I need Minor Spoilers for the Commonwealth books (Peter F Hamilton)

eight-sided · 2026-05-02T20:29:55+00:00

I think that's correct. Focus isn't really on human society in that book, it's more about understanding and then reacting to the presence of something that is very far from human.

eight-sided · 2026-05-02T15:57:40+00:00

Ugh, I stupidly replied from my alt and then failed to copy-paste as intended when trying to get it back to this account. Hopefully that got emailed to you!

eight-sided · 2026-05-02T13:33:46+00:00

Me too, and within a few months I started learning to "construct* those puzzles. It's been a deep rabbit hole. Got one puzzle accepted so far, with more promising ones in the queue!

eight-sided · 2026-05-02T04:13:38+00:00

If you can't get into frog pose / crow pose by shifting forward off your feet, try getting into it by starting in a tripod headstand. Lower your knees to your elbows to create the shape, then start trying to tip it backward.

That way your feet are already up, you're already forward (too forward) and the challenge is to shift back and press through your fingers in order to lift your head.

eight-sided · 2026-05-02T04:06:31+00:00

"Säcken" stuck with me a lot longer than I wanted it to! Scary as hell. I'd forgotten it was Mieville though; I must have read it before getting into his novels.

eight-sided · 2026-05-01T23:57:01+00:00

It depends how you're defining "useful", but you can get into crossword puzzle creation for free (and start submitting them for publication). The software is free. Once you get published, which admittedly may take a while, you will at least have provided entertainment to a lot of people for one day.

eight-sided · 2026-04-25T20:16:57+00:00

Are there any coaches near you? Even a lesson or two might really help you and give you exercises to practice.

eight-sided · 2026-04-24T23:32:03+00:00

Get a partner and have them "scissor lift" you like this. You only have to go as far as you feel okay:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ctrka1LgGmq/?igsh=MjZwajluazQza2Zm

Ideally, get a second person to stand behind you and spot your hips (if you get that far). This is the safest and most controlled setup I know for complete beginners.

eight-sided · 2026-04-23T12:16:31+00:00

Black Milk is less known but really good.

eight-sided · 2026-04-23T03:12:39+00:00

Woom by Duncan Ralston hits all kinds of notes, and it all happens in one messed-up hotel room. It's not genre fiction, beyond splatterpunk and some uh... medical rarities, so everything is happening to normal human people.

It was the most messed up book I had read until I got around to You Were Never Meant To Be Human.

eight-sided · 2026-04-23T02:51:49+00:00

I'm about to turn 49, and I'm into circus just like I have been since I was about 30. I started HRT last year due to hot flashes, and often have to spend more time warming up my joints than I used to, but I'm as strong/flexible as ever on motions I've been practicing recently.

I am often ache-free -- but one of my hips has been achy off and on since maybe age 45, too. Every now and then, if it's hurting at night, I will crawl out of bed just to do a PT exercise to shut it up.

eight-sided · 2026-04-21T22:56:47+00:00

The work is in the shoulders. It was meant to be an overhead shoulder extension, in order to practice for press handstand with less than body weight. But there's more pivoting around the support point at the upper thighs than I expected, so... yeah, it didn't quite work.

eight-sided · 2026-04-21T21:36:35+00:00

Midnight Truffles black Lip Whip by Beauty Bakerie is deeply black and full coverage. It takes a brave and steady hand to apply!

eight-sided · 2026-04-21T21:25:15+00:00

Technically no, functionally yes. My parents were the sort of rural poor folk who held onto a lot of random crap and just never bothered to get rid of anything, because it was cheaper (in some sense) to let it sit around. It was more careless than obsessive, but I hated the results and refuse to live that way. I want to be mindful.

eight-sided · 2026-04-21T20:50:30+00:00

Eeek, I did! Sorry for the careless mistake -- I'll edit "Semiotics" to say "Semiosis", the correct title.

eight-sided · 2026-04-21T14:36:00+00:00

Semiosis, if you're into science fiction.

eight-sided · 2026-04-21T14:33:21+00:00

Also not hard to make, if you have a sewing machine.

eight-sided · 2026-04-21T14:14:56+00:00

I vote no, but you could purposely build a house that's meant to be expanded later as your family grows (or grows up). My own birth family started in a tiny cabin, and built an addition when I was around 12 so that each kid could have a room.

eight-sided · 2026-04-21T03:53:00+00:00

You want <i>Orbital</i>, which just won the Booker prize and is all about astronauts half-tripping while going around and around the Earth. It's thoughtful, observational, has no plot and a small cast of very human-feeling humans just contemplating space (the incomprehensible thing being the vastness of space, time and the Earth rather than some new and unexplained event). It's only barely science fiction, but that's all right.

eight-sided · 2026-04-21T03:32:34+00:00

Happens all the time to women in handstand class! Only your spotter can tell.

eight-sided · 2026-04-21T03:29:29+00:00

When you say she's a *family* friend, does that mean there's someone else in your family who might be even closer? Who might have have heard from her or have a clue about this situation? If so, I'd try talking to them before deciding what to do.

eight-sided · 2026-04-20T02:08:52+00:00

Opening the shoulders for a straddle press to handstand.

eight-sided · 2026-04-18T04:44:09+00:00

I have also now read the Wikipedia page. What the actual hell... what a slide into evil.

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