Movies: None.

Television/Streaming: Started watching Farscape again; first time for me, but one of my husband's favorite shows. We had started watching it on his DVD set a while ago, and I don't recall why we stopped, but we only got a few episodes in. This week, we started with episode 5 (if you go by the DVD order; I guess the airing order on Sci-Fi/SyFy was different), "Back and Back and Back to the Future." Also watched the first two episodes of Buffy (which I guess aired as one long pilot originally). OMG high school flashbacks. Xander is annoying, haha.

Books: I finished Pathogenesis and in the end, I still found it really interesting, but as I said in my previous Media Post, I wish they would not have given it a different subtitle in the US. It does the book a disservice, in my opinion.

Currently reading Summer Fun by Jeanne Thornton. This was my pick for our DEI Book Club I started at work. I wonder how my colleagues will feel about this one! I was intrigued by the sample and I had wanted to choose a trans author as we are reading this during Pride month, but there is a lot more mysticism and witchiness than I was expecting from the blub, heh. I'M enjoying it immensely, which seems weird to say because it is very emotional and heart-stomping, but I think it is really good.

Gala, a young trans woman living in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, is obsessed with a 1960s band called the Get Happies (which are thinly veiled Beach Boys). Their record, Summer Fun, was never released; why? The novel is written in an epistolary format, where Gala writes letters to the lead singer, B., retelling his life story.

Gaming: I've been using Pikmin Bloom to try to get some walks in during the week. That's about it from the video game side.

It's time for my only slightly belated monthly rec post! You can expect some vid recs from VidUKon in the next roundup, but for now here are ten things I liked last month! To start, the non-9-1-1 section:

❖ "ChatGPT, Write a short erotic story about Alex Horne and Greg Davies" by Toft (Taskmaster RPF, Alex/Greg, 500 words): "ChatGPT cockblocks Alex." Very funny ficlet that — let's be clear — was not written by ChatGPT and does not endorse its use, lol.

❖ Cunk on Fangs by beemovieerotica (Interview with a Vampire/Cunk on Earth crossover, 8k): "Philomena Cunk interviews the vampire." Hysterically funny. I can only watch bits and pieces of Cunk on Earth because my secondhand embarrassment is too strong, but this captures the daft, offbeat humor of the show perfectly.

❖ 🎥 Not Fair by obstinatecondolement (Beetlejuice, Lydia/Beetlejuice & Lydia/Rory, fanvid): Super fun vid to a song I adore and would love to have had a vid idea for but now it has found its perfect match in Lydia Deetz's scrub of a boyfriend in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice! I don't necessarily share Art's enthusiasm for Lydia/Beetlejuice but he's made a compelling case...

❖ Priority Client by Killbothtwins (Murderbot, gen, 29k): A charming casefic where Murderbot finds itself having to protect one of Dr. Mensah's younger children. Fun and sweet! 

❖ Work Friends by avocadomoon (The Pitt, Mel/Frank, 54k series): So my problem is that I don't ship anyone from The Pitt at all, least of all Mel and Langdon, but there's so much good fic being written and recced that I keep reading it anyway? This series really worked for me, in part because it's still mostly friendship gen (though building to a romantic relationship), but mostly because it's so well-characterized and compelling.

And of course the mandatory 9-1-1 list (some of which are kind of bummers this month because S8 did not end on a high note!):

❖ brother, daughter, sister, husband by avocadomoon (9-1-1, Maddie-centric, 18k): A great Maddie character study, looking at her relationship with her parents, Buck, and Chim.

❖ 🎥 Hold It In by blessyouwatson (9-1-1, Buck/Eddie, fanvid): Absolutely loved this fanvid! The song lends itself to great, bouncy editing and also let the vidder work in so many side characters and relationships. It's an upbeat track but the central refrain of "hold it in" matches Eddie and Buck's complementary issues of repression and denial so well.

❖ The Kingdom Where Nobody Dies by Chash (9-1-1, Chris-centric, 3k): A heartbreaking meditation on Christopher and loss written just before the season 8 finale aired.

