awesomeers | Member Posts

ysabetwordsmith

This made me laugh.

The True Self

Current Mood: amused

conuly

(Some of which I may have asked before, in which case, forgive me.)

1. People often do say that the English subjunctive is in decline. However, literally nobody I've ever heard say this has provided any sort of evidence. Is there any data on this other than "yeah, feels that way to me"?

1a. I've also heard that the subjunctive, or at least some forms of the subjunctive, is more common in USA English than UK English, from somewhat more authoritative sources but with roughly the same amount of evidence.

2. I got into it with somebody on the subject of "flammable/inflammable". I am aware that there are signs that warn about inflammable materials, and also signs warning about flammable materials. Is it actually the case that anybody has ever been confused and thought they were being warned that something could not catch on fire? Or is that just an urban legend / just-so story to explain why the two words mean the same thing and can be found on the same sorts of signs?

3. Not a language question! I've recently found one of the Myth Adventures books in my house. Gosh, I haven't re-read these in 20 years. Worth a re-read, or oh god no, save it for the recycle bin?

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( Read more... )

ysabetwordsmith

This article mentions seeing no grass spiders in a place that typically has them.

Then I realized that I haven't seen any this year either. Usually we have one every couple of feet here, so many it's hard not to step on the webs. They're barely visible most of the time, unless covered in dust or rain or dew. I may simply not have noticed them. But with the ongoing insect apocalypse, it is concerning. I have have seen other spiders spinning webs, though.

What are your spider populations like?

Current Mood: busy

haunted_cherries

Bits of progress was made on writing AND P5X today!!
( Read more... )

Anyways, hope you guys had a peaceful and restful Sunday!! I’ll be prepping for the MEGA heatwave we have coming, so keep your fingers crossed for me and send ice cream and flavored sparkling water!! ^ o^)/ 🥤🍨

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: Wifi & Airco - 猫シ Corp.

azurelunatic

https://comicbook.com/anime/news/homestuck-animated-series-hazbin-hotel-creators/

From the little I've absorbed about Hazbin Hotel, the creators might just be the correct kind of disturbed to do justice to Homestuck.

ysabetwordsmith

How To Make Your City Stronger With 4 Hours and a Shovel

Last month, members of Livable Lynchburg, a Strong Towns Local Conversation group, joined a walk audit alongside city staff, regional planners, and transit officials. At the corner of 12th and Polk, they noticed two stretches of sidewalk that were so overgrown they were nearly impassable.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

kaberett

Reading. ( Allie Brosh, Jeannie Di Bon, Helena Attlee, Louis MacNeice, friends misc. )

... and several of the magazines that have been sat around causing Guilt and a sense of Obligation, subsequent to which I have happily recycled them. Favourite fact from the three so far: Garden Organic/the Heritage Seed Library are trialling using tuning forks to pollinate their tomato crops! ( Facebook | Instagram )

Bonus: sifting through a pile of notebooks etc to try to work out who the hell they belong to, mostly salvaged from the pile that was due to go out to event-freecycle on the basis that SURELY I could do something useful with them if, you know, I sat down with them at a time that wasn't in a field under Significant time pressure while Very tired. And I could! One and a half remain unidentified (I say "half" because We're Working On It).

Writing. A lot of lost property e-mails.

Cooking. One new recipe from East: paneer, spinach and tomato salad, accompanied by the herbed naan from the Leiths How to Cook Bread book (this is probably on my To Cook Through list). I was into this!

Also vaghareli makai ("spiced Indian corn") by way of David Lebovitz, and a slightly underwhelming lemony fennel and broccoli pasta (significantly improved by the addition of pine nuts).

Eating. STRAWBERRIES. Blackberries. Local plums are starting to be ripe!

Exploring. Poked around the green belt a bit to see how the plums were doing! And I think that's most of it?

A very brief poke around the entrance to the Pimp Hall Nature Reserve following a successful drop-off of Objects to the adjacent Household Waste Recycling Centre; tragically the signs on the gates claimed that they'd be locked at 4 p.m., which we had not quite anticipated, and we only reached them at 3.58. Next time, perhaps!

