birguslatro | Network

The hair on my forearms is strange these days. Instead of the smooth flow of soft hairs like usual, there are short bits of hair that seem to stand straight up from the arm.

I'm pretty sure I singed much of the hair while I was tending flames at the fire pit on Friday. Oops.

In other news, the weird spot on my left leg is getting lighter. I think it's healing, however slowly. I guess that hydrocortisone cream helped.

jazzfish

I want to be reading What We Are Seeking (Cameron Reed's new book). It is extremely brain-intensive, though. After a week of gaming and not-sleeping-super-well on a hotel pillow, I am just not there.

Midway, aka Not O'Hare, is a perfectly decent little airport. I seem to be the only person I know without at least one O'Hare horror story, but then it's been over a decade since I've gone through there. Regardless, Midway's probably nicer. Also it seems that all airport wifi now has "watch a thirty-second ad before we let you connect," which both irritates me and makes me a little sad. And the glory of the world is less than it once was.

My iPad's charging port is dead yet again. The Enter key on my keyboard is failing to register sometimes. Bah, technology.

I'm in Midway for another couple of hours and then I fly to Minneapolis for a week. And on Friday I have an interview for a "document analyst" position, which sounds like "tech writer with extra steps." The interview is in-person, which I wasn't expecting; I'm just glad it's coming at a halfway convenient time. Sometime this week I shall have to go out and acquire Interview Clothes. This is less annoying than it might be since I don't actually own much in the way of Interview Clothes, at least not that fit.

I'm trying not to think too much about the interview. Not til I'm someplace where I can relax a bit more, anyway. It's with the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council, so it's an In to Local Government which is where I'd like to be. Per the job description it's got some GIS-esque stuff going on; and by my back-of-envelope calculations it pays enough to live on and save a bit. It would be nice, I think. It would certainly be nice to have one of my two Big Immediate Problems solved.

My fingers have been vaguely itchy for the viola the last several days. This is... it's new. I'm enjoying it. I left my violin at Steph's last time so I'll have some outlet / ability to practise, at least, and I've got a flashcard app so I can see how many tunes I can actually remember.

I wish I'd realised sooner how... how good musicking is for me? How it's something that can actually call to me? Something like that. I'm honestly a bit startled that anything does, let alone music. I'd just sort of assumed that Feeling Drawn To A Thing was yet another thing about me that doesn't work like everyone else.

And I don't know how I could have possibly gotten here, not just from where I was but from any plausible diversion from that. If my folks had let me take bass instead of cello, like I wanted to, I'd probably wind up playing bass guitar, which would be pretty cool but not really the same. If one of my early cello teachers had offered something outside of Standard Classical Repertoire... I might have gone somewhere with that? I really don't know. Water under the bridge, regardless. I wish I'd gotten to "here" sooner; I'm pretty happy with where I've gotten to.

Ann C--, a violinist who shared a teacher with me for several years in Fayetteville, pinged me last month to let me know that our teacher had died. I'd been vaguely intending to reach out to Dr Boyce and let her know that I'd picked up viola, but never got around to it. Every so often I try to look up Ms West née Wiley, the bassist/cellist that Dr Boyce handed me off to once I'd gotten past her level of expertise on cello, and I never manage to find anything on her. Tegen, my pre-plague viola teacher, has gotten married, moved down south, and started cranking out babies, Jesus aphorisms, and MLM crap, which is disappointing but not surprising. Musicians: just as human as everyone else. (Ann, incidentally, is also Jesusy, but she appears to at least be the kind of Jesusy that's appalled by the current mask-off Republican party.)

No real resolution to this, which seems fitting for something written in a liminal space. I think I shall go and try to find some tea, and sit and think and zone out for awhile.

My centre is collapsing,
my right is in retreat.
Impossible to manoeuvre.
Situation excellent.
I am attacking.

--Marshal Ferdinand Foch, First Battle of the Marne

emperor

The announcement of the 2026 Hugo shortlist reminded me I never posted about how I voted for the 2025 awards. I'm afraid it's now too late to add any reviews beyond what I wrote at the time, but here is how I ranked the finalists (the winning entry in bold):

Best Novel

The Tainted Cup
A Sorceress Comes to Call
Someone You Can Build a Nest In
The Ministry of Time
Alien Clay
Service Model

Best Novella

The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
The Butcher of the Forest
The Tusks of Extinction
What Feasts at Night
The Brides of High Hill
Navigational Entanglements

Best Novelette

The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea
By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars
Loneliness Universe
Lake of Souls
Signs of Life
The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video

Best Short Story

Stitched to Skin Like Family Is
Marginalia
Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole
We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read
Three Faces of a Beheading
Five Views of the Planet Tartarus

spiralsheep

- Current reading, in honour of Fluffy Seed Day (which is like Flying Ant Day but earlier):
"Carefully she plucked off some of the fluffy white seeds and tucked them into her wallet. When she picked the last ones, two of them sailed away, higher and higher, far above the parked cars and toward the strip of blue sky that was poking out between the buildings. The dandelion plants by her feet had probably come here the same way. What an adventurous way of sending your children out into the world. For a moment Caspia pictured her parents putting her up on the windowsill and strapping a parachute to her back. 'Good luck, Caspia!' Then a gentle nudge and she would soar high up into the sky, surrounded by hundreds of other children, whose parents had sent them out into the world in the same way, to find a place where they could grow flowers and roots."

