Reading

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Ideas to block the current bill

There are 17 medical professionals in the current House of Representatives. 11 are Republicans. Trying to argue on most issues with the bill is difficult with such a tight deadline, but the one item most people -- including Congressional Representatives -- are reacting to negatively is the closure of Rural and Regional hospitals. This should be a negative for all of the Republicans, but the ones who understand what lack of medical provision can do should be especially ripe to listen, perhaps even be persuaded.

I live in Georgia. Rich McCormick is Georgia District 6, and I live in District 1. But he's more likely to respond to someone from the same state, especially if he has Senate or Gubernatorial ambitions in the future.

The list I found is through The Patients Action Network. If you are in a District with one of these Republican representatives, particularly if they specialize in Emergency or Family medicine, start calling and/or emailing. If you are in the same state, email them and let them know you have a long memory if they're thinking of statewide offices.

In the meantime, send support to the few Republicans in the House who have already voted against it and continue to oppose it. At the very least, let's make them miss their deadline for vacation.

Entry tags:

deeply personal

Batrick’s Storage Unit of DOOM

I can’t get the pictures to load on Imgur, but I do have pics of Bat’s 10’x25’ storage unit, packed chin-high with decaying cardboard boxes and trash bags full of a mish-mash of possessions packed, at the last minute, in no logical order. How did Bat come to be in possession of a full storage unit of DOOM? Some of that is AuDHD executive dysfunction, and some of it is life circumstances being hard for someone with those disabilities to navigate. You may have seen the ADHD aphorism “DOOM” ie. “Don’t Organize, Only Move”? Well, you’ll be seeing it a lot in this post.

I will tell the sad tale behind a ( Read more... )
Wow, long post is long.

Current Mood: sad

Reading Wednesday

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Entry tags:

adult_content

Kink Hub Theme of the Month: "Sex on the Beach"

Kink Hub: A Sharing & Reccing Community for Kink Fics

Links:

kinkhub | Community Rules | Posting Guidelines | Monthly Themes & Free-For-All | July: Sex on the Beach

Description: Kink Hub is an 18+ comm for anything kink fic, where you can self-promote, share and rec fanfics of all fandoms and original works. RPF is welcome.

For the month of July, the theme for all shared fics is "Sex on the Beach", which means any kinks related to outdoor fun (no actual beach required) and/or alcoholic beverages (no cocktail required). If you've written or read fics featuring any related kink, you're very welcome to share the links to them in this comm.

(no subject)

Today has been a day of cramps, grocery shopping, more cramps, talking to people on the phone, learning to debone a chicken, and having figured out when to do class work to get ahead of schedule without getting a headache from the overhead fan throwing flickering shadows over everything when the sunshine is coming in the clerestory window.

Let’s hope that works out tomorrow.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Tupelo Honey - Van Morrison

All the tea in China.

It was such a slow first day, midway through the afternoon, I was being paid to sit there and read. It won't be like that every day - not even other days this week - and even if it doesn't get repeated, I can savor having had it for a little while.

So far, it's a front desk job like all front desk jobs: phone calls, emails, appointments, office supplies. People called, I called them back. Documents were scanned into the computer and copies were made. The clients were largely punctual and there's no music playing. While I doubt I can get away with headphones or a radio, there's a fan I may use for white noise to make the periods of sitting around, waiting for more nothing to happen, a little easier to get through without having to fall back on monetary compensation. Even if I got through a large chunk of some reading today.

Though I suppose longhand writing notes are always an option. If I remember to bring the right notebooks tomorrow.

Current Mood: hopeful

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ficathon: black emporium

Dear Black Emporium Creator,

First of all, relax! I'm far from being picky, and I can pretty much guarantee that I'll love whatever you decide to create for me. These are nothing but guidelines, for you to take to heart or ignore to your heart's content. Also, hey! You're writing me fic or drawing me art! That's automatically a good reason for me to love you, no matter what. So, please, keep that in mind. Trust me, you can pretty much do no wrong.

( More details under the cut. )

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Knitting Pattern Preferences

I finished fruit slice #3 and that means now I'm putting together the pattern for all the fruit slice variations. So I have some questions:

1. If you download a knitting pattern from a website, do you print it out to refer to while you're knitting, or do you read the pattern off of a device?

2. If you read patterns off a device, is it a phone, tablet, or computer? Screen size is what I'm curious about here.

Entry tags:

2025,
chibi reads

June Reading List

1. People From My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami (Translation)

2. The Clearing by Allison Adair (Poems)

3. Uncommon Measure by Natalie Hodge (nfn)

4. Hell Phone by Benji Nate (Graphic)

5. Flung Out of Space by Grace Ellis (Graphic)(Queer MC)

6. All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran (Poetry)(Queer Author)

7. Grief is for Humans by Sloane Crosley (nfn)

8. We Called them Giants by Kieron Gillen (Graphic)

9. Home of the American Circus byAllison Larkin

10. Believe The Untold Story of Ted Lasso by Jeremy Egner (nfn)

11. Checked Out by Katie Fricas

12. Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix (Translation)

13. Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom (Trans MC)

14. Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (Translation)

15. So Many Stars by Caro De Robertis (nfn)

16. The Wild Robot Protects by Peter Brown (JR)

17. Becoming Kin by Patty Krawec (Nfn)(Indigenous)

18. Grow a Novel in Verse by Juanita Kodman (JR)(Verse)

19. A Spindle Splintered by Alix Harrow (Queer Romance)

20. Blue Light Hour by Bruna Dantas Lobato (Brazilian)

21. Paranoia Cage by Coolkyousinnjya (Graphic)

22. She and Her Cat by Makoto Shinkai (Translation)

23. Night Sky With Exit Wounds (Poetry)

24. The Natural Mother of the Child by Krys Belc (nfn)(Queer Author)

25. It Rhymes with Takei by George Takei (Graphic)(nfn)(Queer Author)

26. Bad Badger A Love Story by Maryrose Wood (Jr)

27. Girl meets Boy by Ali Smith

28. Defekt by Nino Cipri (Queer MC)

29. Blood Feast by Malika Moustadraf (Translation)

30. The Secret of Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel (Graphic)(nfn)(Queer Author)

Current Mood: nervous
Current Music: Tin Angel - Joni Mitchell

Valentines and maple leaves.

Ending the month with good news: I've got a new gig. It's full-time and starts on a week where I'll have Friday off, so it'll be an easy adjustment and a decent way to test out if I'm cut for it long-term. Or even medium-term, into the next couple of weeks until the usual receptionist gets back.

I'll be doing scheduling, some emails, some phone calls. Front desk work on the Upper East Side. It'll be easy to get there, and it'll be done indoors and sitting down. I don't think it's going to be all that relaxing and I'm going to have to go back to doing workouts at night in my apartment instead of at the gym for the duration. But it's just for a little while, to see if it's a good fit.

Rebuilding journal search again

We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.

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readercon

Readercon 2025 Schedule

My schedule is finalized! I didn't list participants in case there were changes.

Who will I see at Readercon next month?

The Works of P. Djèlí Clark

Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 1:00 PM EDT

Our Guest of Honor P. Djèlí Clark rounded out his first decade as a published author with a Nebula and a Locus for his fantasy police procedural novel, The Master of Djinn, and both those awards plus a British Fantasy Award for his monster-hunting novella Ring Shout. His short story "How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub" is short-listed for the Hugo this year. As a History professor at University of Connecticut, he investigates the pathways leading from West African storyteller/poets (griots, a.k.a. djèlí) to the American abolitionist movement. Help us celebrate the works of our honored guest!

The Purposes of Memorable Insults in Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 5:00 PM EDT

Some of the most quotable lines in science fiction and fantasy are zingers. Wit can do a lot to build a character, a world, and a universe, and has the ability to either support or undermine reader expectations. This panel aims to explore and elaborate on the use of wit—and especially takedowns—in literature, exposing how a verbal jab can serve as more than just a punchline.

Moving from Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing [I'm moderating this one]

Salon G/H Friday, July 18, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT

It's becoming increasingly common to hear of authors whose self-published work was so successful that they were picked up by a traditional publisher. But what of the authors who have gone the other way, by turning their backs on traditional publishing and going into self-publishing? Panelists will survey the varying reasons for making this transition, how authors have navigated it, and what this might say about the state of publishing overall.

