kengr | Network

Rogan: holy shit guys, the color version of Coming In or Staying Out came out GORGEOUS. Just Right Press did an amazing job and I will absolutely be hiring them again! I cannot wait to put it up for sale and show it off!

And it’s been the bestseller at MICE so far! I’ll be working a final shift at table 32 from 11-2 tomorrow on Sunday; be the first on your block to have some pink trans dongs!

Current Mood: naughty

lannamichaels

I just read The Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls by Valorie Lee Schaefer for content, focusing on a few things, but primarily ovulation and eating disorders. It doesn't mention ovulation, and while the eating disorder section itself is fine, I wasn't impressed with the overall section on food, and there were other parts of this book that really rubbed me wrong, especially the emphasis on smiling. It's weirdly anti-salt and doesn't seem to believe that insomnia exists.

This book kept making me think "this would be great to use in some kind of dissertation on a very specific culture that this came out of, telling the young girls in this culture how best to grow up to be women." The examples alone of what concerns they thought the girls had about their bodies and their social interactions (they all seem to have very mean friends and want larger breasts, except for the one girl with large breasts, whose friends all dropped her for being ugly and fat. No one is actually fat in this book. Also their bra size chart doesn't go above 36D; people thinking that breasts can't possibly be beyond that was the source of a great many problems in my life, and I kept thinking, while reading this book, that this book would have been negatively helpful to me in my actual experience of puberty.)

So.

Does anyone have recommendations for "what to expect when you're expecting to go through puberty" that are fat-positive? You know, something like "it's very genetic and it's not because you ate too much junk food"?

And is more honest about period pain, and mentions -- at the very least -- ovulation. And that you can get back pain from your breasts.

And also -- okay, there were a bunch of things in this book that made me go "this is the opposite of helpful, I understand why you think it's helpful, but trust me, while you're not contributing to the problem, you're also not helping."

But really, the fat-positive thing would be helpful, and also more realistic about numbers on scales, please and thank you.

(And maybe ones that don't assume everyone has a mom???? I'm just. I'm just. This book is so oddly heteronormative for a book that has nothing in it about dating.)

the_siobhan

There's a store on Queen Street that has a sign out front that says "Ice-cream fixes everything."

Yesterday I walked past a bistro on my way to the gf's place that said "Wine fixes everything".

I am prepared to review their respective arguments, especially if said arguments are made via wine and ice cream.

***

Note that I said "walked" in that story, because I am WALKING again, no cane required. My physiotherapist is fucking magic. I'm still on a bit of a leash so I don't overdo it, but the gf's condo is a 25 minute walk from my house and not only did I walk there, I walked home after and my foot felt fine this morning.

Plans to set the entire world on fire may be temporarily placed on hold as a result.

***

Got my boosters last week. Spent most of my spare time for the next three days sleeping. My immune system calmed down eventually but the first day at work was kinda rough.

***

My dad is doing much better and his wife decided he doesn't need the hospital bed since it's a rental. She was planning to buy him a regular bed, but since I still have the Old Man's old bed frame in my storage locker I offered that one. My sister has a pickup truck, so the two of us hauled it over and set it up.

We're both encouraging her to look into moving to a condo but she's not really receptive to the idea. Thing is, she's also running out of the ability to take care of the place, especially since she's doing it alone and taking care of my dad at the same time. She already hires people to deal with the yard.

***

Still waiting on engineer.

***

( cut for the endless gauntlet of house shit )

***

I have the overwhelming desire to put together a playlist for my family's Xmas dinner. This desire was sparked by hearing Laibach's version of Jesus Christ Superstar on Twitch tonight.

C'mon, it would be hilarious.

thawrecka

littlerhymes asked: "Standout books/comics/manga you read this year"

I was like, what did I even read this year? I feel like I've had more trouble this year than ever remembering what I actually experienced within the calendar year.

Goodreads to the rescue! I gave up on my reading spreadsheet early but I did dutifully log books on GR.

My favourites of the year:

Colette Decides to Die, volumes 1 to 3 by Alto Yukimura - the title makes it sound very grim, but this is a charming shoujo series about an overworked apothecary suffering burnout who decides to jump in the well when she's particularly exhausted, and instead of dying she meets Hades who is also overworked and suffering burnout and needs medical help. Through the relationship they develop, they learn the importance of delegating! And they have adventures! There's also a bit of a romantic element, but that hasn't progressed far in the volumes I've read.

