みり5才。Miri’s 5th Birthday.
Sep. 9th, 2025 11:00 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
maru_feed今日はみり5才のお誕生日です！ It’s Miri’s 5th Birthday today! お庭と鳥さんと木登りが大好きなみり。 これからものびのびと楽しく過ごしてね。 Miri loves […]
Tuesday mishmash: a milestone | weather | tiny tomatoes | impending Lamb
Sep. 9th, 2025 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
umadoshiAs of last week, we've lived in our current place for sixteen years. (As ever, I selfishly appreciate that one of the people whose wedding we attended the day before we moved always posts about their anniversary, which reminds me of how long it's been.) Just a few more years will make this the place I've lived longest in my life. (My childhood home currently holds the record at eighteen years.)
We've had some more rain, but still not nearly enough, and enough people haven't been getting on board with the water commission's request to conserve water (apparently there's been no noticeable drop in overall usage) that we're now expecting mandatory conservation to roll out sometime this week. (Does anyone know what that'll actually look like? LOL no.) Fun times. Good work [sarcastic], everyone.
Our tiny, tiny tomato plant that we brought home so shortly before hitting official "we're in a drought" status has tiny, tiny tomatoes on it! They are very green, and I have no idea what their odds are of ripening properly, but given that the drought means we've only actually watered the plant once or twice since potting it, I'm surprised to see fruit at all. Good work [sincere], Tiny Tim.
Under the circumstances, I'm just as glad that we didn't actually try to do any gardening in earnest this year, which we might have if we'd gotten our very own hose installed on the back of the house earlier in the season.
Sometime next year, Cult of the Lamb is getting its first paid expansion (not to be confused with the...three? four?...free ones that they've released). Will I touch another game before that comes out? Precedent says no! But I'm very excited about this one.
We've had some more rain, but still not nearly enough, and enough people haven't been getting on board with the water commission's request to conserve water (apparently there's been no noticeable drop in overall usage) that we're now expecting mandatory conservation to roll out sometime this week. (Does anyone know what that'll actually look like? LOL no.) Fun times. Good work [sarcastic], everyone.
Our tiny, tiny tomato plant that we brought home so shortly before hitting official "we're in a drought" status has tiny, tiny tomatoes on it! They are very green, and I have no idea what their odds are of ripening properly, but given that the drought means we've only actually watered the plant once or twice since potting it, I'm surprised to see fruit at all. Good work [sincere], Tiny Tim.
Under the circumstances, I'm just as glad that we didn't actually try to do any gardening in earnest this year, which we might have if we'd gotten our very own hose installed on the back of the house earlier in the season.
Sometime next year, Cult of the Lamb is getting its first paid expansion (not to be confused with the...three? four?...free ones that they've released). Will I touch another game before that comes out? Precedent says no! But I'm very excited about this one.
Close. Ish.
Sep. 9th, 2025 03:29 amdavidgillon I had one of those login challenges: someone in X is trying to log into your account, if it's you enter the code we just sent.
I'm used to X being well outside the local area, but the latest one sets a new record. Rather than Kent it was "someone in East Kilbride", so outskirts of Glasgow and only 435 miles out!
空へ。Into the sky.
Sep. 8th, 2025 11:00 pmmaru_feedまるさんが昇って行った時の空。 The sky when Maru rose. 庭で摘んだ、大好きな雑草と、キャットニップとキャットミントのお花、 そしておやつとご飯を持って。今頃、大きなお口を開けて雑草を食べているかな […]
Weekend reading pt. 2
Sep. 8th, 2025 07:04 pmtroisoiseauxFinished Bibliophobia by Sarah Chihaya, a memoir about her relationship to books and the ways this has intertwined with her lifelong mental health struggles, leading up to a nervous breakdown triggered by an inability to write her dissertation and resulting in a period where she was literally unable to read anything, which she names "bibliophobia." Each chapter structured around a different piece of writing of some personal significance: the Anne of Green Gables books, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, A.S. Byatt's Possession, Anne Carson's poem "The Glass Essay", Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being, Child Ballad 78 ("The Unquiet Grave"), Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai. Most of Chihaya's "framework" books(/poems) were ones I haven't read (yet— I've put holds on The Bluest Eye and Possession, both of which I've long vaguely intended to get around to reading), which was an incidental aspect of this that I actually really liked— less, I don't know, distracting? than if she'd been writing about books I personally had a strong connection to...? Interesting to read a book about the things we seek from books - salvation or explanations or distraction or whatever - because the chance of a mental ouroboros (seeking xyz from a book about seeking xyz from books) is high to inevitable.
