Perhaps because we were seeing it at a rippling distance, when I looked out at the lake the other night, the ball of fire that was the setting sun seemed to be reflected as a five pointed star. Don't know how clearly that came out here but I liked the photo regardless.

( Read more... )

soc_puppet posting in

queerly_beloved

Thursday recs time!

Do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!

Or have you tried something that's been recced here? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!

theradicalchild

From

thefridayfive:

1. Do you know of any other words for snow? What's your favourite and why?
Schnee in German, which I guess is my favorite since it's the only one I can name atop my head.

2. What's your ideal temperature range for winter?
Lukewarm.

3. Favourite winter activity? What about it makes it your favourite?
Staying indoors if it's too cold, but I don't have any huge winter traditions.

4. What are three things you can't do without when winter arrives?
My blankets, my air conditioner if it gets way too cold, and stuff to do indoors.

5. Do you have favourite winter holiday activities?
I guess getting Christmas presents.

Current Mood: okay

flemmings

I spent the day, or most of it, in sweaty domesticity, which is not how I prefer to spend my days. But it was raining and cleanliness helps the megrims, so I doped my back up and took the couch apart so as to add some more cushions as I've been meaning to for a while. Am still not able to get up out of it without them. But of course this involved vacuuming everything, all sides, including the amazing amount of dust on the nether side of the cushions and the amazing amount of crap between them. Then got at the corner by the wall which was festooned with cobwebs and thick with dust because it's very hard to reach. Emptied cannister, drank 500 ml of water, then vacuumed the rest of the living room and the hallway. Some day I may get the carpet up and the couch pulled out to remove the dust elephants there, but that's a bit more than I'm up for just now. Lemon polished the wooden tables instead so they glow.

Am not totally satisfied because there's still too many miscellaneous boxes and bags here. A bag of unwearable back braces that still don't fit, the plastic hooked hanging thingies I use for laundry between the furnace turning off and the cherries falling, and a pile of calendars I can't throw out because they're where I tracked my weight gains and losses. Maybe if I noted the general trends in a notebook somehow? This would be easier if I had a computer of some description.

Currently have some basmati rice cooking so I can have omuraisu tomorrow. And maybe tomorrow will get to the kitchen floor.

madmeemey posting in

bakerstreet

for disciples who love their messiahs too much;

Prophets. Kings and queens. Saviors of the world. Superheroes. Revolutionaries. Magical girls with enough kindness in their hearts for everything in their outstretched arms - and the very universe itself. There are some people that are more than people; they are pure light, forces of nature with a cause and a higher calling singing in their bones. That whisper may not be of their own choosing, but something they answer and they will not turn away.

Yet they must turn away from someone so they may face that abyss.

There will be those that follow, those that align themselves with the person who symbolizes their belief. They see the change, the shift in the tide of nature that swirls around this person. Still, there is always one disciple above all who will do anything...not always for the cause, for the person behind it. To them, that pinpoint of light and inspiration in human form is the name of God on their heart. It's an earthly love. This makes it no less worthy. But:

The path rarely ends will for prophets, royalty, dragon slayers, or girls in pretty sailor suits. Though change is a constant, there are parts of the grand design that will leave those who bring it bloodied and broken on the ground. And even for those messiahs who survive (and they rarely ever do, for others must tell their tales), there is no "end." There is only duty, and the duty cannot be found in another.

( for there is nothing crueler than loving and being loved by a prophet )

HOW TO PLAY
♠ This is the ultimate in forbidden attraction memes, for those who love those who should be beyond love.
♣ Comment with your character and preferences. You may also want to note if your character is more likely to be a "prophet" or a "disciple," though most could be both. Given how canons are, though, a lot will probably be the former.
♥ Comment to others. Please respect preferences, as there may be some possibilities for smut.
♦ Meme inspired by the tumblr page of okayophelia, especially their "they blink and reality shivers," "disciples who love their messiahs too much," and "nothing crueler than loving and being loved by a prophet" tags.

( Prompts are not necessary, but here they are. )

mellowtigger

I ended up drinking whisky after work every day this week. They were stressful days. That was fine.

Today, I went to my morning patrol. I came home with a slight headache. I thought maybe I'd just rest all day. Wrong.

Overhead surveillance has been so frequent all day long that it's just absurd. I was gritting my teeth and wondering how guerillas get access to anti-aircraft missiles. I'm not sure if there were multiple aircraft. I thought more than once that there was a plane rather than helicopter. Some special flights get to block their transponder from public review, and last week I watched a plane overhead that wasn't showing on FlightRadar24.com. For today, you can view the flight map for N119SP starting about 1pm Central and about 3pm Central. Apparently it takes about 20 minutes to refuel the helicopter. That's my house under the main tangled knot of each 2-hour flight.

I filed a noise complaint using this form:
https://metroairports.org/file-noise-complaint

Edit 8:50pm. Yes, here's a small plane flying overhead right now. *sigh*

hemlocksock posting in

bakerstreet

GREEN FLAGS meme

It's not all doom and gloom all the time. Don't beat yourself up! You are a total catch.

how to play
- forget what you think you know about memes.
- forget the traditional subject line. no prefs. no character info.
- verbalize the green flag(s) that would make your character the perfect partner.

knitsock posting in

bakerstreet

ask

questions from the heart:

the remix

Finally! You can ask all the questions about matters of the heart, love, and romance that have been burning that hole through your curiosity. Ask away! Delve deep! Nothing is off-limits!

Except for that.

RULES
○ Don’t leave your comment blank. This go ‘round, your character asks the love-adjacent and related questions!

kaberett

a frenzy of daffodils, with ridiculous doubled frills; the one in the foreground has a green streak

About twenty metres up the road is a front garden that is, at this time of year, full of ridiculous daffodils. It is an Annual Delight. I took this photo yesterday, and then I dragged A out to visit it at lunchtime today, in glorious weather. It has been a good day.

ysabetwordsmith

Spending time in nature triggers a calming chain reaction in the brain

People often say a walk in nature clears the mind. Scientists have long suspected the effect is real, but exactly what happens inside the brain has been harder to pin down.

A sweeping synthesis of 108 brain-imaging experiments now shows that natural environments consistently quiet neural stress circuits and shift the brain toward a calmer, more integrated state.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

daryl_wor

Sliced bread is a loaf of bread, sliced with a machine and packaged for convenience, as opposed to the consumer cutting it with a knife. It was first sold in 1928, advertised as "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped".[1][2] By 1933, around 80% of bread sold in the US was pre-sliced, leading to the popular idiom "greatest thing since sliced bread".[3]

FINALLY! Been wanting to learn that one. Lesee if I remember the blasted thing....

Current Mood: bitchy
Current Location: Memory Lane
Current Music: Ready Room

rebeccmeister

I have been a little nervous about my seed-starting prospects because I haven't been watering the trays at work as systematically as I'd like. But when I went to check on the plant pots today, I was delighted to discover the first signs of germination!

Not only that, but it's the Black Prince tomato seeds that have germinated successfully! These are seeds that I had saved from a previous set of plants and I'm always doubtful of my seed-saving techniques for tomatoes. If the other tomato seeds don't germinate, I have a lot of backup seeds where I can try again. For these seeds, this is my one chance. So, hooray!

anais_pf posting in

thefridayfive

These questions were suggested by

dray.

1. Do you know of any other words for snow? What's your favourite and why?

2. What's your ideal temperature range for winter?

3. Favourite winter activity? What about it makes it your favourite?

4. What are three things you can't do without when winter arrives?

5. Do you have favourite winter holiday activities?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

**Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going. Also, please remember to play nice. We are all here to answer the questions and have fun each week. We repost the questions exactly as the original posters submitted them and request that all questions be checked for spelling and grammatical errors before they're submitted. Comments re: the spelling and grammatical nature of the questions are not necessary. Honestly, any hostile, rude, petty, or unnecessary comments need not be posted, either.**

oursin

So, I may have mentioned I would be giving a paper in one of the Fellows' Symposia of the Institution with which I am now affiliated, coming up over the horizon very soon. And I had originally intended to revisit some research I did Before Events Intervened and Do Something with that, but it has not been coming together as I should like, needs more percolating I think. So I am instead returning to a project I put aside when other things supervened and demanded my attention, for which I did a preliminary paper or two, and can spruce up and get, I hope, some feedback on, and maybe kickstart this back into action.

Meanwhile....

I think I mentioned being solicited to give an entertaining and instructive talk on the history of johnnies/baudruches some months hence, which I have a fair amount of material already on hand for. However, what the organisers would like is An Image for publicity purposes, fairly soonish, and REALLY. One is tempted to go with the Dudley Hoard which require a good deal of imagination to reconstruct for their original purpose.

Younger scholar whom I have been somewhat informally mentoring has now submitted their PhD thesis and would like me to read it, and think of what might come up in viva.

The project which I was involved in for some considerable while which went very weird last year, with me being somewhat accidental being left out of the loop for some months due to error in email address, so I never really got the full story, is being revived in a smaller and more defined way as a journal special issue edited by Old Friend and Me.

Meanwhile I am in the process of getting the latest volume of the Interminable Saga prepped for publication.

memehound posting in

bakerstreet

THE (march) FIGHT MEME

What else needs to be said? Release your inner warrior and partake in some epic (or hilariously bad) battles! Do you use a sword? Are you a martial arts master? Are you a wizard? Can you even fight?

It doesn't matter if you're just having a friendly spar or deciding the fate of the universe. You're suddenly filled with the urge to fight the next person you meet. Cut loose and show off your skills!

RULES

◘ Post with your character! List your fighting preferences if you'd like (Sparring, Death Battles, Anything Goes, etc.)
◘ Reply to someone else
◘ ROUND 1...
◘ ... FIGHT!

Here are some prompts to pick from (or RNG from):

( Prompts. )

ysabetwordsmith

Today is cloudy, mild, and wet. It rained on and off yesterday, then stormed last night. Everything is still soaked.

I fed the birds. I've seen a small mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

More crocuses are blooming -- lavender, purple, white, and pale yellow. :D The grass, which in recent years has retained bits of green through the winter, is suddenly much more green with growing tips visible.

EDIT 3/5/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

It's mizzling rain again.

EDIT 3/5/26 -- I did a bit of work around the yard.

Many more flowers are blooming! :D There are buds of purple-and-white crocus in the rain garden and orange in the goddess garden. The first miniature irises are blooming periwinkle and red-violet in the tulip bed.

EDIT 3/5/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a female cardinal at the hopper feeder.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

forestofglory

The last several days my foot has been extra painful and I have been very grumpy about it. It’s really unpleasant and I would like to stop being grumpy already. But I have been reading things while trying to rest my foot and distract myself so have some thoughts:

Ghost Circus written by Adrienne Kress art by Jade Zhang— MG graphic novel about, what else: a ghost circus. The story here didn’t really grab me, but I loved the art, especially of the circus performances. (content note: ghost kids, child in peril)

Lumberjanes, Vol. 15-20 by Shannon Watters, et al.— I have now read all of the main series of these! There’s still some extra stories and graphic novels to check out, but the main thing feels complete. Vol 19 where the campers decide to do one last thing before the end of camp was especially charming. The ending was a bit rushed but narratively satisfying. This whole series was very good and fun and I’m glad I came back to it and read the second half.

Gotham Academy Second Semester— The second Gotham Academy series. This one is all one long arc where the first one was more episodic. I didn’t like this quite as much as the first series, which I adored. Its a little bit darker and less fun. But I still love Maps and Olive and their friendship. I’m sad there aren’t more of these, but at least there are a few more stories where these characters show up for me to read. (Maps reminds me of very early Tim and I think it would be fun if they hung out, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.)

Batman, Vol. 6: Abyss by Joshua Williamson et al— I read this because it contains a story featuring Maps from Gotham Academy. That story was great! (Well except for the fact that some of the art of Japanese characters was bordering on racist caricature– that was not good at all!) The rest of it wasn’t bad– a little confusing because so much of it referenced other story lines and I have no idea what’s going on in comics this decade.

Kindred Dragons by Sarah Mensinga— A very sweet MG graphic novel about a girl who really wants a dragon egg. She lives in a world where fairies bring some girls dragon eggs – but it mostly runs in families and she isn’t from a “kindred” family. It’s set in Canada which confused me at first, but works for the vibe. The book says “volume 1” very prominently so I was a little worried that it would end on a cliffhanger but it's a complete story.

parrygripp posting in

bakerstreet

invasive questions!

Questions that you'd probably not answer in polite company. They're awkward, embarrassing, and really get at the heart of what goes on upstairs when no one else is around. But, through these TMI questions, we can all get to know each other better and form deeper connections. And isn't that what embarrassment is all about?

HOW to JOIN

Post your character with some prefs if you choose.
Let people get all up in your business!
Bond, grow, cringe, die.

( Read more... )

bill_schubert

Turns out that my sister @susandennis, mentioned being offered a pay gig just shortly after I was offered one. Hers was customer service, mine consulting. Hers, likely many customers. Mine is only one.

My friendly bookkeeper with whom I network monthly and who I've known for 15 years or so is making some changes and wants to see if she can streamline with AI. So she asked me to help and wants to pay me. I had no idea what she wants to pay but she seemed to think that I was not going to ask for enough. So I went through ChatGPT and had a discussion and my value is around $150/hour so I'm going with a version of that. At least for the first part of the set up. Block of a project with a $2k flat rate. It will likely involve more than the 13 hours but it will be fun for me and likely a one off. And they are good people to work with.

But if the first project is successful it may grow into much more. I suspect that if I can wrap my mind around the processes I can save them a lot more than they are paying me. All the time having fun.

The way it should be.

Other than that things are fine and dandy. I've got an open day that I've turned into a bit of consulting study and getting my car inspected so I can register it.

And today is Toby's 9th birthday:

We celebrated by taking him to the vet for annual shots. He was not amused.

offcntr

There's a wren in the blackberry brambles behind my studio, singing his little heart out, been there for several weeks. Flocks of robins have been populating trees around the neighborhood, and the waxwings came through on their annual migration earlier this week. Just yesterday, I saw a chickadee at the seed feeder, the first since last fall.

Good to have everyone back.

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michaelboy

March 2026

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michaelboy

Network

Star Sunset and Flare + Ducks

Thursday Recs

The Friday Five, 3/6/2026

(no subject)

I can't explain this aesthetic

not a restful day

Bob helped

No heartfelt off limits?

ask

the remix

have a daffodil(s)

Nature

Here's a slice

We have germination! [gardening]

The Friday Five for 6 March 2026

Like buses in a bunch

THE FIGHT MEME

Birdfeeding

Media Roundup: Grumpy Foot Pain Edition

keep that to yourself next time

A little work

The bird report

Profile

March 2026

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