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Focaldata calculated United Nations voting patterns by country, relative to the United States and China. The more a country voted the same as the United States votes, the more to the left it appears (as a dot). If voting was more similar to how China votes, the country appears more to the right. Watch the changes from 1992 to 2025.

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The Horror

Feb. 23rd, 2026 07:24 am
poliphilo: (Default)
[personal profile] poliphilo
 I dreamed our garden was full of junk- and we were clearing it away and burning it so the children from the school next door could come in and work and play.

Now there's symbolism you don't have to work too hard to understand.

I gather the police are treating Prince Andrew's former home- Royal Lodge- as a crime scene, taking up floorboards and thrusting remote control cameras into areas that are hard of access.

And attention is shifting from Little St James to the Zorro ranch. There are reports of bodies being buried there.

Early trawls through the files concentrated on mentions of the current president. He had had his people redact and redact again but even so he was all over them- and the evidence was damning. Now attention is focused on other names and other oddities. What exactly is this obsession the Epstein class had with food- and cheap food at that? Do "pizza", "grape soda" and "jerky" mean what we are coming to think they mean?

How do you talk about any of this? Words like "horror" are shopworn. I find myself veering aside into euphemism and even humour. Perhaps the best mode is the straightforward reporting of fact. 

Monday Update 2-23-26

Feb. 23rd, 2026 12:37 am
ysabetwordsmith: Artwork of the wordsmith typing. (typing)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Poem: "The Struggle Against Overwhelming Odds"
Poem: "Embrace My Fate"
John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds Order
Poem: "The Spectrum of Your Being"
Early Humans
Birdfeeding
Vocabulary: Bricolage
Today's Adventures
Science
Birdfeeding
Meteor Shower Calendar
Philosophical Questions: Life
Edible Landscaping Order
Meme
Photos: House Yard
Water
Birdfeeding
Books
Follow Friday 2-20-26: Active Communities on Dreamwidth Winter 2025-2026 A-I
Energy
Birdfeeding
Community Thursdays
Photos: Flowerbeds
Books
Birdfeeding
Hard Things

Safety has 49 comments. Food has 53 comments. Wildlife has 39 comments. Food has 67 comments. Robotics has 146 comments.


Last week's half-price sale in Not Quite Kansas went well. All sponsored poems have been posted, so you can find those via the title links on the sale page.


The 2026 Rose and Bay Awards are now open for excellence in crowdfunding. It's time to vote for your favorite projects!

The award period for eligible activities spans January 1-December 31, 2025.
The nomination period spans January 1-January 31, 2026.
The voting period spans February 1-February 28, 2026.

These are the handlers for the 2026 award season:
Art: [personal profile] gs_silva Nominate art! Vote for art!
Fiction: [personal profile] fuzzyred Nominate fiction! Vote for fiction!
Poetry: [personal profile] gs_silva Nominate poetry! Vote for poetry!
Webcomic: [personal profile] curiosity Nominate webcomics! Vote for webcomics!
Other Project: [personal profile] curiosity Nominate other projects! Vote for other projects!
Patron: [personal profile] fuzzyred Nominate patrons! Vote for patrons!

"The Struggle Against Overwhelming Odds" belongs to Not Quite Kansas and needs $34.50 to be complete. Raymond and Gideon get attacked on the way home from research.


The weather has been variable here. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a large flock of sparrows, several starlings, one male and two female house finches, one female and two male cardinals, a mourning dove, and a fox squirrel. I flushed the great horned owl from the ritual meadow when I went out there. A skein of geese flew overhead, going north. Currently blooming: crocuses.
mxcatmoon: Miami Vice Trudy (MV 13 Trudy)
[personal profile] mxcatmoon posting in [community profile] vocab_drabbles
Title: The Heart Makes its Own Choices
Fandom: Miami Vice
Author: Cat Moon
Rating: G
Words: 397
Characters/Pairings: Rico, Trudy (potential Rico/Trudy)
Summary: While they wait and worry after Sonny is shot in the line of duty, Rico and Trudy take comfort from each other. Takes place during the episode, "A Bullet for Crockett."
Notes: I'll be honest, this fic decided it wanted to be long, so I'm writing a continuation. If you're interested, it'll be at my journal and on AO3 when it's finished.

The Heart Makes its Own Choices )

Will They, or Won't They?

Feb. 23rd, 2026 01:08 am
mxcatmoon: Miami Vice Trudy (MV 13 Trudy)
[personal profile] mxcatmoon
Writing it such a fascinating process. Like, I'm riveted to this scene playing out -- I have no idea how it's going to end.

When I began writing, I intended it to be a Rico/Trudy fic that was consummated. I had a very clear idea of what would happen. It was going to be sweet and poignant.

Then, the characters had to put emotions and motivations into the process. Now, it's a battle of will they or won't they. Who knows?! Trudy is willing, and her reasons are touching and sweet. Rico is being Mr. Moral, coming up with reasons why they shouldn't.

So, the jury is still out. I have no idea who is going to win. I just know that Rico is a twenty-first century guy living in the twentieth century. I've noticed that in previous fics. I have no idea why, but I let the characters be who they tell me they are, so. Is it something I'm picking up on in canon? Going by the way he is with Valerie, I'd be doubtful, but I write on instinct and I won't force myself to go against my instincts.

ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is spillover from the October 2020 Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] wyld_dandelyon. It also fills the "demons" square in my 10-1-20 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the series Not Quite Kansas.

Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the more detailed warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes feeling lost, an unprovoked attack, hellhounds, violence, gore, unexpected rescue, playing with prey, fatally injured opponents, minor injuries to main characters, awkward discussions, willing sacrifice, intimate magical healing, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

This microfunded poem is being posted one verse at a time, as donations come in to cover them. The rate is $0.25/line, so $5 will reveal 20 new lines, and so forth. There is a permanent donation button on my profile page, or you can contact me for other arrangements. You can also ask me about the number of lines per verse, if you want to fund a certain number of verses. So far sponsors include: [personal profile] fuzzyred,

355 lines, Buy It Now = $44.50
Amount donated = $10
Verses posted = 13 of 118

Amount remaining to fund fully = $34.50
Amount needed to fund next verse = $0.25
Amount needed to fund the verse after that = $0.75


Read more... )
thanekos: Seiga Kaku from Touhou 13, shadowed. (Default)
[personal profile] thanekos posting in [community profile] scans_daily
It started in October 2024 - it's been seventeen issues and one annual.

It's the Cirque, which Dick'd encountered as Robin, having designs on him and Blüdhaven.

In issue #132, he'd confronted the Cirque's representative Olivia Pearce - and seen her face.

Her master, the Zanni, came out of it. )

Bits and pieces, catching up

Feb. 23rd, 2026 04:53 pm
mific: (Default)
[personal profile] mific
I've been busy lately with several things on the go - doing HR art for the ICE OUT donations challenge, recording a long SGA podfic for the Podfic Big Bang (And Hope by Sihaya Black), and trying to fit in recording a couple of shorter ones for Romancing McShep and Romancing SGA, as well. Oof. Plus a lot of HR fic reading. I've accepted that it's impossible to keep up in any meaningful sense, and just surf along reading stuff I see reccd or authors I know I like a lot, and the few WIPs I'm following. Eventually I guess I'll catch up with numerous gems in the fandom that I missed in this avalanche of new fics, many of them extremely good.

In terms of reading very good authors, I had an exceptionally obsessive episode today where I started a story by one of my fave HR writers and couldn't read it. Because (unlike in ALL their other fics) they'd chosen to do all the Ilya POV narration in Ilya-speak, with most of the articles dropped. Russian doesn't have separate articles, I gather, because the distinction between "a ball" & "the ball" is done with word order - which is why in English, Russians often drop their articles. An example:
1. Девушка читает книгу. (The girl is reading a book)
2. Книгу читает девушка. (The girl is reading the book)
In both sentences, the meaning is nearly the same. However, in Sentence 2, the placement of “книгу” (book) at the beginning, before “девушка” (girl), highlights the importance of the book and implies a specific book.

The parts of the fic where it was Ilya's dialogue were fine because that portrays his actual speech, but the narrative (for me) is his thoughts (internal narration) in tight 3rd POV and there's NO WAY he'd be dropping "articles" in his thinking in Russian. It made him seem stupid, which he very much isn't, and I couldn't bear to read it. So I just now copied it into Word and betaed it, adding back in all the articles from his narrative POV parts. If you recognise the fic, hit me up in a DM and I'll share the edited version. It's a bloody good fic otherwise, 9000 words.

Life's been quiet apart from reccing, writing, arting and podficcing, and I'm looking forward to a dinner out with friends this Wednesday. Also enjoying sweet corn, and the start of the stone fruit season, with gorgeous nectarines. My garden is blowsy and straggly now, in late summer, and I need to take some time (ha!) to trim it back a bit. It's still warm here, about 22-24 degC highs, usually, and drier of late so I'm still watering the entire garden by hand every 3 days.

One bloody annoying thing that happened was that my credit card was hacked back at the end of January (picked up via notifications coming up on my phone from my banking app asking me to approve a bunch of things I hadn't bought). Luckily all smallish purchases (kids? An unambitious thief, anyway) and I think the bank will refund them. But that meant cancelling that card and them mailing me another (a process I last went through several months ago). And then the mailed card never arrived (presumed stolen from my letterbox) and I got another couple of false transactions on the new card that I hadn't even seen yet! So yet another card cancellation and this time I got it mailed to my bank. I was very glad that after the last debacle several months ago I'd arranged a second credit card via my other bank (I have accounts at 2 banks for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture).

Anyway, in terms of recs:

- I'm reading all Evilharlowe's HR works on AO3 - they really are a fantastic writer.
- Happened on a great short edit that sets Shane and Ilya's tuna melt hiatus to a Chappel Roan song (The Subway - amazing song) - heartrending edit, very well done, but man, I wish it were a full-sized fanvid.
- Bringing to your attention this workout video by Hudson Williams. Leg day and his skincare routine are really paying off! (CN for casual mentions of eating extreme diets or 'not eating' to make his body fit acting roles. Which is worrying but probably routine for actors.)
- there's a LOT of HR podfic by now and every day there are 1 or 2 new ones. It's a great way to revisit fics I read and loved while I do art. For example, [personal profile] cathexys podficced Magneticwave's Clear to a Hedgehog. This link gets you HR podfic on AO3.

Enough for now. Waving at you all - hope things are going as well as they can.! 💗

Daily Happiness

Feb. 22nd, 2026 09:04 pm
torachan: (chloe yawn)
[personal profile] torachan
1. We had a very nice morning at Disneyland today. A little warm (I wore a sweatshirt when we got in and had to take it off about halfway through, so then I had to lug it around the rest of the time, which was annoying) and a little crowded, but we ate a lot of good food and had a good time.

2. Poor Tuxie looks like he got in a scuffle again. Yesterday he came to the door with one eye partially closed and the fur between his eye and ear on that side scraped up. He's looking better today (eye fully open) and unlike some times before where he disappeared for a few days to hunker down, he has been spending his time in our yard as usual, so hopefully he's doing okay. I do wish he wouldn't get in fights. :-/

3. Jasper is just hanging out.

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Poem: "Embrace My Fate"

Feb. 22nd, 2026 10:39 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is spillover from the October 6, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] librarygeek. It also fills the "How do you want to do this?" square in my 10-1-20 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the series Not Quite Kansas.

Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the more detailed warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes feeling lost, sorting through a lair acquired by combat, reference to past abuse, cursed artifacts, damned souls, worry, magical body modification, restraint for safety, awkward emotional discussions, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

Read more... )

#184 - Equivocal

Feb. 22nd, 2026 11:49 pm
mxcatmoon: Word Cloud (Word Cloud)
[personal profile] mxcatmoon posting in [community profile] vocab_drabbles
This week's word is

Equivocal


[əˈkwivək(ə)l]

adjective

1. Open to more than one interpretation; ambiguous.
"The equivocal nature of her remarks."

2. Uncertain or questionable in nature.
"The results of the investigation were equivocal."

Writerly Ways

Feb. 22nd, 2026 11:14 pm
cornerofmadness: (Default)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
Last week I wrestled with a tough emotion to portray in fiction and here's another one, grief/mourning. this might be one of the most personalized of emotions. It's freaking tidal, coming and going with whatever moon your mind is following. I think the difficulty of this emotion is just how different it can be person from person, from all the various lived experiences out there. It's not even necessarily the same within one person.

Take me for example. Within a year I lost my last two uncles (the only two I was related to by blood) and the grief hits different for both of them. Uncle S died suddenly, unexpectedly, of a heart attack. He was, without a doubt, the more gregarious of my uncles, the 'fun one.' The fourth of July last year was hard because the family always went to his lake house. Mom and I had also been at a rock/gem show the day he died and when that rolled around, neither of us wanted to return so that is a shared bit of grief that maybe in a story might not make sense.

Uncle D was the shy uncle, the introvert who really should have been helped more in school with his learning issues but that wasn't the done thing in the 50s and 60s. The first anniversary of his death is coming in the next few weeks and yet oddly there is a lack of grief when I think about it. It's not that I didn't like this uncle but it is different. Maybe it was the lack of a funeral. Maybe it was how much he pulled away almost as if afraid he had nothing to talk about with me because he wasn't 'smart enough' (no, I know he feared that.)

Even yesterday, I finally decided to stop being a jackass and answer my 3 month back log of emails/blog comments. I had at least a dozen in there that I owed [personal profile] spikedluv. There is so much regret in that, an emotion that doesn't go with grief alone but it is a big part of it. There is, of course, nothing I can do about that but I am determined to get the rest of the owed comments out in the next few days. I'm avoiding future regret, right? And avoidance is definitely one sign of grief.

I think in many ways, grief isn't necessarily hard to write but the way others perceive it i s where it gets sticky.

For example, I think I wrote grief well in These Haunted Hills but the book fell flat (though I did just find a great review by someone I'm not sure I know on GR) Ah well (but that's a heart break for another time)

How do you handle grief in fiction?


Open Calls


Story Unlikely This mag pays well BUT you have to subscribe which is free but if you get a paid sub your pay as an author goes up and that, while I understand it, doesn't necessarily sit well with me.

Horror Library Volume 10 Original, thoughtful horror-centric short stories

Folded Space Podcast Science fiction, exploring new worlds, future possibilities, and the enduring human spirit

The Whumpy Printing Press is looking novelette, novella, novel, short story collection, and graphic novel submissions Novelette, novella, novel, short story collection, and graphic novels that fall into the whump genre (i.e. a character needs to be hurt). We’re looking for strong stories with a balance between whump and plot. Ideally science fiction or fantasy (is it possible I DO NOT have a whump story?!?)

Street Magic III Magic. Hiding right under our unsuspecting noses, or swirling around all around us. When we’re talking about Street Magic, it’s probably closer than you think.

SciFi To Go: Food For Thought Funny short stories in the areas of science fiction, fantasy, and horror

86 Opportunities for Historically Underrepresented Writers (February 2026) many of these include LGBT and women in general





From Around the Web

How the Page Thinks: Spatial Intelligence in Writing


The Four-Act Structure and the Circular Shape of Story

Fix Flat Deep POV: 7 Probing Questions for Better Immersion

How to Build an Author Brand That Attracts Readers and Sells Books (Step-by-Step Guide)


From Betty


How to Create a Simple Language

How to Use Story Structure in Non-Narrative Writing

Six Rape Tropes and How to Replace Them

Reconciling Character Choices With Your Plot

How to Make Your Dark Event Pay Off

Using Contradictions to Create Masterful Microtension – Part 2

Setting the Stage with Powerful Description

Fix Flat Deep POV: 7 Probing Questions for Better Immersion

How to Turn Feedback into Action: Understanding Editorial Letters

Why Writers Fear and Resist Change (and Characters Do, Too)

YouTube for Writers, Part 6: Building Your Author Brand on YouTube

Why Every Writer Needs a Critique Group (and the Six Relationships That Shape Your Career) Okay this one is something I have been saying forever. Ignoring the whole God bit (which fine if you're religious great but otherwise I don't feel like it needs to be in this article. This is not for everyone). I do still wish I could get more people into my critique group.


Email List Segmentation for Authors: How to Reach Readers and Increase Sales

A BREAKTHROUGH Program for Writers of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror This is like a college class in a way complete with application fees. It is NOT a cheap opportunity by any means.
[personal profile] tcampbell1000 posting in [community profile] scans_daily
Image


The launch of Justice League Quarterly might’ve seemed excessive, but in retrospect, it let Giffen, DeMatteis, and Jones explore a few story concepts in depth that otherwise might’ve been sent to the margins. First up was Booster Gold’s new super-team, the Fighting Shills. No, wait, I mean the Intellectual Property. No, wait, I mean the Bought-And-Paid-For Hacks. No, wait, I mean…the Conglomerate? Are we SURE that’s their name?

In 1990, the name ‘‘Citizens United’’ would’ve said ‘super-team’ more than ‘‘overextension of corporate power.’’ )

Light Black #6 [The Fulcrum]

Feb. 22nd, 2026 08:24 pm
[personal profile] paradoxcase posting in [community profile] rainbowfic
Name: Dream Interpretation
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Light Black #6: Rise
Styles and Supplies: Life Drawing, Photography, Charcoal
Word Count: 419
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Characters: Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: 1912.5.2.6
Summary: Qhoroali awakens from the dream.

Dream Interpretation )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I picked out what I wanted from John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds. This catalog has the Safe Seed Pledge, meaning everything is non-GMO/toxin-free. My partner Doug further notes that they have the best, easiest ordering system of all the catalogs we use. Call up the Smart Order Form and when you key in the product number, the rest autofills, tells you if it's still in stock, and lists the price. \o/ Somegeek earned their coffee today!

Read more... )
petra: Don McKellar with a scarf, looking superior in black and white. (Darren - Dubious look)
[personal profile] petra
Pity and Terror (463 words) by RiaSaun
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Slings and Arrows, Medea - Fandom
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Geoffrey Tennant, Darren Nichols
Additional Tags: Humor, Drama
Summary:

Darren sells Geoffrey on a production. This is inspired by Petra's "Grace and a Cod-piece."

*

This was inspired by one of the first fanworks I ever put on the AO3, back in my Slings & Arrows heyday. It has an excellent use of Darren Nichols' off-kilter genius.

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