Today's Adventures
Aug. 30th, 2025 11:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
flaneursAmusingly, I'm wearing a goldenrod-yellow T-shirt with a corncob and the caption "This is my crop top." (It's full length.) I got at least half a dozen compliments on it. :D I bought it earlier this year at another event, definitely a good choice for fall festivals.
( Read more... )
fiber redux
Aug. 30th, 2025 06:04 pmyhlee
Y'all. I'd missed an earlier message (thanks, FaceBook!) but I managed not to pick out sheep fleece (breed unknown). Due to the holiday weekend, this wasn't an in-person transaction, although I hope to return in a bitand be able to talk to the farmer in person!
...I am sitting on a few pounds each of alpaca (definitely huacaya, not sure if one is suri) and angora goat fiber a.k.a. MOHAIR. Mind you, I would have been very happy to work with raw WOOL.
Well, I'll be picking through vegetable matter and sorting this VERY SLOWLY for the rest of 2025 lol. :) I do own hand carders but I think I save my pennies for a drum carder for the holidays...
(no subject)
Aug. 30th, 2025 06:25 pmjadelennoxThought process: "Why isn't there a biopic about John Brown? His life was weird and full of adventures and it would be a banger. Wait, maybe there is, let me check wikipedia... oh my goodness these are very different movies."
If anyone's seen any of these and they're worth watching (because good), or hatewatching, or avoiding like the plague, then let me know!
Santa Fe Trail (1940), with Raymond Massey as John Brown, also Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ronald Reagan as General Custer. That's certainly some casting?
Wikipedia says:
[The film] depicted Brown completely unsympathetically as a villainous madman and Massey plays him with a constant, wild-eyed stare. The film gave the impression that he did not oppose slavery
and quotes from the film:
Mammy: "Well, Old John Brown said he's gonna give us freedom, but shuckins, if this here Kansas is 'freedom', then I got no use for it. No, sir." Then, a black man adds, "Me, neither. I just wants to get back home to Texas and sit till Kingdom Come."
So this certainly sounds like a gem.
The Good Lord Bird (2020 miniseries), starring Ethan Hawke as John Brown and an large cast including Daveed Diggs, Orlando Jones, and...Killer Mike? Sure, why not.
Did I know about this one? I bet I did—it won a lot of awards—but everyone's brain was oatmeal in 2020 and I am not sure I formed long term memories. Also maybe I heard of it and assumed it was about the Lord God Bird (the ivory billed woodpecker) because who wouldn't assume that?
Anyway the assessment of this is mostly a lot of awards and a positive rotten tomatoes rating so probably a safer bet watching Daveed Diggs as Frederick Douglass instead of Ronald Reagan as George Custer, yeow.
Yuletide 2025 Schedule & New Year's Resolutions
Aug. 30th, 2025 03:24 pmyuletidemods posting in yuletide_admin2025 Schedule
Monday 15 to Friday 26 September: Nominations (end 9pm UTC 26 September)Tuesday 14 to Friday 24 October: Sign-ups (end 9pm UTC 24 October)
Sunday 26 October: Assignments out (may be earlier)
Wednesday 10 December: Default deadline (9pm UTC)
Wednesday 17 December: Assignment deadline (9pm UTC)
Wednesday 24 December: Main collection works reveals (9pm UTC)
Thursday 25 December: Madness collection works reveals (9pm UTC)
Thursday 1 January: Author reveals, end of event (9pm UTC)
Please check back closer to the time if you want to be sure about deadlines! Deadlines in other timezones may be closer than they appear. If your region has a seasonal time shift during the above dates, your relationship to the deadline will also change. We recommend using timeanddate.com to check when each deadline is for you before it occurs.
New Year's Resolutions
We just sent an email to everyone who took part in Yuletide 2024 and who needs to complete a New Year's Resolution story before signing up again.We use the email that's associated with your AO3 account. This is a good time to check what that email is! If you have any doubts about whether you received it, you're welcome to check your status with us by emailing yuletideadmin@gmail.com. Please include your AO3 name.
Who needs to complete a New Year's Resolution
If you took part in Yuletide and defaulted after the default deadline, or you submitted an incomplete story at the posting deadline, or you defaulted in Yuletide twice in a row, we generally ask you to complete a New Year’s Resolution story before you sign up again.See the rules for defaulting on AO3
If you defaulted in a previous year, we will not have sent you a new reminder. We issued a general amnesty for ordinary defaults before the 2023 round, but if you were told you needed to complete a NYR due to turning in a placeholder story or a similar problem, you are probably still on our NYR list. Please check with us if you aren’t sure!
How to fulfil the requirement
Stories written for the purpose of re-qualifying for Yuletide must be posted to the New Year's Resolutions 2025 collection before you sign up to Yuletide 2025. They must be over 1,000 words, written for a specific person's past Yuletide prompt, and given to that person. You can write for any Yuletide 2024 prompt, or you can choose an older Yuletide prompt as long as the fandom in which you write is small enough to still qualify for Yuletide (that is, there are fewer than 1,000 fics on AO3 that are in English, complete, and over 1,000 words long).Purpose of New Year's Resolutions
The NYR system exists for several reasons:- It's an incentive to encourage people either to default early, or, to push on through and post something
- It works as a warm-up, or as practice, or as a way of proving to yourself you can finish a story to a prompt
- It's a contribution to the project of getting more stories written in tiny fandoms
- It's a way of ensuring that past prompts don't get entirely forgotten.
If you had to default in a past year, we are aware that this may have been for a carefully-considered reason or in a difficult time. Needing to complete a NYR does not mean we think you're terrible. Even members of the mod team have needed to write NYRs in the past. We hope you use it as an opportunity to write something you enjoy.
People are also welcome to write NYR stories just for fun! The collection will stay open for late fills until Yuletide 2025 sign-ups close (approx Oct 24).
2024 prompts
- On AO3
- In an app
- In a text file
- From pinch hitters
- As part of the Someday My Fic Will Come mini-challenge
Prompts for Yuletide 2010-2024 can be found through the relevant individual collections and the NYR collections (see the Yuletide parent collection).
Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.
Well, that escalated
Aug. 30th, 2025 11:24 amyhlee
Sheep and alpaca! Raw unprocessed fiber bought directly from a local-ish farmer. I reckon processing this will be my hobby project for the rest of the year.
Fiber animal wonders about her own fate. :) :) I have...10g of catten floof (which is very spinnable!).
ETA: Also, this may have happened /o\
Covid vaccine access at pharmacies
Aug. 30th, 2025 10:34 amredbird posting in thisfinecrewIn Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Nevada, state law says pharmacists can’t give vaccines that aren’t CDC-approved. In another 13 states, they can, but it requires a prescription.
These are state laws, so call your state respresentatives.
Here’s a script, and the Massachusetts phone numbers:
( Read more... )
This is in addition to calling your doctor’s office (if you have one) to ask for the vaccine.
someone bring harp, lyre, timbrel, dance, lute, pipe, and cymbals (both resounding and loud)
Aug. 29th, 2025 11:39 pmjadelennoxI can't really drink alcohol anymore so there's no point in saving a bottle of something expensive and wonderful for when the day finally comes.
I briefly wondered if I should acquire a vuvuzela so I have it when I need it, but I realized this will be basically a textbook example of a moment for which shofarot are made. I can usually get a good trumpet blast or nine. I'm prepared.
See you all in the streets. Maybe it will happen tomorrow.
Game Hype: Trespasser
Aug. 30th, 2025 03:11 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
deeperinthegame_feedI picked up Trespasser which is a paranormal, post apocalyptic military RPG (specifically zone fiction & military moe). Influences include Stalker, Roadside Picnic, Forever Winter, Girls Und Panzer, and probably a bunch of other things I’m not up on.
Apparently sometime in the future, there’s a big war and despite the hypertech being thrown around, one valley, Corte Largo, is spared – because it has a floating fortress in the sky, Damocles, that calls down strikes with laser targeting systems any time anyone or anything tries to invade.
However, a small number of individuals, Trespassers, have snuck in to try to pry pre-war military and scientific secrets from this place, guided by mysterious operators known as Conductors, who seem to have telepathic/psychic powers.
You play the Trespassers trying to run missions, perhaps for their respective forces outside, perhaps for their own reasons. Many of the chargen options point to characters who have been mindwiped, artificial clones, failed Conductors, and other somewhat weird types being sent into this place. This game also feels like a spiritual cousin to Lacuna, in that you’re playing agents sneaking into a forbidden territory with it’s own set of rules and information and goals given by higher ups you can’t fully trust.
Mechanically it’s fairly light; a simple pass/fail system, combat uses an action point system of Stamina. I feel like the game mostly flies on the setting and concepts, with a light mechanical combat as the mainstay of the systemic part. The ideas are intriguing but I’m guessing the general experience of play depends mostly on the GM’s ability to frame and push the weirdness and clues and there’s not much advice in here. So… it’s going to depend a lot on what you come into the game with and your ability to manage that.
Anyway, if you’re looking for a cool setting and a fun premise, and can structure clue play on your own it might be worth grabbing.
