October 5th, 2025
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
posted by [personal profile] rmc28 at 08:08pm on 05/10/2025 under , , ,

Term is starting, and I'm aiming to play for one of the university ice hockey teams this season (yes alongside Kodiaks 2), and there was a taster session aimed at postgraduate students on Friday evening, with a 90 minute break between it and my usual late-Friday-night Warbirds training. So Friday evening I worked a little late while waiting for the worst of the rain to pass over Cambridge, then cycled home to get my gear and over to the rink to help out with the taster session. All the roads and cycle paths had a lot of litter of leaves and small twigs from the blustery day.

ice hockey, vaccinations, more ice hockey )

Today has been my first "nothing actually scheduled" day in weeks, months even. I have been enjoying doing very little apart from reading and spending too long scrolling Instagram. While I did enjoy the many many videos about Kpop Demon Hunters / ice hockey / women's football & rugby that I watched today, I finally decided to turn on the iPad's screen time restriction for the Instagram app to cut down on the time wasted that way in future. The machines are better at distracting me than I am at having willpower, so the machines can cut me off too.

midnight_heavenly_bodies: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] midnight_heavenly_bodies at 02:48pm on 05/10/2025
Name: C.K. or Chester, if you like.

Age: 36.

I mostly post about: Linkin Park (specifically the 2000-2017 era, before the band became a cult puppet show), wrestling (classic SMW, WWF, the always sexy Jim Cornette, and my own very cursed WWE 2K25 Universe where I resurrect promotions and pair people based on vibes and trauma), Culture Club/Boy George fic, chaos, conspiracies, and timelines that make Doctor Who look basic, my OCs, who are so deeply real to me I've fought people in my head about them, Witchcraft, spirit work, folk healing, moon rituals, grief magic, retro gaming, random emotional overshares that sound like a journal entry from a possessed poet with too many piercings

My hobbies are: Writing fic that's 70% emotional breakdown, 20% worldbuilding, and 10% people getting railed in a meaningful way, hexing cults with sigils and sass, collecting music like it's my religion, drawing OCs, editing cursed screenshots and organizing old files like I'm preserving the Library of Alexandria, going to work like a normal person, coming home, and spiritually becoming a haunted glitter goblin with eyeliner and vengeance

My fandoms are: Linkin Park, wrestling (SMW, WWF, WCW -- but mainly the universes in my head), Culture Club (I write a huge fanfic AU for them), t.A.T.u., Verka Serduchka, obscure Eastern European pop acts with synths and trauma, Star Trek AOS (specifically Into Darkness)

I'm looking to meet people who: are too weird for Reddit, too raw for Instagram, and too smart for Twitter/X, overshare about their OCs like it's their religion, are into long-ass posts, rambling, and crying over character development

My posting schedule tends to be: Erratic. Sometimes I post a lot, sometimes I disappear for three weeks and come back with stuff.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: Racism, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, antisemitism, or being a dick in general, "Hamasniks", Scientology apologists or people who think Mike Shinoda is evil because they saw an Instagram reel with eerie music behind it (or buy into a certain someone's heavily cherry-picked posts), anyone who says "you still like Linkin Park?" or "isn't wrestling fake?"

Before adding me, you should know: I'm trans. My pronouns are he/him and they/them. I am autistic and ADHD. I write the "controversial" fanfic trope of mpreg a lot. I am very defensive of my faves.  I am a Zionist, and hate how the term has been turned into something it's not. I am pro-AI, and use it a lot to make AI song covers. I find it fun. Also, I smoke weed, lol.

Mood:: 'calm' calm
abomvubuso: (Over the Edge)
posted by [personal profile] abomvubuso at 09:00pm on 05/10/2025 under ,
Music:: The Warning - Hell You Call A Dream
location: cape town
Mood:: 'energetic' energetic
oursin: Frontispiece from C17th household manual (Accomplisht Lady)
posted by [personal profile] oursin at 07:08pm on 05/10/2025 under ,

Last week's bread had a mould episode, chiz, so I made a loaf of Dove's Farm Organic Seedhouse Bread Flour, crust sprung a bit while baking, I think due to age of yeast, but otherwise okay.

Friday night supper, penne with sauce of roasted red peppers in brine whizzed in blender + chopped Calabrian salami.

Saturday breakfast rolls: brown grated apple, strong brown flour, maple syrup (also new batch of yeast): v nice.

Today's lunch: tempeh stirfried with sugar snap peas and a sauce of soy sauce, maple syrup, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, cornflour mixed in water, crushed garlic and minced ginger: am not sure the tempeh was supposed to crumble like that during cooking?? served with sticky rice with lime leaves and chicory quartered, healthygrilled in pumpkinseed oil and splashed with lemon and lime balsamic vinegar.

metallherz: (Tom Morello)
brithistorian: (Default)

Today's quote of the day is actually three quotes, all on the practice of writing history, come from Bruce W. Dearstyne's "The Progressive President and the AHA: Theodore Roosevelt and the Historical Discipline," published in the September 2025 issue of Perspectives on History from the American Historical Association.

The first two are from early 20th century historian Allan Nevins[^1] (1890-1971):

"The world at large will sooner forgive lack of scientific solidity than lack of literary charm. The great preservative in history, as in all else, is style." — from his 1938 book *The Gateway to History

"With the demise of the romantic, unscientific, and eloquent school of writers, our history ceased to be literature." — from his 1959 AHA presidential address

Dearstyne shows that these issues are still relevant by following these quotes with a quote from contemporary historian Jacqueline Jones:

By making stories about the past available to all sorts of publics, scholars seek to counter mythmaking and contribute to a broader educational enterprise — one that is essential to the future of history and, indeed, democracy itself." — from her 2021 AHA presidential address

While I agree with these quotes as to the necessity of making history entertaining so that people will want to read it, I don't think that this has to come at the cost of accuracy. If fact, I think it must not come at the cost of accuracy. If only Jones had deleted the words "stories about" when writing this sentence — thus making it clear that accuracy is required when writing history — then I could agree with it wholeheartedly.

[^1] I found it interesting to note that Nevins had only an MA in history, the same as me, and yet he was able to become president of the AHA in 1959, whereas today an MA in history is (in my experience) basically useless.

senmut: Mia Sara, very pale, dressed in shimmery black as Lili in Legend (Fandom: Legend)
senmut: Autobot symbol (Transformers: Autobots)
posted by [personal profile] senmut at 11:47am on 05/10/2025 under ,
[Podfic] Where He Soars (53 words) by Gilraina
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Transformers - All Media Types, The Transformers (Cartoon Generation One)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Cosmos (Transformers)
Additional Tags: Introspection, Drabble, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Voiceteam 2023
Series: Part 16 of Dabble in Drabbles (Voiceteam 2023)
Summary:

Cosmos is not a land-mech.

An audio recording of Where He Soars by Merfilly.

posted by [syndicated profile] oglaf_comic_feed at 12:00am on 05/10/2025

Posted by Zach Weinersmith



Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
The worst part is the ocean of blood you can't see at the bottom of the last panel.


Today's News:
lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
3/5. Another novella in this fantasy series about the scholar who has a demon in his head. This one about a misadventure with teens in tow, and how families grow and change, and young people starting to find their way.

Pleasant, but I continue to think that there is a tidiness to these books that keeps me from really liking them. It’s not just the knowledge that everything will work out in the end, which it generally does, but occasionally not. I think it’s that she’s set up this theological system to be a bit . . . I don’t know. Categorical? Hogwarts house-y? Overly interventionist? IDK, these books feel terminally undangerous in the midst of dangerous things happening. Angsty teens figure out their life plans in 30,000 words or less. Everyone has a salutary lesson. Go home. I’m not expressing it well. Whatever it is, I think it emanates from the theology, and it renders these books just a little bit too neat, too easy.
dolorosa_12: (garden autumn)
Matthias has been away in Germany since Friday to celebrate his 25-year high school reunion, and the combination of being on my own with no plans other than some scheduled classes and swims in the gym, and the storm on Saturday gave me all the encouragement I needed to have a very cosy weekend. To be fair, I don't need much encouragement on that score — it worries me a bit how good I am at being on my own! Putting that aside, everything worked out perfectly. I felt particularly smug that on Saturday I was able to finish up at the gym at 11.45, dash home, dash out to the market and do all my grocery shopping, plus stand in an endless queue for Tibetan food from the food truck, pick up said food, and make it back through the door of my house at 1pm, at exactly the point that it started raining and howling with wind.

I didn't leave the house for the rest of the day, but simply lay around in the living room, with the string lights on, candles burning, drinking tea and rereading A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett), a massive childhood favourite of mine that I don't think I've revisited for at least fifteen years. The blunt racism and classism was as I remembered, but the story itself: of book-devouring, wise, and compassionate young Sara Crewe's riches-to-rags-to-riches-again fall and rise, against the backdrop of a cloistered Edwardian girls' boarding school run by the grasping, vulgar Dickensian villain Miss Minchin remained as compelling as ever. Sara's ability to escape her circumstances through the powerful world of her imagination was what spoke to me the most as a bookish child who lived very much in my own mind, and I enjoyed it immensely on this reread. Although it feels more like a winter book to me, I'd deliberately picked it up for this storm-tossed weekend, because in my memory, it's a book that plays heavily on the senses: warm fires and richly-described meals set against inadequately insulated attic bedrooms, and the dismal fog and biting cold of the streets of Edwardian London — and this indeed proved to be the case. I'm not sure if it's a book to pick up for the first time in adulthood, but if it was a childhood favourite, it's worth revisiting.

Other than reading sentimental childhood favourite books, I've spent a lot of time this weekend on a marathon catching up to all the episodes of the Rebecca Fraimow/Emily Tesh Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones podcast. (I'm only just at the start of season 2 — I was very much behind — and had hoped to make it to the 3-hour-long Fire and Hemlock episode, but that's not likely at this point since it's 3.30pm on Sunday afternoon.) I'm enjoying it immensely — the discussion hits the sweet spot of enthusiastic affection and depth of analysis in a way that I feel is rare in popular literary criticism at the moment, and it manages to make every episode engaging, even if you haven't read the source material (as I hadn't for most of the 1970s books — although now I want to). The two hosts are clearly having a great time, and the Hugo award for the podcast is very well deserved.

The podcast was the perfect accompaniment to the truly ridiculous amount of cooking I've been doing this weekend. This morning I went out into the garden and agressively pruned the tomato plants, including removing large numbers of green tomatoes (since I don't think there's much chance anything will ripen at this point). These I have put into preserving jars as three batches of fermented tomatoes — one type uses ripe red tomatoes, and the other ferments them while they're still green (for this I had so many tomatoes that I had to spread them across two massive 1L jars). I'm also slow-cooking a stew (my whole house smells of garlic and red wine), I made pickled cucumbers with chilli, and am going to infuse a bottle of bourbon with fresh peach (thanks for the tip, [personal profile] lyr). I'll update the post with a photoset once all the ferments are sorted out in their jars; the whole process has been incredibly satisfying. I may have had zero luck with growing anything other than tomatoes this year — but oh, what tomatoes they have been!

Update: gardening/preserving photoset here!
fred_mouse: drawing of mouse settling in for the night in a tin, with a bandana for a blanket (cleaning)
posted by [personal profile] fred_mouse at 10:29pm on 05/10/2025

It's been a bit of a damp day today, so my motivation is low, but I love hearing what you mob have achieved, so at least making this post is an easy thing to achieve!

How goes the decluttering? Have you shifted anything out of the house? Found something to sort through? Had thoughts on things you can let go of?

Comments open to locals, lurkers, drive by sticky beaks, and anyone I've forgotten to mention.

amperslashexchange: ampersand and forward slash (Default)
posted by [personal profile] amperslashexchange at 10:26am on 05/10/2025
Nominations have closed, and the final approvals are in!

Signups will open October 7, 12:01 AM UTC, and until then, I'll be going through the tagset looking for duplicates or errors. If you spot any, please let me know in the comments.

In the meantime, enjoy looking at the nominations and brainstorming requests! Everything will kick off soon.
liv: In English: My fandom is text obsessed / In Hebrew: These are the words (words)
posted by [personal profile] liv at 11:50am on 05/10/2025 under
Content note: mentions antisemitic murders and police violence. I personally am completely safe, I'm only talking about dealing with news.

It's around midday Yom Kippur. I'm leading the morning service with a tiny community in the southwest corner of England. There's a slight hiatus as this congregation only have two Torah scrolls, so we have to roll through from the first reading in Exodus to the second reading in Leviticus, saving the second scroll for the afternoon reading from Deuteronomy. (In this community, like most of the Progressive world, our second reading is Leviticus 19, not the verses that are sometimes used as clobber texts to support homophobia.) While there's milling about, the volunteers running the tech for Zoom approach me at the bimah and let me know that there has been an attack in a synagogue in Manchester.

reactions ) Also, I am deeply grateful for the kind people who checked in with me personally when they heard the news, and for all the leaders, Muslim, Christian and civic, who sent messages of support to the Jewish community and continue to be in solidarity with us.
Music:: Avinu Malkenu
Mood:: 'scared' scared
oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
posted by [personal profile] oursin at 01:02pm on 05/10/2025
Happy birthday, [personal profile] foxinsand!
wantedonvoyage: Riff off the cover of Gaslight Anthem's "Handwritten" (handwritten)
posted by [personal profile] wantedonvoyage at 11:21pm on 04/10/2025
I'm trying to be on here more than LJ because I'm paying for a lot of userpics, so I figured I would try again.

Name: Chris

Age: old

I mostly post about:
My life and interactions.

My hobbies are: going to rock concerts, camping, kayaking, stand-up paddle-boarding, drawing badly, reading and writing fiction.

