February LOVE-fest

Feb. 9th, 2026 09:54 pm
stonepicnicking_okapi: heart shaped tree (hearttree)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi
1. first love
2. friendship
3. love of nature
4. passion
5. soulmates
6. unrequited love
7. lust
8. love of the game
9. devotion
10. love of food
11. polyamory
12. long distance love
13. lovesickness
14. romantic love
15. love of place
16. marriage
17. love of order and method
18. divine love
19. platonic love
20. infatuation
21. maternal love
22. obsession
23. agape
24. love of animals
25. unconditional love
26. forbidden love
27. ecstasy
28. the beloved

--

I just finished a detective novel where the motive revolves around an anti-abortion fanatic so it had me thinking interpreting devotion in other ways.

Fandom: BBC Sherlock
Length: 100
Rating: Gen but warning for mention of pro-life/anti-abortion violence and fanaticism
Summary: After a case, Sherlock makes an assumption.

Read more... )

this is my favorite solo performance of Jungkook's, and this song has a line (which actually rhymes in English! Huzzah! Most of the time, their English lyrics sort-of-not-really rhyme): Show you what devotion is / deeper than the ocean is.

Sullivan without Gilbert

Feb. 5th, 2026 01:37 pm
[personal profile] dandylover1
Hello, Dear Readers. I promised you some Sullivan without Gilbert, but it took me a little while to get to it. Still, it was well worth the wait. There is also a funny anecdote from DB in this one.

thoughts on Arthur Sullivan: Cox and Box or The Long Lost Brothers, and Haydn Serenade (really by Romanus Hoffstetter )

Film post: Carnival of Souls (1962)

Feb. 9th, 2026 05:10 pm
loganberrybunny: Drawing of my lapine character's face by Eliki (Default)
[personal profile] loganberrybunny
ublic

Carnival of Souls (1962) film poster
Carnival of Souls (1962)

This was fantastic. An independent horror film made for about $1.73 (and without abusing its cast, yay!), this follows the story of Mary (Candace Hilligoss) who comes out of a river after a crash which killed her two companions. She moves to take a job as a church organist, but is haunted by a strange, silent man (think a less violent Michael Myers, kind of) and discomfited by an abandoned fairground nearby.

Not terrifying as such, but wonderfully creepy and uneasy, with the organ score contributing to this. More grounded unease is provided by Mary's less-wonderfully-creepy neighbour in her rooming house. A nice jump scare late on that I didn't see coming at all, though I should have. I did twig the twist from fairly early on, some of the dialogue is a bit awkward, and the pace is slow, but allowing for that I enjoyed this greatly. ★★★★
thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
I started collecting these decades ago. Amazing how apt many are and from people who have been dead decades, if not centuries.

* * * * *


Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. -Frank Wilhoit

They are dismantling the sleeping middle class. More and more people are becoming poor. We are their cattle. We are being bred for slavery. -They Live (movie), 1989

We are each entitled to our own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts. -- Patrick Moynihan

The problem in our country isn't with books being banned, but with people no longer reading. You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. -- Ray Bradbury

The hands that help are better far than the lips that pray. -- Robert G. Ingersoll

We all live in a state of ambitious poverty. -- Decimus Junius Juvenalis

Many more under the cut...
Read more... )

It didn't rain today!

Feb. 8th, 2026 11:28 pm
loganberrybunny: Drawing of my lapine character's face by Eliki (Default)
[personal profile] loganberrybunny
Public


Snowdrops
No larger image available

It's coming to something when that's worthy of a subject line, but oh well. I had a quiet Sunday, which wasn't particularly unwelcome. I did some tidying and got rid of a few small things that are no longer of use to me and of no interest to anyone else. Drank coffee, made food, all those thrilling things. I did break 10,000 steps again, albeit only just. I should really have tried to push on a little bit today, given the break in the weather, but I'm afraid laziness got the better of me. The not-very-good photo is of some snowdrops in a lane fairly near where I live.

February LOVE-FEST: Day 8:

Feb. 8th, 2026 04:00 pm
stonepicnicking_okapi: heart shaped tree (hearttree)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi
okapi's February LOVE-FEST

prompts:

1. first love
2. friendship
3. love of nature
4. passion
5. soulmates
6. unrequited love
7. lust
8. love of the game
9. devotion
10. love of food
11. polyamory
12. long distance love
13. lovesickness
14. romantic love
15. love of place
16. marriage
17. love of order and method
18. divine love
19. platonic love
20. infatuation
21. maternal love
22. obsession
23. agape
24. love of animals
25. unconditional love
26. forbidden love
27. ecstasy
28. the beloved

--

Today in the US is the Superbowl. Will you be watching? I will not but it meant buffalo chicken bites and loaded potato skins were on sale and that's what we're having for dinner :)

--

Fandom: BTS
Pairing: 2seok (Jin/jhope)
Notes: flirty Tennis AU
Rating: Gen
Length: 200

Read more... )
jesse_the_k: Scrabble triple-value badge reading "triple nerd score" (word nerd)
[personal profile] jesse_the_k

Every week for most of the last 30 years, I have volunteered as an English language partner. Since 2024, I’ve treasured my time with two people who’ve learned English as a foreign language. I get to spend time with people who have weirdly requested that I correct their pronunciation and grammar. It’s a pleasantly zen task: listening carefully then offering precise feedback about a language I love. In return, I’ve enjoyed learning their stories from Chile and Taiwan/Germany/hiking world-wide.

how I found people ready to learn )

February LOVE-FEST: Day 7: Lust

Feb. 7th, 2026 09:02 pm
stonepicnicking_okapi: heart shaped tree (hearttree)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi
okapi's February LOVE-FEST

prompts:

1. first love
2. friendship
3. love of nature
4. passion
5. soulmates
6. unrequited love
7. lust
8. love of the game
9. devotion
10. love of food
11. polyamory
12. long distance love
13. lovesickness
14. romantic love
15. love of place
16. marriage
17. love of order and method
18. divine love
19. platonic love
20. infatuation
21. maternal love
22. obsession
23. agape
24. love of animals
25. unconditional love
26. forbidden love
27. ecstasy
28. the beloved

---

How about a song?

Saturday in the rain

Feb. 7th, 2026 09:19 pm
loganberrybunny: Drawing of my lapine character's face by Eliki (Default)
[personal profile] loganberrybunny
Public

Despite the continuing grotty weather, I pushed myself out for a couple of walks today, meaning I've crept over 10,000 steps. Thanks to hurting my leg I haven't done that very often recently, but I wanted to get back to it and so I mostly feel being out in the drizzle was worth it! I did briefly think about posting a photo again – not a 365-style one, just something mildly interesting – but to be honest everything looks so dreary in these conditions that it's going to have to wait a few days.
thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
This is a really great thing! The ACM is one of the premier organizations for computer science, and for them to open up their publication library to open access is an incredibly huge deal.

In their statement released in mid-December, they announced:
We are pleased to share an important milestone for our field. Beginning January 2026, all ACM publications and related artifacts in the ACM Digital Library will be made open access. This change reflects the long-standing and growing call across the global computing community for research to be more accessible, more discoverable, and more reusable.

By transitioning to open access, ACM is supporting a publishing environment where:

Authors retain the intellectual property to their Work- All ACM authors retain the copyright to their published work while ACM remains committed to defending those Works against copyright and integrity related violations.
Published Work Will Benefit from Broader visibility and impact- Research will be freely available to anyone in the world, increasing readership, citations, and real-world application.
Students, educators, and researchers everywhere benefit- Whether at well-resourced institutions or in emerging research communities, everyone will have direct access to the full breadth of ACM-published work.
Innovation accelerates- Open access fosters collaboration, transparency, and cumulative progress, strengthening the advancement of computing as a discipline.


The world of research publication is tending towards increased lockdown and paywalls, plus corruption by AI slop. The ACM is fighting that by opening their doors and ensuring their authors maintain control of their IP. This is an incredibly cool thing!

There's a cool library tool that we use occasionally called Hathi Trust. They archive old material and they're a great reference place to find stuff. I was looking to borrow a book for one of our instructors, and Hathi had it online! You can download it! ONE PAGE AT A TIME. The book is 90 years old, in the public domain, and I can't find a free copy of it. So I literally started downloading it. One page at a time. I have the free time at work.

It costs $6,000 a year to become a member of Hathi. A YEAR. You have to be a pretty good-sized library to pay that, or have special needs to justify that outlay.

Fortunately my story has two happy endings. I was able to find a physical copy of the book, the United States Department of the Interior Library sent me a copy! But there's an even better ending. I was looking for something in our archive, sitting in the corner, pulling stuff down and buzzing through boxes. I happened to glance down and saw a three-ring binder in an area that I knew didn't contain what I was looking for. but the label on the binder caught my eye.

It was the same name as the book that the instructor had requested!

I pull the binder, and it was a facsimile of the book! So now I'll be able to scan the pages that I hadn't yet downloaded and assemble my own ebook! I had already assembled two sections of what I'd downloaded into ebooks: PDFs combined make HUGE ebooks!

Weirdest luck I've had in a long time. And no, it was not cataloged in our system.

https://dl.acm.org/openaccess

https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/12/19/168225/acm-to-make-its-entire-digital-library-open-access-starting-january-2026
thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
In 2022, the bill that funded NASA extended funding for the International Space Station to 2030, and that was it. NASA started researching ways to end the life of the ISS at that point, and decided that a controlled deorbit was the best bet: lower it to a planned orbit where the increased friction with Earth's atmosphere will eventually cause re-entry and for it to crash into the Pacific Ocean's "space graveyard". That way it's controlled and theoretically won't hit land, potentially causing some really significant damage. The station would be shut-down in 2030 and the deorbit burn would happen in 2031, I'm a little unclear when it would actually re-enter the atmosphere.

Well, that plan might end up being scratched because of an effort being led by California Democratic Representative George Whiteside.

He's on the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (vice-ranking member) and on the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (according to Wikipedia). His career has involved a lot of the space industry, and he's worked at NASA, but the roles seem to be in management and as a director. His Masters degree is in GIS and remote sensing, not in engineering.

He attached a rider to the new NASA funding bill, currently in committee, for them to study boosting the ISS to a parking orbit rather than deorbiting the thing. He thinks it can have a longer life.
Read more... )

Empire Records

Feb. 6th, 2026 10:54 pm
calzephyr: Animal Crossing red balloon (Animal Crossing)
[personal profile] calzephyr
There's a whole bunch of 80s and 90s movies I never watched because I was either too young, too old or too broke :-D In the case of Empire Records, even if I had the money, I would have passed on it. I hated movies and TV shows for teenagers when I was a teenager ;-D Part of it was because I was a snob. Part of it was that it didn't reflect anyone I knew, and yet another part was being sold something just because it had teenagers in it.

My younger self would probably find Empire Records the same as my older self--long and boring. I guess it's a cult classic for reasons I don't really understand :D It just felt like a poorly edited hot mess, and I understand 40 minutes were cut from the theatrical release. I couldn't work up any nostalgia for it. The save the record store plot felt really weak. Mitch was barely a villain, and Gina and Corey seducing Rex Manning was super cringe!



Out shopping this evening, and...

Feb. 6th, 2026 10:11 pm
thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
Amongst the things that I was purchasing was a set of replacement heads/brushes for my electric toothbrush.

The cashier rings them up and then, since it popped up on her register screen, ASKS ME IF I WANT THE PROTECTION PLAN FOR THEM.

WTF?!

We were both quite puzzled over that one. What exactly would a protection plan cover? If they wear out, I can get them replaced? THEY'RE EFFING DESIGNED TO WEAR OUT!

When I told it to Russet just now, she said 'Do they offer a protection plan on these paper plates?'

That would make just about as much sense.
stonepicnicking_okapi: heart shaped tree (hearttree)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi
okapi's February LOVE-FEST

prompts:

1. first love
2. friendship
3. love of nature
4. passion
5. soulmates
6. unrequited love
7. lust
8. love of the game
9. devotion
10. love of food
11. polyamory
12. long distance love
13. lovesickness
14. romantic love
15. love of place
16. marriage
17. love of order and method
18. divine love
19. platonic love
20. infatuation
21. maternal love
22. obsession
23. agape
24. love of animals
25. unconditional love
26. forbidden love
27. ecstasy
28. the beloved

---

Is there anything more painful than unrequited love (or, really, infatuation)?

---

Have a BBC Sherlock drabble.

Fandom: BBC Sherlock
Rating: Gen
Summary: Sherlock is reading the diary of a missing person.

Read more... )

Film post: Bullseye! (1990)

Feb. 6th, 2026 09:38 pm
loganberrybunny: Drawing of my lapine character's face by Eliki (Default)
[personal profile] loganberrybunny
Public
Bullseye! (1990) film poster
Bullseye! (1990)

Good grief, this is a mess. A story about a pair of chancers and a pair of nuclear physicists, both played by Michael Caine and Roger Moore. At the very least you'd have thought a film teaming up those two might have had some old-school charm about it. And it does – occasionally – with Moore in particular giving some nice, sub-Bond one-liners. There are some nice shots of Inveraray in the second half, too. But for the most part Bullseye! is a confusing, overstuffed, and worst of all unfunny mess. Sizeable chunks of it could have come from the less amusing end of mid-1970s British comedy, including an agonisingly smutty scene about dogs having sex. That this was directed by that abusive bastard Michael Winner does not surprise me. ★½

RIP: The CIA World Factbook

Feb. 6th, 2026 09:28 am
thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
The internal classified version was started in 1962 as The National Basic Intelligence Factbook. It was a resource that gave you very detailed information about countries around the world: form of government, economic information, population and make-up, etc. Very useful information. It went public in 1971 as the World Factbook and later joined the World Wide Web in 1997 in an unclassified version. It was available between '71 and '97 in print form and on CD.

And now it's gone. Any page for any country that you may have had linked now redirects to the closure notice. Everything's now inaccessible. Of course, you can still look into it via archive.org, but the information was updated regularly when the site was live, and it will now grow increasingly stale.

No reason given. The CIA was subject to the same chainsaw-trimming that most other government agencies were given courtesy of DOGE and the Muskbrats. We also have the intense administration's dislike of facts. Either or both could have contributed to its demise.

But with a little luck, in a possibly truthier future, it could be resurrected. There's no doubt that the CIA found the resource useful, so it may again become available to the public in a better tomorrow.

https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-cia-stops-publishing-the-world-factbook-184419024.html

https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/spotlighting-the-world-factbook-as-we-bid-a-fond-farewell/

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/05/187252/cia-has-killed-off-the-world-factbook-after-six-decades

EDIT: added Slashdot link.

Before you leave

Feb. 6th, 2026 04:36 pm
einbeistrich: Photo of William Beckett, singer from The Academy Is... He's wearing red glasses and posing by pulling a strand of hair (Default)
[personal profile] einbeistrich
The good news is that bad things don't last forever. The bad news is that good things don't either.
 
How odd that something that completely changed your life can simply end on any given Friday, at precisely 10:45 am. There is no insurance against this, no warranty. Having your heart broken into a million pieces is a rite of passage - and the worst part is that you will always want to experience it all over again.

.
.
.

Today the bird sleeps alone on the branch.

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