lil_1337: (Default)
[personal profile] lil_1337
Review )

Watched a movie

Jul. 14th, 2025 10:11 pm
silver_chipmunk: (Default)
[personal profile] silver_chipmunk
On the computer on Netflix, that's really all I did today.

Got up a little after 11:00 and had breakfast and coffee. I puttered around online for awhile. I was expecting the delivery of my new computer today, but annoyingly Best Buy is now saying between today and the 18th. It had better get here soon, the physical collapse of this one is accelerating.

Anyway, eventually I decided that I should watch The Old Guard 2, which I'd been meaning to do since I heard about it. It's on Netflix, so I signed in. It's not, in my opinion, as good as the first one, but I enjoyed it.

Finished that a little after 4:00, and went into the bedroom to play solitaire.

Came back out around 6:00, puttered online. At 7:00 I Skyped the FWiB, and we talked for a nice time, though we had some technical difficulties.

After we finished talking I had diner, and went back into the bedroom again. I ordered an Old Guard graphic novel, the one that's short stories, from Thriftbooks. They have it on back order though.

That's really all I did today except a little emailing. I emailed Flamingo to double check if I had registered for SHarecon. I was sure I had, but disturbingly, I can't remember doing so. But I was right, I had, so that's OK.

I also emailed John and Denise about some cottage business, and Denise called and we had a rather nice conversation.

I called [personal profile] mashfanficchick but ze wasn't doing anything.

Last night after I posted here, the Kid called, and we talked. She has another job interview on Thursday.

And that's pretty much everything.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. The Kid.

3. John and Denise.

4. Fun movies.

5. Thriftbooks.

6. My eyesight is so much better!

2025 week 28

Jul. 14th, 2025 09:11 pm
larissa: (FFTA ☄ ⌈childhood days⌋)
[personal profile] larissa

i've been sleeping terribly, so i'm all discombobulated right now. let's have a quick post.

writing is continuing; i am at 120/180 days for my [community profile] getyourwordsout goal, with a streak of 102 consecutive days. i've been trying to work on fic, but it keeps not happening... at least i've been able to write goopy oc stuff.

didn't get to play much trails in the sky the 3rd this past week; i finished chapter 1 last night so i have a good idea of the game's cadence, but finding time to progress has been tricky. i do like it so far, but it's definitely a different game from FC and SC so it's taking time to get used to. i'll probably make liveblog posts once i get a little further in.

other than that, not a whole lot happening. it's mogtome season in ff14, which means i'm spending a lot of time in the gold saucer doing GATEs. also a little bit of fishing, which has been nice. i like ocean fishing as a chill activity now and then.

also, i managed to start reading a book today, to try and get out of my reading slump. we'll see how that goes. (every time i look at my reading goal for the year i wince, though. there's no way i'm hitting that many books this year, unfortunately.)

shadowkat: (Default)
[personal profile] shadowkat
Grabbing random questions from the Friday Five because I feel like answering random questions.

1. Have you ever been to summer camp?

Yes. But mainly day camps, which are very different than overnight camps and a lot more fun. Only over night camps were brief and in girl scouts, and when I was a kid (6-12) and each time, I had a parent along for the ride.

2. Have you ever made a s'more?

Many many times. Not so much now for various reasons.

3. Have you ever slept under the stars (no tent/tarp)?

Kind of? And I ended up going inside. I don't like bugs?

4. What type of bed do you have (queen, twin, bunk, etc.)?

Queen

5. If you could retroactively erase one TV show from the history of entertainment, which one would you choose?

Toss up between Fox News, and the Bachelor/Bachelorette. For more or less the same reasons.

6. Are you more like your mother or your father?

It's kind of 50/50?

7. If you could take a year-long vacation, what would you do?

Cruise around the world? Or maybe take various train journeys and boat journeys, and walking trips?


8. If you were a crayon, which color would you want to be?

Violet or Purple - a deep purple

9. Which color do you think you would be regardless of what you wanted?

Green

10. Would you rather be used and get blunt, broken and lose your wrapper, or not be used and stay pristine?

Used and get blunt, broken and lose the wrapper.
the rest of the 37 seemingly random meme questions )

That cheered me up greatly. Thank you, Friday Five.

Reclaiming my time.

Jul. 14th, 2025 11:19 am
numb3r_5ev3n: Dragon pendant I got at a renfaire. (Default)
[personal profile] numb3r_5ev3n
As of today, my Dead Internet Theory Protocols are active. If I do not know you and have not interacted with you personally outside of Web 1.0 sites, forums, newsgroups, or chat rooms, IRC, Email, Real Life, or Livejournal/Dreamwidth, or Neocities, and someone I know from one of those places can't vouch for you, I'm going to assume you are a bot, posting from a Troll Farm somewhere, or a 4channer - in which case you might as well be posting from a Troll Farm. I'm doing this to protect my time and my mental health. As of this moment, Dreamwidth, Mastodon, Tumblr, my own personal websites, a Blogspot I'm using to follow some Witch Blogs, and a couple of Discords are the only places where I can be found online.

I have deleted all of my web 2.0 socials except for Tumblr (which I haven't logged into in weeks) and Youtube, which I don't really use as "social media" anyway. And I'm trying to restrict my Youtube use to a list of specific channels: Breadtube, Queer/Trans content creators, Eastern Renovation (in case Andre ever updates again) Cooking channels, Costube/Historical Re-enactmentTube, Some Gnostic or Atheist channels like Mythvision and Genetically Modified Skeptic, Esoterica, The Girl With The Dogs, Waffles, and Gumbus.

Very Cool.

Postponed video for Bastille Day post

Jul. 14th, 2025 10:30 am
neonvincent: For posts about food and cooking (All your bouillabaisse are belong to us)
[personal profile] neonvincent
I found a video with better production values for Drink to who played the 'An American in Paris' best for a drum corps Bastille Day. Maybe next year.

I can see!

Jul. 13th, 2025 10:32 pm
silver_chipmunk: (Default)
[personal profile] silver_chipmunk
I slept very late this morning, after 1:00 in fact, but when I got up, my blurred vision had cleared, and now I can see! It's amazing. My left eye seems to be actually a bit better than my right eye for the first time ever. So I am very happy about that.

The only downside is that I really can't see close up. I will have to get reading glasses. Right now I've been using the bifocal section of my glasses, which works. But I really need dedicated readers now.

Anyway. Last night I finished the Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky, and after I finished that, I read the Lois McMaster Bujold Penric novella, The Adventure of the Demonic Ox. So I was up late reading.

Got up finally and had breakfast and coffee. Then I went to the Starsky and Hutch creative work session. I actually got some writing done, and I think I can actually finish something, maybe in time for the SHarecon Countdown Calendar.

I did that until a little after 6. then puttered online til a bit before 7:00 when I Teamed the FWiB. We talked for a nice long time, and then at 8:30 I called Middle Brother. He is doing well.

I texted with [personal profile] mashfanficchick about what we want to binge next, and i texted with nancy about the results of the Outing Park Meeting today.

That's about all I did today.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Good books.

3. My Nook.

4. I can see!!!

5. The Starsky and Hutch fandom.

6. Family.

(no subject)

Jul. 13th, 2025 11:57 pm
tellshannon815: (victor)
[personal profile] tellshannon815
Challenge #4

Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.
Creative: Write from the perspective of a house or other location.

There is one house I can think of that must have seen a lot over the years, would have stories to tell if it could, and that is Colony House in the TV show From.

Title: No One Here Is Free
Fandom: From
Characters: Colony House, Jasmine, Smiley, Old Lady Creature, Donna, Victor, Ellis, Fatima, Jade, Boyd, Nicki, Acosta, Kevin, Clara
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Spoilers all through S3, mentions of character deaths
Summary: Colony House was originally a family home.

Read more... )
shadowkat: (Default)
[personal profile] shadowkat
I slept later than usual, but on the bright side - actually got a solid 8 hours of sleep, most of it core, but what can one do? Did get 55 minutes of deep, and 2 hours of rem. I tend to be a light sleeper for the most part, either that or this smart watch sleep monitoring isn't as accurate as it may appear.

Thinking of reading "actual books" and not ones on the Kindle for a bit. The books on my shelves are more appealing than the ones on the Kindle at the moment, and I've been in a long and annoying book slump. I was more engrossed in The Fair Folk - a book this morning, than What Moves the Dead on the Kindle. Books also have a weight to them, and they don't annoyingly go blank without notice.

The technology/information age is currently depressing me, I think? Do you feel like people are throwing their opinions at you constantly? Often unedited, unfiltered, and misinformed? It's not just on social media, it's journalistic articles, non-fiction editorials, etc. And via text message. I can't escape it. People stop. I really don't want to know what some random political analyst, political science professor, historian, social activist, journalist, bored academic, or law professor thinks about our current political situation, politics, the Wars (cultural, actual, and otherwise). Yes, I know they all think the world is coming to an end, I just wish they'd keep it to themselves, why depress the rest of us?

I've been jumping around television shows this weekend, not quite sticking with anything?

Watched Andor S2 Ep. 7 last night - the end the second three arc. Each arc ends with Andor and Bix - blowing something up or killing someone, or so it seems. Good news, Bix seems to have taken care of her problem. So Episode 7 for the most part was a satisfying conclusion to the Bix/Andor and Gorst situation, that was hanging over from S1. I adore Andor and Bix.

I got a bit lost in the episode, and had to rewind it and rewatch. Mainly because my attention kept drifting away from it. This may well be a me thing and not an Andor thing, folks. Read more... )

Poker Face - also had to keep rewinding, because my attention kept wandering - I'd play on the phone, I'd play on the internet, I'd cook, etc. It's partly due to the commercials - it's on Peacock and has commercial interruptions, and partly due to the mystery not always being that gripping? This is basically Murder she wrote by way of Columbo by way of person on the run doing odd jobs. Sometimes the mystery of the week is interesting, sometimes not. Like Murder She Wrote and Columbo it likes to utilize old and big time movie stars, some of which I've not seen in a while and are over the age of 70. Ellen Barkin is a very skeletal 70.

Outlander - see previous post. [And now I'm back to it again - and watching S2 Ep.2 - mainly because I'm curious. Also, I like the actress playing Clair and she's written better in the series than in the book. Odd I know, but there it is. Also Jaime is admittedly very appeal - I rather like the actor portraying him. And I find the differences between mid-20th century medicine and 18th century medicine interesting. It's what people do that fascinates me.]

Buffy S3 - Helpless - was surprised at how well written this was. Was going to skip over it, decided not to, and it was rather better than I thought. Not quite as scary, and amusing in places. Also had to keep rewinding, because I kept wandering about doing things while it was on. It's David Fury - who, sigh, "not the nicest human on the planet" is possibly an understatement? (It comes through in the writing - his episodes have an underlying meanness to them that is hard to put my finger on - but is there? I don't think he likes people all that much? And clearly has Mommy issues?) But he's a good writer, got to give him that. And the acting is through the roof. Also, weirdly, I liked Cordelia in the episode, but did not like Willow, Xander, or OZ - who were kind of useless and annoying. Giles...wasn't supposed to be likable, but Head sold it, and made him likable and interesting. Gellar blows me away. She does things in Buffy that she's not done before or since. Jeff Kober as the villain of the week is rather excellent. But Kober always is. spoilers for well anyone who hasn't seen it in the last 25 years )

Damn, this series holds up well. And it gets better as it goes. S3 is much better than S1 and S2, writing wise. The writers finally hit their stride. I can see why Gellar was done by S3 - they worked her to death. She's in every scene, they are all very physical scenes, and she has to cry a lot. She was doing 20 hour days, seven days a week. I think they burned her out, and it's why she's not really done anything great since. They also burned out Marsters. Not so much the others.