Quick and rather perfunctory reading catchup from last week
Sep. 8th, 2025 05:20 pmumadoshiNo proof-of-life post happened over the weekend, but I did get some reading done last week.
scruloose and I have started listening to Exit Strategy (Murderbot 4).
Fiction: I finished and enjoyed The Future of Another Timeline (Annalee Newitz) and now I'm reading Saint Death's Daughter (C.S.E. Cooney), and am maybe halfway through? This one has a lot of detail going on on the worldbuilding front, and after reading the first chapter or two one night and then not getting back to it for a couple of days, I had to go re-skim right from the beginning before carrying on, which is unusual. (A glance or two back, sure. Actually rereading the whole beginning? Not so much.)
Non-fiction: I finished Goblin Mode (McKayla Coyle) and can't say I got much out of it; I'm still reading Daniel Sherrell's Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World.
scruloose and I have started listening to Exit Strategy (Murderbot 4).Fiction: I finished and enjoyed The Future of Another Timeline (Annalee Newitz) and now I'm reading Saint Death's Daughter (C.S.E. Cooney), and am maybe halfway through? This one has a lot of detail going on on the worldbuilding front, and after reading the first chapter or two one night and then not getting back to it for a couple of days, I had to go re-skim right from the beginning before carrying on, which is unusual. (A glance or two back, sure. Actually rereading the whole beginning? Not so much.)
Non-fiction: I finished Goblin Mode (McKayla Coyle) and can't say I got much out of it; I'm still reading Daniel Sherrell's Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World.
Yuletide 2025 Sticky Post
Sep. 8th, 2025 01:39 pmyuletidemods posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
yuletide_adminYuletide is an annual fic (1000+ words) exchange for rare and obscure fandoms run through this community and through the Archive of Our Own.
Current phase: Prepare to nominate your fandoms! See what fandoms are eligible here.
Tuesday 14 to Friday 24 October: Sign-ups (end 9pm UTC 24 October)
Sunday 26 October: Assignments out (may be earlier)
Wednesday 10 December: Default deadline (9pm UTC)
Wednesday 17 December: Assignment deadline (9pm UTC)
Wednesday 24 December: Main collection works reveals (9pm UTC)
Thursday 25 December: Madness collection works reveals (9pm UTC)
Thursday 1 January: Author reveals, end of event (9pm UTC)
Schedule, Rules, & Collection [still being tweaked for this year] | Contact Mods | Tag Set | Community DW | Community LJ | Discord | Pinch hits on Dreamwidth
Current phase: Prepare to nominate your fandoms! See what fandoms are eligible here.
2025 Schedule
Monday 15 to Friday 26 September: Nominations (end 9pm UTC 26 September)Tuesday 14 to Friday 24 October: Sign-ups (end 9pm UTC 24 October)
Sunday 26 October: Assignments out (may be earlier)
Wednesday 10 December: Default deadline (9pm UTC)
Wednesday 17 December: Assignment deadline (9pm UTC)
Wednesday 24 December: Main collection works reveals (9pm UTC)
Thursday 25 December: Madness collection works reveals (9pm UTC)
Thursday 1 January: Author reveals, end of event (9pm UTC)
Queen Anne's lace
Sep. 8th, 2025 05:51 pmlamentablesIn response to shewhomust's question about my last post, here are a few more pictures of wild carrot (aka Queen Anne's lace). Wikipedia tells me that 'Queen Anne's lace' is North American usage, but it's the name I was taught as a child in the UK.