Creating. Hmm. Does sitting around knolling for the purposes of the big lost property post count? I think it probably does; certainly while the photos still aren't good (am I contemplating a lightbox and a tripod of some kind of this specific terrible hobby? to my slight horror, I kind of am...) the arrangements are getting much easier to parse visually, I discovered upon going back through a bunch of them, which I am pleased about.

Growing. Found a surprise pocketful of dried Sugar Magnolia pods, so I am definitely in the black when it comes to number of seeds for next year, which is a pleasant surprise!

ysabetwordsmith

Stunning “wonder reptile” discovery rewrites the origins of feathers

An international team of researchers has published a breakthrough study in the journal Nature showing that early reptiles from the Triassic period had unique structures growing from its skin that formed an alternative to feathers.

The newly described Mirasaura grauvogeli from the Middle Triassic had a striking feather-like crest, hinting that complex skin appendages arose far earlier than previously believed. Its bird-like skull, tree-climbing adaptations, and pigment structures linked to feathers deepen the mystery of reptile evolution.

Current Mood: busy

tjs_whatnot

Trying to find something to share for today and I'm again reminded that my sentences have two speeds: super ridiculously short or probably- too- long. Guess which one these fall into. 🤣🤣

Spoilers for the Green Creek WIP series I'm currently working on, "In the End, It All Comes Down to Choice."
( 6 Sentences )
Would love to read your 6 sentences!
❤️❤️

ysabetwordsmith

Today is partly sunny, humid, and hot.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

EDIT 8/10/25 -- I put out water for the birds. They had drained the small metal birdbath.

EDIT 8/10/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 8/10/25 -- I watered the old picnic table, house yard, and patio plants.

EDIT 8/10/25 -- I watered the new picnic table and septic gardens. I didn't have energy or daylight to pick up the hose, though; I had to turn it off and just leave it out. :/ I'll try to reel it up tomorrow. It's exhausting to maneuver.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

kat_lair

***

Two days left of my holiday and I've gone fully feral, just eating pizza and writing porn/fic in my underpants.

Anyway.

Is anyone bored enough to SPAG check any of these for me?
1. 2,4k Lost Boys, Michael/Sam, sequel to this
2. 1k MCR, Gerard/Frank, pure porn, very E rated
3. 3.6k The Witcher, Geralt/Jaskier, mostly fluffy feels

I've also been working on the SKZ BDMS!AU but that's currently for the co-author

dreamersdare's eyes only, soz.

***

Here's another thing that is making me froth at the mouth:

Watch on YouTube

Let us not even talk about the unveil tracks. For mental health reasons.

***

Anyway, TXT's latest album is also getting some repeat listens from me. I am, particularly in love with

Yeonjun's solo which is extremely catch. Also I spent most of the video trying to figure where in the UK it was filmed. I default to London but am not actually sure here.

Watch on YouTube

The absolute surprise favourite of the album, for me, however, was Taehyun's Bird of Night that had my bottom lip wobbling. The lyrics.

Watch on YouTube

Special mention to the absolutely stunning cinematography in Beomguy's solo though. The song, whilst pretty, didn't really hit with me, but the visuals inside the hot air balloon are amazing:

Watch on YouTube

***

And in other type of music related news:

Watch on YouTube

Ahhhhhhhhh! In UK cinemas from 26th of Sep. Like I have seen it on Disney already but I will still fucking go see it on the big screen.

***

And finally, because I discovered this accidentally via the YT comments on the above trailer

Watch on YouTube

I am not like, a furry on the main, but let me tell you, the first movie made me ship this like the cross-Atlantic trade route. The fic from the first movie was, ahem, good. Well. Some of it. Probably not enough of it tbh, but still. And now there's this.

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ysabetwordsmith

I stumbled across this today, while researching hormone use on livestock:

Causing trauma to the reproductive tract can induce bleeding, and since blood is toxic to sperm, this may result in reduced conception rates, permanently infertile animals, or animal death.

It makes me wonder if that's a cause undermining conception from rape, which often features internal injuries from microabrasions up to serious tears. If so, an interesting example of self-sabotage.

And then, what about the handful of species where rough sex is normal or even required? A tomcat's barbed penis, for example. Is their sperm different somehow? Or is there some other protective mechanism in play?

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

How much damage are ultraprocessed foods really doing to your health?

New American Heart Association Science Advisory reviews current evidence about UPFs and their impact on adverse health outcomes and outlines opportunities for research, policy and regulatory reform to improve dietary intake and overall health.
Many foods we consume today are ultraprocessed, packed with unhealthy ingredients, and linked to major health risks. As consumption of these foods rises, so do chronic health issues, especially among lower-income groups. Experts are calling for clearer guidelines, better research, and systemic changes to reduce the impact of ultraprocessed foods on public health.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

silveradept

So, on the recommendation of many (including seeing things related to it popping up in my channels regularly, and a fair number of people who are apparently all-in for the main trio being a trio romantically), I watched KPop Demon Hunters.

Have some non-spoilery thoughts, in no particular order:

I wonder how ONCE feels about having gotten TWICE to be the group doing the movie credits version of one of the songs played in snippets throughout the movie.

Daniel Dae Kim and Ken Jeong make perfect sense for the roles they're cast in.

Speaking of voices, the one they cast for the greater-scope villain was delightfully correct, although the casting direction seems to have suggested that he move in the direction of "clipping syllables in an English-as-Second-Language" way. I don't want someone to speak in something that isn't comfortable to them, or to not sound like themselves, but it felt more like a conscious direction rather than someone's natural cadence to do it that way, and it made the greater-scope villain come off slightly more like a Bond villain being played for a bit of camp than as the greater-scope villain. Maybe I'm reading too much into the delivery, or maybe the intention was for this character to sound just slightly off from the rest of the cast.

The Netflix subtitlers managed not to figure out something that fansubbers of various Asian series have known for decades, and even those who subtitle K-Pop releases: how to properly subtitle songs. Which is a major strike against them for a movie that has an awful lot of singing! We didn't necessarily have to go full-on for the kind of karaoke-style, rainbow, motion-filled subtitles that fansubbers of anime and toku series got (get?) made fun of for using in their releases, but these subtitlers went in the direction of just putting the syllables of the words in the subtitles, or otherwise doing Revised Romanization of the spoken or sung Korean and leaving it at that. So there's no context to those lines, nor what they look like in Hangul (which you can see in one of the shots that is the behind-the-scenes for TWICE recording the song playing over the first part of the credits), nor a translation of what the Korean says into English (or whichever language you want as the subtitles.) Admittedly, it would be more offensive to just put [Korean] or [Speaking/Singing in a Global Language] for those sections, but only just. The purpose of the subtitling there is so that someone can follow along with the audio track and make sure they're not missing anything, and if the audio track includes singing in Korean or rapping in Korean, as it does in this movie, the subtitlers have a responsibility to render it comprehensibly. (Bets on whether Tumblr has a transcript of all the songs that renders them correctly and translates them correctly at this point?)

I'm very unhappy with the job the subtitlers did on this movie, and I think Netflix needs to release a revision to accurately reflect what happens in the movie.

I suspect there are more than a few things about the movie that I missed, because my understanding of symbology of both Korean cosmology and mythology and the intricacies of K-pop fandom isn't as complete as it should be to fully appreciate what's going on here. (I did at least understand the light sticks, banners, appearances on various shows and the part where the performers are basically on their public game anywhere the public might see them, which includes never ever wanting to say or do anything that would say there was a relationship between idols and anyone at all, including other idols. Not that it stops the fans from shipping them, either in their own groups or possibly with other groups that they're seen with or rivals with.) Most of my understanding of K-Pop comes from people like brithistorian and andersenmom, so thank you for your help and answering the silly questions that I've had over time.

I did appreciate the music through the decades montage at the beginning, and I'm not sure the average watcher will realize just how much Korean music is influenced by American styles of music through those eras, before the phenomenon that we know of as K-pop comes into existence. (And which exchanges/inherits a fair amount of its cues and norms with Japanese pop idol culture, such that we think of them as J-pop and K-pop, at least over here in my neck of cultural existence.)

Related to this, however, it looks like Sony Animation went with the same general style and animation timing that they used on the Spider-Verse movies at times while I was watching it. While, for Spider-Verse, the animation timing is a deliberate decision and works for the comic-book nature of the multiverse being portrayed, here, the dance sequences that should be smooth as butter in the animation, probably even with some extra key frames to make sure it all goes well, several of them hitched and were otherwise more jerky than I would have expected out of a studio trying to match the intricate choreography that can accompany K-pop. It's possible that these hitches and jerkiness were my Internet connection having hiccups or my computer having a hitch, but I don't think so. Others can tell me how smooth their watch was of the movie, but for the moment, I'm chalking this up to Sony Animation's house style and timing clashing with what you would want animated K-Pop to look like. (There were noticeably fewer hiccups in the action sequences, which is why I think I think it was a style decision rather than a slowdown, because action animation would be more likely to have degradation than the dance sequences, in my opinion.)

Yes, but what did you think about the plot?

It was a perfectly serviceable plot. You'll recognize all the beats if you watched the first Frozen movie, although it is harsher to the lesser-scope villain than most Disney films would be. This particular version of the movie leans heavier into the "Demon Hunters" part of the title, and I don't know if that was the right decision for the plot, because the plot sets up both a movie where action and stylish fighting, accompanied by singing, will determine the outcome (the direction they took) and a movie where the principal heroines and their principal opposition are in a for-all-the-marbles stakes idol game to be determined by who has the bigger fanbase after the agreed-upon final duel at the Idol Awards competition. That would have made the K-pop part of it much more important, and given them all the tools they needed to wage an epic battle across various releases, appearances, and the rest that wouldn't have to involve all that many attempts at direct sabotage or fighting between the two groups, even if there was an awful lot of things that could be excused as "special effects." I'm pretty sure if the writers had enough experience with how idol systems work and the less than savory elements of the companies and managers of the various idols, they could write a very good movie full of underhanded tactics, diss tracks, "accidental" social media leaks, and all the rest of it. I think focusing on the K-pop aspect would also make the internal divisions and the character conflicts in the protagonist trio work better, as each of them starts giving in to more of their worser aspects in trying to beat their rival team, and that would make the parts of the plot that are about secrets and lies work better, since the character hiding the biggest secret will have had the opportunity to see the very worst aspects of the team and believe such things are their actual selves, instead of their more restrained forms. (Which will also make the ultimate climax portion of the movie work better, as well, to make it much clearer why the protagonist team ends up where they do and the way they do before the final battle.)

Final thought: The movie could cut the gag about certain members of the trio having heart eyes and popcorn eyes about the prettiness of the pretty boys in the rival group. It doesn't actually contribute to the plot, and it makes the characters shallower in a way that doesn't suit them. They could certainly make commentary on the boys being eye candy, even supernaturally so, because that's how they're drawn to be, but the majority of the movie shows this trio as a focused, work-first, idol trio who want to enjoy their downtime, except for that one member who keeps pushing them to not take their breaks. They're not shown as flighty or otherwise susceptible to that kind of distraction, and they primarily work through it when it happens, so thy could just cut the gag entirely and replace it with something else that would work better. Like an offhand comment about how those boys are trying to get by on their looks, while they're getting by on great songs. And then eventually admit to themselves that the boys have catchy songs, too, but stay primarily focused on making their own, better songs to beat them, since they never really try to change their look to be more attractive to the fans than the pretty boys.

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: TWICE - Takedown (TWICE Ver.)

conuly

but it *is* pretty sweet!

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( Read more... )

haunted_cherries

So out of curiosity (while I get my drawing skills up, at least), I went looking to see if there were MMD models for Ren and Nagisa b/c I at least know my way around the program from having used it way back in the day. (I also plan to make them in Paralives when that comes in December, but STILL xD)

I FOUND THEM.

_{escuse me while I relearn the program and POTENTIALLY MAKE 3D RENAGI ART I AM LOSING MY MIND}

Also made progress on a bunch of my ReNagi drafts (b/c I have WAY TOO MANY at this point and I need to stop feeding the GAPING MAW of the WIP Demon xD), so I'll hopefully get around to posting those soon! I might stagger it since I don't wanna spam DHJKDHSJKDS but I WILL say I at least appreciate folks for indulging me in my craziness about them!! I just love them so so much!! ; u;

_{This also leaves it open for me to grab Leona’s and Malleus' MMD models, too... 🤔}

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Landed In Brooklyn - Khantrast

conuly

It really seems like the deaths are piling up lately.

ysabetwordsmith

Today is mostly sunny and hot.

I fed the birds. I've seen a flock of sparrows and house finches.

EDIT 8/9/25 -- I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 8/9/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

Current Mood: busy

lurkingcat

One of the things that we’d been planning to do once work had finished on the house, was to provide a home for some cats again. But since we were going on holiday in July, we didn’t want to be halfway through a cat adoption process or not have cats that were settled before we disappeared for a week. So we agreed we’d start looking once we got back from holiday.

The day before we went, I saw a FB post from a friend reposting a post from an old workmate of theirs who was looking for a new home for a beloved black cat. I didn’t do anything about it because it sounded fairly urgent and I was sure that the cat would have found somewhere by the time we got back.

We got back from Portmeirion on a Friday and

battlehamster collapsed on the sofa after the five hour drive, while I started sorting laundry out. I was still sorting laundry and honestly expecting to hear some snoring when he bounced up the stairs to announce that he’d found a cat on FB. Same chain of humans, different cat. This cat had nearly had a new home but that had fallen through. Then it turned out that the other cat still needed a home too and could we take both of them. Of course we could.

So on the Tuesday we drove over to Cardiff to meet the cats and make sure that their current human was happy with us as prospective cat carers. She was moving to live with her new partner and the new landlord wouldn’t allow pets and that’s the only reason that she was trying to rehome the pair of them. And on the following Sunday she drove over to Bristol and delivered Fluffball and Chelsea and their small collection of belongings to us.

It’s been a chaotic fortnight since then. They’re both around 13-14 years, so we’re basically providing a retirement home for them. They haven’t been vaccinated for a while, so they’re booked in for that later this month. Fluffball is a very big floof of a cat, whose main motivation in life seems to be how many scruffles he can get. I’ve never had a cat that’s been so trusting so quickly. He spent about 36 hours being very, very sad and then he discovered that scruffles were on offer and crept out of his safe place for those and last night I was sitting reading on the bed and he turned up, demanded scruffles and then settled down with his head on my leg and had a snooze.

Chelsea is small black ninja. She’s probably not that small but next to Fluffball she is kind of tiny. And she’s deeply suspicious of us. It’s only in the last couple of days that she’s become comfortable snoozing anywhere other than under a sofa and she still won’t let us touch her yet. She’s apparently a mouser and she clearly wants to be outside. Alas for Chelsea, she doesn’t get to do that until she’s been here for four weeks because we want to make sure that she knows that this is where the food happens and that she won’t just run off. On the plus side, she gets to have a cat flap for the first time in her life, so she can come and go as she pleases. (Give or take us locking them in on fireworks night). She gets a little braver about people every day, so I think we’ll win her over eventually.

Current Mood: content

ysabetwordsmith

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

If everyone said what they were actually thinking, what would happen to society?

KERPLOWIE

Current Mood: busy

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Own Your Awesome!

August 2025

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Own Your Awesome!

Member Posts

Humor

A few unrelated questions

Spider Apocalypse

Sunday Scaries? NOPE, Sunday Sleepies!

....!!!

Activism

vital functions

Fossils

6 Sentence Sunday

Birdfeeding

writing and music and furries oh my

Safety

Food

/run/media/silveradept: KPop Demon Hunters (2025)

Pink pineapple looks oddly like salmon

Creative Progress? CREATIVE PROGRESS!

Astronaut Jim Lovell, famed Apollo 13 commander, dies at 97

Birdfeeding

Caturday

Philosophical Questions: Thinking

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August 2025

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