The earth is too smart for us to break through
Oct. 25th, 2025 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sovayI know it is no longer news in the ravenous cycle of horrors that passes for the front page these days, but the fact that the man in the White House took a literal wrecking ball to it feels once again so unnecessarily on the nose, at least if it were satire I could be laughing. I know buildings are not human lives such as this administration ends and ruins with such pleasure of ownership, but the roses of the concrete-choked garden were real things, not just symbols, and so were the bricks and the tiles of the East Wing. I have nothing revelatory to say about this particular destruction in the midst of so much more personal violence except that I didn't want to let it slide into a tacit shrug, as if it were an ordinary exercise of presidential powers, another rock through the Overton window. Or a bulldozer.
So can we say we'll never say the classic stuff, just show it?
Oct. 25th, 2025 05:14 pmsovayIn fairness to June Lockhart, the first time I ever saw her she was sharing the same episode of Babylon 5 (1994–98) as Londo's card-sharping tentadicks and the latter seared themselves rather more indelibly into my brain, but with less than five minutes of her own in T-Men (1947) she stole far more of the film for me, so much that even knowing that a century is a graceful point to depart from, I am still sorry the world no longer contains her and all of her time. She moved from film to television so early that I always wondered if she had been blacklisted like Marsha Hunt, but the answer looks like not. I loved finding out about her tastes in rock music and my experience of her most famous and long-running roles was almost nil. It means I remember her, perhaps unfairly, twenty-two years old and looking like the fair-haired avatar of all the white picket fences in the world, coming effortlessly up to speed on their shadows. She should have worked with David Lynch.
(no subject)
Oct. 25th, 2025 02:02 pmskygiantsLast night genarti and I took advantage of Skirball Theater's remote Halloween production, a virtual Phantom of the Opera broadcast live every night for the next two weeks from a tiny apartment in New York City with a handful of actors, a variety of very small sets and very large cardboard props, and a lot of neat visual/camera tricks.
As a bonus feature, you can see exactly how most of the visual/camera tricks work because there's a second camera set up from the front of the apartment that shows the broader view of the cast and crew rushing around to cram themselves into the tiny sets and lurk in front of walls to cast dramatic shadows and so on. As a viewer, you always have the option to toggle between the main, intended view and the backstage view to see how they're doing whatever they're doing -- tbh this in itself made it worth the price of admission for me, as a person who loves practical effects. See Carlotta's entry evoked by a giant high-heeled foot and then toggle over to the crew member carefully dangling the foot into the frame! Superb!
The production itself evokes the aesthetics of German expressionist film, with an operatic organ soundtrack and most of the dialogue conveyed by classic silent film inter-, sub- or supertitles. It's a shock when the Phantom speaks out loud to Christine, and she speaks back to him. When Raoul says he heard someone in her dressing room, Christine looks understandably baffled by the way this breaks the rules: how could a silent film man hear an angel speak?
Christine can also break the silent film framework to sing, as trained, and, eventually, talk out loud about the Phantom as well as to him, but not about anything else. I love this conceit and I think it's probably the coolest thing the show does thematically.genarti remarked while watching that she'd also never seen a Phantom with this much actual opera in it. The production is definitely interested in Opera qua opera -- trying to say something about Art and the temporality of all artistic media and the fact that opera itself is a dying form, and tbh I'm not sure that it fully landed for me. However this may have been because these Themes were mostly conveyed in a big speech by the Phantom actor at the beginning as he puts on his makeup, and the biggest technical problem with the show (at least on the night that we saw it) was that the Phantom actor's mic was way out of balance with the background music and he was always kind of hard to hear. Which perhaps is thematic in and of itself!
Anyway, I really enjoyed the experience, worth my $20 to sit on my couch with the lights out and toggle between a Spooky Silent Phantom and a tiny apartment full of theater professionals moving tiny sets back and forth to make Spooky Silent Phantom happen, would recommend.
genarti and I took advantage of Skirball Theater's remote Halloween production, a virtual Phantom of the Opera broadcast live every night for the next two weeks from a tiny apartment in New York City with a handful of actors, a variety of very small sets and very large cardboard props, and a lot of neat visual/camera tricks. As a bonus feature, you can see exactly how most of the visual/camera tricks work because there's a second camera set up from the front of the apartment that shows the broader view of the cast and crew rushing around to cram themselves into the tiny sets and lurk in front of walls to cast dramatic shadows and so on. As a viewer, you always have the option to toggle between the main, intended view and the backstage view to see how they're doing whatever they're doing -- tbh this in itself made it worth the price of admission for me, as a person who loves practical effects. See Carlotta's entry evoked by a giant high-heeled foot and then toggle over to the crew member carefully dangling the foot into the frame! Superb!
