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Feb. 8th, 2026 03:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
summercomfortoops, 2 weeks have passed. yikes, I thought it's only been a week? And to think that I started the year with daily posting ambitions. But then again, it's been a busy month+. Hopefully things will be better from here on out, but I guess I shouldn't hold my breath, given our tendency to just ... keep doing more lol.
Quick accounting of what happened in the past 2 weeks:
- last last Tues I didn't go to mock trial, but I still had to drive the other teacher to mock trial, which led to a very hectic post-meeting hustling. But child was appropriately picked up, yey!
- last last Wed and Thurs were all days involving a lot of lesson prep and running around. Including a bonus trips meeting at lunch.
- last last Fri had the parent teacher conference, which went ... better than I'd expected. It seems like the math teacher is finally on the "Miss R has challenges and needs accommodations and support" train, instead of the "Miss R is underperforming due to unfathomable defects" train, so that's good. (note to self: send follow-up email about possibility of getting another evaluation earlier -- Kaiser says we're not allowed to retry until May, but the teacher said they may be able to move up that time frame?)
- oh yeah, last last Fri was also when the Mock Trial drama dropped, which was that the Mock Trial county organizer accused us of rostering in bad faith. In fact, we were just rostering in ignorance -- we didn't know about a rule that the Varsity needed to be staffed with 18 distinct people (last year was the first year of our team and there were barely enough to field a JV, double-rostered). Anyways, a lot of terse back-and-forths, as well as a lot of last-minute scrambling to rebalance our rosters and slot people into new roles at the very last minute (as in, the day before the trial)
- last last Sun was the taiko workshop, the last one in our current location! (Sad that we'll be moving, but there's thankfully both a new interim location and a new long-term location lined up. The new interim location probably won't be able to have Saturday AM classes, which means that we probably won't be going to taiko for a bit. But honestly that's fine -- mom is headed to China anyway, and we can have some chiller Saturday mornings. (oh wait, I just checked the slack channel, and we ... might be staying in our currently location until the new long-term location is set up? Which would mean no interim??)). Anyways, yes, taiko drama, but thankfully lots of competent people are on it. :)
- last Tues was Mock Trial, which of course meant I got home around 11pm. Really proud of the kids, though -- we got to semi-finals! Despite the last-minute re-rostering! Which, on the one hand, go team! But on the other hand: more time spent at Mock Trial practices, etc. Mock Trial has taken over my Tues/Wed/Fri afternoons for the last 3 weeks, aiyah.
- last Wed was our school's annual MLK day celebration. I ran a workshop about Confucian vs. Hollywood expectations re: "Asians", which was actually pretty fun, but also: tiring.
- Friday I was gonna have a chill day to catch up on stuff, but then Miss R didn't want to go to the all-day aftercare, so I had her along with me all day.
- Yesterday (Saturday) was long, but fun -- Miss R attended a friend's bday party, which meant Spouse and I got to eat some momos for lunch and do some grading at a different boba shop. Then, after Chinese School, I went to the birthday party of the Mock Trial coach. It was the first time in over a decade since I've gone to a party with adults who I don't know, so that was pretty exciting. Everyone prepared powerpoints to rant about their various pet topics, so that was very fun. After some thought, I decided to talk about the history of Chinese Romanization, which led me down some very fun rabbit-holes on Friday night. Watched a lot of people get very drunk, learned about Filipino monsters (and the fuckability thereof) and eggnog as a tiki drink. There were some very funny presentations about polyamory, the diversity of desserts, a loving roast of someone's shorts, and goats as the superior species. But also: got home at midnight.
Basically it's been back-to-back full days until basically today, sigh.
But hopefully things will even out! I don't foresee our Mock Trial team winning County (the top-ranked team in our country was 2nd in State last year), so Mock Trial stuff should end next week. I've already drafted a plan for next year to make Mock Trial more sustainable for me (main goal: I personally need to stop being at mock trial by 4:15pm so that I can get my post-school day downtime.) Taiko drama seems to be mostly evening out, and there doesn't seem to be any new major events for the next few weeks. I re-re-re-drafted page 3 and 4 of my Yamashita comic, so now I can re-enter the inking stage, which feels good. (phew! finally!) I want to power through a bunch of it in the coming week, which will hopefully mean I'll be caught up on my 1-page-a-week goal. (Currently I just finished page 3, and it's week 5??? of the new year).
I think the big thing that's been really draining lately is just the amount of executive function energy and teaching energy it takes to herd Miss R through her homework every day. This morning, it took her from 9:30am-12:30pm to do 1.5 pages of math problems. It was about 20 minutes of actual doing of math, and the rest is just ... focus challenges. And there's going to be more tonight. And it's a thing where the more tired I am, the more snappish I get, which then leads to Miss R shutting down more. I think we need to have a clear talk about this, and come up with some better recognition of what's going on, to wit:
- a way for her to clearly evaluate and indicate her level of spoons at any given time. Right now, sometimes she's able to focus for 5-10 minutes, but sometimes only 1-2 minutes, and that sense of "backsliding" is very frustrating to me.
- once we figure out her level of spoons, maybe there's different methods that trigger at different levels? Like, if she's only able to focus for 1-2 minutes, she really needs some non-screen-time rest so that she can bulk up to 5-10 minute focus chunks.
- also, we need a way to shortcut the avoidance/resistance chunk of time. Like, that time could be much more productive on both our parts -- I have better things to do than sit there and wait for her while she curls up in a ball or does all sorts of avoidant behavior. Maybe a "you clearly need some time to ramp up to this. How many minutes do you need?" And to make it clear that that time isn't spent avoiding, but rather doing something else??
Quick accounting of what happened in the past 2 weeks:
- last last Tues I didn't go to mock trial, but I still had to drive the other teacher to mock trial, which led to a very hectic post-meeting hustling. But child was appropriately picked up, yey!
- last last Wed and Thurs were all days involving a lot of lesson prep and running around. Including a bonus trips meeting at lunch.
- last last Fri had the parent teacher conference, which went ... better than I'd expected. It seems like the math teacher is finally on the "Miss R has challenges and needs accommodations and support" train, instead of the "Miss R is underperforming due to unfathomable defects" train, so that's good. (note to self: send follow-up email about possibility of getting another evaluation earlier -- Kaiser says we're not allowed to retry until May, but the teacher said they may be able to move up that time frame?)
- oh yeah, last last Fri was also when the Mock Trial drama dropped, which was that the Mock Trial county organizer accused us of rostering in bad faith. In fact, we were just rostering in ignorance -- we didn't know about a rule that the Varsity needed to be staffed with 18 distinct people (last year was the first year of our team and there were barely enough to field a JV, double-rostered). Anyways, a lot of terse back-and-forths, as well as a lot of last-minute scrambling to rebalance our rosters and slot people into new roles at the very last minute (as in, the day before the trial)
- last last Sun was the taiko workshop, the last one in our current location! (Sad that we'll be moving, but there's thankfully both a new interim location and a new long-term location lined up. The new interim location probably won't be able to have Saturday AM classes, which means that we probably won't be going to taiko for a bit. But honestly that's fine -- mom is headed to China anyway, and we can have some chiller Saturday mornings. (oh wait, I just checked the slack channel, and we ... might be staying in our currently location until the new long-term location is set up? Which would mean no interim??)). Anyways, yes, taiko drama, but thankfully lots of competent people are on it. :)
- last Tues was Mock Trial, which of course meant I got home around 11pm. Really proud of the kids, though -- we got to semi-finals! Despite the last-minute re-rostering! Which, on the one hand, go team! But on the other hand: more time spent at Mock Trial practices, etc. Mock Trial has taken over my Tues/Wed/Fri afternoons for the last 3 weeks, aiyah.
- last Wed was our school's annual MLK day celebration. I ran a workshop about Confucian vs. Hollywood expectations re: "Asians", which was actually pretty fun, but also: tiring.
- Friday I was gonna have a chill day to catch up on stuff, but then Miss R didn't want to go to the all-day aftercare, so I had her along with me all day.
- Yesterday (Saturday) was long, but fun -- Miss R attended a friend's bday party, which meant Spouse and I got to eat some momos for lunch and do some grading at a different boba shop. Then, after Chinese School, I went to the birthday party of the Mock Trial coach. It was the first time in over a decade since I've gone to a party with adults who I don't know, so that was pretty exciting. Everyone prepared powerpoints to rant about their various pet topics, so that was very fun. After some thought, I decided to talk about the history of Chinese Romanization, which led me down some very fun rabbit-holes on Friday night. Watched a lot of people get very drunk, learned about Filipino monsters (and the fuckability thereof) and eggnog as a tiki drink. There were some very funny presentations about polyamory, the diversity of desserts, a loving roast of someone's shorts, and goats as the superior species. But also: got home at midnight.
Basically it's been back-to-back full days until basically today, sigh.
But hopefully things will even out! I don't foresee our Mock Trial team winning County (the top-ranked team in our country was 2nd in State last year), so Mock Trial stuff should end next week. I've already drafted a plan for next year to make Mock Trial more sustainable for me (main goal: I personally need to stop being at mock trial by 4:15pm so that I can get my post-school day downtime.) Taiko drama seems to be mostly evening out, and there doesn't seem to be any new major events for the next few weeks. I re-re-re-drafted page 3 and 4 of my Yamashita comic, so now I can re-enter the inking stage, which feels good. (phew! finally!) I want to power through a bunch of it in the coming week, which will hopefully mean I'll be caught up on my 1-page-a-week goal. (Currently I just finished page 3, and it's week 5??? of the new year).
I think the big thing that's been really draining lately is just the amount of executive function energy and teaching energy it takes to herd Miss R through her homework every day. This morning, it took her from 9:30am-12:30pm to do 1.5 pages of math problems. It was about 20 minutes of actual doing of math, and the rest is just ... focus challenges. And there's going to be more tonight. And it's a thing where the more tired I am, the more snappish I get, which then leads to Miss R shutting down more. I think we need to have a clear talk about this, and come up with some better recognition of what's going on, to wit:
- a way for her to clearly evaluate and indicate her level of spoons at any given time. Right now, sometimes she's able to focus for 5-10 minutes, but sometimes only 1-2 minutes, and that sense of "backsliding" is very frustrating to me.
- once we figure out her level of spoons, maybe there's different methods that trigger at different levels? Like, if she's only able to focus for 1-2 minutes, she really needs some non-screen-time rest so that she can bulk up to 5-10 minute focus chunks.
- also, we need a way to shortcut the avoidance/resistance chunk of time. Like, that time could be much more productive on both our parts -- I have better things to do than sit there and wait for her while she curls up in a ball or does all sorts of avoidant behavior. Maybe a "you clearly need some time to ramp up to this. How many minutes do you need?" And to make it clear that that time isn't spent avoiding, but rather doing something else??
[vid] I Like Birds (Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper)
Feb. 8th, 2026 10:02 amstarladysource: Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper
audio: Eels, "I Like Birds"
length: 2:31
download: 306MB on MediaFire
summary: Christian Cooper likes birds.
AO3 page | YouTube link
Lyrics on AZ Lyrics
audio: Eels, "I Like Birds"
length: 2:31
download: 306MB on MediaFire
summary: Christian Cooper likes birds.
AO3 page | YouTube link
Lyrics on AZ Lyrics
[vid] The Lost Boy (Hook)
Feb. 7th, 2026 03:33 pmstarladysource: Hook (1991)
audio: Hans Zimmer, "Drink Up Me Hearties"
length: 4:34
download: 549MB on MediaFire
summary: What's lost can be found…in Neverland.
AO3 page | YouTube link
audio: Hans Zimmer, "Drink Up Me Hearties"
length: 4:34
download: 549MB on MediaFire
summary: What's lost can be found…in Neverland.
AO3 page | YouTube link
friday five
Feb. 6th, 2026 10:19 pmthistleingrey1. What did you want to be when you were a kid?
A kid. Really.
2. What is your proudest accomplishment so far?
I've lived long enough that surely there could be more than one? Perhaps it's knowing when not to respond directly to this question, which invites humblebrags.
3. What is your dream job?
Something lower stress than my previous jobs.
4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I've always found this question (common in certain kinds of interview) to say more about the asker than the answerer. It's bullshit. Ten years before I passed my PhD quals, I had no idea I would apply to grad schools. Ten years before I was part of a team that published an award-winning scholarly bestseller, I had no idea I would work as libstaff. Those were good things to do, but I didn't plan for them.
5. What does it take to make you happy?
Accidental inversions or juxtapositions, and bits of space for contemplation. When I'm very busy, it's harder to notice anything---a thing I noticed after I began protecting time during grad school to take walks and look at random plants.
A kid. Really.
2. What is your proudest accomplishment so far?
I've lived long enough that surely there could be more than one? Perhaps it's knowing when not to respond directly to this question, which invites humblebrags.
3. What is your dream job?
Something lower stress than my previous jobs.
4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I've always found this question (common in certain kinds of interview) to say more about the asker than the answerer. It's bullshit. Ten years before I passed my PhD quals, I had no idea I would apply to grad schools. Ten years before I was part of a team that published an award-winning scholarly bestseller, I had no idea I would work as libstaff. Those were good things to do, but I didn't plan for them.
5. What does it take to make you happy?
Accidental inversions or juxtapositions, and bits of space for contemplation. When I'm very busy, it's harder to notice anything---a thing I noticed after I began protecting time during grad school to take walks and look at random plants.
for anyone wondering: CROWNWORLD publication (book) canceled
Feb. 5th, 2026 05:03 pmyhleeWanted y’all to hear it from me: CROWNWORLD (book 3 of the Moonstorm trilogy) is canceled. I will not be completing the book (the trilogy). I’m very sorry to readers who were hoping for the conclusion.
This was a mutually agreed, amicable decision between the primary/US publisher (Delacorte), the UK publisher (Rebellion Publishing - Solaris Books), and myself.
Between sales and publishing realities (MOONSTORM sold poorly and its prospects are unlikely to improve for political reasons you can guess), this was a rare situation where this benefits both publishers and myself. I could not announce the cancellation earlier for legal/contract reasons, and can't "simply" release the partial draft of CROWNWORLD for same.
I didn’t plan on MOONSTORM being a market failure. But novel-writing is a career with baked-in instability and career risk. I knew that going in.
Abbreviated version of what happened on my end:
I have 66,000 words of a near-finished draft that I don’t plan on resuming. The breaking point was when I had a concussion in March 2025.
You might ask why I don’t “just” yeet the last 10,000 words to have a book for release to readers even if the print publishers are no longer interested in publishing it. After illness and family crises, I’m exhausted. More than one person close to me nearly died; I set writing aside for months to do caretaking. I have peripheral neuropathy (among other things); my hands and feet might recover, or they might get worse and curtail my ability to do the things that bring me joy.
Both my publishers extended incredible grace and kindness to me during this period. This is not on them. The trilogy existence failure is on me.
I’m moving on. I’ve spent the past several years writing ~three books every two years (or 1.5 books per year - releases won't line up because of production/publishing variables). This probably sounds slow/leisurely but was not sustainable with my health as unstable as it is. There would have been a breaking point down the line even if it hadn’t happened with this specific book. I'm going to spend some time on endeavors just for the joy of it.
I hope y’all have many books you’re looking forward to reading, by other writers.
Note: I’m not in financial distress at present. Please don’t worry on that account.
Best,
YHL
This was a mutually agreed, amicable decision between the primary/US publisher (Delacorte), the UK publisher (Rebellion Publishing - Solaris Books), and myself.
Between sales and publishing realities (MOONSTORM sold poorly and its prospects are unlikely to improve for political reasons you can guess), this was a rare situation where this benefits both publishers and myself. I could not announce the cancellation earlier for legal/contract reasons, and can't "simply" release the partial draft of CROWNWORLD for same.
I didn’t plan on MOONSTORM being a market failure. But novel-writing is a career with baked-in instability and career risk. I knew that going in.
Abbreviated version of what happened on my end:
I have 66,000 words of a near-finished draft that I don’t plan on resuming. The breaking point was when I had a concussion in March 2025.
You might ask why I don’t “just” yeet the last 10,000 words to have a book for release to readers even if the print publishers are no longer interested in publishing it. After illness and family crises, I’m exhausted. More than one person close to me nearly died; I set writing aside for months to do caretaking. I have peripheral neuropathy (among other things); my hands and feet might recover, or they might get worse and curtail my ability to do the things that bring me joy.
Both my publishers extended incredible grace and kindness to me during this period. This is not on them. The trilogy existence failure is on me.
I’m moving on. I’ve spent the past several years writing ~three books every two years (or 1.5 books per year - releases won't line up because of production/publishing variables). This probably sounds slow/leisurely but was not sustainable with my health as unstable as it is. There would have been a breaking point down the line even if it hadn’t happened with this specific book. I'm going to spend some time on endeavors just for the joy of it.
I hope y’all have many books you’re looking forward to reading, by other writers.
Note: I’m not in financial distress at present. Please don’t worry on that account.
Best,
YHL
current stitching
Feb. 3rd, 2026 09:20 amthistleingreyA few weeks ago, I began modifying a slipover/vest/sleeveless pullover pattern. Despite modification, the first try had too loose a neckline and narrow over-the-shoulder segments, and its stitches were a bit uneven. I nixed it when there was enough of it to put my head through. The pattern has strict raglan increases resulting in a 45-deg line on the back. I've tilted it to about 30 deg, which has led to revising the front and over-the-shoulder segments as well.
For the second try, I went down a needle size (from 3.5 mm to 3.25 mm needles), and I knitted enough of the body segment to try on the WIP with minimal armholes, 2 cm below joining them. The armholes were good. The rest was still not right, but closer: the yoke area was too snug for a second layer, especially across the semi-raglan line on the upper back. This is meant to go over a T-shirt.
With the third try, heh, I've kept the needle size but cast on for the upper back with a shorter circular cable, 16" = 41 cm instead of 40" = 102 cm. My hands are clumsier with the shorter circ, which has kept the semi-raglan increases a bit looser. :) I've also lengthened the back yoke a bit, which lets me subtract some of the short rows that my second try had added over the shoulders. So far, this version is only an upper back. It's about to start consuming the second try's yarn.
So, like, I've been knitting the same almost two skeins of yarn for the past month, and it's fine. There's also a few cm of hat, mostly brim.
Meanwhile, I'm still browsing for hood patterns. Avely looks interesting as a way of splitting head fit and depth from the shawl-ends.
For the second try, I went down a needle size (from 3.5 mm to 3.25 mm needles), and I knitted enough of the body segment to try on the WIP with minimal armholes, 2 cm below joining them. The armholes were good. The rest was still not right, but closer: the yoke area was too snug for a second layer, especially across the semi-raglan line on the upper back. This is meant to go over a T-shirt.
With the third try, heh, I've kept the needle size but cast on for the upper back with a shorter circular cable, 16" = 41 cm instead of 40" = 102 cm. My hands are clumsier with the shorter circ, which has kept the semi-raglan increases a bit looser. :) I've also lengthened the back yoke a bit, which lets me subtract some of the short rows that my second try had added over the shoulders. So far, this version is only an upper back. It's about to start consuming the second try's yarn.
So, like, I've been knitting the same almost two skeins of yarn for the past month, and it's fine. There's also a few cm of hat, mostly brim.
Meanwhile, I'm still browsing for hood patterns. Avely looks interesting as a way of splitting head fit and depth from the shawl-ends.
WTF
Feb. 3rd, 2026 01:08 amsoc_puppetDownright astounding that I managed to forget about basting stitches for nigh on two decades.
On the plus side, now that I've remembered them, patching the worn out inner thighs of my pants is much less of a headache!
On the plus side, now that I've remembered them, patching the worn out inner thighs of my pants is much less of a headache!
I FORGOT TO MENTION
Feb. 2nd, 2026 09:43 pmrydra_wongArtorias is a DLC boss.
