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Feb. 27th, 2026 08:42 pm[personal profile] blotthis
blotthis: (Default)
As requested by [personal profile] passingbuzzards, [personal profile] skygiants and door, it's.... Dracula!

I'd never seen any Dracula adaptation at all ever--unless one counts Buffy as a Dracula adaptation, in which case I've seen Hush and the singing one--and may I just say, I would not recommend starting with any of the three adaptations I saw this month!

I've a longstanding interest in adaptations, though, so when some friends decided to go see Luc Besson's Dracula (2026), I joined them. Now, none of us knew that in other markets, this movie was subtitled "A Love Tale."

Me: Between... Mina and Jonathan?
Besson: Mais non! Dracule et Mina!

Oh dear. )

I had a great time. What a series of swings. My takeaway was "Terrible movie. Everyone should see it." I laughed so much that I made friends with the folks on the other side of our group. I haven't even mentioned the gargoyles, which ended up being one of the funniest things I've seen in a movie in recent memory. Do not spend 20+ dollars to see it, but if you're hanging out with buddies, eating snacks, and ready to yell delighted disparaging comments at a Bad Movie with A Huge Budget, put it on the list.

I mentioned seeing Dracula (2026) to a Media Professional friend, and when she learned I hadn't seen Bram Stoker's Dracula, she was like oh, we should get high and do that. And I was like can we please, actually. So last weekend, we did. Minus the getting high, plus another Media Professional friend, whose apartment we invaded. (He has a TV and a couch.)

New astonishments )

Ok. So, after we finished BSD, we tipsily decided it was early (10pm) and we could watch!! the first episode!!! of BBC's Dracula! They did not tell me it was an hour and a half and a Gatiss/Moffat production!!!

I'm not going to write this up in as much detail. I had fun with it, actually. There are parts in it that Gatiss and Moffat Simply Cannot Stop Themselves, of course, but overall I liked the Jonathan, Mina, Van Helsing (a Religiously Troubled but Very Self-Confident nun), and Dracula. Claes Bang, who plays Dracula, has more fun as he gets younger and sexier, and absolutely homosexually tortures Jonathan to pieces. Loved that. (Oldman and Landry Jones both become wooden as hell as they get younger and sexier, which was homosexually torturous for me---) I also adoooored Dolly Wells as Sister Agatha Van Helsing.

My understanding is that the third episode absolutely blows shit. From Gatiss and Moffat? Shocking. But the first episode, at least, felt more interested in the book's specific death-dread than the two movies, even as it turned much of the plot on its head. I've been told the second episode is even better. It's unlikely I'll watch it on my own, but I'm happily passing that information on to you.

Space Exploration

Feb. 27th, 2026 06:03 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Six planets will align in a rare ‘planetary parade’ this weekend

Six planets will be visible in the evening sky. Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter will be bright enough to see with just your eyes.

Uranus and Neptune will be much dimmer, so binoculars or a telescope will make them easier to find.


Read more... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Singer and songwriter Neil Sedaka has passed away. His hits included "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," "Laughter in the Rain," and "Love Will Keep Us Together."

Read more... )

"Entangled Life" Discussion Post

Feb. 28th, 2026 07:15 am[personal profile] matsushima posting in [community profile] bookclub_dw
matsushima: our aspirations are wrapped up in books (book love)
OK, everybody let's turn on some music, drop acid in a clinically controlled environment, and talk about mushrooms! 🍄

Q1: Have you read microhistory before? If this is a genre you're familiar with, what do you like about it? If this was your first, will you read more? *If you want to read more, I've got some recommendations where this came from.

Q2: Merlin Sheldrake obviously likes mushrooms, like, a lot. If you were going to write a book in this genre, what would you write about? It doesn't have to be science-y, either; there are lots of books like this about history, society, etc.

Q3: What's the most interesting fact you learned from this book? Why is that what stood out to you?

Q4: Sheldrake writes, My hope is that this book loosens some of your certainties, as fungi have loosened mine. What (if any) certainties were loosened by reading Entangled Life?

Q5: Pop-sci books like Entangled Life have to balance scientific accuracy and accessibility to a lay audience. How do you feel Sheldrake did? If you're a scientific expert, was the information correct? If you're not, was the book readable and did you feel like you understood what was being communicated?

Q6: Has reading Entangled Life changed the way you think about other everyday, apparently mundane, things?

Q7: OK, but… does anyone else want to try LSD after reading Entangled Life?
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
My seeds arrived from the earlier Pinetree Garden Seeds order. :D

Read more... )
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
Noted author, bigot Dan Simmons reported dead of stroke.

(no subject)

Feb. 27th, 2026 11:50 am[personal profile] greghousesgf
greghousesgf: (pic#17098438)
They're spraying for roaches in my apt Tuesday. I don't have roaches, this is preventative. I'm glad they let me know in advance, I don't want the bug guy to come barging in when I'm in the bathroom or something.
Looking forward to tonight, I'm going out for dinner with friends.
STILL NO NEW CREDIT CARD YET.

Follow Friday 2-27-26

Feb. 27th, 2026 01:45 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [community profile] followfriday
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Got any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).

Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".


ysabetwordsmith: A blue sheep holding a quill dreams of Dreamwidth (Dreamsheep)
These are active communities in Dreamwidth from Winter 2025-2026. They include things I've posted, but only the active ones; the thematic posts also list dormant communities of interest. This list includes some communities that I've found and saved but haven't made it into thematic posts yet. This post covers J-Z.

See my Follow Friday Master Post for more topics.

Read more... )

Birdfeeding

Feb. 27th, 2026 01:34 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Today is sunny and warmer with a nice breeze. :D

I fed the birds. I've seen a flock of sparrows and a male house finch.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 2/27/26 -- I cut and labeled four water jugs. These will hold Shithouse Marigolds, Black-eyed Susan, Milkweed, and Purple Aster. These are all flowers that I know can handle harsh conditions.

EDIT 2/27/26 -- I taped the jugs, moved them to the parking lot, and secured them with string.

I've seen a starling. Red-winged blackbirds are calling, but I haven't seen them. They arrived way early again this year, so I suspected that they'd wind up in my yard, regretting their poor life choices. At least it has cover and water here.

Crocuses are blooming, still all pale lavender. But there is a white bud in the rain garden!

EDIT 2/27/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 2/27/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a fox squirrel at the hopper feeder.

EDIT 2/27/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 2/27/26 -- I finished trimming dead stems off the wildflower garden. I still need to cut down the tree seedlings and rake more leaves off it, but the old grass is gone.

A yellow crocus is blooming by the log garden. Snowdrop flowers are opening. :D

EDIT 2/27/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.
sovay: (Sydney Carton)
I was supposed to spend the afternoon with my husband and instead I am about to spend it at the doctor's. The one is obviously much preferable to the other. Have a photo I took yesterday when I was out and walking and thought I had a decent chance of doing something human with the end of my week.

Work is At It Again!

Feb. 27th, 2026 04:28 pm[personal profile] spindizzy
spindizzy: Raven looking PISSED AS FUCK. (Oh now I'm pissed)
Because of course they are. Due to Brilliant Financial Decisions that I can't get into without doxxing myself, work are making some changes. Some of them I can understand; they're standardising opening hours and want shift patterns to line up with each other, cool, that makes sense. Some of them though... Yeesh. Their ideal situation that they're working towards includes but is not limited to:

  1. No full-time contracts, and a hard limit of 25 hours a week max. (Lunch breaks are inconvenient, and if we only work a five hour shift we don't get a break.) Also, no one will need to work extra hours because we'll be fully staffed – ignore every other time we've said that, this time we mean it!

  2. No home libraries; everyone is part of a pool and assigned two or three libraries per week to work at.

  3. No overlap between shifts, so no proper handover between shifts (because why would we need that?).

  4. "We heard your complaints that there's no job mobility that isn't becoming a manager, so we created more manager positions! ♥"

  5. Two fewer libraries in the network – one of them is closing entirely, and one is full of valuable and delicate material so we're going to leave it open and completely unstaffed.

And when people raised questions and objections, they were told "Well, you can always leave."

... Aight, bet.

Now I'm waiting to hear back from one library job, and I've got three other applications to get in by close of play on Monday. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For bonus points: we were all assigned a mandatory meeting with one of our great-grandbosses to discuss the changes and ask any questions. Me being me, I sent him an email before the meeting with all of my questions so that we had an agenda and he could prepare answers! (ʘ‿ʘ🌺) He told me a lot of things, most of which did not answer my questions, and I sent him a summary of his answers and the questions I would still like answered. (ʘ‿ʘ🌺) I think each email was two pages each, front and back, and I need you all to understand the peak comedy of his reply: "Had a quick read, that looks right, hope it helped you."

I do literally hours of writing relevant and appropriate questions, checking my recording, summarising your useless responses, checking FAQs, and your response is "Hope it helped you."

(ʘ‿ʘ)ノ🌺

Met with my line manager on Thursday and accidentally cried at her, because I sent her copies of my messages and her response was "I can tell you really care about this job and your colleagues." Turns out I wanted someone to acknowledge that? I'm not being awkward for the sake of it, I'm being awkward because I want to keep doing my job! She also suggested that I send my questions to Other Great-Grandboss to get actual answers, but only after I revise out some of my... Expressions of frustration... Because Other Great-Grandboss will actually read them, and it won't help me get my answers. But god, I just – I'm irrationally convinced that somehow I can find the magic words to convince the bosses to fucking listen to us and understand why people are upset. I can't, but what if I could.

... Anyway, that's what's going on with me right now. I'm going to cross stitch Pokémon and watch other people play the new Resident Evil game because hahahahaha NO I AM NOT PLAYING THE GAME WHERE SOMEONE STALKS ME IN THE DARK. NO THANK YOU.

The Bride And Groan

Feb. 27th, 2026 02:00 pm[syndicated profile] cakewrecks_feed

Posted by Jen

Today's post is dedicated to all the engaged couples out there. That's right, lovebirds, I thought we might take this opportunity to consider the most important cake of your entire lives: your wedding cake.

Now, I know I feature a lot of wedding wrecks, and I know a lot of folks will point out that asking for a fondant design recreated in buttercream is asking for disaster, but don't you worry. I'm here to help. After all, this is what Leah D. ordered for HER wedding cake:


And look what she got!

It's the tinfoil-covered cookie sheet that really sells it.


Ok, yes, it's a wreck. BUT - did you notice how the inspiration cake was all buttercream, and the wreck itself is fondant? I'm just sayin'. It works both ways.

Now, don't you feel better?

No?

Ok, then how about what Susan A. ordered for her wedding? 

Not a great picture (you don't see mimeographs much these days), but I think you get the general idea.

 And here's what Susan got:

Granted, I'm not sure how this is supposed to make you feel better, but trust me, guys: the REST of us are feeling grrrrr-REAT. (John! Go make some popcorn! These are gettin' GOOD.)

 

Sara M. wanted her wedding cake to be a hunk a' hunk a' burnin' love:

The cake! The cake! The cake is on FI-YUR!

 

But instead, her cake just suffered from a mild burning sensation and performance issues:

Wah-WAAAAH.

(That was my attempt at a slide-rule trombone effect. I know: I'm a veritable foley artist with words.)

 

And finally, Elizabeth P. dreamed a dream of ribbon-wrapped sweetness for her big day:


...but ended up with something only a mummy could love:

Ouch. Uh...that's a wrap!

 

Thanks to all of today's brides and just remember, guys: wreck or Sweet, we're gonna need to see your wedding cake! (Oh, and we're all invited, right? RIGHT?!)

*****

P.S. When you don't have a cake to express yourself, there's always this:

(Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want To Be Here T-shirt)

Comes in lots more colors and also mens' styles at the link.

*****

And from my other blog Epbot:

Snowdrop Day

Feb. 27th, 2026 02:29 pm[personal profile] bookscorpion posting in [community profile] common_nature
bookscorpion: This is Chelifer cancroides, a book scorpion. Not a real scorpion, but an arachnid called a pseudoscorpion for obvious reasons. (Default)


I went to the cemetery today and it was the first warm day of spring - even the wind was warm, and all the birds were going absolutely nuts, they were so loud. The snowdrops are in full bloom everywhere and they look so incredibly lovely against the leaf litter.


Read more... )
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)


The Sicilian debacle leaves Syracuse with seven thousand Athenian prisoners slowly starving in a quarry. What better time to stage a play?

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
selenak: (Father Issues by Raven_annabella)
In which we find out the writers of this show must really like both Thornton Wilder and the last two seasons of Angel: The Series while having issues with one particular Voyager episode, or rather its aftermath. Also, at last, at last, SOMEONE is back an my screen!

Spoilers take back a key nitpick from last week and are an Angel fan anyway )

bless you Chuck Tingle

Feb. 27th, 2026 09:10 am[personal profile] rmc28
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)

for your latest work: Not Pounded By This T-Rex On The USA Men’s Hockey Team Because It Turns Out He’s A MAGA Dork

(I had a full body "you go here TOO?" reaction when I saw that title, haha)

If you've managed to avoid being aware of the latest way men's hockey has been highly disappointing, please continue in blissful ignorance and/or consider watching a PWHL game this weekend, but I'll take this moment of crossover fandom for the comfort it is.

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