad. Barry gives several possibilities as to what happened but mostly concludes that the original virus from the spring mutated to become more lethal, and notes that often the virulence of pathogens follow a sort of bell curve. They grow worse for a bit, but then gradually become less lethal, since you can't really get transmitted if you kill all your hosts too quickly.

Barry's descriptions of the October onset of the virus are pretty terrifying. Not only was it hitting mostly younger people harder, it caused bleeding out of multiple body orifices, and people's blood would be so devoid of oxygen that they would look blue or even so dark blue they looked black. The piling up of bodies, the way hospitals were overwhelmed all sound like some headlines from today, as do stories of the federal government playing it down, for fear that it would interfere with the war effort. Some mayors or governors were very blase and didn't shut things down due to the potential economic effects, while others, who were being hit by the virus, were asking the federal government for help and being ignored. It sounds like Woodrow Wilson never mentioned the pandemic at all, in public or in private, which is mind-boggling. And meanwhile, the press, pressured by anti-sedition acts, kept printing that everything was fine even as people could see everyone dying.

It sounds like the Public Health Service and the Red Cross were pretty good at organizing, but eventually there were just not enough doctors, and especially not enough nurses. It's irritating that Barry emphasizes here how important nurses were, because even if there were no cure, they could make people more comfortable, and keep an eye out for things getting worse about two weeks in to the illness. Except he doesn't talk about any nurses much at all! Then we find out that not only has Welch done no lab work for decades, he also comes down with the flu at the beginning of the second wave and doesn't contribute anything. But he still gets a chapter!

The other annoying thing is that the much vaunted "warriors" of Part I are currently all going down the wrong path and mostly determining that the outbreak was caused by a bacteria. It sounds like a few speculated that it could be a virus, but that got discarded fairly early. Here's the thing: I feel like there should be more stories about scientists going down the wrong path and building on other scientists' work because that is how you figure things out, and otherwise the story is that of lone heroes making miraculous breakthroughs. So this would have been interesting except for the fact that all these scientists were being lauded as lone heroes, to the point which other people doing organizing and caretaking are not ever mentioned by name. Argh.

- rachelmanija's write up of Parts IV-VII

( On the naming of things )

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Barry, John M. - The Great Influenza, Parts II and III

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 06:16:23 GMT

This got much more interesting once Barry stopped talking about assorted scientists with very little context and finally starting providing actual context for the 1918 pandemic!

Part II, The Swarm, covers viruses in general and how they work, and the influenza virus in particular. The H and N in the various influenza virus names (H1N1, H5N1, etc.) are hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, the two antigens on the virus. They occur in a ton of different shapes, each with subtypes, and the influenza virus also mutates extremely quickly because it's an RNA virus. (The RNA means there is less double-checking than there would be if it used DNA to replicate itself.) Influenza viruses originate in birds, and they probably migrate to humans via intermediary animals like pigs. One theory is that pigs have some receptors that can bind to bird or human viruses, so they can be infected by both, and the viruses mix their parts together.

If you can't tell, I found this part much, much more interesting than the assortment of scientists from Part I. I did, however, want to know if you are immune to all H1N1 influenza types if you have gotten one. It sounded like even after the numbering of the Hs and the Ns, there were still subtypes, but I couldn't tell how distinct those subtypes were, or if the main difference was in which shape of H and N the virus has.

In "The Tinderbox," Barry gives an overview of the US's entrance into World War I and how it mobilized various civilians, medical experts, and etc. Herein Welch reenters the picture, although I still can't quite say what he did. It's particularly weird that Barry emphasizes all these great scientists, because I feel in a later part, he basically has to detail how they all go down the wrong path when trying to research influenza. The poor nurses only get a paragraph or two, and they get blamed for a shortage in nurses because they consistently refused to let some of the doctors enlist "practical nurses," who would have less training than "graduate nurses."

I feel there is a whole book here on doctors vs. nurses and the status and respect (or lack thereof) given to nurses, but clearly Barry is not interested. Boo.

There's also a lot about censorship in the name of the war effort, which will come into play later when the pandemic kicks off.

