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scans_daily2026-01-23 01:08 pm
cyberghostface) wrote in scans_daily2026-01-23 01:08 pm
a million times a trillion more (dolorosa_12) wrote2026-01-23 05:57 pm
dolorosa_12) wrote2026-01-23 05:57 pmCatching up on Snowflake backlog
There is no Friday open thread this week, because the snowflake_challenge backlog was stressing me out so much that I needed devote a whole post to catching up with it. That said, if you want to use any of the challenges as a prompt, and respond in some way to it in the comments (either by linking to your own snowflake_challenge post, or by answering it fresh), do feel free to treat it as a Friday open thread.
( Challenge 10 )
( Challenge 11 )
( Challenge 12 )
snowflake_challenge backlog was stressing me out so much that I needed devote a whole post to catching up with it. That said, if you want to use any of the challenges as a prompt, and respond in some way to it in the comments (either by linking to your own snowflake_challenge post, or by answering it fresh), do feel free to treat it as a Friday open thread. ( Challenge 10 )
( Challenge 11 )
( Challenge 12 )
it only hurts when i breathe (spikedluv) wrote2026-01-23 12:15 pm
spikedluv) wrote2026-01-23 12:15 pm
Smart Bitches, Trashy BooksSmart Bitches, Trashy Books (![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
smartbitches_feed) wrote2026-01-23 04:30 pm
smartbitches_feed) wrote2026-01-23 04:30 pmParanormal Romance, Historical Fiction, & More
Butcher & Blackbird
Butcher and Blackbird by Brynne Weaver is $1.49! This is book one in The Ruinous Love series. I read this one and these are my thoughts from my Goodreads review:
This one started off really promising. Unfortunately, the pacing started to falter about about a third of the way into it. The last quarter was suspenseful and I appreciated the twist, but yeah…the middle of the book felt mostly like filler. I also didn’t feel a ton of romantic progression between the leads.
One thing that really confounded me was that Sloane is described as being in her early twenties. She’s an accomplished serial killer and quotes Zoolander (which came out in 2001). Look, I love Zoolander as much as the next person, but it’s not exactly the Criterion Collection. It really took me out and had me wondering when exactly did this story take place.
Overall, I enjoyed the tone and dark humor. It’s a unique romance, but needed some refinement.
Every serial killer needs a friend.
Every game must have a winner.
When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of a like-minded, pitch-black soul. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country. But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?
Butcher & Blackbird is the first book in the Ruinous Love Dark Romance trilogy of interconnected stand-alone dark romantic comedies. This dual POV novel ends on a HEA.
***Butcher & Blackbird is a DARK ROMANCE intended for an adult audience – please see Brynne’s website for a comprehensive list of CWs***
Do Your Worst
Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan is $2.99! Lara was middling on this paranormal romance and gave it a C-. I enjoyed Danan’s contemporaries so I remember looking forward to this one. Did you read it?
Riley Rhodes finally has the chance to turn her family’s knack for the supernatural into a legitimate business when she’s hired to break the curse on an infamous Scottish castle. Used to working alone in her alienating occupation, she’s pleasantly surprised to meet a handsome stranger upon arrival—until he tries to get her fired.
Fresh off a professional scandal, Clark Edgeware can’t allow a self-proclaimed “curse breaker” to threaten his last chance for redemption. After he fails to get Riley kicked off his survey site, he vows to avoid her. Unfortunately for him, she vows to get even.
Riley expects the curse to do her dirty work by driving Clark away, but instead, they keep finding themselves in close proximity. Too close. Turns out, the only thing they do better than fight is fool around. If they’re not careful, by the end of all this, more than the castle will end up in ruins.
The Other Princess
The Other Princess by Denny S. Bryce is $1.99! This one was featured in a previous Book Beat post. We’ve also had Bryce’s debut Wild Women and the Blues on sale before.
A stunning portrait of an African princess raised in Queen Victoria’s court and adapting to life in Victorian England—based on the real-life story of a recently rediscovered historical figure, Sarah Forbes Bonetta.
