nanila: me (Default)
Mad Scientess ([personal profile] nanila) wrote2025-10-19 10:35 am

The Friday Five on a Sunday

  1. How long ago did you join LJ (or DW)?

    I joined LJ in 2001 and DW in 2009. I stopped paying for an LJ account some time ago, but I don’t want to abandon the community I still have there. So I still cross-post to both, manually since automatic cross-posting hasn’t been possible for some years.

  2. How did you find out about LJ (or DW)?

    I believe I was introduced to LJ by [livejournal.com profile] victorine. I can’t remember who introduced me to DW: apologies if this was you!

  3. If someone introduced you to LJ (or DW), is s/he still on your friends list?

    If they’re still active, either as a poster or a commenter, then yes. I don’t remove people until they’ve been inactive for years and are clearly not coming back.

  4. Have you introduced anyone to LJ (or DW)?

    A few people, but I can’t remember their identities. It was mostly a long time ago, when there was more chance of recruiting people to blogging / journaling sites. Most people just use social media apps these days, so it feels pretty pointless trying to compete with that. I’m also really fond of my stable, long-running communities on these sites, and as long as there are a few empathetic folks left to commune with, I’m happy.

  5. Is your LJ (or DW) public or friends only, and why?

    They used to be mostly public, but these days almost everything personal or with photos of me and/or my children is locked. Back in the early days of journaling, it was easy to feel optimistic about the internet being used for peace and love and bringing together global communities. With social media being used so frequently to amplify hate and fear, terrorise minority groups, and shield trolls and creeps from consequences, I don’t feel quite so confident about sharing my life openly.
lea_hazel: The Little Mermaid (Default)
lea_hazel ([personal profile] lea_hazel) wrote2025-10-19 11:27 am

Making up my mind

I nominated some fandoms I'm excited about for this year's Yuletide, but given the workload on the new project (and some other factors), I've been putting off signing up. Part of me is not entirely sure that it's a good idea for my time management. If I'm stressed about making a gift on time, I won't even enjoy the process (or the gift I receive) as much. So I'm thinking about it.

Meanwhile, I'm taking a short break from playing Galaxy Princess Zorana and watching a bunch of Blue Prince videos on YouTube.
calimac: (Haydn)
calimac ([personal profile] calimac) wrote2025-10-18 10:24 pm

two concerts in a day

It was going to be three, but going up to the City for a morning string quartet event and then dashing back down here for the afternoon seemed a bit much to attempt in the current state. So two it was, both community orchestra events in my local area.

The Winchester Orchestra under James Beauton essayed a Halloween concert. It had both Danse Macabre (excellent solo work by concertmaster Bill Palmer) and Night on Bald Mountain (the old, Rimsky-edited version of Mussorgsky's score). It had Stokowski's arrangement of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, favorite music of evil scientist organists everywhere. The orchestra struggled with the beginning of the fugue. It had a dance from The Firebird, and they struggled even more with that. It had music from two movies, Psycho (with the conductor making a stabbing motion with the baton when we got to that scene, as if the music wasn't clue enough) and The Mummy Returns. And we had a ten-minute précis of Johan de Meij's Lord of the Rings Symphony in an orchestrated version (the original is for concert band). It summarized up three of the five movements: Gandalf, Lothlórien, and Hobbits, and they did that one very well.

The Palo Alto Philharmonic under Lara Webber began with Of Paradise and Light by Augusta Read Thomas for strings, a weak echo of Barber's Adagio, and continued with the Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra by Vaughan Williams. This concerto, for that's what it is, in eight short movements is from VW's pastoral side with no hint of the hairier directions his music was taking by 1934 when he wrote this. But it's not top-drawer VW pastoral either, though soloist Jenny Douglass played very well. For a conclusion, Brahms's First. There was some blattiness, but for the most part this came off lucidly and excitingly. This work is naturally very heavy, but here it was both light and powerful, a nice trick if you can pull it off.
sovay: (Otachi: Pacific Rim)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2025-10-18 10:32 pm

