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I have worked. Uh. A lot. Over the past three weeks. o_o But now it's the weekend, and I don't currently have a rewrite to work on, and March Break lies ahead; the spring crunch isn't finished, but it's on hiatus for the week, and a normal workweek is a breath of fresh air at this point. (Also I'm taking a couple of days off during it.)

Yesterday work wrapped up early enough that I had an actual evening, so I was finally able to start Butterfly Effects, the fifteenth (!) InCryptid book. ("Finally" is a bit of a stretch, I guess, since it's still the release week, but this is a Sarah-narrated book. Mostly. SARAH.)

So my hopes for the weekend are pretty much: avoid napping (I don't find naps restorative and feel groggier after than before I started); finish reading Butterfly Effects; watch this week's The Pitt and hopefully the temporarily-streaming production of The Importance of Being Earnest with

scruloose; get

scruloose to redo my undercut; and (also with

scruloose) do a second round of advance-prepping ten or so bags of the dry ingredients for my breakfast banana bread while also baking up a new batch of loaves. I think that last will also require decanting cinnamons from bags into jars, so maybe we'll manage a bit of other spice decanting/sorting while we're at it.

Current Mood: groggy

sholio

I watched it this week and enjoyed it as much as the first season if not more, since I remembered fewer of the plot specifics, and this season introduces some more of the characters I really like. It's still absolutely bonkers. If you've seen season one, you know what to expect.

( Spoilers, occasional anima/manga comparisons, vague references to future events )

james

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

rmc28

I hadn't been on the ice since last Saturday (Huskies and Women's Blues practices were all Varsity squads only, and Kodiaks practice got cancelled by the rink) but I made it to and through Warbirds practice tonight. It was so worth it. I also got my Varsity notebook from Women's Blues: every team member gets a notebook, and everyone writes a note in every teammate's notebook, and we read them before Varsity to inspire us. Mine was very sweet and I love the team very much for making me welcome.

I need to leave the house in 7.5 hours to get back to the rink for Varsity. I'm playing in alumni game 1, getting cleaned up during alumni game 2, and spending the rest of the day in the scorekeepers box with a rotating cast of some of my favourite people. The three non-alumni games will be livestreamed

14:00 Mixed 2nds (Huskies v Vikings B)
17:00 Women's Blues
20:00 Men's Blues

I also had a little art session this evening before going to the rink, making signs for my Huskies teammates. The sign in Irish may well only be understood by the teammate who got me back into learning Irish this year - our class covered "how to cheer on your sports team" a couple weeks ago and I made careful notes - or maybe it will cause any lurking Gaeilgeoirí in the rink to make themselves known.

I think I'm wound down enough to sleep now.

delphi

Fandom 50 #3

Continuing my list of fifty Canadian songs I love from the past fifty years, 1979's is one that's probably popped into my head at least one morning a week since I was five:

Wondering Where the Lions Are by Bruce Cockburn

Watch on YouTube

neonvincent

I didn't need this image in A great year for horror at the Oscars on Friday the 13th, but I like it just the same.

Current Mood: weird
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: wind in the trees

anneapocalypse

Fandom: Final Fantasy XIV
Rating: Mature
Archive Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Urianger Augurelt/Moenbryda Wilfsunnwyn, Urianger Augurelt & Moenbryda Wilfsunnwyn, Ardbert & Urianger Augurelt, Unrealized Ardbert/Urianger Augurelt, Pre-Urianger Augurelt/Warrior of Light
Characters: Urianger Augurelt, Moenbryda Wilfsunnwyn, Ardbert Hylfyst, Elidibus, Unukalhai, Tataru Taru, Minfilia Warde, Warrior of Light, Dewlala Dewla, Y'shtola Rhul, Yugiri Mistwalker, Thancred Waters, J'Rhoomale, Blanhaerz, Lamimi, Naillebert, Haneko Burneko
Additional Tags: Grief/Mourning, Angst, Religion, Isolation, Loneliness, Patch 3.4: Soul Surrender Spoilers (Final Fantasy XIV), Elezen Warrior of Light, Female Warrior of Light, Canon-Typical Violence, Guilt, Emotional Repression, Child Neglect, Childhood Memories, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Series: With Lilies and With Laurel
Length: 57,340 / 92,000
Chapter: 9/15

Summary:

Heartbroken after the loss of his dearest companion, Urianger labors to save two worlds in which he has never felt more alone.

Notes:

If you're new here, please start with Chapter 1!

Final Fantasy XIV is owned by Square Enix. This is a non-commercial work of fanfiction.

( Read on AO3 )

( ...or below! )

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

scaramouche

I rewatched Mujhse Doste Karoge recently and this time when I hit the Medley in the final act I felt more curious about the original songs that were being referenced. I recognize the Bobby songs, Kuch Kuch and DDLJ of course, but not much else, and thought I could give it a shot? I thought I could find a list online but if it exists, it'll take more a deep dive than I can bothered with, so I searched for the originals based on the medley's lyrics. There are a lot of songs! And I'm recording them here just in case.

The medley:

Watch on YouTube

The original songs:

Mere Dil Mein Aaj Kya Hai // Daag (1973) // youtube
Na Mangu Sona Chandi // Bobby (1973) // youtube
Jhoot Bole Kauva Kate // Bobby (1973) // youtube
Le Jayenge Le Jayenge // Chor Machaye Shor (1974) // youtube
Yeh Galiyan Yeh Chaubara // Prem Rog (1982) // youtube
Bachna Aye Hasseno Yeh Mein Aa Gaya // Hum Kisise Kum Naheen (1977) // youtube
Aap Yahan Aaye Kis Liye // Kal Aaj Aur Kal (1971) // youtube
Main Nikla Gaddi Leke // Gadar (2001) // youtube
Chup Chup Khade Ho // Bari Behen (1949) // youtube
Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat // Aah (1953) // youtube
Aajkal Tere Mere Pyar Ke Charche // Brahmachari (1968) // youtube
Pardesiya Yeh Sach Hai Piya // Natwarlal (1979) // youtube
Udein Jab Jab Zulfen Teri // Naya Daur (1957) // youtube
Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai // Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai (2000) // youtube
Ajib Dastan Hai Yeh // Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai (1960) // youtube
Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana // Andaz (1971) // youtube
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai // Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) // youtube
Mehndi Laga Ke Rakhna // Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) // youtube

Looking at the ages of some of these songs, the 80s got mostly skipped over and IMO Kaho na Pyaar Hai stands out like a sore thumb. I figure it's there because of the Hrithik connection, but is it really on the same level as Kuch2, among the songs from the 90s/2000s? Not in this neck of the woods, anyway.

Current Mood: accomplished

muccamukk

National Theatre's Importance of Being Earnest (2025)

Watch on YouTube

Free to view now until the 18th, GMT, I assume.

lunabee34

I have missed you all, so I've eased myself back into DW by starting to comment on everyone's journals again, and now I thought I'd try my hand at posting again.

1. I've been reading Hobbit fanfic ever since we watched the movies with Fi for the first time over Thanksgiving break, and I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. I can't tell what's fanon and what's canon, though (or from whence it comes if canon). Like, Thorin's sister must be named Dis because everybody calls her that, even though I don't remember that information being in The Hobbit or the trilogy. But I see a variety of names for her husband, which tells me that information isn't included anywhere. Also, there's such a broad swathe of what is probably fanon that seems to appear in every story: that the Ri brothers all have different dads, that Dori is extraordinarily fussy and into tea and etiquette, and etc. I wonder who was the originator of a lot of these ideas.

2. Have some Hobbit recs:

Mr. and Mrs. Baggins by LullabyKnell
Turns out Bilbo and Lobelia have more in common than they thought. They get married about it.

Of Risks and Rewards by Bgtea
Kili/Fili
After BOTFA, Fíli can sense the growing separation between him and Kíli, but he is at a loss as to how he could even begin to rebuild the close relationship they once had. It is just his bad luck that fate is about to throw several more wrenches into his life in the form of suitors.

A Mixture of Madness series by Salvia_G
In which sexual mores are quite different for dwarves. Here be lots of super hot dwarf sex.

3. I have pretty much quit reading Stranger Things fic, but have the last few recs I have in open tabs:

and it all comes down to you by skoosiepants
SGA/ST fusion
The one where Eddie and Steve are soulmates in space!!

A Kiss with a Fist by Sablesea
Steve/Dustin
In the immediate aftermath of the final battle.

Tempus Fugit by Fuuma
Eddie/Dustin
Post-season 4 where Eddie lives.

A Catalog of Non-Definitive Acts series by KidA_666
Steve/Jonathan
Tommy Hagan gets taken instead of Barbara.

jesse_the_k

On his second day, Shadow wandered into our bedroom and leapt up on the bed. I made my creaky crane eh-eh sound which is the closest I get to saying "no" to a dog and he hopped right off. (Clearly, he's had some training.)

This morning we were resting in bed and he stood in our bedroom doorway. I said "Shadow come!" and he stepped inside! And wagged his tail! and then immediately turned around and went back to his crate.

But his tail can wag.

erinptah

Wrapping up volume 2 of Seven Seas’ new print edition of PSOH! Sometimes with comparisons to volume 3 of the original Tokyopop translation.

