tozka: Mouse from Ghibli's Spirited Away movie (ghibli spirited away mouse)
mx. tozka ([personal profile] tozka) wrote2025-08-10 12:20 pm

weeknotes (august 3-9)

Life Updates

I can’t believe another week has gone by already! I’ve been enjoying myself immensely here, sitting in the garden and harvesting handfuls of cherry tomatoes. I haven’t even made it into town proper yet and I’m coming up on my third week in this housesit. Whoops!

πŸˆβ€β¬› Cats are doing well, and the shyest one even let me pet him (once) when he saw his siblings in the same room with me. They’ve also started coming to wake me (at 6am) which I’m taking as a sign that they like me.

Media Consumption

🎧 Too Many Tabs podcast has started their Quack Month, where they focus on quacks in August. It’s one of my favorite months for their podcast, partly because Mrs. P is the one researching and explaining everything, and she’s great. (Mr. P is also good but his shtick is shouting enthusiastically about everything which can be tiring. Also if you’re looking at the thumbnails– only Mr. P is onscreen because Mrs. P doesn’t want internet fame.)

The first episode was about Liver King, who I’ve only seen on the periphery on TikTok from people talking about how horrible he is.

πŸ“Ί I watched The Producers (1967) which I think I’ve seen before– but I don’t remember the entire last half of the film, so basically it was like watching it for the first time. I enjoyed seeing where they changed things for the musical (which I love) and what things they kept. I much prefer the characters in the musical, as they have a bit more depth.

I also watched The Wiz (1978)! I loved the actors/singing/music, but the empty urban pseudo-NYC streets freaked me out (maybe it was supposed to do that?) and some of the musical numbers went on way too long (the intro to Oz scene where they change colors over and over). I’m planning on watching the Live production of the musical whenever I can track it down, as apparently the stage version is much better.

πŸ“– Finished reading Moby-Duck (reading log + review), which I overall enjoyed but I do think it needed a bit more tightening up.

Also finished Seasons of the Wild (reading log + review), which was underwhelming.

Currently reading Climate Resilience (reading log), which is a good topic and has some great tips for getting more involve with climate activism, but some of the language feels…idk…over-the-top? I’m not sure how to describe it. Like, instead of just saying “I met this person and it was great,” it’s written more like “I had the honor of being in the same room as this amazing activist who has done 50 million things and is a mother, daughter, sister, aunt and earth goddess.” :/ Also they’re edited/compiled essays from interviews and everyone ends up sounding the same because of that, which is a shame.

I think I may temporarily swap over to my Kindle and read a fantasy/romance book as a palette cleanser.

Food & Dining

I harvested enough cherry tomatoes to finally be able to make a soup, which I did. (I used this recipe.) Of course as soon as I made it, I didn’t want to eat it, so it’s in the fridge for later.

The next batch of tomatoes are going to be made into a pasta sauce. I have some non-cherry ones ripening in a paper bag, and they’re nearly ready to use. I just need to track down some jars so I have somewhere to store it all!

Web Updates

New on the site:

  • Added a new note to my Commonplace Notebook on the Notes about AI page

Posted on the blog:

I also did a lot of theme customization, which I outlined here on this page.

Looking Forward

My usual goal to write here and on my site. I’m nearly done with a guide to customizing the look of your Calibre library, I just need to finish the formatting.

I’d also like to get in the habit of leaving comments on other people’s blogs (or emailing them), especially if I link them in a linkspam post. Right now I do it sporadically and I think if I make it more of a habit then it’ll stick better.

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

olivermoss: (Default)
Oliver Moss ([personal profile] olivermoss) wrote2025-08-09 08:23 pm
Entry tags:

Book

Not books, just book this time

I finished The Shots You Take (hockey m/m book) a few days ago and feel like posting about it before I've got any more other books done. This book was so good it both solved a problem and created a problem for me. I had been thinking just last week how it's annoying that I don't have a book that I can recommend without caveats, and nothing that hits that sweet spot of both being well written and having content and themes that appeal to me. This book solves that problem.

