musesfool: Batman + A BABY driving a BUS (just like driving a really big pinto)
[personal profile] musesfool
After waiting as they went a long, slow afternoon in the oven, I just went to town on some baby back ribs. Holy cats, they were good. Super messy, of course, but delicious! And I have leftovers, so I'll be able to repeat the experience this week!

The pecan shortbread (pic) turned out well, too. I'm a little sad there's no blood orange gelato to go with them, but once the chicken tenders are gone, I will definitely be making it!

In more fannish news, there was a post I saw somewhere on tumblr that talked about a crossover (or fusion? it didn't go into great detail) between Batfam and Dungeon Crawler Carl, and said that the Bats would all be outside during the collapse, and feel obligated to go into the dungeon. And I don't necessarily disagree? But I also don't necessarily agree, either!

In DCC, we're told the collapse happened at approximately 2:20 am PT, which means it was 5:20 am ET, and if you (and by "you" I mean me) believe Gotham is in New Jersey, that is probably after they are all home, and hopefully showering/sleeping, so I'm not sure they survive just by nature of being on patrol. Maybe if Tim is out in San Francisco with the Titans, where it would also be 2:20 am PT, he'd survive, but I'm not necessarily convinced he would go into the dungeon, either. Because there's whatever survivors on the surface to take care of also. Maybe they'd split up? Some would go into the dungeon to see what it was about and others would stay up top to manage any survivors, lead any fighting against alien invaders?

Like, could Kon take being underground for so long without access to sunlight? He should probably stay on the surface and help that way. (I also think this is a hard crossover to make happen simply because...there are canonical aliens in the DCU and also the Green Lantern Corps. So you'd have to do some fast talking/handwaving to get to the interesting parts, because how do the Green Lanterns not know about this? Otoh, you could go full AU/fusion and have Krypton be a world that was stripped ages ago and everyone is shocked to see Kryptonians on Earth. Same with Tamaran or Mars I guess.)

And I do wonder how Batman specifically would fare in a dungeon where killing is the preferred (by the System AI and the Syndicate running the thing and a large portion of the audience) way to survive and advance. He and Cass would find other ways, and I'm sure they would amass fans and, eventually, sponsors, but it'd be harder, I think, especially on the earlier floors. I think we have seen him kill aliens though, at least in the animated universes, so maybe he'd be okay at first with killing goblins and ogres and ghouls etc. Idk.

Jason, otoh, would be all, "I'm built for this!" and shoot his way to glory, or at least do the killing when Bruce and Cass couldn't. Steph and Dick might be pragmatic enough to come around to killing mobs, at least, spoiler for Dungeon Crawler Carl )

And while I think a fusion might be a better way to go than a regular crossover (I know there is someone writing a Superman and Carl are BFF in the dungeon, or at least creating art for it, but I don't know what they've chosen to use for backstory), I would love to see Damian interact with Princess Donut. Or the System AI deal with Oracle.

*
msilverstar: (feet)
[personal profile] msilverstar
I really like Dreamwidth and Icons post, there's history, context and advice!

My (hobbit) feet icon gets a lot of use as my feet have been fucked up for 20 years

The guide to images is also incredibly helpful

I got the slump

Mar. 22nd, 2026 01:52 am
crantz: Rincewind running (discworld)
[personal profile] crantz
Oh noooo right at the end stage of my final university course (for now) I've suddenly lost all will to do work. I've got the end term slumps. I'm doomed.

Daily Happiness

Mar. 21st, 2026 08:01 pm
torachan: maru the cat sitting in a bucket (maru)
[personal profile] torachan
1. It's still supposed to be unseasonably warm next week, but today seems to be a little break in the weather. When I went out for my walk this morning, it was a bit foggy (though it had burned off by the time I got home), and then while it was sunny for a while midday, around 2pm it got overcast again and has stayed that way. It was really foggy again when we took our walk tonight, too.

2. I made a rhubarb pie earlier and we're going to have some of that for dessert. We still have a bunch of baggies of chopped rhubarb in the freezer from when we were buying it from the farmers market last year lol.

3. Ollie loves to snuggle on my clothes. :)

Weekly Reading

Mar. 21st, 2026 05:06 pm
torachan: karkat from homestuck looking bored (karkat bored)
[personal profile] torachan
Recently Finished
Lucky Stiff
Third book in the Lillian Byrd murder mystery series.

The Cartographers
When the MC's father dies, she finds an old road map in his things, the source of a massive fight years ago that resulted in him cutting ties with her and blackballing her from the cartography world. In trying to figure out why her father would have kept the map, she learns about not only the secrets of the map itself, but about her parents. I enjoyed this but it was very slow for the first half or so.

The Hanging Tree
A woman goes on a writing retreat at a remote manor and learns of a local legend about a young woman who was hanged as a witch on the property and decides that's what she wants her next book to be about. The book is told in dual timelines with the present being about her research and the past being the actual events. I liked this, but there was way too much romance focus in both the past and present.

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
Graphic novel about the author's relationship with her parents, especially focused on caring for them in their final years. I really liked this a lot.

Huda F Cares? and Huda F Wants to Know?
Second and third books in the Huda F series of YA graphic novels about a very religious Muslim teen loosely based on the author's life. I continue to enjoy this series.

Hatsukoi no Tsugi vol. 3
Final volume in this companion series to Koi-iji. I liked this a lot.
musesfool: a loaf of bread (staff of life)
[personal profile] musesfool
I made this Shanghai scallion flatbread this afternoon and it is really good but if you should endeavor to make it, I have 2 warnings:

1. whatever you think is "medium heat" when you're cooking it is too high. No, lower than that. Or don't go the full 12 minutes recommended, but I think that might be harder to gauge.

2. be careful when flipping it over! Remember that sesame seeds will pop in hot oil and things will spatter, so really and truly, be careful!

Otherwise, it's delicious, A++ will make again. On lower heat next time. The only thing I did differently was use toasted sesame oil on the inside before I put the scallions on. Also, I think it could hold more than 1/2 cup of chopped scallions, but that is just me. Oh, and I used five spice powder instead of ground Sichuan peppercorns because I don't like that much heat and so I do not actually have Sichuan peppercorns in the house. Anyway, I did it all by hand and it was easy enough. I can't recommend a Danish dough whisk enough if you enjoy making bread and don't have a stand mixer.

I had big plans to also make blood orange gelato - blood oranges are in season right now and on sale! but the ones I got are like, bruised to hell, so that is probably why the sale price - but I don't have room in the freezer for it. Bah. Pre-made chicken tenders were also on sale and I bought them to make for lunch this week and they are taking up a lot of space (there are only about 12 in the bag but the bag is enormous. so annoying! I suppose I could rebag them in something less full of air. Hmm...). Anyway, I am contemplating zesting and juicing the oranges and freezing that, but again, space is at a premium in there. One day I will have a full-size fridge. or a chest freezer. Either way. and I will be so happy.

Soon, I will take the rack of babyback ribs I bought this week (not on sale alas) and give them a dry rub before they go back into the fridge overnight to be roasted low and slow tomorrow. And in the morning, before I have to devote 4 hours of oven-time to the ribs, I plan to make pecan shortbread because I still have like 2 lbs of pecans from my Christmas candied pecans project. It's an Ina Garten recipe, so I anticipate it will be good! And I will eat a few of them for breakfast each morning next week.

And after reblogging this post, I have also been contemplating making gyoza for Easter since I'll have a 4-day weekend and could do it in stages, though I have never done it and don't know how to pleat them so I'm going to have to watch some videos - any recs for that? I'll also try to clear out some space in the freezer to freeze some for later. *g* But they look so good! I do love a dumpling.

*

Daily Happiness

Mar. 20th, 2026 08:19 pm
torachan: aradia from homestuck (aradia)
[personal profile] torachan
1. It is the weekend! Today was fairly hassle-free, work-wise, and I got home by like four or so, which was nice, but it's even nicer to not have work tomorrow.

2. I found a new puzzle site to order from and I really like that they mark their puzzles with a no AI guarantee. (Not all of their puzzles have this guarantee, but you can filter for it and the majority of them seem to be.) I hope other sites implement that as well, because it would definitely make me more likely to order from a site that did that.

3. Carla got a catnip chew rope the other day and all the cats have shown some interest in it, but Molly seems to especially like it. No one's that into actually chewing it, though, just rubbing and writhing lol.

i laugh in the face of danger

Mar. 20th, 2026 08:55 pm
musesfool: (gift)
[personal profile] musesfool
I was shocked and saddened when [tumblr.com profile] devildoll just texted me this: Nicholas Brendon, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Star, Dies at 54. I knew he had troubles, but also thought he had time to work them out. He's a year younger than me!

