tzikeh | Reading

Monday Me put it in a secure inner pocket of my backpack that At The Airport Me forgot even existed, but On The Plane Me found it! Hurrah for my health card, my British currency, my backup credit card, and my faith in myself. Also my UK eSIM is working.

Unfortunately, Geoff's phone is completely refusing to boot. Whee!

ETA: Also, while Geoff's checked bag made the transfer at Heathrow and arrived in Jersey with us, mine did not. They promise to deliver it to our B&B, maaaaaybe this evening, probably tomorrow, hopefully not later than that? Good thing this isn't the kind of trip where we're moving every day.

Now off to the nearest thing to an Apple store so Geoff can have them poke at his phone...

ysobel

I keep wanting to do art of, or at least inspired by, the greenbelt by my place -- basically a long green area with paved bicycle/pedestrian paths and lots of grassy areas and trees of different types -- but I keep dithering on specifics.

Small scale, like focusing on a single tree, or more broad? Realistic or stylized? How much detail? Which season? Habitated (a few dog walkers, a bicyclist or two, maybe a family walking together) or not? More people-built stuff (lampposts, benches, etc) or less?

...obviously I'm not limited to just one, but even with multiple projects there's stuff to decide. Same scene in different seasons? (in which case do I make it into an animation?) Same scene but different styles? Related images, like close up of a tree with more detail and also a bigger picture incorporating that tree but with less detail and broader context? Different images altogether? Multiple images worked to a point and then pick my favorite to finalize? Sketch out a few quick drafts and have my inner critic decide they're all irredeemably stupid?)

hmm...

the_shoshanna

We left the house at 10 am, and at goddamn four in the afternoon, after we've gone through airport security, I realize that I left my wallet at home!

I have my passport (or we couldn't have gotten this far) and the one credit card I had tucked in with it for easy access. But nothing else.

I am basically in charge of logistics for our trips, and in general I do it very well, but sometimes I REALLY FUCK UP.

Sigh. Nothing to be done about it now. But I feel like an idiot.

ETA: On the other hand, ee have a row of three to ourselves, so that's pretty great!

twistedchick

There's a new movie on The Odyssey coming out on July 17. This link has the cast list and a preview.

I can't say for sure, but I have a hunch Christopher Nolan may be doing much of it right. Anne Hathaway is Penelope, Tom Holland is Telemachos. I have minor arguments about Nolan's choice for Odysseus, Matt Damon, but with that beard he looks less Irish, and he does have the build to carry it off. Robert Pattinson looks like a thug as the head suitor. Zendaya as Athene. Charlise Theron as Calypso. And that's not even a third of the cast list.

The one thing I'm withholding judgment on, and hoping against hope that Nolan et al get right, is Penelope. She is the queen of Ithaka, in a misogynistic environment, but historically (or literally, from the literature) she was born and raised in Sparta, where the girls learn to carry weapons and fight with the boys, and are raised as equals to the men. Helen of Sparta was probably a cousin. I hope they bring out her ability to resist (and not just by weaving a cobweb shroud for her father-in-law who isn't dead). She isn't a doormat; she is an armed fortress.

For this, I'll go back to a theater. ETA: I am pretty sure Hecuba isn't in it, however.

raine

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

musesfool

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Mets vs Rockies on tv

dear co-workers,

there is no need to text or call after 5 pm to schedule a meeting that is two weeks away (I already sent you my boss's availability and am holding those times, which I told you) or ask to be emailed some documents that 1. you should already have by nature of your position, and 2. you don't need to look at until tomorrow anyway. nothing is on fire! there is absolutely no reason this could not have waited until tomorrow.

no love,

me

*

dorothy1901

May the fourth be with you. 😊

musesfool

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Mets vs Angels on tv

Hey, I have actually read a couple of books!

what I just finished
First Witches Club by Maisey Yates, which was cute and fast but relentlessly heterosexual. It's about 3 women whose husbands have left them coming together to learn that magic is real. The community building is nice. This is kind of a beach/airplane read, but it was the first new-to-me book I was able to stick with in a while.

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong, which I enjoyed quite a bit. It's kind of a picaresque about Tao, the titular fortune-teller, and the friends she meets along the way. It's pretty cozy, but things do happen in it.

what I'm reading now
Saint Death's Daughter by CSE Cooney, which I am enjoying. It's as if The Locked Tomb and Flora Segunda had a sunshiny necromantic daughter. I wouldn't have thought you could make necromancy twee, but Cooney sure does try.

what I'm reading next
Likely Saint Death's Herald, the sequel to the above. And then in just over a week, Parade of Horribles comes out and I will be reading that immediately.

*

musesfool

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: post-Kentucky Derby interview

I can't remember where I first heard about Russian buttercream, but I finally decided to try it out to see how it works. It is super simple: you whip 2 sticks/226g of room temperature butter until it is pale, add a pinch of salt and a tsp of vanilla, and then whip in a can of sweetened condensed milk a quarter of the can at a time. I knew it would be sweet (though not quite as sweet - or gritty - as American buttercream), and I knew it might have a caramel type of taste, so I chose to try these brown sugar/cinnamon cupcakes that are supposed to be filled and topped with salted caramel. Needless to say, I did not bother with all that. The cupcakes are not too sweet and the cinnamon helps cut through the sweetness of the frosting, so I think it works as a pairing.

The frosting did curdle, though (pic). I think maybe whipping it so long (I had to do it for more like 14 minutes than 5 - 7 to get it light) raised the temperature too much. There are tips on how to fix it, but since it was just an experiment and no one else is going to see them, I didn't bother. The frosted cupcakes are in the fridge, and I'm sure that will help. If you're looking for a super easy, pipeable frosting, this could be the one for you!

I also made myself a plate of nachos for dinner, and they were delicious but super messy, so not the best idea when I eat dinner on the couch every night.

*

the_shoshanna

Do Before Leaving list: 72 items checked off, 19 remaining

Pack And Bring list: 33 items checked off, 16 remaining (including 5 items to be worn for travel, not packed)

Pretty good, for three days in advance!

A friend has offered to give us a ride to the train (that goes to the train that goes to the plane that goes to the plane that goes to where we want to end up, whee), so that's very nice indeed.

carenejeans

Sorry this is late! I think I have everyone now. Let me know if not!

Final Tally

( Days 1-15 )

Thanks everyone!

musesfool

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: The Riversitter - Vienna Teng

So I haven't written anything fictional since about January 2024 and mostly haven't even had any ideas, and then one morning last week (maybe the week before? I'm not sure - what even is time?), I woke up and was like, I could write a short DCC story set pre-collapse where Carl posts to AITA about breaking up with Bea and potentially stealing Donut. I told

angelgazing about it and she was of course, very encouraging, and all, you should totally write that! But alas, I did not, though I did think about it longer than most ~ideas~ I've had over the last 2 years.

This morning, she texted me a link and someone wrote it! In a brief post on Threads of all places, but it was exactly that. And she was like, I only recognized it because you'd already told me about it! And I was like, see, I don't even have to write it because someone else already did!

Nice to know that even without writing anything, I am still tapped into the fannish hive mind. *wry*

In other fannish news: Ted Lasso season 4 trailer!!!! August 5th!!! I AM EXCITE!!!

*

musesfool

Current Mood: productive
Current Music: Stars vs Wild on tv

I meant to have the recs update done earlier, but I fell asleep and then I had to make dinner etc. etc. But it is done now:

unfitforsociety has been updated for April 2026 with 14 recs in 4 fandoms:

* 10 Heated Rivalry
* 1 The Pitt
* 2 Batfamily and 1 Batfamily/Avengers crossover

***

Today's poem:

If your mirror breaks
by Joy Kogawa

if when you are holding a
hand mirror when you are
sitting in the front seat of a car
and the mirror breaks
you must stop everything quickly
step on the brakes
leap from the car

if when you are holding in
your arms a mirror and you
feel the glass sudden in your veins
if your throat bleeds with
brittle words and
you hear in the distance the
ambulance siren

if your mirror breaks into
a tittering sound of tinkling glass
and you see the highway stretch
into a million staring splinters
you must stop everything gently
wait for seven long years
under a sky of whirling wheels

if your mirror breaks
oh if your mirror breaks

***

And that's a wrap on National Poetry Month 2026!

***

mayhap

Current Mood: pessimistic

The Royals have picked up where they left off last year, i.e. being disappointing, and they've been quite good at it. They've even flirted with being the worst team in baseball! It was fortunate that while we were mired in our measly eight-game losing streak, the Mets were having a twelve-game losing streak with $100 million more dollars of active payroll in a much bigger media market, so that took a lot of the attention off of us and our cheapskate flyover losing.

What we have attracted a lot of attention for, which seems to be largely positive,* is the latest iteration of our City Connect uniforms, which bear a more than passing resemblance to the bisexual pride flag. We've technically had these colors in our official city logo for years now, but somehow it's not as striking in the thin lines of the fountain/heart shape as it is on, say, the batting helmets, and now nobody can unsee it. Personally, I love this for us.

They say you can't win the division in April, but you can lose it. What they failed to reckon with in this aphorism is the uncompetitive nature of the 2026 American League Central Division. In spite of the dismal 12-19 start, we're all of 3.5 games out of first. The best this group can muster at the moment is two .500 teams. On the off-chance that the Royals are actually secretly decent, they could easily recover!

Meanwhile I've already turned my attention to the NFL draft and convincing myself that a handful of college kids are going to fix all the problems on my team.

______________________________
*admittedly on reddit and bluesky. Maybe they're all still bitching about it on X the everything app.

musesfool

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Canadiens vs Lightning on tv

Today's poem:

Bright Wings

I was walking in the garden looking for the intermediaries
between me and the clear light. I had left the hose running
much too long. Something was eating holes in the ear-soft
leaves of the morning glories. I saw for the first time
that the neighbor was growing corn - the yellow shocks
were leaning just above the cinder-block fence, and they
looked delicate and scruffy, like city corn, like alien corn,
and suddenly there was so much to be done, so much to
put in order, not the ordinary business of loving and dying,
but the ordinary business that comes bundled with them:
Sunlight behaved perfectly in every corner, the shadows breathed
in their one direction and told stories, our cat crouched in the flower bed
aching to kill something: How do you explain being so convinced,
so utterly taken by the idea that beauty is somehow moral?
I mean in this day and age? I mean now when no one can even get
that equation to hold up? But the ants have formed a black
ribbon that leads to a dead snail. But the Pipers and Cessnas
and Beechcraft are circling and banking for the airport with
so much color and precision. But the dogs two houses down
have heard the mail-carrier's foot, and they have erupted.
This is not the argument I'm looking for. And I have been lazy.
Tangerines and lemons have swollen and dropped from their
impatient branches. They lie among the fern and the vine, bruised
and mushy. They are being swarmed. They are being devoured.

--Frank X. Gaspar

***

twistedchick

This is what is happening to the Kennedy Center. It is a crime against culture and a crime against the American people. And it continues.

Quoting from it:

When Grenell instructed me to “get rid of” the center’s permanent art collection because we needed new art to adorn the building’s walls after its renovation, I was taken aback by his cavalier attitude. If the donors of the works didn’t want to pay for their removal, he said, we could put them up for auction or give them away. My mind raced immediately to the eight-foot, 3,000-pound brass bust of President Kennedy standing in the Grand Foyer. Designed by the sculptor Robert Berks, it is surely the most significant item in the center’s collection. When I reported the order to another top leader, his eyes grew wide; he told me not to do anything, and said his office would handle it. I can only hope that the bust—and all the other works—will be safe when the center closes its doors....

I do not have the link for the interview with the insider who talked about artworks being taken down, thrown out, sold under the table. I am looking; if I find it I will post it.

gwyn

Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: America-Only in Your Heart

It's been quite a while since I updated; it's kind of embarrassing how much I've fallen down on the job of posting. I had all these thoughts about The Pitt (I feel like I am watching/fanning a different show than anyone else and I'm having a hard time wanting to discuss it with anyone because I feel so weird and out of step; basically I love a lot of the characters or events others seem to hate and I feel a lot like Abed in Community: I guess I just like liking stuff) but then things kind of took a turn anyway.

My best friend and little buddy, Blues, seemed to take a sudden turn for the worse last weekend, and by Monday I was worried enough that I started calling the home euthanasia vets that friends had used. We made an appointment for Wednesday morning, but I wasn't sure he would last that long. I spent the next two days just trying to do anything that would make him happy or comfortable, as he was clearly having a hard time. He mostly wanted to be in the sun on the deck, as we were blessed with quite a few days in a row with sunshine, which is rare at this time of year in Seattle. Then I tried to find long things to watch on TV where I wouldn't want to get up and move around so he could sleep on my lap for as long as possible. Aliens director's cut ftw.

He got quite perky on Wednesday morning and yowled till I let him out--in the pouring rain, shaking my head forever at him and his obsession with being on or under his beloved deck--and then the vet came. I had a lot of doubts that I was doing the right thing because he'd been so much livelier, but she pointed out some pain signs and other things (and he was still really wobbly too) and I decided to go ahead. I honestly think he was gone with the sedative before the pentobarbitol even came along.

The house is so empty. I talked to him all day long, we had all these weird little rituals and I picked him up and smooched him dozens of times a day, and at night he was always on my left side and now when I put my hand down there, I have no kitty to pet or tummy to rub. I can't stand not being able to kiss a kitty head. He loved endless tummy rubs and toebean rubs--he was not one of those cats who ask you to scritch their tummy and then try to rip your face off after one minute; you could literally never stop scratching his belly and he would be fine with it. He hated being brushed, but you could play with his feet, his tail, his ears, his nose, and the scritches, and he was fine. Every time I get up, it's just so... There's no kitty greeting me and demanding food. Or winding through my legs and tripping me and nearly killing me. He was sometimes a very challenging cat, as anyone who's been on my friends list probably read over the years (the worst was the bite that almost put me in the hospital when I also had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic), but the good far outweighed the bad.

I don't know what I want to do. I've only lived a few years of my life without a pet. But I have no idea how long I'll be doing okay with my treatment and I'm not sure I'm feeling like looking or fostering anyway right now. It's so lonely, and he was all I had left. He was my sweetheart.

musesfool

Current Mood: contemplative

Today's poem:

For everyone who tried on the slipper before Cinderella

after Anis Mojgani and Audre Lorde

For those making tea in the soft light of Saturday morning
in the peaceful kitchen
in the cool house
For those with shrunken hearts still trying to love
For those with large hearts trying to forget
For those with terrors they cannot name
upset stomachs and too tight pants
For those who get cut off in traffic
For those who spend all day making an elaborate meal
that turns out mediocre
For those who could not leave
even when they knew they had to
For those who never win the lottery
or become famous
For those getting groceries on Friday nights

There is something you know
about living
that you guard with your life
your one fragile, wonderful life
wonder, as in, awe,
as in, I had no idea I would be here now.

For those who make plans and those who don’t
For those driving across the country to a highway that knows them
For the routes we take in the dark, trusting
For the roads for the woods for the dead humming in prayer
For an old record and a strong sun
For teeth bared to the wind
a pulse in the chest
a body making love to itself

There is every reason to hate it here
There is a list of things making it bearable:
your friend’s shoulder Texas barbecue a new book
a loud song a strong song a highway that knows you
sweet tea an orange cat a helping hand
an unforgettable dinner

a laugh that escapes you and deflates you
like a pink balloon left soft with room
for goodness to take hold

For those who have looked in the mirror and begged
For those with weak knees and an attitude
For those called "sensitive" or "too much"
For those not called enough
For the times you needed and went without
For the photo of you as a child
quietly icing cupcakes your hair a crackling thunderstorm

Love is coming.
It's on its way.
Look—

--Ariana Brown

*

twistedchick

I called today to check -- the parts have come in! Calloo, callay! So I may get the call to come pick it up tomorrow or Thursday, definitely this week.

That's such a relief. I had asked a friend to check on when I needed to pay rent on my place in Second Life and it has two weeks to go (it's a three-month thing). Probably the first thing I'll do once I get the computer back, and upload the backup just in case, is go inworld and put down more Lindens (local currency) on that. It's a little Irish-style thatched stone cottage with a fireplace, on a hill next to an Acorn stop (think cable car), and I'd really hate to lose it.

musesfool

Current Mood: tired

Today's poem:

And Then It Was Less Bleak Because We Said So
by Wendy Xu

Today there has been so much talk of things exploding
into other things, so much that we all become curious, that we
all run outside into the hot streets
and hug. Romance is a grotto of eager stones
anticipating light, or a girl whose teeth
you can always see. With more sparkle and pop
is the only way to live. Your confetti tongue explodes
into acid jazz. Small typewriters
that other people keep in their eyes
click away at all our farewell parties. It is hard
to pack for the rest of your life. Someone is always
eating cold cucumber noodles. Someone will drop by later
to help dismantle some furniture. A lot can go wrong
if you sleep or think, but the trees go on waving
their broken little hands.

*

Profile

tzikeh

August 2022

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Page Summary

the_shoshanna - I did NOT forget my wallet!
ysobel - (no subject)
the_shoshanna - jfc
twistedchick - For anyone who read The Hecubiad
raine - FIC: The Long Answer
musesfool - it's not fun
dorothy1901 - Redux
musesfool - i want you to take a look at this picture
musesfool - but you don't want 'em too nervous
the_shoshanna - trip prep checklist
carenejeans - Write Every Day April 2026 - Days 1-15: Final Tally
musesfool - you don't have to tell a tidy story
musesfool - and you feel the glass sudden in your veins
mayhap - April is the cruelest month
musesfool - They are being swarmed. They are being devoured.
twistedchick - (no subject)
gwyn - Life gets so hard when you reach the end
musesfool - Love is coming. It's on its way.
twistedchick - the continuing stooooory of the computer in the shop
musesfool - with more sparkle and pop is the only way to live

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