It's just ambient noise today.

Jun. 2nd, 2026 07:32 pm
ashelterofpages: (stock0101)
[personal profile] ashelterofpages
'm starting this post later than I meant to, but hey I started it and that's what matters!

Today I was supposed to go out with a friend who's in town, but we both slept poorly, so we're doing that on Thursday. I'm excited to see her since the last time I did, we were in Portland for a con in November. That was actually the first time we ever talked, but we got on pretty well.

Making friends is so weird sometimes.

Slept in later than I intended but I got up before 11, which I'm calling a victory. My goal is to always be up before 10 but my body will just refuse to do that sometimes. Like, I'll go to bed at 10:30pm and I won't get up for another fourteen hours. There is no rhyme or reason for these Sleep Incidents, but it is what it is. I'm working on trying to be more gentle with myself about them and have plans for days where I do that instead of just feeling low and upset by it.

I haven't managed to start doing the art thing, but I pulled out one of my notebooks that are good for fountain pens and started writing in it. I'm going to see if I can keep up doing some kind of writing in this one until I finish it, but we'll see. I have no special plans for the notebook, just going to let it be a catch-all with to do lists, goals, doodles, rambles, ect and see what happens. I'm taking it with me when I head out next Friday, so maybe it'll be a little bit of a travel journal too. Who knows.

I need to do some reading tonight before I go to bed. I do a brief newsletter on Tuesdays where I recommend two short stories I've read recently and I'm running low on options. I try and have a backlog of stories for weeks that I've not read as much and I'm down to less than five. Hopefully this week I'll run across some very good stuff.

Speaking of reading, so I'm officially helping out M with the anthology they're making. [RECORDED]. It's gonna be so much fun and I'm really looking forward to slushing for the first time. If you wan to submit some found footage horror, we're going to be open from the 15th through the end of June.

Reading, May

Jun. 3rd, 2026 11:20 am
cyphomandra: boats in Auckland Harbour. Blue, blocky, cheerful (boats)
[personal profile] cyphomandra
Hickory Dickory Dock, Agatha Christie (1955)
Third Girl, Agatha Christie (1966)
The Rowan, Anne McCaffrey (re-read)
After hours at Dooryard Books, Cat Sebastian
The face in the frost, John Bellairs
Yesteryear, Caro Claire Burke
The unworthy, Agustina Bazterrica
Trial run, Dick Francis
Nine Goblins, T Kingfisher
The tournament, Matthew Reilly
Game Changer, Rachel Reid (re-read)
How to manage your home without losing your mind, Dana K White

Hickory Dickory Dock & Third Girl, Agatha Christie. Tidying up some Agathas. Hickory and Third Girl are definitely in Christie’s “modern times are rather poor stuff and the young people all wear terrible clothes” era, and while it is interesting to read her take on student hostels (Hickory) and flat sharing (Third Girl), Hickory has a lot of unexamined racial stereotypes and actual racism, and Third Girl (which I think was new to me) had a rather unbelievable denouement and a plot line in which a doctor marries his patient, which I never like.

After hours at Dooryard Books, Cat Sebastian. Patrick sells books in 1968 New York, sleeps with most of the gay male population of Greenwich Village in his spare time, and on his philanthropic landlady’s prompting offers a job at the bookshop and shelter there to Nathaniel, alone and obviously traumatised but reluctant to share his past, just before Nathaniel’s sister-in-law, a famous folk singer, shows up with a week-old baby and a “your husband just died in Vietnam” telegram. I thought I was going to like this more than any other Sebastian I’ve tried so far, and I probably do, but it runs on vibes and having all its sympathetic characters be terribly politically sound, and about two-thirds of the way through it was like someone pulled out the bath plug and all the remaining tension drained out of it. But I liked it and I’d probably re-read it once, although I’d set my expectations lower.

The Rowan,Anne McCaffrey (re-read). Why am I re-reading this when I never liked this series much in the first place and if I were going to re-read any of hers it should be Dragonflight? Weakness for psychic powers and a touch of contrariness, plus I still want to find my original paperbacks rather than use the library ebook. This has good bits (the psychic powers, the training, the way in which one trainer passes on their biases and unnecessarily traps all those training under her) and a lot of terrible, terrible romance and gender opinions, and from what I dimly remember this only amplifies in subsequent books. Maybe I should try and find my McGill Feighan books if I really want to read psychics working as shipping agents to the stars.

Yesteryear, Caro Claire Burke. Tradwife influencer Natalie takes us, the readers/audience through a day on her idyllic farm in a way that highlights her hypocrisy (the unacknowledged/unfilmed staff, the financial backing by her right-wing in-laws, the uselessness of her husband at any farm chores means they constantly have to replace the cows, who all have the same names, etc, etc). The next day she wakes up, prepared to do it all over again - but there’s no power, no staff, no technology at all beyond the 1800s, and even her children are similar but not the same. It’s a great set-up and Natalie herself is a great, awful, character and, obviously, the true villain is the patriarchy. However I was only about 2/3rds convinced by the twist and I did think the ending moves the focus away from society to one individual’s choices in a way that lets society off a bit.

The face in the frost, John Bellairs. I’ve been meaning to read this for ages and while I enjoyed it (Bellairs is so great at making even the most mundane thing superlatively creepy in only a few sentences), I might have missed the window for loving it. I like both Prospero and Roger Bacon, I love the magic and the world-building and the horror, but I found the denouement a bit too ex machina and the characters not as compelling as the leads in his children’s books.

The unworthy, Agustina Bazterrica (trans. Sarah Moses). The nameless narrator is a nun in a convent of horrors that is nevertheless a sanctuary against the catastrophes that have devastated the outside world. She writes her memoirs in blood and dirt, documenting the daily torments inflicted on the nuns in the name of enlightenment, retelling her past, and, possibly, finding hope and love. I thought this overdid the tortures and horrors, but possibly I am just a hard sell on evil religious cults in post-collapse dystopias. I would probably read another by the same author but it looks like the other one currently out is industrial cannibalism, which is not really my thing.

Trial run, Dick Francis. One I have not previously read! Possibly there are others out there but I don’t really want to check in case there aren’t. Ex-steeplechaser Randall Drew (unable to compete now that he needs glasses) reluctantly travels to Moscow on behalf of the royal family, who want to ensure that one of the equestrian team about to compete in the Moscow Olympics will not be tainted by a rumoured scandal. The good bits in this are all the bits about Moscow - I can see Dick and Mary on their tour there with a bunch of notebooks and their cameras - but unfortunately the spy/conspiracy plot does creak rather and there is a surprising lack of horses, although there are classic Francis bits with a fall into a freezing Moscow river and a limited and insufficient supply of antidote to a fatal poison (and also the most doomed proposal sequence ever, even for Francis).

Nine Goblins, T Kingfisher. Reprint of previously self-published fantasy, with a goblin troop catapulted by magic out of a war and into a distant forest with an elf who is basically James Herriot and a mysteriously abandoned village. This is more Pratchetty than others of hers (as well as Herriotish) and it’s a fun read with a bit more going on underneath. The villain didn’t quite work for me but the magical creature vet problems are good.

The tournament, Matthew Reilly. Young Elizabeth I travels to Constantinople with her tutor, Roger Ascham, to watch a chess tournament between the representatives of the great and powerful; they are then caught up in investigating a murder. This is not Reilly’s natural territory (no clockwork building-sized traps with nifty diagrams) and although he flings himself into the research with enthusiasm, it’s not really his natural element. As with The Detective, Reilly also has a particular issue that he wants the reader to understand is Evil, and while with The Detective it was racism, here it’s pedophilia; there is an evil ring of Catholic priests exploiting children, yoked uneasily to a plot line in which Elizabeth’s companion, Elsie, describes her consensual sexual escapades in the pursuit of the local prince in a luridly detailed fashion to Elizabeth, only to have the prince dump Elsie in a brothel chained to a bed once he sleeps with her, thus making the young Elizabeth swear off sex forever. The detective bits are all right.

Game Changer, Rachel Reid (re-read). I was on a roll. The TV episode is more compelling than the book but I still find both fundamentally bland; possibly I am just too traumatised by fannish coffee shop AUs to ever enjoy sassy smoothie maker/customer convinced smoothie is game-winning good luck charm.

How to manage your home without losing your mind, Dana K White. Home organisation book that does not assume you want to be an inherently tidy and organised person; surprisingly useful. Focuses on making small changes and having you explicitly acknowledge the positive impact of these, thus creating virtual circles, rather than shaming you for failing to match up to their expectations.
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Day 1960: “We need professionals.”

