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(no subject)

West of Wimborne, the Stour Valley is crisscrossed with old drove roads, some of them gravel tracks, and some of them green lanes (or lanes of mud, depending on the time of year). They are not spectacular from a photographic point of view: flat tracks running between high hedges. But they are a quiet place to walk in winter, sheltered from bitter north-easterly winds.

( Read more... )

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Random Doctor Who Picture

Cover for teh novelisation of Scream of the Shalka by Paul Cornell. Images of the animated Richard E. Grant Doctor and Derek Jacobi Master flank the screaming head of the snake-like Shalka.

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"the night can't last forever" (Weekly TV reviews)

This week: Zeztz asks "are you afraid of the dark?" and Miss Scarlet investigates a ghost!

The title quote comes from Zeztz. Spoilers, as always, below:

Zeztz (episode 15)

( Read more... )

Miss Scarlet and the Duke (season 1, episode 4)

( Read more... )

No Ultraman Omega this week. It was the final special recap episode. (Actually a pretty good one, but still not enough substance to write a review for)

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just one thing

Just One Thing (27 December 2025)

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

Look at Those Wee Teefs

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2025/12/27/look-at-those-wee-teefs

Via David Ellis

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2025/12/27/look-at-those-wee-teefs

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: HUNTR/X - How It's Done

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december days: impostor syndrome

December Days 02025 #26: Rocks

It's December Days time again. This year, I have decided that I'm going to talk about skills and applications thereof, if for no other reason than because I am prone to both the fixed mindset and the downplaying of any skills that I might have obtained as not "real" skills because they do not fit some form of ideal.

( 26: Rocks )

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Game Changers (Heated Rivalry): Love Takes Miles by corsi

Fandom: Game Changers book series, Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairings: OFCs, Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Scott Hunter/Kip Grady, Hayden Pike, Troy Barrett, mentions of many HR characters
Rating: Teen
Length: 6937
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply. Some mentions of homophobia and slurs.
Creator Links: corsi on AO3
Themes: Outsider POV, Unconventional format & style, Epistolary, Worldbuilding, Fans and fandom

Summary:
yara

troycabaret

tried to get oomf into hockey and now she's obsessed with FUCKING HOLLANOV? THEY'RE 50 YEARS OLD

Or: Ten years, as seen through fandom.

Reccer's Notes: This is courtesy of a rec in

cathexys' journal. It's another fic told through snippets from invented social media posts across about ten years, following the development, within the universe of Heated Rivalry, of hockey rpf fandom, mainly focusing on Hollanov (Ilya/Shane). It's extraordinarily well done, and although the story of Shane and Ilya's decade-long love affair is the core thread, the real tale is of the rpf fandom, specifically a few devoted fans. The poignancy and brilliance of this fic is the portraits it paints of fanwriters and young fans, immersed in the fandom while they grow and develop, moving through their own life stages and dramas while posting about the hockey players they love, especially Hollanov. And in the end, of course, the Hollanov truthers are resoundingly vindicated. The formatting makes it clear that we're seeing posts on tumblr, livejournal, AO3, Reddit, Twitter, etc., with different types of fandom on each platform. Hilarious and touching, this is a wonderful read, and the details are meticulous and very funny.
PS: It may help to know in advance (as these may be hockey rpf terms with which I was unfamiliar) that 2481 is code for Hollander/Rozanov (their jersey numbers), and 2435 is Hollander/Pike. MHL is the Major Hockey League, HR's version of the NHL. Some details in the fic will probably only make sense if you've read the books.
PPS: Also, there's a fictional recs list by "ice knives" partway through, and I want to read ALL OF THEM!

Fanwork Links: Love Takes Miles (read it in creator's style if you can, for the formatting)

Apollo 17 s Moonship

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Awkward and angular looking,

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

3I/ATLAS Flyby

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251226.html

3I/ATLAS Flyby

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251226.html

(no subject)

see caption
Arisaema triphyllum 7520
©Bill Pusztai 2025

( about 40 plant pictures )

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12 Days of Christmas, day 1 for smallhobbit

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

hello!

I'm thinking that moving over to DW might be the smart thing to do, even if it will be a learning curve because

it

doesn't

look

the

same.

And THIS is an indicator that I am, indeed, getting older because I don't want to spend the brain cells on figuring things out. *sigh* Guess I need to suck it up and just do it. :)

Since last I've posted here, things have been going very well. New horse Misty (we got her in Feb of 2025) is the most amazing beast on the planet. She takes excellent care of me and puts up with my nonsense even though she's a) a mare and b) a CHESTNUT mare. =D

As of today, I've lost a total of 140 lbs. That is a whole other human and it makes me sad to realize how overweight I was and how I just resisted and resisted and resisted the fixes that needed to be implemented to do what I've done for myself.

We're closing out the old year with some sadness: at some point in the next month, we're going to have to let our beloved Onslow Bickerstaff (dog) and Buddha (cat) go to cross that bridge. While I'm sure Onslow will go to a place of peace and light, I fear the cat will reincarnate as a world eater or something.

