tozka: (tv head)
[personal profile] tozka

๐ŸŽฌ Some Like It Hot: Directed by Billy Wilder. With Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft. After two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in. ๐Ÿ”—

Queer af! And I did enjoy it, especially Marilyn who was a hoot, but if I think about it too much I start getting the heebies.

I HATE when womanizer characters trick their love interest into liking them and the love interest doesn’t get angry at him when the trick is revealed, because they’re in love. Ugh.

Anyway, now I want to see if I can find recordings of all-girl jazz bands to listen to…


๐Ÿ“บ 2025 Watched List

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

weeknotes (august 10-16, 2025)

Aug. 17th, 2025 11:57 am
tozka: title character sitting with a friend (lady lovely locks & friends)
[personal profile] tozka

Life Updates

I’ve been so enjoying my time in Ann Arbor– or at least in this part of A2 in particular.

Every morning I wake up around 6, make a cup of coffee and go out to sit in the garden for an hour or two. Then, after feeding the cats, I go walk around the neighborhood for as long as I want, usually 40 minutes, come back and shower and then get to work! I sit at a high desk and watch the garden out the window, and I see all sorts of animals: groundhogs, rabbits, squirrels (three kinds), chipmunks, stray cats, and once even a deer!

The week has fairly raced by! I did make it into town once this week, to check out the farmer’s market and a few shops. I stopped at a used bookstore called Digger’s, where you literally dig around for media (books, DVDs, games, CDs), and managed to find four books for $0.75/each. Now I’m REALLY in trouble, between those and the ones I got from the Little Free Libraries earlier– and did I mention I found an UNLICENSED LFL on a walk the other day? Of course I got a book from there, so now I’m up to (I think) 10 books still waiting to be read.

Read the rest of this entry » )

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

๐Ÿ“ธ photo: oak tree

Aug. 17th, 2025 11:21 am
tozka: A bit of green landscape against a riotous blue cloud-filled sky (van gogh landscape)
[personal profile] tozka
Looking upwards from the ground into the branches of a very large tree. The branches spread across the screen in a curve and are filled with leaves. The sun is shining through the leaves and highlighting those while the rest are a darker green in shadow.

This is (I think) a burr oak tree! Which is the โ€œarborโ€ part of Ann Arbor (the other being the names of the two foundersโ€™ wives, who were both called Ann).

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

settiai: (Kes -- settiai (TriaElf9))
[personal profile] settiai
In tonight's game, the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.
tozka: (spring comes)
[personal profile] tozka
Close-up of several purple puffball looking flowers, with a bee hunting for pollen in the middle

Wikipedia: Mouse Garlic (the variety of allium Pl@ntNet thinks this looks closest to)

Allium angulosum is a perennial herb up to 50 cm tall. Bulbs are narrow and elongated, about 5 mm in diameter. The plant produces a hemispherical umbel of small pink flowers on long pedicels.

Adding two new words to my dictionary, one secโ€ฆ

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

tozka: multiple popples crowded around one big book (popples reading)
[personal profile] tozka

Book Info

Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir

LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/work/1911762/t/I-Married-a-Logger-Life-in-Michigans-Tall-Timber

Acquired from: Digger’s, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Started reading: August 14, 2025

Finished reading: August 17, 2025

Review (written Aug 17)

Overall a good read– author has a good amount of humor and can write funny scenes well. It’s interesting to read about how the logging industry worked before it became industrialized in the late 1940s. The author has some typical 1950s attitudes about thinness and unions which are questionable in modern times, but overall not too bad. It’s an upbeat memoir about a particular time in Michigan that I enjoyed reading.

(Crossposted to LibraryThing)

I’m not going to keep this particular copy because the glue binding is totally falling apart, but if and when I happen to build a library for myself in the future I would enjoy having a copy of this on the shelf.

Reading Updates (Aug 14-17)

Page 0: I picked this book up because a) it’s a memoir set in Michigan (where I’m currently catsitting) and b) the author did her own illustrations and they’re pretty good! Published originally in 1951 and this is a reprint by a local Michigan publisher in the 80s.

Read the rest of this entry » )

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

tozka: Person holding a book titled white magic (book white magic)
[personal profile] tozka

Book Info

Topics: Nonfiction, Feminism, Environmental Activism, Climate Change

LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/work/book/291465827

Acquired from: Little Free Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA [see visit log]

Started reading: August 9, 2025

Finished reading: August 13, 2025 (DNF’d)

Reading Updates

Page 0: Picked this book to read next because itโ€™s the heaviestโ€” I donโ€™t want to have to worry about trying to pack it and take it with me!

Itโ€™s a relatively new book (published 2023) and is basically a collection of interviews with climate activists.

Came with a bookmark from the Ann Arbor District Library (Seed Sampler, which promotes their seed library!). Itโ€™s a really nice bookmark and Iโ€™m probably gonna keep it for my collection.

Read the rest of this entry » )

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

lfl visit log (2)

Aug. 13th, 2025 11:48 am
tozka: (green rabbit pattern)
[personal profile] tozka

Went on a re-visiting circuit of Little Free Libraries from the first log, and found a new library! Plus some more good books.

Was a really nice walk, too, though I was sweating by the end because it was like 80F by 8am yeesh.

On another day, I went into the main downtown part of Ann Arbor and visited two LFLs that’re near the Farmer’s Market, though I didn’t find any books to take with me.

New LFL visited:

  1. LFL #167052 – Jones Community Garden Library – Ann Arbor, MI
  2. LFL #189363 – Ann Arbor, MI (not listed on the map somehow)
  3. LFL #198908 – Detroit Street Filling Station – Ann Arbor, MI

Dropped off Moby-Duck, Seasons of the Wild and Climate Resilience!

Obtained Into the Wild, Granta issue 138, The Forest Unseen, Sweet Days of Discipline

Photos under here! )

๐ŸŒŸ All LFL Visited / All LFL Visit Logs

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

Video Games

Aug. 13th, 2025 11:24 am
settiai: (FemShep -- paperpinafore)
[personal profile] settiai
Hey, it's a semi-fannish post! I don't make those very much lately. Let's hope this is the beginning of me getting back to that. ๐Ÿคž๐Ÿป

As was probably obvious from my post last night, I'm trying to get back into the habit of playing video games again. It's one of those things where I honestly feel happier and more mentally stable when I'm making the time to play for a bit daily or at least every few days, but it's really hard to find the time and energy sometimes. Especially the last, uh, year or two. What with everyone going on IRL in various ways.

So, you know, I'm actively working on improving that.

Rambling under the cut about my current daily schedule and how I'm trying to fit video games into it more regularly. )

That said, I am going to attempt to make posts here and there where I ramble about what's going on in whatever game and playthrough I'm focusing on at that time. I have no idea if I'll manage it, but I'm going to try. I really miss being properly fannish about things, and I want to at least try to get back to it.

Baldur's Gate 3

Aug. 12th, 2025 09:54 pm
settiai: (BG3 -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai


I freely admit that I cackled a little when I saw this conversation happening in one of my D&D Discords. Especially since I was literally in the middle of playing Baldur's Gate 3 at that very moment. I feel like I'm being judged, but I can't really blame them when it's, you know, true.

Speaking of which, my gnome sorcerer/bard was very busy doing important things tonight:



In related news, I love the poly mod. Also? It works surprisingly well when combining these two romances specifically. Karlach and Wyll's relationship makes it very much come across as two Vs working towards a triad.

๐Ÿ“ธ photo: katydid

Aug. 12th, 2025 04:08 am
tozka: white text on black background, "stay weird" (stay weird)
[personal profile] tozka
A large grasshopper-like insect clinging to a window screen. Its legs are stretched out and it has a long wing trailing behind it. The photo is taken from inside the house and the insect is outside (thank goodness).

Much larger IRL than I expectedโ€ฆ [Wikipedia]

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

Titansfall D&D: Summary for 8/10 Game

Aug. 10th, 2025 10:15 pm
settiai: (Sim -- settiai (TriaElf9))
[personal profile] settiai
In tonight's game, the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

weeknotes (august 3-9)

Aug. 10th, 2025 12:20 pm
tozka: Mouse from Ghibli's Spirited Away movie (ghibli spirited away mouse)
[personal profile] tozka

Life Updates

I can’t believe another week has gone by already! I’ve been enjoying myself immensely here, sitting in the garden and harvesting handfuls of cherry tomatoes. I haven’t even made it into town proper yet and I’m coming up on my third week in this housesit. Whoops!

๐Ÿˆโ€โฌ› Cats are doing well, and the shyest one even let me pet him (once) when he saw his siblings in the same room with me. They’ve also started coming to wake me (at 6am) which I’m taking as a sign that they like me.

Media Consumption

๐ŸŽง Too Many Tabs podcast has started their Quack Month, where they focus on quacks in August. It’s one of my favorite months for their podcast, partly because Mrs. P is the one researching and explaining everything, and she’s great. (Mr. P is also good but his shtick is shouting enthusiastically about everything which can be tiring. Also if you’re looking at the thumbnails– only Mr. P is onscreen because Mrs. P doesn’t want internet fame.)

The first episode was about Liver King, who I’ve only seen on the periphery on TikTok from people talking about how horrible he is.

๐Ÿ“บ I watched The Producers (1967) which I think I’ve seen before– but I don’t remember the entire last half of the film, so basically it was like watching it for the first time. I enjoyed seeing where they changed things for the musical (which I love) and what things they kept. I much prefer the characters in the musical, as they have a bit more depth.

I also watched The Wiz (1978)! I loved the actors/singing/music, but the empty urban pseudo-NYC streets freaked me out (maybe it was supposed to do that?) and some of the musical numbers went on way too long (the intro to Oz scene where they change colors over and over). I’m planning on watching the Live production of the musical whenever I can track it down, as apparently the stage version is much better.

๐Ÿ“– Finished reading Moby-Duck (reading log + review), which I overall enjoyed but I do think it needed a bit more tightening up.

Also finished Seasons of the Wild (reading log + review), which was underwhelming.

Currently reading Climate Resilience (reading log), which is a good topic and has some great tips for getting more involve with climate activism, but some of the language feels…idk…over-the-top? I’m not sure how to describe it. Like, instead of just saying “I met this person and it was great,” it’s written more like “I had the honor of being in the same room as this amazing activist who has done 50 million things and is a mother, daughter, sister, aunt and earth goddess.” :/ Also they’re edited/compiled essays from interviews and everyone ends up sounding the same because of that, which is a shame.

I think I may temporarily swap over to my Kindle and read a fantasy/romance book as a palette cleanser.

Food & Dining

I harvested enough cherry tomatoes to finally be able to make a soup, which I did. (I used this recipe.) Of course as soon as I made it, I didn’t want to eat it, so it’s in the fridge for later.

The next batch of tomatoes are going to be made into a pasta sauce. I have some non-cherry ones ripening in a paper bag, and they’re nearly ready to use. I just need to track down some jars so I have somewhere to store it all!

Web Updates

New on the site:

  • Added a new note to my Commonplace Notebook on the Notes about AI page

Posted on the blog:

I also did a lot of theme customization, which I outlined here on this page.

Looking Forward

My usual goal to write here and on my site. I’m nearly done with a guide to customizing the look of your Calibre library, I just need to finish the formatting.

I’d also like to get in the habit of leaving comments on other people’s blogs (or emailing them), especially if I link them in a linkspam post. Right now I do it sporadically and I think if I make it more of a habit then it’ll stick better.

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

=^.^=

Aug. 10th, 2025 01:35 pm
settiai: (Bert/Ernie -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai


Look at this sweet, innocent child who definitely wouldn't do something like piss all over my bed at 1am.

Oh, Garrus. It's a good thing he's cute. And that I know it was because of lingering issues from what led to the vet trip on Thursday rather than anything else.

Oh, Garrus...

Aug. 10th, 2025 01:00 am
settiai: (Cora/Thane -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai
Welp. Garrus definitely just had an accident on the bed a few minutes ago. ๐Ÿ™ƒ

I'm pretty sure it's stemming from the same issue that led to the vet trip a few days ago, so I can't really be mad at him. His timing is about as horrible as it could be, though, because I very much don't have the money to go wash multiple loads of clothes right now. Plus, you know, it's 1am which isn't great either.

My sheets and comforter are currently in the bathtub, and I'm going to see what I can do via handwashing to try and remove as much of the smell as possible. I'm trying to raise the $20 that I'll need to cover two loads over on Bluesky, so I'm hoping that throwing them in the bathtub will at least work as a stopgap.

August is, uh, certainly shaping up to be a month so far. That's for sure.

ETA: Okay, I have the money to wash and dry two loads, so I'm going to go get them in the washer now (and hope that there's nobody in the suite to the laundry room right now who I'll be disturbing). Hopefully I'm washing them fast enough that the scent won't have a chance to sink in at all. ๐Ÿคž๐Ÿป

One of those IRL updates...

Aug. 8th, 2025 10:12 am
settiai: (Odo/Kira -- artphilia)
[personal profile] settiai
I wasn't able to pay the hotel before the front desk closed at 11pm last night like I'd hoped, but thanks to some help that I appreciate more than you can imagine, I was able to get enough together to cover it before I crashed for the night. I got up early this morning and went to the front desk first thing, before they had a chance to start going through the overdue list, which I definitely think helped. Honestly, I think that C probably assumed I'd been sick and that's why I hadn't come to pay yesterday, because she asked several times if I felt okay which makes me think that I must have looked like death warmed over.

Anyway, the hotel is covered through next Thursday, when I get paid again, so that's one less thing to worry about. I don't have any bills due between now and then, so the fact that I only have a few dollars left in my checking account shouldn't be an issue as long as nothing else explodes. The only potential issue is that I'm not going to be able to wash clothes until I get paid next week, but I think that I have enough clean ones to get me through until then if I'm careful. Towels are the only thing I'm definitely going to run out of, but I should be able to get a few from the hotel to get me through until I can use my own again.

Garrus seems to be doing okay. He's still a little off, but that's to be expected all things considered. It usually takes him a couple of days after a trip to the emergency vet to get back to normal. Keyleth at least has stopped hissing and spitting at him, so that's good. She's never appreciated whatever he smells like after a trip to the vet. They're both currently curled up asleep on opposite ends of my bed, which is a definite step up from yesterday.

That said, today is going to be hellish. I didn't get much sleep yesterday because of the whole "getting up at the crack of dawn to take Garrus to the vet" thing, and then I didn't really have a chance to take a nap or go to bed early because I was panicking about the hotel bill. And then this morning I got up early to go pay said bill as soon as possible. I'm really hoping that I can manage to fit in a short nap during my lunch break today, and then I can maybe take another one after work if needed, because it's barely past 10am and I can feel myself starting to fade.

Now if the universe will just throw me a bone and let me have a break for at least a while. Please. Please, universe.

. . .

Aug. 7th, 2025 02:22 pm
settiai: (Ballister & Nimona -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai
Oh, this has been a day already, and it's only mid-afternoon. ๐Ÿ™ƒ

Garrus seems mostly back to normal at this point. He's still a little groggy from the meds they gave him, and there are some lingering issues from the problems that led to the vet trip in the first place (blood where there shouldn't have been blood again), but based on past experience he'll be as good as new in another day or two. So that's good at least. I'll take every little win I can get.

I'm still working on the "paying the hotel" part of my to-do list, but I technically have until 6pm to get it paid and probably won't get in any trouble if I pay a little later than that (as long as I pay at some point today) since they know I sometimes end up working late. That means I have at least a few hours to try to come up with the rest of what I need, which is something at least.

Honestly, I'm just so fucking frustrated with the universe at the moment. I was supposed to have about $100 left over after paying my various bills with last week's paycheck, which was great because I could finally start building a little bit of a cushion again. Except, no, Lynn's not allowed to have good things happen. Only bad. So instead of having $100 extra in my checking account, I'm now in the hole again because the vet requires immediate payment before leaving the building. Because that's just how my luck goes.

Not to mention I'm absolutely exhausted right now, which is really making things even more fun. Garrus at least waited until it was a semi-reasonable hour this time around (if you call 5am a semi-reasonable hour, which I do compared to the usual 2-3am), so I managed to get a little sleep before everything went down. It wasn't nearly enough, though, so I'm flagging fast which is less than ideal.

Re: my last post

Aug. 7th, 2025 10:24 am
settiai: (Furry Trio -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai


It's a good thing he's cute. And also on some drugs at the moment.

. . .

Aug. 7th, 2025 09:38 am
settiai: (Tarot -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai
Why is it that whenever Garrus has something come up that requires an immediate trip to the vet, it *always* has to happen in the middle of the night? Or, at least in this case, the wee hours of the morning?

Every. Single. Time. ๐Ÿ™ƒ

He's going to be fine. It looks like it's related to the problems he's had in the past where, if he gets too stressed, then he has issues that can potentially be serious if ignored (hence the early morning trip to the vet). But still, there goes any chance of me actually have some extra money left over from this paycheck.

Thank you, universe. Thank you. And by thank you, I mean fuck you.

I have to do some math and see just how bad it is, since I'm supposed to pay the hotel today and, you know, my checking account's total just dropped by several hundred dollars. I basically made it back this morning just in time to throw myself at my work computer, though, so I have to take care of a few things on the job front first.

Happy Thursday, huh?
settiai: (Sienna -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai
In tonight's game, the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.
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