Thursday, February 5th, 2026 10:21 am

(This may get updated over the course of the day)

After struggling to get Zoom link downloaded and operating etc, managed to get into first session I wanted to attend, Foundling Hospital in early C20th, good grief, practices had not changed much in a century had they? Recipe for trauma in mothers, children, and the foster mothers who actually bonded with the children until they were taken away to be eddicated according to their station in life.

Then switched to a different panel and was IRKED by a lit person talking about the Women's Cooperative Guild Maternity: Letters from Working Women (1915) which they had only just encountered ahem ahem - was republished by I think Virago? Pandora? in 1970s - and women's history has done quite a bit on the WCG since then so JEEZ I was peeved at her assumption that the working women were not agents but the whole thing was being run by the upper/middle class activists who were most visibly involved. And wanted to query whether working women thought it was very useful to have posh laydeez able to put their cases re maternity, child welfare and so on in corridors of power, rather than deferentially curtseying??? (I should like to go back in time and ask my dear Stella Browne about that.)

Also on wymmynz voices not, or at least hard to trace, in the archives, I fancy this person does not know a) Marie Stopes' volume Mother England (1929), extracts of letters she had from women about motherhood and b) based on 1000s of letters surviving and available to researchers. I could, indeed, point to other resources, fume, mutter.

Update Well, there were some later papers I dropped in on and enjoyed (and was able to offer comment/questions on; but I was obliged to point out certain errors in a description of Joanna Russ's The Female Man (really I think if you are going to cite a work you should check details....) (and I suppose Mitchison's work was just outside the remit of what they were talking about, so I was very self-restrained and failed to go on about Naomi.)

Thursday, February 5th, 2026 10:33 am

The opening ceremony isn't until tomorrow evening, but women's ice hockey starts in about half an hour with Sweden facing Germany. Regrettably I have to do my day job, but I do have two monitors in the office ...

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Thursday, February 5th, 2026 10:16 am
Happy birthday, [personal profile] coffeeandink!
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 12:54 am
I reposted some of my longer 3 Sentence Ficathon fills on AO3.

An Immodest Proposal (Babylon 5)
State of Change (Babylon 5)
Hypotheticals (Gattaca)

And a new B5 fic, written a little while back because I had the idea, but not posted until now:

Reliquary (Babylon 5, post-canon, canon compliant, character deaths)

Reposted under the cut.

Reliquary - Babylon 5 - 1500 wds )
Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 10:47 pm
This book is hard to tag - it's basically cosmic horror, or horror scifi. It is also one of the creepiest and trippiest things I've read in a long time and maybe ever.

I kinda vaguely knew about SCP as a collaborative wiki project from the 2000s, with user-submitted descriptions of imaginary (and frequently extradimensional) objects. This book is based on it. It's about a group of characters who work for the Antimemetics Division of the SCP Foundation, a department most people don't know about (because it's impossible to remember it for more than a few minutes after finding out about it) that handles "antimemes," which are the opposite of memes - if memes are catchy and transmissible, antimemes are intentionally unmemorable, to an extent where you need to use extraordinary measures, such as memory-enhancing drugs, just to recognize that they exist at all. It's information that functions as anti-information. And it turns out there are living creatures with antimemetic properties, as well as weapons that use it ...

Lots and lots of spoilers )
Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 11:19 pm
Some gardens now have pink and white daisy-like flowers flourishing; coreopsis? On our walk, the housemate remarked on how warm it was. But the dog again wasn't into walkies. Another Spare the Air day tomorrow.
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 06:55 am

Most galaxies don't have any rings -- why does this galaxy have three? Most galaxies don't have any rings -- why does this galaxy have three?


Thursday, February 5th, 2026 12:24 am
This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...

* Posted "What Are Couple Goals And How Do We Achieve Them?" in [community profile] goals_on_dw.

* Posted "Sighting a Siberian Superstar: Local birder secures rare red-flanked bluetail for life list" in [community profile] birdfeeding.

* Commented in [community profile] awesomeers.
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 12:15 am
Crazy Boys Get Money (D Stories)
Summary: Two teens in Texas hook and heist their way out of danger. True story.
Series: LB autobio (D Stories)
Word Count: 8100
Notes: Winner by a long shot of the February fan poll. Depending on how this story is received, I’ll be pulling out more regarding this period of my life, a series called “the D Stories.” Normally I would break it into 3 installments, but due to the nature of the content, I have chosen to upload it all at once. I feel professionally obligated to disclaim that this story is not appropriate for anyone under 18… but this was my life when I was younger than that, and it's both insulting and degrading to say that my youth is unspeakable to the very age demographic it happens to.
Content warnings for anti-black racism; coerced, underaged, bad sex work, and (separate) consensual, okay teenage sex, along with the circumstances surrounding both. More information is in the comments.


Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 11:40 pm
good evening, my flist! if you're in a part of the us that got smacked with winter this past weekend i hope you came through it intact, and if you're in a part of the us that got smacked even harder the weekend before i hope you're all dug out by now. i missed TWO - count 'em - TWO snowstorms which honestly is a little disappointing altho the second storm was winter storm fern which buried greater boston in like a foot and a half of snow and wasn't too kind to a lot of the rest of the country either. so maybe i shouldn't complain too loudly.

and i missed two storms because i was in florida! visiting the mothership! and the boyfriend. (she moved in with him over the summer so i didn't exactly have a choice.) the week was MUCH better than last year's trip because the weather was warmer and sunnier and my sister didn't get sick and i got to do everything on my list. we ate at the spanish restaurant and the greek restaurant and i got a pedicure and we went to the james museum of western art (so much cool shit including some really fabulous contemporary native american art) and the mote aquarium (penguins! jellyfish! huge manatees! little sharks! i got to pet a ray!) and my sister and i went to the beach (tan! sand! gulf!) and two farmer's markets (the jam lady wasn't at either one but i did acquire a guava-and-cheese empanada which was yummy) and two art fairs and did i mention it was warm and sunny? and then my flight home was canceled twice because of the aforementioned winter storm fern and instead of getting back on sunday i got home on tuesday. which. whatever. i used my free monday to work on my story for writing group and the u was closed that day anyway. overall it was a good vacation but i was really ready to go home. it didn't even take as long to dig out my car as i was expecting.

the boyfriend really wanted me and my sister to feel comfortable in his house and personally i did - it helped that a lot of mom's stuff was there too - but he turns on the financial news at like seven in the morning, watches for an hour, changes the channel to the news, watches that, goes into the bedroom for a while and leaves the tv on, and he and mom listen to it LOUD. and i don't love being woken up at 7:30a on my vacation by the financial news on the tv at a frankly stupid volume. once or twice he went into his office and turned on the tv in there so there were competing news shows. >.< but if i asked - and i did - he would turn one of them off, or tell me i could. so he's kind of accommodating but also good lord, dude, turn the volume down. mom and my sister and i usually find something on tv to watch - one year it was yellowstone, one year it was a mexican series called who killed sara - but the boyfriend has pretty different tastes from us but we did catch some movies - jay kelly (liked it), the woman in cabin 10 (could've been better), and the rip (liked it and not just because i really enjoy ben affleck and matt damon in movies together).

and now i'm home where it's cold. phil predicted six more weeks of winter (maybe we'll get a little more snow?) but the best part of groundhog day was the various weather services getting kind of salty about a rodent acting like a meteorologist.

immigration enforecement in the us is a shitshow but you can also get crafty with your resistance. or get resistance-y with your crafts, i guess.

watch pandas playing in the snow.

yesterday was the westminster dog show (so many good boys and girls!). here's the highlights. also some photos. and are you curious why some dogs are named what they are? you are, admit it. :D
Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 10:02 pm
What is the American red wolf?

The American red wolf is the world’s most endangered. This species is found only in the United States, and fewer than 20 remain in the wild. It is one of the most endangered mammals on Earth.

Now, an unprecedented partnership between universities, government agencies, and biotechnology companies is using the latest genetic tools to save this iconic predator from extinction. The effort represents a new model for how technology may reshape wildlife conservation in the decades ahead.

Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 09:58 pm
Today is cloudy and cold.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a large flock of sparrows, several cardinals, and a starling.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 2/426 -- I did a bit of work around the patio. 

EDIT 2/426 -- I did more work around the patio. 

I am done for the night.

Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 09:52 pm
Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!


Read more... )
Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 09:37 pm
I could talk about how exhausting work is, not for any big thing but just because a regular project of mine has taken about twice as long as usual for a variety of reasons, but I am very close to it being done. I mean, will there be changes? Yes, but just getting it all down and confirmed will be a huge weight off my shoulders. Also, there's other stuff that makes me tired, but that is above my pay grade, even if I've got the new CEO calling me to talk it over(!!!).

In other news, I knew Panarin was going, and though I'm not thrilled about the return (I dislike Drury a lot as GM, but it is what it is while Dolan is in charge), I'm glad he's not in Florida. I don't want him in the east at all, so I can avoid seeing him on another team. (It helped with Kreider, too.)

Anyway, what I really want to talk about is the new episode of The Muppet Show that aired tonight. If you are a fan of the original, without spoilers let me say I recommend watching it. Hopefully it does well enough that they make more, because I thought it was 100% in the spirit of the original, unlike some of the more recent projects they've done.

spoilers )

So that definitely lifted my spirits and I hope you give it a watch and it lifts yours!

*
Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 04:45 pm
Behold, I have read a book!

1. Moniquill Blackgoose, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath – I did this as part of a sync read with [personal profile] lunasariel, [personal profile] cyanmnemosyne, and [personal profile] hidden_variable (though not all of us are yet finished), and you can see our in situ reactions as we read along here.

Back when this book first came out, a couple of flisters read it, and basically everything I learned about it from their write-ups made me feel like this book had been written just for me – magic school! dragons! learning to do chemistry with dragons at magic school! When I described this premise to L, her reaction was, “Did you black out and publish a novel?” So, yeah, this was incredibly well-suited to my interests, which raises the question of why it’s taken me nearly 3 years to read it, especially as I’ve owned a copy of this book for a while. And I liked it a lot! Not in an iddy way, which is a little bit of a surprise given just how well it aligns with some of my favorite tropes, but I’m both very glad that I finally read it and am curious to read more. (Book 2 is now out; let’s see if it takes me another 3 years to read it…)

More, with spoilers )

*

I have also watched a thing:

The Goes Wrong Show: [personal profile] rionaleonhart started posting gloriously cracktasting ficlets which were intriguing to read canon-blind (I’m a sucker for rivals-to-lovers, and Chris/Robert was clearly that), and also were giving me vaguely Taskmaster-y vibes in the combination of absurdity and disaster. And then Riona posted a very helpful fandom primer, from which I learned more context and also that the show was only about 6 hours of content (i.e. within my “impulse binge” parameters) and available to me to watch on YouTube. And I have now binged it, and had a great time, and am even more able to appreciate Riona’s Chris/Robert fic, heh.

More, with spoilers )

Great fun, and I’m sad there isn’t more to binge. (Well, I understand there are plays which predate the show, but I’d need to track them down somewhere.)
Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 07:41 pm
I had a mostly good day at work today! I actually was productive for almost all of it! Now I would _very much_ like to be done. Unfortunately I have a geometry team meeting and then an equity meeting.

But I am actually finished with prep for tomorrow, including slides which is something that hasn't been true in months.

***

Okay, wrote the above at about 1:30. I have since done both of those meetings (both of which were good --I was actually trying to write some of these words during the geometry team meeting, but it was too engaging and useful so I focused instead. Huzzah.)

I fucked around in my classroom for about an hour afterwards, despite being totally done with everything, then set Forest going and walked home. This meant I got home and still had just heaps of time on Power Hour mode which was extremely rude of me. But between good work day and that, here are the things I have done today:

*Made many copies of many things, but critically, all the papers for tomorrow's classes, except for the midterm review packets which weren't finished until the geometry team meeting. I'll try and get to work tomorrowmorn in time to do those.

*Prepped my classes the rest of the way, by like making slides and everything.

*Graded the do nows for the one class that did them (I am back to my old way and it's so much better, note to self, change is bad)

*Put together an answer key for the performance task the ninth graders are doing

*Also ran the performance task for both classes of ninth graders, including doing interference and answering questions and sometimes very pointedly not answering questions because like, y'all. This is technically an assessment. I need to assess if you know anything.

*My reward is that one of my groups opted for a horror movie poster when they got to the part that was "make a movie poster" and it's _great_. To be clear, the theme of the first part of the task is a football player on a field being illuminated by floodlights and it's all about shadow length and stuff. You need to make a poster for "Floodlights: The Movie", so mostly like, we get football themed stuff. Last year, it was a group that made a carnivorous football out for blood. This year, the subtitle is "the last QB" and they asked if they could cut off the head of the little clipart football player they're required to incorporate and I said yes as long as it still made it onto the poster somewhere, so he's just carrying it as the ball. I love my children so much. This bullet point isn't an accomplishment or anything, but it is just like, good.

*Had aforementioned good geometry team meeting (where we sorta slightly overwhelmed my new mentee with a little bit of "it's awesome that you want to help the students study for the midterm, do it with WAY less work") and good equity team meeting (where we got to be very slightly snarky about our secret agenda of helping promote academic equity).

*Walked home, am in the middle of some wild ass-daydreams, but that's fine, it's novel at least

*Put away all the hang-up laundry, which has badly needed it (since before Arisia)

*Began loads one (and subsequently two) of running laundry. I suspect there's four loads alltogether but there might be five because...

*Stripped the bed, remade the bed, brought the old sheets down to the washer

*Did a little bit of knitting while listening to music (listening to music is acceptable during a power hour as long as there is an absolute minimum of fucking around with what music. In this case, it was "search Seeming, hit play". I'm obsessed but you know what, it's better than listening to silence.)

*Put all the clean dishes away and reloaded the dishwasher

*Ate dinner! Which brings us to now, and theoretically writing my words and I could get into a loop, but I shant.

***

I'm trying to use Habitica again, after many ages, to track all my dailies and stuff. It's going pretty well! Today I only have four things left to do, and I actually might get them all done, which would be Very Impressive. We'll see how it goes.

My world is absolutely falling apart, especially on the macro level, but the good news is that everyone else around me is also living in 2026 in the united states, so they mostly get it. May we all make it through.

I love you, and hope you're doing well.

~Sor
MOOP!
Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 05:48 pm
Another boxed share due to the cold weather, so I was inspired to pull out the kitchen scale again.

  • about 9.5 pounds of carrots
  • about 4 pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes
  • about 4 pounds of red daikon
  • two medium bags of spinach
  • 2 4-ounce containers of salad mix sprouts from the Gill Greenery (alfalfa, China Rose radish, and crimson clover)
  • 0.75 pounds of little shiitake mushrooms from Mycoterra Farm

First thoughts: a lovely bowl of ramen with mushroom, carrot, and spinach. Slaws with carrot and/or daikon with either Asian-ish or mustardy dressing. Carrot halwa pudding. Potato salad, possibly with sprouts. Mashed potatoes with spinach. Baked potatoes. Fried potatoes. (I like potatoes….).Pickled daikon and/or carrot, possibly with ginger and other flavors toward bahn mi-style pickles. Some kind of saute to feature the shiitakes, likely with onion, carrot, and tofu.
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Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 10:37 pm

[personal profile] diffrentcolours has been on a mission to find more fun/novel things to do: it's kinda been the upshot of both our therapy lately that we should do this.

So tonight we went to see a Noel Coward play, Private Lives, at Hope Mill Theatre which was new to me. It was a great venue, though I'm glad I didn't have to try to find it on my own because that never would've worked.

And the play was great too: very cleverly staged, with occasional video projection and really good use of (mostly diagetic) music, well-acted, and the darkest the-straights-are-not-okay underbelly beneath that Noel Coward wit: it was sweet and even sexy but also made me think about what we do or don't learn from relationships that have ended. The seats weren't wide enough for our hench shoulders, but that just meant we had to snuggle up and that was such a nice way to watch it.

The theater's independent, gets no external funding, so definitely worth supporting if you get the chance. I was glad to see it pretty busy on this random weekday evening.