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Add me??
Aug. 14th, 2025 03:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
samijoe_13 posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
addmeName:Sami
Age:30's
I mostly post about:A little of everything I guess.
My hobbies are:Writing, Reading
My posting schedule tends to be: Pretty sporadic.
When I add people, my deal breaker is:If you're only reaching out when you need something, and never reciprocating support or interest in what's going on with me.
Before adding me, you should know: Nothing really. I like to think I'm a pretty laid back person. I'm a good listener and I'd be happy to meet some new people here.
Daily Happiness
Aug. 13th, 2025 09:27 pmtorachan1. We got Indian food from the same place as we did a couple weeks ago and this time both our main focus was the batter fried paneer sticks lol. I just ordered them on a whim last time (they're called paneer pakora so I was expecting more of something filled with cheese rather than what it was) but they were so good. (The other food we got was good, too, but these would be hard to top.)
2. I am so glad I spotted Ollie like this and was able to get some photos. Truly a sight to brighten any day.
2. I am so glad I spotted Ollie like this and was able to get some photos. Truly a sight to brighten any day.
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August 13th, 2025: Dublin Comic Con was a DELIGHT and I never met so many kind, charming people. Thank you for having me!! I believe I first encountered the idea of a telescope that lets you look into the past in The Light of Other Days by Clarke and Baxter! – Ryan | ||
Daily Happiness
Aug. 12th, 2025 08:37 pmtorachan1. The filming at the store went well today (and thankfully I did not have to be involved in any way). They filmed five segments that aired live and posted one on their website (not sure if it's region locked).
2. I had a chill work from home day today.
3. I played Donkey Kong Bananza when it first came out and then got so busy with the new store that I didn't play it at all for a couple weeks, but I picked it up again the other day and have been playing it more and am really enjoying it a lot.
4. Carla made butternut squash soup for dinner and it's so good! We also had quesadillas, which were delicious as well. Usually I like combining quesadillas with tomato soup (better than grilled cheese and tomato soup, imo, though I like that classic combo as well) but it works well with the squash, too.
5. I got too close to Tuxie this morning when trying to get pictures of him, but he paused politely mid scamper for me to get another one.
2. I had a chill work from home day today.
3. I played Donkey Kong Bananza when it first came out and then got so busy with the new store that I didn't play it at all for a couple weeks, but I picked it up again the other day and have been playing it more and am really enjoying it a lot.
4. Carla made butternut squash soup for dinner and it's so good! We also had quesadillas, which were delicious as well. Usually I like combining quesadillas with tomato soup (better than grilled cheese and tomato soup, imo, though I like that classic combo as well) but it works well with the squash, too.
5. I got too close to Tuxie this morning when trying to get pictures of him, but he paused politely mid scamper for me to get another one.
Daily Happiness
Aug. 11th, 2025 10:36 pmtorachan1. Tomorrow a local news station is going to be filming short segments at the new store all morning, so today I went down there in the afternoon to help stock and tidy up. The filming is starting super early (even before the store opens) so most of the tidying up has to be done today. Thankfully, while it was busy today, it wasn't nearly as hectic as it has been the past couple weeks, so it was easier to keep things in decent shape.
2. This morning I had a meeting with the Japan IT team who is here for the month helping with the inventory system project that is now my main focus, and I finally got some more clarity on what exactly will be expected of me, so that's good.
3. Jasper is so handsome.
2. This morning I had a meeting with the Japan IT team who is here for the month helping with the inventory system project that is now my main focus, and I finally got some more clarity on what exactly will be expected of me, so that's good.
3. Jasper is so handsome.
Summer break
Aug. 11th, 2025 07:59 pmprixmiumIt's been a little while since I was on this website.
I started my new job on April 1 of this year at an international school in Tokyo. I had a couple of weeks before that to settle into my new apartment, but the moment I got moved in, I got sick for a few days. My body really does seem to just give in and give up every time I have a moment of peace from expectation and obligation.
I am currently writing from my dad's house in Tennessee. It's the first time I've been back in over a year. I was nervous about coming through the airport, as outspoken as I am online about things that suck about the encroaching fascism in the US, but I should know that for the most part as a white woman, no one is really paying attention.
My flight home ended up being delayed by 3 hours in total which cost me spending 12 extra hours in airports in total. Kinda sucked, but I dislike airports less than most people I've heard talk about it.
