michifugu | Network

Welp, it looks like I'm headed for surgery to straighten out and support my finger as it heals, followed by physical therapy. It'll be done at a local orthopedic clinic and hopefully won't take long. The surgeon seems good and competent, and is in-network for my insurance.

Think good thoughts for me on Tuesday, friends!

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: Scratchy Summanulla
Current Music: Reassuring purrs

ysabetwordsmith

Scientists discover why some wildlife thrives against the odds

From coral reefs to chimpanzees, researchers uncover common factors that help wildlife and ecosystems succeed despite mounting threats.

Use these approaches to boost success. Handy to know in case you find an opportunity to apply them.

“Our study examined different species on different continents that are all facing unique conservation challenges,” Lin explained.

“Yet each succeeded against the odds for remarkably similar reasons: local knowledge was valued alongside science, communities played a central role in decision-making, and management adapted to local social and environmental conditions.”

Challenging but feasible in many locations. Much easier to apply on a reservation.

Current Mood: busy

lb_lee

Rogan: Also, on top of the rest of it... today I got permanently suspended from Ebay. I have no idea why. (EDIT: apparently this just happens to people and there's not really a way to fight it that's worth it to me. Bye, Ebay!)

( Read more... )

Current Mood: confused
Crossposts: https://lb-lee.insanejournal.com/52120.html

brithistorian

Hello Thursday!

Last week I had an appointment with an occupational therapist because of a strained muscle in my shoulder. She gave me a set of exercises to do three times a day and had me make a return appointment in two weeks. She said the who thing should be cleared up in a few months, and I don’t doubt her. OT exercises are really amazing to me. Each exercise they give you is dead easy, so that you think “there’s no way this will do anything,” but by the time you finish a set of ten, you’re really struggling because they’ve so precisely targeted the particular muscle you need to work on.

I was on Etsy the other day and stumbled upon one of those “we’ll print your fanfiction and bind it into a book for you” services. And I got to thinking that it might me nice to have bound copies of Victorian lady spy K-pop AU fanfics, so I downloaded both volumes from AO3 as PDFs so I could get the length and see how much it would cost to have them printed and bound. This led me to two realizations:

As nice as it might be, I don’t think it would be $58/volume worth of nice at present.
Each book in the series is over 350 pages! This was another “Wow! I guess I am a real writer!” moment — somehow 375 pages feels realer than 164,000 words.

So I won’t be buying bound copies of my stories right now, but I will be finishing volume 2 by the end of this month and then immediately starting work on volume 3. I have to! Volume 2 ends at a cliffhanger, and I want to find out what happens next!

A fun creative writing exercise

Grace and I are re-watching Burn Notice (highly recommended, if you haven’t watched it). Inspired by Burn Notice’s rather bizarre use of Pete Townsend’s “Let My Love Open the Door” as their closing credits song, I came up with this creative writing exercise: Randomly generate a year between 1970 and 1989 and a number between 1 and 100. Then to go the Wikipedia category Lists of Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles, find that year and that song, and come up with an idea for a spy, detective, or cop show using that song as the theme song.

For example: 1981, #35: “While You See a Chance” by Steve Winwood. This one seems pretty straightforward. Some of them are much harder.

Optional rule for increased difficulty: If the song is a funk song, the show cannot be set in the 1970s and cannot have a Black protagonist.

Things to check out online

My friend and former classmate Keith Pille wrote a manifesto last year “Be a Goddamned Human: An Art-making Manifesto.” It’s an amazing piece of work. It’s exceedingly rare that I read something and say “Yes! I agree with this!” with no nitpicks or caveats, but I agree with what Keith has written here. In fact, this is one of those times when I have to be generous as a writer: If you have time to read Keith’s manifesto or the rest of this newsletter but not both, read Keith’s manifesto.

What I’ve been reading:

Since last week I’ve finished reading

Minnesota Monthly, September/October 2026
Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, vol. 4 (Shio Usui) — I was pleased and surprised that they did manage to reach a happy ending at the end of this volume without it feeling rushed or forced. There is one part of the end that I’m not sure how to feel about, though: We don’t get any physical affection between the main characters other than holding hands. They even talk about not being interested in kissing or other physical affection. And without knowing the author’s intentions and editorial policies of the magazine where this story was originally published, I don’t know if I should be “Yay! Positive asexual representation!” or “Geez! What a cop-out! Lesbians deserve better!” I’m inclined to lean toward “Yay!” because I like feeling more positively about things, and an article I found at Anime News Network shows that I’m not the only one who’s uncertain about the “correct” interpretation here but leaning toward positive asexual representation.
Witch Hat Atelier, vol. 14 (Kamome Shirahama) — And I’m once again left eagerly wondering “What’s going to happen next?” Volumes 15 and 16 are already out in Japan. Volume 15 has a December 2026 publication date in English; volume 16 doesn’t have an official English-language publication date, but will likely be out in March or April 2027, so the wait won’t be too long. // This series is worth study for writers, and for writers of YA in particular: The villains aren’t just mustache-twirling “evil for the sake of being evil,” but actually believe that they’re changing the world for the better (or preventing it from being changed for the worse.) And when the children think of something that the adults didn’t, it doesn’t feel like it’s because all the adults in the book are idiots. It feels more realistic, that the children simply haven’t internalized the “this is the way things are and so this is the that they have to be” that the adults have fallen prey to. Plus, the art for the series is beautiful.

I’ve continued reading

Art in America, Fall 2026 — “Cringe Culture” by Eugenie Brinkema (page 88) was a particularly good article from this issue. Brinkema does a great job of define what “cringe” is and the function that it serves in art. I especially liked this section on the political function of cringe, and difference between cringe and schadenfreude:
Complicating matters, one person’s cringe is another person’s enjoyment. If X thinks some event will never befall them, or if they disallow any similarity to Y, then X might relish the spectacle of Y’s mortification — this is schadenfreude. If, however, I feel sympathy with Y on any grounds, then their humiliation is mine as well . . . . Cringe thereby exposes a political truth: With whom do we feel we share something in common? It is an aesthetic reaction that strips bare one’s ethics of identification.
I also appreciated (and will be making use of Brinkema’s conception of the “Four Horsemen of the Digitally Vulnerable — the queer, neurodivergent, economically precarious, and socially isolated.” It’s remarkable not only how being in any of these categories makes one more susceptible to online harassment, but also how being in any of these categories makes one more like to be in more of these categories.
Wanderhome RPG (Jay Dragon)
The Turbulent Appearance of Brise Collier (Natalie Kelda)
Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, vol. 23 (Yuto Tsukuda) — It seems like in any manga that runs for long enough, it’s revealed that the current conflict is an echo of a conflict from the previous generation. That has happened now in Food Wars!, and I can’t wait to see where it takes us.
Once Broken Faith (Seanan McGuire)

If you missed any past Thursdays, you can access the archives here.

And as always, THIS NEWSLETTER CONTAINS 100% HUMAN-CREATED WORDS.

Have a great week, and I’ll see you next Thursday,

Jason

lb_lee

Rogan: We didn't have time to mention it because I was cramming for the lecture, but one of my fellow sci-fi librarians, Nancy Shapiro, died on Tuesday evening of pancreatic cancer. We got to see her in hospice the day before, and creek willing and the god don't rise, we'll attend her funeral on Sunday.

I'm glad I got to see her in hospice, the day before she died. I'm glad I got to say via card how much I appreciated everything she taught me library-wise, and I hope to be as patient with new librarians as she was with me, though I don't think I will ever be quite as meticulous and thorough as she was.

This year has been a deathful one. Ny died in March, Granny died in July (or at least, I heard about it in July), and now Nancy. There wasn't much we could do regarding Granny, but we were at least able to help with Ny's estate, and we will definitely be helping with Nancy's books, which she has donated to the sci-fi library. That's okay. Death is hard, and death is sad, but it is not bad.

EDIT: ah, son of a bitch, her funeral is on the rail, and I have the option of either being 1.5 hours early or 40 minutes late. Dammit. Wonder if I can hitch a ride with someone...

Current Mood: exanimate
Crossposts: https://lb-lee.insanejournal.com/51765.html

ysabetwordsmith

Replacing a queen may mean the death of a bee colony

A review argues honey bee colonies are mortal superorganisms, changing how swarming, queen replacement, and survival are understood.

There are a lot of fucked up things in modern mainstream beekeeping, and this is one of them. The results are dire. You can do better. It is not particularly difficult, and the bees do much of the work if you let them.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

soc_puppet posting in

moodthemeinayear

Made it just in time! I gave myself plenty of time to fix the schedule, as mentioned, but naturally I only managed to make myself do it an hour and a half before posting time. Ah, well, the important thing is that it's done and that it is, technically, on time.

This week's Minimum moods are: Relaxed, Silly, Uncomfortable

This week's Medium moods are: Tired, Aggravated, Annoyed

This week's Maximum moods are: Sympathetic, Cold, Dirty

This Part's bonus mood is: Creative

Again, due to a flub on my own part, this is the first time through the Maximum Mood Track that we're actually covering Sympathetic! While things should be cleared up now, that also makes this the first official discussion post about said mood 👀 As for the mood itself, I feel like it's a difficult one to portray with only one character; if you're working off of some canon, you can probably pull something from context, but otherwise it's kinda hard to really get into that balance between sad and comforting. Cold and Dirty, on the other hand, are pretty straightforward visually! Odds are decent that you can come up with a pretty good image of your subject(s) shivering, dressed up in warm winter clothing, or stuck in the snow for Cold, and absolutely physically filthy or even getting clean for Dirty.

But maybe I'm wrong! Maybe you've got Sympathetic nailed, and Cold and Dirty are doing you dirty and leaving you cold, so to speak. Or maybe you need help with all three of them, or none of them! Or could you need help deciding between two or more ideas? Let's talk about it!

astral_explorer

And for my health, I had to do a self-imposed chat and social media black-out on days that are supposed to be for me and my sisters. It's pretty sad that these days I feel nothing but dread on lesbian-related holidays and events. I don't go to anything marketed as "lesbian," "dyke," nor even "sapphic" anymore. The years have eroded my pride because I've come to associate anything lesbian-related with further alienation and frustration, and it's the worst on days that are supposed to be celebrating women like me.

Current Mood: aggravated

admiral posting in

colors_tcg

Last week's story: "Everyone was wearing NOUN for Casual Friday at the office, but I VERB mine at home."

Your gracious host, Trucy, runs a weekly magic show. To get the audience pumped up before the show, Trucy begins with a simple trick - a short mad libs story, a bit of magic, a couple of cards, and voila: free stuff! You might also be entertained, but no guarantees.

Trucy needs help deciding what her story will be about; however, it's funnier if the audience doesn't know until afterward, so you'll just have to submit your cards and see what happens at the end of the round. Help her fill out the major details by submitting deck names to fill in the blanks of her story idea. To thank you for your help, if you put the right cards into Trucy's magic panties, they'll magically turn into new cards!

THIS WEEK'S REQUIREMENTS!

Card 1
• Basic: Deck name is a NOUN
• Bonus: n/a

Card 2
• Basic: Deck name is a VERB
• Bonus: n/a

Card 3
• Basic: Deck name is an ADJECTIVE
• Bonus: n/a

You'll lose the cards you turn in, but for each basic requirement you fulfill you will receive 5 random cards. For this special round each card will automatically get you the bonus 1 random card, for a full reward of 18 cards total!

Good luck! This round will close on Thursday, October 15th!

admiral posting in

colors_tcg

Gon's an excellent fisherman, catching so much fish that sometimes even he doesn't know what he's caught! Show him a another of the same kind of "fish," and you'll be rewarded!

( Read more... )

Submit your matches for your prizes! This round ends on Thursday, October 15th!

Just humble's fangirl journal

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Conservation

Banned from Ebay

Thursday #20 — 8 October 2026

A fun creative writing exercise

Things to check out online

What I’ve been reading:

RIP, Nancy

Bees

Part 6, Week 6

It's Lesbian Day.

Silly Blanks 340 - Special Round

Go Fish! 537

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