Check-In Post - Aug 17th 2025

Aug. 17th, 2025 08:12 pm
badly_knitted: (Get Knitted)
[personal profile] badly_knitted posting in [community profile] get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.


This Week's Question: Share your favourite crafting tip, if you have one.


If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!



thanekos: Seiga Kaku from Touhou 13, shadowed. (Default)
[personal profile] thanekos posting in [community profile] scans_daily
The Canon's one of those curated by Russ Kick - it's two volumes.

The Psycho excerpt's from the second one - it's not from Alfred Hitchcock's movie, but Robert Bloch's original novel. The woman who shows up at Norman Bates' motel is Mary Crane, and the physical part of Norman's deceptive mildness doesn't come from looking like a 28-year old Anthony Perkins.

The excerpt starts where the book does - Norman reading.

ExpandHis book's anthropological. )
silveradept: Domo-kun, wearing glass and a blue suit with a white shirt and red tie, sitting at a table. (Domokun Anchor)
[personal profile] silveradept
A quick update to start: One of the banks backing PayPal purchases in several currencies has decided to stop processing or accepting Steam transactions, making PayPal unavailable in regions that use those currencies. The slug says that PayPal doesn't support the transactions, but the article is quick to point out that it's actually one of the banks that has withdrawn their support for Steam transactions using PayPal. So we continue to get reminded that if the system of money decides that you're not allowed on their platform, it doesn't matter what the jurisdiction or the law says is allowed or not, you're banned from being able to do anything that involves the banking systems. People in places where cannabis is currently legal have already figured this out, because they continue to be denied access to financial transaction systems, and sex workers and their clients have figured this out, because they're regularly targeted for these kinds of purges and exclusions, but gamers are starting to understand how much their freedom to purchase and play works depends not on the laws or the interpretations of the laws, but on the control exerted by payment processors over the platforms they want to buy and play on.

Valve Corporation said that MasterCard was definitely pressuring them to delist and deplatform adult content, through the intermediaries of the banks and processors, after Mastercard claimed it made no such demands of the platforms. And I'm sure they also didn't say they'd been looking for the excuse once the group that was trying to get their attention did it.And they'd probably deny that they've been at this sex-negative prudery and denying access to their networks for legal, non-obscene content for at least two decades at this point.

A neat thing: a complete run of Computer Entertainer, one of the first video game magazines in the U.S., has been digitized and made available in Creative Commons, by the Video Game History Foundation. Hooray for accessible history!

Also because if you don't have history available to you, you start thinking that the methods of the past are superior to the methods of the present, when what you want is to draw forth the good things of the past into the present. The "90s parenting" being described here is entirely possible in the current decade, without any need for retro objects or such to bring back nostalgia along with what you want to actually do. Such nostalgia often makes people blame things improperly for creating the current world, or to start thinking that simply removing those objects will be enough to bring back the perfect world.

The only way not to build the Torment Nexus is not to build the Torment Nexus, and we have many reasons why we need to stay in the job that's going to build the Torment Nexus. Take care of your souls, and perhaps consider that if you're building the Torment Nexus, you don't have to do it at high speed or efficiency while you look for something that isn't on Team Torment Nexus. (What's also well-noted there is that there are a lot of people on Team Torment Nexus who have rationalized their participation, or who think this really is the way to go,.)

As we move into yet another year of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, what's been learned and what best practices are good to continue. Including vaccination, even though, as we'll see in the later parts of the post, the anti-vaccination squad are currently running the health house.

A primer on the history of what the phrase "land grant university" means. More often than not, it's "land seized from Native nations, then sold, and the proceeds used to fund the construction and operation of the university" instead of something like "the state legislature granted land for the university from their own stores and funds."

The civility of the women's game (of football) has some fans of the men's game feeling like they're being fed their vegetables with no chance of dessert. We hear that kind of thing in the States as well, even with a top-ranked women's team. Am reminded of statistics I was quoted that suggest most men believe a crowd of about 17% women is 50% women, and a 33% woman crowd feels more like 90% to them. Because they're focused far too much on the thing they don't believe belongs there that they over-represent it in their heads.

ExpandAnd the rest inside )

Last out, something good in the technology: the engineers behind the Jupiter camera called Juno have been heating and then cooling the components to fix various radiation-related damage that has been seen on images, and the fixes bring the camera back to within specifications, albeit temporarily each time.

And the increasingly misnamed Sacramento Music Archive, and the progress being made on digitization, archiving, and sharing of concert recordings made by one person and/or the collections that have been given to them, many of which are for groups that never made it big, and some of which are previously-unknown performances, demos, or material for very big entities indeed.

A supposedly easy method for folding fitted sheets that they do fold appropriately and aesthetically pleasing-ly.

(Materials via [personal profile] adrian_turtle, [personal profile] azurelunatic, [personal profile] boxofdelights, [personal profile] cmcmck, [personal profile] conuly, [personal profile] cosmolinguist, [personal profile] elf, [personal profile] finch, [personal profile] firecat, [personal profile] jadelennox, [personal profile] jenett, [personal profile] jjhunter, [personal profile] kaberett, [personal profile] lilysea, [personal profile] oursin, [personal profile] rydra_wong, [personal profile] snowynight, [personal profile] sonia, [personal profile] the_future_modernes, [personal profile] thewayne, [personal profile] umadoshi, [personal profile] vass, the [community profile] meta_warehouse community, [community profile] little_details, and anyone else I've neglected to mention or who I suspect would rather not be on the list. If you want to know where I get the neat stuff, my reading list has most of it.)

so many good books so little time

Aug. 17th, 2025 07:52 pm
wychwood: a room completely full of books (gen - stacks of books)
[personal profile] wychwood
I have had a nice restful weekend, in which I caught up with perhaps 1/3 of the chores that I intended to. Oh well. I added a new book to my bedside pile, and then read it; between that and the realisation that my next book group meeting is approaching, I was then inspired to read at least a chapter of each book in the pile, which was nice. I set myself a to-do list target a few months ago of reading at least one chapter of each per week, which would keep me actually moving through even if I didn't then end up picking anything up and reading more of it.

Unfortunately mostly what happens is that the overdue item sits there and stares at me on the list. It's annoying, because I do in fact! want to read all of these books! and also most of the ones on the to-read shelves in the spare room. I just somehow don't. However, I've not been in much of a computer game mood in the last few days, and that's freed up some time for reading that isn't fanfic (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

Basically there is too much stuff in my life that distracts me from reading, and if only I didn't need to e.g. earn money I could finish more books. But then I wouldn't be able to go on book-buying sprees, and that would be sad.

In other news, I ordered my new mattress, just as my old one started causing me actual back issues, so good timing me. It's not due until the end of the month, and I'm very impatient.

[ SECRET POST #6799 ]

Aug. 17th, 2025 02:48 pm
case: (Default)
[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6799 ⌋

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


01.


ExpandMore! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 35 secrets from Secret Submission Post #971.
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.

Tesla valves

Aug. 17th, 2025 11:07 am
kengr: (Default)
[personal profile] kengr
I came across a reference to a Tesla valve today. Far from the first time. But this time it clicked with a old memory.

Back in the late 60s, my mom bought a tabletop fountain. I got curious and took it apart to look at the pump (I put everything back together just fine). It was rather odd. a donut shaped magnet with some wire coils and a copper tube thru it.

The only moving part was a steel tube that fitted inside the pipe and had oddly shaped plastic pieces on its ends. When AC power was applied, the tube moved up and down in the pipe at 60 Hz.

At the time, I couldn't figured out how it pumped the water. Now, I realized that the tube was a Tesla valve. Ingenious design as there was nothing to break during any reasonable service life.

X-Force #-1

Aug. 17th, 2025 06:35 pm
iamrman: (Buggy)
[personal profile] iamrman posting in [community profile] scans_daily

Writer: John Francis Moore

Pencils: Adam Pollina


The Proudstar brothers go to the fair and run in to some familiar faces.


ExpandRead more... )

(no subject)

Aug. 17th, 2025 10:17 am
greghousesgf: (pic#17098439)
[personal profile] greghousesgf
Nothing going on here. I might go swimming again if it gets hotter later today.

Hugo!!!

Aug. 17th, 2025 09:47 am
swan_tower: (*writing)
[personal profile] swan_tower
There once was a writer who wrote,
and wound up with an odd anecdote --
how it happened, who knows,
but she won a Hugo,
for being, of all things, a good poet!


. . . and with that atrociously bad limerick (I decided not to bother trying harder; it accurately reflects the state of my brain right now) [edit: ffs, even in this state, I reflexively went back and revised it to make it scan better], I announce that last night I won the Special Hugo Award for Best Poem! My acceptance speech should have thanked Fluevogs for making heels I could actually walk onstage in without falling over out of shock. I still feel like a newbie in poetry; I only started writing it about four and a half years ago -- January 2021 -- and so to have my fourth published poem ever earn this major of an award is still making me reel. I would have woken up this morning thinking it was a delusion were it not for all the congratulatory messages I'm getting from various directions, which at least assure me that it's a mass delusion, if so.

As I said in my speech, I hope I'm the first person to win this award, not the only one. It's a special award right now because each Worldcon can choose to create a temporary category of its own, but I'm one of the sponsors of the Speculative Poetry Initiative, which has cleared the first hurdle in passing a proposal to make this a permanent category in the awards. So it already feels historic to get the special award, but it'll be even better if I can describe myself as the start of a longer line!

If you have not read the winning poem, "A War of Words" -- or if you would like to read it again -- you may do so for free at Strange Horizons! My heartfelt thanks to Romie Stott, the editor who acquired it, for making this possible.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
The 2025 Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Awards Winners are as follows

Best Novel: The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett

Best Novella: The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler

Best Novelette:"The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea”, Naomi Kritzer

Best Short Story: “Stitched to Skin Like Family Is”, Nghi Vo

Best Series: Between Earth and Sky, Rebecca Roanhorse

Best Graphic Story or Comic: Star Trek: Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way, written by Ryan North, art by Chris Fenoglio

Best Related Work: Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right, Jordan S. Carroll

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Dune: Part Two, screenplay by Denis Villeneuve & Jon Spaihts, directed by Denis Villeneuve

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Star Trek: Lower Decks: “The New Next Generation”, created and written by Mike McMahan, based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry, directed by Megan Lloyd

Best Game or Interactive Work: Caves of Qud, co-creators Brian Bucklew & Jason Grinblat; contributors Nick DeCapua, Corey Frang, Craig Hamilton, Autumn McDonell, Bastia Rosen, Caelyn Sandel, Samuel Wilson (Freehold Games); sound design A Shell in the Pit

Best Editor, Short Form:Neil Clarke

Best Editor, Long Form: Diana M. Pho

Best Professional Artist: Alyssa Winans

Best Semiprozine: Uncanny, publishers and editors-in-chief Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas; managing editor Monte Lin; poetry editor Betsy Aoki, podcast producers Erika Ensign & Steven Schapansky

Best Fanzine: Black Nerd Problems, editors William Evans & Omar Holmon

Best Fancast: Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones, presented by Emily Tesh & Rebecca Fraimow

Best Fan Writer: Abigail Nussbaum

Best Fan Artist: Sara Felix

Best Poem: “A War of Words”, Marie Brennan

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book: Sheine Lende, Darcie Little Badger

Astounding Award for Best New Writer: Moniquill Blackgoose

Sunday

Aug. 17th, 2025 09:08 am
animama: (Default)
[personal profile] animama
I woke up instantly from dead sleep at 4:30 AM because I heard, "mama." It was Clyde cat, getting a bit excited playing with a toy. He was actually saying ma meow, LOL. Mommy radar never leaves you. My kid is in his 20's and now 4 hours drive away.

Kid packed up the car and left Friday afternoon. He said everything is good, he is settled in at the new apartment, and classes start Monday morning.

Husband is visiting a relative in Arizona. He will not be back until Tuesday.

I have nowhere to go and not much to do...also no motivation to do anything. But the weather is lovely and not crazy hot today, so I am going to get off my butt and try to do some housework. I usually can't take naps during daylight but it might be needed today. But first, coffee and cake!

Clyde cat. He is very chatty.


Rocky. He is still good, there are fewer pics of him because every time he sees me he has to come running to say hi.


Breakfast


Lovely summer day with Dead Mater.

Photo cross-post

Aug. 17th, 2025 11:27 am
andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker


The Flying Bubble Show was great fun. Kids thoroughly entertained.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

Week notes: August 11-August 17 2025

Aug. 17th, 2025 06:50 pm
soricel: (Default)
[personal profile] soricel
Teaching:

NA

Learning:

Geography and Romanian. Enjoyed this week's somatic movement workshop. One thing I guess I learned was that I get more out of these sessions when I leave my camera on the whole time. The journal prompt at the end brought up some feelings, mostly around the theme of self-acceptance etc. and what constitutes my actual life as opposed to various idealizations and aspirations. 

Listening:

Still keep coming back to that WPSE s/t. It dawned on me at some point this week that these songs don't really do much for/to me emotionally, but for whatever reason, they spark a lot of imagination. The past few days, I've been especially into this song:
So many tracks on this album, as on a lot of his other recent stuff, are about driving through mountains and stuff at night...this one is too, but the energy feels a little different, lighter somehow. I really like it. I'm also wondering if my recent infatuation with these songs has to do with my recent infatuation with the Raven Cycle, and this one scene that lingers in my mind a lot, of Gansey and Blue driving into the mountains together late one night. I feel like I should be ashamed of what's become of my taste but whatever.

