edgelord
Jan. 15th, 2026 12:02 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
wordsmithdaily_feednoun: A person who affects an edgy persona by saying or doing provocative or offensive things, chiefly to attract attention.
Outgunned 1
Jan. 14th, 2026 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicollMy Outgunned game is a spy thriller of sorts. I thought it would be fun to skip the usual "characters start together, get briefed, plot their mission together" and so on, I'd start with three of the five breaking into an apartment. They are 14-year-old Diane Dean (the driver), 18-year-old Concordia Butterstein (unsanctioned intrusion and asset acquisition expert) and 70-year-old Jethro Winthrop (the smooth talking fellow who hired the other two because they offered the best value for price)
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Reading Wednesday
Jan. 14th, 2026 09:58 pmtroisoiseauxIn War and Peace, Count Bezukhov has died, leaving - due to some deathbed wrangling over multiple wills by grasping relatives - his illegitimate and bewildered son Pierre a wealthy noble, which surely will cause no one any problems. Interesting, in terms of narrative structure and the famous first line of another Tolstoy novel, that this is followed by an immediate smash cut to a different unhappy family, the Bolkonskys.
Poking along in Damon Runyon's Guys and Dolls and Other Writings; the "other writings" in this collection apparently include his 1920s-30s trial reporting, but I'm still on his 1930s-40s comedic gangster stories, which so far have universally ended with an impromptu marriage, except for the one that ended with the doll seducing and drowning the gangsters who killed her husband. I'm not sure that Runyon supports women's rights but he does support women's wrongs.
Also started another short story collection, China Miéville's Three Moments of an Explosion; I'm two stories in, both of which have had the feel (which I'm really liking so far!) of picking up a concept— a future where brand logos can be coded into "the mottle and decay of subtly gene-tweaked decomposition" (or detonation, per the titular flash fiction), or long-melted icebergs return to float over London while coral blooms across Brussels— and turning it around to see the way light reflects off of its different facets, and only just long enough to see each different flash of light.
Poking along in Damon Runyon's Guys and Dolls and Other Writings; the "other writings" in this collection apparently include his 1920s-30s trial reporting, but I'm still on his 1930s-40s comedic gangster stories, which so far have universally ended with an impromptu marriage, except for the one that ended with the doll seducing and drowning the gangsters who killed her husband. I'm not sure that Runyon supports women's rights but he does support women's wrongs.
Also started another short story collection, China Miéville's Three Moments of an Explosion; I'm two stories in, both of which have had the feel (which I'm really liking so far!) of picking up a concept— a future where brand logos can be coded into "the mottle and decay of subtly gene-tweaked decomposition" (or detonation, per the titular flash fiction), or long-melted icebergs return to float over London while coral blooms across Brussels— and turning it around to see the way light reflects off of its different facets, and only just long enough to see each different flash of light.
Poetry Fishbowl Update
Jan. 14th, 2026 08:58 pmysabetwordsmithThe Call for Themes is still open if you want to suggest topics for early 2026. Now's the time, because I hope to post the poll on Thursday.
Bionic ears
Jan. 14th, 2026 07:42 pmcathrowanI got fitted with my first pair of hearing aids a month ago. Some of my friends complain about theirs. I'm having an excellent experience and am so glad this technology exists. I had no idea how bad my high-frequency hearing loss was until it was compensated for. Our dishwasher makes a soft chime when you press a button! Who knew? (Not me.)
inherited IRA, part too many
Jan. 14th, 2026 04:56 pmredbirdI thought that all the money had been transferred from my mother's IRA account at BNY to my account at Fidelity at the end of December.
Last week, I got a message from Fidelity saying that a transfer couldn't be completed, and BNY needed to talk to me. That message was _exactly_ the same as the one I got in November, so I wasn't even sure this was a real thing rather than a glitch.
After several days of wrestling with phone trees and leaving messages with my advisor at Fidelity, I tried BNY again this afternoon. That wound up being a long phone call, including a long time on hold while the person I was talking to looked things up.
What he was able to tell me is that there is some amount of money greater than zero still in my mother's name at BNY, possibly capital gains on the money they had already transferred. The person I was talking to said he couldn't tell me how much, but that based on this call, I could have Fidelity call BNY and tell them to transfer this money.
But that would be too simple: Fidelity said they would need a current statement on the account. So, back to BNY, whose system is set up to provide information to people with accounts they can log into. The available workaround is for them to send me a request form, and for me to attach a copy of my mother's death certificate, and my driver's license, and then I should have it in 1-5 business days.
In the meantime, I have emailed my brother, who told me that any amount of money still in Mom's name in 2026 would complicate things for him as executor. (I was pleased to be able to email him on December 30 and tell him that the transfer had finally been completed.)
Last week, I got a message from Fidelity saying that a transfer couldn't be completed, and BNY needed to talk to me. That message was _exactly_ the same as the one I got in November, so I wasn't even sure this was a real thing rather than a glitch.
After several days of wrestling with phone trees and leaving messages with my advisor at Fidelity, I tried BNY again this afternoon. That wound up being a long phone call, including a long time on hold while the person I was talking to looked things up.
What he was able to tell me is that there is some amount of money greater than zero still in my mother's name at BNY, possibly capital gains on the money they had already transferred. The person I was talking to said he couldn't tell me how much, but that based on this call, I could have Fidelity call BNY and tell them to transfer this money.
But that would be too simple: Fidelity said they would need a current statement on the account. So, back to BNY, whose system is set up to provide information to people with accounts they can log into. The available workaround is for them to send me a request form, and for me to attach a copy of my mother's death certificate, and my driver's license, and then I should have it in 1-5 business days.
In the meantime, I have emailed my brother, who told me that any amount of money still in Mom's name in 2026 would complicate things for him as executor. (I was pleased to be able to email him on December 30 and tell him that the transfer had finally been completed.)
For want of a mop sponge [work]
Jan. 14th, 2026 03:22 pmrebeccmeisterShortly after I arrived at this institution, back in 2018, I determined that the insect room was going to need its own mop. The insect room came with one of those string mops, but in my experience string mops are best for occasions when a person wants to spread water or disinfectant around on a floor, not for occasions where the main goal is actually picking up excess liquid to encourage the floor to actually dry out and maybe even get clean(er).
I don't have easy means for maintaining any of those microfiber mop pads, and I'm not a fan of any of the 4000 disposable mopping products, either.
The aquarium room came with a roller sponge mop that was disintegrating, with the attachment bolts/nuts corroded in place. I managed to get the bolts off, and put on a replacement mop head, and that mop has been working perfectly well for us ever since. Yay!
I got a butterfly sponge mop for the insect room. It also worked well, up to the point where it, too, started to disintegrate, as sponges are wont to do. Time to shop for replacement sponges!
The question is, in this modern day and age, what is the least of all the evils? Yesterday I ventured over to the Ace Hardware in Troy for an in-person look at their replacement butterfly mop sponge options. That hardware store location is a more pleasant bike ride than the one way out on our Central Avenue. I'm glad I did go to look in person, because there was exactly one replacement in stock, and its attachment mechanism is incompatible with the existing butterfly mop. Ugh.
Ultimately, I instead left with a second roller sponge mop, so that future replacement sponges can be allocated either to the aquarium room mop, or to the insect room mop.
Unfortunately, it looks like I will have to spend money at one of the big evil retailers to get more of those replacement mop heads. I hate this so much.
But I will probably do it, because I have gotten tired of crawling around on my hands and knees at work, with a sponge. I do not love these floors enough to do that. At home, rags are fine. At work, no.
In case you still harbored notions that being a professor is a glamorous job.
I don't have easy means for maintaining any of those microfiber mop pads, and I'm not a fan of any of the 4000 disposable mopping products, either.
The aquarium room came with a roller sponge mop that was disintegrating, with the attachment bolts/nuts corroded in place. I managed to get the bolts off, and put on a replacement mop head, and that mop has been working perfectly well for us ever since. Yay!
I got a butterfly sponge mop for the insect room. It also worked well, up to the point where it, too, started to disintegrate, as sponges are wont to do. Time to shop for replacement sponges!
The question is, in this modern day and age, what is the least of all the evils? Yesterday I ventured over to the Ace Hardware in Troy for an in-person look at their replacement butterfly mop sponge options. That hardware store location is a more pleasant bike ride than the one way out on our Central Avenue. I'm glad I did go to look in person, because there was exactly one replacement in stock, and its attachment mechanism is incompatible with the existing butterfly mop. Ugh.
Ultimately, I instead left with a second roller sponge mop, so that future replacement sponges can be allocated either to the aquarium room mop, or to the insect room mop.
Unfortunately, it looks like I will have to spend money at one of the big evil retailers to get more of those replacement mop heads. I hate this so much.
But I will probably do it, because I have gotten tired of crawling around on my hands and knees at work, with a sponge. I do not love these floors enough to do that. At home, rags are fine. At work, no.
In case you still harbored notions that being a professor is a glamorous job.
Bundle of Holding: Halls of Arden Vul (from 2022)
Jan. 14th, 2026 03:39 pmjames_davis_nicoll
A vast megadungeon from Expeditious Retreat Press for D&D, AD&D, and other tabletop fantasy roleplaying games.
Bundle of Holding: Halls of Arden Vul (from 2022)
Four Past Midnight by Stephen King
Jan. 14th, 2026 03:41 pmgilda_elise
Past midnight, something happens to time, that fragile concept we employ to order our sense of reality. It bends, stretches, turns back, or snaps, and sometimes reality with it. And what happens to the wide-eyed observer when the window between reality and unreality shatters, and the glass begins to fly? These four chilling novellas, a feast fit for King fans old and new, provide some shocking answers.
After all, past midnight is Stephen King's favorite time of day....
One Past Midnight: "The Langoliers" takes a red-eye flight from L.A. to Boston into a most unfriendly sky. Only eleven passengers survive, but landing in an eerily empty world makes them wish they hadn't. Something's waiting for them, you see….
The story keeps you on the edge of your seat, mainly because you can’t stop wanting to yell at the characters, “stop yammering and get on the damn plane!” I guess that only happened because I couldn’t help but be drawn into their stories and come to care about what happened to them. And the Langoliers are crazily frightening as they draw inexorably closer.
More science fiction than horror, but it certainly has some horrifying scenes.
Two Past Midnight: "Secret Window, Secret Garden" enters the suddenly strange life of writer Mort Rainey, recently divorced, depressed, and alone on the shore of Tashmore Lake. Alone, that is, until a figure named John Shooter arrives, pointing an accusing finger.
I couldn’t help but see this as more of a tragedy, as we slowly understand that what Rainey is experiencing isn’t what we think. But what is it, exactly? And what is real? A terrifying, yet heartbreaking story.
Three Past Midnight: "The Library Policeman" is set in Junction City, Iowa, an unlikely place for evil to be hiding. But for small businessman Sam Peebles, who thinks he may be losing his mind, another enemy is hiding there as well--the truth. If he can find it in time, he might stand a chance.
Unlike the first two stories, this one is definitely in the horror genre. Peebles must face the horrifying experience of his past while facing the real horror of the present. But with the help of his friends, he may just come out okay.
Four Past Midnight: The flat surface of a Polaroid photograph becomes for fifteen-year-old Kevin Delevan an invitation to the supernatural. Old Pop Merrill, Castle Rock's sharpest trader, wants to crash the party for profit, but "The Sun Dog," a creature that shouldn't exist at all, is a very dangerous investment.
A creepy take, though most of the creepiness was because to Old Pop Merrill. Really liked the story until the very end.
With an introduction and prefatory notes to each of the tales, Stephen King discusses how these stories arose in what is the world's most fearsome imagination. But it is the stories themselves that will keep readers awake long after bedtime, into those dark, timeless hours past midnight.
I enjoyed all four stories very much (though, as I said, I could do without the ending of the fourth one.) As always, King creates characters that I come to care for. The passengers on the red-eye from LA, Sam and his friends, Dave and Naomi, Kevin and his father. Even the writer, Mort.
It’s a wonderful collection of short stories/novellas that are well worth reading.
Mount TBR 2026 Book Links
Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.
1. The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
2. Four Past Midnight by Stephen King
Short Story Anthology
JANUARY - Read Around the Clock - Read a book with a clock on the cover.
Four Past Midnight by Stephen King
Cheese tasting notes [food]
Jan. 14th, 2026 01:13 pmrebeccmeisterJust so I can try and remember this for later:
The Cabot cheese were the most smooth out of the lot. The Land O Lakes had a distinct twang to it. The Tillamook had something of a nutty flavor, somehow simultaneously creamy-crumbly. I tend to get sharp rather than extra sharp when I'm shopping for Tillamook; at this point I'd view the Cabot extra sharp as a fine substitute. It isn't the same thing, but it's fine. These are not gourmet specialty cheeses, they are cheeses to be put on tortilla chips to make nachos and on bread to make grilled cheese sandwiches. And sometimes, mac n cheese.
The Cabot cheese were the most smooth out of the lot. The Land O Lakes had a distinct twang to it. The Tillamook had something of a nutty flavor, somehow simultaneously creamy-crumbly. I tend to get sharp rather than extra sharp when I'm shopping for Tillamook; at this point I'd view the Cabot extra sharp as a fine substitute. It isn't the same thing, but it's fine. These are not gourmet specialty cheeses, they are cheeses to be put on tortilla chips to make nachos and on bread to make grilled cheese sandwiches. And sometimes, mac n cheese.
Birdfeeding
Jan. 14th, 2026 11:59 amysabetwordsmithToday is cloudy, windy, and cold.
I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 1/14/26 -- We saw a flock of geese flying mostly north.
I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 1/14/26 -- We saw a flock of geese flying mostly north.
Side-Eyeing Science Fiction’s Love of Empire
Jan. 14th, 2026 10:21 amjames_davis_nicoll
...Wait, we're supposed to believe that it's the rebels who are wrong?
Side-Eyeing Science Fiction’s Love of Empire
The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa
Jan. 14th, 2026 08:54 amjames_davis_nicoll
A teen subject to intermittent time-loops sets out to prevent the murder of his unlikable grandfather. This will be much harder than he expects.
The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa
Interesting Links for 14-01-2026
Jan. 14th, 2026 12:00 pmandrewducker- 1. Trump v BBC - a guide to the case
- (tags:usa uk bbc politics law )
- 2. Iranian-linked Scottish accounts fall silent again with Iran's internet blackout
- (tags:iran scotland propaganda )
- 3. Adelaide Writers' Week cancelled amid controversy over disinvitation of author Randa Abdel-Fattah
- (tags:Australia Palestine Israel writing festival )
- 4. New Tesla feature to automatically create explicit images of pedestrians it passes on the street
- (tags:satire funny Tesla nudity )
- 5. Zoe Saldaña Becomes Highest-Grossing Actor of All Time With 'Avatar: Fire and Ash'
- (tags:movies money )
- 6. Government drops plans for mandatory digital ID to work in UK
- (tags:IDCards Labour )
- 7. Warhammer Maker Games Workshop Bans Its Staff From Using AI in Its Content or Designs, Says None of Its Senior Managers Are Currently Excited About the Tech
- (tags:AI GamesWorkshop Warhammer )
- 8. Making a natural freezer
- (tags:temperature video ice )
- 9. A divorce lawyer on the concept of "soulmates"
- (tags:love relationships video )
- 10. The polls in Wales are, frankly, unprecedented
- (tags:Wales polls )
- 11. Contract secured for one of world's largest offshore wind farms Berwick Bank (off the coast of Scotland)
- (tags:scotland electricity windpower )
- 12. Scientists confirm 2025 was the third hottest year on record
- (tags:globalwarming doom )
- 13. What's the stick in *your* stream?
- (tags:advice life )
Tags:
- advice,
- ai,
- australia,
- bbc,
- doom,
- electricity,
- festival,
- funny,
- gamesworkshop,
- globalwarming,
- ice,
- idcards,
- iran,
- israel,
- labour,
- law,
- life,
- links,
- love,
- money,
- movies,
- nudity,
- palestine,
- politics,
- polls,
- propaganda,
- relationships,
- satire,
- scotland,
- temperature,
- tesla,
- uk,
- usa,
- video,
- wales,
- warhammer,
- windpower,
- writing
Cuddle Party
Jan. 14th, 2026 12:48 amysabetwordsmithEveryone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.
We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!
We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!
Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 3: Postal Mail from Fen (Holiday Edition)
Jan. 14th, 2026 12:23 amride_4everThank you kindly to the fen who sent me holiday cards in December and early January: noxelementalist, james, dine, adafrog, aurumcalendula, spikesgirl58, elayna, lauramcewan, sidleypkhermit, and brumeier.
If you sent me a card and you aren't listed here, that's a postal fail. If you are listed here and didn't get a card from me, that's another postal fail.
noxelementalist, james, dine, adafrog, aurumcalendula, spikesgirl58, elayna, lauramcewan, sidleypkhermit, and brumeier.If you sent me a card and you aren't listed here, that's a postal fail. If you are listed here and didn't get a card from me, that's another postal fail.