The production itself evokes the aesthetics of German expressionist film, with an operatic organ soundtrack and most of the dialogue conveyed by classic silent film inter-, sub- or supertitles. It's a shock when the Phantom speaks out loud to Christine, and she speaks back to him. When Raoul says he heard someone in her dressing room, Christine looks understandably baffled by the way this breaks the rules: how could a silent film man hear an angel speak?
Christine can also break the silent film framework to sing, as trained, and, eventually, talk out loud about the Phantom as well as to him, but not about anything else. I love this conceit and I think it's probably the coolest thing the show does thematically.
genarti remarked while watching that she'd also never seen a Phantom with this much actual opera in it. The production is definitely interested in Opera qua opera -- trying to say something about Art and the temporality of all artistic media and the fact that opera itself is a dying form, and tbh I'm not sure that it fully landed for me. However this may have been because these Themes were mostly conveyed in a big speech by the Phantom actor at the beginning as he puts on his makeup, and the biggest technical problem with the show (at least on the night that we saw it) was that the Phantom actor's mic was way out of balance with the background music and he was always kind of hard to hear. Which perhaps is thematic in and of itself! Anyway, I really enjoyed the experience, worth my $20 to sit on my couch with the lights out and toggle between a Spooky Silent Phantom and a tiny apartment full of theater professionals moving tiny sets back and forth to make Spooky Silent Phantom happen, would recommend.
Find Him Where You Left Him Dead, by Kristen Simmons
Oct. 25th, 2025 10:52 amrachelmanija
A YA novel about five friends who once played a spooky game that only four of them survived. Four years later, their friendship now broken, the ghost of their dead friend returns to drag them into a gameworld based on Japanese folklore. They must play again, for higher stakes, or else.
I like Japanese folklore, "years ago our group of friends did something bad that's now come back to haunt us," and deathworlds/gameworlds. This book sometimes hit the spot for me but more often didn't; it feels like the bones of a good book that needed a couple more drafts. The main issue, I think, is pacing. It's very fast-paced once it hits the gameworld, to the point where it feels like it's rushing from one scenario to the next, without having time to breathe. This also affects character. The characters are there, but they're a bit shallow because of the go-go-go pacing.
The best parts are a really excellent twist I did not at all see coming, and the scene where they all have to play truth or dare with younger versions of themselves at the ages they were when they first played the game. That part digs into character and relationships, not to mention the feeling of that game itself, in a really satisfying way. If the whole book worked on that level, it would have been much better.
There's a sequel that doesn't sound like it goes anywhere interesting.
Not the effort nor the failure tires
Oct. 25th, 2025 05:56 pmoursinJust one of those weeks that felt like a strain - lower back flareups and insomnia and long-scheduled commitments that could not be deferred -
Though I did get a few small bits of life admin accomplished, like finally making an appointment for the first session of dental inlay work and chasing up whether journal reviews editor actually got my review.
But at the moment having the blahs.
Database maintenance
Oct. 25th, 2025 08:42 am![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
mark posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_maintenanceGood morning, afternoon, and evening!
We're doing some database and other light server maintenance this weekend (upgrading the version of MySQL we use in particular, but also probably doing some CDN work.)
I expect all of this to be pretty invisible except for some small "couple of minute" blips as we switch between machines, but there's a chance you will notice something untoward. I'll keep an eye on comments as per usual.
Ta for now!
Attic Archaeology, Kitchen Cupboard version: Quae narravi, nullo modo negabo
Oct. 24th, 2025 07:32 pmelisem (I call housecleaning and sorting through old treasures "attic archaeology.")
Quite a while back, Joel Rosenberg and a number of us had a joke that there should be a Minnesota Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (MSFFWA), and its motto should be "Quae narravi, nullo modo negabo," which he told us means loosely "That's my story and I'm sticking to it." There were cups made, bearing motto and also logo, which was crossed sword and space shuttle over the shape of Minnesota.
