Daily Happiness
Apr. 10th, 2026 07:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torachanWe had a nice, relatively relaxing day today that kept us mostly out of the rain. There actually wasn’t much rain most of the day, just sprinkling off and on, though it did start coming down harder here and there in the evening.
We went to a little train museum not too far from the resort area that required taking a train and then a bus, and I’ve never taken a bus in Japan before so that was fun. We also ate at a family restaurant (Gusto), which is another thing I’ve never done before. This one was very high tech. You order off a tablet (which we’ve seen a fair amount of), the food comes to you by robot, and then it’s self-checkout at the register. There was also a Book Off right nearby so we got some books and CDs, and then since it wasn’t raining right then, instead of getting on the bus where we got off, we walked several stops towards our destination before getting on, which got us a nice little neighborhood walk in a less touristy area than where we’ve mainly been so far. In the evening we went to Ikspiari for dinner and more shopping. I definitely feel like we’re getting the hang of Ikspiari now. It was soooooo confusing last time and I stil hate the layout, but we were able to navigate without too much trouble this time. Now we’re back at the hotel early and can just relax before our big DisneySea day tomorrow.
We went to a little train museum not too far from the resort area that required taking a train and then a bus, and I’ve never taken a bus in Japan before so that was fun. We also ate at a family restaurant (Gusto), which is another thing I’ve never done before. This one was very high tech. You order off a tablet (which we’ve seen a fair amount of), the food comes to you by robot, and then it’s self-checkout at the register. There was also a Book Off right nearby so we got some books and CDs, and then since it wasn’t raining right then, instead of getting on the bus where we got off, we walked several stops towards our destination before getting on, which got us a nice little neighborhood walk in a less touristy area than where we’ve mainly been so far. In the evening we went to Ikspiari for dinner and more shopping. I definitely feel like we’re getting the hang of Ikspiari now. It was soooooo confusing last time and I stil hate the layout, but we were able to navigate without too much trouble this time. Now we’re back at the hotel early and can just relax before our big DisneySea day tomorrow.
F-FW Challenge 511 - Not for general use
Apr. 10th, 2026 08:27 pmm_findlowTitle: Not for general use
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,319 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 511 - Beam at![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fan_flashworks
Summary: Jack has revised plans for their weapons training date night.
Not for general use
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,319 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 511 - Beam at
fan_flashworks Summary: Jack has revised plans for their weapons training date night.
Not for general use
The Testaments (1.01 - 1.03
Apr. 10th, 2026 11:19 amselenakThe first three episodes of The Testaments have been dropped in my part of the world on Disney +. It's an adapatation of Margaret Atwood's novel of the same name, which is a decades later written sequel to her famous dystopian classic The Handmaid's Tale; when it was published, I reviewed it here. Just to make their lives more complicated, though, the show is also a sequel to the tv series The Handmaid's Tale. The first (very good) season of which I watched, but not the later ones, as word of mouth about diminishing quality and lack of time have detained me, but I did osmose this presents a problem because not only is the backstory the showin its later seasons developed for one of the central characters (Aunt Lydia) very different from her backstory in the novel, but the timeline of another central character is different as well. With this in mind, my spoilery reaction to the first three episodes is beneath the cut. Above cut: those first three episodes are well acted and produced and make some interesting choices re: adapting the source material - and I don't mean "interesting" as a euphemism for bad -, but haven't revealed yet how they'll solve the Lydia problem.
( The perils of being a female teenager in Gilead )
( The perils of being a female teenager in Gilead )
Real And Realer
Apr. 10th, 2026 08:07 ampoliphilo Woke up yesterday feeling all golden, woke up this morning feeling all Thomas Hardy.
These things are just moods. Enjoy and put up with.
Smile indulgently.
I don't care too much for calling the world a "simulacrum". It's rather more immersive than a video game, don'tcha think?
It's real, but not very real.
Very real is the next level up- and beyond very real are levels that get realer and realer.....
Or so I think likely.....
These things are just moods. Enjoy and put up with.
Smile indulgently.