- Egg-shaped comedy nuggets: Bob Mortimer finally pushing David Mitchell over the edge in Would I Lie to You. The Chris Rea egg incident will never stop being one of the funniest stories I've ever seen told:
Bob Mortimer's egg tales (12mins youtube).

- Lena Chamamyan singing Lamma Bada Yatathana (4mins youtube), her version of an Andalusian traditional song from a poem by Ibn al-Khatib. Bonus track in a different style للحياة و البقاء بسلام (2mins youtube) aka "To live in peace on earth / To stop all wars and suffering".

( 5 British spa towns what I has visited )

( 2 spa towns To Visit )

frith

Best news fluff piece of the week: On Monday April 13th in Regina, Alberta, "Missy" the husky skipped out on a vet appointment to walk herself to a "doggy daycare" where she hooks up with her "boyfriend" "Shaggy" on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This boyfriend may look like a shag carpet that washed in with the tide, but between the animal attraction, Missy's owner pussyfooting around the nature of this friendship and "shag" as his name, I'm suspecting that "Shaggy" is a 'boyfriend with benefits'.

The moral of the story is, when the shag calls, all vets are off.

$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

mdlbear

Bad news for the week: Ticia's kidneys are failing, and she's lost a lot of weight since her last check-up. She's been with us for 11 of her 19 years; I don't know how long she'll last. But I've ordered kidney diet cat fud and high-calorie treats. About all I can do. She makes me think of Rodin's "Belle Heaulmière".

And of course that's on top of everything else going wrong in the world. Also, I'm not getting much done. And I somehow screwed up my order for a Travelpro backpack, and left off the house number. Fortunately I was able to update the address, so I got it the next day. It's supposed to fit under an airplane seat, though I have my doubts. It's also supposed to be blue, but it's a really dark blue.

I did have a zoom call with my financial advisor Thursday, mostly about estate planning. Seems like a good time for it. And I heard back from the place that repaired Scarlett -- they're going to look for the missing charger. Fingers crossed. Also heard from the place that's repairing Lizzy; they have no idea what's wrong and are consulting with the factory. I suggested that they should send us a replacement. Haven't heard back about that.

Big congratulations to this year's href=https://filkontario.ca/2026/04/19/2026-filk-hall-of-fame-inductees/ >Filk Hall of Fame inductees, Margaret Davis, Tim Griffin, and Amy McNally. For more musical mayhem, have some Angine de Poitrine

Also, Krakens in the Cretaceous. Possibly as long as 19 meters. Better hope your time machine doesn't land in the water.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Current Mood: deeply annoyed at myself; worried
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: Angine de Poitrine - see post

cmcmck

The great hall. Just look at that hammerbeam roof!

( More pics! )

Current Mood: photographical
Current Location: 'ere

rachelmanija

This is the first book I've read by Tim Pratt. I had somehow gotten the impression that they wrote very highbrow, abstract sf that I probably wouldn't enjoy. I have no idea where that came from because this novel, which I tried because of the delightful premise, is completely not that and I enjoyed it very much.

Zax Delatree, a social worker/mediator from a utopian post-scarcity world, develops a condition where he travels to a random other world every time he sleeps. Through a lot of trial and error, he also discovers that he can take with him items on his person, and also other people if he's touching them when he falls asleep. If they're asleep too, they will arrive fine. If they're not, they arrive insane. ("The Jaunt" is one of many spottable influences.) Here's Zax and his companion, Minna, explaining their situation:

"Do you know the word 'multiverse?' [...] We're travelers, sort of. Sort of explorers. And sort of refugees."

"If this is true, the implications are immense."

"The implications are also very small and also personal," said Minna.

This is the most charming and heartfelt novel I've read in a while. It's mostly a picaresque, with Zax and Minna (and assorted friends and pursuing enemies) visiting all sorts of colorful other worlds, exploring and surviving and trying to be of use. The many worlds are great, I loved Zax and Minna and the friends they meet, and it's full of sense of wonder and hopefulness and people being kind under extremely difficult circumstances. I also liked that Zax and Minna are friends who are explicitly not romantically or sexually involved with each other.

There is a sequel, Prison of Sleep, which I have ordered.

cmcmck

The palace:

( More pics: )

Current Mood: photographical
Current Location: 'ereabouts

glaurung

Joanna Russ was one of my favourite authors in college. I discovered her via the Adventures of Alyx, then was blown away by the Female Man, and then tracked down every book by her I could find. I read the Female Man a couple times on my own before eagerly signing up for two courses that included it on their reading lists.

I hugely enjoyed Farah Mendlesohn's book of Heinlein criticism, and Farah is also a friend, so I super eagerly pre-ordered this and was all but bouncing up and down when it arrived in the mail last month.

And then I read it, and... I don't know why, but it just didn't click for me.

Not that there's anything wrong with the book, it's a perfectly good study of the novel, delving deep into the structure of the narrative and exploring its roots as a modernist novel in the tradition of Virginia Woolf, looking at how previous critics seem unable to grapple with the plot properly, briefly discussing the influence Russ's Jewish heritage may have had, among other things.

But somehow, instead of being full of ideas and thoughts after reading it, I just put it on the shelf and moved on to the next book.

I think this is a me problem rather than a problem with the book, and I don't have any idea why.

frith

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth starts now, whoop whoop! I don't guarantee nuthin' but I'll give posting everyday for three weeks a shot. ^_^ It'll be a little easier to find fresh pictures to post now that the plants are waking up and waving their sex organs at the bees, butterflies and anything else that can be bribed to bump and grind past their pistils and stamens. Mother Nature will try anything.

rmc28

Last weekend I was in Sheffield with Cambridge Huskies, playing in the BUIHA Non-Checking Tier 1 Nationals. Spoiler: we won. It was a lovely weekend, full of hockey and team and hard work and silliness. Also full of small reunions with hockey friends in other teams. I am so glad I got to go. I am so glad we won, especially for the people who are leaving soon. I love this team very much.

Friday:

picked up 9-seater van mid-afternoon, packed it full of kit and passengers at the rink, drove to Sheffield and our airbnb
went out in Sheffield, joined the BUIHA social involving white tshirts and sharpies
skipped the clubbing, sat up late chatting and watching teammates playing pool in the airbnb instead

Saturday:

team brunch, kit van to the rink, shopping at Puckstop
three group-stage games at roughly 3pm, 6pm and midnight. We won one, lost one, went out to dinner and strategised, redid the lines, went back and won the third
post-game maccies and then more pool back at the house

Sunday:

packing up and getting out of the house by 11
IKEA brunch for some of us
two more group-stage games at roughly 2pm and 7pm (I had the most amazing nap in between thanks to a teammate with a room in the hotel next to the rink) - we won them both
gold semi final at ~10pm and final at ~midnight
celebrations on the ice and in the changing room, and then eventually the mundanity of packing kit and people back into the van and the assorted cars

Monday:

drove back to Cambridge in the small hours, dropped people off as near as I could get to their colleges, got home about 04:30
woke up at 7 as usual to do the morning school run, moved the van to my friend's street without residents parking restrictions (easier than trying to get it into my off-road parking space), went back to sleep for a few hours
took the van back to the rink, met captain to unload all the remaining kit into the club storage, returned the van to the hire place, went back home and let the post-event drop hit me

merrileemakes

This time of year I start my mornings with some time at the spinning wheel, sitting in the sun. It's a very calming and restorative practice that I'm really appreciating as everything else descends into chaos.

This morning I finished spinning on the project I've been working on, some superwash Blue Faced Leicester that's dyed in blues and greens. I broke up the braids into its separate colours and spun them as little bobbins, to make into a gradient yarn.

( Read more... )

mellowtigger

I didn't accomplish much during my "weekend", but at least I got some brush burned in the fire pit. I don't know who left the pile of branches in the alley at my house last year, but I cut it up and burned it today, finally getting rid of it. My back was complaining while I cleaned up that mess, and I kept wondering who deliberately put them on my property so they didn't have to do this kind of work themselves.

There's so much work remaining, but I made noticeable progress. The afternoon went well, but I still have a few microscopic thorns from those terrible burdock burrs. It was mildly satisfying, every time I threw another collection of dry stems and burrs into the fire pit. I know the stems and roots are supposed to be edible, but... those burrs. They just need to go live somewhere else besides my yard.

pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2026/04/24/modernoir

I could link you to a trailer for Assassin's Creed:Black Flag Resynched, but there's a ton of them, and it's safest to just drop you at their YouTube where you can choose from a World Premiere Trailer, an Official Game Overview Trailer, or even the Worldwide Reveal Showcase that clocks in at life a half an hour. It looks fucking amazing. This used to be My Series, I even liked the ones you aren't supposed to, but after they released two of them simultaneously and I finished Unity I kinda bounced off it - the RPG era and even to a certain extent dual protagonists felt really OOC. Just pick! Just pick the one whose blood I'm living in. This runs back before all that - probably the last of the truly blown out, old-style AC games. I really thought Edward Kenway was going to have a go of it, on some Ezio shit, get a trilogy by himself. That's how much people liked IV. I'd love it if that's what they're setting up. The multiplayer was some of the best times we've ever had online, it used to be kind of a full office affair watching those murderous Hide and Seek matches play out, but those were all additions after the series had hit its stride with mature technology and a massive global network of development teams. I can wait. It seems like they've really been going through it.

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2026/04/24/modernoir

rachelmanija

A science fiction novella about aliens, communication, and certain dark topics which are spoilery to mention. Though if you read the blurb for this book, it very strongly implies those topics and the specific shocking twist that involves them. It reminded me of China Mieville's Embassytown, though the latter benefited from its longer length.

