kaberett | Network

At the weekend, I happened to be further up the Clyde at the right time to see the bow of a new Naval frigate being transported up the river to the shipyard where the warships are assembled. I didn't know what kind of ship it was for at first, I learned that later online.

Glasgow has a great city center, rather walkable and with the subway for longer hops. Next to Central Station is a fancy building some decades older than the converted Victorian mill that I live in. At least, there was, until a vape store somehow caught fire. Now there are cordoned-off streets, the smell of smoke, and a considerable number of sad, shocked people and even more rather inconvenienced ones.

I have no love for vape stores in the first place, I tend to avoid patronizing establishments that expand their range to vapes. Given vapes' propensity to catch fire in waste processing centers, etc., goodness knows who thought it a good idea to allow a vape shop to locate next to a critical transportation hub in a historic landmark whose construction substantially predates fire safety codes. Perhaps we shall find out, with luck when I am not feeling grumpy and vengeful.

My commute may be quite unaffected: when I pass close to that area, I'm in a subway tunnel on my way to Queen Street, the other main railway station; I hope that tomorrow's train to Edinburgh isn't overly crowded by passengers displaced from Central which won't be open yet.

I refueled our car this evening, I figured that gas prices aren't dropping anytime soon. In probably 2003 I tried holding off filling the car with gas, back when I drove an old Ford Crown Victoria (with around a seventy litre fuel tank), but eventually I had to give in and pay the higher prices. At least, with mostly just driving around the city in our hybrid in the near term, today's gas should last us for a good while.

owlmoose

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33: I wanted to love this game, but the most I could muster up was an appreciation for its artistry, world-building, and ambition. Too much of the story was left clouded, hidden behind impossible bosses, and character motivations kept opaque to preserve surprises for the audience. ( Massive spoilers behind the cut. )

On top of that, T and I both found the combat difficult in an unsatisfying way, and having to learn not just entirely different skill trees but power-up mechanisms for every character felt unnecessary. Eventually we turned the difficulty level down, which helped, but in the end it felt like we were just slogging through the final battles to get to the ending and be done with it. Disappointing.

Plur1bus: Like many folks, I was eagerly anticipating this one, based on my love for Rhea Seehorn in Better Call Saul, and it lived up to that expectation -- although in other ways I wasn't sure what to expect, and it certainly kept me guessing throughout. It's hard to say much without spoilers, so I'll limit my thoughts here to being just generally impressed by it, and blown away by Seehorn's performance, and also by Karolina Wydra, who played Zosia, a tough role on several levels. Excited to see where it goes!

The 2026 Winter Olympics: Despite all the problems, I do still love the Olympics -- getting to watch and learn about different sports, witness joy and heartbreak and feats of incredible athleticism, following developing storylines and experience the unexpected. I dipped in and out of a lot of events, but I ended up spending the most time on curling. T is a fan -- it's perhaps the only Olympic sport that he'll actively sit down and watch with me -- and because the athletes are all miked, you can hear them discussing strategy with each other, which is really interesting. I also caught some figure skating; in particular, the men's and women's free programs were fascinating case studies in the folly of expectations, and I genuinely loved watching the two gold medal winners put in the performances of their lives.

stonepicnicking_okapi

It's Agust D day! And I love him.

Watch on YouTube

shadowkat

59 years...doesn't feel that long somehow. Good news - I only have three-four years until retirement now. Yippee! (Actually it may be more like three and a half, we'll see, it depends a lot on finances and crazy org, and crazy union.) Although the body feels it. What's that saying? It's not the years, it's the mileage? I always consider my birthday - my own personal New Year's Day. Since our years on this earth and for things like pension, medicare, senior discounts, and retirement are tracked by the date of our birth.

It's been a good birthday so far. The Universe gifted me with a sunny spring day, with barely a cloud marring the pristine robin's egg blue surface, plus Daylight Savings Time - so the day is ever so slightly longer, with sunset around 6:45 pm - granted no flowers or green trees as of yet, but I bought some reddish purple carnations to fill a vase in my living room window and a smaller vase in the bathroom. Also, took a long walk to Courtyelou Road in Ditmas Park, and browsed a smaller bookstore (which had comics, and mostly books by minority authors), the Brooklyn Artrery, and just meandered. Didn't buy anything.

