(no subject)

Feb. 24th, 2026 05:12 pm
violsva: full bookshelf with ladder (Default)
[personal profile] violsva
So my wife (!!) was here for a week, which was lovely, but limited the amount of time I was willing to spend in front of a laptop. So my [personal profile] candyheartsex reveals post is slightly belated.

Firstly, I received this wonderful fic, with lots of worldbuilding and people trying to sort out cross-cultural relationships and hair petting.

paradise (2522 words) by WolffyLuna
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Female Character(s)/Original Male Character(s), Male Drow Used To Being A Disappointment/His Female Captor Who Thinks He's Pretty Great (OW)
Characters: Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Past Abuse, Age Difference, hair petting, Hugs, Elves, Fantasy setting
Summary:

Rhoklan looked down at the woven liana floor, and held his hands out, palm up.

Every time he apologised, he did that. Real error, false error, something that had nothing to do with him, he always stood like that, hands held out as an offering while he hid his face behind a curtain of white hair.

Suppressed irritation rattled in her chest. The problem was that she could not get angry with him for the habit without him doing it more.

It had taken her a month to work out why. The idea that it would even come up only angered her more. Even if she was purely a heartless pragmatist, why would she strike her secretary’s hands? He needed those to write!



And I wrote for [personal profile] firecat for the excellent prompt "Fairy Prince/Noir Detective", which I used as an excuse to experiment with contrasting prose styles.

Fae Fatale (524 words) by Violsva
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character, Fairy Prince/Noir Detective
Additional Tags: Pre-Slash, Pastiche, First Meetings, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Candy Hearts Exchange 2026
Summary:
It had been a slow afternoon. There had been a lot of slow afternoons lately.


Excellent exchange experience, as usual.

Now I am considering the Single Syllable Smut Challenge, reveals date April 1st. It would be nice if I could manage Phantom Tollbooth or Alice in Wonderland or some other fandom where it would be thematic, but I'm not sure I'm up to that.

None of us are traitors till we are

Feb. 24th, 2026 04:11 pm
sovay: (Sovay: David Owen)
[personal profile] sovay
In the wake of the blizzard, the temperature rose a degree above freezing in the blue-and-white brilliance of sun and the local topography of snow-walls to shoulder-height compressed and calved like ice shelves. I had the impulse to visit the Robbins Cemetery on Mass. Ave. while out running errands and was prevented by absolutely nobody having shoveled within a block of the gates. I took a picture of a leftover slam-dunk of snow instead.



Tickets have hiked considerably in price since the last production of theirs I attended, but I am intrigued that the Apollinaire Theatre Company is currently doing Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge—I assume it was proposed last season because of the topical-political of the undocumented immigrant angle which has only gone Mach 10 in relevance since. I have never seen the play; I read it in 2016 because Van Heflin originated the role of Eddie Carbone in the original 1955 one-act version. I am wondering how I convince their box office that I am actively pursuing a professional arts career.
[syndicated profile] arstechnica_feed

Posted by Scharon Harding

DJI, the most popular consumer drone maker, is suing over the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s import ban against new, foreign-made drones, which has been in effect since December 23, 2025.

On Tuesday, the Shenzhen-headquartered company filed a petition [PDF] with the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that seeks to overturn the FCC’s decision to list DJI on its Covered List. The Covered List includes communications equipment and services that are "deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons,” per the FCC.

In its petition dated February 20, 2026, DJI said:

Read full article

Comments

wychwood: Hiro has a destiny (Heroes - Hiro destiny)
[personal profile] wychwood
Last week was all choir all the time (concert went well, but the Concerts Without A Funny Turn card goes back down to zero, annoyingly) and then I went straight into a weekend of Extreme Socialising because [personal profile] shreena and [profile] quizcustodet came up for a visit. Friday night I went out with [personal profile] shreena and A for dinner, delicious food at a Vietnamese restaurant (the marmite-and-peanut-butter-coated cauliflower was especially good!).

Saturday was my birthday treat; the Lego Discovery Centre only lets you in if you have children with you, so [personal profile] shreena and [profile] quizcustodet donated me their children and bought me a ticket to go with them *g*. I really enjoyed it; there's a mix of rides (and a big soft-play area) and a little 3D film and also a big open area where you can, you know, play with Lego. There were stations for building specific models, stations that were just buckets of Lego for you to play with, a tiny zipline where you could build little machines and see if they could make it the whole way along, a car-building area with test track, etc etc. I spent probably half an hour or so building a tiny house (with contributions from [personal profile] shreena and their older son J), which was extremely soothing.

And then on Sunday we went to Cadbury World )

All-in-all a pretty good weekend, but an inevitably exhausting one. I am now attempting to live a deeply regulated life to try and get back to normal and untrash my sleep cycle, etc etc, so we'll see how that goes...

(no subject)

Feb. 24th, 2026 03:56 pm
flemmings: (Default)
[personal profile] flemmings
I have physio tomorrow so I figured there was no need to go up to Loblaws today. I could go out to lunch or something in the last day of sun before the snow starts tonight. But my insides took exception to the lentil mush I've been eating, or to something, so no, not going out for sushi any time soon. Might as well get my prescription. And a good thing too, because as it turns out an amazing number of people didn't touch Sunday's snow and it's all glare ice now. Walking over that when it's covered with the 2-4 cm/ 1.5 inches forecast between now and Wednesday afternoon would not be fun. So shall take the Christie route if I go out at all,  or just eat the cancellation fee. This winter, dear god, this winter.

But I do feel better for the walk and the sunshine. Had a cold brew coffee-- I can only drink coffee safely if it's cold, health benefits or not-- and watched my fellow golden agers trundle about, and read a Dr Priestley on the phone. Turned out to be a short story, not a novel, chiz chiz, but for a .99 purchase one mustn't complain. Somehow must get to the Art Gallery before next week when the show I want to see closes. But yanno, snow and the Spadina LRT not running till late Friday-- buses laid on but no thanks-- and rush hours. Maybe Saturday when temps soar to a sunny 5C if I can get up early enough.
goodbyebird: Starfleet Academy: SAM is smiling brightly and now your day is just a little bit better. (ST Academy aka JOY)
[personal profile] goodbyebird
+ There's a fun YouTube telethon/donation drive beginning in 4 and a half hours I'm strongly considering staying up for.
Why watch the State of the Union, when you could watch your favorite unhinged Bluesky posters share their weird hobbies, niche obsessions, and scorching hot takes?
(streamed here and I'm assuming directly on yt but couldn't find the link)

It's at 2.30 for me, but my sleep schedule is kind of fucked atm anyways. If I watch this and then just get up early, there's a chance I can flip it.

+ Curious Travels Tarot arrived today, and I don't think I've ever handled a deck that felt this good. I'm astounded this is mass market, it's so buttery smooth but textured at the same time; a joy to hold. I just keep fondling the cards lol.

+ In other things that bring joy: I started watching Starfleet Academy and it is full of precious characters whose faces I'd like to smoosh and keep safe forever. A bit heavy on the For Teens stuff, and sadly one character has been heavily relegated to The Girl category which I am extremely bored by, but otherwise excellent faces and much invading of personal space yay.

+ Posted some icons, yes I did!

01-04 the x-files
05-12 starfleet academy
13-16 st voyager + discovery
17-20 sw prequel movies + mandalorian
21-26 fallout
27-31 comics
32-36 misc tv
37-40 movies (eileen, inside out, batman returns)




H E R E
seaglassgarden: an orange and black butterfly (Default)
[personal profile] seaglassgarden
i had one of those shifts where i felt disrespected and disregarded and just plain used, but i noticed that we finally had the everything bagels that sell out super quickly that id never been able to snag before. so i bought some of those and some chive and onion cream cheese. and the affordable whole milk yogurt that we've been sold out of for a week. and some fruit "gummies" (just dried fruit in a gummy shape, but they're fun) and the lemons i'll use to make my wife's favorite pasta later this week

then i got home and had a bagel with the cream cheese and watched an episode of winnie the pooh with my headspace kiddos. and guess what! life is good again
[syndicated profile] arstechnica_feed

Posted by Jon Brodkin

A UK regulator today fined Reddit £14.5 million ($19.6 million) for not verifying the ages of users. The UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) alleged that the failure to check ages resulted in Reddit illegally using children’s personal information.

"Our investigation found that Reddit failed to apply any robust age assurance mechanism and therefore did not have a lawful basis for processing the personal information of children under the age of 13... These failures meant Reddit was using children’s data unlawfully, potentially exposing them to inappropriate and harmful content," an ICO press release said.

The ICO findings are based on Reddit's actions prior to its July 2025 rollout of a system that verifies UK users’ ages before letting them view adult content. But the ICO said it is still concerned about Reddit's post-July 2025 system because the company relies on users to declare their ages when opening an account.

Read full article

Comments

nsnotifyd-2.4 released

Feb. 24th, 2026 08:16 pm
fanf: (Default)
[personal profile] fanf

https://dotat.at/@/2026-02-24-nsnotifyd-2-4-released.html

The nsnotifyd daemon monitors a set of DNS zones and runs a command when any of them change. It listens for DNS NOTIFY messages so it can respond to changes promptly. It also uses each zone's SOA refresh and retry parameters to poll for updates if nsnotifyd does not receive NOTIFY messages more frequently. It comes with a client program nsnotify for sending notify messages.

This nsnotifyd-2.4 release includes a new feature and some bug fixes:

  • The new -S option tells nsnotifyd to send all SOA queries to a specific server.

    Previously, in response to a NOTIFY message, it would send a SOA query back to the source of the NOTIFY, as specified by RFC 1996.

    (Typically, a NOTIFY will only be accepted from a known authoritative server for the zone. The target of the NOTIFY responds with a SOA refresh query and zone transfer. But it should avoid trying to refresh from one of the other authoritative servers which might not have received the latest version of the zone.)

    Mark Felder encountered a situation where it would have been more convenient to fix the address that nsnotifyd sends SOA queries to, because the source of the NOTIFY messages wasn't responding on that address.

    Since nsnotifyd is intended to work as glue between disparate parts of a system, it makes sense for it to work around awkward interoperability problems.

  • The nsnotify client program was broken and unable to create NOTIFY messages. D'oh!

  • I have adjusted the release process so that it works better with git archive and web front-ends that offer tarball downloads.

brithistorian: (Default)
[personal profile] brithistorian

I don't expect much from Goodreads, but I was still surprised to learn that Goodreads members have named The Hunger Games as the "best book ever"!

[syndicated profile] arstechnica_feed

Posted by Andrew Cunningham

Apple plans to start manufacturing the Mac mini in the United States later this year, the company announced today, as part of its $600 billion commitment to expand its domestic manufacturing operation.

The Macs will be made in a facility in Houston, the same facility Apple uses for "advanced AI server manufacturing." CEO Tim Cook says these AI servers are shipping "ahead of schedule." The facility will also eventually provide "hands-on training in advanced manufacturing techniques" for students, Apple employees, "and American businesses of all sizes."

Apple and many other US tech companies have announced plans to expand their domestic manufacturing operations, just one element of a multi-prong strategy to secure favorable treatment from a Trump administration that has been happy to threaten Apple and others with steep tariffs to get what it wants. Today's Mac mini announcement is more subtle than the time Tim Cook delivered Trump a signed gold statue, but the goal is likely the same.

Read full article

Comments

[syndicated profile] arstechnica_feed

Posted by Daniel Larlham, Jr.

Despite being regarded as one of the greatest role-playing games of all time, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind disappointed some fans upon its release in 2002 because it didn't match the colossal scope of its predecessor, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. Almost immediately, fans began modding the remaining parts of the series’ fictional continent, Tamriel, into the game.

Over 20 years later, thousands of volunteers have collaborated on the mod projects Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel, building a space comparable in size to a small country. Such projects often sputter out, but these have endured, thanks in part to a steady stream of small, manageable updates instead of larger, less frequent ones.

A tale of (at least two) mods

It's true that Daggerfall included an entire continent’s worth of content, but it was mostly composed of procedurally generated liminal space. By contrast, Morrowind contained just a single island—not even the entire province after which the game was named. The difference was that it was handcrafted.

Read full article

Comments

[syndicated profile] arstechnica_feed

Posted by Chad Kirchner

While Toyota and Honda's showrooms are littered with electrified offerings, Nissan hasn't had much to counter. Globally, Nissan offers a series hybrid system called E-Power, but the company has been reluctant to offer it Stateside. If you ask anyone at the company about it, they'll tell you that while it makes sense in Europe, Japan, and other parts of Asia, it is not optimized for the type of driving we do this side of the pond.

Nissan's hybrid offerings in North America have been lackluster at best. There was the Altima that borrowed Toyota's hybrid system from the Camry, and there was the Rogue hybrid that failed to deliver noticeably better fuel economy. And that's really it.

That, however, is about to change with the company's third-generation system.

Read full article

Comments

[syndicated profile] arstechnica_feed

Posted by Jonathan M. Gitlin

For the last few years, Lamborghini has been in a quandary: What to do about an electric vehicle? Among the supercar brands, Lamborghini has always stood out as favoring drama over lap times. And while electric motors and their instant torque can make a car accelerate very quickly indeed, other than the G-forces, it happens with such little fuss. Working out how to imbue an EV with enough "wow" factor to wear the famous bull badge has proved so difficult that the company has thrown in the towel in favor of developing more plug-in hybrids.

As part of Volkswagen Group, Lamborghini has access to the EV platforms used by fellow VW Group brands Audi and Porsche, so it's not a question of access to technology. Rather, the company just doesn't think it can sell the cars. As Tim Stevens found out for Ars last year, in this rarefied end of the car market, the customers just aren't interested in EVs. People paying six or even seven figures for a supercar, especially a Lamborghini, are not exercising restraint, and they don't want the car to do that, either.

Speaking to the Sunday Times this weekend, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann revealed that the Lanzador, an electric SUV under development for the past few years, was canceled in late 2025. "Investing heavily in full-EV development when the market and customer base are not ready would be an expensive hobby, and financially irresponsible towards shareholders, customers [and] to our employees and their families," he told the paper.

Read full article

Comments

thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
Naomi has licensed her work and it has borne fruit. A tabletop RPG has been produced by Magpie Games and has been released on Kickstarter. And is now fully funded! The campaign has 30 days to go, over 800 backers, and the $50,000 goal has exceeded $111,000!

You can get the digital-only edition for $29.

As a quick description, think the campaign against Napoleon - with dragons. Mainly from the British side. There's a good description on the KS page. The dragons speak and are very intelligent. There are several books in the series, I don't know how many as I kind of fell off the wagon.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/magpiegames/temeraire-the-roleplaying-game/

(no subject)

Feb. 24th, 2026 06:12 pm
angrboda: Viking style dragon head finial against a blue sky (Default)
[personal profile] angrboda
My previous post has turned into a bit of a collection of other people's experiences with arranging funerals and their customs, which was unintended but which I've actually been finding quite helpful. There is a surprising amount of comfort in it, even if I haven't been replying (and am unlikely to do, sorry). I hadn't expected that. Aside from grandparents, it's the first time for me that it has been quite so close a relation.

Turning Away

Feb. 24th, 2026 10:14 am
lydamorehouse: (MN fist)
[personal profile] lydamorehouse
 Ramadan has just started and my Signal group is having trouble finding enough protectors to fill evening slots. My Food Communists are talking about a $40,000 shortfall that may end their ability to feed people in hiding. March 1 is looming for people who haven't been able to pay rent and are facing evictions. Yet, local politicians are declaring victory and telling people it's time to "go shopping." 

Meanwhile, ICE is still being tracked throughout Saint Paul (and presumably Minneapolis, but I don't have access to those Rapid Response groups). Reports that I've seen seem to indicate that the majority of the activity has moved out to the less well organized smaller towns and suburbs. Though the "sexy" part of the resistance--the gas in the streets, the violent confrontations--has dried up, the danger to our immigrant communities is far from over. There is zero sense that ICE is actually leaving. They have switched to quieter, more subtle tactics. They've gone further afield. But make no mistake, they are very much still here.

Last night I went to a Singing Resistance meeting for an action that took place this morning. I managed to miss this morning's action because my GPS decided that it wanted to autocorrect Street to Avenue!  VERY DIFFERENT, GPS!  In fact, a very important distinction!!!  So, I ended up getting lost in downtown Minneapolis long enough to miss the gathering time.  But, what was interesting to me is that these Singing Actions have, in the past, brought thousands of people into the streets. Famously, they sang songs encouraging ICE agents to defect outside of some of the hotels hosting them. The action today was for rent relief and trying to get the city officials to consider a temporary rent moritorium, something they were very willing to do during COVID, but which they seem less willing to do for Black and brown folks (shocking, I know!)  At any rate, I went to the pre-planning/song rehersal last night with [personal profile] rachelmanija who is visiting right now and... it wasn't an empty church, but it also wasn't standing room only. The organizers kept saying, "I think more people will join us tomorrow." Well, I wasn't able to. I sure hope other people did. Otherwise, it's going to be pretty sparse. They will not fill City Hall, like they hoped.

But, this seems to be part of a trend. I'd noticed the day after it was announced that ICE was pulling out, my Food Communists was almost ghostly. Plenty of bags of groceries still needed filling, but the number of volunteers that showed up to do the work was less than half of the normal amount. More people have showed up since, but we are nowhere near our previous number. It seems to be the regulars and the die-hards again--although thankfully the Veterans for Peace are still guarding the doors for us.

I ran into some neighbors yesterday when I was walking home from the Communists and they were returning from a daily protest. They also noticed a significant lack of bodies. People were still there, but the crowd was thinner. It's worrying because we are all still very much holding our breaths.

I guess people are buying into the idea that we won and that it's all over. I mean, I would very much like that to be true? I'm just not sure it is and it's disheartening to see that the energy could not, in fact, be maintained.  Maybe people are just taking a breather. I hope that's the case. 

Two book bindings

Feb. 24th, 2026 10:33 am
ehyde: (Default)
[personal profile] ehyde
I finished up two projects this week, despite the snow (and despite the kids being home from school due to the snow)

First: Mo Du (Silent Reading) by Priest

A book bound in black, brown, and beige plaid, with a light brown leather spine, and small paper labels on both the spine and the outer edge of the cover. The label reads "Mo Du / priest / vol. 1"

This was typeset by @rainsfalling.tumblr for 2024's cnovel bookbinding exchange. I haven't read it yet, so my design choices don't have much to do with the contents (I started with the cat endpapers, found this plaid fabric on the same shopping trip, and designed the book around that combo.

Second: The Tiniest Heipaoshi by @tehfanglyfish.tumblr



This is a very fun fic in which Professor Shen's TA takes on some additional duties. I knew almost immediately after reading it that I wanted it to be a tiny book. It's a sewn-board binding styled after a composition notebook, with the title/initials in a sketched version of a fancier font, sort of inspired by Jiajia's closet cosplay version of Shen Wei's envoy robes in the fic. Happily I had some scrap paper left over from a previous project which matched both the canon vibes and the notebook look!

Many more pictures under the cut )


lirazel: ([tv] believe in me)
[personal profile] lirazel
Fic: take whatever you need to take and leave the rest
Chapters:
1/1
Fandom: The Pitt (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Melissa “Mel” King & Frank Langdon, Becca King & Melissa “Mel” King, Becca King & Frank Langdon
Characters: Frank Langdon, Melissa “Mel” King, Becca King, Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, Baran Al-Hashimi
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, well just slightly, set during season 2, branches off after episode 5, who is mel going to trust to treat her sister?, do you really need to ask?, frank needs someone to trust him, mel needs someone to reassure her, good thing they’re in the same space again
Summary:

“I’ll look her over,” Robby says.

“Um, thank you,” Mel says. “But, um, can Dr. Langdon do it?”

Frank isn’t sure which is more gratifying: Mel’s request or the expression on Robby’s face.

“Oh, we want Ms. King to have the very best care,” Robby says, voice a bit tight behind the jocularity. “She’s family, after all. I think I can spare a few minutes to make sure she’s okay.”

Fuck him. Frank’s hand flexes just as Mel’s jaw tightens. Becca’s eyes are darting around anxiously and she’s flapping both of her hands now.

“I appreciate that,” Mel says. “But I’d like Dr. Langdon to be the one to treat her.”

Her voice is steely in a way that Frank hasn’t heard from her before, her eyes fierce as she holds Robby’s gaze. A little shudder passes through Frank and he sucks in a deep breath even as he fights to keep his face neutral.

(no subject)

Feb. 24th, 2026 10:45 am
lirazel: Hideko and Sookhee from The Handmaiden ([film] my tamako my sookhee)
[personal profile] lirazel
So yeah, I finished Stone Butch Blues last week and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I had braced myself for endless suffering, and there was so much suffering, but I am still so glad I read it.

There was almost nothing in it I related to (except being very pro-union lol) and much that I found perplexing (mostly the sex stuff--no shock there--and some of the ideas about gender that are quite dated but important), but I also learned a ton. I struggled with the first few chapters because I found the prose too...simple? That's not the right word. It just wasn't stylistically what I enjoy. Too many short sentences in a row. But I came to appreciate it as a way of evoking the voice of a working-class, (formally) uneducated woman who is struggling to find her place in the world.

The episodic nature of the book creates its own rhythm; it's essentially a book about a woman finding community and/or stability, then losing it (often in incredibly violent circumstances), sinking into depression, then fighting for it again, repeat repeat repeat. Jess and her friends are living their lives in a constant state of danger, and they know it. Most of the violence comes from the state (the police are the truest villains in the book) or through the powers of capital. It's a communist book, though it's not as overtly communist as I kind of expected being familiar with Leslie's politics and life. I thought it did a great job of handling the political stuff. I was particularly moved by the queerplatonic relationship between Jess and her neighbor, who is a transwoman, and I think it's significant that after a book about Jess trying to find a sexual/romantic partnership that works for her, the (hopeful) ending is found in this friendship and work in labor organizing. Community is complicated and messy but absolutely vital and the lines between romantic/sexual relationships, friendships, solidarity partnerships, etc. are blurred in ways that I think is really realistic.

I appreciated talking about this book in community with a bunch of queer women/nonbinary folks, and I was fascinated by the very different ways that we read Jess's gender identity in particular. Jess didn't fit into the categories offered by the time in which she was living (late 50s through late 70s), but even though we have a lot more categories and labels now, I don't think she really fits into any of them either, which I really appreciated.

Shoutout to the two scenes that made me cry:
the fire where Jess loses everything and the scene where she goes to the institution to visit the older butch who had inspired her as a kid. That last one TORE ME UP
.

So yes, I have now read an important queer novel, and I'm glad I did.
Page generated Feb. 24th, 2026 10:36 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios