I gave Capsule my new insurance information, and then had them deliver a prescription.

I will need/use the inhaler, but this is also confirmation that yes, I (still) have prescription drug coverage.

Other than that, not a great day. Fingertips are improving, but I had a sudden nosebleed while sitting quietly on the couch an hour ago. *sigh*

fred_mouse

share selfish on Instagram or Facebook

suspicion: bit by autocarrot. However! This was an academic journal article; it makes me a little concerned about the editing.

igenlode

Apparently I missed doing this altogether in 2024, so I'm afraid "The Remorse of Others" will never get a mention...

Stats

List of Completed Fics

( Read more... )

igenlode

( Cold )

It will be interesting to see if it gets any better traction than all my "Twenty Years After" book-canon one-shots managed, since I've done my best to make it clear that this is quite definitely based on the BBC TV series instead!

( How would one write a story that was clearly based on the Soviet Musketeers? )

I decided on a last-minute title change from "Night Watch" to "The Four of Us Together", which emerged from the text and seemed to fit the eventual 'theme' better (it was watervole who clarified to me years ago the difference between the *plot* of a story and what it was *about*, with titles very often arising out of the latter). It may also appeal to the target market better, though I'm not holding my breath for that.

And as usual I suppose I shall need a summary of some sort before I can actually upload it...

The Four of Us Together

There was a tree root digging into d’Artagnan’s back, and his neck was stiff where he’d wrapped both arms around himself for warmth. High overhead, through the interlaced branches, the moon was moving painfully slowly towards the mark he had set for himself, when his watch would be over. His head began to nod forward, and he caught himself with a jerk.

It was not as if he had not sat up at night before, waiting for the old cob to throw her latest foal, or keeping guard against the fox that had come three nights running to take their best pullets. Maybe these northern woods were dank and definitely chilly compared to the balmy dark beneath Gascon skies —not, definitely not, filled with the pervasive odour of damp leaf-mould— but all the same the sounds around him told the same story as those in the dusty, scented thickets of home. ( Read more... )

dialecticdreamer

Plans and Opportunities
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1501
[Monday, May 11, 2020, about seven a.m.]]

:: Aidan and Ed have a very grim conversation. Vic wakes early, and the trio begin planning in earnest. Part of the Edison’s Mirror universe. ::

Ed stared at the surface of his tea. Deliberately, he raised the mug, closed his eyes, and began drinking in a steady, even flow. Each time he swallowed, he tapped his right hand against his thigh. When he reached ten, he stopped. The mug hovered an inch above his knee. He repeated the same process, and when he set the mug down the second time, it was empty.

Aidan walked in, shaking his head. “Vic may be claiming to be ‘fine’, but when he sleeps, it’s clear that he’s touch starved, too. Once he explained the concept in modern terms, it was easy to see that he has been misdirecting you, in particular, which worries me. The two of you should have been sharing the trouble, not allowing one to minimize the same problem that the other is dealing with, just because one might be feeling more intense effects than the other.” He collected his own mug and drained it swiftly.

“Is Vic okay now?” Ed blurted.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: anxious

davidgillon

The Department of Transport has launched its long awaited consultation on getting rid of the despised term "Invalid Carriages" and bringing the law on "Mobility Devices" into the 21st Century.

It's mostly sensible, but I do get a shudder when I come across phrases like "someone who is permitted to use a wheelchair". Permitted? Really?

I'm not entirely certain about "Mobility Device" as the replacement for "Invalid Carriage", god knows it needs replacing, but I don't get the warm fuzzies over "Mobility Device", though I can't actually think of a better alternative right now.

I can see spats with the cyclists coming over whether we're allowed to use cycle lanes (apparently we're not, not even manual chairs - who knew?!)

The intentions seem good, but there really is the potential for this to go horribly wrong, such as options where you can say any power-assisted chair shouldn't be allowed on the pavement. I'm not convinced this was written by someone who actually understood the full range of power assistance types and how different the capabilities are. I need to think about it, but I think we may need more than three classes of "mobility device".

The consultation's open now, and closes end of March.

Current Mood: Really?!?
Current Location: Class 1

soc_puppet

As long as I'm thinking about it, here's some things I want to do in 2026:

Publish at least two more fics

Work on the pigeon mood theme

Properly assume my role as Monarch of Mood Themes on Dreamwidth

Become more/better employed

I feel like those are all things I can accomplish!

Current Mood: working

dialecticdreamer

Checking Up and Checking In
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1280
[Monday, May 11, 2020, just after dawn]

:: Vic’s mental state alarms both Ed and Aidan. Aidan checks the younger man over, and Ed takes steps to assess Vic’s emotional state. Part of the Edison’s Mirror universe. ::

Aidan set about making tea, first by setting water to heat on the stove, then by sorting through the herbs that he had collected, most of which were still drying in bundles. He worked steadily, though he wobbled on his feet twice.

Ed got Vic settled on the sofa that he preferred, and draped a thick comforter around the teen. “Are you okay? Does your head hurt? Your ears? Your eyes?” Despite the rapid questions, Ed paused between them, waiting for answers.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: awake

fred_mouse

Medical details ahead.

( possibly TMI )

dialecticdreamer

More Input
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1b of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1038
[Monday, May 11, 2020, just after dawn]

:: Aidan returns, and finds Ed waiting for him. They have a conversation that the older man did not expect. Part of the Edison’s Mirror universe. ::

Ed stared up at Aidan, then slowly crossed his arms.

Just as slowly, the boy shook his head. “No. I’m coming with you. If something… bad… happens to him, or has already…” Brow furrowing, Ed met Aidan’s gaze. “Can you sense him? Reach out to him?”

Aidan swallowed. “No. Which is why I want you somewhere safe before --”
( Read more... )

Current Mood: anxious

malinaldarose

Snowflake Challenge #3

Write a love letter to fandom. It might be to fandom in general, to a particular fandom, favourite character, anything at all.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: nostalgic

igenlode

The second-generation marigolds are frosted, although the calendula seems fine. The winter purslane looks a bit droopy, although it is also trying to flower(!)
The garlic is quite happy, and the pink Linaria is still busy blossoming.
Odometer reading: 607 miles -- 193 miles since the end of October.

spiralsheep

- Bibliomancy, you know the drill: nearest book, page 126, sentence 6 predicts the year ahead. I have two equidistant books, fiction and non-fiction.
Fiction: "Did you say backpacking?" [Yes?]
Non-fiction: Grows attached to rock [can confirm],
usually below low water [well, that's a matter of opinion, buddy!],
sometimes in pools on lower shore [trufax].

- Happy Gregorian rollover to y'all! As is traditional, mine was spent at an all-night party with much dancing. I met up with my three most reliable once-a-year dance partners, all of whom remain able to whirl me around the floor. One lifts my feet off the floor like dancing with a human chair-o-plane, wheeee, despite our combined ages being well north of a century, lol. In other news, the international Olympic musical chairs committee have issued several lifetime bans due to shocking behaviour on the playing floor. Hilariously, the overly-competitive men of a certain age knocked each other out of competition in the early rounds so the grand final was between two somewhat vague older women who, when the music stopped playing, turned to look at each other and said "Oh!" in unison before one of them decorously sat in the remaining chair. A well-earned victory! :D

- Lexicophilia part 1: I recently saw a large sign on a closed gate stating "GATE CLOSED", and I'm still wondering about the circumstances which led to the placing of this sign because... why...?!

- Lexicophilia part 2: I regret to inform you there's a shop trading as Souled Out Holistic Centre, which is now second in my terrible retail puns list after Damsel In This Dress.

- Social media: I'm unlikely to post much on Dreamwidth for the foreseeable future, but I hope to be around in comments for my nearest and dearest. Apologies, either for my absence or presence, whichever you prefer. ;-)

meridian_rose

End of year fic meme snagged from

flareonfury

Questions if you want to play:

Fics Posted 2025: 16 fics including a couple that I'd previously written some time back for Lands of Magic and finally got around to polishing and posting, one Yuletide fic, an

unconventionalcourtship fic, and a fic for

bethefirst which I'd started the previous summer but finally used the challenge as a push to complete and post it.

( read the rest )

soc_puppet

As bad as Trump's first term was, this one is just... so unspeakably worse.

A part of me wants to dwell on placing blame, on shouting at every leftist and so-called progressive who refused to vote for Harris. But that's not useful right now.

How I feel those who refused to vote for Harris is immaterial, as is how they feel about their own votes (or lack thereof). I hope instead that they have learned their lesson, as some of them actually may not have even after 2016.

More than that, I hope that there will still be a chance for them learning their lesson to be useful.

Enough of this for now; I need to go digging for some hope.

Current Mood: cynical

dialecticdreamer

More Input
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1a of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 291
[Monday, May 11, 2020, just after dawn]

:: Aidan returns, and finds Ed waiting for him. They have a conversation that the older man did not expect. Part of the Edison’s Mirror universe. ::

Aidan walked mechanically, though his metronomic precision suggested that his attention was not on the clear, well-maintained tarmac that led to the increasingly familiar driveway. He carried a bag in his left hand. The paper crinkled as his arms swung lightly in time with his steps.

