A Belated Apology to the Music Industry

One of the things that frustrated me as a writer was when writers would then steal a photo for their blog and be shocked to discover that photos have copyrights and use, when, like of course they do. (Also, if you've been blogging as long as I have, you've watched this discovery occur a few times.) 

But with this AI stealing all the text it can find, I realized I had had my own thing that I had missed. I blogged a little about the town hall with Pandora I went to way back when: http://www.talkapedia.com/2007/09/pandora.html?m=1 Interestingly I did not mention in my blog post that part of the reason the Pandora team was hanging out in DC was to convince Congress they shouldn't have to pay the same rates radio stations did to play songs. But looking back this was music streamers basically setting up a service that used music and sold music access to it's users, and then didn't want to pay for said music access. 

And the AI/Large Language models need text written by actual humans in order to appropriately mimic human speech, but then don't want to pay for the very thing they need. I mean, they could of course write their own text. But that would take longer than stealing other people's text. So they don't want to do that. And then the AI people pretend that this roadblock suddenly appeared. As if the text they stole had just been lying out in the break room and they had no way to know it belonged to someone when they took it. 

So now of course our music industry is impacted by the rules the streamers retroactively forced through. And I hope we won't see the same with LLMs. Not just because some of my text has been stolen. But also, I hope we can learn from our past mistakes. 

Accessibility Helps Everyone

With the news of the CPB winding down, people were reminiscing about favorite PBS shows and I was reminded of a show I stumbled across as a teen. I apologize, I no longer remember the title. But the show used popular music videos and captioned them with highlights to note specific phonetic phenomenon. So all the long e's would be highlighted blue, while all the rest of the letters were white. It was a cool fun way to teach the concepts. 

I understood phonetics pretty well as a teen, but my parents didn't want to pay for cable TV. Cable TV at the time, was the only way to access music videos. Well, cable TV and this show. So I watched to get to see music videos. 

My mother had a book about "Sesame Street" as part of her coursework for her masters degree that I read for funsies. 

It talked about how the show was designed to help lower and middle class  bilingual children learn concepts about language and numbers that would help them catch up to monolingual English speaking classmates of middle and upper classes. And it did raise their skills. It just also raised the skills of the monolingual English speakers also. 

One of the things that can be easy to overlook in places where you have privilege is that better accessibility benefits you to. So when we lose things like the CPB, yes some people will be harder hit by this loss. But the things we lose affect everyone. 

Back Door

I am going to pause to acknowledge that this title from a romance author and trained sex educator could mean many things. But I am talking about bus back doors. 

I ride the bus regularly. The route near me is a main artery in the city so sometimes we get the extended buses, with the accordion piece in the middle to help them turn. In those buses the back door is even farther from the driver. 

Ideally, the back door should open each time the bus stops. In the DC area, they have added machines to the back doors, to allow people to enter from that door, as well as exit. In my experience, those back door machines work more irregularly than the front door machines. But it does mean that the door should again open at each stop. 

But it doesn't always. The person standing there will yell back door, hoping their voice will carry to the driver. Often someone a little closer to the driver will pick up the call. I watched this the other day on the bus and though about how this is a tiny moment of community. Someone sees an issue that doesn't involve them, but steps in to help solve it. Society works best when we work together. 

Tara Kennedy

Note: If you are reading this outside of your normal work hours, feel free to hold off response until your work hours.  

~To the world we dream about, and the one we live in now. 

"Hadestown", book and lyrics by Anais Mitchell

Invasive Species

They tell us lanternflies are here to stay. I read the book Pest, earlier this year, so I am aware that things we deem pests versus helpful new species changes. That often we hate things and then change our minds, or introduce things and then discover they cause problems when allowed to run amok. 

One of my beta readers for I Belong to You said she could sort of see how the animals of Rock Creek Park might need an HOA of sorts. Because the deer are cute and adorable, or majestic.  But also, they are big and the eat things, things other animals might want to eat. And the only thing that exists in or near the park that might curb the deer population is humans. (Occasionally a deer has foolishly frolicked into the zoo, to discover that we do keep a few predators in there. But so far no one has suggested Lion night in Rock Creek Park as a solution. Also, to be clear, I am pro-deer. Hi, deer!)

But what do they mean when they say lanternflies are here to stay? They mean you don't have to stomp each one you see, because stomping is not the way out. But of course, they mean we can't eradicate lanternflies by stomping them one by one. Not that there aren't solutions to lanternflies. And yes, having read Pest I am aware that humans have never really eradicated a species they were trying to eradicate. 

But some species are gone. Or - more applicably - gone from some of the places they were causing harm to other wildlife. But it wasn't because people stomped them. It took a collective, strategic, and often years long effort. But does that mean you can't stomp one? That is up to you. 

Ripped Bodice Bingo Suggestions

Okay, the Ripped Bodice released their summer reading bingo card, and I have suggestions.  They will include me.  I do not have suggestions for all the categories, so am going to skip a few.

Rescue Mission - This is a stretch, but Not Here to Make Friends by Jodi McAlister
Cover has a sportsball on it - Playing the Player by Amy Andrews
Texas Hold Em
Published before 2005 - I recently re-read Nora Roberts Sea Swept, and it held up well. There's definitely some stuff that is of it's time, particularly in the next book in the series, and Roberts was a hold out on any discussion of safe sex or birth control, so there is no mention of that.  
They Were Roommates - There are many very literal ones that would work here, including a recent release literally called They Were Roommates, but if we count valets as being like roommates kinda, A Gentleman's Gentleman by TJ Alexander would work here. 
Merfolk - Water Under the Bridge by Holley Trent
Historical Ruins - Temple of Swoon by Jo Segura
Haunted House - I'll Conjure for You by Charish Reid, Love in All the Haunted Places by Claire Kann
Road Trip - Time Loops and Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau, Here We go Again by Alison Cochrun
Telepathic Connection - Witch of Wild Things by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
Who Doin it - Using a loose definition of mystery here, I think One in a Million by Beverley Kendall, The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
Punny Title - Tanked by Mia Hopkins, A Legend in the Baking by Jamie Wesley
Medieval
It was Supposed to be a Summer Fling - Unromance by Erin Connor.  
Animal with a Job - Pardon My Frenchie by Farrah Rochon
Fairy Tale Retelling - Perhaps, my I Belong to You would work here.  And if we include Shakespeare as a fairytale, Ben and Beatriz by Katalina Gamarra
Fall
Rival Teams - Guava and Grudges by Alexis Castellanos
 

Books About People

The Supreme Court came out against books and it sucks. Sure, they say it's only some books but the reality of things is when the Supreme Court has said that picture books that mention anything about the world that parents somewhere might not like can be removed, it means several things. 

Teachers and librarians are going to have to figure out what books some parent somewhere might not like. My mom was a teacher, and once showed the Disney version of "The Lion King" (the original cartoon one which was rated PG) during after school care on a rainy day when they couldn't have outside time, and had a parent complain. That child's other parent was surprised to hear that because they had taken the kids to see the movie. 

So, in order to prevent further issues they only showed G movies. 

This case was brought by parents in Montgomery County, Maryland. A place I attended school. It wasn't my parents objecting since I am above picture book age. But it feels close. 

The idea that anything aimed at a picture book audience could be so terrible that a child couldn't possibly see it or hear about it, sort of defies the principles of educating children. I am not saying parents can't have values. Of course they can. I once read an op-ed by parents who hate the curriculum about recycling, because they feel the way we truck recycled items around in this country actually creates more climate harm than it saves. That is a perspective. And I understand that when children are in the sponge learning stage, it can be hard to figure out how to say, yes your teachers are very knowledgeable, but also I personally do not agree with everything they taught you today. But guess what, this is the world. Exposure to other people and other ideas is a normal response to talking to other people. You and your children should be prepared for that. 

But let's also talk about what it means for the authors of these books. First it is incredibly sad for them. They worked hard to make books that were lovely and thoughtful and age appropriate. And now they are being told that their books cannot be safely shown to some children if their parents disagree. 

Now when you google their books, you will get a Supreme Court case. 

Many libraries and schools will remove these books from their collections. 

Many libraries and schools will choose not to ask these authors and illustrators to come to their schools.

Should these authors and illustrators choose to produce another book, they will have to decide if they should be more cautious about subject matter or not. 

When their publishers review their sales record, they will likely not consider that being banned from certain schools and libraries hurt their sales. They will just have low sales. And so they will get either lower offers or no offers when their work is being considered. 

Being banned doesn't help your sales, even if you know some authors who were banned and are successful. Judy Blue, to give an example, is not successful because she got banned. She is successful because she happened to write enough bestsellers to counter being banned. Not everyone gets the chance to do that. 

What can you do? Write to your library and tell them you love books. Thank them for displays or programming that includes books that have characters of all kinds. If your library has a board, show up to the meetings. I sent my library what I called a love letter. I was specific about the things I loved that they were doing. 

And I am writing to my city council as they discuss budget to indicate how much I think the library is an important part of our budget. 

Edited: Sure, they say it's only some books but the reality of things is when the Supreme Court has said that picture books that mention anything about the world that parents somewhere might not like can be removed, it means several things. Orinally the prior sentence did nto include the phrase :can be removed".

"A Wrinkle in Time" at Arena Stage

Content note: bullying

I'm going to start by covering the musical, and then talk a little about differences from the book.

Meg and Charles Wallace Murry's father disappeared two years ago. Three strange ladies, who say they are more like stars than angels, appear and say they know how to help Meg and Charles Wallace find him. Calvin, a school mate arrives and says he felt compelled to talk to Meg. The three ladies decide he should also join them. Three three kids and three ladies journey across planets in their quest to retrieve Dr. Murry. 

I got a little teary in the very first song, so I was sucked in quickly. The cast includes Amber Gray as Mrs. Whatsit, and Vickie Lewis as Mrs. Which. I mention them because I was familiar with their work but the cast was excellent from top to bottom. The music was enchanting in places, ethereal and otherworldly in others. The costumes and hair were fascinating. And they made great use of a smallish stage. 

It was amazing enough that I considered going immediately to buy another ticket to see it again. 

Now. I still have lines from this book memorized. So I am both an avid and annoying audience. There are changes, books are not musicals. But that this show was crafted by folks who love this story seemed clear throughout. 

Some obvious changes, the twins are gone. (Sorry Sandy and Dennis fans.) Charles Wallace wears overalls, but is played by a college kid. He is believably in school, but not believably six. (His age is not mentioned.) 

Calvin is new in town, and no mention is made of siblings. Only that his parents work multiple jobs and might not notice if he misses dinner. 

They chose to act out the tesseract, which was to me a little odd, but I got used to it, as the tesseract went on. 

I don't want to spoil how they changed the meeting with It, but I thought it worked well.

Note: I attended a masked showing. Most patrons seemed to arrive without masks, and made use of the surgical masks the ticket takers gave out.

"Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations" at National Theater

Content note: brief references to suicide, racism, addiction, gender essentialism, and chronic illness.

A friend invited me to join her and her two kids at the show. With this being a jukebox musical, she had expected some hits and a smidgeon of plot. The book was based on Eddie*'s memoir of the group. The show, as the subtitle might lead you to believe attempts to chronicle the formation, founding and the struggles and successes of a group with a multi-decade career. 

As such it kinda speedruns through a lot of information, and if your kids are at the "why" stage, there's a lot of room for why questions. 

In some ways the show reminded me of "Bohemian Rhapsody", not because Queen and The Temptations are comparable groups, but because when the folks left alive to tell the story are in charge of the narrative, it favors them. 

Now, I do not know more about the inner working of The Temptations than Otis does. But the show posits that he became the leader, even as the other characters keep telling him he's not in charge, they are supposed to be a group. 

Summarizing a multi-decade career while also making time to sing about twenty songs, in the length of a musical is always going to be a nearly impossible task. But were there entertaining songs and fun choreography? Yes, absolutely. 

But if you or anyone you are going to the show with has a lot of why questions, probably make time to skim some Temptations history too, either before or after the show. 

DC: I Love You, Ready or Not at the Folger Theater

The ending affects so much of how you feel about a thing, that it can color your perception of the whole thing.

While conceptually related to the Mt. Pleasant version in the use of multiple places, one for each scene, though this time in or near the Folger, there were some differences.

Instead of a new couple and new actors in each setting, we followed three actors. Two of them played the same character throughout, and one played multiple characters. 

I spotted two other scenes for later groups, and there was some gender bended casting. So the gender of the characters was different, depending on which group you ended up in. 

Hunter, our main character was having a day. Hunter was being followed by an audience no one else seemed able to see. One character, suggested Hunter might be in a rom-com. Another, who had a ukulele, suggested it might be a musical. Hunter tried leaning in, but wasn't feeling it, so then tried to escape the audience. It gets a little more meta after that.

We were advised early not to interact with the actors, because one of them could see us, and in fact at one point asked us to stop following them. There were some incredible lines, and in my group, two of the actors had been in the Mt. Pleasant version, so it was great to see them again so soon.

Go with a friend who you can talk about the ending with.

All locations accessible by ramp or elevator.  ETA: Originally I wrote genderblind casting, which I belated realized was a very ableist turn of phrase. I apologize for my usage.

"Senior Class" at Olney Theatre Center

Content note: classism. 

A show about teens who discover there is no budget left to put on a show, definitely feels like it has been done before. A show about teens who decide to do "Pygmalion" (public domain!) but update it for a modern audience and maybe make it a musical, has also been done before. (Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, anyone?) But some ideas are repeated because they are great ideas. After all, I've loved approximately ten different versions of "A Christmas Carol". 

I adored this show. George Bernard Washington, G.B. to his friends, as the writer/director of the show made clear how much the act of writing and directing feels a little like being Professor Higgins, trying to mold something in a new direction but discovering the thing you are trying to mold doesn't always accept your directions. 

Alyzé as a broke ballerina who does subway showtime dancing to help raise funds for her schooling was wonderful. 

And Colin, G.B.'s best friend who dreams of a Jimmy award, and casts a jock as Pickering to his Higgins was delightful.

The choreography was wonderful. The songs were fun. The direction was delightfully specific. If you are a person who likes peeking at the background actors, they were always doing little things that made them seem more like fully rounded characters. 

My one critique would be the sound design seemed to overwhelm some of the solo singers.

And the lesson that no one wants to be Higgins, Higgins gets left all alone, community is what you need, was perfect.

(Also those of you who recall my opinion that Freddy is Liza's best choice, well, this shows agrees with me.)

Three Interesting Things

1. Penguin poop might be saving the world.

2. This was a nice round up of the Tonys. 

3. This is my local breakfast taco place, talking about how they survive the rush.  I literally did not think I liked breakfast tacos until they converted me. 

Tara Describes the Tony Nominated Plays Badly

Hello, I love theater and do not always get to see everything nominated for a Tony for reasons that include, COVID, lack of infinite monies to travel to New York.  So I have seen only one of these.  And I'm still going to intentionally describe it badly.  This tradition started as me attempting to describe these things in one sentence, and devolved from there.

To all the people who make theater, whether award nominated or not, I love you. 

Plays -

English:  English is hard. 

The Hills of California:  Fame doesn't make up for your mother dying. 

John Proctor is the Villain: Teens push back against reading a play where the supposed good guy sucks. 

Oh Mary: Being the spouse of the president is awful, it would be so much better to be a cabaret singer. 

Purpose: Adult kid brings home friend to family house, hijinks ensue. 

Musicals -

Buena Vista Social Club: Some music albums take forty years to make. 

Dead Outlaw: What if you could make money by lying and showing off a dead guy?

Death Becomes Her: Sometimes you have to live forever to truly attempt to outdo your best frenemy. 

Maybe Happy Ending: Two outdated robots discover they might have more to learn about the world. About love. 

Operation Mincemeat: What if a dead person was the key to winning the war? 

One could argue just about everything is about love and death, but there's a definite corpse theme going on in many of the musicals this year. Not a complaint, just an observation.

Does the Tally Matter?

NaNo's daily goal was 1667. #1000WordsOfSummer is, well 1000. I read a post once from someone who had a daily goal of 10000, and no, that is not a typo. And I recently came across a post from someone who said after discovering a famous writer had a daily goal of 500, that they would be happy to be half as productive and set their daily goal to 250. 

So, to answer the question I asked, I don't think the goal you set matters. Well, I think it matters that it is achievable for you on a multi-day basis. There are people who can run marathons and then there is me. I could set a goal of running three miles a day, but, oh that's right I don't run. 

For me, when editing I find the goals harder. I can read three chapters a day. Or stare at the manuscript for at least an hour. Or fix at least four things. In the end it tends to be a mix of things. It goes faster when I look at it each day, but I don't always. On days I don't even peak I try to at least actively think about it for a few minutes. 

And the other thing that doing these group writing bits helps with, is the camaraderie. Showing up to these people, even if they are mostly strangers on the internet, and declaring that I am making space for writing, it helps. It reminds me that I am not alone. That folks are cheering me on, just as I cheer them on. And that helps. 

Mariame Kaba often says everything worth doing is done with other people, and while she was mostly talking organizing, it applies here to. 

If you are writing too this summer, feel free to hit that contact button over to the right and tell me about it. I'd love to cheer you on.

Tara Kennedy

Note: If you are reading this outside of your normal work hours, feel free to hold off response until your work hours.  

~To the world we dream about, and the one we live in now. 

"Hadestown", book and lyrics by Anais Mitchell

Note

I am quite aware that Three Interesting Things has fallen to the wayside. I keep thinking yes, I will do it this week, and then...not doing it, which is why I hadn't pointed itout sooner. There's a number of factors, including me trying to contain my mad on the internet. Being angry can be useful, but it can also be draining. And yes, I can only post happy things, but I have to sift through a lot of other things to find the things I want to share. 

I am sorry if you miss it. I miss it. I am hoping by posting about it, I will get the mojo back. 

"DC I Love You: First Dates" in Mount Pleasant via the Folger Shakespeare Theatre

Content note: references to deceased relatives.

I have to tell you, when you offer an immersive theater experience about romance set in my neighborhood, well, I basically hadn't finished reading the description before I loaded the ticket into my cart. 

After two weekends in Mount Pleasant, the Folger is going to do a version at the Folger, and I understand the stories will all be different. 

This show requires a little set up. Basically each scene involves different characters in a different location. There apparently have been six or seven prior versions of this in other locales. 

The group had headsets connected to the actor's mic's so that if there were cars, dogs, kids, or other city noise, we could hear. It also meant some of the scenes you had an angled vantage of. So it was almost like staged eavesdropping. 

The five scenes were all, as the title implies first dates. They all, spoiler, went well. There were two fix ups. One random stranger meetup at a political trivia event. And two app dates, one of which was between two school friends. The dates were all a blend of funny, awkward, emotional, and sweet.

The process of moving between each worked really well. There were a few tech hiccups, but I was in the very first group, and nothing that took away from the overall experience. 

The couples were of multiple races and gender pairings. 

Note: The Mount Pleasant version of the show involves one location that is only accessible by stairs, and one location that is a bar, so is restricted to people allowed to enter bars. 

It's Not IP That's the Problem

Probably worth noting before I dive in here, that my latest release is a fairytale mashup, so obviously I am on the side of various existing intellectual property. And of course, as an author, some of books have been scraped to feed so called AI without consent or payment. 

I think there's a kind of prevailing ugh about things based on existing properties, aka IP that is mostly about the fact that we are on the zillionth Superman and Spiderman remakes. And yes, not saying none of these have been interesting or delightful. They have. 

But most musicals are based on IP. And I love a musical. What I suspect some people are tired of is not IP per se, but use of such a limited part of the IP.

I had proposed a rule for one of my book clubs that we only read two books by any author. Not because there aren't authors I am basically willing to read whatever they write. There are. But there are so many authors out there. Half the fun, to me at least, of book club is discovering authors you wouldn't otherwise have tried. And honestly it's a monthly book club. 12 authors a year is really very few when you look at the literally hundreds of books published each week. 

Same with TV and movies. Part of the challenge is that people who make TV and movies are very busy, so they have little time to consume other entertainment. So when they do, they mostly reach for stuff they loved before they became a TV or movie person. Which means so much of what we see is on a weird delay.

Sure there are exceptions, but the exceptions are the really huge things. Things that even people who barely read know is a book.

Speaking of which, I am actually up to date on a TV show.  Shocking news.  I watched "Murderbot".  It is based on a book.  I think it probably is enjoyable to those who haven't read the book, but YMMV. 

The Joy of Bookish People

A friend mentioned a sudden yearning to attend the Gaithersburg Book Festival Friday night and so Saturday we went. I confess I am spoiled living in this area. We have several independent book stores that do events. We have the National Book Festival. We have a number of other events. So I get picky. What will the weather be like? Will there be track work on the metro that weekend? 

Well, this weekend was beautiful. Warm enough to make a tropical blooded person like me happy, but not hot enough that people melt. Breezy but not gusty. Sunny and picturesque. 

And it was lovely listening to authors, reading the excellent T-shirts, totes, and hats bookish people break out when they will be amongst other bookish people. 

I ran into a few writers I know. I chatted in line with a few people. And yeah, I came home with a few more books. 

Make Big Asks

One of the helpful things someone said at a social justice meeting was ask for all the things, don't hold back. I think we are often encouraged by the status quo to ask for small incremental change. To not expect big things to quickly from large institutions. 

Except when you are working with others, especially others with goals counter to yours, big asks are the only way you even get something close to what you want. 

I once hopped in a cab. It was New Year's. I was not drunk, just car free and I had missed the last metro train. I caught the cab in Maryland but need to get to DC. When you cross jurisdictions like that the cab drivers sometimes attempt  negotiation. The cab driver proposed I pay him $50. (I am making these numbers up, this was a while ago.) I said absolutely not and offered to get out of the cab. 

He asked for a counter offer and I said $10. Now I knew this was a maybe a $20 ride but he started with with more than double that, so I went super low as a counter balance. And do you know what happened. He decided to turn the meter on instead. He tapped it when it hit ten (about halfway home) and I wisely did not make a big deal of it still being less than $50 when we arrived. 

When people are trying to convince you that there are too many human rights, or too much due process, responding with reasonable counters just pushes you closer to what they wanted. So dream big, and make big asks. 

It's May

It's AANHPI Heritage Month. I was reflecting on high school. I was a multiracial teen of European, Chinese, and Hawaiian descent. Still am. Well, not the teen part.

My high school combined European and American history into one two year course. China got only vague mentions in this course. Hawai'i came up briefly, when it got couped, and then annexed. I've mentioned before that my history teacher announced that they did not know how to pronounce Queen Lili'uokalani's name and were not going to learn. I wish I could tell you that was the moment I decided to do an independent study, but I can't recall. 

In my senior year, I did, for one elective credit, an independent study on Hawaiian history. I met with the anthropology teacher, who had agreed to be my advisor. And I presented a paper, along with sources to a committee in order to get my grade. 

So even as a teen, I knew there were gaps in what I was being taught, places I was going to have to fill in. There is some weird assumption on the part of some, that while everyone needs to know about the Treaty of Ghent, not everyone needs to know about what was happening in places not predominantly populated by Europeans. Even the American history textbooks cover the US with the European settlers as the main characters and everyone else as supporting players.

There are so many great books - fiction books even, you don't have to read history unless you want to (um, unless you are in school). There are so many great books by Pacific Islanders, by Asian Americans, by Asians, and by native Hawaiians. Some raised in the diaspora like me, some not. There are translated books. (I have been gobbling up translations of books about cats, coffee shop time travel, and dreams.)

Here are some suggestions I made last year for the Pasifika read along: http://www.talkapedia.com/2024/04/pasifika-reading-challenge-suggestions.html

"Bad Books" at Round House Theatre

Content warning: brief gun usage, off stage death of a child, off stage injury, reference to abortion.

"Bad Books" is a timely play about a mom who comes to visit the librarian about a book that she recommended to the mom's teen son. 

The play is done in the round, with the stage slowly rotating. The set had books around the edges of the stage, and in a circular overhang. All of those books have been banned or challenged. 

The book the mom objects to is fictitious, but the title and cover, since the mom admits she didn't finish reading it are - juicy - enough to make it clear why a parent might have concerns. 

The show is done without intermission, and has several book references, including "Charlotte's Web". Hilariously a spider dangled from the ceiling in front of my and my friend's seat during part of the show. 

The show is done with two actresses, one who plays the Mother throughout, and one who plays the librarian, the boss, and a fellow parent. 

Some of the big things happen off stage, the mob spear headed by other concerned parents whipped up by the mom's social media posts, attacks the library, but much of that is recapped later. I still teared up at one point, but it does rely on the audience's investment in the two performances to get to where they've gotten emotionally. 

It's easy to nitpick, but as someone who has librarian friends, I thought there wasn't enough mention of the schooling and training that librarians go through. Though in my possibly biased opinion the librarian does prove her bona fides in other ways. 

I've talked before about conversation plays, plays designed to provoke conversation after, and I think this show has a very clear conclusion it isn't afraid to make. But it might also spark some great conversation in the ways any great story would. 

Three Interesting Things

1. I happened upon this fascinating look into the woman who invented at home pregnancy tests.

2. The UK cartoonist who was placed in an ICE prison has given an interview about the process. 

3. James Roday gave a wonderful account of how Val Kilmer's character Chris Knight inspired his portrayal of Shawn Spencer.

Orientation

I went to university in Scotland, and at the time they did an overseas student orientation. I mention this for two reasons. One, foreign students in the US right now are being treated badly. For me, as a DC resident, with no state school option, going to the UK was actually one of my cheaper options. (DC residents have a few more options these days.) 

One thing that's worth noting is that foreign students pay not only full tuition, the foreign student rate is between two and three times the regular student rate. (For those of you wondering how that was cheaper for me, well, the UK student rates have gone up a bit post Brexit, but also, have you seen US tuition rates?) 

So universities often rely on some foreign students, both for diversity of thought, and also the higher rate they pay. 

But one of the targets of this anti-diversity pro-segregation movement is orientations that single people out based on who they are. 

So, in my orientation, I met other new students, including one who turned out to be from near me. I got a tour of the town, got some info on some of the students' traditions, and got to hang out and eat some food. 

I got kicked out bright and early on dorm move in day, so ended up hanging out with the RAs as they checked everyone in because what else was I going to do. Which means I met most people in my dorm as they rolled in.  

So when my roommate, who had grown up just an hour away arrived, who had several classmates she'd gone to high school with at the university and in the dorm arrived, I was already there. She later told me it seemed like I already knew so many people and so much stuff. 

Did those two days give me a huge advantage? Not really. My roommate learned her way around pretty quickly. And we all found our people for the most part. The friends from university that I still keep in touch with are all Scottish. 

But, those days helped me settle. Gave me some faces that when I ran into them later I could say hi, and chat. Two of the Americans I started with the same year ended up leaving. One of them skipped orientation and ended up leaving because he was lonely and didn't feel like he fit in. One hit some academic snags. 

The orientation wasn't the whole reason I succeeded. But it helped give me a start. Helping people find others who have similar backgrounds isn't just so they can only hang out with those people. But goodness, some days after you've been told the third patently untrue thing about the States, knowing where to find someone who will roll their eyes on your behalf is useful. 

The idea of the melting pot assumes that everyone wants to end up tasting like everyone else. (Okay, that metaphor got a little weird, but work with me here.) Sometimes people are somewhere, a job, a university, to do their thing the best that they can, emphasis on their thing. They can learn without melding or changing into some other thing. So finding places they can find others who appreciate some culturally specific things helps them succeed. And helps the institution hang on to the knowledge, and let's face it the money, it needs to keep going. 

The Labeling of Things

One of my favorite things about people is the way we feel personally victimized by the weather. (Why yes, there is rain in today's forecast.) Humans have created years, and then subdivided years into quarters, and assigned each quarter a season. Are there any studies that say that seasons last three months in every single part of the globe, or even any? Not that I'm aware of. But once we assigned these things, we then are consistently affronted when the weather does not cooperate. We track highs and lows. Create charts and data visualizations, and judge whether the weather has fallen into our expectations. 

It is spring where I am. We have had warm days and cool days. The cool day that follows a warm day always feels so much cooler. On one such day a gentleman on a street corner yelled, "The weatherman lied," at the sky. 

Everyone seems sure the weather where they live is more unpredictable, more changeable than the weather everywhere else. Climate change has, of course, affected when and how weather changes. 

But given there's a Mark Twain quote about weather changing unpredictably, it seems weather has been befuddling us all for at least a century or two.  

Hope the weather is within expectations for you today. 

What game are you playing?

There is a family story that goes along with today's but of overthinking about the phrase playing chess not checkers. 

Many summers we would go visit my grandparents in southeastern Connecticut. That stretch of Connecticut required fancy antennas and/or cable to get more than two TV stations unless the wind was blowing a certain way. One of the two channels that came in pretty well was PBS, which meant my grandparents were happy enough since they could watch their nightly news show. 

For us children used to a larger diet of TV, this led to a lot of boredom. So, in an attempt to stave this off, there were a lot of evening games. We played Taboo, gun, gin rummy, double solitaire, crazy eights, and once or twice hearts. (One of my cousin's relatives tried to teach us bridge. I called it reverse hearts and she was not pleased. We did not play enough for me to have retained much.) 

So one night we are playing crazy eights. And my mother lays all her cards down and yells, "Gin!"

We all stared stunned, hoping this was a not very funny joke. And then realizing our mother is basically sleepwalking at this point, so we just kept playing around her. 

So when people say someone is playing chess not checkers, I understand that the point is chess requires generally more long term strategy than checkers. But I also wonder. It hardly matters what chess strategy you are using, if the game you are actually playing is checkers, you are going to lose. 

7 Things I Learned From "Real Genius"

Two notes before we start. One, this was inspired by the news that Val Kilmer passed away this week. His loved ones are in my thoughts. 

Two, "Real Genius", while progressive in some ways, has some problematic sexual consent situations. 

1. Being smart is kind of like power. 

2. Smart does not equal cool. It can.

3. Burnout is bad. Sometimes learning how to have fun and relax is just as important as knowing how to study. 

4. It is not nice to prank your fellow students. But it might be funny. 

5. When people admire your brain, they may only care as long as they can use it for their purposes.

6. Figuring out the utility of the problems you've been asked to solve is important. Because it would suck to discover they had you making part of a weapon. 

7. Breaking into a military site to make a giant popcorn house may not be nice, or wise, but it will be funny. 

Tara Kennedy

Note: If you are reading this outside of your normal work hours, feel free to hold off response until your work hours.  

~To the world we dream about, and the one we live in now. 

"Hadestown", book and lyrics by Anais Mitchell

The End of an Era

I've talked about NaNoWriMo a lot over the years.  The good.  The bad.  And now NaNo has announced that they are shutting down.  I am sad.  I found the ways they chose to address the issues they had more problematic than helpful.  But I want to say something that doesn't just apply to NaNo.  Anything that you learned how to do, with NaNo, you were the one that did the work.  The framework, the doodads, the camaraderie, all of that helps, but you did the work.  We often fail to honor our elders, our teachers, our ancestors in this society.  But I think we also often over attribute some organizations with helping us become something when we did the work.  Now I think my English teachers in the acknowledgements of each of my books even though I wrote those books with my hands, my brain.  I had some great English teachers, truly great.  And well, I had some not so great ones.  I can acknowledge that all of them helped me, but also recognize that they helped me be a thing I was going to be if I put in the work. 

I read a news story about some pro-athletes that are doing a thing that is basically fancy pilates.  It isn't called pilates of course.  Because the people who run the program want to have a different brand, and have their own I'm guessing well trademarked machine.  And it doesn't matter if the bend and stretch program you are in is called yoga, or pilates, or bend and snap, if it works for you, cool.  If it doesn't, also cool.  (And also, I know there are differences between yoga and pilates.  I am not saying there are not.)  But in the end if you move carefully, well, and regularly, you will see changes in your body.  You will develop flexibility or strength or both.  But only if you put in the work.  It doesn't matter how many classes you sign up for if you don't go. 

And yes, I know people who published their NaNo.  I have published some on my NaNos.  I have also not published some of my NaNos. 

So in the end, I am thrilled for all the people that were able to find their writing groove.  Sad for everyone NaNo failed to properly care for.  

And now, I need to get back to my writing. 

Bloom at Your Pace

In DC we have the cherry blossoms and the countdown to peak bloom. One of my coworkers was saying she had never been to see the ones downtown. I have. And it's not that they are old hat now (another saying) or not worth seeing. But there are blooming trees all over the city. I walked over to an event this weekend and passed three different kinds of blooming trees. Some were at peak bloom. Some were already shedding petals. Some were not quite there yet. 

And the thing is, they were all gorgeous.

There's a tendency to assign value to peak bloom when it's a phase of the process. Kind of like full moons. Other moons are not lesser moons. They are just different parts of the process. If you see the trees and there are flowers, then yay. 

Projects, writing or otherwise can be like that to. There are iterative parts. Places we all have to get to or through. But the places we mark along the way are often not random, but no more or less important than the steps before and after them. It's just the part we decided to note. 

And because this time of year I constantly quote Hannah Carmona, let's also reference her note about cherry blossoms. Cherry blossoms only bloom once a year. They don't expect more of themselves than this. They plan all their stuff around one bit of blooming and then they cycle into the next phase. 

Your project may not allow for that pace. But if you've been trying to be a rosebush or an azalea, and it isn't working. Maybe you're a cherry blossom. 

Knowing What You Want

Early in my cat life I bought her a catnip carrot. The carrot was fabric, stuffed with stuffing and catnip, with a few green faux feathers acting as the carrot top. It was an immediate hit. Cat people know cat toys are a lot of hit and miss. I brought home other catnip vegetables. They often got sniffed, occasionally even licked, but nothing was as successful as the carrot. 

So I just bought a catnip carrot every month when I stocked up on food. Until one day there was no catnip carrot at the store. I found some online, but they were from a different company. I ordered them anyway, but my cat deemed them uninteresting and ignored them. I set up a basket with all the ignored catnip toys in the hopes that one day one would be found acceptable. 

The catnip carrot came back, but they must have changed something because it no longer sparked joy for my cat. 

Well, yesterday I heard something. And looked over, and my cat had dragged the catnip banana out of the basket and was doing the full wrestle it and bunny kick it thing. (For non cat people basically the cat grips it in their front paws while laying on their side and kicks at the toy with their back paws.) 

So now I guess I need to stock up on some catnip bananas.

Three Interesting Things

1. This man and his wife shared the story of how they discovered the Social Security Administration had decided he was dead, and the process for fixing that.

2. This post about "Love is Blind" is really about how relationships are all about politics. 

3. I have been so excited for "Boop! The Musical" since I saw the very first (and so far main song) made available to press.  Sure sometimes one song is really the highlight of the show, and sometimes you think, if I just get to see this song it's enough.  Anyway, NPR reflects on the first time they met Boop star Jasmine Amy Rogers. 

Things Unseen

I got a new pair of glasses. I guess I should back up. I have had glasses, for quite some time. But initially I only needed them for distance. So things like driving at night, watching sports in a stadium, watching live theater. Which meant some people knew me and hardly ever saw me in glasses. And some people only ever saw me in glasses. It was interesting. 

Anyway, a few years ago an optometrist told me my close up vision had actually gotten better but some people after a certain age found bifocals helpful, so I should consider them. I was confused. If my close up vision was better, why would I need to. So I got another pair of distance glasses and carried them around, using as needed. 

And then about two years ago, I was at a restaurant with a friend and caught myself doing that maneuver I had seen my mom do many times, where you trying to hold the menu closer, then farther, trying to find the right distance. And I thought, okay, yeah, it might be time to consider multi-focal glasses. 

So got an updated prescription, talked the the optometrist about options, texted friends. And I got myself progressive lenses. 

And the first time I wore them, they made me dizzy. It was weird. Things that used to be clear were now fuzzy and some things were clear, but depending on how close they were. I took them right back off. But I experimented with putting them on and immediately leaving the house, and that seemed to work. So I started with that, and now I wear them all the time.

So this new pair I just got is photochromic. And the first day I wore them it was dark in the morning, and so it wasn't until I was headed home I had a chance to show them some sunshine. And I was looking around, and annoyed that they didn't seem to be working. I had been using clip on before. They made a dramatic flip closed when I put them on, and gave great sun protection. I pulled out my phone and doubled checked that I had really ordered the photochromic. I had. 

And then I switched on the phone camera to take a selfie to show the glasses people and noticed that, uh, then lenses were dark. They were working. The shift had been gradual enough that I just hadn't seen it. They were doing the thing, quietly, without fanfare. 

I think sometimes the federal government can be like that. Sure we all complain about potholes. But like monitor and repairing roads is a huge thing, and I am glad that some group is in charge for that. Someone else monitors the signs. Trims the trees that are pressing against power lines. Handles fire engine maintenance. The grants that help fund arts. The library that maintains huge amounts of documents and instruments among other things. Museums. The National Parks. Okay, I don't mean to list everything the government does because we'd be here all day. I read a study once that most people think they use no Federal government programs, and the average person is on seven. We all use roads. I use public transit too. I visit museums and National Parks. I get mail.  I'm sure there's more I'm overlooking. Because a lot of it is just kind of quietly there. So it's not a big deal. 

7 Things: I Belong to You

1. I did not think that setting a story in a National Park was a thing that would turn out to be remotely topical. Wow, this timeline. But I do adore Rock Creek Park, and it has a mill, and well, there are a lot of fairytales about mills as it turns out. 

2. One of the discords I'm in had the idea to each take a Grimm's fairytale and remix it as a romance. I wasn't super familiar with The Nixie and the Mill Pond, but making magical deals, the woman completing challenges to get her beloved back, yeah, I had ideas about that. 

3. I have been trying to write a story about a mo'o for a while. Because I love geckos, and the idea of a water protector with a gecko and a dragon shape. And nixies, as far as I could tell hung out near mills mostly because mills were on the water. So a mo'o nixie combo seemed sensible. 

4. I've been working a lot of museums into my stories, because DC has so many. (I briefly referenced the Zoo in this one.) But DC also has a ton of parks. There's a guy trying to visit all of them. Rock Creek Park is basically next to my back yard. I sometimes forget that it's right there, that I can just wander through it whenever I feel like it .

5. I don't always make playlists for my books, that's just not how my brain works. But nixies are known for their music and well, for reasons, I made the male protagonist a tour manager for his dad's rock band. So there was a lot of music research for this book. 

6. I also got to do a little cavern research for spoilery plot reasons. There are so many caves, caverns, and other underground spaces around here. Nature is amazing. 

7: I Belong to You - A Fairytale Remix

Makena meets Leif at an open mic night. They hit it off and she feels comfortable sharing about her mo'o and nixie abilities - her attachments to Rock Creek, where she has taken on water protection duties. Leif never stays in one place too long, travelling most of the year as tour manager for his dad's rock band. But for once he's considering what he might be leaving behind. But his parents are concerned once they learn he's been hanging out by the old mill. There may be a bargain left undone, and Makena and Leif together may have reminded the gods to finish things. Links to buy here: https://books2read.com/u/4XkO19

A Mill Story

I'll talk more about this on release day, but this is Peirce Mill. (Spelling intentional.) Growing up in this area, I had gone by this structure and wondered what it was. I knew there were mills. After all we've got a road named Viers Mill, there's Kemp Mill, there clearly were mills. There's an old saying that gets attributed to various people that when you are ready to learn, a teacher appears. Because often it's easy to be like sure, something mill road. Or sure, there's a historical sign that there used to be a mill here.

This mill is in Rock Creek Park. It's near a stretch where the water is deeper, and a little more serious seeming than some stretches that seem more suited to dunking your toes in. The National Park Service, along with the Friends of Peirce Mill, have kept the mill alive and in tact. It's set up for students to come visit. 

Why my sudden interest in mills? Well, some folks and I had talked about writing some fairytale retellings and one of them involves a mill. Of course magical creatures can adapt to a mill free life, I'm sure plenty have. But it turned out, we do have a mill here in DC. I didn't have to plant or revive one, it already was. 

In this time when some people think we don't need to keep parks, or historical sites alive, it was a great reminder why these things are useful. Why letting school kids and adults walk through and look at something, and think about the older ways of flour and other milling. 

It can be easy as a modern person to wonder why there are so many fairytales about mills. But of course just about every town would have had one. And pounding wheat into flour. There are mills and bakers because those people did their own kind of magic. Transforming plants into food.

Tara Kennedy

Note: If you are reading this outside of your normal work hours, feel free to hold off response until your work hours.  

~To the world we dream about, and the one we live in now. 

"Hadestown", book and lyrics by Anais Mitchell

Three Interesting Things

1. This piece is fascinating if horrifying on the human testing that led to retinol.

2. When I created a DC based accessories queen for Bored by the Billionaire, I actually didn't have a DC based inspiration for her.  Yes, there are people in DC who make very cool accessories, including shoes and purses.  But this person is aiming to make a little bit of an empire.

3. This post from a few weeks ago asked what are you hopeful for, and I really needed to read it. 

Tara Kennedy

Note: If you are reading this outside of your normal work hours, feel free to hold off response until your work hours.  

~To the world we dream about, and the one we live in now. 

"Hadestown", book and lyrics by Anais Mitchell

The Happily Ever After

You will sometimes hear people say the happily ever after or HEA is all romance really requires, as if that's easy. 

This weekend they had the Oscars, and while I am watching movies less these days I had watched two that were nominated for things ("A Real Pain" and "Wicked") and neither of them has an ending. Okay, that's not entirely fair. They both end. So that is an ending of sorts. "Wicked" ends with a to be continued, which one could argue is an ending. I would argue it is an excuse for not ending. Sure it ends where intermission is in the play, and that is certainly a pause in action. I would argue that intermission is the equivalent of a very long commercial break. So your intention with the audience is to leave them intrigued, but in a way that only has to last a matter of minutes, not months. 

And in the case of "A Real Pain" it is a slice of life style movie. So the movie lasts the length of the journey they go on, and then it ends. That's it. 

And HEA generally, though not always, requires a little more. Yes, your characters should have fallen in love, or very deep like. Yes, they should have faced an obstacle together and overcome it, even if the obstacle was taxes. But also they should have figured something out about each other. They should have figured out not just how to like one another, but how to face the world as a team. 

We're Going to Sing it Again

Quick note, I am going to discuss the end of "Hadestown". If the end of the show (based on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth) is a surprise you wish to maintain unspoiled about, click away now. 

Early on in the "Hadestown" run, I saw a prominent person post on social media that they were disappointed with the ending. A number of people replied, uh, but it's based on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. Now of course not everyone is or even should be conversant with every myth. 

But in the opening song - which admittedly you hear after you have committed to the show - Hermes tells you this is a sad song, a tragedy. So, you are warned. 

Of course the trick of many great stories is to tell you where you are going, and then distract you with the drama, the romance, the adventure, so that you forget what you were warned about. 

Not all retellings need to use the ending from the original tale of course. The joy of retelling or remixing is figuring out what to keep and what to toss. 

And in the final song, Hermes tells us that you have to sing the song as if you don't know how it ends. That you sing it again as if it could turn out differently. 

I love a good happy ending. I really and truly do. But some stories don't have them. And that doesn't make the story wrong, necessarily. Sure some folks seem to think sad endings are harder to do, when often the opposite is true.

But in the case of "Hadestown", the story shows so many things. And yes, I am obsessed with the music. But it's a story about creatives. About people who lose themselves in their work. About people who are tired of struggle. And about people chafing against the deals they made, and folks tugging to take more. About working hard against a huge system to try and make change. And how sometimes the systems win. But you keep hoping, that the next time you sing the song, it turns out differently. Because one day it will.  And that will be a new story. 

Three Interesting Things

1. Sarah Kendzior is so clear eyed about the trouble we are in, and writes searingly about crafting in times of trouble. Content note: references to nooses. 

2. These teens had their play censored, so they wrote a play about censorship, and now that play has won an award. 

3. Do you want a story about a baby seal that was wandering around New Haven?

So Glitchy

One of the things that happens, when - to pick a totally random example - someone keeps talking over you (and not in a cooperative overlap kinda way) is that it could be because I'm a woman, or it could be that the person talking over me is quite sure that what they have to say is more important than whatever piddly thing I had to say. Or it could be both. Awareness of misogyny is useful for us all to know about and push back against. But the individual underlying reason leading to a specific thing doesn't matter to me in the moment. I'm still being talked over. 

I was thinking of this over the weekend when two weird and probably unrelated things happened. Hoopla removed a crapton of titles from their library. Since I mostly run with romance authors there was some speculation that romance books, or books that might be sexy, and/or queer might have been targeted. But folks in other genres saw it happening to their books once they were alerted. For me, about half of mine were still there when I first looked. And funnily enough, due to the timing of royalties, I had just gotten royalties from Hoopla. Hoopla is used by a lot of libraries, and one of the reasons I publish widely, is to make sure my books are available to libraries. 

And then someone noticed over on Amazon that the Black and African American Romance tag disappeared. You could still get to that category in other ways. Even odder, or perhaps not, it still existed in the stores for other countries, just not the US. 

Now Hoopla had apparently sent a note to libraries that they were doing a big quality check to make sure no AI titles had snuck in. And Amazon tweaks their categories a lot.

But I also remember when Amazon stripped the buy buttons from all the books for one major publisher. And Hoopla could have communicated with authors. But they didn't. 

In these times of increasing book bans, and weirdos claiming anything with people of color in it, Black people especially, is DEI, as if Black people were a recent invention, it's hard not to get suspicious at these things. 

Maybe these are just normal run of then mill things and nothing to be worried about. And maybe not. 

Anyway, my books are also published to Overdrive. And many other sites. (And some of my titles are back on Hoopla now.) I haven't started selling them direct, but if that becomes my best option, I will. Because goodness knows, we all need stories these days. 

Three Interesting Things

1. It can be overwhelming to figure out where and how to help.  This post has a number of suggestions.  I'm also going to add, things like helping a small non-profit file their taxes or learn how to use spreadsheets better may not be the stuff they make movies about, but if those are skills you have, you sharing them can make a huge difference.  Bonus can often be done at least partially remotely. 

2. Not that the headline isn't interesting, but this short article also goes into why a historic Black church now owns the Proud Boys trademark. 

3. The term mutual aid gets tossed around a lot, and it sometimes can seem like just a fancy wrapping on please give money.  Money is certainly a resource that is helpful to folks, and a little like gift cards as gifts, sometimes doesn't get the credit (pun!) it deserves.  But this story of mutual aid, and how it's really finding ways to connect community resources, and as always, mostly about logistics, was helpful for thinking more broadly about mutual aid. 

A Seasonal Break

Big things happened in sports this weekend, and we (by which I mean me) are going to be vague about all of that (because sports superstitions).  But I don't know why we call them seasons in sports (yes, I tried looking it up) but there's something very nice about thinking of them as seasons.  They come, they go, they cycle back around again.  In the final song of "Hadestown", which yes, I do keep listening to, they talk about how they'll just tell the story again.  Of course oral storytelling has an eons long tradition, and we've all had family members tell stories over and over again.  It's why retellings are popular (and of course "Hadestown" is a retelling). 

But it's also nice to hit the end, or a break.  Sports, since that was theoretically what I was talking about, can be so much fun, but also so stressful as a fan.  There are high, lows, amazing moments, and sometimes, disappointments.  So, when there's a pause, it's nice to get back to all the other parts of your life. 

One reason, I say, totally making this up, that we might call them seasons is that like planting and growing, you need a period of rest before you can get back to playing at that level.  It's interesting that more day jobs don't embrace the idea of a season of rest, so that you can be in peak condition for the busy season. 

Three Interesting Things

1.  A bear (that the headline claims was fat, which seem not relevant) was hanging out underneath someone's house when they returned after the fire. 

2. Rebecca Solnit wrote about how fighting for justice can be small acts. 

3. I'm guilty of the music or TV as white noise thing, but this article talks about how silence can be useful. 

Joy Doesn't Have to be Ignorant

People talk about being blissfully ignorant. And so I think there is a temptation to believe that being happy when terrible things are happening must mean you are ignoring them. Except I can be informed and happy. When we talk about things like hope being a discipline (to paraphrase Mariame Kaba) it means that you have to work at being hopeful. 

As a teen someone told me when I was upset about something that I could just choose to be happy. And oooh, that felt like being told to calm down. To choose happiness.

But perhaps, what that adult was (badly) trying to say to me is that there will often be terrible things, injustices, and unfairness. Some of them will be things I can help with or plug into in some way. And some of them will not.  But I also needed to make space to find joy. Because without the ability to find some joy I was going to flame out and also things would still be unfair or terrible. 

It is hard when several of my communities are being attacked. My hyper vigilance wants to watch. But I also need to eat food that makes me feel good, and read stories about people flirting and baking. 

To pick climate change as an example me watching how many hottest days we have, refreshing temperatures, scrolling flood stories, it won't change things. I can't will climate change to slow. (Rude but true.) I can, of course, do my part. And I can stay abreast of the changes. Lobby for more.  But if I never go walk through the park, or admire the sky, what even was all that worry for? 

Three Interesting Things

1. The cold weather created pancake ice in part of the river here. 

2. The war Israel is waging is also halting conservation work. 

3.

There is a kidlit for Los Angeles auction.  I know there have been a lot of auctions lately.  But there is a lot of need. 

2024 Reading Tally

I love data.  I've been doing the reading tally for a bit.  Here's last years, which links to the prior year's and so on. 

Last year I had a really good reading year and in some way's such a crazy number made this year kind of a relief.  It would be so much work to meet last year's and honestly, I didn't even want to.  I didn't want to set a new personal record, I wanted to let that one stand and think, yeah, that one time I did that.  I also wanted to try to make more time for things like TV that had been sorely neglected.  I did a little of that. 

Anyway, the data. 

Read: 224

DNF'd: 22

211 authors, 116 of them were new to me.  

The oldest title was from 2007.  Though I did read a graphic novel of A Wrinkle in Time, and the original IP on that is older than that.  (4 of the titles were from 2024. 

Most read author was Jill Shalvis, though Sandra Brown and Charish Reid were both not too far behind. 

Highest reading month was May with 29. 

36 were audiobooks. 158 were library books, because libraries are awesome.  14 were from Kobo Plus.

It was a good year of reading.  Hoping to maybe get more audiobooks this year. 

The Refugees of the Data Empire

I forget who I first saw saying that data is the new Empire, but yes. Data about is is the most important thing to corporations these days. It's why stores have begun collecting too much data. Target's data breach was in part because they were storing PINs, which have no legal use for them, but were of course very valuable to people to steal. 

I recently had to politely refuse to share my phone number multiple times to complete an in person transaction in a brick and mortar store. I was assured they would not call me, but "needed" the info to complete my transaction. They did not need my phone number and I did complete my transaction. The phone number just helps them better cross reference me with other purchase data so they can attempt to market to me more specifically. 

I have abandoned some social media platforms. Watched some destroyed, disappeared, or pivoted in a new direction that destroys all the things that used to make it interesting. And with the brief TikTok ban going into place in the US, we have another wave of people trying to gather up their followings, and find a new place to gather and reconnect. 

TikTok still exists, of course. The US isn't even the first country to ban it. (Possibly first to unban it.) But I've been listening to Rebecca Nagle's By the Fire We Carry, and was reminded that while possibly with less active death, there is tons of precedent for this. Precedent for the US deciding it deserves things that others had. That other people were in the way of their stated goals. That people the US didn't much care for having a space to gather was a threat. That the rules the US itself had established, didn't have to apply when dealing with people in their way. That rasing the spector of scary brown people is justification for anything. 

Sure, no one's being force marched through the snow. But as an alum of multiple online communities, there are people I've never found again. Who I likely never will. 

I was only a lurker on TikTok, but I know people who were running their small businesses there. It is a loss for our freedoms to gather and speak where we wish. And it is a loss for people who's salaries were dependent on it. 

I wish I believed my government cared about safeguarding my data, but the number of data breaches I've been notified of leads me to believe it is not a top priority. 

I'll be keeping an eye out for the Lorax Musical Concept Album. Just the kind of fun weird nerdy stuff my little corner of TikTok was into. 

*Note: I know TikTok is technically back now. But I deleted the app. 

Three Interesting Things

1. New York added congestion pricing and one of the buses has been faster.  As someone who regularly takes an express bus, this intrigues me. 

2. Phil Lewis talked to some residents of Altadena who lost their homes in the fire.  There are some links to GoFundMes in there too.

3. Some teens built a library. 

The End of an Era

The pet store near me is closing. First you need to understand by near, I mean walking distance. Like I once carried home twenty pounds of cat litter and I am not a person who regular walks more than a few feet with twenty pounds of anything other than myself if I can help it. 

My recollection was that it opened near the end of my cat Sabrina's life. I was excited because Sabrina was a pretty non-picky eater, but pet stores have a larger range of food, plus toys and other accoutrements. 

The store added a display with adoptable kittens. It was very fun to go visit, because my cat, at that point in her life had no interest in friends, so it was like window shopping for cuteness. I could not be tempted. 

Well, then Sabrina passed. I was planning to enjoy the cat free life for a bit. Try going away for multiple days without having to leave out extra litter boxes. Really live it up. 

And, yeah, I intensely disliked the cat free life. I had a tab open to Petfinder on my phone. I found an adorable set of bonded kittens that I went to visit at another pet store. 

And then some more adorable kittens appeared at the pet store near me. I ended up with Kayla. Kayla who has been my co-worker through several jobs. Encouraged me to take writing breaks. Carefully inspected the floor anytime I cleaned or moved something. Always there to check the fresh sheets to make sure they are acceptable. And who growls at the grocery delivery people before hiding under the bed.

Not too long after I adopted her someone tried to break into the kitten display and they had to remove the kittens. They never had kittens back at the store. I'm not saying the universe took extra steps to place kittens in my path, but I'm not not saying it. 

Kayla is also a very picky eater. So the convenience of a pet store when I realize, oh shoot, emergency pet food needed has been very useful. 

Brick and mortar stores, even chain store, have their uses. I know rents and other such things all must be considered. But seeing the store go is tough. I like being able to buy things online, but it was nice to walk over and grab them. I'm sad that we are making that harder to do. 

Snow Plans

We had snow in DC today, which I love. It meant pretty views of falling snow, I was lucky enough to telecommute for the day. Things always seem a little quieter and a little different on snow days.  Some people got a day off work. Some still had to go in.  Some teleworked.  And of course my cat was very excited that I was home and then ultimately bored that I was home but staring at a screen and typing.  She napped nearby before deciding I was too loud and she needed to nap in the closet.  

Some people had snowball fights.  Some people worked. Did I mention some of us still had to work?  I kid.  I don't terribly mind working on work days.  But I am always amused that the folks who work at schools (of which I know quite a few) think the rest of us get the day off too. 

It's staying cold this week, so the snow will stick around.  It snowed Friday, but Saturday you could barely tell there had been snow at all.  Eventually the snow accumulates enough crud as we trudge through it.  But that's hardly the snow's fault.