Daily Happiness

Jul. 30th, 2025 09:58 pm
torachan: karkat from homestuck looking bored (karkat bored)
[personal profile] torachan
1. We are still having record sales at the Irvine store. Even the weekdays have been higher than weekends at the other busiest stores. But it's so wildly beyond what we expected that there's just no way for the store staff to keep up. People from HQ and other stores are being asked to pitch in and help, and I went again and worked about seven hours (after already working from home in the morning for several hours). It shows no signs of slowing down, but I hope it slows down at least somewhat, and soon!

2. Tomorrow I have a bunch of things to do and a couple meetings, but it's at HQ, so at least I won't be running around stocking and stuff. It will feel like a day off in comparison!

3. Cutie.

Bingo

Jul. 30th, 2025 11:51 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I made blackout on my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo Fest. \o/


B1 (Bad Girls) -- "Provoking Change by Bringing Nature" (standalone)
B2 (Close-knit Community) -- "Incompetence, Sloppy Thinking, and Laziness" (Frankenstein's Family)
B3 ("Put me down!") -- "A Stronger Woman" (Polychrome Heroics: Fortressa)
B4 ("I tried being reasonable. I didn't like it.") -- "The Pleasure of Escaping the Responsibility" (One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis)
B5 (Black Hats / White Hats) -- "Upholding It, Wherever Found" (Polychrome Heroics)

I1 (Resist Oppression) -- "Happy Instruments of Salvation" (Peculiar Obligations)
I2 ("He's all hat and no cattle") -- "No Such Thing as Finished" (Polychrome Heroics)
I3 (Dodge) -- "A New Twist" (LIFC)
I4 (Firefly) -- "Something Elusive and Mysterious" (standalone)
I5 (I'll Get My Revenge) -- "The Well-being of All Our People" (Clay of Life)

N1 ("The Wayward Wind") -- "Maho Shoujo" (standalone)
N2 (Buffalo) -- "Legs of Grass, Feet of Flowers" (standalone)
N3 (WILD CARD: Clean Up the Town) -- "Indicative of the Extent" (Polychrome Heroics: The Big One)
N4 (Defenestration) -- "In Effigy" (Frankenstein's Family)
N5 (Independent Woman) -- "But an Empty Shell" (Polychrome Heroics)

G1 (The Harder They Fall) -- "Always Surprised by Consequences" (Polychrome Heroics)
G2 ("Cool Water") -- "Beautiful, Damn Hard, Increasingly Useful" (Polychrome Heroics: Kraken)
G3 (Redemption Story) -- "The Future by Consequence, the Past by Redemption" (Frankenstein's Family)
G4 (Immigrant) -- "Fed from So Many Sources" (Frankenstein's Family)
G5 (Sunrise / Sunset) -- "Strong, Competent, Capable" (Frankenstein's Family)

O1 (Captive / Slave) -- "Four Marks of True Repentence" (Polychrome Heroics)
O2 (Gambling) -- "Finding the Gold in the Spirit" (Polychrome Heroics: Shiv)
O3 (Silver / Gold) -- "The Bee Tree's Gift" (standalone)
O4 (Horse) -- "Nuwneek" (The Bear Tunnels)
O5 (Emotionally Constipated Man) -- "New and Innovative Approaches" (Polychrome Heroics: The Big One)

SGA: The Killing Frost by Sholio

Jul. 31st, 2025 03:53 pm
mific: (Shep - oh crap)
[personal profile] mific posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Stephen Caldwell, Elizabeth Weir, Laura Cadman, Radek Zelenka, Lindsay Novak - the usual Daedalus and Atlantis suspects.
Rating: Teen
Length: 100,449
Content Notes: Contains descriptions of serious injuries, animal attacks, extreme environmental conditions, violence, murder. No AO3 warnings apply.
Creator Links: Sholio on AO3, Sholio's old SGA website
Themes: Working together, Action/adventure, Competence, Hurt/comfort, Novel-length, Epic work, Genfic, Worldbuilding

Summary: When a scientific mission goes wrong, the Daedalus crashes on an ice planet along with Atlantis's top scientists and a ruthless saboteur. Will rescue come before injuries and the elements take their toll? Roughly season two era.