I’m posting the individual reactions on Mastodon and Bluesky, then rounding them up in the blog. Previous roundups in my PSOH fandom tag. You can pick up the books with my affiliate links here.

I made myself so hungry looking up the desserts named in this one, and I don’t think any of them are sold in my area. Boo.

( ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?! Were you waiting for him to sprinkle soy sauce on you?! )

sovay

It is the dozenth birthday of Hestia Hermia Linsky-Noyes, lhude sing meaw! We sang to her after midnight. She ate eagerly of her festive ham. She has spent the afternoon in the pursuit of Bird Theater. I remember her brother under that same light. Bast smiled when our cats were born.

Current Music: Dropkick Murphys, "Tessie"

elrhiarhodan

Title: From All The Spaces Between Times
Chapter: Chapter 75 — From My Screaming Your Name, This Place Will Not Console Us
Author:

elrhiarhodan /

elrhiarhodan
Fandom: Star Wars, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars — Obi Wan Kenobi (TV), Star Wars — Jedi Apprentice Books
Characters Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Shmi Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, The Force as a Sentient Character, Watto, Quinlan Vos, Padmé Amidala, Sabé, Darth Maul, Yoda, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, Quinlan Vos, Professor Huyang, The Force, Plo Koon, Vokara Che, Siri Tachi, Aayla Secura, Bant Eerin, Bruck Chun, Xanatos du Crion, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Hego Damask II | Darth Plagueis, Komari Vosa, Bail Prestor Organa, Breha Organa, Bail Antilles Prestor, Rael Averross, Nim Piana, Ahsoka Tano, Sifo-Dyas, Reva Sevander, Lene Kostana (mentioned), Savage Opress, Pong Krell, The Traitor, Original Characters, Other Characters To Be Added
Pairings: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Shmi Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Qui-Gon Jinn, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon Jinn (yes, we’re arrived). Bail Prestor Organa/Breha Organa
Word Count: ~ 5000 this chapter
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: Canon-Typical Violence

Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi has never known it, but he has always been the Force’s Champion, destined to suffer infinite sadness in defense of the Light. On his last turn on the wheel, responsibility for The Chosen One, the false child of prophecy, had been thrust upon him with no warning, and Darkness held the upper hand.

But this time, the Force has marshaled its power and will protect its Champion until the time is right, no matter how long Obi-Wan has to wait and how much he has to suffer.

Or,

Obi-Wan is reborn as a twelve-year old.

He wakes up on a slavers’ ship, with all of his prior life’s memories intact, and he’s bound for Tatooine with a Force-inhibitor collar around his neck, a bomb implanted in his spine, and no way of knowing what state of the Galaxy is in.

Just another day in the life of the Force’s Champion.

Chapter Summary: Obi-Wan has returned to the Temple, laden with information firmly tying Damask to Palpatine. Or rather Plagueis to Sidious. But a not-so-random encounter interrupts the delivery of that information to the High Council.

From All The Spaces Between Times: Chapter 75 — From My Screaming Your Name, This Place Will Not Console Us (On AO3)

( Meta — From My Screaming Your Name, This Place Will Not Console Us )

rachelmanija

A French children's book in translation from 1961, in which five children are trapped in a cottage by a landslide.

14-year-old Laurent's family is concerned that he spends all his time reading and doing chemistry experiments, and isn't engaging with other people. So they dispatch him to stay with his younger brother and sister in a cottage only occupied by a 14-year-old girl and her younger brother, who are alone because her mother is having surgery. The idea is that Laurent will have to take care of the other kids, and this will make him come out of his shell more. His parents do leave him the out of being able to pack up his siblings and return to Paris if he really hates it.

I am honestly not sure if it was even vaguely normal in 60s France for five kids ages 14-5 to stay alone in a remote mountain cottage for ten days, or if this was just a literary convention. Anyway, Laurent unsurprisingly hates it and packs up his siblings to leave. But while they're on the train platform with the other kids, he has a change of heart and they all head back to the cottage. But they stop in the cottage of a family friend, who is out at the time.

It gets buried in a landslide! They're all trapped in pitch darkness! In an only vaguely familiar house! They can't use the stove because it already nearly suffocated them with carbon monoxide! Their only air is from a narrow shaft leading to a giant canyon! There's very little food! No one knows they're in trouble because one of the kids wrote ten postcards dated for every day of the vacation, then arranged with the post office to send one per day!

