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matsushima posting in

I've missed the last two workweek reading rec posts. I try to get these up on Monday but I happen to have time now (Sunday evening) and I don't know for sure if I'll have the spoons to do it tomorrow after work, so… here it is: workweek reading recs for the week of 15 September, 2025.

Beloved Bother (2025/08)
Charlie Kirk's Legacy Deserves No Mourning (2025/09)
How Did Taylor Swift Convince the World that She's Relatable? (2025/09)
Wikipedia Is Resilient Because It Is Boring (2025/09)
The Great Parmesan Cheese Enigma (2025/09)
Fiction: A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies

Current Mood: busy

tjs_whatnot

Oddly light month. I'm not sure why. I mean I did accidentally get a new job towards the end of it (a story for another post), but before that I should have gotten a lot more read. I think it was because I had way too many books going at the same time this month.

( August 2025 )

sallymn posting in

1word1day

machinations [mak-uh-ney-shuhns]

noun:
scheming or crafty actions or artful designs intended to accomplish some usually evil end

Examples:

Instead of a unified empire, the smaller kingdoms of the Heptarchy still dominate, their various dangerous machinations providing the raison d’être for the differing orders. (Valorie Castellanos Clark, Brigitte Knightley’s debut romantasy novel is as irresistible as its title, Los Angeles Times, July 2025)

His machinations were getting no coverage to speak of, but even at that early stage, Vrabel - Volin noted - was purging the Patriots roster of players connected to his predecessors, one-year head coach Jerod Mayo and before that, legendary head coach Bill Belichick. (Jon Vankin, Mike Vrabel's Ruthless Purge of Bill Belichick Patriots Players Continues, Newsweek, August 2022)

Created in the 1980s by Tim Rice and the genius songwriters behind ABBA, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, Chess the Musical is a densely-packed and complicated story about the machinations of the shadowy secret forces of the United States and Russia in the midst of the Cold War, as their two chess masters battle for supremacy. (Brenda Harwood, Cold war machinations in densely-packed show, Otago Daily Times, May 2025)

The more complex your lives become with intellectual machinations, piles of paper, and social intrigue, the less you are aware of the Simplicity of the Moment. (Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis)

Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves. (William Shakespeare, 'King Lear')

(click to enlarge)
Origin:

late 15c, machinacion, 'a plotting, an intrigue,' from Old French machinacion 'plot, conspiracy, scheming, intrigue' and directly from Latin machinationem (nominative machinatio) 'device, contrivance,' noun of action from past-participle stem of machinari 'to contrive skillfully, to design; to scheme, to plot,' from machina 'machine, engine; device trick' (Online Etymology Dictionary)

sholio

I fell down a rabbit hole this evening reading the comment reblogs on this Tumblr post on 90s TV. I ended up deciding to copy some of them here to save them from the inevitable linkrot and post decay.

https://www.tumblr.com/laylainalaska/794609119262900224

Original post:

I don't know what those '90s sci Fi TV writers were putting in their shows but I wish they'd start doing it again

#they de-escalated the stakes every once in a while so that you can see what the characters are like when they're not under duress
#they made statements about the world through allegory
#they invested in depicting developing friendships and relationships between their characters
#they assumed that their audience was paying attention to the screen and wanted to be there
#and that their audience has enough intelligence to follow narrative clues and even sometimes to predict the ending
#dont even get me started on this i will go ALL DAY

I don't agree with every single point in every reblog. I also think there's quite a bit of TV now that still does most or all of this, though usually it's the dramas and procedurals rather than scifi, and a lot that's not great about 90s and earlier TV. But there is also a lot of food for thought in here, so I just threw a bunch of the comments into this post to mull over.

The asterisks separate out each different reblog; basically each is its own separate comment, generally in dialogue with the original post rather than each other.

Thoughts are welcome!

( Under the cut )

dine

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

calimac

I went out to a concert on Saturday evening. It was a local community orchestra doing Baroque pieces with a chamber ensemble, and I'll have more to say about that after my review of it is published in the Daily Journal next week.

Here I wish to point out that this is the first time I've left home for anything other than a grocery etc. run or a medical appointment in over a month, since August 10. That it's slow season for concerts isn't the reason for this, it just made it easier. The reason is the covid I contracted on the 10th, which showed up a couple days later. The infection was over in less than two weeks, but the effects on my general energy and on respiratory and food-ingesting systems have been lasting.

The difficulties with the last of these mean I'm not yet ready to approach dining in a restaurant. I can't eat much food and I need much more water than a restaurant is likely to serve. So, very unusually, I ate a quick dinner at home (B. was out at mass) before going to the concert, which fortunately was local. I forgot that there isn't a light at Alma and Channing, but otherwise I remembered how to get where I was going.

I found the concert-going experience a bit stressful, though the music was good. I may be ready to do this again in another couple of weeks, which is when the concert season really gets going.

petra

Don't ask a question you don't want answered (300 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker
Characters: Padmé Amidala, Anakin Skywalker
Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, Mutual Pining
Summary:

Padmé asks Anakin a question and gets a surprising answer.

Current Mood: yearning
Current Music: Besides, no matter what one might infer, one must have faith to some degree

finch

There's nothing quite like reading fanfic that jumps up on your buttons and rolls around on them like my cat jumping up on my keyboard while I'm working.

Weekend one is not off to a great start, I'm gonna be honest. It's definitely now Autumn and the pressure change has my vertigo messing with me. At the moment I have tinnitus in both ears, but the right ear is the whooshing sound I usually get and my left ear is a high-pitched sound. The combination of tinnitus and audio processing disorder leads to the most ridiculous scenes in stores or restaurants or anywhere I have to talk to people because I'll be partway through an interaction and lose the ability to understand what the other person is saying.

The plan for this weekend has been cut down since bending over and other various weird movement is out, but at minimum we're planning on taking some stuff to goodwill tomorrow. This will happen. Bug went through her books some and for her that's huge. And we paid somebody with a truck to come take a few things too big for the car, so... Definitely some progress. Just not as much as I'd like.

I did also finish a fic last night but not anything I've been intending to work on, just something that took over my brain this week. Yay, that!

cornerofmadness posting in

wipbigbang

Title: The Porn Star Murders

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Link To Fic: here on AO3

Link To Art By afteriwake: here on AO3

Summary: Angel has settled in well after the death of Valentino at his hands. He is running Val’s movie empire with far more skill than anyone thought. What he wants to concentrate on now is taking the budding relationship with Husker to the next level. What he gets is someone ‘murdering’ his best stars. Death might not be permanent in hell but when his stars are torn to flinders, it’ll take them a long time to pull themselves together. It is good way to ruin his business and bring his term as an overlord to an end. With Husker, Rosie and Arackniss at his side, Angel has to track down this threat to his new empire and deal with it like his father taught him so long ago.

Warnings: dismemberment, skinning, cannibals, referenced rape, sex work, graphic violence, lots of swearing in two languages, homophobic family members, family dysfunction

Characters: Angel Dust, Arackniss, Husk, Rosie, Henroin, Vox and Velvette

Pairings: Angel Dust/Husk

When I Started: Earlier this year. It fits into my Spider Brother series.

How I Lost My Shit: I didn’t so much as lose my shit as I needed a deadline to help me focus.

How I Finished My Shit: Determination and like I said, deadlines help. Also Angel really wanted to tell this story.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Halloween Baking Challenge

sartorias

We've packed what we can pack. The movers come Monday to take our library away. We will live out of boxes and suitcase for a week, then depart altogether while the floor peeps come in.

With library going away I've resorted more to TV, and I couldn't resist going back to watch Nirvana in Fire yet again. Between my last rewatch and this time, some team of actual humans (No AI) had gone through the, ah, somewhat problematical subtitles and cleaned up spelling, grammar, and meaning, clarifying a lot of small stuff that watchers who did not know Mandarin could only guess at.

It's just brilliant. Even though on this watch I see the problems with the end starting a bit sooner than I remembered, and I still believe that one more episode would have pulled together all the dangling bits and tightened up the emotional arcs, still the overall emotional velocity absolutely rams you straight through and beyond. For a couple of days I couldn't do anything but go back to look at scenes (some for like the twentieth time, or more). Not perfect, but even after ten years, for me it's the best television show ever made.

Well, back to your regularly schedule chaos.

firecat

The New Yorker is trying to convince me that Bluesky has become annoying and everyone’s back on Xitter. Not linking because it’s paywalled. True or false?

