Last Weekend of July 2025

Jul. 26th, 2025 10:51 pm
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
[personal profile] dewline
No lottery winnings to speak of.

No Bingo day.

Just a good enough day.

More to talk about tomorrow, maybe?

Replaced image for Emmy nominees post

Jul. 26th, 2025 06:21 pm
neonvincent: For posts about food and cooking (All your bouillabaisse are belong to us)
[personal profile] neonvincent
I didn't like how this came out, so I made a new image for 'The Daily Show Presents: Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse: MAGA: The Next Generation' plus the Emmy nominees for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special.

james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
The quoted material below is quoted material.

I wrote in 2022 that the election system used by WSFS should be changed. At present, the rules for electing the Mark Protection Committee, the body charged with ensuring that the intellectual property of WSFS is protected, are set out in Standing Rule 6.2:

Voting shall be by written preferential ballot with write-in votes allowed. Votes for write-in candidates who do not submit written consent to nomination to the Presiding Officer before the close of balloting shall be ignored. The ballot shall list each nominee’s name. The first seat filled shall be by normal preferential ballot procedures as defined in Section 6.4 of the WSFS Constitution. There shall be no run-off candidate. After a seat is filled, votes for the elected member shall be eliminated before conducting the next ballot. This procedure shall continue until all seats are filled. In the event of a first-place tie for any seat, the tie shall be broken unless all tied candidates can be elected simultaneously. Should there be any partial-term vacancies on the committee, the partial-term seat(s) shall be filled after the full-term seats have been filled.

I warned that this carries the risk that a single faction with roughly half of the total votes could win every single seat and squeeze out other viewpoints.

My warning has come dramatically true.
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[personal profile] brithistorian

I read a news article today "K-pop trainee ordered to pay damages after tattoo and dorm exit led to canceled debut". In the article, the trainee was referred to as A, in an effort to protect their privacy — they even used "they/them" pronouns throughout, thinking that concealing their gender might have further helped in concealing their identity. However, they referenced the company involved by name and gave the debut date of the group that A didn't debut with, which meant that 30 seconds at the Kpop Wiki was enough for me to find A's identity. Definitely sub-optimal anonymization.

I'm also not too keen on the headline. To me "canceled debut" sounds like the group that A was to have been in didn't debut, but instead it was just that A didn't get to debut with the group.

Also, if you're curious, according to the contract, the damages in question should have been 60 million won (approx. US$43K) for 2 violations for contract terms (once for leaving the dorm without permission, once for getting a tattoo without permission). For some reason, though, the company sued A for 80 million won (approx. US$58K). The judge ruled that this amount was excessive and ordered A to pay 5 million won (approx. $US3600). The agency is appealing the ruling, though, which just has me eye-rolling. (It seems significant to me, though I don't know if a court would feel this way, that the group that A was prevented from debuting with has already disbanded.)

(no subject)

Jul. 26th, 2025 08:00 am
skygiants: a figure in white and a figure in red stand in a courtyard in front of a looming cathedral (cour des miracles)
[personal profile] skygiants
There are some books that I can't read until I've achieved a pleasing balance of people whose taste I trust who think the book is good, and people whose taste I trust who think the book is bad. This allows me to cleanse my heart and form my own opinion in perfect neutrality.

As it happened I hit this balance for The Ministry of Time some time ago, but then I still needed to take a while longer to read it because, unfortunately, I was cursed with the knowledge that a.) it was Terror fanfiction and b.) it was on Obama's 2024 summer reading list and c.) I had chanced across the phrase "Obama says RPF is fine" on Tumblr and could not look at the front cover of Ministry of Time without bursting into laughter. And I wanted to come to this book with a clear heart! an open mind! so I waited!

.... and then all of that waiting was in fact completely fruitless, I was never going to be able to come to this book with a clear heart and an open mind, because, Terror fanfiction aside, I'm like 99% sure that it's either a direct response to Kage Baker's Company series or Kaliane Bradley is possessed by Kage Baker's ghost. Welcome back, Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax! The mere fact that you're so much less annoying this time around means I'm grading on a huge curve!

