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What I Read in January

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I finished 5 books in January 2025, which is a little less than average for the year but feels like a good start, since I normally binge a bunch during summer.

The first was Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner - finished it on New Year’s Day. I guess if everyone started the year with lesbian soccer smut the world would be pretty different. This was cute and fun and very graphic. When I started branching out to read some smutty romance, this was recommended a bunch, and it was on hold for months. It goes along with a lot of tropes, subverts a few, and has a good time along the way. There was a big “I can’t belive she’s going to do this” moment toward the end that ended up fine. If you like soccer and/or lesbians and are into very detailed sex scenes, you’ll love this. Otherwise you probably will not finish the first few chapters.

I read The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand as a mystery, without realizing it was part of a romance series, or that it was out as a Netflix show. It was fine. It wasn’t a great mystery, and a month after finishing it I remember almost nothing about what happened, but I enjoyed reading it.

I really don’t read this much romance, especially all at once, but sometimes that’s how the holds list works at the library. I finished Emily Henry’s Funny Story next. This is almost a parody in how tropey it is, but there was enough unexpected stuff to keep it interesting, and some of the supporting characters were really fun. This is candy, but I enjoyed it.

I got What The Woods Took by Courtney Gould as a “read this in the Kindle app instead of scrolling” book, and ended up really enjoying it. More queer coming of age horror stories with interesting monsters, please.

I didn’t finish anything else for over a week. I have a lot of things in progress, the inauguration happened, I got a Steam Deck and started playing more games.

Eleanor picked up The Mist as her Christmas book. I hadn’t read it in 20 years or so, so I re-read it as bedtime reading. I had forgotten most of the details, and it felt like it was as good as I remember. If it’s been a while, I recommend going back to early King, some really good stuff there.

That’s it for January. I have 9 technically in progress, but a few of those are stalled. I should have 5 of them finished in the first week or two of February, so next month’s post should have more to it.

Tyler

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When Eleanor was around 5, when we lived in Bay Minette, Emily found a cat in the woods. She fed him and got to know him, and we decided to catch him and take him to the vet. We got his ear tipped in case we never saw him again. Dr. Biles took off a lot, it made him look like a pirate.

We did see him again, though. He stayed around the house, and was our outside cat. We named him Tyler. He brought Emily all manner of dead things as gifts, and left them on the garage doormat.

When we moved to Tuscumbia, he came too, and became an inside cat. He got a taste of how soft beds are, and he never wanted to leave. He ended up with a favorite toy named Ratty Ivey.

He made the road trip to Connecticut with us and got to stay in fancy hotels. Quite a step up from the woods in Alabama. He got to discover how great radiators are in the winter. He got to throw Ratty down the stairs and carry him around. He joined Emily for meditation and was really good at it. He got to really enjoy being a Connecticut cat.

His kidney disease accelerated super quickly the past few days, and today we said goodbye. We’re so lucky we got to do that at home, in the bed where he loved to be.

He was a wonderful cat, and we will miss him so much.

LA Fires

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Like everyone else, I’ve spent this week watching the LA fires, especially Palisades Fire as it encroaches on Santa Monica.

I’ve been going to Santa Monica and Los Angeles a few times a year for 13 years now, with a break for COVID. It’s where I’ve spent more time than anywhere other than home. I love Santa Monica, and mostly like the rest of LA. It’s been awful to watch places I love be on the brink of destruction, or already gone. It makes me want to throw up from all the way on the other side of the country, and I can’t imagine the way it feels to be there.

Riot has been fantastic, supporting everyone who needs it, encouraging everyone to take care of themselves. Rioters are reaching out to offer shelter and transportation and whatever else is needed to each other. The office is closed so that people can be home or wherever they need to be, and also to reduce the load on local services as much as possible.

We also have a Rioter donation platform with double matching, and I’m maxing out all the matching options today. Here’s where the Ivey family is sending money:

If you have the means and can help, any of those links are good choices.

Hoping all my friends in LA stay safe.

Two Days in a Row

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There’s no way this lasts, but here’s some things that caught my eye:

Thoughts on heuristics for writing software - I am especially intrigued by starting over if you didn’t finish in one day. I strongly advocate for task sizes that can be done in a single day.
“This is not your last job” reminds you to be growing and continue learning new skills.
Mostly saving this to find it later, Alignment > Autonomy
New Japanese Breakfast album

Annual Blog Resurgence

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Happy New Year. Here’s to actually writing in 2025.

My plan is to collect the various links I send to people or toss on socials, and post them here in a link blog style post when I think about it. If you look at how I started, that’s pretty much how my original blogging worked - a long running daily commentary of thoughts and links.

Interesting post on RPS about why RPGs default to violence. I think a stealth/heist style RPG would be fun, build a team, make a plan, try not to get anyone killed.
Review of “A Fistful of Feathers”, an adventure for Cairn.
Great write-up on how Yochai does play by post in Discord.

I also have some ambitious plans, things that feel almost ridiculous to write down. I’m thinking about writing a novel, with two different ideas competing to be the one I put on paper. I’ve also been joking¹ with my friend Heather about making a game, and I think I have an idea that might be worth chasing. Wild goals for a new year. We’ll see what happens.

Currently reading:

At least she thinks I’m joking, I am totally serious. ↩

Christmas Books

Sun, 24 Dec 2023 14:51:00 +0000

The Ivey Family did our usual “go get Christmas books” journey today, but we mixed it up a little, and walked. It’s been our dream to walk to the bookstore for years. When we first moved to Tuscumbia, we got to do it a few times, but COVID killed Coldwater Books.

I got the 4th book in the Skyward series, Defiant, by Brandon Sanderson. It’s time to pour some eggnog, grab a blanket, and read until it’s Christmas.

Happy Holidays to all.

I Made Some Socks (in Connecticut)

Sun, 10 Dec 2023 11:48:00 +0000

Since I last posted, I’ve been working on a pair of socks. I started in May, and finished the first one in July. 5 months later, I have finally finished the second one.

Part of the reason it took so long to finish, and that I didn’t post anything for months, is that we moved to Connecticut in September. It’s a little weird having so many neighbors, and I’m not sure how we’ll do with a lot of snow, but we’re feeling really good about being here.

Anyway, socks. I used a pattern that Emily wrote, Wool-Ease Basic Socks. It’s one of her first patterns. I am pretty sure I did the typesetting for it originally, in LaTeX. The sizes are for her feet and my feet, so I didn’t have to do any extra math.

I used some very cheap Wool-Ease I got on sale, since I wasn’t sure how it would go. I’m really happy with how they turned out, and I will definitely be making more. Working on double-pointed needles feels very comfortable, and I like that they’re easy to pick up and do a little bit of work on.

I’m not sure what’s next. Maybe another hat, or more socks, or possibly a small throw blanket with more pattern work. Hopefully it won’t take 7 months to finish!

view on Ravelry

I Made a Hat

Sun, 23 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The past few months have seen me spending weekends working on a new knitting project, and I finished it last weekend. I finally got it blocked and ready for pictures this week. I present: a green hat.

This was several firsts: first time using a pattern, first time using double pointed needles and circulars, first time decreasing. There’s at least 2 little mistakes in there, but I’m not sure I can find them again. I’m pretty proud of how it turned out.

The pattern was a free one I got on Ravelry, My Baker’s Hat by Emily Russell. The yarn is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Worsted Heather. Needles were US size 6, starting on circulars and moving to double pointed once it got crowded.

I haven’t decided if it’s a practice hat or good enough to give away as a gift. My next project is another hat, and then some socks. Maybe I’ll make one of Emily’s patterns soon, too.

view on Ravelry

Lady Bird

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Lady Bird died in her sleep last night. She was 19. My biggest wish for her was that she could go at home, on her terms, and I’m very thankful that she was able to.

If you had told me 16 years ago she’d be the last survivor of our 6 original cats I would have thought it was impossible. As a kitten, she was so weak we had to spoon-feed her yogurt to try and get her digestion working. A few years later she had a seizure and we took her to the vet, expecting the worst. She got better - and that’s when we learned she was blind. (She still caught lizards perfectly well, though.) After we moved, she got so sick that as I drove across the bridge late one night to the emergency vet, I knew she wasn’t coming home. But she did, and she had many years ahead.

No cat has ever been able to find an available lap as well as Lady Bird. Some days my main job was making sure she had one to enjoy.

She was a beautiful, elegant lady, and we will miss her very much.

I Made a Scarf

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 14:17:00 +0000

I didn’t post about this while I was making it because it was a present for my mom, and then I didn’t post it after I gave it to her because it was really cold here and our pipes were off, and then the hot water pipe burst, and then William Henry got worse…

But I made a scarf.

It’s using some older yarn Emily had, Lion Brand Landscapes. She says it’s discontinued. It’s 14 stitches across on US #13 needles. I got the bind off way too tight, and there’s a little weirdness in a couple spots, but that’s how you know it was handmade.

I didn’t expect to enjoy knitting as much as I am. I’m already practicing purling on a little practice square, and then will see what my next project will be. My goal is to work up to socks.

view on Ravelry