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350/365: Ludlow Castle above Dinham Bridge
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All right, only the one castle. I did acquire two shoes, though! A nice pair of only very slightly worn Clarks for a tenner in the Blue Cross shop. Result, that is! As the caption will tell you, I was in Ludlow today, for the first time in a while. Still some snow in patches on Clee Hill, and it must have been fairly deep there judging by the remnants of snowdrifts. This is Dinham Bridge, much the newer of the town's two bridges over the River Teme having been built in 1823. Above looms Ludlow Castle, once the seat of the Council of Wales and the Marches and with a history dating back to the 11th century; unlike many other Norman castles, there was no earlier wooden structure: this was stone from the start. The outer bailey wall you can see here dates from the late 12th century.

Current Mood: chipper

dark_heroine posting in

addme

Nane: Kim

Age: 45

I mostly post about: Everyday life, thoughts, feelings. My version of a walk-a-bout in this season of life. I have made a lot of changes in the last few months, and I have a re-new excitement for...things, everything. I do have my moments of gloom and doom because human, but I don't get stuck there.

My hobbies are: Reading, running, exercising, gaming, movies, music/concerts, anything that induces frisson. Who doesn't like free dopamine?

My fandoms are: Star Trek , Star Wars, X-Files. I was born in the 80's.

I'm looking to meet people who: anyone with an open heart and an open mind.

My posting schedule tends to be: I am going to try to post every day, since I do have a physical journal that I jot things down.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: don't be mean. You can be angry, sad or whatever you are feeling, but when you take it and turn it around on me, we're done. I've been a punching bag for far too long and for far too many people in my life. Not going to tolerate it.

Before adding me, you should know: I'm human, just like you. Searching for connection.

adrian_turtle

Is anyone I know going to Arisia this weekend? I'm thinking of going for a day but haven't decided which day. Masking is the only way I feel safe going to this kind of event, but masking also makes it harder to make a long relaxed day of it because I can't go out to a restaurant with half a dozen friends for 90 minutes in the middle of the day. Even so, I'd like to see people if that's possible.

adrian_turtle

We went to the Boston rally against ICE last Saturday. One of my study partners asked afterwards if it made me fired up with solidarity, and inspired to resist more strongly? Not really. Not this time. But my presence made the crowd a bit bigger, and I hope a bigger crowd inspired others incrementally more.

I saw a kid near the T station, on the edge of the crowd, and heard her ask, "Mommy, what's ab abol abolish?" She was of an age to be fairly new to reading, so she had to sound out the word on the "Abolish ICE" signs. Her mother said abolishing was when you got rid of something completely by making a law against it, like the abolition of slavery. It made me wonder about little kids tagging along when when Bostonians marched for abolition in the 19th century.

dolorosa_12

I am absolutely flattened by work this week, and next week promises to be more of the same. It's the point in the academic year when all the Master's and PhD students have to hand in literature reviews and project proposals, and all of them suddenly panic and realise that the classes I taught them (carefully timetabled to coincide with the point at which they were meant to start work on their literature reviews and project proposals) actually contained crucial, useful information and they probably should have been paying more attention and doing the suggested follow-up activities while what I taught them was fresh in their minds. Because they haven't done this, they all, of course, contact me at once, now. It's good to be needed — I wouldn't have a job, otherwise — but I wish they didn't all need me so much and all at the same time.

Anyway, let's use another

snowflake_challenge prompt for the Friday open thread: Talk about your creative process.

I know a lot of you have already answered this in your own journals, so feel free to link to your posts in the comments rather than writing things out again. Or, answer in the comments if this is a brand new topic for you!

( My answer )

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.

What about you?

loganberrybunny

Public

White Zombie (1932)

This was apparently the first zombie feature film, and it's quite an interesting watch. Bela Lugosi is the only big name here, unless any of the supporting cast were flash-in-the-pan famous at the time. Some genuinely creepy moments, not least one involving a zombie falling into milling machinery which works superbly for its restraint. Some nice visual effects (even a diagonal split screen at one point) and for a 1930s film with this title and subject there's surprisingly little racism. Lugosi is fine, but some of the other cast are still in silent-movie mode, with their acting (which isn't always of great quality) and even appearances. The score is intrusive as well, and it's quite slow even for the era. Being pre-Code it can be a bit more open with certain characters' motivations and lines than it could have been in 1935, but the stodginess and some iffy performances make White Zombie interesting rather than gripping. Hilariously terrible vulture noises, at least. ★★

Current Mood: okay

sabotabby

Today's episode is Wizards & Spaceships' "Editing Roundtable ft. Alexandra Pierce and Josh Wilson." If you read any SFFH, you'll know that the short story and critical essay markets are central in ways that they really aren't in other genre fiction or in literary fiction. If you hang out with SFFH people, you'll notice that "we should start a magazine" gets said almost as often as "we should start a podcast." Anyway, this episode looks at magazine publishing. Alexandra is the editor of Speculative Insight, which publishes critique and analysis about genre fiction, and Josh Wilson is the editor of The Fabulist, which specializes in extremely short SFFH. It's, among other things, a much more positive episode than I normally post here, so you should check it out.

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.

soricel

"Gansey closed his eyes to calm his pulse. He saw a dimly gray image of a king in repose, hands folded on his chest, a sword by his right side, a cup by his left. This slumbering figure was dizzyingly important to Gansey in a way that he couldn’t begin to understand or shape. It was something more, something bigger, something that mattered. Something without a price tag. Something earned."

( Read more... )

loganberrybunny

Public

349/365: Larch Wood Farm, Kidderminster
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Yes, I know about Robert Jenrick's defection from the Tories to Reform, which has been all over the news today, but I can't stand the man regardless of party so I'll move on quickly! Much more enjoyably, I had a free morning and so was able to go into Kidderminster for a buffet breakfast at Larch Wood Farm. Fortunately I was hungry, as shown by the fact that I had a black pudding with each of my two helpings! The bacon was particularly succulent this time, though the sausages were a tad underwhelming. Decent beans and hash browns, good fried eggs, acceptable mushrooms. Overall, pretty solid.

Current Mood: full

decemberthirty posting in

addme

Hello, all! I know I'm a little late to really consider this a new year's post, but here I am looking to meet a few new people nevertheless.

About me:
My name is Katie. I'm 47 years old, and this summer will mark my 25th year of journaling on LJ/DW/both.

I'm a writer by profession, primarily of literary fiction with occasional book reviews for variety. I live in Philadelphia with my partner of 27 years (she's a high school physics teacher). We have a pair of eight-month-old kittens named Oscar and Zorro. I'm the oldest of three sisters in a pretty close-knit family. My sisters have five kids between them, and being an aunt is basically my favorite thing.

I love books and am always reading. Favorite authors include E.M. Forster, Marilynne Robinson, Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Ursula K. Le Guin, Lauren Groff, Andrea Barrett.... The list could go on and on. I also love the outdoors and learning about nature. I've been a birdwatcher for years; more recently I've gotten into things like butterflies and insects, reptiles, wildflowers, and more. In summer, my favorite thing is finding wild orchids. My partner and I like to travel, and when we do, I use it as an opportunity to learn about the amazing variety of nature in other places.

In case you haven't already guessed, I'm a very introverted person. I spend most of my time at home, where I keep myself busy writing, reading, or in the kitchen. I like cooking, baking, and food preservation, and I'm always working on some sort of kitchen project or trying to teach myself a new skill.

About my journal:
My journal began as a place for me to keep track of my reading, and that's still the subject I write about most often. Other frequent topics include the interests mentioned above: writing, nature, cooking and baking. I tend to post more about what I'm thinking than about what I'm doing at any given time, although I do sometimes use my journal to keep track goals or record projects that I'm working on. I often include photos. I would say I post about once a week...but realistically it's probably a bit less than that.

If you're looking for a friend who comments on every single post, I'm probably not the right person for you. I do like to interact and I always read my friends page, but I prefer to comment only when I have something worth saying. Also, I've found over the years that I don't mesh well with extremely prolific posters. Once a day is fine, but if it's more than that I have trouble keeping up.

My journal is friends-locked for privacy, but I will be happy to add anyone who's interested in checking it out. And I won't be offended if it turns out that it's not your style.

Say hello if you think we'd get along!

dolorosa_12

I'm so far behind on this, so let's attempt to catch up somewhat.

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

Challenge 6 is Top 10 Challenge — a list of top ten anything. I was going to do something music-related, but a better idea popped into my head this morning:

( Top 10 things to do with tomatoes )

Challenge 7 is LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.

( List of three things behind the cut )

soricel

Challenge #7

LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.

1.) I like that I frequently seek out new things to learn or do related to my hobbies and interests.

2.) I like my sense of amateurism. I think I'm pretty decent at certain things I do, like writing, and it's nice when I notice a positive shift. But I don't really have any strong ambitions to get "better" or "bigger" or something. And plus, at a time when so much of what we see and consume feels super polished and "perfect" or aspirational, I have more appreciation for things that are rough around the edges and seem comfortable existing in their particular little lanes, including the things I make and do.

3.) Related, I like that I'm generally content with my life these days.

Challenge #8

Talk about your creative process.

I guess it depends on the project, but I'll focus on writing. Usually a story or a poem starts with an image or a line of dialogue that gets stuck in my head, and I start building around that by imagining moments or ideas that connect to it. When I'm ready to sit down to write, sometimes I start with that original image/dialogue and then go back and write my way up to it, or if I feel like I have a plot already pretty well-structured in my head, I'll just start at the beginning. Sometimes I find a full conversation just rolls out of me pretty quickly once I have a first piece of dialogue in my head, so I'll just write that all out and then go back and give the characters somewhere to be and something to do while they're talking.

I tend to write short stuff (like three minute poems or fics of 1,000 words or less), in part because I'm more interested in sort of zooming in on and out of significant, loaded moments than telling big long stories, and also because I really like playing with language. Even if I really like the content of what I've written, I don't really feel comfortable putting it out into the world if I haven't given a good amount of attention to rhythm, rhyme, figurative language, and that kind of stuff (mostly in poetry, but in prose too). I also try to give a lot of attention to the moment/line a piece ends on, but I'm trying to see how it feels to write and share things that end a little more abruptly or less tidily.

I usually share my poems with my partner before I go read them at an open mic or something, but with fic, I tend to just post it as soon as it feels done. I do tend to go back and edit little things here and there after I post, though.

loganberrybunny

Public

I define "the long 1970s" as from 1968, when the Hays Code in the United States was abandoned, to 1982, the year of the Twilight Zone disaster. This period saw an almost "Wild West" era in which previously restricted kinds of film and subjects were made in large numbers, and undoubtedly there was a great deal of innovation and ingenuity going on. However, when people say, as some do, "It's such a shame movies will never be made that way again", that is where I say, "Now, wait a minute".

Among other things, that period saw:

The Last House on the Left (1972), in which an actress was seriously psychologically and emotionally abused by co-stars, with her director failing to protect her. Later, a live chainsaw in a fight scene.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), in which an actress's finger was deliberately cut by one co-star and her blood non-consensually sucked by an unknowing (ie thought it was stage blood) second actor.
The Exorcist (1973), in which two separate actresses were seriously injured and their director chose to keep their genuine cries of pain in the final movie.
Cannibal Holocaust (1980), notorious for its on-screen real animal killings, but also the use of a local Indigenous girl (possibly as young as 14) to act a victim in a rape scene without clear certainty that she knew exactly what would happen.
The Deer Hunter (1978), in which a real bullet was placed in the revolver (even if not in the next chamber) for the Russian Roulette scene.
Roar (1981), in which dozens of cast and crew were injured, some seriously, through being surrounded by untrained big cats on set during the multi-year production.

That's off the top of my head; there are plenty of less famous films that had similar problems. I have seen half of these (Last House, Texas Chain Saw and The Deer Hunter) and the number of those where my experience was heightened from knowing about the abuse, recklessness and danger was zero. I will never watch Cannibal Holocaust, and I'm not especially inclined to watch the other two either.

Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper, William Friedkin etc are forever being lauded as geniuses. In some ways they were. But I am absolutely delighted that films can no longer be made the way they made them. The human (and animal in certain cases) cost was simply too high. Friedkin in particular is someone I've gone right off in recent years. If you have to traumatise your cast to make a film, you are doing it wrong.

And if that makes me a pearl-clutcher, sign me up for shares in the oyster farm!

Current Mood: awake

lycomingst

Snowflake Challenge: A warmly light quaint street of shops at night with heavy snow falling.

The category(ies) you choose are up to you. You can give top 10 Fics you read last year, the top 10 songs to create to, the top 10 guest stars on your favorite show, top 10 characters in your favorite book series, top 10... well, you get the idea.

So I watch a lot of Brit tv and these are 10 actors that I delight in coming across in a show. In no particular order.

( Read more... )

loganberrybunny

Public

348/365: Loom & Shuttle, Kidderminster
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I must be honest and say that I'm quite glad that the finish line for my 365 project is in sight. It's been fun most of the time, but not being able to have any days off has been stressful on occasion. I don't think I'll be doing it again. Anyway, today's photo is of the Loom & Shuttle pub on the Stourport Road in Kidderminster. This used to be quite a rough pub years ago, but it's been cleaned up a lot in recent times and is now perfectly okay as far as I'm aware. I didn't go in today, but it made a handy enough subject for a photo. As you might expect, the pub's name is a reference to the now-mostly-former carpet industry which was once Kidderminster's largest employer.

Current Mood: tired

loganberrybunny

Public

Joint press conference by the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland after their meeting with Messrs Vance and Rubio today. A couple of highlights (if that's the word) from their comments:

"It is not easy to think innovative about solutions when you wake up every morning to different threats." —Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Danish FM.

Rasmussen says it is clear the Trump has the wish of "conquering" Greenland, but that he believes the meeting has managed to "change the American position".

Greenland must strengthen its cooperation with the US as allies. "That doesn't mean we want to be owned by the United States." —Vivian Motzfeld, Greenlandic FM.

Current Mood: uncomfortable

sabotabby

Just finished: Invisible Line by Su J. Sokol. This was quite good. Xe did a good job in not just complicating utopia—I have a minor dislike of "flee to Canada" as a plot point in dystopian fiction, and the portrayal of Montreal as a bureaucracy subject to limits on its ability to do the right thing is very nuanced and well done—but also making the characters messy and traumatized. The big crisis in the last act could have been averted if the parents talked to their damned kids, but of course they are too paranoid and distrustful from years of living under fascism, so they don't. Looking forward to reading the sequel.

Currently reading: Mavericks: Life stories and lessons of history's most extraordinary misfits by Jenny Draper. This is really fun—TikTok-sized portraits of history's interesting (not always good) characters. I knew about a lot of them, like Ellen and William Craft and Noor Inayat Khan, but a lot of the others, like Eleanor Rykener and The Chevalier d'Eon, are new to me. It's very fun and conversational.

$radiantfracture: Loon linocut with text Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird (stupid Canadian wolf bird)$

radiantfracture

A new series of Poetry Unbound has begun, and gorgeously, with Anishinaabe poet Kimberly Blaeser's "my journal records the vestiture of doppelgangers."

“my journal records the vestiture of doppelgangers”
Kimblerly Blaeser

i.

Remember how the loon chick climbs to the mother’s back.

Oh, checkerboard bed and lifted wing—oh, tiny gray passenger

who settles: eyes drooping closed, webbed foot lifted like a flag!

Each day, each week, I write missives—Mayflies' transparent wings

a stained glass—fluttering across the surface of lake. An impermanence.

Imagos who transform: molt made glitter as splayed bodies on water.

I write the red crown, mad V of vulture-wings drying in morning sun.

I record red squirrel swimming (yes! swimming) across a small channel.

ii.

I barely breathe watching the narrow body (a mere slit of motion)

dark and steady like all mysterious—paddle, paddle, and arrive

now climb bedraggled and spent onto the small safety of a floating log.

It rests. We catch our breath. Now it scurries ahead to the other log end.

Here my journal stutters with a squirrel story bigger than words:

Unfathomably, it plunges back into blue chance—into uncharted.

We are never done, it says, with a body tiny enough to know.

The world is large, it says, with a courage I am greedy to learn.

iii.

Praise here all fabulous unwritten. Each shimmer of spent body,

journey from rest to blue next. Who, I ask, is the blissful beaver

devouring each yellow water lily if not our doppelganger?

Continually, I feel paws pulling, mouth filled with flower lust—

what little rooms are words in these seasons of plenty.

* * * * * *

Pádraig Ó Tuama's commentary is, as always, tender, attentive, and personal. He seems very taken by the squirrel (as who would not be?).

It's interesting that he glosses the "imago" in section i as theological, the Imago Dei. I read it first literally as a phase of insect development, and then psychoanalytically as an internalized image of an idealized self based on the Other -- but it strikes me that this second reading probably derives from Ó Tuama's source, Lacan having been raised within Catholicism.

I like Blaeser's use of "doppelganger," how slightly off-kilter and irreducible it is, how it makes the images not just celebratory but metaphysical and eerie - ties back into that reading of "imago."

What do you hear?

§rf§

loganberrybunny

Public

347/365: No Road, Bewdley
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This was another day when not a lot of interest really happened. It didn't help that it rained a good deal in the morning, although fortunately the river was low enough beforehand that the flood barriers haven't needed to be deployed. I did pop into Forest Dog Rescue and bought a box of teabags, of all things. The photo shows No Road, which leads off Load Street in Bewdley town centre. Yes, it's actually called No Road. This is a public footpath, and not quite as scary as it may appear! It comes out in Dog Lane, where the chemist and GP surgery are, so it can be quite a handy shortcut.

Current Mood: calm

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ateolf

The Family Ghost

January 2026

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Page Summary

loganberrybunny - Shoes and castles
dark_heroine in addme - (no subject)
adrian_turtle - Arisia
adrian_turtle - Mommy, what's abolition?
dolorosa_12 - Friday open thread: your creative process
loganberrybunny - Film post: White Zombie (1932)
sabotabby - podcast friday
lycomingst - (no subject)
soricel - Fannish 50: Post 3
loganberrybunny - Breakfast time (well, not now, but...)
decemberthirty in addme - New year, new friends
dolorosa_12 - Snowflake Challenge 6 and 7: lots of lists
soricel - Snowflake Challenge #7 and 8
loganberrybunny - The long 1970s in film-making: some films shouldn't "be made that way again"
lycomingst - (no subject)
loganberrybunny - Loom & Shuttle
loganberrybunny - Well, that's totally reassuring...
sabotabby - Reading Wednesday
radiantfracture - Not only because of the loons, but also because of them (and the vultures)
loganberrybunny - A maze of twisty little passages, all alike

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an exercise in lying still...

Network

Shoes and castles

(no subject)

Arisia

Mommy, what's abolition?

Friday open thread: your creative process

Film post: White Zombie (1932)

podcast friday

(no subject)

Fannish 50: Post 3

Breakfast time (well, not now, but...)

New year, new friends

Snowflake Challenge 6 and 7: lots of lists

Snowflake Challenge #7 and 8

The long 1970s in film-making: some films shouldn't "be made that way again"

(no subject)

Loom & Shuttle

Well, that's totally reassuring...

Reading Wednesday

Not only because of the loons, but also because of them (and the vultures)

A maze of twisty little passages, all alike

Profile

January 2026

Page Summary

Style Credit

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