Keep Hoping Machine Running

Fandom: Supergirl
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Supergirl
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: drawing/painting (not sure whether digital)
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery:

heyyouhai

Why this piece is awesome: This picture is pure, uncomplicated joy. <3

Link: The sky ain’t even the limit

torachan

1. The city fireworks show was tonight and it was sooooooo loud and really scared the kitties, but they've all come out of hiding now and seem to be back to normal. I gave them lots of treats when they finally came out.

2. McDonald's has these really tasty blueberry cream pies right now. Carla loves the strawberry ones, too, and has gotten them a bunch, but while I thought those were okay, I wasn't super into them. But these blueberry ones are so good! And it's weird, because I usually like strawberry more than blueberry, but idk. The blueberry one is so much better.

3. Everybody loves this box so much. It's got nice flaps to make you feel hidden, and rustly paper inside to play with. Just the best box. Three out of three kitties recommend.

Trump's lies.

A guide on avoiding cultural appropriation.

The word 'woman' does not appear in the Senate bill except to talk about abortion or work requirements.

kindkit

( Under the cut )

The Klondike kickback -- how the Senate bill spares Alaska on Medicaid but screws blue states. And for your reference, who wins and who loses with the Senate "health care" bill.

The silence of the lambs -- are Protestants concealing a Catholic-size sex-abuse scandal? I wouldn't be at all surprised.

The far-right endgame -- a suppressive oligarchy. Very Randian, and I mean Rand Corporation as well as Ayn Rand.

It's been a day and it hasn't stopped.

There are two farmers markets locally that we go to; the SU goes to the one by the railroad tracks with the good meats, and I sometimes go to the one downtown (locally, not DC), which has good veggies and fruit. I got ready to go to that one today. I got less than a mile away when my stomach said, loudly, "I don't feel well. I may give you back what you've eaten if you keep going."

What could I do? I took the next cross-street, which is a fairly direct route home, and came home and took something to settle the stomach, which continued to grumble.

I had put down my glasses for some reason; when I picked them up, one side piece fell off, behind the hinge. We went to Kaiser; no, they couldn't fix it, but they recommended a shop some distance away that was going to close in about 90 minutes. It took half an hour to get there, but we did. The cost isn't bad -- $65 is a lot better than ordering new glasses and going without for two weeks because the old ones hurt to wear -- and I can pick them up Monday.

The guy who does the repair also does lenses, replacement and new prescriptions, and I may take my very old Bausch & Lomb sunglasses there to get polarized lenses for them, or maybe even the distance half of my prescription so I can use them in situations where I'm at an angle to the sun that puts light on the *back* of the glass (which means I see the glass surface or dust or smears and not through the glass).

So, I can't drive till Monday after we pick the repaired glasses up, since I need them to drive (legally). I was going to get tickets for a local play - I know one of the actors - but the computer glitched on me and blew the sale, and I'm too frustrated, so it will be next weekend.

(I am very glad that I did not agree to be in the Second Life fundraising event today -- which took place about the same time we were driving along the six-lane looking for the address for the glasses repair place.)
(Oh, yeah, I got locked out of my credit union account on Thursday -- their new 'security system' sent my passcode slower than their time limit for entering the passcode, so I had to repeat the process, and then it said that was the wrong passcode... I got in this morning, no problem.)

And I discovered one of the two soprano coyotes -- it's the collie that belongs to what must be new people in the house behind us (none of the people look familiar and the others had a beagle.) It was listening for the *real* coyote in the park and singing replies. The baritone coyote is still out there being a coyote somewhere, I suspect.

But the contractor who bid on the masonry work we need looks very good and we said yes. And the garlic and onions I planted seem to be doing fairly well; I need to trim back lemon balm from shading the garlic, but that's all.

So the world is slightly fuzzy around the edges, but it's not that bad.

ratcreature posting in

It's time for our regular reccer recruiting post, and to look ahead to the next month. So far we have two volunteer reccers who signed up for July with these fandoms:

* Hannibal (

dreamkist)
* The Raven Cycle (

delacourtings)

So while we already have a few recs to look forward to in July, it would of course be awesome if we had some more recs. There is still plenty of opportunity for you to jump in and volunteer to rec next month (or to convince your friends to do some reccing). And many cheers for all of our members who volunteer to rec, especially if you rec regularly. Your valiant repeat efforts keep the comm alive.

