vriddy: Sakura from Wind Breaker pointing at himself (me?)
[personal profile] vriddy
Murder, I say!! Lol. A few panels under the cut, so spoilers for a few scenes but not really plot stuff.

MURDER! A.k.a., fatal doses of polyshipper catnip XD )

Community Thursday

Jun. 12th, 2025 06:34 am
vriddy: Hawks waving and leaving (bye bye)
[personal profile] vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.


Over the last week...

Chit-chat on [community profile] bnha_fans.

Signal boosts:

  • [community profile] worderlands' next event at the end of the month will be a daily 3-sentence flash fiction challenge. I know a few people in my circles enjoy that kind of event!

Google Is Lobotomizing Itself

Jun. 11th, 2025 10:16 pm
grayestofghosts: an enamel pin that reads "yikes" (yikes)
[personal profile] grayestofghosts
So, it looks like Google is lobotomizing itself -- it's replaced all of its internal development classes with AI-related courses. Which, on the surface may not seem like that huge of a deal if AI is the new hotness, except for it previously had over 500,000 listings that are now replaced with AI courses, and the previous courses that people had already been signed up for were cancelled in favor of pushing AI instead of even maintaining the stuff they have. So, if you think search is bad now, it's gonna get worse.

I'm going to use this news as an opportunity to push @Lori@hackers.town's essay The New Yahoo about how creating lists of links is more urgent than ever and only getting moreso. My personal site is mainly linklists and I've been thinking of trying to put together a dirt-easy HTML/CSS template to make your own linklist for people with basically zero web-building knowledge. I've also started experimenting with Linkslist.app which might be a more accessible alternative to gather and display links, at least until one would be able to put them on a real website. And, if all else fails, there's still even Pinterest and the like -- but not Pocket, because it's going down in July. Augh!!

WIR: The Everlasting (2)

Jun. 11th, 2025 07:25 pm
stepnix: Blue gear and sigil (theory)
[personal profile] stepnix
One of my weaknesses here is that it's going to be really hard for me to tell how much of the book is weird because it's trying to be Vampire, and how much is it because it's just a weird book. But I persevere.

Read more... )

Horizon Zero Dawn - black & white

Jun. 11th, 2025 09:08 pm
thispatternismine: (HZD - Balancing Aloy)
[personal profile] thispatternismine
Finally getting around to posting some of the many photos I took in this game.


if its in b&w it's automatically art )

[TWST] Pocky Time

Jun. 11th, 2025 07:59 am
haunted_cherries: A close up picture of dark red cherries (Default)
[personal profile] haunted_cherries
Fandom: Twisted Wonderland
Characters/Pairing: Rem Van der Zee (OC), Theo Valentine (OC)
Rating: Gen
Prompt: #446 - Dessert for [community profile] 100words and Contact for [community profile] fandomocweekly
Summary: Despite his aloof, sometimes grumpy demeanor, Rem manages to surprise Theo every time.

Read more... )

🌙

Jun. 11th, 2025 06:36 pm
adore: An Edwardian gothic girl levitating in the woods (vetsdaughter)
[personal profile] adore
Moontime began today. I've got tea, pain relief cream, and some cloth pads as extra backup while I use period underwear.

My well-meaning friend, Sre, messaged me saying that she was sorry if this would bring up any negative feelings for me, but she knew mid-20th-century writers are my jam, and would help me shop for them when she was in my city. She attached a picture, and I didn't process it correctly at first, because it was a shelf full of Persephone Books. I assumed it was a picture from Persephone Books themselves, since they have a store full of shelves of just their books. I thought she was offering to buy one for me and bring it with her when she came here. I told her that she was sweet, and right about them being my jam, and also that after years of being unable to pick up a book without pain related to the bookstore that broke my heart, referred to on this journal as Spinebreaker, it was books like these–Virago green books that were out of print, and Persephone Books which are unavailable in my country, that helped me read again, specifically because I knew Spinebreaker would never be able to stock them. The owner had said that she was trying to bring Persephone Books to her store and wasn't able to get distribution here, and that was a few years ago.

