inside of a dog it's too dark to read
Feb. 24th, 2026 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
runpunkrunThe lightbulb in my lamp just burnt out, but the cat is lying on me, so I'm literally sitting in the dark right now because those are the rules.
runpunkrun
Gaming Update
Feb. 25th, 2026 02:58 pmcyphomandraI finished Burning Shores! I loved the LA archipelago and the new machines and I like Seyka a lot. I didn’t find Londra, the antagonist in this, as effective or as intriguing as Tilda, and gosh I really miss Sylens (isis - thanks for the pointer to the in-game shrine to him! It’s lovely). I may at some point go back and do a hard mode play through of HFW, because I do like the gameplay, but I think I’ll give it a break for now.
I went looking for new puzzle games and ended up playing through Is This Seat Taken?, a cheerful indie game in which you have to put anthropomorphic shapes in the exact places that satisfy their increasingly finicky requests (no noise, in direct sunlight, standing on the left but not adjacent to anyone who hasn’t showered, able to steal popcorn from a neighbour etc) in a series of city-based challenges. I like the aesthetic and I like the gameplay. The (thin) storyline, in which Nate the rhombus wants to be a movie star, could have been better, and I would have also liked more female major characters, but it was fun.
Then I started The Room 3 - the latest in a horror puzzle game series with intricate mechanics and foreboding settings, and I’ve previously played the first two. But those were on my iPad and although I’m enjoying it, my phone screen really is too small, so I am now dithering between pressing on regardless or replaying a good 2/3rds of the game on an iPad. Hmm. So instead I started TR-49, where you are searching through a WWII-era machine containing pieces of various writings, in search of an ultimate secret for as yet unspecified reasons; it’s intriguing and I need more time with it.
However. On the PS5 I have returned to FFVII Rebirth, and finally completed chapter 12 on hard mode after being stuck there for months. Fighting Corneo’s assorted brawlers was fine, and Rude & Elena weren’t too bad once I got used to their attacks, but then you go straight into a solo Cloud battle with Rufus, who is ridiculously fast, and also I was only at half health from all the preceding battles and could not face going back and doing them all over. Lots of dodging, lots of very precise timing required to hit back at all, and lots of staring contemplatively at the Game Over screen, but eventually I did it. I went on to chapter 13 but very rapidly this hits a no turn back point, so before that I have been attempting to complete all of FFVII Rebirth’s many, many mini games, in order to get the Johnnie’s Treasure Trove achievement. This requires 88 (!) mini-achievements. I have now won all the chocobo races at the Gold Saucer, done all the Fort Condor and Gears & Gambits hard mode tower defence games, shot targets in Costa Del Sol, sent Yuffie & Aerith out to clean up cactuars in Corel, etc, etc, etc, and currently I have managed to claw my way to 74.
It is definitely a journey. I prefer the mini games where they’re thematic (sure, the Glide de Chocobo rank III award was a navigational nightmare that nearly gave me tendonitis but you’re riding a chocobo!) or the gameplay ties back to the main game - getting Aerith through Cactuar Crush hard mode required me to upskill dramatically in using her Tempest attack, something I’d previously overlooked. In contrast, I dislike tower defence even when the polygons are cute and shooting targets is not my thing at all, but I am a) stubborn and b) capable of watching a YouTube video and managing to follow at least some of it after multiple attempts.
I have got one more mini game to get through that’s not at the Gold Saucer - it’s the hard mode frog challenge in Junon, in which your party is transformed into frogs (a common occurrence in FF games) and you have to stay on a series of moving platforms for as long as possible - and then I will be back at the Saucer, which has more Queen's Blood challenges, another terrible shooting game I suck at, and the sole remaining side quest, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, which requires me to beat the Shinra Middle Manager and all my own previous high scores on six minigames. Yay. And even if I get through all of those, plus Chadley’s Legendary Challenges, I still have to manage to play piano on the PS5 controller well enough to get an A grade on Two Legs D:
(FFVII Remake is now out on the Switch 2, and Rebirth will be out June. Released with these are patch updates that enable God Mode, which would make it much easier to get any of the fighting trophies - I’m not sure if they will affect the mini games. I don’t have a problem with this mode being available but I would like, if possible, to get the platinum before that).
isis - thanks for the pointer to the in-game shrine to him! It’s lovely). I may at some point go back and do a hard mode play through of HFW, because I do like the gameplay, but I think I’ll give it a break for now.I went looking for new puzzle games and ended up playing through Is This Seat Taken?, a cheerful indie game in which you have to put anthropomorphic shapes in the exact places that satisfy their increasingly finicky requests (no noise, in direct sunlight, standing on the left but not adjacent to anyone who hasn’t showered, able to steal popcorn from a neighbour etc) in a series of city-based challenges. I like the aesthetic and I like the gameplay. The (thin) storyline, in which Nate the rhombus wants to be a movie star, could have been better, and I would have also liked more female major characters, but it was fun.
Then I started The Room 3 - the latest in a horror puzzle game series with intricate mechanics and foreboding settings, and I’ve previously played the first two. But those were on my iPad and although I’m enjoying it, my phone screen really is too small, so I am now dithering between pressing on regardless or replaying a good 2/3rds of the game on an iPad. Hmm. So instead I started TR-49, where you are searching through a WWII-era machine containing pieces of various writings, in search of an ultimate secret for as yet unspecified reasons; it’s intriguing and I need more time with it.
However. On the PS5 I have returned to FFVII Rebirth, and finally completed chapter 12 on hard mode after being stuck there for months. Fighting Corneo’s assorted brawlers was fine, and Rude & Elena weren’t too bad once I got used to their attacks, but then you go straight into a solo Cloud battle with Rufus, who is ridiculously fast, and also I was only at half health from all the preceding battles and could not face going back and doing them all over. Lots of dodging, lots of very precise timing required to hit back at all, and lots of staring contemplatively at the Game Over screen, but eventually I did it. I went on to chapter 13 but very rapidly this hits a no turn back point, so before that I have been attempting to complete all of FFVII Rebirth’s many, many mini games, in order to get the Johnnie’s Treasure Trove achievement. This requires 88 (!) mini-achievements. I have now won all the chocobo races at the Gold Saucer, done all the Fort Condor and Gears & Gambits hard mode tower defence games, shot targets in Costa Del Sol, sent Yuffie & Aerith out to clean up cactuars in Corel, etc, etc, etc, and currently I have managed to claw my way to 74.
It is definitely a journey. I prefer the mini games where they’re thematic (sure, the Glide de Chocobo rank III award was a navigational nightmare that nearly gave me tendonitis but you’re riding a chocobo!) or the gameplay ties back to the main game - getting Aerith through Cactuar Crush hard mode required me to upskill dramatically in using her Tempest attack, something I’d previously overlooked. In contrast, I dislike tower defence even when the polygons are cute and shooting targets is not my thing at all, but I am a) stubborn and b) capable of watching a YouTube video and managing to follow at least some of it after multiple attempts.
I have got one more mini game to get through that’s not at the Gold Saucer - it’s the hard mode frog challenge in Junon, in which your party is transformed into frogs (a common occurrence in FF games) and you have to stay on a series of moving platforms for as long as possible - and then I will be back at the Saucer, which has more Queen's Blood challenges, another terrible shooting game I suck at, and the sole remaining side quest, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, which requires me to beat the Shinra Middle Manager and all my own previous high scores on six minigames. Yay. And even if I get through all of those, plus Chadley’s Legendary Challenges, I still have to manage to play piano on the PS5 controller well enough to get an A grade on Two Legs D:
(FFVII Remake is now out on the Switch 2, and Rebirth will be out June. Released with these are patch updates that enable God Mode, which would make it much easier to get any of the fighting trophies - I’m not sure if they will affect the mini games. I don’t have a problem with this mode being available but I would like, if possible, to get the platinum before that).
Sunward by William Alexander
Feb. 24th, 2026 08:03 pmlightreadsSunward
4/5. Slim scifi novel about a woman from the moon running currier jobs, while on the side she raises up baby Ais, who require care like extraordinarily precocious children.
I’m hard to charm so far this year, but this book managed it. It’s sweet in the right places, thorny in others, and does a fun/interesting tour of parts of this futuristic solar system. This pleased and distracted me during a difficult week with its space parrot and road trip.
I will say that it has odd pacing, which suddenly clicked into place for me when I looked up the author and discovered he’s previously written middle grade. Ding ding ding. This is a novel concerning mostly adult topics, but paced like middle grade. It may be less jarring if you go in knowing that.
Content notes: Violence, robots treated like property while obviously being people (not by the protagonist)
4/5. Slim scifi novel about a woman from the moon running currier jobs, while on the side she raises up baby Ais, who require care like extraordinarily precocious children.
I’m hard to charm so far this year, but this book managed it. It’s sweet in the right places, thorny in others, and does a fun/interesting tour of parts of this futuristic solar system. This pleased and distracted me during a difficult week with its space parrot and road trip.
I will say that it has odd pacing, which suddenly clicked into place for me when I looked up the author and discovered he’s previously written middle grade. Ding ding ding. This is a novel concerning mostly adult topics, but paced like middle grade. It may be less jarring if you go in knowing that.
Content notes: Violence, robots treated like property while obviously being people (not by the protagonist)
Periodic Table of Swearing.
Feb. 24th, 2026 09:25 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
languagehat_feedVia Pengio’s MeFi post on the 30th anniversary of Trainspotting, “the intro to Glaswegian slang that is Modern Toss’s Periodic Table of Swearing (The Scottish Field Report).” It goes from C 1 Cunt to Sbb 102 Shitting A Fucking Breeze Block, and if you click on a square you will hear the sweary element spoken.
Has it really been thirty years? I loved that movie when it came out, and I obviously need to see it again or I’ll be a Prat in a Hat (48).
Interesting places
Feb. 24th, 2026 10:25 pmcosmolinguistLooking at my podcasts the other day, glaring at the ones I want to update for not updating enough, I did a thing that I know I've done before and I'm sure I will again: I thought gosh I really like that Gareth Dennis, why am I so behind on his??
Then I listen to some and (when it's not about train crashes) pretty soon I'm like I should be taking notes on this, this is about WORK. Free bus passes, driverless public transport, that's stuff I get paid to think about so I don't wanna do it in my spare time so much.
So the podcast episode goes half-unlistened to. Again.
I was already thinking that before the most recent episode, about the Gorton & Denton by-election. I listen to podcasts for escapism, that's why I like baseball! This is no kind of escape.
But today, maybe because of my time off (both a break from thinking about transport policy, and more time to listen to podcasts so I'm burning through them quicker) or maybe because the podcasts I like really aren't updating enough no matter how much I glare at the app, I put this one on.
It was at first pretty novel to hear a voice I associate with engineering disasters etc. talking about roads I've been on and places I know well.
I do think it's interesting how much transport has been emblematic of this election: when I first saw the locally-infamous "Patricia Clegg" letter that Reform is trying to deceive people with, the thing that stuck out to me most was "the buses aren't working," and I just scoffed at this slight on my beloved Bee Network -- not like I'm anything to do with TfGM or Labour or anything, but I'm really impressed at what Andy Burnham has been able to do and it really is nonsense to say that buses don't work when we have, for the first time, real-time information available in the app and AV announcements on increasingly many buses. This more than anything, more than even a candidate from Hitchin, made me feel like that letter was not written by any "concerned neighbour" but by someone who hasn't been to Manchester, not recently.
We got a postcard today "from" Andy Burnham himself telling us "the community has to unite around our candidate or you'll get a Reform MP" (typical Labour, telling us we have to do what they tell us to) and on this postcard, as well as the expected photo of him with the candidate is just a particular photo of yellow Bee Network buses that I've seen in every TfGM press release and news story about them. It really is a symbol of his; bringing about the first franchise outside of London, and the coming integration with local train services, really does feel miraculous.
So yeah, it really is interesting how much transport has been a useful lens to view the by-election with.
But man. Between this by-election and Minnesota, I'm like... never mind living in interesting times, I'm weary of living in interesting places.
None of us are traitors till we are
Feb. 24th, 2026 04:11 pmsovayIn the wake of the blizzard, the temperature rose a degree above freezing in the blue-and-white brilliance of sun and the local topography of snow-walls to shoulder-height compressed and calved like ice shelves. I had the impulse to visit the Robbins Cemetery on Mass. Ave. while out running errands and was prevented by absolutely nobody having shoveled within a block of the gates. I took a picture of a leftover slam-dunk of snow instead.
Tickets have hiked considerably in price since the last production of theirs I attended, but I am intrigued that the Apollinaire Theatre Company is currently doing Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge—I assume it was proposed last season because of the topical-political of the undocumented immigrant angle which has only gone Mach 10 in relevance since. I have never seen the play; I read it in 2016 because Van Heflin originated the role of Eddie Carbone in the original 1955 one-act version. I am wondering how I convince their box office that I am actively pursuing a professional arts career.
Tickets have hiked considerably in price since the last production of theirs I attended, but I am intrigued that the Apollinaire Theatre Company is currently doing Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge—I assume it was proposed last season because of the topical-political of the undocumented immigrant angle which has only gone Mach 10 in relevance since. I have never seen the play; I read it in 2016 because Van Heflin originated the role of Eddie Carbone in the original 1955 one-act version. I am wondering how I convince their box office that I am actively pursuing a professional arts career.
nsnotifyd-2.4 released
Feb. 24th, 2026 08:16 pmfanfhttps://dotat.at/@/2026-02-24-nsnotifyd-2-4-released.html
The nsnotifyd daemon monitors a set of DNS zones and
runs a command when any of them change. It listens for DNS NOTIFY
messages so it can respond to changes promptly. It also uses each
zone's SOA refresh and retry parameters to poll for updates if
nsnotifyd does not receive NOTIFY messages more frequently. It comes
with a client program nsnotify for sending notify messages.
This nsnotifyd-2.4 release includes a new feature and
some bug fixes:
The new
-Soption tellsnsnotifydto send all SOA queries to a specific server.Previously, in response to a NOTIFY message, it would send a SOA query back to the source of the NOTIFY, as specified by RFC 1996.
(Typically, a NOTIFY will only be accepted from a known authoritative server for the zone. The target of the NOTIFY responds with a SOA refresh query and zone transfer. But it should avoid trying to refresh from one of the other authoritative servers which might not have received the latest version of the zone.)
Mark Felder encountered a situation where it would have been more convenient to fix the address that
nsnotifydsends SOA queries to, because the source of the NOTIFY messages wasn't responding on that address.Since
nsnotifydis intended to work as glue between disparate parts of a system, it makes sense for it to work around awkward interoperability problems.The
nsnotifyclient program was broken and unable to create NOTIFY messages. D'oh!I have adjusted the release process so that it works better with
git archiveand web front-ends that offer tarball downloads.
My Tea Habit Is a Medical Expense & other stories
Feb. 24th, 2026 08:16 pmextrapenguinToday I came across this factsheet on autism comorbidities (sleep issues, hypermobility, cardiovascular, immunology/MCAS, gastrointestinal, long COVID, chronic pain, reproductive, jaw/dental stuff), and a) I really need to get back into the melatonin game for my sleep issues, and b) it turns out that L-theanine ("caffeine of tea") is an analog of glutamate, and can thus be metabolized into GABA, which autistic brains generally have less of. So my tea habit is a medical expense!
(WRT the autism comorbidities mentioned, I def have the sleep issues, bruxism, a food allergy, and I guess some non-hEDS hypermobility? I bruise moderately easily, but my floppy joints are my shoulders, I've never dislocated anything due to good muscle tone, and my fingers and wrists are turbo normal, leading to me never getting over the threshold score in any assessments lol.)
Also I have good news WRT VidUKon: I can't be there in person, but my in-person commitment was altered to be only the Saturday, so I can watch the Sunday programming in peace! This year's themed vidshow is Unfinished Business, with vids for sources that e.g. were cancelled before their time, had a rushed ending, etc. So now I'm trying to think about canons that fit. My little lesbian shampoo commercials etc, short though they may be, don't count imo, as they all tell nice self-contained stories. The Star Wars Sequels, maybe, for Finn, but idek. Does anyone have any canon recs? I am willing to invest max 10h in your science fiction or wuxia that was cancelled (possibly mid-airing) or which has an unsatisfying ending.
For regular premieres, I currently have two finished vids. One is Star Wars Sequels (for my vid album); the other is for the Firebird ballet. I think I'll take a look at the full program and then decide which one I want to be my VidUKon premiere.
(WRT the autism comorbidities mentioned, I def have the sleep issues, bruxism, a food allergy, and I guess some non-hEDS hypermobility? I bruise moderately easily, but my floppy joints are my shoulders, I've never dislocated anything due to good muscle tone, and my fingers and wrists are turbo normal, leading to me never getting over the threshold score in any assessments lol.)
