Unshelved strip originally published on Fri, 01 Apr 2016
May. 13th, 2026 12:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
unshelved_feedThis classic Unshelved strip originally appeared on Fri, 01 Apr 2016.
unshelved_feed
2026 Universal Studios Trip #4 (4/7/26) Universal Studios Japan
May. 12th, 2026 06:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torachanI originally hadn't been planning to go wait in line before the park opened, but with not being able to get any fast passes, I figured we'd better get in there early, so I went down to the park entrance around 8:30 for a 9am opening. It was super crowded, so I messaged Carla to join me ASAP, but I was wondering if she'd be able to find me in the crowd. Thankfully, while it was a huge mass of people at first, we were funneled into security lines and I was able to get in the line closest to where she would be coming in, so she was able to join me pretty easily.
( Day two! I probably should have split this into two... )
( Day two! I probably should have split this into two... )
Tuesday 12 May 1663
May. 12th, 2026 11:00 pmpepysdiary_feedUp between four and five, and after dressing myself then to my office to prepare business against the afternoon, where all the morning, and dined at noon at home, where a little angry with my wife for minding nothing now but the dancing-master, having him come twice a day, which is a folly.
Again, to my office. We sat till late, our chief business being the reconciling the business of the pieces of eight mentioned yesterday before the Duke of York, wherein I have got the day, and they are all brought over to what I said, of which I am proud.
Late writing letters, and so home to supper and to bed. Here I found Creed staying for me, and so after supper I staid him all night and lay with me, our great discourse being the folly of our two doting knights, of which I am ashamed.
520 Day Reverse Exchange - 24 hours to deadline!
May. 13th, 2026 02:00 amtrobadora posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
sid_guardianThe 520 Day Reverse Exchange deadline is tomorrow! Please post your completed assignment to the AO3 collection by 11:59PM UTC Wednesday 13 May! (What time is that for me?)
Your work must be complete to fill your assignment. It's fine to keep editing until reveals, but the first and each edited version must be a work that stands on its own.
If you have any questions or, for any reason, you can't make the deadline and you haven't contacted us already, please let us know NOW by replying to your assignment email (don't change the subject line) or commenting here. Comments here are screened.
General info, schedule and minimum requirements | Posting instructions
Thank you to everyone who's already submitted their entries, and good luck to everyone else for the final stretch! *\o/* *\o/* *\o/*
Your work must be complete to fill your assignment. It's fine to keep editing until reveals, but the first and each edited version must be a work that stands on its own.
If you have any questions or, for any reason, you can't make the deadline and you haven't contacted us already, please let us know NOW by replying to your assignment email (don't change the subject line) or commenting here. Comments here are screened.
General info, schedule and minimum requirements | Posting instructions
Thank you to everyone who's already submitted their entries, and good luck to everyone else for the final stretch! *\o/* *\o/* *\o/*
Daily Check-In
May. 12th, 2026 06:02 pmstarwatcher posting in fandom_checkinThis is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Tuesday, May 12, to midnight on Wednesday, May 13. (8pm Eastern Time).
Poll #34586 Daily Check-in
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 9
How are you doing?
I am OK.
6 (66.7%)
I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
3 (33.3%)
I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)
How many other humans live with you?
I am living single.
5 (55.6%)
One other person.
2 (22.2%)
More than one other person.
2 (22.2%)
Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
Climate Change
May. 12th, 2026 06:06 pmysabetwordsmithSome seas may soon be trapped in near-permanent heatwaves, scientists warn
Seas recover. That’s the working assumption behind most marine conservation planning – heatwaves arrive, fish flee or die, then the water cools and the count resets.
A new study of 19 enclosed seas found that resets after heatwaves may stop happening. Some are on track to spend more than 330 days a year locked in heatwave conditions. Not a temporary extreme. A new permanent state.
This isn't "maybe," this is "definitely." The world's oceans are absorbing carbon dioxide and heat. Those sinks will eventually fill up. The oceans will become much more acidic, large parts will become anoxic, and most of the water will get hotter and stay that way until the climate shifts again. We know this because it has happened before.
Does "The Great Dying" ring a bell? The oceans then became hot and anoxic, wiping about almost everything in them. And it's happening a lot faster now than then. The current mass extinction looks to be faster than anything except the massive meteor strike of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction. This might be considered a problem.
Seas recover. That’s the working assumption behind most marine conservation planning – heatwaves arrive, fish flee or die, then the water cools and the count resets.
