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mx_morden) wrote2026-02-07 10:45 am(no subject)
The course I've been attending is almost over. Monday will be our last day together. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.
On one hand, there have been times when I've felt immensely out of place, and interacting with the people there always meant I needed to put up a mask of sorts. On the other, we've been together for almost three months. They're not bad people in any way, and we've shared some really emotional moments. I think I'm gonna miss them, but we're all such different people, in such different places in our lives, that I don't think we're gonna keep in touch all that much.
We're also all pretty exhausted by the rhythm of the course, so I do look forward to being able to relax a little... but I have to admit that having that kind of structure forced on me makes me function better. From Tuesday on, I'm gonna have to come up with my own specific structure, as I'm gonna have to start studying for something. I hope I can do it.
Since the start of the year, we've spent almost all mornings during the weekend at my aunt's place. My grandma moved there a few weeks ago. Well, "moved" isn't exactly the right word, but she's there now. Which means that it almost feels like a normal family reunion when we're all there, although (thank fuck) a few relatives are missing. It's insane how chill those occasions can be if you just take some people out of the picture.
conuly) wrote2026-02-05 10:14 amWatched A Man on the Inside with Jenn
( Teensy spoiler for second season )
( Read more... )
thistleingrey) wrote2026-02-06 10:19 pmfriday five
A kid. Really.
2. What is your proudest accomplishment so far?
I've lived long enough that surely there could be more than one? Perhaps it's knowing when not to respond directly to this question, which invites humblebrags.
3. What is your dream job?
Something lower stress than my previous jobs.
4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I've always found this question (common in certain kinds of interview) to say more about the asker than the answerer. It's bullshit. Ten years before I passed my PhD quals, I had no idea I would apply to grad schools. Ten years before I was part of a team that published an award-winning scholarly bestseller, I had no idea I would work as libstaff. Those were good things to do, but I didn't plan for them.
5. What does it take to make you happy?
Accidental inversions or juxtapositions, and bits of space for contemplation. When I'm very busy, it's harder to notice anything---a thing I noticed after I began protecting time during grad school to take walks and look at random plants.
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rarefemslashexchange2026-02-06 10:12 pmDeadline has passed!
Please make sure that your assignment is not in draft mode. If it, you will be considered defaulted as well.
If you have changed your username since assignments went out, please reach out via email at rarefemslashexchangemod@gmail.com so the records can be updated.
Many people have extensions so don't worry if you don't have a gift and aren't on the upcoming pinch hit post. However, you are more than welcome to reach out via email if you want to make sure or have any other questions/concerns.
In the meantime, if you are a Pinch Hitter who didn't sign up or want to treat a pinch hitter, you can check out the Pinch Hitter's Prompts Post.
There's also the AO3 app to find others to treat as well.
Any questions can be left here too - anon is on, but screening isn't so please don't give out any details that will de-anon you.
Good luck to those still working!
Fan Art, Day 6, Frances Neagley from Reacher
Fandom: Reacher
Character: Frances Neagley
Prompt: Day 6-Her own personal code.
Rating: Teen (Just because she’s tough as nails.)
Summary: I love her even more than Reacher.
Need Tag for Reacher.
( Neagley )
kerk_hiraeth) wrote in halfamoon2026-02-07 04:15 amDay Three Theme - Like the first dewfall on the first grass (BtVS)
TITLE: Like the first dewfall on the first grass https://kerk-hiraeth.dreamwidth.org/22329.html
PROMPT: Day Three - The Caregiver
FANDOM: Buffy the Vampire Slayer {AU}
AUTHOR: kerk_hiraeth
RATING: PG-13
LENGTH: 1,000
CHARACTERS: OCs; Fatima El-baz & Sofia Blazhevich
SUMMARY: The duties of a Chaplain, whatever their religion are many and varied; sometimes causing reflection on their own lives.
A/N: This story is dedicated to Father Francis Mulcahy, as played by William Christopher on M*A*S*H between 1972 and 1983. That character heavily influences my conception of the Muslim, appointed by Buffy to be Chaplain to all the Slayers; (full name ~ Fatima Amastan Sultana Sara Tirzah Elbaz (or El-baz).
The background to her full name and their histories will, should my muse permit, be revealed in further stories but briefly, her family is from the Atlas Mountains of Tunisia; has mostly Amazigh & Hebrew origins, with some Arab threads as well. Her wife is Jewish from a conservative Orthodox sect. The Slayer is Russian but Roman Catholic, rather than Russian Orthodox.
Goddess be with you,
Father Francis Mulcahy, as portrayed by William Christopher
kerk
tropicsbear) wrote2026-02-07 12:31 pmAbout me
bear
in the tropics
content I talk about both personal and fannish things. Personal posts will mostly be access-locked and fannish posts will mostly be public. I do my best to warn for spoilers or content that not everyone will want to see, and I make use of journal cuts as well.
please note When it comes to content, I don't believe in policing whatever people do with their fanworks as long as everything's tagged appropriately.
I'm always game for more mutuals! Feel free to follow/unfollow me on any of my accounts. I don't take it personally if you do unfollow and/or revoke access, and I'll unfollow and/or revoke access in return because I assume that you'd like to end/limit our interactions.
I'm mod/co-mod at a handful of communities. They're at various levels of active and new people are always welcome!
personal community My creative works dump is at sigaw.
linking If it's public, go ahead and link to it. Though I'd appreciate a heads up if you do! I also occasionally switch older entries to private. If you're looking for an old entry that used to be public, feel free to send me a message or leave a comment somewhere.
transformative works I give blanket permission to anyone who'd like to make any sort of fanwork of or further transform anything I've posted, as long as the end product is not posted on any for-profit site. I only ask that you let me know ahead of time that you would like to transform my work and give me a link to the end product.
tcampbell1000) wrote in scans_daily2026-02-06 10:11 pmJLE/Scavengers Crossover: JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE #15-16 (JLI 54)
Keith Giffen, Gerard Jones, and Bart Sears do this whole storyline. Warning for OTT violence and nuclear apocalypse. Which, okay, is another kind of OTT violence.
The Silver Sorceress and Bluejay have blamed their world’s destruction on nuclear weapons. They neglected to mention the gang of badass villains who set those weapons off.
Five of those villains are still hanging around their dead world. When they lose their last living human prisoner, they’re on the verge of turning on each other. Lucky for them, that’s when the Silver Sorceress stumbles back into town. From her comings and goings, they know she’s found a new world for them to conquer.
( She tries telling them she just went on a coffee break, but they know that’s bullshit because they destroyed all the coffee shops too. So you see why they’re irritable. )
hannah) wrote2026-02-06 10:42 pm
Weather anticipation.
Most likely, the movies will come after the job's wrapped up. Catching a matinee as a way to say the gig's done.
tropicsbear) wrote2026-02-07 11:48 amToday's example of what my sisters call my "niche humor"
Artificial banana flavor uses isoamyl acetate, the same chemical bees release as an alarm signal by NaturalHabitatShorts
Bee!Aragorn: Pollendor calls for aid.
Bee!Theoden: And Rohive shall answer.
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languagelog_feed) wrote2026-02-07 02:48 am"La Cosa" ("the thing"), bigger and more intimidating than "Cosa Nostra" ("our thing" ["Mafia"])
From Keith Barkley:
There was a story on Morning Edition this morning about using “thing” as code for something you don’t want the government to overhear:
'La cosa': In Cuba, this single phrase carries coded truths
Eyder Peralta, Morning Edition, NPR (February 6, 2026)
Listen to the 4-minute audio recording (linked in the title above) and / or read this transcript:
In Cuba, "la cosa" speaks louder than words. That single phrase carries the weight of daily struggle, coded truths and the country's unspoken realities.
—–
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
In Cuba, expressing opinions in public can get you in trouble. But for Cubans trying to tell you what they really think, there's a single phrase that does a lot of work and carries coded truths. NPR's Eyder Peralta reports from Havana.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: If you want to get a Cuban talking, just ask…
(Non-English language spoken)?
"How's the thing?"
MARISLEYSIS: (Laughter).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: Marisleysis (ph) sizes me up, and she takes a leap.
MARISLEYSIS: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "My love. The thing is very bad," she says. Her friend stops her. She's saying too much in front of a microphone. But Marisleysis dismisses her because that's the thing about the thing. The thing can be anything.
MARISLEYSIS: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: The thing is our food, our sustenance, our clothes.
MARISLEYSIS: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "How's the thing? It's super high. It's super expensive. It's super bad." Fidel Castro argued that there was freedom of expression in Cuba, but he was cryptic about the limits. He famously uttered…
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
FIDEL CASTRO: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: Within the Revolution, everything against the revolution, nothing." Cubans who crossed that line have ended up in jail. So like bishops deciphering an encyclical, Cubans have learned to navigate. I catch Nino (ph) and Gabriela (ph) running errands in downtown Havana. Everyone in the story asked us only to use their first names because, well, things are complicated in Cuba, and they didn't want to get into trouble.
GABRIELA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "La cosa is the situation in general," says Gabriela. La Cosa, says Nino, is abstract. It can mean something as simple as the struggle to find gas, or it can mean the corruption scandals plaguing the Cuban government.
GABRIELA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: The meaning also changes depending on the trust you have with the other person, she says. Sometimes, only both of you know what you're talking about. So la cosa in Cuba is like a wink and a nod. It's a phrase you hear on the streets, but also beaming from the high altar of Cuba's music royalty.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
PERALTA: In his latest album, the singer-songwriter Silvio Rodriguez has a song titled "Here Comes The Thing."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VIENE LA COSA")
SILVIO RODRIGUEZ: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: "The thing is coming," Rodriguez sings. "It's going to be bad."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VIENE LA COSA")
RODRIGUEZ: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: It's a song about an unstoppable change, and it comes at a time when Cuba is facing a crushing economic crisis, discontent on the streets and a belligerent President Trump who's predicting the demise of the communist government. The thing is coming with eyes wide open, he sings, and lies won't ever stop it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VIENE LA COSA")
RODRIGUEZ: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: The thing Rodriguez writes about could be anything – a popular rebellion, a communist renewal or a vicious foreign intervention, and that mystery gives him plausible deniability. Back on the streets, I find Mario (ph) leaning against the government building where he works as a receptionist. He says, defining the thing is not complicated.
MARIO: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "It's our reality, and you can see it," he says.
MARIO: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "I work from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.," he says, and he earns about $4 a month.
MARIO: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: His whole paycheck buys him less than a carton of eggs.
MARIO: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "I don't lie," he says, "because I'll defend my country with my life." And then, like every Cuban, he turns cryptic.
MARIO: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: His 41-year-old son tells him, "Dad, you have to stop believing because this will never get any better." And how do you respond? I ask.
MARIO: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "Things will get better," he says, "but it's hard. The thing is tough," he whispers.
Eyder Peralta, NPR News, Havana.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VIENE LA COSA")
RODRIGUEZ: (Singing in non-English language).
"La cosa" is Spanish for "the thing," commonly used to refer to an object, situation, affair, or abstract concept. It frequently appears in phrases like "la cosa es que" (the thing is that). In Cuba, it often refers to the current, unspoken daily situation or struggle. (AIO)
My guess is that a similar expression exists in many languages and societies, but perhaps not so ubiquitously as in Cuban Spanish.
"Here's the thing… you know."
Selected readings
- "The thing thing" (4/7/11)
- "The origin of 'thing' in Chinese" (5/10/25)
- "When did 'a thing' become a thing?" (4/18/16)
- "Not a gerund, not a thing" (3/5/10)
- "Thing explainer" (8/1/15)
- "Another thing coming about another think coming" (5/3/08)
- "Not a gerund, not a thing" (3/5/10)
- "Are any of those things even things?" (9/18/08)
lauradi7dw) wrote2026-02-06 09:54 pmAthletes on parade
Two hours in to the delayed-to-primetime coverage of the opening ceremony NBC I am already irritated by their coverage but I knew what to expect. The ceremony organizers have done a clever thing for the parade of athletes. The primary division of sports is that indoor icy things are happening in Milan while outdoor snowy things are happening in Cortina, more than 200 miles away. The main ceremony is in an arena in Milan but they didn't haul the snow folks down for the ceremony - at each location the relevant athletes are marching (dancing, grooving) through Stargates (my thought, not what they are calling them). In Cortina they are walking down a street with people on either side like crowds watching a road race.
Sorry about the photographer's watermark/copyright thing. I couldn't find images from Cortina that didn't have it.
I like the Haitian uniforms the best and was sorry to learn earlier today that they were required to remove the portrait of Toussaint Louverture.
https://apnews.com/article/haiti-olympics-uniforms-winter-games-diversity-f85baa15a623fadbc15569325efc61b5
I like the Mongolian ones a lot too (see above). Many counties have nice ones.
Watching network TV means I am getting commercials. My favorite so far is one for Chevrolet, using the song from my childhood ("see the USA in your Chevrolet. America is asking you to call"). I sang along. It will not make me buy a new car.
mrkinch) wrote2026-02-06 06:50 pm2/6/2026 Valle Vista Staging Area
Unfortunately the Bald Eagles did not appear for U and Chris. OTOH, neither did the Northern Mockingbird.:)
stonepicnicking_okapi) wrote2026-02-06 09:34 pmFebruary LOVE-FEST: Day 6: Unrequited Love
prompts:
1. first love
2. friendship
3. love of nature
4. passion
5. soulmates
6. unrequited love
7. lust
8. love of the game
9. devotion
10. love of food
11. polyamory
12. long distance love
13. lovesickness
14. romantic love
15. love of place
16. marriage
17. love of order and method
18. divine love
19. platonic love
20. infatuation
21. maternal love
22. obsession
23. agape
24. love of animals
25. unconditional love
26. forbidden love
27. ecstasy
28. the beloved
---
Is there anything more painful than unrequited love (or, really, infatuation)?
---
Have a BBC Sherlock drabble.
Fandom: BBC Sherlock
Rating: Gen
Summary: Sherlock is reading the diary of a missing person.
( Read more... )
torachan) wrote2026-02-06 06:13 pmDaily Happiness
2. We're having home made pizza for dinner again. Same Korean bbq flavor spam and roasted corn as last time, but this time I did not forget the edamame. In fact, I specifically put this on the dinner menu the night after a night when we were having edamame as a side dish with something else, so we'd already have some leftover that I could just add on top of the pizza!
3. It's warm, but it's still blanket weather for Chloe.
