Author: tozka

Late 30's former librarian traveling the world as a catsitter. More about me here!

📖 reading log: moby-duck by donovan hohn

(This post will be updated as I read the book! This is partly a test also of how my various syndication/cross-posting plugins will work when I edit/update a post on mobile, lol.)

Book Info

Genre: Nonfiction, Popular Science

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

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

Started reading: July 29, 2025

Finished reading: tbd

Reading Updates

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

Continue reading “📖 reading log: moby-duck by donovan hohn”

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.

🌟 All LFLs Visited

weeknotes (july 20-26)

Gotta get back to doing these! So:

Life Updates

Mostly I’ve been busy settling into my newest housesit and sorting through my new-to-me thrift store clothes (DW). I’ve got everything washed, but unfortunately the homeowners didn’t leave me a lot of hangers so half the clothes are in a pile in the closet (and I don’t have a dresser, lol). One of the downsides of nomadic living, I suppose…

🐈‍⬛ Me and the cats are slowly getting used to each other. (See previous post [access-locked] for more info!) They’re all picky about wet food flavors and they have different flavors they’re picky about, which is irritating. One cat loves salmon, the other wants tuna and the third prefers chicken bits. Luckily they all eat the dry food, so if one doesn’t finish the wet food they can supplement with other stuff. Silly kitties!

Media Consumption

🎧 I’ve been catching up on Cruising, a queer documentary podcast that this season is focusing on interviews with lesbians and queers doing amazing things in history. Love it! (More recommended podcasts here btw.)

📺 I watched all three episodes of Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross, which I wrote about here (DW). Also been re-watching Midsomer Murders (the early seasons) which is nice to have running in the background while doing other stuff.

📖 I finished A Girl’s Guide to India (written about here / DW) on the bus from Chicago to Ann Arbor, and haven’t started a new book yet though I’ve been carrying my Kindle around from room to room in hopes of actually using it.

I HAVE been re-reading some favorite fanfics, including this amazing IT Chapter 2 longfic.

Food & Dining

🛒 Did a big grocery order because I had a $10 coupon AND a 30% off discount, so I got enough stuff to (I think) last me about a month, with some supplemental purchases throughout, for about $70 INCLUDING the tip. Was shopped and delivered by a very nice older lady who knew to look at expiration dates AND check for rotten fruit.

Bonus: Meijer grocery prices here in Michigan are fab, especially compared to Oregon/Illinois. Example: one dozen eggs under $3, even on the delivery app!

🫖 This house has an electric kettle, so I can finally make tea again. (I hate microwaving water and I’m too lazy to boil it on the stove for one cup.)

I bought a huge box of PG Tips when I was catsitting in England earlier this year, and I think I have enough to last maybe through the end of August. Imported PG Tips prices are nuts (even excluding potential import fees), so I’ll have to start rifling through my hosts’ cabinets soon for replacement tea. ;D

Website Updates

Did lots of fun things on my website this week! Some highlights:

  • Started building a Wikipedia Pages page, to keep interesting articles
  • Joined a bunch of fanlistings, especially in the movies/tv shows section
  • Re-organized the recipes page, and added a biscuits recipe I found on a Clabber Girl baking powder container. I have a lot of other food package recipes to add this week!
  • Also changed the blog layout and made a header, so it looks a bit nicer/easier to read. And I added a thing at the bottom so people can email replies, if they want, or else do a regular comment or even a Webmention! Also set up ActivityPub so new entries are sent to the Fediverse, where of course people can respond (and responses are imported as comments, very cool!).

Looking Forward

This week I’m going to work on my website more (recipes, more fic recs), as well as join a few more webrings and site directories. And I’d like to email someone in response to THEIR post/website!

I’d also like to go out into town and visit some thrift stores. I don’t need new clothes (lol) but I’m casually looking for other stuff– something I can make into a laundry line, a backpack, perhaps a new travel purse, that sort of thing.

📺 watched: solo traveling with tracee ellis ross

🎬 Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross. Tracee Ellis Ross is packing her bags and inviting audiences to join her solo trips to experience the joy of solo travel. 🔗

I kept seeing clips from TER’s TikTok and thought it looked cute, so I’m watching it! Three episodes, set in Morocco, Mexico and Spain. She’s very bougie and stylish, and self-aware about it, which is fun. Very obvious product placement, which I suppose is how it’s making money (besides the ads).

Watching on Roku Channel, currently halfway through the first episode.

Edit: OH! It’s her own beauty line. So she’s promo-ing (and probably paying for?) herself.

