flwyd | Network

I am still here.

--== ∞ ==--

Reddit account is in a banned state. I am not emotionally invested in whether it is unbanned, but it would be nice. Posted a 250 character limited request to be unbanned tonight.

Friday i was booted out of the chat app that i use with Christine and that i stash all sorts of temporary data in the "saved messages" chat. I got back in but couldn't terminate the session from China for 24 hours. I've gone through all the data i had stashed and i am not happy about it's likely availability to bad actors but what are you going to do.

Today the cloud service that had $300 of charges on the 10th had more charges made against it, but they didn't go through because the payment method on the account hasn't been updated. I am glad i have a year's subscription instead of monthly billing. I think there's some particular vulnerability their system has around gift subscriptions.

I have a lot of energy in anticipating what is the next bad internet thing that i wish i could let relax. I did find some additional security settings on my phone i could turn on.

--== ∞ ==--

I did much mowing and other yard work this weekend. For a moment everything seems idyllic except for invasive Youngia thunbergiana /Youngia japonica going to seed. Peony blooming! Iris blooming! Piedmont azalea blooming! lovely stands of fleabane blooming!

The pawpaw has set fruit, the blueberries and mulberries look very productive. I can see the impact of the drought in places and it worries me. Non trivial investment in plants this winter, and finding some dead woody plants that were over a year old disappoints me. I am glad that last year i planted a tree in my vegetable plot so i kept it alive more easily.

--== ∞ ==--

Tuesday morning we went out very early to see if we could see comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS). We didn't but it felt good to have the little adventure. But wowza, not used to very early mornings and then working all day.

--== ∞ ==--

Bruno and Marlowe are making progress: Marlowe's assaults are less ... urgent? more performative? And Bruno is spending more time out of his room when she's outside.

--== ∞ ==--

There are so many layers of entropy around me. I hope i can find a way to bring a little more order than disorder, but sometimes it feels like the disorder is winning.

shadowkat

My back and neck have been bugging me today, along with my right knee. I blame the weather, and arthritis. And sitting at a desk all day. And the commute. Oh well, at least I scheduled my lab work. Now, I just have to schedule three more doctor appointments and two x-rays. And figure out where to do it around my schedule.

And try not to worry about the stupid union going on strike. Folks were worrying over it in line to get cookies at Insominac Cookies today. A strike would effectively shut down a good portion of the city and all of Long Island - it would be a nightmare for everybody - which is why I'm against it. The Insominac Cookie Clerk decided I deserved a free cookie and a discount - since I come in every day or every other day. I got three cookies today as a result, one was free, and I only paid $5.58 for all three of the home-made, freshly baked, chewey, warm cookies - and the cookies are medium size. I was in heaven. Insominac has the best gluten free cookies anywhere. I've not had better gluten-free cookies anywhere - the closest I've come to these are Heritage. They are even better than home-made tollhouse cookies and the old Mrs. Fields that I had prior to being diagnosed with Ceiliac. You've not had cookies until you've had these. Yum.

I wish there was a pill or something I could take - to get more patience. I feel I've almost reached my limit?

Mother thinks I've a phenomenal amount of patience.

Apparently folks in the publishing realm and in educational circles have decided that people are writing with AI, if:

* they are using em -- dashes.
* semicolons
* proper word syntax
* coma usage

Yes, we live in a world in which -- if you have learned to write well or know proper grammar usage, you are considered a robot. So, from now on - if anyone checks my grammar or syntax - can I accuse them of being a bot? Yeah, that'll end well.

***

Chloe Zhao was apparently interviewed (prior to the cancellation of the Buffy pilot) on the Buffy ships. (Damn, they must all be very disappointed that the Revival was cancelled - since they marketed the hell out of the pilot.) ( Read more... )

As an aside? I'd rather have a continuation of Buffy in animated form, than a continuation of Firefly. We've enough stuff like Firefly out there, I mean come on - Star Trek, BSG, Farscape, Star Wars, Expanse (which is a lot better by the way), etc... Firefly wasn't that good. I tried a re-watch and thought, damn, this is annoying in places - it may have gotten better. I should try again? I remember enjoying it, but I never really loved it. It was problematic? It kind of took the worst things in Westerns and threw them in the middle of a space opera, that reminded me a touch more of Space 1999 meets Star Wars? I'd have preferred more of Caprica - which was a bit more...innovative?

I don't see myself watching an animated Firefly. I barely watch animated Star Trek or Star Wars, and I liked those better.

grrlpup

Current books:

– The Man Who Died Twice, second in the Thursday Murder Club series about a set of crime-solving friends in a retirement community. I found the first book in a Little Free Library shortly after a friend recommended it… and then I found the second book in a different Little Free Library the day after I finished the first book!

They give me a Golden Girls vibe but more sophisticated, I suppose like really good GG fic would be. And every so often a line slays me, like this when the team is gathered at Ibrahhim’s bedside reviewing CCTV footage on his laptop:

“And there’s the clue!”
The shortsighted lean farther forward, and the long-sighted lean farther away.

– Kevin Henkes’ brand-new picture book Is It Spring?

Betsy Bird’s excellent review

I think I read this ten times, while I was eating my lunch today. Once for the paper colors. Once for the rhythm (and I read it out loud too). Once for the pattern of text and boxes (with a two-page box when spring finally springs for real… so good). Once to see if everyone’s eyes are dots all the way through. And of course following the scarf, and flipping back and forth between multiple views of the yard. Just exquisite. I felt reluctant to put it on the back-to-the-library shelf and will probably pull it down and read it again before I return it.

– Best recently finished: Candace, the Universe, and Everything, by Sherri L. Smith. Older middle grade or younger YA. Time shenanigans involving a school locker and magpies doing their thing. Also intergenerational friendship among Black women, characters pursuing art and science, and shifting school friend groups where no one’s a villain forever. Reminded me of the elements I like best in Madeleine L’Engle.

This post originates at everyday though not every day. Comments welcome here or there.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3236/

Thanks to differences in logging regulations, the messages actually turned out to be visible from the air.

https://xkcd.com/3236/

rebeccmeister

Last lab of the semester yesterday. The students enjoyed the crayfish tremendously, a reminder of why I go to such great lengths.

I tend to experience insomnia in the spring, which I suspect is mostly due to allergies. When it struck this morning, I went ahead and got up to go to the optional Wednesday strength training practice with rowing teammates. After all, exercise can really help with anxiety.

There are just a lot of loose ends to tie up: Getting us in lecture to where we'll actually finish out our course topics for the semester; ordering supplies needed; fixing a bike from the Bicycling class so a student can get back out on it; watering the ants and checking the crickets; meeting with research students; setting up the lab for the lab practical next Tuesday; et cetera.

High-octane life can't go on indefinitely.

james_davis_nicoll

The complete Voidrunner's Codex Full Digital Box Set, the spacefaring expansion from EN Publishing for the Level Up! tabletop roleplaying game and Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition.

Bundle of Holding: Voidrunner's Codex

dinosaur_comics_feed

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=4462


archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about

t-rex in: no no no, no more mistakes, only correct things all the time forever and ever!!! please please please

← previous

April 22nd, 2026

April 22nd, 2026: Beats me why some dudes make mistakes. Sure as hell ain't my scene!!

– Ryan

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=4462

james_davis_nicoll

Can the salvation of the Literature Club be something as simple as blackmail?

O Maidens in Your Savage Season, volume 2 by Mari Okada & Nao Emoto

conuly

and her excuse is "Your father and I both agreed that it was best to raise you away from my wealthy-but-toxic family, whom I was returning to". And having met the protagonist's half-siblings, I can't say that this was wrong - but what, she just loved him so much more than her younger two that she had with her new, richer, more socially acceptable husband? No matter how you look at it, she's not exactly winning the mother of the year award.

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

( Read more... )

ranunculus

Since 2020 I've been cutting my own hair. It is certainly the cheap way to deal with hair, but my own cuts, with the exception of one, never felt like they turned out very well. Twice I ventured out to a salon and returned feeling that I was doing just about as good a job as the stylist did. My hair is very thick and definitely has a mind of its own. My last attempt at hair cutting was a bit pathetic and for some reason this week my wrists are sore; so today I was determined to find a place that would at least trim the front out of my eyes. Entirely at random I walked into a place called Dream, and by dint of being very flexible, talked the stylist into squeezing me in this afternoon. Boy was that the right decision. Great, if very short, haircut (I asked for it short), nice conversation, including with other patrons and the tiny salon did not smell like chemicals or perfume. I believe it is a one woman shop run by a lady who is almost my age. I've made an appointment for June....

$radiantfracture: a white rabbit swims underwater (water rabbit)$

radiantfracture

A nice thing about being unable to focus is that I also can't focus on being miserable. Case in point: after a truly incomparable series of missed appointments and scheduling errors yesterday, I sat down wretchedly this morning, in true anxiety about my mnemonic capacity, to see if I could at least still recall two touchstone poems memorized in high school: Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, ("Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds") and "Kubla Khan".

The choice of sonnet is a bit mysterious to me now (the craft is exquisite; the marriage never materialized), but "Kubla Khan" makes perfect sense.

Writing it out again (all except the bit about the bouncing rocks in the middle, where I get hopelessly lost and always have) I could not help looking at "Kubla Khan" this time with my own fixations in mind, and before I knew it I had forgotten my forgetfuless and was happily sloshing around in the sacred river Alph.

( Anyway, some thoughts on Kubla Khan as it might fit into the epics course, interspersed with the Poem Itself )

The poem, sans interruptions, can be read here.

§rf§

shadowkat

Television Re-Watches

I attempted to re-watch Veronica Mars and Firefly - but neither held my interest, and Veronica Mars - sigh, it neither dates well nor holds up. I remember liking this better when I first watched it? Maybe I wanted to like it? The writing and direction just aren't that good. And Bell doesn't quite sell the high school student vibe? The performances are more forced and less natural than the ones on Buffy - there's a scene with Veronica crying in about the seventh or eighth episode, and I don't buy it. Buffy cried - and I bought it. Also, Veronica isn't as likable nor is Keith, none of the characters are - and I think it's a dual problem, writing and direction. I can see why Rob Thomas's work didn't take off and Veronica Mars didn't last more than three seasons, and the revival didn't take off. I may try Firefly, again, not certain, don't really remember it all. I only have a vague memory of most of the episodes.

April Question a Day Memage:

20. Did you sleep well last night?

Not really. I need to go to bed earlier. I've been getting to bed around 10:30, and as a result only sleep a little over 5 hours. Also getting up at 5:50 am. I slept longer, when I went to bed by 10 am, and slept until 6 am.

21. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would that be?

New York City. I really don't want to live anywhere else? It has ease of transportation, my favorite mode of transportation, is near water, has lots of trees, and a temperate climate. Plus lots of cultural pursuits, and is very diverse in population.

I'm a New Yorker, I think. It's going to be very hard to prod me out. NYC has kind of ruined me for anywhere else. You either take to this city and love it for life, or you can't wait to get out of it - and don't stay long. It's often one or the other. Also apparently, you either love Boston or NYC, not both.

