Thursday, October 30th, 2025 09:24 pm
Mori: So. Nobody's getting food stamps next month. And I needed to take a day to just... scream into my pillow and rant about the nature of evil, but it's cool! I'm better now! And I'm doing something about it! Maybe I could do something... FOR YOU!

See, we've discovered that we are a really good courier when it comes to getting stuff into free boxes! We've also discovered that we are good at helping people clean out their kitchens (and other rooms, but right now, food is the important thing). We've helped people do this and can give references!

So: is your kitchen full of herbs, spices, teas, drinks, or food that you are never going to get to? (Teas and herbs/spices are SO useful to people, and so often forgotten!) Does looking into your cabinets stress you out? We can help with that! We can help clean out your kitchen, disappear the bad stuff into the compost, and transport the good stuff to local free pantries so that hungry people can eat it! You get cupboard space, your neighbors get fed, I get to prove to myself the government can't break my spirit, and everyone wins!

This is an open offer for the general Boston area, but because we are a pedestrian and stuff like canned goods are heavy, we are most useful in the Arlington, Cambridge, Medford, and Somerville areas. We will be limited in how much we can carry, but we have two VERY sturdy 20 liter backpacks, a tote bag, and a heart filled with determination and spite.

Help us feed our neighbors! Spread the word to anyone around who might find this useful!

(I don't require pay for this. It is free, because I am MAD.)
Thursday, October 30th, 2025 07:20 pm

You ever look at all the tabs open on your work computer as you turn it off and think man, that's so much garbage that Tomorrow Me has to sort out, that poor guy, he's gonna hate me?

Had a kinda disappointing day at work today. I didn't get enough done, and next week is going to be busy so I really can't afford to do so little.

Wednesday, October 29th, 2025 09:39 pm

Somebody had brought their not-really-wanted nail polish to the queer social event I was at last night, encouraging people to use or take home anything they liked.

And just because I was sitting at the table near them for a while without much to do, and because I like bright colors, I ended up painting my nails. Bright yellow. (I was drawn to it because it looked like a fluorescent hi-vis yellow in the bottle. Once it was on it's "just" a nice bright primary yellow (someone else looked at it on me and said "I wore that color for a Simpsons drag show once," to give you an idea of what yellow it is), but that's still good.

I used to love nail polish, that and really chunky colorful jewelry were the only "girly" things I ever got excited about. And even then, my mom was always trying to steer me toward soft pinks and stuff and I chose more blue and green and the most "unnatural" colors.

But I haven't done my nails since before I left my old house. I was...busy, and then for a long time it felt too femme, like I struggled so much to get people to stop misgendering me, I didn't want to make that any more likely. And by the time that stopped being a concern I was well and truly out of the habit and all my nail polish that hasn't been touched in five or six years should probably be thrown away.

But here I did my nails very happily. It was nice that it didn't feel weird or feminine at all now. It just felt queer.

Also while making dinner tonight, I realized that when I'm chopping vegetables it's way easier to tell where my fingers end and the peppers or whatever begin if the ends of my fingers are bright yellow.

Not that I usually struggle with this, I'm used to doing it mostly by feel. It was weird that my eyes could help out!

That got me thinking about starting to acquire new nail polish (the old stuff I have needs to be thrown out really) based on what colors are easy for me to pick up!

The yellow has already half chipped off, so I'll have to see if there's any nail polish remover in the house that works! But this probably won't be the last time I paint my nails.

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Wednesday, October 29th, 2025 10:41 pm
This was the winner of the fan poll for this month! Images behind cut.

Sneak just wants to pet zer headmate. Why won't Rawlin let zer??? )
Wednesday, October 29th, 2025 06:24 pm
I'm not even sure what to ask, say, or do about this.

I have services from an ARMHS worker and provide services via IHS and PCA. It's about half of my monthly income.

"The Association of Residential Resources in Minnesota, which represents 200 organizations that provide disability services, said pausing payments for the Medicaid programs could “destabilize an already fragile care network.”

“Pausing payments to legitimate providers for up to 90 days is not an accountability measure, it’s an existential threat to the care infrastructure that keeps Minnesotans with disabilities safe, housed and supported in their community,” ARRM CEO Sue Schettle said in a statement.