(I cannot manage to upload the photos yet. I'll work on it.)
Quite a while back, Joel Rosenberg and a number of us had a joke that there should be a Minnesota Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (MSFFWA), and its motto should be "Quae narravi, nullo modo negabo," which he told us means loosely "That's my story and I'm sticking to it." There were cups made, bearing motto and also logo, which was crossed sword and space shuttle over the shape of Minnesota.
(I cannot manage to upload the photos yet. I'll work on it.)
Cigarette, Alka-Seltzer, career to the back of the place
Oct. 24th, 2025 06:20 pmsovayI can't listen to podcasts. It's the same problem as audio commentaries. They are difficult for me to extract information from. I make the occasional effort for friends or colleagues and otherwise read transcripts where available.
I have just discovered that Bill Nighy has a podcast. Apparently it launched on my birthday. It is the half-hour ill-advised by Bill Nighy. I am as we speak listening to the first episode which I selected at not very random considering there are only three so far:
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on where you are on the planet. Welcome to ill-advised by Bill Nighy—and the clue is in the title, particularly on the first word. The risk of getting to my age is that you can not infrequently be mistaken for somebody who knows what's happening or how to carry on, and you only have to take a quick look around the world to see how that's going, and how my generation are managing the planet, for instance. I mean, you may have picked up a few things along the way which might be of use, like, I don't know, parking, or online shopping, or not taking cocaine, obviously. But other than that, in all the big important things, I remain profoundly in the dark. But I try and keep a straight face when people start acting weird.
After which he immediately begins to tell the listener about his recent eye operation. It does eventually pertain to the nature of the podcast, but frankly it was such an ideal segue for a programme that bills itself as "a podcast for people who don't get out much and can't handle it when they do . . . a refuge for the clumsy and the awkward . . . an invitation to squander time" that it won me over to treating it as an audio drama whose laconically anxious and slightly acid narrator has a very good fund of self-deprecating stories that wind their way around to some species of advice, defined by Nighy as "not actually making things worse." He sounds unsurprisingly the way his interviews read. The difficulty of extracting information does not improve just because I like the speaker, but apparently I will now make the occasional effort for actors, too.
Update: the parking is a lie. Nighy spends most of the introduction to the second episode explaining that he cannot and never could park successfully. "I'd drive miles to find somewhere where you didn't actually have to park, you could just leave the car." Well done, Reginald?
I have just discovered that Bill Nighy has a podcast. Apparently it launched on my birthday. It is the half-hour ill-advised by Bill Nighy. I am as we speak listening to the first episode which I selected at not very random considering there are only three so far:
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on where you are on the planet. Welcome to ill-advised by Bill Nighy—and the clue is in the title, particularly on the first word. The risk of getting to my age is that you can not infrequently be mistaken for somebody who knows what's happening or how to carry on, and you only have to take a quick look around the world to see how that's going, and how my generation are managing the planet, for instance. I mean, you may have picked up a few things along the way which might be of use, like, I don't know, parking, or online shopping, or not taking cocaine, obviously. But other than that, in all the big important things, I remain profoundly in the dark. But I try and keep a straight face when people start acting weird.
After which he immediately begins to tell the listener about his recent eye operation. It does eventually pertain to the nature of the podcast, but frankly it was such an ideal segue for a programme that bills itself as "a podcast for people who don't get out much and can't handle it when they do . . . a refuge for the clumsy and the awkward . . . an invitation to squander time" that it won me over to treating it as an audio drama whose laconically anxious and slightly acid narrator has a very good fund of self-deprecating stories that wind their way around to some species of advice, defined by Nighy as "not actually making things worse." He sounds unsurprisingly the way his interviews read. The difficulty of extracting information does not improve just because I like the speaker, but apparently I will now make the occasional effort for actors, too.
Update: the parking is a lie. Nighy spends most of the introduction to the second episode explaining that he cannot and never could park successfully. "I'd drive miles to find somewhere where you didn't actually have to park, you could just leave the car." Well done, Reginald?
