Daydream

Apr. 23rd, 2025 08:11 pm
vass: Warning sign of man in water with an octopus (Accidentally)
[personal profile] vass
What if, when you went to a nonprofit/charity/etc website because you want to donate money to them, you could add ?nomarketing on the end of the link, and it would bring up a barebones version of their donation page that would JUST LET YOU MAKE A SINGLE DONATION.

It would not sign you up to their newsletter.
It would not give them permission to contact you.
It would not ask you to share their link on social media.
It would not ask you how you found them.
It would not show you a thank you letter written in the first person by a composite version of one of their clients.
It would not show you tragic and distressing photographs or descriptions of the horrible things happening to the people you HAVE ALREADY DECIDED TO GIVE MONEY TO HELP.
There would not be any animated banners or carousels.
There would be no popups.
Required fields on the form would only be information they genuinely cannot accept your money without, and they would have checked both the law on what information they actually need and their assumptions about names and titles (e.g. not everyone has a first name, not everyone has a last name, not everyone's name is short, some names have spaces or apostrophes or hyphens, not everyone belongs to one of the four genders Mr, Mrs, Miss, and Dr.)
It would not give you a menu with three choices: make your one-off donation a monthly amount, make your one-off donation a monthly amount but more money, or (deselected and in a duller colour) "keep your one-off donation" before letting you donate.
Or after you donate.
Or both.

I understand they have a job to do, but do they understand how aversive this experience is? It is the biggest thing about charitable giving that I dread, when I have enough to give. "Hi, I'd like to give you some mon-" "CAN YOU GIVE US MORE? CAN YOU GIVE IT EVERY MONTH? KIDS ARE DYING, VASS, ANIMALS ARE DYING, THE PLANET IS DYING, MOREMOREMOREMORE CAN WE TEXT YOU, CAN WE CALL YOU UP AND TELL YOU ABOUT THE DYING KIDS CAN YOU TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS TO GIVE US MONEY TOO-"

If they made it less stressful, I would not have to psych myself up to do this. And by definition this is how they are treating people who already want to help them.

Daily Happiness

Apr. 22nd, 2025 10:22 pm
torachan: ryu from kimi ni todoke eating ramen (ramen)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I had another work from home day. I'm about halfway caught up with my email and fully caught up with teams. Tomorrow I've got a couple meetings, so I've got to go in to the office, but I might work from home again on Thursday to finally catch up on everything.

2. When Carla was out today she stopped at Uncle Tetsu's, a Japanese cheesecake chain. They have a sakura cheesecake right now and we had some after dinner tonight and it was sooooooo good. I normally prefer New York style cheesecake to the Japanese fluffier style, but this was really good consistency and the sakura flavor was amazing.

3. I finished playing The Plucky Squire. Overall it's a pretty fun game, but it is not just a straight action adventure game. There are a bunch of (frankly not that fun) mini games for the boss fights and stuff where you have to play other styles of games and that is not what I signed up for. Like for one character's boss battles you play a Mike Tyson style boxing game, for another it's a rhythm game, and for the third it's a Puzzle Bobble type. Then there are some stealth sequences where you have to sneak past enemies who can kill you instantly if they sense you, and if they sense you there is no way to run to escape, even if you're close to a place you could get away. You're just instantly dead. And the final battle is a space shooter type. The good thing is that if you die in a boss battle you can sometimes restart partway through, not all the way at the beginning, and the stealth sequences have multiple checkpoints and you'll respawn there rather than back at the beginning. But I would still have preferred not to have that "variety" in my action adventure game. Still is a fun game, though. But if you suck at those types of games it might ruin it for you.

4. I finished editing all my Disney Japan pics, so hopefully I can get the last day's posts written up later this week.

5. Jasper is just so handsome.

torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
When I last left off, we had just checked out the big gift shop at the Fantasy Springs hotel and were exploring the land while waiting for our return time for the Peter Pan ride.

More DisneySea adventures! )

Purrcy, bees

Apr. 22nd, 2025 10:02 pm
mecurtin: face of tuxedo tabby cat Purrcy looking smugly happy (purrcy face)
[personal profile] mecurtin
#Purrcy was both happy and regal, sitting in my seat on the sofa with the sun coming the skylight on it. See how he smiles at me in Cat!
#cats #CatsOfBluesky

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby is lightly curled on a brocade cushion, looking at the camera with ears alert, whiskers spread wide and white, eyes light green and pupils just slits. He is clearly very happy, as sunlight shines on the cushion and most of him.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby is lightly curled on a brocade cushion, looking at the camera with ears alert, whiskers spread wide and white, eyes light green and pupils just slits. He is clearly very happy, as sunlight shines on the cushion and most of him.




I sat out on the porch to eat breakfast today, and the local hive of feral honeybees was awake, buzzing about looking for nectar. The crabapple flowers are opening, so they seem to have their timing just right. The carpenter bees were also out, inspecting the eaves. It was really good to have that 1/2 hour, even though it was so late in the morning (I had errands to run before my stomach was ready for breakfast) that I didn't see or hear any migrants.
musesfool: (shakespeare got to get paid son)
[personal profile] musesfool
Today's poem:

I Have News for You

There are people who do not see a broken playground swing
as a symbol of ruined childhood

and there are people who don't interpret the behavior
of a fly in a motel room as a mocking representation of their thought process.

There are people who don't walk past an empty swimming pool
and think about past pleasures unrecoverable

and then stand there blocking the sidewalk for other pedestrians.
I have read about a town somewhere in California where human beings

do not send their sinuous feeder roots
deep into the potting soil of others' emotional lives

as if they were greedy six-year-olds
sucking the last half-inch of milkshake up through a noisy straw;

and other persons in the Midwest who can kiss without
debating the imperialist baggage of heterosexuality.

Do you see that creamy, lemon-yellow moon?
There are some people, unlike me and you,

who do not yearn after fame or love or quantities of money as
         unattainable as that moon;
thus, they do not later
         have to waste more time
defaming the object of their former ardor.

Or consequently run and crucify themselves
in some solitary midnight Starbucks Golgotha.

I have news for you—
there are people who get up in the morning and cross a room

and open a window to let the sweet breeze in
and let it touch them all over their faces and bodies.

--Tony Hoagland

*

(no subject)

Apr. 22nd, 2025 10:41 pm
marina: (:D happy Gracie!)
[personal profile] marina
Well, it's been 2 weeks since my last post, so here's an update.

mentions of health issues )

*

In job news, something pretty huge and happy-making has happened???

One of the 4 companies I interviewed with has gotten back to me (after like 7 stages) to say they want me to work for them and they'll send me a contract offer in the next few days (which is standard). Fingers crossed, nothing certain until papers are signed etc, but. BUT.

