January 28th, 2026
rmc28: (glowy)
posted by [personal profile] rmc28 at 09:39am on 28/01/2026 under

My aunt died on Saturday. The funeral will be in Australia, and streamed online. I am so grateful that technology allows this. It will be at midnight my time; I'm going to aim to be awake for it, but apparently there will be a recording if I don't manage to.

Donations are encouraged in her memory:

https://donate.strokefoundation.org.au/stroke-appeals
https://donate.stroke.org.uk/

And now is probably as good a time as any to remind you of the signs of a stroke and the importance of reacting FAST

Face weakness
Arm weakness
Speech problems
Time to call 999

watervole: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] watervole at 09:03am on 28/01/2026 under

 I've not posted in the last couple of weeks, as my bike skidded on a patch of hard frost and I took  a nasty tumble - and then went down with flu not long after.

I'm gradually getting back to normal, but still fairly ouchy in places...

 

However, the good news is that both my kids now have jobs. And both in the fields that they wanted to work in.  It's been a while - unemployment really sucks.

Henry's now working as a 'requirements manager', (think that was the title) which basically means he's working on the part of a project that really appealed to him - not coding, but working on what the code actually needs to do. eg.  One that came up during is interview - what are the requirements for a traffic control system?

You need to think about negative requirements, not just positive ones. He, correctly, came up with "It should not send speeding tickets to emergency serviced vehicles."

Took nine months out of work after being made redundant, and several training courses that he paid for himself, but he's there now.

Lindsey just had a successful interview with a specialised haulage company doing scheduling.  Scheduling is her best job skill, but vacancies don't come up that often.  She can do a limited amount of driving work - did some before Christmas, but that was a temporary job - too many tight corners trigger vertigo attacks.

I'm impressed that she managed to haggle her hours for this new job to allow her to pick up Oswin from school!  Don't yet know if it's work from home or office. 

Henry's new job is hybrid, which allows him and his wife to plan their respective days at home to allow for Theo (now one year old) emergencies/delivering to nursery/etc.

It's good that both kids live close to us and to each other.  We normally take Theo on Fridays, but last week, we were still too wiped from the flu.  Lindsey went round and took Theo for the morning, and then we took him for the afternoon (four hours we could manage, but not all day).

 

Looking back, I do not know how I managed with two young children and no family within a hundred miles....

And I feel sorry for how much their grandparents missed out on the joy (and occasional panic,etc.) of having the young members of the family around regularly.  Being involved in Theo and Oswin's lives so closely is a gift beyond price.

 

 

 

 

tamaranth: me, in the sun (Default)
posted by [personal profile] tamaranth at 09:01am on 28/01/2026 under ,
2026/016: Nowhere Burning — Catriona Ward
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"We're here because we want to understand them, right?"
"Right."
"Not because we are them. Not because it wants us here... You know what they say. Nowhere draws lost kids to it. Are we lost kids too?" [loc. 2044]

Riley and her little brother Oliver live with Cousin. Their mother committed suicide a couple of years before the novel opens: Riley never knew her father, while Oliver's father is dead. Now Riley is biding her time until she can graduate from high school and escape Cousin's brutal regime. 

One night a girl in green appears at her second-floor window, and gives Riley directions to Nowhere, an abandoned and ruined mansion that used to belong to famous film star Leaf Winham.Read more... )

Mood:: 'thankful' thankful
siderea: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] siderea at 03:33am on 28/01/2026 under , ,
Overheard on Reddit, u/Itsyademonboi:
Sorry, Nazis are from Germany under Adolf Hitler, what we have here is Sparkling Fascists.
January 26th, 2026
posted by [syndicated profile] dorktower_feed at 06:00am on 26/01/2026

Posted by John Kovalic

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Most DORK TOWER strips are now available as signed, high-quality prints, from just $25!  CLICK HERE to find out more!

HEY! Want to help keep DORK TOWER going? Then consider joining the DORK TOWER Patreon and ENLIST IN THE ARMY OF DORKNESS TODAY! (We have COOKIES!) (And SWAG!) (And GRATITUDE!)

 

andrewducker: (Default)
tamaranth: me, in the sun (Default)
posted by [personal profile] tamaranth at 08:53am on 27/01/2026 under ,
2026/015: Katabasis — R F Kuang
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The first rule every graduate student learned was that at the base of every paradox there existed the truth. That you should never fully believe your own lie, for then you lost power over the pentagram. That magick was an act of tricking the world but not yourself. You had to hold two opposing beliefs in your head at once. [p. 229]

The novel opens with Alice Law, a postgrad in Cambridge's Department of Analytic Magick, drawing a pentagram that will take her to Hell. Her stated mission is to rescue the soul of her advisor, Professor Jacob Grimes, from Hell. Alice blames herself for his death: she didn't check that pentagram correctly. And without Grimes' mentorship and letters of recommendation, she won't be able to fulfil her ambitions.

But just before she closes the pentagram, an unwanted companion shows up. Read more... )

Mood:: 'disappointed' disappointed
posted by [syndicated profile] xkcd_feed at 05:00am on 26/01/2026
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
posted by [personal profile] redbird at 05:33pm on 26/01/2026 under , ,
We got a lot of snow in the Boston area, but people seem to be coping fairly well. The building management company have sent people over here to shovel the walks, several times, so I was able to take out the trash and recycling. The forecast for the next several days is for cold, very cold once you count the wind chill. It turns out that I can wear Adrian's old snow pants, which will do a lot to protect my legs from cold and wind. The remaining problem is boots: even with the 3/4 insoles Adrian lent me, they're too loose, including at the front, so I may try putting in a pair of full-length insoles and see if that helps. The other possibility is to go out looking for a pair of snow sneakers, or at least waterproof hiking shoes/boots (though the forecast is for the kind of weather where waiting for two trolleys, and walking from home to trolley to store, is daunting.

I've been looking at Bluesky again, in large part for news and commentary about what ICE is doing in Minnesota and elsewhere. When I've had enough for a while, I click on the "astronomy" feed I subscribed to months ago, so the first things I see are an astronomical pictures.

I did a lot of PT yesterday, and a few exercises today. It feels like I haven't gotten a lot done today, which I think is because I'd been hoping to make some phone calls (not all of them political), and assumed I wouldn't be able to take the trash out today. (The alternative to that walk along the side of the building is a spiral staircase, indoors, but spiral staircases aren't good for me, and this one is tight enough that my joints really don't like it. Cattitude can deal with it when necessary, but he's already going up and down that stair regularly to do the laundry.)
ffutures: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] ffutures at 07:33pm on 26/01/2026 under ,
This is an offer of material from multiple publishers compatible with the RPG Shadowdark, a modernized "old school" game of dungeons, monsters, etc.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/ShadowCompat

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  Image

This doesn't include the Shadowdark rules, but you can get a free Shadowdark Quickstart Set from Drivethru RPG.

I'm not really into dungeon-bashing games any more, but Shadowdark is apparently state of the art for the genre, and this bundle adds a lot of adventures at a reasonable price. If you're into the system it's probably worth a look.
andrewducker: (Default)
In a slightly more sensible world this would be a perfect time for the One Nation/Moderate Conservatives to say "Thank goodness all of the far right monsters have left the party, time to pull the party back towards the center".

But I'm not convinced there are more than a few of them left.
andrewducker: (Default)
tamaranth: me, in the sun (Default)
2026/014: Lazarus, Home from the War — E H Lupton
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“I can either be your doctor or your boyfriend,” Eli said. “And if I have to choose, I don’t want to be your doctor.” [p. 165]

Lazurus Lenkov first appears in Troth as an angry, unstable war veteran with PTSD, jealous of his older brother Ulysses' relationship with ex-demigod Sam Sterling and plagued by occasional flashes of foresight. Laz, unsurprisingly, is the focus of Lazarus, Home from the War, a novel which not only explores his character in more depth but also gives a different perspective on Ulysses.

Read more... )
Mood:: 'cheerful' cheerful
January 25th, 2026
andrewducker: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] andrewducker at 09:15am on 25/01/2026 under ,

Image
The children pick their noses in front of infinity.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

andrewducker: (Default)
andrewducker: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] andrewducker at 08:42am on 25/01/2026 under
Woke up at 6:30 and it took me ten minutes to wake up enough to realise it's Sunday and my alarm would not be going off at 7. By which point I was too awake to get back to sleep.
January 24th, 2026
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
posted by [personal profile] redbird at 08:40pm on 24/01/2026 under , ,
The world is on fire, but after ICE murdered someone else in Minneapolis this morning, I called both my senators and also Chuck Schumer--I called him a coward and said we needed him to do better, giving my old Manhattan zip code. Apparently enough people made enough calls, and Schumer said an hour ago that Senate Democrats won't provide the votes for a funding bill that includes the Department of Homeland Security.

It seems likely that Alex Pritti's murder mattered to people who were prepared to overlook their murder of Renee Good, because it shows that while ICE is profoundly racist, a white man with a gun permit isn't safe either.

I can't do much for my friends in Minneapolis, but if there's something that would be useful, please ask.

ETA: After posting that, I realized I could afford to donate some money. So, I followed the links on Naomi Kritzer's recent post, donated $50 to Minnesota Rapid Response, and bought a bunch of dental floss to a group that was asking for that.
ffutures: (Default)
This is a crossover between the Harry Potter books, the Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV series, and the film Bedazzled (1967, not the 2000 remake), with some other crossovers and Easter eggs, so far including Dogma (1999) and Time Bandits (1981). All characters belong to their respective creators / owners / megacorporations of doom and not to me, please don't sue...

VII - Out of Time )

Comments please before I post to archives. Previous chapters are posted on these sites:

On Twisting the Hellmouth - https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-34251/MarcusRowland+Harry+Potter+Undazzled.htm
On Fanfiction.net - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14336114/1/Harry-Potter-Undazzled
On Archive of Our Own - https://archiveofourown.org/works/54407350
andrewducker: (Default)
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
posted by [personal profile] rmc28 at 09:30am on 24/01/2026

I just met someone to return their partner's phone, which I found in the road on the way home from ice hockey practice around 1am. Phone, case and debit card all scattered and wet from the rain I was grateful to have missed, the phone itself cracked but still intact. I put them in my bike and went on home.

There I dried everything out and set out to see if I could get in touch with the owner. I couldn't get into the phone, couldn't make calls or send messages, could access emergency contact info but it hadn't been populated, could view Gmail notifications which gave me the owners email address. I emailed it (and had the satisfying confirmation of seeing the resulting notification a short while later). I could see someone had been repeatedly calling the phone, and when they did so again I answered and we were in business. The owner was in a car accident, spent the night in A&E, and just got out, poor thing. I've just come back from meeting the partner at the Co-op to hand it over.

The situation reminded me to check my own phone was set up with emergency contacts and medical info in the Emergency section, which can be accessed without unlocking the phone. I also have my email address showing on my lock screen (all my notifications have the content hidden unless the phone is unlocked). Let this be your reminder to consider what you want visible on your own phone if it is lost.

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