watervole | Network

I was scrolling through the friending meme for Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, then realized there's actually a large handful of people whom I know at least a little on Dreamwidth but who have somehow fallen out of my Reading Page or not been added correctly. I catch them haphazardly via comments, secondhand news from sanguinity or other mutuals... but tidying up my circle is a better way. :D

So if you are one of those getting a notification that I've subscribed and/or granted access, that's what's going on, and thank you for sharing DW with me!

celli

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princessofgeeks

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mellowtigger

The hair on my forearms is strange these days. Instead of the smooth flow of soft hairs like usual, there are short bits of hair that seem to stand straight up from the arm.

I'm pretty sure I singed much of the hair while I was tending flames at the fire pit on Friday. Oops.

In other news, the weird spot on my left leg is getting lighter. I think it's healing, however slowly. I guess that hydrocortisone cream helped.

P.S. I got a few more plants into the ground today, after my work shift ended, and before the predicted 1.5 days of rain finally arrive.

jazzfish

I want to be reading What We Are Seeking (Cameron Reed's new book). It is extremely brain-intensive, though. After a week of gaming and not-sleeping-super-well on a hotel pillow, I am just not there.

Midway, aka Not O'Hare, is a perfectly decent little airport. I seem to be the only person I know without at least one O'Hare horror story, but then it's been over a decade since I've gone through there. Regardless, Midway's probably nicer. Also it seems that all airport wifi now has "watch a thirty-second ad before we let you connect," which both irritates me and makes me a little sad. And the glory of the world is less than it once was.

My iPad's charging port is dead yet again. The Enter key on my keyboard is failing to register sometimes. Bah, technology.

I'm in Midway for another couple of hours and then I fly to Minneapolis for a week. And on Friday I have an interview for a "document analyst" position, which sounds like "tech writer with extra steps." The interview is in-person, which I wasn't expecting; I'm just glad it's coming at a halfway convenient time. Sometime this week I shall have to go out and acquire Interview Clothes. This is less annoying than it might be since I don't actually own much in the way of Interview Clothes, at least not that fit.

I'm trying not to think too much about the interview. Not til I'm someplace where I can relax a bit more, anyway. It's with the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council, so it's an In to Local Government which is where I'd like to be. Per the job description it's got some GIS-esque stuff going on; and by my back-of-envelope calculations it pays enough to live on and save a bit. It would be nice, I think. It would certainly be nice to have one of my two Big Immediate Problems solved.

My fingers have been vaguely itchy for the viola the last several days. This is... it's new. I'm enjoying it. I left my violin at Steph's last time so I'll have some outlet / ability to practise, at least, and I've got a flashcard app so I can see how many tunes I can actually remember.

I wish I'd realised sooner how... how good musicking is for me? How it's something that can actually call to me? Something like that. I'm honestly a bit startled that anything does, let alone music. I'd just sort of assumed that Feeling Drawn To A Thing was yet another thing about me that doesn't work like everyone else.

And I don't know how I could have possibly gotten here, not just from where I was but from any plausible diversion from that. If my folks had let me take bass instead of cello, like I wanted to, I'd probably wind up playing bass guitar, which would be pretty cool but not really the same. If one of my early cello teachers had offered something outside of Standard Classical Repertoire... I might have gone somewhere with that? I really don't know. Water under the bridge, regardless. I wish I'd gotten to "here" sooner; I'm pretty happy with where I've gotten to.

Ann C--, a violinist who shared a teacher with me for several years in Fayetteville, pinged me last month to let me know that our teacher had died. I'd been vaguely intending to reach out to Dr Boyce and let her know that I'd picked up viola, but never got around to it. Every so often I try to look up Ms West née Wiley, the bassist/cellist that Dr Boyce handed me off to once I'd gotten past her level of expertise on cello, and I never manage to find anything on her. Tegen, my pre-plague viola teacher, has gotten married, moved down south, and started cranking out babies, Jesus aphorisms, and MLM crap, which is disappointing but not surprising. Musicians: just as human as everyone else. (Ann, incidentally, is also Jesusy, but she appears to at least be the kind of Jesusy that's appalled by the current mask-off Republican party.)

No real resolution to this, which seems fitting for something written in a liminal space. I think I shall go and try to find some tea, and sit and think and zone out for awhile.

