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BEHOLD THE MAN

Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged Him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head and arrayed Him in a purple robe. They came up to Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck Him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing Him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!” (John 19:1-5)

Pilate says to the crowd and Jesus’ enemies, “Behold the Man.” Look at Him—this Jesus, scourged and bleeding, barely able to stand up. Look at Him—wearing a robe the same color as His bruises, crowned with thorns. Who is He to you?

Is He your King? Will you have Him, bruised and bloody? Will you acknowledge Him as your own? Will you follow Him, even to the cross? Will you accept the gifts He gives you there—forgiveness for your sin, covering for your shame, love for you, you personally—forever?

If you want Him, you can have Him—for He has promised that. He never lies. He said, “Whoever comes to Me I will never cast out” (John 6:37b). He wants you—He has made that very clear. He said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” and “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (John 7:37b, Matthew 11:28). Now that He has died for you and risen from the dead, He will keep you at His side forever—sharing His life and joy with all His people (see John 17:24).

WE PRAY: Lord, I do want You. Keep me as Your own. Amen.

Lenten Devotions were written by Dr. Kari Vo.

Current Mood: thoughtful

susandennis

I've had my coffee maker for a while now. I've retired it, to try different/new ones/processes, but I always come back. It's a Keurig that they still have not improved upon. But its height requirement keeps it from being an option on my kitchen counter. So it was actually the impetus for my turning the half bath here into a utility room. Washer, litter box, printer, storage and coffee.

For the past a lotta years, I've pretty much stuck to rewarming coffee mugs. The way too expensive Ember and then, when it died, a pretty much just as expensive alternative. That one died last week. And I decided to change my ways. And then, yesterday, I redid the whole coffee area.

I switched to regular coffee mugs - those that can be washed in the dishwasher! - and heated coasters - one at my table and one at the sofa. Yesterday, I culled out some not needed stuff and made more counter space and then set up a lovely little proper coffee bar. It amuses the heck out of me how much delight I get out of a simple rearrangement of normal stuff.

This morning's coffee does taste better, my brain says.

I noticed on Flickr this morning that they have a legend which has probably been there forever and I never noticed it before. I've had my account since 2008. And as of this morning, I have 37,768 photos in it. Yikes! Probably half of those are trash takes which could be/should be/won't ever be deleted. Oh well.

No swimming this morning. There's a special pop up aerobics class at 11. There's a woman who used to teach here and retired but comes back once in a while and does these pop up classes and they are fab and fun. So I'm looking forward to today's. I may go down early and do some swimming before the class. I mean as long as I'm going to get my suit wet anyway.

I have a trip to Seattle Goodwill coming up. I now have 3 things on my 'hunt for at Goodwill' list and 3 is the minimum to make a trip by my Seattle Goodwill rules. I don't know if it will be this week or not but it's definitely on the horizon.

archangelbeth

https://archangelbeth.dreamwidth.org/267795.html – 2005-10-19.
Cats are actually 8 weeks old, not 6 as I thought, and need to go back in on friday (well, 4 of them) so I can pick up their health certificates and have them have their first distemper shots.

<>[...] Friskie, Smoke, Black and White, Black, Black two, and Gray Boy [...].

Hey, little Black and White. Hey. August, 2025, yeah? 20 and a half years.
( grief grief grief )

darkoshi

Get the same kind and size as the old one; direct vent gas water heater, 40 Gallons.
Make sure the anode rod is easy to access, for replacement purposes.
Get the max available warranty period.
Make sure the gas controller has a COM port; I may want to get this later on:
aquanta water heater wifi controller

Get the cold water shut-off valve replaced.
If possible, have the plumber attach solid copper tubes to the heater, not flexible connectors.
Maybe ask if they can change out the plastic spigot with a metal one since they only seem to come with plastic ones nowadays.

Have them install a drip pan underneath (I can put down extra bricks to keep it off the sand) so I can install a water leak sensor.

They'll probably say they need to install an expansion tank too... will it fit in the current location?

althea_valara

communal_creators is a community of creative types doing all sorts of things. We have two challenges a year: a week-long challenge in the spring and a month-long challenge in the fall.

The spring mini-round is starting a week from today! ANYWAY who creates is welcome to join. It's going to be time-based, and there are three tiers to choose from for your daily time goal.

Here's the sign-up post!

I'm serious when I say "anybody who creates". Yes, many of us are writers, but we also have fiber artists (knitting, crochet, weaving, and kumihimo braid), cross-stitchers and other needleworkers, vidders, animators, music creation, bakers... and I'm probably leaving something out.

My goals:
* finish the first sleeve of my cardigan
* maybe work on the t-shirt
* do another section of Neocities work
* write some, hopefully finishing a fic

Which is plenty given that it's just a week long, but it should be a mostly free week for me, except for work. I've got nothing else planned during the week, so hope to make some good progress.

Also tooting my own horn: someone asked for a tracking spreadsheet, so I made one this morning. You can find it in the comments of the sign-up post.

Current Mood: creative

ase

I had plans to keep an up to date book log. Well, that didn't happen.

The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, Book 1) (James Islington) (2023): In audiobook, narrated by Euan Morton. At 17, protagonist Vis experiences unexpected elevation from the bottom of the Hierarchy's boot to its elite academic academy, a new player in several schemes related to the phlebotinum the Hierarchy runs on, except like all good pseudo-Rome fantasy with phlebotinum underpinnings, guess what, it might destroy the entire world or something, more to come in Book Two.

I spotted this while browsing at a romance bookstore, and based on the blurb, I couldn't figure out why it was there. Having listened through the audiobook, specifically the part where the girlfriend is strongly implicated to be lying through her teeth about A Lot and oh yeah, literally tries to stab him to death, I'm still not sure how it got there.

Is The Will of the Many playing every trope of Manly Man In An Epic, Fighting Against Overwhelming Empire, 100% straight? Sure looks like it from here. Vis spends a lot of time being emotionally tortured by memories of His Secret Past that He Must Keep Secret Or Die, and also performing physical feats of great strength, stamina, agility, etc. It must be nice to pull double all-nighters while running marathons and stuff.

The novel hammers in that the Hierarchy is Bad, and their primary opponents, the Anguis, are also Bad, because human rights violations and hypocrisy, there's no good choices, blah blah. In Baru Comorant style, Vis is forced to join with his enemies to investigate its secrets (and maybe trash the evil hegemonic empire) from the inside. Except the interesting non-hetero worldbuilding is missing.

The cool part of the novel would be the phlebotinum, if the author were interested in it. Citizens of the Hierarchy have Will taken from them, which deprives them of energy, but gives Will wielders super strength and "imbuing" powers to make small magic devices - super-locks, trackers, lights - as well as great public works, like magic flying trains. I guess you could also heal with it, if that was something the novel was interested in. (Spoilers, the novel doesn't seem that interested in it.)

I think it'd be deeply interesting to think about imperial pressure to participate in this transfer of energy / executive function / whatever as a metaphor for all sorts of stuff, but mostly the novel uses it as "and then we had plot convenient superpowers or trains or whatever," which is disappointing.

The plot builds to an epilogue revelation that the Will phlebotinum is connected to a technology to copy and split yourself across three linked (?) worlds (???) - Res, Obiteum, Luceum - which is also connected to an ancient Cataclysm that some idiot(s) might trigger again in their grasping at Moar Power or something. Also there's some Larger Conflict (tm).

Pretty sure Vis isn't going to do the smart thing, which would be to find the Final Boss protecting the Will technology core, then destroy the Will technology beyond reconstruction, at least not without two more novels of being emotionally and physically tortured by the author's fictional proxies. If we're lucky maybe he'll reconcile with the girlfriend who tried to kill him before she perishes at the hands of his enemies / sacrifices herself for him.

The Ministry for the Future (Kim Stanley Robinson) (2020) in large cast audiobook. Premise: addressing carbon emissions and by proxy climate change by legislation, also some terrorism.

I read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy in my teens, and some of his other works between then and now. It feels like he has a specific utopian vision expressed repeatedly in his works, but as an American who read this in January 2026, his belief in a more peaceful, ecologically wise, equitable human future seems as dreamlike as Tolkien's First Age. That somehow this better world also comes into place through assassination and property damage doesn't help with my suspension of disbelief. Possibly the experience of one (1) pandemic, plus January '26, killed my willingness to believe in KSR's "if you build it" fiction.

Between the Islington and the KSR I reread some Scholomance as a "terrible schools and the societies that make them" palate-cleanser. After the KSR I reread a bunch of Radch series and Murderbot because sometimes you need to hang out with some unreliable and very angry narrators.

muccamukk

The YouTube algorithm has seen my interest in figure skating and started offering me classical ballet (I think, always difficult to tell how one gets where one ends up).

So I've been watching bits and pieces of that, as well as all of The Royal Ballet's Cinderella. I therefore offer you some fully random observations, from someone who never got into any kind of dance as a kid, and therefore knows baaaaaasically nothing about the topic. (I have been to several ballets in person, The Nutcracker of course, and the Winnipeg Ballet's Svengali..)