- rachelmanija's review of Parts II and III

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The Mariinsky Ballet - Yaroslavna. The Eclipse

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 07:04:40 GMT

So I have been watching a lot of the ballet and other performing arts pieces being streamed online now due to Covid-19, and this is the most bizarre thing ever. I just started watching because it was on, and now I am glad I did.

So far it has featured a creepy lizard guy; warring factions that (to quote CB) look like Zardoz interpreted by a troupe of Skittles; sexy football gladiators with lightsabers; dancers wearing extremely creepy masks of children's faces circling around a crocodile; and A DINOSAUR. Also wolf women. And probably other things I am forgetting.

I am not sure I understand it more after reading the synopsis, but apparently it is based on The Tale of Igor's Campaign? It was choreographed in 1974 (the same year Zardoz came out!), and I'm pretty sure the choreographer was smoking something.

On for ten more hours apparently!

(If you watch, wait at least until the second dancer comes out.)

ETA: apparently the ballet is from 1974, but this version is new choreography. Also content note re: a very Fu Manchu looking person and evil lizard dude with vaguely Chinese tattoos. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And after I posted this, there was a section that included the Mariinsky's signature doofy looking stuffed toy props! In this case, it featured stuffed toy meats, including sausages that get swung around, and a turkey. And a very floppy lobster. I think there's also an evil temptress who is dressed as bacon?

There is also some skillful and difficult yet silly looking rolling around in a gilded hamster wheel.

I believe the moral of the story is: War Is Bad.

It is all Very Art.

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Barry, John M. - The Great Influenza (Part I)

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 06:22:29 GMT

I am not sure anyone else is interested, but Rachel and I are doing Pandemic Book Club! Come join if you are interested as well!

To give you a sense of my brain, I actually read 2/3 of The Great Influenza several months prior to the coronavirus and also listen to podcasts like This Podcast Will Kill You for fun.

Anyway! On to Part I: The Warriors!

I remembered that this book got off to a slow start, and I stand by that judgment. Barry opens with an attention-getting prologue, describing one scientist's encounter with people struck down by the 1918 influenza, particularly emphasizing how deadly it was in young people, and how people would be so short of breath that they would literally turn blue or even close to black due to lack of oxygen.

...and then he goes back to the founding of Johns Hopkins. And then to establish the importance of Johns Hopkins, he basically ends up retelling the history of Western medicine from Galen and the four humors. Which I kind of knew about? And it's a bit of a distraction from Johns Hopkins, as I feel you could establish its importance by just noting that it was the first medical research institution in the US at a time when American medical schools basically granted anyone who could pay a medical degree and germ theory was not the widely accepted consensus.

...and then he goes on to talk about several notable scientists, none of whose names I can remember, even though I have actually read 2/3 of the book. As Rachel notes, Barry has a giant crush on William Welch, one of the founders at Johns Hopkins, but mostly goes on to talk about the scientific accomplishments of Welch's students. I get that he is trying to establish Welch as the connecting factor, but given that Barry himself notes that Welch did not have the concentration to pursue significant scientific questions, it feels very disjointed.

I feel this section would have been much more interesting if I had some sense of who all the people were in terms of the 1918 pandemic. I think Barry establishes that a bit later on, but I did get to some of the book that discusses how the pandemic influenced medical science in America, and it's still hard drawing the connections with the people in this section of the book.

Anyway, the pandemic is next! That should be much more interesting.

- rachelmanija's review of Part I

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Mystery recs

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 05:25:11 GMT

I cannot believe it has been three years since I have posted. Rather than going through everything that has happened (mostly: wedding planning, then job), I will simply note that I have been reading a ton of mysteries lately. I never used to be a huge mystery fan, but I suspect something in the "order is restored" bit has been soothing my hindbrain.

Rec me things!

I have read: a number of random Agatha Christie books with quite a few more in the TBR stack, Gaudy Night with the rest of the Sayers books in the TBR stack, all of Tana French's books, a few random Mary Clark Higgins, Sarah Smith, part of the first Hilary Tamar book with more in the TBR stack, the Stephanie Plum books, random Barbara Michaels books, and Daughter of Time. (and probably more I don't remember) I also greatly enjoyed Knives Out when it came out.

