The Friday Five on a Friday x2
Oct. 3rd, 2025 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nanila
[HELLO I AM COMET AND I AM TOO CLOSE]
- Do you ever wonder if the way you see things visually aren't how other people see them?
Frequently. My partner and I sometimes have very different perceptions of certain colours (and no, he’s not red-green colour-blind). - What kind of sounds are the most annoying?
Sounds I didn’t choose to hear, ha. Seriously, though, I quite frequently put my noise-cancelling headphones on with nothing coming through them, just to block out background sound. - When walking through a store, do you shop with your hands by touching/feeling the texture of things?
I *want* to do that all the time. I’m very sensitive to touch. I restrain myself most of the time unless it seems like it is OK (like in a clothing shop). I suspect I’d get thrown out of places if I went round running my hands over veg, freshly baked goods or pick-n-mix for example. - If you could only smell three scents for the rest of your life, what would they be?
My cats’ fur when they come in from outside on a cold day. Black Opium by YSL. My partner’s armpits. I am not joking. - What sorts of things do you savor when eating them?
Everything! I love food so much. I especially love very cold fruit juices on a hot day or with a sore throat, the velvety texture of a good chocolate mousse, and the salty satisfaction of slurping ramen noodles.
( Last week's FF )
Omniumgatherum
Oct. 3rd, 2025 02:56 pmoursinIn case this has passed dr rdrz by, it is now possible for ordinary people to register for access to JSTOR's massive collection of scholarly resources.
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This month's freebie from the University of Chicago Press is Courtenay Raia, The New Prometheans: Faith, Science, and the Supernatural Mind in the Victorian Fin de Siècle on psychical research.
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Okay, I know I was going off at people getting all up in the woowoo about the Pill, but this is a bit grim about Depo-Provera: Pfizer sued in US over contraceptive that women say caused brain tumours. I was raising my eyebrows at this:
Pfizer argues that it tried to have a tumour warning attached to the drug’s label but this was rejected by the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The company said in its court filings: “This is a clear pre-emption case because FDA expressly barred Pfizer from adding a warning about meningioma risk, which plaintiffs say state law required.”
and going hmmm, because there was a huge furore in the 70s in the UK about Depo-Provera and what sections of the population were actually being put on it, i.e. there was a whole ethnicity/discrimination pattern going on, and I would not be entirely astonished to find out that there were programmes in certain US states which were maybe no longer sterilising 'the unfit' (though I'm not sure I'd bet good money on it) but blithely applying long-acting hormonal contraception instead.
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And also in the realm of reproductive control: Of embryos and vaccines: If you REALLY want to protect the unborn... on rubella. Abortion historian notes that one reason (apart from thalidomide) for resurgence of abortion activism in UK in early 60s had been a German measles epidemic.... Also recall that my sister - who like me was not of a generation that routinely got this vaccine in childhood - when she fell pregnant with her first getting tested in the antenatal clinic to see if she needed to get the jab stat (in fact, she had high level of antibodies, so maybe we'd all had German measles among all our other many childhood ailments and barely noticed....)
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Something more agreeable: the Royal School of Needlework's Stitch Bank:
RSN Stitch Bank is a free resource designed to preserve the art of hand embroidery through digitally conserving and showcasing the wide variety of the world’s embroidery stitches and the ways in which they have been used in different cultures and times. Now containing over 500 stitches, each stitch entry contains information about its history, use and structure as well as a step-by-step method with photographs, illustrations and video.
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Asking good questions is harder than giving great answers: this so resonated with my experience as an archivist: 'often when people ask for help or information, what they ask for isn't what they actually want'.
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Many years ago I used to go to a restaurant- Le Bistingo in South Ken, as I recall - that had a cartoon pinned on the wall depicting a chef bodily ejecting a diner. Waiter to observers: 'He Attempted To Add Salt'. This was rather my reaction to this particularly WTF 'You Be The Judge': Should my partner stop hankering after salt and pepper shakers?
Why do you need salt and pepper on the table, haven't you seasoned the food adequately? (oh, and btw, Gene, as a comment remarks, salt has naturally antiseptic properties*).
*I remember some historical drama of Ye Medeevles on the telly in my youth about dousing somebody's flogged back in salt water (?or rubbing it with salt) to stop it festering.
Just One Thing (03 October 2025)
Oct. 3rd, 2025 08:44 amnanila posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
awesomeersIt's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
To-read pile, 2025, September
Oct. 3rd, 2025 08:00 amrmc28Books on pre-order:
- Queen Demon (Rising World 2) by Martha Wells (7 Oct 2025)
- Platform Decay (Murderbot 8) by Martha Wells (5 May 2025)
Books acquired in September:
- and read:
- The Rose & The Dagger (Wrath and the Dawn 2) by Renée Ahdieh
- Breakaway (Portland Storm 1) by Catherine Gayle
- The Claiming of the Shrew (Fated Mountain Lodge) by Lauren Esker
- and unread:
- The Element of Fire by Martha Wells
- The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
- City of Bones by Martha Wells
- Emilie and the Hollow World by Martha Wells
- Emilie and the Sky World by Martha Wells
- Wheel of the Infinite by Martha Wells
- Surviving the Storms - RNLI [3]
Books acquired previously and read in September:
- The Wrath & The Dawn by Renée Ahdieh [3][May]
- Kidnap on the California Comet by M.G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman [3][May][DNF]
- Betrayal (Trinity 1) by Fiona McIntosh [3][May][DNF]
Rereads in September:
- Slippery Creatures (Will Darling Adventures 1) by KJ Charles
- The Sugared Game (Will Darling Adventures 2) by KJ Charles
- Subtle Blood (Will Darling Adventures 3) by KJ Charles
I started off strong in September, clearing some of the books from earlier in the year, reading new books, and even a reread of some old favourites. And then the ice hockey season got under way. I'm actually part way through both the RNLI paperback (bought at Bembridge RNLI on the Isle of Wight) and the first of the batch of Martha Wells books from the HumbleBundle but progress is slow when I'm busy.
[1] Pre-order
[2] Audiobook
[3] Physical book
[4] Crowdfunding
[5] Goodbye read
[6] Cambridgeshire Reads/Listens
[7] FaRoFeb / FaRoCation / Bookmas / HRBC
[8] Prime Reading / Kindle Unlimited
The Friday Five for 3 October 2025: Senses
Oct. 3rd, 2025 01:41 amanais_pf posting in thefridayfiveThese questions were originally suggested by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ardnaid.
1. Do you ever wonder if the way you see things visually aren't how other people see them?
2. What kind of sounds are the most annoying?
3. When walking through a store, do you shop with your hands by touching/feeling the texture of things?
4. If you could only smell three scents for the rest of your life, what would they be?
5. What sorts of things do you savor when eating them?
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
**Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going. Also, please remember to play nice. We are all here to answer the questions and have fun each week. We repost the questions exactly as the original posters submitted them and request that all questions be checked for spelling and grammatical errors before they're submitted. Comments re: the spelling and grammatical nature of the questions are not necessary. Honestly, any hostile, rude, petty, or unnecessary comments need not be posted, either.**
ardnaid.1. Do you ever wonder if the way you see things visually aren't how other people see them?
2. What kind of sounds are the most annoying?
3. When walking through a store, do you shop with your hands by touching/feeling the texture of things?
4. If you could only smell three scents for the rest of your life, what would they be?
5. What sorts of things do you savor when eating them?
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
**Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going. Also, please remember to play nice. We are all here to answer the questions and have fun each week. We repost the questions exactly as the original posters submitted them and request that all questions be checked for spelling and grammatical errors before they're submitted. Comments re: the spelling and grammatical nature of the questions are not necessary. Honestly, any hostile, rude, petty, or unnecessary comments need not be posted, either.**
Girl Genius for Friday, October 03, 2025
Oct. 3rd, 2025 04:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
girlgenius_main_feedThe Girl Genius comic for Friday, October 03, 2025 has been posted.
Thursday Recs
Oct. 2nd, 2025 07:58 pmsoc_puppet posting in queerly_belovedHello, everyone! I hope you brought your Thursday Recs!
Do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!
Or have you tried something that's been recced here? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!
Do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!
Or have you tried something that's been recced here? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!
San Francisco Area
Oct. 2nd, 2025 06:26 pmyourlibrarian posting in common_nature
Our trip had ended in San Francisco because I was there to attend the memorial of a friend's mother. The cemetery was a beautiful place.
( Read more... )
Geez, I can't even... I don't even....
Oct. 1st, 2025 04:13 pmconulyHonestly, my worst thoughts about what was going to happen in that meeting of the generals were both so much more terrible and so much less terrible than what actually went on.
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( Read more... )
( Read more... )