My new job is night and day better than my job that I left, so I feel confident that I made the right decision there. It's a really lovely job most of the time, even though every job has its bullshit. The two things that are most difficult in this job: my direct-report boss is a True Believer in AI and as an English teacher this makes me want to pull my hair out and, because the international school is private and people choose their junior and senior high schools in Japan based on a variety of factors, June and July were just a blur of hardly ever getting a full weekend from my job. We get flex time at this job, though, so most of those events I got paid back in hours I could use. Means I have a few extra paid leave days left over after taking several during the month of August. I think they gave us 10 or so days off besides weekends, and I ended up taking 8 in total.
And yet, I am stuck in this limbo of feeling of having too much free time and too little.
While I am here, my dad and stepmom are planning to go out of town for a few days, since they never have a dog sitter. Maybe I'll start to have creative thought again in that quiet. My stepmom is old enough that she turns up the TV loud enough to bother me a little, but I want to sit in the den both as a social grace and because it's where the air conditioning is the coolest.
I was hoping to get time and inspiration to write or otherwise do fandom interaction or contribution, but my last two fics have gotten next to no traffic or engagement. I did post them a few places, and I have at least one or two kudos, but it's just so lonely to get NO comments in spite of showing it to people. I feel like my greatest strength to make anything is writing, but no one bothers to act like fanfic authors are people offering them their ideas anymore.
Even before that, I participated in a secret santa type exchange, and my recipient kind of ghosted the entire thing.
I just really have... idk... a sense of lost competence? I've written over a hundred fics, and I know that it's a cultural shift, but I just... don't have whatever it takes to get people's attention anymore.
Maybe I should post them here, since people actually treat people like people here, but I feel like it's hard to find the audience... anywhere... for any specific thing I write.
Anyway, that's my current mope. And because of it, I lost steam on the few WIPs I had and can't think of anything new.
I started my new job on April 1 of this year at an international school in Tokyo. I had a couple of weeks before that to settle into my new apartment, but the moment I got moved in, I got sick for a few days. My body really does seem to just give in and give up every time I have a moment of peace from expectation and obligation.
I am currently writing from my dad's house in Tennessee. It's the first time I've been back in over a year. I was nervous about coming through the airport, as outspoken as I am online about things that suck about the encroaching fascism in the US, but I should know that for the most part as a white woman, no one is really paying attention.
My flight home ended up being delayed by 3 hours in total which cost me spending 12 extra hours in airports in total. Kinda sucked, but I dislike airports less than most people I've heard talk about it.
My new job is night and day better than my job that I left, so I feel confident that I made the right decision there. It's a really lovely job most of the time, even though every job has its bullshit. The two things that are most difficult in this job: my direct-report boss is a True Believer in AI and as an English teacher this makes me want to pull my hair out and, because the international school is private and people choose their junior and senior high schools in Japan based on a variety of factors, June and July were just a blur of hardly ever getting a full weekend from my job. We get flex time at this job, though, so most of those events I got paid back in hours I could use. Means I have a few extra paid leave days left over after taking several during the month of August. I think they gave us 10 or so days off besides weekends, and I ended up taking 8 in total.
And yet, I am stuck in this limbo of feeling of having too much free time and too little.
While I am here, my dad and stepmom are planning to go out of town for a few days, since they never have a dog sitter. Maybe I'll start to have creative thought again in that quiet. My stepmom is old enough that she turns up the TV loud enough to bother me a little, but I want to sit in the den both as a social grace and because it's where the air conditioning is the coolest.
I was hoping to get time and inspiration to write or otherwise do fandom interaction or contribution, but my last two fics have gotten next to no traffic or engagement. I did post them a few places, and I have at least one or two kudos, but it's just so lonely to get NO comments in spite of showing it to people. I feel like my greatest strength to make anything is writing, but no one bothers to act like fanfic authors are people offering them their ideas anymore.
Even before that, I participated in a secret santa type exchange, and my recipient kind of ghosted the entire thing.
I just really have... idk... a sense of lost competence? I've written over a hundred fics, and I know that it's a cultural shift, but I just... don't have whatever it takes to get people's attention anymore.
Maybe I should post them here, since people actually treat people like people here, but I feel like it's hard to find the audience... anywhere... for any specific thing I write.
Anyway, that's my current mope. And because of it, I lost steam on the few WIPs I had and can't think of anything new.