A new study of 19 enclosed seas found that resets after heatwaves may stop happening. Some are on track to spend more than 330 days a year locked in heatwave conditions. Not a temporary extreme. A new permanent state.
This isn't "maybe," this is "definitely." The world's oceans are absorbing carbon dioxide and heat. Those sinks will eventually fill up. The oceans will become much more acidic, large parts will become anoxic, and most of the water will get hotter and stay that way until the climate shifts again. We know this because it has happened before.
Does "The Great Dying" ring a bell? The oceans then became hot and anoxic, wiping about almost everything in them. And it's happening a lot faster now than then. The current mass extinction looks to be faster than anything except the massive meteor strike of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction. This might be considered a problem.
第五年第一百二十二天
May. 13th, 2026 07:27 amnnozomi posting in guardian_learning部首
艹 part 9
荒, wild/desolate; 荔, lychee; 荣, glory ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=140
词汇
餐厅, restaurant; 聚餐, to dine together; 快餐, fast food; 晚餐, dinner; 午餐, lunch; 早餐, breakfast; 中餐, Chinese food ( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/
Guardian:
他们把我丢在荒山野岭的时候，你为什么不来找, when they lost me in the wilderness, why didn't you come and find me?
我给你准备了早餐, I made you breakfast
Me:
我不太爱吃荔枝。
那个上海餐厅很地道，我推荐你试试去吧。
艹 part 9
荒, wild/desolate; 荔, lychee; 荣, glory ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=140
词汇
餐厅, restaurant; 聚餐, to dine together; 快餐, fast food; 晚餐, dinner; 午餐, lunch; 早餐, breakfast; 中餐, Chinese food ( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/
Guardian:
他们把我丢在荒山野岭的时候，你为什么不来找, when they lost me in the wilderness, why didn't you come and find me?
我给你准备了早餐, I made you breakfast
Me:
我不太爱吃荔枝。
那个上海餐厅很地道，我推荐你试试去吧。
(no subject)
May. 12th, 2026 06:15 pmconuly posting in agonyauntDear Eric: When my family's children were young, they mostly traveled the 200 miles to visit for holidays. Now the children are older, and have jobs, friends et cetera. The parents now seem to expect us to do the traveling. We are in our late 70s, and this is getting harder to do.
The change in beds, food, schedules and houses put a toll on our physical body that takes days to recover. This seems hard for them to understand as they haven’t reached this stage.
We now are faced with missing holidays with them to comply with their demands. I have faced the possibility of loneliness that older people seemingly endure nowadays. Is there an answer to this problem or must I endure pain and trauma to see family in older age?
– Sad, Lonely and In Pain
( Read more... )
The change in beds, food, schedules and houses put a toll on our physical body that takes days to recover. This seems hard for them to understand as they haven’t reached this stage.
We now are faced with missing holidays with them to comply with their demands. I have faced the possibility of loneliness that older people seemingly endure nowadays. Is there an answer to this problem or must I endure pain and trauma to see family in older age?
– Sad, Lonely and In Pain
( Read more... )
Consensual and non-consensual internet cutoffs
May. 12th, 2026 01:16 pmrachelmanijaI have been offline more than usual lately because the internet is off at my house and I've been unable to reach anyone who is not an AI, which went about as well and efficiently as you can imagine. The AI has decided that I need a new router and is mailing it to me with instructions for how to install it myself, because God forbid a human be involved. If that doesn't work, who knows what the next step is. I am beginning to suspect the only humans at the company are the CEOs and shareholders.
Meanwhile, I decided that I am spending way too much time doomscrolling, both intentionally and non-consensually. Not only is everything horrible right now, but the minute you get online you're personally informed of every horrible thing that happened anywhere, big or small or in between. Did some random dude murder his entire family anywhere in the world? You'll be informed of it, complete with heartbreaking photos of the dead kids. Did a child commit suicide anywhere in the world? You'll hear about that too, also complete with the awful story and heartbreaking photos! And that's not even getting into politics and the upcoming end of the world. I don't think humans are mentally equipped to live like that.
So I installed ScreenZen on my phone. It's one of many apps that will block both apps and entire websites. (Sadly it does not have the ability to block words.) I blocked everything I doomscroll on. I highly recommend this! I still get the news, as 1) I get a news digest emailed to me daily, 2) people will tell me the news in person whether I consent or not, but at least I'm not constantly marinating in global misery that I can't do anything about. Also, I now have more time to be useful in ways that are actually possible.
The result is that I have read so many more books than usual. I am completely behind on reviewing, also as usual, but with more books involved now. Perhaps I will post a poll.
Meanwhile, I decided that I am spending way too much time doomscrolling, both intentionally and non-consensually. Not only is everything horrible right now, but the minute you get online you're personally informed of every horrible thing that happened anywhere, big or small or in between. Did some random dude murder his entire family anywhere in the world? You'll be informed of it, complete with heartbreaking photos of the dead kids. Did a child commit suicide anywhere in the world? You'll hear about that too, also complete with the awful story and heartbreaking photos! And that's not even getting into politics and the upcoming end of the world. I don't think humans are mentally equipped to live like that.
So I installed ScreenZen on my phone. It's one of many apps that will block both apps and entire websites. (Sadly it does not have the ability to block words.) I blocked everything I doomscroll on. I highly recommend this! I still get the news, as 1) I get a news digest emailed to me daily, 2) people will tell me the news in person whether I consent or not, but at least I'm not constantly marinating in global misery that I can't do anything about. Also, I now have more time to be useful in ways that are actually possible.
The result is that I have read so many more books than usual. I am completely behind on reviewing, also as usual, but with more books involved now. Perhaps I will post a poll.
Random natterings
May. 12th, 2026 12:58 pmhrjIt's my birthday today -- the first time in quite a while when I'm not going to Kalamazoo for my birthday. (The Medieval Congress) As a result, I don't really have standard practices for what to do to commemorate the day. There will be a family dinner on the weekend, but today it's just me.
So I started with a fancy-breakfast-in-the-garden, which I don't do as often as I could. (I prefer to start the day with my bike ride, which practice is incompatible with a leisurely breakfast.) Other plans involved a movie and going out for sushi. I half-heartedly dropped my movie plans (Sheep Detective) on facebook with a solicitation for company, but facebook is facebook, the day is a weekday, and unsurprisingly no one took me up on it.
In the past week I've moved into the next stage of learning skills for self-publishing by working on formatting The Theory of Related-ivity in Vellum. So far Vellum is user-friendly, in that every time I've had a question about how to do something, it's either easy to figure out, easy to find in the help files, or easy to determine that you just can't do the thing I'm trying to do. As one review of the program noted, it isn't really designed for complicated non-fiction books, but there are only a few places that's been frustrating.
I solved one issue not related to Vellum when I figured out how to get better resolution jpegs of my Excel graphs. (Something that was a bit of a "Doh!" moment once I'd solved it.) But it wasn't until I did a test-export of the project into ebook and pdf versions that I was reminded that the lovely multi-colored graphs that are so easy to publish online and in ebooks also need to work in black-and-white for the hard copy. (It isn't that I expect to sell all that many hardcopy versions, but I want to have the option.) So now I need to go back through a couple dozen graphs and select color sets that will provide good B&W contrast. (Tricky for the percentage bar graphs with 13 variables! But there are only two of those.)
I've also decided to put out my translation and commentary of the 18th century French appeal record of Anne Grandjean (gender and sexuality issues) as a published book. That one has me thinking about the complexities of designing layout for both ebook and print. For print, it might be nice to do facing-page text with the commentary at the bottom of the pages, but that's impossible for the ebook. (Also, I'm not sure it would be possible in Vellum, though I know exactly how I'd do it in InDesign.) I'm also thinking ahead to the LHMP book and some fun layout ideas that wouldn't work for both. I should probably take a look at some examples of print/ebook pairs that have complex layouts in print.
By "complex" I mean things like separate text boxes for sidebars. (One idea I'm toying with would be rather than having all my mini-biographies in a single section, inserting them as sidebars in the topical chapters that they're most closely relevant to.)
One of the secondary functions for publishing low-impact smaller projects is to explore these sorts of questions. But compared to the non-fiction projects, novels will be easy!
When I think about my writing catalog, it always brings me back to that ill-fitting advice that a writer should stick to focused "branding" even if it means having multiple pen names. But my writing projects don't separate out neatly that way. the Grandjean translation is directly related to the LHMP book. But the LHMP book is directly related to my lesbian historical fiction. And the historical fiction is closely connected to my lesbian historical fantasy. And there would be no point to distinguishing that from any of the other types of fantasy I write. I still have a twinge of regret for using a pen name for Baby Names for Dummies, because it, too, connects up with my historical research. And what would be the point in using anything other than my real name for the Related-ivity book, since my identity is solidly connected to the reason I was interested in the topic.
I am me. I contain multitudes. I refuse to be fragmented.
So I started with a fancy-breakfast-in-the-garden, which I don't do as often as I could. (I prefer to start the day with my bike ride, which practice is incompatible with a leisurely breakfast.) Other plans involved a movie and going out for sushi. I half-heartedly dropped my movie plans (Sheep Detective) on facebook with a solicitation for company, but facebook is facebook, the day is a weekday, and unsurprisingly no one took me up on it.
In the past week I've moved into the next stage of learning skills for self-publishing by working on formatting The Theory of Related-ivity in Vellum. So far Vellum is user-friendly, in that every time I've had a question about how to do something, it's either easy to figure out, easy to find in the help files, or easy to determine that you just can't do the thing I'm trying to do. As one review of the program noted, it isn't really designed for complicated non-fiction books, but there are only a few places that's been frustrating.
I solved one issue not related to Vellum when I figured out how to get better resolution jpegs of my Excel graphs. (Something that was a bit of a "Doh!" moment once I'd solved it.) But it wasn't until I did a test-export of the project into ebook and pdf versions that I was reminded that the lovely multi-colored graphs that are so easy to publish online and in ebooks also need to work in black-and-white for the hard copy. (It isn't that I expect to sell all that many hardcopy versions, but I want to have the option.) So now I need to go back through a couple dozen graphs and select color sets that will provide good B&W contrast. (Tricky for the percentage bar graphs with 13 variables! But there are only two of those.)
I've also decided to put out my translation and commentary of the 18th century French appeal record of Anne Grandjean (gender and sexuality issues) as a published book. That one has me thinking about the complexities of designing layout for both ebook and print. For print, it might be nice to do facing-page text with the commentary at the bottom of the pages, but that's impossible for the ebook. (Also, I'm not sure it would be possible in Vellum, though I know exactly how I'd do it in InDesign.) I'm also thinking ahead to the LHMP book and some fun layout ideas that wouldn't work for both. I should probably take a look at some examples of print/ebook pairs that have complex layouts in print.
By "complex" I mean things like separate text boxes for sidebars. (One idea I'm toying with would be rather than having all my mini-biographies in a single section, inserting them as sidebars in the topical chapters that they're most closely relevant to.)
One of the secondary functions for publishing low-impact smaller projects is to explore these sorts of questions. But compared to the non-fiction projects, novels will be easy!
When I think about my writing catalog, it always brings me back to that ill-fitting advice that a writer should stick to focused "branding" even if it means having multiple pen names. But my writing projects don't separate out neatly that way. the Grandjean translation is directly related to the LHMP book. But the LHMP book is directly related to my lesbian historical fiction. And the historical fiction is closely connected to my lesbian historical fantasy. And there would be no point to distinguishing that from any of the other types of fantasy I write. I still have a twinge of regret for using a pen name for Baby Names for Dummies, because it, too, connects up with my historical research. And what would be the point in using anything other than my real name for the Related-ivity book, since my identity is solidly connected to the reason I was interested in the topic.
I am me. I contain multitudes. I refuse to be fragmented.
a somewhat less ambitious day
May. 12th, 2026 07:13 pmthe_shoshannaa less physically but more emotionally exhausting day
We started the day with a non-overwhelming breakfast! Just a bunch of veggies sauteed up together, no eggs no bacon no beans no toast (but yes coffee, and her coffee could punch Superman through a wall). We were delighted! Also, when we asked where we could find a laundromat to wash some clothes, she let us use her machine. So Geoff put a load through and hung it to dry before we left for the day; I had surreptitiously been doing some sink laundry and also I don't sweat the way he does, but I too am glad to have been able to properly wash some things. (Still gotta sink-wash a bra this evening, though; I've had too many destroyed by machines to trust one I don't know.)Then we headed out to the bus station to catch a bus to the Hamptonne Country Life Museum https://www.jerseyheritage.org/visit/places-to-visit/hamptonne-country-life-museum/ . This was one of the things I specifically wanted to see while we're here, but sadly I was a bit disappointed. There was no living-history reenactor guide working today (the guy at the entry selling tickets said she would have been there but she had to go to a funeral, so I'm not going to complain), and the guide who took us around spent more time talking about what it was like to work there, and less about what it would have been like to live there in the various eras it represented (13th, 17th, and 19th centuries), than I was hoping for. (Honestly, a good episode of Historical Farm would have given me more -- thanks for putting me on to that show,
dorinda!) Still, it was interesting to poke around and look at things, and Geoff enjoyed it more than I did, which was good because I was the one who really wanted to go and if he'd been really disappointed I'd probably have felt guilty.We did see a nineteenth-century apple crusher (which I immediately recognized thanks to Historical Farms!) and got to taste some of the cider they produce there. It was just fermented juice, no added sugar or rum or any of the other things that might be added to improve the taste, and it was like drinking paint thinner, I couldn't even finish my small cup. The guide said it was probably about 5% alcohol, but it felt stronger. So maybe it's a good thing I couldn't finish it!
Interestingly, the average age of the people visiting the museum seemed to hover around 70 that day. "School must be in session," I said to myself.
We finished up in the cafe, where we split an unexciting packaged sausage roll and a jacket potato with tuna mayo and sweetcorn. I don't know if the potato was a local Jersey potato, but it at least was very good! This whole concept of baked potatoes with stuff on them was something entirely unknown to me until a visit to Edinburgh years ago, when we got a number of out-and-about meals from a jacket potato shop that would put any of dozens of salads or sauces or meats or whatnots on them; I remember having to work hard to keep them from also plopping a giant knob of butter inside the potato as a matter of course. I mean, a buttered baked potato is delicious, but if you're topping your potato with a tomato-cucumber salad tossed in a vinaigrette, two tablespoons of butter really does not improve the experience. Anyway, I always think of that place when I have a jacket potato topped with something unusual to me, such as, for instance, tuna mayo with sweetcorn.
The bus we took to the museum was the same line we took home yesterday afternoon and it had the electronic announcement screen, but it wasn't on so I had to track us with my phone again to know when to get off. Ah, well. We had a nice five-minute walk through houses and farms from the bus stop to the museum site, and when we left to go back to the bus stop, the guy in the ticket office told us that if, once we got to the street the bus ran down, we went the other way from the bus stop we would come to an interesting old dovecote. We did walk that way for a bit, but didn't see anything promising, so we turned around and went up to the bus stop.
Rather than taking it all the way back into the capital city, though, we went only three stops (again tracking progress on my phone, for lack of any non-tech way to know where we were or which stop was ours), got off, and walked about fifteen minutes through more houses and potato fields and mildly wooded areas to get to the Jersey War Tunnels https://www.jerseywartunnels.com/.
The occupying German armed forces had this big tunnel complex built, largely but not entirely by forced labor and slave labor, originally as an ammunition store and barracks, later as a potential hospital in case of an Allied assault on the island(s). Now it's been turned into a really excellent museum of the occupation. When we bought our admission tickets we were also given replica ID cards, establishing each of us as an actual Jerseyite whose story we could discover as we went through the exhibits. (I was given the identity of a middle-aged Jewish woman who, when she was arrested a few years into the occupation, managed to escape her guards and flee to someone who hid her until the war ended.)
We made our way through the tunnels, each of which has been set up as a gallery documenting a different aspect of the occupation or part of the war, in chronological order: from the first decision that the islands wouldn't be defended, to the arrival of the Nazi forces, the gradual tightening of restrictions and rations, various people's attempts at resistance, escape, and sometimes collaboration, the arrival of a Red Cross aid ship just as the food situation got desperate, the experience of watching D-Day (remember, you can see France from here!) while still not being freed and while the local German commander was maintaining he would hold fast, until the final surrender and the arrival of the UK troops who raised the Union Jack again, as we saw reenacted a few days ago.
One particularly effective device was life-size human figures with video screens for their heads showing recordings of actors, so that you could imagine actually meeting and talking to the person who was depicted speaking to you. Here's a German soldier, fluent in English, who has bought your child an ice cream; do you let your child take it? Here's another who wants to hire you to do his washing, and you need money desperately; do you take the job? Here's a farm woman talking about food rationing, and how lucky her family is to have some livestock and chickens -- but of course the German authorities closely watch everything, including recording every piglet born, and god help you if you're caught hiding one. Here's a starving Russian slave worker who has escaped his barracks and stolen some carrots from your field; what do you do?
One informational signboard talked about collaborators, including women who went with German soldiers. It did acknowledge that, aside from the fact that the soldiers might be young, handsome, and -- at least in the early years -- friendly and congenial, being friendly with them might also mean extra food and security for the woman (and her family), but no explicit link was drawn between that signboard (which also explained the derogatory term "jerrybags" for such women) and a later one that told the story of a young woman who was "assaulted" (details unspecified but clearly sexual) by a German soldier while she was serving him in a restaurant, slapped him, and was promptly shipped to a German prison camp, where she died. Nor was a comparison made between "jerrybags" and the local workers who took jobs with the occupying forces to help build the tunnel complex. It all reminded me of the way that women's sexual purity so often stands in for and symbolizes all kinds of morality. Why is a woman who accedes to a soldier's demands and blandishments more of a collaborator than a man who takes a job furthering the enemy's projects?
On another note: as we approached the end of the war, plaques on the wall announced various milestones. I was surprised at the strength of my desire to spit upon seeing the one marking Hitler's suicide.
Anyway, the whole thing was A Lot, and very well done.
Eventually we emerged from underground and caught the bus home again. Once again we stopped on our way home from the bus station for an early dinner, rather than go home and then have to leave again; we found a nice sort of Spanish-Asian fusion place on one of the squares we walked through that had pleasant outdoor seating. (For COVID-cautious reasons we prefer to eat outside when we can; we're also masking on the buses and in other indoor public spaces. We haven't seen a single other person masking, but no one seems to give us the stink-eye about it, except possibly for one person on the bus the other day who seemed not to want to sit next to me.) Geoff had delicious lasagna that came with yet more delicious chips, and I, having not yet had any seafood other than some salmon at the arts centre cafe, had a sizzling plate of scallops and veggies in a vaguely oyster-sauce kind of sauce? Also a nice big glass of merlot, and Geoff had a pint of a Spanish beer called Madri, which he liked but I did not care for. And then back to the guesthouse and blogging!
One thing that has both startled and amused me is that several people (including the ticket guy at the Hamptonne museum), on hearing that we're planning to go from Jersey to spend ten days in Guernsey, have reacted with "Ten days on Guernsey?" in a very what-the-hell-would-you-do-that-for? tone of voice. I'm assuming that this is an expression of inter-island rivalry and not a real indication that we'll be bored out of our minds 😂 I mean, we did accumulate a list of things we might want to see there, and hikes we might want to do, and also we'll probably take a day trip to Herm.
But before then we still have three days here on Jersey to fill! It's likely to rain tomorrow and Thursday, so maybe we won't do another big hike, but we would like to see the Jersey Zoo...but for now, it's oh-so-exciting hand laundry for me, and curling up with some internet.
Manga Check-in: "Akuyaku Reijou no Naka no Hito" volume 1
May. 12th, 2026 02:40 pmbluapapilio
"Akuyaku Reijou no Naka no Hito: Danzai Sareta Tenseisha no Tame Usotsuki Heroine ni Fukushuu Itashimasu
The Villainess Within: Avenging the Reincarnated Girl by Exposing the Heroine's Lies"
Makiburo, Shiraume Nazuna (artist), 2021
MangaUpdates MyAnimeListSummary: Emi Kobayashi, an ordinary girl who loves otome games, wakes up and finds herself as Remilia, the villainess of the otome-game app "The Star Maiden and the Knight of Salvation." Emi scrambles to avert the destruction of the world and her own downfall!In spite of her efforts, the heroine of the Star Maiden, who is also a reincarnated person, strikes at her, and Emi is accused of trying to kill the heroine in addition to breaking the engagement. Instead of Emi, who lost consciousness due to the shock, Remilia, who was watching over her from inside, wakes up and takes revenge on the heroine and her former fiancé, the second prince, who hurt the lovely Emi.
My comments: Starts with the typical engagement annulment/accusatory heroine scene but the twist is that the villainess is still inside the body and takes back over once the reincarnated girl's consciousness faints from the shock. Also, the heroine is reincarnated as well.
I really enjoyed that Remilia got to see Emi's memories and feel the love she had in her life and it helped Remilia even though her body got stolen, and she ended up loving Emi. I've never felt so pained by the villainess' downfall before and you could feel it through the real Remilia as well and makes you badly want revenge.
It feels like the plot is really getting started after Remilia is forced to go live in their country estate and I'm excited to see what happens next after contacting the demons.
I saw someone mistake this for a GL but sadly it is not, there is romance later apparently. Remilia isn't interested in romance at all so maybe it'll be with Emi even though she's still unconscious?
Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | Characters: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | Humor Level: ⭐️ | Humor Enjoyment: ⭐️
Art: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
My rating: 9/10
In which I try to talk PWHL logistics but keep going on tangents about Portland's Moda Center
May. 12th, 2026 11:53 amolivermossPWHL Detroit is confirmed. PWHL Vegas has gone from well sourced rumors to leaked. PWHL Hamilton is teetering on the edge between rumored and leaked. All the sourcing being accurate so far means that San Jose being the 12th and final team is very likely.
One reason this is interesting is that it points to a division/conference system and reduced travel being what's guiding this expansion. Well, that and which arena controllers will play ball. Most arenas are paid for and technically owned by the city, but a lot of control/profit goes to team ownership. (Here in Portland we have the Gold Standard of bad deals where if you buy a soda at a rock concert at Moda, profit even from that goes to the Blazers ownership. The Blazers! The only thing surprising about the Blazer's coach recently getting arrested is that I thought they all had infinite legal protection! I didn't think we could arrest any of them!) Edmonton, Dallas, and probably Denver and a few other cities, fell through because the main team's ownership can rent space to the PWHL but can't own the teams outright at this time. (Ten bucks says that both the Red Wings and the Kraken ownership have rights of first refusal on the PWHL teams they share space with)
Arenas paid for by tax payers can't be used for optimal returns for the cities because billionaires can only make some money out of the deals, not all of the money. And people are mad at the PWHL about it, saying they need to change their ownership model, rather than than being mad at the bad deals their city approved. (Again, I live in the city with the worst arena deals, a Live Nation venue being built against the clear wishes of the citizens, but I am angry at the right people... and also if the current Moda remodel funding bill gets cut to necessary HVAC and structural work only I will take a victory lap because I *have* been engaging people one on one to explain how fucked the deal is and comparing it to the actually decent deal Seattle has for CPA)
Anyway, not to defend a guy who is so rich that he committed to funding the PWHL for ten years whether or not it made any money because the entire cost of the league, salaries to travel to space rental, is a rounding error in his bank account, but changing the ownership model at this point would be bad for the league.
Also, at a point it looked like a done deal that we were going to let the Blazers take $600mill from Portland's climate fund to remodel Moda to increase the amount of box seats and high end experiences, reducing overall capacity. We were poised to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into them reducing the amount of seats and making tickets less financially accessible to Portlanders. Fortunately, enough people have screamed about it that it's looking less certain. Now the Blazers are threatening to leave Portland. And I'm like... promise? Pretty please? I will help you pack! I never want to hear/see the words RIP CITY again as long as I fucking live. (The NBA is currently also expanding, Seattle is making a new team... so... move to where? Fuckers ain't got nowhere but here and they need to start acting like it.)
tldr: One reason the PWHL is hype is that they create additional revenue and economic activity for existing city investments. With the ten-year funding commitment it's a negligible risk - very solid reward proposition, if the people who control city assets are willing to play nice
One reason this is interesting is that it points to a division/conference system and reduced travel being what's guiding this expansion. Well, that and which arena controllers will play ball. Most arenas are paid for and technically owned by the city, but a lot of control/profit goes to team ownership. (Here in Portland we have the Gold Standard of bad deals where if you buy a soda at a rock concert at Moda, profit even from that goes to the Blazers ownership. The Blazers! The only thing surprising about the Blazer's coach recently getting arrested is that I thought they all had infinite legal protection! I didn't think we could arrest any of them!) Edmonton, Dallas, and probably Denver and a few other cities, fell through because the main team's ownership can rent space to the PWHL but can't own the teams outright at this time. (Ten bucks says that both the Red Wings and the Kraken ownership have rights of first refusal on the PWHL teams they share space with)
Arenas paid for by tax payers can't be used for optimal returns for the cities because billionaires can only make some money out of the deals, not all of the money. And people are mad at the PWHL about it, saying they need to change their ownership model, rather than than being mad at the bad deals their city approved. (Again, I live in the city with the worst arena deals, a Live Nation venue being built against the clear wishes of the citizens, but I am angry at the right people... and also if the current Moda remodel funding bill gets cut to necessary HVAC and structural work only I will take a victory lap because I *have* been engaging people one on one to explain how fucked the deal is and comparing it to the actually decent deal Seattle has for CPA)
Anyway, not to defend a guy who is so rich that he committed to funding the PWHL for ten years whether or not it made any money because the entire cost of the league, salaries to travel to space rental, is a rounding error in his bank account, but changing the ownership model at this point would be bad for the league.