It's a particularly soft & kawaii version of the Greek gods, but why not after all. I'm charmed by it. (I see a lot of discourse on the tumbles about how Greek gods are terrible and shitty in the ancient texts and therefore should only be terrible and shitty in modern fiction, but like, when I want terrible and shitty iterations of the Greek gods those ancient plays and poems already exist for me to enjoy...)

I did catch up on the last three volumes of Natsume's Book of Friends and it's still excellent and amazing and heartwarming & etc.

The more I think about A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon after the fact, the more I appreciate it. Such neat and tidy plotting, a nice spot of social commentary, and a fun story with cute illustrations, all in a slim 176 pages.

Butter by Asako Yuzuki is the best book about a female serial killer I read all year. I like how messy and textured it is, how atmospheric, how rounded the characterisation feels, the insights it has into Japanese culture and the way it treats women, bodies and food. It doesn't come to any comfortable conclusions, and yet the ending still feels optimistic, and I appreciate how much space it allowed for ambiguity.

lannamichaels

My notes on these. Still not much to say but it's been, quite frankly, better than Nashim.

( Read more... )

tozka

A metal sculpture style mailbox featuring a kid sitting on a tree trunk reading a book. A dog is on the ground looking up at the kid. The mailbox is at the top of the tree trunk. The whole thing looks old and tarnished, with green corrosion on the tree part.

This is super cute! Most of the mailboxes around here are buried in concrete pillars, so it was fun finding this one.

📸 All Photos

♥ ->

marycatelli

This may contain: two pictures with santa claus and the caption that says, what? homooisos or homouisios? you're not the real st nicholas

ysobel posting in

agonyaunt

[Originally posted in chat; I have added paragraphs for readability]

My brother has organized an ill-advised surprise party for my father's 75th birthday.

Our father is a complete introvert and also very exacting. He likes things to be a certain way, and gets tense and angry if everything is not perfectly to his taste. He hates loud places and large groups of people. Unfortunately, he's always used excessive alcohol to handle social engagements and gets belligerent when drunk.

Because of all of this, I was surprised when my brother, "James" told me that he'd planned a surprise birthday party of 30 guests for my dad at a new restaurant. The guest list includes the following extremely awkward confirmed attendees: our aunt (dad's semi-estranged sister) who is an overbearing religious fanatic none of us can stand; our mother (dad's ex-wife) who is resented by our dad and hated by our aforementioned aunt because of the divorce; and a number of neighbors who our dad has been feuding with off and on for the last 20 years.

I asked my mom why she was going along with this and she said James called in a big favor she owed him and she felt like she couldn’t say no, so he’s pulling out all the stops to make this happen.

I don't know how James could possibly think this is a good idea, except that he has a huge ego and believes this will be some fairy tale reunion where everyone will suddenly make nice. I don't mean that James is a bad guy but he has a tendency to steamroll over people and do things "for their own good." Every argument I've made against this party has prompted him to lecture me and act like he knows so much better because he's 7 years older than me.

It's true that my Dad can be difficult but I don't want him to feel ambushed on his birthday. If James keeps refusing to cancel should I warn my dad? Or do I just kick back with a glass of wine and watch the drama unfold?

( response and update )

Current Mood: amused

phys_social_feed

https://phys.org/news/2025-12-people-social-media-acquaintances-friends.html

Americans use the f-word more frequently on social media than Australians or Britons, but Australians are more creative in its use. The f-word is rarely used in social networks of fewer than 15 people, and people tend to swear more with acquaintances than with friends, according to a recent study from the University of Eastern Finland.

https://phys.org/news/2025-12-people-social-media-acquaintances-friends.html

sturgeonslawyer

This is slightly brilliant.

genarti

I have various longer posts to make (job transition news, a write-up of a truly hilarious theater experience, etc), but in the meantime, a quick post to let you know that the Murderfish anthology, which I have a story in, is now officially out and available for purchase!

Murderfish is, as it says on the tin, an anthology of stories about murderous fish. (Its predecessors were Murderbirds and Murderbugs, which cracks me up every time I think about it.) Each story features a different kind of sea life, as well as very cool art of them all! I haven't read all the rest yet, but I'm excited to, and it looks like there are a whole lot of genres involved. My story, "In Sheets of Seaweed," is about a woman in the simultaneously privileged and precarious position of being a prince's mistress, who dreams increasingly of sharks calling to her; I called it my "shark selkie" story for a long time before I thought of a title, and in fact after. I'm very fond of this story, and I'm delighted it's found a home at last.

The ebook is available here and the paperback here. The audiobook is coming soon, but hasn't been unveiled quite yet.

