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Monopoly 01.26 - Challenge Reminder Week 4

We already have 6 participants in the regular challenge and 1 participant for Team Omega. But there are still about two days until the end of week three. Jump into the game and earn some points!

Remember your Joker Card if you don't like your prompts. For two token you can roll the dice again!

Please Read Everyone without at least one fill during week 1-4 will get moved to the hiatus list this weekend. The dice won't be rolled anymore. You can still jump back into the game by using your Joker card. For three tokens, you can post up to two belated works for two of your missed prompts.

Post all your finished works at

fandom_empire_workplace until Sunday, February 8, 18.00 UTC, but I will allow belated works until I've made the closing post Countdown here.

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* There is now an easter egg on google.com if you search for Heated Rivalry. Rachel's reaction.

* There is going to be a Baldur's Gate 3 TV show! *thinks about this for three seconds* Yeah, there was talk of this when the game was blowing up and everyone agreed it would be a bad idea. Also, it's a continuation so it will be based on one of probably hundreds of possible end-game states and this show will be based on one of the popular ones. And

spoiler title

Astarian is going to be either dead, evil or unable to travel. His non-evil ending is staying in the Underdark because he becomes vulnerable to the sun again. Rather than a game that is about exploring the choices you like, popular or not, it will be tied to what will sell the best. One of the appeals of games is not being tied to that. Even if you would choose to be a male Tav romancing Shadowheart, you are still choosing it not being fed it.

Current Mood: angry

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Something I'm grateful for recently is that I got a scholarship/free spot for a writing workshop series, Writing for Rage. My friends Trish and Venky recommended it to me. It's six sessions, and after the first two, I find myself better at experiencing my anger as anger rather than hardening it into depression. We were given journal prompts to write about in our own time:

How do you envision your rage? Envisioning how I want my rage to express itself. I want my rage to be powerful. Because I have felt the most enraged when I was made helpless, when control was wrested from me, and when I was unable to protect myself. I wish to be destructive with no consequences. My rage so powerful that I don't have to say NOBODY MESS WITH ME, everyone gets it. It's a foregone conclusion. And so nobody dares mess with me. Because whatever they do to me, my rage will do worse. I think of Kali. Vengeful rage that ensures there are no repeat offenders.

What would the world be like if anger was normalised? People would be more honest. It wouldn't be a matter of who is allowed to be angry, and at whom, and who isn't, who has authority over you and who doesn't. One's sense of when something is wrong would be sharper. Less guilt for making someone else uncomfortable when confronting them about how they made you uncomfortable.

This month's horoscope for Libra by Alice Sparkly Kat also talks about anger, with journalling questions about the safety of expressing it.

( February horoscope )

Questions for Libra for February 2026:

What happens in your body when you piss someone off?
My body feels like my life is under threat, even in a verbal confrontation.
TW: physical violence
My childhood consisted of physical punishments whenever my mother was angry, including beatings and one time when she strangled me. My body's reaction to anger directed at me now, as an adult, is a hangover from those childhood experiences when I felt scared for my life.

Is there anyone who you are comfortable pissing off?
Nope. I wish there was. This isn't just about being safe when their anger is directed at me, but about how willing they are to make repair efforts if we hurt each other's feelings. What if I am, but they aren't?

How do you want to make more decisions in those relationships where you are free to argue?
I don't think I have any such relationships. But if I did, I would try to understand why we each believe what we do. I would stand up for what I believe in.

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micropost

The light is rising

For the first time this year I've left the office and it wasn't pitch black outside. Dark, but not *night*.

(Sunset was at 16:56)

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Friday, February 6 - Love Songs

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politics

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If there was ever any doubt that the US Republican party are racists, let it end now.

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Crossed #6

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Current Mood: nerdy

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zee listens music

[ANTONIO VIVALDI] I just wanted to clean another CD case

Me: Why do I have the urge to write my posts educative? Why do I always want to educate people all the time???
Gf: Maybe it's not the people you want to educate.
Gf: Maybe you just want to gain the knowledge you wanted to get when you were a kid about things and you are kind to share that with people who may have the same experience.
Me:
Me: Huh.

Baroque era in art history is one of my favorite, because it's part of my special interest of different cultures, religions manipulates people through propaganda, and it is inevitable when people realizes that art can be used as a form of propaganda. Catholic church used art as medium to spread religious propaganda and make people coming back to their god-fearing ways. The grandiosity, the contrasts, the theme of competing opposing forces, calculative beauty, it was all part of it. There is a reason why 17-18th century churches look the way they are. You go inside and your jaw is just dropped, like you are entering into the realm of Heaven and yet you are just barely touching the surface, because what it promises it would be so much better... one day. When you die. And if you pay your taxes to the catholic church of course.

Baroque music is the first era of music, where the music wasn't written for explicitly to accompany vocalists or dances. No, this is the first time when they explicitly started to write music for specific instruments, they started to determine the overall atmosphere of the music through detailed instructions. This is where we can first start to talk about orchestras (strings mostly). This is the peak of polyphony in music itself.

The music itself also contains this grandiosity, dynamic, uses of contrasts, calculated structures. It's actually very great for studying and focus.

I enjoy baroque music, I jokingly called myself a BaROCKer in my teens because I loved when metal music used baroque music as inspiration but if you were to ask me what is my favorite piece, I wouldn't be able to answer and here is why:

Antonio Vivaldi
L'estro Armonico: Concertos Nos. 8-12

CONCERTO Op. 3. No. 8,
for Two Violins, Strings and Basso Continuo, in A minor, RV 522
Allegro, Largo, Allegro

CONCERTO Op. 3. No. 9,
for Violin, Strings, and Basso Continuo in D major, RV 230
Allegro, Largo, Allegro

CONCERTO Op. 3. No. 10,
for Four Violins, Violoncello, Strings and Basso Continuo, in B Minor, RV 580
Allegro, Largo, larghetto, Allegro,

CONCERTO Op. 3. No. 11,
for Two Violins, Violin, Strings, and Basso Continuo, in D Minor, RV 565
Allegro, Larghetto, Allegro

CONCERTO Op. 3. No. 12,
for Violin, Strings, and Basso Continuo, in E major, RV 265
Allegro, Largo, Allegro

I absolutely have no idea what am I reading here. I recognize the instruments and the numbers. :DDD

Because I am not a music student. :D But I am a dedicated bastard with thirst for knowledge. So here is a little snippet of knowledge, music for dummies like me.

First of all, some terms are in Italian.

What is Concerto? A composition for orchestra and one or more solo intruments with three-movement structure. The three-movements can be assembled from contrasting tempos.
What is Tempo? The speed, pace of the music and the overall indicator what is the mood and atmosphere of the music we are hearing. It's an instruction for the musician how they should play the piece.
Op: Opus, work number that is assigned to the composition. It indicates chronological order, or distinguishes pieces with similiar titles.
Allegro: The tempo is lively, spirited manner, for it depicts joy. It's fast, quick, and bright.
Largo: The tempo has slow, deep, wide character.
Larghetto: The tempo has to be a "little slower".
Minor Scale: These are also indicators about the mood of the piece. Songs played in minor scales are usually more melancholic, serious, pensive.
Major Scale: Songs played in major scale are more positive, bright, it radiates happiness.
Basso Continuo: "Continuous bass". An integral part of structure of baroque pieces and its role to provide a continuos harmonic bass framework for the solo instruments. This structure is actually still used in the modern western music.
RV: Ryom Verzeichnis, Ryom-Catalogue. It's the name of the person, Peter Ryom who made a catalogue of Antonio Vivaldi's music.

So yeah, after this little research, listening again the CD is a very much different experience now that the words on the case finally make much more sense. And feels like math and alchemy, lmao. :D

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!monthly overview

Monthly Overview: January

Time for our monthly overview. We have posted many great works during January. Thank you to everyone who participated.

Let's have a tiny statistic:
Participants: 7
Works posted: 41 in total

Most fills: 19 in total by

goddess47
10 out of 20 : completed by

goddess47 and

peppermint_shamrock
This and That: completed by

tarlanx and

wickedgame
Bingo: completed by

tarlanx and

goddess47

Check out all the great works H E R E.

I hope to see lots of you again this month for even more fun and amazing works.

If you have any suggestions or questions, please don't hesitate to comment here or send me a private message.

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Odds and sods

Do I need to ask, guess the critic, given the headline on this review of the Gwen John exhibition: In a superb, mystical retrospective, the painter sheds social trappings – and her clothes – as she uses her enormous intelligence to paint purely. JJ, go and take a cold shower!

***

I am not sure that exorcism is quite what is needed in the case, unless he starts doing manifestations in galleries of writhing and speaking in occult tongues and so on: Demand for exorcisms rises as faithful want ‘deliverance from evil’. And in fact it all sounds rather low-key:

Even when an Anglican priest does perform an exorcism, they are nothing like Hollywood horror scenes with “shouting and screaming” and demonic drama.
They are “quiet and calm” affairs where a priest prays with a troubled person, usually after consultation with a psychiatrist and safeguarding experts.

One does feel that this is in the tradition of the C of E! Maybe with a nice cup of tea afterwards....

***

Knepp: Wilding from the Weald to the waves:

After inheriting the estate from his grandparents in 1983, Charles Burrell soon realised that large-scale farming was impossible on low-lying clay land. So, in 2002 he and his wife, author, and journalist Isabella Tree, embarked on what has become a pioneering rewilding project converting pasture into a patchwork of grasslands, scrub, groves, and towering oaks. Now home to storks, beavers, and nightingales, to name a few, Knepp’s ever-evolving experiment is open for all to enjoy.

Call me a cynical old bat, but I can't help feeling that this is in a Grand Old Longstanding Tradition of landowners doing whatever is The Latest Thing with the estate they inherited. And these days it is not either, tart it up like unto the gardens he saw on his Grand Tour in Italy, introducing various invasive species animal and vegetable, or, set up a funfair and safari park as a remunerative enterprise to enable him to pay off the crippling death duties the iron heel of Clem Attlee and Co has imposed, but to get acclaim for this absolutely on-trend thing to do with his land.

***

This is a different kind of heritage: Heritage Unlocked: Birmingham’s Unique Municipal Bank:

Birmingham Municipal Bank (1919-1976) was unique as the first and only local authority savings bank in England. Unlike other savings banks (such as the Trustee Savings Banks), customers could borrow money through the House Purchase Department to buy their home. Unlocking the Vaults, has been uncovering the Bank’s history and how it helped shape Birmingham’s story. The Exchange (opposite the Library of Birmingham) was once the head office for the Municipal Bank, and it lies at the heart of this project with many projects and events taking place in the historic Vaults.
Historic black and white photo of the Birmingham Municipal Bank, showcasing its grand architecture with tall columns and detailed facade.
....
A key finding of the project has been the significance of the Municipal Bank, not only as a financial institution but also as a cornerstone of community life, with local branches established on high streets across the city between the 1920s and 1970s.

***

The rise of ‘low contact’ family relationships - in fact, point is made in there that perhaps what there has been is a rise of is families being all up in one another's business because of Modern Technology and tracking devices, family group chats, the ability to know where family members are and what they are up to at all hours of the night and day.

Because I would not at all describe my own family as 'low contact', we just did not live in one another's pockets and need to be constantly informed and have opinions about each other's lives. Weekly phone-calls - occasional visits- etc etc.

I'm not surprised people feel smothered and overwhelmed when I read some of the shenanigans that families do but then, am introvert to start with.

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Apparently it's been getting bad reviews, but I'm still enjoying Starfleet Academy. I can't say which character I like the most, as I like them all. Though, Jay-Den is up there if I was forced to pick. I'm also enjoying how they keep referring to previous series, each mention of Voyager makes me beam, because that's still my Trek. Loved this latest ep too ( cut for spoilers )

It's raining, cold and windy today. It's been cold and rainy and windy for what feels weeks now, and the week ahead forecast is rain, wind, and cold. Joy. I don't mind going out in the rain, but do protest at going out into sleety rain that's lashing against my face due to the wind. Roll on some spring sunshine.

As part of the weight management programme I get an email on a Friday summing up the talks for the previous weeks, a couple of recipes and saying what sessions will be held the upcoming week. I read the email earlier and the sessions for my class are cancelled again next week, which does make me worry that something has gone wrong for Rosie as this would be a month the classes have been cancelled.

I've been trying to organise a wider family meal for Corey's birthday next week, and am getting nowhere. People are either broke or at work or school, so getting everyone together on his actual birthday week is a no-go. At this point, I'll be surprised if I can arrange anything this month at all.

Nearly bath and book time. I'm reading The Inheritance by Ilona Andrews atm and enjoying it. I knew I would, as their writing always hits the spot for me.

Oh, talking of books. When we went to restock some stock at the Craft Shop, the bookshop opposite was open, and all the books are free! You're limited to 6 items a day, and how I walked out with nothing still amazes me. Also great, they take books as donations so I can donate a load of books that I've read already.

DAY 5 - FIC - TWELVE KINGDOMS - NAKAJIMA YOUKO

Day 5 - The Outlaw

Title: Sentence
Fandom: 12 Kingdoms | Juuni Kokki
Characters: Nakajima Youko; Rakushun
Rating: Gen
Summary: How could she properly judge the one in front of her for committing the same crimes she did? Youko reflects on her past, when she first arrived in this world.

Story in ao3

A ficlet for once since I tend to write too much hah. The women in this series are so good, each could have a day of her own.

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Crow in the Snow

I took a bunch of really nice photos of the crow army today - with the light reflecting from the snow, the details of their feathers come out so beautifully. Look at how blue/purple the big feathers are, edged by black, compared to the dark black of the smaller head feathers.

This is the boldest of them. He stayed juuuust out of arm's reach but didn't mind me kneeling down and stretching my arm out at him. He miiiight be Mr Roadside Pair but I don't think so, I think he is smaller.,,,

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Drabblethon - The Midnight Bell in Spring - Frank

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living

“life is very short and there’s no time / for fussing and fighting my friend”

I’m an aloha shirt kind of guy. Not all of my wardrobe is brightly floral—I need a few more subdued patterns for less informal occasions, such as starting work in an office where I haven’t confirmed aloha is acceptable business casual wear. But a fair number are, most of them tasteful.

This is mostly by temperament—they signal (though let me asterisk that * ) a laid-back temperament, which is both true and helps me through interactions with strangers. Mostly, as there’s also a practical component. I’ve mentioned this a couple times, but I come across IRL as taller than I do online: I’m 6'4" / 193cm. Finding men’s short-sleeve shirts that are long enough for my torso to stay tucked in is a challenge. (Paradoxically, it’s easier with long-sleeve shirts, as “long” sizes is a thing for those.) Aloha shirts, however, are designed to not be tucked in, and indeed look worse that way. Win!

But then there’s that asterisk: * I’m graying enough, both hair and goatee (which last I’ve been keeping for two years now), that I can sometimes be misidentified as a Boomer, and a Boomer in an aloha shirt signals a different temperament than a younger guy in one. I’m lean enough I don’t entirely lean into that stereotype, but still. I’m older Gen X and … touchy … about being mistaken for a Boomer.

The goatee is starting to annoy me in other ways, anyway, so maybe shaving it will help—it has the most white. Or I could, yanno, suck it up and deal. Be laid-back. Just like the shirts claim.

---L.

Subject quote from We Can Work It Out, The Beatles.

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Crosspost -rallies and leg pain and dancing oh my

Exhausted -- a good deal of 'too stupid to sleep' until 4 (I think I got home not much after midnight) and then having trouble keeping my Displeased Tibialis Anterior in a position it wasn't pissed about on and off all night. And all the sleepy things I've tried are still in my system, too.

Posted just now on FB:

That it is so difficult for me to sleep if anything hurts is testament to a life blessedly without pain.

That perhaps it was unclever to already have 10000 steps before arriving at Blues last night and then take an aleve before 10000 more . . .*worth it* - I had some truly exquisite dances.

My conclusion at the end of the night that 'Oh cool I was right - I don't lift my feet much in Blues and that's why nothing hurt' was obviously flawed; still I was/am especially thankful it was my left and not right leg that currently gets mad about pointing* and somehow so many of these exquisite dances had times where I was pointing my right and not my left. (Except for one time when any other time I would have gotten all the way on the ball of my foot to be turned around - blues/tango mix is so very marvelous, in a way completely different from simply blues or simply tango**.

Y'know what's especially frustrating? Sitting here typing nothing hurts at all, and yet it seems almost every way I might want to sleep will annoy my let.

And yes, I'm fully planning on being unclever and going to The Grandsons tomorrow at Glen Echo. After possibly being out at the AFGE event. (Possibly in that what with the high of 23 and 50mph wind gusts making for a wind chill around 0 they may move it all inside, however *that* works.) I so very much enjoyed dancing to The Grandsons at the Holiday Market '24 on asphault; I am really looking forward to the sound and the floor of the real ballroom.

I *do* plan to be sedentary today, but that might still involve a costco and hopefully a best buy before eventually Romeo and Juliet, the comedy at Greenbelt.
.
.

*TA is jacked up and really dislikes too much engagement /or/ stretch
** what to me felt way less on axis than it could have been was still apparently sufficiently on axis that my lead noticed nothing amiss so yay, and I hope I managed to get across that my telling him pointing my left was painful was an explanation of why I hadn't done so and not that he'd caused me pain. Because he didn't.

Hilariously, a goodly reason for those already 10k steps was that I had a doctors appointment today about WTF TA. But my phone has been spending a lot of time unuseable and I hadn't previewed "okay how loong will it take me to walk from the Washington Post Union rally (which was astonishingy well attended given under 24 hrs notice) to the drs office, which helped enable me brain glitching and walking most of the way to a *former* drs office before asking someone to look up the location of the current one. Meaning quick walked 13th & K to 11th & I before speedwalking back over to 16th and I. And then I had the bright idea to walk from fed center sw instead of changing trains to get home.

I'm starting to think that what's going on is from having had the extremely talented ability to turn my foot with both my back and it firmly on the ground. Why firmly on the ground? I had a guy 70 pounds bigger than me on my other foot, then dropped him into my knee, and my leg was busy maintaining stability. Oops.

Well not entirely that, but, well as I emailed primary care yesterday afternoon, add something else that usually wouldn't make TA seize up but apparently did, and then after thta all had calmed down slide off a snowbank into a car (best guess about some bruising) and then have the bright idea to speed walk at the end of the night hoping to get to 6k steps ... and somewhere in there getting as far as 'oh TA is seized maybe stretch it? this may be why everything's still a mess.

what's especially weird is the bruising down near my foot; it looks exactly like when I sprained the hell out of an ankle, but anything sprainlike would have been nearly 2 weeks ago.

PC wants to give it a little bit and then xray.

I should probably email that other baltimore study that definitely not til March sometime.

I don't think I want to bail on the AFGE thing. This is the largest i guess umbrella federal union. They have a convention here in DC annually; I'm pretty sure it was at their rally last year I walked with Senator Sarbanes back to the Capitol and asked him about speaking at the 2nd 50501 rally, the one on President's day. I'm certain that conversation was the first he knew of the now large movement, and I'm ever so glad he headlined Annapolis rather than coming down to us at the Capitol - getting him through that dense crowd to the underpowered sound system would have been a nightmare.

Right, the AFGE thing. Anyway they're having a Young Workers March tomorrow, the first march they've tried. It's entirely possible that they'll have a rally inside the hotel, but it doesn't sound like they have a room that would hold what I would be expecting for the march and rally. Then again, I made those expectations a month ago on learning they were having buses coming in, and it's been clear for a week that tomorrow will be miserably cold.

(Still, I'm feeling bad I didn't post flyers anywhere)

Yes, I'm rambling.

50501. Here's what I wrote on that, in an intro to 50501 National (there isn't a National!) FB post on the first birthday (There's probably bsky and insta with similar content):

One year ago today* was the first 50501 national day. Here in DC it was pretty small compared to some other places - maybe 300 - nobody knew who was running it and USAID had a rally the same place nearly the same time and planned for an unheard of nearly a week. They then wandered over to Department of Labor, answering their call for a crowd before Doge was expected.
12 days later was the second national day, with over 100 locations and at least 5000 at the Capitol reflecting pool.
By a week before Hands Off (April 5) there was nowhere in the Continental US more than 4 hours drive from an event.
Well over 2000 locations October 18.
February 17 is Lobby Everywhere.
I've told people so many times that I care so much less about how many people make their way to DC than how many ever smaller towns and communities are making their displeasure visible. And making it clear to those who thought they were alone that they are not.
I've described 50501 as "baby's first protest." Even as recently as October I was still seeing so many "I brought my husband to his first protest." "I brought my mother to her first protest." This is not a small thing. (Sure, I usually call them rallies and events, as a nod to 'protest is disruptive.)
(Also shoutout to the overpass actions, which I think are one of the best ways to get people not paying attention to have something filter in. HCR yesterday said the average American spends 4 min A WEEK on politics. In this area that's a lot of different Indivisibles, but that's also something 50501s do in a lot of areas. The Colorado Bridge Trolls have been having overpass action dance parties.)
Lets go.
* well I haven't gone to sleep yet

Looking at the "well I haven't gone to sleep yet" from 8 hrs ago...
Maybe I can nap...

Current Mood: angry

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the fandom menace

INTO THE GULAG WITH YOU

I don't trust pocket-"communists" who are doing social activism for women, queers, and basic human rights but simultanously and unironically glorifying Stalin and Mao.

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Day 6: picspam, Bad Sisters - Bibi and Ursula

Title: Their own idiom
Fandom: Bad Sisters
Characters: Bibi Garvey and Ursula Garvey (Eva, Becka and Grace are also in many of the frames)
Rating: G
Notes: Image-heavy post.
Summary: A collection of Bibi and Urs' glances at one another throughout the show. They certainly do this quite a lot.

At Tumblr, my journal or simply below the cut :)

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