Bazalgette Embakment

Jan. 16th, 2026 07:00 am
[syndicated profile] diamondgeezer_feed

Posted by Unknown

In the 1860s Joseph Bazalgette built a huge tunnel under the Victoria Embankment to help solve London's sewage crisis. 150 years later engineers decided it needed urgent backup and set about building the Tideway Tunnel. One of the key sites was at Blackfriars Bridge where the Fleet sewer overspilled into the Thames at times of heavy flow, repeatedly damaging London's eco-credentials. A huge worksite thus had to be built in the heart of the City, the proposed solution an offshore wedge which could later be transformed into a new public space. When I wrote about the plans in 2016 the intention was for the extra three acres to open in 2022 with the 14 mile tunnel fully flushed by 2023. In fact the Tideway Tunnel first flowed last February and the additional public realm at Blackfriars only opened earlier this week. It's called the Bazalgette Embankment, and I have taken far too many photos of it. [25 photos]



It's enormous, indeed the largest single structure built into the River Thames since Bazalgette's initial work, and if you stand on Waterloo Bridge you can easily see how much it sticks out. Better to approach from Blackfriars Bridge however, partly because you get a much closer top-down view but also because a new staircase finally reconnects the pavement to the embankment below. They really want you to come down here and enjoy the new public realm, which makes a nice change after almost a decade of not being able to walk along this side of the riverbank at all. On the descent you can get up close to the floral ironwork beneath the main span and then, before you enter the Embankment proper, go peek at the massive bobbly intervention underneath the bridge. The Fleet used to emerge here from a piddly sluice but the entire riverbed's now been capped to ensure no brown sludge ever escapes again.



This is the thin end of the wedge so also the least decorous, but there are still several odd-shaped benches where you can rest and take in the riverside ambience. Part of the space is being taken up by a long pedestrian ramp descending from above and this has created an extensive undercroft sealed off by unpolished metal panels. A set of public toilets has been tucked away in the centre - yet to open - but the remainder is a mysterious secret lair from which workmen pushing barrows occasionally emerge. The ramp up top is a more tempting entrance for most visitors, passing a totem with all the project's background info before stepping down directly onto a long planted terrace. This maze of beds includes 71 young trees and its design is supposed to 'reference the path of the lost River Fleet' from woodland to meadow to marsh, although I confess I couldn't see it myself.



Scattered around the Embankment are five large black sculpted forms called The Stages, created by Nathan Coley. They're varied, dark and slabby, in some cases sheer surfaces and elsewhere something you can actually walk on. They also have names, so the thin pillar near the bridge is Kicker, the pair beside the river wall are Twins and the longest wiggle is Zigzag. The tallest sits in a stepped pool and is called Waterwall, so I assume it's meant to double up as a dribbly cascade for children's summer frolics. Best not imagine the actual liquid barrelling underneath on its way to Beckton Sewage Works. I liked the basalt quintet more before I read the associated artbolx (including claims that the 'playful and interactive assembly' creates a 'lyrical happenstance'), but they integrate well and I concur that the larger platforms could indeed double-up as a venue for cultural programming.



Along the former Embankment wall are several bronze lions with large mooring rings in their teeth. They're 1868 originals by Timothy Butler and line a mile of river, encouraging the urban legend that if the water level ever reaches the lions' mouths then London will flood. It won't happen here because they've been relocated from Bazalgette's original walls, but this has provided a rare opportunity to get up close to a leonine London icon rather than simply staring down from above. The uppermost lion has been nicknamed 'Roary' whereas the others await comical christening. Check the side of the westernmost lion for the plaque unveiled by King Charles when he visited in May to mark the tunnel's completion. The row of electronic bollards alongside has not yet had to be raised because the pavement connection remains a fenced-off worksite while final snagging works continue.



At the broad swooshy end of the Embankment the scale of the engineering becomes clearer. There's easily enough space here for an audience to watch a small performance or for stalls to be set-up for some organised event, even to play five-a-side kickabout. Look down and the reason for the lack of intermediate infrastructure should become clearer, it's because the paving is liberally scattered with rectangular access covers. They're needed because this public realm is really just useful camouflage for an awful lot of critical pipework above the main shaft, hence the phenomenal number of recessed slabs - I lost count around 70. The ribbed rotunda on the nearside has too small a diameter to cover the invisible drop shaft and according to original plans was intended to house a control cabin, but will perhaps end up as the inevitable cafe.



The western tip is where you'll find three twisty columns, more grey than black, a signature artwork also found at other Tideway sites along the Thames. They're actually ventilation shafts - best not think for exactly what - and their edges are inscribed with hard-to-read lines from commissioned verse by Dorothea Smartt. Ridiculously the poems are only available as graphics on the Tideway's website 'due to artistic restriction and copyright', whereas anyone can stand beside the sculpt-trumpets and read "The Furious Fleet flows red with Roman blood, Boudica battles bravely." Meanwhile alongside this poetic trio is a small raised terrace, large enough only for a few tables, and also a dead end so its purpose appears to be as a viewing platform. Maybe it'll be cappuccinos only later.



The Bazalgette Embankment is a welcome addition to the City of London's longstanding lack of public open space and a cunning solution to the problem of how to hide a former construction site in plain sight. It's also a veritable trip hazard throughout with so many steps, seated areas and changes of level around the central flat piazza that I anticipate a regular slew of accidents. I suspect the Embankment will look at its finest on a sunny day but I loved the glistening sheen created during yesterday's horrendous rain, weather which fortuitously discouraged other visitors and permitted me to create an album of essentially vacant photographs. Also I understand there's only one more of these riverside protrusions yet to open to the public, so when King Edward Memorial Park in Stepney joins the throng I should probably go out and catalogue all seven.

