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ICE returned the immigrant they shoved in a Texas prison - to a windowless 8x10 room with no bed in

Posted by adamg

https://www.universalhub.com/2025/ice-returned-immigrant-they-shoved-texas-prison-windowless-8x10-room

As ordered, twice, by a federal judge, ICE last week brought Mirian Ximena Abarca Tixe back from the Texas gulag it had stuck her in - and locked her up in an 8x10 room in the basement of its Burlington office building, with a toilet, but no windows, bed or sink, where it says it will now keep her until it kicks her out of the country one of these days, despite its own admission the building is not suitable for long-term detention.

In a filing today, Abarca Tixe's lawyer, Elizabeth Shaw of Boston, says that's both cruel and unconstitutional and asked US District Court Judge George O'Toole to order her immediate freedom as she fights to stay in the country with her husband - also subject to possible deportation - and their young child.

No legitimate government interest - public safety, administrative order, or flight prevention - supports confining a compliant, non-dangerous mother in an office basement with no access to her attorney or basic sanitary needs. Her detention is unconstitutional because it lacks any rational relationship to a lawful purpose.

O'Toole, whose orders ICE only complied with the second time, holds a hearing on the case at 2 p.m. tomorrow.

In its own filings, ICE says it was only doing what the judge told it to - bring her back to Massachusetts - even after stating it had no place to hold women here, that Burlington "does not contain many of the accommodations needed to house and care for individuals for any extended period of detention and does not contain medical facilities or dedicated attorney client meeting space" and requesting that it be allowed to shove her into a New Jersey lockup instead, a request O'Toole denied.

ICE said it has no intention of releasing her or letting the Ecuadorian native apply for the equivalent of bail because "she is subject to a final order of removal from the United States which ICE intends to effectuate."

Shaw, however, said they only reason ICE grabbed her client at what was supposed to be a routine check-in at Burlington on Aug. 26 was to pressure her husband to buy airplane tickets so the family could self-deport out of the country rather than letting them continue to pursue humanitarian visas.

And she noted that O'Toole's order requiring her return to Massachusetts specified she be placed in "a proper facility," which her current small windowless basement room is anything but. ICE's admission that Burlington is "not designed for long-term detention" means she:

[I]s not being held in a proper detention facility as ordered, but in an administrative office that is incapable of lawful civil confinement. This admission demonstrates both non-compliance with the Court’s order and the arbitrary nature of custody, showing that Petitioner’s detention serves a punitive, rather than administrative, purpose.

Moreover, ICE has provided no determination under [deportation law] that Ms. Abarca Tixe is a flight risk or danger to the community - the statutory prerequisite for post-90-day detention. She was initially released on her own recognizance, not enrolled in any [Alternatives to Detention] program, and has never violated a condition of release. Her continued confinement, therefore, violates her due-process rights.

She added:

[C]ivil detention is constitutionally permissible only when it serves a legitimate, non-punitive, regulatory purpose. When detention becomes excessive, coercive, or arbitrary, or when confinement conditions are inconsistent with human dignity, it violates both substantive and procedural due process.

Ms. Abarca Tixe's detention is clearly inconsistent with human dignity. Here, ICE detained Ms. Abarca Tixe not to ensure removal or appearance, but to coerce her family into purchasing departure tickets - a plainly punitive purpose.

Free tagging:

Shaw's reasoning for immediate release

ICE's report on Abarca Tixe's return to Massachusetts

Affidavit by ICE official on her return

https://www.universalhub.com/2025/ice-returned-immigrant-they-shoved-texas-prison-windowless-8x10-room

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3 Remaining Pinch Hits

Hi all, we have 3 post-deadline pinch hits still up for grabs! These are all due Friday, November 7, noon Eastern time (Countdown), a day before the collection is scheduled to open, though we can be flexible if needed. The minimum is 100 words.

If you would like to claim a pinch hit, please comment to this post with the name/number of the pinch hit you would like. Make sure to include your AO3 username! Comments are screened.

( PH 8 - Psychonauts (Video Games), Umineko no Naku Koro ni | When the Seagulls Cry, No Straight Roads (Video Game), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types )

( PH 10 - The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension (1984), Crossing Jordan (TV 2001), NCIS: Los Angeles )

( PH 20 - Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Limbus Company (Video Game), 機動戦士ガンダムサンダーボルト | Gundam Thunderbolt )

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I Staggered Back to the Underground

With Top Thrill 2, my roller coaster count climbed to 313, and bunnyhugger's to something like 337. This requires some trickery to record, though. coaster-count.com, the easiest way to keep a record of this, draws on the Roller Coaster Database (rcdb.com) for its basic data set, and RCDB has for some reason decided that Top Thrill 2 is essentially a renaming of Top Thrill Dragster, which we already have credited. To my way of thinking Top Thrill 2 is such a different ride that it has to be considered a new ride. But RCDB also considers Kennywood's Thunderbolt to be the same coasters Pippin, even though Pippin got a major expansion and redesign to make it Thunderbolt. And it counts Seabreeze's Bobsleds as the same ride as Junior Coaster, despite that getting expanded and being changed from normal metal strips to tubular steel track. And yet it does not count Cedar Point's Steel Vengeance as the same ride as Mean Streak, despite similar-in-magnitude changes in the structure and layout and tracking.

What this comes to, though, is that deep down ``identity'', what makes a thing a thing, is a frightfully elusive concept that breaks down on most any serious investigation. We think Top Thrill 2 is a different ride; our roller coaster counting system does not, and what's there to do besides include a manual correction to their count?

Well, one thing you could do is make a substitution. Coaster-Count offers a bunch of coasters that aren't there anymore, or aren't ridable, for people who might have, say, ridden Jumbo Jet back in the day. It also lists some things that are not in the Roller Coaster Database, since, for example, RCDB doesn't list roller coasters in travelling shows. It also lists some things that one might not list as a roller coaster, like the White Water Landing log flume, or the Demon Drop freefall ride, or Pipe Scream, a Disk'O ride that Cedar Point occasionally tries to list as a roller coaster, and Coaster-Count plays along with them. Of course, Coaster-Count has stern warnings about what might happen if you falsely record yourself as having ridden a ride, or even if you just give a false date to your ride. I too would love to know what historical problem brought them to that sternness.

Anyway, a problem for future us. On the day, our big thing next was to go riding stuff and discovering how many rides were not open. First day of Halloweekends there's some roller coasters they don't bother opening, at least unless there's higher-priority coasters that are closed for some reason, which is why Gemini and Corkscrew and Rougarou and our dear Blue Streak weren't running. We did check in on Steel Vengeance to discover its line was already too long for us --- we'd come back later in the weekend and get lucky, joining a line only about twenty minutes long when we happened to get there just after the ride had been closed --- and found that Maverick's video-screen queue promised a wait of 0 minutes or, for Fast Lane riders, 0 minutes. This turned out to be an under-estimate and the actual wait was closer to fifteen minutes or so, which is still a good short wait for the ride.

It would be a good night for riding, maybe the best of the weekend despite some of our favorite rides being closed. Not too busy anywhere and everything running quickly. We'd also get dinner at the park although I forget which side of the park. I know we had dinner once at the place with pasta dishes that replaced the Antique Autos ride, and once at the Grand Pavilion on the Boardwalk area where we got potatoes not as good as they used to serve there, and once at the place in Frontier Town that makes burrito bowls and turns out not to charge you for guacamole if you get the vegetarian bowl. Also once we got lunch at one of the food trucks that they still have around, this nice Puerto Rican rice-and-plantains dish. It makes no difference the order when we had these and barely matters that we had them at all, but I did want my readers to be confident we hadn't starved ourselves. (Somehow over the weekend I lost five pounds, though I've since found them again.)

And to close out the night we took a chance on Siren's Curse, which had something like a 25 minute wait for Fast Lane and N/A for regular non-line-cutters. This might reflect that there wasn't reliable data on hand, or it might reflect that the wait for normal people not giving the park money to cut the line had a wait of just about the same length. And Siren's Curse at night? With the lights of the track and the lights of the train at work? That turns out to be really great. The train has lighting with colors that change as you move through the ride, which includes music and audio from the Siren, Cursing you for whatever it is you were doing exactly, so that what is already a quite good ride --- not just for the initial gimmick of the track hinging from horizontal to vertical --- gets this an extra level or two up. Really good night.

Next up on my photo roll, pictures from a bit of pinball and something else ...

bunnyhugger putting in some entries for the Dungeons and Dragons launch party. You can see the plaque beside bunnyhugger in her dragon livery, and also, you can see how perfect that outfit is for a game like this.

Right around this point PCL began setting up livestreaming gear and he even set up a podcasting 'booth' on the big table we use to organize pinball events. Here you see bunnyhugger offering a few words about the game that we didn't really know the rules for, underneath.

This was the first event since league member ERR died and I noticed one of his high scores was still around, so, preserved it. Number four is the last of the high scores that Stern tables keep around; whoever next made a high score would bump him off.

More livestreaming. Also you can see the Lansing Pinball neon-style sign PCL had made up not realizing there was no possible place to hang it at the barcade.

A separate event but still pinball related: the trophies for March Hare Madness, which was maybe two weeks after the above pictures. The trophy bases are recycled bowling trophies but the statues are Michaels toys given gold, silver, and bronze paint.

And finally, a jigsaw puzzle that had been a gift from my parents, and that bunnyhugger and I did together: the history of (crewed) space flight done in jigsaw form, with depictions of all the spacesuits (upper left), space stations (center left), spacecraft (center right), and booster vehicles (bottom) used to date. I did more work on this than she did as I'm the guy who will spot the differences between the excessively many Soyuz variations.

Trivia: Around 1200 Quaker volunteers went to Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Sicily in 1945 to aid victims of war. Source: Ruin and Renewal: Civilizing Europe after World War II, Paul Betts. Not the largest volunteer relief force on the ground, Betts notes, but a particularly experienced and efficient one as the Quakers had been providing help to all, friend or foe, since the Crimean War.

Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine, Sundays Supplement Volume 18: 1956, Tom Sims, Bill Zaboly. Editor Stephanie Noelle.

Japanese military called in to deal with increasing bear attacks in rural prefectures

Posted by Master Blaster

https://soranews24.com/2025/11/06/japanese-military-called-in-to-deal-with-increasing-bear-attacks-in-rural-prefectures/

https://soranews24.com/?p=716599

Military is only there to provide logistic support and not take part in any hunting.

With all the problems facing the world today, it’s easy to overlook the fact that parts of Japan are experiencing bear attacks at unprecedented levels. There have been nine deaths from bear attacks this year as of October, which already makes the total for 2025 an all-time high, and while attacks and sightings are difficult to quantify accurately, it is clear they are both on a sharp rise.

Bear encounters are also getting bolder as the year goes on. Just this week, a bear slammed into the side of a moving patrol car in Fukushima Prefecture, though it’s unclear if that was an attack or just an accidental collision. Also, a young bear walked right into the Town Hall of Nishimeya in Aomori Prefecture during working hours, but luckily ran away without anyone getting injured.

▼ Security footage of the bear in the town hall.

Watch on YouTube

It’s becoming one of the top issues facing Japan, and whenever you read about a top issue facing Japan, know that politician Shinjiro Koizumi won’t be far behind. Having already largely cut the use of plastic bags at stores and tackled the skyrocketing price of rice, he now appears to be taking on the bear problem in his latest position as Minister of Defense.

On 4 November, Koizumi announced that the Ground Self-Defense Force (SDF) would be called in to help support population control of the bears. This is in response to a request for help from Governor Kenta Suzuki of Akita Prefecture in northern Japan. According to Suzuki, the prefecture’s resources are stretched too thin to be able to deal with the bears effectively.

▼ News report showing Koizumi’s announcement and some of the traps to be used. The SDF do have experience with animal capturing after helping to contain deer populations in Hokkaido.

Watch on YouTube

However, the SDF will not use its weapons against the bears. Instead, they will assist local hunters with logistic support and by providing traps. According to the Ministry of Defense, SDF soldiers have no experience in bear hunting, but they are also legally restricted from directly engaging with the bears under the constitution of Japan.

Readers of the news online largely supported the move of bringing in the military to help the underfunded and undermanned parts of Japan, but some felt the SDF was being handicapped too much in handling the situation.

“At this point, it’s practically a natural disaster, so this makes sense.”
“If all they can do is provide logistical support, why not just use the police?”
“It seems like a waste for them to just help with logistics.”
“Hey, look. It’s Shinjiro again.”
“I hope this puts an end to the deaths.”
“It’s frustrating they can only be used for support. I think we should amend the laws.”
“Calling in the military just to do odd jobs?”
“I’m glad they’re being used to help rural areas, but why can’t they carry firearms? Diplomacy doesn’t work on bears. I hope they have a way to protect themselves.”

The SDF are prohibited from “use of force” by the constitution unless three conditions are met, the first being that a military force is attacking Japan or a close ally. Bears are not a military force, and thus the SDF can’t launch an assault on them. However, the soldiers would legally be able to carry firearms for the purpose of protecting themselves and the population, so that last commenter needn’t worry about that.

Luckily, there is a bit of a legal precedent for this kind of situation, albeit a fictional one, in the form of Godzilla. Shortly after the release of Shin Godzilla, the government ran a hypothetical thought exercise in how the military could legally be used against wildlife (in this case, a kaiju) if it posed a significant enough threat. They concluded that it could be done by classifying the weapons as “tools” used to prevent disasters.

This would also theoretically give the SDF the green light to go directly after the bears in the same way, but it would seem the Ministry of Defense feels the current situation doesn’t warrant the risk of doing such a thing.

▼ Most people would consider a tank a weapon, but it could be a tool when, say, using it to open a stubborn jar of pickles.

Constitutional law can be kind of confusing, so let me try to sum it up in layman’s terms: The Self-Defense Forces have the right to bear arms even if the bears aren’t armed aside from their bare bear arms, because the Self-Defense Forces could use armed force in self-defense. Also, unarmed bears could bear the brunt of armed force if the arms the armed forces bear bear the label of “tools”, much like our own bare, unarmed arms do, but bearing in mind the SDF would bear the blame if something went wrong.

So, in the end, this seems like a prudent first step in tackling this pressing issue. While minimizing injuries and deaths from bear attacks is the top priority, doing it in a way to preserve as much of the prefectures’ autonomy as possible while also minimizing bear deaths would be ideal.

Source: 47 News, Hachima Kiko, TUF, ATV
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso
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https://soranews24.com/2025/11/06/japanese-military-called-in-to-deal-with-increasing-bear-attacks-in-rural-prefectures/

https://soranews24.com/?p=716599

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Fandoms & Relationships Clarification Post #3

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Entry tags:

books,
politics

Wednesday Reading

Just finished: Emily of New Moon, on audiobook from Librivox. Dean Priest is sketchy as shit from Day One. Teddy is white-bread. Ilse and Perry at least have personalities. And Jimmy is darling.

Currently reading: Number 5 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl (slowly), and I'm partway through the audiobook of Jamaica Inn by Daphne duMaurier, which is hella gothic and really well-written. I'm mildly entertained by DCC but I cannot keep all the fancy spells in my brain and the body count is pretty excessive (especially once you know that all the NPCs are real people!)

Up Next: The Nameless Land by Kate Elliott, sequel to The Witch Roads. Happily it's available on Bookshop.org DRM-free, so I could download it and sideload it onto my Kindle.

*+*+*

In other news, work is insane and and and. But at least Prop 50 passed, and at least some of the Dems are figuring out that we need them to FIGHT BACK. But this shutdown sucks. I can't be more specific than that.

Bah.

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what are you playing wednesday

What Are You Playing Wednesday

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

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Tournament of Champions

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books

Bone tired

But the yoga went better than today ever before. I'm too tired to even watch the two Hazbin shows but that is a mistake because the damn content creators put MAJOR spoilers in their fucking YT titles which I saw as I turned on music at work. I am beyond furious. I hate being robbed of discovering things on my own

So I'm watching tournament of champions holidays version (I like this one because it feels the most real because the judges are judging without the chef standing their with their lack of poker faces) and was confronted by two of the ones I liked in the past having sad stories on their own (that I hadn't heard before. Shirley Chung barely able to talk because she had stage 4 tongue cancer and lost a lot of it and Tobias Dorzan who is recovering from being shot 11 times this time last year which shocks me that I did not hear about this)

So for the last several years I've done the Popsugar Reading Challenge The theme was supposed to be garden and they have ONE garden prompt. It is filled with issues with pregnancy which is not great. Some of this is going to be very triggering to some people (not me but man if I was struggling with infertility I wouldn't like that prompt) and I am not a fan. What I need from you is some help. I've put the prompts under the cut. If it was *** I could use a suggestion if you have them.

( the book list )

What I Just Finished Reading:

Spellbound - turned into 100% male fantasy fulfillment so disappointing

Youth Camp - a surprisingly good demon hunting graphic novel that actually had some fun evangelical characters (among others)

What I am Currently Reading:

Blacksad - a anthropomorphic noir graphic novel

Haunted Cemeteries of Ohio - you know why

Anne of Green Gables - I am shocked at how much I like this

Revenge Serve Royal - historical mystery

What I Plan to Read Next: Elfquest for popsugar

And October's reads. You know the drill. I love talking books so if you see something you want to chat about, let's do it

Tanequil (High Druid of Shannara, #2) fantasy

Ghost Roast YA graphic novel, paranormal

Ash's Cabin LGBT YA graphic novel

Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World horror/urban fantasy

X-Gender, Vol. 1 LGBT manga

The Cat Who Saved Books magic realism

The Gallery Assistant mystery

Mirage City LGBT historical mystery

The Queen of Blood Fantasy

Current Mood: tired

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#39 Ed’s Worries (part 1 of 1, complete)

Ed’s Worries
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1174
[Sunday, May 10, 2020, midafternoon]

:: On the walk home, Ed’s worries spill out. Part of the Edison’s Mirror universe. ::

Back to Warnings and Weirdness, part 2
To the Edison's Mirror Index
On to

The grass crunched as the trio walked single file along the narrow, almost shoulderless ribbon of black tarmac. None carried plants, nor a pack of seeds. Ed, walking behind Vic and ahead of Aidan, coughed to clear his throat. “I don’t know if I like this place anymore,” he began. His voice shook. “Vic… do you still have the energy to get us out of here?”

Vic rubbed the back of his neck. “Once. Definitely not twice. But Ed, we could end up somewhere much, much worse.”

“They’re not targeting you,” the preteen snapped. “You met Laina more properly than I did. I saw her at the same time that you did, but you talked to her, alone.” Ed threw his hands up. “People keep threatening us, and I’m fed up with it!”
( Read more... )

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[Amnesty #028] Kickoff Post

AMNESTY WEEK #028
Challenges # 001-280

Amnesty Weeks are a chance to post any stories you've written that, for whatever reason, weren't submitted during that week's challenge. And if you can't get the entries you want in during this Amnesty, never fear! The next one will include challenges 001-290, so you'll never miss out.

There's no voting for amnesty entries, and there's no limit on how many you can post, so long as each entry meets the usual community requirements (less than 1000 words, not NC-17, etc.) If, however, you manage to end up with 30 of the things you want to post, try to spread them out through the week for the sake of people's reading pages. These entries may also be crossposted and previewed anywhere you like, since there’s no voting to skew.

At the end of this two-week window, a post will be made collecting all the links of the posted entries, which will also signal the end of the posting period, and a new regular challenge will go up.

Entries are titled the same way as normal: [#] Story Title (Fandom)

PAST THEMES: Second Chances, Heartbreak, Devil's Advocate, Victory, Long Shot, Unexpected Company, Travel Plans, Schadenfreude, Missed The Mark, Overindulgence, Interview, Bad Day, Clear Skies, Time of Need, Fever Dream, Fourth Wall, Altered State, Stages of Grief, Stereotype, Hindsight, Blessing in Disguise, Changing Seasons, Inner Child, Starry Night, One-Track Mind, Miracle, Double Trouble, Rival, Ghosts, Moment of Truth, The Road Not Taken, Storms, Family Gatherings, Warning Shot, Mirror Mirror, Caught Red-Handed, Reunion, Betrayal, Premonition, A Walk in the Woods, Resurrection, Winter Nights, Perfection, Day Off, Fall from Grace, Horizons, Rebuilding, Too Much Information, Loyalty, Blaze of Glory, Audition, Voluntold, Silence, Time Travel, Writing on the Wall, High Seas, Martyr, Prehistoric, Camouflage, Careless, Shortcut, Transformation, Priceless, Rainy Day, Long Distance, Gathering Clouds, Shattered, Masks, Ray of Sunshine, Networking, Skeletons in the Closet, Unspoken Things, Burning Bridges, Into the Forest, Hearth and Home, Closed Doors, Confession, Fairy Tales, First Snow, Opposites Attract, Haunted House, Countdown, Below Zero, Dragons, Head in the Clouds, Once in a Lifetime, Leadership, Regrets, Success, Road Trip, Vengeance, Into the Depths, True Love, Secret Lair, Unexpected Weather, Center of Attention, White Lies, Legacy, Roughing It, One Perfect Day, Nobility, Mirror Universe, Into the Jungle, Only One Room, Pirates, Competition, Afterlife, After Midnight, Friends’ Night, To The Library, Pumpkin Patch, Autumn Rain, Bonfire, Unexpected Visitors, Breaking News, First Aid, Happily Ever After, Mistaken Identity, Heartbeat, Technical Difficulties, Brainstorm, Novelty, Snowed In, Best Friends Forever, Come In From the Cold, Illusion, For Science!, Gardening, Candlelight, Moonlight, Nostalgia, Superpowers, Storytelling, Wasteland, Out of Sorts, The North Star, Jumping to Conclusions, Leviathan, Getting Lost, Learning Lessons, Inspiration, Teamwork, Nightmare, Invincible, Temptation, Creation, Trivia, Publicity, Glitch, Paradox, The Dance, Honesty, Insomnia, Atonement, Vampires, Leap of Faith, Quiet Night, Vacation, Memory, Innocence, Homecoming, Hero, Gift, Rescue, Apology, Loneliness, Things In Common, First Kiss, Sick Day, Progress, Confidence, Lost Memories, Escape, Rumor, Late Arrival, Space, Nemesis, Anger Management, Faking It, Eavesdropping, Broken Promise, Investigation, Revolution, Murder, Recklessness, Reputation, Bad Judgment, Partners, Anniversary, Wish, Freedom, Spotlight, Surprise, Falling Leaves, Bad Day, Trust, Good Luck, Harvest Time, Altar, Duct Tape, Pyrrhic Victory, Catastrophe, Celebration, Reminiscence, Procrastination, Siblings, Jealousy, Parallels, Outsider, Chaos, Hesitation, Hope, Protection, Pressure, Normalcy, Meticulous, Recovery, Caught in the Rain, Stress, Overheated, Persistence, At the Beach, Sunrise, Guilt, Alibi, Secret, Spontaneous, Deity, Optimism, Stargazing, Mystery, Coffee Shop, Curse, Comfort, Magic, Cold Snap, Hangover, Apple Picking, Autumn Nights, Future, Stubbornness, Tragedy, Redemption, Picture Perfect, Werewolf, The Common Cold, Lost for Words, Mermaid, Emergency, Quick Exit, Royalty, Midnight Snack, A Light in the Dark, Unexpected Success, Defiance, Man’s Best Friend, Chemistry, Scars, Caves, Mountains, Schemes, Soulmates, Genius, Summer Vacation, Trickster, A Walk in the Park, Poison, Sleeping In, Self-Indulgence, Pride, In the Nick of Time, Choose Your Battles, Bad Timing, Near-Death Experience, One More Try, Moonlit Kisses, Abandoned Mansion, Dark Forest, Haunted Library, Trick or Treat

Amnesty posting ends Wednesday, November 19 at 9:00PM EST

• Post your submission as a new entry using the template in the profile
• Tag these entries as: amnesty 028, plus the challenge's theme tag
• For questions about Amnesty Week entries, please ask them here

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[#280 | Trick or Treat] Results Post

Here are this week's votes tallied, and below the cut are our winners for Challenge #280 – Trick or Treat!

( This week's finalists are... )

Total Challenge Words Written: 2933

Congratulations to both of you, and thank you to everyone who took the time to cast their votes!

autobotscoutriella will be making this week’s banners, so keep an eye out for those next week.

You may now post your Challenge 280 entries to any additional communities, blogs, archives or sites as you'd like! We also have a FandomWeekly AO3 Collection if you'd like to add your stories there!

A long 12 hours

My back was killing me for 12 hours. It only let up this evening. I lathered the area with voltran. I swam. I did some back stretches and exercises in the water. I slapped on a lidocaine patch. I bitched and moaned a lot. I walked around the building. After lunch, I went to Costco to walk around there (and by the way, no sign of my beloved ham and cheese croissants! wtf is up with that???). I did some back exercises on the floor. Finally about 5, the pain started to ease up. And by 6 it was pretty much gone.

I did check with Dr. AI but it had trouble separating back pain upon waking from back pain interrupting my sleep. So whothefuckknows. I did pick up some good tips for sleeping tonight (pillow between knees if on side or under knees if on back). Plus.

The 1.5 inch foam topper arrived a little bit ago and I put it on the bed. The instructions said it would take about 24-49 hours to recover from the vacuum packing but it seemed to do fine after about 15 minutes.

Please please please make it work. Another day like today will make me beyond cranky.

But, right now, I'm wallowing in the no pain zone.

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Wednesday is happy with the election results...

1. Woo-hoo! Democrats won across the board. (In NYC - they won everything but Staten Island Borough President, because you know...Staten Island? And Texas. But it is Staten Island and Texas...)

New York City hits 2 million votes for first time since 1969. Biggest turnout for a Mayoral election ever.

( Read more... )

Miki Sherrel won the Governor's Race in New Jersey - becoming the first female Democrat Governor of the State.

Oh, and NBC has an interactive map showing how each neighborhood in NYC voted for the Mayoral race. It's kind of fun, and shows that elections are complicated.

2. Work wore me out. That and lack of sleep - I couldn't get comfortable, and I kept waking up. Didn't fall asleep until Midnight, and woke up at 3 am and 5:26 am. Something beeped outside and woke me up at 3. Took a while to get back to sleep. Then something woke me at 5:26, and I never got back to sleep.

Very busy. Kind of inundated? They decided to get together and unload all their work on myself and Breaking Bad at the same time. Don't procrastinate folks? It just makes more work for everybody. But my good deed was installing two printers on my computer and Breaking Bad's. Just in time for the new folks to move in - in two weeks. Maybe they'll bring a printer that is in closer proximity. Albeit not too close proximity.

Commute wasn't easy either - but went smoother than expected. I miss hopping on the G taking it to 4/9th Streets, and running down the steps.
Now? Going down steps hurts, so I take the F, run up, then down steps, and wait on a tiny platform with a ton of folks for the R. Oh well, it's 35 minutes either way.

But overall? Happy to be back at work. I enjoy what I do for the most part - it's a lot of analysis, editing, problem solving, and figuring things out.

3. Cooler - in the 40s-low 60s. Typical Autumn weather in NY. A-typical is 60s-80s, typical is 40s,50s, and low 60s.

Time change is still messing with me though - by the time my body gets accustomed to it - they'll change it again, right around my birthday.
Whose bright idea was it to do the Time Warp?

4. Buffy/Angel re-watch.

I'm enjoying Angel more now than I did the first go-around. Buffy, I always enjoy. It occurred to me today that the writers fell in love with a specific plot twist - which they employed in S2. Which is the good guy turns bad or switches sides. They also did the bad guy switches sides to help the heroine - but they enjoy the good guy turns bad a lot more.
( Read more... )

[I'm mainly just writing about this at this point to please myself at this point. Hopefully it entertains others too. But alas, as in most things, there's really no way of knowing for sure. I'm thinking I probably wrote it to please myself back in the day as well. Although a bit better, and more targeted.]

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"life is short, make it sweet" (old dominion)

Neighbor: I guess it's time to put the gardens to bed for the winter.

Geraniums being hustled in: 6
Dahlias curing in utility room: 9
Canna lilies to lift, clean, and dry: 32
Spring bulbs just arrived from Brent & Becky's: 450

Me: ...yeah, I guess.

( can't relate )

Last year a kind neighbor gave me an orchid when Mimi died. "So you'll think of her every time it blooms," she said. I am not an orchid whisperer, and although I was very touched and tremendously appreciative, I was not optimistic.

Yet lo, the miracle orchid has bloomed again ♥.♥

The deluxe disappointment and basic brilliance of Japan’s oldest standing soba noodle chain

Posted by Casey Baseel

https://soranews24.com/2025/11/06/the-deluxe-disappointment-and-basic-brilliance-of-japans-oldest-standing-soba-noodle-chain/

https://soranews24.com/?p=716523

Miyako Soba may not be what we’d expected for the oldest standing soba chain in country, but maybe it should have been.

Our Japanese-language reporter Seiji Nakazawa is a serious soba noodle fan. In particular, he’s made it a goal in life to eat at as many different stand-and-eat soba restaurants as he can, keeping thorough records of his impressions of them.

So imagine his surprise when he recently found out that, while growing up, he walked right past branches of the oldest standing soba chain in all of Japan.

Miyako Soba was founded in 1962, earlier than any other chain in its class. It’s an Osaka-based chain, and while Seiji was growing up in the city he got so used to seeing branches here and there that he never suspected they had such historical significance.

In Seiji’s defense, his lack of awareness is a testament to how great a job Miyako Soba has done becoming a part of the fabric of daily life in Osaka. But now that he did know about the chain’s place in history, Seiji felt that it was time for another visit on his next trip back to his hometown, and so he stopped by the chain’s Tsuruhashi branch.

Miyako Soba hasn’t used its pedigree as leverage with which to charge ultra-premium prices. Bowls of basic soba or udon noodles still start at 400 yen (US$2.70), and the sign out front showed plenty of things you can get for less than 1,000 yen, Japan’s smallest denomination of bill.

However, there was something that seemed strange to Seiji. One of the items on the sign was the Jo-tendon (上天丼), or “Deluxe Tempura Bowl,” but it sure didn’t look very “deluxe” to Seiji.

With only a single shrimp and one kakiage (a disc of sliced vegetables and tiny shrimp), this might not be the most basic tempura bowl he could imagine, but it was pretty close. The sign did boast that the shrimp is “3L” size, but Seiji wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, since it’s not a term that people use in ordinary, everyday conversations in Japan.

On the other hand, at just 550 yen, Miyako Soba’s Deluxe Tempura Bowl is lower priced than a lot of other restaurants’ standard tempura bowls, so Seiji decided to give it a shot and see if maybe the real deal would look more impressive than the photo.

It did not.

The lack of any sauce for the tempura also felt odd for a “deluxe” offering. For many tempura bowl fans, the rice at the bottom of the bowl that soaks up all the sauce drippings is a finale they look forward to after finishing off the pieces of tempura themselves, but that wouldn’t be happening here.

However, we have to admit that while the name might seem like a mismatch, Miyako Soba’s photo is completely upfront about what its Deluxe Tempura Bowl is and isn’t. Moreover, just because it’s basic doesn’t mean it’s bad, as the tempura was nicely cooked and plenty tasty, especially considering its affordable price point.

And it’s not like Miyako Soba doesn’t have other, more special-feeling items on its menu, like their curry soba (780 yen).

Curry soba is something you can find at soba joints across Japan, but Miyako Soba’s take on it is a little different from the norm, since it adds strips of beef and egg to cook in the broth. This makes it especially hearty and fortifying, and the broth itself has plenty of character too. Soba curry is made by mixing curry roux into soba broth, which is itself a mix of soy sauce and dashi (bonito or kombu [kelp] stock). Miyako’s broth puts the balance a little more on the kombu dashi side to begin with, so there’s an appealing amount of complexity to its curry soba broth.

Also worth remembering when visiting Miyako Soba is their Gyufuwattamadon (680 yen), or “Beef and Fluffy Egg Bowl.”

In Japan, beef and egg bowls are often called itokodon, or “cousin bowls” (as opposed to chicken and egg bowls which are called oyakodon, “parent and child bowls”). Miayko Soba’s version of the dish is of the fluffy-egg philosophy, as opposed to some other restaurants that go with a runnier egg and soupier texture, and with some sliced green onion sprinkled across the top, it’s very satisfying, and also feels more “deluxe” than their Deluxe Tempura Bowl.

Oh, and as a side note, while Miyako Soba started out as, and primarily still is, a standing soba restaurant, some branches do have stools too, which can come in handy if, for instance, there’s a mikoshi (portable shrine) procession going by, like there was while Seiji was eating.

When talking about restaurants that have been in business for a long time, some people might imagine beacons for deep-pocketed gourmands, or maybe tourist traps that thrive by drawing in out-of-towners for a meal that’s fun to have once in a lifetime, but not something you’d want to make a regular part of your diet. Miyako Soba, though, is the exact opposite, a place that’s utterly devoid of glitz or glamor, but which has stayed in business by staying true to its original goal of offering good food at reasonable prices. It’s a plan that’s kept loyal locals coming back again and again, and so even if one of their “deluxe” items doesn’t quite feel worthy of the description, we’ll give the place a pass when it does basic food this well.

Restaurant information
Miyako Soba (Tsuruhashi branch) / 都そば（鶴橋店）
Address: Osaka-fu, Osaka-shi, Higashinari-ku, Higashiobase 3-16-5
大阪府大阪市東成区東小橋３丁目１６−５
Open 7 a.m.-8 p.m.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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https://soranews24.com/2025/11/06/the-deluxe-disappointment-and-basic-brilliance-of-japans-oldest-standing-soba-noodle-chain/

https://soranews24.com/?p=716523

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What I'm Doing Wednesday

( books: Osman, Vance, Osman )

yarning yay
I went to yarn group on Sunday and there was such good turnout, even though several people couldn't make it. It was really nice. I learned that one of my kickbunny customers has a puzzle game where her cat pushes a button to request certain toys, and she requests her kickbunny ALL the time! So heartwarming! She also sent a pic of the cat lying with her head on the bunny. Too sweet! I also gave five hats and a scarf to a yarn group member who volunteers at BoysTown/Boysville (a shelter for kids--with residential family situations, not dormitories). The yarning will go straight to the kids, not their thrift shop, so that's doubly wonderful. Also, I found a missing safety eye that I'd searched high and low for. Not high enough, apparently, as it was ON my workbench, not on the floor despite having clearly heard it bounce!

yarning boo
The reversible doll pattern I was using to make niece's xmas gift has a major flaw in the pattern & I'm really pissed off about it. I could wing it and make it work, or else I could just frog it and make something else for her entirely. Undecided.

( yarning Lestat )

healthcrap
still under the weather. More nausea. I quit coffee, because it was a direct nausea trigger, and it is so weird to be caffeine-free; it's torn up my whole morning routine. As far as the insomnia, I was going to sleep around midnight (boo!) and waking for hours in the madrugada (double boo!), only to sleep til ten once I finally drifted off. Then the clock change knocked me back onto schedule, I hope. The morning nausea continues, though. And today I felt so rotten I actually napped for ninety minutes. Weird.

( rl gah )

mercury retrograde
starts this Friday in Sagittarius, then moves into Scorpio in about ten days, IIRC. At least this year it ends before the Yuletide deadline instead of being dead on it & crashing the AO3 servers. Fun times. Mars is also in Sagittarius, as of yesterday, so our tendency to behave like the arrow (not the archer, the *arrow*) zooming through spacetime is super heightened. Try to pace yourself & refrain from jumping to conclusions.

I hope all of y'all are doing well! <333

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oh so

Oh so random today -- meaning, subject? what subject? :-)

Yesterday was a get-things-done day: flipping a mattress, washing, sheets and towels, dong my (semimonthly) budget.

Tendonitis? Yeah, seems like it, on the to of my right hand. I blame it on laptop use...specifically on using the touchpad. Unlike the carpal tunnel syndrome that came from using the mouse! I have a good wrap to use when I need to. Definitely I need to watch some movies rather than scroll FB or YI.

Oh yeah, movies. I mentioned before how Netflix sent me a pdf showing all the discs I rented, and the discs still in my queue. I've started searching out movies on the queue - from the library or on Prime. So far I've watched a couple of 1934 Cary Grant movies (they'd call them 'vehicles'), a Barbara Stanwyck/Fred MacMurray sort of romantic comedy, a Studio Ghibli movie. The next disc from the library is Morocco (1930), with Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper. Pre-code.

And googling. The other day I ran across this on Duolingo Norwegian: klut, meaning cloth. I appreciate memory aids, so I googled "is Norwegian word klut related to English clout." It is. Clout for a piece of cloth, yes, I've read that in older novels, an example would be a 'peasant' woman wiping her child's face with a clout.

Also: breechclout, sometimes called a breechcloth.

-

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wednesday reads and things

What I've recently finished reading:

Europe at Dawn by Dave Hutchinson, and thus finishes the Fractured Europe Sequence. I enjoyed it a lot, though sometimes it made me feel as though I just wasn't smart enough for it; there are a lot of chapters which begin so completely in medias res that you just have to soldier on until you hit the background/flashback that explains what is going on. Although the last book ties up some of the loose ends, they are only loosely tied, so to speak, and it feels very open-ended. (To be fair, there was no overarching action plot here, just generally tying up ends and solving mysteries. Also I didn't realize for far too long that some of the POV chapters were actually in the past relative to present action (or rather, took place at the same time that some of the events in other books took place; time has passed.)

What I've recently finished listening to:

The Strange Case of Starship Iris wrapped up its final season a few weeks ago. I liked it overall, though I definitely preferred the political action/adventure parts more than the personal relationships parts, other than the general bonding of the crew as a unit. I also found it rather on the nose with respect to Current Political Events, but hey, it's not Jessica Best's fault that she wrote an SF podcast about freedom-fighting rebels up against a juggernaut of an iron-fisted government just when, you know. waves hand around helplessly

What I've recently finished playing:

Dragon Age: The Veilguard! I enjoyed playing but I was ready for it to be over. I (female Qunari mage) romanced Harding, but the romance content is -->.<-- (Though admittedly there was some nice emotional content relative to the romance near the end.) On the one hand, the fact that most of the decisions about what to do and say don't seem to have much effect on things made it feel less fraught and scary, like - I often look up spoilers for major decisions because I don't replay games and so I want to make sure I don't end up with some horrible ending. On the other hand, it probably contributed to me feeling less involved with the game on an emotional level.

I didn't like that the choice of race and faction didn't have a whole lot to do with anything. I mean, I had extra Shadow Dragons dialogue, but mostly I didn't know anything extra about Minrathous. And I was Qunari - but an adopted war orphan with zero connection to anything remotely Qun, so I felt really dumb talking to Taash (and especially Shathann) about Qunari customs.

I did really love the graphics, and all the very interesting landscapes, the different cities and landscapes (the Ossuary!!!) and especially the Crossroads. The companion banter is super fun and I sort of wanted to set them all up with each other! I especially loved Taash and Lucanis talking about capes, hee. I did everybody's quests, of course, and got everyone to Hero status, and all my factions to three stars.

I did the Regrets of the Dread Wolf questline and met Mythal, and...I really tried to give good answers, but every time I failed, to the point where I figured there was no way of avoiding the fight. So I ended up having to fight her and hoo boy that was tough. And then! I looked at an "endings" walkthrough and it said I had to have resolved the quest peacefully to get the best ending, so I resigned myself to having screwed up, but haha it turns out they recommended that only because that is such a tough fight, yay, I got the best ending.

(I did not look up spoilers for the rest of the endgame, but fortunately I managed to not get my sweetheart killed.)

Anyway, it was fun, but when I finished I didn't want to jump into another epic right away, so I started playing Monument Valley, which several of you had recommended to me - and that was delightful! It's like, what if M. C. Escher had designed a puzzle game? I finished the first game and am now doing the "appendices". I also have the second game, so that's probably next.

B is playing Horizon Forbidden West, and I can't resist looking over his shoulder every once in a while. The Horizon games are still my favorites! (He's still in early days, not yet to the Embassy, just doing stuff in Chainscrape.)