Edit 2: Episode 1 was fun, she went out to the market and the desert and did shopping, etc.

Episode 2, Mexico, was slightly forgettable because she spent it at a resort. It did look very relaxing.

Episode 3, Spain, was exciting because she got food poisoning (from airport food?) and was stuck indoors. The last scene was her having a great meal, where she then had a conversation with other female travelers at a restaurant who said basically “we saw you sitting on your own and thought that it wasn’t good for you.”

I suppose they’re the type of people who’ve never gone someone alone and would never even think of doing it– not even in their own home town. Tracee gently corrected them and explained that not only was she used to it, but she enjoys it. You could see they were full of disbelief, but also they acknowledged their daughters would travel solo happily.

It just makes me feel so sad for them. It’s not that I think everyone should be able to travel the world alone for months on end (like I do), necessarily, but to not even think that someone (a woman) could do have dinner alone and NOT be depressed or sad or lonely…? It’s just so out of their worldview, they were gobsmacked.

Overall more of a show if you’re interested in TER herself (she talks about her POV a lot, of course), or like watching people wearing great outfits in foreign locations. Not so much a “travel show” where you learn specific destination stuff.

📺 2025 Watched List

morality police, flipphones, aging solo

Happy Friday! I’ve got another linkspam post for y’all, made of a combo of really old tabs and some new stuff. I’ll get down to a reasonable amount of tabs eventually…

First up, some major shenanigans are happening on itch.io, the indie game/book/zine platform. Basically, a Christian morality group (in Australia) put pressure on itch.io’s payment processors to block “NSFW” (including SFW LGBTQ content) from being listed on the website.

Creators have been shadowbanned (deindexed) and in some cases removed entirely from the platform, with no warning. The Transfeminine Review has an overview of what happened, including specific titles that got removed.

HTML Day 2025 is coming up on August 2nd, and there’s lots of in-person events happening around the world! If you’re interested in making something with HTML in a group setting, check it out!

A few zines that popped up on my radar recently: The FlipPhone Manifesto (in 6 colors!), Sick of Spotify?, and Birds of a Feather Destroy Flock Together.

Also here’s a bunch of interesting DIY zines from Iffy Books, including a Printable Diceware List for generating secure passphrases using 6-sided dice. They (Iffy Books) also host a Neo-Luddite book club each month which has an online version; the book club website has some great resources linked as well.

Marginalia Search’s Explore page is a fun way to find new websites. Here’s some I found: MapHistory.info, a cartography website maintained by a former Map Librarian (since 1996!); CopyFree.org, an alternative to copyright/copyleft licenses; CryptoParty.in, a community focused on digital privacy and not cryptocurrency.

How I Experience the Web Today highlights exactly the trap we’ve gotten into between trying to make money online and trying to use the internet for anything, well, useful.

This Terms and Conditions Game is a bit of a hellscape but also quite fun.

An interesting discussion on Ask MetaFilter about how to age successfully solo (minimal family support). Some suggestions are to be active in your community in a hobby or area you enjoy, stay physically active, and prep your living space with accessibility stuff.

Anybody up for a blogging challenge? 100 Day to Offload is one, with the goal to publish 100 posts on your personal blog in a year.

Need more stuff to read? I’ve compiled all previous linkspam posts here on my website, or you can explore the linkspam tag to find more.

thrifting in the midwest

This past week has been very busy and very fun. I spent the weekend between catsits in Milwaukee and Chicago, mostly just wandering around looking at interesting buildings…and thrifting!!

Milwaukee (and Chicago) have AMAZING thrift stores! Even the Goodwills have great stuff for decent prices– compared to California Goodwill prices, anyway. And the selection is really good! I did quite a bit of shopping.

I’m currently working on building up a wardrobe of mostly-natural fibers (linen, silk, merino wool, a little cotton) because I find them most comfortable to travel in. I’m also determined to not buy any new things this year (except for stuff like toothpaste), so I really wanted to find thrifted items.

Unfortunately, most of the stores I’ve been to this year have been sparse on either fabric, size, or style choices, but in Milwaukee and Chicago I somehow hit the jackpot. I didn’t particularly look for name brands, but I’m familiar with the ones that do linen/silk/whatever so that’s what I ended up with more of. I made sure to stick with either 100% natural fabric, or blend with other natural fabric (so like linen/cotton and not linen/modal).

images in above graphic stolen from various online listings so I don’t have to drag my camera out, etc.

My haul:

  • Cashmere/silk blend pashmina
  • 3 sleeveless linen tops (Karen Kane, Jones & Co., J. Crew)
  • Pure J. Jill linen vest
  • Eileen Fisher silk top (with a weird collar that I don’t like, so I’ll be selling this)
  • Sanctuary linen t-shirt
  • Soft Surroundings cotton t-shirt (I thought I put this one back lmao)
  • Eileen Fisher silk long-sleeve shirt
  • Banana Republic merino wool cardigan
  • Eileen Fisher linen long cardigan
  • Christian Siriano linen/cotton blend trousers
  • Columbia windbreaker/raincoat
  • Coldwater Creek “denim” blazer (feels way lighter and foldable/packable than regular denim)
  • Keds sneakers (white)

I also got a book (travel memoir set in India) for $2!

Total cost: roughly $100. If I’d bought these things new I’d definitely have spent closer to $500-700, if not more! Yay, thrifting!

As a bonus, linen and silk pack down very small, so I think I’ll be able to fit more clothes into my suitcase than I currently have with my mostly-cotton/polyester clothes. And they’re lighter than cotton, too, so maybe I’ll ease up on some luggage weight as well!

I’m not 100% sure I’ll be bringing everything with me on my next leg, but I’m going to be wearing and testing these things this month to see how I like them. I may also be dying a few pieces as I don’t like the original color and luckily natural fibers dye well.

In other clothing news: I finally ditched the trail runners I’ve been struggling to wear comfortably for 2 years. I think they were meant more for actual running, and not just walking around a city for 5 hours. They constantly make my feet/legs hurt and I hated to wear them.

I’m currently just going around in my Teva sandals (super comfy) and once it hits winter temps again I’m tempted to just put on a pair of wool socks and call it good.

The new-thrifted shoes (white Keds) are fine for short walks but I got them mostly for style/photos– the trail runners make me look like I was going hiking up a mountain every day and tbh I’m just not that outdoorsy. The new shoes, plus the new clothes, should move my “look” closer to an urban setting, which is where I mostly travel anyway. I figure if and when I need actual hiking shoes, I can borrow some.

reading wednesday

2025 Reading Log | 50/200 yearly goal (+9 from last update)

I drafted this last week and then forgot to post it! So, rapid-fire book thoughts:

First up is the Tarot Sequence books 1-3 by K.D. Edwards (titles: The Last Sun, The Hanged Man, The Hourglass Throne) which is a queer paranormal/fantasy series with romance and a bit of mystery. I really enjoyed these books, as they all have a sort of found family quality to them that I love. The main plot is basically the MC gaining personal power back after a traumatic event as a teen (murder/SA), with magical shenanigans. The author is currently writing the next few books and I look forward to picking them up once they get released.

Then I read two books in the Tithenai Chronicles by Foz Meadows (titles: A Strange and Stubborn Endurance and All the Hidden Paths), a queer fantasy romance which I LOVED! A whole lot! The first book is about an arranged marriage between two people from different cultures, so there’s fun cultural stuff to get through. Also political intrigue!

The second book (with the same people) has more political intrigue and also murder attempts, and while I enjoyed it as well I did think the personal developments sort of backslid from the first book just a bit. Also tbh I didn’t like side characters with the intense BDSM relationship. But overall I liked this series and I’m definitely going to be moving the other FM books up on my reading list.

Another banger: Yield Under Great Persuasion by Alexandra Rowland. Oh my GOD I loved this book! Another queer fantasy romance, because it’s my fav genre, with an interesting fantasy setting. But the focus is on the characters and not necessarily the magic/setting.

Several scenes made me laugh so hard I had to take a break to recover. I really liked how the MC and his love interest were stupid in different ways, and how they worked through their problems together (sometimes by just screaming at each other).

Then I have a few books I read on long bus rides between cities (I’m in Ann Arbor now, btw!). I read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott on the bus between St. Paul and Milwaukee. It’s a sort of how-to writing book but I was more interested in the memoir bits.

Lamott is a funny writer without going over-the-top, and I enjoyed this book enough that I’m interested in reading her other memoirs. I’d gotten this book from a Little Free Library so I dropped it off at a hostel bookshelf to pass it on to another reader.

Then on the bus between Chicago and Ann Arbor I finished A girls’ guide to India by Louise Wates, a fun book that’s a mix of practical (and detailed) advice about traveling in India and travel memoir. I have a slightly older version so it may be a bit outdated by now, but I still really enjoyed it and I’m sure many of the tips will be useful when I visit India myself.

I paid slightly too much for this at a used bookstore in Milwaukee so I’m keeping it for my collection and will be dropping it off at storage when I visit it in the fall.

Oh, and I also read The Miracle of Morning Pages by Julia Cameron which is a sort of supplement to the Artist’s Way, which I’m trying (and already failing) to do. It’s basically a Q&A about her morning pages idea and it’s a little hilarious because in the main book she says there’s no rules, and then in this book she makes a bunch of rules. *shrug emoji*

punk 101, star trek web clique, business borg

Hi, happy Friday! Here’s some interesting links that have been lurking in my tab collection (some of them since MAY):

Here’s a bookmarklet for copying IMDB info for quick updates or review posts or what have you. It ends up looking like this:

🎬 Cold Comfort Farm: Directed by John Schlesinger. With Eileen Atkins, Kate Beckinsale, Sheila Burrell, Stephen Fry. A recently orphaned young woman goes to live with eccentric relatives in Sussex, where she sets about improving their gloomy lives. 🔗

Cute!

National Parks Travelers Club is for people who love visiting US nat’l parks! They have meet-ups and stuff too, super fun!

Punk 101 Masterlist which links to various things that may interest punks (or those who admire punk ethics), including zines!

I’ve never eaten acorns and haven’t particularly thought of doing so before, but if you’re in the right part of the world you can apparently do just that. Here’s a guide for collecting and processing edible acorns from Edgewood Nursery.

Wikimedia Commons has a photo competition ongoing through July 31st. Basically they’re looking for photos of natural protected areas from various countries (full list on the site) and you can win a bit of money if your photo is chosen as the best.

I really enjoy Sacha Judd’s newsletter, “what you love matters,” which focuses on online culture– but the fun stuff! Basically it’s just a collection of interesting links and fun personal updates. It’s hosted on Buttondown, so if you don’t want another email coming to your inbox you can sub via RSS (which is what I did).

Here’s a Star Trek-themed web clique to join if you have a personal website! It doesn’t have to be a Star Trek website.

An excellent article about AI’s impact on culture: Generative AI and the Business Borg aesthetic by Tracy Durnell:

‘Why am I naming this after the Borg? Like Star Trek’s Borg, this is an aesthetic rooted in extractive consumption, assimilationist dominance, neo-colonial expansionism, self-righteous conviction, reductionist thinking, and proclamations of inevitability. It idolizes technology, often inspired by older science-fiction, and draws on cyberpunk aesthetics. The Silicon Valley Collective values groupthink and believes themselves superior to “the other.”’

This short documentary from Maximilien Van Aertryck and Axel Danielson via the New York Times has been making the rounds lately: Did the Camera Ever Tell the Truth? | Death of a Fantastic Machine which sounds like it’s a history of the camera but is really about how we interact with media (including AI images).

Need more stuff to read? I’ve compiled all previous linkspam posts here on my website, or you can explore the linkspam tag to find more.

5 things is a post

1. Had an awful dream about my gums/teeth where basically I would need surgery to fix whatever was wrong– I never have medical stress dreams EXCEPT about my teeth, which is very annoying because it’s always some exaggeration of something that could legit go wrong. I think my main issue right now is gum recession, probably because I keep sleeping with my mouth open which dries my gums out. So I’m going to find some mouth tape and see if that helps.

2. I found some great conductor POV train videos in the UK on Youtube. These are (I think) tourist train routes, so the focus is on beautiful landscapes and such which is more interesting than the warehouse views you usually see.

3. I also really like watching “walk around town” videos, especially in tourist destinations. It gives me more of an idea of what a place is like and whether I’d actually enjoy visiting it, or if it’s way too crowded and chaotic and I’d rather just avoid it. Like, Capri is beautiful but it’s practically wall-to-wall tourists so idk if it’ll be on my to-visit list.

4. My old iPod battery is finally kicking the dirt, as it’s charging but not showing that it’s charging. I’ve resisted opening it and replacing things because a) it’s hard to crack this one open and b) I’d want to replace the harddrive as well and that costs $$, so I’m hoping it can hang on for a bit longer so I can maybe source some discounted parts on eBay.

5. Currently reading the second book in KD Edwards’ Tarot Sequence and really enjoying it, though it DOES have a lot of (mostly off-page) trauma happening to a lot of characters, including the protagonist, which is tough to read. But I like the mix of fantasy and mystery (with a bit of romance) and the writing is very good. And it’s queer! Yay!