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brithistorian) wrote2025-06-02 09:12 pmPeople download things...
Today I got latest readership summary on my first master's thesis, on British educational policy, 1901-03. Apparently during the month of May, my thesis was download 10 times: Six times in Brazil and once each in Ecuador, Germany, the US, and Uzbekistan(?!). I wonder how many of those are going into training AI? (But like A. said "At least if they're using it for that, you know they're training the AI on something well-researched." Which is true — I spent hours sitting in the library reading Hansard's Parliamentary Debates on microform.)
thisbluespirit) wrote2025-06-02 08:29 pmStarfall Stories 47
Name: Trap for the Unwary
Story: Starfall
Colors: Warm Heart #1 (Hope); Vert #28 (Fear less, hope more)
Supplies and Styles: Chiaroscuro + Thread
Word Count: 2375
Rating: PG
Warnings: Imprisonment, nausea.
Notes: Portcallan, 1313; Leion Valerno. (Leion's side of On the Trail.)
Summary: Leion walks into a trap.
Name: Blink of an Eye
Story: Starfall
Colors: Beet red #18 (Easy does it); Azul #19 (Trust the strength of another)
Supplies and Styles: Pastels (for
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no_true_pair prompt "March 27th - Osmer and Pello out in the woods") + CanvasWord Count: 1091
Rating: G
Warnings: None.
Notes: 1311 somewhere in High Eisterland; Osmer Nivyrn, Pello Ahblan. (Slightly random snippet as yet.)
Summary: Pello gets his first taste of the Paths.
ffutures) wrote2025-06-02 07:20 pmAnother RPG Bundle - Pride Games
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/PrideGames
I think I remember a couple of these as being in a charity bundle in support of transexual rights in Florida a couple of years ago - I'm not 100% sure since that was a very large bundle. If you bought that you may want to check before buying this one.
brithistorian) wrote2025-06-02 11:09 amOne thing leads to another
I'm currently reading the May 2025 issue of Artforum and wanted to share with you some of the things I learned and, in the process, demonstrate how my mind connects things. One of the current exhibitions reviewed in this issue is of paintings by Alex Israel at Gagosian Beverly Hills, which was accompanied by a reproduction of Israel's 2024 painting "Gas Station."
Upon learning that this gas station actually exists, my thoughts immediately went to William Gibson's short story "The Gernsback Continuum" (published in Burning Chrome).
I then returned to the review, where the final paragraph begins with this sentence: "The works' very status as paintings—as art in a gallery—aligns them, moreover, with the long tradition of veduta painting, that of architectural scenes that don't necessarily demand forensic accuracy, edging sometimes into outright fantasy." Having never heard of veduta painting, I immediately looked it up (link here), and discovered I was familiar with this style of painting (the name comes from the Italian for "view"), just not with the word. From that page, I followed the link to capriccio, which is a form of architectural fantasy art and, again, something I was familiar with but hadn't known the name of. As it happened, one of the images illustrating the Wikipedia entry for "capriccio" was a piece by Giovanni Battista Piranesi called "Le Carceri d'Invenzione (The Prisons of Invention)."
This picture immediately caught my eye, because it reminded me of M.C. Escher's works, particularly "Relativity" and "House of Stairs".
This sort of connection-making, going from Alex Israel to William Gibson to Giovanni Battista Piranesi to M.C. Escher, bouncing back and forth over several centuries, is very much how my mind works. I'm constantly feeding in new bits of knowledge, which then bounce off of each other, make connections, and enable me to produce new things.
brithistorian) wrote2025-06-01 08:31 pmSummer Reading Program!
When I was a kid, the library summer reading program was one of my favorite events of the year. First of all, there were the events at the library, which were not only a lot of fun but also ensured that I got taken to the library at least once a week. Secondly, being encouraged to read lots of books and keep a list of the books that I read was a great thing for a hyperlexic kid. I'm like "Yes! Please reward me for something I want to do anyway!"
I've seen a number of people on social media talking about they wished there were things like the library summer reading program and the Scholastic book fair for grown-ups, and now there is! The American Historical Association is holding a Summer Reading Challenge!
The challenge is to complete at least three tasks from this list between June 1 and Labor Day:
- Read a history of an event with a major anniversary in 2025.
- Read a history of a resistance movement.
- Read a history that uses material culture.
- Read an edited collection, journal forum, or other multi-author work.
- Read a history that's been sitting on your shelf too long.
- Read a piece of historical fiction (novel, story, poem, play)
Right now I'm mentally taking task 5 off the table, because unless I go out and buy a new book for the challenge (which I don't anticipate doing), all of the books I read will be histories that have been sitting on my shelf too long.
I got started today, starting to read Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, with a goal to finish it by the end of June.
You can read more about the AHA's 2025 Summer Reading Challenge here, and if you see the hashtag "#AHAReads" around your social media, now you know what it is.
brithistorian) wrote2025-06-01 11:55 amApparently the real deal
When I designed Rumkick's "Drinking Every Day" as a song of the day, silveradept asked if they were actually punk or if they were a manufactured group made to appear punk. I happened upon a couple of Rumkicks interviews yesterday, (here and here), and it appears that they are indeed actual punks!
ffutures) wrote2025-05-31 10:34 pmDoctor Who
Really not sure about the New Doctor or how they'll explain it, but good fun anyway. Goodish explanation for the bone monsters, a good resolution for the babies, and leaves me wanting more.
shivver) wrote2025-05-31 12:55 pmQuick reactions to "The Reality War"
( Read more... )
ffutures) wrote2025-05-31 08:00 pmWindows Worries 2
Word processing etc - Libre Office seems to meet my needs well enough
Corel Draw replacement - Again, Libre Office seems to work well enough
Adobe Acrobat - Installed without problems and hopefully will work
Scanner - Also installed without problems, if anything seems better than it was on Windows 10
Now the exciting new problem... My Omnipage Pro 15 OCR software install couldn't happen, because I've lost the install serial number somewhere in the last decade or so. Also, I wasn't a huge fan of its user interface. Can anyone point me at a good alternative that won't break the bank? SimpleOCR is apparently free but has a clunky user interface, anyone got any good alternatives?
ffutures) wrote2025-05-31 05:54 pmThe Problem With Procrastination...
....is that I'm now backing up 64,366 of them to a USB drive. A LOT of those are pictures from eBay listings which I intermittently try to delete once the items have been sold - I think the last time I did this I was up to roughly the 400th directory out of nearly 3000. I can't just delete the lot because there are family photos in there too, and other pictures that I want to keep, while selective deletion takes a lot of time. It's easier just to copy the lot and putting them onto the new computer. I am, in other words, solving this problem by not solving it, and postponing the next round of deletion indefinitely.
Good thing the new computer has a 1TB SSD and 2TB HD!
kaffy_r) wrote2025-05-30 06:57 pm
Dept. of Remembrance
This is Mary Glen Keirstead Routliffe Stirling. She was born on May 30, 1927, in Greenwich, Nova Scotia, Canada. For most of her life, she lived within 10.5 miles of the house where a midwife delivered her.* Nova Scotia was where she died, on Oct. 27, 2013. Nova Scotia was her home.
In the 13 years since she died, I've generally remembered her on the anniversary of her death, and I'll undoubtedly do that again. But today, when she would have turned 98 if she hadn't moved on, I wanted to turn my face to the sky and sing Happy Birthday to her. I hope she and my stepdad, Rob Stirling, young and beautiful again as they were when they fell in love, are together.
And I like to think that after a modest dinner at a modest heavenly restaurant, with a birthday cake that has all the taste and none of the calories, that they will leave the restaurant, and dance together, twirling and laughing, in the stars.
I love you, Mum.
*She spent a short time in Montreal as a newly minted nurse, and later, in the years she was married to my father, she lived in or around Mont Joli, Quebec. Together, those probably consisted of no more than five years.
ffutures) wrote2025-05-30 09:37 pmWindows Worries
In particular, I think that it is probably time for me to replace Office 2003 with something a little more recent, but I really prefer something a lot more minimalist than later versions of Office - I really hate the way the menus occupy such a big part of the screen - is
- Later: I think Libre Office should be OK for my purposes.
I also need something like Adobe Acrobat pro for PDF file creation - previously using Acrobat X from 2010 - you can create PDFs by printing from a lot of applications, but if you want to replace pages etc. or make the table of contents link to the relevant page etc. or get rid of all the non-displayed bloat that finds its way into documents you need something better. Given the price of later versions I would appreciate suggestions on alternates.
- Update, I may have been panicking over noting - when I summoned up the nerve to try it, Acrobat installed without problems - haven't tried any big documents yet, but it's a good start.
Finally, I gather that Coreldraw 12 is not going to work - it was badly unstable on Windows 10 so I'm not surprised. Inkscape seems to be the recommended alternative and is free, any good alternatives?
- Later: looks like Libre Office is pretty good for this too.
Also, it looks like my scanner is not supported at all - any suggestions for a basic flatbed scanner that isn't hideously expensive?
Sorted; on a hunch I tried installing the last version, for Windows 7, and it works perfectly - in fact I think it was easier than when I installed it on windows 7...
brithistorian) wrote2025-05-29 08:12 pmDaring to be a beginner again
I went to an online manga drawing class put on by my local Japan America Society tonight. I haven't drawn in years, and I haven't really had any formal instruction, so I made a conscious decision before going in that I Was going to forget everything I think I know about drawing and just follow the teacher's instructions, even if they don't make sense to me or if I think I can see a better way, and to trust in the process. I think I did okay!
