oyceter. Network

2026/056: The Luminous Dead — Caitlin Starling

“That was the look of somebody resigned to being the monster they knew they were.”

Gyre lives on Cassandra-5, a planet with immense mineral wealth but little else to commend it. She takes a contract to explore a particular cave system -- dangerous, because the caves are often collapsed by native beasts called Tunnellers -- which will pay enough money for her to get off-world and search for her mother. She's been surgically fitted into a life-support suit, and she expects to find a full team supporting her by comms. Instead, she gets a single person: a woman named Em.

Neither Gyre nor Em has been wholly honest. ( Read more... )

Mood uncomfortable

Tags:

books,
read26

mific posting in

drawesome

Thanks to

mekare for suggesting this challenge. It was originally proposed by

minoanmiss, and is a tribute to her memory.

text

 Challenge #77: Windows and Openings

 The spirit of the challenge is the way we're drawn to look through openings, whatever those may be. Windows, doors, holes in walls, in rocks, in trees, in fences around construction sites. You can draw or paint the view on either side - someone or something looking through, or what's to be seen on the other side. More abstract or conceptual interpretations are fine as well - a window on the past, the future, the eyes as windows of the soul, and so on.

If you want to create something to commemorate

minoanmiss, some of her favorite things were the Minoan civilisation, goddesses, recursive images, and anything hopeful.

Once we reach May we're including mermaid-themed art as well, and mermaids were another thing

minoanmiss loved. There are of course openings in rocks and seaweed forests under the waves, and windows in underwater cities. We'll do a reminder about the MerMay theme being added in when we get to May.

A round-up post for submissions to this challenge will be done at the end of May.

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dine

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

Tags:

mific posting in

drawesome

Entries submitted for Drawing Challenge #76 - Tattoo Style:

Ilya'a Tattoo by

mific - Heated Rivalry, G
Shane's Tattoo by

mific - Heated Rivalry, G

As usual, this challenge as well as all of our previous challenges will remain open, so you can continue to submit entries to the community any time after the Round Up date. Be sure to tag your art post with the challenge name, so that it can be added to the list.

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boxofdelights posting in

wiscon

Our panel doors are wide open. Please check out the Panel Interest Survey! Log into your WisCon account at the top left corner of http://wiscon.net and click on Interest Survey. You can tell us which panels you would like to see at WisCon this year, and, if you really want a panel to happen, volunteer to be on it! If we don't have panelists, we can't run that panel!

You can fill out the survey before you register, as long as you have a WisCon account. If you have ever been a WisCon member, you have an account; if you don't remember the password, there's a link to get help.

For more info, there is a blog post here: https://wiscon.net/2026/04/12/panel-interest-survey-open/

olivermoss

Last game for the Kraken is a National Broadcast, which ironically means I can't see it. Not without some insane sports package just to see a few specific games. If I'd gotten that ESPN package it would have worked out to like a hundred bucks a game for the ones I wanted to see.

So, I went a tried going to Suki II's, despite all I'd heard. I'd been to Suki I, which is very much a dive bar. Suki II was kinda nice, if you kinda appreciate dark bars with poker machines. Most of the screens were for the Sharks, but there was one screen for the Kraken and I was the only one watching. I got to see a bit more Dunn! And Lars! And Ostman's first NHL start!

Then the bar was all 'okay, time to switchover to karaoke for the night'. Except, imagine those words blasted loudly on a speaker next to your head instead of text on a screen.

I went out and at least saw *part* of a hockey game.

At first I was like yeah, I can vibe with this, man I wish I'd started coming sooner... then suddenly NOPE.

So yeah, reports are right. They cannot be relied open to watch Kraken games, even if they are the official affiliate bar in Portland. Why can't they affiliate with a McMenamins? Or one of our dozens of bottle shops and breweries? Seattle has amazing fan bars. I want to try one next season.

But anyway, I tried the thing. No more just going off second or third hand info.

yuuago

Here is a list of some stuff I've been reading lately:

The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi. True crime about the search for a serial killer who operated in Florence, Italy in the '70s and '80s. This case - or rather, the investigation - is absolutely batshit. And glancing at more recent developments, it managed to get even more batshit after this book was published.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. About a pair of con artists in Dickensian England who set out to swindle some rich people. I'm not very far into it, but so far I'm really enjoying the story. I've already seen the Korean film adaptation, The Handmaiden, and really enjoyed it, so I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes.

Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow. I'm only about 1/3 into this, but it's really interesting so far. It discusses a lot of stuff about the internet (and other things) that I've noticed and seen discussions about but never had laid out in such an approachable way. Like, the business practices always went over my head; why the hell would a company deliberately make their product worse, and how could making their product worse make the company more money? It still seems crazy to me, but at least I'm kind of grasping it now. The writer's style is very flippant, and that's kind of grating at times, but it's not a deal breaker.

Going to read next: Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti, the f/f romance novel about two rival authors of gothic fiction. It's on one of the goodreads challenge lists, so I figured I might as well tackle it next.

Tags:

reading

ranunculus

Got the first summer squash plant planted today.( Garden gossip )

M and I drove over to the gate to Duck Lake and took a short walk to look out over the landscape below Split Rock. There were flowers everywhere. The cows grazed this pasture hard this winter/early spring so there isn't as much grass hiding the flowers as there is on the rest of the Ranch. It is hard to photograph sheets of wildflowers like these Goldfields. Here are a couple of my attempts.

med_cat

A tribute, by Sabotabby

For

minoanmiss , in whose LJ I first saw this poem, several years ago.

The Old Astronomer to his Pupil

Reach me down my Tycho Brahe, I would know him when we meet,
When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet;
He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of how
We are working to completion, working on from then to now.

Pray remember that I leave you all my theory complete,
Lacking only certain data for your adding, as is meet,
And remember men will scorn it, 'tis original and true,
And the obliquy of newness may fall bitterly on you.( Read more... )

Here's an illustration by Charlie Bowater

"When You Were the Stars"

A Response to Sarah Williams' "The Old Astronomer to His Pupil"

You told me not to fear the dark-
that stars were born from deepest night,
and even death, you softly said,
was just a turning into light.

Your voice would echo through the dusk,
so calm, so sure, so infinite-
as if the sky itself leaned in
to listen what your soul had meant.( I watched you trace Orion's belt... )

Tags:

conuly

Watch on YouTube

lb_lee

This was the winner of this month's fan poll! We appreciate that in these bullshit times, we can bring you the boobs and smoochery y'all clearly so desire.

( Images behind cut! Boobs are a state of mind, really... )

Mood silly
Music Rebecca Sugar - "Giant Woman (Demo)"
Crossposts: https://lb-lee.insanejournal.com/28773.html

Tags:

musesfool

Almost forgot to post!

Shoulders
by Naomi Shihab Nye

A man crosses the street in rain,
stepping gently, looking two times north and south,
because his son is asleep on his shoulder.

No car must splash him.
No car drive too near to his shadow.

This man carries the world's most sensitive cargo
but he's not marked.
Nowhere does his jacket say FRAGILE,
HANDLE WITH CARE.

His ear fills up with breathing.
He hears the hum of a boy's dream
deep inside him.

We're not going to be able
to live in this world
if we're not willing to do what he's doing
with one another.

The road will only be wide.
The rain will never stop falling.

*

Mood tired

Tags:

shadowkat

Sigh, I continue to collect doctors. Price of growing older, I guess? ( health issues..which are seemingly endless )

Books...

I'm making my way through two Illona Andrews books, one in hardcover, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me - which is lovely (in that I'm really enjoying it - the heroine is clever, strategic and not a killer and it has engaging characters and banter - if a touch pedestrian in the description department. I prefer good dialogue to description anyhow, so not an issue. And right now, the brain doesn't want all that much description.) but I've little time to read it? I can't cart it with me to and from work. Too bulky.

And..."The Silver Streak?" I think that's the name of it? It's the second novella in the Kinsmen series. More science fiction than fantasy. It has a neat subversive take on the personal assistant/powerful boss romantic trope. The set up is: ( Read more... )

I like Andrews - partly because their novels remind me a little of ones I've written or stories I've told. Not exact, but similar vibe.

Andrews is also more into weird nerdy details than the mere description of interiors. They briefly state what everything looks like - kind of like, okay now I have to tell you what they are wearing and where they are - done - off to the more interesting bits - such as how does one buy or rent a house in this place? Or how does a bio-network work. While other writers give you specific details on clothing, attire, and scenery, but skimp on how you rent a house or get into an Inn.

The Silver Streak provides details on the job. I'm a fan of books showing me what folks do for a living and how they do it - and I prefer jobs that aren't glamour (fashion, magazine editor, novelist, singer, chef) or educator. (Too many writers write about professions they've done, and folks - after the fourth book - student, professor, writer, editor - gets really boring. I'd rather read about a pilot or an intelligence officer.) Books that skimp over that sort of thing, tend to annoy me.

***

The result of International Buffy Day? Hard to say. We live in a very noisy world? ( Read more... )

A spot of ...good news? Apparently it is illegal for anyone "living" to appear on a US coin, postage stamp, currency of any kind, bond...

Trump Commemorative Coin Spurs Portland Man to Act - it Bugged Me

( Blurb )

(Most of the article is distressingly beneath a pay wall. And no, I refuse to subscribe. I'm having issues getting rid of the subscriptions I already have.)

Oh by the way... The Rook by Daniel O'Malley was turned into a television series - adapted by Stephanie Meyer (Twilight - yes that one) of all people - but she left after two episodes due to creative differences.
There was only eight episodes and it was Starz in US and Virgin TV Ultra HD in the UK, until Starz cancelled it in 2020.

I'd like to find it - but it may be impossible. It got mixed reviews.
Good acting, bad pacing. (Which was actually my difficulty with the book - interesting characters and world building, bad pacing.)

***

The heat affecting the rest of the country, finally caught up with NYC this week. We've been in the upper 80s and made it to 90 degrees in some areas (mainly mid-town Manhattan and upstate) over the past three days. It only made it to 83-85 degrees in my area - I'm near the water. Still hot though.
But I didn't mind it that much. My knees didn't hurt as much. When it's warmer, I don't hurt. Which most likely means cold climates may be out for retirement? I won't be able to move without pain.

hannah

It got sticky enough today to warrant the tower fan for cooling purposes. It's not even May. The day wasn't helped by the very little sleep I got last night, so between the fallout nausea and the heat, very little got done.

But, on the plus side, the home transcription gig's been given the go-ahead to more or less be a temporary full-time job, so I may take that as the smallest possible win.

Mood lethargic
Music Champion Angel - The Low Anthem

sabotabby

This one's about crypto, which admittedly makes my eyes glaze over even though it's really important. It's just that I know enough about economics to know that all money is fake, but crypto is especially fake, and really has all the downsides of money without the advantages of money. Also everyone involved is an asshole, much more so than is depicted in this episode. It's based largely on Andean Medjedovic (and good job casting someone who looks a great deal like him) and the many attempts to find the real Satoshi Nakamoto.

Warning that this episode discusses autism in ways that are fucked up and shitty.

( WAGMI )

Tags:

toronto,
tv

flemmings

Oh happy day dep't. Fiesta has its bagels back. My email works again for my money woman and I have a chunk of change before the markets tank once more. Seriously, will no one rid me of this turbulent toddler? And greasy-haired Kegsbreath while we're at it.

My bank tells me when there's a withdrawal over $500, which is nice, but do they need to ping me the info at 2 a.m? Mind, I was actually up at that hour. Increasing my water intake has lost me some if the weight that vodka put on this winter, and I'm grateful, but even if I drink nothing after 8 p.m., once my body is in water-shedding mode it doesn't stop. So I'm back to those middle of the night bathroom trips which I thought were long behind me.

I have also discovered how one orders from amazon.jp. That odd country in the list, Club? That's Canada. So I could order the bewc100 Demons from them but amazon.jp is still amazon.jp is still unmitigated highway robbery. The exchange rate is heavenly: a tankōbon comes in at $8. Once amazon has its weasley way, it will cost me $49 and change. Yeah, no, as they say in the Midwest. Must try to work out honto.jp's new buying system since they ditched the German company, and maybe then they'll be willing to sell me paperbacks again. In the meantime Finder Jean has offered to mail me a copy so I've ordered it from amazon to her address and hope it arrives there safely.

Tags:

100demons,
rl_26

adrian_turtle

The short version of the story is that last month, I saw a new neurologist.* They want to do some tests to diagnose my seizures more accurately. If all goes well, I may end up on better meds with fewer side effects (less crushing depression, clearer thinking, better memory) and better seizure control without needing to be careful to avoid flashing lights (so I can safely go out at night, even on Comm Ave.) If it goes less well, I will end up right where I am now, after a very uncomfortable week with glue in my hair.

The Epilepsy Monitoring Unit is more daunting than the hourlong EEGs I've had at various times since I was 8. It would be a week or so in the hospital with electrodes glued to my head the whole time. (Not only can't shower, but can't even comb my hair.) It would mean tapering off my current anti-seizure meds, going without sleep on alternate nights, and doing things like hyperventilating and looking at strobes when they tell me to. They want to see exactly what happens when I have seizures or auras, and in what part of my brain. The resident epileptologist I talked to for more than an hour had useful things to say about the possibility that I might have localized focal seizures that would respond better to a different class of meds. And it would be safer to experiment with them in the EMU.

If we are doing these tests to find better meds with fewer side effects, that would be great! That could be worth a lot of discomfort. But the attending doctor who came in for the last few minutes of the appointment sees this study as a preliminary investigation for surgery...no. Definitely not. I do not want surgery. He told me I didn't need to decide about surgery yet, but I have decided and I resent needing to defend that decision. (This made it into his clinical notes as “patient is not excited about surgery.” I need to be more assertive.) Not too assertive, of course. I am a fat middle-aged woman with an illness that is literally all in my head, and it’s important not to come across as hysterical.

* My wonderful neurologist on Cambridge respected that I had seizures, migraines, AND depression, and would rather put up with a few absence seizures than make the depression too severe. He retired in 2021, and his practice replaced him with someone I didn’t like. Then with someone incompetent. Then with someone who said she didn’t do epilepsy and I should try consulting someone downtown. I went downtown, where the dispatcher asked what my primary complaint was? As I was having a quick absence seizure every 2-3 months, and a migraine every 2-3 days, I complained about the latter. The dispatcher sent me to a headache specialist, that I waited 8 months to see.

I asked the headache specialist about my seizures. (Some of my anti-seizure meds also prevent migraines.) He said he doesn’t do epilepsy; I should see a different neurologist. So I waited a few more months. To sum up: I am not in a position to go back and ask my old doctor if I am dubious about what this one recommends. And my PCP is kind but not useful for actual medical advice.

Tags:

health

petra

teland tagged me in a Tumblr meme, which I completed here for legibility/copy-paste-ability.

Here are my present thoughts about the first story I wrote in each of 30 fandoms, selected because those are the ones in which I have written more than 3 works longer than a drabble, with the occasional guest star of "All right, I mostly wrote drabbles in this fandom, but I really want to list it."

If that sounds like a meme you want to do, consider yourself tagged! The original meme was just "First story you wrote in each fandom" but I'd be here for a month if I did all of them.

The list of fandoms where stories appear is: Ashes to Ashes, Aubrey-Maturin - O'Brian, Battlestar Galactica (2003), Dark is Rising - Cooper, DCU (Comics), DCU Animated - Timmverse, Discworld - Pratchett, Doctrine of Labyrinths, due South, Falsettos - Finn & Lapine, Generation Kill (TV), Good Omens - Gaiman & Pratchett, Jeeves & Wooster, Les Misérables - Hugo, Life on Mars (UK), The Magicians (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, then known as Avengers (2012), Men's Ice Hockey RPF, Promethean Age - Bear, Singin' in the Rain (1952), Slings & Arrows:, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars RPF, Supreme Power, Tales of the City - Maupin, Twitch City, Vorkosigan Saga - Bujold, and White Collar.

( I am not monofannish )