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Current Mood: grateful
Current Music: Death in Paradise

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Five Years today

Five years ago today I fell. I nearly lost my leg. I was in the hospital/care home for months. It was horrible. Care homes are awful. It seemed like I'd be there forever. But there was still hope.

I taught my classes online from my bed. I helped interview for a new professor from that same bed.

And I had THIS community. You made that time better by checking in with me. You sent me gifts. You sent me stories. The Prodigal Son community made this most amazing art out of one of my stories and I took it back and forth to the hospital every time I had to return for more surgeries because I was afraid the care home would lose it and it was precious to me (It's in my office on top of the file cabinet today).

I'm not sure you know how much you meant to me as I learned to walk again. As I went through all this pain (If you want a visual, go look at the pictures Lindsey Vonn has been posting of her leg and external fixator, my leg looked exactly like that). And I feel sad that one of my biggest supporters,

spikedluv isn't here to read this. But so many others did so much and more, especially

evil_little_dog. It meant everything and I appreciate all of you. Thank you.

I'm doing good. I hike when I can. I'm not in terrible pain for the most part but the leg is weak and the nerve pain I do have is not fun. But I'm here. This is not stopping me.

And today I realized that not only is it a bad day for me two of my favorite celebrities died on the 27th, Leonard Nimoy and Mister Rogers.

In better news...

Tried the new coffee shop in Point Pleasant. this one isn't near the mothman centric stuff. There is one there that I go to that is...okay. I'd love to say let me watch your shop for a weekend and you go to a coffee conference because even McDonalds gets more adventuresome than you. This one had a great menu but too many cold drinks (especially for winter) I liked it but it's out of the way. A student found me there. figures.

AND the on-campus Mennonite coffee shop has mushroom coffee. I was afraid to know how much it was and they named the mixed drink with it the muddy puddle....

Came home to the news of someone I went to school with losing everything when some monster burned ALL of his beehives (he makes his living with the wax/honey etc), 60 hives, tens of thousands of bees, all gone. People suck.

Sigh.

But I did write and since I'm not ready for it to be on AO3 as it's part of a longer work, I'm just putting it here. Wrote it for

spikesgirl58's 6 word challenge.

( story under here )

Fannish 50 recs

Claimed Torchwood

No Time To Spare FAKE

10 Seconds Hazbin Hotel comic

Going to Visit Uncle Mer Stargate SG-1/Stargate Atlantis

The Healing Power of Touch Stargate Atlantis

Suited Torchwood

Good Boy Hazbin Hotel

Points Given, Points Taken Hazbin Hotel

Three Times The Trouble Hazbin Hotel

the greatest adventure (what lies ahead) Merlin

Punishment Torchwood

Oh Boy, You're Too Young To Burn (It'll be alright) Hazbin Hotel

A Guard on my Heart - Universe Explanations The Owl House

Letting Hope In Hazbin Hotel

God Sends Meat And The Devils Send Cooks Hazbin Hotel

There's No Aftercare in Hell Hazbin Hotel

Color Palette 9-1-1

Status Quo Hazbin Hotel

and, sometimes, she actually puts down her phone Hazbin Hotel

Down To Earth Hazbin Hotel

Confidence Is Sexy Hazbin Hotel

If A World Was Ending, You'd Come Over, Right?
Doctor Who

the arrows point in a circle, and it never ends Hazbin Hotel

our forever fall RWBY

Renewed Liaison Les liaisons dangereuses | Dangerous Liaisons - Choderlos de Laclos

There My Heart Forever Lies The Jacobite Trilogy | The Flight of the Heron Series

in the darkness with you 镇魂 | Guardian

Audio Quality Hazbin Hotel

Feverish The Professionals

with bells and brays
陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) / 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

The Good (?) Doctor Teen Wolf

Your Perfect Doll Hazbin Hotel

The Truth Exposed Stargate Atlantis

Current Mood: worried

Entry tags:

Gains 661

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Bolivia cargo plane carrying banknotes crashes, killing at least 15

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bolivia-plane-crash-banknotes-9.7109689?cmp=rss

A military police officer stands next to the site of a plane crash in Bolivia

A cargo plane carrying money crashed Friday near Bolivia's capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on a highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bolivia-plane-crash-banknotes-9.7109689?cmp=rss

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Don't Wanna. But It's Fun.

I also applied to volunteer for the Urbana Park District.

My Apple Watch found my iPhone. That was useful.

Overslept until 8 AM. Hustled my butt into the shower because I want to go to the bank at lunchtime. Oliver and Lily attended my shower.

I bought some Birdie and Louie cat food for Zara. I hope that she likes it. She's been picking at her food.

It looks like the police was doing a welfare check on my elderly neighbor. I hope that he's okay.

Got the dogs in. I just need to feed the cats at lunchtime, and then I can run to the bank (done). I also got two rolls of quarters in case I need to go to the laundromat, although I really want to get the washer fixed this weekend.

Received the gate for Zara's room.

I found an end table on Amazon that’s cheap and I like better than the Facebook Marketplace one. I just need to check the chair to see if I should get brown or black. Actually I bought the brown one to match the bookcases.

Well hmmm. I found a lamp and a washable rug on Amazon, so I won’t need to buy the ones on Facebook Marketplace. I just need to buy the clock. Oh, and the nail gun.

Holy cow. I’ve made over $8000 on stocks, and I haven’t been investing that long.

Oy. Someone (Bella, I’m looking at you) stole and ate my apple fritter. I was scolding her about that when she stole a hot pad that I put under my food. Sneaky, cheeky dog.

My singing lesson went well. My teacher is a great combination of exacting and fun. It’s funny that I get a case of the “don’t wannas” before my singing lesson and choir, but I really enjoy the singing once I start. Well, I get a case of the “don’t wannas” about almost everything besides eating and sleeping.

I need a drill and am trying to decide whether to get a used one or not.

I previously bought a dry-erase board for the refrigerator, but I kept on knocking it down and its frame came off. I ordered a thin dry-erase surface, and that looks like it’ll work better. And I also ordered a thin dry-erase calendar for the fridge. I’ll use it to track the time that I’m spending on the house.

Fed us all. I'm trying to decide whether to research more stocks or just go to bed.

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The welcome end to a difficult and painful week

1. FB, Instagram, and Youtube want me to buy a Mellow Cloud Pillow for some absurd reason. I've been pummeled with ads on it on all three. The evil marketing people have figured out how to manipulate us into buying things via social media platforms. Must resist. Otherwise they win. I do not need a Mellow ergonomic pillow - also been there done that, and they never work for me.

2. After re-watching all of Buffy and up to Angel S5 Episode 17, I've picked up on a few things that I feel compelled to share...

* For a low-budget television series done in the 1990s-early 00s, and at a fast pace, with 22 episodes per season, not to mention being on the brink of cancellation? These series are brilliant in many ways - almost flawless in acting, stunts, special effects, and dialogue. ( Read more... )

* The best character arcs are - Spike on Buffy and Wes on Angel. And they both have one thing in common - outside of the fact that they are both in the Buffyverse - Whedon had no idea what he was going to do with either character, how they fit into the story, or plot. Interestingly enough? Whedon did carefully plot out all the others - specifically Cordelia and Willow, and was proud of it. But, ironically, Cordelia and Willow have the worst character arcs - neither quite works, both are clumsy, and both rely way too much on possession by an outside source and comic book gimmickry. (ie. Whedon spent too much time obsessing over Dark Phoenix for his own good.)
( Read more... )
* Angel can't be redeemed because he's too busy fighting with himself to get anywhere. ( Read more... )

3. My soap opera is aggravating me, which is par for the course with soap operas, they tend to be that way by nature? I watch them because I get invested in various characters.

The Pitt, on the other hand, is excellent and my favorite television show at the moment. It's very comforting. Also it looks exactly like the ER's that I've been inside of in NYC. Certainly looks a lot like the one in NYU Langone. It's about problem solving in crisis mode. And shows a lot of kindness. Very nice antidote to my rising misanthropy - caused by a combination of factors, public transportation, crazy org, national news (the small scraps I get), and the soap opera. Also social media platforms (not this one - Dreamwidth is kind of an oasis in a sea of negativity and ads.).

4. A co-worker (Moscow Co-worker) sent the following article link to myself, Breaking Bad, and various other co-workers for our reading pleasure.

"For you reading pleasure (long article that spooked some people yesterday):"2028 Global Intelligence Crisis

To which Breaking Bad replied: "Way too long and technical for me."

Sigh. It is. It's also about how AI is taking away our jobs and evil tech revolution is taking away jobs ....reminds me of the industrial revolution.
No wonder it scared folks.

Actually, if you've studied history (specifically between 1870s-1980s) and have a mind for pattern recognition, you may realize how incredibly similar the two trajectories are. I'm not sure if that's comforting or not? Does kind of promote a feeling of general misanthropy and malaise. But hey, at least we know if things get worse than the height of the industrial revolution (that was the atomic bomb and WWI and II), we're all dead.

And on that happy note - I'm off to bed, hopefully to sleep and not dream overly much.

Current Mood: tired

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#90 Work Discussion (part 2a of 2)

Work Discussion
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 2a of 2
Word count (story only): 377
[Friday, May 15, 2020, 1:30 pm]

:: After work, Aidan gets home to an unexpected, but not unwelcome, chaos. Part of the Edison’s Mirror (Teague Family) story arc. ::

Back to Late Arrival (part 2)
To the Edison's Mirror Landing Page
On to

Shandiin parked the car next to her front door, on the roundabout at the top of the driveway. “I’ll check on the youngsters,” Aidan began. “Thank you for the ride.”

She laughed. “That was no problem at all. You’ve been an amazing help at the garden. Plus, it’s not like I had to go out of my way to drop you off.”

Aidan smiled as he collected the bag. Something inside crinkled again. “The weather will be blustery for a few weeks more, but after that, I think that the walk will be a very appealing part of my days.” He waved as she climbed out of the SUV to take several steps closer to the front door.

He crossed the yard quietly.

The click of the front door opening brought a mix of voices tumbling down the stairs at him. “I don’t understand why you’re keeping the flame so low. Wouldn’t making it boil faster get us to the usable product faster?” Rory’s voice was clear, and surprisingly empty of hostility.

“Wait, where did the jars come from? Or the sugar?” Ed asked the room at large.

Vic laughed warmly. “I asked Nik. He wanted a cut of the final product. I talked him up to fifty percent.”

“Up?” Rory repeated. “That doesn’t make much sense.”

“I don’t like underpaying when I need specialized help,” Vic explained softly. “It’s a terrible time to be stingy. It’s also a good way to build resentment instead of friendship. Besides, he’s the one who supplied both the jars and the sugar.”

Aidan’s footsteps were silent on the stairs as he made his way closer to the doorway into the living room. He caught a glimpse of Mac, standing on a chair wearing the worn tan tee shirt that Vic slept in. He watched her wipe her chubby, clean fingers on the fabric.

“Why are we making jam when we can buy it in the store?” Rory asked.

Ed spoke next. “Because this way there’s nothing in it hat we don’t understand. This way, we know what’s in the jam, right down to the spices or just cloves.” The boy washed his hands and rinsed them all with cool water, then dried his hands on the hem of his shirt.”

Author’s note: I keep falling asleep at the keyboard. I’m not risking a fall, so I’ve got to artificially break this up into another part. I’m sorry.

Flight logs and hot tub photo among key moments from Bill Clinton's deposition

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/ce94d4xk5mvo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/ce94d4xk5mvo#3

The former US president, who is featured in photographs within the Epstein files, denies having any knowledge of the convicted sex offender's crimes.

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/ce94d4xk5mvo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/ce94d4xk5mvo#3

DOJ charges 30 more people in Minnesota anti-ICE church protest

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2j0w1z3z1o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2j0w1z3z1o#0

Ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon was one of the original nine defendants arrested last month

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2j0w1z3z1o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2j0w1z3z1o#0

Joe Biden takes selfies with passengers as he takes commercial flight

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c5ygl45g6x1o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c5ygl45g6x1o#3

The former president was stuck at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington DC, after an hour-long ground stop delayed departures.

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c5ygl45g6x1o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c5ygl45g6x1o#3

Tram derails in Milan, leaving two dead and dozens injured

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y599degnqo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y599degnqo#1

The crowded tram was travelling in the centre of Milan at rush hour when it appeared to crash into the side of a building.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y599degnqo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y599degnqo#1

Watsfic's 50th

Seen on the Watsfic discord, qwp

Hey everyone,

**It is with great pride that I announce WATSFIC's 50ᵗʰ Anniversary!** On January 13th, 1976, we were officially recognized by the Federation of Students as a student club. For 50-years since then we have been nerding out to all facets of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. From the original release of Star Wars and the animated Lord of the Rings films, to Dungeons and Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and Wargaming.

To celebrate our first half-century as a club at UW, **we are hosting our 50ᵗʰ Anniversary Event on March 7ᵗʰ. Join us from 11 AM to 11 PM in MC 4041 and 4042** as we take a walk down memory lane. With stops along Ravenloft and the White Plume Mountain, glimpses of the wonders and horrors of space with Mothership and Warhammer, casual pitstops with Board Games and Magic: The Gathering, and some nice R&R complete with classic films and painting.

**Please Sign-Up using this form :**
Walk-Ins are welcome, however, we cannot guarantee space for everyone at every activity.

**We'd like to thank everyone** for helping keep this club going strong for 50 years, **and invite you all, first-year to alumni, to join us in this once in a 50-year celebration** of nerdom at the University of Waterloo!

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

steinbeck,
traits

Traits

The things . . .

The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system.
And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success.
And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.
~ John Steinbeck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1902-1968)

Psychopathy Isn't Real, But a "Zombie Idea"

Posted by Miss Cellania

https://www.neatorama.com/2026/02/27/Psychopathy-Isnt-Real-But-a-Zombie-Idea/

Embed from Getty Images

The popular idea of a psychopath is a person with a personality disorder making them incapable of distinguishing right from wrong or feeling empathy. The idea has been around for hundreds of years, and was extensively studied in the 20th century. But the studies and experiments on psychopathy mostly produce null results, meaning that whatever factor you were measuring (empathy, emotion, or impulse control), there was no significant difference between people identified as psychopaths and those who were not. Those considered psychopaths had emotions, they could recognize emotions in others, and they were capable of empathy. It began to look like psychopathy was a label that arose because we no longer wanted to classify people as evil or demon possessed. Or maybe it was a handy diagnosis for psychological conditions we just couldn't figure out.

Despite the research, psychopathy roared back into popular culture in the 1990s with movies like Natural Born Killers, Silence of the Lambs, and American Psycho. In the real world, we want to make sense of the senselessly evil things people do. But the research doesn't make that easy. Read about the science behind psychopathy and what it tells us at Aeon. -via Damn Interesting

https://www.neatorama.com/2026/02/27/Psychopathy-Isnt-Real-But-a-Zombie-Idea/

The Dream (or Nightmare) That Built California

Posted by Miss Cellania

https://www.neatorama.com/2026/02/27/The-Dream-or-Nightmare-That-Built-California/

One thing you really did study in American history class was the California Gold Rush. John Sutter found gold and everyone on the east coast decided to move to the west coast and get rich. But that's not the entire story. Sutter was actually a settler who was building a community, and the discovery of gold upset his plans and his life.

Samuel Brannan, on the other hand, saw opportunity in gold. His plan was not to get rich mining gold, but in publicizing it. He had come to the small village of San Francisco for religious asylum, but abandoned that to become the richest man in the territory. As people came from all over the world to seek gold, he took advantage of those people instead of the gold they were looking for. And the people who came during the Gold Rush and stayed after it was over shaped the area into what it is today. Kurzgesagt After Dark looks at the darker side of the California Gold Rush. There's a one-minute skippable ad at 4:52.

https://www.neatorama.com/2026/02/27/The-Dream-or-Nightmare-That-Built-California/

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112 ☆ candy hearts exchange

After taking a break from exchanges for a year (and not writing any fic for a while), I decided to dip back in with

candyheartsex this year! Here's what I wrote and what I received. ♥

Title: shelter from the storm
Fandom: Final Fantasy XVI
Characters: Clive Rosfield/Jill Warrick
Rating: General Audiences
Word Count: 1,622
Additional Tags: Pre-Relationship, Missing Scene, Hurt/Comfort, POV Jill Warrick
Summary: In a moment of rest after a long mission, Jill accepts some help.

Read on AO3 | Read on DW

I offered FFXVI fic on a bit of a whim because it's been a while since I wrote any, and I was surprised when I actually matched on it so this was a bit of a struggle to write, but I think it turned out okay! I had to keep watching game clips on YouTube to try and replicate their manner of speaking lmao.

Title: Safe Bet
Author: PeppyBismilk
Fandom: Hades (Video Game)
Characters: Charon/Hermes
Rating: Explicit
Word Count: 1,788
Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, Bets & Wagers, Oral Sex, Come Marking, Weird Biology, Size Difference
Summary: Hermes and Charon settle one wager and make another.

Read on AO3

I was spoiled and got smutty Charon/Hermes fic 🥰 My request actually went into pinch hit territory which hasn't happened to me before, so I'm curious what my original match had planned to do. But I'm very grateful PeppyBismilk picked up my request and wrote this fun banter-y fic! Charmes is probably my favorite Hades ship, I've been very into them again since starting Hades II.

Current Mood: good
Current Music: "Spit of You" ~ Sam Fender

Entry tags:

memes: random holiday

I love polar bears!

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PDXWLF 2026, Day 5 – Tuesday

Porch/Light Dance Party! at The Old Church
The Old Church Concert Hall • Portland, Oregon
February 10, 2026
Nikon D810 • AF-S NIKKOR Z 16-35mm f/4G
f/4 @ 81mm • 1/15s • ISO 3200

Tuesday night’s mission was very simple – photograph a single event – the Porch/Light Dance Party at The Old Church. There was no rain in the forecast. I chose two very different cameras for the evening. I packed the Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 24-80mm f/2.8 S lens – which is best for close-quarter work in the dark. I also packed the Nikon D810 with the AF-S 16-35mm f/4G VR. the 16-35mm is the widest full-frame lens I have, and I figured I’d need a very wide angle to capture The Old Church.

( PDXWLF Tuesday Below This Cut )

Previously
PDXWLF 2026, Day 1 – Friday
PDXWLF 2026, Day 2 – Saturday

Entry tags:

status,
work

In the later moments of the day [status, work]

Today was the day before spring "break," wherein I administered the first of two midterm exams. Students reported they had a lot of exams this week, which we all agreed was not ideal but better than trying to have an exam immediately after spring break.

Since my afternoon office hours were very quiet, I was able to spend a good part of the afternoon working on data entry for a project that two of my current three research students are working on. We are looking at what happens to worker ant body sizes as leafcutter colonies get older and larger, comparing colonies headed up by two queens to colonies headed up by groups of six queens. Since starting those colonies back in the summer of 2024, students and I have periodically gone through and collected out the colonies' trash piles, which contain all of the dead workers - a noninvasive way to examine adult ant body sizes.

Cataloguing what has been done with the colonies since their establishment led me to realize we'd overlooked a set of samples that could be particularly informative to include. So although I was quite tired, in the last 30 minutes of the day, I finally located the samples and started to get them ready for measurements.

It is much more fun and rewarding to apply ant heads to a piece of double-sided sticky tape for the purpose of measuring how big they are than it is to grade exams, so most likely that's what I'll work on for the first part of the day on Monday.