sorcyress | Network

Tuesday afternoon, I hopped aboard a ferry to Bainbridge Island, for a long-overdue visit to see

ivy and finally meet her dog, Hazel! I was commenting to her that visiting blog friends often feels like something of a crossover episode. We had so much to talk about, but most especially all of the "blah blah blah rowing" that is incredibly interesting to rowers but generally not anybody else, heh.

On my way to the ferry terminal, I've come to realize that this recently-opened Overlook Park is kind of analogous to a park thing that opened up in Albany a couple years ago, the Albany Skyway, in that both are just fancy pedestrian overpasses to get humans up and over motor vehicle/train obstructions so they can access a waterfront.

Of course, that's exactly where the similarities end, for in Seattle, the park connects the bustling Pike Place Market to the equally bustling Seattle waterfront, whereas in Albany there are some modest tourist buildings on one side and a very basic park on the other.

But I digress.

( gonna be mostly just more photos from here on... )

in_the_pipeline_feed

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/last-year-and-year-come

Happy New Year! Science blogging resumes on Monday. But I have to get this off my chest first:

Let me start off this first post of 2026 by acknowledging that 2025 was, in many ways, a horrible year. I say that particularly by the subject matters of this site - biomedical research and science in general. The Trump administration moved quickly last year to attack federal research funding from every single angle they could think of, and went on to do major damage to every science-based agency. The NIH, CDC, FDA and others will need years to recover what’s been done to them.

Likewise, US public health will suffer. It already is. I note that we now have reached a level of measles cases not seen in this country for decades, and one can only expect the numbers for every other vaccine-preventable disease to rise as well. This is of course infuriating, because it is so senseless and was so avoidable, but here we are. Children will die who did not have to, and it was a choice. Just as gutting USAID was one of the early choices of the administration, an act of petty vandalism which has led (and will continue to lead) to even more deaths and suffering in the countries that used to get the aid. Never forget: whenever Elon Musk walks up to a podium to bullshit you about colonizing Mars or whatever, he is walking on the bodies of dead children. He yanked their food and medicine away while telling lies and cracking stupid jokes.

There’s plenty of blood to go around, though. I have often stated my belief that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has it on his hands after his actions during a measles epidemic in Samoa, and now he will get a chance to replicate that disaster on a grander scale, as befits his self-image. Kennedy, our HHS secretary, believes that the 1918 flu pandemic and the 1980s rise of HIB somehow happened because of vaccine research. Marty Makary, our head of the FDA, believes that Lyme disease is an escape biowarfare agent. Jay Bhattacharya, among other things, believes that he is fit to lead the NIH. We are being governed by grinning idiots and sociopaths, and any assessment of our situation in 2026 has to take that as a precondition.

This of course goes all the way to the top. Donald Trump is (by a wide margin) the worst president this country has ever had, and his administration is a catastrophe. I will not be discussing my reasons here for those assertions - suffice it to say that I could do a solid 50,000 words on this topic with copious links, citations, and video clips. But to what point? What I think is more important is that any assessment of our situation also has to come to terms with the fact that he was nonetheless re-elected. I am very much cheered by his cratering approval ratings and by the increasing numbers of people speaking out against his policies, but (as with the vaccine situation), all this was avoidable. Dwelling on that, though, can be a mistake.

Just saying “This didn’t have to happen” avoids thinking about why it did, and risks not realizing what bad shape our institutions and our civil society had to be in for things to get to this point. Those institutions very much include the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Supreme Court. There are multiple points of failure here, and the irony is not lost on me that we are heading into the 250th anniversary of this country’s founding while surrounded by horrible evidence that its system of government is in terrible need of repair. But that’s what I’m dedicating this year to.

How can I do otherwise? Despair is a sin. And I’m not going to let this convicted felon and adjudicated sexual predator, this incompetent would-be-authoritarian disgrace of a human being run me out of my own country. I am going to continue to speak out against the harmful acts of this administration and I am going to continue to work to replace it with something better. This year, that means the mid-term elections. I always get some fashionably cynical replies to this sort of statement, stuff like “Oh you poor little lamb, you still think there will be mid-term elections”. Keep that one to yourself, because do you know why I think we’re having those elections and that they’ll go terribly for the Trump administration? By the increasingly frantic actions being taken to try to mess around with them. It's the same as Trump’s flailing, incoherent attempts to deal with the Jeffrey Epstein material: these are not the actions of someone who is unconcerned.

So keep up the pressure. Speak up and give others the courage to do the same. Flip those seats. Drive more pro-Trump legislators into retirement (or anti-Trump ones who are too old or timid for the job!) Push those approval ratings even lower to give the cowards and toadies reasons to doubt their choices and their futures. Sow discord among the various Republican factions who are already beginning to fight it out for their positions in a post-Trump era. We have to make that post-Trump era happen, and the sooner we get started on it, the better. And let’s start talking about all the things that will have to be done to make this more of a functioning country again when we get there.

In years to come, I will never be able to look back on 2025 as anything other than a disaster. But I want to be able to look back on 2026 as when we started to turn things around.

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/last-year-and-year-come

mallorys_camera

Crumwold Hall on fire in Hyde Park.

Crumwold Hall was built by Archibald Rogers, a minor railroad tycoon, in 1886, making it one of the few local Gilded Age mansions without a Livingston family connection. It's named for Crum Elbow Creek, which flows into the Hudson hereabouts.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor considered moving there once. FDR's mansion is right next door; he played there as a boy, and the soldiers assigned to protect him on his trips home during WWII were garrisoned there.

New York was not interested in adding Crumwold Hall to the state's portfolio of historic landmarks, so once the original doyenne croaked, the mansion passed from hand to hand, eventually ending up in the possession of an obscure religious cult called the Millennial Kingdom Family Church.

Belinda's house is part of the subdevelopment that was built on the original 5,000-acre estate, so I've often viewed the mansion from afar.

Here's what the mansion looked like in its prime:

Practically nothing is known about the Millennial Kingdom Family Church. They have a Facebook Page, but it hasn't been updated since 2015. Belinda thinks there couldn't have been more than 12 people living in the 75-room house. Their water had recently been turned off since they stopped paying their bill a year ago, which made the firefighters' job all the more difficult.

Anyway, I am thinking: Perfect! Grazia will join the Millennial Kingdom Family Church! And Neal will rescue her after the building catches on fire!

###

Shortly, I must gird up and hike out to check in on the chickens. Their coop is about 500 feet from the house. Icky rigged up a network of extension cords to power their fountain, but that grid has failed, and the water in their fountain is frozen solid, so I have been trekking in every day with bowls of fresh water, hoping this will keep them from dying of thirst.

I tested the outlets with my phone charger: The extension cord relay is charging at its source in the basement, but not at its destination at the coop.

The culprit is likely a dead extension cord segment, currently buried under eight inches of snow.

Fond though I am of the chickens, the prospect of spending half an hour narrowing down the dead extension cord does not attract: It is 20° out there with a "real feel" of 8° 'cause there's wind raising mini-snow squalls.

Maybe when the temps rise back to seasonal (supposedly Tuesday).

###

Frigid temperatures also kept me from my New Year's Day plan: a vigorous tromp across the Walkway!

I have this superstition that the way you spend New Year's Day is a template for how you are going to spend the year, so naturally, I wanted to fill my New Year's Day with as many wholesome activities as possible!

But an hour and a half in the cold?? With Hideous White Stuff all around me?

No, thank you!

I did remain happy & occupied all day long, reading, delighting, communicating with friends. So, perhaps that will be the auger. Had a marathon phone conversation with my pal Tom in Michigan that was quite entertaining.

Didn't do a single scrap of useful work, though. And didn't exercise.

Those would be unfortunate augers.

Off to the gym as soon as I deal with the chickens.

heleninwales

I don't do New Year resolutions but for the past few years I've tried to choose a word and a short phrase to help me focus on what needs to be done to make the year a successful one. For 2025 my word was "Fixing" and the theme was "Replacing, updating". Having decided not to have the kitchen completely redone, we continued last year to make small improvements such as a new dining table, Kallax storage unit and a replacement light.

For 2026 my word will be "Improving" and the theme is "changing, completing". I want to make more improvements to the house and especially the garden. I also hope to finish the first draft of Book 3 of the fantasy trilogy, so I'll be revising and hopefully improving the first and third novels with a view to self-publishing them later in the year. I also feel that I've plateaued with my Welsh, so that needs improving too. ( Boring waffling... )

So that's my vague plan for the year. I can get started on some things right away, but I'll leave travel until the days are longer and the weather is warmer.

selenak

I'll have you know it's really hard to limit myself to only five. And of course this is highly subjective. For an entertaining alternative choice with two per German Bundesland (i.e. federal state), check out the two most recent episodes of History of the Germans here.

