第四年第二百五十天

Sep. 16th, 2025 07:52 am
nnozomi: (Default)
[personal profile] nnozomi posting in [community profile] guardian_learning
部首
囗 part 3
困, sleepy/in trouble/to imprison; 围, to surround; 固, hard/solid pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=31

语法
接 vs 接到
https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/jie1-jie1dao4-answer-receive/

词汇
愿望, desire; 志愿, to volunteer/to wish; 志愿者, a volunteer pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-3-word-list/

Guardian:
你已经被包围了, you are already surrounded
我们接到匿名举报提供了详尽确凿的证据, we received an anonymous phone call with solid evidence
我就帮你实现愿望, I'll help you make your dream come true

Me:
今晚我干不下去了,太困了。
你怎么一直不接我的电话?

Thank you, lferion!

Sep. 15th, 2025 04:52 pm
killabeez: (Default)
[personal profile] killabeez posting in [community profile] hlh_shortcuts
 Belated but heartfelt thanks to [personal profile] lferion for contributing paid account time to the community. Thank you, kind fairy godperson!

Check In: Day 15

Sep. 15th, 2025 05:48 pm
glitteringstars: (writing)
[personal profile] glitteringstars posting in [community profile] writethisfanfic
Hi all! Happy Monday!

How is writing going today? Any goals for this week?

Gavilan's 2025 Wishlist

Sep. 16th, 2025 12:14 am
guardian_wishlist_mod: (Default)
[personal profile] guardian_wishlist_mod posting in [community profile] guardian_wishlist
Username: Gavilan
AO3 Username: Gavilan
Does your account accept gifts? Yes

Gavilan'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
[syndicated profile] icanhascheezburger_feed

Posted by Sarah Brown

This pawrent is feeling pretty clawstrated right now. She worked hard to raise Briar as a happy, healthy indoor kitty. She's done leash training, outdoor adventures, trick sessions, and hunting play, but still get told they're being "too much." The aunt's cats roam free and she thinks Briar should too, calling her niece a helicopter pawrent for keeping boundaries. Ouch.

But here's the thing: Briar's life sounds pretty pawsome. Sunshine strolls? Check. Lizard chases? Check. Climbing trees, coming back in for games, brain workouts, and safe snuggles? Double check. This isn't a locked-up, bored fluffball. It's a well-rounded house panther with enrichment on tap. The pawrent's goal is keeping her safe from cars, fleas, and fights, not clipping her wings.

It's hard when other humans hiss their opinions, but staying firm isn't arrogance. It's advocacy. Briar clearly trusts her hooman and loves their routine. At the end of the day, that happy tail flick and cozy loaf say it all: Briar's living her best nine lives. Other people can mind their own litter box.

Is your inbox feline too professional? Add some cats falling off counters. Subscribe here!

[syndicated profile] icanhascheezburger_feed

Posted by Briana Viser

Some people are morning people. They love the fresh and crisp air touching their face, they feel more alive and more productive when they can get up early and seize the day. And then some people are night people. They dream of coming home, getting into their pajamas, doing their haircare routine and taking a warm bath. People who take "Netflix and chill" to the extreme. For these people who are worshippers of the cozy things in life, they might have a cat or two to lull to sleep with them after their long day. 

There's something magical about the quiet moments before bed. The world slows down, the lights dim, and even the most chaotic day softens at the edges. Add a dose of kitten memes, and suddenly bedtime feels like a warm hug for your soul. These cutie kitties are here to help you rest, digest, and drift off with a smile.

Is your inbox feline too professional? Add some cats falling off counters. Subscribe here!

[syndicated profile] twocents_feed

Posted by Michelle Ehrhardt

In 2023, Apple introduced the Double Tap feature for Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2. This allows a user to perform common actions, like answering or starting a song, simply by quickly tapping their thumb and index finger together twice. It was an intuitive way to confirm when you wanted to do something on your watch without tapping a tiny touchscreen button, but what if you wanted to dismiss something? Now, with the release of watchOS 26, Wrist Flick is here to solve that problem.

Also available on Apple Watch Series 9 (and higher) as well as Apple Watch Ultra 2 (and higher), Wrist Flick is kind of like Double Tap’s evil twin. If you get a notification you don’t like, or a call you want to mute, now you can quickly twist your wrist to dismiss it, like you’re tossing it into a garbage bin.

To try it out, first install watchOS 26 on your Apple Watch. Using a paired iPhone with iOS 26 installed, open the Apple Watch app, navigate to General > Software Update, and start the upgrade to the new version of watchOS. Alternatively, you can simply ensure Automatic Updates are enabled, and so long as your iPhone has iOS 26, your watch will simply choose a time to update on its own while charging (likely overnight). 

Then, once watchOS 26 is installed, put on your watch and navigate to Settings > Gestures. Toggle on Wrist Flick.

That’s it. You’ll simply need to wait for a notification or call to come in, or for a timer you want to silence to go off, and you’ll be able to turn it off with a quick flick of the wrist. It might take some practice, but essentially, you want to quickly rotate your wrist away from your body, as seen on this page on Apple’s website.

Used together with Double Tap, the goal is that you won’t need to fiddle with your watch’s touchscreen for most basic activities anymore, so you won’t have to interrupt your workout (or, if you’re like me, you’re leisurely sit on the subway) by tapping away at it. The only limitation is that, while Double Tap has some basic mapping functions that let you customize what exactly it does, Wrist Flick currently doesn’t offer that level of control, instead sticking to Apple’s default “dismissing” behavior. That means you won’t be able to use it to, say, go back one tile in your Smart Stack, like how you can set Double Tap to advance you by one tile. Here’s hoping Apple expands its functionality soon.

[syndicated profile] twocents_feed

Posted by Stephen Johnson

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source.


Spotify is finally giving its free-tier customers a feature that’s been requested since the music streaming platform launched nearly 20 years ago: the ability to listen to any song they choose. That's right: The days of searching for a song, then hitting “skip” until it rolls around on a Spotify-generated playlist are over.

Free-tier users can choose songs in three ways: through the search function, by clicking on any song from the Spotify interface, or by clicking on a link shared by other users. Free-tier users can also listen to podcasts through Spotify, and create and listen to playlists too. Spotify's previous "six skips per hour" rule also appears to be no more.

There are still limitations to Spotify’s free accounts, of course. The most obvious is that you still have to listen to ads. Free users will also face a cap on how many minutes of music they can listen to on demand, won’t be able to queue tracks, and won’t be able to access Spotify’s “AI DJ” feature. (No great loss; trust me.)

They also won't have access to another new Spotify feature exclusive to paid accounts: lossless audio.

Premium Spotify customers to get lossless audio

"Premium" Spotify perks are improving too. The first, most important upgrade in the long-awaited launch of lossless audio on the service. Lossless audio (streaming files that are bit-for-bit copies of the source material) is rolling out to over 50 Spotify markets from now through October.

Premium users will also be able to send private messaging, to make music-sharing easier, and add and customize transitions between songs within a playlist.

The changes make Spotify more competitive

The upgrades to both levels of Spotify’s service aren’t really about making life better for users; they’re about staying relevant and profitable in a crowded and ever-changing marketplace. The hope from Spotify is to increase ad revenue by increasing the number of ears listening to ads, entice more free users to upgrade to pay services, and shed fewer customers who leave for other services.

Until the change, Spotify’s free tier was close to a radio service—you could listen to music that you kind of wanted to hear, maybe, if you also put up with frequent ads. This model may have made sense when streaming was newer, but more and more younger users are turning to YouTube, where you can listen to whatever song you want (and see a video for it) on demand, and for free. And young people are discovering music on TikTok, not on Spotify.

Changes to Spotify’s premium service are aimed at the more “mature” listener. Lossless audio doesn’t make a ton of difference without decent headphones or speakers. But “our music is lossless” has long been a selling point for Apple Music and Tidal, but it won’t be anymore. 

[syndicated profile] icanhascheezburger_feed

Posted by Laurent Shinar

Dog people, why do we even bother with them. Honestly, the best that we can get out of them is some sort of semi-ashamed admission that cats are amazing and even that is somewhat half-hearted, even though they mean it with all their hearts. And in the worst case, well, you get stories like this one we are covering today, which in all honesty just hurts to hear about.

Because it seems that even the abundance and bounty of hooman love cannot bridge the gap that lives between cat lovers and dog lovers. Which is why we are so happy for our clever cat lady, who bounced her boyfriend after he was just abhorrent towards her one and only cat child. It was completely the right thing to do, especially when you find out what that belligerent boyfriend did…he got everything that he deserved and then some.
 

Is your inbox feline too professional? Add some cats falling off counters. Subscribe here!

andersenmom: yummy.... (dragons)
[personal profile] andersenmom posting in [community profile] 100ships
Creator: [personal profile] andersenmom
Title: New (Old) Position
Rating: T
Type: Fic
Size/length/word count etc.: 1263
Prompt: 016: Neon
Fandom/Ship: Stray Kids; Seo Changbin, Lee Felix
Notes/Warnings: Light mention of death.
Summary Changbin needs a new job. He didn’t expect to meet an old client at the interview. Purely aside from how he feels about that client.

Find the table with the list of fics here
lannamichaels: Brachos 2a, caption: "There's a debate about that" (daf yomi)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


Okay so Horayos was very long per day and very dry. But Nezikin was great, really wonderful and relevant. I had a really great time, such a wonderful contrast to Nashim. Definitely a lot to discuss in the siyum.

Notes on Horayos (only the 3rd perek had anything I wanted to note) behind cut:

Read more... )

[syndicated profile] twocents_feed

Posted by Michelle Ehrhardt

Apple’s iOS 26 drops today, and with it comes a bunch of small tweaks and improvements to how your iPhone works. The catch? A lot of them are opt-in, so you need to turn them on before you can reap their benefits. Here are the settings you should turn on after updating your iPhone to Apple’s latest operating system, although note that some of them require an iPhone 15 Pro or later, as they rely on Apple Intelligence.

Adaptive battery mode

If you’re like me, you can never decide whether it’s worth it to swap your phone over to Battery Saver mode. Now, if you have an iPhone 15 Pro or above, your iPhone can make the decision for you.

Apple’s new Adaptive Power mode uses Apple Intelligence to intelligently determine when your battery usage is running higher than usual, and makes small tweaks to bring it back under control. These might include slightly dimming your display or slowing down less important tasks, like those that are running in the background or are particularly intensive. Then, once your phone’s been on an even keel for a while, it’ll start turning things back to normal. Think of it as a less aggressive “low power” mode that only affects certain processes, and can make adjustments based on more than your phone’s remaining charge. To try it out, simply navigate to Settings > Battery > Power Mode. Just don’t forget to turn it back off if you find its compromises aren’t worth the extra battery life.

Turn on call screening

Call screening
Credit: Apple

I’ll be honest—I barely pick up phone calls anymore. Instead, I usually prefer to wait until after the call, and then call back if the caller was someone I knew or if it was important enough to leave a message. This usually works out for me, but I’ll admit, sometimes I do feel a bit bad for leaving people who call me in the lurch, especially if it turns out they had a good reason to dial me up. That’s where Apple’s new Call Screening feature comes in.

This one doesn’t require Apple Intelligence, so it’ll work on any iPhone running iOS 26. Simply open your Settings, then under Apps, tap Phone and look for the Screen Unknown Callers option.

You’ll have three choices. Never will work just like before, with calls ringing for a bit before they go to your Recents list. But now, you’ve got two additional options you can choose instead.

First is Silence, which will turn off your ringer for calls from unsaved numbers, then send them to Voicemail and display them in the Recents list. Essentially, it just cuts out the middle-man of having to wait for the caller to give up before you move on with figuring out what they wanted.

But the more exciting addition is Ask Reason for Calling. Choose this, and your iPhone will pick up calls from unsaved numbers for you, then ask the caller a few questions about their reason for calling. You’ll see a transcript of their answers on screen, and then you’ll be able to choose whether you want to pick up.

It’s a clever trick, and should make me feel a little less bad for anyone who tries to chat with me over the phone. I do wish it worked for Contacts as well, to be honest, but I can understand why my family might not be enthused to call me and get a robot secretary instead.

Try out the new ringtones

With iOS 26, Apple’s added a few new default ringtones to pick from. Six are variations of the classic “Reflection” ringtone, but there’s also a new one called “Little Bird.” You can find them all under Settings > Sound & Haptics > Ringtone, or check out the embeds below to hear them for yourself.

Personally, “Bouyant” is probably my favorite, although my colleague Jake Peterson likes “Dreamer” the most. I’ll probably still stick with my custom ringtone, but if you’d rather not bother downloading a ringtone manually, you now have more choice than ever.

Fix Liquid Glass

This next one is technically about turning a feature off instead of turning it on, but I couldn’t ignore it. With iOS 26, Apple’s redesigned its design language to focus on transparency, and not everyone’s a fan. If you remember the transparent bezels Microsoft added to app windows in Windows Vista, it’s a lot like that, but more aggressive. Essentially, instead of showing a solid background, many buttons and overlays will now appear clear, allowing a blurred version of whatever is underneath them to bleed through.

Luckily, there’s a pre-existing accessibility control that essentially sets your iPhone back to how it was before. Simply navigate to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size, then toggle on Reduce Transparency. This will bring back solid background across your entire iPhone, which you can see in effect here. Notice how the play button no longer allows blurred album artwork to bleed into it? If you prefer that flatter, more contrast-y look, this could be for you.

Custom backgrounds in iMessage

This one’s just fun. Now, in iMessage, you set custom backgrounds for your conversations and group chats on a per-chat basis. These include presets, like Water and Sky, but you can also pick solid colors, choose a photo from your library, or if you have an iPhone 15 Pro or above, generate a background using Apple Intelligence.

To get started, open a chat, click its title towards the top of the page, then choose Backgrounds.

Note that your chosen background will appear for everyone in the chat, but if you don’t like a background someone else set, you don’t have to live with it. Go to Settings > Apps > Messages and disable Conversation Backgrounds to turn the feature off.

Notification summaries for news

If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or above, Apple is actually bringing back a previously deleted feature with iOS 26: Notification summaries for news and entertainment apps.

These initially launched in the iOS 18.3 beta, but were quickly pulled after Apple’s AI had misrepresented some major BBC headlines, including one about United Healthcare shooting suspect Luigi Mangione. 

Now, Apple is confident enough to bring these notification summaries back, although with a new warning that says “Summarization may change the meaning of the original headlines. Verify information.”

If you’re comfortable with that, according to my colleagues over at CNET, you don’t have to do much to turn them on. Apple will actually greet you with a splash screen once you download the iOS 26 update, which will ask your preferences for which apps will get notification summaries. You’ll have three options, and you can select as many as you wish. All other apps will summarize notifications from non-social apps, like Maps, while Communication & Social will throw in notification summaries for apps like TikTok and Mail. These were available already. What’s new (again) is the News & Entertainment option, which will add notification summaries for apps including BBC or Netflix.

Simply make your choices, and you’re good to go. If you change your mind later, you can adjust your summaries under Settings > Notifications > Summarize Notifications. You can also adjust notification summaries on a per-app basis here, which isn’t available in the splash screen you get after installing iOS 26.

Get clear icons in iOS 26

Clear icons iOS 26
Credit: Apple

Let’s say you actually like Liquid Glass, but think it doesn’t go far enough. In that case, you might want to turn your icons clear too, so you can see your background through them. I promise I won’t judge.

To turn your app icons clear in iOS 26, simply long press on your home screen’s background until your apps start jiggling. Then, tap Edit in the top-left corner, followed by Customize. Then, choose Clear. You can also choose between Clear Light or Clear Dark, with the dark mode opting for a more subdued tint.

This will make your app icons look like frosted glass, similar to iOS 26’s new lock screen clock. You do you.

(If you’re like me, you might prefer the new Tinted Light Mode option instead, which finally allows you to set a custom color for your app icons’ graphical elements alongside a bright background. You can find it in the Tinted option next to Clear while selecting your app icon appearance).

New ways to customize your lock screen

iOS 26 gives you more control over how your phone looks while locked than ever before. To get started, lock your phone, then press the power button, tap and hold on the lock screen, and tap Customize.

First off, you can now adjust the size of your clock by grabbing one of its corners and dragging it down, although this will only work with certain fonts. 

Second, you can now justify your widgets box to the bottom of the lock screen, as well as add an Apple Music search widget to it, if you like. If you actually start playing something, you’ll notice it’ll enable a large Now Playing interface that shows album art.

Finally, there’s support for Spatial Scenes. When selecting a Photo wallpaper, you can now tap on a small icon of a mountain and a sun to separate the photo’s subject from the background. Now, when moving your iPhone, the subject will move with it, to help them pop. Your clock might also move to fill up space in the photo, including slightly behind the subject, to help give an illusion of depth. Or, your widgets might automatically shift to the bottom of the screen if placed elsewhere, to better frame the photo subject.

Other settings you can enable

There’s plenty more you can do to make iOS 26 truly yours. If the above changes aren’t enough for you, here are 36 other tweaks you can make to get the most out of your iPhone’s new operating system.

sineala: (Avengers: Steve/Tony: It wasn't worth it)
[personal profile] sineala
Moving to the Sun (26709 words) by Sineala
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Avengers (Comics), New Avengers (Marvel Comics)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Getting Together, Project Wideawake (Marvel), Extremis (Marvel), whatever the exact opposite of Body Horror is, Sexual Roleplay, Cuddling & Snuggling, Comic Book Science, Comic: New Avengers Vol. 1 (2004), Fix-It for Comic: Iron Man/Captain America: Casualties of War Vol. 1 (2006), Marvel Comic Event: Civil War (2006), Fix-It for Marvel Comic Event: Civil War (2006), Hopeful Ending
Summary: When Steve agreed to meet Tony at the mansion to talk, he never imagined that Tony would abandon Registration and join him. He never imagined that Tony would end up in bed with him, either.

Hi, Dreamwidth! I know I have not been around in a while -- I have been having a lot of migraines -- but, here, I finally finished a story for the Dodged A Bullet 616 Steve/Tony Civil War exchange. This was not actually the story I intended to write, because I did not finish that one -- once again, I have been having a lot of migraines -- but I did finish this one. Not the other one, so my WIP pile is at a net zero, but I tried.
[syndicated profile] eff_feed

Posted by Jennifer Pinsof

This is the first installment in a blog series documenting EFF's findings from the Stop Censoring Abortion campaign. You can read additional posts here. 

We’ve been hearing that social media platforms are censoring abortion-related content, even when no law requires them to do so. Now, we’ve got the receipts. 

For months, EFF has been investigating stories from users whose abortion-related content has been taken down or otherwise suppressed by major social media platforms. In collaboration with our allies—including Plan C, Women on Web, Reproaction, and Women First Digital—we launched the #StopCensoringAbortion campaign to collect and amplify these stories.  

Submissions came from a variety of users, including personal accounts, influencers, healthcare clinics, research organizations, and advocacy groups from across the country and abroad—a spectrum that underscores the wide reach of this censorship. Since the start of the year, we’ve seen nearly 100 examples of abortion-related content taken down by social media platforms. 

We analyzed these takedowns, deletions, and bans, comparing the content to what platform policies allow—particularly those of Meta—and found that almost none of the submissions we received violated any of the platforms’ stated policies. Most of the censored posts simply provided factual, educational information. This Threads post is a perfect example: 

Screenshot of removed post submitted by Lauren Kahre to EFF

Screenshot submitted by Lauren Kahre to EFF

In this post, health policy strategist Lauren Kahre discussed abortion pills’ availability via mail. She provided factual information about two FDA approved medications (mifepristone and misoprostol), including facts like shelf life and how to store pills safely.  

Lauren’s post doesn’t violate any of Meta’s policies and shouldn’t have been removed. But don’t just take our word for it: Meta has publicly insisted that posts like these should not be censored. In a February 2024 letter to Amnesty International, Meta Human Rights Policy Director Miranda Sissons wrote: “Organic content (i.e., non paid content) educating users about medication abortion is allowed and does not violate our Community Standards. Additionally, providing guidance on legal access to pharmaceuticals is allowed.” 

Still, shortly after Lauren shared this post, Meta took it down. Perhaps even more perplexing was their explanation for doing so. According to Meta, the post was removed because “[they] don’t allow people to buy, sell, or exchange drugs that require a prescription from a doctor or a pharmacist.” 

Screenshot of takedown notice submitted by Lauren Kahre to EFF

Screenshot submitted by Lauren Kahre to EFF

In the submissions we received, this was the most common reason Meta gave for removing abortion-related content. The company frequently claimed that posts violated policies on Restricted Goods and Services, which prohibit any “attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate, gift or ask for pharmaceutical drugs.”  

Yet in Lauren’s case and others, the posts very clearly did no such thing. And as Meta itself has explained: “Providing guidance on how to legally access pharmaceuticals is permitted as it is not considered an offer to buy, sell or trade these drugs.” 

In fact, Meta’s policies on Restricted Goods & Services further state: “We allow discussions about the sale of these goods in stores or by online retailers, advocating for changes to regulations of goods and services covered in this policy, and advocating for or concerning the use of pharmaceutical drugs in the context of medical treatment, including discussion of physical or mental side effects.” Also, “Debating or advocating for the legality or discussing scientific or medical merits of prescription drugs is allowed. This includes news and public service announcements.” 

Over and over again, the policies say one thing, but the actual enforcement says another. 

We spoke with multiple Meta representatives to share these findings. We asked hard questions about their policies and the gap between how they’re being applied. Unfortunately, we were mostly left with the same concerns, but we’re continuing to push them to do better.  

In the coming weeks, we will share a series of blogs further examining trends we found, including stories of unequal enforcement, where individuals and organizations needed to rely on internal connections at Meta to get wrongfully censored posts restored; examples of account suspensions without sufficient warnings; an exploration of Meta’s ad policies; practical tips for users to avoid being censored; and concrete steps platforms should take to reform their abortion content moderation practices. For a preview, we’ve already shared some of our findings with Barbara Ortutay at The Associated Press, whose report on some of these takedowns was published today 

We hope this series highlighting examples of abortion content censorship will help the public and the platforms understand the breadth of this problem, who is affected, and with what consequences. These stories collectively underscore the urgent need for platforms to review and consistently enforce their policies in a fair and transparent manner.  

With reproductive rights under attack both in the U.S. and abroad, sharing accurate information about abortion online has never been more critical. Together, we can hold platforms like Meta accountable, demand transparency in moderation practices, and ultimately stop the censorship of this essential, sometimes life-saving information. 

This is the first post in our blog series documenting the findings from our Stop Censoring Abortion campaign. Read more in the series: https://www.eff.org/pages/stop-censoring-abortion    

Ride, Cat?

Sep. 15th, 2025 11:44 am
ranunculus: (Default)
[personal profile] ranunculus
After several days of being badly affected by allergies, during which I did a lot of reading, gathered a tiny bit of wood, cleaned up the chop saw and tried to keep the garden watered.  I'm now feeling  bit better.
This morning  I got the sheets washed and my bedroom floor cleaned up.  Then Kim called and we went out for a ride.  Firefly did great, a little fussy when she had to stand still, but otherwise she was really good until we got down into the canyon in Jungle Pasture and -- heard what we think was a mountain lion scream.  That took Firefly, myself and Kim to high alert.  Kim's horse wasn't much disturbed.  My guess is that Chena, who was running circles around us, got a bit close to the lion and it screamed at her, but we saw nothing.  After that Firefly had a good spook, (apparently the top of the culvert was going to eat her). She spun and went sideways about 20 feet. I managed to keep my seat reasonably well.  Then she proceeded to spook and jigg for another 100 feet before settling and going back to her normal flat footed walk.  I thought it was not at all a bad reaction for a green horse.  I tried to give her plenty of time to think things through, which obviously worked.  
Once we were home I got in the Gator and went down to check that the Iris Barn herd was all ok. They were quite close when we heard the scream.  Fortunately all horses showed up and seemed fine. We know that mountain lions live in our hills but virtually never see or hear them.  Full grown horses are very seldom the target of a lion attack as the lion has a high chance of being hurt in such an encounter.  
Now back to chores at the house. 

(no subject)

Sep. 15th, 2025 07:51 pm
shadowhive: (Default)
[personal profile] shadowhive
After Friday’s post a few things happened that I didn’t post on the Saturday post.

First I had some luck, I was half watching the x-box uk stream and ended up winning a game, a deluxe version of Borderlands 4! I looked it up and it was £90 which is crazy.i expected to need to mess about with the Xbox storage but it was only 30gb which surprised me. I’ve never played Borderlands before so I am curious, but cause of the weekend (more on that later) I didn’t get to go on it yet.

Awsten was doing a signing of his book and merch with purchases on Friday. I wasn’t going to do it cause shipping is horrendous, but the live said the anniversary version of the book was gonna be gone soon so… I caved. Having it signed does justify the expense a little but still…

In the night I watched Hotel Transylvania 3 cause it was leaving Netflix. It was entertaining enough and I liked the music and performances though it’s one of those things where you kinda knew how it was gonna go. That’s not a bad thing necessarily though.

Saturday night the last night of the proms which was very eclectic. The conductor was very sweet and got into conducting cause of fantasia, so it was so cool that it included two pieces from it, especially sorcerers apprentice which was her fav. The rest included all kinds of things, a musical section of my fair lady, boherimian rhapsody and Bill Bailey on the typewriter. It was pretty fun and it’s good to have something that’s good as opposed to *gestures*

Yesterday though ended up being a bleh day. I was tired from all the working Saturday and then mum decided to be bitchy and the two combined to make my mood low so I just kinda spent yesterday tuned out.

In the night I did finally go on Dave the diver which does seem pretty good so far, though it does feel odd to have sushi made from every single fish you find.

Today I woke up and I’ve been headachy so I ended up lying down and napping, which seemed to help a bit.

Other than that my Owen pins came today and they look nice. Also I read the fantastic 4 issue 3 I picked up and that was fun too. I felt so bad for Doom though cause for all his brilliance he couldn’t solve the problem at hand.(and then there’s a strange wooden thing that can mind control people?)

This week mostly feels like it’ll be low energy. I have to chase up student finance to check if it’s being processed ok. There’s the food shop delivery. A funeral (of a relative of mums friend, I think I only met her twice but she was about 100). And then there’s going out Saturday and dnd Sunday.

I do wanna do a few other things (like the aforementioned Borderlands 4, plus the Isla hope to fic and catch up on Alien Earth). But also there’s new stuff coming this week with new Futurama tomorrow and High Potential Wednesday.

***

Since it’s unlikely I’ll be going to the cinema again before Saturday here’s the second month round up of the cinema pass. I went twice and saw 4 films total. I think my ranking is this:

Honey Don’t
The Toxic Avenger Unrated
Freakier Friday
Jaws

The first three are all pretty close to each other and I really enjoyed all three of them. Jaws is a classic thing and I’m glad I saw it even though I enjoyed the others more.

Speaking of Saturday some of the cinema times have been put up. I’m going to see Thunderbirds and it looks like I might see The Bad Guys 2 alongside it (the last conjuring film is also a possibility, but The Roses is out cause there’s currently one showing and it clashes).

There’s two mystery showings been put up too, one on the 29th and one on the 6th. Assuming they’re different I’d bet the first is Him and the second is The Black Phone 2. The first would be a welcome distraction after the stressful phonecall that day.

I feel that’s everything though I also feel I missed something.
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Posted by Laurent Shinar

Goodness gracious, this is a story fit not only for the internet but for television news outlets too it is just so wild and unhinged. Where once we might have thought that cat rescues were a tough affair this story just goes above and beyond to blow all other stories out of the water.

This story tells the tale of a vet tech who lost her cat earlier in the week, yet seeing as it was not totally uncommon for her cat child to go off on multi-day adventures the vet tech was not all too concerned about her cat child being absent. That is until an older lady came in for a scheduled euthanasia appointment for a cat that she claimed was sick and had been hiding under her porch for days on end. We will stop there to avoid letting any spoilers slip, but we think you can imagine what might be coming next and yes, it is the wildest version that your imagination can conjure up.
 

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Posted by Beth Skwarecki

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With the launch of iOS 26, Apple has added a bunch of new features to the Fitness app—features that it has been sorely missing. Finally, you can track a workout from your phone without an Apple Watch, and you can pair a bluetooth heart rate monitor to your phone to get heart rate data. And though it seems like a small change, Apple Watch users will love the fact that you can now create and edit custom workouts on your phone.

How to get the new Fitness updates

The new features in the Fitness app are part of iOS 26, which comes out today. (That’s the version with the controversial “liquid glass” look, but you can turn it off if you hate it.) To install it, go to Settings, General, and then tap Software Update

Once you've, you’ll find that the Fitness app has a new tab at the bottom, labeled Workout. This is where you’ll find the fun stuff. 

How to track a workout from the Apple Fitness app (with or without a watch)

Workout selection screen and in-workout screen
Credit: Beth Skwarecki

In the Workout tab, you’ll see a variety of workout types that you can start just by tapping the play button. Outdoor Run, Outdoor Walk, Outdoor Cycle, and Hiking are available for everyone. To access the other workout types, like Indoor Run, Indoor Cycle, Yoga, High Intensity Interval Training, and Traditional Strength Training, you’ll need to pair a heart rate monitor. 

(The idea seems to be that the app needs some kind of data to track. If you run outdoors, GPS data tells the app how far and how fast you’re running. If you’re on a treadmill, it’s got nothing to go on—unless it has a device telling it your heart rate.) 

So what counts as a heart rate data source? I had success with: 

I did four short runs today: three testing each of the above, plus one with just the phone by itself and no heart rate monitor. Each of the four tracked my speed and distance, made a map of where I’d been, and (if there was a heart rate monitor paired) recorded my heart rate data. I was able to view these workouts afterward from the Sessions card on the Summary tab, where Apple Watch-only workouts would normally be found.

To be clear, the three workouts I did without the Apple Watch did not require the watch at all. I left it behind in my car, and was able to track these workouts just fine. 

How to mirror your workouts from Apple Watch on your phone

in-workout: Apple Watch screenshot on left, iPhone screenshot on right.
Apple Watch screenshot on left, iPhone screenshot on right. (I did my best to take these at the same time...I was close, OK?) Credit: Beth Skwarecki

The new mirrored workouts just work. You can start a workout from the Fitness app, or from your phone, and either way you get a Live Activity on your phone’s lock screen. Tap that, and you’ll see a screen in the Fitness app that shows the same data you see on your watch.

This can be handy for cardio machines especially—set your phone in front of you, and look at that instead of having to take your hand off the handlebars and turn your wrist to see how many seconds you have left in your interval.

If you don’t see the workout view on your phone, swipe right from the workout screen on your watch and select View to enable it. 

How to create custom Apple Watch workouts on your phone

Workout creation screens
Credit: Beth Skwarecki

The Apple Watch already had a feature where you could create custom workouts, or set yourself a goal for a workout (like running for a certain amount of time, or racing your past self on a favorite route). Now, that’s all available in the fitness app. 

To find it, go to the Workout tab of the Fitness app. instead of hitting the triangle play button on your phone to start a workout, tap the timer icon. This takes you to the screen with routes, goals, and custom workouts. 

I had never before bothered with the custom workouts since they were so annoying to access on the watch, but today I created a short interval workout and ran it as part of my testing. (One thing to know: You need to create a work interval and a rest interval before creating a repeat loop—some apps have you do this in the opposite order, which tripped me up.) 

In total, these new features make the Apple Fitness app a lot more useful. You no longer need a third-party app to use a Bluetooth heart rate monitor or to track a simple run around the neighborhood. It's now a real workout app, rather than just something you open to check how many times you’ve closed your rings.

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Posted by Stephen Johnson

If constantly being mogged by sigmas has you feeling like a fuhuhluhtoogan, and you have no idea what any of that means, you've come to the right place. This glossary aims to define and explain popular slang words and phrases of Generation Z (usually defined as people born between 1997 and 2012) and Generation A (anyone born between 2012 and now) so you'll know what the hell people are talking about.

A word of warning: If you aren't of those generations, and/or you need an online list to know what slang words mean, you should not say them aloud, unless you're trying to be embarrassing.

New entries

6-7 (or 67): This piece of Generation Alpha brainrot slang doesn't mean anything. It's just funny to some people to say "6-7," especially in answer to any question involving numbers. Ex: "Q: What time is it? A: six-seveeen."

6-7 Weekend: A weekend in which Saturday falls on the 6th day of the month and Sunday on the 7th.

Chopped: Ugly. Chopped is often applied to someone's face or outfit, but anything that isn't aesthetically pleasing could be called "chopped," as could anything that is generally not good, like an awkward situation.

Crash out: To have an intense emotional outburst, usually accompanied by impulsive behavior. Crashing out is often due to being overwhelmed or overly frustrated.

Dih: Algo speak for “dick.” (See "Algo speak.")

Mason (or Mason 6-7 kid): A "Mason 6-7 Kid" or "Mason" is a stereotypical male member of Generation Alpha. Mason kids are known for their love of baseball-inspired fashion (caps and shorts), their "ice cream" haircut, and for repeating brainrot slang like "6-7."

SDIYBT: An acronym for "start digging in your butt, twin," this brainrot phrase doesn't mean anything. Some people just think it's funny to say.

Sendy and “Let’s get sendy": Sendy is an adjective based on the older rock-climbing and extreme sports slang phrase "send it." A shortened version of "ascend it," "send it" is said right before one is about to do something challenging. "Sendy" describes a person who is prone to doing bold things. "Let's get sendy" means something like "Let's get wild." It's been adopted by brainrot fans, so it's often repeated with no meaning meant to be attached.


304: Hoe. (Type "304" on a calculator and turn it upside down.)

4+4: Ate. Four plus four is eight, or "ate." (See "ate.")

80/20 Rule: An axiom in online incel spaces, the 80/20 is the idea that 80% of women only date the "top" 20% of men.

Algo speak: Coded language used to bypass online content moderation. Examples: "regarded" used instead of "retarded" and "unalive" instead of "kill."

Alpha male: Taken from animal ethology, an alpha male is the dominant member of a group of males, or just a male who is in charge. (See "beta male" and "sigma male.")

Ate/eat: Done very well, often regarding clothing. e.g.: "You ate that outfit." See also: "serving."

Aura: Someone who is mysterious and cool is said to "have aura."

Aura farming: Depending on the context, “aura farming” can refer to a person who does something cool without trying or someone who is trying too hard to appear cool.

Baddie: A bad/wild girl. Meant as a compliment.

Baka: Japanese word meaning “crazy" or “foolish.” Used mainly in the anime community.

Based: Independent in a cool way.

Bed-rotting: Staying in bed all day. You may know it as “lazing around.” (See "Hurkle-durkle.")

Beta male: A beta male, or just "beta," is a weaker, subservient male. (See "alpha male" and "sigma male.")

Boombayah: A euphemism for “having sex.” It’s used mostly online, often to defeat censorship algorithms.

Bop: A girl who sleeps around. Also: a great song.

Boysober: Someone who has sworn off sex, relationships, and/or dating.

Brain-rot: A description of the overuse of stupid slang. See also: “Skibidi.” Also used to describe the effects of being overly online.

Brat: The contemporary meaning of "brat" is an adjective describing a person who is edgy, imperfect, and confident. It was coined by pop star Charli XCX who defined it as "that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes. Who feels herself but maybe also has a breakdown."

Bruzz: Bros. Part of the -uzz family of slang words. See "Huzz" and "-uzz."

Bubba truck: A lifted or otherwise modified pick-up truck.

Bussin': Very good or excellent.

Cap: A lie. Often used to say "no cap."

Cake: Butt, especially a nice butt.

Chad: An attractive man; an “alpha male.” See "Giga-Chad."

Chat: A reference to streamers addressing their chat windows aloud. Saying “chat” in real life is an ironic joke. 

Chud: A physically unappealing person. Sometimes used for a man who holds right-wing views.

Clanker: A slur aimed at robots and AI agents pretending to be human.

Coomer: A man who masturbates too often.

Corn: “Corn” is algo-speak that means “porn.” Used in online spaces where the word might cause your account to be flagged or banned. 

Coworker-core: A catch-all description for things that are unfunny or uninteresting in a way that appeals to older people.

Dead: Past tense of having died laughing. If someone responds to a joke with "dead" or a skull emoji, they find it funny.

Deadass: Seriously. Used like, "I am deadass not lying."

Delulu: Delusional.

Deriod: A combination of "dick" and "period," deriod refers to men seeming to experience the mood swings commonly associated with women's menstrual cycles.

Doomer: A person who is overly negative and/or cynical.

Drip: A fashionable or stylish look.

Dwerking: A male-centric variation of twerking. A sexually suggestive dancing characterized by rapid, repeated hip thrusts and shaking of the dick. Other variants include "pwerking" and "bwerking" where the "p" and "b" stand for pussy and boobs.

Edgar: A variation of the Caesar haircut worn especially among Hispanic males. Also refers to the kind of person who wears the haircut. 

Fambushing: A combination of "family" and "ambushing," fambushing refers to young people checking where their parents are on location-sharing apps so they can get free food—if you see mom at Chipotle, you ask for a burrito.

Fanum tax: The theft of food between friends. Named for streamer Fanum, known for “taxing” his friends by taking bites of their meals or stealing fries. 

Fax, no printer: Telling the truth. Since "fax and "facts" are pronounced the same, this is a colorful way of saying "facts, no cap."

Fent-fold: A description of the bent-over posture of people nodding on heavy drugs.

Fit: Short for "outfit."

Fuhuhluhtoogan: Supposedly from Baltimore slang, this is a nonsense word used so people will ask what it means but never receive an answer. Often paired with "Jittleyang."

Gamer dent: The temporary indentation left on someone’s hair or skin after wearing headphones for too long.

Geeker: Someone who uses a lot of drugs.

Giga-Chad: A Chad among Chads.

Glaze: To overly praise someone, often insincerely, or with the hope of getting something in return.

Gleek: An older slang term that is gaining prominence lately, gleeking describes squirting saliva from under the tongue.

Glizzy: Hot dog. "Glizzy" was originally slang for Glock or gun, but came to mean hot dog based on the hot dog shape of a Glock's magazine.

Green fn: An interjection one might used when someone does something cool or impressive. Often used ironically. 

Gooner: A man who goons. (See "gooning.")

Goonette: A woman who goons. (See "gooning.")

Gooning: Extended masturbation without orgasm done for the purpose of entering an altered state of consciousness. (See "gooner," "goonette.")

Gyatt or Gyat: Once an interjection used when seeing someone sexy, like “god-DAMN,” “gyatt” has come to mean “attractive booty.”

Hewwo: An overly cute way of saying "hello." Usually used online, and often ironically.

HGS: Abbreviation for "home girls" used in comment sections.

Hozier yell: Named for singer/songwriter Andrew Hozier, a "Hozier yell" refers to the sound one makes when experiencing a peak, climactic, and/or awe-inspiring moment.

Hurkle-durkle: Based on an archaic Scottish word, “hurkle-durkle” means to lounge in bed after it is time to get up. See also: “bed-rotting."

Huzz: -uzz slang for "hoes." See "bruzz" and "-uzz."

"It's giving": Used to convey that something has a specific vibe. Example: "That dude texts you every 10 minutes; it's giving desperate."

"It's so over": The situation is hopeless. The opposite of "we're so back." See also: "Doomer."

IWEL: This comment-section acronym is short for "I wouldn't even lie." Sometimes written as "IWL."

Jelqing: The use of stretching or weights in an attempt to increase penis size.

Jit: A kid. Used ironically online.

Jittleyang: Supposedly from Baltimore slang, this is a nonsense word used so people will ask what it means but never receive an answer. See also: "Fuhuhluhtoogan."

JOMO: A play on FOMO (fear of missing out) JOMO is an acronym that stands for “joy of missing out.”

Jugg: To grab quickly or to steal.

"Learn Chinese": Sports slang directed at failing players. They are in danger of being sent to play in China, so they should "learn Chinese."

Looksmaxxing: Maximizing one’s physical attractiveness through personal grooming, working out, and dressing stylishly. See also: “-maxxing.”

-maxxing: A suffix used with any word to indicate trying to improve. Seeing your friends could be called "friendmaxxing," working out could be called "gymmaxxing," making jokes could be called "jestermaxxing," etc.

Mid: Average, bland, expected.

Mewing: A facial exercise meant to strengthen the jawline.

Mirror sex: Using a mirror to watch yourself have sex.

Mog: To be more attractive than someone, usually in an intentional or aggressive way. Example: "I was rizzing up this girl, but he walked in and totally mogged me."

"My 90 in a 30": A song played while driving that inspires speeding.

Neurospicy: A different way of saying “neuro-divergent.”

NPC: Non-player character. Originally describing video game characters, NPC is now used on the internet to mean people who don't think for themselves.

Opp: Short for "opposition." Someone who is out to get you. An enemy.

Performative male: An insult for young men whose tastes, hobbies, and lifestyle are seen as a performance aimed at obtaining societal approval, especially the approval of young women.

Pink cocaine: Also known as "pink snow," pink cocaine is slang for a powdered drug mixture that usually contains some combination of ketamine, MDMA, meth, opioids, and other substances.

Pole: A gun. See "up pole."

"Press F for respect:" In 2014 video game Call of Duty: Advanced Warfighter, the player attends a funeral and a prompt is given that reads "Press F to pay respects." Now, a singular "F" in a chat window indicates respect. It's usually ironic.

Regarded: “Regarded” is algo-speak for “retarded."

"Reheating your own nachos:" This slang phrase comes from cultural critics in online fandom communities. It refers to performers and/or artists whose new works are seen as trying to recapture what was good about their previous artistic output. It's not always negative; it's possible to successfully reheat your own nachos.

Rizz: As a noun, "rizz" means charisma. As a verb, "rizz" or "rizz up" means attracting someone with your charisma.

Serve: Wearing a particularly stylish outfit. See also: "ate."

Serve cunt: To act in a powerfully and unapologetically feminine way; to slay.

Sharking: Looking for people to hook up with.

Sigma male: An internet-created male classification, a "sigma male" is as dominant as an alpha male, but is outside the male hierarchy, i.e.: a lone wolf. Originally used seriously, the concept was so widely derided it's now almost always used ironically. (See "Alpha male" and "Beta male.")

Skibidi: Named after “Skibidi Toilet,” a popular series of YouTube videos, “skibidi” itself has no specific meaning, beyond ridiculing the overuse of slang itself. See “brain-rot.”

Skrt: Onomatopoetic word for the sound of tires squealing upon acceleration.

Snatched: Very attractive and/or flawlessly styled. 

Spawn point: Mother. Based on the spot you start in a video game.

Spoopy: Spooky.

Striker: Stolen/no-title car.

Surf Dracula: A hyper-specific phrase that describes "prestige" television series. The joke is that if there were an older TV show called "Surf Dracula," Dracula would be surfing in every episode, but modern shows would make the whole first season about how Dracula got his surfboard.

Sweat: A person who tries too hard, usually used in reference to video games. The adjective form is "sweaty."

SYBAU: An online acronym that stands for “shut your bitch ass up.”

Tradwife: Believer in traditional married gender roles.

Treatler (and Treatlerite): "Treatler" and "Treatlerite" are online insults that combine "treat" and "Hitler" to refer to entitled users of services like Doordash or Uber Eats who regard luxury delivery services as a human right, and don't consider the hardships of the people who do the work that makes "private taxis for burritos" possible.

TS: TS originally was AAVE shorthand for "this shit," but it is often used to just mean "this."

Turnt: Excited or intoxicated, or excitedly intoxicated.

Unc: Short for "uncle," used to describe slightly older people. Example: "The class of 2024 are unc-status to the class of 2028." See "yunc."

-uzz: -uzz slang words use "uzz" at the end of any word, so "bros" becomes "bruzz," "hoes" becomes "huzz," "granny" becomes "gruzz," etc.

Up pole: To raise a gun.

Twelve: Police.

Twin: Best friend.

"We're so back": Opposite of "it's so over."

Wojack: The name of a style of internet drawings used to quickly stereotype someone. See this post for a full explanation of the Wojak universe.

Yapping: Describes a presentational style often seen on online streams of talking a lot and/or quickly while not saying anything worthwhile.

Yeet: To quickly and/or forcibly eject.

Yunc: Yunc is a variation of "unc." In AAVE, a "yn" is a "young n-word." So "yunc" means something like "young uncle," or a person who may be young but has uncle vibes or unc status.

Zoomer Perm: A curly on top, short on the sides haircut popular among young people. 

For your listening pleasure

Sep. 15th, 2025 01:08 pm
mrissa: (Default)
[personal profile] mrissa
 Here's a video of me reading my own poetry for the first time, with SFWA's Speculative Poetry Open Mic. I have not listened to it because I cannot bear listening to myself, but I have hopes that other people feel differently about it....
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Posted by Ayala Sorotsky

Hey you! Yes, you, the hopeless romantic cat pawrent scrolling memes while thinking about your crush. Don't try to deny it, we see you. Imagine this: you're sitting around, replaying all the cute little moments in your head, trying to figure out the purrfect way to let them know how you feel. Then your cat wanders in, gives you that slow-blink of trust, and suddenly it hits you - what's more romantic than sending cat memes? Absolutely nothing.

Think about it: you're not just sliding into their DMs, you're sliding in with whiskers, toe beans, and purrs. That's basically love language 101. Cats already know the art of wooing - the head boops, the snuggles, the dramatic stares - so why not borrow a little inspurration from the experts?

Lucky for you, we've already gathered the ultimate collection of romantic cat memes. Whether you want to say "you're pawsitively ameowzing" or "I'm not kitten around about you", these memes do all the heavy lifting. Sweet, silly, and stuffed with enough feline charm to make hearts melt, they're ready to spark something meowgical.

So go ahead, pick your faves, hit send, and let the memes do the talking. Who knows? This could be the beginning of your very own purrfect love story.

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