I never got the hang of Twitter. I have similar problems with Bluesky. I don’t need a social site to deliver me more links. I want conversation. Is conversation dead? Where is it? (I know there’s some here…)

I miss Usenet, lol

bluapapilio

"Full Moon ni Sasayaite /
Until the Full Moon"

Matoh Sanami, 1998

MangaUpdates

Summary: Marlo has a problem. On the night of the full moon, this half-werewolf, half-vampire undergoes a mysterious and terrifying transformation: He turns into a girl. Desperate for a cure, his parents call on Doctor Vincent, a long time family friend. But Marlo wants to keep his condition secret from Vincent's son, the vampire playboy David. Unfortunately, the secret gets out, and a new problem surfaces: David is interested in Marlo's female form! If a remedy can't be found, their parents believe the next best solution is marriage - a marriage between Marlo and David!

My comments: Marlo and David's fathers are brothers, the former living in America, the latter in Europe. When Marlo's condition appears, they go to David's family for help (David's father is a doctor). Marlo and David were childhood friends, David would drink from Marlo during the night. "I like you best" is what little Marlo said to David, who took it to heart. When Marlo realized his own feelings he avoided David. David doesn't care if Marlo is a girl or boy, he just likes him.

I didn't understand the whole 'what do we do, he's my only child...oh we'll marry him to David' thing. He's still a guy all day, he can still sire children, and so what if it's a girl, he can have another child. Just like another other couple's chances. Or hey, why not let a girl inherit for once? Why does Marlo have to give up his inheritance to another man?? And can he even conceive without a period? Patriarchy, man.

At the end of volume 1 there's a story where a vampire visits the Yamu tribe and meets one of the Yami. The Yami doesn't change sex under the full moon but his childhood friend wants him. The Yami ends up changing after falling for the vampire and going with him. This story was found in a legend book Marlo's mom found and she switches the names to the boys'.

Volume 2 tells the story of Holly (David's mother) and Marlo and David's wedding. Holly's fate was so sad, she found love and a family but in doing so lost her life. And to think David probably lost his mom around the time Marlo started avoiding him. Speaking of, Marlo's mother is a werewolf, how has she lived all this time? The boys are said to be 100 or 200 years old at least.

As for the main romance, David was a womanizer so Marlo has some insecurities, and Marlo has an ex-girlfriend who caused some drama but it's not drawn out too long IMO. David and Marlo do kiss while Marlo is in his normal form and I think in time they'll get more comfortable as two men and not try to wait until the full moon so much (I hope lol).

I definitely had a deeper reading of the manga this time but still came to the same rating that I gave volume 1. I will be reading the sequel at a later date.

Review of Volume 1 from March 8th, 2011

[My BookCrossing Entry]

Got in a box with other goodies from my good friend! *_*

Before I began I was a bit leery because of the style (it's been a while since I read some FAKE so I couldn't remember how I felt about it). However, when I read it I really came to like it, and the story is pretty nifty too.

The one thing that did bug me a bit was the gender issues. Marlo doesn't like when David touches him when he's still a man, yet he only becomes a woman one day a month. Marlo as a man has admitted to loving David, but I do think he has some homophobia/prudish issues.

Then there's Marlo's old girlfriend Ira who stopped trying to get him back after finding out he changed into a girl, saying she wasn't interested in women. Yet David, who says he's straight, still loves both sides of Marlo. A part of me thinks maybe she was still attracted to Marlo even as a women, but it wasn't really made clear besides her getting mad at being teasingly called a 'lesbo'.

I really liked the oneshot, maybe even better than the main story. XP

7/10 stars

Content warnings

-Gender essentialism
-Some homophobia
-Melodrama but things are wrapped up pretty quickly in each case.

My rating: 7/10

Current Mood: crappy

musesfool

A couple weeks ago, I finally realized I was never going to go to someone else to get my hair cut, so with some encouragement from my sister, this morning, I did an extensive detangling (both before and after washing) and then trimmed about 3" off the bottom myself. Is it even? Probably not, but it was in long layers, so I don't think it really matters. It will eventually even out as it grows and I trim it. Mostly what matters is that after 3 years, the old ends have been trimmed away. And now that I know I can do it, I will try to keep up with it on a more timely basis. At least, I don't think I'll let another 3 years go by. *wry*

*

The Mets did not get no-hit last night but they did lose, and then lost again today despite leading for 7.5 innings. *hands* There is something very wrong with this team, but who can say what? Sigh.