❖ slow-dancing on landmines by glorious_spoon (9-1-1, Buck/Eddie, 11k): 

I slept with Buck, he imagines saying out loud. To Bobby, probably. Bobby gives good advice, always listens carefully, like it matters. Doesn't judge, at least not out loud.

Gave. Bobby gave good advice. Bobby is never going to look at Eddie across the big table at the station loft with a faintly amused expression on his face while he tells Eddie something that Eddie deep down already knew.

I slept with Buck. I don't know what to do.

Bobby would raise his eyebrows and say, Well, maybe you should talk to him.

❖ SOS by paleredheadinascifi (9-1-1, Buck/Eddie, 1k): Just a deeply silly ficlet to hopefully lighten the mood a bit after some of the other recs. Love me a texting fic.

AO3 | Tumblr

Title: No Surrender
Fandom: Blinded by the LIght
Music: "No Surrender" by Bruce Springsteen
Length: 4:01
Summary: "We learned more from a three minute record, baby / Than we ever learned in school." Unabashed fandom in dark times.
Notes: Premiered in the "GPOY" vidshow at VidUKon 2025.

The Mo Du/Silent Reading audio drama just hit a streaming milestone, so they recorded a short message which they released today, shocking everyone who subscribed to season 5 with an update notification in the year 2025. You can hear/view the official post on Missevan here, where it's publicly accessible even without an account.

I have subbed the update here:

(Translation may have mistakes, feel free to let me know if you see any.)

And here's the cover art!

Title: A Difficult Decision
Author: paranoidangel
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Pairing/Characters: Beverly Crusher/Will Riker, Deanna Troi/Worf, Will Riker/Deanna Troi
Rating: General
Length: 1751 words
Summary: Doctor Beverly Crusher has always treasured her friendship with first officer Will Riker. Until an unexpected night of passion leaves her expecting his baby! Now she must acknowledge what she’s long denied: Beverly wants Will to be more than her best friend. But Beverly’s previous trauma still haunts her, and Will’s scared of losing what they already have. Can they find the courage to forge a life – as a family?
Notes: Set after Generations, and at the beginning and end of Triangle: Imdazi 2 by Peter David

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66299935

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Hello, everyone! It's Sunday (night here ;_;) again already, huh... That was fast. Let's put off reality and think about Lonely Prompts instead! :D? If this is your first time at comment_fic on a Sunday, you can either request previous prompts to be filled or share your recent fills for prompts. (Or do both, of course!) ✎

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How to link:
[a href="http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/449155.html?thread=70682755#t70682755">MCU, Tony Stark/Pepper Potts, She's wearing daisy dukes and one of his button-down shirts.[/a]
(change the brackets to "<" and ">" respectively)
or:
http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/139897.html?thread=30155641#t30155641
Burn Notice, Sam/Michael/Fi, "It's always been you. And it's always gonna be you."

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A friendly reminder about our posting schedule: Themed posts for new prompts go up on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Saturdays are a Free for All day for new prompts of any flavor. Sundays are for showing Lonely Prompts some love, whether by requesting for someone to adopt them or by sharing any fills that you've recently completed.

sploot [sploot]

verb:
(slang, of an animal) to lie flat on the stomach with the legs stretched out
noun:
the act or an instance of splooting

            
(click to enlarge)
Examples:

There’s the classic sploot (one leg remains beneath the body while the other leg is kicked back), the side sploot (one leg is tucked under the body while the other is kicked out to the side) and a full sploot (the animal has kicked both legs behind the body, exhibiting a full body stretch). (Hannah Docter-Loeb, Who Sploots?, Slate, August 2022)

But even in the chillier climes like Laramie, squirrels will sploot on warmer days. The upside to what Koprowski called heat islands is that cement sidewalks, while also retaining heat, will retain cooler temperatures while in the shade. (Joshua Wood, U W Professor, Who Is World’s Foremost Authority On Squirrels, Says Splooting Is OK, Cowboy State Daily, August 2022)

Snellby Kay said her household refers to the position as "road kill pose," and Brianna Portillo called it the "sploot." (Sophie Lloyd, Cat's Bizarre Sleeping Position Confuses Internet: 'Airplane Mode', Newsweek, July 2023)

I think a senior cat who still gets the zoomies would love her own bean bag chair to sploot in! (Eve Vawter, Scottish Fold Cat’s Beanbag Sploot Is the AMSR Therapy Session We Didn’t Know We Needed, Parade Pets, April 2025)

Origin:

Sploot is part of a growing lexicon of 'DoggoLingo', which uses cute, deliberate misspellings and onomatopoeias like mlem, blep, smol, borf, and heckin to fawn over man’s best friend online - and the many, many pictures and videos we post of them. While the exact origins of sploot are unclear, lexicographer Grant Barrett of the A Way with Words radio show has suggested that the term sploot may riff on the word splat to characterize the splat-like (flat, spread-out) appearance of a sploot pose. This wordplay mirrors other changes made to existing words in DoggoLingo, like the substitution of chonky for chunky. Sploot is especially associated with corgis, a squat breed of dogs with very short legs. The use of sploot, as associated with pets, is evidenced by at least 2012. (Dictionary.com)

Teaching:
Not much actual teaching happening right now. This week was rough--everyone is done, but there are still two weeks left! Luckily the eighth graders officially finish next week. The ninth graders finished the little independent learning project thing; next week they'll do some reflections and that'll be that. I'd say the results were pretty mixed: a handful of kids really locked in and really seemed to engage with it in the right spirit, and seemed to really enjoy the process. A few were semi-engaged, but dragged their feet. And a few phoned it in. To be expected! Anyway, I know that in theory this kind of student-centered, project-based learning is supposed to be way more effective and engaging than the alternative, but I remain kinda skeptical. 

Learning:
A little Duolingo Romanian everyday, that's it. It's weird, I feel like my Romanian has kinda backslid in the past couple weeks--I'm struggling to articulate myself, and I'm glazing over a little when I try to read things. I find that reading Romanian books and listening to Romanian podcasts helps a lot, but I haven't been doing that lately.

Listening:
Didn't really listen to any new music that really grabbed me, and only listened to a couple podcasts, neither of which were especially memorable.

Reading:
Finished If We Burn, which I wrote about yesterday.

Read/listened to The Dream Thieves, the second book in the Raven Cycle. This book felt very summery, and I'm glad I read/listened to it this week, when we had our first blast of heat for the season. I think I liked this book better than The Raven Boys, or maybe I'm just more invested now. I like Stiefvater's writing style, and I love the blend of the magical and the mundane. I also like the way she engages with the class dynamics between the characters...though I still can't take any of them seriously as teenagers, except maybe Blue, who feels a little more developed in this book than she did in the first.

Also, I kinda hate Substack, but this week I subscribed to Cristian Lupșa's newsletter. He was the editor of DoR, a really great Romanian magazine that unfortunately shut down a couple years ago. I recently revisited a couple back issues, from the height of the pandemic, and was really moved by some of the the things Lupșa wrote in the introductions. This week I read his post reflecting on the recent Romanian election, and in a way, it felt like it picked up right after those Covid-era essays: "One of the ideologues of this far right movement, a lawyer, actually posted something on his Facebook profile the day of the vote, which summarizes the pain points Simion, Călin Georgescu and other authoritarian figures promise to address: the pandemic nightmare, war, climate craziness, abandoning faith and family, a ban on Christmas and Easter, being blocked from entering churches, masks, forced vaccination." Sometimes I forget just how radicalizing Covid was for so many people, and how so much of the far-right surge we're living through now can be traced back to that period. Anyway, this post acknowledges that yes, Romania dodged a bullet, but that doesn't mean the far right isn't already reloading...and if nothing changes to address the issues that led so many people to vote for Georgescu and Simion, there's a good chance they or their ilk could be even more successful next time. It's not enough to just laugh at these guys, or fact-check them--people need to be offered a better story than the one they're telling. What's scary, Lupșa says, is that Dan, the guy who won the election, "doesn’t really tell stories. As someone living in Bucharest, his inability to do so has been the most frustrating thing. In a way, he is admirably disrupting the personality driven political industrial complex because he (largely) refuses to play the narrative game. He said he is firmly pro-EU, pro-Ukraine, and knows the hardest job in front of him is fixing the economy. He hasn’t articulated a vision, or a promise, he’s just promising to get shit done." In a way, this kind of reminds me of Kamala Harris, who I think focused more on policy than personality or narrative in her campaign. But obviously that wasn't really enough; as a ton of liberal/progressive election post-mortems put it, the Democrats again and again present themselves as the party of the normie status quo, defenders of institutions, even though so many people (in some cases rightfully, in other cases misguidedly) distrust or hate those institutions. Not a compelling or inspiring story, obviously. Because Romania is what it is, the two "stories" on offer here are neoliberalism on the one hand and some form of reactionary Christo-nationalist sovereigntism on the other. When it came down to it, I think a lot of people voted for Dan just because they were afraid of what a Simion win would mean for the country's relationship to the E.U. and NATO. That worked this time...but what about next time?  Anyway, this was a good article, and I'm looking forward to reading more.

Watching:
Still just Big Bang Theory. It's...kinda growing on me? But yeah, some of the "humor" is just so...eeerrrggghhhh. I think we're both approaching saturation point with it.

Writing:
I feel like I didn't write a whole lot this week, though one of my RP posts accidentally turned out to be 5,000+ words. I've also been sort of tinkering with a poem I had an idea for a month or so ago.  

Other stuff:
Another pretty anti-social week, but I have a few things in the calendar for next week.
I meditated and danced a couple times this week, which is a couple times more than I have for the past few weeks.

I've been neck-deep in a hundred different fandom projects that I have yet to cross-post but for the meantime, some bullet points:

Mangadex got hit with a big DMCA take-down, so that's a lot of fantranslations disappearing.

Justice in the Dark fandom had another round of tension at the end of May when Wowow released a statement about, idk, piracy and copyright infringement; in reaction to this, people started locking their accounts, deleting their posts, taking down translations(?)... I've also locked my Twitter account, more for fandom peace of mind than the fear of WWW seeing my GIFs/edits and cancelling the show lol. I've been having a lot of feelings about fandom, fandom norms, and Anglo cfandom experiences that I want to process but I'm too distracted to write about them. Anyway I'm pretty excited for the show to be fully released so the air feels more clear.

白鲨Jaws/Baishajaws (the band who does Link Click's theme songs) disbanded. I've only skimmed internet reactions but it seems like a messy situation involving copyright(?), pay, and allegedly the front man being a dick.

The Mo Du / Silent Reading audio drama hit a new streaming milestone, so they recorded a message thanking the listeners and wishing us the best. (I literally screamed when I got the update notification lol.)

A screenrecording of my subtitling process because I was showing someone how to sub on Resolve... Now I'm wondering if other apps (eg. Aegisub) are better, after all. (I use Resolve bc I also edit videos and I just supplement with other software, depending on my needs.)

On my reading list: Inside Gaming - Interview with Former Square Enix Translator Tom Slattery

Art advice by nn-ee-zz:

I keep finding out again and again that people react to my designs the most when I draw earnestly. I recommend the same to you, the world is a lot more interesting with your vision in it. If you’re scared people won’t like it just remember that you should be your biggest fan and that you’ll be glad you put your heart on paper. An honest design will last you a lot longer than a popular one. It’ll make you stand out more, too.

Art rec: Prutas card series (Rambutan / Papaya, Mango / Pineapple / Sugar Apple / Banana / Durian by emeldraws: anthropomorphized fruits, with very interesting design choices. I'm kind of obsessed with these!

368 chickens game (h/t superborb), my new source of distraction and rage.

3,500-year-old graves reveal secrets that rewrite bronze age history

Around 1500 BC, radical changes occurred in people's lives: they ate and lived differently, and the social system was also reorganized.
Bronze Age life changed radically around 1500 BC in Central Europe. New research reveals diets narrowed, millet was introduced, migration slowed, and social systems became looser challenging old ideas about nomadic Tumulus culture herders.

Today we went to the Fairy Market in Effingham. :D

( Read more... )

* Found one of the Little Free Libaries with The Librarians swag and nabbed one of these coin thingies:





It took a good bit of walking because the first I went to didn't have any of the items. They are also supposed to have free Librarians books, but I haven't found one with those yet.

* Am back on my quest to do all the Portland stairs. I've done the Washington park ones before, and actually photographed these stairs before, but not since I started tracking my journey to conquer them all:



* Books With Pictures Con was today:







They really get a great line up of artists each year.

(Image description: a Tweet from Mykhailo Lavrovskyi:

Americans are learning the depths of the Ukrainian concept of zhabohadyuking.

Zhabohadyuking

(noun, slang, ironic)
[From Ukrainian zbaba (frog) + hadyuka (viper) + English-style suffix -ing]

Definition: a messy, absurd conflict in which both sides are equally awful, toxic, or ridiculous.

Shitshows where every participant sucks.
Political slap fights between clowns.
Situations so cringe and cursed they feel like a cursed animal mating ritual.

Origin: The term comes from a Ukrainian expression “the frog is screwing the viper” (їба́ла жа́ба гадю́ку)—a vulgar, folkloric way of saying “this is a hideous match-up no one asked for.”

Source: https://x.com/Lavrovskyi/status/1930702385154077045; via mariakov81 on Tumblr, including an audio pronunciation: https://mariakov81.tumblr.com/post/785622581755674624/maria-zhabohad

A year ago I was at the end of a long week without appointments, anticipating three short weeks, watching telly and YT, and looking forward to a visit from daughter & co.

Today, husband got up late again, which gave me time to do most of the cleaning, have breakfast and watch two episodes of War Games (from Troughton's era as The Doctor). 'Doctor John Smith' and the sonic screwdriver appeared early.

In COE33, I got to the end of the dungeon for Maelle's companion quest. I almost defeated the final boss - so annoying! I tried again with a slight adjustment to Pictos and Lumina and an upgraded weapon - and victory was mine. I had a horrible feeling there was going to be a second fight but there wasn't. Some thoughts on the end of the dungeon:

• Of course that's who the Axon's are - DOH!
• Not fair using my attacks against me! (though not really a surprise :D)
• It was her choice to make

I'm now in Frozen Hearts. I can't remember exactly what I'm looking for, but I'm sure I'll know it when I find it.

Now I'm watching the last two episodes of The Sinner. The young actor at the centre of this story is so good.

Oh, and we're hoping to see both grandbabies tomorrow :) One of the things I'm finding from looking back is that everything changes and nothing changes.

I will be participating in the latest season of LJ Idol: Wheel of Chaos.

I invite everyone who is reading this to sign up as well! The word from Gary is, "The deadline to sign up is Saturday June 21st at noon ET. (but the first topic will be hitting before that)"

Happy idoling to all, and if you’re not able to sign up, I hope you at least enjoy my flights of fancy here.

Dan

Public


127/365: Worcester Cathedral from Cathedral Square
Click for a larger, sharper image
I was once again in Worcester to see friends today, but after I'd left that meetup I had a short time to do some shopping before my bus home. I took the opportunity for a photo, as you can see! This is Worcester Cathedral, taken from the first floor balcony in the Cathedral Square centre (a few restaurants and coffee shops, plus a hotel). I had several goes at getting a snap with all of the flags visible, but this was the closest I got! You can easily see the Ukrainian flag on the left, then the Union Flag. The third pole currently has a Pride flag, but that one refused to co-operate. On the top of the Cathedral tower is the English flag (St George's Cross). As you can probably tell from the sky, the weather was a tad iffy today, though fortunately the heavy rain held off until I was on the bus back!

Today is cloudy, mild, and damp.  It rained yesterday, and probably more last night.

I fed the birds.  I haven't seen much activity though.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/7/25 -- I did a bit of work on the patio.

It's been spitting or drizzling for much of the day, and is picking up again now.

EDIT 6/7/25 -- I put out more food for the birds.

I've seen several sparrows and house finches, a catbird, and at least one mourning dove.

The 'Mr. Stripey' tomato has green fruit.  :D




.