solarcat | Network

I've had a very lazy day today as James has been off doing a community overtime event for work. So, I've been tidying up indoors, given the garden a good soak and got caught up online. Well, the DW posts anyway, I've still got so much TV to watch, and yes, I know, the tiniest violin needed for me.

Tomorrow we're taking my MiL out for a belated birthday lunch, so I've enjoyed the quiet do very little day. Even enjoying the sunshine and the heat, due to not having to actually do anything but waft around in it.

Sunshine revival challenge prompt now.

Journaling prompt: What are your favorite summer-associated foods?
Creative prompt: Draw art of or make graphics of summer foods, or post your favorite summer recipes. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

The first thing that came to mind here was beach sandwiches. Which were the chopped salad cream, egg and tomato sandwiches my mam used to make for us when I was a kidlet. We'd head off to the beach, and have a picnic, and the sandwiches were always soggy, flat, and always had sand in them, no matter how carefully they were handled. But, at the same time, they always tasted delicious, especially so as mam used to buy a carton of chips to share while eating them.

A more up to date summer food. I was in the garden picking strawberries, raspberries, chillis and pea pods yesterday. There aren't that many of them as I only have a small garden, and the tomatoes haven't started to ripen yet. But, I thought the bowl looked pretty.

feurioo in

tv_talk

Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

sholio

I wrote another Murderbot 1x10 episode missing scene.

Echoes (gen, 2500 words, Gurathin-centric)
Summary redacted because of spoilers; basically Gurathin's POV on some of the events of the finale.

A few notes on the fic (spoilery for both fic and episode):

under here

• I kept tweaking Gura's final line to Murderbot, so it might be a bit different if you read an earlier version. (I felt like I needed to soften it from how it originally was. They are hard to write! Especially keeping their edge when they're so soft in the final scene.)

• We know Murderbot has trouble figuring out what it's feeling, but I also think it's very plausible that Gurathin has the same problem, if not as badly. He's repressed so much for so long. Asking himself to identify exactly what emotions he's feeling is something that some therapist or other taught him to do.

• This is not necessary context for the fic and it's entirely subject to interpretation, but what I was thinking when it wrote it is that Murderbot using "its" for augmented humans in its last line of dialogue to Gurathin is actually MB doing roughly the same thing (except more emotionally positive) that Gurathin is doing in the episode of the show where he's arguing with Mensah and calls it "he" and then corrects himself to "it." It's over-identifying and doesn't even realize that it's doing so; I mean, it's worried about Gurathin, obviously, and that's why it's here, but there's also a certain amount of "we are the same kind of creature" going on here, even though it doesn't realize it's relating to him on that level. It knows that he might have damaged himself with the data overload because it also knows that it might damage itself in a similar way, and he has much less storage to handle it. And it's just kind of subconsciously being concerned about him as it might be concerned about a fellow construct, or itself, having taken damage. Of course neither of them parses all of that consciously.

In other events, Terrible Temperature Troubles Flash Exchange revealed gifts tonight! I got two absolutely delightful gifts - An Official Complaint Against the Universe (Babylon 5, Vir & Londo, hypothermia and h/c) and Consequences of Cold (Biggles, Biggles/EvS, snuggling when chilled). I loved them!

And finally,

hurtcomfortex author reveals were tonight. I wrote Sleepover (MASH, 1700 words, Margaret POV) with huddling for warmth and light comfort after nightmares.

puddleshark in

common_nature

( A walk in the July woods... )

dine

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

azurelunatic

Caught Yellface with her WHOLE HEAD inside the Fritos bag.

ao3_highlanderseries_feed

Posted by KristenMaraMusingsOnBuckyBarnes

https://archiveofourown.org/works/67397217

by KristenMaraMusingsOnBuckyBarnes

What if in ‘Comes a Horseman’, Methos and Duncan got to talk in the dojo, instead of Cassandra appearing when she did…

Words: 1380, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Highlander: The Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Categories: Gen
Characters: Duncan MacLeod, Methos (Highlander)
Relationships: Duncan MacLeod & Methos (Highlander)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s05e12 Comes a Horseman, Alternate Universe, what if, Angst

https://archiveofourown.org/works/67397217

anr

Through the Dark Side of the Mornin' (1125 words) by anr
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (TV 2023), The Walking Dead - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Daryl Dixon/Carol Peletier
Characters: Carol Peletier, Daryl Dixon
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Hallucinations, Sharing a Sleeping Space, Touch, Post-Episode s02e06: Au Revoir Les Enfants, The Book Of Carol
Summary: She struggles to keep the mask on after awhile.

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: Kygo & Selena Gomez - It Ain't Me

princessofgeeks

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

Current Mood: enthralled

chazzbanner

Today I did an experiment.

I had nothing scheduled today, and put only two things on my mental list (beyond the usual).

One was to double-check the route to a family reunion, and the other was to shower and wash my hair.

I did both.

The experiment was to see if I became aimless, bored, and unhappy.

Luckily, I didn't. Not really. I finished clearing out 'a bag', scrubbed the tub (a bit), and remembered my password for checking voicemail (success!). I went to SJs for coffee and didn't buy something to eat; :-) It was hot and humid out, so I did a stairs walk.

The only regret - when it comes to timing - is that I'm about two thirds of the way through a mystery and I don't what to push myself and stay up late reading it.

Oh dear, it's been nearly a week since I wrote in my (regular) journal. Off to do that now.

-

oriolegirl

No webinar today. Late last night, I was thinking about getting up in the morning and sitting on chat for three hours and couldn't stand the thought. So I decided to take a mental health day. I almost always set an alarm, even on days I plan to sleep in, but although I thought about it last night, I apparently didn't actually do it. I woke up about 10 minutes before the webinar. Ahahaha.

Of course, now my entire day is fucked up. I live with a carefully balanced schedule of vitamins and supplements, meds, and meals. Super duper multivitamins and iron have to be taken at least 2 hours apart from the (3x/day) calcium chews, and need to be taken with food. I woke up so late that there was no breakfast which meant having to rearrange things so I could still take my vitamins and iron with lunch and get the breakfast calcium chew in with a snack, which I had after coming back from a haircut and long walk.

The temperature is rather nice and there's a lovely cool breeze. Alas, it's so effing humid that my clothes were sticking to me and I had to take a quick cold shower when I got home. *sigh*

There's a new edited volume just out about women in quantum physics. One of the essays is about someone I came across in Seaborg's journals. My copy arrived today, so I'm hoping to read that this evening.

yourlibrarian in

common_nature

After returning to the 84/30 we ended up at the Bonneville Dam in search of a bathroom! It was a good stop though as the view (and sound) of the dam was impressive. ( Read more... )

musesfool

Two guys came and measured the space for my new dishwasher and it will apparently fit, but there are as always several - okay, 2 - unexpected wrinkles: 1. the current machine is hardwired into the electric, but the new dishwasher needs a plug, so the installers are going to have to build an outlet? These 2 guys didn't seem to think it was a big deal but it is another $75, which at this point is whatever, fine. Secondly, they were concerned that the installation might damage the drain pipe under my sink, and I was like, can we wrap it in something to protect it from being dinged? and they were like, "Eh, maybe, but if it breaks you're responsible for fixing it." Which, thanks. I suppose I can get under there and wrap a towel around it if necessary.

So we'll see how this goes on Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't completely wreck my kitchen!

Speaking of wrecking my kitchen, my current HGTV viewing is "Help! I wrecked my house!" which I'm enjoying, but oh my god, the sheer hubris of some of these mediocre white men, who think they can demo a kitchen or a bathroom down to the studs and then figure out how to put in a new one, and then have to call Jasmine because of course they can't. I don't understand these people, tbh. There is nothing wrong with asking a trained professional to come in and do that kind of work, especially if you're not particularly handy. (And even you are handy in the "can change a washer in the faucet" variety, what makes you think you can install a shower from the ground up??? WTF?) On the other hand, I am really sympathetic to the folks who did hire a contractor who turned out to be shady and didn't do the work properly and stiffed them of their money to boot!

In other news, I am now on vacation and very excited about it! Except shit, I forgot to set up my out of office message. I will have to log back in and do that.

*

Current Mood: anxious
Current Music: Find the River - REM

oursin

This time it was online, in Teams, and worked a bit better than some Team events I've attended, or maybe I'm just getting used to it.

A few hiccups with slides and screen sharing, but not as many as there might have been.

Possibly we would rather attend a conference not in our south-facing sitting-room on a day like today....

But even so it was on the whole a good conference, even if some of the interdisciplinarity didn't entirely resonate with me.

And That There Dr oursin was rather embarrassingly activating the raised hand icon after not quite every panel, but all but one. And, oddly enough, given that that was not particularly the focus of the conference, all of my questions/comments/remarks were in the general area of medical/psychiatric history, which I wouldn't particularly have anticipated.

Off to spend the night in Southern Wisconsin to visit w/mom and my aunt. Absolute last minute, I decided to reserve a hotel room for the night so that I can do a chill meander home rather than head back after dinner. I have some errands I need to do in the Western suburbs, so this makes a certain level of sense. Also, I can sleep in without Wink being a dick.

Side note: I think we do need to pop Wink back up to the higher dose of steroids. She's vomited more and if I have to put up with her being hangry 24/7, I want her to be able to keep it down.

I've also caught up on my "reading goal" for the year. As mentioned, I'm having a bit of an issue reading much in the way of traditionally published stuff. I've been predominantly listening to audiobooks (13/15 books I've read this year have been audiobooks) and managed to speed through a couple last week.

I managed to finish one of the books that's been on my 'indefinite pause' shelf for quite a while, so yay for me! NGL, "Batavia's Graveyard" by Mike Dash is an absolute slog. Plus the last chapter's definition of psychopathic traits in people was... a bit much in the current climate. It's also a bracing reminder that the Netherlands were just as colonial-minded as the rest of Europe and just as shitty to people as England AND Spain AND Portugal AND Sweden.

I also sped through "Rebel Girl" by Kathleen Hanna. I was a smidge too young for the art/punk/music scene of the late 80's/early 90's, but very much came up in the aftermath. Hanna's life was a hard sit and the book is a hard read in some parts, but I did really enjoy the overall read. She's got a pretty specific voice and it was interesting to get more context in book form as I'd watched "The Punk Singer" a decade ago. It had been featured on a podcast I'd been listening to at the time (the documentary arm of "What Are You Doing Movie?" that ended in ~2015 or so?) and the editor was interviewed about the film. And I was so interested in the weird BTS stuff that I tracked down the movie. Anyway, good for Hanna. She's a person doing her best.

Now, due to road trip, I am back on my weird spirits history bullshit. Got "Bourbon Empire" on deck and it's apparently about how Bourbon got classified as a "It's made in the US if it's called bourbon!" drink. Like Champagne or Tequila, etc. I had zero idea that bourbon is corn-based, but this explains why my body tolerates it as an alcohol so well. Generally corn, rice, and and barley are my more tolerated carbs, while potato, wheat, juniper, and sugar cane are no bueno for me. TBF, I paid zero attention to alcohol for the first ~22 years of my life and am a Cider Person if I care about booze at all. I'll talk heritage apple varietals all damn day, but please miss me with still drinks, plz.

I'm also looking forward to tonight so I can make some progress on my fiction book. I'm reading "Lightning in her Hands" by Raquel Vasquez-Gilliand, which is the second of her adult romance series. I really do love this author a bunch (she's a poet and you can tell!), but this series is a bit of a hard sit for me. There's a whole lot of generational trauma here, but it's not a brand I feel super cathartic about? I have 100% been working through my daddy and personal issues with fanfic over the last few years, but this series does not fall into that "working through it" groove. Not to say it's a bad book! It's just with the character that I'm absolutely going to have the hardest time being sympathetic with/to for reasons that go opposite to my own damage. But! It's good for me to read challenging things! And I want to try and bop through it by the end of next week as that's when it's due.