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daily

Daily Check-In

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Sunday, August 31, to midnight on Monday, September 1 (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #33558 Daily check-in poll

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 1

How are you doing?

I am OK
1 (100.0%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now
0 (0.0%)

I could use some help
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single
0 (0.0%)

One other person
0 (0.0%)

More than one other person
1 (100.0%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

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In an industrializing fantasy setting with a horribly oppressed labor class, a lesbian highwaywoman seeks her revenge. Reading this was roughly like being hit over the head, so much was happening. It was quite satisfying and the whole hung together, but it picked up and abandoned complete genres as it went. I'm not sure its politics fully held together, but it sure was a ride.

Where the Axe is Buried, by Ray Nayler:

A revolution brews in a world where the West is ruled by AI Prime Ministers and the Federation is ruled by the President, who maintains his grip on power by transferring his mind to new bodies. Very meaty, though no individual idea was especially novel, it was put together in a satisfying way. I liked solving the puzzle of who was pulling the strings and the larger plot, but despite its ostensible focus on systems, it is very much a Great Man type of story. Really enjoyed!

The City in Glass, by Nghi Vo:

The story of a demon who loves a city, told over centuries. A beautiful read, but not too much substance. Well, it was still satisfying as a story of grief and moving on, but because of how brief each described snapshot is, it felt less substantial than it ought to have? I enjoyed this, but found it forgettable.

Semiosis, by Sue Burke:

Pacifist colonists escape the war and ecological disaster on Earth for a distant planet, and the story of the colony and the alien life they encounter is told by one character per generation for seven generations. The science is pretty bad and not consistent: if no Earth plants/animals can survive, why are humans the exception? Why not try to bring some samples over? And then after all the detail about how the biochemistry is different... it's similar enough that they are largely affected by drugs the same way. I also wish it dug more into the difficulties of pacifism or how specific culture is (the prohibition on eating the dead is not universal even on Earth...). Basically, while the story itself was satisfying and I really enjoyed the conceit of the generations passing, I wish it were more than it was.
PS: If you're worried about reproduction on the new planet and only have frozen ova/sperm for reproductive technology, why not have way more woman colonists in gen one?
Spoiler CW: there was two paragraphs of on screen rape that came out of nowhere

Gauguin (game): A sudoku like game that I enjoyed for being a bit tricky to figure out. I was searching for puzzle-y games to play while nursing, and went through several similar type games (Tents and Trees, Star Battle) for being too easy... I wanted to like Cosmic Express or Mini Metro for this, but they require too much movement during gameplay. Games like Two Dots and Candy Crush get a little too same-y since they aren't solvable the same way, and games like Rummikub and Azul are too solvable when played against the computer. Basically, I'm too picky, and I fear the end result of this is that I really need to get into Tsumego...

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第四年第二百三十五天

部首
口 parts 15-20
呢, final particle; 周, a circuit/a week; 味, taste/smell; 呼, to call/to breathe; 命, life/fate; 咋, colloquial version of 怎么; 和, and/peace; 咖, coffee; 咩, baa; 咬, to bite; 咱, inclusive I/we; 咳, to cough; 咸, salty; 咽, to swallow; 品, article/goods; 哇, wow; 哈, haha; 响, echo/to ring
( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=30

语法
把 object particle
https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/ba-ten-minutes/
是...的
https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/shi4-de/
把 (again)
https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/ba-structure-usage-basics/

词汇
衣架, clothes stand; 衬衣, shirt; 上衣, jacket
一切, everything; 一方面, on the one hand; 进一步, go a step further; 另一方面, on the other hand
已, already; 早已, long ago
以来, (ever) since
艺术, art
意外, accident; 意义, significance; 生意, business; 同意, agree; 主意, idea; 注意, be careful
( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-3-word-list/

玩玩
A variety show episode about Changzhou, hanzi, and my ouxiang Chao Yuen Ren, featuring Zhou Shen among others.

大家过得怎么样？在这儿热得不行，只有吃吃桃子看看棒球忍住。

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Guest Challenge: Greek Myth: Fanfic: Trauma Shared

Title: Trauma Shared
Fandom: Greek Myth (post-Odyssey, post-Oresteia)
Characters: pre-Telemachus/Orestes
Rating: G
Length: 844
Summary: "I don’t think it's madness to hurt when you're been through something awful." / Telemachus and Orestes have too much in common.

( Read more... )

Two letters in the same column

Link

1. Dear Care and Feeding,

My husband and I have an 8-year-old daughter, “Amanda.” Amanda loves to sing, but if I’m honest, her voice is awful. I’ve learned to tolerate it. But my husband tells her to stop every time she sings in his presence, and it hurts her feelings. In response to my telling him as much, he says her singing is like fingernails on a chalkboard, so he shouldn’t be expected to “endure” it. When I suggested we get her some singing lessons, he said he didn’t want to “waste money on a lost cause.” Should I sign her up anyway?

—Vocally Challenged

( Read more... )

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

2. Dear Care and Feeding,

My parents divorced when I was 13. Within a year, my dad married my stepmom, who had a son who was 2 at the time, and a little over a year later, they had my half-sister, “Anna.” Anna’s birthday was two weeks ago, and I bought her a Nintendo Switch 2 (I discussed it with my dad and stepmom ahead of time, and they agreed to it).

The problem is that Anna’s half-brother, “Jacob,” has more or less appropriated it for himself, and Anna has called me up saying she has been able to use it all of three times since I gave it to her.

Jacob has literally taken it for himself—as in it’s in his room and Anna can’t access it. My dad and stepmom seem to think this is perfectly acceptable and have made no effort to make Jacob return it to Anna. I wouldn’t have a problem if Anna were sharing it with Jacob, but I didn’t buy the gaming system for it to be given over to him. I am ready to ask my dad and stepmom to either make him return it to Anna or reimburse me for the cost of it so I can buy her a new one. Thoughts?

—Confiscated Console

( Read more... )

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rl-thingslearned

Things learned in August

August was... pretty much a bust. I didn't write down anything until this week. I could remember ten things by the end, better than nothing. I also learned a lot of work-related things that I had to leave out of the list anyway.

( 10 things, some history, some Wu Lei-related things )

And while I'm at it, a youtube channel I found this month that does fun science experiments: https://www.youtube.com/@JaDroppingScience - I have learned a few things from it so far, but I guess pointing you to the channel makes more sense than reiterating everything I've learned from them. :D

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(no subject)

a fic/writing meme stolen from

rionaleonhart:

Ask me whether I’ve written a thing (ship, trope, dynamic, category of fandom, etc.) and if I’ve written it, I’ll link you. If I haven’t written it, I’ll tell you how I would write it if I did.

Have at! xD I will probably talk about whatever you ask about regardless of whether or not I've written it, in the vein of "here are thoughts I have about [X thing]", so feel free to ask even if you know I've written [X thing].

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fandom: mcu (marvel cinematic universe)

My Khepri amulet is in my other pants

I've been sitting on this fic for far too long and at this point it is melting out of my eyes. Hopefully posting it will give me back brain power.

Coming Forth by Day (24977 words) by sevenofspade
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Black Panther (Marvel Movies), Ancient Egyptian Religion
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Erik Killmonger & Shuri
Characters: Shuri (Marvel), Erik Killmonger, Bastet (Ancient Egyptian), Set (Ancient Egyptian), Tanit (Carthaginian Religion & Lore)
Additional Tags: written before Wakanda Forever, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary:
Shuri and the others don't go to the Jabari following Killmonger's murder of T'Challa, and the gods take a more active role.

This fic was started shortly after the first Black panther movie came out and I have ignored all MCU canon since. Nothing but the movie and myths, babey!

This fic is, to me, "Shuri vs the gods of pre-dynastic Egypt", but that's not entirely accurate. The existence of Bast is attested since at least the IVth dynasty (Old Kingdom). I thought it was prior to Narmer's unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, but I can no longer find the source. I've chosen to interpret this, in the context of the MCU, as meaning she was brought there by Wakandans.

Additionally, predynastic Egypt has kings known as Scorpion, Double Falcon and Crocodile, a list of names in which "Black Panther" would fit perfectly.

Seth dates back to Naqada III (predynastic Egypt), Neith to the Irst dynasty (Thinite period), as does Khnoum.

I have also chosen to use the French names of the gods because I'm French ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The gods of Ancient Egypt, with very rare exceptions, are associated with one or more animals. These animals are all real and known animals.

Except for the sha, Seth's animal.

There are several theories as to what animal the sha is meant to be. The one I most believe in and have chosen to use for this fic -- under the name "seteshin" is that it is a (sub-)species of canid, gone extinct in Ancient times, as happened to Ovis longipes palaeo-aegyptiacus, itself linked to Khnoum.

I'm sure I'll close this window and be reminded of something I meant to say, but alas I have a headache and must away.

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prompt: #457 - guilt

[Challenge #457: Guilt] The Iliad: First Smile

Title: First Smile
Fandom: The Iliad
Characters/Ship: past Achilles/Patroclus, (pre?) Achilles/Antilochus
Rating: PG

( Read more... )

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cooking,
recipes

Culinary

This week's bread: loaf of Dove's Farm Organic Seedhouse Bread Flour, v nice.

Saturday breakfast rolls: brown toasted pinenut, strong brown flour, possibly rather too many in the way of pinenuts.

Today's lunch: halibut fillets, panfried (the packet possible exaggerated cooking time), served with samphire sauce; with La Ratte potatoes roasted in goose fat, baked San Marzano tomatoes, and Boston beans roasted in pumpkin seed oil with fennel seeds and splashed with gooseberry vinegar (a bit too al dente, not sure if this was innate or due to inadequate cooking time/temperature).

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Pimp: Fandom Gift Basket 2025

For anyone interested, my basket is HERE. (I asked for fic/art in several fandoms: 9-1-1, Hudson & Rex, MCU, Murder She Wrote, and Terminator (Genisys/Dark Fate)).

Sign-ups are open through Sept 5, so if you want to sign-up there is still time! Go HERE.

Dates and links are in the Sticky Post.

I plan on going through the baskets, but if you'd like to link to yours here, please do so!

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And September 1st (in some time zones) has arrived!

Sign-ups: Sept 1 - Sept 14 - Any sign ups that are in my inbox before I log in on September 15th will be honored.

Creation period: Sept 15 - October 15
* If you observe a holiday that limits your access to time to create, please add the number of days given to your holidays either before or after the creation period. For instance, if using devices is off the table for three days inside the official period, tally your efforts on three OTHER days prior to the event, or after.
* This may be taken advantage of up to 7 days before or after. Scout's honor here.

Discussion posts: Strongly encouraged. ANYONE may post a discussion post at any time.
* The discussion posts do not close; join them as you are able
* I highly encourage people to not only talk about their process, progress, and potential issues, but to respond to others. Let's rebuild a community.

Time/Effort Check-in posts: September 25, October 5th, and October 15th
* This will be scouts' honor. I will put the post up, and you will tell me how much progress you made on your goal during the week.
* Those who had to take extra time to adjust for holidays, just add your totals to the date closest to when you tally your 10th day.

Leaders tallied: No later than Oct 28
* This date was chosen to give room for the 7 extra days for those that needed it and for my scheduling.

Click here for the Time and Creative Effort Tiers to choose from

Time Creating Tiers

Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3
15 minutes/day	30 minutes/day	60 minutes/day
Averaged Over a Week	Averaged Over a Week	Averaged Over a Week

Creative Efforts Tiers

Art	Craft	Podfic	Vidding	Writing
Tier 1	Tier 1	Tier 1	Tier 1	Tier 1
Completed sketch(es) that is(/are) the equivalent of a comic page (pencil lines and basic background)	A simple project completed	A completed podfic (or combo) of at least 5 minutes	A completed vid(s) at least 1 min up to 2 min	3,000 words (fic or meta)
Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2
Completed colored piece(s) that is(/are) the equivalent of a comic page (flat colors, details in background or main composition)	A moderate project completed	A completed podfic (or combo) of at least 30 minutes	A completed vid(s) at least 2 minutes up to 6 min	15,000 words (fic or meta)
Tier 3	Tier 3	Tier 3	Tier 3	Tier 3
Completed artwork(s) that is(/are) the equivalent of a comic page (all shading, details completed/fully rendered)	An expert project completed	A completed podfic (or combo) of at least 60 minutes	A completed vid(s) over 6 minutes	30,000 words (fic or meta)

Any Questions? Concerns? Comments? PLEASE drop them in the comments here.

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📝 weeknotes (aug 24-30, 2025)

Is it still a weeknotes if I write massive amounts of text? All the other ones I’ve seen are shorter and more list-heavy. Well, whatever.

📩 Writing this from Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, with one kitty sleeping behind me on a heated blanket and the other two dozing in the homeowner’s bedroom (one on the bed, one under it). I have the back door open and it’s great weather, mid-60s and sunny– though my writing desk corner is shaded most of the day, which makes it easier to see the screen. I can see the garden from my desk, and so far have chased off the groundhog twice from breaking in and stealing tomatoes. I have on a new-to-me merino wool sweater on that I got from a thrift store a few weeks ago for like $7, which is my favorite shade of purple: a deep wine color. It’s soft and doesn’t itch like most wool things. The WALL-E soundtrack is playing as background noise.

Life Updates

The first half of the week was spent in a semi-sick state– not actually ill, but just bleh feeling, compounded by too much computer use tbh. I finally forced myself outside on Thursday and went walking around, and found a MASSIVE burdock just at the edge of someone’s yard which inexplicably cheered me up.

🐈‍⬛ The cats have been total sweeties this week (despite one day when a cat threw up his breakfast in 3 places, and another one left a poo just outside the litter box) and keep sitting on my lap/near me– compared to where we were at the start of this sit, when they were so nervous they hid under a bet all day, this is great! But of course I’m leaving in a few days and now all I can think about is how much I’ll miss them. 🙁

The only thing that solves that problem is going to another catsit, and luckily I have another one lined up right after this one.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

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tv: the middleman

Media signal boosts

Two wildly different media signal boosts:

--The Murderbot & More Humble Bundle is available for almost two more weeks! (I already have all but one ebook in there, so I'm not pouncing personally, but it's a great collection!)

--Via a couple of people, Javier Grillo-Marxuach recently shared on Bluesky that The Middleman is now streaming on Archive.org. (This is probably my definitive answer to the classic "what canceled show would you revive if you could?" question, although at this point it's not really "revive" so much as "magically keep from being canceled in the first place so it could've just carried on". This show deserved so much more--or at the bare minimum, to have had its season 1 finale actually filmed, while in this timeline 12/13 episodes were filmed. Like. Come ON, studios.)

latest spinning WIP

Two singles; will ply them tomorrow, I expect. Assuming no plying/finishing disasters, this will go to

niqaeli. ♥

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School/Midnight Challenge: Sherlock (BBC): Fanfic: The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Title: The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (BBC)
Rating: G
Length: 423 words
Summary: Victor Trevor has asked John Watson for assistance with their plan

( When Victor had asked him )

On Silver Shores by VT Hoang

On Silver Shores by VT Hoang was absolutely amazing! Detective Carver and analyst Jian investigate rebel werewolves together.

Here's to 5 more books on my to-read list, as the 6 novels of this exceptional urban fantasy saga were released within 6 months! The writing style is beautiful, the worldbuilding is complex and the characters are giving me intense feels.

The author is a Vietnamese trans man. Carver is a Black male half-siren. To be specific, all sirens are biologically female, Carver got his Y chromosome from his human father and is biologically intersex. He also has Severance Syndrome (a supernatural disability). Jian is Sino-Vietnamese and suffers from PTSD. There's major m/m, minor f/m/nb and a sapphic character.

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Book reaction: It Was Her House First (Cherie Priest)

I just finished reading Cherie Priest's It Was Her House First. It's a really good book and I highly recommend it. It's a haunted house book set in the Seattle area, centered around the ghost of a silent film era actress and her house, now badly in need of restoration. It's got an interesting twist that I've never seen before in a haunted house story, but I can't really say anything else without spoiling it. I hope you give it a shot, and I hope you enjoy it.

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Weekly proof of life: reading, A1C, and weather

Reading:

scruloose and I finished listening to Rogue Protocol! Here's hoping future installments listened to via Hoopla don't have the weird audio glitches that this one did. I think we're probably going to go with chronological order rather than publication order, and if so, I think that gives us two more novellas before the novel. I suspect I'll lean toward not having an audiobook on the go during the fall crunch at Dayjob, but hopefully we can get at least one novella in before that starts up.

I finished These Burning Stars (Bethany Jacobs) and found it more engrossing than I'd expected at first, but I don't feel a need to rush out and read the second book. (Given how this book was constructed, my guess is that the second will be a fairly different experience? But I don't actually know that.) I also read Stephen Graham Jones' Mongrels, which I liked; there are some things I'm still a bit fuzzy on in terms of the backstory/worldbuilding, but it feels likely that that was a deliberate choice.

Current fiction: The Future of Another Timeline, which I think is my first Annalee Newitz book.

Non-fiction: I've been doing some more cookbook reading, and I'm still reading Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World, and I've now also got Goblin Mode: How to Get Cozy, Embrace Imperfection, and Thrive in the Muck (McKayla Coyle) on the go. Given that my non-fiction intake is generally quite low, this is...well, a whole lot. I'm not getting the feeling that I'll actually take much away from Goblin Mode, but it's kinda fun, so I'm pressing on with it.

Meat-puppetry: I got my first A1C test since April, and got a 5.8 result. (After a 5.9 in April and a 5.8 in December.)

I don't know what was different about how the test was administered (it was even the same person who did my last one, I'm 99% sure), but that was a couple of days ago and my fingertip still hurts a bit (it's improving steadily, so I don't think anything is wrong-wrong) and was very faintly bruised. O_o Dunno what's up with that, but hopefully it increases the odds that next time I'll remember to ask them to use the side of a finger, not the pad. I need that!

Weathering: The province overall is still too dry. Our region got a very respectable rainfall early last week (? It's a bit of a blur), but the area with a major wildfire got almost nothing from that weather system. What we got was nowhere near enough to properly refill the water reservoirs, and Halifax Water reports that they've noticed very little change in water consumption since they started asked residents to voluntarily conserve water (I've seen multiple people mention seeing their neighbors out watering their fucking lawns), so it's possible mandatory restrictions will be rolled out. (Unless something's changed drastically overnight; I haven't checked Bluesky yet today, which is where I get nearly all of my local info.) People are allowed in the woods again in this area, though.

>.< Naturally, it appears that golf courses are officially exempt from the "STOP WATERING YOUR GRASS" requests.

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sweat and water and Singapore and food

Sometimes I feel like I am the only person in the world who fills up on water, however temporarily.

Right now, I'm sitting at a table with an entire bottle of sparkling water, and I'm not going to manage to drink it all in one sitting.

Singapore has been beautiful, but also tiring and hot. I have mostly stayed in the hotel, where my room has an absolutely ridiculous view. With the exception of today, when I went out to meet a friend and we walked through 30C heat-and-humidity, fit to broil me in sweat. I was sincerely slick across the skin by the time we reached the place we were going to lunch.

I'm happy to report that Singapore isn't entirely given over to the modern, flash, and fancy. In a little street of restaurants and bars, we found a place that doesnt look like it's changed its decor since the eighties. And I don't mean bright and tawdry neon; I mean lino floors, melamine tables, and the old 'Chinese' paintings and ideographs on the walls, framed beneath glass.

Chin-Chin runs a brisk and cheap business with an extremely simple menu - the height of the 'if you're good at it, ride that train all the way down'. That said, most westerners wouldn't dare eat there for fear of food poisoning - it's got that look about it. Although honestly those places generally have the best food. We had a meal for two, it was filling, and it cost about the same as one meal would have cost elsewhere. Which, on this street where the buildings look like they were built during Singapore's early years of colonisation by the British - complete with wooden shutters - probably means they own the shop and space outright. Because the rent on that street would be absolutely RUINOUS.

Granted, to get there, we had to emerge from the modern, flash, and fancy shopping centres that...sincerely? Look like something straight ouf the Australian 00s (possibly the American 90s) - bling and lights and colours and EVERYTHING IS FOR SALE.

UGH.

Anyway, it's been an excellent couple of days. Even if I've been battling this damned virus. That, or the air-conditioners are drying out my throat something ferocious.

Tomorrow, I wake early and fly to Hong Kong where I will be seeing my half-brother and the niecelets.

And dealing with Dad, who I suspect has an "offer" of a business proposition.

And I am busily reminding myself it is not up to children to fulfil their parents' dreams.