Daily Happiness

Oct. 25th, 2025 06:35 pm
torachan: john from homestuck looking shocked (john shocked)
[personal profile] torachan
1. Nice farmers market haul this morning, including a big bag of dried persimmons. I had some this afternoon for a snack and they are excellent. The only problem is the same problem I have with all dried fruit: being careful not to eat too much at once!

2. I finally put the Billy bookshelf together today. We got one in blue, so it matches the other blue Ikea cabinet and bedside table in Carla's room (I don't remember the name of that series, something not as easy to remember as Billy, that's for sure). I was dreading putting the doors on because I hate hinges, but the hinges on this are the easiest Ikea hinges I've done. (Rather than having to hold up the doors to screw them on, these hook on first so they can kind of help hold themselves up.)

3. Speaking of furniture, we've been wanting to get a coffee table for the garage and just not gotten around to it, but I have some Lego Christmas sets that I want to display on a coffee table, so now is the time. I poked around online a bit this evening looking for something and we settled on this one from Target, which lifts up like the one we have in the house, to make it easier to work on stuff while sitting on the sofa.

4. We had another baked potato with a Trader Joe's frozen topping tonight, this time it was chicken mole. WOW. This was even better than the birria. Would definitely get this again for baked potatoes.

5. Ollie's soaking in the sun.

[syndicated profile] wwdn_feed

Posted by Wil

Good news, everyone! My podcast’s test season earlier this year was received with such enthusiasm, we immediately got to work on building the machinery that would power a full series. It took all summer, as I and my team applied what we learned we could do differently or better going forward. I only wanted to do all that work once, because I want to do this podcast for years to come. I think we nailed it, and I think I get to hand off everything but the narration to the rest of the team.

So I can so happily shout from the top of a mountain that It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton Returns October 29th with a spooky story for the spooky season! And that will kick off at least FORTY new episodes.

FORTY!

I am so excited, I made a video about it.

I’ve been reading submissions from Michael, our content editor, and reaching out to authors for permission to narrate their stories. Can I tell you how warm it makes me feel when they tell me they enjoy my work? How happy and grateful I feel when an author tells me they already listen to my audiobooks?1 Every single story I have read has been incredible for a different reason. I can’t hardly wait, as the Replacements said, to narrate them. I’m so grateful that I am getting to do what I love for my job. If you’re already subscribed to the podcast, please accept my warmest thanks; I wouldn’t get to do this without you.

One of the unexpected delights has been the Patreon. I did a couple of live AMA things there that were surprisingly fun, so we’re going to do that again, and more often. I’m hopeful that I can even do some author chats, where we can get to know the people who created these stories I’m reading to you. Last time I looked, there were 485 paid subscribers, and like 300 others who are checking us out. That blows me away and I’m so grateful for the support, I’m going to do a special, live, narration of a spooky story, chosen by Patreon, next week. If you’re interested in seeing that, there’s plenty of time to sign up.

A statistically significant number of people asked me if I would ever be on YouTube, but I never wanted this to be a video thing. For me as a performer, I can’t serve the words on the page and play to the audience on the other side of the camera. Imagine going to see someone do a reading in a theater, and they never once look up from the page. It’s weird, right?

But so many people wanted us to be on YouTube, we figured out a way that I think will solve that problem. I’ll introduce the episode on camera, and then the story will be an audiogram. Done and done. There’s no content at the channel right now, but as soon as there is, I’ll share the link.

Okay, one last thing: Yesterday, I remembered that I had done a narration of Ur Fascism for Radio Free Burrito about five years ago. I felt like it was a good time to resurface it, so I did. And if you want to listen to my favorite episode I have done of RFB so far, with a full production and music and the whole thing that I did entirely by myself, I’m so proud of The Cecil Hotel.

I’m supposed to say that you can subscribe to It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton wherever you get your podcasts, even if that particular link goes to Apple for stupid SEO reasons.

That’s all for now. Thanks for listening. Take care of yourselves, and take care of each other.

  1. And my EMDR therapy is really working, because I can finally find space to fully feel all the joy without being afraid that it isn’t real, or that I’m stupid for letting myself get my hopes up ↩

Database maintenance

Oct. 25th, 2025 08:42 am
mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)
[staff profile] mark posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance

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!

Ups and Downs

Oct. 25th, 2025 03:55 am
prixmium: (taylor midnights)
[personal profile] prixmium
Various updates.