The problem it makes is that it's a m/m hockey romance by Rachel Reid that's not in the Game Changers series. I want to recc Heated Rivalry, Tough Guy and other books in the series, but all those books are weighed down by being in an series of uneven quality. Some amazing writing, and some not. Come join the TV show waiting room anyway, we have fic (I even wrote some), and one of the actors has been posting thirst traps to insta. Ignore that there is a much better book by her that's a stand alone and come join us.

I put off this book for a while because it's a second chance romance where one of the guys really hurt the other in the past. I usually hate these kinds of storylines. The problem is that authors like to make the past be really bad for drama and angst... and then either they start to hand wave how bad it was to make the story work or they have one side of the pairing basically have to take it in the teeth, choose the relationship over themselves. There is none of that in this book. I have literally no notes about anything in the novel. Nothing made me go 'ugh' or 'well it has to be like this for it to work'.

In general, Reid is really good having a sense that characters also need to look after themselves and have boundaries. Even if someone is being terrible, you need to find a way to communicate that, shield yourself, GTFO, etc. Placing value on having a sense of personal responsibility while also not not feeling like the narrative is in any way blaming either or both of the characters? A lot of stuff is just really well handled in the book.

Anyway, the book is about two hockey players from the same team who had a messy relationship they didn't really talk about reconnecting years later in a small town in Nova Scotia. MC1's dad just died and MC2 shows up to the funeral even though they hadn't talked in about eight years. I'd been putting off the book, the only one I hadn't read by her yet, because I just assumed something about the plotline would piss me off. I just assumed that was part of these sorts of stories. But I was wrong. Seriously good, 10/10, no notes.
olivermoss: (Default)
Oliver Moss ([personal profile] olivermoss) wrote2025-08-09 02:11 pm

Random Project Hail Mary Post

While I have many notes on the book, I was very charmed by what someone working on the movie said. I saw a YT short of the Comic Con panel and I think it was one of the directors who said spoilers )
olivermoss: (Default)
Oliver Moss ([personal profile] olivermoss) wrote2025-08-06 01:27 pm

The Martian

Now that I am done with Project Hail Mary and can see other people's takes and excitement for the movie, I am seeing a lot of comparing that story with The Martian. I don't plan to read the book, so I watched the movie last night. It was okay. It was good to get the context and I see why people want to compare and contrast the two so much.

I could almost feel the missing bits in the movie from what was cut to make it work as a film. I think/hope Project Hail Mary will adapt better.
tozka: Woman looking slightly downward in a field of green grass (van gogh pensive)
mx. tozka ([personal profile] tozka) wrote2025-08-06 12:49 pm

πŸ“– reading log: seasons of the wild by sy montgomery

Book Info

Topics: Nonfiction, Nature

LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/work/3092900/

Acquired from: Little Free Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA [see visit log]

Started reading: August 6, 2025

Finished reading: August 9, 2025

Review

A book with enthusiastic views of nature (animals, plans, seasons, etc.) presented in a way that just wanted me to see sources. Like, many mentions of things that happened in “recent times” (the 90s) but in a way that reminded me of those newspaper tidbit sections that were just there to give you something to read. Bibliography at the end which does include things used to write the book itself, but I personally would’ve preferred something more science-y rather than casual info-sharing.

Reading Updates

Page 0: This one didn’t come with a bookmark like Moby-Duck did, so I’m using one I got from Downtown Books in Milwaukee. I picked up this book partly because of the topic, partly because the blurbs on the back (“Sy Montgomery has insight into the Others that every nature writer on this continent envies.”), and partly because the author photos shows Sy holding a barred owl.

Read the rest of this entry » )

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

tozka: Dawn (from Buffy) reading a book with a starry background (buffy dawn with stars)
mx. tozka ([personal profile] tozka) wrote2025-08-06 12:32 pm

reading wednesday

πŸ’— 2025 Reading Log | 51/200 yearly goal (+1 from last update)

This morning I finished reading Moby-Duck by Donovan Hohn (book log here), a travel memoir/popular science book ostensibly about a bunch of plastic animals that fell overboard in the early 90s and how they roamed around the ocean for 15 years. I enjoyed reading this book for many reasons, but I have to admit I don’t think the premise held together at the end.

The author supposedly quit his job to follow the duck trail but the last two (or maybe three) chapters he spends following oceanographers around instead and doesn’t even see any ducks (or other plastic animals) and barely remembers to squeeze mention of them into a few paragraphs. Which, I get it, the ducks are a dead end, but it’s the whole premise of your book…

Also I don’t want to be overly judgemental but he definitely did that thing that men do when they freak out about being fathers for the first time, abandon their family for a personal quest and then figure out they enjoy being a dad and having a son, etc. Just. Ugh.

Anyway! I need to get through some more Little Free Library books so I can swap them out again, so I’m going to start reading Seasons of the Wild by Sy Montgomery, which is a collection of essays about nature throughout the year, etc. It’s much shorter than Moby-Duck so I should be able to read it quick enough.

On a personal note, I really enjoyed putting together the book log post for Moby-Duck, and I’m definitely going to do that regularly.

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

tozka: (sunrise illustrated)
mx. tozka ([personal profile] tozka) wrote2025-08-05 01:45 pm

πŸ“Έ garden haul: cherry tomatoes + bell pepper

Basket of garden vegetables: two large handfuls of orange-colored cherry tomatoes and a hand-sized green bell pepper

The cherry tomatoes are absolutely popping right now and I have to pick them a bit early or else the birds and whatever else (chipmunks probably) get them. Luckily they ripen pretty fast even in the kitchen.

The bell pepper was the biggest of the bunch, so I picked it despite it looking a bit weird. You can see a slight spot of red coming at the top!

UPDATE from Garden Window Viewpoint: Caught one of the chipmunks EATING A CHERRY TOMATO!!!! (One that I left out there because it’s slightly underripe.) Vegetable thief!!!!!!!!

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

tozka: illustrated flowers and butterflies (nature spring flowers + butterfly)
mx. tozka ([personal profile] tozka) wrote2025-08-05 10:24 am

morning in the garden

Managed to get up slightly earlier than usual today and got out to the garden just before 7:30am. Absolutely perfect temperature, somewhere in the mid 60s and only needed a light jacket (which I happened to buy in Chicago recently! Score!).

Major difference in sounds from previous mornings! Lots more chipmunk sounds– and in fact I saw lots more chipmunks, too. Fairly blasting my eardrums with noises (birds, chipmunks, cicadas, etc.) and only very minimal human-neighbor noises this time.

Did a lot of chipmunk-watching. The easiest way to spot chipmunks was to look where the sounds were coming from, and then watch for moving branches. Eventually I was able to make out little chipmunk shadows racing around, and it was fun to watch them scream at each other.

Even more exciting was the chipmunk(s) who came close to my chair. One even went to far as to run UNDER my chair, after we accidentally made eye contact.

Spotted several birds of unknown type, but probably finches, of various colors (yellow, brown, black/white). Also saw a bright red one, larger than a finch but doesn’t seem large enough to be a cardinal. Some small white butterflies visiting flowers, and ants investigating my coffee mug per usual. (No worries: I have a silicone mug cover to keep curious insects out from my coffee.)

Later, after heading back inside to my temporary writing desk, the groundhog ventured out and snuffled around some bushes looking for food.

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

olivermoss: (Default)
Oliver Moss ([personal profile] olivermoss) wrote2025-08-04 11:03 am
Entry tags:

Books

* Project Hail Mary - There is going to be an extra meeting of my book club sometime this fall for it, but I wanted to read it early because some people were disappointed by how much was revealed in the trailer. So, I finished it last night and then finally saw the trailer. I am glad I read the book cold, not so much because of the obvious reveal, but more the smaller details. If you want to read the book before the film and have seen the trailer, maybe try to avoid watch it again.

I enjoyed it. For most of the book the way the science information was slowly built upon and discovered was really great, kind of felt like a really good video essay at times? But then there was a point where I really wanted the author to stop explaining experiments and just say the results. There is a whole section where most of what made the science bits work is just missing. It's not one element that's missing, it's several. This happens late in the book when there is a very small number of possible endings. I think a few 'amazingly, got the results that first time' instead of 'let me detail doing this same experiments six times' would really have helped.

I read it as an audiobook, but that format works really well for a couple of reasons. It's all first person POV of the main character.

Mild spoilers, barely any if you have seen the trailer )

I have one big note about the overall plotand it's a spoiler for the very last part of the book ) Okay maybe more than one note.

* What Moves The Dead - Finally got his read! It's also the next horror book club pick so I am somewhat on top of my book club reading. Really looking forward to the next book and also the upcoming book which I assume is the final one in the series? But, I am going to hold off until after book club. Her writing is really great. I definitely have some gender notes about this book and, uh I have an awkward feeling based on talk about it in book club discord that we might need to have a talk about the MC, pronouns and how Alex actually self ID's.

* Six of Crows - My reading of this was broken up by a few things including needing to power-read a book for book club. I am going to take a bit of a break between this book and Crooked Kingdom as these books are long and also I want to be able to focus on reading it unrushed and without pauses. Some aspects of the con/grist/heist stuff that was going on were very clear and well done, and making that all so clear is very tricky. But the physical aspects involving buildings... she kinda lost me there, but it might be due to reading it in chunks. I'll have to evaluate that on a re-read. Her character writing and some of the twists were amazing.

This book had a lot of reminders of how young some of these characters are, and also how young some of the characters in Shadow and Bone were supposed to be. I get it, these were written for the YA market, but at times it's like... really? For some of them, it tracks, for others?

* The Death of Jane Lawrence - Enjoyed it! The world building was tight and very interesting. I picked up on all of it despite consuming it as an audiobook. The print version uses formatting and a few other things to help clarify what's going on, but using my book club as a sample: some people who were audio-only got was going on and some people who read the print version didn't even notice things like sections without capitalization. The author was surprised that some of the people who read the physical version didn't even pick up on it.

I really enjoyed the author's skill in having such a shifting world/situation/etc, but it wasn't exactly my overall vibe. I will read some more by her

* My TBR shortlist right now is
- Ocean's Godori: I can't make the bookclub meeting for it, but I still want to read along
- A Dark And Drowning Tide: I don't typically like the romantasy club picks, but this interested me
- Jade City
- Deadly Education
- Left Hand of Darkness

Currently reading - The Shots You Take: It's the one Rachel Reid book I haven't read yet.
olivermoss: (Default)
Oliver Moss ([personal profile] olivermoss) wrote2025-08-03 05:15 pm

Breaking Paranormal News aka news that only I care about

Horrible POS Matt Rife has *not* bought the Conjuring House. Lots of new sites are making mistakes because they are not familiar with the world of paranormal investigation.

The actual story is much worse. He, with a business partner, have bought The Warren's home and museum that contain the artifacts and allegedly haunted items that the Warrens collected over the years. (The Warrens were the exorcists in the 'true stories' of The Conjuring House and Annabelle films) He is now the 'legal guardian' of Annabelle. All the artifacts are in his care. he plans to open it to tours and overnight stays. Link.

So sleepover party with the real Annabelle anyone?

(Warrens were pieces of shit scammers with the best PR ever in the form of their books and those movies. But there are people within the paranormal space who think that the Annabelle doll is haunted, but not by a demon and the ghost had been stuck being treated like a demon since the Warrens intervened. There is a whole 'Free Anabelle' contingent.)

The whole cottage industry around paranormal investigations and renting locations seemingly being a booming industry remains interesting to me.
tozka: title character sitting with a friend (lady lovely locks & friends)
mx. tozka ([personal profile] tozka) wrote2025-08-03 11:55 am

weeknotes (july 27-august 2)

Life Updates

Finally starting to feel settled into this housesit in Ann Arbor. Though the bed is comfortable, I haven’t been sleeping well. I wake up exhausted, which isn’t good. Feeling tired when I wake up makes me not want to go out and do things, so I’ve mostly been in the house slumping on the (admittedly very comfortable) couch with my books and my Roku.

But this week things changed! I dragged myself outside and did a walk around the neighborhood on Tuesday, one of the less-hot days, and I’ve switched to spending my mornings outside in the garden with my book and coffee mug. It’s an urban area, but this particular plot/neighborhood is ripe with tall trees and plants, so there’s lots of creatures to watch. Yesterday I spotted a goldfinch, and today I saw a chipmunk and a groundhog.

This morning I woke up feeling normal, so I think it’s working. I may start going on sunset walks when the temps cool down in the evening.

πŸˆβ€β¬› The cats continue to mostly ignore me, but in a benevolent way. Miss F and Mr N have started letting me pet them more, but Mr B still runs if I get closer than 10 feet away. I suppose the upside is they’re very independent and I can get a lot of work done without having to shoo them off my keyboard.

Media Consumption

🎧 Lots of podcasts this week. Caught up on My Brother, My Brother and Me episodes from the last two or three months. I used to listen to eps regularly but this past year in particular it’s gotten increasingly obvious that they are aware that they’re, like, being watched? Like, it’s a little too much “looking for the bit” so they can clip it and put it on TikTok.

Also caught up with Too Many Tabs, which has topics I enjoy but which has gotten maybe a bit more shout-y since they started recording videos for Youtube. I’m sensing a trend.

Also listened to a great episode of Gender Spiral Podcast, which I wrote about here (DW).

πŸ“Ί Continuing on my Midsomer Murder binge-watching. I’ve made it through DS Troy and have gotten into DS Scott’s episodes.

One thing I’ve been thinking about more during this rewatch is what happens to all these victims and secondary characters after the episode ends. So many people who find a dead body, lost a loved one, had a family secret exposed, etc. and they just disappear from the world entirely.

Hardly anyone shows back up again– there were a few times in the early seasons when a character from a previous episode would be referenced, and there’s one memorable time in season 10 (I think) where the same two character actors show up as the sister/nephew of characters from season 1. But other than that it’s just a swath of murder and misery in this one small UK county and nobody talks about it!

Which obviously has to happen, or else the story would never continue. But I think it’d make for an interesting story (perhaps a satire), to focus on what happens after a TV murder mystery. Anyone know if something like that exists? I’d be very surprised if a satirical author hadn’t put something out already.

πŸ“– Still reading Moby-Duck, and am about halfway through it now. Very much enjoying it (especially when I’m reading it under a tree in a garden).

Food & Dining

I ate a salad and am very proud of myself.

Basically I ate all the good stuff from my major order (DW) and am down to eggs and beans, so I need to head out this week to get rice and potatoes and other starchy things I can put eggs and beans on.

Besides that, though, I actually have quite a bit left from my last order and I think I can put off ordering again for at least another week. Or at least until DoorDash gives me another coupon.

Web Updates

Joined heaps of fanlistings and a few cliques, as well as two site directories (Smooth Sailing and LinkLane.net) and a webring (No AI Webring). I joined the MelonLand Forum and am dipping my toes in.

New page added to the main site:

And blog posts:

Looking Forward

Keep working on my website, write more blog posts, finish Moby-Duck and maybe one more book, perhaps start an animal-spotting log for this garden because WOW and catch up on my Dreamwidth correspondence.

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

olivermoss: (Default)
Oliver Moss ([personal profile] olivermoss) wrote2025-08-02 06:58 pm

Labubu Fest, Fremont Fair and Portland Aquarium

I thought that going to Labubu Fest would be fun and I'd get some cute pictures. Oh dear god.... it was so crowded I literally gave up and pushed through some people to see more than one booth. There was lines 15-20 deep just to *look* at some booths and if you tried to sneak a peek to even see what they sold, people were not chill.

Also, when I left I walked by a guy in silver pants, a white tank top, a giant purse with a whole colony of Labubu on it, power walking towards the fest and puffing on a vape as hard as he could.

Anyway, I typically would not post pics like this from events, I don't post pics of just what people sell I try to have that not be the focus on a shot, but I did snipe a picture of the samples at the tattoo booth and also I went around the back of the tooth gems booth to see a Labubu being worked on:





I had planned to do a do a youtube short. I had hopes of cute pictures I could give captions to. That is not how the day went. The Labubu crowd is feral.

Then I went up to the Fremont Fair, which was a neighborhood street fair with 150 vendors. It was cute.

On my way home I hit up some stores I'd been meaning to hit, and also went to the Portland Aquarium. The Portland Aquarium is small, unremarkable, but I'd always meant to drop by:

Saw a shark:




I liked the glowy sea spider:


And I got some very Portlandy stickers and a pin:


The back of the souvenir guidebook has a timeline of Mike Bennet's careers from his days of 'guy who makes random art' to Crypto-Zoo which was a covid-safe project during lockdown where he made a walk-through 'A-Zoo' of cryptids in North Portland to give kids an activity to do, and then shows his other projects since then including Wonderwood Springs, Dinolandia and now an aquarium that benefits conservation efforts. Amusingly, some of my pictures of his work pre-date what's in the guide in the back.
tozka: (green rabbit pattern)
mx. tozka ([personal profile] tozka) wrote2025-08-02 10:50 am
Entry tags:

🎧 listened to: gender spiral podcast “money sucks -and- you can do it (w/river nice)”

Listen to the episode here / Transcript / Youtube / Podcast RSS

Really excellent money-focused episode which talks about some of the differences between how queer people handle money vs. non-queer people (example: needing money for HRT, money to move out of the country for safety, etc.), some of the ways you can get started thinking about money in a healthy way, how to talk about money with your friends, mutual aid and how to plan for it, and lots more!

I especially liked a part about how older gen can’t handle how things have changed for us, not because they’re being willfully obtuse, but because it makes them scared for us! And they don’t have the emotional regulation skills needed to handle it properly.

Also this quote from River Nice, from 00:52:20:

I’m like, “I empathize a lot for my parents. I empathize for anyone in debt.” It’s like, we’re in truly unimaginable times that we all have to somehow navigate, but we have each other. Actually, all we have is each other. We literally don’t have anything else. We don’t have the money in the bank, it’s not real. You say the stock market might not exist in 30 years, that’s so true.

That’s where it all has to come back in all of the work that I do is like, “Yes, I want you to understand how the rules currently exist, how they’re currently played. I want you to creatively play them as best you can, but also, what can we be setting up that we have options in the future? We can talk about diversification. We can, some of us put some money in the stock market to have some options there.

We can buy some property to have some options there. We can invest in skills, like trade school, like cooking, gardening. We can invest in relationships, in healthy conflict.”

River Nice’s website, Be Intentional Financial. Free stuff offered (on resources page) include: How to Live Your Life While In Debt, Budgeting workshop, How to Talk to Loved Ones about Money, How to Buy a House Outside the Nuclear Family.

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

olivermoss: (Default)
Oliver Moss ([personal profile] olivermoss) wrote2025-08-01 08:28 pm

(no subject)

* My computer lives! I just spent a few hours wrestling with a boot problem and managed to poke at it until it started letting me log in again. Not that I should have to always log in *grumble*

* Seattle Kraken announced which game is their Pride Night and I'd love to go, but I might file this under 'things I don't want to do solo'.

* Guild Wars 2's expac hype is drawing me in a little, but I don't think I'll get back into playing. I am trying to do a little bit because next year is the 10th Anniversary of Tyria Pride and I'd like to be able to donate stuff. If I do a tiny bit per day (especially with my unlocks, home instance and account set up how it is) that ads up to a lot.
olivermoss: (Default)
Oliver Moss ([personal profile] olivermoss) wrote2025-08-01 01:54 pm
jesse_the_k: White woman riding black Quantum 4400 powerchair off the right edge, chased by the word "powertool" (JK 56 powertool)
Jesse the K ([personal profile] jesse_the_k) wrote2025-07-30 01:51 pm

boost: Handling Nosy People Policing Your Impairment

Eliza Rain [instagram.com profile] disabled_eliza posted an excellent 1:30 skit on how to interact with busybodies who can’t cope with the reality of ambulatory wheelchair users. (I'm also able to stand and reach for some things, so I appreciate helpful scripts.)

I loved her response to a stranger portrayed as complaining about the unbelievability of wheelchair users who can briefly stand. Eliza says, in a level tone, "Okay well, it makes no difference to me if you do or don’t believe me, this is my reality and I need a chair to get around."

You can watch it on on her Instagram or stream with open captions as well as narration from loud text-to-speech plus human dialogue right here )

Do you have go-to scripts to shut down invasive strangers (or family members, for that matter)?

tozka: Set of 3 green books (books green set of 3)
mx. tozka ([personal profile] tozka) wrote2025-07-30 07:03 am

πŸ“– reading log: moby-duck by donovan hohn

Book Info

Genre: Nonfiction, Popular Science, Travel

LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/work/book/291465892

Acquired from: Little Free Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA [see visit log]

Started reading: July 29, 2025

Finished reading: August 6, 2025

Review

(Written August 6, 2025; cross-posted to LibraryThing)

Overall I enjoyed this book, though I think the title/cover does it a bit of a disservice. It makes it seem like a very scientific book with a lot of history about plastic ducks floating in the ocean, but really it’s more of a travel memoir with some popular science bits mixed in. The last two sections in particular were heavy on the personal anecdotes and less about plastic ducks– possibly because the author hadn’t seen any for years by that point.

That said, it DID make me more interested about oceanography and oceanographers. I enjoyed the mix of travel, science, and history. The author describes people vividly, without being rude about their quirks, and you can tell he likes people. I’m uncertain if it was worth it for him to quit his job and pursue the plastic ducks (especially since he had a young child at the time!) but I suppose that’s just me being judgemental. (Although considering how many times he quotes Arctic explorers, I can’t help but wonder if wanting to explore himself mixed with fear of fatherhood led to suddenly wanting to go on a multi-year quest. Anyway.)

Reading Updates

Page 1: Found a promo postcard for 4Ocean.com inside the book and am using it as a bookmark

Read the rest of this entry » )

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

tozka: multiple popples crowded around one big book (popples reading)
mx. tozka ([personal profile] tozka) wrote2025-07-29 12:52 pm

lfl visit log #1

Went for what turned out to be an hour-long walk around the neighborhood and visited five Little Free Libraries– and found some great books!

The majority were full of kids books, which makes sense I suppose as people tend to load up on those at thrift stores and whatnot, so they’re easy to pass along.

My favorite LFL was #119554, not least because I found two books which look really good! It also had the best design, with one box for adult books and one for children’s books, a separate dog treat library and even a water bowl. Super cute!

As far as I can tell, all these libraries are the pre-built ones from the LFL website.

LFL Visited

  1. LFL #89560 “Elm Tree Little Library” – Ann Arbor, MI – Took Square Foot Gardening.
  2. LFL #119554 – Ann Arbor, MI – Took Climate Resilience and Seasons of the Wild.
  3. LFL #135682 “Barking Dog Library” – Ann Arbor, MI – Took Moby-Duck.
  4. LFL #177207 – Ann Arbor, MI.
  5. LFL #178758 – Ann Arbor, MI – Took Paradise Rot.
Read the rest of this entry » )

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.