Also I have good news WRT VidUKon: I can't be there in person, but my in-person commitment was altered to be only the Saturday, so I can watch the Sunday programming in peace! This year's themed vidshow is Unfinished Business, with vids for sources that e.g. were cancelled before their time, had a rushed ending, etc. So now I'm trying to think about canons that fit. My little lesbian shampoo commercials etc, short though they may be, don't count imo, as they all tell nice self-contained stories. The Star Wars Sequels, maybe, for Finn, but idek. Does anyone have any canon recs? I am willing to invest max 10h in your science fiction or wuxia that was cancelled (possibly mid-airing) or which has an unsatisfying ending.
For regular premieres, I currently have two finished vids. One is Star Wars Sequels (for my vid album); the other is for the Firebird ballet. I think I'll take a look at the full program and then decide which one I want to be my VidUKon premiere.
Candyheartsex reveals: Dangerous Liaisons, Flight of the Heron, and Brigadoon
Feb. 24th, 2026 11:47 amsanguinityI wrote two works for candyheartsex!
During the anon period, there was a tumblr post going around about how you should follow your heart and write fic for that 300-year-old novel! Write fic for that 70-year-old movie! And I had to laugh, because...
This was a pinch-hit I picked up early. I've long hated the resolution of the novel, where Merteuil is cast low while Valmont is nearly valorized in death. (God forbid a woman be evil!!) So I wrote a new ending for them, one that is more symmetric in consequence, leaving them both war-ravaged, but with a path to become allies again.
Will they ride again, leaving ruin behind them? We can only hope. ;-)
So, last year I watched the Gene Kelly version of the musical Brigadoon, which for those who don't know, is about a Highland village that gets snatched out of time in the mid-eighteenth century, only returning to Earth for one day every hundred years.
And on hearing this, I was like, "Oh, that was obviously to protect the village from the fallout of the '45..." And then it turned out the whole backstory for the miracle was to protect the village from witches. Witches!
And I thought "Well, that's stupid. Obviously a fix-it is required!" Quickly followed by, "You know, I have a handy '45 fandom right here..." And "Not only do I have a handy '45 fandom, there is an EMPTY SPOT ON THE MAP where Ardroy should be... just as if Ardroy had once upon a time been snatched away into the clouds!"
So I wrote a couple thousand words right then, wrote a couple thousand more while I was in Japan, and... then got inextricably tangled up in plot difficulties and let the whole thing languish, neglected.
But then I got assigned toluzula in candyheartsex! Luzula likes AUs that have a supernatural element, and she's actually been to that empty glen where Ardroy should be, and it was all too perfect an opportunity to pass up. So on a weekend visit to my mom, I spent the entire four-hour drive blocking out my proposed plot to grrlpup, and satisfied that it was doable if I wrote fast, I wrote some 2K words that day. And then... kept doing that.
So. Um. Is this an absurdly long story for an exchange with a 300-word minimum? Yes. Sorry. (I hope I didn't cut too much into your free time last week, Luzula!) But it was a beautiful excuse to finish a story that might not have gotten finished otherwise, and the oppty to gift it to someone who has actually seen that empty glen.
Anyway, 16.7K, eventual happy ending, and no knowledge whatsoever of the musical is required.
So in fact it was only a 250-year-old novel and a 70-year-old movie, but still pretty close to the mark!
candyheartsex!During the anon period, there was a tumblr post going around about how you should follow your heart and write fic for that 300-year-old novel! Write fic for that 70-year-old movie! And I had to laugh, because...
Renewed Liaison forparnassus
Les liaisons dangereuses | Dangerous Liaisons - Choderlos de Laclos
Marquise de Merteuil/Vicomte de Valmont
Canon Divergence, Fix-it, Parley
I sue for two items only: peace, and a renewal of the true amity that once existed between us.
This was a pinch-hit I picked up early. I've long hated the resolution of the novel, where Merteuil is cast low while Valmont is nearly valorized in death. (God forbid a woman be evil!!) So I wrote a new ending for them, one that is more symmetric in consequence, leaving them both war-ravaged, but with a path to become allies again.
Will they ride again, leaving ruin behind them? We can only hope. ;-)
There My Heart Forever Lies for
The Flight of the Heron
Ewen/Keith, Ewen/Alison, Keith & Francis
Brigadoon AU
After Culloden, word reaches the British garrison that Ewen Cameron is skulking at Ardroy. As a test of his loyalty, Keith Windham is sent with a company of men to arrest him. Keith goes, but is determined to protect Ewen however he can.
Ewen, however, has been granted a miracle: for Ardroy and all its people to vanish into the Highland mist, reappearing only one day in a century. Life will go on just as before, no longer touched by wars, armies, or time…
So, last year I watched the Gene Kelly version of the musical Brigadoon, which for those who don't know, is about a Highland village that gets snatched out of time in the mid-eighteenth century, only returning to Earth for one day every hundred years.
And on hearing this, I was like, "Oh, that was obviously to protect the village from the fallout of the '45..." And then it turned out the whole backstory for the miracle was to protect the village from witches. Witches!
And I thought "Well, that's stupid. Obviously a fix-it is required!" Quickly followed by, "You know, I have a handy '45 fandom right here..." And "Not only do I have a handy '45 fandom, there is an EMPTY SPOT ON THE MAP where Ardroy should be... just as if Ardroy had once upon a time been snatched away into the clouds!"
So I wrote a couple thousand words right then, wrote a couple thousand more while I was in Japan, and... then got inextricably tangled up in plot difficulties and let the whole thing languish, neglected.
But then I got assigned to
luzula in candyheartsex! Luzula likes AUs that have a supernatural element, and she's actually been to that empty glen where Ardroy should be, and it was all too perfect an opportunity to pass up. So on a weekend visit to my mom, I spent the entire four-hour drive blocking out my proposed plot to grrlpup, and satisfied that it was doable if I wrote fast, I wrote some 2K words that day. And then... kept doing that.So. Um. Is this an absurdly long story for an exchange with a 300-word minimum? Yes. Sorry. (I hope I didn't cut too much into your free time last week, Luzula!) But it was a beautiful excuse to finish a story that might not have gotten finished otherwise, and the oppty to gift it to someone who has actually seen that empty glen.
Anyway, 16.7K, eventual happy ending, and no knowledge whatsoever of the musical is required.
So in fact it was only a 250-year-old novel and a 70-year-old movie, but still pretty close to the mark!
Life forms, tiny little life forms...
Feb. 24th, 2026 11:26 amamberleewriterGifts from DH are usually lovely but not when they are of the viral type.
( Read more... )
Since I've been sick, running a high fever, and the body ache and such were making me unable to sleep I have been mainlining a B5 rewatch. Been a long time for me (a good decade) and I forgot some of the nuances of the storylines. Wow. It's like watching freaking Andor. ( Read more... )
I suppose that's about it. Next I need to tackle our tax questionnaire from the CPA and get all our papers together. Not a job I enjoy but the faster it is done the sooner we get money back. And money back we will have as we had the worst year ever for our company. I THINK I had enough pulled out of my practically non-existent paycheck to cover both of us for state taxes but only the CPA will know for sure. Crossing fingers.
Hope everyone out east has power and is safe!
( Read more... )
Since I've been sick, running a high fever, and the body ache and such were making me unable to sleep I have been mainlining a B5 rewatch. Been a long time for me (a good decade) and I forgot some of the nuances of the storylines. Wow. It's like watching freaking Andor. ( Read more... )
I suppose that's about it. Next I need to tackle our tax questionnaire from the CPA and get all our papers together. Not a job I enjoy but the faster it is done the sooner we get money back. And money back we will have as we had the worst year ever for our company. I THINK I had enough pulled out of my practically non-existent paycheck to cover both of us for state taxes but only the CPA will know for sure. Crossing fingers.
Hope everyone out east has power and is safe!
Sock Challenge: Jeeves & Wooster: Fanfic: Bertie's New Socks
Feb. 24th, 2026 05:31 pmsmallhobbit posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fan_flashworksTitle: Bertie's New Socks
Fandom: Jeeves & Wooster
Rating: G
Length: 750 words
Summary: Bertie is delighted with his new socks, others are not.
Fandom: Jeeves & Wooster
Rating: G
Length: 750 words
Summary: Bertie is delighted with his new socks, others are not.
( Jeeves, I called )
As Rose Red said in the Katy books -
Feb. 24th, 2026 04:34 pmoursin'I'm so glad I didn't die with the measles when I was little!'
Thinking a bit further about that education meme and the line You were in relatively good physical and mental health.
Well, on the one hand, I had my vaccinations for smallpox, diphtheria and whooping cough all in order at a young age.
I did, however, get measles, chickenpox and mumps once I started school and they were going around. And in those days if you had an infectious disease you were obliged to stay off school for a designated quarantine period (and return your library books to the Public Health Department for fumigation).
I think scarlet fever was still around though rare, and I have a vague recollection of some child at the school actually dying from it?
Polio vaccination only came in when I was 7 or 8.
I suffered from severe tonsillitis until they removed them when I was 6, I am not at all sure, in the light of present thinking on the subject, that this was necessary, but it was very common.
In less dramatic health interventions, I mention the free codliver oil, orange juice and milk bestowed by a munificent government.
I am a little surprised, in retrospect, that my short sight wasn't picked up through testing at school, but in fact my mother noticed me squinting at things and took me for an eye-test.
I feel that I had fair amounts of time off from school being ill one way and another (besides the aforementioned epidemic diseases and operation) - not to mention the appendectomy and its after-effects when I was at uni - but that this didn't have any major adverse impact.
At the grammar school I was tagged for remedial exercises to do with the way I walked (on the outsides of my feet?): am not sure this had any effect whatsoever.
My migraines were not identified as such.
Period pains were after the way of womanhood, pretty much.
On the whole, relatively good health. A certain amount of mental stress, especially at uni.
fic: take whatever you need to take and leave the rest
Feb. 24th, 2026 10:52 amlirazelFic: take whatever you need to take and leave the rest
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Pitt (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Melissa “Mel” King & Frank Langdon, Becca King & Melissa “Mel” King, Becca King & Frank Langdon
Characters: Frank Langdon, Melissa “Mel” King, Becca King, Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, Baran Al-Hashimi
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, well just slightly, set during season 2, branches off after episode 5, who is mel going to trust to treat her sister?, do you really need to ask?, frank needs someone to trust him, mel needs someone to reassure her, good thing they’re in the same space again
Summary:
“I’ll look her over,” Robby says.
“Um, thank you,” Mel says. “But, um, can Dr. Langdon do it?”
Frank isn’t sure which is more gratifying: Mel’s request or the expression on Robby’s face.
“Oh, we want Ms. King to have the very best care,” Robby says, voice a bit tight behind the jocularity. “She’s family, after all. I think I can spare a few minutes to make sure she’s okay.”
Fuck him. Frank’s hand flexes just as Mel’s jaw tightens. Becca’s eyes are darting around anxiously and she’s flapping both of her hands now.
“I appreciate that,” Mel says. “But I’d like Dr. Langdon to be the one to treat her.”
Her voice is steely in a way that Frank hasn’t heard from her before, her eyes fierce as she holds Robby’s gaze. A little shudder passes through Frank and he sucks in a deep breath even as he fights to keep his face neutral.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Pitt (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Melissa “Mel” King & Frank Langdon, Becca King & Melissa “Mel” King, Becca King & Frank Langdon
Characters: Frank Langdon, Melissa “Mel” King, Becca King, Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, Baran Al-Hashimi
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, well just slightly, set during season 2, branches off after episode 5, who is mel going to trust to treat her sister?, do you really need to ask?, frank needs someone to trust him, mel needs someone to reassure her, good thing they’re in the same space again
Summary:
“I’ll look her over,” Robby says.
“Um, thank you,” Mel says. “But, um, can Dr. Langdon do it?”
Frank isn’t sure which is more gratifying: Mel’s request or the expression on Robby’s face.
“Oh, we want Ms. King to have the very best care,” Robby says, voice a bit tight behind the jocularity. “She’s family, after all. I think I can spare a few minutes to make sure she’s okay.”
Fuck him. Frank’s hand flexes just as Mel’s jaw tightens. Becca’s eyes are darting around anxiously and she’s flapping both of her hands now.
“I appreciate that,” Mel says. “But I’d like Dr. Langdon to be the one to treat her.”
Her voice is steely in a way that Frank hasn’t heard from her before, her eyes fierce as she holds Robby’s gaze. A little shudder passes through Frank and he sucks in a deep breath even as he fights to keep his face neutral.
(no subject)
Feb. 24th, 2026 10:45 amlirazelSo yeah, I finished Stone Butch Blues last week and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I had braced myself for endless suffering, and there was so much suffering, but I am still so glad I read it.
There was almost nothing in it I related to (except being very pro-union lol) and much that I found perplexing (mostly the sex stuff--no shock there--and some of the ideas about gender that are quite dated but important), but I also learned a ton. I struggled with the first few chapters because I found the prose too...simple? That's not the right word. It just wasn't stylistically what I enjoy. Too many short sentences in a row. But I came to appreciate it as a way of evoking the voice of a working-class, (formally) uneducated woman who is struggling to find her place in the world.
The episodic nature of the book creates its own rhythm; it's essentially a book about a woman finding community and/or stability, then losing it (often in incredibly violent circumstances), sinking into depression, then fighting for it again, repeat repeat repeat. Jess and her friends are living their lives in a constant state of danger, and they know it. Most of the violence comes from the state (the police are the truest villains in the book) or through the powers of capital. It's a communist book, though it's not as overtly communist as I kind of expected being familiar with Leslie's politics and life. I thought it did a great job of handling the political stuff. I was particularly moved by the queerplatonic relationship between Jess and her neighbor, who is a transwoman, and I think it's significant that after a book about Jess trying to find a sexual/romantic partnership that works for her, the (hopeful) ending is found in this friendship and work in labor organizing. Community is complicated and messy but absolutely vital and the lines between romantic/sexual relationships, friendships, solidarity partnerships, etc. are blurred in ways that I think is really realistic.
I appreciated talking about this book in community with a bunch of queer women/nonbinary folks, and I was fascinated by the very different ways that we read Jess's gender identity in particular. Jess didn't fit into the categories offered by the time in which she was living (late 50s through late 70s), but even though we have a lot more categories and labels now, I don't think she really fits into any of them either, which I really appreciated.
Shoutout to the two scenes that made me cry:
So yes, I have now read an important queer novel, and I'm glad I did.
There was almost nothing in it I related to (except being very pro-union lol) and much that I found perplexing (mostly the sex stuff--no shock there--and some of the ideas about gender that are quite dated but important), but I also learned a ton. I struggled with the first few chapters because I found the prose too...simple? That's not the right word. It just wasn't stylistically what I enjoy. Too many short sentences in a row. But I came to appreciate it as a way of evoking the voice of a working-class, (formally) uneducated woman who is struggling to find her place in the world.
The episodic nature of the book creates its own rhythm; it's essentially a book about a woman finding community and/or stability, then losing it (often in incredibly violent circumstances), sinking into depression, then fighting for it again, repeat repeat repeat. Jess and her friends are living their lives in a constant state of danger, and they know it. Most of the violence comes from the state (the police are the truest villains in the book) or through the powers of capital. It's a communist book, though it's not as overtly communist as I kind of expected being familiar with Leslie's politics and life. I thought it did a great job of handling the political stuff. I was particularly moved by the queerplatonic relationship between Jess and her neighbor, who is a transwoman, and I think it's significant that after a book about Jess trying to find a sexual/romantic partnership that works for her, the (hopeful) ending is found in this friendship and work in labor organizing. Community is complicated and messy but absolutely vital and the lines between romantic/sexual relationships, friendships, solidarity partnerships, etc. are blurred in ways that I think is really realistic.
I appreciated talking about this book in community with a bunch of queer women/nonbinary folks, and I was fascinated by the very different ways that we read Jess's gender identity in particular. Jess didn't fit into the categories offered by the time in which she was living (late 50s through late 70s), but even though we have a lot more categories and labels now, I don't think she really fits into any of them either, which I really appreciated.
Shoutout to the two scenes that made me cry:
the fire where Jess loses everything and the scene where she goes to the institution to visit the older butch who had inspired her as a kid. That last one TORE ME UP
.So yes, I have now read an important queer novel, and I'm glad I did.
The Language of Liars, by S.L. Huang
Feb. 24th, 2026 08:42 ammrissaReview copy provided by the publisher.
This is a novella with a whole range of aliens with different language features, wildly different environments, etc. Several of my friends just stopped reading this review to go pre-order or request that their library do so. You are correct, if that is the sort of thing you like, this sure is that thing.
What it does less successfully, I think, is the twist ending. I feel like this is a book that is for people who like science fiction about aliens, but for me, as soon as I knew the premise, I knew the ending, and I was correct. So if you're reading for the aliens, come on in; if you're reading for a clever twist you did not see coming, this is not that novella, that is not where Huang spent time and energy.
The Rift by Walter Jon Williams
Feb. 24th, 2026 09:15 amjames_davis_nicoll
The New Madrid Fault teaches a memorable lesson about the transience of things.
The Rift by Walter Jon Williams