With a brilliant mind and a fierce will to survive, Sarah Forbes Bonetta, a kidnapped African princess, is rescued from enslavement at seven years old and presented to Queen Victoria as a “gift.” To the Queen, the girl is an exotic trophy to be trotted out for the entertainment of the royal court and to showcase Victoria’s magnanimity. Sarah charms most of the people she meets, even those who would cast her aside. Her keen intelligence and her aptitude for languages and musical composition helps Sarah navigate the Victorian era as an outsider given insider privileges.
But embedded in Sarah’s past is her destiny. Haunted by visions of destruction and decapitations, she desperately seeks a place, a home she will never run from, never fear, a refuge from nightmares and memories of death.
From West Africa to Windsor Castle to Sierra Leone, to St. James’s Palace, and the Lagos Colony, Sarah juggles the power and pitfalls of a royal upbringing as she battles racism and systematic oppression on her way to living a life worthy of a Yoruba princess.
Based on the real life of Queen Victoria’s Black goddaughter, Sarah Forbes Bonetta’s story is a sweeping saga of an African princess in Victorian England and West Africa, as she searches for a home, family, love, and identity.
Rebellious Desire
Rebellious Desire by Julie Garwood is $1.99! This is a Regency romance that was first released in the 80s. Garwood fans say this isn’t their favorite book of hers, while others enjoyed the mystery element added to the romance. Have you read this one? What did you think?
Before there was Downton Abbey, there was Rebellious Desire…in this classic Regency romance from bestselling author Julie Garwood, an American heiress must land a titled lord.
Of all the dukes in England, Jered Marcus Benton, the Duke of Bradford, was the wealthiest, most handsome—and most arrogant. And of all London’s ladies, he wanted the tender obedience of only one—Caroline Richmond.
She was a ravishing beauty from Boston, with a mysterious past and a fiery spirit. Drawn to the powerful duke, undeterred by his presumptuous airs, Caroline was determined to win his lasting love. But Bradford would bend to no woman—until a deadly intrigue drew them enticingly close. Now, united against a common enemy, they would discover the power of the magnificent attraction that brought them together…a desire born in danger, but destined to flame into love!
oursin (oursin) wrote2026-01-23 03:37 pm
oursin) wrote2026-01-23 03:37 pmEntry tags:
Assortment
Dr rdrz may imagine the noises I made when reading this (we get the London Standard free from our newspaper deliver people): Make America Hard Again: is there an erectile dysfunction epidemic?, particularly when I came to '“There have been huge uncertainties about male virility since the rise of feminism,” says Grossman.' and started screaming 'THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE OF HISTORY!!!!'
Okay, there are some very creepy blokes there.
***
Creepy but in a different way: I was being 'recommended' this on Kobo, Y O Y???? The Voyage Out: A Quick Read edition:
Discover a new way to read classics with Quick Read.
This Quick Read edition includes both the full text and a summary for each chapter.
- Reading time of the complete text: about 13 hours
- Reading time of the summarized text: 20 minutes
The horror, the horror. And really, is Woolf a writer for whom this is an appropriate approach?
***
I'm sorry, but I couldn't help flashing on to the famous phrase 'Normal for Norfolk' when reading this: Archive reveals hidden stories of Queer Norfolk:
Norfolk: That's a queer ol' place
In the depths of the Norwich Millennium Library, there’s an archive dedicated to Norfolk’s LGBTQIA+ history
Doesn't mention that Gurney was a Friend, also disabled as a result of childhood polio.
***
This is rather fascinating: Flap Anatomies and Victorian Veils: Penetrating the Female Reproductive Interior:
Lifting flaps that unveiled the female reproductive body for medical purposes could just as easily be interpreted as a pornographic act imbued with sexual titillation and voyeurism. The ‘obstetrical flap’ was thus understood and used as both a teaching prop and an obscene tool. It functioned as a ‘veil’ of Victorian modesty in the name of new and penetrating obstetrical knowledge and a ‘veil’ of man's apparently underlying and untamable penetrative sexual impulses.
