conuly: (Default)
In a random reddit thread this time.

Truly, people will never, ever stop complaining about the man.

Also on reddit: "This is an old book" but also "snapchat was mentioned". Uh....

**********


Read more... )

Why I hate my city council.

Mar. 27th, 2026 12:06 pm[personal profile] dreamshark
dreamshark: (Default)
Specifically the DSW wing. For fuck's sake, people, GET A GRIP!! 

The Minneapolis City Council devolved into chaos Thursday during a debate over whether it should spend time weighing in on global politics, like the U.S. blockade of Cuba.

 

 

Writing - March 2026

Mar. 27th, 2026 04:19 pm[personal profile] smallhobbit
smallhobbit: (writing)
So far this month, although there are a few days left, I've written 6,500 words, so it's a good job I had some in hand from the last two months giving me an annual total of 32K.

There is therefore not a lot to record!

As anticipated last month I did have an additional work for A Family Saga which is a Spooks (MI5) series reflecting on Lucas North's family situation. An Unexpected Situation And there will be another in the series at some point.

[community profile] allbingo  held a National Crafting Month bingo, for which I wrote Pulling the Strands Together a retirement era ACD Sherlock Holmes story.

I've also written, and is being posted each day, my entry for [community profile] no_true_pair  four character challenge The Meeting on the Island another Spooks work, this time including werewolf!Lucas.

Reading Updates

Mar. 27th, 2026 11:24 am[personal profile] js_thrill
js_thrill: shizuku from whisper of the heart, at a library table, reading intensely (books)
 Having an app for tracking my reading is nice, because I would 100% forget things if I were just listing based on my memory.

My 2026 reading thus far is about to hit the goal that I set for the year (24 books).  This is in part because the goal was somewhat modest, but mostly because pressure to read libby ebooks before they have to be returned and the use of the reading tracking app conspired to substantially increase how much I am reading.

Here's what I've read this year:

January:
  1. Piranesi (Susanna Clarke) reread
  2. The Loop (Jeremy Robert Johnson)
  3. Ship of Fools (Richard Paul Russo)
  4. Far from the Light of Heaven (Tade Thompson)
  5. The Last Astronaut (David Wellington)
  6. The Keeper (Sarah Langan)
  7. Mysterium (Robert Charles Wilson)
  8. The Deep Sky (Yume Kitasei)
  9. As The Earth Dreams (Terese Mason Pierre, ed.)
  10. The Surviving Sky (Kritika H. Rao)

February:
  1. I'm Glad My Mom Died (Jennette McCurdy)
  2. Semiosis (Sue Burke)
  3. Seven Taoist Masters (Eva Wong, trans)
  4. The Stardust Grail (Yume Kitasei)

March:
  1. Moonbound (Robin Sloan)
  2. Shroud (Adrian Tchaikovsky)
  3. I Who Have Never Known Men (Jacqueline Harpman)
  4. Light From Uncommon Stars (Ryka Aoki)
  5. Roadside Picnic (Arkady & Boris Strugatsky)
  6. There is no Antimemetics Division (qntm)
  7. The Neverending Story (Michael Ende)

Of these, the ones that stick with me the most are: Piranesi, Ship of Fools, Shroud, I Who Have Never Known Men, Roadside Picnic, and There Is No Antimemetics Division.  You may notice a sort of theme in the things that I respond to.

The ones that stuck with me the most in a not quite so complimentary way are Light From Uncommon Stars and Mysterium. Uncommon Stars was just too busy and, to steal an observation from [personal profile] ambyr , unconcerned with morality. Mysterium I posted about previously, but it was such a waste of a great premise.

Anyway, if you can think of books that seem like they'd be right up my alley, based on that reading list, please do recommend in the comments.

Posted by Jesse Kessenheimer

Kittens are like Easter eggs of the animal kingdom. Hiding under a bush or curled up in a flower pot, the Cat Distribution System always finds creative ways to bestow gifts and tiny mews upon cat-loving humans.

As fragile and whimsical as a warm summer breeze and as mighty and proud as a roaring lion, kittens embody spicy cat energy down to the letter. Unbridled by common sense and unburdened by age, kittens are driven mainly by mischief and an endless hankering for a bowl of milk. 

Although cats have their many purrsonalities, there are common threads of adorableness that cat lovers admire in any feline, and those traits are meownifested during kittenhood. While their origin stories are often wild, extreme, and unique, kittens ultimately undergo their biggest transformation under the watchful eyes of their adopted humans. 

