A terrible comic about baseball
Jul. 12th, 2025 05:54 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
On social media recently, it was “Make a Terrible Comic Day.” Since making terrible things comes naturally to me, I decided to participate! Here is my contribution.

It was fun to draw this by hand, which I am quite out of practice at.
You can see more “terrible comics” using the #makeaterriblecomicday2025 hashtag on Bluesky and Instagram!
Weird Al and "Oh hey, it's that guy!", Murderbot-style
Jul. 12th, 2025 03:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Also, the audience was full of people wearing extremely cheerful shirts, and made great viewing.
I have not seen the most recent Murderbot yet, but I did spot David Dastmalchian as John Deacon in a clip of Weird-the-biopic which was played at the concert, so that's almost the same thing, right? I was very proud of my facial recognition software for picking up on that. I would like to belatedly award points to the casting department for finding a way to get another MENA-descended person into Queen, which is a great joke I didn't get at the time.
I loved the new Murderbot short story, which I read aloud to my SO.
Huh
Jul. 12th, 2025 12:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
2010: Melbourne, Australia
2011: Reno, USA
2019: Dublin, Ireland
2020: Wellington, New Zealand
2024: Glasgow, Scotland
(I was nowhere near the ballot in 2009, Montreal)
At a guess, those are years where vote totals were a bit lower?
( Read more... )
In which there is The pinch of Salt Path by Sally "Raynor Winn" Walker
Jul. 12th, 2025 05:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
( The Salt Path-ological liar, The Wild Lies, and Landlies )
Most importantly, to me, disabled people suffer collateral damage from both aspects of her fraud: firstly by being told they could do x or y if only they had as much willpower as Walker's fictional character with CBS/CBD, then secondly from the assumption that many disabled people are frauds like Walker. I'm betting she'll continue to profit from her crimes while her victims, intended and indirect, suffer for her choices. (I also feel sympathy for the Walker children and hope they avoid being dragged into this.)
Assortment
Jul. 12th, 2025 04:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Walkouts, feuds and broken friendships: when book clubs go bad. I don't think I've ever been in a book club of this kind. Many years ago at My Place Of Work there used to be an informal monthly reading group which would discuss some work of relevance to the academic mission of the institution, very broadly defined, and that was quite congenial, and I am currently in an online group read-through and discussion of A Dance to the Music of Time, but both these have rather more focus perhaps? certainly I do not perceive that they have people turning up without having reading the actual books....
Mind you, I am given the ick, and this is I will concede My Garbage, by those Reading Group Suggestions that some books have at the end, or that were flashed up during an online book group discussion of a book in which I was interested.
Going to book groups without Doing The Reading perhaps goes under the heading of Faking It, which has been in the news a lot lately (I assume everybody has heard about The Salt Roads thing): and here are a couple of furthe instances:
(This one is rather beautifully recursive) What if every artwork you’ve ever seen is a fake?:
Many years ago, I met a man in a pub in Bloomsbury who said he worked at the British Museum. He told me that every single item on display in the museum was a replica, and that all the original artefacts were locked away in storage for preservation.
....
Later, Googling, I discovered that none of what the man had told me was true. The artefacts in the British Museum are original, unless otherwise explicitly stated. It was the man who claimed to work there who was a fake.
This one is more complex, and about masquerade and fantasy as much as 'hoax' perhaps: The schoolteacher who spawned a Highland literary hoax
This is not so much about fakery but about areas of doubt: We still do not understand family resemblance which suggests that GENES are by no means the whole story.
Reading adventures
Jul. 12th, 2025 05:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
About a month ago, I tried to read some 911 fic from
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A couple of weeks ago I saw a post on Tumblr that said something like, paraphrased, "There's a very popular notion that in the past all literature was good quality compared to now, but that's not true. This is survivorship bias. The stuff we still know and read in the present day is the good stuff, but a vast quantity of bad and mediocre stuff is lost to time." Someone responded by linking to The Westminster Detective Library, a project investigating the earliest history of the detective fiction genre. Apparently the professor who began it was initially inspired by a conviction that Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue was not actually the first detective short story based on features of its writing which in his opinion betrayed the signs of a genre history. The website contains transcribed public-domain detective fiction that was published in American magazines before the first Sherlock Holmes story's publication. I have been enjoying reading through it chronologically since I read the post. Reading in one genre is a bit like reading in one fandom, and reading very old fiction has several special points of interest to me because I love learning about history and culture in that way. Of course on the minus side, it isn't gay. But I'm getting fascinating glimpses of the history of the genre and the history of jurisprudence in both America and Britain. And although there is definitely mediocre and "sub-mid" writing published in the periodicals of the 18th-19th centuries, awash in silly cliches and carelessly proofread if at all, they are still slightly more filtered for legibility and literacy than the experience of reading modern fanfiction (even, as mentioned in the last paragraph, from recs lists and bookmarks, unless you have a supply of trusted and well-known reccers to follow. I sometimes come near tears remembering the days when I could always check what
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The other thing that has happened to affect my reading is that my little sister's high school best friend got engaged and invited my sister to her engagement party in Florida, which is going to be "Gatsby-themed". The 1920s is possibly my single oldest hyperfixation, dating from before the age of 10, and it's the historical period that I know and care the most about. For the past ten years or so the term "Gatsby" has, consequently, inspired me with the most intense rage and irritation, because its popularity after the movie version of The Great Gatsby flooded the internet with so much loathesomely inaccurate "information" about and imagery of the 1920s as to actually make it harder to find real information, and nearly impossible to filter out this dreck. So my sister began shopping for her Engagement Party Outfit, which is supposed to be "Gatsby"-themed, and I am the permanent primary audience for this (just as she is the permanent primary audience any time I am planning outfits or considering my wardrobe). This has led me to reading 1920s magazines online from the Internet Archive and HathiTrust - initially the middle-class fashion magazine McCall's; then also Vogue and Harper's Bazar (much more pretentious and bourgeois). I tried to branch out into interior design magazines of the same period (House & Garden and Better Homes & Gardens), but it has been harder to find scans of them. I find 1920s romantic fiction (serialized copiously in all these magazines) much less readable and enjoyable than the 1920s detective fiction which I am more familiar with (I've read plenty of it thanks to my interest in Golden Age detective stories)... but I've also learned a lot more physical and aesthetic details about women's fashion and interiors from the romantic fiction, which makes me think I perhaps need to seek out more of it.
Two more new BtVS vids!
Jul. 12th, 2025 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Title: You Oughta Know
Character/Pairing: Buffy/Faith, S4
Summary: I'm not gonna fade as soon as you close your eyes.
AO3 | DW | Tumblr
Star Trek Mapping: Harmonizing the Maps
Jul. 12th, 2025 09:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
From last night's progress to such ends in support of several Tranquility Press fanfic projects...

Books Received, July 5 — July 11
Jul. 12th, 2025 08:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

Four books new to me.Two are SF, one is fantasy, one is a mix of both. I don't see anything unambiguously labelled as series works.
Books Received, July 5 — July 11
Which of these look interesting?
Secrets, Spells, and Chocolate by Marisa Churchill (December 2025)
8 (32.0%)
Spread Me by Sarah Gailey (September 2025)
11 (44.0%)
The Forest on the Edge of Time by Jasmin Kirkbride (February 2026)
10 (40.0%)
The Universe Box by Michael Swanwick (February 2026)
11 (44.0%)
Some other option (see comments)
1 (4.0%)
Cats!
20 (80.0%)
Connexions (27)
Jul. 12th, 2025 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Clorinda looked up from the letter she was perusing as Sandy entered the parlour. La, my dear, you are a late riser the morn – or, indeed, might I suppose you did not sleep at home last night? She picked up the little bell upon the breakfast table to ring for fresh coffee.
Sandy scowled at her as he went sit in the chair opposite and helped himself to a muffin.
I will not attempt, she said, to engage you in conversation until you have been fortified.
He scowled but said nothing.
Shortly afterwards came Hector with coffee and hotter muffins as well as a platter of bacon and grilled kidneys.
Clorinda continued to read her correspondence – oh, fie, here are the orphanage ladies go be troublesome yet again, I must go call on Lady Jane betimes so that we may devize some plan to rout 'em – sure I have no engagements this very afternoon –
Most unwonted! Sandy remarked, as he poured himself a third cup of coffee.
– though I go dine at the Wallaces this e’en, to bid farewell to dear Polly Fendersham and Mr Enderby. But my dear, are you now restored to waking consciousness once more, had a thought while reading a letter from Barbara Collins –
They are all well, I hope?
O, entirely, business flourishes, &C, though she misses young Una. But thinking of how well they are doing out of horseflesh over there, wondered if that young groom that fell foul of Blatchett had any notion to seeking his fortune in the colonies?
Sand raised his eyebrows and took a drink of coffee. 'Tis indeed a thought, he agreed. For quite apart from our concerns over Lady Isabella, I have come to consider that Blatchett may come to wonder what else young Oxton might have seen – even he might find a guilty conscience preying upon him from time to time – and take further measures.
La, Mr MacDonald, did you ever essay the Gothic mode? But that is a point well taken.
Let us not dilly-dally, then: I must to the godless institution this morn, but may take myself into Berkshire and Offerton’s stables to sound Oxton out later. 'Tis no great journey.
Clorinda nodded. 'Tis the wisest course. And you may mention that there is a philanthropic scheme for aiding such deserving young persons to emigrate –
There is? – Clorinda smiled – Ah.
So that was one piece of good work dispatched, or at least, well in hand, so early in the day, very gratifying!
But she must look into the matter of the orphanage – alas, dear Dumpling Dora Pockinford had been sadly distracted of late – even had the Honble Simon pulled round from those shocking ways of which the Pockinfords did not speak but of which Clorinda had heard from Josh, that had prevented the boy from laying violent hands upon himself, it must fret a mother that he was now going so distant, and doubtless she imagined all sorts of perils. 'Twixt that, and first Aggie and now Thea showing religious leanings that were anathema to Lord Pockinford’s Evangelicalism, that family was not at its most harmonious. And her deputy, her daughter-in-law Lady Demington, only very lately returned from recovering her heath in Harrogate.
'Twas no wonder matters were somewhat awry!
So Clorinda gathered up the necessary papers – the Matron at least was a good businesslike woman! – and had the horses put to the carriage to take her to that quiet and unfashionable but perfectly respectable neighbourhood where Lady Jane had her apartments, adjacent to those of Amelia Addington. Looking out of the carriage window, Clorinda saw signs that these streets were coming up, 'twas no wonder, were convenient for a deal of matters.