***
One has rather worried about this, and it appears that there are grounds for concern: ‘That belongs in a museum’: The true ‘cost’ of detecting in England and Wales.:
My previous work has discussed various aspects of the hobby of detecting: how the context of archaeological finds is often lost, how private ownership of finds is reducing the archaeological dataset, how our obsession with monetary worth may be fueling an increase in artefact theft and, more recently, the hidden and unacknowledged costs of the hobby of detecting to the wider British public.
Cake Wrecks (cakewrecks_feed) wrote2026-01-23 02:00 pm
cakewrecks_feed) wrote2026-01-23 02:00 pmSpam Poetry
Usually my spam filter is pretty accurate, but this week I've gotten three e-mails that read like some kind of post-modern word salad poetry. I'm assuming they're spam, but then again, maybe they're really some hip new literary project by postmodern word salad poets. Eh?
So in the spirit of artistic discovery, I've decided to illustrate these literary feats with the most appropriate cakes I could find. ENJOY.
Subject line: hey! :) My name is Margarito!
Artillery fray,
I must articulate smoothly, it is a terrible wise of many enemy,
this godson of tormenting children,
...and children cheerful.
èḥῥộ_ ḣûῂ?ṕẹvќћ (??)
[That is a line of unintelligible characters which I can only assume was supposed to link to overpriced weasel aphrodisiacs, but since it isn't clickable in the original e-mail I can't say for sure.]
And painting it I soothe said to exception:
"it is the riverside of the disadvantage
and He has sent it to flit my shipboard crustacean."
::flit flit flit::
Alternatively, here's a shoe board crustacean:
[bowing] Ah thank you, thankyouverramuch.
Subject line: Good day, my name is Nathanial :)
One notwithstanding
he did with more sincerity bluff so strange in Moscow,
a life of astounding but salutation,
(C'mon, what are the odds I'd find a cake of a butt salutation?)
(Oh, sorry was that just one "t"? My bad.)
Piping and plating, he was degenerating.
(You know what they say about small pens, right?)
(Smaller pocket protectors.)
Subject line: hey!! My name is Broderick!
The amass had feigned,
but coldly was some embody thereon.
Cuttlefish assureed merrily as jersey began talking,
amiably bashful,
with drowsy one sponge emerge at her foresight to unify its broth on her.
Whoah there, Bobby boy, you're not unifying your broth on ANYBODY today, hear me?
Thanks to Steve B., Shannon P., Candi F., Alexis I., Heitha B., Rachael E., Anony M., Kylie S., & Audra B. for the wreckiest cakes in all the 'verse.
*****
P.S. I see you appreciate poetry. Might I recommend...?
I Could Pee On This, And Other Poems By Cats
This hardcover gift book costs less than $10 and will have your friends feline fine.
*****
And from my other blog, Epbot:
goodbyebird (goodbyebird) wrote2026-01-23 03:21 pm
goodbyebird) wrote2026-01-23 03:21 pmEntry tags:
Instant vid rec.
The Black Phone is a film that's vaguely been on my list of things to see for a few years now, but I never got around to it. This vid slaps though! Highly recommend watching with the lights dimmed and headphones on. Such good build and atmosphere.
House byevewithanapple.
Also, while I'm not in Heated Rivalry fandom, I am a fan of excellent vidders. And I know for a fact these vidders are most excellent. *firm nod*
Gimme Sympathy bytafadhali.
We're so close to something better left unknown
Blow by![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
bingeling.
You taste like cigarettes.
Go get your boys!
(and I won't do today's Snowflake Challenge, but you're all awesome and enrich my life in a myriad of ways ❤️)
House by
evewithanapple. Also, while I'm not in Heated Rivalry fandom, I am a fan of excellent vidders. And I know for a fact these vidders are most excellent. *firm nod*
Gimme Sympathy by
tafadhali.We're so close to something better left unknown
Blow by
You taste like cigarettes.
Go get your boys!
