pameladean

As you leave the council chamber, you may observe many people entering and leaving a room to your left. This is the palace headquarters of the Emorian subcommander, who has charge over the Emorian army. During the daytime, the subcommander is generally to be found at the home camp of Emor's army, located on the palace grounds. However, most of the army clerks and scribes work in the subcommander's headquarters. Because the chamber contains valuable documents, it may not be entered except by prior invitation.

Further down the corridor, you will pass another door on the left, where palace guards are entering and exiting. Do not travel through this door. It leads to the guardroom. If you are a noble prisoner, you will be brought here and confined until your trial.

When you reach the end of this corridor, turn right. The corridor you are on wraps around the back of the court. You will see on your left the north doors to the court, which I mentioned before. Directly opposite them is another door, unguarded.

Do not enter. This door leads to the dungeon. Anyone who opens this door, who has no business in the dungeon, is assumed to be a spy and is promptly made a "guest" in the dungeon.

If you receive a formal invitation to visit the dungeon, I suggest that you not eat on the morning of the visit. Strong warriors have been known to regurgitate the contents of their morning meal when they witness what takes place in that dungeon. The Chara's dungeon represents Emor at its worst. You may wish to see Emor at its worst, if you are contemplating attacking Emor.

As you continue your journey around the back of the court, you will encounter a heavily guarded door. This leads to the North Wing of the palace, where many council lords and palace officials live. All of the guards will have their backs to you. Anyone who has been granted entrance to the West Wing may enter the North Wing, but upon your return, you will have to undergo the process of having your credentials checked again. Unless you have business in the remainder of the palace, it is best to remain within the East Wing.

[Translator's note: A little back tour of the East Wing occurs in Empty Dagger Hand, under increasingly unfortunate circumstances.]

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260418.html

Near the eastern horizon before sunrise, Comet C/2025 R3

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260418.html

kaffy_r

Music Meme, Day 26

A song that helps you fall asleep at night:

I've been away from my journal, and the music meme for a while, and part of that was because I was initially stymied by this. I don't use music to help me go to sleep, although there are times I think about how nice it would be to fall asleep to the sounds of one of my favorite ambient stations. I can't do that, not without keeping Bob awake, or wearing my earbuds until they're completely drained.

But back when Andy was quite young, Bob had a job as a doorman down in one of the ritzier condominium buildings in Chicago's Near North neighborhood; not quite the Gold Coast, but as close as makes no difference. He had a night shift, which meant that I went to sleep alone, which was lonely. After I got Andy to bed, and once I was tired, I would put the Discman that Bob got for me, and I'd put the second CD of Kitaro's* two CD album "Silk Road" on. I'd put the headphones on, and I would listen to the album until my eyes were just about ready to close. I would reluctantly take off the headphones, and fall asleep.

I particularly liked two of the pieces: "Eternal Spring" and "Silver Moon." I'm sharing both of them with you now.

Watch on YouTube

Before I forget, here's a link that will help you catch up with my earlier meme posts, should you be interested.

Watch on YouTube

*I discovered Kitaro through an NPR radio show that our local public radio station played either really late at night, or far too early in the morning. At the time, Bob and I were both young and arrogant about the music we liked, and we made fun of a lot of the ambient pieces this show played, but when the host played some pieces from the Silk Road album, I really liked it, and Bob got me the CDs for Christmas or my birthday. He also later got me some more of Kitaro's work. I haven't listened to Kitaro in a while, but in hunting these pieces down I think I may have rekindled my interest in him.

Current Mood: lethargic
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: BTS "Filter"

yourlibrarian posting in

common_nature

We have seen grebes many times but very often they are solo or there may be two. It was unusual to see a group swimming together, which this one did for some time.

