mirlacca | Network

Challenge #9 at

snowflake_challenge

Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)

I cheated and read an article online that listed a bunch of tropes and these are my findings. I like hidden worlds and secret societies, but I strongly dislike chosen one stories. And I don't read a lot of fantasy, so I don't tend to encounter hidden worlds much. I guess I just like the idea of their being a secret mirror of our society. I've written a couple of fics where various pantheons of gods intersect with modern society and with each other because I like imagining what might be going on that we don't see.

I LOVE me an amateur sleuth. That's why Miss Marple has always been my absolute favorite, closely followed by Jessica Fletcher. Right now I'm reading Three Bags Full where the sleuths are the ultimate amateurs - a flock of sheep whose shepherd has been murdered! I also like amateur spies like Tommy and Tuppence and Mrs. Pollifax.

If I like the source material, I will try almost any type of AU. The only kind I tend to bounce off of are set in school; as a teacher, I find them so unbelievable that I can't suspend my disbelief.

I'm also very fond of crossovers. Sometimes I'll see someone bigging up a crossover on the AO3 subreddit and, even if I know nothing about either canon, I'll give it a try. I also really enjoy writing crossovers; it's like weaving together two different fabrics or putting together a puzzle.

And while we are on the subject of things I like, I love writing and reading drabbles. I enjoy a fic where someone has provided a link to a playlist. I like when people play around with form and experiment, even when it doesn't quite work. I like an author with audacity.

trobadora

fandomtrees reveals have happened! I received two excellent sets of cooking/food icons from

holyscream and

peasina and a Zhubai ficlet from

facethestrange. :D

Meanwhile, I'm still trying to finish things myself ...

Today's writing

I wrote a little this afternoon (new, much better beginning for one of the fics), then had a vertigo attack and had to take a break. (Seriously, what's wrong with this week?! I would like a refund!) Planning to write a little more later today, and tomorrow hopefully I'll actually finish something ...

WED Question of the Day

In honour of my icon:

Poll #34092

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 22

View Respondents

My first complete draft is usually ...

View Answers

very close to the final draft
7 (33.3%)

a bit sparse, but otherwise close to the final draft
4 (19.0%)

a bit wordy, but otherwise close to the final draft
5 (23.8%)

structurally messy, but otherwise close to the final draft
1 (4.8%)

messy overall, but with the important pieces in place
3 (14.3%)

so different it bears little resemblance to the final draft
0 (0.0%)

something else entirely (see comments)
1 (4.8%)

My first complete draft is sometimes ...

View Answers

very close to the final draft
12 (54.5%)

a bit sparse, but otherwise close to the final draft
9 (40.9%)

a bit wordy, but otherwise close to the final draft
5 (22.7%)

structurally messy, but otherwise close to the final draft
8 (36.4%)

messy overall, but with the important pieces in place
6 (27.3%)

so different it bears little resemblance to the final draft
2 (9.1%)

something else entirely (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Tickyboxes ...

View Answers

need no hindsight
8 (44.4%)

make it easy to change your mind fifty times
9 (50.0%)

know no such thing as overkill
12 (66.7%)

Tally

( Days 1-15 )

Day 16:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

luzula,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 17:

trobadora,

ysilme

Let me know if I missed anyone! And remember you can drop in or out at any time. :)

kaffy_r

Music Meme, Day 19

A song to drive to:

Years ago, Bob and I, and Drs. Bob and Gonzo (respectively the husband of Dr. Gonzo, and his wife, our 300-pound Samoan Attorney*) went on a legendary road trip from Chicago up through Toronto and east through Quebec, New Brunswick, and down to Nova Scotia to visit my mother, thence over to Maine and down to New York to visit Dr. Bob and Gonzo's families. After that, we headed west back to Chicago.

It was a hell of a ride, and we ruined Bob and Gonzo's poor little 4-goat-power Ford Escort. But oh, the memories! Gonzo and I being mistaken for Times Square working girls by a NYPD patrol officer while the two Bobs were behind us in a porn shop, perusing available material ... introducing the doctors to the Bay of Fundy in Halls Harbor and other small harbors, introducing them to my beloved mum and my amazing brother ... dealing with Gonzo's mother, who we learned to llove despite everything ....

And driving. Driving on the flat land between Chicago and Toronto, stopping at an open bar in Toronto for breakfast after driving all night. Dr. Gonzo discovering how much fun it was to drive 80 mph (she'd worried about that, until we were passed by an RCMP car going even faster). Dr. Bob discovering how much he loved driving up and down hills in Maine, shouting "Banzai!" as he did.

Going up and down small hills, then longer hills, higher hills. The hills everywhere on our trip were part of the fun.

My first big hill came accompanied by this song; heading down faster and faster, while the Boss told us about the girl he's in hopeless love with, while the bass and keyboards anchored the song that threatens to go off the rails with his longing, with the multi-part ending not letting go until absolutely necessary.

To this day, I remember the joy of going faster and faster to this song. It's probably lucky that I don't have easy access to it while driving these days.

Here's the original from his breakout album.

Watch on YouTube

Here are links to the previous days of this meme. Day 17, and Day 16 cover the waterfront.

Here is a live version of the song in all its overheated glory All iterations of his E-Street Band were and are fantastic. This was from a performance before the deaths of keyboardist Danny Federici, and The Big Man, Clarence Clemens.

Watch on YouTube
* Ed Sunden gave our beloved bass playing lawyer the sobriquet Dr. Gonzo, naming her in honor of Hunter Thompson's sidekick from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the amazing Oscar, Zeta Acosta, an attorney, writer and activist in his own right.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Bruce Springsteen "She's the One"

jazzfish

Just finished Lord of the Rings. This may well have been the first time I read the Appendices all the way through (though I did skim the ones on the calendars and the alphabets).

Two takeaways from RotK:

First, the Scouring of the Shire hits different when you're under occupation. It's also perhaps the most fantastical part of the book, since it posits that the citizenry were nearly all ready to rise up and just needed a push, as opposed to a third of them cheering on Otho and Sharkey and a third of them just hunkering down and hoping it would all pass them by.

Second, the meme take on Denethor as 'doomscrolling in the Palantir to Sauron's algorithm' is ... remarkably apt.

Now ebooks for a couple of days, and then once I'm home the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. UT is, as I recall, mostly-complete fragments with some commentary. The twelve-volume History of Middle-Earth reverses the proportions, and is thus less interesting to me. UT also contains a version of the Quest of Erebor ("The Hobbit") as told from Gandalf's perspective, which should be neat.

All quiet on bus stop patrol. Tuesday had a couple of plateless SUVs and a couple of blocks-away whistle choruses; Thursday and yesterday were quiet. It's nice to be out in the snow in my black wool coat and hat, though, and nice to get some smiles from folks driving past.

susandennis

Ok everything is positioned and velcro'd down and cameras placed and fuck is it dusty under there. I had a coughing fit like I haven't had in ages. But it is all done. Biggie is happy. Julio is going in and out - not willing to commit.

spikedluv

fandomtrees has revealed and I was gifted some great fic and art: Kevin Can F**k Himself moodboards from

pattrose, a Hudson & Rex drabble from

lomelinde_laurea, and a really fun Murder, She Wrote/Midsomer Murders crossover from

cornerofmadness!!

Check them out at my tree and please tell them how wonderful they are!

classichorrorreddit_feed

Posted by /u/BritBeard

https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassicHorror/comments/1qfkjq1/crab_looks_like_roger_corman/

This is production artwork, the crab had an uncanny resemblance to Roger

submitted by /u/BritBeard
[link] [comments]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassicHorror/comments/1qfkjq1/crab_looks_like_roger_corman/

3sfmod posting in

threesentenceficathon

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forestofglory

Here’s another Media Roundup after not months and months! Hopefully I’ll be reading and watching things other than fic a bit more often and thus post these media roundups more often than I was.

I seem to have gotten into the habit of reading a lot of graphic novels in December and January. I currently have a big pile out from the library – and I’ve read a few of them, and hopefully will get around to even more of the pile.

Lu and Ren’s Guide to Geozoology by Angela Hsieh— A very charming graphic novel about two girls on an adventure. Featuring charming art and very cute geo fauna! (As a Mandarin learner I did find the almost but not quite hanzi characters a little bit frustrating)

The Pale Queenby Ethan M. Aldridge—Another YA graphic novel, this one featuring an f/f romance. I really liked the fae in this book – they were a good mix of beautiful and scary. The art is also lovely!

Crush of Music— I’m still watching this very slowly, the subtitles have mostly been better for the last few episodes –so that’s nice. I’m enjoying seeing Liu Yuning and Zhou Shen interact in this – at one point they played the kazoo together!

Various Batman ect comic—So I mentioned in my 2025 media review post that I accidentally acquired a new fandom, that fandom is batfam. This is embarrassing for me because for years I've been prone to what R calls “the Batman rant” where I complain that punching people in the face is a dumb way to reduce crime rates. Plus I just feel like superhero comics are a space that's pretty hostile to me and my values. But apparently if you give me fic about a family of 3-8 adopted siblings finding each other/bonding and don't make me think too hard about the moral foundations of the universe then I'm willing to suspend my moral disbelief.

Anyways I got sucked in enough to be curious about the source material and have been reading stuff on hoopla. I'm fairly impressed with their comic reading interface too, it has a nice flow. (It doesn’t play well with my RSI issues but then neither does turning pages) The actual stories vary in quality, but some of them are surprisingly good. Even the not very good ones are surprisingly more-ish. I’m bringing a lot of emotional investment in these characters from my fic reading which also helps make the comics more engaging.

The Cross-Dressed Union—I thought that if my media theme at the moment is comfort that I should really start a new crossdressing girl drama since that's a big comfort trope of mine, So I asked around for recs and started this drama about an arranged marriage between a crossdressing woman and crossdressing man. It sounded fun but so far I’m pretty meh about it. I think my biggest problem is that the ML is the main character, and for these kinds of stories I prefer more focus on the FL. Also it's not doing enough with gender

james

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silveradept

It's time for another

snowflake_challenge, and this one is geared more toward those of us who like to talk about the building blocks, the character types, and the storytelling pathways that link and underlie any given specific story being told.

Challenge #9

Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)

( Discard the momomyth and understand that Tropes Are Tools )

Current Mood: weird
Current Music: Dove - Cymande

brithistorian

I am reminded of a statement by the former mayor of Bogotá, Antanas Mockus, a politician who employed artistic strategies in his office: "When an artist goes to prison, they take a piece of chalk and draw a line some centimetres from the wall to define their space, so they can have a bit more restrictions (sic). But by making those restrictions they in fact liberate themselves." A line can be a border and simultaneously an assertion of freedom. Being able to decide on your own limits, your strengths and weaknesses, is always empowering, offering a certain degree of sovereignty even in the direst situation.

Joanna Warsza, "Open Mic: Joanna Warsza on the Art of Open Group," *Artforum," October 2025, p. 110.

I've been thinking about this since I read it an hour or so ago. I think the quote from Mockus helped Warsza to set up for presenting her idea, but I don't think Mockus (at least as presented in this quote or — as I think is likely — in this translation of his quote) appears to quite understand what was going on in those prison cells. I don't think the artists wanted to "have a bit more restrictions (sic)," but instead, as Warsza put it, to "decide on [their] own limits."

When I was younger and studying poetry in school[^1], I never really understood why someone would choose to write poetry once prose had been invented, which seemed to me to be a superior method for conveying ideas. It's only later, as I learned more and started producing art of my own, that I learned the potential value of working within a set of restrictions, whether self-imposed or those of a traditional form. And looking back, I wonder if this value of restriction is something that my teachers could have explained to me, or if it's something that I had to figure out on my own in order to understand it.

[^1] Confession: I never really liked or (apparently) understood poetry.

profiterole_reads

Agatha Christie's Seven Dials on Netflix was excellent.

It doesn't star Hercule Poirot, nor Miss Marple, but a young lady played by the delightful Mia McKenna-Bruce. <3

Apparently, these characters also appear in an earlier novel, so I hope they'll adapt it too.

runpunkrun posting in

fancake

Poll #34091 round 183 theme poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 88

Pick the next theme of fancake:

In Denial
27 (30.7%)

Inept in Love
35 (39.8%)

Power Dynamics
26 (29.5%)

classichorrorreddit_feed

Posted by /u/Competitive_Mix9957

https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassicHorror/comments/1qfiply/charlie_you_aight_man_the_stuff_1985/

submitted by /u/Competitive_Mix9957
[link] [comments]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassicHorror/comments/1qfiply/charlie_you_aight_man_the_stuff_1985/

heleninwales

2/52 for the group 2026 Weekly Alphabet Challenge

This week's theme was: B is for Barbed

My first thought for the theme was barbed wire, but I didn't see any I could make a decent photo of. Fortunately today on our walk I spotted some gorse bushes which are naturally barbed.

I'll post more photos of the walk tomorrow when I have more time.

susandennis

Well, the big news today is upcoming mail. My email from USPS says I am getting something in an envelope from my nephew's new girlfriend. ???? She has gotten 5 star reviews from my nephew and my brother (his father - they met at the other nephew's wedding last October). I am dying of curiosity. BUT, often, the email from USPS says I am getting something today and it doesn't come until tomorrow and in this case, tomorrow is Tuesday so I am steeling myself for disappointment. When the mail person finishes filling the boxes here, Timber Ridge sends out a "mail's here!" notice which I always ignore. Except for today!!

Yesterday, I had a knock at the door and it was Jim Across The Hall. Usually he has a question but yesterday he knocked to proudly show off his haircut and shave! He had gone down to the new beauty parlour and gotten himself beautified and was so proud. It was very cute. His caregivers are taking very good care of him and I'm glad.

Here at Timber Ridge we have a great caregiver program. Especially trained people are dispatched for whatever is needed. You can get them by the hour or by the day. Myrna had one that spent the night in her apartment when she needed it. Jim rotate through different ones that come for an hour in the morning and and hour in the afternoon and they are doing such a good job making sure he has clean clothes and knows where they are, gets meals and... gets a much needed haircut and shave. And I love his response to it.

I made another of the funky dolls. The first one (turquoise dress) was made from the top of the head down. The second one was made from the butt up (and I tweaked some stuff). The second one was not as fiddly but still I think these will be the only two. Martha will adopt them.

This time next week, hopefully, I'll be playing volleyball!

This morning I'm going to dash out to Safeway before elbow coffee. The rest of the world will be there stocking up on football watching foods. The local NFL teams plays a playoff game at 5 tonight and the hype is at its hypiest.

I did move the two cat beds from the closet to under the bed. They aren't plugged in but the cats still gave them a whirl. Next I need to Velcro the dog bed down. It's hard to move but they manage. They are adapting well and enjoying their downstairs bedroom. Julio even got one of their toys and left it near the bed for those emergency toy situations.

thewayne

This is going to majorly PO American auto makers! Breaks my little heart. But that wasn't the reason for the deal.

Biden put a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles and Canada followed suit. China's cars are very wide in range in features: some are utter crap, some make a Tesla look like a Tonka, but Tesla hasn't really been updating their cars like they should. And above all, Chinese EVs are VERY inexpensive! How? Cheap labor, possibly even prison labor. But as a result of these prices, China has greatly reduced their use of fossil fuels and EV sales are soaring over there.

When Canada put in the tariff, China retaliated with a high tariff on Canadian canola seeds, a major farm export. With this drop in the EV tariff, China is dropping theirs from 84% to 15%. There were other items taxed in China's retaliation, I suppose those are still being negotiated.

But here's the telling bit: "Carney [Canadian Prime Minister] said China has become a more predictable partner to deal with than the U.S, the country’s neighbor and longtime ally.

“Our relationship has progressed in recent months with China. It is more predictable and you see results coming from that,” Carney said.

Carney hasn’t been able to reach a deal with U.S. President Trump to reduce some tariffs that are punishing some key sectors of the Canadian economy and Trump has previously talked about making Canada the 51st state."

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jan/16/canada-cuts-chinese-ev-tariff-100-exchange-lower-canola-tariffs/

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/01/16/2112255/canada-reverses-tariff-on-chinese-evs

nanila

If you could change one life-changing event in the life of someone important to you, would you?

I know there's a philosophy that experiences make you who you are and you shouldn't wish them away, but I have a few friends who have been through what I feel is a disproportionate and unfair amount of tragedy in their lives. Partner suicide, early death of parents, sudden loss of physical health, financial hardship, homelessness. I don't think any one person should have to go through all of those before the age of thirty. And yet. Here we are. So yes, I absolutely would change that for certain people if I could.
Which do you think is easier to do, being friends for many years, or being life partners for many years?

Uh, neither? Both take work! You have to listen and try to empathise and forgive and communicate. All relationships require effort, and if they don't, someone is being used.
Have you ever walked away from someone you considered a friend?

Yes. It's not very pleasant. But occasionally necessary for the sake of self-preservation.
If you had to choose between telling the truth and hurting a friend or lying and making them happy, which would you choose?

Barring a handful of exceptional circumstances, most of which involve an immediate threat to life, lying and making them happy. Life is difficult enough without intentionally causing pain.
Which would you rather hear--the truth which will hurt, or the comforting lie?

The comforting lie, if it comes to that. I'd hope it wouldn't, most of the time. I'd like to believe that truths can be delivered kindly, most of the time.

thewayne

Just a minor issue!

From the article: "The bug appears to be tied to Secure Launch, a security feature that uses virtualization-based protections to ensure only trusted components load during boot. On systems with Secure Launch enabled, attempts to shut down, restart, or hibernate after applying the January patches may fail to complete. From the user's perspective, everything looks normal – until the PC keeps running anyway, refusing to be denied life.

Microsoft says that entering the command "shutdown /s /t 0" at the command prompt will, in fact, force your PC to turn off, whether it wants to or not."

It hasn't affected my two Win 11 computers, haven't powered up my laptop in a month, so it hasn't updated. I would expect this will be updated with next month's Patch Tuesday release, but they may release an out of schedule patch to fix it.

Of course, make sure all your documents are saved before issuing that shutdown command or you may risk losing information.

And all computers will shut down when you pull the plug out of the wall or bus strip.

https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/16/patch_tuesday_secure_launch_bug_no_shutdown/

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/01/16/2144202/patch-tuesday-update-makes-windows-pcs-refuse-to-shut-down

asakiyume

I don't like to go so long without posting! Just offline stuff piling on (nothing personally dire, though). The offline stuff is doing a number on my ability to write, but I still manage to squeeze out microfictions, though not quite daily. Here's one from a few days ago:

I dreamed of a pharaoh, awaking after death and arranging to his liking the various precious items buried with him.

"You've got quite an ego," I snapped at him (dream-me is apparently rude to people's faces), "having this massive pyramid built just so people would remember you."

"That's not why I had it built. It's for all the stories that collect around it. Adventures, time travel, curses, beings from the stars--I hear them all, and they entertain me," he replied.

And here's a sweet video my tutor sent me of Martin, a pygmy marmoset monkey, whining at Gordo-the-dog, who's relaxing.

james_davis_nicoll

Orson Scott Card has a substack.

feurioo posting in

tv_talk

Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

james_davis_nicoll

Three works new to me, all from various TTRPG Kickstarters. 2026 feels kind of light on upcoming books.

Books Received, January 10 to January 16

Poll #34090 Books Received, January 10 to January 16

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 27

View Respondents

Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying (Alpha) by Adam Bradford & Tomas Härenstam (July 2026)
9 (33.3%)

Fabula Ultima Bestiary by Emanuele Galletto (May 2026)
4 (14.8%)

Arkand: City of Wave and Flames by Johan Sjöberg (April 2026)
4 (14.8%)

Some other option (see comments)
2 (7.4%)

Cats!
23 (85.2%)

magnavox_23 posting in

icons

68 icons from Good Omens, Our Flag Means Death, Doctor Who, Xena: Warrior Princess, Reservation Dogs, Star Trek TOS, Heated Rivalry, Hazbin Hotel, Hellava Boss, What We Do In The Shadows + misc actors

Check our the rest here. <3

puddleshark

A walk across the heath, to admire the cloudscapes. The Met Office forecast for today was not promising, but it was a lovely morning. The sun shone and the woodlarks were singing. All Max's favourite puddles were still there, though sadly undisturbed, reflecting the clouds.

( Read more... )

spikedluv

I hit Price Chopper, the Pharmacy, and the Bakery while I was downtown. (McD’s was warmer than yesterday, but still not ~very warm.)

I did a load of laundry, hand-washed dishes, emptied the dishwasher, went for several walks with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and scooped kitty litter. I made shake ‘n bake chicken thighs for supper and egg salad for weekend lunches.

I watched the current ep of 9-1-1 and both eps of The Pitt, as well as a couple eps of House Hunters International. (How I hate the people who claim they want to live in the city center so they can walk to bars, cafes, restaurants, and then complain that it might be noisy. No fucking kidding, it’s City Center!) Zoo Tampa was my background tv.

I bought several more containers of yogurt in a variety of flavors for my snacks. I have been eating a lot of them, probably because it’s been a while, so they’re tasting especially good. Also, I’m sometimes lazy and they’re easy. I have to switch it up so I don’t get bored with them!

I had no plans to go downtown tomorrow (now today, Saturday), but I’ve had to schedule a doctor’s appointment. I think I have a yeast infection. I haven’t had a yeast infection in years. Decades. I’m not saying the ultrasound is to blame, but I’m also not not saying that.

Temps started out at 13.1(F) and freaking windy! The roads weren’t great on the drive downtown and at one point I saw a cloud of snow swirling in the air before I drove through it. That was different. Temps reached 28.9. The forecast called for a high of 20, so this was a surprise. There was also a bit of sun and I got a peak of blue sky!

Mom Update:

Mom sounded good when I talked to her on the phone. ( more back here )

beatrice_otter posting in

fancake

Fandom: Hench, Ask A Manager Blog
Pairings/Characters:
Rating: teen
Length: 2k
Creator Links:
Theme: crack taken seriously, superpowers, small fandoms, secret identities, crossovers

Summary: It's hench week at Ask a Manager!

Reccer's Notes: Ask a Manager is an advice column for workplace issues, and Hench is a comic about henchmen. This hilarious story is a series of good advice for both evil henchmen and people who manage evil henchmen, dealing with all sorts of workplace hazards ranging from the aftermath of sex pollen to how to manage someone who is using their evil to annoy their own team and beyond. It's amazing and funny whether you know either canon or not.

Fanwork Links: my wife doesn't know I hench, the evil sex ray made my employees do it, and more

Mods, I need some fandom tags.

ciexmod posting in

consent_issues_exchange

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teland

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Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Solange: "Stay Flo"

silveradept

Let us begin with an annual roundup of things that had to be removed from rectums, because people make bad decisions about objects without flared bases.

Trans women whose culture includes the quinceañera are celebrating the rite of passage for themselves as an important touchstone of their lives.

A white suit worn by Kate Mulgrew as Captain Janeway in a Star Trek: Voyager episode is about as loud a billboard declaring Janeway queer as you could get away with on television at the time. I get to be part of the Lucky 10,000 in understanding that suit and its origins, and so, hopefully, do you.

People familiar with the culture and traditions of Hawai'i explain why the live-action Lilo and Stitch disrespects that entire tradition, history, and the original animation's messages as well.

The ways that humans have for expressing affection for each other are greater than sex and romance, and many of those acts that WEIRD people would classify as sexual or romantic are instead culturally appropriate expressions of affection. Because there's still not an underlying acceptance of the idea that people can be affectionate to each other without it being sexual, and extra so for people of the same perceived gender.

What we think of as local culture and tradition is global culture and tradition. We have just forgotten that things like food migrate and then integrate really well into wherever they land. Which is why you will occasionally have someone yelling that Italians of an era before the tomato migrated out of the Americas are not having marinara sauce with their pasta. The idea that there is only one human culture, and what we have are a bunch of local implementations and place-and-time specific manifestations of it, is really rather true, but because our memories and our records don't always persist over time, we forget that we have already done this before. Repeatedly.

Research into autism that has done less assuming the neurotypical is "normal" and the standard continues to find things that are classified as deficits and disorders are often strengths and consistencies, just at a different angle than the neurotypical one.

Claudette Colvin, who was getting arrested for not giving up a bus seat in a segregated South before Rosa Parks became the face of it, has died at 86 years of age.

( Murder most foul, an administration gone rogue, and techbros on the warpath inside )

Last for this entry, dressed as the pink ranger from the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers / Zyuranger, Martha Root demonstrated how she had gained control of white supremacist websites, had the members talk to chatbots, and then deleted the sites live during the talk.

A plea to start posting the snippets of our lives again, rather than trying to figure out what would be the best for the algorithm or withdrawing entirely from posting because we are trying not to chase the unsatisfiable algorithm. I think that will be an easier task on sites where there is no algorithm to game, but the difficulty of getting people to those sites is that they also need to have their friends decamp to a compatible network as well, and that's not necessarily an easy sell, even if someone wants to leave a toxic environment. (And, as has been well-documented in places like the Fediverse, for minorities, it's a question of leaving one toxic platform for another, and evaluating whether or not the controls on the new platform are good enough that they won't get subjected to more harassment getting through their filters or not.)

The ways that people are using chatbots as social and erotic companions, even though a fair number of them know they're chatbots. Which is the kind of future the techbros would like - interactions as event flags with characters that aren't human and don't have human needs or changes in mood.

And a method that presumably allows you to not have CoPilot or other "AI" features in your Windows 11 install, and sets things up so that they won't reinstall themselves, either.

(Materials via

adrian_turtle,

azurelunatic,

boxofdelights,

cmcmck,

conuly,

cosmolinguist,

elf,

finch,

firecat,

jadelennox,

jenett,

jjhunter,

kaberett,

lilysea,

oursin,

rydra_wong,

snowynight,

sonia,

the_future_modernes,

thewayne,

umadoshi,

vass, the

meta_warehouse community,

little_details, and anyone else I've neglected to mention or who I suspect would rather not be on the list. If you want to know where I get the neat stuff, my reading list has most of it.)

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: ROZEN - Destati

shadowkat

Difficult, long, and tedious work week requiring a touch more patience than I wished to give it - not helped by the cold snap. Although my knees did appreciate it, since I need to ice them anyhow. Nor helped by issues with subways earlier in the week, resulting in more walking and more steps.

But it's Friday, finally! Thank god. And I've got a three day weekend - since we get Martin Luther King Day off - most people do in NYC.

I can sleep in. Rest my knee. And get some chores done. Also maybe a few watercolors.

Been entertaining myself with Buffy podcasts - which require little to no attention, and I find entertaining. Did learn a few things? ( Read more... )

It's really hard to know what is true and what isn't in this day and age. Information Age, my foot - more like Mis-Information Age.

***

Finally finished re-watching Hells Bells - I've mixed feelings about this episode. It's alas a Xander episode - which well pretty much tells you everything right there. That said - it's a mixed bag? When the story is focusing on the Scooby Gange or main leads, it's actually pretty good? But when it shifts to the twenty or so never-seen, rarely seen, and never to be seen again - ancillary characters - it loses focus. ( Read more... )

I realized today why I find this show so comforting and feel the need to write about it. It's central theme is "don't give up, life is painful and hard, but don't give up, the people you meet throughout it - make it worth it". I think that's why I love the later seasons - I find them oddly to be the most relatable.

**

PT went okay. He said that it's the muscles around the knee that are sore and hurting, because they are weak or strained, so to ice them and do the exercises.

**

I'm not enjoying the Angelica Huston Memoir as much as the others, partly because...I don't much like Angelica Huston? ( Read more... )

chazzbanner

Watch on YouTube

pegkerr

I spent over an hour working on this collage without being able to quite pin down the name for it. Initially, I titled it 'Imbalance,' but that word didn't quite capture the ominousness of what I was trying to convey. Eventually, I decided upon 'Upheaval.'

I remarked to someone this week that I didn't envision the beginning of my retirement being quite like this.

Besides all the uncertainty over the usual issues at this time of life like 'what do I do with my time?' and 'what is my new budget going to be like?' there are other questions, like 'will my next door neighbor be arrested?' and 'is this neighborhood business open, or have all their employees been kidnapped?' and 'what are the chances that my car is going to get rammed by ICE?'

I'm not going to go into great depth about all the news events that this collage is reflecting. If you are not aware, the Twin Cities are under siege by the federal government. Constitutional rights are being absolutely ignored. Rather, the ICE agents cruising around the city are making a huge show of deliberately and flagrantly violating constitutional rights, apparently just to demonstrate that they can.

There are rumors flying around the city, and everyone is angry, stressed, and yes, afraid. Yet the city is pulling together, with people joining Signal groups to protect their neighbors, setting up patrols to guard schools, churches, and day care centers, and donating money and supplies to support immigrants in hiding from ICE. All these actions are like a lighthouse in the middle of a storm.

A stormy sea with a lighthouse, partially obscured by fog. A woman stands unsteadily on top of the waves, in three overlapping poses, arms flailing as if struggling for balance. A giant, ominous-looking kraken lurks partially below the surface of the waves, brandishing its tentacles threateningly, center right.

Upheaval

2 Upheaval

Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

Current Mood: stressed

thistleingrey

Random link: We Were the Scenery (2025), a 15-minute documentary about the experiences of two of the background extras in Apocalypse Now (1979). It's written and produced by their child.

Coincidentally, Piecework magazine's newsletter recently had a link to a short essay on Hmong story cloths and the US NE---same cluster of ruptures, different segment.

Aditi Rao's review of Spinney's Proto and Scappettone's Poetry after Barbarism asserts mildly that "both books mobilize language, and the prospect of translingual communication, as their objects of study, with markedly different political ambitions and veneers," but there's so much thought and care amongst the review's remarks that I can't summarize. The review's title is "Against Babel: or, How to Talk to Strangers."

kaberett

Today's frivolous low-stakes question is: if following a recipe, to what extent do you consider "mixed lettuces", "mixed greens", and "mixed leaf salad" synonymous?

nnozomi posting in

guardian_learning

部首
心 part 18
惨, miserable; 惩, to punish; 惯, used to ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=61

词汇
成人, adult; 构成, to constitute; 养成, to cultivate; 赞成, to agree ( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/

Guardian:
幸好我伤惯了, fortunately I'm used to being hurt
你们也都知道咱们特调处本来就是一个成人之美的地方, you all know our SID exists for the purpose of helping others

Me:
这样停车的话你要被惩罚了。
你已经成人了，不要太傻玩。