[Canadian politics] House of Commons petition E-7027
19 January 2026 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoThe above is a House of Commons petition to the Federal Minister of Health in response to Alberta and Saskatchewan passing anti-trans bills and using the Notwithstanding clause to shield the legislation from judicial review.
It's open until February 18 for all residents of Canada. You don't need to have citizenship or permanent resident status to sign; you just need to live here. (So, someone here as a student can sign.)
Please note that if you sign you have to confirm it via the link that gets emailed to you.
I've discussed federal response with people from the local pride org, including the possibility of using Section 90 to force a repeal, and the feeling is very... mixed. On the one hand, we want the legislation gone. On the other hand, if the federal government acted, it would be very in-character for the UCP to find some way to retaliate against trans Albertans. Not to mention the vibe in the province in general is pretty appalling at the moment (re: separatist movements) and there is no question that it would get worse if the federal government acted in any way. But like... I sure as hell don't have any other ideas, so. E-7027 it is.
( Full text of the petition under the cut - it's relatively short )
(no subject)
19 January 2026 08:00 pmaurumcalendula( some stuff I've seen )
Warm Heart #2 [The Fulcrum]
19 January 2026 04:33 pmparadoxcase posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
rainbowficStory: The Fulcrum
Colors: Warm Heart #2: Worry
Styles and Supplies: Novelty Bead ("train whistle", given here), Panorama, Reimagining, Feathers (January 19, 1975: Establishment of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission)
Word Count: 2687
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali, Cusäfä
In-Universe Date: 1912.4.5.3, 21st century, (approximately) -10,000
Summary: Qhoroali pays another visit to Cusäfä.
Notes: I decided the first Cusäfä chapter was entirely too long and had way too much stuff in it, so I removed all of the worldbuilding that was not immediately relevant to that earlier part of the story and moved it into this later scene (about 1500 words of dialog, which has since been neatened up and expanded with more action beats). So if some stuff in here seems like it something you already read before, it's probably because you did. There is some new stuff in here, too, but since a large chunk of it is rewritten from the previous scene, it gets the Reimagining tag.
( A Concerning Request )
way cool (one might say)
19 January 2026 06:41 pmchazzbannerThis afternoon I was doing a little clean-up on Find A Grave, connecting linking some relatives to their parents. Name: Mathewson. Wife's maiden name: Howard.
When I was finished with that I found myself wondering if anyone had found where Levi Peach Howard was buried. Was he not in Erie County PA, with his closest relations?
Aha! He was on Finda and correctly linked now - buried in California. Oxnard, seaside city. :-)
I could now update some information on the family tree. As I was doing so, I found that I already had more specific information (not on Finda) on where several people were born. One of these was "Howard Falls, Franklin Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania."
Not expecting much, I google Howard Falls, and was very surprised by what I found.
The Howard Falls Trust
The "About" page tells the story of how the Howard family came to Pennsylvania and developed a quarry business at Howard Falls. The Henry Howard mentioned (with brother Levi) married my great-great grandfather's sister.
-
Divisional Roundup
19 January 2026 06:06 pmmayhap( divisional games )
( championship games )
Snowflake Challenge 10: Moodboard
19 January 2026 05:25 pmysabetwordsmithCHOOSE SOMETHING YOU LOVE AND CREATE A MINI MOOD COLLECTION OF THREE (or more) ITEMS THAT EVOKE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT IT. You don’t have to limit yourself to visual media, or collect the items into a special format like a square (though you can if you’d like).
I’ve seen other people put together visual moodboards – assembling colors, stock photos, character stills, and other images that go together and evoke the feeling of that fandom (or story, or character). I’m not that good with visuals, so I’ll often put together playlists, or song quotes, or some mix of all of the above.
I love freeform challenges that let you choose how you want to respond, so I hope you’ll like this one! (And if you’d like a bit more direction, I have some suggestions later in this post.)
( Read more... )
Safety
19 January 2026 05:23 pmysabetwordsmithTiny plastic coatings from farm fertilizers are quietly reshaping the mystery of “missing plastics” in the ocean.
Plastic-coated fertilizers used on farms are emerging as a major but hidden source of ocean microplastics. A new study found that only a tiny fraction reaches beaches through rivers, while direct drainage from fields to the sea sends far more plastic back onto shore. Once there, waves and tides briefly trap the particles on beaches before many vanish again. This helps explain why so much plastic pollution seems to disappear after reaching the ocean.
That sounds like another problem that could be reduced with a ban on using plastic to make microbeads.
Fandom Snowflake Challenge #10
19 January 2026 03:19 pmteaotter posting in snowflake_challengeRemember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.
( Fandom Snowflake Challenge #10 )
And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.
And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.
Dept. of Holy Days
19 January 2026 03:42 pmkaffy_rDr. Martin Luther King Jr. had grit and determination, and strength and righteous anger that he controlled in the name of peaceful progress, and pride that he wanted Black Americans to recognize and adopt for themselves. He believed in this country - god knows why, given how much hell America put Black people through, all the way from 1615 to the then-current day - and he worked like hell to make it a better one.
He risked himself and his family, with constant death threats and a firebombing at his home in 1958. He almost died after being stabbed in the same year. He risked his reputation and his legacy, surviving several arrests and jailings. He risked those who believed in him and in what he had to say, because he knew those who hated him would hate those who believed in him.
He fought for what he shouldn't have had to fight for; true understanding of what Black Americans deserve, and what White America has resolutely refused to admit was required.
He fought against nasty, petty, and powerful men like J. Edgar Hoover, who spread filth and lies about Dr. King. Why? Because he was afraid of Dr. King. He hated what Dr. King stood for, so he tried to erase the man. He wasn't the only one.
After his stabbing, Dr. King had one more decade to shake the foundations of this country, to start the Poor People's Campaign and to oppose the Vietnam War. And then White America killed him.
Who called for the assassination? Did someone pay James Earl Ray? All of that kind of misses the point. Ultimately, the real conspiracy is what people in this country have insisted on doing ever since that April morning at the Lorraine Motel.
For more than 57 years America has worked tirelessly to erase his truth. America wants everyone to remember him only as he spoke during the March on Washington, choosing to turn those powerful words into an anodyne formula they want to speed the erasure of real history. Some of them manage to listen to Dr. King's "I've Been to the Mountain Top" speech and cry tears about his unnervingly prophetic commentary.
But they don't like reading his letter from a Birmingham jail. They can't stand his anti-war stance. They loathe his pro-union beliefs, his support of poor people of all colors.
It's still White America that fears him the most; rich white Americans, anti-union white Americans, pro-capitalism white Americans, the people who understand that he had grown so much larger and more dangerous to their power than they'd thought he would be.
Let's remember him for what he was. A warrior.
And I'll try not to be part of the problem, but part of the solution, as difficult as that will be.
(no subject)
19 January 2026 10:40 pmbeccaelizabethThere is a unit of weight, grains, that goes into troy and imperial weights as a nice neat whole number
so you don't have to fiddle around with grams with approximations after a decimal
to try and
honestly
figure out what one Pathfinder gold piece is worth in today's gold market
(it is A Lot)(probably passed £1000)(that is so much more than it was five ten twenty years ago)
there will of course be a lot of fiddly decimals in the middle of your calculation
but
whole numbers of grains.
I feel like I learned a Key for old units
because my mum said there was a nice whole numbers one
we just didn't use it any more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_(unit)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_weight
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoirdupois
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_the_imperial_and_US_customary_measurement_systems#Weight_and_mass
Snowflake Challenge #9
19 January 2026 05:26 pmstonepicnicking_okapiChallenge #9
Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works.
Are there any trope I don't like? I'm not a fan of kid!fic (where the characters are children) or high school or university AUs or enemies-to-lovers/hate sex, but most of the rest of them are interesting.
I have read and/or written most of them.
I like genderswap. The first couple of years of writing fic I wrote nothing but genderswap BBC Sherlock.
I like supernatural AUs, werewolves, vampires, ghosts, tentacles, shapeshifting (especially wolves or dogs), animal hybrids.
I like Omegaverse, Coffee shop AUs, Detective/PI AUs. Sentinel 'verse.
There was only 1 bed. Trapped in an elevator or snowed in a cabin. Unexpected heat. Sex pollen. Hurt/comfort. Amnesia fic. Found family. Poly ships. Soulmates. Incest. Lingerie. Someone gets a puppy. Mpreg.
As a ficcer, I have come to appreciate having a friendship pairing which is as important/deep as the romantic pairing in the same fic. Also, I have a thing about, for a given sex scene, not handing out orgasms like party favors. Not everyone has to have one!
Monday Word: Bristlecone
19 January 2026 05:11 pmstonepicnicking_okapi posting in 1word1daynoun
a pine, Pinus aristata, of the southwestern U.S., bearing short needles crowded into long, thick bundles and cones having scales tipped with a slender, curved spine; one of the longest-lived trees, useful in radiocarbon dating
examples
1. Ultimately, it's the rising temperatures and droughts associated with global warming that will significantly impinge upon Nature's finest masterpiece -- the near-immortal Great Basin bristlecone pines. Dr. Reese Halter: Saving the Ancient Pines by Reducing our Global Footprints, 2010
2. "There is a bristlecone pine tree that's nearly five thousand years old."
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
origin
first recorded use of the word 1893
crafting hangout
19 January 2026 05:19 pmunicorndukeFitness Fellowship 2026: Check-in Three
19 January 2026 05:10 pmsylvanwitchSome of us were discussing in the comments of last week's post where we go to walk when the weather is inclement. Do you have a favorite indoor space? Mine is the closest mall, which is about .8 miles per loop. It can be boring--we're quite familiar with it by now--but at least we can people-watch.
Feel free to ignore the question, but please do update us about how the past week has been for you in terms of fitness (or any other area of your life you'd like to share with us).
( My Week in Review )
Here's hoping the week ahead is a good one for all of us, weather notwithstanding.
Forty years burnin down the road
19 January 2026 09:55 pmcosmolinguistAt various points today while I was slaving away over a hot laptop, I heard various Bruce Springsteen songs floating down from upstairs.
He said on fedi: "I have often noted similarities between the musicians, but I desperately want to hear New Model Army covering Bruce Springsteen's 'Further On (Up the Road)'."
(It was when he first said that he wants them to cover "Badlands," and Springsteen to cover their song "Vagabonds," that I figured I'd probably made a proper fan of him, if he could see the overlap between Bruce and a band he likes as much as he does New Model Army.)
He also sent me a link to what Springsteen said after Renee Good was murdered and then a YouTube playlist centered around Springsteen being in the Kennedy Center Honors of 2009. Which I think must be where I heard those songs from.
My newest library book, has been acquired after I heard the author, Steven Hyden, speak briefly on a short podcast series about Springsteen that D found and recommended to me (and actually listened to, which is amazing because he normally can't/doesn't want to listen to podcasts!). I found his book, called There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The U.S.A” and the End of the Heartland, and honestly I can hardly imagine anything more Me.
(no subject)
19 January 2026 09:13 pmtellshannon815
Challenge #9
Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)
Honestly, trope doesn't entirely resonate. I can remember years ago, seeing something about tropes and just not relating to any of all that forced to share a bed/enemies to lovers/coffee shop AU stuff. But I do have a theme, which is alternate timelines. What if So and so never died? What if the villain made the obvious choice that the original writers seem to have somehow totally missed? What if Character X was the one to move from his cancelled spinoff to the main show? I have done them all.
The first series I ever saw to completion was Once Upon a Time, where Jafar was the one to move across from the Wonderland spinoff to the main show (imagine his lamp ending up in Gold's shop and Zelena accidentally letting him out). Another one was The Flash, where Eobard manipulated Nora into giving Barry the metahuman cure and the finale showed a dystopian 2049 that resulted from this (at the time I started that, I was convinced that was the route canon was going to take; to this day, I still don't get why the writers wasted time on Cicada rather than pursuing this route and just letting Eobard be the bad guy). I've saved Sun, Jin and Sayid on Lost several times over (and after a prompt in last year's three sentence ficathon, I was even tempted to expand on my attempt at Smokey McSmokeFace going back to the classical Roman era to get off the island while he was still human).
And yes, I have a few ongoing such works which I'm determined to finish. The School Spirits one where Mr Martin chooses to possess Emilio instead and the impact this has on Charley and Yuri is barely started (the upcoming new season may help with that), and I am determined I will push past my mental block on a) the Lost series where Sun joined the others in 1977 (I lost heart after the decision in canon to kill her off, which I still strongly disagree with 15 years on) and b) the Dark series where Ulrich successfully rescues Mikkel from 1986 (at this rate, I think I'm actually going to end up going down the Choose Your Own Adventure route, one where Ulrich and Mikkel get their happy ending and the minimum of characters are erased from existence, and one where Claudia gets hers.)
Snowflake Challenge: day 9
19 January 2026 07:34 pmshewhostaplesTalk about your favourite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)
Where to start? Let's start with swashbuckling. That's a nice easy one. Really, I think my fannish id was formed by The Prisoner of Zenda at an early age (I am still very fond of The Prisoner of Zenda).
See also: Ruritania. I love a good fictional society, and the deeper we go into the government departments and the transport infrastructure, the happier I am.
And love and duty. I don't necessarily mind which triumphs, so long as both are taken seriously. I also love it when one of the arts - or sports, or whatever - is the third party in a relationship, particularly when the partners are both very enthusiastic about that. Not to mention the creator. (This was why I enjoyed Yuri!!! on Ice so much: it was very much about the skating.)
I like relationships between women, romantic or otherwise. And friendships between men and women where it's never going to become romantic.
And then I always enjoy a good description:
Food. Chalet School breakfasts. The Marseille chapter in Madam Will You Talk.
Clothes. Annoyingly, I can't think of a good example at this moment. Probably Eva Ibbotson.
Landscape. A John Buchan evening. Can't beat an apple-green twilight.
Finally, something that I write more often than I read is the situation where you will never be able either to clean up Dodge or to get out of Dodge, you have to live in Dodge, but nevertheless you can find a way to carve out a happy and/or meaningful life there. And maybe you find you've made it slightly less grubby.
(no subject)
19 January 2026 05:03 pmkitewithfishI am post- Arisia 2026* and I have come out of it with book recs and it was fascinating and I’m so so interested in sharing them with you and I’m tiiiired.
Some books and things that were mentioned in the panels I went to!
Moonwise Greer Gilman (out of print, may be on the internet archive) but part of a series that the author hopes to continue (I sense publisher problems)
Gillian Daniels is getting a book out! Jenny Will Eat You Now
Noble Train of Artillery
Carol Berg The Spirit Lens
Kingdoms of the Elfin by Sylvia Townsend
Out of the Dark David Weber
The Glass Pearls Emeric Pressburger – the panel that recommended this was interesting, as one of them mentioned that this book is full of the author’s memoirs of his youth in Hungary before he fled the Nazis and lost his family, disguised in the story as memories stolen from a Jewish victim of a Nazi war criminal. Pressburg was also a writer for film and some of them seem engaging.
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (movie)
There is no Antimemetics Division qntm
BLIT (short story) by David Langford in Different Kinds of Darkness
Dark is better Gemma Files
The Moment of Change Rose Lemberg (one story in particular but I didn’t actually log it with the title of the book)
Andrea Hairston – The Redemption Center is Closed on Sundays (This sounded very funny)
Jane Yolen Wizard Hall
Elisha Barber by E C Ambrose (also publishes as E Chris Ambrose)
Virconium M John Harrison
M.R James – various ghost stories
Rosemary Kirstein – Steerswoman
The Stones are Hatching Geraldine ……
Cemetery of Forgotten Books - Wikipedia
Library of the Unwritten Aj Hackworth
The Book of Joan Lidia Yukanovitch
Wearing the Lion – john Wiswell (however, did not enjoy Someone You Can Build a Nest in, but it showed promising elements)
Nothing in the Basement – Romie Stott
Press Enter John Varley
Tony Tulathimutte – Rejection
Brent Weeks The Way of Shadows
Christopher Moore A Dirty Job
St Joan of the Stockyards – Bertolt Brecht
*Arisia is ongoing, but I am not.
Write Every day 2026: January, Day 19
19 January 2026 11:01 pmtrobadoraFor the "usual" question, slightly more people have too-wordse first drafts (25%, compared to 20% for too sparse), whereas in the "sometimes" question, too sparse is more common (38%) than too words (23%).
(70% of respondents believe that tickyboxes know no such thing as overkill, btw!)
As for me, it differs wildly - I used to produce very clean first drafts that didn't get changed much during editing/betaing, but for the last several years now it's been much more inconsistent. The more I struggle with either writing or finding time/energy to write, the worse my first drafts get - because sometimes I just have to get something, anything, down first, or I won't get anywhere at all. But it's pretty frustrating, so I want to get back to how I used to write, and I need to figure out how to do that with less time and energy than I used to have ...
One thing's remained the same, though: my first drafts are generally too sparse, which is why they always grow - sometimes considerably - during editing as I flesh them out and add in all the things that I had in my head but didn't put in the actual text. *g*
Today's writing
Again not as much as I'd like. I need to actually sit down and finish something, but it's hard to find the energy.
WED Question of the Day
Today I don't have a poll, but instead a request for advice: when you're low on energy, do you have any strategies that make it easier to write? Or to get started writing, at least? Because I often find myself just staring blankly at a page for way too long until I somehow get going, and I'd really rather not. *g* When I have more energy, I can usually get there much more easily, which is really unfair. :p
(I want to be writing! I feel better once I actually get started writing! But getting there is such a pain on some days. *grumbles*)
Tally
( Days 1-15 )
Day 16:
badly_knitted, brithistorian, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, goddess47, luzula, sanguinity, shadaras, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilmeDay 17:
alightbuthappypen, badly_knitted, brithistorian, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, goddess47, luzula, sanguinity, shadaras, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora, ysilmeDay 18:
badly_knitted, chanter1944, cornerofmadness, luzula, goddess47, sanguinity, shadaras, sylvanwitch, trobadoraDay 19:
china_shop, trobadoraLet me know if I missed anyone! And remember you can drop in or out at any time. :)
(no subject)
19 January 2026 09:55 pmbadfalconSo. The planner.
I got a new planner. It’s good. The layout is right, the paper feels right, my brain went oh, yes, this will work. I’ve got a whole bunch of new planner stickers. I am, objectively, very close to planner peace. I even have more sticker orders arriving this week, because apparently hope is my dominant personality trait.
And the thing is — most of what I use fits fine.
I mostly plan with icon stickers. Script stickers. Little visual cues. Those are perfect. No issues. They sit exactly where they’re meant to. They behave. They understand the assignment.
But this week I had some big things going on. Capital-B Big. The kind of things where I wanted to block out space and make it very clear, at a glance, that Shit Was Going On Here.
So I used some flags and half boxes and quarter boxes from older kits.
And those are all just ever so slightly too wide.
Not unusably so. Just enough. Enough that my eye keeps snagging on them. Enough that I now know — with horrible clarity — that most sticker kits are designed for 1.5" columns, and my planner columns are 1.25".
Which means that the one time I don’t usually plan this way — the one time I actually need big, obvious visual space — is the time everything feels wrong.
And suddenly it feels like I’ve picked the wrong planner. Like I’ve broken some arbitrary but Very Important Planner Rule that everyone else somehow knows. Like I am Doing Planning Incorrectly™, despite the fact that this system works for me 90% of the time.
Never mind that icon and script planning is how I actually function. Never mind that I don’t usually need big boxes. Never mind that stickers are meant to be tools, not tests I can fail.
My brain has latched onto this tiny mismatch and decided it is Evidence.
I know this is not actually about stickers.
It’s about wanting space to acknowledge that things are hard. Wanting a system that can hold big days as well as small ones. Wanting one area of my life to feel contained and legible when the rest of it isn’t.
Tonight that has manifested as 0.25 inches of wrongness and the feeling that I’ve somehow messed up something that was meant to help me.
I’m aware this is absurd. I’m also aware that feelings don’t care about that.
Snowflake Challenge #8
19 January 2026 04:45 pmstonepicnicking_okapiChallenge #8
Talk about your creative process.
Ideas for fic or collages sometimes just come to me. Sometimes I get ideas from Youtube videos or something I read or the seasons or holidays. I suppose my creative process is 'parody until it's mine.' Meaning, I try to follow something (a collage by a Youtuber or a source AU like a film or novel or short story) and then usually somewhere between halfway and two-thirds into it, the collage, the fic, I stop paying attention to the guide (or whatever I am trying to mimic) and just keep going. It's like the training wheels fly off and I'm coasting on my own speed.
I did learn over the winter that I feel grumpy if I don't collage (or something else crafty) at least once a week. Earlier, I had regarded it a hobby I could take or leave but I think it's become more important to my equilibrium than that.
Also, creating for someone (gift, card, gift fic) is much more motivating than creating for myself.
Monday Media Musings: 01/19/26
19 January 2026 01:54 pmowlmooseThe Scavenger Door by Suzanne Palmer : The third book in The Finder Chronicles; as much fun as its predecessors, and the end had me immediately turning around to start book four. ( Spoilery thoughts. )
Non-spoilery thought: Suzanne Palmer sure knows what it's like to live with a cat.Um Actually live show: I don't subscribe to Dropout, so I'm sadly unfamiliar with most of their shows, but during high pandemic, they dropped a bunch of Um Actually episodes on YouTube, and T and I spent a lot of time watching them. So when we learned that there would a live show at this year's SF Sketchfest, we immediately decided to get tickets. The panel, which was not announced in advance, was Janet Varney, Marc Evan Jackson, and Tawny Newsome; they were an awesome group who played well off the hosts and each other, and we had a great time.
I guess being couch-bound means I post a lot
19 January 2026 01:30 pmcupcake_gothBehold the shiny! Which was almost entirely paid for by Poshmark profits, so in terms of “real” money wasn’t unreasonably expensive.
—-
My god does my hair need dying. It’s not going to happen any time soon, but I sigh every time I look in the mirror right now. There are so many projects I want to do right now, and I KNOW I must not. Even the ones that would be something I could do while sitting on the couch watching movies. Getting up to put on a movie leaves me shaky, which is a sure sign I need to keep resting. Hmmph.
—-
Yesterday I learned that Miss Erzabet No Biting has blanket preferences. I had switched around some of the blankets I was under on the couch, with a polyester knitted one on top. She would walk onto my lap, look bewildered, and hop off. As soon as I switched things back to having the woven cotton ones as the top layer, she immediately settled down. Yes, my cat is spoiled.
—-
Speaking of the kitties, they turn 15 this year, which means we’ve owned them for almost half our marriage. That’s weird to think about.
Birdfeeding
19 January 2026 03:09 pmysabetwordsmithI fed the birds. I've seen a flock of sparrows and a lady cardinal.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 1/19/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 1/19/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
I've seen two starlings and a male cardinal.
EDIT 1/19/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
I am done for the night. 5:20 and I can still see light in the west. :D
FIC: Physicians' Quarters and Medical Academy (Tempestuous Tours)
19 January 2026 03:36 pmduskpetersonSo famed is the Empire of Emor for its law system that many foreigners do not realize that Emor holds accomplishments in other arts. Foremost among these arts is medicine.
Until the practice of medical training was formalized in Emor, the knowledge of how to heal was informally passed on by peninsularean men and women who received no special training. Despite these drawbacks, some of the healers were quite good; Koretia's healing women deserve special mention. But the creation of the Medical Academy during the period of the Middle Charas caused knowledge of healing to leap forward immensely. These days, many a healing woman, priest, or bard will travel north to spend time in the Medical Academy, learning valuable lessons.
The Physicians' Quarters next door were created after the Medical Academy, as a place to allow students to work under experienced doctors. The Physicians' Quarters cares for city residents and a select number of soldiers who are undergoing lengthy convalescence.
Because of the doctors' important work, visitors may find it difficult to obtain entrance to either the Quarters or the Academy. I've found that dropping a rock on my foot does the trick.
[Translator's note: The protagonist of Death Mask begins his journey at the Physicians' Quarters.]
He can have that one
19 January 2026 08:07 pmdavidgillonMy sister and I were telling my mother (who is in hospital again) that we had been meeting with her doctor, but he had to dash off because he's adopting and had a meeting with the social worker.
My mother instantly looked across at me and said "He can have that one".
A four-day weekend is so nice.
19 January 2026 02:12 pmnewredshoesI'm spending so much time trying to find the next living spare where I'll land that I haven't made much effort to make the most of this one. ( Spaces, pruning, money... many thoughts )
But, okay, activities I prioritize and treasure and would like spaces for:
- Crafting — printmaking, paper-mache, watercolor, comics, collage, tunnel books, dioramas, so much!
- Tea and tea display, not just this big glorious shelf but an actual tea ceremony kind of spot (not low enough to the ground that Gingko could destroy it, though; sorry to any coffee tables, I don't think you're really in my foreseeable future)
- Altar and tarot table + display — the presence of household altars was something I learned from shadesofbrixton and visiting Santa Fe, which I absolutely loved, alongside this phenomenal altered wall cabinet at
![[instagram.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/instagram.png)
chicagoprintmakers that I can't find a photo of but trust me, I really want to replicate it - Music — I need to mount my banjo, ukuleles, accordion and other assorted instruments where I will see and want to play them!
- Yes, I have a rowing machine which I love and which is collecting so much dust, but once my arm is better, I want to get it down again, I freaking love using it and I want a regular space for it in the next place
- Reading nook!!!! With lots of plants!! What if!!!!
Media literacy heuristics
19 January 2026 02:50 pmrebeccmeistersiderea, who taught me to ask, "What is new and different in what I am reading/hearing about/seeing?"I frequently teach this heuristic to students. Part of being a student is learning how to learn and how to summarize. This heuristic is really useful for summarizing information from a textbook chapter or a lecture. Don't try and include everything, focus on what's new and different.
In this article, the analogies of the "centaur" and "reverse centaur" are really useful, and new to me:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/18/tech-ai-bubble-burst-reverse-centaur
What are some of your media literacy heuristics?
Lord Peter Wimsey: My True Love Has My Heart by Nineveh_UK
19 January 2026 07:40 pmshewhostaples posting in fancakePairings/Characters: Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane (not requited - yet)
Rating: G
Length: 12,200
Creator Links:
nineveh_ukTheme: crack treated seriously
Summary: Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey have triumphantly solved the Wilvercombe murder, and only want to return to London. But first they must solve a new mystery: why they have woken up in one another's bodies, and what on earth are they going to do about it?
Reccer's notes Bodyswap is a pretty cracky trope, but here
nineveh_uk uses it very effectively to explore the nuances of the complicated and touchy relationship between Peter and Harriet. As the summary suggests, it's set straight after Have His Carcase, where in canon they seem somehow simultaneously closer to and further away from resolving their relationship than ever. The bodyswap twist doesn't make things any less confusing. The voice is pitch perfect: if Dorothy L. Sayers had thought to write this premise, this is exactly what it would have sounded like.Fanwork Links: My True Love Has My Heart