365 Questions 2025

Jul. 7th, 2025 04:16 pm
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
4. What is the most valuable life lesson you learned from your parents? You have to be independent because you can't depend on other people who should care about you to have your back.

5. What does love feel like? It feels safe.

6. What are your favorite simple pleasures? Reading a book, eating ice cream, watching a good show, going for a walk on a nice day.

7. If you could go back in time and tell a younger version of yourself one thing, what would you tell? Your life will turn out in ways you could never imagine.
nanila: me (Default)
[personal profile] nanila
I have been struggling to concentrate today. It was hard not to spiral back to that day. I had been living in London (and therefore the UK) for less than a year. I spent much of the day unable to contact family and friends to reassure them I was OK because the mobile networks were overwhelmed. I remember walking the crowded streets to meet friends and my then-partner. The faces of the shuffling Londoners. The relentless wail of sirens.

I'm coping by watching the BBC documentary series on the bombings. For some reason I need some kind of external validation for feeling the way I do today and this is providing it.

(Access locked) Posts from that date: DW, LJ

Here is what I wrote on the 8th of July, 2005.

Terrorism isn't about the reality of statistics. Of the several million people living in or visiting the greater London area, a tiny percentage were physically hurt or killed by the bombings. A slightly larger percentage witnessed them firsthand, and a huge number of them were temporarily inconvenienced by the shutdown of the London Transport system. The chances that the next bus or tube journey that the average Londoner makes will have a bomb on it are not much greater than they were yesterday or will be tomorrow. But, as I said, this is not about statistics. It's about the perception of statistics. However miniscule your chances were and are of being blown to bits by a terrorist attack, they are now at the forefront of your mind, whether you want them to be or not.

Terrorism isn't about the frequency of occurrence of terrorist acts, or of similar kinds of attacks made during open war. Londoners of different generations experienced the Blitz and the IRA bombings of the 1980s. Many of them have been through this before. However, it is the very unpredictability of terrorism that makes it so frightening, that makes a return to normalcy as difficult as it was the last time, because the ordinary citizen has no way of knowing when, where or if another attack will happen.

People deal with this in a myriad of ways. Some become defiant, others resigned. Some find themselves swallowing down fear for weeks, months or years after the events, every time they board a bus or enter an Underground station. This is the real point of terrorist attacks, not the body count. All emotional responses are fully permissible, but it is the way that we act upon them that will determine whether or not we build a world in which the slight probability of terrorist attack on the average citizen will continue to be a weapon that can wield so much power.
cypresssunn: (Default)
[personal profile] cypresssunn

Fannish Fifty 2025: Post #19

A stag with grand antlers standing on a dark field under an overcast sky, the animal's gaze is fixed off screen


WE DO NOT SOW

for the Iron Islands, for Pyke, for House Greyjoy


“ Tooth and nail, tooth and nail
Murky water covers all
Tie a noose around your tail
Murky water covers all ”




{ listen here }

other songs of ice and fire
{ prev mix } & { next mix }


Read more... )

(no subject)

Jul. 7th, 2025 04:10 pm
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
After a couple of cooler low humidity nights, it's back to more normal conditions for this time of year: stifling humid nights when the temperature doesn't fall below about 74°F/24°C. Ugh. I think we had a tiny bit of rain during the night and I know it rained lightly for a while this morning, but the rain just helped the humidity stay high.

I've been working away at flower granny squares for the last few days. I get one done every day while I'm watching a show, and I've basically got the pattern memorised now.
pensnest: close up of Adam Lambert without makeup (Adam beautiful)
[personal profile] pensnest
Soooooo.... mixed bag today.

Beast got my bug, and took a Covid test today. It was positive.

*

I sneaked, masked, into Sainsburys and bought twenty Covid tests by mistake. I meant to buy four, and was not surprised enough that the boxes were rather large.

*

I found dead animals, gross )

*

Our large freezer seems to have the spent the night warming up. Beast spotted this at some point this morning (it was at room temperature) and Took Steps, and it is cooling down again. But my lunchtime chocolate covered mint ice cream onna stick had to be eaten with a spoon. Chocolate casing: still good; contents: very soft indeed.

*

In better news (phew!), our new printer arrived today. It is mighty, and has a scanner on top like a lookout tower. It prints—in colour, which the elderly laser printer has not done for ages, since we didn't want to replace the cartridges.

*

We tried to help our Boy yesterday with prepping for his job interview tomorrow. Good luck, Boy! It mas been a very long time since he interviewed for anything, as he has made minimal but steady progress for over a decade with his current employer, and is more interested in being comfortable than successful.

*

I continue to be entertained by Bridgerton. I don't mind the dazzling colours of the costumes, for I am partial to bright colours and a good bit of glitter, too, but I growl at the sight of a long, white, modern wedding gown with train and veil. Give the poor bride something a bit nicer than last year's net curtains, please! I like the multicoloured cast—although I believe Regency England was somewhat more mixed than our media have generally made it out to be, it's nice to see a world where nobody is remarking upon it (well, not quite nobody, but it's generally just *there*). And everybody is ridiculously good-looking, of course. I don't think the Duke of Hastings has an equal yet, but there are competitors.

*

I planted those four fuchsias at long last, and pulled out the self-seeded currant that was growing in my hostas-and-fuchsias bed. And what appeared to be a baby silver birch, which I have transplanted in the hope that something pretty may result. It'll probably turn out to be something quite different, if indeed it survives at all.

Fanfic: Triangle

Jul. 7th, 2025 08:39 pm
scifirenegade: (blep | marquis)
[personal profile] scifirenegade
Title: Triangle
Rating: General
Fandom: Ich und die Kaiserin (1933)
Pairing(s) / Character(s): Didier/Marquis(/Juliette)
Warnings: n/a
Spoilers: not really

Note: For [community profile] fic_promptly. Prompt was "any / any / we're dating the same person so... what are we?".
They're getting there.

Read more... )
stonepicnicking_okapi: record player (recordplayer)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi
I survived my first day of work! Huzzah!

So we have to play this song.

BtVS Ficlet: Reborn

Jul. 7th, 2025 06:57 pm
badly_knitted: (Rose)
[personal profile] badly_knitted
 


Title: Reborn
Fandom: BtVS
Author: 
[personal profile] badly_knitted
Characters: Angelus, Angel.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Surprise / Innocence
Summary: Angelus is free now that Angel’s soul has been ripped from the body they shared.
Word Count: 599
Written For: [personal profile] ravenlilyrose
’s prompt ‘any, any, falling back into old patterns (bad),’ at [community profile] threesentenceficathon.
Disclaimer: I don’t own BTVS, or the characters.
 


 
Reborn... )
gilda_elise: (Books - Reading raven)
[personal profile] gilda_elise
The Regulators


Author of the bestselling novel Thinner and four thrillers that have sold millions in an omnibus edition entitled The Bachman Books, the late Richard Bachman has been described as "Stephen King without a conscience." Now he performs an eerie encore with the posthumous release of The Regulators, a harrowing story of a suburban neighborhood in the grip of surreal terror.

It's a summer afternoon in Wentworth, Ohio, and on Poplar Street everything's normal. The paper boy is making his rounds; the Carver kids are bickering at the corner convenience store; a Frisbee is flying on the Reeds' lawn; Gary Soderson is firing up the backyard barbecue. The only thing that doesn't quite fit is the red van idling just up the hill. Soon it will begin to roll, and the killing will begin. A quiet slice of American suburbia is about to turn to toast.

The mayhem rages around a seemingly still point, a darkened house lit fitfully from within by a flickering television screen. Inside, where things haven't been normal for a long time, are Audrey Wyler and the autistic nephew she cares for, eight-year-old Seth Garin. They're fighting their own battle, and its intensity has turned 247 Poplar Street into a prisonhouse.

By the time night falls on Poplar Street, the surviving residents will find themselves in another world, one where anything, no matter how terrible, is possible…and where the regulators are on their way. By what power they have come, how far they will go, and how they can be stopped-these are the desperate questions. The answers are absolutely terrifying.


It’s certainly true that, under the Bachman pseudonym, King’s writing becomes darker. This book is a prime example of that. There are no small number of victims, either by a harrowing death, or through a as just as harrowing life.

The story takes place all within one day, though the reader is given a background of sorts through Audrey Wyler’s journal and by a letter written to her by someone from who she tries to get information. But because it is all happening within the span of one day, the horror is unrelenting. The characters are given almost no breathing room as they try to fight back.

But neither is the reader. It’s one thing after the other, so the story can get a bit mind-numbing at times. Plus, it gives you little time to get to know the characters. There were a few that I felt I was beginning to like, but it never got much further than that.

So, while an entertaining read, it’s not one of my favorite King books. It’s been years since I read it, so it’ll be interesting rereading its linked book, Desperation.



