It's a magical world

[vid] Lovers in a Dangerous Time (Heated Rivalry)

2026-02-16T04:29:45Z

source: Heated Rivalry
audio: Moonrunner83, "Lovers in a Dangerous Time"
length: 4:10
download: 359MB on MediaFire
summary: Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight

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[vid] I Like Birds (Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper)

2026-02-08T06:08:59Z

source: Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper
audio: Eels, "I Like Birds"
length: 2:31
download: 306MB on MediaFire
summary: Christian Cooper likes birds.

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[vid] The Lost Boy (Hook)

2026-02-07T23:39:05Z

source: Hook (1991)
audio: Hans Zimmer, "Drink Up Me Hearties"
length: 4:34
download: 549MB on MediaFire
summary: What's lost can be found…in Neverland.

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Festivids!

2026-02-02T21:17:34Z

Festivids went live on Saturday! I have still not watched most of the vids because I was at an Alex Pretti memorial bike ride on Saturday and then at some transit activist events on Sunday and I am trying to also do an Escapade premiere, but what I have watched has been great. And I got a great gift vid!

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2025 in Books

2026-01-06T00:58:25Z

It's the eleventh day of Christmas and high time to post this roundup.

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Forwards and backwards

2025-11-17T04:12:48Z

I ran the Berkeley Half Marathon 10K again today. Contrary to my ambitions, my time this year was even slower than last year, although still more than 30 seconds/mile better than my worst-ever showing in 2022. I think part of it is that I really didn't put enough training in over the last month for various reasons. And yet my split times actually came down by nearly 10 seconds/mile over the course of the run per the tracking, which does seem to show that I've gotten better at the downhills.

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Dear Festividder

2025-10-03T17:27:47Z

Letter TK

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[vid] The Sky Is Calling (Star Trek Prodigy)

2025-01-11T05:39:10Z

source: Star Trek: Prodigy
audio: Kim Boekbinder, "The Sky Is Calling"
length: 3:09
download: 361MB on MediaFire
summary: The sky calls to us/And we go

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2024 in Vids

2025-01-01T22:18:16Z

Happy New Year! I'm procrastinating on Festividding, as usual.

The Vids
February
Anti-Hero (Nimona) - Festivids 2023

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2024 in Books

2024-12-31T04:27:21Z

New Year's Eve Eve and I have accepted that I will not be finishing any more books in the next twenty-five hours. It is what it is, so here we go with the statistics.

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Theater quick hits

2024-12-16T18:04:02Z

The only theater I saw in 2022 was Dave Malloy's Octet at Berkeley Rep. (It's good.) Then I saw Great Comet twice in 2023 at Shotgun Players. (Excellent at any size.) And yet now suddenly I have seen three theatrical performances in eight days??

Ghost Quartet, by Dave Malloy, at Oakland Theater Project and New Performance Traditions
I went to see this in San Francisco -- I actually own the original cast recording but I've found it fairly impenetrable. It's much more comprehensible when real people are performing it in front of you, and the performances here were excellent. (Sidebar: it's funny that I can now spot the role that Malloy wrote for Gelsey Bell reliably.) I just don't think it's as good of a show as Octet -- it's weirder but not in an accessible way, and the floating signifiers of the ghosts' stories really didn't register in a lot of the scenes. (They were in Japan at some point? Okay??) It was good, don't get me wrong, and I'm glad I saw it, but this one will remain obscure.

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Another year, another 10K

2024-11-18T06:28:31Z

I ran the Berkeley Half Marathon 10K again today. Approximately two months ago I finally decided to heed my dad's advice and start running longer so that I wouldn't feel physically destroyed after running the 10k, which happened all previous three times I did it. So I upped my normal 4.5K run to 6K and started switching it up with 8K as well. I have mapped a 10K route as well but what with one thing and another I haven't actually run it yet. Also last weekend I was in Montréal and so I basically skipped a week of training, which wasn't ideal. All of which is to say my time was actually slightly slower than the last one, which was depressing because I definitely did better on the downhills and because I skipped getting water at the second water station, which I did the last three times. Yet, I was still slower.

