Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2025-10-31 10:39 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2025-10-31 10:39 pm"However much candy you want, the answer is yes."
23 trick-or-treaters this year, likely due to rain and construction. The last four were after we had started picking up and bringing things inside, and in fact after we'd sorted the candy into Keep and Share. (The Share candy stays outside overnight for the late crew, then goes with Belovedest to work. We don't have particularly much trouble with raccoons.) In the last party, the one with the umbrella hat and some sort of Studio Ghibli makeup (white face, red eye triangles) was enchanted with the glow sticks and picked one of the very few blue ones.
This year's innovation was doing the Wizard of Oz + Dark Side of the Moon thing with (much less cleverly timed) Chaos Emergency Doof Broadcast (Which is 4 hours of very silly DJ work), some of the Halloween episodes, with Addams Family Values on mute (several times through). We got the inflammable tango to "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", and a few other silly confluences. I think this is one of the ones where precise timing doesn't help all that much, but it's great when it happens. By the time the show had run out of explicitly spooky songs, it got a little less entertaining.
Belovedest was Jigglypuff. I was a very tired Dulcie (wearing my own nightgown and some exhaustion makeup). I ordered the wrong crust on 2 out of 3 pizzas, and the 3rd one was gluten free.
This year's innovation was doing the Wizard of Oz + Dark Side of the Moon thing with (much less cleverly timed) Chaos Emergency Doof Broadcast (Which is 4 hours of very silly DJ work), some of the Halloween episodes, with Addams Family Values on mute (several times through). We got the inflammable tango to "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", and a few other silly confluences. I think this is one of the ones where precise timing doesn't help all that much, but it's great when it happens. By the time the show had run out of explicitly spooky songs, it got a little less entertaining.
Belovedest was Jigglypuff. I was a very tired Dulcie (wearing my own nightgown and some exhaustion makeup). I ordered the wrong crust on 2 out of 3 pizzas, and the 3rd one was gluten free.
jjhunter (jjhunter) wrote2025-10-31 11:26 pm
jjhunter) wrote2025-10-31 11:26 pmPoem: "One Big Beautiful BS"
One Big Beautiful BS -
that the sludge of the past could ever be forever burned without consequence
Whose bones are they breaking today
drilling out the marrow of our good earth
emptying out communities to collapse in upon themselves?
perhaps they expect neighbors will be eating neighbors the very next day
all these hoarders so eager to end good governance by the people, for the people
( boys in masks waving guns )
___
Last edited: 26May25
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
that the sludge of the past could ever be forever burned without consequence
Whose bones are they breaking today
drilling out the marrow of our good earth
emptying out communities to collapse in upon themselves?
perhaps they expect neighbors will be eating neighbors the very next day
all these hoarders so eager to end good governance by the people, for the people
( boys in masks waving guns )
___
Last edited: 26May25
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Sholio (sholio) wrote2025-10-31 02:53 pm
sholio) wrote2025-10-31 02:53 pmEntry tags:
My 1000th fic on AO3!
And fic #1000 turned out to be .... a follow-up to the time travel Biggles fic that I wrote for Out of Order Exchange. I had threatened to write what happened between Algy and Erich in 1918, and here it is.
Out of Time (2300 wds, Algy & Erich, gen)
The first one should probably be read first, if you haven't already.
And there it is, and here's to the next 1000!
Out of Time (2300 wds, Algy & Erich, gen)
The first one should probably be read first, if you haven't already.
And there it is, and here's to the next 1000!
she of the remarkable biochemical capabilities! (ursamajor) wrote2025-10-31 02:51 pm
ursamajor) wrote2025-10-31 02:51 pm
if the stars were edible
hyounpark pinged me from BART this morning with the sad news that Fugakyu is closing, after 27 years. It feels like I've been going there forever, even though honestly the last time I went there was probably when we still lived in Boston. But I'm like 80% certain I've gone on dates there with all of my major boyfriends (if I dated you for at least a year, that's the defining line in my headcanon). A bazillion times with
hyounpark during our Boston era. Plenty of times with noghri, both while we were dating and then when we became friends. I thought I'd brought ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
kallmir2000 there, but I double-checked and it was Ginza I was thinking of. Which, admittedly, I'd also eaten sushi at with even more of the people I've dated, hahaha, including both Punsterboy and Choirboy! 😁 (Even though Ginza's been gone for well over a decade now.) And theconvictor and I had our Valentines' Day 2000 dinner at Fugakyu when we spent the weekend in Boston on a romantic getaway from campus, feeling ever so grownup, removing our shoes to sit at one of the traditional low tables in the fancy embedded booths. Fugakyu was even where I introduced multiple friends to sushi (
fes42, jennifer, david_grana, Adam); where my girlfriends took me after devastating breakups and meh second dates, because sushi would be followed up by ice cream at JP Licks, and then a visit to a certain little shop down the way (also long gone, alas; I'm hoping this recent rise in romance-specific bookstores brings an appropriate replacement to the neighborhood) because that was definitely better than moping over guys!And now it's closing, for "personal reasons."
Damn, am I gonna miss their pinetato (pineapple and sweet potato) maki. And the kinuta. And the hotate hokkayaki. And the giant boats of sushi that I would split with my friends. I know where to get sushi; honestly I may just pop down to our neighborhood sushi joint before the trick-or-treaters start arriving. But mostly, finding out that Fugakyu is closing next week is just making me miss everyone in Boston. Even knowing that many of the friends I mentioned don't live there anymore, like us.
superborb (superborb) wrote2025-10-31 04:45 pm
superborb) wrote2025-10-31 04:45 pmEntry tags:
Media roundup, Sept-Oct
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, by Svetlana Alexievich (DNF):
Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi:
Vita Nostra, by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko, translated by Julia Meitov Hersey:
You Dreamed of Empires, by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer:
The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt:
Julie Chan Is Dead, by Liann Zhang:
Nettle & Bone, by Ursula Vernon:
The Mother of All Questions, by Rebecca Solnit (DNF):
Oral history of the end of the Soviet Union. I found this somewhat difficult to follow due to the choices of organization and internal editing of the interviews. I got over halfway through and then the library took the ebook back and I am not motivated to borrow it again... I never know if maybe I'm just not a good enough reader to understand these sorts of things.
Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi:
Novel about the life of a second gen Ghanian-American pursuing her PhD in neuroscience. Modeling the science after an actual person's (the author's friend) research means it's highly accurate, but does feel strange. (Something about taking someone else's exact experiences and not really fictionalizing them before putting it into the book?) It /is/ incorporated into the substance of the novel. This was a very easy read even though it felt like it shouldn't be, given it deals with heavy topics like depression and addiction (definitely not a light read). I did enjoy it overall though!
PS: One tenth of a centimeter is a weird way to say a millimeter.
PS: One tenth of a centimeter is a weird way to say a millimeter.
Vita Nostra, by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko, translated by Julia Meitov Hersey:
A dark magical school novel. Definitely makes me feel like dark academia is not the genre for me. I found this to be a very propulsive read, but the abuse was really extreme. I also felt like having magic based on speech and words just needs to be more at this point (though maybe not in 2012 when it originally came out?) I found the student characters to be interesting in their interactions. At one point, the main character's mom asks if she's in a cult, and she's.... totally in a cult haha. Anyway, definitely had that 'need to know what happens next' appeal, have not retained any of it in the last month.
You Dreamed of Empires, by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer:
A dreamy retelling of the day Hernán Cortés entered the city of Tenochtitlan in his conquest. The beginning was kinda interesting, figuring out who was who, but the characters were kinda flat and one dimensional. Pass.
The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt:
On why phones are bad for childhood. Pop sociology/psych, emphasis on the pop, with extremely sweeping statements about cultures. Mainly repetitive and prescriptive, the only novel pieces to me were some psych studies. Not worth the read.
Julie Chan Is Dead, by Liann Zhang:
Protag takes over her dead twin's perfect influencer life. Unrealistic in the way of frothy beach read novels, but I enjoyed it a lot. A surprising amount of insight into the human condition from an ultimately light novel. Though the assistant did end up being unfortunately one dimensional, the other influencers were kinda hilarious sketches. The amount of tech addiction on display was a sharp contrast to the previous read! Would recommend as a light novel for sure.
Nettle & Bone, by Ursula Vernon:
Youngest of three princesses seeks to free her sister of an abusive husband in a fairytalesque kingdom. An annoying protag (too much superficial practicality without actual practicality). Twee isn't quite the right word for it, but something about the vibe is really, really not for me. Maybe the insertion of practicality into a fairytale setting, but not in the way I want? (Do I want that?) I can see how this type of book would be a nice soothing read for someone not me. (It's pretty clear who is who and who does what and how the story will go.)
The Mother of All Questions, by Rebecca Solnit (DNF):
Feminist essay collection. Another book snatched away by the library before I finished and I don't care to request again.
oursin (oursin) wrote2025-10-31 04:44 pm
oursin) wrote2025-10-31 04:44 pmEntry tags:
Assortment
Dept of, what will they think of next (some of this is, as I remarked elsewhere, resuscitating Ye Good Ol' Victorian Quackerie - though, as we concurred, VIBRATORS ARE NOT VICTORIAN!!!): With the menopause dildo, we've officially reached peak menopause bollocks.
(Declaration of interest: I once did a podcast with the author.)
***
Dept of, well, on the topic of dildos, or at least, urgent phallicism: I spent a year dating conservative [frothingly alt-right] men:
Something about getting ready to go on these dates made me feel like I was 18 again — except now I had the ability to run professional-level background checks, which I did. Not because I was operating on preconceived notions but because the few peers I told about my mission encouraged me to. Given some of the vitriol against women in online alt-right groups, they felt I should treat every date as if it were a threat to my life. I came up with a routine: before a date, I’d tell at least three people in advance where I was going and what time they should expect to hear from me by. I enlisted a friend who’s a former Navy SEAL to be my unofficial security consultant.
And they wonder why women are not dating....
And that's before getting to meet the actual doozies who are, apparently, not even the worst types on the dating apps.
***
Dept of, let's have some better news, good news about snails (the snails that one thought had been mown down in the ONward March of Progress, or at least, building much needed housing):
the snails are OK. Nothing bad is going to happen to the poor little Whirlpool Ramshorn Snail, the endangered creature which our Chancellor unfairly blamed for stopping a housing development, causing me to get grumpy on social media. But in following up to try and see what actually happened, I found out a bunch of interesting – and in my view extremely heartening – stuff.
.... it was always a false dichotomy, it was always possible to have the houses and the snails too.
***
Dept of gilded snails in a very different space: From snails to street signs: Soho’s history revealed on a new digital map - the snails on the facade of L'Escargot Restaurant.
***
Dept of, gosh I have met (many years ago) the curator of this exhibition: New York City celebrates the “Gay Harlem Renaissance”
Sholio (sholio) wrote2025-10-31 12:25 am
sholio) wrote2025-10-31 12:25 amEntry tags:
Whumptober Alt: “I hear you’re alive, how disappointing.” [Biggles]
Another of the alt prompts written earlier in October.
“I hear you’re alive, how disappointing.”
Biggles & EvS, 600 wds, enemies-era
( 600 wds under the cut )
“I hear you’re alive, how disappointing.”
Biggles & EvS, 600 wds, enemies-era
( 600 wds under the cut )
私信 まるです。 (![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
maru_feed) wrote2025-11-01 04:30 am
maru_feed) wrote2025-11-01 04:30 amハロウィンパーティーで何かを感じ取ったはなとみり。 -Hana&Miri sensed something at Halloween party .-（動画）
まるさんの49日だった24日に、急遽思い立ってハロウィンパーティーをしました。 まるさんも参加してくれたでしょうか？ The 24th was Maru’s 49th day memorial after passing […]
ysabetwordsmith (ysabetwordsmith) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
followfriday2025-10-31 12:23 am
ysabetwordsmith) wrote in followfriday2025-10-31 12:23 am
Entry tags:
Follow Friday 10-31-25
Got any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).
Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".
QC RSS (questionable_content_feed) wrote2025-10-30 09:40 pm
questionable_content_feed) wrote2025-10-30 09:40 pm5691
personally I'd never ask someone about their pronouns like that, but Clinton is nosy
kaberett (kaberett) wrote2025-10-30 10:11 pm
kaberett) wrote2025-10-30 10:11 pmtoday my most important job was Pointy Objects
I supplied knives and fine motor control; the toddler supplied art direction; the toddler's resident adults supplied outlines for me to cut around (and candles, and matches, and in fact all of the cutting of the tiny pumpkin).
私信 まるです。 (maru_feed) wrote2025-10-30 11:00 pm
maru_feed) wrote2025-10-30 11:00 pmハロウィン！Halloween!
今日はハロウィン！ Today is Halloween! 久しぶりの骸骨さんです。 It’s been a while since a Skeleton Ghost has appeared. 最初は遠巻き […]