Sally's Journal

Happy birthday, szandara!

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

There was an "oh look at the time" moment just now. Somehow I lost track of its passing, and had thought it long before midnight, so the hour just sort of smacked me upside the head. Except for a brief afternoon nap, I've been awake since eight o'clock Thursday evening, and I'm surprised I didn't just collapse at some point in the last few hours. I'm super tired.

So the shopping got done, somehow, but was not entirely (or very at all) successful. The proper donuts were not available, of course, because there is no god and he's a dick anyway, but I got some substitute donuts of a not very appealing kind, and a few other items I'd wanted were not available either, and of course I forgot some stuff and only realized other stuff would have been good to have after the whole thing was over.

But I did get the first mini-watermelons of the year (a BOGO deal they failed to give me but I called the store and they arranged a refund) and there were a couple of good deals that will benefit me in future months, but provide no foods this month. So some modest benefits accrued from the day's toil. And for dinner tonight (meaning Friday, though I know that's already over) I'm just going to microwave a ramen bowl.

Oh, and we're going to catch a break from the weather. For most of what's left of May the highs will be in the seventies and eighties, with only two days possibly breaking ninety. The lows will be in the fifties or low sixties, so plenty of free nocturnal cooling power. This is sort of normal for this time of year, so an encouraging sign. But I shouldn't say that, in case that nonexistent giant prick Poseidon is listening and decides to ruin things for us. Damned gods anyway.

https://www.transsolidarityalliance.com/mass-lobby-2026

As explained at: https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/lobbying-parliament/

A mass lobby is when a large number of people contact their MPs and members of the Lords in advance and arrange to meet with them at Parliament all on the same day.

Trans+ Solidarity Alliance are one of the groups who've been absolutely kicking ass in the last year.

They also now have a crowdfunder if anyone wants to donate:

https://www.zeffy.com/en-GB/donation-form/fund-the-work-of-the-trans-solidarity-alliance

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

What does honor mean to you? How important is it to you? Does your culture value honor? What exemplifies honor in your culture?


"Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.... The friction tends to arise when the two are not the same....There is no more hollow feeling than to stand with your honor shattered at your feet while soaring public reputation wraps you in rewards. That's soul destroying. The other way around is merely very, very irritating."
-- Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign

"Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And
outlive the bastards."
― Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign

Yeah lane assist, I'd do that IF I could see it. It rained for 335 miles from my door to evil_little_dog's. Some places I couldn't even see. From Cincinnati to Louisville I'm not sure we ever got above 25 mph.

Luckily it was mostly uneventful (lots of accidents none near me) and the Jetta gets surprisingly good gas mileage.

have some recs for fannish 50


Undeserved Mercy Torchwood

Through The Ring Stargate Atlantis

Live! Starsky & Hutch

Musical The Owl House

Soulmate The Owl House

Protocol Torchwood

All Roads Lead To Haven Hazbin Hotel

Childhood The Owl House

Opposite Hazbin Hotel

Gambler's Fallacy Hornblower - C. S. Forester Hornblower

Unwritten 镇魂 | Guardian

Recuperation 9-1-1

Handyman Teen Wolf

Flyer Derby The Owl House

Picnic The Owl House

Play Time Teen Wolf

captivated captive Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates

Horror (Movie) The Owl House

Seasons The Owl House

Cozy Evening Stargate Atlantis

Before The End Torchwood

Human Realm The Owl House

Fairytale The Owl House


The Salvage Yard The Trixie Belden Mysteries - Julie Campbell Tatham & Kathryn KennyThe Three Investigators | Die drei

Bedridden Teen Wolf

Normal-ish Hazbin Hotel

Learning to Compromise Teen Wolf

'Roly-poly' Bugs Are Great Garden Composters

A detritivorous diet increases the speed of decomposition in dead plants, animals or poop, increasing the bioavailability of nutrients in the soil. This gives plants a higher chance of survival by providing better quality soil. It's not just what roly-poly bugs add to the soil, but what they take out too.

Turns out these guys love heavy metals. After studying the composition of their insides, scientists found that roly-poly bugs ingest a lot of heavy metal contamination from our soil. That's why they can live and thrive in areas contaminated with toxins like lead, cadmium and arsenic. Once they've ingested these toxins, they become crystallized within their guts, meaning a construction site contaminated with heavy metals could effectively be cleaned by a bunch of hungry roly-poly bugs.


Here at Fieldhaven, we have lots of pillbugs. I saw some crawling around the new picnic table garden the other day, attracted by the soil in the pots. Aside from performing useful tasks themselves, they also tend to carry other soil organisms along with them, which boosts the bioactivity and health of the soil.  You can attract them by putting a handful of damp, dead leaves under a weight such as a brick or a pot.

Einstein’s “wormhole” may actually reveal a hidden mirror of time

What if wormholes were never cosmic tunnels at all? New research suggests Einstein and Rosen’s famous “bridge” may actually reveal something even stranger: time itself could flow in two directions at once. Instead of connecting distant places in space, these bridges may connect mirror versions of time deep inside quantum physics, potentially solving the long-standing black hole information paradox and hinting that our universe existed before the Big Bang.

The Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network does a lot of vitally important work supporting immigrants in and around and from Massachusetts, including paying bond (the immigration detention equivalent of bail) to get people released from ICE detention. So much so, in fact, that after paying out over $1.5 million in 2026 alone (!!), they're scraping the bottom of the barrel for their bond fund. They urgently need more money to keep up this work. This is an all-volunteer organization -- I volunteer with them, and can vouch that aside from a tiny bit of overhead, every penny goes to helping immigrants.

I know times are tight and there are a million worthy causes around right now, but if you happen to have some spare funds you'd like to toss at a good cause, this is a really good one and a really good time to donate. Every little bit helps.

(And if you're not in a position to donate, no shame and no judgment.)

These are active communities in Dreamwidth from Winter 2025-2026. They include things I've posted, but only the active ones; the thematic posts also list dormant communities of interest. This list includes some communities that I've found and saved but haven't made it into thematic posts yet. This post covers J-Z.

See my Follow Friday Master Post for more topics.

( Read more... )

My irregular hobby of checking for apartment clear-out sales netted me a lot of spices today, some of which I'll make use of and some of which I'll have to figure out how to dispose of - I've got a pepper grinder, I don't need pre-ground black pepper taking up any shelf space. I also don't think I need to hang onto any béchamel sauce packets, either. I can make good use of tomato paste and arborio rice and reasonable use of canned corn and spice-infused honey, but béchamel sauce packets are beyond me.

Also some hot chocolate packets, which I'm definitely saving for later. Much later. After the next equinox later.

Heading out to grab everything also included a pit stop at the library, and it's a wonderful feeling to take over a dozen items out at a time. A very budget-friendly, accessible way to feel incredibly wealthy.

In other news of media of predictable interest to me, I had no idea that Cannes just premiered a queer romance set in a theatrical troupe on the Western Front of World War I. To this review, yes, concert parties of the trenches could indeed have flutes and clarinets and all manner of professional entertainment on account of the quantity of professional talent behind the lines if not on the front of them. I'm curious about the historical tunes alone. I know much less about Belgian soldiers' songs and sketches than I do about their British or Canadian counterparts. Local arthouses had better come through on this one.

So the Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network, where I volunteer, is scraping the bottom of their bond fund. If you have a few pennies to toss, now would be a really exceptional time.

(I personally have been scratching my head trying to figure out what kind of best talent show this town has ever seen might be helpful to the overall cause, so I guess if there's anything you've ever wanted to see me do or post about particularly that might work as a fundraising incentive, let me know???)

I am skipping over yesterday and will hope to describe it later; today I am blogging about today, in an effort to not fall too far behind.

We left pretty early this morning, since we had to be at the ferry dock 45 minutes early, and after an incident yesterday (a minor car accident -- the first we've seen, which is frankly a little surprising) delayed our bus, we wanted to leave plenty of time in case of similar difficulties. We still miiiight have had time to grab some breakfast, but no way was I eating anything other than an antinausea med before getting on a ferry again, and Geoff decided he'd rather wait and get something in Sark.

The weather today was absolutely gorgeous, sunny and gently breezy and even a little too hot. The ferry over to Sark was much smaller than the one from Jersey to here, and we had seats outside on the upper deck with great views, and the sea was calm; I doubt I even needed the pill but I'm not sorry I took it just in case. We saw many jagged rocks gouging up from the water, some of them extra jagged because of all the cormorants on them; and the island of Herm as we passed it (year-round population: about 60; tourists per year: about 100,000); and also the island of Brecqhou, right next to Sark, which is privately owned by the surviving billionaire Barclay brother. The glimpse I got of their castle-mansion looked exactly like you'd expect a supervillain's billionaire's castle-mansion on a private island to look like.

Our plan was basically to walk around the island, and also have a meal or two. The first walk was just up the loooong steeeeeep hill from the ferry dock to the center of the village (and the Visitor Information Centre). We'd more or less assumed we'd ride one of the wagons pulled by tractors (which are the only motor vehicles allowed on the island) that are made available, and that haul overnight visitors' luggage up for delivery to their hotels, but the crowd preceding us off the boat had filled them by the time we walked from the disembarkation point to their parking and loading area, and we didn't want to wait for them to deliver the first load of tourists and come back for more. Also none of the info we'd seen had told us there was a charge for the ride, but then we saw a fee list posted. So we said screw it, it won't be the hardest walk we've done this week, and headed for the footpath up the hill along with a number of other intrepid walkers.

That may have been the nicest walk we did all day, sadly. It was lovely, wooded and shady, steep at times but never grueling, with no particular views to admire but just a green and pleasant passage, very quiet unless a tractor-bus was chugging past us on the road that was paralleling us off to the side, behind a line of trees.

We got to the top, walked through shops and restaurants to the Visitors' Centre and confirmed that they had no maps better than the freebie the ferry company had given us when we checked in, and went to a pub for some food. Well, they weren't going to start serving food until noon, and it was 11:45, so we killed time in an excellent exhibit on life under the Occupation in the hall next door. It included a whole history of the war as Sark experienced it, including awful details about the level of hunger. (Sibyl Hathaway, the Dame of Sark, the feudal lord who ran the island from 1927 when her father died and she inherited the title until she died in 1974, went from what the narration happily described as "a healthy weight of 10 stone" to 7 stone by the end of the war: 140 pounds to 98. The feudal system of government wasn't changed until 2008, and whoever wrote the story of the Occupation clearly adored Dame Hathaway.) There were also stories of a group of local divers and others who worked for the Germans under the threat of danger to their families and communities but who slowed and sabotaged the work as much as they dared; and accounts from someone who was evacuated as a child just before the Germans arrived and from someone who stayed; and many more stories, including the code words that Dame Hathaway and her husband used in letters, to pass on news of the war, after he was deported to a German prison camp.

Anyway, once the pub was open for food, we got some excellent coffee, and Geoff got a quite tasty plate of duck tagliatelle. I, still on my quest to eat my own weight in seafood, got a crab sandwich that the menu board said was made with local foraged seaweed -- how could I turn it down? I'd had a crab sandwich at a beachside kiosk yesterday, which was...acceptable: it was on supermarket sandwich bread, thickly buttered, and wasn't all that good, really. This one was better, on a crusty roll that was still buttered but at least only lightly, and the chopped seaweed that was mixed into it didn't add a noticeable flavor but maybe it was a bit more...umami? The crab itself did taste better than yesterday's sandwich. But on the whole I think I'll give up on crab sandwiches. Geoff's pasta was better.

After lunch, we set out to walk to Little Sark, a chunk of land that hangs like a teardrop of the south end of Sark proper, connected by a high and narrow land bridge called La Coupée. Until 1902, when the first safety railing was installed, Little Sark children on their way to school would crawl across it on their hands and knees to avoid being blown off. Now it has sturdy railings on both sides, and also a smooth and somewhat leveled walkway, paved down each side but left as dirt in the middle so that horses could get a better footing, that was constructed by German prisoners of war in 1945-46. It was a very dramatic crossing; I hope Geoff's pictures came out!

But the walk to La Coupée wasn't anything special, and on the other side the dry dirt roadway was wide and unshaded and between banks so there were almost no views. We had been hoping to get to a Neolithic dolmen at the far end of Little Sark, but we didn't really have time before we had to report to the return ferry, and the walking wasn't pleasant, so we gave up and turned around. Wandered back through town, got Geoff an ice cream, and took the nice footpath down the hill again. Since we had some time, we went from the ferry harbor through a short tunnel bored right through the rock to the boating harbor next to it, which is one of the smallest working harbors in the world. It's almost entirely enclosed by a breakwater, making it also a nice place to swim; several people were in the water, and so was a very happy dog. Then we went back and stood on the ferry dock waiting for the ferry. I'm pretty sure I saw a jellyfish in the water; it was a foot or so below the surface, which was several yards below me, and it wasn't very big, so it's hard to be sure; but it was definitely moving differently from the water around it, and it definitely seemed to be blooming and contracting, blooming and contracting, as a jellyfish would. So I'm going to say I saw a jellyfish! That was exciting; I don't think I've ever seen one in the wild before, unless you count the Portuguese man o' war that stung me when I was a child.

I took another pill before the return ferry ride, and although I hadn't felt that the first one affected me at all, I definitely got hit by "may cause drowsiness" on the way home! I actually fell asleep sitting up (we had great seats on the outside upper deck again) and dreamed of figuring out buses for tomorrow's excursions. Neither Geoff nor I felt we wanted (or could manage) dinner after that big lunch, but I did want a little something, so we stopped at the M&S food hall again on the way to the bus home: I got a couple of tea cakes with dried fruit, and he got a bottle of beer 😀 (Alcohol is contraindicated with the meds, but that didn't stop me having a couple of swallows!) Consumed them back at the hotel after bath and showers, and have been blogging every since.

Tomorrow, the plan is to visit the main local farmers market -- I love farmers markets! -- and pass by a 4000-year-old goddess statue, and then in the afternoon tour a local cidery, which means many samples of cider, plus biscuits, cheeses, and the cidery's own apple chutney. Might be another day without dinner!

Thanks to the escalation in their heartbreakingly necessary work of bonding out people kidnapped and imprisoned by ICE and helping with their legal fees and families, the Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network has depleted its bond fund in record time since the start of the year. There is no shortage of detainees in our profitably carceral system and no one in need should have more locks across their path. You got a sixpence you want, they are taking donations. It's actually Shavuos at the moment, but it is always a good time to open the door to the stranger.

I've been trying out some new audio fiction podcasts lately. Not all have clicked with me, but these three have. In order of current love:

First:
The Harbingers. Its own blurb is a good intro: "Adam Blackwell and Amy Stirling met as graduate students in anthropology, both obsessed with studying the same dead language and long-lost culture. Their relationship was always... complicated. They were bitter rivals, ideological opposites, and even went out on a date once - though they’d really prefer if everyone forgot about that last thing, thank you very much. Then, they became the first two people in thousands of years capable of doing magic." 

It's written by Gabriel Urbina, known to me from Wolf 359 and a few other things since, and it's as you'd expect with that pedigree: heavily character- and dialogue-based, slow-paced, and really really good. It's towards the tail end of Season 1 right now.

Second:

Two Thousand and Late. Harper is an ordinary struggling American, who is possessed by a demon. The demon is here to bring about the apocalypse, but the way that the Amazon-analogue corporation treats its warehouse workers is too much even for Hell.
Fast-paced witty repartee that is sometimes difficult to follow, but enjoyable for the high level of snark. Short (20ish minute) episodes. It just reached the end of Season 1.

Third:

Midnight Burger. In its own words:
"When Gloria took a waitressing job at a diner outside of Phoenix, she didn't realize she was now an employee of Midnight Burger, a time-traveling, dimension-spanning diner. Every day Midnight Burger appears somewhere new in the cosmos along with it's staff: a galactic drifter, a rogue theoretical physicist, a sentient old-timey radio, and some guy named Caspar. No one knows who built Midnight Burger or how it works, but when it appears there's always someone around who could really use a cup of coffee."

There is a LOT of this one : 104 episodes, and I think still counting... I'm only about four eps in, so I can't comment on it too much as yet, except that I'm enjoying the start.

Do you have any recommendations of other things that I should add to the list?