Well, Technically...

Sep. 2nd, 2025 08:48 am
kantayra: (Default)
[personal profile] kantayra
Monday was a holiday, so I'm not really late, right?

Anyway, I have important news today: This morning the ice rink I usually go to was closed for its annual maintenance, so instead I went running. During this run, I saw 9 bunnies (which is also important, but fairly typical at dawn this time for year), but I also encountered an orange kitty! That was chasing a chipmunk (which is somewhat unfortunate), but the chipmunk ran up the tree right next to me. So then it was just me and the kitty. I said, "Kitty! You're a kitty! Hello, kitty! \o/" as is required by law and, instead of shunning me with that "ewww, human!" look that 90% of kitties do, this kitty decided to deign me with its presence (most likely because it knew it could completely bork my run time this way). The kitty immediately coated the legs of my running pants with a thick layer of fur all around the ankles, and then proceeded to deploy its lethal tummy trap! However, I am wise to the ways of kitties and knew well that the fluffy tummy was a sign that I was instead supposed to scritch it behind the ears and also on its butt right above its tail. I did so correctly, and the kitty deemed me worthy for it to roll around on its back all over my shoe for a good five minutes. Then, at last, when the kitty was satisfied that it had waylaid me thoroughly, it got up and saw Something Interesting (TM) across the street. Therefore, it ignored me entirely but choose to further demonstrate how I was its servant by standing with its back paw on my hand so that I could not possibly move. This also went on for a good five minutes before the kitty released me from my indentured servitude to go off and do kitty things. And then I finished my run. However, I do not believe I ever learned the official ruling for how one measures one's race time when waylaid by a kitty for 10+ minutes right in the middle. Clearly, a grievous omission in the bylaws!

And that is the great tale I had to tell you all. Here is the much less important fandom stuff:
  • Exchanges due in July/August ([community profile] fandom5k, [community profile] caseficexchange, [community profile] nonconex, [community profile] justmarriedexchange, Terrible Temperature Troubles flash, hAPPy birthday flash, [community profile] seasonsofdrabbles, FightingAsForeplayFlash + mystery pinch-hits and treats): 18/18 shall remain my final count! I did a bunch of proofing last week, and there are a bunch of reveals below. There's only one fic left in this list that isn't at least in go-live anon status, and I will edit that one this week just to get this batch cleared out.

  • Cool stuff I got! ❤️
  • And then I bunch of stuff that I wrote has now revealed:

    • Brick and Bone: My assignment for [community profile] seasonsofdrabbles, The Haunting of Hill House, Nell & Hill House, some horror/haunting to get me in the mood for Halloween. This is the second thing I've written for this fandom, and I've had great fun with the genre both times!

    • Whose Eyes?: A pinch hit I picked up for [community profile] seasonsofdrabbles, Dial M for Murder, Margot's trauma post-movie. The second thing I've written for this movie, and I really liked the way this drabble turned out!

    • The True Lord of the Rings: A treat for [community profile] seasonsofdrabbles, and the first BNHA fic I've finished! Just how do you make wedding rings for pro heroes? In this drabble, I will... 😝 I really like BNHA for fun/interesting worldbuilding stuff, so I jumped on the worldbuilding prompt I saw to treat and had tons of fun!

    • A Strategic Miscalculation: A treat for [community profile] seasonsofdrabbles, Bakugo/Deku from BNHA, more of me playing with outsider POV, a mix of humor and angst (who, me? humor?).

    • Even Odds: A treat for [community profile] seasonsofdrabbles, Bakugo/Deku from BNHA again, this one more straight-up humor and dedicated to all those who, like me, cannot tell when those two are flirting or fighting. 😝

    • The Fine Art of Anniversary Gifts: A treat for [community profile] seasonsofdrabbles, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan from Guardian - priest, and yup! I'm still writing them super-horny! And I'm not planning to stop soon. 😝

    • Tooth and Nail: My assignment from Fighting as Foreplay flash, Liu Mingyan/Sha Hualing from SVSSS - MXTX. A fun new femslash pairing! And, really, they both deserve to do all the cool adventure stuff, now that the boys are too busy flirting over tea parties to get the real work done. 😝

  • Exchanges due in September/October ([community profile] enemiestoloversex, [profile] cuppajoexhange, [community profile] sexpollenplus, [community profile] ficinabox + mystery pinch-hits and treats + future sign-ups): I am declaring myself at 1/13. Allow me to explain! First, I finished the 1 thing (hooray!). Second, I've finally decided how I'm going to treat [community profile] ficinabox for my tally: I'm assigned to the equivalent of 10k, which could be broken up into any number of assignments/recipients, given swaps. Therefore, I'm going to declare each 1k equivalent a different 'assignment', for 10 assignments in total. So 10 of the 13 assignments on that tally are FIAB content. Honestly, given how much I tend to go overboard, I suspect a number for those '1k assignments' will end up bigger/longer than the 1k minimum, but that is the only sane way I could think of to track my progress. Once I actually get my assignments + swaps, I'll probably adjust it accordingly (e.g. if I only have 5 assignments of 2k each, I'll call it 5 instead of 10). But, for now, I think this pretty accurately reflects the percentage of my time that will need to go into FIAB. Goal-wise this week, I'd like to get to 3/13, so basically finish my 2 assignments that aren't FIAB, to completely clear up my slate. (We haven't gotten [community profile] sexpollenplus assignments yet, but they should be out later today!) And the second goal is that I already know several unusual FIAB mediums I'm going to engage with (either assignment, PH, or treats), so I'm making some initial efforts to set up some of the things I'll need (tools, skins, etc.) this week since, once assignments are out, I'll need to do 2k equivalent per week to make deadline. And, finally, I am very tempted by Come in a Flash: I need to decide whether I'm signing up this week and, if so, write my fic.

  • Upcoming potential exchanges: [community profile] fffx, [community profile] ififitsifics, and [community profile] trickortreatex are all in nominations. [community profile] yuletide_admin & [personal profile] amperslashexchange nominations are coming up soon, too. I'm not signing up for [community profile] fandomgiftbasket but plan to check out the requests. I'm not allowing myself to commit to anything else until FIAB assignments are out and I have a better sense of how much time I'll have, though.

  • Exchanges beyond the current Sept/Oct time period are: [community profile] au5k & [community profile] highadrenalineexchange.

  • Still nothing to report on Femslash Salad Bar...

  • I'm nearly at the end of BNHA S6: I'm almost caught up! I should be maybe not by this week, but end of next week most likely. And then I have to go back and check out the movies, because I've been reliably informed that they don't completely suck the way most anime movies do. I do not know what I'll do once I no longer have my daily dose of Bakugo's shouty face. Probably wait for S8 to come out, the way everyone else is. 😝

  • Wen Guan by Qi Xiao Huangshu - I didn't read a word of it, oops! Oh well, eventually I'll have more time.

  • I finally got the second book in The Goblin Emperor universe, The Witness for the Dead, from the library! And...I haven't started it yet, because I was busy with other things this weekend, lol. But I hope to start it today!

  • Still waiting until post-BNHA to plan my horror line-up. If nothing else, I've got a number of things left over in my queue from last year.


Whew, that's a lot!

Goals for this week: 1) Final edit of the one outstanding July/August reveal. 2) Finish 2 Sept/Oct assignments. 3) Get tools/skins set up for planned FIAB mediums. 4) More BNHA! 5) Finish The Witness for the Dead.

End of August totals: I'm now at 193K for the year so, lol, I will definitely make 200K for the year. Do I aim for 250K (or even 300K)? I will think about it. 78 works revealed for the year so far! I wonder if I might hit 100 there? It seems possible, and that might be another yearly goal. 😮

Code deploy happening shortly

Aug. 31st, 2025 07:37 pm
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

Per the [site community profile] dw_news post regarding the MS/TN blocks, we are doing a small code push shortly in order to get the code live. As per usual, please let us know if you see anything wonky.

