What Was I Going To Say?

  • May. 13th, 2026 at 11:21 PM
anonymoose_au: (I Don't Know...)
11:09pm: I have no idea! I guess it wasn't super important in that case...although I once again had to move stuff off my gaming laptop so I could download the new update for The Sims 4. Which is annoying, but what can you do? I don't really think I should get a new laptop when this one still works quite well (when it's not running out of space!) and because it's a gaming laptop it has an excellent graphics card, I imagine it'd be expensive to get a new laptop with an equivalent card. Especially since computer chips are getting really expensive these days - or at least that's what I've heard.

Anyway, I'm trying to pay off a mortgage so I shouldn't be making over the top purchases :OP

Not much else to report aside from that, plus it's getting late I'm supposed to fixing my sleep schedule after all! So on that note, I shall be off.

Ta-ta!

PS. I've just remembered...it's my little brother's birthday! We did have the celebration a few weeks ago before my parents left on their trip, but I was going to send him a birthday message today and now it's kind of late...Still, maybe I should and hope his phone is on silent and doesn't wake him up!

Hunger

Comfort

Hygiene

Energy

Fun

Social

Bladder

Room

Laptop Space

Reach for the laser with Antic's Sims-ulator!

May. 13th, 2026

  • 8:56 AM
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)


A selfless act of heroism costs a homeless NEET his life. Waking in an unfamiliar world, he resolves to do better in his next incarnation.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, volume 1 by Rifujin Na Magonote

Ne 'z in ket da gorolliñ

  • May. 12th, 2026 at 11:38 PM
sovay: (Otachi: Pacific Rim)
After more than seven months out of work, the degree to which I can afford anything above the bottom rung of Maslow has become truly minimal, but as soon as I discovered Quinquis' eor (2025), a shape-shiftingly electronic, primarily Breton-language album of mermaids and the sea, I leapt for it like it was mackerel. I heard first the all-night love-churn of "Morwreg" (2024), but the irresistible drag sirens of "Dec'h" (2025) sealed the deal.

The copy of Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld's Duck! Rabbit! (2009) which I sent my godchild for his first solstice was familially referred to for years as Baby's First Wittgenstein. I have no idea what Wittgenstein would have made of this cartoon, but I'm impressed.

I am not sure that I am much more than physically extant at the minute. I am clearing the refrigerator and the countertops. I am absorbing as much sunlight as I sleeplessly can. Yesterday kicked off with a doctor's appointment that was too early in the morning to be as unhelpful as it was and only dropped the bar from there, so this afternoon I made sure to secure a half-dozen donuts from the reliable Lyndell's and eat a jam-filled one as soon as I had finished walking home. The neighborhood smelled like alternating drifts of lilac and mulch. I have had the same headache since the weekend and am hoping it is related to the sexing of the trees. The nine o'clock advent of leafblowers to our block was inhumane.
Wesley: "You found anything yet?"
Angel: "Sealed up tight. Got to be at least six - seven inches thick at least. You?"
Wesley: "No. No, these impenetrable stone walls are proving to be rather..."
Gunn: "You say impenetrable and I will kick your ass."

~~Angel Season II Episode #42: Over the Rainbow~~



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also I made scones today and that was nice

  • May. 12th, 2026 at 8:29 PM
shadaras: A phoenix with wings fully outspread, holidng a rose and an arrow in its talons. (Default)
mm, some things:

1.
Earlier this evening I wandered across the street to pick up a few things for dinner and ended up spending a good five minutes or so chatting with the queers canvassing for ballot propositions, because it's very easy to catch me with one about park funding, especially when they look like a pair of lesbians, which it turned out they indeed are. Apparently they recently moved to the area (one of them coming back, the other to stay with their partner).

Shall see if I run into them again, but they said I should check out the gaming place (when asked "what kind of gaming" I was informed "most kinds!", because despite the on-the-face marketing being minigolf it in fact also has board games and video games and would be cool with people playing ttrpgs there) in the next town over (where they live), so, it's quite possible! This area is, uh. Very small in some ways. (But, as they pointed out when talking about why they came here, generally quite safe for queer people in a way that the more southern state they moved from wasn't necessarily.)


2.
Today is a day where I feel like a person, and mostly that throws into relief how many days I do not, and I find this deeply frustrating but mostly in a "idk if there's much I can do about that?" way. It's very... look when the main problems are fatigue and brain fog, that's not stuff that people tend to have particularly helpful suggestions for?


3.
Slowly catching up on a Star Wars podcast (A More Civilized Age), and at one point the hosts got sidetracked talking about how holocrons (especially sith holocrons) are like AI chatbots, and I cannot get that comparison out of my head. It makes sense and it's hilarious, and also yup sure is a sith vibe.


4.
I mentioned watching the first bit of Maul: Shadow Lord here, and I finished it last week (the final episodes of s1 aired on May 4th, of course). It's very... well, obviously the whole thing needs to be full of set-up/lore for the greater universe, blah blah disney star wars blah blah. But the final two episodes in particular were just "yup, here's the disney playbook".

Read more... )

Like, I'll watch s2 when it comes out because the animation is great and I enjoy Maul interacting with an apprentice and also girls/women with complicated relationships to lightside/darkside matters. But also, it's a show aimed at people who wanna see cool fights and I keep going BUT WHAT IF YOU HAD CONVERSATIONS AND THEMES. xD I am not the target audience, I know that, it's fine.


5.
I also somehow continue to keep up with Critical Role s4: Araman! It is enjoyable! I adored ep24, which was like 5hrs of talking and roleplaying and scheming with zero combat. I had way more fun than I was expecting with ep25, which was three straight hours of combat with the party that is mostly not statted for combat and who thus need to be CLEVER and STRATEGIC about what they're up to. If I gotta listen to D&D combat, I'd rather have it be the kind of combat where players are trying to figure out how to use unexpected skills and abilities to solve a puzzle that happens to be combat than one where the solution is "I roll to attack" 90% of the time.

(BLM going "holy shit I forgot you could do that, uhhhh, okay. I am about to tell you something that I did not think there is any way you could've learned in this combat, this is going to have MASSIVE implications going forward" to the Divination Wizard was genuinely a stand-out moment, and when he got to the reveal of "this is what you were supposed to think happened. this is what everyone else thinks happened. YOU know better, because you touched fate and saw through the facade." at the end it was extremely !!!. This is very hard to pull off in a combat-focused episode, and yet! Kudos to BLM and also Marisha for using her abilities in this way!)

anyway I'm particularly fond of the following PCs at the moment, though tbh I think the whole crew is fun to listen to:
- Hal: Mr Dad Man, whose brother's execution was the start of this whole campaign (orc bard)
- Thaisha: The Mom Friend, Except She's Actually A Mom, who was with Hal for a while (had a few kids together!) but then they split up (orc druid)
- Vaelus: what if you actually leaned into elves being very old and were also sad that your god got killed in the war (elven paladin)
- Murray: tired academic who grew up working-class and it shows (dwarf wizard)
- Kattigan: look sometimes the whole "my dog is my best friend" thing goes a long way when also you're sensible and kind (human ranger)

They just finished the first cycle of arcs, so they'll be drawing the whole crew back together soon. I am excited about this! I want the mixing of parties and seeing them all interact! Also it is going to be SO MANY PEOPLE and therefore a bit exhausting.


6.
Finally finished Max Gladstone's Dead Hand Rule, the penultimate novel in his Craft Wars series. It is very deeply a book about the contrast between being a person and a symbol, and what it means to bear great power, and what it means to choose between being yourself and a vessel for something greater, and also tbh rather much about how personal relationships shape national politics and how hard-and-yet-easy it is to allow yourself to love people.

v excited for seeing how he brings it to a conclusion because well he sure did end this novel by being like "the threat is here and realised and is a ticking time bomb, GOOD LUCK" at his protags. Very much "get your shit together and work together or DIE", tbh, which... okay a bunch of them are necromancers and some of them are therefore undead, so, like, death isn't the threat so much as the subsumption of existence into a colonizing force's clockwork wiles, which isn't great or what any of them want. So. It'll be fun to see them channel the power of gods and souls into a solution that hopefully doesn't blow the world up too much along the way.

Also perhaps I will actually read the entire Craft Sequence again, in chronological order (as opposed to publication order, because that's how I've read them as they release), before the final volume comes out. That'd be fun.

