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kastrel.bsky.social
Insta: kat_steiner. Oxford-based medical librarian, butler to a cat named Abby, amateur actor, folk singer, cross-stitcher. Chronically helpful; annoying people for good. She/her. 🔸10% Pledge #692 with Giving What We Can. Opinions my own.
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Me, frantically trying to make my annual leave numbers add up so I can both go on holiday and do a play before October...🤦

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Book 13 of 2025: Worlds of Exile and Illusion (three sci-fi novellas by Ursula Le Guin, two I thought were brilliant, one good). app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/1a2d...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Joining this Clarivate update... eventually. Who TF uses Webex?

submitted 3 days ago • 15 comments

Book 12 of 2025 - an art book called Faeries of the Faultlines. The art was absolutely beautiful but I wasn't personally that bothered about the writing - not that it's bad, just not my thing. app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/0fc7...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Do I know anyone on The StoryGraph (Goodreads/LibraryThing alternative)? My username is kastrel app.thestorygraph.com/profile/kast...

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

The world is burning and all I can currently offer is: this is the most powerful anti-perspirant I have ever used www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01JB1MUNI, and there was a 2024 Lancet Respiratory Medicine article saying that nasal sprays like First Defence are useful! www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2024/07...

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

I don’t know what to call this but flamboyantly evil.

submitted 5 days ago • 262 comments

Alan Moore dealing in hard truths.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Ah, the play week transition from "I definitely don't have time to do the next play, I'm taking a break," to "well, maybe I could do tech or prompt", to "well, maybe if they really *need* me..."

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Book 11 of 2025: The Great When, by Alan Moore. Mixed feelings on this one - it is very clever and interesting, but it's also quite pretentious, not an original idea, and I guessed the plot the whole way through. app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/c4c0...

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

This is apparently what it looks like to finish a language in Duolingo! In French, the last unit was also a hilarious unsubtle hint that I should take up another language...

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments

Anyone else experiencing sunshine for what feels like the first time in months, and inexplicably feeling much more cheerful than usual? Just me?

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

I'm glad that the BBC has made a podcast about the efforts to promote #F1 to women, get more women driving in other series, and F1 Academy, but I absolutely cannot stand the way the presenters (particularly Alice Powell) use "females" as a noun. The word women exists! It's not the 1970s.

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

Watching #AgathaAllAlong and was reminded of this absolutely wild book I had as a child: basically a choose your own adventure fortune telling book. The author seems to have just named it after herself as well which is...weird? As if she was famous (she wasn't). app.thestorygraph.com/books/bcfe6c...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Book 10 of 2025: Still Life by Sarah Winman. Amazing, clever, moving, beautiful. Best thing I've read in ages. app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/7b46....

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

Marvellous, not only are 3 members of the cast ill with colds, apparently there is now a stomach bug going round my office. I just want to stay healthy to put on this play!! 😬😬😷😷

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

I bet this group were very pleased about their acronym...

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments

Very much enjoyed the good cat acting in the latest Call the Midwife - you can see Nigel's little nose sniffing the fork of food that he's not supposed to want, like "actually, maybe I will lick that if you just bring it over here.."

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

Book 9 of 2025: Dying of the Light - George R. R. Martin's first novel! Proper hard sci fi from the 1970s and very good fun. app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/21e5...

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

we have been showing Star Trek to some of our dear friends who haven't seen Star Trek before, and we finally got to the place where we could show them Voyager, so I made fake AO3 pages for DS9 and Voyager to clarify the differences between them and now I share them with you, the internet

submitted 17 days ago • 10 comments

Righteous indignation as I have found *proof* that Cross Country have double booked my seat reservation on this absolutely rammed train (should be 8 carriages, only 4), something they have previously denied was possible. Receipts have been submitted for inspection.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Had some spare time before a gig yesterday in Birmingham city centre, so obviously I tried out the Library of Birmingham as a place to sit quietly for free. It was after 5pm so only offered their "Express Service". There was no info on the website about what this meant 😔 🧵

submitted 17 days ago • 3 comments

UK writers: if you haven't yet responded to the government's AI consultation (& don't feel like giving away your copyright), the @alcs-uk.bsky.social have produced some really helpful advice ⤵️ www.alcs.co.uk/news/your-ri...

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

Book 8 of 2025 - God Emperor of Didcot by Toby Frost. Had fun potential, lots of terrible puns, but overall a bit disappointing. app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/cb28...

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Thanks to @jamesbellcentral.net's latest newsletter giving me a panic attack about the end of democracy, I've made a tiny start and signed a petition to change from First Past the Post (FPTP) ers.tools/Proportional...

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments