smallweb | Member Posts

Over on tumblr, there is a new gimmick poll blog, for the sexiest (male; sorta) 80s rock star. They took submissions from wherever, but that was before I saw the blog, so I don't know the details, but I've seen Australia, NZ, USA, (possibly) Canada, UK, and at least two European countries represented (I'm reasonably sure Sweden and Germany, but ah, memory like a thingy).

Anyway, there is a Lot of nostalgia happening.

Each poll has two people, I have to pick the 'sexiest'. Some of them I recognise, sometimes I recognise the name or the band but couldn't have picked the photo out of a line up. Some I'm entirely voting for either the hair (so many fabulous hair styles), the make up, or because they were in a band that I remember a friend being absolutely gaga over. Occasionally I'm picking someone because I look at the alternative and say 'oh hell no'. Very few of these people do I consider to be 'sexy'. But I'm going to be Pissed if Prince doesn't make it to at least the last round, because I'm not sure I've seen any better options.

But I'd like to reiterate: the hair! Such a loss that such fabulous hair styles have been abandoned.

tarlanx

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

linky

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: hot

pedanther

The First Circle by Alexander Solzhenitsyn is an account of a few days in the lives of prisoners in Stalinist Russia, in a "special prison" that houses scientists and engineers who have been set to work on technical projects for the government. (The title is a reference to Dante's Inferno, which divides Hell into circles of increasing severity; the special prisoners, who get better treatment than in the regular prisons and the labour camps, are in the most comfortable outermost circle, but they're still in Hell.)

It's a story about arbitrary cruelty and deprivation, but it's also a story about human connection and friendship and unexpected kindnesses. There are obstacles and also reasons to carry on despite the obstacles.
( Read more... )

pebbleinalake

My responses to

thefridayfive for 6/13/25.

1. What item would you be embarrassed for people to know you own?
None that I can think of.

2. What is something you splurged on just for you?
I'm on a tight budget, so I try not to splurge often. But I did cave in and buy a bunch of new funko pops last month.

3. What is something that you own with no real world value that is priceless to you?
Probably my scrapbooks and my box of keepsake items.

4. Do you collect anything?
So much stuff! My main collections are Star Wars, Comic Books, Funko Pops, Furby, My Little Pony, and dragon figurines.

5. What item belonging to a friend/family member do you covet?
My younger brother has an autographed photo of Roy Rogers that my mom gifted to him ages ago. (We had a few DVDs of old westerns while growing up and Roy Rogers was one of our favorites.) I'd love to add it to my western movie collection if he ever wants to sell it.

pedanther

To echo a review I gave recently to another three-hour movie, I mostly don't regret spending the time watching the Delaporte-de La Patellière film version of The Count of Monte Cristo, but it's mainly because if I hadn't I'd have always wondered what I'd missed.

The movie is like the mansion that this version of the Count inhabits: large and elaborately decorated, but hollow and echoing and surprisingly empty of real people. Despite the running time, and the jettisoning of large portions of the novel, parts of the plot feel rushed and missing out on connective tissue that would give it emotional heft. ( Read more... )

the_siobhan

Got my orthotics today. My foot still hurts. This is taking too long to sort itself out and I wish to register a complaint.

***

Lord Brock has figured out what time steroid dosing happens and has started reminding me about it because he knows he'll get treats immediately after. He still hates getting medicated, but he hates it so much less than the gabapentin (I think it tasted worse) that he will almost barely tolerate it and then happily snarffle up the treats once the dosing part is done with.

***

Roof repairs unlocked. Dude also does the kind of work needed for the stairs so he's going to give me a quote for that as well. AND he thinks he can work with his plumber to drop the sump pump into the floor properly so it takes up less space and won't leave an open water feature in the room. He send me some links with examples of what he wants to do, and honestly it would be a huge improvement.

***

Project raccoon did NOT go as originally planned. Original contractor had said that the stairs would just flip up so I could clean underneath them. No, not so much.

The problem is that the wooden stairs are basically a triangle set in a sunken concrete hole. The back/top of the stairs is supported by a piece of wood in the shape of a T. To get under them you have to pull the whole thing towards the interior door to make room behind the triangle to flip it up on it's back. Only the T isn't solid enough, when I tried it the bottom of the wood stayed in the same spot while the top cracked and splintered. I was able to climb to the top and kind of kick the T forward but not far enough to make room to flip it. So I could stand there and hold the stairs up, because they're not heavy, but I couldn't get under it at the same time.

Yesterday and today daughter came over to work on the yard, and this afternoon the ex-housemate & their wife dropped by to pick up some government forms that had been delivered to the house. So the four of us picked up the stairs bodily and moved them out of the staircase. The ex-housemate has anosmia, so they volunteered to shovel up the very very decayed raccoon. Garbage day isn't for another two weeks so we just dumped him out by the railroad tracks and covered him with dirt. And then shovelled up the accumulated mud and vermin that had collected under the stairs and dropped it in the same spot.

It was so gross, y'all. So gross. But it's out of my basement doorway now and it's in a spot where it will be unlikely to bother anybody except the occasional passing coyote.

The daughter and I spent the next three hours digging the drainage pit. I found the sand layer I was hoping for, and then underneath that (about four feet down) is a layer of a broken shist which I think will work even better. We have probably about 80% of the trench dug out - one more day should be enough to finish if off. Then I'll line it with cinderblocks and start filling it in with rocks. The trench is probably four times as big as I'll need to be in any normal year, but since 100-year storms are coming every 10 years now (and probably every 2 by the time I ever leave this house) it seems like a good investment of labour.

Entertainment was provided by a juvenile robin that realized all that turned earth was a worm goldmine and got increasingly braver about getting close enough to us to grab them as the day progressed.

Then we ate our own weight in pizza.

Needless to say, every part of me hurts after two days of digging, so I'm taking tomorrow off doing any more building/fixing things. Chores only. And I might check with the local massage clinic to see if they have a free spot because I know I'm going to feel like somebody worked me over with my own shovel.

javert

It has been a while, hasn't it? Life has been pretty rough and bumpy lately, and I'm pretty sure Fannish 50 is going to be a bust (I'd love to be able to at least finish the one post I've been planning since the beginning lol) but I'm trying to stay hopeful that things will settle down soon. Next month... I'll be able to do things...

First thing first: I finally have a working website!! Isn't that exciting?? It's a Pokémon X&Y fansite, of course, largely about Lysandre, but also about other things. I'm really happy with it, and really looking forward to putting more things on there. The next thing on my list is probably going to be signing up to all the webrings I've been collecting lol. I also joined

smallweb but I'm too nervous to talk about it there yet...

Click on the banner to check it out! :D

I've been advertizing it everywhere and seeing people's reactions to it makes me so pumped to work on it more!!! Maybe this will be the push that leads me to finally translate more of Pokémon X&Y's French translation into English, lol. Not to mention, with Z-A on the horizon, I'm sure there'll be plenty more to say... By the way, if you have a website with a 88x31 button, I'd love to put you on my links page! Same if you know of any cool Pokémon fansites I don't already have listed there :3c

In real life news, we had to move one more time than we thought we would have to, which sucked, but we're mostly past that now. We're decorating our Official Permanent Place (what a relief to be able to say this!) and it's coming along nicely. I have my own little corner and everything. Observe:

This picture is no longer 100% accurate now because we've added more stuff but it should give you a good idea...

I'll also be "tabling" at Citrus Con this year! It's my first time doing a virtual con, and it's kind of happening in the middle of us having to deal with traveling and a bunch of other stuff, so it's kind of stressful and I have no idea what to expect lmao, but I'm trying not to overthink it too much. o7 It's free to join, and it's helping me get some stuff I wanted to get in order so I can start doing more business online anyway, so none of it will be a waste no matter what. Maybe I'll see you there!

Having written all that, maybe I've gotten more than I thought done in the first half of 2025... I'll keep at it! Hope everyone reading this is doing well in any case! Thank you for reading! (^_−)☆

...and happy pride month, of course!!!

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Sgt Byrd's theme from Spyro 3 but without the trumpets

selenicseas

I finally got the chance to watch episodes 7-9 about a month after I planned to. Better late than never, I guess?

This set of episodes focuses entirely on Ghorman massacre – from the buildup, to the massacre itself, to the political aftermath on Coruscant. There's another major character death in this arc (Syril), but surprisingly, it happens in the middle of the arc, rather than at the end.

Speaking of Syril, it seemed that he was somehow having second thoughts about the Empire killing people on Ghorman when he had no issue with it happening on Ferrix. Maybe it was because he actually got to know the Ghorman rebels. It's like he was starting to come to the conclusion that the Empire might not be all that…and then he saw Andor and died right after.

I recognized the KX droids not from Rogue One, but Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. They're just as awful here in this show as they were in that game; I absolutely hated having to fight them. I definitely was not expecting this to be where K2-S0 came from.

So, now that Bix has left to somewhere unseen, Cassian has zero ties to his old life. There's nothing preventing him from dedicating himself entirely to the Rebellion now that he has nothing else. There is literally nothing left for him to lose.

elyusion

Procrastinating homework by enacting a post idea I had weeks ago: image dumps. Like link dumps... but images. Also videos! Although videos may be included in link dumps too sometimes. Depends on the vibe, you know how it is. Click on the picture for its source.

This is the first thing I put on my "list of pictures to share on DW" folder a month and a half ago. I could easily find a screenshot of this CG in better quality, but nahh. At the time I probably had something disproportionately wild to say about this picture in contrast to how tame/simple/chaste/??? it is, but I'm normal now.

( FE4, 遙かなる時空の中で, Angelique, Fatamoru, original characters, FE16, Naruto )

Current Mood: ex-tipsy

svgurl

seasons_of_fandom (formerly located at

lands_of_magic) is an interactive community where you join a team and participate in creative challenges to get points for you and your team. All fandoms are welcome!

There are four teams - Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter! Sign-ups for the new round are open! You can click on the banner below or go HERE.

Let them know I sent you if you sign up! :D

grayestofghosts

My therapist wanted me to read Andrea Long Chu's Females for a while and on my way to buy it online something totally wacky happened. I stumbled upon a reddit post about this critical review of the book by a trans woman. The review seems pretty typical, praising Chu for being interesting while at the same time critical of her perspectives and cast them as misogynist, absurd, projecting, nonsense, a "harmful" narrative to trans people, and generally un-transfeminist... essentially a pretty shallow reading of it and closely toeing the "party line" of public-facing transgender narrative at the time it was written, back in 2019.

This would all be quite unremarkable, except in the interim, the book critic has since detransitioned, claims he was "immersed in transgender ideology" which encouraged him to transition because of his "autogynephilia" and has even converted to Catholicism. Andrea Long Chu, meanwhile, is still Andrea Long Chu-ing.

Current Music: "Love Is The Drug," Grace Jones

sophia_sol

one

thinking about how as a kid I found zoos super boring - and I think my problem was that, at least at that time, the expected mode of engagement with zoos was to stare at animals and be amazed at how interesting/cute/different they look?

for me, learning context is what makes an animal compelling! eg: I did a project on temperate rainforests in grade 6, and learned about banana slugs as part of the ecosystem. and subsequently loved them, even though I hadn't cared about slugs previously! if I'd been shown a real live banana slug after having done that project, I would have been fascinated to just watch it, because I would understand what I was seeing, and know what to look for in its behaviour and appearance to connect with the things I knew about it!

if the zoos I visited in my youth had done more to contextualise my understanding of what I was seeing, I think I could have had a good time. but instead I was presented with a few fun facts and the opportunity to see the animals, the end. and so I found them the height of boredom.

fun facts are useless to me! WHY are they fun! what makes this fact relevant! what caused things to be this way!!

(I had a similar problem with most museums. except dinosaur museums, to which I came with my own contextual knowledge, and thus could appreciate and enjoy the things on display, even when the display didn't provide much information itself)

two

oh!!! there's a plugin for joplin that allows android app users to see wordcount! and also to see line numbers, to make it easier to orient yourself within a long note! I love this

three

several podcasts I follow do reviews of older SFF novels (either occasionally or as their whole thing), and it has me thinking again about a type of story I think used to be more common in western genre fiction, and it's one I rather miss.

The type I mean: a narrative which is checking in on a specific place or people-group at different points in its long-term history, where the overarching narrative project is on a scale of eras while telling smaller personal stories within that history.

Sometimes it's done within the context of a single book, like in A Canticle for Leibowitz. Sometimes it's between books over the length of a series, like in the Dragonriders of Pern series¹. Either way, you get to see the cycles of history, the way that things which seem urgent and current at one point become historicised and mythologised, and become the ancient context for the new urgent current events, whether the people involved realise it or not. I love this shit! I love context. I love seeing how things connect. I love how the very notion of history becomes one of the major characters in the narrative!

From what I see, the modern western sff genre has become more interested in more immediate stories. Which have their benefits too, and which are really wonderful in their own way! And there's plenty about these older stories that I do not miss at all.

Maybe there are authors out there writing era-spanning sff today, and I just haven't come across them because there are other aspects of what those authors focus on that are super not to my tastes, or because the book is a small indie publishing situation that doesn't have good word-of-mouth, or something else like that....these are definitely possible! But I do miss getting invested in this kind of story. It's fun!

¹I won't say that all the books I once loved that do this thing were GOOD books

four

the names people choose - for themselves, their kids, their pets - is soooo interesting to me! but especially kids' names, tbh.

modern western culture places so much emphasis on the importance of the choice you make about your baby's name (compared to, say, the late middle ages, when half of all people in england were named one of the same few names) and since there's so much cultural weight on the choice, and it is by its nature a very public choice, you can tell a lot from the decisions people make!

what were their priorities, their influences, their values? what kind of naming community are they in, and how much does it fall in line with the rest of their country? so many factors go into each choice!

every time someone I know has a new kid, I'm always SO eager to find out the name...and then, if possible, get the story behind why they chose it! It's always so interesting!

five

recently I was out birding with some folks who have never been birding before, and one of them commented that they were delighted to discover from me that an important part of birding is complimenting every bird you see

and it's TRUE. it is an important part of birding! telling the birds what a great job they're doing, how cute/handsome/gorgeous they are, etc is something I am ALWAYS doing. instinctively and automatically. and I am so pleased to be modelling this attitude to others! :D

svgurl

This is my card for the

julybreakbingoevent :D

( card and fills )

paperghost

Another take from DroptineArt I thought was insightful enough to share, and I think it applies to online communities in general with the infrastructure of the internet nowadays...

The bluesky exodus phenomenon is cyclical with furries. For some reason, this community in particular love to hurriedly decide to sink ships they've helped build and jump into the waters to try to build a new one that's "totally better than the first". They did this with furaffinity. Everyone got up in arms and demanded we all leave FA because their "administration was corrupt" and they went to furocity and weasyl and furrynetwork and now all those sites are dead and FA's booming again. There are whole swaths of artists and art that got lost in the mess. I could go on a totally different tangential rant about how furries tout "preserve our media" and yet consistently put the pressure on artists to delete their work and move websites, but I won't.

( Read more... )

linky

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: calm

requiems

Finished my first pass at Estelline's fic! This is particularly good, since I wasn't able to write for seven days and it was driving me a bit stir crazy. I cut about 5k words, so now it's 55k in total. I need to go through it again for final checks but it's in a state where it can soon be posted, which is deliberately timed with me finishing Heavensward; I've been getting Sorbet through the initial push of levelling a first DOW job through 80/90, plus her DOH/DOL and it's going reasonably well, she got lucky with some GC handins so one DOH is at dwarves already, WHM is 77, she should get picto over the weekend which opens up the arksadora dailies and hunts sprint - but back to Estelline, the focus on Sorbet was a result of not having the capability, physically or mentally, to really focus on MSQ, so I took a small break (and played Caravan SandWitch on the side. I liked it! Not sure if I'll ramble about it yet, I might). I'm hoping to do 3.4 and 3.5 over the weekend and have her set up for Stormblood.

Stormblood will be a mixture... I left off with Ai following the liberation of Doma, so I'm going to do the initial Ala Mhigo part with Estelline, get her to Kugane with doing Sirensong, and then swap over to Ai to play out the other half. As I have the opportunity to see the plot hooks back to back without several weeks of Doma in the middle and time for my brain to forget, this feels like a good chance to take it.

This week has been very noisy. My upstairs neighbours are having work done on their bathroom, which I found out at 8:15am on Monday when the hammering and drilling and buzzsawing started. Sometimes over my head, because the connecting wall is the wall I sleep against. The workmen have been here every day since through about 2-3pm - except for yesterday, when they were here until 6pm. :') this was Bad as my desire for No Noise Time had to take precedence over sleeping so I got like. An hour and a half of actual sleep before the morning chorus. I did drown it out a bit with a fan today to try to get a little more, but unfortunately that means I have to listen to the fan, which as we already know, is not a real solution... being housebound is awful sometimes.

Thing is I know the size of their bathroom. It's the same as mine. It's miniscule. I'm hoping it's a week and done, I don't want to imagine this next week with groceries PEM, it's bad enough as is. My weekly things, aside from noise, are done after next Tuesday, so I can have a bit of a break and go back to trying to tackle the folate problem and also the GP-do-your-job problem, and maybe, just maybe, have the energy to look at a several thousand page catalogue of what I want for my bathroom renovation, lmao. rip.

Current Mood: sleepy

thepasteldyke

Went to my dad's masseur to get tortured again (aka have my nerves moved around) and??? apparently I'm missing some part (idfk) in my hands and that's why I can push my thumbs partially out of their sockets by just moving my thumbs on their own??? Which?? I had no idea but he could feel that there was something missing in them.

I guess that explains my struggles trying to do a regular thumbs up with my left hand, the thumb always pops right on down where it definitely shouldn't be whenever I do it.

Current Mood: confused
Current Music: Pacify her by Melanie Martinez

Profile

All Things Small Web

June 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Page Summary

fred_mouse - Tumblr poll
tarlanx - COMMENT BINGO ROUND 7 - CARD 1
linky - This Will Be Useful To Remember As I Keep Working On Gotchard Blessed Maiden AU
pedanther - The First Circle
pebbleinalake - Friday Five
pedanther - The Count of Monte Cristo (2024)
the_siobhan - "dust in the wind" my entire ass
linky - Fannish Fifty #32: 72 Multifandom questions part 5
tarlanx - PG13 SLASH - Root Cause - Grant Jansky/Jack Larkin (Traders) plus icons
javert - my fansite! and some other updates
selenicseas - Brief Thoughts On: Andor S2 E7-9
elyusion - Look ↓
svgurl - seasons_of_fandom!
grayestofghosts - So something happened as I was looking for a book...
sophia_sol - 5 things: being bored at zoos, joplin plugins, an older sff book style, names, complimenting birds
svgurl - july break bingo card
paperghost - Bluesky and the furry exodus phenomenon
linky - Comment Bingo Round 7 Card
requiems - i crave silence...
thepasteldyke - Does a wonky thumbs up

Style Credit

Style: Cloudy Days for Ciel by carisma_sensei

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jun. 18th, 2025 06:26 am