cahn: (Default)
[personal profile] cahn
Last week: Lots of discussion of various contemporary Roman emperors and their families: Claudius, Agrippina, Nero, Britannicus. Quinctilius Varus and Arminius make an appearance as well. Also Josephus wants to tell you ALL about the Essenes, and none of us knows why but maybe we will find out sometime in the future?? (ugh, I haven't finished replying to comments yet on this either, sorry! -- hopefully will get to that tomorrow)

This week: The Jewish war starts! It's a mess. We do finally meet our hero Josephus, who is just the most heroic, clever, and brave guy. (Probably devilishly handsome too, although this is admittedly not in the text.)

Next week: where shall we read to in Book 3?

vital functions

Mar. 8th, 2026 10:57 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

Reading. I confess I have tripped and fallen into a special interest and am therefore currently primarily working my way through the archives of She's A Beast. BUT.

  • This was all kicked off by A Physical Education: *, Casey Johnston, *inhaled; more comprehensive notes on this topic currently part way through being typed up.
  • I am also about half way through (reading!) LIFTOFF: Couch to Barbell, also Casey Johnston, and am having fun starting to play with moving my body in ways.
  • Continuing the theme of Moving Bodies In Ways and What Even Are Muscles, I have also started Science of Pilates (Tracy Ward).
  • I also continue to work my way through What Is Queer Food?, John Birdsall, and am nearly done. Probably more thoughts on this at some point in the upcoming week.

Writing. Words continue to, very slowly, go up.

Listening. More Hidden Almanac. Very close to being caught up to the point I've theoretically listened to with A (some of which I wound up being asleep during)...

Playing. Inkulinati Exploders run on Master difficulty continues. We have now broken a quill (DEMONS :|) but we do continue to progress...

Another round (well, most of one) of The Little Orchard, this time with The Child deciding that we SHOULD turn the Bothersome Crows back over and put them back...

Cooking. New recipe! Meera Sodha's leek & chard martabak. Unlikely to make again but not sorry to have made.

Exploring. Adventures this week have included:

  • Wood Green Mall, which contains PRIDE STAIRS, and the Community Diagnostic Centre, which contains GIANT WATERFOWL MURAL
  • the walk between Wood Green underground station and Wood Green Mall, feat. ACORN BOLLARDS
  • went for a bit of a Cross Walk one evening earlier this week (brain said AAAAAAH) and discovered along the way a fantastic white-with-pink-stripes camellia
  • generally Going Out To Run Errands is currently accompanied by Many Flowers and that is nice, actually

Observing. flowersss.

umadoshi: (kittens - Sinha - napping)
[personal profile] umadoshi
Last week was once again mostly swallowed by work and I'm very tired, plus I have to final-read a rewrite this afternoon.

Between Friday night and yesterday, I managed to read a couple manga volumes and [personal profile] scruloose and I saw the new ep. of The Pitt.

That's all I've got right now.

(no subject)

Mar. 7th, 2026 06:44 pm
hagar_972: A woman with her hands on her hips, considering a mechanic's shop. (Default)
[personal profile] hagar_972
*sigh*

Look: not to say that I agree with the our Idiot PM or with his maybe-ally (I decidedly don't), but clearly the Europeans have learned nothing from their history. At all.

To say that something is Bad just because it breaks the law is... yeah. There is an Israeli saying on the matter of people who obey laws because they are laws, and I'm sure every Jewish person around here is thinking about the same historical example right now.

If the law is dumb, you change the fucking law. Humans wrote it and humans can change it. It isn't sacred. Breaking the law does not in itself make anything bad, and a hell of a whole lot of evil had been done as a result of that sort of thinking.

But Europeans be Europeans, apparently.

(Re; I'm sure this quote can be found in language other than Hebrew, too.)

Festivid recs! 35 of them!

