Attolia

Marvel Trumps Hate

attolia — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 16:56:43 GMT

The Marvel Trumps Hate auction has started. I am offering the Infinity Gauntlet and Iron Gauntlet pictured below (auctioned separately) as well as a podfic.

There are also many other great items up for auction to support a wonderful group of organizations.

Go check it out!

attolia — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 23:53:03 GMT

Huh. Looks like I never made a book poll last year. Well, here is a list for both 2017 and 2018:

View Poll: #2088436

2018 review

attolia — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 22:16:06 GMT

I didn't get as much reading done in 2018 as I'd like but I did a fair bit of crochet: a scarf, a shawl, a beanie shark, 3 juggling sharks, and one infinity gauntlet.

First thoughts on The Six Thatchers

attolia — Sun, 01 Jan 2017 22:44:20 GMT

Well, that was dark. I was expecting a bit more humor. Perhaps not as much as in The Empty Hearse, but still... Maybe I missed some while switching streams or saw it all in the trailers. I think the dark atmosphere was overdone, particularly the slowmo voiceover at the very end.

The overall mystery was good. I liked the pearl as the red herring leading to the A.G.R.A. stick reveal. I want to go back and watch Sherlock's twitter cases so I can better tell what was going on.

I am glad we ended with likable Mary. I know she was controversial in series 3, but I really liked her in the 3.1 and 3.2. I find it slightly easier to believe John would want to cheat on Mary than that she (or Sherlock!) wouldn't find out about it. I assume the reason John is being a dick to Sherlock at the end is out of guilt.

I thought that Mycroft was going to get shot at the end rather than Sherlock. Could Mary just have pushed him out of the way? It would take more force than just moving herself but then maybe neither of them would have fatally wounded.

What was with that clip of Mary telling Sherlock to go to hell? I don't remember if that was in the trailer for 4.2 or at the end of 4.1. I'll have to go back and check.

So, Sherrinford?

Book poll for 2016

attolia — Sun, 01 Jan 2017 06:17:37 GMT

Wow. I only read 36 books this year. Probably due to reading more fanfic than usual and far more political commentary than I needed.

Lovecraft Country was the best of the fiction, although I was also quite fond of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. 1491 would probably have stood out even in a longer list of nonfiction.

View Poll: 2016 book poll

Does anyone know what happened to delicious.com?

attolia — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 03:13:55 GMT

I haven't been able to get to my bookmarks at delicious.com for several days. Does anyone know what is going on with them? Did they go under while I wasn't watching?

Book Poll

attolia — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:46:29 GMT

I was too busy or distracted last New Year to post a book poll, so this one covers two years.

View Poll: 2014-2015 Book Poll

My favorite book by far was The Orphan Master's Son. My favorite for 2015 was probably The Country of Ice Cream Star with City of Stairs a close second.

In non-fiction, it is a tie between Tradition! ... because Fiddler on the Roof remains one of my favorite musicals ever, and Furiously Happy because it gives me hope.

Book poll for 2013

attolia — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 17:52:52 GMT

Another relatively short list this year. I have a smartphone now and I tend to read blogs or downloaded fanfic on it more than real ebooks. I should try to do something about that. I have been listening to a lot of short fiction via the Escape Pod podcase, which I recommed for daily commutes.

The poll is late this year because I spent the week between Christmas and new year working of my first (and likely only) fanvid. That also probably cost me a book or two for 2013, since I often try to finish up books-in-progress before the new year. My only real resolution this year is to get more and more regular sleep, but I'm going to try to read more, too.

View Poll: #1950979

The most interesting non-fiction book was probably Sleights of Mind. Gone Girl was the most engrossing of the fiction, although the Neil Gaiman stories came close.

I am currently in the middle of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, which is very good, but not something I find myself reading quickly.

My first fanvid!

attolia — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 05:16:27 GMT

For the past two years I've been hoping someone would make a Sherlock video to the song "Aha!" by The Backyardigans. This weekend I decided to try doing it myself. Here is the result:

End of year book poll

attolia — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 18:57:00 GMT

In 2012 I read (or listened to) just over half as many books as in 2011. I attribute that to reading too much fan fiction and political commentary (it was an election year) and to switching mostly to podcasts in preference to audio books. escape pod has some very good short fiction, but I haven't been tracking what I've listened to.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen was my favorite book this year. I also particularly enjoyed The Scottish Prisoner and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. I hope Bujold finds more stories in the Vorkosigan universe as I much prefer those to her fantasy works.

My favorite non-fiction was Ben Behind His Voices, which in addition to being a moving book, led me to the National Alliance on Mental Illness which proved to be an invaluable resource for someone with an affected family member.

View Poll: #1888134

attolia — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:09:22 GMT

Meme from nwhyte:

Bold the ones you have and use at least once a year, italicize the ones you have and don't use, strike through the ones you have had but got rid of.

I wonder how many pasta machines, breadmakers, juicers, blenders, deep fat fryers, egg boilers, melon ballers, sandwich makers, pastry brushes, cheese boards, cheese knives, electric woks, miniature salad spinners, griddle pans, jam funnels, meat thermometers, filleting knives, egg poachers, cake stands, garlic crushers, martini glasses, tea strainers, bamboo steamers, pizza stones, coffee grinders, milk frothers, piping bags, banana stands, fluted pastry wheels, tagine dishes, conical strainers, rice cookers, steam cookers, pressure cookers, slow cookers, spaetzle makers, cookie presses, gravy strainers, double boilers (bains marie), sukiyaki stoves, ice cream makers, fondue sets, healthy-grills, home smokers, tempura sets, tortilla presses, electric whisks, cherry stoners, sugar thermometers, food processors, bacon presses, bacon slicers, mouli mills, cake testers, pestle-and-mortars, and sets of kebab skewers languish dustily at the back of the nation's cupboards.

I don't have a lot that I don't use, although a few just barely make the once a year cutoff. I've gotten lazy and used bottled garlic for a while, but with what I have leftover from my CSA I may have to dig out the garlic press. It's possible I gave away the tortilla press. It was a gift I think I tried using just once.

Not on this list, but just used once a year, is our trifle dish. But that's because chocolate trifle at Christmas is a necessity!

I feel a new fandom comiong on ...

attolia — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 17:18:40 GMT

Unfortunately, I don't have the original source for this:

attolia — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:09:30 GMT

This year I read 115 books. Only fifteen were nonfiction, fewer than the nineteen Doctor Who related works I read. The best fiction were The Kite Runner and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Zombies vs. Unicorns was a close runner up, but, much as I liked the stories, I found the intra-story fake-rivalry annoying.

Life After High School: A Guide for Students With Disabilities and Their Families was probably the best nonfiction I read. It will be handy in the next few years.

View Poll: #1807579

Fun with google ngram

attolia — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:44:54 GMT

Google has a new toy that lets you compare the frequencies of words and phrases in the millions of books they have digitized.

Poor Daffy:

I wonder what that bump is in the 1860's?

Hm, that trend with reason is a bit worrisome:

I think we're in trouble:

End of year Book Poll

attolia — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 18:34:33 GMT

This year I read 70 books (15 nonfiction, 55 nonfiction) and listened to 29 Doctor who audios (lots of long walks and commutes). The most memorable works of fiction were My Most Excellent Year of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park and Julian Comstock. My favorite works of nonfiction were The King's Best Highway and Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years with honorable mentions to We've Got Issues and How I Killed Pluto and Why it had it Coming.

Below is the list of all the books I read in 2010, roughly in reverse order of reading and split by category. I also ask for recommendations from the list of books on my shelf and those I don't have but have tagged as interesting.

View Poll: #1662693

Thanks for taking part in the poll!

Alternate drwho season 5

attolia — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:54:25 GMT

I enjoyed season 5 and the eleventh doctor, but this thematically cleaned up version would have been really cool.

I write like who???

attolia — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:06:11 GMT

I really don't write very much. I had to go back to 2004 to find a sample of any length, just to find out that

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I am so uninspired.

Time Agent Accessories

attolia — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:04:35 GMT

I guess we should be glad Captain Jack skipped the cargo hat!

Scale of the universe

attolia — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:40:35 GMT

This is a really cool interactive graphic showing the different scales things large and small in the universe.

Auctions to support Partners In Health for Haiti

attolia — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:18:19 GMT

Following the example of invisible_lift I am putting up most of my Torchwood and John Barrowman related items on eBay with the proceeds to go Partners in Health which has been working in Haiti for 20 years.

The items listed include hardback copies of Anything Goes and I Am What I Am by John Barrowman and Carol E. Barrowman, The 2009 Torchwood Yearbook, and Torchwood novels Slow Decay, Into the Silence, Bay of the Dead, The House That Jack Built, Consequences and The Undertaker's Gift.

More information can be found here.

End of year book post

attolia — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:07:41 GMT

This year I read 72 books and listened to another 12. They comprised 65 fiction (including 35 sf, 10 historical, 8 fantasy), 18 nonfiction (including 5 parenting, 4 science, 3 memoirs), and 13 young adult.

Einstein's Telescope was probably the best of the nonfiction, though The Writer's Tale was the most fun. The City & The City was the best fiction, with Far North a close second.

View Poll: End of Year Book Poll

Torchwood rec (post COE AU)

attolia — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:15:49 GMT

This is the perfect Christmas fic. You should probably read the rest of the rabbit hole stories first, but they are wonderful, too, so that is no hardship.

Healthy Thanksgiving Pancakes

attolia — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:00:13 GMT

I tried making cranberry orange relish for the first time, knowing that I'm probably the only one in my family who will eat it. The recipe made nearly a quart, so I decide to get inventive. And I was hungry.

Cranberry Relish Pancakes

3/4 cup white whole wheat flour (regular wheat or white is ok)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/5 teaspoon baking soda

1T ground flaxseed (optional)

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon butter, melted

3/4 c cranberry orange relish

2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

Mix dry ingredients. Mix egg, milk, and butter, then pour into dry ingredients. Add relish and nuts. Mix just enough to combine all ingredients. Cook on griddle.

Makes about 10 pancakes. Leftovers can be frozen if your kids don't like the pancakes any more than the plain relish.

I ate these plain, but I bet they'd be really good with orange syrup or orange marmalade.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Still Alive

attolia — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:49:21 GMT

This song gets a lot of play in our house, so it's often in my head. Suprisingly, I only had to tweak the lyrics a bit to make the following:

Still Alive (original by Jonathan Coulton)

This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here:
huge success.
It's hard to overstate
My satisfaction.
Russell T Davies.
He does what he does
Because he can.
For the good of all of us.
Except the ones who are dead.
But there's no sense crying
Over every mistake.
You just keep on trying
Till you run out of cake.
And the Drama gets done.
Though it isn't much fun.
For the people who are
Still alive.

I'm not even angry.
I'm being so sincere right now.
Even though you broke my heart.
And killed me.
And tore me to pieces.
And threw every piece into a fire.
As they burned it hurt because
I was so happy for you!
Now the five long hours
Made a very tense show
And it's finally aired
And Captain Jack's gotta go.
But I'm glad I got burned.
Think of all the praise you've earned
From the people who are
Still alive.

OK Jack's leaving.
Maybe he'll find someplace to hide.
Or maybe you'll find some way
You can help him.
Like bringing back Ianto.
That was a joke. Ha, ha. Fat chance.
Anyway this cake is great
It's so delicious and moist
Look at me still talking when you've writing to do.
When I look out there
It makes me glad I'm not you.
You'll have new programs to run.
There is plotting to be done
On the people who are
Still alive.

At least some of them are still alive.
For the moment they are still alive.
But in the end, only Jack's still alive.
While they're dying he'll be still alive
And when they're dead he will be still alive.
Still alive
Still alive

Note: I really do think the series was a huge success, but the second verse above perfectly captures how I felt for the three days after watching it.

ETA: lyrics revised 2009-12-06

Writing is cathartic.

attolia — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:47:50 GMT

Five Things That Didn't Happen in The Children of Earth

-1-

Ianto Jones died in the Hub explosion, although he never knew it. Yes, the back of his head and his collar were drenched in blood and guts. But when he noticed, he assumed it was Jack and went on trying to rescue his boss.

When he revived in a room full of of red-wrapped corpses, Ianto saw Jack and Gwen looking, in turns, devastated, comically shocked, and hysterically joyful. Jack told them how he had kissed Ianto to life once before and proceeded to demonstrate.

A similar (but more appropriate) technique revived Stephen.

But when the government threatened to draft Jack to the NHS, he and Ianto left the planet.

-2-

Ianto went back to Cardiff, to help his sister, niece, and nephew, while Jack and the others tried to find a way to fight back. They stayed in constant communication and Ianto was listening, surrounded by the estate's children, when the solution was proposed. With trepidation, Ianto asked for volunteers, knowing the children couldn't really comprehend the risk. But, with five brave kids and a pirate radio station, the signal went out.

One of the neighbor's children lost her sight in one eye and young David was left with a ghastly tic. But he wore it as a badge of honor.

-3-

The last thing Ianto felt before died was the tingle of Jack's lips. The first thing he felt afterword was the taste of the dirt that had seeped into the coffin. It seemed to take aeons to work his way out in one minute bursts of effort between deaths, but in reality it took only twelve months.

He went straight to the new, open and, fortunately above ground, Torchwood Hub and found out that Jack was gone.

Another two years to find John Hart and convince him to use his barely functioning wrist strap to try to get a message to Jack.

"Hello. I'm alive again. Surprised me too. Look, I ... I understand why you had to leave and why you might not be ready to come back. But if you do. When you do. I think ... It looks like I'll still be here."

-4-

As Stephen shattered and broke, Ianto watched Jack shatter and break with him. Then he did what he did best and started cleaning up. Jack was gone before he he had a chance to notice.

Six months later he was begging Jack to come back. Not to go even further away. But he understood. It was part of his job to be in the line of fire. Yet he, not Stephen, had survived.

-5-

Jack started to protest when Dekker told him how they could transmit the signal, but Ianto knew what would happen. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again and shot Jack in the head.

"Get Stephen" he told Agent Johnson and had her men secure Jack to a chair. He shot Jack twice more before it was all done, because he couldn't bear to hear him.

"He wouldn't have done it?" Johnson asked him, after.

"Oh, he would." Ianto answered. "But this way, it's all on me."

Jack never spoke to Ianto again. Never even looked at him. But, at least, Ianto knew he would always be remembered.