**

Took a long walk to get groceries. Used the robot vacuums. Read a bit of The Fair Folk. Meditated. And tried not to let the noise on the internet bother me too much. The birds outside were tweeting. The sun was shining. The trees are green. It's a warm balmy day in Brooklyn. And if I don't think too much and just be, everything is seemingly just fine.

cabbage rolls

Jul. 13th, 2025 03:43 pm
mekachu04: original posts (Default)
[personal profile] mekachu04

20250713.png



killer would like to buy some of your cabbage rolls please. Dont worry if its not enough coin...
(kidd's not leaving without them so you really shouldn't worry if its not enough coin, its all you're getting)


2025.07.13 )


See this Post on Reddit See this Post on Bluesky See this Post on Tumblr

Holiday

Jul. 13th, 2025 09:36 pm
lurkingcat: (Default)
[personal profile] lurkingcat
I'm currently halfway through a very much needed two week holiday and I think I've finally unwound enough from assorted work and family stress to realise how tired I am. We spent last week having a gentle staycation at home.

On Monday we went to Slimbridge Wetlands Centre and ambled around admiring the birds:

PXL_20250707_113852315.MP

PXL_20250707_112016606.MP

There were a truly surprising number of flamingos there:

PXL_20250707_105811800.MP(1)

...and a very odd looking chicken. Not sure what breed that one was:

PXL_20250707_100855010.MP(1)

We pottered out to Weston Super Mare on Wednesday to visit the tiny museum there as they currently have a Paul Kidby Discworld exhibtion. I spent quite a lot of time giggling at the descriptions and I was not the only visitor doing that. The musuem has some exhibition space downstairs and a very nice cafe and the permanent town history exhibits are upstairs. I'm still a little confused about this sign though:

PXL_20250709_103350840.MP

Is a Werechurch a church by day or by night?

Replaced video for Souther

Jul. 13th, 2025 01:58 pm
neonvincent: For posts about food and cooking (All your bouillabaisse are belong to us)
[personal profile] neonvincent
I found an updated clip for Fun with wombats and ice cream for Souther 2025.

Malik zips along a special, acrobatic adventure en route to Sammy's treehouse. Hopefully his ice cream doesn't melt along the way.

Done Since 2025-07-06

Jul. 13th, 2025 11:13 am
mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)
[personal profile] mdlbear

It's been a week. Starting with my son's fortieth birthday, and ending with the fourth anniversary of Colleen's death. I started writing a "state of the Bear" post last Sunday, and will either finish it today or tomorrow, or give up on it. But productive.

I went out for a walk four days this week -- the longest was about a kilometer, and the shortest was 650m. I practiced every day, which I haven't done for a long time. And, at N's suggestion, I started a work log, to keep track of what I've done for our business. I'll write it up separately, of course, but it's been remarkably effective. See under Monday for the start, but it's all been moved out of Dog/to.do to different file and workspace, which will mostly not find its way into this log, although pieces might.

It also shows how appallingly lazy I've been for the last six months.

Not really surprising -- I've been retired for eight years, and I've allowed myself to get out of shape in a great many ways. It's probably too late to get back to where I was a decade ago, but I'll do what I can.

And of course, the best-laid plans... Friday N and I started putting together a piece of patio furniture, and wore ourselves out completely. And yesterday was Colleen's day and I actually got more done than I expected. Weekends are for catching up.

As for links, AI coding tools make developers slower, study finds • The Register. As I've often said, HTML Is Publishing, Not Code

And this is flat-out amazing: Hundreds of robots move Shanghai city block - YouTube

Notes & links, as usual )

My vision is clearing!

Jul. 12th, 2025 10:16 pm
silver_chipmunk: (Default)
[personal profile] silver_chipmunk
I got up at about 9:30 this morning and had breakfast and coffee, then showered and dressed. Then I took the 28 bus to my Al-anon meeting. I missed one just barely, so I was a little late, but not badly.

The meeting was very good, larger than usual. Afterward there were 8 of us that went to the diner. I got a bacon, egg, and cheese on a croissant, and iced coffee. I got a ride most of the way home, so I didn't get a chance to try out the transfer to the 12 from the 13. Next week maybe.

Got home, the cottage deeds have arrived, but I haven't looked at them yet. I put in my second eyedrop for the day, and went to the Starsky and Hutch chat, We had a good time, and chatted til a bit past 6:00.

Cousin Nancy texted me. The OUting Park meeting is tomorrow, and she wanted to know if I would allow her daughter Sophie to be my proxy as she was afraid there might be some things we'd want to prevent, like excess tree removal. I trust Nancy so I said yes.

A bit before 7:00 I put in my third eyedrop, and then Teamed the FWiB. We talked for an hour and a half, and it as fun.

I checked Barnes and Noble's website and discovered that the new Bujold novella, The Adventure of the Demonic Ox, was available for download, so I downloaded that. I haven't started reading it yet though, I had to finish the Aaronovitch book, Stone and Sky, first.

I also called the Kid, who didn't pick up, so I texted her about the deeds and the proxy. No reply yet,

Then I played solitaire til pet feeding time, because I was falling behind in the Events.

My vision is starting to get less blurry now. I am excited about seeing better. It's still pretty smudgy, but definitely better than yesterday,

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB,

2. My vision is clearing.

3. My meetings and the people there.

4. Starsky and Hutch fandom.

5. My family.

6. The new Bujold is available!
shadowkat: (Default)
[personal profile] shadowkat
Didn't sleep well last night - every time I go to bed past 11 pm, I don't sleep well. It's odd. Also, my body wants to get up at 6AM. Regardless of the time I go to bed. I think it's because I get up at 6 AM every morning and my body is used to it? Lately it's been waking up half an hour before then, and I force it to go back to sleep.

I attempted to get back into Outlander, S2, Episode 1 - and was, alas, reminded of why I stopped reading the books. Read more... )

Back to watching Murderbot (I actually prefer sci-fi to historical drama or hyper-realism). I may try Sinners - next, it's on Max. Finished Murderbot - which I keep wanting to call the Murderbot Diaries. I liked the books better - I don't remember them well enough to know how closely this followed them? Also, I'm not sure I read all of them. It was okay? I like Mensha, Gurathin, and Murderbot, everyone else was kind of annoying? It was heavy on absurdist humor, which was dependent on stupid human behavior, although the Murderbot's snarky sense of humor made up for it. I wonder if it will be renewed? It can legitimately be one season.

Also accomplished today - putting together my drug carousels for the top of my dresser - which worked a lot better than expected. Now instead of being cluttered with pill bottles and medications, the dresser is clean and neat, with all the pills neatly arranged on two clear plastic and somewhat attractive carousels. I also put together a tea and spice shelf for my kitchen, which had decluttered it in an amazing fashion. See picture below the cut:
picture )

I'd take a photo of the other - but some things must stay private. At any rate, bit by bit, I am winning my battle against clutter.

Questions/Memage:

1. What is the flavor that makes you think of summer? Or favorite summer foods?

flavors of summer days gone by )

July Question a Day Memage:

9. Have you ever been on a journey and been held up for a long time? What happened and how late were you at your destination?

Yes, multiple times. Once it was cancelled entirely. Plane travel is alas like that. I went to France by myself at the age of 16 to stay with a French family, on the way home, there was fog in Orly airport, and our plane had mechanical difficulties. long story )

10. Do you enjoy salad? What would be in a typical salad that you would serve/eat?

Yes. Power greens (pea shoots, spinach, argula and shard), green onion, cucumber, a protein (either nuts, feta cheese, seeds or chicken strips), radish, with lemon and/or apple cider vinegar and olive oil.

11. Have you ever used an old-fashioned typewriter? Can you touch type (type without looking at the keys?)

Yes. I learned how to type on one. Then graduated to electric, then to the computer. Yes, I can touch type without looking at keys, I'm doing it now. Not very fast though. I don't do anything that requires hand/eye coordination quickly. Maybe 20 minutes an hour? I'm not a fast typist. It used to matter - it no longer does - because now, we have computers.

12. Do you like sushi?

Quite a bit. My father first introduced it to me. He loved trying new foods, and had discovered sushi at work. I get it all the time. Perfect summer meal.

13. Have you ever tried Tai Chi?

Yes, I was actually taking classes from folks my junior year in college. We'd do it in the mornings in front of our residence. My boyfriend, me, another guy we were living with, and his girlfriend - who was teaching us.
Read more... )
neonvincent: For posts about geekery and general fandom (Shadow Play Girl)
[personal profile] neonvincent
These are the images I created for 'The Last of Us' leads TV nominees at the Critics Choice Super Awards below the jump.

jazzfish: an evil-looking man in a purple hood (Lord Fomax)
[personal profile] jazzfish
The paperwork for my credential has FINALLY gone through, so I am actually done with BCIT. Unless I need to get a transcript or something, I guess. \o/

Meanwhile, have some links. Roughly zero percent of these are cheerful.

The culture war is a metaphorical war (for now), but the metaphor is valid makes two points, neither in as much detail as I would like.

One: "We liberals really need to acknowledge that (a) we are in a culture war and (b) we are the aggressors. Racism, sexism, and homophobia have been features of the dominant culture since... well, pretty much forever. We are engaged in a conscious effort to marginalize -- and, if possible, extirpate -- these tendencies, and we are using whatever means we have at our disposal to do so, including the sword of the state."

Two: "...[A] very deep cultural and psychological problem on the liberal-left, which is a pervasive tendency toward various types of Whig history, in which history itself is more or less assumed to move in an inevitable direction, with a sort of vaguely Marxisant or quasi-Christian eschatological faith that in the end the good guys have to win because that’s the ultimate plot line."

I do not, in fact believe that 'the moral arc of the universe ... bends towards justice,' because why would it? Any bending has to be done by us, by people who act to bend it, and in the face of thousands of years of tradition, fear, and resource-insecurity.

San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. ... There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting -- on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark -- the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
--Hunter S Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"

Related, I Want No One Else To Succeed: "I've been doing this experiment on classes for the past 10 years and not one class has agreed unanimously because there’s always somebody who doesn’t want someone to have what they have because they don’t think they deserve it."

Also related, [personal profile] rachelmanija reviews Dying Of Whiteness: "[W]hite people perceive their own interest as upholding white supremacy and punishing people of color and liberals. They value this so highly that they are willing to deprive themselves of money, material goods, and even their own lives in pursuit of this goal. And they are doing exactly that: literally killing themselves as a side effect of killing people of color, in a kind of cultural murder-suicide." Erik at LG&M reviewed it some years back as well. His concluding words feel prescient. "Until whites stop preferring to kill themselves rather than admit non-whites as full citizens of the nation, fascism will continue to be a serious threat to the rest of us. And to themselves too, but they will be A-OK with that."

Who Goes MAGA?, a fictitious analysis of various personalities. "It attracts those who mistake confidence for competence, who confuse being loud with being right, who think that admitting uncertainty is weakness." (Also links to Dorothy Thompson's 1941 essay "Who Goes Nazi?", also worth a read.)

And, in case the previous weren't depressing enough: Assuming the can opener of free fair elections and a subsequent Democratic victory in 2026 and 2028: "Will America’s non-fascist party have the will to purge the government of fascists?" In which the FBI is conducting witch-hunts against employees who were friendly with people on the director and deputy director's 'enemies lists'. Primarily concerned with There Will Be No De-Trumpification:
Imagine it is 2028 and Democrat X has won the presidency. Kash Patel will only be four years into his term as FBI director. Dan Bongino is now a career employee of the bureau. The entire agency will be stacked, top to bottom, with Trump loyalists.

Would a Democratic administration have the will to purge these Trumpist elements from federal law enforcement?

I’m pretty sure I know the answer. And you’re not going to like it.

There will be no housecleaning of any Federal agencies; Trump appointees will remain in place despite their commitment to opposing Democratic governance and priorities. There will be no significant rollback of ICE's increased budget and powers.

We have the model for this: Obama in 2008 declining to go after the banks; Biden's appointment of Merrick Garland to fail to investigate the 6 January coup attempt. Hell, the pardon and rehabilitation of Richard Nixon.

Well. Two hundred fifty years was a good run, I guess.

Profile

lj_refugees: (Default)
LiveJournal Refugees

August 2022

S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14 151617181920
21222324252627
28293031   

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 15th, 2025 08:51 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios