Anthony Joshua injured in Nigeria car crash that killed two team members
Dec. 30th, 2025 07:45 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
bbcnewsworld_feedThe British heavyweight boxer suffered minor injuries in the crash, which killed two team members and close friends.
bbcnewsworld_feed
Russia has accused Ukraine of targeting a presidential residence, which President Zelensky called "typical Russian lies".
French right pushes for national tribute to film star Brigitte Bardot
Dec. 30th, 2025 11:20 ambbcnewsworld_feedA petition for a national homage to Brigitte Bardot - who died on Sunday - attracts more than 23,000 signatures.
Great white sharks face extinction in Mediterranean, say researchers
Dec. 30th, 2025 01:15 ambbcnewsworld_feedOverfishing and illegal fishing are contributing to the loss of sharks, including great whites.
Final list of the year. 8 books finished this month, bringing my total for the year to 82 - 7 above my goal.
Firstly, I continued to read for the Goodreads Challenges. Here my intention is simply to broaden my reading, but only choose something which specifically interests me, so I'm never going to complete all the sections within a challenge. For the Fall Challenge I achieved 5 out of 12, the first three being simply to read books over the months.
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Short books category. I'm really glad I read this - it crops up every so often. The correspondence between the young American lady and the English bookseller is great and very entertaining. Thoroughly recommended to anyone looking for a short read.
The Cat who Saved the Library by Sosuke Natsukawa
Cosies category, cat sub-section. I do like a good cat book and for me this worked better than some of the others I've read this year. While the human characters have the main part, the cat has their own role to play. This is the second in the series and the first is now on my list for next year.
After which came all my Christmas reads:
Murder in Wintertime: Classic Crime Stories edited by Cecily Gayford
The last few books in this series haven't been as good, but this year I really enjoyed the selection.
Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan
Written in 1948, I found this disappointing. Normally when reading a mystery I will speed up towards the end, but this time I didn't. And to me the solution was poor and unconvincing.
The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights edited by Bridget Collins
I'm not always a fan of spooky stories, but these I really enjoyed. Our library has the book from the previous year, so that's also on my list.
Murder for Christmas edited by Thomas Godfrey
Lots of classic short stories. Some of which I'd read at least a couple of times before (good ones) and several I didn't know. An excellent collection.
Death Comes at Christmas edited by C.L. Taylor
A modern collection of short stories which on the whole I enjoyed. Published last year, so worth looking out for.
Death in Ambush by Susan Gilruth
This year's British Library Crime Classics Christmas mystery. I normally treat myself to this for Christmas, but wasn't impressed. Too many boring domestic details, a narrator too sure of herself (think early Hastings) and bizarre behaviour from the police detective.
For completeness, I'm also including the two audiobooks I've recently finished:
The Murder of Mr Ma by SJ Rozan and John Shen Yen Nee read by Daniel York Loh
Set in 1920s London amongst the Chinese community, I eventually enjoyed the book. It will not surprise regular readers of my posts that Lao, the narrator, annoyed me considerably.
The Four Deadly Seasons by David Hewson read by Richard Armitage
The third book in Hewson's Venetian Mysteries series. The premise is that there's an until now undiscovered autobiography by Vivaldi. The ramifications are both convoluted and deadly. I've stopped listening to a number of books Armitage narrates, since I haven't been enjoying them, but this is one series I do enjoy and get caught up in the story.
Firstly, I continued to read for the Goodreads Challenges. Here my intention is simply to broaden my reading, but only choose something which specifically interests me, so I'm never going to complete all the sections within a challenge. For the Fall Challenge I achieved 5 out of 12, the first three being simply to read books over the months.
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Short books category. I'm really glad I read this - it crops up every so often. The correspondence between the young American lady and the English bookseller is great and very entertaining. Thoroughly recommended to anyone looking for a short read.
The Cat who Saved the Library by Sosuke Natsukawa
Cosies category, cat sub-section. I do like a good cat book and for me this worked better than some of the others I've read this year. While the human characters have the main part, the cat has their own role to play. This is the second in the series and the first is now on my list for next year.
( Fall Challenge )
After which came all my Christmas reads:
Murder in Wintertime: Classic Crime Stories edited by Cecily Gayford
The last few books in this series haven't been as good, but this year I really enjoyed the selection.
Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan
Written in 1948, I found this disappointing. Normally when reading a mystery I will speed up towards the end, but this time I didn't. And to me the solution was poor and unconvincing.
The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights edited by Bridget Collins
I'm not always a fan of spooky stories, but these I really enjoyed. Our library has the book from the previous year, so that's also on my list.
Murder for Christmas edited by Thomas Godfrey
Lots of classic short stories. Some of which I'd read at least a couple of times before (good ones) and several I didn't know. An excellent collection.
Death Comes at Christmas edited by C.L. Taylor
A modern collection of short stories which on the whole I enjoyed. Published last year, so worth looking out for.
Death in Ambush by Susan Gilruth
This year's British Library Crime Classics Christmas mystery. I normally treat myself to this for Christmas, but wasn't impressed. Too many boring domestic details, a narrator too sure of herself (think early Hastings) and bizarre behaviour from the police detective.
( Annual challenge )
For completeness, I'm also including the two audiobooks I've recently finished:
The Murder of Mr Ma by SJ Rozan and John Shen Yen Nee read by Daniel York Loh
Set in 1920s London amongst the Chinese community, I eventually enjoyed the book. It will not surprise regular readers of my posts that Lao, the narrator, annoyed me considerably.
The Four Deadly Seasons by David Hewson read by Richard Armitage
The third book in Hewson's Venetian Mysteries series. The premise is that there's an until now undiscovered autobiography by Vivaldi. The ramifications are both convoluted and deadly. I've stopped listening to a number of books Armitage narrates, since I haven't been enjoying them, but this is one series I do enjoy and get caught up in the story.
The woman who is easily distracted was going to write a somber piece about the potential terrible results from the move to change postmark dates, but then I found this article and was pulled in by the image.
I didn't know that there is an organization of tax professionals, but of course there is. The worries I have seen on social media have mostly been about the implications for vote by mail, but it's nice to have the POV from people with a different primary focus
https://nstp.org/article/usps-announces-changes-postmark-date-system
Also distracting - I was awakened (probably by my bladder) from a dream in which I was wondering why the fall of the Qing dynasty and the beginning of the last (thus far) Japanese occupation of Korea were so close to the start of WWI. Then I (not quite randomly) started wondering what benefit the Ottoman Empire thought came from being allied to Germany. I have other stuff to do today, so maybe trying to make sense of the world from say 1910 through 1920 will have to wait. Although I was interested to learn yesterday that Frances Perkins was a witness to people jumping/falling from the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire in 1911, which was an underlying factor in her eventual position as Secretary of Labor (her first experience observing factories was when she was a student at Mount Holyoke years before).
I didn't know that there is an organization of tax professionals, but of course there is. The worries I have seen on social media have mostly been about the implications for vote by mail, but it's nice to have the POV from people with a different primary focus
https://nstp.org/article/usps-announces-changes-postmark-date-system
Also distracting - I was awakened (probably by my bladder) from a dream in which I was wondering why the fall of the Qing dynasty and the beginning of the last (thus far) Japanese occupation of Korea were so close to the start of WWI. Then I (not quite randomly) started wondering what benefit the Ottoman Empire thought came from being allied to Germany. I have other stuff to do today, so maybe trying to make sense of the world from say 1910 through 1920 will have to wait. Although I was interested to learn yesterday that Frances Perkins was a witness to people jumping/falling from the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire in 1911, which was an underlying factor in her eventual position as Secretary of Labor (her first experience observing factories was when she was a student at Mount Holyoke years before).
People really watch Benoit Blanc movies without having ever encountered any detective fiction other than Sherlock Holmes and feel fully qualified to comment on the connections that they think they've made.
Remember the terrible articles in the late 90s that repetitively and confidently asserted that Rowling had invented YA fantasy, or low fantasy, because they didn't bother to check a single library or bookstore?
Remember the terrible articles in the late 90s that repetitively and confidently asserted that Rowling had invented YA fantasy, or low fantasy, because they didn't bother to check a single library or bookstore?
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starandrea, both of these articles are fantastic and an excellent end-of-year transition read!
Things to Learn in Your Thirties, by Mark Manson (2022)
Why You’re More Authentic in Your Forties, by Ellen Scherr (2025)
Language matters. The story you tell yourself about this change shapes your experience of it.
starandrea, both of these articles are fantastic and an excellent end-of-year transition read!Things to Learn in Your Thirties, by Mark Manson (2022)
Why You’re More Authentic in Your Forties, by Ellen Scherr (2025)
Language matters. The story you tell yourself about this change shapes your experience of it.
I got into documenting neighborhood birds in 2025. What I did was take pics on my phone (if the zoom could capture them) and try to trace them on my journal (since I can't actually draw). Technology!
Planner: 2025 Laconic (A5)
Photos here!
Planner: 2025 Laconic (A5)
Photos here!
Turkey detains 357 suspected IS members in nationwide raids
Dec. 30th, 2025 10:38 ambbcnewsworld_feedThe arrests come just a day after three police officers were killed during a siege in the town of Yalova.
22 recs in As You Like It, British Airways, Cabin Pressure, Cadfael, Dogsbody, Enigma, Flower Fairies, The Good Place, Georgette Heyer, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, Ludwig, The Prisoner, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Shakespeare & Hathaway, Time Master, Welcome to Our Village Please Invade Carefully & Yes Minister at my journal.
It's December Days time again. This year, I have decided that I'm going to talk about skills and applications thereof, if for no other reason than because I am prone to both the fixed mindset and the downplaying of any skills that I might have obtained as not "real" skills because they do not fit some form of ideal.
( 29: w00t )
( 29: w00t )
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characters20in20 has loosened its rules so you can now also icon multiple characters from the same show. I claimed Nie Jiuluo from Love on the Turquoise Land for round 20, but for the category set I went with five different characters just because I thought it would be more fun. :D Oh, and the vampire queen got the red/green octopus.
( 20 Turquoise Land icons )
Every single comment is treasured. All icons shareable! Concrit welcome. Check out my resource post for makers of textures and brushes I use.
Turns out that listening to an audiobook of The Witcher in the vicinity of an iThing can cause a mildly irritating problem
9 recs over at my journal for: IVE, Two Husbands One Wife, Bend It Like Beckham, Billy Elliot, Blackadder, NMIXX, Revenged Love, Sabrina Carpenter - Manchild, Set It Up
Trust Fall (3997 words) by Andraste
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dragon Age: Absolution (Cartoon)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Lacklon/Roland (Dragon Age)
Characters: Lacklon (Dragon Age), Roland (Dragon Age)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Fluff, I Wrote An Entire Dirty Folk Song For This, please clap
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dragon Age: Absolution (Cartoon)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Lacklon/Roland (Dragon Age)
Characters: Lacklon (Dragon Age), Roland (Dragon Age)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Fluff, I Wrote An Entire Dirty Folk Song For This, please clap
Summary: "A human, a dwarf, a Qunari and an elf walk into a bar. Lacklon has heard about a hundred jokes that start just like that, and tonight he feels like the butt of most of them."
Or: getting Kirkwall is going to be difficult enough without the crew getting distracted. Even if some of the distractions are kind of fun ...
I said, "This week is sometimes called "Twixtmas"
And Judy said she'd seen it called "Taint week because 't'aint Christmas and 't'ain't New Year. There is," she added, "another connotation."
Well, I have to know these things so I looked it up and found taint is a slang term for the perineum- which ain't the genitals and ain't the anus. Is this in common usage or am I not alone in having had it pass me by?
Origin of the term? Uncertain, but probably US of A, mid 20th century.
Actually I've learned two things, because if you'd asked me before today where the perineum was I wouldn't have had a clue.
And Judy said she'd seen it called "Taint week because 't'aint Christmas and 't'ain't New Year. There is," she added, "another connotation."
Well, I have to know these things so I looked it up and found taint is a slang term for the perineum- which ain't the genitals and ain't the anus. Is this in common usage or am I not alone in having had it pass me by?
Origin of the term? Uncertain, but probably US of A, mid 20th century.
Actually I've learned two things, because if you'd asked me before today where the perineum was I wouldn't have had a clue.
Anthony Joshua injured in Nigeria car crash that killed two team members
Dec. 30th, 2025 07:45 ambbcnewsworld_feedThe British heavyweight boxer suffered minor injuries in the crash, which killed two team members and close friends.