The kids having to do everything in total darkness for most of the book is a really cool twist on this sort of "trapped in a space" book. (One of my favorite moments is when enough dirt slides away that some light gets in, and they see that they've been half-starved in pitch darkness with two huge hams and a lantern hanging from the ceiling.) It has some cozy elements - they're trapped with goats, which they can milk but which also get into everything and poop everywhere, and one goat gives birth to twin kids - but gets desperate quickly when Laurent gets an infected cut and the main milking goat drowns in a flooded cellar. But it all ends up okay when they first signal with Morse code in a mirror (in a nice touch of realism, it takes a long time for anyone to figure out the message as the kids get some of the letters wrong, including signaling OSO instead of SOS) and then make and set off gunpowder!

Not an enduring classic, but an entertaining read.

muccamukk

The Battle Against Enshittification

dw_dev: AI and Dreamwidth.
Great post from

mark about exactly how DW could use AI (potentially spam filtering), and how it will never use it (feeding your posts into the maw).

404 Media: 'AI Is African Intelligence': The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting Back.
Kenyan workers are still the underpaid labor behind AI training, moderation, and sex chatbots. The Data Labelers Association is fighting back.

The Verge: Grammarly is using our identities without permission.
When users select the 'expert review' button in the Grammarly sidebar, it analyzes their writing and surfaces AI-generated suggestions 'inspired by' related experts. Those 'industry-relevant perspectives' include the likes of Stephen King, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Carl Sagan, among many others.

Wired: Grammarly Is Facing a Class Action Lawsuit Over Its AI 'Expert Review' Feature.
I'm sure everyone enjoys getting sued by Stephen King.

The Flytrap: Sex Workers Versus the Algorithm.
Mostly about payment processors, but also about filtering: the endless dance around content bans requires constantly coming up with new ways to craft video titles and content that are frustrating not only for adult performers, but also their customers.

The Guardian: The world wants to ban children from social media, but there will be grave consequences for us all.
Age-verification systems require collecting sensitive data to support the biometric information. In no time, the internet will become a fully surveilled digital panopticon.

Canadian Politics
(I'm actually saving fewer links about this, because it's mostly pretty disheartening. And I can't deal.)

TheBreach: Pierre Poilievre is misleading the public about refugee healthcare (Video: 3 minutes).
Desmond Cole fact checks his misinformation and explains how blaming the most vulnerable distracts us from fighting for good health care for all.

The Tyee: Advocates Hope a Ruling Will Change RCMP Treatment of Indigenous Witnesses.
But critics say the Canadian rights tribunal didn’t go far enough after finding police discrimination.
Nominally good news, but so much about this case pisses me off. $7k each? Seriously? Reminder that the one person who got state protection in all of this, the guy who (allegedly) abused all those people, is John Furlong. Fuck that guy.

The Breach: A notorious RCMP unit shaped B.C. universities’ reaction to Palestine encampments.
From Fairy Creek to university campuses, CRU-BC is positioning itself as the go-to police force for repressing dissent.
Category: jackbooted thugs.

Kind of Cool, Actually:

HeatherCoxRichardson: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter | Reckoning with Jason Herbert Podcast (Video: 1:43 hours).
Words cannot express how validating this was. Lo! How many long years have I said that AL:VH is the most historically accurate Lincoln movie? HCR agrees.

The Tyee: What Can You Do with Used Plastic and 3D Printers? Meet Two Pros.
Not sure how scalable this is, but it's a cool project.

The Narwhal : In northeast B.C., fresh food is scarce. This First Nation hopes geothermal energy could change that.
Cool project to restore food security after Site C fucked it up, hopefully they can get funding.

NorthernBallet: Northern Ballet's Gentleman Jack | Costumes (Video: 2 minutes).
I've really been enjoying the promo clips for this new ballet. I hope there's some way to watch it online.

pauraque

subtitle that didn't fit in the subject line: On Being Both, Beyond, and In-Between

I'm going to say this prominently because I think it has caused some confusion among reviewers: This is a book by two nonbinary authors and the title is Life Isn't Binary, and it is NOT (primarily) about nonbinary gender identity! If you want a book that is primarily about nonbinary gender identity, this book may not give you what you're looking for!

Instead, it is about problems with binary thinking in all areas of life. There is a tendency for people to view many things in terms of two categories in opposition. Male/female and cis/trans, yes, but also Black/white, straight/gay, privileged/marginalized, body/mind, emotion/logic, friend/lover, us/them. The book examines and deconstructs these binaries and more, and encourages thinking about who currently benefits from their resultant flattening of nuance, and what we could gain from framing concepts in a less polarized way.

The book is short but extremely densely packed with ideas. I read it as a two-person book club with

dragonque, and every chapter elicited fruitful discussion about its points and how they related to our own lives and experiences. I have known

dragonque for a long time and I feel like I got to know them much better through talking about this book!

