Fitness Fellowship 2026: Check-in 10
Mar. 9th, 2026 04:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sylvanwitchWe've just had the time change, putting the clocks ahead an hour, and I'm doing better than I usually am with time changes, largely because I took a melatonin and made myself go to sleep on time. I woke up with some anxiety this morning, just a vague and general sense of unease, and I'm pretty sure it was caused by how dark it was thanks to the time change. I'm fine now.
All of this is to say that it's difficult enough for us to adhere to our routines without arbitrary policies adding further stressors.
Anyway, how has your week gone? Please do share your ups (yay!) and downs (boo!), if you're so inclined.
( My Week in Review )
We'll all get through this together, friends. That's the thought I'm leaving you with this week.
All of this is to say that it's difficult enough for us to adhere to our routines without arbitrary policies adding further stressors.
Anyway, how has your week gone? Please do share your ups (yay!) and downs (boo!), if you're so inclined.
( My Week in Review )
We'll all get through this together, friends. That's the thought I'm leaving you with this week.
Sidetracks - March 9, 2026
Mar. 9th, 2026 01:30 pmhelloladies posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
ladybusinessSidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag. You can also support Sidetracks and our other work on Patreon.
( Read more... )
TV Stuff at High Prices
Mar. 9th, 2026 12:46 pmyourlibrarian1) I am starting plans for a fall foliage road trip in October through Michigan. Anyone have any recommendations?
2) Following up on what I wrote about in my last post, I watched several episodes of Paradise S2. I'm not sure why I'm still watching this. ( Spoilers )
3) By contrast, I saw the Muppet Show (special? Apparently a one-off?) and found it a delight. Disney has definitely struggled in finding a way to utilize the Muppets and two shows have now failed. I'm glad they tried to do something different with them, and I rather liked the show where they were trying to make a more realistic "behind the scenes" Muppet show.
But maybe these days a return to the past would be particularly welcome (and surely there's still a lot of appeal for kids). I've got to imagine they've got a potential guest list a mile long. My partner and I kept thinking that some of the puppeteers must have been filled with glee at being able to recreate this show.
It did make me laugh when Sabrina Carpenter said she'd watched the show, her parents had watched the show, and her grandparents had watched the show. We'd be rather young to be her grandparents but, yeah, 50th anniversary after all.
4) I found the first of my top 3 shows of the year last month when we watched How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. I'd quite enjoyed Derry Girls, so was interested in trying this. I found it had a lot of the fun from Derry with an added mystery at the center. ( Read more... )
5) When in his latest charity auction batch Stephen Colbert listed a Lord of the Rings sword that had been on the stage wall, we couldn't believe he'd be selling such a thing at any price. Turns out it's a replica of the actual sword used in the film, which he already has (and he joked he would be buried with). Even so, I figured it would go for a lot, and it's going to be well over $25,000. His neckties are going for over $1000.
2) Following up on what I wrote about in my last post, I watched several episodes of Paradise S2. I'm not sure why I'm still watching this. ( Spoilers )
3) By contrast, I saw the Muppet Show (special? Apparently a one-off?) and found it a delight. Disney has definitely struggled in finding a way to utilize the Muppets and two shows have now failed. I'm glad they tried to do something different with them, and I rather liked the show where they were trying to make a more realistic "behind the scenes" Muppet show.
But maybe these days a return to the past would be particularly welcome (and surely there's still a lot of appeal for kids). I've got to imagine they've got a potential guest list a mile long. My partner and I kept thinking that some of the puppeteers must have been filled with glee at being able to recreate this show.
It did make me laugh when Sabrina Carpenter said she'd watched the show, her parents had watched the show, and her grandparents had watched the show. We'd be rather young to be her grandparents but, yeah, 50th anniversary after all.
4) I found the first of my top 3 shows of the year last month when we watched How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. I'd quite enjoyed Derry Girls, so was interested in trying this. I found it had a lot of the fun from Derry with an added mystery at the center. ( Read more... )
5) When in his latest charity auction batch Stephen Colbert listed a Lord of the Rings sword that had been on the stage wall, we couldn't believe he'd be selling such a thing at any price. Turns out it's a replica of the actual sword used in the film, which he already has (and he joked he would be buried with). Even so, I figured it would go for a lot, and it's going to be well over $25,000. His neckties are going for over $1000.
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Mar. 9th, 2026 01:02 pmaurumcalendulaI'm a bit sad VidUKon no longer doing DVDs/USBs of premieres (I totally get their decision), but it did get me thinking about trying to make DVDs (or possible Blu-Rays) of my vids so I have them on physical media.
Any recs for software for Windows? (something that creates basic menus would be nice)
Any recs for software for Windows? (something that creates basic menus would be nice)
Free art!
Mar. 9th, 2026 04:39 pmnayeRecently I've been on a free art kick, browsing images of paintings, sketches, sculptures, photos, needlework and so many other types of artworks that various institutions have digitalized. Here are two such fantastic resources.
The Met Collection
Travel around the world and across 5,000 years of history through 490,000+ works of art.
This is where I found this absolutely fantastic 19th century sketchbook. The artist is unidentified - the only information available is that they must have been Japanese (even though the sketchbook was marked "Chinese Drawings"). I loved their art so much I have turned two of their pieces into embroideries! (But that's a different post.)
And then I learned about the Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan, (ColBase) where you can find treasures like THIS!!
See it here on ColBase.
ColBase is a database containing the collections of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan. It encompasses the four National Museums in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, and Kyushu, the two National Research Institutes for Cultural Properties in Tokyo and Nara, and the Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan.
About ColBase & (very generous!) Terms of Use.
I have spent so much time doing random browsing, and I've found so much lovely art - and several amazing pieces I kind of want to call "ye olde shitposting" for lack of a better term for something that is clearly a little weird and maybe meant to provoke a reaction in the viewer?
Or what else would you call He's Made Up of Many People, which. Yes. That is indeed what's going on here.
But that kind of stuff is in the minority! It's all art that is out of copyright, but some of it still feels very modern, like this painting of Mount Hiei from the 1920s.
Anyway, I can definitely recommend art scrolling as an option to doom scrolling!
The Met Collection
Travel around the world and across 5,000 years of history through 490,000+ works of art.
This is where I found this absolutely fantastic 19th century sketchbook. The artist is unidentified - the only information available is that they must have been Japanese (even though the sketchbook was marked "Chinese Drawings"). I loved their art so much I have turned two of their pieces into embroideries! (But that's a different post.)
And then I learned about the Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan, (ColBase) where you can find treasures like THIS!!
See it here on ColBase.
ColBase is a database containing the collections of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan. It encompasses the four National Museums in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, and Kyushu, the two National Research Institutes for Cultural Properties in Tokyo and Nara, and the Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan.
About ColBase & (very generous!) Terms of Use.
I have spent so much time doing random browsing, and I've found so much lovely art - and several amazing pieces I kind of want to call "ye olde shitposting" for lack of a better term for something that is clearly a little weird and maybe meant to provoke a reaction in the viewer?
Or what else would you call He's Made Up of Many People, which. Yes. That is indeed what's going on here.
But that kind of stuff is in the minority! It's all art that is out of copyright, but some of it still feels very modern, like this painting of Mount Hiei from the 1920s.
Anyway, I can definitely recommend art scrolling as an option to doom scrolling!
The Long and Short of It
Mar. 9th, 2026 02:48 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
scalziwhatever_feed
I promised Krissy that I would not buy any new guitars in 2025, and that was a promise I mostly kept (I did buy one guitar, but it was for her). However, it is now 2026, and last month I turned in two full-length books, and I thought therefore it might be okay to treat myself. That said, I pretty much have every guitar I might ever need, in most of the the major body shapes, so if I was going to get any more of them, they needed to fill a niche that was not otherwise occupied.
And, well, guess what? I found two stringed instruments that fit the bill! What a surprise! And as a bonus, neither is technically a guitar.
Small one first: This is an Ohana O’Nino sopranissimo ukulele, “sopranissimo” being a size down from the soprano uke, which is typically understood to be the smallest ukulele that one might usually find. The O’Nino here is seventeen inches long from stem to stern, and is absolutely dinky in the hand. Nevertheless, it’s an actual musical instrument, not a toy, and if you have small and/or nimble enough fingers, plays perfectly well. It’s not going to be anyone’s primary ukulele (I have my concert-sized Fender Fullerton Jazzmaster for that), but if you’re traveling — and I often am — and want to take along a physical music instrument — which I sometimes do! — then this is very much the travel-sized uke to tote around.
There are even smaller ukes available, but those do start being in the “is this a musical instrument for ants” category of things. I’ll stop with a sopranissimo.
Almost literally on the other end of the scale we have the Eastwood BG 64 Baritone Guitarlin. The one type of guitar I did not have in my collection was a baritone guitar (which adds an additional four frets to the guitar on the low end, allowing for a lower/heavier/twangier sound). This particular baritone is one of an esoteric variant of guitar known as a “guitarlin,” in which the guitar adds frets on the high end to be able to access notes that one would only usually find on a mandolin. So, basically, this instrument goes from baritone to mandolin over 35 frets, which is, to be clear, an absolutely ridiculous number of frets to have on a single instrument. I can already see the serious guitarists out there despairing about the intonation in the mando frets, but those people are no fun.
I was traveling when my guitarlin arrived and I haven’t yet been able to play around with it yet, but here’s a short video of the guy who helped design it fooling about with it:
(And yes, I got the one with the tremolo, because of course I did.)
Between these two instruments my collector itch has been scratched for a bit, and I look forward to messing around with both in the upcoming months. I won’t say I won’t get any other guitars ever, but at this point it’s getting more difficult to find where the gaps are in what I have, so I do imagine my acquisitions will slow down rather a bit. Let’s hope, anyway. I’m running out of room in the house for them. Although I guess I do have a whole church, don’t I. Hmmm.
— JS
Book Review: Hornblower and the Hotspur
Mar. 9th, 2026 10:33 amosprey_archerWe begin Hornblower and the Hotspur with Horatio Hornblower standing at the altar with his blushing bride Maria, desperately informing himself that theyâre not married just yet! Thereâs still time to run for it! Only he canât bring himself to commit the cruel act of leaving her at the altar, so instead he stands there like a lump and gets married.
This is one of the most inexplicable marriages Iâve ever encountered in fiction. It appears that Maria confessed her love for Hornblower and Hornblower was unable to think of any response except âWill you marry me?â, despite the fact that he doesnât love her, in fact doesnât think he should ever marry, and lives in dread of passing his temperament on to his children. (I should note that he is in no way honor bound to her before the wedding: sheâs not pregnant with his child and he didn't seduce her. He didn't even flirt with her! He just existed in her general vicinity and she fell for him.)
He then spends the rest of the book asking himself âWhat would a good husband do?â and then enacting the part of a good husband, in much the way that he sometimes enacts the part of a good captain.
littlerhymes and I discussed many possible explanations for Hornblowerâs behavior, none of which were entirely satisfactory, but to be fair, what WOULD be a satisfactory explanation?
1. Hornblower is a deeply closeted gay man who is marrying Maria for reasons of social pressure. However, there seem to be plenty of bachelors in the Navy, so itâs unclear how much social pressure he would actually be experiencing, especially since he seems to have no family clamoring for grandchildren/an heir.
(Whether or not heâs gay, there is alas little evidence here that he sees Bush as more than an excellent lieutenant, although Bush is clearly still nuts about Hornblower. The bit where Hornblower fails to mention his own act of heroism in a letter to the Gazette and Bush is like âIt isnât RIGHT, sir.â And also the bit where Bush is tells Hornblower heâs worried about Hornblowerâs health and Hornblower is like who cares about this SACK of MEAT that is my BODY.)
2. Hornblower is SO deeply repressed that he canât cope with the fact that he is experiencing the weakness of having a human emotion (âloveâ), but actually does love Maria on some level. He keeps feeling surprising upswellings of tenderness for her. Also, he castigates himself severely every time he DOES experience an emotion (or also human weaknesses like âsleepinessâ or âhungerâ), which I feel has probably damaged his ability to recognize emotions at all.
But even if he loves her, he clearly doesnât have a lot of respect for her. Might love her purely in the sense of feeling an animal attraction, and also gratitude for the fact that someone cares about him? He muses at one point that itâs strange to be going to sea with someone on land who gives a damn about him.
3. Hornblower doesnât think that he deserves nice things, so he marries Maria to make sure that he will have a wife who is ill-suited to him, as he deserves.
Oh, also there are some sea battles and stuff. Hornblower is sent with the fleet to capture some Spanish ships carrying a fortune and then has to hare off chasing another ship at the opportune moment so he doesnât get a share of the massive amount of prize money. But then the Crown takes the money anyway so he actually would have gotten nothing even if he had been there.
Iâm pretty sure these Spanish treasure ships formed the basis for a similar incident near the end of Post Captain, only you better believe Jack Aubrey was on hand to win his part of the prize money. I finished Post Captain confident than Jack could pay off his debts and marry Sophie, but now it looks like maybe he wonât be getting the money after allâŚ?
We will find out in HMS Surprise, but not for about a week, as I am setting off on a trip to Massachusetts on Wednesday!littlerhymes and I will resume our sailing voyages once I return.
This is one of the most inexplicable marriages Iâve ever encountered in fiction. It appears that Maria confessed her love for Hornblower and Hornblower was unable to think of any response except âWill you marry me?â, despite the fact that he doesnât love her, in fact doesnât think he should ever marry, and lives in dread of passing his temperament on to his children. (I should note that he is in no way honor bound to her before the wedding: sheâs not pregnant with his child and he didn't seduce her. He didn't even flirt with her! He just existed in her general vicinity and she fell for him.)
He then spends the rest of the book asking himself âWhat would a good husband do?â and then enacting the part of a good husband, in much the way that he sometimes enacts the part of a good captain.
littlerhymes and I discussed many possible explanations for Hornblowerâs behavior, none of which were entirely satisfactory, but to be fair, what WOULD be a satisfactory explanation?1. Hornblower is a deeply closeted gay man who is marrying Maria for reasons of social pressure. However, there seem to be plenty of bachelors in the Navy, so itâs unclear how much social pressure he would actually be experiencing, especially since he seems to have no family clamoring for grandchildren/an heir.
(Whether or not heâs gay, there is alas little evidence here that he sees Bush as more than an excellent lieutenant, although Bush is clearly still nuts about Hornblower. The bit where Hornblower fails to mention his own act of heroism in a letter to the Gazette and Bush is like âIt isnât RIGHT, sir.â And also the bit where Bush is tells Hornblower heâs worried about Hornblowerâs health and Hornblower is like who cares about this SACK of MEAT that is my BODY.)
2. Hornblower is SO deeply repressed that he canât cope with the fact that he is experiencing the weakness of having a human emotion (âloveâ), but actually does love Maria on some level. He keeps feeling surprising upswellings of tenderness for her. Also, he castigates himself severely every time he DOES experience an emotion (or also human weaknesses like âsleepinessâ or âhungerâ), which I feel has probably damaged his ability to recognize emotions at all.
But even if he loves her, he clearly doesnât have a lot of respect for her. Might love her purely in the sense of feeling an animal attraction, and also gratitude for the fact that someone cares about him? He muses at one point that itâs strange to be going to sea with someone on land who gives a damn about him.
3. Hornblower doesnât think that he deserves nice things, so he marries Maria to make sure that he will have a wife who is ill-suited to him, as he deserves.
Oh, also there are some sea battles and stuff. Hornblower is sent with the fleet to capture some Spanish ships carrying a fortune and then has to hare off chasing another ship at the opportune moment so he doesnât get a share of the massive amount of prize money. But then the Crown takes the money anyway so he actually would have gotten nothing even if he had been there.
Iâm pretty sure these Spanish treasure ships formed the basis for a similar incident near the end of Post Captain, only you better believe Jack Aubrey was on hand to win his part of the prize money. I finished Post Captain confident than Jack could pay off his debts and marry Sophie, but now it looks like maybe he wonât be getting the money after allâŚ?
We will find out in HMS Surprise, but not for about a week, as I am setting off on a trip to Massachusetts on Wednesday!
littlerhymes and I will resume our sailing voyages once I return.9-1-1: Fan Fiction: Worth It
Mar. 9th, 2026 09:30 amdarkjediqueen posting in fan_flashworksTitle: Worth It
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Explicit Sex
Fandom: 9-1-1
Relationships: May Grant/Ravi Panikkar
Tags: Established Relationship, First Time
Summary: The anticipation was worth it.
Word Count: 2,220
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Explicit Sex
Fandom: 9-1-1
Relationships: May Grant/Ravi Panikkar
Tags: Established Relationship, First Time
Summary: The anticipation was worth it.
Word Count: 2,220
( Worth It )
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March 9th, 2026: It truly works* for every single narrative! (*For a minimum viable definition of "works".) – Ryan | ||
Korean practice
Mar. 9th, 2026 01:57 pmprofiterole_readsHere's the new Korean practice post! As usual now, it's an open chat.
You can write about whatever you want. If you're uninspired, tell us the story of what you're currently watching/reading/playing...
You can talk to one another.
You can also correct one another. Or just indicate "No corrections, please" in your comment if you prefer.
íě´í ! <3
You can write about whatever you want. If you're uninspired, tell us the story of what you're currently watching/reading/playing...
You can talk to one another.
You can also correct one another. Or just indicate "No corrections, please" in your comment if you prefer.
íě´í ! <3
Knights Errant (by Sholio) (Teen)
Mar. 10th, 2026 12:54 ammific posting in stargateficrecShows: SGA
Rec Category: John Sheppard
Characters: John Sheppard & Rodney McKay, Elizabeth Weir, Jeannie Miller, Jennifer Keller
Categories: Gen
Words: 5300
Warnings: no AO3 type warnings apply (except Rodney died and is now a car, I guess)
Author on DW:sholio
Author's Website: Sholio on AO3, Sholio's own site (most of the SGA fics)
Link: Knights Errant on LJ, and on Wayback
Why This Must Be Read: Sholio describes this as a cracktastic AU - it's a fusion with the 1980s TV show Knight Rider. Sheppard is the detective rescued from death and paired with a modified Pontiac Firebird Trans Am controlled by an AI (ah, for the days when AI was cool!) - which is Rodney, in the fic. It's very cool and funny (when we get to Rodney), and an excellent read!
( snippet of the fic under here )
Rec Category: John Sheppard
Characters: John Sheppard & Rodney McKay, Elizabeth Weir, Jeannie Miller, Jennifer Keller
Categories: Gen
Words: 5300
Warnings: no AO3 type warnings apply (except Rodney died and is now a car, I guess)
Author on DW:
sholioAuthor's Website: Sholio on AO3, Sholio's own site (most of the SGA fics)
Link: Knights Errant on LJ, and on Wayback
Why This Must Be Read: Sholio describes this as a cracktastic AU - it's a fusion with the 1980s TV show Knight Rider. Sheppard is the detective rescued from death and paired with a modified Pontiac Firebird Trans Am controlled by an AI (ah, for the days when AI was cool!) - which is Rodney, in the fic. It's very cool and funny (when we get to Rodney), and an excellent read!
( snippet of the fic under here )
International Women's Day Belated Post
Mar. 9th, 2026 11:33 amoursinI am given to understand that there is a campaign afoot to get a Blue Plaque for Dame Rebecca, as, quite shamefully, there is not one already.
***
Dorset Archives Trust seeks donations for archive catalogue: we feel they might foreground rather more than they do that this is for the papers of Sylvia Townsend Warner???
***
The Woman Who Invented the Penny Bank - I do not think I had heard of Priscilla Wakefield before.
***
Ladies of the Lights: Female Lighthouse Keepers in the UK and the US (Of course I knew about Grace Darling, even before Jessica Mitford wrote about her.)
***
Sadder stories of women: Hidden lives of female prisoners past and present:
The lives of female prisoners in the 19th Century and those experiencing the criminal justice system today are not dissimilar, a charity worker has said.
An exhibition at Newcastle Cathedral is documenting the untold stories from female prisoners at the former Newcastle Prison, which stood in the city's Carliol Square between 1828-1925.
Volunteers from a family history group have begun transcribing the records of at least 6,000 women, imprisoned by Cambridge University in the 19th Century. I have read the book by Biggs (The Spinning House) but was underwhelmed as a result of her stylistic narrative choices. I am all for this sort of project.
***
Hmmmm. While I would certainly agree that female desire is not taken seriously enough: A very paternalistic attitudeâ: why is female desire still not taken seriously?, I am massively, massively, massively cynical about the potential of the 'pink pill' or female viagra as I had several posts here some years back about the very unprepossessing results produced*. In particular I adduce this link to the ever sensible Dr Petra Boynton's thoughts. Is this just being bigged up by pharma entrepreneurs???
*And, of course, the notion that you can fix women's libidos with a magic bullet pill.
