osprey_archer | Network

books
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann. 2011 edition. I learned so much from this despite having a degree in Latin American studies, largely because the research has evolved a lot in the many years since I graduated.

Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in U.S. History by Linford D. Fisher. 2026. ESSENTIAL READING! A legit tour de force. A++ (I am pretty well-educated, but I didn't learn ANY of this in high school or university, and that's a literal crying shame.) Please read, US-ians!

currently reading: The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government by Barbara McQuade. 2026.

yarning
Didn't go to yarn group this week. Am still working on the 2 bunnies. Got a commission for seven US flag catnip silvervine balls.

healthcrap
woke with migraine today. Vertigo is back with a vengeance. Left hand still hurts so much. Have used 1mg melatonin for 4 nights now.

#resist
June 14: Rise Up, Sing Out: No Kings 5

I hope you're all doing well! <333

senmut

Next up, having spoken of resonance, I'm asking:

What character has inspired you? Inspiration can be many things. To be better, to pick up a skill, to try a new food, anything.

This one is a toughie for me, because I was constantly tackling encyclopedias to learn new things introduced in books I read, but not necessarily directly because of a character. And I've inflicted several skills I tried to pick up on my original characters, but uncertain if that goes int he other direction.

Fortunately, I'd been warned about Turkish Delight. +g+

So ultimately, I think it comes to being inspired to be better. And I can't pinpoint one. Black Beauty inspired me to look for the best in others (before I became a member of the Certified Cynics). John Carter taught me that I can offer my skills, but ultimately the people around me need to sort themselves out (so don't barrel in with solutions without taking input is the way I modernized that). Moreta made me strive to face challenges with more calm (which honestly helped curb some of my temper for a time).

settiai

The first three episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4 are available, so it's time to start watching and see just how many changes they've made from the campaign this season.

( Spoilers for 4x01 under the cut. )

( Spoilers for 4x02 under the cut. )

( Spoilers for 4x03 under the cut. )

Current Mood: impressed

ashelterofpages

A brief update today because my brain is sluggish.

I managed to do some writing for the first time in a month. It's nothing for submission or anything, just a little story for a character I roleplay with my partner, but I think that was good for me. It scratches the same sort of itch that writing fanfic does, and I find that if I keep up doing these kinds of stories alongside the stuff I write for submission, I'm a much happier person.

Tomorrow should be Going Into The World and I'm a little nervous for it. It'll be the most significant amount of walking I'll have done since breaking my toes, so yeah. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

musesfool

So as you may have surmised from my posts over the years, I've been a sports fan all my life. I'm pretty well versed in baseball, football, hockey, and used to follow tennis as well, but I've only ever been a playoffs basketball fan, though since the Knicks have been in the playoffs the last couple of years, I've become more familiar with them (I was pretty familiar with the Ewing-era Knicks, because all my college friends were into basketball, and the spring/summer of 1994 when both the Rangers and the Knicks were in the playoffs was pretty memorable), so I didn't actually need this, but I did think it was pretty funny: The Knicks Are in the Finals. Act Like You've Been Here Before. #Go New York go New York go!

*

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Mets post-game show

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #7089 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 13 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1012.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3254/

No other experiment has a lower false negative rate.

https://xkcd.com/3254/

calimac

Here's a clue, politicians. If you're running for a relatively low-profile down-ballot office, like state legislature or a county office, don't deluge the voters with endless flyers or giant ads on tv or in newspapers. Because all you'll do is make me wonder, "Who's funding this person?" and make me reluctant to vote for you.

Indeed, for one local office there were two candidates, of which I was very skeptical of the incumbent. But the challenger's ads were so glaring that I got even more uncomfortable with him. I voted for the incumbent, who won.

conuly

Yay!

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

( Read more... )

purplecat

Reading: I've just started Frazer Hines' novelisation of Evil of the Daleks. Given he acknowledges Mike Tuckers and Steve Cole (purveyors of fiction), I do wonder how much of a hand he actually had in it. Good so far, but I'm only just starting Chapter 2.

Listening: I've been listening through the Missing Episodes Podcast. These started out really good but the one I just listened to on The Highlanders felt self-indulgent and over-long. Sufficiently so that I wondered once or twice if the presenters were drunk.

