(no subject)

Mar. 17th, 2026 03:05 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
DEAR HARRIETTE: I've recently gone sober for health reasons, and it wasn't an easy decision, especially because my social life has always involved going out for drinks, celebrating with cocktails and bonding over happy hour. When my friends and I went out last weekend, they were pressuring me to drink. I ordered a mocktail, and almost immediately, my friends started to laugh and said that it would be fine to just have one drink. This surprised me because I never thought that my friends would try to force me to do something that would actively have a negative effect on my health. It made me feel unsupported and, frankly, disrespected. At the same time, I don't want to lose my friendships or isolate myself socially just because I'm choosing not to drink. Now I'm anxious about future outings. I don't want every dinner or celebration to turn into a debate about my personal choices. How should I talk to my friends about setting boundaries without making things awkward? -- Sober

Read more... )

Spin Control, by Chris Moriarty

Mar. 17th, 2026 11:44 am
runpunkrun: Dana Scully reading Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space' in the style of a poster you'd find in your school library, text: Read. (reading)
[personal profile] runpunkrun
Sequel to Spin State, and, yes, you have to read that one first. Really solid hard science-fiction where the science is artificial intelligence (real AI, not fucking Claude), cloning, ecological collapse, complex adaptive systems and complexity theory, and I took the last two straight out of the "Further Reading" section at the end (yes there's homework) because hell if I know, even though Moriarty definitely expected me to know and says as much. The closest I can get to guessing what that field is about (without Further Reading) is E.O. Wilson and his ants, which are also here.

The fiction is set far in the future in a universe where the Earth is suffering from global climate catastrophe and the vast majority of people live in orbital stations or on terraformed planets. This includes huge hives of genetically engineered corporate clones, who are no longer considered human, and transhumans who have been technologically advanced to the point where they're not considered entirely human either. The only humans allowed to live on Earth are natural ones with hereditary exceptions, which, practically, seems to mainly mean indigenous groups, whatever's left of the United States after it broke with the U.N., and people with religious wars to fight. Half of the action is set in the middle of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.

So you can see how this book might be a bit too real at this stage of the horrors.

Unfortunately for both of us, due to my state of mind—and the state of the world—I couldn't concentrate on any of it. I could only read it sporadically and had trouble remembering all the spy intrigue (of which there's a lot) and who was on what side, but I'm sure it was great and tense and full of unexpected betrayals (iguess.jpg). However, I can say that even after days away from it, I could pick it up and just start reading because it's very well written and the (main) characters are all memorable and interesting.

If any of this sounds like your jam, read the first book (that one is about mining, Bose–Einstein condensates, corporate espionage, and AI), pick up this one, and then probably read the third in the trilogy, Ghost Spin. I'll pick it up one day, but probably not today, and probably not tomorrow, on account of my poor brains.

Contains: global climate disaster; Israel/Palestine; torture and interrogation; widespread infertility; unplanned pregnancy; amputation; slaughter of chickens for food; and an extended shoutout to Ender's Game.

(no subject)

Mar. 17th, 2026 01:51 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
Dear Eric: My husband and his ex-wife have 50/50 custody of their 15-year-old son. I despise this child. He is completely useless, rude, disrespectful, selfish, ungrateful and lazy. All he does is stare at his computer screen. I have carefully planned my entire life schedule around his schedule, to avoid being at the house on the days he is there for my husband's 50 percent custody.

My husband has just told me that his ex-wife is moving to another state far away and that he is going to take full custody of his son. This means the child I despise so much is now going to be living with me at my house full time, every single day, and there's nothing I can do about it. My husband refuses to let his son move away with his ex. How do I manage this?

– Fed Up


Read more... )
larryhammer: Yotsuba Koiwai running, label: "enjoy everything" (enjoy everything)
[personal profile] larryhammer
This famous post is doing the rounds again:
my favorite thing i’ve learned in college is that way back in ancient china there was this poet/philosopher guy who wrote this whole pretentious poem about how enlightened he was that was like “the eight winds cannot move me” blahblahblah and he was really proud of it so he sent it to his friend who lived across the lake and then his friend sends it back and just writes “FART” (or the ancient Chinese equivalent) on it and the guy was SO MAD he travels across the lake to chew his friend out and when he gets there his friend says “wow. the eight winds cannot move you, but one fart sends you across the lake”
This story is so Chinese.

It’s a real incident, btw: the guy was Su Shi, a Song dynasty poet/artist/essayist/statesman sometimes better known by his art name Su Dongpo, the friend was Chan (Zen) master Foyin, the abbot of a temple across the lake, and 屁 means both “fart” and (idiomatically) “nonsense.” Very Zen.

---L.

Subject quote from Cruel Summer, Bananarama.

goose on the loose

Mar. 17th, 2026 10:09 am
autobotscoutriella: an ocelot sitting in a tree (Ocelot)
[personal profile] autobotscoutriella posting in [community profile] common_nature
a Canada goose, sitting on grass, looking peeved

The geese have returned! This one was NOT happy to see me.

Torchwood: Fanfic: Spring Planting

Mar. 17th, 2026 01:41 pm
badly_knitted: (J & I - I Want You)
[personal profile] badly_knitted posting in [community profile] fan_flashworks

Title: Spring Planting
Fandom: Torchwood
Author: [personal profile] badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 767
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Ianto and Jack are planting things in their garden.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 509: Nap.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.





autobotscoutriella: a happy cat in the sunshine (sunshine cat)
[personal profile] autobotscoutriella
It's been a while since I shared any, so who wants some cat pictures?

Last week it was warm enough to open the windows and the cats were Intrigued:
a gray tabby cat and brown tabby cat looking out a window. The gray tabby is leaning over real far

Mirage Needs Her Scritches. This is not optional.
a brown and white tabby cat sleeping on a shark blanket, being petted by a hand

Springs' favorite sleeping spot, where she can stick her leggy out real far:
a gray tabby cat laying on top of a cat tree, with her leg stretched out

Cabaret in Flames by Hache Pueyo

Mar. 17th, 2026 08:54 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


A doctor is drawn into the search for her missing mentor.

Cabaret in Flames by Hache Pueyo

Prompt: #486 - Coincidence

Mar. 17th, 2026 08:59 am
sweettartheart: Ink text on paper (100 words on paper)
[personal profile] sweettartheart posting in [community profile] 100words
This week's prompt is coincidence.

Your response should be exactly 100 words long. You do not have to include the prompt in your response -- it is meant as inspiration only.

Please use the tag "prompt: #486 - coincidence" with your response.

Please put your drabble under a cut tag if it contains potential triggers, mature or explicit content, or spoilers for media released in the last month.

If you would like a template for the header information you may use this:

Subject: Original - Title (or) Fandom - Title

Post:
Title:
Original
(or) Fandom:
Rating:
Notes:




If you are a member of AO3 there is a 100 Words Collection!
rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
[personal profile] rydra_wong
https://transrightsreadathon.carrd.co/

March 17-31, 2026

The Trans Rights Readathon is an annual call to action to readers and book lovers in support of Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV) on March 31st.

We are calling on the reader community to read and uplift books written by and/or featuring trans, nonbinary, 2Spirit, and gender-nonconforming authors and characters.


As before, I would like to request that people shout out their favourite eligible books in the comments!

Swim club notes.

Mar. 17th, 2026 12:20 am
pattrose: By Calico (1a Will Trent)
[personal profile] pattrose
Hubby and I start swim club tomorrow. It's an outdoor city pool, not far from where we live. About 15 minutes, one-way. It's for seniors, from 11:00-1:00. Two hours of laps and water aerobics is plenty to get us started. I always lose at least 20-30 pounds from the swim club. I love swimming. We use tons of sunscreen because we would definitely burn. Then we’ll swim on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We can’t go on weekends because the pool is overrun with kids. I go swimming for one thing. They take away from the swimming experience. Don't get me wrong, I love kids. I don't want them ruining our swim. Between 11:00 and 1:00, it's only old fart swimmers. 😂 I'm so excited. It's supposed to be 102° by Friday. It'll be great to cool off.

Does anyone else swim?

Jokes

Mar. 17th, 2026 12:19 am
pattrose: From Highlander_ii (00 JB2)
[personal profile] pattrose
Jokes
*
* What does a house wear? Address!
*
* What did one wall say to the other? "I' meet you at the corner."
*
* Why is grass so dangerous? It’s full of blades.
*
* What’s orange and sounds like a carrot? A parrot.
*
* Why do French people eat snails? They don’t like fast food.

Topics for talk Marcch

Mar. 17th, 2026 12:17 am
pattrose: (Jimsmile)
[personal profile] pattrose
Topics for talk

Things I'd Save If My House Were On Fire

This one is easy. I’d save my husband, my dog and finally, me. Everything else can be replaced. But not my family. (That includes my dog). Although I have some beautiful art in my home. I would miss that. Someday I’ll take some pictures of the art on the walls. I have 3 artists in my family.

(no subject)

Mar. 17th, 2026 12:17 am
pattrose: (Default)
[personal profile] pattrose
Topics for talk

Things I'd Save If My House Were On Fire

This one is easy. I’d save my husband, my dog and finally, me. Everything else can be replaced. But not my family. (That includes my dog). Although I have some beautiful art in my home. I would miss that. Someday I’ll take some pictures of the art on the walls. I have 3 artists in my family.

90 discussion questions

Mar. 17th, 2026 12:15 am
pattrose: (JimblairCool)
[personal profile] pattrose
90 discussion questions
1. Describe, in detail, what your life looks like 20 years from now. What do you do for fun? What does your family look like? Where do you live? Where do you drink your coffee in the morning?

This will be hard to answer. 20 years from now. I would be 94 and I have a huge doubt that I’ll around by then. What do you do for fun?
Get up in the morning. To be alive would work well.
What does your family look like?
They’ll all be old except the great-grandkids. To us they will be forever young.
Where do you live?
We hope to be in our house. My parents never went to a hospital or nursing home. They passed in the comfort of their home. We pray for the same.
Where do we drink our coffee. Hubby drinks coffee in the kitchen. We hope that won’t. Change. This was a little depressing. One doesn’t want to think about those thingfdf

Not quite 365 days March

Mar. 17th, 2026 12:12 am
pattrose: (Pretty Kitty 1)
[personal profile] pattrose
Not quite 365 questions.

17. It’s Kurt Russell’s birthday – a child actor who grew up.  Have you seen any of the Disney films in which he acted (he played the college student Dexter Riley)?

Happy Birthday, Kurt Russell. I have seen every movie he has made. Some of them were my favorites. So I made a list.
From 1986-2017. Newest from the top.

Guardians of the Galaxy
Soldier
Breakdown
Stargate
Backdraft
Tango and Cash
Big Trouble in Little China

What are your favorites?
pattrose: (Brilliant Minds)
[personal profile] pattrose
Seven DAYS, Seven Bookcovers Challenge


Day 3

Me-and-media update

Mar. 17th, 2026 03:49 pm
china_shop: An orange cartoon dog waving, with a blue-green abstract background. (Bingo!)
[personal profile] china_shop
Previous poll review
In the Fitness trackers poll, 18% of respondents regularly use a fitness tracker to monitor their activity, 10% also use an app, and 16% use the pedometer on their phone; 48% said "other no", proving that I really should have got more granular (and emphatic) for non-adopters. Sorry! (For me, I enjoy some of the "gamification of exercise" parts, but when Fitbit eventually insists that I have to merge my data with my Google account in a few months, I plan to delete the app and use my device as a standalone thingummy.)

In ticky-boxes, FANDOM SPARKLES came second to hugs hugs hugs, 56% to 68%. "I genuflect to the sanctity of the ticky-box" is a reference to/misquote of a line from a Courtney Milan romance. Thank you for your votes! ♥

Reading
Almost nothing. Andrew and I started (barely) The Warrior's Apprentice by Bujold, the first Miles Vorkosigan book, in audio, read by Grover Gardner. And in ebook I've just started Courtney Milan's m/m novella, The Pursuit of... set during the American War of Independence.

Kdramas
I was sure I'd have drifted away from One Spring Night by now in favour of the new thing, but I'm semi-managing to watch that and Undercover Miss Hong in tandem. I love both of them in very different ways. OSN is slow and as full of social nuance as an Austen novel; UMH is silly corporate spy shenanigans and found family.

(In Undercover Miss Hong, the 35-year-old lead is undercover as a 20-year-old, and every time she glances around quickly and her shoulders move too, I think, yep, it's the stiff neck that gives you away. #relatable)

As predicted, Pru and I started Love Scout. I am immediately obsessed with it all over again, ahhhhhh! How am I going to bear the wait between watchings??

Other TV
A bit more of Ponies, but it's so tense that I keep avoiding it. It's only an 8-episode season, and we're halfway, so I should probably bite the bullet and power through.

Episode 2 of R.J. Decker was terribly written, to the point where I don't know if I can keep going. (I think the Movie Briefs podcast may have ruined me for PI shows: I kept going, "Is this witness tampering?" and "Stop revealing case information to suspects!")

More of The Pitt (I am worried about Robbie) (no spoilers, please!!) and Cheers.

And last night we watched the bizarre combination of:
  1. the pilot of The Madison, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell, a gorgeously cinematic show about loss, grief, and New York "society" people dealing with nature in Montana. It's like the love child of A River Somewhere (Australian fly-fishing show which I happen to own on DVD), Schitt's Creek (but without the humour; just the rich people out of their comfort zone part), and [something dealing with partner-loss], and
  2. The Naked Gun, starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson (surprisingly watchable; made us laugh).


We've also watched a bunch of stand-up lately: Marc Maron, Rose Matafeo, probably some others.

Audio entertainment
"Corporations have learned that when you have total buy-in, from everyone, and if you can make it impossible for people to not use your product, you determine what culture is. You just do." Gita Jackson on Tech Won't Save Us. (I am so grateful to Dreamwidth for not having an algorithm!)

Online life
Sign-ups are open for the 520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange!! Yay!! This is our eighth year, and it's always a great time.

Writing/making things
I finished a round of rewrites on one of my started-for-Yuletide fics and sent it back to beta; now I need to apply the same rewriting strategy to my other started-for-Yuletide fic too. 520 Day assignments will out by the 8th, so that's my deadline for these: three weeks. In theory, that should be do-able.

I'm averaging one fic a month so far this year, which is pretty slow-paced for me, but it isn't nothing.

Life/health/mental state things
[Dog in burning house; everything is fine.gif, local politics edition] )

Link dump
The Left Doesn't Hate Technology, We Hate Being Exploited by Gita Jackson | Heroes Choose Danger - How to Make Your Passive Hero Active [Screenwriting Tips] by [youtube.com profile] heyjameshurst (Youtube, 12:57 min) | Night Train with Wyatt Cenac ep 1 (stand-up series made for streaming, but then the streamer went bust).

Good things
520 Day, yay!! FTH, eeee!! Writers' Hour continues to keep me showing up; it's a structure that works really well for me. Kdramas and those of you who recommend them to me. AO3 comments on some of my favourites of my fics. Sunday's long bike ride to buy the best hot cross buns didn't have any negative arm/wrist consequences. The air fryer I inherited is ridiculously tiny, but I'm enjoying it. Good weather. Reasonably good health. (*knocks on wood*) Cat! Andrew!

Poll #34375 Smoke alarms
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 32


Smoke alarms

View Answers

I have some on ceilings/walls
25 (78.1%)

I have some in piles around the place
5 (15.6%)

I have an inadequate number / inadequate coverage
3 (9.4%)

nope
2 (6.2%)

when one goes off, I assume it's serious and take action
8 (25.0%)

when one goes off, I assume it's a battery issue and silence it / take it off the wall
13 (40.6%)

my place/building has built-in alarms, and I trust them
4 (12.5%)

my place/building has built-in alarms, and they go off all the time, argh
0 (0.0%)

other
1 (3.1%)

ticky-box full of pizza, yeah!
17 (53.1%)

ticky-box full of iridescent bubbles
21 (65.6%)

ticky-box full of chopsticks
14 (43.8%)

ticky-box full of hiking
14 (43.8%)

ticky-box full of hugs
26 (81.2%)

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eregyrn

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