Nick Jupp handed her down, and said he would take the carriage round to the King’s Head and tend to the cattle there –
And I hope you will tend to yourself and take a mug of ale or so!
She was rather surprized, on entering Lady Jane’s sanctum, to find the place in a considerable bustle of company – there was Janey Merrett, and Amelia, and, why, Viola Mulcaster – 'twas quite the family gathering –
But also, over at the pianoforte, that Lady Jane was finding her fingers rather too stiff to play herself these days, but that Janey came to play to her quite frequent, Zipsie Rondegate and Thea Saxorby.
Lady Bexbury! cried Lady Jane, beginning to rise, as Clorinda besought her not to do so. I have a rare treat brought to me the day. Lady Rondegate has been rehearsing Lady Theodora in dear Grace’s settings of Sappho’s lyrics – lately turned 'em up among some papers sent from Nitherholme – Miss McKeown had copies –
But how charming! said Clorinda, taking a chair. One must suppose that dear Viola must have had somewhat to do with this – showed very well in her, when one recalled her own disastrous history with those songs, as a very young woman just out in Society.
Zipsie waxed very effusive about the songs, to Lady Jane’s perceptible gratification. O, she said, I must have been in some concern that they would be considered sadly old-fashioned – not to mention the work of an amateur hand –
Not in the least, declared Zipsie, showed 'em to Uncle Casimir and he wondered was there any other compositions of hers surviving.
That was praise indeed!
So after some preliminary exercizes, Zipsie and Thea commenced upon the recital.
O, though Clorinda, that one might prevail upon Thea to perform at one’s drawing-room meetings, if not at a soirée. Such a voice. Not, perchance, these songs – mayhap somewhat unsuited to the taste of the present day? – one supposed Thea was ignorant of the life of the poet –
Tears were running down Lady Jane’s face, a most unwonted event.
Amelia Addington was an actress, and capable of keeping in character whatever disasters were going forward on stage or in the wings or even was there a riot in the audience – yet to Clorinda’s eye of old acquaintance, there seemed an air of – of distress?
The song became silent.
O my dears, said Lady Jane, blowing her nose, you have given me a great gift. I never thought to hear those songs again, and you performed them exquisitely.
Clorinda stood up and said, did not wish to be uncivil, but saw that they were about to engage in deep musical converse, and collected that she needed to talk to Miss Addington about a drawing-room meeting, might they step aside for that?
She drew Amelia out into the corridor, where the actress sank her head onto Clorinda’s shoulder and burst into tears.
Dearest Amelia, she said as she put an arm about her, you should not think that she loved who His Grace always refers to as that jealous Billston hag more than you – she remembers, doubtless, happy times of youth but that is very much about those years –
O, sobbed Amelia, it is not that. It is that I think of how ephemeral my own art is. I strut and fret an hour upon the stage –
Things were very bad was she quoting the Scottish play! Clorinda made certain gestures learnt in her youth backstage.
– and 'tis gone. Mayhap a critic will remark upon me in a newspaper, that will then wrap fish.
And you have taught a deal of generations of other actors. I daresay in Sydney there is Orlando Richardson saying, Addington did thus and so – I remember how Addington directed this scene – you will never come up to Addington in that role –
She gave a weak giggle.
– in New York I daresay Charlie Darcy reminisces, though careful to add that of course, his wife is in a very different style – would that one might see the pair of you together on stage –
Amelia mopped her eyes and blew her nose.
– And one dares imagine that in heaven the great dramatists gather round and debate the rival virtues of your performance and that of Mrs Siddons in their great roles.
You flattering weasel! she exclaimed.
Is it not a vocation to bring those works to life?
The two women embraced and Amelia said sure she was being very foolish. And mayhap the late Miss Billston had had a pretty talent but she had led poor Lady Jane a sad dance – jealous scenes, and then getting up flirtations herself when they went into Society – and making a deal of her poor health –
Clorinda stroked her hair and said that Lady Jane had been young – only just coming into the understanding of her nature – in maturer years she had made a wiser choice –
She will even say as much, Amelia admitted. Let us go in, and make sober compliments to the performers.
They discovered Lady Jane quite exhorting Lady Theodora to consider upon the Parable of the Talents – and what is that fine passage from the Bard that you are wont to quote, Lady Bexbury, about not concealing our virtues but letting them shine forth?
Thea was blushing, and murmuring that mayhap she should think upon that.
So Clorinda went away, having agreed upon a further rencontre to talk orphanage, feeling that that had been an agreeable occasion and that mayhap Thea would come about to let her virtues go forth of her.
And now there was going to dine with the Wallaces, that had been wont to be an entire pleasure but had been constrained for many months by the louring presence of Lord Fendersham.
However, on her arrival she was greeted with positively giddy glee by Sir Barton and Susannah Wallace, as well as Bobbie and Scilla, conveying the very happy news that Fendersham was finally ceasing to be the prodigal father and returning home to take up his responsibilities.
Has been all day about settling various of his affairs – his valet about packing – takes a morning train –
So even though we are saddened to have dear Lady Fendersham going away for who knows how long, said Susannah, flourishing her lorgnette, we cannot be other than merry at this prospect.
Well indeed, thought Clorinda, wondering how it had come about. Had been quite unable to fathom how she herself might contrive such an end!
Later that night, darling Leda giggled and said, la, did Clorinda take a pet that some other hand had wrought this?
At which she laughed herself and said, was heartily glad that there were other hands that might undertake these burdens.
Ironheart
Jul. 12th, 2025 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I watched 2.5 episodes, got stressed out, watched the Murderbot finale and gross-cried over that, then after a hangover got back to being stressed by Ironheart all the way to its finale, which has lingered with me after. I think somewhere on Riri's dozenth bad decision (I'm not actually counting) I realized that I hadn't felt this kind of tension while watching an MCU property in a good long while, and bracing myself for the usual MCU-type resolution where the hero gets their upgrade before the final battle, the villain's grey areas are flattened in the final act, and the hero makes the right choice. Ironheart does only one out of three.
Riri gets to be messy, traumatized, selfish, brilliant and distant. Her tunnel vision, though started for noble reasons (to protect her loved ones) has led her to burning bridges and becoming an anti-hero at best, and someone the other Avengers would hunt down to stop. At her lowest point, her love interest is brought to her for the chance to give comfort, and you'd think this is the turning point of Riri's emotional journey, but instead it makes things worse.
The bones are so good, which is why I wish there was more meat on it, especially to dive into Riri's justification of her choices, and the smoothening out of the moments where things happen because they have to (everything with "Joe", honestly). Still, salute for not taking the easiest route in telling a story about Riri.
some good things
Jul. 11th, 2025 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- The fan. Got house down to Actually Matching Outside Air Temperature in finite time; set up to experiment with running it in the bedroom overnight. (It has been Too Warm For Cuddles, which is Bad.)
- Made the nonsense lavender-and-honey Welsh cakes for breakfast. I was sure I had picked way too much lavender but it actually fit in the measuring spoon pretty much perfectly, and wound up being noticeable but not Overwhelming.
- New Murderbot novelette! I have not launched right into reading it because I am just about a quarter of the way through a System Collapse reread (and fascinated by how little of it I remember, though I concede I've read it many fewer times than All Systems Red...) so I'm going to finish that first. Which I am not expecting to take me very long.
- Having spent a bunch of time poking around Wikipedia, I've gone back to Nerve and Muscle and, now almost two whole pages in, it is making significantly more sense than my previous attempt. (I have not yet started making myself notes on neuroanatomy but I am definitely considering it.)
- It is The Time Of Year when strawberries are relatively cheap, so after dinner we wandered down the hill in service of me getting my steps, and us getting some exposure to The Breeze, and acquiring me a giant box of strawberries, and also picking up Ice Lollies to consume on the way back up.
- Realised I could stick a jug of water in the fridge. This has made hydrating significantly easier. (I do not do well at drinking water that isn't Cold, and the magic ice dispenser on our freezer is currently out of action.)
- The online Oxfam shop. Shortly to be on their way to me: a pair of cargo shorts; two pairs of linen cargo trousers; a book I previously had out from the library but which I wanted to have a reference copy of at least briefly for writing purposes.
Looking for a festivids fan video from 2010
Jul. 11th, 2025 05:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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I seem to remember having accessed it either through YouTube or Vimeo at some point but all of the old links I have found link to a download on the vidder’s personal website, which no longer exists.
I’m hoping for a link or if someone had downloaded it at some point and still has it, I would be forever grateful.
LBCF: Fizzbinsationalism
Jul. 11th, 2025 09:12 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
Bonneville Dam
Jul. 11th, 2025 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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After returning to the 84/30 we ended up at the Bonneville Dam in search of a bathroom! It was a good stop though as the view (and sound) of the dam was impressive. ( Read more... )
Weekend Plans
Jul. 11th, 2025 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
My hope, however, is to get everything but that done today so that I can properly settle in and play video games all day long tomorrow. I keep saying that's the plan for the weekend, and then something comes up to prevent it, so I'm really going to try my best this time because I know it will help on the mental health front to lose myself in another world for an entire day.
I'm leaning towards Baldur's Gate 3, but I might go with Dragon Age: The Veilguard instead. Or even Mass Effect. I definitely think it's going to be something I've already played before, though, because something new-to-me requires a different headspace that I don't think I'm in at the moment.
We'll see how it goes, I suppose? 🤞🏻
Demonic Ox arrives today!
Jul. 11th, 2025 11:29 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
Amazon Kindle is first out the gate:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FHBMR3DN
Not yet up, but pending:
Kobo, Google Play Books, and Apple Books are interesting if you search by my name, because they each carry so many foreign language titles, if you scroll down. (Amazon ditto, I suppose.) These pages should populate in due course, though it may take a while for a new entry to sift to the top:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?que...
https://play.google.com/store/info/na...
https://books.apple.com/us/author/loi...
B&N Nook, same deal:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/lois...
To recap:

The Adventure of the Demonic Ox
When sorcerer Learned Penric hears of the suspected demonic possession of an ox at his brother-in-law’s bridgebuilding worksite, he thinks it an excellent opportunity to tutor his adopted daughter and student sorceress Otta in one of their Temple duties: identifying and restraining such wild chaos elementals before harm comes to their hosts or surroundings.
What begins as an instructive family outing turns anything but routine when a mountain search becomes a much more frightening adventure for Penric and his charges. What is undergone there by both mentor and students will yield lessons both unexpected and far-reaching.
***
I'll make my usual spoiler discussion space post tomorrow, for the speed readers.
As always, reader mentions of the new title out and about on the internet and elsewhere are always greatly appreciated, as this blog and word of mouth are the only advertising my indie books get. Amazon always gets plenty of reviews; the other vendors are usually more in need. But no one will see any vendor pages unless they've already heard of the story someplace else, and go to look, so outside reviews and mentions are especially important.
Ta, L.
posted by Lois McMaster Bujold on July, 11
You Can Just Show Up
Jul. 11th, 2025 07:00 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
That There Dr Oursin was at a conference again
Jul. 11th, 2025 07:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
This time it was online, in Teams, and worked a bit better than some Team events I've attended, or maybe I'm just getting used to it.
A few hiccups with slides and screen sharing, but not as many as there might have been.
Possibly we would rather attend a conference not in our south-facing sitting-room on a day like today....
But even so it was on the whole a good conference, even if some of the interdisciplinarity didn't entirely resonate with me.
And That There Dr oursin was rather embarrassingly activating the raised hand icon after not quite every panel, but all but one. And, oddly enough, given that that was not particularly the focus of the conference, all of my questions/comments/remarks were in the general area of medical/psychiatric history, which I wouldn't particularly have anticipated.
2025 52 Card Project: Week 27: Wedding
Jul. 11th, 2025 12:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
There was a July 4th welcome party at my sister's home, and then the ceremony the next day wonderful--so well-planned and heartfelt, and everyone had a marvelous time.
Unfortunately, I am not yet recovered from this terrible cold, and so I didn't stay for the dancing. I had to content myself with the videos and pictures of my family dancing late into the night.
Compare the collage made for one of my other nephew's wedding three years ago, Janus.
Image description: A couple smiles at the camera, fireworks exploding in the background. Overlaid over the fireworks are a semi-transparent clasped woman's hand and man's hand, each wearing a wedding ring. Lower left corner: a wooden box planted with wildflowers with the words "Welcome: We're so glad you're here. David & Jordan 7 . 5. 25

Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.
Listened to some stuff
Jul. 11th, 2025 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
1977 by Sarah Wooley
Which is a play about Angela Morley composing the music for Watership Down. Before transitioning, Angela Morley had written and arranged music for the Goon Show and wrote the theme tune to Hancock's Half Hour, and the play begins when Malcolm Williamson, Master of the Queen's Music is overwhelmed with writing music for the Queen's Silver Jubilee and has totally forgotten he is supposed to also be writing the soundtrack to Watership Down. Several times in this play people say something like "Oh God, the rabbits!" Malcolm Williamson is really not in a good place and stops answering the door and then runs away to the Carmargue with his (male) publisher, leaving not very many minutes of not arranged music with the symphony orchestra and the recording studio booked for something like 10 days' time. And people go "oh shit" and "the only person who can do this is Angela Morley" and go and grovel and promise it's not going to be about her, it's all for the sake of the rabbits and persuade her to just watch the film, no strings, and of course she does it and it's brilliant.
Limelight: Pretender Prince
about Bonnie Prince Charlie and the 1745 Jacobite rebellion
This is part drama and part author (Colin MacDonald) telling us why he has dramatised it the way he has, and part interjections from historians, which worked much better across all the episodes than I thought it would the first time the drama was interrupted by the writer or the historians. Bonnie Prince Charlie doesn't come out of it all very well. The only Stuart history I did at school (in England) was James I to Civil War and death of Charles I (A-level) so all I really know about that bit comes from folk songs. So it was good and I enjoyed it.
As it's a Limelight drama it might be available as a podcast other than on BBC Sounds which now won't let you listen to it outside the UK. I've liked a lot of the Limelight ones, though they tend to be tense thrillers and not about Bonnie Prince Charlie, but I dislike the way BBC Sounds views all of them as a series and is now telling me to continue listening to my "next episode", which is about the CIA and not at all the same thing.
*You listened to a play. Now listen to another play that was on at the same time the next day.
The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe
Jul. 11th, 2025 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

New Dawn requires only that people conform without exception or face memory erasure and worse. Yet, a minority insists on being individuals.
The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe
What Is This Magic?
Jul. 11th, 2025 12:12 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)

Via Seattle Aquarium - now, the aquarium didn’t want to just show you a cute picture, they wanted to tell you this:
If you’ve ever been to the Seattle Aquarium, you’ve seen the impact of policy that protects vulnerable species.
Sea otters (like Mishka here) were once on the brink of extinction with as little as 1,000–2,000 otters remaining in the U.S. population. Now, thanks to laws like the Endangered Species Act (ESA), sea otter populations are recovering—but that could change with recent threats to this vital legislation.
Currently, the ESA has saved 99% of species listed on it from extinction. Let's make sure it stays that way. Contact your federal legislators in both chambers of congress and urge them to protect and strengthen the ESA, not weaken it. We've made it easy with three simple steps and a template to follow when contacting your representatives.
I’ll contact my reps if you contact yours!
Connexions (26)
Jul. 11th, 2025 07:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Polly, Dowager Lady Fendersham, could scarcely believe it. It was only days now before she would embark, along with that excellent fellow Cyrus Enderby and that still rather annoying young man the Honble Simon Saxorby, bound for Peru. And after so many years would see dear Christie, that had been doing well in the Consular Service at Lima, and the wife he had lately wedded. It was quite extraordinary.
But before she left, she had two missions to undertake.
She was staying with the Wallaces, the dear hospitable creatures, and most fortunate, Bobbie and Scilla had just lately returned from visiting Firlbrough to sound out the feeling there in advance of the anticipated General Election.
Also staying with the Wallaces, a much unwanted guest, was her stepson, Lord Fendersham, that continued to linger in Town even though Lady Wauderkell had gone on a retreat in a convent.
Polly had almost immediate upon her arrival in Town gone seek out Lady Bexbury, that she fancied would have the most useful intelligence upon this matter, and she was not in the least deluded.
Why, said Lady Bexbury, pouring tea, and drawing Polly’s attention to the cake-stand, I confide she continues to reside there because Lord Fendersham is unlike to venture within a league of a nunnery. And while I daresay the accommodation may be a little austere, and the food somewhat plain, 'twill all be a great improvement over Newgate. Furthermore, I apprehend from my friend that is a sister in the convent that she takes up her pen once more –
Polly groaned.
– takes up her pen to write improving tales for young people of the childhood of various saints, that will be published and sold for the benefit of the convent. So she is not idle – attends the various offices during the day – has had several visits from her cousin from Cork with a view to settling their legal difficulties – passing the time really quite agreeably until the evidence comes from Chicago confirming O’Neill’s previous marriage so the case can go to court.
One hears, she added, that there is an antient suitor in Cork that is now a widower still yearns –
Polly snorted. One might suppose she had had quite enough of marriage.
Lady Bexbury raised her eyebrows and remarked that one must only suppose that with some, 'twas like unto a laudanum habit, a craving that they could not resist.
So she was able to go to Andrew, armed with this intelligence, although she intended to present him first with an appeal to duty. For had been approached by various neighbours and local dignitaries discreetly asking when Lord Fendersham was going to return and put matters in order, and with an election forthcoming, surely 'twas prudent that he should be at home.
For indeed, at present Fendersham Hall was a scene of riotous living by Drew Fendersham and his cronies. There was not a great deal of harm in Drew himself, but Polly did not feel so sure about some of the set that gathered about him. There was a deal of drinking, and while at first they had been engaged in the usual country pleasures, as far as the season permitted, latterly there had been a resort to cards as well as billiards, and, she feared, high play.
There her stepson was, sitting reading the Times with an expression of great disapproval, though indeed that was his normal expression. As he grew older he came to look a deal more like her late husband, but he had never had such sour looks. Oh, he had taken pets when he thought some fellow or other was showing Polly undue attention, and in his later years when he became invalid was wont to be fussy and demanding. But he had taken pleasure in life, simple though his pleasures were – give us a jolly tune, Poll! – and while he had not had particularly sensitive feelings, had been within his limits, kind.
Her stepson had been conscientious, and ever done the proper things, before this recent upheaval, but she had never felt that there was kindness.
She sat down opposite him and decided to go straight at the point. Everybody has been asking when you intend to return to Fendersham Hall and take matters in hand, she said. Your presence is considerably missed in local affairs as well as about the business of the estate. Drew is entirely irresponsible and treats the house as an inn, inviting who knows what chance-met boon companions under your roof.
He looked up from the newspaper and blinked at her.
I have been doing what I can, but I am going to Peru to visit Christie, that I have not seen these many years. And there is a deal that only you can attend to. Your father, she added, may have been given to self-indulgence – had not the present Lord Fendersham expatiated upon this theme to his father’s very face? – but did not neglect the duties of his position, even did he undertake 'em with a deal of sighing and groaning.
Fendersham emitted a sound somewhere 'twixt a moan and a whine. Then said that felt obliged to remain in Town lest Lady Wauderkell should need him –
Lady Wauderkell, said Polly, managing not to snap out the words, is very comfortable in the convent – you must not at all imagine a grim cell – bread and water – kneeling on hard stone. I have been assured that the guest quarters are entire what one would desire. She was not conveyed there by sinister monks directed by a conniving Jesuit priest, and is under no kind of duress. She has chosen to stay there now that she, as one understands, returns to the faith that she was brought up in.
Profound groan from her stepson.
Furthermore, there is a cousin from Cork comes to Town, about some matter to do with their business there, and is entire willing and competent to look after her interests – prepares to come to a compromise in the lawsuit &C – offers that is there aught he may do to assist her suit in this case of bigamy he is entire at her disposal –
Further groans.
Really, Andrew, I am astonished the Wallaces have not dosed your tea with laudanum and bundled you on to the next train going north, under care in the guard’s van! 'Tis a shocking abuse of hospitality the way you linger here.
He flushed. Really, he did not look at all healthy. Town life did not suit him. And was he literally pouting?
She left him to seethe and brood.
Her other mission was a good deal more agreeable! And it was a very agreeable jaunt out there in the carriage that the Wallaces had insisted that she took. She had no particular qualms about how Una Wallace did in the Ferraby household – would doubtless have heard was there any matter of illness – but still, she would like to be assured that the girl was doing well, for it must be a considerable change for her.
Indeed, Blackheath, though fine and green and leafy, and sure far more healthful than Town, was very different from a farm in Nova Scotia! And one must wonder how Una, that had been brought up among older people, got on now she was with the boisterous Ferraby girls and going to school.
Here they were, at this very fine house in excellent grounds that the Sir Harry Ferrabys occupied. And quite running out to greet her Lady Louisa, in very merry mood.
O, Lady Fendersham – oh, Polly – such a pleasure to see you! The girls are in the garden, a-romping with the little boys, so very pretty, come see.
So Polly stepped down from the carriage, and Lady Louisa instructed the coachman where to go, and then to go to the kitchen for refreshment.
Peru! she cried. So venturesome of you – Josh has been in some envy of the excursion –
Fie, said Polly, one apprehends that Lima is a fine modern city, I have no intention of making expeditions into forests and jungles, will leave that to Mr Enderby and his young apprentice.
Are there not, murmured Lady Louisa, enormous snakes in those parts that are said to swallow animals whole? and might one ingest Simon Saxorby? A very annoying young man.
O, he is somewhat improved though now will bore one quite like unto Mr Nixon about Peru and its history and its fauna &C.
Lou giggled.
They came out into the garden, where Hester and Maria Ferraby along with Una were playing at catch with their little brothers Hal, that was already breeched, and Gervase, that was still in dresses, though looking at him, Lou sighed that 'twas nigh time to cut those curls and put him into breeches.
Polly sighed too, thinking of the day when she had performed the like for Christie.
Quite letting fall the ball in her to come running up and embrace Polly, Una Wallace. Most delightful! For Una had been wont to be a little reserved and shy, one dared say that being among the Ferrabys had perchance given her easier manners than those she had learnt from Barbara Collins, that, though a very fine woman, had learnt hers in an earlier day, so that they showed somewhat of a stiffness in a child of Una’s years?
Oh, Auntie Polly, how exceeding! Do you come a long visit?
Polly looked down into the dark eyes, noting the healthy rose that had come to her cheeks – the gloss of the dark hair – one need be in no concern at all about the sanitive benefits of her present residence.
Alas, said Polly, stooping to kiss her, I only came for this very afternoon – am about to depart for Peru to visit my son, and his wife, that I have never yet met –
Una’s mouth drooped a little, before she straightened her shoulders and said, they would go look that up in the big atlas – study upon it mayhap –
The Ferraby sister came up to shake hands and make their curtseys and demonstrate that they were not, as their mother sighed, quite wild savages. Hal essayed a bow.
Came out of his workshop Sir Harry, and Una turned to him with a smile, that was warmly returned.
Here, said Sir Harry, is Miss Wallace shows a deal of interest in engineering.
Well! No, one could not have the least worry about Una, in this place. Little Gervase, clutching her hand – It was well.
recent reading: 2/3 of the Harper Hall trilogy
Jul. 10th, 2025 09:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The story is about Menolly, a musically gifted girl from an isolated fishing village who escapes from her unsupportive family and through luck and her own talent ends up as a rare female apprentice in the Harper Hall (and forms a mental bond with nine fire lizards in the process). It's classic YA "misfit kid finds their place", "modest protag turns out to have superior abilities", and "girl proves she's just as good as the boys".
As a high school student immersed in band and orchestra, I adored these books. I reread them over and over and over. I took them with me to the music camp I went to for three summers; being at that camp felt like what I thought living in the Harper Hall must be like.
Decades later, I still enjoy them. It's nice to escape into a world where people love making music together and you might Impress a fire lizard as a bonus. The Suck Fairy's treated these well; they're not free of problematic aspects, but the books don't have the dubcon/noncon/draconids-made-me-do-it material that a lot of the other Pern books have (indeed, that Dragondrums, the third in the triology has). They're adolescent wish fulfilment, overall done well.
(I don't have a copy of Dragondrums that I know of; if I did, it got purged. Piemur's fun as a side character but isn't who I want to spend a book with.)
‘Biblical grounds’ for white Texan divorce
Jul. 10th, 2025 10:15 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Untitled Daisuke and Monty by Julia Stark
Fandom: Dimension 20: Cloudward, Ho!
Relationship: Daisuke Bucklesby/Monty LaMontgomery
Medium: Art
Length: 1 piece
Rating: SFW
My Bookmark Tags: slice of life, happy ending, established relationship, then and now, clothing, nostalgia
Description:
Two full-colour images of Daisuke and Monty, one in the present and one in flashback to their younger days. The first is fully saturated and features the two walking close together with Monty in the lead. Daisuke's hat is tipped forward over his eyes as he looks down with a faint smile and puts away his flask. Monty is watching him over his shoulder, likewise smiling and seemingly mid-conversation with him. Above them, larger and more faded out, is a memory of them sitting together decades ago, Daisuke speaking while Monty watches him with soft-eyed attention.
( Very Minor Spoilers for Episode 6 )
This piece is just so sweet. The whole "getting the band back together" element of Cloudward, Ho! has been right up my alley, and I like that their separation was more about losing something that was holding them together rather than a big falling-out that created any ill will. It's made for a great story so far about some highly competent older characters reuniting warmly with old friends and working well together because of their shared history.
I love how the artist has captured this. The flashback looms large over the two men, creating a sense of those past conversations fuelling their present ease with each other and shared direction. It spot-on conveys Monty's wonderful attentiveness to people and suggests a lot in imagining the usually laconic Daisuke so engaged in talking to him. As someone who loves the aesthetics of this season, I'm also very much here for the details in their outfits and the little ways they've changed over the years.
today's window into another world
Jul. 10th, 2025 10:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
(I am continuing to think a lot about sensory systems; today I have mostly been discovering how many of the things I thought I half-remembered about nerves are wrong.)
Things happening this week
Jul. 10th, 2025 07:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
For the first time in forever I have been making The Famous Aubergine Dip (the vegan version with Vegan Worcestershire Sauce, I discovered the bottle I had was use by ages ahead, yay). This required me acquiring aubergines from The Local Shops. There is now, on the corner where there used to be an estate agent (and various other things before that) a flower shop that also sells fruit and vegetables, and they had Really Beautiful, 'I'm ready for my close-up Mr deMille', Aubergines, it was almost a pity to chop them up and saute them.
A little while ago I mentioned being solicited to Give A Paper to a society to which I have spoken (and published in the journal of) heretofore. Blow me down, they have come back suggesting the topic I suggested - thrown together in a great hurry before dashing off to conference last week - is Of Such Significance pretty please could I give the keynote???
Have been asked to be on the advisory board for a funded research project.
A dance in the old dame yet, I guess.
Sneak cover peek, Two Tales reprint coming later this summer
Jul. 10th, 2025 09:12 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
The Vorkosigan novella "The Flowers of Vashnoi" has not been available in a paper version since the Subterranean Press edition sold out. The novella "Winterfair Gifts" has had only scattered paper publication, not easy to find. (Both, of course, are continuously available under their own titles as my indie ebooks, or audio downloads from Blackstone.)
Neither would be economically viable for any pro publisher to handle, but it occurred to me they'd be just the thing to add to my little list of print-on-demand paper editions, including The Spirit Ring and "Knife Children". So I've put them together in a single PoD volume, to be titled Two Tales.
Experience with the long-time reader confusion over the novella "The Borders of Infinity" and the 3-novella collection it's in, Borders of Infinity, made me try to label this paper mini-collection as clearly as possible. We'll have to see how it works out. I'm not yet sure how to make it searchable under either of the novella titles, which is what I suspect most people would first be looking for.
Anyway, I asked artist Ron Miller to do us a cover in the style of my other indie VK ebooks, and here's a sneak peek:

When this paper-only edition becomes available to buy, later this summer, I'll post the ISBN number, which should helps folks trying to order it through bookstores. (Uncle Hugo's will certainly have it; they also carry the other two of my PoDs.)
Ta, L.
posted by Lois McMaster Bujold on July, 10
In which real life is less Friar Tuck and more friars wtf
Jul. 10th, 2025 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
A connection beyond probably being neighbours is that a witness claimed one of the Friars Minor, 'Dr' Hanedon, confessed to the attempted murder of his neighbour living at no.9, Thomas Twesell. The confession, possibly while drunk, was in front of innkeeper Nicholas Mokoke of the Cardinal's Hat inn / tavern in Worcester. Hanedon was being investigated by Cromwell's auditors for 'vicious living', and being 'to the evil example of all Christian people', when he attempted to murder wealthy local civic dignitary (and Cromwell's auditor?) Thomas Twesell by gathering a gang of fellow friars to accost Twesell in the street and stab him with a 'dagger' on the feast of the Conversion of St Paul (25 Jan). The friars reputedly cried off because Twesell was accompanied by his servant (i.e. an armed man and potential witness).
Anne Mokoke (Moorcock?), the daughter of the Cardinal's Hat innkeeper, testified that Hanedon ~neither feared God nor the shame of the world~, and there are two separately witnessed accounts of him trying to seduce unwilling women, including the partially successful abduction of a married woman to a brothel! The Friary itself is referred to by the letter's author as 'more like a house of vicious and incontinent living than a religious place.'
Note that all this evidence gathering was to a particular purpose as the Dissolution of the Monasteries happened 1536-41, however even the 'marshal' of the prior of Worcester seems to have been willing to testify (£?) against Hanedon for the abduction. All very suspect: trust nobody!!1!! Except goodwife Anne who was correct that the whole business is extremely unedifying from beginning to end.
/dispatches from C16th
FIC: Establishing Shot (Iron Man, gen, T)
Jul. 10th, 2025 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Iron Man (Comics)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Henry Hellrung & Tony Stark
Characters: Henry Hellrung, Tony Stark
Additional Tags: Character Study, First Meetings, Alcohol, Acting, POV Outsider, Comic: Iron Man Vol. 1 (1968)
Summary: When Henry Hellrung lands the role of Tony Stark on the upcoming Avengers TV show, he's thrilled. But first, he needs to know what makes this guy tick. But when the cameras are on... Tony's acting. Who is Tony Stark, really? Henry meets Tony in person, to see if he can learn the truth. What he finds is something he never expected.
It's been a while since I posted a fic, hasn't it? This is actually a gen fic written for the zine Transistor-Powered Heart.
It's also not actually as long as it looks; the second chapter is a bonus version with several deleted scenes.
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Jul. 10th, 2025 08:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

Desperate to pay her brother Jasper's way out of Muhlenberg County, Opal accepts a job at an infamously cursed mansion.
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow