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第四年第一百八十一天

部首
卩 part 1 jié
卫, hygiene/to protect; 印, to print/to engrave; 危, danger; 即, immediately ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=26

语法
Using 吧 and 吗
https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/

词汇
围, to enclose; 范围, range; 周围, around ( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-3-word-list/

Guardian:
正当防卫, justified self-defense
没事吧, are you okay? [my candidate for “most commonly spoken line in cdramas”]
我可以确定这些乱线的根源仍然是围绕着圣器围绕着烛九他们一帮人, but I can be sure that the source of these crossed wires surrounds the Holy Tools and Zhu Jiu and his hangers-on.

Me:
打印机又坏了，破机器！
别太围绕，给人空间。

Current Mood: chipper

Entry tags:

Book 69, 2025

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

I finished reading Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston last night. It’s a contemporary male/male romance, featuring Alex Claremont-Diaz, son of the President of the United States, and Prince Henry, in line to inherit the throne.

When Alex and his family attend the royal wedding of Prince Philip, he can’t help but run into his rival, Prince Henry—literally. A minor scuffle between the two results in a ruined wedding cake and an international scandal. To smooth things over, both Alex’s and Henry’s “people” force them to spend more time together, making nice, and looking like best mates. Not wanting to ruin his mother’s chance for re-election, Alex reluctantly agrees. However, the more time he spends with Henry, the more he realizes that Henry is his perfect match. The two of them embark on a forbidden romance, knowing full well if they’re caught, the fallout will be epic but willing to take the chance.

Such a delightful, funny, heartfelt story. You can’t help but feel sad for Henry, who’s carrying the weight of centuries of tradition on his shoulders. Alex at least has a little more leeway. The way their romance unfolds, in stolen moments together, but mostly via phone calls and the email version of love letters, was charming to read, even as you knew it was going to blow up in their faces eventually. Characters were portrayed vividly and wonderfully, including secondary characters. I adored their sisters (June and Bea) as well as their BFFs (Nora and Pez). Secret Service and body guards were amazing characters, too. Story was told in third-person pov from Alex’s pov. I know I’ve said before that I prefer it when a book/story is in one character’s pov, but in this case I would have liked to get Henry’s perspective on things.

Favorite lines:
♦ “I want to be prepared for my first ever royal wedding.” // “You went to prom, didn’t you? Just picture that, only in hell, and you have to be really nice about it.”
♦ “Do either of y’all know what a viscount is?” // “I think it’s that thing when a vampire creates an army of crazed sex waifs and starts his own ruling body.”
♦ A picture of Henry’s dog wearing a Slytherin scarf (I don’t know WHO you think you’re kidding, you hufflepuff-ass bitch)
♦ “People don’t like women, but they like mothers and wives.”
♦ “You’ve been, like, Draco Malfoy-level obsessed with Henry for years.”
♦ “What in the rich-white-people-sex-dungeon hell?”
♦ “Remus John Lupin is gay as the day is long, and I won’t hear a word against it.”
♦ “Every time I see you, it takes a year off my life.”
♦ “Math has no authority here.”
♦ Have you ever had something go so horribly, horribly, unbelievably badly that you’d like to be loaded into a cannon and jettisoned into the merciless black maw of outer space?
♦ “I’m telling you right now, I will physically fight your grandmother myself if I have to, okay? And, like, she’s old. I know I can take her.” // “I wouldn’t be so cocky. She’s full of dark surprises.”

Wonderful story—thought-provoking, poignant, heart-wrenching, and uplifting. Five stars!

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books

A bunch of books I've read lately

A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft:

( Read more... )

A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek:

( Read more... )

I'd heard of Melissa Scott's Astreiant novels, but hadn't gotten to them until recently. I like the combination of plotty mysteries and slowburn romance. It reminded me of Swordspoint at times, although with more magic and a matriarchal-ish society (it was interesting to notice 'she' being used as default pronoun for an unknown person the way 'he' sometimes used to be, iirc). I'm very fond of the main characters, but I would really like to read something like this with a f/f main couple. More on specific books (I have two more left in the series to read) below.

