alexseanchai | Network

1. I want to not have a headache. I need better health.
2. I want AO3 to not be down for maintenance right now. I need entertainment when I have pain and dysfunction.
3. I want to not have to worry about whether I’m communicating clearly enough to overcome other people’s bad—faith takes and will to misunderstand me. I want people who disregard how much I hurt or how tired I am to have to put up or shut up.
4. I want Mom to stop smoking. I need to worry less about her and it not reassuring at all that she has to be on blood thinners bc she won’t give up nicotine.
5. I want to have a fancy TENS unit that can give my body sensations to a doctor ( @or other third parties) for the purpose of getting them to believe me about medical bullshit.

metafilter_feed

Posted by Lemkin

https://www.metafilter.com/209441/US-Festival

"The US Generation is an in-depth look at one of the most influential music festivals of all time. The film is directed by award-winning filmmaker Glenn Aveni. Us Generation blends rare concert footage and insightful interviews with both organizers and performers."

https://www.metafilter.com/209441/US-Festival

metafilter_feed

Posted by clawsoon

https://www.metafilter.com/209440/I-traded-my-lucrative-career-as-a-mortgage-broker

to shepherd goats.

https://www.metafilter.com/209440/I-traded-my-lucrative-career-as-a-mortgage-broker

questionable_content_feed

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5606

Easy poeasy

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5606

metafilter_feed

Posted by clavdivs

https://www.metafilter.com/209439/planning-my-getaway

'Here I Am', Craig Wasson. (slyt) Wasson relates a story about John Houseman while filming the movie 'Ghost Story'.
"John Houseman would ask me to walk with him from the set back to the hotel. Every day he would say to me [does a flawless John Houseman imitation]:I need to take my constitution. Will you please walk with me?
And I would walk with him."
From: 'A Less Then Perfect Guy'

https://www.metafilter.com/209439/planning-my-getaway

mific posting in

drawesome

Congrats to those who took part in this challenge!

drawing of a group of smiling, diverse people holding up the pride flag, and smaller asexual and bisexual pennants. Two women are kissing. Text at right says: Pride - Drawesome Challenge 71.

drawing of a group of smiling, diverse people holding up the pride flag, and smaller asexual and bisexual pennants. Two women are kissing. Text at right says: Pride - Drawesome Challenge 71.

Entries submitted for Drawing Challenge #71 - Pride:

Caeneus/Riddy sketch by mekare - Kaos, G
Show Your Colours by mific - Stargate Atlantis, G
Jim by goss - Our Flag Means Death, G
Joan and Meredith by mific - Stargate Atlantis, G
Goodbye Kiss by mekare - Star Trek: Discovery, G

As usual, this challenge as well as all of our previous challenges will remain open, so you can continue to submit entries to the community any time after the Round Up date. Be sure to tag your art post with the challenge name, so that it can be added to the list.

Thanks to all who participated in this challenge! :)

lightbird

Many thanks to

brightknightie who put this on my radar!

Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month. Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.

Creative Prompt: Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want (an image, an icon, a story, a poem, or a craft) and share it with your community.. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Getting the serious stuff -- and the huge elephant in the room -- out of the way, I'm trying to just keep living my life while The Sword Of Damocles hangs over my head (a feeling many of us are sharing no doubt). I'm continuing to take enjoyment wherever I can, helping where I can. I'm very concerned about the amount of people that are and will be experiencing food insecurity, so I've been and will continue to donate to a couple of local groups in my neighborhood: one serves hot meals, both at their facility and delivering to homebound, and the other distributes packaged food and sundries in the park every Saturday. And of course I'm donating to orgs like the ACLU who continue to do great work. Looking for other ways I can help.

Starting on July 14, I will be attending Karen Attiah's "Race, Media and International Affairs 101" class. She used to teach the class at Columbia, but they cancelled it because DEI (eyeroll). She took a survey on Bluesky to see if people would be interested in attending it as an independent series on Zoom and there was overwhelming interest. She's posted information on the class here (she's calling it Resistance Summer School). Summer session filled up, so she was offering a Fall session too and not sure if that has filled up yet. There's different pricing tiers and depending on which tier you choose there are certain perks. It looks to be a really interesting and informative class, so I'm looking forward to it.

I'll be continuing to swim and work out and do my best to stay fit. And reading. Lots and lots of reading, both serious stuff and light-hearted poolside.

On the creative side, I've taken up needlepoint and completed my first project. I started small, with a bookmark, and while the result is kind of sad (and the backing that came with the kit didn't fit the canvas well so I had to cut, and I have issues cutting in a straight line), it's not bad for a first try. And at least I chose a cute pattern. I'll be continuing to try different canvases.

( not quite a masterpiece under the cut )

I also wrote a story for

intoabar, which I got some nice feedback on:

Title: Serendipity
Author: lightbird
Prompt: Fa Mulan goes into a bar and meets... Toph Beifong (Avatar: The Last Airbender)!
Fandoms: Mulan (1998), Avatar: The Last Airbender
Word count: 872
Rating: T
Summary: When she walked into the tea shop, she immediately recognized the girl sitting at the table...

And I'm already working on another story, which I hope to finish this summer.

metafilter_feed

Posted by dfm500

https://www.metafilter.com/209438/Is-it-live-or-is-is-Memorex

Five steps to determine if a "Jackson Pollock" really is a Jackson Pollock Forensic scientist Thiago Piwowarczyk and art historian Jeffrey Taylor PhD examine a purported Jackson Pollock painting and use their expertise to determine if the painting is legitimate or a forgery.

via Wired, SLYT

https://www.metafilter.com/209438/Is-it-live-or-is-is-Memorex

dorchadas

Current sitting on the train waiting for it to leave. I was just having a discussion with people about how America's train network is bad, and to be fair a lot of it is extremely bad (if you're not a freight container), but at least in Chicago I can take the L from my home downtown, take the bus from the L stop to the train station--well, I could have, I walked--and then take the train from Chicago out to the suburbs to visit my family. Not owning a car saves our family quite a lot of money, which is good considering how much we spend on health care even with good insurance.

The weather continues to be awful. Today it's 31°C (feels like 36°) with 81% humidity, about the temperature it's been all week and the temperature it's going to be until Monday. We kept getting threats of a thunderstorm and it kept not happening, except for maybe a few drops of rain here and there. On Sunday, Laila had a make-up swimming lesson and literally right before I was going to leave, I checked my phone and there was a warning about a massive thunderstorm sweeping through with winds up to 45 mph, possible tree branch falls, and a note to seek shelter immediately and not to go outside. I broke the news to Laila, who had been eagerly shouting about going swimming, and she got quiet and walked over to her room. When I asked her if she wanted me to hang out with her in room or read her a story, she looked up at me, said, "No" and shut the door.

She ended up taking an angry nap. I told that to the other dads at the Jewish dads meeting I went to and they were very impressed--one said it was a better way of dealing with her frustration than they managed sometimes.

It turned out that we did not get anything more than a few raindrops, but that's because the rain went north of us. Ravinia got multiple inches in an hour.

Train's moving. Time to get back to reading.

Current Mood: hot
Current Music: Kygo - Out of This Town (feat. Sasha Alex Sloan)

osprey_archer

As always on my birthday, I am having my annual birthday sale. This year, since I’m planning to raise prices post-sale ($3.99 for a novella, $5.99 for a novel), I decided to put everything on sale for one big final blow-out. So currently all my novellas are $0.99, and all my novels are $2.99.

Do you like Cold War spies falling in love on an American road trip, even though they're from opposite sides of the Iron Curtain? Then give Honeytrap a try!

If a Civil War soldier woke up from an enchanted sleep in 1965, how long would it take for him to cotton on that men are no longer allowed to touch? Find out in The Sleeping Soldier!

Are you interested in an m/m World War II retelling of Beauty and the Beast? Then Briarley may be for you!

How about a couple of boys riding the rails and falling in love during the Great Depression? Tramps and Vagabonds has your back.

Do you like watching post-World War I woobies suffer beautifully by the seaside? The Larks Still Bravely Singing may be warbling your name.

More Cold War spies, but this time CHRISTMAS! Deck the Halls with Secret Agents is a holly jolly short return to a favorite theme.

Do you like throuples and World War II and retellings of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? Then A Garter as a Lesser Gift may be coming to a Green Chapel near you.