I like classical ballet (I'm not really watching modern) because it's quite ridiculous, and unconnected to anything that has ever happened on the face of the Earth.

I have learned that there's dialogue! Classical ballet has a kind of sign language, done through gestures, so that the dancers can explain plot points such as "We make evil men dance until they die!" and "This lake is made of my mother's tears!"

There does not seem to be much point to the male principal dancers. They have thighs like birch trees, which allows them to leap impressively high in the air, but they don't spin around on nothing but their big toe, which makes them less interesting to watch. Their main purposes seems to be to move the plot along, and act as a "Ballerina holder upper."

Maybe it's just because I'm not good enough at reading the mime, but the romantic dances are... not very romantic. They mostly seem to be the ballerina holder upper holding up the ballerina while she spins around on her big toe.

I don't know if there's non-transphobic/misogynistic way to do the comedy roles where male dancers play female characters, but Cinderella sure didn't manage it.

The plot of Giselle is really interesting (boy meets girl, girl dies when she finds out that boy has a fiancée, girl joins chorus of vengeful ghosts, vengeful ghosts attempt to kill boy, girl saves boy), and I wonder if there have been modern retellings like there have of other old fairytales.

I'm pretty sure the human body is not designed to do any of that.

Which is all I have for now.

roadrunnertwice

This is a gamedev post.

Don't do this when converting analog thumbstick input to discrete up/down/left/right (d-pad/arrow-key) values:

Axial (square) deadzone; an off-center diagonal vector remains in the Y deadzone for a while after leaving the X deadzone.

Do this instead:

Radial deadzone with angle snapping cutoffs. An off-center diagonal vector reads as the same angle for its whole length..

( More detailed explanation below the cut. )

dougo

For the past five years, I've seen every single Oscar-nominated film before the Academy Awards ceremony. This is my third year officially competing in the Oscars Death Race, but sadly this was my worst showing: I saw the 50th film on March 5th, putting me in 176th place on Death Race Tracking. (171st place on Oscars Death Race, which I guess has a slightly different set of users.) I suspect this is partly because there are a lot more racers than last year, but also Sirāt didn't arrive in local theaters until that week, and I prefer not to pirate feature films (I did get ahold of one of the doc shorts because I had seen all the others streaming and the doc shorts collection didn't have any convenient showings). Anyway, the goal is just to finish, and I shouldn't care much about leaderboard placement. Right??

So yeah, here is my annual post about what I would have voted for on my Oscar ballot, if I had been eligible to vote in every branch of the Academy. In other words, these are not my predictions (though I also did those on the ESPN Oscars Pick'em site). A number in parentheses is my rating for that movie (our of 10). Sorry, no time left to write up more thoughts other than the rankings! Enjoy the awards ceremony!

Best Picture

Train Dreams (8)
Bugonia (8)
Sinners (7)
The Secret Agent (7)
F1 (7)
Marty Supreme (6)
Hamnet (6)
Sentimental Value (6)
One Battle After Another (6)
Frankenstein (6)

See my Best Picture thoughts.

Best Director

( Read more... )

snowstorm

susandennis

I'm still getting used to having electricity. And it's wonderful. As last time, when the electricity goes out, the elbow gets a lot of action. After dark, it's the best light and people just gather. Even though the power was actually on all day yesterday, the group took a while to disband. Nearly all day yesterday, there was comfortable conversation with various participants. It was kind of fun.

I had a lovely sleep. It's still wonderfully dark when I wake up. So I internetted and coffeed and leisurely wandered down to the pool where dawn finally showed up during my swim which was kind of lovely.

I've already done a load of laundry. A few months ago, I got wind that GE had invented a new and better filter for my washer/dryer and I bought one. I had been so frustrated by the damn machine for so long and turns out, it was just the filter. The new one makes all the difference in the world. I spent some time sucking out the extra lint from all inside the machine and now it no longer even builds up in there - just on the filter which is very easy to clean. I'm now back in love with the machine. And everything is clean and put away.

I have no other plans for today. I may watch the baseball but Spring Training is kind of boring this year. I may watch some scripted TV or I may just listen to my book. I have new crochet project in mind to do in conjunction with the creatures.

We had a fair amount of snow again yesterday morning but since then, nothing but melting. Our excitement appears to be over and we can now just revel in the joy of having electrical outlets that work.

sparowe

FOR THIS PURPOSE

So Pilate [asked], “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about Me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You over to me. What have You done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. …” Then Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.” Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” (John 18:33-36a, 37-38)

This part of Jesus’ story makes me want to cry. Because Jesus is usually silent during His Passion. But here, for once, He’s talking—quite a lot, too! Why?

He tells us: It’s “to bear witness to the truth.” Jesus is evangelizing Pontius Pilate, the man who will condemn Him to death. He cares for him that much.

And if Jesus loves Pilate that much—cares that urgently about his life, his salvation, his blessedness—then there’s no way I can avoid another fact. Which is that Jesus cares just that much about me and about you. We are not faceless bits of humanity to Him. We are individuals He urgently loves—people He died and rose to save. He came for just that purpose, to make you His own.

WE PRAY: Lord, since You want me that much, I’m Yours. Amen.

Lenten Devotions were written by Dr. Kari Vo.

Current Mood: thoughtful

katarik

Over in the Northeast for memorial and, while I took a nap instead of going to the aquarium, I was able to go to two lovely shops (confectionery that sold me ANISE PASTILLES!!! and gave me several samples of things and a market that gave me MAPLE SOFT SERVE with MAPLE SPRINKLES ON IT) with

jadelennox and then went over to hers to have delicious Indian food and talk about books and food and Tasting History aaaaaand I maybe also infodumped about Care Bears II aka Faustian bargains in the woods with ten-year-olds, but! I did not infodump about Transformers (and specifically My Beloved Skyfire), I had restraint! Some restraint!

I did get to tell her about CrossingsCon.

dougo

Ten years ago, I started a tradition of writing up my thoughts about the Best Picture Oscar nominees; this year, for the first time, I had already seen all ten nominees by the time they were announced! This was certainly a surprise, because I hadn't yet seen No Other Choice and I had fully expected it to get a nomination, but no dice for that. The nomination ceremony was almost two months ago, and I probably should have written these up back then, but I was busy finishing The MIT Mystery Hunt and then after that I got busy finishing my Oscars Death Race (and a few other races). But the awards ceremony is tomorrow so time is getting short!

According to tradition, these are in the order that I saw them:

( Read more... )

(See also last year's thoughts.)

bokuwatetsuo

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: frustrated

bemused_writer

Here are some quick reviews of the RE films, along with a few notes on which timeline I think they belong to, which is part of a larger piece I'm working on discussing why I think we should see the RE universe as two separate timelines in general (based mostly on characterization). Timeline references are from over here.

( Degeneration )

( Damnation )

( Vendetta )

Current Mood: artistic
Current Location: Raccoon City

sparowe

TWISTED

When Pilate … learned that [Jesus] belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent Him over to Herod … [Herod] had long desired to see Him, because he had heard about Him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by Him. [Jesus] made no answer. … And Herod with his soldiers treated Him with contempt and mocked Him. Then, arraying Him in splendid clothing, he sent Him back to Pilate. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other. (Luke 23:6a, 7b, 8b, 9b, 11-12)

There’s something twisted in this little story. Pilate doesn’t want to be responsible for Jesus, even though judgment is his job. He knows Jesus ought to be set free, but he also knows he hasn’t got the courage to do it and take the consequences. So Pilate is delighted to hand Jesus over to Herod.

Herod isn’t interested in judging Jesus rightly either. He’s just looking for a miracle show—and he doesn’t get it. So he mocks Jesus and sends Him back.

And the result of all this? Pilate and Herod become friends, almost literally over Jesus’ dead body. How twisted is that?

I wish this was a rare situation in our world, but it’s not. People do this—we duck our responsibilities, we ignore what we’re supposed to do in favor of protecting ourselves or even finding a little amusement. And so the innocent are condemned.

But God uses even this. Jesus in His innocence is ignored, traded around, and finally condemned—and we, the guilty ones, are set free. Jesus lovingly takes our place under judgment, and gives us forgiveness and life through His own death. And when He rises to life, three days later, He shares that life with all of us who trust in Him.

WE PRAY: Thank You, Lord, for making me Yours forever. Amen.

Lenten Devotions were written by Dr. Kari Vo.

Current Mood: thoughtful

kradeelav

having so many anniversaries this year and so many art projects coming out this month is making me idly wonder what the hell my reputation is online with this handle, lol...

especially tricky to guess at because - attempting to look at myself from how i act online - the one "constant" is refusing to be put in a box, ha.

specifically in art circles there's been a growing physical separation in terms of the more mainstream & palatable versus the seedier, sharper, "guilty pleasure" (crack, selfship, 4chan shitpost humor, whatever) and outright kinky works; maybe i was young enough on dA i didn't see it then but from what i remember it was all mashed up in the same place there. regardless if it's original works or fanwork circles, doesn't matter, it's a pretty sharp divide now, and i do get the vague sense of having one foot in both (mainstream reputation probably borrowed from my iron crown days, and generally more tame fanwork posts).

reputation here being in types of artwork, actions, and general "vibe". i def flip flop inconsistently between said mainstream work and the occasional wiggy as hell "bomb"; part of it truly just depends on whatever i'm in the mood to finish that day, part of it is slightly intentional "rent lowering firing a gun" so i don't get too known for one Thing and be put back in a box.

i don't go actively looking for what people say; it's really none of my business (and they have the right to say whatever). what i do sometimes see is the kind of activity on posts that suggests they're being passed around on discord servers (totally cool). i know some folks dislike me (i'm sure i've earned some of it...), but also probably because being annoyingly loud for defending lolisho for so long even when it was more of a third rail controversial topic (and something i don't usually draw). def know i read as intimidating/reserved at neutral, lol, my ex mentioned it a few times.

it's funny to be a known entity, especially how i never intended this handle to be anything but an anonymous escape.

bemused_writer

I wrapped up this game a few days ago, and I have since plummeted into a full-blown RE obsession, so it's safe to say I enjoyed it. Some of my critiques of the start remain the same, but once Grace was in Rhodes Hill proper things improved immensely.

I figure I'll go over some of my critiques and predictions from the last two entries, and see what holds up and what doesn't.

( Spoilers abound... )

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Raccoon City

susandennis

I went to bed too early and could not get to sleep. I finally did but then at 11:30, the electricity came back. I got up to plug in shit and turn off shit and then, of course, I could not get back to sleep. Finally about 2, I got up and watched the last 45 mins of a show I started in the afternoon. And then, finally, I went back to sleep. Julio and Biggie wanted breakfast at 5:30 so they got it and then I went back to sleep again until 7:30. I think, in all, I got plenty enough sleep.

My emergency hardware did great. Especially, my portable power station. It's the size of a children's shoe box and has all manner of DC outlets and 2 AC outlets and a big light. It cost me about $70. (not available any more so no link but look for 'portable power station' - there are a bunch the size of children's shoe boxes that have the outlets.) I charged it up when I got it in the fall of 2024. When I turned it on yesterday, the charge was showing 100%. I plugged my bed into it and got the head raised for sleeping. I plugged my toothbrush/water pick in and got my teeth ready for sleeping. My plans this morning were to have plugged my coffee pot in to make a cup, plug my induction plate in for scrambled eggs and my toaster in for, well, toast. All easy and doable. And, doable, probably for several days with no more charge required.

Another thing I could plug in but maybe wouldn't would be my toilet. For more than a decade now my toilet has sported a bidet that includes a heated seat. My ass is just used to the finer things and sitting on a ice cube is just a shock it does not appreciate. But, I guess, sacrifices need to be made. It (my ass) loved that the juice was back on this morning.

Timber Ridge sent an email last night saying breakfast would be served at 10 this morning, lunch at 1 and dinner at 5. They totally know how to handle buffets for all of us now. AND the meals today would be complementary. I'm guessing they are still going with that plan. And then tomorrow back to normal.

Oh and unlike last time, when the wifi came roaring back as soon as the electricity did which was very nice to see.

In other news, the IRS sent me an email saying there was news so I checked Where's my Refund which is way easier than logging into my account and, sure enough, they are promising the refund in my account by Thursday.

Volleyball was called off for today yesterday afternoon. Elbow coffee starts at 10 but that's when they are serving breakfast downstairs so it may be a no go.

I may watch the Mariners game. I for sure will be putting all my emergency supplies away, hopefully for a long time.

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Page Summary

sparowe - Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries: 16 March 2026 (Lenten Devotional)
susandennis - Coffee make over
archangelbeth - Losing Dickens.
darkoshi - water heater notes
althea_valara - PSA: communal_creators spring mini-round is soon!
ase - Not So Recent Reading
muccamukk - and now for something completely different
roadrunnertwice - On enabling analog stick movement in a shmup
dougo - Oscar 2025 picks
snowstorm - Progress
susandennis - Sunday
sparowe - Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries: 15 March 2026 (Lenten Devotional)
katarik - a good day anyway
dougo - Best Picture thoughts, 2025 edition
bokuwatetsuo - source language
bemused_writer - Resident Evil CGI Movie Reviews Part 1
sparowe - Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries: 14 March 2026
kradeelav - (no subject)
bemused_writer - Resident Evil: Requiem Full Review
susandennis - Snow is melting and the lights are on

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