An Up?: As expected in my last long, emotional post on Taylor Swift Album Release Day, my long-time friend reached out as predicted. It has gone better than a part of me thought it would. The contact has remained a bit consistent, even if sometimes she does not get back to me the same day. Sometimes, I still feel like that she decides "tl;dr" about a lot of the things I send her, but I also think it might just be a difference in communication styles.

She gave me a health update and explained that she actually is taking actions to correct a rather severe nutrient deficiency and is feeling better.

I'm really relieved to hear that there might be a reason for her and, subsequently, our connection to get better. I feel like an asshole for being frustrated that she was kind of not available for a year and a half, with rare and variable exceptions, because I know she's had a hard time physically and emotionally, too.

As expressed in a replies to my previous post, there was a period of time back in 2016 when this friend really hurt me in a way that I think was something she kind of "had" to do in order to hit a rock bottom place from which she got into therapy. However, shortly after she got into therapy, I felt like that her conditions for being in relationship with anyone basically meant that she wanted groupies rather than friends. Others needed to support her in her mental health journey, but she had no emotional bandwidth or patience for anyone else's needs.

In the years since, we've talked about how people who are in a bad place who start therapy often kind of take a therapist's guidance and hear what they want to hear. Their first efforts to make adjustments can sound like "actually therapy makes you a terrible person???" but the therapist can then hear from the client and be like, "Ma'am that is not what I said. It's what you interpreted from what I said with a very broad brush."

Anyway, I am hopeful for the friendship, but I just have this broader frustration with the fact that I feel like even in my very close relationships -- close friends, family, etc. -- that I actually put my money and support where my mouth is. I try to genuinely help people instead of just giving them thoughts and prayers. However, it feels like the vast majority of people really do not offer actionable support even when you're supposedly close. People aren't willing to sacrifice anything for each other. And that ends up making me feel like an overdrawn bank account, sometimes, though I don't feel like the answer is to become exclusively self-serving?

Anyway...

A Down: I kind of think the new Taylor Swift album sucks. I've thought about expressing my feelings about it through some kind of open letter to her she'll never read, but I also feel like a better use of my time would be to invest my time into listening to music that I actually like for a while and giving Taylor Swift a time to simmer and see if she can ever learn to onboard valid criticism ever again in her entire life.

It's tricky, because there have been times when she was criticized for simply being a famous white woman, for simply daring to date around and try to fin "the one" even if it's messy, or whatever. However, I think that she has over-inoculated herself against criticism to the point that she hears all criticism as unfair and not understanding of her very unique situation.

Plus, no one can become and remain a billionaire without some damage to their hearts if not their brains.

Her last album, TTPD, contained a lot bitterness including some of it directed at her fanbase. I think she really blames a lot of them for the failure of her relationship with Matty Healy, and I don't think she's forgiven them despite being oh-so-happy with her new man.

There's something so petty and meangirl about this new album, in most places, that it feels like something she should have done in her 20s and not her mid-30s if at all.

Anyway, I was never a hardcore "swiftie" where I was convinced that there was hidden genius and Da Vinci Codes or whatever in every single one of her choices. However, there's a kind of pain associated with finding very clear evidence that a person your age that you ind of viewed as a poetic representation of your generation is being so regressive at this particular moment. But, like I said, billionaires do not have normal functioning human hearts and brains, so there's some hope on my part that she'll be humbled and become someone whose art I like again, but right now there's a sour taste in my mouth.

I don't hate her. I'm just disappointed.

An Up: The other day, a group of people who do global music outreach came to do a three-day workshop with our Year 7 students, and I got to pop in a few times and see performances, including the finale where the workshop cast and then the Year 7s also danced and sang. It reminded me of how powerful live art can be, and I've been filling some of my Taylor-shaped void with revisiting musicals.

I have this tendency to go through months where I only listen to spoken content, so it was nice to have a reminder of how music and dance and things can be like visceral therapy.

A Down: I'm still struggling to find writing consistency and motivation, and it feels like a part of me is missing or atrophied.

A Down: Trying to work stuff out with the OCT and eventual Canadian immigration/work permit options is being a royal pain in the ass. I finally got the fingerprinting company handling my most recent piece of the puzzle to contact me back after emailing them WEEKS ago (they said my email address was generic and sometimes they don't get those? like why provide an email for assistance if you do not notice or answer emails from real-name gmail addresses??? who are you expecting to email you?) and calling two days in a row to leave a message. Initially, they told me they had not received my package at all yet. However...

An Up: The reason they had not received my package at all was because Canada Post went on a strike like two days after the package was mailed from the US. This means it was probably just sitting in the Canada Post's stockpile for days and weeks. However, the guy emailed me back and said they got my package the day after I finally got them to communicate with me.

A Down: I bought a little bookshelf type thing from amazon and thought I could put it together by myself, but I simply do not have the elbow grease to do it manually. I had to order an electric screwdriver, so for now I have pieces of a shelf in a random spot on the floor. One reason it's hard to organize my small space is that I do not have a specific place for everything, so here's hoping I don't get so disgusted that I simply have to pay to have someone cart it away.

Daily Happiness

Oct. 24th, 2025 07:36 pm
torachan: a cartoon bear eating a large sausage (magical talking bear prostitute)
[personal profile] torachan
1. Not only is it the weekend, it's a three day weekend! We're going to Oogie Boogie Bash on Sunday night so I decided to take Monday off since we'll be out late (ish).

2. I love this picture of Jasper so much. Those big eyes! The little glimpse of pink tongue!

The Best of Things

Oct. 24th, 2025 09:05 pm
michaelboy: (Default)
[personal profile] michaelboy
I had seen her turban-covered head the previous week but didn’t manage to connect. She was back the following week looking inordinately frail and thin. We talked at great length about cancer, chemo, treatments and hope.

On the drive home, it occurred to me that I was really very lucky. It’s not because I didn't have cancer. It was more that we were able to share a few important words and that I was able to make a positive connection with someone who likely had fewer days left than I did. It’s funny how hope works. It never directs or necessitates an outcome, but it is certainly worthwhile.

Suffering will always be a part of our lives, but to turn away from it, does not eradicate or lessen it.

Weekly Reading

Oct. 24th, 2025 05:56 pm
torachan: john from homestuck looking shocked (john shocked)
[personal profile] torachan
Recently Finished
Murder in Matrimony
The ending of this felt like it was wrapping up the series, which is fine because I'd already decided not to read any more. antisemitism )

The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
Finally finished this! It was actually really interesting, I just kept not reading it in favor of other things. In school Prohibition was passed over as basically like "it happened and then they repealed it", with the main focus of the early 20th century going towards the World Wars and Great Depression. I had no idea that Prohibition was so tied to the revival of the KKK, for example.

Artistic Buildings and Homes of Los Angeles
A very short book that is mainly pictures of buildings and houses in LA in the late 1800s, built by architect Joseph Newsom. The book has a forward and introduction written in 1988, and then the rest is a direct replica of a book put out by the architect to showcase his work, complete with ads that ran alongside the photos. It's very neat. Found it in a Little Free Library in the neighborhood.

Don't Hang Up
An Audible Original by the author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. He's done quite a few Audible Originals (the one below being another) and they're all short and free with my subscription, so I gave them a try, but none of them have been great. This one was interesting enough, but the MC was an asshole. He's a radio DJ who's been recently demoted to the midnight shift and one night gets a caller who tells him to stay on the line or a woman gets killed. Had some good twists, but it was just fine, not amazing.

Find Us
I really wish he would stick to writing stories set in Australia. This is the second one of his set in the US and there are always nitpicky things that bug me lol. Also if I'm reading an author from another country, it's because I want to read stories set in that country or at least with characters from that country (especially with an audiobook). But that's just minor stuff. This one felt like it really should have been longer (it's four hours, so about novella length). The MC is a former police detective, now working secretly for the FBI, trying to find school killers before they act by approaching kids who show red flags on social media and forums. One day her own kids go missing and she doesn't wait for the police, convinced she can find them herself. This had some interesting twists but I felt like the aftermath could have used more focus.

spoilers )

My Home Hero vol. 4

Sunflower Stories

Oct. 24th, 2025 01:49 pm
yourlibrarian: StoryGathering_crystalsc (BUF-StoryGathering_crystalsc)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] common_nature
Visiting the sunflowers made me see stories in progress.



Trying to sneak into the In Crowd

Read more... )

Yuletide letter

Oct. 24th, 2025 06:39 pm
soricel: (Default)
[personal profile] soricel
Dear Yuletide author,

I've never written one of these letters before, so I'm not totally sure how to go about it. First of all, thank you for offering to do this thing! I'm relatively new to fandom world, but the fact that people voluntarily offer to create things like this for strangers to enjoy...it's really sweet!