The figure standing in the early dawn’s faint breeze, under the halo of the light mounted to one side of the front door of the converted garage apartment was much shorter than Aidan had expected.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: weird

redbird

The skin on the tips of my fingers has been splitting again (as it does in winter even if I try to use enough lotion) and I discovered yesterday evening that my left middle finger and thumb both hurt to touch right now, which makes lifting even light-weight things painful or difficult. Fortunately I don't live alone, and Adrian ct up my salmon for me.

Today has been if anything worse. Mousing Ok, a few tasks are OK, I managed several PT exercises but it has been a hard day. Typing, including comments, is particularly bad.

Current Mood: crappy

igenlode

It eventually dawned on me that the mysterious phrase on the bottom of my handwriting worksheets was the Russian equivalent of the infamous quick brown fox that jumps over the lazy dog -- a short sentence that includes all the letters of the [Cyrillic] alphabet :-D

съешь ещё этих мягких французских булок, да выпей чаю

(Eat more of these soft French rolls, and drink tea!)

I *think* I have finished the BBC Musketeers one-shot that I started halfway through December... after struggling with my final line over the dread of how other people's fetishes might choose to sexualise something that very much wasn't intended to be 'shipping' :-(
( The BBC characters )

buttonsbeadslace

All the things that we shipped to ourselves from the US have arrived now, so I can embark on a New Singing Project and get to know the Valley Pocket Harmonist, which is a new book of shape note tunes that came out this past year. And which I didn't really get to sing from much before coming to Spain.

I've decided that my first project is going to be singing songs that do not have religious lyrics, since the compilers of this book made an effort to include a variety of texts. (This immediately raises a difficult question: are "memento mori" songs still religious songs even if they don't mention God, Heaven, etc? We will set this question aside for now.)

Songs that perhaps meet the criteria:
( Read more... )

igenlode

I have been a bit surprised that YouTube, despite having decided that I am a Russian-speaker when it comes to displaying comments, nonethless continues to show me English-language advertisments in the middle of Russian-language programming -- presumably this aspect of the site is based on your ISP's geographical location rather than viewing habits. I have had a couple of solitary occurrences of "Please donate to our brave Ukrainian boys" featuring young men in tanks, possibly aimed at soliciting donations from the Ukrainians who fled to Britain; today I was very amused to get for the first time an advert that was clearly aimed at the Russian population, from a company claiming to offer you European citizenship and corresponding visa privileges. They will sell you spurious *Bulgarian* nationality -- no need to speak the language, no need ever to have set foot in the country, no need to alter your life at all: it is a purely nominal transaction. As if by magic, you are no longer a Russian, but a 'European'... evidently a highly-saleable aspiration!

(To be fair, this does remind me of the desperate scramble amongst certain of my acquaintance to claim to be 'Irish' with zero links to the country, in order to acquire privileged access to the EU; the Irish government was very generously offering to offer succour to all those with distant relatives in the past who might wish to disclaim their embarrassing English existence. Which, as it happens, applies to me personally and to my cousins, even though our ancestors actually come from the Unionist side of the border and would presumably have been horrified by any such idea :-p)

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Ann

February 2025

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Page Summary

redbird - new year, new insurance
fred_mouse - Typo du jour
igenlode - Fanfic Year in Review 2025
igenlode - The Four of Us
dialecticdreamer - #52 Plans and Opportunities (part 1 of 1, complete)
davidgillon - DoT Consultation on "Mobility Devices"
soc_puppet - Goals for 2026
dialecticdreamer - #51 Checking Up and Checking In (part 1 of 1, complete)
fred_mouse - State of the boob
dialecticdreamer - #50 More Input (part 1 of 1, complete)
malinaldarose - Snowflake Challenge
igenlode - Frost flowers
spiralsheep - In which "it's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine"
meridian_rose - End of Year Fic Meme
soc_puppet - Current events (politics)
dialecticdreamer - #50 More Input (part 1a of 1, complete)
redbird - (no subject)
igenlode - The quick brown fox... in winter
buttonsbeadslace - New shape note adventures
igenlode - Russian-language adverts

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Page generated Jan. 8th, 2026 07:15 am

Harmonies and Counterpoints

Reading

new year, new insurance

Typo du jour

Fanfic Year in Review 2025

Stats

List of Completed Fics

The Four of Us

The Four of Us Together

#52 Plans and Opportunities (part 1 of 1, complete)

DoT Consultation on "Mobility Devices"

Goals for 2026

#51 Checking Up and Checking In (part 1 of 1, complete)

State of the boob

#50 More Input (part 1 of 1, complete)

Snowflake Challenge

Frost flowers

In which "it's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine"

End of Year Fic Meme

Current events (politics)

#50 More Input (part 1a of 1, complete)

(no subject)

The quick brown fox... in winter

New shape note adventures

Russian-language adverts

Profile

February 2025

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