My centre is collapsing,
my right is in retreat.
Impossible to manoeuvre.
Situation excellent.
I am attacking.

--Marshal Ferdinand Foch, First Battle of the Marne

emperor

The announcement of the 2026 Hugo shortlist reminded me I never posted about how I voted for the 2025 awards. I'm afraid it's now too late to add any reviews beyond what I wrote at the time, but here is how I ranked the finalists (the winning entry in bold):

Best Novel

The Tainted Cup
A Sorceress Comes to Call
Someone You Can Build a Nest In
The Ministry of Time
Alien Clay
Service Model

Best Novella

The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
The Butcher of the Forest
The Tusks of Extinction
What Feasts at Night
The Brides of High Hill
Navigational Entanglements

Best Novelette

The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea
By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars
Loneliness Universe
Lake of Souls
Signs of Life
The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video

Best Short Story

Stitched to Skin Like Family Is
Marginalia
Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole
We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read
Three Faces of a Beheading
Five Views of the Planet Tartarus

halfshellvenus

another staged assassination attempt. :( What's really at issue? Distracting peole from the war in Iran and the Epstein files. Not to mention grift and treason, but who's counting?

In lighter news, Sacramento is still in the off-again/on-again rain cycle. A few days of biking outdoors, a few days in the garage. This is keeping the summer heat at bay, though, so I'll take it. May is coming, and that can be the start of hell. Or not. We got married on May 20, some almost 37 years ago. It was a beautiful day, about 80F. On our first anniversary, it poured all weekend. Other years? 90-100F. There's no way of knowing until you're in it.

We watched Beckett last night with The Boy, which was entertaining but another reminder that Denzel Washington's son will probably never have a huge career because he looks like his mother rather than his father. Pleasant, but not distinctive. Then HalfshellHusband and I watched Happiness For Beginners, which I always thought was a Simon Pegg movie. It was not— different flavor altogether— but we enjoyed it. Gorgeous scenery.

( Books )

Speaking of which, there are ads now for eyedrops you can use to temporarily remove the need for reading glasses. Ullhhhh... That seems kind of risky to me. I used to have daily contact lenses that would sharpen my right-eye vision and make my left eye work for short distances. But I always wound up taking the left lens out when I biked, because otherwise I couldn't see the traffic behind me clearly enough to know if it was safe to merge left. And most of my reading now is either computer screen or Kindle, and the Kindle lets me adjust the font size up and down!

The medical miracles I want have to do with weight control (currently ineligible) and shedding less hair. I've seen a little improvement on that last issue. My sister bought and then didn't use about 6 months' worth of Nutrafol, which she passed along to me. AFAIK, it isn't helping the corners of my lower eyelashes grow back, but it HAS reduced the amount of hair that comes off in the shower. Possibly due to the extra iodine— added to my multivitamin, I'm at 250% RDA. \o? My doctor won't raise my thyroid levels (which I think would help BOTH issues), so maybe this is a small workaround? It may also be helping my energy levels and mental clarity a little, both of which can suffer with low thyroid.

What's everyone been doing this weekend?

oursin

This week's bread: the Collister/Blake My Favourite Loaf, strong white/wholemeal/wholemeal spelt, turned out very nice.

Friday night supper: ven pongal (South Indian khichchari).

Saturday breakfast rolls: basic buttermilk, 3:1 strong white/buckwheat flour.

Today's lunch: Cornish hake fillets rubbed with salt, ground black pepper, lime juice and ginger paste and left for couple of hours then panfried, and sprinkled with the remaining juices on the plate at the end; served with miniature baby potatoes roasted in beef dripping, baked San Marzano tomatoes and stirfried choi sum.

effinbirds_feed

https://effinbirds.com/post/814981023935938560

A woodcut of a bird beside the text "NO ONE HERE ORDERED A FUCKIN FIASCO"

https://effinbirds.com/post/814981023935938560

ysabetwordsmith

Today is sunny and mild.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches, plus a fox squirrel.

I put out water for the birds.

I set out some of the potted plants in flats.

4/26/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

4/26/26 -- I planted 4 petunias, 4 blue lobelia, and a 'Dusty Miller' artemesia in the blue chalk horse pot.

2/26/26 -- I planted two pots, each with 2 petunias, 4 white alyssum, and a 'Dusty Miller' artemesia. I put the last 'Dusty Miller' into the previous pot of yellow-and-white flowers.

When making a container garden of different flowers, it helps to create some unity by repeating elements. I do that with the fillers: 'Dusty Miller' artemesia, alyssum, and lobelia.

2/26/26 -- I potted up the three ice plants for the new picnic table garden. This concludes the batch of plants from DeBurh's.

2/26/26 -- We picked up dead weed stems from the edge of the south lot. We filled the wagon and only cleared about 3-4 feet by maybe 20 feet. :/

2/26/26 -- I got the groundcloth laid out; it's still flyaway and fragile, but at least on a calmer day I got it pinned down good enough for government work. I hauled out the solid-top pallet and sprayed the top side with waterseal.

.

Current Mood: busy

skygiants

It's been several days since I finished Cristina Rivera Garcia's No One Will See Me Cry (translated by Andrew Hurley) and I've still sort of singularly failed to formulate an opinion about it; I just keep sort of mentally picking the book up and turning it over and putting it uneasily down again.

In some ways this book reminds me of A Month in the Country, in that both are historical novels that delicately build up a picture of lives destabilized by and lived in the cracks after an epoch-shaking event, while carefully avoiding -- tracing the parameters of, writing around, turning the camera consistently away from -- the event itself. The difference is that A Month in the Country does in fact feel light, delicate, balanced against the heavy thing at its center, while No One Will See Me Cry isn't in any way a light book; aside from the heaviness of its subject matter, feels laden with symbolism at every turn, although the symbolism itself is often specific and startling.

The premise: in 1920s Mexico City, an aging, morphine-addicted photographer who's been hired to take portraits of asylum inmates meets Matilda, a woman he last photographed many years ago, when she was a prostitute. Joaquin engages in a kind of narrative barter with, first the asylum doctor, then with Matilda herself, in an attempt to understand her story and how it intersects with his own to bring them both to this asylum. Both of them, it turns out, formatively knew and formatively loved the same woman, a revolutionary, in the years before the war -- but neither of them was actually involved in the Revolution, neither of them were active agents for or against the transformation of their livetimes; Joaquin describes himself more than once as the only photographer of his generation who didn't take any photographs of the war, and Matilda was, at the time, involved in an emotional affair with a desert landscape.

There are some tropes that one expects, and is braced for, around Women and Lost Women and Madwomen, especially when insanity is used as a thematic metaphor around national trajectory, especially when all that is inextrictable from questions of poverty and indigineity. Rivera Garcia is definitely deploying some of those tropes with purpose and to a point and I absolutely do not know enough to have a full sense of what she's doing with them. This is one of those situations where I wish I was reading a book in context of a class or a club. As it is, what I'm left with is interest, unease, some beautiful and surprising images, and a sense that I ought to read a lot more about the Mexican Revolution.

maju

I was sleeping on my right side at one point last night and woke up with my right leg feeling very uncomfortable and I have no idea why. I could feel that I was restless for a while before I woke up properly, and realised later that the leg was the reason for the restlessness. I turned onto my left side for a while but woke up again after less than 15 minutes, so then I turned back to my right side and arranged my legs differently, and this time I was able to go back to sleeping soundly.

I went for a walk after breakfast and when I came back I found what looked like a bookmark on my bed. On it was a maths problem (with the answer written in), Aria's name, and 10:30 written prominently across the top. When I asked the girls about it, it turned out that Aria had arranged some kind of show for 10:30 which we were all invited to and this was my ticket. We had to wait until 10:30 because my son in law was out at Costco, but he didn't get home until after 11:30 so then we waited until after lunch to see the show. Aria had set up chairs for each of the adults; on each chair was a soft toy or, for her father, a baseball, and the show consisted of each of us doing something interesting with our toy. She gave me the octopus, and told me to make it talk, and her father had to catch the baseball when she threw it. Her mother was busy doing something else and didn't even make it to the show, so it was all over in about five minutes.

It rained all afternoon yesterday and all night last night, not heavily but very steadily, but now the rain has stopped and the sun is sort of trying to come out.

I started Violet's octopus yesterday afternoon and I hope to get the head/body finished this afternoon. The legs are not as simple as the head but each leg only takes about 15 minutes so the whole thing isn't a really long project.

lettersmod posting in

pinchhits

Event: Unsent Letters, an epistolary exchange
Event link:

unsent_letters_exchange
Pinch hit link: https://unsent-letters-exchange.dreamwidth.org/27840.html
Due date: May 1st, 11:59PM UTC

Requirements: 1000 words of fic, at least 500 of which must be in a requested epistolary format.

PH 1 - Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's x2, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Metal Fight Beyblade | Beyblade Metal Saga, ベイブレードバースト | Beyblade Burst (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime 1997-2023), ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 | JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/UnsentLetters2026/user/Audrelite

PH 2 - Minecraft: Story Mode (Video Game) x2, The Protomen x2, Bionicle (Generation 1) x2
https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/UnsentLetters2026/user/bluerosekatie

PH 6 - Bugsnax (Video Game), Crossover Fandom (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles / Keroro Gunsou), Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon), Keroro Gunsou (Anime)
https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/UnsentLetters2026/user/malachiical

PH 8 - Dune (Movies - Villeneuve), Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson, The Worst Journey in the World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard
https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/UnsentLetters2026/user/primeideal

PH 14 - The Goblin Emperor Series - Katherine Addison, Nine Worlds Series - Victoria Goddard, The Locked Tomb Series | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir, Succession (TV 2018), The Chronicles of Chrestomanci - Diana Wynne Jones, The Lost Prince - Frances Hodgson Burnett
https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/UnsentLetters2026/user/DontStopHerNow

PH 15 - CLAIMED
PH 16 - CLAIMED

PH 17 - Thoroughbreds (2017), Succession (TV 2018), The Secret History - Donna Tartt,
https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/UnsentLetters2026/user/nephilot

PH 18 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Crossover Fandom, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), TMNT (2007)
https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/UnsentLetters2026/user/smearedyelloweyeshadow

To claim, please email unsentlettersexchange@gmail.com or comment on the pinch hit post: https://unsent-letters-exchange.dreamwidth.org/27840.html

ysabetwordsmith

maevedarcy has posted a friending meme. I've copied my answers below.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

james_davis_nicoll

The text of Cherryh's post reads:

"Dear readers and friends. The unhappy fact is---the numerous bouts of anaesthetic I've had have made it pretty well impossible for me to write. I drop stitches. Not many. No problems with daily life or doing creative stuff or enjoying life in general. But the ability to control narrative is just not what it was, and it's just not going to be there. I've accepted that, painful as it is. I thank all of you who've stood by me patiently. The body of work is what it is, and I am lastingly grateful to my publisher, Betsy Wollheim, who has given me every extension of time and resource. And of course to Jane, who is all things.

mtbc

It's been difficult for me to get around to much lately around the day-to-day needs so here's a small slice of latest events. First, the weather's been glorious lately, it almost makes it feel okay to live in Glasgow; I could get used to this. Yesterday, we took our dog L. over to Glasgow Green and today I still hope we get to bring him for a walk along the Clyde.

Recently, we got coffee with R.'s childhood friend and their partner: they were passing through Glasgow, which was great. It is interesting to see here somebody who lived so near R. far away and long ago.

Yesterday, R. observed that our mattress really isn't great in how it transmits disturbance on one side of it over to the other. So, this morning we headed to IKEA to replace our VALEVÅG pocket-sprung mattress with an ÅNNELAND hybrid mattress. I was skeptical about how well we would be able to fold our old mattress and fit it into the car but R. led and it all worked out. The council waste centre was rather busy on a sunny weekend afternoon but there was parking near the mattresses and, with the help of R.'s sons, the mattress replacement is now complete.

We also stopped at Sainsbury's, which is near IKEA. It's one of the more pleasant supermarkets to shop in: the aisles are generally wide and the self-scanning handheld device's UI isn't annoying.

I realized that I've generally been sleeping rather well for quite some time now. I think it may be the change in job: having dropped a couple of grades in responsibility, going from leading teams to taking Jira tickets, the stress is reduced commensurately.

On not-in-office days, I've been using the cross-trainer more often than not. I am pleased to be achieving this change in habits. My calf is a bit sore but, as always, ignoring an issue seems to work fine: if I don't use it as an excuse not to exercise then the exercise tends not to make it any worse. My eating has not been anywhere near modest enough but the food has been tasty so, well, there's that.

At work, I have an on-site visit in NYC coming up and I have already checked that the hotel also has a cross-trainer. It will be interesting to try getting between Newark Airport and Penn Station by rail: it looks easily achieved but is a new experience for me. We do have business Uber but I got on so badly with the Uber app and their customer service that I am happy to avoid it.

Often, I've felt as if my body and mind were moving through molasses: I can do what I must but everything's effort, whether mental or physical. More recently, that's happened less. It seems premature to link the improvement with exercising but time might tell.

bluedreaming posting in

fan_flashworks

Fandom: Reborn As The Villain President’s Lover - Lin Ang Si
Mods please use the f: book (category) tag
Rating: T
Length: 100 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: The title is from SONG OF THE DRIVER IN THE WIND-SHIELD by Robinson Quintero, translated by Nicolás Suescún.
Summary: Crossing euphemisms with literal speech, does the literal example cross back into euphemistic territory?

( Read more... )

susandennis

The pillow cases are in the washing machine right now. I just passed the bedroom door and saw this.

Nothing entitled about that cat!

The pool heater got turned back on or whatever the fix was, the water temperature was back up this morning. Woot! And my swim was wonderful.

I started a new book last night - I'm pretty sure it's one that I got from Jo's writing about it. A Killing in November by Simon Mason. It's extraordinarily written. Or maybe just well written for the ear. I was sucked in immediately even though there was no dead body in the first 40 minutes! I like my killings early on in the plot. But I'm totally sucked into this one - it kept me up late. AND... it's the first in a series. And there are already 5. Love that.

Yesterday was pretty much baseball, TV and knitting and today is likely to be the same and I'm perfectly fine with that.

My foot that the shots have helped fix is getting un fixed again and it's too soon. The nerves directing the toes get pinched and it's owwwwey to walk on it. I cannot match a shoe to the pain although this morning, my only shoes are the rubber sandals I wear to the pool, so maybe time to swap those out for something else - at least for a few days to test.

Ok the laundry needs folding and hanging.

settiai

Watch on YouTube

To the shock of absolutely no one, I have thoughts related to the Season 4 trailer that was released for The Legend of Vox Machina a few days ago.

( Vague spoilers for CR1 under the cut for those trying to go in unspoiled for the campaigns, since there may or may not be similarities in the animated series for some storylines. )

Current Mood: cheerful

veronyxk84 posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: Tearing Down the Wall
Fandom: Viola come il mare (category: tv)
Author:

veronyxk84
Pairing: Viola Vitale/Francesco Demir
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: none
Word count: 490 (Ellipsus)
Spoilers/Setting: Set in an alternate early S2.
Summary: A sleepless night leads Francesco to figure out that his fear of losing Viola is much stronger than any of his commitment issues.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction created for fun and no profit has been made. All rights belong to the respective owners.

Challenge: #513 Amnesty 85 + #127 Sleepless

—
( READ: Tearing Down the Wall )

☙ ☙ ☙

izmeina

How the Gods laugh when serpents make plans.

On Monday I turned on my Big Mac computer for the first time since September 2023.

I kept procrastinating for so long.
It took ages to get online and I was logged off from most of my accounts.

But today I thought I could go back this evening and write a "nostalgic" post about a certain anniversary.

I wasn't chatting with Daisy today like is usual on Sunday evenings and Sunday evenings I usually don't do Duolingo.

So I assumed it was the perfect opportunity to finally get back to some serious squiggling using a real keyboard.

But that was before I started mucking around with a bunch of pathology tests which have to be done between 11pm and midnight.

Then more distractions on Substack along with some scenes from the news straight out of a Stephen King novel.

I guess the only reason that trump didn't use a toddler as a shield this evening was because there wasn't one nearby.

I was living in Ireland at the time but the story of the other Dead Zone - Chernobyl was huge all over Europe.

