It's like a crossover episode [status]
Jul. 11th, 2025 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterI finally got to meet mallorys_camera in person! In case you wondered, she is as lovely in person as you'd expect her to be. We met up to go cherry picking at an orchard in between where each of us lives. The easily picked cherries had all been pillaged, probably over the Fourth of July weekend, but we were still able to find plenty on the trees towards the back of the row. And I am 100% going back to Samascott Orchards in the future. Great spot.
For now, I need to go obtain more feeder crickets for all the campus animals. It never stops. And then I have a billion sour cherries to process. That's a great problem to have, really.
mallorys_camera in person! In case you wondered, she is as lovely in person as you'd expect her to be. We met up to go cherry picking at an orchard in between where each of us lives. The easily picked cherries had all been pillaged, probably over the Fourth of July weekend, but we were still able to find plenty on the trees towards the back of the row. And I am 100% going back to Samascott Orchards in the future. Great spot.For now, I need to go obtain more feeder crickets for all the campus animals. It never stops. And then I have a billion sour cherries to process. That's a great problem to have, really.
Seen around town
Jul. 9th, 2025 05:54 pmrebeccmeisterThis large guy is, apparently, an Eastern dobsonfly:
Seems a bit random to encounter one just outside my building, but when I was leaving work yesterday, there he was.
This morning S and I went on a little jaunt to look at a small piece of land up for sale in Watervliet (verdict: meh.). Heading to campus after, we biked past a shop I've wanted to check out called the Tool Box. It's a tool thrift store.
I found a couple of useful items, and so did S, but any enthusiasm I might have felt about the shop was quickly obliterated by the tone and nature of the political conversation the people running the shop were having. Sigh. The Historic Architectural Parts Warehouse was far more fun.
Seems a bit random to encounter one just outside my building, but when I was leaving work yesterday, there he was.
This morning S and I went on a little jaunt to look at a small piece of land up for sale in Watervliet (verdict: meh.). Heading to campus after, we biked past a shop I've wanted to check out called the Tool Box. It's a tool thrift store.
I found a couple of useful items, and so did S, but any enthusiasm I might have felt about the shop was quickly obliterated by the tone and nature of the political conversation the people running the shop were having. Sigh. The Historic Architectural Parts Warehouse was far more fun.
What I'm Doing Wednesday
Jul. 9th, 2025 02:09 pmsage( books (Forrest, Aaronovitch, Aaronovitch, Hamaker-Zondag) )
dirt
goddamned thrips. Beyond that struggle, the spider plants are putting out babies, the baby thaumatophyllum is up to 3 leaves and needs potting up soon, the money tree is looking better, Grandma's thanksgiving cactus is looking pretty great, the rhaphidophora cutting finally put out some baby leaves, and the terrarium is overrun by red stem peperomia. I need to trim it, srsly.
meditation work
Yesterday I listened to/watched![[youtube.com profile]](https://youtube.com/favicon.ico)
HealingVibrations' sound bath video on cutting old ties with crystal singing bowls and a windsinger instrument. It was surprisingly intense, or maybe it just hit me right at the time.
natural disaster
my heart hurts over the Hill Country floods. So many needless deaths, so many people claiming there were no warnings. Per Robert Reich's Substack: The San Angelo NWS office is missing a meteorologist, staff forecaster, and a senior hydrologist. The San Antonio NWS office is missing a warning coordination meteorologist (who left on April 30, thanks to DOGE-inflicted early retirement), and a science officer. These people are meant to notify local emergency managers to plan for floods. That said, warnings DID go out but weren't accessible or heeded by the people who needed them. (We don't have flood or tornado sirens or anything here, something the state gvt is saying will change. Though how they'll put flood sirens out in the middle of nowhere is kind of a mystery.) Regardless, it's a tragic loss. Hopefully the news blitz will help get weather warning systems put back into the 2026 fiscal budget for everyone. More personally, my parents' area had nearly all its bridges get washed out, so they're basically stranded until they can be fixed/replaced. They've got food and hopefully no need to go anywhere, so they're fine, but it's all just a completely harrowing situation. The morning of July 5, they had 10+ inches of rain in 12 hours, and that was AFTER the floods hit. I'm just glad they live on a ridge instead of down in the valley or in a floodplain, however hard it is to be stranded. There's so much destruction in their area. It's heartbreaking. Addendum: Dad texted last night that there are teams out on horseback searching for the missing/drowned. Thank gods it's ranch country so horses are locally available. Here's one place you can donate if you feel inclined: https://cftexashillcountry.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=4201
#resist
July 17: Good Trouble Lives On Protest/March
I hope all of y'all are safe and doing as well as can be. <333
dirt
goddamned thrips. Beyond that struggle, the spider plants are putting out babies, the baby thaumatophyllum is up to 3 leaves and needs potting up soon, the money tree is looking better, Grandma's thanksgiving cactus is looking pretty great, the rhaphidophora cutting finally put out some baby leaves, and the terrarium is overrun by red stem peperomia. I need to trim it, srsly.
