kate_schaefer | Reading

I always enjoy the wide variety of postcards which appear regularly from fflo. Tuesday, fflo posted about the "Best Wrong Answers" to LearnedLeague. These are a series of punchline-worthy responses to Jeopardy!-style questions. For example:

In photography, the overall brightness of an image is determined by the "exposure triangle" of aperture, shutter speed, and a third factor which is a measure of the sensitivity of the camera's sensor (or the film) to light. This third factor is known as what?

REMEMBERING TO TAKE THE LENS CAP OFF

Even though I got online before the WWW, I’d never heard of LearnedLeague, which is a very dedicated group of trivia fiends. Here’s what I found:

Like any tight-knit community, there’s a ton of jargon. Participants are called LLamas (the double L matching Learned League). Membership is by invite only, though there is some public content at
LearnedLeague.com

Some of the world-readable "Best Worst Answer" tallies follow the URL pattern

https://learnedleague.com/hist/awards/100.php

Where 100 references the season—I had some fun plugging in random numbers.

From season 97:

A Wind in the Door (1973), A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978), and Many Waters (1986) continue the story first told by author Madeleine L'Engle in what 1962 novel?

3 REASONS TO HAVE HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE

Public, unofficial Learned League groups on Reddit and Facebook. More fun to be had from grazing the #BestWrongAnswers tag on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/bestwronganswers

james_davis_nicoll

A timid immortal cyborg searches for valuable plants in a Tudor England torn between Anglicans and Catholics. What could possibly go wrong?

In The Garden of Iden (Company, volume 1) by Kage Baker

james_davis_nicoll

Rather than use a group of interchangeable mooks, the hostiles had two brutes (one who was accurate, one with multiple attacks), a mage with a couple of decent multi-target attacks, and a mage adept at protective spells. It worked pretty well, esp the part where the healer kept the other NPCS upright. It would have worked even better had she not been prioritizing their boss, who is currently enthralled by an artifact of doom and not much good in a fight.

james_davis_nicoll

Watch on YouTube

adrian_turtle

I have bifocals now. After more than 10 years of changing back and forth between reading glasses and distance glasses, I have to learn a whole different set of reflexes for looking at things. When to move my eyes. When to move my head and NOT my eyes.

I was fine with carrying reading glasses with me, even though it meant I couldn't just go out with what fit in my pockets. But it's tricky to change glasses while wearing an N95 mask and a broad-brimmed hat, especially when I don't have a table or even a lap where I can put down the pair I'm taking off. So I spent a lot of time in the wrong glasses. Unable to read the bus schedule on my phone or unable to see the bus stop sign telling me which direction the bus is going. Unable to find my way into the supermarket, or unable to read package labels. I appreciate how labels are color-coded and otherwise designed for the convenience of people who cannot read! But it's frustrating how often I bought the wrong thing, or had to ask for help.

Adjusting is ... not great
I woke up with a migraine 5 days in a row.
I stumbled and fell on a trolley platform yesterday. I very nearly fell off the trolley platform, so it was much more upsetting than it might be. I wasn't really hurt, but it was scary. It wasn't even one of the transit stops where the footing is particularly bad.

But the bifocals are great! They're great in the ways I had thought they would be. Even better, because my old distance prescription wasn't right. I can read my phone and read the labels on groceries and also see street signs. I can even see leaves in trees!

The problem is that I don't know how to look where I'm going, literally. When I wore plain distance glasses, my eyes were often aimed at the ground I was about to walk on. Especially when I was walking on rough ground, and most of the pavement in this neighborhood counts as rough ground. The line of the bifocals hides that "3 steps away" ground, and the "next step" ground I can see through the reading window feels harder to focus on than when I just walked around in reading glasses. Is this a solved problem? I presume some of you wear bifocals and look where you're going...do you tuck your chins or something?

james_davis_nicoll

Raven: A Gothic Horror RPG – the core rulebook, scenarios, & GM Screen in both English and Spanish versions!

Bundle of Horror: Raven

jesse_the_k

I’m up near Rhinelander staying on Flannery Lake. I’ll be reveling in 15:45 hours of daylight on the summer solstice. Today there’s zero wind, while the second-growth white, yellow, and red pine trees are pumping out their jizz with enthusiasm. The lime-yellow grains appear darker as they overlay almost every square inch of the water, with wild swirls and eddies that extend many feet off shore until eventually the black surface reflects many puffy cumulus clouds in a light blue sky.

Lovely to look at, but not so great to breathe. At least we're not bedeviled by wildfire smoke.

( click for pic )

james_davis_nicoll

So many different ways of measuring history and the passage of time...

Counting the Days: Five SFF Approaches to Calendars

james_davis_nicoll

For what purpose has someone summoned a ten-story-tall mountain spirit to Aftzaak, City of Books?

Magus of the Library, volume 8 by Mitsu Izumi

athenais

Saturday night John and I were at the San Francisco Symphony for Esa-Pekka Salonen's final concert as Music Director. The program was Mahler's Symphony No. 2 which neither of us had heard before. I thought it was very interesting and swung between thinking parts of it reminded me of something by certain mid-to-late 20th century German/Austrian composers (I was likely wrong) and realizing I'd never heard anything quite like it.

For once I was much taken with the percussion parts; I never pay attention to percussion in general, but there was a lot to pay attention to. I was also focused on all the brass and woodwinds where I normally focus on the strings. I particularly liked the mezzo soprano soloist and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Such beautiful music for the chorus! And they performed superbly. It was a very large orchestra. I'm sure I counted 11 French horns. EPS was excellent and it's a shame the Symphony management estranged him enough to make him ready to leave when his contract was up this year. I am glad I got to see a performance he conducted.

(For someone who spent several intensive years studying classical music I never have learned how to talk about my experiences of music. Sorry, please see

calimac for a really knowledgeable and specific reaction to the symphony!)

Today we decided to get out of the June Gloom (fog everlasting in San Bruno and temperatures in the low 60s F is not my idea of summer weather). So we hopped in the car and went to Filoli Gardens to see their roses and everything else that was blooming. It was beautifully hot there and we took refuge in the Garden House (which I persist in calling the Conservatory) and under the enormous Camperdown elm trees by the swimming pool. I realized I hadn't been there in a good two years because quite a lot has changed including the way they funnel visitors onto the grounds. No more stickers that fall off easily, either, it's paper bracelets. Though I don't know why they do that, no one at all is checking once you've paid to come in. The grounds are so extensive that even though plenty of people were there on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon we never felt crowded. It's such a gorgeous place in any season.

redbird

I went downtown to try on the sandals I'd bought and had delivered to the Clarks store. They didn't fit, so I returned them, which basically meant picking them up, bringing them to the counter, and telling the cashier I was returning the soes.

I stopped at the Copley Square farmers market on the way home and bought a loaf of bread, a few cucumbers, and a pint of strawberries. Part of why I did this today rather than tomorrow was so I could stop at the market.

jesse_the_k

I’ve been a Karine Polwart fan for decades, which led me to her recent collaboration with Julie Fowlis and Mary Chapin Carpenter. "Looking for the Thread" mixes Scots Gaelic and US country and a little bit of rock’n’roll.

I was moved by this farewell from the POV of a dying satellite—can you tell me if this matches an actual satellite that circled our planet?

( Stream here on YouTube )

Or on SoundCloud or on Spotify.

( Lyrics in the cut )

james_davis_nicoll

When the target world proves too inhospitable for colonization, colonists make a desperate bid to return to Earth on a failing starship.

Disgraced Return of The Kap’s Needle by Renan Bernardo

redbird

This year, they're giving away tote bags when people come in to get the printed bingo card. I got email on Friday saying the bags had arrived, so I went back to the Honan-Allston branch library this afternoon.

The bags are just like last year's, except printed in green instead of blue. I like last year's bag--it's the right size for me, and reasonably sturdy. I went to Lizzy's afterwards, bought pints, and put my insulated bag inside the library bag.

The prize for a bingo on the summer reading card is a sticker. I just printed a copy of the "more reading" bingo card, on which all the squares are for reading different kinds of books, and am filling in squares on both cards. So far, I haven't read anything that works for both bingo cards.

james_davis_nicoll

Many supplements and adventures for Troika!, the acid-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Melsonian Arts Council.

Bundle of Holding: Troika Warehouse

james_davis_nicoll

2001: Labour narrowly wins a second overwhelming victory, Simon Darcount finds his calling, and Jeffrey Archer distracts people from that time he was accused of stealing three suits.

Poll #33257 Clarke Award Finalists 2001

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 62

View Respondents

Which 2001 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
42 (67.7%)

Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle
26 (41.9%)

Cosmonaut Keep by Ken MacLeod
18 (29.0%)

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
29 (46.8%)

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
21 (33.9%)

Salt by Adam Roberts
5 (8.1%)

Bold for have read, italic for intend to read,, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2001 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle
Cosmonaut Keep by Ken MacLeod
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
Salt by Adam Roberts

calimac

B. went to the local No Kings protest on Saturday. I support the cause, but I stayed home and took a nap. I feel I've already had my say on this subject.

Instead, I went up to the City that evening for the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony's Pride celebratory concert. The music sounded interesting. Conducted by Martha Stoddard, known locally for the Oakland Civic Orchestra, it featured a timpani concerto by the Colombian/US composer Juan Sebastian Cardona Ospina, and Sibelius's Third Symphony. Both of them came across as busy and bustling.

Today I happened to be sitting in the living room when B. turned the tv on to continue watching Andor (which I persist in thinking of as "and/or" because I've been trained in Boolean logic). Although it's set in the Star Wars universe, it didn't feel to me like Star Wars at all, because the dialogue isn't stiff and inane like in all the Star Wars movies I've seen. (I haven't seen Rogue One.) But I couldn't follow what was going on, so I let it be.

redbird

Adrian made strawberry pancakes, blueberry pancakes, and raspberry pancakes, partly because we have all these strawberries to use up, and partly so I could try cooked strawberries, after the fresh ones made my lips itch on Friday.

I ate a bite of a strawberry pancake, and found it bland and uninteresting. I didn't react to the berry, but it was one small piece of strawberry, and I don't know whether a larger amount would have been a problem.

I may yet try something like a strawberry sauce over cake or ice cream. Adrian noted that raw and cooked strawberries are almost different fruits, but it also seems possible that a strawberry sauce will taste more like raw berries than like strawberries baked into pancakes.

james_davis_nicoll

Nine tales of science fiction by Poul Anderson.

Homeward and Beyond by Poul Anderson

redbird

The three of us went out to the No Kings Yaas Queens combined Pride/NoKings demonstration today, despite my worries about my various joints. Or, at least, that was the plan. It didn't work out, but my knees, hips, and ankles are OK.

We got to Park Street and the Common, and found other people who were looking for the same event, a stage where someone was introducing the next speaker?performer?, and some tables and tents, but no focus. We wound up walking to the side of the Common next to the Public Garden, where we found the parade, smaller than we'd expected but with enough of a crowd I couldn't see much. So we went home, pausing moderately often to rest my joints and watch another bit of parade, which seems to have been heading for Government Center as originally planned, not the Common as we thought.

I'm both glad I went, and disappointed that I didn't actually make it to the first protest or rally I've felt physically capable of in too long.

I will probably update this tomorrow, to note how my joints are feeling. This afternoon, they've felt good enough for some PT exercises.

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May 2024

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Page Summary

jesse_the_k - infinite punchlines from LearnedLeague's Best Worst Answers
james_davis_nicoll - In The Garden of Iden (Company, volume 1) by Kage Baker
james_davis_nicoll - Last night in Fabula Ultima
james_davis_nicoll - That should buff right out
adrian_turtle - focus
james_davis_nicoll - Bundle of Horror: Raven
jesse_the_k - Things I Can Only See Up North
james_davis_nicoll - Counting the Days: Five SFF Approaches to Calendars
james_davis_nicoll - Magus of the Library, volume 8 by Mitsu Izumi
athenais - Music and flowers
redbird - the sandals didn't fit.
jesse_the_k - music: A Wistful Satellite Song
james_davis_nicoll - Disgraced Return of The Kap’s Needle by Renan Bernardo
redbird - BPL Summer Reading
james_davis_nicoll - Bundle of Holding: Troika Warehouse
james_davis_nicoll - Clarke Award Finalists 2001
calimac - caught up
redbird - strawberry follow-up
james_davis_nicoll - Homeward and Beyond by Poul Anderson
redbird - #NoKings

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Page generated Jun. 20th, 2025 09:18 am

Kate Schaefer

It's more complicated than that.

Reading

infinite punchlines from LearnedLeague's Best Worst Answers

In The Garden of Iden (Company, volume 1) by Kage Baker

Last night in Fabula Ultima

That should buff right out

focus

Bundle of Horror: Raven

Things I Can Only See Up North

Counting the Days: Five SFF Approaches to Calendars

Magus of the Library, volume 8 by Mitsu Izumi

Music and flowers

the sandals didn't fit.

music: A Wistful Satellite Song

Disgraced Return of The Kap’s Needle by Renan Bernardo

BPL Summer Reading

Bundle of Holding: Troika Warehouse

Clarke Award Finalists 2001

caught up

strawberry follow-up

Homeward and Beyond by Poul Anderson

#NoKings

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May 2024

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