On the other hand, I skipped the water station because I didn't need it, and I did not and do not feel physically destroyed (by which I mean, stiff legs and extremely painful quads the day of and the day or two after), so that's definitely progress. I think it's finally time to embrace doing sprints on some runs. I am ass at sprinting and I've never been very good at varying my pace consciously. (I know, I know. It's a big part of why I'm still mediocre.) But I think if I start doing some runs where I sprint up the hill portions (or "sprint," but the nice thing about running is that at least at the beginning, it really is the thought that counts), and keep varying between 6K, 8K, and 10K for my normal runs, that should hopefully get me into a better place. I would really like to crack 1:05:00 next year. We'll see.

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Dear Festividder

2024-09-27T21:37:41Z

Dear Festividder,

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Notes from the UK (mostly Scotland)

2024-08-21T03:28:59Z

The Glasgow 2024 Worldcon was really great -- great vibes, great panels and programming, good organization, and an actual sense of accessibility in multiple senses. Definitely the best of the three Worldcons I've been to, and I would really hope the group decides to do it again.

My brother and I spent six days in Glasgow, three days in Edinburgh, and three days in London and then another one before and after. Some random impressions:

People in the UK still smoke like chimneys and I had forgotten that it is absolutely disgusting. This tells me that cigarettes are way too cheap. Incomes in the UK are low! Make smoking more expensive and people will stop!
Since the UK shot itself in both feet with Brexit, the exchange rate is no longer murderously against the U.S. dollar. It was about 1.67 when I first visited in 2000 and maybe about the same when I went back in 2014 and 2015, but now that it's about 1.28 the prices are pretty comparable to California. Which enabled me to finally realize that price levels even in London are actually pretty low -- which isn't to say that London isn't an expensive city or that you can't spend £££ on everything you want, but yeah, this is definitely a country where the GDP per capita is just 27th worldwide. It's a shame that Labour is ruling out most tax increases, because an actual wealth tax would give them much more money to fund public services and actually improve things.
The LNER high speed trains are pretty slow for HSR and they need to double the luggage rack space. I suppose since the track isn't elevated/grade separated there's only so much they can do, but they should definitely go faster.
Edinburgh Waverly is a nice station but it is at or pretty close to capacity, it was a real zoo getting in and out of there.
They really need to revive HS2. There are still signs up about it in Euston (awkward), and there's really just no alternative.
We were able to get around entirely by bus, subway, walking, and train, which is expected in London but I was proud of us in Edinburgh and Glasgow, where the mass transit basically stops between 6pm and 9pm on Sundays and we just wound up hiking back and forth around town. In Edinburgh we went to Craigmillar Castle on foot from Duddingston and then had to tramp through a field to get to the bus stop back into town, which I was very proud of us for. All in all the buses were great and ScotRail is definitely a pretty reliable operator (the £5 convention train pass is also quite nice), except when they had to cancel trains because they didn't have enough staff.
We took the Caledonian sleeper from London to Glasgow, and then in the seats cabin from Fort William to Glasgow. It was a nice experience and I'd do it again but I will also bring duct tape to stick over the awful bright LED indicators in the sleeper cabins. I have a line on a travel memory foam pillow and a travel pillow that supports the neck and I need to get them.
I am a museum person, so we ducked into the V&A, which is excellent as always, but my favorite of the trip was actually the Kelvingrove in Glasgow, despite the weird taxidermy everywhere. The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh is chaotic, poorly organized and laid out, and crowded.
We took a lot of tours and they were mostly pretty cool -- the Barbican architecture tour, the Aldwych Tube stop tour, and a ghost tour in Edinburgh. The latter was through Mercat and yup, the vaults are definitely haunted. I didn't feel anything emotionally, but I definitely felt cold spots and heard some unexplained noises, as did my brother. So if you want a ghost experience, do that tour.