We watch them go from ravenous, blind-eyed babies to rambunctious, rebellious teens, and finally start to overfeed them just in time for their metabolism to slow, resulting in the slightly portly physiques of our more mellow elder cats. A cat may scratch us when they play or accidentally bite our ankles too hard as we round the couch in the middle of the night, but those playful wounds stem from a place of love. Infinite love, really. 

Kittens bond with us early on using playful, albeit slightly maniacal, means, and it's from then on that our fates are bound together in the stars. So if you're already dreaming of your afternoon, post-work reunion with your own little fluffball gremlin at home, then the memes in this collection will uplift your spirits just long enough to fuel your cute tanks. For there's nothing that'll replace the love and cuddles of an adorable affectionate kitten, and there's no sound so perfect as a kitten's sweet meow, but sometimes a pure and simple collection of kitten funnies will help take the edge off just a bit. 

Books, to begin with

Mar. 27th, 2026 11:06 am[personal profile] mamajoan
mamajoan: me in hammock (Default)
I don't even know where to start when it comes to "bringing this journal up to date," ha ha, so I'm going to ramble a bit about books I've read recently.

Belatedly last week I tried to update my "read in 2026" tag on LibraryThing, but I'm not entirely sure that I remembered everything I've read so far -- and there are some books I can't quite remember whether I read them in January or December so I didn't add them. But the tag currently has 19 books in it, which is pretty good for the end of March even if I'm not missing anything.

(Nine of those 19 are by T. Kingfisher aka Ursula Vernon, whose work is my latest intense obsession, but that's a topic for a different post)

A lot of those were rereads; I've been on a rereading spree over the past year or so and have reread a whole bunch of books/series that I hadn't read in a long, long time. Some of which were quite literally gathering dust on my shelves (*blush*). Among other things, I reread the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold, the Ancillary series by Ann Leckie, the Jumper series by Stephen Gould, and the delightful "Sorcery and Cecelia" series by Patricia Wrede and Carolyn Stevermer. It has been SO interesting to discover how much, or in many cases how little, I remember about books that I loved in the past!

But the ones I'm going to talk about here are the Kestrel series by Kate Ross, because in that reread I had the unique experience of reading a book where I remembered one particular huge plot twist very clearly, while at the same time remembering absolutely nothing else about the plot!

This got long-ish so here's a cut. Is it still good etiquette to use cuts for long posts? Also, I'm trying really hard not to spoil much, because you should really read these books. )

I think my next series rereads are going to be the Russell/Holmes mysteries by Laurie King and the Temeraire dragon series by Naomi Novik. Those should keep me occupied for a little bit -- maybe even until the next Murderbot book comes out? (My intense obsession with Murderbot is probably yet another topic for another post....) Meanwhile I *am* also reading some new-to-me stuff, and of course recommendations are always welcome!
spindizzy: (*INTERNAL SIGH*)
Last time work was messing people around, my sister was like "You can have a little midlife crisis, as a treat" and godddddd what if I just take her up on that. What if I just have a little panic and completely change what field I work in. What if I run off and retrain for a different job or something.

... God, where would I even get the energy.

So yeah, job hunt is going! I have applied to some places, interviewed in one place, been rejected from those places. Bit of a ding to the ego, but that's probably good for me. (One of my coworkers interviewed for the same job I did, and he got it! Apparently he felt bad telling me and I'm just there like "NO, stop that, I'd much rather it go to you than someone else because I know you'll rock it." Also, I hardcore bombed that interview, which is mortifying.) Gonna keep applying for admin and customer service jobs while I contemplate my midlife crisis. I'm considering doing a copy-editing course and seeing if I can pick up some work doing that – common sense is at war with the depression and the eternal idea of "what if work with words :<" and no one is winning. 

... God, I just saw that Seven Seas is hiring editors, and the surge of want that just hit me. Fuck. I'm not qualified, and yet I want.

Anyway, at some point I will figure out how to show off my beautiful job-hunting spreadsheet. It's got conditional colour-coding and links to all of the relevant sites. It's got a tracker of my application progress. I just need to work my way down it every week until I find something. Which I guess I'll get a start on now, see you later! ♥

This Year 365 songs: update

Mar. 27th, 2026 11:20 am[personal profile] js_thrill
js_thrill: goat with headphones (goat rock)
 In a development that isn't entirely surprising to me, I had a few stumbles for daily updating part of the project, and then fell off of daily reading/posting pretty much entirely.

This is not an unfamiliar pattern for me (I do well with structure, but if the structure is too rigid, and I have enough misses, my brain just shuts off of wanting to follow the structure even a little bit).

The real barrier was posting, for me, because I often felt like I didn't have anything to say, which made some of the posts a chore, rather than just.a part of the routine. I'm planning to catch back up soon, and then continue reading the book day by day, but probably won't be posting about it (or at least, not in a daily post type of way).

jazzfish: an open bottle of ether, and George conked out (Ether George)
Cleaners and "floor-planner" and photographer come today, starting in just under half an hour, and then we list on Monday (for what I had realistically and then optimistically hoped to get, which in practice in this market means probably somewhat less but eh).

Corvaric is about three-quarters of the way to being a blank slate. The last couple of days have entailed packing up things I still need, so that it will Look Nice for the photographs. (I shall unpack at least some of them once today is over with.) This has been frustrating because it means finding a Home for things that already HAVE a Home and are in it. But it's pretty much ready to go. I have even done some v basic spackle and paint work, for which I had to buy an entire gallon of paint because they didn't have any quart containers, but maybe the next people will appreciate it.

My brain can apparently only cope with so much at a time. I know that I'm going to the Gathering next month but I have been unable to plan for that in any real way, like timing or plane tickets or anything. Far as my brain is concerned, things that happen after Monday don't really exist. April is a nebulous blur and past that, I get nothing, it's a huge blank.

Facebook reminds me that four years ago I was standing in an apartment surrounded by boxes. I guess it's a small win for my psyche that the boxes are in a storage unit this time.

I'm gonna miss this place. It is Too Small but not by a whole lot: a second bedroom for a library/office would have made it perfect. (The unit upstairs from mine, with the same floorplan but with the addition of a loft over the kitchen, was for sale about a year before I bought my place. For, as I recall, what I'm asking now. O, Vancouver.) I've even mostly reconciled to the kitchen having an insufficiency of counterspace and drawers. I won't miss the Stifling In Summer, though. Or the upstairs neighbours who vacuum and galumph at all hours, though they probably won't miss the viola playing either, so, fair enough.

I've had the Paranoid Style's "Doug Yule" stuck in my head for the last few days. It's loosely about the guy who Lou Reed recruited to turn the Velvet Underground from a set of clashing personalities making really interesting music to the Lou Reed Backup Band, while the rest of the band quit one by one, eventually including Reed himself. I've rehearsed and rehearsed that my life is a curse / I've been driven away in a rudderless hearse / I've made things that were merely awful much much much much much worse (much worse) (much worse). (Interestingly I think that verse is written to be from the perspective of Sterling Morrison, the second VU member to leave after Reed fired John Cale. I think the verses are each from a different VU member, and the choruses from Reed. I appreciate that a lot.)

Onward to face the day.

They'll NEVER Notice

Mar. 27th, 2026 01:00 pm[syndicated profile] cakewrecks_feed

Posted by Jen

Unless someone takes a picture and posts it on the internet, of course - and what are the odds of that?

Heheheh.

Heh.

Heh.

Hoo! Yeah. Good stuff.

Hey, maybe if we get a mirror!

Oh. Wait...

Don't worry, "Jett" - those poo-bats are so disturbing, no one will care whose cake this used to be.

How to make Al feel special:

AFTERTHOUGHTS:
Technically they're still thoughts, and that's what counts.

And finally, how to totally freak out your boyfriend:

(No, this wasn't intentional. And yes, that's the store "fix.")

I can tell you that Isaiah was probably never happier to see a Cake Wreck in his entire life, though.

Andrea B., Michelle V., LG, Sharon H., & Ashley, you've gotta admit: that would be a great way to break the news. Much better than, say, putting the used pregnancy test stick on the cake.

******

P.S. My "related searches" kind of got away from me today, but I think you'll approve:

"Hiss" Punny Cats Parody T-Shirt

Lots more colors and shirt styles available at the link.

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

Posted by Laurent Shinar

If you thought that all kittens are born sweet and cuddly, then get ready to meet with reality as you dive into this story of the super spicy kitten who learned to love without violence.

It is not the most common of occurrences, but depending upon what a kitten's life has looked like they can be some of the spiciest felines on the planet. Full of boundless energy with tiny claws and teeth that easily pierce the skin they can wreak havoc on a hooman with quite the unexpected amount of force. Which can present quite the unprecedented challenge for a family trying to integrate such a kitten into their lives. Which is what happened to the cat loving family who rescued this piquant cat child from their backyard.

Luckily, with a lot of love and gloves they were able to calm the kitty down and turn her into the cutest and cuddliest catto they had ever met. And they all lived happily ever after. An ending which is far more favorable than what many pawrents have to put up with for the rest of their catto's life. 
 