The British government used the accident as an opportunity to take out the trash at Sellafield (formerly Windscale)

What I vividly remember, a thing that happened again in September 2001 was how fire fighters and first responders turned up on the scene knowing that they would not get out alive.

Later came the pictures from Pripyat - a town near the reactor that was abandoned.

It's hard to believe it's 40 years ago this very day.

The USSR and East Germany was still a thing back then and the Cold War was in full swing.

I never did get to see the miniseries made in USA that apparently got rave reviews.

It sounds like it may be worth a look.

Lately, I keep thinking of the saying
Choose your enemies carefully lest you become like them.

The Soviet Gerontocracy of the 1980s used to be a standing joke in the West along with the whole culture of party loyalty being valued over actual competency.
And of course, the constant arse covering and buck passing.

And now 40 years on, that's exactly the sort of government they have got in the USA.

The current circus in the Capitol makes Brezhnev and bros look like bright young geniuses.

I wonder what the world will be like on 28th February 2066.
The 40th anniversary of the insanity that is Operation "Epic Fury"

As for me, I won't be around to see it.

loganberrybunny

Public

Hat-tip to

frith for making me aware of this. There's a long-running event on here called Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, in which people post creations of theirs that are (for the most part) visible only on this platform until the three weeks are up, after which they may be shared more widely. It's intended as a low-pressure event, so I don't think this is actually enforced in any way. It's been running since 2010, when Dreamwidth itself was only about a year old.

That's not what caught my eye. What caught my eye was that this year's edition has this PSA at the bottom of its introductory/guidelines post:

"We won't be accepting any Harry Potter or AI generated posts."

That's the whole thing. It's only those that are outright banned. It's really odd, and I can't say I'm very impressed. This isn't because I love JK Rowling and her views on trans people – I most assuredly don't. But I think it somewhat diminishes the fest to say, "Come on, everyone, you can post anything you've created! ...oh, except that."

It's even sillier when you take it literally, since someone wanting to promote "My collections of poetry repeatedly glorifying Andrew Tate" would technically pass, but someone else posting "My watercolour painting of the flying Ford Anglia but with a big trans flag on the side" would be banned.

The organisers have every right to make this rule, but I have every right to think it off-putting. So, colour me unimpressed. The concept of Three Weeks for Dreamwidth appeals to me quite a lot, the execution (at least this year) however does not. I won't be participating.

Current Mood: moody

princessofgeeks

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

Current Mood: thoughtful

calimac

There's an article in the Mercury News, the local paper, on the effect that Apple Park, the giant ring-shaped "spaceship" headquarters, has had on the city of Cupertino, where it's located, since it was completed nearly a decade ago.

The thing is, though, that - though other cities are barely mentioned - it's not just Cupertino. Tax revenues - the small part that goes to cities - does indeed go to Cupertino and affect it. But housing prices and especially traffic have more effect on the neighboring cities.

Apple Park is located in a tab of Cupertino that sticks up to the north on the east side of the city. The houses immediately to the north and west of it are in Sunnyvale; the ones to the east are in Santa Clara. They're the ones most directly affected by Apple Park. There's a photo in the article of the spaceship looming up behind what the caption says is "a home on Lorne Way in Cupertino." Lorne Way isn't in Cupertino. It's a block north of the spaceship in Sunnyvale.

What is in Cupertino? The only housing in Cupertino in the immediate area is an apartment complex to the sw that was already there. My mother lived there at one time, but she was glad to be out before construction of Apple Park literally tore up the entire neighborhood.

South of the spaceship is its parking area, and behind that the freeway. On the other side of the freeway is a shopping district. There are homes in Cupertino not far away, but they're not directly under the spaceship's shadow, and access to the neighborhoods is mostly detached from the roads that Apple traffic backs up on.

I'd like to know more about what impact Apple Park has had on Sunnyvale - where I live, about a mile further west - and Santa Clara. But no, it's in Cupertino, we have to talk only about Cupertino.

mallorys_camera

Quiet couple of days. (One might, of course, say every day is quiet.) I dashed off 500 new words on the Work in Progress. I have no idea whether the words are any good, but they are out there, at least. They have an existence apart from my imagination.

Ichabod annoyed me slightly a few weeks back by remarking (words to the effect) that it wasn't as though I could be writing with any idea that my writing was going to go anywhere, right? I wasn't thinking of publication and an audience, was I? I was writing because it was fun!

This miffed me, but I let it pass.

But when the subject came up again in yesterday's phone call, I interrupted him: "Writing is not a pastime the same way teaching yourself how to play the guitar is. It's not particularly fun unless you're writing well. And if you're doing it well, of course, you're thinking about publication and an audience."

I mean, Ichabod knows I published a lot of nonfiction back in the day, some of it in fairly reputable venues. He's even read selected pieces. I was—well... not offended. But disappointed that all he thinks I'm doing is playing air guitar.

Although it's quite true that neither of my children have ever been deeply interested in anything I write.

I suspect they may feel threatened by it in some way.

###

Shawangunk Dems' semiannual roadside trash pickup was yesterday. Scary how many empty vodka flasks I picked up—in a relatively residential neighborhood, too. I began to think it isn't such a bad deal after all, that I ~~can't~~ won't drive after dark.

First time I'd done any Shawangunk Dems-related activities in quite a while. Adrienne reassigned the website administration. She didn't think I was updating it often enough. Well, you can't update a website if you don't have content to update it with, and despite numerous cheery email requests—Send me your photos of the St. Patrick's Day Parade!—nobody was sending me any pix. Less scut work for me is always a good thing, but Adrienne's dictatorialness was annoying, so when she sent me an email beseeching me to join her campaign for Shawanagunk legislative representative, I ignored it.

Picking up trash, though. Always a good thing. So, I showed up. I partnered with Marge, who is an awfully nice person, one of those rare people who actually listens to what other people say without interposing irrelevant asides from her own resume.

We had to make a detour to Marge's house, an honest-to-God log cabin in the middle of a dank forest. Very dark. I met her husband! Very dour. And I felt a deep wave of sympathy for Marge: Wait! You spent 40 years having to live here & having to be married to him? Maybe I'm better off than I think I am.

After trash picking up, I did a bunch of errands, and then dropped by Stephen W's garage sale. He and his wife are leaving the quaint & scenic Hudson Valley for a senior citizen facility in Cleveland.

Stephen W. was the coordinator for one of the TaxBwana sites I volunteered at last year. Nicest guy in the world. We made several long car rides together during my tenure during which we had conversations intimate enough to give me the complete 360° on his life—the little boy who grew up in Brooklyn dreaming of being an aviator, the astigmatism that prevented him from flying, the subsequent military reassignment to logistics, the subsequent career in logistics with the City of New York, the disastrous first marriage, the son who essentially committed suicide by eating himself to death, the drug-addled granddaughter who desperately wants him to save her but whom he can't save because the second wife would object—

At the time of those car rides, I distinctly remember thinking, He & I were close in some previous life.

I suppose that's why I felt compelled to say goodbye to him in this life.

And I think he felt it, too.

Because he reached out very awkwardly and hugged me.

Now, Stephen W. is not a hugging type of guy, and there was nothing in our previous interactions that might seem to warrant casual hugging.

But those past-life connections are impossible not to acknowledge.

chickenfeet

https://operaramblings.blog/2026/04/26/orchestral-music-from-brett-dean/

longficmod posting in

pinchhits

Event: Fandom5K is a multi-fandom gift exchange for fic with a 5,000-word minimum and comics with a 5-page minimum.
Event link:

fandom5k Pinch hit link:
Due date: 5 June

Like main assignments, these pinch hits are due on 5 June, and they require a check-in during the week of 8-15 May.

Please see individual requests for details on mediums (comics vs fic) and relationships requested.

IPH 1 - Mononoke-hime | Princess Mononoke, Soul Eater (Anime & Manga), ダンジョン飯 | Dungeon Meshi | Delicious in Dungeon, ちはやふる | Chihayafuru (Anime & Manga), 逆転裁判 | Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney, Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021)

IPH 2 - Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Cartoon), Crossover Fandom, Star Wars: Resistance (Cartoon), Star Wars Original Trilogy )

IPH 10 - 杀破狼 | Stars of Chaos: Sha Po Lang - priest, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga), 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)

IPH 11 - The Pitt (TV), 鬼滅の刃 | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Anime & Manga), Crossover Fandom

CLAIMED - IPH 13 - Stranger Things (TV 2016), The West Wing, 9-1-1 (TV)

IPH 15 - Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga), 僕だけがいない街 | Boku dake ga Inai Machi | ERASED (Anime & Manga), 炎の蜃気楼[ミラージュ] | Honoo no Mirage | Mirage of Blaze, John Wick (Movies), Sneakers (1992), The Fall of the House of Usher (TV 2023), Father Brown (2013), The Queen's Gambit (TV), Squid Game (TV 2021), Death Note (Movies 2006-2016)

IPH 18 - Gran Hotel (TV), 무빙 | Moving (TV), 설강화 | Snowdrop (TV)

IPH 19 - The Amazing World of Gumball, Osmosis Jones (2001), Dandy's World (Roblox), Dandy's World (Roblox), Dandy's World (Roblox), Osmosis Jones (2001), The Amazing World of Gumball, The Amazing World of Gumball

IPH 22 - 獅子の踊り子 | Shishi no Odoriko (Manga), Noctilucent: Before Dawn (Video Game), Tekken (Video Games), 龍が如く | Ryuu ga Gotoku | Yakuza (Video Games)

PH 25 - World Trigger (Anime & Manga), 京騒戯画 | Kyousougiga, Crossover Fandom, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, Horizon (Video Games)

PH 26 - Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005), Dragon Age (Video Games), Doctor Who (1963)

PH 28 - Annihilation (2018 Garland), Crossover Fandom, Moon Knight (TV 2022)

PH 29 - 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed, 憂国のモリアーティ | Yuukoku no Moriarty | Moriarty the Patriot (Anime), Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle, Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler, One Piece (Anime & Manga), Ready or Not (Movies), 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018), Doctor Who (2005), Original Work, DCU (Comics)

CLAIMED - PH 30 - Warhammer 40.000, Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Vampyr (Video Game), Dragon Age (Video Games), Original Work

james_davis_nicoll

Aliens contend over the fate of a remarkable boy.

A Mirror For Observers by Edgar Pangborn

shipperslist

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

seleneheart

I hit up a bunch of local thrift and antique shops yesterday, looking for some specific items, but also just sort of browsing.

I have accumulated several prints from various artists - some from art shows, some from online purchases. I want to frame them all with different frames and lean then on an empty wall shelf that's been sitting there since I moved here. The last time I had a batch of prints like this, I went to Michael's and got identical frames. This time, I'm trying some a little different - and a lot less expensive! I had an inventory of what sizes I needed and pics of each print on my phone so I could see if the frames would work with them. It took going to three different stores, but I eventually found what I needed.

Another treasure I found is a Fine Young Cannibals CD for $2, which I'm currently burning to my computer.

One of my projects for this spring is wallpapering a bathroom - I took the wallpaper sample with me in case I found some art that would work with it. I found one piece, although the frame is black and it might look better against the wallpaper with a gold frame. I'll have to see once the wallpaper is up. Might paint it gold. I also found a small mirror that might work. If not, I have another spot for it.

Lastly, I found some painted glass birds Christmas ornaments. And I've got stock stuffers for my children for next Christmas and it's only April!

A very successful and rewarding raid!

Current Mood: jubilant
Current Music: Washed Out - All I Know

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Tales From the Riverbank

Network

my 3w4dw cleanup

K-Pop multivoice podfics

Greece 2026

fritzy forearms

liminal

My 2025 Hugo Votes

Best Novel

Best Novella

Best Novelette

Best Short Story

Another day...

Culinary

(no subject)

Birdfeeding

(no subject)

(no subject)

Unsent Letters Post-Deadline Pinch Hits Due May 1st

Friending Meme

Cherryh to retire

A small update

Drive: Reborn As The Villain President’s Lover: Fanfic: and another more distant summit

Little Mr. Muffet

The Legend of Vox Machina

Sleepless: Viola come il mare: Fanfic: Tearing Down the Wall

The Dead Zone

Three Weeks for (most of...) Dreamwidth

insight

not just Cupertino

Past Life Connections

Orchestral music from Brett Dean

Fandom5K Pinch Hits Due 5 June

A Mirror For Observers by Edgar Pangborn

WIP folder meme

Thrift Store Fun

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