Among the 14 affected programs: Integrated Community Supports, Nonemergency Medical Transportation, Peer Recovery Services, Adult Rehabilitative Mental Health Services, Adult Day Services, Personal Care Assistance/Community First Services and Supports, Recuperative Care, Individualized Home Supports, Adult Companion Services, Night Supervision, Assertive Community Treatment and Intensive Residential Treatment Services.

https://minnesotareformer.com/briefs/walz-pauses-payments-for-14-high-risk-medicaid-programs/
Tuesday, October 28th, 2025 11:19 pm

Queer club Halloween party tonight: the blood-red face paint dripping from one of the organizers' foreheads was in fact glittery.

There was also a LARP vampire, a few sets of fairy wings, some witches, somebody wearing a shirt he'd attached forks to and covered in fake blood to make it look like they were stabbing his torso and arms, who only belatedly realized that this meant he couldn't hug anyone, or squeeze as close to anyone else for the group photo as had been encouraged...

...and D and I as sheet ghosts, underneath fitted bedsheets that'd had the elastic taken out and holes cut for our eyes. D insisted on a slot for his mouth too, which he intended as a way to consume snacks, but the slot was too small to fit a cookie through. "I can see the crumbs on the mouth," from it someone later commented when he explained his costume.

V loves sheet ghosts and it was very nice to have costumes that they helped us make.

Tuesday, October 28th, 2025 02:13 pm
(full title: Weird Heroes Vol. 5: Doc Phoenix: the Oz Encounter. The much-later 2005 hardback reprint just called it the Oz Encounter, which was sensible.)

"We all have dreams and nightmares, Mr. Wentworth, and as we dream our thoughts are as starkly real to us as anything we face while awake. Your daughter is lost in what resembles an extremely deep dream, and for reasons we don't understand yet she refuses to leave her fantasy behind. Perhaps the dream is a pleasant one, something too tempting to cavate, or perhaps it's a nightmare, one which is keeping your daughter its prisoner. We don't know, but we can find out, through my special methods."


Blurb: Doc Phoenix, a superpsychologist dream-diver, enters the mind of a comatose girl and finds a strange land based on famous Oz stories. What is keeping her in her coma? And who is trying to sabotage him and his team?

Why is it worth your time?: This is a self-declared pulp novel, and it embraces that genre. Deep art it is not, but it is entertaining and well-planned out! Doc Phoenix has to adapt to the dreamworlds of the people he enters without losing himself, and the figures within the dreamworlds are shown to be surprisingly independent. (Doc Phoenix remarks on how the Tin Man in particular seems surprisingly adult, considering he resides in the mind of a ten-year-old girl, and the Tin Man even tells Doc at one point that he needs to tell the girl something that they both know but she does not, because "I think she has a right to know." Doc respects that request and does so.) The conclusions were satisfying, and the idea of a hero who works to rescue people's minds from the inside out is a pretty great premise! If you just want a fun, humble adventure, this is worth a shot.

Plural Tags: abuse low-focus, bodyhopping, identityblending, otherworld, dreamfolk, fictioneers (specifically Ozians, including the Shaggy Man and the Tin Man), realitymashing, friendship, enmity, teamwork

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Only available as a used book; it got reprinted in 2005 to my surprise (in hardcover, even!), but it has never been digitized, as far as I know. Perhaps I should do so!

Misc Notes: Don't be fooled by the title; this book stands perfectly well on its own, and it was the only Doc Phoenix book. (They were clearly hoping for a series, very obviously leaving one loose thread to deal with later, but it never happened.) "Weird Heroes" was a brand imprint, and Doc Phoenix first appeared in a short story, "Doc Phoenix," in Weird Heroes vol. 2 (an anthology). I haven't read that appearance (yet) but had no trouble reading Oz Encounter on its own.
Tuesday, October 28th, 2025 02:08 pm
Submitted by [personal profile] quailfence! Thank you, [personal profile] quailfence!

"No one can choose who they are in this world."

Blurb: You control Kris, the only human in a town full of monsters. One day, you and the local bully, Susie, are sent to get something from a supply closet, and end up falling into a mysterious other dimension called the Dark World. There they meet the Prince of Darkness, Ralsei, who tells them that the three of them are the "Delta Warriors" of an ancient prophecy and are destined to save the world. As they explore and fight through the dark world, however, they soon begin to question the prophecy and whether following it is the right decision. It also becomes increasingly apparent that Kris is their own person separate from you - and that they do not like what you're doing

Why is it worth your time?: The game explores questions about free will and destiny in a very interesting way, with the tension between Kris and the player being a big highlight of that theme. Also, engaging gameplay, fun and funny characters, lovely pixel art, and a banging soundtrack

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse:low-focus (unless you play the alternate/secret route, which is abuse:high-focus), 1+: otherworld, relationships:enmity, relationships:teamwork, type:possession

Content Warnings: non-lethal violence, minor blood, threatened apocalypse, past character death and resulting grief, you (the player) are controlling someone against their will, bullying, death threats, abuse is mostly implied/referenced but there is a brief scene of verbal/emotional child abuse, brief scene of a parent being drunk, trauma due to parental divorce, self-esteem issues, Christianity-esque religion

The alternate/secret route involves the player forcing two characters into a manipulative, abusive relationship and murder

Accessibility Notes: Available on Switch 1/2, PlayStation 4/5, and PC via Steam. The first two chapters are available as a free demo, the rest is paid. The demo is also available on Itch.io. A Japanese translation is available. All text is on screen but there is no dub; one miniboss fight in ch 4 involves audio and visual cues with the visual cues going away after a while, but the visual cues will stay if you die and retry more than once or tell one of your party members that you can't hear something in the scene prior to the miniboss. Let's Plays exist but I haven't seen any

Misc. Notes (if any): This game is a not-quite-sequel to Undertale, and Toby Fox recommends that you play that game first; however you will still be able to enjoy/understand Deltarune if you haven't played Undertale. Currently, only 4 of a planned 7 chapters are out - chapter 5 will release in 2026, and beyond that the release schedule is unknown
Monday, October 27th, 2025 10:39 pm
 I tried Googling and got general info on curriculum, specific schools, and alumnae pages, but not the specific details I'm looking for.

My main character is an upper class 13-year-old boy who, due to long-term illness/frailty was educated by tutors at home, but is now being sent away to school. (Probably England, but since he lives in Yorkshire, I'm not completely opposed to it being Scotland if it turns out that there are significant differences in school experiences between the two countries and Scotland would work better for my character.)

1. Would most pupils begin classes in the fall term as is typical today? As in, would it be realistic for him to begin in September? Or was it more of a rolling admissions thing?

2. How far in advance would his father need to contact the school to enrol/register him? Would there normally be an entrance exam, or would it normally be, 'We accept anyone who can pay the fee, provided there's space'?

3. When it comes to letters to and from home, would there be any reasonable expectation of privacy, or would it be common for staff to read each piece of correspondence? Specifically, the boy has a female cousin of the same age with whom he's quite close. Would he get into any sort of trouble for writing to her or would her letters to him be delivered?

4. If she were in the vicinity of the school, would it be possible for them to meet under the auspices of a chaperone, or would that be totally unheard of?

5. How much would the outbreak of WWI impact him? I would guess that some of the younger teachers would have enlisted over the summer and some of the older boys talking about hoping it won't be over before they get a chance to get in it. Would that mean larger than expected classes? 

Thanks so much!
Monday, October 27th, 2025 11:27 pm

I got to see the Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein tonight, and it was great. Not only did I enjoy it, I was also relieved because I was expecting more body horror and, after his Pinocchio left me emotionally devastated, more of that too. Luckily I found both much more manageable than I had feared! Not to demean it with faint praise, just to note that I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

Sadly V wasn't able to come along with us tonight, but I'm already looking forward to the excuse this gives us to watch it on streaming in a couple weeks.

Monday, October 27th, 2025 10:41 am
My apologies for missing my posting date this Sunday—there was a death in my immediate family. What with various things that need doing and arrangements made, I’m going to be taking a hiatus for the next few weeks, and the next chapter will be posted on Sunday, November 23rd. Thank you for reading, and for your patience.

Read more... )
Sunday, October 26th, 2025 09:11 pm

I woke up and looked at my alarm clock: 8.30. That's early!

Then I looked at my phone which said 7.30 - that's REALLY early!

"Gained an hour," but on the one Sunday in months when I have no plans at all so it doesn't do me any good.

I'm not normally bothered by the clocks changing -- I'm not normally bothered by eight-hour timezone changed -- but today once I got out of an excruciating conversation with my parents (they have their first laptop and they don't know what "browser" means and "the printer is in a file and I can't get it to come out!") all I could think was ah thank god it's bedtime and it was seven forty two pm.

8:42 I could accept as a typical time for me to go upstairs and get ready for bed. But this is silly.

And I was also very hungry and very overwhelmed by the time I ate dinner, because "the same time as usual" was in fact an hour late.

Saturday, October 25th, 2025 02:29 pm

I got up early and went to the gym and then basically went right to the Springsteen movie, and now I feel physically and emotionally amazing but by 2pm on Saturday I'd done everything that I had planned for the weekend and it's a weird feeling!

Saturday, October 25th, 2025 01:30 pm
let's finish it up.

Read more... )
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Saturday, October 25th, 2025 12:15 pm
prepare for an odyssey. i was in london for a while.

Read more... )
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Saturday, October 25th, 2025 08:42 am

Good morning, afternoon, and evening!

We're doing some database and other light server maintenance this weekend (upgrading the version of MySQL we use in particular, but also probably doing some CDN work.)

I expect all of this to be pretty invisible except for some small "couple of minute" blips as we switch between machines, but there's a chance you will notice something untoward. I'll keep an eye on comments as per usual.

Ta for now!

Friday, October 24th, 2025 09:15 pm

"I saw an ad for the talking dog car movie on the toilet that came up out of the ground!"

That's a real sentence that I heard [personal profile] diffrentcolours say this afternoon.

Friday, October 24th, 2025 02:42 pm
hey all- last month i went to dublin and london for couple weeks, my first time ever leaving the us. i decided to compile my notes on the trip from my mastodon account here, with a few director's cut additions.

day 1- arriving in dublin

god, unexpectedly tough day. my flight here went really well, i actually had an open seat next to me so it was like as comfortable as possible. but i was still only able to get like 5 hours of meh-quality sleep on the plane, which is Not Enough. and i also had to carry my bags around all day since i couldn’t check into my hotel until the evening. also i found out the museum i initially planned on visiting today does not let you visit with luggage. then to top it all off i got on the wrong bus from the airport so i got dropped off in an unexpected location downtown. it really wasn’t far from where i intended to go, but it still stressed me out.

so yeah. i almost had a meltdown this morning. i got over it by sitting on a bench in st stephen’s green for a long time. i genuinely almost did not make it out of there, i was really fighting the urge to fall asleep on that bench. but after that i was able to pull myself together.

i had a pretty good time after that! i went to the museum of literature. i had been unsure about visiting this museum bc i heard it was kinda small, but today it was exactly the kind of chill small-scale activity i needed.

in the end, this totally solo trip in dublin is also kind of a test for myself. can i successfully plan an international trip? can i handle disruptions on my own like getting on the wrong bus or having to change my plans for the day? so far, i feel like i am passing that test :3

seems like coffee shops have far more small and basic menus here. i was in a few different shops today because i was continuously drinking coffees to combat The Exhaustion. and they all had nearly identical menus, without any of the flavored lattes i am used to seeing (and getting) in the US. however, they do all offer flat whites, a drink that is not very common at the coffee shops around where i live. wikipedia says that flat whites are very popular in the UK, i guess that translates over to ireland as well.

day 2

wild to wake up and still be in ireland. yesterday kinda didn’t feel real.

i tried to be better about eating and drinking enough today. i still probably could have done better, but it’s an improvement. in hindsight, i pretty much ignored food for most of the day yesterday and it cannot have helped with how bad i felt.

today was a nice day tho! got a bit of a late start, had some breakfast pastries from a bakery near my hotel that was highly reviewed and they were really good. i ate them in a little local park that was, dare i say, Cute. once i was back downtown, i went to marsh’s library and the chester beatty museum, and also just generally looked around the area.

marsh’s library in particular was a delight. it's so pretty in there, the staff seemed excited to talk about the place, and there was so much old book smell. i guess i must have fit the atmosphere pretty well because another tourist actually assumed i worked there and tried to ask me a question.

(also, today was the day i finally got my leap visitor card transit pass, which i should have ordered in advance but somehow didn't hear about. by total coincidence, i bought it at the Gay Spar, which was the first location that sold them i happened to be near.)

minor problem on the way back to the hotel when i missed my luas stop and had to get off at the next one. but i recovered! turns out my hotel is kind of equidistant between two stops, so i was able to walk there from the other one instead. it was a little nerve-wracking, because it was almost dark and my route was just taking me through barely distinguishable little side streets of terraced houses. but i did it! it was fine! i didn't even panic! i gotta have more faith in myself honestly.

day 3

i did both the joyce tower museum and the art museum today! well, kind of. i did not see much of the national gallery, i was kind of burnt out by the time i arrived. i was upset because i was thirsty and there was no water fountain anywhere. i forgot that in europe they don’t care about drinking water. i need to make an effort to keep some kind of drink with me, because if i get thirsty i am not going to be able to just find water like i’m used to. but hey! i’m still pretty happy with the day. i realized everything i’ve done so far was in the same general area, so i think it was nice to get out of that area and see dublin’s coast. the coast was very pretty. i saw a seal! also, even though it was a cool temperature, there were a lot of people swimming in the ocean. i guess this is like a thing in ireland, maybe? swimming in the ocean even when it's kinda cold? i was jealous tbh, i wanted to swim too. it looked fun. i also randomly saw this very expressive oscar wilde statue downtown. dublin is certainly very proud of their writers.

tomorrow is The Day i take my ridiculously early ferry to wales (i was bumped to an earlier sailing and i’m still pissed about it) and then eventually take the train from wales to london. i’m particularly nervous about the ferry. i hope it all goes smoothly. but also, compared to how much i’ve been running around, maybe it will be restful?

day 4- leaving dublin

i made it to my hotel in london and had dinner with my friend and her wife.

the ferry kinda sucked honestly. there was not enough seating. too much of the space was taken up by moneymakers like restaurants, a shop, a casino, a fucking movie theater, an arcade, and a premium lounge. it seems like the strategy is to snag a good seat as soon as you board and then just never move. i unfortunately didn’t realize this and gave up my good seat to explore the ferry and go out onto the upper outside deck in the pouring rain. after that, the only seat i could find was near the children’s play area where kids were yelling and screaming nonstop… at least the boat rocking sensation was relaxing.

the train ride was great though! it was delayed, but it was a nice train, nicer than any i've ever ridden in the US. it turns out the "sail rail" train pass they give you at the dublin port ferry station is literally just a piece of paper they handwrite your details on. it looks very not legit and i was kind of afraid it wouldn't work, but no, it worked, the conductor accepted it. i guess this is just how they do it.

the views were pretty. the countryside looks very nice, especially wales, which looked gorgeous from the train. i spotted some very cool things there as well (i would later identify these things as conwy castle and the gwynt y môr wind farm). it also struck me that there’s not really a lot of suburban sprawl as i know it around london, at least that i saw- it felt like you went from “farms and sheep” to “in the city” very fast.

that's it for this post! the next post will be london, i guess. i'm sure it will be very long, so it will go behind a cut
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Thursday, October 23rd, 2025 08:25 pm
Even though there is ostensibly a ceasefire in place, not enough aid is getting in, Israel is also bombing Lebanon despite the ceasefire they agreed to with the Lebanese, and Israeli settlers beat Palestinian farmers during their olive harvest in the West Bank

So 1 thing I've been doing is joining a weekly Zoom "Power Hours for Palestine" every Thursday at 9am PST. Feel free to join me. Today we called our reps regarding HR 3565, sent a few letters, and were updated on different things going on. It's hosted by Rising Majority

Also a Jews Demand Action letter toolkit, signed by many including Spencer Ackerman, Debra Winger, etc. 

Since last I posted:
Some things to read/watch:Places to donate to:
Thursday, October 23rd, 2025 03:56 pm
We are presenting a slideshow and talk on spirited/many-selved family portraiture at the New England Graphic Medicine Summit, on Friday, October 24, at 10 AM! Attendance can be virtual via Zoom or in-person at the Richard E. Griffin Academic Center, 670 Huntington Ave., Boston. Come say hi, and let's paint the con multi!

(Many thanks to [personal profile] dreamer_marie for being our test rehearsal audience!)