Watching: I was in Cyprus last week, and I'm now catching up and marking, so not much. Before I left we were watching Masterchef. B. is in Japan so it will be four weeks until we pick that up again...

flo_nelja

1er juin : Avoir l’air cis-hétéro
New Mutants, Kitty/Illyana, PG, angst
Au mauvais moment sur AO3

2 juin : Ils ont l’air hétéro, mais en fait…
Fruits Basket, Hatsuharu/Rin, PG
Important sur AO3

3 juin : Premier nid d’un couple LGBT
Hikaru no Go, Hikaru/Akira, PG
Colocation sur AO3

james_davis_nicoll

This new Kobolds Ate My Baby! Bundle presents Kobolds Ate My Baby!, the cult-classic tabletop fantasy roleplaying game of anti-dungeon-crawl silliness, in its 2024 Orange Book edition from 9th Level Games.

Bundle of Holding: Kobolds Ate My Baby!

forestofglory

I've been nearly constantly sick and/or overwhelemed for the last two weeks, but I did read some things!

The Cartoonists Club by Raina Telgemeier, Scott McCloud, et al.— A story about a group of kids forming a cartoonists club and making comics that’s also an intro to basic comics making and concepts. I’ve been wanting to read a bit more comics theory. (I’ve read Understanding Comics, but that was a while ago) Anyways this was cute and fun, but didn’t really scratch my comics theory itch. Would probably be good to give to a kid who is interested in comics though.

Supergirl's Family Vacation written by Brandon T. Snider, art by Sarah Leuver— This is so charming! It’s one of those graphic novels that’s its own little continuity – Supergirl is 13 and lives with her cousin Superman and his family and feels overlooked as a superhero. Anyway she convinces them all to go on vacation and then adventure happens! They go on a space road trip! Natasha Irons is there (she’s Supergirl’s best friend) Lois gets to be awesome but doesn’t steal the scene. There's a short scene of Batman and Wonder Woman getting instructions to take care of the stuff while they are away!

The whole thing is just very warm. I love the manga influenced art, the expressions are great, the colors are great! At one point there are magical girl-esqe transformation scenes. It’s very cute and sweet!

Batman & Robin Eternal by James Tynion IV et al— This did a much better job than Batman Eternal at being a story about legacy, and was just more cohesive in general. Only being half as long probably helped some. I read this when I was sick and bit out of it so I feel like some bits of it went over my head.

Laid-Back Camp Vol. 15-17 by Afro— While I’m on my slice-of-life manga kick I thought it would be nice to get caught up with this series.. It’s still one of my favorites of the genre, it's got food, female friendship, and great landscapes. It does make me sad that I am too disabled to go camping though.

Lightfall books 2-4 by Tim Probert— I was going to read these a bit slower, but they were due at the library so I had to hurry up a bit. This series is really good! I love the art, it's evocative, plus there are great landscapes! Also I didn’t say last time but there is a very good cat! The story went in some unexpected directions and I want to know what happens next! Too bad it's going to be a while before the next book is out.

A new season of my beloved wacky Chinese reality show The Truth has started airing and I'm excited for it! It's been a while since I watched anything.

mildred_of_midgard

For a variety of reasons, I ran my usual distance running pace today, so I did the 1.3 miles in a little under 13 minutes.

My knee twinged the whole time, but it also felt noticeably better at the end than at the beginning.

One of the reasons I ran slowly was because I had a meeting at 8 and didn't have time for a long cooldown run, so I had to not run fast enough to need a long cooldown to fend off a post-run crash.

Speaking of which, I googled post-run crashes quickly yesterday when I was writing my update, and I found "postural hypotension." Apparently your blood pools in your legs, and while your heart rate is high, that's fine because it's working hard enough to pump blood into your brain. If your heart rate drops while your blood is still pooled--boom!--dizziness and nausea, risk of fainting. That's why a cooldown run helps: it keeps your heart pumping at a rate that can get blood to your brain while your blood distribution slowly equalizes across your body.

This makes so much sense! It feels exactly like the postural hypotension I've had since about age 10. The number of times I have either fainted, greyed out and had to sit or lie down quickly, or just felt alarmingly and miserably like I was going to faint or grey out, are beyond what I can count. Dozens, and maybe hundreds. It was bad enough that I had my doctor investigate at one point. She found nothing wrong, said it was benign, and I should just be careful and avoid my triggers. Of which apparently running is one, as it is for many runners.

So I guess a good cooldown run is, in fact, the way to go, as well as maybe investigating sports drinks (and better hydration in general) for longer runs.

landofnowhere, this is presumably why you're able to end your runs at home: you're not getting your heart rate up to a point where you need an additional 15-20 minutes of gradual renormalization of blood pressure just to not pass out.

runpunkrun

It's like Martha Wells heard me when I said the thing I like the least about this series is all the descriptions of walking and was like CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. This book is almost entirely one long walk. Even Murderbot was complaining about it.

A return to form, where, much like the first four books in the series, that form is a novella where Murderbot is in a situation and must get itself and its assigned humans out of it. This time the situation is an escort mission, only, unlike a video game, the people Murderbot is escorting can think for themselves and won't walk off a cliff if left alone for a second. They're interesting characters and, unlike many of the other humans Murderbot adopts, I had no trouble keeping them straight, but they're not Murderbot's main people, so despite Murderbot's increasing self-awareness of its emotional state, this book lacks a lot of the deep feels that, say, Exit Strategy or Network Effect provoke. Instead, I mainly found it interesting for the worldbuilding and the exploration of the different ways people live in the Corporate Rim.

I loved seeing Three again, but, of course, I wanted more Three, and really I missed Murderbot's interactions with the humans, augmented humans, and "bot pilot" who know it best. Because the thing I like the most about this series, and I said this too, is Murderbot and the way it's learning how to be a person and building relationships despite not knowing how to do either of those things.

Contains: child harm, the usual violence and swearing (though not as much as usual!), character using a mobility device.

shipperslist

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

petrea_mitchell posting in

agonyaunt

Dear Carolyn: My brother is about six months into a new relationship with a guy he really likes and says he can see the relationship heading to marriage. He seems really happy.
I cannot pronounce the new boyfriend’s name. Well, more precisely, I cannot hear the difference. His name is Crag. Evidently, I pronounce it as Craig. I cannot hear the difference. I have tried 9 million times to hear the difference, and I fail every time.

My brother or Crag will say the name, and I repeat it back and it is wrong. This is not for lack of trying. I speak two other languages in addition to English, and I do have some words in other languages that I avoid because I just cannot replicate the sound. Each and every time I say the boyfriend’s name, he corrects me. I will use work-arounds (e.g. are you (plural) going to the game? vs. Are you and Crag going to the game?), and the boyfriend will point out that I’ve just avoided his name. Are you kidding me? Come on.

My brother is my only sibling, and we are very close. I cannot imagine a world in which I don’t get along with or like his boyfriend, but this name thing is really wearing me down.

— Name Game

( Read more... )

omens

There is a robin on my rail with an alive worm wriggling in its beak, gross. In more adorable news, earlier there was a juvenile robin on my rail with NO worm AND many many spots :D they're such cute babies.

Sunny is eating well now, her old food moistened (which before she would not touch, but now since chicken flavoured wet food is written off as drugged and suspicious, she is loving the half step toward normality) with fortiflora probiotics. And she's eating her steroid pill normally again, too.

She is, in general, pretty much normal, aside from the diet. Last night she even rattled the closet doors a bit at 3am like a nod to old times >>>>:(

Her mouth is adorable, from what I've seen (mouth is understandably off limits, ty), no fangs on the right side, but still both on the left. I don't know what else they're planning to take, but I know they're not done. It'll be a couple months yet.

Liam's dentistry came in 300$ cheaper than I was quoted \o/

He's signed up for the canadian dental plan \o/ (it was not terrible, the process, mostly just that it required his pc, his phone, his laptop, lolol, he kept having to go find more things - and his tax return, ofc. Hopefully he'll have coverage by his August apointment! And we'll have to remember to renew his application by June 1 of next year. Directly after taxes, I guess.

Kelly's in Montreal for a conference about his new job and working long hours and being social all day like he's back in Alert, lol. Poor guy. At least they sent him BY TRAIN! In business class! And fed him! I'm so jealous. He texted me from the train and said "the woman behind me is calling everyone she knows to tell them she's on a train," hahahaaa I would, ngl. Train!

Lauren and I finished watching Undercover Miss Hong and it was SO GOOD. It is not a romance (it had us afraid that it was, for a while), and it has a cast of wall to wall AMAZING characters ("And also Jungwoo is there," says Lauren LOLOL it's very true, he is the weak link fr (the character AND the actor, lol), but don't be afraid: not a romance). The villains were all so so so good. Heists! Friendship! We had many ships, too! I have millions to say about this drama but it's all spoilery. Really recommended.

runpunkrun posting in

fandomcalendar

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

oursin

What I read

Finished Persuasion - but felt a bit out of sync with the online reading.

Then I went on to something Entirely Different: my interest was aroused by rydra_wong posting about Rachel Rosen's Cascade (2022) and Blight (2025) (The Sleep of Reason, #1 and #2), so I went and discovered that the ebooks could be obtained directly from the small Canadian press in question. Got stuck into Cascade and while I would not have thought I was up for grim eco/magical dystopia with festering political intrigue before everything goes to hell, I was absolutely gripped.

Pretty much the only reason I then read LM Chilton, I Think We Should Kill Other People (2026) was I had finished that and had not yet downloaded Blight. This was a not entirely happy mashup of rom-com (this part I thought worked least well), serial killer, and version of 'cut-off country-house' mystery (small airport shut down in middle of snowstorm trapping relevant characters), with added 'reality tv show that includes AI setting' and 'comic intentions'.

On the go

Have now gone on to Blight and may be some time (these are not your slender novellas).

Up next

Alexis Hall, Father Material arrived this week; also KJ Charles, How To Fake It In Society is currently a Kobo deal so have also got that on the ereader.

Still have not yet got to Slightly Foxed, and the latest Literary Review recently arrived.

Profile

osprey_archer

June 2026

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Page Summary

sage - What I'm Doing Wednesday
senmut - June 3 - Inspiring Characters
settiai - The Legend of Vox Machina
ashelterofpages - the sweet sound of my own yawning
musesfool - the most entertaining personalities
case in fandomsecrets - [ SECRET POST #7089 ]
xkcd_feed - Detector
calimac - voting for the least annoying candidate
conuly - June is here!
purplecat - Reading, Listening, Watching
flo_nelja - Drabbles mois des fiertés, partie 1
james_davis_nicoll - Bundle of Holding: Kobolds Ate My Baby!
forestofglory - Media Roundup: Misc Sequential Art
mildred_of_midgard - Slow run; post-run crashes
runpunkrun - Platform Decay (Murderbot #8), by Martha Wells
shipperslist - Reading Wednesday 2026, #22
petrea_mitchell in agonyaunt - Carolyn Hax readers: I try!! But can’t pronounce brother’s boyfriend’s name.
omens - General updates
runpunkrun in fandomcalendar - Fancake Theme for June: Just Like Canon
oursin - Wednesday is quite significantly cooler

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Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

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Page generated Jun. 4th, 2026 12:36 am

A Certain Slant of Light

otherwise known as Jin's journal

Network

What I'm Doing Wednesday

June 3 - Inspiring Characters

The Legend of Vox Machina

the sweet sound of my own yawning

the most entertaining personalities

[ SECRET POST #7089 ]

Detector

voting for the least annoying candidate

June is here!

Reading, Listening, Watching

Drabbles mois des fiertés, partie 1

Bundle of Holding: Kobolds Ate My Baby!

Media Roundup: Misc Sequential Art

Slow run; post-run crashes

Platform Decay (Murderbot #8), by Martha Wells

Reading Wednesday 2026, #22

Carolyn Hax readers: I try!! But can’t pronounce brother’s boyfriend’s name.

General updates

Fancake Theme for June: Just Like Canon

Wednesday is quite significantly cooler

Profile

June 2026

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