snow sneakers

Feb. 5th, 2026 10:33 pm
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird
A few days ago, I ordered a pair of snow sneakers that I thought would probably be too big, because the places I looked online were sold out of everything in my size.

They arrived today, I tried them on after dinner, and they seem to fit. Adrian helped me adjust the fastening so the left shoe isn't too tight around my calf. They fasten with velcro rather than shoelaces, which may be an advantage: the laces on my shoes tend to loosen as I walk, so I have to stop and retie them moderately often. (Flat laces are a bit better than round ones, double-knotting makes no difference, and please don't try trouble-shooting this in comments.)

Apparently I take a men's size 8 extra-wide in LLBean boots, which may be useful: more shoes come in a men's size 8 than size 7, and the selection of wide shoes is larger in men's sizes/styles than in women's.

Sign Up February 6 - 8!

Feb. 5th, 2026 08:56 pm
formidablepassion: (Default)
[personal profile] formidablepassion posting in [community profile] weekendwritingmarathon

SIGN UP!!

Need to get some words in? The Weekend Writing Marathon (WWM) is a writing challenge designed to help you do just that. You set your own writing goal for the weekend and work to achieve it before reporting back to the group on Sunday night.


How do I participate?

1. Reply to this post with your weekend writing plans–be as specific (or not) as you’d like.

2. Start writing on Friday 12:01 am local time. Work to meet your goal by Sunday night at 11:59 pm local time. You can work on whatever you want during this time.

3. Post your accomplishments to the Finish Line post at the end of the weekend (even if you didn’t reach your goal).


How do I report my accomplishments?

A Finish Line post will go up on Sunday. Reblog that post with your final word count/accomplished goal(s) by Monday at midnight local time. Totals from the weekend will be posted on Tuesday.

This challenge is currently running on 2 platforms: pillowfort, and dreamwidth. If you sign up on this platform, please respond to the Finish Line post on this platform.

Let us know if you have any questions!



alchemicink: B'Elanna and Seven looking down (B7 working)
[personal profile] alchemicink posting in [community profile] halfamoon
B'Elanna might be my favorite character ever, and I'm always very interested in her pre-canon days as a fighter in the Maquis. A good way to cope with all her anger? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, it fit perfectly for "The Outlaw" prompt.

Title: Hitting back
Fandom: Star Trek Voyager
Character: B'Elanna Torres
Rating: G
Length: 150 words
Summary: B'Elanna loves having a reason to fight now
Link: here on ao3 or you can read it under the cut below

Read more... )

Part 1, Week 6

Feb. 5th, 2026 08:26 pm
soc_puppet: A calendar page for January 2024 with emojis on various dates (Mood Theme in a Year)
[personal profile] soc_puppet posting in [community profile] moodthemeinayear
Here we are, the final week of Part 1!

This week's Minimum, Medium, and Maximum moods are: Relaxed, Silly, Uncomfortable

These three moods help diversify your mood theme; if you want maximum different images with the fewest possible graphics, these are good to include.

But what do you think about the moods themselves? Relaxed and Uncomfortable are almost polar opposites here! Hopefully, once you figure out the one, the other will come easily. Silly is always kinda fun, IMO, but if you're working with a serious character, you might have a bit of trouble with it. Do you put them in clown makeup, or a funny hat? Or maybe there's a scene where their drama is being crashed by a much more unserious character that you can draw from? Let's talk about it!

Fire in the Sky Sunset

Feb. 5th, 2026 07:52 pm
yourlibrarian: TIE fighter Sunset (NAT-TIEfighterSunset-fuesch)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] common_nature


Some weeks back I saw one of the most fiery color sunsets I've yet seen. It's usually the case that sunsets look even more colorful to the camera, but in this case it was already a strong red, and was widespread.

Read more... )

Fan Art: Day 5, Zoey Washburne

Feb. 5th, 2026 06:49 pm
pattrose: (Firefly)
[personal profile] pattrose posting in [community profile] halfamoon
Title: Tough as Nails
Fandom: Firefly
Character: Zoe Washburne
Prompt: Day 5-Outlaw
Rating: Teen (Just because she’s tough as nails.)
Summary: After reading CMK418’s little story, I couldn’t help but make a moodboard for Zoe Washburne.


Click here.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/78979996
petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)
[personal profile] petra
I was despairing of the 73% of American Republicans who are on team GO ICE in a poll NPR just published asking whether ICE has gone too far -- and the 7% of Democrats and 29% percent of Independents who are with them.

[personal profile] hannah talked me down by pointing out that, as discussed in the linked conversation, 27% of Illinois voted for Alan Keyes over Barack Obama, which was patently bananas.

I remember a certain male role model in my life talking up Alan Keyes. This does not increase my faith in his understanding of politics, or indeed his inhabiting of the same planet I do.
shadaras: A phoenix with wings fully outspread, holidng a rose and an arrow in its talons. (Default)
[personal profile] shadaras
On Sunday I was like "I am dragging myself to aikido out of obligation and habit" and my friend C was like "yeah you look beat". Aikido was good, though, two of K-sensei's students who mostly only show up to her Tues/Thurs morning classes were at weapons class, and showed up early to learn some more basic weapon stuff, which meant that when I showed up my typical ~15min early I got pulled into immediately demonstrating an exercise and then practicing in with the others.

Also went "yeah, the absolute hardest thing to do when practicing ma'ai with weapons is for uke to not flinch" to one of those students, prompting sensei to pause class so that she could more formally talk about how difficult yet important a practice this is. Because, well, the natural instinct when someone is stabbing at you with a weapon is to move out of the way. This is an excellent survival instinct! However! That is not the practice when nage is supposed to be learning how to enter in such that they can properly stab through uke.

On Monday I woke up and was like "I feel like shit!" and have proceeded to spend the entire week thus far dragging myself to work because Capitalism while keeping myself vaguely person-shaped via cold medicine. This has worked out alright mostly because for the majority of this week I haven't had to do anything particularly cognitively difficult at work. (Tasks included: "Put up linears on this floor", which was interrupted by "Be firewatch for the person doing welding", before I was allowed to return to that first task, and then told to do various other things that meant putting up one set of linears that should've taken a few hours took like three days.)

I also went to bed at like 8:30pm last night (due to being at work from 6:30am-2:30pm and class from 5pm-7:45pm... not counting commute time for either, of course...) and woke up this morning like "wow I feel like a person!" until I got up and was like "oh we have CHANGED kinds of feeling ugh, not removed it, rip".

Things I have spent time doing:

- Catching up on the Great Gundam Project (podcast), by which I mean I have now caught up to like last autumn/the end of the Dragonball Z season (which is about the Gundam adaptation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is apparently surprisingly good, but they spent more time talking about DBZ, their backup/non-Gundam show) (considering that this is a podcast I listen to in large part for going "please let me gain knowledge of anime people talk about but which I am only occasionally interested in watching", learning more about DBZ is genuinely a delight.) There is still so much more GGP to catch up on. xD This is a great podcast for listening to during work so long as I'm working alone, because I think it's generally entertaining and also I don't care if I miss a bit due to NOISE or BRIEF CONVERSATION, since I'm not invested in the details of the anime. (I am invested in The Episode Number Pokemon Name Game, though. I do not care about Pokemon. I do not know Pokemon. I think making the host who did not grow up playing Pokemon guess what Pokemon the episode number belongs to is a very funny game because I also do not know Pokemon and so listening to someone go "uh it looks like this, maybe it's called [something related to what it looks like]?" is very fun.)

- Watching FatT's Outward letsplay (which is technically a patreon bonus for their side podcast about videogams xD), by which I mean putting it on as background noise and looking over at the video every time Jack and Austin start going "oh no" or "what's THAT". The idle noise of people playing a videogame I don't have specific investment in but do enjoy seeing progression for is such a particular form of entertainment that usually I only like as background for doing chores, but hey if I'm feeling meh it works well more broadly.

- Thinking about, but not writing, story xD Like. How does one make it impossible to know what happened to someone who got kidnapped when "you can magically communicate short messages to known people over distance and get a response" is a given? The answer is magic warding, which is Deeply Concerning when other states that get No Connection (rather than No Response) would be, like. Unconsciousness/death. (Sleep probably feels different.) (This isn't even going to come up until I get through another few things!)

- I have also been keeping up with FatT: Perpetua, FatT: Realis, and CR: Araman and am enjoying them all. xD No deep thoughts, they're all fun but in very different ways/genres.

Conversations with my father

Feb. 6th, 2026 01:16 am
nanila: me (Default)
[personal profile] nanila
[phone rings in my hotel room]
Me: “Hello?”
Concierge, sounding very uncertain and slightly bemused: “Um, hello, is that Nanila, who just checked in with us today?”
Me: “Yes, that’s correct.”
Concierge: “Um…I have a gentleman on the line who would like to speak to you. I…I think he’s your father? I’m so sorry, I’m really not sure.”
Me, chuckling: “That sounds like him. Did he say his name was [Firstname Lastname]?”
Concierge: “I couldn’t understand him when he said his name. I think it’s my phone line.”
Me, drily: “Please don’t be sorry. That will be one of two things: his accent, or he hasn’t got his teeth in.”
Concierge, now relaxing a bit and giggling: “Would you like me to put him through?”
Me: “Please do, thank you.”

*pause*

Me: “Hi Dad, how are you doing?”
Dad: “I tried to call you but I kept getting the prison! Where are you? Are you in XX hotel?!”
Me, patiently: “Yes, Dad, I’m in the hotel.”
Dad: “What room are you in? I need to write it down. Are you sure? Are you okay?”
Me: “Dad. I’m in Room NN. I am fine. And if this is the prison then it’s had a tremendous facilities upgrade.”
Dad: “Oh, okay. Was the traffic awful? Are you very tired? When do you want to meet for dinner? Should we go to the sushi place? Do you remember the sushi place? I need to put my teeth in!”
Me: “Yes, yes, whenever you want to eat, yes, yes, and yes, you do.”

For anyone who has met me in person and has thought to themselves, “This woman has no idea how to hold a conversation like a normal human being,” this is 100% where I got it from. Thanks, Dad.

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