Sre said she didn't know getting them here had been a challenge–and that's when I realise that the picture she had sent me was of Persephone Books stocked in Spinebreaker, and that's when I realise that she didn't know that I didn't clock it.

I've posted here before about moments when I was at risk of relapsing and didn't, and how far I've come and all that. Well... this particular moment is a struggle for me. I've been struggling with sorrow, suffocating waves of them, because... this is a bit like that moment when I visited Spinebreaker for the first time, saw Barbara Comyns on the shelves, and thought it must be A Sign because I had never seen her books here before. A whole shelf of just Persephone Books, in MY COUNTRY not to mention my city? It seems like a miracle. It was something I didn't think was realistic. Just like that whole damned bookstore, just like seeing Barbara Comyns stocked there, just like the chance to work there... it was just never realistic.

At the moment, I happen to be reading Amelia's Intrigue by Judith A. Lansdowne. It's sweet, gentle, cosy, funny and endearing. A perfect comfort reading. It's also out of print so Spinebreaker can never stock it, so there. I'm enjoying it.

When I was bringing myself back into reading I picked up books that would never be stocked at Spinebreaker, or so I thought. Books the owner couldn't get, books that were out of print, and books that were independently published or books she doesn't want to put on her shelves. I got to read some amazing indie books by friends on DW. I also bounced off quite a few books that are made for the indie market but not made for me, just not the sorts of books I enjoy.

The thing is, I imprinted so hard on Spinebreaker because of the books in it. I identified with it so hard because of how it's curated. This means that a book that is stocked there is highly likely to be a book I'll enjoy and a book that's not stocked there is not likely to be a book I'll enjoy. That sucks. But it is what it is.

I have to be okay reading books that are also stocked in Spinebreaker. I have to enjoy them without pausing for pain. I have to get to that point, and I guess I'm frustrated that I'm not there, that I've not healed completely so that there's no chance of feeling all that hurt all over again. It's also the kind of thing that very few of my friends IRL understand, because it just seems trivial to them, like they don't understand why it's been affecting me so much. So I'm glad I can journal about it here.

I'm touched that Sre thought of me when she saw the sorts of books I love, so I don't resent her bringing this up. I would have found out eventually. Because most people I know, including my closest friends, go there regularly and they have talked about the books they've gotten there without me feeling like this because those were books that were accessible otherwise as well, and available elsewhere. But I bet I would have heard about these at some point.

Sre said she could take me to Spinebreaker when she's in my city, if it would help me if she's there. I thanked her and told her I'd rather not go as I don't feel welcome there. I mean, the owner blocked me, lol. She said that instead she could go buy me a Persephone Book from there, but I really don't want to give Spinebreaker any money. Since all of the authors of Persephone Books are dead, I'll pirate them if I can't access them any other way. I love the publisher though and will buy their ebooks when possible; they don't publish most of their books as ebooks, which I think is a pity, but they do have a few in ebook format. I bought Diana Tutton's Guard Your Daughters that way, and of course they've made Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson available as an ebook, since it's their star title.

if stallman was freud

Jun. 11th, 2025 09:26 am
kradeelav: Dr. Kiriko (amused)
[personal profile] kradeelav
one of the very few reoccurring nightmares i have is my poor baby linux computer getting infected with an old school virus that forces it to turn into a windows OS. dramatic changes to the user interface and all while i look on helplessly and try to shut the power off.

like it's not the 'oh shit somebody's controlling my computer' bit that gets me tweaked, like how you'd think.

it's the fuckin. forcewindow'ed??? into windows thing???

?????????????????

me @ my subconscious: jesus christ you are a nerd lol (also an amazing M$ hater)



selenicseas: (Default)
[personal profile] selenicseas
This is a fairly short novel (around 60,000 words, I believe) and took me around two weeks to finish, reading 1-3 chapters per day. It's pretty easy to read, except for the parts that are deliberately designed to be confusing. I'm not sure I fully grasped exactly which events were caused by Babel-17 and which weren't.

While I do like that the reader is largely dropped into the world with minimal explanation, I do wish there had been a bit more focus on things like the Transport culture and the discorporate people. The novel introduces a bunch of interesting things, but it's too short to really explore anything other than Babel-17 in depth.

Recent reading

Jun. 11th, 2025 01:53 am
egret: egret in Harlem Meer (Default)
[personal profile] egret
A Spoonful of Murder by J. M. Hall - A delightful cozy mystery about a group of retired school teachers in England who meet for coffee once a week and solve murders. In this one they are told that their also retired former principal died from an unfortunate dementia-related medication mistake, but they have their doubts! This is the first one in the series and I look forward to more. 

The Quest for Annie Moore by Megan Smolenyak - Smolenyak is a celebrity in genealogy-world. Her latest is a deep dive into the story of the first immigrant to land at Ellis Island. Smolenyak looked into the records supporting the life story of Annie Moore and discovered gaps and misidentifications. This book is the story of her years of extensive research to correctly identify this impoverished Irish immigrant and trace her life. (Spoiler: Moore spent the rest of her life on the Lower East Side in NYC.) I read it for the Virtual Genealogy Society online book club and I really enjoyed it. I think anyone interested in immigrant genealogy would enjoy it. But it really is about the adventure and thrill of tracking down elusive records, especially since much of the research was done before so much was digitized. So maybe not for the general reader. But the book club discussion was very lively and threatened to run over the time! 

Dead Man's Grave by Neil Lancaster - First volume in a police procedural series set in Scotland. It started out really great with a blood-feud-based murder but sort of trailed off into gangster-related corruption in the police force. I don't know that I will continue with the series because I found the Scots accent very hard to follow in the audiobook. This is a personal failing -- I always find Scots accents hard to follow. I suppose I could read with my eyes but I don't care that much about police and their supposed nobility. 

Lies Bleeding by Ben Aaronovitch - This is the 6th Rivers of London book. I do really love these but might take a little break because spoiler )

Currently reading: Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I want to like it but it's uphill. Maybe it will pick up. I wish I had not started reading her autiobiography and learned what a rightwing eugenicist she was because now I am biased against her. (Reading it as part of my Feminist Science Fiction open source anthology project.)
alterkrmn: Nozue from the manga Old Fashion Cupcake. His expression shows confusion. (Default)
[personal profile] alterkrmn
Ok. I’m back to talk about the other shows I watched last week.

There’s not much left until Break Up Service ends, and I still haven’t seen this week’s episode. I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t bored me a little, but I think I’m still invested enough to want to know how the story wraps up. At first, I was only annoyed by the concept of the fictional company Break Up Service, but now, with how things have unfolded in the last few episodes, even the rival company, Destiny, seems pretty questionable, lol. But something I liked in the last episode was that the girl Junior’s character wanted to win back ended up being honest about their relationship and breaking things off. If anything, the series has made me think a lot about romantic relationships and all the mental and emotional effort they require (no wonder I’m single, oops… not that I’m looking for a relationship or anything).

My Stubborn has me hooked. First of all, I’m really enjoying watching Sorn (the walking red flag) paint himself into a corner, because at some point (probably next episode… let it be in the next episode, please, please), he’s gonna have to admit his feelings for Jun (Juin? Jwin?? I don’t even know the right way to romanize his name anymore). I don’t think Sorn’s intention is to hurt him, but he did… And I’m looking forward to seeing Sorn suffer when he realizes he messed up with what he said… and I hope he cries. But that’s just a personal preference. I love watching pretty men cry. On the other hand, I’m surprised by the commitment to high heat… so far, we’ve gotten steamy scenes in every episode. Though I don’t have much to compare it to, since I think this is the Thai BL with the most NC scenes I’ve seen so far. I wonder which others are similar in that regard. Only four more episodes left.

Boys in Love is such a nice Sunday watch, and I’m really enjoying it. I don’t know, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I see a lot of my own 15-year-old son’s behavior reflected in how the characters act. Teenagers are, by default, pretty annoying, but that’s normal. Their hormones are a mess, they’re learning to be themselves, they’re adapting to a world where their own role is pretty confusing. I like watching Shane and his inner conflicts, even though it breaks my heart to see him so lost in so many ways. Thankfully, Kit is a boy with a lot of emotional intelligence and always gives him space to work through things, even if he gets conflicted himself. It’d be so nice if most adults were that sensible, lol. Then there’s Mon and his need for acceptance, which also tugs at my heartstrings. Tar annoyed the hell out of me and I was a bit angry at what he did to Per, but in the end they talked about it and they made up. And the teachers… gods, I’m living for the crumbs they’re giving us. But I love their relationship and I want more, give me more… give Podd and Papang their own series!

And last but not least, The Ex-Morning! Only three episodes in, and I’m already hooked. There were some reveals about how certain events happened in Tam and Phi’s relationship, but we still don’t know why they happened that way. What I’m enjoying is the tension between them… even though they’re exes, it’s obvious there are still feelings there. Another thing I really like is how the past scenes are woven into the present; the transitions are well done and don’t feel forced. And on top of all that, Singto… very aesthetically pleasing to look at. Krist is handsome too, but personally, I like Singto more.

Aside from the shows already on my official list, I watched the first episode of Sweetheart Service and thought it was okay. I want to keep watching, but I don’t want to commit to new series because I’ve had really busy days lately and end up exhausted. I also joined a watch party to rewatch Secret Relationships, and that show is still a delightfully toxic, melodramatic mess… so much fun to watch. And rewatching it makes me want to read AUs where the four main characters form an evil polycule, lol.

Anyway, last week I didn’t watch Leap Day, and I didn’t really miss it… I’m not sure if I’ll watch it this week or just wait until the series ends to binge the remaining episodes. I’ll have to think about it because this week and next week are also packed. Sigh.

And that’s it for now.
sonofgodzilla: true kvlt (yodonna)
[personal profile] sonofgodzilla
Alongside Yagi Azuki, Akiyama Yuna was one of the members who passed auditions in 2023 to become AKB48’s eighteenth generation. Yunachan tells us that her dream since youth has been to be a member of AKB, that she was a fan of the group since she was five-years-old. If it hadn’t been AKB, she declared, then she would not have auditioned, a statement that underlines her passion and commitment, a girl who grew up watching the Kami 7 on television and striving not to be a part of the idol industry but to be a member of AKB48 itself.

In late April, several weeks after her generation was announced, Doushitemo Kimi ga Suki da was released and, along with it, came the B side, Ano Natsu no Bohatei, performed by members of both the eighteenth and the seventeenth generation. Just like that, the girl who had dreamed of being a member of the group was canonised, the moment preserved for even us overseas fans.

From the details shared by Yunachan about her high school experiences, it’s hard not to think of her as anything but the ideal student—experience as class president and a member of the student council, a basketball team captain in junior high! By all rights, Yunachan should not exist outside of fiction, but with the highest IQ rating in her entire generation, she is decidedly the real deal. In a different world, Yunachan would have employed her intellect in pursuit of a career as a pharmacist, but she claims that joining AKB was a higher priority for her, which both makes me feel as if we have potentially robbed the world of a future Nobel Prize winner, but gosh am I proud to have her as a member of AKB.

Friends, I’m kind of intimidated by this generation, they are all so talented! Yunachan has already taken the centre position in a B side, Machibito, from Yukirin graduation single, Colorcon Wink, released last year. It is crazy to me that members of this generation, hard working as they have proved to be, can have been with us for such a short amount of time and yet have had this kind of impact on the group.

Like many seventeenth and eighteenth generation members, Yunachan is perhaps recognisable to some from her role in the live action of Hoshikuzu Telepath, a series that many care for deeply and one that helped draw attention to the current line-up of AKB. It feels like it shouldn’t be a surprise to find her amongst her peers in the senbatsu for the new single celebrating the group’s anniversary, and as someone who grew up with fierce admiration for what the group was then, I’m really excited to see how Yunachan will interact with the returning members.

I think that a lot of the time it is tempting to consider the Sashihara Rino produced groups as the spirit of what AKB once was, but I kind of relate to Yunachan’s fixation on the idea of AKB remaining the ideal even if the group is so different from what it once was. Maybe that’s a good thing, friends! If anyone can establish a future for AKB it’s members like Yunachan who understand the past yet are not continually looking back to it.

Nominated for Best Newcomer award alongside colleagues from STU48 and NMB48, Akiyama Yuna is undeniably the future of AKB.

Yunachan!

WIR: The Everlasting (1)

Jun. 10th, 2025 07:39 pm
stepnix: an expression of confusion or dismay (cute knight)
[personal profile] stepnix
I was browsing the RPG shelves at Half-Price Books and found 1.5 editions of an obvious World of Darkness knockoff called The Everlasting. So I guess that's what I'm talking about now.

Read more... )

A Date in the Richer Part of Town

Jun. 10th, 2025 08:29 pm
lieutenantsanya: (aot mikasa speak eyeless)
[personal profile] lieutenantsanya
I went out on a date with my partner today to watch Karate Kid: Legends. 'Twas a fun movie, if a bit rushed. I think it's only an hour and a half long, when it easily could've been longer to allow more character interactions. Yeah, people watch dance movies like Step Up and martial arts films like this for the choreography and not deep lore, but it would've been nice to spend more time with Li and his mother, or see more of the antagonist/Li's opponent.

Still, it was funny, light-hearted, and very feel-good. A nice watch for $10/pax. I bought mini donuts and tried Dr. Pepper cream soda for the first time. Delicious. I'm a convert to cream soda now.

While at the mall, however, the two of us felt a little out of place. It's in a nicer part of town. That means two things: rich "bougie" people and car-centricity. The McDonald's we ate at added more toppings in our McFlurries than we're used to. There's a liquor store and a grocery (albeit an expensive one) attached to the mall. The people were more willing to engage in small talk... And there isn't a bus loop/central station where multiple buses pass by.

The huge sprawl of cars made me nauseous. The area was clearly so anti-pedestrian and anti-commuter. I much prefer the more downtown areas that actually have bike lanes. Walking there reminded me of my strong feelings on automotive areas. Other shopping areas in the city at least have a hub where you can catch three or more buses. This only had two: a regular bus and an express that only exists during rush hours. No, thank you.

[FFXIV] Birdsong on a Summer Day

Jun. 10th, 2025 03:31 pm
haunted_cherries: A close up picture of dark red cherries (Default)
[personal profile] haunted_cherries
Fandom: Final Fantasy XIV
Characters/Pairing: Jihe'to Fashonti (OC), G'raha Tia (Canon)
Rating: Teen
Words: 1595
Summary: G'raha was content to enjoy Jihe'to's presence from the shadows, acting as protector and secret admirer with the object of his affections blissfully unaware of his existence. On a routine trip to visit said miqo'te at the Botanists' Guild, fate decided to put an opportunity before him that he can't refuse.

Notes: Originally posted to AO3 on 1/22/24 and now being archived here! Original notes: This was originally apart of my XIV Write 2023 collection, but felt like it would be better as its own piece! Original notes below:

[Me using multiple prompts in one sitting YET AGAIN? Yeahhhhhhh get ready for that to be an ongoing thing. xD

Prompts in question: Fish Out of Water, Hamper, Grave, Fulsome, Suit

I have to be honest/transparent and say that this is my first time openly posting OC x Canon stuff for the FFXIV fandom. G'raha x Jihe'to, aka "StarFlower", is a ship that's been pretty close to my heart ever since I put them together, and before today I never talked about them out in the open b/c I'm nervous goof who wished they could be as brave as the other G'raha shippers. xD Today I wanna break out of my comfort zone and give a snippet of their pre-relationship b/c I love them both and said screw caution, be cringe freely! xD

Ain't the most polished draft b/c after a while I said "screw it, I just want this done and out of my WIPs", so apologies in advance for any scuff.]

****

It was like listening to birdsong in the midst of a beautiful summer day.

Ah, that was it. That was the best way G’raha could describe Jihe’to’s singing.
Read more... )
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