I don't care too much for calling the world a "simulacrum". It's rather more immersive than a video game, don'tcha think?
It's real, but not very real.
Very real is the next level up- and beyond very real are levels that get realer and realer.....
Or so I think likely.....
Quickly jotting down a few proofreading-related notes
Apr. 10th, 2026 07:34 amvriddy1. Tracking writing-related stuff daily so doesn't work for me and my brain. I track wordcounts only monthly for a reason!! Because I was planning to finish this proofreading within two weeks or so, I thought I would therefore update my little chart thing to track by day rather than by week so the chart looks more interesting. It does look cool! But tracking daily means I read high numbers as "This is what I am capable of" and any day in which I could only manage 15 minutes or so as a failure. May have to weeklify this chart after all.
2. Especially because, while finishing within two weeks would be convenient for a variety of reasons, I'm not sure the proofreading will go as fast as I hoped. My thought were: okay, the story is a third longer than it was last time I proofread it, but only the new stuff might sound janky! Well. It's been over a year since the last time I proofread, so sentences give me different feelings now. The first chapter hadn't changed a ton, maybe 600 new words, but I spent 3h on it anyway. Just like the average last round: proofread 10 chapters in a little under 3 weeks, average time per chapter 2h54. I have 14 chapters now. Grumbles, grumbles.
3. Thinking a lot about what I want to learn next. The last couple of years have been about "process" especially around editing, what works well for me in general, how to actually edit a big project, how to manage my stamina through it. Over the last couple of months, I've been learning about structure, and loving it. Like, there will be more to learn there for sure, but for the time being I need to put into practice my new learning until it comes more naturally. While this is happening, I really want to improve how I write sentences. Line editing, I guess? My writing feels very weak there right now, or not where I'd like it to be. It won't be something I apply on the witch (would require a complete rewrite), but it's something I hope to pay more attention to for the Soul Thief. Reflecting too on how I want to learn and how I could organise myself for it. For example, I got a copy of Le Guin's "Steering the Craft" a while back that sounds like it should fit the bill? But I found it very intimidating, and I'm not good at just doing exercises either. It's easier when learning happens as part of a real story. Anyway, whatever I end up doing next, it seems like I'm moving from a "learning process" to a "learning craft" kinda mood, for the next while!
2. Especially because, while finishing within two weeks would be convenient for a variety of reasons, I'm not sure the proofreading will go as fast as I hoped. My thought were: okay, the story is a third longer than it was last time I proofread it, but only the new stuff might sound janky! Well. It's been over a year since the last time I proofread, so sentences give me different feelings now. The first chapter hadn't changed a ton, maybe 600 new words, but I spent 3h on it anyway. Just like the average last round: proofread 10 chapters in a little under 3 weeks, average time per chapter 2h54. I have 14 chapters now. Grumbles, grumbles.
3. Thinking a lot about what I want to learn next. The last couple of years have been about "process" especially around editing, what works well for me in general, how to actually edit a big project, how to manage my stamina through it. Over the last couple of months, I've been learning about structure, and loving it. Like, there will be more to learn there for sure, but for the time being I need to put into practice my new learning until it comes more naturally. While this is happening, I really want to improve how I write sentences. Line editing, I guess? My writing feels very weak there right now, or not where I'd like it to be. It won't be something I apply on the witch (would require a complete rewrite), but it's something I hope to pay more attention to for the Soul Thief. Reflecting too on how I want to learn and how I could organise myself for it. For example, I got a copy of Le Guin's "Steering the Craft" a while back that sounds like it should fit the bill? But I found it very intimidating, and I'm not good at just doing exercises either. It's easier when learning happens as part of a real story. Anyway, whatever I end up doing next, it seems like I'm moving from a "learning process" to a "learning craft" kinda mood, for the next while!
We have our water heater replacement first thing tomorrow
Apr. 9th, 2026 12:13 pmconulyAnd we can barely pay it if we don't pay for a few other things. Maybe they'll let us write two checks.
On the other hand, if the USA decides drop nukes during the installation, probably the company won't trouble themselves too much about payment. We'll be home free! Well, assuming nobody retaliates on NYC specifically....
**********************
( Read more... )
On the other hand, if the USA decides drop nukes during the installation, probably the company won't trouble themselves too much about payment. We'll be home free! Well, assuming nobody retaliates on NYC specifically....
( Read more... )
A lonesome highway is a pretty good subject
Apr. 9th, 2026 10:01 pmsovayEntirely apart from it now apparently being business as usual for my killing joke of a government to start wars in whatever sovereign nations it feels like and threaten the annihilation of entire civilizations on capricious deadline, I have had a weird and fairly scrambled week in which I was not able to avoid talking to doctors after all. I can feel suitably noir-poisoned for recognizing some location shooting in The Rockford Files (1974–80) from Desert Fury (1947). The sky this afternoon suggested that it was trying to be autumn.
rushthatspeaks sent me an improbable mammal.
rushthatspeaks sent me an improbable mammal.Nature
Apr. 9th, 2026 10:53 pmysabetwordsmithPrairie plants reveal a hidden defense against climate extremes
It looks peaceful – but these places are basically training grounds for weather whiplash.
A new study says prairies really do have a built-in advantage when the climate gets nasty: biodiversity helps. But it’s not as simple as the old slogan “more species = more resilience.”
The researchers found that different kinds of biodiversity matter depending on the kind of extreme – drought versus flood – and that nuance could matter a lot as heat, floods, and dry spells become more common.
( Read more... )
It looks peaceful – but these places are basically training grounds for weather whiplash.
A new study says prairies really do have a built-in advantage when the climate gets nasty: biodiversity helps. But it’s not as simple as the old slogan “more species = more resilience.”
The researchers found that different kinds of biodiversity matter depending on the kind of extreme – drought versus flood – and that nuance could matter a lot as heat, floods, and dry spells become more common.
( Read more... )
mmm, bread
Apr. 9th, 2026 11:55 pmtsuki_no_barapassover is over! which means i can have bread again. :D the holiday felt weirdly short tho, maybe because i spent four days of it in atlanta. and i have A LOT of matzo left. >.<
I’m sorry I’m taking the car to the airport that is closer to,
rather than farther away from, the oncoming hurricane.
In the parking garage of my love for you, I circle around
quietly, looking for a space to put the day’s best guesses,
one not too far from the kiosk of you, standing mute and
ready to hand me a small slip of paper that reads I’m sorry
I can’t tell you what I want. So we’re both mildly apologetic
all the time, which is a small courtesy, two pulsars fanning
light at one another in bursts detectable years later. Why
won’t you take this bundle of daffodils. Why have the
daffodils turned into dirty forks. I’m sorry about my socks.
See, there I go again. In the backyard, a vine from next
door has crawled up and over the fence and has flourished
there, a great nest of green six feet off the ground. I’d
trim it, but you’re holding the hedge clippers against your
hair. You’re saying that your hair is morning glories and
you’d like to keep the morning glories if possible. I don’t
even know what morning glories are exactly; my mother
is an excellent gardener but I have neither her memory for
color nor your cataloguing tendencies and it’s late in the day
and I’m sorry for that. It’s difficult to hold you in this
shaft of light when you keep taking three steps away and
sitting down in the nearest chair, one hand on each knee
like a monument. It’s difficult to feel your body against
my side in sleep, the desires it holds distant and tired,
like an animal that has walked too far in an inhospitable
climate. I am full of water but as thirst is a form of
suffering, I would not wish it upon you. Instead, I will
work my way through your dreaming, which I know is of
endless snow fields. I will wait in this puddle of melt.
Perhaps, one day, you will come to me with your skin
near to brittle from the cold you love so much. Perhaps on
that day we can begin to think together about the seasons,
about how spring can also arrive in precision, if you let it.
--"Poem in Which the Poet Ventriloquizes the Beloved", Kimberly Quiogue Andrews
I’m sorry I’m taking the car to the airport that is closer to,
rather than farther away from, the oncoming hurricane.
