isis: (squid etching)
[personal profile] isis
But I was flying back from the Bay Area on Wednesday, and catching up with things the last few days, and heading down to the Phoenix area on Monday for a Thanksgiving Week vacation, so it's now or never.

This past trip was to visit my brother and his family, and also to do crosswords and cryptics with his group, who I meet every Saturday morning on a Zoom-equivalent for puzzling; I was there in person two years ago and wanted to do it again. But since I was going to be in the area I coordinated with an OTW meet-up group for dim sum on Sunday and met several of my fellow tag wranglers and other volunteers, and then got together with [personal profile] hamsterwoman for a lovely afternoon of chatting and walking and sightseeing along the Embarcadero.

So, part of traveling is being on planes! And being on planes means lots of time for reading! I had been intrigued by a Yuletide promo post about a book duology, and though I didn't manage to get to it before Yuletide, I did find it at my library in time for this trip:

The Philosopher's Flight and The Philosopher's War by Tom Miller - this is an alt-history set in World War I with an odd kind of magic, "empirical philosophy", which involves drawing arcane sigils with different materials to do things like make plants grow faster, heal the sick, fly, and summon the wind. It's dominated by women, who are generally more talented at it, but the protagonist of the series is a young man who dreams of following in his mother's footsteps as a rescue and evacuation flier (literally, flying) for the military. Alt history and unusual magic systems are catnip for me, but I was a little worried that it being about the rare talented man in a woman's field would detract.

Actually, it was fun and funny, and inverted some sexist tropes and history in an entertaining way. Robert is not better than all the women, he's just pretty good, and better than most men. And seeing how the system is rigged against him in ways both overt and inherent holds up a mirror to real-world sexism: he has to work twice as hard to be considered half as good as a woman, he needs a special dispensation to study sigilry at Radcliffe, and a (female) general's recommendation to join the rescue corps, where he's called Sigilwoman 3rd Class, and addressed as "ma'am" - but eventually is regarded by the women around him as their "little brother", and distinguishes himself in his work as equal to his "sisters". A thoughtful treatment of politics and the military, too, and loads of unintended consequences wherever you turn. I enjoyed it!

What I've recently finished watching:

S3 of The Diplomat, but woohoo, that was a fun one. A little more relationship drama than I personally would have liked, but it was interesting to watch Kate basically being Hal while being oblivious to that fact, and also, people being shitty to each other while also acting in what they honestly perceived as being in the best interest of their country (or the world), and also, how actions have (often unintended, see above) consequences, and you just have to grit your teeth and deal. Also, can I just say how great it was to see a competent president? Especially a competent female president, who gives no fucks as to what she looks like to people who at the end of the day don't matter, for the important things. (Not that she's not flawed, but still. Better than the actual venial disaster we have.)

While I was at my brother's, we watched the French stop-motion animated comedy A Town Called Panic, which was an absurd fantasy-adventure delight. I laughed a lot! It was very weird! One of my nieces insisted I watch a couple of episodes of Bee and Puppycat with her, and - that was also very weird. I am not really sure what it is about! It is a cartoon about a girl and her possibly alien pet, who brings her to ... an interspacial temp agency? I may actually try to watch it more seriously this winter while riding the stationary bike, it's very pretty, and part of my ??? is that I couldn't hear the audio very well, but if I watch it at home at least I can use subtitles (and headphones).

We are now watching S4 of The Witcher.

What I'm playing now:

I finished Monument Valley, and have started poking at Monument Valley 2 (put it on my laptop and played a little while I was in California). I also have started playing Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, though I'm not sure I'm going to stick (heh) with it. It's really designed for a controller, so that's what I'm using (and the haptic feedback is nifty) but I also suck at using a controller, so my web-swinging movement is far from smooth and combat is mostly random button-mashing. I also feel like it's very distracting, with all of the CRIMES! I'm supposed to go stop while I'm just trying to get to my next quest!

So as I mentioned last time, B started playing Horizon Forbidden West and I've been looking over his shoulder every so often because I loved that game. Finally I decided...to start a NG+! Which I've never done. I never replay games! I tried to replay Dragon Age II and it annoyed me so much I didn't even get to Kirkwall. But I went right through the tutorial (fun!) and into Chainscrape, and..I might keep playing? We shall see! I've turned up the difficulty since I'm so buff and have so much gear. I think I need to look up how these things go...

2025.11.22

Nov. 22nd, 2025 12:24 pm
lsanderson: (Default)
[personal profile] lsanderson
‘The French people want to save us’: help pours in for glassmaker Duralex
The brand, which evokes nostalgia and pride, hit its €5m fundraising target within hours and orders have soared
By Kim Willsher in La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/22/french-people-want-to-save-us-help-pours-glassmaker-duralex

We know ultra-processed foods are bad for you – but can you spot them? Take our quiz
Test your knowledge in eight questions to prove you know your onions from your emulsifiers
Natasha May
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/21/ultra-processed-foods-quiz

Review
Children and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels
The return of Charlie and Lola; the second lives of trees; the dangers of time travel; a YA Bluebeard retelling and more
Imogen Russell Williams
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/nov/21/children-and-teens-roundup-the-best-new-picture-books-and-novels

At least 41 dead as relentless rains flood Vietnam
Kelly Ng
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceq0q3e2j17o
igenlode: The pirate sloop 'Horizon' from "Treasures of the Indies" (Default)
[personal profile] igenlode posting in [community profile] writethisfanfic
It's the weekend! What weekend writing plans do you have? Any snippets to share?

It's distinctly chilly, and I'm thinking about getting up and putting on some fingerless gloves, and maybe a rug round my shoulders until the heating comes on. *checks thermometer*; yes, it's down below fifty degrees again. That's always the point at which it starts to feel Unreasonably Cold For Inside. Down to 50F I can cope with thermal underwear and a silk scarf...

Thank you?

Nov. 22nd, 2025 10:59 am
senmut: An orange-blue gradient field, with a black and white star in the right upper corner, reading "A Star to Steer By, A Wind to take me home again" (General: One More Time)
[personal profile] senmut
I just received 2 new pair of jeans, from something that had been on my wishlist back in July. If that was you, thank you.

If not, Amazon burped and repeated an order for me.

Drown them in a pail of caudle

Nov. 22nd, 2025 04:36 pm
oursin: Illustration from medieval manuscript of the female physician Trotula of Salerno holding up a urine flask (trotula)
[personal profile] oursin

These people are AWFUL: Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world

(And I can't believe that there aren't women who didn't survive, particularly given the whole 'germs aren't a thing' ideology that's mixed up with it. Or at least pretty badly damaged.)

I've always been somewhat side-eyeing Grantly Dick Read and his gospel of 'natural childbirth' without fear and pain, because it was a bit vibes based on anecdotal stuff of his, but at least he was a trained medical professional, and he advocated antenatal classes teaching women what to expect when they went into labour, and giving them breathing exercises so that they could breathe through the contractions and so on and he did not suggest women giving birth alone without support.

This is also - like being anti-vaccine - coming from a very short period of historical time: in this case one in which maternal and infant mortality had plummeted and was no longer something people were more or less used to, or had at least heard cases of within their general circles.

These people are delusional.

Okay, there can be a lot wrong with modern obstetric practice - ?particularly in the USA, for reasons - but nature is so not your friend in this matter.

The Ghosts of Merry Hall - review

Nov. 22nd, 2025 03:57 pm
watervole: (Default)
[personal profile] watervole

 

 

 

Disclaimer - I'm a good friend of the author -but if I hadn't genuinely liked the book, I'd simply have avoided writing a review.


I had high exceptions, as I know Heather - MA in creative writing, judge for the Carnegie medals, etc.
But, also :) far more importantly from where I stand - she's an excellent musician for longsword dancing!

I've done a fair bit of editing work in my life, so I tend to evaluate novels on both how well written they are, and how much I enjoyed the story.

Ghosts of Merry Hall is very well written

You can always tell which character is narrating. Firstly because a new chapter starts whenever this changes, and secondly because they have really distinctive voices.

You learn about Nell - a mother with a teenage daughter who is recently separated from her husband, and Dolly the ghost, by the way they view the world around them.

Dolly desperately wants to make contact with someone, to tell the story of what happened in the past, but making contact with the living is hard. And every effort leaves them more scared and less likely to want to remain in Merry Hall...

As the haunting gets more intense, the atmosphere gets tenser and tenser.

We learn about the past through Dolly's memories - and very interesting memories they are - but Dolly in the present day is desperate for those memories to be more widely know, even if there is a cost to the living.

It's interesting. As a reader, I'm sympathetic to Dolly, but I'm very glad I'm nowhere near her!

I don't normally read ghost stories - I don't really like being scared... So, for me, the book is only a four. But for someone who enjoys a good haunting, it may well be a five.


PS. I love the cover art. It was nice working through the story and realising where each element in the artwork had come from in the story

Book Bub

Nov. 22nd, 2025 03:45 pm
watervole: (Default)
[personal profile] watervole

 I'm taking time out from social media and also reading the news.  It was pushing my stress levels too high (though DW is much better in this regard than Facebook is).

 

But having picked up yet another Pratchett ebook at a low price and another book that looks interesting for under a quid, I suppose I ought to mention it.

 

https://www.bookbub.com/ebook-deals/free-ebooks  allows you to sign up for a mailing list (I limit it to one post a week, as it's too much if they send it daily) that tells you of discounted books on Kobo and Amazon.

 

They're usually popular old classics like Pratchett (that I've already paid for in paper form, so feel no guilt about getting a cheap copy), popular books that have already sold in vast numbers and are now on a brief offer for those who weren't tempted at full price (just read a really interesting biography of Captain Cook that is not something I'd previously have considered reading), and occasionally books that are newly released and they're hoping to generate publicity by getting positive reviews.  I suspect many of the books listed on their website fall into that category.

 

You can tell it what kind of books you prefer, so I get mostly offers for SF/fantasy/non-fiction/bestsellers.  Getting a selection of about ten a week works for me, and I suspect I'm buying about one a fortnight. (I bought two this week, one Pratchett and one by an author I've never tried, but looked interesting)

 

I'm also spending more time reading books in the time that was previously wasted doom-scrolling FB and the newspapers!

stonepicnicking_okapi: black coral (matissebnw)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi
On Monday, I realized that money was missing from my wallet. I had missed money 2 weeks ago and thought it was odd but ultimately decided it was just forgetfulness but then after going to the ATM on Friday, I missed more money. My sons deny it was them, and frankly, I think it was Minor. Something in the key of buying things for the Girlfriend. I searched their room and backpacks and couldn't find it. But it has put me in a spiral/funk that is really hard to crawl out of. Either I am going crazy or I have given birth to a THIEF! The boys' father said let him handle it and he has handled absolutely nothing. So, there's tension on that front too. I will not be gaslit in my own home. I will not. And the worst part is that I haven't felt like creating but not creating makes me feel even worse (I discovered this week) so last night I forced myself to do this. I need to get my groove back. I don't know how. Finding out the Pope opened a rave for an archbishop's 75th birthday in Slovakia has lifted my spirits. I love the comments, especially, 'Your move Hillsong.' Thank you to [personal profile] dine for the original link. https://bsky.app/profile/vuc.bsky.social/post/3m636ghnab22k

30 in 30: Crystal Series (McCaffrey)

Nov. 22nd, 2025 11:08 am
senmut: orange and blue lynx (General: AhsokaKitty)
[personal profile] senmut
AO3 Link | Storm Driven (100 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Crystal Singer Trilogy - Anne McCaffrey
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Killashandra Ree [Crystal Singer Trilogy]
Additional Tags: Drabble, Slice of Life
Summary:

Killashandra needs to beat the storm






Killashandra touched the cocooned crystal set briefly, reassuring herself that it really was free, it was hers, it was safe…

…and a discordant howl of wind reminded her of why she had hastened to pack it.

Her cutter was almost forgotten in the cargo bay, but she stumbled as she stood from the case with her new triad of blues. She hastened to get it clamped into its place; she vaguely remembered replacing it all too recently.

Another shriek of the incoming storm, and she threw herself into the pilot seat. In moments, she was racing Ballybran's fury to safety.

Plum Dreams

Nov. 22nd, 2025 02:03 pm
[syndicated profile] ao3_theowlhouse_rss_feed

Posted by Snazzeo

by

While separated, Amity Noceda-Blight is moping around Blight Manor during a snowstorm. She hears a knock on the door and sees the last person she expects to see, shivering on her porch.

"C-can I come in?" Luz Noceda asks.

Words: 2542, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

The Muse is Fickle

Nov. 22nd, 2025 08:35 am
pshaw_raven: (Deer)
[personal profile] pshaw_raven
Some good news - I was trapped on the couch this morning while Crowley slept on my lap, and I finally figured out how to start a story I've wanted to write called "The Reeds." Weird fiction set in Muna. I now feel like I have a decent road map through the events of the story, but it will also require me to finish up a comic called "Keiko's Fairy Gourdmother," which to be fair I ought to do.

I'm going to try and hustle a little to get my chores and workout done so I'll have some creative time this afternoon. Yay!
flo_nelja: (Default)
[personal profile] flo_nelja
Catégorie : Ceux qui ignorent qu'ils n'existent pas (Fatalité - Deuil - Esprit - Fragment - Secret - Combat - Peintresse - Art - Oeuvre française)



Un graphic novel en un seul tome, sur la conquête de l'Empire Mexicain par Cortes. C'est très beau, à la fois pour l'art, magnifique, et pour le symbolisme. Ceci dit, je suis déçue malgré tout : Malinche elle-même, soumise à plein d'inteprétations complexes et contradictoires (comme le dit la postface), est ici purement un symbole, pas même une personne, encore moins que Cortez et Moctezuma qui sont eux-mêmes déjà pas mal symboliques. Je voulais plus de psychologie pour elle, de la politique !
creepy_shetan: cropped color manga cover artwork for Devil May Cry 5 -Visions of V- of Nero with an exaggerated expression, looking like he's itching for a fight (Nero // who you calling dead weight?)
[personal profile] creepy_shetan posting in [community profile] comment_fic
[ If you're interested in being a Tuesday-Thursday guest host, you can sign up here. Thanks! ❤ ]
↑↑↑ Available dates:
December 16 & 18
December 23 & 25
December 30 and January 1


Hey, y'all~ :3 Here's a shiny new Free for All to help get your weekend started. There are no themes to follow for prompts or fills. If, perhaps, you missed a prompt theme that you liked, or you've had any ideas that didn't really work with Tuesday's or Thursday's posts, then today's your chance to prompt 'em. Be free, and have fun! ✎

Just a few rules:
1. No more than five prompts in a row.
2. No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
3. Use the character's full name and the fandom's full name for ease in adding to the Lonely Prompts spreadsheet.
4. No spoilers in prompts for a month after airing, or use the spoiler cut option found here. Unfortunately, DW doesn’t have a cut tag, so use your best judgment when it comes to spoilers.
5. If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space, or use the spoiler cut.
6. If your story has possible triggers, please warn for them in the subject line!

Prompts should be formatted as follows: [Use the character's full names and fandom's full name]
Fandom, Character +/ Character, Prompt

Are today's prompts not catching your eye? No worries, because we have plenty of older prompts that just might do the trick! You can browse through the comm's calendar archive (here on LJ or here on DW) for themed and Free For All posts, or perhaps check out Sunday posts for Lonely Prompt requests. (Or, you can be like me, and try to save interesting prompts as you see 'em... and then end up with multiple text doc files full of [themes + links + prompts] that you can easily look through and search for keywords.) Multiple fills for one prompt are welcome, by the way! Oh, and you are very likely to find some awesome fills to read as well, and wouldn't it be nice to leave a comment on those lovely little writing distractions? ~_^

We are on AO3! If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3, please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2025 collection.

If you are viewing this post on our Dreamwidth site: please know that fills posted here will not show up as comments on our LiveJournal site, but you are still more than welcome to participate. =)

If you have a Dreamwidth account and would feel more comfortable participating there, please feel free to do so… and spread the word! [community profile] comment_fic


A friendly reminder about our posting schedule: Themed posts for new prompts go up on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Saturdays are a Free for All day for new prompts of any flavor. Sundays are for showing Lonely Prompts some love, whether by requesting for someone to adopt them or by sharing any fills that you've recently completed.

The Friday Five - Tune In

Nov. 22nd, 2025 07:00 am
pshaw_raven: (Haunted TV)
[personal profile] pshaw_raven
1. What's your favourite TV network? I know we don't really have these any more, so this one's kind of difficult. Actually all of these are difficult, as I am not a big TV watcher. But in high school, we got cable, and I tended to spend my summers more or less glued to the old movie channels like Turner and AMC. That was how I became such a movie nerd, and I still prefer to watch all those "classics." I even watched those Esther Williams films and some of the Francis stuff.

2. If you could create your own channel, what would it be? I guess classic movies, but it would be cool to also have bits where we'd show the old theater ads and the pre-film shows like cartoons and shorts. Most of that has probably been lost to time. At night we'd show some of the racy stuff like from the 1920s when it was okay to show *gasp!* breasts.

3. What TV show did you watch as a child, that you wish they would bring back? I was an indiscriminate TV watcher as a kid and liked it more for the same reason that adults leave a kitchen radio playing quietly all day. The background chatter was comforting.

4. What show have you always hated, and wonder why they ever made such a dumb show? So many choices. I have a visceral dislike for most of the "Law and Order" shows, and find police procedurals boring. News opinion is awful, no matter which side it's coming from. And I hate all "reality" TV.

5. What TV show's seasons would you buy on DVD? I always had a fondness for Northern Exposure. Unsurprisingly, The X-Files, though they had an identity crisis about halfway through. I watched The Sopranos pretty closely when it was airing on HBO, that was a helluva good show. Twin Peaks?

Just One Thing (22 November 2025)

Nov. 22nd, 2025 12:22 pm
nanila: me (Default)
[personal profile] nanila posting in [community profile] awesomeers
It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

(no subject)

Nov. 22nd, 2025 12:19 pm
oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
[personal profile] oursin
Happy birthday, [personal profile] gwyneira and [personal profile] ironymaiden!
beanside: (Default)
[personal profile] beanside
It's Saturday, and the cat informed me that 6:30am was the time to get up and get her food. After that, I couldn't get back to sleep, so I'm going to do my entry and then go grab a shower to try to wake up.

Work wasn't too bad yesterday. The phones weren't horrible, and I was able to get people in for appointments relatively quickly. I did make 1 fuckup, but I think I fixed it. Nothing huge, just misread an entry in our grid, and misscheduled something. I was annoyed with myself, but I'm human, and things happen.

The rest of the day was fine overall. I finished work, and Jess and I watched Hazbin Hotel's Broadway Special. I haven't watched the show, but Jess has shown me some of the music from it, and it's pretty much a banger.



Maybe one of these days, I'll watch an episode. Jess really loves it, so I might give it a try.

Today, we have a few errands. We did need to be back by 3 so the sister could go to an inlaw birthday even, but now BIL is sick, so she's just going to stay home and be plague free, so we have the full day. I need a little bit of time to get ready for game, but I think I know what I'm doing. We're going to start off the campaign with individual vignettes, where everyone will tell me how they died, and then get on the train to the afterlife, transforming into a nightmare version of themselves. I'm looking forward to it. There should be some good RP, and the party can meet and start to form a party, and we'll go from there. Not expecting much actual play tonight, probably mostly meeting the characters and doing a wee session Zero. I've done a lot of it online, but I will read out the list of triggers and see if anyone has any hard nopes for what they want "onscreen."

But first, errands!

Okay, time to go forth and get a shower. Everyone have a perfect Saturday!!

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