Mount TBR

Mount TBR 2025 Book Links 1-25 )

26. Lost and Found by Marilyn Harris
27. Strange Weather: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill
28. Three Wild Dogs by Markus Zusak
29. Full Throttle by Joe Hill
30. Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next #2) by Jasper Fforde
31. Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky
32. Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
33. Pearly Everlasting by Tammy Armstrong
34. The Women of Troy (Women of Troy #2) by Pat Barker
35. The Conjurers by Marilyn Harris
36. The Regulators by Richard Bachman (Pseudonym), Stephen King


Goodreads 38


2025 I read Horror.jpg

Katsu, Ketchum, King, or Koontz
1. You Like It Darker by Stephen King
2. Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
3. The Regulators by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King)


2025 Monthly Motif.jpg

JUL - “Single Day Story”
Read a book that takes place over the course of a single day.


The Regulators by Stephen King
badly_knitted: (Pretty)
[personal profile] badly_knitted
 


Title: Taking Care Of Business – Part 1
Author: 
[personal profile] badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1794
Spoilers: Children of Earth Fix-it.
Summary: Ianto died, confronting the 456 beside Jack, but then he woke up…
Written For: Weekend Challenge ‘Oh The Places You'll Go 2,’ at 
[community profile] 1_million_words.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
 
 


annathecrow: screenshot from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. A detail of the racing pod engines. (sw: pods)
[personal profile] annathecrow posting in [community profile] dreamwars

Hi!

this week I'm again fishing through the timeline of canon media, and I bring you Grogu, Cutest in the Galaxy, which is... a series of animations published on Instagram??

Huh. I see the grand tradition of Star Wars being Everywhere(TM) is going strong.

Has anyone of you seen this? Do you follow any official SW social media? Do you follow any official SW sources in general? Or maybe, how do you come upon SW news, like new media being announced (or cancelled), actors being cast, and so on?

Rom: Spaceknight #20

Jul. 7th, 2025 05:51 pm
iamrman: (Franky)
[personal profile] iamrman posting in [community profile] scans_daily

Writer: Bill Mantlo

Pencils and inks: Sal Buscema


Back on Earth, Rom encounters some more old friends. Or so he thinks...


Read more... )

July 4 Flood Relief

Jul. 7th, 2025 11:42 am
marthawells: Atlantis in fog (Atlantis)
[personal profile] marthawells
Kerr County Flood Relief Fund

The Kerr County Flood Relief Fund supports relief and rebuilding efforts after the flood of July 4, 2025. Your generosity helps our neighbors recover.

The Community Foundation - a 501(c)(3) public charity serving the Texas Hill Country - will direct funds to vetted organizations providing rescue, relief, and recovery efforts as well as flood assistance. The Fund will support the communities of Hunt, Ingram, Kerrville, Center Point, and Comfort. All donations are tax-deductible, and you will receive a receipt for your gift.

https://cftexashillcountry.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=4201


And Kerrville Pets Alive! is taking donations for rescue and fostering lost pets.

https://kerrvillepetsalive.com/?link_id=3&can_id=588b5a597b5d30fd7e36b213e5ba6987&source=email-freedom-is-fought-for-not-given&email_referrer=email_2803907&email_subject=how-you-can-help-texas-flood-victims&&
[syndicated profile] scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by John Scalzi

It’s 1987 and my friend Tommy Kim has an idea to make his college applications stand out from the crowd: In addition to the usual essays, grades and test scores, he’s going to include a cassette of songs he’s written, performed by a band he put together, and professionally produced in an actual studio. The band he put together included a bunch of friends and schoolmates, including me on drums and my pal Kevin Stampfl on bass. Our name: Dead Rats Don’t Fly, or “DRDF” for short. Why did we call ourselves that? Look, pal, it was the 80s, okay. Lots of things didn’t make sense. The four-song EP we cranked out in two days of studio time was called 327, named after Tommy’s room number in the Holt dormitory at Webb.

So, how was 327 as musical statement? Well, it is exactly the music that you’d expect from a bunch of rock-loving 80s teenage dudes of varying musical abilities hastily tossed together into a band with only two days of studio time at their disposal. Are the songs… good? With all love: No. In the performances, can you sense primordial musical talent waiting for its moment to arrive? Also no. Could the drummer keep a beat without speeding up? I mean, sometimes? Tommy did get into college at least one place, so it did what it was supposed to do. Otherwise, it’s a kind of a mess.

But I think it’s an endearing mess, and at the time, waaaaay back in 1987, when we got our band copies of the EP (on cassette! It was the 80s!), we thought it was pretty damn cool. Kevin and I drove around in his Mustang, listening to the thing, kind of dazed that we had actually been in a studio, and that music we made had been committed to a permanent medium. 327 isn’t exactly good, but 17-year-old me was still proud of it, and I had a blast playing songs with my friends. And that was a good thing.

