Saturday, August 9th, 2025 10:59 pm
A book I'm thinking of having play an important role in the campaign is Heinrich and Moritz Tod's Morally Uplifting Tales for the Edification of Recalcitrant Children, the Tods being the Old World analog of the Brothers Grimm. Uplifting Tales is an important cultural artifact and also the sort of book you'd read to kids at bed time if you wanted them to cry themselves to sleep.
Saturday, August 9th, 2025 07:12 am
When I flew to and from the UK a few weeks ago, I was able to obtain relatively cheap Polaris Business (first) class upgrades both directions. In both cases, I received various goodies, including an amenity bag each direction. I noticed that the bag going one way was a different style than the one going the other, and I initially put that down to different suppliers. Today, while looking more closely (and actually reading the info card that came with them), I discovered that it's an intentional difference, and rather clever.

Two Bags Into One )

I'm going to give this to Kayla to use as her travel makeup bag so she won't have to keep carrying stuff around in Ziploc bags.
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Saturday, August 9th, 2025 04:53 am
Today I pack the bags for Worldcon. I have to pack the two bags I have (first class upgrade) so that stuff doesn't shift around, but not completely full because I expect to bring back more things than I take.

I'm still running on the Day Jobbe sleep schedule, so being up early enough so that I get to Reno airport with plenty of time for my flight to Seattle shouldn't be a problem.

Because of my schedule at Worldcon, I am not sure if I will update my journal daily. I personally only have one commitment other than dealing with travel and with hotel check-in on Sunday and Tuesday. Everything else is Kayla's responsibility, and I expect to leave the reporting to her.
Saturday, August 9th, 2025 10:15 am
This is a crossover between the Harry Potter books, the Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV series, and the film Bedazzled (1967, not the 2000 remake), with some other crossovers and Easter eggs, so far including Dogma (1999). All characters belong to their respective creators / owners / megacorporations of doom and not to me, please don't sue...

IV - His Master's Voice )

Comments please before I post to archives. For previous parts see:

On Twisting the Hellmouth - https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-34251/MarcusRowland+Harry+Potter+Undazzled.htm
On Fanfiction.net - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14336114/1/Harry-Potter-Undazzled
On Archive of Our Own - https://archiveofourown.org/works/54407350
Friday, August 8th, 2025 06:21 pm
The Sidewise Award for Alternate History is looking for new judges to join the award committee.

This is the first time in the 30 year history of the award that they've made an open call for awards judges.

Apply here.
Friday, August 8th, 2025 03:36 pm
I'm visiting [personal profile] rysmiel for a few days. The trip up was borin, which is good: anything exciting would probably be bad news, or at least make you late for dinner.

It is going to be hot over the weekend, so we went out for a relatively early brunch today, so we could sit almost-outdoors at Juliette et Chocolat and eat crepes. We then walked around Jean Talon market, where I bought plums, blackberries, and a cucumber.

I have np real plans for the next few days, which is fine.
Friday, August 8th, 2025 05:26 am
Bears ands girls weres ons trains afters, afters trains. thens wents tos places weres theres was lots ands lots ofs olds trains. Laters bears ands grirls roades mores trains. bears is trains outs. Girls says tomorrows wes mostlys stays ins ands rests.
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Thursday, August 7th, 2025 09:30 pm
More details later but it seems the group is essentially Don Quixote in the form of a Brettonian knight's bastard who has completely bought into chivalric ideals despite the fact no true knight considers him worthy to have such ideals, and an assortment of hangers-on who see him as a meal ticket.

Which is to say, the group is centred on someone who will seek out adventure.
Thursday, August 7th, 2025 06:20 pm
Kuma Bear and his Girl have continued to go see things. Yesterday they visited the German Transport Museum in Munich. It was not their first visit there, but the place is so big that it deserves multiple visits.

Things get a little complicated in the next few days. I'm heading for Seattle and Worldcon on Sunday, while Kuma and Lisa will be in Lucerne, Switzerland. After being burned in Berlin, I made sure to contact the hotel in Lucerne to make sure they understood that the reservation was for Lisa and that any charges should go against my credit card on file, although in this case, there should be no charges (other than a small local tax that she'll have to pay, I think) because the room is on my IHG points. In my case, I'll be spending two nights at the Crowne Plaza Seattle before moving in to the Sheraton Grand for Worldcon. This is because my original reservation was based on driving to Seattle instead of flying, and when it proved to be more economical to fly (even in first class), I needed to arrive two days earlier than originally planned, and I was very concerned that trying to modify my Sheraton reservation might break it. Besides, I'm an IHG diamond member this year, so I might as well get some use out of it, although it does mean changing hotels on Tuesday.

Because of the European train vacation, Lisa will not be at Worldcon this year.
Thursday, August 7th, 2025 10:07 am
If anyone wants to call RFK Jr. to complain about him not funding vaccines, and specifically about mRNA vaccines, his office phone number is 202-690-7000. I called during office hours (8:30-5 Eastern time) and got voicemail. The message asked for a phone number, and claimed someone would call me back.

If anyone wants a script, my message was:

My name is Vicki Rosenzweig. I’m calling from Boston, to demand that the secretary restore funding for MRNA vaccines. He must make the fall covid and flu boosters available to everyone. I’m immune-compromised, and my safety depends on my family being vaccinated and not giving me a virus. My phone number is [your number here]

I got the idea and phone number from a comment by [personal profile] threemeninaboat on [personal profile] sonia's journal. (I also posted a version of this to [community profile] thisfinecrew)
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Thursday, August 7th, 2025 03:47 am
Bears wents withs girls tos places calleds Deutschens Museums Verkehrszentrums.
Was fulls ofs trains stuffs, trams, cars, bikes ands others things to rides on.
Bears nots knows whys buts theys hads pictures ofs sillys polars bears.
Girls tooks lots ofs pictures ofs things, buts onlys fews ofs bears.


Ons thes ways tos thes museums, ons thes U-bahns, somes mans tolds girls shes was wrongs ins heads to carrys bears. laters ones ways backs sames mans cames ands trieds tos tells girsl shes bads fors takings pictures ofs trains. Girls ands bears wents fars fromes this persons.


Was mostlys goods days outs.
Thursday, August 7th, 2025 08:47 am


Climate change provides a tribal leader a pretext to dispatch his least favourite tribe members on an ill-fated expedition from which none will return.


The Integral Trees (Integral Trees, volume 1) by Larry Niven
Wednesday, August 6th, 2025 02:06 pm


Fight With Spirit, the sports drama tabletop roleplaying game from Storybrewers Roleplaying (Good Society).

Bundle of Holding: Fight With Spirit
Wednesday, August 6th, 2025 06:40 pm
This is a short-term offer of the RPG Fight With Spirit from Storybrewers (Good Society), an RPG about competitive sports teams:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/FightWithSpirit



As anyone who knows me could tell you, this isn't really my sort of subject - I'm REALLY not a fan of sports of any sort, unless someone comes up with rules for competitive sloth - I went to great lengths to get out of them when I was at school. Having said that, the rules are nicely presented and (amazingly considered the topic) there is virtually no semi-nudity in the illustrations - the nearest thing to cheesecake is a (male) member of a swimming(?) team illustrated in the index and on one of the game cards. It's cheap and if you want to try something a little different from your usual RPG it may be worth a look. Meanwhile, I'll be skiving off in the library complaining about how my flat feet keep me from playing...

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