My fandoms are: I don't really know that I'm into any specific franchise enough to count other than bands. I don't watch TV or see many movies. Some peculiar nerddoms: I have long been interested in the history of passenger aviation and shipping although I do very little about it these days.

Who I want to connect with: I am curious about people's lives which are different than mine and I am glad DW gives me a chance to experience them. Thus if our interests don't seem to align don't let that be a show stopper.

When I add people, my show-stoppers are: No drumpfreich apologists. I am also not particularly interested in following "celebrity" bloggers who are only on here looking for an audience. I like for my connections on here to be a two-way street.

Before adding me, you should know:
  1. Currently I have two things consuming a lot of my non-work time, which has meant less time to read and write. I'm doing my best to keep up and do not want to fall out of the habit. Accordingly...
  2. When I am pressed for time, I may make more of an effort to read/comment the people who also more frequently engage with my posts. This doesn't mean we shouldn't be connected if you can't be constantly be lavishing me with attention.
  3. One of the two distractions mentioned above is I am currently in a leadership position in my small, progressive/inclusive mainline protestant church. Although i do post about it, it's more in the vein that people post about their work life. I do not use my blog to proselytize. Also, I am not in the least bit uptight or prudish, or here to judge your life choices, and--as you would learn--I would be on thin ice if I did. It's just another thing that i do. 
My posting schedule tends to be: I was doing a post for every day, sometimes a few days behind, until the aforementioned plus being forced to commute 5x a week again changed things a bit. Right now I am trying to keep up with weekly.

leecetheartist: A lime green dragon head, with twin horns, and red trim. Very gentle looking, with a couple spirals of smoke from nose. (Default)
Title: Day 4 - Pool
Artist: [personal profile] leecetheartist 
Rating: G
Content Notes: Drawn directly with a nib pen, no pencil. This is Masquerade shimmer ink from Diamine. The pen is one of[personal profile] rdm  's  prototypes from the 3dprinter, fitted with a Schmidt 241 Broad nib. I put my back into this one, it took me most of the day. And you even get a microfic to go with it.

I'd only ever seen one of the creatures at the quiet pond. I'd no idea what it was, just saw it the once, and I don't think it saw me. It was just sliding into the water, a Splendid Wren chittering at it as it submerged, and was lost amongst the lilies.

I didn't tell anyone about it, and I had already put my voice amongst those who wanted to preserve the place as a sanctuary. With Alcoa getting out of the place, we had a good chance while things were in flux, and really, lovely pool, ferns around and the birdlife was great.

Glad I did, because when the aliens came looking for their lost child, and when the authorities started asking around, I had a quiet word. I even got to talk with the kid after. Quite the experience.

And suddenly Earth is talking with the big guns of the Galaxy, and seems like they owe us a favour. When they heard I was pushing for the sanctuary before I'd even spotted Junior whether it was a cryptozoological treasure or not, that impressed them because they're conservationists too. Turns out they want to offer me a job helping them talk to people who'd like their help getting rid of all these nasty forever chemicals in their environments.

Okay, then.
Ink drawing of a lush pool with odd creature





Close up to catch the sheen

Pen and ink on stand with Lego crab

Mood:: 'accomplished' accomplished
wickedgame: (Nick | Heartstopper)
posted by [personal profile] wickedgame at 01:06pm on 05/10/2025 under ,
DC's Legends of Tomorrow | Mako Mermaids | Motorheads | Ransom Canyon
   
URLs )
hmmm_tea: (Default)
I've recently starting taking my son down to a music practice in Bexhill on Saturday mornings. It gives me an hour to spare, so I've been walking along the beach into town. In some ways I think I prefer the seafront there to Hastings, it's much more peaceful.

The wind was up this week because of storm Amy (although nothing compared to what they've had further north) and the sea was very choppy. However, the sun was out too and quite bright. Very beautiful to see it glistening on the waves.

Cut for photo )
Mood:: 'content' content
douqi: (gu qu)
Friend-of-the-comm [twitter.com profile] bobbutls recently posted a review of the demo version of baihe visual novel Citrus Summer (橘香仲夏, pinyin: ju xiang zhongxia). The tl;dr summary: Great sprite art, pity about literally everything else, and also why was it built in UNREAL ENGINE??? Did they even playtest the English version????

The general premise seems to be that the protagonist receives a mysterious perfume from a talking plushie that... basically turns her gay? As the reviewer notes, this is highly questionable. Full review embedded below the cut for people who aren't or don't want to be on Twitter.

Read more... )

If anyone has thoughts on this or other baihe games, feel free to make a post! For instance, I know some people were interested in Love Curse, another baihe visual novel which was released a few months ago, so it would be great to have your thoughts on that if you've played it!
mekare: Firefly: happy Kaylee with a colourful umbrella (Kaylee)
Title: Through a window
Artist: mekare
Rating: G
Content Notes: brush pen (on its last legs, inkwise) and watercolour

colourful butterflies escaping through a opened window
sholio: aged sepia paper with printed text saying "If undelivered, return to Air Ministry, London" (Biggles-london air ministry)
I have something written for day 5, but I'm struggling a bit with edits, so I figured I'd skip ahead to this one for today.

No. 6: “No grave can hold my body down.”
Caught in a Net | Medical Restraints | Pinned to the Wall

Biggles books, Team Air Police, gen, 400 wds
Also on Tumblr

400 wds under the cut )
rdm: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] rdm at 02:54pm on 05/10/2025 under , ,
Mood:: 'creative' creative
October 4th, 2025
silver_chipmunk: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] silver_chipmunk at 10:06pm on 04/10/2025
Got up at 9:00 and had breakfast and coffee, showered and dressed, and walked to the bus stop for the 28 bus to my Al-anon meeting.

The meeting was very good, and I went to the diner afterward. It was so warm that we ate outside, and so warm I actually had to take off my jacket. Folks, this is not normal for October!!!

Anyway, afterward I took the bus home, the 13 to the 12 and the 12 to Parsons Blvd. Walked from there.

Went to the Starsky and Hutch Zoom chat. WE chatted for several hours, until a little after 7:00. Then we got off, and I Teamed the FWiB.

We talked til about 9:30, and then we got off, and I caught up with my usual internet sites. Then I called [personal profile] mashfanficchick and talked til ze had to get off to take a call from Dani. There was a slight chance ze was going to Faire with RK, and an even slighter possibility I could join in, but that fell through.

So then it was pet feeding time and I fed the pets, and sat down to start here. [personal profile] mashfanficchick called back and we discussed plans for upcoming days.

And that's the day, nothing spectacular or unusual, but a pleasant, enjoyable time.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. My meetings and the people there.