Kaffeeklatsch: Victoria Janssen

Suite 830 Friday, July 18, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT

Meet the Pros(e) party

Salon F Friday, July 18, 2025, 10:15 PM EDT

Program participants are assigned to tables with a roughly equal number of conferencegoers and other participants, and then table placements are scrambled at regular intervals so that everyone gets to meet a new set of people in a small-group setting. Think of it as a low-key sort of speed dating where you need never be the sole focus of anyone's attention, and the goal is just to get to know some cool Readerconnish people. Please note that this event will include a bar and is mask-optional, unlike most other programming.

The Works of Cecilia Tan [I'm moderating this one]

Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 12:00 PM EDT

Our Guest of Honor, Cecilia Tan, has a publication history that spans Asimov's, Absolute Magnitude, Ms. Magazine, Penthouse, and Best American Erotica, among others. Writer and editor of science fiction and fantasy, especially as they intersect with erotica and romance, she is also the founder of Circlet Press, an independent publisher that specializes in speculative erotica. Her own writing earned a Lifetime Achievement for Erotica in 2014 from Romantic Times magazine. She also contributes to America's other pastime, baseball, in her role as Publications Director for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Come hear our panel discuss Cecilia's many talents and accomplishments.

Un-Kafkaesque Bureaucracies [I'm moderating this one]

Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT

In fiction, bureaucracies are generally depicted as evil in its most banal form, yet many of the actual bureaucracies that shape our lives exist to protect us from corporate greed. How can—and should—we tell other stories about bureaucrats and bureaucracies, particularly as the U.S. stands on the precipice of disastrous deregulation? And might fantasies of bureaucracy (such Addison's The Goblin Emperor and Goddard's The Hands of the Emperor) be the next cozy subgenre?

The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction

Create / Collaborate Saturday, July 19, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT

In an article of the same name (https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/endless-appetite-fanfiction), Elizabeth Minkel discussed how "2024 was the year [fanfic] truly broke containment—everyone seemed to want a piece of the fanfiction pie, leaving fic authors themselves besieged on all sides." Attempts to steal and monetize fanfic proliferated, as did reviews treating living authors as distant and unreachable. What do these trends say about larger changes in attitudes toward stories and creators? How can fans of all kinds nurture supportive connections to authors?

Entry tags:

travel

Packing

Regrettably, we have to go home again this afternoon. I am packing with the intention of leaving our luggage at the hotel while we do one last amble along Southsea beach.

Swag count:

11 pens
9 commemorative guidebooks (to the various ships, museums, and the dockyard as a whole)
2 notebooks
2 postcards
1 travel mug
1 fridge magnet
1 birthday card from the Spinnaker Bar staff

Also some chocolate from the Lindt outlet store. My suitcase was fairly full when we came. I'm sure I can make it all fit ... somehow.

The seed for choosing Portsmouth for this getaway came from seeing a sign for "Explosion Museum" while driving a bunch of hockey players to Gosport rink back in May. I'm very glad I went with that impulse, it's worked out well.

Current Mood: sad
Current Music: nothing now

Sunday night.

Every time I think, "I need a peer group," I need to remind myself about the various corners of fandom. Escapade is very much made up of my peer group in a not insignificant number of ways, and spending a good chunk of the weekend in such a group's company was a balm. Soothing, comforting. We're of different ages and backgrounds, and we're peers with one another in a way I don't much get in other places.

I even got some practical suggestions for the ongoing job hunt. It always remains to be seen how helpful they are, and the point stands that they're practical, with specific tasks and methods. Another thing to remember: look to one's peers for help. Not for everything, but for many things.

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OAAAAAASIIIIIIIIIS

IT'S HAPPENING. YOU GUYS IT'S HAPPENING. After literal months of dragging my feet due to a pet health situation, I finally bit the bullet yesterday and bought my plane tickets. To be fair to me, that did take several hours of thinking and comparing, because I'm also going to Slovenia to see friends, so I had to consider three one-way legs vs nested round-trips, plus see what day was cheapest to leave and come back within various other constraints, etc. BUT I HAVE THEM. AND I LEAVE IN LITERALLY THREE WEEKS AHHHHH.

Friend I'm going to the concert with told me all her friends are jealous because none of them could get tickets. 😇😇😇 I've seen photos of big Oasis displays over in the UK. Sounds like the hype is huge, can't wait to see it for myself.

In celebration, here's some top-notch Oasis content I've come across recently:
Noel calling into TalkSports, 6/27. On one hand, there's been basically zero official promo (unless you count a really slickly produced video advertising their exclusive Adidas line, which I do not???). On the other hand: Noel randomly calling into a sports radio show every so often. He seems in SUCH GOOD SPIRITS here omg, constantly referring to Liam as "our kid," winding up the hosts, being silly, and cheerfully declaring that it's "too late to back out [of the tour] now."

‘Liam had been drinking all night. Noel was not in a great mood’: photographers pick their best Oasis shot (The Guardian). Some fantastic quotes in this.

Bands – especially ones with a pretty boy singer or a female singer – can get really nervous that the singer gets all the attention. Noel was never like that. He said: “You’ve got to use the assets you’ve got.” -- Kevin Cummings

Are you fucking kidding me. Just when you think you've finally seen all the best/weirdest quotes from Noel about Liam... there's always more.

We were booked on the same flight, but the band were in club class and me and the hack were in goats-and-chickens. Liam came back to say hello. He was a garrulous guy, even pre-fame. He was standing at the back of the plane having a beer and this woman came by huffing and puffing with some kids and Liam offered to look after one of them. He pulled down one of those seats the flight attendants sit on and had the girl on his lap and chatted to her. After the tales I’d heard, I’d thought I was about to spend a few days with a nutcase. But he was sweet as a nut. -- Tom Sheehan

🥺🥺🥺

And in conclusion, a performance of the song that got me into Oasis, from 1997 near the peak of Oasis mania:

Watch on YouTube

Noel gets so into the prechorus that he sings along with Liam even though he's not at the mic at the time, Liam looks like he's having a religious experience during Noel's guitar solo and then does a little dance, Noel looks like he's having a difference kind of experience during the solo... Top notch stuff.

Current Mood: pensive
Current Location: Sylt

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Ironheart (TV Series) Episodes 1 - 3

Aka the series which was delayed for years, with the result that there is much preemptive sceptism. Having watched the first three episodes which got dropped a few days ago, I very much like what I'm seeing so far. The way the series provides a distinct feeling of a place and people reminds me of what the show Ms Marvel did with the Pakistani community in New Jersey - in this case, Riri Williams comes from the Chicago South Side, as does the director, google tells me, and that's where she returns to in the series' pilot.

( Spoilers could make an Iron Suit in a cave, but would need the cash to be brought to the cave first )

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other communities rock

Watson Birthday Prompt Fest

a collection images of Watsons from various adaptations

Description: Welcome to the Watson Birthday Prompt Fest! According to some sources, John Watson's birthday is August 7. So, lets celebrate it, by having a prompt fest!

Come over to the Ao3 collection and leave a prompt or claim a prompt. Open to all Sherlock Holmes related fandoms, and all genres, ratings, and relationships (ships, gen, etc). The main rule being that all fanworks should focus on our beloved Watson.

The goal is to have lots of fanworks to enjoy for Watson's birthday on August 7th

Schedule: Prompting and claiming will be open until August 7, 2025
Links: Fest

Current Mood: busy

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Allbingo and Crowdfunding

allbingo provides a space for creative people to share their work, using bingo cards for inspiration.

crowdfunding is a community for creators, patrons, and fans of cyberfunded creativity.

Further details below ...

( Read more... )

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: American Car - Mike Doughty

Put the foot down.

I received what I'm going to take as a fine compliment today: someone I'd met all of four hours earlier said I sounded like I wrote professionally for magazines and other publications, simply from how I talked.

I've decided it's up there with multiple people - completely independently, several years apart, none of them knowing each other - telling me I speak in real life the way I talk online.

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farmer's market

Farmer's Market -- 28 June 2025 (Sickle Day, 10th of Harvest, Year 233)

2 quarts of yellow sweet cherries, 1 quart of blue berries, 1 pint of black raspberries, 1 pint of apricots, 1 lb of black beans, 1 lb popcorn, 1 strawberry lemonade, 1 quart of chocolate milk, bacon-gruyere wheel, almond croissant, and a lemon tart.

The fruit stand that I usually buy from saved me an apricot from their limited selection today -- the benefits of being friendly, remembering everyone's pronouns, and occasionally wearing one of my ace flag pins.