Edinburgh was so crowded. I was warned, but it's been ~20 years since I was wandering around bona fide tourist areas at the height of tourist season in Italy and Prague, and I'd forgotten. Plus the geography of the Old and New Towns means that there are really only a few north-south streets for everyone to walk on so it's just a bunch of choke points. The Fringe definitely added a fun vibe of markets on the streets, don't get me wrong, but I while I want to go back I would definitely not go back in August if I could at all avoid it.
Relatedly, we did a lot of outdoors-y things which enabled us to get away from the crowds--climbing Arthur's Seat and then walking to Craigmillar Castle, hiking the loop trail near Rosslyn Chapel (which we didn't get to see; next time, although why they don't extend opening hours in August is beyond me), going to Kew Gardens and Highgate Cemetery (in the rain; the last time I tried to go see Karl Marx's grave it was also raining and so cold that I turned back, but not this time), the Necropolis and the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow (except the signs in the Glasgow Botanic Gardens were written by a weird anti-vanilla truther??? Sorry, but vanilla does actually have a flavor, you numpty!), going to see the bandstand in Battersea Park, and on my last day in London I went to see the Crystal Palace dinosaurs and ate a chestnut crepe and a chicken cranberry sage Scotch egg from the weekend vendors. We also went to see Grimaldi's grave and wandered along the canals near King's Cross, which was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
We took the West Highland line from Glasgow to Mallaig, though not the steam train because they are fighting with the regulators about the doors on their trains. Not taking the steam train meant that we had time to take the ferry to Knoydart and have a pint at the remotest pub in Britain, the Old Forge, which is now community-owned and was delightful.
I really liked Glasgow, and I need to go back to check out the rest of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh buildings we didn't get to see, which makes sense as I had never heard of Mackintosh until I went to the Kelvingrove, despite the fact that we booked afternoon tea at the Willow Tea Rooms on Sauchiehall Street, which was quite good.
Haggis was very tasty, as was the black pudding. I'm realizing now that we didn't really eat enough Scottish cheese, another oversight to remedy on a future trip. We went to The Aragon in Glasgow, which was fortuitously having its weekly traditional music night, and also had the best Guinness I've had since I was in Ireland. My brother: "This tastes like soy sauce." Me: "That's how it's supposed to taste."
We ate at Dishoom twice, in Battersea and in Edinburgh, and it was so good. I have the cookbook and I need to see about making the Ruby Murray with tofu.
I successfully bent the algorithm on one of my Instagram accounts to deliver me Scotland content and we got some pretty good stuff to check out because of it. Between that and Reddit and Seat61, we did pretty well, augmented a little by the trusty Rough Guide.
My brother and I take vacations that would kill other people. I walked around 130 miles and he walked around 150 since he spent some of the days I was at the con hiking. This was a good one, and also my feet were much less destroyed than when I went to Japan last year (when we walked more miles per day). I mostly wore my hiking sneakers and that was a good choice.
The Elizabeth line is so good. It would have been so good in 2014 when we were all sitting on the poky DLR out to the Excel Centre. I love it and want it for the States.
Also London was full of Swifties on our last weekend and it was a fun vibe. Also we walked from Tottenham Court Road to Seven Dials and saw a dude doing heroin in the street in broad daylight. Which makes me realize...I guess people in the UK aren't doing fentanyl? In San Francisco it would have been fentanyl or maybe crack.
We were pretty conscientious about masking indoors and on transit, with the exception of restaurants and bars, although we did take the opportunity to eat outside as much as possible. I did unmask to eat in the convention center a few times--the Clydeside Bar was right under the HVAC so it felt pretty okay--but I didn't go to barcon in the Crowne Palace at all. It sounds like a lot of people got covid, which, yeah, not surprising. I was expecting more people to mask, honestly, especially since the UK is also in a summer covid surge.