A World Worth Saving, by Kyle Lukoff
Oct. 24th, 2025 12:48 pmrachelmanija
A middle grade fantasy novel about A, a Jewish trans kid who has not yet chosen a name, and whose parents are forcing him to attend a teen conversion therapy group. He secretly texts with the other trans kids in the group and they support each other. When one of his friends disappears, he meets a strange being that constitutes itself from any discarded objects it can sweep up in a wind - a trash golem - that sets him on a mission.
A hooks up with a bunch of LGBTQ people living in a kind of homemade squat, discovers that the conversion therapy leaders are either demons or possessed by demons, and meet a very supportive rabbi and her husband, who know a lot about Jewish folklore, though - and what could be more Jewish? - they don't always agree about what any of it means.
( Read more... )
This is a sweet, affirming book for all the trans, nonbinary, genderfluid, and suchlike kids out there, and God knows they can use the affirmation. There's some quite beautiful and affecting moments - the first encounter with the trash golem has a blend of the numinous and comedic that reminded me of Terry Pratchett - and I loved the treatment of A's Jewishness and how that connects to both the fantasy elements and his community. I also liked how A being in a liminal space - he's given up his old name but not yet chosen a new one, he's parted from his family and joining a new one, etc - ties in with the book's time period, the Days of Awe, when all is written but not yet sealed.
The elements I did not enjoy so much were the pace, which gets very rushed toward the end, the sometimes Tumblr-esque quality which did make sense as it's about Tumblr kids but which I still find grating, and, unexpectedly, A himself. He's so self-centered and judgy, and though he does eventually learn better I did not like him. I did not enjoy reading all the scenes where he scolds his friends or they scold him, or when they end up telling him exactly why he's a bad friend and refuse to help him with his mission. I've read this exact form of conflict in multiple books recently, and while it's a real thing that happens, reading about it feels like nails on a chalkboard.
I didn't ultimately end up loving this book, but it has a lot of heart and I'm glad it exists. The somewhat similar book that I did love, which doesn't have those unpleasant "bad friends" dynamics, was Chuck Tingle's Camp Damascus.
Content notes: Transphobia is central to the story.
Today I socialised
Oct. 24th, 2025 07:29 pmoursinSome while ago I was invited to A Do for the retiring secretary of An Organisation with which I had had to do for many years over their archives and in other capacities. And since it had been this longstanding relationship and relations with the person in question had always been amiable, I said yes, I would go.
It involved a smallish lunch party in a restaurant on Battersea Bridge Road, which I discovered is nowhere near Battersea Power Station Tube station, which would have made it an easy-peasy journey from my starting place, but (according to Tfl) can be reached by a journey involving at least 2 Tube lines and at least one bus journey.
Excelsior: I set out on the 2 tubes, bus from Victoria, which involved rather a lot of faffing around the vicinity of Victoria station to find the relevant stop, and it was a nice day, and the bus journey, while it does take in things like Victoria Coach Station of unblessed memory, passes by some very nice bits of Chelsea including the Embankment.
Faffed around a bit more, having got off at the designated stop, trying to find the restaurant, but arrived in fact a little early though at least one of the other guests was already there.
And it was an agreeable occasion even if these were people I have not seen for yonks and did not know all that well outside of specific context then, and some I did not know. The food was good, though perhaps not so amazing that I'm inclined to make the odyssey out to Battersea again.
And then repeated the journey in the opposite direction, in company with one of the other guests who was bound for Euston.
2025 52 Card Project: Week 42: Quiet
Oct. 24th, 2025 12:12 pmpegkerrThis was one of those weeks that had me wondering, "What was this week about? What can I do for my collage?"
I had a hard time coming up with anything. The week was uneventful, and I have been feeling quiet inside. A little subdued, maybe.
The cold is starting to settle in, and I see frost on the grass in the mornings now.
I have been drinking hibiscus tea to try to bring my blood pressure down a bit.
Fiona and M came over for a visit last Sunday. Poor Fiona was so exhausted (hard work digging trenches during the day, welding classes in the evening, and up with a screaming baby at night), and so after I fed her apple pastries, I told her to go upstairs and take a nap on my bed while I hung out with M.
Babies are oblivious to schedules and deadlines. They live in the moment. I sang songs to her and let her stand on my thighs and bounce up and down (she has Strong Opinions and Takes Umbrage at traditional baby holds. No, no, no. She wants to stand). She fussed for a while until I gave her a bottle and let her sleep. I stared at her for half an hour, just drinking in her presence and enjoying the quiet, until Fiona awoke and came downstairs again, looking sleepy.
"Thanks," she said.
"Anytime," I told her. "Come back again to rest anytime."
Image description: A hand holds a brown leaf up against the sun. Top: a woman's hand cradles a baby's hand. Lower right corner: a cup of hibiscus tea with a slice of lemon floating on the surface of the tea. Semi-transparent overlay: frost on the grass.
Quiet
Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.
I had a hard time coming up with anything. The week was uneventful, and I have been feeling quiet inside. A little subdued, maybe.
The cold is starting to settle in, and I see frost on the grass in the mornings now.
I have been drinking hibiscus tea to try to bring my blood pressure down a bit.
Fiona and M came over for a visit last Sunday. Poor Fiona was so exhausted (hard work digging trenches during the day, welding classes in the evening, and up with a screaming baby at night), and so after I fed her apple pastries, I told her to go upstairs and take a nap on my bed while I hung out with M.
Babies are oblivious to schedules and deadlines. They live in the moment. I sang songs to her and let her stand on my thighs and bounce up and down (she has Strong Opinions and Takes Umbrage at traditional baby holds. No, no, no. She wants to stand). She fussed for a while until I gave her a bottle and let her sleep. I stared at her for half an hour, just drinking in her presence and enjoying the quiet, until Fiona awoke and came downstairs again, looking sleepy.
"Thanks," she said.
"Anytime," I told her. "Come back again to rest anytime."
Image description: A hand holds a brown leaf up against the sun. Top: a woman's hand cradles a baby's hand. Lower right corner: a cup of hibiscus tea with a slice of lemon floating on the surface of the tea. Semi-transparent overlay: frost on the grass.
Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.
New Worlds: The Retired Life
Oct. 24th, 2025 05:01 pmswan_towerHow many people have ever been able to afford to retire, and what has "retirement" meant through the ages, anyway? The New Worlds Patreon has some thoughts -- comment over there . . .
(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/79omGz)
(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/79omGz)
(no subject)
Oct. 24th, 2025 08:31 amskygiantsI recently had the excuse to reread my favorite epistolary romance, Zen Cho's novella The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo, which I love just as much now as I did when it came out in 2012, if not more.
The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo is set among the avant-garde literary circles of 1920s London, and Jade herself is a sharp young Malaysian writer who accidentally becomes the main character of the day by penning a scathing review of the latest book by Literary Darling Sebastian Hardie. Fortunately or unfortunately, Hardie thinks this is the hottest thing he's ever seen anyone do; moreover, Hardie's very accepting wife thinks Jade is so charming; and as for what Jade's handsome and serious editor Ravi thinks ... well, events unfold from there, carried along by Jade's unique and delightful and irrepressible voice. If every first-person protagonist I met had even a quarter of Jade's verve and personality, I would be content, but the fact that they do not just makes me cherish Jade all the more.
If you've not met Jade Yeo, or if like me you have indeed already met her and would like her to live in your house forever, the book is getting a new print edition through the small press Homeward Books and preorders have just opened!
(The Kickstarter also has NYC and Seattle book rec party tiers which unfortunately I cannot attend as i will not be anywhere near those locations but I very much hope someone else does and tells me about them.)
The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo is set among the avant-garde literary circles of 1920s London, and Jade herself is a sharp young Malaysian writer who accidentally becomes the main character of the day by penning a scathing review of the latest book by Literary Darling Sebastian Hardie. Fortunately or unfortunately, Hardie thinks this is the hottest thing he's ever seen anyone do; moreover, Hardie's very accepting wife thinks Jade is so charming; and as for what Jade's handsome and serious editor Ravi thinks ... well, events unfold from there, carried along by Jade's unique and delightful and irrepressible voice. If every first-person protagonist I met had even a quarter of Jade's verve and personality, I would be content, but the fact that they do not just makes me cherish Jade all the more.
If you've not met Jade Yeo, or if like me you have indeed already met her and would like her to live in your house forever, the book is getting a new print edition through the small press Homeward Books and preorders have just opened!
(The Kickstarter also has NYC and Seattle book rec party tiers which unfortunately I cannot attend as i will not be anywhere near those locations but I very much hope someone else does and tells me about them.)
The rose will grow on ice before we change our mind
Oct. 24th, 2025 01:35 amsovayI had a run-off-my-feet day, but I love the newly revealed cover for Afterlives 2024: The Year's Best Death Fiction, edited by Sheree Renée Thomas and shortly forthcoming from Psychopomp, in whose liminal mosaic is reprinted my queer, maritime, ice-dreaming story "Twice Every Day Returning." I am looking forward to that table of contents for myself. Have some links.
1. Courtesy ofisis: British Airways' "May We Haveth One's Attention" (2024) may be the most charming safety video I have seen since the legendary "Dumb Ways to Die" (2012). My only excuse for missing it last year is that I can't remember sleeping that month.
2. Courtesy ofmoon_custafer: James Cagney, Chester Morris, and Edward G. Robinson on a Ferris wheel in 1934. The dark glasses donned by Mr. Morris are doing him no favors whatsoever except that he's making enthusiastic eye contact in the sun-flooded overhead shot.
3. Courtesy offleurdelis41: "The thread about the Loyal Edinburgh Spearmen; a force of very doubtful military significance." The caricature of "Mr Dundas" with his beaver hat and spectacles reminds me irresistibly of an Edward Gorey character. The overenthusiastic lighting of the beacons actually made me laugh out loud.
4. I discovered the inimitably named Blackbeard's Tea Party some years ago with the furious drumbeat of their "Ford o' Kabul River" and then almost immediately lost track of them again, but as they seem to have come out since with the whaling EP Leviathan! (2018) and the nightmare siren song of "Mother Carey," we're still good. Since they closed their first album with "Chicken on a Raft," I am delighted that their recorded repertoire now also includes "Roll and Go."
5. I meant last week to link the Divine Comedy's "Invisible Thread" (2025), especially since it was my father who found it after I had sent him another song from the same album.
Her memory for a blessing, Darleane Hoffman who studied transuranic elements and still got to die at ninety-eight. She was not unstable.
1. Courtesy of
isis: British Airways' "May We Haveth One's Attention" (2024) may be the most charming safety video I have seen since the legendary "Dumb Ways to Die" (2012). My only excuse for missing it last year is that I can't remember sleeping that month.2. Courtesy of
moon_custafer: James Cagney, Chester Morris, and Edward G. Robinson on a Ferris wheel in 1934. The dark glasses donned by Mr. Morris are doing him no favors whatsoever except that he's making enthusiastic eye contact in the sun-flooded overhead shot. 3. Courtesy of
fleurdelis41: "The thread about the Loyal Edinburgh Spearmen; a force of very doubtful military significance." The caricature of "Mr Dundas" with his beaver hat and spectacles reminds me irresistibly of an Edward Gorey character. The overenthusiastic lighting of the beacons actually made me laugh out loud.
4. I discovered the inimitably named Blackbeard's Tea Party some years ago with the furious drumbeat of their "Ford o' Kabul River" and then almost immediately lost track of them again, but as they seem to have come out since with the whaling EP Leviathan! (2018) and the nightmare siren song of "Mother Carey," we're still good. Since they closed their first album with "Chicken on a Raft," I am delighted that their recorded repertoire now also includes "Roll and Go."
5. I meant last week to link the Divine Comedy's "Invisible Thread" (2025), especially since it was my father who found it after I had sent him another song from the same album.
Her memory for a blessing, Darleane Hoffman who studied transuranic elements and still got to die at ninety-eight. She was not unstable.
physical exam
Oct. 23rd, 2025 07:18 pmredbirdI went to my doctor today, for an annual physical and so she could write the next Ritalin prescription.
So: I had a fasting blood test last month, and the glucose number was high enough that she is ordering a re-test and an A1C test, which means another morning trip to Somerville on an empty stomach. My "bad" cholesterol is high, but not high enough for her to be prescribing statins right now. My "good" cholesterol is also high, but apparently that's less protective in older patients, and I'm approaching that age.
I also asked her to look at my calves, because I frequently have swelling by the end of the day, especially in the left calf. She said it sounded like a vascular issue, then measured the circumference of both my calves. The left calf is noticeably bigger, which supports the idea that there's some kind of vascular issue.
