ckd | Network

Title: Your Future is in the Stars
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: G
Length: 638 words
Summary: When Mouselet and friends start reading horoscopes for a laugh they get a shock

( Mouselet and Aemelia Vole pottered across )

smbc_comics_feed

Posted by Zach Weinersmith

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/curse-2

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Anything that deviates from normal is a conspiracy, including when things are precisely normal.

Today's News:

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/curse-2

lotesse

If there was ever any doubt that the US Republican party are racists, let it end now.

lovelytomeetyou posting in

halfamoon

Day 5 - The Outlaw

Title: Sentence
Fandom: 12 Kingdoms | Juuni Kokki
Characters: Nakajima Youko; Rakushun
Rating: Gen
Summary: How could she properly judge the one in front of her for committing the same crimes she did? Youko reflects on her past, when she first arrived in this world.

Story in ao3

A ficlet for once since I tend to write too much hah. The women in this series are so good, each could have a day of her own.

bookscorpion posting in

common_nature

I took a bunch of really nice photos of the crow army today - with the light reflecting from the snow, the details of their feathers come out so beautifully. Look at how blue/purple the big feathers are, edged by black, compared to the dark black of the smaller head feathers.

This is the boldest of them. He stayed juuuust out of arm's reach but didn't mind me kneeling down and stretching my arm out at him. He miiiight be Mr Roadside Pair but I don't think so, I think he is smaller.,,,

larryhammer

I’m an aloha shirt kind of guy. Not all of my wardrobe is brightly floral—I need a few more subdued patterns for less informal occasions, such as starting work in an office where I haven’t confirmed aloha is acceptable business casual wear. But a fair number are, most of them tasteful.

This is mostly by temperament—they signal (though let me asterisk that * ) a laid-back temperament, which is both true and helps me through interactions with strangers. Mostly, as there’s also a practical component. I’ve mentioned this a couple times, but I come across IRL as taller than I do online: I’m 6'4" / 193cm. Finding men’s short-sleeve shirts that are long enough for my torso to stay tucked in is a challenge. (Paradoxically, it’s easier with long-sleeve shirts, as “long” sizes is a thing for those.) Aloha shirts, however, are designed to not be tucked in, and indeed look worse that way. Win!

But then there’s that asterisk: * I’m graying enough, both hair and goatee (which last I’ve been keeping for two years now), that I can sometimes be misidentified as a Boomer, and a Boomer in an aloha shirt signals a different temperament than a younger guy in one. I’m lean enough I don’t entirely lean into that stereotype, but still. I’m older Gen X and … touchy … about being mistaken for a Boomer.

The goatee is starting to annoy me in other ways, anyway, so maybe shaving it will help—it has the most white. Or I could, yanno, suck it up and deal. Be laid-back. Just like the shirts claim.

---L.

Subject quote from We Can Work It Out, The Beatles.

hamsterwoman

dreamersdare is hosting a Stuff I Love – Top 10 Edition weekly challenge throughout February, with the first week being media one-shots.

I’m not going to try for a ranked top 10 for this or other weeks, because that way madness lies, but I did want to try to get to a list of 10 things I love that fit the challenge.

I pondered just a free-form list of one-shots of different mediums and genres, but eventually what coalesced is this: a list of standalone SFF fiction. One of the things I really love about SFF is the long series, the magical sagas, multi-volume explorations of worldbuilding, sometimes across real-world decades and in-universe millennia – your Tolkien Legendariums, your Earthseas, your Dragaeras, your Vokosigan Sagas. So it’s particularly notable when I enjoy a SFF standalone, which manages to pack that worldbuilding and that sensawunda into a single piece. Sometimes even quite a short one, because I included short stories, novellas, and novelettes in scope of this.

In no particular order, and selected by starting with a considerably longer list and picking things from it until I felt like I’d picked all the right ones.

( top 10 )

wildeabandon

I got my exam results yesterday, and they were slightly disappointing, in the "virtually anyone would be fucking delighted, but they were all on the low end of what I was expecting" sense of the word disappointing. I got 15/20 in Catechetics, 16/20 in Anthropology, 17/20 in Psalms & Prophets, and 18/20 in Hebrew II and Ugaritic. The first two are entirely understandable - I wasn't particularly keen on either course, and whilst by no means neglecting them completely, I didn't put in a particularly high level of effort. I'm happy enough with the 18s. They were both challenging courses, and 18 is a bloody good mark.

The one that's bugging me is the Psalms though. I thought I understood the material well, and that I'd had some interesting and insightful things to say. I know that I got 18/20 in the paper that makes up half the mark, which means that I only got 15-16/20 in the exam. Hardly the end of the world, but it's the only one where I don't understand why I didn't do better. I've emailed the prof to ask for feedback, so with luck I'll get something useful. (ETA: Apparently marks get rounded down, not up - I got 8/10 and 9/10 in the two exam questions, and the 8 was because he had to prompt me a couple of times, and since at least one of those time he prompted me for the thing I was about to say anyway I am now feeling a lot less bothered by the overall mark.)

One result though which is positive in a sense is that my overall grade is now almost guaranteed. My average is currently 87%. The top grade boundary is an average of 90%, which had seemed in reach before these results, but would now require me to get 20/20 in all but one of my remaining courses (and 19/20 in that), which isn't really plausible. The grade boundary below is an average of 85%, and whilst the fact that there are just more numbers between 0 and 87 than between 87 and 100 means that there's more scope for my grade to be dragged down than up, I would have to do quite a bit worse than I have been for that to happen. Anyway, the sense that there's not a lot that I can do to change my overall grade means that I can concentrate more on learning for the sake of learning, which in the long term is almost certainly better than chasing grades.

sisterdivinium posting in

halfamoon

Title: Their own idiom
Fandom: Bad Sisters
Characters: Bibi Garvey and Ursula Garvey (Eva, Becka and Grace are also in many of the frames)
Rating: G
Notes: Image-heavy post.
Summary: A collection of Bibi and Urs' glances at one another throughout the show. They certainly do this quite a lot.

At Tumblr, my journal or simply below the cut :)

( Read more... )

prettygoodword

arboricide (ah-BOR-i-said) - n., an herbicide intended to kill trees or shrubs; (rare) the killing of a tree.

Or as the OED puts it, "the wanton destruction of trees." In memory of the large pine that, until yesterday, stood between our house and the neighbor's, shading us from the southwest. Its destruction was not wanton, however, as it like all too many pines in our neighborhood was dying (bark beetles). Coined in the 1890s from Latin roots arbor, tree + -cidium, killing (from caedere, to cut/kill).

---L.

princessofgeeks

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

Current Mood: awake

js_thrill

Yesterday's song was "The Recognition Scene" and today's is "Third Snow Song"

Watch on YouTube

The first song is titled after the scene in a tragedy where the protagonist sees that they are stuck in a tragedy. The tone of the song certainly works with that reference. The second song is about Darnielle experiencing actual* cold weather as someone who had grown up chiefly in warmer, sunnier parts of California.

Both songs are nice, but I don't have much to say about either.

*Those of us familiar with winter in places other than Portland, Oregon, may question whether this really constituted "actual cold weather"

spiralsheep

Science! Always read the notes. Scientists hide all the funny stuff in the notes. From page 40 of 67 pages of notes, bottom of a long note 27 for chapter 8:
"In 1849, through exchange, Higgins gave the Yorkshire Museum 'fossil fishes from Lyme Regis'. Annual Report of the Council of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for 1849, 20 (as well as donating a 'Turnip presenting a singular monstrosity of form' to the botany collections)."
Monstrous turnip! :D

Reading: on book 21. If anyone wants me to post a monthly list of my 4/5 and 5/5 books then please apply in writing to the management &c.

Friday Five:
( Q1-4. )

5. What does it take to make you happy?
The chain of tiny everyday pleasures: cozy bed, daylight, hot drinks that are absolutely perfect in their moment, truly soft comfy old clothes, whatever the plants are doing this week (e.g. mistletoe spheres high in bare branches), my birb neighbours (get out of my chimney you jackdaw b@$t@rd5! Note to self - get capping pot replaced), my human neighbours acknowledging each other but not intruding when in our shared spaces, the bus queue chats, &c.
Ecstatic joy is a wonderful bonus but I don't need it.

Current Location: Under the chimneypot of doom?

princessofgeeks

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princessofgeeks

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linky posting in

halfamoon

Title: Snowed In
Fandom: Kamen Rider Gotchard + Kamen Rider Girls Remix
Pairing/Characters: Rinne/Nayuta
Rating: G
Word count: 200
Content Notes: Fluff, Snowed In
Author's note: Also for the

tokufemslash prompt meme prompt of "Any: any/any - roadtrip/traveling" and my Fresh Femslash Salad Bar prompts "snowed in & 200 words"!
Summary: Rinne and Nayuta had plans for their trip, until they get snowed in.
Also on Ao3, or read below the cut:

( Read more... )

mallorys_camera

We had a brief respite from the punishingly cold temperatures: Last few days, temps actually broke freezing. But today, the polar vortex is bearing back down again. The National Weather Service has issued a Severe Weather Alert: Dangerously cold wind chills as low as 20 to 35 below zero expected throughout the quaint & scenic Hudson Valley.

This disinclines me to leave the house 'cause what if—minute chance, but still—my car breaks down on the way to the gym? Frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes.

###

In Work in Progress news: We are up to the Debbie Reynolds death scene, which occurs during an ICU code, so I am wracking my tiny brain for status detail.

Then Grazia ends up going to the creepy New Millennium Kingdom mansion, where she spends 18 hours a day praying as the initial prep work for dismantling her personality begins.

Neal rescues her!

Big dilemma: Does Neal rescue her before or after the creepy mansion bursts into flame from a faulty electrical connection? (Decisions, decisions!)

Then Neal & Grazia have to have some sort of Meaningful Conversation on the front porch of Neal's Catskills cabin.

And magically, perspective swirls so that we are back at the very first scene of Part 1 when Grazia drives up there following Neal's memorial.

It would be great if I could tweak the closing prose too, so it mimics the chick lit cadence of that opening chapter, but I'm not sure I have the writing chops to pull that one off.

But after that, we start with Part 2: Daria.

###

I have my own Bad Cult memories, though I'd have to do some serious excavating to access them since they're buried under many decades of petrified protective amnesia.

As a teenager, I had dealings with a cult called Synanon.

Synanon didn't eat me, but it ate some people I cared about back then—most notably, Michael Garrett whom I still wonder about sometimes late at night.

I'm not sure how many of those Bad Cult memories I can repurpose. They're awfully immersive, and immersion is only of questionable usefulness in a passage that's supposed to be 1,500 words or so in length max. Don't really want to distract from the essential story, which is Neal & Grazia.

Here is Michael Garrett and me in 1968:

littlefics posting in

seasonsofdrabbles

Hello everyone! We are on track to open the collection as scheduled on Saturday, February 7 @ 1:00pm Eastern Standard time (Countdown). A big thank you to our wonderful pinch-hitters!

Mods will continue approving works into the collection in batches. If you posted your fic before February and it is still unapproved, please get in touch.

As we wait eagerly for reveals, why not write a treat? You can see all requests in the requests app. Treats can be posted any time, whether before or after reveals.

shewhomust

Against all precedent, my morning was brightened by an item on the Today programme.

Not only has a new prize been announced, which will give serious money each year to an artist to create a work somewhere in the UK that is free for the public to visit, the first award goes to Andy Goldsworthy.

devinwolfi posting in

fandomcalendar

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bruce_schneier_feed

Posted by Bruce Schneier

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/02/iphone-lockdown-mode-protects-washington-post-reporter.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71560

404Media is reporting that the FBI could not access a reporter’s iPhone because it had Lockdown Mode enabled:

The court record shows what devices and data the FBI was able to ultimately access, and which devices it could not, after raiding the home of the reporter, Hannah Natanson, in January as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information. It also provides rare insight into the apparent effectiveness of Lockdown Mode, or at least how effective it might be before the FBI may try other techniques to access the device.

“Because the iPhone was in Lockdown mode, CART could not extract that device,” the court record reads, referring to the FBI’s Computer Analysis Response Team, a unit focused on performing forensic analyses of seized devices. The document is written by the government, and is opposing the return of Natanson’s devices.

The FBI raided Natanson’s home as part of its investigation into government contractor Aurelio Perez-Lugones, who is charged with, among other things, retention of national defense information. The government believes Perez-Lugones was a source of Natanson’s, and provided her with various pieces of classified information. While executing a search warrant for his mobile phone, investigators reviewed Signal messages between Pere-Lugones and the reporter, the Department of Justice previously said.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/02/iphone-lockdown-mode-protects-washington-post-reporter.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71560

pilottttt posting in

common_nature

And here are some Mediterranean seagulls from Istanbul for you - big, loud and cheeky ;)

( Read more... )

Current Location: Istanbul, Turkey

cmk418 posting in

halfamoon

Title: After DeeDee
Fandom: OZ (HBO)
Character: Diane Wittlesey
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 306
Summary: Her world changed after DeeDee was born

( After DeeDee )

cmk418 posting in

halfamoon

Today's theme is Her Own Personal Code.

Here are some ideas to get you started: What rules guide the way she lives her life? What rules guide the way she wants others to live their lives? Was this something she developed over time or something drilled into her as a child? Did religion or a particular mentor play a role in the development of her code of morality?

Just go wherever the Muse takes you. If this prompt doesn't speak to you, feel free to share something that does. You can post in a separate entry or as a comment to this post.

Want to get a jump start on tomorrow's theme? Check out the prompt list in the pinned post at the top of the page. Please don't post until that day.

sabotabby

There's a lot of good stuff on the podcast feed this week, but look, we all have to be Elbows Up these days or whatever, even though Canada is a fake country, because it's better to be a fake country with healthcare than a fake country with crushing medical debt. So I must proudly wave the flag when Behind the Bastards notices and recognizes an actual Canadian bastard, as they did this week with Romana Didulo, Queen of Canada (Part 1, Part 2).

Her Majesty is not a successful cult leader by American standards; she basically ruined the lives of a few dozen people and hasn't directly killed anyone that I know of, though in terms of indirect deaths through encouraging the spread of covid, she's likely ended at least a few lives. She's a fascinating study, though, in Why People Believe Batshit Things Against Obvious Evidence and Logic, and she's worth learning about for that alone. This is an obvious mentally ill person with no charisma, elevated to fame by some rando on the internet, and enabled by a media ecosystem that considers all opinions equally valid unless they're left-wing opinions. In a better society she'd be given the help she so obviously needs; in ours, her worst tendencies were encouraged and rewarded.

Of course, this is all ancient history from the early 2020s and is of no instructive value now. Just, y'know, interesting to listen to.

ETA: I am remiss in not mentioning that there's a third part to come next week. I had like 10 minutes left in the second episode and did not realize there was MORE ROMANA to come.

mekare posting in

drawesome

Title: Sophie at the Ball
Artist:

mekare
Rating: G
Fandom: Bridgerton (TV)
Character: Sophie Baek
Content Notes: blue paper, white gel pen, Sakura Pigma 0.2

Clicky preview:

a masked young woman in a ballroom dress gasping in surprise

mekare

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Current Mood: tired

smokingboot

Work, good work, work I could sustain for more than 20 minutes. Then exhaustion and now a day when I feel too tired to do anything. Not quite anything, I must take Dervish to the vets, and R can't help me because he is actually ill, as opposed to me flopping around on these stupid drugs. But two things; yes, I can work for longer, albeit not that long, also - and maybe this is just asking for hubris to strike - I have not had an actual proper illness type illness for a while. I am attributing this new power to ginger shots every morning.
There is improvement, though when work stops I then noodle on pointless things for ages. It feels like I am frittering time, as though I can do anything as long as it does not require focus or concentration. Annoying.

We watched Rick Stein's Secret France last night before the rugby. Here's a drinking game; get your whisky or wine or whatever and take a sip every time he says the word Provence. It worked so well we booked a holiday there for later on. Sicily too this year, but that's about family reunion. Plans for Berlin will have to wait, we need sunshine.

Gosh, stupid, it's 9.20 am and my eyes are closing. Ugh. But looking forward and back, no doubt things are getting better.

varlaamthecreator posting in

1character

Character: Misty Monsoon | Rainmaker
Fandom: Toontown: Corporate Clash
Theme Set: Beta
Rating: Teen & Up
Warnings: References to past abuse, heavy canon divergence & OC-insert nonsense

Out on the pier, thinking on how far she's come, Misty joins Midnight in planning their future.
Or: Misty's journey across stormy and sunny skies, finding love transcending both, in 50 sentences. Read over here.
This is also my entry for Siege the Valentines 2026.

Current Mood: restless
Current Music: A Tale of Creation by Candlemass

amaebi

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soemand

A freshly delivered cassette deck, a quick test spin before the household quiet hours kick in, and a handful of thrift‑store treasures (Willie Nelson plus an ’80s rock mix is a chef’s kiss combo). There’s something charming about rediscovering a format you haven’t touched since the boombox era. Those old portable decks were fun, but they weren’t exactly known for nuance, so it’s no surprise this new one feels like a leap forward.

pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2026/02/06/dropping-the-deuce

New Comic: Dropping The Deuce

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2026/02/06/dropping-the-deuce

mekare posting in

unclutter

I really need to do this, so why not make it an event where people can join in?

February here is all about carneval, Valentine's Day and unending winter weather. So, let's look at a couple of new areas (pick and choose):

STUFF TO MAKE YOURSELF LOOK DIFFERENT: old make-up, hair accessories, brushes, combs, hairclips, dried out nail polish etc.

BATH PRODUCTS: out of date creams, lotions, oils, bathing salts, old tooth brushes etc.

CLOTH: that towel with the holes (repair or put it to some other use), washcloths, reusable make-up pads, cleaning cloths (the ones that almost fall apart),...

PERFUMES: that gift someone got you, but really you never wear it, or maybe it's so old the scent changed

Let's free up some space in the space where we get clean! Or alternatively, let's clean those brushes and combs, replace that mangy toothbrush with a new one and throw away make-up we never use anyway.

Optional: if you have plants in your bathroom (I do), let's give them some love.

I'm open to more suggestions! Let me know what immediately came to your mind when you read the challenge.

gunnerkrigg_feed

http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=3216

Someone there?

http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=3216

dine

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ysabetwordsmith

Today's theme is London.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260205.html

NGC 1275 in the Perseus Cluster

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260205.html

cahn

okay, I was not expecting to have quite SO MANY feelings about Operation Mincemeat, the musical, but indeed I do. (I have listened to the cast recording about seventy times and have not been able to see it live, though I, uh. Have now seen it, see end of post.) I don't think I have had so many strong feelings about a musical since Hamilton, only in many ways they are wildly different feelings?? Hamilton is a fancy big-chorus-dancing musical that is concerned predominantly with valorizing a particular hero (Alexander Hamilton) in a eh-mostly-historical way while offering up somewhat revisionist-considerations of some of the other US's famous Founding Fathers, with a major thematic concern of race, but which adheres to pretty standard gender considerations. OM is a budget-vibe musical starring five people who are both the big parts and the chorus, that is concerned predominantly with both rather revisionist-considerations, in a mostly-historical-fiction way, of a particular type of hero (a heavily fictionalized Ewen Montagu) who is known for his part in the WWII shenanigans of Operation Mincemeat, while at the same time offering up larger parts to people who were not at all famous, with a major thematic concern of gender.

( Starting with: There are FIVE people in the cast! )

tielan

Is there anyone who'd be interested in co-watching Bridgerton S4 with me?

I want to watch it, I just need to schedule time to watch it, and have someone else metaphorically "on hand" to keep me from rushing off and doing something else.

Yes, we would have to do some tricksy scheduling to manage it if you're in the (usual) locations of Europe/the US. I'm happy to try to work something out.

cellio

Last year we replaced our roof, which unlocked solar panels. (We didn't want to put in panels and then have to lift them to replace the roof. And it turned out that the provider wouldn't have put panels on a roof that old anyway.) Permits and supply chains and inspections and the actual work took a while, but everything was installed and paid for before the tax year ended. It took until last week to get through the utility company's inspection so we could turn it on, and we finally got our "permission to operate" confirmation yesterday morning.

I didn't expect much in the middle of winter, especially on a cloudy day like today, but yesterday when it was sunny we returned more power to the grid than we drew, and today we're doing ok now but it looks like we'll be pulling from the grid overnight. (The battery is getting close to its "do not drop below" point, that being a buffer in case of actual outages.) I have never been so involved in power usage...

The battery has been on since it was installed; we didn't have a power outage during that time, but I assume it would have kicked in if so. 'Tis the season, so I was taken by surprise the first time I got a notification on my phone from my battery saying "National Weather Service says there's a storm coming so I'm charging up to 100%", because of course it does that. This is a whole new world for me. :-)

Profile

blue shark of friendliness

January 2026

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Page Summary

smallhobbit in fan_flashworks - Star: Sherlock Holmes (ACD): Fanfic: Your Future is in the Stars
smbc_comics_feed - Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Curse
lotesse - (no subject)
lovelytomeetyou in halfamoon - DAY 5 - FIC - TWELVE KINGDOMS - NAKAJIMA YOUKO
bookscorpion in common_nature - Crow in the Snow
larryhammer - “life is very short and there’s no time / for fussing and fighting my friend”
hamsterwoman - Stuff I Love: Standalones (SFF stories)
wildeabandon - Exam results.
sisterdivinium in halfamoon - Day 6: picspam, Bad Sisters - Bibi and Ursula
prettygoodword - arboricide
princessofgeeks - Metafilter on fanfic
js_thrill - This Year 365 songs: January 5th & 6th
spiralsheep - In which there are monstrous turnips (what, you want more than that?!)
princessofgeeks - Heated Rivalry rec
princessofgeeks - Heated Rivalry rec
linky in halfamoon - Day 6: Fic - Kamen Rider Gotchard + Kamen Rider Girls Remix - Rinne/Nayuta
mallorys_camera - Petrified Protective Amnesia
littlefics in seasonsofdrabbles - Collection on track to open tomorrow!
shewhomust - ... a sea of stones that have been displaced by burials
devinwolfi in fandomcalendar - Multifandom: Be A Goldfish: A Multifandom Multimedia Microbang
bruce_schneier_feed - iPhone Lockdown Mode Protects Washington Post Reporter
pilottttt in common_nature - Mediterranean seagulls
cmk418 in halfamoon - Day 6 - Fic - OZ (HBO) - Diane Wittlesey
cmk418 in halfamoon - Day 6 Theme - Her Own Personal Code
sabotabby - podcast friday
mekare in drawesome - Romance challenge
mekare - Art: Sophie at the Ball (Bridgerton, G)
smokingboot - So far so OK
varlaamthecreator in 1character - in solitude, a song was born
amaebi - Emailing my legislators
soemand - 📼
pennyarcade_feed - Dropping The Deuce
mekare in unclutter - February Declutter Challenge
gunnerkrigg_feed - Chapter 101: Page 30
dine - he needed a drink. or a cigarette. or a lobotomy
ysabetwordsmith - Follow Friday 2-6-26: London
apod_feed - NGC 1275 in the Perseus Cluster
cahn - Operation Mincemeat (mostly the musical)
tielan - watch Bridgerton with me?
cellio - solar: day 2

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