6 things: short stories, pride merch, korean history, linkding, indoor shoes, catbirds

[sophia_sol]

wow I thought I was going to be short on thoughts to crosspost this week but I just have SO MANY that you're getting a bonus sixth thought, instead of the usual five I constrain myself to


one

last week I looked over my spreadsheet of short stories/novelettes I've read, and my rate so far for 2024 is that of the 195 stories I've read (or started to read and then DNF'd bc no thanks), I liked 13 of them enough to rec

which is 7% of the stories

WHEW.

now, there are a few other stories in there where my notes read something like "this is a well written story but it's not for me" so the rate of GOOD stories is slightly higher than the rate of stories I personally enjoyed.

but still!!


two

tfw you go to a pride themed thing with a bunch of vendors and you leave without having purchased so much as a single sticker. The marketable local queer aesthetics appear to be: witchy, goth, cutesy, horny, or combinations of the above

no shade on those aesthetics! but they are not what I personally go for


three

do any of you have recommendations for a good podcast on the history of korea? the more ORV I read the more I'm like....yeah I Would actually like to add korea to my list of east/southeast asian history podcasts I listen to.

I did give a try to the one Korean history podcast I found when searching around, "The History of Korea" by Allen Lee, but I listened to 45 seconds of the first episode and had to bail.

1. his "favourite" piece of history is a violent conflict: my eyebrows are up and I'm worried he'll be one of those dudes who thinks about history solely as a series of wars to obsess over, but I'll keep listening for now, I might be pre-judging too hard

2. refers to the "medieval" era all around the world as being essentially the same: uh oh, I have significant concerns, especially after the first point. I'm highly wary! I don't trust this guy!

3. refers to "peasants and lowborns meekly accepting their lot" as the way things were in that worldwide medieval period: ok now I'm done. immediately. goodbye!!


four

god my linkding is devolving even more. I just restarted my server and the pages loaded nicely for like... less than 5 min and now I'm getting errors again. I really do need to make the time to try updating the version like betty suggested trying!!

maybe tonight?

ALSO I need to get around to making the rest of aviansoph.com work! see if I can figure out the FTP after my disheartening failure last time

but that's probably going to have to wait till like. July.


five

in almost every respect I appreciate that canadian culture is largely a shoes-off-in-the-house culture. HOWEVER. when I'm wearing cute shoes that are an important part of an outfit I've put together, I am personally victimized by this expectation!!


six

listened to a catbird singing in my dreams last night; listened to a catbird singing while biking to work this morning. life imitates art!

Comments

Re: five

[kiki_eng]

I've seen house/indoor-only shoes in the older generations. You have to bring shoes to change into when visiting, but it is a fashion option? (That would likely result in owning more shoes, which may be a pro or con.)

Re: five

[sholio]

Oh yeah, we have hardwood floors so I have a pair of house-only shoes - not houseshoes/slippers, but actual shoes - that I only wear inside. (Alaska is very like Canada with the "no outside shoes in the house" thing; it's not an across-the-board rule in every household but most people do it, especially in the snow and mud seasons.) I also sometimes take a pair of shoes with me to my TTRPG game group when I'm wearing snow boots because I don't want to wear boots in the house, but their house is chilly and my feet get cold!

Re: five

[kiki_eng]

(Late reply is hideously late, it is being a time - apologies.)

Where I've seen younger people wear indoor shoes in the house in Canada it has very much been a cold floors thing, also. I tend to go for layering massive socks, myself.

Re: five

[sophia_sol]

yeah, it's very old-person coded, at least where I live! I may have to learn to crochet slippers and then crochet myself a range of slippers in different colours to match different outfits, lol!

Re: five

[kiki_eng]

(Late reply is hideously late, it is being a time - apologies.)

That sounds like some delightful 1950s crafting magic. (You know in some old films where the men's shoes match their trousers completely? I am picturing something likely that, though that is unlikely to be your plan.)

Re: five

[luzula]

Yep, this is the case in Sweden as well. If you're going to a dinner or a party in someone's home and want to wear shoes inside that go with your outfit, you can bring a separate pair of clean shoes.