I do think at times it can feel too dense and too short for the vast scope of its thesis. The authors can state in one sentence an absolutely massive idea that could itself be an entire book, and that's the only thing they say about it because they're already on to the next point. (The authors have in fact collaborated on several other books which sound like they may elaborate on some of the things where I was like, "so, that's all you're going to say about that one? okay!")

But I found the book very worthwhile and thought-provoking, and after returning it to the library I bought my own copy because I expect I will be re-reading it, referring to it, or wanting to lend it to people.

scaramouche

I'm halfway through season 2 of H2O: Just Add Water and as expected I'm not enjoying it as much as season 1. It still has some fun episodes (the girls get their new powers, the wish episode, Emma gets a scale sickness and in the last act it turns into a delightful mini horror movie) and some meatier ones (Rikki gets to stretch her chops with an emotional story that introduces her dad), but the main problem for me is that on the scales of wacky shenanigans there's been a tip away from mermaid-specific shenanigans and towards teenage love triangle shenanigans instead, courtesy of Charlotte. (Whose actress gets billed first in the end credits, presumably because the four actresses are listed alphabetically, but is still kinda weird.)

( Cut for length. )

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: Mercell - Blue Moon

neonvincent

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: birds and traffic noise

james

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

soc_puppet

Fandom: SVSSS
Summary: Shen Yuan tries bringing Luo Binghe to a karaoke bar; it doesn't go well.
Mirrors: On AO3
Wordcount: 100
Ships: BingQiu
Notes: If I were to make a BingQiu FST, this song would be on it
Updated notes: Now with podfic?!?! (To explain my shock, the podfic went up less than four hours after the fic did. Fastest podfic in the west!)
Fic: ( Modern Day Date Night )

Current Mood: giggly

kitewithfish

Weekly reading journal for march 11 2025

I am! On! Vacation! Muahahahahaha.

(Happy 11th of March to the few, the happy few, Due South fans out there!)

What I Have Read
Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die by Greer Stothers - I finished this is a fevered rush on a plane, so take my review with a grain of salt. This was fun, it was sincere, it was unpretentious, it was a good time! I wish there had been a little more substance to the ending as the emotional core of Cameron's journey, but I am not upset by it! I did call the main revelation but not all of it! And I'm not sure what I would recommend this book for, exactly, but I had fun.

Chivalric Academia by OldShrewsburyian This fic! Is a delight! The writing is just a pleasure to read - funny and clear, gently ironic and sincere by turns. It's a Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth modern day academic AU where they are both new faculty at a small college. She hates him, he gets his handcut off, they fall in love. Brienne is written with such absolute conviction and commitment, Jaime is always dancing between hiding in the shadows and baring his soul in stupified awe of her. Wonderful, go read it especially if you like Dorothy Sayers. https://archiveofourown.org/works/57674458

Daniel Molloy's Incredible Showstopping World-Famous Model Train Extravaganza for Children and Easily-Awed Vampires (Please Knock) by
Ariaste - I read this bc Ariaste is now posting the sequel as a weekly fic. Its wonderful and porny and like Chivalric Academia, involves people who want to be together figuring out how to make it work.

What I'm Reading
Sword Heart is still slow because it is so so sweet and tender.

What I Will Read Next
The grief of stones
My real children

kitewithfish

Weekly reading journal for march 11 2025

I am! On! Vacation! Muahahahahaha.

(Happy 11th of March to the few, the happy few, Due South fans out there!)

What I Have Read
Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die by Greer Stothers - I finished this is a fevered rush on a plane, so take my review with a grain of salt. This was fun, it was sincere, it was unpretentious, it was a good time! I wish there had been a little more substance to the ending as the emotional core of Cameron's journey, but I am not upset by it! I did call the main revelation but not all of it! And I'm not sure what I would recommend this book for, exactly, but I had fun.

Chivalric Academia by OldShrewsburyian This fic! Is a delight! The writing is just a pleasure to read - funny and clear, gently ironic and sincere by turns. It's a Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth modern day academic AU where they are both new faculty at a small college. She hates him, he gets his handcut off, they fall in love. Brienne is written with such absolute conviction and commitment, Jaime is always dancing between hiding in the shadows and baring his soul in stupified awe of her. Wonderful, go read it especially if you like Dorothy Sayers. https://archiveofourown.org/works/57674458

Daniel Molloy's Incredible Showstopping World-Famous Model Train Extravaganza for Children and Easily-Awed Vampires (Please Knock) by
Ariaste - I read this bc Ariaste is now posting the sequel as a weekly fic. Its wonderful and porny and like Chivalric Academia, involves people who want to be together figuring out how to make it work.

What I'm Reading
Sword Heart is still slow because it is so so sweet and tender.

