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kalira posting in

smallfandomfest

Title: No Choice At All
Author:

kalira
Fandom: Moon Child
Ship/Characters: Kei & Sho
Rating/Category: T/Gen
Prompt: Moon Child (2003), Kei & or / Sho, choices
Spoilers: through the end of the movie
Summary: Choices made, choices taken - points that define and bound relationships, people . . . hearts.
Notes/Warnings: N/A
Wordcount: 1,515

Read on AO3

(I don't believe there's a tag for this fandom yet, but I've used the other applicable ones!)

juushika

Title: First on the Antarctic Continent: Being an Account of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1898–1900
Author: C.E. Borchgrevink
Published: George Newnes, 1901
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 400
Total Page Count: 536,670
Text Number: 1965
Read Because: these boys are just so cold, borrowed from Open Library
Review: The first "British"(-funded) Antarctic expedition, and the first to overwinter on land, among other accomplishments, as told by the commander. This is imminently skippable and, yet like most polar memoirs, fascinating, albeit rarely for intended reasons. This expedition is remarkable for being poorly planned, and the location poorly chosen, which makes other expeditions look more successful by contrast. Given the inimical setting, Borchgrevink's slipshod focus on research and slew of manufactured adventures feel almost comically blithe, although his tone isn't as insufferable as I was lead to believe; it's only in contemporary context (the Southern Cross expedition was considered a competitor to the upcoming Discovery expedition) and in the differences of opinion in Bernacchi's memoir that "insufferable" makes sense. Do skip this one unless reading also Bernacchi, mostly because Bernacchi is funnier with this as a counterpoint.

mrkinch

This morning was the weather I dream about, cool, sunny and calm. I walked Loop Road and up Laurel Canyon about as far as last week to check on the Red-breasted Nuthatch nest. An adult was moving about the snag and I watched her feed an insect to a chick that I expect will have fledged next time I go. The oak behind the snag was full of birds, Acorn Woodpeckers and American Robins as well as the inevitable Chestnut-backed Chickadees. Coming down a I saw some Spotted Towhee-sized birds out in the trail, one of whom did not have Spotted Towhee coloring, and sure enough, an adult fed them although they were beginning to scratch for themselves. Western Wood-pewees were still calling and there were Chestnut-backed Chickadees and Dark-eyed Juncos everywhere. ( The list: )

I guess Loop Road/Laurel Canyon is now my secondary patch.:)

cosmolinguist

The meme that goes "what a week/Captain, it's Wednesday"?

I basically said both parts of that myself today, in a meeting with an equally tired and frazzled colleague.

And it was only much later that I realized.

It isn't even Wednesday today. It's only Tuesday.

First thing tomorrow morning I have my PIP assessment. It's for a review from 2024 of a decision made in 2021. So much has happened. Looking over my descriptions from both these documents tonight, I am overwhelmed.

After the assessment, I will rush in to avpresentation for a webinar with a couple of colleagues (which is actually way more stressful than doing it myself). As long as the DWP's (expensive outsourced) assessors don't keep me waiting an arbitrary amount of time for it as one of their little games, something they are known to do.

larryhammer

Links of varying relevance, both to currency and each other:

The ‘3.5% rule’: How a small minority can change the world. BBC summary of an academic study with historical data. Pull quote: “Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.” For perspective, for the US that’s about 11 million people, to give a totally random example. (via

janni)

Nicely thinky New Yorker profile of Martha Wells (archive version). CW: inconsistent misgendering of Murderbot (mostly in one paragraph). (via /r/murderbot)

Interview with the production designer of Murderbot, who is nicely thinky. (via

marthawells)

---L.

Subject quote from We've Got You - i: Spark, Vienna Teng.

stevenpiziks

So yesterday spelled the end of the Great Kidney Stone Explosion.

In February, I had a KUB x-ray to check for stones, and the doctor said I had one. He was new to me, and didn't know my history of countless stones or the horrible operations I endured over them, so he delivered the news in a calm, cavalier fashion that was at odds with my inner "holy shit" reaction. Only one. ONLY one. Only ONE! I couldn't remember the last time I heard those words.

Although the stone wasn't quite big enough to justify treatment, the doctor recommended lithotripsy (sound waves) because I'm going out of the country in the fall and it wouldn't be a good idea for it to flare up overseas. I agreed to this. I held it together long enough to schedule the appointment, and I left the office.

In the car, I cried for several minutes. It was a sudden alleviation of thirty years of stress so pervasive that it had become normal for me. I only had one stone left, and I was going to be rid of it. With luck, this would be the last one, the last time for the pain, the last time for the anxiety.

Yesterday was The Day.

I thought I'd largely dealt with the trauma and anxiety surrounding operations that the stone surgery and my shoulder surgery and my prostate biopsies had left me with. I was wrong. Anxiety kept me awake well into the night.

At 6 AM, Darwin and I got up and pulled on our clothes. A veteran of operating prep, I knew to wear sweats and pull-on shoes, and put just my ID in my pocket. No wallet. I felt a bit calmer than usual, mostly because I knew this procedure wouldn't be painful. I still hated/feared the anesthesia angle, but I chanted to myself over and over that these were kind people, that the medical staff who had hurt and abused me were highly unusual. A pair of Xanax tablets did their bit to calm me down.

At the clinic, the nurse let Darwin come into the prep room with me. I always like that. A lot of places don't let anyone but the patient in. Once I got gowned up and into the bed, my cousin Mark popped in. Mark is a regional manager for a medical company and wanders all around southern Michigan. He arranged for his schedule to take him to this clinic during my procedure because he knows I get unhappy about this stuff, and he wanted to lend support. He's a very, very nice cousin, and I was glad to see him.

The anesthetist came in and said she would give me something to relax me. I asked if it was Versed. It was. I politely turned it down. "I don't like what it does to my memory," I said. "I'd rather be nervous." The nurse nodded.

They made ready to wheel me down to the operating room. Darwin stayed behind, but Mark came with. His job, you see. His presence was a big help—I knew I had a witness in the room who was close with me.

In the OR, the nurse injected me with propofol, and then I was waking up in the recovery room.

When I come out of anesthesia, I repeat the same two questions over and over: "What time is it?" and "Where's Darwin?" This time was no different. I remember seeing the clock on the wall and being unable to read it. My brain couldn't process the information. It was weird.

My memories are hazy about this part. I think the doctor came in to talk to me. He said they actually found TWO stones that were close together, so they looked like one. But they pounded both to gravel. No more stones.

Here sudden sobs rushed over me. I cried for quite a bit. This was less a tension release and more as another reaction I have to anesthesia: I cry. A fairly common reaction, really.

Mark said nothing odd happened during the procedure, which reassured me, and then he had to leave—work, you know. Darwin brought the car around. I barely remember getting into the car.

At home, I was zonked all day, a bit unusually. Normally I feel fully awake by the time we get home. This time I slept for hours and was still zoned in the evening.

Today, I'm a little sore and taking prescription painkillers. Other than that, I'm fine.

I'm deeply relieved. No more kidney stones! I still have to be checked for them, but I think we can dial it back to annually instead of every six months. I can't describe how it feels. Lighter, I think. I'm still wrapping my head around the idea. But I'm so, so glad.

simplyn2deep posting in

1word1day

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Pogonip (noun)
pogonip [pog-uh-nip]

noun
1. an ice fog that forms in the mountain valleys of the western U.S.

Origin: 1860–65, < Shoshone paγɨnappɨh thunder cloud; compare soγovaγɨnappɨh fog (with soγo- earth), yaγumpaγɨnappih fog (with yaγun- valley)

Example Sentences
Fog is made of water vapor, yet sometimes ice particles can create the ephemeral mistWhen the air temperature is below freezing and relative humidity is greater than 100 percent—an infrequent combination—these ice crystals can form and hover to form a “pogonip,” or ice fog.
From Scientific American

Hoping to add our own pin to Rugg’s map of Bigfoot sightings, we charted a course for Pogonip Open Space Preserve.
From Washington Post

The outdoors seeming like the safest place to meet because of the pandemic, more walks followed, including along Twin Lakes State Beach in Santa Cruz and through Pogonip, a local park with a network of trails.
From New York Times

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

Link to Dear Annie

Dear Annie: My husband and I have two kids under 5, and we both work full-time. As you can imagine, our lives are pretty hectic. My mother-in-law lives about 30 minutes away and expects us to visit her almost every weekend. If we don't, she lays on the guilt pretty thick -- talking about how she "never sees the kids" or implying we don't value family.

The truth is, we're just exhausted. Weekends are the only time we get to catch up on rest, housework or just quality time together as a family without having to entertain. We've tried inviting her to our house instead, but she always declines and insists we come to her.

I know she means well, and we want her to have a relationship with the kids, but I'm starting to dread the constant pressure. How can we set firmer boundaries without starting a bigger family conflict? -- Tired But Trying

( Read more... )

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

2. Dear Annie: Out of the blue, my daughter told me she bought a house in Connecticut and will be moving there from New Jersey. She insists the two-hour drive isn't far, but I feel hurt and blindsided that she didn't let me know about this until she'd already bought the house and was getting ready to sell her New Jersey home.

Her mother-in-law helped her financially with the move, which is great, but now she'll live just 30 minutes from her in-laws while I'm two hours away. I feel betrayed having been kept in the dark. I'm also 65, live on my own and have a very, very sick dog. I don't know how long the dog will live, but for now, traveling two hours one way just isn't an option.

I'm very hurt by what she did and I'm trying to get past it. She used to live just 30 minutes from me, and now she'll be just as close to her mother-in-law, who helped her buy the house. I've actually had to go on antidepressants because of this. Thankfully, my son and his fiancee live a mile away, so that's a blessing. But I feel like the mother-in-law pulled a fast one as she has her daughter, her daughter's family and now her son and his family so close to her.

Please give me some advice to help me get through this. -- Left Out in New Jersey

( Read more... )

minoanmiss

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

badly_knitted posting in

get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.

This Week's Question: We all probably have multiple WiPs, but which of yours has been hanging around longest, waiting to be finished?

If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

yourlibrarian posting in

tv_talk

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk

In the past, shows used to create “clip episodes” which were made up of segments of other episodes with a brief wraparound story. This was usually done to save money, extend writing time, or cover for the absence of a lead character.

Is this something you miss? Is there one you've particularly liked? Given currently shorter seasons, are these still being used in any shows you’ve seen?

tinny posting in

fandomcalendar

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maggie33

Goddammit GMMTV! I really don’t have time to watch another new drama, and you have to go and bait me with this:

Watch on YouTube

This is the thumbnail image of the last episode’s teaser for Off Jumpol’s currently airing drama Break Up Service. I actually watched the first three episodes of this drama. The first one out of general curiosity, the second because Force guest starred in it, and the third, because Drake guest starred in it as a secret lover of a closeted BL actor, and I was intrigued by the plot synopsis for that episode. I found the drama pretty meh in general, and I didn’t really care for the main het romance, so I never watched more. But now I think I’m going to watch the 11th episode and the finale the next week.

And I know it’s a bait, because it’s not a BL drama, and Off’s character has a female love interest, and because OffGun and TayNew are mega popular and sacred fixed ships. 😊 So I know they're not actually going to give us an OffTay kiss. And yet I can’t help but hope. Please, GMMTV, let guys in fixed ships kiss guys other than their ship partner from time to time. Pretty please...

I also forgot to mention in my previous posts that the wonderful person who made English subs for the 1st season of Tengu no Daidokoro, finally finished making subs for the 2nd season, too. Links for the new season are in this tumblr post. I only managed to watch the first three episodes for now, but everything I loved about the 1st season is still here. It’s lovely and cozy, and it makes my heart all warm. 😊

hrj

I'm still in the phase of "settling into a retirement rhythm" and working on good habits, but it's feeling more settled now. Less of the background radiation of anxiety now that the money stuff is in place. I even looked at my "special expenditures" projection and decided to get a hotel room for BayCon after all. (Commuting is cheaper than a room, but more exhausting, and it was going to make participating in the first online WSFS business meeting very complicated.) It's probably too late to try to pick up a roommate, though.

The "activity category tracking" spreadsheet is being useful, not only as a gamified incentive to Get Things Done, but as a reminder not to get too focused on any one topic. I'm up to 13 categories and generally do something in 5-9 of them on any given day. But it's ok to take days off when I'm down to 2 or 3, and it's fun (but not required) to hit all 13, which I've done twice. The most regular activities are exercise, working on the Lesbian Historic Motif Project (overlaps 3 categories: reading, writing, and promotion), reading for fun, housework, yardwork, and somewhat surprisingly, socializing (though having a calendar full of conferences and conventions has helped with that). The categories I've hit least are "do art" (which is primarily being checked off when I do embroidery during zoom meetings) and "do music" (which should be easier to check off since currently it's limited to "play through one etude on the flute and stop when my chin cramps up").

To the extent that I have a template for the day (for days when I have nothing else on the calendar), it ideally goes something like this:
* work on fiction over breakfast
* post the current LHMP blog and publicize it
* bike ride
* mid-ride, stop at a coffee shop and do some reading/note-taking for the LHMP
* on returning home, before showering, do yard work
* relax a bit with some fun reading (lunch optional)
* do some Medieval Welsh translation
* housework/household-organization
* write up the day's LHMP notes (alternately, work on the next podcast script)
* play music
* dinner & tv
* work on some sort of data organization project with tv in the background
If I hit all those, that only leaves "do art" and "socialize". Socializing is largely dependent on things outside the formal structure.

Mind you, I rarely actually do all of the above on a given day. But having a default template makes it more likely that I'll come close.

I'm making good progress on the current fiction project: the Skinsingers collection. I have one more specialized proofreading pass to do, then I need to decide whether I think it needs an outside proofreader as well. After that, I'll start working on learning the D2D system. I should search around to see if someone has come up with some handy templates for "this is the standard front/back matter for different types of books." Mostly I'm looking at books I have on my shelves. But then there are e-book specific questions like "in a print book, the publication history of the stories in the collection generally come next to the copyright page, but in an e-book the practice seems to be to put most extraneous matter at the end." Can I format the two differently? Do I want to, or do I want consistency?

The plan is to launch at Worldcon, but have it ready enough in advance to get some pre-publicity out. Though I'm not planning a significant publicity campaign for this "test book," just a chance to limber up the muscles.

kay_brooke

Late again. It was kind of a ho-hum reading month, with nothing rating higher than 3.5 stars, and I didn't feel particularly eager to write up this entry. Still, I read eight books in May, no DNFs.

Previous books posts:
Books 1-9 (January)
Books 10-15 (February)
Books 16-24 (March)
Books 25-33 (April)

As usual, cut for length, not spoilers. Any spoilers that do make it in will be marked.

( 34. Holdout by Jeffrey Kluger - 3 stars )

( 35. Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen - 3 stars )

( 36. Let Him In by William Friend - 2.5 stars )

( 37. Admiral by Sean Danker - 3.5 stars )

( 38. The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings - 2 stars )

( 39. Weyward by Emilia Hart - 3 stars )

( 40. Face by Joma West - 2 stars )

( 41. Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds - 3.5 stars )

stonepicnicking_okapi

1. Last day of school for the boys is tomorrow. There was supposed to be a picnic at Minisculus' but it's too wet. Tonight is a ceremony at the middle school (not a graduation--they have stressed that) and then Minor is staying for the 8th grade dance.

2. I noticed something interesting (to me) last week during the ceiling catastrophe. I missed drinking any coffee Tuesday because I was in exile, but I didn't notice it. I didn't get that nail-being-driven-in-the-temple headache I normally get. Like, nothing, no physical sign that I was caffeine deprived. So maybe the anxiety adrenaline of the ceiling held it at bay? I don't know. I'm just making an observation. I started to feel it on Day 2 but I got some coffee and of course it went away

3. I'm about halfway through The Seamstress by Maria Duenas and enjoying it. It's an epic life story of a woman from Spain who lives in Morocco during the Civil War. I'm at the even of WWII now. Finished Bridge to Teribithia with Minisculus and now we're reading something called Clementine which is the typical 'kid does pranks and gets into trouble' story.

4. I cracked open a new jigsaw: Around the Word in 50 Plants.

5. No news from the Visiting Angels. :( I'm hoping everything is okay. I uploaded the COVID vaccine info per request but it's been crickets for a week.

6. I REALLY need to get cracking on my casefic for the exchange.

7. I like train ambient channels:

Watch on YouTube

prisca posting in

fic_promptly

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runpunkrun posting in

fancake

stevenpiziks

I came across this cemetery by accident a few years ago when I found this empty-looking field surrounded by a ragged edge of trees. A bit of exploration, however, turned up tombstones and sunken graves. I did some research and discovered Woodlawn Cemetery.

Ypsilanti used to be a segregated community. The north side was White, the south side was Black. There were no cemeteries on the south side, and the north side White folk refused to let Black folk bury their dead in "their" section of town.

In 1946, Reverend Garther Washington had enough. He bought a plot of land and created Woodlawn Cemetery for the Black community. The cemetery acquired dozens and dozens of burials. Then disaster struck. Rev. Washington died, and the cemetery was left to his wife Estella and her friend Brooker Rhonenee. They went bankrupt and died in 1965.

Now we had a problem. Who owned the cemetery? Usually in cases of bankrupt land, the county, township, or state takes ownership and resells it. But a cemetery creates a unique problem: no one ever wants to buy a cemetery. Cemeteries don't make money, and moving the remains and the stones so the land could be used for something else would cost more than the land was worth. Also, if a township takes ownership of a cemetery, it's legally required to maintain it. So if Ypsilanti Township declared it owned Woodlawn, the Township would have to pay enormous sums to take care of it until someone else bought it--and no one ever would. Understandably, the Township was reluctant to do so.

As a result, the cemetery landed in legal limbo. Literally no one owned it, no one wanted it, and eventually, no one remembered it.

This happens more often than you might think. A lot of people think cemeteries are owned and run by the city, but few these days are. Most smaller cemeteries are privately owned, often by a church or a kind of co-op group. They earn money by selling graves. But cemeteries have finite space, and when they run out of graves to sell, their income dries up. This is why few groups are willing to operate them--they know their business will eventually, so to speak, die, leaving them with no income and an obligation to maintain the space.

Anyway, someone finally decided to do something about Woodlawn Cemetery. They got grant money from county to clean and restore the graveyard, and it'll be jointly run by the Township and this organization.

This is a splendid thing.

https://www.bridgemi.com/quality-life/abandoned-michigan-cemetery-unearths-history-segregation-even-death