LJ Winter

Discworld QOTD, from Wyrd Sisters

Ooh, just saw “without Asimov there would be no science fiction,” and no, you stale crouton, you waterlogged saltine, without Mary Shelley—harassed by her husband and Lord Byron—there would be no science fiction.

You’re confusing fandom for canon.

Yes, talk to Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency.

Oh, we really enjoyed Kingdom! 😃 Also appreciated how unfazed their car-park marshals were when we turned up towing a dinghy. 😆

Meme of the absolutely colossal Ever Given ship grounded with a huge excavator that looks tiny working valiantly to try to dig it out, tiny scoop by tiny scoop. Text on the ship says “You are not obligated to complete the work”. Text lower down by the backhoe reads, “But neither are you free to desist from it.”

This Pirkei Avot quote helps me feel a little less like I have to solve everything (it’s literally been thousands of years of people feeling overwhelmed!) and it cracked me up when someone stuck it on the pics of the tiny backhoe trying to dig out the EverGiven ship when it got stuck.

The Clyde until I was 18, the Cam from then until now (with a brief detour to the Exe).

And one day the girl with the books became the woman writing them.

I don't remember where I was on 30th December 2019.

I do remember catching a flight home from Thailand via Singapore in January 2020. There were all these signs telling travellers from China to report to the authorities. "Huh," we said, "how odd. Wonder what that's about." Little did we know...

desinteresse on tumblr: "Honestly being overworked makes people unobservant and passive and it literally kills people every day. People don't seem to realize that an overworked nurse might not notice your sepsis symptoms and a tired truck driver might not notice your car when he's merging into the lane. Failing to protect worker's rights impacts nearly everyone" kiralamouse: "THIS. I want workers to be treated well for their own sake, but I NEED workers to be treated well for MY sake. We have got to stop glorifying eroding margin into the negative zones."

That's really sweet! 😊 Always appreciate a good run briefing - by which I mean one that *doesn't* just sound like a list of rules - but I know it takes effort. As ever, thank you for volunteering! 🏃‍♀️👏

Trans people aren’t the problem. They never have been.

I do love The West Wing. It has flaws, but I love the sense that everyone in it is trying their best to do something good. ❤️

We really enjoyed Ted Lasso, if you haven't already seen it! Episode 1 is a bit eyeroll inducing (sigh, so many American-in-the-UK stereotypes), but after that it's great.

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:
Orca
Risso's dolphin
Common dolphin
Humpback whale
Sperm whale

(I've loved cetaceans since I was a kid, so it amused me to make it 5 cetacean species. 😄 🐬 🐳)

The Sixteenth Window. Fog in the English Channel, but somewhere high above, somewhere just below the stars, the Very Old Gentleman can see all, can see the little boat rocking too hard in the swell of the night ferry. He can see a little boy holding his teddy bear as hard as he can, he can see his father, resolute, doctoral certificate safe inside an envelope in his coat, he can see his mother, sea-sick and terrified. Look, said the Newcomer, fur as white as snow, eyes the colour of Baltic amber. Can you help? On this night, yes, said the Very Old Gentleman, on this night, yes.

#OldFoxAdventCalendar

Rob Reiner: “Silence in the face of authoritarianism is complicity. Speaking out is a patriotic act. Democracy doesn’t defend itself. It requires participation, vigilance, and courage from ordinary people."

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

My partner refers to this sort of thing as "stress baking"...

I just finished this one! Best contemporary romance novel I've read in a while! 😃

I have done
the admin
that was in
the inbox

And which
I had definitely
been
putting off

Inevitably
It was so easy
so quick
and is gone

These are great fun. 😊 Thank you, @silverpebble2.bsky.social!

OR you make it into panettone bread-and-butter pudding, which is delicious!

I think they are now? I get a little pop-up in the lower left corner when I go yo their homepage... (I'm using it at the moment if you want any feedback - hoping to be able to unsubscribe before the trial payment period is up!)

I mean, that seems really likely to me? Not least, the lecture was recorded *in front of 500 people*. Someone was going to notice and shout it from the rooftops, even if the lecturer didn't!

It even turns off Firefox's built-in spell check, my partner discovered...

Definitely! I think quite a few writers like Ghost as a platform?

They could reduce every fare paid on TfL by (checks) 0.00002p for the small price of gentle philistinism.

Nice one, New York. 🙂

Dear GOD if you want to save money in the asylum system

1. LET ASYLUM SEEKERS WORK

2. FAST TRACK STATUS FOR EVERYONE FROM CLEARLY UNDAFE COUNTRIES like Sudan, Syria, etc

3. Run an asylum accommodation system that is NOT FOR PROFIT #r4today

Yep. I feel far, far too seen by this (and NOT IN A GOOD WAY). 😬

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.