April 2024

S M T W T F S
 123456
7891011 1213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930    

Custom Text

Community Thursday

Jul. 10th, 2025 03:49 pm
vriddy: Dreamwidth sheep with a red wing (dreamsheep)
[personal profile] vriddy
Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.



I just would like to give another signal boost and pointer toward [community profile] sunshine_revival, as the comm and event appear very active! You can dip in and out and don't have to start from the beginning, just jump in whenever you like and enjoy, and hopefully make new dreamwidth friends :) I've been enjoying the challenge replies I spot on my reading page!
"Why work here?"

"Weekly pay!"

Yup, that's why I would like to apply for any and all jobs!

(On a side note, A has been sending me a lot of job links today. I'm a bit inundated, but I somehow don't think that "Great, please don't send them to me, just fill them out with my resume for me" is going to go over very well.)

***************


Read more... )

Finn and Hengest Promo Post

Jul. 9th, 2025 08:33 pm
narya_flame: Young woman drinking aperol in Venice (Default)
[personal profile] narya_flame posting in [community profile] innumerable_stars
 

(Image credit: Mike Pennington, shared under Creative Commons 2.0)

Summary:  Finn and Hengest contains Tolkien's translations of and commentary on two Old English texts - the "Finnesburg Fragment" and a small excerpt from Beowulf.  Both are allusive accounts of the Battle of Finnsburg, a medieval Germanic conflict which we now know about only from Anglo-Saxon poetic sources.  Tolkien's translation and commentary bring the battle to life for modern English readers while proposing solutions to the central mysteries of the texts.

Why should I check out this canon?  Admittedly this is not Tolkien's most accessible work, but if you're interested in seeing his linguistic/philological practice in action, this is for you!  What emerges is a tragic story of betrayal and divided loyalties, broken oaths, and vengeance.  It's also a fascinating text for anyone interested in the history of northern Europe, the origins of England and the mythologising of Englishness, or medieval languages.

Where can I get this?  It isn't the easiest text to get hold of but can be ordered online, either new or second hand - though if you're affiliated to a school or university you may be able to access an online version free of charge through your institution's SSO.  Amazon also offer a digital copy for a few pounds/dollars cheaper than the physical book, if you'd prefer to use an e-reader.

What fanworks already exist?  There are a couple of crossover fics in Russian on AO3, but that's all I could find, so the ground is pretty open!

Got a callback

Jul. 9th, 2025 11:57 am
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
Asked where I lived, was concerned that the answer is "Staten Island". FFS, it's not Siberia!

I need to start telling people I'm moving in with a friend in Tribeca. Just straight up lie.

For friends of [personal profile] lbilover

Jul. 9th, 2025 11:09 am
shirebound: (Default)
[personal profile] shirebound
This is the link for the Zoom recording of Ellen's Celebration of Life on the 29th. (Her brother had never done this before, so it's far from a professional recording.) My couple of minutes start at 43:00, if anyone's interested. :)

https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/eMECuAFB2oU9Ax3_SQ-ieRKU6nUrLFU0qkskwpL9JbOd6F5YgAmcLeRyD1O6F3z7.330xtAc884TFqewW

Passcode: q!Nmy09#

Tolkien (2019) Promo Post

Jul. 9th, 2025 09:47 am
narya_flame: Young woman drinking aperol in Venice (Default)
[personal profile] narya_flame posting in [community profile] innumerable_stars
 

Summary: This 2019 biopic explores the early life of J. R. R. Tolkien – the friendships he forged at school in Birmingham and later at Oxford, his romance with Edith Bratt, his experiences in the First World War, and of course the blossoming of his lifelong fascination with linguistics and mythology.
 
Why should I check out this canon?  Let’s get this out of the way up front – opinions on the film were decidedly mixed when it came out.  Yes, I admit, it does take a few liberties with the facts as we might know them from Humphrey Carpenter’s biography, the Letters, or John Garth’s Tolkien and the Great War – but in terms of situating the man and his passions within the generation of doomed young men who went to war and came back irrevocably changed, if they came back at all?  It nails it.  The cast are wonderful, the score gorgeous, and there are some lovely nods to book-readers: the scene with Edith dancing in the woods, which famously inspired the meeting of Beren and Lúthien, is beautifully done.  What makes this film for me, though, is Tolkien’s relationship with his school friends – especially with Geoffrey Bache Smith.  (The queer subtext is very, very deliberate.)
 
Where can I get this?  In the UK it’s available on Disney+, or to rent on Amazon Prime for £3.49.  Availability in other geographies may vary.  A quick Google suggests it’s not too tricky to get hold of on DVD or Blu-Ray so your local public library might be an option too.
 
What fanworks already exist?  According to the AO3 tags there are 36 hosted there, although in reality it's fewer than that - Tolkien (2019) seems to have been adopted as an umbrella tag, which makes it harder to filter!  If you scroll through, though, there are at least a dozen fics based on the film, ranging from tiny ficlets to novellas.  Many involve Tolkien interacting with characters from his own legendarium.  