There is some code cleanup we've been doing that is going out with this push but I don't think there is any new/reworked functionality, so it should be pretty invisible if all goes well.

denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
[staff profile] denise posting in [site community profile] dw_news

A reminder to everyone that starting tomorrow, we are being forced to block access to any IP address that geolocates to the state of Mississippi for legal reasons while we and Netchoice continue fighting the law in court. People whose IP addresses geolocate to Mississippi will only be able to access a page that explains the issue and lets them know that we'll be back to offer them service as soon as the legal risk to us is less existential.

The block page will include the apology but I'll repeat it here: we don't do geolocation ourselves, so we're limited to the geolocation ability of our network provider. Our anti-spam geolocation blocks have shown us that their geolocation database has a number of mistakes in it. If one of your friends who doesn't live in Mississippi gets the block message, there is nothing we can do on our end to adjust the block, because we don't control it. The only way to fix a mistaken block is to change your IP address to one that doesn't register as being in Mississippi, either by disconnecting your internet connection and reconnecting it (if you don't have a static IP address) or using a VPN.

In related news, the judge in our challenge to Tennessee's social media age verification, parental consent, and parental surveillance law (which we are also part of the fight against!) ruled last month that we had not met the threshold for a temporary injunction preventing the state from enforcing the law while the court case proceeds.

The Tennesee law is less onerous than the Mississippi law and the fines for violating it are slightly less ruinous (slightly), but it's still a risk to us. While the fight goes on, we've decided to prevent any new account signups from anyone under 18 in Tennessee to protect ourselves against risk. We do not need to block access from the whole state: this only applies to new account creation.

Because we don't do any geolocation on our users and our network provider's geolocation services only apply to blocking access to the site entirely, the way we're implementing this is a new mandatory question on the account creation form asking if you live in Tennessee. If you do, you'll be unable to register an account if you're under 18, not just the under 13 restriction mandated by COPPA. Like the restrictions on the state of Mississippi, we absolutely hate having to do this, we're sorry, and we hope we'll be able to undo it as soon as possible.

Finally, I'd like to thank every one of you who's commented with a message of support for this fight or who's bought paid time to help keep us running. The fact we're entirely user-supported and you all genuinely understand why this fight is so important for everyone is a huge part of why we can continue to do this work. I've also sent a lot of your comments to the lawyers who are fighting the actual battles in court, and they find your wholehearted support just as encouraging and motivating as I do. Thank you all once again for being the best users any social media site could ever hope for. You make me proud and even more determined to yell at state attorneys general on your behalf.

badfalcon: (Simone Vagnozzi)
[personal profile] badfalcon
There’s a line that’s been bouncing around my head ever since I picked up String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis. Wallace writes with this breathless, analytical intensity about watching players - their movements, their psychology, their impossible skill rendered into language so sharp it almost cuts. And what struck me is: this feels so much like reading fandom meta.

Not just match reports, not just journalism, but long-form meta. You know the kind: 3,000 words on how one player adjusts their stance under pressure, or how their rivalry with another player has this Shakespearean weight to it. The kind of thing that slides between gifsets and headcanons and actual technical breakdowns because all of it feels necessary to capture what you love.

And the thing is - this isn’t new.

In ancient Rome, fans used to carve their favourite charioteer’s name on their gravestone. They literally wanted to be remembered through their fandom. They bought vials of gladiator sweat (no, really) to keep like holy relics. They painted graffiti in stadiums, catalogued stats in painstaking detail, and shouted themselves hoarse for their team colours. The only difference between then and now is the medium: from stone walls to Tumblr dashboards, from sweat vials to match-worn shirts.

What Wallace is doing in String Theory isn’t so different either. His essays are part analysis, part poetry, part love letter to the sport - the same impulses that drive people to write sprawling livejournal posts about Aragorn’s arc in Lord of the Rings or to make 50-slide PowerPoints about why their ship dynamic works. He’s putting language around awe. Around obsession. Around the feeling of watching someone do something unbelievably human and larger-than-human at the same time.

So when I read him going deep on Federer or Michael Joyce, I don’t just see a writer explaining tennis. I see fandom-as-practice. I see continuity: from Roman sweat vials to Wallace’s reverent adjectives to that one gifset you keep reblogging because it perfectly captures the way your fave moves like liquid light across the court.

Sports fandom has always been fandom. And String Theory is just another text in the endless library of people trying to make sense of love and skill and spectacle with whatever tools we have to hand. Sometimes it’s chisels. Sometimes it’s gifs. Sometimes it’s a writer with a dictionary in one hand and an obsession burning in the other.

(no subject)

Aug. 29th, 2025 10:37 pm
badfalcon: (Daniel Jackson What?)
[personal profile] badfalcon
 I’ve been thinking (dangerous, I know) about the whole concept of “having a type.” People will ask you what your type is and expect, like, tall, dark, and handsome or short girls with tattoos or something quantifiable in the visible spectrum.

I keep saying I don’t really have a physical type, and that’s mostly true, but then I remember that I am extremely predictable when presented with:

  • boobs (yes, thank you. approved)
  • arms/shoulders/hands (the holy trinity, sculpted by the gods, perfect for hugs, holding, etc.)
  • and a cute smile with dimples (instant death, funerals on Tuesday.)

but honestly? my real type, the one that has haunted me across fandom after fandom like some eldritch repetition compulsion, is not about looks. it’s about vibe. it’s about the socially awkward nerd/geek archetype.

like:

  • the stammering genius who can calculate orbital trajectories but cannot flirt to save their life.
  • the bookish disaster whose entire love language is handing you lore.
  • the character who absolutely panics when someone sits too close to them but will recite a 40-minute lecture on obscure historical trivia if you so much as make eye contact.
  •  the ones who have arms, yes (thank you again), but also the emotional range of “confused owl who has never been in public before.”
so like, the ur-text for this type, the primordial soup from which all my future attractions would crawl out, was Willow Rosenberg. tiny hacker witch, babbling her way through sentences, nerdy sweaters, devastating magical power, zero chill when faced with a cute girl. that’s the blueprint right there.

and then it just… kept happening.

  • Sam Carter (Stargate SG-1): astrophysicist, genius, blows up suns in her free time, still somehow flustered when someone gets personal.
  • Daniel Jackson (also Stargate): the man who will translate a dead language on the fly but forgets how to hold a conversation with a living person. glasses, floppy hair, emotionally constipated: chef’s kiss.
  • Penelope Garcia (Criminal Minds): maximalist hacker chaos gremlin, dresses like she’s powered by rainbows, says the most unhinged things with absolute sincerity.
  • Abby Sciuto (NCIS): goth lab queen, talks a mile a minute about forensics, deeply earnest under the eyeliner. if she doesn’t count she should.

and it spirals out from there. every fandom has one. the genius who trips over their own words, the hacker who overshares, the scholar who forgets to eat, the witch whose spellbook is better organized than their life.

yes, I like boobs. yes, shoulders/hands/arms are my eternal weakness. yes, dimples will ruin me every time.
but the real through-line? the thing that never changes?
give me the socially awkward nerd archetype and I will imprint like a baby duck.

(and then, as I said on Tumblr
#yes i have a type your honour #and it’s willow rosenberg with different hats #sam carter blew up a sun and my heart #daniel jackson tripped over his own shoelaces and i imprinted #penelope garcia maximalist chaos gremlin supreme #abby sciuto forensic goth princess #nerds my beloved #boobs are great but have you considered lore #dimples are fatal shoulders are eternal #socially awkward archetype continuum #from hacker witches to stargates to crime labs to the atp tour #tennis fandom dont look at me #actually do look at me #yes this is about jannik #gangly apologetic owl boy who calculates everything #sports but make it nerdy #my narrative gravitational pull remains undefeated)

Foundation 3.08

Aug. 29th, 2025 10:35 am
selenak: (Visionless - Foundation)
[personal profile] selenak
In which cult leaders do as cult leaders are wont to do, and all Cleons find out something new.

Remembering childhood lullabys can be key to one's survival )

I need a break...

Aug. 27th, 2025 08:15 am
kantayra: (Default)
[personal profile] kantayra
I am posting late this week, mostly because work decided to be crazy again. I got another project dumped on me late last week, since the person who was supposed to be in charge of it was on vacation and didn't let anyone know until last minute, and everything's behind schedule because the previous person in charge didn't do any work for four months straight before she got booted off (for not doing anything for four months straight, lol). So now it's in SUPER CRISIS MODE, and yes, it is nice to know that everyone trusts me to fix this, but also I really want a break after taking over the project of the LAST guy who went on vacation. Like, just let me work my actual project (which has PLENTY of issues for me to fix already, believe me), pretty please?

Oh well. At least it's job security, right?

Anyway, here's where I stand fandom-wise, which is a much happier place!
  • Exchanges due in July/August ([community profile] fandom5k, [community profile] caseficexchange, [community profile] nonconex, [community profile] justmarriedexchange, Terrible Temperature Troubles flash, hAPPy birthday flash, [community profile] seasonsofdrabbles, FightingAsForeplayFlash + mystery pinch-hits and treats): I am now at 18/18, and unless I get super inspired with some last-minute drabbles, that's where I'm going to leave off for August. A few of these do have reveals coming up this weekend, so the only thing I'll be doing here is my final pass to check for last-minute typos.

  • hAPPy birthday flash has revealed! Here's what I wrote:

    • Geometric Disputes - Ancient Egyptian RPF, Djoser and Imhotep, arguing their way through building Djoser's Step Pyramid. More fun for my endless bank of Egyptology-nerd knowledge. Speaking of which...

    • So Close and Yet So Far! - Ancient Egyptian Religion, my linguistic treatise on why everyone should be worshipping the god Onuris. No srsly, there is very good reason, go read why! :P

    • Match - Hikaru no Go, Hikaru/Akira, Go nerds nerding nerdily overly Go with bonus romantic fluff. I haven't written these two in years, but I'd been poking my way through some of my favorite bits of the manga recently, and decided to give it a (heh) Go.

  • Exchanges due in September/October ([community profile] enemiestoloversex, [profile] cuppajoexhange, [community profile] sexpollenplus, [community profile] ficinabox + mystery pinch-hits and treats + future sign-ups): Assignments are not closed yet for Sex Pollen & FIAB, so naturally I haven't started writing those yet (and I'm not even sure how to count FIAB assignments since in theory I could write 10+ short things as my assignment(s)). But I'll say I'm at 0/4 for now. I did skip both [community profile] rarepairexchange and [community profile] let_me_introduce_you. I would really like to finish the looooooong assignment I currently have in progress (and more than halfway done now!) this week, and ideally the other assignment I currently have too (which I insist must be short!), because I can already see that FIAB will eat up my schedule through mid-October, and I have a week's vacation in October too where I know nothing will get written, lol. And it's not even the overall word-count for me (I can knock off 10k in a couple weeks once I've got a solid idea), but the fact that it might be as many as 10 different ideas, plus some of them hopefully will have creative medium/graphic/coding components which can be big time sucks, even though they're tons of fun to do. So my promise to myself is that I'm not allowed to sign up for anything else until I get my FIAB assignment (and potential swaps) and have taken stake of the situation. Well, except maaaaaybe for Come in a Flash if someone requests one of my die-hard OTPs, because I do love premature ejaculation. (Oh gawd, I cannot resist, I am just hopeless. HOPELESS! :P)

  • Upcoming potential exchanges: I nominated for [community profile] fffx. [community profile] ififitsifics is super cute, and I will consider it (KITTIES!). I'm not signing up for [community profile] fandomgiftbasket but plan to check out the requests. I'll see what other people nominate for [personal profile] amperslashexchange and maybe throw some of my own in, just in case. Out of the current Sept/Oct time period are: [community profile] au5k & [community profile] highadrenalineexchange.

  • Still nothing to report on Femslash Salad Bar...

  • I'm now approximately 1/4 into S6 of BNHA and, holy shit, shit is REALLY hitting the fan now! I have to admit, I've been mostly in it for the character interactions and the fun school hijinx up until this point, but this is the first time the overarching plot and the existential threat has really grabbed me. I am, if possible, even more addicted than before! I need to know what happens next, GODDAMMIT!

  • Wen Guan by Qi Xiao Huangshu - I read none of this last week, lol. I am too caught up in BNHA.

  • Still no library books! Just how long does it take someone to get through a novella? o.O It is fascinating to me because this queue hasn't moved in 3 weeks now (and that's with multiple copies!), and it's an ebook so it's not like the physical copies were lost or something...

  • Haven't given any thought to my horror line-up yet. That's not getting done until I'm caught up on BNHA, for sure!


Goals for next week: 1) Finish Sept assignment #1: I'm halfway there! 2) Finish Sept assignment #2: please be short! 3) Editing pass on all the things being revealed this weekend. 4) Plan out my FIAB gaming/swap requests. 5) All the BNHA! 6) Maybe poke at Wen Guan.
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
[staff profile] denise posting in [site community profile] dw_news

I'll start with the tl;dr summary to make sure everyone sees it and then explain further: As of September 1, we will temporarily be forced to block access to Dreamwidth from all IP addresses that geolocate to Mississippi for legal reasons. This block will need to continue until we either win the legal case entirely, or the district court issues another injunction preventing Mississippi from enforcing their social media age verification and parental consent law against us.

Mississippi residents, we are so, so sorry. We really don't want to do this, but the legal fight we and Netchoice have been fighting for you had a temporary setback last week. We genuinely and honestly believe that we're going to win it in the end, but the Fifth Circuit appellate court said that the district judge was wrong to issue the preliminary injunction back in June that would have maintained the status quo and prevented the state from enforcing the law requiring any social media website (which is very broadly defined, and which we definitely qualify as) to deanonymize and age-verify all users and obtain parental permission from the parent of anyone under 18 who wants to open an account.

Netchoice took that appellate ruling up to the Supreme Court, who declined to overrule the Fifth Circuit with no explanation -- except for Justice Kavanaugh agreeing that we are likely to win the fight in the end, but saying that it's no big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime.

Needless to say, it's a big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime. The Mississippi law is a breathtaking state overreach: it forces us to verify the identity and age of every person who accesses Dreamwidth from the state of Mississippi and determine who's under the age of 18 by collecting identity documents, to save that highly personal and sensitive information, and then to obtain a permission slip from those users' parents to allow them to finish creating an account. It also forces us to change our moderation policies and stop anyone under 18 from accessing a wide variety of legal and beneficial speech because the state of Mississippi doesn't like it -- which, given the way Dreamwidth works, would mean blocking people from talking about those things at all. (And if you think you know exactly what kind of content the state of Mississippi doesn't like, you're absolutely right.)

Needless to say, we don't want to do that, either. Even if we wanted to, though, we can't: the resources it would take for us to build the systems that would let us do it are well beyond our capacity. You can read the sworn declaration I provided to the court for some examples of how unworkable these requirements are in practice. (That isn't even everything! The lawyers gave me a page limit!)

Unfortunately, the penalties for failing to comply with the Mississippi law are incredibly steep: fines of $10,000 per user from Mississippi who we don't have identity documents verifying age for, per incident -- which means every time someone from Mississippi loaded Dreamwidth, we'd potentially owe Mississippi $10,000. Even a single $10,000 fine would be rough for us, but the per-user, per-incident nature of the actual fine structure is an existential threat. And because we're part of the organization suing Mississippi over it, and were explicitly named in the now-overturned preliminary injunction, we think the risk of the state deciding to engage in retaliatory prosecution while the full legal challenge continues to work its way through the courts is a lot higher than we're comfortable with. Mississippi has been itching to issue those fines for a while, and while normally we wouldn't worry much because we're a small and obscure site, the fact that we've been yelling at them in court about the law being unconstitutional means the chance of them lumping us in with the big social media giants and trying to fine us is just too high for us to want to risk it. (The excellent lawyers we've been working with are Netchoice's lawyers, not ours!)

All of this means we've made the extremely painful decision that our only possible option for the time being is to block Mississippi IP addresses from accessing Dreamwidth, until we win the case. (And I repeat: I am absolutely incredibly confident we'll win the case. And apparently Justice Kavanaugh agrees!) I repeat: I am so, so sorry. This is the last thing we wanted to do, and I've been fighting my ass off for the last three years to prevent it. But, as everyone who follows the legal system knows, the Fifth Circuit is gonna do what it's gonna do, whether or not what they want to do has any relationship to the actual law.

We don't collect geolocation information ourselves, and we have no idea which of our users are residents of Mississippi. (We also don't want to know that, unless you choose to tell us.) Because of that, and because access to highly accurate geolocation databases is extremely expensive, our only option is to use our network provider's geolocation-based blocking to prevent connections from IP addresses they identify as being from Mississippi from even reaching Dreamwidth in the first place. I have no idea how accurate their geolocation is, and it's possible that some people not in Mississippi might also be affected by this block. (The inaccuracy of geolocation is only, like, the 27th most important reason on the list of "why this law is practically impossible for any site to comply with, much less a tiny site like us".)

If your IP address is identified as coming from Mississippi, beginning on September 1, you'll see a shorter, simpler version of this message and be unable to proceed to the site itself. If you would otherwise be affected, but you have a VPN or proxy service that masks your IP address and changes where your connection appears to come from, you won't get the block message, and you can keep using Dreamwidth the way you usually would.

On a completely unrelated note while I have you all here, have I mentioned lately that I really like ProtonVPN's service, privacy practices, and pricing? They also have a free tier available that, although limited to one device, has no ads or data caps and doesn't log your activity, unlike most of the free VPN services out there. VPNs are an excellent privacy and security tool that every user of the internet should be familiar with! We aren't affiliated with Proton and we don't get any kickbacks if you sign up with them, but I'm a satisfied customer and I wanted to take this chance to let you know that.

Again, we're so incredibly sorry to have to make this announcement, and I personally promise you that I will continue to fight this law, and all of the others like it that various states are passing, with every inch of the New Jersey-bred stubborn fightiness you've come to know and love over the last 16 years. The instant we think it's less legally risky for us to allow connections from Mississippi IP addresses, we'll undo the block and let you know.

Of Beatles and Georgians

Aug. 24th, 2025 03:40 pm
selenak: (JohnPaul by Jennymacca)
[personal profile] selenak
I used my time in GB to acquire a lot of books as well, of course. Some of which were:

Ian Leslie: John & Paul. A Love Story in Songs. No prices for guessing whom this is about. The songs of the title are 43, all in all (the majority of which but not all hail from the Beatles era), used and explored as sign posts to where John Lennon and Paul McCartney were in their respective lives and emotional development. Spoilers get by with a little help from their friends. )


Sean Lusk: A Woman of Opinion. Which is a novel about the fascinating Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Georgian wit, poet and travelogue, whose most famous work I reviewed here. Spoilers have indeed opinions alore. )

and lastly, a pictorial postcript to my Born with Teeth review:


Born with Teeth 2


Born with Teeth 1

Foundation 3.07

Aug. 22nd, 2025 06:00 pm
selenak: (Visionless - Foundation)
[personal profile] selenak
In which it's backstory time, for more than one character, while in the present the end times keep rolling.