Re: five

[kiki_eng]

(Late reply is hideously late, it is being a time - apologies.)

I kind of wish this was more of a thing here and also that a boot check was a thing? New Year's Eve and all of the winter clubbing events feature a lot of people wearing open toe/sandal-type high heels in snow and it gives me anxiety.

[china_shop]

*lurks to see if anyone has a good answer for #3* :D

[sophia_sol]

I do not have high hopes, given the slim pickings of what I was seeing when I tried searching directly in my podcast app for "korean history", but fingers crossed!!!

[china_shop]

What's ORV, btw? (I feel like I should know this. Google isn't helping.)

[sophia_sol]

hahaha FAIR QUESTION. this is Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, a korean webnovel that is being adapted as an as-yet incomplete webtoon, and I am reading the webtoon! it's very enjoyable and very weird, and occasionally korean history is relevant

[china_shop]

Aha, yes, I should have known that. Thanks! <3

[profiterole_reads]

I have no answer either. I get my Korean history from Korean language textbooks and from K-Heritage Channel (which is in Korean, often but not always with Korean subs).

[sophia_sol]

yeahhhh if I were able to read or understand any korean at all I am guessing I would have FAR more resources available to me about korean history!

[profiterole_reads]

I know you said podcasts, but if books interest you, this one and that one are recent, cover all of history and have good ratings.

[sophia_sol]

thanks for the recs! I'll add them to my tbr list. but I just haven't been reading nearly as many books with my eyes as I used to, and I'm not sure why, so who knows if/when I'll actually get round to reading either of these, alas

[silverflight8]

Oh god, the history buffs that are really just into military history. Not the worst people in the world, but certainly up there in one of the most annoying.

[sophia_sol]

rightttttt

[pauraque]

I love listening to catbirds. When they're not meowing their chatter sounds almost parrot-like to me.

[sophia_sol]

I don't know enough about what parrots sound like for me to have those kinds of associations! to me their chatter just sounds entirely like them :) I love them so much!

[genarti]

#2 is a moooood. It's good for my budget, at least, I guess!

(I have a certain goth streak in me, although I've never committed to it as an aesthetic or anything because it's only one of several influences, but it usually has limited overlap with the gothy queer trinket stuff that gets sold, at least at places I've been to.)

[sophia_sol]

haha true, on the budget front!

and I hear you about the goth overlap lack. it's similar to how "witchy" can often include naturey things, but so rarely actually the kind of naturey things I am into!

[chestnut_pod]

Truly, where are the Pride stalls selling fun rainbow hiking socks etc.? Cater to meeeee.

Re: this devastating rate of failure for short stories, do you think this is… normal? The equivalent of an El Niño year for short works? A shakeup in the industry?

[sophia_sol]

rainbow hiking socks!!! yes!

the rate of failure for short stories feels fairly normal to me. I've been following these venues for years and giving a try to every story they publish. this is just the first year I've tracked them all!

there were a couple years where I was a first reader at strange horizons so I was reading the slush pile, and let me tell you, the quality of the stories they're sorting through is such that when I was slush reading, a story that had the very basic competences was a huge breath of fresh air lol. and most of these stories that are published ARE ones I would have passed up the line for the editors to take a look at!

[chestnut_pod]

Oh, I never new that about your career as slush reader! This is fascinating.

[sophia_sol]

yeah it was a fun volunteering thing for a few years back when I didn't have nearly as many hobbies taking up my time, lol

it was a fascinating way to have an eye on the trends in the genre tbh, because over the time I was doing it I definitely saw changes in like, what overdone tropes everyone was submitting mediocre versions of. what was part of the zeitgeist that everyone wanted to write about!

also. the gender ratio of submissions. YIKES. iirc about 1 in 5 submissions was by a woman, at least at the time I was doing this! and that's at strange horizons, a venue that specifically talks about wanting diverse writers

[chestnut_pod]

Re: gender ratio: wowwwwww. That's even worse than I would have imagined!

[sophia_sol]

IT'S SO BAD!!!! and I would always look forward to the stories by a woman bc at least it would usually be a different flavour of bad than the kind of bad the tidal waves of men sent in