Reccer's Notes: This is a gripping, full-blown novel. The Daedalus crash-lands on a Gateless, uninhabited, icy planet while carrying a number of Atlantis personnel (Rodney, Radek, Elizabeth and Cadman), while back on Atlantis, realising something's gone badly wrong, John, Simpson, Carson, Lorne, et al try frantically to locate them, then to reach them by puddlejumper. It's a thriller about surviving both a disastrous crash and the freezing, inhospitable planet, plus searching for the saboteur or saboteurs who caused the crash. There's tons of detail about how the two groups separately work together to survive, and to find and reach the crashed ship, and then once the relief party arrives their troubles aren't over, with the saboteur still working against them and the logistics of only having puddlejumpers to perform a complex rescue. Sholio weaves it all together masterfully and it's an extremely good read with excellent worldbuilding, better than most pro thrillers. Highly recommended.

Fanwork Links: The Killing Frost on AO3, or here

color posting (blue, green, olo)

Jul. 31st, 2025 04:27 am
erinptah: Rainbow stained glass (rainbow)
[personal profile] erinptah

Is My Blue Your Blue?” – a site that gives you increasingly-mixed shades of teal, making you sort them as Blue or Green, then tells you where your mental boundary of “green turns into blue at This Point” compares to the population in general.

Mine is “hue 173,” moderately on the green side, i.e. the Exact Midpoint (“turquoise”) counts as a shade of blue to me. Did the test on a family call, where we picked whichever color most people agreed on…and managed to land on True Neutral.

Where’s yours?

The color “olo” can’t be found on a Pantone color chart. It can be experienced only in a cramped 9-by-13 room in Northern California. That small space, in a lab on the UC Berkeley campus, contains a large contraption of lenses and other hardware on a table. To see olo, you need to scootch up to the table, chomp down on a bite plate, and keep your head as steady as you can. A laser will be fired into one of your eyes, targeting more than a thousand of your cone cells. (The scientists will have mapped their location on your retina in advance.)”

What I wouldn’t give to get a look at this color. Doesn’t seem likely, though — apparently they’ve already gotten calls from a ton of interested artists, and the retinal mapping process is so involved, even the guy who named the color hasn’t gotten to see it yet.

(…Although the people who have seen it all describe it as some sort of teal. So maybe it’s not as unthinkable as it sounds like it should be.)


Actively sweating in a pool

Jul. 30th, 2025 11:28 pm
cornerofmadness: (everythings fine)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
Since this was the last day it wasn't supposed to rain while I'm housesitting, I went to Fort Steuben. It's a small recreated fort in Steubenville OH. It was created to protect surveyors while they were mapping out the Northwest territory. It was nothing much new for me but I'm glad I finally went. I mean I've lived like 20 miles away growing up and never once came here.

What was cool is they recently added a surveyor's building (and named it in honor of a local surveyor and army man who passed) and the cool thing was since this DOES get a lot of field trip kids to it, they had info on becoming a surveyor in there for them. I mean when was the last time you've heard someone talking about that?

The elderly lady volunteer almost didn't want to sell me a ticket because it was SO. Fucking. Hot. She wasn't wrong. I was happy to see the fort was honest in its history (something Maga has been threatening museums over) and I learned Washington was worse than I imagined. The British army used 39 lashes of a cat of nine tails as their upper limit. Washington thought that wasn't good enough. Got the government to raise it to 100 lashes (which is nuts) and this wasn't enough for Washington either (as men were still willing to risk it) and petitioned for 500 lashes (the gov said now but jesus....)


I got very hot and went into the pool but since it was 94 degrees that did not help.

I was too hot to do much but went to a restaurant for their a/c (figuring it would be cooler) it's an irish bar created by Franco Carapellotti (which would explain the mural of Dean Martin in there....) I liked my nutty monkey (it was the day to over pay for drinks 10$ cocktail 9$ chocolate covered strawberry latte) but skrewball's peanut butter whiskey a) tastes like the middle of a recesse's peanut butter cup and b) overpowers everything. This had banana liquor maple syrup and bitters. I could taste none of that (I had tried that PB whiskey myself with chocolate liquor and nothing but PB then too)

Also I sweated the frakking Dexcom off my arm. No lie, just fell right off.


What I Just Finished Reading:

War Child - a DS9 Bajor heavy book that somehow hinges on outdated earth gender hair/clothing norms. WHY


What I am Currently Reading:


The Wood - an urban fantasy so far so good

Dark and Dangerous Journey - WWII mystery arc

Monster Burger - urban fantasy (and ha both of the UF books are set in Columbus OH)


What I Plan to Read Next:

Pantomine - an LGBT (intersexed main character) fantasy, I like it but i'm shelving it for a bit

WIPRB Big Bang 2025 - Claims Round 3

Jul. 30th, 2025 08:49 pm
penaltywaltz: (I'm A Mod)
[personal profile] penaltywaltz posting in [community profile] wipbigbang
This is Round Three of the Fic Claims for the 2025 round of WIPBB. You may claim up to three art projects this round. Please put your top three choices in order of preference in case your first choice is taken. If you want more than one art project to make fic for, fill out the form up to three times with a unique check-in IDs for each claims submission.

The form is located at https://forms.gle/W7gs6eS8ikk3EoBaA.


Round three of the fic claims will go on until August 7th. An art project is crossed out when it is claimed and can no longer be asked for.

Angel the Series )
Critical Role Vox Machina (campaign or animated series)  )
Danny Phantom /Young Justice )
Doodle World (Roblox) )
DreamSMP )
Invisible Inc. )
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind )
Naruto, Naruto Shippuden )
One Piece  )
Promare )
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power )
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine )
The Locked Tomb )
Transformers )
Undertale )
White Collar )
人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù )
魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī / 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System / 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú )
penaltywaltz: (I'm A Mod)
[personal profile] penaltywaltz posting in [community profile] wipbigbang
This is Round Three of the Artist Claims for the 2025 round of WIPBB. You may claim up to three fics this round. Please put your top three choices in order of preference in case your first choice is taken. If you want more than one fic to make art for, fill out the form up to three times with a unique check-in IDs for each claims submission.

The form is located at https://forms.gle/T7Gt8HzJbYGGkD8U8.


Round three of the art claims will go on until August 7th. A fic is crossed out when it is claimed and can no longer be asked for.

Mission: Impossible )
My Hero Academia | Boku No Hero Academia )
NCIS (TV 2003)/Criminal Minds (US TV) )
Naruto )
Neighbours (TV) )
Person of Interest )
Professional Wrestling )
Project Wingman / Ace Combat )
RWBY )
Saiyuki )
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) )
Spartacus Series (TV) , Spartacus: Vengeance, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena )
Spy x Family (Manga) )
Star Trek )
Star Trek: Alternate Original Series/Subnautica )
Star Wars )
Stargate Atlantis )
Stargate SG-1 )
Stranger Things )
Supernatural (TV 2005) )
Ted Lasso )
Teen Wolf (TV) )
Teen Wolf (TV)/Marvel Cinematic Universe )
The Bear )
The Legend of Zelda )
The Murderbot Diaries )
The Old Guard )
The Order of the Stick )
The Owl House )
The Trials of Apollo )
The Umbrella Academy )
Top Gun: Maverick  )
Transformers )
Undertale/Doki Doki Literature Club )
Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan - The Wheel of Time )
Zero Escape )
人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù )
人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù/魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù )
呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Manga) )
将进酒 - 唐酒卿 | Qiāng Jìn Jiǔ - Táng Jiǔ Qīng  )
陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) )
방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS )
penaltywaltz: (I'm A Mod)
[personal profile] penaltywaltz posting in [community profile] wipbigbang
This is Round Three of the Artist Claims for the 2025 round of WIPBB. You may claim up to three fics this round. Please put your top three choices in order of preference in case your first choice is taken. If you want more than one fic to make art for, fill out the form up to three times with a unique check-in IDs for each claims submission.

The form is located at https://forms.gle/T7Gt8HzJbYGGkD8U8.


Round three of the art claims will go on until August 7th. A fic is crossed out when it is claimed and can no longer be asked for.

30歳まで童貞だと魔法使いになれるらしい | Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (Manga)  )
911 Lone Star )
All For the Game )
Angel: The Series )
Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021)  )
BBC Sherlock )
BBC Sherlock/Marvel Cinematic Universe (Agents Of SHIELD) )
Bad Buddy  )
Borderlands Series )
Bright )
Buffy the Vampire Slayer )
Captive Prince )
Check, Please! )
Conclave (2024) )
Criminal Minds (US TV)/The Black Phone (2022) )
DC Comics )
Danny Phantom )
Danny Phantom/Transformers )
Danny Phantom/Young Justice (cartoon)  )
Death Note )
Doctor Sleep (Book & Film) )
Druck (SKAM) )
Empires SMP )
Final Fantasy Series )
Formula 1 RPF )
Formula 1 RPF/Motercycle RPF/Motorsports RPF )
Foyle's War )
Fullmetal Alchemist/Criminal Minds  )
Game of Thrones  )
Genshin Impact )
Gladiator (Movies – Scott) )
Good Omens )
Grimm )
Haikyuu!! )
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling )
Harry Potter/MCU )
Hazbin Hotel )
Hetalia: Axis Powers )
Inuyasha )
Invisible (2022) )
Invisible Inc. )
Jem and the Holograms (Cartoon) )
Lego Monkie Kid )
Love Between Fairy and Devil )
Lucifer (TV) )
Marvel Cinematic Universe )
Marvel Cinematic Universe/DC Comics )
Marvel Cinematic Universe/Captain America (Movies)/The Alienist (TV)/The Alienist Series | Dr. Lazlo Kreizler Series - Caleb Carr )

Couldn't be better

Jul. 30th, 2025 11:17 pm
lauradi7dw: white flowers growing in a circle in the yard (flower circle)
[personal profile] lauradi7dw
I spent a couple of days with Flo and family, helping out a little. Flo & B don't get to spend much time together, because of the demands of baby care, his job, and trying to stay healthy themselves. I was glad to be able to give them time for a lunch out together yesterday. They have a careful sleep schedule. She goes to bed (in theory) at 8 PM and then they trade off in the middle of the night so he can sleep soundly before work, so after he gets home from work in the evening they only see each other briefly before her bedtime. Today a friend of theirs dropped by during their overlap time and was in the kitchen playing guitar, wondering what the children would like to hear. They don't seem to be much affected by recorded music yet but like having people sing to them. He picked "I can't help falling in love with you" and all of us sang along. A moment of joy for everyone, on a busy day.
Also in the kitchen is a ceiling fan, which the babies find fascinating. They may not agree on everything as they grow up, but right now they are unified in ceiling fan fandom.

Wind Breaker

Jul. 30th, 2025 09:48 pm
bluapapilio: boufuurin from wind breaker (winbre boufuurin)
[personal profile] bluapapilio posting in [community profile] icons
  

🎐 x39 icons here!

Wind Breaker

Jul. 30th, 2025 09:42 pm
bluapapilio: sugishita, suou, sakura and nirei from wind breaker (winbre ot4)
[personal profile] bluapapilio posting in [community profile] fandom_icons
  

🎐 x39 icons here!
penaltywaltz: (I'm A Mod)
[personal profile] penaltywaltz posting in [community profile] wipbigbang
Mod Ragna has an early and long day tomorrow and can't stay up until after midnight PST to post Round 3 of WIPBB/WIPRB art/fic claims, so the form for Round 2 will close at 10 PM PST and Round 3 of claims will go up around 10:30 PM PST today.

Poem: "Maho Shoujo"

Jul. 30th, 2025 08:37 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is the freebie for the July [community profile] crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by [personal profile] himejoshiheart. It also fills "The Wayward Wind" square in my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo Fest.

Read more... )

With a big slice of lemon.

Jul. 30th, 2025 08:22 pm
hannah: (Martini - fooish_icons)
[personal profile] hannah
Earlier today I said the most exciting thing that's happened to me at all recently was meeting Tom Cruise at the red carpet, and that's still true. The most luxurious thing that's happened to me at all recently was having lunch today at Le Bernardin.

Yes. That one. The one with three stars.

One of my clients worked in finance back in the late twentieth century and invested carefully over the next few decades, so while she doesn't have the money to eat there anywhere close to frequently, she can afford to do so every couple of years and leave a big tip without worrying about it. She recently had major surgery and decided to celebrate being able to eat solid food again with lunch there. Herself, myself, and the mutual friend who put us in touch.

The website told me business casual, so I wore a nice dress. Not one of my fanciest dresses, but a very nice dress that's got a lot of good memories woven into the fabric. I made sure to clear my calendar and hold my calls - on Monday, I said I wouldn't be available to work today without any elaboration - and arrive with a smile and an empty stomach. I also arrived with good timing, walking up to the door just as my client got out of her cab. I told the woman at the coat check, "I'm with her," and felt a thrill at being able to say it, and another thrill at walking into a space that's designed for people to have a good time. It was like the best Frank Lloyd Wright house done to larger scale, with carpet to catch the noise and polished wooden ceilings to keep the air fresh. Window shades kept the dining room cool, butter came in itty-bitty tureens, cutlery and napkins were swapped out at every course, waitstaff never spoke to each other while serving patrons and instead saved all verbal communication for when they were out of hearing range. Wine was carried on trays instead of by hand, the women's bathroom had tampons and pads in the stalls, four kinds of breads were offered from a basket that got regularly replenished. I asked for one of everything.

There was a three-piece amuse-bouche at the start and a three-piece Petit Fours at the end, all brightly flavored, arranged to provide a nuanced and delightful texture experience - broth with a piece of sashimi topped with a basil leaf, a tiny salmon pie topped with roe, a cod croquette topped with just enough spicy sauce to keep things exciting; a passion fruit macaron, a tiny berry cake, a chocolate-pear truffle.

I thought about starting with a cocktail but went with a spiced thyme lemonade to keep my mind and tongue sharp. First course was cod, second course was hiramasa. Both came with a sauce poured at the table. Both were made of simple ingredients at the apex of quality served freshly cooked and still warm from the kitchen, and I ate as neatly as I could to make sure I didn't miss anything. The real amazement, like with the start and the end selections, was just as much the flavors as the textures. It didn't just taste great. It was fun to eat everything. There was always something going on, whether it was how deep the sauce went or the way the vegetables crunched. When you got it all happening, you had to stop to take it all in. But there wasn't a rush. We were there over three hours and nobody so much as nudged us.

After lunch was an espresso shot and a small pot of tea that smelled like a jasmine black, which tasted even better than it smelled. Dessert was a selection of four sorbets. They were all top-line, with three of the four being flavors you could find elsewhere, though probably not quite as masterfully made: mango, strawberry, blueberry. The fourth flavor was something I've never seen anyone do anywhere else, and that all three of us agreed was the standout item in the meal, more than any of the other courses, more than anything else. Thai basil. Sweet, spicy, summery, fresh. Lawn green, crayon green. It sparked my tongue up. I loved the cod and I had a great time with the hiramasa and the bread was excellent and it was all wonderful, and that almost incidental sorbet had us all awestruck.

The mutual friend left for an errand. The client and I took a taxi uptown, because there wasn't any other way to end the meal. One last moment of luxury for a meal I'll be thinking about for a very long time.
fanweeklymod: (Default)
[personal profile] fanweeklymod posting in [community profile] fandomweekly
Challenge 269:
SELF-INDULGENCE
n. excessive or unrestrained gratification of one's own appetites, desires, or whims

Usually you’re a little more restrained than this. But just this once...it’s time to indulge.

What do your characters indulge in? Maybe it’s as simple as a hot bath, a long nap, and their favorite food – or maybe it’s something much more dramatic. Maybe it’s something that really shouldn’t be indulged…

Write a story about self-indulgence.

BONUS GOAL: “It’s just once!”

If your submission features this line, it will earn an extra point to be tallied in voting!


Challenge ends Monday, August 4 at 9:00PM EST.
• Post submissions as new entries using the template in the profile
• Tag this week's entries as: [#] submission, 269 – self-indulgence
• If you have questions about this challenge, please ask them here

and now for a change...

Jul. 30th, 2025 08:03 pm
chazzbanner: (corgi bunnybutt)
[personal profile] chazzbanner
Nothing weather-related to report. Instead, here are a couple of catsman-related items.

I told [livejournal.com profile] ordenchaz about cz_moon and J's eclipse-related train trip to Indianapolis, including layover in Chicago. I told her that catsman would have described (over lunch) the exact route of the Chicago-Indianapolis leg, and more importantly would have explained what railroad company built the line long before it was part of Amtrak. This would likely include a list of mergers throughout its history. Truth.

On Tuesday I told catsman that I felt the need to make a playlist of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff concerti, as I can't keep them straight. The standard ones, right? I then vocalized a bit of one, and he told me it was Tchaikovsky.. but which one?

I told him about the Rachmaninoff theme used in Somewhere in Time, but couldn't remember the exact source. Google, and yeah, I should have known: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, variation 18.

-

Daily Check-in

Jul. 30th, 2025 06:01 pm
starwatcher: Western windmill, clouds in background, trees around base. (Default)
[personal profile] starwatcher posting in [community profile] fandom_checkin
 
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Wednesday, July 30, to midnight on Thursday, July 31. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #33447 Daily Check-in
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 16

How are you doing?

I am OK.
9 (56.2%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
7 (43.8%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
5 (31.2%)

One other person.
6 (37.5%)

More than one other person.
5 (31.2%)




Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
 

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