greenwoodside | Reading

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/2/5/the-cutest-rejection

Via uso_otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/2/5/the-cutest-rejection

watervole

Theo's 16 months old now.

When he saw his Dad through the window yesterday, he went and picked up his socks, shoes and jacket ready to put them on :)

He has a couple of 'proto' words now. I think 'ah da' may mean 'grandad', and 'duh' is duck.

He's got diarrhoea this week (really on the spectacular, lots of laundry, level) and hence can't go to nursery until it clears up. So we've been looking after him. Luckily, he's in a good mood in spite of the horrendous nappies and is happy to play and to have books read to him.

He goes through phases with books. Sometimes, he isn't interested at all, and some days it's book after book, with favourites on repeat.

'Hairy Maclary From Donaldson's Dairy' is one of the best children's books ever!

landofnowhere

A bunch of ground to cover today, as last week I focused on the Johanna Kinkel book, but I also read a bunch of other stuff. Also I am in the middle of not one but two SF novels with complex worldbuilding.

Elizabeth the Queen by Maxwell Anderson. Readaloud; this is a Broadway play from 1930 that just entered the public domain. Generally fun Elizabeth/Essex drama. Contains a Prince Hal/Falstaff play within a play, but it didn't feel the most effective use of metatheatre. Also it is silent on the Shakespeare authorship question -- I thought it might be a Baconian play because Francis Bacon appears and Shakespeare doesn't, but it doesn't drop any hints in that direction, nor does it mention Shakespeare's, though Burbage and Heminges are characters. Arguably this is realistic; people don't talk all the time about who wrote a play.

As You Like It, William Shakespeare. Readaloud. I've lost track of how many times I've read this aloud, but it is still a very good play. This time around I mainly noticed all the talk about how winter's not so bad really, which hits differently when you're in the northern US and in the middle of weeks of sub-freezing weather. But the Forest of Arden has olive and palm trees, so it's clearly a different climate.

Swept Away, Beth O'Leary. Jo Walton recommends going into this one entirely unspoiled; I didn't, but I enjoyed it anyway. This is one of the books I had in mind when titling the post; the woman is 31, the man 23, which is not something I've seen much of in the genre.

Alien Clay, Adrian Tchaikovsky. Slowly making my way through this; the plot is progressing as I'd expect it to and we are getting to see alien biology up close! Excited to see where it's going.

Chroniques du Pays des Mères, Élizabeth Vonarburg. Post-apocalyptic matriarchy with complex worldbuilding and good writing. Not only is it a meaty SF book, it's in French, so I may not be picking up everything that I could be. On the other hand I'm reading it at a set pace for an online book group, so I get to hear other people noticing things I'm not. There have been some exciting revelations and I'm restraining myself from reading ahead, but might reread to help figure out what's going on.

isis

What I've recently finished reading:

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo, which was enjoyable, although I really dislike the structure of having one POV in first person past and the other POV in third person present, it just feels weird to me. Basically a whodunnit with fox spirits. I liked the old lady the best!

The Hyena and the Hawk by Adrian Tchaikovsky - the conclusion of the Echoes of the Fall trilogy, and really not so much about the hyena and the hawk, but it does make for a nice alliteration. This was a great ending for the series, really fascinating worldbuilding, and as usual (for Tchaikovsky) it plays with the concepts of Us and The Other, and how to bridge the gap of understanding in order to appreciate The Other as Persons. Speaking of which,

What I'm reading now:

Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which so far (20% in) is very much like Alien Clay except also very much not like it.

What I'm watching now:

We're about halfway through Pluribus. It's very slick and clever, a bit slow, I'm not sure if I like it, but I will watch the whole season, anyway. I am particularly charmed by all the random extras looking very much like regular everyday people. Also, Albuquerque! That's not too far out of my backyard...

What I'm playing now:

Still Ghost of Tsushima. I've rescued my uncle and am on to the second part of the story!

bunn

The foster kittens and their mum are gone! Binx has gone to a new home, but Dumpling and Gusgus's home dropped out at the last minute so they are at the rescue tonight. Dumpling has a second offer and will be going there tomorrow morning.

Someone is interested in Gusgus too, but that's not finalised, and they will all be going to different homes.

I'm a bit sad because they were still very fond of one another and spent most of their time playing or cuddled up. Still, they say it's harder to find homes for black cats, and I'm sure they will adjust. Binx will be happy to have a bit more human company and would really like to be able to go into the garden, which in her new home she can.

I added some photos from today to my foster kittens album.

I let them into the room where the boat lives for a bit to play this morning, and they were delighted to find some hedge clippings waiting in there to go to the recycling centre.

Gusgus also scaled the Mirror and explored it, and 'helped' me untangle all the straps I used to put the boat on the car. He really is gigantic for his age: he's 13 weeks and over 1.8 kilos already! He's going to be a monster cat.

sovay

In compensation for a day-consuming stat appointment, I got to spend some more time with the Salem Street Burying Ground and found one of those puddled-iron sunsets on the way home. I hadn't brought my camera, but I had my phone.

( So I break every mirror to see myself clearer. )

I seem to have missed Candlemas this year, so have a belated invocation to Brigid: Emma Christian, "Vreeshey, Vreeshey." The temperature rose to just freezing this afternoon and a whole shelf of snow-crust calved off the roof onto the front steps.

Current Music: Rose Betts, "Save Me a Seat"

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: calm

vivdunstan

As with Paris we’ve taken out a one month Discovery+ subscription (£3.99*) so we can watch the Olympics, this time the Winter Olympics. With better viewing options and more live streams than will be on the BBC. The Winter Olympics have already started some sports, and we are currently tuned in live to a British (well two Scots) Winter Olympics curling match.

* the £3.99/month Entertainment package includes the 2026 Winter Olympics. No need to go for the phenomenally expensive £30+/month TNT Sports option.

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: relaxed

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: chipper

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: bouncy

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/2/4/watch-a-sea-otter-pup-eat-snacks

Via VAMMRS, which writes, “Take a break and have a snack with Tofino the sea otter pup.”

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/2/4/watch-a-sea-otter-pup-eat-snacks

mark posting in

dw_maintenance

Hi all!

I'm doing some minor operational work tonight. It should be transparent, but there's always a chance that something goes wrong. The main thing I'm touching is testing a replacement for Apache2 (our web server software) in one area of the site.

Thank you!

effinbirds_feed

https://effinbirds.com/post/807555901273882624

A woodcut of a bird beside the text "go fuck a tree"

https://effinbirds.com/post/807555901273882624

cahn

Our beloved problematic author, Flavius Josephus, with the wild plot twist in the middle! Is anyone still interested in doing this thing?

I have the Oxford World Classics edition; I looked around and I liked this translation, and it's got copious footnotes. Each "book" is a little less than 100 pages on my kindle, and I think I can probably read about 50 pages every week (we can see how it goes and whether I can go faster or must go slower), so I propose dividing the first "book" into two, and reading half one week and half the next. (I did read the intro this past week, but I'm not sure how much I got out of it.)

selenak, would you be able to find a good dividing point of that first book? My goal would be to post every weekend (probably on Sunday, but depending on time) on the reading thereof.

I also feel I should open up this post for general classics discussion if anyone wants it. Depending on how my reading goes I also reserve the right in this post to review whatever other random classics-related or modern-historical-novels-set-in-the-time-of-the-classics reading I do.