(and I won't do today's Snowflake Challenge, but you're all awesome and enrich my life in a myriad of ways ❤️)
Kalloway (kalloway) wrote2026-01-23 08:42 am
kalloway) wrote2026-01-23 08:42 amA Reckoning of Swords 21-23
A bit of archiving, a lot of something. I realized that despite it being two and a half years since I started the new site, I hadn't moved any of my FFVII fic. Not a bit. I have now moved my two Crisis Core fics and will work on the rest sooner than later. But then again, I also had no Kingdom Hearts until I was nudged. (I think some of it is the sheer size of those categories? And knowing this is still a multi-year effort. Even if I manage five fics (or chapters thereof) a day for an entire year, that's only 1825 items, which is nothing compared to the ~2500-not-counting-chaptered-stuff on AO3 + all the original fic I couldn't post there because AO3 sucks and everything I've written since mid-2023. So, like, catching up is task for the bastard child of Hercules and Sisyphus.)
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned some of the everything about my 2003 NaNo novel, too. How I went to archive it, realized I'd always meant to finish editing and expanding it a bit, but actually re-write it - meant to do it last year and, uh, last year happened. Anyway, dead set on doing it this year! Except the main copy was on the website that's gone. Oh, well, surely it's on my journal! Nope! Okay, to the Wayback Machine! Nope! I dug out the old php files and dumped it into some private entries for my future use.
Main things to do with it:
- less padding smut
- remove friend's cameo character
- words we don't use anymore
- remove some of the real-world canons and substitute some fictional ones*
- tighten up the expies a bit
- yeah idek it just needs a lot and that's okay
*the main reason for this aside from unlimited plot potential with the fictional fandoms is the story is set in 2003 and had plenty of commentary on things like Guilty Gear which made sense in 2003 but are a little jarring in the Year of Our Dude 202X.
I don't know if it'll end up being 50k words still, or shorter or longer. My original thoughts on the story were that it was too short for NaNo, and it possibly was hence a lot of weird padding and things just being... weird.
I also have one KH fic and one FFVII fic that I didn't archive on AO3 for Reasons and I'll have to eventually make decisions with those, too...
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned some of the everything about my 2003 NaNo novel, too. How I went to archive it, realized I'd always meant to finish editing and expanding it a bit, but actually re-write it - meant to do it last year and, uh, last year happened. Anyway, dead set on doing it this year! Except the main copy was on the website that's gone. Oh, well, surely it's on my journal! Nope! Okay, to the Wayback Machine! Nope! I dug out the old php files and dumped it into some private entries for my future use.
Main things to do with it:
- less padding smut
- remove friend's cameo character
- words we don't use anymore
- remove some of the real-world canons and substitute some fictional ones*
- tighten up the expies a bit
- yeah idek it just needs a lot and that's okay
*the main reason for this aside from unlimited plot potential with the fictional fandoms is the story is set in 2003 and had plenty of commentary on things like Guilty Gear which made sense in 2003 but are a little jarring in the Year of Our Dude 202X.
I don't know if it'll end up being 50k words still, or shorter or longer. My original thoughts on the story were that it was too short for NaNo, and it possibly was hence a lot of weird padding and things just being... weird.
I also have one KH fic and one FFVII fic that I didn't archive on AO3 for Reasons and I'll have to eventually make decisions with those, too...
yhlee (yhlee) wrote2026-01-23 08:07 am
yhlee) wrote2026-01-23 08:07 amdrive-by in current reading
Nicolas Niarchos. The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth. I think I got this rec from Farah Mendlesohn. Apparently the entire "green energy" resource supply chain (including/especially the batteries) is fucked to hell and gone, including/especially in the human rights arena. Which is not surprising as such, but this is a field I don't follow in any detail (the world is FULL OF THINGS TO KNOW and I can't be expert in them all).
From the jacket copy:
This is ©2026 and just released, but of course...:gestures at current events:
:looks at small collection of slide rule, Napier's bones, abacuses, manual typewriters: Well.
From the jacket copy:
In this rush for green energy, the world has become utterly reliant on resources unearthed far away and willfully blind to the terrible political, environmental, and social consequences of their extraction. Why are the children of the Democratic Republic of the Congo routinely descending deep into treacherous mines to dig with the most rudimentary of tools, or in some cases their bare hands? Why are Indonesia's seas and skies being polluted in a rush for battery metals? Why is the Western Sahara, a source for phosphates, still being treated like a colony? Who must pay the price for progress?
This is ©2026 and just released, but of course...:gestures at current events:
:looks at small collection of slide rule, Napier's bones, abacuses, manual typewriters: Well.
Smart Bitches, Trashy BooksSmart Bitches, Trashy Books (smartbitches_feed) wrote2026-01-23 01:00 pm
smartbitches_feed) wrote2026-01-23 01:00 pmFriday Videos Want to Know: What’s the Oldest Online Video You Remember?
I talk a lot about how SBTB feels like a piece of vintage internet sometimes. I mean, we’re a book blog, albeit a large one with a podcast and a bunch of social media accounts, and every now and again I’m reminded that we’re one of the classic pieces of the internet. (Also: STILL HERE!)
YouTube was founded the 14th of February 2005, a few weeks after this here website, in fact. Yup, both YouTube and SBTB are turning 21 this year. Hoo, boy.
I tried to think of the oldest video I remember seeing on the internet – and I first went online at my now-husband’s college in the mid-90s because mine didn’t have the internet at all. I scared the crap out of myself reading the section of Yahoo that housed all the ghost stories. This was back when, to quote someone whose name I cannot recall (sorry) “you could have any colors you wanted on your web page as long as it was black on grey.”
The most memorable vintage YouTube videos for me seem to be songs, or performances of songs.
For example:
“Chocolate Rain” by Tay Zonday, posted in 2008, aka 18 years ago.
Gary Brolsma’s “Numa Numa” dance, to O-ZONE’s “Dragoste din Tei” which is on my snowboarding playlist. If you see a slow-moving snowboarder singing, “Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma nu ma iei, nu ma nu ma iei, nu ma nu ma nu ma iei,” it’s probably me.
This was originally published on a site called Newgrounds in 2004, and then on YouTube in 2006.
And probably the song I most remember because Candy sent it to me and I started playing it at work. I still sing this to people – who are familiar with the video itself, not just randomly.
This is from 19 years ago, originally uploaded on Valentine’s Day 2007. HA! I also learned from Wiki that Samwell performed it in April 2008 on the BBC show Lily Allen and Friends.
And there’s a making-of behind the scenes video, too. You’ll never believe which sections have the highest views.
Wait – no, I think this is the oldest. It’s from 2003. TWO THOUSAND AND THREE.
And I still say, “But I am le tired” all the time. (Jesus’ Trucknuts I didn’t expect that video to hit me so hard in the current anxieties – proceed with caution with this silly video.)
Happy Friday, y’all!
What’s the oldest video you remember seeing online?
summersgate (summersgate) wrote2026-01-23 07:16 am
summersgate) wrote2026-01-23 07:16 amfriday
Today would be my first husband Pat's birthday. He would be 76 if he lived. But he only got to 55. That seems so young to me now. He wanted to get to know his grandkids and moved back to PA the year before he died. He was here and at the hospital for Roswell's birth. On the day he died he took Sebastian (3) and Hazel (6) to the fireman's fair. So he got to have some of the experiences of being a grandfather. I could accept being a co-grandparent with him much easier than I could accept being a wife. That last year of his life we had a good relationship. I'm so glad of that.
*****
Last night I dreamed a dream where I was in a giant old city. It seemed like it was very long ago - the middle ages. The streets were narrow and the buildings were made from stone. I was a peasant. I had a little flock of chickens that I kept in a place in the country but I had to move them to the city for some reason. A man that I knew but didn't really trust had chickens too and moved them for me along with his. I was with my daughter and her toddler child. We were searching the city for where the chickens had been taken. I didn't know my way around at all and the man was leading us. He found a way to get to a lower level where we had to slide down a stained glass door that he had leaned against a wall. He did it first. I thought the glass might break and I jumped down without using the door as a slide. The toddler was afraid to slide down and we dangled her as far down as we could before we let her go. He caught her and she was okay. But after that I didn't want to follow the man anymore and went on my own to find the chickens. I had an address for the barn where they were kept but had no idea how to find the place. The streets and passageways were like a maze. Everything turned into a dead end. That's when I woke up. Failing to find my way through.
*****
Jan and I are going to paint and sip in Oil City today. Hopefully we'll get home before the winter storm that is predicted gets here or at least it won't be that bad at first. It's supposed to get very cold tonight.
Becoming.
*****
Last night I dreamed a dream where I was in a giant old city. It seemed like it was very long ago - the middle ages. The streets were narrow and the buildings were made from stone. I was a peasant. I had a little flock of chickens that I kept in a place in the country but I had to move them to the city for some reason. A man that I knew but didn't really trust had chickens too and moved them for me along with his. I was with my daughter and her toddler child. We were searching the city for where the chickens had been taken. I didn't know my way around at all and the man was leading us. He found a way to get to a lower level where we had to slide down a stained glass door that he had leaned against a wall. He did it first. I thought the glass might break and I jumped down without using the door as a slide. The toddler was afraid to slide down and we dangled her as far down as we could before we let her go. He caught her and she was okay. But after that I didn't want to follow the man anymore and went on my own to find the chickens. I had an address for the barn where they were kept but had no idea how to find the place. The streets and passageways were like a maze. Everything turned into a dead end. That's when I woke up. Failing to find my way through.
*****
Jan and I are going to paint and sip in Oil City today. Hopefully we'll get home before the winter storm that is predicted gets here or at least it won't be that bad at first. It's supposed to get very cold tonight.
Becoming.
Winger (sideways) wrote2026-01-23 10:25 pm
sideways) wrote2026-01-23 10:25 pm3 sentence fics
Managed a few fills for 3 Sentence Ficathon season! I feel like I managed to almost have a theme here. 1 Jurassic Park, 1 Scavenger's Reign, 2 Finisterre, and 1 TMNT.
( and mostly only 3 sentences. mostly. )
( and mostly only 3 sentences. mostly. )
it only hurts when i breathe (spikedluv) wrote2026-01-23 07:26 am
spikedluv) wrote2026-01-23 07:26 amEntry tags:
The Day in Spikedluv (Thursday, Jan 22)
I hit Walmart while I was downtown, but only because they were running out of dog treats at the garage. (Pip’s father has taken on the task of providing treats for the dogs at the garage ever since we had our first dog, Shiloh, and Pip started taking him up as a puppy. But his dad was sick with bronchitis and missed a whole week and didn’t bring in anything this week when he came back, hence the need for me to pick something up.)
I did a load of laundry, hand-washed dishes, emptied the dishwasher and ran another load, went for several walks with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and scooped kitty litter. We had spaghetti for supper. I also mixed up a meatloaf for tomorrow’s supper.
I got some more writing done! ~800 words today. I’m currently at ~8,000 on this fic and will easily make the 10,000 requirement for SFBB. I watched Best Medicine and some House Hunters International.
Temps started out at 34.3(F), which was a huge surprise! (The TWC app said it was going to be 18 for the overnight low and 33 for the high, which we’ve already exceeded.) It dropped a bit to 33.1 before I left. and reached 38.7.
The forecast for the snow storm has changed, but not for the better. Now they’re calling for 5-8" during the day Sunday, 5-8" overnight, and 1-3" on Monday. Really DNW! *cries*
I’ve heard that this storm is supposed to be massive and hit the south pretty hard, as well. I hope everyone in the path of this thing stays safe and warm.
Mom Update:
Mom was doing okay; tired, as usual. The slightest effort tuckers her out, which is really sad to see. We ate our lunch together. A friend of hers showed up while I was there and even stayed after I left. (She had to move her car so I could get out of the driveway, and sometimes she would take that as an excuse to leave, but she didn’t today.)
Sister S called while I was there and told mom she was bringing down supper for her. Meatloaf, which mom loves. She was looking forward to it, but afraid she wouldn’t be able to eat it.
I did a load of laundry, hand-washed dishes, emptied the dishwasher and ran another load, went for several walks with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and scooped kitty litter. We had spaghetti for supper. I also mixed up a meatloaf for tomorrow’s supper.
I got some more writing done! ~800 words today. I’m currently at ~8,000 on this fic and will easily make the 10,000 requirement for SFBB. I watched Best Medicine and some House Hunters International.
Temps started out at 34.3(F), which was a huge surprise! (The TWC app said it was going to be 18 for the overnight low and 33 for the high, which we’ve already exceeded.) It dropped a bit to 33.1 before I left. and reached 38.7.
The forecast for the snow storm has changed, but not for the better. Now they’re calling for 5-8" during the day Sunday, 5-8" overnight, and 1-3" on Monday. Really DNW! *cries*
I’ve heard that this storm is supposed to be massive and hit the south pretty hard, as well. I hope everyone in the path of this thing stays safe and warm.
Mom Update:
Mom was doing okay; tired, as usual. The slightest effort tuckers her out, which is really sad to see. We ate our lunch together. A friend of hers showed up while I was there and even stayed after I left. (She had to move her car so I could get out of the driveway, and sometimes she would take that as an excuse to leave, but she didn’t today.)
Sister S called while I was there and told mom she was bringing down supper for her. Meatloaf, which mom loves. She was looking forward to it, but afraid she wouldn’t be able to eat it.
sabotabby (sabotabby) wrote2026-01-23 07:03 am
sabotabby) wrote2026-01-23 07:03 amEntry tags:
podcast friday
Between my regular rotation of Bastards/Cool People/ICHH, I've been slowly making my way through Better Offline's coverage of CES. Technically this is work-related and I should be listening on work time (obviously I'm not) but if you want like 20 hours of coverage about what's new in tech (spoiler: not very much), AI crammed into everything, and robots that still can't fold laundry, it's worth checking out.
It's really interesting from more than just Ed Zitron's usual professional hater perspective—which, to be clear, is something I appreciate as a professional hater myself. Because with something like CES, the questions of "who is this for" and "what is the use case" are actually critical and in your face. It's the Consumer Electronics Show, after all. So while robots in manufacturing are obviously a thing, the use case for household robots is a bit more questionable. The most successful household robot, the Roomba, recently went out of business, because as it turns out, they're not useful for 1) most households, which have things like furniture and sometimes stairs, or 2) the parts of your floor that you really don't want to vacuum, like tricky corners. They are good for scaring cats or if your cat is not scared of them, transportation.
The episodes are full of even more absurd technology to solve problems that aren't real, like fridges that open for you, meant to automate the parts of your life that you actually want to enjoy. We want machines to do menial tasks, leaving creative work for us. As it turns out, they're quite good at menial tasks in a factory, where you're doing the same thing repeatedly, but not in a house, where you have to do a lot of little annoying things.
But what we (normal people) want is very different from what techbros want. Remember, these are people who have not had to experience challenges in real life, so when they think about what a person might need, they come up with things like "what if I didn't want to cook and I got my fridge to open for me and dumped a bunch of ingredients in a pot and it would make food, and also a robot read a bedtime story to my child?" The fantasy, of course, is having a slave. But that is not the fantasy that normal people have, and there's an incredible disconnect between where tech is heading and actual human needs.
Anyway, I am working through it very slowly because, as I said, 20+ hours, but it's worth a listen. Also if anyone can find pictures of Robert Evans in an exoskeleton I would like to see that for reasons.
It's really interesting from more than just Ed Zitron's usual professional hater perspective—which, to be clear, is something I appreciate as a professional hater myself. Because with something like CES, the questions of "who is this for" and "what is the use case" are actually critical and in your face. It's the Consumer Electronics Show, after all. So while robots in manufacturing are obviously a thing, the use case for household robots is a bit more questionable. The most successful household robot, the Roomba, recently went out of business, because as it turns out, they're not useful for 1) most households, which have things like furniture and sometimes stairs, or 2) the parts of your floor that you really don't want to vacuum, like tricky corners. They are good for scaring cats or if your cat is not scared of them, transportation.
