Armageddon tired
Jun. 9th, 2025 07:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhetleyAir temperature 56 F, light northwest breeze, fog at the airport. Sun on dewy grass here on the other side of town. Moderate air quality, AQI 70-- Canadian pollution. Appointments this morning to rate our aging eyes.
The Day in Spikedluv (Sunday, June 8)
Jun. 9th, 2025 07:07 amspikedluvI did a load of laundry, ran a load in the dishwasher and then emptied it (!!), did the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter. I baked chicken for the dogs’ meals and made brownies. I mowed the lawn.
For fun stuff I watched the current ep (season finale *sniffle*) of Leverage: Redemption and an HGTV program, read more in Amelia Peabody, and talked with mom on the phone.
The water in the pond has gone down to normal levels, thankfully. Pip used the shop vac in the basement, but stirring up that water made the entire house stink. Not sure what else we’ll need to do.
Temps started out at 55.0(F) and reached 78.4. It was nice and sunny all day, with a slight breeze. Tomorrow: more rain. Ugh!
For fun stuff I watched the current ep (season finale *sniffle*) of Leverage: Redemption and an HGTV program, read more in Amelia Peabody, and talked with mom on the phone.
The water in the pond has gone down to normal levels, thankfully. Pip used the shop vac in the basement, but stirring up that water made the entire house stink. Not sure what else we’ll need to do.
Temps started out at 55.0(F) and reached 78.4. It was nice and sunny all day, with a slight breeze. Tomorrow: more rain. Ugh!
Interesting Links for 09-06-2025
Jun. 9th, 2025 12:00 pmandrewducker- 1. Have you experience the glory that is "It's Raining Tacos"? Because my children have subjected me to it over 5,000 times now...
- (tags:music video children food funny )
- 2. Mapping Edinburgh planning applications
- (tags:Edinburgh planning maps visualisation )
- 3. The UK's North-South divide in transport funding - mapped
- (tags:uk transport government money )
- 4. AI - where are we now?
- (tags:ai programming globalwarming economics )
Murderbot reviews/meta, weather, fannish activity, and more
Jun. 9th, 2025 08:01 pmmificI've been reading reviews of the five Murderbot eps to date, by William Hughes. They gel with what I'd been thinking and give some interesting meta. Worth checking out, if you're into the show.
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-premiere-recap-episodes-1-and-2
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-3-risk-assessment
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-4-escape-velocity-protocol
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-5-rogue-war-tracker-infinite
We've had a cold snap here - temps down to 7C (45F) - which I know is nothing to you tough Northeners but it reminded me how much I prefer summer. I broke out my oodie (a massive hooded sweatshirt of velour fleece lined with fake sheepskin fleece - mine has slices of pepperoni pizza on it) which was amazingly warm and comforting for a while, then when I'd warmed up, rapidly became claustrophpbic. I'm keeping it in reserve for more wintry dips in temperature.
I'm working on a NSFW artwork of John Sheppard and Rodney McKay as "always a girl" lesbians, and managed to turn myself on! Unusual - it can happen when I write sex scenes, but never before with a high-rated pic I've been drawing. I really want the pic to work so will need to run it by at least one art beta when it's a bit more finished - John/Joan's hips are proving elusive. Meredith's looking nicely lush though.
Lots of podfic-related activity lately - the longer one I'm recording is going well, plus the regular Voiceteam festival had an archiving challenge so we've been hit with >600 podfics to archive, some in weird, tiny, Yuletidey fandoms that are a puzzle to categorise.
I had a brief brain melt and panicked that the due South Big Bang deadline was June 16th (it's August 16th), and having come to my senses, relievedly abandoned the punishing podficcing schedule I'd invented. But I do need to get onto my into-a-bar fic asap. Writing - so much harder for me these days, goddamnit.
The Mexican sunflower is still flowering up a storm, even in the cold and rain. It's a keeper! Not a lot of choice about that as with big ones like mine the roots can be several metres deep, and they come away again cheerfully when cut back.
I had a moment in a comment over onminoanmiss's journal, when I realized the phrase "trumped up" charges now has a horrible new meaning. So I've written an imaginary future entry in Etymology.com:
trump (v.2)
"fabricate, devise," 1690s, from earlier trump "deceive, cheat, impose upon" (late 14c.), from Old French tromper "to deceive," a word of uncertain origin.
Trumped up "fabricated out of nothing or deceitfully; forged; false; worthless" is recorded by 1728. Since 2025 the origin has become conflated, especially in the US, with the second Trump presidency (January 2025 to his September 2025 impeachment) in which Trump and his lackeys were notorious for illegal executive orders, false charges, and widespread abuse of power.
Hope you're all keeping warm, or cool, depending!
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-premiere-recap-episodes-1-and-2
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-3-risk-assessment
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-4-escape-velocity-protocol
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-5-rogue-war-tracker-infinite
We've had a cold snap here - temps down to 7C (45F) - which I know is nothing to you tough Northeners but it reminded me how much I prefer summer. I broke out my oodie (a massive hooded sweatshirt of velour fleece lined with fake sheepskin fleece - mine has slices of pepperoni pizza on it) which was amazingly warm and comforting for a while, then when I'd warmed up, rapidly became claustrophpbic. I'm keeping it in reserve for more wintry dips in temperature.
Discussion of an NSFW artwork and TMI
I'm working on a NSFW artwork of John Sheppard and Rodney McKay as "always a girl" lesbians, and managed to turn myself on! Unusual - it can happen when I write sex scenes, but never before with a high-rated pic I've been drawing. I really want the pic to work so will need to run it by at least one art beta when it's a bit more finished - John/Joan's hips are proving elusive. Meredith's looking nicely lush though.
Lots of podfic-related activity lately - the longer one I'm recording is going well, plus the regular Voiceteam festival had an archiving challenge so we've been hit with >600 podfics to archive, some in weird, tiny, Yuletidey fandoms that are a puzzle to categorise.
I had a brief brain melt and panicked that the due South Big Bang deadline was June 16th (it's August 16th), and having come to my senses, relievedly abandoned the punishing podficcing schedule I'd invented. But I do need to get onto my into-a-bar fic asap. Writing - so much harder for me these days, goddamnit.
The Mexican sunflower is still flowering up a storm, even in the cold and rain. It's a keeper! Not a lot of choice about that as with big ones like mine the roots can be several metres deep, and they come away again cheerfully when cut back.
I had a moment in a comment over on
minoanmiss's journal, when I realized the phrase "trumped up" charges now has a horrible new meaning. So I've written an imaginary future entry in Etymology.com:trump (v.2)
"fabricate, devise," 1690s, from earlier trump "deceive, cheat, impose upon" (late 14c.), from Old French tromper "to deceive," a word of uncertain origin.
Trumped up "fabricated out of nothing or deceitfully; forged; false; worthless" is recorded by 1728. Since 2025 the origin has become conflated, especially in the US, with the second Trump presidency (January 2025 to his September 2025 impeachment) in which Trump and his lackeys were notorious for illegal executive orders, false charges, and widespread abuse of power.
Hope you're all keeping warm, or cool, depending!
All that skin against the glass
Jun. 9th, 2025 05:11 amsovayIt would be neither entirely fair nor completely accurate to say that the second season of Andor (2022–25) holocausted too close to the sun for my tolerance, but it got a lot closer than I had thought was possible.
( Nervous, tired, desensitized. )
tl;dr we will be returning to the series once I cool down and the news out of L.A. and D.C. could stop being quite so bleeding-edge at any second. I should decompress with some queer film.
( Nervous, tired, desensitized. )
tl;dr we will be returning to the series once I cool down and the news out of L.A. and D.C. could stop being quite so bleeding-edge at any second. I should decompress with some queer film.
(no subject)
Jun. 9th, 2025 01:54 amolivermossI spent the hot summer evening as one does, watching Twilight in an alley projected against a bar
(I've still never read the books and only watched one of the films very recently. But, it sounded hilarious. They've got a Twilight drag event next. I'm debating going. The organizers and attendees were wonderful, but doing too many of these events as someone who isn't a fan feels odd. I got asked what 'team' I am and was confused for a moment.)
(I've still never read the books and only watched one of the films very recently. But, it sounded hilarious. They've got a Twilight drag event next. I'm debating going. The organizers and attendees were wonderful, but doing too many of these events as someone who isn't a fan feels odd. I got asked what 'team' I am and was confused for a moment.)
2025/087: How to Survive in Ancient Greece — Robert Garland
Jun. 9th, 2025 08:13 amtamaranth2025/087: How to Survive in Ancient Greece — Robert Garland
Greek religion does not promote morality. Piety towards the gods and the dead, not good behaviour, is its central aim. [loc. 350]
Read in fits and starts between other books, mostly for the fascinating factoids and descriptions of legal process in classical Greece. Presented as a handbook for time-travellers, How to Survive in Ancient Greece is good at highlighting some key differences: the improbability of growing old, the more equitable distribution of wealth (1% really wealthy, 1% really poor, 'the majority of Athenians are very poor by our standards'), the less equitable treatment of women. Entertaining, engaging, informative.
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Hornet Flight - Ken Follett
Jun. 8th, 2025 08:07 pmsholioI like Ken Follett's books, and I like airplanes, and I like historical books, but this one was just kind of lackluster for me, unfortunately. It kept me reading, and parts of it were very engaging, but I ended up feeling kind of "That was it?" at the end. I mean, to be fair, this book is set early in WW2 and there's a lot of war still to go, but it feels like we didn't quite get the full plot or the amount of airplane that was promised by the title. The airplane-promising title manages to be a big spoiler while not actually delivering on its promise. (Although, to be fair, I guess it did get me to read the book.)
( Spoilers in general )
( Spoilers in general )
What I got up to in April
Jun. 9th, 2025 11:58 amspiral_atlasThe big news is that Pride or Prejudice is back! With better art and a simpler but more effective character creator.
I also updated A Hungry Heart to add and then fix dark mode, and created some painterly Countryside Backgrounds.
I also updated A Hungry Heart to add and then fix dark mode, and created some painterly Countryside Backgrounds.
the blattlach were mediocre, but the blintzes were good
Jun. 8th, 2025 11:17 pmjadelennoxFor reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, I made a GF variant of Emma Goldman's blintz recipe this morning. (It's because for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, I happened to have farmer cheese in the house.)
When I went looking for something snappy to turn my blintzes into a post, the first quotation on wikiquote is from a newspaper report after her arrest:
I feel sure that the police are helping us more than I could do in ten years. They are making more anarchists than the most prominent people connected with the anarchist cause could make in ten years. If they will only continue I shall be very grateful; they will save me lots of work.
Anyway I am not an anarchist by any measure whatsoever, but I have generally found reading Emma Goldman to be informative and fulfilling (My Disillusionment in Russia is gutwrenching and honestly I think keyboard warriors should read it). Her wikiquote page is so chock full of evergreen statements that I can't even cherrypick anything else to quote. But how about this one?
The very proclaimers of "America first" have long before this betrayed the fundamental principles of real Americanism...the other truly great Americans who aimed to make of this country a haven of refuge, who hoped that all the disinherited and oppressed people in coming to these shores would give character, quality and meaning to the country.
You can make blintzes vegan, too, if you use banana instead of the egg and flip the blattlach very gently. That can be potato or blueberry blintzes, although I've seen a recipe for blintzes with cashew cheese.
In conclusion, blintzes! Mine had strawberries.
jumping back in time
Jun. 8th, 2025 11:42 pmmarycatelliOh, yeah, the heroine knew about these things all along.
She should have prepared. Enough so the readers would know.
Hopping back in the manuscript
She should have prepared. Enough so the readers would know.
Hopping back in the manuscript
Steering the Craft Chapter 3: sentence length and complex syntax
Jun. 9th, 2025 11:05 amalias_sqbrMasterlist
I feel kinda bad about how badly I'm butchering LeGuin's flowing prose for these posts. But I learn by summarising and sometimes even a clunky summary is easier on the brain. And maybe I'll inspire some of youse to go read the original!
( Read more... )
I feel kinda bad about how badly I'm butchering LeGuin's flowing prose for these posts. But I learn by summarising and sometimes even a clunky summary is easier on the brain. And maybe I'll inspire some of youse to go read the original!
( Read more... )
ICE raid protest in Los Angeles USA
Jun. 8th, 2025 09:54 pmmellowtiggerFor what it's worth, I've been watching this NBC live news feed for the last 2 hours or so.
I had other things to discuss for the upcoming Moody Monday post. I wanted to talk about the Border Patrol helicopter that circled over my house for 2 hours, then the next day was the ICE raid and community response here in Minneapolis. Something else always takes precedence, though. The absurdities arrive fast and furious, don't they?
And, yes, of course they're shooting reporters again, just like they did in 2020 in Minneapolis.
I had other things to discuss for the upcoming Moody Monday post. I wanted to talk about the Border Patrol helicopter that circled over my house for 2 hours, then the next day was the ICE raid and community response here in Minneapolis. Something else always takes precedence, though. The absurdities arrive fast and furious, don't they?
And, yes, of course they're shooting reporters again, just like they did in 2020 in Minneapolis.
All go together.
Jun. 8th, 2025 10:12 pmhannahToday's luxurious disappointments are in the fields of scheduling issues and data preservation.
The latter is because a hard drive stopped working. I got a couple error messages about moving and deleting files - "Error 0x8007045D: the request could not be performed because of an I/O device error" - which was soon followed by Error code 43, then "Cannot open drive for direct access". At this point, I'm pretty secure in saying it's not going to get fixed by trying the hard drive on another computer, or that I can fix it myself. As such, I'm going to leave it alone in the hopes it doesn't get worse and look into local data recovery centers to see which one can best help me.
In the former's case, it's because Escapade is scheduled opposite a few movie screenings at the MOMI I'd very much like to see. I can probably juggle them around, pick which movies versus which panels, and it's more than a little annoying to have to choose between two fun things to look forward to. As I said, luxurious disappointments.
The latter is because a hard drive stopped working. I got a couple error messages about moving and deleting files - "Error 0x8007045D: the request could not be performed because of an I/O device error" - which was soon followed by Error code 43, then "Cannot open drive for direct access". At this point, I'm pretty secure in saying it's not going to get fixed by trying the hard drive on another computer, or that I can fix it myself. As such, I'm going to leave it alone in the hopes it doesn't get worse and look into local data recovery centers to see which one can best help me.
In the former's case, it's because Escapade is scheduled opposite a few movie screenings at the MOMI I'd very much like to see. I can probably juggle them around, pick which movies versus which panels, and it's more than a little annoying to have to choose between two fun things to look forward to. As I said, luxurious disappointments.
Not much today
Jun. 8th, 2025 10:20 pmsilver_chipmunkGot up and had breakfast and coffee, then dressed and went to Target with mashfanficchick, Dani, and Winnie. We were there to buy Winnie some bras, her first. So that was fun.
Then we came back and cleaned outmashfanficchick's mother's car, which has been stored here since August.
That took several hours, then we all came in and napped or dozed.
Eventually I Teamed the FWiB. We talked for an hour, and that was fun.44
At 8:30 I called Middle Brother. He is fine and looking forward to his Spring Fling on Wednesday.
Then we made dinner, individual nacho bites. Yummy.
And now I'm doing this.
Gratitude List:
1. The FWiB.
2. Middle Brother having fun.
3. The car is cleaned out.
4. Good dinner.
5. Lovely weather for it.
6. Fun in the kitchen together.
mashfanficchick, Dani, and Winnie. We were there to buy Winnie some bras, her first. So that was fun. Then we came back and cleaned out
mashfanficchick's mother's car, which has been stored here since August.That took several hours, then we all came in and napped or dozed.
Eventually I Teamed the FWiB. We talked for an hour, and that was fun.44
At 8:30 I called Middle Brother. He is fine and looking forward to his Spring Fling on Wednesday.
Then we made dinner, individual nacho bites. Yummy.
And now I'm doing this.
Gratitude List:
1. The FWiB.
2. Middle Brother having fun.
3. The car is cleaned out.
4. Good dinner.
5. Lovely weather for it.
6. Fun in the kitchen together.