Looking even further ahead so far only NO reccer has volunteered for August, so that month definitely still needs some love (and recs! *g*) too. So please consider reccing in a fandom of your choice, whether small or huge, and comment on the sign-up post and volunteer for July, August or even further ahead if you are so well organized, that you know your fannish interests and time commitments in advance. It's only four recs as a minimum, and you can rec any genre or rating. Or promote us to your friends or in your favorite communities so others do the work.

Open Rec Posting

The monthly open reccing period for all members starts now and lasts until the end of June. Since the general prompts don't seem to work as inspiration, I've decided to stop adding them, but to keep the open reccing period in case anyone wants to slip a rec in, without having to come up with three others for a fandom. However the recs do still have to conform to the usual rec format and follow the rules for what is allowed to be recced here.

(Comments here are disabled, because I want to bundle volunteering in the sign-up post so that nothing gets lost, and you can see the list of claimed slots there too.)

ceares posting in

Fandom: Teenwolf
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinkski
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: digital
Artist on DW/LJ:n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: DA
Why this piece is awesome: Roncheg has two amazing styles, loose yet detailed animated style and stuff like this, heavy and intense yet minimalist. The line work is wonderful and the piece is sexy without being explicit
Link: Ssx

cereta

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ceares posting in

Fandom: Teenwolf
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Lydia Martin
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: traditional
Artist on DW/LJ:n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: tumblr
Why this piece is awesome: normally I don't do the same artist twice in a month but I couldn't resist reccing this piece it's so gorgeous. How the artist makes these colors work I'll never know but it's a vibrantly alive portrait of Lydia that smacked me in the face enough to get me off my Sterek kick for a moment.
Link: lydia martin

ratcreature

I'm wondering what the English equivalent for the German "Aktionismus" is.

In German this is a usually pejorative term to describe activities somebody (often people in a position of power but accountable to the public, more rarely subordinates under pressure from above) undertakes to be visibly seen as "doing something" to address a problem, but the actions are not well thought out, unlikely to really solve or improve the situation, but are (at least from the perspective of the speaker making the charge of something being "Aktionismus") done wholly or partly to provide cover against the accusation of inactivity or indifference.

Like when you hastily implement "security theater" measures against a real security threat, because you can't think of any actual solution to improve security for real, but not doing anything and admitting to having no solution would be politically very costly. Opponents then might accuse you of "Aktionismus".

So "Aktionismus" is a general term for hasty, thoughtless responses of this type, used by opponents of the actions. It is often coupled with "blind" as in "blinder Aktionismus" to emphasize the lack of plan or vision to arrive at a real solution.

It is similar to the accusation that something is merely a "symbolic action" but that implies more a deliberate gesture lacking concrete results, whereas "Aktionismus" is more of a harmful flailing around.

"Aktionismus" has also some sort of specialized meaning for some performance art movement from Vienna, and apparently the word "actionism" exists in English in the translation for that Austrian art, but it doesn't seem to be used in the colloquial sense. But clearly this is a common phenomenon (and accusation) in politics, so there ought to be an English term.

turlough posting in

Fandom: Narnia
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: The White Witch / Jadis & wolves & dwarf
Content Notes/Warnings: n/a
Medium: acrylic & digital
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery:

goldendaniel

Why this piece is awesome: This is such a fantastic portrait of Jadis. Very different from almost every depiction I've seen before, but very fitting both to her incarnation as the White Witch and as the Empress of Charn. Here she's both beautiful and scary and also looks very, very powerful.

Link: Jadis

Current Mood: achey

Posted in full at: http://ift.tt/2t70xqo on June 24, 2017 at 11:12AM

Tags:vidding, fan vid, fandom history, vidding history, dwcrosspost

Tumblr post (this is likely a reblog, and may have more pictures over there)

Crossposts: http://morgandawn.livejournal.com/1561691.html

kindkit

17. A song that you would sing as a duet on karaoke

I don't sing in public. But if I did, I might pick this song, preferably with two accomplices rather than one. (What's the word for a three-person song? Anyway, in the case of this song, "threesome" is probably as good a term as any.)

Mitch Ryder got famous doing blue-eyed soul in the 60s, then nearly tanked his solo career in 1979 when he released How I Spent My Vacation, which is mostly about his sexual and romantic relationships with other men.* He continued to release music but as far as I know it sold very badly. In 1983, he made a "comeback" album, Never Kick A Sleeping Dog, produced by John Mellencamp, which includes this song.