» 25 photos of the Bazalgette Embankment

London’s weekly railway news

Jan. 16th, 2026 07:00 am
[syndicated profile] ianvisits_feed

Posted by ianVisits

This is a weekly round-up of London’s rail transport news…

The image is from a January 2020 article: Star Trek takes over a London Underground station

London Underground

A disabled charity has criticised a campaign that has seen a London Underground line rebranded by Heineken 0.0 for Dry January. The Grocer

TfL has awarded a 16-year contract to Otis to service and modernise 172 of its escalators across the London Underground network. IanVisits

How London finally cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground ianVisits

Elizabeth line

A former takeaway site has been approved for longer opening hours in a bid to attract more Elizabeth Line commuter customers. Bucks Free Press

Mainline / Overground

The construction of HS2 was always going to miss its delivery target because the plan was rushed by ministers, the government’s former infrastructure chief has said. BBC News

Daily [Lumo] train service connecting Stirling and London to launch this year STV News

Eurostar carried a record 20 million passengers last year despite a post-Olympic slowdown in its ability to attract customers. Standard

Customer satisfaction at Enfield Chase Station is said to have “surged” since a revamp was undertaken last year, according to the rail firm which runs it. Enfield Dispatch

Three fire engines and around 15 firefighters were called to an electrical fire on a train track near Queens Road Peckham station. LFB

Eurostar carried a record 20 million passengers last year despite a post-Olympic slowdown in its ability to attract customers. Standard

Sleeper trains between London and the Scottish Highlands will start calling at Birmingham from Thursday night. Herald Scotland

DLR

Ticket checks ramped up on the DLR in fare evasion crackdown ianVisits

Miscellaneous

Labour council leaders in London have blocked a proposed review of the Freedom Pass that could have restricted the free travel benefits currently enjoyed by 1.2m older Londoners. Standard

An offender branded a ‘vulgar and sickening individual’ for assaulting a terrified passenger on the Tube is facing jail after he admitted carrying out more ‘predatory’ attacks on buses. Court News UK (£)

Man arrested over £260,000 graffiti spree on Northern line trains ianVisits

A pregnant Made in Chelsea star has criticised the men of London for not giving up their seats. Standard

An investigation has been launched after a double-decker bus crashed into a London Tube station. London Now

Caleb asked for a tunnel with a train inside for his 7th birthday cake. So his mum made it happen, London Underground style.⁣ BBC London

And finally: Londoners bared all on Sunday as they took part in the city’s iconic No Trousers Tube Ride. Standard

The image is from a January 2020 article: Star Trek takes over a London Underground station

Music Thursday

Jan. 15th, 2026 11:29 pm
muccamukk: Orville Peck in a red Nudie suit, singing and playing guitar, while a pink and white musical score swirl behind him. (Music: Orville Peck)
[personal profile] muccamukk

Based on how sad a lot of this album was, I had been wondering if William Prince was okay, but he sounds like he's doing well? This song is so pretty, anyway.
ride_4ever: (FireWhiskeyFic)
[personal profile] ride_4ever
The next Firewhiskey Fic event for the altered-states creation of fanworks along with lots of sociability amongst fellow participants will take place from Friday, February 13th to Sunday, February 15th. If you'd like to spend some time creating fanworks while either imbibing or doing the 420 in an environment of online partying with the FWF fen, join the comm at Firewhiskey Fic on Dreamwidth. No signups, no stress, no sobriety.

More info will be posted the week before the event.

Plato and the Lunar Alps

Jan. 16th, 2026 06:52 am
[syndicated profile] apod_feed

The dark-floored, 95 kilometer wide crater Plato and sunlit peaks of the The dark-floored, 95 kilometer wide crater Plato and sunlit peaks of the


Follow Friday 1-16-26

Jan. 16th, 2026 12:23 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [community profile] followfriday
Got any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).

Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".

106 ☆ nov - dec 2025 reading

Jan. 16th, 2026 01:23 am
tinkaton: yukiko amagi | persona 4 (♥︎ priestess)
[personal profile] tinkaton
New Year's resolution to update DW more: already failing!
New Year's resolution to start titling my posts: already achieved, A+

The final roundup for last year's reading! November and December book reviews. Lots of graphic novels and a highly anticipated sequel in this one. I don't know if I'm going to bother with a book 'year in review' or just do a general review meme, or maybe neither if I keep slacking off lol.



Read more... )
[syndicated profile] tim_harford_feed

Posted by Tim Harford

They say the company Zappos is harder to get into than Harvard. The company may sell shoes, but its mission is to deliver WOW, through a fun-focused, values driven company culture, making it one of the most coveted places to work in America. At the centre is CEO Tony Hsieh, obsessed with the hunt for happiness and driven by increasingly  bold – and strange – ideas about how to find it. 

Cautionary Club members get access to ad-free listening, monthly bonus episodes, monthly behind-the-scenes video conversations with the production team, and our monthly newsletter. Please consider joining if you would like to support what we do on Cautionary Tales. Thank you!

[Apple] [Spotify] [Stitcher]

Further reading

Tony Hsieh’s life story is told in Wonder Boy: Tony Hsieh, Zappos and the Myth of Happiness in Silicon Valley, by Angel Au-Yeung and David Jeans; Happy at Any Cost: The Revolutionary Vision and Fatal Quest of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, by Kirsten Grind and Katherine Sayre; and Tony’s own autobiographical business book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose.

This script also drew on Aimee Groth’s book The Kingdom of Happiness: Inside Tony Hsieh’s Zapponian Utopia, and reporting in the New YorkerNew RepublicFortuneThe AtlanticHBR8 News NowMedium, and an interview with Tyler Williams on Burner Podcast.

John Kay’s book is Obliquity: Why our goals are best achieved indirectly.

New Pin Map: Complete!

Jan. 15th, 2026 09:27 pm
canyonwalker: Walking through the desert together (2010) (through the desert)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
Replacing our USA travel map has been an odyssey. When I ordered the new one in early December I didn't think it would take just over 5 weeks until we hung the new one in its place. Though given the original had hung on our walls for going on 30 years what's an extra 37 days?

The delay happened first because getting the customized map printed and shipped took over a week. Then we delayed opening it as we were busy in the pre-holidays rush. Then we found the map was misprinted. Oh, no! The vendor courteously took full responsibility right away and printed and sent a new one, but again that process took over a week. It's only in the past week we've spent time moving our pin markers from the old map to the new one.

Moving 100s of pins from the old map to the new map (Jan 2026)

There were hundreds of pins in the map. We didn't count them precisely; that's just an estimate. Moving them was a laborious task. But it was a labor of love. Each time we removed a pin from the old map we noted the location it marked, recalled the time(s) we've been there, and inserted a new pin in the corresponding location on the new map.

Alas this labor of love was still labor. Moving all the pins made our hands achy, even with small pliers (you can see them at the bottom of the pic above) to help remove the old ones and press the new ones in. We worked on it across three sessions over the past week.

Our new pin map is complete! (Jan 2026)

But now it's done! And tonight we hung the new map on the wall in the place of the old one, in our upstairs landing.

What's custom, BTW? Aside from the frame we picked, which was one of about 8 choices the maker offered, we customized the message in the map legend.

We customized our pin map with a family motto in the legend (Jan 2026)

It's our riff on the theme of the 1976 Billy Joel song You're My Home. Y'know, the one that goes:

🎵 Home can be the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Indiana's early morning dew
High up in the hills of California
Home is just another word for you. 🎵
We've been to all those places. And hundreds more.


taz_39: (Default)
[personal profile] taz_39
**Disclaimer** The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer. DO NOT RESHARE ANY PART OF THIS POST WITHOUT PERMISSION. Thank you.

This post covers Wednesday and Thursday.

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WEDNESDAY

I did decide to go to the fine arts museum today! Packed a lunch and rode the light rail over, ate lunch outside (it was thankfully nice enough for that) and then went exploring!! (Please remember that you can click on ANY picture to open in a new tab and then enlarge by clicking it again)
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The museum is massive, taking up three buildings connected by an underground tunnel. I decided to walk to the farthest building first and work my way back, hopefully ensuring that I'd see as much as possible while working my way back toward the main entrance rather than away from it.

The connecting tunnel was very pretty! There were two parts, one was an optical illusion that made it seem like you were walking in a tight tunnel when actually it was open on either side (no footage because there were a lot of people in there) and the other part was simply vibrantly colorful and fun to walk through :)

(CLICK HERE to see my idiot face walking through this tunnel.)
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The farthest building housed most of the modern/contemporary art. Though I didn't linger in EVERY gallery, I did walk through them all, pausing to read when something caught my eye or seemed interesting. Most people seemed to stick to the main building, so often I had whole galleries to myself for several minutes at a time.
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There were a lot of interactive pieces here and that was a lot of fun. Some art you had to walk back and forth in front of to see correctly (optical illusion/spatial stuff), others needed you to push a button to activate or were motion activated. This one was immersive; it's a piece called “Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity” by Yayoi Kusama.

(DreamWidth people, CLICK HERE to see this art since I can't embed from facebook.)


Here was a piece within the Gyula Cocice Intergalactic exhibit. This particular one reminded me of pointillism illustrations in a book I had as a kid.
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This was one of my favorites that I saw today. It's by a Latin American artist I believe, but I forgot to take pic of the description.
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Walter Draesner, "A Danse Macabre." This was a book collection of 22 silhouette papercuts, opened to this page. I want to see them ALL!
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A wall clock in a modern furniture section. The little cloud in the circle ticked the seconds while the lightning was the minute/hour hands. Absolutely adorable.
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Ernie Barne's "The Sugar Shack," depicting people dancing at a juke joint. Loved the movement and energy, and having just seen the movie Sinners which takes place in a juke joint this had a stronger meaning.
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The next building housed a lot of international collections. In the Islamic Countries gallery, this silver filigree diffuser. The detail was so intense. I could have stared for hours.
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I always enjoy seeing ivory art/carvings. Loved this ivory powder horn with so many animals carved into it! And I love the little organic fractures and lines that you can see in the ivory.
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This display was called "Power of Flight" and was in the Peruvian gallery. As a fan of raptors and flying things, I thought all of these were beautiful. There's even a little silver bat near the bottom right (I know it looks gold but in person it was silver.)
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The Art of Africa section was very big and featured art and relics from many African nations. This elephant mask was a favorite.
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A huge display describing the staves/staffs held by the linguists of Ghana, who were counselors to the chiefs and also relayed the word and law of the chief to the people. The ornate staves were a sign of authority, and the unique work at the top of each one was usually centered on a proverb or morals/values lessons that people were expected to remember and abide by. Zoom in on the picture to see the top of each staff, they are very interesting!
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I had stopped to rest and sort photos once or twice, but otherwise after about two hours I'd walked nearly 3 miles and made it back to the main building. I could feel that I was running out of energy for looking at exquisite things, but this last building only had two floors. There were unfortunately some large and rowdy school groups in the galleries here, so I couldn't get close to a lot of the art and/or had to circle back a few times to see things I'd missed due to crowding. But that's ok, I still got to see a lot and it seemed like everyone was enjoying the museum :)

I also want to mention this, meant as a positive, um...advisal. There were two women who were clearly there for social media purposes. One was dressed beautifully, and the other followed her around with a camera, taking photos of her next to art or looking at art from a variety of angles. Although it was obvious what they were doing, they had paid admission, they were quiet and respectful, they didn't touch or damage anything, and they didn't get in anyone's way or spend any more time in front of the artwork than anyone else. The advisal is this: if people are doing an activity that is NOT disruptive, but YOU have a problem with it...the problem is YOU. Whether it's social media photoshoots or something else. We can CHOOSE to be annoyed by things that do not involve us, or we can CHOOSE to move on with our day unaffected.

Where's the linguist's staff depicting the moral of THAT story? Lol.

The ground floor had an "Art and Life in Imperial Rome" exhibit. Mostly statues, pottery, pillars...the stuff that we all associate with Roman and Greek culture. I liked this chunk of a frieze depicting an angel...the movement of the angel coupled with the interesting shape of the slab was aesthetically pleasing. And with the huge student groups filling up this gallery, it was one of few pieces I was able to get close enough to to photograph.

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The second floor had Impressionist and Renaissance and churchy art, but also a “Louvre Couture” dresses exhibit. Thirty-six dresses/ensembles were designed by known fashion houses to complement the exhibits where they were placed. I saw most of the dresses/outfits, but these two were my favorite.
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This one was I believe meant to be inspired by chain mail/armor. I'd wear it!!
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There are a few more pictures and descriptions on my facebook.

I rode the light rail back feeling like my eyeballs were just full of color and form :) Even having walked 3 1/2 miles and spent 2 1/2 hours in there, I STILL had not seen everything! (For example I completely forgot about the sculpture garden!) I will have to go back someday. MFAH is absolutely wonderful, highly recommend to anyone visiting Houston (and don't forget the Natural Science Museum which is also incredible, I've visited that one three times!!)

Back home I grabbed a snack and some rest, then typed this up, ate dinner, and walked to the theater. Nothing new there, just a regular show with an announcement after the bows about Disney's Stage Connect, which is a FREE program allowing grade schools to put on Disney musicals FOR FREE, plus additional FREE teacher training and coaching to make it happen. With so many schools not even offering arts programs or considering them expendable in favor of, say, sports, I think this is an AWESOME program! Here's a chance that kids might not otherwise have, to experience the arts and what it's like to be a part of a stage show.

------------------------------------------------------------------

THURSDAY

Up a bit early from traffic noise, and didn't have any plans. Breakfast, working on Fayetteville AR Foodie Finds, and probably spent two hours or so working on my masterclass powerpoint. In fact when Jameson texted to share how his day was going, I was surprised to see that it was already past noon! But I am nearly done making it. Even with AI help, shoving text and images and bullet points around feels so clunky. It looks "OK," but I am definitely a PPT amateur!

Lunch and getting my hands on some carbon fiber trombone mutes via an order through Schmitt Music. Yes I know, I just had 3D-printed mutes made for me this past year, but after buying a new bass trombone they don't fit properly in the new one's bell. After asking the maker several times (over the course of months) to send me resized corks--which can fit in a letter envelope and would take him 5 minutes to slap a stamp on and send--months later it's clear that he's not going to do it. So I'm calling it a loss and starting over. Maybe on the next layoff I can return his mutes to him for a partial refund.

Debated doing anything today, but I just don't have anything TO do that's not going to cost money. I just bought a trombone, am still paying off Christmas purchases, and will be buying a LOT of tickets for family in Philly. The museum was great, treating myself to the movies was great, and I'll do one Foodie Find on Friday, and that'll do me for Houston :)

The evening show was good, at least for me personally. It has taken NINE stinking days but I'm finally back in "tour mode." 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


Friday: One evening show. Walking to a grocery to pick up some travel foods, and I found a random Vietnamese restaurant known for banh xeo (one of my favorites!) so that will be my Foodie Find! 

Saturday and Sunday: Two-show days, no plans except to pack and prepare for Oklahoma City!

(no subject)

Jan. 15th, 2026 08:56 pm
lycomingst: (Default)
[personal profile] lycomingst
Another adventure in home ownership. It's the coldest week so far this winter so naturally my electricity failed. Only in about half of the house. I still had hot water, kitchen stove and internet. The bedroom was dark and I had to move the frig to the other side of the room. It happened after I plugged a space heater in a socket, which was asking too much of it.

So I had to call somebody, a stranger had to come to my home and I had to talk about it on the telephone. I worked myself up to it after feeding the birds, retrieving the trash bin from the sidewalk, taking a shower. Usual delaying tactics. I was told somebody would be here Friday afternoon. Ok. I took off my 'meeting people clothes' and got into my robe, which is warmer. Five minutes later I see the company's car in my driveway. It turns out the owner just stopped by to check out the problem.

He was here about 4 minutes. Just did something at the electric panel and everything was on the way it should be. Now I had turned the main off and on, as I believe he did. But nothing changed. So now I look like an idiot or maybe just a confused old person.

But I'm back in the bedroom watching tv, so all's well. Electricity hates me.
sasha_feather: Retro-style poster of skier on pluto.   (Default)
[personal profile] sasha_feather
Gratitude / Self-reassurance / fighting against negativity bias!

1. The animals seem happy and content. I don't go to the barn every day and sometimes I feel bad about that, but I suspect I'm stressing over nothing, or channeling other stress into this area. The cat and dog make me laugh and are good companions. Again I stress sometimes with Sally the dog, but, it's probably easier to be crabby with her than with my family.

2. The house is reasonably clean, it's warm inside, the hot water is working, etc.

3. I have some friendly and wonderful neighbors.

4. My parents are doing well. My mom is so much better now that she's in the assisted living place rather than the nursing home. Just a huge relief.

5. I got to chat with two good friends today, Jesse and Emily, and it was a real mood lifter.

6. TV I'm enjoying: The Pitt, FallOut, Heated Rivalry.

7. On YouTube I watch the Handsome Podcast almost every single day. This is 3 queer comedians (Tig Notaro, Fortune Feimster, and Mae Martin) chatting and being silly.

8. I've been playing Terra Nil on my laptop and I can't rec it highly enough. I feel like it is meditative in the best way and really helps my brain chill out. The game play is very similar to Sim City, but instead of building a city you get to reclaim wasteland and turn it into wilderness. Very easy to learn, but challenging enough to keep me engaged. Click-only means it's easy to play in bed with my beloved Left-handed mouse, and doesn't bother my right shoulder. Sound design is relaxing, the graphics are pretty. Minimal reading makes it migraine compatible for me, and i can control the motion. It's not timed. Thank you to my friend eruthros for buying this game for me.

Things

Jan. 16th, 2026 03:38 pm
vass: Small turtle with green leaf in its mouth (Default)
[personal profile] vass
Books
So far this year (since January 1) I've read Margaret Killjoy's The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice, listened to the audiobook of Alexandra Rowland's Running Close to the Wind, am reading Victoria Goddard's Plum Duff, and started Evelyn Araluen's The Rot.

Games
Quoting my own complaint elsewhere: the worst part of Hollow Knight is the runbacks. Each time my desktop switches itself off I need to turn it on again, restore my browser tabs and do other "just booted" chores, see what troubleshooting data I can get now, check what steps I can take next, then start the game again to find out whether whatever I tried this time worked. Then two minutes later my computer crashes.

Have also been doing Redactle and Squardle with [personal profile] kaberett, and cryptic crosswords with [personal profile] shehasathree.

Tech
As you may gather from the previous section of this post, I am having technical difficulties. So it goes.

Crafts
No active progress yet, but the yarn I ordered arrived. This is for weaving with my mother's old knitter's loom which she gave me for my birthday last year.

Actually, no, I'll share the complaints I emitted while trying to decide what yarn to order (huge thanks to Iphys on the Lays server for sorting me out on this.)

cut for length )

Garden
No ripe tomatoes yet, but they're still alive. Raspberry bush looking very sad indeed. Harvested a little bit of parsley and oregano for cooking purposes.

Cats
Didn't enjoy the hot weather last week. Neither did I.

Nature
Hot and windy. (This is an understatement. Last week there was a heatwave and my whole state, as well as those nearest it, was at either "extreme" or "catastrophic" fire danger. I was in one of the "extreme" parts, and unpleasantly aware that on the fire danger scale they use, "catastrophic" is 100 out of 100. Meaning, your area can be at 99 and yet not catastrophic.)

It cooled down after that, but summer is very much not over, and there are places all over the state that are still on fire.

Daily Happiness

Jan. 15th, 2026 07:44 pm
torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
1. Tuxie was gone for three days but back this morning like nothing happened. He does this occasionally so I don't get worried, per se, but I am always glad to see him back and know he's safe. I wish he could tell us about his adventures when he's gone!

2. I have a tattoo!



I'll post another picture once it's healed. The yellow especially is very dark in the picture because it was the last color she did and it had a lot of blood welling up still. But it's exactly what I wanted and I'm very happy with it.

Overall the session took nearly three hours but the first was just discussing the design and prep, and the actual needling was about an hour and forty-five minutes. It's large, and since it's a wrap around, it's kind of fiddly, but since it's just color fill and not a lot of intricate line work or anything, it went pretty quickly overall.

It did hurt a fair bit, especially since there were some boney areas, but mostly I was just very tense from having to hold still. I felt like how I feel at the dentist, which always leaves me with a tension headache. I took some advil when I got home for the headache, but my leg itself didn't really hurt once she was done.

3. My usual Friday meetings were cancelled and the stuff I need to do tomorrow doesn't require accessing our system (which I hate doing from home because we're not able to use a VPN anymore and have to remote into a PC at the office, which is a pain), so I'm going to relax and work from home tomorrow.

4. I love getting pics of the cats looking up like this. It makes their cute faces even cuter!

kaylarudbek: Justice seated in the heavens with open eyes and an uplifted sword (Default)
[personal profile] kaylarudbek
So I didn’t get the position that I had applied for and I will be working with the person who did get the job.  My annoyances are:
1) not notified that I didn’t get the job (I’m a contractor although the contract is long-term, I haven’t received any complaints so far)
2) person hired has less legal experience than me (at least going by attorney bar number which is an indicator of experience level; if they had hired someone with more legal experience I would be less annoyed; at least person hired has a different technical background which is probably a good match for the job, but I am still concerned that they don’t have enough experience)
3) serious questions about technical decisions being made at high levels 
4) serious doubts about the morality and loyalty of the high levels 
5) sick and tired of wondering “who goes Nazi” about my coworkers 

So I started putting my resume out on LinkedIn and doing the “easy apply” route tonight.  Wish me luck and a better match for my skills, experience, and technical background. 

I should also start learning Mandarin, Japanese, and/or Korean as these are going to be the languages of STEM for the 21st century. 

I had a dream a few weeks ago about applying for Ph.D programs in chemistry, and saying flat out during the interview when they asked why I was going back at my age, “the only reason I am applying is to get my ticket punched so that I can apply for different legal jobs than I currently can” (patent law specifically will call out the technical background desired in the job description e.g. electrical engineering or biochemistry background).   I woke up before I got a response from the professor interviewing me so I don’t know if that was persuasive or not.  


Poem: "There's an Art to It"

Jan. 15th, 2026 09:13 pm
ysabetwordsmith: A paint roller creates an American flag, with the text Arts and Crafts America. (Arts and Crafts America)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is the linkback perk for the July 5, 2022 Poetry Fishbowl, originally hosted by Dreamwidth user Dialecticdreamer. It is spillover from the March 1, 2022 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from Dreamwidth users Heartsinger and Zeeth_kyrah. It also fills the "Colored Pencils" square in my 3-1-22 card for the National Crafting Month Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series Arts and Crafts America.

Read more... )

Hobble

Jan. 16th, 2026 02:41 am
[syndicated profile] blarg_feed

Posted by mhoye

Untitled

I saw somebody recently – sorry, can’t find the quote – arguing that people shouldn’t be remaking beloved classic movies, but should go looking for movies with a solid premise that didn’t quite live up to their potential.

I found myself thinking about that quote and Monument Valley as I found myself playing through Hob, an odd little 2017 adventure game set in a semi-clockwork world full of curious robots, strange machinery and oddball biologies.

Monument Valley isn’t a great game, as far as being a game is concerned. It’s pretty enough, but it’s more of a matryoshka jack-in-the-box than anything; you turn the crank on it until the next level pops out, and then you do that again and again until you’re out of levels. An oddly cute story doesn’t really hide the fact that the amount of problem solving involved is minimal and after a while uninteresting.

Hob isn’t quite that, though it starts out that way. The last game from the studio that made Torchlight 1 and 2, it seems to have landed without making much of a lasting impact. Not long after it shipped Runic Games disbanded, and I guess that was the end of that.

When I say “didn’t quite live up to their potential”, Hob is… well, there’s a lot of it. The game full of the kind of spacious quasi-open exploration, world-machine mechanisms writ large and hints of off-frame vastness that I love, all with environmental worldbuilding galore, it feels almost like an early proto-Tunic but…

The game is almost there, in so many little ways. There’s no verbs here you haven’t seen before, tropes so rote I almost laughed. You fall through solid ground and out the bottom of the world now and then. Fast hit, heavy hit, shield and roll, more than enough to make monsters with near-zero strategem in them tedious. Push that cube onto that button. Even the control scheme is just kind of jank, with modern conveniences and timings just off enough to feel less than fluid.

Such of it is not quite rough but not quite ready. If you go exploring around the margins, finding those hidden doors and secret platforms as explorers do in these games, you can find any number of hidden secrets, and … they’re all just jars of coins. Elsewhere amid the periodic glass walls you’ll find monsters you can escape through the magic power of “climb stairs”. The UI is genuinely ugly, and the world doesn’t need control scheme innovation when it comes to the jump button! There’s one right answer to this!

On the other hand: it is gorgeous. The game is beautiful, the world-machines you traverse and manipulate, the wildlife inhabiting them are beautiful. The structure of the world, in terms of how you traverse and unlock it, is exceptional. It takes a bit of time to get going – it does feel like you’re turning the crank on a pretty machine for a little while – but as an inhabitable, traversible puzzle box Hob is excellent.

Apparently Hob got a bunch of middling, seven out of ten reviews back in the day and as far as I can tell it’s been kind of forgotten since; it’s a shame, but you can see why; Miyamoto once famously said that a game is only late until it’s done, but if it’s bad it’s bad forever; this game needed six more months of work that it’s never going to get. It’s a very pretty but only OK game, and the most disappointing thing about it is that you can see all the ingredients of a great game there, not quite touching, not quite fitting together.

More Cookbooks

Jan. 15th, 2026 08:32 pm
days_unfolding: (Default)
[personal profile] days_unfolding
I’m buying more “Good Energy” and “Clean Eating” cookbooks. I need to build up a set of recipes to make. And I need to work HARD on the kitchen this weekend.

I forgot to mention that I ordered herbs for my Aerogarden yesterday. I'll have fresh herbs with which to cook!

Woke up a little after 7 AM. Lily had a bottle cap with which she was playing. Gracie took her sweet time coming inside. Bella stole her donut. Got my weary butt into the shower.

I was coughing up a storm while I was eating granola. Don't know why. I’m still congested and cranky about it.

Gracie wants to see what Bella is barking at.

I asked the electricians if they would take an electronic check, but no. They said that it was okay if I mailed one, but my peel-and-stick envelopes are not sticking, so I included some in a Walmart order. I'll mail it tomorrow.

I'm having a "cat on computer" crisis. Yesterday, they shut down my work computer three times!

I'm thinking that I'm not going to feel up to going to the DMV tomorrow. I'll set a goal to have the Kia jump-started this weekend and will go next week. Oh, I need to mail the check! Hmm. Have it jump-started tomorrow? Saturday?

Slapped some makeup on because I have an on-camera meeting this afternoon plus therapy. Nap time. Sigh. Dog wrestling on the bed. They finally settled down. I wasn’t able to fall asleep though. Gracie is using me as a heated pillow and I hate to move. I'm up but have a strong impulse to go to sleep. Early night tonight I think.

Uh-oh. The tingling is starting up in my thumb again.

Therapy was okay. I didn't have a lot to talk about. She asked if I was feeling more settled now that things were being accomplished (we were talking about the electricity in the garage), and I said "No." I need to declutter first.

Hmm. If I want to use weight-loss drugs (and I’m not sure that I do), I should use them before getting Medicare. I’ve heard that Medicare doesn’t cover them.

Fed us all. The dogs came in as soon as I opened the door, which left me wondering what the catch was.

I’m tired. I’m going to bed soon.

Read "Hordes of the Khan"

Jan. 15th, 2026 08:19 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
My partner Doug tipped me to "Hordes of the Khan" by Scott R. Brooks, a Johnny Quest fancomic.

Check out the "Quest for Knowledge" page. That is very typical of comics in Terramagne, which often throw in some fun facts about the setting, history, flora and fauna, etc. even if the story is wholly fictional.

mike's unreasonably messy to-do list

Jan. 15th, 2026 09:19 pm
seraphikiss: (orpheus 4)
[personal profile] seraphikiss

books i’m reading


Read more... )

books to read


Read more... )

books on hiatus


Read more... )


fics to update


Read more... )

fanfics to rewrite


Read more... )

fic events


Read more... )

one shots to work on


Read more... )

taking a step back

Jan. 15th, 2026 09:05 pm
seraphikiss: (joker 7)
[personal profile] seraphikiss
so i've been kind of thinking about it for some time now, and i think i need to take a long break from the internet. meaning, i might check my dreamwidth once a day, but that's it. i'll still use discord, just not as often. and i also will write here and there using ellipsus.

i bought the first six books of heaven's official blessing and i want to read more anyways. i need to get into a new fandom, and i'm really excited to read these books.

i might try to set a schedule. maybe i'll start by maybe posting once a day, if not maybe i'll just post when i have something to say (which... i always do).

something else: it would be kind of fun to treat DW like a proper journal. i might share pictures of travels and miscellaneous things. i also want to maybe keep a reading journal, i have one somewhere in my room that i haven't touched yet.

i'll also write my live reactions to the books i'm reading!

after i post this, i'm going to make a masterlist of things i need to get done. i do have a list of events i've signed up for but i kind of want to compile a large to-do list. i also have a private entry that contains journal entry ideas too (you can't see it since it's for me, but it's nothing exciting).

so... yeah that's it i think.

The Slow Passage Of Time

Jan. 15th, 2026 09:49 pm
[syndicated profile] questionable_content_feed

I think Hannelore is about 28 in comic time now but I also reserve the right to change this if/when it becomes necessary or I feel like it

alchemicink: Closeup of hand writing with a pen (Writing hand)
[personal profile] alchemicink
(Giggling quietly because "trust the process" to me is a reference to the Philadelphia 76ers 🤭 this has nothing to do with the actual post. It was just amusing joke to myself. IYKYK)

Anyway...

Snowflake Challenge: A flatlay of a snowflake shaped shortbread cake, a mug with coffee, and a string of holiday lights on top of a rustic napkin.


Challenge #8

Talk about your creative process.


Oh this is gonna be a rambly answer... 😅

Read more... )

(no subject)

Jan. 15th, 2026 06:43 pm
shadaras: A phoenix with wings fully outspread, holidng a rose and an arrow in its talons. (Default)
[personal profile] shadaras
Sometimes adulthood is going "oh wow for once I don't have anything I need to do once I get off work" and promptly going and doing an errand and then washing dishes and doing laundry once getting home.

Assorted brief notes:


1.
My dojo is doing kyu testing this coming Saturday, which will be delightful. The two people testing are more than ready for these tests. (There's another person who we've been trying to get to test for years and it's just a matter of "please come consistently for a few months and take this test already!" at this point.)


2.
Wednesday evening classes are just. Draining. I do not like needing to be at school from 5pm-8pm. I didn't even when I was in college! Now it's just like "I wake up at 4:30am because of work, why must I suffer like this."

Also next week is going to be very boring because this week was a "oh shit the guest instructor suddenly can't make it" week and so they sort of half-assed an unprepared version of what they were gonna do next week. So. You know. I understood what they were teaching from the half-assed version, the teachers know that, but since most of the cohort was like ???, next week will be them going step-by-step through it with more prep. Which will be useful, and is good pedagogy, but is also going to Bore Me.


3.
h/t to [personal profile] trobadora for talking about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which mostly got me going back to Star Trek: Discovery, since Academy is set after Disco.

which means I am currently re-watching the first episode of s3, because I watched the first two episodes when they first aired and then fell off because... idk, it was Oct/Nov 2020 and I was running headfirst into QZGS and infinite flow cnovels...? But hey, Disco is a fun show, I'm so fond of Michael Burnham, and s3 is in some ways a soft reboot due to being right after the timeskip, so! Looking forward to actually getting to know the future timeline.

I do think that a huge amount of why I fell off is just... 2020 being 2020. Because I don't think I had nearly as much fun with this the first time I watched it, and now I'm just like "wow this is such good tropey fun, s3e1 is using so much good trope stuff to set up Michael/Book".


4.
god I feel like I had some other things. hm.

A podcast reminded me that Escaflowne exists, and that it's an anime that I probably would have been obsessed with as a teenager if I'd seen it then. Mecha and guys with wings. Normal things. xD I feel like it should be on crunchyroll but it's not? Alas. Probably for the best if I'm going to actually watch Star Trek right now, but I do want to at some point experience this show.


5.
Work is very nonsense.

...I think I was going to give examples, but, idk. just. nah. it's! a lot! and mostly not outright bad, just tiring, and takes too much time, as work does.

How retro am I?

Jan. 15th, 2026 07:30 pm
lauradi7dw: (abolish ICE)
[personal profile] lauradi7dw
It is still possible to file taxes on paper, by mail. I have an online account, and the government suggests filing online. The easiest way would be to use Turbotax (or the HR Block equivalent). I am peeved by how much lobbying both of those companies did to make it hard for people to file for free. I would not qualify for the free filing anyway, I'm just mad on principle.

https://fortune.com/2023/04/17/taxpayer-advocates-irs-free-electronic-tax-filing-system-intuit-hr-block-spent-millions-lobbying-against/

snowflake challenge 08

Jan. 15th, 2026 07:00 pm
seraphikiss: (ithaqua 2)
[personal profile] seraphikiss
day eight of the [community profile] snowflake_challenge! a bit late but it's fine. click here to see all of my snowflake 2026 posts! ✧*。

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

[community profile] snowflake_challenge challenge #8: Talk about your creative process.

hmm... this one i'd have to really think about, since i'm a huge pantser and i tend to just wing all of my fics. in my previous snowflake entry, i mentioned that a lot of my fic ideas are based off dreams. which is true! my joscarl fantasia au was actually based on a dream i had about the manhwa, the queen's knight.

but let's talk about the process. which... isn't a lot, to be honest.

my writing process )

An Insignificant Detail

Jan. 15th, 2026 06:26 pm
michaelboy: (Default)
[personal profile] michaelboy


It probably doesn't make much sense, but I prefer eating pistachios by cracking them out of the shell.
I know, I could buy them pre-shelled and simply stuff them in my mouth but, for some reason, I prefer to slowly work at each one separately.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Jan. 16th, 2026 12:23 am
trobadora: (Art Trek - Michelangelo by mrs_spock)
[personal profile] trobadora
I had a bad day for RL reasons I don't want to get into, so I just watched the pilot of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy to distract myself before bed.

Anyone else seen it yet? I really liked it! It's very Trek. :D

(And I can't remember anyone's names yet, but Holly Hunter's character is my favourite already.)

a productive writing day

Jan. 15th, 2026 06:22 pm
seraphikiss: (orpheus 4)
[personal profile] seraphikiss
i posted about this on fandom.ink, a mastadon server that i'm giving a try. it's very quiet and i enjoy it a lot. not much traffic. but since it has a 500 character limit i might as well talk more about my writing here.

i found | miklan & byleth


for [community profile] ficwip's genuary jubilee event, i wrote yet another fic of miklan and byleth as a duo. this time the prompt was found family, which is one of my favorite platonic tropes. i found is kind of a shorter fic than i wanted it to be, but i'm really proud of how it ended.

it has a simple ending, and it's a quiet conversation between miklan, someone who has never really had a family, and byleth, someone who has a father to protect her.

miklan feels out of place in a lot of my fics. he's a bandit, thug, criminal. byleth is the opposite; she delivers justice, whether it's in the name of the goddess or underneath edelgard's banner. i kind of imagine that i found is an AU where, for the longest time, byleth and jeralt were still mercenaries long before byleth met the three house leaders.

i imagine that at one point, byleth was the one who found miklan years ago, wounded and on the brink of death. hence where the title of the fic comes from, which is also named after an amber run song.

miklan is sometimes difficult to depict in situations involving family. i imagine that he hasn't felt the love of a mother in years, and so love is a foreign concept to him. when byleth tended to his wounds when she was nine years old, i feel like miklan, at the time, suspected a trap. that byleth would patch him up and kick him into the dirt. miklan is a cynical person, he always has been, and i do think he wouldn't have trusted byleth if he were older.

since this story takes place during the pre-timeskip, i kind of imagine that miklan is around his mid-20's and byleth is 21. even though it's been over a decade since they first met, miklan is still not used to the mercenary life. he's used to raids, theft, murder. he isn't used to honor codes or protection. sure, he's a brilliant leader and he does care for his crew, but do they care about him?

that's the question i kind of wanted to answer in my other miklan/byleth fic.

someone to hate | orphjosrick


i posted chapter two of my orpheus/joseph/frederick fic, someone to hate. it's a slow burn, and i will admit, this chapter was a little slower than i'd like it to be. it explores more of how frederick feels about joseph, about how orpheus's behaviors are making frederick feel uncomfortable and replaced.

joseph, who i'm portraying as autistic (using my personal experiences and symptoms), is very observant. i imagine that frederick thinks that he might be too observant.

on the other hand, frederick can't blame himself for being captivated by joseph. in this fic, joseph is frederick's new housemate. orpheus suggested that joseph could fit in with frederick.

but it's later revealed that joseph and orpheus are collaborating together on orpheus's novel, identity v (yes, this is a little tongue-in-cheek easter egg). joseph takes photographs for the novel, while orpheus writes it.

frederick, a musician, isn't sure where he stands.

he's been orpheus's best friend for over two decades, and now it feels like the relationship is slipping. but is it?

i'm pretty happy with how chapter two turned out. and i'm also pretty excited about writing chapter three.

第五年第六天

Jan. 16th, 2026 07:51 am
nnozomi: (Default)
[personal profile] nnozomi posting in [community profile] guardian_learning
部首
心 part 17
惑, confusion; 惜, to pity; 惦, to remember pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=61

语法
2.17 "About to..." with 要/快要/快/就要...了
https://www.digmandarin.com/hsk-2-grammar

词汇
称赞, praise (pinyin in tags)
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/

Guardian:
不能亲眼瞧瞧看看真是可惜了, it's a real shame I can't see it myself
我快要迟到了, I'm gonna be late
[no 称赞]

Me:
我好几次惦记过了。
你的称赞让他们真的很高兴。

Soundbite

Miscellaneous. Eclectic. Random. Perhaps markedly literate, or at least suffering from the compulsion to read any text that presents itself, including cereal boxes.

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