alexseanchai | Reading

Sometimes necklaces come together quickly but very often it's a trial and error process. So I decided to share a recent evening trying to come up with a necklace for a pendant I've had for a while. It was one of a pair on clearance and they were intended for bracelets but I decided to try and use them anyway.

I decided to run this pendant horizontally and was first trying to find beads that might match it. It was a problem because none of my beads fit the blue exactly, many of them either verging into green or aqua blue shades. ( Read more... )

yourlibrarian posting in

common_nature

One of my friends left us in San Francisco, while the other one and I drove down to L.A. We passed a lot of nice sights during our crossing of the CA-152 West. Some were entertaining, such as all the garlic farms in Gilroy advertising things like garlic ice cream and garlic honey (also 10 avocados for $1!) Some were just pretty. One was the San Luis reservoir, which was huge.

( Read more... )

conuly

Detectives from the vice squad
with weary sadistic eyes
spotting fairies.
Degenerates,
some folks say.

But God, Nature,
or somebody
made them that way.

Police lady or Lesbian
over there?
Where?

********

This poem is brought to you by the NYHS exhibit on The Gay Harlem Renaissance, which you should definitely see if you're in the city. They have pay-as-you-wish admission every Friday from 5 - 8.

Also, I'm incrementing my Robert Moses counter up but only a little, because it was a complaint embedded in an exhibit about somebody else, but it was at the NYHS, so it doesn't really count. So it has now been one day since the last Robert Moses mention, but only kinda.

prisca posting in

fandom_empire

It's Saturday, and there's still about a day left until the end of week 5. Posting for week five officially ends Sunday, October 12 17.00 UTC. There is a grace period until the week is finally called 'closed'.

We have nine participants so far, and four completed bingo lines = four blackout cards. One participant finished a free bingo. In the team challenge, we already have for participants for this week..

Scores will be updated on Sunday after this week ends.

umadoshi

scruloose and I have our covid/flu shots booked for next weekend! There were earlier slots available, but not in walking distance. It'll take us right to the little corner market, and next weekend is its final day for the season. Convenient!

We finished season 1 of Silo a couple nights ago. (I've been intermittently earwormed with its OP theme music, which is fortunately a good piece, but I still would rather not have it [or anything else] stuck in my head.) That was a very solid season finale. Now to decide if we want to immediately go to season 2 or watch something else first/alongside. (Can anyone tell me, without spoilers, a] how much of the book[s] season 1 covers, and/or b] if the show is finished or if a third season is expected/hoped for?)

I went along for the drive when

scruloose ran a few errands this morning: a purchase return, two stops for local produce (blueberries, cranberries, broccoli, and a giant sweet potato; no luck getting baking apples), and picking up an order of Thanksgiving baked goods from Sully & Porter (née the Old Apothecary). We are now in possession of six adorably tiny tarts (half pumpkin, half lemon meringue) and six hefty cookies that I hope will freeze reasonably well so that they can be eked out.

Tomorrow evening will probably be when we throw together a Thanksgiving dinner of ham*, cranberry sauce, and some mix of roasted veggies. I consulted How to Cook Everything on the matter of the ham, and it gives an oven temperature and an estimated cook time and basically says "heat until hot, then eat", and it doesn't get much simpler than that.

*The most token little ham! I'm not actually sure how much I'll like it, as ham was never my thing growing up, so we didn't want a huge one to swamp us with leftovers. We'll see! I know it's possible for me to enjoy ham, as we've been to a couple of group meals where I did. (I can think of one here and one in Toronto, so the hams in question were cooked by two very different friends.)

Current Mood: okay

goodbyebird

+ Interview With The Vampire had me nervous about the shift in setting and tone, but the season 3 trailer has me extremely hyped! I only watched it once as I want to avoid soaking up too many details up front, but toe-curling excitement!!

+ Finished Alien Earth and enjoyed it for the most part. They did the alien dirty though. And that ending sure cheated me out of a bit of satisfaction; Somebody owes me a horrid death scene.

Got screengrabs from the pilot up on

capshare this morning.

+ They announced a new Rey and Leia book at NYCC, by Madeleine Roux. Please please please be good 🙏

+ I'm hopefully getting my Covid booster sometime next week, and I also talked my mom into getting it. Now to get to work on my friend group 💪 Maybe shoot them this article. Light and easy read, but very clear on the benefits of keeping the boosters going.

The new research also “calls into question the idea that younger individuals and those without risk factors don’t need the vaccine,” Viswanathan says. Instead the data show that, while the shot is most effective for older individuals and those with comorbidities, “it was also protective in those without risk factors,” she says.

Additionally, Viswanathan says that the study design made the evidence “more compelling” because the authors included enough women and younger individuals, which made the results more balanced and provided a fuller picture of vaccine effectiveness for all cohorts.

+ Some good news on that front: Scientists finally reveal bio-markers of long COVID brain fog.

Current Music: Soda Blonde - Live And Let Down

oursin

Doesn't appear to be online yet, but apparently, according to piece in Guardian Saturday, there is this horrid new trend for people to outsource chatting up to chatbots - I immediately thought CyberCyrano, because there were not a few instances when after meeting up with the silver-tongued smoothie who had been romancing them, what was discovered was a tongue-tied ditherer.

Like, I'm pretty sure there used to be guides to useful lines of chat, but this is taking it to a new level, where at points it seemed like you had chatbots pitching their woo to one another....

***

Also o tempora, though I wonder whether this is in fact a new pattern at all: report on crime in London - apparently crime central is actually Knightsbridge, at least for luxury watch, handbag and jewellery theft. Because that's where they are.

***

But good news about tortoises: Baby giant tortoises thrive in Seychelles after first successful artificial incubation.

samuraiter posting in

prompt_dump

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stonepicnicking_okapi posting in

drabble_zone

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james_davis_nicoll

Comments with naked urls will be deleted, as they break Recent Comments. To post links, follow the advice below.

marycatelli posting in

books

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, Vol. 5 by Grrr

Spoilers ahead for the earlier volumes.

( Read more... )

marycatelli posting in

book_love

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, Vol. 5 by Grrr

Spoilers ahead for the earlier volumes.

( Read more... )

badly_knitted posting in

drabble_zone

This week's challenge is:

I Know That

Reminder of Rules

Entries should be 100, 200, or 300 words exactly, excluding titles and headers.
Please place the body of your entry behind a cut.
Tag with the appropriate Challenge, Fandom, Type, and Ratings tags. If a tag for your fandom doesn't exist, leave a request on the Tag Request post and I'll create the tags you need. You can request as many fandom tags as you want.
You don't need to use the challenge word or phrase in your drabble, though you can if you like.
Each challenge ends when the new challenge is posted, but if you're a few days late that's still fine.

NEW RULE: DOUBLE AND TRIPLE DRABBLES ARE ALSO ACCEPTED ;)

Have fun!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

james_davis_nicoll

13 works new to me. Four fantasy, two horror, one non-fiction, one thriller, and five SF, of which at least three are series.

Books Received, October 4 to October 10

Poll #33712 Books Received, October 4 to October 10

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

View Respondents

Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

The Seed of Destruction by Rick Campbell (July 2026)
0 (0.0%)

Uncivil Guard by Foster Chamberlin (November 2025)
6 (22.2%)

Crawlspace by Adam Christopher (March 2026)
4 (14.8%)

The Girl With a Thouand Faces by Sunyi Dean (May 2026)
10 (37.0%)

Your Behavior Will Be Monitored by Justin Feinstein (April 2026)
3 (11.1%)

Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter (April 2026)
0 (0.0%)

Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim (June 2026)
11 (40.7%)

Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher (March 2026)
12 (44.4%)

Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Three edited by Stephen Kotowych (October 2025)
11 (40.7%)

Rabbit Test and Other Stories by Samantha Mills (April 2026)
8 (29.6%)

The Body by Bethany C. Morrow (February 2026)
3 (11.1%)

I’ll Watch Your Baby by Neena Viel (May 2026)
4 (14.8%)

Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward (July 2026)
5 (18.5%)

Some other option
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
21 (77.8%)

althea_valara posting in

nacramamo

I've been quiet here, mostly because

communal_creators is still going on and I've been lurking/chatting there instead. But I figured I might as well check in here with an update:

A pivot table, showing I crafted nearly 12 hours during the first 10 days of October.

A pivot table, showing I crafted nearly 12 hours during the first 10 days of October.

[Image Description: A pivot table showing I crafted nearly 12 hours in October so far, just missing one day.]

I touched eight different projects. Some of those are LARGE projects - I'm making a Central Park Hoodie and a Motion Picture Mosaic Cardi. I do not expect to be done with either any time soon, but any progress is GOOD progress.

I play in a crafting game on Ravelry called Nerdopolis, where we get themes to craft to each month. One of the themes this month is "The Games We Played" - craft something inspired by a board game you played as a child. I immediately thought of Mousetrap and thus tried to make an Victorian Mouse but the start was more fiddly than I wanted to deal with at the time, so I gave that up. I considered other patterns inspired by Mousetrap, but eventually decided to make the pair to my In the Weeds Legwarmer that I made earlier this year. My inspiration will be Hungry Hungry Hippos which has a red playing board. I need a legwarmer more than another amigurumi, so this is a good decision on my part.

I don't have any finished items that I care to show off yet. I did freehand a Final Fantasy XIV Ascian Crystal in crochet for a Nerdopolis challenge, but it only came out so-so, alas. But I'm hoping to finish some small-to-medium projects this month.

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, Carson Beckett, Radek Zelenka, Jack O'Neill, Janet Fraiser
Rating: Mature
Length: 3592
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: smilebackwards on AO3
Themes: Uncommon settings, Action/adventure, First time, Complete AU, Fusion

Summary: Atlantis Prime is the best Jaeger ever built. Of course it is, Rodney built it himself. Too bad he can’t find anyone Drift compatible to pilot it with him.

John Sheppard was one of the best Jaeger pilots the program had, until he lost his partner in a Kaiju attack off the coast of Alaska. He’s not eager to go back, but the right Drift partner might just convince him.

Reccer's Notes: There are very few Stargate Atlantis AUs set in the Pacific Rim universe, and this is an excellent one. It's in two parts, a Fanvid trailer and then the story. Rodney (with Zelenka) has repaired and re-engineered the jaeger Atlantis Prime but can't find a partner to pilot it. John's a traumatised ex-jaeger-pilot who, after Holland's death, is reluctant to return to the fray. There's romance too, as part of them becoming drift-compatible. The trailer vid is cleverly done and works well with the story - both are very much recommended.

Fanwork Links: Antarctic Drift
and the Fanvid is here
(the works are locked to AO3)

cimorene

I have been reading and skimming 1920s magazines and have not got tired of that yet. I have learned so much more about the period, and have a much firmer grip on the idiom of the time.

It was a didactic article about world literature from one of these 20s women's magazines that actually made me curious about the Arabian Nights - I didn't read the whole article, bc racism, but the brief history inspired me to read on Wikipedia. The history and background there fascinated me, and I wanted to read the translation of

The Leiden Edition, prepared by Muhsin Mahdi, [...] the only critical edition [...] to date,[48] believed to be most stylistically faithful representation of medieval Arabic versions currently available. [... It] was rendered into English by Husain Haddawy (1990).[61] This translation has been praised as 'very readable' and 'strongly recommended for anyone who wishes to taste the authentic flavour of those tales'.

It is very readable and really entertaining! In fact I've stayed awake longer than I meant to several nights this week because of wanting to finish one of the stories.

I've also realized that the... maybe not exactly subgenre; category? of Arabian fantasy is all stylistically influenced by them. That seems painfully obvious now that I've thought it, but I've never thought about it before! I have not read much of it, though, and I know there are newer fantasy novels in that setting that are not written by white people, some on my to-read list; they are possibly quite different or more diverse. But in the past (mostly childhood), I've read

Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones (1990), set in the universe of Howl's Moving Castle

The Harem of Aman Akbar by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1984)

Night's Master and Death's Master by Tanith Lee (1978-79)

Oh, Wikipedia even says on the page for the last series that it's inspired by the Thousand and One Nights. I must've seen that before I read them (it was only like five years ago maybe) and forgotten.

marcicat

The time for the autumnal furniture rearrangement has arrived! Late this year, compared to last year, but weather is weird. Last weekend was HOT, and I was wearing shorts, and Tuesday night was so hot I had the fan on with all the windows open, and then Thursday night we had a freeze warning, and I spent a good twenty minutes yesterday looking for my warmer long-sleeved shirts (still haven't found them, but they've got to be here somewhere).

Anyway, last year's post was very accurate about the furniture rearrange motivations. I have five lights in this room (that sounds like a ridiculous amount of lights, I know), and in the summer I only use two of them. One of them isn't even plugged in. (Two of them, maybe? They're decorative.) But in the darker months, it's nice to have more lights.

Also, where is my stuff? Where are my warm clothes? I have NO IDEA. If I'm going to go to all the trouble of looking through my stuff, I might as well also get the fun part of moving it around some.

Perhaps MOST IMPORTANTLY it provides excellent enrichment for the cat! She usually chooses not to participate in the actual moving, but enjoys checking out the new arrangement once I've figured it out. And I have a chance to find at least SOME of the toys she's stashed under/behind things over the last six months or so.

$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

mdlbear

If you've been following this blog for the last year you will have run across references to our little publishing business, HyperSpace Express (often abbreviated HSX). And you may have noticed that my housemate N has been writing a book. IT'S FINISHED!

Go take a look at The World as It Ought to Be -- Stories from a protopian future, by Naomi Rivkis.

It's protopian rather than utopian -- sixteen linked short stories about ordinary people building a world that doesn't suck.

Protopia (n.) A world that is not perfect, but is getting better; one that is on the long arc toward justice, carried by human hands.

( Come visit for a while in The World As It Ought to Be: )

Buy it now from Smashwords (which has a free sample you can read online). It's also available at Kobo, Apple, and Barnes&Noble. Kindle and dead tree editions are coming in a few weeks.

Current Mood: helpful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag

oursin

Happy birthday,

carbonel!

Profile

let me hear your voice tonight

Never Unmindful

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Page generated Oct. 11th, 2025 06:37 pm

if you trust your rebel heart, ride it into battle

don't be afraid, take the road less traveled

Reading

NaCraMaMo Day 11: Process

San Luis Reservoir + Sunflowers

Cafe: 3 AM by Langston Hughes

Bingo 03.25 - Weekly Reminder Post 5

Saturday mishmash, with the second half largely food-related

Oh my.

O tempora, etc

11 October 2025: Bad Behavior

471: Carmilla: Gen

New Policy

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, Vol. 5

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, Vol. 5

Challenge # 471: I Know That

Books Received, October 4 to October 10

Althea Valara is checking in!

SGA: Antarctic Drift by smilebackwards

Reading Mahdi's Arabian Nights (1984) trans. Haddawy

IT'S TIME

Signal Boost: The World as It Ought To Be

(no subject)