kaberett | Network

I finally remembered to change the batteries in my thermometer's receiver unit! It's 41° this morning and it's supposed to get up to 60°. The forecast says that we might actually see some sun today...but there's still a chance of rain this afternoon, because of course there is. The long range forecast looks to be more of the same as far out as it goes: cloudy, rainy, cool. Maybe I should just dig into my winter clothes and get some long-sleeved shirts back out. And a couple of the sweatshirts that I packed away.

Yesterday was wet all day, as expected. I had thought I would go back out after I got home from my grocery run, after other stores opened, but my desire to be out of my house drained away with one single grocery run. I did do a bit of housework yesterday. Laundry and dishes, of course, but I also vacuumed -- as I said to the Paladin in our daily chat, it had been about a month since the last time. (I never claimed to be a good housekeeper.) I noticed that the filter gauge-thingy was indicating that the filter needed to be cleaned, so after I emptied the canister, I tried to get it open so I could rinse the filter...and I absolutely could not get it open. It's just supposed to twist off...though now that I think on it, I'm pretty sure that my last vacuum (which was the same basic model) had a latch and that part of the canister lifted off. In any case, I decided that if I can't get the damned thing open for basic maintenance then it's no good to me. So now I'm looking to upgrade. Not in a huge hurry about it, though; it'll be okay for light use for a bit. I am a bit pissed, though, as I bought that model specifically out of brand loyalty.

I am reminded of Scotty in Star Trek III: The more they change the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.

Otherwise, I spent a lot of time online either reading fic or watching videos on YouTube. Except for the hour and a half or so in the afternoon that I took a nap with cats. I like taking a nap and having a snoozling cat tucked up under my chin. It's very pleasant.

It will be so much less pleasant in July. Unless this summer continues on like this, of course. Anyone know if a volcano has erupted anywhere recently?

I watched the Doctor Who serial "Time and the Rani" last evening. I was surprised to realize that I had seen it before. (Props to Kate O'Mara for her spot-on impersonation of Bonnie Langford.) I wasn't thrilled that it was four episodes long, but it does explain how Einstein became familiar with the Doctor and the TARDIS. (Well. Not explain really, but give a reason for that Eleven minisode with Einstein in it. Aaaaand never mind. Scurried off to YouTube to watch it and it was written by a bunch of school kids who very likely hadn't seen Time and the Rani.

Anyway, that was in preparation for watching last night's episode of current Doctor Who, which...was rather confusing to start. ( Read more... )

Today...I have no plans. We'll just see how it goes. Well, no. I lie. I do plan to listen to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me later this morning, but that's not for a few hours yet.

selenak

Before I get to this week's episode: is an interview with Juno Dawson, who wrote last week's episode. In it, she makes a comment about the Doctor and the Spoiler which I found interesting in term's of this week's episode: ( which is spoilery. )

Now, on to The Wish World. Basically, classic pre finale set up episode, making things as desperate as possible, though this time the horror is of a very different type compared to other RTD pre finale episodes.

( Spoilers live in a Tory Utopia )

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Munich

sholio

Currently traveling, but I finished a thing!

I got a prompt on Tumblr earlier this month for a roleswap AU with Londo & G'Kar. I wrote a short ficlet for it a few days ago, then was promptly seized by the urge to write the entire story that goes with it.

Gift on AO3 (2,953 words, Babylon 5, gen)
Mid season four. Narns deliver a gift to G'Kar. He does not appreciate it in the slightest.
(A roleswap AU of sorts, set around the same general time frame as "No Surrender, No Retreat" in canon, in which reconciliation occurs from a completely different and even more fraught direction.)

( 3000-ish words of chains and reluctant h/c )

lhune posting in

3_good_things_a_day

1) Freshly baked bread and a couple of pastries from the bakery

2) Dinner at my parents’s place (I’m taking the pastries over there)

3) I’m dreaming of Egypt ^_^ Not that I intend to travel there but simply reading and watching all about it

fayanora

It took me hours, but I updated the Sticky post on here with my book info, a brief overview of my politics, and got rid of a bunch of dead and defunct stuff from it. Click here to check that out if you want. I also updated my profile page.

