exceptinsects

I made this Shanghai scallion flatbread this afternoon and it is really good but if you should endeavor to make it, I have 2 warnings:

1. whatever you think is "medium heat" when you're cooking it is too high. No, lower than that. Or don't go the full 12 minutes recommended, but I think that might be harder to gauge.

2. be careful when flipping it over! Remember that sesame seeds will pop in hot oil and things will spatter, so really and truly, be careful!

Otherwise, it's delicious, A++ will make again. On lower heat next time. The only thing I did differently was use toasted sesame oil on the inside before I put the scallions on. Also, I think it could hold more than 1/2 cup of chopped scallions, but that is just me. Oh, and I used five spice powder instead of ground Sichuan peppercorns because I don't like that much heat and so I do not actually have Sichuan peppercorns in the house. Anyway, I did it all by hand and it was easy enough. I can't recommend a Danish dough whisk enough if you enjoy making bread and don't have a stand mixer.

I had big plans to also make blood orange gelato - blood oranges are in season right now and on sale! but the ones I got are like, bruised to hell, so that is probably why the sale price - but I don't have room in the freezer for it. Bah. Pre-made chicken tenders were also on sale and I bought them to make for lunch this week and they are taking up a lot of space (there are only about 12 in the bag but the bag is enormous. so annoying! I suppose I could rebag them in something less full of air. Hmm...). Anyway, I am contemplating zesting and juicing the oranges and freezing that, but again, space is at a premium in there. One day I will have a full-size fridge. or a chest freezer. Either way. and I will be so happy.

Soon, I will take the rack of babyback ribs I bought this week (not on sale alas) and give them a dry rub before they go back into the fridge overnight to be roasted low and slow tomorrow. And in the morning, before I have to devote 4 hours of oven-time to the ribs, I plan to make pecan shortbread because I still have like 2 lbs of pecans from my Christmas candied pecans project. It's an Ina Garten recipe, so I anticipate it will be good! And I will eat a few of them for breakfast each morning next week.

And after reblogging this post, I have also been contemplating making gyoza for Easter since I'll have a 4-day weekend and could do it in stages, though I have never done it and don't know how to pleat them so I'm going to have to watch some videos - any recs for that? I'll also try to clear out some space in the freezer to freeze some for later. *g* But they look so good! I do love a dumpling.

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Death leaves Us homesick, who behind
The Pitt | Javadi, Gen | ~1100 words | Episode fic for 2.11.

(Also on AO3)

( It wasn't that she'd never seen death. Victoria had worked in a Tier One Trauma Centre for months. She'd seen death. )

I was shocked and saddened when devildoll just texted me this: Nicholas Brendon, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Star, Dies at 54. I knew he had troubles, but also thought he had time to work them out. He's a year younger than me!

*

Have things gotten better? They have not.

( the good and the bad )

*

Somehow, in the middle of this madness, roga and I have managed to take a trip. We were originally supposed to go on an organized trip that got canceled because missiles, but we already had a day off from work and we ended up booking a hotel by the sea for 1 night.

The hotel is in a region that gets far fewer missiles (less of a strategic target), and though I can't say I got much sleep on this trip it was still amazing to just... not be in my house? Not have to do endless dishes and laundry? Just wake up by the sea and have breakfast by the sea.

We drove 10 mins to a nearby picturesque town and went around the few shops that were open (making sure we know where the nearest bomb shelter is at all times of course). We went to a little museum by the hotel that randomly had a bunch of military equipment Napoleon dumped into the sea after the failed siege of Acre.

I posted some photos on Bluesky.

It was just 1 day off work, and just 1 night away, and almost the entire time it was raining and cold. We were woken up by a missile alert (the kind that SCREAMS at you from your phone using those natural disaster overrides, but only means there COULD be a missile headed your way, not to be confused with a siren) at 2am, and when roga didn't answer a text or a call I put on my warmest coat and boots and ran over to knock on her door, just to make sure she was awake if there WAS a srein and we suddenly needed to run to the hotel bomb shelter in less than 90 seconds.

I was on my period and taking painkillers basically the whole time.