Also, at a point it looked like a done deal that we were going to let the Blazers take $600mill from Portland's climate fund to remodel Moda to increase the amount of box seats and high end experiences, reducing overall capacity. We were poised to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into them reducing the amount of seats and making tickets less financially accessible to Portlanders. Fortunately, enough people have screamed about it that it's looking less certain. Now the Blazers are threatening to leave Portland. And I'm like... promise? Pretty please? I will help you pack! I never want to hear/see the words RIP CITY again as long as I fucking live. (The NBA is currently also expanding, Seattle is making a new team... so... move to where? Fuckers ain't got nowhere but here and they need to start acting like it.)
tldr: One reason the PWHL is hype is that they create additional revenue and economic activity for existing city investments. With the ten-year funding commitment it's a negligible risk - very solid reward proposition, if the people who control city assets are willing to play nice
Birdfeeding
May. 12th, 2026 01:44 pmysabetwordsmithToday is mostly sunny and warm.
I fed the birds. I've seen a small mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a grackle, and a gray catbird.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I planted a white dogwood in the forest garden. I put a jug over it and mulched around it.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I covered and mulched around a previously planted persimmon seedling.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I raked the westernmost of the north-south strips through the prairie garden which will get sown with seeds.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I planted a persimmon tree along the north edge of the forest garden, covered and mulched it.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I raked the middle of the north-south strips through the prairie garden which will also get sown with seeds. The easternmost one is meant to be the middle path and kept mowed, although I will also sow that with grass and clover seed rather than wildflowers or native prairie grasses.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I raked the long east-west strip where the Monarch Butterfly Seed Mix will go. This also contains flowers that bees love, and that strip runs near the bee tree. :D
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
I raked the notch at the north edge of the prairie garden where I'll sow flower seed later.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I raked the eastmost of the north-south paths, which is meant to stay mowed as the cross-cut path across the prairie garden. And that's all five of them done! \o/ *goflopnow*
As it is now dark, I am done for the night.
I fed the birds. I've seen a small mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a grackle, and a gray catbird.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I planted a white dogwood in the forest garden. I put a jug over it and mulched around it.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I covered and mulched around a previously planted persimmon seedling.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I raked the westernmost of the north-south strips through the prairie garden which will get sown with seeds.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I planted a persimmon tree along the north edge of the forest garden, covered and mulched it.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I raked the middle of the north-south strips through the prairie garden which will also get sown with seeds. The easternmost one is meant to be the middle path and kept mowed, although I will also sow that with grass and clover seed rather than wildflowers or native prairie grasses.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I raked the long east-west strip where the Monarch Butterfly Seed Mix will go. This also contains flowers that bees love, and that strip runs near the bee tree. :D
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
I raked the notch at the north edge of the prairie garden where I'll sow flower seed later.
EDIT 5/12/26 -- I raked the eastmost of the north-south paths, which is meant to stay mowed as the cross-cut path across the prairie garden. And that's all five of them done! \o/ *goflopnow*
As it is now dark, I am done for the night.
But the neiges d'antan melt and stir dull roots with spring rain
May. 12th, 2026 07:10 pmoursin(Mix and shake that metaphor and pour it over ice and serve it up with a wee paper umbrella!)
Somebody today on Another Site was mourning the Old Days on LJ which made me think of:
All the various Old Days in my life on and offline which were by their nature transient -
- but that transient didn't mean that they didn't have lasting effects/influence.
(I will spare dr rdrz accounts of various short-lived initiatives I encountered among the archives and in the course of Mi Researchez which nonetheless echoed down the years.)
Also that even had things not fallen out the way things did with LJ (hiss, boo, etc) by now it would almost certainly not be the same experience as it was in the 00s - people would have come, people would have gone, our interests and energies would have changed....
So we would probably be nostalgically regetting the glory days before [whenever].
"Chrono Trigger vs FF6 | Castle Super Beast 371"
May. 12th, 2026 01:28 pmkane_magusI'll give the edge to Chrono Trigger (says Kane Magus), but Final Fantasy VI is really good, too.
That said, the entirety of "Dancing Mad" kind of stomps "World Revolution," not that "World Revolution" isn't still pretty great, even so. That said, to be fair to Chrono Trigger, the (spoilers for Chrono Trigger in the next link) final boss isn't just the part with "World Revolution." (And again, yes, it is possible to beat all of that with only Crono, by himself.)
For me, though, the top-most tier boss/character theme of Chrono Trigger will always be "Battle with Magus."
(I really need to find a way to play Radiant Historia one of these days.)
