conuly | Reading

It's Friday! Whoohoo! One and a half more days left in my week! Then, I'm going to go do some shit.

Yesterday was a bit wild. I had to deal with a really difficult patient who didn't want to go to the main hospital. Unfortunately, due to past behavior, that was the only place we could accommodate them. They had some truly wild suppositions about how neurodivergence worked. She finally agreed to go, but goddamn. That was a long call. It wasn't my error, but I would prefer that I take that rather than one of my younger coworkers, who probably would have been driven to tears. I just shrugged and went "that's not how ADHD works at all?" (In my head, obv. I didn't poke that bear.)

Aside from that, two more Cardiac appointments opened up and required me to fill them, and it just felt busy. Then at the end of the day, I got to update windows, which is always fun. Apparently, I had 11.2hb2, and I needed 11.2hb3. Whatever. We'll see if everything works today.

After work, I made bacon and French Toast Casserole. The french toast casserole came out really well. I used croissant bread and I really liked it. It was delicious and custardy with brown sugar sprinkled on top to get crispy. The bacon was...okay. I had ordered from Costco, and I ordered the Kirkland bacon. I much prefer Sam's Club's bacon. It was very salty and also very fatty. I have like a centimeter of left over grease in my pan. It's just a lot. I have another package, and I think I will use it mostly for cooking. I'll get some kale or spinach and cook it up with some bacon and maybe parmesan.

Not sure what I'm going to make today. Going to have to look in the freezer. I think we have some brussel sprouts left, so maybe I'll use some of that bacon on them. Bacon, onions, and maybe some red wine vinegar. If I had sugar dusted pine nuts, I'd use that, too. I like that salty sweet with a little crunch. Mental note, get some pine nuts for future endeavors.

I'd like to bake something, but with the dog requiring a walk at lunch time, since he will no longer go out with Jess solo in the mornings, there's no time to throw together cookies during break. Maybe tomorrow evening I'll make some. Or Sunday morning before game.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get myself together. Everyone have a excellent Friday!

scripsi

As I'm going on my 4-week vacation tomorrow I know I won’t post much during that time. So here’s July’s books for most of the month, and the rest will be included for August. My goal this month was to actually finish some of the thirteen books I have started, but not finished. This is how it went.

The Empty Grave by Jonathan Stroud. The last of the Lockwood & Co series. I found it enjoyable, and the series ended with a satisfying conclusion. The reality of Marissa Fitts was more horrifying than I thought. But I also feel the ending opened for a sequel, with various things Lucy indicated that she had done since the grand finale, and also because we never found out Skull’s identity and why he was such a powerful ghost. But as this book was published in 2017, it doesn’t seem very likely it will come.

Det ockulta sekelskiftet (The Occult Turn of the Century) by Per Faxneld. How occultism influenced a number of Swedish artists in the late 19/early 20th century. Super interesting, and not something I knew anything about. Which is surprising as I’ve studied art history and consider myself pretty well-read on. But I think the idea that esoterism was influential to some of our more well-known artists has been seen as something embarrassing.

Of course I couldn’t abstain from not starting any new books, so I also read Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch, the latest Rivers of London novel. I found it enjoyable, but not remarkable. Though I always like the inclusion of Abigail and the talking foxes.

Never Flinch by Stephen King. A return to Holly Gibney and her PI agency Finders Keepers. This time we have not one murderous person, but two. One that wants to kill a popular feminist, another who kills as revenge for a man who has been murdered in prison before it’s revealed he was wrongfully imprisoned. I like Holly as a character, but I kept putting this book down and then forgetting about it, so it’s safe to say it didn’t grab me.

And that’s it, so far for July.

oursin

Happy birthday,

adair and

owlfish!

ionelv

Macron said France will recognize Palestinian state in September. It is only 37 years behind the rest of world and the other G7 nations are still giving Israel a free hand (and often help) in handling Palestine as they see fit with ZERO consequences.

poliphilo

I was so taken with Olivier's Astrov that I thought I'd give his Othello a spin. The film of the stage production was made in 1965. I remember it being controversial at the time. Now it's all but unwatchable. I stuck with it until the end of Act I .

It's truly terrible. Not only because of the blackface but because the production is so inert.

I had several goes at writing a post about it, but then thought, "After all this time, who cares?"

archangelbeth

https://bsky.app/profile/fallofromulus.bsky.social/post/3luilylmf3s2z

Sent from my iPad

smokingboot

Well, that was a terrible night. Yesterday was my day for pneumococcal vaccination, and like a big girl, I did not cry off; indeed, inspired by

shimmerwine 's advice, I went and spoke to them about getting the shingles vaccination too. They were very relieved, and obligingly put one in each arm.

The nurse sat me down and asked me if I felt immunocompromised. My answer was genuine puzzlement. How would I know what being immunocompromised feels like? I'm given to understand that all this is in response to a combination of recent radiotherapy and age, but surely they are jumping the gun by a decade or so.

Cue coming home and feeling like death. The cold wasn't helping, but by god things got painful and weird, couldn't lift things, couldn't lean on my side... a very bad night's sleep and still in pain now. Ouch and Damn but probably the right thing to do. Sooner early than too late. There, that's all my sense used up for the year. Any further attempts to act like a grown-up will be taken out of 2026's wisdom stores.

gwydion

* News keeps moving fast, so some items may be already out of date. Most of Thursday didn't make it onto this one.

* "Israel bombs Syrian forces entering Druze city after sectarian clashes:" https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89e3j4e911o

* "Who are the Druze and why is Israel attacking Syria?:" https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70xyv4z74go

* "Nearly 100 people killed seeking aid in Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian officials say:" https://www.npr.org/2025/07/20/nx-s1-5474123/100-killed-seeking-aid-gaza-palestinian

* "‘Madness’: Hayes says ‘the people of Gaza are running out of time’:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-madness-hayes-says-the-people-of-gaza-are-running-out-of-time-243741765596

******

* "Ukraine’s capital buzzes during the day but it’s a battleground at night:" https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-drone-attack-c41e01f54e4f83a3539219375787c3c7

* "Photos show Russia’s latest large missile and drone attack on Kyiv:" https://apnews.com/photo-gallery/russia-drone-attack-ukraine-war-27c0d185b4519d12bb24e740d87dba15?

* "Parades, flags and songs: The campaign to force Ukrainian children to love Russia:" https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz6g20dwy0wo

* "Conservative dad moved to Russia to get his kids away from 'woke' — now he's been sent to war:" https://www.advocate.com/news/father-moves-to-russia-ends-up-in-army

******

* "“There Will Be No Mercy”:" https://magazine.atavist.com/2025/there-will-be-no-mercy-ethiopia-abiy-tigray-war-genocide-ayder-hospital?

* "Modi Wants More Indians to Speak Hindi. Some States Are Shouting ‘No.’:" https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/world/asia/india-modi-hindi.html?

* "Britain will lower its voting age to 16 in a bid to strengthen democracy:" https://www.nbcnews.com/world/europe/britain-lower-voting-age-16-uk-rcna219319

* "UN’s top court says failing to protect planet from climate change could violate international law:" https://apnews.com/article/un-court-opinion-climate-change-1ac84a94a5aaffd63518ef1da3502a9e

* "What did the people of the Cotswolds do to deserve a visit from JD Vance?:" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/21/cotswolds-jd-vance-family-holiday

* "El Salvador sends detained Venezuelans home in swap for Americans:" https://archive.ph/WbGFV

* "Venezuela says migrants were tortured in Salvadoran prison:" https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250721-venezuela-says-migrants-were-tortured-in-salvadoran-prison

* "Avelo Airlines to Cease All West Coast Operations by the End of 2025:" https://lamag.com/transportation/avelo-airlines-to-cease-all-west-coast-operations-by-the-end-of-2025

* "ICE Lawyers Are Hiding Their Names in Immigration Court:" https://theintercept.com/2025/07/15/ice-lawyers-hiding-names-court/

* "700 Marines to withdraw from L.A., Pentagon says:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/los-angeles-marines-to-withdraw-immigration-protests/

* "Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski rides Harley to Alligator Alcatraz detention center, leads Rosary for detainees:" https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/miami-archbishop-thomas-wenski-rides-harley-to-alligator-alcatraz-detention-center-leads-rosary-for-detainees/

* "Protesters swarm Albuquerque Walmart where man was arrested by ICE:" https://www.kob.com/news/protesters-swarm-albuquerque-walmart-where-man-was-arrested-by-ice/

* "Japanese Americans, allies protest proposal to reopen Dublin prison as ICE detention center:" https://abc7news.com/post/japanese-americans-allies-protest-proposal-reopen-notorious-fci-dublin-prison-ice-detention-center/17201988/

* "Journalist detained by ICE after covering immigration protest should be released, his children say :" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/journalist-mario-guevara-ice-detention-atlanta-rcna220571

* Here are some ways to help Immigrants and the anti-ICE Protesters:

Immigrant Defenders: https://give.immdef.org/give/545119/#!/donation/checkout
The Bail Project: https://bailproject.org/
National Bail Fund Network: https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/en/nbfn-directory
Amnesty International: protect asylum-seekers: https://donate.amnestyusa.org/page/113080/donate/1
The Young Center for Immigtrant Children's Rights: https://www.theyoungcenter.org/
CHIRLA: https://www.chirla.org/
AL Otro Lado: https://alotrolado.networkforgood.com/projects/63833-al-otro-lado-fund
Mid-South Immigration Advocates: https://miamemphis.org/
"Know Your Rights:" https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights

* "Trump threatens to derail Washington Commanders' new stadium deal over team name:" https://www.npr.org/2025/07/20/nx-s1-5474356/trump-washington-commanders-new-stadium-team-name

* He just pulled this next one entirely out of his ass: "Trump Scrambles to Attack Obama in Panicked Bid to End Epstein Fallout:" https://newrepublic.com/post/198153/donald-trump-arrest-barack-obama-epstein

* "Trump’s chilling accusation against Obama will have cataclysmic consequences:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/trump-accuses-obama-treason

* "Gabbard threatens prosecution against Obama administration officials for ‘treasonous conspiracy’:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/18/tulsi-gabbard-2016-election-investigation-00463779

* "Coca-Cola will launch version with U.S. cane sugar after Trump push:" https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/coca-cola-us-cane-sugar-trump-rcna220181

* "Women’s contributions and men’s racism erased from history of national monument:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/national-monument-racism-women-erased

* "FAA investigating SkyWest jet's near miss with B-52 bomber over North Dakota:" https://archive.ph/hp041

* "Hundreds of Nasa workers rebuke ‘arbitrary’ Trump cuts in scathing letter:" https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jul/21/nasa-letter-trump-cuts

* "Rally protesting NASA Glenn budget cuts held on anniversary of moon landing:" https://spectrumlocalnews.com/mo/st-louis/news/2025/07/20/nasa-glenn-protest-cleveland-cuts

* "A Scientific Brain Drain Has Followed Trump’s Gutting Of The NIH - Dr. Francis Collins:"

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* "E.P.A. Is Said to Draft a Plan to End Its Ability to Fight Climate Change:" https://archive.ph/croyM

* "VA Backs Down from Massive Layoffs—But Workforce Cuts Continue:" https://www.afge.org/article/va-backs-down-from-massive-layoffsbut-workforce-cuts-continue/

* " Virginia hospitals could lose up to $26B due to federal Medicaid cuts:" https://www.vpm.org/news/2025-07-22/va-medicaid-cuts-trump-dmas-gordon-youngkin-ebbin-vhha-walker-wittman

* "Trump's new strategy to restrict abortion nationwide — don't say ‘ban’:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/trump-abortion-nationwide-ban

* "Trump administration will incinerate $10 million worth of birth control for poor women:" https://www.advocate.com/news/trump-birth-control-10-million

* "Children’s National Hospital caves under Trump’s pressure & ends gender-affirming care for trans patients:" https://www.advocate.com/news/children-national-hospital-stops-care

* "U.S. Olympic Committee bars trans women from competing, caving to Trump:" https://www.advocate.com/breaking-news/us-olympic-bans-transgender-women

* "Michelle Obama's portrait artist cancels Smithsonian show due to anti-trans censorship:" https://www.advocate.com/news/amy-sherald-michelle-obama-artist-cancels-smithsonian-exhibition

* "How Bessent Made the Case to Trump Against Firing Fed Chair Powell:" https://archive.ph/H9czo

* "Trump Slams ‘Untruthful’ WSJ Article About Treasury Secretary Warning Him to Not Fire Fed Chair: ‘I Know Better Than Anybody What’s Good for the Market’:" https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/trump-slams-wsj-article-treasury-secretary-fed-chairmain-powell-1236465850/

* "Trump gives New York attorney new title after judges reject his appointment:" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/18/trump-new-york-attorney-john-sarcone

* "Judges reject Trump's pick for top New Jersey federal prosecutor, DOJ removes successor:" https://archive.ph/tjO2L

* "Trump lashes out at federal judge presiding over Harvard case:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/21/trump-harvard-case-judge-00465755

* "Jonathan Capehart confirms he’s the latest high-profile voice to leave Jeff Bezos’s Washington Post:" https://www.advocate.com/news/jonathan-capehart-leaves-washington-post

The Washington Post is no longer a credible news source. It looks like the long history of truth to power is being thrown out in favour of obeying in advance and becoming a propaganda outlet for Dear Leader.

They've been going down hill slowly under Bezos, but now they are skiing to break speed records.

Breaks my heart.

* "Stephen Colbert Announces The Cancellation Of “The Late Show”:"

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* "'Looks like bribery’: Warren questions Colbert cancellation, Trump-Paramount deal:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-looks-like-bribery-warren-questions-colbert-cancellation-trump-paramount-deal-243669061596

* "Comedians support CBS 'Late Show' host Colbert, Jon Stewart rips Paramount:" https://archive.ph/CPUoM

* Stay Noisy! "‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ Attracts Protesters; More Planned This Week:" https://deadline.com/2025/07/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert-protesters-monday-1236464276/

* "‘Save Colbert’ rally in New York City touts petition signed by 250,000 people:" https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jul/23/save-colbert-protest-manhattan

**** Trump/Epstein, etc. Here Sort is likely rough CW: CSA I've been compiling all week. Some items may be slightly out of date because the story is moving fast.****

* "Wall Street Journal reports Trump is in Epstein files, White House calls story 'fake':" https://archive.ph/ICwac

* "Trump (not drag queens) appears in Epstein files & DOJ told him months ago, The Wall Street Journal reports:" https://www.advocate.com/news/trump-is-in-epstein-files

* "Trump caught on camera denying Bondi told him he's in Epstein files despite WSJ report:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/trump-caught-on-camera-denying-bondi-told-him-he-s-in-epstein-files-despite-wsj-report-243739205779

* "Reports say DOJ told Trump: You're in the Epstein files:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-briefing-with-jen-psaki/watch/reports-say-doj-told-trump-you-re-in-the-epstein-files-243745349787

* "An Accuser’s Story Suggests How Trump Might Appear in the Epstein Files:" https://archive.ph/sWasW

* "Epstein accuser speaks out: Gives voice to victims of Epstein, Maxwell abuse:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-briefing-with-jen-psaki/watch/epstein-accuser-speaks-out-gives-voice-to-victims-of-epstein-maxwell-abuse-243808325963

* "Epstein accuser speaks out on Trump: Maria Farmer wants to testify, access her records:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-briefing-with-jen-psaki/watch/epstein-accuser-speaks-out-on-trump-maria-farmer-wants-to-testify-access-her-records-243812933882

* "The Epstein File Fiasco:"

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* "Florida judge denies DOJ request to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/23/jeffrey-esptein-grand-jury-doj-00471291

* "GOP Hill leaders agree to give Trump time on Epstein:" https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/21/congress/house-gop-epstein-strategy-00465234

* "House Dems launch multi-committee Epstein attack on Republicans on last day before recess :" https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/23/congress/house-democrats-committee-markups-epstein-attack-republicans-recess-00471666

* "Subpoena advances: House committee votes to subpoena DOJ for the Epstein files:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-briefing-with-jen-psaki/watch/subpoena-advances-house-committee-votes-to-subpoena-doj-for-the-epstein-files-243746373743

* "Trump imploding as Republicans shut down Congress to flee Epstein mess:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-briefing-with-jen-psaki/watch/trump-imploding-as-republicans-shut-down-congress-to-flee-epstein-mess-243683909751

* "'Sweetheart deal 2.0?': Concerns swirl as Trump DOJ meets with Ghislaine Maxwell:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-sweetheart-deal-2-0-concerns-swirl-as-trump-doj-meets-with-ghislaine-maxwell-243668037878

* "Hayes slams ‘transparently suspicious’ Ghislaine Maxwell-Trump DOJ meeting:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/hayes-slams-transparently-suspicious-ghislaine-maxwell-trump-doj-meeting-243808837652

* "‘Just wild’: Dem senator baffled by No. 2 at Trump DOJ meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-just-wild-dem-senator-baffled-by-no-2-at-trump-doj-meeting-with-ghislaine-maxwell-243743301698

* "White House removes Wall Street Journal from Scotland press pool over Epstein bombshell:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/21/journal-removed-white-house-pool-epstein-00465548

* "Who is Darrin Gayles? The first out gay Black federal judge will hear Trump's WSJ lawsuit:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/darrin-gayles-trump-wsj-lawsuit

* "Supreme Court allows Trump to remove 3 Democrats on the Consumer Product Safety Commission:" https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-trump-consumer-product-safety-f0ed5ff2409287440f5067d64031429d

Even though black letter law says he can't. This is what happens when the rule of law ends in favour of autocracy.

The CPSC can't function without a quorum, which was why he illegally fired them in the first place: to end Consumer prod

* "Imperial Presidency Watch: Congress Loses Control Over The Purse:" https://www.ianwelsh.net/imperial-presidency-watch-congress-loses-control-over-the-purse/

* "What good are rights when you can't afford to use them?:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/economic-populism

* The rich continue to win their class warfare against everyone else. "GOP megabill’s final score: $3.4T in red ink and 10 million kicked off health insurance, CBO says:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/21/gop-megabills-final-score-3-4t-in-red-ink-and-10-million-kicked-off-health-insurance-cbo-says-00465546

* "ACA health insurance will cost the average person 75% more next year, research shows:" https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/07/18/nx-s1-5471281/aca-health-insurance-premiums-obamacare-bbb-kff

* "Virginia hospitals could lose up to $26B due to federal Medicaid cuts:" https://www.vpm.org/news/2025-07-22/va-medicaid-cuts-trump-dmas-gordon-youngkin-ebbin-vhha-walker-wittman

It's happening all over the country. Republicans did this on purpose because they are happy to kill as many Americans as possible to make billionaires richer.

* Stay Noisy. "Statewide protests accuse Missouri senator of being a hypocrite after voting in favor of ‘Big Beautiful Bill’:" https://www.firstalert4.com/2025/07/21/statewide-protests-accuse-missouri-senator-being-hypocrite-after-voting-favor-big-beautiful-bill/

* "Sarah McBride's first bill just passed Congress & not one Republican voted against it:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/sarah-mcbride-first-bill-passes

* RE: SAVE ACT "Do This Today: Call Senators:" https://solarbird.dreamwidth.org/2036106.html

If these are your Senators, please stop what you are doing and call now:

KELLY (AZ)
WARNOCK (GA)
PETERS (MI)
SHAHEEN (NH)
HASSAN (NH)
CORTEZ MASTO (NV)
ROSEN (NV)

* This one is a super dangerous attack on the judiciary's ability to protect citizen's rights. "H.R. 1526: NORRA of 2025:" https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/119/hr1526

* "Republicans want to rename Kennedy Center’s opera house after Melania Trump:" https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/22/congress/kennedy-center-melania-trump-00467996

* "One Republican senator voted with Democrats in opposing the Trump judicial pick.:" https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/22/congress/bove-moves-forward-00468338

He ought to be disbarred, not given a life time appointment to end the rule of law.

* "The conservative case against Trump’s worst judicial nominee:" https://www.vox.com/scotus/420601/supreme-court-emil-bove-conservative-case

* "New Pirro committee vote set for Thurs:" https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/21/congress/jeanine-pirro-senate-judiciary-committee-vote-00466633

* She is pro-coup and up to her chin in Trump Corruption. "'Cover-up': Judge seals complaint involving Trump-linked memecoin partners at Pirro’s request :" https://www.alternet.org/trump-memecoin-pirro/

* "Senate Judiciary advances Pirro nomination in party-line vote:" https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/24/congress/pirro-gets-committee-vote-00474876

* "Sarah McBride defends transgender troops on House floor as Pentagon expels ‘committed patriots’ :" https://www.advocate.com/news/sarah-mcbride-transgender-military-ban

* Our job for the next year and a half is to survive, to build grassroots resistance, to do all in our power to slow the republican Christo-fascist agenda, and to prepare for 2026 in case there is still Democracy.

We are trying to build a good list of resistance resources.

Please add more below if you have them.

* "Take action with Indivisible:" https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/

* Trump 2.0 Indivisible Guide. https://indivisible.org/resource/guide

* "Democracy 2025:" https://www.democracy2025.org/?utm_source=df-ad&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=21912407002&utm_content=721373734297&source=df-ad-gs&gad_source=1

* "Resisting Fascism in 2025 and Beyond:" https://www.prideandpagesbookclub.com/resisting-fascism-in-2025-and-beyond

* If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options for contacting your Congress Critters:

Five Calls to your critters: https://5calls.org/

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/

And another: https://faxzero.com/fax_senate.php

Snail Mail Campaigns: https://conuly.dreamwidth.org/3622760.html

"Congress. gov:" https://www.congress.gov/

White house (Possibly Dangerous): https://www.whitehouse.gov/

ACLU advice for writing to your Critters: https://www.aclu.org/writing-your-elected-representatives

This tracks legislation: https://www.govtrack.us/

"The Public Comment Process (+ how to write effective public comments):" https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/781844516804149248?source=share

Run for Something: https://runforsomething.net/

"Vote Smart:" https://justfacts.votesmart.org/

Useful organizing links and resources: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/771859083592613888/hater-of-terfs-ive-already-reblogged-a-link-to?source=share

Protests: "50501 Events:" https://www.fiftyfifty.one/events

How to render emergency aid in a riot: https://riotmedicine.net/static/downloads/riot-medicine_a5.pdf

"How to Safely and Ethically Film Police Misconduct:" https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-to-film-police-safely

"ICE Raids Toolkit: Defend Against ICE Raids and Community Arrests:" https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/raids-toolkit/

Contains a raid tip hotline amoung other things. "Know Your Rights
LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY:" https://wearecasa.org/know-your-rights/

* "A guide to Texas’ special legislative session:" https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/18/texas-legislative-special-session-guide-2025/

* "Texas leaders have repeatedly claimed the state’s voting maps are race blind. Until the Trump DOJ disagreed.:" https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/11/texas-redistricting-racial-gerrymandering-coalition-districts-trump/

* I would like to thank all of you protesting this. "The biggest thing in politics you haven’t heard about? Dem Rep talks Texas redistricting:" https://www.msnbc.com/weekends-with-alex-witt/watch/the-biggest-thing-in-politics-you-haven-t-heard-about-dem-rep-talks-texas-redistricting-243531845601

* "Coalition of Texas women declares ‘let us pee in peace’ in opposition to Republican bathroom bill:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/texas-women-protest-bathroom-bill

* "Conservatism considered as a movement of bitter rubes :" https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/22/all-day-suckers/

* "George Santos has to report to prison tomorrow — he’s not taking it well :" https://www.advocate.com/news/george-santos-prison-tweets#rebelltitem13

* "Florida official who made tasteless, anti-LGBTQ+ post about Pulse shooting reinstated by judge:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/florida-official-pulse-antigay-comment

* "Republican Oklahoma schools chief to roll out anti-'woke' test for teachers coming in from blue states:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/republican-oklahoma-anti-woke-test

* CW: Rape. "Survivors of Army major's sexual assaults include a trans woman left bloodied. She and others speak out:" https://www.advocate.com/crime/army-major-sexual-assault-transgender

* "Kaiser Permanente ends gender-affirming surgeries for patients under 19:" https://www.advocate.com/news/kaiser-permanente-gender-affirming-surgeries

* "Texas AG Ken Paxton sues swimming group over inclusion of transgender women:" https://www.advocate.com/news/trans-passport-accurate

* "Florida attorney general harasses wine bar for violating a drag ban that judges already blocked:" https://www.advocate.com/news/florida-attorney-general-bar-drag-ban

* "Another Florida city will power-wash its rainbow crosswalks away under pressure from Sean Duffy, Ron DeSantis:" https://www.advocate.com/news/west-palm-beach-erases-rainbow

* "New study ranks U.S. states with highest STI rates:" https://www.advocate.com/news/sti-std-rates-us

* "Man dies after being pulled into MRI machine while wearing metal chain: Police:" https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-mri-machine-metal-chain-dies-new-york/story?id=123879288

A thing I think about every time MRIs are mentioned: They have had so much trouble with people refusing to listen to the warning to remove all the metal things at the place where I go that they now include a page of gruesome metal/MRI injuries picture you must look at before signing a disclaimer about taking off your metal things.

* "Queer as Fact: Maximilien Robespierre:" https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-pf5kb-19066b1

* "Heavy metal icon and gay rights supporter Ozzy Osbourne dies at 76:" https://www.advocate.com/people/ozzy-osbourne-death

* Squirrel Needs Help with Bills!

They've been running behind since last autumn because they got scammed, plus all the stuff with the Housing issues, plus the strike this Autumn. Now they had to quarantine for most of a week because of a dangerous exposure at work. They are fine, but it means they have a small paycheck right when all the things are due, including insurance and car payment to get to work, the Internet bill, etc..

They think they can negotiate partial payments with another $200ish to keep things going another month.

If you'd like to help them out and help keep us both online:
paypal.me/Squirrelmh

* It's been kind of a rough week for me physically. I haven't had a long treatment since last Saturday. Instead of sending me a working machine, they are forcing me to get my doctor to submit a new prescription for the equipment, which means she needs to argue her way through medicare gatekeepers while I increasingly struggle to breathe.

I keep having spasms and the shakes because all of this is too much on top of the sleep situation for by barely functional body to manage.

It is a small thing, but I apparently bought the wrong soft soap refill last time without noticing it. I needed to refill the dispensers this week so now every time I go to wash my hands, I'm hit with a wave of strong perfume with an allergen in it and start trying to eject a lung coughing. There is nothing for it. It's not like I can buy more. I already blew my tiny discretionary margin on food as the prices are skyrocketing and EBT stays the same. For now.

I had to stay up for dental x-rays very early Thursday morning. Squirrel was supposed to cover construction worker watch while I was gone, but they managed to pick up a make up shift at the last minute. Luckily, check in was 7:45AM, and I was back by 9:15AM. Unfortunately, there were… I think it was three phone calls, one of which involved me crawling around on the floor trying to trace wires to figure out why the medical alert box wasn't responding to pings from head quarters for a frustrating half hour. I got maybe three hours total of uninterrupted sleep, the rest was wake me every time I started to dose off hassles.

Those of you following HOA Construction hell saga will possibly remember that last week they said I wouldn't see them again for a week and a half, more likely two. Then they showed up Friday to do a little taping. They showed up Wednesday to work on the ceiling about an hour and a half before knock off for the day time. They also showed up Thursday for the same about an hour before construction worker lunch (see the no sleep for me agenda). I was extra grateful both times, because I am pretty sure they are sneaking me in when they have finished someone higher up the list and doing small bits of work on my ceiling in the interstices. Things need to dry between stages. I'm hoping this will speed things up when next they sneak me a whole work period.

Livia wants this over even more than I do. she's found her ways to manage it, but she kept trying to get me to let her back in the room over and over and over last night. I wish I could, Baby Girl.

In other news, I have been slowly migrating parts of the Great Wall of Bedding, AKA the Pillowfort back into my bedroom. It occurred to me the bedding is light enough to pile on the bed parts, which helps with the airflow and sense of enclosure, though it lessens my privacy. Trade offs, like most things in life.

* "Jon Stewart Reacts to Colbert's Cancellation & Trump's "Bawdy" Epstein Doodles | The Daily Show:"

( Embed: )

* "Trump Dodges Epstein by Attacking Obama, Dropping MLK Files & Trying to Change Coke | The Daily Show:"

( Embed: )

* "Trump Knew He Was in the Epstein Files, Launches Attack on Obama | The Daily Show:"

( Embed: )

* "Too Hot For Booze? | Trump’s Hand | Epstein Intrigue Continues | The Coca-Cola Distraction:"

( Embed: )

* "The Gloves Are Off | "I Absolutely Love That Colbert Got Fired" | Trump & Epstein's Wonderful Secret:"

( Embed: )

* "Epstein Is A Real Problem For The GOP | Trump's Creepy Past | Blaming Obama:"

( Embed: )

* "America Has Swamp Crotch | Trump's Name Is In The Epstein Files | Paramount's PSA Plan:"

( Embed: )

* "Meanwhile… Downloading Netflix | Hidden Tarantulas | Chimpanzee Fashion | Florida Birthday Meth:"

( Embed: )

* "Will The Washington Commanders Change Their Name?:"

( Embed: )

* "Mike Johnson Delays House Epstein Vote Until September:"

( Embed: )

* "New Don Jr. Coke:"

( Embed: )

* "Sunday Sweets: Villain Edition!:" https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/sunday-sweets-villain-edition-2025

*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.

The help links are at the bottom under the cut.

* CW: Suicide "These hotlines are still available for LGBTQ+ youth after Trump kills 988 services:" https://www.advocate.com/news/lgbtq-youth-hotlines-still-available

* "United States Disappeared Tracker:" https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/danielleharlow/viz/UnitedStatesDisappearedTracker/Map

* "Introducing Rise Up: Federal Workers Legal Defense Network:" https://aflcio.org/2025/4/16/introducing-rise-federal-workers-legal-defense-network

* Here are some ways to help Immigrants and the anti-ICE Protesters:

Immigrant Defenders: https://give.immdef.org/give/545119/#!/donation/checkout
The Bail Project: https://bailproject.org/
National Bail Fund Network: https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/en/nbfn-directory
Amnesty International: protect asylum-seekers: https://donate.amnestyusa.org/page/113080/donate/1
The Young Center for Immigtrant Children's Rights: https://www.theyoungcenter.org/
CHIRLA: https://www.chirla.org/
AL Otro Lado: https://alotrolado.networkforgood.com/projects/63833-al-otro-lado-fund
Mid-South Immigration Advocates: https://miamemphis.org/

* Want to help Nathan Sage against Joni Ernst? https://www.sageforsenate.com/

* Want to help Dr. Annie Andrews beat Lindsey Graham?" https://secure.actblue.com/donate/loc_annie_fr_txt_q22025?refcode=LOC_RTL_FR_2025.05.29_Lindsey-Bad-Job_B1_C1_Pros_N_Peony_RG-T1&amount=5

( More Links Underneath: )

frandroid

Andor, Trump and Our Revolutionary Times | The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
(YouTube version)

Guys, when I heard that this episode dropped, I was SO EXCITED, I was expecting to make an immediate post ahead of the regular Friday schedule. Unfortunately, my expectations were too high. Gilroy tries to pull the trick that’s usual Jon Stewart’s–”I’m just a screenwriter!”, so you have 2 out of 3 people trying to play coy and cute. It takes over 2/3rds of the interview to get at the similarities of The Mars Revolution and Andor to the current moment. Like I feel the interview should have started with THAT, and gone on from there. It’s still an interesting episode, but I was expecting better. 😛

It's also pretty cool to see Duncan getting interviewed by Jon.

viridian5

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: "The Contrarian" by A Perfect Circle

Encanto gen: “Intrusive” [@ AO3]
RATING: PG-13.
SUMMARY: Bruno has a special relationship with Casita. That’s not always a good thing.
NOTES: It struck me that even before his ten years inside the walls, Bruno had probably spent more time alone with Casita than
anyone else in his family.
Thank you to

akira17 for beta.

dine

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

ysabetwordsmith

Current Mood: busy

Today's theme is Horror.

( Read more... )

kareila

Current Mood: indescribable

This should be everything unread on my fiction shelves plus everything unread on my Kindle. Items in bold are only on the Kindle. Several are on both, but I think I managed to remove all the duplicates. (Formatting it this way, it's kind of interesting to see where I started acquiring everything in ebook except for gifts and library discards.)

( 781 works of (mostly) fiction in a table )

$radiantfracture: Two cat characters from the 1985 anime lean out the train window (Night on the Galactic Railroad)$

radiantfracture

Welcome to the asynchronous viewing party for the The Space all nonbinary/trans staged reading of Twelfth Night, introduced by Sir Ian McKellen! Yay!

Come in. Get comfy (or pleasantly uncomfortable). Grab some snacks. Etc.

The purpose of this post is to act like an oddly static Discord, to wit: I'll live-comment here as I watch the reading, and you are invited to do the same, whenever you watch the stream, so that the end result is a braiding-together of our viewings, a co-viewing and conversation in slow time.

I'll see if I can timestamp. I might not be that together tomorrow morning.

§rf§

Notes

The show starts at 11 am July 25 my time (Pacific) / 7pm Greenwich.

(Book here if you haven't yet.)

crossover_chick

Current Mood: content

Yeah, the heat and humidity definitely picked up today, with it being quite unpleasantly sticky when I left work this afternoon, bleh. >( And tomorrow's supposed to be even worse, with a chance for thunderstorms, double-bleh. But while the weather wasn't fantastic, my actual day was honestly pretty good overall:

Work – Another pretty quiet day at work – I took one credit card call in the morning, then spent most of the rest of the day working on obituaries and related roster-maintenance-related tasks. Though I did have to contact one of the people who works on our database to ask if she could add pledge overpayments to the new “hey, these gifts were posted to the wrong campaign” report after a look at today’s GL revealed that we had about $600 in “one-time gifts” for the 2025 Appeal from people overpaying their pledges. And then my supervisor wanted me to track down the reason the pledges ended up overpaid so we could reach out to people as necessary and let them know what happened. Which, you know, is only polite. So I’ll be working on that during the half-day tomorrow! Should make the time go by, at least. :)

To-Do List –

1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “Oxventure D&D: Wyrdwood | Chapter 4: The Path of Broken Oaths!” We picked up with the gang – having all had a good night’s sleep except for Robin, who was very tired and needed a pee – waking up and heading off to investigate the nearby hamlet and find out why they hadn’t renewed their bonds with the local Green Man to clear their debt to the Wyrdwood for killing that ash tree a couple of episodes ago! This involved:

A) The gang finding that the Green Man had kindly given them some provisions for the journey – little wicker baskets with mushrooms and nuts. Cressida was rather sad to find they did not contain any wine – Robin was like “It’s six o’clock in the morning!” to which Cressida replied “It’s wine o’clock somewhere!” Ellen immediately tried to make that non-canon but Johnny was like “noooo, she definitely said that.” XD

B) The gang heading to the hamlet (getting there in mere minutes thanks to the power of the Wyrdwood) and finding a bustling, apparently normal town – and then Willowfine called out “hello good people” and almost everyone ran inside. Fortunately, one woman stayed out and asked what they were on about – Willowfine introduced the group and said they were there on behalf of the Green Man, who wanted to know why they were late renewing their bonds –

Cue the woman, Gracie, going “hasn’t he had enough from us?!” The group proceeded to question her and her husband Lionel, and learned that APPARENTLY the Green Man has been showing up on the regular and demanding things from the town – six chickens, all the town’s silver, bolts of cloth, etc. The quintet quickly reached the conclusion that the town was being shaken down by a fraudster pretending to be the Green Man (Happen briefly considered the idea that the Green Man was just getting greedy, but then was like “no, he would have sent us with a more specific demand if that was the case,” and Johnny confirmed these bonds were held up more by acts of service than material goods anyway). Though it was a fraudster with powers of his own, if so, as Lionel explained that they’d tried to argue the first time the “Green Man” demanded something –

And then he’d had to watch as his friend Mark dropped down dead from merely a glance. They decided trying to fight back wasn’t worth it after that. :( Happen then nearly tanked the entire investigation by asking where Mark was buried and saying that he wanted to dig the grave up to make sure there was a body in there, in case Mark was in fact an accomplice. Lionel was very offended, and Robin had to grab Happen and steer him away before his -1 Charisma got him into any more trouble. XD Fortunately, they did get out of Lionel where the town made its offerings – a large flat stone just outside of town – and that plus Willowfine using Locate Object to try and detect where the town’s silver might have ended up (with her getting a MASSIVE ping from Cressida’s fancy dress – she wealthy) gave them a direction to go in and start investigating.

C) The gang heading toward the stone and giving it a look-over to see what they could find! Poor Investigation rolls meant that Willowfine, Lug, Happen, and Cressida all just looked at the big stone table they found there and thought “STONE” – but simple country boy Robin noticed that there was still grass under the stone table. Dead grass, yes, but still present grass – meaning this stone had only been put into place here recently. There was also a lack of cart wheel tracks or any sign that the stone had been dragged – just some footprints – meaning whoever put it there was possibly enormously strong. Robin communicated this to the rest of the group, and Happen led the others in following the tracks over to where there was a little “bolthole” of sorts in a big craggy chunk of stone sticking out of the hills of the moors. (Finding a little bag of silver along the way, which was promptly passed along to Cressida because her talents included keeping money safe. XD) The gang wanted to scout the area, but was worried about whoever lived in there seeing them from this angle –

And then Willowfine went, “Hey, remember when Cressida was invisible yesterday? Wasn’t that neat?” XD Happen politely asked Cressida if she could find it in herself to help them by using her talents to check the cave – Cressida was fine with that and very carefully picked her way over to the cave’s entrance (holding up her dress so she didn’t ruin it any further). She didn’t see any signs of anyone being inside, so she returned and reported this to the others. Reassured that they weren’t walking into an ambush, the quintet proceeded forward, led by Willowfine and Robin –

And then Willowfine, on a good Perception check, stopped suddenly short, because she realized that the ground directly in front of the cave looked a little TOO natural. Like it was an illusion covering a trap. A hypothesis immediately proved by Robin, who walked forward, stepped on a spike in the secret Spike Growth trap, took six points of piercing damage –

And, because he only has four hit points total, promptly passed out from the pain, allowing Morven to take control again! She was obviously baffled, but the others brought her up to speed as she got herself out of the trap. Once she understood what they were doing and why, she Misty Stepped into the cave to find a chest full of silver; fancy bolts of cloth against the wall; a pot with a chicken dish in it; and the remains of a Green Man costume. She called her findings back to the others, then cast Detect Thoughts to see if she could sense any people around –

And got a ping from right above her. Moments before the ground underneath the other four exploded with terrible grasping mushroomy tendrils which tried to make a grab at them. Cressida managed to escape (with a lucky Inspiration-fueled reroll), but Lug and Willowfine were firmly restrained around the calves – and Happen got full-on yanked halfway into the ground thanks to crit 1. Praise Cadence! XD

D) The gang thus starting a battle against the Fraudulent Green Man, who happened to be standing atop his cave home in partial costume and was ready to rumble! The first round of combat so far has consisted of:

I. Morven Dispelling Magic and getting the Spike Growth and grasping mushroom tendrils to go away, rolling her eyes about how she has to do everything around here XD

II. Happen attempting to shoot the Fraudulent Green Man – and rolling another crit 1. XD Johnny was going to have the shot hit Lug instead (because, as the dice once again decreed, it’s ALWAYS poor Lug), but Luke pulled out the old Blades In The Dark mechanics for a moment to offer Johnny a Devil’s Bargain – in exchange for not hurting his teammates, Luke would have Happen’s bowstring snap, meaning Happen would get hurt AND be without his preferred weapon. Johnny was like “that’s actually worse than what I was planning to do!” and rolled that Happen took six points of slashing damage from the snapped string. Everyone was like “oh, the old Luck Pervert must be loving this,” but Luke admitted he was starting to feel like Happen was finding it harder and harder to rejoice in bad luck now that he was away from his temple and shit like this kept happening. XD

III. The Fraudulent Green Man attempting to hit poor Happen with a Mind Spike to give him a potentially-deadly headache – only for Morven to Counterspell it, complaining about how she had to use up all her good spell slots on this sort of nonsense. XD

IV. And Cressida taking advantage of Invisibility to sneak into the cave and get her hands on the silver, hoping to hold it for ransom! (And maybe take some for herself, like all good banks. :P)

And that is where I left it! Next time, Lug and Willowfine take their turns as the Fraudulent Green Man comes around to try and confront the gang at closer range, and we see how this adventure wraps up! As the TV Tropes page said, it is kind of amusing that this particular problem is just the village dealing with a trumped-up Scooby Doo Hoax instead of anything more dangerous. XD But then again, I guess we don’t know how dangerous the Fraudulent Green Man really is yet...we’ll find out!

2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice made it through Grout’s little museum room to his wife, containing not only trinkets of their time together, but also her expertly-preserved corpse, her expertly-preserved brain, and her-less-than-expertly-preserved heart (turned into a necklace – the Queen of Hearts thought it a striking fashion statement). Seems like Grout lost the struggle against the Malkavian insanity a lot earlier than he originally thought! Alice was appropriately creeped out by it all. But she persevered, found out how to open the door to Grout’s bedroom (with a little help from Cheshire and a little fumbling with the phonograph), and charged in, ready to give the primogen a piece of her mind –

Only to find a man-sized ash pile on the bed, with chains trailing from it to the bedposts and a big old stake stuck into it at about chest height. Uh-oh. (Yes, I know you find a skeleton in the actual game, but given that makes no sense given every other vampire crumbles to ash when killed, I made the Executive Decision to change it. I’m allowed to do that every so often.) And unfortunately, things are only about to get worse...though at least Alice gets a small reprieve in that I’m not starting THAT bit until next week! :p Enjoy the pause, girl – you’ll wish you had if you don’t!

3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – went with another onlyabidoang video tonight in my quest to clean up my Watch Later a little bit: “ALL ABOUT FAIRIES in The Sims 4! (Enchanted by Nature)!” A more in-depth look at the new Fairy occult state and how it works in the new pack! Covering:

A) How one becomes a fairy (it’s a two-part process, with the potential fairy obtaining a special seedling to summon Mother Nature and get the “become a fairy” potion, then heading to the Moondrop Springs pond in Everdew to bathe in the waters and complete the transformation)

B) All the unlockable abilities fairies get (including inflicting and curing ailments; learning important information about a Sim like Likes & Dislikes, Turn-Ons & Turn-Offs, career, and traits; the ability to bring gnomes to life to help with cleaning, repairing, gardening, and protection; the ability to make any object either broken, burned, or pristine, and unspoil or spoil food and drinks; changing a Sim’s emotional state to one of their choosing; releasing their emotions and inflicting them on everyone else in the room; influencing relationships between themselves and other Sims, or between two other Sims entirely; instantly tending plants and later being able to enchant them to tend themselves for a while; instantly grow all plants in a given area to maturity; generate random uncommon and rare harvestables into their inventory; get more emotional force from positive interactions or negative interactions; amplify the relationship changes caused by using fairy powers, or negate them completely; and improve their self-emotional-force regeneration, or gain the ability to regenerate emotional force by sleeping, among many, MANY others)

C) And all fairy abilities and other interactions NOT tied to the skill tree (there was a pretty good amount of overlap with yesterday’s “10 Features” video here, though it did also include the reveal that fairies do have a teleport along with their natural flying ability (“Instantly Fly Here”); how to stop being a fairy – another two-part process involving summoning Mother Nature to bottle up your fairy essence and then returning it to Moondrop Springs; and the fact that fairy abilities NEVER FAIL. Like, EVER.)

Interesting video – though yeah, the sheer amount of STUFF fairies can learn how to do/just do naturally and the fact that their abilities never EVER fail has convinced me this lifestate is INCREDIBLY overpowered. I mean, I’m sure they’re fun to play with, but if vampires, werewolves, and spellcasters can have their abilities fail occasionally, especially when they’re at the lower power levels, I think fairies should have the same limitation! (Mermaids, aliens, and plantsims can be cut a break since they don’t get the fun skill trees other occults get.) Ah well – I don’t have the pack yet, so I can’t really bitch too much about it. And given that Abi’s most RECENT video is about all the bugs the pack currently has, I might not be picking it up anytime soon...

4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – another nothing day over on Valice Multiverse (who is surprised), but I got something new into my Victor Luvs Alice queue for Friday – my VITD fic snippet “Blessing!” All about Smiler waking up the “morning” after the party where they first presented Joy Serum to the Advocates...and discovering that they now have glowing yellow eyes because an impressed Mar-Mal bestowed a blessing in the form of a second marmalisation during their sleep. They are a little ?! about it at first, as you might imagine. XD Felt like a good follow-up to reblogging the “Eating Gods” story yesterday, since that got me thinking a lot about Smiler and Mar-Mal’s relationship to each other in the relevant AUs. Hopefully people like it!

Yeah, not bad! And now I have to run off and get to bed, since I still have a half-day of work to get through tomorrow. :p Night all!

soc_puppet

Current Mood: irritated

I just wish that Minesweeper would count it as a win if you correctly identify and flag all of the mines, even if you don't click on every other non-mine square. The same way it auto-flags all of the mines if you do click every non-mine square, but don't use any flags.

ysabetwordsmith

Current Mood: busy

The future of antisemitism

We can't get confused about what constitutes anti-Jewish prejudice.
[---8<---]
That's why we have to face a painful paradox: when it comes to the continuing agony of Gaza, Israel's most fervent defenders are the ones muddying the water. They seek to define criticism of the actions of Israel as anti-Jewish prejudice.

( Read more... )

jadelennox

Current Mood: thankful

This essay was alluded to and quoted from in several of the essays I read about Edna St. Vincent Millay. I correctly suspected I could find the journal issue (The Outlook, vol. 147 no. 10, 1927) on the Internet Archive, and I'm very glad I looked for it. Here's a couple-few excerpts.

This is also in reference to Sacco and Vanzetti.

( Read more... )

If I could meet one person from history I've always said it would be Millay, but right now I'm so enamored of her prose I can't even think what I'd say to her. To be able to write like that...!

silver_chipmunk

Current Mood: content

Got up at 7:00 and got ready to go... breakfast, coffee, shower, dressed, final packing of things that had to be last minutes. Put down food and water for the cat, and locked up and called the Uber.

To my shock the difference between a share and an Uber X was about $20! So despite misgivings I did share, and ended up waiting while the driver dropped the other person off. But even so Imade it tothe station on time.

They called the train, and I went to get on line to board when a porter offered to have me use the elevator. Maybe I looked overburdened or something. But of course I said yes, and managed to get ahead of most of the line, and get a window seat facing forward.

The trip was good up until we had mechanical failures and waited a good long time not moving while they were fixed. We ended up being about an hour late getting in. I ate lunch on the train of course, had a stromboli and a diet Coke.

mashfanficchick called and we talked for a bit.

After I got to Depew, I called an Uber to the Tops where Linda was to meet me. Pleasant surprise, it wasn't near as expensive as I feared.

I met up with Linda at Tops and did some shopping. Not much, since I can get Instacart down here. I called middle Brother, he's fine, and went swimming Tuesday.

Then we drove back to the cottage and she helped me in with my stuff

I put my food away, and made dinner, then hooked up the computer. I forgot to bring a two to three prong adapter so I had to plug it in to the kitchen, but, the WiFi borrowed from the Mullanes seems to reach this far.

I Teamed the FWiB briefly, to make sure it would work, and it does.

That's really all for now. I'm quite tired and still have more to do, like see if there's a bed that's made or if I have to find the sheets.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Linda.

3. Made it here.

4. The WiFi reaches.

5. Uber.

6. Bed soon, I hope.

cactuswatcher

19. Do you like spicy foods such as chili peppers?

Yes, after living in AZ for many years, I'm a lot more tolerant of hot spice than I once was. I use hot sauce liberally on a lot of things I eat. I really like jalapenos. I don't bother with really hot peppers like habaneros. I use red pepper on my pizza, but oddly I don't use black pepper much at all.

20. Are there any artisan food markets or farmer’s markets held close to where you live? Do you visit often?

No. Arizona is not a big state for truck farming, which is what you need for farmers' markets.

21. Have you ever traced your family tree?

Yes, I traced it back to Charlemagne and beyond many years ago. I don't know how good all the links are to Europe, but I'm certain I have a number of ancestors who came to Massachusetts in 1630, when a whole fleet of ships arrived from England. Nobody I know on the Mayflower.

22. Do you know how to play backgammon? How about chess?

I can play chess, I have played backgammon, but I can't say I know the rules, right now. I was pretty good at chess as a kid (easily beat all comers in my grade school), but never played seriously.

23. Do you own a coffee machine? What’s your favorite type of coffee?

No. I don't like coffee or coffee flavored things.

24. How are you feeling today?

I had some problems getting enough sleep lately. But I feel fairly rested and well today.

catherineldf

Subsequent events notwithstanding, I had a swell time at Readercon. I opted to get in a day early to give myself time to adjust to jet lag and get in some writing time and seeing as I got my plane tickets five months ago when I was still employed, I opted to go first class for the first time in my life. It was indeed all that - the food is quite good, the seats are comfy, baggage check is included and people pop by to give you beverages and munchies on the regular. I watched the new Kathy Bates "Matlock" on the way out and back and took in an episode of "Elspeth" while I was at it since if I had Paramount, I'd be canceling it at home.

I also took Lyft for the first time - I was a loyal taxi rider until the local company I used for years abandoned Jana and me at the Amtrek station in downtown St. Paul on the way back from Chicon 8 and Jana tried to befriend the nice people smoking various substances and I had to call a friend to rescue us. The Lyft experience went quite smoothly and I expect to be using it again. Apart from that, the hotel was reasonably pleasant and I got some work underway. I do miss the days when there were things to watch on hotel TVs though; pickings were slim.

The convention kicked off on Thursday night and while wandering around the lobby after dinner with dave ring of Neon Hemlock, I ran into author Laura Antoniou and her wife Karen (Laura was one of my editors back in the day and I was in Laura's online play reading group during lockdown) and we had a delightful time hanging out. Friday morning, I was on the Sustaining the Small Press Ecosystem panel, which I thought went well - good discussion all around. My delightful roommate, Julia (SparkyMonster) arrived and got settled in and I went off to do the Broad Universe reading. That was a bit of a minor trainwreck as I had been added in the program, but the organizer was unaware of that fact and neither she nor I had signed me up for it. But apart from the that, the readings were good and someone fed me chocolate so that made up for the confusion.

I got into some good chats with Will Alexander, Cecilia Tan and various folks that I know from online and elsewhere. Con staff were very kind - I was sitting in the lobby waiting for something or other and a con staffer stopped by to see how I was doing, for example. My Saturday panels were fun as well and I loved having the chance to reconnect with Julia, who I've known for a zillion years. I also schmoozed a book dealer in hopes of getting us into the Worldcon Dealer's Room in Seattle and chatted with editor Julia Day for a bit. I got briefly swarmed by delightful fans of my werewolf books who had me sign copies and all, so that was extra cool.

All in all, got in a lot of quality time with old friends, met some delightful new ones, enjoyed the programming I went to, enjoyed the programming I was on and had a great time. 10/10 - would recommend!

minoanmiss

Current Mood: excited

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

dialecticdreamer

Current Mood: restless

Threads Tangling Together
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1180
[Saturday, 5 August, 2017, 1 p.m.]

:: On the way back to her new home, LaQuinta gets an offer that seems too good to be true. She makes an unusual choice. Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::

“Five o’clock!” the crew boss called, his voice carrying up and down the line. “Anyone wanting pay in cash, line up next to the scale.” He paused next to LaQuinta. “You, too.”

“I was basically just passing out water bottles,” she protested.

“You sorted my paperwork, kept the tally going when I got busy with that argument between Ava and her brother Eaton.” He snorted, throwing his shoulders into it like lifting a sack of grain. “I’ll double your pay tomorrow if you agree to run interference between two thirty-year-olds who argue like toddlers. For me?” He batted his eyes outrageously.
( Read more... )

kareila

Current Mood: blah

I read today that Google's old link shortener, using the goo.gl domain, would stop working on August 25th. I didn't find any of their links in my journal, but I did find a bunch in my Twitter archive, so I grabbed copies of those links while I could still resolve them. (Most of them were Mental Floss retweets.)

I need to get back to curating my old tweets and including them in my journal archives before that entire site collapses into a black hole.

I also downloaded my archive of Pocket links last month when that site announced its retirement, but I hadn't used it in several years and honestly it was just another bitbucket to toss stuff into and forget about. I hardly ever actually made time to go back and read or watch any of the links I "saved for later." (The deadline for that one is October 8th.)

Seems like lately, time is less of a river and more of an avalanche.

minoanmiss

Current Mood: nostalgic

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kaffy_r

Current Mood: sad
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: Nada

Where's My Name Tag?

I feel as if I should have one of those "My Name Is" stick-on tags, I've been around here so rarely. Blame the fact that I'm hanging around in my KPop-related Discord community, but I don't ever want to abandon this community.

What can I tell you about the last couple of weeks? A back spasm episode that seems to have finally settled, a lot of time spent in the kitchen, baking and cooking; my stress relievers of choice.

I've been working on the continuation of my most recent fic, because it will. not. leave. me. alone. I've also started adding chapters of my completed NaNo novel over at

originalkaffy_r , which I hope will kick my original writing back into gear.

Tomorrow I take my friend RS to Skokie Courthouse, where she has to appear on her own (only for one appointment; hereafter, I gather her attorney will be on hand) with regard to a fight with her condo association. Her attorney clocked the association's attorney as being from a firm that specializes in bullying people involved this type of fight. It's possible that if she gets on her hind legs, legally speaking, the association and their attorney will back off.

I agreed to take her because a) it's possible to get there by public trans, but it's a pain and b) I can tell she's unnerved by the whole thing. I'm not looking forward to it myself. It's been six or seven years since I last had to cover any court case up there, and it certainly isn't the zoo at 26th and Cal, but even a nice suburban branch of Cook County Circuit Court has the feeling of depression, worry, and despair that just soak into you. So many people caught in the pipeline to jail and then prison ... and even the civil cases have an air of tragedy ....

But I can choose not to think about that, and instead focus on giving her as much support as I can.

As for the move? I don't know. I'm sinking into a bit of despair for a couple of reasons. Further, deponent saith naught, at least for now.

Oh, and we're getting to watch fireflies out our courtyard window, which is a wonderful thing to end on.

sanguinity

Intro/FAQ
Days 1-15

My check-in: Words on one project, editing and beta conversations on another project.

Day 24:

china_shop,

glinda,

sanguinity

Day 23:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

callmesandyk,

chanter1944,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

luzula,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora

( more days )

When you check in, please use the most recent post and say what day(s) you’re checking in for. Remember you can drop in or out at any time, and let me know if I missed anyone!

ysabetwordsmith

Current Mood: busy

France will recognize Palestine as a state, President Macron says

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France will recognize Palestine as a state, in a bold diplomatic move amid snowballing global anger over people starving in Gaza. Israel denounced the decision.

Macron said in a post on X that he will formalize the decision at the United Nations General Assembly in September. “The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved,” he wrote.

Today, France is a hero. France is taking a stance that a lot of bigger, richer, meaner countries are going to hate. That's punching up. \o/ Let's put more pressure on Israel to stop the genocide.

( Read more... )

shadowkat

Sketched out my next watercolor of a woman that I keep seeing on the subway - who today wore a floral print tank and short short cut of jeans, and glitter thongs, with hair extensions, and bag with tassels. ( Read more... )

Finished watching White Lotus S3 over the weekend, and it haunts me.
It was much better than I expected. I'd fallen asleep during White Lotus S2, and couldn't get into White Lotus S1. The appeal of Jennifer Coolidge was lost on me, and I really didn't like the cast in the second season, they all grated on my nerves. I can't stand Michael Imperial. So I didn't expect to like S3, at all. But, it had a cast that intrigued me - Jason Issacs (Star Trek Discovery, among others), Walter Goggins (Fall Out, Justified), Carrie Coon (Gilded Age), Leslie Bibb, Natasha Rothwell, Scott Glenn (whose gotten old and looks skeletal), and Sam Rockwell. Plus numerous nominations.

I watched...and it was compelling. And haunting. Very dark comedy - I didn't find it funny. (I can't say I find any of the comedies nominated funny - maybe Hacks?) And it wasn't predictable - it actually surprised me.
I thought it would go darker than it did. And different people would die.

It does a good dissection of friendship and superficial relationships, or masking in relationships, where folks aren't authentic or genuine with each other, and lie with pasted on smiles, and grins that never quite leave their faces. The only ones who don't are in misery and wracked with pain.
And they all appear to be chasing pleasure, purpose and happiness which eludes them the more they try to chase it. There's an emptiness there, and a strong message about spirituality.

I was astonished how good Jason Isacs, Walter Goggins, and Carrie Coon were.

Started watching Great British Sewing Bee on Roku channel, which is kind of interesting? I'm not really a sewer, so some of it is lost on me. And it's more sewing focused than fashion focused?

July Question Memage

19. Do you like spicy foods such as chilli peppers?

Yes on spicy foods. No on chilli peppers. I have to be careful. I like them, my esophagus and gut are more particular. Or they don't always like me. I accidentally took a small bit of the hottest pepper on the planet once, aka the Carolina Reaper - my lips burned for days. I didn't get it past them.
Avoid at all costs. The heat is in the seeds and juice. I mistook it for a different pepper and cut it up in a salad.

I can do spicy more than most. I like wasabi, sirachi, and tabasco for example. And put pepper (black pepper and red pepper crushed) on a lot of things, more than salt.

20. Are there any artisan food markets or farmer’s markets held close to where you live? Do you visit often?

Yes. Farmer markets are plentiful - Across the street from my work place every Tuesday (not big, but there), and about a twenty-thirty minute walk every Sunday from my apartment. Also lots of indoor artisan food markets. It's NYC. It has everything.

21. Have you ever traced your family tree?

Yes, fell down the rabbit hole with it once and traced all the way back to the 1690s Scotland and Britain, also 1690s in the US. How accurate it is, don't know. It's hard to verify anything further back than the 1700s. (Because the records don't survive). Germany was mostly destroyed in WWII, and the Native Americans, along with the African-Americans destroyed a lot of theirs for well, obvious reasons. France also lost a lot records in WWII. As did Spain.

But Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, and Britain in general - not a problem, they did a better job of preserving records, apparently.

It does get confusing the further back you go, and I gave up. I have relatives who are into it - though.

22. Do you know how to play backgammon? How about chess?

Yes to both. But haven't played in years, so it's unlikely I remember the rules or how. Last time was about ten years ago. I prefer backgammon, it's quicker. Chess takes forever.

23. Do you own a coffee machine? What’s your favourite type of coffee?

No. I can't drink coffee - only decafe, on occasion. The acidity and caffeine concentration make me ill.

24. How are you feeling today?

Tired and kind of spacy, also irritable. Sleep deprived. Going to bed now, in the hopes of remedying it.

jadelennox

Current Mood: just getting started

Conscientious Objector

I shall die, but
that is all that I shall do for Death.
I hear him leading his horse out of the stall;
I hear the clatter on the barn-floor.
He is in haste; he has business in Cuba,
business in the Balkans, many calls to make this morning.
But I will not hold the bridle
while he clinches the girth.
And he may mount by himself:
I will not give him a leg up.

Though he flick my shoulders with his whip,
I will not tell him which way the fox ran.
With his hoof on my breast, I will not tell him where
the black boy hides in the swamp.
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death;
I am not on his pay-roll.

I will not tell him the whereabout of my friends
nor of my enemies either.
Though he promise me much,
I will not map him the route to any man's door.
Am I a spy in the land of the living,
that I should deliver men to Death?
Brother, the password and the plans of our city
are safe with me; never through me
Shall you be overcome.

jadelennox

Current Mood: melancholy

I posted "Justice Denied In Massachusetts" in poetry, and that led me into an absolute Millay spiral. (Also I ended up reading a few pieces like "On Edna St. Vincent Millay's 'Justice Denied in Massachusetts'", and I don't think I realized how many of the poems I already knew are Sacco and Vanzetti poems.)

I didn't feel like inflicting a whole bundle of Millay on everyone who reads poetry but I don't mind inflicting her on all of you. So here goes.

Two Sonnets In Memory

(Nicola Sacco—Bartolomeo Vanzetti)
Executed August 23, 1927

Ⅰ

As men have loved their lovers in times past
And sung their wit, their virtue and their grace,
So have we loved sweet Justice to the last,
That now lies here in an unseemly place.
The child will quit the cradle and grow wise
And stare on beauty till his senses drown;
Yet shall be seen no more by mortal eyes
Such beauty as here walked and here went down.
Like birds that hear the winter crying plain
Her courtiers leave to seek the clement south;
Many have praised her, we alone remain
To break a fist against the lying mouth
Of any man who says this was not so:
Though she be dead now, as indeed we know.

Ⅱ

Where can the heart be hidden in the ground
And be at peace, and be at peace forever,
Under the world, untroubled by the sound
Of mortal tears, that cease from pouring never?
Well for the heart, by stern compassion harried,
If death be deeper than the churchmen say,—
Gone from this world indeed what's graveward carried,
And laid to rest indeed what's laid away.
Anguish enough while yet the indignant breather
Have blood to spurt upon the oppressor's hand;
Who would eternal be, and hang in ether
A stuffless ghost above his struggling land,
Retching in vain to render up the groan
That is not there, being aching dust's alone?

chazzbanner

Some of Kindle highlights from Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, by Sarah Vowell.

"In the ample inventory of kudos racked up by the two Adamses of Massachusetts, I can’t imagine “world’s greatest roommate” made the list."

"The most concrete accomplishment of his trip home was once again knocking up his wife, who gave birth to Georges Washington Lafayette on December 24, 1779."

"Thinking back to my altercation with the non-cobbler nearby, I resist the urge to raise my hand and utter the four most reassuring words in the English language: I know a guy."

bluesail_tobyx!

"Colonel Charles E. Stanton, whose uncle had been Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of war, addressed the French people while standing before Lafayette’s tomb. 'America has joined forces with the Allied Powers' he said, “and what we have of blood and treasure are yours. Therefore it is that with loving pride we drape the colors in tribute of respect to this citizen of your great republic. And here and now, in the presence of the illustrious dead, we pledge our hearts and our honor in carrying this war to a successful issue. Lafayette, we are here.'"

-

neonvincent

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of towns
Current Music: Star Wars: The Old Republic

I wanted another image for Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program in 'Pee-wee as Himself' vs. 'Will & Harper' for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special on Tequila Day that I saved it from Instagram. I might use this for a post about Chimp Crazy.

pensnest

So, I've managed to get behind on the Sunshine Challenge, but never mind, I can still have a go. This is #4, I think.

Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.

( List is in pretty random order )
For a wee bonus, https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DMrBhsi6e/?mibextid=wwXIfr Gorgeous.

ozma914

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: Kandor
Current Music: Superman theme

Three things were clear to me after watching James Gunn's version of "Superman":

First, every future version of the Superman story, be it movie, TV show, or animated, should be required by federal law to utilize John Williams' 1978 score. They should even include the sheet music in the comics.

Second, that dog stole every single scene it appeared in.

Third, James Gunn understands comic book movies.

This latest version of Kal El's story starts in mid fight, with Superman getting the worst of it. Gunn wisely avoids still another version of the origin story: It's been three years since Superman donned his colorful outfit, complete with underwear on the outside. As Clark Kent he's already a star reporter, dating Lois Lane and perfecting his alter ego. But as Superman he's overstepped his bounds by interfering in a foreign war, giving everyone's favorite arch-enemy, Lex Luther, the chance to sink his reputation.

Luthor's master class in villainy causes Superman to not only lose public support, but to question himself and his reason for being on Earth. Also, he can't get that darned dog to behave. Soon Supes is hitting rock bottom, part of Luthor's master plan.

David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan fit right in as Superman and Lois, and in general the supporting actors do great. I had a little trouble warming up to Nicholas Hoult as Luthor, mostly because his voice was so different from Gene Hackman's, but by the end he was perfect. (Although the character's motivations seemed particularly petty, even for him.) Like Krypto, Nathan Fillion steals every scene he's in as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, a kind of anti-Superman from a personality standpoint.

Milly Alcock has a fun cameo as a new hero, and Fillion's Gardner made for a great comic trio with Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific and Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl.

Speaking of those characters--the "Justice Gang"--that's one of the things Gunn does very well. He knew better than to jam major heroes like Batman or Wonder Woman into the first movie of a possible future franchise. Instead, he made a deep dive into comic lore for supporting characters who could be both interesting and fresh. When's the last time you saw Metamorpho in a live action show? I barely remember him from when I was reading comics.

Gunn also understands what made Superman great to begin with, and he took the character back to the beginning, to even before Christopher Reeve times. Superman isn't dark. Superman is a Boy Scout. Not only does Superman wear his underwear on the outside of his costume, he pauses in the middle of city-wide destruction to save squirrels. You want to enrage him? Kidnap his dog.

This is what makes "Superman" a great movie. It's a throwback in the best possible way, and it shows that truly nice guy can still be the hero of the story. Not only that, but a movie starring that character can still be fun.

We can only hope this is the beginning of a universe every bit as entertaining as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, back in the day.

You can read our books here:

· Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

· Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

· Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

· Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

· Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

· Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

· Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

· Substack: https://substack.com/@markrhunter

· Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

· Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

· Audible: https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Mark+R.+Hunter&ref_pageloadid=4C1TS2KZGoOjloaJ&pf

Remember: Reading is the best super power.

lycomingst

The new cat tower is being used. There is contention and Snow is a bit of a bully. He chases Festis every time she tries to use it. Last night there was an argument and they both fell off as they tried to commit murder on each other.

I moved the older tower in alongside the new one. It’s rather rickety but it provides a view of the back yard where everything is happening. I’m hoping the cats can peacefully coexist if each has a seat at the window.

I play a computer game called “June’s Journey” and about a week ago I started getting a message that there was a ‘security threat’ and it wouldn’t open. Inquieres told me that I wasn’t the only one. It was a new update they did and their website said that they didn’t support Chrome. Well, you have for the last 6/7 years. I don’t know anything about IT but cutting your customer base seems that you’re going in the wrong direction. I miss my game. Once in a survey I did for them I asked if they got their servers at a garage sale. Things have always been chancy with them.

I finished “Agents of Shield”. Whedon is a jerk but he and his family (blood and artistic) turn out good series. I’m going to miss the gang. Coulson is immortal, as it should be.

There is going to be a brief interlude before starting my next set of dvds as I want to rewatch Ghosts (UK) for writing purposes.

I’m getting bored of summer. And there’s still August to get through.

shadowkat

Sleep deprived, due to waking up in the middle of the night and being unable to get back to sleep - it was a sinus headache that woke me. But, I did take a walk at lunch to Printemps Department Store.

And discovered a lovely little French Bakery inside that has gluten-free baked items.

I got a Haitian Chocolate Brownie, a Caribbean chocolate and sea salt cookie, and an iced tea. It's pricey, so this won't happen daily.

And here are some other pictures from inside the store:

( a display of just matches or match boxes )

( upstairs bar and shopping area )

( inside the shopping area - looking at displays )

It's such a lovely store in the art deco bank building.

I truly love this work location, best work location that I've had in my life time.

I waited until I got home to enjoy my haitian chocolate brownie - which was like a flourless chocolate cake, with whipped cream and raspberries. Had the cookie at work. This keeps blood sugar down.

***

While I love the location, Crazy Workplace can drive me crazy. I keep having Who's on First, What's on Second discussions - even trying to provide an example gave me a headache.

pauraque

[This is a revision of a review I first posted to 50books_poc on December 1st, 2010. It has been edited for clarity.]

I thought I'd read this book over ten years ago, when it was given to me by a teacher, and I'm sure I started to read it, but I have a feeling I didn't finish. That or I blocked it out. Don't let me get ahead of myself—this is a well-written and absorbing novel. But it hurts. It's long, or it feels long, and I found myself always trying to get through it faster, eager both to know what would happen and to escape the brutality of it.

We are introduced to Kerewin, an independently wealthy artist who lives a hermit-like existence in a self-built Tower in New Zealand. By chance she meets Simon, a young, troubled boy who can't speak, and his foster father Joe, who took him in when Simon was washed ashore in a shipwreck. A three-way friendship begins to blossom among these very different, very wounded people.

This section of the book is inviting, unfolding slowly, rich with setting and personality. Kerewin Holmes is overtly a self-insert for Keri Hulme, which I think confused me when I first tried to read the book, thinking only bad authors did this. But Hulme is a gifted writer who seems able to deconstruct herself wholeheartedly, honestly, with the same sympathy and ruthlessness she uses to create other characters. The only problem I had with Kerewin as a character is that she shares Hulme's lyrical poetic voice to such an extent that you wonder why Kerewin is not also a professional writer, and why visual art has been substituted instead.

Joe and Simon are also skillfully drawn characters, though I was uncomfortable with Simon at times, initially disliking him and not relating to why Kerewin was drawn to him. The sections that are written from his point of view helped a lot, and I wish there had been more of them earlier.

This could almost have been the whole story, just a story of three people reaching out to one another, and the novel would have been half the length. I think it could have been good that way. But even in the early pages, there are hints of violence and unrest; animals are killed often in this book, for food, for pest control. The violence is lingered over, not sadistically or in pleasure, but in grim fascination. We are told that Joe and Simon have a secret, not just the secret of Simon's origins (which is also explored, but as a bit of an afterthought) but something much worse, and more everyday.

The secret, which isn't a secret if you've read the back of the book, is that Joe beats his child.

detailed spoilers

So I knew that going in. But what surprised me (and this is why I'm pretty sure I didn't finish the book the first time) is that Kerewin's efforts to reform him go in vain, and that Joe beats Simon into a coma and is sent to prison, leaving the three of them to go their separate ways for most of the remainder of the book. On their separate journeys, Kerewin and Joe are cleansed of their respective ailments—Kerewin's cancer and Joe's violence—quite literally by magic. I have no objection to magical realism, but in this instance it didn't satisfy me, not in either case.

I was skeptical that Kerewin would really change as much as she did by the end of the book, even after her dark night of the soul followed by a miraculous cure. The reunion with her family feels hasty and forced.

I was VERY skeptical that Joe would ever be safe around Simon, even after his spiritual reconnection with his country as a Māori man. I didn't doubt that the land would try to heal him, and I didn't doubt that he would believe it worked, but after all we'd seen of him, I just felt his illness was too strong. It's suggested tht he should stay in the sacred place he discovers and be its guardian, and I would have bought into that as an appropriate ending for him. But he doesn't do it, and I didn't understand that. It felt like a pulled punch, letting him off the hook for his choices.

I thought Hulme gave Simon the short end. He doesn't get a mystical realization, and the lopsidedness of that really felt off to me. It's like he only exists so the adults can find themselves, which is pretty awful and trite after everything he goes through. I know some people read this as Christian symbolism, with Simon as Christ being tortured for the sins of his parents (virginal, indeed asexual Kerewin, and Joseph the foster father). If so, all I can say is it didn't work for me.

I was also put off by the ambivalence towards queerness in the book. Kerewin's asexuality is depicted as acceptable, but Joe's discomfort with his bisexuality never gets a resolution, and minor queer characters are stereotypes.

I wish I could recommend this book because the language is really lovely, but I don't think I'm quite there. I think Hulme does well in portraying shades of gray, in allowing Joe to be both monstrous and human. I was with her right up to the end, but I couldn't accept the ending she provided for the characters, precisely because it went away from the grayness and was too black-and-white. This is such a long, languid novel—what was her hurry in the last few chapters? Everything is wrapped up far too quickly and neatly. I didn't buy it, even with her assurance that the end is also a beginning. I didn't believe that this new beginning would turn out any different from the beginning on page one.

I also wish I knew why my teacher wanted me to read this and what she hoped I would get out of it. Unfortunately I have zero memory of whatever she told me about it, so that's something we'll never know!

petra

Current Mood: what the fuck ever man
Current Music: You're so cute, I want to wear you like a suit

"Honey, why does the person you're playing a game with and watching a stream of look like that?"

"He's wearing a Mickey Mouse skin."

"I didn't know you could skin Mickey Mouse in your game."

"Yep."

"And you're the one with the socially acceptable hobby."

ysobel

I dreamed I was playing a very casual game where you went around harvesting things -- a few types of mushrooms, different berries, catnip plants, even clouds somehow -- and you would also encounter creatures that you could offer the items to. Critters would respond with 😍 (love), 😊 (like), 😐 (neutral), 😝 (dislike), or 🤮 (ew), and their attitude would adjust accordingly. Enough positive points got a ❤️ and they became huggable; enough negative points meant they'd run away from you, though you could still leave gifts. There was a 'notebook' where you could keep track of discovered rules ("hyrax doesn't like snozzberries" is one I remember from the dream) and sometimes a creature would have a floating thought bubble with what they were in the mood for.

...I kinda want this game to actually exist...

ysabetwordsmith

Current Mood: busy

Individualism is Killing The (Online) Aspec Community

But whilst I know I’ve changed in my queer journey, the communities I’ve been involved in have not. When I was a baby ace, I needed to know aspec 101, distinguish your aro from your ace from your agender, what the cake memes were for, what the split attraction model is and so on. But 5 years on, half a decade mind you, the online community that was once my intro and a place that helped me learn more about myself now feels like a burden, a constant reminder of pain and like being a teenager again in Catholic secondary school; not standing the people I’m with and wanting to just go home.
[---8<---]
Most people tolerate asexuality, but they don’t support asexuality. That's not the same. They think asexuality is valid but they don’t support it. They only support asexuality if it’s palatable to their own sexuality. In an attempt to push back on the very real infantilisation of asexuality (looking at you ‘but we can’t have kink at pride because of the aces’ discourse), but we’ve (not me!) walked back into compulsory sexuality and basing support of asexuality based on how well asexuals perform the sexual script, instead of supporting it in its own right.

( Read more... )

pushkin666

Current Mood: content
Current Location: The Kat's Lair

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

wychwood

I meant to post yesterday, but I was distracted by reading a season and a half of transcripts of Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones, which is a delight. I don't do well with podcasts, but I am a big fan of transcripts.

I'm currently having a very frivolous week off; S came up with her baby on Tuesday, and we went and visited my parents and then had lunch; I have read some things and eaten many things and done all the backlog of ironing and washing up (the kitchen was a very sad post-graduation place). And played many more hours of ME:A.

Have also cleaned the worst of the dust from the inside of my computer and am now transferring my Steam library to a new hard drive because apparently 2TB is not! enough! and I see no prospect of kicking my game-buying habit and also everything is 60GB a game now.

I also bought several new and secondhand books and have run out of money until payday, because "frivolous overconsumption" is apparently my motto for July. Except that I promised Miss H cinema snacks for Superman on Friday (in return for a lift!) so I can't stop just yet. I am getting £9 back, though, because Rebellion sold me three 99p ebooks, charged me four times, and then told me that the order had failed so I couldn't download them. They were both polite and rapid at sorting it out though! I've bought plenty of books from them before with no issues, so not entirely sure what went wrong...

lotesse

Not time’s fool (9611 words) by lotesse
Chapters: 6/?
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Caspian/Lucy Pevensie
Characters: Lucy Pevensie, Caspian (Narnia), Ramandu's Daughter | Liliandil, Edmund Pevensie, Peter Pevensie, Polly Plummer, Digory Kirke, Eustace Scrubb, Lord Rhoop (Narnia)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Romance, Sailing, Prophecy
Series: Part 3 of An ever-fixèd mark
Summary:

“You see,” Edmund began, and all leaned in, visibly listening, “it wasn’t just romance that kept Lucy in Narnia. She is with Caspian, now, but she also had a – a vision isn’t quite right. She was shown a prophetic image in a magical book, and Aslan vouched, later, personally, for its truth. She acted as she did to attempt to divert what she saw, and I think we’d better do likewise, on our end. Here’s what you all need to know.”

jesse_the_k

Thanks to the YouTube algorithm actually paying attention, as well as petra, please enjoy this snappy video with on-screen handwritten captions:

( Jeangu Macrooy - Independent Girls & Nasty Evil Gays )

sovay

Current Music: Bellowhead, "10,000 Miles Away"

I am delighted to announce that my story "Twice Every Day Returning" has been accepted for reprint by Afterlives 2024: The Year's Best Death Fiction, edited by Sheree Renée Thomas and forthcoming from Psychopomp in October. It was published originally in Uncanny Magazine #61, in winter to match its ice-memories as opposed to the heat wave it was written in; it is queer, maritime, diasporic, the latest pendant of an unplanned sea-cycle, and it's lovely to see it described as "Lyrical Magical Realism." The table of contents is exactly the kinds of liminal fiction I would plunge myself into even if I did not have the honor of being included among them. We're still finishing out the ghost-month of summer, but I have further reason now to look forward to the ghost-month of fall.

flemmings

Magnesium is a laxative. I had to learn this from Tiktok.

Well, that explains the summer stomach of the last two months. Which, true, has kept me from drinking but has also kept me from the Ontario cherries. Ah well. Have bought the less laxative kind and trust that it, and cutting back on the dosage, will return me to normal before cherry season ends, and will not result in a return of leg cramps.

Speaking of cherries, a cherry picker was hovering over the quondem Starbuck's at Christie and Dupont which had been seriously tagged up and down after its last avatar, a Popeye's, closed in the winter. So the facade is being cleaned up finally but at the cost of an immense amount of grit in the air. Whatever the taggers used for their metre-high letters was heavy-duty indeed.

calimac

Reagan: His Life and Legend, Max Boot. (Liveright, 2024)

I found this large book in the library, picked it up and browsed the section on how Reagan won the 1966 California gubernatorial primary, a rather curious story. Boot gets the full tale right, so I checked the book out. Highly readable, discusses all of Reagan's career including both the artistic and economic sides of his movie-tv period. Does not stint on pointing out his habit of telling untrue stories as if they were true, his insistence that he wasn't racist while craftily making racist appeals, his strange evolution from a New Deal Democrat to a Barry Goldwater Republican, his presentation as a personable and friendly man while being completely alienated from all his children. Also explores why, then, he was so damned popular, partly that personable presentation and his quick-wittedness and (selectively) sharp memory, partly because his rather rigid acting background made him so good at speech-making but also because he was so good at writing his own speeches, something you don't expect of either an actor or a politician. Boot likes to end chapters with cliffhangers, which read oddly if you already know what's going to happen, like the chapter introducing his presidential administration which concludes, "And yet his presidential performance almost ended just sixty-nine days after it had begun."

And yet despite the sure command of detail, I found a few clanging factual errors. One of them appears twice:

1) After his wedding to Nancy and a reception in Toluca Lake, "Then the newlyweds drove sixty miles west in Ron's Cadillac convertible to Riverside, California, to spend their wedding night at the historic, Spanish-style Mission Inn." (p. 193)

2) His ranch ownership: "Reagan used part of the proceeds from the sale of Yearling Row to buy 778 acres in Riverside County, west of Los Angeles, for $347,000." (p. 285-6)

No, Max: Riverside is east of Los Angeles, not west. Drive 60 miles west from Toluca Lake and you'll be somewhere around Ventura.

In other erroneous news, I've discovered that there's a vast horde of people who've posted podcast videos on YouTube explaining things about Tolkien. If these were written down, I could glance over them quickly, but I'm not going to listen to them, especially as the only point of my doing so would be to see what they got right and what they got wrong. I did begin one which started with an outline of Tolkien's literary career, but stopped dead early on when the podcaster described The Hobbit as featuring "a large-footed creature called Bilbo Baggins." Oh, dear. Tolkien's hobbits are not "large-footed." They have hairy feet with leathery soles. Read the book, that's what it says. It's only in the movie that the necessity for prosthetic feet on the actors make their feet larger than normal. Don't describe the movies when you claim to be talking about the books.

livingdeb

I recently read a passage in a book encouraging me to align my actions with my values. I am absolutely not going to be doing that.

If I did, I'd have to eat only foods that have been grown or caught sustainably, probably mostly plant-based and local, and I should probably grow some of it myself.

I'd have to stop using fossil fuels. Supposedly my home electricity is from wind, but I could no longer go anywhere except on foot or bicycle.

I'd have to look up the median income of humans on earth and start living on that, contributing the excess to those less fortunate than me, just to be fair. Since I have pretty good free health insurance, that wouldn't leave much spending money. I'd have to be homeless or at least have way more roommates than I currently have.

And I'd have to look for a job in an ICE prison and magically get the skills to secretly smuggle in some things like clean water, good food, medicine, and mail; smuggle out things like mail and people; and regularly use de-escalation skills I don't have.

I don't think the book was trying to horrify me.

stonepicnicking_okapi

The prompt is 'time.'

At 10:13, be kind. Smile at the FedEx man,
the one from the day before yesterday,
and greet him like that friend you never see.

At 9:12, contemplate some art. Look at Whistler’s fireworks, bookmark
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies,
indulge in a longing to sink bare toes in grass
but make do with fondly remembering
a butterfly.

At 3:09, kindly tell past regret and future dread
to fuck off. Take a nap.

At 2:17, wipe the toilet seat.
Put that thing back where it belongs. Practice
until perfect. Once more. Again.

At 12:04, make that joke, the one about the Virgin Mary,
and swallow a crust of fossilized cringe.

At 12:31, listen to the Koto Song,
contemplate the precise moment of death,
and eat some gummy worms, in that order.

At 9:01, be great. At everything.
And wear it on your sleeve.

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conuly

July 2025

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Page Summary

beanside - I am all eyes, I am all ears, I am the wall and I'm watching you fall, because faith is mine.
scripsi - What I have been reading, (almost) July edition
oursin - (no subject)
ionelv - France, first G7 nation to recognize Palestinian state?
poliphilo - Who Cares?
archangelbeth - (I wanna read this later)
smokingboot - Urgh
gwydion - 7/21/25 - 7/25/25
frandroid - Podcast Friday - Missed appointment with revolutions
viridian5 - "Intrusive" [Encanto gen]
dine - arguing is the Olympics of talking (who do you think will medal?)
ysabetwordsmith - Follow Friday 7-25-25: Horror
kareila - I did the ridiculous thing.
radiantfracture - On with the show; this is it (Twelfth Night asynchronous viewing party!)
crossover_chick - A Quiet (But Humid) Thursday
soc_puppet - Pet Peeve
ysabetwordsmith - Activism
jadelennox - In a world more beautiful than this it would have mattered more.
silver_chipmunk - At the cottage
cactuswatcher - July Meme
catherineldf - Readercon write up
minoanmiss - Today in Archery
dialecticdreamer - Threads Tangling Together (part 1 of 1, complete)
kareila - bitrot
minoanmiss - Why I Buy Pink Himalayan Salt
kaffy_r - Dept. of No, I'm Not Dead
sanguinity - Write Every Day: Day 24
ysabetwordsmith - France Recognizes Palestine
shadowkat - A few things before bed...and well memage
jadelennox - Did you think I was done with Millay? I was not done.
jadelennox - Time to head for the best tasting poem you have. It's Millay Time.
chazzbanner - Oh, Sarah!
neonvincent - Rejected image for Emmy documentary specials post
pensnest - Sunshine Challenge #4
ozma914 - Movie review: Superman
lycomingst - (no subject)
shadowkat - A Parisian Department Store in NYC
pauraque - The Bone People by Keri Hulme (1983)
petra - Fanfiction author/Gamer OTP
ysobel - Dream - video game
ysabetwordsmith - Aroace Spectrum
pushkin666 - July Fic Day 24 - If There Be Thorns - The Hobbit, Bilbo/Thorin
wychwood - still haven't ordered the new mattress though
lotesse - fic: Not time’s fool, Narnia, Caspian/Lucy, 6/?
jesse_the_k - boost: Jeangu Macrooy's Political Music Video That Made Me Smile
sovay - Or the ocean's brine will turn to wine
flemmings - So now you tell me?
calimac - rain of errror
livingdeb - Living my values
stonepicnicking_okapi - My poem: time

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