And still it was so nice to do that. It helped so much. Just one small breath of fresh air.

James Davis Nicoll: Let’s Talk This Over: What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed

Yes I pre-ordered it blind, have you even met me.

I have watched some TV!

Shrinking: ( spoilers )

Abbott Elementary: ( spoilers )

The Pitt: ( spoilers )

Here is a cool video interview with Alexandra Metz, who plays Garcia. I don't think there are any spoilers past earlier s2 episodes.

*

Sequel to Spin State, and, yes, you have to read that one first. Really solid hard science-fiction where the science is artificial intelligence (real AI, not fucking Claude), cloning, ecological collapse, complex adaptive systems and complexity theory, and I took the last two straight out of the "Further Reading" section at the end (yes there's homework) because hell if I know, even though Moriarty definitely expected me to know and says as much. The closest I can get to guessing what that field is about (without Further Reading) is E.O. Wilson and his ants, which are also here.

The fiction is set far in the future in a universe where the Earth is suffering from global climate catastrophe and the vast majority of people live in orbital stations or on terraformed planets. This includes huge hives of genetically engineered corporate clones, who are no longer considered human, and transhumans who have been technologically advanced to the point where they're not considered entirely human either. The only humans allowed to live on Earth are natural ones with hereditary exceptions, which, practically, seems to mainly mean indigenous groups, whatever's left of the United States after it broke with the U.N., and people with religious wars to fight. Half of the action is set in the middle of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.

So you can see how this book might be a bit too real at this stage of the horrors.

Unfortunately for both of us, due to my state of mind—and the state of the world—I couldn't concentrate on any of it. I could only read it sporadically and had trouble remembering all the spy intrigue (of which there's a lot) and who was on what side, but I'm sure it was great and tense and full of unexpected betrayals (iguess.jpg). However, I can say that even after days away from it, I could pick it up and just start reading because it's very well written and the (main) characters are all memorable and interesting.

If any of this sounds like your jam, read the first book (that one is about mining, Bose–Einstein condensates, corporate espionage, and AI), pick up this one, and then probably read the third in the trilogy, Ghost Spin. I'll pick it up one day, but probably not today, and probably not tomorrow, on account of my poor brains.

Contains: global climate disaster; Israel/Palestine; torture and interrogation; widespread infertility; unplanned pregnancy; amputation; slaughter of chickens for food; and an extended shoutout to Ender's Game.

https://transrightsreadathon.carrd.co/

March 17-31, 2026

The Trans Rights Readathon is an annual call to action to readers and book lovers in support of Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV) on March 31st.

We are calling on the reader community to read and uplift books written by and/or featuring trans, nonbinary, 2Spirit, and gender-nonconforming authors and characters.

As before, I would like to request that people shout out their favourite eligible books in the comments!

Previous poll review
In the Fitness trackers poll, 18% of respondents regularly use a fitness tracker to monitor their activity, 10% also use an app, and 16% use the pedometer on their phone; 48% said "other no", proving that I really should have got more granular (and emphatic) for non-adopters. Sorry! (For me, I enjoy some of the "gamification of exercise" parts, but when Fitbit eventually insists that I have to merge my data with my Google account in a few months, I plan to delete the app and use my device as a standalone thingummy.)

In ticky-boxes, FANDOM SPARKLES came second to hugs hugs hugs, 56% to 68%. "I genuflect to the sanctity of the ticky-box" is a reference to/misquote of a line from a Courtney Milan romance. Thank you for your votes! ♥

Reading
Almost nothing. Andrew and I started (barely) The Warrior's Apprentice by Bujold, the first Miles Vorkosigan book, in audio, read by Grover Gardner. And in ebook I've just started Courtney Milan's m/m novella, The Pursuit of... set during the American War of Independence.

Kdramas
I was sure I'd have drifted away from One Spring Night by now in favour of the new thing, but I'm semi-managing to watch that and Undercover Miss Hong in tandem. I love both of them in very different ways. OSN is slow and as full of social nuance as an Austen novel; UMH is silly corporate spy shenanigans and found family.

(In Undercover Miss Hong, the 35-year-old lead is undercover as a 20-year-old, and every time she glances around quickly and her shoulders move too, I think, yep, it's the stiff neck that gives you away. #relatable)

As predicted, Pru and I started Love Scout. I am immediately obsessed with it all over again, ahhhhhh! How am I going to bear the wait between watchings??

Other TV
A bit more of Ponies, but it's so tense that I keep avoiding it. It's only an 8-episode season, and we're halfway, so I should probably bite the bullet and power through.

Episode 2 of R.J. Decker was terribly written, to the point where I don't know if I can keep going. (I think the Movie Briefs podcast may have ruined me for PI shows: I kept going, "Is this witness tampering?" and "Stop revealing case information to suspects!")

More of The Pitt (I am worried about Robbie) (no spoilers, please!!) and Cheers.

And last night we watched the bizarre combination of:

1. the pilot of The Madison, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell, a gorgeously cinematic show about loss, grief, and New York "society" people dealing with nature in Montana. It's like the love child of A River Somewhere (Australian fly-fishing show which I happen to own on DVD), Schitt's Creek (but without the humour; just the rich people out of their comfort zone part), and [something dealing with partner-loss], and
2. The Naked Gun, starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson (surprisingly watchable; made us laugh).

We've also watched a bunch of stand-up lately: Marc Maron, Rose Matafeo, probably some others.

Audio entertainment
"Corporations have learned that when you have total buy-in, from everyone, and if you can make it impossible for people to not use your product, you determine what culture is. You just do." Gita Jackson on Tech Won't Save Us. (I am so grateful to Dreamwidth for not having an algorithm!)

Online life
Sign-ups are open for the 520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange!! Yay!! This is our eighth year, and it's always a great time.

Writing/making things
I finished a round of rewrites on one of my started-for-Yuletide fics and sent it back to beta; now I need to apply the same rewriting strategy to my other started-for-Yuletide fic too. 520 Day assignments will out by the 8th, so that's my deadline for these: three weeks. In theory, that should be do-able.

I'm averaging one fic a month so far this year, which is pretty slow-paced for me, but it isn't nothing.

Life/health/mental state things
( [Dog in burning house; everything is fine.gif, local politics edition] )

Link dump
The Left Doesn't Hate Technology, We Hate Being Exploited by Gita Jackson | Heroes Choose Danger - How to Make Your Passive Hero Active [Screenwriting Tips] by heyjameshurst (Youtube, 12:57 min) | Night Train with Wyatt Cenac ep 1 (stand-up series made for streaming, but then the streamer went bust).

Good things
520 Day, yay!! FTH, eeee!! Writers' Hour continues to keep me showing up; it's a structure that works really well for me. Kdramas and those of you who recommend them to me. AO3 comments on some of my favourites of my fics. Sunday's long bike ride to buy the best hot cross buns didn't have any negative arm/wrist consequences. The air fryer I inherited is ridiculously tiny, but I'm enjoying it. Good weather. Reasonably good health. (*knocks on wood*) Cat! Andrew!

Oscar winner Michael B Jordan! Woohoo! I did not watch the Oscars but I am so happy for MBJ!

Also for Kpop Demon Hunters and "Golden!"

Here are two links I enjoyed this morning:

= Don't Fence Ted McGinley In (NYT gift link) (also, spoilers for aired episodes of Shrinking)

= 'The Pitt,' as Told by Its Patients

*

Got up yesterday morning baked 4 loaves of soda bread (here's a picture of 2 of them), ate some myself (I kept the 4th loaf) then schlepped out ot the island to deliver them to my brother, sister, and niece.

We went out for a fun dinner - the onion rings at this place are so good! even if the service was a little haphazard - and then I went home with my brother's family. It was early enough that I could have come back here, but my middle niece was like, "aren't you going to hang out with us?!" so of course I stayed, and ended up watching KPop Demon Hunters with middle and youngest niece (youngest was like I don't wanna! but at the end she was like, that was really good!). I should note that they are 27 and 24, but they still like hanging out with me! <333 And now we want the prequel about Rumi's mother and her demon affair.

