steepholm

tattoo (ta-TOO) - n., a permanent mark or design on the skin made by pricking and ingraining an indelible pigment; the process of making such a mark. v., to make a tattoo.

Also a signal on a drum, bugle, or trumpet at night, for soldiers or sailors to go to their quarters, but that's from Dutch and can be ignored for this theme. This was originally spelled was tattow, reflecting that in some Polynesian languages, such as Tahitian and Samoan, the word is tatau, but the word was later reimported from another Polynesian language, such as Marquesan, where the final vowel had shifted to tatu. The root meaning in Proto-Oceanic was the wingbone of a flying fox, which was apparently a common tool for tattooing -- a meaning that survived in a couple languages. [Sidebar: TIL Samoan is the most widely spoken Polynesian language, with around 430,000 native speakers, around half of which live in the Samoan Islands.]

---L.

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https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/enilchek

The Soviet Union built this town as a mining hub in the 1980s. When the USSR collapsed, the workers left to leaving just a few families, an abandoned mine, and a largely abandoned town. The abandoned mine facilities are a time capsule of the 1980s USSR.

Due to its proximity to the Chinese border you will need a special border permit to enter this region. This can easily be obtained if you go with a local tour group.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/enilchek

princessofgeeks

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james_davis_nicoll

In which Hisako Ichiki meets her stalker and the shadowy cult Children of the Atom discovers the Peter Principle.

Children of the Atom (Ultimate X‑Men, volume 2) by Peach Momoko

osprey_archer

Two of the most interesting (deranged, over the top, extremely fun but also WTF) books I read last year were Henry Lien’s Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate and Sword and Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions. So when I discovered that Lien had written a book about storytelling, Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird: The Art of Eastern Storytelling, of course I had to read what the author of Peasprout Chen has to say about storytelling, even though I generally approach the idea of Eastern and Western storytelling styles with a healthy dose of suspicion.

To sum up this suspicion briefly, I think that people often look at a snapshot of what Eastern and Western storytellers are doing right now, and then draw conclusions about The Eternal Differences of Eastern and Western Storytelling that aren’t Eternal at all, since they would be completely blown out of the water by a wider historical view.

For instance, I’ve seen the argument that “Western stories must have conflict,” which (although there are obviously outliers) is a pretty good summation of the current Western vision of how stories work… but in the 19th and early 20th century, stories about the characters having good times with no conflict were an accepted and popular literary mode in America and England, especially in children’s books.

Given this viewpoint, it’s perhaps no surprise that I think the book is strongest when it focuses on the differences between Eastern and Western animated children’s stories (for which read “Studio Ghibli” and “Disney”). The artform has only been around for about a hundred years and it’s been dominated by a handful of main companies, so one person can meaningfully encompass most of what’s been released. And the differences are striking, as I think anyone who grew up on Disney and then saw a Ghibli film can attest. Wait, you don’t have to have a villain? You don’t even have to have conflict? The kids can just ride in the catbus?

The weakest part IMO is the chapter where Lien argues that Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go is telling a profoundly Eastern story, because rather than rebel against their circumstances, the characters accept their fate and try to live the best lives they can within that context. Now I’m sure this is something that happens in Eastern stories, but this is also a theme with deep roots in the history of the English novel. Admittedly a theme that is deeply out of fashion right now! One that literary critics and internet pundits complain about at length when they discuss nineteenth century English novels! And then other critics/pundits reply, “Isn’t trying to live the best life you can in limited circumstances the TRUE rebellion, though?”, because Western critics/pundits have generally accepted that Rebellion is the moral standard by which literary works should be judged and by which we should all live.

So in that sense I suppose I’ve talked myself into agreeing with Lien, at least to the extent of agreeing that Ishiguro is telling a story that is alien and upsetting to current Western literary sensibilities… but it’s alien and upsetting in a way that has Western roots just as deep as the Eastern ones. Mansfield Park makes people blow a gasket for pretty much the same reason.

Reading the book is a bit like going to a coffee shop with a friend and having a good rousing literary argument. You may have some quibbles, you may indeed have some big disagreements, but it’s a stimulating and enjoyable experience nonetheless.

However, fair warning, it will not give you any new insight into why Peasprout Chen is Like That. Peasprout will simply remain a bizarre and beautiful mystery.

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Posted by Dan Hartland

https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/2025-in-review-part-three/

http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/?p=58055

Here is the third part of our reviewers’ trawl through 2025. The first part was here, and the second here.

Eric Primm

In 2025, my day job took up significantly more time than expected, and between it and the craziness of the world right now, I retreated into reading. It was a year of comfort reads. I made it through all seven books in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. It’s raucous, raunchy, and just fun. It was a good distraction at a very needed time. Sign Here by Claudia Lux was a wonderful workplace novel set in Hell that was unlike anything else I read all year.

I also caught up on some older books on my shelf. Gareth Hanrahan’s The Gutter Prayer was surprising, creative, and beautifully written. I returned to the Edinburgh Nights series with The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle by T. L. Huchu. This Scottish series deserves more people talking about how lovely it is. In a setting a little farther north than Scotland, John Gwynne’s The Shadow of the Gods opened a new series with brutality and heart. It’s a difficult combination, but Gwynne pulled it off. But the book of the year for me was Robert Jackson Bennett’s A Drop of Corruption. This second book in the Shadow of the Leviathan series builds on and surpasses the first novel in every way. This is a can’t-miss series for me, and I’m looking forward to the next. Finally, heading into the Christmas holiday, I’m listening to the audiobook of King Sorrow by Joe Hill. This story is Hill at his finest; it’s the best of his books so far. The audio production is great and elevates an already spooky story. 2025 was another great year for readers; here’s wishing you all the best with your TBR pile.

Electra Pritchett

The Incandescent cover This year I tried to really catch up on my physical TBR shelves, so I’m behind on recent books. Kate Elliott’s The Witch Roads and The Nameless Land duology gets my top vote for 2025; Elliott is going from strength to strength, and this duology set in a new world is a perfect introduction to her writing. I adored Margaret Owen’s triumphant Holy Terrors, which ran all the way through the tape with an indelible protagonist and heart-wrenching character development over the course of the trilogy. Emily Tesh’s The Incandescent is another shoo-in for my Hugo ballot.

I read a lot of manga. Fantasy fans will enjoy Shirahama Kamome’s ongoing Witch Hat Atelier series, about an unpedigreed student learning magic in a world where learning magic is heavily restricted. Urasawa Naoki’s Billy Bat is coming out in English in 2026, for fans of centuries-spanning global conspiracies and mythical entities that are up to no good. Hagio Moto’s They Were Eleven! has finally been translated into English, and it’s a classic, even if its views of gender have aged oddly. Ichikawa Haruko’s Land of the Lustrous, about gemstone people on a far future Earth, finished up in English this year and is another gender-exploring sci-fi classic in the making. For comics fans, Linnea Sterte’s A Garden of Spheres is dazzling, and a good excuse to read her back catalog (all excellent). Kelly Thompson’s Absolute Wonder Woman is a bold, fascinating chthonian take on the character.

Between Andor, Murderbot, and Severance, sci-fi fans ate well on TV this year. Sinners, Superman, and Wicked: For Good held up the genre banner at the movies, as did KPop Demon Hunters and Frankenstein, which I loved.

As for the TBR, I DNF’d quite a few by the big genre names of yesteryear, but Suzette Haden Elgin’s Native Tongue still holds up a glass that reflects our current quagmire darkly. I’ve also been rereading Michelle West’s epic Essalieyan fantasy series. Her depth of character and worldbuilding remain amazing, and these books should be much better known.

Daniel Rabuzzi

Rather than talk about the books I enjoyed this year—including Paz Pardo’s The Shamshine Blind, Jared Pechaček’s The West Passage, and Better Dreams, Fallen Seeds and Other Handfuls of Hope by Ken Scholes—I will focus on the infrastructure of speculative literature. For instance, for the first time ever the Hugos included a category for poetry, won by Marie Brennan at Worldcon in Seattle for “A War of Words.” Similarly, The Translated Hugo Initiative aims to introduce a Hugo Award for Best Translated Work. In the face of daunting economic and social headwinds, small and independent presses and mags specializing in speculative literature continue to exhibit remarkable tenacity, vision, and innovation. Collective applause to the indie publishing ecosystem, with special shout-outs to Small Beer, Aqueduct, Fairwood, Carmina, Tachyon, PS, Kaleidotrope, Red Ogre, Black Shuck, Sunday Morning Transport, Uncanny, Psychopomp, and—if I may—Strange Horizons.

The critical apparatus for speculative literature is flourishing. Critical sites I find most stimulating (even, perhaps especially, when I disagree!) include SH's columns and its Critical Friends podcast, Ancillary Review of Books, Fantasy Cafe, Locus of course (highlighting Charles Payseur's review of short stories); Ruthanna Emrys’s and Anne M. Pillsworth’s “reading the weird” at Reactor, Fantasy Book Reviews, Cora Buhlert's reportage; Natalie Zutter at Literary Hub, and The Lillian Review of Books. I especially value the insights authors offer, for example Yume Kitasei's newsletter Matcha Talk and Lincoln Michel's Counter Craft. I am most impressed with the introspection and historical analysis that many speculative literature critics engage in, whether it is the Brighton World Fantasy Convention’s “fantasy timeline” (and the “Epic Pooh and The Style of Fantasy Prose” panel there with Lisa Tuttle, Lee Murray, John Clute, and Farah Mendlesohn), Sean Guynes with his thoughtful review of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series, Dr. Sara Cleto and Dr. Brittany Warman at The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic, or Young People Read Old SFF. We can't “make it new” if we don't know what the old looks like.

Subham Rai

Pluribus poster This year felt like a nonstop swirl of uncertainty and change, but these stories gave me the sharpest ways to unpack it all.

Severance came back with brutal insight into fractured identities and corporate control, hitting way too close to real life. Andor wrapped its rebellion story with quiet power and real stakes. Foundation handled huge cosmic ideas without dropping the human side. Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus caught me off guard with its biting take on forced happiness, mixing dark laughs and quiet warmth. Alien: Earth brought back pure, gut-level horror.

Claire North’s Slow Gods stood out most among new releases, refreshing timely questions with urgent bite. Robert Jackson Bennett’s A Drop of Corruption layered kaiju threats over smart detective work in a fragile empire. Mark Lawrence’s The Book That Held Her Heart closed his Library trilogy on a deeply moving note. Brief mentions go to E. J. Swift’s climate-focused When There Are Wolves Again and the protest anthology We Will Rise Again, edited by Annalee Newitz and others.

Rereading Butler’s Parable series amid everything going on felt necessary, reminding me how communities hold together through collapse after current events have echoed its warnings too closely. A few big sequels chased flash and disappointment, but the strong work carried everything. Short pieces in Clarkesworld and Asimov’s tackled AI dilemmas and climate fallout with no wasted words. Themes of systemic cracks, tech ethics, and stubborn rebuilding kept coming up strongly. I was a little confused this time. The best stuff clarified tough realities more than it muddied them. These stories did more than distract. They helped make sense of the mess and point toward something worth holding on to.

Roy Salzman-Cohen

Silksong poster My favorite new SFF book of the year is Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman. I’ve been a fan of Fellman’s since The Breath of the Sun, and this book feels to me like the culmination of some of his work--as in, it’s fully doing things he’s been trying to do for a while in his other writing. It’s brilliant and insightful and seethingly painful in places. It’s science fiction in a quiet way but also a necessary way, not tacked-on or half-hearted. It’s also a story about trans people that feels honest and correct to me—it’s a big deal to see it written so well by another trans person.

Stuff that wasn’t published this year: I caught up on a few things from recent years—of these, The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman is a major highlight. Just such a well-done quest fantasy that manages to be fun and deep and suspenseful and character-rich and truly magical. I also read some stuff that’s a little bit older.

I finally finished Gormenghast this year, and even though it’s taken me maybe eighteen months or more to read both that and Titus Groan, it was so completely worth it. The whole thing is made of magic even though there’s no actual magic in it at all.

Books that aren’t quite SFF: I started digging into Clarice Lispector, and finally started reading more poetry again. (Particularly Lynda Hull, Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Larry Levis.) While not SFF per se, I think all of these writers use language in a way that would be appealing to many SFF readers, particularly Strange Horizons readers. How many different things can an idea mean, and what can it connect to, and what do those connections open up? What impossible things can you discover?

Comics-wise, Drome by Jesse Lonergan is beautiful and strange and moving. My beloved Elfquest (Wendy and Richard Pini) re-released its first four books in lovely color editions, so I’ll throw that in here too. And old comics-wise, I finally read a bunch of Usagi Yojimbo (Stan Sakai) this year, which I heartily recommend to everybody.

Finally, in games—this was the year of Silksong. It was so, so, so cool to open that game at the same time as everybody else, knowing absolutely nothing. And it’s an incredible game. Just as good as the original Hollow Knight, in its own way. I love them both. I do wish there was an easy mode so that both games were more accessible, but that aside, incredible works of SFF immersion.

Andy Sawyer

Lady Audley’s Secret cover 2025 was largely taken up with writing and submitting a book, so any reading was either done with a view to the subject of the book (Terry Pratchett, which made the reading pleasurable, just mostly re-reading), or as far as possible as I could get from it by catching up with some of the “I’ve always wanted to read these” pile.

So Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) may be an odd choice for this piece, particularly as it isn’t even a supernatural story—although towards the end there’s a chapter called “Ghost-haunted” in which one of the characters is in a Hansom cab, thinking about his dead friend, and begins to fantasize about ghost stories in a modern setting: “Nobody ever saw a ghost in a Hansom cab … The story would be something about a dismal gentleman, in black, who took the vehicle by the hour, and was contumacious upon the subject of fares, and beguiled the driver into lonely neighbourhoods, beyond the barriers, and made himself otherwise unpleasant.”

Lady Audley’s Secret is a classic Victorian “sensation novel” with echoes of Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White. It’s an absolute page-turner—a melodrama, perhaps—but a very good one. The beautiful Lady Audley is her husband’s second wife. There is something mysterious about her past—as Lord Audley’s nephew, a somewhat idle barrister with a penchant for French novels, discovers when his friend George, back in England from Australia to reclaim the wife he abandoned, disappears. Both Lady Audley and Robert are wonderful characters. One is the villain in a complicated plot but comes across as surprisingly sympathetic, especially to the modern reader; the other is something of a drip but redeemed by his concern for his friend and by finding a role in playing detective. The blurb for my edition (Oxford World’s Classics) says that “sensational twists turn the conventional picture of Victorian womanhood on its head.” This is partly because it seems to be very much about a woman trying to make her own life in the world, and while Braddon doesn’t seem to be writing a “protest” novel about the state of women in Victorian society, she knows very well what the state of women is, and she is having great fun showing up the men in her novel.

Next was Andrew Michael Hurley’s Barrowbeck, published late 2024, a collection of short stories (originally radio plays) set on the borders of Yorkshire and Lancashire. The first story, which shows us the arrival into the valley of people fleeing an attack by a rival tribe, is set in prehistoric times. There is a huge leap of time until the next stories, set 1445 AD and 1792 AD. It takes some careful reading to establish the “folk horror” motif of the effects of landscape, and the future-setting of the final two tales turns them into science fiction. “A Valediction,” in which we are shown a final snapshot of Barrowbeck in 2041, is the most thoughtful story in the collection, and the most interesting science fiction story I have read in a long while.

Safia H. Senhaji

Murderbot poster 2025 was the year I got fully back into my danmei era. I finished Guardian by priest, and I’m currently in the middle of several amazing series: Stars of Chaos (also by priest), Ballad of Sword and Wine by Tang Jiu Qing, To Rule in a Turbulent World by Gu Xue Rou, and of course I’m still savouring all of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s books, as well as the excellent manhua adaptation of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. While I find the overarching plot aesthetics that seem to keep repeating themselves slightly frustrating at times, I am absolutely enjoying the distinct themes, characters, worldbuilding, and main relationships of each of those series, as well as the style of prose and pacing.

2025 was also a good nonfiction year—I finished Burn It Down by Maureen Ryan, No Beast So Fierce by Dane Huckelbridge, SPQR by Mary Beard, and I’m currently having a blast with Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer. All were informative, with masterfully performed audiobooks.

Other standouts include Epic: The Musical, which I finished listening to in January 2025 and have kept listening to throughout the year, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab, the excellent graphic novel adaptation of the first book in Tamora Pierce’s The Song of the Lioness Quartet (seriously cannot wait for the other three adaptations to come out!), The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, and The Will of the Many by James Islington. I also still can’t help thinking of January Fifteenth by Rachel Swirsky—a novella that packs a lot of punches—and I absolutely loved The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Older.

I also finally got around to reading Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch (full of heart, amazing continued character growth, and gratifyingly inclusive), and dove into the Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman, which seems to get better with every instalment.

With more time to watch media, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Apothecary Diaries season 1, Murderbot, The Residence, and I’ll definitely have to read Rachel Reid’s book series after I finish watching Heated Rivalry.

Last, but not least, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Suzanne Collins: While it never says good things about our current times to have a new Hunger Games book that provides much-needed commentary and insights, I’m nonetheless grateful that we have it. I finished reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes the day before the new book came out, and while I’m still not finished reading Sunrise on the Reaping, it is excellent—heart-wrenching, bittersweet, and masterful.

William Shaw

Gliff cover It was an exhausting year. But aren’t they all, these days? I count myself lucky that I at least had a good public library system and publishers willing to send me review copies amidst all the madness.

2025 saw Ali Smith’s Gliff make its US debut. An engaging combination of political satire, Kafkaesque nightmare, and horse novel, the book has the sensitive characterisation and witty, inventive prose that typify Smith’s output. I look forward to having my understanding of it completely upended by Glyph in 2026. Speaking of novels, Maggie Su’s Blob: A Love Story was a propulsive and bittersweet exploration of a pervasive fantasy: the romantic partner with no needs of their own. It all comes crashing down (of course), but oh, how delicious it is in getting there!

2025 also saw the publication of Amal El-Mohtar’s The River Has Roots. A melodic fairy tale with a sense of the numinous rarely found in contemporary fantasy, every sentence of this book feels like a dream. Speaking of dreams, Torrey Peters’s collection Stag Dance covers a wide range of fantasies, from the cross-dressing cryptidity of its title story to the secret desires of boarding school pupils. I also enjoyed the clashing designs of “The Masker” and the neo-Wellsian science fiction of “Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones.”

The 2025 book I find myself returning to most often, however, is Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha. I raved about this book in my review for Strange Horizons—its meditations on fatherhood, lost media, and the cannibalisation of culture felt sadly applicable all through 2025. A rare pleasure, this: the work of fiction that not only entertains, but becomes a tool for thinking with. If 2026 can manage another one or two of those, I’ll be a very happy man.

Nataliia Sova

The Long Walk cover For me, 2025 was the year of Stephen King. I read quite a number of his newer and older works and watched two film adaptations, The Long Walk and The Running Man.

I loved The Long Walk as a book. It has a great premise: In a dystopian world, a number of young men participate in an annual contest which requires them to walk, nonstop, across the state of Maine. There is only one winner, and everyone else—the ones who get exhausted, injured, fight back, or simply stop walking—are shot. The novel is more psychological than plot-driven. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it became one of my favorite works by Stephen King.

In the movie version, characters and names are mixed and matched, probably to make it easier to follow a small group of people rather than the sprawling cast of the novel. Other than that, the film is pretty close to the book, except for the final act. The novel offers an open (and pretty depressing) ending, which I personally like. I read The Long Walk as a metaphor of life, but saw no such thing in the movie.

The Running Man as a book was a bit underwhelming to me. The premise is interesting: A man participates in a TV game in which he’s hunted by a group of professional hitmen. The worldbuilding was somewhat insufficient, and I was hungry for more interiority from the main character. The movie, however, developed the setting, added more stakes, and continued the main character’s arc while preserving the core of the story.

I look forward to 2026 and all the book adaptations it will bring!

Nileena Sunil

KPop Demon Hunters poster 2025 was a fantastic year for me in terms of SFF. I wrote more book reviews than I ever had before, got the opportunity to interview writers at a literary festival, and overall had an amazing time reading and writing. Most of the books I read were older works, but I went through some enjoyable recent releases, including Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame by Neon Yang, a fun novella about dragon hunters and dragons, Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor, which weaves a sci-fi narrative around a tale about culture, identity, and disability, and Between Worlds, an exciting anthology of Indian SFF.

Other books I read and loved include The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty, the swashbuckling historical fantasy following an experienced female pirate in the Indian Ocean, Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L Wang, a rather dark take on academia, imperialism, and magic, and Yudhanjaya Wijeratne’s The Slow Sad Suicide of Rohan Wijeratne, a melancholic spacefaring story. I also had a lot of fun going through the first few books of The Vorkosigan Saga, Lois McMaster Bujold’s expansive space opera. Among non-SFF reads, a standout was The Fairy Tellers by Nicholas Jubber, which went into the history of popular fairy tales, and the people who wrote them.

On the movie and TV front, like many others this year, I enjoyed catching up with the latest seasons of Severance and Andor. KPop Demon Hunters was another highlight, as was Lost in Starlight, a heartfelt animated spacefaring romance movie. I was also captivated by The Summer Hikaru Died, a horror anime revolving around folklore, small town vibes, relationships and queerness. I had a lot of fun catching up with What We Do in the Shadows, and also enjoyed Lokah, a Malayalam movie that brings folkloric beings into a modern setting.

https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/2025-in-review-part-three/

http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/?p=58055

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Posted by Victoria Janssen

https://victoriajanssen.com/2026/01/tbrchallenge-2026/

https://victoriajanssen.com/?p=7092

TBR Challenge 2026 is a fun way to actually read all those books I’ve been accumulating over the years. “Your mission, should you choose to accept it: once a month pull a dormant book out of your TBR pile and read it. On the 3rd Wednesday of the month, talk about that book. If you’re on social media all you need to do is use the #TBRChallenge hashtag – there’s no need to sign-up and your participation can vary throughout the year. You can use this hashtag on any day, at any time – but we’re still going to concentrate on the 3rd Wednesday of every month to kick our commentary into high gear. The idea is to have at least one day a month where we can always count on there being book chatter.”

January 21 – Still Here (a series you’ve been neglecting, a book by a favorite author you’ve been saving for a rainy day, unrequited love, second chance or reunion romance, etc.)
February 18 – Vintage (Old School, genre classic, etc.)
March 18 – Tropetastic! (Let your trope freak flag fly!)
April 15 – Fool’s Errand (some sort of harebrained/desperate/Hail Mary kind of motivation for one of the main characters, fake relationship/engagement, etc.)
May 20 – New Beginnings (Starting over, first book in a series, characters coming off divorce / bad relationship etc.)
June 17 – Pride (LGBTQ+, prideful main character, etc.)
July 15 – Freedom! (main character escaping “something,” books set during period of political change – pick a war, suffrage, Civil Rights Movement, etc.)
August 19 – Backlist Banger (book that’s been in your TBR a long time, backlist title by favorite and/or prolific author, etc.)
September 16 – Lush Life (some definitions of lush = luxuriant, thriving, prosperous, savory, drunkard, curvaceous. Run with it folks!)
October 21 – The Hunt (thriller, romantic suspense, Gothic, paranormal, fantasy, etc.)
November 18 – Wrath (revenge, vengeance, a struggle of some sort, angry characters)
December 16 – Wild Card (unpredictable characters, random “free pick” from your TBR)

https://victoriajanssen.com/2026/01/tbrchallenge-2026/

https://victoriajanssen.com/?p=7092

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: awake

spiralsheep

- If you use gmail or other google services then I strongly suggest checking your location is set to EU if possible (or other not-US if possible) and that you check to ensure "smart features" are switched OFF and remain OFF as google continues to roll out their AI, or switch to Proton (Switzerland) / Mailbox (Germany) / [your local equivalent] if you can afford them. Also, don't use Chrome as your browser, obv. And, of course, nobody with a choice ever used Microsoft. Switching away from US-based tech services generally, and especially services intentionally infected with AI spying and slop, has always been advisable where possible.

- If you are outside the US please set your default weather app to your local weather service that doesn't use US data, so the Met Office in the UK. One of the easiest ways to use disinformation to control people's actions or inactions in large groups is via weather forecasts. Yes, I'm serious.

- If there is anywhere you might need to go in an emergency situation that isn't on your regular routes then I suggest acquiring a paper map or directions you can read, and putting them in your regular travel bag (or car) etc. I would also suggest knowing alternative routes for your most important journeys. GPS is a service that the US and many local enforcement institutions can turn off at any time.

- I was in South London before the pandemic when, without any prior warning, the police decided to switch off all non-wired phone and digital services covering a busy shopping and high population area during the day when most people would normally be out of their homes. They don't do these tests in posh areas so many people are unaware of these possibilities.

- Sorry but we are where we are.

mific

Apologies to friends here at DW. I've been so obsessed with HR everything I'd gotten very behind in reading my flist here. I am now caught up! Will try to do better.

I remember this state from when I first fell into fandom in about 2008/2009, and the key word is salience. The object of your desire becomes virtually the only salient (important) thing. Everything else pales in comparison and seems less important and interesting. It's no accident that salience is a technical term in addiction medicine. It's for sure linked with dopamine receptors and my brain is now very trained to give me dopamine hits for things related to HR, especially, at this stage, fic.

I'm not complaining, but I realise that we loons (an in-joke name suggested for the HR fandom) must be tiresome for those not in the fandom. (There's a solution to that...)

Anyway, it's also midsummer here and very nice, too. The garden (will do a few pics soon) is getting blowsy and a bit beset by fungal annoyances as we've continued to have intermittent rain and high humidity, but most days have highs of 27^C which is lovely and not too hot. Perfect for lying around reading and rewatching! I finally finished and mailed my second tranche of seasonal cards for NZ friends and family, the earlier lot having been sent overseas. They're later than usual due to the aforementioned salience of other distractions.

The bloody ducks managed to force their way back into my water garden through the duck dome, so the dome is now a basket weave with weft as well as warp, and tied more firmly to the barrel. The waterlilies are slowly recovering for a second time. The giant Mexican sunflower (Tithonia) is once more as tall as the house, having regrown from a 2 foot stub after cutting back. I'm not sure there's anything in the earth under my flat except Tithonia roots, these days. My peppers aren't thriving - not enough direct sun, as my potted plants got away from me and I didn't have the peppers in the front row. Lesson learned. Scarlet runner beans are doing well, but a lot of veggies and annuals haven't been great, probably as the very hot early summer exhausted and confused them. I'll plant some things earlier, in winter next year (sweet peas, tomatoes, peppers.)

Okay, that's my update - hugs for everyone and hope you're all coping with 2026 so far!

(Downs periscope and prepares to dive back into excellent HR fic).

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Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/1/9/some-days-you-just-want-to-hide-from-the-world

Via uso_otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/1/9/some-days-you-just-want-to-hide-from-the-world

rydra_wong

On Monday evening I had the BEST time being repeatedly summoned by someone who (it gradually became clear) was wildly lost in the Duke's Archives.

Context: in Dark Souls, you can put down a summon sign so that other players can* summon you into their game to help them out (at the risk of also opening themselves up to potential hostile invaders).

You can only be summoned by people in the same rough level range as you, so if I don't feel like moving on yet from an area after I’ve completed it, I often put down my summon sign and hang around for a bit before I level up out of the usual range for that area. It’s been a lot of fun.

VERY IMPORTANT CONTEXT: there is no channel for voice or text communication. There's a very limited menu of gestures, and a few signals (e.g. repeatedly tapping the block button to jiggle your shield or weapon, which generally seems to communicate "I'm here, let's go!") which the fandom has evolved by default.

This makes communication challenging. But it also means it makes zero demands on my capacity for verbal conversation or pretending to be a semi-normal human being.

( Cut for length )

rest_of_world_rss_feed

Posted by Kinling Lo

https://restofworld.org/2026/meta-manus-singapore/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feeds

Meta’s acquisition of Manus, a Chinese-origin artificial intelligence agent startup, has swiftly turned from celebration to complication. The Chinese government has said it will review the estimated $2 billion deal...

https://restofworld.org/2026/meta-manus-singapore/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feeds

northlands posting in

endings

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beanside

Ugh, the news out of the last couple of days is just...horrifying. A woman dead, her wife and child left to mourn, and now two more people shot in Portland, plus the rest of the horrible abuses by ICE. I hate it, and I wish there was more that I could do to improve things. But as there is not, I will watch and stand witness. It's what I've got. For my mental health, I tend not to comment here on current news. That doesn't mean that I'm not angry and scared--I am. I just prefer not to bring it over here.

It's Friday and I am already tired. The coughing and snot is giving me acid reflux like whoa. Or at least something that feels like it--a rawness and burn at the back of my throat. It's annoying.

I seem to be back to coughing a lot at night. I did not sleep well at all. But here I am upright and ready for the day.

Yesterday was...interesting. I was chatting with the department manager, who I'm friends with. We'll chat through the day with a combination of work and personal stuff. I asked her if we had gotten a raise this year, sice I hadn't heard anything. She forwarded me my letter. Up to just about $58k now. But then, she sent me a message letting me know that it was on the way, and then told me that "There should be an opportunity for another (pay) bump rather soon."

Which, yay, but I have questions. First, what does "rather soon" mean? Second, how much are we talking here? And last, does this come with a title change? Enquiring, impatient minds want to know! My ability to wait patiently is not particularly good.

I get the feeling that she's like me at Christmas. She couldn't wait to give me a tidbit, but she can't give me the whole yet. I know they've been working on the head of radiology to upgrade me, but I didn't think it would happen this quickly. They're notoriously cheap. But we had a banner year and I contributed to that by filling in at least a hundred Cardiac CTs and MRIs that would have otherwise gone to waste. They're worth several thousand dollars each, so I've more than earned my keep. I've covered the PET queue when people have been out, and I've played the part of a Patient Access specialist III on multiple occasions, so I do feel I'm due, but the ghost of IKEA and 911 linger, so I really didn't think I'd ever be promoted.

Even if I have to wait to find out the particulars, it's nice to know that they're not putting me into the "too valuable to promote" trap, but instead in the "too valuable to lose" category.

Aside from that, it was a day. My voice continues to be craggy and drops out here and there.

Tonight, we have Frostmaiden, and I am going to play that, even if I cough in my player's ears. I am not pushing that another week. We'll see how Saturday's games go. I'll probably try to butch through them. We cancelled Sunday's, so I'll have the afternoon to rest and relax. We do have a game on Sunday morning, but that one is run by

coyotegestalt so I don't have to talk much.

Tomorrow, if my body (and the cat) would be so kind, I'd like to sleep in a bit. I'm not asking for miracles, 7am would be lovely. Then, I'll follow my sister over to the oil change place, so she can get her car done. We'll just leave it there, and I'll take her back over between games or on Sunday afternoon.

Okay, time for me to consider getting in the mindset for work. Ew. First, I'm going to make sure that I have Frostmaiden ready and prepped for tonight. Everyone have a fabulous Friday!

tamaranth

2026/005: The Debutante — Jon Ronson

This is the story of a Tulsa debutante who, as a result of a series of unlikely and often very bad life choices she made in the ‘90s, found herself in the midst of one of the most terrible crimes ever to take place in America. [opening line]

I don't think this really counts as a book: it's more of a podcast, complete with hooks and a 'special bonus episode'.

Jon Ronson explores the history of Carol Howe, adopted at birth by a wealthy family in Tulsa. She was a debutante, but a rebellious one, and became part of a white supremacist group (plus swastika tattoo, 'Dial-a-Racist' phone line etc). She was involved with a white supremacist Christian cult in Oklahoma with ties to Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma Bomber. Then, apparently, she decided to become an informant for the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) and kept a detailed diary of events. The ATF claim she was 'deactivated' because of mental instability. Howe claimed she warned the ATF about the cult's plans to bomb a major target, but was ignored.

Ronson didn't manage to track down Howe, but he did -- in the 'special bonus episode' -- discover what happened to her: dead in a house fire in January 2025, after years of paranoid behaviour. An interesting investigation, but I would have preferred a straightforward narrative to the 'tune in for our next instalment' ambience of a podcast.

Current Mood: blah

alias_sqbr

I finally got back to this! Masterlist.

The chapter: Construction of Meaning: Picture Composition.

It was really interesting reading this as someone who has read lots of art theory for the purposes of being better at art, and picked up some more formal theory via vague osmosis from my artsy parents and their books, but not generally thought about composition very deeply from a media analysis angle.
( Read more... )

imhilien

Challenge #3

Write a love letter to fandom. It might be to fandom in general, to a particular fandom, favourite character, anything at all.

I was an outsider at school, never really belonged. But when I found fandom, I could be part of a community. It gave me a reason to start writing (hello, fan fiction) and a reason to do art (hello, fan art). I made friends through fandom, some of whom I've known for years now.

When one of my old schools advertised a school reunion recently, I flinched in horror and stayed away.

I would rather go to a sci-fi convention, even if I didn't know anyone there. But I would definitely have more fun.

Current Mood: contemplative

alias_sqbr

Going through the free university mini-course Media and Power from the University of Iowa.
( Read more... )

tattoo

Enilchek in Enilchek, Kyrgyzstan

Heated Rivalry rec

Children of the Atom (Ultimate X‑Men, volume 2) by Peach Momoko

Book Review: Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird

2025 In Review: Part Three

#TBRChallenge 2026

Awesome Heated Rivalry meta

In which you should check your tech

This is your life on drugs

Interesting Links for 09-01-2026

Some Days You Just Want to Hide From the World

Anyway lately I've been crossing the gaps between the worlds to engage in jolly co-operation (tm)

Will the Meta-Manus deal push more Chinese AI startups to Singapore — or shut the door?

(no subject)

Why don't your help them, you double dealing manipulator?

2026/005: The Debutante — Jon Ronson

Media and Power: 01 Unit 1: Construction of Meaning: Picture Composition

Snowflake Challenge #3

Media and Power: Masterlist

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