*A lot of Ryder's music is not really my cup of tea. He first appealed to me because of the queer element, which I learned about around the time NKASD was released; astonishingly, within a couple of months I found a vinyl copy of HISMV in a secondhand store in the very small town where my family did its shopping** and listened to it over and over again on the sly. I only loved it for its queerness, but that was enough.*** I do genuinely like much of Never Kick A Sleeping Dog, though, and especially the following.

Mitch Ryder with Marianne Faithfull and John Mellencamp, "A Thrill's A Thrill"

Watch on YouTube

**We didn't live in a town. We lived in the country about 40 miles away and only came to town for shopping and other necessary things.

***A queer element was how I discovered a lot of music as a teenager. The Smiths, for example, and David Bowie (like a lot of queer boys I wanted to be Ziggy Stardust; I just happened to want it a decade too late) and the Jam (via Paul Weller's later project the Style Council and the swirling rumors, all too vehemently denied by Weller, that he and bandmate Mick Talbot were a couple).

Speaking of the Style Council, ( this ended up getting long and not fun, so it's under a cut )

http://www.unboundworlds.com/2017/06/sex-maximalism-adaptation-fanfic-american-gods/

Posted in full at: http://ift.tt/2s81L05 on June 24, 2017 at 08:10AM

Tags:not a reblog, activism, politics, affordable care act, disablity, PDWCrosspost2

Tumblr post (this is likely a reblog, and may have more pictures over there)

Crossposts: http://morgandawn.livejournal.com/1561348.html

nestra

I have had my main Yahoo account for almost 20 years, I think, and Yahoo is making themselves so irritating that I'm considering dumping it. Switching between multiple accounts has become complicated. They really want me to log in via my phone rather than in a browser (which I tried for two days, and no). I can't log in unless I turn off my ad blocker for that page.

I know it will be a pain to find some variation of "myname" at Gmail, and Google already owns a lot of my life, which I don't love. And oh my god, the maintenance I'd have to do to change everything to a new address. But I use my Yahoo email way too much to curse every time I use it.

Maybe I just need to get rid of my alternate accounts, and then I'd never need to worry about the login page. Hmm.

Anyway, yeah, that's my life. Except I did just get back from Europe (summary: fun time, also exhausting post-back surgery, no more southern Europe in summer). Now I have the mental room to get excited about my next trip to the UK in October! I've never been to Scotland, or to many other places in England except London, so I can't wait. Which means I should buy a plane ticket or something.

I'm about five weeks post-surgery, and everything is mostly fine. The scar tissue is tight and a little tender, which causes vague twinges of pain occasionally. The more irritating thing is the hamstring in my right leg, which has decided to tighten the hell up. I can't stand or walk for long periods, though if I sit down for just a minute or two, it kind of resets and I'm fine until it happens again.

I'm trying to be diligent with exercise, and if it doesn't get better, I see the surgeon again next month, and maybe it will be time for more physical therapy. But the surgery definitely fixed the problem it was meant to fix, and walking for short periods of time is certainly better than not walking at all.

kindkit

I've fallen a bit in love with this image by Masterji, and wanted to share it.

man reclines handsomely on a coffee table

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dine

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devohoneybee

marginaliana

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musesfool

So this week's AV Club Q&A is favorite one hit wonders (though certainly the definition of "one hit" is...elastic, and dependent in many cases on where you live), and more than a couple of songs I love got mentioned and then I ended up departing from that original premise and going on a youtube spiral of music from my teenage years, a lot of which I hadn't heard in decades probably (and some of which is still in regular rotation on my iPod, though I left out most of the usual suspects), but here are some gems:

- Let Me Go - Heaven 17
- Hit That Perfect Beat - Bronski Beat
- Don't Go - Yaz
- Love to Hate You - Erasure
- Obsession - Animotion
- West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys
- Tenderness - General Public
- I Melt With You - Modern English
- Whisper to a Scream - Icicle Works
- Cruel Summer - Bananarama
- Voices Carry - 'Til Tuesday
- Forever Young - Alphaville
- What Do All the People Know? - the Monroes
- Heart and Soul - T'Pau
- If You Leave - OMD
- Question of Lust - Depeche Mode
- The Promise - When In Rome
- True - Spandau Ballet
- Hold Me Now - Thompson Twins
- No One Is to Blame - Howard Jones
- Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House

***

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Music: No One Is to Blame - Howard Jones

rivkat

( Spoilers have been here before )
( A/B/O and civil rights )

Crossposts: http://rivkat.livejournal.com/462146.html

torachan

1. I finished another book tonight, which makes thirty-three for the year so far. I have moved my initial goal from twenty to thirty and then to forty, but I'm thinking I'm going to have to move it again at this rate, because the year's only halfway through.