You don't have to fly into the sun

Having somewhat wiped out my reserves with the glories of Corporation Beach, I only made it out to the salt marsh for about an hour between low tide and sunset, which was still great. I saw the copper-glaze glint of fiddler crabs in their burrows in the crenellated banks of mud. I saw the dark-fringed silhouette of an osprey sailing over the green-rusted brushes of cordgrass and salt hay, where they nest with the encouragement of the Callery Darling Conservation Area which includes the wetlands around the Bass Hole Boardwalk. The engine noise floating over from Chapin Beach turned out to belong to a powered paraglider who so annoyed me by effectively buzzing the boardwalk that I let all the other sunset viewers with their phones out enthusiastically take pictures of him. The long-billed, long-legged, unfamiliarly tuxedo-patterned shorebird stalking the deeper edges of a sandbar looks to have been a vagrant black-necked stilt. With the tide so far out, I am afraid there was little chance of another seal.

Take a little comfort from the little you've done. )

After which I ate dinner, read a little, and passed out for about an hour and a half. Family and friends have been sending me pictures of No Kings, the necessity of which I hate and the turnout of which I cheer. My mother told me about her favorite sign she did not carry: a photograph of the butterfly, the only orange monarch we need. I loved everything about the spare, specific exploration of marginalized languages and historical queerness in Carys Davies' Clear (2024) until the slingshot of the ending as if the author had lost a chapter somewhere over the side in the North Sea. Since the Cape is still autumnal New England, I am drinking mulled cider.
sartorias: (Default)
sartorias ([personal profile] sartorias) wrote2025-10-18 07:57 pm
Entry tags:

Flashing by . . .

Viable Paradise is about to begin, which means hunkering in the bunker.

But today the weather was perfect for the protest gathering at a very busy five-points intersection here on Martha's Vineyard, with A LOT of people and some winsomely unique signage. Lots of laughter and horn honking, and although there were two protesters for the current regime, and a couple of cars went by with passengers waving thumbs down, there was no violence whatsoever. Yay! I wish that would be true everywhere.

Interesting patterns in signage; many quotes from the Bible and from the Constitution, and so very many crowned clowns. One frog, one unicorn, and a bee. Many, but not all, were my age or older.
redbird: clenched fist on an LGBT flag background (angry queer)
Redbird ([personal profile] redbird) wrote2025-10-18 07:32 pm

No Kings rally

[personal profile] cattitude and I went to the No Kings rally on Boston Common. It was a large crowd, large enough that we couldn't really hear the speeches, but that's OK, we were there to be part of the crowd. I saw some good signs, including "Of course he hates veritas" and "America runs on dissent", for local flavor, and "No kings [large image of the One Ring with a slash through it] to rule them all." Almost all the signs were homemade, and different.

Happily, it was warm enough for me to unzip my hoodie and show off my Boston Dyke March T-shirt, and for other people to wear t-shirts, some of them more relevant than others. I was amused by the person in a football jersey: the local NFL team is called the New England Patriots.

There were also a bunch of inflatable animal costumes, including at least three chickens, a dinosaur, axolotls, an octopus, and a pink unicorn. The unicorn was blowing bubbles. I bought a T-shirt with a drawing of a frog and the word "resist."

The above paragraph would have made no sense a month ago, but we are living in weird as well as scary times, in which the administration apparently sees the Emergency World Naked Bike Ride as a threat.
shadowkat: (Default)
shadowkat ([personal profile] shadowkat) wrote2025-10-18 05:55 pm

Saturday breezed on by....like it always does

Spent most of my vacation attempting to quell various aches and pains, brought on by various factors, some known, some guessed at, some not?
Read more... )

***

The UU Church has a Devotional Poetry Writing Group. I flirted with it. But I'm wary of anything regarding the writing and sharing of poetry. Read more... )

UU Church is also featuring a singer/song-writer for tomorrow's service, who is (apparently) popular? I hadn't heard of them before the Church newsletter told me about him - but I'm also not really into religious music? While I have, as you've no doubt figured out by now, widely diverse taste in music, there are few genres I rarely listen to? They are "traditional classical opera", "electronica" (depending on the electronica), "religious music", "gospel", "choral music", "rap" (depending on the rap), and heavy metal (depending on the heavy metal). So, as result, I hadn't come across this person, who I think is trans, and is creating queer religious music and going across the country with it.

Anyhow...I checked them out last night, and their song, entitled Ploushare Prayer by Spencer LaJoye.

Folks, they made me cry? It really moved me. I was surprised.
Ploushare Prayer Video )
But not sure I can deal with the crowd that will converge on the church tomorrow to hear them play for free. I'll do it on Facebook or Zoom instead. No steps. Sleep in. And better acoustics, not to mention I can see more.

***

Pain and fear of large crowds kept me from participating in the No Kings Day. I hope it went well. More to the point? I hope it accomplishes something?

Ah, it's getting darker earlier now. Sunset was at 6:30. My heart goes out to my brother - whose heating and cooling system has failed him. He's tried to get it fixed multiple times. The first time, they came out, he paid them, they claimed that they fixed it. They didn't. They came out again, claimed to fix it, they didn't. Then they got bought by someone else. Who kept claiming they didn't get my brother's calls or emails, and came out, and then well up and disappeared. So he found a new company - and the whole system has to be replaced. He has a wood burning stove - but it's not going to heat the entire house, and his bedroom is one floor below it, and heat rises? And it gets cold up there? And my brother gets cold easily. [I'm so glad I rent. Let all of that be somebody else's problem. We've had hitting issues - but they tend to get resolved quickly - since there's about 100 people affected.)

****

Television

1. Weirdly I'm enjoying Angel the Series better now than I did way back when I first watched it in the late 1990s. If I was to hazard a guess - I think it would be lowered expectations, and no longer wanting Angel and Buffy to be together - or being disappointed that they aren't? I wasn't in the fandom until roughly 2002 - or midway through S6. Read more... ) At any rate - I'm enjoying Angel more now. Partly, because I like Angel, Wes, and Cordelia better now than I did twenty five years ago. I find them a bit more relatable and comforting. They are all a tad lost, and doing the best they can to make things work, while flailing miserably most of the time. The writers dig down into classic noir tropes.

And, I like how most of the writers veer away from the classical hero trope. For all the times, Angel succeeds, he also fails miserably. In the Scourge? The seventh or eighth episode, he attempts to sacrifice himself heroically - but his speeches to Doyle about why he sacrificed his humanity and a life with his one true love to pursue the cause, backfires on him in a huge way. Read more... )

Moving on to Parting Gifts - which I didn't like the first time I saw it, twenty five years ago, I do now. It's a great study in characters and contrasts. Also demonstrates how Wes, Cordy and Angel work slightly better than Doyle, Angel and Cordy did. For one thing - they get it across pretty quickly - that there are 0 romantic feelings between Angel/Cordy or Cordy/Wes. Read more... ). They also set up each character's skill sets. Read more... ) But mainly, within a short period of time - they set up the problem, the on-going villain (WRH law firm in the shadows), and the relationship dynamic between Angel, Cordy, Wes. And I realized while watching that I like all three, and all three actors in spite of myself?

I prefer watching this outside of a fandom superimposing its views onto me?
I can find it comforting and enjoyable on my own. Also, no longer caring who ends up with who, or romantic ships - makes the show more interesting?
I was never much into romantic relationships on television shows? I much prefer the platonic friendships - they are more interesting to watch, and less frustrating - particularly within the noir/horror genre.

2. The Diplomat S3 - this is fun. Want sparkling funny witty dialogue - this is it. Good actors. And excellent political satire. Also, even though the President in this series was responsible for an act of terrorism? I still prefer Allison Janey as President to the one we currently have. I'd rather live in the world of the Diplomat? Sad I know. But here we are. And, sigh, Rufus Sewell is hot. This show just makes me laugh. I'm not binging it this go around - I'm letting it last. Then I may rewatch from the beginning.

[I'm still watching Poker Face and Rain Maker on Peacock, just slowly.]
adafrog: (Default)
adafrog ([personal profile] adafrog) wrote in [community profile] fandom_checkin2025-10-18 06:05 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Check In.

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Saturday to midnight on Sunday (8pm Eastern Time).


Poll #33738 Daily poll
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 23

How are you doing?

I am okay
11 (47.8%)

I am not okay, but don't need help right now
12 (52.2%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans are you living with?

I am living single
9 (39.1%)

One other person
9 (39.1%)

More than one other person
5 (21.7%)



Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
kaberett ([personal profile] kaberett) wrote2025-10-18 11:36 pm

some good things

  1. Spontaneous(ish) brunch at the localish Gail's, in that it's a thing I have been meaning to do for A While and the weather will shortly be getting cold enough (and likely damp enough) that their outside seating loses its appeal. Underwhelming hot chocolate but I really liked the sesame-cardamom bun -- think Kardemummebullar With Bonus Sesame; I got the last one and it was way better than I was expecting. (Millennial Avocado Toast also tasty.)
  2. Successfully acquired Discount Bread from the supermarket this evening, for the purpose of tomorrow's dinner (a recipe from Salt Fat Acid Heat which will use the cavolo nero from the fridge + some of the Seasonal Squash in a panzanella).
  3. And I was nearly back to baseline on the walk home from same, which is a very welcome development (I have been Lingeringly Ill for the last four weeks).
  4. Successfully read a chapter of The Old Guard comic (on loan from library) on my laptop as a Shared Activity. Consequently we are about a fifth of the way through. I prefer the film.
  5. I think the chilli plant I lost track of the label for might plausibly, finally, be a Trinidad Perfume??? Fingers crossed for it managing to usefully set fruit (and I really do need to bring All the chillis in from the greenhouse...)
  6. I am listening to Cornish waves while I get ready for bed. Is good. <3
conuly: (Default)
conuly ([personal profile] conuly) wrote2025-10-16 02:01 pm

So, sometimes E and I have been watching Mom

For one reason and one reason only, which is to criticize their set design.

We're supposed to believe that the protagonist of the series is a recently sober waitress, single mom. One kid's dad is nonexistent, the other is there but he certainly doesn't pay any child support. Her own family is definitely not helping out - indeed, she has to help her mother, who is also recently sober!

Dialog establishes that her nonsober life was pretty chaotic - evictions, jail time, the works.

And their house is fucking amazing. Three bedrooms for a mom and two kids, which to my NYC eyes is astonishing, and everything matches. None of the furniture has cigarette burns or scratches or crayon marks, nothing is missing a drawer pull or, indeed, a drawer, all their windows have curtains - matching curtains, even! - and all their lights have lampshades, none of their comforters are frayed around the edges, there's no food or drink stains, the doors all close properly....

You know, it occurs to me that I may be revealing a bit more about my own childhood home than perhaps I want to, so I guess I'll stop here. But seriously, set and costume design have some questions to answer, because they really didn't think any of this through. I can see such a tidy house from a waitress who is diligent about estate sales and thrifting - though probably none of it would match, it would be eclectic in a classy way. Or I can see nice furnishings from an alcoholic with a bigger income who was managing to keep a fingerhold on being functional in a way that this family clearly wasn't before the show. But c'mon!

********************


Read more... )
yhlee: a stylized fox's head and the Roman numeral IX (nine / 9) (hxx ninefox)
yhlee ([personal profile] yhlee) wrote2025-10-18 01:01 pm
Entry tags:

a comic exists

Proof copies.

Candle Arc #1 comic proof copies

Meanwhile, I've obtained a secondhand wide-format color printer locally so we'll see how setup goes.

ETA: Wide-format printer (up to 13"x19") is go! (See comments for test printouts.) I'm currently (still) setting up via Ka-Blam + Indyplanet for print on demand because I refuse to deal with fulfillment because my health is f*cked, but for DIY home zines + comics for friends & family or or prototypes or for selling locally, this should be more than sufficient.
conuly: (Default)
conuly ([personal profile] conuly) wrote2025-10-15 10:51 pm

Another beautiful day!

And no headache, which is great - I've been super headachy these past few weeks.

*******************


Read more... )
hrj: (Default)
hrj ([personal profile] hrj) wrote2025-10-18 10:20 am

Football Games and Library Privileges

Periodically I have enough to-do items at the U.C. Berkeley library that I organize a trip through the tunnel around that task. I alternate between driving or BART+bicycle, depending, but since I had some widely-spread add-ons yesterday, I drove.

Yesterday was a Cal home game. I should have biked.

All it meant was that I had to park in the downtown Berkeley parking garage and hike a bit more--no big deal--but circling the campus in the process of discovering this fact was annoying.

I also was able to have a chat with the Permissions Desk person to confirm what types of things my alumna library card does not get for me. Also to confirm that *everyone* hits a cut-off point past downloading a certain number of files from a library computer. I can get full JSTOR access in the library, including downloading articles to a thumb drive, but at some point (which seems to be variable) it declines to keep downloading. Changing terminals makes no difference. I should experiment with changing thumb drive *and* terminal to see if it's reading the drive ID in some way. (Permission granted for someone knowledgeable to explain the possibilities to me.)

This limit also exists when downloading files for Haithi Trust documents. Now the complicating factor for Haithi Trust is that *how* you are able to download the file depends entirely on the specific file and its permissions. Yesterday I wanted to download a copy of "A new picture of Paris, or, The stranger's guide to the French metropolis" a 1827 guidebook for the English traveler. I'd been pulling some screenshots for key information on my home computer, but don't have any download permissions on my own.

Problem is: A New Picture of Paris has slightly restricted permissions where you can only download one page at a time. And the download limit evidently is around 130 downloads. After which, not only could I not continue downloading A New Picture of Paris pages, but I couldn't download anything else. Fortunately, one of the other articles I wanted to get was available through a different online portal which allowed emailing the content as one of the options. (And without needing any extra log-on layer.)

I joked to the help desk guy that maybe I should go for a second PhD just to get the full library access. He pointed out that simply signing up for a University Extension class might do it. But I'm not sure I want to go that far. Mostly patience and workarounds will do it.

The only item on my shopping list that I hit a brick wall on was Neo-Victorian Lesbians on Screen (2025, by Sarah E. Maier & Rachel M. Friars). Only way to get it through UCB is inter-library loan, and that's not part of the alumni privileges. I was able to see a list of chapters with summaries and it looks like a fascinating book. But because it's criticism of modern media (about historic lesbians), it's somewhat tangential to my topic. Too tangential to shell out a hundred bucks for a hard copy. Even too tangential to shell out $35 for an ebook. (I fantasize about having both the standing and the nerve to request review copies of academic books, but I don't feel like I'm operating at that level currently.)

And now I'm deciding whether to hop on my fold-up bike and BART down to Walnut Creek for the No Kings rally (like I did last time), or park+BART then see how crowded the BART-downtown shuttle is. (Though it's a semi-reasonable walk, and I probably won't be doing other exercise today.) Last time I did the bike+BART thing and had the bad luck to get a flat. Which was awkward because I didn't take the bike bag with the tools and spare tubes (because I didn't want to lug it to the rally), so getting home involved a lot of walking the bike. No reason to expect it to happen again, but...salience effect, you know?