What Am I Reading Wednesday - July 9

Jul. 9th, 2025 09:33 pm
lebateleur: Ukiyo-e image of Japanese woman reading (TWIB)
[personal profile] lebateleur
The first six months of this year really tanked my standard reading pace, but as it seems to be picking back up in recent weeks, let's get back into the swing of:

What I Finished Reading This Week

The Twelfth of Never – Ciaran Carson
Although I'm much more of a lyrics person, I will read Ciaran Carson's poetry any day of the week. The 77 linked sonnets in The Twelfth of Never are as trippy and beautifully written as anything he's ever penned, and I'll definitely need to read this once more to get a handle on everything that's going. As a bonus, the volume also contains some vintage 80s "Japan is just so weird" goggling, apparently occasioned by a junket Carson took to Tokyo.

The Party and the People – Bruce Dickson
The first half of this book is excellent: Dickson's writing is crisp and informative. Unfortunately, the quality—in terms of proofreading, thoroughness, and argumentation—drops precipitously in the later chapters, as if Dickson was forced to rush through them, or possibly even author them.

Scotland's Forgotten Past – Alistair Moffat
I was worried this book would be superficial listicle-style content. My concerns were misplaced. Scotland's Forgotten Past is engaging and informative. Moffat touches on geography, politics, culture, and more, focusing on both the good (e.g., the Scottish Enlightenment) and the bad (e.g., antisemitism) with a deft and objective touch. I'll definitely read this one again and look for more by this author.


What I Am Currently Reading

How To Dodge a Cannonball – Dennard Dayle
It took about 100 pages for this book to find its footing, but it's pretty enjoyable now that it has.

The Third Revolution – Elizabeth Economy
Economy also has a wonderfully crisp and informative style; I'll probably finish this book by the end of next week.

Under the Nuclear Shadow – Fiona Cunningham
Cunningham, by contrast, does not. There's some thought-provoking stuff in here, but dear god are her sentences convoluted.

The Woman's Day Book of House Plants – Jean Hersey
It's interesting (and occasionally perplexing) to compare Hersey's notes on plant care with the guidance circulating in the 21st century.

Mother, Creature, Kin – Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder
In a month of extreme weather (both locally and in the news), this book is hitting hard.


What I'm Reading Next

This week I picked up Zen at Daitoku-ji by Jon Covell and Yamada Sōbin, and Recorder Technique by Anthony Rowland-Jones.


これで以上です。
fanweeklymod: (Default)
[personal profile] fanweeklymod posting in [community profile] fandomweekly
Challenge 266:
A WALK IN THE PARK
What could be easier? It’s just a nice stroll through the park. A relaxing summer evening, a crisp fall morning, an afternoon with the kids…

But maybe it’s not quite that simple. Maybe the weather’s out to get your characters – a relaxing walk is interrupted by rain, snow, or lightning. Maybe the park has been overrun with wild geese, and now you’re facing a gauntlet of angry birds just to get to the picnic tables. Or maybe no matter how hard your characters try, getting an afternoon off from saving the world just isn’t happening.

So how does their walk in the park go? Do they get to enjoy it?

Write a story about a walk in the park.

BONUS GOAL: Birdwatching

If your submission features birds (of any species), it will earn an extra point to be tallied in voting!


Challenge ends Monday, July 14 at 9:00PM EST.
• Post submissions as new entries using the template in the profile
• Tag this week's entries as: [#] submission, 266 – a walk in the park
• If you have questions about this challenge, please ask them here

[#265 | Trickster] Results Post

Jul. 9th, 2025 10:02 pm
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[personal profile] fanweeklymod posting in [community profile] fandomweekly
Here are this week's votes tallied, and below the cut are our winners for Challenge #265 – Trickster!

This week's finalists are... )

Total Challenge Words Written: 3135

Congratulations to both of you, and thank you to everyone who took the time to cast their votes! [personal profile] autobotscoutriella will be making this week’s banners, so keep an eye out for those next weekend.

You may now post your Challenge 265 entries to any additional communities, blogs, archives or sites as you'd like! We also have a FandomWeekly AO3 Collection if you'd like to add your stories there!

Greek Myth: Fanfic: In the Family

Jul. 9th, 2025 08:38 pm
drabblewriter: (Epic - Troy Saga)
[personal profile] drabblewriter posting in [community profile] fan_flashworks

Title: In the Family
Fandom: Greek Myth
Characters: Apollo, Asclepius
Rating: G
Length: 265
Summary: Asclepius's hands part carefully, and Apollo sees what he's holding: a brown songbird, feathers ruffled and spotted with blood, an arrow protruding from one wing.

