ysabetwordsmith

Greetings from the snowy north! We're in the middle of a winter storm that keeps oscillating north and south of the city. We're north, and sometimes we get snow from north of us and south of us, since we're located between two lakes. We had whiteout conditions at times this morning, got a big dumping of snow overnight last night, and the wind chills are down in the negative numbers. Yesterday and today were definitely indoor workout days, and I don't see that changing over the next couple of days more, but we'll see.

Some of us were discussing in the comments of last week's post where we go to walk when the weather is inclement. Do you have a favorite indoor space? Mine is the closest mall, which is about .8 miles per loop. It can be boring--we're quite familiar with it by now--but at least we can people-watch.

Feel free to ignore the question, but please do update us about how the past week has been for you in terms of fitness (or any other area of your life you'd like to share with us).

( My Week in Review )

Here's hoping the week ahead is a good one for all of us, weather notwithstanding.

cosmolinguist

At various points today while I was slaving away over a hot laptop, I heard various Bruce Springsteen songs floating down from upstairs.

He said on fedi: "I have often noted similarities between the musicians, but I desperately want to hear New Model Army covering Bruce Springsteen's 'Further On (Up the Road)'."

(It was when he first said that he wants them to cover "Badlands," and Springsteen to cover their song "Vagabonds," that I figured I'd probably made a proper fan of him, if he could see the overlap between Bruce and a band he likes as much as he does New Model Army.)

He also sent me a link to what Springsteen said after Renee Good was murdered and then a YouTube playlist centered around Springsteen being in the Kennedy Center Honors of 2009. Which I think must be where I heard those songs from.

My newest library book, has been acquired after I heard the author speak briefly on a short podcast series about Springsteen that D found and recommended to me (and actually listened to, which is amazing because he normally can't/doesn't want to listen to podcasts!). I found his book, called There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The U.S.A” and the End of the Heartland, and honestly I can hardly imagine anything more Me.

kitewithfish

I am post- Arisia 2026* and I have come out of it with book recs and it was fascinating and I’m so so interested in sharing them with you and I’m tiiiired.

Some books and things that were mentioned in the panels I went to!

Moonwise Greer Gilman (out of print, may be on the internet archive) but part of a series that the author hopes to continue (I sense publisher problems)

Gillian Daniels is getting a book out! Jenny Will Eat You Now

Noble Train of Artillery

Carol Berg The Spirit Lens

Kingdoms of the Elfin by Sylvia Townsend

Out of the Dark David Weber

The Glass Pearls Emeric Pressburger – the panel that recommended this was interesting, as one of them mentioned that this book is full of the author’s memoirs of his youth in Hungary before he fled the Nazis and lost his family, disguised in the story as memories stolen from a Jewish victim of a Nazi war criminal. Pressburg was also a writer for film and some of them seem engaging.

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (movie)

There is no Antimemetics Division qntm

BLIT (short story) by David Langford in Different Kinds of Darkness

Dark is better Gemma Files

The Moment of Change Rose Lemberg (one story in particular but I didn’t actually log it with the title of the book)

Andrea Hairston – The Redemption Center is Closed on Sundays (This sounded very funny)

Jane Yolen Wizard Hall

Elisha Barber by E C Ambrose (also publishes as E Chris Ambrose)

Virconium M John Harrison

M.R James – various ghost stories

Rosemary Kirstein – Steerswoman

The Stones are Hatching Geraldine ……

Cemetery of Forgotten Books - Wikipedia

Library of the Unwritten Aj Hackworth

The Book of Joan Lidia Yukanovitch

Wearing the Lion – john Wiswell (however, did not enjoy Someone You Can Build a Nest in, but it showed promising elements)

Nothing in the Basement – Romie Stott

Press Enter John Varley

Tony Tulathimutte – Rejection

Brent Weeks The Way of Shadows

Christopher Moore A Dirty Job

St Joan of the Stockyards – Bertolt Brecht

*Arisia is ongoing, but I am not.

badfalcon

I am feeling sad and frustrated and ridiculous tonight, and also not like myself, which is perhaps the most annoying part of all of this.

So. The planner.

I got a new planner. It’s good. The layout is right, the paper feels right, my brain went oh, yes, this will work. I’ve got a whole bunch of new planner stickers. I am, objectively, very close to planner peace. I even have more sticker orders arriving this week, because apparently hope is my dominant personality trait.

And the thing is — most of what I use fits fine.

I mostly plan with icon stickers. Script stickers. Little visual cues. Those are perfect. No issues. They sit exactly where they’re meant to. They behave. They understand the assignment.

But this week I had some big things going on. Capital-B Big. The kind of things where I wanted to block out space and make it very clear, at a glance, that Shit Was Going On Here.

So I used some flags and half boxes and quarter boxes from older kits.

And those are all just ever so slightly too wide.

Not unusably so. Just enough. Enough that my eye keeps snagging on them. Enough that I now know — with horrible clarity — that most sticker kits are designed for 1.5" columns, and my planner columns are 1.25".

Which means that the one time I don’t usually plan this way — the one time I actually need big, obvious visual space — is the time everything feels wrong.

And suddenly it feels like I’ve picked the wrong planner. Like I’ve broken some arbitrary but Very Important Planner Rule that everyone else somehow knows. Like I am Doing Planning Incorrectly™, despite the fact that this system works for me 90% of the time.

Never mind that icon and script planning is how I actually function. Never mind that I don’t usually need big boxes. Never mind that stickers are meant to be tools, not tests I can fail.

My brain has latched onto this tiny mismatch and decided it is Evidence.

I know this is not actually about stickers.

It’s about wanting space to acknowledge that things are hard. Wanting a system that can hold big days as well as small ones. Wanting one area of my life to feel contained and legible when the rest of it isn’t.

Tonight that has manifested as 0.25 inches of wrongness and the feeling that I’ve somehow messed up something that was meant to help me.

I’m aware this is absurd. I’m also aware that feelings don’t care about that.

Current Mood: stressed
Current Music: Taylor Swift - Innocent

veronyxk84

Welcome to “AO Special”, another series of recurring posts with my favorite highlights from the slam “down under”.

Here is a quick recap for Day 1 & Day 2 of the Australian Open 2026 for our Italian players.
Due to work and a challenging time difference I can only watch live a few selected matches.

Featured Today:

Day 1: Paolini to round 2, Cobolli out
Day 2: Maestrelli to round 2, Arnaldi and Bellucci out
Up Next: Musetti, Sonego, Darderi, Nardi, Cocciaretto, Sinner + Errani/Paolini

( AO Special #2 )

ALL matches scheduled for Day 3 (tomorrow for me) are streaming live at ungodly hours (between 1am and 3am CET), except for Jannik’s match, which streams at 9am CET.
So that’s what I’ll be watching live!

See you tomorrow with a new Tennis Tuesday, including the results for AO Day 3! 🎾

Current Mood: hopeful

pattrose

I went to Google, looked him up, and have been reading all morning. I remembered a lot of it. It was nice spending the morning with him in my mind. I hope everyone else does the same thing.

( Moodboard )

ysabetwordsmith posting in

birdfeeding

Today is partly sunny and cold.

I fed the birds. I've seen a flock of sparrows and a lady cardinal.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 1/19/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 1/19/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen two starlings and a male cardinal.

.

Current Mood: busy

enchanted_jae

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Current Mood: cold
Current Music: Sabres at Hurricanes

duskpeterson

So famed is the Empire of Emor for its law system that many foreigners do not realize that Emor holds accomplishments in other arts. Foremost among these arts is medicine.

Until the practice of medical training was formalized in Emor, the knowledge of how to heal was informally passed on by peninsularean men and women who received no special training. Despite these drawbacks, some of the healers were quite good; Koretia's healing women deserve special mention. But the creation of the Medical Academy during the period of the Middle Charas caused knowledge of healing to leap forward immensely. These days, many a healing woman, priest, or bard will travel north to spend time in the Medical Academy, learning valuable lessons.

The Physicians' Quarters next door were created after the Medical Academy, as a place to allow students to work under experienced doctors. The Physicians' Quarters cares for city residents and a select number of soldiers who are undergoing lengthy convalescence.

Because of the doctors' important work, visitors may find it difficult to obtain entrance to either the Quarters or the Academy. I've found that dropping a rock on my foot does the trick.

[Translator's note: The protagonist of Death Mask begins his journey at the Physicians' Quarters.]

shewhostaples posting in

fancake

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairings/Characters: Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane (not requited - yet)
Rating: G
Length: 12,200
Creator Links:

nineveh_uk
Theme: crack treated seriously

Summary: Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey have triumphantly solved the Wilvercombe murder, and only want to return to London. But first they must solve a new mystery: why they have woken up in one another's bodies, and what on earth are they going to do about it?

Reccer's notes Bodyswap is a pretty cracky trope, but here

nineveh_uk uses it very effectively to explore the nuances of the complicated and touchy relationship between Peter and Harriet. As the summary suggests, it's set straight after Have His Carcase, where in canon they seem somehow simultaneously closer to and further away from resolving their relationship than ever. The bodyswap twist doesn't make things any less confusing. The voice is pitch perfect: if Dorothy L. Sayers had thought to write this premise, this is exactly what it would have sounded like.

Fanwork Links: My True Love Has My Heart

enchanted_jae

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Current Mood: anxious
Current Music: "Flowers" ~ Miley Cyrus

jacieleigh

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oursin

I mentioned that I was reading Dream Count for an intended new in-person book group of fairly local people connected through being (mostly) women historians (most of) whom I already know.

The gathering to discuss Dream Count was yestere'en in Highgate, at a destination to which there is a bus service from the nearby main road, though on Sunday evenings the service is a little more sporadic than habitual and I arrived a bit early, even after some difficulty finding the house in question. (Serious FAIL by local residents to actually have house numbers visible, ahem, not helped by several houses actually being nos XX-YY which adds to the confusion and in fact I ended up going to the wrong house first.)

However, once I got there it was agreeable to see auld acquaintance and talk of how things had been going -

- I am not entirely persuaded that having a sit-down at a table supper was actually a great idea, or maybe that was just me who had not all that long ago had a large late lunch.

Discussion of actual book did not get started for some while. Everybody seemed to have a rather mixed response, though it did, at least, provide a basis for discussion along several directions.

Future plans to meet at 6 week intervals - not to have full dinner party (relief!)* - next book will be Anna Funder's Wifedom about Eileen Orwell (already have the ebook yay).

Kind lift not all the way home but to useful point with lots of buses from Our Hostess.

*Snacks instead - should I take foccacia and Famous Aubergine Dip? Y/N

ffutures

This is an offer of the Sleepy Hollow RPG from Kids in the Attic, an early 19th-Century folk horror system based on the Year Zero rules for Tales of the Loop etc. The source for it is Washington Irving's original novel, not the Tim Burton film or the TV series.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/SleepyHollow

Unlike Call of Cthulhu this system limits itself to a relatively small area and era, which may add more depth to games - characters will be protecting their home town, friends, and families, not the entire future of the universe. I'm probably not going to be taking on another horror system, but it looks like an interesting game and isn't incredibly expensive, if it's the sort of thing you might like it's probably worth a look.

jacieleigh

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badly_knitted posting in

get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.

This Week's Question: What are your crafting goals for 2026?

If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

rekishi

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aurumcalendula posting in

thisfinecrew

H.R. 7013 (Greenland Sovereignty Protection Act) was introduced by Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) last week: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/7013

It prohibits the use of Federal funding to facilitate the invasion, annexation, purchase, or other form of acquisition of Greenland.

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: hopeful

lydamorehouse

Image: Laser-eyed loon flying away with the "Don't Tread on Me Snake" in her beak. The words "Don't Tread on US" appear in laser light trails around her head (by Cas Fern, local tattoo artist.)

I took a break on Sunday. The weather here in Minnesota has finally stepped up to join the resistance. Today we are expecting -20 F/ -29 C windchills and yesterday the windchills were around -11 F /-23 C. I won't lie. I let Mother Nature take my shift. There were things happening, including my singing group, but I spent the day baking hot cross buns and snuggling under blankets.

Rest is resistance, too.

If you are not from around here and/or would like to watch

naomikritzer talk about her experiences "commuting," and talk generally, along with Diana McCleery, about what things are like on the ground here in Minneapolis and St. Paul. My friend Cliff interviewed her on an SFF videocast:

Watch on YouTube

It's a good watch? I will say that the guy who opens and closes the video, Bob, is a bit of a character, but if you can get past that and some of the echo in Naomi's microphone, it's very informative. Naomi recently did a ride-along with the folks who are self-organizing to follow and harrass ICE vehicles and so it's fascinating to hear how it's being done.

I always feel that people don't quite talk enough about the mutual aid that folks are up to--but the truth is the quiet revolution just isn't splashy enough for the front page.

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The Wordsmith's Forge

The Writing & Other Projects of Elizabeth Barrette

Fitness Fellowship 2026: Check-in Three

Forty years burnin down the road

(no subject)

(no subject)

🎾 AO Special #2 — Day 1 & 2

I'm remembering Martin Luther King today.

Birdfeeding

Helping Us Carry On

FIC: Physicians' Quarters and Medical Academy (Tempestuous Tours)

Lord Peter Wimsey: My True Love Has My Heart by Nineveh_UK

Let's not let his dream slip from our grasp

In the Fandom world...

Yesterday I went out and was social

Another Horror Bundle - Sleepy Horror

Cat Chat

Check-In Post - Jan 19th 2026

In a turn I did absolutely not see coming

H.R. 7013 - Greenland Sovereignty Protection Act

Heated Rivalry question

Your Daily Laser Loon Art from the Resistance

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January 2026

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