Daily Check-In

  • May. 12th, 2026 at 6:02 PM
 
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Tuesday, May 12, to midnight on Wednesday, May 13. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34586 Daily Check-in
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 17

How are you doing?

I am OK.
8 (50.0%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
8 (50.0%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
8 (47.1%)

One other person.
5 (29.4%)

More than one other person.
4 (23.5%)




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.
 

Tags:

[ SECRET POST #7067 ]

  • May. 12th, 2026 at 6:35 PM

⌈ Secret Post #7067 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 27 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1009.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
rachelmanija: (Default)
I have been offline more than usual lately because the internet is off at my house and I've been unable to reach anyone who is not an AI, which went about as well and efficiently as you can imagine. The AI has decided that I need a new router and is mailing it to me with instructions for how to install it myself, because God forbid a human be involved. If that doesn't work, who knows what the next step is. I am beginning to suspect the only humans at the company are the CEOs and shareholders.

Meanwhile, I decided that I am spending way too much time doomscrolling, both intentionally and non-consensually. Not only is everything horrible right now, but the minute you get online you're personally informed of every horrible thing that happened anywhere, big or small or in between. Did some random dude murder his entire family anywhere in the world? You'll be informed of it, complete with heartbreaking photos of the dead kids. Did a child commit suicide anywhere in the world? You'll hear about that too, also complete with the awful story and heartbreaking photos! And that's not even getting into politics and the upcoming end of the world. I don't think humans are mentally equipped to live like that.

So I installed ScreenZen on my phone. It's one of many apps that will block both apps and entire websites. (Sadly it does not have the ability to block words.) I blocked everything I doomscroll on. I highly recommend this! I still get the news, as 1) I get a news digest emailed to me daily, 2) people will tell me the news in person whether I consent or not, but at least I'm not constantly marinating in global misery that I can't do anything about. Also, I now have more time to be useful in ways that are actually possible.

The result is that I have read so many more books than usual. I am completely behind on reviewing, also as usual, but with more books involved now. Perhaps I will post a poll.

Tags:

Cordelia walks along the edge of the pool, following the monster as it swims under water. She gets very upset.
CORDELIA: It's me, Cordelia? I know you can't answer me, but... God, this is all my fault. You joined the swim team to impress me. You were so courageous. And you looked really hot in those Speedo's.(chuckles)
CORDELIA: And I want you to know that I still care about you, no matter what you look like. And... and we can still date. Or, or not. I mean... I understand if you wanna see other fish. (crouches by the edge)
CORDELIA: I'll do everything I can to make your quality of life better. Whether that means little bath toys or whatever.
Xander walks up behind her.
XANDER: Uh, Cordy?

~~Go Fish~~



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oursin: The Delphic Sibyl from the Sistine Chapel (Delphic sibyl)

(Mix and shake that metaphor and pour it over ice and serve it up with a wee paper umbrella!)

Somebody today on Another Site was mourning the Old Days on LJ which made me think of:

All the various Old Days in my life on and offline which were by their nature transient -

- but that transient didn't mean that they didn't have lasting effects/influence.

(I will spare dr rdrz accounts of various short-lived initiatives I encountered among the archives and in the course of Mi Researchez which nonetheless echoed down the years.)

Also that even had things not fallen out the way things did with LJ (hiss, boo, etc) by now it would almost certainly not be the same experience as it was in the 00s - people would have come, people would have gone, our interests and energies would have changed....

So we would probably be nostalgically regetting the glory days before [whenever].

But Won't I Miss Me, by Tiffany Tsao

  • May. 12th, 2026 at 11:08 AM
rachelmanija: (Books: old)


This novel has one of the most off-the-wall premises I've come across. In a near-future world much like our own, women who get pregnant also conceive a "fetal mother." When they give birth to their baby, they also deliver the fetal mother, then fall into a coma-like sleep. The fetal mother rapidly grows into an identical clone of the original mother, then EATS HER. This process is called rebirth. The new mother has the original mother's memories and personality, but is also endowed with superpowers for the first five years of her child's life: she needs almost no sleep, has super strength and fast reflexes, is filled with energy, and finds all child care and domestic tasks endlessly fascinating and enjoyable. In short, the new mother is the woman that mothers are supposed to be.

The main character, Vivi, is terrified of rebirth, and sees it as death. This view is very stigmatized, but might be more widespread than society lets on. She's reluctant to get pregnant because of it. When she finally does, something goes wrong with her rebirth. She didn't get new mother powers. Instead she slogs along, depressed and alienated, trying to care for her infant while she's still physically impaired from the pregnancy and actually needs sleep. She and her husband end up breaking up over this, and Vivi moves to Australia to live with her uncle, who runs a hobbling business.

Remember I mentioned this is near-future? The world has actually decided to do something about climate change, and so drastically regulated energy consumption. Hobbling is altering old machines to make them low emitters. The low-emissions world is less lavish: planes are rarely used, long-distance calls are brief, and only the very rich have unlimited internet. It's an interesting take on a world whose future seems much brighter than ours, but whose present is more similar to our recent past.

Vivi and her family are Indonesian-Chinese, and their cultures (including Australian) play into the book much as the near-future setting does: it's pervasive and interesting and very specific, which makes a nice grounded base for the incredibly weird rebirth stuff.

But Won't I Miss Me is a weird, fascinating, ambitious book with a weird, fascinating, ambitious premise. Great social commentary and issues of identity. I didn't quite love the ending - it felt like it needed either more setup or more payoff - but the book is still excellent and very original.

3w4dw: Too Cool for Skool

  • May. 12th, 2026 at 7:40 PM
adore: (Default)
Greetings, friends. Today for [community profile] 3weeks4dreamwidth I bring you not a Kingdom of Knuffel avatar, but a Wild Knuffel. Wild Knuffel are adoptables made by users, for users! Anyone who wants to try their hand at art and use the Knuffel base to draw on can create one, and submit them for release. Once released, other users can adopt them.

Here's one made by user HanafuruLove. When I told her that I'd adopted him, she saw that I'd named him 'Too Cool for Skool' and she found that hilarious



It's possible to click on the preview box above if you're curious about seeing him in his full glory (all the details HanafuruLove added to him!) or if you want to try feeding and playing with him. I love his tattoos, piercings and of course, his skateboard. The expression on his face speaks volumes

Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick

  • May. 12th, 2026 at 9:38 AM
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)


Human paleontologists have the professional opportunity of a lifetime... but there's a catch.

Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick

Couch Fixed! Sleep Schedule...Not So Much...

  • May. 12th, 2026 at 10:50 PM
anonymoose_au: (Arthur-Cartwheel)
10:34pm: Yes! The Couch Repair man came and I was able to leave work and come and meet him here, where he reattached the couch springs, so I am now sitting in my proper spot as I type this out.

As mentioned I was curious as to how he'd get to the springs given that the zipper only opens a little bit, but he had an industrial-sized staple remover (the fabric that covers the bottom of the couch is kept in place by these heavy duty staples) and took them out to pull back the fabric to get in there. As it happens, the couch springs are kept in place by plastic things, which was a surprise to me! He replaced the two broken ones with metal ones so they should be secure, I just have to make sure I sit on my couch carefully rather than flop down, LOL.

Once he did that he stapled the fabric cover back into place and it was fixed, huzzah! :OD

In less pleasant news, later in the afternoon once I went back to work and just before I headed to the gym I started getting a headache and alas by the time I got home it was really quite bad. I took some ibprofen for it but it seemed to take a while to kick in - although the headache's gone away now thankfully, but I'm super sleepy now. I'm certainly glad this didn't happen last week otherwise trivia would have been a disaster!

Now though I'm out, I need those zzzs!

Ta-ta!

Hunger

Comfort

Hygiene

Energy

Fun

Social

Bladder

Room

Couch

Reach for the laser with Antic's Sims-ulator!


Seonghwa (ATEEZ) - Skin
cw: aggressive flashing, gore, supernatural elements (snake demon), Mother Mothering
CC in 10 tracks, including English

If I hadn't been feeling like crap the last many days, I would've been completely predictable and posted this on Sunday. Beware the return of Seonghwa's Tongue Antics.

There's a very limited but not completely zero chance that someday I'll get back to doing Music Mondays again and will be back to this song then, but in the mean time... Mother arrives! And takes no prisoners, as per usual.

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