Before & After & Inbetween

IT's extremely quiet here by now.
Of the blogs I follow, there were zero posts in the last quarter of a year.
A few communities still have weekly posts, but sadly none of the interesting ones.
I may have to spend more time looking for new ones...

Editing my private website to reflect the changes in prefered social networks proved to be even more of a slog. The software I use for it has made some changes for "easier use", which now prevents me from using different footers on different parts of the site - but I have black (general content) and white (stories) pages, and having a black footer on a white page (or vice versa) looks ugly! I may end up having to redo the whole thing once I come up with an efficient way to do it.

I decided to use this blog a lot more next year, so let's start early with that, shall we?
2024 is still six days to go, but here I am. :-)

Changes during 2024 (part 1)

Spotify to Tidal:

This is the most recent change. Spotify crossed the "has to go" enshittification threshold a week ago, when I first needed fifteen minutes on their crappy app to find the christmas music playlist I made last year and then discovered that half of the songs on it were either missing or replaced by "suggestions" of elevator music. Then there was this blog post by Cory Doctorow that linked me to an article about Spotify's muzac side-gig on Harper's (explains a lot, really!), plus their abysmal paying of the artists (think 227 streams for 1 Dollar [source]).
So I canceled my abo (effective Jan 2, 2025 - after which that account will be deleted) and looked into alternative services: Deezer, Tidal, and Napster. I didn't consider Apple (I'm on Android and Apple doesn't play nice outside its sandbox) or Youtube (Google is unreliable when it comes to continuing services) and Amazon is so close to the enshittification threshold by now that I certainly won't take any new business there. Deezer and Tidal have both intuitive apps and all my must-have favs.
I'm now on Tidal, of the two, they pay the artists better (80 streams vs 157 for 1 USD) and I liked their app a tad better. I didn't use their transfer service for playlists and such, since Spotify made a mess out of my lists anyway and I prefer listening to albums. For that I already spotted two new ones from "Two Steps From Hell" that I never found on Spotify and the audio quality is superb even on my tinny kitchen speaker.
Also, their themed playlists, something I avoided at all costs on Spotify in the end, are a positive surprise. Starting the "Rock Christmas" playlist (I needed a soundtrack on short notice yesterday) with "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl is certainly a bold choice and I was halfway through the list before one of the ubiquitous jingles showed up (Wonderful Christmastime by Paul McCartney). And there are a lot of songs on that list I never heard before. Wow.
If you like podcasts and audiobooks along with your music, you'll probably want to look into Deezer, but if it's music in superb audio quality: have a look at Tidal. I'm certainly positively impressed at this point.

Twitter to Bluesky and Mastodon

My Twitter handle (AKK666AKK) was unused and the account locked since EM bought the company and put enshittification on speed dial.
In November 2024, I deleted it for good. I started accounts on Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky - and found myself using Bluesky (AKK666) and Mastodon (AKK666) the most, with Bluesky being mostly books, fan activities, art, cats and plants, and commentary in English, whereas Mastodon is German everday talk and science. More to Threads later.

Facebook, Instagram, Threads:

I stopped using these cold Turkey a couple weeks ago, when they demanded that I as a EU customer (a) confirm again that I'm fine with being ad-tracked and (b) get unskippable auto-play ads that are so much fun on a commuter train in the morning in my feed if I don't pay through my nose. Nope. Nope. Nope-ty-nope!
The accounts still exist, the apps are still on my phone - because I enjoy seeing the desperate notifications of "you missed this..." and "look at our crap..." that are increasingly off the mark regarding my interests (so much for their algorithm *eg*)
So, if you want to stay in contact with me, find me on Bluesky as AKK666 or here on this blog. :-)

There's more to come, but this post is certainly long enough by now.
Feels good to post in a format I'm atuned to. Verbose text. ;-)

Dear all,

as you maybe (not) noticed, the last BAUplan update is from August, reporting on a required change of perspective. Unfortunately, soon after my real life also insisted on such a change as the university decided after 14 years not to extend my contract past the current project. Hence, instead of writing I ended up job hunting.
Yesterday, I received - and accepted - a job offer for a position at a federal institute. :D

Now I have at least the rest of the month free for (a) calming my frayed nerves from the last months and (b) writing TBX. So, if the aftermath of the stress doesn't get the better of me, expect updates!

current chapter word count: 6823 (9/16 pages in continuous text; one gap before this scene, hence...)
scene written today: on the hunt
scene completed? not yet
scene to be written next: closer to home
character learning about "normal" retiree shenanigans in Tokyo: Seishiro
character reconsidering his options: also Seishiro
research of today: distance between Tama, Tokyo and Gero, Gifu Prefecture; distance between Tama, Tokyo and Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, as the shikigami flies and by train; toll road operations in Japan (not needed); river flooding in Tokyo in y2k (yes, but six months too late for the story)
author's comment: this is one of the 'mechanical' scenes that read "meh" and everything is figured out and the text tightened accordingly. Let's hope that happens soon!

quote of the day:
“Keep the file, but exclude her from the immediate list,” Seishiro decided. “Move the other two up to prime targets. You usually don’t send a tatarigami across downtown without it being noticed. I need full files on all three in thirty minutes, and the address in Otsuka right now.”

current chapter word count: 5324 (9/13 pages in continuous text)
scenes written today: Yimura's office, sensing the kill, about Hokuto (was: realization), report writing
scenes completed? you wish!
scenes to be written (next-ish): is it always like this?, working with Subaru, tatarigami mistress confrontation
character admitting to himself that he does exactly what his elders fear he does: Subaru
character finally getting recognized as what she was: Hokuto
characters embarrassed by her office size: Yimura
person who wishes to have more time for this: the author.

quote of the day:
“If it helps, the tatarigami would have killed Hasegawa without the active protection charm. Something I could only offer because I knew you’d be on the case immediately.”
Seishiro nodded. “Put that in your report. I’ll add a risk assessment to mine about what the tatarigami would have caused had it broken its tether.”
“Do we know its tether?” Subaru asked.
“Destroying Hasegawa.” Seishiro snorted. “My client was rather vocal about it.”

current chapter word count: 4642 (9/11 pages in continuous text)
scenes written today: Window [censored], Risk Assessment, Shisa approval & risqué and risk
scenes completed? Window was tweaked, RA and Shisa are more fleshed out, but not yet complete, R&R is almost complete, but all of them need more preparation in the still missing events beforehand that have been partially outlined today, but still aren't written.
scenes to be written next: is it always like this?, working with Subaru, tatarigami mistress confrontation, sensing the kill, realization
character not paying attention in his meeting because of underwear in his pocket: Seishiro
character deeply uncomfortable because of a missing piece of underwear: Subaru
character wondering about public transport usage: Seishiro
research for today: lines of sight between Kokyo, the Imperial Guards HQ, and Sakura Enterprises' location; building shadows in Tokyo in May at approx. 17:30; distance range of military grade binoculars

author's comment:
I originally planned to have the first touch of the Ijyeun thread in this part, but it increasingly looks that it will end up in the next part. There's so much going on already and window [censored] & co further expanding / complicating matters that it's either going to be twice the size it was supposed to be or going to be horribly cluttered. Both options are not appealing.

quote of the day:
“Shiibatani is probably furthering his education with binoculars.” Another stroke. “Right now.”

current chapter word count: 3652 (9/9 pages continuous text)
scenes written today: tracking down Subaru, talking shop
scenes completed? yes.
scenes to be written next: Yimura wondering about the weird phone requests, Seishiro on the job, Subaru back in Kasumigaseki, Akechi-interim
character getting a verbal case report: Seishiro
character risking more because of the OMR: Subaru
research of the day: electronic car lock systems built in the 1990s; parking options near Chofu station

quote of the day:
"It’s Yimura’s first day, and I better have a word with Orito-kun.”
“He might be too busy for that. I demanded him to restore the data or personally report to our respective ministries about its loss.” Seishiro’s smile had a distinct edge. “Last time I saw him, he was frantically talking on the phone for a change.”

current chapter word count: 2531 (6/6 pages continuous text)
scenes written today: "are you kidding me?!"
scenes completed? yes.
scenes to be written next: tracking down Subaru
character having a temper: Seishiro
character having a bad day: Sumeragi Orito
characters ordered to bear witness: Namane and Yimura
research of the day: public transport and expressway connections between Tama New Town and Kasumigaseki, family names in Tokyo

quote of the day 1:
“I do not contact a client, Orito-kun,” Seishiro reminded him.
“I don’t see how excessive information about the neighborhood and living circumstances will help with that. I—”
“Do you think you will leave this building if I explain that to you?”

quote of the day 2:
“They deleted four person days of work for an unclosed case. Let them realize what that means before we get a file consisting of ‘Suzuki in Tokyo’.”

current chapter word count: 1608 (3/5 pages continuous text)
scenes written today: Tama New Town case, "Are you kidding me?!"
scenes completed? Tama New Town case (at least Subaru's part in it)
character being glad for cheap tea: Subaru
character about to learn more about 1970s car racing anime than he ever wanted to know: Seishiro
research for today: spiritual concepts of tea (not tea leaves or tea ceremony), tatarigami and noryo definitions

quote of the day:

"That was one of the two people not to piss off in this business." He heard Namane saying behind him.
"Who's the other one?" Subaru's secretary asked quietly.
"Your boss--" The door closed.

current chapter word count: 900 (hopefully more to come this weekend)
scenes written today: Tama New Town case
scenes completed? you wish!
character musing about cramped flats & mecha anime parodies: Subaru
character who ought to carry a phone: also Subaru
research for the day: Toei animation productions in the 1970s

quote of the day:
“Sakura Enterprises.”
Subaru pressed his hand over his free ear to block some of the noise. “Namane-san? This is Sumeragi Subaru. The job at Toei apartments is partially your business. Somebody just sicced a tatarigami on my client.”

Work life basically eats up my time since March - and that will likely last into Autumn, but I'm determined to squeeze in writing time at weekends - if only to keep my sanity...
...not sure what it says about my sanity that I have to write about carnivorous cherry trees to keep it. ;-)