The Devil's Punchbowl
Aug. 11th, 2025 10:56 amyourlibrarian posting in common_nature
Not far from our hotel was a rock feature that had an interesting look to it. What was especially interesting to me were its walls.
( Read more... )
true sherlock! i mean DETECTIVE
Aug. 11th, 2025 12:00 amdinosaur_comics_feed| archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about |
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August 11th, 2025: I took these numbers from the City of Toronto's own stats (page 17), which uhhh I did not expect to be as bad as they were. SORRY EVERYONE, I THOUGHT THEY'D BE HIGHER WHEN I STARTED THIS COMIC, SORRY AGAIN – Ryan | ||
Daily Happiness
Aug. 10th, 2025 08:24 pmtorachan1. We took a nice walk this morning down to the Italian deli to buy sandwiches for dinner. We tried to get out before the sun got too bad, and mostly succeeded, though there was still more sun involved than I would prefer. Worth it, though.
2. We had a big plastic laundry basket in the hall by the dryer that we use to carry laundry from the washer (which is by the back door) to the dryer (which is all the way across the house by the bedrooms), but it was always in the way and I'd been thinking about looking for a better solution when Carla nearly tripped on it the other day, which made me actually go online and search for collapsible laundry baskets, which I was sure must be a thing, and sure enough there are tons. I got this one off Amazon, which is just slightly smaller than the basket we had before, but can be collapsed down small enough that it can just slot in on the side of the dryer and not be in the way at all! It's been a life changer. Why did we not do this before!?
3. Gemma loves Carla's hair ties so much.
2. We had a big plastic laundry basket in the hall by the dryer that we use to carry laundry from the washer (which is by the back door) to the dryer (which is all the way across the house by the bedrooms), but it was always in the way and I'd been thinking about looking for a better solution when Carla nearly tripped on it the other day, which made me actually go online and search for collapsible laundry baskets, which I was sure must be a thing, and sure enough there are tons. I got this one off Amazon, which is just slightly smaller than the basket we had before, but can be collapsed down small enough that it can just slot in on the side of the dryer and not be in the way at all! It's been a life changer. Why did we not do this before!?
3. Gemma loves Carla's hair ties so much.
Weekly Reading
Aug. 10th, 2025 04:49 pmtorachanCurrently Reading
Isle of Ever
23%. A young girl learns she will inherit a family fortune if she can follow her ancestor's clues and find a mysterious island before the deadline. It's only just getting started but seems interesting so far.
A Death at the Dionysus Club
81%.
Drop Dead Sisters
53%.
The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
No progress.
Recently Finished
The God of the Woods
I really liked this a lot. When I got it from the library and saw how huge it was, I wasn't sure I could finish it in time (no renewals because there are still a bunch of people with holds) but it was a fast read and I zipped through it.
Detective Aunty
First in a new mystery series featuring a recently widowed middle-aged Indian woman as the detective. In this first one, she gets a call from her daughter that she's a murder suspect after finding her landlord's dead body in her shop. I really liked this a lot. Reminded me of the Aunty Lee mystery series.
Decelerate Blue
Graphic novel about a near future dystopia where everything has to be fast and brief. Movies are under twenty minutes. Books are turned into cliff's notes versions. It's also extremely capitalistic and the mall is more important than school. The teenage MC is unhappy with the state of things, and after reading a forbidden book and stumbling (literally) across a group of revolutionaries, decides to run away from home and join them and "decelerate". This has some interesting ideas, but the world-building is very thin and often nonsensical (if they're supposed to be super efficient in their speech, why add "go" to the end of every thought? What is the "guarantee" and why do they repeat the catchphrase "go, guarantee, go"?), and the world seems to have turned into this in just one generation (the grandfather remembers the before times). It was okay. Wouldn't particularly recommend it.
Awajima Hyakkei vol. 1-5
I read the first three books so long ago that I had to reread them before reading the final two. Not one of my favorite Shimura Takako series, but it's cute. If you like her stuff, it's worth checking out. But even reading all five volumes together I had trouble keeping track of all the characters. I did like seeing the cameo by the characters from Aoi Hana, all grown up (and still a couple).
Isle of Ever
23%. A young girl learns she will inherit a family fortune if she can follow her ancestor's clues and find a mysterious island before the deadline. It's only just getting started but seems interesting so far.
A Death at the Dionysus Club
81%.
Drop Dead Sisters
53%.
The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
No progress.
Recently Finished
The God of the Woods
I really liked this a lot. When I got it from the library and saw how huge it was, I wasn't sure I could finish it in time (no renewals because there are still a bunch of people with holds) but it was a fast read and I zipped through it.
Detective Aunty
First in a new mystery series featuring a recently widowed middle-aged Indian woman as the detective. In this first one, she gets a call from her daughter that she's a murder suspect after finding her landlord's dead body in her shop. I really liked this a lot. Reminded me of the Aunty Lee mystery series.
Decelerate Blue
Graphic novel about a near future dystopia where everything has to be fast and brief. Movies are under twenty minutes. Books are turned into cliff's notes versions. It's also extremely capitalistic and the mall is more important than school. The teenage MC is unhappy with the state of things, and after reading a forbidden book and stumbling (literally) across a group of revolutionaries, decides to run away from home and join them and "decelerate". This has some interesting ideas, but the world-building is very thin and often nonsensical (if they're supposed to be super efficient in their speech, why add "go" to the end of every thought? What is the "guarantee" and why do they repeat the catchphrase "go, guarantee, go"?), and the world seems to have turned into this in just one generation (the grandfather remembers the before times). It was okay. Wouldn't particularly recommend it.
Awajima Hyakkei vol. 1-5
I read the first three books so long ago that I had to reread them before reading the final two. Not one of my favorite Shimura Takako series, but it's cute. If you like her stuff, it's worth checking out. But even reading all five volumes together I had trouble keeping track of all the characters. I did like seeing the cameo by the characters from Aoi Hana, all grown up (and still a couple).
Week notes: August 4-August 10 2025
Aug. 10th, 2025 10:57 amsoricelTeaching:
NA, though I did send off a proposal/description of a new writing workshop series at the artsy personal development NGO. It's "urban wildlife themed." I'm ambivalent about it, and about my continued participation in the NGO in general, but ehh, I think I'll go for it.
Learning:
Kinda slacked off on my geography and Romanian practice this week, but got in a little bit of each. Also missed another somatic movement workshop, but watched the recording the next day. Actually got a little emotional doing it, but then I've been a little emotional all week I guess. Can't say I "learned" much in particular, but I feel like doing things like these workshops has helped me cultivate some skills I found very useful during this visit to my parents.' Or maybe not, I don't know!
Listening:
Not much really until this weekend, when I've been coming back to that Wicca Phase self-titled. Comfort music, I have to admit, and also pretty transportative, which is nice when I'm sitting in an airport feeling grossed out and overtired/overstimulated/etc.
Reading:
Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson. Part of me kinda felt like this book should've been twice as long. It felt like there were plot threads that just never really came together. I mean, they don't have to come together, and honestly plot isn't really what I like best about KSR's books--it's his unsentimental focus on mostly principled but slightly flawed people doing grinding, frustrating, fraught work, often within super fraught bureaucracies, to make Things slightly less shitty. Contrast with:
Fake Accounts, by Lauren Oyler. Read this on the plane. I kind of thought it was gonna be a 2016-era dive into "alt-right rabbitholes" and whatnot, with lots of predictable things to say about alienation and algorithms etc. There was a bit of that, but mostly it was about familiar Millennial novel preoccupations with authenticity, identity, purpose, etc...what I kinda refer to in my head as the Perennial Theme of the Realist Novel: the Impossibility of Knowing Oneself or Others. The usual cynicism/grudging sense of obligation to engage with politics/activism/etc. despite feeling like it's all pretty pointless and gross to do so, especially if you're privileged in all the ways that narrators in these novels always are. (That's the part I had in mind when I thought of contrasting it with the KSR book). But also some stuff about "expat life" (ugh I hate that term) that I found sadly/amusingly relatable despite the fact that my circumstances are much different from the narrator's. There was one passage in particular, about enduring conversations about U.S. politics/healthcare by smug and gleeful interlocutors, that rang especially true.
Oh, and something else I noticed: so I've been trying to de-Google my life, not using social media etc., and I feel like people--well, men--who have similar relationships to the internet/social media, are often, as in this novel, presented as creeps and weirdos with Something to Hide or I guess at best (here I'm thinking of the boyfriend in Dave Eggers' The Circle) as sort of two-dimensional, eccentric curmudgeons. Not sure what to make of this, though I noted an impulse as I read to like, create/resurrect Facebook and Instagram accounts and thus prove (to...?) my normalcy, or at least to establish some greater sense of imagined belonging to/solidarity with the vast majority of the human race.
(Also ugh I feel like I'm writing this post in the voice of the narrator from this book and I don't like it...)
Anyway, since I was in the land of my childhood these past two weeks, I felt a compulsion to revisit some old X-Men comics. I read (re-read? Can't remember) some of the classic Chris Claremont stuff: God Loves, Man Kills and Days of Future Past. I kinda forgot how political these comics were, in their ham-fisted way. I also liked how soft Nightcrawler and Colossus were. Fun to read.
Watching:
Nothing really.
Writing:
A couple RP posts. I know last week I said I was feeling kinda burnt out on them, but I think I was just in a mood. They're fun.
Other:
This was week two back home with my parents. Not gonna get into it here but despite some challenges, it was really pleasant and peaceful and I'm really grateful for this time with them.
NA, though I did send off a proposal/description of a new writing workshop series at the artsy personal development NGO. It's "urban wildlife themed." I'm ambivalent about it, and about my continued participation in the NGO in general, but ehh, I think I'll go for it.
Learning:
Kinda slacked off on my geography and Romanian practice this week, but got in a little bit of each. Also missed another somatic movement workshop, but watched the recording the next day. Actually got a little emotional doing it, but then I've been a little emotional all week I guess. Can't say I "learned" much in particular, but I feel like doing things like these workshops has helped me cultivate some skills I found very useful during this visit to my parents.' Or maybe not, I don't know!
Listening:
Not much really until this weekend, when I've been coming back to that Wicca Phase self-titled. Comfort music, I have to admit, and also pretty transportative, which is nice when I'm sitting in an airport feeling grossed out and overtired/overstimulated/etc.
Reading:
Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson. Part of me kinda felt like this book should've been twice as long. It felt like there were plot threads that just never really came together. I mean, they don't have to come together, and honestly plot isn't really what I like best about KSR's books--it's his unsentimental focus on mostly principled but slightly flawed people doing grinding, frustrating, fraught work, often within super fraught bureaucracies, to make Things slightly less shitty. Contrast with:
Fake Accounts, by Lauren Oyler. Read this on the plane. I kind of thought it was gonna be a 2016-era dive into "alt-right rabbitholes" and whatnot, with lots of predictable things to say about alienation and algorithms etc. There was a bit of that, but mostly it was about familiar Millennial novel preoccupations with authenticity, identity, purpose, etc...what I kinda refer to in my head as the Perennial Theme of the Realist Novel: the Impossibility of Knowing Oneself or Others. The usual cynicism/grudging sense of obligation to engage with politics/activism/etc. despite feeling like it's all pretty pointless and gross to do so, especially if you're privileged in all the ways that narrators in these novels always are. (That's the part I had in mind when I thought of contrasting it with the KSR book). But also some stuff about "expat life" (ugh I hate that term) that I found sadly/amusingly relatable despite the fact that my circumstances are much different from the narrator's. There was one passage in particular, about enduring conversations about U.S. politics/healthcare by smug and gleeful interlocutors, that rang especially true.
Oh, and something else I noticed: so I've been trying to de-Google my life, not using social media etc., and I feel like people--well, men--who have similar relationships to the internet/social media, are often, as in this novel, presented as creeps and weirdos with Something to Hide or I guess at best (here I'm thinking of the boyfriend in Dave Eggers' The Circle) as sort of two-dimensional, eccentric curmudgeons. Not sure what to make of this, though I noted an impulse as I read to like, create/resurrect Facebook and Instagram accounts and thus prove (to...?) my normalcy, or at least to establish some greater sense of imagined belonging to/solidarity with the vast majority of the human race.
(Also ugh I feel like I'm writing this post in the voice of the narrator from this book and I don't like it...)
Anyway, since I was in the land of my childhood these past two weeks, I felt a compulsion to revisit some old X-Men comics. I read (re-read? Can't remember) some of the classic Chris Claremont stuff: God Loves, Man Kills and Days of Future Past. I kinda forgot how political these comics were, in their ham-fisted way. I also liked how soft Nightcrawler and Colossus were. Fun to read.
Watching:
Nothing really.
Writing:
A couple RP posts. I know last week I said I was feeling kinda burnt out on them, but I think I was just in a mood. They're fun.
Other:
This was week two back home with my parents. Not gonna get into it here but despite some challenges, it was really pleasant and peaceful and I'm really grateful for this time with them.