Do you like throuples and pining and strawberry shortcake in post-Civil War America? Then give The Threefold Tie a try.

Do you want Cold War spies (again!), but this time they're the leads in the fandom that our two heroines are obsessed with? And kind of role-play as while trying out the joys of "your interpretation of this character is so incorrect" hatesex? Enemies to Lovers is calling your name.

You know it is when there's this new girl in school that you're sooo obsessed with because you both love art, and then you have an obsessive friendship ending in a terrible falling out, and then meet again years later in Florence? Have a gelato with Ashlin and Olivia.

And finally, a couple of oddballs. A retelling of Little Red Riding Hood in pre-Revolutionary Russia! Kind of f/f if you want to be! The Wolf and the Girl features forays both into the Russian forest and the nascent French silent film industry.

Last but not least, if your inner eleven-year-old yearns for a magical timeslip story, there's The Time Traveling Popcorn Ball

metafilter_feed

Posted by girlmightlive

https://www.metafilter.com/209437/34-trillion-debt

House Republicans pass Trump's megabill, sending the package to his desk to be signed

https://www.metafilter.com/209437/34-trillion-debt

dorchadas

Yesterday, after binging it over the course of a week and a half, I went to a discussion about チ。―地球の運動について― (chi. chikyū no undō ni tsuite, "Orb: On the movements of the Earth"), a series about the progress toward the Copernican Revolution, and talked about it for an hour and a half. Summary: ★★★★★

Discussion below spoils the entire show:
( Orbpilled )

( Notes I took while watching )

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Elliot Berger - Diamond Sky (feat. Laura Brehm)

svgurl

fairytalebingo, a flash event inspired by fairy tales, mythology, legends, fables, etc, is open for sign-ups.

fluffyjuly is a daily fluff themed prompt event running through July.

fandom-free-bingo is running Virtues & Vices Edition. Sign-ups will close on July 31st.

sunshine_revival is active through the month of July! There will be 7 challenges, one posted every four days. There is also a Friending Meme.

allbingo is running Winterfest in July. There are both pre-made bingo cards or you can create your own based on the available prompts.

allbingo is also running a Western Bingo Fest. Premade cards and the option to make one yourself are both available here as well.

littleblackdressex, a fic/art/podfic exchange based on works about your "little black dress" character (the one you feel goes with everything/you multiship), is open for sign-ups until July 6th, 11:59PM EDT. Nominations have also been reopened.

battleshipex, an event where you join a team and race to clear a board of targets by creating fanworks, has opened sign-ups until July 9th or until they reach 280 sign-ups. Nominations are also still open.

narniaexchange, a Chronicles of Narnia fic exchange, is open for sign-ups until July 11th.

no_true_pair has opened sign-ups for their No True Crossover Event, where you sign up with four different fandoms and use the posted prompts that uses all the fandoms in different combinations, and you create works using those randomly made crossovers.

fancake's theme of the month is: working together. Click on the banner below to find out more!

Photograph with added text: Working Together, at Fancake. Workers in India use wide wooden paddles with long handles to shove a huge yard of drying grains into big piles. The grain, most likely rice, is a beautiful golden color, and there's a mix of western and traditional clothing among the seven men and women.

lexin

My doctors have been in touch and I have an appointment with Scary Mary next week. So they will be looking at my feet.

The weird thing is that the podiatrist's poking at my big toe was completely painless. That is not a good sign.

Crossposts: https://lexin.insanejournal.com/325093.html

maggie33

We have a heatwave here, but a short one thankfully. It should be back to normal 23°C tomorrow. I spent the whole day today eating ice cream, drinking water and watching cute things to distract myself from that exhausting heat.

Seeing new pics from Q3 of Only Friends Dream On shooting helped, too. But wow, Aou, have mercy on me. There is hot enough here as it is, even without you being all bad boy DJ in a see-through shirt. 😊

The Ex-Morning

7th episode aired today, and surprisingly for me I’m enjoying this drama more and more with each new episode.

More with spoilers here.

Mix’s cameo as a vet! And he looked gorgeous, I can’t wait for Only Friends Dream On.

Also, wow, they made me sympathize with Phi. Yeah, what Tam did was shitty. I knew he had to have a reason for breaking up with Phi by sms, and then blocking him everywhere and not talking to him for years. But his reason absolutely doesn’t justify his behavior IMO. Couldn’t he just talk with Phi honestly? I fricking hate ‘I’m breaking up with you for your own good’ trope.

Speaking of cameos – I really, really hope we’ll get Boom’s cameo in the last episodes as a current or future boyfriend of Aou’s character. GMMTV lately loves to do that with their fixed ships, if only one half of a ship is in a drama. Till now we had Force’s cameo in Only Boo, Sea’s cameo in Sweet Tooth Good Dentist, and New’s in Break Up Service.

The Next Prince

I’m getting bored. I thought I would love this drama, but something is not working for me. Prince/his loyal bodyguard is my kind of ship, I feel like I should love Khanin/Charan, and yet I basically lost all interest in them. I blame the script, it’s just not good. Pacing is bad, too. For a long time I felt like almost nothing really was happening story wise. Also where is Ava? She disappeared completely lately.

I still am very much invested in Ramil/Paytai, their relationship is my kind of complicated and angsty and hot, and for them I will watch it to the end. But yeah, for me this drama definitely didn’t live up to my expectations.

I also started MilkLove’s new GL drama Whale Store xoxo. Two episodes aired for now and I liked them. Milk looks so beautiful that I spent the first half of the 1st episode just staring and sighing ‘she’s soooo gorgeous’ in an awed voice. Heh... The drama itself is cute and enjoyable, and perfect for relaxing on Wednesday evenings.

And yay, I did manage to finish something, too, finally. Two dramas, actually. One was the 2nd season of Tengu no Daidokoro. I loved it. It was as good and beautiful, and touching as the 1st season. And all the food porn made me so hungry at the most inopportune times, like for instance after 9 p.m. 😊

I also watched a short kdrama on Netflix called Mercy For None. I did enjoy it, but it was very brutal, dark and bloody, so it took me a while to watch all of it, even though it has only 7 episodes. It got a bit repetitive in the second half, but it satisfied my love for complicated and obsessive sibling relationships. And the fights were excellent.

It’s about an ex-gangster Nam Gi Jun who left the underworld in dramatic circumstances 11 years ago. And now he returns to uncover the truth about the mysterious death of his beloved younger brother (who in present time was the second in command in Gi Jun’s former gang). And to ruthlessly take revenge on people responsible.

I haven’t seen So Ji Sub, who plays Gi Jun, in anything before. And he is very good here. Very charismatic in that tortured, brooding and silent type of way. And it was great to see Lee Jun Hyuk playing someone so different from his green flag character in Love Scout. Here he guest stars in a few episodes as Gi Jun’s younger brother Gi Seok.

forestofglory

It's that time again! More thoughts on media:

The Truth Season 3 case 8 (I think, the numbering is confusing now)— this case featured Chinese style horror, and it was very creepy but in a fun way. I also enjoyed the earthly 20th inspired costumes

I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming— I’m writing about this even though I didn’t finish it because I think some of you might enjoy this. The first bit was really fun! The main character is a wildlife biology PhD student, who when she finds herself on an alien planet is upset that it's full of dinosaurs all from different time periods from each other! (Very relatable really) The book has a very fun voice. Unfortunately it ends up becoming too much sex for me.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh— A Korean inspired fantasy YA novel about a girl who chooses to sacrifice herself in place of the designated Sea God’s Bride and enters a spirit world full of mythical beings and complex politics. (I read this even though the mom is dead, and really there’s no narrative reason for it) This was lovely and very atmospheric, though the ending left me a little dissatisfied. (Content Note: Infant death)

Painted Devils by Margaret Owen— Second book in the Little Thieves trilogy. Very fun and twisty in a similar way to the 1st book.

Kpop Demon Hunters — It's an animated movie about a kpop girl band that are magical girl-sque demon hunters, there's lot of musical numbers.A Koren friend of mine described it as “an American movie set in Korea” and I think that’s spot on. She specifically complained about how the worldbuiling/theology feels too christian. It doesn't fully work through the consequences of all the violence but the flight scenes are very swooshy and fun, and I liked the themes a lot. I also really liked the female friendship aspect.

metafilter_feed

Posted by chavenet

https://www.metafilter.com/209436/Some-people-could-hold-both-the-serious-and-humorous-some-could-not

The day before I had been walking out of a coffee shop with my family. I tapped my pockets in panic. Phew! my phone was there. I told them we had reached a level of twitching and compulsion around these devices, and one day we'd need a something to ease the cravings and help us detox. "For 60 years, heroin addicts have been given methadone to do this. For us, maybe it would be something called methaphone."

MetaFilter thought of this name first! Eleven years ago! But then deleted the evidence for being a Kickstarter project. [Kickstarter rejected this new version, twice.]

https://www.metafilter.com/209436/Some-people-could-hold-both-the-serious-and-humorous-some-could-not

svgurl

Challenge #1:

Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month. Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.

Goals for July:
-write and complete at least one fic (writing more non-exchange fics has been a constant goal and I am hoping to get there)
-read three books (I keep checking books out but I need to actually finish them and find the motivation to read again)

Goals for the rest of the year
-get more organized (a constant struggle)
-try something new (vague but it's easier when it's broad)
-make more solid traveling plans
-try to write a little very day (I'm hoping consistent habits will be good for me)

Creative Prompt: Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want (an image, an icon, a story, a poem, or a craft) and share it with your community

I made 5 summer-y icons.

purplecat

We had a "free" day in Cusco, but there were some suggestions of activities that our guide could organise for us. Two other people in the group were interested in seeing the Moray Ruins and the Salt Mines of Maras and we were happy to tag along and make the excursion cheaper.

Moray was the first Inca Plant laboratory we encountered. As noted previously, it wasn't quite clear to us why it earned the status of laboratory.

( Pictures under the Cut )

The Salt Mines are not actually mines, but a salt extraction plant that predates the arrival of the Spanish and which are still worked today. Mineral rich water from the mountains comes in and fills clay lined pools. The water then evaporates and the salt is collected. They are owned by 300 families and there were people working them - flattening the clay lining - when we visited. I bought salt.

( Photos under the Cut )

aurumcalendula

Any idea if the Arrow Video 4K bluray of The Long Kiss Goodnight has color grading closer to the original DVD release or the older blu-ray? I'm thinking about getting (once I check my blu-ray player's specs, but if it doesn't look like the DVD release I'll pass on it (imho the earlier blu-ray omitted color grading from scenes and gave everything a kinda washed out look like the Bourne films).

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let me hear your voice tonight

Never Unmindful

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Page Summary

flamingsword - 5 wants 5 needs
metafilter_feed - US Festival
metafilter_feed - I traded my lucrative career as a mortgage broker
questionable_content_feed - A Simple Resolution
metafilter_feed - "planning my getaway"
mific in drawesome - Admin Post: Drawing Challenge #71 (Pride!) - Round-Up Post
lightbird - sunshine_revival Challenge #1
metafilter_feed - Is it live or is is Memorex?
dorchadas - Train, train, take me away
osprey_archer - Birthday Sale
metafilter_feed - $3.4 trillion debt
dorchadas - Based and Orbpilled
svgurl - current fandom events
lexin - Feet
maggie33 - This and that (but mostly drama watching)
forestofglory - Meida Round Up: Girls and Demons
metafilter_feed - Some people could hold both the serious and humorous, some could not
svgurl - sunshine revival challenge #1
purplecat - Moray and the Salt Mines of Maras
aurumcalendula - (no subject)

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Page generated Jul. 4th, 2025 09:15 am

if you trust your rebel heart, ride it into battle

don't be afraid, take the road less traveled

Network

5 wants 5 needs

US Festival

I traded my lucrative career as a mortgage broker

A Simple Resolution

"planning my getaway"

Admin Post: Drawing Challenge #71 (Pride!) - Round-Up Post

sunshine_revival Challenge #1

Is it live or is is Memorex?

Train, train, take me away

Birthday Sale

$3.4 trillion debt

Based and Orbpilled

current fandom events

Feet

This and that (but mostly drama watching)

Meida Round Up: Girls and Demons

Some people could hold both the serious and humorous, some could not

sunshine revival challenge #1

Moray and the Salt Mines of Maras

(no subject)

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December 2024

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