On an unrelated note, forgot to post this part of my walk earlier:

Saw a man riding one of those escooters with a five or so year old girl straddling the bottom of the steering bar. I would've called the cops about it, but I didn't have their number and I was out of data for the month so I couldn't look it up. But neither one of them was wearing a helmet or knee pads or stuff like that, either. Super, super dangerous, like "call the cops and maybe CPS" level of dangerous, in my opinion.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Light in Babylon - Gypsy Love

torachan

1. Since we were planning to go to Disneyland later in the day rather than first thing, we were able to go to the farmers market this morning beforehand.

2. We had a really lovely time at Disneyland today. Saw some rare characters and a couple parades, but the best thing of all was the adorable tiny ducklings (so many of them!).

3. Tuxie!

dine

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ysabetwordsmith posting in

dw_community_promo

birdfeeding is a community started on January 1, 2023. It's all about birdfeeding, birdwatching, and other topics relating to birds. It also touches on nature in general, and observations that may effect bird activity such as local weather. Both text and image posts are welcome.

Community resources include posts about birding events, nurseries that sell seeds or plants attractive to birds, bird identification apps, the benefits of birdwatching, and other useful materials. Check out the anchor posts from Three Weeks for Dreamwidth.

Recent posts:

Garden for Wildlife Month

Poem: "Birdsong" by Matt Merritt

Photos: House Yard

Photos: Prairie Garden

Baseball birds

Current Mood: busy

torachan

We usually go early morning or later in the afternoon/evening and hardly ever just go mid afternoon, but we specifically wanted to see the anniversary cavalcade, which is only at 1:30 and 2:45, so we went down late morning and got there around eleven.

( Read more... )

maru_feed

Posted by mugumogu

https://sisinmaru.com/2025/05/25/%e3%81%be%e3%82%8b%e3%81%a7%e3%81%99%ef%bc%91%ef%bc%98%e3%80%82-i-am-maru-18-%ef%bc%88%e5%8b%95%e7%94%bb%ef%bc%89/

https://sisinmaru.com/?p=32571

まるさん18才のお誕生日記念動画！2024年のまるさんです。 Video commemorating Maru’s 18th birthday! This is Maru in 2024.

https://sisinmaru.com/2025/05/25/%e3%81%be%e3%82%8b%e3%81%a7%e3%81%99%ef%bc%91%ef%bc%98%e3%80%82-i-am-maru-18-%ef%bc%88%e5%8b%95%e7%94%bb%ef%bc%89/

https://sisinmaru.com/?p=32571

kalloway

I mailed out the monthly mail yesterday, including to Canada since CanadaPost is still running (for now). Fingers crossed.

Would any Star Trek friends like a couple of brochures from Riverside Trekfest XXVIII? These turned up while sorting stuff at the 'rents and given some of their travels and stopping at every tourist trap they could in the past, they must've ended up in Riverside, Iowa once. (I'll post anywhere in the world. First come.)

Got almost all my physical zine stuff organized and made a post about it on

makezines. I think the only thing missing is The Home for Unwanted Robots and that might take some digging. But this was one of the goals for the weekend, so yay.

I also did a bunch more painting on my SD Heroes Strike Freedom, and then built like 2/3 of the white Alto. He'll get finished up today, surely, and then have his wings added on tonight? I don't know if I'll get to Plutone over the weekend, but I'll definitely get started on Flauros.

petra

I have finished Slow Horses s1-3, as a result of paying for Apple TV to encourage them to Murderbot.

I want to inflict the Slow Horses, AU-ized, on various fandoms. Some of their mistakes are universal; others can be readily translated between universes.

I mean, really, what do the Jedi do with their terminal fuckups, once they've been accepted as padawans ~~-- other than promote them to Council seats~~?

Not me wanting Roderick Ho the Jedi slicer who thinks he's hot bantha poodoo, nosiree bob.

In other universe-smashing paradigms, I still want to introduce Lamb to Peter Grant. They would loathe each other uncordially. It would be splendid.

Sorry, this is as close as my icon collection gets without going all Gene Hunt -- who would also be deeply entertaining to inflict on Lamb and his merry band, while I'm proposing crossovers.

Current Mood: playing dolls
Current Music: Gimme danger, little stranger

sovay

I hate that it had to be done in memoriam instead of normal celebration, but I love that Nathaniel Parker read Wilfred Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth" (1917) for Derek Jarman, from the first edition he was given when he played the poet in Jarman's War Requiem (1989). He made his feature debut clutching its holograph ink in his cold hand, laid out like an effigy with the mortal candle-flicker pinpointed in his dark eyes until the greatcoat he would no longer need against the slither and freeze of the trenches was flung furiously across him like a shroud: the author who has always been dead. He was perhaps more beautiful than the real-life Owen, but he had the mustache and the patent dark hair exact. I never remember him as the living man at work on his poems by the lantern-light of a dugout or kneeling beside the barbed-wire snarl of the friend he brought to his death, but on the other side of a fire-sheeted abstract of towns shelled to skeletons when the parable of the old man and the young has already killed him, his face a ghost-powder of lime and his notebooks and tin hat springing with the green turf of war cemeteries, the sacrificial Isaac himself led to a tomb of waste ground and slaughtered by a diabolical cardinal in a butcher's apron to the applause of a crowd of pantomime-rouged profiteers. The image haunted me, the poet telling his own death, writing his own ghost poem. It got into "Red Is for Soldiers" (2013), which I wrote for Armistice Day in a year the living links of memory had finally snapped. And Jarman who was already HIV-positive at the time of filming died younger than he should have, no government's hand stayed by a child-poet's angel to spare him, either. Any number of poems could have been read for his memory, from Christopher Marlowe to his own words, but this one had so many echoes. It makes me think well of Parker that he thought of it. He was not one of Jarman's muses, but he didn't forget.

Current Music: Peter Pears & Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, "It seemed that out of battle I escaped"

peaceful_sands posting in

bitesizedcleaning

The end of May is fast approaching and so this week we can either move on to cleaning curtains/blinds or the windows themselves or if that's not a good option for you, feel free to re-visit an earlier week this month if you'd like to make further progress there.

senmut

*\o/*	Word Count	Step Count	Headache?
Daily	493	9,470	yes
Monthly	14,515	223,138	9 days

Current Music: "The Wire" - HAIM

fayanora

I went out for another returnables walk today because it was perfect summer weather at least at the beginning, being around 76 or 77 at first. I wore a red mesh shirt with its mesh holes being a large caliber, and my favorite black short skirt. I started out by checking can boxes along the way to dropping off another full green bag of returnables at New Seasons Market. Continued up the usual way (13th) this time to the bend in the road with another can box by it. Didn't find any returnables in that can box, but there was one on the ground not far from that one, by a picnic table. From there, I went along that road (Bybee, I think?) to Milwaukie Avenue and went south a couple blocks along that road for a few I knew about, then back the other way to get the three on the crossing of Milwaukie Ave and Bybee. Went to the one by QFC and the two a couple blocks past that.

Then, because a couple days ago I had earned a bus pass on my HOP card, I took the bus #19 over to the stop just before the MAX station on Bybee, checking a can box there. (Empty.) Walked up the hill to the MAX stop, checked garbage cans there and on the MAX train platform. There was a delay for the MAX because of a collision, so I abandoned my original plan of checking every MAX stop and instead went back upstairs to the 19 stop and poured water on my head, arms, legs, and shirt because I was hot and needed to cool off. (I had a very big water bottle with me; for all I used it today, it's still not empty!)

Took the 19 to the part of Woodstock over by the Bi-Mart and the Safeway there, checking garbage cans again all the way down to 52nd, where I got on the 71. Got off by the Grocery Outlet on that route to check a couple more can boxes, then walked down to this convenience store and got a pop just 'cause. Got back on the 71 from there, got off to take the 33 back to Milwaukie (the suburb), wandered around there a bit checking trash cans. I was intending to walk along the 34's route for a bit, hop the 34 to another part of its route closer to home, and meander around there a bit before going home, but I remembered the 34 only runs on the weekdays and this was Saturday. So I took the MAX to the same area instead, and proceeded from there. There's this spot by Ochoco that can be good for returnables because there's dozens of semi trucks and/or their trailers parked there. You just have to avoid the ones filled with piss.

From there, I went to this building that's for the Oregon liquor licensing organization thingy, checking a garbage can by their front door. It had several beer cans in it, and I was oddly surprised by this, though maybe I shouldn't have been. Anyway, from there I went home and found nothing else between there and home.

I have to say, today I had a very unusual amount of stamina. Though I didn't record any part of the trek because my cellular data is used up for the month and I forgot to grab the smart watch, given how much more I walked than my usual route today, I would estimate I walked probably eight miles in total.

Now of course for the returnables total: Sixty! Yes, a total of six dollars' worth of returnables in one day, which is possibly a record for me. And because I don't have mileage stats, have these photos of how loaded my cart was:

( Under the cut because there are largeish images, including a selfie with my new sunglasses. )

Also went on a similar walk last Thursday, after picking up my new sunglasses at Brooke's, since I had forgotten them there when I left on Wednesday after our TV night. That one involved wandering around the shopping area up between the Ikea and the airport. Found a bunch in that park there, and the trash cans by the restaurants, and also outside the Ikea in a returnables box, and even a couple inside the Ikea because I went in to use the restroom and to get a quick bite to eat. I don't remember the returnables count from that day, but probably between 10 and 15 at the most. Also didn't have any recordings of the mileage that day.

Oh, and yesterday all I did was I went to the library down in Milwaukie with my new-to-me laptop and tried to write because I hadn't been writing for about two or three weeks. Only ended up doing some notes and planning for a chapter, but it took me a few hours and at least it's progress. After the exhausting day I had today, I think I'll let the can boxes go fallow for a day or two and go to the library again for writing tomorrow.

The weirdest thing all day is that I left sometime between noon and 1 pm I think, and was out until 6 pm, and though it's 8:00 pm now, I'm still not hungry. I didn't eat a lot this morning, so I don't understand why I'm not hungry yet. I mean, part of it might be my hyper-focusing on this post for the last 40 minutes, but that's only part of it. (Shrugs) I'll eat anyway because I'm sure my body is just being weird again like it does sometimes.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Guilhem Desq - Jusqu'en haut de la montagne

dialecticdreamer

Wishful Thinking
By Sarah Williams
Part 2 of ?
Word count (story only): 1149
[Landing #7, day 2, evening]

:: After a long day, the Ashton family, and Backstep, are sitting down to dinner. Conversation turns to longer term plans. Part of the Sidestep Travelers universe. ::

Less than five minutes after Backstep hauled the unwanted guest away, two different people rapped on the front door. The knocks came at different tempos and different pressures, creating an unsteady clamor. Arthur stepped up, checked the viewer, and sighed. “It’s the Iblis. The real ones. Should I let them in?”

Grandmama stepped past him, gently, and turned the knob. “I’ll take the responsibility,” she whispered.

“What happened? We got an alert!” Iblis Nur began. His hands fluttered as he spoke, and he turned his head and shoulders to see as much of the foyer and hallway as he could.

“Is Anita feeling more ill? A headache?” Iblis Yamal asked more calmly.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: artistic

ysabetwordsmith

These are tiny figures made from acorns, flowers, and other found objects.

Current Mood: amused

cornerofmadness

So I managed to drag my ass out of bed and down to the bus by quarter to 7 in the morning (crying all the way and I was not alone). The Pittsburgh Panthers have been a big part of the family life (brother, uncles, cousins went there) but I have NOT been on campus hard core since the 1980s when my bff went there. (she started college with me but transferred to their drama department).

First observation - I'm no longer 20.

Second observation - Pitt is hampered by its age and its urban setting. I do NOT know how someone with accessibility issues worse than mine can come here. They must have to go blocks out of their way. So many steps. So many.

Third observation - William Penn Union is a gorgeous (and historic landmark so you can't actually change this) I tried to take a picture yesterday. Need to try again tomorrow. Breakfast there was good, so was lunch

Fourth observation - yeah every room is a theater style (not surprising) but almost no place for wheelchairs in several of them. And oh no bathroom on the first floor so you have to go up or down and there was not one working sink. Our Hosts went ballistic only be told 'shrug, it's a holiday weekend, what do you want us to do?'

Fifth observation - I have new ideas to go home with so it was a productive day. One game I want to adapt is the card games, basically using known games to hone knowledge (like the memory game) and the how to interview for med school/PA/PT etc (I used to do this for our students but it's been several years and this guy is on the admittant committee for Boston Med) and the unexpected one I loved was the guy getting people to come to his office hours by once a week making it fun, come color, come play with sidewalk chalk, come play games and just TALK. I will definitely try that.

My boo-boo toe started killing me after lunch (all those fucking stairs). It was bleeding and the sock was stuck to it and throbbing like a tooth ache. You have to understand this toe is neuropathic which means I can barely feel it so to have this much pain it's hurt worse than I thought. Whee.

Tonight's dinner was SO disappointing. I had been saving up Christos' Med. Grille for tonight (it's famous here) but when I logged into DoorDash it was closed for the holidays. NOOOOO! I found a ramen place that is getting written up. It wasn't bad. In fact it was very tasty (including the matcha pudding with sweet red beans) BUT nothing was in my soup. I had opted for extra noodles and a marinated egg but the things that were meant to come with the soup (the tofu, the cabbage and basil) were NOT in it.. If I hadn't wanted those noodles/egg I'd have been given a bowl of broth.... I am learning after 3 days in a row 3 different restaurants, they DO NOT seem to take much care of what is boxed up for this

At least the volleyball tournament girls are quiet tonight.

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: NCIS

siliconshaman

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serrico

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Current Mood: sleepy

seascribble

Did we really used to live on 22 minutes of our shows week to week? It's rough out there, man. I'm glad they're spreading out the run but I do sort of wish the episodes were a little longer (but Sea, you said you didn't know how they were possibly going to turn the novella into ten episodes. And I still don't but that's their problem, I'm having a good time)

( Spoilers )

Very keen for next week's episode. I've watched all of three of them three times through, which I usually don't do so that's one pro of them being short as well as I think a comment on the overall quality.

analogbasilisk posting in

drabble_zone

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analogbasilisk posting in

rainbowfic

Story: Poetry Collection | Title: loud (fuck it)
Colour: Warm Heart #22. Worry
Supplies and styles: miniature, chiaroscuro, resin
Resin:

drabble_zone Amnesty #45 &

fandom_empire Fortune Wheel Week 2 &

lyricaltitles Album Challenge (Graveyard Shift by Motionless In White)
Word count: 100
Rating: M
Warnings: implied child abuse

( Read more... )

tielan

There's no room for in it for my brain, no space in my schedule for watching, no community to drag me along with them.

And also, I've become resigned to the fact that I will never get stories about the characters that I want. That my interests are not anywhere near the interests of the majority of viewers, and because what counts is eyeballs (or reader pages, or whatever) then the characters I love - or the archetypes I want to see - are not going to appeal to most people.

It's a little demoralising, and makes it hard to write.

Not to mention the state of the world is steadily wearing on us all. Not just the AI (fuck AI) but also the world and all it's harms. All the hopeful stories I had for analogues and spin-offs of our world are presently crumbling while watching Ukraine, Gaza, the authority of the current US Administration, the right-wingers, Christian Nationalism - not to mention all the tech issues.

*sigh*

I can't remember if it was John Green or someone else (might have been Hank Green) who said during the 2020 election process that he was hesitating over starting a new book, because a 2nd Trump administration would create a very different world to one in which 45 only managed one administration. He was, as it turns out, exceedingly prescient on that front.

muccamukk

What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher, narrated by Avi Roque.
Hugo Awards homework for the novella category.