Anyway, this song isn't my favorite sonically, but it includes most of my favorite lyrical elements and WP motifs: the blending of the magical and the mundane, the diaristic insider references to people and places. I feel like I want to write a whole story about this song.

Also been spending more time with the saoirse dream s/t, and I love it a lot. Dynamic and moving and funny and catchy and just really good. And samples! I love samples!

Reading:

Making slow progress on Sașa Zare's novel Dezrădăcinare, but so far I like it a lot. Diary-style autofiction about a young queer woman from a small village in Moldova who moved to Cluj for university and is now staying in a small village in Romania to try to write. Lots about her fraught relationship with her mom. Anyway, I'm impressed with how smoothly it's been going so far, and how seldom I've had to look up words. I mean, sure, I'm zooming past a few that I don't know if I can figure out the general gist of the sentence/passage in which they appear, but still. This book is huge so I'll probably be at it for a while.

Watching:

BBT, still. This show is *so weird* about sexuality and gender. Like, Amy's weird quasi-sapphic infatuation with Penny (which the writers seem to have dropped), the episode when Howard gets dosed with estrogen from the cream he's been applying to his mom's back, the recurring "jokes" about Howard and Raj being a gay couple...it's just relentless. And for all that, it's become something of a comfort watch. What the?!

Writing:

Speaking of the Raven Cycle, finished a transfemme Gansey drabble sequence that I'm pretty happy with. Also keeping up with the RPs; happy the cyberpunk one has transitioned to a lighter/goofier scene after some heavy action and trauma. I sort of got an itch for a new RP this week luckily didn't really pursue anything. I feel like I've got enough to occupy me.

Other:

Kind of a whirlwind week. Settled in for a couple days after coming home from the U.S. and then headed out to this "Marxist summer school" thing in a small village a few hours from here. T. had a presentation to give there, and I tagged along and had an okay-ish time despite the lodgings being sub-ideal and most of the presentations being pretty uninspiring. I feel like I don't even know where I am politically anymore, and while on some level I admire the people who organized and participated in this event, I just felt like it wasn't my world. Anyway, happy to be back home, in our own little world.
[syndicated profile] smbc_comics_feed

Posted by Zach Weinersmith



Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
And don't even get me STARTED on secondborn sons.


Today's News:

Get your copy of A City on Mars signed in person in Charlottesville, VA on August 23rd!


[syndicated profile] otw_news_feed

Posted by callmeri

We’re very excited to announce that AO3 now hosts more than one million 中文-普通话 國語 (Mandarin Chinese) fanworks! Mandarin Chinese is the first non-English language to pass one million fanworks, and we appreciate everyone who’s helped us reach this milestone.

AO3 hosts fanworks in a wide variety of languages: currently, the count is around 150! You can browse the Work Languages page to see more. We’re grateful that so many creators from so many backgrounds have chosen to host their fanworks on AO3, and we appreciate each and every fanwork that’s been shared.

Since many users are multilingual, we wanted to open the floor: which language(s) do you prefer to engage with in fandom? Do you read, listen to, watch, and/or create works in the same language? Is your answer the same for all the fandoms you’re part of?

Thanks to everyone who helped get us here! We look forward to seeing even more languages reach this milestone.

profiterole_reads: (Nü Er Hong - Shi Yi and Hua Yu Tang)
[personal profile] profiterole_reads
A Wild and Ruined Song by Ashley Shuttleworth was amazing! It's the fourth and final book of the Hollow Star Saga, a modern story mixing fae courts and Greek mythology.

This was a splendid finale from start to end, tying up many plotlines from the previous novels and making all the protagonists shine at one point or another.

There's a new non-binary main character, major f/f and double m/m, with one of the m/m pairings being ace4aro.

Round 178 Theme Poll

Aug. 17th, 2025 08:25 am
runpunkrun: combat boot, pizza, camo pants = punk  (punk rock girl)
[personal profile] runpunkrun posting in [community profile] fancake
Poll #33498 round 178 theme poll
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 40

Pick the next theme of fancake:

Food & Cooking
17 (42.5%)

Manners & Etiquette
9 (22.5%)

Whump
14 (35.0%)

Thor #283

Aug. 17th, 2025 03:59 pm
iamrman: (Lady Loki)
[personal profile] iamrman posting in [community profile] scans_daily

Writer: Roy Thomas

Pencils: John Buscema

Inks: Chic Stone


Hold on to your butts, because it’s the beginning of the Eternals Saga.


ExpandRead more... )

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