cyphomandra | Network

renay posting in

We're counting down until mid-year!

Myy May TBR turned out to be more of a suggestion.

The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo
Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life you Deserve by Drew Afualo
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I read What Moves the Dead because I managed to read What Feasts at Night. And although I didn't get to The Brides of High Hill, I did reread The Empress of Salt and Fortune and grab When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain on my way to it. :D

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magnavox_23 posting in

graphics

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magnavox_23 posting in

fandom_icons

20 icons featuring actor Zahn McClarnon

Check out the rest, here. <3

siderea

2025 Jun 7 11:40 am:

benjalvarez1 on Twitter:

WATCH THIS: https://x.com/BenjAlvarez1/status/1931375699786334704

Click through to see the video. You really, really should. Sound is irrelevant.

Text: "Tanks, fighting vehicles and howitzers arrive in Washington, D.C. ahead of next week's military parade. They departed from Texas on June 2." Two minutes and forty seconds.

Allegedly that train is a mile long and is transporting:

• 28 Abrams tanks (M1A2 main battle tank)
• 3 armored recovery vehicles (M88)
• 28 Bradleys (M2A3 infantry fighting vehicle)
• 5 Paladins (M109A7 self-propelled howitzer), and
• 28 Strykers (infantry carrier vehicle)

Source: 2025 Jun 6: @USAMilitaryChannel on YT [not official military channel]: "1-Mile Military Train -Texas to D.C. with Tanks, Armor, and More for Army's 250th Parade". I do not know if that source is reputable or if that inventory is accurate.

USA Today is reporting that "The military vehicles will be joined by 1,800 soldiers". (Source: 2025 Jun 6, USATODAY on YT: "Watch: Tanks, fighting vehicles head to DC for Trump's military parade", CW: face full of Trump, alt: screenshot).

I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking that maybe the guy who attempted one coup already bringing a well-armed military force into our capitol city and, crucually, within artillery-range of the Pentagon, is just throwing himself a birthday party, but also maybe not.

musesfool

I used decaf to make coffee granita last night, and I had it for dessert this evening along with a dollop of homemade whipped cream, and it seems to have worked out all right - no late evening side effects of caffeine that I can feel. And I think it's better later in the day as a treat than as my morning coffee, because I eat it so quickly and also it's sweet. I don't put any sugar in my regular coffee, but granita requires it so it doesn't freeze solid. I used vanilla sugar but can't really detect the vanilla (or, rather, differentiate it from the vanilla in the whipped cream).

Also, they were on sale, so I bought a pack of paper plates and they made cleanup after cooking so easy that I remembered why I used to use them regularly back before I had a dishwasher. My plan to replace my dead dishwasher is to try the 4th of July sales - Friend L is going to join me at the store to see if the model I want (Bosch) actually fits in the space I've got (and if it goes on sale - it did not for Memorial Day, that I saw, but maybe I don't need the more expensive/top-of-the-line model? It's just that it has something that will allegedly turn the machine off if it senses a leak, which seems like a good thing to have, especially when you live in an apartment above other people and are responsible if any leakage causes damages below you). Anyway, July is a three-paycheck month, which gives me some leeway for paying most of it off ASAP and not increasing my credit card debt any more than I have to.

*

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Mets vs Rockies on tv

slacktivist_feed

Posted by Fred Clark

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/06/07/everyones-invited/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=70718

Tomorrow is my birthday. Banks will be closed. The party is next Saturday.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/06/07/everyones-invited/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=70718

eratoschild posting in

fancake

Fandom: Trails of Cold Steel
Pairings/Characters:
Laura S. Arseid/Duvalie, Ines/Ennea, Victor S. Arseid/McBurn
appearances by other assorted Cold Steel characters and hints of other ships Rating: M
Length: 22442 words
Creator Links: Rosie_Rues
Theme:
Grief/Mourning, Dreamsharing, Recovery, Enemies to Lovers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, changing roles in life, loss of limb
Summary: With the Great Twilight over, Duvalie follows Laura home to Legram. She's not entirely sure why she's here, or when she's going to leave, but she can't bring herself to regret her choice.

Meanwhile, Victor's dreaming of the only man in the universe still willing to offer him a challenge...

Reccer's Notes: While I have read this fic several times, the most recent was some time ago, I always remember it as being roughly half of one ship and half of another- I note this here because one of those ships is M/M. In my rereading, I see the balance is more 2/3 to 1/3, with the bulk of it being the theme-compliant Laura/Duvalie, who begins as something of a lost and reluctant guest in Laura's home in the wake of the loss of the woman who saved her. The emotional metamorphosis of Duvalie's canonical hostility towards Laura- already very much blunted as the story opens, turn to friendship and later towards attraction is an absolute treasure. There are many smaller moments of many relationships of varying sorts between her and otter female characters throughout the story, some of which absolutely beg for stories of their own.

The M/M ships is Victor/McBurn, and they are a prominent part of the story- really a story occurring in parallel, but separately- until it suddenly isn't. While I don't want to dwell on them in this post as they are not germane to the theme, it bears mentioning that they are there in case they would turn anyone off from reading. But I will say that their development is quite astounding, a sword master who has lost an arm, a god who has lost his world and any connection to it and what they become to each other.

This fic deals with grief in many forms, over many different kinds of loss, from loss of friends, comrades in arms, loss of a limb, loss of connection to oneself and an entire world. It's all very sensitively written, and even the absolutely fantastical loss of a god from another dimension with his entire world somehow becomes much less fantastical than one might expect.

There are also themes of many different changes in life that come with time passing and with dealing with these griefs. Oh, and the very cracky-sounding, but utterly sincerely dealt with coping with the shock of learning that your father is banging the demon god from another dimension. (that needs to be a tag, ok)

This is just one of my favorite ever fics, by one of my favorite authors.
Fanwork Links: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45897169

olivermoss

* Found one of the Little Free Libaries with The Librarians swag and nabbed one of these coin thingies:

It took a good bit of walking because the first I went to didn't have any of the items. They are also supposed to have free Librarians books, but I haven't found one with those yet.

* Am back on my quest to do all the Portland stairs. I've done the Washington park ones before, and actually photographed these stairs before, but not since I started tracking my journey to conquer them all:

* Books With Pictures Con was today:

They really get a great line up of artists each year.

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

Link

1. Dear Care and Feeding,

I work from home. My kids are 8 and 12. When they were little, we hired a sitter to watch them on the random days off from school, but they don’t really need a sitter now.

For holidays when they are off and I’m working, my husband and I agreed to a set of rules for them: If the kids help with two small chores, read for 30 minutes, and play outside all before noon, then they can have screen time. The kids reluctantly agreed to this policy.

But they still demand my time. They will complete the list above, then ask to FaceTime with a grandparent (a clever loophole). They come into my office whining that they are bored. They are old enough to help themselves to snacks, but if I don’t supervise, they will eat everything before lunch. I make and serve lunch. Even after lunch, they play on their tablets and mindlessly snack. If they ate everything earlier, they come to my office whining for more snacks.

I feel like my husband is taking advantage of my work-from-home job. I feel like my work and time come second to his. I would like to have a full day off the weekend after one of the school holidays. A day when no one asks me for food or entertainment or a ride somewhere. A day when I’m not picking up after everyone. I don’t need a spa day; I need a day to myself. My husband says that’s not fair because his job doesn’t have working from home as an option, and I can’t just “quit parenting for a day.”

—Holidays Are Not Days Off

( Read more... )

**********

2. Dear Care and Feeding,

When should I let my daughter learn lessons on her own? My daughter “Chloe” is 12 years old. She recently went with her two closest friends to the zoo. She really wanted to wear a summer dress and white sandals and tried to leave the house without wearing sunscreen.

I talked to Chloe and made her go wearing sunscreen, and also shoes that would be better for walking on the dirt paths at the zoo (I couldn’t change her mind about the dress, so I picked my battles). But I’m not sure I like doing that.

She’s 12 now, and none of the consequences would have been disastrous. The next time something like this comes up, should I just let her make her mistakes and experience the consequences?

—When to Intervene

( Read more... )

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

Dear Pay Dirt,

Our next-door neighbors were really welcoming when we first moved into our new home. Within weeks, though, they started complaining that our son was too loud and that he was “bothering” their dogs. He’s 5 years old and rambunctious, and he’s attracted to furry animals, which makes it really hard to keep him away from fun, furry floofs!

We tried talking it out with our neighbors, but they lodged a complaint with our HOA, presented us with a massive bill for repainting their fence after our son drew on it with chalk, and twice called the police because he was “trespassing” on their property (he entered their garden uninvited to play with their dogs).

We’re at our wits end. We are seriously considering selling up and moving, as we can’t reasonably expect a child to forever remain indoors. But it will result in a loss we cannot afford.

Is there any way to fix this situation? We feel like we’re being bullied out of our home, but our neighbors are operating well within the law and their rights.

—Homewrecker

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minoanmiss

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Current Mood: the OPPOSITE of nostalgic

lassarina

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inkcharm posting in

fandom_icons

CANON: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
CHARACTERS: Maelle.
ADDITIONAL INFO: 150 Icons total. 110 Act 1 & 2, 40 Act 3 & Ending with a big spoiler warning.
CREDIT TO:

inkonic

HERE @

inkonic

watersword

Over the course of about six hours this week, the weather went from "pleasant warm early-summer" to "holy bananas, it is hot and sticky high summer" and I was not emotionally prepared for it. But I am promised thunderstorms today, and I got cucumbers at the farmer's market, and will finish swapping out the cozy linens for the crisp ones, and all of that will help.

conuly

A shocking number of people will blithely tell us all about the book they read, in English, on an English-language subreddit, and never tell us that they didn't read it in English. I can only catch so many of them - if they don't say "English isn't my first language" or make any obvious foreign language errors then I'll never know. (Some of them say "I read this in my own language" and then don't tell us what that language was.)

Most of these people, if prompted, will tell you what language they read it in. Three times now, I've had to ask twice because they refused to answer the question in a useful way, and every time that person has been Greek.

I thought it was a little funny the second time, but three times is the start of a worrying pattern, especially as it's not at all the most popular not-English language posted there. Maybe there's something going badly wrong with their school system?

(And, sidenote, even if you're certain it was translated from English you still ought to tell us the language it was written in. At least in theory this can help us weed out false positives, although I may be expecting too much of fellow commenters to that subreddit.)

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

( Read more... )

senmut

Marking Dates (531 words) by Sharpest_Asp
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Leverage
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Eliot Spencer/Alec Hardison/Parker
Characters: Alec Hardison, Eliot Spencer, Parker [Leverage]
Additional Tags: Origami, Fluff
Summary:

Hardison and Eliot mark the date in a way that Parker will enjoy.

Marking Dates

The saying that money can't buy happiness had to have been thought up by a rich person, Hardison decided. He kept folding the non-sequential bills, setting up a menagerie of wild animals. After he had twenty-six of them, he put them in the box, closed it, and left it on his desk, just where the box had been for several days.

Parker had noticed it on the first day it was there, asked about it two days after that, then forgot it existed as it became part of her surroundings. It was the perfect place to hide something in plain sight — though he'd taken the precaution of spritzing it with his aftershave, to hide the money smell.

Parker was funny enough about money that she might have smelled it otherwise.

When Eliot came in that evening, Hardison caught his eyes, looked at the box, got the slow blink of agreement, and that was that.

Two days later, the box was gone, and Parker studied that space, making the cute frowny face she did while cataloguing where everything was supposed to be.

"Where'd the box go?" she asked.

"Have to find it," Eliot answered, before he and Hardison exchanged a grin. Her eyes lit up, so Hardison continued. "Scavenger hunt, in our building, out of the way spots… with things to find on the way to the box."

"What kind of things?" she asked, even as she was getting excited.

"The kind of things you like," Eliot said, and she did a tiny little clap and bounce before vanishing.

"And that, my friend, is how we say 'happy anniversary' to her," Hardison crooned, amused, and going to watch the spy-eyes through the building. Eliot joined him, putting him in a brief headlock playfully.

"Figuring out her love language wasn't so hard," Eliot said, but he was smiling when she found the first animal, right where he'd thought she would, an alligator. "How in the hell did you find an origami A to Z?"

"Man, everything is on the internet now," Hardison told him, still thrilled they'd found a gift that worked.

Parker found the last animal, cunningly folded so it appeared striped, making it a zebra, and the box was just ahead. She opened it, seeing cash — multiple currencies even! — and the note that said 'happy change together day'. Her chin wibbled, for just a moment, before she put all of her finds in the box. She'd had to back track for the otter and the shrew when she realized they were in alphabetical order, but now she had a full menagerie of money.

Her men — both of them were hers and theirs and ours — made fusses on days that weren't Christmas, but not in the way she saw other people do it. That, among many things, kept her falling in love with them every day, knowing neither one would ever push her in a path she couldn't handle.

She'd have to make a run on a store before she went back up to them; junk food for Hardison that had some pretzels in it, and she'd pick up that smelly cheese Eliot had insisted would make great brioche grilled cheese sandwiches.

Current Music: "Virtual Insanity" - Jamiroquai

minoanmiss

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Current Mood: determined

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Taskmaster (series 16)
Characters/Pairings: Sue Perkins/Susan Wokoma
Rating: Gen
Length: 00:02:06
Content Notes: no archive warnings apply, and there are no video-specific warnings.
Creator Links: thingswithwings on AO3
Themes: Female relationships, Friendship, Team, Humor

Summary: If you're lost, you can look, and you will find me.

Reccer's Notes: This is gorgeous and hilarious as the Sues stumble about carrying out the endless ridiculous tasks, laughing, triumphant, and always there for each other.

Fanwork Links: Team of Sue

olivermoss

* A Heated Rivalry, an m/m romance about rival hockey players is becoming a TV show. It's going to be on Crave, so IDK if it'll be available in the US. Hockey based romance is huge, but not something I've read at all. I am kinda curious to check out the book since it's getting a show, but I am also drowning under my TBR list.

* The reveal trailer for Resident Evil 9 looks amazing.

olivermoss

I did the Mt Hood Railroad. It doesn't go all the way to Mt Hood, but climbs into the foothills of it and gets to about 500 ft elevation. Get get let off between a fruit orchard and winery.

We also get views of Hood:

And Adams:

It was cute and I like being able to get out and do these excursion trains. They are so couples focused it used to be impossible to even buy a single ticket for a lot of them. That's part of why I've gone from never having done any to having done a bunch recently.

My assigned seat was at a booth with a couple and the conductor asked if he could re-seat me to spare me how awkward that was, but I'd booked an upgraded ticket for the bar car and didn't want to be moved to coach. Then he swung by later to 'just check on me'.

Also, the previous night at that beer patio, I only stayed so long because it was all couples. Hood River is vacation spot that caters heavily to queer travelers. The town's logo is a rainbow heart. A beer in a place like that after a hike, that should be as good as it gets for me, but also I'm just there alone, surrounded by couples. It gets pretty wearying.

I make to make the best of it and I'm doing real cool things, but being solo was just especially wearying on this trip. I opted out of doing the wine tasting out in the vineyard because that was just going to be like intensely coupley.

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cyphomandra

May 2025

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Page Summary

renay in ladybusiness - Let's Get Literate! June 2025 Hopefuls
magnavox_23 in graphics - Zahn McClarnon icons
magnavox_23 in fandom_icons - Zahn McClarnon icons
siderea - Tanks, armored vehicles, howitzers delivered to DC [curr ev, US]
musesfool - that double just loosened him up last night
slacktivist_feed - Everyone’s invited
eratoschild in fancake - Trails of Cold Steel: Moon Door IV: Beyond
olivermoss - Doing things in Portland
conuly in agonyaunt - One column, two letters
conuly in agonyaunt - I don't know why this was sent to Pay Dirt, but Pay Dirt gave excellent advice the LW will not heed
minoanmiss - One of the uses of hobbies
lassarina - May Wrap-Up, June Goals
inkcharm in fandom_icons - maelle. clair obscur: expedition 33.
watersword - (no subject)
conuly - JFC what is it about Greeks?
senmut - PRIDE 4: Hardison/Eliot/Parker
minoanmiss - Kilmar Abrego Garcia isn't home yet
mific in fancake - Taskmaster: Team of Sue by thingswithwings
olivermoss - (no subject)
olivermoss - Overly Complicated Gorge Trip: Day 3 - The Other Train

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