In the parking garage of my love for you, I circle around
quietly, looking for a space to put the day’s best guesses,
one not too far from the kiosk of you, standing mute and
ready to hand me a small slip of paper that reads I’m sorry
I can’t tell you what I want. So we’re both mildly apologetic
all the time, which is a small courtesy, two pulsars fanning
light at one another in bursts detectable years later. Why
won’t you take this bundle of daffodils. Why have the
daffodils turned into dirty forks. I’m sorry about my socks.
See, there I go again. In the backyard, a vine from next
door has crawled up and over the fence and has flourished
there, a great nest of green six feet off the ground. I’d
trim it, but you’re holding the hedge clippers against your
hair. You’re saying that your hair is morning glories and
you’d like to keep the morning glories if possible. I don’t
even know what morning glories are exactly; my mother
is an excellent gardener but I have neither her memory for
color nor your cataloguing tendencies and it’s late in the day
and I’m sorry for that. It’s difficult to hold you in this
shaft of light when you keep taking three steps away and
sitting down in the nearest chair, one hand on each knee
like a monument. It’s difficult to feel your body against
my side in sleep, the desires it holds distant and tired,
like an animal that has walked too far in an inhospitable
climate. I am full of water but as thirst is a form of
suffering, I would not wish it upon you. Instead, I will
work my way through your dreaming, which I know is of
endless snow fields. I will wait in this puddle of melt.
Perhaps, one day, you will come to me with your skin
near to brittle from the cold you love so much. Perhaps on
that day we can begin to think together about the seasons,
about how spring can also arrive in precision, if you let it.
--"Poem in Which the Poet Ventriloquizes the Beloved", Kimberly Quiogue Andrews
Poem: "The Grabber"
Apr. 9th, 2026 10:35 pmysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the April 7, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from ravan. It also fills the "Exception" square in my 4-1-26 card for the Flower Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles. It belongs to the series Monster House.
( Read more... )
ravan. It also fills the "Exception" square in my 4-1-26 card for the Flower Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles. It belongs to the series Monster House.( Read more... )
Poem: "So DONE with It All"
Apr. 9th, 2026 10:18 pmysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the April 7, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by janetmiles. It also fills the "Request" square in my 4-1-26 card for the Flower Fest Bingo.
( Read more... )
janetmiles. It also fills the "Request" square in my 4-1-26 card for the Flower Fest Bingo. ( Read more... )
Poem: Their Hidden Source
Apr. 9th, 2026 10:15 pmysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the April 7, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from siliconshaman. It also fills the "Request" square in my 4-1-26 card for the Flower Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles. It belongs to the series One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis. It directly follows "Someone Who Was Trying to Be Sober" so read that first or this won't make much sense.
( Read more... )
siliconshaman. It also fills the "Request" square in my 4-1-26 card for the Flower Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles. It belongs to the series One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis. It directly follows "Someone Who Was Trying to Be Sober" so read that first or this won't make much sense.( Read more... )
(no subject)
Apr. 9th, 2026 10:07 pmskygiantsMade a extremely silly decision this past weekend, which was to break up our long drive to and from Philly by Exactly long enough to see one (one) show in NYC on the way down, and another on the way back. Literally put the car in a garage by the theater, went into the show, got the car out of the garage, and kept driving. And to make matters even sillier the show that we saw on the way down was Bad -- and we knew it was going to be! Or at least we had a reasonable suspicion! But were we not going to go out of our way to see Norm Lewis play Villefort in a Count of Monte Cristo musical? Of course we were. The path before us had simply been prepared.
Q: When you say it was bad, do you mean it was a bad musical as a musical, or a bad adaptation of Count of Monte Cristo?
A: Oh, both! Absolutely both.
Q: What made it a bad musical?
A: Well, the music. And the lyrics. They hit exactly every beat on the Musical Sheet while constantly feeling like less subtle knockoff versions of other songs you might know slightly better. The song you might know slightly better is not a subtle one, you say? Well, I guarantee you that songs such as "Dangerous Times," in which the full cast explain that they are living in dangerous times, and "How Did I Get So Far Away [From Me]," in which Mercedes sadly wonders how she has gotten so far away from herself, are less so. When the best you can say of a song is that it felt like pallid diet Frank Wildhorn -- as in, lacking the noted power and vibrancy of real Frank Wildhorn, composer of such deathless works as Death Note: The Musical -- then you know we're scraping the bottom of the barrel. And that's not even mentioning the frenetic stream of mediocre jokes.
Q: And what made it a bad adaptation?
A: I mean I know there are probably people in the past who have said that Edmond Dantès literally did nothing wrong but I want you to understand: in this show, Edmond Dantès literally does nothing wrong. His backstory takes up the entire first act, and by the time we hit intermission I was already like "huh, there's not going to be a lot of time in here for revenge schemes," but I didn't actually understand how dire the situation was going to be until ( this part of the Q&A gets into quite detailed plot spoilers )
Q: So do you regret your objectively silly decision to go out of your way to see this musical?
A: No I do not, not in the least, and I would have regretted missing it. There is something very nutritious in bad theater, I think. It forces you to consider what good theater might look like. Also, the surprise appearance of Lucrezia Borgia was one of the funniest things I experienced all weekend.
Q: When you say it was bad, do you mean it was a bad musical as a musical, or a bad adaptation of Count of Monte Cristo?
A: Oh, both! Absolutely both.
Q: What made it a bad musical?
A: Well, the music. And the lyrics. They hit exactly every beat on the Musical Sheet while constantly feeling like less subtle knockoff versions of other songs you might know slightly better. The song you might know slightly better is not a subtle one, you say? Well, I guarantee you that songs such as "Dangerous Times," in which the full cast explain that they are living in dangerous times, and "How Did I Get So Far Away [From Me]," in which Mercedes sadly wonders how she has gotten so far away from herself, are less so. When the best you can say of a song is that it felt like pallid diet Frank Wildhorn -- as in, lacking the noted power and vibrancy of real Frank Wildhorn, composer of such deathless works as Death Note: The Musical -- then you know we're scraping the bottom of the barrel. And that's not even mentioning the frenetic stream of mediocre jokes.
Q: And what made it a bad adaptation?
A: I mean I know there are probably people in the past who have said that Edmond Dantès literally did nothing wrong but I want you to understand: in this show, Edmond Dantès literally does nothing wrong. His backstory takes up the entire first act, and by the time we hit intermission I was already like "huh, there's not going to be a lot of time in here for revenge schemes," but I didn't actually understand how dire the situation was going to be until ( this part of the Q&A gets into quite detailed plot spoilers )
Q: So do you regret your objectively silly decision to go out of your way to see this musical?
A: No I do not, not in the least, and I would have regretted missing it. There is something very nutritious in bad theater, I think. It forces you to consider what good theater might look like. Also, the surprise appearance of Lucrezia Borgia was one of the funniest things I experienced all weekend.
Data pointing.
Apr. 9th, 2026 10:10 pmhannahI'd very much like to rant about an article I saw in The New York Times Magazine about people trying to get away from smartphones, except it'd boil down to my firm hypothesis they'd achieve the same result by taking the internet off the smart phone. If the apps don't work, you can't get a quick hit of anything. I still don't understand how that manages to be the default for pretty much everyone else and how other people's phones can't also be set to only get internet access when they're logged into a network. It's baffling.
I suppose to ask what goes into making this possible is to get the answer that it's built into the settings with few people bothering to change them, or even consider that as something which could be done - and that cellular data roaming functions aren't something people think to play around with, either.
Who benefits from this is very much the people pushing for the constant immediate gratification and ongoing distractions.
What's the desired outcome is the reliance on the smartphone as distraction device, giving attention and money, rather than a useful tool that can be modified as desired by the owners and end-users.
I suppose to ask what goes into making this possible is to get the answer that it's built into the settings with few people bothering to change them, or even consider that as something which could be done - and that cellular data roaming functions aren't something people think to play around with, either.
Who benefits from this is very much the people pushing for the constant immediate gratification and ongoing distractions.
What's the desired outcome is the reliance on the smartphone as distraction device, giving attention and money, rather than a useful tool that can be modified as desired by the owners and end-users.