Mar. 7th, 2026 02:19 pm
naye: Text: I heart vids. Background: Adobe Premiere window with clips from Guardian. (vidding - i ♥ vids)
[personal profile] naye
You know what's awesome? Vids. Which is why I had the best time watching almost all of the 128 Festivids from this year. I am avoiding certain spoilers, warnings and tags, so I did not in fact watch all of them, but I definitely got through well over a hundred. An absolute feast!

While I was watching (mostly before reveals) I was also putting together a document of vids I really liked so I'd be able to go back and check who'd made them after reveals. It's not the most intricate of rec systems - it's got the title, vidder, fandom and the comment I left after watching, and they are sort of but not fully in reverse alphabetical order. But if you like vids, you will probably enjoy these!

Fandoms include: A Man on the Inside, Dimension 20, Steerswoman, The Pitt, Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born, Men's Pole Vaulting (the sport), Murderbot, Babylon 5, Conclave, Dykes to Watch Out For (the comic), Star Trek: Lower Decks and Hades. This is not an exhaustive list! Check out all the Festivid fandoms here. (Or rather: all the fandoms with canon AO3 tags. One of my vids isn't in this list, so I guess there are plenty of others that aren't either.)

Come get your recs here! )
trobadora: (Black-Cloaked Envoy)
[personal profile] trobadora in [community profile] sid_guardian
Guardian Reverse Exchange 2026. Image shows Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan facing each other, gripping the Sundial between them.


The Annual Interdimensional Haixing-Dixing 520 Day Reverse Exchange is coming back for 2026!

520 sounds like "I love you" in Mandarin, so May 20th is a bit like Valentine's Day. To celebrate, we're back with the eighth annual 520 Day Reverse Exchange. As the name says, this is a reverse exchange: instead of making your request and that request being assigned to a writer/artist/fanwork creator, here:
  1. You sign up with the kinds of things you enjoy creating.
  2. You choose three writers/artists/fanwork creators based on anonymised ads.
  3. You make a request of each of them based on what they enjoy creating.
  4. You are assigned one request to create for, based on your offer.
  5. You receive a gift from one of the creators you chose.
(An updated rules/info post will go up before sign-ups open, but here is last year's for reference.)

This year's schedule
Sign-ups part 1 - offers: Sunday 15 March - Friday 27 March
Sign-ups part 2 - requests: Saturday 28 March - Friday 3 April
Matching: Saturday 4 April - Tuesday 7 April
Assignments out: Wednesday 8 April at the latest
Deadline: Wednesday 13 May
Work reveals: Wednesday 20 May (there is no anon period)


Poll #34332 520 Day Reverse Exchange 2026
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7


520 Day Reverse Exchange 2026

View Answers

Yay!
5 (71.4%)

I will definitely sign up!
5 (71.4%)

I might sign up
2 (28.6%)

I'm already thinking about what to offer
3 (42.9%)

I'm willing to post a promo to Tumblr/Twitter/Discord/elsewhere, to spread the word (we'll PM you a reminder)
1 (14.3%)



ETA: This post is also on tumblr now, if you'd like to reblog over there!

have a daffodil(s)

Mar. 5th, 2026 11:23 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

a frenzy of daffodils, with ridiculous doubled frills; the one in the foreground has a green streak

About twenty metres up the road is a front garden that is, at this time of year, full of ridiculous daffodils. It is an Annual Delight. I took this photo yesterday, and then I dragged A out to visit it at lunchtime today, in glorious weather. It has been a good day.

FFFX Post-Deadline PHs

Mar. 5th, 2026 08:47 pm
modzilla: Godzilla with a clipboard (Default)
[personal profile] modzilla in [community profile] yuletide
[community profile] fffx is a multifandom gift exchange where the standard minimum of a gift is a fanfic of 10,000+ words or fanart in panelled comic style of 40+ panels.

We've passed the deadline and have 5 remaining pinch hits, mostly requiring a half-length gift of 5,000+ words (fic) or 20+ panels (comic art).

Please take a look if you think you might be able to post a gift of this kind by 11:59pm EDT, Thursday 19 March.

My participants and I are very grateful for your interest!

Pinch hit #32 - fic - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TV), Murder She Wrote, Jem and the Holograms (Cartoon), G.I. Joe (Cartoon), Voltron: Lion Force (1984)

Pinch hit #39 - fic - Stargate Atlantis, Kolja | Kolya (1996), Cesta do pravěku | Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955), Jurassic Park Original Trilogy (Movies)

Pinch hit #62 - art, fic - 少年歌行 | The Blood of Youth (Live Action TV), 莲花楼 | Mysterious Lotus Casebook (TV), 琅琊榜 | Nirvana in Fire (TV), 伪装者 | The Disguiser (TV), 少年白马醉春风 | Dashing Youth (Live Action TV), 杀破狼 | Sha Po Lang - priest )

Pinch hit #65 - fic - Columbo, Criminal Minds (US TV), Grey's Anatomy, Miss Marple - Agatha Christie, NCIS: Los Angeles, SEAL Team (TV), Sherlock (TV) The Professionals (TV 1977)

PH #67 - art, fic [varies by request] - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game), Original Work, Crossover Fandom [Brooklyn 99 & The Labyrinth], Hades (Supergiant Games Video Games)

Love Dramedy (Fairbanks)

Mar. 4th, 2026 09:01 pm
cahn: (Default)
[personal profile] cahn
Hey so remember I talked about Lyssa Fairbanks' first book, Love Medley, about med school romance hijinks? Her second book is now out: Love Dramedy. Signed hard copy available here (immediately) and ebook available here (pre-orders will be delivered March 5).

Love Dramedy is about the same group of med school friends as Love Medley and is F/F and I love it a lot.

Isabelle Sutton has always been "the pretty one" and always feels like she needs to prove that she's good enough for med school, which is getting harder as she has not been doing well on her med school exams -- and she needs a project to help her show that she's a good residency candidate. Trix Winstead is a neurodiverse software CEO who is just coming off of a friends-with-benefits relationship that imploded spectacularly, leaving behind a scandal for her company -- and needs a project to help her rehabilitate her company's reputation. You'll never guess what happens next! (You have guessed. Yes. Well, you might not have guessed about the hot lesbian bar encounter/one-night stand that happens first, but there's that too, it's great!)

I love Trix's spectrum-ish self, and Isabelle is a sweetheart. And I really like about Lyssa's writing how it's not just about the romance, but also about the friends and the story.

As for Love Medley, I was one of the major betas for this book. And also as for that one, please don't talk publicly about Lyssa's real name or how I know her :)

(no subject)

Mar. 5th, 2026 04:28 am
hagar_972: Do I seem bulletproof? (Bulletproof)
[personal profile] hagar_972
Making oolong in a paper cup is frankly a waste, but I'm downstairs in rhe bomb shelter for the fourth time in two hours, and I need to get up in 1.5hr from now to take my SO for the second rabies shot. So I made appricot oolong in a paper cup, because this is what got me out of bed.

[migraine] a belated realisation

Mar. 4th, 2026 10:41 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

This evening I am having A Headache. It's an annoying headache; it's definitely a distracting headache; but it's "just" A Headache. No other symptoms that I'm noticing.

... except that it's Exactly The Right Time For A Migraine, and yesterday I had a bunch of migraine prodrome symptoms. (Being Too Warm. Wanting to close my eyes a lot. Nausea. Overwhelming despair.)

I find myself Wondering whether my regular menstrual migraines actually started on 1st January 2021, or if that's just the point at which symptoms tipped over into very obviously photosensitive migraine. At that point I was on continuous acute pain relief, and it is slowly dawning on me that An Annoying Headache with no other symptoms distinguishable from background noise (anxiety, depression, thesis-related stress, ...) is the kind of thing I'd have just merrily ignored, and for that matter that I'd still be ignoring if I weren't now Keeping A Headache Diary...

facethestrange: (guardian: weilan animated jacket)
[personal profile] facethestrange in [community profile] sid_guardian


4 different creators are offering 6 Guardian auctions for [community profile] fandomtrumpshate this year! ♡

As of March 3rd, bidding is open! It closes on March 7th, 8pm ET.

facethestrange: auction #1 | auction #2 | auction #3
(All auctions are exactly the same.)
type: fanart: drawing/painting
highest rating: E
minimum bid: $20
drama or novel? both + RPF

goodblye_blue: auction link
type: fanfic (new or remix), 5-10k words
highest rating: E
minimum bid: $5
drama or novel? unspecified (likely novel)

milo: auction link
type: fanfic (new), 5-10k words
highest rating: E
minimum bid: $5
drama or novel? unspecified

tinypinkmouse: auction link
type: fanfic (new), less than 5k words
highest rating: E
minimum bid: $5
drama or novel? drama (novel influences welcome) + Weilan derivatives

(If you're on tumblr, here's a rebloggable post with the same list.)

cahn: (Default)
[personal profile] cahn
The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) has a tiered level of competitions that, in the US, is the gateway to participating in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). The first level is the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) 10/12 exams -- roughly speaking, you take 10 if you're in grade 10 or below, and 12 if you're in grade 11 or 12, though younger students can take the 12. This competition is multiple-choice and open to anyone who wants to take it; usually there are, idk, a couple dozen or more kids from E's school who take it, and I think most high schools around have it as a possibility. The second level, which you are invited to if you score above a certain threshold on the AMC, is the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME). Usually at E's school there are a couple to a few kids who qualify for that. (These two contests are open to international students.) The third level, dictated by a threshold that is a function of your AMC and AIME score, is the USA Junior Mathematics Olympiad (henceforth JMO, for the route via AMC 10) or the USA Mathematics Olympiad (AMO, via AMC 12), which unlike the first two levels is a proof-based competition. (There are a couple more levels after this that lead to the six kids who are the US team for the IMO, but I have no experience with them and they are not relevant to this rant, so I won't talk about them here except to note that they exist.)

I have spent way too much time this winter being angry at the MAA (*), and it hasn't even directly affected my kid. It may have affected a couple of her friends. (I can't even tell you how incandescent I would be if it had directly affected my kid, who really loves math competitions and has put a lot of energy into them, and we talk all the time about how it's really OK if she doesn't do well, but it's one thing not to do well after having made an honest effort at an honorable goal, but not to do well because the system has screwed you over is another thing again!)

The issue here is that the MAA competitions have become these things that kids perceive as very important for college, etc. And what that means is that there is a very large incentive to cheat. And in the last few years there have been quite a few more widespread ways to easily cheat. (Ironically, because of all the rampant cheating, the MAA competitions are now somewhat less taken into consideration by colleges than they used to be.)

Cheating since 2023, with receipts (histogram figures) for the 2024/2025 AMC 12 )

What appears to be their current proposed solution: lack of transparency, and index plus 2d20 )

(*) ETA: I mean -- on rereading my post it's pretty clear that a great deal of it is misplaced anger at the whole cheating culture, which is obviously not at ALL the MAA's fault, and unfortunately for them they are a convenient punching bag (sorry MAA). I still don't agree with a lot they've done, but it is just a general big mess that probably has no really good solutions.

February Fanworks Round-Up Post!

Mar. 2nd, 2026 10:08 am
awanderingcoyote: (Default)
[personal profile] awanderingcoyote in [community profile] sid_guardian
 This is the fanworks round-up post for February! Please link in the comments to any Guardian (or related fandoms) fanworks you created or enjoyed last month.
  • all kinds of fanworks are welcome – fic, art, vids, picspams, etc. - including those made for exchanges and events
  • new chapters of WIPs count
  • meta or discussion posts, too
  • whether or not you've already linked these in a post of their own, we still want them here!

If you're linking to fanworks you didn't create yourself, please clearly mark these "REC", so there's no confusion about authorship/creatorship.

(And please still do link your fanworks, meta, etc. separately, in their own post, at any time!)

So ... what Guardian and related fandoms works did you create or enjoy in February?

The Jewish War: First half of Book 2

Mar. 1st, 2026 08:02 pm
cahn: (Default)
[personal profile] cahn
Last week: Discussion on how Herod stacked up against various Roman emperors in terms of body count of his nearest and dearest; how Friedrich Wilhelm might hear the Josephus text; Herod throwing money around; Cleopatra!

This week: ...uhhhh there was a lot going on and I haven't actually finished the reading yet *ducks* -- I am doing that right now and I should most likely be able to comment tomorrow. (I don't anticipate this being a problem again for at least two more months, and most likely not then either; this was a confluence of various time sinks that doesn't usually happen all at the same time.) But I wanted to go ahead and get the post up because I know you guys have read it... (ETA: have finished the reading now :P :) )

Next week: finishing up Book 2!

vital functions

Mar. 1st, 2026 11:45 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

... is a placeholder; apparently getting the bus to a hospital appointment today ate my entire brain, and I need to be up early tomorrow morning for a different medical appointment for a different body part in a different place. (Why am I being sent to get an ultrasound four stops down the Piccadilly line instead of five minutes up the road? A MYSTERY.)

Reading. Progress on my pile of tabs, mostly in the form of short stories! Read more... )

And finally Library Books In Progress:

  • What Is Queer Food? (James Birdsall): gradually plodding along; I'm enjoying learning about how many of the people involved in various culinary anecdotes with which I was previously familiar in outline... were queer, but so far (a little over halfway through) the attempts to construct a narrative or category of Queer(ed) Food feel quite contrived to me. Possibly this is because I have yet to come across an instance of Academic Queering of Whatever that, like, speaks to me, you know.
  • A Physical Education, Casey Johnston (in audio?!). ADORING THIS. Probably gonna buy myself a copy. Fuller notes to (possibly) follow (look, I've written some of them up at this point--). (Actually finished at the time I am filling this post in, though it wasn't at the point at which initial post was made, so I am absolutely holding out a bit on writing up...)

Writing. I continue to eke out words. :|

Watching. One (1) episode of Farscape (S2E08), while bleaching A. It sure was a Farscape episode.

Listening. More Hidden Almanac! And also (see Reading) A Physical Education, Casey Johnston.

Playing. ... we are tentatively trying an Inkulati run with Exploders at max difficulty. It's... working? I'm suspicious about how well it's working (so far) (and I am also annoyed that I couldn't make my beloved foxes work this well).

Eating. Enjoyed discovering Kiernan's Coffee at Wimpole; particularly appreciated the cinnamon bun but the multi-inch stack of whipped cream on top of my hot chocolate was also extremely welcome (albeit messy). That was not my only ridiculous pile of whipped cream of the day; I also got Birthday Cake later on in the afternoon...

Exploring. Had a good poke around Wimpole on Saturday. Enjoyed the Walled Garden feat. nonsense petticoat daffodils out in force, and also bimbling round Home Farm, where there were sleepy Shires and tiny (squeaky) piglets.

trobadora: (Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan - wait)
[personal profile] trobadora in [community profile] sid_guardian
Zhao Yunlan sprawled on a couch, grinning at his phone. The background shows a purple sky with stars. Text reads, "Slo-Mo Rewatch. Guardian - half an episode per week @ sid_guardian.dreamwidth.org"


Hi, welcome to this week's instalment of the Guardian drama Slo-Mo Rewatch! Watch half an episode a week, and then come and chat about it here in comments. Or you can just jump into the comments without rewatching, of course!

Here is last week's half-episode. On to the second half!

Episode 12, from 22:18:

Summary: We start with murder! Zhu Jiu is collecting people's life energy and has recruited the human manager of a fight club to provide it for him. Chu Shuzhi leaves the SID to find out where Guo Changcheng is, since he's still missing. Zhao Yunlan questions Tan Xiao and learns about Zheng Yi's abusive stepfather. He understands Tan Xiao's motive, but tells him he has to follow protocol. At that moment, the Envoy arrives and briskly takes Tan Xiao away. (Da Qing wonders what Zhao Yunlan has done to upset him, since he won't even chat!) When Zheng Yi cries, Zhao Yunlan offers kitty!Da Qing as a comfort.

Returning to the SID, Zhao Yunlan is unhappy with the case's easy resolution. He starts putting together all the clues and realises that it's Zheng Yi who's Dixingren, not Tan Xiao. Meanwhile in a park, the Envoy (literally) shakes down Tan Xiao, then knocks him out - he's deduced the same thing. (In a flashback, Zhu Jiu recruits Zheng Yi just as she's killing her stepfather.) Zhu Hong wakes up, and she, Zhao Yunlan and Lin Jing rush to the hospital, but Zheng Yi and Da Qing are gone. They in turn have gone to the SID, where Da Qing hands Zheng Yi the Hallows. She remembers she's supposed to go to a wedding to find Tan Xiao.

At the Li/Huang wedding, we re-meet Papa Li, the bride and the groom, and Minister Gao, as well as meeting Cong Bo for the first time, who's secretly recording things. Meanwhile, Da Qing walks past Wang Xiangyang's fruit stand, is suddenly reminded of something Kunlun once said to him, loses control and starts trashing the fruit stand.

Tan Xiao offering to help Zheng Yi


Quote:

Lin Jing: "We need permission from the boss!"

Chu Shuzhi: "The boss' decision is the same as mine."

Detail:

Lin Jing tells us that "weak-minded" Dixingren accidentally losing control and using their powers, harming themselves and others, happens a lot.

Is it that they're weak, though, or is it that living in hiding, they lack the support and infrastructure to learn control properly?

Questions:

What's your favourite bit from this half-episode? If the Envoy had stopped to talk to Zhao Yunlan, would that have made a difference to the outcome? If Zhao Yunlan et al. hadn't left the SID to rush back to the hospital, could they have stopped Zheng Yi? How does Tan Xiao know about Dixing and the Envoy? How deliberate and premeditated was Zheng Yi's killing of her stepfather and his flunkies? Where does Lin Jing's speech about the hardships of Dixingren come from? Is what's going on with Minister Gao and Li Guangbiao actually headline-worthy? Any thoughts on parallels with other parts of the drama? Or on how this relates to things in the novel?

(These are all just conversation starters - feel free to answer all, some, or none, and to say as much or as little as you like! You don't have to be keeping up with the rewatch to join in!)

For the next two weekends, we're taking a break to give everyone (including ourselves) a bit of time to catch up! Regular posts will resume on the weekend of 20 March.

Here is our schedule for the current batch of episodes - please do sign up to host a post if you can!
umadoshi: (kittens - Yona - locked on target)
[personal profile] umadoshi
Work/life overall: Usually before a seasonal crunch starts at Dayjob I think to post something to the effect of "I'm about to be swamped, so while I'll probably/hopefully manage to keep up with reading posts, commenting will probably be mostly nonexistent, etc. etc.", and sometimes I feel a bit silly about it because I'm not as active a commenter as I'd like anyway and sometimes the crunch isn't that bad, and probably most people reading this already know that anyway...but I have some newer mutuals here now and I didn't think to post it, and friends, this crunch is CRUNCHY. Ohboy.

Media intake: LOL. (Okay, I did actually read a couple volumes of manga last night, and I did show ep. 1 of Heated Rivalry to [personal profile] scruloose last weekend. But I think that's it.)

Weather: We did get lots of snow early in the week, but somehow yet again didn't lose power. No complaints!

Cats: Last week both of the blues had birthdays! Yona turned four on Tuesday and Sinha turned five yesterday. (It would be very convenient to have a pic of the two of them together that'd make a good icon, but the odds of that ever happening are not remotely good. Have an icon of baby!Yona.)

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Morgan

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