Garden Photos

Jul. 8th, 2025 10:01 pm
ranunculus: (Default)
[personal profile] ranunculus
Shade cloth project is coming along but is not finished.  Here is a little walk through the garden.
The little fig tree is, well, little.
Pictures )




Firefly

Jul. 8th, 2025 10:01 pm
ranunculus: (Default)
[personal profile] ranunculus
Another successful ride on Firefly with my friend Kim riding Raja.  I was a little worried, the wind was blowing, coastal fog (rare this time of year) had cooled things off, and Firefly was objecting to everything from being groomed (normally she loves this) to having the bridle put on.  I walked for the first 1/2 mile of our "ride" because it was all downhill. Downhill invites faster speed and that isn't what I wanted.  Uphills usually follow downhills, so I mounted up and we went up for the next most of a mile, which calmed things down a lot.  She was never "bad" just a little snorty at first.  We worked on confidence, she did great, and only once needed Raja to take the lead and show her that the scary downhill with an eroded trail was perfectly safe.  We also worked on refining our cues.  The times that I have to use big gestures and insist on where I want to go are getting fewer and the times I can give a tiny squeeze of leg, or tightening of my fingers are getting more frequent.  At one point I leaned over a little, grabbed a gate and pushed it open a little further. It took some pressure to push, and I could see Firefly thinking hard about what was going on, but she stood perfectly still.  Oh, and we picked up trail ribbons from April's event. Firefly only once looked scared of the ribbon, and that was a big 3 color one with 18" streamers.  Like usual she thought about it, sniffed it and relaxed. If I can ride, at least a little, three or four times a week, we will make really fast progress.  Sorry, snuck out before M took any pics, but here is one of Firefly today being very, very serious about eating her evening meal.


P.S.  Yes, she has changed colors again.   In my last post, on June 19th, she was dark grey.  


Tags:

(no subject)

Jul. 8th, 2025 11:10 am
marta_bee: (Default)
[personal profile] marta_bee
I've got next to nothing to report, but I wanted to check in with you all, all the same. It does me good to at least pop in.

I bought plane tickets to London for October to go see the Kid, along with trip insurance. I'm not 100% sure if I'll go or not. I could give all sorts of practical reasons for why I'm reluctant, and there are some things making October not the greatest time, but really, it's hard to want to leave America just to come back these days. I think I'd really struggle emotionally with that part of it.

I'm much more political than I can remember ever being. It makes sense in a lot of ways; but it's draining. I've started volunteering with a second group, and also taking the time to do a kind of news roundup every day on Tumblr. I'll admit I'm struggling finding the balance and wish I didn't have to give so much time and effort to it, but it feels like now's not the time to lean out, at least for me. Not trying to get into specifics, because I recognize not everyone wants to think about that so much, but in the "what I've been up to" these days it ranks pretty high.

Things are at least settling down again after my grandmom's funeral. Mainly I'm just tired and an extra bit stressed.

Peeta continues to be a menace, and I'm beginning to think I may not be her forever home. Technically, I'm still fostering so I can return her and ask to try another (the group says they'll take her back and they're no-kill). She's sweet sometimes, especially later in the afternoon, but in the morning she beats up on me a lot. It's probably just looking for attention and wanting to play, and I've tried several things to redirect her aggression, but none of it's really worked. I've given myself another two weeks to make a firm decision but at this point it feels more like working up to admit defeat. I hate feeling like I've failed her, which I do, but cats live a long time and I need to be rational about it. It may be better, too, if she needs a home with more activity than I can provide. But it still breaks my heart a bit.

That seems to be the theme. I'm dealing okay with everything going on these days, but it really is a lot.

New Peeta pic below the cut. You'd think with a face like that she wouldn't be any trouble at all, but you would be mistaken.

I did see F1 this weekend, which was a lot of fun. I don't get the ins and outs of racing strategy, but the characters were interesting.

I hope you're all doing okay and weathering the heat okay. With all the complaining, I am glad to have AC like never before.

Read more... )
A rainy day seen through a window. The camera focused on the raindrops on the window, rendering the cityscape beyond blurry.
(written by [archiveofourown.org profile] Perching )

Summary: In 1980s Oxford, professor Michael Ramer discovers a method for the mind to travel in time and space while the body is asleep. He presents his discoveries to the Notion Club, a social group strikingly similar to the Inklings of the 30s and 40s, and while some are skeptical, others take off with the idea. Then one night, a great storm rises up out of the west, and Arundel Lowdham cries to the others, “The Eagles of the Lords of the West are at hand!” A time travel story connecting the mythological fall of Númenor to the (then) near future of the 1980s, The Notion Club Papers went forever unfinished, and by the end of it the main characters have experienced only one major dream/vision: that of Ælfwine, an Englishman from the Middle Ages. In an outline, Tolkien gestures towards the tale of Ælfwine meeting Elves on Tol Eressëa, a “Beleriand tale”, and the fall of Númenor as told through the eyes of Elendil and his friend Voronwë. Why should I check out this canon? The Notion Club Papers draws on many more famous aspects of the Legendarium and will appeal to fans of:

  • Númenor and its fall
  • Ælfwine and his meeting with the Elves
  • portal fantasy and contemporary fantasy
  • crossovers between Middle-earth and the modern day
  • and, of course, the Inklings.

Where can I get this? The entire text of The Notion Club Papers, including commentary by Tolkien’s son Christopher, can be found in volume nine of The History of Middle-earth, which is titled Sauron Defeated. Check your library and any local bookstores, or buy it online.

What fanworks exist already? Fanworks of The Notion Club Papers are, not surprisingly, hard to come by. fanfiction.net hosts at least one work by shakespeareanfish, which you can read here. AO3 has a recently posted piece of meta in Russian. JD-Kloosterman on DeviantArt has contributed fanart. Between these works, there’s lots of space for fans to take up a pen (or keyboard, paintbrush, stylus, etc.) and bring something new to The Notion Club Papers universe.


Just went through the website and applied to everything I meet the minimum qualifications for, for what good it may do.

They could, in theory, save my information from one application to the next. They don't do that. They could also not require me to answer "where did you hear about this?" every time - but the joke's on them. "I went to your website and clicked on every job where I meet the minimum qualifications" is not an option, so I've just been lying and saying "hiring event" because that's the first choice. They will get no useful data from me, no thank you!

********************************


Read more... )
Mereth Aderthad 2025 Interview with Flora-lass by Anérea. Featured poet for "Cherished Antagonist, Despised Protagonist - A Defense of Elu Thingol".

Tolkien's poetry is one of the hallmarks of the legendarium, though like poetry in general, it tends ot produce mixed reactions from readers. A poet who brings to life the musicality of Middle-earth, Flora-lass will be presenting a poem inspired by Stella Getreuer-Kostrouch's presentation, "Cherished antagonist, despised protagonist - a defence of Elu Thingol" at Mereth Aderthad 2025. Anérea spoke with Flora-lass about her poetry, getting involved with fandom later in life, and the appeal of Thingol as a subject of fanworks.

You can read Anérea's interview with Flora-lass here.


is the constant whiplash between panic and popcorn.

Right now I'm hovering over "popcorn" - new political parties? With added drama and infighting? LOL, okay, let's see how that works out for you!

(Look, I need a break from panic now and again, and I will take my fun where it appears.)

******************


Read more... )

Garden

Jul. 7th, 2025 08:05 pm
ranunculus: (Default)
[personal profile] ranunculus
Hotter weather is on its way. We have been luxuriating in temperatures from the low 80's to the mid-90's for the past couple of months.  Sadly that is ending and a week of 100F + is coming up.  The hot day is forecast at 104F.  By last year's standards that is cool, last year this time it was running up to 117F.   Oh well, the cool was nice while it lasted, and it resulted in the tomato plants setting huge amounts of fruit. 
100F +  means I have to get busy and finish up the shade cloth supports.  I --was-- finished with the main part of the garden.  But that didn't include the bed and tanks behind the main area, or the apple trees and it doesn't include side panels on the west side.   
This morning I walked out and took a hard look at:  measurements, paths and how everything lines up.  Turns out I did a rotten job of advanced planning in half the garden. The shade cloth worked great on the raised beds, but I really needed different post spacing in order to extend it out.  This means;  undoing the wires holding up the overhead pipes; removing the shade cloth;  pulling out 7 posts and moving them over.  On the west side one more post and associated pipes, need to be added to each line.   Fortunately the ground is soft and  the moves are going well.  I've got 5 posts moved and the associated pipes and shade cloth back in place.  Two of the three new posts are in the ground.  Shouldn't take long to finish.   
When I have finished extending that half the garden, the small tanks in the back of the other side of the garden need all new posts (4) and a couple of pipes.  Two of the small apple trees need shade as well or the fruit will sunburn.  Those should be easy as the trees are only about 5 feet tall.  

Note: pruning apples in summer works amazingly well.  Summer pruning encourages fruit.  Winter pruning encourages growth, so I don't prune much, or at all in the winter.  My oldest apple tree, now in its fourth year, is absolutely dripping with apples.  After doing a bunch of reading: apples fruit on branches that are at lest 2 years old or older.  This year my 3 year old trees are starting to set a little fruit.  Next year there should be lots.   

While I'm talking about fruit trees, the little fig that I planted this spring is doing well. There hasn't been much growth above ground, but I bet the root system is growing like crazy.  It has stopped wilting in the heat. I'm so happy that it has finally taken hold.  Way back in the winter of 2020/21 I took the first cuttings from the old trees near Split Rock.  The  trees are at least 100 years old and incredibly tough to have lasted with no care.  Those first cuttings failed completely, as did the ones from the next year.  But the cuttings from 22/23 rooted as did a couple from 23/24.  This is a baby from the first batch. 

Most Popular Tags

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Style Credit