meditation work
Yesterday I listened to/watched
natural disaster
my heart hurts over the Hill Country floods. So many needless deaths, so many people claiming there were no warnings. Per Robert Reich's Substack: The San Angelo NWS office is missing a meteorologist, staff forecaster, and a senior hydrologist. The San Antonio NWS office is missing a warning coordination meteorologist (who left on April 30, thanks to DOGE-inflicted early retirement), and a science officer. These people are meant to notify local emergency managers to plan for floods. That said, warnings DID go out but weren't accessible or heeded by the people who needed them. (We don't have flood or tornado sirens or anything here, something the state gvt is saying will change. Though how they'll put flood sirens out in the middle of nowhere is kind of a mystery.) Regardless, it's a tragic loss. Hopefully the news blitz will help get weather warning systems put back into the 2026 fiscal budget for everyone. More personally, my parents' area had nearly all its bridges get washed out, so they're basically stranded until they can be fixed/replaced. They've got food and hopefully no need to go anywhere, so they're fine, but it's all just a completely harrowing situation. The morning of July 5, they had 10+ inches of rain in 12 hours, and that was AFTER the floods hit. I'm just glad they live on a ridge instead of down in the valley or in a floodplain, however hard it is to be stranded. There's so much destruction in their area. It's heartbreaking. Addendum: Dad texted last night that there are teams out on horseback searching for the missing/drowned. Thank gods it's ranch country so horses are locally available. Here's one place you can donate if you feel inclined: https://cftexashillcountry.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=4201
#resist
July 17: Good Trouble Lives On Protest/March
I hope all of y'all are safe and doing as well as can be. <333
Good times in the garden [gardening]
Jul. 9th, 2025 12:58 pmrebeccmeisterRaspberry season has arrived!
Time to stockpile more raspberries so we can make more of that delicious raspberry sorbet.
This garden bed is known as the BBQ Garden, because it originally looked like it used to be the site of a barbecue grill. Our lease explicitly says we can't have a barbecue grill, so instead we've got the BBQ Garden. A good, full-sun location:
The tomato, basil, and pepper plants in the BBQ Garden have really taken off over the past month, to the point where S figured we could roll up the chicken wire fences for the year. These tomato plants and the ones in the half wine barrel seem to be doing better compared to the tomato plants in the main garden bed.
Oh, here's what's at the other end of that rope:
In the meantime, the Dark Dahlia is getting big, and the lavender makes me happy every time I look at it.
And the porch herbs and smaller fig are pretty satisfying, too.
Overall I think we've reached a pretty good state with the garden and house plants. S would really love to take out all of the burning bushes on this property, which is understandable. But it isn't my top priority, because this is a rental house, and I've got too many other projects to work on in the meantime.
Time to stockpile more raspberries so we can make more of that delicious raspberry sorbet.
This garden bed is known as the BBQ Garden, because it originally looked like it used to be the site of a barbecue grill. Our lease explicitly says we can't have a barbecue grill, so instead we've got the BBQ Garden. A good, full-sun location:
The tomato, basil, and pepper plants in the BBQ Garden have really taken off over the past month, to the point where S figured we could roll up the chicken wire fences for the year. These tomato plants and the ones in the half wine barrel seem to be doing better compared to the tomato plants in the main garden bed.
Oh, here's what's at the other end of that rope:
In the meantime, the Dark Dahlia is getting big, and the lavender makes me happy every time I look at it.
And the porch herbs and smaller fig are pretty satisfying, too.
Overall I think we've reached a pretty good state with the garden and house plants. S would really love to take out all of the burning bushes on this property, which is understandable. But it isn't my top priority, because this is a rental house, and I've got too many other projects to work on in the meantime.
Wednesday reading
Jul. 9th, 2025 10:26 amasakiyumeLook at this! Posting about books I've read or am reading on an actual Wednesday. Wohoo, winning!
( The Lincoln Highway )
( Saint Death's Daughter )
( The Tail of Emily Windsnap )
( The Lincoln Highway )
( Saint Death's Daughter )
( The Tail of Emily Windsnap )
crossposter?
Jul. 9th, 2025 11:53 ammizkitDoes anybody have a functional crossposter from Wordpress (a private site, not the .com) to Dreamwidth? It turns out the one I was using doesn't work with scheduled posts, which I've been doing, and furthermore is abandonware so I'm deeply, deeply reluctant to pay money to use it to crosspost. And at this point, Dreamwidth is so legacy internet that nobody newer is crossposting to here.
Recent projects [projects, art, rowing, ants]
Jul. 8th, 2025 10:26 amrebeccmeisterSometime soon I am hoping to start on the project of refinishing a lot of the rowing club's oars. On some of the blades, the surface has worn down to the point where we're starting to scrape through the fiberglass layers. Other blades have chips and cracks. Not good. Those things ain't cheap!
Certain things clicked into place during a conversation with teammates about how to honor one of our teammates who has just moved down to NYC for three years while his fiancee undertakes a pediatrics fellowship there. P mentioned the idea of giving J a map of our section of the Hudson River, with our usual landmarks illustrated, so J would remember his rowing roots. When searching online, he wasn't able to find anything of the sort, but that all gave me Ideas.
Here's the original dirty old blade I worked with, one of a bunch of blades I salvaged when teammates wanted to throw them all away as Useless Boatyard Junk:
After sanding the blade down and coating it with primer, I put the first layer of paint on with a bristle brush, and quickly concluded I didn't like that application method, for reasons such as what can be seen here:
I switched over to a foam brush for the subsequent layers, which worked well enough for this purpose. Oar blade painting is almost as stressful as putting on coats of varnish, except at least oar blades are much smaller and easier to reposition. When it comes to repainting the oars the club uses, I'll mix in a couple of paint additives that a teammate recommended based on her prior efforts to repaint oars about a decade ago.
I used SignPainter's One Shot for the major design elements:
Then some Sharpies and more One Shot for the finishing details. Overall I'm pleased with how it turned out! I don't know how durable the SignPainters One Shot is, but hopefully durable enough?
As I told J, I'm now hoping that he can convince his future father-in-law to come up with a good method for mounting the oar for display, since his future father-in-law is a really good woodworker. And if the FFiL does...maybe additional ones can be made for the other 5 blades in the pile? That has been one of the aspects of Art Oars that I just don't really want to deal with.
I should point out that I've been carting around one of the oar blades in the pile since the Texas days, so it might be another decade before I'm struck by inspiration again, heh. Still - these are nice materials to work with for the sake of making display/art items for rowers.
----
Project 2 came from thinking that my research students and I should make something to commemorate our summer of research work. Just based on our personalities, I came up with the idea of some sort of "Easily Distracted by Ants" concept. One of my research students is artistically inclined, and agreed to create a design based around that concept. After working on it, she got inspired to make a second design featuring the name of the ant species we're working with.
Once I showed the designs to S, he asked if we would like to do DIY screenprinting if supplied with a screen, ink, and squeegee. But of course!
On Sunday I picked up a stack of blank shirts at Goodwill, and yesterday I got additional shirts from 2 of 3 students, to print on.
The first design, which also went on the front of all the shirts:
Design on the back of all the shirts:
Shirts waiting while they dry:
I am SO PLEASED with these. There are definitely going to be more rounds of shirt-printing in the future.
So now you have some idea of some of the things that have been keeping me busy lately.
Certain things clicked into place during a conversation with teammates about how to honor one of our teammates who has just moved down to NYC for three years while his fiancee undertakes a pediatrics fellowship there. P mentioned the idea of giving J a map of our section of the Hudson River, with our usual landmarks illustrated, so J would remember his rowing roots. When searching online, he wasn't able to find anything of the sort, but that all gave me Ideas.
Here's the original dirty old blade I worked with, one of a bunch of blades I salvaged when teammates wanted to throw them all away as Useless Boatyard Junk:
After sanding the blade down and coating it with primer, I put the first layer of paint on with a bristle brush, and quickly concluded I didn't like that application method, for reasons such as what can be seen here:
I switched over to a foam brush for the subsequent layers, which worked well enough for this purpose. Oar blade painting is almost as stressful as putting on coats of varnish, except at least oar blades are much smaller and easier to reposition. When it comes to repainting the oars the club uses, I'll mix in a couple of paint additives that a teammate recommended based on her prior efforts to repaint oars about a decade ago.
I used SignPainter's One Shot for the major design elements:
Then some Sharpies and more One Shot for the finishing details. Overall I'm pleased with how it turned out! I don't know how durable the SignPainters One Shot is, but hopefully durable enough?
As I told J, I'm now hoping that he can convince his future father-in-law to come up with a good method for mounting the oar for display, since his future father-in-law is a really good woodworker. And if the FFiL does...maybe additional ones can be made for the other 5 blades in the pile? That has been one of the aspects of Art Oars that I just don't really want to deal with.
I should point out that I've been carting around one of the oar blades in the pile since the Texas days, so it might be another decade before I'm struck by inspiration again, heh. Still - these are nice materials to work with for the sake of making display/art items for rowers.
----
Project 2 came from thinking that my research students and I should make something to commemorate our summer of research work. Just based on our personalities, I came up with the idea of some sort of "Easily Distracted by Ants" concept. One of my research students is artistically inclined, and agreed to create a design based around that concept. After working on it, she got inspired to make a second design featuring the name of the ant species we're working with.
Once I showed the designs to S, he asked if we would like to do DIY screenprinting if supplied with a screen, ink, and squeegee. But of course!
On Sunday I picked up a stack of blank shirts at Goodwill, and yesterday I got additional shirts from 2 of 3 students, to print on.
The first design, which also went on the front of all the shirts:
Design on the back of all the shirts:
Shirts waiting while they dry:
I am SO PLEASED with these. There are definitely going to be more rounds of shirt-printing in the future.
So now you have some idea of some of the things that have been keeping me busy lately.
Still running too high-octane [status]
Jul. 7th, 2025 12:48 pmrebeccmeisterI can't even remember where I left off. Ah yes. I didn't even get to blogging about taking my research students on a boating adventure Thursday morning. That was pretty entertaining, but definitely kept me very busy.
Friday I got all geared up and went bike camping with a small group of local bike people. We rode out to the Beebe Hill State Forest, where we camped out at a leanto and watched all of the fireworks shows along the Hudson River from the top of the fire tower there. Incredible views.
S was going to join up with the bike camping expedition on Saturday, but it fizzled out, so instead he and I just met up at Kay's Pizza at Burden Lake, ate lunch (not pizza, they weren't open yet), then biked home. If nothing else that at least got S out of the house for some miles.
That meant that instead of more biking on Sunday, I could get chores done, and then we headed over to Wolff's Biergarten to help a rowing teammate celebrate her birthday.
I'm feeling pretty frazzled today, but it's the penultimate day for my research students, so my goal is to just power through the day. I'm having them come over for a pizza dinner tonight, plus a DIY project to celebrate the end of our summer research period. We've gotten a lot done!
But I could really use some down time. Soon.
Friday I got all geared up and went bike camping with a small group of local bike people. We rode out to the Beebe Hill State Forest, where we camped out at a leanto and watched all of the fireworks shows along the Hudson River from the top of the fire tower there. Incredible views.
S was going to join up with the bike camping expedition on Saturday, but it fizzled out, so instead he and I just met up at Kay's Pizza at Burden Lake, ate lunch (not pizza, they weren't open yet), then biked home. If nothing else that at least got S out of the house for some miles.
That meant that instead of more biking on Sunday, I could get chores done, and then we headed over to Wolff's Biergarten to help a rowing teammate celebrate her birthday.
I'm feeling pretty frazzled today, but it's the penultimate day for my research students, so my goal is to just power through the day. I'm having them come over for a pizza dinner tonight, plus a DIY project to celebrate the end of our summer research period. We've gotten a lot done!
But I could really use some down time. Soon.
July 25, 2000
Jul. 4th, 2025 03:42 pmasakiyumeMy mood improved markedly with a visit from the tall one and his son, my grandkid, little treelet.
Wakanomori brought down a diary the tall one had kept as a kid: here is the entry from July 25, 2000, which includes our visit to Lloyd Alexander's house, where we put on a play for him and his wife Janine. Also included is a visit to the US mint in Philadelphia and commentary on the Delaware River (big!)
Wakanomori brought down a diary the tall one had kept as a kid: here is the entry from July 25, 2000, which includes our visit to Lloyd Alexander's house, where we put on a play for him and his wife Janine. Also included is a visit to the US mint in Philadelphia and commentary on the Delaware River (big!)
a handful of microfictions
Jul. 4th, 2025 11:35 amasakiyumeHaving some feelings, so ... have some microfictions.
May 20, prompt word "serve"
Directions for serving certain abstract dishes:
--revenge is a dish best served cold
--pornography is a dish best served hot
--satire is a dish best served salty
--mockery is a dish best served bitter
--disappointment is a dish best served sour
--romance is a dish best served sweet
June 26, prompt word "kind"
"May I pay you in kind rather than currency?" the woman asked. The man was selling Dastrian funerary masks, perhaps war loot from the last conflict.
"That depends. What you got to offer?" He was suspicious--she looked Dastrian.
"These magical birds."
Impressed, the man agreed.
As he neared home that evening, the birds suddenly took flight. They plunged through the windows of his house, seizing precious objects in their talons, and flew off.
Payment in kind.
July 2, prompt word "clear"
"I'm not guilty," I insisted. It was true. Sure, I'd taken the bribe and misplaced evidence, but I did NOT betray Pereira. Yet now all I got were angry looks and curses.
"My spell will clear your name," Lady One Eye said. I believed her and didn't notice when she added, "Clear it but good."
The next day, no one knew me. I introduced myself and they looked confused. I wrote out my name, but it was like they couldn't see it.
My name had been cleared into invisibility.
May 20, prompt word "serve"
Directions for serving certain abstract dishes:
--revenge is a dish best served cold
--pornography is a dish best served hot
--satire is a dish best served salty
--mockery is a dish best served bitter
--disappointment is a dish best served sour
--romance is a dish best served sweet
June 26, prompt word "kind"
"May I pay you in kind rather than currency?" the woman asked. The man was selling Dastrian funerary masks, perhaps war loot from the last conflict.
"That depends. What you got to offer?" He was suspicious--she looked Dastrian.
"These magical birds."
Impressed, the man agreed.
As he neared home that evening, the birds suddenly took flight. They plunged through the windows of his house, seizing precious objects in their talons, and flew off.
Payment in kind.
July 2, prompt word "clear"
"I'm not guilty," I insisted. It was true. Sure, I'd taken the bribe and misplaced evidence, but I did NOT betray Pereira. Yet now all I got were angry looks and curses.
"My spell will clear your name," Lady One Eye said. I believed her and didn't notice when she added, "Clear it but good."
The next day, no one knew me. I introduced myself and they looked confused. I wrote out my name, but it was like they couldn't see it.
My name had been cleared into invisibility.
What I'm Doing Wednesday
Jul. 2nd, 2025 01:42 pmsagebooks
Astrology for Yourself: How to Understand And Interpret Your Own Birth Chart by Demetra George, Douglas Bloch MA. Rev 2006. A bit outdated in terms of social examples, but the basics are sound.
not quite finished with: Chiron and the Healing Journey: An Astrological and Psychological Perspective by Melanie Reinhart. 2009 ed. Super creepy case studies, esp Jonestown, pre-De Klerk South Africa.
yarning
Didn't go to yarn group, though I was dressed, packed up, and ready to leave. I just couldn't get myself to get into the car and go. Or to work on the languishing bunnies on my own. It's true that crochet still hurts my shoulder and I haven't kept up my PT for it, but seeing people in person again would have been nice. And good for me.
( healthcrap )
fandom
Interview with the Vampire S3 is filming, and my tumblr dash is full of pics. It's delightful. I watched Murderbot through 1.6 & haven't yet caught up with the most recent 2 eps. So excited, though, to read that Martha Wells is polishing the final edits on the new Murderbot novella!
astrology
I'm studying hard, and it feels really good to be learning (and relearning) so much again.
#resist
July 4: Independence Day Boycott/Free America Protest/Weekend of Community Events
July 17: Good Trouble Lives On Day of Action (in honor of John Lewis, who died 7/17/2000)
I hope all of y'all are doing well & we US-ians have a happy Fourth of July weekend! If you go to a protest/march, please be safe! <333
Astrology for Yourself: How to Understand And Interpret Your Own Birth Chart by Demetra George, Douglas Bloch MA. Rev 2006. A bit outdated in terms of social examples, but the basics are sound.
not quite finished with: Chiron and the Healing Journey: An Astrological and Psychological Perspective by Melanie Reinhart. 2009 ed. Super creepy case studies, esp Jonestown, pre-De Klerk South Africa.
yarning
Didn't go to yarn group, though I was dressed, packed up, and ready to leave. I just couldn't get myself to get into the car and go. Or to work on the languishing bunnies on my own. It's true that crochet still hurts my shoulder and I haven't kept up my PT for it, but seeing people in person again would have been nice. And good for me.
( healthcrap )
fandom
Interview with the Vampire S3 is filming, and my tumblr dash is full of pics. It's delightful. I watched Murderbot through 1.6 & haven't yet caught up with the most recent 2 eps. So excited, though, to read that Martha Wells is polishing the final edits on the new Murderbot novella!
astrology
I'm studying hard, and it feels really good to be learning (and relearning) so much again.
#resist
July 4: Independence Day Boycott/Free America Protest/Weekend of Community Events
July 17: Good Trouble Lives On Day of Action (in honor of John Lewis, who died 7/17/2000)
I hope all of y'all are doing well & we US-ians have a happy Fourth of July weekend! If you go to a protest/march, please be safe! <333
Behind on multiple things but head's above water at least [status]
Jul. 2nd, 2025 12:24 pmrebeccmeisterThat's it, that's the post.
Monday we had a department summer potluck. To make that work, I got up early Monday morning to bake some frozen samosas and potato-onion puff pastry things, and made up a batch of delicious cilantro chutney to enjoy with them.
Then I had to scramble to put together a workshop on career networking that I held yesterday. Ultimately, only my own research students participated, but I think we got some things from the time and conversation. And I'm glad to have an initial version put together that I can continue to improve in the future.
There was a rowing club board meeting yesterday evening, and really, the net effect of all these things is very little down time to work on tasks that require concentration.
There are some lights at the end of the tunnel, thankfully. Our research intensive wraps up next Tuesday. Some of my July travel plans got canceled, so that should buy me more time at home to get myself organized and work on the things I'm behind on.
Overall, good problems to have. Just, the blog is getting the short end of the stick right now.
Monday we had a department summer potluck. To make that work, I got up early Monday morning to bake some frozen samosas and potato-onion puff pastry things, and made up a batch of delicious cilantro chutney to enjoy with them.
Then I had to scramble to put together a workshop on career networking that I held yesterday. Ultimately, only my own research students participated, but I think we got some things from the time and conversation. And I'm glad to have an initial version put together that I can continue to improve in the future.
There was a rowing club board meeting yesterday evening, and really, the net effect of all these things is very little down time to work on tasks that require concentration.
There are some lights at the end of the tunnel, thankfully. Our research intensive wraps up next Tuesday. Some of my July travel plans got canceled, so that should buy me more time at home to get myself organized and work on the things I'm behind on.
Overall, good problems to have. Just, the blog is getting the short end of the stick right now.
what fresh hell is this?
Jul. 1st, 2025 09:44 pmtrobadoraIt rained for three hours straight - thunderstorm, hail and torrential rain - and didn't cool done one bit. That shouldn't be allowed. And now we have all the heat and all the humidity, and ugh.
(Hi! I'm still here. Things are just very busy and I can't seem to find the time or energy for posting, much less keeping up with anything other than the![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sid_guardian discussions ... I hope everyone's doing well, whether you're caught in this heat wave too or not.)
(Hi! I'm still here. Things are just very busy and I can't seem to find the time or energy for posting, much less keeping up with anything other than the
sid_guardian discussions ... I hope everyone's doing well, whether you're caught in this heat wave too or not.)Readercon 2025 Schedule
Jun. 30th, 2025 03:50 pmoracneMy schedule is finalized! I didn't list participants in case there were changes.
Who will I see at Readercon next month?
The Works of P. Djèlí Clark
Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 1:00 PM EDT
Our Guest of Honor P. Djèlí Clark rounded out his first decade as a published author with a Nebula and a Locus for his fantasy police procedural novel, The Master of Djinn, and both those awards plus a British Fantasy Award for his monster-hunting novella Ring Shout. His short story "How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub" is short-listed for the Hugo this year. As a History professor at University of Connecticut, he investigates the pathways leading from West African storyteller/poets (griots, a.k.a. djèlí) to the American abolitionist movement. Help us celebrate the works of our honored guest!
The Purposes of Memorable Insults in Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 5:00 PM EDT
Some of the most quotable lines in science fiction and fantasy are zingers. Wit can do a lot to build a character, a world, and a universe, and has the ability to either support or undermine reader expectations. This panel aims to explore and elaborate on the use of wit—and especially takedowns—in literature, exposing how a verbal jab can serve as more than just a punchline.
Moving from Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing
Salon G/H Friday, July 18, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT
It's becoming increasingly common to hear of authors whose self-published work was so successful that they were picked up by a traditional publisher. But what of the authors who have gone the other way, by turning their backs on traditional publishing and going into self-publishing? Panelists will survey the varying reasons for making this transition, how authors have navigated it, and what this might say about the state of publishing overall.
Kaffeeklatsch: Victoria Janssen
Suite 830 Friday, July 18, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT
Meet the Pros(e) party
Salon F Friday, July 18, 2025, 10:15 PM EDT
Program participants are assigned to tables with a roughly equal number of conferencegoers and other participants, and then table placements are scrambled at regular intervals so that everyone gets to meet a new set of people in a small-group setting. Think of it as a low-key sort of speed dating where you need never be the sole focus of anyone's attention, and the goal is just to get to know some cool Readerconnish people. Please note that this event will include a bar and is mask-optional, unlike most other programming.
The Works of Cecilia Tan [I'm moderating this one]
Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 12:00 PM EDT
Our Guest of Honor, Cecilia Tan, has a publication history that spans Asimov's, Absolute Magnitude, Ms. Magazine, Penthouse, and Best American Erotica, among others. Writer and editor of science fiction and fantasy, especially as they intersect with erotica and romance, she is also the founder of Circlet Press, an independent publisher that specializes in speculative erotica. Her own writing earned a Lifetime Achievement for Erotica in 2014 from Romantic Times magazine. She also contributes to America's other pastime, baseball, in her role as Publications Director for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Come hear our panel discuss Cecilia's many talents and accomplishments.
Un-Kafkaesque Bureaucracies
Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT
In fiction, bureaucracies are generally depicted as evil in its most banal form, yet many of the actual bureaucracies that shape our lives exist to protect us from corporate greed. How can—and should—we tell other stories about bureaucrats and bureaucracies, particularly as the U.S. stands on the precipice of disastrous deregulation? And might fantasies of bureaucracy (such Addison's The Goblin Emperor and Goddard's The Hands of the Emperor) be the next cozy subgenre?
The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction
Create / Collaborate Saturday, July 19, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT
In an article of the same name (https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/endless-appetite-fanfiction), Elizabeth Minkel discussed how "2024 was the year [fanfic] truly broke containment—everyone seemed to want a piece of the fanfiction pie, leaving fic authors themselves besieged on all sides." Attempts to steal and monetize fanfic proliferated, as did reviews treating living authors as distant and unreachable. What do these trends say about larger changes in attitudes toward stories and creators? How can fans of all kinds nurture supportive connections to authors?
Boaty weekend: Rockland Regatta + Wood Boat Show [rowing, status, boatbuilding]
Jun. 29th, 2025 09:15 pmrebeccmeisterIt was an eventful weekend. I got up at 3:40 am on Saturday to head down to a regatta at Rockland Lake State Park. I was signed up for 3 events, which meant 6 races total, and a very full, busy, wonderful day in the sun. I also got to give a Top Secret present to a teammate who is moving away: an oar blade painted with a map of our stretch of the Hudson River. Photos to follow. All of the races went well! Altogether it was a very smoothly run regatta.
Saturday evening S came to get me and then we drove over to my Aunt C and Uncle D's house in Connecticut. It had been TOO LONG since I'd been over to visit, and wonderful to have even a brief period of time to catch up and hug them.
Sunday morning, S and I then headed over to the Wooden Boat Show at the Mystic Seaport. I got him tickets as a birthday gift. While getting a bite to eat and reviewing information about the show, I noticed that we had missed a talk on Saturday by a guy named Roger Barnes, whose internet videos about Dinghy Cruising we've been watching for years at this point. Drat! S joked that maybe if in the midafternoon we went back over to the pub on the Seaport Grounds that we'd spotted, we might just find him there.
Lo and behold, dear readers, we did!! I don't get fangirlish very often, but I definitely got fangirlish at that point. It took me a while to screw up the courage to go over and ask for a photo, and then, of course he was as kind in person as one would gather from the videos he creates. Cheers to that!
And that's to say nothing of all of the delightful boat-ogling we got to do. And to say nothing of how you can check out a boat for a half-hour to toodle around on the water, for free as part of your admission to the Seaport. We had so much fun in a small sailing dinghy of a type I'll have to ask S to describe for me again.
I took a thousand pictures, but those will have to wait until I have a few more minutes to process them.
I feel like I have so much to be grateful for right now. My heart is full.
Saturday evening S came to get me and then we drove over to my Aunt C and Uncle D's house in Connecticut. It had been TOO LONG since I'd been over to visit, and wonderful to have even a brief period of time to catch up and hug them.
Sunday morning, S and I then headed over to the Wooden Boat Show at the Mystic Seaport. I got him tickets as a birthday gift. While getting a bite to eat and reviewing information about the show, I noticed that we had missed a talk on Saturday by a guy named Roger Barnes, whose internet videos about Dinghy Cruising we've been watching for years at this point. Drat! S joked that maybe if in the midafternoon we went back over to the pub on the Seaport Grounds that we'd spotted, we might just find him there.
Lo and behold, dear readers, we did!! I don't get fangirlish very often, but I definitely got fangirlish at that point. It took me a while to screw up the courage to go over and ask for a photo, and then, of course he was as kind in person as one would gather from the videos he creates. Cheers to that!
And that's to say nothing of all of the delightful boat-ogling we got to do. And to say nothing of how you can check out a boat for a half-hour to toodle around on the water, for free as part of your admission to the Seaport. We had so much fun in a small sailing dinghy of a type I'll have to ask S to describe for me again.
I took a thousand pictures, but those will have to wait until I have a few more minutes to process them.
I feel like I have so much to be grateful for right now. My heart is full.