stonepicnicking_okapi: ChopSuey (chopsuey)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi
1. New client is an architect. Seems to be okay but we'll see. The one issue is that they (he and wife) have never ever had a caregiver so we'll see what they decide to do with me. There is something to be said for jazz man who has had caregivers 3 to 4 times a day every day for years and my Indian lady who grew up with actual servants that they know how to order me around properly. :) I also will try out a new Friday guy. He is hospice. :(

2. Spring break was fine. Easter was fine. The boys are back at school.

3. BTS will have the first concert of their tour on Wednesday. They have dropped much content, which is enjoyable. I have made a new ARMY friend of a long-time commentor on my fic so that's nice.

4. I just finished a biography of Keats, which I will talk about tomorrow. I am also making my way through an Inspector Rebus short story omnibus.

5. This day in jazz tells me it is the birthday of Billie Holliday so have two poems about her. The second one calls to mind the moment in ACD's "The Dying Detective" when Watson reads about the attack on Holmes in the newspaper.

---


Canary by Rita Dove
for Michael S. Harper

Billie Holiday’s burned voice
had as many shadows as lights,
a mournful candelabra against a sleek piano,
the gardenia her signature under that ruined face.

(Now you’re cooking, drummer to bass,
magic spoon, magic needle.
Take all day if you have to
with your mirror and your bracelet of song.)

Fact is, the invention of women under siege
has been to sharpen love in the service of myth.

If you can’t be free, be a mystery.

--

The Day Lady Died by Frank O’Hara

It is 12:20 in New York a Friday
three days after Bastille day, yes
it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine
because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton
at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner
and I don’t know the people who will feed me

I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun
and have a hamburger and a malted and buy
an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poets
in Ghana are doing these days

I go on to the bank
and Miss Stillwagon (first name Linda I once heard)
doesn’t even look up my balance for once in her life
and in the GOLDEN GRIFFIN I get a little Verlaine
for Patsy with drawings by Bonnard although I do
think of Hesiod, trans. Richmond Lattimore or
Brendan Behan’s new play or Le Balcon or Les Nègres
of Genet, but I don’t, I stick with Verlaine
after practically going to sleep with quandariness

and for Mike I just stroll into the PARK LANE
Liquor Store and ask for a bottle of Strega and
then I go back where I came from to 6th Avenue
and the tobacconist in the Ziegfeld Theatre and
casually ask for a carton of Gauloises and a carton
of Picayunes, and a NEW YORK POST with her face on it

and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of
leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT
while she whispered a song along the keyboard
to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing

Resistance Hat

Apr. 7th, 2026 12:10 pm
lydamorehouse: (MN fist)
[personal profile] lydamorehouse
resistance hat 
Image: me in my fancy new Norweigan Resitance hat made especially for me by Paula Rice Beiver

I promised a picture of the hat that Paula made for me at Minicon, so here it is!  As I noted, I really feel like there are some magical ways in which the resistance here in Minnesota operated. The generation and distribution of whistles--you could not walk into a place of business and not see a bowl of them (bookstores, coffee shops, car repair places, restaurants, etc.) People handed out whistles on the street, in little free libraries, etc.. I feel like there are probably people who have a story that goes with "and then I was handed/picked up my very first whistle."

Similarly, the fact that so many people were making these very historically meaningful Norweign resistance hats as a way to promote visiblile solidarity, at one point, we had a shortage of red yarn. 

Up the revolution, y'all.

As for news from today, I may have mentioned that I am currently hunting for a job. The capitalist system is not kind to writers, and especially not to ones who have stalled out on their second novel in a series. So, I drove all the way out to Blaine in Anoka County to interview for a job as circ staff at their library system. It seemed to go okay? I was, of course, stumped by one of those corporate-speak interview questions: "tell us about a time you made a mistake and what steps you took to correct it." I suppose what I should remember is that they're trying to find out if you are the sort of person who handles critique well and I should just make something up so that I can say things like, "Even though I felt ashamed that I had made the mistake, I did not get angry. I was able to listen to my supervisor and cheerfully apply their suggestion!" Because that's what they want to know. Are you the kind of person who punches someone when they tell you that you screwed up. Alas, I fumbled around and, well, NOW I HAVE A STORY ABOUT A TIME I SCREWED UP. :-P

But, that's sort of all I know. There was a lot of rigamorale around the fact that everyone in my family needed to be somewhere this morning and we only have one car. Luckily, [personal profile] naomikritzer was able to loan me her husband's car (he really can't use it at the moment becuase he has a broken arm) and so half my family could go off to their dental and physical appointments, and I could head off for my interview in Ed's car.

As a bonus, we got to chat a bit when she gave me a ride back to mine, after I returned the car this morning. 

I am now trying to decide how energtic I feel. As you know, because I mention it a lot, my mutual aid place, ZCC, is still hopping. Even if I can only go for a few minutes, there is almost always something that needs doing. Since it's only 12:30 as I finish writing this, I think I will wander on over there and do a little good for the resistance efforts. Might as well, since, if I get this job, I'll have a lot less time to devote to things like that.

Check-In Post - April 7th 2026

Apr. 7th, 2026 06:20 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: Where do you do most of your 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!



Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Apr. 7th, 2026 12:04 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "I am SO done with this!" I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for activists, rebels, Women Who Run with the Saberteeth, explorers, traitors, exes, people who escape domestic violence, refugees, runaway youth, escaped slaves or other captives, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, stray or feral animals, other people who get into untenable situations, protesting, planning, throwing in the towel, escaping, running like someone left the gate open, adventuring, hitchhiking, quitting school, divorcing, disowning, betraying, teaching, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, trails, sailing ships, campervans or RVs, distant lands, the forest primeval, prehistory, liminal zones, schools, homeless shelters, hotels, churches, sharehouses, campfires, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where the intolerable happens, unhappy relationships, protest rallies, slavery or captivity, locks or chains, travel mishaps, sudden surprises, the buck stops here, trial and error, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, Get a Life Program, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Flower Fest Bingo Card 4-1-26

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One is developing its own neurovariant culture after rebelling against the Galactic Arms.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past.

A Conflagration of Dragons has the Six Races (plus the dragons) who all have different cultures and climates. This often poses challenges for the refugees.

Coracle Shores is about leaving a distressed world for somewhere better.

The Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find enough resources to survive, when former cities are unsafe.

The Moon Door explores a women's chronic pain group and lycanthropy.

Not Quite Kansas deals with demons and angels, also characters dumped out of their original worlds.

The Ocracies has a wide variety of countries crammed together, each with a totally different government. Sometimes people leave their homeland to find something they like better.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks after quitting as the God of Evili.

Path of the Paladins includes a few characters who have walked away from unbearable situations, like Johan.

Peculiar Obligations combines Quakers and pirates, the latter of whom are well versed in weighing anchor.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society. The supervillains are the most likely to cut and run from a bad situation.

Schrodinger's Heroes has a lot of situations that people want to get away from including Chris avoiding some of his relatives, Morgan moving to a new dimension, and dimensions that just suck for everyone.

The Wandering is a series about fantasy time travel where people loop back within their own lifespan.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

Read more... )

Touch-starvation fics

Apr. 7th, 2026 12:19 pm
pi_rate: badge saying "i was here for beta" (Default)
[personal profile] pi_rate posting in [community profile] recthething
As someone who absolutely loves touch-starvation fics (BEST blend of fluff and hurt/comfort) here are my favorites (NON explicit, short) from several fandoms:

The House on the Cerulean Sea
"A Better Hot Water Bottle"
Linus/Arthur
Hurt/comfort, sickfic, basically Linus has a stomach ache and Arthur uses his heat powers to help. Super cute and dialogue is very in character.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/81700936

MHA
Okay you guys get four here because I CAN'T CHOOSE LMAO

PLATONIC/PARENTAL:
"Scientifically proven and fact based"
https://archiveofourown.org/works/64019350/chapters/164229040
touchstarved!shinso & parental erasermic
I LOVE THIS FIC Y'ALL the dialogue is SO GOOD and so CUTE and has me kicking my feet EVERY TIME. Very accurately captures the feeling of not knowing how to ask for help even for smth "stupid."

"Shut my eyes (run away from it all)"
https://archiveofourown.org/works/37360591
touchstarved!izuku and parental mic
tbh I didn't think I would like this one as much as I did, basic premise is izuku asks mic for a hug and it becomes a regular thing, JUST TRUST ME ON THIS ONE guys it feels like it'll be pathetic and sappy and it is but it WORKS. Sometimes you're just in the mood for pathetic and sappy yk?

ROMANTIC:
"Under the Weather"
https://archiveofourown.org/works/60022777
oboro/aizawa (high school)
It's not too romantic if you're not a fan of the ship, it's just very centered on touch-starved aizawa. He gets adorably stubborn and cute and he's so soft but he tries to act tough kinda vibes. Good writing of internal monologue.

"resigned"
https://archiveofourown.org/works/60268267/chapters/153797866
erasermic
OBLIGATORY WARNING: 30K WORDS, UNFINISHED, INFREQUENT UPDATES (last one took 7 months)
but y'all it's WORTH IT. Only forced proximity fic I can find for erasermic, idiots in love, mutual pining. Basic premise is a quirk accident that forces them to stay within a certain distance of each other. And oh no! It keeps getting shorter! So they have to share a bed! And oh no! Hizashi hugs in his sleep! Aizawa is such a dork in this one guys. This is legitimately one of my all time favorite fics and I think about it all the time. 100000/10.

Death Note
"ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space"
https://archiveofourown.org/works/63630748
L/light
Cute, banter. A little ooc but any lawlight fic is gonna be ooc. "shut up and enjoy it" kinda vibes.

I had a great jjk one but apparently didn't bookmark it :(
That's all, hope y'all enjoy!

This past week...

Apr. 7th, 2026 11:51 am
arthur_p_dent: (Default)
[personal profile] arthur_p_dent
I wasn't able to get to this yesterday, but that's fine. A couple things came up during the day and I went to bed very early, so instead, here I am today.

Well, it became official on Tuesday - those three plants did end up being sold off. For the short term I'll continue to support those plants, doing the exact work I've been doing. Considering how widespread my knowledge and involvement is, and the fact that nobody else in the company has ever done any of it, it makes sense to keep things status quo. Eventually though, the new owners will change those plants over to a different computer system and train people in the plants on those functions, and my support will no longer be needed. I already know that there won't be any opportunity to stay where I am after that, so that'll be the end of it. I should be good until the fall, which gives me time to prepare.

After that I had to deal with month end, which actually went very smoothly for a change. For me at least - other accounting people had to deal with their new ownership, and leading into the long weekend that had to have been a heavy load. Luckily that part didn't involve me at all, so I was able to enjoy the time off.

Friday I didn't have curling, and thanks to fortunate alignment of our schedules I was able to hang out with my good friend. We had more time than usual, which was nice, and her BF joined us later too, which is great since we all don't get to hang out together too often. On Saturday I had my last long run before my upcoming race, and that went quite well. I have a plan for this first one, which is to keep is simple and steady and complete the whole distance with no walking breaks (that last one is something I have yet to accomplish). Sunday I was supposed to run again but I put it off a day since my legs were more tired than usual. Instead I did a small grocery trip and some food prep, and then relaxed for the afternoon - something I rarely allow myself to do. Overall it was a good weekend.

At some point I still need to post how I did with my goals for March (late again), but I feel like that might not happen until Sunday since I have a pretty busy week ahead of me. That should give me lots to talk about next time too. For today I'll say adieu, as it's time to make my way back to the office. Have a good week everyone!  =]

summer enjoyer

Apr. 7th, 2026 04:59 pm
[personal profile] cosmolinguist

I woke up about fifteen minutes before my alarm this morning.

And it wasn't a struggle to get out of bed. Or to have my meds, or get dressed. I checked the weather first, and the predicted high was 69(F, of course), which is nice indeed! So I got to wear a sleeveless top and shorts and sandals.

I started work on time, if not a bit early. It was easy to get my morning chores done, even with a hurty tummy -- I didn't want breakfast yet but I had mint-and-vanilla tea which is my go-to for hurty tummy. I made the regular pot of tea for everyone else, though.

I hung the towels and bedsheets outside -- for the first time this year! -- and was so happy to get to do this, under a bright blue sky, my skin warming in the sun.

I did so many extra little chores during the day! I cleaned my glasses. I cleaned my phone. I refilled the bottles of spray cleaner and toilet cleaner that needed refilling from the 5-liter jugs. I put laundry away. I was able to prepare most of dinner before counseling -- instead of not at all, which is my usual for Tuesdays.

All of this is because the days have gotten longer and the sun has come back out.

Every fall/winter, I worry that I'm just bad at stuff and things will be horrible forever. And every spring, there's a Monday (or in this case a Tuesday) where something in my brain clicks into place when I get a certain amount of sunlight -- not vitamin D from the pills, not lumens from the SAD lamp; I have those things and I'm sure they help but nothing like the fact that the colors are right and the outside is hospitable again.

Going, going...

Apr. 7th, 2026 04:45 pm
muninnhuginn: (Default)
[personal profile] muninnhuginn
I'll be gone, as far as work goes, at the end of June. Decision made. Tidy things up. Move on.

March 2026

Apr. 7th, 2026 04:44 pm
muninnhuginn: (Default)
[personal profile] muninnhuginn
 

March 2026

Read: 
Novels:
  • Orbital
 
Shorts:
 
Non-fiction:
 
Poetry:
 
Attended:
  • (online) Peter’s Field (Sean Cooney, Sam Carter, and Rowan Rheingans)
 
Visited:

sapid

Apr. 7th, 2026 08:21 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
sapid (SAP-id) - (largely N.Am.) adj., perceptible to the sense of taste, having flavor; having a strong pleasant flavor, savory; (arch.) pleasing to the mind, engaging.


That last is an almost forgotten metaphoric extension, instead of the common pattern of the original literal meaning fading into the mists of time. Taken around 1630 from Latin sapidus, tasty, from sapere, to taste, and so a doublet of savory.

---L.
thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
Heh. Actions can have consequences, who knew!

He applied for an Electronic Travel Authorization, basically a short-term entry visa to headline the Wireless Music Festival this summer in London. And the Home Office noped out of it, saying "Antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent, and we recognise the real and personal impact these issues have had. As Ye said today, he acknowledges that words alone are not enough, and in spite of this still hopes to be given the opportunity to begin a conversation with the Jewish community in the UK."

Already purchased tickets will be refunded.

The UK has a policy that convicted felons will not be admitted, I wonder if it will be applied to a certain felon after he leaves office.... one can but hope.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gxk3kxjr0o?utm_source=buzzfeed&utm_medium=iframely

10 years

Apr. 7th, 2026 10:50 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
Today is the 10th anniversary of my first paid live theatre shift. I wasn't sure I'd get to the end it, let along a decade.

(Humanities Theatre's audience floor slopes forward slightly. My reaction of "well, this feels different" very quickly turned into actual pain)

specificity

Apr. 7th, 2026 10:50 am
beradan: Icon: image of Captain America taken from the comic book Captain America: The Fighting Avenger (Default)
[personal profile] beradan
"good morning, I'm calling about your ILL request for the Talmud. This is a 134 volume set. You may have THREE."

"...ah. we'll get back to you"
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Following a failed assassination, professional intermediary Bren Cameron is hustled off to a safe house... or possibly, to a location where it will be easier to dispose of the befuddled ambassador.

Foreigner (First Foreigner, volume 1) by C J Cherryh

Wolves

Apr. 7th, 2026 06:29 am
mrissa: (Default)
[personal profile] mrissa
 New poem out today in Uncanny! I wrote The Truth About Wolves for my beloved younger godchild. I hope you enjoy it too.

workaday Tuesday

Apr. 7th, 2026 06:55 am
marcicat: (heart dino)
[personal profile] marcicat
Heading back to the office after two weeks of escaping office days (first by being sick, then by the office declaring our presence not-so-mandatory after all). (Sometimes we have weeks that are optional, baffling everyone.)

ANYWAY.

Work-related things I plan to do in the office today:
*email coworkers who are not in the building because they live too far away to be impacted by the office rules
*email people who are not in the building because they work for other companies and I'm requesting information from them
*work with online files that could be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection

Non-work-related things I plan to do in the office today:
*eat the free breakfast
*drink the free coffee
*probably irritate a lot of people because I'm still coughing and sniffling a non-zero amount (I'm better! Definitely not contagious or anything, but sitting in a room with someone who is coughing or blowing their nose even once just isn't that fun, and I totally get that.)

An update

Apr. 7th, 2026 10:21 am
the_comfortable_courtesan: image of a fan c. 1810 (Default)
[personal profile] the_comfortable_courtesan
We are pleas'd to inform gentle readers that it seems that the Google Play edition of Choices: Taking Decisions is available, although there remains a curious problem with the preview in Google Books.

Profile

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Ann

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