Oysters, shards of glass from the sea
Nov. 11th, 2025 09:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sovayfleurdelis41 and I had gone specifically for Transformed by Revolution but the TARDIS-like galleries winding inside the externally compact brick and slate-roofed buildings were too compelling to breeze through, especially when filled with items like the Musketaquid-turtle formed of ten thousand stone years or the small brass-foxed mirror that belonged to a man who died free or a collection of objects once in the possession of Thoreau that I had no idea anyone had preserved, like a wooden box for geological specimens or a DIY Aeolian harp. A copper kettle that belonged to Louisa May Alcott. Flints dug up from the lines of battle at the not yet Old North Bridge. Embroidered scenes of the Book of Esther. A musket that was high-tech enough for the militia but not for the Continental Army. A lace-trimmed gown of India cotton in the Empire style. The gallery devoted to the Battles of Lexington and Concord was audiovisual without eliding the tactile artifacts of powder horns and flintlocks and a lantern of the Old North Church. The modern quilt was as resonant as the stone tool island. I liked the display inviting the visitor to guess from their textures the difference between imported and homemade textiles, of which the silk and the superfine were not the latter. I liked, too, Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts' Unloading Boats (1912). By our own estimate, it was our first time hanging out in person in four years. I left the gift shop with Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twenty Days with Julian & Little Bunny by Papa (1851/2003) and a guide to trees by their leaves.
Mattel announces K-pop Demon Hunters dolls!
Nov. 11th, 2025 11:38 pmbrithistorianYou can see them here. They look really great, and you can pre-order them by 9AM PST on 12 November 2025, for delivery in October 2026. Unfortunately, you can only order them as a set of three for $150, which seems a bit excessive to me. I'm sure they'll set a bunch of them, but not to me.
I even double-checked to be sure this wasn't just another example of "prices going up while I wasn't looking," and it wasn't — $50 per doll is 4-5 times the price of a regular Barbie doll, which just strikes me as excessive. I could see twice the price of a regular Barbie, and at that price I'd think about it. But that at this price. At this price I look at the page and immediately nope right out.
What is this crap!?
Nov. 12th, 2025 11:45 pmconulyBunch of weak-willed cowards.
Today is my grandmother's birthday
Nov. 11th, 2025 04:30 pmconuly( Read more... )
(no subject)
Nov. 11th, 2025 04:50 pmursamajorWe borrowed Valerie Sainte-Agathe from SF Girls' Choir in preparation for this performance. Valerie breaks things down differently from Ash, but I like how she pushes us in certain ways that make us realize we know things better than we think we do; it's a confidence builder. Of course, that's a double-edged sword when it's the case where you actually don't know things as well as you know you need to, but I think overall most of us are benefiting from that presumption of a musical capability baseline, that we can read notes and lyrics at the same time and don't always have to start with one or the other. The occasional singing in mixed formation; the times when she tells us to just put the sheet music down and trust our memory.
We did a "retreat" a couple of weekends ago to basically cram in the equivalent of two additional rehearsals, and I think it helped to just run almost everything in order, to realize that yes, we actually have touched on all of the sections where we sing, and now it's just a matter of linking them together into one performance. (And, um, warming up sufficiently; some of my sopranos have definitely not been feeling warmed up enough for some of the high notes we've got in the Verdi; apparently the tenors have a similar plaint.)
Rehearsals Wednesday and Thursday; performance Friday night, along with a world premiere from Cava Menzies to open the show. I believe there are still tickets available for anyone local and interested. Guess I'd better dig out the concert blacks soon and make sure they're clean :) And figure out a lighter-weight folder for the Verdi, lord is the new edition heavy, but it still needs to be in a black music folder to blend in!
(Note to self: obviously it won't arrive in time for Verdi, but if you're thinking about trying to find a lighter-weight concert top before Break Bread, look at Blackstrad? Occasionally, the algorithm deposits actually relevant things in my feed. I'm currently intrigued by their Vesper top and their Elektra top, though I suspect given dress code the Vesper's a better option. There's even a petite section!)
And Break Bread will be upon us faster than a blink: rehearsal next week, break for Thanksgiving, two more regular rehearsals, and then dress rehearsal and performance all on Sunday, December 15. I'd better hurry up and order my music for our February concert, haven't done that yet, naughty section leader!
30 in 30: DCU Comics
Nov. 11th, 2025 05:57 pmsenmutChapters: 1/1
Fandom: Teen Titans (Franchise)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Slade Wilson, Dick Grayson
Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, +Modern Age (1986-Present), Post-Crisis, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary:
Dick's surprised he showed up bleeding but he'll help
First Aid
Dick didn't say a word of protest when he opened his door to see Slade there, not once the man moved the heavy jacket and showed blood seeping out of a hasty bandage. Maybe he should have; the man had to have other safe houses nearby.
He was going to land on the side of 'Slade thought it was bad enough to ask for help' and leave it at that.
"Any tail?"
"Partner's dealing with it; she'll go her own way after."
Ahh, the elusive — "You have her in the States?" Dick asked, startled even as he helped peel the clothes off.
Hell, that looked like shrapnel from an explosive.
"Kind of unavoidable this time," but Slade didn't elucidate beyond that about her. "I promise nothing I was doing would get me back on the wanted list here. Someone had a vendetta, and my healing's been slowed by whatever toxin was on the slivers."
"Cheshire?"
Slade's eye hardened, his jaw set. "There's a reason my partner is handling the cleanup."
Who in the hell was this woman? Had to be meta, to keep up with Slade, but no one had pieced together a solid profile on her.
"And you let her?" Dick asked, before huffing out an amused air. "Now I have heard everything."
"She's got people I prefer not to be known by, and leave it at that, Kid?"
"Alright." Dick shut up about it, and just saw to cleaning everything out, so that Slade could heal. He'd file a note with Vic later, for their unofficial file on the partner. Right now, he just wanted his… complicated to stop bleeding and probably get some rest.
"Not bad," Slade said, once everything was dealt with. "Appreciate the help, Kid."
"I'd say any time, but I bet I was closest."
tend to remain in motion
Nov. 11th, 2025 04:05 pmjazzfishI feel like I am in a good position to declare that moving sucks.
However. I've been remarkably stable lately. The three and a half years I've been at Corvaric are now the longest I've lived in a single place as an adult, and the third-longest in my life. (Four years in a townhouse outside of DC for high school, preceded by the five worst years of my life in Fayetteville NC in late elementary and junior high.) I was in the same apartment complex for the almost-five years I lived in northern Virginia right after college, but I changed apartments to move in with Emily halfway through that.
This also pushes my total time in the lower mainland (the Vancouver area) above the eleven years I spent in Blacksburg VA. (The longest I've spent in any one locale is still northern Virginia, at not quite twelve years, spread across three separate occasions.)
Sure, I'd rather stay in the same place, put down roots, all that. Just never seems to quite come together for me. There's always a good reason to move: money, or job, or relationship, or just "this place is terrible." This time I'm betting it'll be money, though it might be any of the above.
No real point to this. I'm not moving imminently. It's just interesting to look back at where I've been, and for how short a time.
Although moving DOES suck.
In the shadow of Al-Aqsa, a Palestinian neighborhood faces mass evictions
Nov. 11th, 2025 08:53 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
972mag_feedBacked by the Israeli state and courts, settlers are taking over multi-story homes in East Jerusalem’s Batan Al-Hawa — with 700 more residents targeted.
The post In the shadow of Al-Aqsa, a Palestinian neighborhood faces mass evictions appeared first on +972 Magazine.
AKICIDW: Regional grocery shopping
Nov. 11th, 2025 01:24 pmbrithistorianI've been intrigued by the idea of Cincinnati chili since I first learned about it, but I never wanted to go through the trouble of cooking it from scratch so that I could experience it. The other night, when it made a repeat appearance in one of my fics, it occurred to me that they probably make canned Cincinnati chili. A quick web search revealed that not only do they, but that Skyline Chili, which is the particular Cincinnati chili restaurant that I've heard the most about, makes canned Cincinnati chili. I was prepared to order a can, only to discover that I could only order it in multipacks (4, 6, 8, or 12), which was not something I was willing to commit to with a food that I didn't know if I liked it.
Which is where you come in: If any of you live near enough to Cincinnati that you can buy canned Skyline chili at your local grocery store and you would be willing to buy a can and mail it to me, please send me a private message so I can send you my address and also arrange some way for me to pay you back, either by sending you money or by me sending you something they have in Minnesota that isn't available where you live or by some other option that would be acceptable to both of us.
*fingers crossed*
Weird dream channel - K-pop, dentisty, and strange conventions
Nov. 11th, 2025 01:10 pmbrithistorianLast night I dreamed that I was hanging out with Blackpink Jennie — I'm not sure if we were dating or just friends, but we knew each other very well and either option could have been a possibility. Anyway, we were at a convention that was like a combination craft fair/science fair for geology and/or conspiracy theories.[^1] While we were there, we ran into our dentist[^2] and our dentist's new business partner. Jennie and I both agreed that the new business partner was kind of strange — he was obsessed with the idea of some sort of link between diagonally opposing teeth[^4] — but we couldn't say anything about it because we didn't want to offend our dentist. Jennie and I were still trying to come up with a socially acceptable way to ditch our dentist and his partner when I woke up.
[^1] To give a better idea of what it was like, it was kind of like a dealers' room at a con: A huge room filled with tables, each table with a person behind it. Some of the people wanted to sell you something, some just wanted to tell you about their findings/theories. Some seemed to be related to geology, some to conspiracy theories, and some to both.
[^2] Not my IRL dentist, and probably not Jennie's IRL dentist either.[^3]
[^3] I don't know who Jennie's dentist is, but I'd be very, very surprised if her dentist isn't Korean, and this dentist was an elderly white man.
[^4] For example, that a problem with the left upper first molar would also cause problems in the right lower first molar.
"This fight is levelling you up before our eyes"
Nov. 11th, 2025 07:00 pmrydra_wongFor context, this is the Stray Demon, an optional side boss who's a very beefed-up version (now with added magic, as well as vastly increased damage and HP!) of the Asylum Demon from the tutorial.
I have a theory that the Asylum Demon is so pear-shaped partly in order to encourage the novice player to think of getting behind him and stabbing him in the arse, thus learning a key component of DS1 strategy (positioning yourself where it's hardest for them to hit you, which frequently means getting behind them or in their crotch).
Spirits of Violence #2
Nov. 11th, 2025 06:27 pmshakalooloo posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_daily
Yes yes, the cover lies again; no Hellverine, but Robbie Reyes does appear inside, finally escaping from that extradimensional limbo (lower-case 'l').
But the partial-page I'm posting here features Johnny Blaze, finally realising that the Penance Stare ain't worth shit, and instead turning to the ultimate weapon instead:
( Read more... )
I should read this journal
Nov. 11th, 2025 10:15 amsusandennisOld people.
I think maybe I need a change of scenery. Even if brief. So I will go out and do my Amazon return. Maybe at lunch. Or maybe when the house cleaner comes this afternoon.
Oh remember the soy sauce situation? Well, I bought another bottle, filled up my little soy sauce jar and went to put the rest in the cabinet where it belongs. But it was a tight squeeze because... there was a nearly full bottle of soy sauce already there!! WTF?
So, now, whenever I get on my high horse about being sharper than all these old people around here, I hope someone just says to me "soy sauce." Myrna would have. God, I miss her.
Ok, I think I'll go out now. Before my leg gets too tired from the day as it is want to do lately. And, I think I'm going to go to Fred Meyer. It's always such a chore because it is so huge but they have different stuff and I want different stuff and need a change of grocery scenery.
So off I go.
(no subject)
Nov. 11th, 2025 12:50 pmmajuBoth Eden and Violet are in band at school, but they don't seem to be driven to learn music the way Aria is.
My ex husband taught himself to play the piano when he was in his teens, and my son in law is very musical and plays the piano for at least an hour if not more every day, so it's not surprising that the girls show musical talent.
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The weather has turned very cold (along with much of the rest of the east apparently). This morning it was about 1℃/33℉ with a blustery cold wind blowing, but I braved the weather and went for a walk for about an hour. I've been avoiding going out walking or running in such cold weather for the last couple of winters because I'd been getting nose bleeds, but my nose seems to have healed up and I haven't had one for a while so this morning's walk was a successful experiment. It was nice to get back into the warm house afterwards though. (I had to unearth a warm jacket - my winter clothes are mostly packed away because it hasn't been very cold since I arrived here, until now.)