My car this morning came 90 minutes early, so I rolled out of bed expecting to be able to have a bagel and a cup of coffee before I had to leave, but there he was, blocking the driveway, so I got home before I was even scheduled to leave.

The amount of benadryl and Zyrtec I have to take at their house because of the cat is ridiculous, and I ended up coming home and sleeping for most of the day. I'm glad I didn't cancel my PTO day tomorrow though - I scheduled it when this dinner was originally planned for tonight. I did tell my boss she could ping me if she needed me ahead of their meeting with the board chair tomorrow afternoon, but I so hope she doesn't.

*

Duty
The Pitt | Whitaker, Abbot Gen | ~2700 words | Thanks to sheafrotherdon for betaing. Episode fic for 2.10.

(Also on AO3)

( Dennis doesn't know if he's overreacting. )

Good Talk
The Pitt | Jack/Robby | ~3100 words | Thanks to sheafrotherdon for betaing.

(Also on AO3)

( Five times that Robby walked in on Jack having a conversation that made him pull a confused face. )

It's Spring Break here, and I look forward to sleeping and drinking a lot of tea. Hurrah.

( The Pitt, 2.10, 4:00P.M. )

I finally got some Minute Maid frozen orange juice concentrate and Orange Julius take 2 is way better than the watery version I made last month. Woo!

Tomorrow, I have to get up early and bake Irish soda bread to take to the family - we are going out for St. Patrick's Day dinner (and also the NINTH[!!!!!] anniversary of my father's death - it is his recipe I use; I miss him a lot).

TV quick takes:

Shrinking: ( spoilers ) Anyway, the first few episodes of this show are a little tough to take but it has morphed into a funny, endearing, poignant hangout comedy and I recommend it! Harrison Ford is SO GOOD in it too.

The Pitt: ( spoilers )

I am very interested to see where the rest of this season is going.

*

Improv
The Pitt RPF | ~5600 words | Shawn Hatosy/Noah Wyle | Thanks to sheafrotherdon and thermocline for betaing.

(Also on AO3)

( It had been Sara's suggestion, of course. Noah would never have asked for it. Never even have thought of it on his own. But she'd said 'honey, I don't think three days on the beach are going to cut it this time', and so now here Noah was, sitting on the edge of a bed in a nondescript hotel room. Waiting. )

Previous poll review
In the Being an audience poll, 41.3% of respondents have been to the cinema in the last six months, 28.3% to the theatre, and 17.4% to a live music gig. I'm curious about the 10.9% who chose "other".

In ticky-boxes, bakery treats came second to hugs, 60.9% to 73.9%, which is an excellent showing. Snow puppies came third with 47.8%. Thank you for your votes! ♥

Reading
Andrew and I finished Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold, so now I know what minoanmiss meant by SHOPPING TRIP. *takes a moment* Anyway, it was great. I love Bujold's character work and her humour. Looking forward to the next one and getting to know Miles.

Kdramas
Still re-watching One Spring Night, lol. I made a flaily post about it a few days ago, but then realised that my "realisations" were actually explained in the next few scenes, so I don't know if I'm seeing the show differently or just remembering info I learned from the first time around. I've since privated the post, but if you've seen OSN and want to talk to me about it, please do!! I am mildly obsessed.

I also started Undercover Miss Hong on adore's rec. I'm in the middle of episode 2, and it's great so far. It reminds me of Good Manager (AKA Chief Kim) to the point where I checked if it was the same writer (it isn't), and otoh, the lead is played by Park Shin-hye, who was the nun in the "nun undercover as her twin brother in a boyband" drama, You're Beautiful, which was my gateway drug into the world of Kdramas, so in a way it feels like coming full circle. (Here, she's undercover as a 20yo.)

Other TV
We finished the Return of the King extras (omg, so stressful!). Still watching The Pitt, of course, though I really think it works better all in a bunch, rather than one episode a week. (I won't say "binged", because the most we ever manage is three episodes a night -- that's a lot for us.)

Happened to notice that Cheers is on Neon (NZ streaming service, incl. some HBO), and randomly started watching it -- it's aged surprisingly well! Very white, and the sexism vs feminism tension is front and centre, but Sam is fine, and everyone seems to be having a good time. We'll stick with that for a while and see.

The pilot of R.J. Decker, a new PI show loosely based on a Carl Hiaasen novel. It's very network TV, case-of-the-week and easy-going. Good supporting cast. Seems fine. A few episodes of Ponies, about two CIA widows trying to be spies in cold war Russia. They don't have much trade craft yet, so it's equal parts comedic and tense. Half an episode of SurrealEstate.

My sister and I are still on Fringe season 4, in which the entire multiverse revolves around Peter; I prefer Lincoln. And we watched some Bluey, naturally. Just finished season 1 and started season 2. 🧡💙🧡

Audio entertainment
All the usual suspects. More Movie Briefs, more local politics. And the episode of A Bit Fruity recced by sabotabby (who gives excellent podcast recs, btw). A Tech Won't Save Us episode about The Luddite Club. A bit of Ad Astra about pacing. I think I'm spending too much time listening to podcasts.

Online life
The 520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange is coming soon!! We've been doing some behind-the-scenes prep for that. And wheeeee, I won a Fandom Trumps Hate auction (my first time bidding) -- so exciting!!

Writing/making things
Still bashing my head against the two things I started for Yuletide. It would be fantastic to get these off my plate before I get my 520 Day assignment and have to redecorate my brain in Guardian. *plugs away* (I feel like my intuition is offline, and I'm having to figure everything out with my inept thinking brain, why?)

In drawing, I did a practice pic of Zhao Yunlan, and wow, expressions are hard; the difference between worried and scared is, like, a millimetre here, a millimetre there...

Life/health/mental state things
The tsunami of ambient stress is making itself felt in my body. When I bought my new phone, I somehow got six months' free premium Fitbit membership again, so I tried wearing my Fitbit to sleep, to build up a data profile. And yep, an "objective" poor rating makes a subjective bad night's sleep feel so much worse. That's why I stopped doing this last time! So I've stopped again. Also, my resting pulse rate was going up and up for a while there. /o\

Had my free breast-squish day.

Goals
I did not do my goal things from last week. Ah well.

Good things
Sunshine. New (second-hand) red bag arrived this week; I don't think it's as waterproof as advertised, but it's a step up from my sponge of a handbag. Showers and kitties and going out to lunch. Biking and bike lanes. The Bingo fanart I received in fandomtrees continues to be cheering/soothing. GUARDIAN!!

I don't love that Nolan McLean gave up 2 home runs in the same inning in this game, but I do love that Team Italia celebrates with an Armani blazer and an espresso (they literally have an espresso machine in the dugout and if someone hits a homer, he gets a shot) and then the team captain kisses the guy while everyone else does this: 🤌

*

Work is currently bananas. Listen, I have a whole document I wrote on how to change/streamline board stuff to foster discussion and engagement, but we were supposed to do it methodically and not implement it until the June meeting, except now we are doing it NOW, and everything got upended in the stupidest way possible. I maybe kind of couldn't control how irritated I am about it because it is basically making me do double the amount of work and is seems to me like it is just going to achieve the exact opposite of what we want it to, but apparently this is coming directly from the new board chair. I told my boss that if I am right, and that this doesn't do what they think it is going to, I might not say it, but I will be thinking the world's biggest "I told you so." And she was like, that's fair. Sigh.

*

Poetry of Chiyo-ni: The Life and Art of Japan's Most Celebrated Woman Haiku Master, edited and translated by Patricia Donegan & Yoshie Ishibashi:

An important book as it was the first—and perhaps still the only—of its kind in English, a translation dedicated to a female haiku master. The introductory material provides valuable context for the time in which Chiyo-ni lived, the forms she worked in, and the influence of Zen Buddhism on her art, but it can be repetitive, covering the same ground multiple times, and I wish the biography had stuck closer to things that could be verified and wasn't so gossipy. We know very little about Chiyo-ni's personal life, not even if she was married, and Donegan apparently felt the need to pad her bio with unnecessary—and often melodramatic—speculation.

Chiyo-ni's haiku has, you'll never guess it, a more feminine approach than those of the old male masters, and for this her poetry has been criticized—by men—as not being "as good." But here's yet another example of men needing to shut up and let women work. Chiyo-ni's poetry is different because it's hers, just as Issa's work is different from Bashō's. Chiyo-ni's haiku is often more personal than that of the old male masters, with more people, particularly women, present in them:

woman's desire
deeply rooted–
the wild violets

Bashō would never. Issa might, but he'd add fleas. (Not in a gross way, he just loved bugs!)

Chiyo-ni's haiku is perhaps also more deeply rooted in Zen Buddhism—she was a nun after all—and as a result I found many of them inaccessible to me, as they're mainly interested in expressing Zen principles and feel kind of canned as she repeatedly returns to the same images and phrases. "Cool clear water" is nice once or twice. It is not as nice the fortieth time. It didn't help that the editors were constantly in the footnotes explaining how this was a poem about impermanence or non-duality and praising the deepness of her understanding of such things. It started to make the poetry feel performative, like Chiyo-ni was trying to win some kind of contest, and it didn't offer much to this non-enlightened reader. Like they didn't even bother to explain what non-duality was. But I still found several pieces that were meaningful even without Being The Best At Zen, like this, one of her best-known poems:

a hundred gourds
from the heart
of one vine

And her most famous haiku:

morning glory–
the well-bucket entangled
I ask for water

And this, one of her best known Buddhist haiku, which is supposedly expressing the peace of detachment, but I just love how dismissively breezy it is:

anyway
leave it to the wind—
dry pampas grass

I, too, wish I could leave it all to the wind.

Recommended because it's important to keep Chiyo-ni's name out there, mentioned in the same breath as Bashō, Buson, and Issa, but there's also good poetry in here. Like this haiku, which I absolutely love because the structure suggests that the horsetails were there first and the ruins came later.

つくつくしここらに寺の跡もあり
tsukutsukushi / kokora ni tera no / ato mo ari

among a field
of horsetail weeds–
temple ruins

Or this classic:

falling down laughing
at others falling down—
snow viewing

The poems are presented one per page, with the transliteration first, which is a weird choice, then the English translation, and the Japanese (with furigana) in three staggered vertical columns, read right to left. (Personally, I think either the translation or the actual Japanese should have been offered first, as the transliteration is the least attractive on the page and not particularly meaningful if you don't know Japanese. If you do know Japanese, it's still of limited use.) Footnotes identify the kigo (seasonal word), and many include translation notes, further background, or another poem on a similar subject.

Now for the bad news: I read this in ebook because that was the only way my library had it, and it was not a pleasurable experience. It's listed as an epub in the catalogue, but it sure did act like a PDF. It was an image of the book rather than a text that would flow to fit your screen, and you could only zoom in, not increase the font wholesale. You couldn't highlight text (or search) with any accuracy, and you couldn't highlight at all if you were zoomed in. None of the many end notes were linked. I was pretty mad at this book, not going to lie, and it made my time with Chiyo-ni's poetry kind of frustrating. Definitely get it in print if you're able.

Ugh, daylight savings, why are we still doing this???

Anyway, I got up at my usual workday time instead of sleeping in so I could get the onions in the slow cooker, and I did both the "soak onions in cold water in the fridge for 15 minutes" and wore the stupid onion goggles, and still by the 4th onion my eyes were extremely unhappy with me. *hands* Thankfully I only had 6 onions total, so it all got done, and for dinner I made French onion pasta as planned, and now I have dinner for 3 more days as well. I do love this pasta dish - and I always use bucatini, which is one of my favorite pasta shapes, so it was pleasing all around. Every time I make it after not having made in a while, I'm like, why don't I make this more often!? and then I remember the onion-slicing and how annoying it is. Anyway, definitely recommended for a delicious and easy dinner (except for the onion-slicing). I also made bacon so I have lunch for the week also.

I meant to mention this yesterday and forgot, but The Mountain Goats collaborated with Mary Chapin Carpenter to cover World Party: Put the Message in the Box (don't worry if you only recognize one or two of those names - the song is good!).

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