the_siobhan | Reading

is when an organization feels the urgent need to say something both in officialese and also everyday talk. I can think of three very relevant examples in NYC:

1. Every time you do your taxes or do almost anything that involves interacting with the state government, you'll have to pick your county, and if you live in Brooklyn or Staten Island that means they list the county with the coterminous borough in parentheses.

2. If you have a kid in school, every year they send you a form reminding you to fill out your Emergency Contact Card, and every year they include the phrase "Blue Card" right afterwards. Because that's what we all call it. Because they're blue.

3. And here's one I haven't thought about much since adolescence, but if a job is apt to hire teens then they will ask for their Employment Certification and then, inevitably, add "Working Papers" right afterwards, again, because that's what everybody calls them.

There must be other examples I'm missing, as well as non-NY examples. I sometimes wonder if it'd be easier for them to just cave to the inevitable and start listing the everyday term first and then list the "real" term afterwards.

smallhobbit posting in

100words

Title: The Tie
Fandom: Spooks (MI5)
Rating: G

( How was Vienna? )

sanguinity

What Is Write Every Day?
A roving writing support community, with a bias toward encouraging a daily writing habit. It's a decentralized community, without moderators or a fixed home; hosting duties are passed around among members of the community.

nafs is hosting the first half of July; I'm hosting the second half, starting on the sixteenth. (By my time-zone: tomorrow.)

zwei_hexen will take over in August. If you want the history of who hosted when,

zwei_hexen keeps a list.

Who can participate?
Anyone! Drop in on any check-in post to say that you wrote that day. If you want to talk about victories, challenges, or process, feel free to do that, too. If you'd like to cheer on or commiserate with another commenter, please do -- conversation is encouraged!

What kind of writing?
Whatever you like. I'm here to help you meet your goals, not set them for you.

How much do I need to write?
Any amount counts. The traditional minimum unit is the so-called "alibi sentence" -- a single sentence that lets you check in and say you've written today. But you don't have to write new words, either: editing, transcription, outlining, and other activities that get you closer to a finished draft all count, too. If you think it counts, it counts. I'm not here to police your process.

How often do I have to check in?
Drop in or out at any time, or check in for several days at once, if you like. Please check in on the most recent post and say what day(s) you're checking in for, so I can keep the tally straight.

What does the tally look like?
For each day, I list the people who checked in for that day, and I publish the updated tally in every check-in post, so you can double-check my work.

Housekeeping
As host, I'll be publishing daily check-in posts, distributing encouragement in the comments, and keeping a tally of who checked in what day. I'm in Pacific Daylight Time (UTC -7), and plan to post the daily check-in during my evening. (A few hours later than this post went up.) I know my proposed posting time is very late for many people, so don't feel you have to wait for the new day's post -- just check in on the most recent post, whenever is convenient for you. Whatever post you use, please include what day you're checking in for, so I can keep the tally straight.

I'll also be using a consistent tag for these check-in posts ("write every day") so feel free to block or bookmark that, depending on your interests.

If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments!

nafs

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

solarpsychedelic

grainy black and white photo of a cat sleeping on a pillow

The happiest creature on earth is a sleeping cat.

The next happiest creature is the photographer who has a subject for a project. In this case, I’m trying out a high grain expired film effect because I like the crunchy grain vibe.

brithistorian

Colossal Biosciences is planning to bring back the giant moa, a 3m (10 foot) tall flightless bird that went extinct around 600 years ago, shortly after humans arrived in New Zealand. Peter Jackson is one of the major investors. Considering the difficulties the Australians had when dealing with emus, which are only 2/3 the size of the great moa, they really need to consider that there was probably very good reason that the early New Zealanders wiped them out.

sweettartheart posting in

100words

This week's prompt is work of art.

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: #451 - work of art" 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!

badly_knitted

Title: Animal
Fandom: FAKE
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Ryo.
Rating: PG-13
Setting: After the manga.
Summary: Ryo and Dee have a difference of opinion.
Written For: Challenge 483: Amnesty 80 at

fan_flashworks, using Challenge 474: Animal.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Double drabble.

( Animal... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

badly_knitted

Title: Tangled
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Donna Noble.
Rating: G
Written For: Challenge 940: ‘Struggle’ at

dw100.
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Donna and the Doctor are a bit tied up.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who, or the characters.

( Tangled... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

badly_knitted

Title: Getting Even
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Owen.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 874: Mad at

torchwood100.
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Ianto does enjoy making his teammates pay for their crimes.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
A/N: Double drabble.

( Getting Even... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

tcpip

Several years ago, I was visited by John August of the Pirate Party as I was hosting a special dinner for visitors, and he watched with keen interest as I put together a four-course French dinner with paired drinks, music, and a multi-layered laminated menu. "You have a very organised mind", he observed kindly. Cue last Friday, and I find myself in the company of Liza D., at a multi-narrative arthouse theatrical production, "Art, War, and Other Catastrophes". It was quite an interesting show, with unexpected convergence of the past (hello Helen!) afterwards, with our discussion venturing to a slightly wayward younger friend and my consistent efforts to encourage their intellectual insight. "You would make a good father", Liza remarked, which is probably one of the nicest things that one could say to a man of my vintage. Between the two events, a moment burned in my mind is Karl B., discussing life-skills referred to what he called "shit-togetherness", the ability to manage everything from one's own mental states, to personal and household budgets, to community groups, and beyond. Karl was expressing some concern that many don't seem to acquire this skill and knowledge until their thirties, if at all.

I suggested to Karl (inspired by the skill in the Pendragon RPG, no less) that the most appropriate term was "stewardship". The word, from Old English (stigweard) itself, originally means "hall guardian". It has semi-religious overtones as well, an trend in the Judeo-Christian tradition that represents an active and responsible engagement with the environment, a point I strenously made in an address to the Unitarian Church some eight years ago, and one which our political and economic leaders have manifestly failed; we are supposed to "serve the garden in which we have been placed" (Genesis 2:15). There is a grim irony that an rational atheist and emotional pantheist finds himself appealing to Biblical verse when our nominal leaders profess a faith that they do not seem to even aspire to practise. But of course, there are very profound secular reasons as well why stewardship is the right noun to describe human interaction with our environment, rather than a protectionist laissez-faire or indifferent exploitation.

Stewardship most of all entails a sense of responsibility. Starting from oneself, it entails a sense that one will not engage in self-sabotating behaviour and put effort in making the best use of one's mind ("the mind is a terrible thing to waste") and time ("Life is short, death is long, use your time wisely"). Extended to households, whether shared or singular, it means being responsible for creating an home that is both stimulating and a sanctuary, and extended to the social world, to paraphrase Hannah Arendt, it is engagement in the public realm where social freedom, through action and dialogue, becomes manifest, within the context of the natural world as a whole. Ultimately, stewardship is the responsible and ethical planning and management of resources, whether personal, social, or environmental, and as Lamb pointed out, the greater the power, the greater the responsibility. How careless are our rulers! As Frankl remarked, without responsibility, freedom degenerates into arbitrary whims, these rampaging childish pathological monsters who crush others underfoot with their indifference.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: The Rookery
Current Music: Tangerine Dream, Mars Polaris

james_davis_nicoll

An intelligent ship crisscrosses space-time to track the progress of the colonies it established

A Maze of Stars by John Brunner

conuly

Gosh it's thunderstorming out there!

**********************************

( Read more... )

lil_m_moses

A part of me envies my mom's lack of memory these days. I was telling her about some of the latest bullshit going down in DC, and she was incredulous, but she won't remember how fucked up everything is. I just have to try not to think too hard about it all day every day. At least I have plenty to keep me busy.

On a sunnier note, had my annual review today and they still like me a lot. My boss is probably going to be stepping back, as he gets older and has his first grandchild on the way. I got asked if I'd be willing to step up. *gulp* I don't think I can do all of it, but I can try for at least part of it. I'm so swamped already, though. I need to figure out some efficiencies, or just do a little less -thorough- a job on some stuff.

Broader changes are also coming down the pike, as we're in the process of being acquired in a few months, after some legal stuff clears (like changing ownership of our US ground stations for licensing purposes). It's a little scary that the head of the acquiring company knows my name (in a good way)!

I still have no idea where I'm going to carve out time to get Mom living somewhere safer. Furnace guy came out and checked everything out, but didn't find anything, so the stove's gas supply is staying off. This week and next are full of Mom's doctor appointments, Lillian's ceramics class, another class the week after next, one customer's launch, another customer's final integration testing prep, and Josh's parents coming to town for most of a week. I finally got work's monthly invoicing & reporting cycle closed out tonight, but the next one's coming quick. I notionally have a few days off to spend with the in-laws next week, but one of them is likely to be launch day, so that's at least one day down. And then a week after they leave, Lillian's grandfather is coming for almost 2 weeks.

james_davis_nicoll

May the prison you liberate have more than seven prisoners.

brithistorian

I love YouTube Music — it's a great streaming system and gives me access to music that I could only have dreamed of when I was younger. But there's one thing about it — a small thing really, but still big enough that it bothers me: When you have a playlist, it should be a trivial thing for the software to add up the running times of all the songs in the playlist and give you a runtime for the playlist, and this works for shorter playlists, but once a playlist reaches 5 hours or more in length, the program gets lazy and anything over 5 hours is either "5+ hours" or "5 hours [XX] minutes," where [XX] isn't the actual number of minutes past 5 hours, instead the point after 5 hours where the software got lazy and decided to stop adding. Not a deal killer, not even that big of a deal, really, but it's annoying.

cornerofmadness

So say I as I get in the car to come home. We met Lucky Uncle's wife. It was her birthday over the weekend and in a few days it'll be the first anniversary of his death so we took her out to one of her favorite restaurants: Chinese. Always dicey for a diabetic but I usually do decently in selection. This one had a dish that was represented by a hot pepper and a ginger sauce. I ended up with a sauce so sweet it was ridiculous (it also had no heat and no ginger) but my aunt is like Sheldon and is already a mess so I didn't want to send it back and give her reason to go off. I figured it won't be too much worse than general tso's which I can eat with a mild bump in sugar.

This one sent my sugar so high it was beyond what a Dexcom could read. (Yes I took my insulin, yes I'm fine, it's back down to under 150).

Okay this ride in the graphic looks like fun

Challenge #4

Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.
Creative: Write from the perspective of a house or other location.

Not much is making me smile. However I DO have a list of things I love to talk about. As for a story, well I don't have that either BUT I did finish an original horror story today that has a cabin in the woods as a central location. It's not quite on point but there you go.

1. Books My genres are mostly mystery SF/F/UF and horror (all of these both adult and YA) see me on wednesday for my current reads

2. music, I will listen to almost anything. see me on mondays for music

3. cooking, I don't share recipes as much as I should. I watch a ton of YT cooking channels

4. history, it's my jam. Love historical books fiction and nonfiction, also follow history YT channels

5. Museum, I love them even little ones. Yesterday I went to a local one for a town next to where I grew up and learned Jay Livingston wasn't the only famous person out of McDonald PA, we have one woman who won 8 emmys and one pulitzer prize winning photographer

6. gardens, I will try to make gardens and museums cornerstones of my tourism but it's not just about the big beautiful gardens and conservatories, I do garden (not as well as I used to now that I'm getting old and more disabled) but I love talking about it

7. science and medicine, I am a doctor and now a biology professor, I love science and sharing links. I'm good with biology and chemistry. I'm not great with physics, astronomy and archaeology fascinate me

8. writing, I'm a published author (points to the above reading genres), I love talking about writing, looking for beta reader/critique group members in search of a group, see me on Sundays for writing links and open calls

9. cats! Well animals in general but I'm a cat person. I take care of the outdoor cat (who does not want to be indoors which sucks because he's FIV+) Rocket refuses to be inside but he is also the most amazingly friendly cat. Some jerk dropped him off. I tried to rehome him then (4 years ago) because I was barely walking after nearly losing a leg and didn't want to be tripping over a cat just then. See how well that worked out (He's also cat number 42 I've rescued from this place)

10. My fandoms! Star Trek is my forever fandom. My biggest fandoms (in terms of me getting eaten alive by them and me writing scads for) were Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the series, Fullmetal Alchemist (still my absolute favorite anime/manga), Prodigal Son (I am still bitter about its cancelation), The Owl House (ditto about the bitter) and my current obsession, Hazbin Hotel. I'm into a lot more (especially manga/anime) so if any of those are yours let's talk (or if there's a mystery/cop drama, SF/F/Horror show, anime/manga I haven't mentioned ask if I'm into it)

And it IS Musical Monday. I'm currently doing the alphabet using the last 5 years only (But you can share from whenever you please). I'm up to O

( Ooooooooo )

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: The Proof is Out There

solarpsychedelic

I was raised in a family that values history but often I often wonder if they put too much stock in the past and not enough in the present and future.

Yes it’s good to know about history and during my working life, I was indeed a historian and archivist. I did my time in the time capsule trenches.

But I also want to do things in the present and think about the future. I want to study psychology and understand how we humans think and problem solves. Living in the past is unhealthy, insisting on not changing doubly so.

I’ve known people who have become so obsessed with the past and “the way things used to be” that they forgot to live in the present. And when I notice that in myself, I want to do things to break out of that mindset. Occasional comfort nostalgia is one thing, but missing out on the opportunities of the present isn't good.

The belief that “I’ve made it now I don’t have to do anything else” is a trap.

“Growth mindset” might be something of a cliche but it’s also true: if you don’t value personal growth, if you don’t expand your horizons in some way, then you will not progress and discover what else you can be and do. You don’t have to make expensive trips or grand gestures. Just learn a little bit every day.

solarpsychedelic

After spending the weekend immersing myself in the best of the creative human spirit, coming back to the current “reality” was a real letdown.

I keep asking, why do we accept our current epidemic of nihilism and apathy? Why have we (collectively) given up? Why are we (collectively) set against progress, enthusiasm, and motivation?

I say collectively because while there are individuals out there fighting the good fight, it feels like the darkness is bigger.

I don’t know. In the immortal words of Principal Skinner, “Prove me wrong, kids, prove me wrong!”

In the meantime I cleaned and started learning another fractal program. I love mathematical art; it gives me structure to lean on by assuring me that there is some kind of underlying harmony and logic to the universe.

sylvanwitch

Greetings from our vacation cabin, where we'll be for the week. We've left our fur-babies in the capable hands of my BFF, who's enjoying the peace and quiet there while we are just beginning to appreciate a different kind of peace, quiet, and beauty here. It is very, very humid today, so we may not get many more steps in, but we spent the morning and early afternoon cleaning and packing the car, so it's all good. While I dislike sweating so profusely when I'm not dressed for it (i.e., workout clothes), I do appreciate practical exercise.

Is there something you do regularly that helps you to feel fit?

Feel free to ignore the question, but if you're so inclined, please share how your past week has been, fitness-wise and/or otherwise.

( My Week in Review )

I hope you have a great week, my friends!

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Hemlock B Bootsalotta

I didn't get this far in life by pacing myself

Something that's always interested me

Spooks (MI5): The Tie

Write Every Day: Welcome

WED Day 15

😺 💤

You'd think that Peter Jackson would have seen Jurassic Park...

Prompt: #451 - Work of Art

FAKE Double Drabble: Animal

Doctor Who Drabble: Tangled

Double Drabble: Getting Even

Stewardship

A Maze of Stars by John Brunner

Thunderstorms!

The Only Way Out is Through?

Happy Bastille Day!

Computers, do computer things better!

Mom, I don't feel well

🤔

monday

Fitness Fellowship 2025: Week 28 Check-in

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