(It also allowed me to play a great prank: when Steve Shenbaum, one of the singers — yes, we had two — arrived at Northwestern for his freshman orientation and met his dorm’s resident assistant, the RA said “Steve Shenbaum? Of DRDF? Dude, that’s my favorite band!” and all the upperclassmen in the dorm were able to recite the EP’s lyrics to him. He was amazed, as he recounted to me a couple days later when I called him to see how his college experience was shaping up, and eventually it was my giggling into the phone as he told me about it that revealed that I had called his RA a day before he showed up to set the bait for him. It was delightful. I believe Steve has forgiven me. Probably.)

I misplaced my 327 tape years ago, and of course these days I don’t have a cassette player anyway, and for years the EP passed into myth, and then into legend (for, like, the extremely limited number of people who know the band members and/or ever heard the cassette or heard DRDF play live at our single concert). Then a few years ago Steve sent me an MP3 rip of his cassette of 327 (see? I told you he’s forgiven me!) and I had it again. I listened to it! It was still terrible! Nevertheless I took one of the songs from it, called “It’s a New Reality” (I wrote the lyrics for it, you see), cleaned it up slightly with Logic Pro, and put it up on YouTube. A fun, or at least nostalgic, time was had by the 1.6k people who listened to it since I posted it.

But what of the rest of 327? Well, it’s a few years later now, I’m somewhat more proficient at musical production, and music recovery tools are better these days, so you know what? Fuck it, I’ve gone back and rehabbed the entire EP now. I went in, stemmed out the vocals, drums and other instruments, cleaned and brightened them, moved around some of the bum notes to get them (mostly) on key, sonically painted over the clicks where I hit my drumsticks together, and in one place patched a place in the recording where a tape head clearly jammed up, leaving a blank space in a song, pasting in the keyboards and adding a bridge vocal.

The cleanup has reveal 327 as a minor classi — no, actually it hasn’t, it’s still a bunch of 80s kids bashing together tunes on a tight schedule with more enthusiasm than actual talent (well, the guitarist, a ringer Tommy brought in named George, was actually talented; he was our age but had clearly been playing for years. The rest of us? Hey, we tried!). Also, it wouldn’t have done to try to erase every artifact of its 80s amateurishness, and I’m not that good an engineer anyway, so there’s still tape hiss (and lossy MP3 simmerwarble), compressed dynamics, variable tempos and other evidence that what you’re hearing was hauled up from the subterranean depths of four decades ago. Don’t kid yourself. If you’re listening to this, it’s out of curiosity more than anything else.

Which is fine! And better than fine! 327 (now named 327/38 to note that it’s been 38 years since we got together to make this — actually maybe 39, since I’m a little fuzzy on the exact dates, but it hardly matters now, so I’m sticking with 38) is an artifact of another time and place, when hair bands ruled the earth and teenagers made their music fast and dirty in studios rather than on their laptops. It wasn’t a better time (I like making music on my laptop, thank you!), but it was a different time, and it shows. We had fun, and that was its own excuse. Plus Tommy got into college!

Enough with the liner notes, here are tunes. Note that on the original 327 some of these songs may have had different titles, but I can’t remember what they were. It’s been a while, okay?

One Hit (To the Body): If memory serves correctly, this is a song Tommy wrote about being nostalgic for a bunch of friends at… summer camp, I think? There’s a tape warble in the middle of the song that I left in because I don’t how to fix it, and also it adds a sort of verisimilitude to the 80s experience, that horrifying moment when you wonder if your tape player is going to eat your cassette. 80s kids know this pain.

It’s a New Reality: Our hit single! I wrote the lyrics imagining David Lee Roth singing it (the arrangement in my brain was different than it is here). Tommy wrote the bridge about rock and roll being in our blood, because we needed a bridge. There are some very 80s guitar solos in here. Thank you George, wherever you are! You’re probably a doctor now or something. But you could rock back in the day.

Tears Go Rolling: The album’s “epic,” with two lead singers, different parts in entirely different tempos and soaring guitar solos designed to wrench the lighters out your pocket to wave in the air. Yeah, the 80s were all about the epic. This is the song where there was blank spot in file and I had to patch it. I nailed the instrumental patch but you’ll probably be able to tell where I dubbed in my voice. Which is okay! It doesn’t have to be seamless! I do enjoy the idea that 56-year-old me is collaborating with 17-year-old me. Hello, 17-year-old me! Enjoy your hair!

Pauline: The opening guitar riff feels kind of Red Hot Chili Peppers (in contemplative mode), and then the middle the guitars go a little Johnny Marr. However, don’t actually expect either RHCP or Smiths! The guitar is leading down you a path! The song itself is going somewhere else entirely!

There, I hope this musical experience has been everything you’ve hoped for and more. Also, surprise! 327/38 is also available on streaming. The long-lost EP absolutely no one was asking for is now everywhere! So now you never have to be without it. Ever. And thank goodness for that.

Now, for the sake of completeness: Credits!

327/38
Originally produced by Tommy Kim, additional engineering by John Scalzi
All songs Tommy Kim except “It’s a New Reality” by Tommy Kim and John Scalzi

Chris Godfrey: Keyboards
John Herpel: Guitar
George [Last Name Lost to Time]: Guitar
Scott Moore: Vocals
John Scalzi: Drums
Steve Shenbaum: Vocals
Kevin Stampfl: Bass

You may ask: Will we ever get the band back together? Well, if Spinal Tap can do it after 41 years, it’s not out of the question. Maybe Tommy needs tenure.

— JS

oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
[personal profile] oursin

Reading this, I'm very much reminded of certain sff stories I read - late 60s/early 70s - that were either directly influenced by this research or via the population panic works that riffed off it: review of Lee Alan Dugatkin. Dr. Calhoun's Mousery: The Strange Tale of a Celebrated Scientist, a Rodent Dystopia, and the Future of Humanity. Does this ping reminiscence in anyone else? (I was reading a lot of v misc anthologies etc in early 70s before I found my real niche tastes).

***

What Is a 'Lavender Marriage,' Exactly? Feel that there is a longer and (guess what) Moar Complicated history around using conventional marriage to protect less conventional unions, but maybe it's a start towards interrogating the complexities of 'conventional marriages'.

***

Sardonic larffter at this: 'I'm being paid to fix issues caused by AI'

***

Not quite what one anticipates from a clergyman's wife? The undercover vagrant who exposed workhouse life - a bit beyond vicarage/manse teaparties, Mothers' Meetings or running the Sunday School!

***

Changes in wedding practice: The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure: Wedding Days:

After the Reformation, Anglican canon law required that marriages took place in the morning, during divine service, in the parish of either the bride or groom – three features which typically elude modern weddings, which usually take place in the afternoon, in a special ceremony, and are far less likely (even if a religious wedding) to take place within a couple’s home parish. The centrality of divine service is the starkest difference, as it ensured that, unlike in modern weddings, marriages were public events at which the whole congregation ought to be present. They might even have occurred alongside other weddings or church ceremonies such as baptisms. A study of London weddings in the late 1570s found that, unsurprisingly given the canonical requirements, Sunday was the most popular days for weddings, accounting for c.44 percent of marriages taking place in Southwark and Bishopsgate. (By contrast, Sunday accounted for just 5.9 percent of marriages in 2022).

***

Dorothy Allison Authored a New Kind of Queer Lit (or brought new perspectives into the literature of class?) I should dig out my copies of her works.

Another love note from the IRS

Jul. 7th, 2025 07:26 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
90 days ago, the IRS sent me a letter telling me they needed another 90 days to process my 2022 amended return. Today, USPS (informed delivery email) says I have a letter from the IRS. I'm guessing they want another 90 days. The online account system is not accessible right now (happens a lot more these days - hmmmmm) but that probably wouldn't tell me anything anyway. I've filed the whole thing in the I No Longer Care file.

Also newly in there is the whole backup situation. After this weekend's heavy lifting, I spent some time going through scenarios of data disasters and decided that I am more backed up than I thought and I don't need any more tending. So...

Every morning I have a digital routine. I catch up on emails, check on my finances, I catch up on my Dreamwidth Reading feed, some subreddits (but not so much any more) and then I do my two daily puzzles. A while back I asked for suggestions for phone games like you play standing in line at the grocery store. My long time LJ friend, Howeird, got me sucked into Mahjong solitaire. So every morning, I play the game of the day there. I don't really play it any other time but it's my good morning to Howeird (who died several years ago). And I have a spider solitaire game that has a daily game so I give that a go (two suits, not 3, not 4). Then I feel like I can get on with my day.

This morning I am all digitally caught up and dressed and ready. I have aqua yoga this afternoon and no other big plans. I'll probably puzzle some and knit some and stay inside where it is cool.

20250706_201937-COLLAGE