Nic (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
picnicnic) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
retro_icontest2025-11-09 08:42 am
picnicnic) wrote in retro_icontest2025-11-09 08:42 am
Entry tags:
haebin (haebin) wrote2025-11-09 01:04 pm
haebin) wrote2025-11-09 01:04 pmEntry tags:
The Mistress of the Shadowland, Second Book, The next Chapter
It's time for a new chapter, right? I hope you'll enjoy it!
And thank you so, so much for reading!!
( The Mistress of the Shadowland, Second Book, The next Chapter )
And thank you so, so much for reading!!
selenak (selenak) wrote2025-11-09 01:03 pm
selenak) wrote2025-11-09 01:03 pm
Entry tags:
Pluribus
Pluribus is the new show Vince Gilligan created, and whose first two episodes premiered on Apple TV, with Rhea Seahorn as the main character. After her stunning performance as Kim Wexler in Better Call Saul, it seems Gilligan felt inspired, and no wonder. I still think her not winning any awards of what she did with Kim is one of the great injustices of tv world. Anyway: While the show is set in Albuquerque like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, it belongs to a quite different genre and in a way has Gilligan go back to his X-Files roots. With the stunning cinematography of BB/BCS, and some (based on those first two eps) great twists on the whole invasion/hive mind/zombie tropes and genre. Also, Gilligan's and his fellow artists ability to quickly create three dimensional feeling side characters with just a few minutes of screen time shines, and the way he can connect visceral emotion and horror on the one hand and black humour otoh.
( Spoilers are wondering just what saving humanity really means )
I'm really looking forward to seeing more of how the show continues to deal with those questions. Well done, Gilligan, I'm hooked!
****
In other news, having recently made a trip to Vienna, I posted a gigantic historically themed pic spam here!
( Spoilers are wondering just what saving humanity really means )
I'm really looking forward to seeing more of how the show continues to deal with those questions. Well done, Gilligan, I'm hooked!
****
In other news, having recently made a trip to Vienna, I posted a gigantic historically themed pic spam here!
alobear (alobear) wrote2025-11-09 11:10 am
alobear) wrote2025-11-09 11:10 amLet Them and Air
The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins has been on my shelf for a while.
Someone recommended it to me months ago when I was having trouble with miscommunication with a client, suggesting it might help me to let go of being so anxious about what someone else was thinking about me.
I immediately bought a copy but didn't read it!
I then heard some opinions that it didn't warrant a whole book on the idea because it really was as simple as just 'letting other people think and feel whatever they think and feel' and there wasn't any more to it.
BUT - it turns out, there is more to it than that!
I wouldn't say any of the information in the book is new, but it's framed in a useful and positive way, and it's all stuff that I think we need to be reminded of regularly, because it can be very helpful but also quite difficult to keep top of mind.
There's more nuance to it than I expected, and the book covers a lot more specific areas than I thought it would.
So it turned out to be useful and I'm glad I read it.
Air (Or Have, Have Not) by Geoff Ryman was a very quick 'nope' for me.
The text was very small and in an unappealing font - but it was more that I really disliked all the characters (especially the protagonist, who was racist and ableist in the first few pages) and especially the way the dialogue was written (very stilted and unnatural).
It also made me uncomfortable because this is a white male author writing largely women of colour and presenting them in a very unflattering light.
Perhaps it gets better as it goes along and it becomes clearer why all those choices were made - but I wasn't prepared to read more to find out.
Someone recommended it to me months ago when I was having trouble with miscommunication with a client, suggesting it might help me to let go of being so anxious about what someone else was thinking about me.
I immediately bought a copy but didn't read it!
I then heard some opinions that it didn't warrant a whole book on the idea because it really was as simple as just 'letting other people think and feel whatever they think and feel' and there wasn't any more to it.
BUT - it turns out, there is more to it than that!
I wouldn't say any of the information in the book is new, but it's framed in a useful and positive way, and it's all stuff that I think we need to be reminded of regularly, because it can be very helpful but also quite difficult to keep top of mind.