It's been over a year, and finally I have a job offer.

At least one company wants to pay me a decent salary with all the nice perks and everything.

Now, if I had no other offers and was not in the running for any other position, I would take this one IN A HEARTBEAT. I would take it and be SO GRATEFUL.

But since I am still somehow in the process with 3 other companies, I'm in the weird position of mentally wondering which one I'd choose if they were to make me an offer.

Company #2 - I've finished all the interviews, and they're supposed to get back to me tomorrow on whether they want to check my references, which usually takes 1-2 days and is more of a formality. There's good reason to assume that if they say yes to me tomorrow they'll make me an offer next week.

Company #3 - I'm doing my final interview with them on Thursday, a big presentation, and after that they'll let me know if they're interested, no reference checks. If they want me they'll just make an offer.

Company #4 - the actual company of my heart, that all other considerations aside I would probably choose to work for because I love their product so much - I'm doing my final interview with them on Monday (next week). Of course they have the WORST HR process, so I actually have no idea what their next step is and whether there's something else they'll want to do before deciding yay/nay after Monday.

Now I'm mostly stressed because Company #1, that's already told me they want me, will probably try to pressure me to finalize a contract with them before Company #4 has a chance to decide whether they want me, sigh.

All of these potential roles are so good. None of them are "I can live with that" compromises. All of them are amazing, it's more a question of specific types of amazing, and of course I ideally want the combination that works best for me.

It is utterly surreal to be in this position after a year and 2 months of being unemployed. UTTERLY SURREAL.

But you know, maybe all the other companies will reject me and only Company #1 will remain, which will still be perfectly fine and even great.

Or maybe I somehow manage to fuck up this whole thing and will be left with nothing ////o\\\\ IDK it's just too good to be true at the moment.

Phew. Deep breath. The next 2 weeks will be continued stress, especially since I have a big presentation on Thursday and on Monday, but then... then. I don't know. Maybe, just maybe. *fingers crossed*

If anyone could use a morale boost

Apr. 22nd, 2025 05:17 pm
rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
[personal profile] rydra_wong
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/04/protests-erupt-across-the-uk-after-supreme-court-ruled-against-trans-rights/

Many many pictures.

Also, more protests yet to come, apparently, with ones scheduled for Oxford and Cambridge.
ambyr: a dark-winged man standing in a doorway over water; his reflection has white wings (watercolor by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law) (Default)
[personal profile] ambyr posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
Dear Carolyn: When I asked my daughter-in-law about their vacation destination and flight information, she asked why I wanted to know. I said if there was a crash, I would want to know that it wasn’t their flight. She asked why I was wishing their plane to crash. She also said this type of question takes away her agency.

Sharing flight information is common among my mom friends, so I was surprised. She suggested therapy to handle my anxiety.

I am now feeling very unsure about how to relate to her. She seems to make up a version of me that isn’t accurate and then respond as if that was who I am. I want to avoid conflict with her because this relationship is important to my son. How to proceed?


Easiest: Stop asking for flight info )

Me-and-media update

Apr. 22nd, 2025 06:20 pm
china_shop: Close-up of Zhao Yunlan grinning (Default)
[personal profile] china_shop
Previous poll review
In the vegetables poll, 90.4% of respondents clicked fresh vegetables (bought), 46.2% clicked frozen vegetables, and 44.2% clicked fresh vegetables (homegrown). I was surprised; I thought more people would go frozen for the convenience. (I wonder what that says, if anything, about Dreamwidth demographics.)

In ticky-boxes, hugs came first with 78.8%, followed by a tie between "hanging in there until things settle down and I can sort my life out" and "sunbeams playing in a tree, daring each other to peek around the shadowed side" with 63.5% each. Thank you for your votes!

Reading
Still going on The Horse and His Boy (I am slow and distractable) and the Guardian novel read-along (it's on a schedule). Nothing in audio.

Kdramas
We started Tale of the Nine Tailed, a sweeping epic about a powerful immortal, the reincarnated love of his life, and his bratty younger brother. (Nothing at all like Guardian the novel, why do you ask?) I'm hoping it has enough plot and worldbuilding to hold Andrew's interest; he gets bored during extended romance scenes.

More of Sell Your Haunted House with Pru. And in solo-watching, I started Heesu in Class 2; it's pretty adorable, but also Heesu is the living embodiment of Idiots In Love, and sometimes I have to watch through my fingers.

Other TV
This week's Doctor Who
was very silly and meta, set against a background of ominous racism. Hm. But I did enjoy the jokes, and Belinda is great.


Episode 1 of Sherlock & Daughter. We were just going to try out the first ten minutes to get a sense of it, but we ended up watching the whole episode. I can forgive Holmes for being a grumpy old man when he has a reason for it.

Our Deadloch rewatch-with-a-friend continues, plus Jentry Chau vs the Underworld, about which I still have no opinion.

My sister and I watched Into the Night (1985 film; Michelle Pfeiffer, Jeff Goldblum, and a vast number of film directors as extras, the only one of whom I knew on sight was Jim Henson). The caper was silly, and the romance plotline was very thin, but Goldblum and Pfeiffer are so watchable that it hung together despite the weird pacing when it lingered on random extras we were supposed to recognise. Lovely to see David Bowie in a small (albeit violently psychotic) role.

Guardian/Fandom
I archived my Murderbot flashficlet, and wow, Murderbot fans are generous with their kudosing. *hearts so much* (In my experience, some fandoms are just more kudosy than others.)

Audio entertainment
I listened my way through all of The Setup, a romance audiodrama about Juan, an anxious art museum curator in NYC, and Fernando, the con artist who's trying to steal a painting. It's great! I'm really into it. And then I got to the end of the available episodes and realised it's not finished yet, ahhhhh! I need to check these things before I start!

(Is it just me or are depictions of anxiety becoming more common in romances? I feel like there's some wish fulfilment going on: people longing to meet The One who is hot, super into them, and will also be incredibly kind and patient and give them effective tips for handling their panic attacks. Not that romances aren't all about wish fulfilment, so why not? Add dimensions to your dream partner!)

Writing/making things
My little 4k exchange fic is becoming somewhat tortured by all the writing advice I'm trying to enact on it. Hopefully I'm not engineering the spark out of the thing. Also, hopefully I emerge from this process wiser and more capable. (It could happen!) Note to self: this story still doesn't have an ending, oops.

Other than that, I'm spending a lot of my life rolling around in meta discussions, yay!

Life/health/mental state things
Oh, look, let's not even talk about it. /o\

Note to self: I had a flu jab on Saturday.

Online life
I'm switching ISPs on Friday. Wish me luck! If I disappear off the face of the internet, that will be why.

Food
Today marks my first attempt at baked potatoes in the slow cooker. *fingers crossed* I forgot to prickle them with a fork before I wrapped them in foil, so who knows.

Good things
Fandom. Writing. Lunchtime dumplings on the back deck. Cephalopod plushies. Queer audiodramas. Friends coming over to watch stuff. Guardian. Home-made salsa. Trivia quizzes. Music and kindness and laughter and love.

Poll #33020 face blindness extrapolation
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 41


Do you have face-blindness?

View Answers

yes
2 (4.9%)

technically no, but it's not unusual for me to get people confused
23 (56.1%)

especially when they're dressed the same
13 (31.7%)

no
11 (26.8%)

I mix up similar usernames
13 (31.7%)

honestly, they don't have to be that similar
11 (26.8%)

other
1 (2.4%)

ticky-box full of black cats slinking mysteriously in the shadows
27 (65.9%)

ticky-box full of starting a howl
14 (34.1%)

ticky-box of overthinking
20 (48.8%)

ticky-box full of squirrel-dragons with floofy tails, guarding their golden acorns
21 (51.2%)

ticky-box full of hugs
32 (78.0%)

Daily Happiness

Apr. 21st, 2025 08:52 pm
torachan: palmon smiling (palmon)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I worked from home today, getting a fair amount of catching up done. Unfortunately I forgot that I also had to double check all my stores' budgets for next month today so that did take some time away from the email and teams catch-up, but I should be able to focus more on that tomorrow. (Probably will mostly work from home tomorrow, too.)

2. We bought a sweater for Alexander for his birthday and even though his birthday is not until next week, gave it to him yesterday so he could try it on and see if it fit, and it was a little big so we said we'd be happy to go exchange it. I was just thinking to exchange it whenever we next go, but there was availability today and Carla felt like going to Disneyland, so while I had to stay home and focus on my email backlog, she went and exchanged the sweater and had a nice morning at DCA. She managed to find all the rest of the hidden easter eggs there (eventually with some help from an online guide) and took pictures, but I'm just going to include those with our next trip post rather than make a separate one. They had Lightning McQueen and Mater ones which are super cute, though.

3. We bought a stereo for the garage and it arrived today. As all modern stereos do these days, it also has bluetooth capability to connect to your phone, but she mainly wanted it for playing actual CDs. Her current CD rack is overflowing, so we need to get another and then move the CDs out to the garage so she can have them out there with the stereo. Nice thing is, unless you're standing right by the door or window, even with it turned up pretty loud you really can't hear much from outside. Amazing what insulation can do!

4. I love the look on Ollie's face here, but he was even cuter before I turned on the light and came in. It wasn't dark but was dim enough that he was really well camouflaged in the box!

Limericks!

Apr. 21st, 2025 10:15 pm
petra: Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Han Solo beaming at each other (Star Wars OT3 - Yavin)
[personal profile] petra
I have recently written limericks in: due South, Interview with the Vampire (TV), Murderbot, Star Wars Original & Prequel Trilogies, and Venom (Movies). Go here for the links and summaries, in alphabetical order by fandom.

I would be happy to write more, so if reading my limericks makes you want more of them, prompt at will.

(no subject)

Apr. 21st, 2025 06:48 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
Dear Care and Feeding,

My family and I live down the block from my sister and her family. They went away for spring break to visit her in-laws and tasked my 12-year-old daughter “Blair” with feeding their tropical fish while they were gone.

The day before they were due back, Blair went over in the morning to feed the fish and discovered they were all dead. It turned out that the tank heater had failed at some point during the previous day after Blair took care of them. The problem is that my sister is blaming Blair for “killing” her fish and demanding that we pay for new ones. Blair feels terrible about what happened, but she did a temperature check of the water before she left on the last day they were alive, and the temperature was where it was supposed to be (she had been writing it down on the daily temperature log, so we know for sure), so there was no negligence on her part. I explained this to my sister, but she won’t budge. Now she says Blair and her cousins (with whom she is very close) can’t play together until we pay for new fish. My husband thinks this is outrageous, and I agree. Even so, would buying some new fish be worth it so we can put this in the rearview mirror for Blair’s sake?

—Fish Fallout


Read more... )

this picnic is no picnic

Apr. 21st, 2025 06:08 pm
musesfool: Princess Leia (so what level up)
[personal profile] musesfool
Monday miscellany:

- So what are the odds we get an antipope this time in addition to a pope?

- Sepinwall gave season 2 of Andor a good review (minor spoilers, I guess) - the first 3 episodes drop tomorrow and it sounds like they are doing 3 episodes a week for 4 weeks, as each one comprises a mini-arc. Trying not to get spoiled on the internet is sure to be a nightmare.

- I haven't done the AO3 stats meme regularly since 2018 because not much changes in my top 10. In 2021, however, I made note of some up-and-comers in the 11-20 slots, and it turns out that as of 4/20/25, Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc (i.e., the one where Dick convinces Jason to stop killing through the power of hugs) has crept into the top 10 by hits - it's number 9! (It looks like Our history is just in our blood (history, like love, is never enough) (the Steve/Bucky remix AU where Steve finds Bucky working as a barista) is the one that fell out of the top 10.)

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc also made inroads into the top 10 by kudos, landing at number 5! Additionally, 2 Star Wars stories also found their way into the top 10 by kudos: There's Still Time to Change the Road You're On (in which Anakin time travels to the post-RotJ era and meets his kids) at 6, and deep as a secret nobody knows (AU where Leia tells Vader she's Padme's daughter and it changes everything) at number 8!

The 3 Avengers stories that dropped are again, Our history is just in our blood (history, like love, is never enough), plus Even a Miracle Needs a Hand (Clint/Darcy fake Christmas boyfriend), and with the lights out, it's less dangerous (Steve/Bucky, then and now).

According to these posts, I did not previously do the full list by comments, but I will note the appearance of deep as a secret nobody knows at number 3 on the comments list, and another Vader-and-Leia AU, Just a Little Bit of History Repeating, at number 10, with the VMars/Avengers crossover we travel without seatbelts on sitting pretty at number 7.

So I guess given enough time, these things CAN change.

- Today's poem:

Nothing Will Warn You
by Stephen Dunn

Nothing will warn you,
not even the promise of severe weather
or the threats of neighbors muttered
under their breath, unheard by the sonar

in you that no longer functions.
You'll be expecting blue skies, perhaps
a picnic at which you'll be anticipating
a reward for being the best handler

of raw meat in a county known
for its per capita cases of salmonella.
You'll have no memory of those women
with old grievances nor will you guess

that small bulge in one of their purses
could be a derringer. You'll be opening
a cold one, thinking this is the life,
this is the very life I've always wanted.

Nothing will warn you,
no one will blurt out that this picnic
is no picnic, the clouds in the west
will be darkly billowing toward you,

and you will not hear your neighbors'
conspiratorial whispers. You'll be
readying yourself to tell the joke
no one has ever laughed at, the joke

someone would have told you by now
is only funny if told on yourself, but no one
has ever liked you enough to say so.
Even your wife never warned you.

***

(no subject)

Apr. 21st, 2025 05:25 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
Dear Care and Feeding,

My sister had her first child when I was 18 and her second when I was 20. (She’s eight years older than I am.) She lives a little over an hour from me, and we’ve always had a good relationship. I watched the kids regularly when I was in college, working around my class schedule, and I continued to do so for many years since, during the summer and on days off from school (I am a teacher). The kids are now 16 and 18, and I have a solid relationship with both of them. I also got married and had two kids of my own.

My sister-in-law is pregnant with her first baby. When I mentioned, at a gathering of my family, the Easter-themed pajamas I had bought for the baby (in what I hope will be the right size for next year), my sister got upset.

She pointed out that I’m “already hosting her [my SIL’s] baby shower,” and complained that I was now “also buying stuff for her baby for a holiday that isn’t even a gift-giving one.” I was surprised. I told her the pajamas were on clearance and I’d picked them up on impulse because they were cute. She responded that I had never bought anything for her kids for Easter when they were young. I said that was true, I hadn’t: I had been a broke college student at the time and also not a parent myself, so my awareness of things like that was much lower. She asked if I was going to continue buying things for that child on every other non-gift holiday—“Saint Patrick’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving?” I told her I might if I happened to see something I thought was cute; I jokingly asked if she’d like me to buy matching pajamas for her kids for Halloween this year if I found them.

She got even angrier and said she hopes my SIL appreciates all that I am doing for her because not everyone gets that from their family (very clearly meaning she hadn’t gotten that from me). I told her she was right—not everyone gets $1.99 Easter pajamas for their baby. But maybe some people got years of free babysitting, often with little to no notice, instead of cheap pajamas, because that’s what I was able to give at the time. She got up and left. I tried calling and texting her; she hasn’t responded. My mother has told me that my sister has talked to her about it, that my comment had hurt her, and that I was holding the child care I had done over her head. My mother thinks I should apologize.

I have no idea where this is coming from. It’s very out-of-character for her. I can’t believe she’s jealous about a pair of pajamas (or whatever that gift represents) for another baby when I have always had/still maintain a close relationship with her children. Our brothers also have kids we are both close to, and she has never acted like this. Can I just ignore her unreasonable behavior or do I actually have to address it? I usually have a cookout and host both sides of our family around the start of summer. I’d like to be confident that my SIL won’t be the object of my sister’s wrath that day just because she has the audacity to be pregnant with my future niece or nephew. But how?

—Aunt to Others, Too


Read more... )
wychwood: G'Kar knows that each voice lost diminishes us (B5 - G'Kar each voice)
[personal profile] wychwood
Bad news all round the last few days - TERFs winning a court case to allow anyone who wants to deny GRCs last week, and then Pope Francis dying this morning. Of course he'd been in terrible health for much of the year, but I'm still sad about it.

I didn't agree with everything he said (of course!) but the work he did on refocussing the Church and particularly the media voices away from spending all their time on ABORTION and HOMOSEXUALITY towards, you know, poverty and injustice and all the things that Jesus spent most of his time talking about was just amazing. Now we're left worrying about who will take over, and what agenda they might have; he's appointed a good share of the current voting-age cardinals, which hopefully means that whoever it is won't immediately undo everything. RIP Pope Francis, and thank you.

Today was my big DAY OFF and I have, on the one hand, done two weeks' worth of ironing, three loads of laundry, a week's worth of washing up, and a fair amount of assorted tidying up; on the other hand, I read a JD Robb book, played an hour or two of Dragon Age: Veilguard, had a nap, and spent enough time in idleness that I feel reasonably well-rested. My dad said to me yesterday when I was leaving to come home, "You're really tired today, aren't you?" and I thought about whether I was tired and spontaneously started leaking tears (always a sure indication!!). I feel much more emotionally stable today, fortunately.

Unfortunately I am now going back to their house for the next two days as part of a rota to make sure that Mum has someone around for a) dinner prep and b) potential crises while Dad's in France making sure the house hasn't fallen down since he had to rush back in January. It should be relatively peaceful - there'll be some assorted chores around stripping, laundering, and remaking beds, maybe a bit of restoring order after the departure of the houseful of guests, but I'm taking several books, a few DVDs, and my booklog file to hopefully make some progress on. But no video games, alas. I'll leave there to go to choir, then back home for work on Thursday followed by book group followed by back into the office on Friday, because the fun just never stops!! but honestly the next few weeks are moderately reasonable.
resonant: Ray Kowalski (Due South) (Default)
[personal profile] resonant
For the New House by Ursula K. Le Guin

May this house be full of kitchen smells
and shadows and toys and nests of mice
and roars of rage and waterfalls of tears
and deep sexual silences and sounds
of mysterious origin never explained
and troves and keepsakes and a lot of junk
and a flowing like a warm wind only slower
blowing the leaves of trees and books and the fish-years
of a child’s life silvery flickering
quick, quick, in the slow incessant gust
that billows out the curtains for a moment
all those years from now, ago.
May the sills and doorframes
be in blessing blest at every passing.
May the roof but not the rooms know rain.
May the windows know clearly
the branch and flower of the apple tree.
And may you be in this house
as the music is in the instrument.

Face the Dragon, by Joyce Sweeney

Apr. 21st, 2025 11:59 am
rachelmanija: (Books: old)
[personal profile] rachelmanija


In this YA novel published in 1990, six fourteen-year-olds face their inner dragons while they're in an accelerated academic program which includes a class on Beowulf.

I read this when it first came out, so when I saw a copy at a library book sale, I grabbed it to re-read. It largely holds up, though I'd completely forgotten the main plot and only recalled the theme and the subplot.

My recollection of the book was that the six teenagers are inspired by class discussions on Beowulf to face their personal fears. This is correct. I also recalled that one of the girls was a gymnast with an eating disorder and one of the boys was an athlete partially paralyzed in an accident, and those two bonded over their love of sports and current conflicted/damaging relationship to sports and their bodies, and ended up dating. This is also correct.

What I'd completely forgotten was the main plot, which was about the narrator, Eric, who idolized his best friend, Paul, and had an idealized crush on one of the girls in the class, who he was correctly convinced had a crush on Paul, and incorrectly convinced Paul was mutually attracted to. Paul, who is charming and outgoing, convinces Eric, who is shy, to do a speech class with him, where Eric surprisingly excels. The main plot is about the Eric/Paul relationship, how Eric's jealousy nearly wrecks it, and how the boys both end up facing their dragons and fixing their friendship.

Paul's dragon is that he's secretly gay. The speech teacher takes a dislike to him, promotes Eric to the debate team when Paul deserves it more (and tells Eric this in private), and finally tries to destroy Paul in front of the whole class by accusing him of being gay! Eric defends Paul, Paul confesses his secret to him, and the boys repair their friendship.

While a bit dated/historical, especially in terms of both boys knowing literally nothing about what being gay actually means in terms of living your life, it's a very nicely done novel with lots of good character sketches. The teachers are all real characters, as are the six kids - all of whom have their own journeys. The crush object, for instance, is a pretty rich girl who's been crammed into a narrow box of traditional femininity, and her journey is to destroy the idealized image that Eric is in love with and her parents have imposed on her - and part of Eric's journey is to accept the role of being her supportive friend who helps her do it.

I was surprised and pleased to discover that this and other Sweeney books are currently available as ebooks. I will check some out.
lilly_the_kid: (Default)
[personal profile] lilly_the_kid posting in [community profile] vidding
Title: Something Good
Fandom: Deadpool & Wolverine, Deadpool movies
Music: Something Good by Herman's Hermits
Pairing: Deadpool/Wolverine
Summary: something tells me I'm into something good
Warnings: violence, blood

Here on AO3

SGA: Predatory by Frostfire

Apr. 21st, 2025 11:59 pm
mific: (Atlantis gold sunset)
[personal profile] mific posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: Gen. Steve the Wraith, Original male character, John Sheppard
Rating: Mature
Length: 1801
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply. Second person POV
Creator Links: frostfire on AO3
Theme: Outsider POV, genfic

Summary: More issues, Steve's and others'.

Reccer's Notes: This is told from the POV of a young Marine, on guard outside Steve the Wraith's cell on Atlantis. He battles with the pressure Steve puts on his mind and senses, made worse by possible unresolved issues from his past. Then Sheppard visits and comprehensively distracts the Wraith, and things change. An interesting perspective and character study, and I liked the second person POV which made it more immediate, being inside the guy's thoughts. 

Fanwork Links: Predatory

mific: (Eddie Steve stranger things)
[personal profile] mific posting in [community profile] fanart_recs
Fandom: Stranger Things
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Eddie Munson
Content Notes/Warnings: a bit NSFW due to his partly naked chest
Medium: digital art
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: jemmacdraws on tumblr
Why this piece is awesome: A gorgeous piece with rockstar Eddie under stage lighting. Very pretty and very sexy, toying with his spiked collar.
Link: here for a good time not a long time

UK people: disability benefit cuts

Apr. 21st, 2025 09:48 am
rydra_wong: Grasshopper mouse stands on its hind legs to howl. (turn venom into painkillers)
[personal profile] rydra_wong
Rebellion is growing among Labour MPs, so if you have a Labour MP, now is a VERY good and important time to write to them to protest the proposed PIP and other cuts:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/20/the-whole-policy-is-wrong-rebellion-among-labour-mps-grows-over-5bn-benefits-cut

(If you have a non-Labour MP, hassle them too and see if they can be persuaded to do something vaguely useful.)

Come speak to me of Second Person POV

Apr. 21st, 2025 05:44 pm
china_shop: You can't wait for inspiration to strike. You have to go after it with a club. (writing - inspiration)
[personal profile] china_shop
The Writing Excuses podcast is doing a series on voice (first, third limited, third omniscient), and mostly their discussions have been great. I've enjoyed them a lot. But I found today's episode on second person (2ndPOV) unsatisfying. They got distracted talking about video games, TTRPG, online recipe essays, and Youtube influencers, and when they did discuss fictional prose, they seemed to think the "you" character had to be a reader stand-in. (Or maybe I misunderstood? Quite possible!) Anyway, now I'm itching to procrastinate on my story talk with like-minded souls about the joys of second person.

Note: If you not into 2ndPOV, that's totally cool. Each to their own! But please don't chime in to tell me or explain why; I'm not interested in defending it today.

Rambling, so much rambling. )

ION, Andrew sent me a link to Secrets of Writing Snappy Dialogue (Banter) (Youtube video). At first I was resistant, but then I watched it and now I'm overhauling my 4k fic AGAIN. This is killing me, lol.

Daily Happiness

Apr. 20th, 2025 09:00 pm
torachan: ewan mcgregor pulling his glasses down to look over the top (ewan glasses)
[personal profile] torachan
1. Back to work tomorrow. I am not enthused about that, but I did really enjoy my time off and I felt like being off for three weeks allowed me to actually disconnect more from work than I usually do if I'm just off a couple days or even a week. I did glance at my email and messages every day, but only responded less than ten times and even when I looked at the phone screen to see the messages, I only did so once or twice a day, rather than multiple times throughout the day. Tomorrow will be the start of a huge catch-up (thousands of messages to get through) and I think I will just work from home tomorrow unless something else comes up, so at least it will be a slow easing back into things. And since it's the last week of the month, there are less meetings, which means for time for catching up.

2. We had a lovely time at DCA this morning. I've heard that easter can be a pretty busy day but while it was getting a little busier by the time we left, it was super light in the first few hours and the weather was great.

3. I love getting shots of the cats looking out the window.

Two Purrcys; housework

Apr. 20th, 2025 09:39 pm
mecurtin: tabby cat pokes his cute face out of a box (purrcy)
[personal profile] mecurtin
In general Purrcy is *not* allowed on the kitchen counters. But he seemed extremely interested in the back corner here, so I let him jump up and poke around as part of his Rodent Control Officer duties. No results at this time, but Constant Vigilance! is his watchword.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby looks back at the camera over his shoulder from where he stands in the corner between a tile wall and an uneven stone one. Plastic containers can be seen next to him. He looks quite concerned, but his eyes are a beautiful gray-green.



Purrcy jumped up on the kitchen Chair O Love and he was feeling *feisty*! He discovered a gap between the blanket & the chair, explored it, and saw that it was Good.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby crouches on a gray-green blanket-covered chair in a kitchen, looking a little wild.

A gray-green blanket is draped across a chair. The white-furred nose of a tabby cat peaks out the bottom, whiskers spread but eyes invisible.