So yeah, if it's helpful: in addition to the DNWs I mentioned in my sign-up (whump, heavy angst, character death, a/b/o, sexual violence [either on-screen or implied/referenced)], sex involving animals or minors), I should say that I'm generally more interested in gen or gen-ish content than shippy or smutty stuff. More specifically, I really enjoy post-canon future fics in which characters meet up to reminisce, patch things up, or maybe rekindle old friendships/relationships. I tend to enjoy quiet, carefully-observed slice-of-life type stuff, as well as fics written in epistolary or journal form. Oh and also, trans headcanons are more than welcome. Aside from that, I'm just curious and excited about what you might come up with!

Some specific stuff about the fandoms I requested:

Wayfarers series: I love these books a lot, and one of the things I love about them is the ways that the characters try to offer each other understanding and comfort. Speaker and Roveg's dynamic is one of my favorite examples of this, and I'd love to see them meet up again sometime down the line.

Neapolitan Novels: I have a soft spot for Pasquale, and I wish the novels gave us more of his interiority. I'm interested in his relationship with Lila, but mostly I'm interested in the more personal/emotional aspects of his political consciousness. 

Creation Lake: At first I found Sadie to be a pretty annoying character, 
but I started liking her a little more when I saw the occasional glimpse of vulnerability or humanity beneath her hard-boiled persona. I'd love to see what more a correspondence/meeting with Bruno might reveal about her.

I think that's it! I can't wait to see whatever you come up with! Thank you again!!

Daily Happiness

Oct. 23rd, 2025 08:10 pm
torachan: a cartoon kitten with a surprised/happy expression (chii)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I took a walk after lunch today and while the sun did peek out a few times, it was mostly overcast and made for very pleasant walking. Right now I've been trying to do a midday walk at least twice during the work week, but once we get into cooler weather I'll definitely be upping that, maybe even to daily. I do so much more sitting in one place in this current position than I did as area manager, and it's nice to get out and move around a bit.

2. I finished up another puzzle today. This is our third Disney villains puzzle, but it seems to be a very popular theme, going by the fact that when I was looking at puzzles at Target the other day, there were two other villains ones that were not the same as the ones we have. This one is a 750 piece one (only the second puzzle I've done this large) so it has room for more villains. Of course there's overlap in all the puzzles, but it's always interesting to see which ones they pick. This one has the main baddies on the V and their henchmen/women on the border, which was a fun design.



3. Look at that fluffy fur!

Daily Happiness

Oct. 22nd, 2025 06:28 pm
torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
1. My meeting today was also shorter than planned, which was nice.

2. It's pretty windy today, and temps are down again, so it's feeling like fall. We were supposed to maybe get some rain last night, but didn't, but as long as the temps stay down, that's good for me.

3. Carla was able to get two cases of the apple tea she really loves at one of the other Japanese markets in the area (sadly, mine does not carry it, or I would have been able to get my employee discount). She's mostly been buying it a few bottles at a time, but last week was able to place an order for a couple cases and picked that up today.

4. Until we adopted Gemma, I'd never heard of cats having a curly tail. I've seen a couple pics here and there in the years since, but it does seem to be pretty rare. I love her little tail knott, though. (And it doesn't seem to cause her any issues.)

Timmy is BACK and ALMOST ON SCHEDULE

Oct. 22nd, 2025 12:00 am
[syndicated profile] dinosaur_comics_feed
archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about
October 22nd, 2025next

October 22nd, 2025: This continues the tale of Timmy, who you'll remember we first encountered in 2013 and then 2018! In 2018 I said you'd have to read for six more years to find out what Timmy did next and I didn't lie! You had to read for six more years and then some extra time too. Thanks to Jan for the reminder!!

– Ryan

Daily Happiness

Oct. 21st, 2025 07:50 pm
torachan: aradia from homestuck (aradia)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I had meetings that were supposed to go till five today but we got done by around 3:30!

2. Carla bought some baking potatoes the other day and I realized it was the perfect way to use the package of Trader Joe's frozen birria that we've had taking up space for like a year and a half at least, if the expiration date is anything to go by lol. It was a good amount for two servings (half a potato each, piled high with beef and cheese and plenty of broth). Not quite as good as the birria baked potatoes we had at Disneyland, though I feel like some cilantro would have helped on that front (forgot to buy any when we bought the cheese). Still, very tasty and very happy to use up something from the freezer.

3. Molly loves sitting on my lap, but she has not figured out how not to be completely awkward about it.

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