Beating the final boss of Dark Souls puts you straight into New Game Plus, so you need to do the DLC first, but yeah. I have in fact completed the base game up until you enter the last area. And there is a general consensus that the final boss is not the hardest in the game.
The DLC bosses are all substantially harder than the base game ones, and I have two more left, so it remains to be seen whether I can beat them, but at this point the odds look decent that I will at least be able to finish the base game.
I would like to remind you all that my initial goal was to see if I could beat the tutorial.
Beating the final boss of Dark Souls puts you straight into New Game Plus, so you need to do the DLC first, but yeah. I have in fact completed the base game up until you enter the last area. And there is a general consensus that the final boss is not the hardest in the game.
The DLC bosses are all substantially harder than the base game ones, and I have two more left, so it remains to be seen whether I can beat them, but at this point the odds look decent that I will at least be able to finish the base game.
I would like to remind you all that my initial goal was to see if I could beat the tutorial.
Festivids!
Feb. 2nd, 2026 12:52 pmstarladyFestivids went live on Saturday! I have still not watched most of the vids because I was at an Alex Pretti memorial bike ride on Saturday and then at some transit activist events on Sunday and I am trying to also do an Escapade premiere, but what I have watched has been great. And I got a great gift vid!
Really there can never be enough Star Trek: Prodigy vids as far as I'm concerned, and this one is full of great character moments and team/found family feels.
I myself made two Festivids this year, which means I'm already at 100% above my vid production for 2025, so I am very happy about that.
[VID] Find Your People (9 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Prodigy
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Gwyndala (Star Trek), Jankom Pog, Dal R'el, Zero (Star Trek), Rok-Tahk, Murf (Star Trek), Hologram Janeway (Star Trek)
Additional Tags: Crew as Family, Fanvids
Summary: You can't go it alone, everybody needs help
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Prodigy
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Gwyndala (Star Trek), Jankom Pog, Dal R'el, Zero (Star Trek), Rok-Tahk, Murf (Star Trek), Hologram Janeway (Star Trek)
Additional Tags: Crew as Family, Fanvids
Summary: You can't go it alone, everybody needs help
Really there can never be enough Star Trek: Prodigy vids as far as I'm concerned, and this one is full of great character moments and team/found family feels.
I myself made two Festivids this year, which means I'm already at 100% above my vid production for 2025, so I am very happy about that.
AO3 musing
Jan. 30th, 2026 04:06 pmsoc_puppetI kinda wish it were possible for logged-in users to leave guest-marked kudos on archive-locked works. Or like. Kudos by users who would prefer to remain anonymous? (In general would be great, honestly; yes, you can just log out and log back in again, but that's more of a hassle than most people want to go to.)
Being able to leave anonymous comments on archive-locked posts seems like a recipe for harassment, but just leaving anonymized kudos? Might help with the problem of logged in users being reluctant to leave kudos on Explicit fics, particularly those with more stigmatized kinks.
IDK, I'm not sure how it would work, but I think the idea has at least a little merit.And me wanting my explicit fics to get more kudos and attention might be part of it, too.
Being able to leave anonymous comments on archive-locked posts seems like a recipe for harassment, but just leaving anonymized kudos? Might help with the problem of logged in users being reluctant to leave kudos on Explicit fics, particularly those with more stigmatized kinks.
IDK, I'm not sure how it would work, but I think the idea has at least a little merit.
emotional support spinning
Jan. 29th, 2026 01:15 pmyhlee
Silk handspun destined for
ilyena_sylph!There's a lot of need for emotional support right now. :]
Back to book edits (CODE AND CODEX).
Yesterday I beat ARTORIAS
Jan. 29th, 2026 11:13 amrydra_wongAnd I am still buzzing and I am so so so proud of myself and I need to talk about it and I only know two people who know what it means.
If anyone has 80 seconds, I rec watching Symbalily's first encounter with Artorias the Abysswalker:
Like O&S, this is one of the most iconic fights in the entire Dark Souls series. But I would say it's as much of a difficulty spike again relative to them as they are to the game before them.
Context: Artorias is the great legendary hero you've been hearing about all through the base game. But now he's been defeated by the Abyss, with his left arm shattered (his sword arm, so he's fighting you by swinging a sword with his off hand) and his mind mostly gone.
(There is meta to be meta-ed about FromSoft's long line of incredibly badass disabled characters; I don't know if it's necessarily #unproblematic #goodrepresentation, given that so many of them are trying to kill you and it's often being used to evoke ruin and tragedy, but it's not nothing either. Adaptive king Artorias.)
The way he howls and shakes reminds me of nothing so much as the Tumblr story about the rabid raccoon. It's eerie and wrong and awful.
He is incredibly aggressive and incredibly fast, and if you start chipping his health down he draws on the Abyss to power himself up further in a way that can rapidly make his hits unblockable (at least for most builds), so you can only try, desperately, to dodge. And after one or two power-ups, he can and will one-hit kill you, and then do front flips on your corpse.
I think I had to level my brain up to do this fight. Holy shit.
I have been IMMERSED over the last few days, learning his patterns and rhythms, and now I feel weirdly close to Artorias and emotional about it. More than any of the other bosses so far, Artorias feels like fighting a person. I gave his soul to an old friend of his to take care of. Sleep well, dude.
If anyone has 80 seconds, I rec watching Symbalily's first encounter with Artorias the Abysswalker:
Like O&S, this is one of the most iconic fights in the entire Dark Souls series. But I would say it's as much of a difficulty spike again relative to them as they are to the game before them.
Context: Artorias is the great legendary hero you've been hearing about all through the base game. But now he's been defeated by the Abyss, with his left arm shattered (his sword arm, so he's fighting you by swinging a sword with his off hand) and his mind mostly gone.
(There is meta to be meta-ed about FromSoft's long line of incredibly badass disabled characters; I don't know if it's necessarily #unproblematic #goodrepresentation, given that so many of them are trying to kill you and it's often being used to evoke ruin and tragedy, but it's not nothing either. Adaptive king Artorias.)
The way he howls and shakes reminds me of nothing so much as the Tumblr story about the rabid raccoon. It's eerie and wrong and awful.
He is incredibly aggressive and incredibly fast, and if you start chipping his health down he draws on the Abyss to power himself up further in a way that can rapidly make his hits unblockable (at least for most builds), so you can only try, desperately, to dodge. And after one or two power-ups, he can and will one-hit kill you, and then do front flips on your corpse.
I think I had to level my brain up to do this fight. Holy shit.
I have been IMMERSED over the last few days, learning his patterns and rhythms, and now I feel weirdly close to Artorias and emotional about it. More than any of the other bosses so far, Artorias feels like fighting a person. I gave his soul to an old friend of his to take care of. Sleep well, dude.
Creative classes!
Jan. 28th, 2026 04:49 pmsoc_puppetI don't seem to have made a list of my acquisitions this year for either my birthday or Xmas! ...Perhaps it's because I was so spectacularly underwhelmed 😓
One cool thing that I got was a gift card for a month's full membership at a local, uh. Fabrication place?
Right. So. You know how a bunch of crafts can require specific, really complicated and expensive machinery that a given person may not have the room or money to buy for themselves? Well, this facility is dedicated to housing a lot of that machinery for use by local crafters. Things like woodworking stuff, sewing machines, ceramics wheels and a kiln, a 3D printer, etc.
Anyway, I finally got around to activating my membership and signing up for classes, and my first class is tonight! I wanted to take the ceramics intro class (required to use the ceramics space), but those have been booked up for a while, so I've been out of luck. I did at least find some classes that interest me, and I look forward to learning more stuff for when I might extend my membership in the future.
First class: "Basic Jewelry Hand Tools"
Upcoming classes: "Basic 3D Printing", "Basic Cricut", "Basic Electronics", and "Basic Sewing Machines".
One cool thing that I got was a gift card for a month's full membership at a local, uh. Fabrication place?
Right. So. You know how a bunch of crafts can require specific, really complicated and expensive machinery that a given person may not have the room or money to buy for themselves? Well, this facility is dedicated to housing a lot of that machinery for use by local crafters. Things like woodworking stuff, sewing machines, ceramics wheels and a kiln, a 3D printer, etc.
Anyway, I finally got around to activating my membership and signing up for classes, and my first class is tonight! I wanted to take the ceramics intro class (required to use the ceramics space), but those have been booked up for a while, so I've been out of luck. I did at least find some classes that interest me, and I look forward to learning more stuff for when I might extend my membership in the future.
First class: "Basic Jewelry Hand Tools"
Upcoming classes: "Basic 3D Printing", "Basic Cricut", "Basic Electronics", and "Basic Sewing Machines".
recent reading
Jan. 28th, 2026 12:41 pmthistleingreyAcross several weeks of wandering---
Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club (2020): many words proportional to ambiance/plot, such that I began almost to resent how often my finger had to tap the screen. Though I appreciate how the setting lets Osman juxtapose well-observed characters who wouldn't otherwise acknowledge each other---the members of the old-folks community are more interesting than the middle-aged and younger adults---I couldn't have read this story a few years ago. OTOH, I did finish reading it.
Rena Rossner, The Sisters of the Winter Wood (2018): paused since more than a week ago in ch. 19 (22.5%). I ran out of curiosity there. If I want the story to be doing a bit more than it does, that's a me-problem.
Nell Irvin Painter, Old in Art School (2019): paused at 5% to save up Painter's voice, for times when I'm pickier. Painter retired from teaching at Princeton to undertake a BFA and MFA at RISD. My classes are remote, my degree smaller and briefer, and I'm not 67 yet (Painter's age upon pivoting), but it's lovely to find an aware fellow-traveler in her text.
I've reached 68% in Grace Cho's Tastes Like War, up from 20something %.
I've DNFed Sherry Thomas's A Ruse of Shadows at 4%, which may be a record---it's within the reprise of recent events. I ran out of curiosity there.
I've dipped into Carolyn Lei-lanilau's Ono-Ono Girl's Hula (1997), whose short publisher's page erases her and me as potential readers: "If you think you know something about what multiculturalism means in real life, read Carolyn Lei-lanilau and think again." Eh, bite me. The title indicates performance outright, so being irritated by yet another trifle constructed for mainstream readers is a me-problem. Either I'll get over it before the library wants the book back, or I won't.
I'm currently at 10% of Skull Water by Heinz Insu Fenkl (2023), a continuation of Memories of My Ghost Brother.
Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club (2020): many words proportional to ambiance/plot, such that I began almost to resent how often my finger had to tap the screen. Though I appreciate how the setting lets Osman juxtapose well-observed characters who wouldn't otherwise acknowledge each other---the members of the old-folks community are more interesting than the middle-aged and younger adults---I couldn't have read this story a few years ago. OTOH, I did finish reading it.
Rena Rossner, The Sisters of the Winter Wood (2018): paused since more than a week ago in ch. 19 (22.5%). I ran out of curiosity there. If I want the story to be doing a bit more than it does, that's a me-problem.
Nell Irvin Painter, Old in Art School (2019): paused at 5% to save up Painter's voice, for times when I'm pickier. Painter retired from teaching at Princeton to undertake a BFA and MFA at RISD. My classes are remote, my degree smaller and briefer, and I'm not 67 yet (Painter's age upon pivoting), but it's lovely to find an aware fellow-traveler in her text.
I've reached 68% in Grace Cho's Tastes Like War, up from 20something %.
I've DNFed Sherry Thomas's A Ruse of Shadows at 4%, which may be a record---it's within the reprise of recent events. I ran out of curiosity there.
I've dipped into Carolyn Lei-lanilau's Ono-Ono Girl's Hula (1997), whose short publisher's page erases her and me as potential readers: "If you think you know something about what multiculturalism means in real life, read Carolyn Lei-lanilau and think again." Eh, bite me. The title indicates performance outright, so being irritated by yet another trifle constructed for mainstream readers is a me-problem. Either I'll get over it before the library wants the book back, or I won't.
I'm currently at 10% of Skull Water by Heinz Insu Fenkl (2023), a continuation of Memories of My Ghost Brother.