luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
luzula ([personal profile] luzula) wrote2025-12-18 11:13 pm
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Write every day: Day 18

Had a writing session with [personal profile] garonne, which shook some stuff loose. Wrote 300 words. How about you?

Tally:
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Day 17: [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] garonne, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] chestnut_pod, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] goddess47, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] sanguinity,

Bonus farm news: Today I learned the basics of how to use the chain saw from housemate. No more am I dependent on a man when I want to cut down a small tree or sever a piece of wood! \o/
lillilah: (Default)
lillilah ([personal profile] lillilah) wrote2025-12-18 07:03 pm

Drains

I've tried cleaning drains with those stupid enzyme sticks, but nothing works better, as far as I can tell, than getting some kind of drain cleaning brush and sticking it down the drain. I wish I had known this years ago. Would have made lots of things easier.
mxcatmoon: pink flying pig eating Fritos (Pig)
My Fannish Corner ([personal profile] mxcatmoon) wrote2025-12-18 12:18 am
Entry tags:

A poll about socks

 I have a burning question (that came to me while putting my socks on), so I made a poll.

Feel free to wax poetically about the topic in the comments. What about your characters? Sonny Crockett famously does not wear them. Rico does, but to tell you the truth, I haven't paid them much attention (I'll have to fix that).

Poll #33968 Sock Habits
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 17


Do you have left and right socks?

View Answers

Of course! Can't wear socks on the wrong feet!
3 (17.6%)

No, it doesn't matter
13 (76.5%)

I don't wear socks
0 (0.0%)

I refuse to answer on the grounds it may incriminate me, but ticky boxes!
1 (5.9%)

cornerofmadness: (Default)
cornerofmadness ([personal profile] cornerofmadness) wrote2025-12-17 11:53 pm
Entry tags:

Things I did not need

1. To find out my insurance changed coverage and I owed money on a script (not much, just enough to be annoying AF)

2. That CVS doesn't have my insulin. Again. I know why. They have a fucking dorm fridge to store all insulins, GPL1s and vaccine (plus other meds surely that I don't know but need refrigerated)

3. taking a half hour to get thru the CVS line and the line to the car wash was even longer so I had to skip it (I had a thing I had to get to) which sucks because I was on the ground floor of the parking garage yesterday and the level above me is outside and they salted it and it dripped everywhere.

4. There was an 18 wheeler on its side and I was thinking that is going to take me forever to get home but they did something I've never seen before. About 5 miles north of the accident they put up 'accident head' signs and moved everyone over there and there was no back up.

5. My olive oil brined garlic leaked in the pantry bin. I was digging through to find the food part of my parents' holiday gift and it didn't just leak, it coated everything in at least an inch of oil. It took over an hour to clean off every can and bottle and toss out things in boxes. Ugh. Ruined my clothes in the process.


6. My vascular surgeon never called in my meds.


At least I got the car partially packed. I still have to clean the kitchen in the morning since the damn pantry issue took up too much time.


Still half ready to cry. But I had my writers zoom thingie and I'm 4K into a story.

What I Just Finished Reading:

Death at the Door - paranormal mystery wanted to bitch slap the protagonist


What I am Currently Reading:


To Die Once - a Maisie Dobbs mystery which I haven't read one of these in a while and this is...slow. It's way more about the effect of war on the English people (who were still recovering from WWI) than it's a mystery


Tell Tale Treat - another paranormal mystery with another protagonist ripe for being bitch slapped



What I Plan to Read Next: Poorly Made and Other Things
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
luzula ([personal profile] luzula) wrote2025-12-17 10:15 pm
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Write every day: Day 17

No writing, alas, but tomorrow I have a writing session with my beta reader, so hopefully that'll get me going again. How about you?

Tally:
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Day 16: [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] brithistorian, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] garonne, [personal profile] goddess47, [personal profile] garonne

Day 17: [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] garonne

Bonus farm news: Housemate made parmesan cheese (well, it will be after a year's storage) which gave us 20 liters of whey as a byproduct, which I am now boiling down to Scandinavian whey "cheese". It's brown and sweet from the caramelized sugar of the whey, and not actually cheese. (Note: we do not have cows. We bought the milk from a farmer's market.)
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lillilah ([personal profile] lillilah) wrote2025-12-17 08:43 pm
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Podcast script ready!

Phew! I didn't have enough songs for the next episode of my podcast, but yesterday, one of the musicians who I've played many times on the show put out a Christmas album. I found a song that worked with the show I've been putting together and sent him a message. I also took a song that doesn't require permission and another that I got permission for last year and added them to the two songs I had permission for. Today, I wrote up the script (faster than usual). Hopefully, I'll manage to record it tomorrow.

I also finished carving the top of a little wooden container that I've been carving for a friend of mine. One trick is to wear gardening gloves, so that you don't have to stop working on it because you are getting blood all over everything. It is _very_ rough looking, but I'm hoping that some sanding tomorrow will make it a bit better. Also, I just don't imagine that I'm going to get all that much better with it, so this is what we've got.
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
luzula ([personal profile] luzula) wrote2025-12-16 09:14 pm
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Write every day: Day 16

Oops, I had the draft of this post open yesterday evening, but forgot to post it! How did your writing go? I, um, opened my document and looked at it, but there was no writing. Unless I count the course plans I worked on for my job, which I will not.

Tally:
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Day 15: [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] brithistorian, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] goddess47, [personal profile] the_siobhan, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] chestnut_pod

Day 16: [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] brithistorian, [personal profile] sanguinity

Bonus farm news: Housemate is sawing up a section of a large oak trunk that we got when the neighbors had a tree cut down. Among other things, he plans to make a large oak table for the living room out of two of the (very wide and heavy!) planks. Which will now need drying for two years before said table can be made, but I think it will be gorgeous.
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cornerofmadness ([personal profile] cornerofmadness) wrote2025-12-16 11:04 pm

Warp nine

That's how my day is moving. Even working with timers I got so very little done and it was suddenly it was time to go to the endocrinologist. I could use another day down here but I'm afraid to go home friday. Thursday is meant to be nearly 60 and raining but then down to freezing again. I'd rather be home to avoid that.

I'm getting to that overwhelmed, gonna cry state. But at least I finally got the damn holiday lights out there (boy that little solar panel battery is something. They turned on immediately after being in a closet for a year. I put the garland on the other side of my porch, the one that's collapsing. I think at this point the garland is gonna be what's holding up the side rail if it get another heavy snow.


It looks like maybe, just maybe I can keep most of my meds and/or qualify for coupons. I make like 200$ too much a month to qualify for medical assistance. Let that sink in for a little while. We're doctors. We're college professors. Our pay is SO low we almost qualify for medicaid. And If I had kids I WOULD qualify. And oh, I signed up for the new insurance with the 9K deductible. It's costing 1100$ a month. Let that one soak in too. FFS. No wonder they won't hire help for my department.

My blood work is not great. My kidneys are working great but with my HGA1C sneaking ever higher. That's not great. I'm unhappy which is only going to make my sugar higher thanks to the stress. At least my hemoglobin is coming up. I still have too many tiny pale red blood cells but they're functioning better than last time. She did agree I'll probably have to start B12 shots. Cries. But at least the evolutionary bullshit adaptation for malaria is behaving itself for now.

From there I went to Gallipolis for dinner and the Christmas lights. I knew the Mexican place (since it's owned by the same brothers as the one in Jackson) would be giving out those envelopes for free stuff in January. I was laughing at the new offerings. One of them is punny. Juan Huge Burrito.

the lights were beautiful. They always are. I didn't upload the pictures yet. I will. but I haven't even showed you anything for months.


I forgot my tea advent again

Day 12 - Rocky Mountains - National Park Tea Black teas, raspberry leaf, raspberry flavor, sage leaf, and raspberry pieces. How did I miss this one? I had a sample box of these ones. either I had gotten a bad sample then because this was phenomenal very raspberry

Day 13 - Rooibos Sweet Sizzlin Cinnamon Herbal Tisane Rooibos, organic cinnamon pieces, sweet sizzlin cinnamon flavor and safflower petals. At least the cinnamon overpowers the rooibos funk.

Day 14 Apple Sage Black Tea black teas, apple pieces, natural apple sage flavoring and blackberry leaf. oddly weak sauce and boring. At least it didn't taste like sage

Day 15 Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Black Tea Blend Black teas from India, Sri Lanka, China and Taiwan and bergamot oil. They have a whole collection of literature inspired teas (Poe is my favorite) What says Dostoyevsky about this? Nothing but it is a nice complex earl grey

day 16 Snickerdoodle Rooibos Herbal Tisane Organic Green Rooibos, organic cinnamon pieces, sweet blackberry leaf and snickerdoodle flavoring. Needs more snickerdoodle/cinnamon


Fannish 50 Spoilers for The Amazing Digital Circus episode 7 )
larryhammer: Yotsuba Koiwai running, label: "enjoy everything" (enjoy everything)
Larry Hammer ([personal profile] larryhammer) wrote2025-12-16 07:51 am

“i just found this smile to think about you / you’re a saturday night far from the madding crowd”

A link for you, and a link for you, and, yes, a link for you, too. All three are for the anonymous gifter of a paid account -- thank you, whoever you are:

Drone videos of black sand beaches in Iceland.

There I Ruined It presents Santa Claus Is Coming to Town as sung by Radiohead, to the tune of “Creep.” (via)

A contemporary (1813) review of Pride and Prejudice. That Mr Collins was considered a recognizable type and not a caricature is interesting. (via lost)

---L.

Subject quote from On Grafton Street, Nanci Griffith.
cornerofmadness: (Default)
cornerofmadness ([personal profile] cornerofmadness) wrote2025-12-15 10:15 pm
Entry tags:

Could have done without that

I mean I had a decent day and I'm sitting down to my dinner of crunchy roll sushi and I dropped my plate. It hits my pint glass of water. The water hits and destroys 100$ worth of coupons I would have used, destroys a pile of research articles. Sushi sails everywhere. It gets cat hair on it and I have to pick it out because that's all I have for dinner. Gah.

I got my blood drawn. It was easy and she left no marks. I had time to go to the coffee shop for breakfast and coffee.

Look how cute that is

Went to the school, got the stuff printed that I needed and got my plants into the greenhouse and signed up for my shit new insurance before I forgot.

And then somehow it was dinner.


And then I saw this latest insult from the monster in charge cut because not everyone wants to see what Trump tweeted about Rob Reiner )


Music Monday - the prompt this week is A song you like from a movie soundtrack

One of the few things I liked from this movie



Ditto this movie
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
luzula ([personal profile] luzula) wrote2025-12-15 10:31 pm
Entry tags:

Write every day: Day 15

Writing was on my to-do list, but unfortunately it had too much competition, and now I'm too tired. How about you?

Tally:
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Day 14: [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] goddess47, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] chestnut_pod, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] carenejeans

Bonus farm news: Today I ate common salsify root for the first time. Tastes kind of like sunchoke/Jerusalem artichoke?
lillilah: (Default)
lillilah ([personal profile] lillilah) wrote2025-12-15 09:22 pm

Not getting things done

I had thought I could get the first step in framing my Star Wars paintings today, but I screwed up cutting the paper for the mat, so that didn't work. And I forgot that when you turn the paper over, left and right are flipped. * sigh * And the blade on the box cutter was dull. Of course, all I need to do is snap off the blade, and then it is sharp, but I tore up the paper before I realized that, so it was screwed up in three ways, which is a sign that I needed to do it again. Also, I wrote a review for the book review site that I was really happy with, and then lost it, because of a technical thing. I need to change the way the form for writing the review is designed to avoid this. But not today.
mxcatmoon: Winter Star (Winter Star)
My Fannish Corner ([personal profile] mxcatmoon) wrote2025-12-15 01:37 pm

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Randy Rainbow posted another fabulous parody a week ago for the holidays, if you haven't seen it.

Note: political topics and swearing.


larryhammer: a wisp of colored smoke, label: "softly and suddenly vanished away" (endings)
Larry Hammer ([personal profile] larryhammer) wrote2025-12-15 09:04 am
Entry tags:

“Only the querulous cricket grieves, / And shrilling locust weaves / A song of summer dead.”

For Poetry Monday, more autumn from an early Modernist:

Leaves, Frederic Manning

A frail and tenuous mist lingers on baffled and intricate branches;
Little gilt leaves are still, for quietness holds every bough;
Pools in the muddy road slumber, reflecting indifferent stars;
Steeped in the loveliness of moonlight is earth, and the valleys,
Brimmed up with quiet shadow, with a mist of sleep.

But afar on the horizon rise great pulses of light,
The hammering of guns, wrestling, locked in conflict
Like brute, stone gods of old struggling confusedly;
Then overhead purrs a shell, and our heavies
Answer, with sudden clapping bruits of sound,
Loosening our shells that stream whining and whimpering precipitately,
Hounding through air athirst for blood.

And the little gilt leaves
Flicker in falling, like waifs and flakes of flame.


Manning (1882-1935) was an Australian-born writer best known for his WWI novels, but he was also a significant Imagist. This is from 1915.

---L.

Subject quote from In August, William Dean Howells.
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cornerofmadness ([personal profile] cornerofmadness) wrote2025-12-14 10:42 pm

Writerly Ways

I'm still rather tired out and lacking motivation but as I was wrapping gifts today I was half watching Hudson & Rex which is about all I ever do (Not a mystery show I'm very invested in but it has a cute dog (who is the least realistic police dog ever)) and this episode brings me back to a point I made a while back with prequels.

When you want to do a flashback (or prequel) you need to be sure of what you want to convey and how effective it'll be. In the above mentioned show it tried hard to add tension with Hudson and Rex's first case together with the well the dog's handler is dead so we're most likely going to euthanize the K9 (something the united States stopped doing in the Clinton era, not sure about Canada where this takes place) But here's the thing it's going back and forth between 3 years in the past and the present where Rex IS Hudson's partner so we know for a fact that Rex isn't euthanized.

So there is NO tension and that is something we have to worry about when we're doing a flashback. You can't build tension when the reader/viewer already knows the answer. We need to be given new information or else the flashback feels pointless or at least a partial waste of time. Learning how Hudson and Rex first met = good use of flashback, trying to make me worry that Rex will be put to sleep = waste of my time. I know he isn't. I'm not going to invest in something I already know (Prequels have even bigger issues with this).

For me, a flash back needs to advance the present plot or fill in backstory we need (or at least want to have). Hazbin Hotel did a pretty good job of this with both Alastor (though his backstory was in the old notes but you can't b e sure they'd be considered canon any more) and Vox's (making so many fan theorists happy) Both flashbacks showed us how they ended up where they were and how they are. Yes we know they both end up overlords in hell but seeing how it happened was character building.

So I guess what I'm saying is know what you wnat from a flashback and be careful as to how you attempt it.

OPEN CALL


Space and Time January 2026 Window Science fiction, fantasy, horror, steampunk, magical realism

23rd Annual Triangulation Anthology: Bad RomanceBad Romance


SNAFU: Level Up LitRPG: tales of champions and heroes, villains and monsters, all fighting to beat the other into paste

The Deadlands December 2025 Window. Speculative fiction that concerns itself with death–but also everything death may involve

5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in December 2025

Lamp Lit: Now Seeking Submissions

42 Terrific International Literary Journals.


From Around the Web

The Psychology of Faustian Bargains

THE MORAL GHOST STORY: Reviving a Lost Christmas Tradition I keep saying I'm going to write these kind of stories but so far....

How to Edit (or Revise) a Novel Without Feeling Overwhelmed

Best Book Marketing Campaigns: 12 Proven Examples That Still Work Today

How to Write Horror - With Cynthia Pelayo

How To Build Story Tension by Sharing More (Not Less) with Daniel David Wallace

Do You Suck at Celebrating Your Success? Here's How We Change That, and Why It Matters

Six Sneaky Fails That Can Sink A Manuscript

How to Write a Bestselling Thriller: 7 Expert Tips from Lisa Gardner

How to Apply (and Get In) to Writing Mentorship Programs.

The Art of Not Knowing What You’re Writing Yet.

From Betty

Creating Rites of Passage

The Seven Worldbuilding Sins of Storytellers

How to Pace Your Story

Stakes: Everything Storytellers Need to Know

Tech Tips - How to Organize Your Novel Drafts

4 Ways to Protect Your Energy While Writing About Trauma

Freshen Up Tired Tropes Without Losing What Readers Love

What’s More Important: Storytelling or Writing Craft?

Coping Mechanism Thesaurus: Codependence (Caretaking Aspect)

Understanding the Editing Process: What Every Writer Should Know About Working With Editors

How Writers Can Set Achievable Goals for 2026: A Practical Guide to Planning, Deadlines, and Finishing Your Book Boy do I need this one.


ETA - Holy hell just as I posted I saw Rob & Michele Reiner were found dead today, a suspected homicide.
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
luzula ([personal profile] luzula) wrote2025-12-14 10:18 pm
Entry tags:

Write every day: Day 14

Alibi sentence (or rather, alibi finishing of an unfinished sentence). How about you?

Tally:
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Day 12: [personal profile] luzula, [personal profile] garonne, [personal profile] goddess47, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] chestnut_pod, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] ysilme

Day 13: [personal profile] goddess47, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] chestnut_pod, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] garonne, [personal profile] ysilme

Day 14: [personal profile] china_shop

Bonus farm news: Today I threshed some radish seeds.
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lillilah ([personal profile] lillilah) wrote2025-12-14 04:57 pm
Entry tags:

Reading

It is like if you spend four hours reading a book in the morning, then you have less time later in the day to do everything that needs to get done. How does this happen?
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cornerofmadness ([personal profile] cornerofmadness) wrote2025-12-13 11:08 pm
Entry tags:

Not As Expected

Stormaggedon was less than the snow that canceled class last week and no one made a stink about that one. I'm not complaining mind you. I have enough snow to look pretty without being obnoxious. No power loss and no one is complaining about that.

I finished the last of the grading and the gradebook is done. Me being questioned by the students is not. eye roll.

Most of the day was spent editing [community profile] fandomtrees which took longer than it should have but two of the stories are posted. I have more editing to do and then back to writing more.

I started wrapping gifts. Didn't get far. I am...not too happy with myself. I need in all seriousness to make that file I was talking about. On the other hand 2 people I have enough for their birthdays next year too. Now I have to decide how to distribute things.

Tomorrow is supposed to be brutally cold here. So far Rocket seems content to be inside.

Let's have a nice big science saturday


One Critical Factor Predicts Longevity Better Than Diet or Exercise, Study Says It's sleep

New discoveries at Hadrian's Wall are changing the picture of what life was like on the border of the Roman Empire

Laughing Gas Can Offer Immediate Relief From Depression, Study Finds It's a small student but interesting. This is the second psychoactive chemical they're finding works for depression.


Widespread cold virus you've never heard of may play key role in bladder cancer oncogenic viruses are fascinating and scary AF


A 180-Year Assumption About Light Was Just Proven Wrong


'They had not been seen ever before': Romans made liquid gypsum paste and smeared it over the dead before burial, leaving fingerprints behind, new research finds

Insomnia and anxiety come with a weaker immune system — a new study starts to unravel why

Einstein was right: Time ticks faster on Mars, posing new challenges for future missions

'It is the most exciting discovery in my 40-year career': Archaeologists uncover evidence that Neanderthals made fire 400,000 years ago in England
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
luzula ([personal profile] luzula) wrote2025-12-13 03:44 pm
Entry tags:

Write every day: Day 13

200 words of longfic again! How about you?

Tally:
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Day 12: [personal profile] luzula, [personal profile] goddess47, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] chestnut_pod

Bonus farm news: I was applying my new-won knowledge of proper lifting technique today when I was stacking firewood, and did every instance of picking up wood very mindfully, and lo, it works! \o/ It didn't make my back tired, and it feels like my butt got a workout. : D I'm really trying to ingrain this, and using it even when just picking up a sock from the floor, but it does take some time to make it automatic.