Network

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Erin Watches: Murderbot (TV), season 1

Got an Apple TV trial, just in time to binge the whole Murderbot TV adaptation before the Friday finale.

(General note: The platform doesn’t have a watchlist? Just a “continue watching” list, which removes anything you finish — no saving a list of faves to rewatch! — and adds stuff it autoplays, whether you want to see more or not? Weird and unpleasant design choice.)

I like it! Plot-wise, it’s a very close adaptation of the first book, All Systems Red. Same overarching plot, a few things rearranged along the way. Character-wise…a bunch of things have been shifted around. Everyone is recognizable as a version of their original self, but. If you’re already a book fan, the question of “will you like the TV series?” may hinge on “when they changed Character X, did they keep or discard the traits you were most invested in?”

General, no-spoilers overview:

Some of the changes are obvious “doing it this way worked better on-screen” things. Scenes that were just-MB in the book become group efforts, giving the PresAux actors more to do. Plot points that were just inner-monologue realizations in the book are delivered in conversations instead.

I mostly like them! Even with the characters, even a few dramatic personality shifts — look, I’ll be mad if some of them start bleeding into book!fandom, and fans stop writing the original versions of the characters. But as a standalone AU, most of them work really well.

The few changes I actively don’t like are all “why did you even add this, what was the point?” kind of things. No huge dealbreakers. Just some low-key annoyances.

There are a few particular exchanges from the book that you really have to get right to make a satisfying adaptation. They’ve all landed. And a bunch of the comedy moments have been had-to-stop-the-episode-while-I-cracked-up funny.

The biggest advantage of doing Murderbot on TV is, The Rise And Fall Of Sanctuary Moon is also TV. Which means the showrunners can film Actual 100% Authentic Sanctuary Moon Footage, and cut to it while MB is watching. It’s ridiculous and amazing.

Detailed reaction, with spoilers:

( yeah, this is an AU variant of Book!MB, not a portrayal of Book!MB )

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At Some Point I Should Analyse What Makes Me Decide To Go Lowercase.

Late last year, I posted an entry examining the titles of my fics that year, and explaining why I'd chosen those titles. It was an interesting exercise, so I thought I'd repeat it whenever I accumulate a good handful of fics!

In reverse chronological order, my fic titles for this year so far:

( Rambling about why I chose fic titles. )

I'm not sure whether this post-titling analysis is actually making me any better at choosing titles, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless!

Investigating claims Kerr County rejected Biden admin's $10M offer to improve flood warning systems

Posted by Rae Deng

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/07/16/biden-kerr-county-flood-warning-systems/

After flash floods swept through central Texas in July 2025, people online searched for reasons why the disaster was so deadly.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/07/16/biden-kerr-county-flood-warning-systems/

Current Mood: impressed

Lupita Nyong'o speaks out about fibroids

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

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BtVS: The Last Waltz [Challenge 458: Waltz]

Title: The Last Waltz
Fandom: BtVS
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Buffy, Angel.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 458: Waltz.
Spoilers/Setting: The Prom.
Summary: Buffy has no one to dance with at the Prom.
Disclaimer: I don’t own BtVS, or the characters.
A/N: Double drabble.

The Last Waltz

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Challenge 196: Cyan

Cardcaptor Sakura

https://i.imgur.com/NddajHF.png

Next colour: Blue

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write every day

WED Days 1-15

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

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books

Reading Wednesday

Currently continuing my nostalgic 2000s YA re-reads with James Patterson's Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, a 2005 YA sci-fi/fantasy thriller about a group of young avian-human hybrids - so, human children/teenagers with wings, and other powers - on the run from the mad scientists who created them. I was briefly obsessed with this series in middle school but could not tell you a single thing that happened in it, so I did go into this expecting it to be at best entertainingly batshit and more likely just plain bad. And it's definitely not, you know, a good book— main character Max's narrative voice is so, so annoying, almost a parody of a 2000s YA Protagonist Voice, with a heavy dash of "hello, fellow kids!" cringe (examples: "I guess if I was more of a fembot it would bother me that a blind guy six months younger than I am could cook better than I could. But I'm not. So it didn't." and "So long, cretins, I thought. School is out— forever"); the rest of the dialogue is not much better, and no book has ever suffered so much from its characters not being allowed to swear— but I'm enjoying the actual (indeed entertainingly batshit) plot more than I had expected.

July London meetup

Posted by katepreach

https://captainawkward.com/2025/07/16/july-london-meetup-7/

http://captainawkward.com/?p=53125

Announcement: the audience for these has changed, so I’m going to do them once every three or four months instead of monthly. So please come to this July one if you’re interested, there won’t be another until probably October.

26th July, 1pm, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, SE1 8XX.

We will be on Level 2 (the upper levels are closed to non-ticket-holders), but I don’t know exactly where on the floor. It will depend on where we can find a table.

I have shoulder length brown hair, and will have my plush Chthulu which looks like this:

Please obey any rules posted in the venue.

The venue has lifts to all floors and accessible toilets. The accessibility map is here:

Click to access 21539-24-Access-Updated-Access-Map_Proof-2.pdf

The food market outside (side away from the river) is pretty good for all sorts of requirements, and you can also bring food from home, or there are lots of cafes on the riverfront.

Other things to bear in mind:

1. Please make sure you respect people’s personal space and their choices about distancing.

2. We have all had a terrible time for the last four years. Sharing your struggles is okay and is part of what the group is for, but we need to be careful not to overwhelm each other or have the conversation be entirely negative. Where I usually draw the line here is that personal struggles are fine to talk about but political rants are discouraged, but I may have to move this line on the day when I see how things go. Don’t worry, I will tell you!

3. Probably lots of us have forgotten how to be around people (most likely me as well), so here is permission to walk away if you need space. Also a reminder that we will all react differently, so be careful to give others space if they need.

Please RSVP if you’re coming so I know whether or not we have enough people. If there’s no uptake I will cancel a couple of days before.

kate DOT towner AT gmail DOT com

https://captainawkward.com/2025/07/16/july-london-meetup-7/

http://captainawkward.com/?p=53125

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Reading and the LIke

I'm 26% into Emma Mieko Candon's The Archive Undying. I would be further, but I had lost my headphones and it took me a while to get some new ones from Menards. I can listen to it out loud, as it were, but Mason is often home during the day these days. He plugs in for his stuff, I plug in for mine. It's what we do.

Am I enjoying it? It is very weird, but also extremely compelling, so yes. Basically, right now, it's a 100% my cup of tea. It is, however, 18 hours long. So, I may have to take a break from it and listen to System Collapse by Martha Wells, since that just popped up as available--and her books just don't become available very often!

Otherwise, I'm feeling kind of crappy on this rainy day.

Don't get me wrong, I love the rain. I REALLY love that it's currently 63 F/ 17 C. Talk about my kind of weather. I would live full time somewhere where it never got warmer than this, if I could. I'm not sure there's anywhere on the planet that fits that bill anymore, however.

Which is part of what I'm feeling crappy about. It's all existential dread. Like, I woke up this morning to an article in our local paper about how St. Paul is considering another property tax hike. And, I love social services! But, we are starting to get priced out of a house we have owned since 1995. The worst part is that things are only going to get worse as states and cities struggle to make up the deficit due to the lack of Federal funds. The stuff I actually WANT my Federal taxes to go to. I don't want to pay for war or ICE deportations, FFS. I want foreign exchange students in colleges, lunch programs for pulbic schools, a social safety net for all, and housing for the homeless. All that "woke" shit.

Trying to fight it feels so hopeless. We don't have the votes in Congress to stop him. The Supreme Court has checkout. There are no checks or balances. It all feels very fucked.

So, I skipped my PT session for today. I'm not writing at my writing Zoom. I'm just going to make a yummy lunch for Mason and myself, write letters to friends, and try to re-center as the world feels like it's spinnning off its axis.

I did at least have a really fun session of my Thirsty Sword Lesbians campaign last night. That's something. I need more things like that right now. What are you doing that's good and fun? Reading anything worthwhile? Got any fun plans? Any good news at all that you'd care to share?

(no subject)

Watch on YouTube

The Hazards of Love Vol. 2 by Stan Stanley

The Hazards of Love Vol. 2, written and illustrated by Stan Stanley, was as amazing as the first book! Amparo is stuck in Bright World. Iolanthe investigates from the living world, with the help of butch medium Al.

I love the weird, Addams Family-like worldbuilding and the colourful art. This tome expands on various secondary characters and the plot thickens with their help.

There's a Latinx non-binary protagonist (they/them), as well as many POC and/or queer characters. For more LGBT Quick Reads, check out my rec list.

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“let’s have a toast for the assholes/ let’s have a toast for the scumbags/ every one of them i know”

The trip to Switzerland to see my brother-in-law and the niblings (and Alps) was lovely (especially the Alps).

Finding out that, while I was gone, my company made another round of layoffs, including me, was not so lovely.

Sigh. Time to retool my resume to cater to current AI analysis patterns and ascend the Job Search Alps (which are not the lovely kind).

---L.

Subject quote from Runaway, Kanye West.

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monthly media recap

media update

A book: Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid -- Macbeth is my least favourite Shakespeare, and I don't like horror, but I did enjoy this AU. It's neatly divided in five which made it ideal for scheduling and bathtub reading. What a normcore compliment, lol. Also, she's a dragonfucker. Sadly, did not fuck a dragon (I don't want to falsely advertise this book), but it certainly seemed like she might, at one point. And who knows what the future might hold?!

unrelatedly: A squirrel!

