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weekly check in

Weekly(ish) check in

How goes the decluttering? Have you shifted anything out of the house? Found something to sort through? Had thoughts on things you can let go of?

I personally haven't managed anything, having been--to quote the vernacular--'flat out like a lizard drinking' on other tasks. But I'm here to celebrate the rest of you!

Comments open to locals, lurkers, drive by sticky beaks, and anyone I've forgotten to mention.

'til you're done, 'til I'm done (Original Fiction)

Title: 'til you're done, 'til I'm done
Author: analogbasilisk
Fandom: Original
Word Count: 10,620
Rating: E
Warnings: explicit sexual content, femslash, g!p, unrealistic sex
Summary: Mack is a half-Inccubus and as such, she has an anatomy quirk at times. her girlfriend is curious. some first times ensues.
Available on AO3

Entry tags:

nif,
status

September is nearly half over...

We've packed what we can pack. The movers come Monday to take our library away. We will live out of boxes and suitcase for a week, then depart altogether while the floor peeps come in.

With library going away I've resorted more to TV, and I couldn't resist going back to watch Nirvana in Fire yet again. Between my last rewatch and this time, some team of actual humans (No AI) had gone through the, ah, somewhat problematical subtitles and cleaned up spelling, grammar, and meaning, clarifying a lot of small stuff that watchers who did not know Mandarin could only guess at.

It's just brilliant. Even though on this watch I see the problems with the end starting a bit sooner than I remembered, and I still believe that one more episode would have pulled together all the dangling bits and tightened up the emotional arcs, still the overall emotional velocity absolutely rams you straight through and beyond. For a couple of days I couldn't do anything but go back to look at scenes (some for like the twentieth time, or more). Not perfect, but even after ten years, for me it's the best television show ever made.

Well, back to your regularly schedule chaos.

Current Mood: quixotic
Current Music: nothing now

p=m/V.

I'm looking my vanity right in the eye when I say, "I want to fit into smaller dresses." That's it. That's the desire and motivation. Smaller dresses. I don't much care about the scale - while somewhat ego-stroking, it doesn't matter nearly as much. Volume, density, and mass. If I dropped a dress size by weightlifting, decreasing volume and increasing density, the mass is the same.

One of my clients has, some time ago, begun taking an injected antidiabetic medication, presumably for diabetes. I haven't asked and don't plan to. Mostly I noticed that when she needed to move a potted plant that felt like it weighted twenty to thirty pounds at most, she had a hard time lifting it, while I didn't have any trouble. While it's true she doesn't lift weights as much as I do, I can't help but think about how much I like that form of exercise for its direct benefits of being able to pick something up, move it, and put it down without issue, and how that's something I'm unwilling to mess with. There's healthy and there's skinny. There's also vanity, which I'm admitting to - without wanting to sacrifice health to get there. My relationship to gravity is secondary to my relationship to my closet and being able to readily find good pants at thrift stores.

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Connections (Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1; Samantha Carter, Ronon Dex)

Title: Connections
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Pairing/Characters: Samantha Carter, Ronon Dex
Word Count: 363
Content Notes: none
Prompt:

no_true_pair September 13 - Ronon Dex & Samantha Carter - with the title "Connections"

Link to fic: Connections (on AO3)

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Ep. 15 Screencaps

Another batch! 373 screencaps from episode 15! I try to look out for all of the perverts (affectionate) so in this collection we have hand pics, feet pics, lollipop pics, and of course, this:

As well as regular shots of all our babies!

Edited with the correct link! Sorry about that!

(no subject)

Normally I go silent on here for months because I randomly forgot how to write in full sentences, but this time it was just because things got too miserable -- politics, A/C breaking, work, health, other health, other health, health insurance, medical bills, other medical bills. I think I only ever demonstrate intellectual curiosity and a love of learning in response to illness and injury (perhaps a side effect of inflammation!), so like: --How's it going, Shati? --Well, I've been practicing a lot and my Spanish listening comprehension has gotten way better, I can watch almost all of the Latam A:TLA dub without having to pause or look words up. --Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that.

Things are still in multiple kinds of limbo on the health front, to the point where I basically can't leave my house again right now for more than short car errands, but I guess at least work is getting less busy and I have A/C again.

Back on my birthday I treated myself to the international shipping fees on a couple of books I'm not sure I'm ready to read yet, Los días del venado and Los días de la sombra by Liliana Bodoc. If I like them I'll probably be really mad at myself for not just buying the whole series, but the shipping was already more than I'd normally spend on my birthday, and I may never get around to reading them because they don't have library due dates. I was just excited to come across fantasy originally written in Argentinian Spanish; most of what I can find is either translated to Spanish or from Europe. If any of you have read them (in any language) I'm curious if you liked them! On the rest of the book front, I basically stopped reading while work was really busy and I was working hours late every day, so I'm halfway through a bunch of books that I'll have to return to the library and then borrow again on another trip.

( politics )

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Land of Hope and Dreams (live) - Bruce Springsteen

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thunder's rolling down this track

A couple weeks ago, I finally realized I was never going to go to someone else to get my hair cut, so with some encouragement from my sister, this morning, I did an extensive detangling (both before and after washing) and then trimmed about 3" off the bottom myself. Is it even? Probably not, but it was in long layers, so I don't think it really matters. It will eventually even out as it grows and I trim it. Mostly what matters is that after 3 years, the old ends have been trimmed away. And now that I know I can do it, I will try to keep up with it on a more timely basis. At least, I don't think I'll let another 3 years go by. *wry*

*

The Mets did not get no-hit last night but they did lose, and then lost again today despite leading for 7.5 innings. *hands* There is something very wrong with this team, but who can say what? Sigh.

*

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第四年第二百四十八天

部首
囗 part 2
团, group; 囧, shock emoji; 园, park/garden ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=31

词汇
员, a member of a job/activity/organization; 成员, member; 队员, team member; 公务员, public servant; 会员, membership; 人员, personnel; 演员, actor; 员工, employee ( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-3-word-list/

Guardian:
在这个时刻只有大家团结起来才有一线生机, at this time the only way to survive is for everyone to come together in solidarity
我们公园平时的养护和员工守则这一系列手续都是遵守条例的, our normal park maintenance and employee regulations have been followed in every particular

Me:
当时我真无语了，只好发给他一个囧。
公司必须得好好保护员工的权利。

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yaaurens's 2025 Wishlist

Username: yaaurens
AO3 Username: yaaurens
Does your account accept gifts? Yes

( yaaurens's wishlist )

Comment below to leave a gift for this wishlist! Gift comments can be anonymous or signed in. Comments are screened until reveals on 6 October (Reunion Festival).

All gifts must be posted in or linked in comments. If you like, you can post transformative works to the AO3 collection. If your gift doesn't meet AO3's terms of service (picspams, etc.) and is too big to fit in a comment, you can post to Googledocs, set the security to "anyone with the link", and link to the work in the wishlist comments. Other hosting (Tumblr, etc.) is also fine as long as the gift is only visible with a direct link. In any case, please leave a link to the gift in the comments here.

Guardian Wishlist rules/FAQ/schedule

Entry tags:

disney

2025 Disneyland Trip #62 (9/13/25)

We have not done an early morning trip in almost a month, but Carla's been wanting to go on Soarin' and the best time for that is when the park opens, plus there's some waffles I'd been wanting to try at Schmoozies, and while they could be a dessert as well as a breakfast, Schmoozies closes at eight, which makes it inconvenient for evening trips.

( Read more... )

(no subject)

My husband is the middle of five siblings. The three oldest were high achievers who earned advanced degrees and are now comfortably retired, living far from their hometown. The fourth, a brother, has struggled all his life. After four years in the Army, he drifted between unemployment and low-paying jobs, never able to support himself. His parents covered his expenses or let him live with them, even paying for his car while he worked as a pizza-delivery driver. He also developed substance-abuse problems.

After my husband’s father died, the brother stayed in the family home, supposedly caring for their mother but, in fact, exploiting her. He drained her accounts to feed his habit and neglected her care, and after her death he was convicted of elder abuse — something his out-of-town siblings hadn’t realized was happening. Before she died, their mother begged them not to let him be homeless.

Because the brother couldn’t maintain the house, the siblings sold it and split the proceeds. With his share, they bought him a mobile home and placed funds in a protected account, which covered rent and utilities for nearly 10 years until the money ran out. They eventually transferred the bills into his name and explained how to manage them.

He rarely communicates with the family, except when he’s in trouble. Once on his own, chaos followed. He claimed that his pizza-delivery job was enough to live on, but he missed rent, faced eviction and squandered money on predatory car loans and endless repairs. Last year, his siblings discovered that his car had been repossessed and his water had been shut off for six months. His trailer was collapsing from a leaking roof, and garbage was piled everywhere. Yet he had never asked for help. They stepped in, restored utilities, reclaimed his car, cleaned his trailer and signed him up for Social Security. But he quickly burned through a lump-sum back-pay benefit (he said his account was hacked, though he was more likely scammed). Soon after, he fell behind again, and his Social Security is now being garnished by the I.R.S.

The mobile-home park wants him out for unpaid rent and unsafe conditions. He’s clearly mentally ill, but perhaps not impaired enough for a sibling to secure guardianship. My husband and his siblings want to honor their mother’s plea to keep him housed, but contributing to his rent payments and repairing his trailer isn’t financially sustainable for them, and none of them want to take him in because he’s horrible to live with. Social services might help, but he resists cooperation and can’t manage on his own.

So they wonder: At what point do they stop trying? Are they obliged to sustain someone who refuses to sustain himself? Do they owe him the effort of seeking guardianship, or is that more than can reasonably be asked? — Name Withheld

( Read more... )

I saw a whole family of deer the other day!

I'll try to remember to upload the pic later. It's not a very good picture, but then, I was wary of trying to get too close.

****************

( Read more... )

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Neural Text to Speech and an AFB AI Survey

The American Foundation for the Blind is researching AI:

( details on how to participate )

In addition to the environmental and ethical violations which LLMs/AIs depend on, the endless hype and inaccurate performance make me shudder and growl. Yet I admit I’ve used neural text-to-speech voices for casual audio reading. The neural voices require an internet connection and they lose intelligibility at speed. They’re best as substitutes for human readers.

Blind computer users set their on-device system text-to-speech (TTS) at high speeds. Three hundred to five hundred words per minute are often cited. For screen reader applications, a robotic voice is a feature, enabling bits to flow from device to brain with minimal interpretation.

Neural voices produce much higher quality than system-level TTS. When fed appropriately coded input, they can laugh, whisper, and sound sarcastic as well as "analyze" an essay to produce a "podcast" dialog between two synthetic discussants. Some samples here: https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/

But I know well the expertise that skilled human narrators bring to their work—whether it’s commercial audiobook production, volunteer alternative-format creation, or podfic elves making magic. I don’t want a world where those jobs are outsourced to computers.

On the gripping hand, I remember when skilled Linotype operators--many Deaf--were obviated by computerized systems where reporters keyed their own copy. I used the bridge technology of phototypesetting, as well as pioneering desktop publishing. It's expected that admin workers now create flyers and graphs and charts.

Have you tried neural voices? Recognized them on YouTube or TikTok or your recent tech support call? Do you have thoughts for or against?

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Golden Terrace fic

Shared Warmth (1056 words) by thawrecka
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 黄金台 - 苍梧宾白 | Golden Terrace - Cāng Wú Bīn Bái
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Fu Shen/Yan Xiaohan
Characters: Fu Shen (Golden Stage), Yan Xiaohan
Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Slice of Life, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort
Summary:

Two moments in their relationship in which Fu Shen and Yan Xiaohan take care of each other.

Entry tags:

daily

Daily Check In.

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Saturday to midnight on Sunday (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #33616 Daily poll

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 27

How are you doing?

I am okay
17 (63.0%)

I am not okay, but don't need help right now
10 (37.0%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans are you living with?

I am living single
9 (33.3%)

One other person
13 (48.1%)

More than one other person
5 (18.5%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

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The New Adventures of Hitler

Art is by Steve Yeowell.

( Scans under the cut... )

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planning on pantsing, part 2

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

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Me? A Star Trek fan?

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

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Slo-Mo Rewatch: Guardian episode 1, part 2

Zhao Yunlan sprawled on a couch, grinning at his phone. The background shows a purple sky with stars. Text reads, "Slo-Mo Rewatch. Guardian - half an episode per week @ sid_guardian.dreamwidth.org"

Hi, welcome to our second instalment of the Guardian drama Slo-Mo Rewatch! Join us to watch half an episode a week (at your leisure) and then come and chat about it here in comments. Or you can just jump into the comments without rewatching, of course!

Here is last week's half-episode. On to the second half!

Episode 1, from 22:28

Summary: Guo Changcheng is having a day! After being dangled from a window and falling, now he fails at tailing Shen Wei and Li Qian, takes a lost grandma home, and promptly runs into a shadowy attacker! But action hero Chu Shuzhi comes to the rescue. Shen Wei studies Zhao Yunlan's file, and we get our first YOHE flashback. Zhao Yunlan, who has concluded the attacker mistook Lu Ruomei for Li Qian, tails Li Qian and has another intense encounter with Professor Shen. The Shadow Man attacks Li Qian at the university, but Shen Wei protects her - until he's thrown off the roof, just as the SID arrives. The team meets the Black-Cloaked Envoy for the first time.

Shen Wei protecting Li Qian on the rooftop

Quote:

Zhao Yunlan: "Tell you the truth, I really don't know why, but from the moment I saw you, I've had this feeling like we've known each other a long time."

Shen Wei: "Who knows, maybe we really have met before."

Detail:

One of my favourite details in this half of the episode is the Envoy's very dramatic arrival on the rooftop - storm clouds and lightning and time stoppage and all. The best part about this is something a first-time viewer can't know - that this is clearly a choice on Shen Wei's part. He's looking to make an impression, hee! :D

Questions:

What's your favourite moment or line in this half of the episode? Anything you noticed that you'd completely forgotten about, or never noticed before? How literally do you take Shen Wei's "I've searched for you for 10,000 years"? What do you think Zhao Yunlan is thinking when Shen Wei just gives away that he knows about Dixingren? If you were on that rooftop when the Envoy took the Shadow Man away, would you speak up like Xiao-Guo? And if you're familiar with the novel, any thoughts about how this compares?

(These are all just conversation starters - feel free to answer all, some, or none, and to say as much or as little as you like! You don't have to be keeping up with the rewatch to join in!)

And here is our schedule - please do sign up to host a post if you can!