glass_icarus | Reading

Work was nuts today, especially since I was out on Friday and some of my cow-orkers apparently just waited around for me to come back instead of sending an email themselves. Plus I had 2 committee meetings (unusual - we try not to do that unless we absolutely can't avoid it) but luckily 1 only lasted 15 minutes, so I was able to knock out the minutes in about a similar amount of time. *g*

Yesterday I roasted some ears of corn, and ate 2 for lunch and then scraped the other 3 into a big bowl and the added some crumbled up bacon, 2 pints of really beautiful grape tomatoes, some little pearls of fresh mozzarella, a sliced vidalia onion, and some salt and pepper, oregano, basil, rosemary, and thyme, and dressed it all with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Delicious! I will make some orzo to add to it for lunch over the next couple of days and I am looking forward to it.

I also finally hit upon a good way to cook hotdogs without a grill - in the broiler. I don't eat them very often but a couple times during the summer I get a craving, so when they go on sale, I sometimes snag a pack and some soft, cheap buns to eat with them. Of course, since I have the palate of a 5-year-old, I still prefer ketchup on my hotdogs, but since I live alone, there's no one here to judge me. *g*

*The Dodgers, not the Mets. Sigh.

***

Current Music: Mets vs Dodgers on tv

sanguinity

Two weeks ago, I bought my first smartphone.

( Good-bye flip phone, we had some good times together. )

( So. Smartphone. )

Anyway, if there's a killer app or usecase that you want to rec (or disrecommend!), or a thing you wish you'd known earlier, or a setting I should definitely turn off or on (I have an iPhone, if that helps), please feel free to mention it in comments. I'm still very much deciding what I want out of the thing, now that I have one.

sanguinity

Just got back from seeing Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, which is being put on by Fuse Theatre Ensemble, a queer theater group here in Portland.

I have no idea what Sondheim et al. originally conceived of the role of the Proprietor to be, but I can confidently say that the role was clearly meant to be played by a drag queen cosplaying America (Quesa D'Mondays). Larger than life in a sequin stars-and-stripes bustier, handing out guns, hugging people to her bosom, and whispering in their ears about Fame and Glory and the American Dream. Choices were made, and they were inspired.

I also had to laugh (never having seen the play before), that here we have yet another instance of Sondheim writing a beautiful love song that, in context, is one of the most fucked-up things you've ever heard.

Anyway, I enjoyed the production thoroughly. A couple of the voices had trouble competing with the orchestra, but not so much that I didn't enjoy the music, and there were supertitles for the lyrics/text, which was nice for catching all of Sondheim's wordplay. It runs for another two weeks, if anyone else is in town and might enjoy a fucked-up gremlin of a show about presidential assassinations (and doesn't mind prop guns too much).

tielan

Played two games yesterday, physically feeling okay - a bit achey, but that's nothing unusual.

( team ruminations, more my thoughts than anything else )

--

Anyway, the second game (team 1, A grade) was hard in terms of feeling like I was good enough for it, but...easy in terms of being more like my comfortable style of play. Also, I was able to run for most of it in spite of having played a game an hour earlier. Fitness is going well, but the chop-and-change of Team 2 is just doing me in. So much back and forth.

I missed an otherwise 'sure' goal during the game - right place, got the ball, missed the goal! Too angled, it hit the outside of the goal, not the inside. GRARGH.

Would have been a really nice one, too, dammit.

But again, cross-goal tap-ins. More of what we need to do in Team 2.

kaberett

Reading. Finished: a comfort reread of your blue-eyed boys, which fit the bill excellently. Have only restrained myself from launching straight into (even if I could) make a deal with god (and for that matter the other two series) on the grounds that I need to reread Prophet (Helen MacDonald, Sin Blaché) so that I can properly appreciate rydra_wong's a word you've never understood.

You see, I read the first two paragraphs, had a lot of feelings, and promptly decided the way to Maximise Feelings would be to do the reread I didn't set off on immediately after first finishing it.

Thus far I am going "my goodness, I forgot a lot of the detail here". ( Spoilers... )

I have also listened to a little bit more of Furiously Happy (Jenny Lawson). There are definitely aspects I don't love (like, as someone who is taking an antipsychotic for non-psychosis reasons, and someone who can at this point go entire years plural without any significant episodes of even very mild psychosis, the way antipsychotics are discussed makes me... a bit twitchy), and I'm annoyed by how much more disruptive needing to reread sentences is in audio than in text (and how much more frequently I'm needing to do it), but also it turns out rather to my own surprise to be a thing I can listen to when I'm not doing anything else with my brain, provided I don't mind not really retaining any of it for longer than about five minutes.

Eating. I have been fed a slightly ludicrous amount of (more-or-less responsibly harvested) wild asparagus this week, which has been A Delight.

A Variety of other things, courtesy of having someone else doing meal prep all week. Still suspicious of Nutritional Yeast, mind.

FIRST STRAWBERRIES from the plot.

Growing. Swung by the plot this evening (courtesy of significant support from A) and in addition to STRAWBERRIES: ( Read more... )

siria

( Doctor Who, Season 41/16/2/Whatever )

( ER, Seasons 12-14 )

( The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines )

( The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice )

siria

Both Normal to Want and Possible to Achieve
The Pitt | Robby/Collins | ~7000 words | Thanks to

sheafrotherdon and

trinityofone for audiencing/betaing.

(Also on AO3)

( 'I hear that you're concerned about the risks associated with geriatric pregnancies—' Robby said, 'You think that's what I'm really hung up on here?' Or, Robby gets knocked up. )

musesfool

Recs update!

unfitforsociety has been updated for May 2025 with 13 story recs and 2 vid recs in 3 fandoms:

✭ 12 Batfamily
✭ 1 Star Wars
✭ 1 Avengers vid and 1 Star Wars vid

***

I bought some string cheese a couple weeks ago on sale and today I breaded and fried it into mozzarella sticks. So good to eat! So messy to clean up after!

I slept poorly again last night - I had to shut the window while it was raining, and I don't know if it's the barometric pressure that's been giving me these headaches, but I don't like it. At least this cool rainy weather meant I made it all the way through May without turning on the AC. It looks like I will probably start needed it next week though. Last year, I signed up for the thing where they charge you the same amount each month to smooth out the ups and downs, which I've grown to prefer to the $110 swings in my electric bill come summer.

In other news, I learned that there really is a cocoa shortage and I'm not imagining it. So I'm glad I stocked up from King Arthur. Unfortunately, the bag had a small tear in it, so everything in the box it shipped with was covered in a fine dusting of cocoa powder. 🤨 But I washed it all and transferred the cocoa into a ziplock so it's all nice and tidy now.

***

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Mets beating the Rox on tv

schneefink

One of my favorite things about not having plans and not having to study is that I can do things spontaneously, like meet up with friends to go shopping and have food and then go for a walk to see some sheep and goats that I had no idea were there so my biologist friend could delightedly poke at the dung to find beetles.
One of my favorite things about staying at my friends' house for a few days is that I don't have "I should do chores/clean/tidy" run in the back of my head at all times. I still found things to procrastinate on - an exchange letter, leaving fic comments etc - but overall it was very relaxed. I'm getting better at Beat Saber.

Books I read recently:
The Burning Kingdoms trilogy by Tasha Suri: The Jasmine Throne, the Oleander Sword, the Lotus Empire. This series has been on my to-read list for a while and I finally got around to reading it. I enjoyed it a lot! I enjoyed the Indian-inspired setting and the complicated politics of it with many different groups, and I liked the development of the main characters both separately and together. ( Spoilers )

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett: I enjoyed this much less than the first book in the series, sadly. At one point I complained to LB, who's actually worked at a university, that I thought the portrayal of academia was unrealistic, and he said that it's not that unrealistic provided the character in question is a bit of an asshole. ( Spoilers )

The Firm by John Grisham: The first non-SFF book I read since April 2022, according to Goodreads, wow okay. And the first non-SFF novel since February 2022. I decided to read it because the lecturer of one of my business law classes mentioned it, and I didn't give up early even though the writing is clunky. In the first half I really liked the slowly growing sense of creeping dread from the dangers the reader sees but the main character doesn't. ( Spoilers: that was the best part ) I don't regret that I read it but only because now I know.

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins: I started with this one instead of "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" because I got this one first from the library, but in hindsight I wonder if that was a mistake. It worked on its own but I strongly suspect I missed many connections. Conversely, it's been many years since I read the original trilogy but there were almost too many connections and similarities for my taste, it seemed a bit repetitive. To be fair there's only so many ways the Hunger Games can differ. ( Spoilers )

unfitforsociety

Vids

Avengers

My Metrocard by

seekingferret
Fun Avengers + NYC vid!

✭

Star Wars

What Was I Thinkin'? by

Tafadhali
Fun, fantastic Han/Leia vid!

✭

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: We Both Go Down Together - Decemberists

$unfitforsociety: (fractal swirls)$

unfitforsociety

Star Wars

Sparks by

SpellCleaver
AU where Luke is raised by Vader, but is working as a Rebel agent and complications ensue. A good, long read.

✭

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: until you hit the ground

unfitforsociety

Batfamily

Bury Me Face Down by

historical_allusions
After his confrontation with Batman leaves Red Hood bleeding out on a warehouse floor, Jason Todd wakes up back in his teenage body and still trapped in his casket.

When every death leads back to the same starting point, Jason stumbles through attempt after attempt to get things right. But he's not giving up until he's fixed things. Interesting, slightly melancholy time loop AU where Jason keeps reviving in his grave until he gets things right. <3

door, opening by

cowboysorceror
Long, compelling casefile focusing on Dick and Jason's contentious relationship. I really enjoyed it.

Forget me, Forget me not by

Captain_Aurinko
Kon gets erased from reality, and Tim keeps trying to figure out why there are so many weird gaps in his life. Oh heart...

Head in the Clouds by

lurkinglurkerwholurks
Jason takes a week off to heal from injuries and enjoys it more than he expected.

Independent Variable by

potofsoup
Tim is doing great being an independent vigilante, he's fine! He doesn't need help, he's definitely not estranged from the family -- he's just being independent.

Good thing he's part of a family of detectives who have their own ways of reaching out.

Featuring two powerpoints, one casefile, half a contract, a roomba, and several hugs. Oh Tim... I enjoyed this! (Plus, there's art!)

Jason Todd: Regular College Student by

AddictedApple
AU where, at the end of his League of Assassins training, Jason decides to go to Metropolis for college instead of going back to Gotham for revenge. Things spiral from there. The title is so sarcastic by the way. There's nothing regular about Jason Todd. This is a lot of fun!

Join the Club by

Cephalogod
In which Jason Todd meets Tim Drake, who is inexplicably Dick Grayson's #1 Fan, and decides the only reasonable course of action is to plot to get the two of them to meet and see what happens. It definitely won't have a major impact on his life or anything. This is super cute!

Lois Lane's Number One Fan Tim Drake by

Chiyana
Bruce is missing - as Bruce Wayne - and somewhere in Metropolis. Tim knows Bruce said to tell Clark Kent in case something like this happens, but why would you go to Clark Kent for help when Lois Lane is right there? I mean, he's not wrong...This is fun!

No Need To Fake It by

LakeAwen
When Talia and Cheshire start a civil war against Ra's, they send Damian and Lian to safety with the one bodyguard they can trust: Jason Todd. Jason and his charges set up house in a small New Zealand town, and try to figure out civilian life together. They find more of a home -- and a family -- than they ever expected. Jason just can't let himself forget that this is temporary. This is really lovely. There's a sequel in progress, but I think this story can stand on its own.

Nobody by

goldenraeofsun
One week of feverish research. Two days of furious tracking. Thirty minutes of hopeless fighting.

It is all coming to this, a deal Tim has no choice but to accept.

"I'll release your family in exchange for all their memories of you," Klarion the Witch Boy says.

"I'll do it," Tim says loudly before he can second-guess himself. His fingers tighten around his last birdarang, but he does not throw it. Instead, he stands stock still, forcing himself to keep breathing, keep standing, despite the bone-deep exhaustion weighing his body down.

After all, Gotham needs Batman much more than it needs Robin. Oh Tim...

Of A Genius' Legacy by

sparkoflena
Tim takes a couple of months off in order to catch up on two and a half years of school all in one go - and graduates high school. He knows he deserves a celebration.

He just didn't expect his whole family to show. <333

you long for a feeling you'll never get back by

puddingcatbeans
In a family made of up people unused to having such a big family, sometimes you get lost in the noise. And Tim has always been taught to be the child that was seen, not heard. Oh Tim...

✭

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Level Up - Vienna Tent

angry_asian_man_feed

Posted by Unknown

http://blog.angryasianman.com/2025/05/they-call-us-gold-star-trophy.html

Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.

What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. (Almost) each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.

In this episode, we welcome back Shin Yu Pai to talk about the latest season of her podcast Ten Thousand Things, along with fellow podcaster Yowei Shaw (Proxy, NPR's Invisibilia). They talk about the objects that help us move forward -- like a gold star trophy; how layoffs can be like breakups that unravel your sense of identity, purpose, and self-worth; finding healing and reinvention in the wake of professional setbacks; and The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of going independent. Also: keep listening to hear a full episode of Ten Thousand Things.

Read more »

http://blog.angryasianman.com/2025/05/they-call-us-gold-star-trophy.html

musesfool

I slept very poorly last night and woke up with a blinding headache and some serious nausea, so I called out of work and went back to bed for a couple of hours.

I keep meaning to post then forgetting what I want to say, since it's mostly just about work. I did get several amazing photos of Baby Miss L in a Spider-Gwen outfit with a hood (with a glittery pink mask on it), a cute blue spider on the torso (when I first saw it, I admit my initial response was "Khaji Da?" so it's more scarab than spider but also she's 2 and a half, so) and a skirt decorated with webbing. It's so cute and she apparently approved of it by saying "Spider-Man! Spider-Man!" in her specific toddler lingo. And the Superman dress finally arrived so I hope to see pictures of that soon, too! Also, she has taken to carrying her Easter basket over her shoulder like a purse and calling it her bag, so she is definitely getting a headstart on her fashionista personality.

In other news, I was reading some fic I was otherwise enjoying but I will never ever ever understand why in EVERY SINGLE FANDOM I have ever read fic in, there are some gobsmackingly awful non-canon nicknames that proliferate. Sometimes for characters who already have a canonical nickname, so why? I mean, I get that the use of a nickname can be intimacy marker (much like the switch from last name to first name, or full first name to canon nickname), but the fact is, none of the characters this is applied to would ever allow themselves to be called these names by ANYONE, not even an intimate partner. The worst is when Jason calls Talia "Tals." NO. WHO thinks TALIA AL GHUL, DAUGHTER OF THE DEMON, is going to let ANYONE call her "Tals." No, really, meet me in the parking lot, I just have some questions.

I also don't understand when people apologize for...well, anything really, in their author's notes, but especially when they say shit like, "Sorry this chapter is mostly dialogue! We'll get back to the introspection soon!" I mean, I guess some people don't like dialogue??? Obviously mileage varies. But it is frequently the best part of a story for me. If your story holds off on dialogue for too long in favor of maundering introspection, I will likely wander away and never come back (like, obviously if it's a 900-word plotless character ramble that's fine, but then you are not posting it in chapters, at least I'd hope not).

I guess if you're not confident in your character voices, dialogue can be difficult, but you're still going to need to get the character voice right in the narration/introspection, and some characters are not really going to be doing a lot of introspection at all, even in their own heads, so it's even harder to get them right. Which is probably when it's time to revisit canon. But I admit, dialogue is pretty much the easiest thing I find to write, so possibly it's just me.

*

Current Mood: better
Current Music: Mets vs Rockies on tv

kaberett

Yesterday, on the drive, we found the greater part of a small light blue eggshell. (Dunnock? Starling?)

We have also, with the rain, been seeing (and relocating) lots of gastropods, so I suggested we move the eggshell into gastropod territory.

Checked back this morning, and while the blue is mostly intact the inside surface has been very clearly significantly monched. V v pleased to have provided delicious snack and also by CREATURES in general :-)

schneefink

Placeholder
(I didn't manage to finish this in time for the event to start, sorry, but all the likes/dislikes and even most of the prompts are in my sign-up, I was just hoping to expand on them a bit. Definitely this week though.)

tielan

It's Friday night, 8pm. I'm tired.

Think I'll get a wash and go lie in bed with the cats around me and read.

Here, have a garden update.

bethbethbeth

On May 8th, I offered to read the first five books people recced - assuming they were available (preferably from the library) - and I'd give a short review [https://bethbethbeth.dreamwidth.org/701769.html].

This is the sixth recced book review.

Rules for Ghosting (2024), by Shelly Jay Shore (recced by mx-sno on bluesky)

Yes, this is a romance (gay cis man/bi trans-man), but it's also a story about family dynamics, grief, birth and death, found family, Judaism, and a dog named Sappho.

Oh, and ghosts!

I'm passing on the rec, but I'd offer two caveats:

One...if you have anxiety surrounding death rituals, including taharah (the "ritual washing, purification, and dressing of a deceased Jewish person before burial"), you might want to think twice.

Second, on a pure story level, there's sometimes a little too much "not telling people important things either for their own good or because you don't know how to start the conversation" for my personal tastes, but for all I know, that's your favorite trope. :)

However, Rules for Ghosting is generally an interesting, good-hearted story with a clever premise and a diverse group of likable characters.

schneefink

I cooked! Literally. (It took a surprising amount of effort not to address a non-existent "chat" here xD) There's a completely arbitrary (and very silly) distinction in my brain about what counts as "proper" cooking, and most of what I prepare for myself doesn't or barely counts. But today I made a pasta-tomato-ham casserole, which undoubtedly is proper cooking, and it was very good.
I really wanted to properly cook something because I'm currently house-sitting and the house has a very well stocked kitchen - I'm envious of their spice selection - but it turns out that not having my own tools, like working scales, and knowing where everything is is a disadvantage and it about evens out. (Most of these spices I don't even know what to do with tbh.)

I've also played quite a bit of Beat Saber already. Got a some expert level completions, but only managed normal for other songs. It's nice to play outside, too.

I've barely seen the skunk I'm house-sitting for, he's still in his winter phase apparently and eats little and mostly sleeps all day, and the one time he saw me he ran away. Nothing to worry about, according to his owners; he's getting old for a skunk, too. Beforehand I was mildly apprehensive about him demanding lots of attention, now I'm more worried that I wouldn't even notice if something was wrong.

Last weekend I played Islets, an indie metroidvania by the same solo dev who made Crypt Custodian. I only meant to try it out on Saturday and ended up playing for six hours, and then I finished the next day with 95% completion. It was a lot of fun! Importantly, movement feels good, and the exploration is fun. I played on easy because there were some bullet hell bosses and I don't like those, but on easy it was fine.

mxcatmoon posting in

thisfinecrew

There's so many bad things going on requiring our attention that the cuts/firing in the meteorology and climate science communities gets less attention, but having a fully staffed NOAA is an important issue. Right now, there is a 100-hour livestream going on to call attention to how vital these services are, especially as hurricane season is upon us. I have it on in the background right now.

What can we do? Watch the livestream, call our Representatives, and go to 5 Calls for sample script/letters.

Info and schedule: The Weather and Climate Livestream

Direct YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rG4ePBqD-E

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just another fork-tongued dragon lady

November 2022

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Page Summary

musesfool - this team is so loaded with fire power*
sanguinity - End of an Era
sanguinity - Everybody Has a Right to be Happy
tielan - hockey report
kaberett - vital functions
siria - 2508 / Doctor Who; ER, Seasons 12-14; The Librarian II/III
siria - 2507 / Fic - The Pitt
musesfool - goes right back to that breaking ball
schneefink - Weekend + books (read before the weekend)
unfitforsociety - so high you can't see over
unfitforsociety - falling feels like flying
unfitforsociety - there will be no sign from above
angry_asian_man_feed - They Call Us Gold Star Trophy
musesfool - went to the curveball, bounced it
kaberett - tiny delight
schneefink - MCYTblr AUfest letter
tielan - gardening in winter
bethbethbeth - The Sixth of the Recced Book Reviews: Rules for Ghosting
schneefink - Food and games
mxcatmoon in thisfinecrew - Weather and Climate Livestream

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Page generated Jun. 3rd, 2025 07:49 am

then there are blackbirds

in a heaven of blackbirds

Reading

this team is so loaded with fire power*

End of an Era

Everybody Has a Right to be Happy

hockey report

vital functions

2508 / Doctor Who; ER, Seasons 12-14; The Librarian II/III

2507 / Fic - The Pitt

goes right back to that breaking ball

Weekend + books (read before the weekend)

so high you can't see over

falling feels like flying

there will be no sign from above

They Call Us Gold Star Trophy

went to the curveball, bounced it

tiny delight

MCYTblr AUfest letter

gardening in winter

The Sixth of the Recced Book Reviews: Rules for Ghosting

Food and games

Weather and Climate Livestream

Profile

November 2022

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