this and that

Apr. 25th, 2026 05:09 pm
twistedchick: watercolor painting of coffee cup on wood table (Default)
[personal profile] twistedchick
I started reading some of [personal profile] ivorygates's stories that I hadn't seen before, just in memory of her -- but unexpectedly they are helping me deal with some of the last few months' deaths of friends and relatives. She didn't shy away from having her characters fully experience their emotions, and that is letting me put some of mine onto the characters. It helps. And the stories are excellent. I only wish I could tell her this.

The series in which Clone!Jack comes back to the SGC is echoing a little with a bit of my past -- Adam Driver is very close to a copy of a guy I went to high school with and dated for a while. Same nose and profile, same time spent in the Marines so the same walk. Jim was about one size smaller than Adam, though, narrower in the shoulders. Just an odd coincidence, but when I watch/rewatch the Star Wars movies he's in I have to remind myself who's onscreen.

One of the oddities of getting older that I had not anticipated was the constant mathematics. I have clear memories of various incidents, like sitting on grass in a park with a boyfriend and kissing every time they shot off fireworks for the 200th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence -- and then I think, 'that was 50 years ago, and he died in the 1990s'. Or remembering walking through the city cemetery next to the grad school -- the cemetery was the better late-night path back to the apartment, with fewer people and cars, so less likely to be mugged or run over than the long way around -- and seeing the stars overhead, because the lights were far enough back not to obscure them. 40 years ago. Ancient history now.

And in more modern history, I am told that the parts for my good computer are on back order, no idea when they will arrive. I was supposed to get that computer back today. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr There are too many things I can't do on this computer unless I upgrade the operating system, and if I do that I lose about a dozen older programs for which there are no modern replacements. So not upgrading, but still....

Just Create - Pattern Edition

Apr. 25th, 2026 02:07 pm
silvercat17: (Default)
[personal profile] silvercat17 posting in [community profile] justcreate
Three Weeks for Dreamwidth is starting. Could somebody link to the official stuff?

What are you working on? What have you finished? What do you need encouragement on?
 
Are there any cool events or challenges happening that you want to hype?
 
What do you just want to talk about?
 
What have you been watching or reading?
 
Chores and other not-fun things count!
 
Remember to encourage other commenters and we have a discord where we can do work-alongs and chat, linked in the sticky.

Doors of Sleep, by Tim Pratt

Apr. 25th, 2026 01:47 pm
rachelmanija: (Books: old)
[personal profile] rachelmanija


This is the first book I've read by Tim Pratt. I had somehow gotten the impression that they wrote very highbrow, abstract sf that I probably wouldn't enjoy. I have no idea where that came from because this novel, which I tried because of the delightful premise, is completely not that and I enjoyed it very much.

Zax Delatree, a social worker/mediator from a utopian post-scarcity world, develops a condition where he travels to a random other world every time he sleeps. Through a lot of trial and error, he also discovers that he can take with him items on his person, and also other people if he's touching them when he falls asleep. If they're asleep too, they will arrive fine. If they're not, they arrive insane. ("The Jaunt" is one of many spottable influences.) Here's Zax and his companion, Minna, explaining their situation:

"Do you know the word 'multiverse?' [...] We're travelers, sort of. Sort of explorers. And sort of refugees."

"If this is true, the implications are immense."

"The implications are also very small and also personal," said Minna.


This is the most charming and heartfelt novel I've read in a while. It's mostly a picaresque, with Zax and Minna (and assorted friends and pursuing enemies) visiting all sorts of colorful other worlds, exploring and surviving and trying to be of use. The many worlds are great, I loved Zax and Minna and the friends they meet, and it's full of sense of wonder and hopefulness and people being kind under extremely difficult circumstances. I also liked that Zax and Minna are friends who are explicitly not romantically or sexually involved with each other.

There is a sequel, Prison of Sleep, which I have ordered.

Truly the perfect date yes.

Apr. 25th, 2026 10:41 pm
goodbyebird: Community: Britta and Shirley dances enthusiastically. (Community Rooooxanne)
[personal profile] goodbyebird
Miss Congeniality, where May 25th is the perfect date because all you need is a light jacket yay
(it was fucking snowing today, big fat snowflakes if you can believe it)


That's right, iiiiit's [community profile] 3weeks4dreamwidth time, and despite it starting on a Saturday it's still starting off strong. I'm very banged up from work so I won't be doing much this weekend. I did however offer tarot readings at [community profile] tarot, for anybody who wants to stop by and offer/request a reading. (let me play with my pretty pretty cards 🙏)

(no subject)

Apr. 25th, 2026 04:33 pm
ribirdnerd: perched bird (Default)
[personal profile] ribirdnerd posting in [community profile] birdfeeding
Friday and Saturday

Today we have a mix and clouds and sun, with a few Blue Jays around.

Yesterday was sunny and mild but cooled off in the afternoon.
We visited Blithewold Mansion and Gardens in Bristol, RI https://www.blithewold.org/ to see their spring gardens with many type of daffodils. They also have these large bird statues on their grounds for the past couple of seasons. I also planted a few yellow marigolds near my vegetable and herb garden.










A Spanish Cow.

Apr. 25th, 2026 07:38 pm
[syndicated profile] languagehat_feed

Posted by languagehat

From the misty depths of my youth I remember the expression parler français comme une vache espagnole (literally ‘to speak French like a Spanish cow’), meaning to speak the language badly. It occurred to me to wonder if this is still something persons of Frenchness actually say, and (more importantly) if there are equivalents in other languages; I suspect English is unusual in not having a colorful xenophobic phrase to express the concept.

Birdfeeding

Apr. 25th, 2026 02:32 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [community profile] birdfeeding
Today is sunny and mild.  It rained on and off yesterday.

We went out early to catch the native plant sale at Douglas-Hart Nature Center.  Then we had more errands to run.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

I set out some flats of pots and watered them.

EDIT 4/25/26 -- I planted four Burpless Cucumbers in pots, two on the old picnic table garden and two on the new picnic table garden.

EDIT 4/25/26 -- I planted four chocolate cherry tomatoes in pots, two on the old picnic table garden and two on the new picnic table garden.

I planted a garden sage and a variegated sage in a trough pot, and a cilantro in another trough pot, at the new picnic table garden.  I still need to do more with the troughs because their soil level is low.








.
 

Birdfeeding

Apr. 25th, 2026 02:30 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is sunny and mild.  It rained on and off yesterday.

We went out early to catch the native plant sale at Douglas-Hart Nature Center.  Then we had more errands to run.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

I set out some flats of pots and watered them.

EDIT 4/25/26 -- I planted four Burpless Cucumbers in pots, two on the old picnic table garden and two on the new picnic table garden.

EDIT 4/25/26 -- I planted four chocolate cherry tomatoes in pots, two on the old picnic table garden and two on the new picnic table garden.

I planted a garden sage and a variegated sage in a trough pot, and a cilantro in another trough pot, at the new picnic table garden.  I still need to do more with the troughs because their soil level is low.






.

alethia: (The Pitt Jack Concerned for Robby)
[personal profile] alethia
I did a big bang,y'all! Of course my story ended up being twice as long as I thought, for no discernible reason. Ain't that just the way of it...

Good Effect on Target (41079 words) by Alethia
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Pitt (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Abbot/Michael "Robby" Robinavitch
Characters: Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, Jack Abbot (The Pitt), Parker Ellis, Lena (The Pitt), Dana Evans
Additional Tags: Post-Season/Series 01, Caretaking, Roommates, Sharing Clothes, Shooting Range, Target Practice, Idiots in Love, First Kiss, First Time, Porn
Summary:

As Jack prepped the sutures, he nodded. "You'll stay with me, then," he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "For as long as the repairs take."

Something clenched in Robby's chest, a pained sort of longing at war with sober caution. "It's an imposition," he said, voice creaking on it. He swallowed, trying to lighten things. "Besides, you'd get sick of me."

"I got news, friend," Jack said, dry. He favored Robby with a soft look, a tender sort of reminder there: "And family can't impose."

An instinct within Robby viscerally rejected that.

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: Icon Meme

Apr. 25th, 2026 12:29 pm
sanguinity: (geek ping-pong tree sponge)
[personal profile] sanguinity
In honor of [community profile] 3weeks4dreamwidth, a meme gakked from [personal profile] regshoe, who had it from [personal profile] goodbyebird:

Reply to this post saying 'icon', and I will tell you my favourite icon of yours. Then post this to your own journal using your own favourite icon if you're one of those inhuman things that are actually capable of choosing between YOUR PRECIOUS BABIES! userpics.
starandrea: (Default)
[personal profile] starandrea
Yay it's [community profile] 3weeks4dreamwidth! What should I post about? I have no idea! (If there's something you want me to post about, let me know and I'll do it.) Right now I'm eating microwave pasta and mushrooms with chopsticks, so that's pretty exciting.

I did accomplish a variety of small tasks this morning: relocating my Reunion Dinner legos to Flower Fruit Mountain (that set makes so much more sense now that I've read something about Sun Wukong and his monkeys), super gluing the pin in my favorite moldavite pendant so I can wear it again (I'm sure I did this when I first got it, but that must have been at least 10 years ago now), and moving the compost I was storing beside the porch to behind the garage (thanks for that idea Marci; it was a hassle but it looks so much neater).

I left my hardiest houseplants outside in the greenhouse last night, and all of them appear to have survived. The weather app says it got down to 29F; our greenhouse temperature sensor says 35F. And I put some new faux flower/vines on the moongate yesterday, so the whole patio looks cheerier.

All blueberry plants are still alive as far as I can tell. The cosmos have sprouted but the nasturtiums have not. I have finished my lunch, and Daphne is asleep after a long and windy walk in the park, so I guess it's time to hang up the laundry.

Happy birthday, Dreamwidth!

three Weeks of Readings

Apr. 25th, 2026 08:35 pm
goodbyebird: Wheel of Time: Aviendha on a peach background, haloed by the moon. (WoT wetlander nonsense)
[personal profile] goodbyebird posting in [community profile] 3weeks4dreamwidth
three Weeks For Dreamwidth tarot Pulls written atop a random spread of RWS cards

Putting up a post for anyone who might want to offer or request readings (free of charge) at [community profile] tarot.

(I've also previously put up a collection of tarot memes - some general, some collection focused - in case folks are looking to post about tarot a bit more during the event ♥)

1984 Library Research and Tech

Apr. 25th, 2026 12:58 pm
carodee: Painting of The Madwoman of Chaillot (Default)
[personal profile] carodee posting in [community profile] little_details
Sadly, my experience with libraries at that time was just wandering the stacks and taking out interesting books. I vaguely remember using a microfiche once, for example, and all I remember is you have to turn the knob the opposite direction of what you're viewing. Research is a foreign land to me.

The googling I've done tells me that this year was smack dab in the middle of converting to computer use from old style card catalogues, etc. but no information on how a person goes about doing research. I would love to have a helpful librarian character too.

This is for an exchange fic so I'm putting the rest under a cut. Please don't click if you requested a canon set in the 80s in a current exchange. Thank you. Read more... )

Any help in how this would work or a website that has this research finding information would be very appreciated.

Edited to Add: Thanks for the suggestions so far but I actually need to have my character do some research beyond phone books for the story to work. What I'm getting is libraries might still? be using card catalogues rather than early computers but how would magazines and trade journals be listed in the card catalogue so that a specific company could be researched? Thank you for any suggestions. They do spark my imagination for adding to the scene.

ETA2: Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I have what I need now. This community is a great resource.
stardust_rifle: A cartoon-style image of of a fluffy brown cat sitting upright and reading a book, overlayed over a sparkly purple circle. (Default)
[personal profile] stardust_rifle posting in [community profile] 3weeks4dreamwidth
Hi!

I've been embarking on a project to archive the Jrockyaoi LiveJournal community, which centered around RPF of Japanese rock/visual kei musicians, and as I've been doing the archiving, I've been noticing a lot of things! Overarching trends, fandom culture stuff, funny lines in fics, all of these that I wanted to share with people!

Even if you don't know who any of these guys are that I'll namedrop, if you're interested in Livejournal fandom culture, anime fandom culture, or RPF fandoms and how they operate, I'd really love my posts to spark discussion (and to maybe vkeipill some people...)

If this sounds like something you'd be into, here's my first post!

Donate Some Points!

Apr. 25th, 2026 12:49 pm
yourlibrarian: SamGivesYouMoney-bittersweet_art (SPN-SamGivesYouMoney-bittersweet_art)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian
Every time I planned to post and got sidelined, something else got added to the list.

1) [community profile] 3weeks4dreamwidth is underway, and I am again hosting a points donation and gifting event. If you have US $3 (or more) to spare, join in!

Dreamwidth stays afloat by selling paid services, but a lot of users can't buy them for one reason or another. That's a lot of people who would like to support the site but either can't get the payment through or are currently unable to start or maintain services. So if you currently can, leave a comment (all donors and recipient comments are screened) by May 4. At that point, a call will go out for recipients and they'll be matched up by May 15.

2) Finished the Fire of Love documentary about French volcanologists spending their lives studying volcanoes. Some of the footage they got is just spectacular, almost technicolor. But the risks they took are appalling. Read more... )

3) We finished watching S1 of the Puzzle Lady last month. It was fine as a series; we would watch more. One thing that stood out to me was the wardrobe and decor which normally is not something that catches my attention. Read more... )

4) A recent episode of Jeopardy had the following quotes in a category about words from the Founding Fathers. I don't think their choices were a coincidence:

"Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net." – John Adams

James Madison wrote, "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

5) I'm still watching Daredevil Ep 6 (which I have been looking forward to) but I thought Ep 5 was really well done. The way the stories were balanced out, the flashbacks, and the details were well written. I think that was probably the best Marvel show episode I've seen so far. Read more... )

Poll #34518 Kudos Footer-572
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Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4

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neonvincent: For posts about Usenet (Fluffy)
[personal profile] neonvincent

Tarot Prompt Meme

Apr. 25th, 2026 07:45 pm
goodbyebird: Buffy on a background with a moon, a planet, and a dragon. Looking very DnD. (BtVS but make it dnd)
[personal profile] goodbyebird posting in [community profile] 3weeks4dreamwidth
I absolutely love tarot for the rich visuals and just how many different readings/thoughts it can prompt. And many people use tarot for creative work, storytelling, roleplaying... and so here it is, the prompt meme! Featuring The Mystical Dream Tarot & The Citadel: A Fantasy Oracle.
(sorry too beat up atm to make a new banner featuring both decks *sheepish*)


The Mystical Dream Tarot & Citadel Oracle
Prompt Meme

Open to all fanworks. Come play with us!

(no subject)

Apr. 25th, 2026 11:46 am
yuuago: (Lithuania - Busy)
[personal profile] yuuago
Well, that's the second time in the span of two days that a complete stranger has told me I look tired.

Maybe I should take this as a sign that I should go to bed early tonight.

Colorful Dreamsheep Icons

Apr. 25th, 2026 12:37 pm
soc_puppet: A gray masked dumbo rat wearing a Dreamwidth cheerleading outfit and waving red color-matched pompoms (Team Dreamwidth)
[personal profile] soc_puppet posting in [community profile] 3weeks4dreamwidth
Hello, everyone! In celebration of Dreamwidth's anniversary, I've made some colorful Dreamsheep icons to share over at [community profile] dreamsheep. You can find them over here. I'm also taking color and color combination requests, though I don't promise to get to them immediately 😅

A quick sample:
A Dreamsheep icon in shades of cyan

I've got eight colors plus three monochrome options to check out over there. If you've got a color-themed journal, one of these might be just what you're looking for!

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summercomfort

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