EntropicalVacation 5d ago • 100%
To Kill a Mockingbird, of course.
EntropicalVacation 6d ago • 100%
Here’s a very technical paper that studied nose vs mouth vs combined nose-and-mouth breathing:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7455204/
I confess it was over my head and I just skimmed it. But the conclusion says, “The high filtration efficiency of the nasal cavity together with its efficient clearance mechanisms lead to the recommendation to prefer the nose breathing over combined or mouth breathing.”
The conclusion also says, “There is general scientific agreement that lower airways are more vulnerable to severe infections” and “From this point of view, the nasal inhalation is preferential because it significantly reduces the number of particles penetrating to lower airways.” I’d guess that means that shallow breaths are probably preferable, but you’d need to read the article to confirm that.
EntropicalVacation 1mo ago • 97%
Heterosexual men want to look at boobs. If she thinks this is “weird,” I feel she needs something explained to her.
EntropicalVacation 2mo ago • 100%
I’m reading The Garden of Departed Cats by Bilge Karasu. It’s a collection of very strange and seemingly unrelated short stories, interspersed with chapters about a traveler in a Mediterranean city who ends up taking part in a human chess game. The publisher’s description says, “With many strata to mine, The Garden of the Departed Cats is a work of peculiar beauty and strangeness, the whole layered and shiny like a piece of mica.” If you like Kafka, or Italo Calvino, this might be up your alley. Me, I’m not too sure yet.
I’m also listening to the audiobook of The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. It’s told from the point of view of Tookie, an ex con who works at a bookstore in Minnesota owned by an author named Louise. Tookie is now married to the tribal cop who arrested her, she has a fraught relationship with her step daughter and with the ghost of a former bookstore customer who died while reading a book that is now in Tookie’s possession that she thinks may be cursed. It takes place in 2020, and COVID-19 has just struck. I love Louise Erdrich, and this is much more engaging than the Karasu.
EntropicalVacation 3mo ago • 100%
One of my many favorites is The Cave by José Saramago. It’s an indictment of capitalism, bureaucracy, and commercial development couched as a sort of realist fable. Saramago is compassionate and tender toward his protagonists and wryly sardonic in his social criticism.
EntropicalVacation 3mo ago • 100%
For SF, I recommend anything by Becky Chambers. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is the first of her Wayfarers series.
EntropicalVacation 7mo ago • 92%
Greebles. They’re often on the ceiling at our house.
EntropicalVacation 7mo ago • 100%
“She had six strong legs and it frightened me. She had insect eyes but I could still see that the look she gave him you give to me.”
EntropicalVacation 8mo ago • 100%
Why would he want to? The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
EntropicalVacation 8mo ago • 100%
Enjoy what you enjoy—life’s too short and there are too many other books out there to waste time on what you don’t enjoy! I have no qualms about not finishing a book, no matter how far along I’ve gotten. I’ve been known to skip to the last chapter or last few pages just to see how it ends, then move on.
On the other hand, for books that you have to read (for school, e.g.) set a goal of X pages per day, and reward yourself when you make the goal. I also find it helps to read more interactively: take notes, argue with the author, think about what you read and whether it’s total b.s. or whether there was anything, however small, of value in it.
EntropicalVacation 9mo ago • 100%
I love doilies, and this one is amazing!
EntropicalVacation 9mo ago • 100%
The Secret History by Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (no, I’m not reading anymore Donna Tartt), Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
EntropicalVacation 9mo ago • 100%
It’s an unwieldy word, which I think was a deliberate choice.
EntropicalVacation 10mo ago • 100%
I love Becky Chambers. Psalm for the Wild Built was one of my favorites from 2022.
EntropicalVacation 10mo ago • 100%
Dutch House was one of my favorite reads from 2022.
EntropicalVacation 10mo ago • 100%
I actually split between reading and listening to the audiobook. It was long either way! I didn’t care for it as much as I thought I would. The first part took me a while to get into, I loved the second part, but after ::: spoiler spoiler Maidenhair dies ::: it was all downhill.
EntropicalVacation 10mo ago • 100%
In very roughly descending order:
Auē by Becky Manawatu
Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson
Open Throat by Henry Hoke
Autumn by Ali Smith
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Home by Toni Morrison
Gnomon by Nick Harkaway
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
The Book of M by Peng Shepherd
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
The Overstory by Richard Powers
The Door by Magda Szabó
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
EntropicalVacation 10mo ago • 100%
I had a cat that was maybe 6 or 7 years old when she suddenly started having seizures. After a seizure, she’d be wobbly for a few days, then eventually back to normal… until it happened again. Vet couldn’t figure out what was going on. We decided to try to track when she had the seizures—was it when she ate something out of the ordinary, got exposed to something unusual, on a recurring schedule? That sort of thing. We quickly found out that within a day or two of giving her a dose of Frontline flea treatment (the kind you drip on the back of their neck) she’d have a seizure. We stopped giving her Frontline and she never had another seizure.
EntropicalVacation 10mo ago • 100%
It turned out beautifully!
EntropicalVacation 11mo ago • 100%
Just want to say that (a) I love the pattern and colors, and (b) it doesn’t look horribly wonky to me. Blocking might improve it, but I don’t think it needs “saving.”
A law abolishing cash bail will take effect in Illinois on Sept. 18. The change makes Illinois the first state to eliminate the practice and a nationally watched testing ground for whether such a change can work.
“The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is trying to fight back. It recently launched the Banned Book Program, granting free nationwide access to books restricted in schools or libraries. “It functions through GPS-based geo-targeting; by typing in your zip code, you are shown the complete list of titles prohibited in your area. Once you download the Palace e-reader app, these books are available to download.”
For those who’d like a little more schadenfreude.
First of all, I want to say I’m happy to see this crochet community on Lemmy, and to get the ball rolling, here’s one of my many WIPs. It uses the [Draco Shawl](https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/draco-shawl) pattern on Ravelry. It’s one of my older WIPs since the beading takes *forever.* ![](https://midwest.social/pictrs/image/e2ec8e0a-7ed6-440b-ba49-0581f7b64571.jpeg)
I’m using [LibraryThing](https://www.librarything.com/), after fleeing GoodReads a few years back, and I just learned about [BookWyrm](https://joinbookwyrm.com/). I’m interested in what others apps and sites are out there for keeping track of your books and/or to-read list, and/or reviewing and/or discussing them, and what folks think about them.
Here, I’ll get us started with a picture of one of my many WIPs. ![](https://midwest.social/pictrs/image/1949eabb-3ee5-42f4-a5d6-fe2ad2e79a88.jpeg)