3. The nice weather, even though it's unseasonable.

4. The Starsky and Hutch fandom.

5. [personal profile] mashfanficchick

6. Fudgesicles.
Mood:: 'content' content
catherineldf: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] catherineldf at 09:10pm on 04/10/2025 under ,
So the big personal news for this week is that I finally got a job interview to wrap up last week...back at the same company I've been contracting at for most of the last three years. Different manager though, and more interesting-sounding position. Seeing as I know the ropes pretty well, I'm getting the second interview this coming week and we'll see how it goes. If I get the offer, I have to take it since my former contracting company is paying for my unemployment and frankly, I'm not very up for eyeing the abyss of "what happens if unemployment ends/savings have to be burned through/the entire social safety net finishes unraveling." I've been through enough of that over the last 5 years.

Apart from ageism, sexism, the economy and so forth, the main obstacle to me getting at least up to the interview stage is that my kitty Shu requires shots on a very regular schedule a couple of times a day, plus regular feedings--the cats are on a raw meat diet due to being allergic to chicken and somewhat delicate tummies so I can't just pop food in a feeder and let them fend for themselves. Paying my catsitter to come in a couple of times a week just so I can go into an office to make a manager feel more secure isn't particularly viable, not to mention the costs of gas and commuting. So it has to be full WFH and those IT gigs in my skillset are few and far between right now. Given all that, please wish me luck!

What's the backup plan? Well, I'm doubling down on publisher meetings, trainings related to book production and marketing and whatever I can glean from startup support/culture that is somewhat relevant to Queen of Swords Press. Today, for instance, I went to an Entrepreneur Expo at the Central Library and got some useful thoughts from one of the folks I talked to (from the county's Elevate program for small biz startups). I think she will probably be more useful for immediate advice than the guy I spoke to at St. Thomas a couple of weeks ago, and she did say that she wanted me to touch base with her soon. Last week was a couple of marketing workshops and a publisher meetup. Monday is a meetup for the the queer small business app we're now underwriting, Everywhere is Queer. Oh, and I added some events. And we're putting out a new book this month - Running Dry by M.Christian (gay vampires with a twist!) is up for preorder now. I'm also starting to add Jana's boxes to my Ko-fi shop, along with sundry services you can hire me for. 

I've got some writing and teaching plans that I'm working on as well, including, you know, books. Unfortunately, some of the teaching venues I taught at before are no longer viable the way they were before or have shifted directions in ways that do not play to my strengths. So more research, more pitching, more work all around. But next month, there's paid grant vetting and I just turned in another article so I can start pitching more of those.

On the bright side, I'm making progress on patching concrete around the house foundation and almost succeeded in patching the leaking pipe. I've managed to clean out and shift some stuff in the house so that none of the heating vents are blocked any more and there's a bit more space to move around. Next up, tripping hazards and things that make it harder to clean (like books in weird places, etc.). Shu is relatively stable, Ma'at is great and I've been vaxxed and all that good stuff. I'm doing a lot of cooking from scratch and some preserving and such. All in all, as long as I don't look at the news, I'm doing reasonably well, under the circumstances. 

Fingers crossed that it's the same for all of you right now!
minoanmiss: Minoan woman holding two snakes (House snakes)
senmut: A painted picture of Bones McCoy (Star Trek: Bones McCoy)
Thank you, [personal profile] kingstoken!

K-7 Surprise or Here on AdAstra (853 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: James T. Kirk, Spock (Star Trek), Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Joanna McCoy
Additional Tags: Slice of Life, Charity Auctions, Fluff
Summary:

A much needed R&R rotation garners a visitor eager to meet the other parts of her daddy's life.



K-7 Surprise

The U.S.S. Enterprise limped into Deep Space Station K-7's orbit, glad that no Klingon ships were in sight. They had a lot of scientific data to upload, needed time in friendly space to effect repairs, and would spend some time revising the data from their battle with the unknown vessels to forward to Starfleet Command.

Right now, though, Captain James T. Kirk intended to see that all of his crew took at least a full day of leisure aboard the station. He had gone over the roster with Bones, scheduling the away parties with an eye to who needed the down time fastest, and who needed specific crewmen to go with them. Spock had added a few tweaks to the rosters on his own, showing deep insight to the needs of the science personnel.

Bones had even nodded, with a wave for Jim to listen, because that bunch was almost as insular and workaholic as Scotty's engineers.

Scotty showed up on the bridge just as the good doctor was counter-signing the rosters, and his face was set in purposeful glares at the CMO, Captain, and First Officer.

"The three of ye, off the ship on the first rotation, aye?" he demanded.

Spock opened his mouth, closed it, arched an eye brow, then nodded. "Logical. If we go first, we will be back in time to allow you your time away, and then true repairs can begin without anything interrupting you as all of us will be back on duty."

"Annotated and amended in the report," Jim said, smiling as his chief engineer proved as wedded to the ship as he was. "Well, gentlemen, shall we?"

"We shall," Bones agreed, grinning at Scotty a moment before the trio made their way to quarters to gather their away bags.





Bones was discussing with Spock about the effectiveness of various types of scheduling for different crew needs. Jim supposed to outsiders it looked like arguing, but he could tell his friends were practicing their own version of relaxation from stress. That meant it was Jim who spotted the woman turning their way, her face lighting up, and he placed that dimpling smile against pictures in Bones' quarters.

"Gentlemen, we have company coming," he said, breaking the give-and-take of conversation so that both looked, and then it was Bones with matching dimples to the young woman.

"Joanna!" Bones cried out with joy, and then the pair were hugging with the intensity of people who only rarely got to see one another.

"When the leader of my project found out your ship was incoming, she insisted I take some time off and come up!"

"Up? You didn't tell me Sherman's Planet was your residency project!" Bones said, while placing a hand at the small of her back to guide her to a table.

"You two come sit with us," Joanna said firmly. "I want to actually talk to the two men Daddy has filled his comms with."

Spock's look was a study in Vulcan-not-being-smug-and-curious, while Jim bet his own let a little surprise show.

"Does he now?" Jim twitted, as Bones reached up to rub the back of his neck.

"Well, I see more of you and our resident pointy-eared hobgoblin than just about anyone other than Christine!"

"Statistically speaking, I find that highly improbable," Spock said, "but I am interested in making your acquaintance, Miss McCoy."

"If you would, call me Joanne; I get Miss McCoy'd all day by the colony children taking my first aid course."

"A worthwhile subject to teach." Spock glanced, briefly, at Bones, and the doctor rolled his eyes heavenward with a knowledge of where this would go. "Likely without causing any injuries to be demonstrated on."

"One time, Joanne. One time, because someone failed to secure a storage bin, not even my doing!" Bones protested, leading to his daughter laughing and smiling. She then looked at Jim, sizing him up.

"How do you manage to put up with Daddy's ways and sayings, sir?"

Jim gave a smile. "Once I realized the gruff and pretense of good-ole country doc hid more expertise than the medical academy, I rolled with it. And it does provide unique counterpoints to my executive officer's logical ways."

"Counter-intuitive arguments, you likely meant to say, Captain," Spock said in his mildest tone.

Joanna propped her chin on her hands, watching the interplay, soaking it up as part of the happy chance of seeing her father again.





Jim glanced over the efficiency reports starting to come in from various departments, now that they were back underway. He was unsurprised to find them top-notch, given how thorough everyone had been once they had had their needed rests.

Even Spock was more… nuanced in his reports without being a stickler for the science of them. And Bones?

Jim smiled to himself. Bones was going to be walking on air for weeks, just for the sheer happiness of seeing for himself that Joanna was thriving.

It promised to make off-shift mingling with both men that mattered to him almost as much as the ship all the better for that rest.

princessofgeeks: (Default)
cahwyguy: (Default)

It’s that time again. Here in California we normally don’t have statewide elections in odd years, but this year is special. We do have an election, with one Proposition on the ballot. This means there is no signature battle driving people to the ballot box, so it is even more important to get out the vote. Sample ballots have been mailed; the ballot guide has been mailed, and the actual ballots were received a day or so ago. Now, every election, I do a detailed ballot analysis of my sample ballot. This is where I examine each candidate or issue and share my conclusions, and invite you to convince me to vote for the other jerk or the other way. Fasten your seatbelts.

Here’s the issue that’s on the ballot:

  • Proposition 50:  Authorizes Temporary Changes to Congressional District Maps in Response to Texas’ Partisan Redistricting. Legislative Constitutional Amendment.

According to the legislative analyst, this proposition does two things:

  • Use Legislatively Drawn Congressional District Maps Until After the Next Census. Proposition 50 replaces California’s current congressional district maps with new, legislatively drawn maps. (The total number of districts would not change.) Proposition 50’s maps must follow federal law, but they are not required to follow the state requirements placed on the Commission. The state would use Proposition 50’s maps for congressional elections starting in 2026. The state would use these maps until the Commission draws new district maps, following the 2030 U.S. Census.
  • National Congressional Redistricting: Call for Change in Federal Law. Proposition 50 asks the U.S. Congress to change federal law and propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to require redistricting be done by “fair, independent, and nonpartisan redistricting commissions nationwide.” Proposition 50 expresses voter support for this idea, but does not change federal law or require any particular action of Congress or the California Legislature.

Let’s start the analysis folks:

In an ideal world: Congressional boundaries would be drawn by independent commissions putting like interests together, either ignoring party or making districts politically even. They would overall make the makeup of the districts representative of the state overall in terms of politics, gender, race, etc., so that the state’s congressional delegation looked like the state. They would eschew gerrymandering, where districts are drawn to favor particular candidates or political parties. A few states, such as California, enacted laws to do this.

In an ideal world: Drawing of congressional districts would occur ONCE after each 10 year census, so that battles in the districts can reflect changes in political and district makeup, and folks that don’t like their congresscritters could vote them out, and vote new ones in.

But we live in Trump’s world right now, and Trump doesn’t like to lose. He’s made clear that he will do whatever it takes to ensure he wins, his followers win, and he stays in power, and that no one investigates his behavior. He’s file lawsuits. He’ll attempt to tamper and interfere in elections, as he did in George in 2020 when he asked them to find votes. He’ll rig the election rules to make it harder for those in the other party — and those he doesn’t like — to vote.

This year, he’s trying to protect himself by Gerrymandering. He specifically asked a number of states to redraw their congressional maps to increase the likelihood that more Republicans get elected to Congress, ensuring he has a majority there and is safe from impeachment and investigations. In response, states like Texas and Missouri did, increasing the likelihood of there being more Republicans and less Democrats, despite how the actual demographics might be.

In response, California — not wanting to dilute its power and Democrat majority in Congress, as California is a Blue state — created this proposal. It temporarily sets aside the results of the independent commission for this 10 year cycle, and redraws lines in response to restore the balance in Congress. It also asks Congress to create independent redistricting commissions. I wish it had gone further to ask for an amendment that restricted redistricting to once every census cycle, but you can’t get everything.

Let’s follow the money.

Who is primarily funding the “No” side. First, the California Republican Party. That’s understandable. Those ads with Arnold? Those are coming from a coalition primarily funded by Charles Munger. Munger is an anti-choice billionaire. A strong Republican.  According to Politico, Munger isn’t MAGA. But he is strongly Republican, and presumably aligned with Republican Values and keeping Republicans in power. Reform California is also against it, and this is a clearly MAGA group, from what I’ve seen them trying to do in the legislature.

Who is in favor? The California Democratic Party. Again, not a surprise. Courage California (where you can order a yard sign). A very large coalition, including major Democrats and Democratic organizations.

So what are my thoughts? In an ideal world, we would have fair elections. We would make it easy for citizens to register and vote, and to vote securely by mail. We wouldn’t put roadblocks in the way of registration (such as requiring certified birth certificates, passports, proof of marital name changes, or long trips to get those documents). We would have independent commissions drawing boundaries once every 10 years, and there would be no Gerrymandering.

But we live in Trump’s world, and the only way to remove Trump from office (barring natural causes), or at least hold him accountable, is through the ballot box. And for that, we need fair and balanced districting. Trump has convinced some states to put their thumbs on the scale of that balance in order to tip the scales in favor of the MAGA Republicans, regardless of the ballot box. So, California must, once again, step up and do its part to protect the nation. We did it with air emission standards. We did it with CEQA. We did it with fuel economy. We’ll do it again by offsetting the Yellow Thumb of Texas, and by Showing Missouri that their attempts to cowtow to Trump are for naught.

I guess you know my position now: YES ON 50.

I guess I should go order my yard sign…. too bad I don’t live in El Dorado County.

===> Click Here To Comment <==This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as Nov 2025 General Election Ballot Analysis: Proposition 50 by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

senmut: Martha Jones from Doctor Who, face forward, slightly to the left of the frame (Doctor Who: Martha)
gs_silva: My character cheerfully saying hi (Default)
posted by [personal profile] gs_silva at 05:57pm on 04/10/2025
Name: GS

Age: old

I mostly post about: Comic book creation, art and writing in general, character development and musings, my personal experiences, my cat, exploring and subverting tropes, maybe politics idk, random shower thoughts

My hobbies are: household management, gardening, native ecology, world travel, language learning

My fandoms are: Whatever you're writing! If you show an interest in my WIP, I'll show an interest in yours. There are a very few genres and themes that I find impossible to engage in. Unfortunately, they tend to be very common: super awesome superlative hero good-and-evil stuff, or gritty dark stuff where everybody's horrible.

But I believe very strongly in reciprocity, and if those themes are your passion, you won't like my book much either. So if you create something that's light and humorous, or raw and honest, or speculative and political, I'll be there for you if you'll be here for me!

But I also enjoy reading and meeting people who aren't into any of that and who just want to be DW friends.

I've lived in Saigon and Shanghai and been to Cambodia and Philippines, and now I'm in the US and not terribly happy about it, so I'd enjoy meeting people with connections to those places. Or Lyon, France! Part of my book takes place in Lyon.


