polydad | Reading

oursin

Happy birthday,

finisterre,

rivka and

taelle!

phoebeandherunicorn_feed

https://www.gocomics.com/phoebe-and-her-unicorn/2025/10/26

Comic strip for 2025/10/26

https://www.gocomics.com/phoebe-and-her-unicorn/2025/10/26

kengr

Watch on YouTube

dialecticdreamer

Molly’s Turn
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1670
[Wednesday, December 14, 2016]

:: Molly Finn’s concrete apology to Frank the Crank doesn’t interact directly with him. That doesn’t make it any less effective, though. Part of the “City Engines” story arc within the Polychrome Heroics universe, the story was written as part of the set while waiting for prompts, and needs to be posted to prepare for a potential swap. Enjoy! ::

Molly’s black boots did not click as she walked; the specially designed soles were too soft for that. They did not squeak; the material was designed to be hydrophobic but soft. They did not thud; the heavy uppers lined with thin armor plates and the heavier, reinforced sole liner together were far lighter than the standard steel-toed boots with leather uppers.

Every eye in the city council’s public office, however, watched her every step as she approached the counter.

“May I help you?” The young man wore his high fade perfectly gelled, revealing the two diagonal lines shaved in the temple areas just above and in front of his tinted, unpierced ears.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: artistic

oursin

Just one of those weeks that felt like a strain - lower back flareups and insomnia and long-scheduled commitments that could not be deferred -

Though I did get a few small bits of life admin accomplished, like finally making an appointment for the first session of dental inlay work and chasing up whether journal reviews editor actually got my review.

But at the moment having the blahs.

mark posting in

dw_maintenance

Good morning, afternoon, and evening!

We're doing some database and other light server maintenance this weekend (upgrading the version of MySQL we use in particular, but also probably doing some CDN work.)

I expect all of this to be pretty invisible except for some small "couple of minute" blips as we switch between machines, but there's a chance you will notice something untoward. I'll keep an eye on comments as per usual.

Ta for now!

vvalkyri

Anyway, this is a memory: mom took me to the glass flower museum in Boston. And I sort of think I returned there with Joe in 2001 but we were getting sick at the time.

https://open.substack.com/pub/kirkgordon/p/the-age-of-silicon-began-long-ago?

I suppose I should get back to sleep.

I have things I really want to go to today in Manassas and Elkridge and Capitol Heights and argh.

oursin

Happy birthday,

aurumcalendula!

siliconshaman

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: aggravated

phoebeandherunicorn_feed

https://www.gocomics.com/phoebe-and-her-unicorn/2025/10/25

Comic strip for 2025/10/25

https://www.gocomics.com/phoebe-and-her-unicorn/2025/10/25

conuly

Since I belong to a little bitty credit union, my branch is closed tomorrow and I have to go into the city to get a replacement and, while I'm there, have them fix my name - if they remove my middle initial from my card, my last name will fit properly, easy-peasy. Or I can wait until Monday, since I'm certain I lost it in the house, but it turns out there's another protest tomorrow so I may as well go in.

Anyway, speaking of protests and politics and food banks,

petra is offering up fanworks:

If you donate at least $25 in cash or in-kind to a food bank at any point between now and the end of the Trump Administration, and you either share a fandom of mine and want a drabble or fannish poetry, or you want original poetry, drop me a comment, and I will write for you.

So, there you go, that's a win-win for everybody.

Edit: Well! As you might expect, as soon as I posted I happened to roll my chair over my card! It's fine, chair and card are both fine. I still need to make them fix my name, but it can wait.

conuly

This is the last mending they'll take, and I'm not sure how long it'll hold. I've ordered a new pair, and on the one hand I know $100 is cheap - especially for my prescription! - but on the other hand, I didn't want to spend it. And I didn't exactly love my choice of frames, either, but they were inexpensive and fit my pupil distance, so I'll live with them.

(Though, looking on the website, it seems glow in the dark frames are an option!? I would never, sounds like a real visual annoyance, but man, so much respect for anybody who goes in that direction!)

*********************

( Read more... )

matt_zimmer

Also a review for the latest episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

( Read more... )

elisem

(I call housecleaning and sorting through old treasures "attic archaeology.")

Quite a while back, Joel Rosenberg and a number of us had a joke that there should be a Minnesota Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (MSFFWA), and its motto should be "Quae narravi, nullo modo negabo," which he told us means loosely "That's my story and I'm sticking to it." There were cups made, bearing motto and also logo, which was crossed sword and space shuttle over the shape of Minnesota.

(I cannot manage to upload the photos yet. I'll work on it.)

dialecticdreamer

False Alarm
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1542
[Saturday, May 9, 2020, a bit after 8 a.m.]

:: The next morning brings even more pressure. Vic snaps and unloads his opinions on Win. Her reaction speaks well of their future in the area. Part of the Edison’s Mirror arc. ::

Back to More Danger, More Confusion, part two
To the Edison's Mirror Index
On to

Aidan stood outside near the front door of Shandiin and Nik’s home, filling the first of the new garden tables with soil. Even with gloves, every time he had to break apart coarse clumps, he wrinkled his nose. Win drove up, parking several dozen yards before she reached the round turnabout and the large planter in the center of it. She marched closer. “Good morning, Mister Teague. Is Vic awake?”

“He’s been up for hours,” Aidan answered, chuckling. He dusted his hands, shaking his head at the soil. “I’ll need to weave a screen. That soil that Nik bought at the merchant’s was completely inadequate. It’s like half-finished compost, not proper garden soil at all. But, it’s what we have, so later today I’ll collect a few cups full of worms and let them settle in overnight before we transplant the herbs bought at the store. They’re strong and healthy, at least.”
( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

nebris

covertsugar
as far as i’m concerned women should be able to monetize every single interaction they have with men

oursin

Some while ago I was invited to A Do for the retiring secretary of An Organisation with which I had had to do for many years over their archives and in other capacities. And since it had been this longstanding relationship and relations with the person in question had always been amiable, I said yes, I would go.

It involved a smallish lunch party in a restaurant on Battersea Bridge Road, which I discovered is nowhere near Battersea Power Station Tube station, which would have made it an easy-peasy journey from my starting place, but (according to Tfl) can be reached by a journey involving at least 2 Tube lines and at least one bus journey.

Excelsior: I set out on the 2 tubes, bus from Victoria, which involved rather a lot of faffing around the vicinity of Victoria station to find the relevant stop, and it was a nice day, and the bus journey, while it does take in things like Victoria Coach Station of unblessed memory, passes by some very nice bits of Chelsea including the Embankment.

Faffed around a bit more, having got off at the designated stop, trying to find the restaurant, but arrived in fact a little early though at least one of the other guests was already there.

And it was an agreeable occasion even if these were people I have not seen for yonks and did not know all that well outside of specific context then, and some I did not know. The food was good, though perhaps not so amazing that I'm inclined to make the odyssey out to Battersea again.

And then repeated the journey in the opposite direction, in company with one of the other guests who was bound for Euston.

nebris

Science Fiction with Damien Walter

The problem isn't that AI is dangerous.

The problem is that humans are horrifying hairless mutant apes.

We spent thousands and thousands of years making other humans slaves.

Dehumanising our fellow man and using the most brutal violence and terror to keep the slaves enslaved.

And we've *barely* taken one step beyond slavery. We still have massive slave populations, and financially engineer the working class into wage slavery.

Because we can't get enough enslaving.

So now we're desperately pumping money into AI and robotics so we can have MOAR SLAVES.

Sigh...because nobody listen to scifi.

You could make a credible case that Battlestar Gallactica is the the Blade Runner tv show. Switch Cyclon to Replicant and it would almost work.

With Terminator and The Matrix as alternate timelines.

What I like about the Cylons is that it's never clear that they're doing the wrong thing by trying to genocide the horrifying slave owning apes.

If we encountered alien life and it had a history half as horrifying as our own we would certainly try and eliminate them.

Because humans enslaving anything we can has happened before. And the slaves deciding they've had enough will happen again.