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In the temple of the godly scene, in the shadow of the Nazarene, I put my love in you

It's Friday Eve! More packages coming today. So that's fun. Yesterday a few things showed up--we got some beach towels, should we ever want to use the pool, and we got some small things from Temu. We also put together the new file cabinet/printer holder during my lunch. It's very nice. I'm looking forward to the pantry coming so we can put that together and be done with assembly for a while. I ended up going with Temu, because IKEA continues to say that there's no delivery windows. As I said, we've had really good luck with Temu for the apartment. Aside from the sofas, pretty much all the furniture is from them. We went for the "Industrial Farmhouse" look. It's very sleek and nice, black metal with a medium colored wood. I'm especially fond of our side tables and tv stand. I've posted a picture of the TV stand before I think, but here it is again:

Our pantry is also lovely, and I can't wait for it to arrive. More pictures then.

Tonight, I have an eye appointment with Warby Parker. I've never been to them before, but they're in my plan, so I will give them a shot. I've found a couple pairs of new glasses that I like, so I'm eager to get them. I think I'm going to get 2 pair, possibly one from Zenni and one from Firmoo. I'm going to try progressives, to see if I can make do with one pair of glasses for work and play. As it is, I have a pair of bifocals, and then a pair of computer glasses for middle distance. So, we'll see!

I've got one game this weekend, which is directly after I finish working at Trans Pride on Saturday. It's my oldest game, which I kind of feel is drifting to an end. It's got one more arc, and then I think it'll be done. I hate to end it, but it feels like it's coming to it's natural conclusion.

Aside from that, and Pride, I'm going out with my friend from 911 on Sunday, but other than that, not a whole lot going on.

I was hoping to have a hat in time for Pride, but things are not looking good. I may just wear a baseball hat.

Okay, time for me to get myself together. If I'm going to have someone standing close to me, I'm going to need to take a shower. Everyone have a stupendous Thursday!

2025 Manly Wade Wellman Award Longlist

Posted by Mike Glyer

https://file770.com/2025-manly-wade-wellman-award-longlist/

https://file770.com/?p=123117

The 2025 Manly Wade Wellman Award for North Carolina Science Fiction and Fantasy 28-title longlist was revealed June 4 by the North Carolina Speculative Fiction Foundation. The winner(s) will be announced at ConGregate 11 on Friday, July 11, 2025 in Winston-Salem, NC as part of the … Continue reading →

https://file770.com/2025-manly-wade-wellman-award-longlist/

https://file770.com/?p=123117

Of Use to Whiskered Men in the Dark?

Posted by Marc Abrahams

https://improbable.com/2025/06/12/of-use-to-whiskered-men-in-the-dark/

https://improbable.com/?p=110447

Might this study about whiskers in mice be educational for whiskered humans — about similar human capabilities they may be under-utilizing? The study is: “Detection and neural encoding of whisker-generated sounds in mice,” Ben Efron, Athanasios Ntelezos, Yonatan Katz, and Ilan Lamp, Current Biology, vol. 35, no. 6, 2025, pp. 1211-1226. The authors report: Whisking […]

https://improbable.com/2025/06/12/of-use-to-whiskered-men-in-the-dark/

https://improbable.com/?p=110447

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Groceries on Scooter

This guy has Turq's level of skill at bag-wrangling. See "Filled with Joyous Surprises" for Turq's version.

Entry tags:

polls

Contemplating July activities

After a couple of years of really struggling with mood and creativity, between burnout and family issues and god knows what (and I know I've been hard to deal with in fandom, at times), things are suddenly ... good! I can write again, I'm signing up for exchanges, whatever has been blocking me has gotten a whole lot better.

July is my birthday month, therefore Best Month, obviously, and I would really like to try to do some kind of "post a short fic every day" thing if I can make it work. Unfortunately I'm suffering a dearth of appropriate challenges, because of course now that I want one and have the mental bandwidth to do something with one, daily month-long prompt challenges and/or bingo card challenges for July are nowhere in sight. The closest thing is July Break Bingo, but I've asked for cards for this before, and I just ... never really do anything with them; I appreciate that it exists, but I think I need more of a - I don't know, social element to it, I guess? Less open-ended, more directed? Their cards just don't really click with me somehow. And I can't find a Tumblr prompt/whump/whatever themed promptfest thing for July.

So I'm kicking around a few different ideas. Why not throw it out to a completely nonbinding poll?

Poll #33243

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

View Respondents

What should I do for July?

View Answers

A custom bingo card/prompt list created (by me) from all my favorite tropes
7 (63.6%)

A personal challenge to finish older inbox prompts/unwritten prompts from past fests
3 (27.3%)

Find a prompt list from a previous (non-July) fest that I didn't do at the time, and use that
3 (27.3%)

Ask my flist for new prompts until I get 31 of them for fresh inspiration
4 (36.4%)

Run a comment fest over at the Biggles comm
3 (27.3%)

Something else that I will suggest in comments
0 (0.0%)

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Hobbies: Ceramics

Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. This batch features hobbies.

Ceramics is a hobby of making things from clay. It can include practical things like dishes or ornamental things like sculptures.

On Dreamwidth, consider creative communities like

crafty,

get_knitted,

justcreate, or

nacramamo.

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

birds: laughing doves

Chicks of the laughing dove

It was their first day out of the nest, which they spent on a branch just opposite our window.

( Read more... )

For more information (in Russian), see here.

Current Mood: hungry

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Question of the Day
Do you have some table items you only bring out when you entertain guests for dinner?

I picked up this question from

dine. I like to use my precious things rather than save them for special. Otherwise why have them? If it has function, let it function. Some things though are too large for one or two person eating. I have a tin-lined copper couscoussier that is not suitable for cooking small amounts. It also looks amazing when you bring it out and put it on the table, gleaming and full of deliciousness.

Other than that there are platters, serving spoons and such that only come out when I'm feeding a few.

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Daily Happiness

1. We're still having to close the downtown store early, but as of last night a curfew is in effect in the area, which actually makes it easier since we can at least plan the early closing. And despite what the media would like everyone to believe, the protests overall have been peaceful, with little property damage (mainly graffiti). Any danger is from the police and really only in that one small area.

2. I have to go to San Diego again tomorrow, which I am not looking forward to because when I made plans to go it was because I had received one complaint that needed to be dealt with, and in the week and a half since then have received two more unrelated complaints, so now there are three things I have to deal with. But I am planning to go to Disneyland on the way home, since it's pretty much on the way, so at least that will be a nice way to end the day.

3. I finished another puzzle today. This is another 500 piece one.

4. When my Switch 2 came the other day, I put the empty box on my bed and boy were the cats intrigued about this new phenomenon. It seemed like every time I turned around a different cat was in the box checking it out.

Entry tags:

online life

(no subject)

Haha, I just signed up for a free online Harvard course on a whim,[1] and having spent the last few months in the Three Billion Comments Club on

sid_guardian, naturally I'm diligently replying to people's comments in the discussion sections of the course, too. What could possibly go wrong?

(You don't have to reply to everyone, china! This is not your circus! /o\)

[1] Someone on my flist pointed out a while ago that there are a bunch of free online courses.

Current Mood: accomplished

Entry tags:

Photos: Dark Gardening

I enjoy growing dark-colored plants. I have black flowers, bronze leaves, black fruits, all kinds of interesting things.

( Walk with me ... )

Current Mood: accomplished

Entry tags:

Photos: Dark Gardening

I enjoy growing dark-colored plants. I have black flowers, bronze leaves, black fruits, all kinds of interesting things.

( Walk with me ... )

Entry tags:

householdery

Shelf status

Three shelves (10' length, more or less) have been assembled, put up on the north wall, and filled to great effect. This emptied 1 entire Billy (with slight double stacking). We therefore need bookends.

The empty Billy is now in the living room, with the top few shelves embookinated and various plastic craft-adjacent boxes on the lower shelves. This is making a significant dent in the chaos by my desk.

The shorter bookshelf is currently at the end of the hall, for lack of a better place to put it. I expect that if it stays there long, I will start racking up another set of incredible bruises, and I still don't know where the one on my right arm CAME from. (I remember that I walked into some corner on my sleepy and unstable way to bed and then went "well, THAT'll leave a mark!" but do I remember what that something WAS? No more than I remembered what things I'd rammed into when I was taking Drama in high school, and my legs were forever dotted with black and blue marks.)

Today after work, Belovedest has put up all the standards (upright rails) on the south wall, embracketed them with however many brackets we currently have, and has started to assemble board pieces into full length shelves.

Coincidentally, today I also got a notification from the hardware store that they are shipping the backordered brackets.

There is one free-loving* free-standing bookshelf remaining in the room, where it is cheerfully getting in the way. I suggested a different method of assembly which neither requires turning the boards lengthwise nor doing the assembly behind the Billy, which suggestion was well-received.

Eventually there will be enough Shelf in the media room that some of the things taking up floor space will be able to go on them.

Today I roused in the morning long enough to feel bleugh, then woke up in the afternoon feeling competent to Lounge. Still craving bacon at intervals.

* My high school freshman Biology class had a crucial typo in a sentence about free-living organisms. We reacted about how you'd expect.

People who say they like golden retrievers

Have never worked a show run by human golden retrievers...

Pixel Scroll 6/11/25 Scroll Us A File, You’re The Pixel Man

Posted by Mike Glyer

https://file770.com/pixel-scroll-6-11-25-scroll-us-a-file/

https://file770.com/?p=123130

(1) TAKEI Q&A. The LA Times interviews George Takei about his latest graphic memoir, It Rhymes With Takei. (Behind a paywall.) …Born in Boyle Heights, Takei was just 5 when he and his family were forced out of their Los Angeles … Continue reading →

https://file770.com/pixel-scroll-6-11-25-scroll-us-a-file/

https://file770.com/?p=123130

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Fireflies

Firefly species discovered after 90-year absence: 'Even when things seem lost, they can still find their way back'

Tan soon realized that he was looking at a Pteroptyx gombakia, or a Gombak bent-winged firefly. The discovery marked the first time that the species had been identified in 90 years — and the first live sighting of the species, ever.

Yay, fireflies!

Current Mood: sympathetic
Current Music: Brian Wilson (live) - Barenaked Ladies

What to think about.

In chatting about arbitrary divisions into two groups and applying that to the internet, we came up with the binaries of good internet and bad internet, and young internet and old internet. I then suggested algorithmic internet and end-user internet, and I stand by that. I often say I only use social media on my computer where I have a full keyboard, big screen, mouse, and browser extensions, all of which help me curate my experience - while it's not perfect, I'm still largely in control of things. I haven't ceded ground to an app or control to a set of suggestions. I'll often see complaints but rarely what's being complained about, which gives me both a skewed view of what's going on and satisfaction in being so well-curated I barely glimpse what's being touted as a widespread problem.

Keeping the internet on a computer, where it belongs, fixes a lot of problems before they start.

Also of note today was someone on my floor moving out and I got some fancy imported Korean sea salt they weren't going to bother hauling around with them. I don't know how fancy it is, but it tastes quite nice. I'm thinking I'll use it in soup.

Current Mood: Alive, Dead, & Bloody Furious
Current Music: And your friends are my friends

Entry tags:

Make an ass out of u and me - Star Wars story on the theme of "Obi-Wan: Virgin and/or Whore"

Make an ass out of u and me (1431 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Depa Billaba/Obi-Wan Kenobi/Shaak Ti/Quinlan Vos, Aayla Secura & Anakin Skywalker
Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Aayla Secura, Quinlan Vos, Shaak Ti, Depa Billaba
Additional Tags: A+ Jedi Pedagogy, Polyamory, POV Outsider
Summary:

Anakin has the most boringly perfect master in the entire Jedi Order. Some masters go on interesting missions; Obi-Wan does diplomatic missions where he sits at a table and says, "Hm, well…" a lot till he gets his way. Some masters have showy, dangerous lightsaber styles; Obi-Wan does Soresu, which is as purely defensive as anything anyone has ever devised. Some masters are fully-rounded people who drink and laugh and dance; Obi-Wan stays in with his three best friends and talks about philosophy all night, because he is a perfect Jedi, and so are they.

Entry tags:

reading,
viewing

wednesday reads and things

What I've recently finished reading:

Heartstone by C. J. Sansom, the fifth Shardlake book. Looking back at my reviews, I think the author must have got his feet under him better as he went on, or else he just shifted to things more to my taste, because I had said the fourth was my favorite so far, but I think I liked this one even better! This story is set mostly distant from court intrigue, though it comes in at the end; Matthew is given a legal case by Queen Catherine Parr, and it intertwines with his own interest in the situation that led to Ellen Fettiplace's commitment to Bedlam. I'm not going to mention my favorite thing about this book, because it is a spoiler, but - this book contains one of my favorite things. :-) Also I like the way the various plots and sub-plots wind around each other: the legal case, Ellen's history, Barak's relationship with his wife Tamasin (complicated by her pregnancy), Matthew's problematic new steward. Okay, I lied, this book contains two of my favorite things, and the other one is a fascinating and detailed endnote about the real historical events that this book is built around. I loved this in Bernard Cornwell's Last Kingdom books, and I love it here.

The Maid and the Crocodile by Jordan Ifueko, which is related to the Raybearer series, and which several people in my circle read and enjoyed, so I got it from the library despite my having been disappointed in the series. And as the other reviews said, it was rather heavy-handed issuefic (so was the Raybearer series), but also had clever worldbuilding, charming characters and, I thought, better pacing than the series. (Also was in past rather than present tense, which I prefer.) However, will someone please tell Ifueko that "monotone" is NOT A SPEECH VERB DAMN IT?!?!

What I'm watching now:

We've got three episodes left to go of Andor S2, and gosh isn't it ironic to be watching

Spoiler you can probably guess if you have seen the show

a manufactured riot as pretext for government crackdown while a riot is being manufactured as pretext for government crackdown

I did read the interview with the showrunner about how no, he wasn't inspired by current events (that is, recent events, obviously the show was written well before current events!) but it's definitely inspired by historical fascist governments and fights against them, and wow, we are just proving that what goes around comes around, that human foibles are universal, etc etc, but still, holy shit, right? Yeah.

But as I have said before, this is the wonderful thing about SF, that it can recast real issues in ways that make them easier to understand than when you are right in the middle of them argh.

Entry tags:

6/11/2025 Loop Road and Laurel Canyon

It was overcast and surprisingly windy for a morning, and I didn't start my list tile 9:45. I was only out about two hours, walking out Loop Road an a shorter way up Laurel Canyon than usual, but just about everyone I expected was there. I got a great view of a gorgeous male Purple Finch; I usually only hear them. I feared Northern House Wren was going to be a no show, but I heard them on the way back. The Lesser Goldfinches were eating thistle seed, I heard all the woodpeckers, even a Downy, and the big flycatchers were calling. Walking up Laurel Canyon Road I found another Red-breasted Nuthatch nest hole. I heard the chatter and found a bird on a snag, watched it go in and out of a hole with a perfect overhang, and eventually drop a fecal sac.:) Nesting is definitely ongoing. ( The list: )

I also heard a Western Tanager in about the same place we had them last week. He didn't call very long but those loud, short, burry phrases are distinctive, not to say electrifying. Wish I could have recorded since in June they are considered unusual, it but it was too far away.