Maybe London would work? I remember loving London in the 1980s. I suck at languages, so it would have to be a place that spoke English as the official language. Also, I don't/can't drive any longer (yes, I drove once upon a time - long ago, in a galaxy far far away - it was called Kansas, and it was back in the 20th Century). I like trains. And I need trees.

**

Books

To get out of the reading slump - I've embraced one of my go-to genres, Fantasy. And am exploring all the new fantasy novels out there. I have two favorite go-to genres - Fantasy and Science Fiction. (Then mystery and romance, and horror, and sigh, regular realistic fiction which more often than not tends to bore me? I need more plot and world-building than actually exists in realistic fiction.)

I finished Illona Andrews "The Kinsmen Universe" novellas, Silver Shark and Silver Streak (I think), and stopped short of the soft core porn short story (Illona Andrews isn't that good at sex scenes, and I tend to roll my eyes?). It was good. Not enough plot. But fast reads.

Now? I'm reading Gideon, the Ninth on my Kindle - it's a book about lesbian necromancers in Space. Gideon is attempting to escape a necromancer strong-hold. We'll see. I'm heterosexual - so lesbian stories sometimes work for me, and sometimes don't. It depends on the characters. Actually that's true of heterosexual stories too, so never mind. It came highly rec'd - mainly for the banter and laugh out loud sections, also emotional core. From various social media sources - people here, and random strangers on "Book Instagram" (I finally found "Book Instagram" - which is kind of like Book TikTok but far less annoying, and not quite as obnoxious with the marketing and pimping - not that I'm on TikTock - TikTock irritates me - and that's just from the posts folks throw at me from it on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It reminds me of the worst of Twitter - but with videos.)

Also making my way through This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Illona Andrews - in hard cover (so I can only read it at home - although, I am debating lugging it to doctor's appointments). This book is a portal fantasy - except into a "GrimDark Fantasy World" (a la Game of Thrones without GRR Martin's abilities - so think a very watered down version of Game of Thrones?). Portal Fantasy is not my favorite fantasy sub-genre?
It's hard to pull off well - and Illona Andrews doesn't quite manage it? So far there are far too many information dumps, and way too much telling and not enough showing. Every time a character shows up - we get a couple of paragraphs, sometimes pages of character backstory, summarized by the protagonist based on her memory of the book's world. It's kind of like having a commentator with you as you read? CS Lewis did a better job with the portal fantasy in the Chronicles of Narnia, as did the guy who wrote The Magicians, which became a series. Long Live Evil - was atrocious, I couldn't get through it.

Also the world, which is GrimDark, is much nicer to the protagonist than it should be. It's kind of a comforting, romantic take on Game of Thrones, while at the same time making fun of Game of Thrones...or the fact that GRR Martin can't finish the series because he wrote himself into a corner and got writer's block as a result. (We're never going to see Winds of Winter.)

***

Doctors...

I've finally figured out why people who see doctors are called patients. I'm surprised it took this long. It's kind of obvious when you think about it.

sanguinity

Intro/FAQ
Days 1-15

Note: I'll be away from email for the next two days, so check-in posts will go up a couple hours later than usual. If that proves inconveniently late for you, just go ahead and drop your check-in on the most recent post whenever is convenient for you. (Just make it clear what day you're checking in for!)

My check-in: ~~No writing yet! A little later this evening, I hope!~~ I wrote a long chatty email to my cousin. It counts if I say it counts!

Day 21:

sanguinity

Day 20:

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 19:

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

( 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!

james_davis_nicoll

And I know 700 pages PDFs are a vote-loser.

Any of my reviews from 2025 that people especially liked?

james_davis_nicoll

                  2022   2024   2025   2026   
Novel             1151   1420   1078   1153
Novella            807    962    739    807
Novelette          463    755    394    414  
Short Story        632    720    610    507
Series             707    677    621    687
Graphic/Comic      340    457    265    362
Related            453    775    431    479
Dramatic, Long     597    763    610    650
Dramatic, Short    386    490    451    471
Game               --     334    298    357
Editor, Short      319    530    322    305
Editor, Long       182    254    162    234
Pro Artist         233    270    214    228
Semiprozine        312    338    334    324
Fanzine            243    286    243    224
Fancast            384    693    376    370
Fan Writer         368    363    329    308
Fan Artist         230    180    186    176
Poem                --     --    219    202
Lodestar           451    345    268    244
Astounding         416    349    341    290

james_davis_nicoll

Congratulations to the finalists!

2026 Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Award Finalists

( Read more... )

adrian_turtle

What would you recommend, if you had a week to catch up on almost 30 years of visual media? I have been carefully avoiding movies and TV since the end of the 20th century. I sometimes read fanfic, or listen without watching, or look at isolated scenes of The West Wing or Babylon 5 or Sherlock or so I have some idea what everyone is talking about. But I am more or less clueless.

I will be in the hospital for a week, bored and sleep deprived and deliberately removing all my usual anti-seizure precautions. I expect I'll have plenty of migraines, because so many of my migraine triggers are also seizure triggers. Ick. There is no need to seek out movies with strobe effects. The EEG techs will shine a strobe light in my face every so often just to see what happens. But while I am staying up all night, I will be free to watch movies on my laptop as well as read or crochet.

What should I watch? I have library cards from the Boston Public Library and the Minuteman Library Network which might give me access to movies but I haven't tried to use that feature. Which commercial service should I subscribe to for the next month? I want to only buy one month service, from one dealer, rather than watching 3 movies from Netflix and 4 from Apple and 6 from someplace else. Murderbot and Black Panther are on the maybe list, but I don't want to buy two subscriptions.

My favorite movies are Muppet Christmas Carol and Princess Bride.
I watched Star Wars the week it came out in theaters and hated it.
I quite liked Star Trek:TNG, even though many of the episodes gave me headaches.
I liked the first Superman movie and Galaxy Quest.
I like movies where people talk to each other, and hate that thing where it looks like the cameraman is riding a trotting horse.

james_davis_nicoll

How much of the universe does *science as we know it* open to us?

The Queen of Air and Darkness and Other Stories by Poul Anderson

andrewducker

1. The Types of Board Game: (tags:games boardgames funny ontology )

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3235/

I can't believe Candles of Vienna caved to commercial pressure and added the Goku expansion.

https://xkcd.com/3235/

shadowkat

1. My workplace's browser (MSN) shot an article at me today on the renewed, cancelled and still waiting television series. I'll see if I can find it?

Well I found it HERE on Scary Mommy (sigh don't ask) (does it by network and streaming channel) and via Rotten Tomatoes (does it alphabetically),
and Tv Line and Metacritic (which is more up to date than Scary Mommy, not surprising in the least).

Interesting, albeit not surprising, sidebar? Paramount is cancelling all the Star Trek in favor of all of the Taylor Sheridan modern (also uber violent) Westerns. (I'm feeling validated for cancelling Paramount and boycotting CBS. Honestly, people were willing to unsubscribe to Disney for Jimmy Kimmel, but not unsubscribe from Paramount for Star Trek and cancelling Colbert? People? Really?)

Gone are the days, I can just list them. There's too many. It would take me hours.

2. Listened to a podcast - with Juliet Landau interviewing David Greenwalt.
Landau is great at interviewing folks. She barely talks and just lets them talk, with various targeted questions that spur them to say more about the business, and she, for the most part, avoids problematic topics.

Take away? Greenwalt's reward for doing Buffy was supposed to be - joining the writing and producing team for the X-Files. But Greenwalt states that he couldn't write for the X-Files. He just couldn't write that type of television series. When Landau asked why, he said that he needed an emotional arc or an emotional core - that his writing was more character based and emotion based. He said that while the X-Files is brilliantly written - it has no emotional core. It's just not there, and he couldn't write for it because of that. The network apparently wanted Mulder and Scully to kiss in the first episode, and the writers fought against it and won. Which was the right decision - it wouldn't have worked at all.

X-Files is plot based, not character based. You literally could put anyone in it and it would for the most part work - a skeptic and a true believer.
That's actually a hard format to pull off well. Emotion based is easier.
Plot based can get redundant and old fast. X-Files had good writers: Tim Minear came from the X-Files as did Vince Gillian.

I didn't like the X-Files that much - for two reasons? 1) I don't really like hyper-realistic horror. I like my horror unrealistic. Also alien invasion/government conspiracy stories irritate me - it's most likely a side effect of being forced to watch a lot of 1950s, 1960s and 1970s sci-fi alien invasion/government conspiracy series/ and B movies as a child. My best friend at the time loved that shit. 2) It's a by the books, plot procedural with no emotional base - and I'm a bit like Greenwalt, I need the emotional arc. I get bored or my attention starts to wander if I don't have that. I'm more character than plot oriented, most people tend to be one or the other? Some are both. I preferred Fringe? It was less hyper-realistic scary, and had more of an emotional core.

3. Listened to Nerd Subculture - which is an Australian Podcast Series on well, American television series? It's not very good. FB kept throwing snatches of it at me. So I gave it a try. They lost me in their analysis of Beneath You. (It's a couple, one has seen the series, one hasn't.)
( Read more... )

sanguinity

Intro/FAQ
Days 1-15

My check-in: Received the first round of beta notes on a story (not the longfic), and accepted a number of minor edits. Beta and I will get together and talk about possible bigger revisions later tonight.

Day 20:

china_shop,

sanguinity,

ysilme

Day 19:

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 18:

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

mellowtigger

So many hot topics, so little time.

music: I've said repeatedly that I think Trump is suffering from untreated syphilis. I'm still holding to that theory. I keep expecting to see pockmarks of dissolving flesh soon, but he keeps getting his skin covered up with makeup or bandages. It's only a matter of time, though. Meanwhile, I'm making a song playlist for that special day that must arrive eventually. Do you have any songs to recommend for this list (YouTube)?

job: Today at work was more than usual. I was late (30 minutes) going to lunch, and I was late (45 minutes) clocking out. I need to leave early sometime this week, so I don't have overtime to report.

stockpile: I've warned before that you need to buy what you can now, while you can. I reiterate that message now.

Click to read a list of things I expect to decrease in availability or value...

Computing devices (laptop, tablets, consoles, phones) will all get more expensive as supply chain problems get worse throughout the year. Between data center construction and Middle East raw resource disruptions (even helium), the supply chain has more shocks in store as continuing waves of problems descend. Plus whatever stupid trade war that Trump will inevitably declare on his next whim. I have a spare laptop I bought last year, and I have a Fairphone as a phone backup.
Food will get more expensive for similar reasons. ICE deportations affect the labor for agriculture, climate change is messing with pollination, disease, and production, and fuel disruptions will affects costs and availability for everything. Have powdered/dry food on hand, just in case. I have a few months of that available.
Medicine will not necessarily be available to you at any price. Do you have any way of stocking up on supplies or finding a non-USA source of the medication? I have a 90-day backup for my blood pressure pills. Thankfully, that's the only pharmaceutical that I really require at this time. I've got a few months of nasal sprays that I need for allergies too.
Money will lose value, for anyone with US dollars. Debt, market manipulation, and corruption must take a toll. I've started thinking of Fridays as "market manipulation day", since this Republican administration usually picks that day to announce something important as the stock market closes. Trump and his cronies are siphoning funds from everyone else on both the swing up and the swing down on stock pricing, even on prediction markets and cryptocurrency. Selig says he'll crack down on the corruption, but we'll see if Trump does anything to protect Don Jr. More countries are using Yuan to purchase oil or switching to renewables due to the Iran war, so they don't have to buy oil at all. I don't imagine any way that the dollar maintains its value. When Trump finally leaves the USA (Brazil?), as he and his ilk make their last effort to escape consequences, they'll have their wealth in both tangible or intangible resources that survive stock and dollar crashes better than our resources will. Spend it on long-term goods while you can.

libertarianism: This topic deserves a whole post of its own, but I think I finally have the thing that will help the USA snap out of this terrible decades-long devotion to neoliberal economics. It's been happening ever since the Powell memo of 1971, since the U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposed the Humphrey Hawkins Act of 1978 to stop USA's transition to social democracy, and since 1980 when Ronald Reagan launched his presidential campaign promoting so-called trickle-down economics (or "voodoo economics" to quote another former President). Go to whichever AI chatbot you can access, and ask it this particular question:

"Use the Price equation to model the paradox of tolerance. What conditions (like detection of defectors and removal of non-cooperative actors) are required to make that comparison accurate."

I want to delve farther into its answer. It seems to call out the ills of libertarian politics and neoliberal economics. The people demolishing our detection, reporting, intervention, and funding institutions know exactly what they're trying to accomplish. It's like they already understand the Price equation but have sided with demons to create perpetual cruelty in a libertarian hellscape instead of choosing the other option offered by the equation. They're succeeding so far, and this AI answer might help us defend attempts to restore/rebuild community, using incontrovertible math as justification.

I'm reminded of an idea I had before that our government should make it easy for citizens to do good things, and maybe that should be the next great push in governance goals. I have to write more about what's needed as we begin the restoration of the USA and its foundational ideals.

The beginning is near. Are you preparing?

conuly

About their fight against the racist War on Drugs.

It includes what looks like a tea leaf emoji? Whatever sort of leaf this is, it’s not marijuana, even I know that. Maybe no emoji at all would’ve been the better call….

jesse_the_k

My favorite Apple-oriented publication celebrates 36 years and 1800 issues this month. Their well-moderated forum talk.tidbits.com provides excellent tech support for thorny issues. This week I learned about a super-cool article for us old graphic geeks:

How a poster that morphed Hokusai’s Great Wave into The Wave of the Future, showing its original woodblock changing into bitmaps then raytracing was actually created by hand, because in 1981 it would have been too expensive to do it digitally.

conuly

OMG, but ignore the dipshit in the comments.

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

( Read more... )

$radiantfracture: Gouache portrait of my face with jellyfish hat (Super Jellyfish 70s Me)$

radiantfracture

Congratulations to everyone who made the ballot for the Aurora Awards, but really mostly to Rachel A. Rosen for rocketing into three (3) (three!) (3!!) categories:

Best Novel - Blight, second book in the Sleep of Reason series
Best Short Story - “What If We Kissed While Sinking a Billionaire’s Yacht?“
Best Fan-Related Work, Wizards and Spaceships Podcast

Tribute to her excellent writing (and talking) and also to the uncrushable grit of small press publishing.

§rf§

james_davis_nicoll

GRT bus drivers will be in a position to strike on May 1. In the event of a strike, buses will not operate. The Ion will.

james_davis_nicoll

A bundle for Land of Eem, the whimsical tabletop fantasy roleplaying game of colourful characters exploring the Mucklands from Star & Flame Games and Exalted Funeral.

Bundle of Holding: Land of Eem

rebeccmeister

Well, first off, the cats woke me up super early. Thanks, cats. But on the other hand, I DID want extra time in the morning so I could zip over to the grocery co-op, so I managed as much.

The bonus vacuuming activity of the week involved vacuuming out our tatami mat futon bedframe. I'll spare you the details, but will say the end result was highly satisfactory. Along with that I changed out the flannel sheets for regular cotton bedsheets, just in time for another little cool spell.

I also managed to get the second coat of paint onto the current batch of oars on the front porch. That went very well, reinforcing my sense that I'm finally getting the hang of this whole oar painting business.

But then I ran out of time and energy to work on the sanding prep for the next two sets of oars in the basement.

Instead, I did some dishwashing and prepped a big batch of a pumpkin-cauliflower-coconut curry, and I ordered a couple of the items on the "to order" list for the rowing club.

These are all things that seemed to take far longer than they should have.

Oh, and graded some quizzes. I still have slightly more of a grading backlog than I'd like, but I'm whittling the pile down bit by bit.

I don't feel like I should feel this tired on a Monday, but on the other hand I could point to a half-dozen reasons why I AM this tired on a Monday (*glances at cats*).

But it would take time to dwell on that, and there's grading to finish.

Even though I won't let him go outside, George has been super snuggly. Martha has her moments, too.

james_davis_nicoll

Congratulations to the finalists!

2026 Aurora Award ballot announcement

The nominees are ( Read more... )

andrewducker

Would you like your mind blown?

To imagine the number of ways a standard pack of playing cards can be uniquely shuffled, follow these simple instructions:

Go to the equator with a deck of cards and start shuffling them. Shuffle them so that every second you produce a new and unique ordering of cards. Keep shuffling them over and over, a new ordering, every second, for a billion years.

At the end of a billion years take a single step forward.

Keep shuffling.

Every billion years keep taking a single step forward.

Once you have circumnavigated the Earth, take a single drop of water out of the Pacific Ocean. Keep shuffling. Keep taking a single step every billion years. Keep taking a single drop of water out of the Pacific Ocean each time you walk around the Earth.

Once the Pacific Ocean is dry, refill it and place a single piece of paper on the ground.

Keep shuffling.

Keep taking billion year steps. Keep taking a drop out of the Pacific Ocean with each return to your start point. Keep refilling the Pacific Ocean once dry. Keep building your tower of paper one sheet at a time.

Once your tower of paper is as tall as Mount Everest, throw it away and place a single grain of sand on a weighing scale.

Don't stop shuffling.

Don't stop taking a step every billion years.

Don't stop emptying the Pacific Ocean and refilling it to build an Everest of paper.

Don't stop throwing your paper tower away to place another grain of sand on your weighing scales.

On the other side of your scale is a bull elephant. When it raises off the ground you will be half way done.

To see the maths behind this, click here.

(With thanks to my brother Mike, who saw a version of this which wasn't as good, rewrote chunks of it and did the maths.)

james_davis_nicoll

Looking for more romance in your SF? Look no further...

Five Science Fictional Solutions to Finding Your One True Love

james_davis_nicoll

dinosaur_comics_feed

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=4461


archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about

this comic inspired by my dog's freeze-dried cheese treats that are just normal cheese that's been freeze-dried and honestly pretty great if you love the flavour of cheese but have always craved an added freeze-dried CRUNCH

← previous

April 20th, 2026

April 20th, 2026: MURDOCH UPDATE: she cut her paw on a zebra mussel and needed stitches :( But she's doing great and her only complaint is she's not allowed to run around at the dog park until it heals! And she has to wear a bootie over her bandage when she goes outside. Look, she's had better times but she's a trouper. <3

– Ryan

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=4461

ranunculus

We should all build bridges in our lives, metaphorically and in real terms. I was working on the latter today.

( Read more... )

shadowkat

April Question a Day Memage:

18. How often do you listen to the radio? If you do, what kind of things do you listen to (talk/pop/classical)?

I don't really listen to the radio? But if I do - it's usually music, and a mix. I have an Apple Music account - so I just download music, and its unlimited.

19. In 1934, Shirley Temple starred in her first film. Have you ever seen any of her films?

Yes. In law school during the 1990s, I had a friend who adored Shirley Temple films - so we binge watched a few of them. (I'm not a fan - Temple annoyed me. So, I suffered through them? Also saw a lot of them in the 1970s during the afternoon movie. I've suffered through Shirley Temple, Godzilla, Elvis, Frankie and Annette Beach Party, Sandra Dee, and Kurt Russell films in the 70s. The best were the Kurt Russell films. )

We didn't have cable or streaming back then - so the pickings were kind of slim?

***

Started watching From on Prime, although it's an MGM + series. It's rather good. Surprisingly so. I don't find it scary so much as...suspenseful with an air of dread? Also kind of gory, but not overly violent. It's a common enough horror trope - made rather popular in the 1950s and 60s, actually (Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits loved this trope) - in which a group of people find themselves stuck in a town or specific local, there's no way out, and monsters hunt them at night. All they have to depend on is each other - which being human beings whose default is selfish entitled stupid asshole syndrome, isn't necessarily helpful? In these series, it's really the human beings that cause all the problems. Actually that's true in most horror tales. Let's face it - the worst monster is well, us.

The setup is written rather well - or the trap. I enjoyed the first episode, and the tension didn't let up and delivered. It has some nice jump scares. Stars Harold Perrineau of LOST, except with a much bigger role - he's the lead. (Note LOST is part of this particular horror trope - and among the better entries. Where folks are stuck somewhere and keep trying to escape, yet keep finding themselves back there.)

***

Online kerfuffles

People will fight about anything online.

I joined a Gluten Free for Beginner's Site on FB, and they keep breaking out into fights on that site.
It's painful.
( Read more... )
**

Also, there are still, STILL, idiotic judgemental holier than thou kerfuffles over Spike/Buffy and the attempted sexual assault in Seeing Red. That episode happened over 25 years ago? Seriously, people. Get a grip.

**

And, sigh, political kerfuffles over literally everything you can think of.

***

I've been battling a sinus headache verging on a migraine, with vertigo lurking in the background all day long. It's made me irritable. I blame it on the weather, allergies, and neck issues. It's also made it hard to do any exercises. I just want to sit very still and pray it goes away.

It appears to be dissipating now, along with the storm clouds.

sanguinity

Intro/FAQ

My check-in: Made a continuous read-through and minor revision of the last four chapters of the longfic. It feels solid. I really, really hope my beta likes it.

Day 19:

china_shop,

sanguinity

Day 18:

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora

Day 17:

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

luzula,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora

Day 16:

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

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!

conuly

I didn't get a good look, seeing it as I did out a bus window, but did I have to? They're not that hard to identify.

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

( Read more... )

dianec42

I finished all the outlines on Art Nouveau Autumn! I then tried to start the colours and promptly did a section with the wrong shade & had to undo.

I finished the moon on Upon A Star, and started some trees on the left side. There are still 2 stars to do, once I have enough trees done to have easy reference points.

shadowkat

Finished The Pitt S2 and here's an interview with Noah Wyle, producer, writer, director and star of The Pitt (he wrote the 14th Episode). I admittedly started watching it because of Noah Wyle (well that and I have a weakness for medical dramas). Now I love most if not all the characters. It's my favorite show at the moment. The Bear is close second. The only two characters I wasn't overly fond of - left the show during S1 or are about to. So, lucky me? I'm ignoring the fandom, because it's insane and doesn't appear to understand how television works. Sigh. Online fandom has become increasingly insane and insufferable since the early 00s, which considering it wasn't exactly sane to begin with... The nerd fandom is a little less crazy but not nearly as insufferable (nerds don't tend to ship romantic pairings (or care who is with whom) and are more into debating consistency issues, such as why is Spike's reflection visible in the glass of that store, along with the nitty gritty details of how a worm hole actually works and can you really fly that that thing through space - which is much easier to deal with.) (I miss the days in which I didn't know shows like the Pitt had a fandom.)

The Pitt is not a melodrama. Even if the crazy marketing folks online keep trying to pretend it is. It's a strict medical procedural that is hyper-realism, kind of like Homicide Life on the Streets was or Law and Order, or This is Going to Hurt (except more so than that).

Anyhow it was a good season. And I found it relatable and comforting. In the interview, Wyle provides five reasons for why it works so well and how it differs from other medical dramas (I'm a medical drama fan - so have seen all of them.)

Five things that make the Pitt work so well

"“It’s a couple of things that work beautifully in concert.

1.) No music. ( Read more... )

2) Shooting it with almost exclusively 50-millimeter or 65-millimeter lenses, which is the most comparable to the human eye—and only shooting from the point of view of a human being that’s present in this space. ( Read more... )

3) Taking place in real time. ( Read more... )

4). The election went the other way,” he says with a shrug. ( Read more... )

5.) This is essentially competence porn. ( Read more... )

Note, while the article may have spoilers, the above does not, and if anything tells you whether you'd enjoy the series. It's not for everyone? I don't like criminal procedurals for example - for some of the same reasons a lot of folks don't like medical dramas.

***

I completed Grantchester S2 as well. It surprised me, and not necessarily in a good way. I thought it was swinging more towards hyper-realism than, well it actually is? At the end of the final episode of S2, ( major spoilers )

***

It was very warm this past week, but over the past three days it's cooled a bit, and we're back to spring like temperatures. It's in the 50s and upper 40s today, overcast, with a slight breeze. Rain is in the forecast.

While this did affect my health a bit, it didn't as much as usual - ie. no vertigo. Which means what I'm taking to fend off the vertigo and doing to fend it off - seems to be working? I still think it is a combination of neck and sinus issues. The neck resulting in the vestibular, the sinus resulting in the headaches.

Had troubles getting to sleep last night. Spent time before bed on social media - which probably caused it. I got triggered - and as a result, my brain wouldn't shut off. But, I found a cure finally? My Calm App - I used two separate sleep meditations which managed to calm my brain and dis-spell the onslaught of negative thoughts churned up by time wasted on the internet. Note to self - stay off the internet at night.

andrewducker

I'd been hearing talk about how good Frieren was for a while. It seemed to have come out of nowhere to instant acclaim, and to actually be about things. So a month ago, when I was looking for something to watch during the occasional 20 minutes when I get lunch alone, I thought I'd give the first episode a go. And while it didn't make me cry it came very close, and it had an atmosphere I hadn't encountered anywhere else, so I was completely grabbed from the beginning, and now that I've finished the first season I feel somewhat bereft.

It is, in background, a bunch of totally standard fantasy tropes. But it does something interesting with them, which is to base itself after the point most stories end. This is the story of what happens to Frieren, an immortal* elven mage, after her adventuring party defeat The Demon King. And how she lives in a world where the friends she makes live much shorter lives than her, how she connects with the people around her, and what she does when she realises that this matters to her.

There is plot, and action**, but mostly not that much of it. The point is the people, and watching them orbit each other, learn from each other, or completely fail to. The characters are interesting, and I love feeling that there is much more to most of them than is obvious on the surface. I particularly loved the first few episodes, which set everything up, but even once we get past past these in to the ongoing arc*** I have found myself looking forward to the next episode more than in almost any TV I've seen in the last decade.

I suspect some people will get put off by some of the tropes, both the ones taken straight from fantasy/roleplaying and the ones that are stock anime conventions. But I could happily look past those and enjoy the meat of the show, which was excellent. I eagerly await season 2. The only nervousness I have is that the original manga has been on hiatus since October, and the creators have clearly struggled with the production schedule, so I don't know whether it will ever be completed. But, frankly, it's not (at this point) the kind of show where I need an ending, I'm delighted just to be along for the ride.

* It is not clear how long elves live. But it is clearly at least thousands of years.
** And when it happens it is gorgeously animated
*** I'm not sure it's a plot, as such. Things are happening, but I'm not convinced that it's going somewhere in particular more than it is just following characters around to see what they get up to.

james_davis_nicoll

A stalwart trader sets out to recover a lost probe on behalf of feeble space giants.

Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement

conuly

The important thing is they have to be accessible, beginner-level poems for people who don't "get" poetry in English (or, perhaps, in any language).

Though I will say now what I only sort of suggested then, which is that I've never thought the point of reading anything is to understand it all. Sometimes it's enough to enjoy it, even if you miss a thing or ten. (This may be why I know so many Shakespeare quotes - from the age of six onwards I made repeated dives into our big copy of his collected works, and you know for sure I did not understand Elizabethan English at that age!)

mellowtigger

As I warned about yesterday, winter is not yet done with Minneapolis.

Here's the view out of the patio door at the front of my house this morning. We have sub-freezing temperatures forecast for tomorrow morning too.

P.S. I wanted to mention somewhere that while I was digging with a shovel in the front yard yesterday, a lady from next door (public housing unit) stopped to thank me. "For what," I asked, genuinely confused. "For the air conditioner and the whistle," she said. I replied while smiling, "Oh, sure!" Not very eloquent, but I'm not exactly the master of human interactions. When I finally ordered a new smaller air conditioner unit last spring that would fit properly in my bedroom window, I offered the older/bigger unit to them for free, so it wouldn't go unused. Plus, they got one of foeclan's 3d-printed whistles when I delivered notes to my neighbors back in January.

andrewducker

1. Uruguay has the only stable, successful South American economy. Why is that?: (tags:history economics SouthAmerica video )
2. Europe doesn't care about the UK - we're deluded: (tags:UK Europe doom )
3. China's Humanoid Robots Are Now as Fast as Usain Bolt: (tags:china robots running )

rebeccmeister

Because Cat News is the Best News.

Here's a carpenter bee that got stuck on the front porch on Thursday:

The cats were quite interested in it.

Watch on YouTube

I released the bee back outside shortly after this video, and it flew off.

Part of the reason George is keen for Catio time is that he loves hunting and chasing things out there. Here he is with his favorite stick:

This video can give you a sense about how much he LOVES to chase this stick, except imagine this video is about 10 times as long and the chasing and pouncing are even more ferociously cute:

Watch on YouTube

In fact, he loves his stick so much that when I tossed it into the basement to try and get him to go back indoors, he jumped back through the catio door into the basement, and, well, see for yourself:

Watch on YouTube

Hilariously, if I keep George out of the catio and just let Martha out, she loves the exact same stick game. I think they like being able to chase and pounce on the grass since it's softer than many of our indoor surfaces.

Meanwhile, here's the part of the catio where George has been making his more recent escapes:

I tried wedging those pieces of wood between the pole and the side of the house, but (a) they're going to fall out, and (b) George just climbed up onto that window ledge on the side of the porch and then climbed over all my handiwork.

So that whole corner is just going to need to get redone, but that isn't something I'm going to manage to get to right now. But clearly it's something that needs to get done, based on how much the cats appreciate their outdoors time.

ranunculus

Yesterday Chena went from her usual interactive, happy self to the picture of an unwell dog. She was wobbly on her feet, flinched away from people and really, really didn't want to be touched. She lay down in the living room around 9am and hardly moved until 4pm. Not interested in food or drink. I almost took her to the emergency vet last night, but it looked like she was beginning to be a little more alert, so waited. At 3am she consented to lapping a little water. At 7 am she zoomed out the front door and began barking noisily at Mr Raven who was sitting on the power pole. Happily ate breakfast and slurped up water. Charged up Fairview Hill running happily next to the car. She happily rooted around in the leaf litter where the fallen limbs had been, using her nose like a pig. She was following the scent of a vole. My only guess is that somehow she got into some marijuana and spent the day yesterday extremely stoned. 1 gummy would have done it, but WHERE would she get such a thing? Whatever the case I'm glad she has gotten back to normal.

Profile

flwyd

TrevorStone.org

April 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 2026

Page Summary

elainegrey - (evening writing)
shadowkat - (no subject)
grrlpup - Wednesday reading
xkcd_feed - Border Message
rebeccmeister - *pauses to inhale* [status, work]
james_davis_nicoll - Bundle of Holding: Voidrunner's Codex
dinosaur_comics_feed - t-rex in: mistakes were made
james_davis_nicoll - O Maidens in Your Savage Season, volume 2 by Mari Okada & Nao Emoto
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 22-04-2026
conuly - Protagonist has just met up with his estranged mother, who left him as a baby
ranunculus - Haircut
radiantfracture - Kubla Khan as epic
shadowkat - This that and the other thingamagig
sanguinity - Write Every Day: Day 21
james_davis_nicoll - The deadline for the bundle is pretty short this year
james_davis_nicoll - Hugo Finalist Votes 2022 - 2026
james_davis_nicoll - 2026 Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Award Finalists
adrian_turtle - movie recommendations
james_davis_nicoll - The Queen of Air and Darkness and Other Stories by Poul Anderson
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 21-04-2026
xkcd_feed - Types of Board Game
shadowkat - Dispatches...
sanguinity - Write Every Day: Day 20
mellowtigger - a hodgepodge for Moody Monday
conuly - The ACLU sent me a text
jesse_the_k - boost: Hand-drawn Digital Artwork
conuly - So I saw this nifty video on harp music notation
radiantfracture - Congratulations! (Aurora Awards)
james_davis_nicoll - Potential disruption to GRT buses
james_davis_nicoll - Bundle of Holding: Land of Eem
rebeccmeister - When Sundays go slightly sideways [status, housekeepery, projects]
james_davis_nicoll - 2026 Aurora Award ballot announcement
andrewducker - It's amazing how high a number you can get to with a deck of cards!
james_davis_nicoll - Five Science Fictional Solutions to Finding Your One True Love
james_davis_nicoll - Lou Zocchi 1935 - 2026
dinosaur_comics_feed - good girl, bad Bertrand Russell
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 20-04-2026
ranunculus - Bridge Building
shadowkat - (no subject)
sanguinity - Write Every Day: Day 19
conuly - I saw a red-winged blackbird!
dianec42 - Did some stitching
shadowkat - The Pitt and a few other things...
andrewducker - Frieren: Beyond Journey's End: A review
james_davis_nicoll - Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
conuly - This person is looking for English-language poems and poetry collection recs
mellowtigger - yup. snow.
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 19-04-2026
rebeccmeister - Cat news [cats]
ranunculus - Chena

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Thursday, April 23rd, 2026 02:04 am

Dreams With Words

Network

Page Summary

Expand Cut Tags