*

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Land of Hope and Dreams (live) - Bruce Springsteen

nnozomi posting in

guardian_learning

部首
囗 part 2
团, group; 囧, shock emoji; 园, park/garden ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=31

词汇
员, a member of a job/activity/organization; 成员, member; 队员, team member; 公务员, public servant; 会员, membership; 人员, personnel; 演员, actor; 员工, employee ( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-3-word-list/

Guardian:
在这个时刻只有大家团结起来才有一线生机, at this time the only way to survive is for everyone to come together in solidarity
我们公园平时的养护和员工守则这一系列手续都是遵守条例的, our normal park maintenance and employee regulations have been followed in every particular

Me:
当时我真无语了，只好发给他一个囧。
公司必须得好好保护员工的权利。

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

My husband is the middle of five siblings. The three oldest were high achievers who earned advanced degrees and are now comfortably retired, living far from their hometown. The fourth, a brother, has struggled all his life. After four years in the Army, he drifted between unemployment and low-paying jobs, never able to support himself. His parents covered his expenses or let him live with them, even paying for his car while he worked as a pizza-delivery driver. He also developed substance-abuse problems.

After my husband’s father died, the brother stayed in the family home, supposedly caring for their mother but, in fact, exploiting her. He drained her accounts to feed his habit and neglected her care, and after her death he was convicted of elder abuse — something his out-of-town siblings hadn’t realized was happening. Before she died, their mother begged them not to let him be homeless.

Because the brother couldn’t maintain the house, the siblings sold it and split the proceeds. With his share, they bought him a mobile home and placed funds in a protected account, which covered rent and utilities for nearly 10 years until the money ran out. They eventually transferred the bills into his name and explained how to manage them.

He rarely communicates with the family, except when he’s in trouble. Once on his own, chaos followed. He claimed that his pizza-delivery job was enough to live on, but he missed rent, faced eviction and squandered money on predatory car loans and endless repairs. Last year, his siblings discovered that his car had been repossessed and his water had been shut off for six months. His trailer was collapsing from a leaking roof, and garbage was piled everywhere. Yet he had never asked for help. They stepped in, restored utilities, reclaimed his car, cleaned his trailer and signed him up for Social Security. But he quickly burned through a lump-sum back-pay benefit (he said his account was hacked, though he was more likely scammed). Soon after, he fell behind again, and his Social Security is now being garnished by the I.R.S.

The mobile-home park wants him out for unpaid rent and unsafe conditions. He’s clearly mentally ill, but perhaps not impaired enough for a sibling to secure guardianship. My husband and his siblings want to honor their mother’s plea to keep him housed, but contributing to his rent payments and repairing his trailer isn’t financially sustainable for them, and none of them want to take him in because he’s horrible to live with. Social services might help, but he resists cooperation and can’t manage on his own.

So they wonder: At what point do they stop trying? Are they obliged to sustain someone who refuses to sustain himself? Do they owe him the effort of seeking guardianship, or is that more than can reasonably be asked? — Name Withheld

( Read more... )

conuly

I'll try to remember to upload the pic later. It's not a very good picture, but then, I was wary of trying to get too close.

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

( Read more... )

thawrecka posting in

c_ent

Shared Warmth (1056 words) by thawrecka
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 黄金台 - 苍梧宾白 | Golden Terrace - Cāng Wú Bīn Bái
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Fu Shen/Yan Xiaohan
Characters: Fu Shen (Golden Stage), Yan Xiaohan
Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Slice of Life, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort
Summary:

Two moments in their relationship in which Fu Shen and Yan Xiaohan take care of each other.

adafrog posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Saturday to midnight on Sunday (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #33616 Daily poll

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 19

How are you doing?

I am okay
11 (57.9%)

I am not okay, but don't need help right now
8 (42.1%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans are you living with?

I am living single
7 (36.8%)

One other person
7 (36.8%)

More than one other person
5 (26.3%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.