Ro's species, along with some others, can jump into the minds of Star Eaters, the mysterious species that alone can mine the mineral that enables space travel. Ro is told that doing so is the only way to study them, and while jumping into their bodies extinguishes their minds, they are extremely long-lived beings and their minds definitely come back, so Ro is only doing the equivalent of causing a day-long blackout. The Star Eaters were apparently once enslaved, but now work voluntarily; communication with them is difficult and puzzling. Once you jump in, you're stuck for the rest of your life, but Ro is such a curious and skilled linguist that he's willing to give up everything to understand this oddly mysterious race. (I guess the possessing being's mind is supposed to only live for its species's normal lifespan? This is not explained.)

If you've read much science fiction, or many books in general, you have probably already figured out what's really going on. In fact it's so obvious that it seems strange that it takes the characters so long to do so, but of course no one knows exactly what story they're in.

Everything involving alien communication is great. But the plot is so predictable and grim that I didn't enjoy the book much.

( Read more... )

pegkerr

In a lot of ways, this is my favorite time of year. Taxes are done! Porch season has begun, so I can start eating my breakfast outside. It's not too hot, and it's not too cold. There's no need to shovel, there's no need to rake leaves, and it's a little early to start mowing.

So all you have to do is to relax and enjoy the flowers that are starting to spring up. Forsythia blooms in April, and my tulip bed is making a splendid show. Pretty soon the lilacs and apple blossoms will be blooming.

It's too early to garden (the frost date is usually assumed to be around Mother's Day), but not early to start garden dreaming. Everything is potential, and you don't have to weed yet!

Image description:Background: a chart showing high and low temperatures for April and May. The chart is bordered by orange tulips (bottom), forsythia (left side), pansies (right side) and pink bleeding hearts (top).

Spring

16 Spring

Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

cmcmck

WW1 memorial for the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders- the regiment of both his father and grandfather:

I was taken by this window detail:

Current Mood: photographical
Current Location: ici

pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2026/04/24/modernoir

New Comic: Modernoir

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2026/04/24/modernoir

angryflower_feed

https://angryflower.com/1657.html

redbird

I had an appointment with my neurologist this afternoon. The weather was nice enough that I got onion soup at the Panera in the clinic lobby and ate it outdoors before seeing Dr. Sloane.

The doctor did some low-tech neurology, including watching me walk quickly down the hall, having me walk tightrope-style to check my balance, and testing my grip strength by having me squeeze his fingers. The doctor said there was no change in those, but I think my balance was better today than at the last visit. He then sent me downstairs for blood tests: my vitamin D is where we want it (at the top of the "normal" range), and the abnormally low antibody count is what we expect from the Kesimpta.

I asked about reducing the gabapentin dose to 900 mg, since when I went from 1500 mg to 1200 the medication continued to be effective at stopping my legs from twitching at night. (For a while, it was 1500 mg, with the option of taking another 300 mg capsule if necessary. I went to 1200 after a few months of never needing the extra capsule.) The doctor said I could try it, but he would prescribe 1200 mg/day (I think the last refill was for 1500 mg/day.)

I then walked up the hill to Brigham and Women's Hospital to keep

adrian_turtle company in the epilepsy monitoring unit. We talked some, I made some phone calls on her behalf, and I sat quietly reading next to her bed for a bit.

All in all, I did a lot of walking today, despite taking a Lyft to the neurologist; some of that was because I got turned around a couple of times, including inside the hospital. (I stayed home yesterday because my knee was bothering me, and wasn't sure how much walking I had in me today.)

batwrangler

Taking desensitisation to the next level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXKxpTYRb9I

Giving new meaning to feeding the birds: https://youtube.com/shorts/iTrPDslstjk?si=1seASuqmRsdM0gTb (warning: nature red in tooth and talon)

batwrangler

I'm not sure training this level of problem soving is a great idea (unless that's Sgt. Angua): https://youtube.com/shorts/jDoVvHQWscc?si=yKL5QEWaSq15v04x

mdlbear

Today I am thankful for...

An instruction book written half in English.
Fast delivery, when I can get it. Thank you, Bol and PetsPlace! NO thanks for Ticia needing a kidney diet now.
Diclofenac, Ibuprofen, and Naproxen.
A vet who makes house calls.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag

jazzfish

Being at the Gathering is helping my mental state for sure. Being around people, being away from my condo (which is both a refuge and a source of stress at the moment), having a tonne of distractions so I don't end up dwelling on money and future and all.

The welcome gift this year was a copy of Dice Realms, a game that involves customizing largeish dice by popping little plates on and off for the sides. Specifically it comes with several hundred of these little plates. I spent a couple hours on ... Saturday? evening playing "sorting my copy of Dice Realms" and that was a nice low-key way to unwind.

I've played (and, startlingly, won) a game of Princes of Florence, one of my longtime favourites, against serious competition, and had a good time with various 18xx games and even more various other games. Two nights ago we played Sextet, a six-handed version of Bridge. The deck has two extra suits, partners sit alternating, there are two dummies. As Eric observed, "In Sextet you can say 'my centre-hand opponent' in a non-derogatory way."[1] It was fairly ridiculous.

[1] 'Centre-hand opponent' in Bridge is generally reserved for when one's partner, who sits across, has made a particularly boneheaded play or bid.

I've seen the falls, I've chatted and gamed with a number of folks. This evening I hit the pool and hot tub and am now decompressing in my room with decaf tea and Cameron Reed's new book.

I don't think I'm doing well, but I'm doing alright.

pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2026/04/22/directinput

I've finally started checking out Pragmata, and it's like the demo, but with a ton more stuff - exactly what you want from "product." It looks sick and for a game asking you to do some Cirque du Soleil shit with your hands it maps to a controller in a way that feels solid. Gabe is playing it on PS5 Pro, the secondary Hacking inputs just map to the face buttons - I figured it would just be an easy remap on PC, that would certainly help Walter, but the way these perverts are navigating the hacking board on PC is with the Goddamn mouse. Just imagine it - picture that shit. These fiends hold down a key or "the back button on your mouse," and then scoot a cursor thingy through the grid. I want to try it just because it seems naughty. Dodgy, like. Type of shit that gets you put on a list.

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2026/04/22/directinput

mdlbear

This may not be the best day for writing a "state of the Bear" post, but it felt like it wanted to be written, so here I am. Mostly I just want to complain. Don't expect it to be organized.

Lately I've been having quite a bit of random pain -- mostly in my hands, in the form of trigger finger, which I assume is mostly RSI. Over the last few days I've also had trouble with my left shoulder; I sleep on that side, so it's not surprising either. (I've been treating the hands with diclofenac topical gel in the appropriate locations, and both with ibuprofen.)

I have a query in to my GP's office.

Meanwhile Ticia, my lovely old lady cat, is not doing well. She had a vet appointment Monday; she's lost a lot of weight, and according to the lab results her kidneys are failing. I'm putting her on a kidney-friendly diet, but even so I'm afraid she may not have much time left.

And I'm not all that sure about me, either.

Current Mood: worried
Current Location: Schildhaven Centraal
Current Music: Big Yellow Taxi

cmcmck

The term 'hospital' or 'spital' in Scots was used to describe an alms house.

Cowane's alms house in Stirling in the oldest surviving charitable trust in Scotland and one of the oldest in the UK founded by the local merchant John Cowane. This is he on the ad.

( See more: )

Current Mood: photographical
Current Location: 'ereabouts

pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2026/04/22/directinput

New Comic: DirectInput

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2026/04/22/directinput

$radiantfracture: a white rabbit swims underwater (water rabbit)$

radiantfracture

A nice thing about being unable to focus is that I also can't focus on being miserable. Case in point: after a truly incomparable series of missed appointments and scheduling errors yesterday, I sat down wretchedly this morning, in true anxiety about my mnemonic capacity, to see if I could at least still recall two touchstone poems memorized in high school: Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, ("Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds") and "Kubla Khan".

The choice of sonnet is a bit mysterious to me now (the craft is exquisite; the marriage never materialized), but "Kubla Khan" makes perfect sense.

Writing it out again (all except the bit about the bouncing rocks in the middle, where I get hopelessly lost and always have) I could not help looking at "Kubla Khan" this time with my own fixations in mind, and before I knew it I had forgotten my forgetfuless and was happily sloshing around in the sacred river Alph.

( Anyway, some thoughts on Kubla Khan as it might fit into the epics course, interspersed with the Poem Itself )

The poem, sans interruptions, can be read here.

§rf§

siderea

(h/t

conuly)

This longform article is framed as being a "ha ha isn't it wacky NASA hired a lingerie company for the Apollo missions". Ignore that. It turns out to be about an organizational culture clash around documentation and specification requirements that will speak to all the therapists and software developers in the room. Also of interest to fans of the US space program, the history of women in NASA and in tech, and clothing construction.

2023 April 14: Nautilus: "The Bra-and-Girdle Maker That Fashioned the Impossible for NASA" by Nicholas de Monchaux, Head of Architecture, MIT. Adapted from his book, Spacesuit. Recommended.

juan_gandhi

Послушал-таки я это обращение Бони.

Тьфу.

Извините.

mellowtigger

So many hot topics, so little time.

music: I've said repeatedly that I think Trump is suffering from untreated syphilis. I'm still holding to that theory. I keep expecting to see pockmarks of dissolving flesh soon, but he keeps getting his skin covered up with makeup or bandages. It's only a matter of time, though. Meanwhile, I'm making a song playlist for that special day that must arrive eventually. Do you have any songs to recommend for this list (YouTube)?

job: Today at work was more than usual. I was late (30 minutes) going to lunch, and I was late (45 minutes) clocking out. I need to leave early sometime this week, so I don't have overtime to report.

stockpile: I've warned before that you need to buy what you can now, while you can. I reiterate that message now.

Click to read a list of things I expect to decrease in availability or value...

Computing devices (laptop, tablets, consoles, phones) will all get more expensive as supply chain problems get worse throughout the year. Between data center construction and Middle East raw resource disruptions (even helium), the supply chain has more shocks in store as continuing waves of problems descend. Plus whatever stupid trade war that Trump will inevitably declare on his next whim. I have a spare laptop I bought last year, and I have a Fairphone as a phone backup.
Food will get more expensive for similar reasons. ICE deportations affect the labor for agriculture, climate change is messing with pollination, disease, and production, and fuel disruptions will affects costs and availability for everything. Have powdered/dry food on hand, just in case. I have a few months of that available.
Medicine will not necessarily be available to you at any price. Do you have any way of stocking up on supplies or finding a non-USA source of the medication? I have a 90-day backup for my blood pressure pills. Thankfully, that's the only pharmaceutical that I really require at this time. I've got a few months of nasal sprays that I need for allergies too.
Money will lose value, for anyone with US dollars. Debt, market manipulation, and corruption must take a toll. I've started thinking of Fridays as "market manipulation day", since this Republican administration usually picks that day to announce something important as the stock market closes. Trump and his cronies are siphoning funds from everyone else on both the swing up and the swing down on stock pricing, even on prediction markets and cryptocurrency. Selig says he'll crack down on the corruption, but we'll see if Trump does anything to protect Don Jr. More countries are using Yuan to purchase oil or switching to renewables due to the Iran war, so they don't have to buy oil at all. I don't imagine any way that the dollar maintains its value. When Trump finally leaves the USA (Brazil?), as he and his ilk make their last effort to escape consequences, they'll have their wealth in both tangible or intangible resources that survive stock and dollar crashes better than our resources will. Spend it on long-term goods while you can.

libertarianism: This topic deserves a whole post of its own, but I think I finally have the thing that will help the USA snap out of this terrible decades-long devotion to neoliberal economics. It's been happening ever since the Powell memo of 1971, since the U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposed the Humphrey Hawkins Act of 1978 to stop USA's transition to social democracy, and since 1980 when Ronald Reagan launched his presidential campaign promoting so-called trickle-down economics (or "voodoo economics" to quote another former President). Go to whichever AI chatbot you can access, and ask it this particular question:

"Use the Price equation to model the paradox of tolerance. What conditions (like detection of defectors and removal of non-cooperative actors) are required to make that comparison accurate."

I want to delve farther into its answer. It seems to call out the ills of libertarian politics and neoliberal economics. The people demolishing our detection, reporting, intervention, and funding institutions know exactly what they're trying to accomplish. It's like they already understand the Price equation but have sided with demons to create perpetual cruelty in a libertarian hellscape instead of choosing the other option offered by the equation. They're succeeding so far, and this AI answer might help us defend attempts to restore/rebuild community, using incontrovertible math as justification.

I'm reminded of an idea I had before that our government should make it easy for citizens to do good things, and maybe that should be the next great push in governance goals. I have to write more about what's needed as we begin the restoration of the USA and its foundational ideals.

The beginning is near. Are you preparing?

$radiantfracture: Gouache portrait of my face with jellyfish hat (Super Jellyfish 70s Me)$

radiantfracture

Congratulations to everyone who made the ballot for the Aurora Awards, but really mostly to Rachel A. Rosen for rocketing into three (3) (three!) (3!!) categories:

Best Novel - Blight, second book in the Sleep of Reason series
Best Short Story - “What If We Kissed While Sinking a Billionaire’s Yacht?“
Best Fan-Related Work, Wizards and Spaceships Podcast

Tribute to her excellent writing (and talking) and also to the uncrushable grit of small press publishing.

§rf§

pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2026/04/20/athena-vibes

When I named the strip, I was thinking about how Athena burst from her father's head - considering the bedevilments we had proposed in the strip. As I woke, I feared that there was a vibrator company called Athena and I was Goddamn right. You know how you can have a party where you sell candles or something to your friends? Right. This is like that, except it's for things you… things you put. Things that are and can be put in, like… Anyway, they have different things. For a place.

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2026/04/20/athena-vibes

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med_cat

The world’s oldest octopus fossil isn’t an octopus after all, scientists say, from AP News

The earliest known public museum, from Wikipedia, via

minoanmiss

Here are the contents of an elite Minoan burial on the island of Aegina, from Carausius on Bluesky, via

amaebi

Edible art:

Watch on YouTube

med_cat

Madame la Marquise

Said Hongray de la Glaciere unto his proud Papa:
"I want to take a wife mon Père," The Marquis laughed: "Ha! Ha!
And whose, my son?" he slyly said; but Hongray with a frown
Cried, "Fi! Papa, I mean - to wed, I want to settle down."

The Marquis de la Glaciere responded with a smile;
"You're young, my boy; I much prefer that you should wait awhile."
But Hongray sighed: "I cannot wait, for I am twenty-four;
And I have met my blessed fate: I worship and adore.

Such beauty, grace and charm has she, I'm sure you will approve,
For if I live a century none other can I love."
"I have no doubt," the Marquis shrugged, "that she's a proper pet;
But has she got a decent dot, and is she of our set?"

"Her dot," said Hongray, "will suffice; her family you know.
The girl with whom I fain would splice is Mirabelle du Veau."

What made the Marquis start and stare, and clutch his perfumed beard?
Why did he stagger to a chair and murmur: "As I feared?"
Dilated were his eyes with dread, and in a voice of woe
He wailed: "My son, you cannot wed with Mirabelle du Veau."

"Why not? my Parent," Hongray cried. "Her name's without a slur.
Why should you look so horrified that I should wed with her?"
The Marquis groaned: "Unhappy lad! Forget her if you can,
And see in your respected Dad a miserable man."

"What is the matter? I repeat," said Hongray, growing hot.
"She's witty, pretty, rich and sweet... Then- mille diables!- what?"
The Marquis moaned: "Alas! that I your dreams of bliss should banish;
It happened in the days gone-by, when I was Don Juanish.

Her mother was your mother's friend, and we were much together.
Ah well! You know how such things end. (I blame it on the weather.)
We had a very sultry spell. One day, mon Dieu! I kissed her.
My son, you can't wed Mirabelle. She is... she is your sister."

( So broken-hearted Hongray went and roamed the world around, )

By Robert Service

(reposted w. thanks from duathir in the greatpoets LJ comm, from Sept 25, 2025)

cmcmck

The Holy Rude (and yes, it is spelled that way) church is up at the top of the Back Walk we went down the previous day.

If Stirling had a cathedral, this would be it, but royalty liked to keep the bishops at arms length and the castle is a royal palace so the local cathedral is down the road in Dunblane.

A sign on a building once used by the tailors' guild.

( Here be pics! )

Current Mood: photographical
Current Location: 'ere

pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2026/04/20/athena-vibes

New Comic: Athena Vibes

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2026/04/20/athena-vibes

wildeabandon

This semester has been a bit of a challenge in terms of workload. I keep almost getting to the point of being "on track" according to my plan, and then falling behind again. I'm currently just under four hours behind, so I'm cautiously hopeful that I will actually get caught up this week.

I always plan not to do any work on Sundays, though I don't always stick to that plan, and was sort of tempted to get that four hours done today. In the end I decided that would actually be unwise, and instead I went for a walk through the Forêt de Soignes, which was really lovely. I did, admittedly, listen to an audiobook about biblical studies whilst I was walking, but it wasn't a book related to any of my courses, so that still counts as time off :)

I've shaved my head! I've been getting increasingly self-conscious about my receding hairline, especially when I'm overdue a haircut, and I'm really bad at getting round to getting it cut, so that's a fair chunk of the time. I'm definitely still getting used to it, and may end up changing my mind and growing it back, but I think I like it. It does make me feel like I need more piercings though.

spiralsheep posting in

flaneurs

Cymru, recent notes at my journal. Enjoy!

spiralsheep

Cymru, notes on various places from west to east.

1. Bridgend / Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr had unusually high quality graffiti, with visual humour, often hidden away in less obvious places. Within walking distance of the station there are also the ruins of Newcastle Castle castle (no, not that Newcastle Castle castle) - the name makes more sense in Cymraeg as Y Castell Newydd (That New Castle). The pleasantest cafes were full and the roads had few cars even outside the pedestrianised town centre. My favourite experience was seeing a carrion crow I've nickname King Crow-nute due to his preference for standing in the middle of a three way road junction cawing loudly at slowly approaching cars and vans in a magnificent but also futile territorial display - he could fly so I have no idea why he wasn't showing off in the tall tree overhead? Anyway, have advised the locals to re-brand as Brigand to make the place sound more exciting - don't change the spelling, only the pronunciation.... ;-)

2. Rhoose Cardiff International Airport (Maes Awyr Rhyngwladol Caerdydd Y Rhws) is the railway station with the longest official name in the UK. It also has a level crossing and raised platforms (and not much else) from which a patient spotter could simultaneously see a train on the tracks, a plane overhead, an airport bus at the bus stop, and a ship on the sea, in addition to the usual cars and bikes and pedestrians.

3. The coast path between Rhws and Barry is, of course, very uphill both ways but also with many delightful views and places to rest briefly (including loos and a cafe at Porthkerry country park near the viaduct).

4a. Beware the swan lake in Knap Gardens near the seafront in Barry as the mute swans there are especially massive and insistent on being fed, and look as muscular as if they've been protein-loading on discarded burgers since they were signets. They all simultaneously got the incorrect impression, from the other end of the lake, that I might feed them and they took off flying towards me with much flapping and surprising speed. So much forward momentum, in fact, that four of them in close formation couldn't stop and WHOOSHED low enough over my head to unsettle my hair with their downdrafts, while their flocking friends waterskied to a halt at my feet producing tidal waves of displaced water. The GIANT swans then intimidated me by hissing, and attempted to mug me for food I didn't actually have! As I walked swiftly away I saw the swan gang harassing a group of much smaller and less aggressive Canada Geese!!

4b. There's an excellent Muppet mural on a wall near Barry Docks station that's briefly visible from the west side of the train. I should go and find it on foot.

5. From Y Garth / Garth Hill the views of surrounding hills and the Bristol Channel / Môr Hafren with its islands are splendid on a rare clear day. I refuse to entitle it Garth Mountain though, even after The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain. Well worth walking the circuit footpath around the summit as the changing views are possibly even better than from the top of the Bronze Age burial mound on the summit... if hills can be said to have summits. ;-)

6. Cardiff still has some good graffiti and murals. My faves remain the ? Kiwi ? birds flying with the assistance of bunches of balloons or jetpacks (and crash helmets - safety first, lol!).

7. To Ebbw Vale Parkway from Cardiff / Caerdydd by train is my favourite rail ride up the Valleys and I suggest sitting on the east side of the carriage for the best views.

8. I strongly advise against visiting medieval castles during school holidays if you intend to ascend any of the many high and narrow spiral stairways without suffering unexpected small children hurling themselves at you as if they're invincible balls and your legs are bowling pins (or go to the castles retrofitted with lifts, lol, such as Caernarfon). No, RLY.

$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

mdlbear

Last week had some high points: reading the draft of N's next book, and a nice zoom reunion-ish thing. (I initially thought there were two of those, but the other was last Saturday.) Also sent several emails and made two phone calls following up (well, one and a half -- I abandoned the second after looking in my spam folder and finding the reply I was hoping for), paid our property tax, and got my US taxes done to the point where I could have filed for an extension, but determined that I didn't need to because I'm living overseas.

I'm supposed to celebrate accomplishments, even small ones. Right?

On the other hand, I only took five walks (skipping one because of pain and the other because of timing) and two short guitar-practice sessions. I can try to blame the latter on hand issues, but really (on the gripping hands?) it's mostly just laziness.

I am not at all happy with my body. See above under pain, and here under diclofenac. I'm not all that old, am I? Not happy with my brain, either -- see next paragraph.

Getting back to the zoom reunion-ish thing(s): there was a 65th reunion of my high school class last year; it was in Norwalk, Connecticut on the day after Thanksgiving, and I didn't go. Which was painful, because I'd ghosted the 50th for reasons I still don't entirely understand, although suffering from burnout may have had something to do with it and makes a convenient shorthand excuse. Anyway, enough people complained about not being to go for some other classmates of mine to organize a zoom version, which was last night. It was pretty good, although I lost the thread of what I was about to say at one point, resulting in an uncomfortable pause. See above about brain.

The reunion-ish thing Saturday didn't get called out last week, so I'll mention it here. Seems every year Carleton College has a "Coffee With Carls" event, and this year they had a virtual version for people who couldn't make it to one of the cities where versions of it were hosted. (There must be a briefer and less awkward way to phrase that.) Not bad, but it got cut short by a power outage before I had a chance to speak. Maybe next year.

Huge congratulations to this year's Filk Hall of Fame inductees: Margaret Davis, Tim Griffin, and Amy McNally! 🎉

Linkies: The system prompt for Meta’s AI model got leaked in 2 hours. The two Greatest Software Systems ever built: NASA Shuttle vs TeX.

And finally, Born on [April 15] in 1921, the Singer-Songwriter Behind the Most Famous No. 1 Hit Novelty Song of the 1950s. See Wednesday for spoiler.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Current Mood: unhappy with myself
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: not enough

mellowtigger

As I warned about yesterday, winter is not yet done with Minneapolis.

Here's the view out of the patio door at the front of my house this morning. We have sub-freezing temperatures forecast for tomorrow morning too.

P.S. I wanted to mention somewhere that while I was digging with a shovel in the front yard yesterday, a lady from next door (public housing unit) stopped to thank me. "For what," I asked, genuinely confused. "For the air conditioner and the whistle," she said. I replied while smiling, "Oh, sure!" Not very eloquent, but I'm not exactly the master of human interactions. When I finally ordered a new smaller air conditioner unit last spring that would fit properly in my bedroom window, I offered the older/bigger unit to them for free, so it wouldn't go unused. Plus, they got one of foeclan's 3d-printed whistles when I delivered notes to my neighbors back in January.

cmcmck

is on a wall close to the station:

( More pics! )

Current Mood: photographical
Current Location: 'ere

juan_gandhi

Сестерций - это не от сестёр. Это ses-tertium, т.е. "полтретьего". В Древнем Риме это была монета ценой в два с половиной фунта (asses).

rdm

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violsva

Two somewhat short smut fics!

New Doors (512 words) by Violsva
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Roaring Twenties Magic - Allie Therin
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Wesley Collins | Lord Fine/Sebastian de Leon
Characters: Sebastian de Leon, Wesley Collins | Lord Fine
Additional Tags: Post-Proper Scoundrels, Oral Sex, First Time Topping, Sexual Inexperience, Mild Smut, Mostly Just Sebastian Having a Lot of Feelings Honestly
Summary:

A snippet of Wesley and Sebastian sharing a bed on the boat trip to New York between Proper Scoundrels and Once a Rogue.

Friends With Curses (920 words) by Violsva
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Edgin Darvis/Xenk Yendar
Characters: Edgin Darvis, Xenk Yendar
Additional Tags: Camping, Curses, Friends With Benefits, Oral Sex, Single Syllable Smut Challenge, Experimental Style, Explicit Sexual Content, Post-Canon
Summary:

Xenk and Ed take their minds off the hard part of their quest.

Non-writing-wise, I have been spinning so much yarn. Tumblr | Ravelry

redbird

I accompanied

adrian_turtle to an MRI facility, where she had an MRI with contrast, which hopefully will help her current neurologist figure out better medication for her seizures. Like many people, Adrian finds the contrast medium unpleasant, which is at least part of why she wanted company.

Afterwards, we went to JP Licks, where I got us both ice cream. They have non-dairy coconut almond lace ice cream this month, and there's now a pint of that in our freezer.

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