Aaaanyway, pondering deeply, this is what I have come up with from the depths of my Teutonic yet Southern Wessi German soul:

1.) The Rhine between, say, Düsseldorf and Koblenz. You can either go by boat on the river itself or take the train, but this is a combination of landscape, architecture and history which is both aesthetically pleasing and incredibly historically and contemporarily relevant. Parts of it are ridiculously romantic. Other parts visibly suffer from climate change.

2.) Berlin. I am the opposite of a Berlinerin, but it's the capital, and talk about being relevant for German history (though not beyond the last two hundred and fifty years or so) and present. If you don't visit in Winter, take a boat trip on the Spree as well.

3.) Munich. Was bombed as much as Berlin, did a better job at reconstruction, is the South to Berlin's North (and only three hours away from Italy via Autobahn or train), with the Alps next door. Offers Baroque splendour to Berlin's 19th century classicism. Speaking of German history of the 20th century: if you haven't visited the Jewish Museum in Berlin with its section devoted to the Holocaust, visit the NS Doku centre and the Jewish museum in Munich. (Don't visit the Dachau concentration camp if you're in a hurry, but do visit it if you have much more time, and don't do anything else on that day. It's stomach turning and it ought to do be. You can't do that in the morning and then hop over to the art collection at the Alte Pinakothek in the afternoon.)

4.) Lake Constance, aka der Bodensee. Most parts of this gigantic lake are either in the German state Baden(-Württemberg) or in Switzerland, but there's a Bavarian section as well, oh, and a Rhine connection. The individual cities located on the lake and the islands in it offer early medieval castles and Zeppelins (they were first built here, and if you have a lot of cash, you can still board one), 19th century German poets and prehistoric settlements, and lots and lots of vegetables and gardening and great food throughout the year. Oh yeah, and the Romans were there, too. And a famous Church Council featuring in opera and historical novels. (Have a pic spam.)

5.) ~~Bamberg.~~ Hamburg. Was bombed to smithereens, did a reasonable job at reconstruction, offers a legendary harbor which you can take a two hours boat trip to visit, two great towers to have a view from, an early morning fish market, an immigration museum, stylish nineteenth century villas, quite expensive shops, some good art musuems and the Reeperbahn. Look, it was as important in shaping the Beatles as Liverpool was, and so the world owes it a visit for this alone, okay? Also: three hours train ride to some spectacular northern sea beaches from there.

The other days

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: Munich

oursin

Partner's substituted veggie burgers had to be panfried rather than ovencooked (we actually usually spend a fair amount of time making sure that they can) and have RUINED the frying pan with some adherent substance which scrubbing and soaking has failed to shift.

Fortunately we live in the future and I was a) able to consult Which about the best frying pans (they have quite recently surveyed these, yay) and b) order one for same day click and collect at the local Argos.

Even if we entirely failed in entering the details to get our Nectar points on the transaction.

In other news, it appears that there was SNOW some time earlier today or last night which was still lying in shadowed spots when I went for my walk. Bitterly cold out but very bright.

Parakeet disporting around the back gardens and adjacent park.

We have not seen anything more of the fox which came right up the steps from the garden to the back door, after a leisurely descent left its marker on the garden fence, and then got into it with next door's cat, which was sitting on the back fence going 'come and 'ave a go if you think you're 'ard enough'.

brithistorian

“By far the dominant reason for not releasing sooner was a reluctance to trade the dream of success for the reality of feedback.” (Kent Beck, software engineer)

I find I do this a lot. I spend time "planning" or "gathering knowledge," often until I lose interest in the thing before ever actually trying to do the thing. While I recognize that this is often an attempt to try to avoid the awkward phase where I'm learning the thing and can't really help doing the thing badly, it's still hard to put that recognition into action. I don't really do new year's resolutions, but I'm trying right now to try to more actively recognize when I'm doing this and take action to stop myself from doing it. So, with that being said, I'm going to take the air-dry clay that I got for Christmas out of its package and go make some awkward looking sculpture!

summersgate

I took a bunch of pictures yesterday - Andy sleeping, Brownie Car, snowy things, the creek and a full moon:( Read more... )

Full Moon. I was trying something new to me. I used white nail polish for the white areas and let that dry before I slopped on watercolor. The nail polish repelled the paint. It was like using masking fluid but I didn't have to remove it later.

IMG_20260102_082834630[1].jpg

Chicken coop this morning.

Chloe is coming over and staying the night tonight. She wants to meet up with Franklin friends tomorrow and she didn't want to drive clear home just to come back. I want to spruce up the house a bit before she gets here - sweep and vacuum, clear the tables.

prettygoodword

coxcomb (KOKS-kohm) - n., (usually spelled cockscomb) the fleshy red pate of a rooster; (hist.) the cap of a court jester, traditionally adorned with a red stripe; (arch.) the head, pate; (hist.) a conceited foolish man, especially one excessively concerned with his appearance and clothes, a fop.

(This doesn't quite fit this week's pattern of noun+noun words, what with genitive ending, but it wasn't actually a theme week anyway.) The jester's cap is, if it's not clear, the connection between a rooster's crown and a fop. The fool sense appeared while it still had the Middle English spelling cokkes comb, the respelling with x first appeared around 1570, and the fop sense showed up in the 17th century.

---L.

totchipanda

December 30: went to Safeway after work for dairy products, including a carton of milk. Made the most delicious and silky cheese sauce to go on baked potatoes with broccoli. YUMMMMMMM.

December 31: Insomniaaaaa. Woke up at 3 and couldn't get back to sleep until like 6-something. I'd cancelled the alarm and set a different one, plus a timer. Heckin exhausted.

Body decided HI HELLO ELEVATORS OF BLOOD between 7:00 and 7:26 am. and I said FINE I GUESS it's a short day and I'm off tomorrow so I can deal with this nonsense at home.

Napped, finished watching the fourth round of Heated Rivalry, watched more emergency services shows, actually stayed up until 12:30 (mostly playing my silly games)

January 1: slept until 8 am, aahhhh so nice. Laid about until 930 or so, got up because coffee does not happen in bed when you live alone. Played silly games for a bit and then said NO. Put this DOWN. I picked up a knitting project instead, which tried my patience. Napped. Played more silly games. Did not sew like I said I was going to because Calcifer elected to nap in my lap pretty much the entire day, and then after the sun went down it seemed too dark around the machine to do it. Note to self: get a lamp for the sewing desk.

Body said :3 and didn't give me any trouble at all until like 11pm and even that was minor. What?

Slept midnight-ish until.... 2 am. Fuck me sideways, this is ridiculous. I had a little snoozle but it was again closer to 630 when I did it and I had set the alarm and timer again. And it's a full day today. I am so so so tired.

Body is still going :3 so far. I don't know what to make of this, I have been utterly disgustingly regular for like 31 years. ETA: i posted this, went to get coffee, and then had to go empty the disc and change the backup pad because I didn't f'n know it was needed already when I had next to NOTHING yesterday. AHAHAHA.

Maybe a more coherent post later when my brain is a little more active. Coffee time.

smallhobbit

Today's

thefridayfive quesitons

1. Do you mostly drink tap, filtered, or bottled water?
Tap water at home - I drink at least a litre a day. If we're out for a meal I'll also ask for tap water. When travelling, especially abroad, I'll drink bottled water.

2. Is it safe/recommended to drink tap water where you live? If not, why?
Definitely. And it saves plastic waste.

3. What does the tap water taste/smell like where you live?
I don't think it has a particular taste, and definitely no smell. Someone else might notice a slight taste if it was different from their own tap water.

4. Do you collect rainwater? If so, what do you use it for?
Yes. Watering the garden plants, water bowls for the birds, rinsing out waste bins.

5. Do you/have you ever had restrictions on water use where you live? What did you have to change about your lifestyle?
We sometimes have a hosepipe ban during a long, hot summer, but as we don't have a hosepipe, this doesn't make a lot of difference.

pensnest

I did just squeak in before the reveal with yesterday's recs, happily. Not that it matters, because there are so many authors around for Yuletide, and I maybe recognise a handful of names—I doubt I'd go looking for Writer X's Stuff. Anyway, I hope you all had a chance to read through whatever may have caught your eye.

My story was With What Intense Desire, a Mansfield Park fic which changes the end of the story so that Fanny goes home earlier from Portsmouth, and gets to listen to Edmund whingeing about Mary in person instead of reading his letters.

My recipient wanted Fanny to be happy, and my conclusion from re-reading was that Fanny's truest source of happiness is being at Mansfield, at Home, in fact, so that is what I gave her. I may not have been quite heavy-handed enough, as nobody in the comments said they were glad to see her becoming the mistress of Mansfield Park, but there it is. It was fun to do, mostly because I was able to adjust Fanny a wee bit so that she gets more impatient with Edmund, which I do myself.

The title is from a quote in Chapter 45, "With what intense desire she wants her home," from Cowper.

So, that's Yuletide done for another year!

*

Snowflake Challenge 2026, challenge no. 1: The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.

I seem to have introduced myself many, many times, as I've been doing an online journal since I joined LiveJournal in 2005, and have (I think) done at least some of the Snowflake Challenge every year since it began.

So rather than reiterate how I came to be a fanfic-fandom person, I'm going to send anyone who's interested to the Snowflake 2022 post I made, in which I introduce myself via some posts. A selection of my posts, rather than a(nother) post About Me. The first is a love letter to fandom; the second mourns the death of a creative idol of mine (Stephen Sondheim) and also mourns the country I wish I lived in. The third is about death, though possibly a bit less miserable than that sounds. And there's a bonus fourth, to cheer you up a bit—a really unhelpful phonetic alphabet. As a collection, I think they give quite a good idea of Me, though I'm not usually quite so death-focused.

What do I want from Snowflake this year? I'm not sure. Some entertainment, maybe the discovery of a couple of new people to interact with? As much as anything, I have the feeling that this is a little burgeoning of posts, and I would like to be part of that.

What do I want from DreamWidth this year? Hmm. I'd like to put in a bit of the energy that I've been frivolling away on Reddit lately—although on Reddit I am somewhat more astringent and wit-focused, I think, than I am in this my own space. I hope there will be more discussion of Stuff I'm Interested In, whether that may be barbershop or fandom in general and the changes it has undergone of late, or the pleasure-pain of writing, or what to wear to dance at my daughter's wedding, and more. We shall see.

sabotabby

Mostly everyone is dormant in the podcast world during Void Week, but Tech Won't Save Us got out a cool one: "How Effective Is Australia's Social Media Age Limit?" with Cam Wilson. Cam has been on the show before, before the ban was implemented. It's now only a week or two into the ban, so early to say if it has done anything good for kids, but he talks a lot about the technical challenges, privacy concerns, and the political and economic interests shaping the ban.

I am flat-out against bans like this (though I will listen to opposing POVs) for a bunch of reasons:

1) The disastrous effect it has on queer and trans kids outside of major urban centres.
2) The fact that there is no equivalent ban for chatbots (meaning that lonely, isolated kids will increasingly turn to chatbots rather than other kids for company).
3) The privacy violations and additional surveillance for adult users (i.e., having to upload their face or donate more information for data-mining to prove their age).
4) My general shitlib opinions about free speech, which includes kids.
5) The methodology of the research that suggests social media is bad for kids. To be clear, I think social media is bad for kids, but I don't think the research is very good at proving it.
6) The lack of anything that addresses the real problems that lead to harmful social media practices, which include inaccessibility of public spaces for youth (and older people!), helicopter parenting/overscheduling, policing of parenting (i.e., parents being disciplined for allowing their kids to roam free), algorithmic instead of chronological timelines and post promotion, the infestation of ads/chatbots/surveillance tech in all social media spaces.

Cam doesn't talk enough about the first two issues imo, but he does have very interesting things about the privacy concerns and especially about how other, non-banning solutions, would have produced better results. For example, forcing these companies to build versions of their platforms that were safe for kids would provide an off-ramp from the block and, by extension, make us aware that a safer, better experience is possible for all of us. He also walks us through the process of the ban, its initial aims, what the final legislation looks like, and the way in which campaigns can gain steam very quickly, become watered down by corporate interests, and ultimately declare total victory based on one or two points.

At any rate, it's interesting to listen to, and I hope he does a followup later on so we can see how it worked out on the ground and if it had any positive effects at all.

thisbluespirit

yuletide is now over for another year! I did, in fact, have the misfortune to turn up at the exact wrong moment to catch the reveals bug on the 24th, so I saw the identity of my gift-writer, although as they were someone that I only had the vaguest idea of having seen the name around AO3 somewhere before, it didn't really spoil anything, thankfully.

I had hoped to do some little treats, as I got on and got my fic done as soon as I could, but I moved instead. However, as I cut out one section from my assignment and posted it separately in Madness, I did technically still post a treat as well!

I wrote The Winslow Boy for

edwardianspinsteraunt, so I was not super anonymous really, for anyone who actually looked that far, but I had a lovely time spending a month or so rewatching the film and coming up with different scenarios from their prompts and my head for a 5 + 1 Times fic. By the end, I decided, though, that the "+1" just increasingly didn't sit right with the rest, so I split it off, hence the Madness treat.

Passing Acquaintances (8985 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winslow Boy (1999)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Robert Morton/Catherine Winslow
Characters: Robert Morton (Winslow Boy), Catherine Winslow, Arthur Winslow, Grace Winslow, Desmond Curry
Additional Tags: 5 Times, Post-Canon, 1910s, World War I, Trains, London, Smoking, Politics, Cars, Suffragettes, Yuletide, Edwardian Period
Summary: Five ways Catherine and Sir Robert might have met again, after the trial.

( Some writerly blathering )

I wanted to include the Winslows lose the case AU if I could, as I knew

edwardianspinsteraunt was keen on that idea - and as I thought would it might rather put paid to any Catherine/Robert, at least for quite some time, it fitted well into the format as the "one time they didn't" (meet again) (although never at any point was that categorical). It did work out well and was maybe the most Rattigan section in the end, I thought, so I had to post it even after I cut it. (Although had I realised sooner I was going to set it loose alone, I'd have found a way to make the start a little less in media res, although tbf, it's an unlikely one to appeal to anyone who doesn't know canon).

Anyway, here it is:

and watch the things you gave your life to broken (2799 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winslow Boy (1999)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Robert Morton/Catherine Winslow
Characters: Catherine Winslow, Desmond Curry, Arthur Winslow, Violet (Winslow Boy), Dickie Winslow, Robert Morton (Winslow Boy)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, 1910s, Edwardian Period, The Winslows lose the case, Yuletide Treat
Summary: The Winslows lose the case.

With the usual thanks to

persiflage for the beta!! <3<3<3

james_davis_nicoll

Not complete, I am sure.

( Read more... )

cakewrecks_feed

Posted by Jen

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/ive-got-a-baaaad-feeling-about-this-2026

"I'm sorry, what did you say you wanted on your cake, again?"

"Right, but didn't you want it written a certain way?"

"Ah, that was it! Ok, nooo problem.

"Now, what kind of decorations would you like?"

"Good, good, and what kind of cake?"

"Ok, great! I've got the order all written up, so you can pick up your cake tomorrow. And don't you worry; our baker puts the rest of us to shame." [wink]

****

The Next Day:

Thanks to Ashley S., Daniel S., Kelsey L., Dan K., & Jake H. who could, like, LITERALLY eat an entire cake right now.

*****

P.S. I just bought another pair of these sleep headphones, so time for another shout-out!

Bluetooth Sleep Headphones

I have the kind of insomnia old-timey bards would write songs about, so I listen to boring audio books on these every night to keep my brain from spinning out of control. Lately I've been wearing them like a sleep mask - like the model here - and WOW, that's helped even more than when I wore them like a headband! These things have been a life saver: comfy enough for side sleeping, not too loud like some of my old speakers, and they only cost $20. Plus my original pair lasted a good 2 years before one of the wires went loose.

Please note that these do run on the big side, but that works out great if you have a big head like me. :D

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/ive-got-a-baaaad-feeling-about-this-2026

js_thrill

Today's song is "Running Away With What Freud Said" another track I had not previously heard. It is the first song off of the Mountain Goats' first cassette (confusingly titled "Taboo VI: The Homecoming"). As you can hear, it has that extreme lo-fi sound:

Watch on YouTube

Here is a live version with slightly different lyrics, but which is a bit easier to hear:

Watch on YouTube

It's a short song, with compact lyrics. I like it better than Alphabetizing, because it has more specificity, but the live version is considerably more listenable for me than the boombox quality youtube audio of the cassette tape version (I have my limits for the lo-fi era).

The annotations talk about it being written originally as poetry during the time when Darnielle was working as a nurse at a psychiatric hospital and being tested regularly for drug use by court order. The title and refrain (such as it is) came from a psychiatrist's call in show where the psychiatrist advised someone not to go running away with what Freud said. Most interesting to me from the annotations is Darnielle's final comment:

I wrote this song as a poem, adhering to some principles then very important to me—compress everything as tightly as possible; if there must be images let them speak for themselves; show don't tell, sure but suggest more than you show—and then I set it to simple music using that guitar, probably with the TV still on, which was very much part of the process most of the time in those early days. (365 songs, p. 6)

This passage reminded me of something I think about a lot, which is two versions of the same poem, written by William Carlos Williams. I first encountered them through a post about the power of compressing one's writing as tightly as possible, and it has stuck with me quite a bit). I recommend that whole post, but I will just juxtapose the two versions of William Carlos William's "The Locust Tree In Flower" here:

The Locust Tree In Flower (1933)

Among
the leaves
bright

green
of wrist-thick
tree

and old
stiff broken
branch

ferncool
swaying
loosely strung —

come May
again
white blossom

clusters
hide
to spill

their sweets
almost
unnoticed

down
and quickly
fall

The Locust Tree In Flower (1935)

Among
of
green

stiff
old
bright

broken
branch
come

white
sweet
May

again

Those familiar with the Mountain Goats will realize that this extreme compression does not always reign over his lyric writing; in fact, he is somewhat famous for often taking an entire paragraph of text and creatively packing it into a single measure of the music; but it is interesting to see the "keep everything concise" phase early on; honing that skill is really good for knowing when to deploy it, and when to unleash the verbosity.

Current Music: Running Away With What Freud Said — The Mountain Goats

james_davis_nicoll

Not just the usual cut and paste! This year I am eligible in a brand new category.

Annual Eligibility Post, Or Look On My Works Ye Mighty

numb3r_5ev3n

[Image with Caption: A black cat spotted atop the stones at Stonehenge during the Winter Solstice Celebrations. This is considered to be a good omen for the coming year.]

Current Mood.

james_davis_nicoll

Fen is the worst sort of hostage: one who has outlived her usefulness to the state.

The King Must Die by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

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Katarina Whimsy

January 2026

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Page Summary

rebeccmeister - By land, by sea [rowing, friends]
in_the_pipeline_feed - Last Year, and the Year to Come
mallorys_camera - Augers
heleninwales - Not the New Year resolutions
selenak - January Meme: Five Places everyone should visit in Germany
oursin - I hope it's not AN OMEN
brithistorian - QOTD: On actually doing the thing
summersgate - friday
prettygoodword - coxcomb
totchipanda - happy new year n stuff
smallhobbit - The Friday Five - Water
pensnest - Snowflake Challenge #1
sabotabby - podcast friday
thisbluespirit - Yuletide Reveals 2025
james_davis_nicoll - Tabletop roleplaying games that I have played at least once
cakewrecks_feed - I've Got A Baaaad Feeling About This...
js_thrill - This Year 365 songs: January 2nd
james_davis_nicoll - Annual Eligibility Post, Or Look On My Works Ye Mighty
numb3r_5ev3n - Black cat spotted at Winter Solstice celebration at Stonehenge.
james_davis_nicoll - The King Must Die by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

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Style: Atomic Orange for Funky Circles by ninetydegrees
Resources: Stuck in Tokyo

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Page generated Jan. 2nd, 2026 05:00 pm

People I enjoy!

Network

By land, by sea [rowing, friends]

Last Year, and the Year to Come

Augers

Not the New Year resolutions

January Meme: Five Places everyone should visit in Germany

I hope it's not AN OMEN

QOTD: On actually doing the thing

friday

coxcomb

happy new year n stuff

The Friday Five - Water

Snowflake Challenge #1

podcast friday

Yuletide Reveals 2025

Tabletop roleplaying games that I have played at least once

I've Got A Baaaad Feeling About This...

This Year 365 songs: January 2nd

Annual Eligibility Post, Or Look On My Works Ye Mighty

Black cat spotted at Winter Solstice celebration at Stonehenge.

The King Must Die by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

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January 2026

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