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Helen Burke, 5 June 1950 — 24 January 2026

rmc28: (glowy)
[personal profile] rmc28
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 09:39 am

My aunt died on Saturday. The funeral will be in Australia, and streamed online. I am so grateful that technology allows this. It will be at midnight my time; I'm going to aim to be awake for it, but apparently there will be a recording if I don't manage to.

Donations are encouraged in her memory:

https://donate.strokefoundation.org.au/stroke-appeals
https://donate.stroke.org.uk/

And now is probably as good a time as any to remind you of the signs of a stroke and the importance of reacting FAST

Face weakness
Arm weakness
Speech problems
Time to call 999

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Japan traffic counts, and McDonald's

mindstalk: (Default)
[personal profile] mindstalk
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 06:24 pm

Was out on a walk, not particularly interesting, just getting out. I started counting traffic.

  • On a very boring two-way street some distance from the station, with little of pedestrian interest: 7 bicycles, 4 mopeds/motorbikes, 33 cars (and a bus or two). I did not formally count pedestrians, as there hardly were any at first, but it ended up feeling comparable to bicycles. Then I hit a street where there seemed to be a phase transition in traffic.

  • Same street, but now closer to the station: 25 pedestrians, 12 2-wheel vehicles of all types, 17 cars/buses/trucks.

  • 3-way scramble intersection, very close to the station: 26 pedestrians to 9 cars; 28 pedestrians to 9 cars. (Two different light cycles.) Going the other direction, more casual count, but maybe 18 to 14. I note that much more signal time is given to moving the 9-14 cars than the 18-26+ pedestrians (plus non-counted sidewalking bicycles.)

Some internal counter tipped over to the point of trying McDonald's here. The menu is fairly different; no obvious equivalent to quarter-pounders; different flavors like teriyaki burger or shrimp burger. I tried a potato beef burger ("big beef" patty, potato patty) and shaka chicki (fried chicken fillet, and from the wrapping you're supposed to shake seasoning over it? But I didn't have any.) There was a messup and I was handed a simple bag of fries, which I discovered only at home. Went back (stole one fry; it smelled better than it tasted) to say "chigau!" and be glad I'd kept the receipt. Got my actual bag. It was... okay.

I note that if you're hungry Now, hot fast food from McDonald's or conbini has the advantage of coming in paper wraps. If you get nice cold snacks from conbini or supermarkets, it comes in a plastic tray. Given the total lack of public trash cans, the paper wraps are rather easier to stick into a pocket of your backpack. (Some conbini have trash cans, so you could eat there and throw it out -- but many don't!)

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2026/016: Nowhere Burning — Catriona Ward

tamaranth: me, in the sun (Default)
[personal profile] tamaranth
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 09:01 am
2026/016: Nowhere Burning — Catriona Ward

"We're here because we want to understand them, right?"
"Right."
"Not because we are them. Not because it wants us here... You know what they say. Nowhere draws lost kids to it. Are we lost kids too?" [loc. 2044]

Riley and her little brother Oliver live with Cousin. Their mother committed suicide a couple of years before the novel opens: Riley never knew her father, while Oliver's father is dead. Now Riley is biding her time until she can graduate from high school and escape Cousin's brutal regime. 

One night a girl in green appears at her second-floor window, and gives Riley directions to Nowhere, an abandoned and ruined mansion that used to belong to famous film star Leaf Winham.( Read more... )

  • Current Mood: thankful
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Dear Casefic Author

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[personal profile] beatrice_otter
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 05:37 pm
I use the same name everywhere so I am [personal profile] beatrice_otter on AO3. Treats are awesome.

I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am not inspired that way." This letter is long with lots of suggestions and preferences if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for a long time and am usually very happy with my gifts.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

I have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.

( General Likes and Dislikes )

( Notorious (1946) )

( Enola Holmes movies )

( Elementary )

( Terminator: tSCC )

( Goblin Emperor )

( Peter Wimsey )

( Crossovers )

( Rivers of London )

( DS9 )

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Emailing my senators

NSFW
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[personal profile] amaebi
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 12:18 am
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Ask a Manager: Business and Politics

minoanmiss: The beautiful Finn as the king he is (Pharaoh Finn)
[personal profile] minoanmiss[community profile] agonyaunt
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 01:49 am
supplier said not to do business with them if we disagree politically ( Read more... )
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Letters from Minneapolis

NSFW
minoanmiss: Pink Minoan lily from a fresco (Minoan Lily)
[personal profile] minoanmiss
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 01:44 am
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Hard Things

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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 12:02 am
Life is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.

What are some of the hard things you've done recently? What are some hard things you haven't gotten to yet, but need to do? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your hard things a little easier?
  • Current Mood: busy
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Vehicle notes for "Shopping for College"

ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 11:18 pm
Here are the vehicle notes for "Shopping for College."

( Read more... )
  • Current Mood: busy
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it's international holocaust remembrance day

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[personal profile] toastykitten
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 08:53 pm
What exactly are we remembering? The things that caught my eye, just today:
What, exactly, are we to do with remembrances that become meaningless in the face of current events? 

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Climate Change

ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 05:27 pm
What happens to forests when the planet warms up too fast

New sediment records from the Norwegian Sea offer a rare, close-up look at how quickly nature can unravel when the planet warms. During a past episode of extreme global warming, coastal forests along the Arctic margin collapsed within just a few centuries.

What followed was a cascade of change – widespread wildfires, heavy soil erosion, and a rush of carbon back into the atmosphere. The study shows how land ecosystems can rapidly flip from storing carbon to releasing it, amplifying warming long after the initial trigger.

( Read more... )
  • Current Mood: busy
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Half Day

NSFW
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[personal profile] adafrog
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 09:42 pm
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Little Mushroom by Yi Shi Si Zhou, book 1

18
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[personal profile] shipperslist
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 05:51 am
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As the Earth Dreams, ed. Terese Mason Pierre (2025) [part 3]

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[personal profile] pauraque
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 10:32 pm
This is the third and final part of my book club notes on As the Earth Dreams. [Part one, part two.]


"deh ah market" by Whitney French

( A pair of cousins bend time and space to connect with worlds and relatives past. )


"Paroxysm" by Zalika Reid-Benta

( A woman isolating from a new virus starts hallucinating. )


"Just Say Garuka" by Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga

( Two teenagers test a friendship over magic carpet flying practice. )


the end

I think the group did not end up being super jazzed about this book on the whole, and I felt similarly. There were a few stories I liked, but some felt like maybe they needed another pass for cohesion, and the collection leaned thematically grim in a way that I had a hard time connecting with. Oh well, they can't all be winners.

The group plans to continue with The Black Fantastic: 20 Afrofuturist Stories.
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So, in my Outgunned

james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 10:26 pm
I think the schtick is the crew gets sent out to investigate potentially revolutionary tech and it's always legitimately amazing but also not what they're expecting. Case in point, they were looking into a supposed teleporter and now everyone is ant-sized.

Among my other ideas

( Read more... )

Nine to five.

hannah: (Library stacks - fooish_icons)
[personal profile] hannah
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 10:01 pm
I'm wanted for three full days a week at the day gig for the next three weeks, minimum. I'd be foolish to turn it down. I'd also be foolish to leave other people in the lurch and hanging, even if all that's happened is a couple of emails. That it's a project with a defined end - eventually, they're going to run out of books - helps a little bit in assessing the coming days.

To my pride, last week I'd suggested they move the children's books they wanted to save to the closet in one of the kid's rooms. They decided to pack them up to move them, so last week I packed them up - too much per box to be practical, but finally contained. Today they said they wanted them in one of the kid's rooms, so I unpacked, sorted, and put them all away, and they were deeply pleased with the end results.

There's a lot to get through, and there's rooms of books in this place. They're coming out of closets, they turn up in boxes, they're hiding behind each other, and I haven't even touched the other side of the apartment. Rarely do I look forward to having to be at work in the morning, but then, rarely do I have this much fun at the job.
  • Current Mood: exhausted
  • Current Music: nothing now

Daily Happiness

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[personal profile] torachan
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 07:01 pm
1. I felt much better today when I woke up! Still not sure what set off that bout of stomach issues but I'm glad that level is not constant for me anymore the way it was several years ago when this first started.

2. I worked from home today, partly because I was expecting a large package, but partly because I didn't really have any need to go into the office. I think I'm going to do the same tomorrow.

3. The package I was expecting today was a new CD rack for the garage. Carla has a nice stereo system out there (including a turntable, though she hasn't gotten hardcore into collecting vinyl and is still mostly into CDs) and she's been building up her CD collection again after we sold off a lot of them years ago. Sometime last year I bought a new CD rack in the same style as the one we'd had in the house (which we also moved out to the garage), but when I went to order a third one now, they're completely discontinued! D: I really would have preferred to have everything matching, but we settled on one that's at least somewhat similar (light wood). I was expecting to have to put it together but it came completely assembled, so all I had to do was get it out of the box and set it upright. Nice!

4. I love when they sleep with all their limbs together like that. So cozy!

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so yeah, I have a kid living in Minneapolis right now

loligo: Scully with blue glasses (Default)
[personal profile] loligo
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 07:27 pm
Cut for all the things you'd expect.

( Read more... )
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New to me...

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[personal profile] halfshellvenus
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 05:39 pm
We went up to Portland to visit family last weekend, and found some new things as a result.

1. There is a fragrance called Ghost Trees. I'm undecided on whether I like it, but I love the name!

2. There is an Instagram account called freddieandthebag, which features videos of a black cat (named Mr. Freddie Mercury) accompanied by narration of his "adventures" with Mother, the short man, and various other enemies/frenemies who frequent his yard. It's wonderful.

3. There is a used LEGO store in the area called Yellow Castle Bricks. Oh, heavens! We spent a couple of hours there, pawing through accessories and minifigures and their components. Even though I lost most of our LEGOs as a result of the fire (smoke damage), I still want more— some for speculative reselling purposes, and others... because I have a ridiculous love for tiny things. I want ALL the accessories! The weapons, the dog bones, the teapots and cups, the brooms, the apples, the tennis rackets, the electric guitars, the scissors, and the flasks/goblets. I bought all of those, and a briefcase, a red toolbox, a seahorse, and a rhino head and alien head. Plus a shark and a crocodile. Yessssssssss!

Speaking of LEGOs, the steampunk airship pseudo-LEGO set that I built is no longer available. :( I hesitate to recommend any more sets, lest they sell out at Amazon before the next time I'm eligible to receive gifts! But... a company named INSOON offers several "Book Nook" building sets, which are LEGO-like "scenes" that open up to be a room or close to resemble a wide book. These include a fake Hogwarts set and, get this, a dinosaur museum set! Whoo!

No idea where I would store all the things I want, but I DO long for them. :O

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Gaming Update

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[personal profile] cyphomandra
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 01:15 pm
I dropped the difficulty on Alan Wake II (just in time to get attacked by some exceedingly fast-moving wolves that I would have totally failed to deal with otherwise) and played for a bit more, long enough to switch POV character to Alan himself. This meant a shift from small rural town to big grimy city, and also brings into play the writing mechanic, where once you discover a piece of information you can rewrite an earlier scene and open up new possibilities. It had some neat moments, but it still wasn’t enough to keep me interested. It doesn’t help that I don’t like having to use a gun as my sole weapon (I do now have a crossbow, but with only three bolts and only in Saga’s POV) and I’m not thrilled by playing as an FBI agent, which is Saga’s job. I have therefore abandoned it for now.

As per last update I had started playing LEGO Horizons with my son, and I’m sure it will come as no surprise that after playing through two levels of that (Cauldrons! Thunderjaws! Varl!) I loaded Horizon Forbidden West back on to the Playstation. Originally I’d intended to only play the DLC, Burning Shores, but my only save was right before the final mission arc (on the beach at Singularity, where you’re about to call everyone in) and it felt wrong to start there, plus I would be completely out of practice with all the weapons. So obviously the only logical answer was to replay all of HFW, which, ahem, I have now done. I am now on to Burning Shores, and zipping round the half-drowned and occasionally erupting remnants of Los Angeles.

I think as a game in and of itself HZD still has the edge, but there’s a lot I love about HFW as well, including some amazing new characters, expanded weapons (I have finally gotten the hang of the shredder gauntlet, woo hoo), and new mounts. And I do like what they do with the story - the Far Zeniths, and especially Tilda, are good antagonists. I do not like Machine Strike (I have played the tutorial and the two games required to get the trophy, and no more) and I never bother with the face paint, although I do like that they’ve stuck a Pride option in to annoy all those gamer gate types complaining about having to play as a queer woman.
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