Snagged from various places, mainly svgurl: 72 questions to ask a fan
(She says fangirl - but I just took Gender Identity Training (web module) this week and it kind of goes against the grain to use gender exclusive as opposed to gender inclusive language at the moment.)

Also, the Good News Report...

As always, good news is often in the eye of the beholder, but hopefully something makes you smile, outside of the link to the fan questions. Which I may or may not try to answer at a later date. I'm weirdly private about my fandoms.


1.Breakthrough in search for HIV cure leaves researchers ‘overwhelmed’
Exclusive: Melbourne team demonstrates way to make the virus visible within white blood cells, paving the way to fully clear it from the body.

Via the Guardian

"Exclusive: Melbourne team demonstrates way to make the virus visible within white blood cells, paving the way to fully clear it from the body."

2. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka sues Alina Habba, alleging ‘false arrest and malicious prosecution’. Alina Habba's criminal case against Ras Baraka collapsed quickly. Now, the tables have turned, and the Newark mayor is suing the prosecutor.

Via Democracy Docket

3.Judge says some migrants sent to an El Salvador prison must have a chance to challenge their detention. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to provide hundreds of migrants sent to CECOT, a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, the opportunity to challenge their detention and removal. The ruling is related to deportations ordered under the Alien Enemies Act.

Via NBC News

This doesn't apply to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man whose deportation became a focal point of Democratic resistance to Trump's immigration policies.

4. The Trump regime has returned a Guatemalan man who was improperly deported to Mexico, obeying a federal judge’s order.

Via Politico

5. More than a century after the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, one of the most horrific episodes of racial violence in U.S. history, the city’s mayor announced a $105 million reparations package on Sunday. It is the first large-scale plan committing funds to address the impact of the atrocity. Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols on Sunday unveiled a $105 million reparations plan for the descendants of the Tulsa race massacre — the deadly 1921 attack by a white mob on a Black neighborhood.

ABC News

Via NY Times

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• working on Eldest's 21st quilt (yes, it is very overdue). Worked out what is needed, what I have, how the colours are going to be picked for the sections that I'm adding (because the original had a large square of white in the top left corner, so I've started the pattern at the third row, and have to add two rows at the bottom).
• today's goal was to identify pieces for four blocks (of the remaining 24), stretch goal to sew them, extra stretch goal to finish assembling that strip (combining rows 5/6 into a single piece). I stalled out at identifying what fabric was suitable for the current set of blocks -- there are so many pieces!
• Old Shanghai for the traditional post-con Wednesday gathering. There was some lamentation at the lack of pancakes, and conclusion that the last Pancake place had closed a decade ago.

With the dramatic change in how I spend my weeks upon me, I'm revisiting Habitica to see what needs doing. I did a bit of a tweak last week, working through my habits list and deciding what was good. I haven't posted that here, because it needed editing, and at this point it is unlikely that I will. However, what do I have in dailies, and how am I going to change it?

• Daily journal - this is going just fine, and it is important to my daily process for getting things done; keep
• progress at least one to-do - I haven't been making good use of the to-do list, so this has been an issue. Making it optional, possibly to delete.
• Tuesdays: weekly update on annual goals - I miss this as often as I achieve it, but it is a useful reminder; keep
• read things 'today' list - I haven't been doing this consistently, but it is useful when I do; keep
• update the 100 days document with today's small tasks - useful reminder; making it optional
• Minimum progress on current project; list of craft projects - delete; make a habit* for 'craft'. I want to keep it, I have a 67 day streak, but I just can't guarantee that I'll be doing it daily, and having it as an intermittent habit is better than beating myself up.
• read a book (physical, ebook, doesn't matter) - another one with a good streak, although only 36 days, but can't continue to commit, so moving it to habits.
• check notes files for anything I can progress - this is a valuable reminder; I don't want to move it to a habit, making it optional. This is because I have a long term goal of getting everything out of notes and into more sensible locations -- I use the notes app for whatever I need to record Right Now.
• Delete anything out of DW inboxes -- useful reminder, but I now at least look at the inbox every day, so deleting
• read three emails - useful reminder, does help a little. 53 day streak. Keeping for now, might make optional or delete if it is still too much
• update email and safari tabs spreadsheet - the spreadsheet was working as a motivation for while, but now it isn't. I still have it open, and maybe I'll update, but this isn't important. Delete
• read at least one page of a drawing book (optional) - I've kind of abandoned this at the moment. I might take the drawing journal to uni with me, and take it places on my lunch break, but I want that to be more relaxed. Delete.
• blog post (optional) -- I don't think that aiming to post daily is a good idea going forward. While I wasn't working/studying, it kept me focused on what I was doing, but I'll have other things for that. Delete.

