July 27th, 2025
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
posted by [personal profile] kaberett at 11:00pm on 27/07/2025 under

Reading. Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh, The Book, with A, a chapter at a time.

Also a bit more of The Age of Seeds, but only a very little bit.

Writing. Fun migraine facts: I spent the weekend discovering that writing by hand at speed Just Does Not Work Well. "Stopping" for "stopper", "fascinate" for "fastener", and so on and so forth...

Listening. Songs and stories! Including, apparently, these people + friends.

Playing. Admin: the LRP.

Eating. I may have slightly subsisted primarily on lemon and sugar crêpes. The raspberry and lemon curd toasties remain a delight. Some blackberries from the hedges.

Exploring. Finally (consciously) observed the giant purple cockerel. The Navarr woods at night.

Growing. Actually managed to water the plants before setting off, go me.

Observing. A BAT IN THE MARQUEE. ALSO A GIANT DRAGONFLY. Also the swallows (I think). Stars.

andrewducker: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] andrewducker at 03:47pm on 28/07/2025 under ,


We've gone on holiday on purpose!

(Us, my brothers, our families, my parents, and their dogs. Seven adults and five kids altogether. Staying in a rented house half an hour out of Southampton for a week.)
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

liv: Table laid with teapot, scones and accoutrements (yum)
posted by [personal profile] liv at 03:02pm on 28/07/2025 under ,
This week P'tite Soeur organized a family trip to London. All four siblings and Dad, which is quite a feat of logistics even if we didn't manage to also include partners.

London )

Another thing I was able to do due to not being in Israel was to visit the community I'll be spending Yom Kippur with, the amazing Kehillat Kernow, a peripatetic community covering most of the Cornwall peninsula. (Yes, that's me in the news article at the top of their website, they are very prompt at reporting!) The long train journey was not as wonderful as I had hoped, because the trains were very very overcrowded in peak season, but at least I had a seat and got to enjoy the lovely views. And read a bunch of novels, which is definitely making my brain happier.

They invited me to dinner Friday evening, and had a very Liv conversation about dealing with racism in education and medicine, with the other guests having direct professional expertise, not just setting the world to rights. And put me up in a super nice hotel in a neo-gothic pile that used to be a convent, and were gracious enough to invite me to stay Saturday night as well so I even got a little bit of time in Truro, which is where they held this particular service. I walked along the river a bit, I found a teeny-tiny Pride festival in the town centre, but it was packing up by the time I had finished dinner at 7 pm, so I wasn't able to get dessert from one of the sparkly rainbow doughnut stands.

In between I lead a Shabbat service, with very enthusiastic participation from the community, and they even appreciated my somewhat political sermon about whether we can still be Zionists in this moment. Because it was the new moon of Av, I got to read from their super-exciting Historic scroll. Well, actually I chanted the verses about the creation of the sun and moon; it's still a big deal for me to do that in public. I'm pretty pleased with how all that went.

And now I'm back and I have another month of relatively uncrowded schedule. It's very nice.
location: Kensington, London, UK
Mood:: 'cheerful' cheerful
andrewducker: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] andrewducker at 07:07am on 28/07/2025 under ,


The invader has been captured!
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

andrewducker: (Default)
thekumquat: (Default)
andrewducker: (Default)
July 26th, 2025
ewx: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] ewx at 05:38pm on 26/07/2025 under
casemod: Inspector Clawseau. (Default)
Event: Casefic Exchange is a fanwork exchange focusing on investigations. These can be solving murders, retrieving stolen items, finding missing people, missions, and mysteries. As long as it has an investigation as its core theme, it fits with the exchange. We are an AO3 exchange; you must have an account and be 18+ to participate.

Minimum requirements: We allow three mediums: a minimum of 3,000 words for fanfiction, a minimum of 10 panels for a comic, or a recording of a completed fic of 3,000 words minimum with "casefic" as one of its tags. Works must include a fandom, character/ship and be of a medium that the recipient has requested.

Event link: [community profile] caseficexchange.
Pinch hit link: Current pinch hits.
Due date: Friday 8 August at 11:59pm EDT.

Available post-deadline pinch hits:



Thank you for considering!
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)

I last updated about 4 weeks ago, in Portsmouth. That was a good mini break, and I'm really glad R and I decided to do it: fun activities and good company. The heatwave hitting most of the country that weekend was less bad in Portsmouth, but despite reapplying sunscreen we both got burned on the walk back from the pier at Southsea, and didn't realise until the long (made longer by speed restrictions) train journey home was nearly over. The trains had aircon, on comfortable rather than arctic setting, so the journey was fine but stepping out into the humid heat at Cambridge came as a shock.

I took a taxi home, staying just long enough to dump my suitcase and pick up my hockey kit, and cycled (in the heat, ugh) to the rink for a scrimmage marking the last Monday night Warbirds practice, before the rink timetable change in July. Got home again a bit after midnight, and then back to work and the rest of "life as usual" from Tuesday morning.

Life as usual continues to be: work, family, ice hockey. A little cricket (playing), a little football (watching), and a theatre trip that reminded me I should go to the theatre more often.

Family )

Ice hockey )

Cricket )

Football )

Theatre )

On the topic of both theatre and schedule, I have a livestream ticket to Phoebe Kemp's all trans/nb production of Twelfth Night (introduced by Ian McKellan); the livestream was last night but I have two weeks to watch the recording. My calendar says my best bets for time to watch it is this afternoon, or next Saturday afternoon. I'm going to try for this afternoon.

andrewducker: (Default)
naraht: Moonrise over Earth (Default)
posted by [personal profile] naraht at 09:44am on 26/07/2025 under
Picked this up because I kept seeing it being described as literary SF – with that classic complaint, "no plot, hated the protagonist," that often signals a novel that may interest me. It's the tale of a depressed, isolated telepath in New York City in the early 70s who's gradually losing his powers as he enters his forties.

A reviewer on Reddit dismissed the novel as a clumsy metaphor for impotence. Having read it, and read a little about Silverberg's career – he had been churning out multiple novels per year before temporarily deciding to retire from writing in 1975 – I'm now 95% convinced that it's in fact a slightly less clumsy metaphor for the retreat of literary inspiration. Which makes it somewhat more interesting. Isn't fiction really, in some ways, based on the ability to see into other people's minds?

Not a great novel, but it has its moments. Very much of its period and setting, in both the good ways and the bad ways.
July 25th, 2025
andrewducker: (Default)
July 24th, 2025
andrewducker: (Default)
andrewducker: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] andrewducker at 02:45am on 24/07/2025 under ,


Nice day to walk in to work.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

July 23rd, 2025
andrewducker: (Jesus!)
Talked to Sophia about Wicked. Apparently she kinda enjoyed it, but isn't a fan of revisionism and prefers The Wizard of Oz.

"The good people should stay good and the bad people should stay bad."
andrewducker: (Default)
July 22nd, 2025
andrewducker: (Default)
July 21st, 2025
andrewducker: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] andrewducker at 04:06pm on 21/07/2025 under
The play park we're waiting for a dentist appointment in has WiFi.

(It's got a building in it owned by the council leisure service to sell ice creams and manage the tennis courts next door.)
andrewducker: (Default)

July

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
    1
 
2
 
3 4
 
5
 
6
 
7
 
8
 
9 10
 
11
 
12
 
13
 
14
 
15
 
16
 
17
 
18
 
19
 
20
 
21
 
22
 
23
 
24
 
25
 
26
 
27
 
28
 
29
 
30
 
31