Those are both Amazon links, though not affiliate ones. If you're like me and prefer to avoid buying things through Amazon, full support, but for the moment that's all I have. I've asked if it'll be available on other sites as well, and I'll update when I get an answer.

ericcoleman

After much coding, waiting for Square, and gnashing of teeth, FilkConbobulation registration is live! Prereg is $50.00, it will be $60.00 at the door. There will be a student rate, that will be posted soon.

Folks who backed the GoFundMe do not have to go through the registration process. We know who you are (bwahahahaha).

Our special thanks to JT Traub, Rob Wynne, and Merav Hoffman for helping Lizzie get through the coding with an inkling of her sanity left (as much as she generally has).

Hotel registration is also live.

This is starting to look like an actual con!

filkconbobulated.org

ericcoleman posting in

filk

phys_social_feed

https://phys.org/news/2025-12-important-criminal-sentences-remorseful.html

The story lines of every episode of legal TV dramas, from Law & Order to Perry Mason, revolve around five key narrative moments: the crime, the arrest, the plea, the verdict, and the offender's emotional response to what they've done.

https://phys.org/news/2025-12-important-criminal-sentences-remorseful.html

cosmolinguist

angelofthenorth gave me my birthday presents today! I thanked her and said I was surprised because it's not my birthday yet. But V and I always have a joint party - after their birthday and before mine - and that's today.

She sensibly pointed out that they won't see me for my birthday, as I'll be off doing family xmas things by then.

So, yeah, why not, today's my birthday.

0ftgx

6 December 1989 - École Polytechnique de Montréal

Anne-Marie Edward - 21 years
Anne-Marie Lemay - 22 years
Annie St-Arneault - 23 years
Annie Turcotte - 20 years
Barbara Daigneault - 22 years
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz - 31 years
Geneviève Bergeron - 21 years
Hélène Colgan - 23 years
Maryse Laganière - 25 years
Maryse Leclair - 23 years
Maud Haviernick - 29 years
Michèle Richard - 21 years
Nathalie Croteau - 23 years
Sonia Pelletier - 28 years

lightbird

when she hasn't even started working on the first one she signed up for?

Yes she did.

College / University / Education	The Early Hours before Dawn	When I'm 64: Future	Vignette	Left Brain / Right Brain
Race Against Time	Summertime (and the Livin' is Easy)	Music	Season of Mists (Autumn Colours, Sensations, Activities and Festivals)	Hey, it's that guy: Minor characters
Speech-deprived	Diaries and Journals	Wild Card	Nightwear	Implacable
Water	Introspection	Canon Themes	Trousers (Pants)	Stream of Consciousness
Cooking	Protectiveness	Mistaken Identity	Eclipses and other Astronomical Events	Closets, caves and other tight spaces

dreamshark

Do you have an iPhone? I do, and have just been compliantly updating my IOS as recommended for the past year or so. Another recommended update rolled out today - and it updated me from IOS 18.something to 26.1!! What have I missed?

Apparently this is the big one everybody has been waiting for with bated breath - the Liquid Glass Update. Also the "Apple Intelligence" nonsense, but I don't care about that because it doesn't run on iPhone 13. It looks like they have mashed up the User Interface majorly (boo!) but also introduced an infinitude of opportunities for fiddling with your lock screen and wallpaper options, which I admit that I am powerless to resist.

My iPhone just emerged from a very long update with a cheery Hello! and is sitting there simmering, waiting for me to try to use it. *ulp*

If you just upgraded your iPhone, let me know what you found - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

----------------------
ETA: Huh. Changes aren't as big as I expected. I think I actually like the tweaks to the camera and Photos interfaces. The 3D lock screens look cool, but setting home screen wallpaper seems to be broken, so that's kind of a wash. There are apparently sweeping changes to Messages, none of which I understand how to use, but plain old text messages look fine. There's some kind of intrusive new Games App, which seems to be obsessed with tracking every game ever downloaded with my AppleID (90% of which are obsolete toddler games that I was loading onto an old iPad). Disturbingly intrusive and completely useless to me, but at least it's removable (unlike the old Game Center). I'm not sure I even understand what Liquid Glass is, but I don't see much difference anywhere.

sartorias

I need to remember to mention these (rare) things in case one or two of you have free time at 9:00a.m. Pacific time Sunday the 7th. B Cubed Press Sunday Brunch, on Youtube, hosts a live chat. Tomorrow I'm to be included, for what will begin as a chat about preparing for readings, but might go in any direction.