ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-09-02 02:53 am

Crafts

Do-it-yourself prosthetic leg

The medical industry has been screaming bloody murder for some years about how bad it is for people to make prostheses outside the medical racket, that are actually useful and affordable.  It freaks them out to lose control over disabled people's bodies.  Fuck 'em.  Nobody is entitled to a captive audience or customers.  By all means, make your own for 1% of the cost.  3D-printed hands have been around for a while now and exist in many variations.
scifirenegade: (one & steven)
scifirenegade ([personal profile] scifirenegade) wrote2025-09-02 08:37 am
Entry tags:

Stats: August 2025

Films Watched

  • Anders als du und Ich (1957) - barf, honestly

  • Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967)

  • The Seventh Seal (1957)

  • Peau d'âne (1970)

  • Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025)

  • The Philadelphia Story (1940)

  • The Magician (1958)

  • The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)



Books being read (for leisure)

  • Anno Dracula by Kim Newman

  • The Speed of Sound by Scott Eyman

  • Terrarium by João Barreiros and Luís Filipe Silva



Arts

  • 2 finished piece (Convict 83, Torsten)

  • Some of dumb doodles



Words Written

  • That One Oberaertz Thing: 539 words (total 5738 words) - FINISHED

  • Barbara's Great Wine Search: 0 words, ugh

  • Pre-canon AadA fic: 18 words (total 599 words)

  • [community profile] 1character Erik: 1476 words - FINISHED

  • Miscellaneous short fics: one fics (total 100 words)


Total: 2133 words
scifirenegade: (larry)
scifirenegade ([personal profile] scifirenegade) wrote2025-09-02 08:14 am

Fanfic: The sin was mine

Title: The sin was mine
Rating: General
Fandom: Sex in Chains (1928)
Pairing(s) / Character(s): Alfred
Warnings: n/a
Spoilers: n/a

Note: For [community profile] fic_promptly, prompt was "loving someone you know you shouldn't". The title is from an Oscar Wilde poem.

On AO3
On Squidge

Read more... )
Smart Bitches, Trashy BooksSmart Bitches, Trashy Books ([syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed) wrote2025-09-02 07:00 am

Hide Your Wallet: September 2nd Release Week

Posted by Amanda

Happy Tuesday!

September is looking pretty strong for new releases. I placed a bunch of preorders last month and I had to talk myself down to only five.

What’s on your radar this week? Let us know in the comments!

The First Witch of Boston

The First Witch of Boston by Andrea Catalano

Author: Andrea Catalano
Released: September 1, 2025 by Lake Union Publishing
Genre: ,

A gripping and intimate novel based on the true story of Margaret Jones, the first woman to be found guilty of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1646. Thomas and Margaret Jones arrive from England to build a life in the New World. Though of differing temperaments, cautious Thomas and fiery Margaret, a healer, are bound by a love that has lasted decades. With a child on the way, their new beginning promises only blessings.

But in this austere Puritan community, comely faces hide malicious intent. Wrong moves or words are met with suspicion, and Margaret’s bold and unguarded nature draws scorn. Soon, Margaret is mistrusted as more cunning woman than kind caregiver. And when personal tragedies, religious hysteria, and wariness of the unknown turn most against her, even the devotion Margaret and her husband share is at risk.

Inspired by actual diary entries and court records, The First Witch of Boston is at once the riveting story of a woman unjustly accused and a love story set amid the political and social turmoil of both Old and New England. Harrowing, and with a deep understanding of the human heart, history is brilliantly imagined.

Elyse: This book was inspired by historical events, but I’ll always tune in for a good witch story.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Hollow House

Hollow House by M.K. Ahearn

Author: M.K. Ahearn
Released: September 1, 2025
Genre: , , ,

Everyone wants an invitation to Hollow House.

For years, rumors have circulated about the secluded mansion’s secretive Halloween party. No one knows who owns it. No one talks about what happens inside.

Journalist, Sloane Hill, never once has cared about securing her way inside. But when an invitation appears on her counter, she sees her way out of the small town life she’s been stuck in.

Hollow House has chosen her. And once you enter, your future will never be the same.

