Friday, January 16th, 2026 08:20 pm
Let us begin with an annual roundup of things that had to be removed from rectums, because people make bad decisions about objects without flared bases.

Trans women whose culture includes the quinceañera are celebrating the rite of passage for themselves as an important touchstone of their lives.

A white suit worn by Kate Mulgrew as Captain Janeway in a Star Trek: Voyager episode is about as loud a billboard declaring Janeway queer as you could get away with on television at the time. I get to be part of the Lucky 10,000 in understanding that suit and its origins, and so, hopefully, do you.

People familiar with the culture and traditions of Hawai'i explain why the live-action Lilo and Stitch disrespects that entire tradition, history, and the original animation's messages as well.

The ways that humans have for expressing affection for each other are greater than sex and romance, and many of those acts that WEIRD people would classify as sexual or romantic are instead culturally appropriate expressions of affection. Because there's still not an underlying acceptance of the idea that people can be affectionate to each other without it being sexual, and extra so for people of the same perceived gender.

What we think of as local culture and tradition is global culture and tradition. We have just forgotten that things like food migrate and then integrate really well into wherever they land. Which is why you will occasionally have someone yelling that Italians of an era before the tomato migrated out of the Americas are not having marinara sauce with their pasta. The idea that there is only one human culture, and what we have are a bunch of local implementations and place-and-time specific manifestations of it, is really rather true, but because our memories and our records don't always persist over time, we forget that we have already done this before. Repeatedly.

Research into autism that has done less assuming the neurotypical is "normal" and the standard continues to find things that are classified as deficits and disorders are often strengths and consistencies, just at a different angle than the neurotypical one.

Claudette Colvin, who was getting arrested for not giving up a bus seat in a segregated South before Rosa Parks became the face of it, has died at 86 years of age.

Murder most foul, an administration gone rogue, and techbros on the warpath inside )

Last for this entry, dressed as the pink ranger from the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers / Zyuranger, Martha Root demonstrated how she had gained control of white supremacist websites, had the members talk to chatbots, and then deleted the sites live during the talk.

A plea to start posting the snippets of our lives again, rather than trying to figure out what would be the best for the algorithm or withdrawing entirely from posting because we are trying not to chase the unsatisfiable algorithm. I think that will be an easier task on sites where there is no algorithm to game, but the difficulty of getting people to those sites is that they also need to have their friends decamp to a compatible network as well, and that's not necessarily an easy sell, even if someone wants to leave a toxic environment. (And, as has been well-documented in places like the Fediverse, for minorities, it's a question of leaving one toxic platform for another, and evaluating whether or not the controls on the new platform are good enough that they won't get subjected to more harassment getting through their filters or not.)

The ways that people are using chatbots as social and erotic companions, even though a fair number of them know they're chatbots. Which is the kind of future the techbros would like - interactions as event flags with characters that aren't human and don't have human needs or changes in mood.

And a method that presumably allows you to not have CoPilot or other "AI" features in your Windows 11 install, and sets things up so that they won't reinstall themselves, either.

(Materials via [personal profile] adrian_turtle, [personal profile] azurelunatic, [personal profile] boxofdelights, [personal profile] cmcmck, [personal profile] conuly, [personal profile] cosmolinguist, [personal profile] elf, [personal profile] finch, [personal profile] firecat, [personal profile] jadelennox, [personal profile] jenett, [personal profile] jjhunter, [personal profile] kaberett, [personal profile] lilysea, [personal profile] oursin, [personal profile] rydra_wong, [personal profile] snowynight, [personal profile] sonia, [personal profile] the_future_modernes, [personal profile] thewayne, [personal profile] umadoshi, [personal profile] vass, the [community profile] meta_warehouse community, [community profile] little_details, and anyone else I've neglected to mention or who I suspect would rather not be on the list. If you want to know where I get the neat stuff, my reading list has most of it.)
Friday, January 16th, 2026 10:10 pm
These are the three pictures I selected as most memorable (not the most aesthetically beautiful or technically ept) from 2025 for [community profile] threeforthememories.