A close-up of Purrcy the tuxedo tabby's face as he peers out from under a gray-green blanket on a worn brown vinyl chair. Only his eyes, little pink nose, and wide-spread whiskers can be seen.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby peeks out from where he crouches in a nook made by a gray-green blanket draped over a worn brown vinyl chair. His eyes look very large and solemn, his paws very small.



People on Bluesky were discussing a tweet by a TERF called June Slater, who posted:
These trans women. Do they ever do things like women actually do, run a home, cook, put the washer on, get the kids to school, visit relatives in care homes, budget the bills, clean the house, chauffeur kids about? You know the reality of being a woman!
One of the boggling aspects of this "thinking", to me, is the way she doesn't seem to be able to conceive of MEN cooking or taking care of children or living spaces.

Katherine Dickinson said
there’s a weird expectation of childishness in men among these women to the point it’s like these women aren’t attracted to functioning adults and it’s like two steps from Why Don’t You Take A Seat With Chris Hansen territory

And I remember things I'd read about the history of housekeeping and service work that I wrote up here, and wondered:
Compared to the US & the Continent, Brits tended to be resistant to labo(u)r-saving home tech & reliant on servants for the middle-to-upper classes right up to WW2. After the War, *huge* shock of not having servants like before, & I think maybe upper-middle/upper-class men just ...use their wives?

bcuz before the War they were certainly childishly dependent, by US standards. e.g. Gentleman's service flats, in UK, were bachelor apts with cleaning, cooking, and personal valet services provided. No equiv in US AFAIK
I looked at some stats about household work, but there's basically nothing about how the lives of upper-middle-class or richer people live in different countries.

Ach, I shall quit this now and finish my Andor re-watch, so Dirk and I can watch the new eps when they drop on Tuesday.

2025 Disneyland Trip #28 (4/20/25)

Apr. 20th, 2025 06:39 pm
torachan: maru the cat peeking through the blinds and looking grumpy (maru peeking through the blinds)
[personal profile] torachan
Last day of the Food and Wine Festival so last chance to ride Soarin' Over California before it goes back to Soarin' Over the World.

Read more... )

Weekly Reading

Apr. 20th, 2025 06:12 pm
torachan: scott pilgrim pouting (scott pilgrim - pout)
[personal profile] torachan
Currently Reading
The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill
26%. The MC is a cleaner who goes in and deep-cleans the houses where people have lain dead and undiscovered for a long time. She stumbles upon a mystery when two of her recent jobs have had the same dried flower at the scene. Pretty interesting so far.

Architectural Follies in America
16%. This is a short, picture-filled book about various odd buildings in the US. Randomly found it in a neighborhood Little Library. It's interesting.

A Drop of Corruption
23%. This has definitely picked up now and I'm a lot more interested in what's going on. Just haven't been making much progress because I've been off work and the majority of my audiobook time is in the car. Also a note on the audiobook, and I had this problem with the otherwise excellent audiobook versions of The Locked Tomb series, but there are pronunciation changes from the first book! I'm guessing that after the first book's audiobook came out, the narrator got feedback from the author and then made changes for the following books, but it's really jarring and I wish that if the author really wanted names/words said a certain way (or in the case of The Locked Tomb, certain accents used) then they would make note of that first, rather than changing mid-series. (And if it's just the narrator making changes rather than author feedback, I wish they wouldn't make those changes, either. Pick a pronunciation and stick to it!)

Hidden Figures
44%.

Recently Finished
Winterborne Home for Mayhem and Mystery
Sequel to Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Virtue. This felt like maybe there was supposed to be more books in the series and it all got wrapped up quickly in the end? It was all right, but I wasn't super into either book.

The Boney Hand
Sequel to Charlie & Frog. Another mystery in the town. This was cute. Seems like the author maybe wanted it to be a series but there haven't been any more books after this.

The Amelia Six
Middle grade book about a group of girls who win an overnight stay at Amelia Earhart's childhood home, but while they're there, her goggles go missing and they have to solve the mystery. It was just all right.

Murderburg
Apparently originally a web comic, this graphic novel is about a small island town inhabited mostly by criminals. The actual name is Muderburg, but everyone calls it Murderburg. The main characters are not even thinly veiled Morticia and Gomez, though the children are not Wednesday and Pugsly. It was fine. Somewhat funny in places but mostly just there.

Break Out
Heavy-handed graphic novel about a world where mysterious and possibly alien cubes appear in the sky and start randomly kidnapping people. But it only happens to teens, so when the governments of the world have done all they can and can't find a way to stop it, they just say well, it's just a few people here and there, we'll just have to live with it. Then the kids save the day. Obviously paralelling school shootings, but it felt like the message was more important than the story itself, because the plot is just one of those types where so many coincidences happen just right that it feels unbelievable.

Do Da Dancin'!: Venice Competition vol. 1-2
I'm not enjoying this quite as much as the original series, but it's good enough that I'll finish it.

Umimachi Diary vol. 8-9
Overall this series was just okay. I originally read the first three volumes on a limited time free promotion and liked them a lot, but when I finally got around to reading the rest of the series now I just found it kind of dragged. Not bad, but just okay.

last! frost! date!

Apr. 20th, 2025 06:11 pm
watersword: A young woman swinging on a hill (Stock: spring)
[personal profile] watersword

Yesterday was the first really nice day we've had since, like, October, and it was also the spring workday for garden #4. My bed there is now nicely topped up with compost and I will put asparagus and rhubarb in when I get back from the Obligatory Family Event next week. (I also got a bunch of numbers from fellow gardeners and am going to try to organize an expedition to a local native nursery.)

Today was a little chillier and windy, but I got out and planted four kinds of peas (Snak Hero, Cascadia, Mammoth Melting, and a sweet pea mix) and pruned the rosemary in my plot in garden #1. Providence is so beautiful in the spring, and everything has started blooming practically overnight, trees foaming with white and pink and gold, daffodils and tulips and violets glowing.

Tomorrow is the election for the board for the group backing garden #3, I am not running and no one can make me.

ETA: Goddamn it, I am informed no one has volunteered to lead the infrastructure committee, which is what I care about anyway. But I only care about a subset of things in infrastructure (benches and the pollinator garden) and what I have said before still applies: I don't want to be in charge of shit! I am very good at it but it is very bad for me! This is not how I want to spend my one wild and precious life!

reading

Apr. 21st, 2025 12:49 am
cimorene: (gossip)
[personal profile] cimorene
I finished reading The Abbot (Scott) and The Roots of the Mountains (Morris), but I haven't been able to take time to compose posts about them because I saved a ton of quotations and I really wanted to finish the sweater I've been knitting. I finished weaving in the ends today, so tomorrow I can block it.

Also the remaining Emily Wilson translations I've got are Roman plays by Seneca, not Greek tragedies, and I'm not liking them as much. Also the book is a pdf which is always a pain. I've got another William Morris reread and another Walter Scott novel set in the middle ages to read queued up, but I'm taking a break to reread the original Villeneuve Beauty and the Beast, which I've been meaning to get around to for a while, because it has hilariously elaborate fairy lore backstory but I couldn't remember the specifics.
petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)
[personal profile] petra
Give me a kink or a sex-related trope and/or one or more characters (ideally one(s) I know, though I have osmosed quite a bit from many other sources), and I will write you a limerick.

Please publicize this! Requests are welcome, no matter whether I know you or not. Anon commenting is on; just leave a name so I know who to dedicate the poem to.

*

Limericks thus far, alphabetical by fandom:

due South )

Interview with the Vampire (TV) )

Murderbot Diaries )

Star Wars Original Trilogy )

Star Wars Prequel Trilogy )

Venom Movies )
full_metal_ox: Lan Wangji from Mo Dao Zu Shi, with his bunnies. (bunnies)
[personal profile] full_metal_ox posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Chen Qing Ling, Mo Dao Zu Shi
Pairings/Characters: Gen; M/M (background Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian); Cloud Recesses Rabbits, Lan Yi, Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 432
Content Notes: Corporal Punishment (referenced); written in Russian; written for WTF Modao Zushi 2022 (fandom_Wei_Wuxian_and_Co).
Creator Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama, Animal Death, Crack, fairy tale, Fluff, Rabbits, WTF | Winter Temporary Fandom Kombat 2022, WTF | Winter Temporary Fandom Kombat, Don't copy to another site
Creator Links: (AO3): [archiveofourown.org profile] kasmunaut
Theme: Outsider POV, Animals, Cultural Differences, Folklore & Fairytales

Summary: И кролики могут быть верными. (And rabbits can be true.)

Author’s Notes: АУ: дорамоверс, вансяни вынесли кроликов из пещеры. (AU: Dramaverse, Wangxian brought the rabbits out of the cave.)

Беты [archiveofourown.org profile] noface и mummi. (Betas [archiveofourown.org profile] noface and mummi.)

Reccer's Notes: The POV character of this Russian-language fic is one of Lan Yi’s white spiritual rabbits—who, taken into the sunlit green world, suddenly has to adjust to not only a custody transfer but an alien habitat and way of life. This story alludes to the fairytales of the Snow Maiden and the rabbit who saved the Buddha, so be prepared for a similar tale of self-sacrificial devotion.

(And yes, the author addresses the question of how the rabbits subsisted in the ice cave—something a lot of Chen Qing Ling viewers had been wondering.)

Fanwork Links: Песенка льда и пламени (A Song of Ice and Fire), by [archiveofourown.org profile] kasmunaut for WTF Modao Zushi 2022 (fandom_Wei_Wuxian_and_Co)
full_metal_ox: A gold Chinese Metal Ox zodiac charm. (Default)
[personal profile] full_metal_ox posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Daomu Biji
Pairings/Characters: F/M; Yin Xinyue/Zhang Qishan; Yin Xinyue, Zhang Qishan, Tanaka Ryoko (DMBJ Series), Wu Xie, Employee Da Wei (OC), Er Yue Hong, Zhang Qiling, Huo Xiangu, OC Narrator
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 2,028
Content Notes: No Archive Warnings Apply, monsters (see Creator Tags), canon-typical monstrous transformation, in-universe RPF, in-universe genderswitch fic
Creator Tags: Art, vintage, Digital Collage, Dubious Historical Research, Ghost Moths (DMBJ Series), Blood Zombies (DMBJ Series), Black Snake Zombies (DMBJ Series), Hei Feizi, Snakes, Hydra Cypress (DMBJ Series)
Creator Links: (AO3): [archiveofourown.org profile] Thimblerig; (Tumblr): [tumblr.com profile] thelaithlyworm
Theme: Outsider POV, Fanart, Historical Settings, In-Universe Lore, Research, Worldbuilding

Summary: So, yeah, I was rummaging through a box of photos that my gran had, and you'll never guess who was in some kind of official publicity still. Fo-ye! That guy was a looker.

I digitised it to share, and I've scrounged up a few more. I Am Engaging In History, so proud!


Author’s Notes:: // I futzed around with some screenshots and publicity stills to make them look 'vintage'. Not very deep, but hella fun.

// Images free to share, use, or remix, no credit required. (But if you do credit, please include the Pixabay source data as well.)

// Bon appetit.


Reccer's Notes: A 21st-century amateur history buff, rummaging through time-faded family scrapbooks, newspapers, magazines, and memorabilia, unearths a century’s wealth of photos, gossip, and pop culture about the great families of the Nine Gates (discovering in the process that, in Jess Nevins’ words, research is fractal.)

Fanwork Links: [ART] DMBJ Family Photos, by [personal profile] thimblerig.

Daily Happiness

Apr. 19th, 2025 10:07 pm
torachan: arale from dr slump with a huge grin on her face (arale)
[personal profile] torachan
1. We went to the farmers market this morning. I wish it was on Sundays instead of Saturdays because we usually go to Disneyland on Saturday morning, but this week we're going tomorrow instead, so we could go to the farmers market today. Sadly the Filipino tamales guy was not there this week, but we did get some of the delicious chocolate dipped macaroons we've gotten the last few times we went.

2. For dinner we ordered pizza from a fancy local place we have been meaning to try for years and never get around to. Sadly the one pizza I was most interested in from their menu was not available (butternut squash), but we got a zucchini one and a meat lovers one and both were very tasty. Definitely would order from there in the future, though it's not an every day place, that's for sure.

3. Usually I make a chocolate sheet cake for Carla's birthday but because we were out of town, I totally forgot about it, until randomly a channel Carla follows on youtube had a video about it, so I decided to make it today. I don't bake very much anymore and this cake is a lot of work, but it's soooooo good. After I'd already started mixing ingredients, Carla mentioned making a half-batch, but it was too late by then, but for next time I definitely will. We hardly use our large oven anymore and it's become a cupboard instead, so it has to be made in two small sheet pans to fit in the Breville, and that made it a little more annoying, plus we just don't need that much cake. I can give a good chunk to Alexander to take home with him tomorrow, at least.

4. Chloe and Molly were twinning on the bed.

Movie rec

Apr. 19th, 2025 09:30 pm
gwyn: (teevee jim ward morris)
[personal profile] gwyn
Hey, if you are going to theatres to see movies these days, I can highly recommend Sinners, with Michael B. Jordan, Wunmi Mosaku, and Hailee Steinfeld. It's about twin brothers (played by Jordan) who return to their town in Mississippi in 1932 to open a juke joint, and run up against vampires. I'm not much of a vampire person at all, but I think this would probably satisfy both the vampire loving crowd as well as the crowd like me, because the whole first hour is mostly a slow build of who the twins are and who the people in their lives are, and what's happened to them to make them what they are (not the least of which is of course generational trauma from racism), and also background for the character who becomes central to both their story and to the vampires' story.

The music is fucking off the charts amazing (Ludwig Göransson does the soundtrack and a lot of the music stuff) and worth it alone. There are two music sequences that left me kind of gobsmacked. I've never seen anything like it.

There's definitely gore and jump scares, but overall I didn't find it too horror-y, more like a modern monster movie in terms of the violence and such. It was definitely R-rated, with some very sexual scenes. Anyways, if you were considering it, I loved it. (It was directed by Ryan Coogler of Black Panther fame.)
torachan: (chloe yawn)
[personal profile] torachan
Up until just recently (April 1st, as it happens), the rides in Fantasy Springs were virtual queue only, so you really had to get there early to lock in the return times, but as of this month, they now have regular standby lines in addition to the paid premier access for three of the four rides (the Tinkerbell ride is standby-only). Still, I wanted to make sure we were in the park right when it opened to get those premier access passes, especially for Frozen, since that is the most popular ride.

So I went over to the park around seven and got in line, and Carla planned to meet up with me before nine. That was definitely the right plan! )
brokenframe: (Default)
[personal profile] brokenframe posting in [community profile] vidding
Title: Across the Universe
Characters: Elim Garak and Julian Bashir
Fandom: Star Trek
TV Series: Deep Space Nine
Song: Across the Universe cover by Fiona Apple
Length: 4:09
Streaming/download at: DW | Tumblr

Happy Saturday

Apr. 19th, 2025 04:20 pm
cofax7: XKCD boom de yada (Boom de Yada)
[personal profile] cofax7
Hey folks!

Still alive, still employed! Booyah.

Not loving the job right now: it's never boring, but I had never intended to be a manager of people, and it's really quite stressful. Plus, you know, ::waves vaguely:: the omnishambles of everything is not helping.

But I did take the Tornado out for a 7-mile hike this morning, and she behaved quite well, and we just did some agility practice, and she got six weave poles in a row! Five times! So great. (If you have never seen dog agility, it looks like this, although that's one of the top dogs in the UK, and the Tornado is just beginning her agility journey.)

I call her the Tornado because she is Very. High. Energy. (And tends to knock things over.) I fear she will be one of the dogs barking all the way through the agility course.

Anyway, I'm planning some vacation time this summer, although it feels a little weird to be planning an international trip at this time. I plan to do some judicious app-deletion before coming back through Customs, because that's the world we live in right now.

Currently very excited about both Andor and Murderbot! I've already gotten a tiny bit spoiled for Andor, so I think I will have to lock down my browsing for the next few days. I understand the next Star Wars animated show (after Underworld) is also going to be about Darth Maul, and I'm kind of dubious, but maybe they can do something interesting with it. Myself, I would rather have learned more about Omega's adventures in the Rebellion.

I'm halfway through this month's book for book club, but it's heavy going: Therese Raquin, by Zola. I have liked Zola: he's very grounded, very vivid. Not at all romantic. But these characters are really very unlikeable. I may end up skimming a lot to finish by Tuesday.

***

I feel like I'm running out of plotty time-travel fixit fics in which determined heroes (and heroines) go back in time and prevent the errors of their forebearers. I suspect I have not found the right tags on AO3...

In other news, I am listening to Mind the Tags, a charming podcast about fandom, specifically fic-writing fandom. And although the hosts are quite nice, they're so young, and I found myself talking back to them as they fumbled their way through a discussion of the early days of alt.tv.x-files.creative. They tried to talk about show-specific archives and auto-archiving and never even mentioned Ephemeral and Gossamer! There are plenty of us fandom Olds still around!

(Although, how cool is it that Gossamer is still up? WTF.)

Still, it's a very friendly and upbeat podcast full of enthusiasm for fandom and fannish institutions, so I encourage y'all to give it a try if that's the sort of thing you enjoy. I found them because one of the hosts got interviewed by Anne Helen Peterson on her Culture Study podcast, which is also great.

In other other news, I lined up a group of local pals to go see our local minor league baseball team next month! So that will be fun! I like minor-league baseball because it's cheap and low-stakes and you can sit outside and drink beer and eat corn dogs and it doesn't really matter except you're there with a crowd and it's just fun. And all the seats are good.

the indivisible wave of your body

Apr. 19th, 2025 05:40 pm
musesfool: hardison/parker/eliot = ot3 (your desire for explosions and larceny)
[personal profile] musesfool
I made these confetti cookies from Smitten Kitchen this afternoon (pic), but unfortunately, they are way too sweet for me. They are really easy to put together though, especially with the food processor, since you don't need to soften the butter and cream cheese before you get started, and there's no need to chill them before baking.

In other news, I watched the 3 available episodes of season 3 of Leverage: Redemption and enjoyed them, though there was some cognitive dissonance in seeing Noah Wyle as Harry Wilson after 15 intense episodes of The Pitt. Aldis Hodge gets more handsome every time I see him, and the gloves have come off in terms of the writing - they are not even playing anymore about how stuff that is legal still isn't right. Plus, there have been some fun guest stars: casting spoilers ) I look forward to the rest of the season!

***

I haven't posted any Neruda in a while, so here's today's poem:

Sonnet XLVI

Of all the stars I admired, drenched
in various rivers and mists,
I chose only the one I love.
Since then I sleep with the night.

Of all the waves, one wave and another wave,
green sea, green chill, branchings of green,
I chose only the one wave,
the indivisible wave of your body.

All the waterdrops, all the roots,
all the threads of light gathered to me here;
they came to me sooner or later.

I wanted your hair, all for myself.
From all the graces my homeland offered
I chose only your savage heart.

-Pablo Neruda
(Trans. ???)

***
juniperphoenix: Locke and Sayid walking through tall grass (LOST: I went swimming in the Caribbean)
[personal profile] juniperphoenix posting in [community profile] fanart_recs
Fandom: Lost
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Benjamin Linus
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: pencil, I think
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: [archiveofourown.org profile] itsdoctorlinus

Why this piece is awesome: This slice of a portrait captures Ben's expression so well that my brain automatically draws the rest of the scene around it. Classic Ben.

Link: That Ben Linus Glare

Profile

thefourthvine: Two people fucking, rearview: sex is the universal fandom. (Default)
Keep Hoping Machine Running

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