The episodes are full of even more absurd technology to solve problems that aren't real, like fridges that open for you, meant to automate the parts of your life that you actually want to enjoy. We want machines to do menial tasks, leaving creative work for us. As it turns out, they're quite good at menial tasks in a factory, where you're doing the same thing repeatedly, but not in a house, where you have to do a lot of little annoying things.
But what we (normal people) want is very different from what techbros want. Remember, these are people who have not had to experience challenges in real life, so when they think about what a person might need, they come up with things like "what if I didn't want to cook and I got my fridge to open for me and dumped a bunch of ingredients in a pot and it would make food, and also a robot read a bedtime story to my child?" The fantasy, of course, is having a slave. But that is not the fantasy that normal people have, and there's an incredible disconnect between where tech is heading and actual human needs.
Anyway, I am working through it very slowly because, as I said, 20+ hours, but it's worth a listen. Also if anyone can find pictures of Robert Evans in an exoskeleton I would like to see that for reasons.
yhlee (yhlee) wrote2026-01-23 05:04 am
yhlee) wrote2026-01-23 05:04 amdrive-by interview link
Featured Friday: Yoon Ha Lee [Zealotscript.co.uk, interview].
I apologize in advance for the closing :kof: pun.
I apologize in advance for the closing :kof: pun.
Which one of your characters would you most like to spend time with?
Excuse me, I had to be revived from a fit of the vapors. I give my characters difficult lives (when they survive at all) so it’s a common joke in my family that if they ever came to life, I am so, so very dead. I guess Shuos Mikodez from Machineries of Empire is the least likely to kill or torture me inhumanely for no reason. Alternately, Min from Dragon Pearl is like ten years old and I am not only a parent, I used to teach high school math so I reckon I can handle her. (Famous last words…)
Mad Scientess (nanila) wrote in awesomeers2026-01-23 11:03 am
nanila) wrote in awesomeers2026-01-23 11:03 amEntry tags:
Just One Thing (23 January 2026)
It's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
escritorzuela (queenslayerbee) wrote2026-01-23 11:18 am
queenslayerbee) wrote2026-01-23 11:18 am
Entry tags:
snowflake 2k26 #12
Challenge #12
Make an appreciation post to those who enhance your fandom life. Appreciate them in bullet points, prose, poetry, a moodboard, a song... whatever moves you!
A lot of My Fandom People are disseminated in other sites, most prominently tumblr and discord. Though I do try to get them into dreamwidth, trust me xD. The environment here is one I prefer, frankly: it's slower, and feels calmer, less prone to the kind of drama that plagues those others. In some cases we follow and talk to each other across all platforms, taking advantage of the benefits of each (curse discord as I might in many areas, in terms of direct messages, it's definitely the best one, for example).
I don't think of myself as a gregarious person; I get exhausted quickly by large crowds, especially. In fandom it's much of the same: I feel more comfortable in small fandoms, and whenever I join a larger one, I set to find a small corner of it where I'm in my element.
My preferences often make this easier, because they're rarely in alignment with fandom majorities. Thanks to that I've found My People in numerous corners, from the chill group I gathered while The 100 (a large, wank-prone fandom) was airing, to the buddies I've made in the DC fandom (Even Worse xD), to the ones I met in the tiny environment of writeblr, when I was still around those parts, or that I'm meeting now with Pluribus, for example. My oldest fandom friends, I met in the Shadowhunters fandom, my first active one. A trainwreck, but again, I met a lot of people there that I'm still friends with today :D
In many cases we've followed each other through several fandoms, sometimes meeting, sometimes diverging for a while. Sometimes following each other beyond fandom, taking interests in each other's professional pursuits, in each other's personal lives. Some of the people I've met here know things about me that I wouldn't tell those I personally know off-line, and with their mere presence, support, and engagement, have helped me through Some Shit.
I'll always be glad that I took the leap from lurker to active fandom participant (and creator). I genuinely don't know how I would've stayed sane through my early twenties without the people I met around here. Some of them, I no longer talk with; some just follow me on tumblr and we only sporadically like each other's posts. But others have become lasting friendships that sustain me to this day, And I'm extremely grateful for that!