South Lot and Savanna
May 13

The pink peony is open under the fly-through feeder. I might call this flower style semi-double. When fully open, a large mass of bright yellow stamens dance in the breeze. The fully-double white ones don't really show the center.  It was the first time I got a pink peony to bloom. \o/

The pink peony is open under the fly-through feeder.  I might call this flower style semi-double.  When fully open, a large mass of bright yellow stamens dance in the breeze.  The fully-double white ones don't really show the center.

Read more... )
Friday, January 16th, 2026 09:57 pm
Happily, I did not catch anything at GAFilk. That waited until I got home and I caught the lurgy from Gretchen that she had caught from Julie. It's unpleasant, but not debilitating so far.

I'm going to take it easy this weekend and try to keep it that way. :)
Friday, January 16th, 2026 09:29 pm
Mending Friendship
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 2, complete
Word count (story only): 1446
[Thursday, May 3, 2016]

:: Leo is ready to meet with Doctor Finn, at last. This follows up on the segment of consequences of China’s (initial) Mistake, "Their Need for Our Disciplinary Assistance" which led to "Accidental Injuries">, among other consequences. Written for the January of 2026 Magpie Monday, this was a backchannel prompt that made my day. Hence, it’s double the usual length and posted for everyone to enjoy, with my thanks! ::


On to part two




Leo thumbed through the six new certifications, the wallet-sized cards held lightly in his left hand. He spread them on the coffee table in front of him by completion date, with the last, most precious “Senior Followship” dated just four days ago. The last card, completely in Italian, had been signed only two days before. He fit the cards one by one into the dove gray wallet that he thought of as his new “Mercedes wallet,” then put the last into his old, battered wallet that he’d been given when he had collected his third certification.

It had been a long three months. It had taken three times as long as he’d planned, just because he needed a rarer, more comprehensive class for Followship, one not meant for new adults, new hires to a particular company or for first responders in a larger network. Leo rubbed his thumb over the spine of his older wallet. His first responder certs were all in Italian, and hidden behind more typical business-oriented training.
Read more... )
Friday, January 16th, 2026 07:03 pm
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Friday to midnight on Saturday (8pm Eastern Time).


Poll #34088 Daily poll
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 12

How are you doing?

I am okay
10 (83.3%)

I am not okay, but don't need help right now
2 (16.7%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans are you living with?

I am living single
6 (50.0%)

One other person
4 (33.3%)

More than one other person
2 (16.7%)




Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
Tags:
Friday, January 16th, 2026 06:28 pm
I spent over an hour working on this collage without being able to quite pin down the name for it. Initially, I titled it 'Imbalance,' but that word didn't quite capture the ominousness of what I was trying to convey. Eventually, I decided upon 'Upheaval.'

I remarked to someone this week that I didn't envision the beginning of my retirement being quite like this.

Besides all the uncertainty over the usual issues at this time of life like 'what do I do with my time?' and 'what is my new budget going to be like?' there are other questions, like 'will my next door neighbor be arrested?' and 'is this neighborhood business open, or have all their employees been kidnapped?' and 'what are the chances that my car is going to get rammed by ICE?'

I'm not going to go into great depth about all the news events that this collage is reflecting. If you are not aware, the Twin Cities are under siege by the federal government. Constitutional rights are being absolutely ignored. Rather, the ICE agents cruising around the city are making a huge show of deliberately and flagrantly violating constitutional rights, apparently just to demonstrate that they can.

There are rumors flying around the city, and everyone is angry, stressed, and yes, afraid. Yet the city is pulling together, with people joining Signal groups to protect their neighbors, setting up patrols to guard schools, churches, and day care centers, and donating money and supplies to support immigrants in hiding from ICE. All these actions are like a lighthouse in the middle of a storm.

A stormy sea with a lighthouse, partially obscured by fog. A woman stands unsteadily on top of the waves, in three overlapping poses, arms flailing as if struggling for balance. A giant, ominous-looking kraken lurks partially below the surface of the waves, brandishing its tentacles threateningly, center right.

Upheaval

2 Upheaval

Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.
Friday, January 16th, 2026 11:58 pm

Today's frivolous low-stakes question is: if following a recipe, to what extent do you consider "mixed lettuces", "mixed greens", and "mixed leaf salad" synonymous?