The flowerhead (umbel) with many teeny white flowers and a single dark pink one at the centre. Not all the flowerheads have a pink one, and the internet tells me that the purpose of this flower is uncertain. But it's definitely not a male/female thing, as I had assumed.
As the flowers turn to seeds, the umbels curl inwards, forming the 'sceptre' in my previous post.
shewhomust's question about my last post, here are a few more pictures of wild carrot (aka Queen Anne's lace). Wikipedia tells me that 'Queen Anne's lace' is North American usage, but it's the name I was taught as a child in the UK.The flowerhead (umbel) with many teeny white flowers and a single dark pink one at the centre. Not all the flowerheads have a pink one, and the internet tells me that the purpose of this flower is uncertain. But it's definitely not a male/female thing, as I had assumed.
As the flowers turn to seeds, the umbels curl inwards, forming the 'sceptre' in my previous post.
Eligible Nominations for Yuletide 2025
Sep. 8th, 2025 10:28 amyuletidemods posting in yuletide_adminYuletide is a fanfic exchange for rare and tiny fandoms. When you nominate, please follow these guidelines to help us approve and organise fandoms.
We have not made any changes to eligibility this year. However, we made a few major changes last year, loosening our requirements around the scope of individual nominations for anthologies and RPF. You’re now welcome to nominate anthology canons (where multiple short installments of canon are different stories) by their overarching title, but if one person nominates an anthology canon, and another nominates individual installments of that canon (episodes, or skits, or stories) we will bring this up for discussion when clarifying nominations, and will approve one or the other, not both.
Similarly, you can nominate an RPF tag that covers a large profession or long period of history if you want, provided that the number of qualifying works under that tag on AO3 is under 1,000. However, if two people submit RPF fandoms where one fandom is a subset of the other, we will bring this up for discussion when clarifying nominations, and approve one or the other, not both. We strongly encourage you to coordinate your nominations with fellow RPF fans - a coordination post will be posted here shortly.
( Here is what can be nominated for Yuletide 2025! )
( The Evidence Post )
Schedule, Rules, & Collection [still being tweaked for this year] | Contact Mods | Tag Set | Community DW | Community LJ | Discord | Pinch hits on Dreamwidth
Please either sign in to comment, or include a name with your anonymous comments, including replies to others' comments. Unsigned comments will stay screened.
We have not made any changes to eligibility this year. However, we made a few major changes last year, loosening our requirements around the scope of individual nominations for anthologies and RPF. You’re now welcome to nominate anthology canons (where multiple short installments of canon are different stories) by their overarching title, but if one person nominates an anthology canon, and another nominates individual installments of that canon (episodes, or skits, or stories) we will bring this up for discussion when clarifying nominations, and will approve one or the other, not both.
Similarly, you can nominate an RPF tag that covers a large profession or long period of history if you want, provided that the number of qualifying works under that tag on AO3 is under 1,000. However, if two people submit RPF fandoms where one fandom is a subset of the other, we will bring this up for discussion when clarifying nominations, and approve one or the other, not both. We strongly encourage you to coordinate your nominations with fellow RPF fans - a coordination post will be posted here shortly.
( Here is what can be nominated for Yuletide 2025! )
( The Evidence Post )
Please either sign in to comment, or include a name with your anonymous comments, including replies to others' comments. Unsigned comments will stay screened.
Weekend reading
Sep. 7th, 2025 11:19 amtroisoiseauxI picked up an eclectic haul at a used book sale yesterday and have already finished two of them:
- I Am Morgan le Fay by Nancy Springer, which is more or less equal parts Arthurian retelling, non-Arthurian influences (Celtic mythology; Child Ballad 37/Sir Walter Scott's "Thomas the Rhymer"), and a certain type of 90s/00s(?) Amethyst-Eyed Teenage Girl Protagonist fantasy novel (affectionate) (but also, literally, Morgan has emerald-green-and-amethyst heterochromia, which is how you know she is fey/magic/special) (STILL AFFECTIONATE, I would have eaten this up with a spoon in middle school). Enjoyed this a lot! ( ... )
- The Magicians: Alice's Story, a graphic novel spin-off of the Lev Grossman trilogy by Lilah Sturges (writer) and Pius Bak (illustrator); this is a re-write of The Magicians (as in, the first book in Grossman's series— this is very much based on the book rather than the TV show, which was occasionally disorienting: why is everyone white??) from Alice's point of view, which actually resolves a lot of my issues with the novel, i.e., the insufferableness of Quentin as a main character and the fridged girlfriend-ness of Alice's storyline.
The rest of my haul was: a copy of Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster which was, per its inscription, a 1946 Christmas gift from the original owner's aunt; two Patrick O'Brian novels, including The Unknown Shore, his pre-/proto-AubreyadRPF historical fiction of the Wager mutiny, having read David Grann's nonfiction account earlier this year; and a biography of Sir Bernard Spilsbury (The Father of Forensics by Colin Evans), who I mostly know about in the context of his tangential involvement in Operation Mincemeat. So stay tuned!
- I Am Morgan le Fay by Nancy Springer, which is more or less equal parts Arthurian retelling, non-Arthurian influences (Celtic mythology; Child Ballad 37/Sir Walter Scott's "Thomas the Rhymer"), and a certain type of 90s/00s(?) Amethyst-Eyed Teenage Girl Protagonist fantasy novel (affectionate) (but also, literally, Morgan has emerald-green-and-amethyst heterochromia, which is how you know she is fey/magic/special) (STILL AFFECTIONATE, I would have eaten this up with a spoon in middle school). Enjoyed this a lot! ( ... )
- The Magicians: Alice's Story, a graphic novel spin-off of the Lev Grossman trilogy by Lilah Sturges (writer) and Pius Bak (illustrator); this is a re-write of The Magicians (as in, the first book in Grossman's series— this is very much based on the book rather than the TV show, which was occasionally disorienting: why is everyone white??) from Alice's point of view, which actually resolves a lot of my issues with the novel, i.e., the insufferableness of Quentin as a main character and the fridged girlfriend-ness of Alice's storyline.
The rest of my haul was: a copy of Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster which was, per its inscription, a 1946 Christmas gift from the original owner's aunt; two Patrick O'Brian novels, including The Unknown Shore, his pre-/proto-Aubreyad
いつも応援してくださる皆さまへ。To everyone who always supports Maru.
Sep. 6th, 2025 10:00 ammaru_feedいつも応援してくださる皆さまへ まるさんは本日9月6日（土）、午前7：15分に天国へ行ってしまいました。 実は、まるさんはこの1週間で、とても体調が悪くなっていました。 2週間前までは食欲も旺盛で、毎食完食、そして体重も […]
Digital communication.
Sep. 5th, 2025 10:54 pmhannahMy phone's inability to hold a decent charge is starting to grate on me. I don't use it for a whole lot of things or for many minutes throughout a given day, and based on the stats provided by said phone, the things that I use it for the most - the phone function itself for calls, the CitiBike app, and the home and lock screen - are fairly baffling that they're taking up the most energy. I can't claim to understand the details of the technology involved, but I can claim to be confused that using this phone as a phone is a major drain.
I'm not replacing it, though, not unless I can get the exact same model in the exact same color. I'm holding out until I've got no choice in the matter. Hopefully by then, technology's going to have advanced to the point I can replace the battery myself.
I'm not replacing it, though, not unless I can get the exact same model in the exact same color. I'm holding out until I've got no choice in the matter. Hopefully by then, technology's going to have advanced to the point I can replace the battery myself.