I think I am looking for something more traditionally mystery and less along the lines of noir or thriller, i.e. the feeling of a nice, neat bow being tied, just desserts being served, and etc. Think comfort + puzzles.

(Also, I have been dipping back into my reading list and realizing I have missed incredibly major life events in pretty much everyone's lives for the past two years or more, sigh.)

ETA: Other media welcome as well. I think I've watched most of the dark and gritty Christie adaptations that have been coming out, Gosford Park, Miss Fisher, and the aforementioned Knives Out.

And I am a big Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton fan. Recently I found Murder by Numbers (Phoenix Wright + Picross, it is like it was made for me!), Detective Grimoire, and the unfortunately unfinished Jenny Le Clue.

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[Daily happiness]

Sat, 21 Oct 2017 07:20:49 GMT

1. Was in Berkeley for a conference, and it was nice to be around campus again!

2. Had braised meat rice for lunch, then got pastries from the Chinese bakery and pearl milk tea, yum. And the lunch place was playing Cpop and made me slightly homesick for Taiwan.

3. Watched The Snake Prince, a Shaw Brothers movie, with CB and jhameia and it is... quite a thing. Let's just say there was much more disco music and dancing than I had expected.

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[Daily happiness]

Sun, 08 Oct 2017 08:40:41 GMT

1. Got to walk around the Panhandle, which was fun, and found a game store and an indie comics store—will have to remember to go there again to get Christmas presents for CB's niece and nephews.

2. Rewatched the musical sequences of La La Land, which are really great (Except the singing! Why?!). The opening number in particular is really impressive and all in one take too! There's something about lots of people dancing in unison that is extremely satisfying on a very deep level for me.

3. Went to CB's friend's place and had tasty prime rib and creme brulee mocha cake from 85°C and was social, which was nice.

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Vid/AMV recs?

Mon, 24 Apr 2017 05:42:02 GMT

Thinking of putting together a playlist for the Wiscon Vid Party on morally ambiguous and ambitious women. Anyone have recs for vids or AMVs that showcase power-hungry women? POC characters or characters from games or anime preferred. I'd especially love something on Kuvira from Legend of Korra, Lady Eboshi from Princess Mononoke or Kushana from Nausicaa.

Also, I am feeling old... where does one go to look for vids nowadays? I did find a fair amount of Kuvira vids on YouTube, but nothing I liked so far, and animemusicvideos.org's search is incredibly frustrating.

Currently on the list: feedingonwind's A New Day (Mariah, Luke Cage), shati's Hope on Fire (Mishil, Queen Seondeok), starlady's Shuang Nu (Wu Zetian, Detective Dee).

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Friday Five! (on a Sunday...)

Mon, 03 Apr 2017 05:15:05 GMT

To get myself to post again... I was doing better before, and then work started getting busy.

via
1. What was your favorite past time in high school?
Reading. (Surprise!) Although I did get more social in high school and actually did spend time talking on the phone, going to people's houses and etc.

2. What is your all time favorite board game/card game?
I don't really have a favorite right now. I play Splendor a fair amount with my sister and BiL, and I played a lot of Ticket to Ride on iPhone, but I'm not super attached to any of them. Probably my all-time favorite would be 拱猪/Gong Zhu because I played a ton of Hearts on the computer in high school and Gong Zhu is even harder. Also, all the scrabbling to avoid getting the pig or to try and get the lamb/sheep is very fun. My other old-time favorite would probably be Big Two, which I played a LOT of on various family vacations. (Clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades is always the correct order!!)

3. What is the last movie you saw at the theatre and what did you think of it?
I finally watched the copy of The Heat that I bought, and I enjoyed it a lot, especially Melissa McCarthy. I will say that the past few years of BLM makes the heroes' not-following-regulations police violence much less funny, but I mostly tried to watch it and think of it in terms of action movie rules.

4. What is something (no matter what kind of mood you're in) that makes you happy the moment you do it, see it, or hear it?
My cats!

5.Do you believe that crop circles are made by human or alien?
I do think aliens are out there, just in terms of mathematical probability, but by the same measure, I really doubt any aliens out there took a special interest in Earth.

In other news, I have given up on the Jaywalker sock I was intermittently knitting, as picking it up every few months has meant that I have had to reknit 40+ rows several times and after finding the latest mistake, I do not have it in me to frog and reknit that much. I need to just start a brand new project and commit to knitting it every week.

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Lewis, John, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell - March, vol. 1-3

Tue, 14 Feb 2017 06:46:10 GMT

This is John Lewis' memoir of his time in SNCC during the Civil Rights Movement, co-written with Andrew Aydin and illustrated by Nate Powell.

It begins with Lewis preparing for the 2009 inauguration, and the contrast between that and the 1960s Jim Crow era was probably much more uplifting just a few months ago. As things are today, the book feels more necessary than ever. It's not as though the work stopped after the Voting Rights Act, after Obama's election, after anything, but there is so much more of it now.

Part of me wishes I had at least one experience of reading this before the election, with Obama still president, because those flashes to his inauguration in the comic, the hope that is so tangible, all of it is painful to read now.

I've known the general story of the Civil Rights Movement for almost as long as I can remember, having grown up reading those Scholastic biographies of Martin Luther King, Jr. And I've learned much more about it later on, from how much community organization was going on to the many different groups and philosophies involved. That said, I found this comic to be a valuable addition, particularly the first-person narrative and the way the black-and-white illustrations grab you.

The three volumes cover all the big points up through the signing of the Voting Rights Act, from the lunch counter sit-ins to the bus boycotts to Freedom Summer and Selma and the March on Washington, but it's the little details within the big moments that make the comic so good. Ones that particularly struck me were the students who couldn't make it through the nonviolence training or the fear of being killed—I feel it's always so easy for people to say, "If I were there, I would have marched or protested or volunteered," but to be honest, I'm not sure I would have been brave enough, particularly as a college student. The stories of all the people who were killed while helping are pretty chilling, and I'm glad that the authors and artist make it very clear how dangerous it was and how the activists there didn't know if they would make it through or not.

Other moments: one of the people running the lunch counters shutting it down and fumigating it with the protesters still inside; the ways people still resisted even while they were in jail; how the activists set up check ins; and through it all, just how violent the pushback was to every single tiny step. I keep returning to that after reading all the justifications for police violence on the protesters today and how quickly just saying "no" becomes a reason to beat you down. It's not that I didn't know, but seeing it illustrated brings it home in a very particular way.

My one complaint is that I wish Lewis had gone more into how the movement started to splinter, how some people began to advocate for physically fighting back, or the increasing divide between SNCC and the SCLC and other organizations. Lewis hews to his nonviolent philosophy here while also trying to portray other people's points of view without demonizing them. I think his attempt to walk the line of upholding nonviolent resistance without condemning those who thought he sold out makes those parts a little too abstract; without the dialogue and arguments and examples of what happened in those clashes of philosophy, much of the power of the comic is lost.

I also wish he had gone into more detail because I would have found it extremely helpful for right now, when it feels like there's a different answer or strategy every day, and as a roadmap for making change with a large coalition of groups who frequently don't see eye to eye.

All in all, very worth reading, and I only wish it were longer and had more details about how to deal with splintering coalitions.

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[Politics]

Tue, 14 Feb 2017 05:38:30 GMT

I feel like I basically got nothing done in January because I was sick through most of it--one of those awful colds where you just keep coughing and coughing and not getting any rest because you're coughing so much. Thankfully, it's now gone.

Questions re: calling your members of Congress: Does it matter if you call during business hours, or is voicemail left after hours okay? And if they've already made a statement on something, is there a point to calling about that issue?

I have also started doing stuff for one of my local Indivisible groups \o/! I still need to look into more cybersecurity stuff as well. And I am doing that thing where I am reading way too much news. Some of it is necessary for volunteer work, and some of it is useful for work, but I really do not need to be refreshing five sites all the time, along with my personal social media accounts. I tried setting up something like Flipboard or another aggregator, but it feels a bit disorienting. I like being on the news provider's website and getting a better sense of their style and what they report on and etc. I suppose once I've figured it out for many sites, the aggregator will make more sense.

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Sun, 29 Jan 2017 08:58:15 GMT

Does anyone know if any California representatives or the governor were at SFO today? I think I saw Scott Weiner but as of the last time I checked, didn't see any statement or anything from Jerry Brown.

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[politics]

Sat, 21 Jan 2017 22:47:32 GMT

I'm going to be posting anti-Trump stuff under the tag "potatoes of defiance" (thank you Terry Pratchett!) for anyone who wants to filter it out.

Anyway, I finally managed to set up a few recurring donations yesterday and am deciding what to do with the rest of the money I've budgeted for donations. And I made my first call to my Congressperson. It went to voicemail, and I stuttered a bit, and I don't even know if it was helpful, but at least that was a start!

Also waving a fist in solidarity to everyone going out to march today. CB is out there, but my cold has triggered my asthma so I'm not =(. The pictures of people around the world protesting are great though.

And as an FYI, I've stopped crossposting to LJ and am still debating over deleting all my posts there and/or my account.

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Tue, 13 Dec 2016 05:26:12 GMT

Does anyone have good recommendations for "one action a day/week to oppose Trump" sites/mailing lists/other? I saw several right after the election but didn't note them down. Bonus points for ones that have helpful actions for someone living in a very Democratic-leaning state with Democrat elected officials (San Francisco, CA).

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Quick recs

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 06:17:08 GMT

First, I am sure everyone has heard about this by now, but just in case you haven't or have but didn't check it out yet: Hamilton Original Cast Recording Spotify playlist (or if Spotify doesn't work for you, YouTube). I've been dying to see or listen to this musical since I heard about it a few weeks ago, and now that the soundtrack is out, I can at least listen to it. Lin-Manuel Miranda's mix of hip hop and Broadway and other pastiches (the BritPop!) is amazing, and it reminded me of the excitement of listening to Rent for the first time in the 90s after only having heard Andrew Lloyd Webber and Les Mis. The recitative bits sounds a little like Rent to me, but other than that, Hamilton is entirely its own thing. Also, Thomas Jefferson sports natural hair and purple velvet.

I also saw East Side Sushi over the weekend, a cute indie film about a Latina woman who gets a job in a sushi restaurant and decides to become a sushi chef. The plot is pretty much what you would expect—opposition from her more traditional father, racism and sexism from the Japanese owner, a competition where she Proves Herself—and it sometimes felt a little clunky, but it's extremely charming and features Mexican-Japanese fusion food. It's also filmed in Oakland by a local director, so I got a ton of enjoyment out of seeing familiar places on screen as well.

And I (FINALLY) played through Hatoful Boyfriend, aka the pigeon dating sim, thanks to bluerabbit. Although to be accurate, it's more a piece of post-apocalyptic science fiction masquerading as a pigeon dating sim, which was not what I was expecting. Also, you date pigeons (and other birds). If this interests you and you're generally not into video games, I'd give this a try. It's a visual novel, so there's not that much game play involved aside from making some decisions about who to talk to and etc., and it's worth it to go through all the storylines.

I also mean to rec N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season and Zen Cho's Sorceror to the Crown, but I am still holding out hope that I will write actual entries on them.

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Orange Is the New Black, 1x01-3x13

Tue, 01 Sep 2015 05:07:02 GMT

It's good I've heard so much good stuff about this from various people I trust, because otherwise I would have never made it past episode three and missed out. It is sad that Jenji Kohan felt that she needed to use white, blonde, upper-middle-class Piper as a kind of Trojan horse to get people to watch something primarily about women not seen on TV as often—queer women, women of color, women of various body types, trans women, old women, etc.—but I don't doubt its true.

(On a side note, I love how we've finally gotten a few shows with POC in leading roles and already there have been concern troll-y "But what about the white men?!" articles.)

Anyway, once the episodes stopped focusing on Piper, I started liking the show much more.

( Spoilers got time )

Also, the opening song is the best.

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Lerner, Rose - multiple books

Thu, 20 Aug 2015 07:38:57 GMT

I've been hearing about Rose Lerner for a while, but I didn't particularly enjoy the first book of hers that I read (A Lily Among Thorns), so I didn't try any of her others until now. (I have been marathoning Parks and Recreation and wanted something that felt like the main romance in the show, and suddenly remembered Lerner!)

Her specialties so far seem to be: nice people who genuinely like each other, heroes who are decidedly not jerks, class issues, local life and politics, sibling dynamics, the weight of parental expectations, and protagonists who have a very difficult time knowing and/or expressing what they want because they have sublimated their desires, frequently out of the desire to be nice and get along with society. And the last bit seems very evenly split between the men and the women, which I very much appreciated.

So far, there has been more diversity around the protagonists rather than embodied by the protagonists, but like Courtney Milan, my sense is that she is pushing at a lot of those boundaries. There are secondary characters who are POC and gay and lesbian—I am using these terms as a shortcut, since they don't quite match up with Regency categories/ways of thinking—and her latest hero is Jewish! And it looks like the protagonists of her next book are in the servant class, which is nice.

In for a Penny - Lord Nevinstoke's father dies, leaving his family deep in debt, and thus Nev proposes to Penelope Brown, who comes with a substantial dowry courtesy of her father's success in trade. Together, they attempt to restore his family estate and prevent a peasant uprising! The couple is probably the most traditional in terms of romance norms, and I find them absolutely adorable. It also helps that "socially inept heroine who is good at spreadsheets + hero who is not the best with numbers but great with people" is something that hits rather close to home. The book tends to fall a bit into the "wealthy titled people rescue impoverished workers" thing, and the villain and final conflict feels over-the-top compared to the rest of the story, but I liked it a lot.

A Lily Among Thorns - I bounced off this one the first time because I wanted an icier heroine, but on rereading it and knowing better what to expect, I liked it better. Lady Serena, former courtesan and current innkeeper, wants to help Solomon Hathaway find heirloom earrings, as he's the one who gave her the money to buy herself out years and years ago. And then there are French spies and threats from Serena's father and the plot is a bit over the top still. Solomon the tailor (or rather, master dyer) is very cute, but I didn't fully buy that Serena was able to terrorize the London underworld. Good, but I think it's the weakest of Lerner's work.

Sweet Disorder - Nick Dymond goes to the town of Lively St. Lemeston, where his brother is running for office, in order to convince widow Phoebe Sparks to marry a Whig so that her husband gets her inherited vote. I love that Phoebe is middle class and worries about having to wear the same dress to parties and can't afford mustard. Also, she is fat and the narrative is fine with it, and the hero needs a cane due to wartime injuries. I think this is my favorite of Lerner's books so far, and I particularly love one sex scene that manages to be hot while also advancing characterization AND tying up the hero. Bonus points for many loving descriptions of Regency era sweets.

True Pretenses - Ash and his little brother Rafe are con men, but Rafe wants to get out, so Ash comes up with one last con to get Rafe married to an heiress so she can get her money and Rafe can get money for a commission. Despite his secret hopes that Rafe and Lydia (aforementioned heiress) will fall in love, Ash somehow ends up engaged to her himself. They bond over the difficulty of raising younger siblings while also wanting to give them everything and how conning people and being a gentlewoman call on a similar set of skills. I especially like how being Jewish is integral to the characterization of both Ash and Rafe. On the other hand, I didn't like this as much as I had anticipated because both Ash and Lydia are rather overbearing older siblings and I ended up sympathizing with Rafe a lot. That and I wasn't entirely confident about the happily ever after, not because I didn't like the characters together, but because I still stressed about how Ash's past could still be dug up. Still, I think this is probably Lerner's best and chewiest book to date. Also, I love that Lydia is a Tory while the main characters in the previous book are Whigs and that she doesn't get converted and still doesn't like them.

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