*

Daily Happiness

Mar. 19th, 2026 08:30 pm
torachan: charlotte from bad machinery saying "oh the mysteries of the moth farm" (oh the mysteries of the moth farm)
[personal profile] torachan
1. All week I have consistently felt like it was one day further into the week than it was, and not for any reason I can pinpoint (like there wasn't anything that was on a different day than it usually is or anything), so there were a couple times today when I was like, glad it's Friday and then realized there was still another Friday, but now tomorrow is actually Friday for real and then the weekend! And in two weeks from today I will be on a plane to Japan!

2. It was so hot today I could barely take a half mile walk today at lunch, but I did stop and get a delicious teriyaki beef sandwich and freshly made lilikoi malasada while I was out.

3. Chloe really loves relaxing on Carla's bed, especially on the top half. She's got this nice window there, too.

are there things you would reverse?

Mar. 19th, 2026 11:11 pm
musesfool: dr robby from the pitt looking hurt (these little things can pull you under)
[personal profile] musesfool
I have watched some TV!

Shrinking: spoilers )

Abbott Elementary: spoilers )

The Pitt: spoilers )

Here is a cool video interview with Alexandra Metz, who plays Garcia. I don't think there are any spoilers past earlier s2 episodes.

*

friday fivess

Mar. 19th, 2026 05:43 pm
omens: Dick!Batman says "Pretty please." (dcu - pretty please!)
[personal profile] omens
A couple friday fives, since I had another sitting on my desktop :O

and also a cow joke courtesy of my string cheese



So mean o_o

username/dw history )

and superstitions )

Daily Happiness

Mar. 18th, 2026 09:43 pm
torachan: karkat from homestuck looking bored (karkat bored)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I've been making the rounds to all the SoCal stores to discuss our upcoming system transition and get a better feel for some of the stores' current processes, particularly for their accounting department, and today I went down to San Diego. Long day of driving, which sucks, but it was nice to see the store again after a long while, and I did make a lot of progress on my current audiobook!

2. Tomorrow I have a lot of meetings, but the first one isn't until 11, so I'm going to take my time in the morning to make up for how long today felt (I didn't even get home until after seven, and I left around 8:30 this morning).

3. Carla and I are not fans of the warm weather, but the cats sure love having the front windows open.

a media update

Mar. 18th, 2026 10:31 am
omens: Bernard Black (bernard black)
[personal profile] omens
I'm still living on youtube with a small amount of Netflix cartoons (Sailor Moon Crystal, Kamisama Kiss, Capitan Tsubasa). One day I will watch other things! Very excited about One Piece season 2 but we haven't started it yet because it's hard to both feel like watching an hour of tv late in the day (yawn, old people)

I started the Witch Hat Atelier manga, and I really loved the first one. It's so pretty! I have the second one but I haven't started it yet.

I started watching a different streamer play Supermarket Simulator a while back and ended up finally buying the game (lol) and it's pretty fun but omg does my computer hate it. How is it harder on my computer than the sims?? Very goofy. And then the week after I got influenced by youtube shorts and started a four corners farm in Stardew. I'm in winter y1 and the urge has died down again :P I'm free again (maybe)

Music (gasp) a new album by Kwiat Jabłoni (Przesilenie), with orchestra backing. I am such a sucker for an album with orchestra (last month was Rosalía's Lux, which I finally got around to). Also Lor also just put out a new album (pele-mele), so I'm excited about that, but I've only listened to it once so far. Anyway, this song opens the album--

Daily Happiness

Mar. 17th, 2026 08:05 pm
torachan: scott pilgrim pouting (scott pilgrim - pout)
[personal profile] torachan
1. Yesterday morning when I got back from my walk, I somehow lost the top to my airpods' outer case. It had to have fallen out either on the porch or inside the house, because it's very noticeable without it so it could only have been right after I put them back in my pocket after putting them in the case. I looked around a little but had to go to work, and Carla looked some more during the day and didn't find it, so I ordered a new case, which came today and I really love it. For one thing, the top is attached! I really like the variety of colors, so I ordered another one for my backup pair, and for Carla's ones as well. Right after that, Carla found the top to the old case in the living room in a tangle of power cords lol. But these new ones are cheap and I really do prefer the attached top. The one I thought I lost was a Star Wars Pride one from Disneyland, so I'll still use it seasonally (I also have a Mickey Halloween one).