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Some Encouraging Signs
Aug. 29th, 2025 01:50 pmyourlibrarianmeta_warehouse and found that I was interested in the suggestions about older Trek being more character oriented than newer Trek shows. Although the post involved DS9 and Discovery, if we look at Star Trek Enterprise versus Discovery, "bad writing" doesn't cover it all. ( Read more... )2) In Germany, news readers asked to identify AI created news often couldn't, and were more likely to stay subscribed. (You can test yourself on some of the samples at the link)
3) Watched another season of Silent Witness and came to a realization about why I took to Clarissa so quickly. ( Read more... )
4) I have yet to get back to Boston Legal, interrupted as I was by new subscriptions, shows returning, etc. But I had left myself some notes about something I still think is worth mentioning even if I don't develop this out into a longer essay.
I was struck by the way political issues were engaged with in shows taking place in the 1990s vs 2000s. ( Read more... )
5) Encouraging news about the Briet startup which aims to make digital books ownable by libraries instead of the hamstringing rental agreements they now have to contend with. I hope it succeeds and grows.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7
Want to leave a Kudos?
boost: Etymology Nerd is a glorious linguistic communicator
Aug. 29th, 2025 12:34 pmjesse_the_k@etymologynerd on TikTok • etymology_nerd on YouTube (note underscore)
My first fandom is language. Let me enthuse about the Etymology Nerd Adam Aleksic. He's a short-form video presenter, essayist, and recently-published author. He started on Reddit, but attained fame on TikTok, and his YouTube is 90% shorts (but not every TikTok has made it to YouTube). It's important that his videos are accurately captioned, cause he speaks faster than an auctioneer on meth. No video description and his hand-held camera means flashing and shaking images. The videos reward multiple views.
( six links to short videos, accurately captioned without video description )
Three Essays to Read
If you prefer prose, his Substack newsletter offers RSS at https://etymology.substack.com/feed or luck into one of his maybe-monthly essays here via etymologynerd_feed (DW feeds only go back two weeks).
- why BDSM can be surprisingly useful in linguistics — i'm serious
- slop capitalism and dead internet theory: viral ai-generated memes
- technofeudalism and the death of serendipity: why the grocery store is better than an app
Want more? My first internet #lingcomm crush interviewed Aleksic on Lingthusiasm podcast 105—both audio and transcript there, with insights into best practices in vertical video and why it feels different than old-style horizontals.
Any linguistic communicators making you happy?
New Worlds Theory Post: The Worldbuilding On-Ramp
Aug. 29th, 2025 05:02 pmswan_tower(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/7LsNqj)
… so I’m playing Dark Souls
Aug. 29th, 2025 05:53 pmrydra_wongMy standard joke here is that any game involving reflexes and coordination is going to be an excruciating experience of innumerable repeated failures for me, so I might as well play one where that's the point. This is only partly a joke.
Necessary context for anyone who has not met me IRL: I am dyspraxic as fuck. I was in my late twenties at least, possibly thirties, before I could catch an object being gently thrown to me across a short distance. My coordination, reflexes and ability to react to multiple inputs in real-time are so bad that I can't drive (or cycle on the road) because it would be OBVIOUSLY WILDLY DANGEROUS for me to even try (people would die). I have to buy special shatterproof crockery because otherwise my plate turnover is so high.
It was only with climbing that I learned that I can actually acquire motor skills, some of them, slowly, if I have unlimited time to practice them on my own terms.
Further necessary context: I'd been looking wistfully at the Soulsbornes for ages -- having seen videos such as Jonny Sims's Bloodborne streams -- as something that I'd probably love if I only had any coordination or ability at all to cope with having to react to multiple rapid inputs in real-time.
One of my climber friends has argued that Soulslike games are basically the same as working on a hard boulder project: you fail and fail and fail and fail and that's the process, each time you try to learn a bit more or try something new, and gradually you make progress, and eventually, hopefully, you don't fail.
And that's a process that I fucking love, and that works very well for my brain. Perverse stubbornness is my jam.
But when I look at something like Bloodborne -- the combat exchange is over before I can even track who's where and what's happened.
So I was thinking grumpily/wistfully and in secret about how what I really wanted was not an "easy mode," but a Soulsborne game that I could adjust the speed on (maybe set it all to 20-30% slower!), just so I could get my foot in the door, just so I could begin to maybe try.
And I watched more videos of other games, and somewhere along the way I watched people figuring out and/or being coached on how to get through the fight with the Asylum Demon at the end of the tutorial* in Dark Souls 1.
(I also read that Dark Souls 1 has the slowest and, in some people's eyes, "clunkiest" combat of the Souls games — not necessarily the easiest, but more tactical, less fast-twitch.)
And I thought, "... huh, I wonder, if I really worked at it, maybe I could beat the Asylum Demon? That would be kind of cool."
To be clear: I bought the game with the goal of seeing if I could beat the tutorial.
( Cut for length )
Pod-Together Rolling Remix
Aug. 29th, 2025 09:01 amsanguinitypod_together has begun reveals, releasing a few more creations each day. phoenixfalls and I worked together again this year, and our creations went live today!We decided to do a multi-fandom Rolling Remix, in which I would write a story and pass it to her, she'd write a story riffing off mine and pass it back, I'd write a story riffing off hers and pass it back... Nothing was barred: we could change fandoms and pairings as we liked. We ended with eight stories in six fandoms, whee! And then we each podfic'd what the other one wrote.
Readers/listeners interested in a single fandom may enjoy any story as a stand-alone. (That said, we suggest reading the three Vorkosigan Saga stories in order as a set.) More adventurous readers/listeners, however, may choose to explore the entire project -- and to that end, we've included "What You Need to Know" summaries about each fandom, in both text and audio.
Pod-Together Rolling Remix byPhoenixFalls and
Link to the series page. Includes all-in-one audio download, a map of how the stories are connected (and an image description for the map), plus links to each of the stories. Use the map to explore, or follow the series order, or pick and choose as you please. Please heed the warnings for the individual stories.
And here are the individual stories! Audio (both the what-you-need-to-know and the story) are included on each page.
- Captains Courageous, A Song of the Grand Banks, Penn & Uncle Salters
- Vorkosigan Saga (spoilers for Shards of Honor)
- Cold Fear of Some Pretended Future (The Green Silk Room Remix), Aral/Cordelia
- Stamped with the Seal of Emperor Ezar (The Genie is Out of the Bottle Remix), Miles & Cordelia
- Magnetic North (The Toward or Away Remix), Miles & Aral
- Cold Fear of Some Pretended Future (The Green Silk Room Remix), Aral/Cordelia
- White Cockades, Les surprises de l'Amour (The Book of Ruth Remix), Andrew/Charles Edward
- Kushiel's Legacy, Fate So Entwined (The In Ysandre's Name Remix), Ysandre & Phedre
- Elementary, An Application for Scalpels in the Advancement of a Relationship (The Risk-Aware Consensual Kink Remix), Sherlock & Joan
- Jacobite Trilogy | The Flight of the Heron series, to eat the bread of sorrows (The Gift of Sleep Remix), Ewen & Lochiel
...and that was a lot, so maybe I'll just make this an announcement post and leave the bit where I talk about the stories and process to another post.
Very big thanks to
garonne and tgarnsl for their pronunciation help with the French and Gaelic! Any remaining pronunciation errors or oddities are very much our own.some non-fiction books
Aug. 28th, 2025 11:52 pmjadelennoxMostly these days I'm reading fun romances because, you know, everything. But here's two exceptions:
I am not a good reader for non-fiction American history doorstoppers, but I picked up from the library Charles Sumner : conscience of a nation by Zaakir Tameez entirely on the strength of Jamelle Bouie's interview with the author, which intrigued me. And the book was really great, hard recommend. Also very apropos for the moment, in both inspiring and disturbing ways.
About 10 pages in I was thinking, was Sumner autistic? and then shortly afterward Tameez mentions the same speculation. And it's very much written as Sumner's neuroatypicality basically being one of the reasons we had Reconstruction at all -- while all the other Republicans (laudatory) in Washington were thinking about what was achievable, about the next election, not being rude to their more conservative friends, doing whatever centrist compromise David Shor and James Carville told them to do, Sumner was just blowing it all up to do what was right. The man was nearly beaten to death, and he knew the beatdown was coming. He just kept yelling about human rights and civil rights on the senate floor (using those very words), alienating all his closest friends, pissing off President Lincoln, and giving no quarter. And sometimes he was an asshole, clearly; and sometimes he was very much in the wrong. But still. We could use a morally uncompromising neuroatypical asshole senator right now.
Anyway, great book.
I also ILL'd The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould, which I never read in high school. And wow, so glad I read it. I picked it up because it was referenced in an article about GenAI, but what I kept thinking as I read is how much all this oldey-timey historical eugenics has come roaring back. The confluence shouldn't have surprised me, because the GenAI weirdos and the eugenicists all travel in the same circles at the very least, and are often the exact same people.
Anyway, very well written, except it took me a while because so much racism. Also the fun thing about living near Harvard is that in any book about American historical upper-crust shittiness, you're going to keep reading about utterly loathsome people while thinking "and that one's a street! and that one's an elementary school!" (Also, "Carl Sagan named a book after this asshole? Really?")
To be fair the elementary school got renamed 20 years ago. I'm apparently now my dad. You know, "turn off where route 99 used to be" and "I'll meet you at Scollay Under".
(CW: Gould is both writing in 1981, and his method of argument is to say, basically, okay even if I take these racist assholes at face value, let me show that their science is shit and their data are nonsense. Which means he restates a lot of the racist and eugenicist arguments—and prints a few of their illustrations—so their racism is present in the book. It's not a style of presenting racism that a history of science book would use today, I believe. Gould is clearly repeating the racist arguments in order to refute them, it's just that he's slow and methodical in the refutations.)