When I add people, my dealbreakers are: Oh, I don't know. Really toxic anger and hateful opinions, I guess. Usually if someone irks me, I'll disappear quietly.

Before adding me, you should know: I'm a naturally chaotic person. I know most of the unspoken rules of society but I don't always care. I've had the usual amount of life traumas but I don't often talk about them. My profile pic is my male MC, Maurice. I'll probably talk about him a lot. I'm not a quiet creator. A lot of what I write is Maurice this, Maurice that, Cathy this. I call my characters by name because I want people to remember them.
hamsterwoman: (Avengers -- flying monkeys)
Catching up on Taskmaster s20, the most recent two episodes:

Episode 3 -- I got to see this episode on actual UK TV (on catch-up), with not just the ad breaks but also with really annoying ads, and also with [personal profile] cafemassolit's cats periodically distracting me, heh. So that was an interesting experience! As for the episode itself, WTF is Maisie wearing XD spoilers from here )

Episode 4 -- spoilers )

*

Also, this seems as good a place as any to talk about the stuff I watched on planes. (I also read on my return trip, but have not yet finished the new RoL book, because my phone battery was low and either the USB port on my seat or my cable weren't working, and I didn't feel like trying to fish out my powerbank from the backpack stuffed with half a dozen books from England, so I had to switch over to watching the in-flight entertainment).

Thunderbolts* -- it has been a while since I watched anything MCU related -- OK, less time than I thought, because I did watch Agatha All Along in Nov'24, but even that was almost a year ago, and I guess Deadpool and Wolverine was technically also MCU. Anyway, still a while, and much longer since I've watched a 'main storyline' kind of thing, with GotG 3 in summer 2023, and it was 2022 when I was watching anything MCU related regularly. And I still have not seen, and chose not to bother with, though it was also on offer, Captain America: BNW. More, with marked spoilers )

The Ballad of Wallis Island -- This is a kind of movie I would've never even been aware of before my descent down the Britcom rabbit hole, but because Tim Key co-wrote and is costarring in it, it was mentioned on Elis and John (John was grousing about not being invited to the UK premiere, except he probably was and couldn't go and forgot) and also [personal profile] qwentoozla went to a special screening in LA, with the creators there, and posted about it. I probably still would not have gone to the effort to track it down, because I always find Tim Key at least slightly annoying, but as I was scrolling through Virgin Atlantic's entertainment list, the movie was right there, near the start, and I was like, hey, I'm on a Taskmaster-adjacent trip to the UK, I should watch a Taskmaster-adjacent movie as part of the experience. And I did, and actually really enjoyed it, and found it both funny and moving.

More with spoilers )

[personal profile] qwentoozla's write-up also mentioned that the film was an expansion of a short film that could still be found on YouTube, so, because I'm always curious to see different versions of the same story if it's a story I like, I went and tracked it down (part 2). And I don't know what I was expecting from the short version, but my main takeaway is basically that everything I liked best about the feature film was new to it -- Herb's backstory, Herb/Chris and Nell, Charles's backstory, where it leaves Charles -- and also the acting was SO MUCH BETTER. I mean, it makes sense, right, because it's the same people after 18 more years of practice, and as writers they had both the same extra years of practice and a bigger canvas to work with. But everything just works so much better in the 2025 movie. I'm glad I watched it first, because I probably would not have bothered with it if the short film had set my expectations first.

And also I tried War of the Rohirrim, and made it a couple of scenes in but it was too anime-y for me, and nothing interesting was happening, so that also didn't last very long.

The rest of the time on the plane I watched random TV shows that were available to me, and might as well capture my thoughts here, although I didn't watch anything in full, and mostly not in any kind of coherent way either.

Fleabag, season 1 -- Well, that was a bit darker than I enjoy my comedy. Like, I did find it really well done -- in particular SPOILERS from here )

Peep Show, season 9 -- I've been aware of the show for a while, but had no real interest in it, despite enjoying David Mitchell as himself on WILTY. But I decided to give it a shot, hoping to catch Dobby (the character played by Isy Suttie, i.e. Elis's wife, for reasons-for-the-trip-adjacent reasons). It was a season that didn't have Dobby as a regular, but I did get her for an episode later on, which suited me -- but there in the very first episode I watched was Tim Key again XD Dobby was adorable! I wish there had been more of her (but, like, I already think Isy is adorable). I was reasonably amused by David Mitchell's character, although he feels like the worst parts of his comedic persona + choices that make me dislike him. This was my first exposure to Robert Webb, and I was originally a lot less fond of Jeremy, but he did kind of grow on me by the end. Some of the scenarios did make me laugh, though. If I had easy access to this, I'd probably watch more series, but mostly for Isy...

On the way back, having run out of British shows I recognized as something I wanted to watch (I also gave The IT Crowd a shot, but did not make it past the first scene -- the laugh track was annoying me, and I really wasn't finding it that funny), I switched to an American show I'd heard good things about:

Abbot Elementary -- looking up the titles, looks like it was the first 5 episodes of season 4. At first I wasn't finding it that funny, but I think it's just that I don't find the younger characters (Janine, Gregory, and Jake) that funny, and once the show moved on to episodes more focused on the older cast, I was more on board.Spoilers ) I also found the principal lady a lot of fun, and quite enjoyed Barbara the Jesus-referencing kindergarten teacher. It's not something I feel invested in enough to want to watch more of, but it was a nice way to pass the time on a plane.

I then moved on to a British show whose title I *didn't* recognize, and didn't quite have enough time to finish out the series:

Amandaland -- I did not realize until looking it up later that this was a spin-off of something else. I think I made it 3 episodes in, and it might not have even been the full 3 episodes, until we landed. This one was a show where I didn't actually recognize any actors (except, retrospectively, I do know Joanna Lumley, who plays Amanda's mum, I just didn't recognize her now she's older). Mal looked intensely familiar, but looking at his filmography, I've not seen him in anything, so presumably what I recognize him from is Doctor Who gifs on Tumblr... Who I did recognize in the credits was Holly Walsh, as one of the writers, as I've enjoyed her on panel shows. Mal was definitely my favorite character, and I also like Anne and Della (the chef). (Possibly the fact that I liked both Della and Anne a lot means I should finally watch Derry Girls, like people have been telling me to do for ages...) As for the show itself, I did find it suitably engaging. My favorite moments were spoilers ) From reading the Reddit thread on this show, it sounds like the season maybe goes downhill / the resolution is not as good as the setup, so maybe it's just as well that I didn't finish it out.
minoanmiss: Minoan Bast and a grey kitty (Minoan Bast)
linky: Minato smiling softly. (Gotchard: Minato - Smiling)
abomvubuso: (Applause!)
posted by [personal profile] abomvubuso at 10:00pm on 04/10/2025 under
 

The Springboks retained the Castle Lager Rugby Championship with a hard-fought, but well-deserved 29-27 win over Argentina at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham on Saturday, coming back from a 13-10 deficit at half-time to clinch a memorable win in London.
Mood:: 'ecstatic' ecstatic
location: cape town
darkoshi: (Default)
The thing* I ordered from India on eBay was simply delivered to my porch yesterday, with no mention of needing to pay any extra fees, hallelujah! The delivery person wore a yellow reflective vest and drove a personal vehicle with no very obvious company markings.

The package does not have a USPS label on it. It has a uniuni label on one side, and a ShipGlobal label on the other side.

Checking the tracking numbers from those labels on the respective websites shows that my item:
2025-09-21: was received at UNI DATA CENTER
2025-09-23: arrived in Delhi, India
2025-09-25: departed Delhi, India
2025-09-27: arrived in the USA; was being inspected by customs
2025-09-30: "Gateway transit in", in New York
and was delivered on from there to me.

So my package made it into the US on 9/27, two days before the De Minimus exemption was removed!
NO, scratch that. (Gosh darn, I keep mixing up August/month 8 with September/month 9!)
I don't know where my package was between the time I ordered it in mid-August and Sept. 21 when uniuni received it. But somehow I got it without having to pay a tariff fee. I suppose the seller ended up paying the extra cost.

Actually... I placed the order on 8/16.
On 8/20 eBay posted an "order update" showing "Tracking number provided" along with an India Post International tracking number. That must have been when the seller ordered a shipping label, before mailing the item.
On 8/22 or 8/25 (per my prior post), IndiaPost stopped accepting shipments for the US. The seller must not have dropped the item off before that cut-off, or if they did, perhaps IndiaPost returned the item to the seller.
The seller must have started looking for another shipping option, and eventually sent it through ShipGlobal.in who must be partnered with uniuni.

I still think it is bad form that the seller never informed me of any of this, and didn't even reply when I messaged them through eBay asking about the status of the shipment. But I'll give them good feedback considering the hassle they must have gone through.

I'm still in the dark about the other item which is showing up in my USPS daily digest emails. It started showing up in the emails back on 2025-08-19 as "Awaiting from sender". Yesterday, I thought that must have been the India package after all. But today I got a new email that the mysterious tracking number item is expected to be delivered by Wednesday.

*an Indian brand of toothpaste

Update:
I bought the toothpaste for $39 (excluding taxes, free shipping). As a point of reference, the eBay seller is now charging $50.70 for the same thing, and that is still the best price I can find. So the tariffs increased the price by $11.70.

The seller posted a reply to a negative review from someone else who didn't receive their order, asking them to kindly wait longer, that the tariffs are causing delays, and that the seller paid the tariff for the order, and that the buyer will not need to pay anything at time of delivery. That seems to confirm my speculation as to what happened with my order.

Errant thought:
Now people can probably use AI agents to determine what items that are available in local stores could be sold online at a profit to people in other locales, taking into account current shipping prices and tariffs and the current online prices being charged by other sellers.

Errant thoughts 2, 3, 4:
Now people can make software to make use of AI agents to determine what items [ditto]...

Then people could buy the software to help them determine what items [ditto]...

Then companies can use said software to direct employees or gig workers in various locales to buy items from local stores, and to mail them ... for making a profit.
thisbluespirit: (reading)
I will try and make a post again soon, but am now recovering from parental visit (due to me and the ME/CFS, not any fault of said parents). Yesterday, though, I got lucky at the BNA while searching for a newly-discovered address for an ancestor's siblings and found him accidentally involved in a plot to steal a painting by Petrus van Schendel. (London ancestors are v hard to find, especially when they have common names, but the joy of London is that every so often your relatives are briefly entangled with someone or something famous).

Anyway, the fraud was discovered, I was rewarded by a description of two rooms in a relative's house (29 St Mary-at-hill) and I thought some of you might enjoy the resulting magistrate's hearings:

A Cunning Plot )
conuly: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] conuly at 03:33pm on 04/10/2025
Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.


*********


Link
conuly: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] conuly at 11:14am on 03/10/2025
conuly: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] conuly at 09:32am on 02/10/2025
And every once in a while I end up there during the morning rush, which I try to avoid, and find somebody else bitching about how they "always" mess up their order and "always" take forever.

This is true, by the way - or, maybe not literally always true, but frequently true - but all the same, every time I hear the incessant whining I want to turn around and say "You knew what it was like when you placed your order!"

It's not like they're the only place to get coffee and a breakfast sandwich that's not your own home. There are three corner stores, every once of which will be happy, or at least willing, to make your standing order every day or week or however often you like. There's McDonald's right there, there's Wendy's right there, there's a Dunkin Donuts on the boat and another one just down Bay a bit, if you drive. Or, as I said, you can go home and make your own coffee for faster and cheaper, but you didn't do that, so you can't really complain that you're getting exactly what you obviously expected!

(It is my lack of whining, I think, that always gets me out of there a smidge faster. Should they be more efficient? Should they make fewer mistakes? Should I be able to order a muffin without fear that it'll be a bit raw in the middle? Yes to all three, and I've stopped ordering muffins! But they're close and I don't have to cook it myself, and I imagine that's why everybody else is there, so whatever.)

*********************


Read more... )
lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
Lady Hotspur

3/5. What if Henry IV (loosely) but make it epic fantasy and make most of the major players women, and make most of those women queer.

Yes, there is a prequel book that I did not read, because I do what I want. This would probably be richer if you read in publication order, but it’s one of those situations where the prior book is set several generations before, so, you know.

Anyway, yes, the premise sounds great, and large portions of this book are wonderful. This manages to feel Shakespearean, and I don’t mean that it feels tragic (though it has that mode). It’s bawdy and political and deeply concerned with how history turns upon character, and how people stand or fall on their flaws. It also has a tremendous sense of the numinous and, getting somewhat less Shakespearean here but also not in another realm or anything, a wonderful touch with multiple shades of queerness and how that functions or doesn’t in monarchist systems.

However, while I’ve read books that were too long, I can’t remember the last time I read one that was at least a hundred thousand words too long. Phew. That is truly impressive bloat. I would be rating this higher if it were like 40% shorter (which would still make it a damn long book, to be clear). I lost patience with this multiple times. I always came back and found something to enjoy again, but man.

Read if you really like queer lady knights, women running the world, that Shakespeare feeling, and a book that feels as if it is tremendously slow even as many things are happening.

Content notes: Murder, war, references to child abuse, miscarriage, cancer.
yourlibrarian: DeadTuesday-smidgy06 (SPN-DeadTuesday-smidgy06)
1) From [personal profile] osteophage, a post about The Good Web Graveyard, "a link compilation on departed websites that had marketed themselves in terms of ethics." I think one doesn't have to be an out and out cynic to assume that it's difficult for a company to do well when it's not on a level playing field with unethical companies. But it's good to consider that good intentions aren't enough in surviving long-term online.

2) My Britbox subscription has run out, and at an inopportune moment. I was speed watching Passengers, by which I was skipping some of, or entire, episodes and relying on their recaps to keep up with developments. Unfortunately I was interrupted near the end of the final episode and by the time I got back to it, the subscription had ended. Read more... )

4) Some interesting details of the AOL sale: "AOL's website traffic has grown 20% year-over-year among the users aged 25 and 54, outpacing the growth in the category of users aged 55-plus...The growth was driven by the introduction of multiple new content categories to AOL.com, including Health, Fitness, Animals, Science & Tech, Home & Garden, Lighter Side, True Crime, Local, amongst others"

I wonder if AI searches can account for this? Granted the nature of these new topic pages was designed to attract views, but I've hardly ever seen AOL as a site turn up in any searches I do.

"Bending Spoons... agreed a deal to take private video platform company Vimeo for $1.38 billion, its largest acquisition to date." I was also surprised to find out that AOL owns Last Pass, so that has a new owner now as well.

4) I know everyone's upset at the rising cost of everything. But sometimes it's the little things that make you mad. My main supermarket has recently switched its sales period from Wednesday to Tuesday after 20+ years (maybe always, for all I known) of doing Sunday to Saturday. This is making a mess of their shelf and data system, because the ad says one thing but there's nothing showing on the shelf and they don't ring up on sale. Read more... )

5) "Consumer Reports’ fourth annual digital assessment shows a 50 percent increase in texting and messaging scam attempts over the past year. Meanwhile, a 10,500-person poll from Talker Research indicates that Americans field around 100 scam attempts per month compared to an average of 84 in the United Kingdom. Australians, however, experience half the number seen in the US. But while scams continue to frequently target older demographics, one of the most dramatic upticks concerns younger populations."

The main reasons? Group texts which disguise unknown numbers, and quick access to money apps.


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brithistorian: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] brithistorian at 12:09pm on 04/10/2025 under

"Inspiration is merely the reward for working every day."

— Charles Baudelaire (in Curiosites Esthetiques [1868])

Certainly not the first or only person to say some variation on this, but I think it's an aesthetically pleasing statement of the concept.

mtbc: maze M (white-blue)
posted by [personal profile] mtbc at 05:29pm on 04/10/2025 under , ,
I haven't yet settled on how to use my commute on in-office days. For a workday it totals 3½h door-to-door, at least I could try to use the inter-city segment well. One challenge is that I don't want to add much weight to the bag I am already carrying, especially as it has the mighty work laptop therein, and my water flask. In the meantime, the railway carriage window gets looked out of somewhat.

One morning last week, I had a surprise: I glanced up at the right moment and, in the distant cloud or fog, I could make out a row of three large, white, shallow pyramids. I very much wondered something like, WTF?. Ongoing observation revealed that I was seeing the towers and cables of the Queensferry Crossing, carrying the M90 toward Edinburgh. So, support for a bridge, rather than a row of pyramids.
runpunkrun: combat boot, pizza, camo pants = punk  (punk rock girl)
Photograph of the full moon encircled with added text: Uncommon Settings, at Fancake.
[community profile] fancake's theme for October is Uncommon Settings! These are places you don't often see represented in fanworks, either in a specific fandom or fandom in general. They could be concrete locations like the moon or your hometown, or more nebulous areas like Slack or the underworld.

If you're a font nerd like I am, you might be interested to know this font is called Cubao and is inspired by the signboards hung on jeepneys, SUVs, buses, and other transport vehicles within and outside the Metro Manila in the Philippines. I picked it because it looked awesome, only afterward learning that it also represents an uncommon fannish setting.

Also, also, I don't know if this'll work for you, but I accidentally discovered if I stare at this image and kind of Magic Eye it (stare through it) the moon appears to jiggle around inside its circle of text, like a hologram. Spooky.

If you have any questions about this theme, or the comm, or fonts, come talk to me!
mtbc: maze J (red-white)
posted by [personal profile] mtbc at 05:21pm on 04/10/2025 under , ,
My job comes with good enough private vision coverage that I finally visited a local optician. I much liked Andrew Bolton Opticians in Dundee but they're over an eighty minute drive away for me now and that keeps not happening in a way that comfortably fits an eyecare appointment.

I had been getting by fairly well with over-the-counter reading glasses: +1.0 for distance, +1.5 for close-up work. In my youth I had excellent vision, well beyond what glasses will correct me to now. So, in trying out my new glasses, things mostly didn't look great. Then, I tried my previous over-the-counter ones again and things looked even worse. I suppose that I just get to live with vision that's really not what it was. At least the vision benefit claims went easily.
mtbc: maze N (blue-white)
posted by [personal profile] mtbc at 04:47pm on 04/10/2025 under ,
My recent entries make it easy to predict what I think of His Majesty's Government's proposals surrounding indefinite leave to remain. Perhaps I should have been clearer: it's not just that we need immigrants, it's that we are already hostile to them, they were never the real problem, yet the government seems happy to go along with the narrative that they are, perhaps because they make for a convenient scapegoat. I can understand that, in a democracy, the government might be a bit leery of trying to introduce sections of the electorate to reality but, inconveniently, reality has a way of determining the outcomes of policies so it would be responsible to face it anyway. In the meantime, innocent people suffer.

A more general theme of incompetence is emerging. For instance, this nonsense about digital identity cards for proving right to work. Could we have a clear problem statement please and an explanation of how this fixes it? There are already largely adequate procedures in place for checking one's right to work, R. and I have enjoyed them again in recent months in starting with a new employer. Is Starmer seriously suggesting that people come over in overcrowded dinghies then produce a convincingly forged birth certificate, or what? There is certainly a black economy issue that needs solving but how this proposal makes a whit of difference to it remains far from clear to me.

Is the government meant to be sounding this clueless, this soon into a term in which it has a large majority? If only any of them had the spine of, say, the late Robin Cook. At least Corbyn seemed to care more about people than votes. Could we perhaps swap the current lot for any group that has the courage to admit what the actual problems are (apart from, that the right-wing media has the bigots riled up again) and suggest anything that might usefully address them? Bonus points for having some compassion. I may have had some scorn for Labour at times but I didn't expect their pandering to fools to make me angry enough to consider relegating them off the worth considering list. Starmer is turning out to be like Badenoch: the more they say things, the less I like them.
oursin: Brush the wandering hedgehog dancing in his new coat (Brush the wandering hedgehog dancing)
posted by [personal profile] oursin at 04:33pm on 04/10/2025 under , , , , ,

When I turned on my clock radio - which I do on Saturdays to ensure that the time is co-ordinating with the radio time-signal - Radio 3 was playing the finale to Brahms Violin Concerto.

Joy!

Well, this has been an up and downy year as ever, but I am beginning to poke my nose out of my hole. I am still Doing Stuff, even if various projects seem to have got bogged down (not just on my side ahem ahem).

Anyway, in accordance with tradition, I pass round virtual rich dark gingerbread (and also gluten-free, diabetic-friendly, etc, versions), sanitive madeira (eschewing Duke of Clarence jokes) and other beverages of choice, and lift a glass to dr rdrz.

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