Finished Merrily We Roll Along - which I rented for $9.99 from Apple TV (it's also available on Prime for the same amount). It's the 2024 smash hit Broadway musical revival by Stephen Sondheim, Martha Friedman, George Kaufman and Moss Hart - starring Jonathon Groff, Daniel Radcliff, and Lindsey Mendez. It's much better than expected. Daniel Radcliff blew me away during his number Franklin Shepard, Inc. Also features the classic, "Not a Day Goes By". I found it weirdly comforting - in that it shows how friendships can dissolve over time bit by bit due to various things, but mainly that the friends don't want the same things or have the same central focus. ( Read more... )

Also been binging Count of Monte Cristo on PBS. Had the last of the three slices of Birthday cake from BY THE WAY BAKERY (courtesy of Whole Foods in the Financial District). Tonight - am considering having the freshly made artichoke and spinach gluten free ravioli.

[And I've been enjoying the three birthday gifts that I received - which are: ( Read more... )]

Was considering renting another movie ("Hamnet by Chole Zhao") - but I may hold off, it could very well become available for free - soon enough.

Question a Day Meme - March Catch-Up

4. Have you ever been in a road traffic accident (either as a driver, pedestrian or on a bike)?

Not that I recall? I've witnessed quite a few.

5. How many local birds can you name?

Robin, Bluejay, Pigeon, Whitetail Hawk, Bald Eagle, Sparrow, Cardinal, Crows, Ravens...technical names? No. I have enough issues remembering the names of humans, let alone names humans give specific birds.

6. Have you ever seen a dinosaur skeleton?

Yes, at the Museum of Natural History in NYC

7. Do you embrace technology or prefer things the way they used to be (or a bit of both)?

See birthday gifts. So yes, I've embraced it. I resist for a bit, give up, and embrace. I don't go overboard. I have co-workers who update their iphones and headphones and watches every year. I don't. Also, I learned from my parents to wait a while before trying the latest gadget - like maybe a couple of years. (We learned this lesson - when we were among the first to get the 8 track player (I even owned a mini-one) - which was the newest gadget and my father was convinced it would take off. It well...didn't. So after that colossal failure - our family waits a few years before getting the gadget.)

8. It’s International Women’s Day – can you name any famous female artists, musicians, scientists or authors?

Octavia Butler, Chole Zhao, Marie Curie, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin,
Kate Bush, The Runaways, The Go Gos, Cyndie Lauper, Lady Gaga, Toni Morrison, Jane Austen

9. As it’s ‘Check Your Batteries Day’, when was the last time you checked your stock of batteries? Or, do you just buy them when you need them?

I have batteries that will last at least ten years in my fire/carbon dioxide alarm. So not an issue. They are too hard to replace - so I got one last year that has batteries that last close to fifteen years.

lebateleur

Games: Pretty much the typical go-tos.

Music: We have seen some great shows. The first was Peaches ( Cut because Peaches. ) Everything about it: the costumes, the choreography, the energy, was so good. Absolutely phenomenal show. A++ please don't make us wait another three years before you come back again.

The following day we saw Timecop1983 with Bad Dreamers and Brent Michael Woods opening. Woods is very much of the "Richard Marx with an acoustic guitar" mode of mid-80s nostalgia pastiche, which is not my thing per se, but he is very talented at it and thus fun to watch live. Bad Dreamers joined the tour at the last minute when the scheduled opening act was unable to get US visas; I'd been aware of him through his vocals on a bunch of Timecop tracks, and he was just as good live. (And I particularly appreciated his insistence that the venue turn the stage lights off so that he could see the audience despite it's meaning that the audience could not see him.

Timecop1983 was fabulous, as expected. Just a really energetic show that sounded as good or better than the albums live. He was joined by Josh Dally on guitar and vocals as well as a killer live drummer, which really added to the energy (the drummer was clearly having the time of his life), and Dally and Timecop had great onstage chemistry, with Dally providing the garrulous crowd engagement and running commentary, and Timecop the well-timed laconic one-liners. (Dally also graciously handled the very drunk woman in the crowd who kept loudly insisting he go for drinks with her after the show despite the conspicuous wedding band on his hand.)

They played a good selection from their back catalogue as well as some new tracks we weren't familiar with, as well as a few numbers with one or both of Bad Dreamers and Woods on the stage with them. This too was an excellent show and I will certainly see any or all of these acts if they're ever in town again.

Podcasts/Articles: I listened to The Women's Podcast episode The Digital War on Women and How To Fight Back, which was unsurprisingly as horrifying as the title suggests. The panel members were (rightly) so energized about how vile this stuff is that they were unfortunately often not as clear about explaining to the audience what it was they were discussing as one would have wished but they made up for it by explicitly pointing out that the primary solution to all this shit and enshitification is to stop. Just stop. Get off these platforms and go do something else with your time. (That said, how you convince anyone under 15 to do so...)

For long form articles, I read:

Roleplaying: Nothing. The GC is DMing some one shots, but since they're on the days that I am step dancing and I can't be in two places at once, dancing it is 🩰

Television: When the TV's on, pretty much all AEW, all the time. The pendulum is very much swinging back toward Restaurant Quality 😁 these days. Of course, the usual suspects (Hangman, Mox, Young Bucks) are still there with predictable plotlines, but everything going on around them has been great. FTR and Stokely steal the show for every promo and match they're in. You wouldn't necessarily think Brody King vs. Swerve would make sense but it does, and Prince Nana is clearly having the time of his life. The Brawling Birds won me over with the throwback name alone, but they are more than living up to its promise. Jet Speed and Speedball are great. Kyle Fletcher is great. The IInspiration should annoy the living bejeezus out of me but they were hysterical and I wish they'd got five times the screen/ring time, TK please bring them back. Don Callas is as oily and entertaining as ever. The Thunder Rosa vs. Thekla match was fire.

Speaking of wrestling, we also finished out Dimension 20: Titan Takedown group watch, which had a very satisfying (if a bit railroaded, probably due to time constraints) conclusion. Humor, action, lore and iterating in-jokes, and some really affecting emotional character arcs: this is what I want from wrestling and from a D&D game, and this D:20 season had them all in spades. I enjoyed the nostalgia of (most of) The New Day and Bailey, and while I don't watch WWE anymore, it absolutely sold me on Chelsea Green and I hope she makes it over to AEW some day soon.

Video Games: The gaming computer is acting up *sigh* so nothing these past few weeks. We did get Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2, which seems to have inspired divergent takes among the people who've played it, so we'll see.

これで以上です。

princessofgeeks

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jazzfish

( violistic nattering )

thewoksoflife_feed

Posted by Bill

https://thewoksoflife.com/firecracker-chicken/?adt_ei=*|EMAIL|*

https://thewoksoflife.com/?p=94963

Firecracker chicken is an Americanized Chinese takeout dish consisting of crispy chunks of batter-fried chicken and a sweet-spicy sauce. While my parents once owned a Chinese takeout restaurant, I had never encountered this dish until recently. After trying it at a large fast casual Chinese takeout chain, I decided to create my own version! A […]

https://thewoksoflife.com/firecracker-chicken/?adt_ei=*|EMAIL|*

https://thewoksoflife.com/?p=94963

matsushima posting in

longreads

As Wattenberg and I examined the data together, a startling discovery came into focus: Back in the 1970s, singular names grew so popular that they became trends unto themselves. But “it just doesn’t work that way anymore,” Wattenberg said. Nowadays, trends are defined by many different names with similar suffixes. …

According to Wattenberg, Jason barely registered in the 1950s when parents often picked a name following family tradition. If your great-grandfather was named Clarence Leroy, odds were a piece of that name would fall intact to you.

Then came the counterculture movements of the 1960s. For the first time, parents began straying from traditional names. With the guardrails of convention removed, people were free to make up their own minds and forge their own paths. And suddenly, by the 1970s, every other kid was named Jason.

Then a funny thing happened: Names started giving way to sounds. Jason begot Mason, Jackson, Grayson, Carson and a whole family of other “-son” names that together make up a major 21st-century trend for baby boys.

-The Mysterious Tyranny of Trendy Baby Names (archive link) by Daniel Wolfe

Current Mood: curious

beccaelizabeth

Only one load of laundry today, but I also refilled the dishwasher chemistry, ran it with the cleaner bottle, and the loaded it ready to wash when it gets full. Also did regular Cleaner Day.

And made myself feel spinny bad trying to get stuff from the cupboard under the sink. I remember why I gave up on the low cupboards but I keep thinking I'll Just Be A Minute and then I have to have a sit down in the middle of whatever task required Sink Things.

It is a mystery under there. I don't know the half of what is stashed. I mean today I found half a dozen empty plastic bags from laundry tabs and I have no idea when I last was buying that sort.

Still, threw out several things and sorted out others, so, progress was made.

Other than that I didn't read listen watch stuff today. Listen seemed Loud and reading seemed like I wanted to read A Book But Not That One. And I didn't want to write the one I wanted either. So that isn't entirely helpful. But I do have Several book so I shall find A Book eventually.

My laundry is down to only filling the smaller basket, which is grand, but is still filling what I would until recently have considered The Laundry. There's at least two more loads in there, possibly three. This was Maximum Laundry.

I think it's because of all the drill and screw noises lately. It's nice that they've fixed stuff but it's not nice that this is week four of making a bunch of random interval noises about it. Still much quieter than the first two weeks but. I miss quiet quiet.

Quiet quiet theoretically gets more done.

But logically they have to complete the work eventually so.

Not a fascinating day really.

I shall go stare at bookshelves again.

china_shop posting in

sid_guardian

Poll #34345 Sang Zan's cave, naming the Hallows, and Zhu Jiu's revenue stream

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

View Respondents

Who else has found their way into Sang Zan's pillar cave in the last hundred years (assuming another entrance)?

View Answers

Da Qing (he doesn't remember)
0 (0.0%)

a family of hibernating bears (they had very strange dreams)
3 (100.0%)

Wu Xie, Zhang Qiling, and Pang Zi
2 (66.7%)

Jill Pole, Eustace Scrubb, and Puddleglum
0 (0.0%)

Gollum
1 (33.3%)

other
0 (0.0%)

When Ma Gui and Fu You created the Hallows, why did they call them "sacred"/"the Hallows"?

View Answers

hubris
1 (33.3%)

psyops
2 (66.7%)

the inventions turned out a whole lot more powerful than expected, and they named them as a warning
2 (66.7%)

the Hallows announced how they wanted to be addressed, singularly and collectively
0 (0.0%)

other
0 (0.0%)

How does Zhu Jiu pay off the fight club manager/afford his visits to the hair stylist?

View Answers

Dixing currency/gold
1 (33.3%)

busking
0 (0.0%)

part-time job in the service industry (he’s always late, but no one dares dock his pay)
1 (33.3%)

he mugs ordinary people
1 (33.3%)

he mugs muggers (not on principle; it just cuts out the middle man)
3 (100.0%)

he has a Givealittle and/or Patreon
0 (0.0%)

other (please specify in comments)
0 (0.0%)

Guardian the drama is

View Answers

glorious, oh my heart!
1 (33.3%)

the gift that keeps on giving
2 (66.7%)

shut up, it’s perfect!
2 (66.7%)

the fandom is also made of sparkles *blows kisses to everyone*
1 (33.3%)

LOLLIPOPS FOR ALL!!
1 (33.3%)

offcntr

I had a day all planned Saturday--Farmer's Market in the morning, some studio work, tackle taxes. At 2:30 pm, I needed to stop and head down to Club Mud to help set up our studio sale.

And then it turned sunny.

And actually, gorgeous. By the time I got back from Farmer's Market, it was sunny and 60°. An opportunity we couldn't pass up.

So indoor activities were cancelled in favor of pulling all the pots out of the shed, setting up trestle tables in the carport, and sorting, counting, and packing the van for Saturday Market. Denise recorded inventory while I organized stock, and, with a short break for lunch, we had the entire van packed and ready for Market, with four weeks to go.

shroomystar posting in

100ships

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flemmings

Finished Strange Houses and then went to the internet to find out what I just read. Internet was mostly reddit, whose black-out spoiler redactions do not appear when highlighted. But a lot of people had the same suspicions as I about the architect jumping at once to 'murderous child killer cult' while other people noted that that's just the way Japanese horror rolls. Which, fair enough. And also noted that what's important is once again the things not said, sigh. But the general impression was that everyone but the narrator and the architect are lying and what's actually happening is a conspiracy, yes, but not the one we think. Although people did seem to think the weird cult thing was true, which to me is, ok, if you say so. Do not think I'll be reading more of his work.

I know better than to go for a blood draw on a Monday especially a Monday when I've just lost an hour of sleep, but it's going to rain all week and then snow. So out I went at 10 new time and came in to a posted 45 minute wait. But I waited, and then waited some more when they called my name because they said the room available was too narrow for me. Told them I could walk without the rollator but they were all No no just wait. And when they called me again I went without my walker just to show them. But the nurse got my vein first try, no having to use the other arm as in December, which is either her being more skilled than the other or my veins being pumped up from my water drinking. Whichever, I am grateful.

Could have done without the two large guys who barged into the elevator before I could get off it as I was leaving. Men, said Jessica. And am now headachy and am going out to dinner with bro and s-i-l tonight, but again, nobody made me get my draw this morning.

merrileemakes

Since I had my sewing machine out after making the handwoven tops I decided to do a bit more sewing with handwoven fabric. But then, catastrophe.

( Read more... )

unicornduke

Hey all, if you'd like to join the crafting hangout, it is tonight from 6-8pm ET!

Video encouraged but not required!

Topic: Crafting Hangout

Time: Mondays 6:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

Link

Meeting ID: 973 2674 2763

angrboda

In January, Bookscorpion over on Pillowfort recommended an app for doing pilates exercises at home. I have today finished Day 43 of the beginner's program.

It continues to humble me. Today I learned I am incapable of 60 seconds of jumping jacks. A full minute is a surprisingly long time!

I'm sticking with it quite well, though. There have been some breaks here and there due to illness and travelling, but I've been doing it every day as much as possible. It's not difficult when it's only ten to fifteen minutes.

I'm going to keep adding days to the beginner's program for as long as possible. It's plenty difficult thank you very much. I don't feel at all ready for intermediate, and I am downright frightened of advanced!

dine

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shipperslist

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ysabetwordsmith

Today is cloudy and chilly with gusts of wind.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

In the water jug greenhouses, a few shady wildflowers are sprouting. :D

EDIT 3/9/26 -- My gold curly willow cuttings have arrived! \o/ I have put two in water and one in a pot.

EDIT 3/9/26 -- I took cuttings from the older serviceberry tree and a shellbark hickory sapling to put in the willow cups.

EDIT 3/9/26 -- I cracked open some peach pits. It was a lot easier than I expected. I found a natural hollow in the concrete step, where I balanced a peach pit on its edge. A seam goes along the sides. I put a flathead screwdriver point into the seam and tapped the handle with a hammer. Most of the peach pits popped apart neatly, releasing the seed. A couple chipped in fragments. I think I got several viable seeds, which I put in a baggie of damp sand. I also bagged up some leftover persimmon seeds. Then I put the baggies in the refrigerator for cold stratification to see if they'll sprout.

EDIT 3/9/26 -- I tried using an ax to hack away at one of the saplings in the driveway. I certainly made more progress than I did with the saw. It's slow going, but I might be able to beaver it down eventually. The question is whether I'll have the time and energy for that, with all the other spring yardening to do.

EDIT 3/9/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 3/9/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 3/9/26 -- I transplanted a few more snowdrops from the parking lot to the apricot tree.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

hrj

I sometimes say that I live and die by routines. If I have a routine for doing something, then it gets done. If I don't have a routine (or I depart from one) then anything could happen. This means there are things I do more often than I need to (like checking blood pressure or recording weight) because if I don't fit them into a daily routine, I don't get around to it. But it means that things that need a less frequent routine are sometimes tricky (like theoretically once-a-month housekeeping tasks, such as cleaning the cat waterer).

The daily bike-coffeeshop-write-bike routine is solid (even though there are two days when it's coffeeshop-write-gym instead), but if I need to do something substantial before biking--especially if it involves putting on normal clothes--then it's hard for me to shift myself back to it later in the day.

So on a day like today when I started off with an online podcast interview to record, I probably won't get the bike out. Knowing that, I plan to do yardwork and housecleaning. But there's always the temptation to say, "I make my own rules; I could just take a day off." Except I bought some Alpine strawberry sets a few days ago and they really need to get in the ground...

smallhobbit

Seven books I own, no caption, no comment.

james_davis_nicoll

The corebook and 19 supplements for Tab Creation's tabletop fantasy roleplaying game Age of Ambition.

Bundle of Holding: Age of Ambition

yourlibrarian

1) I am starting plans for a fall foliage road trip in October through Michigan. Anyone have any recommendations?

2) Following up on what I wrote about in my last post, I watched several episodes of Paradise S2. I'm not sure why I'm still watching this. ( Spoilers )

3) By contrast, I saw the Muppet Show (special? Apparently a one-off?) and found it a delight. Disney has definitely struggled in finding a way to utilize the Muppets and two shows have now failed. I'm glad they tried to do something different with them, and I rather liked the show where they were trying to make a more realistic "behind the scenes" Muppet show.

But maybe these days a return to the past would be particularly welcome (and surely there's still a lot of appeal for kids). I've got to imagine they've got a potential guest list a mile long. My partner and I kept thinking that some of the puppeteers must have been filled with glee at being able to recreate this show.

It did make me laugh when Sabrina Carpenter said she'd watched the show, her parents had watched the show, and her grandparents had watched the show. We'd be rather young to be her grandparents but, yeah, 50th anniversary after all.

4) I found the first of top 3 shows of the year last month when we watched How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. I'd quite enjoyed Derry Girls, so was interested in trying this. I found it had a lot of the fun from Derry with an added mystery at the center. ( Read more... )

5) When in his latest charity auction batch Stephen Colbert listed a Lord of the Rings sword that had been on the stage wall, we couldn't believe he'd be selling such a thing at any price. Turns out it's a replica of the actual sword used in the film, which he already has (and he joked he would be buried with). Even so, I figured it would go for a lot, and it's going to be well over $25,000. His neckties are going for over $1000.

Poll #34344 Kudos Footer-562

This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
3 (100.0%)

ysabetwordsmith

dialecticdreamer is hosting Magpie Monday with a theme of "Apologies." Leave prompts, get ficlets!

Current Mood: busy

lirazel

lsanderson

Minnesota counties are using outdated software that they say ends up costing taxpayers a lot of money when it comes to correcting errors and finding workarounds, reports MPR News. Legislation is being considered this session to address the problem. Via MinnPost
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/03/09/new-medicaid-snap-requirements-drive-push-from-minnesota-counties-to-upgrade-technology

Minnesota lawmakers are looking at a proposal to legalize psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic use, reports the Minnesota Star Tribune. Via MinnPost
https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-weighs-legalizing-psilocybin-mushrooms-for-therapeutic-use/601594021 ( Read more... )

lunafleurette

So Tumblr is down. It went down for me three hours ago.

And for other Filipinos, mostly. Maybe, I'm not sure if the problem has become more widespread since then.

A week after the AO3 outage, you can imagine the tweaking out people would be doing on other sites if the problem went international.

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Big Enough - Kirin J Callinan

vriddy

For my Karaoke Iko people out there, the Let's Go Karaoke movie live-action is available on the Japanese Film Festival website until June 3rd (JST)! Hopefully for your region, too.

If you're not familiar, I can also warmly recommend the 5 episode anime that's on Crunchyroll, if you have access.

I haven't read the manga or its sequel yet but I'm sure they're great fun too ;)

It's been super interesting to watch the movie after the anime and see the tweaks in the adaptation!! I think it all worked really well and I enjoyed it a lot. If you've also watched both (or any!!!!) you should talk to me actually :D

Current Mood: excited

chickenfeet

https://operaramblings.blog/2026/03/09/searing-elektra-from-ed-gardner/

naye

Recently I've been on a free art kick, browsing images of paintings, sketches, sculptures, photos, needlework and so many other types of artworks that various institutions have digitalized. Here are two such fantastic resources.

The Met Collection
Travel around the world and across 5,000 years of history through 490,000+ works of art.

This is where I found this absolutely fantastic 19th century sketchbook. The artist is unidentified - the only information available is that they must have been Japanese (even though the sketchbook was marked "Chinese Drawings"). I loved their art so much I have turned two of their pieces into embroideries! (But that's a different post.)

And then I learned about the Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan, (ColBase) where you can find treasures like THIS!!

Painting of a tabby and white cat licking it's paw. It's got its ears back and its eyes focused on the paw. It's originally a painting by emperor Huizong of Song, this copy is by Sakuma Gantaku. It has so much personality it's amazing.

Painting of a tabby and white cat licking it's paw. It's got its ears back and its eyes focused on the paw. It's originally a painting by emperor Huizong of Song, this copy is by Sakuma Gantaku. It has so much personality it's amazing.

See it here on ColBase.

ColBase is a database containing the collections of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan. It encompasses the four National Museums in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, and Kyushu, the two National Research Institutes for Cultural Properties in Tokyo and Nara, and the Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan.

About ColBase & (very generous!) Terms of Use.

I have spent so much time doing random browsing, and I've found so much lovely art - and several amazing pieces I kind of want to call "ye olde shitposting" for lack of a better term for something that is clearly a little weird and maybe meant to provoke a reaction in the viewer?

Or what else would you call He's Made Up of Many People, which. Yes. That is indeed what's going on here.

But that kind of stuff is in the minority! It's all art that is out of copyright, but some of it still feels very modern, like this painting of Mount Hiei from the 1920s.

Anyway, I can definitely recommend art scrolling as an option to doom scrolling!

js_thrill

The songs for this pair of days are "Stars Fell On Alabama" and "Red Choral Diamond Spray"

Watch on YouTube

The former song concludes the Firearms Suite, and is a perfectly fine song, but I am mostly excited about the comment by Darnielle in the annotations that he had wanted to put the name of the bay in the song, and specifically wanted it to be called Half Moon Bay, but that is the name of a city in California, and "[y]ou can do a lot of things as a writer, but putting Half Moon Bay in Alabama isn't one of them"

The second track is off of an album that Darnielle didn't release, "Hail and Farewell, Gothenburg", which was unreleased for 11 years and then leaked to the internet without Darnielle's permission. Darnielle was very upset about the leak, and preferred that people not listen to leaked album. You can read a bit more about the whole situation here. Ultimately, he has taken to playing some of the songs live, and seems to have made his peace with the leak (though the album is still unreleased and the tracks are not available on the mountain goats youtube channel).

I'd never tracked down any songs off this album previously (there is a lot of released Mountain Goats that I haven't made my way through yet, to say nothing of the artist's stated preference for people not to listen to the leaked album). This song is all right (I take it that its inclusion here tacitly includes permission to listen to it, but maybe not?).

Current Music: Red Choral Diamond Spray — The Mountain Goats

larryhammer

For Poetry Monday:

She Says, Being Forbidden:, Leonora Speyer

And was there not a king somewhere who said:
“Back, waves! I do command you!” I forget
His name, beloved, or his race, and yet
I know the story and am comforted.
The tides will rise, are rising—see, they spread
About your robes, your ermine will be wet,
Your velvet shoes, your dear dear feet! Ah let
Me warn you, sir, the waves will reach your head!

My king, my kingly love, how shall we stay
The bold broad lifting of this lovely sea?
What is the master word that we must say
To bring these roaring waters to the knee?
The other king went scampering away!
Will you so do? Or will you drown with me?

Hat-tip to

conuly. Ah, Cnut, we hardly recall ye. This is from Speyer’s 1926 collection Fiddler’s Farewell, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

---L.

Subject quote from Respect, Aretha Franklin.

prettygoodword

stercoration (stir-koh-RAY-shuhn) - (obs.) n., the act of manuring (ground) with dung.

That is, fertilizing with shit. Dates to 1605 and generally rare, but odd enough it still shows up every so often -- taken from Latin stercoratio, from stercorare, which meant both to add manure and to clean manure out (of e.g. a horse's stall).

---L.

kingarthurflour_feed

Posted by Mia Castro

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2026/03/09/how-to-make-flan

This piece is a lightly adapted excerpt from Mia Castro’s new cookbook, Cocina Puerto Rico.

When I think of Puerto Rican desserts, the first that comes to mind is flan — a richer, more flavorful cousin of the classic French crème caramel. It’s a delicate custard made with evaporated milk, condensed milk, and eggs, gently baked in a caramel-coated pan inside a steamy water bath.

The post An expert's tips to nail your flan: For stunning, silky-smooth flan, follow these pro tips. appeared first on the King Arthur Blog.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2026/03/09/how-to-make-flan

osprey_archer

We begin Hornblower and the Hotspur with Horatio Hornblower standing at the altar with his blushing bride Maria, desperately informing himself that they’re not married just yet! There’s still time to run for it! Only he can’t bring himself to commit the cruel act of leaving her at the altar, so instead he stands there like a lump and gets married.

This is one of the most inexplicable marriages I’ve ever encountered in fiction. It appears that Maria confessed her love for Hornblower and Hornblower was unable to think of any response except “Will you marry me?”, despite the fact that he doesn’t love her, in fact doesn’t think he should ever marry, and lives in dread of passing his temperament on to his children. (I should note that he is in no way honor bound to her before the wedding: she’s not pregnant with his child and he didn't seduce her. He didn't even flirt with her! He just existed in her general vicinity and she fell for him.)

He then spends the rest of the book asking himself “What would a good husband do?” and then enacting the part of a good husband, in much the way that he sometimes enacts the part of a good captain.

littlerhymes and I discussed many possible explanations for Hornblower’s behavior, none of which were entirely satisfactory, but to be fair, what WOULD be a satisfactory explanation?

1. Hornblower is a deeply closeted gay man who is marrying Maria for reasons of social pressure. However, there seem to be plenty of bachelors in the Navy, so it’s unclear how much social pressure he would actually be experiencing, especially since he seems to have no family clamoring for grandchildren/an heir.

(Whether or not he’s gay, there is alas little evidence here that he sees Bush as more than an excellent lieutenant, although Bush is clearly still nuts about Hornblower. The bit where Hornblower fails to mention his own act of heroism in a letter to the Gazette and Bush is like “It isn’t RIGHT, sir.” And also the bit where Bush is tells Hornblower he’s worried about Hornblower’s health and Hornblower is like who cares about this SACK of MEAT that is my BODY.)

2. Hornblower is SO deeply repressed that he can’t cope with the fact that he is experiencing the weakness of having a human emotion (“love”), but actually does love Maria on some level. He keeps feeling surprising upswellings of tenderness for her. Also, he castigates himself severely every time he DOES experience an emotion (or also human weaknesses like “sleepiness” or “hunger”), which I feel has probably damaged his ability to recognize emotions at all.

But even if he loves her, he clearly doesn’t have a lot of respect for her. Might love her purely in the sense of feeling an animal attraction, and also gratitude for the fact that someone cares about him? He muses at one point that it’s strange to be going to sea with someone on land who gives a damn about him.

3. Hornblower doesn’t think that he deserves nice things, so he marries Maria to make sure that he will have a wife who is ill-suited to him, as he deserves.

Oh, also there are some sea battles and stuff. Hornblower is sent with the fleet to capture some Spanish ships carrying a fortune and then has to hare off chasing another ship at the opportune moment so he doesn’t get a share of the massive amount of prize money. But then the Crown takes the money anyway so he actually would have gotten nothing even if he had been there.

I’m pretty sure these Spanish treasure ships formed the basis for a similar incident near the end of Post Captain, only you better believe Jack Aubrey was on hand to win his part of the prize money. I finished Post Captain confident than Jack could pay off his debts and marry Sophie, but now it looks like maybe he won’t be getting the money after all…?

We will find out in HMS Surprise, but not for about a week, as I am setting off on a trip to Massachusetts on Wednesday!

littlerhymes and I will resume our sailing voyages once I return.

unicornduke

As expected, the time change has absolutely fucked up my sleep schedule. Not helped by a skunk spraying something in the front yard at 4:30am this morning so my bedroom smelled intensely of skunk while I was laying there awake for no reason and the house still smells faintly. We are going to have to trap it if it's living under the porch. And also not helped by covering the boiling for an hour until 10:30pm last night.

We have successfully started boiling sap although I'm not super involved in it. I don't know what I'm doing, never really have done it, so I panic a lot about it while taking over for my dad so he gets a break. Like last night, the sap started drawing off but the container with the filters nearly overflowed because the filters were ??? and there was some panicking. My dad said it probably wasn't going to draw off at all in the hour he went inside. So you know. Normal stuff. My sister is in town for a couple of days to help with it at least. Once I get some better idea on how it all works, I'll make a post about it. Currently, we are producing delicate grade, which my sister called cotton candy tasting. That changes over the tapping season as the microbes change.

I finished splitting all the basswood on the ground, just need to stack it. Not sure we have quite enough wood for the season, but I think it'll be a bit shorter anyway. I have started shifting focus to the field season, it is time to start outside work. Blueberry pruning is up first since that needs to be done dormant. I should crank through that quick. Then moving and mulching with woodchips. I need to order grow lights for our starts, I need to get peppers started in the next two weeks or so, figure out pumpkin orders, etc etc.

There's some health stuff going on with my parents that we are waiting to hear on, so I am scaling back farm stuff that was going to be a bit of a stretch to complete. The weird fruits like currants and expanding the elderberries.

I am working on sidejob stuff and need to bill that client. Need to nap and eat more food. I made chocolate cake and pizza the other night. Also split three loads of wood for the burner once I got the bobcat tire fixed. I took the bobcat tire to the tire place to get fixed on the day we had freezing rain, not my best move and there was only one hairy moment on a backroad until I kicked it into 4 wheel and slowed way down. Skipped that road on the way back. Main roads were fine. The bobcat had to come back to the main farm to pick up the sap totes because of where we put them for good gravity feeding since regular tractor forks can't lift high enough.

Also went to a grower meeting about christmas trees, looks like a really good enterprise, don't have the capacity this year, but should next year if all goes well. Interesting thing, a lot of the christmas tree farms have been in business for 50-100 years. Wildly long time.

I keep focusing on farm stuff because the world is such a shitshow. My local rep emailed me some propaganda so I sent back a little rant on how immoral bombing Iran is. I don't think it will do anything.

But yesterday instead of going to spinning group, I drove an hour and a half to an event put on by the regional trans org which was performances and a makers market and I felt like such shit driving down, but afterwards I was so happy. It was so nice to just see all the queer folks, and so many! And bought some weird art. And saw some performances. What a delight. Did get to talk to someone who is localish to me and they said they are trying to get some more folks together up our way at various places, so I'm excited to keep an eye out for that.

gingicat

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ysabetwordsmith

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Space Exploration
Moment of Silence: Country Joe McDonald
Poem: "Confident Guesswork and Improvisation"
Poem: "Nuff Respect"
Esbat
Science
Safety
Humor
Birdfeeding
Today's Adventures
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Civilization
Photos: Savanna
Photos: House Yard
Wildlife
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 3-6-36: Meta
Wildlife
Poem: "The Express Bus to Crazy-ass Death Land"
Read "ICE Out" by Charles de Lint
Nature
Birdfeeding
Community Thursdays
Read "Find a Way Forward"
Safety
Birdfeeding
Good News

Linguistics has 32 comments. Philosophical Questions: Pregnancy has 40 comments. Safety has 53 comments. Wildlife has 40 comments. Food has 67 comments.

Last week's Poetry Fishbowl went well. I still have at least one more poem to write.

March Meta Matters Challenge banner

marchmetamatterschallenge is running this month. See my tracking post and the first check-in post.

"The Struggle Against Overwhelming Odds" is now complete. Gideon and Raymond get some unexpected help in the fight.

The weather has been warmish here, though it rained much of the week. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a female cardinal, and a fox squirrel. A skein of geese flew overhead, honking quite loudly. Red-winged blackbirds have been singing overhead. I've heard a killdeer and a mourning dove calling, but didn't see them. Honeybees are out and swarming the flowers. Currently blooming: crocuses, snowdrops, winter aconite, miniature irises.

Current Mood: busy

only by balancing move

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