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xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3221/

'Well, there's speculation that it's due to a mantle hotspot.' --a geologist who's trying to cover up the fact that they didn't hear your question

https://xkcd.com/3221/

oursin

What I read

Finished Victoria's Secret - still slightly meh about it - could possibly have engaged a bit with a longer history of 'Monarch has favourite/s who are not Quite Our Sort', even if historically the gender issues in play here were different??? Also had a bit of feeling that QV was not entirely NOT treating John Brown in the light of A Very Large Faithful Dog devoted to her to which she was also devoted and which she insisted on imposing upon people who hated dogs.... Thought it was good on her awful childhood, though.

Clare Pollard, The Modern Fairies (2024) - telling stories about women telling stories, i.e. the precieuses at the time of Louis XIV, the stories they were telling and their stories and how those reflected one another.

Susan Ertz, Woman Alive (1935), my attention having been drawn towards it by a mention of its having been republished. I have a copy of the first edition, Ertz being one of the early C20th middlebrow women novelists in whom I have had an interest going back decades, but not sure whether I ever actually read this. It is sf Of The Period, in which someone is cast forward into The Future by sciento-psychic means, this is his account. And okay, is not (unlike a cluster from around the same time) about the dystopic crushing iron heel of fascistic misogyny, is about the dysoptic outcome of a war in which germ warfare has killed all the women. Except one who has survived courtesy of mad scientist neighbour's experimental process.

Points for her being a young women of education, character, and something of a backstory conveying a certain cynicism, but she still concedes to the agenda of marrying and going forth and having babbyz, though I think everyone is a bit optimistic that she will pop out multiple daughters and even so, we do not think this will Save Humanity. (Also, no-one seems to suggest she should have Plurality of Mates, surely that would be advisable?) But then it just stops with our narrator pinging back to his present day.

Most recent Literary Review

Muriel Spark, A Far Cry from Kensington (1988), which I really enjoyed and am now looking out for more of hers - think I have copies of some somewhere?

Robert Barnard, Death of a Literary Widow (1979)- everybody in it is a bit of a caricature, not just the American academic.

Emily Tesh, The Incandescent (2025), because I have been hearing well of it. Pretty good, but is it just having Read A Lot that made one character look like a honking parade of red flags?

On the go

I think I am actually giving up on I Am A Woman, I don't think Being A Sad Lesbian is enough to provide a rounded character? Maybe it gets better?

Nibbling at various things. Realise that it is 2 weeks to next Pilgrimage discussion and I do not want to read Honeycomb too far in advance.

Up next

No idea.

poliphilo

Picture Diary 125

1. Bye bye, blackbird

2. The first touch

3. Dryad

4. At the gate

5. Was that an owl?

6. Having got this far I might as well go on....

duckprintspress

https://www.tiktok.com/@duckprintspress/video/7618609115929103647?_r=1&_t=ZP-94nJH5w7pz4

(Video ID: a white person with short reddish hair in glasses sits in front of a book case and talks. /end ID)

Transcript: So my next question is, what are some misconceptions that people have about publishing in general or about indie publishing that I would like to talk about?

So, I think the big one for me as an indie publisher is this pervasive idea that indie publishing is somehow “less,” that what we publish is worse, which is really nonsense. There’s a ton of reasons to not do traditional publishing or that traditional publishing would not be interested in your work that has nothing to do with a work’s quality.

In the end the Big Five traditional publishers are ginormous corporations primarily interested in Number Go Up. They’ve got investors and traditional stock stuff going on. If they don’t show returns, they don’t succeed. And so they won’t take risks, especially on things that don’t fit neatly into a category, so they frown on indie – uh, sorry – cross genre. They don’t like to takes risks on queer works, as we all know. They don’t like to take chances on new authors, because what if they lose money on that new author? They don’t want people who don’t have existing followings. And so what gets published by the Big Five aren’t the best books. That’s not even what they’re trying to publish. The Big Five are trying to publish the books they think will make the most money. Which is not at all the same as the best books.

And I’m not saying indie publishing is publishing the best books either. Book quality is part of making money, so yes, a lot of what Tradpub publishes are good books, no contesting that. But a lot of what indie presses publish are also good books. They’re just books that don’t fit neatly into the boxes that indie pub – that traditional publishing likes to try to shove everything into. And so this idea that – that indie publishing is somehow “less” quality is not only wrong, it’s just completely unhinged from what the purpose of traditional publishing and indie publishing are.

Indie publishing is a space for people taking different kinds of risks, for people whose works don’t fit neatly into boxes, for works that the Big Five don’t think will make that much money. And that gives us a lot of room to find really amazing, amazing things to publish that wouldn’t see the light of day otherwise. To amplify voices that don’t usually get heard. To take risks and, you know, push outside of boxes. So, yeah, support indie publishing! We’re not “tradpub light.” We’re awesome! And we’re different! We’re trying to do something different and that’s important.

This has been an Indie Press Month Ask Me Anything with Claire. Feel free to drop me any asks you might have in the comments. Bye!

sabotabby

Just finished: Indigenous Ingenuity: A Celebration of Traditional North American Knowledge by Deidre Havrelock and Edward Kay. This is worth a read but also I wanted it to be better than it was. My main issue was the tone of condescension cloaked in breathless wonderment towards its young audience and precolonial Indigenous peoples, which I honestly do not think is intentional on the part of the writers and more a factor of how people think that children ought to be spoken to. My second issue had to do with the ending, which focused on ecological technologies and suddenly jumped forward to present day Indigenous Nations working with governments to create sustainable ecosystems. Very cool, but because of the book's structure and emphasis on precolonial technologies, it made it seem like Indigenous societies today are only working in that field. (This is not remotely true! If the section on communication technology had, for example, included a jump forward to discuss the Skobot, I'd have been fine with this aspect.) But also, it described things like carbon trading fairly uncritically, when in fact while carbon trading is better than carbonmaxxing like our current overlords are doing, it's a fairly useless system that greenwashes the omnicidal criminal corporations turning our world into a burning hellscape. So if the book is inaccurate about this, what else is it inaccurate about?

Beowulf translated by Francis B. Gummere. It's Beowulf. This is the less fun translation, albeit the one I'm more familiar with, because my hold on the Headley one didn't come in on time. We can discuss whether or not it's the most metal of all historical epics.

Currently reading: To Ride a Rising Storm by Moniquill Blackgoose. Speaking of Scandinavian-influenced epics. This is the sequel to To Shape a Dragon's Breath, which as you might recall broke all the way through my general dislike of YA to be one of my favourite books of the year. So far I am binging this and it's excellent. Our heroine, Anequs, wants nothing more than to get through her time at Kuiper's Academy, get licensed to ride her dragon, and return to her people on Masquapaug permanently, preferably with her two love interests, Theod and Liberty. But now the Anglish have set up a presence on the island and she's increasingly being drawn into shitty white-people politics that she wants nothing to do with.

This introduces a whack of new characters and factions. There's a Jewish character, Jadzia (Blackgoose, you fuckin' nerd lol), who I adore, and a secret society called the Disorder of the Grinning Teeth, which is the name of my new black metal band. There's also a new teacher whose name escapes me but who provides an interesting contrast in pedagogy from the first book. I should add that this is very much a magical boarding school story and not a residential school story, so it's very cool to see the idea of colonial educational institutions that could, theoretically, be reformed and democratized rather than needing to be closed and having the people who run them thrown in Forever Jail.

Also the dragons are cool.

duckprintspress

I went to the library on Monday and borrowed a whole pile of new books when I hadn't finished the old ones, so I buckled down this week after finishing the main story in Don't You Like Me to see if I could clear out some of my physical library loans ~~to make space for the new physical library loans~~.

1. What are you currently reading?

Don't You Like Me vol. 2 by Lv Tian Yi: I finished the main story and now I'm working my way through the extras.
Kase-San and Yamada vol. 4 by Hiromi Takashima
Les Normaux vol. 2 by Janine Janssen and S. Al Sabado: I was really excited for this one but I'm running into the problem that I don't remember much of what was going on in vol. 1 and so I'm a little lost and as a result I'm procrastinating.
DMBJ in Chinese: I'm almost a third done!!!

2. What have you recently finished reading?

The Apothecary Diaries light novel vol. 4 by Natsu Hyuuga: idk I'm inching closer to not reading more. If I didn't already have a hold on vol. 5 I'm not sure I'd bother. I can't even put my finger on my dissatisfaction, and I actually liked this volume better than some of the others, but... idk. It's maybe just not the series for me, even though it feels like it should be.
Yuri Espoir vol. 1 by Mai Naoi: oh, this is fun. It's modern GL about a girl whose parents have set up a marriage for her, so she wants to get all her lesbianism and yuri expressed before she's forced into this wedding, and so she looks at girls around her and makes up wlw stories about them. Except even tho her stories are always wrong, all the girls she looks at ARE wlw so we get glimpses of their lives. And also her (female) best friend is in love with her. And ALSO there's a (male) teacher of theirs who is in love with the affianced arranged marriage guy. So it's all a delightful mess. I really liked vol. 1.
Lullaby of the Dawn vol. 6 by Ichika Yuno: worth the wait.
At the Flower Capital by Rihito Takarai: this turned out to be the historical setting prequel to 3-book modern BL I haven't read. It wasn't world-shattering, and it was very sad, but I liked it enough to go grab the modern BL.
How Do We Relationship? vol. 3 by Tamifull: was very iffy on this volume, decided to read the back blurbs for upcoming volumes, and based on what they said, I've dropped the series. Please just fuckin' communicate, this is idiotic.
Sleepless Domain vol. 1 by Oscar Vega and Mary Cagle: an interesting idea for a story (it's a magical girl thing) but it's tagged LGBTQIA+ without any obvious rep (there was maybe a whiff of wlw) and the art quality declined rapidly even just in vol. 1. Also, it's from that Hive-whatever publisher, so I suspect vol. 2 has gotten fucked over in that mess.
Wrack and Rune by Chris Kappel: I had such high hopes for this modern BL with a white dude and a fat Black guy holding hands on the cover, but oof, it was. not good. Like there were good pieces in it but the actual relationship development was handled so entirely off-screen that it was impossible to buy-in to why these characters were risking so much for each other.
Only the Flower Knows vol. 1 to 3 by Rihito Takarai: this is the 3-book modern BL that the other was a prequel for. Considering it's from like 2010 it's pretty good, one of the better older BLs I've read.
Good Old-Fashioned Korean Spirit by Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada: this was a really good mostly historical graphic novel set in Korea. Taught me some Korean history I didn't know, had a great sense of humor, and also had a surprise trans character making it perfect for the first day of the Trans Rights Readathon (which I'm not technically participating in but hey, if I've got stuff with trans characters, no reason not to read 'um now!)

3. What will you read next?

Novels: The Beauty's Blade by Feng Ren Zuo Shu

Physical Graphic Novels: I still haven't read the last volume of the MDZS manhua, oops. From the library, next is Gaysians by Mike Curato.

Digital Graphic Novels (Libby): Les Normaux vol. 2, which I've already started, is due in six days, so gotta read that. Nothing else is imminent, but my hold on Wild Beast Forest House vol. 3 by Inma R. came through, so probably that, I enjoyed the first two volumes a lot.

larryhammer

A few more musical links:

Funk covers of Linkin Park hits. The happy kind of funk. (via YT sidebar)

Tiny Puppet Sound spins up a 1-hour set of French house in a Korean workplace breakroom. Puppet DJ = joy. (via)

Tycho’s Burning Man sunrise mix for 2025: Joie de Vivre. Hopeful like the sunrise. (via following Tycho)

(Meanwhile, I’m glad to see that Krill Waves Radio is still putting out the chill.)

---L.

Subject quote from Been Undone, Peter Gabriel.

james_davis_nicoll

I lead an active life so I am sure I have the physique of a 64 year and 11 month-old.

james_davis_nicoll

Nobody is sure who the enemy is, where they come from, or what their goals are. Still, they are the enemy and it’s up to the United Earth Surface and the Allied Orbital Forces Command to show the enemy what’s what.

The Proposal by Myung-Hoon Bae

merricatb posting in

polyamships

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

oceangrey posting in

dw_community_promo

warrington_runcorn_ntdp is a new fan-run community focused on the music of electronic project Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan.

Anyone is free to join, even those who have never listened before! Although if that is you, I'd recommend checking out the project's Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and Youtube to get acquainted :D

Discussion on the community will include, but is not limited to, avourite songs/albums/album artwork, physical media, how you discovered the music, recommendations for similar music, etc.

The current rules are pretty standard: no harassment/discrimination against any other Dreamwidth users; no NSFW/explicit content unless it's directly connected to the community's theme; and please keep any posts/comments on topic as much as possible. Anything else can be decided on in the future.

I (

oceangrey) am the current only moderator/admin, but if anyone else wants a similar role just message me or comment on the community's pinned post!

oursin

Happy birthday,

james_davis_nicoll and

perennialanna!

oceangrey posting in

dw_community_promo

withnailandi is a community for everything related to Withnail & I (1987). Fanworks/recommendations, meta/discussions, whatever, all are welcome here! Another related community is

withnailandinsfw, for any more explicit fanworks/discussions.

Although not entirely new (made in October 2025) both communities are unused as of yet, due to most of the fandom being on other platforms. Feel free to join whether you're a casual fan, or if it's your favourite film of all time, or if you're somewhere in between!

withnailandi is open for anyone to join, and

withnailandinsfw is set to administrator-approved due to the community's content.

poliphilo

I dreamed I was watching a movie scripted by J.K. Rowling starring John Lennon. Lennon- who wasn't really Lennon but an AI approximation that looked more like Daniel Radcliffe- was a conscientious British police officer who was being hauled in to be disciplined after insisting on arresting an American woman who was so highly connected as to be above the law. While he waited to be seen- and probably sacked- a small, rat-like alien creature was squirming on the floor and throwing a knife at him. He threw it back and hit it twice. The third time he lost patience and leant down and sliced its head off.

In the dream that followed I was working in a hospital where all the staff wore bright pink uniforms. We weren't supposed to sit in the windows in case the sight of men in pink offended outsiders but we did anyway. "Look" I said to my co-workers, pointing through the window, "All the men out there are also wearing pink- (and they were- all shades of pink- and nothing else)- "and there's a man in pink who doesn't have a head...."

ysabetwordsmith

Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!

Current Mood: busy

thistleingrey

Uzma Jalaluddin, Detective Aunty (2025): when the landlord of her daughter's small clothing boutique is murdered, Kausar drops everything to go. Kausar's (white) friend feels sure that Kausar will find out what really happened. But her daughter wants help with housekeeping and child-minding, not an adult peer's support.

I'm only in ch. 3, I don't care currently whether books stick the landing (though I like this one so far), and ch. 2 is great for its tender forthrightness: when a kid (even a thirtysomething adult, like Kausar's daughter) is used to seeing a parent in a certain way, that's how the two are paused, unless the child makes an effort to grow a bit more. It's not something that the parent can shift solo.

ysabetwordsmith

This is today's freebie, inspired by a prompt from LJ user My_partner_doug.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

asakiyume

It's been more than a week since I posted! Part of that's just life being busy; part is that

osprey_archer is here!

Today we went to Bright Water Bog, swung on a swing, ate some cranberries, and saw ice forming. It was sunny, but a cold wind was blowing, and a few flurries of snow came down.

(We also went to the Smith College Botanical Gardens, but this is a drive-by post! So there's only the one photo.)

starandrea

Me: Internet, how long do dahlias take to sprout?
Internet: Could be two months, but probably only one. Maybe as little as two weeks if they're the right variety in the right conditions.

It has been ELEVEN DAYS. 7 out of 22 containers have little dahlia sprouts, and by "little" I mean the biggest one has FOUR LEAVES ALREADY. I cleared off a shelf in the utility room and snapped my one spare magnetic grow light to the shelf above, plugged it into a Christmas tree timer* in the hallway, and squeezed in all but 7 pots. (The four that had sprouted by yesterday are still on their succulent shelves, and the three I judge least likely to succeed are sitting on a box near the light for monitoring.)

I did a little garden tidying, but the ground is still too frozen for digging (despite the daffodils coming up everywhere, plus some red sprouts that must be tulips, yay my daffodil protection circle worked) so bad news for the boxes of cannas by the back door: they are headed for the garage tomorrow morning. If I have to cart them back and forth from the garage to the house to keep them from freezing overnight I will, but I'm hopeful that I'll be able to insulate them enough that they can weather a few freezing nights on their own.

( plants and puppy )

*All the lights have to be on timers, otherwise it's like Wei Ying's tomatoes in that one where Lan Zhan is a wolf and keeps judgmentally turning his plant lights on and off for him. I have absolutely thought to myself, "oh I turned the lights on late this morning, surely I should leave them on late tonight to make up for it!"

my baby's in the white fluffy clouds

xe's miles above the desert, xe drops Shaymins down

Landscape Features

Wednesday saw a HERON standing in the eco-pond!!!!

Picture Diary 125

AMA: Misconceptions about Indie Publishing?

Reading Wednesday

WWW Wednesday

“like a wire on a spool i keep on unrolling / a single thread that seems to unwind and unwind”

65

The Proposal by Myung-Hoon Bae

Multiamory March Fic: Sleeping with the Bestie

Interesting Links for 18-03-2026

Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan community

(no subject)

Withnail & I communities

Headlessness

Cuddle Party

current reading

Poem: "Who Once Knew Better Words"

quick hello-I'm-alive post

something about plants probably

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December 2022

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