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May her memory be a blessing: Jane Yolen has passed.
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/gazettenet/name/jane-stemple-obituary?id=61676319

queen_ypolita

This afternoon, I went to see Julius Caesar by Secret Shakespeare at the Abbey ruins. I saw the same group's performance of the Scottish play there last summer, so I was intrigued by this one too, although my prior knowledge of the play was non-existent. Anyway, the concept was similar: a promenade performance stopping at various points in the area, no fixed stages, ordinary clothes rather than costumes, hardly any props, starting without a preamble with the actors just stepping out of the audience. And I enjoyed all of that, but it really would have helped to be more familiar with the play than just skim-reading the Wikipedia article. That said, I was surprised I recognised parts of some of the speeches, because I clearly didn't know they came from this one. On the whole, I was pretty confused all the way through, although I was enjoying the experience of being there. And in a performance like this and the ruins open to the public throughout, it's also fun to overhear passers-by wondering what's going on.

I'm going to see another round of Shakespeare at the ruins in July, but that will be with a fixed stage and seating in the chapterhouse.

Yesterday, didn't do anything much. On Friday, I had a break from ordinary work in the form of a volunteering day with a charity partner, in west London. That was fun. I've been at the same site a couple of times before, including last year on a day when it was 30 degrees with blue skies and sunshine. This year, the weather was more suited to working outdoors, breezy, mostly overcast, warm enough but not too hot. We started our day there by carrying some metal posts across the site so they can be repurposed, then worked on some Hügelkultur beds and wheelbarrowed woodchip and manure and some vegetation and spread it on the beds. It was fun, but my arms have been pretty sore yesterday and today.

susandennis

I listen to music while I swim. I have about 5,000 (not an exaggeration) mp3's that are randomly-ish divided into groups of 20-ish. So any group of 20 might have most of one album and some of a couple others. I am going through the groups in numerical order. When I charge my player, I delete what's on there and grab another group of 20. No clue what it will be until I kick off the side of the pool and start to swim.

Today's music was part of an album from the last group and very pleasant and then I hit a bunch of Crosby, Stills and Nash. And with the first cord, I detected the distinct order of marijuana. While I was swimming head down in the water! And I kept smelling it, too. It cracked me up. I smoked weed when they were hot but not that much I didn't think. Apparently, my nose thinks differently.

I woke up this morning and noted that it was Monday and mentally reviewed my plans for the day. Then I got up and put coffee on and opened the door and saw that Jim Across The Hall had gotten his Sunday paper*?? And then I opened up my email and saw the emails I get on Sunday. Hmmmmm guess it isn't Monday after all!

*Jim is still gone and is not coming back but his apartment is just abandoned. I assume it's still being paid for. His newspaper subscription has continued since he left at the end of March. In the last couple of weeks, however, it's been very random and intermittent. (This drives Joan crazy because she must know every detail of everyone's lives - mainly so she can tell everyone else - and she's very frustrated that she cannot find out a clue about Jim.)

So, since it's not Monday... the Mariners haven't lost their game yet!

Yesterday I cleaned out the fridge. I tossed out a bunch of really old stuff. I need to do the freezer next. I think there is far less to toss there but I need to get a better handle on what is there. Since I'm eating so much less these days, things involved with food are also far more simple. Win win.

I got my inventory a nice boost yesterday and hope to repeat it today.

piyavking

https://multclub11.lol/adultswim/off_the_air.html

snowstorm

They cut through my yard a few days ago too.

sparowe

ODB: Serving Side by Side

Jun 14, 2026/in Our Daily Bread/by YMI

June 14, 2026

READ: Nehemiah 2:17-18; 3:6-12

“Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work. Nehemiah 2:18

Serendipity Bookstore, a popular spot in Chelsea, Michigan, needed to expand. The owner found a building twice the size just a block away. She wanted to make the move quickly instead of closing the store for days and boxing up all the books. So she requested help from the community. More than three hundred people showed up! They stood shoulder to shoulder, forming a human conveyor belt, and passed the books from one person to the next, moving 9,100 books in just under two hours. The owner said, “[The bookstore] is really a part of the community, and [the people] have ownership.” They all enthusiastically worked side by side.

When Nehemiah, a Jew who was the trusted cupbearer to the Persian king, learned that the wall surrounding Jerusalem lay in shambles, he cried out for God’s guidance (Nehemiah 1:3-11). The Babylonians had destroyed the walls in 587 bc. After investigating, Nehemiah recruited help from the community. He said to the Jewish leaders, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins . . . . Come, let us rebuild the wall” (2:17). Chapter 3 describes how leaders and citizens alike willingly repaired the section of the wall that was right in front of each one. They worked side by side.

We too can impact our community by serving together under God’s direction and in His strength.

— Anne Cetas

What are your God-given abilities? How might He be calling you to work side by side with others?

Please open my eyes, dear God, to those around me so I might serve You in ways that help my community.

Source: Our Daily Bread

Current Mood: touched

muccamukk

Re a conversation I'm having in comments with

trepkos.

I think I've mentioned before that growing up without TV reception, I really only saw shows when I was visiting Grandma or one of my cousins, and therefore my knowledge of Star Trek was largely based on the novels, and the very rare episode I caught while in town, or that someone had on VHS (mostly TNG, which was airing at the time).

I relied on the secondhand knowledge provided by the novels, which would refer back to canon events in an entirely muddled way that made it difficult to know what had happened. I was therefore delighted to discover that James Blish had written narrative versions of all the Original Series episodes.

"Great!" I thought, "Now I can get all the details straight, and understand the references in the novels."

I forget how I figured it out, maybe one of the novels contradicted the Blish versions, or maybe it was in one of the other reference books (we had, at one point, the nitpicker's guides and the encyclopedia). But I worked out that Blish was not only changing details, but sometimes changing the entire endings of episodes! Shock! Betrayal! Horror! Imagine the most outraged 9-10 year old you've ever seen!

(In retrospect, I'm wondering if Blish was writing them from memory? Or possibly shooting scripts? Does anyone know? Knowledge of this must exist.)

However, I was actually kind of disappointed when I finally saw "Amok Time," because I low-key liked some of Blish's made-up details? Well, not most of them, but there's a beat in the ending that I fully imprinted on, and that isn't in the original episode. And I know this is blasphemy, because the original ending is fully iconic, with Spock smiling and almost hugging Kirk before he remembers he's not supposed to have feelings. However, hear me out. I went and found the Blish version on Archive.org (they're all there, if you want to delight in corny 1970s renderings of 1960s camp), and it goes thusly:

[Kirk] came gradually back to consciousness in the Sickbay.* McCoy was bending over him. Nearby was Spock, his hands over his face. His shoulders were shaking.

Nurse Christine† came into his field of view, and turning Spock towards the Captain, gently pulled his hands away from his face. Kirk smiled weakly, and spoke in a faint but cheerful voice.

"Mr. Spock—I never thought I'd see the day..."

"Captain!" Spock stared down at him, absolutely dazed with astonishment.‡ Then, obviously realizing what his face and voice were revealing, he looked away.

I know it's not a masterpiece of literary genius,‡ but it does hit the niche trope of "emotionally more open character comes upon emotionally closed character secretly having a good cry, and that leads to ~~banging~~ revelations of true feelings." Which I could read a hundred thousand versions of and never tire of wanting more, and I have indeed included in at least a couple of my own fic. I'm not sure if this is the first time I ran into it, but it might have been? If so, Thank you, Mr. Blish!

Anyway, hi. I'm actually doing reading for history. Of 12th-century nuns, not mid-20th-century pop culture.

* Definite article in the original?

† Nurse Does Not Have a Last Name!?

‡ Look. The thing about being nine is you don't notice when the prose is Not Very Good.

snowstorm

These were a gift from Steve after I'd been lamenting over lacking time and space for using pastels. I miss it a great deal. Someday soon I will redo my office and create a dedicated art area. Bye-bye treadmill. 😝

darkoshi

According to the weather websites, it's 96 degrees Fahrenheit (or less) outside in this area.
According to my porch thermometer, it is nearly 106 in the shade!

Indoors, an old round thermometer showed 76 degrees, while my smart thermostat showed 83. After putting the old one outside in the shade of my house for an hour (on top of an upside down cloth clothes hamper to insulate it from the hot ground), it shows 104.5.

I have an electronic forehead thermometer with a mode for measuring the temp of other objects. Even it indicated between 101 and 107 outside in the shade.

I never know which thermometers to trust. But this time they seem agreed that it is hotter than what the websites are showing.

..

The smart thermostat is always warm to the touch. That probably affects its own readings. Based on the electronic one's readings, the thermostat shows at least 2 degrees higher than most of the house. So though I usually have to set it between 83 and 85 for my own comfort, the actual temp is more likely between 81 and 83.

ljgeoff

I've decided to put $50/wk into my GoFundMe - yes, I could just save it like regular people do, but this way I can keep myself accountable.

GoFundMe for an Oregon State University Permaculture class

muccamukk

Since apparently we're never going to find out what happened, and I'm not mad about that! /s

Does anyone have a rec for Gatwa!Doctor/Rogue fixit fic? Like a long h/c one with travails and shit.

I'd take other Doctors, too, but mostly want more Gatwa.

muccamukk

So it turns out the reward for having submitted a research paper in a (more or less) timely fashion is having to turn around and work on the next paper. So I'm def not procrastinating from that! Look! There's a nun!

I had an open tab with the outlines for book reviews for like a month, then finally managed to overwrite the saved draft with something else. Which is no loss as it was just the titles and a preamble about how far behind I am. I hope that once school is out after the 22nd, I'll be able to catch up with the handful of books I read in the last six months!

Anyway! Fun meme from

regshoe:

General Questions

This week I'm reading: Just finished The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar, and currently rereading The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older.
My favourite book of all time is: Oh jeez. Prooooobably The Lord of the Rings? It's certainly the book that's meant the most to me, but I admit that I've listened to the BBC radio play from the 1980s more than I've read it in recent years. I keep thinking that I should reread, then not getting around to it.
My current favourite book (read or re-read in the last 3 months): Persuasion by Jane Austen, hands down.
The last book I bought was: Companions on the Road by Tanith Lee, which I haven't read yet.
The first book I bought with my own money: Too long ago to remember. Probably a used Star Trek novel?
The first book I received as a gift: My brother and I used to get a lot of those slim hardcover Eyewitness science books, so that seems likely. Or a used Star Trek novel.
The last book I received as a gift was: It's bad that I'm fully blanking on this. People don't give me many books, because I gave so many away last time I moved, and I may move again soon.
The last book I borrowed from the library: The Beginning Comes After the End by Rebecca Solnit.
The book physically closest to me right now: Pageboy by Elliot Page, which Nenya has been not reading for about six months now.
Do you read bookfic, and if so what is your favourite bookshop fic? I assume we're not counting fandoms with canonical bookstores, such as GO? In the case of AUs, I can't think of one (and don't seem to have one bookmarked), but I don't object to them in theory. I did want to write a Band of Brothers AU where Dick starts a queer bookstore post war. I do read fic about book fandoms though, and hope to look at my TBR tab once school's over.

This or That

(watch me be bad at binary choices)
Physical book or e-book: E-book. So portable!
Used or new: Used. The shops are more fun.
Fiction or non-fiction: Both.
Read at a coffee shop or at the park: Park!
Paperback or hardcover: Paperback, but only the mass market/pocket book style, not clunky trade paperbacks.
Romance or Crime: Romance! (but it can have crime in it, if it wants)

Yes or No

(see above)
Stream of consciousness? Only by Laurence Sterne.
Poetry? Yes.
Memoirs? Yes.
Philosophy? Only theology.
Thrillers? No.
Chronicles? Like... travel books? The chronicles of Narnia? No to the former, yes to the latter.
Dialogue heavy? Usually not.

Code:

Current Mood: recumbent
Current Music: "Ta fête" by Stromae

snowstorm

My new glasses are pink!

susandennis

Yesterday Bonny came in to say that Joan has a birthday on the 24th. ARUGH. All these people and their freakin birthdays. I decided to just get on it and get it done. For the others, I open up an empty Google doc and then open the Gemini side bar and type in what kind of picture I want. I get 4 or 5 options and usually a couple of excellent ones.

Yesterday I opened up docs and got the side bar and no image. I got the message something along the lines of I don't do images. WTF? I screwed around with it for a long time and never got any satisfaction so finally did it the old fashioned way - found an image on Google and then added my text. It's fine.

But, later, I fired up Gemini to ask WTF? And, learned a lot. Turns out they have separated the AI's and now have one for text and one for images and when implemented, fucked it up Or in Gemini speak - 'created a known issue'. It was really a very interesting conversation. Sounds like things will be back to birthday ready next week.

Beats the hell out of crawling through Reddit looking for answers.

Today is elbow coffee. I'm pretty sure I'm going to use my out of town visitors to skip out on it next week.

Baseball is at 1 and no rain in the forecast. So it will be a lovely afternoon here in the living room. I'm not going outside because we are having a heat wave. It will be over mid-week. And, at least it's not tornadoes.

My right foot is acting up again. Last time Dr. Google told me to get metatarsal pads which I did but by the time they got here, the foot was fine so I never tried them until just now. They are actually helping. Go Dr. Google! We have a lot of walking to do next week and I need my feet to be up for the challenge.

jazzfish

Subjects removed, deposit received. It is still possible for something to go sideways but it's now much harder. I'll be out of there by 10 July.

Incidentally, this is how I know there's something wrong with my brain: I feel no excitement or joy at this, just a sense of relief followed by "okay, now on to planning the next things." I am told that normal brains get pleasure and dopamine from accomplishments, which makes succeeding at things and completing tasks "worthwhile" and consistently repeatable. Yeah, not so much over here.

Interview with NG went quite well I thought, but the position is even worse than anticipated. I'd be the first writer in the department, tasked with rewriting / standardising all their procedures, in Microsoft Word. Not to mention that a 45-minute (one-way) commute on top of 10.5-hour days is unlikely to be a good fit for me. I will of course take it if offered, and use the opportunity to swap my twenty-year-old gas guzzler for an electric (the apartment complex I'm looking at has chargers available for $100/mo, which would be substantially less than the gas cost, plus this way I wouldn't have to deal with the hassle of importing a vehicle). And we'd see how long I last before cracking entirely. The over/under is a year; I'd take the over but without much optimism.

sparowe

ODB: Dependent on God’s Strength

Jun 13, 2026/in Our Daily Bread/by YMI

June 13, 2026

READ: 2 Corinthians 11:23-29

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Tungsten is something of a paradox. It has the highest tensile strength of any pure element, making it extremely difficult to pull apart. But the Mead Metals website notes, “In terms of impact strength, tungsten is weak—it’s a brittle metal known to shatter on impact.” It’s fascinating that tungsten, the strongest natural metal, is also so weak and brittle.

Human beings display a similar characteristic. Though capable of great strength both physically and mentally, we’re easily crushed under the weight of this fallen, broken world. Paul experienced this personally. In 2 Corinthians 11, he described experiences that overwhelmed him (vv. 23-29). But God encouraged him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul resolved, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Earlier in 2 Corinthians, Paul had written, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed” (4:8). There’s hope, even though the strongest child of God knows all too well that this world is simply too much for us. We’re happily dependent on the strength of His grace if we are to endure. May we, like Paul, embrace our weaknesses so God’s power can carry us through.

— Bill Crowder

When did you experience a moment that felt like it would crush you? How will you rest in God’s strength the next time you’re in a crisis?

Dear Father, please help me to rest in Your strength to carry me through life’s crushing moments.

Source: Our Daily Bread

Current Mood: thoughtful

darkoshi

Some nights I'm so tired that I have to fight to stay awake, and other nights I tinker on my computer until the sun rises and still feel uninclined to go to bed. Perhaps it's the difference between 5 and 7 hours of sleep, or between 4 and 6.

For some time, I had an issue with my feet. After a day's sedentary work, they would start to feel strange, tingly and sort of swollen in the ball of the foot area below the toes. I felt it when I walked, but the feet looked normal to me. Until one day I finally noticed my ankles were only slightly visible, which did indicate swelling. The bones and veins of the feet were also less visible.

So I switched to sitting on the floor while working. That keeps my feet on the ground. No more weird foot feelings; no more swelling.

I'm not sure I want to keep sitting low long term, but getting a comfortable padded stool would help. Right now I have some thin cushions and a small sturdy box to switch between. There's also a style of cross-legged chair I've considered.

The pretty sun is brightening while I ramble and delete rambles.

You can go to bed, Darkoshi. You can do it. Caw caw from outside. I finished the week of work. I have 2 days. So many things to do.

Only a few can get done. But none will get done if I just sit and ramble and don't go to sleep. Up, up, darkoshi, up and away and dream dream dream

bryant

I recently watched Gus Van Sant’s Elephant, and respected it very much. Inevitably, I wound up comparing it to the other auteur school shooting movie based on an actual shooting, Denis Villeneuve’s Polytechnique, which in my eyes is the best thing Villeneuve has ever done. The two movies are on par in terms of craft; my gut reaction is that Polytechnique is a wiser movie. So I wanted to think about why I reacted that way.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/06/12/on-shooting-movies/

susandennis

I did it. I emptied an entire shelf in my storage unit. That's like 1/5th of it! I kept a few things BUT also then emptied a drawer in my dresser. The decent stuff will go out into the elbow next week as 'free' for the staff but most of it got tossed right into the dumpster. Good riddance!

I put a peanut butter and jelly uncrushable into the air fryer for lunch.

And then proceeded to burn my finger on really really hot grape jelly.

Today is Julio's birthday! He is 4. I probably should start looking at pre schools.

muccamukk

So, "the cure" is like my song of the summer at this point.
(everyone: are you okay? me: fine, why do you ask?)
I was tentatively hyped for the whole album. I'm not that familiar with Rodrigo's stuff, being almost twice her age and more into folk than pop, but the two singles seemed promising. I will say the whole album is a lot more like "drop dead" of the two, which I didn't like as much as "the cure." After two listens through, I have a couple songs that I like, but no new ones that I love, and it's all a bit samey? I'll give it another listen, but you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love (great title!) is not blowing me away. Again, it's also not for me, so I hope her fans enjoy it.

Here's a great live version of "the cure," with a string section.

Watch on YouTube

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Page Summary

batwrangler - May her memory be a blessing: Jane Yolen has passed.
queen_ypolita - Outdoors theatre and other stuff
susandennis - odorific swim
piyavking - Атлична напремер. Ни имоций тебе, ни ибучих смыстлов, адин сраный вижуэл. И 15 сизонов. Плохо штоли?
snowstorm - Just saw these dinosaurs
sparowe - YMI -- ODB: 14 June 2026
muccamukk - Posting Three Times in a Day Is Definetly Not Procrastinating
snowstorm - Yearning to pastel
darkoshi - measuring temperatures
ljgeoff - GoFundMe
muccamukk - Random Doctor Who question
muccamukk - Book Meme
snowstorm - Unintentional
susandennis - Saturday
jazzfish - SOLD
sparowe - YMI -- ODB: 13 June 2026
darkoshi - rambling feet
bryant - On Shooting Movies
susandennis - So... how's your day going?
muccamukk - The new Olivia Rodrigo album

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