Point of Hopes by Melissa Scott & Lisa A. Barnett:

( Read more... )

Point of Knives by Melissa Scott:

( Read more... )

Point of Dreams by Melissa Scott & Lisa A. Barnett:

( Read more... )

Fairs' Point by Melissa Scott:

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

reading

What Am I Reading Wednesday - July 9

The first six months of this year really tanked my standard reading pace, but as it seems to be picking back up in recent weeks, let's get back into the swing of:

What I Finished Reading This Week

The Twelfth of Never – Ciaran Carson
Although I'm much more of a lyrics person, I will read Ciaran Carson's poetry any day of the week. The 77 linked sonnets in The Twelfth of Never are as trippy and beautifully written as anything he's ever penned, and I'll definitely need to read this once more to get a handle on everything that's going. As a bonus, the volume also contains some vintage 80s "Japan is just so weird" goggling, apparently occasioned by a junket Carson took to Tokyo.

The Party and the People – Bruce Dickson
The first half of this book is excellent: Dickson's writing is crisp and informative. Unfortunately, the quality—in terms of proofreading, thoroughness, and argumentation—drops precipitously in the later chapters, as if Dickson was forced to rush through them, or possibly even author them.

Scotland's Forgotten Past – Alistair Moffat
I was worried this book would be superficial listicle-style content. My concerns were misplaced. Scotland's Forgotten Past is engaging and informative. Moffat touches on geography, politics, culture, and more, focusing on both the good (e.g., the Scottish Enlightenment) and the bad (e.g., antisemitism) with a deft and objective touch. I'll definitely read this one again and look for more by this author.

What I Am Currently Reading

How To Dodge a Cannonball – Dennard Dayle
It took about 100 pages for this book to find its footing, but it's pretty enjoyable now that it has.

The Third Revolution – Elizabeth Economy
Economy also has a wonderfully crisp and informative style; I'll probably finish this book by the end of next week.

Under the Nuclear Shadow – Fiona Cunningham
Cunningham, by contrast, does not. There's some thought-provoking stuff in here, but dear god are her sentences convoluted.

The Woman's Day Book of House Plants – Jean Hersey
It's interesting (and occasionally perplexing) to compare Hersey's notes on plant care with the guidance circulating in the 21^st century.

Mother, Creature, Kin – Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder
In a month of extreme weather (both locally and in the news), this book is hitting hard.

What I'm Reading Next

This week I picked up Zen at Daitoku-ji by Jon Covell and Yamada Sōbin, and Recorder Technique by Anthony Rowland-Jones.

これで以上です。

Entry tags:

weeping in frustration

Help me, great fandom hive-mind.

I signed up for Netflix.

I updated my iPad iOS. (Two hours.)

I downloaded the Netflix app. (Fifteen minutes.)

I signed into my account.

I clicked on Old Guard 2.

Several sources tell me that I can click the "Download" button to get it on my iPad. But I've looked all over the screen, and don't see anything that seems appropriate. Do any of you know what the hell it looks like, or where it is on the screen?

Alternatively, this article -- https://techdetective.com/netflix-no-download-button/ -- tells me that I can download with Windows 10, which I'd much prefer; I want it on my laptop. But Netflix says it can be download only on Apple or Chrome devices, or Android phones. Can anyone confirm or deny, and walk me through it?

Yeah, I'll watch it through Dish on my TV -- but I want to have it close for when I make a transcript. (I feel like it's kind of my duty...)

Y'know, I'd happily pay $39.95 for a DVD if Netflix would just make available!!! I'd even break down and buy a Blu-Ray player if they put it out only in that format. I just hate this current expectation that everyone is enamored of streaming services. Grrr...

Current Mood: relieved

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It's not my job, man

Yes, I'm a lot less stressed these days. A co-worker even mentioned how I sounded happier the other day.