Amanda: I’m on a dark romance kick and this gives me slight Lady of Rooksgrave Manor vibes.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

A Land So Wide

A Land So Wide by Erin Craig

Author: Erin Craig
Released: September 2, 2025 by Pantheon
Genre: , , , , ,

From the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of House of Roots and Ruin, comes an irresistible blend of dark fairytale and romantic fantasy set in the beautiful but brutal Canadian wilderness.

Like everyone else in the settlement of Mistaken, Greer Mackenzie is trapped. Founded by an ambitious Scottish lumber merchant, the tiny town on the edge of the American continent is blessed with rich natural resources that have made its people prosperous—but at a cost. The same woods that have lined the townsfolks’ pockets harbor dangerous beasts: wolves, bears, and the Bright-Eyeds—monsters beyond description who have rained utter destruction down on nearby settlements. But Mistaken’s founders made a deal with the mysterious Benevolence: the Warding Stones that surround the town will keep the Bright-Eyeds out—and the town’s citizens in. Anyone who spends a night within Mistaken’s borders belongs to it forever.

Greer, a mapmaker and eccentric dreamer, has always ached to explore the world outside, even though she knows she and her longtime love, Ellis Beaufort, will never see it. Until, on the day she and Ellis are meant to finally begin their lives together, Greer watches in horror as her beloved disappears beyond the Warding Stones, pursued by a monstrous creature. Swiftly realizing that the stories she was raised on might be more myth than fact, Greer figures out a way to escape Mistaken for the very first time. Determined to rescue Ellis, she begins a trek through the cold and pitiless wilderness. But Greer is being hunted, not only by the ruthless Bright-Eyeds but by the secret truths behind Mistaken’s founding, as well as her own origins.

Playfully drawing from Scottish folklore, Erin A. Craig’s adult debut is both a deeply atmospheric and profoundly romantic exploration of freedom versus security: a stunning celebration of one woman’s relentless bravery on a quest to reclaim her lost love—and claim her own future.

Elyse: A fantasy romance set in the wilderness of Canada and based on Scottish Folklore.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

By the Horns

By the Horns by Ruby Dixon

Author: Ruby Dixon
Released: September 2, 2025 by Ace
Genre: , ,
Series: Royal Artifactual Guild #2

In a world of magical artifacts and fantastical beings, a woman with a deadly magic secret needs the help of the minotaur she’s trying to forget in the sizzling sequel to Ruby Dixon’s New York Times bestseller Bull Moon Rising.

Gwenna has always considered herself a normal person. A former servant, she wants nothing more than to land a steady job with the Royal Artifactual Guild so she can make some steady coin to send home to her mother. She’s not special. She’s certainly not a necromancer. That would be impossible, given how necromancing (or any ‘mancing) is forbidden upon penalty of death. So if the dead keep talking to her? Well, she’s going to keep on ignoring them. They’re not going to stand in the way of her dreams.

Also standing in her way? One big, arrogant, far-too-flirty Taurian named Raptor. They slept together once, and now he wants more . . . but she doesn’t have time for that. Her focus is on being a fledgling, a trainee for the Royal Artifactual Guild. But Raptor won’t go away. He’s on a secret mission for the guild to find an artifact thief.

Problem is, he thinks the thief is Gwenna.

How can she convince Raptor that he’s got the wrong girl when all the signs point to her? And how do you tell a Taurian you can’t date him because you hear dead people and it might cost you your life?

Dixon’s latest monster romance.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Crazy Spooky Love

Crazy Spooky Love by Josie Silver

Author: Josie Silver
Released: September 2, 2025 by Dell
Genre: , ,
Series: Melody Bittersweet #1

A plucky medium, her fame-chasing ex, and an infuriatingly handsome skeptic reporter make for a complicated love triangle—and that’s before the ghosts get involved. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December comes the first novel in a ghost-hunting series full of romance and humor.

In the leafy, charming town of Chapelwick, the Bittersweet family has been a fixture on High Street for as long as anyone can remember. Their rambling black-and-white building houses all three generations of ghost-sensitive Bittersweet women and their business, Blithe Spirits.

On her twenty-seventh birthday, Melody Bittersweet converts the disused back storeroom into her office and opens her own business. Unlike the rest of her family, she’s not taking down messages from ghosts—she’s taking them out.

Soon, the Girls’ Ghostbusting Agency takes on its first a grand old house that won’t sell because a trio of incumbent ghost brothers raise merry hell whenever prospective owners arrive to view it.

It soon becomes clear that there’s a whole heap of unfinished business between the Scarborough brothers—including murder—and Melody isn’t the only one trying to unravel the mystery. Leo Dark, her rakish ex and business rival, is also on the case, along with the TV crew that trails him.

To make matters worse, the sarcastic and skeptical (and annoyingly good-looking) local reporter Fletcher Gunn has his nose in the story as well. Sniffing out a way to publicly discredit the Bittersweets is his favorite assignment—and has absolutely nothing to do with his inability to resist Melody.

With her business on the line, it’s up to Melody to work out the brothers’ issues, but can she protect her own very susceptible heart from Fletcher’s charm? Does she even want to?

Josie Silver is kicking off paranormal mystery series with a hint of romance. 

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

The Dating Prohibition

The Dating Prohibition

Author: Taj McCoy
Released: September 2, 2025 by MIRA
Genre: ,

“Taj McCoy’s writing positively crackles with energy, wit and humor.” —Jayci Lee, author of Booked on a Feeling

In this spicy new rom-com, an ambitious entrepreneur working to get her speakeasy supper club off the ground is pushed off balance when her childhood crush turns up, hotter than ever––then tells her she’s off-limits.

Now that Kendra’s returned home, she can’t help feeling like a kid again—back in her big brother’s shadow, trying to get her restaurant off the ground while his new venture is flying high right out the gate. It doesn’t help that everyone refuses to stop calling her Keke, the childhood nickname she loathes.

The only bright spot is her longtime crush BJ. He’s been her big brother’s best friend for most of her life, and he’s always been that cool, chill guy who was easy to talk to and made her laugh. Now he’s looking at her like she’s all grown up, and there’s nothing childish about the chemistry brewing between them. Even better, he takes her dreams seriously, and he’s ready to help her make her supper club a reality.

But then BJ extinguishes the sparks flying between them, insisting nothing romantic can ever happen because she’s “off limits.” As her investors fall through and her best chance at fulfilling her professional dreams points toward leaving home again for a fresh start, will BJ be ready for love before Kendra moves on? Or will he sweep her off her feet when she least expects it?

If you love an “off limits” trope, this might be for you!

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Every Step She Takes

Every Step She Takes by Alison Cochrun

Author: Alison Cochrun
Released: September 2, 2025 by Atria Books
Genre: , ,

A swoon-worthy sapphic romance following two women who are thrown together on a European adventure, from the Lambda Literary Award–winning author of the “sexy, insightful, and utterly charming” (BuzzFeedKiss Her Once for Me.

Thirty-five-year-old Seattleite Sadie Wells needs an escape. She’s desperate to escape her monotonous routines, the family business that has consumed her entire life, and the unexpected gay panic that has her questioning everything she thought she knew about herself. So when her injured sister offers Sadie her place on a tour along Portugal’s Camino de Santiago, she decides this is the perfect chance to get away from it all.

After three glasses of wine on the plane and some turbulence convince Sadie she won’t even survive the flight, she confesses all her secrets to her seatmate, Mal. The the plane doesn’t crash, and it turns out Mal is on her Camino tour. Worst of all, Sadie learns that she is on a tour specifically for queer women, and that her two-hundred-mile trek will be a journey of self-discovery, whether she wants it to be or not.

Fascinated by the woman who drunkenly came out to her on the plane, Mal offers to help Sadie relive the queer adolescence she missed out on as they walk the Camino. As Sadie develops her newfound confidence, Mal grapples with a complicated loss and unexpected inheritance. But as their relationship blurs the lines between reality and practice, they both must decide if they will forever part at the end of the tour or chart a new course together.

With “funny, poignant” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) prose, Alison Cochrun explores the power of letting go of your past and realizing that it’s never too late to live as your authentic self.

Tara; I love the idea of someone drunkenly sharing info with a stranger, only to have to spend a lot of time with that stranger later.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

The Good Girl Effect

The Good Girl Effect by Sara Cate

Author: Sara Cate
Released: September 2, 2025
Genre: , ,
Series: Salacious Legacy #1

Jack St. Claire is desperate. A grieving single father, he buries himself in his work—running a brand-new kink club in Paris. Instead of handling his grief, he’s built a fortress around his heart, and it’s time he hired someone to help him take care of his daughter before things get worse.

Camille Aubert wasn’t looking for a new job. She just wanted to return a lost love letter she’d found within the pages of a book. But when she’s mistaken for a job candidate and hired as Jack’s live-in nanny, something tells her this is exactly where she needs to be.

Shortly after arriving, Camille discovers a strange room in the apartment that sparks her curiosity—and hints at a dark, mysterious side to Jack that she’s desperate to uncover. The lines between professional and personal blur dangerously as the heat between them becomes impossible to ignore. She’s drawn to the broken man who hides his grief in ropes and bondage, and she challenges him in ways he never thought possible.

Caught between her growing feelings for Jack and the ghosts of his past, Camille must can love heal a heart still grieving, or will their passion destroy them both?

Amanda: I’ve been interested in checking out Sara Cate and this may be a good place to start.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Learning Curves

Learning Curves by Rachel Lacey

Author: Rachel Lacey
Released: September 2, 2025 by Montlake
Genre: , ,

From the author of Stars Collide and Cover Story comes a steamy will-they-won’t-they romance about a bright young teacher reconnecting with the jaded professor she once pined for.

For Audrey Lind, working with clay still evokes memories of her favorite professor. The woman’s zeal for art history ignited Audrey’s own academic career—and her tweed blazers and British accent kindled her first female crush. After fate brings Audrey back to Northshire University to teach, she’s thrilled to be working alongside her former mentor, but the grumpy woman she encounters upon her return is nothing like the dynamo she remembers.

Divorce and a stalling career have turned Dr. Michelle Thompson bitter and guarded. When Audrey swoops in to teach the Women in Art class Michelle’s been pitching for years, she longs to hate her. But her young rival is too kind, too enthusiastic, too irresistible. And her passion for life slowly reawakens Michelle’s own.

Wary of age gaps and workplace politics, they suppress their smoldering attraction—until one wine-filled night at the pottery wheel puts their romantic truce to the test. Will they keep things on the tenure track or risk it all for love?

Tara: I’ve read this one already and I absolutely loved it! It’s cozy and steamy, and the academia setting totally worked for me.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Wild Reverence

Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross

Author: Rebecca Ross
Released: September 2, 2025 by Saturday Books
Genre: , , ,
Series: Letters of Enchantment

Born ​in the firelit domain of the under realm, Matilda is the youngest goddess of her clan, blessed with humble messenger magic. But in a land where gods often kill each other to steal power and alliances break as quickly as they are forged, Matilda must come of age sooner than most. She may be known to carry words and letters through the realms, but she holds a secret she must hide from even her dearest of allies to ensure her survival. And to complicate matters . . . there is a mortal boy who dreams of her, despite the fact they have never met in the waking world.

Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life―begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. When his request went unanswered, Vincent moved on, becoming the hardened, irreverent lord of the river who has long forgotten Matilda. That is, until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him.

As Fate would have it, Matilda and Vincent were destined to find each other beyond dreams. There may be a chance for Matilda to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, but at immense sacrifice. She will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: to be vulnerable, and to allow herself to finally be loved.

Amanda: This gives reminds me of Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong and I’m here for it.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

beatrice_otter: Batman with the Batsignal shining (Batman Signal)
beatrice_otter ([personal profile] beatrice_otter) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-09-01 11:43 pm

Batman: Say Uncle by Megaerakles

Fandom: Batman
Pairings/Characters: Jason Todd, Tim Drake
Rating: teen
Length: 46k
Creator Links: [archiveofourown.org profile] Megaerakles 
Theme: food, fork in the road AU, domestic, family, fixit, gen, happy endings, secret identity reveal,

Summary: Tim is prepared to take the steps necessary to ensure that Bruce will not feel obligated to adopt Tim when a comatose Jack Drake inevitably dies. But what could be better than preventing Bruce from ending up with a son he doesn't want? Bringing back the one he does.

Jason agrees to the Replacement's stupid, stupid plan to invite some strange adult man he's never met to come live with him, if only to keep the idiot alive long enough for him to serve his purpose in the Great Red Hood Revenge Scheme.

Might this new roommate situation have an impact on either of their worldviews? Surely not...

Reccer's Notes: Both Tim and Jason are oblivious idiots in the best way in this. And Jason shows love through cooking (and teaching how to cook).

Fanwork Links: Say Uncle
beatrice_otter: Captain America (Captain America)
beatrice_otter ([personal profile] beatrice_otter) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-09-01 11:05 pm

MCU: Dinner In Other Languages by tielan

Fandom: MCU
Pairings/Characters: Steve Rogers/Maria Hill
Rating: Gen
Length: 3107 words
Creator Links: [personal profile] tielan 
Theme: food, working together, friends with benefits, female characters,

Summary: Maria can manage professional colleagues with Rogers, but she values her place in S.H.I.E.L.D more.

Reccer's Notes: Tielan's specialty is female characters who get overlooked by the rest of fandom, and I love the way she writes Maria Hill: a complex woman doing a difficult job in a world that doesn't respect her. And I love the way she writes Steve: a man who deeply and sincerely respects (and falls for) competent women.

Fanwork Links: Dinner In Other Languages
fennectik: Videogames Post (Videogames)
fennectik ([personal profile] fennectik) wrote in [community profile] gaming2025-09-02 12:32 am

Been playing fire emblem gaiden for famicom

Fire Emblem Gaiden is a 1992 famicom game that wasn't released in the USA, being that we got the GBA titles instead several years later, and its the second game in the popular tactical jrpg series.

It revolves around heroes rising to defend their village from invading forces and it goes from there.

I haven't been able to play the very first instalment since there doesn't seem to be a translated rom of it, at least to my knowledge. Pretty sure I can find it later. I also read that unlike the first game, this one was received with mixed results from those who played it.

I'm doing fine on it so far, it looks simplistic in comparison to the GBA titles (obviously,) but seems solid enough.

Being I never can finish these games no matter how hard I've tried, I probably won't be able to do so with this one either, but I sure will try.

vaporwaving: (006)
cosm o ([personal profile] vaporwaving) wrote in [community profile] dwrp_icons2025-09-02 05:24 pm
Entry tags:

team RWBY ( 154 ╳ rwby: ice queendom )

CANON: RWBY
CHARACTERS: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long
ADDITIONAL INFO: Taken from RWBY: Ice Queendom season 1, episodes 1 + 2
CREDIT TO: [personal profile] vaporwaving



here @ [personal profile] vaporwaving
sovay: (I Claudius)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2025-09-01 11:35 pm

Sit thee down and put them on

I have observed Labor Day by doing basically nothing at all, but [personal profile] selkie introduced me to the sea-flooded Paleolithic of Cosquer Cave with its seals and great auks and the hand-marks of children and the one unknown figure like a seal-headed man speared, which reminded me that some days ago I meant to link the Langton Herring burial with its amulet of a Roman coin and its copper alloy mirror whose bladed crescent pattern made me think at first sight of owls. The clouds tonight are too thick for the aurora and the last of the Perseids, but the light has done its knife-trick of paling suddenly to autumn, as if summer just blew off it like haze. I am sure the heat will be back, the way we have scrambled the seasons: I keep trying to look for the tells to hold on to, like the late green curl of the leaves; the last of the monarchs in milk-jade chrysalis, a record twenty-two this summer if all safely make it to flight. I could go for a small ice age if I could be assured of the megafauna.
vaporwaving: (002)
cosm o ([personal profile] vaporwaving) wrote in [community profile] dwrp_icons2025-09-02 05:19 pm
Entry tags:

team RWBY ( 190 ╳ justice league x rwby part 2 )

CANON: RWBY
CHARACTERS: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long
ADDITIONAL INFO: Taken from Justice League x RWBY: Superheroes and Huntsmen Part 2
CREDIT TO: [personal profile] vaporwaving



here @ [personal profile] vaporwaving
vexed_wench: (Default)
vexed_wench ([personal profile] vexed_wench) wrote in [community profile] no_true_pair2025-09-02 01:06 am

More People Like Us - September One - 2 & 6 - and they lived happily ever after, Madiline Weston (Bu

Title: More People Like Us
Ao3
Squidie World Archive
Fandom: Burn Notice & Leverage
Pairing/Characters:  Madiline Weston (Burn Notice) & Eliot Spencer (Leverage)
Content Notes: Choose Not to Warn
Prompt: 
September One - 2 & 6 - and they lived happily ever after, Madiline Weston (Burn Notice & Eliot Spencer Leverage)
Authors Notes/Disclaimer:
All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
APOD ([syndicated profile] apod_feed) wrote2025-09-02 04:57 am

(no subject)

Its surface is the most densely cratered in the Solar System -- but what's inside? Its surface is the most densely cratered in the Solar System -- but what's inside?


ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-09-01 11:48 pm

Piracy Bingo Card 9-1-25

Here is my card for the Piracy Bingo Fest over in [community profile] allbingo. The fest runs from September 1-30. (See all my 2025 bingo cards.)

If you'd like to sponsor a particular square, especially if you have an idea for what character, series, or situation it would fit -- talk to me and we'll work something out. I've had a few requests for this and the results have been awesome so far. This is a good opportunity for those of you with favorites that don't always mesh well with the themes of my monthly projects. I may still post some of the fills for free, because I'm using this to attract new readers; but if it brings in money, that means I can do more of it. That's part of why I'm crossing some of the bingo prompts with other projects, such as the Poetry Fishbowl.

Underlined prompts have been filled.


PIRACY BINGO CARD

shipwreckedcut and runparleyskull and crossbonesleak
keelhaulcrackdead men tell no talesship's articleslookout
pardonbroadsideWILD CARDCaribbeanaffiliate
parrotcome aboutswashbucklerexploitrequest
letters of marquesalvagesaltwaterpeg legpatch

ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-09-01 10:02 pm

Cyberspace Theory

The corrosive spread of tech company mentality

One of the aphorisms guiding tech companies is to ‘move fast and break things’. Rewards accrue to those companies that are first out of the gate with something new and so products are rushed out without being fully tested, the assumption being that any faults can be corrected based on feedback from consumers. In other words, the people who buy the early versions of the product serve as so-called beta testers, whether they want to be or not.

These situations rarely have life-or-death consequences. With most things such as devices and apps, usually the worst that can happen is that the users are annoyed or frustrated with the glitches but are willing to tolerate them as long as they get upgrades that purportedly take care of the problems.

But there is now an increasing area where tech-based products are being marketed as solutions for things where that tech culture attitude is not suitable, with sometimes dangerous consequences
.


This is definitely among the more destructive memes, although not as much as "Civilization MUST continue at ALL costs."
radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)
radiantfracture ([personal profile] radiantfracture) wrote2025-09-01 08:54 pm

A Tradition

Autumn Day
Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated by Stephen Mitchell


Lord, it is time. The huge summer has gone by.
Now overlap the sundials with your shadows
and on the meadows let the wind go free.

Command the fruits to swell on tree and vine:
grant them a few more warm transparent days,
urge them on to fulfillment then, and press
the final sweetness into the heavy wine.

Whoever has no house now, will never have one
whoever is alone will stay alone,
will sit, read, write long letters through the evening
and wander on the boulevards up and down,
restlessly, while the dry leaves are blowing.

* * * * * *

What is it that brings me back to this poem every year, other than the wish to offer some sort of honour to the world in its cycles? (And to poetry.)

Rilke was intolerably self-indulgent in a number of ways, but nobody ever wrote the pure grief of existence so well. I suppose I mean that he was probably depressed and so am I.

Here's what I like: that the opening address is to the creator, and is either an acknowledgement and submission, or a gentle reminder, or both.

I like -- and I don't know where or with whom this device originates, but it is beloved of many modern poets, including me (the psalms? does it come from the psalms?) -- the way the speaker exhorts everything to do what it would do anyway. His will is irrelevant to the vine and the wind, but that makes his instructions a kind of radical acceptance -- I enter so completely into the wish for things to be exactly as they are, as they are intended to be, even as they wound me with their beauty and their ephemerality, that my will becomes identical with their actions.

And the turn of course, between the radiant second stanza and the stark third; from the fruit as almost heroes of the journey into wine, to the "whoever" who seems to have no place in harvest or celebration, but is already among the dry leaves.

It is, as they say, me: "whoever" is me. I wish I wrote long letters. Rilke's journals and letters are extraordinary. I wish I had some consolation for you now other than the world, but so far as I can see there never was any consolation other than the world.

§rf§
mossy_bench: Barriss Offee (barriss)
mossy_bench ([personal profile] mossy_bench) wrote in [community profile] vidding2025-09-01 11:47 pm

New Vid: Pay the Man - Barriss/Ahsoka, Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Title: Pay the Man
Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Music: Pay the Man by Foster the People
Summary: The war that brought them together also broke them apart, sending them down paths that seem irreconcilable. Yet it’s only after they’ve parted ways that they may, at last, truly understand one another. / a Barriss/Ahsoka fanvid
Notes: This is my first fanvid, and I wrote up some reflections on it on my Dreamwidth! I would love to chat with more experienced vidders about the experience.
Warnings: Some flashing lights, fast cuts, cartoon violence

AO3 | DW | Tumblr | YouTube
tielan: (PacRim - Mako)
tielan ([personal profile] tielan) wrote2025-09-02 10:59 am

sick while travelling

Ugh. Alas, for I have caught a bug. Virus. Thingy. Whatever.

Runny nose, blocked ears, exhaustion, sore throat.

Luckily, I had some antibiotics to take for it, so that's made things a little easier, but I suspect it's one of those longer-running, harder-hitting viruses.

Going to ask the halfbro for thoughts on a medical centre that I could maybe get seen by a doc and possibly get some stronger antibiotics? Also take a test, in case what I have is one of the worrying ones.

Probably doesn't help that I'm in Hong Kong (and was in Singapore) where it's very hot and humid, and so I start sweating like crayz when I'm not standing in a breeze. I mean, that was likely anyway, but the feeling of my eyes and nose and ears and sinuses all being stuffed up is not fun.

I'm also vaguely worried about the next leg of the trip which is two booked tours where they'll exclude me if I'm not healthy.

So, mostly rest while here in HK. That's the plan. It's just hard because it's so hot and blech and no respite. But the air con wasn't great in Singapore - it just felt cold and hard and sharp in my throat. So what with one thing and another, it's all a bit much.

I've been sick while traveling before - ironically, I was also on a tour that time. But it was pre-covid and people didn't worry quite so much about pandemics.

I've been vaxxed - covid 6 months ago, and flu more recently - but it's just the stuffiness that's not feeling great right now.
torachan: scott pilgrim pouting (scott pilgrim - pout)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-09-01 08:23 pm

Daily Happiness

1. Today was a pretty low key day. Aside from going out for a couple neighborhood walks, I didn't go anywhere, and didn't do much at home other than play Donkey Kong Bananza and read. It was nice to have a day to really just relax. And I still have one more day off!

2. I finished up another puzzle this morning. I bought this at the same time as the other Disney villains one, since it has mostly different villains. Like the other one, having each person separated in their own area (and with different enough colors in each) made it easy to sort and then work on each of those as if it were its own mini puzzle, so it went pretty fast.



3. I do not know how cats find this comfortable, but they all like sleeping this way from time to time, so I guess they do!

mrkinch: Erik holding fieldglasses in "Russia" (bins)
mrkinch ([personal profile] mrkinch) wrote2025-09-01 06:55 pm

9/1/2025 Lower Packrat Trail

Chris is still away so U walked Lower Packrat with me. A lot more people on that trail today! Unsurprising, a lovely holiday morning when it's been unusually warm. There was a report of spectacular migrant birding at Jewel Lake (I guess I believe it all but gosh) that we found a bit of: many Warbling Vireos in two locations, still Swainson's Thrushes whitting everywhere, Wilson's Warblers chipping and even singing, and multiple Western Tanagers, Blackheaded Grosbeaks, and Western Flycatchers. Everyone seemed riled up; it's the time of year when the day length mimics Spring and birds seem to react to this, especially the local birds. Right in the parking lot four California Towhees, seemingly two pair, were yelling, chasing, and fighting in the air. It was fascinating to watch, and to hear. The list: )

U saw her first Townsend's Warbler of the season, but that was the only Fall warbler despite the amazing report. By now Jewel Lake is so low the Mallards, when they bother to be there, are walking on the bottom. And yet we heard a Belted Kingfisher. I imagine they were disappointed.