Author: Doris Lessing
Published: Vintage, 2010 (1988)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 150
Total Page Count: 581,135
Text Number: 2199
Read Because: thus begins a long and futile search for vintage spooky books for spooky season (hard mode: actually set in autumn); ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review:
A family growing untenably large in an unaffordably large house is sundered when the fifth child is born strange: a powerful, violent, and antisocial little boy. His parents believe he's literally a Neanderthal throwback, and this is where the book is weakest: this pseudo-speculative element rises to clutter the resolution, out of step with the rest of the text and gesturing towards some social theme that fails to land. But, on the large, I was quietly impressed by this unpleasant little book. It don't land in nearly as many dated pitfalls as I expected, remaining intentionally and uncomfortably about disability and neurodivergence, competing access needs, and family discord. It's better than a cheap thriller about a demon child, and less fun on account, but maintains a claustrophobic, psychological focus. Compelling! but only intermittently satisfying.
Pre-op appointment today went fine. The surgeon I've got continues to be very cheerful and smiley, despite also being very German. I continue to surprise myself by not feeling very anxious about this.
There's nothing like a private clinic to give you a measure of reassurance that you're in good hands, and they're handing me back to D who is lovely, and then we'll go home to V who does so much support, and who now is being supported by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angelofthenorth while we're away, and so on and so forth.
I am at the center of this network of care, and I'm well aware of my role in it. Soon that will be to not get impatient to do too much. For now, it's to pack the things I need for an overnight stay and try to get some sleep.
I have done this before, as one of the support people, and I've had this central role when I broke my ankle. This feels straightforward to me.
Having been so stressed about earlier stages of this process that I literally wouldn't have persisted without help from D and others, having always had a lot of medical trauma and triggers, I can't say why I've been so calm ever since I got the surgery date, a couple of months ago. I assumed I was just dissociating, my brain trying to protect me from this, but my counselor said I didn't sound like it when I speculated thusly. I said then is it possible that I've just used up all my intense emotion on this in the first, oh, two years of trying to get this far, and I just don't have any left? It was a joke and not a real question, I know that's not how emotions work, but also I don't have any other theories.
I am not in need of any, though. My lack of perseverative anxiety on this topic might be an anomaly but it's a welcome one!
By the time I was asked if I had questions, I had very few (I thought of a few later, of course, but nothing too consequential). I did end up asking one that D had asked me, which can be boiled down to how many nipples will I have this time tomorrow?
(I have three! And while it's a normal part of the procedure to reduce the size of the nipples, D asked me a little while ago if this meant I'd still have the situation I have now which is one normal nipple and on the other side two squished together, like the mitosis diagram where the cells are first starting to separate, or just one. "If it's important to your personality," the surgeon laughed, "you can have all three." I was kinda taken aback at this, I've never thought about it! I've never had a different number of nipples; they've always been like this!)
And in other TMI news: The surgeon suggested I trim my chest hair.
Not shave, he was very clear. Just trim short. Shaving would sting a lot when they have to cover my skin with disinfectant because, he explained, shaving causes lots of micro-abrasions on the skin. But he didn't have to tell me that; I already know from the chili sauce! Anyway, I was very grateful for D's help in the shaving: we got a cheap beard trimmer and he did it this evening. Such a weird thing, to be sitting next to our dining table with my shirt off... He is so conscientious! I liked watching his face while he did it. "I've never shaved boobs before!" he said. It made me really miss Bat, who out of all the people we know is the one who'd probably most delight in hearing about D shaving my boobs. The poem I wrote for him doesn't really have a name but when I read it local pride's trans open mic last year, I called it "the hairy boob poem." I do not like this stubble-y chest hair, though! I had a shower right afterwards, just because that was next on my list, and I hoped it'd calm down the itchiness but no.
I won't get another shower for a week now, and I'm really going to miss them!
Off-Dreamwidth Links
Blogtor Who: Video of the Day – Doctor Who: Survival, 1989
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Completed
Beyond Angry by
badly_knitted (G | Donna Noble, Tenth Doctor)Communities & Challenges
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dw100 announces Challenge #1112: upholsteryIf you were not linked, and would like to be, contact us in the comments with further information and your link.
Biodiversity loss may cost more than expected, since most of nature's benefits kept rising with more species across 423 published studies.
Normal people have tiny imaginations. I look at a massively complex system losing parts at 100-1000 times the usual rate, including small common generalists and whole genera, and I think, "Oh, we're in a mass extinction, that's bad." To me, these are not difficult observations; they are established traits of a mass extinction. I put that together with "Diversity is strength" as a general rule. The less diversity, the less ability a species or ecosystem has to adapt to new threats. Most people just don't think this way. The premises are readily available in basic books. I gather that people read the books, pass the test in class, and forget all about it.
( Read more... )
I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 10/20/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
.
On DW, post tagging works differently than more modern platforms. Here, your tag archive is easily accessible to you and others, and manageable. Check out my list. (I made those nested ones by using tags fandom: wod and fandom: temeraire--the system understands that's actually two nested tags.)
You can even display them as a widget in your blog's sidebar, like I did on mine:
prettyarbitrary.The post creation module also makes it very easy to review and select the tags you want to apply to any given post. So if you have categories you want to keep organized, such as 'my art' or 'my fic' or 'book recs,' apply them consistently and you can end up with a premade library. Which, yes, you can link to. Here's my 'dreamwidth' tag.
How to @ a user or community
Shows like e.g.
pillowfolks. The user or community you link to this way will not get a notification they've been mentioned. But it does make their name linkable.How to do that text box thing I just did
How to make linkable text
Most platforms make this easy to do these days, but hey, just in case you want to do it by hand and you don't know how:
And it shows like this: Here I'm linking to The text I want to be visible.
How to add a read-more cut
And here's how it comes out.
( Your cut will look like this )
( In fact, you can have multiple cuts in a single post, if desired! )
Note that this does automatically start the cut-text on a new line. If you want to hide or black out a spoiler or potentially triggering text in the middle of a paragraph, it doesn't work well for that purpose.
How to embed an image in your post
How to embed a clickable image in your post
Crossposted to
newcomers pillowfolksFandom: Community (TV)
Characters/Ships: Britta/Jeff, Annie, Troy, Abed, Shirley
Length: 1,117 words
Rating: Teen
Warnings: No standard warnings apply
Summary: The invitation to the party clearly said "no costumes" yet Britta showed up dressed in pajamas and holding a baby.
( no costumes )
We were in Tours at the same time as the Journées de patrimoine- the patrimony days- these happen all over Europe at this time of year and it means that you get into buildings not usually open to the public so we took advantage.
Again the windows got smashed during WW2 so the glass is modern:
( See more: )
A castaway on an alien world discovers the local culture has changed dramatically in the thirty years since humans last visited Toka.
Heroes Are Made by Poul Anderson & Gordon R. Dickson
I've been going through a lot with my health recently. Sort of. It's a bit weird and hard to talk about because it's not exactly that I've been in ill health. At least probably not. The waveform has yet to collapse.
I suppose it is fair to say part of what is going on – a substantial part – is about the interaction of being a disabled person and getting medical care: the way I am disabled makes it hard and extra time consuming to go places to meet people, like say going to medical facilities to meet wih medical professionals.
It can also cause exacerbations of my disability. This means a not-huge amount of medical appointments actually works out to be a huge amount of medical appointments for me because it often has a huge impact – sometimes including medically – on me. For instance, it recently took me a week to recover from the consequences of a recent medical exam, where by "exam" I mean "sitting in a chair waiting for the exam to start", and by "consequences" I mean "increased pain the following day, which then fucked up my sleep, which slowed my recovery from the aggravation of my pain, which protracted the disruption of my sleep from pain, lather, rinse, repeat; and also left me exhausted from all the sleep I was missing."
This interacts poorly with the apparent fact that it does not seem possible for me to have any contact with the medical establishment without a medical professional finding a lump or other potential sign of cancer. It has never turned out to be cancer. It just seems that I am... lumpier... than normal. But it means that when I present for medical problem X, not only do I wind up having all the subsequent medical appointments for X, I will also wind up having all the subsequent medical appointments for problem Y, which is Oh Look A Lump Maybe This Is Cancer.
When I got the CT scan of my aorta, they happened to get a look at my thyroid, and, because this was at the same hospital I presented to for the neck infection of 2022, they had a comparator. The radiologist reported that since 2022 the small lump they found on my thyroid then is less small now. So I've been dealing with the follow-up of that (doctor, labs, ultrasound, labs, more doctor).
This raises the obvious question of whether I have noticed any symptoms of thyroid malfunction, for which the answer is: sure, a little – but for decades. Doctors have been running thyroid panels on me forever, and they all come back fine. None of those symptoms have become much worse in the last three years, and one of them has gotten a bit better. The labs are finally showing something a tad off, but not actually that unusual for someone my age.
Then in July, I got a symptom that has nothing to do with my thyroid. It's one of those minor symptoms that they tell people with uteruses who have been through menopause means It's probably nothing. But... call your doctor. Unfortunately, my uterus was already being eyed with suspicion of trying to go rogue with cancer because lumps had already been found there (when my hip was imaged in 2022). I waited hopefully for a week or so for the symptom to go away on its own, and it didn't, so I called my new gynecologist (who is awesome). They weren't able to get me in to see her until mid-September which is just as well because of all the thyroid-related care I needed to show up for. Over the last few weeks the gynecologist (and the lab) ruled out a bunch of less serious problems. I have a ultrasound and a biopsy scheduled for November. This was convenient in that it gave both Mr Bostoniensis and I time to get all our seasonal vaccinations done, which will be useful given how much time it seems I'm going to be spending in medical facilities.
Also, there was a biannual teeth cleaning and a mammogram somewhere in all this.
So that's where things are. I've been dealing with an large amount of medical care which isn't to treat any of the things that have actually been problems for me, but to assess whether I have a problem I don't yet know about. It may all of it be nothing. It is to be hoped that it is nothing. But it has been so far and looks like it is going to continue to be a tiring, stressful, logistically-challenging, and physically painful nothing that hits the out-of-pocket-max on my health insurance.
It's awkward to try to talk about. I have multiple doctors concerned I might have cancer so I am going through tediously much medical care which is all about cancer. But I almost certainly don't have cancer. Just not absolutely certainly. The odds are very low that I do. I probably don't. "Ugh my schedule is all fucked up because of all the medical appointments for cancer my doctors think there is a very small chance I have."
The problem is that the odds just went from one in a hundred to one in twenty. And as we all know, that's a 1 on a 1d20. So this is basically a reasonably easy, but not sure-fire, saving throw.
So: I'm dealing with all doctors all the time, only not really, it's just that it takes very little doctor-visiting to cast a long shadow on my schedule including by causing medical complications of my pre-existing disabling conditions; and none of that medical care is to treat any of those pre-existing disabling conditions; it's not, in fact, to treat any condition at all at this point, since it's all diagnostic (e.g. imaging) or prophylactic (e.g. vaccines); it's to identify whether or not I have a medical condition that, while very bad to have, I am very unlikely to have.
(And no, nobody has done anything futher to investigate the cause of my chest pain back in June. Everybody is too preoccupied by the Oh Look A Lump Maybe It's Cancer question.)
This week, I have a telehealth appointment with my PCP to follow up on whether he thinks I need to do something about the thyroid lump and I have a scheduled flu shot at a pharmacy. In the next month (Nov), I have an ultrasound and a biopsy, the latter of which will be done in an operating room with an anaesthesiologist.
It feels slightly absurd and dramatic, but cancer is bad, so I guess this all makes sense.
( Read more... )
Look. This fic had a fun premise and I got invested when it was still a young WIP and before the author got into the like 200k of feminizing puppy play, which you do you or whatever, but Imma skip because I’m in too deep on the plot to abandon this now, except the author’s latest discovered fetish is apparently unsafe DIY piercings? Whhhhhhhyyyyyy??? 
There is a really fun 50k of plot in this 270k word fic and RIP the fact it is being written by someone apparently hellbent on hitting every single one of my squicks.
Sunday? Mostly the four B's: buying groceries, baskets of laundry, bins, and beans & rice.
I have a job interview (Yay!) on Thursday for which the interviewers want to see a code sample. What luck, then, that I was already in the middle of redoing the Lambert House reception database and app using a real SQL engine and web pages*. That's what I spent all of today and a little of yesterday doing, and I'm maaaybe half done with it. By EOD tomorrow I can at least have it feature complete for current** day-to-day operations. I probably don't have to finish it, but it would be nice to get close.
*As opposed to Microsoft Access. Ptui!
**The existing app has some features that I wrote but that haven't been needed since the start of the pandemic. Now that we're back in the house, Ken the director says he wants those features in the new app and he's going to train the volunteers on how to use them. Rock 'n roll.
In the comments, you may request a fic, minimum 500 words, for yourself or another person of your choice. If you wish it gifted on an archive, I will need user names for whichever platform.
Comment should have fandom (needs to be one I'm familiar with; check tags here or on AO3), characters, a basic prompt, and at least general DNWs.
If you want my original worlds, or an altogether original story, choose a universe from
sylph_and_asp or give me some details on what you want.Remixes of my fic, or that of people with open permissions, is a possibility.
Also, if you want it released on a specific date, tell me that. All gifts will otherwise be posted on December 20th.
I will not write: death fic, rape, harm to kids, permanent animal harm, all hurt no comfort.
I probably cannot write explicit sex or violence but sometimes the muses work for those.
Comments will be screened. If you want your recipient to know you requested it for them, say so. If not, I will make a note on the fic that it was requested anon.
Please don't set me up to troll someone with a gift they will hate. I will ban anyone who does that and tell the recipient who requested it.
A study finds that pesticide exposure disrupts bumblebee ovaries and egg-laying without increasing deaths, raising concerns for these crucial pollinators.
Well, that's horrifying. O_O I wonder if anyone tested to see if it damages other gametes -- like say, human ones. I'm guessing probably not.
Also I wonder if effects like this could be behind the plummeting populations of formerly common small generalists such as the rusty-patched bumblebee.
I voted today.
Oregon has been exclusively vote-by-mail for the past 25 years. I can't actually remember if I have ever voted in person in Oregon. Although "vote-by-mail" is a bit misleading, because we can also take our ballots to an official drop box, which is what I did.
I got my ballot on Saturday, opened it on Sunday, and filled it out today. Most of that was easy, but there were also a few votes about county and city races, and a measure about amending the city charter, that I had to spend some time on.
Even though voting by mail has worked for decades, due to the administration's hostility to early voting, a lot of people are specifically bringing ballots to official drop boxes, which are usually located at a city hall, courthouse, or other public building. Which is what I did today. When I did this, I saw other cars driving through to do the same thing, even though election day is two weeks away.
~
Seattle is going well! I hung out with
madgastronomer on Wednesday and we talked a lot about her Deleria game, which I always have a lot of fun hearing about. The place we went to had copious books, as well as tasty food, which is always great. Tbh, when I'm with MG I often expect the food will be tasty.~
I haven't heard anything else from the org that's supposed to be helping me move out here. A (one of my partner's other partners) works with them, and she said that they sometimes take a couple of weeks after being assigned a case manager, so I'm not too worried yet, since I only got mine last Tuesday. I think if it gets to be like, the 28th and I still haven't heard from anyone, I'll reach out, because a week after that we go to Oregon, and I want to give enough time between reaching out and leaving that if I need to do stuff, I can.
~
I've done one
trickortreatex fic already, and I'm hoping to get a few more done before the end of the month. I have a whole list of stuff I can do, but I'm not as excited for some of them as I am for others. The one I already wrote got long (for me) which is pretty exciting. I rarely write stories over 1.5k, but this one broke past 2k, which is pretty neat.~
I have nothing planned for the rest of the week, so we'll see what I get up to. I'm hoping I can do more words, and some moving-to-Seattle stuff but who knows for certain. K starts work tomorrow, which is great, because all three of us are strapped for cash right now. I have enough to get by, but yeah.
~
I'm now going to wander off and clean a fountain pen, because I've needed to for a little bit now and just keep putting it off. Then there should be dinner and watching more of Widow's Bay, which I'm having a good time with.
Prices on open epics are locked at the time of opening; however, if anyone wants to donate to open epics and buy poetry, spending $100 will get you the quarter-price rate on the new poems, regardless of the rate on the open epic(s) you support. There is one open epic at present, so you may open another if you wish.
We are repeating the special discount for purchases of $100 or more, in which you get poetry at 25% of its original price instead of 50%. (Note that this increases the amount of poetry you get, rather than reducing the amount of money spent; the point is to get this stuff off of my desk. Yes, I can afford it.) That size of donation also makes you a k-fan which comes with some other perks, like a year-end collection of a poetic series. If several folks want to bundle their orders to make the $100 threshold and have one person send it all, that's okay; you'll get the discount and I'll list all your names as donors, but you'll have to decide amongst you who gets the k-fan credit. If you host a pool, please close it the day before the sale closes, so you have time to collect funds and turn them in on time.
Some of the poems are in sequence of related action, so in places there are prerequisites before a poem can be published. They can be sponsored at any time, just might have to wait for publication until something else gets posted first. Those are marked accordingly. I have also made lists of poems which unlock sequels, and poems which have prerequisites.
Linkback perk: The following poems have verses left to reveal. Boost the signal for this half-price sale and tell me which poem you want to extend.
"A Sense of Weather Changes"
"The Loving Embrace of Night"
"Generations of Cooks Past"
"Homefree and Clear "
"One Bite at a Time"
"Mishpocha"
"Changing Your Nature"
"Besa"
About characters and storylines: The storylines feature multiple characters, so if you want poems about ONE specific character, look closely. The thumbnail descriptions here give some indication who features in each poem. The storyline pages are adding precise, complete information about which characters appear in each poem. If you need more than what's already visible, you can ask me.
About timing: If you want maximum choice, shop early. We usually send a batch of things to my father near the end of a sale, and those poems will be posted as I have time.
About pools: Yes, you can combine your funds with other prompters to get the quarter-price rate. Yes, you can combine your funds with other prompters to buy a bigger poem. Yes, you can offer to match donations by other people. However, the wordsmith is not also a math whiz! After several attempts to find a way that I can work with pools and matches, I have concluded that this is over my head. (I did figure out how to avoid generating fractional pennies, though: all initial prices are now whole dollars, which means they cut evenly into halves and quarters.) So if you want to host a pool or a match, make a post for that in your blog or other venue, then comment here with what you're doing and include a link to wherever the discussion will be. You figure out the poems, you collect the funds, and when stuff is fully funded, you send me the money and the list of what it's for. Then I'll post the goodies. Please close the pool in time to collect donations by the end of the sale, so I can start posting pool poems no later than the day after the sale.
Before placing your order, please check this sale page to see what is still unsold! I will try to update the page as things sell, and it's likely to be the case that some poems will be marked SOLD before appearing in posts. People often buy things in batches, which means that selling gets ahead of posting. Also sometimes people ask for the same thing at the same time, so that not all overlaps are preventable. If you have alternate instructions in case you request something that has just sold, please include that in your message; otherwise I'll email you back and ask what you want to do.
Poems that unlock sequels: "Over That I Have Complete Control"
Poems that have prerequisites: "Even If It Is a Little Thing"
FOR SALE
17 poems, $4,868 ÷ 2 = $2434
prices from $5 to $388.50
RUTLEDGE (4 poems,
"Shag Carpet Cuddles"
Story Date: June 2015
Summary: The Vermont Shag Carpet Cats love snuggling with people.
19 lines,
"A Beautiful Paradox"
Story Date: Friday, June 5, 2015
Summary: Johan loses his temper
259 lines,
"A Determined Soul"
Story Date: Monday, June 6, 2016
Summary: Oscar gets excited when a machinist turns up as a refugee.
490 lines,
"Learning New Skills"
Story Date: Sunday, June 12, 2016
Summary: Wrenley Immen teaches her new neighbor about gardening.
311 lines,
Double price for research.
SHIV (7 poems,
"An Essential Part of Life"
Story Date: Monday, March 30, 2015
Summary: A street fight leaves Shiv in need of medical care. Fortunately, he knows a guy at Freeman Family Hospital.
597 lines,
"Strong, Sustaining Institutions and Alliances"
Story Date: Monday, October 19, 2015
Summary: Loudmouth asks Shiv for a favor.
777 lines,
Double-price for research.
"All That Matters Is What You Do"
Story Date: Friday, June 3, 2016
Summary: When Shiv gets a panicky SplatChat message from Persia, he does what he can to help.
476 lines,
"A Thousand Rows Ahead"
Story Date: Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Summary: Shiv discovers the Certificate Library on campus.
183 lines,
"Energy, Immediacy, and a Sense of Place"
Story Date: Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Summary: Shiv and some classmates make a field trip to a farm for Nebraska en Plein Air.
889 lines,
"Over That I Have Complete Control"
Story Date: Sunday, November 6, 2016
Summary: After violent storms sweep over Omaha, Shiv and friends attend a workshop about working with your different certifications in an emergency.
594 lines,
Double-price for research.
"Even If It Is a Little Thing"
Story Date: Sunday, November 6, 2016
Summary: After the certs workshop, Shiv and friends move on to one about handling splinters and blisters.
$408 lines,
Double price for research.
Available for posting after "Over That I Have Complete Control" has been sponsored and published.
OTHER POLYCHROME POEMS (6 poems,
"The Four Marks of True Repentance"
Story Date: Monday, August 13, 2013
Summary: Three former child soldiers move to America.
953 lines,
"When Everyone Around You Has Theirs Bowed"
Story Date: Sunday, April 6, 2014
Summary: Therapy for men's genital injury tends to focus on loss, but Marvis Willing knows the proud history of eunuchs.
304 lines,
"Far Stronger Links"
Story Date: Friday, September 4, 2015
Summary: A coworker's loss inspires support at work.
515 lines,
"Formidable Tasks of Adaptation"
Story Date: Sunday, March 20, 2016
Summary: Denim has had enough of her parents' shit.
359 lines,
"The Basis of Social Life"
Story Date: Friday, July 15, 2016
Summary: Josué enjoys sharing a meal with lots of people.
248 lines,
"Upholding It, Wherever Found"
Story Date: Thursday, November 3, 2016
Summary: Gail Somerville works for Interpol, but feels increasingly uncomfortable with it.
256 lines,
The Gytrash: World’s Scariest Cow
Welcome! Today on the blog we’re walking down a lonely country road, looking for a cow whose appearance foretells death. Which is about as weird as anything we do around here.
So say you’re a ways down that country road. It’s late, and the sun’s going down. Your home’s not too far away, but you’re surrounded by trees, so it’s hard to see too far ahead. Then a little distance off, you spy a cow. Of course, cows are common enough in the country. It probably just wandered away from its field. So you decide to be a good neighbor and return it. But the closer you get to the cow, the more something feels…off. As if the cow is friendly, but maybe you don’t want it to be.
Then the cow heads off the road, wandering into the trees, and you have a decision to make: do you follow it, or not?
So what the heck is a Gytrash? Well, that depends on its whims, presumably. It’s alternatively called a Guytrash or Guytresh, where “trash” comes from “thurse,” meaning “goblin” in Middle English. So it’s some sort of spirit or creature that dwells in Northern England and appears as various large domestic mammals: a horse, mule, cow, or dog. But the point is, it’s not a horse, mule, cow or dog. It’s a supernatural shapeshifter. Sometimes that’s kind of obvious, because the animal will be black with glowing red eyes, something it has in common with hell hounds.
And if you thought that was creepy, the Gytrash also occasionally appears in human form…sometimes as a shrunken figure without a head. So what’s it doing there on that lonely road?
Check out the blog post for the whole story and some writing prompts, such as:
What if you’d like to convince someone else to follow the Gytrash? Say your character’s got an enemy in their village, somebody who drives them nuts on a daily basis. So they start to wonder whether death-by-Gytrash could be considered murder. How would they set somebody up to follow the creepy horse into the woods? Maybe they could tell them a valuable horse ran away to some lonely stretch of forest, offer a reward, and hope for the best. Or maybe your character could try to cast a spell to summon a Gytrash to their enemy’s daily walking path. If it worked, it might just be the perfect crime.
Image credit
DannyeChase.com ~ AO3 ~ Linktree ~ The Vampire Haven erotic romance series ~ Weird Wednesday writing prompts blog ~ Resources for Writers
Original: fanfic: None of this has happened yet
Oct. 19th, 2026 03:47 pmteaotter posting in fan_flashworksChallenge: Ridiculous
Length: ~150 words
Summary: Today's radio broadcast.
( Read more... )
In the Patterns poll, 77.3% of respondants opted for solid colours. Florals and "other" tied (20.5%), followed by checks (13.6%), stripes (11.4%) and spots (6.8%).
In ticky-boxes, the baby dragon character 飞 ("to fly") won 52.3% of the vote, second only to hugs with 72.7%.
Reading
Finished Ancillary Mercy. I love it so much.
Then I got four hours into Alexis Hall's For Real (age-gap m/m BDSM), read by Shane East and Kishore Walker, before deciding it wasn't for me. I've liked some (but not all) of Hall's other books, so it seemed worth a shot, and I think it's an interesting take. No regrets.
Now I'm three hours into Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell, read by Rebecca Lowman, and it's like -- cosy romance? The main character is in the middle of a sad-but-amicable divorce and has started dating a cute guy she's had a crush on since college, who seems to adore her. The only point of friction so far is her self-directed fatphobia. I keep waiting for a shoe to drop, or even a slipper. Like, will the ex will want to take the dog? But so far nothing.
More graded reading. I've nearly exhausted the elementary stories that appeal to me in DuChinese, which means it's probably time to venture into Intermediate (meep!), where there's a series based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Watching
(It makes less sense to separate out Cdramas/Kdramas from other TV now that Andrew and I are watching more Asian dramas together. Feel free to say if you'd rather I keep them separate, though.)
We abandoned Live Up To Your Youth after episode 30 (out of 32), and then I skimmed the final episodes to make sure we hadn't missed anything. (We hadn't.) It's been interesting thinking about why it lost us:
rambling
It started out being about young people moving to Beijing in the 1990s to make it in the arts (a screenwriter, a singer, an actor, an artist, a saxophonist, and a movie extra), but all of them kept getting diverted by the need to make rent, and by the end, they'd all given up on (or, probably more precisely, changed) their dreams and become entrepreneurs or (in one case) a scam artist or (in another) a tour guide in Paris. So from our POV, it felt like the message was the opposite of the title. But the Chinese title is actually more like "Seasons Change", and maybe if we'd gone in with that expectation, we'd have enjoyed the developments more? Idk.There must have been struggling people in Beijing at that time who were ultimately successful in their artistic careers -- so why were we following this particular group? Was the message of the show that young artistic types will eventually become productive members of society too? Because if so, that feels like a bait-and-switch.
We raced through the available episodes of Slow Horses, and then realised the season finale hasn't been released yet, argh. It's fun and gripping, and this season's divergence from the books means we have no idea what's going to happen. LOL at River running around in a suit, like James Bond.
A tiny bit more of Ted Lasso, mentioned here only because we were talking about why it wasn't working for us,
grumbling
and concluded that part of the problem is the show banging on about how no one's interested in women's football, while showing us zero women's football. Apparently that "no one" extends to the showrunners and their perception of the audience too. We have no idea where the team is in the league, none of the players have football-performance-related issues or storylines, and the coaches aren't grappling with any coach things either. I don't personally care about sport, but I think sitcoms work best when they stay aware of their premises.A couple of eps of Shrinking, which shines in comparison. Some of the characters are cartoons, but they're living, breathing cartoons with hearts, and mostly not re-treading old ground. Plus them often being the inevitable authors of their own problems is thematically appropriate in a show about therapists.
Some more Detective L, very fun. It's so obvious that the female lead has a lot of brothers (this is canon, I think?) and is used to holding her own. I love her!
About ten episodes of Never Too Late, the age-gap friendship (f & f) and second-time-around romance (m/f) Cdrama I'm currently solo-watching, which I'm enjoying tremendously. The female lead is uncompromising even when it costs her dearly (she comes across as maybe on the spectrum?), and the show loves her for it, I think. She's grumpy a lot at this stage, for good reasons, but when she does relax and smile, she's completely adorable.
And we just watched a British miniseries, Mr Bates vs. The Post Office, starring Toby Jones and an all-round great cast -- enraging and heartbreaking, omg. The narrative had some minor structural issues due to being a true story, but it was otherwise excellent. Highly rec.
Audio entertainment
There are a few things in my listening history that aren't ChinesePod, but I mostly just started them and then got distracted.
Online life
*waves to you all*
Writing/making things
I've been poking away at a Guardian fic off-and-on for the last week or so, currently 1400 words. Idk, man.
I've also stopped checking in regularly at Write Every Day, but I'm signed up to host the first half of November (stay tuned!), so hopefully that will shift things. If nothing else, I'll be posting little daily life updates.
House
( Not safe for Laireshi )
The toilet hunt continues. My new unsavoury-adjacent hobby is getting people to send me photos of their toilets (or other possible toilets they encounter).
Language Learning
( Cut for length. )
Food
More banana muffins. Next up, scones!
Goals
Organise some more of my house. Relatedly, return my Korean teacher's books that I borrowed mumblemumble years ago. Find an online Chinese tutor. Make cheese scones.
Good things
Last week was pretty social. The weekend was quiet and mostly not. Today is sunny. The cat is adorable and so well-behaved. Hiding from election news/coverage (all elections). Asian dramas. Baking. Still enjoying my tablet. Dreamwidth and all of you. Offline friends. The boy. ♥
Candles / scents generally
lavendar or rose or whatever
4 (10.3%)
sandlewood or leather or whatever
9 (23.1%)
some kind of citrus
8 (20.5%)
cinnamon or other spice
12 (30.8%)
other
10 (25.6%)
no candles
17 (43.6%)
other other
5 (12.8%)
ticky-box of this sad little character 哭 means to cry
10 (25.6%)
ticky-box full of Like Potion No. 9
4 (10.3%)
ticky-box full of staying up too late and waking too early
21 (53.8%)
ticky-box full of 哭 me a river
13 (33.3%)
ticky-box of a leopard wearing multi-coloured claw-polish
17 (43.6%)
ticky-box full of cartwheels and backflips
14 (35.9%)
ticky-box full of hugs
31 (79.5%)
[Challenge #216: Acerbic] Original Fiction: 'It's Just a Kiss Away'
Oct. 19th, 2026 03:16 pmbut_can_i_be_trusted posting in vocab_drabblesFandom: Original Fiction
Author:
but_can_i_be_trustedRating: G
Word Count: 167
Characters/Pairings: Original
Notes: Crossposted to
lyricaltitlesSummary: Something in his eyes shifted.
( It's Just a Kiss Away )
https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/8413273
I'm sad but I've been kinda waiting for this to happen. I paid for my services on the platform but I couldn't seem to get large scale adoption despite what it offered. It was great for community interaction but individual that wasn't fandom was just dry and that was it's real downfall, I think. Just sad to see another long-format platform that accepts adult content, go down.
Gideon first started having an upset stomach in 2023, aged two and a half. It took us until late 2024 to get him to see a specialist, who wasn't able to spot anything, and we were left baffled, but with medicine (Mebeverine) which helped a lot. And so things carried on with that making his life okay for the last two years.
About 3 weeks ago his stomach started getting worse. He was completely attached to the microwaveable fuzzy giraffe that he clutched to his stomach, he was crying intermittently from pain, and it was clear that we were going to have to go back to the doctor. We'd made a half-hearted attempt at an exclusion diet when he was 3, but excluding food from the diet of a very picky 3-year-old is...not easy. But at age 6 he was capable of understanding what we were doing, and once we explained a couple of times he was entirely on-board with us trying a week without milk and then a week without wheat, to see if we could at least exclude the most common foods before we went back to a specialist.
4 days without milk did nothing to fix things. But I did notice that Gideon was regularly feeling just fine before dinner, and then rubbish afterwards (highlighted by me getting him to score his pain out of ten several times a day) And, as his evening meal is universally fish-fingers, potato waffles, and beans, and as wheat sets off my IBS, I decided one night to substitute his fish fingers for my gluten-free fish fingers. Which, again, made no difference.
Somewhat baffled, but with all of the obvious options excluded, I switched his beans out for peas the next night. And he felt fine. His stomach was rated a "9.5" at bedtime. So I did some research and discovered that baked beans are a prime source of galacto-oligosaccharides - part of the O in FODMAPs (which I am very aware of because of my own IBS), and a common source of food intolerance.
It's now been a week since then, and 4 days since he has had his stomach medicine (which was previously thrice daily) and he's been fine. I am relieved, delighted, and ashamed for not having worked it out years ago. I've let his school know that they should stop with his lunchtime dose, and we'll see how it goes.
One interesting point along the way - when trying a milk-exclusionary diet at home we tried him on almond milk in his cereal, and his lips got all puffy and he felt all weird. So we've dropped that very quickly, and at some point over the next few weeks I'll take him to the GP and ask for advice on allergic reactions to nuts.
Firstborns! Firstborns are great, I am so fascinated by firstborns, because you have this MASSIVE cultural value, that what is born first is better and/or separate in some way from what is born later. And then you have in Tanach and basically no one is the firstborn, and Yaakov even gives the firstborn inheritance to a different kid, who he liked better. SUCH TENSION BETWEEN SHOW VS. TELL.
But it definitely, very clearly, is something that is so important to them, and how that all works out in practice for all the stuff.
( Read more... )
1-5Guess what? I'm going to be so easy to please for
yuletide, because I will enjoy anything created for these fandoms! I love all my requested characters, and I really look forward to seeing your take on them. And I welcome treats in any medium!First, let me get the technicalities out of the way:
Do Not Wants:
Animal harm
Cannibalism
Mommy/Daddy kink
Mpreg
Omegaverse
On-screen non-consensual sex
Reader insert
Everything else is optional. If you are the kind of writer who looks at a fandom title and a set of characters and is immediately inundated with ideas, have at it! If you want to know a bit about my general fic preferences or want some prompts, please read on.
( General likes )
The Requests:
15th Century CE RPF: Anne Neville Queen of England
I would be happy with any take on Anne Neville, from any point in her life: her tumultuous history as the daughter of the Kingmaker, her life before she wed Richard of Gloucester (Margaret of Anjou as a mother-in-law? Interesting!), her marriage to Richard, her life as queen, her last times spent with her son or Richard, or even haunting someone after her death.
Slice of life fiction with historical detail is just as welcome as epic passions and hidden agendas. Feel free to think as far outside the box as you wish -- did Anne secretly solve mysteries? In space? Whilst time traveling?
Argylle (2024): Aidan Wilde, Elly Conway | Rachel Kylle
There is so much I like about this movie, starting with the fanfic-y premise and tone, moving on to the delightful characters, and even the meta-ish commentary on the lives of the characters vs their book counterparts. This is one of those fandoms that you can take absolutely seriously or with glorious abandon, and I'm happy with either approach.
I'm particularly interested in the dynamic between Elly and Aidan, both before Elly learns of Rachel and after. Pre-canon, you could reveal more about Aidan's reactions to Rachel's disappearance. You might explore further Aidan's feelings about Elly vs Rachel before and during the movie. Or if you want to go post-canon, how do Elly and Aidan negotiate life together? Are their spy lives over, and what does that mean for them? Is Elly a reliable narrator? Is Aiden? Feel free to explore the ramifications of the last scenes of the movie or ignore it, and don't hesitate to pull in other characters if you wish.
Regarding ships in this movie: while I am very pro Elly/Aiden, I am perfectly fine with other relationships they might have had with partners of any gender in the past or those they might explore together with others in the future, as long as Elly | Rachel and Aiden are the main focus. Do you want to write Elly/Keira/Aiden? I'm here for it! Alternatively, do you want to write canon divergence where Elly and Aiden fuck sometime during the movie? Yes please!
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999): Michael McCann, Paretti (Thomas Crown Affair)
I really enjoy fictional, unproblematic cops. McCann's slightly jaundiced take on life marries so well with Paretti's quiet humor. I am happy to see anything with them pre-, during, or post-canon, related to the events of the film or completely removed from it. What other cases do they handle? Are they friends off the job? What didn't we see on the screen, involving just them or with Catherine or other law enforcement? Do either of them ever hear from Catherine or Crown again? If you want to try a crossover, perhaps they intersect with other New York characters like the casts of L&O: Criminal Intent or White Collar? What if they were lawmen in different times or places like the American Old West or in space in the future? I'm just as happy with slice of life vignettes as casefic. If you want to put them in a romantic relationship, feel free! But I am fine with colleagues, friends, or work spouses too.
Nero Wolfe - Rex Stout: Lily Rowan
Lily Rowan's character progression over the course of the series is one of my favorite things about the Nero Wolfe books. I would be happy to read more about her in any era, from her "early" life as a vamp (such as their first meeting in Some Buried Caesar) to her more centered, confident appearances later on (a la In the Best Families or Death of a Dude). If you'd like, consider her "&" relationships with Archie and Wolfe -- or Lily/Archie or Lily/Archie/Wolfe, since she's possibly the only woman in America who has necked with Nero Wolfe! I'm just as happy with an AU (maybe where Lily, Archie, and Wolfe have set up house together for years?) as I am with a canon compliant story. Perhaps Lily gets an adventure of her own, or she is instrumental in providing a solution that neither Archie nor Wolfe are capable of providing?
Feel free to write about Lily without reference to the other characters in the Nero Wolfe canon, or present her solely from Archie's or Wolfe's or Saul's or Inspector Cramer's point of view -- but please always make Lily front and center in your creation! Anything about Lily will be my jam!
Richard III - Shakespeare: Richard III
Shakespeare's Richard III is one of my favorite villains ever. He's smart, wickedly funny, and morality is only opt-in for him. How do you want to approach writing about him: do you take him at face value, or is he so over the top that no one can take him seriously? I'm happy to read something dramatic or serious (maybe a missing scene from the play or a prose re-creation of a scene) or something utterly frivolous (an AU where they all work in a restaurant and Richard wants to be top chef?).
I have not specified any other characters from the tagset, but feel free to include them in relation to Richard, or pull in anyone else from the play. Some possible approaches: why does Anne Neville succumb to this "bottled spider"?; there are a number of omens and curses in the play -- what if there was actually magic in them?; what if some or all of the lamenting females in the play joined together against Richard?; does Richard's remorse and courage in the last act make him a sympathetic character?; what does Richard's missing horse think of all this?
Thank you for your time, don't forget to
yuletide!Today we went to an aquarium that was recommended by the person who recommended me this clinic I'm going to. Another of my online friends was interested in coming along, so it was really fun to meet him and hang out a bit. We laughed a lot about bow difficult it was for the sighted people to find animals in the various displays. It was nice to hang out with someone else who wore a mask and had his own Aranet co2 monitor with him!
We had a late lunch at a café after that and parted ways. D and I needed to do a little bit of shopping -- a couple ingredients for dinner, batteries, and I got a nice waterproof jacket with a hood for not much more than the repair to my hoodie might have cost, and I expect V can do something about the zipper once we're home so this seemed like a better solution.
We came home, I made dinner with the adventures of using a table spoon to stir ingredients in a too-small pan and learn how the touchscreen stove controls worked... I said it reminded me of cooking while camping, in terms of stacking up a series of improvisations and compromises and hoping that the result is edible. D (who was suffering by that point from a chronic illness flareup that left him sore and exhausted) was very happy with the food, which was a relief!
We watched another episode of Spider-Noir and answered questions from the clinic about my meal choices, asked some more about other stuff. My pre-op appointment is tomorrow afternoon and it's our only real plan for the day; the rest of the day we'll play by ear.
After three nights here of never feeling sleepy at all without melatonin, I'm absolutely exhausted tonight.
( Rogan, no. Rogan, stop looking into that styrofoam abyss. ROGAN NO STOP IT ROGAN )
This all-new Cohors Cthulhu Bundle presents .PDF ebooks of Cohors Cthulhu, the 2d20 System tabletop roleplaying game from Modiphius Entertainment of cosmic horror in the Roman Empire.
Bundle of Holding: Cohors Cthulhu
Remember that we will also have our regular nominations period, where you will be able to nominate up to 10 fandoms with 10 relationships each. If you only have a handful of fandoms/relationships to nominate and are confident about nominating through AO3, you can wait for our regular nominations period if you want to.
For this pre-nominations period, we'll be transferring fandoms/relationship tags from last year's tagset to this year's tagset upon request. We are also allowing importing of fandoms/relationship tags from the 2024 tagset as well, but we require you mention if the tags are from that tagset since they need additional checking by us in case any fandoms/disambiguation has changed since 2024.
There are limits on what you can transfer:
- Each person can only request 10 fandoms be transferred. If you need more fandoms than that for some reason, please use the regular nominations process to nominate everything else. (If posting anon, please sign with a consistent name/pseud/emoji!)
- For fandoms with 19 or fewer relationship tags, we will transfer all relationship tags. Use the instructions under "Full Fandoms" .
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Fandom Name Changes
If there have been changes to your fandoms that could change the fandom tag, now is a good time to let us know about them. This is especially true if a fandom nominated separately last year is in danger of combining into a larger fandom this year.
For example:
One Piece (Anime & Manga) and One Piece (Live Action TV 2023)
Pride and Prejudice (TV 1995) and Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock (TV)
Tagsets
Spreadsheets of fandoms and relationships in batch load format:
2024 Tagset
2025 Tagset
Please check your nominations have been transferred correctly after we confirm (allow for 48 hours before asking about your nominations). If you see any issues in the 2026 tagset (such as not seeing your transferred fandoms or relationships cut short), let us know immediately.
For Full Fandoms (19 or fewer relationship tags)
Please reply to this post with your list with each fandom on a new line. Fandoms must be exactly as they appear in the tagset spreadsheet.
For Specific Tags From Fandoms (20+ relationship tags)
Please reply to this post with your fandom and the tags you want transferred in batch load format (Fandom,Relationship), with each relationship on a new line. All tags must be exactly as they appear in the tagset spreadsheet.
Check the first comment for an example on how the transfer must look like.
If you have any questions about the process, please leave a comment on the announcement post (link). Only use this post to transfer nominations from the two last year's tagsets.
Some housekeeping
In the Assignments section of the AO3 FAQ, we've clarified our guidelines on unusual formats, such as poetry and interactive fiction. Those formats are opt-in - so if you're excited to get them, please mention them in your likes.
We've also expanded the Rules section to include standards that the mod team promises to uphold. These aren't new policies - however, it seems fair and reasonable that we should be transparent about our own guidelines while setting guidelines for participants.
If you don't have an AO3 account and you want to sign up, please email yuletideadmin@gmail.com directly! We have some invite codes to send out & you otherwise won't get through the invite queue in time.
If you're writing an OPTIONAL letter, please link it in the sign-up form, please ensure it's published in an accessible format (tips welcome in comments), and please ensure it's complete immediately after assignments go out. When you complete a letter, consider adding it to the letters post.
Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.
Little truck in the big woods
Seasonally appropriate lunch box
Suspiciously friendly chipmunk
Eight wildlife experts on Mount Elgon, Kenya, named 35 different medicinal plants they believe elephants use, and 5 others that mothers reportedly give to calves.
The list of things that "only humans do" just keeps getting smaller and smaller.
I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.
EDIT 10/19/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 10/19/26 -- We ran errands in Charleston. My main event was gathering seeds in the Charleston Food Forest and Coles County Community Garden. I got to meet one of the people who runs the community garden! :D First time I've even seen anyone else out there. She was thrilled that I was using it. I got a lot of flower seeds and five or six small green peppers. The temperature was a delightful 69-70°F but without a cloud in the sky, that sun was relentless. Ugh. I overheated from solar absorption. I saw lots of honeybees and butterflies out foraging today.
EDIT 10/19/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 10/19/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.
Age group: 40+
Country: France
Subscription/Access Policy: open to all, rarely post NSFW, do mind close-minded people
Fannish Interests: I've been an anime/manga fan for 30+ years so I know and like a lot (a LOT) of series. I tend to obsess on sports series but I haven't found one I love much since Haikyuu!!. Currently I'm enjoying Boku no Hero Academia and playing Hades a lot.
I like to post about: I mostly post fanarts, fanfics, and recs :)
About Me/Other Info: I love to get art requests and do art trades. I tend to be a single-minded-OTP girl but will definitely post about lots of series. I used to be on LJ (same handle) and thrive to find the sense of community fandom we used to have over there 15-20 years ago.
Fandom: Viola come il mare
Author:
veronyxk84Pairing: Viola Vitale/Francesco Demir
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: none
Word count: 200 (Ellipsus)
Spoilers/Setting: Set post-S2. Alternate reality.
Summary: Viola talks Francesco into taking a test from a magazine.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction created for fun and no profit has been made. All rights belong to the respective owners.
Challenge: #530 Ridiculous
—
( READ: Llama Drama/Double drabble )
☙ ☙ ☙
Okay, first thing’s first – Max did not pose hands-on-hips-chest-thrust-out no-looking the explosion behind her. Don’t get me wrong, she’s definitely no-looked plenty of explosions, but she doesn’t really do the Superman pose. So the image they’re showing is probably a “for illustrative purposes only” generated image.
Also I think Max’s Ixah holo-disguise is making her boobs look bigger. It’s definitely not because I’ve accidentally been afflicting her with cup-creep over the last few dozen pages.
If you recall, Thothogoth is “Dominus Secund” of The World Takers. Yes, I know on that linked page, he calls himself “The World Taker” not “of The World Takers,” but he’s being aspirational there, not to mention trying to sound tough to the flying gold woman. The thing is, demon society is rather hierarchical, and there’s eleven other “Secunds,” besides Thom, who each have 12 subordinates below them, who each have below them 12 subordinates, etc. Yeah, it’s a weirdly rigid structure for beings that claim to be all about chaos. Well, speaking of chaos, were something permanent to happen to Dominus Prime during the tournament, (or even just while he’s commuting to work or whatever) there’d probably be a heck of a power struggle to claim that top spot.
Green Strider is the longest-in-the-queue waiting Patreon cameo I had. I think he’s been waiting since about a week after I set up my Patreon actually. I just never quite figured out how to fit a… oh, heck. I just realized it’s “sentai,” not “zentai.” Yeah, I know zentai is the skintight onesie, and sentai is the genre of people wearing skintight onesies and fighting goofy rubber monsters. I’m not gonna change it. It makes “the mysterious zentainium force” even funnier to me. Anyway, I never figured out how to fit a sentai character into the comic, but now here we finally are. I think the reference picture I have is from a City of Heroes character creator maybe? But it’s just the one shot and it’s kind of covered in glowy… bits, and it’s just a single angle, so I have to simplify the suit design a bit and make up some of the rest, but hopefully he will be amusing in his role as a UCBA finalist.
Oh, look who it is in the vote incentive. The NSFW version is finally up at Patreon. Plus a bonus pic.
I think she would get in trouble for doing this. She’d mess up the… floor of the waterfall? Is that what it’s called? The receiving pool? No, probably not that. Anyway, she’d churn things up and cause a ton of weird erosion.
Since you might be wondering, Niagara Falls is about 165 feet high, so Babezilla obviously doesn’t have to be full sized. I’d say she’s about 175-180 feet tall here?
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
noun
a heavy iron frame, cage, or stone slab construction placed over a grave (often newly occupied) during the 18th and 19th centuries to deter body snatchers (resurrectionists) from exhuming the corpse for medical dissection.
example
In addition to mortsafes, vaults (also known as morthouses), were built. The vaults were used to store coffins until it was safe to bury them elsewhere. Wikipedia
The body protected by the mortsafe belonged to a young woman who we found suffered from a disfiguring skin and bone disease, which meant that her remains would have fetched a premium for the body snatchers. "Dig Finds Evidence of Grave Robbing" by Mary Griffin, The Birmingham Mail Jan 2013
origin
from mort dead body (via Old French from Latin mors death) + safe
I just noticed that there were a cheap pair of earbuds - £24 reduced from £50. And I noticed there was a new model out this year, so out of pure curiosity I checked the last time it had cost £50. And the answer, according to Amazon's own AI, was basically never. Their data only went back a year, but it was never above £32.
That seemed weird to me - I thought that if you showed something as reduced then it had to have been on sale for the full price within the last few weeks. So I went and checked some more detailed data where I discovered that it had been £50. For lots of very short periods - for example literally between 1:41 and 3:03 in the morning. Which strikes me as not actually compliant. Certainly not in Europe, where the comparison price is the lowest price in the 30 days before the "sale" started.
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Rhiannon, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,478 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 530 - Ridiculous
Summary: All Ianto wants is one night off. Is that too much to ask?
( Read more... )
Gardening
Poem: "Nameless, Faceless"
History
Birdfeeding
Today's Adventures
Creative Jam
Science
Birdfeeding
Food
Philosophical Questions: Technology
Climate Change
Food
Follow Friday 10-16-26: Philosophy
Psychology
Linguistics
Birdfeeding
Wildlife
Space Exploration
Science
Birdfeeding
Music
Community Thursdays
Artificial Intelligence
Poem: "Put Your Power on the Table"
Poem: "The Function of the Citizen"
Today's Adventures
Birdfeeding
Food
Cuddle Party
Food has 29 comments. Philosophical Questions: Genetics has 25 comments. Philosophical Questions: Rights has 41 comments. "Vocabulary: Cobra Chickens" has 21 comments. Poem: "Confidence, Trust, Believing, Strength" has 34 comments.
There will be a half-price sale in Polychrome Heroics from Monday, October 19 through Sunday, October 25.
"Save All the Pieces" belongs to The Big One. It has 30 new verses and needs $27 to be complete. Stylet talks more about what giant ground sloths eat.
The weather has been considerably cooler here. It rained a little, and since then I've seen many toads in the yard. :D Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a pair of cardinals, and a squirrel. I heard a woodpecker drumming and a bluejay screaming, but didn't see either. However, while searching overhead, I spotted at least one and possibly two nuthatches on a pine tree. I heard a great horned owl calling. Currently blooming: sweet alyssum, marigolds, million bells, petunias, portulaca, nemesia, fan flowers, pineapple sage, tomatoes, frost aster, zinnias, purple aster. Ripe fruit: tomatoes. Harvest is mostly done. More leaves are falling.
Acerbic
adjective
acer·bic ə-ˈsər-bik a-
Sharply or bitingly critical, sarcastic, or ironic in temper, mood, or tone.
acerbic commentary
an acerbic reviewer