RatCreature's Journal

picking at my TBR pile

Tue, 28 Dec 2021 23:36:58 GMT

With a new year approaching I once again nurse hopes that I might shrink my TBR pile rather than just constantly grow it. (I wish savings were growing like that, no worries about inflation then...)

Anyway, I thought I could crowdsource help what to pick via a ticky box poll. The order is vaguely reverse by date in my ebook collection, and a smaller final section of unread paper books that are unsorted in front of my shelves to nudge me. (I.e. physical books still in an actual pile, rather than sorted properly into a shelf despite being unread)

( poll cut for length )

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I know sex scene vocabulary is very much a case of ymmv...

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:48:41 GMT

...but why would anyone pick "spongy" to describe a penis in a sex scene? It's such an unpleasant sounding word. I associate it with mushrooms or maybe moss, not anything arousing. Granted I appreciate penises in sex scenes mostly for their narrative function, rather than their physical details, spongy or otherwise, so...

View Poll: #24628

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TBR pile decisions are hard...

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 19:01:41 GMT

There are a bunch of mysteries that I've started to read but then abandoned without any strong reason I'm aware of, besides that my reading appetite for mysteries seems to wax and wane. Recently I've had fairly good luck sticking with mysteries, and I've wondered whether I should revisit these and give them another try, but decisions are hard. So maybe my DW circle has enjoyed some of these and would nudge me to give them a second try. Hence a poll:

View Poll: mysteries I abandoned

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the catastrophe options seem to expand every day

Sun, 10 Feb 2019 20:05:42 GMT

Just now I read that according to a review of multiple studies the insects populations are collapsing even faster than the (already bad) expectations were before, which will collapse all ecosystems and our food supply fast (even faster than climate change).

And since it's been 2017 since I did the last version of this poll...

View Poll: why ratcreature should only look at pictures of fluffy baby animals, 2019 ed.

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poll inspired by unfortunate kitchen events

Sun, 11 Feb 2018 13:10:09 GMT

So that mishap where you are not attentive enough before trying to use a fairly expensive fruit and it turns out not to have fully ripened yet, and thus your fruit isn't the tasty anticipated treat, but just hard and gross and full of disappointment. Which is sadder, ending up with an unripe mango or an unripe avocado?

View Poll: Unripe fruit

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no limits to your catastrophizing choice these days...

Sat, 12 Aug 2017 00:22:54 GMT

In the little bit over a year since I last did this the news got of course even worse, and yet I still seem unable to just limit myself to looking at fluffy animal pictures.

Still with ticky boxes for everybody who can't decide what to be most anxious about:

View Poll: why ratcreature should only look at pictures of fluffy baby animals, 2017 ed.

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giving access

Wed, 04 Jan 2017 21:31:21 GMT

In general (if I don't forget) on DW I give plain access to all people who subscribe to me and give me access (which I take as request to read locked posts in return) even without being familiar with the person. I mostly use the plain access lock for RL posts and the occasional fannish frustration post/rant that doesn't need to be public, but I wouldn't mind much if it became so.

If you'd like access but I haven't given you access when you subscribed to me, you can check this poll. BTW mutual access-giving is not necessary. Also, if I you have access but would rather just see the public posts, click that option:

View Poll: managing access

In addition to the plain access-lock which equates to plain f-lock on LJ, I also have an access filter "personal posts" which I originally created for LJ, because there access and subscription aren't separate and I had friended people for reading with whom I had never even talked.

Often I use that filter for not very happy personal posts, and it is not really a reader-oriented/lurker-friendly filter, if that makes sense, i.e. more often than not I tend to be in need of internet hugs when I post to that filter. The post frequency varies widely from not used at all for months to somewhat frequent posts. Recently I haven't posted to it often. If you can see this older post about grief for example, you are on that filter. If you request access in the poll below, but I can't place your DW name, I might message you to ask how we know each other, before adding you.

View Poll: managing access

Obviously if you're content with the state of your (non-)access to my journal no responses are necessary.

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weather griping

Sat, 02 Jul 2016 10:43:26 GMT

I really hope summer will get a bit drier as it goes on. However, I'd be happy if it stayed on the cool side, because anything above 25°C makes me miserable. Though actually according to a weather press notice I just read, it turns out the average June temperature has been almost two degrees above the long term average here, but I guess it didn't feel like it because it's been much wetter than usual (135l per sqm instead of 70l per sqm).

Anyway, I feel like indulging the time honored tradition of weather griping, so have a poll:

View Poll: summer weather griping

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I ought to just stop watching the news

Wed, 15 Jun 2016 10:29:24 GMT

It's been awhile since I last did this. Unfortunately the news haven't gotten any better. Still with ticky boxes for everybody who can't decide what to be most anxious about.

View Poll: why ratcreature should only look at pictures of fluffy baby animals, 2016 ed.

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random curiosity

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 10:22:14 GMT

I enjoy looking at DIY and home-improvement tips, also I find tv shows with that sort of thing (like home makeovers with cleaning and renovating tips and such) fun to watch in the right mood, but somehow that never translates into realizing any such projects.

It's like I'm house proud in a theoretical way, in that I'm interested in knowing cleaning, renovating and decoration techniques, and even sometimes envision their application to my home, but in practice I haven't even bothered for example to replace the bare light bulbs hanging from my ceilings with proper lamps in over fifteen years now (except in my kitchen and bathroom, where I found properly placed lighting important for practical reasons).

So now I'm wondering how many among the audience of that genre are like me, and (almost) never actually apply any of the gazillion DIY tips they collect on their Pinterest board or such. hence a poll:

View Poll: house proud?

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random curiosity

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 11:08:20 GMT

When I had some dental work not too long ago (still awaiting the bill for my copayment for the new crown :( ), I noticed once again that my dentist does not use "dental dams". In fact despite having had fillings (both amalgam back in the day and composite fillings once they became available), root canals, and surgery for root tip resections with two dentists and two different dental surgeons (granted not a large sample), I've never experienced anyone using a dental dam for anything.

In fact though I have seen pictures of them online, I can't quite imagine them how they would work in practice. I read that they are supposed to keep the work area clean and dry, especially for the composite fillings, but my dentist does that with cotton wads and suction, and I've never had a composite filling fall out or anything like that, and while once or twice I've had a fixed tooth rot again, many of my composite fillings are by now lasting longer than the "average" lifetime they are said to have, so I don't think my dentist's work is particularly shoddy (though I do sometimes wonder about his approach to hygiene, because while he does wear gloves for drilling and such, he doesn't always for just checking, even though his hand is in my mouth then too).

Anyway, I have been wondering how common the use of dental dams in dental work really is, hence this poll.

View Poll: dental dams?

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random curiosity

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:59:25 GMT

It isn't all that cold here, but I dislike wearing socks indoors, and am not that fond of wearing layers constantly either, OTOH I'm not thrilled with huge heating bills and rather enjoy getting a little of my advance payments back. So winter is a time of constant compromise and dilemma. Also blankets. Unlike socks I don't mind using blankets. So now I'm wondering how cold (or comfortably warm) other people are at their place. (If it's summer right now where you are, just remember your last winter.)

View Poll: your winter heating: toasty warmth or extra sweater?

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random curiosity

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:32:56 GMT

I've been wondering about epicanthic folds after reading once again a line in an eye tutorial that they appear only on Asian eyes. I know that is not true, because my own eye corners have such a skin fold, though not an extreme one (here's a closeup photo of my own eyes, you can see the small folds on the inner corners). I realize they aren't *that* common with Caucasian eyes (a couple of times I was even teased as a kid), but obviously they happen as normal variation (and not just with genetic diseases).

View Poll: non-conformist eyes

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venting through tags, y/n?

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:50:10 GMT

View Poll: passive-aggressive tagging?

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random curiosity

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 21:15:54 GMT

Do book recommendation algorithms ever work for anyone? I mean, I've rated almost all the books I bought on Amazon in an attempt to see if this improves things, yet rarely seem the recs tempting or helpful. For one thing it insists on reccing me the n-th parts of series instead of the first, despite me not having bought the earlier ones. I'm not really interested in reading even the first of the The Wheel of Time series, let alone the 13th part, which Amazon apparently recced me due to having bought The Kingdom of Gods. Similarly I've now entered and rated quite a number of books on Goodreads, yet their recs are not all that helpful either. Admittedly sometimes books crop up that look interesting or some that I've read and liked (and just not entered), so they are not always completely wrong, but I have yet to really feel compelled to read a book from their list next. Well, at least Goodreads thinks I would like to read the first part of The Wheel of Time series (because I added LOTR) not the 13th.

View Poll: do book rec alghorithms work for you?

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curious about reader interests

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 22:17:15 GMT

I'm curious which content people are most interested in, thus a poll:

View Poll: Shared Fandoms?

Rate how interested you are in the type of post (from 0 = not interested at all to 4 = very interested), with the assumption that you are interested in the fandom for the fannish post types:

View Poll: Preferred Content?

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technology, why so difficult?

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:06:14 GMT

Is it possible on deviantArt to submit something that you stored in your scraps to a group, or is there some sort of conceptual block on that action making it impossible, due to the assumption that only polished stuff ought to be promoted in group galleries?

I'm asking because an XMFC group I'm watching has a gallery specifically to collect art meme responses, and I would like to submit mine, but because it's a meme and just quick doodles, I put it in my scraps rather than the regular gallery, as I do with all my drawbles/doodles and such on dA. I've poked around for a while now, but I can't seem to be able to submit them.

I don't want my many quick doodles totally swamp the art I put much more effort in, but I'd still like to participate in the more social, fun sharing of these. I mean, the group has a gallery just for art memes after all. So can this be achieved, or would I need to "trick" dA by creating a new regular gallery in which I put my memes, and then exclude them from "featured" and such for display purposes? That would be tedious work, and I rather only do that as a last resort.

And as I'm pondering ways how to best distribute fanart, here's a poll...

View Poll: So. Tumblr.

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13°C? seriously?

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:31:23 GMT

I know weather whining is boring, and it's not that I'd want scorching heat, but I woke up earlier during the night because I was so cold (I haven't yet caved and turned the heat on in August). So in the spirit of inquiry and commiseration, a poll:

View Poll: is your weather fulfilling its seasonal obligations?

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fanart recs

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 22:16:29 GMT

I've posted five Star Wars fanart recs in June over at fanart_recs, but I'm not sure what or even whether I'll rec in July. On one hand I feel that after nine consecutive months of diligently posting four to six fanart recs I could use a break, OTOH it is sort of a habit now, so maybe I shouldn't break it. Also it's my comm, so there's this nagging feeling that I ought to help produce content for it.

View Poll: to rec or not to rec?

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waffling

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 13:12:28 GMT

I decided my existing X-Men icons of Cyclops and Wolverine aren't really suitable for X-Men First Class, and that I needed an Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto icon. The only problem is that I'm not sure whether to icon Magneto!RatCreature with the helmet, which has the advantage of being recognizable, but otoh helmets don't work that well with the ears, and look always silly, or Erik!RatCreature, which is less easily recognized, but fits better with XMFC and whose look I prefer. So which do you like better for an icon?

( pencils sketch behind the cut )

View Poll: Erik!RatCreature or Magneto!RatCreature?

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indecisive

Mon, 02 May 2011 13:38:35 GMT

I've recced Tolkien fanart last month for fanart_recs, but haven't yet decided what I could rec in May. Thus a poll:

View Poll: what to rec?

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random curiosity

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 22:19:18 GMT

I've been wondering about carnivorous habits, and which animals people eat and which they avoid, thus a poll. (Vegetarians like me, feel free to answer for a period of your life when you ate animals. Obviously if you have never eaten any the poll is kind of moot.) For each you can pick a number from 0 to 3, where 0 = "I have never eaten this animal" (or an animal from a that group, as I bundled some), 1 = "I've tried it only once or twice", 2 = "I have been/am eating this every now and then" (e.g. animals you eat repeatedly but only on rare occasions, or as a treat), 3 = "this animal was/is a regular part of my diet".
( cut for length )

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random poll

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:47:06 GMT

Most people think chocolate and nuts go well together, but which nut do you think fits chocolate best? (Today when I decided to buy some chocolate with nuts I dithered for minutes in front of the shelf over whether I ought to go with hazelnut or almond chocolate this time.)

I realize radio buttons make this hard when like me you like many nuts in chocolate, but you'll just have to pick a favorite. (Feel free to imagine the chocolate however you like it to best compliment the nuts, i.e. if you like for example hazelnuts best in milk chocolate but almonds in dark chocolate, imagine the combination you like better and then pick the kind of nut in the poll.)

View Poll: chocolate & nuts

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random poll

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 19:24:35 GMT

Like many other people, especially those without a dish washer, I'm not fond of doing dishes, and due to me lacking in discipline the dirty ones pile up, and I get to the point where no clean plate/fork/mug... is to be found when I need such an item to prepare and eat the food I want. And yet this does not always result in me just doing the dishes. So I'm curious about others.

View Poll: (not) doing dishes, how do fellow sloths cope?

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today's random pet poll

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 20:59:07 GMT

I once again failed to convince my rats of the merits of being still to let me cuddle them for longer than three or four scritches...

View Poll: rate your pets' cuddliness...

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