The news in general is pretty awful so I hope you can enjoy this little story from Toronto. Our transit system, the TTC, has been getting progressively more awful in the almost 30 years I've lived here. Whenever you need to travel by TTC, you have to give yourself an extra 30 minutes to an hour just in case it breaks down. Despite this reduction in service, fares continue to increase well beyond what an ordinary working class person can afford. This in turn forces more people to rely on personal vehicles, fuelling far-right politics.

With this background on mind, what did the TTC do with their paltry budget this year? Improve vehicles so that they don't stop working when they get wet? Fix the signal issues they have multiple times a day? Reduce the fare to match the reduced service?

Nah, this is Toronto. They rebranded the fare inspectors, which shall henceforth be known as...

...drumroll...

Provincial Offences Officers!

I swear I saw like 3 people post about this before I clicked the link and realized it wasn't parody. Anyway. People reacted exactly how you'd expect, and the TTC's response, rather than saying "oopsie!" (or "poopsie!") was to chide its own customer base for being so childish.

Personally I think POO is a lateral move from what most people I know call them, which is "fare pig," and probably that money could have been better spent on almost literally anything else.

We are around 20 minutes away from the Pokémon Presents and so I'm making a Dreamwidth post to occupy my mind and not be needlessly anxious about it (also it's longer than the video I was watching so I can't keep watching it until I've seen the Presents </3)

What are the news?

I finished making a new, fancier (and proper) index page for my website! This was one of my goals for a while now, and with Rentry finally starting to put ads everywhere, I decided to focus on it at long last. I followed the vision I showed in my response to the first sunshine_revival challenge here, except I ended up not having everything stuck inside a centered div because I wanted to try something else out for once. I'm really happy with the result! In the process I also discovered Victor Mono and kind of fell in love with it, lol. I love that it's two fonts at once, so handy! Speaking of, I need to switch my Google Fonts on Lysandre Labs to Bunny Fonts instead...

Webdev has been rotting my brain from the inside out hard at this point, because I'm up to three different layouts I've worked on in like a week, lol. The latest entry is a layout for a fanlistings/shrines/etc collective! I have so many ideas for those, I thought it'd be fun to work on a place to display them all (once they've been created...) and also to have a place to display all the ones I'd like to join in the future. There are so many...

Here's what it looks like so far:



Speaking of sunshine_revival, I started working on something for the creative prompt of Challenge 5 but haven't managed to finish it yet. T_T To be honest I'm kind of tempted to discard it and go for the journaling one, even though I'm not sure what to talk about... I don't know. I guess I'll see how I feel post Presents. (Less than 15 minutes now... I have DJ Pikachu up on the TV to keep an eye on it, lol.)

My next immediate project is to finish my creepypasta page just so that's out of the way, and then I want to at least come up with a layout for my personal website. It's probably going to be the trickiest to design because I expect I'll be extremely picky about how it looks and displays, especially if I end up using it for everything... We'll see how it goes.

I've also been contemplating signing up for enemiestoloversex for real this year, but I think my energy is better saved up for ficinabox, to be honest... So I probably won't. I was pleasantly surprised by how many requests I could create for though, heh. Maybe I should get into treating :P

Well, there's less than 10 minutes left, so that'll probably be all for now. Maybe I'll edit this post later with my Pokémon Presents thoughts... It'd be funny if there ended up not being that much for me to be excited about in the end. At least I got to enjoy (?) the anticipation!

(I don't think this post is long enough to warrant a cut, but feel free to let me know if you disagree and I'll add one. I've been subscribing to more people, especially people I see around small web circles; if you read this, hi! Nice to meet you!)

( ETA, under cut to not spoil the Presents )

We got home last night, very late in terms of the time zone we woke up in yesterday morning, then spent some time petting and playing with the cats, eating chocolate and ice cream, and unpacking a few things that I needed or wanted right away (slippers, toothbrush, and prescription drugs). I washed a few dishes, because I walked into the kitchen for chocolate and saw that we were almost out of clean mugs in the size we'd want for tea and coffee in the morning.

The trip home was OK as these things go: I ordered a cab to take us to Heathrow, using the service Mom always used, and paid in cash using my half of the British money she'd had in an envelope, including a generous tip for the driver. We had time to finish things like washing our dishes and clearing Mom's data off her computer before leaving, and enough time at the airport to be at the gate before boarding started, but not enough to get bored. I arranged the cab, and got us all aisle seats for the flight home, on Sunday, and then turned everything over to Cattitude and Adrian once we got to Heathrow. By the time we got off the plane, I was so worn out that I was stopping occasionally to lean on the walls in the airport, but fortunately doing better once we got home.

I woke up this morning at 7:30 Boston time, which seemed good--about 7.5 hours sleep, and back on my home time zone. The milk from before we left was iffy but the cut of tea tasted OK. The igniters for the stove burners didn't work when I turned them on, but I remembered both that we have long matches for just this purpose, and where we keep them, so that was OK for the moment, and we can investigate that further when Adrian and Cattitude are also awake.

We plan to do very little today: order groceries, unpack, and I might inject the about-monthly dose of my current MS medication, which I take every 4-6 weeks, and would have taken Saturday if we'd been home). Some balance PT would also be a good idea.

I changed how my sticky looks, but I just wanted to make it clear that if you don't mind me talking your head off (I'm crazy active partly because I'm not active on any microblogging platforms right now), mutuals can ask for access easily. It's not super intimate in there; I just want to keep some things between me and people I know. I don't want God-knows-who seeing just anything, you know?

If we're not mutuals, it's probably because you've never spoken to me. I use interaction as a vibe check. If we've had pleasant interaction on another platform, let me know.

fan_writers is a community for meta about writing.

everykindofcraft is a community for sharing information, advice and images about all sorts of crafts projects, old or new

enemiestoloversex, a multifandom gift exchange focused on the "enemies to lovers" trope (including ships that don't have that dynamic in canon), is open for sign-ups until July 23rd, 10PM UTC.

relationshipping, a fic/art/podfic incest exchange, has opened sign-ups until July 25th, 9:59PM EDT.

austenexchange, an exchange for all things Jane Austen, has opened sign-ups until July 27th, 10PM UTC.

sedoretuex, an exchange dedicated to celebrating the sedoretu (a specific organization of a poly marriage created by Ursula K. Le Guin), is open for sign-ups until July 27th, 11:59PM EDT.

classicfilmex, an exchange for fandoms in movies released before 1/1/1980,is open for sign-ups until July 29th, 10PM UTC + 2.

spookybang is a Big Bang focused on crossing over characters from different supernatural, paranormal and horror fandoms. Author Sign-Ups are open until August 10th and Artist Sign-Ups are open until November 30th.

Title: Prescience
Universe: Utau! Dai Ryugujo
Prompt: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: S02E17 - White Light (Part 2)
Character(s): Otohime/Tako, OC
Rating: U
Warnings: N/A
Summary: Above her and below, she could hear the sound of song, voices calling out in chorus, harps accompanying them, bells and pianos chiming between each word. For a good many years since its restoration, Dai Ryugojo had been a place of celebration and song, yet no kingdom persisted without its subterfuges, and Otohime, her very nature both honest and earnest, had found herself engaged in wrestling with such an idea for quite some time now.
Length: 742 words
Author's Notes: Merry Christmas in July! #11. also: external link.



( Prescience )

Leaving the tidying up for morning was the right choice. Tbh, I'm wondering if I should just leave all my maintenance chores for weekday mornings. Not only does it help wake me up, the time crunch helps me to stay focused without being overly stressful. My regular alarms are a good fit for it too. I ended up not only doing the living room tidying but cleared a little clutter I left on the wayside in my room over the weekend, finished up last night's dishes and wiped down a few surfaces. I also went and checked the mail, which probably would've been a pleasant little short walk if the heat and bright sunlight didn't make it suck.

And even after all that, I still had time to sit and relax while I waited for my ride. Kinda wanted to read but I was worried about not paying attention to the time by then since Phil doesn't always play well with notifications. Gave me time to just think instead. About the day ahead, the week ahead, life and my place in the world. About gratitude for what I have, which prompted some reflection on what so many people don't. Less in the sense of dwelling on negativity than in trying to think productively about what can be done. Still ended up pretty negative simply because of the feeling of helplessness I know so many of us are mired in.

There is so much wickedness happening, close to home and far away. The Palestine situation... I don't want to say it's broken me but it's broken something in me. Destroyed faith I didn't even realize I had in our systems or in people. And I suppose I knew in some sterile, intellectual way that things could get worse but it manages to shock me every day that things are still getting worse. That things are being allowed to get worse. And I try so hard to think productively when I think of the world's problems but I just. don't know what to do at this point. Appealing to the top isn't working, even donating feels more and more futile as so many people report that not even the most overpriced food is available in markets while tons of aid still sit blocked at the borders. I've watched one attempt after another fail to breach the blockade. I'm not giving in to despair, never that, but I wish I knew what I could do.

Climate change remains, as it was in 2019, my #1 topic of concern requiring immediate political action worldwide. I haven't really discussed climate news for... a long while. It's because what news I find is usually bad. Very bad.

I recently saw a chart that made a non-scientific forward-projection of data from a not-yet-peer-reviewed pre-print article. That's a lot of caveats, basically, for unvalidated ideas. It was an extremely depressing projection, though. It was a convincing "smoke 'em while you've got 'em" argument.

This page offers the pre-print, see the "Download PDF" button at the top right. The Reddit post I saw seemed to get its future projection from a source I tracked down to this Facebook image as the earliest source I could find. Here is a YouTube discussion of that chart too.

It's depressing stuff. I sympathize with David Suzuki on this one. I hope to snap out of it soon and post something positive about our collective future.

Hello everybody, Shigeru Miyamoto here. I would like to announce that we have officially run out of ideas for the Zelda series after creating Breath of the Wild and its sequel Tears of the Kingdom, and so there will be no more new Zelda games. Ever. Please enjoy The Legend of Zelda™️ movie in theaters in 2027.

Y'all I am being tested.

I woke up this morning and looked at my phone and the first thing I saw was a message from my movers telling me that they have canceled on me. The day before my move.

So I was up, awake, and online trying like hell to find a new moving team who could move me with one day's notice, for a price I can afford, and with decent ratings. Luckily, by the grace of a forgiving universe, I was able to do this. Now I just hope that these new guys I've hired actually show up tomorrow morning.

Then I ran out of packing tape and bubble wrap when I was almost done packing, and had to drive on over to Walmart to get more. When I started my car, it made a very strange sound, and I wanted to SCREAM because why, why NOW, WHY NOW? Panic mode. No time or ability to fix my car before I leave in a day and a half. Renting a car for two weeks and returning it thousands of miles away would cost me like two thousand dollars, so that's out!

Fortunately? When I started my car again at the store, it sounded fine, so? I don't know???

I want to scream into a pillow.

If you’ve written fics for more than one year on AO3, go to your statistics page. Click on the different years at the top to see the categories of statistics for each year.

1. Which year did you write the most words? Do you know why? e.g. you had more time; you were caught up in an exciting new fandom or pairing; you got a rush of ideas etc.
Apparently 2023. That was the year I got into three of my top five fandoms of all time (Dark, From and School Spirits - there was also a new season of Yellowjackets, another of the top five, so I think those would have given me inspiration). Having said that, this was the year I started the epic Dark series which I'm only now coming close to finishing, and AO3 has carried that word count over to 2025 because the most recent chapter of that was posted this year.


2. Which year did you write the least words? Why was this? e.g. lack of time, too busy, no inspiration etc.
Technically it's telling me 2012, but I don't know if I should count that because I only joined AO3 that October so would have the least words for that reason. Out of the full years, it appears to be 2020, with 2021 following. That time period is pretty self explanatory, with a combination of lots of my shows being on ice for the pandemic and therefore not providing as much inspiration, but also I was not in a good headspace during that time due to the lockdowns and not seeing any family for over a year (for anyone who doesn't know this, my extended family is rather scattered across the UK)

3. Which years did you get most hits, kudos, bookmarks and fic subscriptions? Do you know why? (e.g. popular fandoms, lots of words written.) Are there years where you have the same amount of bookmarks and subscriptions?
2015 for hits, 2017 for subscriptions and that has just reminded me of another series I need to finish. Will someone please stop me from starting series? 2023 for bookmarks (blame that one on School Spirits.) 2015 just beats 2023 for kudos.

4. Which years did you get least hits, kudos, bookmarks and fic subscriptions? Do you know why? (e.g. niche fandoms, not many fics written.) Do you have any other conclusions?
2019, looks like quite a few niche fandoms that year.

I am combining my usual Music Monday with answers to Sunshine Challenge #5



Journaling prompt: Be a carnival barker for your favorite movie, book, or show (or any other of your choice - game, comic, anything else)! Write a post that showcases the best your chosen title has to offer and entices passersby to check it out.
Creative prompt: Write a fic or original story about a character reluctantly doing something they are hesitant about.

I struggled a bit with this prompt. It's not really my thing to try to convince someone else to like what I like. But I don't mind talking about 4 songs by Korean rapper Agust D (aka SUGA of BTS, real name: Min Yoongi).

So in my mind, Agust D has 4 great songs: Agust D, Moonlight, Daechwita, and People No. 1.

"Agust D" is the best pump song. I listen to it almost every time I exercise. There are military style snare drums, and he samples James Brown's "It’s Man’s Man’s Man’s World." James Brown is a big deal where I'm from (South Carolina). Here on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y_Eiyg4bfk&list=RD3Y_Eiyg4bfk&start_radio=1

"Moonlight" is my favorite song. It's a me song. It sounds like me. Rolling, strolling, people-watching, and not getting in anyone's business. Not too fast. Not too slow. Not too angry. Nothing to do with sex, romance, or love. [Live in Japan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1_WpxS3NqI&list=RDz1_WpxS3NqI&start_radio=1] And it has this line, which is universal for poets and songwriters:

Verse1 은 존나 빠르게 썼는데도
I wrote Verse1 fucking fast,

Verse2 는 진짜 안 나오네 쥐어짜도
but can’t make Verse2 no matter how hard I rack my brain

"Daechwita" is his most important song because it introduces the world outside Korea to Korean culture. Daechwita (literally “great blowing and hitting”) is a genre of Korean traditional music consisting of military music played by wind and percussion instruments, generally performed while marching. And the video is epic.



"People No. 1" is his best song. He had something to say, he said it well, and the beat pushes. The closest I've ever come to finding something I might want to tattoo on my skin permanently is this line from the chorus: 뭐 어때 [What about it] On youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHbl6mt6X80&list=RDsHbl6mt6X80&start_radio=1

This is the chorus:

뭐 어때
What about it

스쳐 지나가면 뭐 어때
If you brush past, what about it

뭐 어때
What about it

상처받으면 뭐 어때
If you get hurt, what about it



때론 또 아플지도
Sometimes you might be in pain again

가끔은 속상해 눈물 흘릴지도
Sometimes you might get upset and shed tears

뭐 어때
What about it

그렇게 살면 뭐 어때
If you live like that, what about it

---

For the creative challenge, yesterday I did a double drabble about Watson going to Devon with Sir Henry Baskerville.

Title: Hesitancy
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: Gen
Length: 200
Summary: Watson reflects on the decision to go to Dartmoor with Sir Henry Baskerville.

( Read more... )

Today is cloudy and warm. It rained yesterday.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity yet.

EDIT 7/21/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 7/21/25 -- I refilled the thistle feeder.

EDIT 7/21/25 -- I planted 3 pots with 12 sweet cherry seeds.

It's been drizzling on and off.

EDIT 7/21/25 -- I potted up a white peach seed.

EDIT 7/21/25 -- I was going to go back out, but the drizzle has increased to light rain.

EDIT 7/21/25 -- I picked 3 red cherry tomatoes and 2 blackberries.

I saw a skunk out in the yard, not on the patio, and it scrammed when it saw me. That's what I'm aiming for: we stay out of each other's way. They're welcome to the farther parts the of the yard away from the house.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Every time I see someone imply or outright state that “explicit” only means explicit sexual whatever, I immediately feel the need to write some random explicit gore or other non-sexual explicitness.

A more general post now, which won’t be talking about the emotional crash out thats impacted the past few days. Cause ugh. (Plus I don’t think I could put the feelings into words even if I tried).

Mostly this’ll be about the various things I’ve done as distractions.

Thursday ended up being a trip down to sainsburys, which at least got me out the house though I did get caught in the rain though only a bit. (Plus side there has been rain so things have cooled down some.) I picked up the shoes from TK and they seemed to fit so that was good. Also Tk has A LOT of Halloween stuff. I didn’t get anything but there was so many.

Sainsburys was semi productive. I got the Lego Star Wras and Minecraft magazines, plus there was a sale so I got the Lego flamingo (and a Jedi starfighter and animal playground). Also they had Rodd’s the coffee thing James Marriott’s done, which I’ve been trying to get for months. I dunno if I’ll like it cause I’m not a coffee guy. Over the next days I built a set a day and I love them all. Lego is a good distraction.

Rest of the day was spent on Donkey Kong (mentioned in last post so) and the start of Seapeekay’s new subathon thing, which is playing games to completion. Three of them are my suggestions are on there though they’ve not been played yet.

I did start a thing, (like I needed another wip), though my motivation has obviously gone too.

Also mum’s shoes from Amazon came…. And then had to go back the very next day cause, again, they didn’t fit.

Friday was the first night of the proms which was ok. There was another Sunday that had a one handed pianist which was impressive. There’s gonna be a Star Wars prom in a few weeks which I’m excited for though we do try and watch them all. (He also met a subgoal so he’s gonna wear a skirt which…)

There was the new Waterparks song which has helped get Die With A Smile out my head. I need to watch the video they posted for it but my mind’s just… not it.

Saturday was the next of the Marple’s, A Murder Is Announced and I think it’s the best one so far. It certainly had a pretty stacked cast too.

Sunday I decided to put on Mamma Mia which felt kinda ‘in case of emergency break glass’ type thing. It did work a bit (after all it is Mamma Mia) but still my brain is iffy.

That night I put on I Know What You Did Last Summer, cause of the new one which I might see. It was funny seeing Sarah Michelle Gellar in it (and she was easily the best of the cast so it was a shame she died). It had been ages since I last saw it and it is pretty decent. I’d forgot the first fisherman was just some guy.

Then I sorted out the cinema thing so now I have the pass to the cinema. I’m hoping to go later in the week (plan is Thursday or Friday) to see Fantastic Four and I Know What You Did Last Summer. I do kinda wanna see Superman too but don’t wanna make it and fantastic four a double bill so hoping it’ll stick around awhile longer.

Today’s been… I dunno. I woke, got a bad notification and then the rest of the day has been low energy and kinda bleh. I did some donkey Kong, getting down to the forest layer, then read some Clown In A Cornfield (though that unexpectedly made me sad with Tucker’s death) and now I’m just… flop.

But tomorrow is food shop, Pokémon presents and Seapeekay’s subathon being back (he's took a cause of filming something today?) and then… who knows.

The Ice Age Echo That Erased Entire Civilizations (The 8.2K Event)

Around 8,200 years ago, the Earth experienced a sudden climatic crash now known as the 8.2k event. Triggered by the collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and a massive outburst from Lake Agassiz, it dumped freshwater into the North Atlantic, disrupting the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Temperatures dropped 1–3°C globally for over a century. Monsoon systems weakened, rainfall declined sharply in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. The result: failed crops, abandoned Neolithic settlements, and major cultural shifts across regions like Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and the Sahara.


This gives a stark look at how even robust, resilient systems can collapse under the pressures of an unpredictable environment. Modern civilization is fragile more than resilient. And the AMOC is faltering again.

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Permaculture
Conservation
Early Humans
Creative Jam
Birdfeeding
Recipe: "Dark Chocolate Brownies with Raspberry Spread"
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Productivity
Permaculture
Survival Skills
Self-Care
Birdfeeding
Current Events
Fireflies
Fruit Trees
Permaculture
Volcanoes
Follow Friday 7-18-25: Homestuck
Hobbies: Makeup Art
Conservation
Safety
Invasive Species
Birdfeeding
Anthropocene
Earthquakes
Evolution
Poem: "Beautiful, Damn Hard, Increasingly Useful"
Paleontology
Smoothie King
Birdfeeding
Good News

"Philosophical Questions: Looks" has 46 comments. "Not a Destination, But a Process" has 147 comments. "The Democratic Armada of the Caribbean" has 96 comments. "Incompetence, Sloppy Thinking, and Laziness" has 65 comments.


Last week's bonus fishbowl went well. Writing is slow, but I have drafts of a triptych to thumbnail shortly.


sunshine_revival is running through July. See the schedule, meet the moderators, and use the master post to navigate the event. Meet new folks in the friending meme. Spread the word!



* Sunshine Revival Challenge 1: Light
Poem: "The Pleasure of Escaping the Responsibility"

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 2: Tunnel of Love
Poem: "Legs of Grass, Feet of Flowers"

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 3: Food

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 4: Fun House
Poem: "The Bee Tree's Gift"

* Sunshine Challenge 5: Carnival Barker

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 6: Game Night
Poem: "A New Twist"


summerofthe69 is now open! You can see the calendar here and the current themes are and Greater Than 69 and Sopping Wet.


There are no open epics at present.


The weather has been hot and wet here. It rained again yesterday. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a pair of cardinals, a mourning dove, and a fox squirrel. I've heard red-winged blackbirds, wrens, and a woodpecker without seeing them. Currently blooming: dandelions, pansies, violas, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, wild strawberries, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, impatiens, oxalis, moss rose, yarrow, anise hyssop, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, Asiatic lilies, cucumber, yellow squash, zucchini, morning glory, purple echinacea, narrow-leaf mountain mint, black-eyed Susan, yellow coneflower, wild bergamot, chicory, Queen Anne's lace, sunflowers, cup plant, gladioli, firewheel, orange butterfly weed. Tomatillo and pepper have green fruit. Wild strawberries, mulberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers are ripe. Peas are winding down. The first crop of blackberries is done.