chamekke | Reading

FutureLearn

Italian for Beginners - Part 4 (Open University)
Much to my surprise I'm finding I'm able to complete the quizzes with fewer mistakes and understanding more, which is encouraging.

What do Popular Songs Mean? (University of Leeds)
Like the previous music course I've done with Leeds Uni, this was aimed at potential music students, which I imagine is only a very limited proportion of those taking FutureLearn courses. Some things were interesting, some were a reminder of things I learnt on an OpenLearn course; at other times they would teach about analysis, but then when I came to work through an example for myself the answer would come up 'you may think xxx, but in this case yyy applies'. And in at least one occasion there seemed to be a contradiction between something stated earlier and than later in the course.

OpenLearn

Egyptian Mathematics
I read through the course, but it lacks the presentation of later courses. It was interesting to see a little about Egyptian mathematics, although very little has survived, probably because most of their maths had to do with practical problems they encountered rather than matters they deemed sufficiently important to save for posterity.

Babylonian Mathematics
Similarly with this course, although there was a small amount that was presumably kept for teaching purposes. Unlike our modern maths, with a decimal system of counting, the Babylonians worked in 60s, so comparing then and now isn't always easy.

The Science of Nutrition & Healthy Eating
My latest badged course. Definitely interesting and made me consider what I do eat. Not sure it will change my diet - but I'm more aware of food labels and what I should be considering.

smallhobbit

The second theme this month at

allbingo is Western.

Here's my card:

Armadillo	Sunbonnet
Chasing a Dream	Rattlesnake

smallhobbit

Creative Prompt: Write a love poem to anyone or anything you like

Who or what do I love?

Let's go with cakes

There's my husband, of course

And the scones which he bakes

And the Daughter

To whom we send Christmas cake

Plus her sibling the Son

Who takes us out for cake

I have some good friends

And yes, we do discuss cake

Not to mention my church

With a variety of cake

Shakespeare wrote sonnets

And I eulogise cake!

smallhobbit

This has to be one of my favourite

allbingo challenges. This year I chose the Holidays theme to give me:

Winter Solstice	Christmas Day
New Years Eve	St. Nikolaus Day

isis

What I've recently finished reading:

Lamentation by C.J. Sansom, the 6th Shardlake novel. This is all about the heresy hunts in the last few years before Henry VIII's death - one faction wanted to go back towards Catholicism, one wanted a radical re-imagining of religion and social structures, and if you wanted to stay in the regime's good graces, you walked the narrow path of "the King is the divinely ordained leader of the Church, and whatever he says goes." Warning for historical burning of heretics, plus canon-typical violence; also for weird religion and contentious legal cases. Matthew Shardlake still has a crush on the queen (Katherine Parr).

What I'm reading now:

My hold on Katherine Addison's The Tomb of Dragons came in, so that. Just barely started.

What I recently finished watching:

American Primeval, which, huh, I've never before encountered media in which the Mormons are the bad guys. (This is not a spoiler. It's pretty clear from the get-go, but it gets more pointed and cartoon-villainy toward the end.) Definitely violent and gory, though also it felt very clearly written to Tug The Heart Strings (and then, often, deliberately kill the character it's just tried to make you care about) at which at least for me it failed to do. I liked Abish, Two Moons, and Captain Edwin Dellinger, and James Bridger amused the hell out of me, but - I mostly enjoyed it, but I don't feel it was superlative. I got tired of the filter to wash out colors so it looked almost old-photo sepia.

I did enjoy the historical setting of the Mormon War; as I mentioned last time, I researched it for my Yuletide story, and I think it's just an interesting time, the settlement/colonization of western North America.

What I'm about to start watching:

Murderbot! We always wait until enough episodes are out that we can watch ~every other day and not have to wait.

What I'm playing now:

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, which was recommended to me as a "spooky atmospheric puzzle game", and I'm enjoying it a lot. You play as a mysterious woman who has come to a mysterious hotel full of locked doors in what might be Germany in 1963, at the request of a mysterious man for reasons of ??? I told my brother about it because it's cheap in the summer sale at Steam, and he decided it sounded good so he is playing it now, a bit behind my progress but because of the nonlinearity he's ahead of me in some things. We're trying to give each other elliptical hints when needed.

yourlibrarian

1) As part of

sunshine_revival's first challenge: "Creative Prompt: Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want (an image, an icon, a story, a poem, or a craft) and share it with your community."

I just shared some necklaces I made a few months back over at

everykindofcraft. I did a lot of beading in the first 13 years after I took it up, but things have been rather start and stop in the last 10. A craft store closeout + a challenge from a relative got me making some new things in the last few months. That probably also contributed to my starting

everykindofcraft here, because I saw various people posting wonderful stuff that not many people were seeing, whereas on Pillowfort some general craft communities there are always getting posts.

Hopefully we can get more crafters sharing here!

2) Have been watching a slew of Apple+ shows as our subscription cutoff nears. The miniseries Disclaimer was framed in an interesting way, one which I suspect had a lot more clarity in multimedia than in the book, but perhaps not. It uses multiple narrative voices and POV for the narration, including second person, first person, and some omniscient narrative. This was pretty relevant because of who was being framed (literally) and who actually got to have their voice(s) heard. ( Read more... )

3) Surface is a story told in a much more straightforward manner even though it also involves an unreliable narrator of sorts in that our central character had memory loss and is trying to piece together her past which also involves a parental mystery. ( Read more... )

4) Also saw the movie Wolfs, which is fine but largely a vehicle for us to watch Pitt and Clooney do fun stuff. ( Read more... )

5) Finished The Big Conn and Cowboy Cartel, two documentaries about big crime. I found the former much more interesting, even though I'd heard about the case before. What was probably the most striking about both was the role of the media in precipitating change. ( Read more... )

6) Careme was marketed as the story of the first celebrity chef, who served Napoleon, Tallyrand and others. It was certainly about far more than cooking. ( Read more... )

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Sunshine Revival Challenge #1 - Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month.
Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.

I'm working my way through 25 things in 2025, and have completed the first 14, as well as chosen 2 for April to September. Which means it's time to choose the next 5, leaving 3 for the final quarter, plus Thing #1 which is simply to complete and write about the other 24 Things.

They are:

Quarter 3 - July to September

18 - Take part in the Big Butterfly Count
This runs from 18 July to 10 August and further details can be found here. Part of my plan to support wildlife.

19 - Sort out my current papers/documents
They're all filed in an expanding file, so I can find everything, but it's time to move the oldest papers elsewhere, so they can be stored but I don't need them to hand. Another of the 'I really should do this sometime' tasks, which should now get done.

20 - Sort Anchor threads
A few weeks ago I bought a box for storing my Anchor threads, so I can find the colours I want easily. All I have to do now is get round to sorting them. That is definitely a challenge, which is why I've added it here.

Half 2 - July to December

21 - Take part in the weekly Garden Bird Watch
I started this as part of 30 Days of Wildlife, and the intention is to keep going for six months, after which I will automatically continue or realise it's simply not working.

22 - Revise some German
I only have very basic German, which every so often I go back over. As we shall be on holiday in Germany next April, it wouldn't hurt to go over it again. We're on a tour, so it mostly won't be needed, but there's always buying cakes etc!

23 - Autumn Holiday
We haven't decided where we're going this year, but we'll be going somewhere, probably in early October, which is when we usually go, so I'm including this as one of my things I'm doing this year.

My full list can be found here

yourlibrarian

All work posted at this blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

smallhobbit

Week 4 had a creative theme, so I wrote a tanka:

Counting garden birds
Filling up the water bowls
Walking through the woods
Small steps to gentle progress
Building a lifetime's habit

And I downloaded a knitting pattern from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, to knit a bittern - a 'knittern' for making later.

In addition, I downloaded 14 spotter sheets for use during different seasons (and therefore encouraging me to go out), plus masks and colouring sheets for our after school club.

Finally, I made a bumblebee felt craft brooch from a kit I'd myself a while ago.

Looking back on the 30 Days Wild challenge, it's been fun and hopefully will encourage me to do more - I always feel it would be a good idea, but finding the necessary motivation is important. I've become a member of the British Trust for Ornithology (it's not very expensive) and have submitted two weeks' worth of garden bird sightings. And I'm currently watching the house martins flying around catching flies.

yourlibrarian

1) A few more trip photos posted over at

common_nature, these of Oneonta Gorge.

2) Saw The Flash film and found it better than expected but also so-so. The big problem to me was the lead himself. Granted his character isn't really written to have any charm but a good bit of the humor fell flat for me, and when he was on screen twice as much it made it worse. ( Read more... )

3) Just an update about the bed situation listed in my last post. Everything went well! The youngsters delivering the bed had no problem with taking the old one down to the moving truck, and moving the other one to another room. ( Read more... )

4) A new wrinkle in the last few weeks is that during yet another heavy rain we got a leak near our front door. ( Read more... )

5) I quite liked this diagram of the interaction between entertainment production and fan activities. This came from an interview on Henry Jenkins' blog about a new set of textbooks for studying fandom.

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7 books read this month, so 38 for the year and I'm on target!

A Frightfully Fatal Affair by Hannah Hendy
I normally listen to these on audiobook, but for a change I borrowed it from the library. The next in the Dinner Lady Detectives series. Entertaining, slightly implausible, but the two dinner ladies are appealing characters, so I enjoyed reading it.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
A look at how Mr Rochester might have found his 'mad' wife in Jane Eyre. Worth reading, but I didn't feel for Antoinette (Bertha) as I had expected to.

The Dead Witness edited by Michael Sims
A collection of short detection stories for the nineteenth century. Very few of the stories appealed, and I was left grateful for Sherlock Holmes!

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
The next Murderbot story, which was fun and continued to prove that Murderbot was far better equipped to deal with most things than anyone else.

The Rose Apple Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu
The next in the Su Lin series (which was the Crown Colony series, although the name is no longer accurate), this one is set not in Singapore but in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. As always, it's an interesting look at the region in 1947 and I enjoyed the mystery. I had guessed part of it, but I imagine the reader was supposed to have their suspicions.

Cyanide in the Sun edited by Martin Edwards
Another of the British Library Crime Classics short story collections. Not as good as previous books, it may be that the pool of such stories is being drained.

CWA Anthology of Short Stories: Mystery Tour edited by Martin Edwards
Another short story collection, but this time modern short stories. I enjoyed the majority - in any collection there are going to be some which I don't like, for various reasons, but it was a good batch.

Also, I had a go at the Goodreads Seasonal Challenge for May and June and achieved 5 of the 7 categories:

And here is my book bingo card - I may even finish it next month!

smallhobbit

Word count for the month 11,500, bringing my total for the half year to just over 62K, so marginally ahead of my goal so far - always good to have a few words in hand!

I've written two squares for

whatif_au Bingo: for Air Travel You Don't Have To Be Nuts to Work Here which is Hamlet/The Hobbit and a follow up to the last time I wrote for the air travel theme, Thank You for Flying Elsinore Airways and the second for the High/Low fantasy square, which is written but needs another readthrough before posting.

The major word production went for my

caseficexchange story, which won't be revealed until next month.

My other major achievement this month was to complete my 11 year streak for

fan_flashworks with Support Your Local Baby Bank , a Spooks (MI5) ficlet.

FanFlashworks badge: The Outstanding.

smallhobbit

I've been spending quite a lot of time on crafting this month.

I( June crafts )

smallhobbit

Obtain refund on our Oyster cards

Not yet completed, but I have done what I can to this point. Transport for London issue Oyster cards, so, I followed the instructions on their website, since our cards are too old to apply that way, and phoned the number quoted. A very pleasant told me to email and gave me the email address. I emailed and got an acknowledgement, followed by a response requesting further details so they could identify me. I replied with the details two weeks ago, and have heard nothing since. I've now sent a further email asking for details and offering to send the cards to them.

ETA: 30 June - following two more phone calls and another email, the refund has been arranged.

I have been successful!

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chamekke

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My reading page

(such as it is)

Reading

Courses - June/July 2025

Bingo Card - Western

Sunshine Revival Challenge #2

Bingo card - Winterfest in July

wednesday reads and things

Sunshine Revival Post

Sunshine Revival Challenge #1 & 25 Things in 2025: Third Quarter & Second Half

Content License

30 Days Wild - Week Four & End of Month Summary (also 25 Days in 2025 - Thing #16)

All is Well

Books - June 2025

Writing - June 2025

Crafts - June 2025

25 Things in 2025 - Thing #10

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September 2020

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