As with the first one in this series, I enjoyed the characters more than the horror plotline, and I don't think it's just because I'm not always that into horror. ( Read more... )

Woodworking by Emily St. James, narrated by Saoirse Ní Shúilleabháin, L. Morgan Lee & Emily St. James.
Dramady about being a trans woman in middle America during the run up to the 2016 federal election. ( Read more... )

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong, narrated by Phyllis Ho.
I need to stop trying to read cosy fantasy, or possibly cosy anything (except maybe shifter romances). ( Read more... )

The Maid and the Crocodile by Jordan Ifueko, narrated by Adetinpo Thomas.
(Awards homework for the Lodestar.)

So I read this without reading any of the rest of the Raybearer series, and a) it stood alone just fine and I was able to follow everything that wasn't an Easter Egg, and b) if you're interested in the original duology (which I probably have on my e-reader somewhere), I would definitely read that first, as this spoils the majority of the plot for the earlier books. ( Read more... )

twistedchick

What stories do you see being told around you in the actions of the federal government these days?

analogbasilisk posting in

rainbowfic

Universe: Beschiverse
Story: Of Rusted Hearts And Grease Palms Title: Older
Colour: Lust #27. Against a Wall
Supplies and styles: miniature, life drawing, resin
Resin:

drabble_zone Amnesty #45 &

fandom_empire Fortune Wheel, Week 2
Word count:100
Rating: M
Warnings: implied sexual content

( Read more... )

analogbasilisk posting in

drabble_zone

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garrideb

Song: Deep Space by Eisley
Fandom: Crater (2023)
Summary: It's friends on a road trip on the moon!
Warnings: none
Notes: I made this for WisCon 2025. I only heard of Crater from a post about how Disney never released this film on DVD and dropped it from Disney+ shortly after it was released. I was curious, so I pirated the movie (there was then no legal way to obtain it) and was surprised by how much I liked it. It's about teens who live on a mining colony on the moon, who steal a moon buggy to venture out to visit a mysterious crater. It's also about injustice and workers rights. I carefully do NOT spoil the major mysteries of the movie in my vid.

Crater is now (as of this posting) available to rent online legally, but if you're curious...

This has been crossposted to AO3 and tumblr.

Watch on YouTube

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 #33158 Daily poll

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 20

How are you doing?

I am okay
16 (80.0%)

I am not okay, but don't need help right now
4 (20.0%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans are you living with?

I am living single
6 (30.0%)

One other person
11 (55.0%)

More than one other person
3 (15.0%)

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.

amejisuto

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Current Mood: weird

settiai

Well, I'm gifted. There's a Hispanic grocery store across the street, and I walked over there before D&D last night to grab a few groceries that I needed. On the way back, I ended up tripping over my own two feet. I scraped up both legs a fair bit and had to get that cleaned up before the game, but it didn't seem all that bad at first.

I thought it was fine, save for the scrapes, but when I went to bed after the game last night my body let me know that it was worse than I thought. My left leg is bruised quite nicely and my right knee (which was scraped up) was aching. To make it even better, my right ankle - which is the one that I sprained quite nicely about a month ago that's just really properly started to heal - started swelling again a few after I fell. Plus my right knee has also started swelling somewhat today to match the ankle, which is even better.

Luckily, I still have the brace from when I sprained my ankle at the end of April, and I've been trying to soak it as much as possible which seems to be helping some. I'm not worried about it being a fracture this time like I was a month ago, so I'm not wasting the money on a trip to the doctor since there's only so much they can do for a sprain, as many, many, many past sprains have taught me. And while my knee is a bit swollen, it's not bad enough to justify a trip to the clinic on a holiday weekend, at least not yet.

After almost 40 years in this body, you'd think that I would have learned to walk by now. But, no, apparently not. 🙃

Current Mood: frustrated

muccamukk

IDK if I shared this before, but here it is again.

Watch on YouTube

duskpeterson

All of the fiction below is free.

E-BOOKS (html, epub, mobi, pdf, and xhtml)

Law Links: Novel and Side Stories (The Three Lands). Few events are more thrilling in a young man's life than a blood feud between two villages. Or so Adrian thought. ¶ Torn between affection toward his traditional-minded father and worship of his peace-loving, heretical priest, Adrian finds himself caught between two incompatible visions of his duty to the gods. Then the Jackal God sends Adrian a message that will disrupt his world and send him fleeing to a new and perilous life. ¶ Mythic historical fantasy (secondary world, late antiquity). Reissued omnibus, with new front matter and back matter; no changes to the story texts.

Death Mask: Novel and Side Stories (The Three Lands). For eighteen years, he has survived in an army unit where few soldiers live more than two or three years. Now he finds himself in circumstances where his life is a living hell. Will the soldier who defied death find that life is too great a challenge? ¶ Soldiers, spies, slaves, rebels, assassins, gods, and men who set out to break him . . . The Lieutenant of the Border Mountain Patrol will learn that his greatest test is himself. ¶ Mythic historical fantasy (secondary world, late antiquity). New omnibus, with typos corrected and a new novelette:

Light and Love (Death Mask side story): In a world where two people who love each other must enter into the role of antagonists, what will preserve their love? ¶ Tryphena is a maiden. To her brother falls the responsibility of choosing her husband. ¶ Then war comes, and with it arrive a wise goddess of death and destruction, an enemy soldier of uncertain character, and a masked god who can turn evil into good. ¶ Who will rule Tryphena's heart and conscience? And how can she and her brother prevent war from breaking out between them?

BLOG FICTION

Tempestuous Tours (Crossing Worlds: A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands #2). A whirlwind tour of the sites in the Three Lands that are most steeped in history, culture, and the occasional pickpocket. ¶ Mythic historical fantasy (secondary world, late antiquity). Latest installments:

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ysabetwordsmith

Sperm from cancer-risk donor used to conceive at least 67 children across Europe

Case of man carrying rare genetic variant fuels calls for limit on number of children that can be fathered by one donor.

It is not ethical to control other people's reproductive choices by force, which is what that proposal amounts to. There are better ways.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

duskpeterson

The lower floor of the royal residence is guarded at its entrances, for obvious reasons. It houses only servants these days, but in past years, it was fully as active as the upper floors.

Left to right, you will see the former bedchamber of the High Lord, the former receiving chamber of the council, a former service chamber, the former and current royal receiving chamber and dining chamber, and the royal sanctuary. The last requires extended commentary.

silvercat17 posting in

justcreate

What are you working on? What have you finished? What do you need encouragement on?

Are there any cool events or challenges happening that you want to hype?

What do you just want to talk about?

What have you been watching or reading?

Chores and other not-fun things count!

Remember to encourage other commenters and we have a discord where we can do work-alongs and chat, linked in the sticky

sovay

I did not get out of bed until after noon. Hestia was curled at the foot of it to make sure. It was the first real sleep I'd gotten all week. Outside in breezy contrast to the last couple of days of November for May, we seem to be having a kind of spring-rinsed, sunshowery day. I have eaten a peanut butter granola bar. Hestia has wrapped her tail possessively, temple-cat-fashion, around my mug.

Because the internet is hazardous to the human condition, within the same five minutes I read some evolutionary psychology on atheism and ran into a reminder of the persistence of ace discourse and experienced a similar resurgence of antipathy. Any discussion of atheism predicated on a framework of faith would always fail to find purchase on me, but even when expounded by a self-identified atheist it grinds my gears to find the state explained only in terms of lack: an inability to imagine, a disaffection with religion, a failure to be socialized to it, a decision against it, all negative paths of arrival, no neutrally variant initial condition. Basically just replicate most of that complaint for discussions of sexuality, since if there is one thing the human species does seem to be majority-wired for, it's sloppy othering. It has occurred to me before that I was shielded from a lot of damage by coming at so-called normality from such an angle that not only did it make too little sense to me to feel aspirational, I didn't recognize for years what much of it was supposed to look like. But I'm also just kind of starting to have it in for the alpha privative. Defining by not still lets the thing it isn't set the terms.

WERS has been playing Jesse Welles' "Horses" (2025) on a near-daily basis for weeks now and because I too belong to this conflicting species, I feel that generally I agree with its message of letting go of self-defeating hatreds and divisions in the bigger picture of stellar time and at the same time the government of my country is pursuing policies of active harm to just about everything which seems to limit the degree to which I should be reasonably expected to let down my guard. Now I suppose I get to worry that finding a popular folk song naive means I have just flipped into the last verse of "Love Me, I'm a Liberal."

Current Music: Sea Lemon, "Stay"

sorcyress

I am at Pinewoods!

It feels nice to write that for this, the first time in 2025. I am at Pinewoods and I am sitting somewhere quiet and alone and I am about to take my covid test.

(Where that place is? Somewhere with enough wifi to make my computer go. What are you, a cop? If you wanna find all the places at camp that have wifi, you are welcome to, but I'm not gonna make it easy for you because I am a Jerk, tm.)

Anyways, it's just me, my covid test, and a chance to write my words and this is a pattern I got into in 2022 and have never really wanted to leave: the quiet joy of enforced time _by myself_ where I can write my words in the middle of the day instead of trying to do so very _very_ late at night.

I am at Pinewoods for the first time of the year, and I am quite happy, even though it's a different set of people than I mostly know and even though the weather is very damp and kinda grey. But the place is still good. I have chased some dragonflies to try and paparazzi them, I have had good mealtime conversations with people I know and like.

And I have done work, because this is a work weekend! And because I am very good at what I do¹, I got assigned dishes, as in, "wash all of them". Or nearly all of them, we are skipping the camper dishes which don't want to have to be spread out to dry in the same way everything else does because jegus what a pain.

So I did two shifts today with Brenda, who is going to be the Dishwasher for the summer, and it's her Very First Year doing so! She's been a camper dish-helper before (I remember working with her and being pleased) and so it's gonna be a good move up. I think she has a great attitude for it, and got the hang of a lot of things very quickly.

I interspersed actual work things with various ideas and advice as I thought of them, some of which were like "this is technically potwasher advice". And I ran...golly I can't even begin to approximate how many loads through the (only sorta working) Hobart. The Hobart wasn't sanitizing, so part of her clean-side duties² was to run everything from clean-side over to the potwashing sinks, all three of which had been turned into sanitation sinks, and to constantly drop stuff into the solution, and then run it all around the kitchen and stack it...virtually _everywhere_.

It was a lot of fun and we got _so much_ done. Maybe six total hours work? And I got to listen to my music in the first half and her music in the second and that all felt great too.

Of course, having done such an impressive job today, there's hardly any dishes left for tomorrow, so I'll probably be back to normal work weekend tasks, opening cabins and the like. Which is honestly fine, I quite like doing so! Lots of dusting, and wiping things down, and SWEEPING, and if you're lucky, getting to do a windows run.

I'm not sure what the plan for the rest of the night is. I am feeling a little people'd out, which means I don't necessarily want to be SUPER SOCIAL for the entire evening. Maybe I will read a book in a corner, maybe I will draw more pictures (yesterday I drew a dog, link is to Bluesky)

Maybe I will go for a nice stroll between now and dinnertime (which is over an hour, jegus, so late!) because if there's anywhere in the world I enjoy just prowling around by myself, it's camp. Bring my camera, look for bugs, visit Kitty Alone, see the new bathrooms, check in on El Nino, there's lots and lots of good things to do at camp!

Another day and a half of this, and I'm very happy for it. I hope wherever you are, you are also happy!

~Sor

MOOP!

1: I am using this (very common Kat-phrase) as a double meaning right now. Because first I am literally quite good at washing dishes, and second, I am good at working my way into the hearts of The People In Charge in order to get to do the things *I* most want to do. I mean, it helps that the things I want to do are often things that other people don't, but dang, I get away with a lot of special privileges just by being very open about my wants, and wanting weird stuff.

2: Of course I was working dirty side, I nearly always work dirty side, my absolute single favourite job in all of camp is dirty-side at the window as a camper helper. See footnote 1.

only by balancing move

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