Posted by Blake Seidel

It's so hard to find good help these days. 

Going out of town, for work or for pleasure, is always more complicated when you have pets. If you don't have family in the area, you're forced to rely on friends or a professional pet sitter. And even if you do have a friend, you can't always be sure that they're going to follow your instructions to the T. In today's story, a cat pawrent of three fluffy felines had to take a last minute work trip for a week, and was able to get a friend to watch their cats. They left them with instructions, and plenty of food to keep them well-fed. But when they got home, they found the food bag still full…. and the 30 lb. treat bag empty! The friend accidentally fed their cats treats the whole week instead of food!

Their cats are okay, just grumpy that they have to go back to eating their boring, normal dry food now that "mom" is back.

Flip by Ngozi Ukazu

Mar. 27th, 2026 09:01 am[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)


Two teens are forced to consider each other's point of view.

Flip by Ngozi Ukazu

Posted by Jesse Kessenheimer

Some new homes come with a pool, a garden, or a finished basement, but this house on the market came with its very own feline resident. Residing in the HVAC system, the new homeowners were immediately aware that a feline spirit haunted the house, and they wouldn't have it any other way. 

"Buying a house and getting a free gargoyle? In this economy? Huge win."

Posted by Elna McHilderson

Crows are constantly misrepresented in Hollywood's scary movie industry. If you'd just look online, you'd find tons of instances where crows come to the aid of innocent creatures. Just like this tiny little pet "ragdoll" cat, who had no idea they were in danger. The cat mom was extremely thankful for her crow homies! (Or should we say crowmies?)

Posted by Nancy Hartunian

Somewhere, deep in the woods of Holland, in cabins patrolled by volunteers, there’s a very, very kinky gathering. Meet Tom, who indulged his new pal’s girlfriend and helped to abduct her, throw her in a van and speed her off to an adventure in consensual non-consent. This is varsity level stuff and not for the … Read More »

The post After Action Report #22 appeared first on Dan Savage.

podcast friday

Mar. 27th, 2026 06:58 am[personal profile] sabotabby
sabotabby: (doom doom doom)
 There was a lot of great content this week but one particularly moved me, and that's Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff's "If Not Us Than Who: The Russian Partisans at War Against Putin." (Part 1, Part 2).

My biggest disagreement with people who I'm otherwise in political lockstep with is Ukraine. Most (North American) leftists are wrong about this. I know this because I have actually been to Ukraine (and Russia), not just in touristy areas, and they for the most part haven't and don't know what they're talking about and are generally basing their opinions on either Cold War nostalgia, residual anti-imperialist trauma, or the appalling behaviour of some diaspora Ukrainian communities. My shitlib position is that you shouldn't invade other people's countries and kill them because you want their land or resources. Even if—and this is critical when we're talking about Palestine or Iran too—you don't like them and some of them are bad people. If that makes me a NATO stooge or CIA asset so be it. 

Margaret and guest Charles McBryde share my opinion and also argue with other leftists about this, so you already know I'm going to agree with them. (Though not totally—we are all leftists here after all.) And you know who else does? A fuck of a lot of Russians. These two episodes focus on the frankly heroic actions of the Russian activists who resist Putin's authoritarianism, including Ruslan Siddiqui, who is genuinely cool not just for his political convictions but with the truly brass balls panache with which he acted. Margaret refers to him as the most cyberpunk guy she's ever heard of and this is true. I should write to him.

Anyway, it's a really wild ride about how to resist authoritarianism when regular political channels are cut off, which is of relevance in Russia and only in Russia, given that it's the only country that disappears people off the streets, murders its dissidents, and cracks down on freedom of expression.

Posted by Cata Holmes

Sometimes all it takes is a cat doing something small and sweet to make the whole day feel a little softer. These precious tweets capture those cozy, comforting moments that cat lovers know all too well. From gentle purrs to tiny acts of chaos wrapped in cuteness, it is all part of the magic. They are simple, wholesome, and surprisingly powerful mood boosters. Scroll slowly, this is pure comfort in tweet form.

Posted by Elna McHilderson

Cats are curious, it's in their nature, and we love them for it. Sure, it might get them in a pickle from time to time, but nothing some memes can't fix!

Hearing the meows from your favorite feline friend is like music to your ears and warms your heart. Unless you don't know where they are or what they are doing…. Because then it is very likely that they are up to something no good. But also likely still adorable and hilarious! There is a reason cats make the best memes.

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