Claymore

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https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/26509352-the-adventure-of-the-demonic-ox-now-shipping-from-subterrranean-press

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lois_mcmaster_bujold_feed

I am delighted to report that the signed, limited deluxe edition of the Penric & Desdemona novella "The Adventure of the Demonic Ox" is now in print and shipping from Subterranean Press.

https://subterraneanpress.com/bujold-...

Lovely cover art by Lauren Saint-Onge, again.

It will also be obtainable, in person or by mail order, from Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore and Dreamhaven Books & Comics here in Minneapolis, as soon as their cartons arrive from the printer.

(I got my author's copies next-day shipping, nice perk. Or is that perq? Not sure how that abbreviation of "perquisite" has been decided-upon by the English-using group mind.)

Ta, L.

posted by Lois McMaster Bujold on April, 07

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/26509352-the-adventure-of-the-demonic-ox-now-shipping-from-subterrranean-press

cyberghostface posting in

( One World Under Doom )

https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/2762.html

Episode 2762: Depraved Player Dice and Pad Up a Parking Lot

People make dice out of all sorts of things these days. And a lot of people are actually making their own dice. Either with 3D printing, or casting resin in moulds, or carving them from materials like wood or stone. And there are now plenty of instructions online if you want to give it a go.

If you want to take your gaming hobby to another level, try making your own dice.

aurilee writes:

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

OH. It's a die made of cars, hahaha! That's amazing! I wonder how it's shaped; would it be best it if was like a ring with the cars attached on the outside? Or would trying to make it look somewhat like a die be better? And what about the numbers? Do the cars all have little pips painted on them or are there enough numbers that are a part of the models that they can all act as the die faces? I don't know enough about diecast cars to know if they all have racing numbers painted on.

Anyway. I'm half expecting all these ships to be an illusion of some kind, kind of like Dark Rey. There is a preposterous number of ships shown here, and even Star Wars doesn't have the level of automation needed to run ships like these without people. If they are real ships, poor writing just to have a bunch of explosions later as they get blown up? There'd at least be spectacle that way so it wouldn't be the worst option, though I'd be hard pressed to come up with something boring to be worse than simple bad writing.

Transcript

https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/2762.html

icon_uk posting in

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.

Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.

Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.

It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.

The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.

The Artemis II mission continues to be a moving and powerful testament to human capability, with some amazing visuals, and some reassuring human touches like naming one of the newly discovered features on the dark side of the moon after the Commander's late wife, and also how to deal with MS Outlook running two instances when you only want one.

Back on Earth, the President of the USA celebrated Easter by using expletives on a social media post, whilst at the same time threatening what are legally war crimes against the civilian infrastructure of Iran, AND mocking Islam. Not a trifecta I had hoped to ever see.

And whilst my personal interest in football (soccer for American readers) remains negligible, I can respect fannish obsession, and this definitely qualifies!

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/26506568-bujold-reading-order-guide-spring-2026-update

Goodies From the Easter Basket
iPhone 13 mini photo

Yesterday, the Easter Bunny (a.k.a. BFF Jenni) delivered an Easter basket to my house. She usually sneaks it onto my porch and slips away unseen. However, yesterday, I was working in the garage and had the garage door open, so I caught her. So, besides the basket, I got the added treat of a nice little chat with my dear friend. Such a good day!

heleninwales

After arriving in Birmingham and eating a sandwich lunch, I set out to look for the art gallery so I would know where to meet my friends the following day. Almost immediately I found Birmingham's cathedral less than 100 metres from the hotel.

It wasn't quite what I expected, but is a very fine building. Like Manchester, Birmingham only became a city in the 19th century, but while Manchester re-purposed a very grand Gothic parish church dating back to the middle ages, Birmingham's cathedral was built as a parish church in the Baroque style in 1715. It is a Grade I listed building. Apparently it's the third smallest cathedral in the UK.

I then went looking for the art gallery. First you reach the splendid City Council House which is situated in a large open pedestrian area. The art work "The River" is popular with locals. As it was a lovely sunny day, the area was crowded with people sitting around on the steps and the edge of the fountains.

( More here... )

Finally I reached the art gallery which not only houses many beautiful and interesting paintings, it's also a splendid example of Victorian architecture. Staircase and stained glass window.

I took a lot of photos, too many to include here but I'll post a few more tomorrow.

lois_mcmaster_bujold_feed

Herewith the latest version, including the upcoming Pen & Des novella "Darkside Dare", expected to be up as an ebook toward the end of April, and the just-available Two Tales print-on-demand mini-collection, which I'll make another post about soon.

(The novellas get quote marks, the novel titles are left as plain text.)

A Bujold Reading-Order Guide

Note: almost all of my titles are presently widely and instantly available both as ebooks, and as audiobook downloads.

The Fantasy Novels

My fantasy novels are not hard to order. Easiest of all is The Spirit Ring, which is a stand-alone. Next easiest are the four volumes of The Sharing Knife—in order, Beguilement, Legacy, Passage, and Horizon—which I actually numbered, as this is one continuous tale. The novella “Knife Children” is something of a codicil to the tetralogy.

The first three novels in the World of the Five Gods could each be read separately, but The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls are more closely connected, a duology better read in that order. The Hallowed Hunt is more of a stand-alone, taking place in a different realm and earlier century and not sharing characters (apart from the gods) with the others.

In terms of internal world chronology, The Hallowed Hunt would fall first, the Penric novellas perhaps a hundred and fifty years later, and The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls would follow a century or so after that.

The internal chronology of the Penric & Desdemona subseries is presently:

“Penric’s Demon”
“Penric and the Shaman”
“Penric’s Fox”
“Testimony of Mute Things”
“Masquerade in Lodi”
“Penric’s Mission”
“Mira’s Last Dance”
“The Prisoner of Limnos”
“The Orphans of Raspay”
“The Physicians of Vilnoc”
The Assassins of Thasalon
“Knot of Shadows”
“Demon Daughter”
“Penric and the Bandit”
“The Adventure of the Demonic Ox”
“Darksight Dare”

(“Demon”, “Shaman”, and “Fox” are collected as paper volumes in Penric’s Progress; “Mission”, “Mira” and “Limnos” in Penric’s Travels; “Lodi”, “Orphans” and “Physicians” are collected in Penric’s Labors; and Thasalon and “Knot” are collected in Penric’s Intrigues.)

Other Original E-books

The short story collection Proto Zoa contains five very early tales—three (1980s) contemporary fantasy, two science fiction. The novelette “Dreamweaver’s Dilemma” may be of interest to Vorkosigan completists, as it is the first story in which that proto-universe began, mentioning Beta Colony but before Barrayar was even thought of.

Sidelines: Talks and Essays is a collection of three decades of my nonfiction writings, including convention speeches, essays, travelogues, introductions, and some less formal pieces.

The Gerould Family of New Hampshire in the Civil War: Two Diaries and a Memoir is a compilation of historical documents handed down from my mother’s father’s side of the family. A meeting of time, technology, and skillset has finally allowed me to put them in sharable form.

The Vorkosigan Stories

The debate around the ‘best’ order in which to read the Vorkosigan saga mainly revolves around publication order versus internal-chronological order. I favor internal chronological, with a few adjustments.

It was always my intention to write each book as a stand-alone, so that the reader could theoretically jump in anywhere. But as the series developed it acquired a number of sub-arcs, closely related tales that were richer for each other. I will list the sub-arcs, and then the books, and then the duplication warnings. And then the publication order, for those who want it.

Shards of Honor and Barrayar. The first two books in the series proper, they detail the adventures of Cordelia Naismith of Beta Colony and Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar. Shards was my very first novel ever; Barrayar was actually my eighth, but continues the tale the next day after the end of Shards. For readers who want to be sure of beginning at the beginning, or who are very spoiler-sensitive, start with these two.

The Warrior’s Apprentice and The Vor Game. The Warrior’s Apprentice introduces the character who became the series’ linchpin, Miles Vorkosigan; the first book tells how he created a space mercenary fleet by accident; the second how he fixed his mistakes from the first round. Space opera and military-esque adventure, The Warrior’s Apprentice makes another good place to jump into the series for readers who prefer a young male protagonist.

Borders of Infinity (3-novella collection) should be read before Brothers in Arms. Containing three of the six currently extant novellas, it makes a good Miles Vorkosigan early-adventure sampler platter for readers who don’t want to commit themselves to length, but it will make more sense if read after The Warrior’s Apprentice. Its three stories are short, not slight, and introduce some elements that are revisited later in the series.

(These novellas are also available ala carte by title as ebooks, as listed below so readers can see where they fit distributed in the timeline, but the collection is the preferable format. Even its little frame story has a few payoffs later on.)

After that: Brothers in Arms should be read before Mirror Dance, and both, ideally, before Memory.

Komarr makes another alternate entry point for the series, picking up Miles’s second career at its start. It should be read before A Civil Campaign.

Falling Free takes place 200 years earlier in the timeline and does not share settings or characters with the main body of the series. Most readers recommend picking up this story later. It should likely be read before Diplomatic Immunity, however, which revisits the “quaddies”, a bioengineered race of free-fall dwellers, in Miles’s time.

The novels in the internal-chronological/recommended reading order list below appear in italics; the novellas (officially defined as a story between 17,500 words and 40,000 words) in quote marks.

Shards of Honor
Barrayar
The Warrior’s Apprentice
“The Mountains of Mourning”
“Weatherman”
The Vor Game
Cetaganda
Ethan of Athos
Borders of Infinity (3-novella collection)
“Labyrinth”
“The Borders of Infinity”
Brothers in Arms
Mirror Dance
Memory
Komarr
A Civil Campaign
“Winterfair Gifts”
Falling Free
Diplomatic Immunity
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance
“The Flowers of Vashnoi”
CryoBurn
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

Advisories:

The novella “Weatherman” is an out-take from the beginning of the novel The Vor Game. If you already have The Vor Game, you likely don’t need this.

The original ‘novel’ Borders of Infinity was a fix-up collection containing the three novellas “The Mountains of Mourning”, “Labyrinth”, and “The Borders of Infinity”, together with a frame to tie the pieces together. Again, beware duplication. The frame story does not stand alone.

“Winterfair Gifts” and “The Flowers of Vashnoi” have been collected in the Ingram Spark indie paper-only volume Two Tales, ISBN 979-8-218-73016-1. They are also available individually as ebooks and audiobooks along with the rest of the series.

Publication order:

This is also the order in which the works were written, apart from a couple of the novellas, but is not identical to the internal-chronological. It goes:

Shards of Honor (June 1986)
The Warrior’s Apprentice (August 1986)
Ethan of Athos (December 1986)
Falling Free (April 1988)
Brothers in Arms (January 1989)
Borders of Infinity (October 1989)
The Vor Game (September 1990)
Barrayar (October 1991)
Mirror Dance (March 1994)
Cetaganda (January 1996)
Memory (October 1996)
Komarr (June 1998)
A Civil Campaign (September 1999).
Diplomatic Immunity (May 2002)
“Winterfair Gifts” (February 2004)
CryoBurn (November 2010)
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance (November 2012)
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen (February 2016)
“The Flowers of Vashnoi” (May 2018)

Happy reading!

— Lois McMaster Bujold

posted by Lois McMaster Bujold on April, 06

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/26506568-bujold-reading-order-guide-spring-2026-update

lois_mcmaster_bujold_feed

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/26487972-darksight-dare-e-cover-sneak-peek

Artist Ron Miller and I got started on this several weeks ago, so the final version has arrived at about the same time as my final revisions pass, ongoing this week.

Do check out Ron's website, full of his many, many projects including info on nonfiction and fiction books he's written: https://www.black-cat-studios.com/

Anyway, the new cover:

I also bagged the vendor-page copy:

"Penric takes a chance…

Two intractable problems are brought to the door of sorcerer Learned Penric of Vilnoc and his Temple demon Desdemona. Cinar Camurat, a mutilated Cedonian cavalry captain, has traveled two thousand sea miles to Penric for aid. Iva of Bita, a secret hedge sorceress, lies dying in her Orban hill village, and wants no aid at all.

Penric and Desdemona know well the hazards of medicine and magic, but their greatest puzzle may lodge in the tangle of hopes and fears in human and demonic hearts."

I'm finding it increasingly interesting, though not easy, to explore stories and story structures that are not villain-driven with their too-often-facile action and boss-fight climaxes. I mean, I find bashing a well-drawn villain as cathartic as the next fangrrl, but surely there are more possibilities...

Ta, L.

(Later: I see I typoed the title, argh. Fixed now.)

posted by Lois McMaster Bujold on March, 31

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/26487972-darksight-dare-e-cover-sneak-peek

cyberghostface posting in

( Just a Game )

tcampbell1000 posting in

Content warning for fat-shaming and, oh, just a boatload of failure to move past childhood trauma.

With the upcoming “Breakdowns” storyline and their upcoming exit, Giffen and DeMatteis (and Jones) got interested in destructive themes. But “Breakdowns” will be about throwing external issues at the Leaguers. JLA #52, “The Battle of the ~~Century~~ ~~Decade~~ ~~Year~~ Month?,” shows what an internal collapse of the JLI would look like. The only things menacing them here are their own weaknesses of character. That might be enough. Art by pioneering Black artist Trevor Von Eeden.

( Some say the world will end in Fire, some say in Ice…some say, with a screaming fit in a boxing ring. )

zylly posting in

Daredevil's back with a new volume and the first issue was very good. But there was one panel that made me laugh out loud...

( Read more... )

kalloway posting in

mobilegames

This is the April 5th Weekly Megapost & Chat!

Things you can do in the comments-

- trade friend codes
- ask about games
- post about in-game events
- anything you don't want to make an individual post about
- share how the RNG is treating you

Anime VHS Tapes from My Library

I’ve been reorganizing storage boxes in the garage, and today I got to a section of anime storage boxes. There are a lot of cool – but useless – memorabilia. I have a lot of magazines and publications that I can’t yet bear to part with – Newtype, Newtype USA, Manga Max, Protoculture Addicts, Animag, Animerica – and more. There are booklets from the early days of Anime Expo and Kumoricon. Also, I have printouts of email correspondence from fandom in the 1990s, including fansubbers. I reboxed the items (from old, limp bankers boxes into the new, sturdier ones from the remodel) and put them back onto the storage shelves.

However, there were three bankers boxes of VHS videotapes. And I’ve decided it’s finally time to discard them. All they are doing now is taking up valuable space – and I no longer can play VHS videotapes, anyway.

Bankers Boxes of Anime VHS Videotapes

I unloaded the boxes for the group photo at the top of this post. The photo will be the only record of that collection once the tapes are gone.

Memories of the days of anime fansub exchange are precious. Some of the correspondence I kept brought back memories. (I had a good relationship with well-known fansub champions Bruce and Karen Duffy, who lived just outside of Salem – an hour from Portland – and who I actually got to visit a time or two. Trivia: Piro of Megatokyo fame did some of the illustrations for the Duffy’s fabulous VHS tape labels – for the Marmalade Boy series, I believe.)

As far as the commercial VHS tapes go, I think I have DVDs or Blu-rays of all of those series. The only anime VHS tapes that are withheld from this purge are my Gunbuster VHS tapes. My Gunbuster collection is sacred. And of course, the Gunbuster tapes weren’t in the boxes in the garage anyway.

So... sayonara, VHS collection. I’m letting go of the 1990s – finally!

conuly

Curtains forcing their will
against the wind,
children sleep,
exchanging dreams with
seraphim. The city
drags itself awake on
subway straps; and
I, an alarm, awake as a
rumor of war,
lie stretching into dawn,
unasked and unheeded.

*****************

Link

conuly

Neighbors fretted that the garden was a security issue: “I am worried about normalizing the presence of many different people in front yards during potentially all hours of the day without any kind of restrictions put on access.”

Oh, the horrors, people in front yards!

This isn't quite as absurd as the time an entire LJ comm told me that they'd be "scared" if they got a piece of mail in their mailboxes that hadn't been postmarked (I suggested hand-delivering a late-sent birthday invitation to the home rather than risking it not arriving at the house until after the party date, apparently this was very frightening), but it's more absurd than the time a whole community of people joined in to tell somebody with a stalking history that rubber duckies showing up at her daughter's college dorm were something to be alarmed over rather than reassuring her that it was probably just her friends playing a prank. (The latter was my suggestion, and I was right. I really chewed them out over that one too, pointing out that they had regular monthly freakouts over "somebody is parked in front of my house and I'm scared" or "somebody turned up my driveway and then backed out and drove off and I'm scared" and yet, nothing bad ever happened to anybody!)

This sort of nonsense is what gets people shot in America. Well, that and access to guns, but people buy guns because they are quite irrationally scared of their neighbors. Your neighbors aren't gonna kill you in your own home! If anybody kills you, it'll be a family member or maybe yourself. The worst thing that will happen if your neighbors have a vegetable garden is that they'll dump a load of zucchini on your porch. Believe me, you'd rather they give it away to people who want it!

cyberghostface posting in

( Scans under the cut... )

https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/2761.html

Episode 2761: Parking is Such Sweet Sorrow

It can be good to save unveiling any cool new table prop for the appropriate moment, to add to the drama. If you can possibly contain your excitement to show it off to people as soon as you arrive, that is.

aurilee writes:

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

Well that would be a terrifying sight to see coming out of hyperspace. Partly from all the firepower that's likely pointed in the direction of the X-wing, but also because of how close together they all are. Imagine how dangerous things could be if one of them collided with another and started a chain reaction of collisions! Just think of all the shrapnel that would result; the randomly moving closely packed enormous giant space rocks would look like a regular asteroid field by comparison!

Hm. I wonder who this mystery wide Vader helmet person could be. But more importantly, we've got another super die coming up! I wonder just what kind of Rube Goldberg contraption Pete's come up with this time. The GM's said No Explosions before, and we probably won't have liquid nitrogen again. So that'd leave some crazy kind of set up for it right?

Transcript

https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/2761.html

I’ve got a few links I should clear from my browser.

Endgame for the Open Web by Anil Dash. Tangentially related: I quit. The clankers won by David Bushell.
The World Wide Web is a mess, filled with AI slop – and getting locked down behind walled gardens. I’m grateful for Dreamwidth being a safe haven (for now). Dreamwidth is the best of what’s left of the old open web.

Sort of related to the above links – last time I linked to Kagi Small Web. This time it’s Blogosphere. We could do more to find interesting blogs; they are out there!

For tech geeks (I used to be a programmer): Claude Code's Entire Source Code Got Leaked via a Sourcemap in npm, Let's Talk About it by Kuber Mehta.
There’s a bunch of interesting stuff here – and I’m happy to see some of the developers are having fun. They’re doing some things that I would have done. I had some fun Easter eggs in the code I wrote.

Artemis II Is Not Safe to Fly by Maciej Ceglowski.
This is pretty scary. Reminds me of The Slide That Killed Seven People. (I’ve used that slide when teaching people how to (and how not to) use PowerPoint.)

A lighter side of space... maybe you’d like your own Mars Perseverance Rover (working replica kit)? (Yanko Design always features awesome stuff – like this Tiny House with the Bedroom on the Ground Floor.)

After 11 Years, Naruto’s True Canon Ending(s) Have Aged Like Fine-Wine by Jason Hon at ScreenRant (WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE END OF NARUTO). Related article from 2024: Naruto Shippuden Ending Explained; How the Beloved Anime Changes the Manga, also by Jason Hon. (WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE END OF NARUTO)
The articles reminded me how much I loved the ending of Naruto – and I was motivated to rewatch the final arc, starting with Naruto Shippuden Episode 494 – Hidden Leaf Story, The Perfect Day for a Wedding, Part 1: Naruto’s Wedding. With the start of the new Spring anime season, this is a terrible time to watch more episodes in already full days – so I’m going to watch just one episode a night.

Speaking of anime, Random Curiosity has its Spring 2026 Preview posted. As usual, it’s full of good information.

cyberghostface posting in

This was a bit of a mini-saga online last year. An artist did a comic that was somewhat controversial and it resulted in other artists doing their own takes on it.

( Comics under the cut... )

merryghoul posting in

Editor's note: Because of the high posting volume and the quantity of information linked in each newsletter, doctor_who_sonic will no longer link fanfiction that does not have a header. For an example of what a "good" fanfic header is, see the user info. Spoiler warnings are also greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Off-DW News
Blogtor Who's Friday Video of the Day is from WhatCulture's WhoCulture: "You Won't BELIEVE The Actors Tipped To Play The Next Doctor..."
Recovered episodes now (also) available to watch in the US: Doctor Who News, Blogtor Who
Blogtor Who: Doctor Who Magazine #628
Blogtor Who's Saturday Video of the Day is a clip from The Daleks' Master Plan, 1965

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Discussion and Miscellany

purplecat with a photo of a postcard with art of the Second Doctor's outfit

Fanfiction
Completed
The Best Defence by

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If you were not linked, and would like to be, contact us in the comments with further information and your link.

tcampbell1000 posting in

I put the 'not' in astronaut! I've never done a space walk, I can't even moonwalk!

Bu-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dooWAAAA-WAAA, bu-doo DADADADADADUM, DA-DUM! Okay, we'll get to the Seinfeldian part a bit later. ( In a parallel universe, teleporter Kramer can enter any space abruptly, bad dancer Elaine can shatter mountains with her movements, liar George can manipulate the perception of truth until an enemy’s mind collapses, and observational comedian Jerry…sums it all up in a pithy way that leaves you feeling smarter than everyone else. )

heleninwales

Facebook's memories informs me that exactly 8 years ago today I was posting about returning from Eastercon in Harrogate. This year I'm not at Eastercon, but I did have a little trip to Birmingham to meet friends who are at the convention and went round the Birmingham Art Gallery & Museum with them.

I'd been meaning to visit Birmingham to see the Pre-Raphaelite paintings ever since I saw a post online last October saying that the gallery had reopened. But, as is always the way, I never actually got around to it. However, thanks to Farah posting about the planned group visit, I got my act together and booked train tickets and a hotel for a one night stay. I'm really glad I did because it made a nice little city break and gave me a chance to see a bit more Birmingham, which is a city I don't really know at all.

The convention is being held out by the NEC, but I booked a night in a Premier Inn just five minutes walk from New Street station. I arrived on the Thursday and, having paid a bit extra for an early check-in, could go straight to my room to freshen up, have a cup of tea and eat the sandwich I'd brought with me.

I then went out to find the art gallery. I hadn't really intended to, but as I didn't have anything else planned, I had a look around on my own. I didn't know how much I'd be able to concentrate on the pictures whilst also chatting with friends. When I'd been round the Pre-Raphaelite galleries and ventured upstairs to look at the history of Birmingham exhibits, I returned to the hotel, buying some food to eat en route from the Tesco Express I found in my wanderings.

Now G and I have discussed our differing feelings about travel and agreed that it's fine for me to go away for little breaks on my own, I must do this sort of thing every so often. I've already started planning a trip for May and thinking of other ideas for the future. With just one or at most two nights away you can pack in so much. Living where we do you have to go a long way for more spectacular scenery and I've never been one for lazing on beaches, so the occasional mini-break is what I want.

I'll post more about the Birmingham trip over the next couple of days, but for now I'll leave you with just two photos.

A sign in the art gallery. It's very true about the constant road works and construction.

And the artwork "The River" aka "The Floozie in the Jacuzzi", a fountain and sculpture in Victoria Square front of the city hall.

chocolatefrogs posting in

fandom_icons

conuly

I forgot to mention that Young Sherlock went to Constantinople. Naturally, I was legally mandated to recite all the words.

Watch on YouTube

So sorry, I should've posted this when we finished watching the first season.

cyberghostface posting in

( Scans under the cut... )

wickedgame posting in

fandom_icons

Fandoms: Addicted, Bridgerton, Cobra Kai, Elite, Guardian, I'll Turn Back This Time, Mako Mermaids, One Piece, Shadowhunters, Superman & Lois, Zorro

the rest are HERE @

mundodefieras

Top Memory Cards

Thanks to AI sucking up as much solid state memory as it can hoard, memory for consumer devices (phones, computers, etc.) is getting scarce and/or much more expensive. With Sony Suspending Shipments of Memory Cards, photographers have a vested interest in the situation. Prices are rising and supplies are dwindling.

Last year was an expensive year for photography (tariffs! 3 cameras! 3 NIKKOR Z lenses!). This year is a quiet recovery year, with no equipment purchases expected. Consequently, I didn’t feel bad spending some of my tax refund money this year on three memory cards – before CFexpress B cards got to be hard to find or a lot more expensive. Last year I bought CFexpress cards for my Nikon Z8 and Nikon Z6 before I got Thom Hogan’s Nikon Z8 Guide. What I learned in Thom’s guide book is that SanDisk and Lexar memory cards are bad (generate excessive heat) and that Delkin and ProGrade are the best (highest performance, lowest heat). I also learned not to get big (256GB or larger) memory cards. I generally take Thom’s advice.

So I made the command decision to replace my SanDisk / Lexar CFexpress B cards with optimal Delkin CFexpress B cards. B&H Photo had exactly what I needed (as recommended by Thom). The prices for the premium memory cards were only about 15% higher than equivalent SanDisk or Lexar cards (excluding sale pricing). On Monday, I placed an order, and the memory cards arrived today. I bought three cards – two for my Z8 and one for my Z6. The current SanDisk / Lexar cards will serve as spares/overflow memory.

Hopefully, this is the extent of my photography upgrades for the year.

usuallyhats posting in

Do you have a Doctor Who community or a journal that we are not currently linking to? Leave a note in the comments and we'll add you to the watchlist (

doctor_watch).

Editor's Note: If your item was not linked, it's because the header lacked the information that we like to give our readers. Please at least give the title, rating, and pairing or characters, and please include the header in the storypost itself, not just in the linking post. Spoiler warnings are also greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Off-Dreamwidth News
Laurie Webb 1924-2026
Tenth Doctor talking bluetooth speaker available now
Blogtor Who's video of the day for today is the trailer for "Doctor Who: The Collection: Season 21"
Details of Doctor Who Magazine #628, on sale now

(News via

doctorwhonews_feed and

blogtorwho_feed among others.)

Discussion and Miscellany

astrogirl reviews the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory novel "Touched by an Angel"

If you were not linked, and would like to be, contact us in the comments with further information and your link.

conuly

Cold, wet leaves
Floating on moss-coloured water
And the croaking of frogs—
Cracked bell-notes in the twilight.

*******

Link

conuly

but I did not expect this audiodrama to have a random jab at Robert Moses five minutes into the first episode.

***********************

( Read more... )

heartsways posting in

( Read more... )

tcampbell1000 posting in

Warning for animal abuse, homelessness, trans issues (sometimes handled with offensive cluelessness), and implied child sexual abuse. Not all in the same story, though, this ain’t Crossed.

“Frenzy” by Mark Waid and Rod Wigham is a tense sci-fi thriller with a dynamite elevator pitch: Which of these six trapped heroes will kill the other five?

( You might think the answer is ‘‘obviously Guy Gardner,’’ but maybe that’s just what they want you to think. )

https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/2760.html

Episode 2760: Pre-fight Check Twist

You obviously want all central characters to take part in any climactic battles. However, some of them may be designed to be the sort who normally stay at home, or provide backup in a way that won't be useful in the heat of combat. So coming up with some way for them to be involved can be important.

Lest you think this is a contrivance only needed for games, remember that this is how Éowyn and Merry ended up in the Battle of Pelennor Fields. So don't be afraid to come up with something unexpected and odd to justify getting non-combat characters into big fights.

aurilee writes:

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

Or Artoo goes with Poe, I guess that works out just as well. And Corey is more than fine with that, it seems. Don't blame him, Finn is much more sensible a pilot. Or, well, Annie playing Finn is much more sensible. Usually anyway; I do remember Finn deciding to use a lightsaber without Force training a couple times. Fortunately for Finn, the dice weren't hungry for any limbs, so everything worked out well enough in the end.

And of course I forgot about Snap being a pilot. Should have double checked that. Somehow I'd forgotten that Sally has at least two Resistance characters, so of course trying to split the party up by players wouldn't work out cleanly. Stuff like this can happen if you don't check everything!

I like the quick montage of all the preparations the characters are doing. It's a good gameplay move to show what everyone's doing while time passes. I also noticed that we've got a nonstandard X-wing! I'd thought that Artoo and Threepio were just standing in front of some random equipment, but there's an X-wing in the last panel with the engines and part of the cockpit painted red! I wonder if that's Poe's ship so we can easily pick it out while the space fight is going on or if it's just random decor to give the ships a bit of individulaty for fun.

Transcript

https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/2760.html

myrmidon posting in

fandom_icons

Resident Evil Requiem (2026)
[ leon s. kennedy ]

[ here @

axisandallies ]

Today I celebrate the second anniversary of my retirement from work. Year two was much like year one – and I’m fine with that. Hard to believe, but every day I still have a moment of being grateful that I’m not having to go to the office and give them all my time. I think retirement is an ongoing flow of gratitude. I’m very lucky and have so much to be grateful for.

In my second year of retirement, I began working on the backlog of personal projects – all of which had been on hold until I retired. The Library remodel turned into an avalanche of smaller projects – which are continuing to this day. So things are actually getting done, but my daily task lists are overstuffed. This is what retirement is for. Bit by bit, my forever home is getting better.

I’m still trying to figure out my daily routine. The many projects that become active tend to disrupt my schedule and flow. It’s not really a problem – I like having the flexibility to remold my days on a whim. Some days I’m highly productive; some days I’m not.

For Year 3, I want to get my home into a stable state. That is, the major reorganization and cleanup needs to be finished. There will be subsequent rounds – but no radical restructuring will be involved. As the work on the home winds down, I’ll ramp up the needed tech projects that are long overdue. Retirement will continue to be very busy – and hopefully productive.

I’ll make sure to include a good amount of downtime. I enjoyed a fair amount in the last year.

I keep one eye on my old workplace – and still have some friends who are surviving the chaos there. Things were bad when I left – and have gotten even worse. Stock price is currently less than half what I sold all my holdings for. The stock I sold paid for my home remodeling project; that project couldn’t have happened if I had waited until today to sell my shares. I feel bad for people who still have to work.

Most of my friends and family have been retired for many years – a lot longer than I have been. They’ve got retirement all figured out. I’m still finding my way. But I’m very happy with how things are going so far.

Previously
A Year of Retirement

cyberghostface posting in

"There's something I believe Grant Morrison came up with in Arkham Asylum with Dave McKean: that the Joker has super-sanity; he has to reinvent himself every day to try and keep up with all the stimuli the world throws at him that he can't regulate. And I have a friend who's a neurobiologist, and we were talking about stuff, and I read things about people with profound, untreatable depression issues.

"And this guy built a cap that regulates electricity. He had a patient whose entire life was depressive episodes, suicide attempts, institutionalisations, in an endless cycle, and at some point, on an MRI or a CT scan or something, he saw that some part of her brain wasn't lighting up as it should be. And he went to RadioShack and just made it; it literally just pings the dark parts of her mind. And at the time of the article, her life had changed. She had held a job for more than one year, and she was engaged to be married, like everything was different for this woman. It's just kind of playing with all this stuff like, what if that super sanity is generating like all this electrical activity beyond what people are supposed to have in your brain, and that's why he's so thin all the time, he's like just burning like a marathon's worth of calories every day, just being alive… And what happens if you stop that? That's where we meet our boy is in a tube, and because now his metabolism has stopped, he's not wraith-like and thin anymore." -- Matt Fraction

( Scans under the cut... )

heartsways posting in

( Read more... )

numeronone posting in

"When Jonathan Reason falls asleep, he becomes... something terrible."

(Oversized final issue; 12 pages of 36.)

( Read more... )

cyberghostface posting in

( Scans under the cut… )

superfangirl1 posting in

( Read more, )

icon_uk posting in

( Not the plot I was expecting )

cyberghostface posting in

( Scans under the cut... )

Recent Manga Acquistions, March 2026

My March 2026 Tsundoku Stack remains untouched. However, the last five manga volumes that I recently acquired jumped to the front of the line. They are the category of tsundoku ja nai – in that they aren’t really tsundoku as they never dwell in the pile of books that continually escape my attention. They are in sort of a little bubble of their own., which gets my near term attention.

( In the Bubble, Read and Unread )

ABOUT TSUNDOKU
My tsundoku tag collects my blog posts about my tsundoku collection. The first post was in May 2014. However the tag really kicked off starting in October 2020. I recommend these tsundoku articles: Tsundoku: The Joy of Unread Books by John M. Jennings and Understanding ‘Tsundoku’: The Joy of Buying Books Without Reading Them at Alterpret.

beck_liz posting in

Editor's Note: If your item was not linked, it's because the header lacked the information that we like to give our readers. Please at least give the title, rating, and pairing or characters, and please include the header in the storypost itself, not just in the linking post. For an example of what a "good" fanfic header is, see the user info. Spoiler warnings are also greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Off-Dreamwidth Links
Blogtor Who: Video of the Day – Doctor Who: The Mysterious Planet, 1987
Blogtor Who: Video of the Day – Doctor Who: Martha Jones Being Amazing for 26 Minutes, 2026
Blogtor Who: Video of the Day – The Whoniverse Show, 2026
Doctor Who News: Lost Doctor Who episodes coming to BBC iPlayer on Good Friday

(News from

doctorwhonews_feed and

blogtorwho_feed, among others.)

Discussion & Miscellany

nwhyte on Firefall, by Beth Axford; The Mind Trap, by John Peel

Fanfiction
Completed
Unwelcome by

badly_knitted (G | The Doctor)

If you were not linked, and would like to be, contact us in the comments with further information and your link.

heleninwales

It's the last day of March and it's been a very productive month. I'm getting to the end of the novel which now stands at 101,600 words. I'd set a target of 9k words for the month and actually wrote 12.4k. I'm away for a couple of days at the start of April with no computer access, but I hope to keep writing with pen and paper.

In other news...

I was just returning the shopping trolley to the trolley enclosure by the door to the Co-op when a woman walking the other way stopped me, saying that I looked familiar. I also thought that she looked familiar and said so.

There then followed a few minutes of trying to work out how we possibly knew one another. Having been a teacher of adults for many years, there are lots of people who know me, but we ruled out courses at the local colleges. Finally, she asked if I'd ever kept horses. Bingo! We'd both been parents involved in the local Pony Club, back between the mid-80s and the early 90s.

We reminisced for a few minutes. Neither of us are involved with horses now and our daughters are grown up, but it was a surprising encounter. Considering the size of our little town, it's a wonder we haven't seen one another before now.

Today is the International Transgender Day of Visibility – which is, to quote Wikipedia,

an annual event dedicated to celebrating transgender people, raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people, and acknowledging their contributions to society.

For transfolk, the day is something of a Call to Action. GLAAD lists some Resources. Also: Metafilter’s TDoV Post.

This is a scary time to be trans in the United States. (For just one example, I certainly can't go to Idaho anymore.) My years of activism are far behind me, and nowadays I keep a pretty low profile. I feel fortunate to be living in a progressive part of Western Oregon. My contribution to Visibility is just going about my life, being as normal and reasonable and civil as a person can be. Mostly. I guess I’m watching the collapse of our society from what is for now high ground. However, everything will get leveled eventually. I’m also lucky in that I’m looking at the final years of my life. I feel bad for the younger generations.

In general, this is a lousy time to try and make a living, secure food and shelter, and find and afford medical care. It’s a very difficult time to be trans – but it’s also a very difficult time to be a human being. I could quote The Orange Guy: “Sad!”

icon_uk posting in

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.

Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.

Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.

It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.

The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.

The Artemis II mission is due for take off this week, and we wish them well

The newly recovered Doctor Who episodes will be available in the UK on BBC iPlayer at 6am this coming Friday.

"Chag Pesach Sameach" to those who celebrate Passover

"Happy Easter" to those who celebrate Easter

"Happy Cheap Chocolate Egg Eve" to those who celebrate that.

"Happy Long Weekend" to those who celebrate neither and don't like chocolate.

and "We're Terribly Sorry" for those who have to work over the aforementioned long weekend.

Lot going on in real world today, so that's about it.