Thoughts on "MobLand", season 1

Jun. 15th, 2025 07:22 pm
sandrine: (Mitch/Joey)
[personal profile] sandrine
I enjoyed the first season of MobLand so much! Apparently, it's from the creators of Ray Donovan and was originally supposed to be a Ray Donovan prequel but then became its own thing – which I think was a good choice because as much as I like Ray, I'm glad that Harry is not Ray. And I'm especially glad that Harry isn't weighted down by Ray's dysfunctional family. He's already too entangled in the Harrigans' dysfunctional family. :D

Spoilers!Tom Hardy is fantastic! I like how Harry's both sympathetic and utterly ruthless when he needs to be, and incredibly calm under pressure. I like how loyal he is to the Harrigans – well, to Kevin at least. I thought around the mid-point of the show that maybe Harry was the police informant after all, trying to bring down the Harrigans from within, but in the end it turned out that his friendship to Kevin was important enough for him to stick with them even though Conrad is slipping and Meave is fucking insane.

Conrad is an unusual role for Pierce Brosnan. At the beginning, I expected him to be the all-powerful mob boss who was moving everyone around like pieces on a chess board, and it was great how the show revealed bit by bit that he'd long since lost control and was just lashing out. And Meave! She's horrible! I don't buy her "I was just testing everyone" explanation at the end – I think she's a vengeful sadist attempting to make a power play that failed and now she's trying to justify it. Good on Kevin to stand up to them in the final episode. I also liked the scene with Kevin and Bella at the end where they both revealed their traumatic history of sexual assault to each other and bonded over it. I'm not quite sure if Kevin should trust Bella completely, considering that she's been hitting on Harry, but it was a sweet hurt/comfort-y moment, anyhow.

Seeing Lara Pulver and Joanne Froggatt in a show together took me all the way back to my Robin Hood days. And imagine that – I feel the same way about their characters here than I did about their Robin Hood characters! /:D\ As in, I like Bella, but wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her, and I think Jan is annoying as hell. I'm sympathetic to the whole 'my husband is a mob enforcer and I hate how my life is shaped by fear and violence' but at the same time, I don't think this is news to her, considering her 'I don't want to know about your job' speech earlier in the season. And what's worse – I don't get the impression that she even likes Harry or is into him. Like, why is she with him to begin with? It doesn't help that she and Hardy have no chemistry at all. It shouldn't come as a surprise that I hated the cliffhanger ending. It was so dumb, it was almost funny.

Unfortunately, there's nothing for me to ship, so I don't have any fannish interest in the show. In the first episode, I briefly entertained the idea of Eddie Harrigan and Tommy Stevenson canonically hooking up in some kind of Romeo-and-Juliet sort of romance, but it turned out that my perceptions of where their relationship was going were… grossly misguided. 😬😬 That was unfortunate. I really enjoyed their interactions, but how it ended ruined by interest in exploring the dynamic further. Alas. And I can see the potential of Harry/Kevin, but their relationship is lacking the antagonism I prefer in my ships.


Either way, I really hope the show will be renewed and we'll get another series!

Trailers

Jun. 15th, 2025 09:09 am
selenak: (Demerzel and Terminus)
[personal profile] selenak
Proper Trailer for the third season of Foundation on Apple:




So looking forward to this! (Not least because of all the other depressing cancellation news.)

Teaser traiiler of season 3 of The Diplomat, featuring the next West Wing alumnus:



The Diplomat: more cynical than The West Wing, but still believing in the basic drive of people to actually work for what they see as their couintry's benefit in addition to themselves. Neither universe would allow for the poisonous cesspit currently governing not just the US.

That you live and let die

Jun. 15th, 2025 02:53 am
viridian5: (Kazuki (Ambiguous))
[personal profile] viridian5
Father's Day Trip by RoadWith the Boot on my left foot, I can't run the uneven ground of cemeteries, but I can still do window displays in the city. I'm interested in seeing if any of the stores do their usual Pride window displays. So far, no, but it's still early June.

Saks and Bergdorf Goodman Men's had some Father's Day windows, while Bergdorf Goodman itself put up some new stuff. I've posted 19 photos up to my Flickr.


I have a week or two more in the Boot.

+++

Mickey 17 was a somewhat confused mass of interesting ideas with a lot of them left dangling and an ending that didn't land for me, but I can't stop thinking about it. The director said that Mark Ruffalo's character wasn't only based on Trump, but did anyone tell Mark Ruffalo that? Sometimes he was so Trumpy, he was distracting. Some people complained about how cartoonishly evil the character and his wife are, but in our current cursed timeline I don't think it's OTT. Some people felt that Pattinson's voice as 17 was too weird, but it grew on me. Mickey has been used, abused, beat down, and then constantly reprinted back to life by people who are far from conscientious. (I still don't know how he can remember all his deaths though. The movie doesn't say if they can manage to get a memory read from the corpse before they recycle it.) In my opinion, Robert Pattinson had pretty good chemistry with himself as different versions of the same character. The comedy is bleak, but I'm up for that.

I wonder how this movie would've felt if Trump hadn't won a second term.

Plus, Mickey 17 is not an adaptation of an already popular IP, a sequel, or a reboot, and I fully encourage thinky, weird movies.


By contrast, We Live in Time didn't work for me at all. Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh are great, but the writing didn't do much for me and the narrative being nonlinear didn't help or add anything for me. What I mainly got out of it is that I felt bad for Garfield's character.

+++

This is the twin of my other birthday gift keychain. I have keys I don't use as often, store loyalty cards, and my NY voter tags that let me check in faster to vote on it.

orphaned quote

Jun. 15th, 2025 06:00 pm
china_shop: Fraser's not so sure about that (Fraser Oh-I'm-not-so-sure-about-that)
[personal profile] china_shop
Does anyone know where referring to diamonds dismissively as "the most boring form of carbon" is from? We picked it up somewhere (movie, tv, or book), and now we can't even remember if it was an ordinary character being geeky and pedantic, or a supernatural being eye-rolling at a human.

It could even have been Douglas Adams, except then I'm pretty sure a) I'd be able to identify it, and/or b) it would come up in an internet search.

Daily Happiness

Jun. 14th, 2025 10:53 pm
torachan: anime-style avatar of me (me as a doll)
[personal profile] torachan
1. The other day I bought some golden kiwis and they are so good. I like kiwis a lot, especially the golden ones, but these have got to be the best I've ever had. Perfectly ripe and so flavorful. I got them from work, so I'm gonna have to check on Monday and see if we still have some.

2. From the sound of things the No Kings protests around the country were a huge success. I hope that it can actually lead to some change. The ones in downtown LA seem to have been relatively peaceful as well, so hopefully we'll be able to open the store tomorrow morning without issue.

3. Molly's just waiting for a moment of privacy to start splashing around in her water bowl.

Weekly Reading

Jun. 14th, 2025 10:35 pm
torachan: sakaki from azumanga daioh holding a cat, with the text "I like cats" in Japanese (sakaki)
[personal profile] torachan
Currently Reading
A Botanist's Guide to Rituals and Revenge
6%. Newest mystery in the series and my current audiobook. This series has developed more of an overarching plot than just stand-alone mysteries and I do not remember much of the book before this but hopefully it will come back to me.

Break in Case of Emergency
8%. YA novel set in the mid 90s about a girl living on her grandparents' farm after her mom dies, reunited with her estranged father who turns out to be gay. Sounded interesting. Just read the first couple chapters so far.

The Fourth Girl
35%. Twenty-five years after their friend disappeared on prom night, three women reunite in their home town on the anniversary of the disappearance. But when someone else connected to their missing friend dies on that same day, it seems like more than a coincidence. This is pretty good so far.

Horrorstör
10%. This is the second horror novel I've read set in an Ikea-type store. I've had this on my to-read list for a while and just happened to find it in a neighborhood Little Library so now seemed like a good time to read it.

Riding the Rails
39%.

How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee
52%.

Recently Finished
Architectural Follies in America
Finally finished this! This is such a short book and has pictures so I thought it would be a quick read but honestly it turned out to be kind of a slog. There are not enough pictures, so a lot of it is just reading about these supposedly interesting building but now getting a visual representation. And the pictures that are included are all black and white, and some are not the best quality. This seems like someone's hobby project, so I guess they couldn't put a lot of money in it, but it could have been a much better book than it was.

Red Hail
This was pretty interesting!

Murder in Season
Well, I take it back. After mentioning last time that this is one of the few historical mystery series I've read lately that doesn't have any queer or non-white characters, this book did turn out to have a gay character (and he wasn't the murderer).

Murder at Hambledon Hall
New Cleopatra Fox book! This was a good one. And there was an announcement at the end that the next book will be out by the end of the year. This author has multiple series going, so I don't know how they manage it, but I'm not complaining.

Baby Drag Queen
Grabbed this off the Pride display at the library last week as it looked interesting and is very short so would be a nice quick read for a time when I needed one (I read it in about half an hour this morning). It's about a trans boy who is interested in doing drag, which is not a topic I've seen in other books with trans characters. But the book itself was a huge let down. The writing is very stilted (especially noticeable with the dialogue) and there were so many things that made me go ??? that I couldn't get into the story because I kept trying to figure out why the author was making these choices and at some times trying to figure out what was going on altogether. One big one is that the character is referred to by a male name throughout, but his mom does not know he is trans. So I was left wondering if it was a writing convention where the mom is really calling the character by another name but the author is using his preferred name instead, or if the kid has requested to be called a male name and the mom has gone along with this to the point of getting it legally (?) changed (the kid goes to school using that name and also gets multiple jobs under that name, with no one noting anything about a different legal name) but still is completely gobsmacked when the MC says he's not a girl. (It's definitely not a situation where that would ever be the name his parents gave him.) I just could not stop wondering what was going on with the name throughout the book, but there were a bunch of other smaller things, too.

Bokura no Hentai vol. 5-6
Was not expecting the trans girl to be handled this well, but I was really impressed with the sixth volume.

Music Saturday

Jun. 14th, 2025 09:24 pm
muccamukk: Elyanna singing, surrounded by emanata and hearts. (Music: Elyanna Hearts)
[personal profile] muccamukk

Surprisingly sapphic for Raye (who usually sings about relationships with men, but maybe she's bi?). I guess she was at World Pride? Hmm...

The Devil's Plan (& The Genius)

Jun. 15th, 2025 10:07 am
scaramouche: The temple door symbol from Steven Universe (su - temple door)
[personal profile] scaramouche
While casually browsing Netflix for something that could be playable out in the open while repairmen go around the house, I saw a Korean reality/game show The Devil's Plan. I clicked it and after a while went huh, the game vibes are similar to The Genius, which I very much enjoyed a few years ago. So I looked it up and oh, there's a creative team overlap, that makes sense!

So The Devil's Plan, although it opens melodramatically, it is almost the same format as The Genius in that there's complicated board-type games to play, and there is an accumulative currency ("pieces" in TDP, garnets in The Genius) gained through games that confers survival and other benefits in the long term. But the major difference between the two is that The Genius was played one day a week over multiple weeks, while The Devil's Plan is played continuously over a week while the players live together in the set over that time Big Brother style.

I wonder if what happened is that the makers of The Genius got the idea from seeing how some of the players (primarily season 2 onwards, is my impression) organically met up for dinner after recording sessions, where they socialised without game stress, analysed the games they just played, and worked out feelings that might have accumulated on-camera. I think I remember some of the players mentioning that some production staff joined them for those dinners as well, and from there maybe someone got the idea that these off-game sessions could be part of the show itself. Plus the shorter timeline really amps up the intensity of the game relationships and does not give the players true breaks to recover regular headspace.

I think it's really interesting that TDP season 1 isn't as cutthroat intense the way I remember season 2 and 3 of The Genius being, which you'd assume it would be considering that all the players MUST have watched The Genius and other similar shows beforehand. It might be the choice of the players themselves, but the show format itself has two games a day, where one game match has the players competing against each other, and another game that they have to win collectively, and the teamwork of that second game counters negative feelings that might have come out from the regular match. I liked that, I thought it was very clever! I also wonder if the living-in format also reduces drama since players have to spend ALL their time with each other, and Korean social community rules guide them into working out peaceable solutions.

Cut for The Devil's Plan season 1 winner spoilers. )

FIC: Dragon's Mate

Jun. 14th, 2025 06:07 pm
blueraccoon: (kill you with porn)
[personal profile] blueraccoon
Title: Dragon's Mate
Author: rebecca/blueraccoon
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Will's never let himself look at any alphas with potential interest, although to be fair he hasn’t met any he’d want to consider either. Until now, and he doesn’t know what to do with that.
Notes: This takes place about 12 years after Clean Session but you don't really need to have read that for this to make sense.
Warnings: some discussion of pediatric cancer and some angst.

There are more stories in this universe that will get posted if people don't hate this one.

gotta love the kids keeping score

Jun. 14th, 2025 07:27 pm
musesfool: a loaf of bread (staff of life)
[personal profile] musesfool
I knew it was coming, but I'm still sad about Chris Kreider getting traded to the Ducks. He's been my favorite since Lundqvist retired, not just because I liked his play but also because I thought it was unlikely he'd get traded. *hands* After this past season, I understand blowing it all up, but it's still sad. He definitely had some signature moments in a Rangers uni, and I will miss him.

In other news, this morning, I made this baked oatmeal and it's good, but probably needs a little more cinnamon? Or maybe some allspice? Hmm... It'll be nice for breakfast over the next few days. Next weekend I'll make banana bread since I now have a bunch of bananas, since i needed one for this recipe. (It was either applesauce or bananas, and I'm more likely to eat/use the bananas, so...)

And then this afternoon, I made this pizza dough, which turned out well, but took a full hour to double in size, despite what the recipe says, so dinner was later than planned. I topped it with some mozzarella and this white sauce. it was good! (Pictures here.)

Tomorrow, I'll be making teriyaki chicken meatballs for lunch for the week. Right now, every surface in my kitchen is covered in drying dishes, which is the real annoyance of the dishwasher not working.

*

TOS Spotlight: Harassment

Jun. 14th, 2025 07:38 pm
[syndicated profile] otw_news_feed

Posted by xeno

The Policy & Abuse committee (PAC) is responsible for enforcing the AO3 Terms of Service (TOS). To help users better understand the TOS, we’re posting a weekly spotlight series about the TOS and our policies. We’ll also be reading comments and answering questions on this and our other spotlight posts.


Today’s post from the Policy & Abuse committee is about harassment. As stated in Section II.H of our Terms of Service, “Harassment is any behavior that produces a generally hostile environment for its target. Examples include bullying, threats, and personal attacks by or towards individuals or groups of people.”

Harassment is not tolerated on AO3 in any form—regardless of whether it occurs in works, tags, comments, usernames, pseuds, profiles, icons, or any other type of content.

What qualifies as harassment?

Threats and insults

When directed towards other users, threats and insults constitute harassment, and we will act on them if reported to us. This includes when phrases such as “X/Y shippers are creeps” are present in work tags or summaries.

Severe harassment

Some harassment is severe enough that it creates a hostile environment not just for the target, but for anyone who witnesses it. Engaging in severe harassment will result in harsher penalties.

The following are all considered to be severe harassment when directed towards other AO3 users:

  • Death threats/wishes
  • Threats of violence/bodily harm
  • Slurs directed at other users
  • Self-harm/suicide baiting (suggesting that someone should hurt or kill themselves)
  • Doxxing or threats of doxxing (connecting a user’s non-public, personally identifying information to their online handle)

Anyone can report these, whether or not they’re the primary victim. PAC will remove all instances of severe harassment that are reported to us.

Call-out posts

A call-out is when someone posts a work (or a chapter or author’s note) that criticizes someone for their behavior in an attempt to draw public attention to that person.

We consider call-out posts to be harassment. If you see a call-out post, whether or not it is targeted at you, you can report it to us. Call-out posts are not allowed, regardless of what the target of the call-out has done.

If you encounter someone who has violated the AO3 Terms of Service, please don’t post a call-out and violate the TOS yourself. Instead, we recommend that you submit an Abuse report and use AO3’s blocking and muting features to avoid that person.

Interacting after being blocked

A blocked user is expected to cease all interaction with the person who blocked them. We consider attempting to “get around” a block to be harassment. If you’ve blocked someone and think they’re evading your block, you can report them to us.

What does not qualify as harassment?

Offensive content

What’s considered offensive and unacceptable varies from person to person. AO3 hosts a wide range of content that many users find to be offensive, and in our last post, we discussed some of the ways you can avoid such content.

You may not leave comments attacking the creator of a work you find offensive.

You can mute the user so you don’t see any of their works, bookmarks, or comments. If you want to make sure they can’t communicate with you, you should also block them.

Criticism

We don’t consider criticism of a work, constructive or otherwise, to be harassment in and of itself. Offensive opinions and comments that aren’t direct personal attacks are also not harassment (for example, expressing negative views about celebrities or the content of a work).

If somebody says your work is bad, that’s an opinion about your work, not a personal attack against you. However, repeatedly leaving negative comments in a short period of time, pressuring you to delete your work, or encouraging others to engage in similar behavior could be considered harassment depending on the circumstances.

Arguments

People are allowed to argue or disagree with your opinions. Argument is not harassment, and PAC will not intervene simply because users are arguing with or being rude to each other. If someone in the argument is using personal attacks, you can report them to us, but in general, PAC does not mediate disputes between users. If you want to end an argument, you should tell that person you will not respond further; if necessary, you can also block them.

If you are a bystander witnessing an argument rather than one of the participants, then we are unlikely to uphold your complaint unless someone is engaging in severe harassment. When it comes to rude or moderately antagonistic comment exchanges, we rarely act on third-party reports.

Do Not Interact (DNI) requests

Requesting that someone does not interact with you is not harassment in itself, but it may be considered harassment if paired with an insult or threat (for example, “DNI you weirdos who ship this” or “no incest lovers allowed I will stomp you all to death with my hooves”).

If you want someone to stop interacting with you, you should block them. If you never want to encounter them again, you can also mute them.

What should I do if I’m getting harassing comments on my works?

PAC tries to prioritize urgent reports such as harassment, but there will always be a delay while we investigate and take action. We recommend that you immediately block any registered user who harasses you. We also recommend that you enable one or more of the Privacy options on your work(s) while you wait for our response.

To edit the Privacy options on your work, select the “Edit” button, then navigate to the “Privacy” section. If you want to edit the Privacy options on multiple works at once, you can do so easily using our “Edit Multiple Works” tool.

Changing your Privacy options does not have to be permanent; you can update them at any time. If you’re being harassed, we recommend changing your Privacy options at least for a short period of time.

The options available to you in the Privacy section are as follows:

Only show your work to registered users

You can use this feature to lock your work so only registered users can see it. If you are the victim of a mass-harassment campaign, this will prevent “drive-by” comments from guest users. Works that have been restricted to AO3 users will have a blue lock symbol displayed next to the title and are not accessible to guest users.

Enable comment moderation

Comment moderation prevents any new comments (from both registered users and guests) from being publicly displayed on your work until you approve them. If you don’t approve a particular comment, then it will not be made public. PAC volunteers are able to see unreviewed/unapproved comments, so you can report a harassing comment without marking it as approved.

If you’re being harassed by a guest user but don’t want to disable anonymous comments entirely, you can use comment moderation to prevent harassing guest comments from appearing on your work.

If the harassment was posted by a registered user, comment moderation can help too. It not only prevents their comments from being shown to others, but also makes it easier for us to investigate, as long as you leave their comments unapproved and don’t delete them yourself.

Who can comment on this work

There are three comment settings:

  1. Registered users and guests can comment: Anyone can comment, including guests. (Note: If your work is restricted to registered users, guest users won’t be able to access it and therefore cannot comment even if this option is enabled.)
  2. Only registered users can comment: This is the default option. Only logged-in users can comment on your work, while guests and logged-out users cannot.
  3. No one can comment: This will disable all new comments on your work, regardless of whether the user is logged in or a guest.

Changing these settings will not affect any existing comments.

Archive locking, comment moderation, and comment restriction can all be used in conjunction with each other. For example, you can enable comment moderation and set your work to only allow registered users to comment at the same time. This means you won’t receive any guest comments at all, and comments from registered users will have to be manually approved.

What should I do if I encounter harassing content on AO3?

You can report harassment through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form, which is linked at the bottom of every page on AO3. If you wish to avoid future contact from a registered user, we recommend blocking and muting them.

If the harassing content has been deleted, we generally won’t be able to investigate unless you’re able to provide screenshots or other copies of the harassing content. While it’s not possible to upload images to our reporting form, you can include links to images hosted on third-party sites in your report description. You can also specify in your report that you saved copies of the harassment, which we may ask you to provide in our initial response to your report.

How do I report harassing comments?

Comments can be reported through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form like all other content on AO3. You can get the direct link to a specific comment by selecting the “Thread” button on the comment and copying the URL of that page, or by clicking on the link in your email or AO3 inbox.

If you’re reporting moderated comments, you don’t have to approve the comments or link every single comment in your report—just give us the link to your work’s unreviewed comments page, and specify which comment(s) you’re reporting (if you have a lot of unapproved comments).

Please don’t submit multiple reports about the same user. When reporting multiple works or comments by the same user, please submit only one report with links to everything you’re reporting, so that all information about that user is in the same place. If the harassment is ongoing, you can turn on comment moderation—if you mention that you’ve done so and link your work’s unreviewed comments page in your report, we’ll check that page for any new harassing comments submitted, without you needing to file an additional report.

For example, a report of a harassing comment might look like this:

Link to the page you are reporting: https://archiveofourown.org/comments/000000000

Brief summary of Terms of Service violation: Harassment

Description of the content you are reporting:
USERNAME went on a slur-filled rant in this comment on my work.

If you are reporting additional comments, please include all relevant links and other information in your report description:

Brief summary of Terms of Service violation: Harassment (repeated nasty comments and block evasion)

Description of the content you are reporting:
USERNAME went on a slur-filled rant in this comment on my work.

After I froze the thread, they commented with more slurs and insults here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1234/comments/123456789

I blocked them and turned on comment moderation but then they commented again as a guest: https://archiveofourown.org/ works/1234/comments/234567890

I have screenshots and copies of the email notifications if you need them.

A report of a harassing work might look like this:

Link to the page you are reporting: https://archiveofourown.org/works/00000000

Brief summary of Terms of Service violation: Harassment in tags and notes

Description of the content you are reporting:
USERNAME has a harassing tag: “go away x/y freaks or i’ll call the cops”

And in the end notes they have more harassment: “incest lovers do not comment or I will slice your toes off”

If you are reporting additional works or comments that are part of the same incident, please include all relevant links and other information in your report description:

Description of the content you are reporting:
USERNAME has a harassing tag: “go away x/y freaks or i’ll call the cops”

And in the end notes they have more harassment: “incest lovers do not comment or I will slice your toes off”

One of their other works (https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456789) also has harassment and I think is not a fanwork? It’s a long rant about why x/y shippers are idiots.

The comments of this work are full of harassment, mostly by guests, but the creator calls a bunch of people pedophiles in these threads:
https://archiveofourown.org/comments/123456789
https://archiveofourown.org/comments/234567890

In the second thread linked above, there’s also a “kys” (kill yourself) comment by USERNAME2, which the creator responds to with “u first”.

You can add more details if you like, but these examples provide the basic information we need:

  • Who posted the harassing content: Tell us their username(s) or if the comment(s) or work(s) are anonymous or orphaned.
  • Where we can find the harassing content: Enter one URL in the “Link to the page you are reporting” field, and (if applicable) include links to any other violating works or comment threads in the description of your report.
  • What violates the TOS: Explain why you think harassment has occurred, for example by including a quote and/or providing context for a comment exchange. A brief description of the situation is fine; you don’t need to be very detailed or quote an entire TOS or FAQ section.

You’ll receive an automatic email confirming that we received your report, and our volunteers will investigate when they get a chance. Please be patient and do not submit another report about the same incident. While PAC investigates every report we receive, it can take several months for us to process a report.

What if I have more questions about harassment?

PAC follows a strict confidentiality policy. Therefore, while you are welcome to ask general questions in the comments of this post, we will not give information on specific cases, publicly rule on a work, or update you on the status of a report you have already submitted. Comments on this post that discuss specific works or users will be removed.

If you are being harassed, think you’ve found harassing content, or if you want to know whether a particular work or comment qualifies as harassment, please report the work(s) or comment(s) to us as described above. For more information, you can read our TOS FAQ on harassment.

If you are still uncertain, you can comment below or submit a question through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form.

Crivens

Jun. 14th, 2025 02:54 pm
jadelennox: Elephants and giraffes comic: "I'm eating a whole leprechaun" (sgnp: leprechaun)
[personal profile] jadelennox

Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master!

Two New Vids (BtVS)

Jun. 14th, 2025 02:22 pm
vidding: filmstrip + vidding with hearts over i (Default)
[personal profile] tafadhali posting in [community profile] vidding
[personal profile] periru3 and I have posted the first two vids in our ongoing vid album Jagged Little Slayer, a mashup of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Alanis Morissette:


Title:
 All I Really Want
Character/Pairing: Buffy-centric, minor Buffy/Angel, Buffy/Faith, Buffy/Spike
Summary: Here, can you handle this?
Notes: Premiered at VidUKon 2025.

AO3DWTumblr


Title:
 Hand in My Pocket
Character/Pairing: Scoobies gen
Summary: Everything's gonna be quite alright.

AO3
DW | Tumblr

cimorene: Blue text reading "This Old House" over a photo of a small yellow house (knypplinge)
[personal profile] cimorene
One thing about updating the decorative arts and design history blog is that my kneejerk loathing of the term "inspo" has me struggling multiple times a week with the strong impulse to block everyone who reblogs my posts with that tag.

It's good for me somehow, probably.

I'm currently exhausted because the spring that pushes the latch bolt out of the kitchen-hall door broke last night after midnight and we spent several hours fixing it this afternoon. Wax took the equivalent spring out of the lockbox of the dining-livingroom door because unfortunately the lockbox is a pre-1940 model and the springs are not manufactured anymore, nor are the parts interchangeable with the later springs from the 40s- model that are still in production, nor can the whole lockbox be easily switched (because the spindle and hole for it are not the same circumference and the boxes themselves can be different sizes). However, the two lockboxes aren't identical. In fact, it looks like the one that broke is the oldest one in the house. She had to squish the spring a bit to get it in, and it wasn't exactly the same shape and size, so we are nervous that it may break soon. (She did all the hard bits with tools, not trusting me not to injure myself, and I cleaned the insides of the lockboxes with q-tips dipped in vinegar and then oiled them with q-tips dipped in mineral oil.) Wax hopes we can get the blacksmith to make a new spring for the spot when that happens, rather than having to replace the entire mechanism, but we don't know how plausible that is.

We can't do without this door and its latch, but the lockboxes on the other doors are all other sizes so they can't be swapped. We need it latched to keep the cats apart! They're making progress, and they've touched noses now, but Tristana still retreats any time Sipuli gets a little excited, and they are only meeting with Sipuli on the leash.

Daily Happiness

Jun. 13th, 2025 11:50 pm
torachan: arale from dr slump with a huge grin on her face (arale)
[personal profile] torachan
1. Today was a long day with a lot of meetings, but I did manage to get all the other stuff on my to-do list done in between at least.

2. Most other businesses in Little Tokyo are already shut down temporarily so we made the decision to close our store tomorrow. While the protests (or rather the response to them) has been disruptive to business for that store, it's still been worth keeping it open, but those protests were more spontaneous and the planned events tomorrow for No Kings Day are going to draw a huge crowd. The only business we'd get would be some protestors buying lunch or snacks, and considering employee safety it's better to just shut down. We also had the store boarded up just in case, since one whole side is all windows and a lot of the front is as well. I definitely think closing tomorrow is the right choice, so I'm glad we were able to convince the company president to give us the okay.

3. While Carla's out of town I moved one of the cars all the way up the driveway into the back yard so I don't have to worry about moving it from one side of the street to the other on street sweeping days, and Tuxie seems to like having the car there lol.

2025 Disneyland Trip #40 (6/12/25)

Jun. 13th, 2025 10:59 pm
torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
I didn't head out from San Diego until around 6pm yesterday so I didn't get to Disneyland until almost eight, which meant the park was already very cloggy for nighttime events, but it wasn't particularly crowded overall, so once I got past the big Main Street clog it was pretty nice.

Dinner and fireworks )
settiai: (Kes -- settiai (TriaElf9))
[personal profile] settiai
In tonight's game, the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Freedom, sweet freedom.

Jun. 13th, 2025 10:04 pm
settiai: (Washington D.C. -- miggy)
[personal profile] settiai
Okay, the work week is finally over. I took a nap after work, because I slept like crap last night, and I'm feeling much more like a human being again even though I'm still tired. My brain's definitely not in a great place, but overall today was much better than earlier this week. So that's a big step in the right direction at least.

It's, uh, been a week. Such a week. 🙃

My plan is to not leave the hotel at all tomorrow or Sunday, and if I'm lucky I might be able to avoid all human interaction if I'm careful. I'm hoping to get up relatively early tomorrow to get a load of clothes washed and some cleaning done in the suite, and then I'm going to spend the rest of the day playing video games which I haven't done in ages despite my multiple attempts to do so.
dw_community_promo: (Default)
[personal profile] arcanetrivia posting in [site community profile] dw_community_promo
Ahoy there, adventure gamers! [community profile] monkeyisland is a community for the beloved classic game series Monkey Island, featuring the comedic swashbuckling adventures of the improbably-named Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate™. Anything about Monkey Island is fair game: your own fanworks (art, fic, videos, games, music, cosplay, memes/silliness, whatever), recs of others' fanworks, livestreams/let's-plays, discussions, news and articles, tips for messing about in the game resources or scripting, requests for hints, screenshots, all that good stuff. If Monkey Island is your jam rum rum and jam (it's an old pirate favorite, everybody knows that), then come on over and have a grog.

Monkey Island text logo

Comment Bingo Round 7

Jun. 13th, 2025 03:22 pm
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[personal profile] svgurl posting in [site community profile] dw_community_promo
[community profile] comment_bingo is a bingo challenge that is focused on using the provided prompts to comment on other people's works rather than creating your own.

Click on the banner below to go to sign-ups or you can also go HERE.

Sign-ups will remain open until the round closes.

light blue background containing community name and goal with a phone icon and other symbols


This round will end up on October 31st, 2025.

Murderbot

Jun. 13th, 2025 11:11 am
marinarusalka: (Default)
[personal profile] marinarusalka
5 episodes in, I'm still greatly enjoying the show, with my one complaint being that the episodes are too short. I'm looking forward to doing a binge rewatch of the whole thing once all the episodes are out, I suspect it will work really well.

some spoilers thoughts on the latest episode )

I really really hope this show gets renewed long enough for us to meet ART. It'll be so awesome.
[syndicated profile] nasa_liotd_feed
Attendees line up to enter the theater for a screening of the new NASA+ documentary “Cosmic Dawn: The Untold Story of the James Webb Space Telescope,” Wednesday, June 11, 2025, at the Greenbelt Cinema in Greenbelt, Maryland. Featuring never-before-seen footage, Cosmic Dawn offers an unprecedented glimpse into the assembly, testing, and launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Murderbot Day

Jun. 13th, 2025 12:08 pm
marthawells: Murderbot with helmet (Default)
[personal profile] marthawells
* Interview with Sue Chan, the production designer:

https://filmstories.co.uk/news/murderbot-designing-a-future-world-that-doesnt-look-like-alien/

“I started out by taking the most ancient societies on each continent – Etruscans, Asian, European, and African cultures,” Chan tells us. “I looked at the most fundamental motifs and gathered them into a bible, then asked my team to imagine 100 generations from now, when the diaspora of Earth have chosen to live together in society. How would they evolve a unified set of symbols? A language that really honours where they came from.”

This informed the alphabet that can be seen in the decoration painted across the otherwise grey, corporate habitat the PresAux crew are leasing. At the same time, acknowledging how much of the crew is queer and polyamorous, the colours of the rainbow are also entwined into their decorations.

“All of that is mashed up but it has a fundamental logic to it,” says Chan.




* Interview with Akshay Khanna (Ratthi):

https://squaremile.com/style/akshay-khanna-murderbot-actor-interview/

I’m incredibly excited for people to watch Murderbot on Apple TV+. Sci-fi has been my favourite genre by a country mile forever, and being on a show like this has always been a career goal of mine. Frankly, I had too much fun filming that show, and getting paid to do it constantly felt like I was getting away with something on set.

And the show is just so good. I can confidently say it’s fantastic – and if you don’t like it, then I would gently tell you that it’s OK to be wrong sometimes.



* Interview with Sabrina Wu (Pin-Lee):

https://www.autostraddle.com/sabrina-wu-interview-murderbot/

And then once I got the role, I read the books and I was legit just blown away at how funny the books were. I just haven’t seen such a dry sarcastic sensibility with this kind of hero sci-fi stories. And then I also just really liked that it was in the tradition of I felt like Octavia Butler, where it’s like, “oh, this is a queer imagining of the future.” So I don’t know. I just thought it was a really sweet, funny, different world. I also, obviously every comedian who becomes an actor, their dream is to get to work on something with action to move beyond an It’s Always Sunny kind of comedy. I believe there was already an opportunity for me to be in a spaceship and shoot guns, and it just made me happy that it was genuinely funny source material.



* Video interview with Tattiawna Jones (Arada) and Tamara Podemski (Bharadwaj):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NllgfEekw9s



* And a video interview with Noma Dumezweni (Mensah)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZpigqUqZXQ



* and a video interview with Noma and David Dastmalchian (Gurathin)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=361cKOujISE



* And a video interview (with a transcript) with Alexander Skarsgard, Jack McBrayer, and Paul and Chris Weitz:

https://collider.com/murderbot-alexander-skarsgard-jack-mcbrayer-creators-paul-weitz-chris-weitz/


* And there is a profile of me in The New Yorker (!!)

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/do-androids-dream-of-anything-at-all

Hey, guys, look what I got!

Jun. 13th, 2025 10:23 am
marinarusalka: (Knitting: yarn)
[personal profile] marinarusalka
Photo of my 2nd place ribbon tag at the county fair

"This is the REAL ADHD tax!"

Jun. 13th, 2025 02:25 pm
cimorene: closeup of Jeremy Brett as Holmes raising his eyebrows from behind a cup of steaming tea (eyebrows)
[personal profile] cimorene
The other day I saw a post about American politics on Tumblr that was just a screenshot of someone's tweet that said something like, "Fascism won't make America great. Universal healthcare, universal preschool, housing the homeless, and free higher education would make America great." By this standard, I'm living in utopia! (Or, well, living in Greatness-ia.) Finland has all that.

AND YET...

My efforts to get a driver's licence continue. Basically,

  1. Signed up for driving school for lessons in how to drive stick. My US license expired more than ten years ago and I've never driven in Finland.

  2. Online information indicates I should have to apply in person, but the customer service rep told me that I can disregard that and just apply for a first licence the normal way.

  3. The normal way: a brief online form that will instantly issue a printable and downloadable permit that allows you to take the theory test and to drive with an instructor in a car.

  4. But you can't do that if you have any of a list of health conditions which require a doctor's certificate. And the list includes ADHD.

  5. There's a new law which seems to say you can't get these certificates from the health center anymore, but I called to check. The booking nurse at the health center thought they didn't do them anymore, but she also agreed that it seemed unfair. But she checked with two people and no, the public health service really aren't issuing certificates for driving for ANYBODY anymore.

  6. I called the one private doctor center in town. According to their website, the minimum cost of one of these certificates is over 100€, just like [personal profile] waxjism predicted. Their receptionist didn't even know who to book me with (does ADHD require a specialist)? She'll call me back.

  7. If it does, it will be like at least 150€ instead, because that's the base price for specialists.


And even worse, the list of conditions that now require EVERY SINGLE PERSON who has ever been diagnosed with them to get a certificate from a private doctor - which means in most cases also a NEW doctor, not their own GP who has treated them before - is not just ADHD. Everybody with any of these conditions (this is not the entire list either) is now taxed, at minimum, an extra hundred bucks for the privilege of getting a driver's licence in Finland, as of two months ago:

  • diabetes

  • any cardio issues including hypertension or a heart murmur

  • sleep apnea or insomnia or any other sleep disorders

  • any past severe depressions or recurrent panic disorders, or personality disorders

  • dyslexia

  • autism spectrum

  • any neurological conditions or injuries including migraines or any past brain or spinal injury


Insane. It's not just the financial burden for all these people, either; a brand-new doctor, a stranger, is at a disadvantage for determining if most of the conditions meant here are a danger or not.

So I'm waiting for a call back and Sipuli really doesn't understand why I won't take her outside in the sunshine.

Daily Happiness

Jun. 13th, 2025 12:20 am
torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
1. So much ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh work stuff today, but I stopped at Disneyland on the way home and had a lovely dinner.

2. Ollie was just writhing around playing with this blanket for no reason. Super cute.

(no subject)

Jun. 12th, 2025 11:19 pm
aurumcalendula: gold, blue, orange, and purple shapes on a black background (Default)
[personal profile] aurumcalendula
Current events continue to be a lot, to say the least (I left voicemails for my congresspeople about some of it).

On a happier note, I saw chickadees multiple times today (apparently they're smaller than sparrows) as well as hummingbirds (one a few minutes after I refilled the feeder)!
mecurtin: WW2 We Can Do It! poster, showing white woman in red-and-white-spotted bandana, rolling up sleeve of blue work shirt and flexing arm, saying We Can Do It! (resistance)
[personal profile] mecurtin
Indivisible #WhatsThePlan meeting of May 12 2025
This is pretty much just C&P from my bluesky liveblog, plus links.

cut for length, US politics )
I really admire people who can write *most* of what happens in a meeting while they liveblog, Ezra & Leah both talk *really* fast & I just pull out highlights, really. whoosh.

Please reblog, signal boost. We are, as Leah says, in a time of autocratic breakthrough, and one way we fight back is to have as many people as possible, in as many places as possible, out peacefully on Saturday. We need to be *everywhere*, with *everyone*. Take American flags, they belong to *US*, not him.

Fucking AT&T

Jun. 12th, 2025 05:51 pm
klia: (Default)
[personal profile] klia
I was charged $38 for a 75-minute call to a city 13 miles away, in the same county. That's almost 51¢ a minute. I'm SO pissed.

US Politics: Transcending parody

Jun. 12th, 2025 08:35 pm
petra: A cartoon penguin standing in dandelions thinking, "Dandelion break." (Bloom County - Dandelion Break)
[personal profile] petra
After illegally ordering the National Guard and the Marines to violently end protests in California, 47 went to the theatre to see Les Misérables.

Can we please fire the people scripting this season of the United States of America? Some of these choices are so asinine I think they're consulting genAI for their scripts, and no one is editing them.

Oh, wait, that's what the politicians are doing to make fucking laws.

I'm going to go read amnesia fic now and think, "I wish that were me."

Today just keeps on giving...

Jun. 12th, 2025 06:32 pm
settiai: (Hughes -- psychodragon82)
[personal profile] settiai
Welp. This is certainly a day. The fire alarm went off again this afternoon. And this time? It was an actual fire. 🙃

They managed to get it put out fairly quickly at least, and from the time the fire alarm went off to the fire trucks arriving was, like, less than two minutes. So good on them for a great response time.

Long story short, the laundry room that the hotel staff uses to wash sheets, towels, etc. caught on fire. I'm guessing it was one of the industrial dryers in there based on what I saw. There's currently a hole in the wall leading into the laundry room, firemen still running around, and a shit ton of smoke in the hallways, but they've let everyone back inside. And my suite is about as far as you can get from where the fire was, so there's at least no smoke in here as long as I keep the door shut.

Garrus is already back to normal, but Keyleth has hidden herself under the bed and probably won't be coming back out for at least a few hours. Minimum.

June is, uh, certainly shaping up to be a month. That's for sure.

Far Out

Jun. 12th, 2025 06:42 pm
[syndicated profile] nasa_liotd_feed
The star cluster Pismis 24 lies within the much larger emission nebula called NGC 6357, located about 8,000 light-years from Earth. The gas below the stars glows through ionization caused by intense ultraviolet radiation from the massive young stars within the cluster.

(no subject)

Jun. 12th, 2025 05:22 pm
copracat: myrna loy looking glamorous with text 'glam' (glam myrna)
[personal profile] copracat
Question of the Day
Do you have some table items you only bring out when you entertain guests for dinner?

I picked up this question from [personal profile] dine. I like to use my precious things rather than save them for special. Otherwise why have them? If it has function, let it function. Some things though are too large for one or two person eating. I have a tin-lined copper couscoussier that is not suitable for cooking small amounts. It also looks amazing when you bring it out and put it on the table, gleaming and full of deliciousness.

Other than that there are platters, serving spoons and such that only come out when I'm feeding a few.

Hugo Reading: Novels

Jun. 12th, 2025 12:28 am
ase: Default icon (Default)
[personal profile] ase
Alien Clay (Adrian Tchaikovsky) (2024): Hugo nominee, audiobook read by Ben Allen. Ex-biology professor is shipped off to an extrasolar labor camp for crimes against the totalitarian Mandate, where he is first drafted as a (silently) grumbling lab assistant, then demoted to the Expeditions team that clears alien ruins for the "real" scentists to study. This would be great fun for a biologist, except for the part where the planet's flora think humans look interesting to colonize, ultimately a death sentence. Well, a faster death sentence than being sent to an extrasolar labor camp, anyway.

First person present tense. I forget how tense this makes the read until the story opens, and my reaction is "oh this again" with a little active untensing of the shoulders. Which probably didn't contribute to me taking the novel for what it is, rather than what I wanted it to be.

Revolution as narrow obsession. )

From this, I think I can conclude I'm not the target audience for Alien Clay.

A Sorceress Comes To Call (T. Kingfisher) (2024): More Hugo reading, again in audiobook, narrated this time by Eliza Foss and Jennifer Pickens. Dual first person PoVs from Cordelia, the daughter of the titular sorceress Evangeline, and Hester, whose brother is ensnared in Evangeline's plot to a.) marry into a little money, b.) marry off Cordelia into real money, c.) arrange the early deaths of both men to gain control of everyone's money.

The novel blurb online invokes the "Goose Girl" fairytale. It felt to me that Kingfisher used the fairytale as a springboard. )

...it's fine. If you are up for a spot-on depiction of child abuse, with magic, this is a novel that hits the marks it sets for itself. I'm not that interested in that much uncomplicated abusive parent energy.

The Ministry of Time (Kaliane Bradley) (2024): The Hugo audiobook run continued, now narrated by Katie Leung and George Weightman. The shortest summary would be "RPF, 21st C progatonist / Graham Gore from the Franklin expedition, because time travel," which is about the least helpful explanation of the combination of romantic tropes and 21st century anxieties.

If I namecheck HP with respect to The Incandescent, I have to invoke Kage Baker's Company novels when discussing The Ministry of Time. The unnamed protagonist is hired into a top secret British Ministry which has pulled five individuals out of what the Company series would call event shadows: points in history where the "expats" died, or were believed to have died. The protagonist and her fellow "bridges" are full-tme companions and acclimitization assistants to people pulled out of England and France from the 16th through early 20th centuries, who bring their experiences and expectations with them. The Company series vibes are probably a case of convergent evolution, but there is the protagonist's ill-advised romance with a Victorian adventurer to consider.

The execution of the premise is absolutely bonkers, and I will talk about it with massive spoilers. )

I don't know that this is a good novel, but it's the Hugo nominee that I was enjoyed enough to switch from audiobook to ebook, so I could stay up late reading it. (It always feels like I should be in motion - cleaning, or driving, or getting excercise - when I'm listening to an audiobook. Training from listening to audiobooks while in motion, probably.) It's also the novel that I want to turn over in my head, and make my friends read so we can talk about it. So props to Kailene Bradley for hugely entertaining me.

The Hugo nominees so far share the exploration of people treated as things, or ends to means. Cordelia as an extention of Evangeline, or as her tool; the Mandate's literal "work them until they die" labor camp; the Ministry's plans for their time travel expats. That might be one reason I was dragging my feet on Hugo reading this year.

Recent Reading, Not Hugos

Jun. 12th, 2025 12:22 am
ase: Book icon (Books 2)
[personal profile] ase
All thirteen entries (so far) in Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric and Desdemona series, either first reads or rereads (2015 - 2024).

There are excellent "sick on the couch" reading. The stakes are "how will Penric and Des get out of this one?" (spoilers: mix of hiding and chaos), sometimes with added "should we give people second chances?" (spoilers: yes) though occasionally it's "has this person burned up their second, third, etc chances and needs a smiting?" (spoilers: often enough yes, occasionally with Des setting things on fire, sometimes with many witnesses to the smiting). The stories are pretty indulgent, especially once the reader gets to some of Desdemona's meddling (I say vaguely, avoiding spoilers) in "Demon Daughter" and "Penric and the Bandit".

The Incandescent, Emily Tesh (2025): Insta-reaction: WOO MORE TESH. In audiobook, read by Zara Ramm. I was surprised how fast it went, and blame certain big fat space operas who clock in at, let's see, 19 to 21 hours per novel for making me think a 12 hour audiobook is short.

Summary: Saffie Walden, Director of Magic at posh Chetwood Academy, juggles her decidedly unromantic responsibilities as a teacher and administrator, until a magical incursion shakes up the school and Saffie's committment to the persona of Dr. Walden, Teacher, she inhabits with deliberation.

Thoughts cut for spoilers. )

Daily Happiness

Jun. 11th, 2025 11:02 pm
torachan: a kitten looking out the window (chloe in window)
[personal profile] torachan
1. We're still having to close the downtown store early, but as of last night a curfew is in effect in the area, which actually makes it easier since we can at least plan the early closing. And despite what the media would like everyone to believe, the protests overall have been peaceful, with little property damage (mainly graffiti). Any danger is from the police and really only in that one small area.

2. I have to go to San Diego again tomorrow, which I am not looking forward to because when I made plans to go it was because I had received one complaint that needed to be dealt with, and in the week and a half since then have received two more unrelated complaints, so now there are three things I have to deal with. But I am planning to go to Disneyland on the way home, since it's pretty much on the way, so at least that will be a nice way to end the day.

3. I finished another puzzle today. This is another 500 piece one.



4. When my Switch 2 came the other day, I put the empty box on my bed and boy were the cats intrigued about this new phenomenon. It seemed like every time I turned around a different cat was in the box checking it out.

Time Bandits!

Jun. 11th, 2025 10:47 pm
cofax7: then you counterattack (Bujold - Strategy)
[personal profile] cofax7
Well I watched the Apple+ show Time Bandits, and it was hella fun! I particularly liked Bittelig and Penelope. But now I'm sad because it's been cancelled.

I am desperately trying not to get stressed out about The Omnishambles, but it's kind of hard.

Be safe, y'all!

(no subject)

Jun. 12th, 2025 05:42 pm
china_shop: Chu Shuzhi wearing a black face mask with a cat mouth and whiskers on it. (Guardian - CSZ cat mask)
[personal profile] china_shop
Haha, I just signed up for a free online Harvard course on a whim,[1] and having spent the last few months in the Three Billion Comments Club on [community profile] sid_guardian, naturally I'm diligently replying to people's comments in the discussion sections of the course, too. What could possibly go wrong?

(You don't have to reply to everyone, china! This is not your circus! /o\)

[1] Someone on my flist pointed out a while ago that there are a bunch of free online courses.

(no subject)

Jun. 12th, 2025 04:40 am

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