2. I spoke with the insurance claim person today and she said that it sounded like since we were both backing up, it would be a 50/50 thing, which would mean our insurance wouldn't go up and we would be liable for half the deductible. So, possibly still have to pay a lot in car repairs, depending on how much it costs to repair the damage, but it could be worse.

3. Look at this fluffy Chloe tum! She just loves the tummy scritches. :)

gwyn

Celluloid Hero (29728 words) by gwyneth rhys
Chapters: 6/?
Fandom: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Golden Age Hollywood Actors
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Steve Rogers, Bette Davis, John Garfield, USO Tour Dancers (Marvel), Original Characters, Barbara Stanwyck, Gene Tierney, William Powell, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott, Jack Warner, Delmer Daves, Ida Lupino, Hedy Lamarr
Additional Tags: Golden Age Hollywood, Hollywood Canteen, World War II, The Star-Making Machinery, Propaganda, someone's going to get his V-card punched, and by someone I mean Steve, Letters, Minor Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, First Motion Picture Unit, Pining Steve, Period Typical Everything
Summary:

The talk of the town last night was Captain America’s star-spangled appearance at the Hollywood Canteen, where the ladies swooned and the gentlemen cheered. Rumor has it he will be meeting with studio heads to discuss bringing his patriotic man with a plan to the silver screen.

Chapter 6 finally posted! In which Steve doesn't do well at his own premiere, learns how to play the Hollywood game, gets to know Ida Lupino and Hedy Lamarr, and receives a very important envelope.

Current Mood: drained

lunabee34

1. Emma's baby fan musings crack me up. Yesterday, she told me she hates incest pairings (although she has to admit it makes a great deal of sense for SPN), and that while people should be able to write what they want, they should do it away from her. LOL I told her that's why God made the back button. She also told me she doesn't get why people ship pairings that don't have a lot of subtext or canonical support, especially the characters that don't interact in canon. She has gotten waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay into Undertale--as in Undertale is all she's been able to talk about for what seems like our entire lives at this point--and she cited some examples from that video game. I told her she'd have to just take my word for it that those stories can be a lot of fun.

She told me she's not really looking for fanfic right now because she'd probably have to wade through too many fics written by 11 year olds with horrible SPAG.

And then she closed by telling me that one time she accidentally found some drawings of skeleton porn where they had ectoplasm genitals which is the funniest thing ever.

2. Downton Abbey watch continues. ( spoilers )

3. Fiona's birthday is tomorrow. She'll be four!!!!!!!

4. I am exhausted in the last two weeks, like way more than usual. My energy levels have been good for awhile, and I'm wondering if my thyroid levels have dropped. I hesitate to move up my August 31 endocrinologist appointment; I've done so every year for the past three years when I've had worsening symptoms, and the tests have always come back with a "Nah, not sick enough for us to do anything" verdict. I'm on the verge of starting my period, so I'm wondering if that's a factor. If I don't start to feel better in the next week, I guess I will up the appointment. I just feel so beat, and working out is a chore. :( This is definitely not normal.

5. I am done teaching for the semester! Whoooo! Grades are turned in, and now all I have to do is relax and work on the novel.

Crossposts: http://lunabee34.livejournal.com/521469.html

A less-than helpful encounter with a Senate committee, when women go to testify about Islamism.

Guatemala doesn't want its emigrants back.

Justice Ginsberg and the price of equality.

Worst Trump cabinet member? Betsy DeVos.

Traveling to Havana? You may need to know this.

In Morocco, a town drenched in blue.

The secret lives of Mexican nuns.

Obama slams GOP Senators for not opposing the so-called health bill, and calls it "a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America." Which it is. He has more to say, too.

Why haven't all the Catholic bishops criticized the GOP anti-health bill with the same fervor with which they attacked the ACA?

The US Court of Appeals tells Mississippi LGBT people to "wait till you're denied service" before suing to get rid of the 'religious freedom act', because they "haven't suffered enough" yet. *spits in the direction of the Court of Appeals*

NY Mag: If the president is innocent, then he is insane.

lunabee34

The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this so much. Dan Simmons is one of my favorite authors. Ilium and Olympos are among my favorite books ever. Hyperion is delightful. Drood is wonderful.

The Fifth Heart is okay.

I think maybe the problem is that I'm not a Sherlock Holmes nut and so much of the intricacy of the story is probably lost on me. I also don't know much about James or the other historical/literary figures in the text.

I was also a little disappointed that at no point was anything the characters in the novel think is funny actually funny to me. Mark Twain is funny. His writing makes me laugh. Mark Twain in this novel is not funny. I would think that's the point, that the funny man is not actually funny, except that the other characters all seem genuinely amused by his stories.

IDK

This one was not for me.

I did enjoy the ending, especially the epilogue, with James standing arm in arm with Holmes on the deck of the ship the way he's always wanted to stand with someone else.

View all my reviews

Crossposts: http://lunabee34.livejournal.com/521054.html

watersword

Today I called Sen. Schumer and Sen. Gillibrand and said the following:

Hi, my name is [watersword] and my zip code is [redacted]; I'm calling to ask you to add a tally mark to your count of constituents who have called and are very angry about the Republican anti-health care bill.

Both times I was answered fairly promptly, the staffer was clearly charmed by my "I know you are on my side, I'm trying to help," and I was informed that Schumer's office has gotten ~500 calls over the past ten days on the issue (I'm not sure if that's all the offices, including Washington, or just the NYC office I called), and the Gillibrand staffer I spoke was on his ~60th call on the subject for the day. This is a horrible slog but I am going to keep showing the fuck up.

petra

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Current Mood: pure as the driven slush
Current Music: For a small fee in America

otw_staff posting in

otw_news

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Don't forget that if you want to vote in the 2017 OTW Election, you have to become a member by June 30. Join today! https://goo.gl/yUZHvQ

dine

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bridgetmkennitt posting in

npt_admin

There's still one more pinch hit for claiming pinch hit #7.

Useful Links
Not Prime Time 2017 (with schedule) | Prime Time Madness 2017
Frequently Asked Questions | AO3 exchange faq for participants | Pinch Hitting faq
2017 nomination tag set
Dear Prime Time Player on DW
2017 Requests available on AO3 | in a txt file

Posted in full at: http://ift.tt/2tWNh4y at June 23, 2017 at 07:55AMAnalysis | What the Senate bill changes about Obamacare
Tags:not a reblog, affordable care act, politics, activism, PDWCrosspost
Tumblr post (this is likely a reblog, and may have more pictures over there)
June 23, 2017 at 07:55AM

Crossposts: http://morgandawn.livejournal.com/1561145.html

musesfool

Last night, we had dinner at Joanne's, the Lady Gaga family restaurant. The food was fine, but for the prices they charge, I expected at least two meatballs with my spaghetti and meatball dinner. To be fair, the one meatball was of decent size, but still, it's listed as spaghetti and meatballs on the menu so it's not ridiculous to expect there to be more than one meatball on the plate. I am just saying.

It's warm and clammy today, which is my second least favorite combination (cold and clammy is worse), but I'm looking forward to the weekend, as this week has seemed endless. It was so hard to get out bed. Sigh.

I did just get off the phone with 1. the realtor and then 2. the lawyer, so things are progressing there re: the negotiation of a slightly lower price due to the low appraisal (all thanks, apparently, to the fact that while the seller lists the apartment in Forest Hills, it actually exists in Rego Park which is one - slightly less expensive - neighborhood over. And if you are from Queens, you know what I mean). The question is whether this affects the lender in any way, but since the loan amount is the loan amount regardless, I'm not sure why it would? but what do I know? As per my lawyer's instructions, I am playing dumb (I mean, on this topic, despite all the info from Uncle Google, I actually am kind of dumb? so it's not hard! *hands*) The lawyer and mortgage broker are on top of that.

When I spoke to the realtor this morning, I was like, it's been a week since they received my application but I shouldn't expect to hear from them before the Fourth of July weekend? and he was like, "they don't like to disclose their schedule but I'll ask for an update," and then he just texted me to say that the board has received and is reviewing my application so EEP! That, more than the bank or the seller or the more normal processes of home-buying is what is freaking me out. I have more to say about this but probably not until it's all over, and even then, probably only in a locked post. Mostly what I want to say is EEP! At least I found my black dress (and my mom's pearls *snerk*) so I'm prepared!

I feel like I should have something fannish to say, and I'm sure I did before these phone calls all started happening, but I guess for right now, this househunting business is my main fandom. Sigh.

***

Current Mood: anxious
Current Music: Hidden Camera Show - Tom McRae

petra

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Current Mood: it me
Current Music: I came from afar just to say "Bonsoir"

metaphortunate

I am not good at political predictions. And I hope I'm wrong about this. But I don't see how we can keep the ACA.

I mean, this is why Republicans have been swallowing Trump's shit, right? For the Supreme Court seats and the right to pass this enormous tax cut? Isn't this what they sold the republic for? If they don't pass it now, wouldn't that require them to decide to have given it all up for nothing? Wouldn't they be taking a huge personal hit to their own opinion of themselves, not to mention their own taxes, and their own donors, for no other reason than to help millions of people they've never personally met and would probably not like if they did meet? Humans are not super good at doing that kind of thing; the richer the worse, the more powerful the worse, and I just don't really see how I can expect these particular rich old powerful motherfuckers to transcend the limitations of their species at this moment in time.

marthawells

This has been a week of extreme highs and lows. The high points were awesome but the low points are...low.

I've got news I can't share yet so this is kind of a boring post. I need to get back to my book rec posts but Fridays are kind of a bad day for them.

We were supposed to have a hurricane but it turned and is now torturing a different part of the country.

Oh, I did a Reddit r/Fantasy AMA yesterday, and got a great question on Worldbuilding:

Question: One of my favorite things about your books is the incredible detail and authenticity to the cultures and societies you create. I've read City Of Bones and your Raksura books and I am always immediately engaged when the characters travel to a new city. The residents, architecture, customs, languages, and overall presentation feel well rooted and historical. It really adds an incredible flavor to your writing and inspires me to improve my own.

Are you willing to describe the process in which you develop a new city? When you sit down to create a new location, how you start the vision and do you have a system in how you begin to add layers of detail until the city/town/society feels authentic?

Me: Thank you so much!

I use different methods for different types of book. For the Ile-Rien books, where the locations are based more on real-world places, I did a lot of research into cities in similar cultures, climates, environments as my imaginary city. For the Raksura books, I tried to think of a neat setting for a city, then tried to make it as weird and extreme as possible. Like the Turning City, Keres-gedon, which started out as just a camp in the mountains.

Basically it's a process of coming up with an element you want in your city, like canals. You look at cities with canals, like Venice, and maybe Angkor Wat. What are the canals used for? Transportation, a reservoir, entertainment, defense, etc. You think about how the environment and climate of your city is going to affect your canals. Can they freeze over? Are they affected by drought? Sewage? Plant growth? Underwater monster issues? Etc. Why or why not are they affected by these things? Once you make all those decisions, you decide how they affect the inhabitants of the city, their culture, their everyday life. It can be simple or complicated, and ideally, it leads to ideas that can further characterization and plot. And the big thing to remember is that the reader doesn't need to know everything you know about your canal system. They'll be able to infer a lot from the bits and pieces they see as your characters move through the story, and the sense that the city is operating by a logical system is more important than knowing the exact details.

I also don't usually figure out too many of the details of my settings in advance, since I'm going to concentrate mainly on the parts my characters are interacting with. Like most of the city may be sketched in, but the characters are going to need this little train system and this temple hospital, so those bits are going to get more attention and development. Also keep in mind that cities change over time, with new buildings, new roads, and what stays in place and what gets built over or torn down all say things about the people who live there.

It also helps not to set too many boundaries. You never want to tell readers that there's nothing over the mountains, because it's going to make the world feel closed in, like a puddle instead of a huge mysterious ocean. And if you keep writing in this setting, you may eventually need those empty places to put things in.

I hope that helps!

***

Also:

I have a signed copy of The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red in the Authors for Grenfell Tower Auction: https://authorsforgrenfelltower.com/2017/06/23/signed-copy-of-the-murderbot-diaries-all-systems-red-by-martha-wells/

There are tons of other great items up for auction to benefit the tower fire victims. Please check it out or pass it on.

torachan

1. Went out to lunch with my mom today for my birthday (which is actually Monday). We went to California Pizza Kitchen and I got the carne asada pizza, which was delicious.