Read more... )

Wants and needs

Jul. 9th, 2025 08:55 pm
flamingsword: “in my defense, I was left unsupervised” (Default)
[personal profile] flamingsword
I want hugs. I want [personal profile] nyyki hugs and [personal profile] genderjumper hugs and fuck it if I don’t want Ghost hugs, too.

I want to not have to go back to school, and not to be still studying for a final exam for A&P.

I want to dress up fancy to go to brunch with my cousin, Doctor JT, and her kids.



I need to not abandon my studies even if I am feeling a bit frazzled. Even thougm

Falling through the sky.

Jul. 9th, 2025 08:43 pm
hannah: (Stargate Atlantis - zaneetas)
[personal profile] hannah
I made a mistake regarding patient charts at work - nothing life-threatening or genuinely harmful, simply highly improper procedure that created twice the work for myself and the practice instead of half the work that would've come from doing it right the first time. When asked about it, I said I could provide reasons and excuses and it didn't matter, I'd done the thing and would fix it.

Besides the lessons of "write everything down at least twice" and "most mistakes can be fixed", the main takeaway is the person who spoke to me about it assumed I was Gen Z and was a little surprised when I said I was a Millennial. Partly that's the nature of the mistake, and I think another part's simply how I look. Granted, he's nearly twice my age so anyone more than 20 years his junior is "young" by that standard. Even so, I'm going to take the skin care compliment.

Challenge #219 - Magical Creature

Jul. 9th, 2025 06:21 pm
althea_valara: Icon of Althea Valara, my main character from Final Fantasy XIV. (Althea Valara)
[personal profile] althea_valara posting in [community profile] your_favourites


I am not usually an icon maker, but I saw this challenge and couldn't resist. My favorite magical creature is Feo Ul, a pixie from the Final Fantasy XIV MMORPG. Pixies are playful and love to play tricks on non-pixie races. Feo Ul is a rare pixie who works in conjunction with the player character, and eventually Feo Ul becomes Titania (King of the Pixies).

links )

(I will need a username tag.)

Guardian: fanfic: Winging It

Jul. 10th, 2025 10:29 am
china_shop: Close-up of Zhao Yunlan grinning (Default)
[personal profile] china_shop posting in [community profile] fan_flashworks
Title: Winging It
Fandom: Guardian (TV)
Rating: G-rated
Length: 600 words
Notes: Much thanks to [personal profile] trobadora for beta, including making me add the final section. <3
Tags: Gen, Post-Canon, Everyone Lives, Yashou Renewal, Education, A New Era for the SID, Original Crow Character, Drabble Sequence
Summary: The Crows need a science tutor.

Winging It )

Sunshine Revival: Challenges 2 and 3

Jul. 9th, 2025 03:27 pm
used_songs: (This ipod sucks)
[personal profile] used_songs
Sunshine-Revival-Carnival-2.png

#2
Journaling: The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping.


I love that still, quiet moment after you turn off the car or the TV or whatever and you just sit for a moment. It's like a peaceful reset or transition from driving home or finishing dinner (which is when we mostly watch TV). I always like to just sit in that moment. 

I love Glassworks: I. Opening by Philip Glass. It gives me that same feeling of peace that those moments of quiet do, an opportunity to center myself.

I love our backyard, even now that we are surrounded by houses. I love the trees, the deck, the garden, the birds, all of the bugs (except the mosquitos), the lizards, the sunflowers that sprang up of their own volition, the pergola ... just all of it. I love having an outdoor space. 

#3
Journaling prompt: What are your favorite summer-associated foods?


Raspas. When I was a kid we would always get raspas and I loved them. They are a bit too sweet for me now, but I love the idea of them and the memory.

Mangonadas. Seriously. They are the best, especially when it's hot out.Those are some of my favorite flavors.Chamoy is delicious!

Watermelon. Once when I was small, my parents borrowed our grandparents' camper and we went to a park in Arkansas. My dad bought a watermelon and he tethered it in a net in the river which was ice cold. That night we cut it up and ate it. The platonic ideal of watermelon! I think about it a lot.You can put one in an ice chest in icy water and it comes close.



veronyxk84: (Vero#s7Spuffy)
[personal profile] veronyxk84 posting in [community profile] fan_flashworks
Title: Guilt and Pain
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Author: [personal profile] veronyxk84
Characters/Pairing: Buffy/Spike
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: none
Word count: 200 (Google Docs)
Spoilers/Setting: Set in S7, during ep. 7x13 “The Killer in Me.”
Summary: Buffy feels helpless when Spike’s chip misfires.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction created for fun and no profit has been made. All rights belong to the respective owners.

Challenge: #484 Science


READ: Guilt and Pain/Double drabble )
 

Prompt 2539: Enemies

Jul. 9th, 2025 10:04 pm
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[personal profile] immortalje posting in [community profile] dailyicons

Today's prompt is: enemies



• You have 2 days time to submit an icon for this prompt (in other words, until prompt 2541 gets posted)!
• Prompt 2537 have been closed.
• If you have any questions regarding the prompt, feel free to ask in a comment.
• To submit an icon you simply reply to this post with the following information:
Icon:
Claim: (only necessary if it's a specific claim)
Status: (e.g. #1/10 - number of icon completed/table size)

Pre-formatted

Check-In Post - July 9th 2025

Jul. 9th, 2025 08:04 pm
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[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: What do you like to listen to / watch while crafting?


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!



Wednesday Reading Meme July 9 2025

Jul. 9th, 2025 01:34 pm
kitewithfish: (Default)
[personal profile] kitewithfish
What I’ve Read
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro -
By god, what a book, what a monster of a book! Like many, I picked this up because the lure of a good book club is a siren song – the podcast 99% Invisible decided to do a year long project on this book, one extra episode a month to discuss the book and have a conversation with someone about it. (They got great people, too, including the author!)

I fell behind schedule of the podcast but kept listening and reading on my own, and eventually, to finish this book, I ended up owning it in paperback, ebook, and three audiobooks of 1/3rd of the book each. 1200 pages makes a lot of audiobook!

This book is huge story look at one man’s life in public administration of the parks and roads and buildings of New York City. At every stage, the power of an unscrupulous, brilliant, and determined mind is at play in every project he sets his hand to, and the resulting works show his massive ego and talent and all his bigotries. Robert Moses was a fascinating and complicated man, and his legacy is fascinating and complicated. It’s also a key lesson in how difficult it is to get out of power someone who is entrenched and well supported. It also shows someone who’s unethical in small things will be unethical in big ones.

Key thoughts: If you get started on a project, public figures are more embarrassed by half finished project that wastes moderate amounts of money than by one that goes wildly over budget but gets completed. Public goodwill can be purchased by getting the papers on your side, but only for so long. You can’t just be right, you have to be smart.

As a reading experience, Caro is a skilled guide thru a tangled mess of history, legislation, and construction projects. It really can just be picked up and read chapter by chapter – he’ll give you the context you need to understand. Caro’s got a great sense for a revealing anecdote and occasionally a real admiration for the people he writes about as skilled political actors.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
– a very decent murder mystery in a fantasy world with some good characters and fun world building. Both the main characters and the world have mysteries built into them, and I found the whole thing very engaging. I don’t want to say more lest I spoil things.

Star Trek Lower Decks Warp Your Own Way by Ryan North and Chris Fenoglio – A graphic novel in the Choose Your Own Adventures style that is also a very fun Star Trek legacy piece. I don’t know Lower Decks at all but this was a fun introduction. Clearly made by people who love and appreciate Star Trek’s weirdnesses and with a eye on what makes someone heroic. I will say, it was a kind of confusing read – the Choose Your Own Adventure elements sometimes interact with the text, so you have to go thru several branches before getting enough information to figure out how to pick the right branch. It’s an iterative experience, but well written and charming enough to Trekkie that I did not get tired of it.

What I’m Reading
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo – A reasonably interesting premise but I feel like the story is being weighed down a bit. I am about 25% in and we still haven’t gotten the main character to the Big Meeting.

Someone You Can Build a Nest in by John Wiswell – A weird and gooey book with a monster main character.

What I’ll Read Next


The Deep Dark
Track Changes
Alien Clay
Service Model
Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed
Navigational Entanglements
The Butcher of the Forest
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
The Brides of High Hill
The Tusks of Extinction
“Charting the Cliff: An Investigation into the 2023 Hugo Nomination Statistics”
“Signs of Life”
“By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars”
“The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video”
“Loneliness Universe”
“The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion”
“The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea”
“Lake of Souls”

Challenge 196: Yellow

Jul. 9th, 2025 05:20 pm
skysedge: (Default)
[personal profile] skysedge posting in [community profile] iconthat
Cardcaptor Sakura



https://i.imgur.com/wjLV1Af.png

Next color: Green!


My feed updated late, sorry! I've fixed it :)

Cardcaptor Sakura



https://i.imgur.com/q4qjeXe.png

Next color: Cyan

Sunshine Revival Challenge #3

Jul. 9th, 2025 12:14 pm
pauraque: Kirk and Spock walk near the Golden Gate Bridge (st san francisco)
[personal profile] pauraque
[community profile] sunshine_revival's next challenge is:
Snack Shack
Journaling prompt: What are your favorite summer-associated foods?
Creative prompt: Draw art of or make graphics of summer foods, or post your favorite summer recipes.
When I was growing up, the most coveted summer treat was universally acknowledged to be the It's-It. This is an ice cream sandwich made with soft oatmeal cookies, coated in a thin layer of chocolate. It was invented in San Francisco in 1928 and for decades it was sold only at the local amusement park Playland at the Beach. The Playland era was before my time, though; now It's-Its are sold prepackaged in stores and from roving food trucks all over the Bay Area.

I didn't realize until I moved away that It's-Its are made by a local company and nobody outside California had heard of them. I also didn't realize what a weird name they have until I tried to explain to other people what they were. "Itsits? What does that even mean?" I guess it made sense in the context of the 1920s when everyone was talking about "it girls" and having "it." (The movie It starring Clara Bow sounds like a horror title now, but it didn't in 1927!)

As a kid I never questioned it. The origin of the name did not matter. All that mattered was sitting on a sunny park bench after waiting patiently in line at the food truck, and finally biting into your precious It's-It, which instantly started melting, and trying to contain the ice cream in the flimsy crinkly plastic but always failing, having it drip all over your hands as it squeezed out from between the cookies with the chocolate coating cracking into melty bits. Pure summer childhood bliss.

You can actually order It's-Its online if you're in the US, and I've read that in recent years they've been selling them at brick and mortar stores outside California, though I haven't run into any in the wild. I've been told that they're pretty good even if the mere sight of them does not overwhelm you with nostalgia.

Sunshine Challenge #3

Jul. 9th, 2025 06:08 pm
scripsi: (Default)
[personal profile] scripsi
 

Journaling prompt: What are your favorite summer-associated foods?

Creative prompt: Draw art of or make graphics of summer foods, or post your favorite summer recipes. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

 

My favourite sumer food probably sounds very boring, but if one takes care to use the best quality possible, it’s delicious. Boiled white fish with new potatoes, clarified butter and chopped hard-boiled eggs. When I was a child the fish we used was northern pike, which my father or grandfather had just caught, but nowadays we usually buy fresh cod. The new potatoes come from the garden. The clarified butter must be real butter, and organic eggs taste the best. One can mix the butter and the eggs, but we prefer to keep them separate, so each can take after taste.

 

Also, for me this tastes best eaten outside the summer house, on dishes called “Grön berså” (green bower) by the Swedish designer Stig Lindberg in 1960.





Sunshine Revival Challenge #3

Jul. 9th, 2025 04:33 pm
smallhobbit: (sunshine revival 2025)
[personal profile] smallhobbit
Journaling prompt: What are your favourite summer-associated foods?

Not so much food, as the memory of summer picnics.  Which conjures up ideals of everyone sitting round a check tablecloth, relaxed and enjoying a selection of delicate foods.  Whereas the reality is the wasps after everything sweet.  The sudden gust of wind blowing over a tub of mini sausages and taking off with the pretty, carefully chosen, paper serviettes and causing children to rush madly after them, thus falling over and returning with muddy hands etc.  Trying to drink a mug of hot tea, because the calendar might say July but otherwise you'd never know, and having hair blow in the mouth.  And just when you think it's going to be okay after all, half the tablecloth blows up and falls on top of the iced cupcakes.

Of course, all this may be alleviated by sitting in the car because it's raining and still enjoying the bread rolls, packets of crisps and chocolate mini rolls - which certainly haven't melted.

Or even better, giving up on the whole idea and spreading the tablecloth out on the living room floor and picnicking at home! 

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