Fire is under control, celebratory linkspam? :D
Thursday, 19 March 2026 01:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
goodbyebird+ London, San Francisco and Beijing achieve ‘remarkable reductions’ in air pollution.
“This report shows that cities can achieve what was once thought impossible: cutting toxic air pollution by 20-45% in a little over a decade,” said Cecilia Vaca Jones, executive director of Breathe Cities, one of the organisations behind the report. “This isn’t just happening in one corner of the world; from Warsaw to Bangkok, cities are proving that we have the tools to solve this crisis right now.”
+ Fifty years after New Zealand stopped whaling, humpback population showing signs of recovery.
+ Two pairs of beavers released in Cornwall.
Beavers became extinct from the wild in England more than 400 years ago due to hunting for their pelts, meat and glands.
The charity said beavers were increasingly recognised as one of nature's most important keystone species - animals whose presence shapes entire ecosystems.
+ The river otter’s remarkable comeback.
+ European Parliament Votes Overwhelmingly For "The Full Recognition Of Trans Women As Women".
Significantly, the vote gathered support not only from left-leaning groups but also from the majority of the European People's Party, the largest and most powerful center-right bloc in the European Parliament. The center-right support drew sharp criticism from the far right: the Patriots for Europe group, which includes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Fidesz and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen's National Rally, voted against the resolution and denounced its exclusion from negotiations over the text. The European Conservatives and Reformists, the group of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia, also voted against. But their combined opposition was not enough to block the resolution, which passed with support from a broad cross-ideological majority.
+ Ireland’s basic income for the arts scheme becomes permanent.
+ Why comics needs its own Criterion Closet, an inside look at THE STACKS.
+ stop counting. what you love matters..
Cardiff University's Dr Lucy Bennett put it well in that same piece: "Once taste is turned into a scoreboard with ratings, competition then inevitably follows." Which, yes — but I'd push that further. Competition doesn't just follow. It replaces something. In the war to protect a number, the actual shows get swallowed whole. Nobody in these review threads is talking about what made "Ozymandias" so devastating, or what any of these subsequent shows did differently. They’re just defending territory. The number had stopped being a representation of the thing and had become the thing itself.
+ Marvel Comics has the optimisation sickness.
The current status quo at Marvel seems to be that if a storyline is successful they'll publish too many comics about it and it will get derailed. If a storyline isn't successful enough they'll publish too many comics about it and it will get derailed.
+ The Secretive Company Filling Video Game Sites With Gambling And AI.
Chris Button, an Australian tech journalist and former contributor, wasn't pleased to see his old profile alongside the AI authors. All of his former articles were edited to include closing sections pointing to casino and betting guides. He attempted to have his author profile removed by emailing the new management of GamesHub, but he never received a response. However, he no longer appears on the Meet the Team page. Button is disappointed with what the site has become. "Seeing GamesHub transformed into a site promoting gambling is devastating, not just for those who wrote for the site, but for the industry the publication championed", he said.
+ Friendly reminder that The Importance of Being Earnest is available to watch for free a little while longer. Chaotic fun, highly recommend.
“This report shows that cities can achieve what was once thought impossible: cutting toxic air pollution by 20-45% in a little over a decade,” said Cecilia Vaca Jones, executive director of Breathe Cities, one of the organisations behind the report. “This isn’t just happening in one corner of the world; from Warsaw to Bangkok, cities are proving that we have the tools to solve this crisis right now.”
+ Fifty years after New Zealand stopped whaling, humpback population showing signs of recovery.
+ Two pairs of beavers released in Cornwall.
Beavers became extinct from the wild in England more than 400 years ago due to hunting for their pelts, meat and glands.
The charity said beavers were increasingly recognised as one of nature's most important keystone species - animals whose presence shapes entire ecosystems.
+ The river otter’s remarkable comeback.
+ European Parliament Votes Overwhelmingly For "The Full Recognition Of Trans Women As Women".
Significantly, the vote gathered support not only from left-leaning groups but also from the majority of the European People's Party, the largest and most powerful center-right bloc in the European Parliament. The center-right support drew sharp criticism from the far right: the Patriots for Europe group, which includes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Fidesz and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen's National Rally, voted against the resolution and denounced its exclusion from negotiations over the text. The European Conservatives and Reformists, the group of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia, also voted against. But their combined opposition was not enough to block the resolution, which passed with support from a broad cross-ideological majority.
+ Ireland’s basic income for the arts scheme becomes permanent.
+ Why comics needs its own Criterion Closet, an inside look at THE STACKS.
+ stop counting. what you love matters..
Cardiff University's Dr Lucy Bennett put it well in that same piece: "Once taste is turned into a scoreboard with ratings, competition then inevitably follows." Which, yes — but I'd push that further. Competition doesn't just follow. It replaces something. In the war to protect a number, the actual shows get swallowed whole. Nobody in these review threads is talking about what made "Ozymandias" so devastating, or what any of these subsequent shows did differently. They’re just defending territory. The number had stopped being a representation of the thing and had become the thing itself.
+ Marvel Comics has the optimisation sickness.
The current status quo at Marvel seems to be that if a storyline is successful they'll publish too many comics about it and it will get derailed. If a storyline isn't successful enough they'll publish too many comics about it and it will get derailed.
+ The Secretive Company Filling Video Game Sites With Gambling And AI.
Chris Button, an Australian tech journalist and former contributor, wasn't pleased to see his old profile alongside the AI authors. All of his former articles were edited to include closing sections pointing to casino and betting guides. He attempted to have his author profile removed by emailing the new management of GamesHub, but he never received a response. However, he no longer appears on the Meet the Team page. Button is disappointed with what the site has become. "Seeing GamesHub transformed into a site promoting gambling is devastating, not just for those who wrote for the site, but for the industry the publication championed", he said.
+ Friendly reminder that The Importance of Being Earnest is available to watch for free a little while longer. Chaotic fun, highly recommend.
Today's the day! Surviving Peace is live!
Wednesday, 18 March 2026 07:13 amtassosss
Ebook is available on all retailers.
Paperback is available on Amazon.
If you'd like a signed paperback, let me know in comments. I don't have my author copies yet, so it will be a little bit of a delay.
Wordcount: ~114,000
Rated: Teen for swearing and violence
No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary:
They saved the ship. Now everyone wants them dead.
Jacks Harrison and chief engineer Antony Watts avoided a catastrophic collision between their generation ship Peace and their three sister ships that would have killed every human in the fleet. But saving their people came with a cost, and now Jacks and Antony are wanted by the rebellious factions that overthrew Peace’s corrupt governor.
With Peace’s two cities in shambles and neighbor turning against neighbor, Jacks and Antony must fight their way to safety only to find that the people on Peace are still in terrible danger: the ship’s water system is bleeding out, and it’s up to them to figure out how stop it.
Along the way, Jacks must reckon with the violence she finds herself too comfortable with and Antony must confront his past complicity in the corrupt regime. Because Peace doesn’t hand out easy answers, and they both have to decide how far they’re willing to go to ensure they survive.
A handful of random One Piece Live Action thoughts ...
Wednesday, 18 March 2026 01:32 amsholio... resulting from making that vid this past week.
One thing that I was thinking about is the sheer challenge of costuming this show, because most of the costumes are directly patterned after their manga/anime looks. So whereas most of the time in most shows, you can probably source the characters' everyday wear from basic mass-produced clothes or even vintage or secondhand shops, aside from really specific superhero costumes or whatever, this is more like a historical production in that everything has to be made from scratch. (Only, if possible, worse, because unless you're doing an unusual time period, normally you could probably go to the warehouses of Elizabethan or Regency costumes or Roman togas that no doubt exist.)
Here, even the relatively normal clothes are directly echoing something specific, like the patterns on distinctive shirt, or dress.
Anyway, it's just interesting to think about. Even the simplest costumes are more complicated than they seem, because it's not just an unusual shirt that the costume people found at a vintage shop; they're having to explicitly pattern-match or color-match or style-match items from the manga and anime.
( More specific spoilers about characters' fighting skills )
One thing that I was thinking about is the sheer challenge of costuming this show, because most of the costumes are directly patterned after their manga/anime looks. So whereas most of the time in most shows, you can probably source the characters' everyday wear from basic mass-produced clothes or even vintage or secondhand shops, aside from really specific superhero costumes or whatever, this is more like a historical production in that everything has to be made from scratch. (Only, if possible, worse, because unless you're doing an unusual time period, normally you could probably go to the warehouses of Elizabethan or Regency costumes or Roman togas that no doubt exist.)
Here, even the relatively normal clothes are directly echoing something specific, like the patterns on
season 2 character's
Tashigi'sanother season 2 character's
Miss Valentine's lemon-patternedAnyway, it's just interesting to think about. Even the simplest costumes are more complicated than they seem, because it's not just an unusual shirt that the costume people found at a vintage shop; they're having to explicitly pattern-match or color-match or style-match items from the manga and anime.
( More specific spoilers about characters' fighting skills )
Babylon 5 fic: Green Growing Things
Tuesday, 17 March 2026 10:38 pmsholioSo this is apparently the latest installment in an accidental series about gardens. This is based off some bits in ![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
hauntinghouses's lovely post-canon fixit Out of the Woods (not necessary to read before this one, but you should read if you like Londo & G'Kar stuff; it's lovely, with some neat Narn worldbuilding), which was in turn inspired by one of my older ones. This is not meant to be in direct continuity with either hauntinghouses' fic or the other fic it was inspired by; it's off happily living its best life in its own AU 'verse.
Green Growing Things (Londo & G'Kar, 2800 wds)
It is post-canon, and there are gardens.
( Fic also posted under the cut )
( Bonus extras from Tumblr )
Green Growing Things (Londo & G'Kar, 2800 wds)
It is post-canon, and there are gardens.
( Fic also posted under the cut )
( Bonus extras from Tumblr )
I guess we uh, take the good with the bad.
Tuesday, 17 March 2026 08:05 pmgoodbyebird+ Dune Messiah traile dropped! I treated myself to one peek and one peek only. But I am vibrating.
+ The mountain in the middle of town is ah. On fire. 240 evacuated so far, including two of my friends and two of my friends' parents. Real windy outside. Not a good time.
+ The mountain in the middle of town is ah. On fire. 240 evacuated so far, including two of my friends and two of my friends' parents. Real windy outside. Not a good time.
Vid: Tightrope (One Piece Live Action)
Monday, 16 March 2026 12:12 pmsholioA vid about the Marines. Clips from seasons one and two; spoilers.
(CW: guns, violence, smoking - the usual show stuff. No fast/stuttery cuts.)
Music: Janelle Monae
Length: 2:48
Crossposted: On AO3 | on Tumblr
Download: 212 Mb MP4 (zipped)
(CW: guns, violence, smoking - the usual show stuff. No fast/stuttery cuts.)
Music: Janelle Monae
Length: 2:48
Crossposted: On AO3 | on Tumblr
Download: 212 Mb MP4 (zipped)
(no subject)
Sunday, 15 March 2026 08:30 pmaurumcalendulaI was fretting that I'd permanently broken my iPod (it disconnected without being ejected, which meant the music on it wasn't accessible and iTunes didn't see it), but this method worked for me!
Starfall Stories 53
Sunday, 15 March 2026 08:27 pmthisbluespiritKeep forgetting to crosspost my ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rainbowfic pieces & I'm still quite a bit behind, so have two:
Name: Watchdogs
Story: Starfall
Colors: Azul #15 (Through thick and thin)
Supplies and Styles: Novelty Beads (11 Years of Dreamwidth Space Month & Book of the Day Challenges - "Never alone.")
Word Count: 1794
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Mild illness.
Notes: 1313, Portcallan. Leion Valerno, Tana Veldiner, Iyana Valerno. Takes place straight after after Turn to Dust and a few days before Sweet Interlude. (Just a slight linking piece, but I wanted to post something.)
Summary: Leion recovers from Chiulder's work - with a little help.
Name: Missteps
Story: Starfall
Colors: Warm Heart #22 (Sorry); Azul #20 (Zest)
Supplies and Styles: Giftwrap + Silhouette + Novelty Beads (Oct Spooky Challenge 2020 - http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0g7cdJCp91r6aoq4o1_500.gif & September Secrets 11 Years of Rainbow fic - "It's in the palm of your hand now baby/It's a yes or no, no maybe" - Dark Horse, Katy Perry") + Pastels (allbingo square "Bouquet of Withered Flowers - Rejected Love").
Word Count: 2361
Rating: Teen
Warnings: None.
Notes: 1313, Portcallan. Leion Valerno/Viyony Eseray, Kettah Jadinor, Diyela Eseray, Aolla Gerro, Vin Lorras.
Summary: Leion and Viyony attend the first night of the Sea Festival. Nothing goes according to plan.
rainbowfic pieces & I'm still quite a bit behind, so have two:Name: Watchdogs
Story: Starfall
Colors: Azul #15 (Through thick and thin)
Supplies and Styles: Novelty Beads (11 Years of Dreamwidth Space Month & Book of the Day Challenges - "Never alone.")
Word Count: 1794
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Mild illness.
Notes: 1313, Portcallan. Leion Valerno, Tana Veldiner, Iyana Valerno. Takes place straight after after Turn to Dust and a few days before Sweet Interlude. (Just a slight linking piece, but I wanted to post something.)
Summary: Leion recovers from Chiulder's work - with a little help.
Name: Missteps
Story: Starfall
Colors: Warm Heart #22 (Sorry); Azul #20 (Zest)
Supplies and Styles: Giftwrap + Silhouette + Novelty Beads (Oct Spooky Challenge 2020 - http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0g7cdJCp91r6aoq4o1_500.gif & September Secrets 11 Years of Rainbow fic - "It's in the palm of your hand now baby/It's a yes or no, no maybe" - Dark Horse, Katy Perry") + Pastels (
allbingo square "Bouquet of Withered Flowers - Rejected Love").Word Count: 2361
Rating: Teen
Warnings: None.
Notes: 1313, Portcallan. Leion Valerno/Viyony Eseray, Kettah Jadinor, Diyela Eseray, Aolla Gerro, Vin Lorras.
Summary: Leion and Viyony attend the first night of the Sea Festival. Nothing goes according to plan.
New Vid: Jonathan Pine/Teddy Dos Santos Fan Video - Can’t Pretend
Sunday, 15 March 2026 11:15 ambrokenframe posting in vidding
Performing some traffic maintenance today
Saturday, 14 March 2026 01:04 pm![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
mark posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_maintenanceHappy Saturday!
I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!
If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.
whoops; it's been a month
Saturday, 14 March 2026 10:15 amtassosss I did not mean to let a month go by without posting.
I've been busy lately with getting my book Surviving Peace ready to publish next week--and the subsequent crash after I got everything loaded to retailers, and my brains was like - Done! I'm sorry in advance that I'm going to be posting about it a bunch next week.
In other fun news, I finally finished watching season 1 of The Pitt last week and I'm through episode 4 of season 2. I absolutely love the show and am obsessed. We're shipping Robby and Abbot, right? Because yes please.
On the game front I am working through Hades II, which has been a lot fun. I like that they've put two pathways in. It's really helped with each run to have another option. They've done a really great job with the game and story. I <3 Nemesis and Dora on the companion side of things.
For other tv, Husband and I are watching The Apothecary Diaries. We were coming off of season 1 of Frieren (so much love), so at first we were a little meh, but now we're all in. The hard part is the complicated court politics reveals that happen very quickly so we sometimes have to pause and figure it out. Mao Mao is wonderful though, such a gremlin and I'm here for it.
Currently, I'm reading the third book in a romance series, Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez. It's good. The whole series has been good. She lets there be obstacles that come from real pain and baggage, which make the third act much more bearable. I think one of my issues with traditional romance beats is that I myself take people at their word in relationships, and I find it so frustrating when a character in their head goes "he says he loves me. but of course he loves his ex not me." And I get that this is a real thing, but it is so foreign to my own thought processes that it drives me nuts. Jimenez's writing makes me much more empathetic to her characters when they do that, because that is very much part of their journey in a genuine way, rather than it feeling forced. Anyway. They're good. I'm having fun.
I've been busy lately with getting my book Surviving Peace ready to publish next week--and the subsequent crash after I got everything loaded to retailers, and my brains was like - Done! I'm sorry in advance that I'm going to be posting about it a bunch next week.
In other fun news, I finally finished watching season 1 of The Pitt last week and I'm through episode 4 of season 2. I absolutely love the show and am obsessed. We're shipping Robby and Abbot, right? Because yes please.
On the game front I am working through Hades II, which has been a lot fun. I like that they've put two pathways in. It's really helped with each run to have another option. They've done a really great job with the game and story. I <3 Nemesis and Dora on the companion side of things.
For other tv, Husband and I are watching The Apothecary Diaries. We were coming off of season 1 of Frieren (so much love), so at first we were a little meh, but now we're all in. The hard part is the complicated court politics reveals that happen very quickly so we sometimes have to pause and figure it out. Mao Mao is wonderful though, such a gremlin and I'm here for it.
Currently, I'm reading the third book in a romance series, Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez. It's good. The whole series has been good. She lets there be obstacles that come from real pain and baggage, which make the third act much more bearable. I think one of my issues with traditional romance beats is that I myself take people at their word in relationships, and I find it so frustrating when a character in their head goes "he says he loves me. but of course he loves his ex not me." And I get that this is a real thing, but it is so foreign to my own thought processes that it drives me nuts. Jimenez's writing makes me much more empathetic to her characters when they do that, because that is very much part of their journey in a genuine way, rather than it feeling forced. Anyway. They're good. I'm having fun.
One Piece Live Action season 2
Friday, 13 March 2026 09:52 pmsholioI watched it this week and enjoyed it as much as the first season if not more, since I remembered fewer of the plot specifics, and this season introduces some more of the characters I really like. It's still absolutely bonkers. If you've seen season one, you know what to expect.
( Spoilers, occasional anima/manga comparisons, vague references to future events )
( Spoilers, occasional anima/manga comparisons, vague references to future events )
work cons
Monday, 9 March 2026 08:27 pmechanI survived another year at SCaLE in Pasadena, and made it home again where its technically tshirt weather despite the snow lining the highway. My Leaf made it there and back again with 29% battery left, so that was a relief, I've never driven anywhere near that far at once before. Also I did not fall asleep and crash! It helped that my rock climbing gym is almost exactly halfway there so I stopped there as a driving break.
I went to so many restaurants in Pasadena! I'm quite proud of my success on that. I think my favorite this year was Mr Mushroom -- fantastic burgers, even with the sweet pickles (whyyy).
I saw some coworkers, current and former, a couple times. It was good, and it was awkward. I'm really not a hallway track, hang around and talk, sort of person, with anyone. (Probably not a coincidence that the best interaction was in a panel room before a talk, and not in a hallway.) But also, I want to do better at preparing in advance things to talk about -- it often feels like my mind puts everything off limits for sharing, unless I do a deliberate mental inventory and flag specific things as safe talking points.
The most common themes, in the talks I went to, were "AI is like an overenthusiastic book-smart intern" and data lake houses (like a data lake and a data warehouse but better). A lot of general industry insecurity -- the job board seemed almost entirely folks looking for work, with very few posts about open positions. (Percona is hiring, but everyone knows DBAs are a strange sort.)
Later this year PyCon the Python con is in Long Beach, and I don't much work with Python these days but a programming con sounds fun, probably. Monitorama is coming back sometime soon, also. Dunno if dates will conflict, or what work will pay for, will need to figure that out.
I went to so many restaurants in Pasadena! I'm quite proud of my success on that. I think my favorite this year was Mr Mushroom -- fantastic burgers, even with the sweet pickles (whyyy).
I saw some coworkers, current and former, a couple times. It was good, and it was awkward. I'm really not a hallway track, hang around and talk, sort of person, with anyone. (Probably not a coincidence that the best interaction was in a panel room before a talk, and not in a hallway.) But also, I want to do better at preparing in advance things to talk about -- it often feels like my mind puts everything off limits for sharing, unless I do a deliberate mental inventory and flag specific things as safe talking points.
The most common themes, in the talks I went to, were "AI is like an overenthusiastic book-smart intern" and data lake houses (like a data lake and a data warehouse but better). A lot of general industry insecurity -- the job board seemed almost entirely folks looking for work, with very few posts about open positions. (Percona is hiring, but everyone knows DBAs are a strange sort.)
Later this year PyCon the Python con is in Long Beach, and I don't much work with Python these days but a programming con sounds fun, probably. Monitorama is coming back sometime soon, also. Dunno if dates will conflict, or what work will pay for, will need to figure that out.
(no subject)
Monday, 9 March 2026 01:02 pmaurumcalendulaI'm a bit sad VidUKon no longer doing DVDs/USBs of premieres (I totally get their decision), but it did get me thinking about trying to make DVDs (or possible Blu-Rays) of my vids so I have them on physical media.
Any recs for software for Windows? (something that creates basic menus would be nice)
Any recs for software for Windows? (something that creates basic menus would be nice)
Planned maintenance 10 March
Monday, 9 March 2026 05:36 pmcondnsdmlk posting in vidukon_cardiffJust a heads up that the VidUKon site will be offline from about 08:30am UTC (04:30am EDT) to 10:00am UTC (06:00am EDT) tomorrow morning (10 March). Our web host will be down for planned maintenance.