There's more nuance to it than I expected, and the book covers a lot more specific areas than I thought it would.
So it turned out to be useful and I'm glad I read it.
Air (Or Have, Have Not) by Geoff Ryman was a very quick 'nope' for me.
The text was very small and in an unappealing font - but it was more that I really disliked all the characters (especially the protagonist, who was racist and ableist in the first few pages) and especially the way the dialogue was written (very stilted and unnatural).
It also made me uncomfortable because this is a white male author writing largely women of colour and presenting them in a very unflattering light.
Perhaps it gets better as it goes along and it becomes clearer why all those choices were made - but I wasn't prepared to read more to find out.
Cher (TW) (thawrecka) wrote2025-11-09 10:10 pm
thawrecka) wrote2025-11-09 10:10 pmEntry tags:
(no subject)
I am 34 episodes in to Blood River! I think the writing gets a big wobbly starting in episode 30, but I'm still having a good time, and I'll be able to finish it this week, and it did pick up a bit in episode 34. I hear good things about the ending. I'm enjoying my silly sad-eyed assassins story.
I also had to pause during episode 23 of Whispers of Fate last night to go to sleep, because I was so tired. I have my quibbles with this show, but once it started feeling like particularly magical xianxia instead of a lukewarm rehash of Mysterious Lotus Casebook it really picked up for me. The action scenes are so good! Tang Lici dancing to save that array, and that one music/string puppets scene live in my head rent-free. A Shei and Tang Lici still have negative chemistry, which does drag things down, but overall I'm enjoying it.
Also, today is my birthday! (For another two hours.) I went out to lunch with friends and exhausted myself at a market, and I'm looking forward to a sleep in tomorrow.
I also had to pause during episode 23 of Whispers of Fate last night to go to sleep, because I was so tired. I have my quibbles with this show, but once it started feeling like particularly magical xianxia instead of a lukewarm rehash of Mysterious Lotus Casebook it really picked up for me. The action scenes are so good! Tang Lici dancing to save that array, and that one music/string puppets scene live in my head rent-free. A Shei and Tang Lici still have negative chemistry, which does drag things down, but overall I'm enjoying it.
Also, today is my birthday! (For another two hours.) I went out to lunch with friends and exhausted myself at a market, and I'm looking forward to a sleep in tomorrow.
altamira16 (altamira16) wrote2025-11-09 03:20 am
altamira16) wrote2025-11-09 03:20 amEntry tags:
American Sirens by Kevin Hazzard
This is the story of the invention of street medicine.
In Pittsburg, in the 1960s, there was an establishment that was called "Freedom House" that helped black people find jobs. They were approached by a foundation that wanted them to take on a more ambitious project. That more ambitious project involved collaborating with a doctor who was pioneering emergency medicine to do street medicine.
At this point in time, ambulance services were run by the police, the fire department, or funeral homes. The goal was to get people to the hospital as quickly as possible. No one necessarily rode in the back with the patients to make sure they were okay.
Dr. Peter Safar had read a paper that the breath being exhaled still had quite a bit of oxygen in it, and he invented CPR. He wanted to teach CPR to just about anyone. The medical establishment did not like this because medicine was too special to teach just anyone.
He had bigger dreams of civilians learning even more medicine and riding in specialized ambulances equipped with medical equipment. He took on his first class of civilians in the late 1960s and trained them for nine months and let them serve the black community in a part of Pittsburg. At this point, that community started to receive better care than everyone else in Pittsburg.
Then, Pittsburg elects a populist mayor who is trying to cut government and feels a bit Trumpian. Mayor Peter Flaherty wanted to give the money to the police, even though the police had a lot less medical training.
A new doctor is brought in to run Freedom House, and she trains them even further. She goes on to write the curriculum that is used by paramedics around the country.
The story in this book revolves around three central characters. John Moon is one of the paramedics who works at Freedom House. Doctor Peter Safar is a pioneer in anesthesiology and emergency medicine. He saw Narcan being used to reverse anesthesia, and he decided to try it on overdoses in the early 1970s. I didn't realize Narcan had been around that long. Doctor Nancy Caroline comes in to run Freedom House, during Flaherty's tenure as mayor, and writes the training material used for all paramedics, and then goes on to do some disaster medicine around the world.
This book was excellent.
There is also a Netflix documentary about this.
In Pittsburg, in the 1960s, there was an establishment that was called "Freedom House" that helped black people find jobs. They were approached by a foundation that wanted them to take on a more ambitious project. That more ambitious project involved collaborating with a doctor who was pioneering emergency medicine to do street medicine.
At this point in time, ambulance services were run by the police, the fire department, or funeral homes. The goal was to get people to the hospital as quickly as possible. No one necessarily rode in the back with the patients to make sure they were okay.
Dr. Peter Safar had read a paper that the breath being exhaled still had quite a bit of oxygen in it, and he invented CPR. He wanted to teach CPR to just about anyone. The medical establishment did not like this because medicine was too special to teach just anyone.
He had bigger dreams of civilians learning even more medicine and riding in specialized ambulances equipped with medical equipment. He took on his first class of civilians in the late 1960s and trained them for nine months and let them serve the black community in a part of Pittsburg. At this point, that community started to receive better care than everyone else in Pittsburg.
Then, Pittsburg elects a populist mayor who is trying to cut government and feels a bit Trumpian. Mayor Peter Flaherty wanted to give the money to the police, even though the police had a lot less medical training.
A new doctor is brought in to run Freedom House, and she trains them even further. She goes on to write the curriculum that is used by paramedics around the country.
The story in this book revolves around three central characters. John Moon is one of the paramedics who works at Freedom House. Doctor Peter Safar is a pioneer in anesthesiology and emergency medicine. He saw Narcan being used to reverse anesthesia, and he decided to try it on overdoses in the early 1970s. I didn't realize Narcan had been around that long. Doctor Nancy Caroline comes in to run Freedom House, during Flaherty's tenure as mayor, and writes the training material used for all paramedics, and then goes on to do some disaster medicine around the world.
This book was excellent.
There is also a Netflix documentary about this.
BBC News (![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
bbc_aberdeen_feed) wrote2025-11-09 09:11 am
bbc_aberdeen_feed) wrote2025-11-09 09:11 amWe've travelled 5,000 miles to the 'holy place' of knitting
A group of American men are among thousands of knitters who make the trip to Shetland.
BBC News (bbc_aberdeen_feed) wrote2025-11-06 10:20 pm
bbc_aberdeen_feed) wrote2025-11-06 10:20 pmCan Aberdeen still reach Conference League knockouts?
Jimmy Thelin's side earned their first European point of the season and kept their slim chances of progression alive.
Entry tags:
Sunday Word: Captious
captious [kapshuhs]
noun:
1 apt to notice and make much of trivial faults or defects; faultfinding; difficult to please
2 proceeding from a faultfinding or caviling disposition
3 apt or designed to ensnare or perplex, especially in argument
adjective:
During the past 15 years Mr Maxwell has established himself as one of the few sui generis voices in experimental theater, and like all truly original talents, he has been subject to varied and captious interpretations. (Ben Brantley, Small-Town Americans, Street by Street to Eternity, The New York Times, October 2012)
Speaking for the poets, as if sizing up the discussion, was William Carlos Williams: 'Minds like beds always made up...' And for the philosophers, captious and ornery, was the great modern American logician Yogi Berra: 'The future ain’t what it used to be.' (Ian Crouch, An Evening of Examined Life, The New Yorker, February 2011)
But when the two reconvene, there is no talk of favors or captious admonishments, only the authentic joy of seeing a friend’s familiar face after so long. (Coleman Spilde, 'Black Doves' has all the delightful messiness of any true best friendship, Salon, December 2024)
I want my cousin Ada to understand that I am not captious, fickle, and wilful about John Jarndyce, but that I have this purpose and reason at my back. (Charles Dickens, Bleak House)
Georgiana, who had a spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage, was universally indulged. Her beauty, her pink cheeks and golden curls, seemed to give delight to all who looked at her, and to purchase indemnity for every fault. (Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre)
(click to enlarge)
Origin:
'apt to notice and make much of unimportant faults or flaws,' c1400, capcyus, from Latin captiosus 'fallacious,' from captionem (nominative captio) 'a deceiving, fallacious argument,' literally 'a taking (in),' from captus, past participle of capere 'to take, catch' (from PIE root kap- 'to grasp'). (Online Etymology Dictionary)
Captious comes from Latin captio, which refers to a deception or verbal quibble. Arguments labeled captious are likely to 'capture' a person; they often entrap through subtly deceptive reasoning or trifling points. A captious individual is one who might also be dubbed 'hypercritical', the sort of carping, censorious critic only too ready to point out minor faults and raise objections on trivial grounds. (Merriam-Webster)
mific (mific) wrote in fanart_recs2025-11-09 10:22 pm
mific) wrote in fanart_recs2025-11-09 10:22 pmEntry tags:
Arwen by handmaidofvarda (SFW)
Fandom: Tolkien: Lord of the Rings
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Arwen
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: digital art
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: handmaidofvarda on tumblr
Why this piece is awesome: This is a gorgeous portrait of Arwen in cool blues and shadow. Her eyes!
Link: Arwen
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Arwen
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: digital art
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: handmaidofvarda on tumblr
Why this piece is awesome: This is a gorgeous portrait of Arwen in cool blues and shadow. Her eyes!
Link: Arwen
ysabetwordsmith (ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-09 03:26 am
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-09 03:26 am
Grand Prairie Friends
Grand Prairie Friends Acquires New Property- Warbler Bend
Grand Prairie Friends (GPF) is thrilled to announce the purchase of Warbler Bend, a meandering 110 acres along the Embarras River in Coles County (IL). This purchase expands the Conservation Land Trust’s existing Warbler Ridge Conservation Area, now totaling almost 1,400 acres. Warbler Bend is GPF’s second property north of Highway 130, joining Warbler Bluff, located on Harrison St. Rd (Charleston).
Over the last decade, GPF has restored more than 1,200 acres at their Warbler Ridge Conservation Area including the addition of 90,000 trees, nine acres of wetlands and hundreds of acres of pollinator fields.
Connected to Lake Charleston to the north, and Fox Ridge State Park to the south, Warbler Ridge Conservation Area began in 2015, to connect these three landscapes to create an over 4,000 acre contiguous corridor for wildlife, natural habitats and public natural space for the community.
I am so excited! More riverfront!
Grand Prairie Friends (GPF) is thrilled to announce the purchase of Warbler Bend, a meandering 110 acres along the Embarras River in Coles County (IL). This purchase expands the Conservation Land Trust’s existing Warbler Ridge Conservation Area, now totaling almost 1,400 acres. Warbler Bend is GPF’s second property north of Highway 130, joining Warbler Bluff, located on Harrison St. Rd (Charleston).
Over the last decade, GPF has restored more than 1,200 acres at their Warbler Ridge Conservation Area including the addition of 90,000 trees, nine acres of wetlands and hundreds of acres of pollinator fields.
Connected to Lake Charleston to the north, and Fox Ridge State Park to the south, Warbler Ridge Conservation Area began in 2015, to connect these three landscapes to create an over 4,000 acre contiguous corridor for wildlife, natural habitats and public natural space for the community.
I am so excited! More riverfront!
lhune (lhune) wrote in 3_good_things_a_day2025-11-09 09:24 am
lhune) wrote in 3_good_things_a_day2025-11-09 09:24 amSunday 09/11/2025
1) Breakfast on my sunny balcony
2) My back hurts, it must mean the exercises of yesterday were effective. ^^’ Right?
3) Clean bedlinen for tonight
2) My back hurts, it must mean the exercises of yesterday were effective. ^^’ Right?
3) Clean bedlinen for tonight
Kalloway (kalloway) wrote in readingtogether2025-11-09 01:20 am
kalloway) wrote in readingtogether2025-11-09 01:20 amNovember Group Read Check-In 1
Well we're a little over a week into November. How goes the reading?
ysabetwordsmith (ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-09 12:06 am
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-09 12:06 am
Entry tags:
Communities
displacementdiaries -- Displacement DiariesA reflective space for journaling life abroad, family complexity, grief, and personal growth.
Displacement Diaries is a reflective space for journaling life transitions, grief, family complexity, and experiences abroad. This community is for those who write about survival, emotional upheaval, and the slow work of rebuilding one’s life. Longform personal narratives, introspective essays, and memory-based storytelling are welcome.
For my friends who are from afar, or forced away from home, or may become so.
☆paging doctor gorgeous☆ (southernmedicine) wrote2025-11-08 11:52 pm
southernmedicine) wrote2025-11-08 11:52 pm
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Man, it's been four days and we are both still sick. Worse, not better. It was really difficult getting through my shift today. We're both sitting here coughing and groaning and blowing our noses.
Tomorrow we have to go to the grocery store, because we're out of everything, and we also have DnD. Although Blair said earlier that if she's not feeling a lot better, she might propose that we postpone our session. Honestly? I'd be alright with that.
And on Monday she's supposed to have her friend over for a movie and pizza to celebrate her friend's birthday. Not sure if that will still be happening, either.
We need to buy our plane tickets for the trip we're taking to spent New Years with my parents, but like? With this government shutdown, will there even be any flights? Are there any tickets available anymore as it is, or did everyone panic-buy their holiday airfare? Will we just get canceled anyway? I'm afraid to even look at prices and availability.
I had intended to work on my Fandom Trumps Hate fic, but I can't concentrate on anything. I have no energy. My whole body aches. And holy moly it's cold. "Welcome to the Midwest, everyone says." It's 30 degrees now and the weather app keeps saying it might snow, because it's been raining on and off all day and there could be more precipitation tonight.
I think I am going to take a hot bath and then curl up and watch Frankenstein. Blair's already gone to bed.
Tomorrow we have to go to the grocery store, because we're out of everything, and we also have DnD. Although Blair said earlier that if she's not feeling a lot better, she might propose that we postpone our session. Honestly? I'd be alright with that.
And on Monday she's supposed to have her friend over for a movie and pizza to celebrate her friend's birthday. Not sure if that will still be happening, either.
We need to buy our plane tickets for the trip we're taking to spent New Years with my parents, but like? With this government shutdown, will there even be any flights? Are there any tickets available anymore as it is, or did everyone panic-buy their holiday airfare? Will we just get canceled anyway? I'm afraid to even look at prices and availability.
I had intended to work on my Fandom Trumps Hate fic, but I can't concentrate on anything. I have no energy. My whole body aches. And holy moly it's cold. "Welcome to the Midwest, everyone says." It's 30 degrees now and the weather app keeps saying it might snow, because it's been raining on and off all day and there could be more precipitation tonight.
I think I am going to take a hot bath and then curl up and watch Frankenstein. Blair's already gone to bed.
ysabetwordsmith (ysabetwordsmith) wrote in gardening2025-11-08 10:53 pm
ysabetwordsmith) wrote in gardening2025-11-08 10:53 pm
Entry tags:
Photos: Charleston Food Forest
Today we visited the Charleston Food Forest, Coles County Community Garden, and Lake Charleston. These are the food forest pictures. What started out as a beautiful fall day, sunny and cool, clouded over by the time we got out of the house. So the lighting isn't great, but at least the pictures look okay. (Continue with the community garden and the lake.)
( Walk with me ... )
( Walk with me ... )