(no subject)

Dec. 30th, 2025 04:10 pm[personal profile] maju
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
My daughter bought me a mini trampoline for Christmas, but it didn't arrive until today. We were very excited to get it, but now we're worried that I won't be able to use it because my chosen location, the garage, does not have a very high ceiling and neither does the basement, which could be an alternative location, and I wouldn't be comfortable using it anywhere in the main part of the house because it's too warm. I've had a couple of mini trampolines before that I used in the house so it didn't occur to me that ceiling height might be a problem. My daughter suggested her office because it's not as warm in there as in the rest of the house, but that wouldn't be very convenient because of course she is in there working most of the time. The trampoline is not yet assembled because it needs two people to unfold it but my daughter is busy and my son in law is at the library with the girls. I've done an exercise routine (twice in a row) already today so I'm not in a great hurry to get the trampoline set up apart from the fact that I want to see if it's going to work.

I've already used the small table we set up in the basement a couple of days ago to do some sewing (I repaired a dress of Aria's) but since then it's been taken over by Violet as a staging area for the short animation videos she likes to make on my phone. I should have foreseen that I guess. When I use the table for puzzles I'll be working on a felt puzzle mat so it won't really be a problem because I won't be leaving the puzzle out all the time, but it's slightly annoying to have to clear off the table before I can use it.
A person with pink fingernails holds a phone, shown in close-up, displaying an app for an AI assistant tool.

A darling of the artificial intelligence startup scene was just acquired by Meta — capping off a year of intense competition between U.S. tech giants vying for dominance of the world's most coveted technology.

woman with long dark hair standing at a podium speaking

Environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of the late U.S. president John F. Kennedy, has died. She was 35. The environmental journalist revealed in November that she had acute myeloid leukemia

Nature

Dec. 30th, 2025 02:30 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Scientists stunned by a massive hydrothermal field off Greece

Scientists have uncovered an extensive underwater vent system near Milos, Greece, hidden along active fault lines beneath the seafloor. These geological fractures act as pathways for hot, gas-rich fluids to escape, forming clusters of vents with striking visual diversity. The discovery surprised researchers, who observed boiling fluids and vibrant microbial mats during deep-sea dives. Milos now stands out as one of the Mediterranean’s most important sites for studying Earth’s dynamic interior.


This is fascinating, but it is not surprising. Most seams leak. If you want to find vent systems, identify underwater faultlines and check them for leaks.

Birdfeeding

Dec. 30th, 2025 01:57 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Today is cloudy and cool.  It spit snow a bit yesterday but didn't amount to anything.

I fed the birds.  There was a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches perched in the forest garden waiting to be fed.  :D

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 12/30/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 12/30/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 12/30/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Yuletide Recs, Part II

Dec. 30th, 2025 11:49 am[personal profile] rachelmanija posting in [community profile] yuletide
rachelmanija: (Autumn: small leaves)
A set of recs with commentary at my DW, sorted by whether or not you need to know canon. For most of these, you don't.

The canons are "17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future" - Jon Bois, House of Hollow - Krystal Sutherland, James Hoffman's Coffee Videos (Web Series)/Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft/"A Study in Emerald," "Tower Wizard" - Bluesky, True Detective - season one, World War Z - Max Brooks.

6 Yuletide recs

Dec. 30th, 2025 08:52 pm[personal profile] turlough posting in [community profile] yuletide
turlough: woman sitting in sofa corner reading with snoozing cat behind her on the sofa back,  art by Kim Parkhurst ((other) reading is one of life's joys)
Recs for Cherryh: Finisterre, Brother Cadfael, Lord Peter Wimsey, and Yes, Minister in my journal

Yuletide Recs, Part II

Dec. 30th, 2025 11:47 am[personal profile] rachelmanija
rachelmanija: (Autumn: small leaves)
I read these offline and have not commented on most of them yet on AO3, but I wanted to rec them before reveals because they're great.

Don't need to know canon

"17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future" - Jon Bois. I only know this canon from Yuletide stories, and all I really know is that in the very far future, it's a post-scarcity world where everyone is immortal. It reliably produces lovely stories that feel kind of like the more personal/emotional xckd comics. Here is another one.

What Rock Collecting Will Look Like in the Future. Funny, bittersweet, cool worldbuilding; I was surprised and delighted to learn that fordite is real!

James Hoffman's Coffee Videos (Web Series)/Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft/"A Study in Emerald." All you need to know is that a coffee guy reviews coffee online, and this is him reviewing eldritch coffee.

I'm ranking 5 coffees from beyond this world (literally). "I feel a bit as if the coffee tasted me and not the other way around." Hilarious, dead-on coffee notes, dead-on Lovecraft; makes me want to try some of the coffees despite the risk of growing gills or being possessed by Elder Gods.

Tower Wizard - Hourly updates on the life of a wizard who lives in a tower, like "The little cat plays with a leaf. The wizard carefully checks that it's not a dangerous reagent, then returns it to the little cat." His best friend is an ex-paladin, and they eat a lot of interesting food. That's it, that's all you need to know.

Ruins and Roads. A charming original fantasy story, magical and cozy and bittersweet.

True Detective - season one. All you need to know to read this story is that Rust and Marty used to be cops, and they were both seriously injured when they reunited to investigate a weird case that might or might not have supernatural elements.

burned in kind. An outstanding post-series casefic and get-together with a flawless Rust voice, A+ hurt-comfort, and a creepy maybe-supernatural maybe-not case. If you know the series, this is 100% not to be missed; if you don't, you might still really like it as a standalone spooky mystery with excellent characterization.

World War Z - Max Brooks. You just need to know that there are zombies.

little stone. Zombies in 9th century Latvia! An atmospheric story about grief and loss in a time far from us; the protagonist's emotions are raw and vivid. Note: child death.

Need to know canon

House of Hollow - Krystal Sutherland

You Live in a Hollow House. Creepy, unsettling horror with an excellent use of color and image embeds.

Meeting Halfway. Creepy, unsettling horror with a touch of sweetness.
tamaranth: me, in the sun (Default)
this blog post was written but apparently never posted, and I am not logging onto my werk laptop just to post it now -- this is a placeholder for end-of-year

04SEP25: Eeb Allay Ooo (???, 20??) -- Netflix
Read more... )
05SEP25: The Materialists (???, 2025) -- Greenwich Picturehouse
Read more... )
11SEP25: Maria (???, 20??) -- Netflix
Read more... )
12SEP25: Patience (???, 20??) -- Wilton's Music Hall
Read more... )
19SEP25: Spinal Tap 2 (???, 20??) -- Greenwich Picturehouse
Read more... )
25SEP25: Mindhorn (???, 20??) -- Netflix
Read more... )
27SEP25: Iphigenia in Tauris (Gluck) -- Blackheath Halls Opera
Read more... )

Anime Wrapup Autumn 2025

Dec. 30th, 2025 11:29 am[personal profile] lovelyangel
lovelyangel: Euphie from TenTen Kakumei, Ep 12 (Euphie Smile)
Scarlet El Vandimion
Scarlet El Vandimion
May I Ask For One Final Thing?

Here are the final episode counts of the shows I watched this season. (Previously: Anime Tracker Autumn 2025)

All the Shows, Below This Cut )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
This poem was written outside the regular prompt calls. It fills "The Last Command" square in my 1-1-24 card for the Public Domain Bingo fest. It has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. This is the third poem in the series Crystal Wood; it follows "Trees of Glass" and "Ghost Forests."

Warning: This poem is dark science fiction along the lines of ecological horror.

Read more... )
Green Party co-leaders Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneault are seen during a news conference in Ottawa

The federal Leaders' Debates Commission says it has settled with the Green Party after the party vowed to challenge its removal from the spring election debates.

(no subject)

Dec. 30th, 2025 01:52 pm[personal profile] flamingsword
flamingsword: We now return you to your regularly scheduled crisis. :) (Default)
Finally having a chance to sit down, and may actually need a nap if I’m going to be around people later. I’ve been fairly busy for 5 hours and have given myself a headache by unconsciously sitting and standing and working on things all hunched over.

I think I’m going to crochet a couple rows on this rug to calm my brain down and then lay down for an hour.

Merry Crisis to all who celebrate!

[Edit: “Family Christmas™️” has gone off fairly well. I still have a headache, but at least I’m having it in a dim, quiet environment? Food was delicious, at any rate.]

(no subject)

Dec. 30th, 2025 01:37 pm[personal profile] maju
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
23. When was the last time you felt lucky? When my real estate agent told me he could arrange someone to clear out the house and do a thorough cleaning after I'd moved out.

24. When did you first realize that life is short? Many times over the last couple of years.
25. What is the most insensitive thing a person can do? Being insensitive can vary depending on the people involved and the situation, so it's pretty much impossible to say that one particular piece of insensitivity is the most insensitive possible.

26. What can someone do to grab your attention? Bump into me.

27. What do you usually think about on your drive home from work? I don't have a job to drive to or from. I don't remember what I used to think about when I did.

28. What’s one downside of the modern day world? The fact that someone like Trump was able to get himself elected as the president of the US.

29. What simple fact do you wish more people understood? Words have consequences.

30. If you could do it all over again, would you change anything? There are things I wish had happened differently, but who's to say that my changing anything would have led to better outcomes?

current slow reading

Dec. 30th, 2025 10:30 am[personal profile] thistleingrey
thistleingrey: (Default)
1. In fairness to Professor Mallory, The Origins of the Irish (2013) seems well written, well researched, and well considered. I'm at 19% in epub (notes and other back matter begin at 76%), and though I don't love his handling of Niall as a hypothetical line in the sand for when people in Ireland are "Irish," he carries it through sensibly. Perhaps the IE/PIE project (2025) was merely the wrong shape and scope at the time he tackled it. He was emeritus already by 2013, and Irish has the cadences of prose built up partly from lecture material. If we may turn an archaeologist's lens briefly upon the archaeologist, simple logistics suggest that he wouldn't have had the same chances to workshop the IE/PIE material in updated form before writing up.

That said, I've zero plans to try reading In Search of the Irish Dreamtime (2016), the monograph published between them, which Mallory intended as part two to Irish. One reasonable-sounding book is plenty as rehabilitation.

2. Because the Taproot Video collective will sunset as of 31 Mar 2026, I've acquired a copy of Annie MacHale's Three-Color Pickup For Inkle Weavers (selfpub, 2021). I understand just enough to follow along, though not to implement. MacHale's explanations are straightforward, and she includes clear illustrations of the effects she describes, with examples of variations.

(Taproot's website doesn't admit to its imminent shutdown, which seems irresponsible. They've sent an email to their past customers.)

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