Anyway, it was a pretty great trip. I'm tentatively planning to go back in 2028 for VidUKon, and now that the highway that would have destroyed it has been cancelled (thanks Labour), I would like to go to Stonehenge as well as spending time in Wales. We'll see how it goes. Next time I definitely need to cash out both of my Oyster cards, I tried to do it with one of them on Sunday but was at a machine that didn't take cash. The daily and weekly fare caps in London and Edinburgh are really great, everywhere should have them.

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Glasgow!

2024-08-02T21:31:21Z

I'll be at Worldcon in Glasgow next week--if you're going to be there and interested in meeting up, drop me a line! Comments are screened on this entry, or just send me an email or Discord PM! I'll also be in London for a few days beforehand.

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[vid] Never Tear Us Apart (Good Omens)

2024-04-27T05:39:32Z

source: Good Omens
audio: Paloma Faith, "Never Tear Us Apart"
length: 3:05
download: 255MB on Backblaze; subtitles on MediaFire
summary: Only Crowley and Aziraphale could destroy Crowley and Aziraphale. Or, the latte theory is a lie. Or: but have you considered Michael Sheen's face??

Premiered at vidukon_cardiff 2024

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Vid playlist: Total Eclipse of the Vids

2024-04-11T03:01:09Z

I went to Canada to hang out with some good friends from three continents and to see the total solar eclipse. It was pretty incredible and I really want to see another one. For the occasion I was asked to make a vid playlist. I've embedded the partial YouTube version, and also included the fully version as text, since it contains some vids that sadly aren't available on YouTube. I was trying for a mix of recent fandoms, stuff I'd really liked, and stuff I knew would play to the group and/or to the theme (hence the Utena vid and the playlist title). All in all it was a fun little way to procrastinate on packing and I should definitely VJ more often.

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Festivids 2023

2024-02-11T02:04:20Z

Festivids! I only made one vid this year because book revisions, but I received three great vids!

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Signal-boost: Cat expenses fundraiser

2024-01-15T21:15:08Z

sovay and Rob lost their excellent cat Autolycus to kidney disease and there is a fundraiser to cover the myriad expenses associated with his medical treatment. They have less than $1k to go!

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More Joy Day 2024 vid playlist

2024-01-14T03:21:37Z

Happy More Joy Day! Well, it was yesterday, but you can still enjoy this awesome vid playlist made for the occasion. (I am thrilled to note it contains my Ms. Marvel vid Dancing in the Dark!)

I hope everyone in North America is staying warm this weekend.

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[vid] Anti-Hero (Nimona)

2024-01-08T02:28:44Z

source: Nimona (2023)
audio: Taylor Swift, "Anti-Hero"
length: 3:22
download: 361MB on MediaFire
summary: Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby/And I'm a monster on the hill

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2023 in Books

2024-01-02T00:03:38Z

Happy New Year! I have hopes that 2024 will be better overall.

2023 Reading Stats

Books read: 113, of which 1 was a reread
By gender: 35 (31%) by men, the rest by women and other genders
By race: 36 (32%) by people of color
By language: 16 (14%) in Japanese, 13 (12%) in translation
New books: 46 (41%) published in 2023 or 2024
New-to-me authors: 32

…versus 2023 Resolutions

Read 125 books ==> Failed, but I came close
Read 25 physical books owned since 2021 or earlier ==> Success! 34!
Read 35 books by authors of color ==> Success!
Read 10 books in translation ==> Success!
Read a volume of manga a week in Japanese ==> Failed.
Read all the comics bought before 2023, both physical and digital ==> Failed. Ugh.

General Comments

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2023 in Vids

2023-12-31T22:33:20Z

The Vids
February
Life During Wartime (Andor) - Festivids 2022

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[vid] Don't Be a Lawyer (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law)

2023-11-25T06:17:23Z

source: She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
audio: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, "Don't Be a Lawyer"
length: 2:36
download: 283MB on MediaFire
summary: You should consider another career. Like being a superhero.

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Suzette Haden Elgin, Star-Anchored, Star-Angered (1979)

2023-10-31T03:24:28Z

This may well be the most 1970s novel I have ever read. I'm honestly surprised it was published in 1979 because it seems soooo peak 1970s.

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