Standards for signing up with ICE are so low
Aug. 30th, 2025 06:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulymaybe it makes sense to undermine them from within? Oh, where's the sabotage manual when I want it?
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Let's just pretend I posted this on International Left-hander's Day
Aug. 29th, 2025 07:41 pmconulyPoll #33546 Left handers unite!
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 40
Which are you?
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Fidelity.
Aug. 27th, 2025 10:31 pmhannahFor no reason I'm capable of understanding, starting sometime yesterday, my iPhone and iPad stopped connecting to my home wifi. The network was there, the devices acknowledged it, and my desktop was always able to tap into it through the relevant connecting device. The desktop's too old to have inbuilt wifi capabilities, but the iPhone and iPad were new enough they've got it, except it wasn't in them. They kept saying the password was wrong. I checked on the wifi router provided by the phone and internet company and typed it in, several times, and neither device acknowledged it as correct. I tried the trick of having the devices forget about the network before trying to reconnect, and it didn't work.
Resetting the route managed it, somehow. I'd be better able to understand what happened if the desktop also didn't get it for a while, but it did, so I have to wonder where things got messed up. Because there was a problem that got fixed, and it wasn't a problem for everything.
Resetting the route managed it, somehow. I'd be better able to understand what happened if the desktop also didn't get it for a while, but it did, so I have to wonder where things got messed up. Because there was a problem that got fixed, and it wasn't a problem for everything.
DW and Bluesky (and probably others)
Aug. 28th, 2025 07:32 pmconulyare now going to block Mississippi IP addresses.
Link to DW explanation
Link to Tedium post on Bluesky
So, yay, piracy and VPNs all the way?
(I fucking hate this timeline, have I said that lately?)
Link to DW explanation
Link to Tedium post on Bluesky
So, yay, piracy and VPNs all the way?
(I fucking hate this timeline, have I said that lately?)
Tell your reps to support the Don't STEAL Act.
Aug. 27th, 2025 03:47 pmwatersword posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
thisfinecrewThe Don’t Stand for Taking Employed Americans’ Livings (Don’t STEAL) Act is being reintroduced to Congress; it would make wage theft a felony nationwide.
Wage theft costs American workers more than $50 billion annually. That is more than the value of all robberies, burglaries, and motor vehicle thefts combined.
Contact your representative and tell them to co-sponsor and commit to voting yes on this.
Promotion! Empire Fandom hosts a Bingo Challenge again
Aug. 27th, 2025 04:09 pmprisca posting in allbingoFandom Empire's last challenge of this year is:
August 27 - September 10: Sign-up
September 7 - December 7: Challenge open
December 8 - December 14: Final scores
At the end of the challenge, there will be banners/badges for everyone and 50 DW points for three randomly chosen regular (maximum two weeks missed) participants.
Check out the information post here.
I would be glad to have you around. If you are interested, don't hesitate to sign up here.
August 27 - September 10: Sign-up
September 7 - December 7: Challenge open
December 8 - December 14: Final scores
At the end of the challenge, there will be banners/badges for everyone and 50 DW points for three randomly chosen regular (maximum two weeks missed) participants.
Check out the information post here.
I would be glad to have you around. If you are interested, don't hesitate to sign up here.
Wanton and dissipation
Aug. 27th, 2025 02:51 pmconulyThem: If you’re familiar with the meanings of wanton and dissipation, could you please describe them in a way that will help me never confuse them with other words or forget their meaning?
Me: Oh, there is no way the comments to this post are going to be helpful.
And I was half right! I was just about the only person to give the asked-for definition of "dissipation". As predicted, everybody else used the science sense rather than the moral decay sense. What surprised me is that they also all defined the word "wanton" in terms of violence rather than sexual promiscuity.
Anyway, I said myself that dissipation (meaning debauchery) is an old-fashioned term and that I'm not quite sure how I even know that one off the top of my head, but then the next day I was re-reading Ancillary Justice and there it is, right in the first few chapters. Seivarden is in a bad state due to her dissipated lifestyle, and that's the word used to describe it. Huh. (But I think I already knew that word before I read the book for the first time.)
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( Read more... )
Me: Oh, there is no way the comments to this post are going to be helpful.
And I was half right! I was just about the only person to give the asked-for definition of "dissipation". As predicted, everybody else used the science sense rather than the moral decay sense. What surprised me is that they also all defined the word "wanton" in terms of violence rather than sexual promiscuity.
Anyway, I said myself that dissipation (meaning debauchery) is an old-fashioned term and that I'm not quite sure how I even know that one off the top of my head, but then the next day I was re-reading Ancillary Justice and there it is, right in the first few chapters. Seivarden is in a bad state due to her dissipated lifestyle, and that's the word used to describe it. Huh. (But I think I already knew that word before I read the book for the first time.)
( Read more... )
Media collecting.
Aug. 26th, 2025 09:48 pmhannahReminding myself I want what's on the objects more than I want the objects themselves, I'm in the process of ripping my Fringe complete series box set so I can get around to watching it. I did the same for Friday Night Lights already, and I'm trying to tell myself I shouldn't keep the sets around even if I fall in love with the shows. It was great I was able to snag them so affordably. And I don't need them.
If there were still in-person fandom conventions, I'd bring them to a swap table or offer them up for a raffle, but we don't have such things anymore - at least not anywhere it's practical for me to travel to right now. It's a shame, because that kind of swap table mentality is one of the best for getting rid of stuff. How it's going to be picked up and taken home, and you don't have to believe anything else.
If there were still in-person fandom conventions, I'd bring them to a swap table or offer them up for a raffle, but we don't have such things anymore - at least not anywhere it's practical for me to travel to right now. It's a shame, because that kind of swap table mentality is one of the best for getting rid of stuff. How it's going to be picked up and taken home, and you don't have to believe anything else.
August by Dorothy Parker
Aug. 24th, 2025 11:57 pmconulyWhen my eyes are weeds,
And my lips are petals, spinning
Down the wind that has beginning
Where the crumpled beeches start
In a fringe of salty reeds;
When my arms are elder-bushes,
And the rangy lilac pushes
Upward, upward through my heart;
Summer, do your worst!
Light your tinsel moon, and call on
Your performing stars to fall on
Headlong through your paper sky;
Nevermore shall I be cursed
By a flushed and amorous slattern,
With her dusty laces’ pattern
Trailing, as she straggles by.
******
Link
And my lips are petals, spinning
Down the wind that has beginning
Where the crumpled beeches start
In a fringe of salty reeds;
When my arms are elder-bushes,
And the rangy lilac pushes
Upward, upward through my heart;
Summer, do your worst!
Light your tinsel moon, and call on
Your performing stars to fall on
Headlong through your paper sky;
Nevermore shall I be cursed
By a flushed and amorous slattern,
With her dusty laces’ pattern
Trailing, as she straggles by.
Link
Untitled for Three Jigakkyu [music]
Aug. 24th, 2025 07:02 amsidereaYall, the bowed musical instruments have finally made it to the electronica party. This is the coolest damn thing. Audio required, video also extremely worth it if accessible. 3 min 17 sec.
2025 Aug 11: Open Reel Ensemble: "Tape Bowing Ensemble - Open Reel Ensemble":
ETA: I want to state for the record, contrary to what a lot of commenters on YT are saying, it is not that what is cool here is just how wackily innovative it is to use a reel-to-reel this way. The only reason this is going viral is because of how musically good it is; nobody would care about it otherwise, and I submit for evidence the half century plus of prior art of abusing reel-to-reel recorders in the name of music-making you have probably never heard of, because a lot of it wasn't very compelling as music so nobody ever brought it to your attention. What's most shocking here is how musical it is, and how they use the innovation to do something new in music recognizable as such. It isn't good because it's innovative; it's innovative because it's good.
As far as I am concerned, the great problem for electronic music has always been what I think of as the Piano Problem: the music is made by operating a machine, so there's a machine between the performer and the music. Great pianists master operating the machine so beautifully they make the machine disappear. But this is what makes piano playing hard. So much of what we love in music is its organicness, the aspects of it which are so beautifully expressive because of how intimately the performer's body interacts with the instrument.
Heretofore, the only ways to bring that kind of sound to electronic instruments were to use breath controlled midi controllers (electronic woodwinds), use an electromagnetic interface (e.g. theremin), or get really fantastic on keys. Or give up and embrace the mechanical nature of the instrument and use it for repertoire the excellence of which does not rest in expressiveness (q.v. Wendy Carlos' Bach recordings).
This instrument conclusively brings the organicness of bowing and all its delicate expressiveness to electronica. The result is simply gorgeous and I hope this creative vein is further mined.
2025 Aug 11: Open Reel Ensemble: "Tape Bowing Ensemble - Open Reel Ensemble":
磁気テープを竹に張って演奏する民族楽器「磁楽弓（じがっきゅう）」三重奏による調べですThis is a trio performance on the “JIGAKKYU,” a traditional folk instrument made by stretching magnetic tape across bamboo.
ETA: I want to state for the record, contrary to what a lot of commenters on YT are saying, it is not that what is cool here is just how wackily innovative it is to use a reel-to-reel this way. The only reason this is going viral is because of how musically good it is; nobody would care about it otherwise, and I submit for evidence the half century plus of prior art of abusing reel-to-reel recorders in the name of music-making you have probably never heard of, because a lot of it wasn't very compelling as music so nobody ever brought it to your attention. What's most shocking here is how musical it is, and how they use the innovation to do something new in music recognizable as such. It isn't good because it's innovative; it's innovative because it's good.
As far as I am concerned, the great problem for electronic music has always been what I think of as the Piano Problem: the music is made by operating a machine, so there's a machine between the performer and the music. Great pianists master operating the machine so beautifully they make the machine disappear. But this is what makes piano playing hard. So much of what we love in music is its organicness, the aspects of it which are so beautifully expressive because of how intimately the performer's body interacts with the instrument.
Heretofore, the only ways to bring that kind of sound to electronic instruments were to use breath controlled midi controllers (electronic woodwinds), use an electromagnetic interface (e.g. theremin), or get really fantastic on keys. Or give up and embrace the mechanical nature of the instrument and use it for repertoire the excellence of which does not rest in expressiveness (q.v. Wendy Carlos' Bach recordings).
This instrument conclusively brings the organicness of bowing and all its delicate expressiveness to electronica. The result is simply gorgeous and I hope this creative vein is further mined.
Sweet science.
Aug. 22nd, 2025 10:30 pmhannahI used the last of the season's rhubarb to make my sister in law G. a tart birthday cake. I didn't try any, because she didn't want to slice it, but based on the batter and the sound of the crust when I tapped it, it came out the way I'd hoped. Not too sweet, with a bit of pucker you don't often find in cakes. If I make it again, I'll keep it at just one cup of sugar and use more rhubarb. Also, seeing about a lemon juice glaze to give it one last punch-up.
My dad's book group isn't meeting this coming Wednesday. However, I've still been tasked to bake for my parents' roof party in a few weeks, and I've decided on mocha and parsley for an extreme contrast. While I said I'd be happy to do this, I was told by one of my parents' friends that I was more or less tasked to make three cakes: two for the party, one for him. I'm thinking something with plums. Or possibly carrots. I'll see where the market takes me.
My dad's book group isn't meeting this coming Wednesday. However, I've still been tasked to bake for my parents' roof party in a few weeks, and I've decided on mocha and parsley for an extreme contrast. While I said I'd be happy to do this, I was told by one of my parents' friends that I was more or less tasked to make three cakes: two for the party, one for him. I'm thinking something with plums. Or possibly carrots. I'll see where the market takes me.
