第五年第八天
Jan. 18th, 2026 08:22 am心 part 19
想, to think/to want/to miss; 惹, to provoke; 愁, to worry ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=61
语法
2.18 正在...呢, to be doing
https://www.digmandarin.com/hsk-2-grammar
词汇
诚实, honest; 诚信, honesty ( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/
Guardian:
还有什么想要说的吗, is there anything else you want to say?
他现在正在担心呢, he's worrying about that right now
[no 诚 words]
Me:
别惹他了,别吵架。
不要害怕,他很诚实。
[512] the cost of one admission is your mind
Jan. 17th, 2026 04:16 pmROH and MLP announced a joint show in Windsor for the weekend before the Winnipeg Dynamite, so it's looking like my two weeks of vacation will be transitioning into two and a half weeks of vacation with even more hot cross-Canada train action to look forward to! I kinda want to wait for them to confirm where the AEW shows for the rest of March are gonna be before I book things, just to be on the safe side, but that might take a while. UGH, working Monday to Friday makes cool long vacations so much harder to take, I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT.
RIP Jay Briscoe, three years today. RIP David Lynch, one year yesterday. This damn birthday week, I swear!
Theatre is still closed. I lose more hope by the day. Thank god for wrestling, but I need more regular, short-term things to look forward to to survive! And getting dressed up to go to the casino and hang out with my co-workers sure as FUCK does not count.
( Album #512/1001: The United States of America - The United States of America )
[ SECRET POST #6952 ]
Jan. 17th, 2026 05:49 pm⌈ Secret Post #6952 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.

( More! )
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 39 secrets from Secret Submission Post #993.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 2 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Snowflake Challenges #7 and #8
Jan. 17th, 2026 10:31 pmThe first was about a boy/man who is angry at the prospect of going bald like his father.
The second was about pollution and about the woman who was trying to help being perceived as a witch. Probably the least advanced, and rather loose, but with potential
The third showed a boy/man who learned how to become invisible. The actor created his childhood self, who was given a magic set but wasn't very good at magic, his adult self who could get the magic right, and his teenage self, with a bully. Lots of audience interaction.
The fourth was a woman character doing improv for the first time. Lots of physical comedy and a long stretch with no dialogue at all—very brave!
There was an online survey asking us to fill in three words to describe each piece, two words to describe how I felt after watching it, and giving an opportunity to ask a question.
Afterwards, we were offered a drink and an opportunity to discuss anything of interest with cast members. I did compliment the improv woman, but did not convey my thoughts (although I had them) to anyone else from the cast! However, it was again very interesting.
*
Snowflake, er...#7 LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.
I like my ability to write. I learned to read when I was three and always had my head in a book if I possibly could, so I absorbed the rules of English without ever thinking about them. I very rarely get tripped by the technicalities of constructing coherent prose, so I can concentrate on writing the story. Or the newsletter, or the email, whatever.
I said to my husband just yesterday that my life would be a lot less organised without him in it. And his would be a lot less varied without me in it. I like my ability to feed us a reasonably interesting, healthy and varied diet by buying ingredients and being able to open the fridge, see what's there, and figure out what to cook. That's not the only kind of variety I bring to his life, but I'm happy that my Beast is not doing what he used to do (ie eating the same things all the time because food is just fuel). I like my butterfly-mindedness, that prods me into doing something different. I can provide variety in entertainment, too, not just food, but food is every day and important.
I like my artistic ability. I'm not a great artist, or even particularly skilled—I'd love to be better at drawing or painting what is in my head, but I find it very hard. However, I can produce interesting, tasteful things, whether those be cards, shawls, pictures or something else, that benefit from having 'a good eye' involved in the production. As I say, I'm not a great artist, but I can usually produce something a bit more enjoyable to look at than someone without 'a good eye' would produce. I like that.
And, while I'm at it, Challenge #8: Talk about your creative process.
My creative process is mostly 'let's see what happens'.
I've never been a planner. Stories do not get planned in advance. They just grow. Some discipline is imposed eventually, but not until I know what the story *is*. It starts, usually, from an idea. If I get a scene, or a moment, or a phrase, or a plot, or some kind of notion in my head that wants to be a story, that's a good enough germ for the story to start from. It might be "Lance and Adam are two different kinds of gay", for example (see Bouquet). Or, a scene in which Chris has injured both his hands and is wearing some kind of foam protective mittens and Lance goes to him and how exactly do they figure out how to have sex? (That one was particularly interesting because it spawned an entire story of which I am very proud, but did not actually happen in the story (The White Room). That's my 'this is how to write a story' brain taking over from my 'this is how to write fanfic' brain.)
Mostly I just start writing. I've been working on a romance lately, and I just started writing, and my viewpoint character emerged as I wrote and I liked her very much.
Prompts, therefore, are good. I wrote so many stories to prompts on LiveJournal's fic_requests community, because there they were, and they sparked a ficlet, and that was all I needed.
It's mostly the same with more artistic/crafty creations. I used to make quite a lot of LJ icons, and it was just a matter of doing a crop that I liked and then experimenting in Photoshop to see what happened. Sometimes I'd have an idea, but mostly I'd see what tools and resources came to mind, and proceed from there.
With knitting, it's a bit different, because I'm frequently working from a pattern. Frequently not, though—I make quite a lot of impromptu shawlettes and scarves which just involve me picking a bunch of colours that work together, and getting on with it.
Card-making, too, depends more on what mood I'm in and which of my seventeen thousand crafty bits and pieces is top of mind/closest to hand at the time. There might be layers of different papers, or shiny bits, or a glasspainted 'window' or a glasspainted topper for a stack of papers, or lace, or whatever. I don't generally set out with a plan. Which is sometimes a bit of a shame, as I would do better to get the ingredients together first and make something for a specific card and a matching envelope, but hey. I have fun exploring/experimenting.
[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #994 ]
Jan. 17th, 2026 05:42 pmThe first secret from this batch will be posted on January 24th.
| RULES: 1. One secret link per comment. 2. 750x750 px or smaller. 3. Link directly to the image. More details on how to send a secret in! Optional: If you would like your secret's fandom to be noted in the main post along with the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret. If your secret makes the fandom obvious, there's no need to do this. If your fandom is obscure, you should probably tell me what it is. Optional #2: If you would like WARNINGS (such as spoilers or common triggers -- list of some common ones here) to be noted in the main post before the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret. Optional #3: If you would like a transcript to be posted along with your secret, put it along with the link in the comment! |
Questionable Choices Were Made [status, bicycling]
Jan. 17th, 2026 04:53 pm2. Speaking of which, one of my cousins who is a professional early music singer told me over the holidays that she was going to have a concert in NYC on January 16, in case I might be interested and able to attend. To date I've only ever gotten to see short snippets of her performances, so I thought to myself, aw heck, why not. I didn't really want to spend the night in the city, so I found train tickets for a train departing Albany at 1 pm, and the last return train of the day, leaving Penn Station at 9:24 pm. That itinerary cut things close on both ends; I had an important work meeting on campus in the morning, and the concert was likely to run until 9 pm, so I might have to sneak out of the show early.
The other complicating factor was that the New York State Department of Transportation had announced last fall that they planned to close the Dunn Memorial Bridge bike-pedestrian access for ~3 weeks for maintenance work, once again cutting off the only convenient bike-ped accessible river crossing for reaching the train station from Albany (the next accessible crossing would add 20-plus miles to the trip, which is a distance that can hardly be called accessible!!).
The closure was originally scheduled for late November, but later there was some sort of vague update noting the work would occur in *mumble mumble* early 2026. Anyway, when I biked past the onramp on Tuesday, I observed some work crews on the ramp. It looked like they were drilling holes for a more permanent replacement for a wood guard fence. But in any case, in my bike-by it was unclear from those observations whether the path would be accessible. SO annoying.
The New York State Department of Transportation claims that local bus line 114 is an adequate replacement for bike-ped bridge access during these closures. This, frankly, is a joke, and a cruel one. It might add slightly less time than the 20-mile bike detour, but throws the uncertainty of bus schedules into the mix.
Therefore, I drove.
I also deluded myself into thinking I'd get lots of work done on the train! I even brought along some knitting!
Dear reader, I did not. One the trip to the City, the train was already pretty full by the time we boarded, so I wound up sitting next to someone who might have been some sort of mild schizophrenic, to judge by the babble up until he got off at Yonkers. Harmless, at least. So, no majestic views of the Hudson River in the winter for me, sigh. The return train was late enough at night that I mostly just dozed.
But! Hanging out in the West Village was lovely, as was getting to catch up with a cousin and her fiance who live in the City, and the concert was sublime.
Behold! The Secret Garden at St. Luke in the Fields!


Glorious delivery bike biketating (bike spectating)!

Across the street, observe: a Surrey with a lighted billboard display mounted on top!

You can't make this stuff up.
St. Luke in the Fields was a beautiful and peaceful church. I didn't want to disrupt the performance with a lot of photos, but here's a good one from the end when I had to discreetly sneak out early to make the train back to Albany:

-
3. Questionable choice 3 was deciding to stick with my plan of biking over to the Troy Farmer's Market this morning, to make up for the lack of exercise the prior 2 mornings. Between midnight when I got home last night and 7:30 am when I got up, it snowed an inch, and it was still snowing when I departed for Troy at 10:30 am after sweeping the snow off the walks.
Here's the thing about the decision: I burned through an entire set of brake pads over the course of just the one single bike ride. It's not that I was doing an excessive amount of braking. It's that these weather conditions lead to rapid sand buildup on my bike, which acts like sandpaper when I brake.
This is a strong argument in favor of a fixed-gear bike for winter riding. By this point I'm considering it. I'm generally okay with dealing with the discomfort of getting wet and a bit cold while biking around, but having everything get so utterly grimy every single time I ride is a bridge too far. And this is WITH fenders, mind you. Started giving me flashbacks to a particular long ride in Texas before I put fenders on Froinlavin.
Anyway, I hope I stop making quite so many questionable choices soon. The semester is about to start and the to-do list is still long.
november "i read too many books" booklog
Jan. 17th, 2026 10:27 pm( 136. The Cloud Roads - Martha Wells ) This was fun! I'm hoping to read the sequels.
( 137. Death in the Spires - KJ Charles ) Definitely not a romance - but I like mysteries more than I like capital-r Romances, so that worked for me.
( 138. Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch ) This is still a cracking series opener. What a banger.
( 139. That Stick - Charlotte Yonge ) A lesser Yonge, but still relatively entertaining.
( 140. The Wicked + The Divine vol 1 - Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie ) I didn't love this, but it started a number of interesting plot threads; I'll have to see where it goes.
( 141. Meddling and Murder - Ovidia Yu ) A decent conclusion (at least so far) to the series! I'm sure she could write sequels if she wanted, but this changes the status quo enough that it feels like a good place to stop.
( 142. Augustine the African - Catherine Conybeare ) This was fascinating; I lent it to our parish priest (who is sort of mentioned in it! as part of the group of Augustinian friars Conybeare meets when visiting Annaba (the city formerly known as Hippo) and he's already told me he's buying his own copy.
( 143. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat - Samin Nosrat ) I had high expectations for this book, so it's probably partly my own fault that I wasn't blown away; it did have some good stuff in it, but I spent a lot more time arguing with the author than I expected.
( 144. Princess Puck - Una Silberrad ) A delightful tale.
( 145. Death of a Dormouse - Reginald Hill ) A really fun character arc; I enjoyed this.
( 146. Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie ) Just fabulous.
( 147. Mona Maclean, Medical Student - Graham Travers ) Not as medical as the title implies, but very charming.
( 148. Blue Machine - Helen Czerski ) An interestingly different perspective on the oceans compared to my usual more animal-focused natural history versions.
( 149. The Fox Wife - Yangsze Choo ) A satisfying read, and interesting as a historical as well as fantasy.
( 150. Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation 3 - Mo Xiang Tong Xiu ) The story is moving right along now!
( 151. The Nine Tailors - Dorothy L Sayers ) Excellent reading of a good book.
( 152. Deeds of Wisdom - Elizabeth Moon ) These short-story collections are always enjoyable, even though they don't usually go much beyond that.
( 153. Alien Clay - Adrian Tchaikovsky ) A decent idea, reasonably well done, but Tchaikovsky just fundamentally doesn't do it for me.
( 154. Night Sky Mine - Melissa Scott ) I'm very glad I discovered this in my collection! Scott is always a good time.
( 155. The Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold ) An absolute classic which I will re-read many more times yet, if I get the chance.
( 156. The Hero and the Crown and 157. Beauty - Robin McKinley ) THatC is still just such a weird book, and Beauty is so conventional! McKinley what are you even doing.
( 158. The Summer War - Naomi Novik ) Terribly short novella but it still manages to pack a lot in! Excellent siblings.
( 159. Still Life - Sarah Winman ) Endlessly charming even when it gets implausible; I really enjoy this book.
( 160. The Sisters Avramapul - Victoria Goddard ) Goddard is such a compulsive writer! I enjoyed these.
( 161. Heated Rivalry and 162. Tough Guy - Rachel Reid ) Decently-entertaining hockey romances.
Snowflake Challenge: day 7
Jan. 17th, 2026 10:04 pm
LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.
1. I am - not always, but often - capable of finding ordinary things utterly delightful. Like the Wendy Cope poem about the orange. I am not in that state at the moment, but it is lovely when it happens.
2. On the small scale, I think I am slightly luckier than average. For example: my hair went grey in my early thirties, but that happened to be the couple of years in which many people my age were dyeing their hair grey. We moved house the week before the first Covid lockdown, when it could have been the week after. I win raffles, and the occasional twenty-five quid on the Premium Bonds. (Or maybe I'm no luckier than anyone else, but - see point one - appreciate my luck more?)
3. I really like making things. I like that about myself.
4. Fashion aside, I do like the way my hair looks.
Trump tariff threat over Greenland 'unacceptable', European leaders say
Jan. 17th, 2026 10:05 pm(no subject)
Jan. 18th, 2026 08:37 amAge: 30s
I mostly post about: life, coding, activism, politics, idk things? I'm just getting back into "Real Life" blogging so am setting up a new journal. My pervious one was
My hobbies are: reading, writing, fandom, collecting old books, web design and development, collecting and dropping hobbies, candle and jewellery making, gaming, doing to much, volunteering
My fandoms are: My main fandom is BTS at the moment but I dabble in a lot of things. If you're after fandom specific posts that will be over at my other new journal
I'm looking to meet people who: Cool and want to be friends
My posting schedule tends to be: Who knows!
When I add people, my dealbreakers are: I strongly believe that Love is Love, Anti Genocide, BLM, Disability Rights, and all of that stuff and I ask that you are too
Before adding me, you should know: At the moment I imagine a lot of my stuff will be public unless its super personal etc. I will use content warnings as appropriate as I will talk about mental health, health problems, disability and weight loss etc
I'm nonbinary/genderqueer possibly ftm idk things and use they/them pronouns. The link above has a lot more info
Book review: 2025 summary
Jan. 17th, 2026 01:26 pm
Mae's Top Reads of 2025!
I wanted to put together a little highlight reel of the year's reads, so here it is!The Masquerade series by Seth Dickinson: This series is is all fantasy politics. There's no magic or fairies or prophecies, just Seth Dickinson's invented world and the titanic machinations of Empire. And it is electric...Baru herself is the epitome of ruthlessness. Her goals are noble—her desire to free her home, to end the tyranny of the Masquerade—but she will do anything to achieve those goals. She is a truly fascinating character, calculating, controlled, brilliant—and constantly tormented by the need to weigh her choices and the potential futures ahead.
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin: Le Guin captures truly great sci-fi because this work is so imbued with curiosity. Le Guin is asking questions at the heart of any great sci-fi work: What defines humanity? What can we achieve, and how is it done, and what does that mean for society? What is society? What does it mean to be alone? What does it mean to be part of a whole? To me, sci-fi can't be truly sci-fi without a measure of philosophy, and The Dispossessed has this in droves.
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield: Armfield's writing beautifully illustrates this journey, and she does a particularly good job of doling out information a little at a time, so that the reader often share's in Miri's confusion and muddled state of mind.
The Originalism Trap by Madiba K. Dennie: Dennie does a great job making this book accessible to everyone...She doesn't stop at "here's what's wrong" either--she has proposal and suggestions for how to counter the outsized influence of this once-disfavored theory and what we as citizens can do to push back against it.
Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter: The book is obviously well-researched, and Hofstadter does a thorough job of documenting his sources and influences, as well as recommending additional reading on a broad range of topics touched on in his own book. So much of what he establishes here makes perfect sense when looking at modern American society. He so neatly threads the needle between where we started and where we are now that at some moments, it felt like the fog was lifting on something I should have seen ages ago.
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez: Jimenez's writing is beautiful and vivid—for good or for ill, as there are some gruesome events that take place—and really sweeps you up in the events of the story. He also does a wonderful job capturing the emotional mindsets of the characters. In particular, I thought the way he handled the relationship of the two main protagonists, Jun and Keema, was very realistic given who they are, and the emotional payoff of his taking the time to work through that was so worth it.
And for the haters among us, below the cut are my most disappointing reads of 2025.
( Booooo )
What a seventh term for 81-year-old leader means for Uganda
Jan. 17th, 2026 07:55 pmAvalanches kill five off-piste skiers in Austrian Alps
Jan. 17th, 2026 06:37 pmParacetamol is safe in pregnancy, says study refuting Trump autism claims
Jan. 17th, 2026 12:13 amWrite Every day 2026: January, Day 17
Jan. 17th, 2026 10:03 pmMeanwhile, I'm still trying to finish things myself ...
Today's writing
I wrote a little this afternoon (new, much better beginning for one of the fics), then had a vertigo attack and had to take a break. (Seriously, what's wrong with this week?! I would like a refund!) Planning to write a little more later today, and tomorrow hopefully I'll actually finish something ...
WED Question of the Day
In honour of my icon:
My first complete draft is usually ...
very close to the final draft
3 (33.3%)
a bit sparse, but otherwise close to the final draft
2 (22.2%)
a bit wordy, but otherwise close to the final draft
2 (22.2%)
structurally messy, but otherwise close to the final draft
1 (11.1%)
messy overall, but with the important pieces in place
0 (0.0%)
so different it bears little resemblance to the final draft
0 (0.0%)
something else entirely (see comments)
1 (11.1%)
My first complete draft is sometimes ...
very close to the final draft
7 (77.8%)
a bit sparse, but otherwise close to the final draft
4 (44.4%)
a bit wordy, but otherwise close to the final draft
2 (22.2%)
structurally messy, but otherwise close to the final draft
3 (33.3%)
messy overall, but with the important pieces in place
5 (55.6%)
so different it bears little resemblance to the final draft
1 (11.1%)
something else entirely (see comments)
0 (0.0%)
Tickyboxes ...
need no hindsight
2 (33.3%)
make it easy to change your mind fifty times
4 (66.7%)
know no such thing as overkill
4 (66.7%)
Tally
( Days 1-15 )
Day 16:
Day 17:
Let me know if I missed anyone! And remember you can drop in or out at any time. :)
Fic: Far Frae the Bonny Hills and Dales (Flight of the Heron)
Jan. 17th, 2026 09:43 pmFar Frae the Bonny Hills and Dales (108912 words) by Luzula
Chapters: 22/22
Fandom: Flight of the Heron - D. K. Broster
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Ewen Cameron/Keith Windham, Ewen Cameron/Alison Grant
Characters: Keith Windham, Ewen Cameron, Alison Grant (Jacobite Trilogy), Lachlan MacMartin, Margaret Cameron, Lord Aveling (Jacobite Trilogy), Earl of Stowe (Jacobite Trilogy)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death Fix, Grief/Mourning, Romance, Hurt/Comfort, Penal Transportation, Slow Burn
Summary: Ewen is brought to trial in Carlisle and convicted, but sentenced to another fate than the scaffold.
Something 🎶🏡
Jan. 17th, 2026 03:54 pmAn achievement for Trump, I suppose
Jan. 17th, 2026 06:59 pmKemi Badenoch tonight: "On this I agree with Keir Starmer." This being calling out Trump's latest pronouncement on Greenland-related tariffs. You don't often see her saying that about the PM! That said, I think we may be getting quite close to a tipping point within Labour now: the Starmer approach of trying to maintain cordial relations with the White House was reasonable for a while, but when a European ally's territory is under direct threat? Then it ain't, and I think most Labour MPs will want more open condemnation of Trump from Starmer now.
Also, US Supreme Court, will you please get on with it with your tariffs ruling? At least we'll know where we are then, even if it is "This Court asks, 'How high, Mr President?'"
By the way, for my overseas readers: the Greenland thing is top story tonight on every serious UK news source. It's a huge deal here in a way that the Minnesota protests (though reported) are not, because of its direct effects on Britain.