What I'm supposed to do for that is try to reduce my sodium intake, and try wearing compression socks for at least a little while each day. Reducing sodium intake means I'll be looking at ingredient labels for quantities--right now, I'm mostly checking to make sure that various things don't contain any of the various things that we know that one of the three of us needs to avoid.
Carmen also did a breast exam (no longer part of the standard physical exam, but she asked if I still wanted one, and I said yes), and looked at my back for any suspicious moles or freckles. Also, before the appointment they asked if I was OK having them check height and weight, and I said yes, then asked the assistant how tall I now am. Five feet two inches, confirming what I think is what the neurologist's office said, which is an inch or so less than when I was 30.
( grumbling about paperwork and MyChart )
So: I had a fasting blood test last month, and the glucose number was high enough that she is ordering a re-test and an A1C test, which means another morning trip to Somerville on an empty stomach. My "bad" cholesterol is high, but not high enough for her to be prescribing statins right now. My "good" cholesterol is also high, but apparently that's less protective in older patients, and I'm approaching that age.
I also asked her to look at my calves, because I frequently have swelling by the end of the day, especially in the left calf. She said it sounded like a vascular issue, then measured the circumference of both my calves. The left calf is noticeably bigger, which supports the idea that there's some kind of vascular issue.
What I'm supposed to do for that is try to reduce my sodium intake, and try wearing compression socks for at least a little while each day. Reducing sodium intake means I'll be looking at ingredient labels for quantities--right now, I'm mostly checking to make sure that various things don't contain any of the various things that we know that one of the three of us needs to avoid.
Carmen also did a breast exam (no longer part of the standard physical exam, but she asked if I still wanted one, and I said yes), and looked at my back for any suspicious moles or freckles. Also, before the appointment they asked if I was OK having them check height and weight, and I said yes, then asked the assistant how tall I now am. Five feet two inches, confirming what I think is what the neurologist's office said, which is an inch or so less than when I was 30.
( grumbling about paperwork and MyChart )
navigating tiny scissors in mirror image is SO HARD you guys
Oct. 23rd, 2025 07:57 pmwychwoodI'm feeling outrageously exhausted, but also I can only slack off so much because I'm in the office tomorrow, out all weekend with the Augustinian no-longer-youths, and then going to Mum's for the week on Sunday afternoon, which means I need to be more-or-less ready for the next ten days by bedtime. This is not in fact going to happen, but at least I've packed my work bag.
Of all the indignities of middle age that I was warned of, the most annoying so far is one that no one mentioned: my nose hair has suddenly started growing so long and luxuriant that it starts tickling the inside of my nostrils. What is this bullshit. Constant random tickling! I did not sign up for this!!
My flu jab went ahead fine (and no side effects except for the bruise) but they didn't have any private COVID vaccine on hand. They were supposed to get back to me about it, but they haven't yet, which I assume means they're having trouble finding it... and I'm not going to be available to pop in until November now anyway so there's not much point chasing right now.
We are solidly into Dehumidifier Season now. I've been trying to get at least some open-window time just for ventilation (it's smelling fairly stale in here) but it's so dank outside it makes the humidity worse if I'm not careful! Although I did manage to get the kitchen hygrometer up to 89% earlier this week, and it's not that wet outside even if it's still raining heavily. Ah, the joys of a damp climate.
Of all the indignities of middle age that I was warned of, the most annoying so far is one that no one mentioned: my nose hair has suddenly started growing so long and luxuriant that it starts tickling the inside of my nostrils. What is this bullshit. Constant random tickling! I did not sign up for this!!
My flu jab went ahead fine (and no side effects except for the bruise) but they didn't have any private COVID vaccine on hand. They were supposed to get back to me about it, but they haven't yet, which I assume means they're having trouble finding it... and I'm not going to be available to pop in until November now anyway so there's not much point chasing right now.
We are solidly into Dehumidifier Season now. I've been trying to get at least some open-window time just for ventilation (it's smelling fairly stale in here) but it's so dank outside it makes the humidity worse if I'm not careful! Although I did manage to get the kitchen hygrometer up to 89% earlier this week, and it's not that wet outside even if it's still raining heavily. Ah, the joys of a damp climate.