femalepresentingnipples

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

Not a bad week, though not nearly as productive as it should have been. (I know -- I shouldn't should myself. But still, some stuff needs to get done.) I have noticed that my brain doesn't distinguish well between work and health-care-related stuff like appointments. And to be fair there have been a lot of those. Explanation, not excuse.

Part of the problem may be that writing and music aren't getting done because they're prioritized behind tax and other business paperwork, email, phone calls, and similar unpleasant and sometimes difficult things. So while I'm "busy" not doing those, the more pleasant things aren't getting done either.

I did walk six out of the seven days last week, so there's that. And I got (laptop)Lilac configured to the point of being usable on extended trips. (See Tuesday.) That's probably worth a curmudgeon post at some point -- it involved setting up an encrypted directory tree, and installing a DongleHider+ to put the (Logitech)mouse and (Lenovo)keyboard dongles on the same expansion slot.

From Monday, A Boy And His Atom: The World's Smallest Movie. From Tuesday, Geneva's CERN takes antiprotons for a spin in a never-before-tried test (there has to be a country music filk in there somewhere). Also, did you know there's a Socks Wiki?

( Notes & links, as usual )

Current Mood: annoyed with myself
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: not much; see post

marcicat

My ficticious husband just showed up at my office party?!?, by KizuKatana

So Wei Ying had started out by simply saying ‘sorry, I’m taken’ when anyone asked him out.

He hadn’t really been expecting to have to expand on it with follow up questions that he got asked like: ‘Is it serious? What do they do for work? Do they live in town? How did you meet? What are they like?’

And… ok, Wei Ying could admit in retrospect that he might have gone a little bit too far.

lb_lee

Rogan:

hungryghosts nerd-sniped me with, of course, multi etymology! Specifically, an anthology that looked like it might contradict my previous posts on the history of the use of "system" in plural space!, Richard P. Kluft was the editor; it's Childhood Antecedents of Multiple Personality from 1985!

( Interestingly enough, Kluft himself never uses the term in the book! He might've picked it up from other writers in this book, maybe? Would have to read more of his work to be sure, which... I am in no hurry to do. )

Current Mood: geeky
Crossposts: https://lb-lee.insanejournal.com/25749.html

erinptah

Clearing out some nice links:

Mastodon poll (now closed, but please enjoy the results): “Pick the best fallacy“

Interview with Rachel Manija Brown, writer turned bookstore owner: “I had never intended to open a bookshop. I always thought it was one of those idle daydreams that people who love reading and books have. I never planned to actually do it because I didn’t think it would be successful—they frequently go out of business. But after I moved to Crestline, which is a very small town in the California mountains, the little town did not have a bookshop.”

The promised official postmortem of the AO3 downtime in early March 2026 from AO3_Systems is out! (I added that link to my earlier post about the downtime.)

Speaking of AO3…I checked the backlog on some fandom tags where I hadn’t seen updates for a while because their RSS feeds glitched, and now my To Read list has ballooned by +9 pages.

Art process:

Watching a video on iconic DC writer/artist Darwyn Cooke, which led me to an interview with this quote:

“I don’t work in a formal fashion — I don’t sit and type a full script and then draw it. What I do is I plot it. And then I sit down and draw it and then I write the dialogue afterwards.”

Oh, hey, that’s what I do.

Pretty sure I’ve never heard anyone else describe making comics this way. Maybe they just won’t admit to it, because Having A Script is seen as the “professional” way to do things? But nobody could accuse Darwyn Cooke of not being a professional — and here he is, revealing this is the process that works for him.

Vindication, hah.

Cat news: The fluff has also survived his latest vet visit!

This went so much smoother than it used to in his younger years. He didn’t struggle at all once he was in the carrier, allowed the vet to pick him up and carry him to a different room for shots, and didn’t pee on anything (or anyone).

I hope that means on some level he’s internalized “the scary trip doesn’t last too long, you’ll be home safe soon, just hold very still and wait for it to be over.”

musesfool

I know I owe comment replies and I am going to get to them. The intermittent internet situation this week made me very reluctant as it would drop and I'd lose track of what I was planning to say by the time it came back etc. But! My new modem and router arrived yesterday and early this afternoon, I hooked them up. It worked, though at first I was like, what is happening? Because you do all this waiting for the modem to boot up and activate and then the first thing the router instructions say is "reboot your modem" and I'm like "are you for real? I literally just activated it!" but I did it and plugged everything in and it worked briefly! And then the router started blinking and my phone told me I had no internet and I was like WTF? Because it could 100% be an outside the apartment problem, or it could be a cabling problem because I did not swap out the coaxial cables - why would I do that? They are all nice and tight and the splitter is connected and I have had no issues with my cable box. So I unplugged everything and then plugged it back in and went to the Spectrum website to activate everything and it told me I had nothing ot activate, everything was working! And it has been so far! I will keep the old equipment for a couple of days, just in case, and bring it back to the Spectrum store midweek, probably.

After that adventure, I baked these whipped shortbread cookies (pic). I did not separate into lemon vanilla/orange chocolate. Instead, I used 1 tsp of almond extract in place of the citrus zest, and added chocolate sprinkles once they were piped but before they were refrigerated.

I've mentioned this before, but I am trying to replicate a childhood favorite cookie from an old Italian bakery that closed long before I even moved out of Ozone Park. They were not kept with the fancy butter cookies but with the S-cookies and the biscotti and the anginetti, and they had a much crumblier/drier texture than the typical Italian bakery butter cookies (you know the ones, either dipped in chocolate on one end or sandwiched with apricot or raspberry jam etc.). they were piped round and a slightly darker brown than the butter cookies too. And they were my absolute favorites. I've never found them at another bakery either.

I've tried a few Italian butter cookie recipes but none were quite right (though the one from Dolci was pretty close!), and then last week on thee second or third day of the pecan shortbread, I was like, this is the texture! And almost the taste, but the pecans obviously made the flavor different, though they do have almond extract in them (almond extract is the smell of Italian bakeries to me). So I googled to see if there was a chocolate sprinkle shortbread recipe out there, and found the one I linked above, and they also seemed like they'd be close. So after checking to make sure I wouldn't leave myself out of butter if I made them (I had another pound way in the back of the fridge), I got to baking. I think these also need a little longer in the oven, but we'll see how they taste tomorrow - I think that will be the test. but I think I'm getting close!

*

Current Mood: surprised
Current Music: Mets winning in extra innings over the Pirates!!!

delphi

Fandom 50 #6

Continuing my list of fifty Canadian songs I love from the past fifty years, 1982 is just a good old-fashioned banger.

Your Daddy Don't Know by Toronto

Watch on YouTube

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #7022 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 35 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1003.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

case posting in

fandomsecrets

[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #1004 ]

The first secret from this batch will be posted on April 4th.

RULES:
1. One secret link per comment.
2. 750x750 px or smaller.
3. Link directly to the image.

More details on how to send a secret in!

Optional: If you would like your secret's fandom to be noted in the main post along with the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret. If your secret makes the fandom obvious, there's no need to do this. If your fandom is obscure, you should probably tell me what it is.

Optional #2: If you would like WARNINGS (such as spoilers or common triggers -- list of some common ones here) to be noted in the main post before the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret.

Optional #3: If you would like a transcript to be posted along with your secret, put it along with the link in the comment!

shadowkat

Another day, another dollar - or several dollars - hence the reason I got up at 6 am, got on the subway around 7 am, and lugged my sorry old ass to the tip of Manhattan and the eighteenth floor of a steel and glass building to work. My thirty-odd years in NYC has resulted in jumping between all sorts of office buildings and in just about every borough but Staten Island. (Which is good thing, because I'm not entirely sure how I'd commute to Staten Island from where I live?) I finally made into an office with a window and a few, and some semblance of privacy, it's still a cubicle - but at least it's a nice one.

Political Interactions on Threads or social media (that is not Dreamwidth), which is why I'm rarely on Threads? It makes me wish there were a lot more Darwin Awards.
( humorous if it wasn't true, which alas it is, so...anxiety inducing right now, humorous about 30-50 years from now, assuming of course anyone is still alive and we've not destroyed ourselves yet? )

Shower. Bed. I'll write more another day, hopefully not about politics.

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #7021 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

All spoiler warning/content warning stuff today!

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1001.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

musesfool

I made it through this work week unscathed! I logged off last night at 4:45 and took a 2 hour nap where I slept like a rock, got up, watched The Pitt (more on that below) and went to bed and again slept hard. This weekend could not have come at a better time! ;)

In other news, I am sure you have all see this, but in case you haven't: Himesh Patel joins the Ryan Coogler X-Files Reboot. Danielle Deadwyler was already on board. I am seated and ready! Though it will probably be several years before it premieres (if it doesn't get shitcanned the way the Buffy revival did).

My impression - not based on anything except how it's described in that article - is that this is more of a sequel than a reboot? Like a reopening of the X-Files several years later? But I could be wrong. It could be a straight up reboot. I am curious, though, how it will go, especially after we've had Fringe and, more recently, Evil treading similar ground.

As for The Pitt: ( spoilers )

And now I am just going to hit post while I still have an internet connection. The router has been worse today than ever before. I guess it knows its replacement is sitting five feet away, ready to be installed tomorrow.

*

Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: Stampede - Genesis Owusu

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3225/

We're working to make sure the images are as up-to-date and accurate as possible, with a minimum number of sponsored galaxies.

https://xkcd.com/3225/

lb_lee

Someone I knew from my North Texas days, Meagan Morris, is one of the folks arrested in the Prairieland debacle, which I only just learned about. She is facing minimum ten years in prison (as a trans woman, in Texas) for... I can’t even figure out what exactly she’s supposed to have done!

I’ve been on an antifa watchlist since before COVID because I went to a protest wielding a sign covered in penises and got quoted by USA Today. I guess I’m a terrorist now.

I’ll be at the protest tomorrow. Fuck this bullshit.

EDIT: okay, as far as I can tell, Meagan was convicted for going to an anti-ICE protest (“riot”), helping others there (“providing material support to terrorists,” now that Trump has declared antifascists terrorists), and using fireworks there (“use and carry an explosive” and “conspiracy to use and carry an explosive”).

She is facing 10-60 years in prison as a trans woman for being an antifascist and having fireworks. That’s terrorism now. That’s hitting people I KNOW. (Or knew.) This is where I used to LIVE.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

Crossposts: https://lb-lee.insanejournal.com/25563.html

marcicat

I feel ancient and slightly like I'm in some bizarre alternate reality any time someone in a work meeting earnestly explains that something is trending on tiktok and therefore we should care about it. But also social media trend fics are very funny to me when I'm very tired, what can I say?

Questions to ask your Husband when he is busy and/or tired, by CalmStorm

Shane - 7:41am
Can we get back to the issue here. I have no idea what I was supposed to do tonight.

Hayden - 7:42am
Idk just make it up

Shane - 7:42am
But won’t he know?

Hayden - 7:43am
If he doesn’t know what he needs to wear I’m sure he’ll survive a surprise.

shadowkat

Dang-nabbit, internet, is persuading me to buy books again. (I really do not need to buy any more books. Although at least they are e-books - which is either a lease to read it on the Kindle, so not really buying ...I don't know, the whole thing confuses me to no end. And I can't afford a Kindle and a Kobo. Plus buying books on Kindle is easy and cheap, so there's that and I get points. )

1. I bought Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Safron - about a boy in late 1940s Barcelona or post WWII Barcelona who is charged with protecting a book, long out of print, and rare - from the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. The Book in question is also entitled "Shadow of the Wind". Thank you Sarah Michelle Gellar for perking my curiosity enough for me to purchase this book. Much appreciated. (She said in an interview broadcast on Instagram that her two favorite books were Donna Tartt's Secret History (which I loved and devoured in the 1990s) and Shadow of the Wind (so I got curious about Shadow of the Wind - which Stephen King also adored). The book is difficult to describe with a convoluted plot - I apparently like to read and write these types of books, which makes my life more difficult but far less dull.

Then grabbed, "Locked-In by John Scalzi" - which I'd flirted with previously, as when he first published it ages ago, but got persuaded when he posted that a bunch of people in Texas (it's always one of the Southern States - must be all those hot days? Bakes the brain?) had chosen to ban it. He was upset about it. (I'd have been too.) Apparently it's never happened to him before. (which is interesting - he's certainly liberal and political enough). So, I got curious - and decided to get it for $6.99.
Which is admittedly more than usual, but there you go. It's a sci-fi/mystery hybrid with a convoluted plot. Has a Black Mirror vibe to it. I've read a couple of his "stand alone" books: Red Shirts, Starter Villain, Kaijiu Preservation Society...the last two were read by Will Wheaton. Scalzi is a nerdy sci-fi writer, and usually has nerdy protagonists. He's kind of similar to Andy Weir? Except I like Weir's books slightly better.

As an aside? I'm fundamentally against censorship. Are there books that I despise? Yes. Do I think they should be censored? No. The challenge of "free speech" is folks you don't agree with have to have it too - in order for it to work. There were librarians commenting on Scalzi's post stating they sent out books they despised all the time.
( thoughts on book censorship )
And finally a Dark London Mystery/Romance Series novel entitled Winterblaze by Kristen Callihan which was $1.99,
and a second chance romance between an estranged married couple, in a paranormal verse. "Poppy Lane is keeping secrets. Her powerful gift has earned her membership in the Society for the Suppression of Supernaturals, but she must keep both her ability and her alliance with the Society from her husband, Winston. Yet when Winston is brutally attacked by a werewolf, Poppy’s secrets are revealed, leaving Winston’s trust in her as broken as his body. Now Poppy will do anything to win back his affections." The second chance ex-lover trope is a huge kink of mine. (I prefer older romances to young ones...for the most part.)

I love books. Books are my friends. They've seen me through some tough times.

Coworker: Are you one of those people who always has a book in your hand or with you?
ME: Definitely

If I had to choose between books, television and movies - I'd probably pick books - easier to carry around and less noisy.

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #7020 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 08 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1001.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

mdlbear

Today I am thankful for...

A safe trip home (Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning).
Finding out from my urologist yesterday that my bladder appears to be fully operational. NO thanks for my pelvic floor needing more exercise. I hate exercise.
x2x (1) and ssh (1), letting you share your keyboard and mouse seamlessly between two linux boxes.
Enough space in the kitchen area for two recycling bins.
A plethora of chargers with known locations, that I can lay hands on if I need one. (I also have a plethora of corresponding cables, but I don't know where all of them are.)

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag

marcicat

VERY pleased to announce that I SLEPT last night, and this morning I have EATEN FOOD and I also DRANK LIQUIDS. These three things are all a huge improvement over yesterday!

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3224/

Yes, the cosmic microwave background is great, but what about the earthly microwave foreground?

https://xkcd.com/3224/

shadowkat

I've a bunch of doves, sparrows, cardinals, and robins, also pigeons, tweeting in the backyards behind my building. My living room windows look out on a bunch of tree tops - so I see the birds, along with an occasional squirrel in them. I've debated buying a bird feeder - but I've no idea how I'd attach it to the back of a window without killing myself in the process. And it's not really necessary? They perch on my wide window sill all on their own.

***

I finished, Illona Andrews' The Inheritance (Breach-World Series #1) - which is a survival/adventure story not a romance, and if you are at all familiar with the writer - is most likely within the Innkeeper and Bayou world-building, it has similar characters and a similar tone/writing style to those two series, albeit without the romantic elements.

The book is hard to describe? There's a lot of world-building. And it has a convoluted plot. But I'll take a crack at it? ( description of book I just read, without any major spoilers ) So this is definitely not a romance novel - it's a science-fiction survival story and what the heck happened investigation, which is a huge story kink of mine. I love stuff like this. Mystery/Survival/Sci-Fi Hybrids are my favorite. (Also reminds me a little bit of a video game.)

It's the first book - I sped through in a while. So fingers crossed that the reading slump from hell has ended? Not wishing to tempt fate, I'm trying an earlier series by the writers - The Kinsman Series - which has two novellas, a short story, and a book length book involved in it. I don't know - but it appears to be more along the lines of romance fantasy or romance sci-fi, which isn't really my thing? But it might work. Who knows? At least the writers write strong female characters for the most part. Also the books are dirt cheap. The first ebook was $4.99, and the other was free on Kindle Unlimited.

***

Flirting with the television series Succession - which I'm told gets really good after the third or fourth episode, and takes off in the sixth episode. This is unfortunately true of a lot of television series? Particularly HBO series that fall under the category of hyper-realism.
Also flirting with the c-drama, Pursuit of Jade - of which there are 40 episodes on Netflix, it's in Mandarin with subtitles, and is...very pretty on the eyes? Honestly the cinematography is amazing for a television series. It's a historical action/adventure romance. I may continue - it's pretty and kind of relaxing to watch? Considering I have subtitles or closed captioning on half the time anyhow...not sure it matters? I have more issues with it for animated series. Mainly because it's hard to see the close captioning through the animation - they have a tendency to put it in white.

***

Catching up on March Question a Day Meme:

23. When was the last time you ate some chocolate?

About an hour and fifteen minutes ago. It's my main vice. And I'm not giving it up.

24. Harry Houdini was born today in 1874. Are you a fan of magic shows? Have you ever seen someone perform close-up magic?

Depends on the magic show? For the most part I enjoy them? But I also know some of the tricks?

Yes, more than once. I was even pulled into the act once on a girl scout retreat with my father when I was roughly speaking 10 years of age?( Read more... )

25. How often do you wash your hair? Do you style it, or just let it dry naturally?

Just did. But typically every other day, and sometimes every two days, depending on what I'm doing and usually at night.( Read more... )

Rini

Done Since 2026-03-22

fic rec Sunday

I Still Say MPD Multis Don't Own "System"

Nice links roundup + Darwyn Cooke + More cat news

his talent is unlimited

Post and Jam: Your Daddy Don't Know by Toronto (1982)

[ SECRET POST #7022 ]

[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #1004 ]

(no subject)

[ SECRET POST #7021 ]

Time to start a riot, where you at

Satellite Pollution

Meagan Morris

fic rec Friday

Sigh, I acquire more books...now that reading slump is gone

[ SECRET POST #7020 ]

Thankful Thursday

cautiously optimistic

Centimeter Wavelengths

Wed Book Meme...

Profile

February 2025

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags