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Welcome to #checkin for Saturday, September 27, 2025!


Good evening/afternoon/morning, everyone, and welcome to today's #checkin. It seems like I forgot to put the list with people yesterday evening! Sorry! Just finished a nice Scandinavian crime thriller about the fate of a missing teacher in a small Swedish village/town. It was really well written and really thrilling. I don't want to spoil it here, but the ending was definitely not what I expected, at least not in that way. Besides reading, I also just finished watching the first season of NCIS Origins. I've been a huge fan of the whole NCIS universe, and I really like this new and different approach, especially as its focus is on the characters and their problems/dark sides.

So did you read anything, or are you planning to read something this autumn? Or also maybe looking forward to a movie or TV series?

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Checkin Hosts, regular and occasional
@Cass
@((( David "Kahomono" Frier )))
@Muse
@Christoph S
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We hope you’ll use the hashtag to keep track of the daily post and join in if you’re not on this list. The topic is always open 💕

in reply to Christoph S

Brilliant Minds just started again. I like Zachary Quinto, so I'll watch that. Other than that, I'll watch for new books from my favorite authors and try to find good new authors.
in reply to Christoph S

Am a long time fan of Japanese monster movies...I remember watching Godzilla on NY Channel 11 in my Grandparents brownstone in Flatbush as a 9yr old. So I am looking forward to the second season of Legacy Studio's 'Monarch: Legacy of Monsters' as well as another season of Witcher - the first season without Henry Cavil and the start of the Liam Hemsworth filling in as Geralt of Rivia...we'll see if he makes the cut. I rather did like Henry in the role. (special note, in Monarch-Legacy the duo of Wyatt and Kurt Russell played the same character years apart-rather clever actually-and while it appeared the older character-Kurt- was Game Over, in fact both are being credited in the second season!)
in reply to Christoph S

I found some The Atlantic magazines from 2019 that I didn't read.
So I am reading them.
in reply to Christoph S

Oh, there's always something to read around here. Not feeling very fall-like though, with summer-like temperatures.
in reply to Christoph S

Warm here too...86 F expected.

In other news, home at last...trying to learn safe habits for navigating with the walker in some tight quarters. My older son is here to help me clean and get settled. Hoping I can make this work for a while so we get things ready for me to move to somewhere more accessible.

in reply to Christoph S

the tv powers that be just took away my last current fiction series: Alien Earth
so I'm awaiting the Fall shows, so far a mystery
I don't read books anymore, due to my eyes' rebellion -- weird since I grew up in books and spent the much greater portion of my life reading. I read articles online, but very little fiction.
in reply to Christoph S

I'm looking forward to new Charlie Stross and the third volume of The Book of Dust. There are other authors I always await: Laurie R. King's Mary Russel series, Louise Penney's Gamache. Seems all the authors I discovered in the early naughties are getting old and writing less, and I haven't yet really bonded with any of the newer ones.

As far as streaming goes, I just signed up for a 3-month starter subscription to amazon prime, and wouldn't you know it, I've already gotten about 50 dollars worth of shipping for my 24 dollar eventual expense. I've got plans to get another 50 to 100 dollars worth. I sure hope this doesn't harm Amazon in any way. I probably shouldn't behave this way. Probably nobody should behave this way.

in reply to Christoph S

I'm getting ready to go and see "One Battle After Another" in a couple of hours. I've really been looking forward to seeing it. imdb.com/title/tt30144839
in reply to Christoph S

I have to finish watching Aliens:Earth and may start watching Brillant Minds. I just finished reading Matter by Iain M. Banks. I may finally be ready to read the Culture novels!
in reply to Christoph S

I am re-reading Sinclair Lewis' "Arrowsmith" - Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1925.

(Other Sinclair Lewis books are due for a re-read: Elmer Gantry, Main Street, It Can't Happen Here [although the play is much better than the book.])

As for NCIS - for a while we considered doing a pop-up version: We'll come to your town and do "NCIS - "

Thinking of crime and places - One would be wise to avoid Cabot Cove - from the TV series (Murder She Wrote) it seems that a life insurance policy there would be very, very expensive.

in reply to Christoph S

That would be fun @Karl Auerbach, what team would you use? I'm not watching Origins as I liked through that time and I'm still bitter about NCIS:Hawai'i being cancelled.
in reply to Christoph S

Also, cancelled AppleTV+ so I guess I'm not watching Brilliant Minds🤷‍♀️
in reply to Christoph S

FWIW, I just cancelled my Disney+/Hulu/HBO Max bundle a few days ago.
in reply to Christoph S

@Cass Matter is one of the denser works. Lots more out there.
@Cass
in reply to Christoph S

I just finished the third novel by Brendan Slocumb, "Dark Maestro"
Now i'm reading non-fiction that should be fiction, but yikes "The Ft Bragg Cartel"

on another note, I received a shocking email from my sister, saying she broke her leg, and would require surgery. she asked me to get a gift card.

i said i don't do gift cards, as those companies make a lot of money off of unused cards, or time limits. I offered to help her, if she'd provide her account information.

in reply to Christoph S

That gift card stuff is usually a scam! Don't fall for it.
in reply to Christoph S

consumer.ftc.gov/node/77253
in reply to Christoph S

I'm currently reading Stories Are Weapons by Annalee Newitz. Newitz presents a lot of information on how corporates have been using psyops techniques to manipulate US people and influence electoral outcomes, particularly in the sphere of social media but not only. They are also a fan of the Fediverse!
in reply to Muse

@Muse the book i'm reading mentions psyops campaigns ...
@Muse
in reply to Christoph S

Just Finishehttps://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/3183101#d
- "This Delicate Murder" by Henrietta Penelope "Penny" Mercer (pen name of Jack Vahey) Originally published 1933. Finished on 9/24 (Wed). 4 Stars out of 5. A good book of the period, though more in the end a procedural rather than a cozy murder mystery or an action tale. The final solution of the method comes down to a property of period firearms and how an English "weekend shooting party" carries out a fall bird hunt on a country estate.

About to start :

  • "One By One They Disappeared" By Moray Dalton (Katherine Mary Deville Dalton Renoir) originally published in 1929. Started on 9/26 (Fri).
in reply to Christoph S

@Muse have not read it yet, but Annalee also has a new novella (I think) called Automatic Noodle.
@Muse
in reply to Christoph S

@Jodi I'm waiting for my turn to read that from the library!
@Jodi
in reply to Christoph S

Now I've requested it too! It's not in our catalogue yet
in reply to Christoph S

I will keep Paramount+ a couple more weeks until I've seen more of the TVING productions from Korea. That is all breathtaking insane stuff in the harshest of settings. Just watched Bargain.
in reply to Christoph S

Side note:

I often see things like Rod's "Reading now:" blurb above, but with no image, although it looks like there should be one. Is this some kind of Diaspora situation, or perhaps some kind of timeout that gives me text but not images? Or something?

in reply to Christoph S

According to the 'inspector' there is no hidden code behind "Reading Now"
I usually see that when I paste a 'non viable' link or file type in markdown
in reply to Christoph S

FWIW, I do see something in Rod's post, but it is very blurry and looks like an enlarged preview thumbnail. Can't make out a thing, not even if it is a book or what:
in reply to Christoph S

I just see a missing image icon
in reply to Christoph S

I was wrong earlier about inspector not finding anything. I do know that I get blurred images like what Carsten posted when I have not allowed some scripts from a page. The WaPo and NYT frequently use some sort of tracking overlay on images that distort them if trackers don't "work".
in reply to Christoph S

Ah, blocking. Yes, that makes sense. I block a lot of shit.