2. I got my haircut today. Carla had an appointment, too, so it took longer than when it's just me and I didn't feel like going to Gardena just for a little bit in the afternoon, so I just worked from home the rest of the day. It was just web meetings in the afternoon anyway.

3. This morning when I got up, my PC would not turn on. The power cord is one of those that has a light showing when it's plugged in, so I could tell it was still getting power and that wasn't the problem. I thought maybe it was stuck in an update or something, so I went for my walk, but when I came back it still wouldn't turn on. I decided to unplug it from the power strip while I ate breakfast and then it finally came back on again! I really should do a backup of my files just in case...

4. Few things are cuter than cats covering their face coyly.

Daily Happiness

Mar. 16th, 2026 09:00 pm
torachan: john from homestuck looking shocked (john shocked)
[personal profile] torachan
1. The other day I got an email from Shake Shack that they have a promo buy one get one free for their Korean menu items and it's expiring today, so we went down there tonight for dinner. Not sure how much longer they will have those on the menu (the person I asked last time said probably until April) but we at least got to try them one more time.

2. We wanted to stop by Sidecar Donuts for dessert afterwards, but as it turned out they close at seven on weekdays, so we missed out. But Carla was really in the mood for donuts, so we stopped at DK's on the way home and they are open 24/7, so we were able to get some donuts after all.

3. I had a last minute meeting pop today for 5:30pm, but thankfully I was able to finish my other meetings, which had to be done in person at the office, by like 3:30 and then get home to take the later meeting by web (which was with people outside our company and would have been by web anyway even if I'd been at the office). It ended up going over an hour, so I would have hated to be stuck at work until almost seven and then still have a half hour drive home.

4. It's exhausting work being a kitty!

musesfool: mel king from the pitt with a smiley face (happy to be here)
[personal profile] musesfool
Oscar winner Michael B Jordan! Woohoo! I did not watch the Oscars but I am so happy for MBJ!

Also for Kpop Demon Hunters and "Golden!"

Here are two links I enjoyed this morning:

= Don't Fence Ted McGinley In (NYT gift link) (also, spoilers for aired episodes of Shrinking)

= 'The Pitt,' as Told by Its Patients

*

nothing but the truth now

Mar. 15th, 2026 05:50 pm
musesfool: a loaf of bread (staff of life)
[personal profile] musesfool
Got up yesterday morning baked 4 loaves of soda bread (here's a picture of 2 of them), ate some myself (I kept the 4th loaf) then schlepped out ot the island to deliver them to my brother, sister, and niece.

We went out for a fun dinner - the onion rings at this place are so good! even if the service was a little haphazard - and then I went home with my brother's family. It was early enough that I could have come back here, but my middle niece was like, "aren't you going to hang out with us?!" so of course I stayed, and ended up watching KPop Demon Hunters with middle and youngest niece (youngest was like I don't wanna! but at the end she was like, that was really good!). I should note that they are 27 and 24, but they still like hanging out with me! <333 And now we want the prequel about Rumi's mother and her demon affair.

My car this morning came 90 minutes early, so I rolled out of bed expecting to be able to have a bagel and a cup of coffee before I had to leave, but there he was, blocking the driveway, so I got home before I was even scheduled to leave.

The amount of benadryl and Zyrtec I have to take at their house because of the cat is ridiculous, and I ended up coming home and sleeping for most of the day. I'm glad I didn't cancel my PTO day tomorrow though - I scheduled it when this dinner was originally planned for tonight. I did tell my boss she could ping me if she needed me ahead of their meeting with the board chair tomorrow afternoon, but I so hope she doesn't.

*
mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)
[staff profile] mark posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance

Happy Saturday!

I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!

If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.

trying to run the gauntlet

Mar. 13th, 2026 07:21 pm
musesfool: drs abbot and robby of the pitt (you did not desert me)
[personal profile] musesfool
I finally got some Minute Maid frozen orange juice concentrate and Orange Julius take 2 is way better than the watery version I made last month. Woo!

Tomorrow, I have to get up early and bake Irish soda bread to take to the family - we are going out for St. Patrick's Day dinner (and also the NINTH[!!!!!] anniversary of my father's death - it is his recipe I use; I miss him a lot).

TV quick takes:

Shrinking: spoilers ) Anyway, the first few episodes of this show are a little tough to take but it has morphed into a funny, endearing, poignant hangout comedy and I recommend it! Harrison Ford is SO GOOD in it too.

The Pitt: spoilers )

I am very interested to see where the rest of this season is going.