She really is full of the void.

So. If you're reading this....please let me know? I want to try to migrate here, but.....you know. It'd be nice to know some of my buddies from LJ are here.

xo

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my least favourite hobbies: embodiment

[embodiment] ... huh.

My mother has today loaned me some knee-high compression socks in a fun design and... the amount of presyncope I've been getting on standing up from squatting is approximately None, despite feeling while squatting like It's Gonna Be A Bad One When I Stand Up. So I'm probably going to be buying myself more of them as my mother's present to me for this winterval.

Obviously I was delighted when I got to page 7 and found the rainbow...

Peopling win-ish

As planned, I puzzled. While I was out there, Joan came out and as usual asked a bunch of nosy questions most of which I dodged. And then set on her list of complaints du jour. Top today was that "the IRS will no longer accept checks so I have to get an account but I can't set it up and my daughter tried for hours yesterday and couldn't do it either."

The subtext here - which she actually tried me on last April - is I need you to get on my computer and set up my IRS account. How many ways can I say NO FUCKING WAY EVER????? Her daughter is an attorney. Her grandson is an IT manager for a large bank. And you want to give me your social security number and have me go on your computer and do the job for you? And then, when you forget how to do it, come back and do it all again? Every quarter? Sure, I'm up for that. Not.

And...as I told you last April,Joan, your premise is incorrect. The IRS website - IRS.gov/payments clearly states that while they would like you to set up an account and pay electronically, here are the

Other ways you can pay

Same-day wire — Bank fees may apply
Check or money order — Through U.S. mail
Cash — Through a retail partner and other methods can

So I printed it all out for her - large font. And delivered it.

Nice try, old lady, but you didn't catch me this time.

Plus, in doing that, I that I forgot to attach my printer to the wifi extenders' SSID so that was a whole thing but it's done. And I have quashed Joan's IRS rants. And I did laundry. A good day so far.

The Friday Five for 26 December 2025

1. You have the summer and plenty of money to travel abroad. Where all would you go?

2. What foods would you be sure you got to eat?

3. What landmarks would you be sure you got to see?

4. What airline would you use?

5. Would your knowledge of other languages influence where you went? (i.e., would you be more likely to go to France if you spoke French?)

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

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I don't think this was just about the audience appeal, srsly

Charles Dickens exhibition to shine light on powerful women in author’s life: 'Novels only ‘reinforced Victorian stereotypes’ of meek women to give readers what they wanted, says curator'.

Oh, come on.

Query, did readers (as opposed to various gate-keepers in publishing houses, Mudie's and other circulating libraries. etc) want meek women?

(Do I need to cite Victorian novelists who did quite well out of women who were not meek.)

I would also contend that any input from women in Mr D's life was going to filtered through a lot of his Own Stuff, and the article actually points out some of the things like His Mummy Issues.

There is no-one in the novels at all like Angela Burdett-Coutts, whom one suspects very unlike saintly Agnes Wickfield (and married a much younger man at an advanced age), in fact as I think I have complained heretofore, he was happy to work with this renowned philanthropist while the women philanthropists in his novels are mean and merciless caricatures.

One can make a case that he did worse than 'dilute' the women he knew when portraying them on his pages.

Also I am not sure what the 'debate' is over his relationship with Ellen Ternan!

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Yuletide recs, end of year fandom meme

B is back and appears to have somehow given me his jetlag, because I was awake around 5 a.m. and then got up about half an hour later so he could make me coffee and eggs, since he was making himself some.

I’m consequently a bit bleary for anything productive, but might as well post some Yuletide recs:

( recs for Ballad of Wallis Island, Doctrine of Labyrinths, D&D:HAT, The Odyssey, Philosopher's Flight, R&G Are Dead, Some Desperate Glory, Summer in Orcus, and a couple of 5 min fandoms )

*

I think new fandom developments are unlikely in the next 5 days, so I might as well do the year-end fandom meme:

Fandom end-of-year meme: ( fandom meme #1 )

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picspam:inca ruins

Random Inca Remains

Sacsayhuamán, Peru

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christmas,
family

Christmas Day and Boxing Day

We had our usual quiet Christmas Day: stockings, family zoom, salmon-elevenses, roast bird dinner with my brother Jonny, a silly film (Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon). I even managed to drag the children out to the park for an hour or so before dinner, including some table tennis and frisbee.

One of my personal Christmas traditions is watching the Nutcracker, usually in a cinema broadcast, and I just couldn't make that work this winter. So I was really charmed to find a broadcast of the Royal Ballet's production on iPlayer; the advantage of watching it at home is that I can have a quiet chat with my brother alongside without bothering anyone else.

This morning I woke up nice and early and headed out for another of my booked hot yoga sessions, followed by dropping in on my old friend Shaun for a long-overdue catchup. This afternoon has mostly been reading and TV, and the evening will probably continue the same way.

Truly Universal Outlet

https://xkcd.com/3186/

Building Inspectors HATE This One Weird Trick

https://xkcd.com/3186/