What I Will Read Next
The grief of stones
My real children

rachelmanija

Gyre explores the tunnels of an alien world in a mechanical suit, her only connection to the outside world the voice of Em, her handler who she’s never met, who may or may not have her welfare in mind, and who definitely has boundary issues.

Gyre has less experience caving than she claimed, and caving is extremely difficult. There are sandworm-like creatures called Tunnelers that will kill multiple parties of cavers for unknown reasons, so cavers go in alone, unable to take off their suit for weeks on end, with their handler as their only link with the outside world. Em can literally take control of Gyre’s suit/body, can inject her with drugs, etc - and not only has little compunction about doing so, but won't tell Gyre what the actual purpose of the mission is.

Spoilers! ( Read more... )

This is a type of story I don’t see very often, in which there’s one main science fiction element – in this case, the mechanical caving suit – which is explored in depth and is essential to the story, and it’s also set on a (very lightly sketched-in) other planet. Generally the “one science fiction element” stories are set on Earth. Apart from the Tunnelers, this novel actually could take place on an Earth where the suit exists.

The Luminous Dead, like The Starving Saints, has a small cast of sapphic women and takes place almost entirely in the same claustrophobic space; if it was on TV, we’d call it a bottle episode. I normally like that sort of thing but unlike The Starving Saints, it outstays its welcome. It has about a novella’s worth of story, and while it’s very atmospheric and any given portion is well-written and interesting, considered alone, as a whole it’s very repetitive and over-long. I would mostly recommend it if you like complicated lesbians with bad boundaries.

sovay

Whatever passes for my health these days has tipped over onto the sidewalk, but my afternoon which contained far too much communication with doctors on far too little sleep was measurably improved by the discovery of Avalon Emerson's "Don't Be Seen with Me" (2025). I think of Oppenheimer Analysis as so extremely niche in appeal that it almost never crossed my mind that anyone would cover one of their songs, much less drench it in heart-racing, echo-dragged dream-pop like a night drive high on the endless windshield slide of light. I still prefer the colder, dryer original with its relentlessly weird garbage-can drum programming and glitteringly nervy columns of synths against which the vocals sound even more paranoid and plaintive, but just the fact that someone else went for their own version makes me happy. I suppose electronically unsettled meditations on the Manhattan Project and the Cold War have come back around into fashion.

Current Music: Avalon Emerson, "Don't Be Seen with Me"

schneefink

My mom is currently doing a no-smartphone-challenge with her students, and I decided to do the light version and set myself a goal of 1.5 hours of smartphone time per day (normal phone calls don't count.) I did well the first few days but then failed the last three, and right now I'm realizing the limit means I can't use my phone to listen to streams while doing the dishes. Boo.

Other effects: I read books on my e-book-reader on my commute instead of fics on my phone. And I really wish my radio wasn't broken but it hasn't reached the necessary annoyance level yet to get it fixed.

I'm not behind on my study plan for my next exam yet! (The upcoming exam is mostly VAT so both important and relevant and hard.) We'll see how long it lasts, but I'm in week 3 and that's pretty good especially for my standards. And that's despite me being sick one weekend and having a bad cold the next.

I told myself I'd combine it with finally starting the Hades 2 1.0 playthrough I've been planning for months, and for the first two weeks I actually managed to stick to my "one run per study session" rule but, uh, not anymore. Ahem. Good news, still having a lot of fun playing Hades 2. And thanks to playing over 130 hours in Early Access I'm so much better than when I started my first playthrough.
(I started now because the plan was DD would start the week after and then we can talk about it, but she had a schedule change and still hasn't started so that didn't work out either ^^)

But since I started playing Hades 2 I mostly stopped playing Vampire Survivors - not completely, I have done a few more runs to get some of the very last unlocks/secrets, but mostly. So have the remaining notes for now, directly continuing from last time.

( More Vampire Survivors: more bats, still no vampires. )

I should stop procrastinating and do the dishes.

delphi

Another theatrical streaming plug:

The pro-shot of The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Ncuti Gatwa, Sharon D. Clarke, and Hugh Skinner, will be streaming on Youtube from March 12th to 18th!

Watch on YouTube

A bit from the show:

Watch on YouTube

National Theatre at Home has been one of my favourite streaming services for a long time now, with the way it bring UK theatre to someone like me (not in the UK, also not living in a place that gets much in the way of touring shows), and I'm really happy they're releasing this one for free on a bigger platform.

sineala

What I Just Finished Reading

Still nothing. I mean, okay, I read The Superia Stratagem for the 616 server book club but I'm not counting that because I have dignity.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( 1776 #5, Doctor Strange #4, Imperial Guardians #1 )

What I'm Reading Next

Don't know. Still trying to figure out how to medicate my migraines. I clearly shouldn't try to write these posts while in the middle of migraine prodrome.

Current Mood: tired

marinarusalka

Well, okay, I've been back for almost a week, but God forbid I post anything in a timely manner, right?

Anyhow, Scotland was awesome. I didn't get to fully appreciate Glasgow, due to conferencing, but The Boy and I did explore a couple of very lovely parks and one cool art museum (the Burrell Collection), and ate a lot of great food. The restaurant scene in Glasgow is seriously amazing.

I also got to visit a cute little yarn shop and bought some really lovely UK-produced yarn that I really look forward to knitting up.

Orkney is gorgeous! We lucked out with the weather, and had sunshine pretty much the entire 5 days we were there, which I'm told is not typical for this time of years. (It was also insanely windy, which is normal.. We hiked 5-7 miles every day, in beautiful coastal scenery, and saw a number of fascinating Neolithic sites, some WWII monuments, and a beautiful little chapel built during the war by Italian POWs, who managed to turn tin, plaster and concrete into a genuine work of art.

We stayed in Kirkwall, which has a really impressive cathedral and some nice shops. The yarn shop I wanted to visit was closed, but a local artsy-craftsy shop also had a small selection for sale, and I got one skein of very beautiful hand-dyed wool from a local breed.

We got back to London last Wednesday, which happened to be my birthday. We spent the day being touristy (Westminster Abbey! Tate Britain!) and finished up with a birthday dinner at Rules.

All in all, a great trip.

Current Mood: contemplative

neonvincent

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: weird
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: rain

sineala

It's the one post I remember to make every year!

They have called this day The Eleventh of March! And whom-so-ever of you gets through this day, unless you are shot in the head or somehow slain, you will stand at tiptoe when e'er you hear the name again, and you will get excited!...At the name March The Eleventh!

We happy few, we few, we band of brothers...our names will be as like...household names. And those who are not here, be they sleeping or... doing something else...They will feel themselves...sort of crappy. Because they are not here to, to join the fight. On this day, the Eleventh of March!

(Okay, I remember it because it's also my LiveJournal's birthday and I still haven't deleted it and so they send me an email every year. My LJ is now 25.)

Current Mood: nostalgic

rmc28

This is an 800 year old play based on events 2,500 years ago in China, the first Chinese play to be translated into any European language (about 300 years ago). The Royal Shakespeare Company commissioned James Fenton to adapt it for a production about 13 years ago, and a student theatre group are putting that adaptation on at the ADC in Cambridge this week.

I went to see it last night with Charles, and also Olivia, one of my friends from Womens Blues. (We then found two of my Huskies teammates in the audience so it became an accidental hockey social.) We saw a little first-night talk beforehand from the director and some of the actors, about why they chose this play and some of their favourite lines and aspects of the characters they play. The play itself was very good, very gripping, a revenge tragedy with a very high body count and an ending I didn't quite expect.

The kind of evening that makes me remember how much I like living in this weird little city in the fens.

(and, in further "wow I love living in walking distance of the ADC" news, here's what I'm hoping to get to between now and early May:

Into The Woods (famous musical)
Olympus Unscripted (improv show on greek myths theme)
Chekov's Four Farces (what it says on the tin)
Next to Normal (musical about mental illness)
The Ferryman (play about the Irish Troubles)
Medea (musical adaptation of Euripedes play)

)

delphi

If anyone's interested in checking out some queer comedy theatre with a slate of great trans and gnc performers:

The Joy Who Lived: March 31st to April 12th

You can find a list of shows by date or you can browse by category. Shows are running both in person in Los Angeles and as live streaming events that are also available to view up to two weeks afterwards. I tuned in a while back for their fundraising show, a chaotic live runthrough of the Ocean's 11 script called Gender Heist, and it was a heck of a good time.

neonvincent

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: geeky
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: Astrocanuck Twitch Stream

sovay

Not only is 42 °N a lousy latitude for radio astronomy, it does jack most of the year for the photosynthesis of vitamin D, but I was inspired by the summerlike spike in temperatures to walk out for groceries in a T-shirt and whatever it may or may not have done for my metabolism, it was worth the pitching over onto the couch when I got home.

No introduction to an actor may be as misleading as discovering Peter Lorre with Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), but spending much of last night sacked out in front of my longtime comfort movie of Robert Aldrich's The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) reminded me that I should probably count Richard Attenborough in a similar vein, all those weak links and bad influences his panicking debut in In Which We Serve (1942) and his nihilistic breakout in Brighton Rock (1947) set him up for. Never mind that I saw him first as the briskly competent ringleader of The Great Escape (1963), he looks much more in his ambivalent element as Lew Moran, the middle-aged navigator who may have his moral compass screwed on straightest of the sun-blistered survivors of what will become the Phoenix but little authority between his uneasy position as peacemaker and his diffidence as a drying-out drunk, even if his stammer doesn't after all stop him from going off like a firecracker on some blatantly bullheaded display of stupidity on the part of one or more of his co-leads. It would have been the second way I saw him, after which the time-shock of Jurassic Park (1993), jovial and grandfatherly and scientifically short-sighted. I'd give a lot for a record of his Sergeant Trotter in the original run of The Mousetrap. The time machine bureau is going to cut me off.

Current Music: Elliott Smith, "Baby Britain"

olivermoss

senmut

kalloway - the Valentine card that is post-marked Feb 9 showed up today for Mario Day.

Thank you, and the heart is adorable.

solarbird

Have I played my part well in the farce of life?
— Augustus Caesar, first Emperor of Rome

as reported by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
in The Life of Augustus
originally published 121 C.E., Roman Empire

Did you love my performance in Venezuela?
My performance in Iran is better, isn’t it?
— Donald Trump, President of the United States

as reported by Jonathan Carl of ABC News
originally reported March 6, 2026 C.E., United States

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

pauraque

This is part three of my book club notes on The Black Fantastic. [Part 1, part 2.]

All of this batch of stories are available online!

"The Venus Effect" by Violet Allen (2016)

( The authorial voice repeatedly tries to write stories in different genres, only to be stopped each time by the Black protagonist falling victim to police violence. )

"The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" by Phenderson Djèlí Clark (2018)

( What it says on the tin, in an alternate universe where magic is part of daily life. )

"The Hospital Where" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (2018)

( An aspiring writer makes a Faustian bargain. )

"The Ones Who Stay and Fight" by N.K. Jemisin (2018)

( A response to Le Guin, in which a utopia has a dark side. Maybe. )

olivermoss

* Upper Canada Films announced The Hockey Player, a feature documentary following Luke Prokop, the first openly gay hockey player under contract in the National Hockey League. Link to announcement on Prokop's insta

* The newly acquired squid's immigration process is taking longer than expected. He might be out a few games. This really sucks because we suddenly have an opening on the line he's expected to be on. One of our players took a boot to the face. Hopefully he's doing okay, but he's going to be out for a bit. Teams are very secretive about injuries so no idea how bad it is.

Profile

kitewithfish

March 2026

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Page Summary

umadoshi - A scattered weekly proof of life
sholio - One Piece season 2
james - Qdoba gift cards
rmc28 - Hockey hockey hockey
delphi - Post and Jam: Wondering Where the Lions Are by Bruce Cockburn (1979)
neonvincent - Unused image for Oscar horror post
anneapocalypse - [FFXIV Fic] Gentle Dark, Chapter 9: These Tenuous Threads of Fate
scaramouche - Mujhse Doste Karoge Medley
muccamukk - It's Here!
lunabee34 - 3 Things
jesse_the_k - We Have a Tail Wag!
erinptah - Erin Reads: Pet Shop of Horrors, Collector’s Edition (volume 2, chapters 11-12)
sovay - She's got a common full of love
elrhiarhodan - Star Wars Fic and Meta - From All The Spaces Between Times - Chapter 75
rachelmanija - Landslide, by Veronique Day
muccamukk - links list (the Internet may be getting worse)
pauraque - Life Isn't Binary by Meg-John Barker & Alex Iantaffi (2019)
scaramouche - H2O: Just Add Water
neonvincent - Why is the robin Michigan's state bird?
james - Updates As They Happen or Within A Few Weeks After
soc_puppet - Fic: Modern Day Date Night
kitewithfish - Wednesday Reading Meme for March 11 2026
kitewithfish - Wednesday Reading Meme for March 11 2026
rachelmanija - The Luminous Dead, by Caitlin Starling
sovay - If I were you, I'd be out on the town
schneefink - Challenges and achievements in and out of games
delphi - The Importance of Being Earnest - Streaming March 12-18
sineala - Wednesday Reading Meme
marinarusalka - I'm back
neonvincent - Cover of 'Coelocanth'
sineala - The eleventh of March!
rmc28 - The Orphan of Zhao
delphi - The Joy Who Lived
neonvincent - Mario movie trailer for Mario Day
sovay - Counts the waves that somehow didn't hit her
olivermoss - Found more work by the Pothole Bandit already
senmut - Mail Call
solarbird - compare, contrast, despise
pauraque - The Black Fantastic: 20 Afrofuturist Stories, ed. andré m. carrington (2025) [part 3]
olivermoss - (no subject)

Style Credit

Style: Ivory Alcea for Mobility by branchandroot
Resources: Mitsuba Aoi

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