( Read more... )

adrian_turtle

Years ago, the local chain of ice cream parlors called JP Licks* used to have Coconut Almond Lace ice cream in their rotation of non-dairy specials. It was based on coconut milk, as was right and proper, and it might have been my favorite** non-dairy ice cream ever. Then they took the good stuff out of rotation. Lo, for 7 long years, every time "Coconut Almond Lace" was among the monthly specials, it was a snare and a delusion made with real cream. (WHY? JP Licks seemed to be getting better at vegan treats overall. Hempity Hemp Hemp*** can fade into deserved oblivion.) Then a couple of days ago, I walked into the store in search of a raspberry lime rickey and discovered the good stuff was back!

I'm sure it will vanish at the end of the month, because that's what happens with flavors of the month, but I hope it won't vanish for years again. I had an unpleasant medical procedure this afternoon, with needles, so Redbird got me ice cream on the way home. With some for the freezer, just in case.

*JP=Jamaica Plain
**Jenni's chocolate pudding flavor tastes amazing, but contains enough coffee to be a migraine trigger. Alas.
***Hemp milk ice cream with crunchy toasted hemp seeds, just like it sounds. Alas.

redbird

I accompanied

adrian_turtle to an MRI facility, where she had an MRI with contrast, which hopefully will help her current neurologist figure out better medication for her seizures. Like many people, Adrian finds the contrast medium unpleasant, which is at least part of why she wanted company.

Afterwards, we went to JP Licks, where I got us both ice cream. They have non-dairy coconut almond lace ice cream this month, and there's now a pint of that in our freezer.

rachelmanija

This sequel to Annihilation takes an unusual approach. Rather than returning to Area X, almost the entire book takes place outside of it, focusing on the scientific/government agency, the Southern Reach, which has been sending expeditions into it.

Most of the book is bureaucratic shenanigans with creeping horror undertones. The main character, unsubtly nicknamed Control, is slowly losing his mind trying to figure out what the hell happened to his predecessor and why she kept a live plant feeding off a dead mouse in her desk drawer, what is up with the bizarre incantatory literal writings on the wall, and what's up with the biologist, who has seemingly returned from Area X but says she's not the biologist and asks to be called Ghost Bird. There's parts that are interesting but also a lot of office satire which is not really what I was looking for in this series.

About 80% in, the book took a turn that got me suddenly very interested.

( Read more... )

I kind of want to know what happens next but I'm not sure Vandermeer is interested in giving readers what they want.

oursin

Dept rus in urbe: A prickle of hedgehogs and an armada of newts: wildlife settles in at London’s new Queen Elizabeth garden

***

Dept of, why not work with creating opportunities for the mute inglorious already there....? (sigh): Creating Baby Geniuses to Thwart the AI Threat? (Yes, Really.) Honestly, these people.

Possibly relevant here....: State school kids do better at uni

***

The Rise and Fall of Jukeboxes: where are the grooves of yesteryear?

***

Women artists in the Georgian era: a constant, delicate calibration to keep the balance between personal reputation, artistic success and the need to earn a living.

ysabetwordsmith posting in

birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and cold. We got a good soaking rain last night. :D

I fed the birds. I've seen a few house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 4/18/26 -- We went up to the Third Saturday Bazaar in the Otto Center, and also stopped at a greenhouse where I bought a flat of flowers and a couple extra petunias. But then I got home to find a frost warning for Sunday night. *headdesk*

EDIT 4/18/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 4/18/26 -- I filled a trolley with sticks from the south lot and dumped those in the firepit.

EDIT 4/18/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 4/18/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

lsanderson

Traders placed over $1bn in perfectly timed bets on the Iran war. What is going on?
Suspicious wagers on the US-Israel war in Iran are creating huge windfalls and raising concerns among lawmakers
Lauren Aratani in New York
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/18/iran-war-bets-ethics-concerns

Earth gets brighter every year but progression is volatile, study finds
Covid, light pollution regulations and faltering global economy affect location and intensity of brightness
Richard Luscombe
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/18/earth-brightness-study ( Read more... )

james_davis_nicoll

Poll #34492 Books Received, April 11 — April 17

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 29

View Respondents

Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

The Thrice-Bound Fool by Christopher Buehlman (Ocober 2026)
9 (31.0%)

The Slantwise Histories and Other Stories by Alix E. Harrow (October 2026)
16 (55.2%)

Nightcurse by Emma Hinds (October 2026)
4 (13.8%)

The Killing Spell by Shay Kauwe (April 2026)
8 (27.6%)

Claimed by the Orc King by Roxy Taylor (November 2026)
2 (6.9%)

Some other option (see comments)
1 (3.4%)

Cats!
21 (72.4%)

james_davis_nicoll

Five books new to me. At least four are fantasy (the collection might be a mix of genres). At least one is part of a series.

Books Received, April 11 — April 17

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260417.html

sovay

Long story tired, within a week of recovering from last month's double ear infection I was exposed to some other viral crud and now I have a double ear infection all over again. Next I return to the ophthalmologist. I am rethinking the entire concept of having a head. In the meantime I lay on the couch and watched Hiroshi Inagaki's Musashi Miyamoto (宮本武蔵, 1954) while Hestia basked in the cat tree. WHRB introduced me to Pansy's "Woman of Ur Dreams" (2021) and Nia Nadurata's "i think i like your girlfriend" (2023). I like this color study which feels a levitation away from being a surrealist painting. If it played vaguely near me, I would watch a film about Mark Fisher.

Current Music: Mazzy Star, "Fade Into Me"

rocky41_7 posting in

fffriday

Wednesday night I plowed through most of The Unworthy by Augustina Baztericca, translated from Spanish by Sarah Moses. This is a horror novel about a woman living in an isolated cult after climate change has ravaged most of the planet.

This was one of those books that had me going “okay just one more section and I’ll put it down” and then it was five sections later and I was still there. It just hooked me. I wanted to know more about the cult, I wanted to know more about the narrator’s past, I was so eager to see what was going to come next.

This book goes heavy on gore, mutilation, and cult abuse, so if those are not for you, you may want to give this one a pass. I found it fascinating; the world of the narrator is so grim and tightly controlled, but it’s all that’s left (as far as they know). The book also leans hard on things unspoken: things the narrator knows are so taboo she crosses them out of her own (secret) writings (such as when she wonders if maybe the earth has begun to heal); things she has forcefully blocked from her memory because they hurt so much to think of; the deep current of attraction she feels towards various other women in the cult which is easier to express through violence than sexuality.

In the claustrophobic world of the cult, it becomes so easy for the leadership to pit the women against each other, and they have grown shockingly cruel and violent towards one another in their quest for dominance (each of the “unworthy” dreams of ascending to the holier status of a “Chosen” or “Enlightened”). With virtually no control over their day-to-day, they fantasize about opportunities to punish each other, their only ability to enact their will on the world.

The hints from the beginning that the narrator questions her role in the cult create a delicious tension in the work. Her mere act of writing her experiences down is a violation of cult rules and she frequently keeps her journal pages bound to her chest under her clothes so no one will find them.

The translation was excellent, the writing flows well and Moses captures the descriptions and the narrator’s backtracking on her wording without anything becoming awkward.

The book isn’t long, but I was riveted, and I would like to read more of Baztericca’s work in the future. This was also the second Argentinian horror novel that surprised me with queerness, so another win for Argentinian horror.

subversivegrrl posting in

little_details

So, my character gets shot running away and catches several pellets of birdshot in his calf. Post-apocalyse setting, he doesn't have a chance to tend to it right away - can anyone give me a rough estimate of how long it would take before he would develop an infection that could disable him? (Fever, altered mental state.)

Thanks in advance for any feedback. I may need to revamp my idea about what kind of injury is going to put him out of commission for several days (he will have access to someone who can remove the pellets and provide reasonable, situation-appropriate medical care.)

Current Mood: curious

troisoiseaux

As an update to 2024 and 2019 versions of this list:

( As of April 2026, I have seen 42 versions of 18 Shakespeare plays )

atlas_obscura_places_feed

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/freedmen-s-town-bricks

After Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas on June 19th 1865 (what is now Juneteenth), former enslaved people started migrating to Texas cities like Houston.

Many from the surrounding Brazos River plantations found their way to what is now the Fourth Ward or Freedmen’s Town. They settled down in the area making houses and churches, paving many roads with bricks.

Certain streets like Andrews Street or parts of Wilson Street are still full of the original bricks from the 1860s, having survived the onslaughts of segregation through the 1900s, and waves of developers trying to remove them.

Freedmen’s town became a nationally recognized historic site in 1985.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/freedmen-s-town-bricks

ribirdnerd posting in

birdfeeding

Friday

Some Blue Jays, Cardinals and quite a few Squirrels were around this morning.

Osprey season is underway. During my lunch break, I spotted a pair on one of the nests I monitor. The male was bringing sticks to the female on the nest.

I saw an Eastern Towhee nearby the other day, first one I've seen in awhile.

pegkerr

My two sisters and I drove down to the Chicago area last weekend, where we joined up with our brother in an Air B&B and spent the weekend visiting relatives, friends, and the old haunts of our childhood.

I grew up in Park Ridge on the northwest side of the city of Chicago. We had a lot of fun recounting stories. It was an idyllic place to grow up, albeit sheltered and non-diverse. Park Ridge has a beautiful city center, and many of the places we remember are still there. I loved seeing the public library, where I learned to love reading, and the Pickwick Theater, a gorgeous Art Nouveau building that is on the National Register of historic places, which still regularly shows movies today.

The area has had a lot of rain, and the lawns were startling green, and forsythia bushes and magnolia trees were blooming all over the city. We had a lot of fun driving around, enjoying the beautiful architecture and rediscovering the homes of our friends.

Park Ridge was a dry town while we were growing up, but now restaurants can serve alcohol, and there is a very thriving restaurant scene in the buildings overlooking the railroad tracks, where trains run to and from downtown Chicago. We met with several old friends. An old high school classmate of mine spied me through a restaurant window at one point and ran out into the street to hug me. We had coffee with my brother's former prom date, and had breakfast with another high school friend of my sister's and dinner with a third.

We met my uncle Tom and his wife Charlotte for lunch in his senior apartment, and we also met with my Aunt Susie, who is in a different senior community very close to where we were staying.

We spent an afternoon driving around Evanston, the city where our parents were raised. There, we saw the homes of our grandparents and great-grandparents, and stopped by Lighthouse Beach, where we swam in Lake Michigan as children.

We ended the trip with an evening at one of my cousins' homes, where we enjoyed a potluck dinner together. We spent the evening telling stories and laughing, and passing around old photographs and a high school yearbook.

It was wonderful to visit the old hometown.

Image description: Bottom: a one-story home with an open front porch. Behind the house: Peg and her three siblings smile at the camera. Behind them, another family grouping smiles at the camera. Behind them, top: upper left tower of Pickwick Theater, center: lighthouse, upper right: the sign for Sugar Bowl restaurant.

Homecoming

15 Homecoming

Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

Current Mood: nostalgic

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pameladean

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Reading

FIC: From the council chamber to the courtyard (Tempestuous Tours)

(no subject)

Dept. of Memes

Grebes in the Rain

ice cream

(no subject)

Authority, by Jeff Vandermeer

Rounding up stuff

Birdfeeding

2026.04.18

Books Received, April 11 — April 17 poll

Books Received, April 11 — April 17

(no subject)

A stranger light comes on slowly

Book review: The Unworthy

Infection from birdshot?

Shakespeare round-up, 3rd edition

Freedmen’s Town Bricks in Houston, Texas

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2026 52 Card Project: Week 15: Homecoming

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December 2025

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