That leaves 7 daily activities, of which journal, reading the to do list and checking emails are required. My notes suggested adding a zotero related task, but I think I'm going to put that in habits instead.

* The advantage of moving things to habits is that on days that I do a lot of whatever, I can tick them off multiple times.

I really haven't been putting much effort into tracking things here; my last post about it was 10th of May. At that point I had finished 2 projects of the 10 I'm hoping for, and made good progress on three. I've not finished anything else since, but I have made good progress on some

Previous good progress

1. towel rail - has not been progressed. I need a day a) without rain and b) that I have multiple hours available and c) (most importantly) that I remember this needs doing
2. door mat(s) - I've used up all the existing 'yarn' and I have half a rag rug. Every time I am surprised by how much 'yarn' it takes. I need to work out where I stashed the rest of the strips while we had a houseguest, and assemble more.
3. Teach myself to draw - this has stalled. I keep misplacing my drawing book or the sketch book I'm using, or the pencil. I need to get a better process.

Progressed since

1. pink / white / brown crochet blanket -- crochet finished, sewing in the ends. I think I'm half done on the ends?
2. brown / green knit -- this gets 4-6 rows roughly every second Thursday (when we game online) plus I've sat and worked on it while listening to podcasts.
3. T's jumper - a handful of rows. I need to make sure to do this every second day at least
4. blue / white virus blanket - I've finished the first of the two balls I had left, now on to the last one. It is just shy of 70cm square, and I'm on the 13th repeat of the pattern. I suspect this is the last repeat, based on available yarn. Hopefully I have enough to finish.
5. Eldest's quilt - I have laid it out, I have worked out what is needed to finish it. I have made and joined four blocks and worked out that I was doing something different from the book, and now those are going to be the front of a cushion, just as soon as they aren't attached to the quilt any more (basically, I'm adding 1/2" to each so the finished size is 9.5" rather than 9", but hadn't noted that down anywhere).
6. Knitting for Kitties - using up a couple of balls of yarn; the green one is done, and we have handed three squares over to purrdence

I'm reasonably happy with this progress. It is possible that either the knitting for kitties or the virus blanket will be finished next, because those are relatively portable. The former lives in my handbag; the latter is going to go in my uni bag (it is possible I will mostly stop carrying the handbag, because it doesn't fit a lunch or a laptop)

julybreakbingoevent is a multifandom bingo challenge with customizable cards (link goes to the fandomcalendar post). Sign-ups close on July 7th.

sunshine_revival is a community set to revive the Sunshine Challenge, a companion to the snowflake_challenge, that will run through the month of July.

allbingo is running a Pride Fest through the month of June. There are premade cards or you can create your own based on the available prompts.

justmarriedexchange, a marriage-themed multifandom exchange for marriage tropes of all kinds: convenient, accidental, undercover, arranged, forced, etc, is open for nominations until June 10th, 11:59PM UTC.

land_of_art is a landcomm challenge for graphic lovers. There are two teams and the first round is in progress and will continue until January 18th, 2026. Sign up for a team HERE.

fourormore, a community to promote and celebrate ships with four or more people, is running a Bingo Event. Cards will given until December 31st.

smallfandomfest is open for prompt claiming for its Small Fandom Fest. Submissions may be posted until July 31st.

fancake's theme of the month is: female relationships. Click on the banner below to learn more! :)

Steroids are fucking magic, yo. They have returned my cat to his normal bitchy emotionally needy self. They have also taken most of the stabbing out of my foot so I can walk without limping, at least while I'm moving around the house. I cheated a bit and put some of the foot cream on my arm because I officially overdid it with the shovelling, and as a result I can now lift a water glass without wincing.

What a country.

Upper third of my yard is now graded and seeded. My daughter came over and helped. She's not getting a lot of hours at work so she has an open invitation to come over and help me move dirt from one place to another whenever she wants to make a few bucks and be given beer and dinner. It works out well for both of us.

Basement guys came back today - they said they figured they had about three hours of work to finish. More swearing in Polish ensued. In the end they were in my basement for eight hours, but they got it all done. They had to build entirely new frames to hang the doors from and there was at least one hardware store trip to replace borked parts in the storm door and BOY HOWDY did they have something to say about that, but everything is now perfect and the basement apartment has functional doors that work and close and lock and everything.

Next step: I got somebody to come over and have a look at finishing the wood work. This consists of:
1. The stairs from the kitchen door to the backyard. Currently about a three foot drop, which I have been climbing up and down but that's not a perfect long term solution. (Especially in winter.)
2. The stairs from the basement apartment into the yard, are flimsy, wobbly, and don't have any hand rails so they are definitely not code. They are also resting on a base of wooden slats that just randomly shift if you put your weight in the wrong spot. I have no fucking idea what Original Contractor was even thinking. They need to be replaced with something that will pass a city inspection and that also will not kill you when you try to use them.
3. I want to put some kind of a sound-proof bench over the sump pump, because that fucker is loud. Also I figure an exposed ginormous battery is possibly a safety hazard of some kind. So the guy who looked at it said they can build something that acts as a solid bench but you can flip the top up if it needs maintenance, which sounds perfect.
4. My original blueprints include a deck on the kitchen roof. That would be really nice if I can swing it, but we'll see how much this all costs. Mainly it would be an additional place for me to grow herbs and stuff so it's in the "nice to have" pile.



( CUT FOR GROSS, SERIOUSLY YOU WERE WARNED )

Every time I see my doctor she asks me how the Not Drinking is going and every single time I'm all, FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK.

Today we ran errands and went to a flea market at the local mall.

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has got to be shrinkflation of dumb phone games.

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This poem came out of the June 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by janetmiles. It also fills the "activism" square in my 6-2-25 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. This poem belongs to the series Monster House.

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This poem came out of the June 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by janetmiles. It also fills the "community" square in my 6-2-25 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. This poem belongs to the series Clay of Life.

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This poem came out of the June 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by the "unlabeled" square in my 6-2-25 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. It has been sponsored by janetmiles. This poem belongs to the series A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows.

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Today is cloudy, warm, and damp.  It drizzled a little last night.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/6/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/6/25 -- It rained off and on today.

I avoided standing an extra 20 minutes at the bus stop on my way to the supermarket at lunchtime because I checked the live tracking before I headed out. Instead, I decided to continue working for another half an hour and take the next bus, which appeared to be on time. And that worked out nicely. But on my journey home, I was rewarded by a 15-minute extra wait for the return bus, so I'm not entirely sure if not having to wait for the bus out actually helped me to avoid wasting time at all.

At least I managed to do the shopping I was intending to do. And I managed to drop off a big bagful of books at the charity bookshop. When I tried about six weeks ago, I happened to try on a day when they were busy training on the new till system and were not accepting any donations. So I took the books back home then and accumulated a few more before taking them out again today, and was relieved not to have to take them back again.

After work, I had a massage appointment, and I'm feeling relaxed and loose for a change.

As a long-standing fan of Alastair Reynolds who is finally getting around to watching Babylon 5, it's a bit like... so Mass Effect really just mashed these two things together (and sprinkled a bit of other sci-fi flavouring on top), huh.

Not a crime, of course; and I don't think Mass Effect has ever pretended to be anything but deep and affectionate bow to all things space opera. It's getting a rueful chuckle out of me nonetheless. O to get to file off those serial numbers so successfully.

Blind skateboarder creates 'world-first' adaptive skatepark: 'I've never had a place where I can skate with full confidence'

About seven years ago, he started dreaming of creating the world’s first adaptive skatepark right in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan.

Finally, the park is a reality.

Called “The Ranch,” the 5,000-square-foot skatepark is completely accessible, allowing both seasoned low-vision boarders to take it for a spin and newcomers to the sport to feel welcome.


Everyone should have access to opportunities for physical activity and creativity.

The Beeb are repeating a 1970s adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, and based on Part 1: Farewell to Norlan, it’s not really threatening the supremacy of the early 90s Ang Lee & Emma Thompson film. But, you know, there’s enough of Austen there to enjoy.

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These are active communities in Dreamwidth from Spring 2025 . They include things I've posted, but only the active ones; the thematic posts also list dormant communities of interest. This list includes some communities that I've found and saved but haven't made it into thematic posts yet. This post covers J-Z.

See my Follow Friday Master Post for more topics.

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