All of my ghosts are my home

Jul. 4th, 2025 11:32 pm
sovay: (Sovay: David Owen)
[personal profile] sovay
On the normality front, our street is full of cracks and bangs and whooshes from fireworks set off around the neighborhood, none so far combustibly. Otherwise I spent this Fourth of July with my husbands and my parents and eleven leaves of milkweed on which the monarch seen fluttering around the yard this afternoon had left her progeny. My hair still smells like grill smoke. Due to the size of one of the hamburgers, I folded it over into a double-decker with cheese and avocado and chipotle mayo and regret nothing about the hipster Dagwood sandwich. A quantity of peach pie and strawberries and cream were highlights of the dessert after a walk into the Great Meadows where the black water had risen under the boardwalk and the water lilies were growing in profusion from the last, droughtier time we had passed that way. I do not know the species of bird that has built a nest in the rhododendron beside the summer kitchen, but the three eggs in it are dye-blue.

On the non-normality front, I meant it about the spite: watching my country stripped for parts for the cruelty of it, half remixed atrocities, half sprint into dystopia, however complicated the American definition has always been, right now it still means my family of queers and rootless cosmopolitans and as most of the holidays we observe assert, we are still here. It's peculiar. I was not raised to think of my nationality as an important part of myself so much as an accident of history, much like the chain of immigrations and migrations that led to my birth in Boston. I was raised to carry home with me, not locate it in geography. I've been asked my whole life where I really come from. This administration in both its nameless rounds has managed to make me territorial about my country beyond the mechanisms of its democracy whose guardrails turned out to be such movable goalposts. It enrages me to be expected not to care that I have seen the pendulum swing like a wrecking ball in my lifetime, as if the trajectory were so inevitable that it absolves the avarice to do harm or the cowardice to prevent it. It is nothing to do with statues. The door to the stranger is supposed to be open.

The wet meadows of the Great Meadows are peatlands. They were cut for fuel in the nineteenth century, the surrealism of fossil fuels: twelve thousand years after the glaciers, ashes in a night. The color of their smoke filled the air sixteen years ago when some of the dryer acres burned. If you ask me, there's room for bog bodies.

rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
[personal profile] rydra_wong
A whole world of games not playable on Mac has opened up to me, and it's Steam summer sale time!

Please rec me your favourite games, bearing in mind that I have very limited reflexes/co-ordination.

(I'm not completely ruling out games involving them, but the threshold for entry has to be very very low. I am currently enjoying Refunct because it allows me to try some simple platforming in a very chill and pleasant environment with no time pressure and no penalties for taking several hundred tries to get a jump.)

Taking it Easy in Bend

Jul. 4th, 2025 09:19 pm
canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
Oregon Cascades Travelog #15
Bend, OR - Fri, 4 Jul 2025, 2:30pm

When we plan a trip around activities, which is most of our trips, we think in terms of maximizing the value of our time away from home and work. That means starting early and finishing late each day, and squeezing as much adventure as possible in between. That's our desire, anyway. Our plan. Sometimes plans fall apart when they meet with reality.

That happened a bit yesterday. Yesterday morning I was feeling a bit achy, so we shuffled our plans a bit. Instead of doing a big, aggressive hike on Thursday and some lighter-duty high desert stuff on Friday, we did the high desert stuff yesterday and saved the aggressive hike for today. The high desert stuff was fun so it's not like we were accepting second prize. We were just changing up the order of adventures.

What happened yesterday happened even moreso today. Today I slept in 'til after 9am when I'd planned to get up at 6:45. I just couldn't get up that early. It's because I had trouble getting to sleep last night and was awake until after 2am. And today Hawk was feeling unwell. Plus the weather was crummy. The sky was threatening rain until at least mid-morning, and the forecast called for clouds all day. We decided to put off the big, challenging hike another today.

An inviting hot tub at the Days Inn Bend, Oregon (Jul 2025)

Putting off the hike doesn't mean doing nothing, though. Hawk went shopping at a local rock shop while I puttered around the hotel room, eating a late breakfast of leftovers from the other night and taking it easy inside. When she got back we went out to the hot tub together. The rain the sky was threatening with not only hadn't materialized, but the sky started clearing up, too.

Enjoying the hot tub and pool at the hotel in Bend (Jul 2025)

I already knew the hot tub would be enjoyable for a soak as I'd used two nights ago. But today we also tried the pool. It's surprisingly warm, I'd estimate at least 90° F (32° C). Hawk found the pool warm enough to be therapeutic and did walking laps back and forth. I preferred the even hotter water in the hot tub to ease my slightly sore muscles.

Hawk later joined me in the hot tub for a soak. After that we were both hungry for lunch. We found a Mexican cafe with casual service nearby and ate there.

Now we're back at our hotel room after lunch. It occurs to me that although the weather forecast is still calling for gloom all day, it's been wrong for the past 4 hours. The sky outside looks fairly nice even as the weather report says it's all cloudy.

I'm starting to think maybe we should try to salvage some adventure from this stay-local day. I mean, taking it easy is nice, but I can take it easy around the pool at home. While I have the opportunity to be here I should take advantage of it! The day's more than half over already, so that forecloses a lot of the possibilities. But there's got to be something we can do other than just sit around all day....

fennectik: Anime (Anime)
[personal profile] fennectik posting in [community profile] anime_manga
So it seems Usagi will once grace us with her magical girl adventures.

"
To celebrate the birthday of Sailor Moon’s main protagonist, Usagi Tsukino, new colored manga art has been released by the series creator, hinting at the publication of the next two volumes in the Japanese 'all-color' digital manga release."-CBR

Link to the full article

https://www.cbr.com/sailor-moon-naoko-takeuchi-usagi-birthday-art/

iron butt

Jul. 4th, 2025 10:49 pm
totient: (Default)
[personal profile] totient
Part of an occasional series on superpowers. My superpowers are all Mystery Men level superpowers, but they're real.

I have what I'm told is called in motorcycling an Iron Butt.

Partly that's literally being able to sit for a long time with no side effects. I bicycled 3700 miles across the United States, averaging 8 hours a day in the saddle for a month and a half, and did not get any saddle sores.

But also with only a little bit of adjustment to my hydration and caffeination routine I can go 8 hours without a bathroom. This means when I drive the limiting factor on how far I go between stops is almost always the range of the vehicle I am driving. I rented a particularly fuel efficient car one time and drove it 450 miles without taking it out of gear. It hated this and kept trying to get me to take a coffee break. In less fuel-efficient cars sometimes I will refuel at a full service gas station and go two tankfuls between getting out of the car at all.

Being able to drive anywhere in my general region that much more quickly is a big factor in how I choose to make medium-distance trips. Beyond the question of how long the travel takes compared to a train or airplane, I'm sure I'd also find driving less enjoyable if I needed more stops.

I have actually rather a lot of superpowers, some inborn and some developed (or perhaps, I am told, earned). This one I suppose is some of each.

Fic: Observations

Jul. 4th, 2025 09:29 pm
melagan: Coffee cup with Atlantis in the rising steam (Default)
[personal profile] melagan posting in [community profile] sga_saturday
Observations (534 words) by melagan
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Characters: Chuck (Stargate), Rodney McKay, John Sheppard
Additional Tags: POV Outsider, Canon Universe, five things
Summary:

Five things Chuck notices about Sheppard and McKay.

[ SECRET POST #6755 ]

Jul. 4th, 2025 06:27 pm
case: (Default)
[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6755 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #965.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Independence Day

Jul. 4th, 2025 06:04 pm
lauradi7dw: stamp commemorating the emancipation proclamation (emancipation stamp)
[personal profile] lauradi7dw
A number of people were advocating not doing anything celebratory today. As a protest, that seems ineffectual - would anybody know I am mostly sitting at home alone? I was in Boston when there was a small protest in Lexington, so I missed that. In a not protesting way, this morning I was (in charge of) a group of bellringers at the Old North Church (plus a bunch of non-ringing relatives that I didn't expect, all of whom were well-behaved). Then three of us consumed the Entenmann's snack cakes with blueberries and strawberries I had brought as a seasonal treat, [personal profile] choco_frosh pondered on non-factory cake recipes, and we discussed trifle.
There is a large screen live showing of the Pops concert at Robbins Park in Arlington starting fairly soon, but I don't know where one is supposed to park (my local bus isn't running on the holiday) and I am already covered in bug bites from an hour walking in Greenfield on Wednesday (possibly more on that later). I probably will stay home and listen to the concert on the radio and not see any fireworks.
Edit
Not on the radio this year. What the heck?
turbobeholder: (periscope)
[personal profile] turbobeholder posting in [community profile] girlgenius_lair
Just think of the possibilities!

Murderbot 1x09

Jul. 4th, 2025 04:01 pm
petra: Cartoon of an overexcited airline steward with the text: You're always playing Yellow Car. (Cabin Pressure - Yellow Car)
[personal profile] petra
Spoilers )
petra: Text on a blue background: "The only way to go on is to go on." (DWJ - The only way to go on)
[personal profile] petra
I am deeply ashamed of my country.

Time to go have a party with a group of queer people who are similarly appalled, because we can't do anything but keep on going as our authentic, pissed-off selves.

Holiday

Jul. 4th, 2025 10:54 am
athenais: (blue tiger)
[personal profile] athenais
We will grill burgers and corn for dinner. I'm making potato salad right now and an apple pie later. Fireworks have been going off in my neighborhood for the last two weeks, tonight will just be more and louder. I don't feel like pretty colors and sparkles are the vibe right now, personally. I'm keeping my big feelings in check with the usual suspects: SF/F fandom, K-pop fandom, Chinese costume dramas, games on my Switch, music from around the world, trips to the ocean, dreaming of future travel.

I highly recommend K-pop Demon Hunters on Netflix to any of my friends who like animated movies and have been subjected to my ravings of the past three years. It's really fun, has catchy music, and you might find yourself recognizing some of the details of being a K-pop fan...or a demon hunter, I don't know all your secrets.

John brought up a box of fanzines I've been keeping since the 80s and I don't recognize the top half of them. I am not sure if they're unusual and therefore something to put out on a fan table somewhere as freebies, I assume not, but I'm not throwing them out. It's just one box. I was expecting to feel nostalgia, but instead I just feel distanced from my own history. Huh. Well, maybe down at the bottom I'll see stuff from my friends. I have no idea why I collected these.

For those at BayCon this weekend I hope you have a great time!
garryowen: (trek enterprise)
[personal profile] garryowen posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Star Trek Reboot (AOS)
Pairings/Characters: Gen
Rating: Teen
Length: 1390 words
Creator Links: [archiveofourown.org profile] lazulisong
Theme: Working together

Summary: Winona is called to fix the cock-up of the Yorktown's engines. She uses one of the science-bitches to help her do it.

Reccer's Notes: This fandom has many versions of Winona Kirk. The one you get here is the engineer who does NOT fuck around and can fix anything you throw at her. She is irreverent and badass. And, in this particular story, she is wonderfully, delightfully contrasted with Spock, who is helping her fix the Yorktown engines. Yes, Spock is the science bitch.

I really can't say much more because I'm laughing too hard rereading the story in order to write this rec. Laz perfects the art of proving that swearing isn't what you do when you lack imagination. Every cuss word in this fic is a brilliant gem of hilarious, creative, and accurate speech.

Like every ridiculous fic that is very, very good, this one makes you believe that this Winona Kirk is not only possible, but is absolutely in character. It also makes you believe that this Spock is possible and will call Winona Overlord and let her call him Tiny Science-bitch.

Fanwork Links: One Foot in Front of the Other
canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
Oregon Cascades Travelog #14
Bend, OR - Thu, 3 Jul 2025, 8:30pm

We're back from another fun day of vacation in the Oregon Cascades. Though today we weren't really in the Oregon Cascades.... Instead we headed east from Bend into the high desert volcanic scrub land. Along the way we explored mountains of glass, hiked a volcanic fissure in the ground... oh, and saw about 100 hawks.


 
We saw the first few dozen hawks as we were driving east on US 20 out of Bend toward Glass Butte. The hawks were perched on power line poles along the side of the highway. At first we didn't see any raptors. Then we saw one or two. "Huh, I'm surprised there's food out here for them," I thought to myself. The we started seeing them every half mile. There must be plenty of food for them! I've only seen this density of birds of prey in the wild twice before.

We arrived in the area of the Glass Buttes and turned off the highway. From there we'd see only dirt and gravel roads for the next few hours. Yay, choosing to drive our own car (4x4 SUV) instead of flying and renting a car! We drove around to sites specifically where Hawk could rock-hound for different varieties of obsidian. She filled a canvas tote bag.

After rock-hounding and eating a trail lunch in the car we drove back out to the highway and backtracked a bit to the west before leaving the highway again to traverse gravel and dirt roads for most of the next 50 miles to get to Crack-in-the-Ground, an interesting volcanic fissure. From there we parked the car at the trail head, strapped on our packs, and hiked over 2 miles, much of it in narrow a chasm up to 70 feet deep. As with yesterday's summary I'm skipping over sharing photos (and video!) for now to keep from falling too far behind in writing about this trip.

Oh, and we at least a dozen more hawks on the drive to Crack-in-the-Ground. Plus another dozen more as we drove to the remote little town of Christmas Valley afterwards for a light dinner. Yes, it was already after 6pm! Then there were lots more hawks as we drove west toward Fort Rock and Hole in the Ground.

Yes, there's a Hole in the Ground in addition to Crack-in-the-Ground. We didn't get to see the hole, though, because it was raining by the time we got there. It was raining— pouring, really, with occasional lightning in the sky— as we passed by Fort Rock, as well. These both would've been fun to see. Alas, maybe on a return trip to Bend a few years from now!

Update, 11pm: the rain and lightning hit us in Bend later in the evening, spoiling yet another part of our plans for the day. Having gotten back to our hotel around 8:30pm we looked forward to soaking in the hot tub before it closes at 10. Well, at 9:15 or so when we were ready to go, WHOOSH! rain started to fall. We thought maybe we'd wait it out but then CRACK! lightning. And the rain lasted for 2 hours. It's a bummer we didn't get to use the hot tub. My sore muscles would've appreciated it.

james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Ninety years after her grandmother's family was stalked by a witch, international student Minerva Contrera's studies land her in a similar position.


The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

podcast friday

Jul. 4th, 2025 08:58 am
sabotabby: (doom doom doom)
[personal profile] sabotabby
 Hi I am very tired.

Give a listen to Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff's entire last few weeks, which has been about the alter-globalization movement, but especially to this week's episodes, "Bread and Puppet: The Dawn of Giant Protest Puppets." (Part I | Part II). This is one of my special interests, stemming from how I used to teach at a puppetry camp, and I've actually been lucky enough to visit Bread and Puppet in Vermont on a road trip, albeit not quite lucky enough to see one of their shows. I am always in favour of more theatricality in activism and these episodes trace the evolution of one particular brand of theatricality that I'm especially a fan of.

I bet you will be surprised to learn that the personal stories of the two founders of the theatre are also especially interesting. Also, since Jamie Loftus is the guest, there is a tragic hot dog connection.

Profile

squirrelitude: (Default)
squirrelitude

August 2024

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 5th, 2025 08:37 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios