solarbird | Reading

Thanks to BorrowMyDoggy, we've connected with a neighbor who lives ridiculously close, a retired couple who need help walking their 3-year-old labradoodle. Teddy was named by a tiny grandchild and it's the perfect name for him: he's got the softest curly fur and he loves everyone; when we went over to meet him he almost immediately snuggled into Vee and fell asleep pressed up next to them.

The two of us took Teddy for a small walk on Friday when I was done with work, just as it was getting dark, and Vee did a walk over the weekend while D and I were out and yesterday at the same after-work time but I wasn't able to join this time thanks to an overrunning meeting and counseling at 5:30.

I just got back from walking him now; we didn't go far but I left him sniff around for about 20 minutes. It was really lovely to be walking a dog again.

We met a couple of humans in the park who I didn't recognize and a dog that I did; they know Teddy well and gave him lots of pets, and they thought they recognized me -- "was it a jack russell you had?" Aww. I explained why a dog they knew was being walked by a human they didn't; Teddy's dad is going to have a knee replacement very soon. These two could tell that he's been having more trouble walking. It's lovely how the dog people notice and look out for each other.

malurette

Titre : Trois petits dragons
Auteure : Yue Zhang
Langue : tranduction française du chinois
Type : album jeunesse
Genre : mimi

1ère parution : 2023
Édition : Lécole des loisirs
Format :

(croisé à la librairie de chez mes parents l'an passé ; ça avait l'air mimi)

Trois petits dragons qui vont à l'école de la météo ne font que des bêtises et se retrouvent sur Terre sous la pluie qu'ils ont causée. Ils vont devoir apprendre de leurs erreurs et les réparer...

Aww c'est tout mimi !!

Very cute children's books about three weather-making little dragons mucking it up and having to fix it.

canyonwalker

Things feel like they're spinning out of control at work. No, it's not related to my personal desire to quit though it's possibly for similar reasons. There have been a rash of departures recently— so many that I'm concerned we're losing the ability to get things done.

The recent spate of departures began a few weeks ago. Two members of a team adjacent to my function announced their departures. While they're just 2 from among a team of 15 worldwide they were working with a significant number of my customers. At least two of these customers are asking us "WTF?" right now as the team struggles to fill the gaps.

The reason it's a struggle to fill those gaps is that the team was already cut down to being a skeleton crew. There's no spare bandwidth for other team members to jump in and help. And, in fact, the two employees' reasons for leaving were directly related to the overaggressive cuts a few months ago. They lost trust in management and moved on to jobs at new companies that seemed more stable and offered them career growth.

The next departure that affected my work came right before Thanksgiving. "West", a technical field leader, announced he was leaving. Because West has an executive title I wondered how much of his departure was due to the C-suite and board making cuts, versus West leaving for his own reasons. Some scuttlebutt I've picked up argues West left for his own reasons— though among those were hum not being offered career growth by the C-suite. Either way, his departure is a huge loss to us in technical sales.

Now, these departures were already enough of a struggle to handle, particularly in the customer-facing work I do. But then yesterday a small avalanche of high-level departures hit:

Our Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), the head of sales, is leaving. Unusually, he's leaving before the fiscal year is over. Typically when an account manager or sales leader leaves they finish out a quarter or the fiscal year. That really makes me wonder how much of this decision was his vs. the CEO's and board's. My best hypothesis given underlying sales data is that he was told he'll be dismissed after the FY is over, and he chose instead to leave on his own schedule.

Also, the head of HR is leaving. I'm not sure anybody cares about that, other than her underling who's getting promoted. 🤣 But it's always concerning when members of the C-suite and the next level down start leaving at the same time. What do they see that the rest of us don't?

Minutes after the message announcing the CRO's departure arrived, the CRO sent a message announcing the departure of several people underneath him. We're losing a technical VP— my grandboss— and two Senior Directors. Again, when multiple leaders are leaving at the same time, the rest of us are left to wonder: What risk do they see that we don't? What do they lack confidence in that they've asked us to believe?

So, with all these departures there are problems on two levels. First, execution. With so many people leaving a levels from individual contributors to senior leaders it will be harder to get critical things done for the next several months until new people can be brought onboard and gotten up to speed. Second, strategy. What do all these leadership departure portend? How many were driven by the board of directors— and are their cuts going from overly aggressive to just plain nuts? How many departures are because leaders don't believe the future they've asked the rest of us to buy into?

dialecticdreamer

Cold Comforts
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 2, complete
Word count (story only): 1245
[Early December 2016]

:: On a cold, sleeting day, Shiv wants to spend part of his time off at Flights of Fancy. The problem is that he finds the door iced shut. He and Fancy get to work, and later get to relax together. Part of the Shiv an Omaha story threads in the Polychrome Heroics universe; this story was written for the December prompt events, from an idea suggested by

ysabetwordsmith, with my warmest thanks! ::

On to part two

Sleet pummeled the sidewalks, bouncing away and clattering against Shiv’s boots on both top and sides as he picked a path toward Flights of Fancy. The hood of his sweatshirt had long since soaked through, but the thick jacket and gloves kept his body warm. The corduroy pants were needed in the nasty weather, but the faint noise that they made was nearly too much for him to bear. He slipped, slightly, and spent the next two blocks focused on taking slow, deliberate steps and rolling his weight from the ball of his foot back to his heels before taking the next step.

By the time he reached the door of the bookshop, the hood was too wet to be any use against the gusting wind, and the cold air had slapped his cheeks berry red.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: awake

malurette

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

james_davis_nicoll

A study of the carefree life of an animal at the bottom of the food chain.

Bambi (Bambi, volume 1) by Felix Salten (Translated by Jack Zipes)

rionaleonhart

I've just finished the Silent Hill 2 remake!

'James, you can't keep doing this!' I exclaimed, as James prepared to jump down yet another seemingly bottomless pit. I paused for a moment to consider. 'Although he might be thinking the same thing about me. I always have to press the jump button twice before he actually jumps, as if he's going "are you sure it's a good idea to jump into this pit?"'

( Notes on the Silent Hill 2 remake, up to the end of the game. )

The ending stats screen gave me two stats that combined alarmingly: I'd been playing for 19h4m, or 1144m. I'd checked the map 1,131 times. I can't believe I checked the map almost exactly one time per minute.

That's a lie. I can absolutely believe that. I'm frankly surprised it wasn't more; I love checking the map in Silent Hill. It makes me feel so much more secure when I know where I am and where I'm going!

I just darted into the sitting room, where Tem was hanging out, and picked up the Silent Hill 2 remake's box to bring back to my bookshelf.

Tem: Going off to be alone?
Riona: I was just thinking that it does look like that. 'James and I are going to go upstairs now.'
Tem: 'James and I are just going up to my bedroom.'

What a fantastic remake! It's so clearly built on a deep love for the original game, and that really pays off. I absolutely loved it. It's been so good to spend time with James Sunderland, one of my most longstanding and unfortunate blorbos.

conuly

Watch on YouTube

conuly

I have the distinct impression that Adrian Tchaikovsky doesn't like Donald Trump.

( Read more... )

rfemod posting in

girlgay

rarefemslashexchange is a multi fandom exchange focused on f/f ships with two or more female characters (canon or genderbent) and/or genderqueer characters that you feel would fit in a f/f exchange, with less than 250 works on AO3- completed, in English, using the otp:true filter. The minimum requirements are either a 500 word fic or a nice sketch.

Nomination guidelines are here.

2025 Links

Tag Set | AO3 Collection | Rules & Guidelines

2025 Schedule

Nominations: December 1-10th (closes at 10PM PST) [ Countdown to nominations closing ] | [ In your timezone ]
Sign-Ups Open: December 13th
Sign-Ups Close: December 27th, 10PM PST
Assignments Out: approximately December 30th
Assignments Due: February 6th, 10PM PST
Assignments Revealed: February 13, 10PM PST
Creators Revealed: February 20th, 10PM PST

purplecat posting in

dw_community_promo

A border of purple flowers with Gen Prompt Bingo Round 29 and the url genprompt_bingo.dreamwidth.org superimposed over it.

genprompt_bingo is a low commitment multi-fandom, multi-media bingo challenge.

Its aim is to provide bingo cards of gen-style prompts to be used as inspiration in creating fic, images, meta, fanmixes, vids or any other kind of fannish activities. Although the prompts themselves are "Gen" (i.e., no prompts are specifically about romance or sex) fills may be of any genre, style or rating.

Prompt lists are renewed at the start of December and April. New cards can be claimed then even if a previous card has not been completed.

Round 29 is open

james_davis_nicoll

Shadowrun 5th Edition scenarios and campaign sourcebooks.

Bundle of Holding: SR5 Missions (repeat from 2024)

dialecticdreamer

Christmas Preparations
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only):
[December 1, 2016]

:: Bennett wants to do something to help new neighbors in need during “the giving season.” The project quickly expands, in good ways. Part of the Mercedes story arc in the Polychrome Heroics universe, this story was prompted by

siliconshaman, with my thanks, and half a dozen ideas for follow-up stories. Feel free to ask for more!

Bennett’s neck clicked and popped as he stretched in front of the laptop. He shut it off with a few keystrokes, closed it, and locked it in the file drawer before pulling out the old-fashioned handwritten ledger on green paper. He scanned the numbers, then began to smile. He had five days before Jules’ next scheduled video call, and planned to put those days to good use. He checked the schedules for the next few days, checked the planned teleport delivery of the bioreactive ink for the custom tattoo that would take up all of days three and four, made a vague note on his vidphone as a reminder, and began the night walkthrough to close up the business.

He tucked a notepad in his shirt pocket, and stopped at nearly every step of the process to jot down ideas.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

canyonwalker

Here are a few thoughts from our Thanksgiving trip on what worked well, what didn't work so well, and what we might do differently the next time around.

1. Red-eye flights barely work. I confidently booked a red-eye flight out to the East Coast to start the trip after a tolerably okay red-eye experience flying to Toronto in August. In doing this I realized an important difference: the Toronto flight was in first class, enabling me to sleep for most of the flight. This trip I flew in coach, and I was stuck awake most of the overnight flight, unable to fall asleep even though I was tired because I was so uncomfortable. As a result I needed a nap midday— and was able to get that sleep only by snoozing in my rental car in a parking lot! I will be cautious on future trips to book red-eyes only when I have a safe place to crash out for a few hours the day I arrive.

2. Traveling Light is Right. We travel with only carry-on suitcases whenever it's feasible, as it saves us time not checking/claiming luggage at the airport and zeroes out the risk of lost/delayed bags. Plus, it's easier checking into/out of hotels when we can carry all our bags in one trip without the aid of a luggage trolley. Part of what makes flying carry-on-only feasible on a trip like this is planning to wash laundry halfway through. On this trip that plan was easy; we did laundry at my inlaws' house. Other trips we do laundry at a hotel, which generally doesn't suck at mid-range hotels where they have coin-op machines that are usually in good condition and rarely busy. This trip we also packed lighter than usual figuring we might need extra space in our bags to bring new things home. It's a good thing we did that because Hawk bought a bunch of rocks. 🤣

3. Unclear if we'll do this again. 😦 We had several missed connections on this trip. No, not the airline kind of missed connections; missed connections with people. Half my sister's family was out of town, three of my nieces ghosted us/nope'd out of meeting, and one of my cousins canceled at the last minute. In addition, Thanksgiving dinner felt repetitive this year. It's the same people, doing the same thing, over the same food, as the past few years. And most of us are older and less dynamic than years ago. It's lost its spark of novelty. Don't get me wrong; I did enjoy the visits we managed to have. But it seems like trying to rush a bunch of stuff together into this holiday week produces as many disappointments as enjoyments. Maybe next year Hawk and I should vacation on our own over Thanksgiving and pick another time, perhaps one in the good-weather parts of the year (i.e, not snowing as we leave) to see people.

james_davis_nicoll

Handy advice for overly enthusiastic bookworms (you know who you are)

Things I Wish I’d Known When Starting a Book Collection

letzan

High-level stats for week of 2025-11-18 - 2025-11-24

Total works categorized F/F on AO3: 9992 (-256 from last week)

Works I classified F/F: 5516 (-155 from last week) (2351 new, 3165 continued)

0.57% of all 961364 AO3 works I've classified F/F were updated this week

A few callouts this week:

Wicked is back in the top five on the strength of the new movie. Since we still have strong showings from KPop Demon Hunters, League of Legends, Hazbin Hotel, and Wednesday, the result is that Harry Potter falls from the top five for the first time in four years.
Alien Stage returns after a week away, and Game of Thrones returns after a few mnths away. They replace Once Upon a Time and Boku no Hero Academia.
Wednesday celebrates 160 consecutive weeks on the chart, and Project SEKAI COLORFUL STAGE! reaches 180 consecutive weeks.
Elasticella's dreamwidth-based sapphic stocking stuffers exchange is ramping up for its seventh year. Sign-ups are open until December 6, and fills are open through the end of December.

( Full top-20 table and description of methodology after the jump )

james_davis_nicoll

Having saved hapless human Tully from the kif, hani star captain Pyanfar Chanur is faced with the consequences of saving hapless human Tully from the kif.

Chanur’s Venture (Chanur, volume 2) by C J Cherryh

neonvincent

I got a preview image I liked better for Giving Tuesday in Michigan 2025.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: sick
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: Gremloe Twitch stream

conuly

Which I nearly forgot about, but here we are!

You can buy points here, and then spend them on a paid account.

And then you can post a poll!

Poll #33906 Gratuitous poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 25

View Respondents

On a scale of one to ten, crickets or walnuts?

View Answers
Mean: 6.32 Median: 7 Std. Dev 2.66

1		2 (8.0%)
2		1 (4.0%)
3		2 (8.0%)
4		0 (0.0%)
5		3 (12.0%)
6		3 (12.0%)
7		7 (28.0%)
8		1 (4.0%)
9		2 (8.0%)
10		4 (16.0%)

conuly

I don’t want to say
things were indescribably
bad exactly

but things were
indescribably bad exactly

I don’t want to say the tide
went out and left him
gasping—a landed fish precisely

but the tide did indeed go out
and left him gaping—a dropped ghost

to make matters worse
god gathered up all of god’s things
and paddled out on that tide
so he swore he would die

and to make matters worser still
he rocked back and forth
in a bubble rather boggy and sad

ate nothing but thistles therein

I don’t want to pretend
things were very much worse
than they were
but they very much were

*********

Link

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solarbird

I'm on Mastodon!

November 2025

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Page Summary

cosmolinguist - Teddy
malurette - [livre] Trois petits dragons
canyonwalker - It Feels Like It's Spinning Out Of Control
dialecticdreamer - Cold Comforts (part 1 of 2, complete)
malurette - (no subject)
james_davis_nicoll - Bambi (Bambi, volume 1) by Felix Salten (Translated by Jack Zipes)
rionaleonhart - You Can't Try Bras On In Front Of James; He'll Find It Very Confusing.
conuly - Merry Early Christmas!
conuly - Just finished Bear Head, the second Dogs of War book
rfemod in girlgay - Rare Femslash Exchange Nominations are Open!
purplecat in dw_community_promo - Gen Prompt Bingo Round 29
james_davis_nicoll - Bundle of Holding: SR5 Missions (repeat from 2024)
dialecticdreamer - Christmas Preparations (part 1 of 1, complete)
canyonwalker - Thanskgiving Trip Retrospective
james_davis_nicoll - Things I Wish I’d Known When Starting a Book Collection
letzan - Femslash week in review: 2025-11-18 - 2025-11-24
james_davis_nicoll - Chanur’s Venture (Chanur, volume 2) by C J Cherryh
neonvincent - Rejected video for Giving Tuesday post
conuly - Don't forget about the DW points bonus sale
conuly - The Early Years by Mark Waldron

収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

cheers, love - the cavalry's queer!

Reading

Teddy

[livre] Trois petits dragons

It Feels Like It's Spinning Out Of Control

Cold Comforts (part 1 of 2, complete)

(no subject)

Bambi (Bambi, volume 1) by Felix Salten (Translated by Jack Zipes)

You Can't Try Bras On In Front Of James; He'll Find It Very Confusing.

Merry Early Christmas!

Just finished Bear Head, the second Dogs of War book

Rare Femslash Exchange Nominations are Open!

Gen Prompt Bingo Round 29

Bundle of Holding: SR5 Missions (repeat from 2024)

Christmas Preparations (part 1 of 1, complete)

Thanskgiving Trip Retrospective

Things I Wish I’d Known When Starting a Book Collection

Femslash week in review: 2025-11-18 - 2025-11-24

Chanur’s Venture (Chanur, volume 2) by C J Cherryh

Rejected video for Giving Tuesday post

Don't forget about the DW points bonus sale

The Early Years by Mark Waldron

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November 2025

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