Spoilers wouldn't like to be a ferret on Trantor )

(no subject)

Aug. 21st, 2025 11:58 pm
badfalcon: (Tennis Darren)
[personal profile] badfalcon
 I am so fucking done for.

Like. There are MULTIPLE videos going round right now - Team Sinner greeting Team Alcaraz, then Team Djokovic, some Jannik training clips. A veritable buffet of content. A smorgasbord. A feast.

And where are my eyes? Where are user <user name=tennisdadsaficionado site=tumblr> eyes supposed to be??

On the players? On the tennis? On the ACTUAL subject of the videos???

No. NO. All I see is Darren. Just Darren. I’m out here losing brain cells like a teenage llama with a crush.

I am not supposed to be like this. I am a grown adult with rent and bills and responsibilities. And yet here I am, screaming at pixels because some Australian man in his 50s tilted his head slightly to the left.

And the worst part? The absolute humiliation of it all?? He doesn’t even have to do anything. He just… breathes near a tennis court and my brain goes feral, like: “oh wow incredible stunning revolutionary showstopping never been done before.”

Sir, please. You are a coach. Why do you have this power over me.

Fucking hell, Cassie. Get a grip.

selenak: (Bardolatry by Cheesygirl)
[personal profile] selenak
At long last, the highlight and ending of my London theatre marathon, and it would be yours, too: On stage Marlowe/Shakespeare slash fiction! I had hoped this to be the case from the sexy poster and the short summary, and when I acquired the programm and read it, I knew it, because among the listed crew is one Katherine Hardman, Intimacy Coordinator, whose previous Intimacy Coordinating tasks included AMC’s Interview With the Vampire. Clearly a woman who coordinated Lestat/Louis, Louis/Armand, and Lestat/Armand in an actor and audience friendly way would be up to Kit/Will, thought I. Thank you, RSC. And Liz Duffy Adams, who wrote the play. And Daniel Evans, who directed it.

Wyndham’s Theatre: Born With Teeth

Incidentally, the posters hadn’t said who would play whom, but I just assumed Ncuti Gatwa would be gay atheist spy Marlowe, and Edward Bluemel Shakespeare, and indeed this proved to be the case. Since this play is a two hander, meaning only two actors show up and are on stage the entire time, it needs a combination of great acting and hotness, and they both delivered.

Come live with me and be my love… )

In conclusion: loved the play, loved the actors, loved the production, and am travelling back to Munich in a state of fannish delight.

What I'm Reading Wednesday

Aug. 20th, 2025 03:01 pm
badfalcon: (Take To The Skies)
[personal profile] badfalcon
What are you currently reading?

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna (24%)
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (29%)
The Lamplighter’s Bookshop by Sophie Austin (35%)
What abigail did that summer by Ben Aaronovitch (56%)
String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis by David Foster Wallace (30%)

What did you recently finish reading?

False Value by Ben Aaronovitch 3.5/5 stars. I loved the dry humour and the tech satire, but this one wasn’t without its bumps. The pacing dragged in spots (but I always find his books have this), and I found myself losing track of some of the side characters in the crowd.

What do you think you’ll read next?

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh - for the [tumblr.com profile] tennisblrbookclub
Essex Dogs by Dane Jones - a [community profile] thestoryinside pick
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald - will hit prompts on 3 different reading challenges

Profile

kskitten: (Default)
kskitten

January 2015

S M T W T F S
     123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Sep. 2nd, 2025 05:05 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios