Kathy Easter Egg

Jan. 11th, 2026 12:03 am
[syndicated profile] post_secret_feed

Posted by Frank

There are Easter Eggs hidden in the PostSecret Digital Museum of Secrets. One of them is a long article from PostSecret’s original mailcarrier – Kathy. If you have not discovered it already, go here and click on the mailbox. You can read Kathy’s story, and her secret. Here is the beginning. . .

As a mail carrier, I got used to seeing unusual things come through the mail. I have delivered ashes of deceased pets and humans to teary-eyed customers, tons of certified letters sent by bill collectors to equally teary-eyed customers, valuables in registered mail, live baby chicks, ducklings, worms, crickets, car tires and wheels, steamer trunks, and even packages that are broken and oozing with unknown materials. I have even been known to pick up a dog or two on my route, who had broken out of their yards and returned them to their owners. You’d think I’d be immune to odd things. But nothing prepared me for PostSecret!

In 2004, a customer of mine, Frank Warren, began receiving a few post cards in his daily mail. They were preprinted with his address and looked like a card that a dentist office would send reminding you of an upcoming appointment. It was just something I subconsciously noticed. There were only a few every day, and they all looked the same. I never turned them over to look on the other side. So, for a while I didn’t pay much attention. We deal with thousands upon thousands of letters during our mornings of casing our mail and don’t look to see who a letter is from or what it is. One day that all changed for me.

While handling one of Frank’s post cards, one fell out of my hands and landed upside down on the floor. I gasped when I read in huge bold letters, I LIKE TO HAVE SEX WITH STRANGERS. You can imagine my shock. That’s all it said. It had bold, bright coloring as a background. I’ll never forget it. I immediately showed some of my friends what I had found in the mail. One guy was so shocked he said, “Did a girl write it?” I was like, “how the heck do I know, who cares?” I then turned it over and looked on the address side of the card. I read the preprinted instructions next to Frank’s address. It invited you to participate in a group art project by writing a secret (that no one else knows) on the other side of this postcard and mail it anonymously to the printed address. I don’t have to tell you that I pulled the few postcards that were in his address slot that day and began reading them immediately! From that day forward, me, (and a few friends at work), began reading all the cards daily. I still didn’t really know what was going on, but I was intrigued. . . (continue)

I like to have sex with strangers

Dear Kathy – I sent in a secret saying that I was going to kill myself in the next couple of days after writing it. Then a day or 2 after mailing it, I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that a mail carrier would read my postcard and not want me to die, even though they didn’t know me.

Maybe it was you – after reading your post I can see that you’re a special person. So thank you – I’m working things out.

The post Kathy Easter Egg appeared first on PostSecret.

swingandswirl: image of a stick figure made out of books of different colours, with the words 'book monster' over its head. (bookmonster)
[personal profile] swingandswirl
 So one of my friends has been bugging me to read Casey McQuiston's Red, White, and Royal Blue for years.

I resisted, partly because it felt a little too close to RPF for me to feel comfortable (I know posh British men have like five acceptable names but still) and partly because... well, I'm not a fan of the British monarchy, even a fictional version, for very obvious child-of-colonialism reasons.

And then this morning my buddy complained, once again, about the idiot sheltered Tamil Brahmin boy in the RWRB discord's latest terrible take, which was that India does not have racism. (As someone who remembers seeing a front-page ad in the newspaper of record offering a free whitening cream with purchase of soap that had the tagline 'We're sending some compliments your way', AHAHAHAHA.) 

So I made a half-joking comment about that I should finally read RWRB so I could join the discord and back her up next time the idiot idioted. And lo and behold, I had a free afternoon and an available copy of the book, so... why the hell not?

And y'all, I feel like such a damn idiot. Because this book, once I let go of my grudge about the names? Was actually really good. The writing is top-notch, the characters are complex while still being fun, and the story balances escapism and realism really well, especially when it comes to the depiction of the monarchy. It's even making me want to see the movie, which is not a thing I say often. 

So yeah. Five out of five stars to Casey McQuiston's Red White and Royal Blue, and a reminder to not judge books by their covers, lol. 

anti-ICE demonstration this afternoon

Jan. 10th, 2026 10:53 pm
redbird: clenched fist on an LGBT flag background (angry queer)
[personal profile] redbird
We went to the Boston anti-ICE demonstration today, one of many throughout the United States. Cattitude and I got there slightly after the nominal starting time, and managed about an hour before the cold got to me. Yes, it was above freezing and not windy, but standing still on a large open plaza is chillier than moving around. Adrian came to the demo with some of her comrades from Havurat Shalom, and arrived before we did. The crowd was large enough that we didn't try to find her until we were all preparing to leave.

It was a good-sized crowd, but the acoustics and sound system were abysmal; I could only make out a few scraps of what the speakers were saying.

I wore a winter coat, wool socks, and light-weight long underwear, which was too warm while we were on the trolley.

Fic: One Two THREE Force Born?!

Jan. 10th, 2026 09:58 pm
senmut: Padmé in simpler clothing (Star Wars: Padmé)
[personal profile] senmut
AO3 Link | One Two THREE Force Born?! (1609 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Padmé Amidala, Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, Sheev Palpatine | Emperor Palpatine | Darth Sidious
Additional Tags: Crack Treated Seriously, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Kriffing Sith Plans
Summary:

It's Padmé with the nightmares, and a plan to head it all off.



One Two THREE Force Born?!

Padmé Amidala was a woman on a mission. Anakin might be completely in a panic over the pregnancy but she was going to head this off. It was just too convenient that she was now being plagued with dreams of her own death, the very night after an unavoidable dinner with the man she had a growing distaste for.

And, deep where she would never tell her husband, she had a nasty suspicion he was trying to shove Anakin off a cliff of irredeemable violence. The Chancellor might not have commented on her state, but his eyes were not as easily fooled by their shared heritage of concealing fashion.

Today, she was going to go enlist the aid of the Jedi, while Anakin was tied up being the poster boy of the GAR. She had all of her diplomatic shields in place, and had the perfect cover story to do this with.

After all, with Jedi having lost so many, surely the Force would be interested in adding a few more children to the future.





Vokara Che was every bit as imposing in her domain as Anakin had said. However, her status as a long time ally had convinced Master Fisto to bring her down to the Healer's Wing. She had pleaded with him, and the healer, that there could not be a father, not when she was a mature woman who knew how to guard against such!

"You were correct that the pregnancy is heavily Force-influenced," Vokara said after several minutes of making Padmé wonder if the healer was going to break her constructed version of events. "You are carrying two very healthy, very Force-active fetuses."

Two. TWO?!

She was not going to faint like the damsel of a holo-drama. "Thank you, Master Che. Given my precarious positioning within the advocates for peace, and past attempts, I could not, in all honesty, acquire medical aid in the typical fashion. Given how my dreams are affected, and having such strange hunches of late, I turned to your Temple in hope."

"A wise choice." For a long moment, Vokara held her eyes, and Padmé knew that the healer was not actually buying the spontaneous pregnancy. A twitch of the lekku, however, indicated the secret was safe. "These hunches, I believe that Master Windu should possibly help sort them out with you."

Oh. Well, that might be the right way to go as well.





Kit, even before the appointment in medical had ended, had gone to find his age-mate. He did so in one of the botanical rooms. "Master Windu," he began. "And Master Yoda," he added to be polite, despite the ancient peering at one of the plants intently.

"Hmm," came over top of Mace's cautious "Master Fisto", and Kit grinned a little that his creche-mate had already detected the mild mischief Kit was feeling.

They all needed a little bit of amusement.

"Senator Amidala has come, and is being tended to by Master Che," Kit began, and both men looked sharply at him. "I do wonder about that old prophecy that was discussed when Master Jinn found a boy on a desert world with no father… as she is here to see about a Force-induced pregnancy as well."

Yoda's ears went flat, Mace's eyes narrowed, and Kit merely smiled.





Mace looked at the woman who had been a solid ally, and the subject of not a small part of gossip. He did not, for a moment, believe the story of no father, but in her political setting, it was for the best to go along with it.

"Master Che said you have been plagued by hunches of late, ones that play out true."

He set a mild tisane in front of her, and took a second one for himself.

"I think the Force has concerns about the path we are on, despite recent developments. After all, if the Count has been neutralized, and Master Kenobi is on the trail of their general… who will keep the momentum up to line pockets with war money, and build such sizable powers through war-time legislation?" Amidala asked, meeting the man's eyes squarely. "I am all but certain you and your peers have had the same intuitions."

Was she — had she —

Maybe Skywalker had been more circumspect than Mace had believed. For all that Amidala was firmly an adherent of a peaceful resolution, her physical and vocal cues were running in tandem with the Council's own suspicions.

"Perhaps we are looking in that same direction," he said.

"If the other Sith, the one Dooku spoke of on our side, is out there, I am certain he would try to harm those touched so firmly by the Light Side as ones fathered by the Force," Amidala told him. "I shudder to think of what such a being might have done had they had access to your Knight Skywalker for all the years of this phantom menace over us."

That, Mace decided, was both accusation and… an invitation to look more closely at how the cards were laid out.

And he had to admit she had a point.





"Anakin!"

"Chancellor."

"I do hope the scandal hasn't harmed your friendship with the Senator."

"What scandal?"

The exchange, handled in the hearing of several itinerant reporters, brought their elder statesman up short, until someone added the right question.

"That she's pregnant with no father in sight," the reporter with blood money in his pockets called out.

"You really think Senator Amidala would stoop to such petty, low-brow nonsense?" Anakin asked them, in his best 'are you kidding me' voice, and he caught the frown on his old 'friend'. He was so glad Saesse Tiin had been able and willing to explore the past several years in his head. "She's having children as the will of the Force, and we Jedi take that kind of thing very seriously."

He then kept walking, leaving the Chancellor stewing, the reporters trying to digest how to spin this, and a feeling that he could not have handled it that way without the Council all suddenly intent on supporting him. He didn't know what had changed there, but he couldn't wait to tell Obi-Wan all about it.

And the Force Twins, because he had to admit, he really hadn't had a lot of time, and they both used precautions.





Chancellor Sheev Palpatine was in a fury. He had primed the well perfectly, and somehow… somehow every insinuation and control he'd put in place had been cut off in the Chosen One. All because of some insane story concocted by the woman that had long since outlived her usefulness.

Any day now, that wretched Kenobi would be returning, and Sheev would have to find a different way to acquire everything he wanted… unless he acted now? He went to his desk to find the comm unit. He needed to provoke the right circumstance, to make it clear he was saving them from the Jedi, but what would it take?

The comm lit up in his hand.

What?

With the Force, he flipped the hood of his cape up, securing it to conceal his features, and turned it on.

"What do you know, that frequency is picked up, Commander," came the very annoying, should-be-dead voice of the Togruta menace. He hastily turned it off, throwing it into the back of the locked drawers.

The knocking at the door that came next, including a call of 'Coruscant Security' sent chills down his back.

He wondered idly if his own Master had felt this the night Sheev had gleefully murdered him.





Mace pinched the bridge of his nose, then looked over at the newest Master of the Council who was pretending he didn't want to hurry out and see a certain Senator. He then looked at Kenobi, who was waiting to be briefed on how and why the Chancellor had been killed in the midst of being served with detention papers.

"A tip from an ally told us to double check Skywalker for undue influence," Kit said, looking entirely too merry in the telling.

"Padmé," Anakin offered cheerfully. "She's having Force twins."

Mace did not groan. It really did sound like Skywalker believed that.

"Removing that," Saesee said, "let us more clearly see the shape of a possible end game, orchestrated to cast us all as traitors."

"Meanwhile, Skywalker's commander had been working on another angle of the endgame," Agen said.

"Leading him and Tano to turning up a plan to make the man expose himself, using the very tools meant to kill us all," Kit said, "by triggering a comm device he should not have had while we were keeping him very securely under comm surveillance with Naboo's and CorSec's cooperation."

"How did you get CorSec to agree to such?" Kenobi asked.

"Amidala implied that she had noticed a malevolent presence while dining with the man, and could they please keep it under wraps that there could be such a threat near the center of government?" Shaak Ti said, eyes dancing with mirth.

"A very tidy end, I suppose." Kenobi then looked at Mace with a deadpan face. "So, how are those prophecies handling the idea of three Force-fathered children?"

Mace did not, as he wanted to, flip the man's hood over his head with the Force.





Padmé smiled, despite fatigue, as she held her daughter, and Anakin held her son. Eventually, they might admit the farce.

Then again, listening to Anakin telling Luke all about the wonders of what the Force could do…

… maybe it was better to leave it at this. What really mattered was that they were all saved from the Sith.

Me-and-media update

Jan. 11th, 2026 04:55 pm
china_shop: An orange cartoon dog waving, with a blue-green abstract background. (Bingo!)
[personal profile] china_shop
Previous poll review
In the Comfort food poll, 55.6% of respondents said their preferred comfort food is chocolate, and 46.7% said savoury carbs. In ticky-boxes, 'juicy intricate poetry words' and 'pushing on through' came second equal (40% each) to hugs (80%). Thank you for your votes! <3

Reading
I listened to half an m/m romance audiobook that I selected for one of its readers (Will Watt), but the overuse of "fucking" as an intensifier (and in particular, the repeated phrase, "he was so fucking hot") kept making me roll my eyes. It might be a faithful reproduction of the inner monologue of a first-year uni student, but I don't read romances for verisimilitude. So I switched to The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary, read by Carrie Hope Fletcher and Kwaku Fortune, seen mentioned on my flist. I'm halfway through and enjoying it immensely. ETA:
Warnings.Contains past emotionally abusive relationship, stalking, and PTSD.


A little more Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain in hardcopy. Nothing in ebook.

Kdramas
Andrew and I have nearly finished The Guest. I want to ship the OT3, but I don't really care about the priest. (Sorry, priest guy! Alas, you are not my type.) Still, it is a great (gory/horror-y) show, and I've conveniently forgotten some of the developments. We just have one episode to go.

A bit more of While You Were Sleeping, a few episodes of Cashero (I'm not sure I'm in the mood for established relationship, but otoh, Junho! ♥), and a marathon-running BL called Mr. Heart, which was sweet but extremely slight.

Where is the next Love Scout/Family by Choice/whatever??

Other TV
Finished Stranger Things, which got so complex that I lazily stopped following the logic and just watched it as a collection of scenes. But I enjoyed those well enough. So glad they got their victory lap.

Three episodes of Heated Rivalry.
Minor spoilers; tl;dr not my thing. Wow, I'd heard it was fanficcy, but I wasn't prepared for the total absence of anything resembling an external plot. Like, not even a figleaf. Not even a hockey arc. How??

Anyway, my prediction that it's probably not for me has proven correct. Like, I can tell that the show is made of crack (in the addictive sense), but I'm not into super-buff dudes, and I didn't like the 'fucking but feeling kind of miserable about it' vibe I was getting from Hollander. He deserves better.

But I kept going for episode 3, and I'm really glad I did. There was the coffee smoothie shop not-AU and ♥Kip♥ and his friends and family. And Scott, who fell for Kip in 2.3 seconds like a parched man stumbling into an oasis and, okay, is messed up, but at least self-aware and ~able to communicate~ and ~say nice things~! They were such a breath of fresh air! All the "smoothies" for both of them!

So that (predictably) is me. And I'm actually kind of relieved, because while the show is compelling and well-acted, it's not what I want in a fandom, and anyway, I'm hardly even managing to keep up with my quiet corner of Guardian fandom atm.
I may watch the last three episodes at some point, idk. Wishing those of you who're into it all the very best with your new addiction!!

Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, Cross Party Lines, Letters from an American, more of Our Opinions Are Correct (Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz's podcast) including the Murderbot episode, Tech Won't Save Us, the starts of a few other things.

Writing/making things
I've been practising drawing, and picking up art supplies in bits and pieces. The moldable eraser is magic.
Have a couple of sketches.



(Imperfect, but I think it's identifiable, which is not nothing. I darkened the linework a little in Paint.NET.)

For my future reference, this all started because I wanted to draw Bingo from Bluey!, which led me down a Youtube Art Videos For Kids rabbit hole. Then I bought new colour pencils and was noodling around with them, and people said nice things about some of my doodles... :-)
Art Youtube For Adults is also really lovely, btw -- full of super-talented people being encouraging and helpful.

I've written a treat for [community profile] fandomtrees, but I need to make some edits, and I have no attention span. Chances of my finishing it are about 90%, and chances of any further treats are more like 30% at this stage. Maybe one day I'll be able to make art gifts...

Life/health/mental state things
My arms are gradually improving, but I'm anxious about them. Andrew's having an operation this Thursday; I'll need to be able to bike and drive and cook and so on, and I'm still sore half the time. So I've started swimming again. (I stopped partly because I was avoiding public spaces where I couldn't mask, and partly because my long post-lockdown hair stays damp all day. But the outdoor pool is open for the summer, so I'm going for it.)

I just bought a small $2 desk at a junk shop so that I have a workspace to retreat to downstairs while Andrew's recuperating on the couch in the living room. I'll see how that goes.

I have a hand-me-down mini air fryer from my parents which I still haven't taken out for a spin. Quick/easy meal suggestions very welcome, especially if they're things I can throw together late at night, post hospital visits. (NB: I don't do onions or brassicas.)

Good things
Andrew, swimming, drawing, Kdramas, Guardian, Zhao Yunlaaaan, modern medicine. Cat:



Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50


Do you meditate?

View Answers

yes, regularly
4 (8.0%)

yes, from time to time
11 (22.0%)

I used to
6 (12.0%)

I used to occasionally
4 (8.0%)

what you mean by 'meditate'?
7 (14.0%)

no
21 (42.0%)

other
3 (6.0%)

ticky-box of being squeamish about fingernail clippings
2 (4.0%)

ticky-box full of hockey show squee
6 (12.0%)

ticky-box full of feeling kind of zonky
20 (40.0%)

ticky-box full of skipping across treetops and dancing through the clouds
23 (46.0%)

ticky-box full of hugs
37 (74.0%)

2025 reading wrap up

Jan. 11th, 2026 11:39 am
fred_mouse: pencil drawing of mouse sitting on its butt reading a large blue book (book)
[personal profile] fred_mouse

hopefully this storygraph link goes to the public option, not the for me specifically option.

I'm choosing to not look at what was planned; I've already posted about my 5 star reads and some other thinking. This is me just reading through and having feelings.

  • The first (We Were Dreamers, Simu Liu, biography) and last (The House That Horror Built, Christina Henry, horror) sure are an interesting juxtaposition
  • The 'mood' graph seems weird and I wish it wasn't there
  • Going back to study had a noticeable effect on how much I was reading, which is not a surprise
  • I hate the way that storygraph does 'genre' because my top five are fantasy, science fiction, short stories, LGBTQIA+, and horror, only three of which I consider to be genres.
  • 15 days per book as an average just shows how much my reading is an overlapping thing.
  • 'top authors' - Katherine MacLean was 4 (that can't be right, there were 8 short stories, I must not have tracked them all), Premee Mohammed (3 stories, hmm, something odd there as well), and Dave Warner (3 books, that's a trilogy)
  • average rating 3.75 - probably because the DNF/0 don't get counted; I gave 11 2 star ratings, which seems more than I would have expected. Most frequent rating of 4 is also higher than I would have expected.
  • somehow there were 52 'new to me' authors, which is interesting because I felt like I was sticking to comfortable stuff.
  • DNF - 22 books; not sure if that feels high
  • read 24 of my books - I bet that this is an undercount, because I don't always mark books as owned, particularly if I only have them as ebook.
  • it is weird that my highest rated reads tend to be non-fiction, because I read so little of it

I clicked through to the more detail

  • most commonly applied tag is 'borrowed', applied to 21 books. 21 borrowed + 24 owned =/= the number read
  • I need to update the tags on some, because they don't have the -read suffix added

(no subject)

Jan. 11th, 2026 09:35 am
fred_mouse: text 'elder queers didn't riot in the streets for you to argue about kink at pride' on top of  the non-binary pride flag colours (elder-queers-non-binary)
[personal profile] fred_mouse

Yesterday, I was having a conversation with Youngest about (SF) con-running. The topic was international guests, and what the timelines are for inviting them.

I said something flippant about 'well, that timeline would be doable these days, because everyone has email, at least we don't have to write letters'. And there was that moment where I could see Youngest's world view shift in real time, so we talked in a bit more detail about my memories of the first con I was involved in running*. That in 1996, when we were approaching people to be guests, email addresses were not ubiquitous**. That our primary method of contact was letters. And then I talked about the fact that we had to assume a best case scenario of a month turn around on anything we sent.

What I didn't think to say, is that because of that, there is a reasonably high chance that there is a letter from Douglas Adams in the WASFF archive. The reasons there might not be is that it might be from their agent, or it may have been lost when various documents were transferred to the archives.

* I was Treasurer for SwanCon 23 in 1998; that committee then did a quick reshuffle and ran SwanCon 25 in 2000. I started my committee habit early -- I was on the UniSFA (UWA SF club) as Fresher rep ('92), President ('93) and IPP ('94).

**We got into a side discussion about how rare email addresses were in 1992, when I got my first email address, when the uni I studied at decided to do the somewhat radical thing of provide an email address to any student who requested one, regardless of faculty. I'd love to know what the thinking was and whether it was 'this is going to become essential knowledge' or if it was something more.

3262. Snowflake #4: Recs

Jan. 10th, 2026 08:47 pm
hitokage: (Default)
[personal profile] hitokage
Snowflake #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page

instructions unclear ... so have some podcats! No links, look them up on your pod-catcher of choice. Or don't, it's entirely up to you.

99% Invisible - general nerdery. In theory, this is an architecture podcast, but it's so much more than that. Started off on the actual radio with episodes starting at ~5min and slowly getting longer over time as they moved firmly into Podcast full time. I'm still working my way through the archive, but worth the deep dive.

Rachel Maddow Presents - political history and commentary. I highly recommend all of them, but her latest, Burn Notice, feels especially important right now. It's US history we aren't taught but probably ought to be.

You Are Good - film commentary. I've fallen behind due to The Horrors. They've got an eclectic mix of films they've discussed from a "how we feel" perspective and it's always interesting, even if I'm not that familiar with the film in question.

American Hysteria - pop culture. Chelsey has sometimes fallen into the white leftist trap of talking out their ass, but they generally mean well and are trying to de-construct America's moral panics of past and present in good faith.

Astonishing Legends - paranormal/supernatural investigation. Pay attention to episode length before jumping in on this one - true episodes are usually around 1-1.5hours with some installments running as long as 4 hours and some stories being told over 3-4 parts. I've been listening to this one for over a year now and I'm still in the archives because of how long the episodes are. XD

snowflake challenge 2026 - day 4

Jan. 11th, 2026 10:54 am
tielan: (JL kickass)
[personal profile] tielan
Challenge #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page

Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!


Okay, so it's really easiest to go to my AO3 works page, which currently has a broad variety of fandoms on it, including some of my very old ones.

20 recs from Keltiad, Discworld/DCCU, Bridgerton, MCU, Pern, Pacific Rim, BSG 2003, Stargate SG1/Stargate Atlantis, and Narnia )

--

So looking through the stories, there's a really broad variety of themes and characters, quite a lot of fandoms, but also some recurring concepts: "found family", "true love isn't just the once and never again", "working through the complexities of a situation when you don't have a guidebook", and so forth.

poem for the day

Jan. 10th, 2026 07:19 pm
theladyscribe: (cairo time)
[personal profile] theladyscribe
Stumbled across this one again, and it's still so good.

Catch a Body
by Ilse Bendorf

Salinger, I’m sorry, but “Don’t ever tell
anybody anything” is a string of words
I would like to wrap up in canvas and sink
to the bottom of the Hudson, or extract
by laser from the ribcage of all of us
who ever believed it, who felt afraid
to miss someone, to be the last one
standing. “Tell everyone everything” is
not exactly right, but I do believe that if
your mother looks radiant in violet
you should tell her, or when a juvenile
sparrow thrashes its wings in dustpiles
and reminds you of a lover’s eyelashes,
you should say so. We are islands all of us,
but we are also boats, our secrets flares,
pyrotechnic devices by which we signal
there’s someone in here we’re still alive!
So maybe it’s, “don’t be afraid.” We can
rewrite Icarus, flame-resistant feathers,
wax that won’t melt, I mean it, I’ll draw up
a prototype right now, that burning ball
of orange won’t stop us, it’ll be everything
we dream the morning after, even if we fall
into the sea—we are boats, remember?
We are pirates. We move in nautical miles.
Each other’s anchors, each other’s buoys,
the rocket’s red, already the world entire.

Speak Up Saturday

Jan. 10th, 2026 06:19 pm
yourlibrarian: Blah Blah Dawn (BUF-BlahBlah-ruuger)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] tv_talk
Assortment of black and white speech bubbles


Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

Photos: Contorta Willow

Jan. 10th, 2026 05:11 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [community profile] common_nature
I took some pictures yesterday but didn't have time to upload and post them until today. The night before, a windstorm blew down the contorta willow sapling that used to stand between the house yard and the south lot, near the big maple tree.

Walk with me ... )

Photos: Contorta Willow

Jan. 10th, 2026 05:07 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I took some pictures yesterday but didn't have time to upload and post them until today. The night before, a windstorm blew down the contorta willow sapling that used to stand between the house yard and the south lot, near the big maple tree.

Walk with me ... )

(no subject)

Jan. 10th, 2026 05:29 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
Dear Care and Feeding,

My ex came from serious money, and our 12-year-old daughter is her parents’ only grandchild. My daughter gets what she wants the moment she voices it; her grandparents claim it is their duty to spoil her. My daughter is very grounded and knows that most people can’t afford everything her family can, but that doesn’t change the fact that her experiences have been very privileged.

My partner’s kids haven’t been so lucky. He provides a good life, but the vacations he can take them on are to the local lake, not Europe. The problem is that my daughter can’t talk about her life without the other kids getting jealous and accusing her of bragging. She can’t say that her favorite city is Paris or identify a castle on TV without them taking offense and ganging up on her. This situation has started to heat up because my daughter has recently been hanging out with a pair of twins who have moved into our neighborhood. Their dad has left military service, but in their lives as military brats, they’ve lived everywhere in the world. They are joined at the hip with my daughter, and my partner hates the fact that his 13-year-old daughter, “Melinda,” doesn’t get automatically included.

Alas, Melinda is in her mean girl phase. Everything and everyone is stupid and sucks. She routinely picks on her younger brother. There are problems with both her behavior in school and in the after-school activities she is enrolled in. She was asked to leave her sports team for bullying another member to the point where it got physical. My daughter avoids Melinda when she can, and I have to mediate every moment we are together as a family.

My partner does not “see” Melinda’s behavior until another adult points it out. He and I do not live together, and his blindness to his daughter’s flaws is one reason for this, even though I love him. Another reason is that Melinda is hard enough to be around on a good weekend, let alone every day. I have tried to stay in my own lane and let my partner parent his kids his own way, but he keeps pushing that Melinda is being “excluded” by my daughter and her friends. They are in different grades and have very different interests.

Between his kids giving mine a hard time every time she opens her mouth, and all this, things are getting tense. Recently, he commented on how excited my daughter was for the holidays because her dad was taking her skiing and had told her that maybe the twins could come too. My partner insinuated that this enthusiasm was somehow malevolent. I responded by reminding him that both of his kids have been talking nonstop about seeing their grandparents and cousins over the holidays. He said it wasn’t even close to the same and that his kids have never even seen snow. I don’t know how to resolve this. Considering the ages of our kids, and the fact that they’re not even living in the same household, their just being civil toward each other should be enough, but civility is hard to come by, and Melinda is the agitator most of the time. How do I get through to my partner and protect my daughter?

—Mean Melinda


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Jan. 10th, 2026 05:19 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
Dear Prudence,

I just got married, and while the day was beautiful, my family left me feeling heartbroken. I have a strained relationship with my younger sister. She left her diabetic cat with our parents, and when they had to suddenly leave town, I stepped in to care for it for two weeks.

At our wedding after-party, my husband gently suggested she thank me. Instead, she stormed off, blocked me on social media, and refused to see me for the rest of the trip. When I turned to my parents for support, they sided with her, saying she spent her own time and money to attend the wedding and telling me to “drop the drama” and “be an adult.” I’m left feeling dismissed and deeply hurt, wondering how to move forward from this.

—Bride Without a Break


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[personal profile] paradoxcase posting in [community profile] rainbowfic
Name: What Might Have Been
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Bittersweet #8: Missed Opportunities, Warm Heart #15: Anger
Styles and Supplies: Life Drawing
Word Count: 926
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Sapfita
In-Universe Date: Night of 1912.4.4.5
Summary: Setsiana has a dream of Sapfita.

What Might Have Been )

About that Appointment Yesterday:

Jan. 10th, 2026 05:02 pm
dewline: Community is Real! (community)
[personal profile] dewline
It was with a job-search-support service specializing in helping neurodivergent job-seekers. I plan to keep in touch with them through my upcoming contract, because said contract is going to end when March does. So, planning has to be for at least the medium term.
hunningham: Beautiful colourful pears (Default)
[personal profile] hunningham
Christmas is over, father-in-law is away staying with the other bit of the family, I've had a long & tiring visit with my mother, but I'm back home now and it's just me & himself for the next week. And it's so nice just being us. Having an extra in the house - even a much-loved & gentle family member - it's an effort. It's odd working out where the stresses are, but today we had lunch with books and without conversation - such a delight.

My mother has given me a teeny-tiny bucket armchair to replace the one which I had moved into father-in-law's room. This has made my cat very happy. I knew that I missed having a comfy chair in the office; I hadn't realised that cat also wanted to be comfortable in same room as me. Yesterday he sat and stared until I got a clue and put his blanket on the chair. And then he sat and had a very thorough wash and a long sleep. Focusmate partner was charmed.

Greens are being awful. I want to save the world, stop climate change etc etc but people keep on getting in the way. We've got a lot of personalities going on at the moment, and the local party is doing office politics (only without the office). People muttering in the break room, getting their feelings hurt, toes trodden on, accusing each other of whatevering, plotting behind the bike shed, little power groups, conspiracy theories and it's like living through an episode of Mean Girls. Fascinating to see how some people absolutely revel in it and just want Drama! Excitement! He said! She said! while I just want to retreat like a distressed snail.

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