Friday, January 16th, 2026 08:06 pm
sweetheart
Rating
: Teen
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov
Author's notes: Written for [community profile] beagoldfish  bang for the prompt New Year, New Fandom.
Summary:

Ilya gives an interview after their first game of the season playing together. They end up going viral for entirely different reasons.


READ ON AO3

READ ON MY PERSONAL FANFICTION ARCHIVE

forever to go 
Rating
: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov
Summary
:

"Whoa," J.J. said. "The Centaurs' plane is missing."

Shane turned to where J.J. was sitting across the aisle, feeling his entire body go cold. "What?"

[Or: Ilya's plane goes missing. Shane loses his mind. AKA the story of the worst 6 hours of Shane's life]


READ ON AO3

You Scratch My Back (I Scratch Yours)
Rating
: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov
Summary: Shane Hollander has an itch to scratch. Literally.

READ ON AO3

Friday, January 16th, 2026 10:12 pm

I did not expect that being lucky enough to have stable housing in my 40s would mean that I would spend it helping other fortysomething neurospicy queers get out of marriages gone bad.

We have me the failed foster (successful adoption! [personal profile] angelofthenorth always insisted on correcting me when I call myself this, heh), then P, now her.

It's ridiculously heartwarming seeing them both flourish and become more comfortable and themselves. (I imagine I must have too, but I can't see that and I have the complication of transition too old photos of me now look weird for the same reason old photos of my dad do: no beard!).)

Friday, January 16th, 2026 04:57 pm
In the spirit of enjoying the process more than the product, I've been picking up an old hobby this month: collecting alphabets.

I was feeling a bit nostalgic for language learning in December, and I thought that in January I might study Arabic or Mandarin, since I already have textbooks for those, and maybe I should try to keep up my French ... and then I watched Kpop Demon Hunters.

In university I taught myself Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, because it's really cool. It was invented by King Sejong in 1443 specifically so that peasants could learn to read without having to learn Chinese characters.

한글 (Hangeul) doesn't look like an alphabet if you're used to western ones, but each of the character blocks is actually made up of separable letters. So (simplification) ㅂ is b or p, and 비빔밥 is bibimbap, and you can see ㅂ in four places in that word, three times at the beginning of a syllable (upper left) and once at the end.

The thing is, my goal is not actually to learn Korean. If I wanted to be able to have a conversation or watch a movie in Korean, I would need to take a class so I could actually hear it spoken and make sure I was pronouncing the sounds correctly and practice using it with real human beings. It's awkward having both an interest in languages and social anxiety.

If I had done that in university, I might have remembered the alphabet over the intervening 15 years, instead of forgetting 90% of it because all I used it for is sounding out signs.

But I like being able to sound out words, even if I never pick up the vocabulary properly. It makes me feel like I am part of a multicultural society. So I got a Korean textbook from the library, and I'm going through it focusing on learning to read, but also finding out interesting things about Korean language and culture as I go. (Two sets of numbers!)

I thought I still had Korean flashcards I'd made in university, but it turns out they're actually from when I tried to learn Arabic. When I think I've gotten what I can from this book maybe I'll try Arabic again.

About this time last year I read a book on statistics and then one on combinatorics, making notes and doing the math exercises. They didn't stick as much as I hoped they would, but I enjoyed studying them anyway.
Friday, January 16th, 2026 08:58 pm
Public


350/365: Ludlow Castle above Dinham Bridge
Click for a larger, sharper image

All right, only the one castle. I did acquire two shoes, though! A nice pair of only very slightly worn Clarks for a tenner in the Blue Cross shop. Result, that is! As the caption will tell you, I was in Ludlow today, for the first time in a while. Still some snow in patches on Clee Hill, and it must have been fairly deep there judging by the remnants of snowdrifts. This is Dinham Bridge, much the newer of the town's two bridges over the River Teme having been built in 1823. Above looms Ludlow Castle, once the seat of the Council of Wales and the Marches and with a history dating back to the 11th century; unlike many other Norman castles, there was no earlier wooden structure: this was stone from the start. The outer bailey wall you can see here dates from the late 12th century.
Friday, January 16th, 2026 12:46 pm
Some fannish catching up!

1) [community profile] fandomtrees still has 3 trees below the minimum number of 2 gifts, and is thus at risk of delaying reveals again (currently scheduled for Jan 17 reveals), with the decision on delaying to be made the morning of 1/17. Needy trees are mastershield's Tree (f:astro boy, f:balan wonderland, f:kingdom hearts); kalloway's Tree (f:brave nine, f:crossovers, f:fire emblem, f:granblue fantasy, f:gundam, f:kingdom of heroes, f:super robot heroes) whoremoantreatments' Tree (f:advance wars, f:bleach, f:hypnosis mic, f:kuroko no basket, f:pokemon, f:tales of berseria, f:the world ends with you). (List kept updated here.) All of these are open to fic, and the minimum fill for fic is only 100 words, if anyone knows these fandoms and can help out.

(My tree has above the minimum number of gifts but is here, and I’m eager to see what’s on it :)

2) I should’ve mentioned this earlier, but it’s been a crazy couple of weeks. [personal profile] lunasariel is hosting a sync read of To Shape a Dragon’s Breath in her DW here. Currently it’s her, me, and [personal profile] cyanmnemosyne reading along, but contrary to the name, we don’t actually have to be all synched up to participate, so if (like me) you’ve been meaning to read this book for a while, or if you’ve read it already and want to follow our impressions as we make progress through it, come join! I am currently just past halfway, [personal profile] lunasariel is 10-20 chapters ahead of me, and Cyan has just recently started. (And yes, my thoughts on this book are ~50% on the chemistry. Actual Periodic Table of Elements chemistry, I mean, not chemistry between characters, although I’m enjoying that too.)

3) Snowflake catch up!

Snowflake Challenge: A flatlay of a snowflake shaped shortbread cake, a mug with coffee, and a string of holiday lights on top of a rustic napkin.


The problem with doing Snowflake every year for the last, uh… 10 years, I guess? – is that for repeated questions like this, which are about ME as opposed to about my fandoms or projects or objects, which can accumulate it is much harder to come up with something new to say! Both of these questions fall under that category, and so were more challenging than most for me to answer. But let’s see if I can come up with something without repeating myself.

Challenge #7: LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.

I do want to stick to fandom-related things I like about myself for this one, so, hm. Last time I answered this question seems to be in 2017 (and my things were “good fannish role model for my children”, “thorough and detailed in talking about what I’m reading/watching”, and “conscientious beta”) and the first time in 2016 (my answers were “good fannish baba/matchmaker”, "committed to fannish crack”, and “conscientious about fandom participation”) – and I do still feel those things are all applicable to me and I still like them. But I’ve done a bunch of new things in the last 9 years, from attending conventions to paying attention to the Hugos to signing up for Yuletide, so let me focus on those new things and see if I can extract three new things I like about myself fannishly from them.

things I like about myself viz conventions, fanfic, and Hugos )

Challenge #8: Talk about your creative process.

This is another one I’ve done before, in 2019 and in 2015, but looking at even the 2019 one, I talked about fannish poetry and graphics, but not about fannish prose/fanfic. So clearly that’s what I should talk about, but what IS my process?

Fanfic process )
Friday, January 16th, 2026 11:41 am


In this engrossing historical novel, three storylines converge on a single target, a female Nazi nicknamed the Huntress. During the war, we follow Nina, one of the Soviet women who flew bomber runs and were known as the Night Witches. After the war, we follow Ian, a British war correspondent turned Nazi hunter, who has teamed up with Nina to hunt down the Huntress as Nina is one of the very few people who saw her face and survived. At the same time, in Boston, we follow Jordan, a young woman who wants to be a photographer and is suspicious of the beautiful German immigrant her father wants to marry...

In The Huntress, we often know what has happened or surely must happen, but not why or how; we know Nina somehow ended up facing off with the Huntress, but not how she got there or how she escaped; we know who Jordan's stepmom-to-be is and that she'll surely be unmasked eventually, but not how or when that'll happen or how the confrontation will go down. There's a lot of suspense but none of it depends on shocking twists, though there are some unexpected turns.

Nina and Jordan are very likable and compelling, especially Nina who is kind of a force of nature. It took me a while to warm up to Ian, but I did about halfway through. Nina's story is fascinating and I could have read a whole novel just about her and her all-female regiment, but I never minded switching back to Jordan as while her life is more ordinary, it's got this tense undercurrent of creeping horror as she and everyone around her are being gaslit and manipulated by a Nazi.

This is the kind of satisfying, engrossing historical novel that I think used to be more common, though this one probably has a lot more queerness than it would have had if it had been written in the 80s - a woman/woman relationship is central to the story, and there are multiple other queer characters. It has some nice funny moments and dialogue to leaven a generally serious story (Nina in particular can be hilarious), and there's some excellent set piece action scenes. If my description sounds good to you, you'll almost certainly enjoy it.

Spoilers! Read more... )

Quinn has written multiple historical novels, mostly set during or around WW2. This is the first I've read but it made me want to read more of hers.

Content notes: Wartime-typical violence, gaslighting, a child in danger. The Huntress murdered six children, but this scene does not appear on-page. There is no sexual assault and no scenes in concentration camps.
Friday, January 16th, 2026 05:13 pm
Public

White Zombie (1932) film poster
White Zombie (1932)

This was apparently the first zombie feature film, and it's quite an interesting watch. Bela Lugosi is the only big name here, unless any of the supporting cast were flash-in-the-pan famous at the time. Some genuinely creepy moments, not least one involving a zombie falling into milling machinery which works superbly for its restraint. Some nice visual effects (even a diagonal split screen at one point) and for a 1930s film with this title and subject there's surprisingly little racism. Lugosi is fine, but some of the other cast are still in silent-movie mode, with their acting (which isn't always of great quality) and even appearances. The score is intrusive as well, and it's quite slow even for the era. Being pre-Code it can be a bit more open with certain characters' motivations and lines than it could have been in 1935, but the stodginess and some iffy performances make White Zombie interesting rather than gripping. Hilariously terrible vulture noises, at least. ★★

[admin post] Admin Post: Membership Closed

Friday, January 16th, 2026 10:40 am
We have now closed pledging for GetYourWordsOut 2026. If you did not submit a completed 2026 GYWO Pledge Form or did not submit a registered Dreamwidth account or OpenID that can access Dreamwidth, you are not a member for 2026.

The GYWO moderators are thrilled to spend the next year writing with 823 writers.

Those who have come by too late, we appreciate your interest, and we hope that while you aren't able to join us officially, you'll make your own writing goals and achieve them. You’re welcome to subscribe to the community to keep a look out for 2027 news, or follow us on gywo.bsky.social or [tumblr.com profile] gywo for prompts, writing advice, and resources. Pledging for 2027 will open in December 2026.

Have a great year!
Tags:
Friday, January 16th, 2026 09:00 am
Alexander Knox was born on this date a hundred and nineteen years ago and without him I might never have discovered that the fan magazines of classical Hollywood could get as specifically thirsty as the modern internet.

Come to that, you would have been pretty tasty in the pulpit, too, Alex. You look, except for that glint in your eyes and that dimple in your cheek, like a minister's son. You look serious, even studious. You dress quietly, in grays and blacks and browns. Your interests are in bookish things. You live in a furnished apartment on the Strip in Hollywood, and have few possessions. You like to "travel light," you said so. You like to move about a lot, always have and always will. You've lived in a trunk for so many years you are, you explained, used to it. Of course, you've been married twice, which rather confuses the issue. But perhaps two can travel as lightly as one, if they put their minds to it. But you do have books. You have libraries in three places. At home, in Canada. At the farm in Connecticut, of which you are part owner, and in the apartment where you and your bride Doris Nolan still live. You write, which would come in handy with sermons. You're dreamy when you play the piano. For the most part it isn't, let's face it, church music you play. But you could convert.

Gladys Hall, "Memo to Alex Knox" (Screenland, August 1945)