Dept. of Theological Meanderings
Apr. 23rd, 2026 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaffy_rArchitecture and Monotheism
It's just something I thought while Bob and I were talking in bed last night. Talk turned to religion as more than occasionally happens. He may be atheist and I may be an intermittent agnostic that believes in something on alternate Thursdays, but we have always liked playing with the ideas and philosophies connected to religion in general.
And something that had been simmering in my head over the last while - months, possibly a couple of years - finally bubbled up in words.
OK - here's where folks of faith can feel free to stop reading, or to roll their eyes at me, or be offended. This is what I believe and I expect no one else to agree with me.
( Seriously. Believers might want to avoid )
It's just something I thought while Bob and I were talking in bed last night. Talk turned to religion as more than occasionally happens. He may be atheist and I may be an intermittent agnostic that believes in something on alternate Thursdays, but we have always liked playing with the ideas and philosophies connected to religion in general.
And something that had been simmering in my head over the last while - months, possibly a couple of years - finally bubbled up in words.
OK - here's where folks of faith can feel free to stop reading, or to roll their eyes at me, or be offended. This is what I believe and I expect no one else to agree with me.
( Seriously. Believers might want to avoid )
My cup's already overfilled.
Apr. 23rd, 2026 08:42 pmhannahEarlier today, I overheard someone saying that she ate "like a pig" last night, largely for her having eaten ice cream. I wanted to make a joke about acorns or truffles, but decided against it on the grounds that I knew she wouldn't know what I was talking about.
It did get me thinking, though, and it had me fairly pleased to find out that acorn ice cream is a thing people do - not on any commercial scale, but individual restaurants and kitchens. I'd thought it might taste malty, and all the descriptions provided agree with that.
I highly doubt I'll get a chance to try it anytime soon, but knowing it already exists is good enough for tonight.
It did get me thinking, though, and it had me fairly pleased to find out that acorn ice cream is a thing people do - not on any commercial scale, but individual restaurants and kitchens. I'd thought it might taste malty, and all the descriptions provided agree with that.
I highly doubt I'll get a chance to try it anytime soon, but knowing it already exists is good enough for tonight.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Apr. 23rd, 2026 06:45 pmmusesfoolIt's been a few years since I posted some Shakespeare on his birthday, but I am tired so have one of the most famous poems in the Western canon:
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
By William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
*
I was all excited that it's Thursday, thinking about how there'd be a new episode of The Pitt until I remembered, alas, that there will be no new episodes until next January. Sigh.
I keep meaning to post my thoughts here and not doing it, so in brief, my thoughts on the season 2 finale of The Pitt: ( spoilers )
I guess this sounds like I had a lot of complaints but I really loved this season - I just thought the writing fell down a little sometimes, for some characters.
*
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
By William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
*
I was all excited that it's Thursday, thinking about how there'd be a new episode of The Pitt until I remembered, alas, that there will be no new episodes until next January. Sigh.
I keep meaning to post my thoughts here and not doing it, so in brief, my thoughts on the season 2 finale of The Pitt: ( spoilers )
I guess this sounds like I had a lot of complaints but I really loved this season - I just thought the writing fell down a little sometimes, for some characters.
*
Trans characters are not adult-oriented entertainment
Apr. 23rd, 2026 06:25 pmflamingsword posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
thisfinecrewWith many thanks to S. Baum and Erin in the Morning for their words and timely reportage:
If you, like me, trust Trump’s FCC chairman no farther than you can throw him, then please feel free to register your dissent.
Today, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the FCC would be seeking comment on whether the TV Parental Guidelines rating system needs to be changed to address shows with transgender or nonbinary characters.
If you, like me, trust Trump’s FCC chairman no farther than you can throw him, then please feel free to register your dissent.
The public comment period is open now through May 22, 2026. Anyone can submit comments opposing this effort through the FCC's Comment Filing System under MB Docket No. 19-41. LGBTQ+ organizations, parents, animators, and allies are encouraged to make their voices heard—the FCC is required to consider all comments submitted during the period.
10 outdoorsy icons for fandom10in30
Apr. 23rd, 2026 10:08 pmtinnyThis month's challenge #63 at fandom10in30 was to icon characters outdoors.
Enjoy!
( 10 icons, mostly of Wu Lei in different roles )
Comments are love - and concrit, too. <3 Take and use as many icons as you like, credit is appreciated. Texture and brush makers: here in my resource post.
Previous icon posts:
fandom10in30 was to icon characters outdoors. Enjoy!
( 10 icons, mostly of Wu Lei in different roles )
Comments are love - and concrit, too. <3 Take and use as many icons as you like, credit is appreciated. Texture and brush makers: here in my resource post.
Dragaera reread: Hawk
Apr. 23rd, 2026 11:18 amsholioFinally getting back to my Dragaera reread, which was originally rereading happening in late 2025. My reread is all over the place - I'm not doing every book - but the last one I read was Vallista in December, and now I'm rereading Hawk, and I just got to A Thing.
( Spoilers for Hawk and Tsalmoth )
Edit: originally had noted this as spoilers for Lyorn and changed it to Tsalmoth, as I had apparently forgotten which book that happened in ...
Edit2: Another spoiler for Hawk: ( Under here )
( Spoilers for Hawk and Tsalmoth )
Edit: originally had noted this as spoilers for Lyorn and changed it to Tsalmoth, as I had apparently forgotten which book that happened in ...
Edit2: Another spoiler for Hawk: ( Under here )
ClaireBell
Apr. 23rd, 2026 08:36 pmprofiterole_readsThe GL Thai drama ClaireBell was excellent. Bell gets wrongly arrested. In prison, she meets Claire, who helps her survive.
If you love shows full of interesting female characters like Orange is the New Black, go for it. There's major f/f.
It's available legally and for free on YouTube.
If you love shows full of interesting female characters like Orange is the New Black, go for it. There's major f/f.
It's available legally and for free on YouTube.
side-effect of shuffling playlists
Apr. 23rd, 2026 01:15 pmwychwoodSo basically these are all the same song, right:
- Paul Simon - Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover
- Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend
- Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend
What else am I missing that goes on this list? And are there any equivalents about boyfriends? The only thing that came to mind was the Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You, which isn't quite the same vibe.
Also, in the unlikely event that I've sold anyone on Dark Souls
Apr. 23rd, 2026 10:47 amrydra_wongIt is currently 50% off on Steam, which I believe is as good as it gets in the post-Elden Ring era.
*un-Babels your Tower*
Apr. 23rd, 2026 10:38 amrydra_wongI can STRONGLY rec Chants of Sennaar to anyone who enjoys deduction/puzzle games, and in particular the micro-genre of games that have translating a conlang (in this case, multiple conlangs) as their central mechanic.
Looks like Sable, plays like a cross between Return of the Obra Dinn and Heaven's Vault.
(It makes the excellent choice which Sable also made and which more indie games should go for, namely putting all your characters in face-hiding hoods or masks so you can completely avoid uncanny valley bad face animation and spend your resources on other things instead.)
Made my brain ache in a good way and made me feel clever. I did have to draw maps (my spatial orientaion is terrible, so others may not need to except for one specific maze-like area), and make assorted paper notes to solve various puzzles.
You have to not only successfully translate each language individually, but, later in the game, interpret conversations between pairs of languages. This requires knowing that the languages have different word order -- in a very simple way -- one language does object-first Yoda-speak, several languages vary in how they form plurals, etc., but you do have to be able to translate in a grammatically correct way, not just word by word.
And to get to the "true ending," the game requires you to go all out and "speak" the languages, by using a given language to correctly describe a picture you are given (with no text).
I admit I did get a tiny bit emotional when I made it to the end.
Has a subsidiary stealth mechanic, which I mostly enjoyed; near the very end of the game, it did briefly hit the point of requiring a somewhat quick response, but was still ultimately within the capacity of my abysmal reflexes. Nonetheless, it's not a zero-coordination-required game.
Looks like Sable, plays like a cross between Return of the Obra Dinn and Heaven's Vault.
(It makes the excellent choice which Sable also made and which more indie games should go for, namely putting all your characters in face-hiding hoods or masks so you can completely avoid uncanny valley bad face animation and spend your resources on other things instead.)
Made my brain ache in a good way and made me feel clever. I did have to draw maps (my spatial orientaion is terrible, so others may not need to except for one specific maze-like area), and make assorted paper notes to solve various puzzles.
You have to not only successfully translate each language individually, but, later in the game, interpret conversations between pairs of languages. This requires knowing that the languages have different word order -- in a very simple way -- one language does object-first Yoda-speak, several languages vary in how they form plurals, etc., but you do have to be able to translate in a grammatically correct way, not just word by word.
And to get to the "true ending," the game requires you to go all out and "speak" the languages, by using a given language to correctly describe a picture you are given (with no text).
I admit I did get a tiny bit emotional when I made it to the end.
Has a subsidiary stealth mechanic, which I mostly enjoyed; near the very end of the game, it did briefly hit the point of requiring a somewhat quick response, but was still ultimately within the capacity of my abysmal reflexes. Nonetheless, it's not a zero-coordination-required game.
Now there's always someone else in the back of your mind
Apr. 23rd, 2026 05:11 amsovayActually it appears that when younger I read several books by Leon Garfield without at any point committing his name to memory, which seems rude. I fell down a rabbit hole of recognition on the Internet Archive. I hadn't clicked with Black Jack (1968) because I expected more piracy from it, but the crash of affectionate recall prompted by The Stolen Watch (1988) should have translated into a copy of my own even before it could read like a direct ancestor of Frances Hardinge. I remembered the ending of Devil-in-the-Fog (1966) without any of the twists the story took to get to it. I must not have had access to The God Beneath the Sea (1970) or I would have tried it on the strength of the title and almost certainly bounced. I had not read either the comedy of misapprehensions that comprises The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris (1971) or the sweetly macabre triangle of The Valentine (1977), but highly enjoyed both. At this point my ability to read novels off a screen conked out, leaving dozens yet of historical titles for me to explore at some more library-convenient date—Garfield seems to have been fully as prolific as Dickens who left an imprint on him that can be seen from Carroll crater. His closest contemporary in Georgian-Victorian picaresque-grotesque looks like Joan Aiken, whom I discovered around the same time and have never lost track of. I was reminded also of Sid Fleischman and Ellen Raskin. I would feel worse about mislaying him if I had not famously had to re-find Vivien Alcock's The Haunting of Cassie Palmer (1980) from a single scene that terrified me as a child sans author, title, or any hint of the wider plot; the late eighteenth century origins of that novel's ghost now look like plausible bleedthrough from one writer in the household to the other, especially since it was her first, although marked already with her own concerns of children and ambiguous adults. For people who like morally messy mentors, Garfield is a must. Most of his novels seem not to be supernatural, but the kind that wouldn't surprise if they suddenly turned into it. I hope he still fetches up in used book stores.
Vid Rec: Laugh Track
Apr. 22nd, 2026 09:18 pmhannahLaugh Track [Fanvid] (0 words) by periru3
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: MASH (TV)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Sidney Freedman & Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, B. J. Hunnicutt & Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, B. J. Hunnicutt/Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce
Characters: Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, Sidney Freedman, B. J. Hunnicutt
Additional Tags: Fanvids, Embedded Video, Mental Institutions, Infant Death, Angst, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Episode: s11e16 Goodbye Farewell and Amen
Summary:
Goodbye Farewell Amen: the vid. periru3 took the prompt and ran with it to suitably heartbreaking triumph.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: MASH (TV)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Sidney Freedman & Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, B. J. Hunnicutt & Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, B. J. Hunnicutt/Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce
Characters: Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, Sidney Freedman, B. J. Hunnicutt
Additional Tags: Fanvids, Embedded Video, Mental Institutions, Infant Death, Angst, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Episode: s11e16 Goodbye Farewell and Amen
Summary:
All I am is shreds of doubt.
Goodbye Farewell Amen: the vid. periru3 took the prompt and ran with it to suitably heartbreaking triumph.
Music Question
Apr. 22nd, 2026 07:40 pmmoon_custaferAnyone hear of an indie label called Sarah Records, and/or of a band called Heavenly, from the early 1990s?
I’d never heard of them, although I see their singer, Amelia Fletcher, is important enough that another band have written a song about her:
I’d never heard of them, although I see their singer, Amelia Fletcher, is important enough that another band have written a song about her:
fire creates its own weather
Apr. 22nd, 2026 07:35 pmmusesfoolToday's poem:
Pyrocumulus
by Arthur Sze
Peony shoots rise out of the earth;
at five a.m., walking up the ridge,
I mark how, in April, Orion's left arm
was an apex in the sky, and, by May,
only Venus flickered above the ridge
against the blue edge of sunrise.
In daylight, a pear tree explodes
with white blossoms—no black-
footed ferret slips across my path,
no boreal owl stirs on a branch.
At three a.m., dogs seethed and howled
when a black bear snagged a shriveled
apple off a branch; and, waking out
of a black pool, I glimpsed how
fire creates its own weather
in rising pyrocumulus. Reaching
the ditch, I drop the gate: it's time
for the downhill pipes to fill,
time for bamboo at the house
to suck up water, time to see sunlight
flare between leaves before
the scorching edge of afternoon.
***
Pyrocumulus
by Arthur Sze
Peony shoots rise out of the earth;
at five a.m., walking up the ridge,
I mark how, in April, Orion's left arm
was an apex in the sky, and, by May,
only Venus flickered above the ridge
against the blue edge of sunrise.
In daylight, a pear tree explodes
with white blossoms—no black-
footed ferret slips across my path,
no boreal owl stirs on a branch.
At three a.m., dogs seethed and howled
when a black bear snagged a shriveled
apple off a branch; and, waking out
of a black pool, I glimpsed how
fire creates its own weather
in rising pyrocumulus. Reaching
the ditch, I drop the gate: it's time
for the downhill pipes to fill,
time for bamboo at the house
to suck up water, time to see sunlight
flare between leaves before
the scorching edge of afternoon.
***
Whoopsie!
Apr. 23rd, 2026 12:41 amruricAlmost a month since my last entry. So what's been going on?
Office move - my org started modernising our main building 18 months ago - they did 1st & 3rd floors. Now it's time for 2nd and 4th. We were supposed to be in our temporary space by 1 April LOOOOOOOL. Needless to say we packed all our shit, it was moved to new office space, but sign off on us occupying said space was delayed until Monday. So I'm behind with a lot of stuff as the things I needed to DO THINGS were inaccessible in the new space and then there was Easter.
Wales - I decamped to the cottage for Easter - and yes I did say toravurian "Would-you-come-to-my-cottage-this-Easter" IYKYK. Lovely time was had - we chilled out, ate good food and visited some artists studios and bought more art which neithervof us has enough wall space to display. The solo drive up was long (traffic and road works) and took around 8 hours but the cats behaved. While away I watched Heated Rivalry (again - I'm well into double figures now in the space of 6 weeks), spent an afternoon and evening watching the EmptyNetters reaction podcasts which were delightful, especially the last live reaction pod followed by a summary. Watching 3 straight dudes talk themselves into the middle of the Kinsey scale was awesome. I read about 1 million words of fic (30,000+ Heated Rivalry fics on A03 and increasing at around 2k per week) and the quality of what I've read/am reading is astonishing. Also slept for 9 hours a night. The drive home was much better than the drive up.
Gigs and exhibition- Christian Kane was over for a con last weekend - didn't go 'cos they'd sold out of the good tix and not really convenient timing for my friends and I. But he played a gig last Thursday at the O2 Islington which was very well attended so off we went to that instead - which was a lot of fun and a reminder that I do like live music. Getting home turned into a bit of an adventure as it wasn't clear that Angel tube closed at 10pm for track repairs. Next day we met up for lunch (Wagamama in Battersea), a quick look around the Power Station development and shops and then we hit up the Rameses exhibition - which was good. Spent a couple of hours there - took loads of pics of the Egyptian jewellery. Then coffee and cake before we all headed home. Two days of socialing left me wrecked for the weekend though so all I did was nap and read.
Work - is pants - too much to do, not enough time or support so I'm pulling some very long days in the hope that it will give me some breathing space in May. Ha!
Heated Rivalry - yep still way down THAT particular rabbit hole. A lot of the fandom is happening on Threads and I'm there on two group chats (where the squee seems to live) as the people I know are either over it, not interested in the wider fandom (disappointed face) or have not seen it - though I'm working on an office colleague. I forgot how much fun it can be to be in a very active fandom with new filming on the horizon, and a new set of episodes coming and with a cast who are involved in lots of new projects too. I thought I was done with writing until last week when that muscle twitched again. Also the last 10 days have been a TIME to be in the fandom. With the leads stratospheric rise not only is there new TV to anticipate but all the other stuff. Connor's Verizon ad dropped, then Hunter's Laufrey music vid and Hunter's Peleton ad, Rachel and Jacob's panel at the bookcon, Connor's Tiffany dinner/campaign, a ridiculous amount of stunningly artistic photos of various cast members surfacing and then finally the show was announced as a Peabody winner today.
The fandom lost its mind.
The majority of posts have been a collective version of "I am ded, you have killed me", super thirsty posts about the ridiculous amount of new stuff realeased which absolutely shows smart brands and smart boys taking a massive punt at toxic masculinity and leaning knowingly hard into what they are selling, intermingled with detailed media literate analyseis of the books/TV series - so much content on Thread/Insta for that, rabid speculation about S2 and a potential S3 and what other projects are being announced. And then there's more fanfivs, edits, new fic and on and on.
Considering the rest of the world/news is depressingly fucking awful all day/every day and I seriously don't think we'll make it as a society through the next decade it's pretty much saving my sanity to get home in the evening a dive into HR and try to forget everything else for a few hours.
And on that joyful note I'm off to watch a couple of fanvids and see if either of the three huge WIPs I'm reading has dropped a new chapter!
How you are doing?
Office move - my org started modernising our main building 18 months ago - they did 1st & 3rd floors. Now it's time for 2nd and 4th. We were supposed to be in our temporary space by 1 April LOOOOOOOL. Needless to say we packed all our shit, it was moved to new office space, but sign off on us occupying said space was delayed until Monday. So I'm behind with a lot of stuff as the things I needed to DO THINGS were inaccessible in the new space and then there was Easter.
Wales - I decamped to the cottage for Easter - and yes I did say to
ravurian "Would-you-come-to-my-cottage-this-Easter" IYKYK. Lovely time was had - we chilled out, ate good food and visited some artists studios and bought more art which neithervof us has enough wall space to display. The solo drive up was long (traffic and road works) and took around 8 hours but the cats behaved. While away I watched Heated Rivalry (again - I'm well into double figures now in the space of 6 weeks), spent an afternoon and evening watching the EmptyNetters reaction podcasts which were delightful, especially the last live reaction pod followed by a summary. Watching 3 straight dudes talk themselves into the middle of the Kinsey scale was awesome. I read about 1 million words of fic (30,000+ Heated Rivalry fics on A03 and increasing at around 2k per week) and the quality of what I've read/am reading is astonishing. Also slept for 9 hours a night. The drive home was much better than the drive up.Gigs and exhibition- Christian Kane was over for a con last weekend - didn't go 'cos they'd sold out of the good tix and not really convenient timing for my friends and I. But he played a gig last Thursday at the O2 Islington which was very well attended so off we went to that instead - which was a lot of fun and a reminder that I do like live music. Getting home turned into a bit of an adventure as it wasn't clear that Angel tube closed at 10pm for track repairs. Next day we met up for lunch (Wagamama in Battersea), a quick look around the Power Station development and shops and then we hit up the Rameses exhibition - which was good. Spent a couple of hours there - took loads of pics of the Egyptian jewellery. Then coffee and cake before we all headed home. Two days of socialing left me wrecked for the weekend though so all I did was nap and read.
Work - is pants - too much to do, not enough time or support so I'm pulling some very long days in the hope that it will give me some breathing space in May. Ha!
Heated Rivalry - yep still way down THAT particular rabbit hole. A lot of the fandom is happening on Threads and I'm there on two group chats (where the squee seems to live) as the people I know are either over it, not interested in the wider fandom (disappointed face) or have not seen it - though I'm working on an office colleague. I forgot how much fun it can be to be in a very active fandom with new filming on the horizon, and a new set of episodes coming and with a cast who are involved in lots of new projects too. I thought I was done with writing until last week when that muscle twitched again. Also the last 10 days have been a TIME to be in the fandom. With the leads stratospheric rise not only is there new TV to anticipate but all the other stuff. Connor's Verizon ad dropped, then Hunter's Laufrey music vid and Hunter's Peleton ad, Rachel and Jacob's panel at the bookcon, Connor's Tiffany dinner/campaign, a ridiculous amount of stunningly artistic photos of various cast members surfacing and then finally the show was announced as a Peabody winner today.
The fandom lost its mind.
The majority of posts have been a collective version of "I am ded, you have killed me", super thirsty posts about the ridiculous amount of new stuff realeased which absolutely shows smart brands and smart boys taking a massive punt at toxic masculinity and leaning knowingly hard into what they are selling, intermingled with detailed media literate analyseis of the books/TV series - so much content on Thread/Insta for that, rabid speculation about S2 and a potential S3 and what other projects are being announced. And then there's more fanfivs, edits, new fic and on and on.
Considering the rest of the world/news is depressingly fucking awful all day/every day and I seriously don't think we'll make it as a society through the next decade it's pretty much saving my sanity to get home in the evening a dive into HR and try to forget everything else for a few hours.
And on that joyful note I'm off to watch a couple of fanvids and see if either of the three huge WIPs I'm reading has dropped a new chapter!
How you are doing?
Current listening: Jenny (Doctor Who spinoff) audio story "Stolen Goods"
Apr. 22nd, 2026 09:27 pmvivdunstanHad the first boxset waiting to listen to for ages, and finally fired up this first story. And this is enormous fun. Georgia Tennant does a grand job returning to her Doctor Who TV role as the Doctor's Daughter, and the story, characters and tone are great space comedy, in the style of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I don't know if the rest of the boxset will be similar, but this is a superb start.