Jun. 2nd, 2026 03:35 pm
[syndicated profile] wtfjht_feed

Posted by Matt Kiser

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2026/06/02/day-1960/

Day 1960

Today in one sentence: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Trump’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is dead; Trump named Bill Pulte acting director of national intelligence; Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress that Trump hasn’t offered Iran sanctions relief simply to reopen the Strait of Hormuz; Trump reportedly yelled “What the fuck are you doing?” at Benjamin Netanyahu during a call over Israel’s escalation in Lebanon; seven Democratic-led states sued to block the Trump administration’s taxpayer-funded deal paying TotalEnergies $795 million to walk away from an offshore wind lease and put the money toward oil and gas instead; the National Science Foundation will dismantle most of the $368 million Ocean Observatories Initiative; Trump signed a scaled-back AI order that asks companies to voluntarily give the government up to 30 days of early access to powerful new models before public release; and the White House Correspondents’ Association rescheduled its annual dinner after a gunman disrupted the April event.

1/ Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Trump’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is dead. Senate Republicans had threatened to hold up the roughly $70 billion immigration enforcement bill unless the White House killed the taxpayer-funded payout that was created through Trump’s settlement with his own IRS over the leak of his tax records. Lawmakers in both parties had also objected to the lack of oversight and the possibility that Jan. 6 rioters who assaulted police could collect payouts. “We’re not moving forward with the fund, period,” Blanche told lawmakers, while still defending the premise, saying “the reasons for the fund remain as important as they were before.” Blanche, however, left intact the settlement provision barring audits and tax-enforcement actions involving Trump, his family, and related businesses over past returns. “Nothing has changed with that,” Blanche said, while insisting “it’s not immunity.” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, meanwhile, accused him of giving Trump and his family “tax immunity to the tune of about $100 million.” (Politico / Reuters / New York Times / CNBC / Associated Press / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg)

2/ Trump named Bill Pulte acting director of national intelligence. Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director, has no known intelligence or national security experience, but will nevertheless oversee the 18-agency U.S. intelligence community while he continues to run FHFA and chair Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Pulte’s used his housing job to make or push mortgage fraud referrals against Trump’s perceived enemies, including Letitia James, Adam Schiff, Lisa Cook, and Eric Swalwell. “We don’t need a weaponized DNI,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said. “We need professionals there.” Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican on the Intelligence Committee, added: “I don’t see any evidence of qualifications for that job.” Naming Pulte acting DNI allows Trump to bypass Senate confirmation for up to 210 days. (New York Times / NBC News / Politico / Axios / CNN / Associated Press / Reuters / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post)

3/ Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress that Trump hasn’t offered Iran sanctions relief simply to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying any relief must be “condition-based” and tied to Tehran giving up nuclear activities. Rubio said Iran must declare the strait open, stop firing on or threatening commercial ships, help remove mines, and enter talks on “severe and long-term limitations” on its nuclear program while acknowledging that “it is not a guarantee” that any deal will be acceptable. He also pushed back on Iranian state media claims that the two sides had stopped exchanging messages, saying talks are continuing through intermediaries because “talks with Iran are not like talks with Switzerland.” Trump likewise claimed the reports were “false and erroneous,” saying talks had continued “four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today,” even though he said a day earlier that he “couldn’t care less” if Iran ended the negotiations, because they had “started to get very boring.” (New York Times / CNBC / Reuters / Washington Post)

  • Trump reportedly yelled “What the fuck are you doing?” at Benjamin Netanyahu during a call over Israel’s escalation in Lebanon, demanding that the prime minister abandon a planned strike on Beirut because it could derail U.S. talks with Iran. One U.S. official summarized Trump’s message as: “You’re fucking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.” Israel no longer plans to strike Hezbollah targets in Beirut. (Axios / ABC News / Mediaite)

4/ Seven Democratic-led states sued to block the Trump administration’s taxpayer-funded deal paying TotalEnergies $795 million to walk away from an offshore wind lease and put the money toward oil and gas instead. New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont argued that the Interior Department illegally canceled the New York-New Jersey lease without the required hearing or national security review, then used the Judgment Fund, a taxpayer-backed account for settling legal claims, even though TotalEnergies hadn’t sued the government. The project was expected to power roughly one million homes and businesses. (Reuters / Associated Press / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / Axios)

5/ The National Science Foundation will dismantle most of the $368 million Ocean Observatories Initiative, removing more than 900 deep-sea instruments that scientists have used for a decade to track ocean currents, carbon absorption, marine heat waves, fisheries, coastal flooding, and climate change. NSF said the “descoping” would remove in-water infrastructure from four of the program’s five arrays, including the Irminger Sea station used to study the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, while leaving the Regional Cabled Array off Oregon in place for now. (New York Times / Scientific American / E&E News)

6/ Trump signed a scaled-back AI order that asks companies to voluntarily give the government up to 30 days of early access to powerful new models before public release. The policy, however, creates a review process that doesn’t require companies to participate or explain what happens if they don’t. The order nevertheless directs federal agencies to strengthen cyber defenses, create an AI cybersecurity clearinghouse, and develop classified benchmarks for deciding which “frontier” models warrant scrutiny, while explicitly saying it doesn’t authorize mandatory licensing, preclearance, or permitting. (Politico / Associated Press / CBS News / Washington Post / NBC News / Axios / Wall Street Journal)

7/ The White House Correspondents’ Association rescheduled its annual dinner after a gunman disrupted the April event forcing Trump, JD Vance, Cabinet officials, journalists, and media executives to evacuate or take cover. WHCA president Weijia Jiang said the second dinner will be a “more intimate gathering” with “significantly enhanced safety measures and new access procedures,” and that members who bought tickets won’t have to pay again. (CNN / Reuters / CBS News)

The 2026 midterms are in 154 days; the 2028 presidential election is in 889 days.

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https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2026/06/02/day-1960/

Critical Role

Jun. 2nd, 2026 06:40 pm
settiai: (Critical Role -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai
I really, really, really need to get caught up on Critical Role, but it's just so hard to find the time. 🙃

On Monday and Tuesday evenings, by the time I make it home from work, my brain is done for the day so watching something new-to-me is off the table. Then I have D&D on Wednesdays and Fridays, so watching anything longer than an hour or two isn't possible. Which means Thursday is my only real day to watch things after work, but it's also usually my day to run errands so... yeah.

Theoretically, I should have time on the weekends, but I've been using them to catch up on sleep lately.

Luckily, things seem to be calming down at work again as the big rush from May grads is dying down, so I'm hoping that I'll get to the point where I can start watching an episode or two throughout the day when I'm working from home and not on phone calls. I'm not holding my breath it will get to that point this week, but hey. Anything's possible.
  • Current Mood: hopeful
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[ SECRET POST #7088 ]

Jun. 2nd, 2026 06:23 pm
case: (Default)
[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #7088 ⌋

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


01. 28.png


( More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 19 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1012.
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.

This All Come Back Now, ed. Mykaela Saunders (2022) [part 3]

Jun. 2nd, 2026 06:18 pm
pauraque: butterfly trailing a rainbow through the sky from the Reading Rainbow TV show opening (butterfly in the sky)
[personal profile] pauraque
This is part 3 of my book club notes on This All Come Back Now. [Part 1, part 2.] With this meeting we hit a slump of stories that no one really liked, which is too bad, because due to scheduling issues we may not be able to meet again for a bit. Hopefully when we return we'll find some stories that are more to our taste.


"Snake of Light" by Loki Liddle (2021)

( A man runs into trouble with some toughs at a bar, but he has powers they didn't bargain for. )


"Your Own Aborigine" by Adam Thompson (2021)

( A law is passed that Aboriginal people can't receive welfare unless they're 'sponsored' by a white Australian. )


"Five Minutes" by John Morrissey (2022)

( An editor working on an Aboriginal folktale collection tries to write a SF story about an alien race returning for a weapons cache they hid under Australia billions of years ago. )


"When From" by Merryanna Salem (2022)

( A woman is recruited for a secret time travel project to research Australian history for a movie studio. )
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(no subject)

Jun. 2nd, 2026 03:03 pm
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss




This timeline is a lot

Project Last Chance

Jun. 2nd, 2026 11:40 pm
dhampyresa: (SCIENCE SMASH)
[personal profile] dhampyresa
I saw the Project Hail Mary movie and I really enjoyed it. Stupid power of friendship (and science), making me cry.

There's a line at one point about Grace's former girlfriend now being with someone named Mark, and in my head it's Mark "The Martian" Watney because that would be fucking hilarious.
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10 Doctor Who and Blake's 7 icons

Jun. 2nd, 2026 10:36 pm
dickinsons: (classic who)
[personal profile] dickinsons posting in [community profile] fandom_icons

barbian1vilannpantene

01-05: Doctor Who (First Doctor era)
06-10: Blake's 7

Here @[personal profile] dickinsons 
 

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all the feels, not far from my front door

Jun. 2nd, 2026 01:49 pm
sistawendy: me in a green velvet dress in front of a brick wall, laughing and looking up as I think, "WTF?" (wtf laughing)
[personal profile] sistawendy
I got my check from the Seattle Erotic Art Festival for the pice I sold: a paper check for eighteen whole US dollars. I laughed all the way from my mailbox to the front door.

And then I started walking down the hill to get some eats and then a bus to Lambert House. I passed three people at a bus shelter doing whatever, and then two of them, men, started walking down the hill close behind me.

They turn left, but then one comes back toward me saying something like, "Why do people have to be so weird?" Well, you know what happened next: it got weirder. For me.

He seemed like some goofy dude, maybe homeless, maybe a few cards short of a deck, and he made it clear as flatteringly as he could that he'd clocked me. Yes, despite my brand new expensive face. And then he asked for dating advice, saying that he's into heavier women.

"Treat them like people, not things," I said. Sage advice, said he, or words to that effect. He mentioned that he's Hispanic and would that work in his community?

Uh, what? "I hope so," I said. Did I mention to him that I'm a huge lesbian? More or less.

Before peeling off, he insisted on doing a bro-y fist bump. Misgenderers come in two principal flavors: overtly nasty, and bro-y. Why do have people have to be so weird, indeed?

I don't think I was in any danger: it was rush hour on a busy arterial on a sunny day. But yeah, this kind of thing is to be expected in my (formerly) bohemian neighborhood.

The good news about Lambert House is that a) nobody was disruptive at trans group, and b) the board member/IT guy approved my plans to modernize the front desk DB, with some reasonable suggestions. I'll be getting on that.
  • Current Mood: gleeful, followed by WAT
  • Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
  • Current Music: MC Solaar
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Fantastic interview with Sylvester McCoy (Doctor Who the Seventh Doctor) on the Whoniverse show

Jun. 2nd, 2026 08:52 pm
vivdunstan: Drawing of the Seventh Doctor, standing wearing his trademark question mark jumper, cream coat and hat, a scarf, and holding his red-handled umbrella (seventh doctor)
[personal profile] vivdunstan
We enjoyed watching this immensely. It’s prompted by the newly rereleased remastered 1996 TV movie. But the chat with Sylvester covers his whole TV era of Doctor Who and more since then.

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2 days until browsing opens 5 June!

Jun. 2nd, 2026 02:00 pm
thepomegranatewitch: a sky blue circle with a branch on it, overlaid with a spiral of black moon phases circling to the center. The branch has seven pomegranate flowers in various stages of budding and blooming. (Default)
[personal profile] thepomegranatewitch posting in [community profile] fandomdoestzedakah
copyable alt text: a flier with floral and book designs around text reading "2 days left until browsing period opens for Fandom Does Tzedakah"


find out more about this pan-fandom fundraiser on tumblr or dreamwidth (offerings will be posted to dreamwidth).

Browsing opens 5 June!

copyable alt text: a flier with floral and book designs around text reading "2 days left until browsing period opens for Fandom Does Tzedakah"

Typical fandom problems

Jun. 2nd, 2026 09:34 pm
schneefink: (FF River and Kaylee)
[personal profile] schneefink
I made a friend in Hermitcraft fandom. After many months they got into a new fandom, one I wasn't familiar with.
Me, not thinking, trying to tempt them into writing more HC: You could write a crossover!
A few months later, they start writing a crossover, I volunteer to beta. So of course to understand the story I need more information, and they start sending me links and stuff...
Me, finally: oh. This was a trap. /o\
xD
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The Way Back to You (清水方至): New Live Action Baihe Drama

Jun. 2nd, 2026 08:26 pm
douqi: (couple of mirrors)
[personal profile] douqi posting in [community profile] baihe_media
The Way Back to You (清水方至, pinyin: qingshui fang zhi), a new live action baihe drama, popped up on my radar a few weeks ago. It is currently airing on YouTube (with a new episode every Monday) and is available in its entirety to paid subscribers on iQiyi. The circumstances of its production are a bit mystery-shrouded. The production company, Lumina Entertainment, is ostensibly based in Canada. Meanwhile, its iQiyi page lists it as 'Taiwanese', but the voice acting, aesthetics and the names of the crew all scream mainland China. It's certainly been embraced as mainland Chinese by the mainland baihe audience, who have been speculating that the secretiveness and the lack of prior promotion might be a tactic to avoid drawing too much negative official attention.

You can watch the trailer here:


And here's the synopsis, taken from the show's iQiyi page:

Shen Fang, a passionate and courageous younger girl, meets Gu Qingshui, a calm and emotionally reserved older girl. What begins as youthful, innocent affection ends in misunderstanding and separation, Years later, they reunite, navigating workplace challenges, family pressures, and social conflicts. Through mutual growth and reconciliation, they ultimately break free from societal constraints, presenting a powerful story of female self-discovery and emotional growth. This is a mature, cinematic take on the “second-chance” trope, centered on queer generational echoes, healing, and emotional reconciliation.

The show consists of six episodes of between 20 to 30 minutes each. The official YouTube channel is here (there's also a danmei drama, Dual Stars, currently airing on the same channel) and the show's iQiyi page is here.
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Also celebration

Jun. 2nd, 2026 10:33 am
offcntr: (sun bears)
[personal profile] offcntr
Since our anniversary fell on a Monday this year, most of our favorite restaurants were closed. Denise was hungry for bratwurst, and I had a pack in the freezer. Got Hawaiian rolls and sweet corn from Winco, baked a fresh rhubarb pie for dessert, and we celebrated at home.


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An anniversary tradition

Jun. 2nd, 2026 09:51 am
offcntr: (secret bears)
[personal profile] offcntr
Denise and I celebrated our 35th anniversary yesterday. As is our custom, we spent the day doing an art project, this time, something I learned from Instagram: solar printing with turmeric.

The process is actually pretty simple: mix turmeric with isopropyl alcohol (93%) at a ratio of 1:4--I did one tablespoon of turmeric to four tablespoons alcohol. Brush the mixture over sheets of paper, in this case, 9x12" mixed media drawing paper, 70# weight. Allow to dry--fairly quickly, I'd fired a bisque kiln the previous night, and the studio was warm. Dust off any loose granules of turmeric, and you're ready to go.

Arrange various items on your page to block the sunlight in interesting patterns. If you use pressed leaves, you'll need to weigh them down with a sheet of glass. Otherwise, you can tape the corners of your page to a board so the wind doesn't mess up your art, then put your shadow-makers in place.

Take them outside and leave them in bright sunshine for an hour.

Bring everything back indoors and remove your resist items. You can already see that the exposed turmeric has faded considerably. This will continue if you don't fix the image, which you do with a baking soda bath. I mixed two tablespoons of baking soda with two cups of warm (90° F) water. Poured into a 9x13" cake pan, this made just enough to bathe and fix four prints.

The baking soda bath will also change the color of the image, making it darker and redder. It's a gorgeous process, and I suspect we'll be doing it again, possibly even teaching a session at our book group.



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[Ask a Manager] my coworkers keep asking about my weight loss — and it’s not good news

Jun. 2nd, 2026 01:17 pm
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[personal profile] magid posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
( weight-loss )
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Tuesday!

NSFW Jun. 2nd, 2026 10:02 am

76 Doctor Who icons

Jun. 2nd, 2026 01:17 pm
annabeth_roses: (DW: 11 & Amy museum (Van Gogh))
[personal profile] annabeth_roses posting in [community profile] fandom_icons
76 Eleventh Doctor era icons. Mostly Eleven, but also a few of Amy and a couple of River. There is one spoilery animated icon from The Wedding of River Song. Mostly icons from Vincent and the Doctor and Night Terrors. Some from The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang.

Teasers:



icons here @ my journal
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And I thought 'expanding one's mind' was part of the agenda

Jun. 2nd, 2026 06:01 pm
oursin: Photograph of small impressionistic metal figurine seated reading a book (Reader)
[personal profile] oursin

And surely that would include realising that things were not always the exact same way they are today?

For decades, publishers have swapped out cultural references in new editions of books to appeal to younger readers. Fans aren’t always thrilled.

This seems so weird to me. I grew up on reading books that had lingered for however long on the shelves of the children's dept of the local public library - which were all bound in that standard hard-wearing public library binding so one did not have any sense of shiny newness or otherwise - along with my mother's old books, some of which were works of a yet more previous generation which she had loved in her youth.

And that's before we get into the oddness of the Alice books and the talking animals and so forth.

Do they have no imaginations? Are they only supposed to identify with recognisable experiences?

Read somewhere about (in this case I think actually adult readers) who could not deal with subtext, foreshadowing, and other Litry Devices.

I was a bit beswozzled by this chap, too, though perhaps from a rather different direction. I devoured classic novels as a teenager. In a world of distractions, can I relearn how to read them?.

Sometimes books have their time and it is past. And sometimes they are just not the right thing at that moment.

And I also think of times in my past when I had fairly long commutes and other stretches of otherwise dead time that I could fill up with doing perhaps rather dutiful reading of those things One Ought To Read, and whether this is not only my experience. And then one's life shifts and these spaces go away.

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