Okay, so the central two figures of The Ministry of Time are our narrator -- a second-gen Cambodian-English government translator whose mother fled the Khmer Rouge, and who has gotten shuffled into a top-secret government project working with 'unusual refugees' -- and Polar Explorer Graham Gore Of The Doomed Franklin Expedition, who has been rescued from his miserable death on the ice and brought forward into the future by the aforementioned top-secret government project.

The project also includes a small handful of other time rescuees -- Graham Gore is the only actual factual historical figure, and frankly I think the book would be better if he wasn't, but that's a sidenote. Each time refugee gets a 'bridge' to live with them and help them acclimate; in Gore's case, that's our narrator. The first seventy to eighty percent of the book consists mostly of loving, detailed, funny descriptions of the narrator hanging out with the time refugees as they adapt to The Near Future, interspersed with a.) dark hints about the sinister nature of the project and the narrator's increasing isolation within it that she repeatedly apologizes to us for ignoring, b.) dark hints about the oncoming climate apocalypse, c.) reflections the narrator's relationship to her family history, and d.) intermittent bits of Terror fanfiction about Gore's Time On the Ice.

I do not think this part of the book is necessarily well-structured or paced, but I did have a great time with it. Does it feel fanfictional? Oh, yes. The infrastructure that surrounds this hypothetical government project is almost entirely nonexistent in order to conveniently allow the narrator long, uninterrupted stretches to attempt to introduce Graham Gore to various forms of pop music; [personal profile] genarti described it cruelly but perhaps accurately as "Avengers tower fanfic". But I like the thematic link between time travelers and refugees, and I like the jokes, and I like the thing Bradley is doing -- the thing Kage Baker does, that I am extremely weak to -- where just when you're lulled into enjoying the humor of anachronism and the sense of humanity's universal connection you run smack into an unexpected, uncrossable cultural gap and bruise your nose.

Now, this only ever happens with Gore, because Gore is the only one of the refugees who is a real person in several ways. Margaret (the seventeenth-century lesbian) and Arthur (the gay WWI officer) are likeable gay sidekicks, and then there's a seventeenth-century asshole whose name I've forgotten. At one point Arthur tosses off a mention to his commanding officer 'Owen who wrote poetry' and I nearly threw the book across the room. Have the courage of your convictions, Kaliane Bradley! None of these coy little hints, either do the work to kidnap Wilfred Owen and Margery Kempe from history or don't! But Gore is obsessively drawn and theorized and researched, because, of course, the whole book is largely about Being Obsessed With Gore, about interrogating why the narrator, a not-quite-white-passing brown woman from an immigrant family, has built her whole life around this sexy British naval officer turned time refugee, symbolic of the crimes and failures of empire in six or seven different directions. A bit navel-gazey, perhaps, but as a person who spent five books begging Kage Baker to think at all critically about the horrible British naval officer turned time refugee she'd built, I'm just like, 'well, thank God!'

And, again, for the five people who care, I cannot emphasize enough just how similar Gore is to Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax and yet miraculously how much less annoying. They both have a code of ethics formed by the loyal and genuine belief in the good work done by the British Imperial project (thematically and historically reasonable); a shocking level of natural charisma combined with various secret agent skills at weaponry, deception, strategy and theft (extremely funny, extra funny with Gore because as far as I can tell what we know about him From History is 'normal officer! popular guy!'); and -- such a specific detail to have in common! -- Big Sexy Nose That The Man In Question Is Really Self-Conscious About.

And both of them, of course, end up struggling to navigate their positionality in the Imperial machine, between government operative-with-agency and experimental-subject-with-none.

So that's the first seventy to eighty percent of the book, and then, in the last twenty to thirty percent of the book, the dark hints finally resolve into the actual plot, which is IMO successful in theme but completely goofy in actual detail )

Books Received, July 19 to July 25

Jul. 26th, 2025 09:13 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Eight works new to me. Mostly novels but there are two tabletop roleplaying rule books in there. Four are fantasies (including the ttrpgs), one seems to be horror, one non-fiction, and two are SF. Four could be said to be series books and other four appear to be stand-alone.

Books Received, July 19 to July 25


Poll #33429 Books Received, July 19 to July 25
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 42


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch (July 2025)
24 (57.1%)

The Adventure of the Demonic Ox by Lois McMaster Bujold (July 2025)
24 (57.1%)

They Call Her Regret by Channelle Desamours (February 2026)
3 (7.1%)

Sky on Fire by E. K. Johnston (July 2025)
12 (28.6%)

The Rainseekers by Matthew Kressel (February 2026)
6 (14.3%)

Warhammer: the Old World Roleplaying Game, Gamemaster’s Guide by Dominic McDowall and Pádraig Murphy et al (Q1 2026)
2 (4.8%)

Warhammer: the Old World Roleplaying Game, Player’s Guideby Dominic McDowall and Pádraig Murphy et al (Q1 2026)
2 (4.8%)

Starlost Unauthorized by D G Valdron (October 2024)
14 (33.3%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
27 (64.3%)

Canadian immigration question

Jul. 26th, 2025 03:11 am
staranise: A star anise floating in a cup of mint tea (Default)
[personal profile] staranise
I have an American friend who would strongly prefer to move their family to Canada. 2 adults, 4 children; both adults have degrees and professional credentials that would transfer across the border. They're currently looking for work, both abroad and in bluer states than theirs.

The question they asked me was:

Is immigrating to Canada something we can do on our own or do we need an immigration lawyer? I have been looking at requirements and it all seems straightforward enough, but I don’t want to be unpleasantly surprised


Any thoughts on the process would be welcome, like if/when a lawyer is needed, or if/when agencies that promise to help with the moving process are actually worth their fees.

Thanks! Comments are screened for people who'd rather stay private, and I'll pass the messages along.

A handful of recent books

Jul. 26th, 2025 02:00 am
genarti: Knees-down view of woman on tiptoe next to bookshelves (Default)
[personal profile] genarti
I've read various books recently that I have a lot of thoughts about, and want to write up as they deserve. (A Letter to the Luminous Deep, Alien Clay, and The Ministry of Time are currently clamoring loudest.) In the meantime, though, here are some recent reads that I managed to be less longwinded about!

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff )

The Twelve Chairs, by Ilf and Petrov, translated by Anne O. Fisher )

The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington )

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn )

Daily Happiness

Jul. 25th, 2025 09:33 pm
torachan: a cartoon kitten with a surprised/happy expression (chii)
[personal profile] torachan
1. Second day of soft open was a wild ride. People lined up before the store opened. We made double the sales of yesterday. All without any advertising about the soft open. The only advertising was about the grand open tomorrow.

2. Some of you may remember a couple years ago I was working on a project to transition to a new inventory system at work and really dialing back my area manager duties to focus on that. Then they put it on hold because they were redoing the whole thing from scratch. Now they are back at the point where the IT side needs feedback from store operations, and they need more time devoted to it than anyone can do while juggling other job duties, so I was told today that I will be fully working on that for the next year or so and only lightly helping out with area manager stuff (currently there is no one who can actually take my place). I will get a bigger raise than the small annual raise I just got, and I can work from home if there's nothing I need to go in to the office for. I will miss all that audiobook time from driving but will not miss all the actual driving.

3. Look at that perfect Molly curl!

settiai: (Kes -- settiai (TriaElf9))
[personal profile] settiai
In tonight's game, the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Another reason to dislike TikTok

Jul. 25th, 2025 06:33 pm
neonvincent: From an icon made by the artists themselves (Bang)
[personal profile] neonvincent
settiai: (Critical Role -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai
Let's try for an actual, proper fandom-related post for once, huh?

Critical Role had a panel at SDCC yesterday, and they announced all sorts of new details about The Legend of Vox Machina and the upcoming animated series The Mighty Nein (which is based on Campaign 2 of Critical Role like TLoVM is based on Campaign 1). I'm feeling properly fannish for the first time in ages, so let's see if I can keep up the momentum.

With TLoVM, they confirmed that Season 4 will be airing next year in 2026. It's also been renewed for Season 5 as its final season, which should give them plenty of time to properly cover the Vecna arc from the first campaign. They also shared a sneak peek of the upcoming season, which gave us our first look at the one and only Taryon Darrington and Doty. Video embed under the cut. )

On the M9 front, Season 1 will start airing this year on November 19th. In addition, the episodes will be a full hour instead of a half hour like TLoVM, although they didn't mention whether or not the total number of episodes in the season will drop because of that fact. They also shared a sneak peek of what will presumably be the first episode. Video embed under the cut. )

In addition, they shared some names of actors who will be guest starts on the first season of M9. There's definitely a couple that have me excited, and I can't wait to find out just who on earth they're going to be playing.


Spoilers under the cut in the form of actors' names but no details about who they're playing save for one who's already been in TLoVM. Some speculation on my part, but nothing official.
Robbie Daymond isn't much of a surprise, considering he was practically a full cast member for a huge chunk of Campaign 3 of Critical Role (with an implication he'll be back for Campaign 4). Plus, you know, he also was in TLoVM. I wonder if they'll have him playing the Gentleman? It would make sense since that's one of the few characters who's introduced early in CR2 and then pops up repeatedly going forward, and they'd probably want someone they could guarantee would definitely be around to voice the character in later seasons.

Mark Strong isn't unexpected either, since we already saw him playing Trent Ikithon in TLoVM during the flashback scene with Ripley. I think it's safe to say that's who he'll continue to be playing in M9.

I was very excited to see both Alan Cumming and Jonathan Frakes on the list, although I'm not certain just who they'll be playing. If Robbie Daymond isn't the Gentleman, Frakes would be my next best guess, but on the other hand I feel like that's leaning too far into Xanatos territory and they probably wouldn't want to re-tread that. Maybe Alan Cumming will be Ludinus? That could be very interesting to see.

Tim McGraw definitely wasn't a name I was expecting to see on the list, and I'm curious who he'll be playing. My best guess would be Lorenzo based on his accent, who I presume will pop up at the end of the season, but if they have flashbacks then he could possibly be Vandran from Fjord's backstory.

I'm amused that they have Ming-Na Wen, Anika Noni Rose, and Auli'i Cravalho are all playing roles. I suspect that Sam Riegel's ties to Disney very much played a role in that, but still. I wasn't expecting to see Mulan, Tiana, and Moana all appear. Personally, I suspect that Ming-Na Wen will be playing Dairon, but I'm not sure about the other two. Maybe Anika Noni Rose is playing Marion? It's not unlikely there will be some flashbacks and such featuring her. I have no idea on Auli'i Cravalho, though.

Rahul Kohli was the only one of the announced guest cast who I'm not that familiar with. I mean, I know who he is, but I don't think I've ever properly watched anything with him in it. The only thing I personally know him from is Stray Gods.

I also wonder if any of the guest stars from the actual campaign (hello, Khary Payton, I'm mainly looking at you) will be making an appearance, and they didn't have them on the list just to make people speculate. Shakäste is such an interesting character, and it would be a shame if they cut him even though it would probably make sense plot-wise.


Overall, I'm very much looking forward to both shows, and I hope it helps bring me properly back into fannishness. With Critical Role on hiatus for months and months now while they do other things leading up to Campaign 4, it's been a little too easy to slip out of being properly fannish about, well, anything. It would be nice to have something airing weekly to draw me back in.

The Whisperer in White by Y. R. Liu

Jul. 25th, 2025 08:52 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


A young hunter's carelessly loosed arrow earns her imprisonment under the supervision of a mage.

The Whisperer in White by Y. R. Liu

Louisiana Zine Fest!

Jul. 25th, 2025 06:16 am
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee
I’ll be tabling at the Louisiana Zine Fest (I'm not yet listed but I'm confirmed)! I’ll be there with a Ninefox comic zine and solo journaling / micro-TTRPG zines, including some never before released to the wild! Come say howdy if you’re in the area!

(Yes: physical zines. I have a laser printer and I'm not afraid to use it!)

Date: Friday, August 1, 2025
Time: 12pm – 8pm

Place:
Main Library at Goodwood
7711 Goodwood Blvd
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70806
USA

(Pro tip: Goodwood Grill across the way has terrific food if you do meat/seafood. I especially love the shrimp po'boys if shrimp is a thing you do.)

"Intrusive" [Encanto gen]

Jul. 25th, 2025 02:03 am
viridian5: the Queen of Hearts from Patricia A. McKillips' _Fool's Run_ (Default)
[personal profile] viridian5
Encanto gen:Intrusive”   [@ AO3]
RATING: PG-13.
SUMMARY: Bruno has a special relationship with Casita. That’s not always a good thing.
NOTES: It struck me that even before his ten years inside the walls, Bruno had probably spent more time alone with Casita than
anyone else in his family.
Thank you to [personal profile] akira17 for beta.

Daily Happiness

Jul. 24th, 2025 09:36 pm
torachan: a cartoon owl with the text "everyone is fond of owls" (everyone is fond of owls)
[personal profile] torachan
1. The first day of the new store's soft open was a huge success. We didn't advertise it at all, but the store was very busy all day (only open from 10-4) and we made over three times as much as the first soft open day of the store that opened in December, so hopefully that is a sign that this store will be a success.

2. Look at Tuxie in his little house! He doesn't sleep here at night and doesn't ever seem to use it during the day, but sometimes he likes to go in there in the early morning between waking up and leaving wherever it is he sleeps at night and coming up to the porch for breakfast.

neonvincent: From an icon made by the artists themselves (Bang)
[personal profile] neonvincent
I wanted another image for Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program in 'Pee-wee as Himself' vs. 'Will & Harper' for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special on Tequila Day that I saved it from Instagram. I might use this for a post about Chimp Crazy.

Headache, by Tom Zeller, Jr

Jul. 24th, 2025 10:24 am
rachelmanija: (Books: old)
[personal profile] rachelmanija


A solid, well-written, and generally engaging book about migraine and cluster headaches. The author suffers from the latter, with suffer being the operative word - cluster headaches are called "suicide headaches" because people with them are known to kill themselves because of the intractable, excruciating pain.

The first-person account was the best part of the book: what it's like to have cluster headaches, how you're driven to hoard medication because you're not allowed to have enough (which leads doctors to view you with suspicion as a drug-seeker - NO SHIT you seek painkillers when you're in pain!), how you cling to any doctor who will take you seriously, and the psychology of chronic pain generally.

(In Zeller's case, he wasn't seeking opiods or anything that could get him high, but a medication that does nothing to anyone but stop cluster headaches if you have one. But his doctor didn't believe that he actually got them as often as he did, and his insurance company didn't want to pay out for his medication, so he was forced to hoard and ration his medication for no good reason, and then looked at with suspicion when he asked for more.)

The book gets a bit into the weeds in terms of the biological mechanism of cluster and migraine headaches, which is not yet known, and the reasons why there's little research or funding devoted to them. But overall, a good book that will make people with chronic headaches, or any chronic pain, feel seen.

pantechnicon

Jul. 24th, 2025 07:54 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
pantechnicon (pan-TEK-ni-kon) - (UK) n., (obs.) an indoor bazaar, with stalls selling various goods; (dated) a furniture removal van.


Shortened to pantech, that last sense is still in use in Australia, per one dictionary (can anyone confirm?). I don't usually include obsolete senses, but this one is important to the history. In 1831, such a bazaar opened in fashionable Belgravia, London, combined with a furniture store due to the site's odd geometry, and because of the building's Doric front, the proprietors went all in on the Greek and coined the name Pantechnicon from Ancient Greek roots pan-, all + tekhnikón, neuter singular of tekhnikós, technical/skilled/arts. The bazaar part of the business eventually closed down, but not until after the name had spread to other similar establishments. Meanwhile, the furniture business flourished, to the point that the proprietors developed special delivery vans (initially horse-drawn but motorized once that became a thing), and the name again spread as those also were imitated.

---L.

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