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and you all should catch up on the entire season so you can listen to it when it comes out for real. There are transcripts.
Also, they gave out stickers, so now I have something to slap over the Nazi sticker that just appeared by the train station.
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( Read more... )
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Today is sunny, humid, and hot. A beautiful day to stay indoors and write! Yesterday it rained off and on during the afternoon. The patio was still wet this morning, so we likely got more last night too.
I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity yet.
I put out water for the birds.
Morning glories are blooming. :D
EDIT 6/10/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 6/10/26 -- I took some pictures around the house and yard. I have a nice tall stand of milkweed blooming in the prairie garden, taller than me. :D
I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches at the hopper feeder.
EDIT 6/10/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 6/10/26 -- I started trimming grass around the Asiatic lily patch by the telephone pole.
The first of the recently sown seeds are already sprouting! :D Charleston Food Forest and 'State Fair' zinnias are up, though not the developing 'Shirley' landrace rows.
EDIT 6/10/26 -- I trimmed more grass around the Asiatic lily patch by the telephone pole.
EDIT 6/10/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 6/10/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
I planted 5 'Yelloween' lilies in the telephone pole garden. That's the end of the hummingbird garden sack that I got from Costco.
EDIT 6/10/26 -- I spread potting soil and mulch over the newly planted lilies.
It's not even dark yet, but already swarms of fireflies are rising up from the grass. :D Fly, my pretties, fly!
EDIT 6/10/26 -- I watered the telephone pole garden including the new lilies.
Lots more fireflies are out now. The evening is very sparkly! I've seen at least one bat too.
As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.Current Mood:  busy
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Title: Goodbye
Fandom: BtVS
Author: ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) badly_knitted
Characters: Buffy, Giles.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 504: Nothing's The Same at ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png) drabble_zone.
Spoilers/Setting: Years after the series.
Summary: Buffy is faced with another loss.
Disclaimer: I don’t own BtVS, or the characters.
A/N: Double drabble.
Current Location: my desk Current Mood:  tired
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I served four Masses in 24 hours at the weekend, which may be a personal best (or worst?), and has left me with some residual soreness of the knees, but Confirmation and First Communions both went relatively smoothly, and though it was rather exhausting scheduling, I did prefer it to spreading them out over several evenings.
Sunday was very much a flop day as a result; I woke up (as has sadly become customary) at 04:45, but did go back to sleep, and did not in the event leave my bed until after noon.
And I needed it, because it's been go-go-go since then. I said to Miss H that I was actually relieved earlier to realise that it was only Wednesday, because there is so much to get done this week! Not that that is helping me focus my mind, of course.
And last night was choir, tonight is choir, and all day Saturday is also choir, so I'm looking forward to an evening?? at home??? tomorrow. I have nearly a week of washing up to catch up with*, so that'll be a fun time for sure. Then into the office on Friday, and the treadmill does not stop!
I have been reading quite a lot though. Some day I will have time to write up my booklog, but that day is not this week.
* Obviously I should have done it earlier, but when I was inspired to try yesterday in a few free minutes, the hot water wasn't working - a different problem from last time! The plumber texted me back this morning with a description of the basic mistake I had made and how to fix it, so I'm back up and running now... kitchen looks extremely sad though.
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Title: Staying Alert
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Ryo.
Rating: PG
Setting: After the manga.
Summary: Stakeouts are boring.
Written Using: The dw100 prompt ‘Alert’.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Double drabble.
Current Mood: tired Current Location: my desk
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Title: Suspicious Discovery
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 921: Vermin, at torchwood100.
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Are there mice in the Hub or not?
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
A/N: Double drabble.
Current Location: my desk Current Mood: tired
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Well! Nothing has changed since my last post except ( cw: animal terminal illness )
Other than that, still unemployed, still wildly stressed about everything going on in my personal life and the wider world, still just so fucking tired. I'm going to try to get to responding to people's comments, but who knows. Everything is terrible and I'm just constantly the cheerful kid in the hat giving a thumbs up going "nothing in life matters!"Current Mood:  blah Current Music: Greenland 2 Current Location: the recliner in my living room
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Just finished: The First Thousand Trees by Premee Mohamed. This was really good, and I felt speaks to a growing need in the post-apoc/dystopia genre for the kind of books that ask "okay, but what do we do now?" It could very well be a story of a city boy who gets repeatedly shown by rural folk how incompetent he is, but it goes deeper, probing the flaws of the kind of society that prides itself in a hardworking, hard-living ethos. What that means for people with chronic illnesses and disabilities, neurodiverse people, and so on.
Did I mention it was set in Alberta? Lool.
And of course it's beautifully written, and other than the fictional fungus, absolutely realist in its depiction of the climate crisis, because Premee is both a fantastic prose stylist and a scientist.
I want to go back and read the first two now, but I know things that you may not know about what she has coming out next, which is even more up my alley.
Currently reading: A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang. I've been meaning to read Ai Jiang for ages and I'm most of the way through this one, which doesn't disappoint. It's about a princess of an oppressed people forced to marry a king in order to stop the palace's incursion into her people's territory. Her mother and sisters have gone to the palace before her, never to be seen again. She has one younger sister left and she is determined to kill the king and end these sacrificial marriages—and the destruction of her lands—once and for all.
Oh did I mention that they're all trees? They're all trees. 14/10 worldbuilding, no notes. The reveal that they're trees comes pretty early and I won't spoil anything else but I was like. Good job. That's weird af. I'm here for it.
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Got one of those “we are increasing your Adobe monthly subscription, you’re welcome for the AI” emails and read the fine print and tl;dr turns out you can get a plan that’s even cheaper than the old one (“cheaper”) without all the cloud and slop shit??? Hell yeah.
Leave a comment.+
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There were thunderstorms going flickaflick kaBOOMba in the Twin Cities much of the night, so I am awake. Now that doesn't mean awake enough to make a proper post on how things are, but here's the basic stuff:
On May 10, I unexpectedly surfed down a collapsing retaining wall which then yeeted me headfirst into the side of the house. I got a concussion and a double-fractured ankle. And now I'm recuperating.
It was a short retaining wall, which is a great piece of luck, because things could have been so much worse. Even at the height of a couple of feet or so, like it was. There were a lot of important bits of good luck. Those stories are for later, though. For now, I'm just waving at everybody here and saying hi, I'm still here! Some of you have heard already, and have been kind and have helped get me to the ER, the ortho team, the imaging people, and all the rest, and there are not enough words to express this gratitude, but THANK YOU SO MUCH.
And now, probably sleep time. Again. It's remarkable how much sleep a person can need when recuperating from fractures or concussions, or both.
(And I hope you are having a much more pleasantly calm spring/summer yourself!)
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https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/35461 
Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Ellipsis, who volunteers as a Tag Wrangler and also a Technical Assistant for the Communications Committee. How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?
I currently hold two roles with the OTW. I wrangle tags on AO3 for a couple of smallish fandoms with lots of characters. So I’m frequently digging through wiki pages and scrubbing through episodes to figure out if the character someone tagged is from canon or an OC. It's always very satisfying to provide new canonical character tags. I am also the "Technical Assistant" for Communications. My primary responsibility there is managing the "OTW News By Email" automations. I set up all the automations and keep an eye out for and troubleshoot any issues; this occasionally involves reaching out to Systems or the newsletter service’s support team. I also help out if any subscribers reach out for help with their subscriptions. Beyond the "News By Email" stuff, I also help with investigating or suggesting other tech solutions for the Communications committee and occasionally help to write/research some of the more technical news posts. What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?
I do most of my focused volunteer work on the weekends, since I’ve got a full-time job during the week (and by the time I’m done work for the day and figure out food and whatnot I don’t have much time or energy left). Every Saturday evening I work on Comms tasks. Exactly what I’m doing depends on what I’ve got on my plate. One thing I frequently work on is writing documentation about how the News By Email automation works. (Right now I manage everything myself but it's important to make sure there is good documentation in case someone else has to hop in and do something.) I also researched and drafted a news post recently, which involved a lot of rounds of feedback from different committees since it was inspired by a request from Support and relates to AD&T. Other common tasks include helping answer support queries about the email subscription, adding new functionality (the ability to subscribe just to recruitment posts went live recently), and cleaning up unsubscribed users. If something breaks or otherwise goes weird I’ll jump in outside of my standard hours, but most of the time things can wait. Every other weekend I tend to do wrangling work sometime during the day on Saturday or Sunday. Often I’ll host or attend a "wrangling party" (set times when lots of folks wrangle and cheer each other on). During that time I’ll check through whatever new tags have come in for my fandoms and sort them accordingly. I’ve got a few fandoms with lots of characters, so there are almost always some new characters or relationships to make canonicals for. I’ll also occasionally dig through the additional tags to check if anything has gained enough usages to get a canonical. What made you decide to volunteer?
I initially joined as a tag wrangler. As an avid reader of fic, a programmer, and someone who finds categorization interesting, I find the tag system on AO3 really awesome. So when I found out how it worked and that you could volunteer to wrangle tags, I started eagerly watching for recruitment posts. It took a couple rounds before there was a post that was recruiting for wranglers for a fandom I had experience with. A couple of years ago (once I’d been a wrangler for a while), Communications was looking into sending out news posts by email. They asked for volunteers who were willing to be test subjects and report back on receiving emails. However, the services they were testing weren’t a good fit and they were running into a lot of issues. I got curious and fell down a research rabbit hole and suggested another service. The service was one that required a bit more technical knowhow, though, and the volunteers running the test weren’t comfortable setting it up, so I offered to test it out and report back. They ended up going with the service I suggested and asked me to help set it up for real. Then eventually Communications asked me if I was interested in officially joining the committee as a "Technical Assistant." What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?
Executive functioning. I’ve got ADHD (and Autism) so I struggle with intrinsic motivation and easily lose track of time, especially when I’ve got a full-time job eating all my spoons (energy). When I first started volunteering, I had been laid off and was unemployed so I had a lot of spare time and energy. So finding the balance once I was back to working full time was tricky. In the last year or so I’ve started being firmer on scheduling specific times to do my volunteer work to help avoid losing track completely. For Comms work, I have a scheduled time set up each week that I work. And at that time another Comms volunteer will poke me on the volunteer messaging service to check in and ask about what I’m doing that evening; having that sort of external check in is massively helpful for me. Signing up to host wrangling parties serves a similar purpose in giving me external accountability about being present at a specific time to wrangle. What fannish things do you like to do?
Mostly reading so much fic. I started reading fanfiction when I was a kid, probably around 8 or 9 years old. One of my real-life friends introduced me to it and in their words they "created a monster." (I don’t know exactly when I started reading because I no longer have the email I used at that time and my autistic kid brain was hung up on "you aren't supposed to have an account if you aren’t 13" so I read for quite a while before getting my FFN account). I occasionally count up how many words I’m reading per week and I’m frequently somewhere around 200k words per week. (It varies a bit depending on the density of the fic and how much else I’ve got going on. When I’m unemployed, it goes way up.) I try to leave lots of comments as my way of giving back to all the authors who provide all the wonderful fics I get to read for free. (I’ve recently started using the sticky note app on my phone to compose comments with blockquotes while I’m reading so I can call out favorite bits or “live react” a bit.)
Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out previous Five Things posts.
The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, OTW Legal Advocacy, and Transformative Works and Cultures. We are a fan-run, donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website. https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/35461
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Title: Waiting for the day
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Torchwood team
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,285 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 517 - Flower
Summary: Owen has found an obsession that no one else finds interesting.
( Read more... )
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I have about 15 minutes before I need to go to a school meeting, and I haven't updated in ages so:
Hockey
The inaugural season of Kodiaks 2 finished mid-May: we played 20 games and won 1. It was a bit last minute, but we managed to confirm enough ice time to continue with two teams next season, in time to submit our intention to the league by the 31 May deadline. Trials are next week and the week after, the WNIHL annual meeting is in early July and the next season starts in September. We had end-of-season awards, which I was late to due to having a pre-existing booking for formal hall with uni friends, and as manager I got a lovely personalised mug with a photo of the team from our last game, along with a card that made me all mushy and sentimental.
My summer training is still four times a week: uni x2, Warbirds and Kodiaks. Though summer ice for Kodiaks means we have to get a minimum signup from players and coaches to run, two weeks in advance, so it doesn't always happen.
Since the season end, I've had a couple of games with Warbirds, and a friendly with Huskies against Warwick Panthers. Warbirds won one and drew one, Huskies won. That's a nice feeling.
Media and culture
I finished all available seasons of Ted Lasso and very much enjoyed it, looking forward to the new season dropping later this summer. Tony and I have started watching Spider-Noir (we chose to watch in colour, and I am loving the colours). I've started watching Dollhouse with Owen, which is very very 2009.
A conversation about hockey musicals led to the discovery of "Score! A Hockey Musical" which can be watched on YouTube, but I cannot recommend the experience. The music is catchy but the lyrics are dreadful, not even "so bad it's good", and the musical itself can't decide whether to be serious or slapstick.
I thought idly last week, we haven't been to the ADC in a while (I only managed a couple of the plays on the list I made in March) and discovered an amateur production of Come From Away on last week and this. I took Charles last Saturday afternoon (the Huskies game was in the evening) and am meeting a couple of hockey friends to see it again tonight. It's still a very good musical, this is a very good company, it was nearly sold out when I got tickets and deservedly so. I cried, and will probably cry again tonight.
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icons.
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Jun. 10th, 2026 @ 10:02 am
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Stock (Summer vibes/flowers, coffee, reading, pearls)
  
Check out the rest here. <3
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It went well.
The host finally accepted the situation, we turned up, everything was fine, a great weekend was had. I'm so glad I did it.
Even if it was a bit stressful right before.
Also: I'm pretty sure I left the house with more food than I went into it with. Care of a pot of bolognaise that my friends made, and which turned out to be more than enough to feed 14 people (seven people, twice over - although, in all fairness, we weren't heaps hungry).
The house itself was pretty neat, albeit a little odd in design and layout. Apparently, it had originally been built around a courtyard in the centre of a three-wing house, and when they decided to extend the house, they roofed the courtyard, turning it into a dining/living space that looks in on the kitchen (which had a wall removed that it otherwise shared with the laundry.
We went to markets, antique shops, clothing shops, and a winery for lunch on Sunday. It was great, everyone got along, and there were enough extroverts and ambiverts to keep the conversation going!
--
And then I came home, and promptly acquired a sore throat, a cold, and a headache. I haven't tested for COVID yet. BLEH.
I do want a lot of sleep lately, though. And the house is cold. It's always cold here in winter and we don't realise just how bad it is until it's winter. BRR.
--
Otherwise, I am quite firmly getting into Avatar: The Last Airbender but just the original series, not the comics, the sequel about the Gaang, or the one about Korra. And mostly just reading the fic. Which is kind of fun.
I am also plotting fic. Because this is me.
One of them is a Black Jewels fusion. Because this is ALSO me.
How many of them will get written and finished? Probably none of them. Because, yes, me again.
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2026 Sees the Most Right Whale Calves Born in One Season Since 2009
Decades of diligent conservation seem to have allowed the whales to really turn a corner in the last 36 months, with milestones like record numbers of sightings, strange vagrancies, and an increasing population being celebrated.
Now, 23 calves were born during the 2026 right whale calving season—the highest number since 2009. Of the 23 mom-calf pairs identified this season, 20 of these were returning moms. Since that year, the average has been around 15 animals, but some years there have been 7 or fewer.
13 of these returning moms last had calves in the 2021 or 2022 seasons, marking a shorter interval between births than the recent average of 7 to 10 years. This is closer to the normal or healthy interval of 3 to 4 years.
It's so good to see a population recovering from whaling. :DCurrent Mood: busy
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It is finally summer, or at least summer-ish. (Never mind the frost warning two days ago.) I took a drive this evening and took this picture from a boat launch at a nearby river.
I also drew a birthday card for my sister and mailed it today.
( Under the cut )
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