30 nights of revelry at koi tower

Apr. 7th, 2026 05:47 pm
starandrea: (Default)
[personal profile] starandrea
Oh, right. That was what happened when I wrote Lan Xichen/Nie Mingjue; it's coming back to me.

That is just 2000 words of soap opera, right there.

“I’m sorry,” Lan Huan says, and it’s more bitingly sarcastic than he’s been in years. “What did you want me to think? I slept with you and you decided to die. What exactly am I supposed to take from that?”

(Also it's chapter 28/30 in a story that's 14th in a million-word series, so I'm not claiming it makes sense out of context. But I really enjoyed rereading it.)

current fandom events

Apr. 7th, 2026 12:39 pm
svgurl: (sherlock holmes: holmes/watson)
[personal profile] svgurl
[community profile] artistalley is a community for convention artists to share event news, ideas, feedback & critiques, manufacturers, etc

[community profile] allbingo will be running a Flower Fest Bingo throughout the month of April. There are more pre-made cards or you can create your own based on the available prompts.

[community profile] vforvictoryexchange, a multi-fandom exchange about V-shaped polyamory, is open for sign-ups until April 10th, 10PM EDT.

[community profile] fandom5k, a multi-fandom gift exchange for fic with a 5,000-word minimum and comics with a 5-page minimum, has opened sign-ups until April 11th, 10:59PM EDT.

[community profile] bitesizedfandomsex, a multifandom exchange for fandoms you can pick up in eight hours or less, has opened sign-ups until April 11th, 11:59PM EDT.

[community profile] everythingisfemslashex, a femslash exchange (genderbent characters/ships - both cis and transgender - are welcome too), is accepting nominations until April 12th, 8PM GMT+1 (link will go to the schedule/rules post and has tagset page as well).

[community profile] seasonsofdrabbles is open for sign-ups until April 12th, 11:59PM EDT. Nominations are still open and will be until sign-ups close as well.

[community profile] holmestice, a Sherlock Holmes fandom(s) fanworks exchange that runs twice a year, has opened sign-ups for the Summer 2026 round until April 13th.

[community profile] allbutromance, a multifandom gift exchange focused on all kinds of platonic relationships, is accepting nominations until April 16th, 8PM CEST/UTC+1.

[personal profile] likealighthouse is running april iconathon—an icon prompt fest, where people can leave prompts and others can fill them with icons. The event will run until May 6th.

[community profile] fancake's theme of the month is: arranged marriage. Click on the banner below to learn more! :)

Two gold rings photographed on top of a dictionary opened to the definition of marriage. Text: Arranged Marriage, at Fancake.

javascript win !

Apr. 7th, 2026 01:28 pm
kossai: masculine form of kossai, cute wink (Default)
[personal profile] kossai
one part of radio pages is that youtube videos come with safety notice field . this is more useful in pride radio page , where much more likely to include photosensitive-trigger flashy rainbows , but still decide to keep around for fae radio page .

right now mostly warn for unstable visuals , such as those from generative AI music videos - while stance is to not include generative AI music , some legitimate artists do have experimental phase with generative AI album art and music videos . this can be useful for people who just want to avoid on principle , but also people who would find visuals trigger in some way due to shifty unstable nature .

anyway , this is still mostly unused on fae radio page , but feel need to define as none regardless for transparency ... except still sometimes forget , and then show up as undefined .

well wait , hold on , this is javascript . this is code . noodles . surely there is some way to noodle " if this field is undefined , use this text in place " - that way , any track where this field is undefined will display none .
sure enough figure out this little tidbit :
              if (youtubeTrack[youtubeChoice].at(3) == undefined) {
                youtubeTrack[youtubeChoice].push("none")
              };


look for field index 3 , which is video safety notice - if undefined , push "none" to end of array and thus into field index 3 , which will display " video safety notices: none " - and if there is already text in field index 3 , will just display that instead :)

frustration over generative AI music

Apr. 7th, 2026 06:47 pm
kossai: masculine form of kossai, cute wink (Default)
[personal profile] kossai
sometimes generative AI musicians can be hard to tell even with history and presence red flags - one person alone can not produce music at fast pace , but some teams and collaborators might be able . or , sometimes people upload backlogs together , and have to decide whether to trust that " recorded in 2022 " label is real . so then need to actually examine musically ... and fuck , that can be so hard . not because always perfect , but because need to have more in-depth knowledge of musical conventions and genres all across board to even judge quality .

easiest descriptor is brain popcorn , but that is hard to explain - just this sense that actual musical content is unimportant , not really meant to pay attention and analyse . but this can also be seen in corporate music made by actual people , or artists who produce for years and just grow so incredibly tired , so not always certain tell . might want to choose to avoid regardless of source , but regardless , think important to try and dig deeper . problem with that is sheer scope ! 

so far think best way to grasp is to listen to definitively real examples of genre and just compare , but even that can be hard when unfamiliar with standard tropes and styles of genre , let alone experimental ones . and then , if nothing within individual tracks sound immediately wrong , kind of just have to compare within tracks to see if phrases make sense , and compare suspicious tracks to each other to see if sound like come from same prompt with same construction . that is one thing which appreciate about videos of suno - can see suno offer multiple choices based on prompts , so people will just take all of those options and package together as album .

this all exhaust so much . in theory , would not even hate idea of machine generated music ! but hate what people do with this - mislead , pretend to offer something more authentic , lie about source and say definitely handcraft for sure ... if spend money on music , then want to know what spend on - someone's legitimate time and talent , or not ? feel even earlier examples of machine generated music would be worth more than current ones , given ease and accessibility of current tools . and even if available freely , there is only so much time with which to listen to music - do not want to oversaturate library with music that was spit out never meant for people to analyse or feel deeply . 

time to go frustratedly work on fae radio page and hope stance of no AI music mean something there . 
ysabetwordsmith: Shaeth is drunk (one god)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This is today's freebie. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] torc87. It also fills the "Escape" square in my 4-1-26 card for the Flower Fest Bingo. This poem belongs to the series One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis.

Read more... )

Birdfeeding

Apr. 7th, 2026 12:54 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy, breezy, and cold.  A beautiful day to stay indoors and write!

I fed the birds.  I've seen a small mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a male cardinal.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 4/7/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a lot more sparrows and house finches, several starlings, and a fox squirrel.

EDIT 4/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.





.

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Apr. 7th, 2026 12:04 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "I am SO done with this!" I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for activists, rebels, Women Who Run with the Saberteeth, explorers, traitors, exes, people who escape domestic violence, refugees, runaway youth, escaped slaves or other captives, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, stray or feral animals, other people who get into untenable situations, protesting, planning, throwing in the towel, escaping, running like someone left the gate open, adventuring, hitchhiking, quitting school, divorcing, disowning, betraying, teaching, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, trails, sailing ships, campervans or RVs, distant lands, the forest primeval, prehistory, liminal zones, schools, homeless shelters, hotels, churches, sharehouses, campfires, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where the intolerable happens, unhappy relationships, protest rallies, slavery or captivity, locks or chains, travel mishaps, sudden surprises, the buck stops here, trial and error, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, Get a Life Program, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


EDIT 4/7/26 -- [personal profile] alatefeline offers this challenge:
My /personal/ challenge, for myself and others, based on a recent conversation:
Think of the weirdest science fiction you're read (or watched, played etc) recently.
(Other speculative forms also welcome).
Now think of something WEIRDER.
Now go prompt /that./


Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Flower Fest Bingo Card 4-1-26

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One is developing its own neurovariant culture after rebelling against the Galactic Arms.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past.

A Conflagration of Dragons has the Six Races (plus the dragons) who all have different cultures and climates. This often poses challenges for the refugees.

Coracle Shores is about leaving a distressed world for somewhere better.

The Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find enough resources to survive, when former cities are unsafe.

The Moon Door explores a women's chronic pain group and lycanthropy.

Not Quite Kansas deals with demons and angels, also characters dumped out of their original worlds.

The Ocracies has a wide variety of countries crammed together, each with a totally different government. Sometimes people leave their homeland to find something they like better.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks after quitting as the God of Evili.

Path of the Paladins includes a few characters who have walked away from unbearable situations, like Johan.

Peculiar Obligations combines Quakers and pirates, the latter of whom are well versed in weighing anchor.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society. The supervillains are the most likely to cut and run from a bad situation.

Schrodinger's Heroes has a lot of situations that people want to get away from including Chris avoiding some of his relatives, Morgan moving to a new dimension, and dimensions that just suck for everyone.

The Wandering is a series about fantasy time travel where people loop back within their own lifespan.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

Read more... )

Space Exploration

Apr. 6th, 2026 05:29 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Artemis 2 lunar flyby is Monday. What to expect

After launching on April 1, 2026, the Artemis 2 mission has already passed the halfway point between the Earth and moon. It will enter the sphere of the moon’s gravitational influence — where lunar gravity begins affecting it more than earthly gravity — today, Sunday, April 5, 2026, aka Flight Day 5. Tomorrow, April 6, Flight Day 6, the 4-person crew will perform its closest flyby to the moon. The brave astronauts will pass approximately 4,600 miles (7,400 km) above the lunar surface.

During this loop around the moon’s far side, the astronauts will break the all-time human distance record from Earth. The crew of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission set this record at 00:21 UTC on April 15, 1970 (7:21 p.m. EST on April 14, 1970). At that moment, Apollo 13 was approximately 248,655 miles (400,171 km) away from Earth’s surface.



Exciting!

Nature

Apr. 6th, 2026 04:51 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
King Charles III England Coast Path

The 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.
starandrea: (Default)
[personal profile] starandrea
I'm taking the dog to the park, then I'm coming back to watch episode 4. Or write. Or both.

(I should watch episodes that have Nie Mingjue in them to further the writing agenda. He's such an easygoing guy in my mind; I have no idea why. Maybe because the only time I think of him it's from Lan Xichen's perspective and I imagine them being childhood sweethearts.)

Actually I'm watering the dahlias first. But all of you are the best, just FYI.

...

Okay, I'm not gonna lie, I didn't watch episode 4.

Episodes 10 & 23 )

sky cotl ~ rage quit imminent

Apr. 6th, 2026 01:59 pm
kossai: masculine form of kossai, cute wink (Default)
[personal profile] kossai
in game right now , trial of fire . want to find map shrine and also grab winged light , figure fine , years since try trial of fire and that was from mobile , maybe will have easier time now on computer .
nope ! still fucking hate this trial , can not see jack fucking shit . hey is eternal darkness good game design ? 

can handle trial of water . like trial of earth . love trial of air . can not stand trial of fire , this bullshit . but somehow manage to get to top floor , and do not want to quit when technically close to end - except no idea where that end is , because trial of fire is load of bollocks . 

(no subject)

Apr. 6th, 2026 03:17 pm
dani_meows: (dw: Amy pond waits to be saved)
[personal profile] dani_meows
Jazzy Bean has quit eating and then he's been willing to eat only half and half. And then he's been willing to eat the smallest bite of chicken...

So we did not end up making an appointment for our vet to send him to my other cats and my best friends mom who was my dear Pywhackett's second human and who I sent back to her in 2014 when Py was 25. Such a dear Meezer. I imagine sending all my cats to Penny who will love them and tend them the way she tended all nine of her cats before the cancer took her life much to young more than 20 years ago.

So Ian and I are in agreement that it comes down to tomorrow. Before they do advance testing we want to know if he's already wasting away beyond saving. Because I only want to put him through testing if we are not already too late. If they say he's not to far gone from having a bad appetite, then we will do a test or two. And make our decision from there.

The best case scenario will be he's able to get the dental surgery, the thyroid in June and the lung thing is just inflammation. They give him a tube feeding and then we get the dental surgery done asap so he remembers to eat food.

Then he lives for another few years before crossing the rainbow bridge. Because I believe they are escorted by my other cats that they knew, he gets guided by my tragic ginger son to my other dear cats.

If it's not looking good then we will either have it done at Blue Pearl or make arrangements for our primary vet to send him across the bridge.

I want it to be the best scenario so much.

But a few few times over the last 2 weeks I have had hopes only for things to get worse. So I will be full of gloom and anxiety and grief until we know either way tomorrow.

Cat ownership is not for the weak. They keep breaking my heart and yet I know that if the cat distribution center dropped another senior kitty on my doorstep I would take them in too.

Life

Apr. 6th, 2026 01:55 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations


~2000 years later, this is still 100% timely. That's a depressing observation regarding humanity's potential for progress ... or lack thereof.


Birdfeeding

Apr. 6th, 2026 12:20 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is sunny and cool.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity yet.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 4/6/26 -- I started raking part of the orchard so I can sow grass seed there.

I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

EDIT 4/6/26 -- I did more raking in the orchard. There are a lot of dead branches that need to be removed.

I've seen the turkey vulture overhead again. I glimpsed a metallic green beetle, likely a tiger beetle.

EDIT 4/6/26 -- I sowed grass seed over the raked portion of the orchard.

EDIT 4/6/26 -- I started setting up where to plant the American plum.

EDIT 4/6/26 -- I planted the American plum in the savanna. I mulched around it.

EDIT 4/6/26 -- I planted the spicebush in the savanna and mulched around it. This concludes the batch of seedlings from Prairie Moon.

EDIT 4/6/26 -- I did some grass trimming in the savanna.

EDIT 4/6/26 -- I sowed a scarlet runner bean under the large redbud tree in the savanna. This year I'm experimenting with growing legumes as living fertilizer.

The honeybees are very active, with a constant stream going in and out of the be tree.

I've seen a fox squirrel at the hopper feeder.

EDIT 4/6/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 4/6/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 4/6/26 -- I gathered a trolley of branches from the orchard and dumped them in the firepit.

I am done for the night.

Transportation

Apr. 6th, 2026 11:45 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Innovation Theater

The federal transportation funding model was designed in an era of large-scale capital expansion. That structure persists today. Projects compete within funding categories that prioritize new capital investment and visible transformation. Good stewardship — making what you have work better, doing more with less — is not rewarded.


The federal standards do a bad job of meeting people's needs, because they measure the wrong things. However, the article includes an example of a different way to measure what a bus system does...

Read more... )

JOY

Apr. 6th, 2026 10:38 am
althea_valara: A screenshot of my main Final Fantasy XI character. It's a close up, and she's wearing the Teal Saio robe set which features a golden circlet. The character herself has black hair in a ponytail and brown eyes. (ffxi)
[personal profile] althea_valara
The Finch App is doing a challenge this month where you check in with your friends. The latest check-in is to ask what's bringing your friend(s) joy right now. So, let me know! What is bring you joy these days?

My current joy is Final Fantasy XI. I'm working on my former main character (who I want to make main again eventually) so I got some good gear for her, and started farming telepoints and Survival Guides, both of which make it a lot easier and quicker to get around the world.

I have plans to do Rhapsodies of Vana'diel on her, and if I'm doing *that* then I might as well work on documenting it for my Neocities site. I went back through my logs to find the ones for previous Rhapsodies missions, but I must've played some without using Windower (the third party tool that captures the logs for me, along with doing other neat things). This means I don't have the cutscenes for some of the early missions. What to do? Why, play them on another character!

So I reactivated Valara, my Tarutaru alt. She's adorable! But I forgot that she was pretty much just a mule - her highest job is Red Mage at level 30, and she hasn't unlocked subjobs yet (which you can do at level 18, oops). That's fine, I don't mind playing on her a bit to get her up to scratch.

I also figured that if I'm doing Rhapsodies on her, I should do the Rank 1-5 missions. I've already got Bastok missions documented, and I streamed San d'Oria missions, which leaves Windurst. So I set about last night moving her from Bastok to Windurst. I had to teleport to her home point in Jeuno and then rent a chocobo to ride there. It occurred to me I should have done the raptor mount quest, but too late now - I'll do it later.

Finally made it to Windurst, went to Walls to change my allegiance - nope, wouldn't allow me to do so because I'm on a Bastok mission currently. Oops? At least the Bastok mission takes you to Windurst. I'll knock that out and then switch allegiances.

But that was all I did last night because I was tired from family time. Still, I had fun! Looking forward to more messing around on alts and mains.

I never thought I'd see the day

Apr. 6th, 2026 01:11 am
spiralicious: Cereal Killer Mask (Default)
[personal profile] spiralicious
Circular badge with the words 'I was here for beta' with an AO3 logo 

I just assumed it would be in beta until the end of time. My account was created in 2011.

Monday Update 4-6-26

Apr. 6th, 2026 01:11 am
ysabetwordsmith: Artwork of the wordsmith typing. (typing)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Space Exploration
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
Fossils
Birdfeeding
National Native Plant Month
Social Media Design
Philosophical Questions: Miracles
Follow Friday 4-3-26: Marvel
Today's Adventures
Birdfeeding
History
Review: 12 Rivers
Community Thursdays
Website Updates
Cyberspace Theory
Birdfeeding
Today's Adventures
Flower Fest Bingo Card 4-1-26
Birdfeeding
Earth Month
Books

Linguistics has 46 comments. Philosophical Questions: Pregnancy has 65 comments. Safety has 77 comments.


There will be a Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, April 7 with a theme of "I am SO done with this!"


It rained most of the past week, sometimes with howling wind. :/ Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a male cardinal, a male goldfinch, a male pheasant, a turkey vulture, and a fox squirrel. Red-winged blackbirds have been singing overhead. Leafing out: mayapple, Dutchman's breeches, trillium, yellow trout lily, Solomon's seal, lily of the valley. Currently blooming: daffodils, violets, grape hyacinths, tulips, cherry, anemone, leucojum, yellow violet. Some of the peonies have buds.

Space Exploration

Apr. 5th, 2026 09:29 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Baby stars 'sneeze' out giant rings of gas during formation

Researchers have found that a baby star in the Taurus constellation, a nearby star-forming region, is surrounded by a warm ring about 93 billion miles across – a structure earlier observations had not revealed.

The discovery recasts the first stages of star growth as a process that can fling magnetic energy into the surrounding cloud, reshaping the gas a young star must live inside.



This is so adorable. :D

Climate Change

Apr. 5th, 2026 09:28 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Study shows thawing permafrost releases much more greenhouse gas than expected

The study reveals that thawing permafrost can become 25 to 100 times more permeable, meaning gases can travel through it far more easily than when it’s frozen.

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