cjsmith | Network

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28

Seen on the Watsfic Discord

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 02:40 pm

QWP

Hey everyone,

**This year marks WATSFIC's 50th Anniversary!** To commemorate this we are releasing a new issue of our club fanzine Starsongs.

If you would like to become an officially published author, we are opening up submissions right now! Send us your **short stories, opinion pieces, open letters** [to systems, games, concepts, authors, or WATSFIC itself], **reviews of Sci-Fi/Fantasy** games, books, or other media, **your best drawings or paintings**, or whatever else you'd like to share with WATSFIC and the greater UW Community. We will endeavour to accept and print as many submissions as possible as long as they are club appropriate. If you're unsure if your idea is right for Starsongs, please don't hesitate to contact an exec and we'd be more than happy to discuss it and/or workshop it with you!

If you are looking for inspiration, you can find the 1970s releases of Starsongs on the University of Waterloo's Digital Library.

**We will be accepting submissions until the end of March, if you would like to contribute** please fill out this form here.

-# Submissions after March 31st may still be accepted, but we cannot promise anything, so please try to get any and all submission in before this deadline to ensure your work can be considered.

Tags:

watsfic

National Transport & Toy Museum in Wanaka, New Zealand

atlas_obscura_places_feed

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 02:00 pm

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/national-transport-toy-museum

Inside Hangar One

A massive variety of cars, planes, fire engines, farm equipment, engines, household goods, and toys call this place home. While navigating the museum's property can sometimes feel like wandering through a series of overstuffed garages, the condition and diversity of everything present is impressive and utterly unique. It's impossible to describe everything that's here: cars spanning the Morris Minor to a Ferrari 400I, Air New Zealand airplanes, almost every type of Lego set, a Barbie section, and vintage items like cast-iron banks and typewriters.

The toy shop in the main entrance is also the largest in the area with all kinds of model kits, Legos, RC cars, and anything else to keep adults and kids entertained.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/national-transport-toy-museum

Akureyri Domino’s Pizza in Akureyri, Iceland

atlas_obscura_places_feed

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 12:00 pm

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/akureyri-dominos-pizza

The charming Icelandic town of Akureyi is known for its stunning fjord views, vibrant art scene, and proximity to natural wonders like waterfalls, hot springs, and whale watching. It’s also home to the world’s northernmost Domino’s pizza. At a latitude of 65.688° N, it lies just below the Arctic Circle.

Like any other Domino’s in the world, this one offers pickup and delivery and is packed on Friday nights with hungry locals and visitors lining up for pizza. There are gluten-free options, vegan options, and even some Icelandic specialties like the Dóttir, which is topped with bacon, cream cheese, dates, chili and BBQ sauce.

It’s not the world’s northernmost pizza chain - that distinction goes to the Pizza Hut/KFC location in Cambridge Bay in Nunavut, Canada (latitude 69°N), nor the world’s northernmost fast food outlet - that’s the Tim Horton’s in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Canada (latitude 72° N) on Baffin Island. But don’t let that stop you from enjoying your breadsticks while you watch the northern lights or ships in the fjord. Or maybe even dream about a trip to its counterpart, the world’s southernmost Domino’s Pizza. That one is in Punta Arenas, Chile (latitude 53°08′20″S), which also happens to be the southernmost fast-food franchise on Earth.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/akureyri-dominos-pizza

Well I guess I should try to go to the gym tonight after all?

cosmolinguist

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 07:05 pm

Counseling today was all about trying to make my body feel safer amidst all the mental/emotional stuff going on.

My counselor said some bodies need stillness some bodies need movement. I think mine is the latter.

She also suggested

getting people to spend time with me
gentle conversations about not-stressful things
familiar media
nice sensory stuff? (scents/textures)

Thinking about this tonight, she suggested I try to remember it all week.

Tags:

I'm just saying, on fashions and me in fandom

rhi

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 12:24 pm

I'm looking at this naked fashion trend and I'm just... First, my brain goes back to Roman sumptuary laws on see-through muslin from India. (It was absolutely see-through, too.) Second, though, I think, 'Oh, look, the new body control for women. Take your GLP-1s, and don't eat so you have less ground to complain about the prices of food, and show yourself off to the men.' So, misogyny and fat-shaming. :sighs:

I'll believe this isn't misogyny when I see the straight guys wearing their best lingerie under suits cut out of see-through fabrics, just FYI.

I'm usually a winter person, but this year, I've been sick and then cranky and look forward to spring. Not to summer, just spring.

Anyone got stuff that's making them happy? I'm resisting getting into Heated Rivalry because the only sport I watch is volleyball and some of the Olympics. Mostly gymnastics and ice skating. I'm not sure who else is reading Longmire or In Death, and honestly, I'm afraid Johnson has written himself into a corner with Longmire. There's a nice Discord server for Highlander, and I'm hoping the group rewatches will get me back into my fandom, but honestly, most of the characters there don't talk to me now.

Ah, well. Maybe once I finish the Leverage novel, the Numbers novel, and the Marvel/Lonesome October piece I'll get back to it. I can hope?

Current Mood: contemplative

Tags:

current stitching

thistleingrey

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 09:20 am

A few weeks ago, I began modifying a slipover/vest/sleeveless pullover pattern. Despite modification, the first try had too loose a neckline and narrow over-the-shoulder segments, and its stitches were a bit uneven. I nixed it when there was enough of it to put my head through. The pattern has strict raglan increases resulting in a 45-deg line on the back. I've tilted it to about 30 deg, which has led to revising the front and over-the-shoulder segments as well.

For the second try, I went down a needle size (from 3.5 mm to 3.25 mm needles), and I knitted enough of the body segment to try on the WIP with minimal armholes, 2 cm below joining them. The armholes were good. The rest was still not right, but closer: the yoke area was too snug for a second layer, especially across the semi-raglan line on the upper back. This is meant to go over a T-shirt.

With the third try, heh, I've kept the needle size but cast on for the upper back with a shorter circular cable, 16" = 41 cm instead of 40" = 102 cm. My hands are clumsier with the shorter circ, which has kept the semi-raglan increases a bit looser. :) I've also lengthened the back yoke a bit, which lets me subtract some of the short rows that my second try had added over the shoulders. So far, this version is only an upper back. It's about to start consuming the second try's yarn.

So, like, I've been knitting the same almost two skeins of yarn for the past month, and it's fine. There's also a few cm of hat, mostly brim.

Meanwhile, I'm still browsing for hood patterns. Avely looks interesting as a way of splitting head fit and depth from the shawl-ends.

Tags:

stitchery

D&D scenario

james_davis_nicoll

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 11:54 am

Decades after the PCs' last adventure, an old epic foe reappears, still bent on conquest.

Time to get the band back together!

Alas, the band isn't just dispersed. All but one member is long dead.

Happily, the last surviving member is a necromancer.

curaçao

prettygoodword

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 08:29 am

curaçao (KOOR-uh-soh, kyoor-uh-SOW, and other permutations) - n., a liqueur flavored with the dried peel of the sour laraha orange.

Thanks, WikiMedia!

This came up in the definition of mai tai, as one of its ingredients, so finally explaining it. The laraha is a bitter orange, descended from Seville orange, which were introduced to the Caribbean island of Curaçao in the early 1500s. The island became a Dutch possession in 1627, and it became fashionable in 17th century Netherlands to create liquors from exotic flavorings from overseas, and Lukas Bols (1652–1719), then head of a family run distillery, used the aromatic oil from Curaçao oranges to make one -- normally colorless, he dyed it blue to make it even more exotic. Named after the island, of course, which is probably a Portuguese transcription of its name in a mainland Arawakan language such as Lokono (so it would have fit into that theme - ah well).

---L.

Well, this is a dramatic letter that's hopefully fake

conuly

agonyaunt

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 10:18 am

Dear Prudence,

A few days after Christmas, my oldest sister (“Clair”) sent a text message to me and my siblings (four of us total) saying “due to what happened on Christmas Day, I am taking a break from my family”—nothing more, no explanation, no response to us texting back “what happened?”. Christmas was at my house, and I could not think of anything bad that happened, and my other siblings were at a loss also. In talking to my mom a few days later, she mentioned that Clair was upset that we didn’t get her grandkids (ages 5 and 7), my grandnephews, anything for Christmas and that she and her family were topics of discussion and unwarranted questions were being asked about them and she didn’t like it. I can’t for the life of me imagine why.

Her son and his wife and kids moved back to the area three months ago and other than some baby gifts when they were newborns, no gifts have ever been given to them, so the expectation caught us completely off guard. As for being the topic of discussion and questions? How could we help ourselves when Clair was charged with vandalism a week before Christmas when she found out the married man she was seeing had no intention of leaving his wife for her, and she keyed and spray painted his car. Plus, why did her son, with supposedly a good job and a house, just up and move back with no explanation and remain unwilling to give one? And why is her unemployed daughter not applying where her uncle works, as they are hiring for entry level positions? Could it be because she knows she will fail the drug test?

This brings me to last weekend, when our cousin “Emily” and her husband were travelling near our area. They stayed the night at my house, so I invited my mom and other siblings, except for Clair (remember, no contact), over for supper. Yesterday, Clair found out about Emily’s visit and sent me a message demanding to know why she wasn’t made aware of Emily visiting and not being invited for supper. I mentioned her “break from the family” and she said “that’s not what I said,” so I sent her a screenshot of her message and said “I don’t know how to take it any other way except that you don’t want anything to do with the family.” Today she sent another message to the family saying she wants to be included in family things, but she and her family are “off limits for questions and conversations.”

Am I being unreasonable in thinking this requirement is ridiculous? In the past, she has had no issues in making my and my sibling’s families the topic of discussion, good or bad.

—Not Buying It

( Read more... )

pretentious hairflip of entitlement

princessofgeeks

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 09:10 am

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

Current Mood: awake

Six Hills Burial Mounds in Stevenage, England

atlas_obscura_places_feed

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 10:00 am

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/six-hills-burial-mounds

Six Hills Burial Mounds, Stevenage

Along a busy section of the historic Great North Road in the post-war town of Stevenage sits a series of six Roman burial mounds, also known as barrows or tumuli.

Believed to originally have been constructed around 100AD, they likely contain the remains and possessions of a wealthy family. Over the years the hills have been subject to much disturbance - having been dug into several times and had soil removed for use elsewhere, which has resulted in the mounds losing several feet of height over time. Despite this, they have survived remarkably well and are actually the largest group of Roman barrows still standing in England in the present day.

For romantics and lovers of a good story, a more fanciful alternative version of the barrows’ history goes as thus: the devil was seeking to amuse himself one day by throwing clumps of earth over his shoulder, which upon landing became the six mounds.

An additional detail of the legend is that a mistakenly overzealous throw hit the spire of a local church in the nearby village of Graveley, leaving it askew to this day.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/six-hills-burial-mounds

I am bound to these shores, I'll be bound till the end

sovay

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 09:42 am

My poem "Reap the Rules" has been accepted by Reckoning. It is my first sale to the journal; it is a particular honor that it was selected for the conflict-themed special issue It Was Paradise. I wrote it last summer after the U.S. strikes on Iran. It is a prayer dedicated in cuneiform to the oldest goddess I know in that region. The title is a mondegreen from Johnny Flynn and Robert Macfarlane's "Coins for the Eyes" (2022) which was about all I listened to while writing. Curse tablets do not seem to be going out of fashion any time soon.

I feel as though I remember to check out Festivids even less reliably than Yuletide, but this year has been a bonanza of which my socks-blown-off favorites look like "There Is No Ship" (Steerswoman), "ASSHOLE" (Looney Tunes), "Queen Bitch Cartagia" (Babylon 5), and "So It Goes" (Foundation). Honorable mentions to "It's a Sin" (Murderbot) even though I can't separate that song from Derek Jarman and "Hard Knock Life" (The Canopener Bridge) for introducing me to its fandom and perfectly illustrating the concept of storrowing.

My sleep has gone extraordinarily off the rails, but the snow in our back yard is criss-crossed with rabbit tracks. Hestia has broken three of the slats in my blinds in order to provide herself with a better view on Bird Theater.

Current Music: Rose Betts, "There Is No Ship"

Angel With a Sword (Merovingen Nights, volume 1) by C J Cherryh

james_davis_nicoll

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 08:49 am

A moment of foolish charity drags impoverished Altair Jones into a deadly struggle.

Angel With a Sword (Merovingen Nights, volume 1) by C J Cherryh

Tags:

meetpoint,
review

Springfield, Ohio is up next

rydra_wong

thisfinecrew

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 01:43 pm

Via Naomi Kritzer on Bsky, this thread of ways to donate or volunteer:

https://bsky.app/profile/leeceelee.bsky.social/post/3mduanvydvs2q

Tags:

Hornblower, episode 4

osprey_archer

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 08:28 am

Next up in the Hornblower movieverse: The Wrong War (originally The Frogs and the Lobsters), featuring Horatio Hornblower’s involvement in the ill-fated attack French royalist landing at Quiberon. (“Quiberon! There was a D. K. Broster book about that!” I crowed.)

Enjoyable as usual, although the slashiness quotient was low (very little Kennedy, Bush hasn’t appeared yet). Once again the film is telling pretty much the same story as the book but changing the thematic valence: in the book, the point of Quiberon seems to be that the strict discipline of the marines saves the day (for the British retreat, anyway, the undisciplined Royalists are screwed), whereas here, Captain Pellew saves the day by disobeying his orders to stay at one beach and instead heads to the other to pick up the possible survivors.

(Basically I think the Hornblower movies were made by people who are really more sympathetic to the liberte, egalite, fraternite of the French Revolution than the ideals of the Royal Navy circa 1800: obedience, order, discipline, respect for rank, etc. etc.)

Also, the filmmakers decided that it was time for Hornblower to have a romance (with a girl), and have therefore introduced the character of Mariette, a French peasant girl who became a schoolteacher following the Revolution. This led (I imagine) to some version of the following conversation:

FILMMAKER #1: But what will we do with Mariette in the later films?

FILMMAKER #2: Don’t worry about it! We’ll kill her at the end of this one.

I did not care for this ending, so I have taken the liberty of rewriting it, starting from the scene in Mariette’s house where Hornblower begs her to run away with him while the townsfolk outside riot.

HORNBLOWER: I won’t leave without you!

MARIETTE: Climb out ze window!

HORNBLOWER climbs out the window. MARIETTE leans out the window looking after him, but does not move to climb down.

HORNBLOWER: Jump!

MARIETTE: (with tears in her eyes) Nevaire can I leave la belle France! Vive la Republique! Adieu, ‘Ornblowaire!

MARIETTE shuts the shutters. HORNBLOWER looks like he wants to climb back up and argue, but suddenly the yelling is getting much closer, and he must flee.

HORNBLOWER makes it to the bridge literally seconds before the British blow it up. The British retreat to the beach, where they are rescued by the Indefatigable.

HORNBLOWER stands by the rail, staring out at the receding coast of France. KENNEDY comes to stand beside him.

HORNBLOWER: “I could not love her, dear, so well/loved she not la belle France more.”

KENNEDY clasps Hornblower’s shoulder in manly sympathy. They gaze together at their one true mistress, the sea.

FIN

Tags:

Microsoft is Giving the FBI BitLocker Keys

bruce_schneier_feed

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 12:05 pm

Posted by Bruce Schneier

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/02/microsoft-is-giving-the-fbi-bitlocker-keys.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71550

Microsoft gives the FBI the ability to decrypt BitLocker in response to court orders: about twenty times per year.

It’s possible for users to store those keys on a device they own, but Microsoft also recommends BitLocker users store their keys on its servers for convenience. While that means someone can access their data if they forget their password, or if repeated failed attempts to login lock the device, it also makes them vulnerable to law enforcement subpoenas and warrants.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/02/microsoft-is-giving-the-fbi-bitlocker-keys.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71550

February LOVE-FEST: Day 3: Love of Nature

stonepicnicking_okapi

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 06:22 am

okapi's February LOVE-FEST

prompts:

1. first love
2. friendship
3. love of nature
4. passion
5. soulmates
6. unrequited love
7. lust
8. love of the game
9. devotion
10. love of food
11. polyamory
12. long distance love
13. lovesickness
14. romantic love
15. love of place
16. marriage
17. love of order and method
18. divine love
19. platonic love
20. infatuation
21. maternal love
22. obsession
23. agape
24. love of animals
25. unconditional love
26. forbidden love
27. ecstasy
28. the beloved

--

Day 3: Love of Nature Shout out to the nature comm on DW

common_nature. I think everyone should be a member. I mean, who couldn't use beautiful photos of flowers, landscapes, and animals on their feed?

And have a new photo of the heron at the little lake. So photogenic and it sits so still.

Tags:

february love-fest

(no subject)

apod_feed

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 06:32 am

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260202.html

What part of Orion is this?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260202.html

and now, for something completely threesentenceficathon

ranalore

Monday, February 2nd, 2026 10:56 pm

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

Current Mood: nerdy
Current Location: gettin' ready to call it a night

Tags:

Welp.

kiya

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 12:54 am

Not my best way to start a year, honestly, this state of mind.

ETA ... okay random shuffle is being perfect in a lolsob way.

Time is like a bullet from behind
I run for cover just like you
Time is like a liquid in my hands
I swim for dry land just like you

Time is like a blanket on my face
I try to be here just like you
Time is just a fiction of our minds
I will survive and so will you

We are the only ones right now that are celebrating
And we are joining hands right now
We are the only ones right now that are suffocating
We are the dying ones right now

As the water grinds the stone
We rise and fall
As our ashes turn to dust
We shine like stars

Here's the whole thing, and welp.

Official video.

Current Mood: exanimate
Current Music: "Bullet", Covenant

Impatient Idealist

February 2023

Navigation

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

Seen on the Watsfic Discord

National Transport & Toy Museum in Wanaka, New Zealand

Akureyri Domino’s Pizza in Akureyri, Iceland

Well I guess I should try to go to the gym tonight after all?

I'm just saying, on fashions and me in fandom

current stitching

D&D scenario

curaçao

Well, this is a dramatic letter that's hopefully fake

pretentious hairflip of entitlement

Six Hills Burial Mounds in Stevenage, England

I am bound to these shores, I'll be bound till the end

Angel With a Sword (Merovingen Nights, volume 1) by C J Cherryh

Springfield, Ohio is up next

Hornblower, episode 4

Microsoft is Giving the FBI BitLocker Keys

February LOVE-FEST: Day 3: Love of Nature

(no subject)

and now, for something completely threesentenceficathon

Welp.