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These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them: Today's Smoothie Stir-Fry Food Early Humans Birdfeeding Today's Adventures Birdfeeding Email Aliases Philosophical Questions: Money Heat Early Humans Books Music Birdfeeding Follow Friday 8-22-25: Active Communities on Dreamwidth Summer 2025 A-I Today's Adventures Birdfeeding Affordable Housing Birdfeeding Read "The Bottle Wall" by Smokingboot Cuddle Party
Affordable Housing has 39 comments. Robotics has 47 comments. Food has 34 comments. "Philosophical Questions: Looks" has 50 comments.
summerofthe69 is open! You can see the calendar here and the current themes are Tropefest 69 and a double theme of Fighting or Fucking AND Monsterfucker.
There are no open epics at present.
The weather is much cooler here. :D Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a male cardinal, and a hummingbird. Currently blooming: dandelions, pansies, violas, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, oxalis, moss rose, yarrow, anise hyssop, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, Asiatic lilies, cucumber, yellow squash, zucchini, morning glory, purple echinacea, black-eyed Susan, yellow coneflower, chicory, Queen Anne's lace, sunflowers, cup plant, gladioli, firewheel, orange butterfly weed, cypress vine. Tomatillo and pepper have green fruit. Tomatoes, ball carrots, and groundcherries are ripe.
Current Mood:  busy
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Today is cloudy and warm.
I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.
EDIT 8/25/25 -- We did some work along the south side of the house.
EDIT 8/25/25 -- I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 8/25/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 8/25/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 8/25/25 -- I watered the new picnic table and the septic garden.
I picked 4 red cherry tomatoes.
. Current Mood:  busy
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I've been recently to a beginner's workshop on hand-spinning. It was my second such workshop in about 30 years. I did a little follow-up spinning back then with friends, but I didn't have the leisure or means to continue. This time I wanted to test my hands.
The instructor, who judges handspun yarn at county fairs, brought us some roving. ( Read more... )
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This season continues to be definitely Something.
( Spoilers )
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dialecticdreamer is hosting Feathering the Nest today, which always has a theme of fluff an comfort. Leave prompts, get ficlets!
Welcome to the second prompt call for the month of August (2025)! This event focuses on gentle fiction, fluff and comfort, rather than plot. (Though… plots tend to sneak in, like kids going to a Saturday morning movie when I was a kid.)
A prompt call is an invitation from the writer to the readers: help me craft the story that you, individually as well as collectively want to read. Participating is easy, just by replying to this post with a comment that suggests a story idea. Be as specific as you like, or just “Hey, comfort and cuddles between a usually standoffish person and someone they trust would be nice, today.” [---8<---] If anyone is interested in sponsoring a story, first, thank you. Second, there is no pressure to sponsor the story that you have requested, so that the suggested $20 for a thousand word story becomes even more of a bargain if the prompter chooses to sponsor something that looks interesting from among the list of unpublished stories. The suggested two cents per word makes the math easy, as does the rounded down word counts (I round down to the nearest hundred words.), because this is supposed to be fun for everyone, even the bank balance.
Current Mood:  busy
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A rather more contemporary citizenship question here. I’m looking for a resource for Japanese passport and citizenship rules - do they have birthright citizenship, if a citizen emigrates can they retain dual citizenship, is it different if they emigrated as a child etc.
The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website is very helpful on the subject of visas and emigration for citizens of other countries so I guess I’m looking for a similar kind of FAQ to this - https://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/ - but for, I guess you’d call it re-emigration? Moving back to the country of your birth as an adult?
Any help, gratefully received!
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I went to a show the sea spirit (spouse of the tall one, mother of my little grandson) was in (show was a queer BIPOC group--the sea spirit's piece was about being nonbinary but claiming the title of mother), and before the show, there was music playing, and one piece had this really powerful chorus:
Aquí estamo', siempre estamo' No nos fuimo', no nos vamo' Aquí estamo' pa' que te recuerde Si quiere' mi machete te muerde
(We're here, we're always here We haven't left, we're not leaving We're here to remind you: If you want my machete it'll bite you)
I looked it up when I got home. It's by the Puerto Rican artist Residente and is called "This Is Not America" (at one point in direct conversation with Childish Gambino's "This Is America," with the line "Yes, Gambino my brother, this IS America" and the same point-blank head shot as in his video).
It was pretty overwhelming. Big fat content warning on the video--but also, if you're feeling strong, it's just. Wow, very powerful with its images, and I don't mean the violent ones. A politician Jair Bolsonaro [I didn't know it was him! I see very little visual news] eats a meal and wipes his mouth on the Brazilian flag. Indigenous children in traditional garb reject Amazon-McDonalds-Starbucks.
But the ones that spoke to me the most were a set relating to immigration, detention, deportation ... and families, and love, and physical closeness.
Detainees on one side of a wire fence, including a father with a crying baby in a sling:

The mother, on the other side, approaches and nurses the baby. Through the wire fence.

The couple lock hands...

They touch foreheads....

The baby holds the mother's breast, looks up, nurses...

Through a wire fence. As Residente says, Esto sí es America.Current Music: Residente: This is not America
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My current reading is incidentally on point, lol:
82. [...] taking in the recommendation of a woman with whom she'd just had such a candid exchange in the span of a single stop on the train, she nodded, and said, 'I think I will do just that.'
83. I came down to find her spooning mould out of the jam, her hair tied up tighter than ever.
[eighty-something.] She can't believe there's a product labeled "wild Chilean baby pears." How superlatively exotic. She can't believe how tender and naked and raw the little pear bodies seem. She can't believe there are so many jars - rows and rows of jars, their storage the same as their display. How museum-like it seems: each jar a group of individuals dated and labeled as one type, then preserved in fluid.
Out and about: - Perused two art exhibitions. - Urban nature walk with friends.
Habitat: - Left fossils on benches and play equipment during school holidays. - Glass and batteries (including taped lithium) to recycling points. - Propped succulents freecycled. - Gave the spiraea its annual haircut. - That one species of plant which gives me mild contact dermatitis was growing through along the cracks in the main garden path, and competing with my beloved creeping thyme, but I remembered to weed it out just before I had a bath to minimise my reaction. Also removed half a dozen sycamore and ash tree saplings that had eluded me earlier this year.
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Copying some of this from bluesky, with additions because there's no text limits here:
The Dongji Rescue Premiere in London was an utter shambles - fans tried to form a queue system and in the end nobody was allowed inside for the red carpet as had been promised, we all stood outside in 30C heat (with some shade from the building). Long-ge arrived, smiled, waved at us, and went inside.
This was the closest I ever saw him - despite being practically at the front of the line I ended up wayyy high in the cinema seats - in the “gods” more or less - but at that point I was just happy to get to sit down. By the end of the movie many of the fans seated up there with me all moved down to get a better view for the Q&A, but I was too tired at that point and just watched him from far above. (And Ni Ni, and Wu Lei <3) The movie was intense, violent, moving, full of action (some of it very grim) and I wanted more character moments and less pulling on ropes, especially for Ni Ni. Long-ge stole every scene he was in as usual, and I was also rather in love with his boat. I hope we get to see more scenes like this one that got left out of the final edit.
At the very end of the Q&A there was a lucky draw for signed posters, and my seat number was called! And here it is:

Judging by the faintness of the writing, I guess that Zhu Yilong was handed the less functional gold pen which somehow feels entirely on brand for him.
I didn’t realize until it was pointed out to me by a fellow fan that there was lots of great music but no long-ge song in the movie! That's a shame, he could have done a great job with ( spoilers )
I was absolutely saved by my earlier decision to get a hotel across the street, and to override all my calvinist habits of thought and pay the enormous cost for actual air conditioning and soundproofing and the like that comes with a fancy hotel in the heart of London. I think the last time I was in London by myself I stayed at a hostel, which really underscores how long ago that was. This time there were people opening the door for me and saying things like "Welcome back, madam, I hope you had a pleasant afternoon", which, honestly, I could get used to in daily life.
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Aug. 25th, 2025 @ 07:23 pm
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LOL at this season 6 episode of Natsume Yuujincho, "I don't do favours for youkai," says the guy who's been doing favours for youkai for five seasons. I've been on a Natsume Yuujincho binge all weekend, and it's amusing and reminding me how shippable Natsume is. Everyone wants a piece of him. Also, wow, the animation massively improves from season 1.
I appreciated that the weekend's new episode of Kaiju no 8 put focus on a different set of characters. I was really missing the old crew from division 3! Kaiju no 10's shifty proposition and the intelligence it gave in return are iiiiinteresting.
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The River Lynher (pronounced liner) in north Cornwall runs through Stara woods.
It's an attractive spot.
As we set out we were amused by the new sign on Farmer Walters' farm next door to Kathy's cottage. Their grandchildren are now at the getting about stage and there are pastures on both sides of the road. Kathy thinks he should add 'cats'.

( See more: )Current Mood: photographical Current Location: ici
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Hide and Seek (5088 words) by Sholio Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Murderbot (TV) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Murderbot & PreservationAux Survey Team (Murderbot Diaries) Characters: Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Mensah (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Gurathin (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Ratthi (Murderbot Diaries), Pin-Lee (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Arada (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Bharadwaj (Murderbot Diaries) Additional Tags: Friendship, Post-Canon, Banter, Fluff, Team Bonding, Hide and Seek, background tv-verse canon pairing (pin-lee/arada) Summary: Murderbot thinks its humans need more practice not dying under field conditions. The answer is obviously a staged war game, modified for Preservation concerns. (TV-verse with a few minor book elements.)
Apparently I need to write something like this in every fandom I'm in that has some kind of organized team.
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All right then, let's see if I can do this now.
( More detail on the Worst Adaptation Yet )
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How to Piss Off Men: 109 Things to Say to Shatter the Male Ego by Kyle Prue (2024)
Praise Goddess and pass the ammunition! :D Some of these would make excellent prompts for fanfic. Just think of the most testosterone-poisoned characters in your fandom, and have at them.Current Mood:  amused
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