Book Club Voting and January Read

Jan. 21st, 2026 12:00 pm
seleneheart: Illustration from Wind in the Willows (Mole Rat Otter)
[personal profile] seleneheart


[community profile] bookclub_dw is currently voting for our February read. Voting will run through January 31, 2026. The poll can be found here: https://bookclub-dw.dreamwidth.org/1556.html

We are reading The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst as our book for January. Please join us if you would like participate in the discussion! The discussion post will go up on January 31, 2026.

This is about selling people

Jan. 21st, 2026 04:37 pm
rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
[personal profile] rydra_wong
Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders. They live there. It is their country.

They are legally Danish citzens. Greenland is largely self-governing, with the possibility of becoming independent if they choose to.

Denmark can't "sell" them or their country because Denmark does not own them.

And after a number of centuries and some debate, a general consensus was arrived at that selling people is not ethically acceptable, you know?

Even if they wanted to, Denmark can't "sell" Trump Greenland any more than the UK could sell him Scotland.

Also N.B. 85-90% of the Greenlanders are Inuit.

I am very certain that this is absolutely about thinking that Native people don't really count as citizens and they don't really own their land; it is Terra Nullius, and they can be sold off in a deal between the "real" nations of Denmark and the US.

(Or their land can be sold out from under them and they can just be forced elsewhere, which I'm sure Trump would be just fine with.)

If the US wanted to try to ethically acquire Greenland, it could talk to the government of Greenland and offer them a great deal with significant benefits if they wanted to become independent and then have a free association deal with the US.

Or rather, it could have, maybe, because now the Greenlanders are fucking pissed off and scared over the threats and offers to buy them, and if they have to choose between the US and Denmark they are unambiguously choosing Denmark:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgx8w4pgk0o
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/14/us-invasion-threat-greenland-trump-denmark

(no subject)

Jan. 21st, 2026 03:35 pm
turps: (voyager)
[personal profile] turps
I really didn't want to go to class on Monday. It was cold, it was wet, my friend/usual partner had messaged saying she couldn't come that day, and everything was just, meh. But I gave my head a shake and made myself go, and was glad I did. It was another big class with only five of us oldies there, I got partnered with someone new who was very nice, and we had a laugh. I'm especially glad I went as class was cancelled for today, so it would have been another week without having a supervised session.

We went to see 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and man, the violence was so much worse, and graphic, than the last one. It was well acted, how some fabulous visuals and acting, especially by Ralph Fiennes and Jack O'Connell, but I really wouldn't recommend it due to the excessive amount of gore.

Yesterday was my six monthly lymphedema appointment cut for details )

TV wise, I watched the first ep of Starfleet Academy and really enjoyed it. As I'm also watching Strange New Worlds still, I'm just rolling in Trek stuff atm, which is a lovely place to be.
rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
[personal profile] rydra_wong
A post by Naomi Kritzer:

https://naomikritzer.com/2026/01/21/how-to-help-if-you-are-outside-minnesota/

This also has advice on how to start preparing for if and when this shit comes to your home state.

(If you are in Minnesota: https://naomikritzer.com/2026/01/19/how-to-help-twin-cities-residents/ )
just_ann_now: (Reading: Cold? Check out a book!)
[personal profile] just_ann_now
^Same userpic as last week, because it's still cold! Clear and sunny, so not bad for walking, but, still. They are talking about a SIGNIFICANT SNOW EVENT for us this weekend. We shall see!

What I Just Finished Reading

Sing Like A Fish:How Sound Rules Life Underwater, by Amorina Kingdon. [personal profile] cairistiona, it was extremely readable and enjoyable! I learned so much. There is a fish, along the Pacific Coast, with mating calls! I can't even imagine. Less enjoyable, but still very worthwhile, was Birds at Rest: The Behavior and Ecology of Avian Sleep, by Roger F. Pasquier. (Academics should not be allowed to publish approachable, engaging prefaces to their books, if the books themselves are going to be pretty dry. That's deceptive!) *grin* But again, I learned a lot about avian behavior that had never occurred to me before. @[personal profile] cairistiona, an even more enjoyable book about fish is What A Fish Knows, by Jonathan Balcomb, which I remember I really liked.

On the fiction side, Malinalli, by Veronica Chapa, had inconsistent characterization and confusing plotting. For Dreamwidth Book Bingo: Author's Debut, as well as Goodreads Tale Spinners challenge (Fairy tale or mythology retelling).

An absolute impulse purchase (boy, have I been doing a lot of that lately) was What If...Loki Was Worthy?. An odd impulse because I haven't been into Marvel in ages and am several movies behind. (Sorry, Captain America Sam. Sorry, Bucky.) If this book had been fic, it would be Crack!fic, an absolutely wacky and enjoyable ride. My absolutely favorite Loki Redemption fic, though, is "Monsters", by coneycat, the opening of her "Housemates"series.

What I Am Currently Reading

Today I expect hope to finish A Splendid Savage:The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham, by Steve Kemper. Burnham was a high adrenaline, restless explorer/adventurer who I first heard about in reading about another high-adrenaline, restless explorer/adventurer, Finding Everett Ruess: The Life and Unsolved Disappearance of a Legendary Wilderness Explorer.

What I Am Reading Next

I have a list of library holds as long as my arm, which I plan to pick up tomorrow. Which is crazy, because it isn't like I don't have another virtual stack of ebooks on my iPad. I just like walking to the library, I guess.

Question of the Day:

Snow:Yay! or Snow




(That would be me. It's not that I mind snow, per se - it's pretty on the garden, so peaceful looking, and we certainly need the moisture. It's the danger and difficulty of walking the days after.)

Tropes- enemies to lovers

Jan. 21st, 2026 08:48 am
melagan: John and Rodney blue background (Default)
[personal profile] melagan
That particular trope reminded me of this. It's an oldie but a goody.

spikedluv: (winter: mittens by raynedanser)
[personal profile] spikedluv
Today was an actual no-shopping day!

I did two loads of laundry, hand-washed dishes, did a load in the dishwasher, went for several walks with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, scooped kitty litter, and showered.

I watched the final three eps of Heated Rivalry. (I know I said I wasn’t going to comment until I did a re-watch, but why did no one tell me how emotional I was going to get over the final eps?!! Also, Christina Chang makes one guest appearance on Numb3rs and I remember her for the rest of my life, apparently.)

Despite spending so much time on that, I also found time to write! I added ~1,400 words to my SFBB fic! I had some tea in the afternoon, and chose Afternoon tea, which seemed kind of tasteless to me. Since I like my tea weak, I didn’t think that could actually happen.

ETA: I forgot to mention that I watched HGTV's Home Town! I liked this ep. They did a reno for a couple where the wife has fibromyalgia. Also, interesting how many people moving to Laurel do so because of the show!

Temps started out at 10.7(F) and dropped to 9.5 before I left the house. The forecast called for a high of 13, but it reached 19.9. It was windy, though, so it felt much colder. So freaking windy! There was some sun, which helped with my mood, but didn’t make it feel any warmer.


Mom Update:

Mom sounded okay when I talked to her. She’d had some company throughout the day; my aunt and uncle were there earlier and Sister A was there when I called. The Hospice nurse visited today. Mom said eating was going well, so that's a bonus.

Just One Thing (21 January 2026)

Jan. 21st, 2026 08:27 am
nanila: me (Default)
[personal profile] nanila posting in [community profile] awesomeers
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!

[community profile] threesentenceficathon is open now

Jan. 24th, 2026 03:04 am
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
And posting is rapid. Don't you need a distraction?

Fandom Trumps Hate 2026

Jan. 21st, 2026 07:18 am
rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
[personal profile] rydra_wong
Their calendar is here -- creator sign-ups open on the 26th Jan:

https://fandomtrumpshate.dreamwidth.org/53196.html

Their list of non-profits they're supporting is here:

https://fandomtrumpshate.dreamwidth.org/53468.html

Apparently last year they raised $127K!

Midsummer garden

Jan. 21st, 2026 07:56 pm
mific: (Garden salad)
[personal profile] mific
More pics from the garden - mostly flowers this time with everything in full bloom other than the roses, which are in between. These were taken a few days ago before solid rain set in, so what with a planned power cut 8am-6pm today for maintenance work, a quiet day today. Went for a moderate drive to get lunch out (excellent sushi) and charge my car battery, and now the power's back in time to download a bunch of fics to survive AO3 being down for way too long. I'm feeling virtuous as I made a rice cooker full of bean, veggie, chicken & chilli stew. Very tasty.

I'm still marinating in Heated Rivalry everything and it's helped with creating in other fandoms - an SGA and a due South secret Santa fic in late Dec and several SGA ones more recently for another exchange (will be unanoned soon). Gave myself for-real goddamn eyestrain from too much screen time reading and scrolling tumblr - inflamed, watering eyes, blurred vision, the whole nine yards. I'm being marginally more sensible about breaking up screen time with other activities now and that's resolved it, thank goodness. Too wet to garden, but. Anyway, garden pics follow, and here's hoping you're all doing okay! (Click through for large size)

Read more... )

(no subject)

Jan. 20th, 2026 11:05 pm
aurumcalendula: Jing Yi, Leng Yue, Chu Chu, and Xiao Jinyu from 'The Imperial Coroner' (Imperial Coroner sedoretu)
[personal profile] aurumcalendula
The Imperial Coroner Season 2, episode 5:

Read more... )
mrkinch: Erik holding fieldglasses in "Russia" (bins)
[personal profile] mrkinch
I made a third try for the Tennesee Warbler at Booker T Anderson, but still no joy. I briefly had hope but it was an Orange-crowned, similar enough to get me excited. Oh, well. The trees were full of Yellow-rumped Warblers and I also found two Townsend's that were very cooperative, ignoring me as they flitted around it the very nearby willows. Again there was a Purple Finch singing, and I found an American Goldfinch eating catkins with a Lesser. So I had an enjoyable hour and a half even without the star bird. The list: )

From there I crossed the freeway, parked at Richmond Marina, and walked around the north side of the harbor to get the other side of Winter. The first bird I saw was a Spotted Sandpiper.:) I saw small Grebes of all three species, quite a few Bufflehead, some Scaup, and a Surf Scoter or two, but no other ducks. Another list: )

The biggest surprise was hearing no Yellow-rumped Warblers!

AI时代 | age of AI

Jan. 20th, 2026 09:47 pm
starandrea: (Default)
[personal profile] starandrea
My workplace requires the use of LLM as AI, so I pay particular attention to how it comes up in my hobbies. Every day is a chance to learn more than I knew before.

Will AI replace Chinese teachers | Chinese podcast #184, by Dashu Mandarin 大叔中文

Ben: I don't think I'll be replaced by AI; I'll be replaced by someone who knows how to use AI.
Richard: You'll be replaced by PeiPei.
PeiPei: Follow me!
Richard: If you can't beat them, join them, right?

Ben: 我是觉得呃我不会被AI取代但是我会被会AI的。
Richard: 你会被珮珮取代。
PeiPei: 跟着我干吧!
Richard: 对打不过就加入是吧?
which_chick: (Default)
[personal profile] which_chick
I was pissed about the scarf and its dumb-ass color change mid-ball-of-yarn.

I said Afghan Accountabilty but this is about the scarf. )

Linguistics question

Jan. 23rd, 2026 07:26 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 56


After the snow has fallen, sometimes it looks like more snow is falling when the wind blows it off of trees and roofs. Do you have a word or specific phrase for this?

View Answers

Yes, and I'll tell you in the comments
7 (13.2%)

No, but I've heard some people use a term which I'll tell you in the comments
1 (1.9%)

No
40 (75.5%)

No - I don't live where it snows and am unfamiliar with this phenomenon
5 (9.4%)

Clicky?

View Answers

CLICKY
41 (100.0%)



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