Generational Trends

Jul. 26th, 2025 07:48 pm
cimorene: The words "It don't mean a thing" hand-drawn in black on white (jazz)
[personal profile] cimorene
A couple of months ago, I don't know when exactly, I saw a link on Tumblr to an article about a "new summer trend" of not wearing mascara that the youths were (allegedly) referring to as "ghost eyelashes" (let's take the rant about the majority of people not wearing mascara as a given). Even though I find this kind of reporting (on beauty trends) mostly annoying, I frequently also find it... amusing, in an annoyed way, so I clicked to read it on the strength of my giggling bemusement at the headline.

The angle this beauty journalist chose to take was a Generational Divide one, pointing out how the trend was very young and positing that people older than their mid-20s would be uncomfortable with the shocking exposure of their natural eyelashes in full sun, and the article was peppered with links to other articles in the same website about generational trends that were so outrageous that I did what she wanted and clicked on them:

  • This publication has alleged in the past that wearing tapered or straight-leg jeans is an embarrassingly Millennial trait (no mention given of older generations: possibly the youth in question have forgotten that there are plenty of members of Gen X just among their own generation's parents, and obviously nobody older than their own parents is relevant, lol).

    I went on an emotional journey of laughing, boggling, and remembering how in the mid-90s when the 70s-bellbottom revival was in full swing it became nearly IMPOSSIBLE to buy tapered jeans or even straight ones for a brief time, and how my friends and I used to refer to extant surviving tapered jeans as "boa-constrictor-ankled". Of course since everyone my age was growing extremely rapidly throughout the period from 1995-2001, it was impossible for any of us to own old pairs of jeans that still fitted that we loved; in high school, you're lucky if you fit jeans for more than a calendar year at a time. Everyone who had jeans that were ten years old or older was an adult, and their clothes were a minority of the clothes we saw closely enough to pay attention to, which made them stand out, I guess. I remember being actively amused by tapered jeans in the late 90s. And I clearly remember the few years before 2010, in my 20s, owning lots of pairs of bootcut jeans that were in some cases 10 years old and still fit me, and finding it necessary to get out the sewing machine to make several of them into skinny jeans (but the earliest ones, say, pre-2000, were unsalvageable then, because I couldn't consider wearing mid-high-waisted jeans ca. 2007, when waistbands were super-low). So the end of this emotional journey was laughing again.


  • Another article in this publication alleged that the crying laughing emoji is also an embarrassing Millennial trait. Apparently nobody who isn't a Millennial would use this emoji. The article didn't contain a lot of detail - I would've loved statistics about emoji use frequency, or a detailed look back at the pre-emoji days of emoticons. I was a heavy user of "XD" before the crying laughing emoji, which is supposed to be a cartoon of it (although IMO XD does not imply tears on its own; that's what X.D is for). But anyway, I have been remembering this stupid article every time I used that emoji for weeks now.

Veg progress

Jul. 26th, 2025 05:32 pm
igenlode: The pirate sloop 'Horizon' from "Treasures of the Indies" (Default)
[personal profile] igenlode
I pricked out three pots of assorted kale seedlings, and redistributed the remainder a little in the freed space in the pot; they are of course all horribly leggy due to having started life on the kitchen windowsill. The beetroot that I planted at the same time failed to germinate anything but poppies and chickweed, so I emptied the last of the matter remaining in the paper bag into the tub a few days ago, and think I *may* now have something with a reddish stem developing (even if the first thing that came up from the second attempt was undoubtedly a double-fronded California poppy!)


Tomatoes )

I also repotted the larger chilli, which needed it. Both chillies are noew flowering nicely.

Superman #32

Jul. 26th, 2025 03:48 pm
iamrman: (Franky)
[personal profile] iamrman posting in [community profile] scans_daily

Writer: Roger Stern

Pencils: Kerry Gammill

Inks: Dennis Janke


Superman: Exile.

Mongul decides to do what his champion could not and steps up to finish Superman.


Read more... )

facethestrange: (guardian: envoy: eyelashes)
[personal profile] facethestrange posting in [community profile] sid_guardian


Hi, and welcome to this week's installment of the Guardian novel readalong! ♡

Here are last week's chapters, and you can find all previous discussions in the schedule posts (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5), or via the !readalong tag.

This week's chapters:

  • Chapter 23: The branch of the Great Divine Tree protects Zhu Hong who stayed behind at the Yanluo Courts. While she's talking about the branch with Fourth Uncle, it grows a third bud. The "youth" who turned out to be a gui throws Chu Shuzhi off the bridge. Guo Changcheng jumps after him, leaving the soul bottles behind.


  • Chapter 24: During the ritual, lao-Li remembers and confesses that three hundred years ago he stole Daqing's bell to cure his bone cancer. Shen Wei uses the Hallows to reseal the Four Pillars. During the last step (the Soul-Guarding Lamp) Shen Wei erases all of Zhao Yunlan's memories of their relationship, and sacrifices himself.


The corresponding part in the Chinese version on JJWXC/the fan translation starts a little less than halfway through chapter 105 and goes up to the end of that chapter.


Excerpts:

1) The branch of the Great Divine Tree grows a third bud )

2) Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng fall off the bridge )

3) Lao-Li's story )

4) Shen Wei mocks Ghost Face )


Questions:

How impressive is Guo Changcheng's courage now? Should Daqing forgive lao-Li? Do you prefer the novel version or the drama version of their backstory? How about the story of Zhu Hong's branch so far? Did Shen Wei's change of heart and self-sacrifice surprise you? How do you feel about what he did?

You can answer as many or as few questions as you like, or just comment without answering any of them at all! And if you see this post and you're not actually reading the novel, I would love to know what you think about any of this with limited context. :D

And here is the schedule, where you can sign up to host a post!
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
A maverick is, literally, an unbranded cow. Sam Maverick refused to brand his cattle. Mommy just could not get over that semantic drift.

******************


Read more... )

Books Received, July 19 to July 25

Jul. 26th, 2025 09:13 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Eight works new to me. Mostly novels but there are two tabletop roleplaying rule books in there. Four are fantasies (including the ttrpgs), one seems to be horror, one non-fiction, and two are SF. Four could be said to be series books and other four appear to be stand-alone.

Books Received, July 19 to July 25


Poll #33429 Books Received, July 19 to July 25
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 26


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch (July 2025)
13 (50.0%)

The Adventure of the Demonic Ox by Lois McMaster Bujold (July 2025)
15 (57.7%)

They Call Her Regret by Channelle Desamours (February 2026)
2 (7.7%)

Sky on Fire by E. K. Johnston (July 2025)
9 (34.6%)

The Rainseekers by Matthew Kressel (February 2026)
5 (19.2%)

Warhammer: the Old World Roleplaying Game, Gamemaster’s Guide by Dominic McDowall and Pádraig Murphy et al (Q1 2026)
0 (0.0%)

Warhammer: the Old World Roleplaying Game, Player’s Guideby Dominic McDowall and Pádraig Murphy et al (Q1 2026)
0 (0.0%)

Starlost Unauthorized by D G Valdron (October 2024)
9 (34.6%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
18 (69.2%)

The battle of the generations is OVER

Jul. 26th, 2025 11:25 am
[syndicated profile] joshreadscomics_feed

Posted by Josh

Comics Curmudgeon readers! Do you love this blog and yearn for a novel written by its creator? Well, good news: Josh Fruhlinger's The Enthusiast is that novel! It's even about newspaper comic strips, partly. Check it out!

The Lockhorns, 7/26/25

The random, silent bystanders who show up in The Lockhorns represent one of the strip’s great mysteries. Like, who is this lady, who we’ve never seen before and never will again, but who apparently thought she might get some quality time in with Loretta, only to discover that she was about to take her unconscious husband to a matinee showing of the latest superhero movie? Honestly, I enjoy speculating, but I’m also glad we’ll never find out. Anyway, this, and not some geek-savvy discourse, is the only way I want to think about the box office performance of franchise films. Are Superman’s ticket numbers being artificially inflated by women physically carrying their comatose husbands into the theater, an action that represents the latest aggression in a long-running conflict in a way that even they can’t explain? I’d be happy to read 2,000 words in Variety on the subject.

The Phantom, 7/26/25

Speaking of superhero franchises, The Phantom has been running for 89 years now, and I’m pleased to see that it’s taking the steps necessary to stay up to date. “Don’t share too much personal information online, or you might end up enslaved by warlords in a mine in Africa” is a timely message that today’s comics readers need to hear.

Dustin, 7/26/25

Ha ha, look at Dustin’s expression in that last panel! He’s definitely going to leave his father to die in that hammock, and you know what? Good for him.

redfiona99: (Default)
[personal profile] redfiona99
The figures are obviously very simple now that there are only two teams.

Network graph of the two teams in the final.  There are two large red circles representing England and Spain.  Of the smaller paler circles, there is one very large one next to the bottom of the two large red circles.  There are two more smaller, paler circles closer to the top of the two large red circles.

The same graph, but labelled:

Network graph of the two teams in the final, labelled.  There are two large red circles representing England and Spain.  England is the circle at the top of the diagram, Spain the circle at the bottom.  Of the smaller paler circles, there is one very large one next to the bottom of Spain.  It is Barcelona.  There are two more smaller, paler circles closer to England.  They are Arsenal and Manchester City.

Gotham FC are the club team closest to the middle.

Barcelona, unsurprisingly, have the most players left, with 10. The teams with the next most players remaining are Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City with 6.

Manchester City, Arsenal and Gotham FC are guaranteed to have a player on the winning side.

The community view gives less information when we're down to two teams so I haven't shared that.

It's a final to look forward to.
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
while denying that it was in any way wrong to act like that.

But now I'm not sure where I read that. Does anybody have a link?
casemod: Inspector Clawseau. (Default)
[personal profile] casemod posting in [community profile] yuletide
Event: Casefic Exchange is a fanwork exchange focusing on investigations. These can be solving murders, retrieving stolen items, finding missing people, missions, and mysteries. As long as it has an investigation as its core theme, it fits with the exchange. We are an AO3 exchange; you must have an account and be 18+ to participate.

Minimum requirements: We allow three mediums: a minimum of 3,000 words for fanfiction, a minimum of 10 panels for a comic, or a recording of a completed fic of 3,000 words minimum with "casefic" as one of its tags. Works must include a fandom, character/ship and be of a medium that the recipient has requested.

Event link: [community profile] caseficexchange.
Pinch hit link: Current pinch hits.
Due date: Friday 8 August at 11:59pm EDT.

Available post-deadline pinch hits:



Thank you for considering!
casemod: Inspector Clawseau. (Default)
[personal profile] casemod posting in [community profile] pinchhits
Event: Casefic Exchange is a fanwork exchange focusing on investigations. These can be solving murders, retrieving stolen items, finding missing people, missions, and mysteries. As long as it has an investigation as its core theme, it fits with the exchange. We are an AO3 exchange; you must have an account and be 18+ to participate.

Minimum requirements: We allow three mediums: a minimum of 3,000 words for fanfiction, a minimum of 10 panels for a comic, or a recording of a completed fic of 3,000 words minimum with "casefic" as one of its tags. Works must include a fandom, character/ship and be of a medium that the recipient has requested.

Event link: [community profile] caseficexchange.
Pinch hit link: Current pinch hits.
Due date: Friday 8 August at 11:59pm EDT.

Available post-deadline pinch hits:



Thank you for considering!

Events of note

Jul. 26th, 2025 01:16 pm
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
[personal profile] rmc28

I last updated about 4 weeks ago, in Portsmouth. That was a good mini break, and I'm really glad R and I decided to do it: fun activities and good company. The heatwave hitting most of the country that weekend was less bad in Portsmouth, but despite reapplying sunscreen we both got burned on the walk back from the pier at Southsea, and didn't realise until the long (made longer by speed restrictions) train journey home was nearly over. The trains had aircon, on comfortable rather than arctic setting, so the journey was fine but stepping out into the humid heat at Cambridge came as a shock.

I took a taxi home, staying just long enough to dump my suitcase and pick up my hockey kit, and cycled (in the heat, ugh) to the rink for a scrimmage marking the last Monday night Warbirds practice, before the rink timetable change in July. Got home again a bit after midnight, and then back to work and the rest of "life as usual" from Tuesday morning.

Life as usual continues to be: work, family, ice hockey. A little cricket (playing), a little football (watching), and a theatre trip that reminded me I should go to the theatre more often.

Family )

Ice hockey )

Cricket )

Football )

Theatre )

On the topic of both theatre and schedule, I have a livestream ticket to Phoebe Kemp's all trans/nb production of Twelfth Night (introduced by Ian McKellan); the livestream was last night but I have two weeks to watch the recording. My calendar says my best bets for time to watch it is this afternoon, or next Saturday afternoon. I'm going to try for this afternoon.

Speak Up Saturday

Jul. 26th, 2025 02:04 pm
feurioo: (Default)
[personal profile] feurioo posting in [community profile] tv_talk
Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?
lightofdaye: (Default)
[personal profile] lightofdaye
Title: Long Suppressed Urges
Rating: NC-17
Characters & Pairing: Scorpius Malfoy/Hermione Granger
Word Count: ~ 1,500
Content: Age Difference - Older Woman/Younger Man (48/21), oral sex, vaginal sex, past Ron/Hermione, Divorced Hermione
Disclaimer: The characters, settings and HP Franchise as a whole are owned by JKR and not by me. I make no profit from writing this piece of fanfiction.
Summary: After a discreet interval after the divorce, Hermione invites Scorpius around for a late dinner
A/n: First of two pieces written for [community profile] hphet's Mini-Fest 2025. For the prompt: "Scorpius had a crush on his friend's mum. Now that he was an adult--and she was divorced--he could finally do something about it." I did flip the initiative around from what the prompt suggests but never mind.


Long Suppressed Urges )

Song Saturday - Set It Off

Jul. 26th, 2025 11:30 am
shadowhive: (Maxx Hoodie horns)
[personal profile] shadowhive
I’m sure I had another video I had in mind for Song Saturday as well as this one, but can I remember it? Nope.

But anyway here is Set It Off - Rotten. (Morning for flashing lights)



So Set It Off finally do another video! After having teases for prior ones that never came I felt Rotten would be the same. But they really ramped up the teasers for this one and I was kinda hyped, especially cause of the one blood.

Unfortunately this came out during the bad heatwave that made me sick so I watched it that first time in a daze. I had been meant to do a rewatch and kinda lost track. So figured song Saturday was a good excuse.

First the song itself. I like it, it’s heavier than their other stuff and i do like that (other than the bad egg voiceover at the end which feels random). I think on of my fav of the lines is about bodies rotting in the basement.

Onto the vid itself. The aforementioned flashing is a bit overdone (and probably didn’t help with the first watch. It’s a mix of the band performing in a space (feels like a garage or basement) with the lights flashing and then other scenes with the guys in hotel rooms.

The first shot of Maxx of him watching a screen has the vibe of him being hypnotised by it but… it doesn’t t go further than that for him whcih gahh it’s so frustrating. Zach’s goes a little further but again it’s too short. Of course Cody, being the singer gets the lions share (which yeah is standard singer gets most attention) but does feel frustrating especially since most of his is singing in front of a mirror until he spits out blood. Which yeah it’s a cool visual but I just wish it went further you know?

(I just wished Maxx did more than just stare at the screen and drum)

****

Other things now.

I kinda spent yesterday zoned out which was annoying. Maybe cause of being out Thursday but it felt my brain switched off a bit which was annoying.

There was a hasbro thing at comic con with figure announcements and I was hoping there’d be one of the two ones I hoped for (Qimir and ND-5) and ahhh! They’re finally releasing a Qimir! And ahhh he’s coming out this year! I’m so hyped I’m gonna get him as soon as preorders go up!

While there’s not an ND-5 figure there is gonna be a book featuring him out next year which is hype. I really need to get back to reading my Star Wars books though.

I have been on Donkey Kong Bananza some more and I did the forest layer, though now I have to go back to the freezer layer. It’s really odd though, of all the animals they could have chosen for the layer which is, as the name suggests, snow themed what animal do they go for? Zebra. That’s such an odd choice.

Also yay my MCC cards are finally on there way, yipee!

I’m hoping to post the fic on ao3 at some point today, if my focus is up to it. At least ao3 isn’t blocked by that stupid online safety nonsense.

But for now I’m gonna watch a random Murder She Wrote on tv before the Seapeekay stream. Though I just heard the other day there gonna be a reboot and Jamie Lee Curtis is gonna be Jessica Fletcher which… I’m not sure about.

As always I’m sure I’m forgetting something which will no doubt come to me later.
redfiona99: (Default)
[personal profile] redfiona99
The case for the prosecution:

Ad Astra is just a bad film (https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1406097.html). It had pretensions to being hard sci-fi but had fire with no convection, and three photos of Europa at different angles and in different colours pretending to be Kuiper Belt Objects.

The film has sudden moments of violence, and a large number of character deaths, which play out so bizarrely that there's a distinct feeling of bleak, absurdist comedy underneath, and I don't think that's deliberate (I wouldn't mind it so much if it was deliberate).

The scene itself:

Much though I am tempted to go with the "Baboon of Doom" scene, because until the killer is revealed to be a crazed baboon, that's actually scary, I am going to go with a shot when McBride (Brad Pitt) first arrives on the moon, and looks in disgust at how, instead of it being the magnificent moon, it's been turned into just another city (complete with Vegas neon cowboy sign). It's as close as I've ever seen in film to the Douglas Adams bit about how time travel has ruined the past.

Why the scene is so good:

They do that with one look and some set design. We're shown and not told in a film that does the rest of its philosophy in OTT voice-overs.

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labingi

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