2. I got in a car accident on the way home, which sucks a whole lot, but it was on the minor side of accidents, so I'm trying to keep positive about that. There's only a little bit of bumper damage to my car and the other car and no one was hurt. (I had just pulled in a parking space and was readjusting my parking, and the other person was pulling out of her space opposite me, and...crunch.) I'm hoping the repairs don't cost too much, are covered by the insurance, and don't make my payments go up too high. *crosses fingers*

3. Jasper!

Posted in full at: http://ift.tt/2sI3Lhq on June 22, 2017 at 11:00PM

Tags:not a reblog, vidding, accessibility, fanvids, DWCrosspost

Tumblr post (this is likely a reblog, and may have more pictures over there)

Crossposts: http://morgandawn.livejournal.com/1560964.html

celli

The Reverse Fuckbuddy (2103 words) by celli
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Pod Save America (RPF)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jon Favreau/Jon Lovett
Characters: Jon Lovett, Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, Pundit (Pod Save America RPF), Leo (Pod Save America RPF)
Additional Tags: First Time, Friends to Lovers, Fuckbuddies, Jon POV Character is Lovett
Summary:

Jon doesn't want to talk about it, Favs doesn't know what he's talking about, and Tommy would like everyone to shut the fuck up.

( emotion in fic )

I find the process of learning this new skill fascinating, if you can't tell, and will happily chat about it for hours. So let me know if you have any comments or further suggestions!

Chapter 18: Something's Gotta Give

A lot of good info about cornbread, including its history. And the Iroquois White Corn Project, bringing back from near extinction an historic variety of corn.

Finland is testing giving everyone in the country a basic income.

Long-haul truckers are among today's indentured servants -- read this and find out the cost of getting produce and goods from one place to another in the US.

Maybe we don't have to remember everything.

Okay, about half of these 50 most anticipated movies of 2017 are already out -- but there are previews here for the others.

The Hollywood Reporter's 100 most powerful people in entertainment.

An oral history of Prince's Purple Rain tour.

Ron Howard will be directing the Han Solo movie, now that the previous directors have been fired.

***

Will Robert Mueller manage to separate fact from fiction?

A juror talks about why Bill Cosby wasn't convicted.

nestra

I just rewatched "Four Weddings and a Funeral" on a plane. (Except for the Auden part, because I did not wish to cry on a plane.) I had thoughts.

Boy, this was just peak Hugh Grant.
They're lucky they had Hugh Grant, because the character's actually a pretty terrible person.
Andie Macdowell. Yeeeeah.
I started out mentally substituting Amy Adams for her. Then I decided to substitute Haley Atwell, even though it made no sense, with the character being American. Then I decided to substitute no one, because she is also an awful character.
The movie really shows its age with the Simon Callow/John Hannah relationship. No one ever says the word "gay", they never kiss, and John Hannah is introduced at the funeral as "his closest friend."
I almost wish for Kirsten Scott Thomas' character to end up with Hugh Grant, except not, because as noted above, terrible.

colorwheel posting in

cookability

i'm having a good time lately cooking boneless chicken in a pan with some water and adding pasta right to that pan. i also put in a little bouillion for flavor.

it's not chicken soup because the liquid ratio is low. it's lots of protein with a small amount of soup-tasty liquid. actually i would call the liquid soup, there's just not the amount that we associate with soup.

i use dark meat chicken because it never dries out so the cooking time can be anything.

the first time i made this, it felt so reckless and daring to add dry pasta right in there instead of cooking the pasta separately! but it really works, and the pasta is extra tasty because all the flavors are married (so to speak).

at the very end, spinach can be added. i bet lots of other things could be added. i'm just so into it being only one pan.

torachan

What are you currently reading?
I have just one chapter (about twenty pages) left to go in The New Jim Crow, so I will probably finish that either tonight or tomorrow. One thing I learned in the most recent chapter, which I had no idea about is that although prisoners cannot vote while imprisoned, the prison populations are used in creating voting districts and such. Most prisons are built in rural areas with very low, mostly white populations. These areas should hold very little power based on population, but because their numbers are padded by thousands of non-voting (mostly black) prisoners, they gain much more weight. Like the extreme gerrymandering in so many areas, this is nothing but an obvious power grab by republicans who know they don't have the numbers to support themselves in a fair vote. >:(

I'm also just a few chapters away from finishing The Library at Mount Char, too. This book is definitely a wild ride and I'm looking forward to seeing how it ends.

What did you recently finish reading?
I finished up Public Library and Other Stories yesterday, spurred on by the fact that it was due back at the library today. Overall I enjoyed the stories, but found the title and cover blurbs a bit misleading. There was no story called Public Library, and the stories were not so much library-themed as language- and book-themed. They were still good stories, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

What do you think you'll read next?
Well, I had pre-ordered the new 7 Seeds and just got an email from Amazon last night that it had been downloaded to my ipad, so I will probably be reading that pretty soon. The last chapter apparently came out this month, but I'm not sure how many more volumes that will be since I don't follow the chapters as they're published, but probably just one or two. Maybe more if she does bonus material like she did for Basara.

out_there

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

This is one of those beautiful vids that feels like it summarises the canon -- like the ship is obviously there, you can see it all of those scenes, and the fact that Michael walks away to be with Sara doesn't reduce or distract from the Alex/Michael feels. In essence, this is how I saw the show, and it's lovely to see it in vid form.

(Vid) Arrow (17 words) by Isagel
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Prison Break
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Alexander Mahone/Michael Scofield
Characters: Michael Scofield, Alexander Mahone
Additional Tags: Video, Fanvids, Season/Series 04, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Lovers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Heist, Puzzles, Codes & Ciphers, Angst and Feels, Grief/Mourning, One True Pairing, True Love, Protectiveness, Redemption, Worship, Floppy hats, Self-Sacrifice, Plans, Former enemies working together, Vidukon 2017
Summary:

I want you to destroy me.

Or on DW here.

dorinda

Duuuudes the Night On Fic Mountain 2017 collection is open, and I got THREE PRESENTS. \o/ Almost Human, AND Rejseholdet, AND a Jack & Stephen treat! Check this out:

...oh wait, huh, weird. I only just now noticed that two of these pieces have no "Share" button at the top. But it shows up on the third one. So the 'share' function can be disabled? I've never seen that option. What's that about, I wonder?

Anyway, no biggie, I shall share the first two the old fashioned way, uphill both ways in the snow:

First, a really lovely romantic piece of John/Dorian art called "Halfway Till Bliss". I adore the differing expressions, and the subtleties of their faces, and Dorian's eyelashes, and John's hair. And KISSIN. <3

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11205894

Then, a wonderfully grounded and real-feeling Rejseholdet story, "The (Irregular) Right Direction": it's set ten years post-canon, with Fischer permanently settled in EU law-enforcement bureaucracy, but with something unsettled and restless humming deep within him. Hmmmm, I wonder what he's still missing? :D

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11209839

And finally, a touching and nuanced Master & Commander (and/or O'Brian books) Jack & Stephen story, "Why Darwin Discovered Evolution", which has a Share button, thusly:

Why Darwin Discovered Evolution (1113 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey & Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin
Additional Tags: London, Evolution, Moths, Night On Fic Mountain 2017, Night on Fic Mountain 2017 Treat
Summary:

1815: Napoleon surrenders, and is exiled to St Helena. The British Navy, after seventeen years of war, retires ships, crews and captains. John Barrow, Second Secretary to the Admiralty, begins a programme of exploration which will last until 1845 and will include, in 1835, Charles Darwin's five year voyage of discovery in the Beagle.

In England, Jack Aubrey languishes on the Captains’ List, and Stephen Maturin chases moths.

Oh, Stephen. He loves Jack SO MUCH. ♥____♥ (And vice-versa, of course. Sigh!)

torachan

Title: Koi-iji: Love Glutton
Original Title: こいいじ (Koiiji)
Author: Shimura Takako
Publisher: Kiss
Genre: Josei
Status in Japan: 6 volumes, ongoing
Scanlator: Megchan's Scanlations feat. Migeru
Scanlation Status: Ongoing
More Info: Baka Updates

Summary: 31-year-old Mame has been in love with her childhood friend Souta ever since she can remember. Despite multiple rejections, her love has stayed constant. It's become a habit more than anything, but is it one she'll ever be able to break and get on with her life?

Chapter Summary: Souta's reaction when Mame tells him she broke up with Kawada-san is the last thing she was expecting.