*

another big swing from a young hitter

Mar. 10th, 2026 10:08 pm
musesfool: a baseball and bat on the grass (the crack of ash on horsehide)
[personal profile] musesfool
I don't love that Nolan McLean gave up 2 home runs in the same inning in this game, but I do love that Team Italia celebrates with an Armani blazer and an espresso (they literally have an espresso machine in the dugout and if someone hits a homer, he gets a shot) and then the team captain kisses the guy while everyone else does this: 🤌

*

Work is currently bananas. Listen, I have a whole document I wrote on how to change/streamline board stuff to foster discussion and engagement, but we were supposed to do it methodically and not implement it until the June meeting, except now we are doing it NOW, and everything got upended in the stupidest way possible. I maybe kind of couldn't control how irritated I am about it because it is basically making me do double the amount of work and is seems to me like it is just going to achieve the exact opposite of what we want it to, but apparently this is coming directly from the new board chair. I told my boss that if I am right, and that this doesn't do what they think it is going to, I might not say it, but I will be thinking the world's biggest "I told you so." And she was like, that's fair. Sigh.

*
crantz: Two children standing over a still pool that leads to another world. (narnia 2)
[personal profile] crantz
Hidey ho. I'm progressing on graduating university this year. But I've fallen a bit behind on schoolwork, which is not great. I'm going to have to get my ass in gear over the next three days to catch up again.

I've started playing City of Heroes regularly again (is this related to falling behind?) and ah it delights the mind and senses. I've been drawing lots of drawings of my beautiful stupid man character Silver Cygnet, a guy who ended up with a giant pair of swan wings after he tried a spell that promised to get him high. He's a wizard now, technically, and fights crime in a decidedly non-violent fashion because he's a good boy.

Speaking of CoH, every once in a while I read general chat and there's someone in there posting like they think they're John C. Lilly and I have about as much tolerant for blazed out nonsense as you would expect. However, just blocking them is a better and more effective reaction than glaring at the screen. I really think the fact that nonsense annoys me so much is a fatal flaw of mine, but I don't want to work on it. I just want people to stop.

Updating my webcomic again (hamsterwheel.art) and I'm going to have another page up in a day or two once I've had a day or two to spot any art errors. It's about my cat, who I draw as some sort of demon creature.

I'm watching Marie the Toy Poodle for the next few days - she's very fluffy because it's almost her grooming time and as a result she looks like a baby polar bear.

Movie-wise, we sort of drifted from filling in pop cultural stuff to 'this seems neat' but we're moving back on target. We watched the original King Kong* and I have to conclude, I am not a fan of Kong! He has bad vibes! He squished those villagers into the mud to kill them just to be mean and I am like, you get what you get, ape. You get what you get. Ann Darrow is very sweet and me and the Movie Pals had fun coming up with reasons why she was, in fact, totally safe on that boat full of men.

Tonight was Little Shop of Horrors (original), and Not of this Earth, a double-feature of short Corman films. I really liked them.


*I have a new enemy now because of it, btw.

Me: I just watched the original King Kong
Person: The 30s version or the 2005 Peter Jackson version
Me: Why would I call something from 2005 the original?
Person: Some people don't know their Cinema History

At which point I assume they burst into flames from how irritated I was.
musesfool: a loaf of bread (staff of life)
[personal profile] musesfool
Ugh, daylight savings, why are we still doing this???

Anyway, I got up at my usual workday time instead of sleeping in so I could get the onions in the slow cooker, and I did both the "soak onions in cold water in the fridge for 15 minutes" and wore the stupid onion goggles, and still by the 4th onion my eyes were extremely unhappy with me. *hands* Thankfully I only had 6 onions total, so it all got done, and for dinner I made French onion pasta as planned, and now I have dinner for 3 more days as well. I do love this pasta dish - and I always use bucatini, which is one of my favorite pasta shapes, so it was pleasing all around. Every time I make it after not having made in a while, I'm like, why don't I make this more often!? and then I remember the onion-slicing and how annoying it is. Anyway, definitely recommended for a delicious and easy dinner (except for the onion-slicing). I also made bacon so I have lunch for the week also.

I meant to mention this yesterday and forgot, but The Mountain Goats collaborated with Mary Chapin Carpenter to cover World Party: Put the Message in the Box (don't worry if you only recognize one or two of those names - the song is good!).

*

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riseupwithfists: art by rick veitch (Default)
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