( But I'm gonna ramble a bit anyway... )

Greek Myth: Fanfic: In the Family

Title: In the Family
Fandom: Greek Myth
Characters: Apollo, Asclepius
Rating: G
Length: 265
Summary: Asclepius's hands part carefully, and Apollo sees what he's holding: a brown songbird, feathers ruffled and spotted with blood, an arrow protruding from one wing.

( Read more... )

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sunshine_revival Challenge #3

Challenge #3

Journaling prompt: What are your favorite summer-associated foods?
Creative prompt: Draw art of or make graphics of summer foods, or post your favorite summer recipes. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Ice cream!!!!

And: fresh berries, peaches, limeade (yum).

Also, did you know that there is a Museum of Ice Cream? They have locations in many cities, most in the U.S. but there is one in Singapore. You have to reserve tickets, but once you're in you can eat unlimited ice cream, among other fun things. I'm in New York City where you can slide down into a big pool of sprinkles.

Previous Days
Day 1
Day 2

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: Ateez "Hala Hala"

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Dept. of Birthdays

Hey,

masakochan !

I hope you've had a Happy Birthday, and may the coming year be good for you. I'm glad I know you!

Current Mood: cynical
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: Ateez "Answer"

Entry tags:

Dept. of Stupid

Just When You Think It Couldn't be More Stupid

Now come six proofs that you can have the IQ of a broken toaster and still make it to Washington D.C.

From the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; four U.S. House Representatives from Minnesota, and two from Wisconsin, sent a letter to the Canadian Ambassador to the U.S.

Their subject? The smoke from Canadian wildfires that were coming south and preventing people in their states from enjoying outdoor summer activities.

Seriously.

Since I would not be surprised in the least if you've already started snickering, sure that I'm having you on, here's the story. It's not behind a paywall, I swear. And it notes with a perfectly straight face, the smoke from U.S. wildfires heading northward. The "Are you actually humans, or malfunctioning Chat GPT programs?" is unspoken.

These six examples of Darwin's Law are either fully aware of the fatuous asininity exhibited in this letter and are doing it to ingratiate themselves with Dear Leader or to their own MAGA constituents ...

... or they're really that stupid.

JFC. Once I would have laughed merrily at this. Today I'm perilously close to weeping.

Current Mood: in solidarity

a nice little exchange at work

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Dear Miss Manners: I prepared some hand-dipped chocolate goodies and delivered them to a couple of ladies in my neighborhood. A few days later, one of the ladies called me to tell me she was diabetic and couldn’t eat them.

I was sad that “the thought that counts” must not come into play anymore. I felt her phone call was rude and unnecessary.

Am I being petty, or was she being rude? It will make me think twice next time I try to be thoughtful. This friend certainly won’t see goodies from me again.

Then you will not want to hear that this lady spent the intervening time fuming over the thoughtlessness displayed in putting her health at risk — as if, instead of trying to brighten her day, you had attempted to force-feed her.

Miss Manners recommends saying, “I’m sorry to hear that. Thanks for letting me know” — and then tossing the conversation in the memory dustbin and, as was your plan, not repeating the gesture. This is also an approximation of what Miss Manners would have counseled the lady with diabetes, had she been asked.

Entry tags:

daily

Daily Check-in

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 9, to midnight on Thursday, July 10. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #33344 Daily Check-in

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 11

How are you doing?

I am OK.
7 (63.6%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
4 (36.4%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
4 (36.4%)

One other person.
4 (36.4%)

More than one other person.
3 (27.3%)

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.

Entry tags:

Lake Lewisia #1275

Long years had passed since letters of marque were commonly presented in the town, as boundaries softened and the divide widened between those who belonged (however peripherally) and those who did not. Once though, every tinker and trader had carried engraved acorns, or poems inked in berry juice, or rusty keys dredged from the bottom of the lake: proof they came with the town’s blessing. For those who eventually settled in the town, they became souvenirs from the long road to belonging; for those who did not, they became a baffling inheritance for uninitiated offspring.

---

LL#1275

Current Mood: tired

minutiae

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: nostalgic

reading Wednesday

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

today I have mostly been at the plot

I had a first-thing physio appointment, so I dragged myself over to the hospital for that and then nestled down in my Surrounded By Green and... mostly read Murderbot, with occasional fruit harvest and weeding.

(I have also had lots of opportunities to practise self-compassion, both in re the number of things I did not manage to harvest before they went over and in terms of having realised within the last half hour or so that one of my pens has vanished from all of the bags it was nominally in; I hope that if I go and poke around the table etc tomorrow it will rematerialise...)

The OTW is Recruiting for Fanlore Social Media & Outreach Volunteers, Policy & Abuse Volunte

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/31894

OTW recruitment banner

Are you interested in social media, community management or outreach? Or would you like to assist AO3 users by resolving complaints? Do you want to create videos and connect with fellow fans on TikTok? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!

We're excited to announce the opening of applications for:

Fanlore Social Media & Outreach Volunteer - closing 16 July 2025 at 23:59 UTC or after 40 applications
Policy & Abuse Volunteer - closing 16 July 2025 at 23:59 UTC
Communications TikTok Moderator - closing 16 July 2025 at 23:59 UTC or after 60 applications

We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don't see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.

All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.

If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.

Fanlore Social Media & Outreach Volunteer

Do you have an interest in fandom history, or in fannish culture and the different tropes, ships, communities and viewpoints that make up fandom? Are you interested in social media, community management or outreach? The Fanlore committee is recruiting for Social Media & Outreach volunteers!

Fanlore Social Media & Outreach volunteers are responsible for writing and editing Fanlore's promotional posts on social media, planning and running Fanlore's editing challenges, maintaining Fanlore's social media channels, and thinking of ways to reach out to and engage with new corners of fandom.

No extensive experience required—only reliability, teamwork, good communication skills, and an interest in fandom and Fanlore in particular. Join us!

As part of our application process, candidates who pass the initial review will also be asked to create a sample social media post for Fanlore consisting of a 280-character tweet and a 100-word Tumblr post promoting a Fanlore article. Further directions will be given upon applying.

Applications are due 16 July 2025 or after 40 applications

Apply for Fanlore Social Media & Outreach Volunteer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.

Policy & Abuse Volunteer

The Policy & Abuse committee (PAC) is responsible for addressing questions and concerns about potential violations of the AO3 Terms of Service. We determine whether reports are about legitimate violations of the Terms of Service, and what to do about them if they are. PAC volunteers correspond directly with AO3 users and collaborate on projects both within PAC and with other OTW committees.

Our main goals as a committee are:

to adhere to the AO3 Terms of Service
to make our reasoning and processes as clear and transparent as possible
to handle all user reports consistently, no matter which volunteer is doing the work
to keep every case we work on completely confidential

We are seeking people who can:

Commit to working on cases regularly
Be patient with rephrasing explanations
Ask for help when needed
Collaborate both inside the team and with other committees
Act in accordance with established rules, policies, and procedures
Treat confidentiality and user privacy as a priority

You must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. While English proficiency is required, we welcome applicants who are fluent in other languages, especially Spanish (Español), Brazilian Portuguese (Português brasileiro), Russian (Русский), Chinese (中文), or Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia).

Applications are due 16 July 2025

Apply for Policy & Abuse Volunteer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.

Communications TikTok Moderator

Do you use TikTok? Do you like making videos? Do you want to connect with your fellow fans?

OTW TikTok Moderators create content for the OTW TikTok account, including drafting scripts, recording and editing videos, and reviewing other moderators' scripts and videos. Moderators address user comments on videos by responding to user questions, removing comments that violate our policies, and flagging comments for video topics. Moderators also try to regularly engage with fandom on TikTok by interacting with relevant, appropriate videos and liking, reposting, and/or commenting.

You must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. We are looking for volunteers familiar with TikTok and passionate about outreach on the platform. They should be able to maintain a consistent level of work, collaborate inside the team and with other committees, ask for help when needed, and commit to making fair decisions about how to handle comments.

Applications are due 16 July 2025 or after 60 applications

Apply for Communications TikTok Moderator at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/31894

Current Music: Haim, "Down to Be Wrong"

But I lost my heart and the future's gone with it

Last night's eight hours of sleep were more disrupted and fragmentary than the previous, but my brain wasn't wrong that in life Kenneth Colley was only a little taller than me and a year or so younger when he first sparked a fandom for Admiral Piett.

I read later into the night than planned because I had just discovered Irene Clyde's Beatrice the Sixteenth (1909), which would fall unobjectionably toward the easterly end of the Ruritanian romance were it not that the proud and ancient society into which Dr. Mary Hatherley awakens after a kick in the head from her camel while crossing the Arabian Desert has zero distinction of gender in either language or social roles to the point that the longer the narrator spends among the elegantly civilized yet decidedly un-English environment of Armeria, the more she adopts the female pronoun as the default for all of its inhabitants regardless of how she read them to begin with. Plotwise, the novel is concerned primarily with the court intrigue building eventually to war between the the preferentially peaceful Armeria and the most patriarchally aggressive of its neighbors, but the narrator's acculturation to an agendered life whose equivalent of marriage is contracted regardless of biological sex and whose children are all adopted rather than reproduced puts it more in the lineage of Theodore Sturgeon's Venus Plus X (1960) or Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) even without the sfnal reveal that Mêrê, as she comes to accept the local translation of her name, has not merely stumbled upon some Haggard-esque lost world but actually been jolted onto an alternate plane of history, explaining the classical substrate of Armerian that allows her to communicate even if it bewilders her to hear that the words kyné and anra are used as interchangeably as persona and the universal term for a spouse is the equally gender-free conjux. If it is a utopia, it is an ambiguous one: it may shock the reader as much as Mêrê that the otherwise egalitarian Armeria has never abolished the institution of slavery as practiced since their classical antiquity. Then again, her Victorian sensibilities may be even more offended by the Armerian indifference to heredity, especially when it forces her to accept that her dashing, principled, irresistibly attractive Ilex is genetically what her colonial instincts would disdain as a barbarian. Children are not even named after their parents, but after the week of their adoption—Star, Eagle, Stag, Fuchsia. For the record, despite Mêrê's observation that the Armerian language contains no grammatical indications of the masculine, it is far from textually clear that its citizens should therefore all be assumed to be AFAB. "Sex is an accident" was one of the mottoes of Urania (1916–40), the privately circulated, assertively non-binary, super-queer journal of gender studies co-founded and co-edited by the author of Beatrice the Sixteenth, who was born and conducted an entire career in international law under the name of Thomas Baty. I knew nothing about this rabbit hole of queer literature and history and am delighted to see it will get a boost from MIT Press' Radium Age. In the meantime, it makes another useful reminder that everything is older than I think.

As a person with a demonstrable inclination toward movies featuring science, aviation, and Michael Redgrave, while finally watching The Dam Busters (1955) I kept exclaiming things like "If you want the most beautiful black-and-white clouds, call Erwin Hillier!" We appreciated the content warning for historically accurate language. I was right that the real-life footage had been obscured for official secrets reasons. The skies did look phenomenal.

Entry tags:

Guardian: fanfic: Winging It

Title: Winging It
Fandom: Guardian (TV)
Rating: G-rated
Length: 600 words
Notes: Much thanks to

trobadora for beta, including making me add the final section. <3
Tags: Gen, Post-Canon, Everyone Lives, Yashou Renewal, Education, A New Era for the SID, Original Crow Character, Drabble Sequence
Summary: The Crows need a science tutor.

( Winging It )