I put out watermelon so that I could take pics of them eating it with their tiny cute hands but they just DUMPED IT ON THE GRASS and ate the sunflower seeds and then dug a giant hole in my peppers

welkin

welkin (WEL-kin) - (lit./arch.) n., the sky, the vault of the heavens.

Another that goes back to Old English, in this case wolcen/wolcn, cloud (cognate of German Wolke, cloud), and after the transition to Middle English welken/wolken, it initially retained that meaning before shifting to the current sense. According to one dictionary, the carol that now starts "Hark, the herald angels sing" was originally "Hark, how all the welkin ring" (using modernized spelling).

---L.

Robben Island by Pamela Sneed

The only antidote I may have to Trump’s election
is in a small ferry to Robben Island
one that shuttles you to the former prison
where those who fought against apartheid were held
The only answers may be in one wool blanket
a basin
toilet
cell
and the tiny windows of Robben Island
in the discarded artillery
the rock and the limestone yard
where many were blinded
driven mad
Now the survivors former prisoners
give tours
their faces carved like tree roots exposed
The only answers may be in the surrounding peaks of Table Mountain
its Twelve Apostles
all now standing as testament to what
through years of struggles
can be defeated
overcome

***********

Link

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On the monthly subject: "AI Regulation: Striking the Balance"

I'm all for smart guardrails that help us harness AI safely without suffocating innovation. Now, the US has been highly reactive (with over 550 AI‑related bills in 45 states) but lacks cohesive federal direction. Meanwhile, the EU’s sweeping “AI Act” sets high standards but could overburden smaller innovators:
https://www.wired.com/story/plaintext-sam-altman-ai-regulation-trump/
https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/14/12/645
https://time.com/7213096/uk-public-ai-law-poll/

So, how about:

Targeted regulation: Instead of painting AI with one brush, focus on where the risks lie, like bias in hiring tools or misuse in facial recognition.

Outcome over technology: Don’t regulate the tech itself; regulate its applications.

Enforceable rules: We need real teeth - clear accountability, not toothless charters.

Bottom line: What we need is fine‑tuned, enforceable, risk‑adaptive policies, so AI can thrive while protecting people.

Thoughts?

TMI Celebrations

Posted by Jen

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/tmi-celebrations-2025

While I agree that no celebration is complete without cake, I also think some celebrations should maybe be a bit more private than others:

Please tell me you invited the in-laws.

Ahhh, that sweet, sweet moment when your wife throws you a surprise Vasectomy Recovery party:

I hear if you buy two they throw in the bag of frozen peas for free.

(OH YES I DID.)

I looked it up. It really is a thing. So I have two questions: who are you getting this cake for, and how will that not end badly for you?

Of course, nothing will lead to a round of denials as much as this:

C'mon. Does anyone ever admit to watching this show?

But for the ultimate "I-just-learned-something-I-never-wanted-to-know-about-you" dessert, we have this:

So many puns, so few of them safe for work...

Let's all give a hand to Heather M., Alison K., Laura W., Helen J., & Nicole A. for today's wrecks.

****

Funny story about that last cake: it was commissioned by none other than Mr. Bill Murray during the filming of Moonrise Kingdom as a joke for one of the guys working on set. (Cameron was turning 21.) Nicole worked craft services for the movie, and was responsible for fetching the cake from a local bakery. She tells me Murray also insisted on taking Cameron out for his first drink, and was fantastic to the whole crew, and I am insanely jealous of all of them. :)

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/tmi-celebrations-2025

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Miles Vorkosigan alternate careers

It's not exactly a secret that I hate Miles Vorkosigan being in the military, so for RL reasons I was thinking hmm could Miles instead become a doctor, and then followed up immediately with "absolutely he could not" and in fact I could not think of any position in a hospital that he would be suited for, but then I realized I was overthinking this.

Miles would be a great plumber. It's perfect for him. No boss, just clients, and he can pick the interesting jobs. It's bounded but also a place for creativity. He has to find out what the problem is and fix it. Because of his size, he may even be a better choice for certain jobs than other plumbers. He can pick his hours by picking the clients and the jobs, and then hyperfocus on a problem until it's over. If he wants, he can pack his schedule, or he can relax it. But he's not answering to anyone and people are grateful for his help because it's a problem they can't fix themselves, and it's also necessary: everyone will at some point require the assistance of a plumber.

The only problem is that there's no wonderful recognition and pride from his peers, unless we can get him to value the opinions of other plumbers, and then he can just brag about all the impossible disasters he fixed before breakfast. The sense of accomplishment is built-in, as in the sense of being valuable and needed.

And I feel like even Miles Vorkosigan would not find a way to commit treason whilst doing it.

Breaking down rumor Mexican president sent rescue teams to Texas after deadly flooding

Posted by Aleksandra Wrona

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/07/16/texas-mexican-president-rescue-teams/

The teams that helped with flood rescues in Kerr County were Mexican volunteers acting independently.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/07/16/texas-mexican-president-rescue-teams/