An update
Apr. 7th, 2026 10:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_comfortable_courtesan
fuck yeah spaaaace
Apr. 6th, 2026 10:14 pmjadelennoxSo! Some people went around the moon! And are on their way back!
I know the live video feed was super compressed and low-res intentionally, but I hope there is high-res eclipse footage when they land.
Also I know returning to the moon is not necessarily the best use of limited resources from a science perspective, but (one) I want people to feel aspirational about people doing science in space again, so we're not just getting press about billionaire assholes who want to, I dunno, put a casino in orbit around venus; and (two) this was all a mission by and for The People. This isn't a damn SpaceX or Blue Origins launch, this is NASA (with an assist from ESA and CSA).
I am going to love good things when they happen and space is a good thing.
Just one thing: 7 April 2026
Apr. 6th, 2026 06:35 pmjazzyjj posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
awesomeersComment 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!
Nature
Apr. 6th, 2026 04:54 pmysabetwordsmith posting in common_natureThe King Charles III England Coast Path (KCIIIECP), originally and still commonly known as the England Coast Path, is a long-distance National Trail that follows the coastline of England. Opened on 19 March 2026 by King Charles III, the trail extends for 2,689 miles (4,328 km).
Sections of the English coast already had established walking routes, most notably the South West Coast Path. However, the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 required Natural England, under section 298, to create a continuous coastal path. The first section, along Weymouth Bay, opened in 2012. The walking route is the longest coastal trail in the world, and its total length increases further when considered alongside the Wales Coast Path.
Those of you who live in or visit the United Kingdom may wish to explore this amenity.
Long weekend
Apr. 6th, 2026 10:18 pmcosmolinguistVery sad to realize that I have to start caring about bedtime again.
I've had a pretty great bank holiday weekend though.
- Tried to skive off work a bit early to go for a drink with D in the sunshine. It ended up not being that sunny by then, but we had a nice time. And I got us ice-cream cones from an ice-cream van as we walked home!
- We did indeed go out for Best Friday, which was lovely if slightly overdoing it for D
- I made it to transgym, sent good wishes back and forth between D and the gymgoers, and got my gloves back that I accidentally left in a friend's car when they gave me a lift home...and then proceeded not to see said friend for the last couple of months. I've been thinking about those gloves every so often: I got them in Stornoway so they're nice and warm, fair-isle type colorwork, and most important for me fingerless. I don't need them now but it's very nice to have them back!
- our friends Alex and Ian came over that evening, yay. It was so so lovely to see them. We got pizza.
- We were invited for afternoon tea at angelofthenorth's yesterday. Little sandwiches and sweets and many pots of tea (and I had coffee), beautifully showed off her new table and chairs!
- We bought some more plants, and when we got home I did some dad chores: added air to the car tires that needed it, cut back a tree that's overhanging from the neighbor's yard, started in on the ivy that has already claimed a couple of fence panels, and then sat outside with a book and a cold beer, in shorts and sandals (it's only about 60F, but thanks to testosterone I've become the guy who needs to wear a sleeveless top and sandals and shorts when it's 60F...)
Storm Dave aside, we had good weather this weekend, even great today -- and this is the opposite of what bank holiday Mondays are usually like. And it's not even dark at 8pm now; I'm so relieved.
umadoshiI had slightly larger, albeit still small, ambitions for today prior to the bad sleep, but we ventured out briefly on an unsuccessful quest for scones (we verified the shop was open and I even called ahead to try to make sure they had scones, but I got voicemail and no one returned my call, so we gambled and lost). Ah well.
( all the rest is various food talk [with a bit about eating + blood glucose aggravation] )
Assorted things
Apr. 6th, 2026 05:49 pmoursinA concatenation of things Relevant To My Research Interests (I guess), or, well, I feel I ought to keep up with this sort of thing....
Exiles of love?: uncovering lesbian voices in interwar Czechoslovakia, by someone I know, or at least, whose partner I know and whom I know by association.
Confining yet Convenient: Using Gender Norms to Defend Oneself in Cases of Rural Spousal Violence in Post-Independence Ireland: because that sort of thing could happen, using the system (see that book on 'economic divorce from deserting husbands' in late C19th England).
Review of Pious and Promiscuous: Life, Love and Family in Presbyterian Ulster, which is again, about how the system allows of certain flexibilities.
***
How to piss off historians: Drought, Conflict and the Use of Historical Data and Methodologies in Interdisciplinary Palaeoclimatic Research:
Norman et al. argue that historical sources support their conclusions that drought contributed causally to the ‘barbarian conspiracy’ of 367CE and to other late Roman conflicts. Although historians have developed rigorous methodologies for effective analysis and interpretation of surviving texts, the authors outline no methodologies for dealing with the textual evidence. Further, there are issues with the historical ‘conflict’ and numismatic datasets and with their interpretation.... the textual evidence discussed by Norman et al. does not, and cannot, support the authors’ assertions.
Swing that codfish!
***
Is this not lovely news? posthumous work by Vonda McIntyre forthcoming from Aqueduct Press in May
Just one thing: 6 April 2026
Apr. 6th, 2026 06:44 amjazzyjj posting in awesomeersComment 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!
Girl Genius for Monday, April 06, 2026
Apr. 6th, 2026 04:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
girlgenius_main_feedLink: Lessons from Minneapolis: ourselves or nothing
Apr. 5th, 2026 07:50 pmsonia( Nobody is coming to save you. The choice is ourselves or nothing. The moment you believe that, that you •know• it in your bones, is the moment the work truly begins. )
All I can tell you is this:
You have to know, with total and completely clarity, that nobody is coming to save us.
And knowing that, you will feel lost — but strangely clear.
And suddenly the work will be on you.
And you will do it, because that is •just what you do•, because you •know• that nobody else is coming.
And you will still have no idea what to do, even as you are already doing it.
( It is either the beginning or the end )
Weekend Update #2,430.
Apr. 5th, 2026 05:48 pmofearthandstarsToday we sorted out the menu planning and grocery shopping. I have managed to get chapters covered in each of the three books I am reading (Hidden Potential, The Urban Bestiary, and Silent Spring). I worked more on filling out the sketching (not really pleased with the outcome, but it's okay - you never get good at anything by avoiding it, so I am learning to settle for "good enough for what I was going for").
I also managed to secure my mom's banana bread recipe from my sister, and then reproduced it with some minor tweaks to get it vegan (all hail the flaxseed egg!). This was a little bit of fun because my sister only had a photo of the top side of the recipe card, and not the back - so I had the ingredients, but not all the instructions. But I made some deductions and it came out good! It is not very healthy, unfortunately. And alas, I swear my mother put raisins in everything. It has pecans, too. Anyway, childhood flavors unlocked. ♥
I finally took the time to unbundle the trees/plants I'd acquired (white dogwood, eastern redbuds, washington hawthorns, crabapples, and crape myrtles) and begin soaking them, and have acquired some temp soil to give them places to rest while I figure out their permanent placement according to light/shade needs.
I have managed to flesh out my weekly planner, and took time to feel out my March reflections and adjust my April goals. I am feeling moderately hopeful that this will be a good month.
I don't know that I have it in me to do NaPoeWriMo this year, but lhe local writer's group is hosting an April poetry contest. I placed 2nd the last time I entered, but I'll need to think on the topic and guidelines provided to see if I can get anything of merit together for this year's submissions.
May your week be pleasant (don't look at the news, don't look at the news, don't look at the news). ♥
vital functions
Apr. 5th, 2026 10:47 pmkaberettReading. She's A Beast archives, forever and always (by which I mean that I am now up to October 2023).
Another few pages of my Wicked Problems (Max Gladstone) reread.
Also an absolutely baffling academic paper that is technically relevant to my academic interests but which... doesn't really explain why what it's doing is better than state-of-the-art, sure as hell doesn't demonstrate it adequately with an appropriate range of reference materials, and cites only my reference materials paper and not my one on actual real life rocks, which it absolutely should, especially as it is citing [redacted for professionalism] like it's a solid contribution to the field.
Writing. Manuscript is over 10k words???
Listening. Hidden Almanac continues; presently we are relistening to another chunk I've theoretically heard once already but actually slept through. Knitting during it continues a good way of preventing myself from falling asleep. I continue to enjoy myself. (Eminent Domain and Tapping Of Ley Lines is the chunk we're currently in.)
Playing. Games various with... nieces and nephews??? plus A's other relatives, particularly Boggle, Shithead (to which I have been newly introduced), and Five Crowns.
Cooking. ... I made a big batch of chilli? I made a big batch of chilli.
Eating. Many and various exciting cheeses. Some excellent potato dauphinoise that I didn't have to cook.
Exploring. North Leigh Roman villa, Chedworth Roman villa, some surrounding woodlands, and Davis's Copse near Curbridge (BLUEBELLS).
Making & mending. A's glove progresses, by which I mean I've stalled a little over the past few days because I foolishly decided I didn't need to bring my circs with me and therefore I am knitting flat on DPNs and it is Suboptimal. But. Nearly ready to turn around for the other side of the flap. Nearly.
Growing. Lemongrass much cheerfuller for having been put back into the warm box. No evidence of aubergine yet (yes I know I'm late). Broad beans now actually properly coming up!!! Oca doing nothing. Cherry finally just about ready to start blossoming as of Wednesday; josta definitively blossoming and really quite green; project Build Up Spinach Seed Stash progressing nicely.
Observing. Pheasants! BLUEBELLS, both as a sea in woodland and on banks with primroses. Cowslips. So many excellent spring flowers. Pheasants; COOT EGGS; Egyptian goslings; and I have spent the past couple of days being Menaced by a Canada goose that is OUTRAGED whenever anybody... passes it... on a tarmac drive... even if they're doing so in a motor vehicle. All extremely satisfactory.
Gary's house
Apr. 5th, 2026 09:53 pmcosmolinguisthaggis and her 5-year-old visited briefly this afternoon. The kid sat right down with her paper and markers to draw a picture of Gary, and write a story about Gary.
The previous time she was here, I think I wasn't around but both V and D separately told me that she'd talked to them about Gary, she recognized his photo above the couch. She said "He was in the corner [we put his little fence up when the toddler was visiting, of course] and I was very little."
She was very little! The last time she saw Gary, she'd have been 3.
I cannot tell you how heartwarming it is that, even now, such a significant fraction of her life later, apparently our place is just "Gary's house" to her.
So now, on our fridge, is her drawing of Gary: a kind of trapezoid with eyes, pointy ears, spots (I think; Gary had black spots on his back), and a smiley mouth.
(Incidentally, it's held on to our fridge with magnets including a tractor and a Minnesota one; you can tell these happen to belong to me, right? Both were gifts! The tractor was a gift from V and D, found on their travels back before we all lived in the same house.)